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tymbalzine · 11 months

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A Really Really Long Shang Tsung Tangent

HIIIIIIIIIII ~ <3

I've mentioned it on another post but I feel like getting it out there with more explanation. This is my first sort of think piece or character analysis I'm posting publicly so bear with me lol.

The TLDR is there are villains, there are people who are bad, and there are people that could do better but have a lot of trouble doing so. Not all of them are disordered or have something afflicting their decision making. But Shang Tsung, in my mind and given all the factors, is a villain with ASPD/Anti-social personality disorder.

While ASPD can contribute to what is medically considered 'psychopathy' and 'sociopathy', and from my anecdotal experience those who experience ASPD do not shy from the words, I personally will only be referring to the disorder itself.

I also got a comment about how much of this is him being disordered and how much of is a choice. I want to make it absolutely clear, while my theory of his tendencies stand, all his actions in the game are his choices nonetheless.

I still clown on him for not being able to just grin and bear the cards dealt to him and/or make a friend because... yeah he really just should have. This ramble is me acknowledging that many villains don't fit the description of ASPD, but he's one that definitely is rife with enabled anti-social behavior.

I think a lot about the second chance Liu Kang gave him. The parallels they gave Shang Tsung and Raiden are evident. People born in small pockets of their world, unassuming and uneventful until someone of great power (titans, no less) approach them with a task.

The difference is how they handle it. What is there to handle? Well... a lot, if you have as severe problems with empathy and collaborating with the rules of society as Shang Tsung does. His pre-game biography lists him as 'too lazy for labor' and 'too shifty for honest work', but he can work hard for the right promises as is evident in the game.

Gritting his teeth and doing the work handed to him would have been easier. While Outworld has its issues (prominently, the remnants of the royal's imperialist stand-offs and the ableism that looms in various Outworld characters' narratives), the general wellbeing of the working class doesn't seem to be one of them. But as a huckster, he's isolated, consistently having to rely on his lies, and receiving the consequences.

To be honest, I don't think Shang Tsung didn't try. I can believe it not working out very fast, but I don't think he simply ignored that standard work is out there. He can be arrogant and bratty, but he doesn't dilute his options.

Symptoms of ASPD such as lack of empathy, ignorance to the result of his actions, and disinterest in performing standard work/social obligations are already evident, and would impede on his life whether he is a powerful sorcerer or a nobody. These impact any friendships he could have, his impulse control, and how he regards anyone up to and including himself (who he deems untrustworthy).

But we are social people that want to feel, want to be happy. Anti-social behavior isn't extreme introversion, in fact many people with ASPD are very extraverted and social. It's less about being around people and more about the reactions they're capable of while with said people.

Not all villains have a disorder, obviously. Some have motivations deemed reasonable, and some are just delightfully evil. Shang Tsung starts off very disordered and not entirely villainous, though hardly good. He was someone who couldn't do what people around him thought was so straightforward.

He's in distress over his life as a scammer, but not really how it impacts others. He's unable to connect to them and has a sense of grandeur over them, but honestly most people are doing better than he can. People, to him, are inherently isolating and alienating. He's aware this isn't normal, and can only answer to it with apathy and more lies.

Most people with ASPD don't go in for that diagnosis. They do so because of comorbidities: mood disorders like depression and bi-polar, anxiety disorders such as OCD, and other personality disorders such as BPD. I do think this would have been the case for Shang Tsung as well, if Outworld was a sort of place that would pick these things out about him, but it isn't.

Damashi's approach is so glaring to me as a result. I can make all the wet cat jokes in the world, but it is sad to me that he cannot process the consequences of his actions, only that he is forced to feel them. He expects so badly out of others that he doesn't bother giving them anything good or better from him, which gets him punished, and the cycle starts all over. That's what he figures the woman is about to do.

And that woman could have been anyone. That's already the lesson there, as she is Titan Shang Tsung in disguise. He was given the right words by someone equally manipulative and was just as vulnerable to tricks, lies, and abuse as anyone else would be in his position.

You gotta remember, if she was there just to pummel him into a pulp, he was about to let her.

His decision to follow her is one of desperation and likely depression. Depression manifests differently to those who find themselves alienated, and do not understand people's sympathy and overt emotional responses.

From my anecdotal research, there's a set of words that come up a lot that doesn't show up on many articles or bullet points about ASPD. Numbness and boredom. It's not a normal boredom where you can occupy yourself with an activity or friends. It is a complete lapse of emotional connection and stimulation. If you aren't angry, you are bored. If you aren't bored, you are numb.

Which moves us into the topic of: sensation chasing.

"Damashi" teaches him real sorcery, and what ensues is his development into the conniving and cruel Shang Tsung we know and dread. A true testament to Shang Tsung's wit and manipulative tendencies, along with this new position dissolving his impulse control. Now that he isn't held down by a lack of magic, he treats people like objects toward his greater goals with even less regard than he had in the first place.

Good L-rd you are short.

People are the subject of his curiosity and how he chases off his boredom susceptibility. "Damashi" has a plan set in stone, but Shang Tsung's horrific laboratory is unrelated to "her" demands. The lab isn't just dedicated to his own research, but his sense of morbid novelty. He can already manipulate and use people - creating hybrids out of those already existing is a very "because I can" thing.

Syzoth is one of Shang Tsung's biggest victims of this. Shang Tsung exerts control of him first for his shapeshifting, but proceeds to keep him around and hang his family over his head... because he can. And because he can, he thinks it better to do so. But the more time he kept Syzoth in the cold, cruel, and dark, the more chances he was giving him to fight back or sabotage Shang Tsung - something that ends up happening.

Shang Tsung killed Syzoth's family very early into this. Perhaps even the day the Syzoth agreed to stay in the lab. What does he get out of hiding that? Perhaps it was a sort of inside joke, a chuckle he got with each and every visit. It wasn't for control, and it wasn't to get anything out of Syzoth besides a reaction. He gave himself something by doing it this way, no matter how cruel it was to Syzoth.

There's a lot of other examples obviously about how Shang Tsung treats the people around him, but I think that one's the most important to get out of the way. This post's long enough already.

More evidence of Shang Tsung having ASPD is his primary motive: revenge against Liu Kang. Shang Tsung doesn't dare question why he couldn't fit into a normal life, he only applies new faces to the life he detested and blames them for his problems. Taking responsibility and accountability would mean processing his social faults and how to improve them... something he absolutely refused to do.

When Shang Tsung is faced with "Damashi"'s true identity, he's more angry about being manipulated and outsmarted than any of the plans falling through. He's told, to his face, he isn't the best or smartest. He was a tool, running errands while being conspired against. Instead of registering that and empathizing with the people he used before this reveal, it fuels his internalized cruelty.

When he collaborates with Liu Kang's crew, he clearly tries to suck up to Kuai Liang and even Raiden. But these are people that run on empathy. Caring about people as a whole and having faith in them doesn't mesh with Shang Tsung's view that this whole world runs on fraudulent transactions. In that moment, he fits in with the people around him just as poorly as he did while running a travel cart.

Alan Lee, the voice actor of Shang Tsung, mentions that "Damashi" approached Shang Tsung with a cheat code to life so potent that it makes Shang Tsung determined to own up to his depravity. He describes him as a "madman with pandora's box, mixed with a child to the keys to candyland." He's unpredictable, not just by standard villainy, but because nothing else has appealed to him in life.

Now that Shang Tsung has burned nearly every bridge he had, he wants to own up to that. Because to him, the only other option is the quiet. Boredom. That numbness again. If he spent any longer in that travel cart, he may have frankly committed suicide out of the sheer droll.

He will lie, steal, and carve his way into and out of any problem as he was enabled to under Titan Shang Tsung, and in a way has initiated a new, sad reality of chasing that Titan's shadow.

#shang tsung #mortal kombat #mk1 #sorry. i am insane.#brief BRIIEF suicide mention #mine: writing

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sleepy--anon · 1 year

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Sweet or Sour

Day 12: Bites/Nibbles

Reserved by @wishitweresummer

Reblog first, like later please, reblogs do more

You can still reserve unmarked days

Please check my writing list before you request

Warnings: Intense tickles, mouth tickles

Dream really didn't know why he was still editing, Sapnap and George bickering behind him was way too distracting. He was distracted every two seconds.

"George please! Leave Sap alone so I can work." Dream pleaded, pinching the bridge of his nose. George scrunched his face up, turning back to Sapnap, insulting his upset face, saying he 'looks stupid like that'.

"God! You're so mean! Dream! Why do we keep him around?! He's so evil!" Dream finally accepts that he won't get any work done with them in his office with him. He turned to face them, looking exasperated.

"Sure he's a little mean sometimes but George is actually really sweet too Sapnap. That's why we keep him around." Sapnap glared at him for, once again, pandering to George. Refusing to look at George’s undoubtedly smug face.

"Yeah Snapmap~ I'm sweet~! Like candy~" George shimmied his shoulders, leaning towards him, smirking proudly. Sapnap growled in retaliation lunging at him, pinning him by the shoulders. Dream jumped up straight, afraid he might hit him again, this time sober. George looked at him shocked, not used to him being able to physically retaliate yet.

"Sap...?"

"As much as I want to I'm not gonna beat up your boyfriend Dream. I'm just testing his theory~" Dream flushed a soft pink at his comment before making a small sound of confusion.

