#i'm fascinated with the contrast

[lucyvsky]

someone great lcd soundsystem is really the song of all time ... very few other songs have the ability to make me sob and dance and stare at the wall at the same time

[mayasaura]

Kiriona said that if she killed Alecto, she would be John's cavalier. That's so interesting to me, because it's the one relationship we've never seen in a necrocav pairing. We've had siblings, lovers, cousins, best friends, coworkers, uncles, servants, and whatever the fuck Babs and Ianthe had going on, but never a parent and child.

Unless.

We still don't know what Samael and Anastasia's relationship was, but we do know now that Anastasia was already a mother before the ascension. Pyrrha painted a nursery for her.

It would be very interesting if Samael had been Anastasia's son.

[twothpaste]

I’d love to see you elaborate on how you personally interpret Ness and Paula’s dynamic/friendship! How you write them together is super refreshing.

Aw, thank ya!! I just love the thought of them being very different sorts of people, who get along brilliantly in spite of it. Or perhaps because of it, in a "complimenting each other's strengths" kinda way (y'know, like how they play during combat in the game). When I started fleshing out personalities for them, I really wanted them to bounce off each other first and foremost. Ness is sappy, Paula's snarky. Ness has peanut butter for brains, Paula's an academic genius. Ness is really emotionally grounded, Paula's kind of a volatile wreck. It makes for a lot of fun little points of contrast, especially in dialogue. The big thing they do have in common is that they're both awfully selfless, and awfully insecure deep down. So their different perspectives end up supporting & uplifting each other, if that makes sense… Ness notices stuff Paula takes for granted, like how good she is with kids, and how carefully she looks out for others. Paula notices when Ness is pushing himself too hard, and might be the only person who can convince him to cut himself some slack.

Before they met, I imagine they were both pretty lonely in their own ways. Ness was isolated by childhood bullying & Porky's fucked up "friendship," Paula by her upstanding hometown reputation & lofty expectations. When they're together, they can just be themselves. No risk of being judged or chastised or pushed around. Their friendship feels like a fresh start. I like to think it's founded on mutual admiration & respect, and a sort of pact to always be genuine with one another. Ness doesn't gotta pretend to be smarter or cooler than he is, Paula doesn't gotta pretend to be "normal" or put-together, they're just kids bein' kids on their own terms! (Or dorky young adults being dorky young adults, when I write 'em at age 20 🤸‍.) They're good for each other. They make me smile. Besties.

[transingthoseformers]

You know we forget that bayverse Optimus is shorter than say tfp Oppy but also that bayverse Megatron is roughly the same height as if not slightly taller than tfp Megatron

And you cannot convince me that the increased height difference between bayverse Megatron and Optimus was not on purpose

[crystalflygeo]

hello uuuuhhh why do all my 3 husbands make soup as their specialty?? //HIT I love the absolute dichotomy they got going on tho Zhongli's is full of meat (pork/ham) all spices and flavorful, a full filling meal Neuv's is all about the purity and clarity of the broth, just a bit to taste on that plate Baizhu's is actually a dessert (??) it's made of fruits

Zhongli's talks about how the ingredients must be of the highest quality, takes a long time to prepare and he does so to perfection Neuv's talks about how the water used is of the best and purest quality and how it's a complicated dish with many steps he perfects as well Baizhu: this is (somehow) usually bitter as fuck but I put some sugar on it for you bc I like you c:

[hiraganasakura]

Sometimes I remember that Ashfur and Ferncloud are siblings and how different they are in spite of that, and I wonder:

Do you think that Ashfur was ever jealous of Ferncloud?

Think about it. Ferncloud wasn't a warrior for very long before she got to start a family. She got the guy she wanted, literally had two litters of kits in the span between the first and second arcs and even had another an arc later, and happily spent her whole life in the nursery caring for ThunderClan's young

Meanwhile Ashfur spent his entire life and afterlife chasing after Squirrelflight, no matter the fact that she wasn't interested him, no matter the fact that she consistently chose Brambleclaw over him, no matter the fact that she had Brambleclaw's children (including both her adopted and biological litters), no matter the fact that Ashfur literally tries to kill and humiliate her family to force her to be with him and feel pain for rejecting him

Do you ever think Ashfur felt envious bcus his kind and loving sister got to start the family that his obsessive and possessive self tried to get and never could?

