#easy point aspirations lol

[simsandgiggles]

Boo: oh no! my weenie!

Boo: anyone else feeling ... spotty?

[ikemenomegas]

good-ending!kakashi and itachi need to have a little former traumatized geniuses cooking club where they get comfortable with making little "mistakes" and putting imperfect dishes on the table and improvising without needing to explain themselves like it's life or death

[aeide-thea]

[psychiatric/pathologizing terminology, holocaust imagery, slurs, in-group/reclamatory deployments of]

i've seen people complain in the past that the term 'paranoid reading' is ableist, and i thought, μέν i'm always open to refining the framings i use for things, δέ maybe i should, you know, actually go look at the sedgwick before formulating an opinion—only it turns out 4 in the morning is not, shocker, actually the best time to be trying to wrap yr head around anything complex? however at first glance it does seem worth noting that whatever one's stance on psychiatric-flavored terminology, the original essay is not in fact deploying it accidentally or, i'd argue, wholly appropriatively—it's very explicitly connecting the label to its history of use against queer people to pathologize queerness. so my initial instinct here is that while i do still see why the term might make people flinch, it does seem like sedgwick's deployment of it was deliberate, informed, and in a certain sense reclamatory. doesn't mean it's therefore invalid to flinch at it! but does make flinching at it fairly analogous to flinching at deliberate, informed, reclamatory deployments of the pink triangle, or of language like queer, fag, dyke, etc—id est, something it's valid to want to avoid, if it triggers you, but not in fact categorically inappropriate.

it obviously gets more complicated as we move away from 'queer [still at the time of writing literally pathologized in the DSM!] theorist discussing/attempting to practice antihomophobic theorizing' towards 'people of unspecified positionality applying sedgwick's concepts to arenas farther afield from either queerness or pathologization,' and i do really want to be mindful here of how comparatively little i've personally been subject to this sort of involuntary pathologizing labeling and how that positions me vis-à-vis this discourse, and also of hierarchies of psychiatric pathologization more broadly, but. my initial sense (while still not, to be clear, having fully digested or even finished reading the sedgwick piece!) is that the action item wrt this particular language is less 'strike it from our lexica' and more 'be mindful of its potential to twist in our hands and cut people, and use it with the respect any knife is due, and with attention to our safety circle.'

which is really, i think, the answer more often than not: we often seem to want things to be an automatic, no-thought-required yes/no, when in fact there's very little that has no potential for harm and requires no thought, and also very little that ought to be categorically off limits. most things are situational, really, and deserve more active (re)examination than they often get; but we do so love our thin-slicing!

[clumsyromantic]

NOT ANOTHER RAINBOW LEGACY CHALLENGE

Welcome to this ten generation legacy challenge based on vibrant colors! Inspired by all the other color themed legacies out there, because who doesn’t like basing their sims whole personality on a color (I know I’m a sucker for it lol). I won’t put a long list of rules here, because at the end of the day I want this to be your gameplay and story that you create. I will suggest that you follow each generation, but if something isn’t to your liking, by all means, change it for yourself. With that being said, don’t claim this challenge as your own, even if you tweak it. Remember, though, legacy challenges are all about having fun!

If you play don't forget to tag me here or on instagram @clumsy.romantic or use the hashtag #notanotherlegacy. I would really love to see some gameplay/stories!

Generation One: Licorice.

You never stay in one place too long. As a criminal, you’re always on the run. You don’t commit to anything. The only thing you’ve ever truly loved and committed to is your career. When it comes to actual love, you dip as soon as it seems like things might get serious. You don’t like being that close to people, letting people in like that. You can’t trust anyone, or so you thought.

Traits: Evil, Non-Committal, Romantic. (Additional: Self-Assured, Mean)

Aspiration: Serial Romantic.

Career: Criminal.

Have more enemies than friends.

Have a child with an enemy.

Move to a different world each time you age up.

Only your child(ren) can be your partner in crime.

Get caught cheating at least once.

Max your career.

Complete your aspiration.

Master the Mischief, Handiness and Programming skills.

[Packs used: None]

Generation Two: Pearl.

From the time you could hold things, you were coloring, drawing, painting, anything that could help you express yourself. You are the exact opposite of your parent. Maybe you’re like the other one? You wouldn’t know, though. You never met them, nor heard a single truth about them. That doesn’t matter, though, because as soon as you can, you move out of your parents home so that you can start your own life and family. Love isn’t easy, as you don’t truly know what it’s supposed to look like, but with how kind and caring you are, it almost comes easy to you.

Traits: Creative, Cheerful, Family-Oriented. (Additional: Loyal, Good)

Aspiration: Big Happy Family. 

Career: Painter.

Complete the Artist Prodigy as a child.

Move to a different world from your parent.

Marry someone with amazing compatibility (or someone with similar traits).

Have 5 children.

Have a bowling night with the family at least twice a week.

Max your career.

Complete your aspiration.

Master the Painting, Parenting and Bowling skills.

[Packs used: High School Years, Growing Together, Parenthood, Bowling Night]

Generation Three: Latte.

You come from a big family, and you’ve always loved every bit of it. However, nothing can compare to the love you have for fitness. As a teenager, you become a simfluencer who models athletic wear and shows off your healthy lifestyle. As a Young Adult, you constantly have dogs. You tell yourself all you need is dogs, until you meet another fitness buff who you end up having a baby with.

Traits: Active, Dog Lover, Vegetarian. (Additional: Ambitious, Outgoing)

Aspiration: Friend of the Animals.

Career: Simfluencer.

Have a good relationship with your parents and siblings.

Go to the gym four times a week.

Change your hairstyle once a week.

Have at least 3 dogs as a YA.

Become a B-lister.

Have a baby with someone you meet at the gym (bonus points if they have the active skill).

Max your career.

Complete your aspiration.

Master the Fitness, Entrepreneur, Media Production, and Pet Training skills.

[Packs used: Cats & Dogs, High School Years, Get Famous]

Generation Four: Dandelion.

It was hard for you to relate to your parents, as they were much more outgoing and sociable than you were. Keeping up conversations and being around people always made you feel drained. You preferred being by yourself with a good book. It was usually a sci-fi book about robots. It’s no surprise that you’re the first in your family to go to university and you end up working in engineering. Your best friend, perhaps lover as well, is a robot you built. Seems like a good life to you.

Traits: Loner, Overachiever, Socially Awkward. (Additional: Bookworm, Geek)

Aspiration: Nerd Brain.

Career: Engineer.

Attend university.

Build a servo bot.

Be romantic partners with the servo.

Woohoo with the servo in the rocketship.

Only adopt or have science babies.

Max your career.

Complete your aspiration.

Master the Logic, Handiness and Robotics skills.

[Packs used: High School Years, Discover University]

Generation Five: Emerald.

You want to make the world a better place for the next generations. Everything you do involves Mother Earth. You live off the land, garden and fish for your food. You raise chickens for your eggs and cows for your milk. You also fabricate and make things for yourself, others and your animals. Some of the things you create you sell on Plopsy for income. You have a baby with someone you’re engaged to be married to. But as soon as you can, you pack up and leave them, taking the baby with you.

Traits: Loves Outdoors, Maker, Freegan. (Additional: Green Fiend, Recycle Disciple)

Aspiration: Master Maker.

Career: Plopsy Seller.

Live in Evergreen Harbor (If you don’t already, move there as a YA).

Live in Port Promise, where you must make the eco footprint green.

Additional Challenge: have the Simple Living lot challenge in Evergreen.

Knitted and Fabricated items can be sold on Plopsy when you need simoleons.

Get engaged and try for a baby until one of you is pregnant.

Once you have reached green for the eco footprint; break off the engagement, take the baby and move to Sulani.

Complete your aspiration.

Master the Knitting, Fishing, Gardening and Fabrication skills.

[Packs used: Eco Lifestyle, Nifty Knitting, Island Living]

Generation Six: Turquoise.

Growing up on a beautiful beach with your single parent doing everything for you made you into a spoiled brat. The only thing you actually want to do, besides sleep and chill, is fashion photography. You have a real eye for fashion. Although, you don’t really have a knack for picking up work. You’re more likely to be suntanning than actually doing your job. The few times you do accept a job, you fall in love with the model. Instead of falling happily in love together, you are constantly fighting, and to make matters worse, you have a kid together. Something neither of you wanted.

Traits: Self-Absorbed, Lazy, Hates Children. (Additional: Jealous, Squeamish)

Aspiration: Beach Life.

Career: Freelance Fashion Photographer.

Accept a job once a week.

Have a baby with one of the models that has the Mean, Hot-Headed or Evil trait.

Only have 1 child.

Have a bad relationship with your child.

Move to San Myshuno as an Adult.

Max your career.

Complete your aspiration.

Master the Charisma and Photography skills.

[Packs used: Get Famous, Outdoor Retreat, Moschino, City Living]

Generation Seven: Ruby.