"He said he's sweet like candy, I wanna test that~ You wanna help~?" Dream took a second to catch on, noticing how George was still confused.

"Of course~ sounds like something you should test out~" Dream jumped up to sit above George’s head, looking down at his upside confusion.

"I'm so confused, what? Are you gonna lick me? Wait no, please don't, you might actually do that." George screamed out in protest when Dream pulled his wrists up, still under the impression Sapnap was gonna lick his face for revenge and Dream was enabling it.

"Will you relax! I'm not gonna fuckin lick you!" Sapnap yelled over him from his place on his thighs, both of them laughing at the thought of it. Sapnap yanked his shirt up, swiftly exposing his ribs, waiting for the realization to wash over his face.

"D-Dream you're not seriously gonna let him do this are you?"

"I honestly think you deserve this considering you also stopped me from being able to edit. This all could have been avoided if you learned when to shut the fuck up." Dream explained slowly, moving to hold his elbows into the bed. George seemed bewildered at the fact that Dream wasn't helping him, jumping at the feeling of Sapnap’s beard scratching the skin of his ribcage.

"Hold still candy boy~" Sapnap purred, turning his Nike cap backwards, grabbing onto his sides to keep him in place.

"NO! GET OFF ME! I DON'T DESERVE THIS!" George screamed out, trying to wriggle himself out of their hold, being entirely unsuccessful.

"Oh bullshit! You've been such a bitch all day, you are well overdue for this actually~" Sapnap refused to wait anymore, not caring about building anticipation. He sunk his teeth his ribs, nibbling at the bones, relishing in the immediate screams.

"Mmmmm... you taste pretty sour to me George~" Sapnap mumbled, snickering at Dream’s giggles. He VERY slowly worked his way up his ribs, feeling George’s rapid breathing, frantic kicking and attempted bucking.

"STOHOHOHOP! YOHOHOU TEHEHEHESTED YOHOHOUR THEHEHEORY! LEHEHET MEHEHEHE GOHOHOHO!" George was sweating, his biceps were getting sore from trying to pull his arms free, his face dark red, tears starting to fall from his eyes.

"Mmmmno, you deserve this you dick. I'll be as mean as I like and don't you do anything in his favor Dream, I can get you in this same position in under 5 seconds~" Sapnap flicked his eyes up to the blonde when he saw his grip falter. Dream stared in disbelief, not expecting to be catching stray teases. He tightened his grip back up, not risking it, unknowingly giving George a small break. Sapnap smoothed his hand over the bright red skin on his ribs, scoffing at his flinch before moving to repeat his journey on the other side, jolting the brit back to life.

"SAHAHAP PLEHEHEASE!" George couldn’t think anymore, all he could feel and think was the sensation on his ribs. Tears streaming down his face, he couldn't move, which in his opinion, made it so much worse.

"OHOHOHOHOKAY! I'M SOHOHOHORRY! PLEHEHEHEHEASE!" Sapnap finally stops, rubbing his ribs firmly after wiping his tears for him.

"Learn from this George, I can retaliate now." Both Sapnap and Dream helped massage the sore muscles in his biceps, letting him breathe.

"God... my face hurts... and I'm so tired now. You have to cuddle me now, that's the rules. We're even now you hold me while I take a nap." Sapnap rolled his eyes at the demand, but complied, wrapping him up entirely like a weighted blanket. Dream smiled at them fondly, giving them a small head pat before going back to his video, figuring he can finally get some work done while they nap.

#augtickletober2023 #wishitweresummer #summer tag #sleepy's fics #dsmp tickle #mcyt tickle fic #mcyt tickle #lee!george #lee!georgenotfound #ler!sapnap #ler!dream

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ideas-on-paper · 11 months

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Theories about Legion's "mini headlamps" (N7 special)

A very happy N7 Day to all of you Mass Effect fans!

Although I still haven't finished Mass Effect 3 (I just haven't been able to pick it up again after the Rannoch arc), I nevertheless wanted to do something special for this occasion, and I thought to myself that I might as well devote a quick study to a subject that's been on my mind for quite a long time: the purpose of Legion's three additional "mini headlamps".

You see, aside from the big, obvious flashlight in the middle, Legion also possesses three smaller lights at the side of their head. Ever since discovering these, I've been wondering what exactly those are for. I've observed that they glow red when Legion is under "stress" (an effect which is unfortunately not present in the Legendary Edition) - or rather, in situations that require a lot of processing power - but as far as their practical function goes, I could only guess. However, going through the ME3 dialogues again, I noticed a small detail which could potentially explain what exactly those small lights are - and in addition, give us a little insight into how Geth perceive the world visually.

Disclaimer: Before going into this, I should mention that I have no technical education in robotics, laser scanning, or any related areas of engineering. I based my conclusions solely on what information I could find on the internet, as well as my own reasoning and observations.

[Potential spoilers for ME3]

LADAR/LiDAR scanning and three-dimensional perception

To start off, what basically led me on this track was this comment by Tali in ME3:

Their AI lets them use extremely detailed ladar pings. Xen's countermeasure overwhelmed them with garbage data.

First off, we need to clarify what exactly ladar is. LADAR, more commonly known as LiDAR, stands for "Light amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation detection and ranging" - or, in case of LiDAR, "Light detection and ranging/Light imaging, detection and ranging. It's a method for measuring the distance, speed, and surface structure of objects by the means of laser scanning, usually with beams in the infrared spectrum (there are different wavelengths of light in use, however). Essentially, LiDAR is based on the same principle as the echolocation of bats, the only difference being the use of light instead of sound. Every LiDAR system consists of three integral components: a transmitter, a receiver, and a timer. The transmitter will send out a laser beam, which will be reflected by the object it hits; afterwards, the reflection will be registered by the receiver. Because the speed of light is a known constant, the distance of the object can be deduced by the timer, which will determine the delay between the light impulse being send out and the reflection being captured, also known as "time of flight".

However, because each laser beam only represents the coordinates of a single point, multiple laser beams are necessary to create a detailed 3D map of the environment. Some LiDAR lasers, like those used in automated vehicles, pinwheel to collect data in a 360° radius, generating a 3D image of all objects in the vicinity, including cars, pedestrians, and other obstacles. This results in multiple "points" forming a "point cloud" together, digitally depicting the surroundings on a 3D level. Because each laser emits hundreds of impulses per second, this technology enables you to take highly precise measurements in a very short period of time. LiDAR technology is not only utilized in autonomous driving, but also all kinds of other areas too, like archaeology, topographical mapping, and monitoring of vegetation growth.

Now, with this in mind, my theory is that Legion's small headlamps are the transmitter and receiver components of the LiDAR system - more specifically, I think the transmitters are located on the right, while the singular light on the left is the receiver. However, since we know that normal scanning LiDAR requires multiple laser beams for a detailed 3D image, the question is why Legion would only have two of them implemented. Personally, my suspicion is that the Geth might be using a flash LiDAR: Flash LiDAR is a different type of LiDar emitting a single wide, diverging beam, similar in shape to the beam of a flashlight. By projecting the reflected light onto a sensor array, a flash LiDAR can create a complete 3D environment without the use of multiple impulses. In addition to being very compact, flash LiDAR sensors have no moveable parts, making them extremely resistant to any kind of vibration - an undeniable advantage in all situations that require quick movement, such as combat.

Analysis of atmospheric composition with LiDAR

Still, that doesn't explain why Legion would have an additional transmitter on the right side of their head. We do know, however, that the laser scans with LiDAR are precise enough to not only measure the exact distance between objects, but also analyze the density of particles in the air: Because the molecules in the air cause the light from the laser beam to backscatter, LiDAR is also utilized in monitoring air quality and detecting fine dust, being able to determine traces of atmospheric gases such as ozone, nitrous gases, carbon dioxide, and methane. Depending on the wavelength of light used, the LiDAR system might be more or less precise in measuring molecular backscattering. For that reason, LiDAR systems using multiple wavelengths of light are most efficient in determining the exact size distribution of particles in the air.

With this in mind, let's take a look at Legion's opening line in ME2 upon entering the Heretic station:

Alert. This facility has little air or gravity. Geth require neither.

Going by what I explained above, the reason why Legion was able to tell there is no oxygen in the atmosphere isn't because they have some built-in chemical sensors to analyze the air's components - it's because they can literally "see" the particles in the air.

Thus, I think the second transmitter on the right side of Legion's head might use a different kind of wavelength specifically intended for the detection of atmospheric particles, perhaps in the UV-spectrum (the general rule is that the shorter the wavelength, the higher the resolution of the 3D image is, and since UV has a shorter wavelength than infrared, I imagine it might be used for this purpose). Meanwhile, the big flashlight in the middle might be a photoreceptor, being able to detect "normal" light visible to humans. In addition, the Geth are probably able to see UV-light (since the Quarians are able to see it, it would be logical to assume the Geth are as well), and maybe even infrared and other wavelengths. To summarize the function of all of Legion's headlights, I imagine it works roughly like this:

The two lights on the right side of Legion's head (marked with a red and magenta line) might be LiDAR transmitters, using infrared and UV-light, respectively; the single small light on the left (circled with green) might be the LiDAR sensor/receiver, while the big light in the middle (circled with blue) might be a photoreceptor (Source)

The effect of Xen's countermeasure (and potential means to bypass it)

It might be difficult to imagine from a human point of view, but judging from the information that the Geth use LiDAR as their main method of depth perception, Tali describing Xen's invention as a "flash bang grenade" actually makes a lot of sense: If you're normally able to observe your surroundings down to a molecular level, it would probably feel very disorienting if you're suddenly not, not mention being unable to tell whether an object is far away or close by (which would be absolutely devastating if you suddenly come under attack).

