#i mean...there is no real need for a proper presentation for all this...i hate it

[randomfandomss]

I...hate...making.......presentat-*dies*

[krysmcscience]

It’s finally done, guys – five whole pages of Narilamb AU comic AND MORE be upon you! (If you have trouble reading any of the text, view the full-size! These pages are huge!)

Yeesh, this took forever. <:)

There’s probably a ton of inconsistencies and anatomy/perspective wonkeries, but this was mostly just comic practice, so Oh Hekkin Well, Lol <:D

(Yes, I am aware the Gateway’s door isn’t present in the Afterlife, and the actual way in is just a pentagram portal. Yes, I put the door in there anyway because Artistic License, i.e. it felt more impactful for there to be a prison door of sorts to walk through to freedom, rather than just a bland boring portal on the ground. 😠)

anyway, i hate backgrounds so much lmao

Alternate ending and a buttload of bonus art under the cut, followed by goofy AU rambles and headcanon stuff:

I’m calling it the Revival AU. It’s not all that creative a title, and someone else has probably used it already, but I am too lazy to really care, LOL

Alternate ending page, which you will Definitely need to view the full-size for, Whoopsie Daisy:

The alternate ending was actually the first ending I finished things off with, because I had a brief badbrain moment where I forgot the emotional beat I initially wanted the comic to end on, and I tend to write comedy, anyway. I later remembered and drew out the proper ending, but I preserved and finished this one, too, because it still makes me giggle.

They had to go back for the followers off-screen in the AU’s real ending. And by ‘they’ I mean just the Lamb, because they weren’t about to ask three newly freed cats to go back into what used to be their prison. The Lamb DID spend some time watching Narinder and the bois enjoying the outdoors first, though:

In other news, here’s the Lamb and me making fun of my anatomy-drawing ‘skills’:

Meanwhile, if you’re wondering why the Lamb is just a-okay with how things went down vis a vis Their Murder, this bonus comic should answer at least some of your questions:

Ah, yes, also this is how they get engaged outside of the alternate ending. Forgot to mention that bit. XD (I already refuse to believe that Narinder is capable of flirting normally, so why would his initial marriage proposal be any better???)

Oh, and before any of them get a chance to actually head back to the cult grounds, there is one potential problem:

And by ‘problem’ I mean something Narinder intends to ignore for At Minimum a thousand years. Cuz he’s a petty bitch like that. :D

what do you mean i drew the lamb too tall compared to the background? clearly they’re standing on top of baal and aym lmao, why else would you think those two aren’t in this one??? (aym and baal got way too excited about finally being outside, you see, and their silly modes are nothing to sneeze at)

And, speaking of heading back to the cult grounds, I’m sure y’all would love to know how the Lamb’s followers felt about the brand new change in management:

It all went better than expected. <:D Tiny ramble now, feel free to skip down to the next comic.

Before you ask, no, the Lamb does not have any actual powers anymore, other than the immortality Narinder definitely grants them. The Red Crown just thinks it’s funny to suggest otherwise, and Narinder does nothing to discourage this. Also, the Lamb and Narinder aren’t actually married here yet, but, uh. Pretty safe to say that particular ritual directly follows the events of this comic. XD

Given how quickly he mellows out in canon, Narinder probably chills out a lot in this AU once he’s in charge of the cult, too, if only because 1.) He’s finally free, and 2.) He’s equally smitten with and distracted by the Lamb. He’s definitely in charge at least 95% of the time, though, because the Lamb never actually wanted to be a cult leader and, now that their time as a vessel is done, they just want to be a normal(ish) sheep who’s wholly devoted to their hot new divine husband.

Some followers do still have some valid concerns about these two being together, though, which I’m sure at least a few of you might share…

Unfortunately for any such concerns, the Lamb is a bonafide masochist in this AU. :D

They’re also 100% a sub, obviously

Anyone at all: Your relationship is problematic and potentially toxic

The Lamb: fuck yeah it is, it’s so hot~ OuO

Here’s just the last panel, made transparent for whatever nefarious purposes y’all might have for it:

Additional exchange Narinder and the Lamb have at some point, probably after the Lamb does a fatal whoopsie while out on a mission trip or in response to things getting a little too sadistic in the bedroom, ahaha:

Look, there is a very important distinction between life and death, and if you don’t understand that, then you’re probably not worthy of being the God of Death, anyway. (At least, according to Narinder, and ONLY Narinder.)

Last but not least, have these shittens:

~Such creative naming conventions I have utilized, lololol~ :D Anyway, there's a few deets on them in the rambles down below.

The rest is all ramble, so before I get to that, I’ll just say – likes and especially reblogs are very much appreciated!!! :D If you happen to really really REALLY like my stuff, meanwhile, I do have a link in my bio to my ko-fi page, where I’m accepting commissions and donations if you’re especially generous… ÓuÒ

Now, BE FREE IF YOU AIN’T DOWN FOR READING MY GOOFY RAMBLES

First ramble is re: Baal’s question of ‘Did it really work?’, since I didn’t feel like expanding on it in the comic proper, and it’s arguably pretty vague? He doesn’t ask because he doubts Narinder or his capabilities, exactly, but because neither Baal nor Aym have ever actually seen their god at full power before (he’s still technically not at full power here, either). It’s not expressly stated how soon the brothers were brought to Narinder after his imprisonment, but whether it was early on or after a length of time for Shamura to (somewhat) recover from his attack, he must have already been weakened, since I have no doubts that there was a huge battle that accompanied the Bishops working together to trap him. So, between that fight with all four of his siblings, sharing his power with a variety of vessels over time, and being chained immobile for a thousand years, he must have been severely weakened by the time he lent the Red Crown out to the Lamb, which would have only weakened him further.

I like to think this is how the Lamb is able to defeat him if they refuse to be sacrificed, despite how it took all four Bishops working together to subdue and chain Narinder in the first place.

All that aside, the three cats have been trapped in the Afterlife for so long that Baal also wanted verbal reassurance that they are all, indeed, actually able to leave it now – something that I headcanon isn’t possible without a significant amount of power (i.e. the Red Crown’s cooperation with its bearer/vessel).

(On a semi-related note, I don’t headcanon Aym and Baal as twins. I like sweetheart big bro Baal and snarky little goth bro Aym too much to have them be that close in age.)

Ah, teeny thing: If you noticed I switched up the art style for Narinder on the second page, that was intentional. It's sort of a visual indicator that there has been a Big Change for him - that being, how much power he has after sacrificing the Lamb. As for why I changed up his arms in the grass rollin' pic, I don't really subscribe to the notion that his arms are spooky bones because they're horrifically injured (beyond chain-chafing scars, that is), but rather just because he's the Bishop of Death, so he can change how normal-to-spooky they look at will. At some point I might doodle out how I imagine his appearance to range between least to most eldritch... 🤔

Next ramble, regarding Narinder’s feelings towards the Lamb...he was initially too focused on being freed from his imprisonment to form any real attachment to them. They were a tool for his use, first and foremost, but he did notice their intense devotion towards him. It was impossible not to notice, because the Lamb was always very happy to see him, even if it was because they died during a crusade (yet again). He wasn’t originally planning to revive them once he was freed, either, because he saw no real point to it – after all, they were already dead when they first met him, just as any other mortal would be when meeting him in the Afterlife, so death has very little real consequence in his eyes. But, once the chains were off, and it really sank in that he stood to lose the most devoted follower he’s ever had, he decided…why put their soul to rest for good or leave them stuck in the Afterlife when he could just as easily revive them again? And why not reward them for their hard work, anyway? Not only would it cost him nothing by comparison, but the future devotion that could come of it would surely make up for his (bare minimum) effort in reviving them.

He wasn’t expecting to get a full dose of that devotion and a smiling face so soon after killing them, though~ :3c (because the Lamb is a bonafide freak, and not-so-secretly into the fucked up power dynamics going on here, lol)

I should mention here that I am firmly of the belief that any non-god/vessel who crosses through the Gateway and into the Afterlife just straight up dies. So, Aym and Baal? Also straight up dead, from the second Shamura brought them through. Their souls were just never put to rest so that Narinder could have some company – if only according to Shamura. Narinder kept the two around mostly out of bewilderment, because honestly, who are these kittens, and what is Shamura’s game here, anyway??? They never even explained anything, they just tossed these kittens into the Afterlife and LEFT!!! At any rate, Aym and Baal being dead is how I explain why their souls apparently become lost in the void if they’re killed, along with the added complications required to revive the two because of it.

So, with those deets in mind, and given a bit of time, if Narinder hadn’t chosen to revive the Lamb, and also hadn’t chosen to put their soul to rest, they still would have woken up at some point, despite being as straight up dead as Aym and Baal. Who, don’t worry, were also properly revived while Narinder was waiting for the Lamb to wake up. Because I am also firmly of the belief that, first, the dead cannot leave the Afterlife without the use of a ritual/relic (and can't stay in the living world for long regardless), and second, dead followers’ devotion isn’t anywhere near as potent as that of the living, given how much more the living stand to lose.

Final ramble, regarding the Lamb’s feelings towards Narinder, and why they’re so devoted to him…

Well, you don’t spend most of your life on the run with your steadily-dwindling herd, trying to evade the ongoing genocide of your species, without becoming a little fucked up in the head. Maybe a lot fucked up in the head. Life is suffering, so might as well have fun with it, right? Maybe start finding death and pain to be kind of hilarious, even a little bit hot, once everyone you know and love is dead and gone, leaving you all alone? And maybe after that, there’s something comforting in how, despite the cold, cruel uncertainties of life, at least you can always count on the inevitability of death, patiently waiting for you until your very last breath? Who knows. Either way, as soon as the Lamb was killed, and they learned that the literal God of Death was offering them a second chance at life and vengeance via effective immortality, they were 100% ride-or-die-devoted all at once. Turns out death is kinder than life – go figure. (Of course, it helps that Narinder is 100% their type.)

