#idk if it's a narrative choice because hes going to use it at a later date when shit really goes down (despite shit aslready going down NOW)

[kiun]

putting it out there that despite take’s entire story arc was being forbidden to use his lightning, something that’s essential to him as as person and as a god since hes the god of thunder, and a huge part of his character growth and development was him getting to use it again as a way to begin freeing himself from his elder shinki’s control, he actually hasn’t used his lightning since the heaven arc.

[luveline]

idk if this is interesting enough for a prompt, but stripper! reader (w/ either aaron or spencer, your choice :) ) where they get worried because they see her with large bruise on her side but really she just got it from a hard fall practicing a pole trick lol

ty for requesting! I thought it was more than interesting my love, 1.1k

cw past implied domestic/workplace violence

"Can I make a cup of tea or something?" 

Spencer lifts his chin before his gaze, hanging onto the line he's reading until he's finished somewhere manageable. Finally looking up, he says, "Sorry, what?" 

"Can I make some tea? Do you have anything like that? Or coffee?" you ask. 

He almost slips standing up. "I'll make you tea." 

"No, I can make it, you're reading. I just wanted to ask before I went rooting through your stuff." 

Spencer's smile is shiny, pretty, all manner of things. It says Don't be silly. "You don't have to ask, help yourself." He nudges you in your bad side. "Of course you can have tea. I'll make it." 

You wince at his contact but follow him into the kitchen without complaining. You're sick of your own narrative —yes, you're a stripper, yes, it's hard work, and you know these things but you're tired of having it be the constant identifier of your life. You really wish work stayed at work, but the half metre contusion spread up your ribs like a formidable stain won't go away. You want something warm to wash down a few painkillers and hopefully you'll fall asleep on his couch. Spencer doesn't make you go home when it gets late and you hate asking him if you can stay. Easier to knock out on his couch and have him throw a blanket over you. 

His mind must have drifted to the same place. "Did you wanna stay the night? It's getting kind of late." He opens the kitchen cabinet above the toaster oven for two mugs, and the cabinet below the sink for his stove top kettle. He peeks at you from over his shoulder when you fail to answer. "Or I can drive you home?" 

"I'll stay. Better chance of survival." 

He does that adorable nose-wrinkled frown. "I'm not a bad driver." 

"Do you have any of my cookies left?" 

You wouldn't usually ask, but you paid for them last time you came over, so you figure it's okay. 

"Sure, they're in the cabinet by the bread bin," he says, moving to the sink to fill the kettle with tap water. His face flicks between you and the task at hand. 

You open the cabinet above the bread bin, double doors creaking on their hinges. Your cookies are in a tupperware container on the very top shelf at the back. He'd probably tell you something about mould or weevils if you asked why they're up out of reach, but you're more focused on getting a sweet treat than anything. You'll ask later. You can listen to him talking until you fall asleep. 

"What is that?" 

"What's what?" you ask, though any further questioning is interrupted by your yelp, a cold hand touching your naked stomach as you set back down on your heels. 

"What happened?" Spencer asks, your shirt held by his pinky finger as his thumb moves over the bruise. It's like he's hoping it's make up to be rubbed away, and he's horrified when it stays undisturbed by his gentle touch. "Who did this? I swear, I'll–" 

"Your hands are cold," you interrupt, taking his hand in yours, peeling it off of your stomach. "And it's kind of tender, Spence." 

"What happened?" 

His tone leaves no room for jogging around. You're not reluctant to tell him for whatever reason he might assume… You and Spencer used to live very close to one another, and you'd see him at the local grocery store, a small place, without saying much. He'd smile at you. Occasionally say hi. Until one day your eye was swollen shut from the force of a cruel hand and he asked if there was anything he could do. So Spencer knows intimately how people have managed to hurt you, and he worries because it's his nature to worry. 

You'll have to tell him what happened, even if it's embarrassing, in order to wipe the concern off of his delicate features. He's angry and scared and sorry, and he has no reason to be any of those things. 

"I– okay, I wanted to practise this twist thing that Stassia showed me," you begin, meeting his eyes with bashful reproach, "you don't have to be so worried. I was practising, or trying to, but it gets cold in the private room and I was shivering and my hands were aching, so I thought I could put on my sweatpants and try again but, you know, you need the–" 

"Friction," he interrupts, looking down at your bruise with a rather ironic smile. "You fell off of the pole?" 

"Yes, and you don't have to sound so happy about it." 

"I'm not," he says, rubbing at the sore fat of your hip apologetically. "I'm glad it wasn't, you know, what I thought it was, but– I mean– how hard did you fall?" 

"I thought I broke my ribs." 

He laughs. It's as soft as his touch. "I bet you did…" 

"Any more touching and I'll think you want to tip me." 

Spencer laughs and winces simultaneously, dropping your shirt back into place and neatening the hem "Right, sorry." He steps back half a step before stepping forward again, his arms quick to wrap around you in a sweeping but brief hug. "Thanks for telling me." 

"Super sarcastic, Dr. Reid." 

He peels away from you to light the stove unsuccessfully. Your side is throbbing at being remembered, your head with embarrassment, and that cup of tea just isn't coming quick enough. The phantom of his fingerprints linger.

You follow Spencer to the stove and push your hip into his, pushing the stove top knob in with the sparker until it catches. 

"Don't make a joke about my hands." 

"I wasn't going to," he says earnestly. The back of his knuckles touch your elbow. "You could tell me the next time you do something like that. You should. I want to know if you have a bruise the size of a watermelon." 

"If I told you every time something was wrong with me we'd always be talking about what's wrong with me," you say, though you press your cheek to his shoulder appreciatively. 

"Good," he says simply. 

"Good," you repeat, surprised. 

You stay like that until the kettle whines, your cheek on his shoulder. Oddly, it's as though you've taken a weight off.

Spencer gives you the princess treatment for the rest of the night, as though helping him make dinner or washing the dishes will stop your bruise from healing. He even pops out to the store for a tube of arnica. It's, shamefully, one of the best days of your entire year, easily making the top ten, as most days with Spencer tend to do. 

[corvuscorona]

"You Never Forget Your First Love."

The other day, a mutual (hi! you know who you are I think probably hello hi! thank you for the Posting Impetus!) said something that made me curious (for, like, the 80th time, actually; lol. I Have Thoughts) about something: what's the split on people who subscribe to the "Stranger of Paradise probably intended for us to believe that Jack & Sarah were in love" mindset, vs. not? In general, but ESPECIALLY around these parts.

I genuinely didn't read it that way myself (& I do NOT normally give media (general) this much credit, but the writing in this game is sublime; I had no choice but to fully engage Scholar Mode on it), + I think it's interesting that SPECIFICALLY any of my fellow tumblr people / AO3-heads / Gay People Online / etc. seem to have. (I expect nothing from people who haven't been basting themselves in the same online sub-subcultures as me for over a decade. They're allowed to write wrong things on wikis, and have done so already; it's whatever.)

I wanna metapost badly again, so let's go. Join me. No poll. If you have an opinion on this, I'm looking directly into your eyes and beckoning you towards your own keyboard + also the reblog button / comment section, like a weird ghost. What did you think when you first played the game?? What do you think right now? What are you about to think after you have read a bunch of my words. Tell Me. I Need To Know This.

Spoilers for, idk, everything? Today we will use everything we've got to talk about Princess Sarah.

1. As a Narrative Element

This game makes a point of referring to Sarah as things like "a symbol of hope and peace" as often as possible, & when it isn't doing that she's usually in the role of An Object Or Device Of Some Kind, anyway. She's important because she's capable of holding light and dark in balance & SOMEONE'S gotta hold onto this dark crystal for safekeeping, and also we're gonna need to upset that balance on purpose later. There's that conversation in the Wicked Arbor about whether the Strangers would "choose" her (as opposed to "treasure") as the "reward" for succeeding in their mission[1], & there's the one in the Sunken Shrine where Jed asks Jack what he thinks of her and Jack says that he doesn't care about her as a person[2] BUT that protecting her is mission-critical (lol), too.

Sarah's death is metaphorically charged. It's the point of no return: the dark crystal breaks, the balance of light & dark gets extremely ruined, & Literally All The Darkness In Cornelia converges in one place (Fool's Missive XXVII). That's the payoff for the "symbol of hope and peace" motif, and communicating this idea that "the metaphorical light of hope just For Real Died, Like Catastrophically Imploded, No Take-Backs" feels to me like it was the highest priority here. Second-highest goes to "Jack had way more humanity before, but he set it aside on purpose and is actively in the middle of losing the rest of it." "Sort of." "I'm not getting into what counts as humanity or doesn't because if I did we would be here forever."

Basically, I'm saying that the tidiest read on the situation is "Jack despairs because Sarah dying means in a very literary and final way that everything is ruined forever, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with, like, Love (romantic)." I don't think the text of the game is particularly signaling that Love (romantic) is involved, and I think that if it meant to, it would be more obvious about it. You could bundle "an romance" into the "humanity" thing if you wanted to, but I'm not inclined to, based on some additional list items that you can read below this one.