Still, that doesn't mean there are no potential alternatives: Radar, which has been in use longer than LiDAR, is another method to determine the range, angle, and velocity of objects. Due to radar using long-waved micro- and radio waves, the measurements are generally a lot less precise than those with LiDAR; despite this, radar still has its use during inclement weather, when LiDAR systems are very prone to disturbances by dust, mist, and rainfall. Furthermore, LiDAR can only provide measurements up to 200 meters, while radar is more efficient at greater distances. In fact, most modern autonomous driving vehicles work both with LiDAR and radar, in addition to a conventional camera (the only vehicles that don't use LiDAR are those from Tesla, which have a reputation of being unsafe). So, it's only reasonable to assume that the Geth don't rely on LiDAR alone, but use various technologies in combination with it to compensate for each one's weaknesses.

Interestingly, a type of 4D radar is currently in development, intended to be used in autonomous driving. It provides 3D images with a similar resolution as LiDAR, at a potentially much cheaper cost. Still, whether LiDAR or 4D radar is the better choice for autonomous driving is still a heatedly debated question, and only time will tell which of both systems comes out on top. Nevertheless, assuming Xen's "flash bang grenade" only targets the Geth's LiDAR sensors, I wonder if they could've potentially found a way to adapt and bypass it, given enough time.

Anyway, that's the material for a different kind of analysis - for now, I hope you enjoyed this little deep dive into the science behind the Geth. Thank you all for reading and have a nice N7 Day! :-)

#mass effect #mass effect legion #geth #mass effect lore #lore theories #lidar technology #my contribution to N7 Day

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porterdavis · 2 years

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"A Test of Character"

Tom Nichols is a conservative writer who spent 20+ years as an instructor at the Naval War College, not a particular bastion of left-wing loonies. His article for The Atlantic is behind a paywall, but available for free if you subscribe to one of the magazine's newsletters, so I don't think it's totally out of bounds to reprint it here. It's a #long-read, but worth every second of your time.

(tl;dr -- we face a moral character test for the second time in seven years. We failed miserably the first time)

"Donald Trump went to CPAC and gave a speech that was, even by his delusional standards, dark and violent. Much of it was hallucinatory. Amusing as it is to listen to President von Munchausen and his many “sir” stories, Trump is the former commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces and the current front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2024. He is as dangerous as ever to our democracy and to our national security.

But I also want to turn attention from Trump’s evident emotional issues to consider a more unsettling question: How, in 2023, after all we know about this man and his attacks on our government and our Constitution, do we engage the people who heard that speech and support Donald Trump’s candidacy? How do we turn the discussion away from partisanship and toward good citizenship—and to the protection of our constitutional order?

In the past, reporters have approached such questions gingerly, poking their head into coffee shops, asking for comments at rallies, and claiming to overhear conversations at gas stations, all in the service of trying to understand Trump voters. (Only The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper has ever managed to get anywhere in such interviews, and the answers he elicits are often terrifyingly dumb.) These respectful conversations with Trump voters have produced almost nothing useful beyond failed theories about “economic anxiety” and other rationalizations that capture little about why Trump voters continue to support a posse of authoritarian goons.

In 2016, Trump supporters could lean on a slew of hopeful arguments: Trump is just acting; he’ll hire professional staff; the “good” Republicans will keep him in line; the job will sober him up. All of these would be disproved over time. (It didn’t help that the alternative at the time was Hillary Clinton, for whom I voted but whose campaign was a tough sell to many people.) But by 2020, Trump, along with his enablers at Fox and other right-wing outlets, had created a kind of impermeable anti-reality field around the GOP base. This shell of pure denial defeated almost any argument about anything.

Media, flummoxed by having a sociopathic narcissist in the Oval Office, treated Trump like a normal political leader, and soon we all—even me—became accustomed to the fact that the president of the United States routinely sounded like the guy at the end of the bar who makes you decide to take your drink over to a table or a booth. When Joe Biden won, I hoped that this strange fever gripping so many Americans would finally pass. But the fever did not break, not even after January 6, 2021, and the many hearings that showed Trump’s responsibility for the events of that black day.

And now Trump has kicked off his attempt to regain office with a litany of lunacy. His speech at CPAC has been recounted by my Atlantic colleagues; John Hendrickson notes Trump’s return to the classics of grievance, and McKay Coppins describes how Trump has managed to become part of the typically boring CPAC kitsch.

But we shouldn’t mistake Trump’s gibbering for harmless political glossolalia. As Charlie Sykes said this morning, CPAC is “a serious threat masquerading as a cultic circus cum clown car,” and revealed “what a Trump 2.0 would look like.” This is a former president whose pitch included “I am your retribution.” Retribution for what, exactly, was left unsaid, but revenge for being turned out of office is likely high on the list. The Trumpian millennium turned into a tawdry four years of grubby incompetence and an ignominious loss. If Trump wins again, there will be a flurry of pardons, the same cast of miscreants will return to Pennsylvania Avenue, and, this time, they won’t even pretend to care about the Constitution or the rule of law.

Imagine an administration where we’ll all be nostalgic for the high-mindedness of Bill Barr.

Trump also reminded us that he is an existential menace to our national security. He reveled in a story he first told last spring—almost certainly a fiction—about how he informed a meeting of NATO leaders that he would let the Russians roll over them if they weren’t paid up. (Trump still thinks NATO is a protection racket.) He then fantasized about how easily a Russian attack could destroy NATO’s headquarters.

We’ve all cataloged this kind of Trumpian weirdness many times, and I still feel pity for the fact-checkers who try to keep up with him. But I wonder if there is any point. By now it should be clear that the people listening to Trump don’t care about facts, or even about policy or politics. They enjoy the show, and they want it back on TV for another four years. And this is a problem not with Trump but with the voters.

It is long past time to admit that support for Trump, after all that we now know, is a moral failing. As I wrote in a recent book, there is such a thing as being a bad citizen in a democracy, and we should cease the pretend arguments about policy—remember, the 2020 GOP convention didn’t even bother with a platform. Instead, anyone who cares about the health of American democracy, of any party or political belief, should say clearly that to applaud Trump’s fantasies and threats at CPAC is to show an utter lack of civic character. (I might say that it is no better than applauding David Duke, but why invoke the former KKK leader when Trump has already had dinner with Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist who he seems to think is a swell guy?)

The man who bellowed and sweated his way through almost two hours of authoritarian madness is still the same man who instigated an attack on our Capitol (and on his own vice president), the man who would hand our allies to Russia if they’re behind on the vig, the man who thinks a free press is his enemy, the man who tried to wave away a pandemic as thousands and thousands of Americans died.

Stigma and judgment have a place in politics. There was a time when we forced people out of public life for offenses far less than Donald Trump’s violent and seditious corruption. We were a better country for it, and returning to that better time starts with media outlets holding elected Republicans to account for Trump’s statements—but also with each of us refusing to accept rationalizations and equivocation from even our friends and family. I said in 2016 that the Trump campaign was a test of character, and that millions of us were failing it. The stakes are even clearer and steeper now; we cannot fail this test again."

#tom nichols #the atlantic

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womaninwinter · 5 months

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For From the Cutting Room Floor and In My Father’s Words: 6, 11, 12, 19, 26 🥰

yay thank you for enabling me in my hour of need!!

6. What do you need to write? Is there anything special you need to do/have to help your creative flow?

Uh, a community it turns out. I got the idea for Cutting Room Floor because there was this fan theory floating around about "what if Lucy and Lockwood were secretly actually in a relationship and Lucy just doesn't mention it because she's being private" and I went to sleep with the idea revolving in my head and woke up with the fic more or less fully formed. Then I spent about a whole day vomiting it onto a page when I should have been working. Oops? In My Father's Words came about because @synestheticwanderings came into the Cutting Room Floor comments and said she wanted Lockwood's side of the story, so yeah, it seems I really need input from others to write.

11. Was there a scene that you hadn't originally planned to include? Why did you decide to fit it in?

Listen I planned nothing with either of these fics. Cutting Room Floor wrote itself and possessed me, Father's Words has been entirely seat-of-my-pants writing. One scene that did come as a surprise to me was the confession scene of Father's Words. It was never meant to be a Catholic Lockwood™ fic, but it ended up being the only way I could write myself out of the hole I'd dug in previous chapters.

12. Was there a scene you wished you could have included? Why didn't it fit in?

I do occasionally think about what might have happened if Lucy had expressed some definite sign of interest in Lockwood beyond the physical in Cutting Room Floor. That fic is very much based around a silly miscommunication trope, and if she'd had the nerve to initiate at any point, the fic would have gone differently. So I do sometimes think about doing a Cutting Room Floor alternate ending where they actually communicate, but I have too many WIPs to take that on.

19. Is this one of your personal favorite fics? Why or why not?

It used to be, but looking back, I kinda wince at how clumsy some of the writing is. I do however think that Cutting Room Floor has one of the best openings I've ever written, and I will quote it here for reasons of vanity:

Reader, there is a part I didn’t tell you – you’ll see why. It goes like this: picture me, about a week after the Bickerstaff case, lying in my attic room, listening to the rain on the roof. My expression was somewhat shell-shocked, my fingers pressed to my lips. No, that’s a bit too late. Let’s go back another twenty minutes or so. I was just waking up, feeling stiff and achy still from all our exertions, when Lockwood knocked on my door.

