#i've never had such an entire 180 on opinion from before seeing to after seeing

[seventeenlovesthree]

Digi Dynamic Shipping Game

Send me two names among the following 12 and I’ll write a short analysis post about them:

Taichi Yagami | Yamato Ishida | Sora Takenouchi | Koushirou Izumi | Mimi Tachikawa | Jyou Kidou | Takeru Takaishi | Hikari Yagami | Daisuke Motomiya | Miyako Inoue | Iori Hida | Ken Ichijouji

Whether canon provides input on them or not.

Look, I've made the poll about these ship analysis posts in February 2024. And even though I had already seen The Beginning at this point, I am still entirely grateful that I took that long to get to this analysis, because I wouldn't have been able to take a screenshot like this. This is the first time that, through the course of me writing Digimon relationship meta, we got a significant boost towards a ship from official sources - and, dare I say it, they actually did a good job this time in my opinion?

But let's start at the beginning, shall we: Through the course of 02, Miyako's stance towards Ken changes drastically. At first, we see her gushing and swooning about him being that "smart and attractive" boy that is all over the media, as she is very prone to crushing on various people at the time. Then, upon finding out that Ken is the Digimon Kaiser, her view obviously changes to 180° - she curses him, gets, understandably, very heated up about the whole issue... And even when he tries to redeem himself after everything he has done, she is among those who struggle to accept him the most. She is torn, overthinks the whole situation a lot - but after seeing his actions and through the course of getting more chances to interact with him (and Hikari too), she grows more understanding, accepting. She still struggles to interact, awkwardly trying to engage in conversation, even though she may not feel very capable to do so - but as mentioned, she is actually trying and starts to discover more and more of his good sides.

Ken on the other hand, prior to his redemption arc, didn't really notice Miyako before - and only starts doing so while trying to repent for all his sins. He is often seen taken aback by her brash, loud attitude, unable to really respond to her, but, just like with the rest of the group, he is relieved to see her slowly but steadily accepting him.

As I haven't consistently watched 02 back to back for a while, I may have forgotten one or two scenes between them, but the overall verdict here AND up until Kizuna's events is: They are on good, friendly terms. We always knew more about Miyako's stance towards Ken than about Ken's stance towards Miyako - and yet, a good chunk of people, me included, still found themselves BAFFLED when 02's epilogue told us that these two eventually got married with three kids.

While it didn't feel completely out of place - we did know about Miyako's rollercoaster of feelings and her tendency to crush on people, including Ken, so there was some kind of subtext after all -, for the longest time, it didn't feel like the most plausible outcome after all this time. (Especially because one may argue that 02 used to push different relationships much harder, especially in regards to Ken's focus on Daisuke and Miyako's focus on Hikari. However, you gotta take that with a huge grain of salt, because Jogress compatibility was never meant to be equal to romantic compatibility.)

Digimon always had its fair share of problems with canon romantic relationship portrayal. There are certain ship teases and crushes that never went anywhere, there are official (or semi-official) relationships that didn't appear plausible... And then they decided to do something about Ken and Miyako.

In November 2023, The Beginning aired - and I don't exaggerate when I say that people who did ship Kenyako/Miyaken before absolutely rejoiced. And for absolutely valid reasons! Unlike before, the creators managed to capture the spirit of how 02 handled these two before - and it actually portrayed them in a believable way after all these years, while leaving them and the audience enough room to breathe. As pointed out in the post above (and in this one here), it wasn't exactly subtle, but it was still tastefully done without exactly hitting you on the head. What's the set-up, you may ask?

Through the course of the movie, Miyako is focused on Ken; to get his attention, to respond to what he is saying, to encourage him when he falters - and to actively flirt with him by the end of it. The girl who had such a hard time sorting out her feelings for this guy when they were still children/young teenagers seems to have come to terms with what she wants as an adult - and tries to pursue him now. In the meantime, she still acknowledges that Daisuke is playing a huge part in Ken's life, she even teases them a little about it... And it's all good-hearted, gentle and fun. Ken on the other hand, still seems to be a little oblivious and taken aback - but not exactly opposed to the attention. So the main takeaway here is: We're getting actual justification. We see them slowly but steadily working towards a potentially romantic relationship as they're already adults - and it's beautifully done, hands down.

Whether I think why and how they’d work.

Whether I think they'd work is still an entirely different story. Granted, we saw the course of the series now portraying Miyako as more of a career-oriented person, actively studying abroad and learning about other cultures - so we can be assured she won't JUST end up as a stay-home mom as depicted 24 years ago... And I think that is important because Miyako IS a person who, similarly to Mimi, cannot stay still, she needs to have goals to pursue. We also see that she IS into romance and her trying to get closer to Ken is, as mentioned, wonderfully depicted, because it absolutely fits her outgoing personality... However, it's still difficult to estimate how Ken plays into all this, because, on his behalf, we can only really guess how he feels.

To go into speculation mode again: Miyako and Daisuke actually have a lot of things in common, they're both loud and opinionated, they'll tell you when they don't like something, they're passionate about the things and people they like and may suffer from more or less elaborated inferiority complexes at times - and without trying to undermine Miyako's impact on Ken, you can absolutely see that Ken would have a point in actually liking Miyako back BECAUSE of Daisuke. Because without a doubt, Daisuke, as mentioned, must have had such a great impact on the person Ken grew into and chose to present himself as an adult... Long story short, Ken would not be Ken without Daisuke. And since Daisuke and Miyako have so much in common - you can see Ken has a type. He needs someone who pulls him out of his head, stopping him from overthinking too much. Miyako may be prone to overthinking too, whereas Daisuke just goes straight for what his heart tells him - but The Beginning!Miyako has learned to channel the overwhelmingly loud thoughts in her head. And that is something Ken is obviously VERY impressed and encouraged by. Probably even attracted to.

Again, I still believe the movie brilliantly depicted that dynamic between not only Ken and Miyako but also the role Daisuke plays for both of them, so... Yes, a part of me still thinks they would do brilliantly in a polyamorous relationship and I will stick to that - because these dorks need each other and play off of each other beautifully.

Either way, with or without Daisuke, you see Miyako and Ken being not only soft and supportive, but also both very career-driven as young adults. We have yet to see if Koushirou they manage to find a way to make gate-hopping work again, but I can see them trying to figure their relationship out through the course of the next years, finishing their studies, going on exploration dates, teaching each other languages and talk about coding and psychology and what-not... Ken will still be tied to very tight working schedules and there will most likely be arguments about prioritization - but that's also what Daisuke is there for to mediate between them. Hehe. And through all that, Miyako may eventually want to juggle the whole "career-woman with children" thing if they work out. I can see that for them, they just have to work on their prioritization - as mentioned!

Whether I’d prefer them as platonic or romantic ship.

Personally, I still believe Ken and Miyako should have been very clearly depicted as bisexual, both of them - but I am already glad that we got Daisuke acknowledged so heavily, that is more than I could have hoped for! I must admit that I have never been the biggest fan of Kenyako/Miyaken, simply because a.) I always wanted Daiken to be the first canonically confirmed mlm relationship in Digimon and b.) it always kinda felt a little one-sided on Miyako's behalf to me - but The Beginning really made me like their dynamic and the potential behind them there, so I can appreciate it a lot more by now. Again, my most preferred outcome would be an open poly-relationship with Daisuke, but I can absolutely appreciate the course this ship has taken at this point.

[giantologist]

Relics and Remains

The find of a lifetime!

"Professor Finch? You in there?"

With a snort, Finch jolted from his desk, a sheet of paper stuck to his cheek. He pulled it off with a yawn, setting it down and looking at the clock. Seven in the morning. He'd stayed at his desk all night again, only catching half an hour's sleep. Stretching his back, he grumbled as he walked to the balcony that he'd had installed for precisely this purpose.

He recognised the giant kneeling before him, her face above him dirty and slightly sweaty. "Good morning, Skadi." Finch smiled tiredly at her. She'd shaved her head since he last saw her, but he recognised her tattoos and frankly incredible muscle structure. If he were the kind to be attracted to women, he was certain that she'd catch his eye.

"You are not gonna believe this." Skadi said with a squeak that made Finch feel a mix of anticipation and suspicion.

"Right, so, yeah, after you gave those dwarves a recommendation to hire me as a miner, we've been really seeing progress, I've been expanding their tunnels bigger than they ever dreamed. I'm so great at it too, not to blow my own whistle, but the other day--"

Finch held up a finger. "I've just woken up, I need some coffee, but do continue." He left the doors open as he walked downstairs, hearing Skadi's voice just as easily as before as it thrummed through the walls.

"We were excavating deeper, under Scarfang Pass, and Tarlan told me he'd found a cavern down the way. Naturally, I wanted to take a look, and I spent all day digging a path, found some good ore for the lads, but you will never guess what was in the cavern."

The sunlight in his kitchen was cut off, and he turned to see a large eye at his window, focusing in on him. "Tell me what was in the cavern."

"You might wanna sit down."

"Skadi, please, I am very tired."

She laughed, rumbling his crockery, and he held his coffee tightly. "I've only gone and found a burial chamber for a colossal giant."

Smash.

Finch froze, not caring about the hot coffee wetting his slippers. "You…Are you serious?! If you tell me you're joking--"

"I'm not! I actually think it might be King Bjorn, y'know the legendary one."