They weren’t put off by Narinder’s thinly-veiled sadism or manipulations, either – they’re not too different in those regards, albeit opting for vastly different methods. It’s a very ‘two sides of the same coin’ sort of deal. In order to stay alive once they were made the last of their kind, the Lamb had no qualms with using others to their advantage, and that did not change once they were revived and expected to run a cult. They didn’t care for the position of authority, though – being a sheep and all, they’re much more of a follower than a leader, and thus greatly appreciated Narinder’s need for control. With how they had to keep on their toes for so long, the Lamb was also pretty good at reading people by the time they died, so they could recognize that a lot of Narinder’s posturing was just that – posturing. Dude’s 95% bluster and only 5% bite. He could obviously be vicious when he wanted or needed to (the Bishops' injuries were clear proof of that), but underneath his outer layer of cruelty was a generous layer of tsundere, and underneath all THAT was a soft squishy middle sibling velcro cat in desperate need of attention and affection.

(Which, for the record, he Did Not feel comfortable getting from Aym and Baal – Narinder still has no idea why the fuck Shamura sent them to him, beyond acting as keepers at best or trying to sabotage his attempts to escape at worst. Which, he thought HE sabotaged in turn, by guiding the kittens into being his devoted disciples instead. He thought he was very clever for it. ‘I outsmarted Shamura!’ he thought, despite that there was never anything there to outsmart. ‘What do you mean, Shamura sent your kittens to me for company?’ he demands of Forneus later. It may or may not lead him to pull Shamura out of Purgatory just so he can shake them and scream about how they should have Fucking Explained that!!!)

But, getting back on track as to why the Lamb was so willing to be sacrificed, I cannot stress this enough – if you pay even a minimal amount of attention to what he’s saying, Narinder is REALLY NOT SUBTLE about his intentions. ‘Death is of little consequence.’ ‘Followers are for you to use to your advantage.’ ‘Sacrifice a follower to absorb more power.’ So, yeah, the Lamb knew exactly what would be expected of them once the other Bishops were dead. They knew Narinder would expect them to die for him one last time. But, after all, death is of little consequence (not to mention hot), so when the time came, they wanted to see him freed, even if it meant oblivion for them in the end.

He’d given them a second life, and the ability to avenge their kin, and they felt indebted to him for that – so, while they were still pretty glum about the possibility that they might not get to see him free of his chains, nothing beyond their devotion and debt to him mattered. They never wanted all the drama and expectations that came with the Red Crown’s power, anyway, so, better for Narinder to have it back so that he could deal with it. What he did with the Lamb afterward would be up to him, and seeing as he was their god, they’d accept his decision gladly.

Were they in love with him by that point? Oh, obsessively so, but only in the devotional sense – romance was nowhere on their mind nor radar. That is, until he unexpectedly revived them again, told them he still needed them, and then offered down his hand to help them up.

The Lamb fell HARD for him in that moment. :3c

And now, a tiny shitten ramble. Lu and Li are twins, because sheep tend to have those a lot, and are conceived not long after the Lamb and Narinder’s marriage ceremony. Lu is the minutes older one, but Li is much more mature. I have put no further thought into these two, other than that they are utter menaces, birthed by the Lamb, cling hard to both their parents but especially Narinder (who spoils them rotten), and they are both genderfluid, using whichever pronouns/names they feel like at any given time. They are also both intersex, same as the Lamb, who was initially infertile up until Something Something Vague Magic, which I have also put no further thought into ¯\_(シ)_/¯

oh, and before anyone tries to suggest i headcanon this AU’s lamb as trending more female due to them giving birth or whatever, no, no, a thousand times no, they might have a vag, but they've also got a dick, and even if it's not as big as they'd like, they still know how to use it

Finally, the very tentative name for the Lamb in this AU is Yazdi, which is really just another name for the Baluchi breed of sheep XD (Not that the Lamb is this specific breed, I just didn’t like any of the other sheep-related names I found, ahaha...)

THAT’S ALL FOR NOW (collapses into an exhausted pile of goopy limbs)

[anachronismstellar]

OK OK OK I NEED TO SLEEP BUT

in celebration of @notsofrozt teasing art

(omg omg check this out ITS SO GOOL),

AND this fic reaching 35 pages (someone save me) here's more Airplane vs The System!

Let the games begin >:)

---

There was only one thing Shen Yuan hated more than being considered stupid and it was actually acting stupid.

Because why, WHY haven't they checked the bane of their existence, the persona non grata of binary code, the absolute most devilish collection of pixels and fuckery, aka the System?

It was right there, the notification blinking in green, marking it as a mission in progress.

He clicked, actually expecting more trouble on top of the Mobei business, only to be presented with-

Mission in progress: Author's favorite.

UV002 objective: aid UV001

Mission progress: 47%

What. The fuck.

He hadn't accepted any new missions, there wasn't even an obnoxious notification! And what's up with his objective?! Aid UV001?! How?! It didn't give him any other hint of what to do!

Oh he wasn't just angry, he was furious.

To the point that he had almost torn the door off its track when he opened it, the noise loud enough to startle Shang Qinghua into throwing his brush at him.

As if that would help against a real attack.

“Have you seen the new mission?!” He snapped as he entered Shang Qinghua's improvised office, glaring at the other trasmigrator.

“W-What?” Shang Qinghua blinked like a deer in the headlights, eyes puffed red as if had been crying moments ago.

Shan Yuan swallowed his pity, hardening his heart to focus on the task at hand. He closed the door to buy himself time before approaching the desk covered in parchment, slowly putting both hands on top of it to get closer to Airplane.

“Have you seen,” he pitched his voice low so they wouldn't be heard, doing his utmost to convey his fury through whispering. “The new. Mission.”

“Uh,” Airplane blinked again, scrubbing tears away, looking as lost as a puppy dropped from the moving truck. “Cucumber-bro-”

“Don't! You Cucumber-bro me,” he held himself back, closing his eyes to not lose his temper. “We're going to talk about your murderous ways later. Right now I need you to shut up and check. Your. System.”

He could see Airplane about to ask why, but his expression might have been terrifying enough because he just nodded and opened up his system, immediately frowning.

“What the fuck?”

“What? What is it?” Shen Yuan moved to get next to Airplane to better read what he was seeing. It never failed to amuse him how different their systems were: his looked like a proper video game menu, while Airplane's just looked like a lazy programmed blog.

“There's stuff missing. And I can't click on any missions. Like, I could at least check my old stuff? But now it's all gray?!”

“What do you mean?” At this point he was almost putting his face next to Airplane's so he could see, the bland white screen making his eyes burn. “Urgh how can you stand this, can't you change to dark mode? And go check for new missions.”

“As if, your system is way nicer than mine. Wait, do you have a new mission?”

“Yeah, it's called Author's Favorite. But it says nothing, just to help UV001. It's your user, right?”

-------

See you guys in the next update!

[voidcat]

synopsis: having partially dyed hair is more than just a mere, fun fashion statement in division one– a fact you forgot about until it’s about too late

characters: Narumi Gen, gn!reader (working at jakdf, unspecified but implied to be closely related to Narumi) (their relationship with one another left up to readers’ speculation^^)

notes: hi it’s 1am this was supposed to be shorter uh anyway… inspired by real life events of dying my hair first and noticing hours later I now match w nrm… hate him sm can u believe (<- lies)

When you find yourself on the steps of the base, freshly returned from a much needed leave-- much to your initial dismay, you find that it is as you've left.

Unsure if that's a good thing or bad.

Sure, for the never ending chaos of Division One, it's ultimately a blessing that things are exactly as last you've seen. It means during your absance nobody has gotten hurt, or died- yet. But from the looks of it, it seems nothing has exploded either, so you sigh, readjust your jacket and walk the same path you've always done for countless days and countless nights.

Making a mental note to show your gratitude to Vice Captain Hasegawa for taking... maybe a little extreme measures to send you off to a leave, you greet those you pass with a nod, and occasioanally a hum. Pleased to see everyone with a smile, and maybe surprise as well.

Had they gotten too used to your absance already? Or do you seem visibly different after a proper week's rest.

Listening to the clanking sounds of your heels echoing, you take out your phone to text the platoon leaders and your colleagues a message. A perk of having visited family means you were overfed during the visit. Another one is returning to your home with too much food for even an army. Better to make sure everyone has their fill until the last breath than for it to go spoiled- a sudden giggle from the back distracts your train of thoughts.

When you look back, you spot two in officer uniforms who immediately flee. Odd, but nothing out of the ordinary when you work under the same roof as a certain game obsessed, lazy and clingy mess of a Captain.

Greetings here and there, with formalities and pleasantries, "Long time, no see!", "Looking good, doc!"... the words pour, making you turn your lip. Had you truly looked like a caricature of a workaholic? Or had you really took that little care of yourself as of lately?

The thoughts upset you but you try to push them away. Now that you're few steps away from the main hall, you cannot help but muse about a potential entrance. Maybe something fun? Or serious? You could keep it simple and warm but-- Stop!

Stomping your foot at the same time as that command puts your brain on a pause, you take a deep breath in, and out. Hand shooting up to tuck a strand behind your ear, you push the door open and walk in with a small smile.

"Good morning!.. Did you-"

The words die on your throat in a sudden. Not for the amount of heads turned your way- no, that's a given any time of the day at Division One, but at one particular Captain Narumi Gen looking at you with eyes wide as the moon and his mouth stretched into a smile- grinning from ear to ear like a kid who took a peak at his present way before the unboxing...

A cold bucket of water washes over you as you slowly put two and two together. The comments, the surprised looks, the giggle you caught from an officer, all the platoon officiers with their profile pictures all of which sharing a certain pattern-- hell, you just touched your hair yourself, its usual texture slightly changed for the past week already.

Too caught up in the short moment of peace and serenity, you forgot you dyed the lower half of your hair.– A gesture typically done in Division One to show solidarity, closeness, and one might even say "fondness", to the one and only, bane of your existence, who is walking up to you as you say these in your mind: Narumi Gen himself.

His first move is to throw an arm around your shoulder, which you try and dodge, though he follows with a second attempt- predicting your reactions by now, and succeeding in the act.

Secondly, he tilts his head towards yours, you can feel his body warmth seeping through just from the minimal contact. Between being caught up in your frenzy frozen state and your body instinctually wishing to lean into it; you have to make conscious effort to remain your footing but still maintain a state of fluidity to you.

And thirdly, he cooes at you in a sing song way. Making sure to drag every syllable like a knife twisting inside the wound. “Aaaww… Missed me that much already?”

You don’t need to glance at him to know he is glowing, barely containing himself with giddiness and happiness. You can practically feel it.

You try not to think about the implications of this notion either.