I absolutely adore when the narrator addresses the reader directly so I will always be terribly proud of this.

26. Wild Card! I'll tell you a fun fact about this fic!

I don't know if it counts as fun exactly, but the day I wrote and published From the Cutting Room Floor (July 28th) was my longest Spotify listening day of 2023. As a result, I know almost exactly how long it took me to write it (~8 hours). Another fun fact that probably only I think is fun is that the fic was originally sexier, but I didn't like it, so I cut the "steamier" descriptions (and I think the fic is stronger for it. I think romantic scenes are way stronger when you focus on the characters' reactions and emotional experiences rather than physical mechanics).

Behind-the-scenes fic asks.

#ask games #lockwood and co #fic talk

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powertaco · 8 months

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A world of pals...

When Ambrosius said not to fall, he meant it.

Ruby wakes up on a strange island unsure of what to do.The only clue she has is a nearby data slate with the phrase ‘the towers hold the truth’.

Now Ruby has to explore this strange new world. Can she go home? Does it still even exist? Will she even want to?

I am going to do something super wild this time. I am going entirely hands off with pairings this time.

That is right. If you leave a comment on your account you can pick the pairings you want to see aside from obvious ick for me (incest pairing although in theory you could vote pollination no enabler), or Salem (who is left behind).

As a side note I will not write Ruby, Weiss, or Maria with men. Outside of that try to use your judgement.

For picking Ruby's pairing I'm willing to go up to an ot4 so you can pick 3 gals you want Ruby to be 'pals' with. Please give me a reason beyond. They're hot. Unless it's young maria because I will cheat and take those votes anyway I can.

So if you want DWR we'll do it. IF you want Weiss, Ruby, Ilia, and Young Maria I will take it.

If you want Cinder, Winter, and Penny? I will find a way to make it work.

Hell maybe you want DWR with Neo thrown in there? I don't care. We'll give it 3 chapters before votes are counted and locked in alright?

#rwby #whiterose #probably #you're voting for everything this time baby #yes palworld

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astrologista · 5 months

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interesting to me that ppl are surprised when the economy is not doing well in america when the major tech companies have not produced anything innovative since like 2009 and are still riding the coattails of "the world wide web" which by the way WE made valuable by putting the content on it that people wanted to see. the fandoms people of 2006-2017 who were around were the real ones who produced, for no cost in the majority of cases, Youtube videos and amvs, gifsets, fanvids, fanfics, fanart, meta postings, hosted a plethora of both in person and virtual events and organized zines, big bangs, conventions, contests, giveaways and about a million other things out of a simple desire for finding community and a passion for the media that they cared about. there are so many stories that have changed our lives that we wanted to pay homage to. many fan theories of the time have found their way into the media that they spawned from. that's how "fertile" the ground was around tumblr and LJ and ffnet in those times. there was the actual opportunity to build and create something with like-minded people. of course there were flame wars and trolls but nobody mocked each other needlessly. it was rare that you wouldn't find somebody who shared your view on a piece of media and you could just roll with them and ignore the haters. people wanted to be positive and friendly and constructive for the most part. they valued their fandom friends because they knew the value of having friends in the first place. many of us were complete outsiders/losers/floaters in school and had nobody to talk with about any of this outside the internet. as a result of that, we valued our internet friends more and there was just less negative talk and less directed bullying. it was far from perfect, but the overall community vibe was very welcoming and supported creativity and new ideas above all else. i remember being encouraged to post my first fanfic after seeing so many go before me, and the positive comments and messages they got. i was like, "wow, someone might really like this." and, i feel like people did.

what was this post about again? oh yeah. not saying we need to be necessarily monetarily compensated for fanworks but we should at least be given a say in where the web goes from here and how we can create spaces and sites that do not have a financial/monetary component to them again. being able to pay for an audience is not a technological innovation, it's a change to a business model that has enabled unscrupulous individuals and businesses to utilize the web for their own gain and we're not talking enough about that. anyway the other reason why the economy sucks right now is that businesses refuse to take chances on real creative ideas. you see this in tech and in the entertainment industry. we've been here before and came out of it in a big way though so we'll see.

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i-like-eyes · 2 years

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Wrote this out of boredom uhhhh

For years I've just kinda ignored metasusie because I thought it was dumb more than anything, but seeing the new wave of fans latch onto the first straight ship they see it means I'm seeing it flood my timelines and I'm forced to think about it. I don't even subscribe to the MK has robot PTSD theory so much as I think it's just a bad read of both characters. I think people should be allowed to make and consume what could be considered problematic media as long as they still think critically about what they are doing and understand the effects their creations can have on people. But I'm not seeing that here. Listen if this was just a bad read of the characters I wouldn't make an elaborate post on it unless someone asked about it oop There are a lot of headcanons I think are shitty reads of the characters, but that's all they are. There is no point to take a fat dump on them other than I was bored and wanted to complain.

But metasusie isn't just that, it promotes harmful ideas rather the people that like the pair realize it or not. If the gender roles were switched more people would recognize that there was an unfair power balance and how icky the whole situation is, and if it isn't undermining MK then Susie is reduced to a sexy mannequin devoid of personality to look pretty next to the cool guy. I have never seen a ship that both completely disregards the media's message in order to exist and is so sexist for both characters involved; and I'd never thought I'd have to say that for a bloody Kirby ship.

I know I'm not changing metasusie fan's minds because they are very stubborn. After scrolling on Twitter too much it's clear that metasoos fans know their ship is problematic, and instead of reflecting on themselves they try to divert attention by bullying gay people or smth. I've seen them try to argue that metadede is the more problematic pairing, and as someone who does not like metadede, *bruh* it is as inoffensive as stock images lmao. Rather I'm writing this so that people that get there is smth off about the pairing but can put to words what they're feeling. Because if you so much as poke at the arguments supporting it, they immediately shatter they're so haphazardly put together.

And knowing what posting this will entail; please don't harass anyone over this, it won't help your point. I don't think that liking smth yikesy automatically makes someone a bad person, some people just legit don't know better. I think what matters more is how the respond after the fact, and to be patient with people because you can't expect anyone to change overnight. That said some people won't change their minds ever, and no amount of trying to cram the idea in their heads will change do that. Hell constantly poking someone about it when they have shown they don't care about the topic, even if you think they are wrong about it that's just bullying. If you can't change someone's mind they aren't worth the time.

So, the big point everyone has seen. Susie ripped MK of his humanity. When you say you "remodeled" someone and give them a new robot name you have dehumanized them. There is no getting around that fact, and this is a thing that happened in the main story not even as pause screen lore.

How she describes him before the second fight is particularly degrading, calling him a product and referring to him as "it". The line about the upgrade enabling him to work for 24 hours is definitely commentating on long works hours lol

People will argue that MK doesn't seem all that bothered by it so it's okay, I'd argue that isn't the case but let's go with this take anyways. Even if MK himself was okay with being reduced to a company's asset, the act of mechanizing someone against their will is still an irresponsible thing to do on Susie's end. I'm pretty sure 80% of metasusie fans didn't actually play Planet Robobot, but just so that we are on the same page, the plot of that game is that the entirety of Planet Popstar is robotized by the Haltmann company and Kirby has to save the planet from being taken over by comically over-the-top capitalists. Meta Knight is one of the many, many victims of robotization and the fact that the galaxy's greatest warrior was even taken over by the company is how the game raises its stakes. Whispey the tree becoming company property is bad enough, but the Haltmann company is just so damn powerful that not even Meta Knight could fight them off. This is the part where the player goes "oh shit! Not the badass Meta Knight!" The whole game is critique of capitalism, that the system reduces those at the bottom (the robotized) into cogs of a wider machine that serves to maximize profits that benefits only those at the top (the Haltmanns). Doesn't matter how good you are at sword fighting, that can't fight off an economic system man. And this game's critique of capitalism, while still simple because all ages game, doesn't get enough credit. That line about being able to work for 24 hours isn't just a joke about how hard a job is, under capitalism the people in charge wring out as many hours out of their employees as they possibly can. They'd like it if we were all just mindless robots because more hours means get more work done in a week meaning more profit and faster. Even if you are 10 and have never heard of capitalism, it's still clear that the bad guys are doing their bad guy thing by taking over the good guys. My point is by excusing Susie robotizing Meta Knight and saying it wasn't all that bad, you are excusing the rest of the planet being turned into a hellscape and its inhabitants being ripped of their humanity. You are saying that the game's message does not matter, that the game's entire fucking conflict meant nothing. After all, if MK being robotized wasn't so bad then why would Kirby need to save the whole planet? Some people really will ignore a whole game to justify a ship god damn.

Some people instead claim that what Susie did was awful, but she can improve as a person and MK can forgive her. There are a handful of things wrong with this mindset let's break it down.

First off, Susie has never shown a willingness to change. "But she helped Kirby at the end" technically yes, but was it out of the kindness of her heart or because she was already in danger and recognized that he was the only way to ensure she'd survive? Going by her dialogue it looks more like the latter. "I'm not going to stand here be be destroyed by some crazy machine!" You got to work on your optics girl.