You constantly heard your parents fighting over something. They were never not fighting. You found your solace in music; listening to it, writing it, playing instruments, just everything about it. You get married young just so you can move out. But you’re in love with a musician on the side. You’re not really sure if you should keep seeing them, or stick by your spouse. You never really were good with decisions, especially ones that could really impact your future.

Traits: Music Lover, Hot-Headed, Childish. (Additional: Erratic, Dance Machine)

Aspiration: Musical Genius.

Career: Live off tips and fame.

Marry and move out as a YA.

Have a bad relationship with your parents.

Cheat on your spouse with someone who plays an instrument or sings.

Only earn money from tips when you play instruments or sing in public.

Have either a dance battle or karaoke night once a week.

Obtain fame, at least c-lister, from music.

Complete your aspiration.

Master the Singing, Dancing and any instrument skills.

[Packs used: Get Famous, City Living, Get Together]

Generation Eight: Magenta.

You’ve always used humor and pranks as a way to cope with everything going on in your life. No one but your best friend really gets you. It’s hard for you two to get over being friends when you realize that you have feelings for each other. Except, after having a baby together, you realize you were better off as friends. You still civilly raise the child, just not under the same roof anymore.

Traits: Paranoid, Goofball, Gloomy. (Additional: Clumsy, Cat Lover)

Aspiration: Chief of Mischief.

Career: Social Media.

Have a childhood best friend.

Have a baby with said best friend.

You and your best friend fall out, but you still raise the child civilly.

Have at least 1 cat.

Max your career.

Complete your aspiration.

Master the Comedy, Writing and Mischief skills.

[Packs used: Cats and Dogs, Strangerville, City Living]

Generation Nine: Tangerine.

You prefer the finer things in life. You live in the city, but as a young adult working in law, you often take vacations to Mt. Komorebi. Where, when you fall in love with a local and have children, you take your children there often. Not until you retire, do you and your spouse move there. In the meantime, you enjoy the time you spend there; skiing, snowboarding, rock climbing, sightseeing, etc. You dream of your vacations while at work.

Traits: Adventurous, Kleptomaniac, Bro. (Additional: Lactose Intolerant, Materialistic)

Aspiration: Mt. Komorebi Sightseer.

Career: Law.

Take 2 vacation days a week to go to Mt. Komorebi.

Marry and have children with someone who lives in Mt. Komorebi

Continue living in San Myshuno until you retire and move to Mt. Komorebi.

Steal one item a day.

Max your career.

Complete your aspiration.

Master the Skiing, Snowboarding and Rock Climbing skills.

[Packs used: Snowy Escape, Cottage Living]

Generation Ten: Aubergine.

Your parents always showed you the luxurious sides of life. Treating you to everything and anything you could ever imagine. It lit the way for your future career as a critic. You enjoyed being able to put your 2 cents into whatever you could get your neatly, well kept fingers on. You also always looked and presented to be your best self. 

Traits: Neat, Foodie, Snob. (Additional: High Maintenance, Perfectionist)

Aspiration: Party Animal.

Career: Critic.

Host 3 parties a week.

Each party has a theme; decorate and cook accordingly.

Get married 3 times (not to the same person).

Have 1 child per marriage.

Don’t get close to your children until they are Young Adults.

Max your career.

Complete your aspiration.

Master the Cooking, Writing and Gourmet Cooking skills.

[Packs used: Spa Day, City Living]

[faulty-writes]

I love your work so much! The way you write headcanons is honestly the best I’ve seen on tumblr lol

Would you be able to write headcanons of Iida, Midoriya, and Bakugo with a nervous and introverted GN Reader who’s a foreign exchange student struggling to learn and speak Japanese properly, like to the point they have to constantly repeat themselves thousands of times slowly for anyone to understand and wanting to learn more? Reader’s got the basics down obviously but ya know, they’ve gotta expand their knowledge on bigger more complex words, slang, etc. Maybe add in a sprinkle of reader being shamed by their peers for their lack of knowledge on Japanese.

[ Thank you so much for being a fan of my work. Truth be told, I'm not even sure if I write headcanons the "correct" way, but who cares! If it works, it works, right? Anywho, I enjoy this idea very much. Learning a new language is hard. Although I always joke I speak three languages which are Swearing, Sarcasm, and English. Notice how English is the last one, haha. Anyways, I hope you enjoy these headcanons! ]

It wasn't easy being a foreign exchange student, but as an inspiring hero in the making, you wanted to enroll in one of the best hero training schools and that was none other than Yuuei High. There was a small problem though, you were nervous and a little anti-social, introverted as some may say, and this made communicating that much more difficult.

You were learning Japanese slowly, and as such, you struggled to engage in conversation with others who often snubbed you. Until you met Tenya who initially noticed your struggle with comprehending his language. "Pardon, perhaps I could be of assistance?" He patiently encouraged you to practice pronunciation and grammar. He even went as far as to tutor you and provide you with structured lessons and resources.

He remained gentle and encouraging through your struggles with learning Japanese and offered kind words and praise for the progress you have made. You appreciated the comforting environment he provided and felt as though you could speak to him without fear of judgment.

"Perhaps these will assist you in your attempts at learning various Japanese slang terms, and such," he suggested, placing various books in front of you. While somewhat overwhelming, Tenya suggested that learning the slang terms might help ease your anxiety. He also continued to ensure that making mistakes is essential to the learning process.

While most were respectful of your learning process, there were a few select students who chose to shame you or insult you whenever you attempted to engage in conversation. Tenya, however, was quick to intervene and address the issue firmly as was his duty as Class President and often lectured them on the importance of empathy, understanding, and respecting you as a foreign exchange student.

Tenya continued to celebrate your achievements, especially when he noticed your confidence in the Japanese language rising. "I am quite proud of the resilience and persistence you displayed in overcoming the linguistic barriers you've faced!" Of course, you knew you wouldn't have accomplished what you did without his support and guidance, and hoped he would always be your friend.

Izuku immediately notices your struggles with speaking Japanese, but being the person that he is, tries to approach to help. Although his shyness got the best of him and despite patiently listening and trying to make sense of your words, his face burns red the entire time.

"I c-could try to h-help you...if you w-want, I mean...I've never tutored a-anyone before but um..." He knows that learning a new language takes time and patience, both qualities he possessed and as an aspiring hero, he couldn't just abandon someone he knew needed help.

Since English was one of the courses provided at Yuuei, Izuku decided to make his self-initiated tutoring sessions with you more fair by allowing you to teach him some phrases either in your native tongue or English in hopes that it would provide a supporting and engaging atmosphere and show you that you were not the only one struggling with a foreign language.

Although Izuku had the fierce heart of a hero, he normally avoided starting conflicts with other students, but this went out the door when he witnessed others shaming you for your language struggles. "H-hey! S-stop that, they're still l-learning and..." He'd try to keep a stern demeanor, and while he knew that defending you was the right thing to do, usually he'd drag you away before things escalated.

On more than one occasion, Izuku would stay up with you, engaging in late-night and casual conversation in Japanese to help improve your conversational and social skills. Uraraka and Tenya would always volunteer to help as well and provide pointers to you if needed.

"I m-mean even All Might, v-visited the U-United States and he k-knows some foreign l-language skills so I thought maybe...t-this would help you too." He thought incorporating hero-related terms into your lessons would help give your language goals a more heroic feeling thus giving you the motivation to conquer them.

A growl rumbled in his throat. "Shut the hell up already!" He snapped, making you stumble away from him. He hated it when you constantly repeated yourself. Hell, even he could admit he wasn't the most patient individual, and hearing you repeat word after word, phrase after phrase was irritating.

Despite his annoyance, and the fact that he was one of the few that tended to put you down because of the language barrier between you and him. He wasn't so ignorant as to ignore the determination and effort you put into learning Japanese and frankly, he was kind of impressed. Of course, he'd never admit that.

"That's not how you say that dumbass!" He snapped one day after hearing you, yet again, struggle with a certain phrase when engaging in conversation with someone else and he wasn't hesitant about correcting you as well as listing off other phrases he knew you had trouble with, unintentionally becoming your personal tutor in the process.

You had a lot of textbooks and practice books regarding the Japanese language and when Katsuki looked at them, he was severely disappointed. The books in question were too proper and lacked useful slang that permeated the Japanese language or at least how he spoke it. So, he took the time to teach you said slang terms, but you weren't too sure you'd make use of them.

"Soooo Baku bro! I heard you're giving Y/n language lessons!" Eijirou exclaimed one day, making Katsuki growl in response. "Yeah, what's it like teaching a foreigner anyway?" Kaminari chirped in, not realizing how insensitive he sounded. "Shut the hell up dumbasses!" Katsuki snapped. "That...idiot is putting in more effort than either of you with your damn schoolwork!" Hell, he should know. He had tutored them on occasion as well.

Although you assumed you wouldn't use the slang terms Katsuki taught you, there came a day when you found yourself in an argument with another hero student who happened to be using some foul terms to describe you and your home country. You ended up using every slang term Katsuki had taught you in response and when he learned about this, he felt oddly proud of you.

[cora626]

Finally!!