[1] The fact that Neon ALSO says she feels bad for her for being thought of in this way only reinforces my conviction that the game is pointing at Sarah & yelling "REMEMBER THAT SHE IS MOSTLY A SYMBOL!", tbh. Who wants to go point out how freaky the mechanics of Being An Royalty are w/ me and the boys??

[2] I will give the Wiki WrongPosters this: I can totally see this as some kind of irony thing, given that he's still missing like a fucktillion of his memories when he says it. However! As mentioned above, I have other reasons not to read it as evidence that he was ever, like, romantically interested in her.

2. As a Sheltered Youth™

We don't have a TON of information to work with RE: Sarah as, like, a person, but here are a couple of hard facts to start with: she's 19 (per the data book, but she'd have to be somewhere in the 18-to-early-20's age range regardless or her whole deal wouldn't really make much sense, imo. She's a baby...!), and she's royalty. I think this ties into her utility as a walking metaphor, among other things; she's archetypically young, fresh, & idealistic. I'd call her naïve but the game obviously isn't interested in portraying it as a weakness, so positive words only; why not.

You could argue that people look to her as a symbol of hope because she hasn't directly experienced enough strife to exhibit hopelessness or fear in response to bad news in the abstract. I find it interesting that before Jack, like, knocks the wind out of her & tells Sophia to take her outside so she can see for herself how bad things have gotten at the end of the game, she says that her duty is to die with her people if she has to, & it doesn't even seem to occur to her that she could lead at least some of them away to safety...? When she changes her mind, she still talks about herself as a symbol before she ever uses the word "leader". She sees HERSELF in terms of symbols and metaphors, and takes action based on her designated role As One Of Those. Not very practical.

There's also the dialogue you can have with the queen the first time you're allowed to run around in the throne room at the beginning of the game, where she asks Jack to smile in front of her daughters (NOT just Mia; daughters, plural). Even if she only means "dude can you be polite please," the fact that this is The thing she has to say to Jack is telling. Is it going to upset your 19-year-old daughter to see that the Guy Whose Job It Is To Kill Monsters looks serious? Why do you think this? Does your 19-year-old daughter understand how serious the situation is, generally speaking? Do you not WANT her to for some reason? Boats don't work anymore unless a weird elf messes with them first. Not thinking very hard about the implications of this is something a sheltered person does.

Residual time loop un-memories aside, a young woman in this situation is so obviously going to have a huge crush on Jack Garland no matter what. He Is So Cool, first of all, & he's also Different from the adult men she gets to see on an everyday basis (family, guards, rando townspeople[3]...). It's not like the political social scene could POSSIBLY be thriving in this world, either; it all seems to be one kingdom we're dealing with and they're kind of busy with the external threat of being Under Fucking Attack By Monsters. Does she even get fun treats like "handsome visiting dignitaries" & what-have-you? The game doesn't present us with any potential options, here. Jack is mysterious, he has special-boy Warrior of Light status, his one job & apparent life's purpose is protecting the kingdom she loves, he's pretty nice to her (even in later cycles he at least goes out of his way to be polite!), & additionally, he's shredded. THIS makes sense to me.

There's a Q&A in the data book that has something to say about JACK as a symbol & what that has to do with this whole thing but we'll get there. We'll get there.

[3] Tangent: what's up with how Cornelia's entire adult male population appears to consist of aging queens. Why did they only make models that look Like That for the NPCs? It's awesome but I have 1 quastion

3. JACK JUMPSCARE !

I'm not about to say that he's just humoring her, or anything, but please humor ME for one second & put yourself in Jack's shoes. Not the default shoes; we can have more fun than that. Maybe the Banded Boots. Blurple ones? Shaped like a cartoon would wear them? Big spikes on the back for no reason? I love those things. Anyway, you're Jack. You're working for literally the king, & the work means Everything to you for reasons you can't even necessarily explain except to say that it JUST does. The king's eldest daughter (very young adult; Never Been Outdoors; a little overly-sociable but nice enough & what do you expect from a princess, anyway) has imprinted on you like a duckling for whatever reason. You would be nice to this person, yes? You'd be patient with her while you're in town. You have Brutal Murders to be doing, but not until, like, 2 days from now, or whatever; you're sharing space with her in some capacity in the meantime & it's in your best interests to keep her happy. (You probably even enjoy doing this, if you're Jack of a Way Earlier Cycle; I'm in no way ruling that out. Sharing your music collection with an enthusiastic Baby Adult? That's fun. I think he was probably having fun. Okay, you can step out of the fun purple shoes if you want; the Humoring Me Minute has concluded; thanks.)

Also, @2000sanimeop and I think that if Jack felt that way about her Astos would have been a little More Something about how much it was gonna suck for him when she died. In Fool's Missive XXVII he uses the word "painful," but that's about it. He doesn't even bring it up in XXV, which is the one where he says he's curious about whether she'd survive being turned into a fiend (side note: Astos fucking rocks. Why did he write that down?? I love him). & Hey SPEAKING OF ASTOS,

4. I wouldn't put Jackstos on a wiki, either.

The writing in Stranger of Paradise, SERIOUSLY, WITHOUT EXAGGERATION, is some of the best I've seen in literally anything ever. It suits not just its medium but also its sort of Place in History Relative to Other Video Games & the things it chose to DO with that medium & that niche INSANELY well. It is CUSTOMIZED. It's SO INTENTIONAL. I can't get too far into this or we'll be here all day, but the essence of what I want to say here is: there are relatively few facts presented to us by this game, compared to the implications we can go about drawing from those facts & other, external sources of context.

Sarah calls Jack her first love; that's a fact. No facts are presented to us that REALLY say much one way or the other[4] about what Jack thinks of this, himself; "fucktillion memories missing" Jack says he doesn't care, but he's missing a fucktillion of his memories, and DLC2 Jack has a set of dialogue options (hi Anne the Malboro I love you Anne the Malboro) that can point either way depending on what the player chooses, which is kind of nothing, on balance. As the audience, we can (should!) draw whatever conclusion we want about it, but none of those conclusions are text.

[4] I WILL GET TO THE DATA BOOK IN ONE SECOND. HOLD ON.

And, okay, please let me level with you. Let's be on the same page. Jack & Astos had some kind of thing going on, imo, OBVIOUSLY, but I want to be CLEAR and I want to get CREDIT for the things I'M bringing to the table to help generate this conviction. I drew that conclusion & I read that reading based on subtext, context, personal history, personal preference, & sheer gay zest for life. It is also, emphatically, NOT TEXT.

Astos refers to Jack with the ol' "...friend" in Fool's Missive XXI. He calls him "my Jack" in Fool's Missive XXXI. Canonically, textually, he has some big fucking COMPLICATED fucking feelings about this man. These are facts. If you're playing this game as Some Guy, I can see how you could potentially absorb these facts & still pay them much less regard[5] than I did & continue to. My argument here is that god I wish I lived in a world where Some Guy could extend the same courtesy to me and not treat Sarah's textual affection for Jack as something that necessarily indicates Some Kind Of Reciprocal Romantic Whatever, Definitely, Obviously, Of Course.

[5] Longer Tangent: I have been informed that the Some Guys of the world are currently pretty good at Recognizing a character that behaves in a way that's Pretty Gay, but tend to stop there, possibly for the combined reasons that A. they're not very familiar with a lot of the the ways gay relationships often work (you know, soul resonance. mutual recognition. sharing a brain etc.) and B. the Object Of Affection is usually the player character and they subconsciously shy away from thinking of a Guy They're Supposed To Identify With as gay. This is practically a lead-in to an entire separate post I could make, so I'll leave it at that, lol.

The writing is too good for that kind of assumption! I'M SERIOUS!! It's mind-blowingly subtle & endlessly fascinating to hold up to the light & view from every possible angle, and "Jack & Sarah were in love" + "Jack & Astos were in love" are BOTH ANGLES. I'm personally very very interested in giving the text credit for that. I think it's impressive. I think it's really, really cool, and I think it was on purpose. Speaking of which,

5. Word of God agrees with me, btw

This is from the Q&A section on page 156 of the Confidential File. The translations below are my own (I think they're straightforward enough, but lmk if you know more than me & I'm actually being stupid in there somewhere. Alt text has the JPN, if you want to copypaste it or something). Someone asked:

Why is it that you established Garland as someone Sarah has a romantic interest in?

The answer is from Daisuke Inoue (director, one of 3; the other 2 are from Team Ninja; he's from Square Enix):

That was because, from a narrative standpoint, we wanted Sarah to be the kind of person who holds onto hope. You can imagine that she saw the "hope" to save the world in Jack, a potential Warrior of Light. Sarah is seen by her people as a symbol of a bright future, but if there were nobody to give her hope, that might destabilize her emotionally. As for whether she felt genuine love for Jack, or just mistook her feelings of admiration towards him for "first love," we'll leave that to your interpretation.

The first time I read this, I thought the question was implying the aforementioned Reciprocal Something, but on closer inspection that doesn't even seem to be true! "思い人" seems to indicate a directional relationship; as in, the question assumes that Jack is an object of affection to Sarah, but assumes nothing about what Jack thinks.