Compare and contrast this with Taranza helping Kirby in the end of Triple Deluxe. Taranza was blasted away Team Rocket style by Sectonia; he just had his best friend whom he was still loyal towards despite her changing for the worse finally betray him. He is literally blasted miles away from the big boss fight at this point and probably dealing with a lot of confused and built up emotions. And despite that, he goes to back to help Kirby and DDD defeat her having realized that she can't be saved. He could of stayed behind away from all the action, but he went back to do the right thing. Both Susie and Taranza would of died in their situations (Secc eventually becomes a ginat flower and starts to cover the planet) but Taranza was the one that put himself into more danger by going back. That's why he looks more selfless than Susie does. Not saying Susie didn't do a good thing either, nor that you can argue even Taranza might of had selfish motivations for wanting to survive because don't we all. But, because of the situation her motivations seemed more selfish in nature whereas Taranza put himself in more danger to save others.

Perhaps the intention was to have Susie be as admirable as Taranza was. I get the vibe the devs wanted Susie to be the next Taranza, but I don't think they captured what made him special. Yeah they both had sad backstories, but that doesn't excuse their bad actions. Rather they have to show them working to better themselves, and they had Taranza at the end helping DDD and Kirby back to Dreamland while Susie fucks off to space in her mech. If the intention was to make Susie nicer, then she should of been shown helping others more. Or maybe that wasn't even their intention, and Susie is just supposed to be a bad guy. Taranza and even the Squeaks in the infamously underwritten Squeak Squad make up for their actions at the end of their respective games, if they wanted Susie to reform they could have. And Magolor shows that if they change their minds on smth they can just retcon what happened in their next game appearance! So did they do that with Susie?

We would see her again in Star Allies, so if we get a plot follow up of sorts then it would be there. In it she's a Dream Friend; playable characters whose inclusion in the game are canonically dubious, but the information here is still significant because it's the closest thing we'll get to official media commenting on where the characters are after their own titles. It has been confirmed that there is no clear timeline, but it's fair to say that KSA takes place after all the other games because it references those, and how else would Kirby know all these people anyways? Ultimately the most common take is what you see is canon, and what people see is Susie helping Kirby and the game referencing the events of PR. Each playable character has a little blurb in their pause screens explaining why they are in the game. It should be noted that the people that translated the game were seemingly given like two days to complete it, so yes I will be bringing up the differences in versions, but the vast majority of people that played the English version only know about the English text. While the Japanese text is the "original", that doesn't make the English text any less valid no matter how bad you may think it is. In the English version Susie's blurb reads:

The company he built... I will bring it back!” Cool and collected, Susie from Kirby: Planet Robobot is all business. Following in the footsteps of her employer, she uses science to advance her mission—mechanizing new planets and peoples.

I don't think I even need to explain how this version of Susie is repeating the same villainous acts from her debut game. This is how most English players view the character rather you like it or not. Moving on to the Japanese version:

“His company…I’ll show that I will rebuild it!” Brushing aside a loose strand of shiny hair, the beautiful secretary Susie that inherited his will from Planet Robobot has taken action! A harmonious family, and a happy life, are offered with the power of science… I’ll exterminate the savages under such principles!

I've seen Susie fans say that her JP description is nicer than her EN one and proof she's changed for the better which. Okay mechanizing planets and people is arguably worse cause that's larger scale, but the JP version literally says she is killing people she decides are degenerates lol. And what she considers savages are the people of Popstar by the way, she isn't actually helping anybody. Even if she was killing obviously bad people, "exterminating the savages" is still a really blatantly evil way of wording things. That kind of language is used by colonizers when they take continents, or in the Haltmann's case, planets. Big red flags here, is the American education system that bad???

In order to justify killing an entire population to take their land, the colonizers convince themselves and others that "well the inhabitants are just savages anyways they wouldn't understand." This is what she means by "A harmonious family, and a happy life, are offered with the power of science… I’ll exterminate the savages under such principles!" Killing "savages" in the name of science is straight up some eugenicist shit I'm not kidding. And capitalism is associated with advancement of technology which means getting rid of what is outdated by capitalists standards. Such as a planet and its people lacking in hi-tech department for example. She isn't helping people y'all this is still the same capitalist from the previous game, just look at her dialogue in the second screenshot: "You natives need to be taught manners!"

This still is a bad localization, but unlike other parts of KSA I at least understand what the mindset was. "Okay she wants to exterminate the savages.... and those savages are the people in the way of her colonizing planets..... oh so she's colonizing planets." That's still a different meaning from the og text, but even the person that were given what seems like 30 seconds to translate this at least understood the wider implication.

All that said, ultimately this dialogue is just set up for a punchline. Consistent in her writing is her complete and utter lack of empathy and juxtaposing her cherry attitude with her bad behavior. In the first dialogue blurb I reference she acts as if her turning MK into her slave was her doing him a favor and she thinks this completely unironically; she is crazy and that's the joke. Bad people never think they are the villains; Susie thought she helping people when really she's killing innocents and that's the joke. This game series is inherently silly I don't know how people can miss this.

Then there is the menu animation thing where MK runs away in fear and Susie chases him. These are even more canonically dubious but it's the one example of the games referencing the two together after Planet Robobot. If they were supposed to both be on good terms you'd think the one time they can comment on their relationship status that then they'd be all buddy-buddy. But that isn't what they went with, the animation is there to say that MK (and even DMK) is afraid of Susie.

I'd like to point out that while it's easy to completely dismiss this as a "cute reference", there was still thought put into this. The people that created this had to think about what makes the most sense for these characters based on what information we already know. They didn't come to that conclusion based on nothing.

Alright the big question; does MK forgive Susie at the end of Robobot? Or ever? The end of the game has MK fly his ship near Star Dream where Kirby and Susie happen to be, nods to Kirby, Kirby nods back, and then they fly away leaving Susie behind. Some people have took this as MK forgiving Susie because. Uh. He doesn't acknowledge her? What is that the mindset here, that because he doesn't got out of his way to say "Susie you suck" that means they are on good terms? No, what's happening is there is a giant computer about to take over the galaxy, and MK doesn't acknowledge Susie because the evil murder robot is more important at the moment.

A problem with the series recently is that its had pretty ambitious story telling with little time to tell it. We probably won't figure out if Taranza moves on from Sectonia's death because *when* could they tell that story? TDX2? lol that was scrapped. Taranza certainly isn't popular enough to show up in a game collection to elaborate on his game's ending. We don't know if MK forgave Susie or held a grudge because the game doesn't have time to explore that unless it wants to ruin the pacing of the gameplay. The nature of the series is that after every game Dreamland basically resets, this is so that you can hop into any entry without needing context from previous titles to enjoy the current one. At most there will be references for older fans to gawk at, but the characters themselves live like they are in an episodic tv show. Next week all will back to normal to make a clean canvas for the next game. We can't have a game that follows up on the after effects on mechanization because we can't expect everyone to have played Planet Robobot. Plus the games barely have any time to properly establish the new story and characters, you think it has time to recap previous titles? We won't find out what the likes of Bonkers and Whispey think about the whole being turned into a robot thing because of this.

But the people that worked on Star Allies had the opportunity to at least comment on the effects it had on MK, even if it was in the form of a simple easy-to-miss animation. They had to think to themselves what do we know about these characters and in this one opportunity we can comment on what their current status is, how would they react. Thought was put into this.

Well, MK just isn't a very open guy for one thing. Like, him being quiet and mysterious is his whole gimmick. Even if the games were more story heavy, MK isn't the type to waltz into a room and announce how he's feeling. He's also normally in a high position of power; be it leading the Halberd or defeating the likes of Galacta Knight. He fights back the possession during Epic Yarn, and afterwards infamously says "Kirby, forgive me! I blame the yarn!" He is very clearly embarrassed by the ordeal lol. By KATFL he's so sick of being possessed that he just escapes Fecto's grasp through sheer will. In PR he's shown to be very stiff and lifeless in his Mecha Knight animations, devoid of any personality. We don't see him struggle like in Epic Yarn, but the fact that the mechanization has that strong of a hold on him that he can't fight it back is much scarier than the yarn thing. He would be at least a little shook from having that power suddenly taken from him, and he has been established to not like being mind controlled. And we know the guy is stubborn, he will not admit he's losing a fight and stick to the very end. Even if Susie tried to get on better terms with him, he'd hold a grudge for having bested him. In KF2 he still holds a grudge against freaking Kirby for always beating him for Pete's sake. This isn't proof the guy is traumatized or whatever that title goes to Zan, but he is said to have an ego streak in Star Allies, and the whole turned into a cyborg against your will thing would bruise your ego. So yeah, I think it makes complete sense that MK would try to avoid Susie. Go figure the people that work on these characters for their job understand them inside and out.

Now even ignoring all of this, I see people say well it's so open to interpretation what happens that I just hc Susie as getting better and MK forgiving her anyways.

Okay, prove it. Where's this story you have where this happens. Where is this content. I have not seen a single metasusie fan commit to this slow burn growing for the better and learning to forgive narrative, they just hop right into the romance. I have seen stories where Susie tries to better herself, sometimes MK forgives her and sometimes he doesn't, and none of those were done to justify shipping the two. They were stories that existed to explore the character (hell the only one with shipping had FranSoos) While I have argued here that Susie has never shown the willingness to change at all, at least the people that disagree have made some impressive art expressing why they think otherwise. The fact that I haven't seen metasusie fans actually do that and instead charge straight first into generic married couple shit tells me they don't actually care about the narrative where they grow as people and just say that's what they hc as a justification for the ship. You aren't exploring these characters you just want fluffy shit, and if that's all you care about just say that.