OK so New Pleasantview has been viewed by an expert :::cough::: @plumbtales (thank you!!) and almost all the bugs were killed. The last thing is miniscule but it is more of a perfectionist thing than anything and it can wait. It will not affect game play or hood quality so we will roll that out later.

Download [SFS]

Alternate [Simblr.CC]

Check out what happened under the cut.

issues that were found:

Spelling errors in the neighborhood description (this one I blame on sleepless nights and fat fingers with long nails LOL!)

Pleasantview Hills was added as the cemetery for the hood.

Issues with aspiration points for sims before free time were fixed.

Memories were a mess. (This was me; I made the mess because I am an amateur LOL!)

There is only 1 Bella Goth now (this more than likely had to do with the IDNO issues)

University Diplomas were doled out and placed in inventories as appropriate.

Junk pictures were removed from the storytelling folder.

Sim personalities are now as they should be.

Family ties that were not organically made were fixed.

Hair was fixed and makes sense now. And the Landlady is no longer bald haha.

All playable families now have great bios.

Tombstones appear where they were planned to be.

The oldies now have an office instead of a nursery at their home.

Junk was cleared out of sim inventories.

Neighborhood was renamed so it can just be plopped into the neighborhood folder not matter what default hood you have already in there.

Useless NPCs were removed.

Neighborhood description was finessed a little more.

Playable characters should be able to keep their names when used in other countries.

One of the larges issues we ran into is the IDNO. I never thought about how significant this little number is. If your graves go missing, because of this experience I would check the IDNO first because if the used INDO for a new hood is between 1 and 6, that's a nono. Those numbers belong the default hoods. The game will change the IDNO itself because of that. We were able to fix this with SimPE and Hood Checker. We changed the IDNO to #15 and had Hoo checker make the IDNO match the graves when the repair button is clicked.

Vanilla bridges were used to keep the hood CC free, but if you use CC and want the cricket bridges they can be found here & here. If you want the Lochness it can be found here.

If you want the hair defaults they can be found here and hair skin and eye defaults can be found here.

Shoutout to @philosimy , @plumbtales , @microscotch , @tvickiesims , for helping me out with this really big project. It sure is not easy to put this together, make it look pretty and make it work well.

For now, the neighborhood is available in the beta stage so please report any issues. the thing I am most concerned about is the tombstones appearing in the game on your PC. If someone can please let me know that will greatly be appreciated.

Thank you all for your patience.

[vigilskeep]

Question! To you, is Minerva’s elf status inseparable from her personality? I never struggle when I make city or dalish elves but making my surana has me going nuts lol

minerva would tell you: absolutely not. to her, her identity is as a circle mage first, a grey warden second, and a fereldan third. being an elf is somewhere down below that and a few other things. she will always consider herself to have more in common with a human circle mage than anyone who wasn’t raised and trained the exact same way she is, but simply happens to have the same pointed ears. if you asked her if she was glad to have recruited one of her own people in the awakening dlc, her mind would jump to anders long before velanna

in reality, it does inform who she is. a lot of her dry disinterest in andrastianism stems from being an elf. it is a reason she has to work harder than any human to be taken seriously as a leader in most contexts. it’s one of the reasons she was a little socially targeted for her prowess by her peers growing up, which contributed to the untouchable veneer she keeps up, to not let people close enough to see she can be hurt. it obviously affects how she’s perceived by others, though she mostly considers this a lifelong inconvenience she has to work around. conversely, she is instinctively trusted by other elves, and while she doesn’t think about this much, she would be more hurt than she would expect if that trust were revoked. she also trusts her fellow elves easier herself; she is aware of the threat that humans may always pose to her, whether genuine physical danger or simply a cruel part of their worldview they may let slip at any time, and has certain kinds of emotional guard up approaching them that she would not with a fellow elf. it’s one of the reasons it’s so easy to be around zevran from the start. and finally her obsession with being seen to be the one to save everyone from the blight, hoping that could change perspectives on people like her, is as much to do with being seen doing it as an elf as the other aspects of her identity.

but just because it’s not as clean-cut as she would like doesn’t mean she’s necessarily wrong and deluded about who she is, either. the tragedy of her elven identity is often that she sees it as this inconvenience and struggle she faces, something she has to drag along behind her, while having been severed from what all the joys of community and culture should be, thus never actually experiencing what many would consider key aspects of being an elf. she can’t speak a word of elven or recall any of the foods they make in the alienage or tell you why they keep a vhenadahl. (not that this makes her somehow not elfy enough to be an elf—she is one, she knows that, she just doesn’t really connect to that fact or see it as worthwhile to make any effort to.)

instead, the closest things she had to a father and brothers were human, and she was not made to feel by those people that she should be something separate or aspire to other goals than they did, even if she would have to work harder for it. the circle possesses disparities between human and elf, but its mages are a perhaps uniquely blended community in which incredible social mobility can be possible. (the grand enchanter is an elf! that’s wild!) an elf might be less likely to get a senior enchanter’s robes, but once they had them, that clear hierarchy was what any circle mage would see first. the way she was perceived in the circle was also not only due to being an elf but to being from tevinter, too, and the associated religious stigma meant that often people focused on the latter—despite the fact that being an elf should entirely change their perspective on what that means.

of course if you’re looking for inspiration for your own surana, minerva is a unique case, and yours may be entirely different! the separation from elven culture was done to her by the circle, but she also accepted it; minerva always eschewed her past prior to the tower, determined to live this life and meet her mentor’s expectations. other suranas might have fought to keep the identity they arrived with, creating very different people and approaches

[maespri]

danaganronpa 2 characters ranked by how painful their death was (and why)

yeah i'm doing this again but for danganronpa 2, what else is new. welcome! gonna talk about some of the anatomical science behind the deaths in dr2 and use that knowledge to rank how painful certain deaths would be.

spoilers ahead, and trigger warning! this post is going to go into detail about death. it's going to get descriptive and gory. if you'd rather not read about it, please keep scrolling!

everything under the cut, because this is going to be long, warning you now!

as usual, some backstory: i have a special interest in anatomy & physiology. i find it very fascinating to study stuff like this, which has led me to making my third post of this caliber! with all that said, i'm not an expert, and these are just my personal opinions- if i do get something wrong, please correct me! now let's get to ranking!

this ranking only covers traditionally "human" deaths (aka, mechamaru is not covered, because he's a robot).

quick glossary:

arteries: carry blood from the heart to other parts of the body. veins: carry blood from other parts of the body back to the heart. hypoxia: inadequate oxygen supply. exsanguination: death caused by bleeding out. hypovolemic: loss of fluid in the body, often referring to blood or water. shock: life-threatening condition where the body does not have enough blood circulating through it. asphyxiation: deprivation of oxygen which can result in unconsciousness and/or death. aspiration: when something you swallow "goes down the wrong way" and enters your airway or lungs. TBI: traumatic brain injury. immolation: death by burning.

the tier list:

OUCH!!! (most painful):

nagito komaeda: this is the longest analysis in this ranking for what i hope is good reason. to say i was horrified when i came across his body would be an understatement- it's brutal.

for starters, he slices up his legs quite badly. this is instantly going to cause bleeding, albeit not yet life-threatening. if it were, he would have had to slice his femoral arteries. i'll blame the fact that he doesn't on his luckiness. at worst, his legs are hurting and burning like hell. that + blood loss is making him dizzy/light-headed. but the fact that nagito is lying down is actually helping him stay alive, as doing so helps your blood pressure. i'd imagine the adrenaline is going to start pumping for him now as his body fights to keep itself from passing out/bleeding out; adrenaline may cause him to be in less pain as he's setting everything up to stab his hand, but he'll definitely be getting dizzier from pain + losing blood.

speaking of, let's move on to him stabbing his hand.

i first just want to point out that the amount of willpower + sheer strength he would need to do this is astronomical. it is not easy to lay flat on your back and slam your hand down onto something hard enough to go straight through. and doing all of that while your limbs are tied up and you're bleeding profusely out of your legs? it's absurd; i'd verge on saying it's impossible, actually, but i'll suspend my disbelief lol.

so, admittedly, i kind of lost my mind analyzing nagito's hand injury, because. i can't come to a conclusive answer about how painful it'd be for him. here's why:

my immediate thought was that this would hurt horribly, for obvious reasons. i thought nagito might actually might have something really interesting going for him when it came to this injury, which is that he somehow managed to avoid severing any tendons or nerves in his hand. i attributed that to his luckiness, once again. the reason i thought he didn't sever any nerves/tendons is because he throws the monokuma stuffed animal pretty far away from himself after sustaining the injury.

but then i remembered that if he did put a knife through his palm, paralysis would only occur distal to (above) the injury- aka, he'd only lose feeling in the area above his palm. therefore, you could argue he did actually sever his nerves and tendons. he just threw more with his arm, and that's why it worked.

but then i was like... throwing something that far away from yourself while you are lying down and your other arm is tied up would practically be impossible without utilizing a lot of power in your entire hand. not to mention- nagito should be feeling pretty weak, dizzy, and light-headed by now, considering the injuries to his legs- all factors that would make it even more difficult to do any of that.