Also, the answer uses the word "初恋" (hatsukoi), which is a very established Concept as far as "first love" goes, but in that one cutscene, Sarah says "初めての恋" (hajimete no koi), which is. Different, but I couldn't tell you how, lol. It's Not The Exact Same Phrase, but I'm not sure whether it's meaningfully different in this context. If I had to guess, I'd say that IF ANYTHING it could be a way of saying "first love" without invoking the cultural CONSTRUCT of First Love (as much)? But it's whatever. The localization holds up. All sources show that Sarah had Feelings about Jack, and all sources CONSPICUOUSLY neglect to mention Jack's feelings about her.

It was on purpose. This is my license to be as annoying as I want for one second here. I am right. All the other writing in this game is notably subtle, efficient, intentional, and skilled, AND ALSO, WHEN do you ever see anyone write such a richly beautiful, mostly-subtextual relationship between two men, which can easily be read as a romantic thing, and NOT explicitly canonize a very possible romantic relationship between at least one of those men and a woman, like not even in an interview or anything. What the fuck, man.

I'm putting away the Respectable Scholar Hat now. This is so funny. The person asking this question didn't EVEN go as far as assuming Jack & Sarah had any kind of Actual Romance going on, & the answer STILL dials it back to "she might have been conflating her feelings about Jack AS A SYMBOL with actual affection, also. We'll let you decide : ) ". This game is everything ever.

[anbroids]

as homestuck gets older and becomes more and more of a period piece i think it’s really interesting to see how continuations and fanworks take different approaches to maintaining that or not.

and i don’t want to outright say one is superior to the other. i think if you can find ways to introduce aspects of more contemporary pop culture or politics or technology into homestuck as a framework and still make it an interesting intentional choice then that’s a big achievement and not something to be scoffed at just by virtue of it being divergent from homestuck proper.

i think in a lot of ways it can keep it fresh and add a layer of relatability to the fans that grew up on it. after all, i think hussie was intending to make (or perhaps just coincidentally happened to make) homestuck relatable to his particular demographic of young adults on the internet in the late 2000s / early 2010s. i think rereading homestuck in my 20s really solidified this to me that homestuck was not intended to be a story about kids for kids but rather a story for adults about childhood and growing up. it’s funny that it wasn’t more obvious to me back then, or maybe i did pick up on it but i just didn’t really think about it all that much? because it’s so obvious. there’s so much 80s and 90s kid nostalgia in it and the tropes that the characters portray were already outdated or at least didn’t even really exist like they used to by 2009. and in many ways the characters themselves outgrow their own tropes and then later acknowledge it in the work itself both as time progresses and the narrative develops into something more complex and the characters become increasingly multi-dimensional.

i guess it’s just an interesting question to me. is having content in a story that will indefinitely age the work a “good” or “bad” choice? and several years down the line, will we be able to tell what choices were intentionally made so that it would one day be reflective of the state of technology / political landscape / pop culture at the time?

artists who set out to make their work as timeless as possible do kind of miss out on the opportunity to be a time capsule later on. or just generally representative of the climate it was created in, which is something that i think a lot of us can both appreciate but also find pretty unsavory about homestuck proper (cough dancestors cough) but then can i really say i wish those unsavory parts of homestuck didn’t exist? idk. they aren’t fun to read but i like that they make me think critically about the flaws of that particular part of internet history.

politics aside i think the fact that there’s a homestuck panel that incorporates vine is so cool. because it sort of inadvertently swallowed up a piece of internet history that would come to disappear into its already massive time capsule of media and pop culture and hussie didn’t even know. it’s just cool to me idk.

at the same time i think younger artists and writers that really prioritize keeping homestuck grounded in its era of internet and even going so far as to honor the nostalgia of an older generation is something i really admire and appreciate. and this is something that is becoming more common as homestuck ages (and becomes more of a period piece etc etc). i often find myself at a crossroads between exploring contemporary elements in my work and trying to emulate homestuck’s original tone and time period for the sake of preserving that integrity. like man. i could go on about this for such a long time because i feel like it’s just a really interesting discussion to see what we weigh as a meaningful divergence and refreshing change from homestuck proper vs what compromises the (for lack of better phrasing lol) “feels like homestuck” factor.

i think the discussions about sexuality and gender identity towards the end of comic and then further in the epilogues is an obvious example of this. hussie didn’t necessarily shy away from nuances of gender and sexuality but he didn’t really address them outright with labels either for the majority of homestuck proper until the end when other writers got involved. in early act 6 dirk is explicitly stated as gay (insert disney diversity win meme blah blah blah) but the character himself, which i feel like is an interesting reflection of hussie and homestuck’s general feelings about the topic of identity and labels (if i may speculate lmao), considers the act of labeling his sexuality as sort of this out of date, irrelevant thing in the grand scheme of things. whether that be in reference to who he is or what’s going on in the comic or a more metanarrative choice of hussie’s. some people interpret this to be a kind of admission of shame or maybe dirk just being pretentious but i personally interpret this as hussie kind of just being like. i don’t really want to spend too much time Talking about characters being gay i just want them to exist in the story and Be Gay. similarly to how the trolls don’t have a concept of sexuality in the same way the human characters do. it gives hussie an opportunity to have characters do Objectively gay things, from the reader’s perspective, without having to spell out their relationships to their own sexualities by real societal standards in the work itself when he was clearly more interested and comfortable talking about the trolls’ relationships to their fictional societal ones. and i think as a writer i find that pretty fair. (and yeah yeah i know another aspect of dirk’s whole deal is that he’s from the future so of course he would say that / the trolls are from another planet and all of this is in comedic foil to john i am not a homosexual egbert as the protagonist but i digress. idk i’m really only speculating here and maybe projecting lol)

bc tbh i also kind of shudder at the thought of writing gay characters who are always expected to spell out their identities to the audience when i’d rather just have them Do Actual Gay Things. (using gay as an umbrella term for lgbt+ yada yada). personally i’d rather have a scene where a character binds their chest to reveal an aspect of their gender presentation rather than feel obligated to spell out their relationship to their identity in words and explicit labels and also describe exactly how they Feel About All That. not because i want to cop out on representation and have their identities be totally open to interpretation necessarily, but more-so because i think it becomes exhausting sometimes as a gay person myself to have to keep acknowledging a character’s State of Differentness as obviously as possible every time i put a gay person in a piece of art.

not that i don’t find narratives that exclusively or heavily talk about and center themselves around identity and being in a State of Differentness in very outright ways important. to me that’s something very different and meaningful in completely different ways that can’t be accurately compared here. there are plenty of homestuck fanworks that make discussions of gender and identity a large priority that i think are extremely meaningful and one of the biggest reasons why i came back to homestuck after all these years and still really love the community of artists and writers that engage with it in this way. i think it’s an extremely wonderful thing, especially because with the homestuck community so niche, it really feels like a group of people spreading art that is, by a large majority, by gay people and for gay people. but in narratives that are not specifically centered around that, or has not centered themselves about that previously (like homestuck several acts into the comic) i can totally see how it comes across as off-putting. i think sometimes there’s a slippery slope with bigger projects with a large audience where the existence of gay characters in the work start to read as teaching tools for non-[insert identity here] or virtue signaling. i.e. it stops feeling like media that the reader can identity with as a gay person and more like media that is trying to represent gayness “accurately and positively” for a straight reader (or perhaps a gay reader who is completely new to their identity and appreciate this kind of easy-to-swallow and comfortable introduction). i find that in cases like this, the “representation” more often than not falls into the pitfall of being extremely generalized and sterilized or even stereotypical. which is a whole conversation in itself. bc when an identity is always easy to digest and understand, it risks reducing this character to the identity itself. water is wet i guess lol. idk it’s just a tricky balance. but definitely something i think about a lot when i’m engaging with contemporary homestuck fanwork.

long aside but. all of this to say. i just find it interesting to see how homestuck, as a kind of specific multimedia form of art and storytelling online that seemed to set a new precedent for the webcomic format at large, has taken on a genre of its own like any piece of art does that is unique and off the beaten path in its execution. idk it just makes me think of art history in general. like it’s fascinating to me to see something like homestuck which was once very new and fresh to me become a piece of art that has aged enough to open discussion about approaching the framework of homestuck in either a traditional or contemporary way. as a continuation or a fanwork or an homage. i guess the only point i’m trying to make here is that i don’t think one is better than the other and there’s something i appreciate about both.

i feel like i’m kind of avoiding the elephant in the room here which is that there’s a lot of discussion going on right now about maintaining consistency with homestuck proper in the current continuation with homestuck2 and that’s sort of a whole other can of worms i don’t really want to get into. but i would like to acknowledge how interesting it is that these discussions really obviously highlight how fast memes get “stale” nowadays in the current state of social media and everything seems to exist in a perpetual state of blink-and-you-miss-it virality. i really sympathize with the homestuck2 team who i’m sure are feeling a huge amount of pressure to strike a balance between making something refreshing / relatable to the current homestuck audience and also maintaining the “feels like homestuck” factor. all the while attempting to fulfill as many reader wishes as possible within reason. (not to mention the standard of “reason” being extremely subjective) it’s not an easy thing to do and definitely a hugely different creative process than the one hussie went through during early homestuck days. each with their own complicated hoops to jump through in terms of Making Art People Will Engage With.