"Why can't you just let people have fun."

fffffffffffffff The main reason why I made this thing despite keeping quiet on other shit in this fandom I don't like, is because this pairing pushes sexist ideas rather the shippers intended this or not (and the vast majority of the time they don't). Making the two a happy-go-lucky couple downplays the abuse MK endured, and by extension rips Susie of her agency.

I am not saying MK suffered the equivalent of real world domestic abuse, he is literally a blueberry man that was made into a cool transformer when he didn't want that. But, there is more evidence to support that MK didn't like being robotized than there is saying he was okay with it. If the game explicitly supported the idea that he is fine and even forgives her, that would be a different story. But as established he's either indifferent at best or scared of her at worst. What is happening is that the media says that he suffered a bad thing, and people react to it by showing him fine and dandy despite that. Let's play a game. It's called "a man kidnaps a woman and forces her to do everything he says rather she wants to or not; is this scenario fucked up". If you answered yes then congrats you won the game, if you answered no, welp. I don't what to do with you man. It's incredibly telling when I see people react viscerally to others that headcanon MK's experience as having went worse. The same people I see say "just let people have fun it's just hc" in regards to their fluffy owo metasusie ship freak the fuck out whenever they see an angsty MK was hurt by Susie hc and try to argue how wrong it is. If your headcanon that MK is okay with the robot thing is valid, then what makes the angstier hc's any less valid? What is wrong with people that sympathize with MK being stripped of his anatomy and forced to work for someone else and exploring that story? Taking the theming of dehumanization and further exploring it? I thought you just wanted to let people have fun! Gonna go out on a limb here and say some people don't like the idea that men can't take more abuse than women; that they have a double standard and seeing that take makes them reevaluate their minset. And also that headcanon conflicts with the idea that he can date Susie. Mostly the later, but smth smth no one is free from biases and those can show up anywhere even in depictions of anthropomorphic spheres.

Back to Susanna, a problem with the games with that she suffers little repercussions for her actions. She can't really grow as a character if she doesn't find out what she did was wrong. But if they wanted to just play the villain thing straight it's still kinda boring to see she barely struggles to get what she wants, wow she sure is quick to brush off losing Star Dream so quickly after all her hard work. This is reflected in fan work as well, people don't seem all that interested in discussing why what she did was bad unless it's among the lines of "she is evil incarnate and deserves to die". Very productive guys. Because the games never properly punish her for her bad deeds, and the fans jump straight into the romance shit without writing that character arc where she grows as a person that the games lack. And the end result is Susie is never punished for her actions, rather she's rewarded with the same man she dehumanized. No amount of "well I hc this" will change that, all you ever draw is shippy stuff, never the character growth, and what people remember is the visuals not your written hc's. All people will see is fanart of a villain who never learns and is even rewarded for her bad behavior. MK's tribulations are ignored for the sake of her. Again, if the games actually had her pay for her mistakes then everyone's understanding of the character would be that of someone that actually understands what is and isn't wrong, then the pairing would be less icky. But that isn't the case, and the fandom isn't going to change that perspective anytime soon because it doesn't have the influence the official media nor does it care all that much about that narrative to begin with.

I've seen some defenders of the ship say that it only gets so much hate because people are weird about Susie. Now the people that say this will lump together actual haters with people who have legitimate criticisms, but yes as referenced above people are very weird about Susie. Like some people just despise this fictional woman, and she's clearly a bad person but she's a villain that's the point? Calm down. I know it might seem like *I* hate Susie because I've written 1000 words detailing why she's an awful person, but actually that's why I love her. All that dialogue I used to argue why she's awful? That shit is funny as hell! I'm sorry the hero of the story is boring; I'd much rather watch a villain giggle in glee, wine in hand from the comfort of their spooky castle as they watch the city burn underneath them. Susie would post a picture of her posing next to her latest victim with the description "feeling cute might delete later". She's that meme posing in a pool with someone drowning in the back. I don't think she's particularly well written, her backstory doesn't seem to have any affect on her and the game itself can't decide rather she's a straight up villain or morally ambiguous, but damn she's still so much fun. What she lacks in clear morals, she more than makes up for with plenty of personality! And seeing a horrible character suffer no repercussions for their bad actions and instead are congratulated with given a hot bf is obnoxious. But making a fun character boring? One of the worst sins you could commit. No I'm joking, but it is also super fucking telling that a good chuck of metasusie shippers are really just MK fanboys that only ever bring up Susie in relation to MK. And they ignore her war crimes to make her a sexy lamp that flirts with him and seemingly has no other ambitions. Like hating women is one thing, but women are people and people can be awful therefore women can be awful and let women be a bad bitch like Maleficent dammit. What I mean to say is; Susie isn't like some feminist icon, for one of like barely 10 plot important female characters she plays into a lot of basic stereotypes and the devs seem hesitant to actually punish her for her actions or have her grow to the extent of her male counterparts. But she's still an incredibly active character that can outsmart anybody (exception being the evil supercomputer which is fair) and takes matters into her own hands. In order to make Susie shippable you have to make her nicer, but this comes in the form of removing her smarts and her go getter attitude so that she becomes the ideal wife, and not only does she no longer resemble Susie, that's incredibly demeaning.

(Edit: I forgot to mention a lot of people will argue that depicting a female character as villainous to be an inherently bad thing. While it is true that there are some creators that hate women so much that every woman they write is some sort of evil temptress or whatever, this obviously doesn't mean that every fictional bad lady ever is inherently sexist for being evil. No not every depiction of Susie being mean is a result of someone that hates her, you can't deny that she's mean in canon at least at *sometimes*. Let women be bad bitches.)

TL:DR, The ship is bad. Planet Robobot makes a stance on the negative effects of capitalism, that because capitalism favors those at top it dehumanizes those below them. Meta Knight is a victim of this, and by saying it wasn't a problem you ignore the game's message for a ship. Susie isn't a particularly well written character, perhaps she was intended to be more sympathetic but the series doesn't do enough to show her trying to change for the better. The fans don't make up for this and treat her even weirder. If it was just those issues then it would just be a lame pairing, but the pair also emphasizes how the abuse men receive is undermined and how little people care about Susie being her own person. Also by posting this I lost a lot of followers lol

#kirby #meta knight #susie haltmann #mecha knight #yeah im tagging all of this shit #not my normal content #yeah.#translation by fountain of dreams on this website #im so sorry #EDIT: I REALLY WROTE TDLR INSTEAD OF TLDR LMAOOO

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cutebutalsostabby · 2 years

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i wouldnt mind hearing more abt that Zelda Timeline Is A Circle theory ...👀👀

I WROTE A WHOLE RANT AND THEN FAILED TO SAVE. JHKJJDGFHJKDFSHKJFK nonetheless: I am so excited about this whole thing that I will literally WRITE THAT WHOLE THING AGAIN DAMN IT. Thank you for the enablement, anonymous stranger!

Anyway. A concession first off that this theory has some massive plot holes, so it's less a case of "here's my carefully considered perspective on the Zelda timeline" and more "here's a corkboard covered in red string". So don't @ me. Unless you also want to share Zelda conspiracy theories, in which case absolutely do @ me. At any time. Please.

With that said: let's start with looking at where BotW sits on the timeline.

The Downfall Timeline

The converged timeline is a fun theory, but I personally think the Downfall Timeline makes most sense for BotW. In particular:

Calamity Ganon is basically immortal, whereas TP and WW Ganon are canonically vulnerable to stabs to the chest and head respectively. Technically Ganondorf II also exists in the Child Timeline, but the BotW script suggests that Calamity Ganon is the Ganondorf of OoT (Urbosa's comments in particular), so we’ll ignore that other guy. As usual.

"Calamity" (yakusai / 厄災) seems like a pretty clear relative of the Great Cataclysm (ooinaru wazawai / オオイナルワザワイ or 大いなる災い). That phrase comes from a prophecy in ALttP where any time one with an evil heart gains the power of the Triforce, a hero will rise to fight them.

Koroks and Rito exist in BotW, which may seem to tie it to the adult timeline – except that the same circumstances that led to Kokiri becoming Koroks and Zora becoming Rito (changes in habitat) exist in the Downfall Timeline as well. In fact, the Downfall Timeline makes more sense for the Zora: Ganon’s influence results in the destruction of Zora Domain, but some of the Zora flee to Labrynna as seen in OoA. The ones that stay in Hyrule become Rito and the ones that remain in Labrynna stay Zora - thus both can coexist in BotW's Hyrule.

Now the thing about Ganon in the Downfall Timeline is that a) he never dies for good and b) he only gets stronger over time. Meanwhile, the Master Sword slowly loses its edge, Hylia’s bloodline becomes thinner and the seven sages that originally sealed Ganon away fade out of prominence. By the time you get to BotW, it’s basically impossible for Link to win on his own. If you follow the "ideal" game path, he faces Ganon with both the Master Sword and the Divine Beasts and manages to buy enough time for Zelda to wield the power of the Triforce and seal Ganon away. After dying and spending 100 years regenerating inside a fancy spa bath. Considering the cost of getting that far and the fact that Zelda almost didn't unlock her powers at all, it's not much of a win.