so... there are basically two options here. A) nagito lost any feeling in his hand after the knife impaled it. he would have felt a blinding pain for a moment, and then total numbness. he somehow managed to throw the stuffed animal despite all of that. or B) the knife miraculously managed to avoid hitting any nerves/tendons, allowing nagito to throw the stuffed animal anyway. his hand would hurt horribly. it'd feel like a hot iron pressing on his palm. but this option is, simply put, egregiously inaccurate anatomically.

so... here's what should have happened when nagito injured his hand:

some form of hand/finger paralysis. your right hand has three major nerves running into it; to grossly simplify it, you've got the radial nerve (running across the top of your arm/hand) and the ulnar and median nerves (running on the underside of your arm/hand). nagito's injury, straight through the middle of the palm, should have, at the very least, severed his ulnar and median nerves. the radial nerve tends to stray more toward the right side of your hand on the right hand, so if he missed it by a few millimeters/centimeters, i could understand that- but as for the other two? yeah, he'd have to get insanely lucky to have missed them. it's. weird.

but even if the blade did miss these nerves, they could not have missed the tendons/bones/blood vessels/etc. in his hand, so that's just insane.

so basically: it either hurt really badly or it didn't hurt at all. before i lose my mind over this even further, let's just move on to him impaling his abdomen.

the angle in the game makes it a little hard for me to discern where exactly was punctured, but it looks like it hit his stomach, potentially part of his small intestine, his left kidney, and without a doubt, his abdominal aorta. if the poison had not killed nagito, the impalement to his abdominal aorta + all the other damage would have almost instantly killed him. we're talking within seconds. given that nagito is presumably dead when the spear impales him because of the poison, obviously he wouldn't have felt any pain- but if he were... um. i don't think i have to explain that that would hurt like a motherfucker.

so let's move on to the last aspect of his death- poison.

death by poisoning is actually grossly misunderstood by many different types of media, because most poisons rarely kill within seconds. even cyanide, which is considered one of the most dangerous poisons in the world, takes 3-5 minutes to result in death. so how do i think this worked for nagito?

well, there are a lot of variables that tie into this. how long it takes to die from poison depends on three main factors- the dosage, the type of poison, and the size of your body. the poison in dr2 is made-up, which makes my life a lot more difficult. i don't think we know the exact amount of time between everyone throwing the fire grenades and finding nagito's body, but it's gotta be at least a few minutes, which gives nagito some time.

i guessed he may have used phenol (very hazardous poison that can rapidly cause death), or perhaps hydrogen sulfide (can result in unconsciousness after a few mere breaths)- but using phenol or hydrogen sulfide would almost certainly leave a trace on nagito, such as irritation to his eyes or skin in general.

so my guess is cyanide. it’s most potent when injected intravenously, but it's second-most potent form is gaseous. with a high enough amount, it could probably kill him within a few minutes.

death by cyanide is incredibly painful. cyanide actually kills you by causing cell hypoxia- aka, your cells can't use oxygen, which makes them die. you'll feel like you're suffocating. your entire body will start to feel like it's burning due to acidosis (cells releasing lactic acid as they are damaged). your muscles will contract and you'll have one final burst of adrenaline throughout the entire body before actually dying. often victims of cyanide poisoning may slip in and out of consciousness- the fact that nagito doesn't makes me believe he used an incredibly high dosage of the poison.

so... yeah. definitely the most painful death in my opinion.

official cause of death: poisoning, resulting in cell hypoxia.

YOWZA! (very painful):

ibuki mioda: ibuki (my favorite character in DR2, so sad!) is strangled to death with a rope.

let's talk about how strangulation actually leads to death. it starts with the cerebral arteries. your brain receives oxygen-rich blood from the heart through these, the internal carotid arteries (which bifurcate, or divide, into the common carotid arteries), and through the vertebral arteries. these arteries ultimately come together to form the circle of willis, providing blood and nutrients for all parts of your brain.

when blood becomes deoxygenated (which happens naturally as it flows through the body), it is sent back to the heart. from your brain, this blood travels through your jugular veins, which are situated on either side of your neck.

when you are strangled, it puts pressure on these veins. this extreme pressure prevents proper bloodflow from the brain and ultimately results in hypoxia- this is what causes you to pass out before you actually die. the pressure on the windpipe also causes intense pain and makes it impossible to breathe, preventing the rest of your blood from getting the oxygen it needs.

within thirty seconds to a minute, ibuki would have fallen unconscious, but she wouldn't have been dead yet. mikan would have had to continue strangling her until her body became fully and truly oxygen-less (which may have taken another 2-5 minutes), at which point ibuki would actually be dead.

while all of this is happening, her body would have quickly kicked into panic mode. i know ibuki had despair disease which made her incredibly gullible and willing to do anything, but if i'm remembering correctly, we don't hear anything about mikan asking ibuki if she can strangle her... which makes me think this truly was a surprise attack on the girl.

in which case, ibuki would have been struggling and panicking the entire time mikan was strangling her. not to mention, in a lot of pain. eventually she'd become light-headed enough to pass out, but until then, her throat would literally be getting crushed by a rope.

overall, not a fun way to go out. very long and painful.

official cause of death: asphyxiation.

gundham tanaka: gundham is killed by a stampede of animals.

the most common cause of death in stampedes is asphyxiation; destruction of the thorax or upper body damages... literally everything in that area, most notably the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels/arteries. bones break in there and splinter. you can't breathe. it'd be blinding pain.

not to mention all the rest of the body that gets stepped on. literally all of your bones have the potential to be broken from the force exerted onto them. all of your blood vessels and arteries everywhere else are also going to be crushed and burst. your nerves? absolutely destroyed.

ultimately, gundham gets thrown in the air, lands (which probably hurt even more, and potentially damaged his back in some way), and has one final breath to smile at his hamsters before he dies.

the fact that he's able to smile before he actually dies is literally crazy, because this would be an insanely painful death. i mean- just imagine breaking all of your bones and not being able to breathe. you probably don't even wanna picture it.

official cause of death: hard to pinpoint exactly, but likely traumatic asphyxia and irreparable damage to internal structures and organs.

aughhh (painful):

impostor byakuya togami: the impostor dies from getting impaled multiple times in the abdomen by a metal skewer. looking at the monokuma file tells us he was impaled three times in the neck and around 5 times in the lower abdomen.

right off the bat, being impaled directly in the throat would result in a broken windpipe, esophagus, and potentially part of the carotid artery, making it impossible to breathe + causing hemorrhaging. he would literally be choking on his own blood. it also looks like teruteru manages to hit him directly where his subclavian artery would be, and we all know that any sort of hit to an artery is immediately going to cause some pretty huge problems.

on his abdomen, the area where his abdominal aorta would be is also highlighted as having been stabbed multiple times, as well as the area around it. two hits to two major arteries in quick succession... he's probably not going to be alive for longer than a few seconds.

those seconds are going to be excruciatingly painful, but the reason he isn't higher up is because of exactly that- it's a few seconds. all things considered, this is a relatively quick death.

official cause of death: exsanguination.

peko pekoyama: similar to the imposter, peko is stabbed to death. the first stab is to her back; quickly after, she is swarmed by the others, who stab her as well.

i don’t have much to say besides that the initial stab to her back is obviously going to hurt, unless the knife manages to land in her spinal cord, in which case, sensation could be cut off above the point of injury. but that’s just wild conjecture.

obviously, being stabbed to death is going to hurt. being stabbed to death by a swarm of minions? going to hurt even more. fortunately peko would likely not survive long enough to feel every single injury. the chances of her surviving past the first few stabs are low, due to the fact that A) she’s likely to be hit in an artery or vital organ rather early on which will lead to a faster death, and B) even if she somehow isn’t, blood loss in general is going to cause her to die.

when the body loses too much blood, it goes into a state of shock. without enough blood, nutrients, and oxygen flowing to the vital organs, the body quickly begins to shut down. i’d imagine peko lost blood at a more rapid rate than one usually would due to the sheer amount of stab wounds that would have been on her body, so… peko probably died after less than a minute.

overall… yeah, painful!

official cause of death: hypovolemic shock leading to exsanguination.

nekomaru nidai: nekomaru has a bazooka fired at his abdomen <- absolutely insane sentence??? ok anyway.

so… first of all, there is no shot in hell he’d be surviving that beyond maybe a minute or two. the damage that would cause to countless organs in his abdomen (his stomach, kidneys, intestines, pancreas, to name a few) plus the collateral of shrapnel presumably flying around (hitting his heart and lungs) would immediately be irreparable and fatal. he’d immediately go into shock and then just bleed to death.

you tend to feel far less pain when you go into shock as your brain tries to protect itself from trauma. but i won’t deny that because of nekomaru’s more muscular build, his body would be stronger and healthier and therefore fight harder to keep itself alive. it would probably take longer for these processes to kick into gear and actually spread across the entire body. so what i’m trying to say is- yeah, he’d be in blinding pain for a little, then likely feel numbness, then die.