Enough time passes that you gather yourself enough to move and talk without disrupting your composure, you try to break away from his hold, only for Narumi to tighten it and press you to his side.

“W-ell, Captain-“ you ignore him making a sobbing sound at the use of his title, “If you’ll excuse me,” from the corner of your eye, you watch as his other hand goes up to his chin, faking a hum in thought.

“I’d like to catch up on work I’ve missed during the course of—“ “Hm… I think I will not.”

“Tha- What?!” The practiced pleasantry reserved for moments before dozens sets of eyes cut short when you register his words.

Meanwhile Narumi opts to ignore your stiffness and makes a turn in his spot, slowly dragging you with him whether you oblige or not.

“Well, you did ask to be excused and that’s my answer.” All you can muster is breathing through your nose at his words. It’s been, what? Fifteen minutes since you’ve returned? And you feel your patience already put on a trial.

“Simple, no?” He sounds unbothered by the whole thing, ignoring everyone watching the scene before them in suspense. You think, in fear, that if it weren’t for this many people in the room now, he’d pick you up like one of his big sized yamazon order boxes instead of dragging you like a statue.

Your shudder at the thought only makes it worse. Feeling the absence of a certain presence during your week off was one thing you did not want to admit- less so to the subject in question- no you’d rather die than to admit it to his face, it’d save your poor dignity at the very least. However, you didn’t think you’d be cornered on such short notice. Clearly, you’ve underestimated just how easy and big of an effect he holds over you, and your poor nerves.

As your brain is busy rushing between thoughts, you don’t notice that Narumi has dragged you all the way to the door by now. The sudden sound of the door shutting startles you and he slips his arm into yours in this moment of weakness.

“How about we have a share a little breakfast and some quality time first,” he speaks softly, nonchalant as ever, but keeping his voice down for only the two of you.

You know it’s less about the secrecy and more to have some things for just the two of you, something you didn’t think you’d see in him nor appreciate greatly.

You can feel his breath on your ear, again with his warmth spreading all over your body from the close proximity. “Then you can return to whatever work you wish to do. Sounds good?” He concludes his offer but you know it’s not a question. It’s not up to debate and you don’t really get a say in the matter.

Even if you did, you doubt you’d refuse- another thing you’d rather he never finds out, nor hears from you like a secret confessed.

And he does have another point, though unspoken. All your other work falls secondary so long as Captain Narumi Gen lives and breaths, your primary work and responsibility- one, though tricky to handle, is worth the effort made- now with matching hair and everything.

With a sigh, you drop your head in defeat and tighten your now interlocked arms, letting him take the lead with a jump to his steps, mouth curling at the thought that you’ve jumped right back onto the familiar pace. Good to be home.

[read-marx-and-lenin]

are you just totally anti anarchist

It depends on what you mean by "anarchist".

If you mean the concept of a society without a state, then of course not. From Marx, to Engels, to Lenin, to Stalin, to Mao, to any number of other prominent Marxists, the vision of a future without a state has been a core part of revolutionary socialist thought. The ML position is not "the anarchists are stupid for wanting to abolish the state", the ML position is "the state cannot be abolished entirely through force alone, the material and political conditions must be developed in order to achieve statelessness."

If you mean the program of the anarchists, then again it depends on which program you mean. I generally find that anarchist programs are either utopian idealism that is impractical in reality, or basically Leninism with the serial numbers filed off.

If you mean anarchists as individuals, then certainly not. I am on good terms with many anarchists, online and in real life. I can disagree with someone without hating them or thinking they are a bad person.

I have included a selection of quotes from Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao below the cut for anyone who doubts that all of them viewed the state as something that would disappear once the proper conditions were met.

The question then arises: What transformation will the state undergo in communist society? In other words, what social functions will remain in existence there that are analogous to present state functions? This question can only be answered scientifically, and one does not get a flea-hop nearer to the problem by a thousand-fold combination of the word 'people' with the word 'state'. Between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.

Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program (Chapter 4), 1875

The first act by which the state really comes forward as the representative of the whole of society — the taking possession of the means of production in the name of society — is also its last independent act as a state. State interference in social relations becomes, in one domain after another, superfluous, and then dies down of itself. The government of persons is replaced by the administration of things, and by the conduct of processes of production. The state is not ’abolished’. It withers away.

Friedrich Engels, Anti-Dühring (Part III, Chapter 2), 1877

The state, therefore, has not existed from all eternity. There have been societies which have managed without it, which had no notion of the state or state power. At a definite stage of economic development, which necessarily involved the cleavage of society into classes, the state became a necessity because of this cleavage. We are now rapidly approaching a stage in the development of production at which the existence of these classes has not only ceased to be a necessity, but becomes a positive hindrance to production. They will fall as inevitably as they once arose. The state inevitably falls with them. The society which organizes production anew on the basis of free and equal association of the producers will put the whole state machinery where it will then belong – into the museum of antiquities, next to the spinning wheel and the bronze ax.

Friedrich Engels, Origins of the Family (Chapter 9), 1884

Where there are no classes, where there are neither rich nor poor, there is no need for a state, there is no need either for political power, which oppresses the poor and protects the rich. Consequently, in socialist society there will be no need for the existence of political power.

Joseph Stalin, Anarchism or Socialism?, 1906

The proletariat needs the state only temporarily. We do not after all differ with the anarchists on the question of the abolition of the state as the aim. We maintain that, to achieve this aim, we must temporarily make use of the instruments, resources, and methods of state power against the exploiters, just as the temporary dictatorship of the oppressed class is necessary for the abolition of classes.

Vladimir Lenin, State and Revolution (Chapter 4), 1917

[O]nly communism makes the state absolutely unnecessary, for there is nobody to be suppressed--“nobody” in the sense of a class, of a systematic struggle against a definite section of the population. [...] From the moment all members of society, or at least the vast majority, have learned to administer the state themselves, have taken this work into their own hands, have organized control over the insignificant capitalist minority, over the gentry who wish to preserve their capitalist habits and over the workers who have been thoroughly corrupted by capitalism--from this moment the need for government of any kind begins to disappear altogether. The more complete the democracy, the nearer the moment when it becomes unnecessary. The more democratic the “state” which consists of the armed workers, and which is "no longer a state in the proper sense of the word", the more rapidly every form of state begins to wither away.

Vladimir Lenin, State and Revolution (Chapter 5), 1917

"Don't you want to abolish state power?" Yes, we do, but not right now; we cannot do it yet. Why? Because imperialism still exists, because domestic reaction still exists, because classes still exist in our country. Our present task is to strengthen the people's state apparatus -- mainly the people's army, the people's police and the people's courts -- in order to consolidate national defence and protect the people's interests. Given this condition, China can develop steadily, under the leadership of the working class and the Communist Party, from an agricultural into an industrial country and from a new-democratic into a socialist and communist society, can abolish classes and realize the Great Harmony. The state apparatus, including the army, the police and the courts, is the instrument by which one class oppresses another. It is an instrument for the oppression of antagonistic classes, it is violence and not "benevolence". "You are not benevolent!" Quite so. We definitely do not apply a policy of benevolence to the reactionaries and towards the reactionary activities of the reactionary classes. Our policy of benevolence is applied only within the ranks of the people, not beyond them to the reactionaries or to the reactionary activities of reactionary classes.

Mao Zedong, On the People's Democratic Dictatorship, 1949

[what-is-love-babey-dont-hurt-me]

Some headcanons I have about King Dedede, Captain Vul, and their species!

Many, many millions of years before the tragedy that befell the dinosaurs, alien researchers tried to study them, and did not plan for their escape from the research facility, and eventual takeover of the planet! Through many years of adaptation to the new planet, you see the feathers and bird-like feathers we know and love in King Dedede and others!

This is related to my OC Sir Meteor, who you can vote for here ! 💫🦖☄️

Transcript + More below the cut below

Vestigial tail + spikes

A far cry from the reptile tails of old, the tails of current day are stubby with little movement, and in a few generations will likely be completely gone.

These guys are descendants of dinosaurs! The tails had been used for mobility, balance, but especially fighting. This connotation created ripples in the culture of what the vestigial tail means for avians, no matter how stubby and useless it is in present day! Since hollow bones had started to emerge in the species, anything that could possibly crush them is considered taboo, including showing off tails freely. A lot of them pretend they don’t exist!

Prehensile feathers

The feathers at the tip of the wings are modified fingers that can grab! If you were to push back the feathers, you would even see vestigial talons that are either too small to be any threat, or kept trip for proper appearance. All of the avians have thumb-like digits as well, but their grip is not a precise as our own.

Avians of high social standing often commission and wear enchanted gloves to aid with their weak grip, and it is why Dedede isn’t seen with his feathers and can use his hammer!

Spines + tail usually covered up

For this study, I focused on just the bodies themselves, but i wanna delve deeper into the culture they have! In particular clothing is important. They usually keep their tail and spines covered up for modesty and cultural norms—the spines are seen as weapons and only shown when living a life of battle! Even Dedede who gets into fights often doesn’t want to show them, but there is exceptions. The gray star warrior having their tail out is due to the position they have in the army. They dedicate their life to a battle. Other factors include needing high mobility! Some avians in gymnastics or on rescue teams, and other professions where mobility is essential are exempt from this rule, but they often have a robe or cover-up when not performing the task.

For Dedede: adapted to be a water-type bird, has flippers and webbed feet, and is unable to fly. His eyes are bigger than normal for the purpose of being able to see in dark waters with barely any light, although the trade off is his long distance vision leaves much to be lacking. His choice of hammer as a weapon is barely any thought to us, but a taboo one in avian society. His distance from any others of his kind is in part due to his refusal to put it down.

For Vul: he is a an avian capable of flight!! This is a rarer trait. He feels at home in the sky, and his eyes even in his old age are unparalleled to anyone else in his crew. Vul, like dedede, normally covers his tail, especially because even though he lives a life of battle, he is rather old fashioned and does not want to admit it, despite being captain to a crew of knights.

For the Star Warrior: a unnamed individual who would turn heads if they walked on their home planet looking like that. Metal armor in of itself is unusual because most avians hate to weight themselves down too much to fly, even if they aren’t a flying type. Under the helmet they have a bright red crest, and for the long legs I based them off of a Sandhill Crane. Their long legs are the best example of another trait I didn’t get to touch on yet: these guys have feathers covering the legs! Where in real life birds usually have scales, these guys have a gene which gives them feathers everywhere but the feet. Similar to silkie chickens or pigeons with muffs!