Deus ex Timeline

Worth noting: there's no canonical answer as to why the Downfall Timeline exists. We know that the Adult/Child split happens when Zelda sends Link back in time, so theoretically the same or similar applies to the Downfall Timeline - except that there's no in-game evidence of such a thing ever occurring.

In the Downfall version of the OoT Ganon fight, Ganon defeats Link and steals his Triforce of Courage, then takes Zelda's Triforce of Wisdom. After that, as a last resort, the seven sages (including Zelda) manage to seal Ganon and the complete Triforce away in the Sacred Realm.

It's possible that OoT Zelda turned back time immediately after that, but I think it's unlikely. If Link survived at all, he was probably in no condition to go back, and Zelda herself had just lost the largest piece of her power and likely spent whatever magic she could spare just to seal away Ganon. Even if OoT Zelda thought it was a good idea to try again, even if she didn’t feel any guilt towards Link – and she already expressed a lot of guilt even in the "good" timeline – I don't think she could necessarily have done it. So if the timeline wasn't fractured then, when and how did it happen?

Theoretically, it could've happened at any point, so long as someone made the decision to go back AND had the power to achieve it. But I think it only really makes sense as an act of desperation.

Speaking of which, let's go back to what I was saying earlier about the Downfall Timeline.

It doesn't happen immediately, but at some point, there's a realisation – whether one made by BotW Link and Zelda, by their predecessors or even the gods watching on: the Downfall Timeline is basically doomed. Ganon keeps getting stronger over time, perhaps due to repeat "Great Cataclysms" where he gains the Triforce, perhaps due to what BotW suggests about him being "transformed by malice". He learns from each encounter, so it isn't wise to use the same weapons twice, and the "traditional" tools of Zelda and the Master Sword's divine power keep weakening. At some point, it just isn't going to be possible to win against him anymore, and at that point: the only way to stop Ganon is to beat him back when he was still beatable.

Let's also say, to give it some urgency, that Ganon makes a sudden reappearance not long after the events of BotW. Not after another 10,000 years: shortly after BotW. With the former kingdom in the condition it is, with the Divine Beasts silent and with Zelda's own power exhausted, there's no way they can fight Ganon all over again. So instead, they find some method of travelling back in time.

But When?

I mean, we could stop here and say "they go back and kick OoT Ganon's butt", but I don't think they do. For one: OoT Link already kicks Ganon's butt. We have a whole narrative around that. But more importantly, it's heavily implied that the cycle of Ganon's rebirth is tied to Demise's long-distant curse - which the Goddess Hylia would likely know, even if history has forgotten it. So if Hylia is involved at all in the decision, either through speaking with Zelda through dreams, Link through her private chat or through a plan made eons ago, she wouldn't send them to OoT. She'd send them right back to the start.

Now, the interesting thing about Demise: he isn't a god – evidenced by the fact that he's able to use the Triforce and Hylia isn't for that reason – but he does fight on par with one. Their battle is CLOSE. He was able to wound her badly and get her to the point where giving up her divinity purely to stop him is seen as a valid option. Like: what? That is a big cost and a big risk, Hylia! Why would you do that? She would've had to have a pretty good reason to take such drastic action – maybe because she was able to see to the conclusion of the Downfall Timeline.

Now here's where the details get extra shaky: the only evidence to suggest that time travel way back to the start of the timeline occurred is a) Hylia's desperation to stop Demise, and b) the super advanced tech of the distant past of the Lanayru region, which resembles distant futuristic Sheikah tech and seems entirely out of place compared to the more primitive tech seen elsewhere. But while we're throwing out theories with limited evidence, here are a few other elements of interest:

The Twili

The Twili of Twilight Princess, aka Dark Tribe of Four Sword Adventures. They once attempted to steal the Triforce and were sealed away in the Twilight/Dark Mirror. What if Demise was part of this group, and what if there was a timeline split depending on whether or not he actually obtained the Triforce? If he doesn't, let's say he's still strong enough to manifest a curse, but that the curse itself is weaker in the timeline leading to the Child/Adult split.

The Minish and the Wind Tribe

Minish Cap lore doesn't seem to show up in other games much, but technically the ones that created the armos of MC – and theoretically also armos of long-distant Lanayru – were the Minish on behalf of the Wind Tribe. The Zonai are associated with the Faron Region which is associated with the wind element (e.g. Fado of the Kokiri as Sage of Wind) so the Zonai could be or could be connected with the distant Wind Tribe. In which case, they were one of the groups around in the distant past and may have fought alongside Hylia in the war against Demise.

The Desertification of Lanayru

Something happened to the Lanayru region to rapidly change its environs from lush greenery into a desert. This could have been natural, or could be evidence of either intentional damage or some side effects of the mining of timeshift stones. It isn't clear, but it's fun to think about.

Desert Colossus

In OoT and TP, there exist images of a goddess of the sand – likely a different goddess to Hylia, Din, Farore or Nayru. We still know basically nothing about this goddess and her domain.

The Gerudo and Zuna

FSA is a bit famous for breaking the timeline, but one of the fun pieces of lore it introduces is the weapon with "the power to ruin the world" – found in the desert in the Pyramid of Power. Since Hyrule Castle of Ganon's Dark World in ALttP resembles that same Pyramid of Power, and since Ganon originates from that same region, maybe the trident is one of the factors that tips the scale against OoT Link in the Downfall Timeline.

The Crack in the Earth

The demon tribe Demise belongs to is said to have issued out of a crack in the earth as per SS lore. This could tie them to Din as Goddess of the earth. We still don't know much about why that crack appeared in the first place or why that tribe picked a fight over the Triforce, but that could be relevant to the idea of why "the means to oppose Ganon" as per BotW's prophecy, might be found underground.

The Master Sword

The Master Sword looks to be broken in Tears of the Kingdom, which is unfortunate considering how it's supposed to be sealing Demise. If it's carried back in time with Link, that gives new meaning to Demise's words about a cycle and throws a new spanner in the works in terms of trying to support Hylia in her fight.

Groose

He's not relevant; I just think he's neat.

Wow Those Sure Are Some Plotholes

I never said it was a fully formed theory, more that it was fun to think about. But what do YOU think? ��

I came up with the above ramble on my own, but I'm not the only one to suggest a loop in the timeline, so I'll be interested in hearing other theories. To be clear as well: I don't necessarily see this as breaking the cycle. It's unclear whether the attempt at fixing the timeline succeeds and changes the outcome in OoT's Ganon fight, and even if it does: what happens in the abandoned Downfall Timeline? Or post FSA on the child timeline or to the sunken Kingdom in the adult timeline? There's still plenty of room for the franchise to grow!

Anyway. Thanks for reading and happy theorising! Imma go get some sleep now. Later!

#botw2 #loz tears of the kingdom #tears of the kingdom #loz totk #totk #zelda timeline #zelda theory #legend of zelda

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coralillough · 3 years

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I've known a certain gay man since we were kids-- He was a neighborhood friend of my first girlfriend-- and I don't think I've ever experienced more overt, shallow sexism from anyone else other than him. I have endured more damaging manifestations of misogyny at the hands of boyfriends, family, and authority figures, but none of those people dared to look me in the eye, call me a "filthy whore," and expected me to praise them for it.

In truth, my first girlfriend and I never viewed this one man very closely, and we held a disdain for him that we had trouble addressing-- Were we homophobic for disliking the way he treated us? The reality is that he simply awarded himself the authority to comment on our bodies, our clothing, and our sexuality. He assumed that this was the role we wanted him to play, and he felt powerful when he could act that way. If we didn't like it, there must have been something wrong with us, right?

I spent an agonizing couple of hours with him this weekend at an event. I was wearing jeans and a tee, no bra underneath, as I don't even own any real ones anymore. As I walked up to his table and introduced myself to his other friends, he didn't even address me before turning to them and saying, "God, it's a little nipply out here, isn't it? Does anyone else think it's nipply? You know, like, nipple-y?" He repeatedly and un-subtley gestured towards me. Once his friends each gave a silent, realizing "Ohhh," he turned to me and said, "I haven't seen you in years, bitch. Looking a little wild and free, aren't we?" Over the course of the evening, he kept making these uncomfortable, sexualizing jabs whenever he was near me, no matter how much I tried to dismiss him and distance myself.

Even before he came to terms with his own sexuality, he was very comfortable playing media-driven role of the "gay best friend": A flamboyant gay man who keeps the close company of women. These female friends of this character are supposed to view him as an authority on femininity, fashion, attractiveness, confidence, and sexuality. This op-ed does a phenomenal job of addressing the sexist attitudes unique to gay men, which thrive with in the man who accepts the role of the stereotypical "gay best friend." In actuality, this character encourages and enables barefaced, sexist bullying.

When we were teenagers, he would start every interaction with a comment on our outfits. He would never fail to ask if we were "feeling slutty today" when he noticed a stray bra strap or a low-cut top. When he found us in the hallway, he would announce his presence by running his hands through our hair and fishing out split ends or stray frizz. We tried to avoid him because he made us feel self-conscious and violated, and this happened from the time we were twelve years old until we were sixteen, when he graduated high school. He embodied the worst of the objectifying behaviors of both sexes: He would look us up and down, scrutinizing and sexualizing our bodies, like boys would do; and he would nitpick our outfits or our physical imperfections, like girls would do. The difference between him and everyone else is that he could voice every single thought that came from this, and we felt pressured to celebrate him for it: We were gay, he was gay, and that was supposed to be the culture of our community.