official cause of death: shock, irreparable damage to abdominal organs.

owie (painful, but not as painful as others):

hiyoko saionji: hiyoko’s throat is slit by mikan. there are a few variables that changed the way i viewed how exactly this killed hiyoko, but the main one was time. mikan would have had to kill hiyoko in a way that would be short and efficient because she had a limited amount of time.

in order to die quickly from a wound like this, the carotid artery, the jugular vein, and/or the trachea would need to be cut. you have one of each of the mentioned on either side of your neck, and your airway is more in the "center" of your neck. (fun fact: the pulse you can feel on either side of your neck is the carotid artery!)

given mikan's anatomical knowledge + the way hiyoko's body looks (she only has blood trailing down off the left side of her neck), i would guess mikan likely cut the carotid artery and jugular vein on the left side of hiyoko's neck. i would guess she also cut hiyoko's airway in some way as well, as doing so would definitely kill hiyoko even faster.

all of the above would cause hiyoko to aspirate (sending blood down her windpipe), choke on her own blood, and begin bleeding profusely. death would occur within a couple of seconds from blood loss and asphyxiation alone.

this would hurt seriously bad. your neck is an incredibly sensitive area of the body. hiyoko would be terrified and in pain the entire time she bleeds to death. which is. so sad. but like i said- luckily, it would probably be over pretty quickly, within a few seconds.

cause of death: hypovolemic shock leading to exsanguination.

uncertain (i'm not sure!):

mikan tsumiki: mikan earns the only entry in the 'uncertain' category, because i was flabbergasted when i watched her execution.

um... being blasted into space... i can't say i'd really know what that might feel like? i can go check for you guys???

the most i can say for this is that mikan would asphyxiate from the lack of oxygen in space. she'd go unconscious within fifteen seconds. within three minutes, she would be dead.

so... official cause of death: brain hypoxia.

*EDIT: so i totally misunderstood mikan’s death. this wonderful person made this post talking about it and i added on with my own thoughts! check that out instead if you wanna hear a better explanation about mikan’s death.

so quick (too fast to really be painful):

chiaki nanami: chiaki is crushed with a tetris cube. she falls into this category because such a death would result in a very brief flash of blinding pain, then nothingness. the mere force exerted from the tetris block to the top of her head might actually kill her before she even has time to register pain in the rest of her body. and if the brain is damaged in such a manner... yeah it's all over.

official cause of death: could be a TBI, could just be having your entire body literally get crushed.

mahiru koizumi: mahiru is struck on the top of the head. her file very specifically clarifies that she dies instantly and did not feel any pain. so how exactly would you painlessly kill someone with one strike to the head?

well, for starters, it would have to be one hell of a swing. it's difficult, but not impossible, to hit someone's brain in a way that would immediately kill them.

think of the brain like a television; if you half-unplug it, the screen may glitch, and it may start cutting out, but it's still displaying whatever show you've put on. that's what happens if you injure your brain, but are otherwise still alive. but if you fully unplug it in one full motion, it just cuts out. black screen. that's what happened to mahiru's brain; it just unplugged.

when peko hit mahiru's brain, she likely damaged some sort of vital structure in a way that caused mahiru to go unconscious, but maybe not die. some sort of brain bleed may have started, which then caused mahiru to actually die, as her skull would swell and stop being able to function.

this makes more sense to me. like, i know monokuma says it's "instant," but... i really think mahiru was just unconscious, and then maybe a few seconds to a minute later, she was actually dead.

either way- official cause of death: TBI.

teruteru hanamura: teruteru gets put into a volcano full of lava <- once again absolutely insane sentence??? help? anyway.

you might be wondering why the hell he's in 'so quick,' but it's because he'd be dead in seconds. lava penetrates your skin, starts boiling you alive, swells your airway shut, etc. it's over in seconds dude. even if it weren't, he'd pass out from the shock within seconds at the very least. he may have felt a flash of blinding pain for a moment before darkness, but. that's that.

official cause of death: immolation.

...and that's it!

if you for god knows what reason read all this, thank you so much! anatomy is truly a passion of mine.

questions, comments, concerns (of which i'm sure there are many)- i'm an open book. i'm not a professional by any means, but i am insane. bye!

[handweavers]

re: dietary requirements on the subcontinent i always think about how eating halal food (that is, food that has been ritually slaughtered, referred to as 'kutha') is explicitly prohibited for amritdhari sikhs, like there is no other outright dietary restriction in sikhi as far as i understand. just a big red line that says NO HALAL MEAT !! lacto vegetarianism being the 'aspirational' diet for any pious sikh, with some going so far as to say that it should be the 'only' diet for sikhs (this is deeply contested) but regardless people are generally in agreement that halal meat must be avoided.

but avoiding halal meat is really not possible when you live in a country where the vast majority of meat is required by law to be halal, and you are a tiny minority group, so my family has never followed this rule and i only learned about it via sikhs in canada who came direct from punjab where this rule is ubiquitous and easy to follow. not just that, but my family generally loves meat lol to the point where one of my cousins deciding to be a vegetarian (not for religious reasons) caused a "problem" for my grandparents. her mother is punjabi via india and raised vegetarian there, where as i understand vegetarianism is associated with status and purity, but her father (was) my uncle and loved eating meat and never cared whether it was halal. so many instances where sikhs from india have encountered the way my community does sikhi and described us as dirtier or less refined. just one of those things where i've found being malaysian sikh, at least in my specific context, really is not representative of sikhs as a whole

[an-spideog]

haigh a chara tá siúl agam go bhfuil tú ceart go leor! i was wondering do you know any resources for learning Gaelainn? despite being from munster, in school we just learnt standard irish, but id really love to learn more munster irish. is breá liom do bhlag btw tá sé an-cabhrach <3

Míle baochas :) I do indeed know several resources, I made use of a lot of them lol, there's kind of two categories - Stuff about the dialect and stuff in the dialect. I'll start with 'about'.

Info about West Munster Irish

There's only 1 modern textbook I know of which teaches munster Irish, and it's kind of a rough read lol. This is Teach Yourself Irish (1961) (audio). The book is really really dense, one paragraph will contain a lot of information, and that can make it pretty easy to miss things, but it's still a very useful book - and much easier to use if you already have some Irish. It teaches Cork Irish but Cork and Kerry are quite similar (Kerry has a stronger Gaeltacht though so you're more likely to hear Kerry Irish). This book also has a weird transcription system for how to pronounce words, ignore it, learn the sounds of the language separately, and listen to the recordings that come with the book. Their system is buckwild and nobody else uses it.

You should also skip the sections labeled "rules for aspiration" and "rules for eclipsis", rather than reading them right at the start and use them as a reference if you ever need to.

An Teanga Bheo - Corca Dhuibhne is a great book to get some knowledge on Kerry Irish as long as you can read Irish pretty well, since it describes lots of the important features. But it's a reference text and an overview, not a textbook. If you don't feel that comfortable reading in Irish or want to be able to search, you can use this online translation

Shameless plug, I talk about Munster Irish on my youtube channel, and I try and share info which people wouldn't find easily otherwise, new video maybe out this weekend maybe. An Loingseach on youtube - He sometimes gets bogged down in the linguistic weeds and doesn't edit his videos at all lol, but he knows his stuff.

There's a blog called corkirish.com and it has some useful info on it but the guy who used to run it is an awful shitter, I'm hoping that with more other people sharing resources we can make that blog irrelevant.

If you're at all interested in linguistics, there's more technical books describing the dialect which can be useful as references.

The Irish of West Muskerry - This is a book talking about the pronunciation of Cork Irish, in English, but using a lot of phonetic terms and symbols. Quite useful if you know how to read them.

Gaeilge Chorca Dhuibhne - This is a book talking about the pronunciation and structure of Kerry Irish, in Irish, again using a lot of linguistic terminology. This one will be getting an updated English version at some point soon, hopefully.

The Linguistic Atlas and Survey of Irish Dialects (LASID) is a series of books showing the results of surveys where they went around to different Irish speaking regions and asked them what words they'd use for specific things, it gives you really cool maps like this: (Showing you how "Gaeilic" is used in donegal, "Gaeilge" is used in Galway, and "Gaelainn" is used in Kerry)

This map is actually from a web version of the first book which is quite handy. The second book isn't available as a site but there are pdfs and it only focuses on munster so you can see some differences with in munster.

Stuff in the Dialect

Things to Read

We're probably the luckiest in terms of things to read when studying the Munster Dialect because there have been so many authors, and so many authors who write very dialectally. So a lot of munster features you see very prominently in writing.