Most of these guys have some kind of feathered crest above their eyes! It helps keep sun and water out of their face, similar to eyebrows.

Page 2: a doodle comic with the story of how avians were created, along with a visual of them being somewhere between a dinosaur and bird

I have more but MAN this is getting too long

[fushiglow]

Hi glo! I saw your reblog(s) about the fics that you can’t wait to write and was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about what you have in store? I am very excited about the prospect of getting more Over the Threshold, but I’m also interested to know what else you’ve got planned 🩷

Oh dear, anon, I was waiting until I finished ski fic to answer this because you're opening a real can of worms here! I'll link any snippets of WIPs I've posted where available. Remember, you asked, because I am about to go 👏 off 👏

So, for Over the Threshold, obviously I've got chapter 14 coming up! I'd really like to finish the fic this year, but it gains more and more weight as I develop it and progress becomes slower every time I update. Let's see how it goes!

Alongside the main fic, I've got a smutty but sad oneshot with the affectionate working title of "Sad Wank Suguru" coming up before the next chapter, and quite a few little updates to From the Cutting Room Floor, too! There are also one or two more accompanying oneshots to come later in the story. (Plus a 73 Questions "video" for Satoru, and threshold!SatoSugu reading mailman AU that I've been working on for a while, but I don't know if they'll make the cut.)

Aside from that, the next big thing on the list is the second instalment in Star Wars AU (a series-to-be that now has many more parts than I originally planned), which I really want to post on Star Wars Day but... That's a month away at this point. Wish me luck with finishing it in time. I'm so excited by this story!

I'm also writing a second K-pop AU (where they're both idols!) that I am really really excited about. It's shorter than Over the Threshold, but presents a real challenge in terms of narrative style that means I need to write it all before posting the first chapter — which is not how I usually do things! I've been working on this for coming up a year now, but this fic is still a while off. It's probably not a good idea to really sink my teeth into it until I finish the first K-pop AU lmao...

I'm also working on a few non-SatoSugu pieces at the moment — a fun GojoHime K-pop oneshot (you don't want to know how many K-pop AUs I've got), a very soft and sexy SaShiSu oneshot, and an angsty SatoShoko-ish oneshot — and they all make for a really nice change of piece when writing the same characters/dynamic gets a little stale. Other than those, there's more SatoSugu in the form of:

Love Spiral part two ft. angst

Another music AU, this time of the classical variety!

A little Gojo glow up fic

A daddy Satoru counterpart to mommy Suguru

Oxbridge AU! Oxbridge AU!

A canon compliant long-ish fic exploring "reluctant sub Suguru"

Swimming AU!

An alpha/alpha fic with a rugby setting and some heavy worldbuilding

And also some gen fics I've got planned:

A spooky oneshot about baby Suguru developing his technique

A moody fix-it exploring "rōnin" Suguru and Yuta's tense relationship in the wake of JJK 0

Some more instalments to the In His Shadow series

And a whole bunch of other stuff that I haven't developed enough to justify calling them proper WIPs, plus some fics that I don't feel comfortable talking about just yet. I hate that, even with that said, this post is so lengthy! Someone save me from my own ideas!

But seriously, I'm actually a bit overwhelmed by my WIPs recently so, if there's anything here that you're particularly interested in seeing (aside from Over the Threshold, obviously), please do let me know in a comment! That goes for anyone reading this!

Thanks for the question, anon, and I do hope it hasn't made you want to run a mile ♥

[neverenoughmarauders]

Hi! what are your thoughts on the ever present fanon idea that James repeatedly asks Lily to date him before she finally concedes (he pesters her tbh)?

I feel like this throws a lot of people off of Jily as it just adds a bit of creepiness to the ship and makes it weirder for Lily to get with James considering this behaviour, after what must’ve been a fair amount of reckoning since he tormented her childhood best friend for years. Like even if Lily hated Snape at this point I don’t think she’d forget how James treated him easily and let James off the hook without a proper reckoning so adding pestering behaviour to that dynamic just makes their relationship more unlikely ya know. Honestly just tryna find reasons why fandom in general dislike Jily more than jegulus atp.

Hi anon

This idea that James repeatedly asked Lily out I think far precedes Jegulus. In my youth, the few fics I engaged with (often because my best friend kindly helped translate them) seemed to position it as a very cute thing - although it always annoyed me even then, because it has no basis in canon. The day and age where James persistently asking Lily out was seen as cute are over, and now this fanon idea is presented in favour of Jegulus or Snily.

Actually, as an aside, in general the marauders' story is one that has aged poorly... You can't really view the marauders without the lens of it being the 70s and during a wizarding world war - but people do and it completely changes everything.

How do I feel about it?

I feel the same way about this as I do with all fanon ideas that get presented as evidence. It drives me up the wall no end. We all get carried away with our own interpretations and that's fine, but if people cannot separate canon from interpretation of canon /headcanon from fanon, how can we have an informed debate?

Canon:

"Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they’re doing at night?” “I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are.” ... “I didn’t mean — I just don’t want to see you made a fool of — He fancies you, James Potter fancies you!” The words seemed wrenched from him against his will. “And he’s not ... everyone thinks ... big Quidditch hero — ” Snape’s bitterness and dislike were rendering him incoherent, and Lily’s eyebrows were traveling farther and farther up her forehead.

My interpretation of canon:

The conversation between Snape and Lily to me indicates that it is a relatively new development (which means sometimes not long before/after the whomping willow incident). At this point I think it's hard to argue that James has asked Lily out - why on earth would Snape feel the need to point out that James fancies her if this be the case.

Canon:

“I will if you go out with me, Evans,” said James quickly. “Go on ... Go out with me, and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.” ... “I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid,” said Lily. “Bad luck, Prongs,” said Sirius briskly, turning back to Snape. ... “There you go,” he said, as Snape struggled to his feet again, “you’re lucky Evans was here, Snivellus — ” “I don’t need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!” Lily blinked. “Fine,” she said coolly. “I won’t bother in future. And I’d wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.” ... “What is it with her?” said James, trying and failing to look as though this was a throwaway question of no real importance to him. “Reading between the lines, I’d say she thinks you’re a bit conceited, mate,” said Sirius. “Right,” said James, who looked furious now, “right"

Also canon: Lily found James attractive at this point, despite not liking him very much. It was confirmed in an interview, in response to whether or not Lily hated James, but as we know even from the source text:

“How come she married him?” Harry asked miserably. “She hated him!” “Nah, she didn’t,” said Sirius.

My interpretation of canon:

James is being an immature d***. That aside, nothing about this dialogue suggests to me that James has ever asked Lily out before. Why? James looks FURIOUS at the rejection, he does not give off the vibes of someone who has routinely been rejected by Lily.

There's also the small stuff which doesn't by itself mean anything but which adds up, such as Sirius' and Snape's reaction. Sirius doesn't come across as someone who has seen this a hundred times. He's obviously far less affected or surprised by the outcome, but that's not the same thing. Snape completely loses it with Lily - why? It's not the first time James and Sirius has bullied him, but if it's the first time Snape has listened to James ask her out - worse still, use him to ask her out, he might be furious. He told her so, didn't he? James Potter fancied her.

My headcanon:

We know Lily found James attractive, and that James is shocked to be rejected. We also know Snape is nervous that Lily might be falling for James: 'I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are' Why? Probably because by now Lily and James have flirted a little on and off. If Lily spoke the way she spoke to James by the lake - if James routinely asked Lily out - then the conversation between Severus and Lily makes no sense.

If people want to like Jegulus, they can. Personally, I think Jily holds everything I want from an "enemies" to lovers trope, and if I want another trope it's usually best friends to lovers, and I've got prongsfoot for that. Or if I am feeling like I want both, there's always Jilypad <3

[1toreyouapart]

Exorcizamus

Summary: Life on the road, hunting the things that went bump in the night was a lonely life, admittedly. But having Ruffilo by his side made it all a bit more bearable. They had set out as children, led only by Jolly, to hunt the thing that had killed his best friend, and nearly them as well. Noah couldn't do it without him, honestly. Ruffilo was the brains and he was the brawn in the whole operation.

Adeline was a small town girl. Working to live and living to work. Until she found herself being hunted by the very thing her dad had always told her was just pretend. When the brothers save her, her understanding of the world is flipped upside down.

CW/TW: all things paranormal, death, swearing, smut (updated as it is written to include specific warnings), talk of religion, horror, demons. Child death mentioned. Guns. As always, if I forget anything please don’t hesitate to let me know!

Missing Person

PRESENT DAY

Noah groaned, rolling over on his side. He didn’t know what time it was, but it was too fucking early. They hadn’t gotten checked in until 1am. Hadn’t gone to sleep until 3am. This was one of the times he really hated this life. Up late every night, and awake early every morning. Once in a great while they got to take the night off and actually get some sleep. The door to the motel room opened and he shot up in the bed, grabbing the gun under his pillow.

“Whoa, dude. It’s just me. Went and got some coffee and breakfast.” Ruffilo held his hands up, a bag in one hand and drink carrier in the other.

“Jesus. Do you ever sleep?” Groaning he flopped back on the bed, tossing the gun on the mattress next to him.

“I tried. You snore so loud it’s worse than a chainsaw.”

Noah laughed, glancing over at the clock. 8am. Eh. Five hours wasn’t so bad. Not nearly enough, but he could function on that. Ruff sat the drinks and food on the little table, tossing the room key next to them. Fuck. He should probably get up. They had a long day of investigating ahead of them.

He shuffled out of the bed. He was grateful to have had a bed to sleep in last night, but god it was terrible. Rock hard. Lumpy. And he wasn’t totally sure the bedding was actually clean. Still. It was better than sleeping in the Impala. Stretching he reached for his shirt, ignoring the dull ache in his back. Some day. Someday he would sleep in a proper bed. Hopefully.

He pulled the shirt over his head, eyes landing on Ruff’s bag. He had an entire folder on that girl. He needed to know why. They knew Azazel had been after her specifically. That was clear when he had found the warding that had been worn away over the years. Come to think of it, he actually had a few questions about that whole situation, himself. For having all that warding surrounding her, she was absolutely clueless on everything. Had no idea any of this even existed. It was odd.