[akiizayoi4869]

Zuko's Fever Dream

This dream that Zuko has when he's going through his little "metamorphosis" (odd choice of words there, Iroh) didn't make sense to me years ago as a little kid, and it still really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me now🤣. Like, if nothing else, this dream is a prime example, and a damn good one at that, of dreams not making sense. It shows Zuko as the Fire Lord, which makes sense, seeing as all he wanted at that point was to return home and claim his birthright (even if said birthright was never his to begin with). He's surrounded by a group of Fire Nation soldiers and two dragons, who are revealed as Azula and Iroh.

The dragon that is supposed to be Azula says this:

"It's getting late. Are you planning to retire soon, my Lord?"

"I'm not tired."

"Relax, Fire Lord Zuko. Just let go. Give in to it. Shut your eyes for a while."

As we see in these two images here, he almost does give in to what she's saying and almost falls asleep until the red dragon speaks up.

"No, Fire Lord Zuko! Do not listen to the blue dragon. You should get out of here right now. Go! Before it's too late!"

"Sleep now, Fire Lord Zuko."

"Sleep. Just like Mother!"

That whole dialogue exchange just doesn't make sense. The last bit that's said is interesting, and it also implies something that's disturbing on Zuko’s end: that he thinks for some reason that Azula, who was either 8 or 9 years old at the time, had something to do with Ursa's disappearance/death. Why does he think that? It doesn't make any sense to assume that his little sister had anything to do with that. It would have made more sense to have Zuko think that Ozai had something to do with it.

I guess you can interpret this dialogue as a sort of nod to their current circumstances. Azula is hunting down Zuko and Iroh for Ozai. By her telling Zuko to close his eyes and sleep, it's making him vulnerable to her, easy to capture. But then Iroh shouts at him not to fall asleep and to leave now while he still can. By doing that, Zuko can avoid being captured. That actually makes sense to me. But if this was supposed to be foreshadowing the eventual betrayal that was coming two episodes later, they could have chosen better dialogue.

The only part about this dream sequence that interests me somewhat is that Azula is portrayed as the devil on Zuko's shoulder, while Iroh is supposed to be the angel. Which, at this point in time, makes sense for Zuko to view the two of them like this. Azula is trying to capture him and Iroh, not to mention the rivalry he had going on with her thanks to Ozai’s abuse. Iroh has been the one family member he's had since Ursa left who has always been there for him. What's frustrating about this is that the narrative never makes Zuko question his views about these two. Iroh is obviously not this perfect angel who can do no wrong. He is very much a morally gray character who has done a ton of fucked up and sketchy shit. Azula isn’t the evil in Zuko's life that he must take down no matter what. That was Ozai. The fact that the narrative never challenges Zuko on his views on these two just stunts his character growth and is proof that he's not done growing.

Finally, we get up to my favorite part of this bizarre dream🤣

This shit. Wtf is this monstrosity😭. Were the writers thinking of the freaking fusion dance from DBZ when they thought of this? It literally looks like a fusion between Aang and Zuko. No wonder the poor boy woke up screaming. If that was me, I would have woken up screaming, too. The last bit of this scene was another thing that stood out to me.

Zuko touches his scar here as a way to reassure himself that he's still him. It just interested me because in an odd way, the scar is like a sort of comfort for him here? I guess? Idk. Maybe comfort isn't the right word to use. But this part just felt like something worth pointing out.

[angelsdean]

okay continuing my critique on 1x09 Home and how it just fell flat for me narratively, despite having a really good concept in theory, I have to talk about Missouri and her interactions with Dean. To be clear, this is NOT a knock on Missouri as a character, but about the writing choices made throughout the episode with how she speaks to Dean in juxtaposition to how she interacts with Sam.

First off, this is a Kripke episode so, all my criticism is directed at that man !!! So, throughout the whole episode they made the choice to have Missouri be harsher to Dean than Sam. There's a lot of this "teasing scolding" thing she does with him, which I probably wouldn't complain about this in any other circumstance because it's clearly supposed to function as comedic relief, but in this episode specifically it feels tonally off and misplaced. Like, they're coming back to their old house where something very traumatic happened. The episode should feel heavy for them (which, the fact that it doesn't is something I've talked abt already and my main critique). Dean is the one with actual memories of that night and that house and Missouri would know that and would know that it would be harder for him to face that house than Sam, so I really do not get Kripke's choice to write her treating Dean harsher than Sam in this ep.

Like almost every interaction w/ Dean is some kind of teasing or dismissing comment. And again, a lot of them are harmless and wouldn't even bother me IF it weren't this episode where it's clear this is supposed to be hard and traumatic for them (but Dean specifically!!) Like just starting off with the "you were a goofy looking kid" and "if you put your foot on my coffee table i'll whack you with a spoon" like…tonally these comments just feel out of place. The goofy looking kid one just doesn't make sense to me since John went to Missouri just days after the fire, and 4 yr old baby dean was not ? goofy looking ? That's the sort of comment you make when you're talking about the awkward pre-teen stage or something, imo. The foot on the coffee table comment just seems unnecessary to me and once again trying to go for that comedic relief angle but it just falls flat for me in the context of this ep.

And then this trend continues with saying Dean's not the sharpest tool in the shed (reinforcing this perception the narrative has of painting Dean as the "dumber one") Dismissing him using an EMF reader and saying it's "amateur", despite the fact that the EMF works perfectly fine and does, in fact, alert to the presence of spirits. Every time Dean asks questions or voices an objection Missouri dismisses him or explains things to Dean in a patronizing way and it's notable because she doesn't act this way with Sam at all. Then later, when the house is a mess from the poltergeist, Missouri tells Jenny the mom, not to worry about the mess because Dean will clean this all up, and snaps at him specifically to get to work.

And again, it just feels really weird and misplaced. And I'm fully directing my criticism at Kripke and asking WHY. What was the reason? It also feels like a lot of these interactions were playing into stereotypes of the "sassy" black woman which is just very :/ Like idk I'm just not sure what Krikpe's reasoning was for writing these interactions and for the clear juxtaposition in how Missouri interacts sympathetically toward Sam but dismissive toward Dean. Especially in an episode where I feel like it would have made the most sense to make Dean the POV character / central focus since he IS the one with memories and trauma of that house and that night.

I think the choice to make this the episode where they introduce Sam's psychic powers really took away from a lot of what the episode should have been about: going back home after the message of "you can never go home" and Dean swearing to himself he never would, and confronting that trauma and literally seeing their mother's ghost !! That should've been the focus IMO. Like they should've introduced Sam's visions in a different episode. Then had those visions take them to Lawrence, let the focus be on Dean, with Sam seeking help / guidance from Missouri on his visions as the side-plot. AND THEN, have Missouri continue to show up as a recurring character helping Sam with his psychic visions and also filling a Bobby-like role as someone they go to for cases / lore / information. Missouri says, "Don't you boys be strangers" at the end of the episode and then they don't see her again for over a decade !!!! Kripke, I am once again asking, WHY.

[causesciencethatswhy]

Was thinking how we get confirmation of some of the things years later. Like in today's ep jm said him, jk (confirmed) and either one of jin and yg (jm was a bit confused who but it could also be that yoonjin both left later like jikook) were the last ones to leave their dorm and remember how we used to think jikook "might" live together cause they used to share car alot during 2019-2021. Now idk exactly when they left their dorms but i do know the news of RM and jm buying house in nine one hit the media around june 1st 2021. Also that one BTS video where the boys were interviewing e/o and jk asked jm what was the most enjoyable thing these days and jm replied "The most enjoyable thing these days is waking up and seeing jungkook" idr but wasn't it around 2019-2020 when he said that? And jikook and yoonjin used to share car, jikook the most of times so i think yup jikook used to live in the shared apartment be it dorm or whatever that is. So we were basically right.

Intersting thing is even after RM and jm buying house we still saw jikook sharing cars now idk why that. Yes when minimoni brought their houses they shared car but it was like only few times but jikook still has shared cars few times here nd there so i wonder why is that maybe they love sharing cars or their houses are near or etc etc.

Maybe as the besties they're when it comes to car sharing they just simply put these two together knowing they have shared it before too. Remember how they shared car 4 days of concerts in LV? There's another thing who's confirmation we got way later but i don't remember that now but yeah.

Also the way tkkrs be like "but jungkook don't cook for jm he doesn't even have jm's number" both got denied in this ep....i know it's only them who believed their shit theories but they're sooo many in number and they spread it everywhere so it's like thousands of them i think like 99% of them belive that shit. "Jungkook doens't have jm's number why is it a problem it happens people don't have e/o's numbers why are you blaming tkkrs for it" i remember mfkr dionysustkk tweeting this. The way i wanna bitch slap that identity crisis human. Like bitch not only he has jm's number (sounds so fking silly to say even) he literally knows jm's House password and walks like he knows the place and even cook for the two of them so you can sit in a corner and cry me some river

Thank you for this mini timeline compilation anon!