"You mean Bjorn Fire-Feared?!" The fabled King had been damaged by the tragic death of his family, and ruled an entire province where fire was banned upon pain of death. It was such an ancient story that it seemed like it should be unbelievable. But never had Finch heard of a complete skeleton that old, as cremation was usually the done thing. "Oh, goodness, oh my, oh, Skadi!" He began to jump around in the puddle of coffee, clapping his hands and flailing them wildly. "Let's go!" He flung open his door and ran outside, only to stop in his tracks when two grubby fingers pinched his dressing gown.

"Hold on there, Prof." She curled her middle finger around his waist and lifted him up to his balcony. "You ain't goin' in the mines in your silkies. Get your boots on and pack a lunch. He's not about to get up and walk off."

As much as Finch wanted to rush, he knew she was right. He'd get his adventuring gear too, as it was better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

oOo

They were close. On their walk, Skadi had been gushing about how much she loved working. He remembered when the dwarves had come to him asking for help getting rid of her from her cave that she had excavated herself. Their 180 in their opinion of her had been down to him, and it seemed that although their warming to her was slow-going, they did in fact enjoy her presence around the mines.

"Finbar is the worst for it though. Every day at lunch he always pretends he's lost his, and yes I don't mind giving humans crumbs, but have you seen how much a dwarf can eat? They're like bottomless pits, I end up with a half empty lunchbox by the time I've finished letting the lads eat what they want. They always joke about me snacking on them, and I've half a mind to if they think about touching my honey cake."

"Remind me not to get between you and your sweet tooth then." Finch replied from her shoulder, glad that she'd found somewhere she fit in.

Speaking of fitting in, the entrance to the mine she led him to was nowhere near big enough for her to stand. Finch was confused until he noticed the grooves in the rock on the edges of the tunnel. It seemed that to get to the main excavation, she crawled along the trenches, any miners and carts passing safely beneath her. As for transport, she slipped him into a pocket on her shoulder, seemingly oriented for just this occasion.

Finch didn't like being underground. A cave, that was fine. A canyon, he could deal with. But a tunnel that sunk into the darkness, unlit and endless, he had to duck into the pocket in order to keep himself calm.

The relief when she finally stood once more made him feel dizzy, but she nudged him onto her shoulder. "Here we go." Her voice echoed for what seemed like years as she used a nearby sconce to light her torch. As it flared into flames, Finch gasped so hard he almost choked.

The steeple of the tallest temple would be dwarfed by the breadth of the skull staring at the pair of them. Despite the intensity of the torchlight, it was difficult to make out even the beginning of the rib bones that xylophoned down toward the rest of the skeleton. It was almost unfathomable in its scale, Finch's jaw slack, his eyes boggling, bereft of speech. He could tell that Skadi was smirking at him, waiting for him to voice his amazement, but he couldn't even move, his body rigid and stunned. Never had he seen a complete skeleton. A tooth, perhaps. A finger bone, maybe. One faceplate buried into a mountainside. But nothing compared to this.

"Should we leave then?"

"Certainly not!" Finch shrieked, his shrill echo sounding like the cave was full of birds. "Oh, to be immortal, to study every inch of this cavern! It would take me centuries!"

"Let's just start with this, eh?" Skadi turned and lifted her torch. The wall above the ancient King's skull sent flickering shadows between the grooves of runes and pictograms, and immediately Finch gave her earring an excited tug forward, making her chuckle as she stepped toward it. "Heh. Don't recognise that dialect."

"It's from the birth of giantish runes! Look, it's even before the letter atte was standardised! Torch left." She did as he asked, illuminating one of the pictures with accompanying runes. "This was meant to be his epitaph. 'Tal vusar kan ur naum'. The Tomb of the Lord of Ruin." He exhaled shakily, his skin rising in gooseflesh. "The carving shows Bjorn Fire-Feared banning the use of fire. Those people there are freezing, those are starving, there's no tools or weapons being made. Torch right."

The next carving made him shudder. "He would send armies of humans and giants to punish anyone continuing to light fires. This says a village was struck by lightning, and he personally flattened it with two steps."

Skadi whistled. "What a shitty guy."

"I don't understand why they went to so much trouble to bury him if he was this abhorrent! Why not simply burn him and celebrate being free?" Finch twirled his moustache in thought. "Skadi, would you mind if I asked you for a favour?"

"As long as you sketch me beside the skull and put it in the book."

"With pleasure!" He smiled. "I need a little more light. Could you set up some braziers, perhaps? Just along the wall, and around his skull?" He pushed his spectacles up his long nose. "I should get these enchanted with dark vision…"

"Sure, Prof. Just a minute." Skadi looked around and reached for a stalagmite, breaking off the point with a tug of her mighty arm. She set Finch on the flat surface so she didn't accidentally tread on him, then her light retreated with her rumbling steps. He could hear her thundering voice calling for various dwarves to help her.

He dangled his legs over the edge of his rocky platform, closing his eyes and taking a breath to steady his heart. "How did you die? Some legends say you went mad and set light to yourself, but that clearly isn't true. Others say you gorged yourself on so many towns that the buildings burst your stomach. I've heard you were murdered by your closest friend. I can't imagine you were close to anyone. Perhaps if you were, you might not have been so cruel."

Skadi's booming presence passed him in the dark, and he envied her low-light vision for a moment, hearing clanks and clangs from all around him. Flint and steel. The roof of the cavern was suddenly lit with the impression of a skull as Skadi lit the first fire inside the King's head since he had died. One by one, slowly but surely, she cast light on the area for him, dusting off her hands once she was finished. Their area of the cave wasn't bright, but after so long in the dark, Finch could see relatively clearly. "There we go. Want me to walk you down?"

"Please." He hopped onto her hand so she could transfer him back to her shoulder, and she began at the start of the wall. As he got out his journal, she kept quiet, knowing he probably wouldn't answer her even if she did speak. He used her ear lobe to steer her almost as an extension of his own body, able to write at his own pace as the history unfurled before him.

Bjorn Fire-Feared used to be called Bjorn Stone-Hand, one of the few remaining colossal giants after the appearance of the other races, when a world of rock and bone became verdant and green. He proclaimed himself King to stop giants and humans from being at war, and it worked for a time, his country prospering so much that it could support two of his kind. His firstborn was praised as a Prince, and the land was happy. Until dissenters used pitch to set his house alight, killing his family. And then the dark times. His spiral into madness, dragging a whole nation into the cold. Almost the entire kingdom dug the grave to his command, many perishing as a result.

"He planned it." Finch said, startling Skadi. He easily kept balanced as she jumped, second nature to him, and she exhaled sharply, her heart audibly fast. "Of course he did, he died here! Nobody could've moved his body, he came here willingly!"

"So how did he die?"

"It doesn't say." Finch tapped his chin with his pencil. "Let's go look at his bones, see if I can find anything."

She nodded and turned away from the wall, approaching the skeleton. Almost vibrating with excitement, Finch stared upward with amazement at the mountainous reach of the King's jawbone, Skadi trailing her hand against it as she ducked through the letterbox shaped slot where his front teeth used to lay, into what was his mouth. "Must've been odd for giants my size back then. Not the biggest fish in the pond."

"Is easily fitting in someone's mouth changing your perspective?" Finch asked, motioning to be set down.

"Yeah, I guess it is." Skadi put Finch on the ground and passed him a torch that was comparatively a splinter. He lit it from the brazier, then began slowly walking from one end of the skull to the other. "He really had bad dental hygiene. Look at the holes there."

Finch paused by one of his bottom molars, humming with thought as he scaled his jawbone so as to better see. "There's a cavity."

"I rest my case." Skadi said with a grin, jamming her torch between two of the teeth and hopping backwards onto them as one might a countertop, sitting comfortably.

Gasping softly, Finch realised the hole was large enough for him to fit into, the edges rounded and smooth, the inside of the tooth hollow. A collection of objects, most rotted away, sat inside the tooth, along with what seemed like a human skeleton. "Wait a second." He flicked through his notes. "That phrase, it was literally 'fang hermit', it wasn't a metaphor. I think this must've been some kind of political prisoner." He scribbled something down. "Let's see… She must have lived here for some time, considering how worn her doorway is. And I think she may have been shackled to the enamel."

Skadi grimaced. "He really must have been bonkers. Imagine living in some geezer's tooth, eugh."

Finch cleared his throat, straightening his glasses. "Does this practice ring any bells to you?"

"Not a tinkle. I guess whatever it was, it was a big guy thing." Skadi hummed. "How did she feed herself?"

Finch stroked his chin. "One would suspect the same way a symbiosis would function..." Something felt odd about this. Not a single tooth he'd found in his life was the same as Bjorn's. He carefully lifted the scrap of fabric upon which the bones lay, moving it away from the pile without jostling the skeleton. He rummaged through the various bits and pieces, most of them being the usual detritus one might expect to see caught between a large giant's teeth; wood and bone and brick. However, buried in the smallest corner he found a metal lockbox, beautifully designed, screwed into the wall of the tooth. Trying not to damage either, he carefully used a nearby piece of metal to pry the box open, the rusted lock breaking with a shriek.

A leather-bound journal looked up at him as if proud to have weathered the wear of time. He was very careful with it regardless, and he stepped out onto the bone that surrounded the tooth house, sitting and tentatively opening the pages.

Skadi watched as he read, hearing his soft gasps and excited titters as he whispered the words to himself. "Well? Good read?"

"I translated the wall wrong. The two giants the land could support weren't he and his wife, it was him and his son. This is his wife."

Wrinkling her nose, Skadi slid from her sitting position and walked over, taking a knee beside Finch. "He imprisoned his wife in his mouth? That's messed up."