“Why do you have a file on that girl? The one we saved from that yellow eyed freak?” He arched a brow, reaching for a cup of coffee before taking a seat at the flimsy table.

“I want to know why he wants her.” His answer was simple. Like he should have known that already. “I mean, we heard what he said to her, Noah.”

“Yep. We did.” He nodded.

Noah thought back to that night. How they had heard her screams. The way they had found her on the floor when they kicked in the bedroom door. Azazel kneeling over her. How he had stupidly fought that son of a bitch to get him off of her. And how he had disappeared with that copy ass grin of his.

“Turns out her parents were hunters. Left to have a normal life. Her mother died in a fire when she was real little.” Ruff sighed. “But after that night? She seems to have completely disappeared. No trace of her anywhere. Last info on her is a missing persons report filed three days after we left her there.”

Unease churned in his stomach, making it hard to focus as Ruff continued to talk. They had left her there with nothing more than a sigil and some basic protection items. Jesus Christ. The bastard had found her and taken her. Something they could have prevented if he hadn’t been in such a hurry to get out of there to find him. Lot of good that did. They hadn’t found him, and instead he had gone back there and taken her anyway.

“Alright. So, obviously we fucked up. After we find whatever this thing is terrorizing Milwaukee and gank the fucker we’ll get ahold of Jolly. See if he can help us track her down.”

“Noah. She might be dead.” Ruff swallowed, averting his gaze. “She might be dead because we didn’t do enough.”

Noah nodded slowly. While it was a very real possibility, he didn’t think Azazel was after her just to kill her. No. That bastard had a plan for her. The question was what was his plan?

“We don’t know that. He wants her for a reason. He’s got some kind of big plan he’s up to.” As he spoke he rose to his feet, throwing on his jacket. “Come on. The sooner we get on this, the sooner we can find her.”

Noah grabbed the keys off the table, and walked out the door. Next to him a woman left her room, her gaze cast downward. A hat sat on her head, pulled down low to cover as much of her face as possible. Curious he watched as she turned away, letting his eyes wander a bit. A nice ass, for sure.

Slowly his eyes traveled back up, taking note of a tattoo on the back of her neck. His head tipped to the side and he took a step closer, getting a better look. It was a sigil. The same sigil Jolly had found for him five years ago. Adeline wasn’t missing. She was right in front of him.

“Adeline?”

Tags: @collisionofyourkissmakesitsohard @alwaysfightforwhoyouare @lacy1986 @concretejunglefm @ichoosetenderomens @dontwantthemoney @chey-h @missduffsblog @enemiestolovershoe @concreteangel92

[iteh3xael]

Hi gay!

So given that a man who allegedly killed a CEO is now held, without bail in jail, I’d like to highlight how horrific the institution is and what he is potentially subjected to. This is specific to my experience at the Sheriff’s Detainment Center in RVA and I’ve heard rural places can be worse (he’s white tho and there is privilege in that):

-the worst part is honestly intake because they will conduct a strip search and take EVERYTHING from you while forcing you to sit/stand in a cold ass room for HOURS

-they do not care if you have medication needs and will take their sweet time getting it to you (if at all) They straight up got pissed at me when I demanded my meds back (they steal them)

-they can and will shut off your water if they decide they hate you

-there is simultaneously the most eerie quiet you’ll experience in your life and then the deafening noise of buzzers going off in least 15 minute increments which means you’re on a constant 24/7 cycle given that even when the lights are “off” there’s no real darkness or peace

-there was no visitation allowed and even my lawyer had difficulty meeting me

-speaking of which, the only reason ~I~ was IN jail was BECAUSE my bail was denied and then when I finally went to court, didn’t have a proper trial because of some bullshit formality in terms of subpoenas of a witness who wasn’t even present at the scene of the alleged crime, so when I appealed, I was slated to sit in there for FOUR MONTHS to get a proper jury trial which, fun fact: takes a circuit appeal which means even if you fucking MURDER someone, a SINGLE judge judge gets to play God sentencing people for YEARS which also reminds me

-the boredom WILL drive you insane and I couldn’t even get a fucking BIBLE to read I was so desperate. There were thankfully some decent cops (I won’t say good but there are some kind people playing the role) who gave me some pen and paper but I had to GROVEL which is humiliating

-it’s also pretty demoralizing being put in the “padded cell” which is just sponge concrete with a drain in the middle (again, no water, no furniture, no toilet) for HOURS while you have a broken foot because the cops rough housed you on arrest

-btw those cop cameras? Good chance they’ll never make it to court even if you demand the evidence be disclosed lol

-theyll steal your gum :/

-phone calls are like… 5 minutes max and they force you to pay

-commissary is effectively cheaper than the regular economy which is kind of wild in terms of the smuggling that happens

-they put me in somewhere that was somehow worse than solitary because I was stuck in my cell (no rec time) but the vents carried noise so well that I could hear every single yell which is all the time considering how

-btw there are no windows (they are slats)

-showers are at least hot!

-literally would not wish my rapist the fate of being in prison. I can only imagine how much worse it was in Saydnaya

[destinygoldenstar]

I Analyzed The Ninjago Movie Instead Of Sleeping

I have real mixed feelings on this movie. But not for the reasons you might think from a fan of the TV show.

The movie didn’t NEED to be connected to the show. And it clearly wasn’t trying to.

It was meant to be an AU in a way.

(If you look at the behind the scenes one of their original rewrites was a plot of them going back in time to save Lloyd’s dad from becoming the villainous figure he is in the present day.)

So I can forgive the inaccuracy so long as it could stand on its own as a proper story.

It doesn’t do that.

If you DON’T compare it to the show:

You got a movie with SOME good jokes, amazing animation, (SERIOUSLY THIS MOVIE LOOKS BEAUTIFUL AND VISUALS ALONE ARE A CHEFS KISS TO ME) but is so strangely paced that it feels like the movie starts at the middle of the story and never shows the beginning, and feels like a completely different movie halfway through, and is also very choppily edited.

(I even double checked a clip of the movie just to prove my point there: When Lloyd uses all his dragon mech weapons on Garmadon, they play the exact same sound effect and explosion, just with different angles, SIX TIMES. FSM WAS THAT EDITOR HUNG OVER WHEN DOING THEIR JOB THAT DAY?! And that’s just one example I’ve got. I think this was the first time EVER when I was in a movie theater and I distinctly remember asking “What is wrong with the editing here? Who thought this was good editing?? Who thought this was appropriate in any way???” So I thank this movie for giving me such a memory and making me value good editing.)

You also got a world that isn’t very well fleshed out, characters that the movie chooses to not focus on except the main character and the main villain. And you got a movie that tells its audience it’s okay to forgive your parents that neglected you and are active terrorists even if they earned or done absolutely no redemption whatsoever.

I mean Garmadon in this movie BETRAYS them and leaves them to rot so he could terrorize the city again at the end. Then gets eaten by the cat. Then Lloyd forgives him. Idk what more you want me to say.

I’m not gonna act like Crystalized did it any better though. Pick your poison.

But then you got fans of the show. The people who watched the show since kids (that includes me). Who are naturally bias towards the shows lore and characterization…

OOOOOOHHH boy…

I don’t hate EVERY portrayal of the ninja in the movie as much as other people. I actually think there’s some good ideas for an AU version of these characters here. Problem is the movie never does anything with them.

Well, I say I don’t hate every portrayal, the one I truly cannot stand is Zane’s.

There’s just so much wrong with how they portrayed Zane that it just does not work. Not as an adaptation of the character. Not in any way that makes sense for this universe and is actually kinda insulting.

There’s no other robots in this city. (Like there are in the show) Why is Zane the only one and why is he in high school? Why would Wu ever pick a robot to be a ninja?

In the show the reason is pretty simple: Wu didn’t know at the time.

But everyone knows in the movie. What’s movie Wu’s excuse?

There’s also in terms of personality.

Keep in mind later seasons of the show have the same issues, so I’m talking about what it was at the time of the movie.

Zane’s whole robot identity is crucial to his character. The show introduced him as ‘the strange one’. As he couldn’t understand social cues, took things very seriously, didn’t share the same sense of humor as the rest of the team, had a hard time displaying his emotions, and bonded with things the others didn’t and excelled at certain areas like cooking.

He’s a character that connected to a lot of neurodivergent people in the audience who could relate to him. No he’s not intentional autistic rep, but one that definitely mattered to the people that headcannoned him as such.

(Also helps that they introduce other robot characters later that clearly don’t have the same characteristics he does. So really it depends on what you see.)

So the reveal that he was a robot was such a huge deal to not just the plot but to him as he finally got a concrete definition of what he is and who he is. And the show NEVER decides to say “You know, it would be so much better if you were a human!”

“Why can’t you just be normal?!”

That’s part of why I personally can’t stand fics that make Zane human. It just doesn’t feel right to me and misses the point of the character.

While I absolutely did not expect the movie to cover his… really heavy backstory with his inventor/father and how he outlived him, then got his memory and sense of identity wiped by him moments before death, which was meant to be an act of sympathy but would actually harm Zane’s mentality for the entire show…

The movie didn’t need to adapt that. For all we know, movie Zane could have a very happy backstory. And that would be fine. All I wanted was for the identity-seeking aspect of Zane’s character to matter in some way.

It didn’t.

The jokes they use for Zane in this movie are that of “Haha, he’s a robot. Isn’t it so funny that he doesn’t understand humanity very well?”

You know, something that in one episode of the show was portrayed as a BAD THING for people to think that of him! And that those people needed to learn to respect him for who he is!

And that’s the ONLY thing they do with him. Just robot jokes. Very stereotypical robot jokes.

Again, later seasons of the show are guilty of this too. So I will not act like the show is perfect.

For the reasons I listed, these are actually far more offensive and harmful than you think. Especially fans of the show watching the movie. Him being the only robot in this movie world makes me think even more that this actually is autistic coding… and that makes it so much worse.

Zane being a robot being equal to autism is its own discussion. And has its own problems on paper alone. Whether or not this is your headcanon of him, and whether or not you think this is good representation either way is up to your feelings and experiences. (Personally I think it’s better than some live action shows attempting this)

The others don’t even seem to trust or want to be around him that much. The others seem annoyed by him half the time. Like they’re only tolerating him because he’s on their team. Yeah they don’t say that but simple looks and gestures are enough to get that impression. And not once does anyone ever express Zane’s value in their team. That’s the ONE thing that would’ve had me forgive this all.