Books by Maidhc Dainín Ó Sé (a lot of fiction as well as one autobiography)

Books by Peig Sayers (There's school editions of at least her main book (Peig), try to avoid those and find the dialectal version in a library (Peig - a scéal féin), and she has written other books)

Books by Pádraig Ó Cíobháin (I haven't read any of these yet personally and I've heard they can be quite hard by nature of being very poetic and sometimes abstract)

Fiche Blian ag Fás by Muiris Ó Súilleabháin (similar to Peig, this is autobiographical)

Books by Tomás Ó Criomhthain (similar to Peig and MÓS these are autobiographical)

Books by Peadar Ua Laoghaire (Fiction, these are quite old - 100 years - and that can make them more difficult, but they can be pretty good)

Béaloideas and Dúchas.ie - these ones are harder to read than the others for various reasons but can often be a lot more interesting. Béaloideas is a journal of Irish folklore which you can find on JSTOR for free, and dúchas.ie has typed and handwritten stories collected in ireland, overlapping with Béaloideas to some extent. They can be harder to understand since sometimes the writing is intentionally over-dialectal to preserve the traits, but it's often more interesting since you can find fun little stories about different things. Stories from these collections are also sometimes put into smaller books or collections. (Béaloideas ó Chléire, an Seanchaidhe Muimhneach) you can usually find those books on Archive.org

Things to Listen To

Beo ar Éigean - Chatty podcast, one of the hosts has kerry Irish

Saol Ó Dheas - Munster Gaeltacht news show, not the most interesting if you don't live in the munster gaeltacht but there's a lot of it and the host has really good Irish, so you can focus on that even if the stories aren't gripping lol

Cartlann Bhóthar na Léinsí - Munster Archive show, they pull out older recordings of even more traditional speakers, and the host has very good Irish too, the older recordings are quite challenging to understand, but can be good.

Things to Watch

Seal le Dáithí - Talk show on TG4, host has Kerry Irish

Ros na Rún - Some of the characters have Munster Irish, it's a minority though

What did I do?

This isn't necessarily a guide, it's just what I did specifically.

After learning standardy Irish at school, I started talking to people on discord (Craic le Gaeilge and Celtic Languages), this was really helpful because I got to talk to a lot of knowledgeable people and get conversation practice even without being near to Irish speaking areas or events.

I also started listening to Beo Ar Éigean to practice my listening. I stuck to standard for a little while here and got to grips with basic grammar stuff because I was focusing on exams and stuff, but eventually I was taken with Munster Irish because some of the people I talked to a lot used it and because I liked synthetic forms. So I started working through Teach Yourself Irish with the help of people on discord, and that gave me a good basis in munster specific grammar and forms. From there I asked lots of questions (v important) and read the Irish of West Muskerry because I'm a nerd, wouldn't really recommend this if you're not that interested but it is kind of fun if you are. That helped me get a better understanding of Irish pronunciation (and spelling as a result of that). (I also read Peig at some point here) After that I started listening to a lot of Irish, trying to do at least 2 hours a day over one summer. An Saol Ó Dheas every day on my commute to work, and other stuff too, just trying to get as much exposure as I could. I use the host, Helen Ní Shé as my "language parent" - that is, I try to model my speech after hers. And currently I'm still focusing on just getting more and more exposure, and I've been reading more books in Irish.

[skitskatdacat63]

Happy 5/14!!!!

Aaaaahh not sure if this is my best work 😭 I just really wanted to draw smth for vettonso day but my brain hasn't really been functioning well LOL so I kept dreading working on this, especially bcs its so important to me, y'know? I hope it's good????? I'm happy with the concept, but I was just so unsure on so many of the angles and it was killing me. I did the color thing bcs I thought it'd add something interesting to it :) since I didn't paint it as I usually would

Anyways! Process!

Now I will explain all of them:

Boy king au is where it all starts of course. I think their relationship is the most developed in this compared to the others, but at the same point, they just start from such a different point, especially affection-wise. All of these kinda have a power dynamic, except the last one, and this is the most imbalanced. Fernando is being subservient, the only part of Seb he may kiss(in public lol) is his hand.

Matador au next. They hurt themselves when they try to be affectionate, because they live in the culture of a sport of violence and death. The sword separates them, their love for the sport keeps them apart, in fear that they hurt each other. Seb, yet again, looks down upon Fernando. Seb haunts Fernando's whole career, the constant overhanging presence. Also aside from that, shame that you can't see his three musketeers look bcs of the black background 😔

2012 core!!! I think this one is pretty easy to understand. Both of them often kiss their trophies, more so than any driver. So they're both trying to claim the wdc trophy by kissing it. Maybe you guys should just get rid of the trophy altogether and claim each other! But yes, just like the sword in the matador au one, the trophy and their ambitions divides, keeps them from ever bridging the vast gap between them, at least at that point in time.

The conclusion! Aka what I wish we will get at Imola 2024- kidding kidding. But it is 2024. Finally there is no conflict between them, there's no big thing keeping them in conflict, they can finally come together. Finally they can touch, there is no gap to bridge, they can appreciate each other, and appreciate what they failed to in years past.

The thesis is basically that they always have their aspirations between them, and their aspirations happen to be basically the same thing. Until those are resolved, the gap between them is too vast for them to recognize and/or find any commonality. How do you get along with someone when you're both fighting for the same thing? How do you get along when it feels like one of you is winning more? How do you get along when there's such a vast gap?

In boy king au, it's going to take a while before they both feel settled about the issue of the throne. That's what makes that au interesting, they're trapped in this state of non-closure and they have to actually solve their issues without the matter of one of them simply removing themselves from the equation. They have to find a way to get over themselves and their aspirations, because like it or not they're stuck with each other. I think with the hand kissing, it represents how Fernando, at that point, is only willing to play along with the game if it's tradition, and he often won't budge in other ways. Yes, I will show subservience, but only in this detached, formal way that I don't connect personally to. He's still holding his own bitterness over meaningfully appreciating Seb. Though it's not like Seb isn't at fault. It takes a while for him to not hold things over Fernando, and constantly humiliate him. One day they will meaningfully show affection, and it won't be some sort of power play.

I think matador au is pretty similar to real life, and the 2010s era(it's basically just their actual plot line but in the context of bullfighting.) They're forever going to have this big elephant in the room, and it only really gets resolved when one of them leaves the sport. Once they're not fighting directly against each other, they realize what they've been missing out on and what they were not appreciating for so many years beforehand. They finally come together because they can't just rely anymore on the sport keeping them together. They actually have to make that step to be in each other's lives, rather than just taking their presence for granted.

Also the text on the comic. "We keep missing, and missing, and missing, and finally kissing." It's basically: we keep missing the point of it all, we keep failing to appreciate each other presence in our lives and in our own individual grand stories. But when we're not forced together anymore, we have to make the choice to come together again ourselves. We keep missing what we actually need to do. Missing each other in favor of our aspirations. Etc etc. One day we will finally embrace and there will be nothing keeping us apart.

[frodo-with-glasses]

More Reading Thoughts: A Long-Expected Party

There’s something so incredibly endearing about the slow, meandering beginning of LotR.

Even today—in a day and age when every author tries to grab you by the eyeballs in the first five words—Tolkien’s writing still has that gentle, irresistible draw that takes you by the hand and leads you slowly but surely into adventure. Something about a “birthday party of special magnificence” just appeals to all our inner children, I think; and the tiny mysteries, and the joy of a world of fantastical creatures living in peace and comfort, just adds to that. You want to go to Middle Earth, and you want to get lost in it. It’s like a lazy river at a water park; you wade in, get settled, and relax, and the next thing you know you’re far away from where you started.

All of that to say, Tolkien’s writing is goals and I aspire to be even a fraction of what this man was someday.

Anyway. To the bullet points!

Isn’t it hilarious how quick people are to begrudge one another their good fortune?? If Bilbo had been poor and died in a timely manner his neighbors would probably have liked him just fine, but he gets a lot of wealth and lives a long time and all the hobbits go >:-(

They’re not wrong to be suspicious, of course, but it’s still a biting social commentary. And very funny!

“As Mr. Baggins was generous with his money, most people were willing to forgive him his oddities and his good fortune.” 🤣

“You should come live with me so we can celebrate our birthday parties more comfortably together” belongs in the same category as C. S. Lewis’ “and they got so used to arguing that they married each other to keep doing it more conveniently”

“And suddenly, all the old people found that everyone actually WANTED to hear their rambling stories!”

GAFFER GAMGEE MY BELOVED

Hobbits are all so terribly prejudiced. What endearing morons.

Ooh, confirmation that Bilbo and Frodo look similar!

“There never was much to tell of him! … Till he was drownded.” “DROWNDED??”

I love that the only things we know about Drogo Baggins are that he was unremarkable and fat and married a strange woman

The Gaffer: “Thank goodness Mr. Bilbo saved young Mr. Frodo from those strange, dastardly Bucklanders…”

Meanwhile, Merry feels his eye Twitch and doesn’t know why 🤣

The spelling of jewels as “jools” is adorable for reasons I can’t describe

Tiny Gaffer Gamgee saw Bilbo come home from his Adventure!!

The Gaffer’s words are strangely prophetic. Sam did indeed land in trouble that was bigger than him—and thank goodness he did.