"O-Oh…" Finch exhaled when he turned the page. "She was just as disturbed by the fire as he was. She didn't want to lose him too, and after a failed poisoning, she wanted to be vigilant and make sure all of his food was clean." He tapped the page. "The chain was a safety measure. She must have really loved him to give up her life to keep him safe."

"If she did such a good job, what killed them both?"

Finch flipped through the pages. "She died first. There's no record of anything past the destruction of the town that was struck by lightning."

"Yeah, so that means… What does that mean?"

Suddenly alert, Finch leapt to his feet, slowly walking along the bony platform that held the teeth in place. "Let's see… If I could just… Aha!" He reached between two teeth and pulled out the long-rotted husk of a large seed, the size of a grape. "Titanfeller berries."

Skadi almost knocked Finch off his perch when she scrambled backward, and he could hear her nervous pulse through the rock. "Don't you bring that near me!" Finch still hadn't discovered what it was about titanfellers that was toxic to giants but not humans. Still, he was thankful that the seeds weren't viable. The near-extinction of a plant should've been sad to him, but he was happy that they wouldn't be used for nefarious purposes.

"Just don't lick anything, you'll be fine." He twirled his moustache around his index finger. "So… What do we know?" He carefully climbed down to the rocky floor, strolling beneath the jaw and down beside the alien architecture of his spine. Away from the braziers, he couldn't see the ribs that arched above him, but he knew they were there, the whole skeleton mapped in his head. "Did he move here to die after being poisoned?" He mumbled.

"Aren't Kings usually buried with riches?" A male voice said from somewhere in the darkness, startling Finch. "I haven't seen any gold."

Finch lifted his torch, seeing the glittering eyes of a dwarf, sitting on a rock below the root of a rib. "Ah, rather astute, Mr…?"

"Call me Gudrun."

Skadi seemed to have composed herself, and walked over to the pair. "I've told you about Gudrun, haven't I? He's got a kid with a giantess near here."

Curiosity piqued, Finch looked at the dwarf with a smile. "Oh! Wonderful to make your acquaintance! May I ask you about that at a later date?"

"Yeah. Skadi knows where I am." Gudrun stroked his beard, looking around at the skeleton. "So, what have you found out about this guy?"

Finch explained the story behind the carvings, and what he'd found in Bjorn's skull. "I just don't understand the circumstances surrounding his death. His wife died… Then he died…"

Gudrun's bushy brows furrowed. "Well, if my wife died, Gods forbid, I know I'd struggle with living on."

Skadi hummed. "I wonder why he left her there."

Finch perked up, clapping excitedly. "That's it!" He grinned at the pair. "Think about it, if you'd just seen the King crush an entire village, would you risk being within biting distance?" He looked toward the illuminated eye sockets. "So he ate the berries voluntarily."

There was a moment of quiet before Gudrun cleared his throat. "Will you be wantin' his effects? He's got a ring on his left hand, seems valuable."

Finch perked up again. "Oh! Wonderful!" He almost ran, his torchlight fading into the gloom.

Skadi blew through tight lips, a hand on her waist, and Gudrun nodded with understanding. "...Your people are real strange." He said, and she shrugged with casual agreement. "My big girl, she has all kinds of customs that just twist my brain."

The pair heard an excited jumble of theories and conclusions echoing from somewhere in the dark. "None are as strange as humans."

"You're right there, lass."

When Skadi finally went to go see what Finch was so excited about, she was unimpressed. She expected piles upon piles of jewels. "What's that ring made of?"

Finch grinned up at her as he traced the patterns with his fingertip. "I don't know! That doesn't matter right now! Look at this! Oh, this is wonderful." He pushed a long button with all of his strength, and the ring popped open. It was far too heavy for him to open all the way, but Skadi leant a hand, and he stood on the finger bone to peer inside it. "There's a whole room in here!" He cried, leaping over the metal wall. The floor was carpeted, the walls lined with built-in furniture, long-since faded and freyed. Each had a number of hoops, presumably for attaching safety ropes to.

"You think he kept people in here?" Skadi asked, Gudrun appearing over the edge of the ring, looking like he was levitating without Skadi's hand in view.

As Finch immediately began to study the journals and sketches around him, Skadi set up another brazier for him, not wanting him to get eyestrain.

Gudrun touched the metal, then knocked on it. "Pure macronium. Y'know, this stuff is only found in meteorites, but as an ore it's unstable enough to dissipate on impact." When he noticed the pair looking at him, he cleared his throat somewhat bashfully. "The wife has a necklace with a small amount of it. It's a sacred thing."

"Yeah, my Pa said only people touched by the gods could smith with macronium. You've got to crack open the meteor with your bare hands, then slowly and patiently melt it down." She pressed her hand against the cold metal too. "Bet if humans listened to our legends instead of stabby-stabby they'd really find that interesting."

Finch opened a cupboard that was built into the wall, lifting his torch to get a better look. "OH! Books!"

Gudrun looked back to Finch who was reading with one hand and writing with the other. "Anything good?"

"I can't understand a word of this! Oh, how exciting! This must be where his Queen used to live, before the fire." He flipped through a few more with fingers practised in the art of being tender with artifacts. "This will keep me up all night! A few more hours without sleep won't do me any harm."

Skadi poked her tongue into her cheek as she thought. "You haven't been sleepin' at all, have you, Prof?"

"A few stray moments here and there. But that's not important!" He waved his hand at her, carefully filling his satchel with as much information as he could. "What is important is that I have so many answers! And even more new questions!" He beckoned her hand, hopping into it eagerly. "Let's keep going!"

Skadi shook her head. "Oh, no no. I'm not taking you anywhere." When he looked like he might try and leave her grasp, she curled her fingers firmly around him, making him yelp and check to make sure the papers were undamaged. "You're gonna have a nap."

"I'm not tired, I promise." He pushed at her fingers, but they wouldn't budge. "Please, I've got to see more! I had half an hour last night, that was sufficient." He knew that beyond reasoning, there wasn't much he could do. A giant had the ability to make anyone do anything they wanted.

"Hey, we discovered this tomb, so our rules apply. It's our lunch hour anyway." She scolded as she sat down on the rocky floor, leaning against the breadth of the ring band. "You want in, Gudrun?"

The dwarf nodded with a grin. "I never turn down an opportunity to have a kip."

Skadi placed the pair of them on the warm fabric on her chest, a stark contrast from the cold of the cave, and Finch huffed. "It's easy for you. I've only got my life to spend studying your kind. Both of you know that isn't a lot."

"A nap won't kill you, Prof. Don't make me swaddle you." Skadi grumbled. Gudrun was already almost asleep, and Finch sighed dramatically as he flopped onto his back. He realised then how exhausted he was, his mind still racing, but his body thanking him profusely for resting.

"...Gudrun?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell me about your wife?"

The dwarf stretched out, opening one eye to look at Finch. "Absolutely savage, she is. Tall, sharp teeth, penchant for raw meat, the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on. She can rip open a dragon with her bare hands and feast on its still warm carcass."

"It seems as though she's perfect for you." Finch pondered softly. "What's her name, this ferocious beast of a woman?"

"Carol."

Skadi shushed them, knowing Finch wouldn't stop the questions there, but he got the message, closing his eyes. Just a little nap. Then he'd get to work. Five minutes...

[ac-liveblogs]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, because Genshin is such a mess thematically and our lack of opinion tracks with that, but I'm so bitter...especially bc I can actually think of at least one instance where we actually had a great setup for the Traveler taking a strong stance, only for it to go to complete waste! like...I may be the "you didn't connect shit" meme, but...

In Liyue, a main throughline is that the Traveler is incredibly distrustful of Childe, right? We're so blunt about it that Childe entirely gives up trying to be nice in hopes we'd talk, bc he saw we wouldn't, and resorts to eavesdropping.

But, the thing is, we aren't just distrustful bc of the fatui in general; it's SPECIFICALLY pointed out that we hold a grudge about what SIGNORA did, which irrevocably makes this whole thing about Venti. That's literally the only thing we've seen her do at that point, and whenever we are shown how the Traveler doesn't trust Childe, it's EXPLICITLY attributed to Signora. MULTIPLE TIMES. Childe immediately brings up Signora when we first meet him and the Traveler rears back, Paimon brings up Signora as the reason when we remind her not to trust Childe. When we meet Signora again, and she taunts us about taking the gnosis from Venti, we either have to coach ourselves to calm down or start forward with the intention to take back Venti's gnosis by force (this after 2 back-to-back boss fights, one of which had 3 phases, mind you. The Traveler must have been delirious from exhaustion or absolutely furious to dredge up the energy)

Okay, so... it's not just me seeing things, is it? Signora's only notable contribution was ripping Venti's gnosis from him, so her being brought up so often means we've established that what happened to Venti is very important to us. We hold a grudge. So, theoretically, if, say, someone were to mock Venti's efforts to protect his region by causing a crisis on the same scale for a mere test; if someone were to mock how hurt Venti was when he got his gnosis ripped out of him by willingly handing it over to the same people who hurt him.. the Traveler should be pissed, right? They should have a couple choice words about it, shouldn't they? What happened to Venti is something we feel strongly about!

But noooo, we get the BLANDEST "he's definitely given this some thought" voiceline, we calmly chat with Zhongli, he sends us in our merry way, and we express absolutely NO opinion about literally ANYTHING he did. So...we aren't pissed?

Only for the Traveler to do a 180 and suddenly become super pissy in Inazuma with people who have absolutely nothing to do with why we might be suddenly angry. Like...what?