But there’s my rant. The others?

Jay is mostly fine. I think this personality for the movie is a neat AU concept. Yes show Jay is openly terrified of things and awkward, but if there’s something he wasn’t was SHY.

Movie Jay is a shy and nervous wreck. And you know what? For a high school AU, I think it works. It doesn’t erase Jay’s essence entirely. They at the very least kept the detail of his character that he’s a fast learner.

I appreciate that.

Cole is actually a REALLY interesting concept to me with the AU idea they gave.

On the surface it’s just ‘He’s a DJ and willingly old school’

But if you see the show, this is actually an ODD approach. Because show Cole has a very complicated relationship with music.

In the show, Cole’s parents thrived in singing and dancing. His father specifically was a performer that won several awards with his band ‘The Royal Blacksmiths’. After Cole’s mother passed away, his father proceeded to push his ideals and his passions onto his kid and pressuring him to become another version of him. It got stressful enough that Cole ran away from home and resented music, something that used to be a bond of family for them, and that’s where Wu found him and made him a ninja.

Throughout the show, Cole would open up to music again more, but it’s pretty gradual and a very subtle bit of character development for him throughout the show. He doesn’t need to say “I hate making music” to get the point across. He only starts the music route again whenever it has something to do with making a family member, blood or not, happy.

So movie Cole is interesting to me for that reason. Because at the start, he basically IS a mini Lou. His whole thing is music and it’s heavily reflected on his personality.

To the point where his element in the movie isn’t even animated or portrayed as earth like it’s supposed to, instead it’s… sound waves?

Weird choice. Interesting one though cause maybe that’s just how movie Cole functions.

So it’s “Oh, what if Cole DID follow in his fathers footsteps and DID want to become a musician?”

Very interesting approach for a completely different approach of character development.

But the problem? Just like the others, not utilized.

But I do think this was an interesting AU idea. Is it accurate to the show version of the character? No. But that’s kind of the point I think.

Then there’s the RGB siblings. This is where it gets kinda weird for me.

Thanks to the movie, a lot of my friends mistook Kai and Nya for being twins.

They are not twins in the show. Kai is older.

I don’t think that dents their characters too much in the movie so long as the same points were across. They’re the blood related brother and sister who raised themselves when their parents abandoned them, and climbed out of the ashes to protect each other, and found a new expansion on their family that didn’t have to be blood related to count.

These two, in different ways, are the support of the team and especially Lloyd. They’re usually the lancer characters that Lloyd goes to when he can.

I still say that about Nya even though originally, she was NOT a ninja, but rather was a Samurai with a mech of her own invention that acted as a Tuxedo Mask for the ninja. She didn’t become the water ninja until Season 5.

Which… I know the movie takes heavy inspiration from the first two seasons, the beginning, so for those who haven’t seen the show watching the movie… yikes I feel bad about the lack of a spoiler warning. Same goes for Zane being a robot.

But I think that’s also a factor into Kai, at the former half of this show, (again I’m talking pre-movie with this). He was the first character we were introduced to and we’re following in the show before Lloyd ever showed up. So naturally he’d be the one with the most attention to supporting the Green Ninja. Something that was very vital character development for him individually as well.

He’s the old school one. He’s the cool one. He’s the one who looks out for you even if you don’t want them to. He’s the one that will jump to anything without thinking. He’s also the one with the most value in tradition out of the ninja, as a blacksmith instead of a techie and as a traditional sword fighter rather than a fancy complicated weapon. He doesn’t get involved in tech willingly till he learns Twitter is a thing.

And in the movie, I think they took this characterization and said “Eh, give it to the girl instead.”

So most of show Kai’s character traits are now movie Nya’s. She’s the cool one with the most passion for traditional stories, she’s the one with arguably the most talks with Lloyd to calm him, and she’s pretty loud and brash in personality.

Not saying show Nya is not those things, she is. But the difference in the show was that Nya was HUGE on independence and doing her own thing. Being the only woman and a younger sibling in the main cast is actually a big deal to her. Not wanting to have her destiny be decided by the world or her brother as a damsel in distress or a sacrifice, she took to tech to invent her own ways of helping. Her own character.

Until destiny told her “Actually no, you can’t be the person you want to be. You have to stick to tradition that your mother had and be the water ninja.”

That’s… honestly a very brutally honest message that not a lot of people I see give credit for. Cause yes, expressing yourself and being your own person and being able to make your own fate is amazing… but it’s not always possible.

Sometimes you can’t be the person you want. Sometimes the world just will not let you. That doesn’t mean your identity is worthless, though. If you go with the flow, you can actually find that fate has plans for you that might not suck after all.

Basically a ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’ messaging there.

It’s part of why Nya’s whole thing throughout the show is her starting as a damsel trying to reinvent herself and her stereotype, and ending as a willing sacrifice and death of her whole identity that she doesn’t regret because she’s embraced the flow of life and purpose. Even if she forgets herself in the realm of spirituality, her loves one’s never will.

…Until Crystalized undid ALL of that. BUT LETS NOT.

Movie Nya just really isn’t any of that. She’s basically just her brother.

Which… I’m actually fine with. The show has some bumps in the road in execution of her story anyway. And they want the only female of this team to not be a background character cause that’s look bad. I totally understand that. And her being a sibling to Kai makes me forgive it a whole lot more cause it does make sense.

But again, we don’t know what their lives are like or if they have similar backstories to theirs in the show at all.

But where does that leave Kai?

Well his whole character in the movie seems to basically be “I’m the loud one and a complete klutz and meathead.”

Basically TD Tyler.

It’s a personality in the movie that bled in the show post movie. While I personally think it was not THAT bad in the show, Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitsu made me go “Okay. I understand now.”

As for movie Kai, that’s really about it.

It really was an early indicator of just giving Kai’s character traits to other characters. Before the show was visibly doing it.

Cause movie Lloyd is also basically just Kai but with a different backstory and context to situation. But honestly, I DO see what they were going for here.

As the ONLY ninja to get ANY focus, this version of Lloyd is well explained on what his life is.

In the show, he’s an abandoned child in an abusive boarding school who heavily idolizes his father, Lord Garmadon, and runs away to become a super villain. Only for Destiny to tell him not to, and we see his true colors and that he just wanted his family together and to love him. Something that was… hard. Considering who Garmadon is.

That is actually carried into the movie. Just cut out him running away. Here’s the difference.

Show Lloyd loves his dad and refuses to hurt him until he has to. While he is the Green Ninja, he didn’t resent himself being Garmadon’s son. What he resented was the destiny that took them apart.

Movie Lloyd HATES his dad for abandoning him, terrorizing the city, making said city cancel him for EXISTING, and he wants every excuse to shut this man out of his life forever.

That does make sense. And to the movie’s credit, the movie logic DOES work to make this version of Lloyd make sense.

It makes the movie pretty mean spirited and kinda unpleasant at times. But it works for the story.

I described Lloyd as ‘The Emo Child’. In the show. But that’s two words.

Emo. CHILD.

He’s still a kid. He’s still the youngest. He still has his own child-like wonder of the world and the aspirations that of a child would.

Yeah he’s a lot of angst. But he’s also a sweet kid who deserves hugs.

That’s not very apparent in movie Lloyd. Not that it needs to fit movie context.

But because we never see how the ninja in the movie got together, we have no idea why Lloyd even accepted being the Green Ninja in the first place. He even says in the movie that he’d give it up if it meant he didn’t have to be Garmadon’s son.

Movie Lloyd is the only ninja in this movie with an actual character arc. He resents his dad, tries to be rid of him, only to get consequences for it, goes on a quest to fix his mistake, bonds with his dad to learn he’s… sympathetic? I guess?? And in the end forgives his dad and chooses to let him in his life again.

Simple. Fine. It works on Lloyds end just fine. And I have to give credit for the movie making Lloyd resenting Garmadon more logical than Crystalized ever did.

It’s Garmadon’s end that just makes the whole thing a bad message in the end of ‘forgive your abusers.’

Yes he’s funny. That doesn’t undo his actions.

No it’s not undone in the show either, but at least you can buy the forgiveness there because every character knew that he had no choice.

In the show, Garmadon is the Oni Child of the FSM. Thus all it took was for another Oni creature, the Great Devourer, to trigger his blood and FORCE him into the evil role without his consent. It forced him to do nasty things to his loved ones and the land his dad created, and by the time he became his evil form, he was forcefully stripped away from all of his loved ones and a chance at normal life. So the only way he could ever get that back was to turn the world into his own image, thus having the world become him too. A monster.

The show made it abundantly clear that most of Garmadon’s evil deeds are either out of ambition for what he deems as helping the family, or not his fault at all due to snake venom influence.

I THINK the movie also has this because they do address him getting bit and becoming the creature he appears as in both versions.

Better than nothing I guess.

But then you get his ‘sympathetic backstory’ which is pretty much just a love story between him and Koko-

Yeah Lloyds moms name is actually different in both versions. And in role.

Misako abandoned her child to try and solve the destiny crisis, then returned to his life to help her kid out.

Koko remained a mother to her kid and supported him even when everyone hated him.

These are very different characters basically, and which one you prefer is up to you. Personally… I actually prefer the movie. I do think the mom was the one character that the movie actually improved upon. Especially with a very interesting story for her.

In the show, Misako is a researcher and just the fair maiden figure that Wu and Garmadon fell in love with. To which she chose Garmadon because of Wu’s letter that Garmadon forged his name on… it’s complicated.

In the movie, she was actually a fighter as well and took a part of the wars Garmadon was in. She enjoyed the thrill of the fight and fell in love with her opponent in a pretty cute montage.

But then they had a baby and her reality changed, realizing she could not raise her child on the battlefield. And when Garmadon refused to change his mind, she took Lloyd and left him behind. So she could be a mother.

Explains her actions in the movie all throughout very well and I never got lost when it came to her. She’s probably the one character in the movie I felt the most sorry for. She’s such a sweet parent and her interactions with Lloyd are probably the best parts of the movie. I wanna hug her.

But that’s all that’s shown of Garmadon. Apparently Garmadon was oppressed, but that’s told at the end and not shown or been significant at all.