The Gaffer basically says here “if generosity is being strange, we could do with a lot more strangeness!” and honestly that’s a motto I want to live by

I love that Sam is most likely the one who started the rumor about the fireworks X-D

I wish we’d gotten to see the Dwarves visiting Bag End in the movies. It’s a shame they were cut. Imagine what cool costumes they could have had!

“G for grand!” and Gandalf’s smile. Ugh, my heart 🥹

Pity that September 22nd fell on a Friday this year. We were so close to it being a Thursday, like in the book! Oh well. Try again another year, I guess X-D

Are small business owners grumbling about your purchases from foreign parts?? Here’s an easy solution! Just BUY OUT THE STOCK OF EVERYONE FOR MILES AROUND IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARDS

Also the fact that the post offices are absolutely flooded 🤣 Bilbo, you madlad

“Old Gaffer Gamgee stopped even pretending to work on his garden” LOL

The brief paragraph of NOOO BAD WEATHER THE DAY BEFORE THE PARTY is honestly spectacular. It’s so nerve-wracking for just a second there—which is hilarious in light of the war and death and GIANT SPIDERS we’re going to read about. I think it has a flavor of Tolkien’s beliefs on eucatastrophe hidden in there—it’s not out of Bilbo’s own effort that the weather cleared up just in time for his party, it was just happy providence—but I’m too tired to write an essay about it right now.

“Half the Shire’s been invited…and the rest of them are turning up anyway!”

The hobbits who came through the gate again to get a second present 🤣🤣🤣

“The hobbit-children were so excited that for a while they almost forgot about eating.” That’s impressive!!

I love that some of the toys are dwarven-made. That’s such a cool detail that makes the world seem both fantastical (because dwarves!) and real (because you can Amazon order toys from them!) at the same time.

The names of the fireworks!! Especially the ones that are onomatopoeia, like “backarappers”! It just makes brain go ✨✨✨

Pfffft, yellow rain

There’s the express train reference!

Notable difference here: in the movies, the big dragon firework was set off ahead of schedule by Merry and Pippin, and all the hobbits freak out. In the book, the big dragon firework is set off right on time to signal supper, and all the hobbits freak out (but are immediately pacified by food).

Small detail I’d like to see in more fanfics: “Bilbo had been specializing in food for many years, and his table had a high reputation.” Yes, the idea of Bilbo and Frodo eating like the bachelors they are is hilarious, BUT! We have textual evidence to the contrary! I don’t know if this line means that Bilbo was a magnificent cook himself or simply hired magnificent cooks, but either way, it’s canon that the Bag End bachelors ate like kings!

“The feast was so incredible that everyone was incredibly full and took home leftovers and no one bought any new groceries for weeks. The good news is that Bilbo had bought out all the grocery stores anyway, so it was fine.”

Why is the detail about the golden buttons on Bilbo’s waistcoat so enchanting to me?? I really think this chapter just activates the Inner Child Mode in my brain, and suddenly even something as simple as shiny buttons becomes beautiful and magical. Also it’s just a lovely way to paint a vivid picture in my mind.

I’m so glad they kept so many of the jokes in Bilbo’s speech for the movies 🤣 “PROUDFEET!!”

And now here we see Tolkien, author of the fantasy epic that has defined the genre for a century and counting, unironically using caps lock. Folks, you can’t make this crap up.

The sneaky way Tolkien says Bilbo vanished before he mentions the flash of light is Very Good and hints at the fact that there’s something else at work here

Rory Brandybuck is the G.O.A.T.

“But at the same time he felt deeply troubled: he realized suddenly that he loved the old hobbit dearly.” Aww, Frodo…

Incredible that the debate between Bilbo and Gandalf over the Ring takes up almost four pages, but it doesn’t feel like it. Excellent suspense.

I wonder where Gandalf is going “to bed”. It doesn’t look like he’s staying in Bag End, so did he get a room at an inn somewhere? Is he sleeping in his cart??

Also it’s implied later in the book that Gandalf the White doesn’t sleep. Inconsistency?? A slight untruth?? Secret powerup to Gandalf the White that we’ve overlooked??

“The sun rose. The hobbits rose rather later.” Pffft

The SHADE in all the presents oh my WORD

Except for the ones for the poorer hobbits. Bilbo’s gift for the Gaffer is so simple in its contents, and yet so generous and thoughtful 🥹

MERRY MY LAD

MY FAVORITE HOBBIT (don’t tell the others)

How old would Merry have been here?? Like nineteen?? Incredible that he was already such a logistics guy that Frodo trusted him to keep an eye on the house while all the chaos is happening.

“Do you hear that, Merry? That was an insult, if you like.” “It was a compliment, and so, of course, not true.” HAHAHAHA DRAG HIM MERRY

“IF YOU DON’T LET ME IN, FRODO, I SHALL BLOW YOUR DOOR RIGHT DOWN YOUR HOLE AND OUT THROUGH THE HILL” 🤣🤣🤣

Frodo: “I’m so sorry, I thought you were Lobelia!” Gandalf: “Understandable, have a nice day”

“I would give them Bag End and everything else, if I could get Bilbo back and go off tramping in the country with him.” N’aww, Frodoooo 😭

“Look out for me, especially at unlikely times!” Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.…

“Frodo did not see him again for a long time.” Ooh, ominous.

[beesmygod]

What about Pentiment like do you want to capture, specifically, to put into AGS? Surely you have things you can say on art art and history with a story, about ghosts

this is harder than i thought it would be to articulate. actually there's two problems. one is that everyone in AGS is an idiot and doesn't have anything to say about art and art history. i do have one minor character im using for this, the lady who makes dragon figurines and garden gnomes for a living, but she's only appearing a few more times in this storyline and it didnt matter to anyone but me. reading back its pretty on the nose.

i feel like my art is better than this now. thank god for that at least. sometimes i'm worried i'll look back on these and see 0 improvement and then i don't know what i'll do. because then whats REALLY the point.

anyway its not the aesthetics or the setting: its the fact that the writing itself was capable of getting under my skin. i want to get under people's skin. i want that nebulous quality that sticks to people long after they put your work down and walk away. i don't have this. i envy it. i think its like a healthy sort of aspirational jealousy. i want what they have not in the sense that i want to take it from them but in that i wish i were capable of it

i want to be able to do what that did to me: it made me feel like it was laser pointed at me specifically. people say they want to see themselves in more art, but i want to make the parts of them they think no one else has seen. its how i felt the first time i read "jane eyre": this is the true version of me i didn't think people could see or feel. but it's there and real and its not the lonely place it feels sometimes. its just sparsely populated

but if it were easy to do, then it wouldn't be valuable. this is something i am not born with. i was born with a hacky (semi-positive lol) gag comic soul (which burns through painfully in these old pages where my artistic philosophy was more whack). so like any craft, if i actually want to make affecting work, its going to take a lot of time and years and energy and low-key constant public humiliation (posting the results publicly) during the long road of trying to get there. and i might never get there. but if that's the case then at least i know ill find something else on the road worth my time.

[ganondoodle]

Oh man I saw your totk issues post and I agree 100%!! Those are all things that have really bothered me about playing totk, and things that made playing it not nearly as fun (the dungeons, the shrines, the building, etc).

Especially the map!! When I tell you I was so disappointed by the maps on totk, I was hoping for something new! It really just feels like a modded botw, not an official sequel.

I was wondering what your thoughts are on the concept of “what if they had sent link to the past instead”? So the surface map would feature huge differences in the land forms and buildings that exist, and we’d get to see more ganon whenever he visits Hyrule, or go out to the desert to see Gerudo town, etc.

If they really wanted no sheika tech, they could also just have it being newly built? And you could introduce the new characters and such, etc etc.

(I also think the past champions are such a missed opportunity? If botw is about grief and loneliness, and finding hope in the hopeless, and Totk is about coming together despite that, it could have been really interesting if Link had gone to the past! They could have used the past setting as an eerie reminder to what Link and Zelda had lost when the Calamity struck!)

THAT BEING SAID: I’m not as familiar with the legend of Zelda lore, and haven’t played totk very much! I wanted to know your thoughts on this because you seem to have a lot of story and game mechanic knowledge that could explain why this could be a bad/good idea!