Though honestly, at this point I'd take ANYONE criticising or hating a character and being RIGHT about it, even if it's an npc. This "everyone is beyond reproach, actually, and if anyone has anything bad to say they are Wrong and Irrational and Dumb" take is beyond boring. Give me some spice!

Or: Zhongli repeatedly dissing Mondstadt, a place we like? A lot? We're the Honorary Knight of Favonius?

Or us agreeing with Keqing... and then being a-OK with Ei returning to power? After everything she did or allowed to happen?

It feels like the only consistent trait we have is "find the Unknown Goddess", but it's the most illogical thread we have. I'll bet you so much money HYV only thought up the Traveller's lore and how that fits into whatever endgame they have planned and ZERO thought for their personality at all.

And like, don't get me wrong, I've certainly played games with self inserts that don't talk before, but... I've never gotten such a sense of confusion about their characterization as I do here. Usually you get the outline, but it's just a blank hole of personality. Here....

[inquisitorhotpants]

So, TLJ

I was going to wait until I saw it again, but ... ehhh let’s get this done. God this post is gonna be long. I’m gonna miss stuff. 

I have 6 main gripes with this movie and I want to get those out of the way first.

That should have been Anakin, not that shitty-ass space frog. Fuck Yoda. 

The codebreaker Maz sent them for should have been Lando, and “we didn’t have time for Lando” is still nonsense. 

Rian, that is a bladderbuster of a movie, we did not need the milking scene, pal.

Also Joss Whedon gets tiresome, let’s dial back the jokes per second yeah? SW is tonally different from Avengers, let’s not make them all samey same.

Why was there no mourning for Han that was visible instead of only learned through “The Art of TLJ” (Leia’s hairstyle was Alderaanian mourning braids.)

... MOAR PHASMA, are you for real with this 0.3 seconds nonsense.

Now, I was so incredibly underwhelmed by TFA (I have literally never watched it since I saw it in theaters one time per my obligation as a Star Wars fan, I felt like JJ Abrams didn’t even care enough to make an original movie) that I wasn’t jazzed about TLJ.

I was very, very, very wrong in that. Holy fuckballs was I ever fucking wrong.

Luke

The flashback trio, holy SHIT. The sanitized, Obi-Wan’d version. Kylo’s “Bilbo seeing the ring” scary-ass wrong version. And finally, Luke’s “I fucked up so so much” version. Luke has always struggled with the Dark Side, with his anger. You see it at the end of RotJ where he’s just hammering on Vader, until he goes a step too far and goes “oh my god what am I doing.”  And then you find out that he bought his own hype, and the Order’s own hype, and drifted close to the Dark Side again, thanks to past trauma from dealing with Vader and his own established tendency to come close to the dark.

But he regrets it so so much. Mark’s monologue talking about that, where you can hear the pain and regret and guilt in his voice, it’s some of his best acting. Luke, driven by shame over what he almost did, driven by survivor guilt, ends up in a very dark place. Shame and guilt are real fucking beasties, and feeling that you failed your students, your nephew, your best friend, your sister, and the galaxy? Jesus. It makes my heart hurt just thinking about it. 

And then finally, someone with the same kind of optimism he used to have shows up, a real genuine Rey of Sunshine as it were. And she does exactly what he did with Vader. She tries, even though she has less of a dog in this fight than he does, and it’s just .... i love it, guys. 

That force projection. GodDAMN. Even Threepio can see him! HOLY SHIT. 

The mirroring of his sacrifice, buying our heroes time, of Obi-Wan’s, was so poignant. 

I cried like a baby all through the scene with him and Carrie. It was so good. 

And then his scene with Kylo, with this man who’s just devoured by anger and feelings of inadequacy and this desperate need to prove himself to a shitty-ass authority figure (Snoke). It was excellent. 

Basically A+ all around, gave Luke nuance and a real depth of character that I wasn’t expecting but I loved after I’d really sat and ruminated on it. He’s always been so positive, and things worked out for him (mostly), and this failure (and there’s the theme of the movie, how you handle failure) just walloped him upside the head and it felt so very, very real to me. <3

I also cried when his robes blew off that rock on Ahch-To. (I cried a lot in this movie lmao)

“Where’s Han?” (me: “fuck me i’m crying a lot.”)

Leia

SPACE MOM OMG <3

Look even if i’d hated the rest of this movie, I was going for Space Mom.

She’s so tired of fighting. She’s so tired of losing that which she loves most. She’s so ready to just sit down and rest. But she won’t, because Leia is the most resilient, and so stubborn and determined and fierce and amazing. Even getting shot into goddamn space isn’t going to stop her.

LEIA USING THE FORCE AND BY GOD SHE HAS SO MUCH STRENGTH IN IT because she’s so very much also Anakin’s kid. <3

Leia being so done with Poe’s nonsense. She’s not going to keep seeing these wholesale sacrifices. Winning doesn’t matter if you don’t have anyone left. The Resistance is not cannon fodder. They are not the First Order, and their people matter. 

Every single scene with Leia I loved. All of them. 

The hurt, and the pain, and the resignation in her voice when she says her son is gone, it broke my heart guys. You can tell she isn’t happy about it. You can tell she didn’t arrive at this decision lightly. Letting go of a family member who’s determined to pursue something destructive is hard as fuck. I’ve seen it happen in my own family. Leia has lost so, so much. Her planet, her parents, her adoptive parents, her husband, her son, and now she knows she’s losing Luke too? I just ... my heart.  

Leia and Rey at the end!  <3  Loved it. 

the goddamn tribute before the credits, yep cried there too. 

Rey

God I love Rey. 

Zero time for Kyle Ron’s nonsense.

GET REKD NERD /vrooms off in the Falcon

Her strength of character, her mirroring of Luke’s attempt at redemption, her positioning as light to dark, her “fine fuck you I’m leaving” when redemption is rejected, I love everything about Rey. 

THE REUNION WITH FINN <3

The introduction to Poe

Did I mention I love Rey? I love Rey. Rey is so driven and determined and amazing. <3 She has no time for an old-ass man’s nonsense. She has no time for a gold bathrobe wearing man’s nonsense. She has no time for Kyle Ron’s nonsense. “Look I have shit to get done so lead, follow, or get the fuck out of my way.” When Luke wouldn’t stand up (because he’s still fighting his own personal demons), she goes “fine, I’ll do it myself.” When Kyle Ron wouldn’t actually burn down the past, she goes, “fine, I have things to do.”

Rey is the Actual Best.

Rey uses her anger! Holy shit I love that. 

Kylo Ren

Look I have to give massive props to Adam Driver. The way he plays someone who’s been emotionally abused, fuck, that shit was giving me flashbacks to my own life. (snoke reminds me of my mom lmao my childhood was great.)

Unlike TFA, I actually found him compelling as a character this time. 

That scene in the elevator actually sort of hurt my heart a little. “Okay, FINE. You don’t think I’m anything? You think I don’t deserve this? THEN I’LL FUCKING SHOW YOU, I’LL DO IT WITHOUT IT, I’LL BE BETTER THAN YOU EVER EXPECTED” and the unspoken “and then you’ll finally accept me”. I got a little choked up, thanks past trauma. 

God I remember trying for decades to get my mom to love me, to say something nice that she meant, to just pretend she liked me. You agree with horrible shit, you feel beat down all the time, all trying to make this truly awful person think you’re somebody. 

So I understand part of Kylo Ren’s drive, tbh.

But he still chose the Space Nazis TWICE. And threw off the love of his family and his uncle. So fuck that jackass.

Look, my mom left literal scars on my face, and i didn’t burn down my school, murder the students, and go join the Hitler Youth. 

He’s the embodiment of “prior trauma does not excuse current actions”

A+ to Adam Driver for playing a character I can go “oh man that sucks, but I would still space your ass in half a second you shitty-ass human being.”

Finn

I love Finn so so so much and I could watch a whole movie just about Finn and Rose and Rey and Poe just ... generally wrecking rich people’s shit around the galaxy ngl.

I wish the fight with Phasma was longer. That was a bit of a letdown.

But Finn is just perfect. I love him. 

Can we talk about how he looked like an Actual Disney Prince running over to make sure Rose was okay? Because he did and I loved it. 

Also how he was totally prepared to give his life to save the Resistance because he has something to fight for, and I wasn’t SUPER sure he was going to be stopped and my heart was in my throat that whole time because Finn you fucking precious human being you. <3

THE REUNION oh my god 12 seconds of sublime perfection. THEY WERE SO HAPPY. (i cried. but i bet you knew that already lmao)

Rose

Cute, takes no shit, period. Love her. Awkward and adorable and just fantastic. 

She felt very reminiscent of Cassian with her “I’ve been fighting this my whole life” stance, and I loved it. 

Little acts of kindness can have huge rippling effects on the universe. <3

I can’t wait to see more of her.

Watching her and Finn totally fucking up rich people’s days, goddamn that was satisfying as fuck. 

I liked the kiss. It was pretty clear she was crushing on Finn the whole time (well maybe not to Finn lmao), it wasn’t drawn out. It didn’t make anything canon, and while I may be all about Finnrey and get more of a brotp vibe from Finnrose, I certainly wouldn’t be mad if it ends up going that way. I thought it was cute. “Fuck it, i’m gonna do it before i pass out.”

Poe

Poe getting schooled by two older, more experienced women, A+. 

Poe reminded me of Saw Guerrera, actually, speaking of Rogue One parallels. He wants to win, no matter the cost. Let’s remember that Saw ended up leaving the main body of the Rebellion over this. 

I thought Poe’s arc was great, tbh. He learned that you have to be able to ADAPT. 