They don’t hate you cause you look funky. They hate you cause YOU TERRORIZE THEIR CITY ON A DAILY BASIS AND SHOOT PEOPLE OUT OF A VOLCANO

Yeah show Garmadon did similar stuff, but again, WASNT HIS CHOICE.

Here, it’s absolutely his choice cause nothing indicated otherwise.

Garmadon doesn’t even PROCESS his kids existence or his own negligence three quarters of the time. And you expect me to buy a redemption from him?

You know, I’d be fine with it if he was just a one dimensional villain and the story of the movie was about Lloyd putting his energy away from a family that doesn’t care about him and more towards a surrogate one he has.

But no. You gotta have Lloyd forgive Garmadon and have Garmadon redeemed.

Cause that’s what the show did.

Even though this is supposed to be an AU not connected to the show so we can do whatever we want.

The most they do for Garmadon’s redemption is force him to be the mentor after Wu got yeeted off a bridge by a butterfly, have him go “Oh yeah, I DID shoot people out of a volcano!”, teach his son how to catch, and tell his son his backstory.

(Speaking if, Wu to me is basically the same. Just different voice actor delivery. I got nothing to say on him)

And then if that IS redemption, then he failed it. Because he offers Lloyd to be his general when they take over the city again, showing he’s learned nothing. Then when Lloyd says no, he steals their magic weapons and ditches them in a temple leaving them to DIE. Then he goes to terrorize the city again.

What redemption. /s

Again, this was all HIS choice. If it was not and if it was snake venom, they couldn’t at least give a visual cue or address it?

And now LLOYD has to apologize?

NO. LLOYD WAS RIGHT. THERES ABSOLUTELY NO REASON WHY HE SHOULD LET HIS DAD INTO HIS LIFE. THE DAD HIMSELF PROVED THAT.

It just paints an unintentional bad message of ‘you have to forgive your abusers’

I’m sorry but Lloyd doesn’t owe this Garmadon anything.

I do like Lloyd’s VA delivery though, and the speech about green being the color of life. I actually like the idea of Lloyds power being his heart. Yeah it’s not flashy powers like in the show, but for an AU, it’s a really cool idea and I wish they used it more.

I have mixed feelings on the celebrity casting. Did I expect the original voice actors? No. But this casting wasn’t awful.

Garmadon’s VA is amazing in this movie. Jackie Chan as Wu is very subjective I feel, love it or hate it. Nya and Jay’s were really good too. I think the only one that didn’t work for me was Kai’s VA. Just… why does this teenager sound like a 50 year old man??

But honestly, I think the thing that got to me the most about the movie was something I praised about the show not too long ago.

The bond between the ninja.

I talked about how the show is a master class at character dynamics. There is almost no point where the characters are just standing there in one big clunk. Someone is saying something, someone is making a comment, someone is doing something, and it’s usually there for others to see and react to. It’s a very small thing, but it keeps the scenes alive and fresh the whole time and helps the audience be sold on the characters bond.

They don’t wait for the scenes of “Okay it’s time for characters to interact”. They just do it all the time.

And guess what the movie did? They’re just there in one big chunk all the time. With “okay it’s time for characters to interact” bits.

It’s one thing to not explore the other ninja at all. It’s another to ignore their bond.

In the show, they’re a found family. They all had rough upbringings in life and find a new sense of purpose in each other.

That’s NEVER emphasized in the movie except for one speech at the end Lloyd makes. Mostly cause we don’t know the other ninjas lives, and we don’t know how they even got together. Cause as I said, the movie starts at the middle, and awkwardly cuts after Garmadon is forgiven to be the end. We don’t know what it is about THIS ninja team that we should care about. It’s not shown.

All were shown is them being a team by circumstance only. Then Lloyd pulls out the cat laser and the cat nearly kills them. Then they hate Lloyd for it and spend the rest of the movie making fun of Lloyd.

Which yeah they make fun of each other in the show too, but where it ended in the show was playful teasing in the middle of moments that showed they cared about each other. And when one bond between two or more of them was broken, you felt it.

Here? I don’t know that and there isn’t anything besides the high school montage to show they cared. Just some comments about “Oh it’s okay Lloyd, it’s just awkward that your dad is a terrorist”. And then they make fun of Lloyds expense.

It’s mean spirited. It makes me think they don’t like each other. And it’s not like they ever apologize for it. They’re just teammates because Wu said so. They’re just tolerating Lloyd cause Wu said so.

Honestly the bloopers for this movie show more personality and more of this bond than the entire movie does.

…OOF that took awhile. I don’t even know why I did this, I just didn’t feel like sleeping. Uh… you read this, congrats. Idk why you did.

[hamletshoeratio]

you say i can like a characters and acknowledge their flaws. Okey, did you acknowledge Kate and anthonies flaws???

What's y'all's obsession with Kate and Anthony? Genuinely asking here because some of the anons I've gotten have been saying absolutely vile things about Kate and Simone Ashley, which I refuse to post or give the time of day.

But anyways, I have been critical of Anthony before, particularly of how he handled the "love triangle" in season 2. I also hated his treatment of Sienna in season 1. I can acknowledge that his and Sienna's relationship was an important arc for his character, how ever much I hated his treatment of her. She deserved better. Additionally, a certain section of the fandom has to check their misogyny because the language used to talk about her is absolutely vile - and beyond hypocritical when compared to how the same people talk about Anthony.

Kate was mishandled by the writers. Full stop. The changes from the book were most detrimental to her and Edwina. I think Simone did amazing with what she was given, but they took out so much of Kate's development from the book. Most of my gripes with show!Kate are just frustration with writing decisions.

A lot of the writing decisions in general are just tone deaf. There's been a lot of rightful criticism on how the show has handled its bipoc representation. How Ruby Barker was treated in real life by netflix and the producers was disgusting. The way they've treated both her and her character has been vile. I hope to god her story in the show does not end the way it did in the books because that would be beyond horrific. If you're going to tell stories involving mental health issues, do so respectfully and responsibly. Otherwise, don't do it at all, because you're just doing more harm than good. Additionally, we've only had two minor queer characters for a show that prides itself on its representation. And those characters only appear in season 1. I'm not counting Brimsley because he only got proper characterization and arc in QC, and we have literally no clue where Reynolds is in the present timeline. And, while I enjoyed QC on the whole, the romanticization of Queen Victoria's birth as some sort of win for feminism took me out of the fantasy every single time. I'm not expecting the show to be historically accurate at all, the costuming confirmed to me that it wasn't trying to be back in season 1 and thats ok because its fantasy, but my god the way they include elements of real life history is beyond tone deaf.

Penelope herself was also mishandled by the writers. By making lady whistledown a far more active force in the show, they did not take into consideration what that would mean for her as a character. In the books, the Bridgertons react to the LW reveal like "oh OK, ride on Pen!" because LW hasn't been as destructive a force as she's been in the show. In the show, it makes no sense for them to react like that given what's been written about them and the impact that its had. LW, in the books, was far less harmful. By giving it a more active role in the story, they've unwittingly made her an antagonist because of the harm she's caused. Harm, I may add, that she's been mostly apathetic to. Show!Penelope needs a redemption arc, but she's probably not going to get one.

[ladysternchen]

The Self-Destruction of Elu Thingol

I'm not going to do anything else this meta week but write about my fave, sorry. (Like really sorry, I'm always scared I'm boring everyone to death with always talking about the same things).

But today's a short and very sketchy one, but I feel I need to say it anyway. Even if it is kind of apparent and nothing new.

I HATE how Tolkien left Elu Thingol alive after the wolf-hunt. Like WHY? I mean, the Tale of Beren and Lúthien has a few issues (first and foremost, it totally contradicts the Laws and Customs. Beren and Lúthien would only have needed to fuck in the woods and they'd have been wed nice and proper, with nothing anyone could have done about it. The whole Silmaril-as-brideprice-idiocy need never have happened. But then, we wouldn't have had a story), but this is what so bothers me. Like, this is Tolkien being cruel. but he is that to most of his Silm-characters, so I can't really complain. But... BUT! 😩

Like why let Beren give his life to save an elf, only to torture that elf? Like yeah, I know about Lúthien's famous 'coming back from the dead', but really? Why couldn't Elu die instead of Beren, pay his dept, and later be re-embodied in Valinor? And Beren could have lived out his life with Lúthien just as unbothered by what's going on around them, and if that accursed choice of the Half-even REALLY needed to be, then Lúthien could still have begged to be allowed to follow her husband at the end of his natural life.

Why why why why? Only so that Elu can rue his mistakes, and learn from them, only to lose another child and then die the most undignified death ever.

But I digress a little.

Still I feel that it is fair to say that Elu was never right again after Lúthien's death. He fell into deep depression when she and Beren died, yes, but the real, true blow came when she came back to life mortal. She 'healed' him, and yet took away all hope.

And no, neither he nor Melian were being over-dramatic. Child-loss -even if the 'child' is already grown up- is one of the most profound pains one can experience, not only to humans. Elves should per default not experience that. They do not leave Arda, so even while there is profound grief over being parted from a beloved person, that person is still there somewhere, and there is a very good chance that after some time, they will be reunited.

Can you imagine what it must feel like for such a being to lose a child like Elu and Melian lost Lúthien? Their ONLY child? I don't think that either of them was ever ok again after that.

And yet Elu did something rather peculiar, when presented with a half-starved mortal boy whose mother is a cousin of Beren's- and took that boy in. A noble act, maybe, one to show how much he is repenting of his actions against Beren, but also an act of deliberate self-harm (no, I have no textual proof for this. Yes, I'm still adamant that this is what it is). Because he did not only care for Túrin- he loved him as his son, a boy who must die the same death Lúthien died. I think this is also why Melian never really got involved with Túrin apart from protecting him, and seeing to it that he would be well tutored.

Elu, however, let himself love a doomed child again, and do everything right he did wrong the first time, and still be hurt in the worst possible way- not only by Túrin's death but by Túrin leaving Doriath in scorn, and accepting neither pardon nor apology.

(And yes, I do have this wild theory still that Elu's death was actually suicide. I mean, insulting armed Dwarves is very stupid. But then finding nothing to defend oneself in a SMITHY is... illogical. I still think he wanted to be killed, so he would not have to witness his daughter's death a second time. And when the chance came, he took it gladly. Yes yes, I know there is zero evidence for that and no-one will agree with me there. Be it.)