[pasdetrois]

now that i've completed monster, it's been interesting revisiting my initial perception of johan as another stavrogin. there are, of course, still the most obvious similarities, such as the otherworldly, vampiric aspects of their character (they evoke dark figures of folklore and myth rather than beings of flesh and blood, primarily appearing in a handful of nightmarish moments), the (anti) christlike entities they are devised as, their nihilistic philosophies (there's even something to be said concerning the warring philosophies shaping the environments they grew up in, interestingly enough on either side of a political experiment), etc. but their differences are made most apparent for me with the presence and absence of devotion, respectively (see: anna/nina's description of johan's final plan: "the perfect suicide. true solitude.. the only expression of love" vs. stavrogin's point blank disavowal of devotion to anything at all in his final letter to dasha)

[msviolacea]

re: the last reblog, I think that's one of the few quibbles I have with the way BG3 is structured - the Underdark should not be an optional area, because meeting Omeluum gives so much more context to everything the Emperor says and does later. If you know Omeluum, you know that it is absolutely 100% possible for mindflayers to break free of the elder brain and go "you know what? I just want to go live a weird little life doing what I want to do and not dominate or enslave or murder anyone." Which makes it much more clear that whoever the Emperor is now is the person he's always been, human or mindflayer or otherwise. Which allows you as a player to make a fully informed choice about whether to side with him or not in the end.

None of the choices you have at the end game are sunshine and rainbows, let's be clear, you're siding with one of two dudes who have ambitions to rule, control, or manipulate a whole shit ton of people whether they want it or not. At least siding with the other one means a) you have the option of just getting rid of both of them altogether and b) Lae'zel still likes you. Which is the most important part, tbh.

[utilitycaster]

With the benefit of a bit of distance I think what most annoyed me about all the to-do about Imogen being angry with Laudna and all the "is (being ruthlessly and brutally murdered solely to send a threatening message and then waking up, noose still around your throat) really worse than being in a fight with your bestie" is that I actually agree that Laudna has been profoundly lonely for decades and Imogen represented an end to that - but I never saw an exploration of the actual implications or anything surrounding that, only a dwelling on a tiny isolated corner of angst.

The fact is that Laudna has lived an immensely lonely life for the past 30-ish years, living in isolated huts and being intermittently driven out. She's aware of it; it shows. Her relationship with Pâté is one she openly states came from being on her own with absolutely no one else to talk to (although more on that in a second). However, it's worth exploring both why, and what less flattering things this says about it.

The why is simple: by being murdered, she was turned into something that is somewhat monstrous. She doesn't age and she looks unsettling and it creeps people out. It's fair to say that the reason for her loneliness can be tracked back to that same "worse thing that ever happened to her", so I think it's also fair to say that yeah, it's still the worst thing that ever happened to her, because it was not only unbelievably traumatic in itself but is also why other, lesser pains have been inflicted on her. And given that she openly says this, I have to imagine that it's influenced her feelings on self-preservation in a way that doesn't necessarily work out well when more lives than her own are at stake.

The less flattering things were actually especially apparent because of Dusk. For all Dusk tried to insinuate their way into the party, and succeeded in at least getting what they wanted - Birdie Calloway - over half the party is suspicious well before the reveal. Imogen, Ashton, and Chetney always take something of a cynical view towards others (although Ashton mostly just ignores Dusk and leaves that to other people, being far too busy with his business in Bassuras.), and Orym has a more healthy guard mentality that still leaves him with some doubts. FCG is, like Ashton, far too busy with their own revelations to care. This leaves Fearne - desperate for crumbs about her long-lost parents, and Dusk's primary mark - and Laudna.

Laudna latches on to Dusk, without much effort from Dusk - she's the one to make most of the initial overtures. Dusk exploits this, heavily, but at the same time barely needs to make an effort. Why would they, when Laudna is so quick to become involved with those who give her the time of day? And it's understandable on Laudna's part, but it's also a pretty significant liability for the party, especially at this still-delicate stage where they're hesitant to step on each other's toes regarding judgment. Perhaps Dusk's betrayal, as well as a potential escalation in Laudna's own thus far fairly minimal efforts to drive out Delilah, will change this, but right now it's a pretty significant concern.

[yogoblog]

renfield: see, i reckon where the little old lady got it wrong is having the animals eat each other AFTER she ate them, instead of before

seward: [scribbling furiously in his Big Boy Brain Theorist Diary]

[skydigiblogs]

also sorry to double post but i'm going to be thinking about this rewatch for a while now lmao

i know there are a lot of resources that talk about the differences between the sub and dub but i'm kind of losing my mind at how much better the build up felt for apocalymon in the sub?

like specifically that's the thing that's been sticking with me among all the other little differences here and there

i don't remember anything in the dub about distortions being a rampant issue, for instance, but they're mentioned frequently around the etemon arc (and actually i have to wonder if the dark network core was intended to be an extension of apocalymon past the wall of fire)

it's explicitly told in the sub that the dark masters even used the distortions to rise to power in the way they did, reformatting the world in the process

and like i know the ruins on file island (which prophesize apocalymon's return) are commented on during that first arc, but also, that's in both sub and dub. the whole distortion thread doesn't make it into the dub at all from my recollection

and then at the end explaining that the fairy time shit (1 mn IRL = 1 day in the digital world) as consequential of apocalymon!!!