I’m still personally “eh” on not disclosing anything, but at the same time, even if Holdo had told him at least a general idea of what was going on, I think he still would have sent Rose and Finn, he still would have staged the mutiny. His entire thing is “i know better” when he doesn’t, and he learns that he certainly does not always know better. There was a LOT of character growth there, and I loved it. So much of this movie adds depth to characters. <3

That intro to Rey! I loved it so much. 

POE AND BB8, enough said, god they were cute. THEY HAD A FOREHEAD TOUCH. <3 

General things I really liked

that scene where Holdo jumps into the ship. utter silence, light spilling forth from a source of darkness, GODDAMN that shit gave me chills. Amazing. 

The aesthetics, as always. Star Wars movies are just beautiful. 

Porgs! Jesus they were cute. 

“Jakku pretty much is nowhere.” lmao fucking sassy-ass skywalker men 

Literally everything with Chewie. 

THE SOUNDTRACK. 

Snoke Bond Villain-ing it up and promptly dying lmao. “Let me reveal everything about my plan including the fact that I faked this Force bond thing” /pulls a Darth Maul

THAT LIGHTSABER FIGHT GODDAMN. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” basically. 

Luke flicking invisible dust off his shoulder. 

there’s a lot more but uh yeah i liked this a lot. I’m going to go see it at least one more time. 

[ignitification]

Hori not showing endeavor beating kids and rei is really weird idk. Like why would he dance around the subject? I've already seen people be like "endeavor didnt hit anyone its just fantasy of todo kids" bruh. I'm becoming more and more worried about end of todo drama because what if everyone forgives endeavor and he lives with rei? Let this fuck live alone got hori enji and rei cant be together bro

I think that @/haleigh-sloth makes a great job in this ask explaining why. Endeavour is a character that Hori did not know where to take, or rather - he knew where, he just figured out the details going on. Unfortunately, Endeavour was introduced as an abuser, and that label stuck, no matter the amount of retconning that HK is trying to pull. I think that HK did not foresee that he would have had to retcon E for two main reasons: he did not think that he might have needed to because he did not think that E’s actions were that bad, and/or because he did not understand the kind of impact Endeavour’s actions would have on the fandom and on the narrative. As I said before somewhere, this is also directly linked to Dabi’s popularity after the reveal and to Shouto’s. Which brings me to the next point: while I wholeheartedly agree with you on the fact that it likely would not send the most positive message (in my opinion) if E did come back to the family, that is also exactly the reason why E is being retconned and why HK did dance around, writing a lot in between the lines, when it comes to the Todoroki’s abuse. Unfortunately, I think that this is what HK envisioned as the ending of the Todofam plot, unless he does a 180 and completely changes up things (which, at this point I don’t think will work, but you never know). At the same time, I really struggle seeing E being integrated again with his family. I think that HK will leave us with the note of ‘trying to’ and ‘working towards’ the image of a broken family trying to heal together, but for that we would need some factors which yet have not even touched the horizon (I am talking factually about Shouto and Dabi building a sort of, brotherly annoyance to each other which would allow Dabi to see that Shouto is more similar to him that he thinks and the recovery of Natsuo’s trauma, and Rei’s healing journey which would totally be wiped out if she came back to him, which she did not, as she came back for her family). And this sort of build up tension juggled up with hope, is exactly why there are stans out there who entirely cancel out the abuse and focus instead of the future what if’s (which is not a negative thing, if they did admit to the abuse and just said that it is an important thing which is getting towards to being atoned, namely) and make E’s character even more irritating and downright just infuriating. I really hope that in the end, E’s character is just confined to the side lines, while Shouto and Touya get the space and attention they deserve, giving abuse victims the support and recognition they deserve (and taking away the spotlight from the perpetrator).

[oumakokichi]

Do you think that Kokichi had any remorse for Gonta during trial 4 or did he actually not care? I've seen a lot of people saying different opinions from both sides of the argument. But I'm really confused because there was a moment where after Gonta was executed, correct me if I'm wrong but Shuichi asked Kokichi if he could reveal the secret of the outside world (?) But Kokichi replied with something like “I don't want to....” and seemed generally upset? But then a few moments later he snapped out if it and began acting like he had no sympathy whatsoever. I just really wanna know how Kokichi actually, truly felt about Gonta and if he regretted manipulating him. Sorry if you've already been asked this and have already given an answer, thank you!

Hi anon—I actually wrote a pretty big master-post on chapter 4 not too long ago which I think more or less sums up my thoughts on Ouma’s behavior in the post-trial! You can find it here if you want (it’s pretty long and I tried to answer a whole bunch of questions about Ouma in chapter 4 specifically, since it’s the chapter I get asked about the most).

More specifically though, I’m afraid that there is no easy, definitive answer to that question. I can only share my personal opinions about how I believe Ouma felt in that scene. And personally? I do think he was genuinely upset and distraught about Gonta’s death, that he even momentarily considered giving up all his plans and being executed alongside him, and that he cared about Gonta and deeply regretted using him as a sacrificial pawn in his plans.

I’ll discuss what I mean in more detail, but it’ll probably get pretty long, so I’ll put the rest of this post under a cut as always!

The thing is, though, I’ve shared my personal thoughts about the chapter 4 post trial many times, including my reasoning and all of the textual evidence that shows how much Ouma cared about the rest of his classmates. But ultimately, there will probably always be some people who disagree, because their reading of the text will always be a little bit different. Unless we ever have an interview from Kodaka in the future where he directly says, “this is what Ouma was thinking and feeling at this exact moment,” there really won’t ever be a way to know what was going through his head with 100% certainty (and I do feel like leaving it open-ended is something of Kodaka’s intention, anyway, especially since Ouma is supposed to be a very polarizing character).

That being said, I do think it’s worth analyzing the text and drawing your own conclusions, because ndrv3 is a game that changes a lot depending on how you interpret it, and Ouma’s character is included in that. It’s really easy on a first playthrough to get wrapped up in what Ouma says or does without really looking at why he says it, or at his underlying motivations. Going back through the game on a replay though, I do personally think it’s possible to guess at what he might have been feeling during those super conflicting scenes in chapter 4.

In my opinion, I think Ouma did truly care about Gonta as a friend, and that his guilt and remorse over what he did was genuine. Not only did Ouma and DICE have a very strict taboo against killing (mentioned directly in his motive video in Japanese, though the part about it being an actual rule was stripped from the localization), but we don’t see Ouma’s façade crack like this very often. Most of the time when he does his trademark “crocodile tears,” it’s with his very loud, exaggerated crying sprite, and he bounces right back to acting normally within a moment or two.

There are a few exceptions to this, of course—he uses the “crocodile tears” sprite to cry at Kaede, Amami, and Toujou’s deaths, but it’s still very likely he was shaken up by seeing them dead). Nonetheless, we don’t see his much more subdued crying sprites more than a handful of times, particularly in the chapter 4 post-trial just before Gonta’s execution, as well as in Momota’s flashback in chapter 5 when he talks about how Ouma actually hated the killing game the whole time.

I’m aware that some people simply brush these moments aside and assume that Ouma is lying though all of them, but I personally just can’t agree with that interpretation. Assuming that Ouma is lying whenever he shows remorse or guilt or hatred for the killing game means assuming that he’s telling the truth in pretty much every other scene—which doesn’t make much sense, given that his entire character is centered around the concept of lying, as well as moral ambiguity and subverting expectations. Assuming that Ouma actually means what he’s saying 100% of the time unless it just happens to involve showing any kind of guilt or remorse turns him into a very boring, predictable, uninspired character (none of which are words I would use to describe him personally).

Ignoring those moments where Ouma shows genuine attachment to his classmates and distaste for the killing game also means ignoring several key pieces of evidence and clues about him that we are directly provided in the game, including his motive video and Momota’s flashback in chapter 5. Personally, I don’t feel like there’s any reason to include these scenes at all unless it’s to help shed light on Ouma’s motivations and provide players with a clear reason to try and go back through the game again to look at Ouma’s actions through a new perspective.

I also feel that Ouma genuinely cared about Gonta because to put it simply, there was no incentive for him to lie in that scene. He got absolutely nothing out of it—and considering he turns around and starts playing the villain on purpose all of 5 minutes after Gonta’s death, he definitely wasn’t trying to earn sympathy points or trick the rest of his classmates into trusting him. In fact, he could’ve easily tried to make himself look more sympathetic by putting all of the blame on Miu for trying to kill him, or even on Gonta. But instead he fully admits to coming up with the plan to kill Miu and spends the entire post-trial trying to convince everyone not to hate or blame Gonta.

If he was truly as sadistic and horrible as he pretended to be, I think he would’ve pulled a 180 and started throwing names and insults around while Gonta was still alive to hear it, not after he was already dead. If he didn’t care at all about Gonta’s feelings, he had no reason to try and take all the blame on himself while insisting that none of what happened was actually Gonta’s fault. If anything, revealing himself to be this horrible, evil villain who enjoys seeing other people suffer or die would’ve really been adding insult to injury, and probably would’ve crushed Gonta completely, even before his execution started.

But… Ouma doesn’t do any of this. Despite having every opportunity to either portray himself as more of a victim and fling all the blame on Miu and Gonta, or else to completely embrace being a villain who loved seeing people suffer, he doesn’t do either of these things. The way I personally see it, Ouma waits until Gonta is already dead, and when the rest of his classmates begin pushing him for answers about the outside world and demanding to know what Gonta saw, that’s when he finally snaps and resigns himself to acting like a villain in order to make everyone hated.