I found it interesting that jimin knew for sure that jk was still with him at the dorms but couldn't confirm whether yoonjin were there too. Seems like a detail you'd recall I feel, unless you were spending a majority of your time with one person. And if we are to go by your timeline it does seem that even after moving out jikook seemed to have made a deliberate choice to take the same car on multiple occasions. I do think there was a period in mid 2021 and early 2023 where jkk were maybe not seeing each that frequently based on some of their conversations, but this docu has really made me re evaluate a lot of these assumptions.

Since 2020, we have gotten almost 1/3 the amount of behind the scenes ot7 content and that definitely had an impact on many peoples assumptions on the members relationships. It's why certain "groups" felt more confident in proclaiming that jikook were never close or only fanservice.

Tkkrs and their cult leaders will never stop in their attempts at undermining jikooks relationship with false narratives. It's something I didn't understand the need of when I first entered shipping spaces because if you believe tkk are real and in a healthy relationship, then why would assuming jikook are close friends, in any way would come in the way of that? Why did jimin need to be the villain in their theories so bad? It's only now that I kinda get that as a tkkr, they can't possibility perceive that tkk are in a 'genuine and healthy' relationship if they have to take jikook at face value. Cause the way those two interact and prioritise one another, does really throw tkkrs off gaurd. Which is why so much of their belief and foundation hinges on all of jkks interactions being fake and forced and jk secretly hating jm. Because the alternative cannot be that they're 'close friends" for them, once they start 'really seeing' jikook for the way they are around one another, it disturbs their perfect ideal.

Not saying that there's no possibility that jikook are in fact just close friends after all, but I think once you do see that underlying spark that makes one go "?" ,it's kind of hard to unsee it.

[gaycodedvillainy]

Ok y’all can thank the Naruto server for this one coming up, but we were talking about Itachi’s really erratic motives — specifically how he seems to say one thing and do another where his brother is concerned, and how for a supposed “genius” his plans are usually either self defeating or rely on events he wouldn’t have known about to come about.

If we take the theory that he was used via Shisui’s eye, his lack of clear logical reasoning around the whole event would make sense. Shisui’s eye (for anyone having forgotten) is capable of total hypnosis, but only once every 10 years.

That it’s a complete hypnotism would explain why his story never quite adds up like it should, even once it’s all allegedly told. (He still can’t make it add up to himself either.) But he also can’t question it exactly — but this sort of makes his logic fall apart weirdly as it builds on a faulty narrative which conflicts with his stated goals… etc.

Also Itachi not just either going ahead and using it to hypnotize Sasuke to begin with instead of the weird bird swallowing BS mess or just not doing that didn’t even make sense to the people he was explaining all this to at the time. (Bee straight up asks him why he wasted so much time making Naruto eat some bird if this was the plan.)

However if he either had a weird priority tree via hypnosis which fucked up his already existing plans *or* someone thought using Sasuke to KO a few big hitters before being ultimately hypnotized back into being controlled (less likely option… but also perhaps an already tested strategy?). But like slipping “and then get hypnotized into protected Konoha for some fucking reason idk” into the little brother repeating history for a Mangyeko criteria could work especially if it had actually happened in that order before

This is why I wonder if he had the same drive forced into him. Because “ok whatever, but you have to protect Konoha no matter what” as an impulse drive which was also counter to his actual priority tree would definitely make for a lot of the same erratic choices…

And who had a plausible motive (and also very little canon characterization to say he wouldn’t do this)?

And there he says it, to Itachi, notably still in possession of the eye (which does not need to be in your body to be used, as proven when Itachi uses it later without grafting it to himself).

And furthermore, this took place ten years before Itachi is talking to Naruto here, explaining that he couldn’t use Shisui’s eye earlier both because it needed to charge for 10 years and because he was ethically opposed (except where his brother was concerned I fucking guess….) Meaning that it had been used and that he must have had some way of knowing this besides checking it.

Now we know that Shisui was prevented by Danzo from using his eye to help with the whole Uchiha Coup situation, and whether he committed suicide or faked his death (a lot can be argued for the latter) this was the last time he had either eye, so barring other evidence or a different use for it, I think he used it here to override Itachi’s priorities.

[zutaralesbian]

My Fable ships:

Fable 1:

Hero of Oakvale/Whisper: I think Whisper truly cared for him but her jealousy and competitiveness often got in the way (which wasn’t helped by Thunder putting so much unfair pressure on her tbh). But it’s shown when she tells him that she will absolutely refuse to kill him if she wins their battle in the arena, and when she wants to properly say goodbye and apologize to him before leaving the guild. Idk. I think their dynamic has a lot of potential for a good childhood frenemies to lovers story.

Hero of Oakvale/Emily (aka teddy bear girl): Emily is such a blink and you’ll miss her character but I feel like it’d be kind of sweet for the hero to end up with someone who knows and understands at least a small part of his trauma. Whenever I play the game, I usually buy a house and marry a random woman in Bowerstone simply because I like the house there best. But if I had the option to marry Emily, I’d absolutely settle in Oakvale for storytelling purposes.

Fable 2:

Sparrow/Hammer: I used to be into Sparrow/Reaver when I was younger and I apologize in advance, since I know that’s probably still the more popular ship. But as an adult now I personally can’t stand Reaver, especially knowing how he’s portrayed in Fable 3. I find that I LOVE Sparrow/Hammer now though (especially with fem Sparrow). Let them be best friends to lovers lesbians please.

Fable 3:

Tbh I never finished Fable 3 because back when it first came out, I wasn’t really a fan 😬 I’m going to give it another chance though, once I finish my replays of 1 and 2.

That said, from what I do remember of it, I think I like the hero with Elliot/Elise. Angsty first love narratives always gets to me. I know not choosing to sacrifice them and later stealing them from their current fiancé after reuniting with them is technically the ‘evil’ choice, but I’m totally doing that.

[logicmaru]

i love how ranmaru kageyama is doomed by the narrative from the very fucking beginning and i hope his minisode is even more miserable.

warning i'm gonna talk a lot. ranmaru is very blatantly described as a boring guy, who's underneath the average height for guys, doesn't have any notable likes or dislikes, unless you count his hatred for happy couples + people who are happy in general, which ngl comes into play later

i'm gonna try and explain this as simply as i can bc if i try to word it like an essay i'll confuse myself aha,,,,

it kind of shows us that ranmaru can get jealous pretty easily? and he's upset at the kind of trust keiji and sara share, even though he probably knows that's because they've known each other longer than sara's known ranmaru, but it probably still pisses ranmaru off idk

he wants to prove himself to sara, even though sara already sees him as something alike to an ally, but he wants something more than that. in the logic sara deleted scene, ranmaru states that he would want to be sara's best friend, and he admits how wants to go home with her and laugh casually over jokes together and treat life like nothing's wrong

i like to believe this was deleted because it would be ooc for ranmaru, that he would probably be very reluctant of sharing such an ideal with sara, and him suddenly spilling about wanting to be sara's friend in one moment would probably cause more shock factor, and not do much good for the lore, idk it just seems very "ah omg" and less "how interesting"

i really love how ranmaru is. not a good person. i know how strange that sounds, but ranmaru is, kind of, in a way, a support character for sara. And u would think, well support character, must be someone kindhearted and encouraging, right? well, in ranmaru's case, yes, but no?? he's more like "i will go to lengths for your survival, you NEED to win" instead of "you got this! i'll help you escape!" and it's somewhat refreshing? i'm not sure maybe i'm just not normal

anyway enough about evil ranmaru, emotion ranmaru is just very Sad, and again, doomed by the narrative

he doesn't get any kind of character development iirc, in the infamous ransara "win for me" scene, he just talks about how he knew this was going to be a bad idea, and how he has no right to be sara's friend, but from that point on, we don't get any remarkable moment where ranmaru gets some sort of character redemption, and instead we get a moment where ranmaru AGAIN goes through with some sort of wild plan to make sure sara escapes, which is erasing his personality / replacing it with the joe ai's personality.

gosh, if ur friends with me, u probably know how i love and hate this part of the game, mostly because of how interesting it is and how it could've fleshed out into a whole other issue, but i dislike how it's totally overshadowed by both the fandom and the game itself

sara herself doesn't seem to react too strongly by ranmaru's choice to erase himself to become a "vessel" for joe's personality, which really i'd love to explain but honestly idk,,, i definitely thought there'd be a bigger deal about it, but perhaps it was overruled since the modified maple boss fight was literally like,, moments after that

in emotion route, ranmaru shares little to no information with anyone, though he does come close when he tries to tell sara, which he does successfully tell sara about the asunaro human in the group, but i believe that is the only moment where ranmaru goes "sara, hold on" and actually tells sara about what he was actually going to say, which, on one hand, had me on the edge of my seat, but on the other hand, was nice to see since it was really showing how untrusting and reserved ranmaru is, no matter how much he trusts sara, he's not entirely sure if she trusts him in return, or if he trusts sara to not share this information with anyone else

i love ranmaru kageyama

[canichangemyblogname]

They made some interesting choices with this second-to-last episode of TLT. ⚠️ Spoilers for the Episode and discussion of the books.