i remember when i first watched 02 i was so confused as to how that fairy time 1 mn / 1 day thing was just gone!! that's part of what always bothered me when watching 02, because it felt like such a blatant ignoring of pre-established canon and the explanation in-dub never felt right (idr if they even explained it)

ourgh anyways

sub apocalymon may not be making jokes about their existential crisis of an existence but i still wanna give the damn mon(s?) a pizza

poor thing deserves it

[persistent-wallflower]

@demonrunningwild tagged me to do a favourites moodboard. That was fun, thanks! <3

If you wanna do this, tagging: @msva9 @senjukannon @privateschoolfeline @forxstboyfriend

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[unproduciblesmackdown]

blade gunnblade !!!!!!!!

via eliza simpson:

There are no words for this true warrior. They kill me. MMM: went in for a post show hug. Me:"ow!" Asia: "oh sorry, that's my bullet necklace." 😳........ 😍

[bionicbore]

Y’know I kinda wanna elaborate on the HC I mentioned, where I said that if Donald hadn’t found out what Douglas was doing and intervened, Douglas would’ve eventually cracked and fessed up

Mostly I wanna elaborate that he wouldn’t have fessed up because of ethical guilt (though I do think he may have something somewhere inside him that would give a damn about ethics. He did seem pretty excited to do good things after all) but more because he’s got the emotional strength of a wet tissue and would feel personal guilt after getting so attached

I’m gonna put most of it under a cut ‘cause it turned into a full on Douglas study I guess

Like... obviously I’m prefacing this with it being my own interpretation of the guy, but Douglas was a pretty emotional dude in the show. His entire redemption was rooted in his emotional attachment to his family. His morals never 100% improved, and the growth we did see was almost entirely motivated by “My family won’t like me if I’m a bad guy :(”

And while he’s not a particularly GOOD dad, he is a dad. Literally every kid Douglas gets more than 2 minutes of screen time with, he goes into some kind of Dad Mode

So, the way I see it, I don’t think Douglas would’ve lasted if he got to keep the Rats for longer than he did. It’s never actually said how old the kids were when Donald found out, but they couldn’t have been older than like... 3? Tops? Possibly even younger, technically. If Douglas actually got to watch those kids grow up in whatever messed up environment he had them in to keep them hidden (Which, I’ll be honest- based on comparing the brothers’ lab quality, was probably a worse environment than Donald’s lab) I don’t think he would’ve been able to commit. Not with the original trio, anyway

ALSO. I wanna bring up Donald, ‘cause he’s also a factor in of himself

Yeah, the brothers fight a lot, and did fight a lot. But I think it’s worth remembering that despite that, these two founded a company together. They invented things together. They work together seamlessly when they get in the zone. Douglas, despite all the animosity, was ecstatic at the prospect of getting to work alongside his brother again, and was genuinely sad when Donald didn’t feel the same, but chose not to fight Donald’s decision

Douglas cares what Donald thinks of him, and I bet he cared a lot more before Donald discovered what was happening and made his own judgement call. The two of them had to have been incredibly close, and that probably would’ve weighed on Douglas, too

But Donald found out on his own, and he didn’t waste time. He saw the children, he saw the conditions, the plans, the schematics. There was absolutely no way to rationalize what was happening here, Donald had to get these kids out and away. His little brother was using their assets to make deals with terrorists regarding the creation of bioweapons in the form of children

And Douglas was left ghosted by the most consistent presence in his life for the past 20+ years, locked out of the company he helped build from nothing, and separated from these kids who have also been a consistent presence in his life for entirely different reasons

And Douglas is notorious for deflecting and pushing back when someone else decides that he’s in the wrong. All that potential turmoil means the time between Donald finding out and Douglas “dying” was probably like. Intense. To put it mildly

All this to say: Douglas is still a DICK lmao and the point of this post is NOT to be like “Douglas deserved better” or even “Donald is to blame.” It’s more about how Douglas is a notably emotion-driven character and how it affects his dynamics and actions, both positive and negative

It’s also my favorite kind of angst- where technically, things could have turned out okay, or at least better than they did, if everyone involved hadn’t been such a mess

[raazberry]

i have so many strong feelings abt kaveh i need hyv to release him from their basement already

[soleminisanction]

Well I'm three chapters in and so far Digimon Survive is a fascinating experience. It's like somebody decided to do a literary adaptation of the first Adventure season but reinterpret it as a survival/psychological horror with a vibe halfway between Higurashi and Otherside Picnic.