You could argue that trying to make everyone hate him had a twofold effect: it helped set the stage for him to pretend to be the ringleader in the next chapter, which he clearly wanted, but it also was a way of taking things out on himself and shows just a small glimpse of how much he hated having to dirty his hands in chapter 4. After all, Ouma even says it himself: that the “role of a villain is perfect for him,” because he’s already made everyone hate him. We see Ouma occasionally tease or antagonize the rest of his classmates plenty of times throughout the game, but it’s true that he doesn’t really step into that “villain” role until the end of chapter 4, once he’s crossed a line that he can never come back from by manipulating both Miu and Gonta to their deaths.

None of this is to say that what Ouma did to Gonta is okay, by any means. I think he definitely did care about Gonta and even thought of him as one of the few trustworthy people in the killing game, even someone close to a friend, but that doesn’t mean that manipulating him and using him like a chess piece was okay in the end. I just also think it’s important to realize that there were plenty of extenuating circumstances that led Ouma to act the way he did—including the fact tha he knew Miu was going to kill him, that he already suspected she had measures to prevent him from fighting back or killing her himself in the VR world, and the fact that he did not want to die or get everyone else killed in the trial.

It’s possible for people to care about others without necessarily treating them the best or doing the right thing. A huge part of Danganronpa, something that’s been evident from the very first game, is that sometimes characters can and do hurt each other, even when they care about each other or wouldn’t be a threat otherwise.

It’s the existence of the killing game itself that causes so many characters to go to extremes that they normally wouldn’t, whether it’s Maizono trying to frame Naegi in dr1 despite caring about him a lot, Kaede deciding to try and commit murder under everyone’s noses despite trying to unite the group and wanting everyone to trust her, or Ouma using Gonta as a pawn to kill Miu in his place because he didn’t want to die.

At the end of the day, people are still probably going to have very polarizing opinions about Ouma and the things he did in chapter 4, and that’s honestly okay. In my own opinion, Ouma definitely isn’t a completely flawless, innocent baby who “did nothing wrong”—he absolutely is manipulative, cold, and calculating when he wants to be, and it’s a fact that he got two people killed, even if he didn’t want things to reach that point. But I also personally don’t think it’s fair to write him off as the exact kind of “evil villain” he pretends to be; not only is it a shortsighted interpretation of his larger motivations, but it also completely ignores any replay value and completely shoots down the appeal of trying to interpret Ouma’s thoughts and actions because “he was lying about feeling bad anyway, what’s the point in analyzing him.”

Tl;dr: I do think Ouma cares about Gonta, that he probably even thought of him as the closest thing he had to a friend in the killing game, and that what he did to Gonta in the end wasn’t okay. I think he really did respect Gonta for being such a sweet and kind person, but that he also knew Gonta was extremely naïve and that he would be one of the easiest people in their group to manipulate, hence why he decided to rely on him instead of anyone else. Their friendship is an important part of both of their character arcs, but it’s definitely not what I would call “on equal footing.”

I understand why Ouma’s actions might make some people really resent him, but I also believe that kneejerk reaction of anger and dismissal is exactly the point: Ouma does feel terrible about the things he did, but he doesn’t want anyone’s sympathy or forgiveness, not even the player’s. This, in my opinion, is why he starts embracing the villain role so completely from this point on, and why he’s never quite able to make the same sort of cold, calculating sacrifices in chapter 5 that he did in chapter 4.

I hope this helps answer your question, anon, along with the other chapter 4 post I wrote! Thank you for all your support!

[bronyinabottle]

In a recent post on I Dream of Twilight Sparkle I said that I noticed asks that were not in my inbox the last time I decided to read through my entire ask box. So I did the same for my mod blog. And while there were some also that I didn't see before. Most are questions I feel either I feel like I may have already sufficiently answered enough with my thoughts on an episode and/or it'd be weird at this point to answer something that's obviously years after the fact.

But there is two I found that I feel like I may want to respond to. The person who sent it was someone who used to discuss the show with me almost all the time, though obviously they must no longer be on Tumblr as all their blogs are deactivated. But I still want to answer since it is sort of relevant to recent stuff. Particularly in their 2nd ask.

By the way, I'm always open to questions on the show or even non-pony topics here on my modblog. I still do love talking about G4 ponies and I wouldn't mind some questions if any of you would like to know my opinion on anything. Now that the show has been over for nearly 2 years , I can have a perspective on many topics about Friendship is Magic that I wouldn't mind sharing. Maybe some things have changed here and there, though I think I still generally have a positive attitude towards most things for certain. I stuck with the show until the very end, and was satisfied with how it ended. And I still have interest in doing more in G4's world even as G5 approaches. (Though I'm sure perhaps once that movie has aired that may be the focus of any questions sent here)

((My answer and more after the break))

For the most part, I think I still generally agree with what I said in my initial thoughts about the Season 6 finale. It's a solid episode with some great interactions between Starlight, Trixie, Discord, and Thorax. Though the way the ending is executed is a bit of a headscratcher. Maybe somewhat less so since thinking about it now, like even if Chrysalis did keep some things loyal. What would stop them from eventually seeing what Thorax's changelings did shortly after.

But I suppose I wanted to answer this mostly about Starlight. Since while the Season 6 finale made HomerJ get over some remaining feelings about Starlight. I'll admit it took literally until writing Secrets of the Dragon's Tear (A year after the show was over) to realize the sort of potential that Starlight had. The baggage from the Season 5 finale always felt like a cloud above her for the entire rest of the show's run. And I consider Season 6's largest mistake is not trying harder to endear us to Starlight. That's what that season's entire job was, to try to make us feel a little better of how rather rushed Starlight's redemption was by giving us a more expanded look into Starlight's character. And unfortunately, I feel like it failed at that in my opinion. Thus I basically disagree (Though respect the opinion of) with those who would say the Season 6 finale was when Starlight finally won them over.

Don't get me wrong, I like how Starlight is portrayed in the episode. But it would of been stronger if say the season had explained more about Starlight's past. How did Starlight get her cutie mark, and given her opinion on Cutie Marks how did she feel at the time?

Instead, we mostly just got Starlight reuniting with Sunburst that didn't exactly give any more details to her rather vague reasons for turning to darkness from him moving away other then finding out Sunburst's personality and how his side of the story went. And from there we had Starlight befriend Trixie... in an episode I still don't really like to this day.

Ironically, the character in the Hearth's Warming episode that casts Starlight as the story's version of Scrooge (Snowfall Frost) is given more reason to sympathize with then Starlight herself.

Starlight then just about disappears up until the episode that introduces Thorax. Where she doesn't do much other then be among the crowd that Spike has to convince that Thorax is not evil.

The next time we see her is Every Little Thing She Does. Which is something of a controversial ep from what I hear, though ironically despite my skepticism of Starlight at the time. I actually sort of liked that episode since it was basically Starlight's own Lesson Zero. Though I get why Starlight deciding to hypnotize all the Mane 6 besides Twilight against their will would not be approved of. Though it does feel like at the very least Twilight and the rest give her enough of a piece of their mind at the end.

And that's how things stood before the Season 6 finale happened. Even though I do think Starlight has good moments in said finale, nothing earlier in the season really dispelled many of my feelings about the Season 5 finale's ending. So despite a good showing, I could hardly care for it. I wasn't convinced yet we were given a satisfactory answer about the many questions that Starlight's sudden redemption prompted.

Another part of my thoughts I feel still applies is when I mentioned that Starlight's a "Diet Sunset Shimmer" (Which considering what I did to link the two for SOTDT, is a bit funny in hindsight). It took just one movie (Rainbow Rocks) for the fanbase to turn a 180 on Sunset. While an entire season with Starlight as one of the good guys goes by and she remained just as divisive as before if not more so by the end of Season 6.

Come Season 7, and Starlight appears quite a bit more often though under the assumption that the Season 6 finale was enough to warm you up to her. There were many complaints during the first half of Season 7 that she was appearing more then she should (Even in an Equestria Girls special where she got to meet the character she was so often compared to). Though another thing about Starlight in Season 7 in hindsight is besides from her meeting a few more friends like Maud. Starlight isn't actually given much to actually work towards. They dropped the whole student aspect so it's not like she was doing friendship lessons under Twilight anymore (Though I suppose on the bright side for the detractors, it lessened worries about her becoming an Alicorn). Season 8 and 9 does somewhat fix that by having Starlight employed at the school, first as a counselor and ultimately ending with her as the school's Principal as Twilight herself got promoted to sole ruler. Which I'm still unsure about if fans of her character feel that was a proper ending for her. Though probably the best that could of been done in context of not much having been done with her over time.

Still, at least for me personally it felt there was alot missing about Starlight and as time went on it became obvious I wasn't going to get the satisfactory answers about her that I wanted. So as a result, I only had lukewarm reactions when a new Starlight episode was coming up. It also didn't help that there were two episodes that raised my hopes of at least one interesting aspect that would of been cool to see. The first being the episode "All Bottled Up" which I had hoped would mean it would be an episode that's somewhat genie related. And then there was Road to Friendship where Starlight and Trixie try to travel to Saddle Arabia (which is an important location in I Dream of Twilight Sparkle)... and yet never actually get there. So even on the few times that I was hoping to be excited about a Starlight episode, it dropped the ball. Partly my fault for getting so hyped about something that wasn't promised, but I would of loved to at least SEEN canon Saddle Arabia.