I did not find Hades very-- I dunno how to put it-- convincing? His characterization was... bland. Compared to his introduction in the book, Hades wasn't bitter, he didn't seem aggrieved, and he was not angry or vengeful or harsh despite believing Percy had stolen from him. This is supposedly a god who is widely feared and despised, yet he offered Percy and Grover snacks. It's like he had no bark or bite.

This is the same man who will look his son in the eye and so cruelly and coldly say that he wished that very same son had died instead of his daughter. He will later imprison Percy for fucking shiggles because he doesn't like the fact the kid exists.

He also just took Percy's word on Kronos??? And used Percy's words to go back on his own word. Essentially like, "Actually, yeah, give me the bolt, so I have all the power to defeat Kronos single-handedly. If Kronos is alive, that is. 😉"

This is a god who was also characterized as hardworking, intelligent, and-- I dunno-- just, I suppose, in the way death is; cold-hearted but even-handed. This god never broke his oath. This god does not like those who cheat justice or death. He was often characterized as "infuriated" by "unfairness," like those who escape punishment for their crimes. But it seemed like he was toying with Percy before withdrawing from his promise. While he was described as a crafty and sharp-witted god, he was never portrayed as dishonest.

This is a god full of great grief and loneliness and capable of great cruelty, but this narrative did not convince me that he was imposing. Up until this moment, he is believed to be the big bad and he just... offers them juice boxes? This really was like the Wizard of Oz. Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. This supposedly cunning and imposing big-bad god who wanted to start a war was... just some dude. And he offered them snacks. "Hey, Fellas." Are you my 80 y/o granddad???

LIKE. He's a god who's KNOWN to hold grudges. His children's fatal flaw is often grudges. And he says, "Family drama is why I don't [visit family] anymore. These grudges go on forever. Super unhealthy." HUH??? "I don't do jealous." WHO? You tried to kill Zeus' daughter because you had a grudge. My guy...

IDK man. Where's the Hades with "eyes like tar" that shone with the suggestion of either a genius or a madman? Where's the purple fire and robes made of screaming souls? That man was GREASY and haggard and gloomy. But the man they gave us looked like he'd just clocked in as CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

I also don't like that this episode got rid of Annabeth-- like-- 1/4 of the way into the episode. Just... POOF. Back to the sea. C'mon. Why'd we have to write her out?

IDK how I feel about Crusty's.

Charon was cool, tho.

[hercolorchaos]

Hypocrisy towards jikook's bond

Whenever i see ppl getting mad at this moment saying "of course jm will do that because cam are filming" but when i tell you that they were drunk at night, jk picked jm bridal style the exact way like this video then he left a mark on jk's neck after biting him cause jk wouldn't put him down lol. the difference between their off cam nd on cam moments is their off cam goes more wild than on cam it seems lol. like that's literally what they do off cam so why would it be anything different if the cam filmed them??

Mind you the SS in this tweet had 2k+ likes....where they're clearly shading jikook

Then this moment....saw antis loosing their shit saying "of course even their workout is for cam nd fanservice" but if i tell u that jm and jk told us they have been working out together, taking walks together, jk visiting jm's room 3 times a day for hrs all happened off cam then what? if out of 10 days being together and working out the comapny filmed one day how is that fake or for cam??

Jin called jk jm's cook years ago which means he cooks for jm nd has been for yrs so how is one time the comp showing it turns into fake?

Then saw this post where the implication is that jm and jk would never be loud about eachother if they were dating in a homophobic country cause it means seeking attention but all this showed me is people are simply mad that jm and jk are loud for eachother. cause i do remember tkkrs saying jk not going live when tae's album dropped means the biggest form of support and they dragged jk watching jm's content on his TV as company forced things idk how that is 😶 saying gcft wouldn't have been uploaded when it was jk's choice to upload it and comapny let him do what he wants cause either way later his hobby was used for company content too. Using gcft as an example yet religiously waiting for gcf Taekook and hoping it would happen soon. Years of them using the namsan taekook hangout pic showing jk's cam claiming the company didn't let him upload it when he never said he made one in the first place?? He carried the same cam when he went to hiking with jin but there's no gcf (although i cam across the same narrative as tkkrs from jinkookers too), Then he carried the cam with him when he was having outing with hobi too (i got pic limits or else would have uploaded the pic) but i also didn't see any gcf?? point to make here is just because he's carrying a cam doens't always means he's making a gcf. He loves filming has been filming jm too for years to the point the staff themselves ask him why he's always filming jm and the staff who works for BTS telling how jm and jk are always together and they both take pictures or selfies together alot. Then jk himself saying the last thing he filmed in his phone is "jiminsii being happy" when asked what's the last thing he filmed, but all this doens't always mean he's gonna make it or convert it into a gcf. Wanting your fav focused gcf is not the problem here it's cute with but then having the audacity to claim gcf is some comapny content when the whole video has been filmed, edited and uploaded by jk. Even the staffs, members, jimin himself didn't know he was going to make something like that cause it was his first ever gcf (made on a trip he planned when they were going through difficult times), he was happy, must have paid for the copyright of the song used, the only video he said wasn't work like other gcfs (doens't take away his admiration for his members or his hardwork of course), the only gcf that wasn't linked to other officials company sns accounts.

Then for years they been crying calling every jikook interaction that is filmed by comapny as fanservice or fake yet they were celebrating the same comapny content cause it had tk clip.

They say that the company is making money out of jikook by feeding jikook content yet they say that they get taekook content in paid comapny content lol the contrast. Do check the video I'll link below so you can see how many times they said that they get the taekook content in paid comapny content yet use it as a drag when it's jkk in DVDs, cancelling dvds.

Trying to make the comapny villain where it doens't concern when that's literally how the company has been posting every members' visit to other members. they post it days later in bangtab bomb or promotion videos. but they were also calling jk's visit to jm's practice as company content yet yesterday it was sign or pure love.

They were saying they don't believe media cause they make clickbait posts when someone uses jkk # for their arrival or departure yet proudly flaunt when dispatch used taekook #. They believe dispatch is hinting them for their ship mind u the same media which makes ckickbait posts but will surely ignore the same dispatch asking people what they think of v and Jennie's relationship or the same dispatch reporting on tae and Jennie breaking up lol.

Taekookers and their narratives chages purely based on what's benefitting them. this whole comapny promoting jikook wouldn't have existed in the first place if it was taekookers getting more content of taekook than jikook. not the company's fault of these two are together most of the times. The company doens't just cut taekook moments but every Single memebr's cause you don't expect them to post everything of everyone right?

years of them begging taekook to enlist together and now it's "gay couple won't enlist together in homophobic country" only because it's jm and jk. Were happy getting every update of jk from taehyung but if it's jm who's giving then he's leeching off.

They should have understood one thing that no matter how many times they try to drag jm and jk's bond they ain't giving shit and will do what they want. just like nothing stopped them from enlisting together doens't matter who's mailing ministry.

[kyxworld]

https://www.tumblr.com/kyxworld/744684586514169856/idk-im-scared-maybe-not-me-just-aware-but-what

<3

Yes I know it’s already peaceful but my identification with thoughts cloud the peacefulness and I know I’m the silence behind it all but that’s it ? I know it’s not something big because I’ve always been THAT so when I remember it’s normal because well.. it has always been here but what I mean it’s here you say nothing appearing as something, for me I don’t get it, maybe intellectually ok but I don’t KNOW like oh yeah right it’s nothing and I appear as something

I know it’s not a method to get or experience something but isn’t my existence an experience ? I’ve always experienced everything but it was not consciously but know can’t I experience what I want consciously ?? I’ve read RW Instagram posts and he said when you know who you are you can mold reality like you want

And maybe you’re right I’m limiting myself, I know when we don’t rely on senses when we want something like from the moment we think about it we experience it but why it doesn’t feel like it ? It feels like oh yeah I experienced it but later I’m like why it’s not here but I can’t say that because it’s an unfolding moment not hoping it’ll happen.. maybe there’s still misidentification but how to collapse the duality ? To not take one experience as more real than the other ? But like TO KNOW both are the same ?

Oof. hold on, there’s a lot to unpack here, but a lot of contradictions as well. there’s no point in intellectual knowing. intellectual knowing is more or less trying to verbalize, understand in human terms what “ ”, you’re technically trying to see another illusion, through another illusion. you know it’s not a test here, you’re trying to intellectually understand, is someone here trying to test you? 🥹

also the myriad of contradictions is crazy here, i think most of y’all, say you understand it? then come here with questions. if you “know” you wouldn’t ask a question. you’re the absolute authority, and come here ask “oh why can’t i see? oh why isn’t it here?” if you know, you know.

using senses as a form of validation ❌

thinking if you don’t see it with your “eyes” it’s not here ❌

contradicting heavily, i know i’m “ ” but…. ❌

letting baseless thoughts and doubts and taking the mind’s narratives too seriously ❌

how do you collapse duality? you just do 🧍🏻‍♀️. just by realizing that. okay let’s see, imagination -> something in your head -> something? -> nothing -> “ ”

reality -> very real -> through senses -> what are senses though? -> illusory -> ultimately “ ”

the common foundation, denominator for everything is “ ”. something cannot exist in your visual field without you being aware of it.

ex: you want cake. now it’s all in your head yeah? you imagine a cake, you literally think of/visualize eating it. you can taste it almost. very real but you get sidetracked by thinking “oh i’m craving it now” you’ve choices either go out and buy it or don’t do anything abt it. BUT WHAT TAKES PRECEDENCE OVER ALL THIS? before you even intellectually, before even your neurons connected to send a signal “i want cake” it’s “ ”

lastly, please stop thinking too much 😃. the recipe to drink water is take a cup, fill it w water, drink it. y’all do it like, take the water from a well or sea, reverse osmosis it, UV filter, carbon filter it, pour it, drink it. when you can simply just drink water you have at home.