[toyhousedramas]

What’ a proshipper? Is it bad? Why is it hated? I think I might be one because I have a lot of ‘toxic’ and ‘bad’ ships to help deal with trauma of mine or to represent how not… Black and white / ‘perfect’ the world really is in world building projects but I don’t want to be told to kms when I’m already dealing with extreme mental health issues lol :’)

Because a lot of toyhouse users have ‘proshippers kys’ on their dnis lol

/genq

The simplest definition of a proshipper is:

Someone who, regardless of their personal preferences, believes in letting people engage with fictional content without harassment, censorship, or moral policing.

Examples of a proship mindset:

"I dislike noncon in fiction, so I don’t consume it. If I need to, I block creators who make that content and move on."

"Abuse in fiction is triggering for me, so I curate my own experience by avoiding it."

"Age gaps in fiction make me uncomfortable, so I block tags or users that engage with it."

On the other hand, an anti-shipper believes that a person’s taste in fiction directly reflects their morality, and that "problematic" content should be removed; and its creators should be shamed, harassed, or driven out of online spaces.

Examples of an anti-ship mindset:

"If you write noncon in fiction, you don’t care about real-life victims."

"If you depict abuse in fiction, you’re probably an abuser."

"If you ship age-gap relationships in fiction, you must be a real-life predator."

Other things to consider:

Psychology and therapy recognize that fiction is separate from reality. Engaging with dark or taboo themes in fiction does not mean someone condones them in real life.

Many proshippers, including survivors of abuse, use fiction as a way to process trauma. However, no one is obligated to disclose personal reasons for consuming or creating certain content.

Some people simply enjoy exploring themes in fiction that are unacceptable in reality. That distinction matters.

The anti-shipper mindset has led to real harm, such as an animator who was relentlessly harassed for their fictional content until they lost their livelihood, healthcare access, and ultimately were forced onto hospice care.

At the end of the day, I personally believe art and fandom should be about self-expression, not moral policing. If you’d like to read more about this, I’d recommend checking out “It Makes Me, a Minor, Uncomfortable”: Media and Morality in Anti-Shippers’ Policing of Online Fandom by Aantal Woorden.

You may scroll past the non-english text (The author is not USAmerican) to reach the paper proper, which is presented in English.

DISCLAIMER: I have posted this as a good faith explanation, I will not allow this to devolve into discourse from either side regardless of which side I personally find more distasteful, I am happy to answer questions like this, I do not owe anyone 'discourse', asks sent in about this topic from either side will be posted only if I believe they add educational value or if I find them funny enough to shit on when I reply to them. I acknowledge my biases in advance and so should anyone in the inbox.

I am actually a poor example of a proshipper, as I run this blog and can be catty and mean in the persona I use to run it; most Proshippers are not like me, they are against all form of harassment or dramatics around people's personal actions as long as those actions are not harming other real individuals, most try to maintain a sympathetic approach to their interactions with others. I am, genuinely, old, crotchety, bitey, and many other proshippers would look on my behavior as inappropriate.

[crosbyce]

So, since I am mostly responsible for this, I feel obligated to respond (and maybe rant), so things are cleared up. So here's a response from me to the anonymous asker of @confession-of-the-heart

Buckle on, this will be a long post:

I've been a Kairi fan since KH1 came out. In fact, she's the sole reason I went through 20+ years of KH chaos. She had an aura unlike any other KH characters. And although I might hate KH with passion and sheer anger, I will continue to endorses any Kairi-related content (as long as they respect her)

That's where the problem comes. Her character is written so poorly ever since KH2 ended. In KH1, the character story made sense since the main theme reflected a classic Disney formula (Prince saves princess). In that game, Kairi had a great personality, gave reasons for both Sora and Riku to care for her, and had her shining moment where she brings Sora back.

In KH2, Kairi showed more initiative to find Sora and she even held the Keyblade to fight along with her friends. In fact, I consider KH2 Kairi to be the best. With Manga adaptation, it was a perfect Kairi that her fans asked for. Then again, KH2 also had problems. It's just that Nomura is a dumb shit and can't write female characters properly.

Well, let me rephrase, he cannot write KAIRI PROPERLY.

All other female KH characters had a great character writing. But Kairi? She had almost no role in DDD. Then more years pass by until KH3 comes out. She might have gotten a new clothes and her keyblade. But guess what? She was kidnapped and killed off without a proper fight. Her downfall was so huge that KH3 might as well as be the worst KH game of all time. It was clear Nomura's hatred and negligence against Kairi was shown in full scale in KH3.

Here's one thing people need to understand. Kairi's fighting segment in Re:Mind is no build-up. It's simply a damage control to fight off fire from Kairi fan backlash. As soon as her moment was done, she had no role again in the rest of the DLC.

Finally, in MoM, her fight against memory Xehanort was written so sloppy. And them she got shafted AGAIN by Riku and poor story writing.

The reality is that Nomura clearly hates Kairi and whatever that slop does to her character arc is simply a damage control. But honestly, at this point, he just wants to show off how he's done with Kairi's development. I can guarantee Kairi will have no development again in KH4. She'll be thrown off to cutscenes or suffer a worst fate such as becoming evil or KH3 treatment all over again.

Now I can hear you saying, "You're just hating, you don't know KH4 plots, stop saying stupid stuff". But HEAR. ME. OUT. The reason I rant is because history repeats itself and Kairi's demise has indeed been repeated. My claims are based on "pattern recognition". It means that certain events are aligned perfectly and shown clearly, it forms patterns of what could and would eventually happen. From my experience of KH3 and MoM, not to mention Nomura's incompetence, it's safe to assume Kairi will be mistreated again in KH4. If you count all those factors in, the assumption is no longer an outrageous baffling. It's a proven fact.

I also had people saying that I make premature and immature assumptions. To that, I'll say this. There's an old saying "don't judge books by their covers". But that's easier said than done in real life. Many media and entertainment are judged by their frontal presentations. That's same for Kairi. So far, her downfall heavily outweighed her positive outcomes. And it's been 20+ years since she came out in KH1. While EVERY other character in KH had their characters developed well, Kairi was maliciously abused again and again. If Nomura wanted to show her development and her triumph, it's too late now. It should have been shown off in KH3. Why build her hype in KH2 just to kill it off in KH3 and MoM? And since KH4 won't be released any time soon, Kairi fans are right to give their hopes up. There's nothing right done to Kairi since KH2 ended. If Nomura wanted to show Kairi's growth, it should have been highlighted explicitly with her actually defeating big villains and merging out victorious. Again, PRESENTATION MATTERS. Kairi fans, including me, are starving and waiting to see her development and victory. But we haven't seen it yet. I doubt we ever will.

Don't get me wrong. I've been positive and hopeful as a Kairi fan. I've been let down constantly. I've grown up. I'm done with toxic positivity. Now I'm going with systematical and cynical negativity. I'll keep bashing Kingdom Hearts and Nomura for trashing Kairi for 20+ years since I KNOW she will never be as important as she was back in KH1 and KH2.

And for the last point, I'll say this and I'm not sorry at all. I should be more harsh toward Nomura and its KH Fandom minions. I should be throwing slursand calling them out for spreading malicious ideology. But that's for another time. I'm filled with nothing but apathy. I lost hope as a Kairi fan. And if Kairi has any glimpse of chance for redemption and development, I will doubt it. It's a con-man bait switch to pull Kairi fans it just to let them down. I stand by my points and I will be proven right when KH4 comes out.

Thanks for reading my response/rant.

[blossomajesty-archive]

What to do what to do

Tldr; before I become consumed by the Monhun brainworms again come Wilds I want to move operations to a proper sideblog because:

1) tumblr never implemented account switching and it’s mad annoying to log in and out

2) I'm not allowed to make my real account an admin of this blog and operate that way bc this is a “main” blog. Lame.

Otherwise, just tossing up the question of if I should delete this blog (bc I dislike having an unused account) or keep it up as some sort of archive, since I know people hate when somewhat popular blogs go deactivated. Original post got long so under the cut it goes;

It's been awhile as you can see, but tbh I haven't been "present" much on social media in general. I closed out my last semester of college (yay) so it's been rough for the better part of the past year as I went through the torture gauntlet that is exams and graduation, and another internship. Anyhow this blog is 5 years old woagh, but I haven't actually posted anything related to the story or characters introduced here in like, 3 years.

For this blog in particular, a decently-sized conundrum is that it's not a true sideblog but a separate account, and since Tunglr never made it easy to switch between accounts, its really annoying to log in and out so much (the rest of my blogs are attached to my main account now). Aside that, i've had enough of Wilds' marketing (i'm already sold and don't need to see more tbh) so I haven't been engaging a ton with monhun news and posts recently. In the meantime I was thinking of just making a MH sideblog of the same name for its original purpose of a place to spill my dumb thoughts/screenshots/ocs/whatever (one that's not so out of reach).

The question is what to do with this one; I tend to keep as few accounts as possible so I have no issue deleting it, but i'm also not normal when it comes to art and sure some would be opposed to this blog vanishing. I could compromise and make this one one of those "-archive" blogs for now if that's the case? (For more clarity I never abandon my fanfic stories/ocs if you're thinking you'll never see Surah and the like again. I tend to rotate between a couple casts of characters as my vidyagame interest shifts, bc making fanart and stories for the same series forever is a fast track to boredom and burnout. That also means No, you still can’t repost the art here or use the characters, those are still mine).

One last thing I guess is that the old "ask-a-monster" blog community/phenomenon actually went extinct a long time ago, this blog was set up the way it is for nostalgia mostly. I was planning on making note of all my unanswered asks here for prompts/inspo, but I don't see myself leaning as heavily into in-character asks ever again (with MH characters and anyone else).. It's been fun for character-writing purposes but as the fate of all the ask-blogs tells, building around it is a lot of work and always tends to fall off after a couple years. Heck, it wasn't even supposed to have so many ask posts in the first place (but don't get me wrong, it was still fun and I learned quite a bit). I’ll probably get around to posting the actual writing I’ve done that fills in some of the story gaps, but elsewhere (or in whatever new side location) as I’d rather put the blog to rest as-is than try to revive/reboot it when I'm not too keen on jumping back and forth.

No idea how many people are actually gonna read all this so I'll add this old Surah wip as compensation