I'd never say that I hated Starlight back during the show's run. But she was a frustrating character for certain back then. I couldn't hate Starlight as much as some others did, but at the same time I couldn't like her as much as others. She was in likability limbo. For every fun and or good moment that included her, it's brought right back by either lingering problems that arised from the Season 5 finale or otherwise dropping the ball in some way.

In some ways, she's still a frustrating character. Though that's just how it'll always be with the canon Starlight. It's up entirely now to fanon to give their approach on Starlight that was never done in Canon. With SOTDT, I obviously did a bit of a "Fine, I'll do it myself" when it comes to making Starlight a more satisfactory character for me. Though I'm sure there are many interpretations that are vastly different from how I approached it that can satisfy others and probably be more popular and better written then mine. (My interpretation might be understandably controversial just for Starlight being put back on a path where she'll likely become an Alicorn eventually. Something Starlight detractors feared the most. Though I think I at least try to explain as best I could that makes sense with the story, her cutie mark moment being similar to Twilight's, and the identity of her mother. And I myself sort of feared Starlight becoming an Alicorn might happen, so for me to actually write it so that it might be inevitable. That's just how much of a 180 I've taken on Starlight because of writing SOTDT)

I think I mentioned this before, but I can pretty much say that in a way that I can actually say I like Starlight now. But sort of in a "FiM's biggest missed opportunity" sort of way that it becomes sort of sad to look at how canon Starlight was done. Rather then me simply shrugging her off back when I didn't care so much about her. I also understand it's a bit cheating to say I like Starlight now after doing my own sort of fanfic that had her in a major role since that might be me tooting my own horn a bit.

Though I will say as much as necessary that I am very aware alot of what happens in SOTDT would have been impossible to do in canon and I don't plan on pushing what I did to expand on Starlight's backstory as gospel. It only applies to what I'm doing on the blog, I will not be making a case that my interpretation is the only correct one. I'd actually welcome seeing some different interpretations on things such as who Starlight's mother is, what they feel her past was like outside of the Sunburst leaving incident, and/or especially how Starlight originally got her cutie mark. (I've even said my personal guess is different then how I did it in SOTDT, as my guess is she got it the first time she discovered the cutie mark removal spell). Cause if nothing else, I've realized Starlight is a very interesting character that I think would be fun to explore all the possibilities with. It certainly could be something for those still on the G4 train to talk with one another about.

[livlepretre]

Hi I've read alot of your Klaulena fanfic and I love them. But I was wondering what your take was on the whole Elijah x Elena relationship?

Oh, I adore Elejah. I shipped that long before Klaulena struck me like a bolt of lightning! 

Originally I was really soft for this ship and I was hugely enchanted with that horrifying little hello he gives her in 2x08 which is also so frightening because of how gentle it is, like she’s a pet or an animal? and the way his opinion on her completely 180s when they negotiate in 2x11? and how shocking and threatening and G R E A T that entire sequence is in 2x11 when Jenna closes the closet door and there is Elijah and then the way he just appears when she tries to tell Jeremy and she lies to Jer and the way the whole thing is filmed with Elena in the mirror? And the reveal that she knew exactly that she was signing her own death warrant??? And he knew that she knew???? And then the way when she stabs herself at the lake house his face just crumples in horror and desperation as he begs her to let him save her, and it’s obviously not at all about wanting her to use her, it’s abut the fact that he has FEELINGS for her and he can’t bear for her to die????? and the way he is so relieved to save her that even when she daggers him he’s still so caught up in those feelings???? THE WAY HE TOUCHES HER HAIR THERE I could scream. And of course this very romantic idea they have of each other that they are both honorable people. The way they hear each other out. I was SO SOFT on this ship. 

But my thinking on it has evolved a good deal. I’ve realized that 

1) Elijah never understood Elena very well-- he understood the illusion she throws up for people-- she’s not really that honorable, she used to be, but her entire storyline is how her honor and her morality are just stripped away and all she has left is her unwavering commitment to save and protect her loved ones at any cost... this makes her cruel, this makes her cunning, this makes her often, often dishonorable, someone who will stab someone else in the back if that’s what it takes, someone who will slit her own throat to win

2) Elena never forgives Elijah for what his betrayal during the sacrifice. I had shipper goggles on when season 3 aired, and to a certain extent still had them on when season 4 aired, so I didn’t see it then... but I really think that even though Elena felt a bit bad about grouping Elijah in with the rest when she made that champagne deal with Esther, she never actually hesitated because Elijah screwed her over when he refused to kill Klaus. Yes, we understand as the audience why he did that, but from Elena’s perspective? She made a deal to die for Elijah, and in exchange, Elijah was supposed to protect her small list of loved ones from Klaus. Not only does Elijah UTTERLY fail to hold up the most important side of his bargain-- to keep Elena’s loved ones safe from Klaus (it shouldn’t have been up to Damon to save Caroline and Tyler-- that was basically something that Elijah should have had to do under the purview of his agreement with Elena; and of course, Klaus kills Jenna)-- but Elena goes through with her side of the bargain-- she goes through with the sacrifice and dies-- and even then, even after she has kept the faith, even after Jenna has been murdered, Elijah balks on the one thing that could have at least set things “right.” And of course, Klaus doubles Elena’s misery but taking Stefan with him, therefore depriving Elena of her greatest source of comfort and love during her grief. Elena never gets over the disillusionment of seeing Elijah for what he really is-- someone who says he is honorable, who does a great job of pretending to be honorable, of pretending to be a white knight, but who ultimately, inevitably, falls short. She remains attracted to him, and cares for him, but she never really forgives him. That’s why she’s so angry with him when she sees him again in season 4-- and why his letter rings so hollow to her. Elijah is like a thorn in Elena’s foot-- she can’t remove it, but all it does is bleed. 

All of this being said, I think this is a fascinating dynamic. I like Elejah even more for being messy, for having this complication and disillusionment and disappointment in each other-- they have a real history together, and their minds work similarly enough to make them very compatible... it definitely has all the makings of an epic ship! 

[sobbingdistantnoises]

42, 53, 65 a few more because why not

42. Your favorite "no skips" albums(s)

The albums that I've liked every song of on Spotify are Day of Reckoning (Pentagram), Persona Non Grata (Exodus), Fabulous Disaster (Exodus), Kill Em All (Metallica), and Never Neverland (Annihilator), and I rarely skip songs on purpose, so it would probably be those. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised there aren't more, but I guess it makes sense because there are so many albums I like all the songs from besides one or two because I just don't purposely look back on albums to see what songs I haven't liked yet. I should probably do that honestly, it never occurred to me before now

53. Is there a song you hated the first time you listened to it but then loved after listening to it more times?

There definitely are, quite a lot actually. I usually listen to albums in full, so there are always hidden gems that slip through the cracks and I don't rediscover until later, and I didn't really like a lot of the first (metal) songs that I listened to when I was first getting into the genre or even the band

Fuel (Metallica song) was the first metal song I ever listened to, and it's now so mindblowing to me that I commented on it being loud when I don't even really notice that now. I didn't even remember that I listened to it before when I listened for the second time, so it's just really interesting how my opinion did an unintentional 180 without even noticing

Second image was somewhere in mid February 2021, I don't have an exact date because it was part of a larger message

Megadeth as a whole also took a lot of getting used to because of how Dave sings, so I definitely had to listen to it a bunch before really liking it. Within the same band, I also didn't really like the talking vocals of Sweating Bullets until I watched the song's music video, and that's where it clicked and I started really enjoying the song a lot

Surprisingly, I also had to get used to Bruce's singing in Iron Maiden despite how you'd assume that the clean and melodic vocals would be easy to listen to. They just felt a bit too loud compared to the instruments for the longest time, but I eventually ended up getting used to them because I wanted to listen to the instrumental parts in Powerslave (I originally listened to the song in songsterr, a website that had tab for music that you can play along with, so I had no idea what the vocals were like but really liked the instruments)

Brain Dead (Exodus song) is one of the songs that slipped through the cracks when listening to albums. When I listened to Pleasures of the Flesh (the album it's in), I only really took note of one song, Chemi-Kill, because it stood out to me, so Brain Dead went unnoticed for about half a year until YouTube ended up recommending it to me and I relistened to it and enjoyed it

There's also multiple songs that Spotify has had to autoplay over and over before I started liking them, but I don't really remember what they are + I should probably get to finishing this up

65. Are there any songs you know the entire lyrics of by heart?

Without the instrumental cues, I usually feel lost and can't remember the first lyric for the life of me, but I can sing quite a bit of songs without a lyrics sheet if I have the song playing as I sing. Though, if I had to do without the instruments, I'd probably choose Angry Chair (Alice in Chains song), The Toxic Waltz (Exodus song), or Sweating Bullets (Megadeth) since they're the ones I definitely know that I know all the other lyrics to if I can remember the first line

[fair-fae]

You know, I'm not a drama person, I don't like it, but it came up on my dash so much that I kind of had to read it. All of that nonsense could've been avoided if you didn't even take it to the public. Judging people for THEIR characters that THEY made and can do WHATEVER the hell they want with them? Oh woo ho good job, you're so popular for taking the "barrage" of it. No. all it did was prove that you're a D-bag and I've got a nice, long list of people to block now and avoid contact with.

Okay, anon. I haven’t bothered setting the record straight with most of this shit, because I know folks like you will continue to believe what you want to believe and hear what you want to hear, just like you’re doing now. But I’ll bite. You’d think all of you getting onto your soapbox about how you shouldn’t judge or attack others wouldn’t keep talking shit about a situation you know nothing about and/or are terribly misinformed about. So I’ll enlighten you with what actually happened.