(again, please feel free to chime in 🧍🏻)

[pinkandpurple360]

You asked to send u asks about striker so i will. Umm sorry for writing them all in one ask and being kinda messy, feel free to answer them in any order or dismiss. Honestly your points on viv shows were very interesting so i want to discuss things.

1. How you would write striker, if you were led scriptwriter with full power over plot choices?

2. I totally agree that it's pretty BIG LOSS there is no characters who can back him up and he is so lonely (he even bothered by imps who sing flattering songs about him and swears at them, despite being shown as being a bit Self-glorifying. Statue moment. Can he be an narcissist character in canon story?..).... While somehow other characters magically got all the good royal lads, but he got no friends from his own class, but annoying fans (that aren't even creeps like fans of Fizz)?.. Uhhh??.. And he is totally alone and self-isolating?

Would be ironic if striker would be cured from his worldview with having relationships with good™ royal later. Honestly if he was swapped with blitz in stolitz there would be much less drama from his side and more of traumatized Stolas i believe. I think striker wouldn't be avoidant unloved guy to run away like blitz, i think Striker wouldn't avoid the possibility of destroying him morally and physically, from the first ep he appeared in, it seems like he is perfectly capable of manipulation and pretending.

But honestly, i look on all HB plot from "can barely analyze canon because memory conditions", and i look too much into explaining plot from characters and world perspective, than from "why creators represent characters certain way", because... Honestly im never interested in creator, but canon? Gotta somehow live with it and other fans who would eat me for not going with popular fanon and canon. Never checked Viv's socials.

3. The supremacist thing. Honestly, when i first saw that moment, uhh... I thought they were (i forgot who said this sorry 😭😭) just trying to insult him, not that it's treated as something bad?.. Can you explain more how narrative treats him badly for it?

I don't think "character insulting other" = "author tells their true opinion about character and world real issue". because all the characters swear at each other constantly and using all kind of slurs, and isn't it a thing for characters (and real people) to try to troll and annoy each other when they're angry and annoyed? It's telling more about characters for me, than about the author, idk.

But maybe it would be much more interesting plot if (i think crimson can be considered somehow high class lol) they had a talk about how they are sorta in a same boat, serving higher up demons for survival. Or just striker starting this talk, that he wouldn't kill them, pls don't run away or fight back we just need money from Asmodeus i can share it if you play scared victim and just chill here for some time. :D wink wink we are in one shitty situations and all in need. Tho it would be harder since he got all this beef with moxxie and blitz (as i remember. I remember badly, and don't remember does blitz even know that striker tried to kill Mo.) and for fizz who don't need them at all since he got ozzie, but probably that would be a great moment for striker to debunk Ozzie's good behaviour and just all the Royal sins (who are MUCH older, in fizzozzie case)/peasant relationships (i believe there are enough famous examples in hell history when they didn't end well at all) and probably brag some personal reasons why striker need to do so much money from killing, like "oh cool im glad you're okay, and got it all, fame, money, cute dogs, relationships with someone much more powerful than you. I'd never reach same, congratulations! You know what people in my area have to do to survive?". But that would be terrible moral depreciation of Striker's bad qualitues, since he. Like. Isn't shown as good person (lonely maybe due to anger issues, serves rich maniacs who need a good killer, still have the statue, snap at sincere fans who do cool songs for free, he litterally said he is capable of killing any innocent person, kittens, babies, i believe low-class is in here too. yeah, it could be that he said it just to appeal for customer, and wouldn't really do it, but it wasn't shown in canon that he isn't sincere about it. So it's more like his personal beef with royalty, and not a willing to help others and form community when it doesn't have monetary Benefits. He seems rather unpolitical, just trying his best to survive, since we don't see him... Yea, very social. Not even a leader, but a part of some political community. By the way it seems like in hell revolutions really never depend on mass opinions of sinners, imps, etc, and mass protests, but supernatural POWER, like holy weapons, god, angels, true forms, or alastor kind of power, even Striker couldn't harm Stolas without holy weapons and ropes.)

It would show how striker is capable of manipulation and being cold-blooded diplomat, rather than... Snaping out at them shdhdxhdjdj for trolling tho it seems like he is just stressed and got anger issues, short temper, and anything i described would be wildly ooc for him.

Sorry for long asks lmao hope you don't mind

Hiii anon sometimes long asks are a ton of fun if I have the energy

1. So first of all I think his characterisation in Harvest Moon festival was pretty good, but, they shouldn’t have revealed who his client was at the end of the episode. It keeps the mystery. I’d also change around his hatred of moxxie to show how striker sees him as a weak point, not as “inferior” or whatever. When he is going to wrangle the hog, Millie and Blitzø volunteer happily to do it, and Moxxie just cowers a little. Striker asks Mox if he always lets the two of them pick up the slack on his behalf. Mills parents side eye him and smirk. Then that’s what gives moxxie the motive to try it. Of course, he fails and striker has to swoop in. Afterwards, he laughs and Mox holds out his hand to get striker to pull him up. Striker looks irritated by this and tells him to stand on his own two feet, and that if this were the wild, he’d be both starved and dead. Mox is about to struggle up until Millie comes in to help pick him up and she glares at striker. This is what makes her not want to compete in the pain games, and in turn causes Mox to insist on it instead to prove to Millie that he can do it. — here we’ve established a reason for MnM to not like striker, and show how the tiniest things he does or says causes turbulence in their group and makes moxxie feel like he’s the problem. I’d also adapt it a little to say Striker replaced Millie as the farm hand since she in everyone’s eyes “abandoned” the hard life for a comfy job in imp city. Striker sortve implies her family doesn’t need her anymore cause they have someone stronger and more loyal now. She says if she competes in the pain games she’ll only go back to her violent temper she’s worked hard to get away from, and will just kill striker if he gets too close. This disappoints her parents further. While Mox tries to appeal to them, Millie doesn’t care, the two bicker about it all. Blitzø just acts as a quiet spectator here, until he tries to talk MnM into communicating about it more, that “you two saps can bounce back from anything” and they come to a deal to let Mox compete, and he won’t let him get too hurt—-he drops this within seconds as his competitive streak takes over.

Also—-he’s gotta stop being used entirely for shipping commentary. “I don’t support this peasant x royalty ship” is his entire character now and I’m tired of it. In the caged Oops scene for example. He should make a lot more references to survival, oppression, having to work hard, how you can never really quit in this life without stepping on others to get there. How expendable people like them really are in the grand scheme of things, and do they even realise that? How royals destroy friendships and bonds with their selfish greed. It would hit a lot harder if striker talked about how stolas strings MnM and Loona into his shit, ask blitz if he’s ever once thanked the four of them for anything. Ask him if he’s really used his skills as a leader effectively or if he’s just another royal imp slave. And for Fizz, ask him where he gets off acting like some kind of inspiration to the common man when he’s left his whole race in the dust, he has little touch with any of them anymore (as we’ve seen from his behaviour on the streets of greed) and now hes resorted to commanding power over succubi, over sexualising himself, teaming up with a sin to shame and intimidate an imp like Moxxie, and how he shacks up with a royal who’s no better than mammon in his eyes. Does he even have any real friends and allies left? Or just a bed partner. Seriously romance isn’t the extent of relationships and striker probably values friends, allies, colleagues, and family a lot more than who has sex with whom.

2. Exactly. Characterisation of him as a “narcissist” falls flat because he isn’t one, ego is what helps others trust him to take out the targets, it’s what keeps him alive. It makes up for the inferiority constantly forced on him. He has a right to feel some pride. I’d love to see him and fizz interact again because they could learn so much about what it really means to have connections, that ego is so fragile and performance of a persona can make you lose who you truly are. How do disabled people like fizz fit into strikers obsession with survival of the fittest, can he really judge fizz for his limb enhancements if they’re what help him survive? And how can fizz teach him that gentleness and kindness is it’s own type of strength? That teaming up with the “littler” people is much more powerful than standing on top of them, is something they could learn together. These two could become the most unlikely of friends, even brotherly, they both need someone like that. Blitzø just doesn’t really fit that platonic role for fizz, the underlying, yet deeply repressed, mutual feelings of love and lust between them are just too complicated for him to deal with.