(Plus, your discussions are always super interesting to read, as is your custom totk lore, so I’d love to know what you think🩷)

I’m sorry if you’ve already answered an ask like this! If that’s the case, feel free to point that out and I’ll go through your ask tag if you have one:) I hope you have a great day!⭐️

Hi!

im glad you enjoy my rants, i often feel like im being overly mean but tbh were else could i just rant as much as my heart desires without getting spammed by annoying people (certainly not on twitter lol)

i have talked alot, and i mean ALOT, about totk and my issues with it, both lore and gameplay wise, i dont claim to be an expert on any, though i am an old zelda fan and aspiring gamedev, i really only talk about what i feel about it, what i think about it, and by all means im biased as hell xD

if you dont know yet, the "ganondoodles rants" tag is where all my rants go, so if you are interested in reading more on my totk thoughts thats the way to search (given tumblrs search in blog works ..)

and to answers your question, i have touched on it briefly, sending link back in time before the shiekah tech existed would have been an easy way to excuse how they jsut got .. rid of it, bc they didnt, it literally didnt exist yet- and for reusing the map- though that argument falls a little flat bc ... they coud have already done that in present totk, like i brought up in one of said rants, things like flooding gerudo desert, collapsing death mountain, drying out zoras domain etc, and changing the location of the main populations would have already done alot without having to redo the map in its entirety;

the little changes to map itself really wouldnt that big of a deal if they didnt also send you to the EXACT same locations AND repeat the SAME LOCATIONS AGAIN but in the underground, like thats a fact i have talked about multiple times bc its so illogical in every way, anywhere theres a settlement on the surface theres a bigger mine below, its so stupid, the shrines conenct to a lightroot, the same, again, you dont need to explore bc theres nothing TO explore (its also extra weird bc theres one below taburasa (tarrey town) which .... link literally build with dumsda (hudson) a few years ago .. unless that got retconned too idk wth do i know anymore honestly- AND it makes the sonau extra weird bc why the hell do they have a bigass mine under every settlement ESPECIALLY UNDER GERUDO TOWN like, that just adds to my suspicions towards them)

anyway, link to the past was the point and yes, it could have solved a few issues (mainly shiekah tech and the whole "story" taking place AGAIN in the past completely disconnected from you the player) i personally am not so much a fan of it, but that mostly comes down to me just not liking time travel, i dont like going back in time, i want to play and do things in the here and now, i want to repair the damages of the calamity, find out its origins, maybe fix that too, i love to learn about past stuff too, but that more in text, no literal flashback (unless done well), i want to connect to the past but it also holds alot of mystery that maybe shouldnt be touched upon, some mysteries and unkowns are much more interesting when left as such, i want to THINK about things and come to conclusions that are logical and makes sense in hindsight even if it wasnt clear at the start, i dont want information and what to think about it told to my face over and over like im stupid

after botw i really didnt care much about the past, maybe about the acient hero who alot of people specualted to be of gerudo origin due to its red hair- which also got a monkeys paw curled bc in totk they do sth with but its so stupid and insulting that i do not accept it as canon, say what they want, there are no dog people anywhere in the past nor present botw/totk wtf is that i hate it- and its not even .. why is that the reward for that, it has literally NOTHING TO DO WITH TOTK ITSELF I COULD YELLLL AAAARGH

main point is that really, i wanted to explore the past .. in the present, i hoped to find broken old shiekah structures, old labs and maybe some left over damage and records from when the old king persecuted the shiekah for their tech, i wanted to know where the ancient energy the shiekah used was coming from, what the boss arena in the middle of hyrule castle really was- so many things just discarded and acted like they never happened or mattered; i dont want to travel into the past, i want to discover whats left of it, piece it together, discover dark secrets you can ask no one about bc all that knew about it are long gone- thats what intrigued me about botw, it felt like there was so much left to discover only for totk to throw it all away and just do its own thing .. but not commit to that hard enough either so its neither its own thing nor a sequel-

.. that wasnt really what you wanted to know was it? xD sorry i tend to ramble on if someone seems to give me permission to

to sum it up, i think it COULD work, sending link to the past instead, if done well, but so could canon totk have been, it could have been done well but wasnt for reasons i dont know and tbh even fear bc i worry its sets a dark future ahead of zelda; i personalyl am just not a fan of time travel so i dont have that much to say to it :O

[honest-moth-of-silver-grove]

hello! i was hoping for a bg3 matchup for my tav? male preferred, but it can be a romanceable character or not

she's a tiefling sorcerer with the sage background. short build and curvy with long curly hair. she's extremely curious and loves literature and animals, so she spends a lot of time reading. mbti would probably be infp. her primary flaw is her reluctance to decline new experiences. very sweet disposition and has cozy, wholesome vibes

thank you, i love your writing!

A/N: Okay for you my Sage Background Anon, because you specified my answer didn't have to be one of the available romanceable characters within the game and that you preferred a male answer, I think that your best match would be Rolan (Male)! 

🎆 Rolan would be a wonderful matchup for your tiefling sorcerer Tav! 

As a fellow tiefling, your Tav understands just how hard Rolan has had to work to overcome all the prejudices associated with your race. She, despite being a sorcerer, born with natural power, has endured discrimination due to her hellish ancestry. This makes your Tav all the more understanding when Rolan feels the need to act superior or smarter. However, it also means your Tav is the exact right person to tell Rolan to knock it off or to just be himself. And Rolan can hear her say it and know that it's coming from a well-meaning place, rather than an ignorant one, because they share the same race. 

Rolan also appreciates dating a fellow magic user, although he may be a bit jealous at times at how easy sorcery comes to her, whereas he must practice his magic over and over again to be a proficient wizard. More often than not, however, that jealousy gives way to healthy admiration; Rolan sees your Tav as a role model, someone to aspire to be like. 

He loves Tav's shorter build, it makes him feel all the more masculine and dominant (lol Rolan size kink unlocked). And he can’t stop eyeing her curves, to the point where either Cal or Lia has to berate him for always ogling you in public. What? He can’t help it! He’s obsessed with the roundness and curviness of your form and the fullness and the flounce of your curls. 

The fact that your Tav loves reading is great because even though she doesn’t need to study as much as Rolan to enhance her magic, it means the two of them can have reading dates where she reads her novels and Rolan reads his magic texts. 

Regarding animals, Rolan can’t say he’s a fan- Ramazith Tower has a strict “no pets allowed” policy. But seeing your Tav gush over how adorable they are makes his heart melt. Okay fine, he’ll relent, Ramazith Tower can have some pets- so long as he doesn’t have to clean up after them. (Rolan’s basically the dad that says “No I don’t want a dog”, and then ends up spoiling the dog whenever he’s home.) 

Your Tav being an INFP and Rolan being what I see as an ESTJ makes you fairly compatible. The only thing to watch out for is the difference in your priorities. You value emotional commitment and friendship: you care to know what makes the people around you tick. On the other hand, ESTJs want to be productive: they value tradition and stability, preferring to keep things consistent, which doesn’t always jive when you want to put the feelings of others first. If anything this presents an opportunity for you to help Rolan become in tune with his inner emotive side, and Rolan can help your Tav in reassuring her it’s okay to not try every new experience that comes her way. 

Additionally, her reluctance to shoot down trying new experiences balances out Rolan’s refusal to try new experiences, period lol. She forces him to come out of his shell and he keeps her from getting too carried away. 

Rola’s been through a lot, he needs comfort. He’s very reassured by your Tav’s cozy and wholesome vibes- they make him feel right at home so long as they’re together. 

I hope you enjoyed! 

If you like my work, please consider Buying Me A Coffee!

I’m finding out Iron Infusions don’t pay for themselves lol

And most importantly, please Like and REBLOG! 

[frownyalfred]

Gonna pile on here as another fic author: I don't think most people realize that authors can and do read public bookmarks, but oh god I wish they would, it's somehow worse then getting outright hate in the inbox

I write popular stuff like you, which I think makes it worse? (which is also why this is on anon lol) People assume I'll never see them say my fic is overhyped or too long, I guess

I have a lot of grace for the accidental public bookmarks. I know it happens sometimes. I've seen this argument wrung six different ways on the ao3 subreddit, and the conclusion I always come to is this: even if it's not done with malicious intent, it does affect authors. And you can't just expect authors to ignore a bookmark that 1) they cannot remove and 2) is slapped right onto their fic for everyone else to see.

It's like walking up to a busker playing piano on the subway and leaving a permanent sticky note on their keyboard that says "6/10 meh could've been better" that they can't ever take off. And they just have to look at it, and make their peace with it, which are important things for creators to be able to do, of course, but puts the onus of being the "better person" solely on the author?

"Well don't look at the bookmarks" "it's not a bad rating" "bookmarks are for readers, not authors" I GET these points. I am also a reader. I read and use bookmarks as recs. But giving out unsolicited criticism, regardless of venue, has always been seen as distasteful. Especially when the things being criticized are done 1) for free 2) in the author's spare time and 3) are so easy to suppress/crush with one poorly-placed comment or bookmark.

I don't say this to rant about how my own writing has been impacted by bookmarks, because while I'll bitch about it here, I'm not really thinking about myself. I'm thinking about the baby author or the new fandom arrival whose success and presence in this fandom is so tenuous, that one bookmark can knock them out of the game entirely. I'm talking about when we forget that there are real people, with real lives, on the other side of that ao3 username. The people who have quit writing because of stuff like this.

I'm not saying you have to like every fic. I'm not saying you can't rec fics to others with valid criticisms attached -- we all do it! Hey, I loved this fic but it's a little rough at the start! I've said that so many times. Would I ever put that in my public bookmark of that work? Absolutely not.

If you've erred with public bookmarks, it's not the end of the world. Make them private or maybe add some thoughts to the bookmark other than a rating. I've seen too many rating "codes" to believe it's all innocuous mistakes. And trust me, slapping a 2/5 on a poor little oneshot is one of the worst things you can do to a new or aspiring author.

/endrant