A while back, the person in question got into an argument with some people on the RPC, trying to tell them that their interpretation of the lore was wrong. Rather than leaving it at that, when he effectively got shut down there, he proceeded to take a screenshot of the conversation and post it on his tumblr, complete with a rant about the people who disagreed with him, their opinions are so wrong and awful, how dare they disagree with him, etc. essentially playing the victim when he was the one to try to badger them for their opinions in the first place. He also left their names, icons, signatures, etc. in full view.I responded and told him he probably shouldn’t be trying to harass any other people about the lore considering his own character concept (thus, you would think, making my opinion on his character pretty clear). Why? Because it’s fucking true.I don’t give a shit about the lore or whether anyone follows it. Probably every single one of my own characters at least bends the lore. But at least have the self-awareness and respect for your fellow role-players to say “yeah, my character breaks the lore” or not get your jimmies rustled every time someone says “oh, yeah, his character is lore breaking.” You wanna break the lore? Cool. Own up to it. And if you do break the lore, don’t try to force everyone else into following it–especially when you can’t even admit you break lore and instead stretch the lore to try so hard to justify your entirely lore-breaking character concept. Don’t try to heckle people for presumably doing what you do but won’t admit. Granted, these people weren’t even breaking lore anyway, which makes his insistence that they were even more ridiculous.So after some excuses about how he was trying to start some intellectual discussion or something and not just drag these people despite featuring their identities and primarily just complaining about them throughout the post, he admitted he should have at least edited out their names and apologized. Great! You’d think that should be the end of it. I didn’t have anything against him at that point, but also had no desire/reason to associate with him, so I didn’t. A couple months go by. Some post comes across my dash. A girl in the community is doxxing her online ex-boyfriend in a callout post about him for unexpectedly breaking up with her because she “thinks” he was lying to her about serious issues and “believes” he was cheating on her. Because I’m a loud and opinionated person, and because that’s some heinous thing to do, I spoke out against it (via a post on my own blog without naming names, mind you, because I’m not going to hijack someone else’s post with negativity or call them out by name). The girl found it, assumed it was about herself, flipped out, and then of course I was the bad guy for saying doxxing isn’t okay. And then the person in question joins in. Not even to discuss the topic at hand, but to dredge up the old drama about how I was so mean to him and he did nothing wrong, etc. A pretty crappy 180 turn for a person who apologized and made it seem like there were no hard feelings, but whatever. Someone saw that he obviously didn’t like me, and seized the chance to try to talk shit and spread rumors because they knew he’d give them the platform. They sent him some anon about how I hate women (lmao). And of course, he published it, with no skepticism or disagreement, only more commentary about how I’m mean and awful. I went to respond, only to find myself blocked. So I went on about my life because it’s not that big of a deal, but hey. The moment you talk shit about me, especially in a venue where I can’t respond, especially facilitating some lies and BS rumors, especially after leading me to believe we’d made amends–you aren’t off limits. You don’t get spared niceness and politeness. Is that mean and petty? Probably.¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’ve never claimed to be a nice person.Now, to the horrible, awful thing I did to make this “public.” Fast forward to yesterday. I’d kept my mouth shut and left him alone. In a section of the RPC that doesn’t get a ton of traffic, largely because you have to make an account on the website and then manually opt in to this specific forum, several of us were discussing an absolutely awful person which is an unrelated story I won’t get into. Someone asked something along the lines of, “Are you guys talking about Underaged Looking Allagan Voidsent Chimera Demon Guy?” I responded with basically “No, we’re not talking about Underaged Looking Allagan Voidsent Chimera Demon Guy.” And that was it. We moved on with the conversation because he wasn’t who we’d been talking about. His name, tumblr, server info, in game race, class, etc. was all never given. No identifiable information beyond a very brief and tongue-in-cheek description of his RP character comprised of words taken directly from his own wiki, tumblr info, talk of his own character and RP posts.Someone saw the conversation, and based on our intentionally shitty description, was able to accurately guess who we were talking about and send him an anon to tell him about it. You’d think that would be pretty telling about his own RP, and this anon’s interpretation of it. He answered the anon in a long rant about me that featured both my in game name and my tumblr handle. In case you need me to spell this out for you, he went public with it first. I’ll also remind you that I was blocked, so I wasn’t/couldn’t be following him, and I was not properly @tagged in this rant, so I never would have seen it unless someone told/linked me, or someone I follow eventually reblogged it. And I honestly can’t imagine the level of narcissism it takes to write a long personal post full of wangst and victim-playing every time you hear a person had something negative to say about you or your RP character (not even by name–and by picking words from his own descriptions of his character), especially a person you have had issues with in the past and who you openly shit-talked yourself prior. Who does that? Lord knows my blog would be overflowing. Not everyone will like you, especially not people you jabbed at first. Especially not with an off the wall RP concept. Especially not with you trying to pass that concept is lore abiding and just “unusual.” Especially not with you trying to tell other people they’re “wrong” about the lore. Especially not with your character being a squicky, walking fetish and immortal jailbait. And that’s not even touching other things people have told me about this person that rubbed them the wrong way. Move on with your life.However, I found out about the post thanks to the OP himself when he unblocked me just to send me the link to the post and then before I could even read/respond to the post, sent me a barrage of IM’s still playing the innocent victim which is grating enough on its own but also included him straight up lying about ever posting/saying anything about me, insisting he’d done nothing to me, had nothing against me, this was so out of the blue and uncalled for, etc. When I pointed out this wasn’t the case, that I had seen and read the posts firsthand because blocking me doesn’t prevent me from seeing his posts, he began to lie instead about the contents of said posts and pulled some gaslighting bullshit about how I had just “misread” them, all the while either willfully or coincidentally not seeming to understand anything I said to him (I mentioned him publishing the anon about how I hate women at least twice and the response was always “I never said you hate women!!” Well no shit). He kept insisting that I had “gone behind his back” and that if I had a problem I should “say it to his face” despite the fact he’d had me blocked and that I’m not a douchey enough person to try to contact him despite that, and despite the fact that he had “gone behind my back” and not “said it to my face” twice now prior, and had done just that with his post about the folks from the RPC as well.He also insisted that the tumblr post was meant just to innocently “bring the issue to my attention to clear things up” despite me having no way to see it on my own unless by coincidence, and despite him proving to be willing and able to send me IM’s instead, which you’d think could render the need for a public post moot. When I pointed this out, he promptly deleted the post, lest anyone else see through his bullshit to what he was really trying to do.After my initial response to his wall of IM’s, he sent another wall this time with more insults and accusations, and promptly blocked me so I couldn’t respond. So yes, I made a vaguepost, I know, how awful, how dare I. A vague post vague enough that only someone who had seen his post, or who heard about it from him otherwise, would know who and what it was referencing. Until he responded to it himself, that is and unblocked me again to send me more angry messages to which I responded by permanently blocking him instead because this game of blocking and unblocking sure was getting old.Cue his charming friends sweeping in to tell me to eat a dick, making false accusations against my RP partner and I, sending me threats on Discord, telling people I flashed my breasts for money, etc. And the other person? The one who brought him up in the first place who I had only been responding to? Whose name he was given, was aired in the same public post on his blog as mine? As far as I know, she hasn’t gotten any hate, probably not a single message. And I’m glad, because she shouldn’t get any, she doesn’t deserve it. But at the same time, sure seems sketchy that the person who did the same exact thing as me–and who did it first–has not provoked anyone’s ire, not even been messaged. The public post in reply to the anon who named her, even, was aimed 100% at me. Now isn’t that funny. It’s almost like this was an excuse for people who already had beef with me to try to take shots at me and pretend it was justified. It’s almost like all you anon keyboard warriors don’t even know how this started or what actually happened.And now I’m going to talk about something else. You cannot do “whatever the hell you want” with your character. RP is a two-way (or more) street. There is a real person behind each and every character. These people are looking for fun just like you, and are every bit as deserving, and your fun shouldn’t impede on theirs. We are all allowed equal parts of fun.So when people play their weird ass lolicon/shotacon/pedobait characters, who is having fun? What if the other person in the RP was sexually abused as a child and you’re dredging up terrible old memories for them and making light of their pain? What if they’re a parent worried for their child, or worse, the parent of a child who’s already been abused? What if they’re an actual pedophile and seeing you RP this is tempting them, making them think they’re desires are normal and okay? Hell, what if they’re a goddamn ordinary person who finds it creepy and uncomfortable?What if the fetishized, futa ERP avatar is interacting with someone who is trans or nonbinary or intersex IRL? What if it’s triggering them (in the genuine, real sense of the word)? What if the walking affront against the lore character talking about being an Voidsent Half-Primal Garlean Spy in the middle of the Quicksand is ruining everyone’s immersion–particularly when they refuse to play along as others respond realistically IC and try to kill them or arrest them or kick them out? What if the OP af infinitely-stronger-than-everyone-else-around-him character is making the RP unfun for every other RPer involved because their characters can’t do anything but get beaten up or bow to his whims unless they stoop to godmodding or suddenly beefing up their own character?People can and will judge your character. Those judgments are usually best left kept themselves or quietly shared between trustworthy friends. But when your character trespasses on the OOC fun of the role-players around you? Sorry, my guy, people have every right to speak up. And all this nonsense? All this nonsense was a small handful of people who were already pretty nasty showing their true colors and getting told to pipe the fuck down. A pretty good outcome, if you ask me. So, please, block me, anon. My life will be better without idiots like you in it, and the same probably goes for anyone else you intend to block. Your nameless, ignorant, anonymous presence will not be missed–or noticed, for that matter.