I always thought someone who could change his perception is Octavia. Of all the royals she is by far the most unique and down to earth. I get the feeling she’s not proud to be a royal, she detests the way her parents treat the servants, the idea of monarchy in itself, of corporate shame, the duty put onto her and her parents. But also hates how they try to play house despite it. The fact she only exists as a spare to her father and resents that fact. Not to mention that she is a child of force, but can’t fully point the finger at her mother or father, it’s essentially mutual SA. Imagine how that scars a persons mind. Striker wouldn’t feel sorry for an asshole like stolas, that guy is the real supremacist here.

3. It’s essentially a message that if you hate racists, that’s reverse racism and you’re just as bad as them just for using violence. It’s sortve an “all lives matter” incredibly privileged point of view. Which I find disgusting. The real racists never get an ounce of this. Striker is just a stolitz blockade who must be crushed.

Really interested in your rewrite there. I pictured fizz showing some unexpected grace by saying “I wasn’t going to rat you guys out, whatever, you just gotta make that money right? but since you were stupid enough to show your faces on camera I guess I won’t have to. If I were you I’d skip town fast and don’t take a step in the lust ring or it’ll be your last”

Yeah I’m not sure what else to add maybe I’ll respond some more in a bit.

[apoptoses]

WHY did Anne not include Daniel and Thorne in Marius’ painting at the end of Blood Communion?? Did she just forget??

The fact that she didn’t include Tarquin Blackwood and Mona Mayfair I already expected, because it was plain she did not want to follow up on their story’s at all because she disregarded their characters completely in the first two prince Lestat books (while introducing 200 new characters who I personally didn’t care about)

But did she literally just forget Thorne and Daniel? Daniel!!! He was kind of the reason the VC came into existence, is he not? And Thorne! Who even has actual lines in last three books!?

I love Anne’s writing dearly but some choices she has made regarding these books are utterly incomprehensible to me. I’ll never understand.

Ah man, I hate it too but I feel like there were a lot of reasons. And idk if you wanted to mutually vent or wanted my Actual Thoughts but I always kinda look at it like-

Anne sucked at continuity lol Which happens if you're writing a series for over 40 years! Lestat's eyes have been blue and grey and violet, his age has mortal age changed, and he was her top blorbo so like you'd think she'd nail down the facts about him perfectly? But sometimes she goofed or changed stuff. Which is why I never sweat too hard about exact canon facts, if Anne herself didn't have perfect continuity and I can make up a reason for a little change that makes sense in my narrative idgaf I'm gonna do it.

I think Daniel was hard for her in the same way Louis was hard for her- they both are avatars of dark times in her life. Louis was her depression over her own daughter's death, Daniel she poured her struggles with alcoholism into. And I can get her side lining them both because of not wanting to revisit that headspace and those memories. Which sucks for fans of those characters but it is what it is.

I also get the impression that she didn't really know what to do with a mentally healthy vampire that doesn't have shitloads of baggage? Like when Daniel comes out of his rough years in PL he's really on top of things, and Anne's happy place is developing new tragic backstories so...for better or worse that's what she did lol

And re: the hundreds of new characters, there's a whole chapter in Conversations with Anne Rice where she talked about wanting to explore the stories of mature adults, specifically older men. The loss of her father weighed heavily on her and drew her to create characters like David Talbot, and to lean harder into the story of guys like Marius who was 40-something in mortal body but thousands of years old in spirit. So you really see that with her later books, outside of Benji and Sybelle (who also get sidelined) and Rose and Viktor (who...same) she zero'd in on older vampires because that's what held her interest.

NOT THAT I DON'T ALSO HATE IT, I mean, obviously Daniel is a top favorite of mine. So take all of that, add in the fact that she didn't really use an editor and thus did exactly what she wished for all her work, and I think the conclusion is that she just lost interest/couldn't get a story going for them and so she left them out of the mural.

But god do I feel your pain, my kingdom for more content about established characters like Daniel, Bianca, Riccardo, Thorne and less random characters that didn't have enough page time to really develop 😢

[blorbologist]

OKAYOKAYOKAYOKAY

With One for sorrow, Two for joy now complete, I do feel the need to address the obvious alternative ending that could have happened (and was indeed actually my original idea before I plotted things out more carefully).

Mostly because it's fun, partially because I? Think it's important to know why I chose this ending despite how bittersweet it is, and to encourage other fic authors to consider *why* they're making certain narrative choices and what they mean about their relationship to canon and their readers.

Under the cut to avoid spoilers for my fic and late/post Campaign 1:

The original plan was for Scanlan to use his Wish during the Vecna fight - not a 9th level Counterspell, circumstances would have been dire enough to require a whole Wish - which, given how his Dalen's Closet Wish goes, would have been his last. Or he would have just waited for spell slots to regen (see why below), Wish'd, and not actually fixed anything, which would have been harder to justify.

As a result:

Given the timeline, Vex was pregnant in canon come the final battle (given she's experiencing morning sickness in Search for Bob, which occurs at most two weeks later, despite only a few long rests passing between Grog pulling the card n them coming back. So likely before then).

The Raven Queen is reluctant to take another life and as such lets Vex stay until Vesper is born.

It Sucks. Shitty good handful of months before Vesper is born, Vex poofs into feathers, and Percy raises their baby as a single dad with VM's help. (Vesper being a magpie-looking aasimar is extra bittersweet, because the dark hair makes her look even more like Vex.)

Given Vex isn’t nearly as accepting of this fate as Vax is, it’s likely that Scanlan, Vax and Percy especially devote the next few decades for trying to figure out a way to fix this. Percy especially would be at high risk of Briarwoods behavior if not for Vesper.

Speaking of. Vesper probably would have had a near-death experience or two where she got to see her mom, even if she has no attachment to a woman she can’t remember.

My original planned epilogue was Percy dying and confiding to the Champion that he knows she no longer has her name, but her titles are forever hers so Whitestone will always bare her name. There will never be another Baroness of the Third House of Whitestone or Grand Mistress of the Grey Hunt (though titles fulfilling similar roles are made, those are devoted to her).

Vex likely would have visited Laudna while she was dead and helped fuck up Delilah with the Hells, because she's Death's Champion and knows she's why Laudna died in the first place :c

And, of course, a more recent development/change would have been making Percy or Vesper the bait so Ludinus could still get his Vorb.

So. Why didn't I do that?

A) It’s just. Ludicrously angsty. Sure Vax gets a sunshine ending, raising the aasimars n living with his loves, but... idk if he or Percy could truly find happiness again without Vex, while Vex and Keyleth can find joys in the world again due to their dispositions.

A.1) This is a fic centered around Vex, Perc'ahlia and the relationship between the twins. Knocking two of those out in one go is far more likely to leave a bad taste in readers' mouths than just one. I love a good tragedy, but there's a point where it crosses over into just being pointlessly mean to readers and myself without any catharsis.

B) The Raven Queen making judgements on death and destiny for a pregnancy that's at best a month, month and a half along is stupid. It's incredibly stupid and denies Vex any agency in favor of a clump of cells. I'm a biologist, I know if I read a fic where that happened it'd lose my shit. We have enough sexist, 'oh what of the baaaaby' media, I have no desire to contribute to it.

C) Speaking of agency! From the word go I incorporated the table dynamics/logic into this fic, so not only am I juggling in-universe implications, but the context of the game as well. Matt would not fucking do that to Laura. It's gross, especially given she is expecting a child not too long after the end of Campaign 1. Matt wouldn't do that to her character, just like Artagan strangling her would cross a line. I never want to imply Matt would do that.

C.1) Vax's arc and sacrifice is incredibly important to Liam, and he clearly tries to maintain the weight of it in the oneshots and going forward. I felt a bit like I'd robbed him of some of the catharsis Vax's RQ arc brought him, but on a meta level I have a deep respect for his devotion to tragedy and did not want to make light of it.

D) Why not just... save both twins? Well, I still felt there had to be a cost for this happy ending to matter. The imperfect ending to Campaign 1 is what gives it so much weight, the love between siblings, and I make a point in my AUs of trying to avoid them neatly being better than canon, because it feels cheap to neatly solve most of their problems. And nothing quite compares to losing your twin, your other half. I wanted everything to matter, I wanted the joy to mean something, and it’s so much more precious if it's at a cost. If someone else had gone in his place (say things messed up n took Scanlan instead), it'd still feel cheap compared to the agony of canon. It had to be one of the twins... and this destiny suited Vax best. I also made a point of involving faith and nodding to Vax having Some odd connection to the Raven Queen, so it felt like good payoff.

Do I think there are versions of this story where Vex remains Champion into death, or a perfect happy ending happen? Sure! But they’re not ones I wanted to write, or that supported the tale I wanted to tell.

The point of this, I think, is that there's always another story you could create, another path to take. And as authors, fic writers, creators, it’s in our best interest to examine what our choices at these forks mean - what they symbolize, what they say about the world and the characters - and what we want them to mean to us and our readers.

(I also seriously cannot recommend finding people to talk to about your fic if you're conflicted - @essayofthoughts, @katia-dreamer, @rightpastnowhere and @burr-ell were instrumental in helping me untangle where I wanted to go with this and why and what pros/cons there were to each!)