Gay men are not free of misogynistic actions and attitudes simply because they aren't attracted to women. The "gay best friend" character that flamboyant, feminine gay men are offered upholds sexism to a great degree. He is a man who is designated as an expert on performing femininity, who is degrading and callous in his approach, and revered for all of it. He is a marriage of traditional sexism and "queer" theory: By the femininity that is tied to his sexuality, he is rewarded for treading on women as men are destined to do.

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funkymbtifiction · 2 years

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Chameleon vs snail

‘When we start to think about what purpose the 'self’ serves we might answer in two different ways. We might say that the self is an untenable, illusory concept which simply cannot capture the complexities and inconsistencies of real lives. Or we might say that the self is crucial to a person’s overall psychological wellbeing as it enables us to take control of our lives, and helps us to manage our experiences. These two answers are the products of diametrically opposed theories of self. The first stresses the changeability of self: identity does not exist outside of the social context in which it is constructed. It is like a chameleon that changes its colour according to its environment. The second approach stresses the continuity of self: something that the person carries about with them through time and through the range of social situations they participate in. It is like a snail’s shell, carried about by the snail wherever it goes’

Just read this extract from a psychology study - do you think this speaks to the difference between attachment and hexad types?

Yeah, that’s pretty much it, although you could also say that the ‘adaptation’ is social dynamics (fitting in to get along) and the snail is your true essence, the thing that makes you who you are, regardless.

Attachment is a bewildering thing to perceive in yourself, because it forces you to acknowledge how attached you are to perspectives outside yourself. Even if you want to, you can’t shut out those voices. Criticism, comments, remarks, other people’s opinions, seep into you and become part of you, whether you want them to or not. And if you are lucky enough to also be a social type, or have social in your stacking, you are thinking in terms of how others will perceive you and trying to fight the impulse to prematurely alter yourself to suit them. You will also notice yourself adjusting to whomever you are around -- even if it’s a small thing like picking up their mannerisms, their tone of voice, or even finding your behavior altering around certain kinds of people. That’s where the 3 adaptation comes from, but it’s also present in 9 and 6 to some degree. I think it’s an attachment survival mechanism that goes back to our ancient tribal roots -- the more alike we are to our prospective captors, the less likely they are to eradicate us (in theory; in practice, it never works).

#question #attachment #hexad #enneagram

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cloverthirteen · 3 years

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Was Ace Attorney made as a satire on Japan’s legal system? -- An analysis

I wouldn’t really call myself an Ace Attorney fan--I’ve never played any of the games, the closest I’ve come being watching other people’s let’s plays. I do like reading about the series on wikis and interacting with fan content for it, though, so I do know a fair amount about it.

One thing I see being said pretty often by fans is that the series was intended as a satire/parody of the Japanese legal system, which is why the courts are ridiculously biased towards the prosecution, prosecutors often care more about perfect win records more than putting actual guilty people behind bars, etc. If you’re familiar with this, you’ve probably heard of Japan’s 99% conviction rate. This interpretation of the games and the way they work definitely makes sense.

But after hearing this many times I eventually noticed something. There isn’t a single actual source (creator statement, interview, etc.) that backs up this claim. Every time I see someone online say “the series creator made Ace Attorney to parody Japan’s actual legal system” there is never a link to an interview or anything that proves their statement correct. If someone has an actual, verified source from Shu Takumi or someone else who had significant involvement with the series, please prove me wrong and show it to me. But according to all of the creator’s statement’s I’ve read, there’s no evidence of the series being an intentional parody.

So, what do we know about the creation of the Ace Attorney series? Well, it was created by Shu Takumi, who wrote and directed the first three games. After working on the dinosaur survival horror game Dino Crisis for Capcom, he was given the opportunity to make any kind of game he wanted. He really wanted to make mystery and adventure games, and from that came Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

MC: Before developing Ace Attorney you worked on Dino Crisis. How does one go from dinosaur survival horror to virtual courtrooms?

ST: Dino Crisis was the brainchild of my then boss, Resident Evil creator, Shinji Mikami. Working on his projects taught me not only how to make games, but also how to think about them. After Dino Crisis 2 wrapped, Mr Mikami gave me six months in which to create any kind of game I wanted.

I was still pretty wet behind the ears, but as I'd originally joined Capcom with a desire to create mystery and adventure games, this was a huge chance for me to make my mark as a creator. In the end it took a team of seven 10 months to produce the first GBA Ace Attorney title. Having the freedom to create exactly the kind of game I wanted was amazing and it was a real pleasure to work on that project.

MC: Can you remember when the idea of Ace Attorney first came to you? How did your bosses respond to the idea of a lawyer-based adventure game when you first described it to them?

ST: It was in 2000 when Mr Mikami said I could make my own game and my original idea was a fairly typical adventure with a detective as the main character. Most mystery adventures have the player choose from a number of different dialogue options for their character in order to progress the story, but I wanted a new gameplay style that enabled players to deduce for themselves what was happening, rather than just selecting canned responses. I developed this into the concept of facing off against the suspect in a crime and exposing the contradictions in their statements.

I was sure my new idea would be a fun and original take on the genre, so I started to revise the main character, since a detective would be too traditional for such an original concept. I asked myself, "What kind of professional would face off against a suspect and expose their contradictory statements?" The answer, of course, was a lawyer and so the Ace Attorney concept was born.

(source, from an interview on the making of the series)

Takumi’s original concept for the game involved Phoenix as not a defense lawyer, but as a detective. The gameplay was to consist of “facing off against the suspect of a crime and finding the contradictions in their statements.” However, Takumi eventually realized that taking apart contradictions wasn’t really a detective’s job, and decided to change the protagonist to a lawyer and the setting to a courtroom instead. And thus, the game’s concept was finalized.

Janet: As you know, “Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy” is coming out world-wide this winter, and as I was brainstorming what to write about for this week’s blog, I remembered your tweets from 2010.

Takumi: Tweets from 2010?

Janet: …Well, it was a long time ago…

Takumi: ???

Janet: I-It’s OK if you don’t remember…

Takumi: …Oh, THOSE! Yes!

Janet: I remember reading them and being shocked by how different the original draft of the game’s story was – how Phoenix wasn’t even a lawyer, but a private eye!

Takumi: Yes, AA was originally supposed to be a detective game, so naturally, Phoenix was to be a private eye. But then, one day, I made a startling realization: the gameplay concept I was going for was for players to enjoy finding and taking contradictions apart, but that was hardly related to investigating or detective work at all. In that moment, I had it – I realized that the main setting for the game should be the courtroom.

Janet: That’s quite the jump, but you know, I can’t imagine this series being anything else at this point.

(source, from an interview by Janet Hsu about the game’s early development)

During the development for the game, Takumi actually knew very little about the intricacies of the legal system--and in fact, he’s been very transparent about that fact in interviews. There’s even a story he talks about in a blog post where he was asked “shouldn’t we do some research on law before we make this game?” and agonized over it for a bit before deciding that being accurate about courtroom processes wasn’t important--what was important was that the game made the trials exciting and fun.

November, 2000. The characters were coming together, and I was working desperately on my first scenario (the current Turnabout Sisters). One day, I was asked about the one thing I didn’t want to be asked about.

“Mr. Takumi. Don’t we need to do some research on law?”

The knowledge I have about the law, pretty amounts to the one fact that in Japan we have the Roppō Zensho ('Complete Book of The Six Major Legal Codes').

“Don’t bother with that. This is a detective game. “

It should have been over with this one line, but…

“But this isn’t a detective game, it’s a lawyer game!”

“If it’s not going to be realistic, I don’t see why this should be about trials.”

“People who play this might get wrong knowledge from the game!”

“We might get sued by the Bar Association!”

“They’ll start complaining!”

…Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney GBA) is simply a “mystery game.”　“Being realistic” is not what is important. What’s important is emphasizing, and recreating the unique “atmosphere” and “tension” of the courtroom. That is why the judge uses a gavel, even though no judge uses that, and why Naruhodō shouts "Objection!" even though nobody does that either.　This game does not need a “realistic courtroom”!

Chasing the true murderer down to the end, and then getting applauded for that in the courtroom. That feeling of thrill and excitement. It was only by February of the following year when we finally manage to recreate that in the game. The couple of months after this had happened, we looked around, got lost and troubled our minds in search for the answer of the big question of “How do we make a trial into a game?”. Fall was passing by, and the cold winter was close upon us.

(source, from an archived blog post by Takumi)

So, realism and knowledge of law wasn’t important to Takumi during the development of the series. But there’s also the fact that Takumi has actually personally denied that the Ace Attorney series was an intentional satire or criticism of the court system at any point. In fact, according to a blog post (done as if Phoenix and Maya were reading the column and commenting on it), he actually dislikes people seeing his work this way, as he never intended the games to have any big political statements.

A major prerequisite for Gyakuten Saiban is it’s so simple “even my mother could play it”. So there is only one point at the core of the game: “Seeing through lies”.

Naruhodō: It wasn’t even supposed to be a game about the trials at first. Mayoi: Eh! Really?! Naruhodō: “Simple” is basically all this game is about, according to TakuShū. Mayoi: What do you mean? Naruhodō: He didn’t want to add all kinds of elements for the player to think about, like alibis, tricks or about the culprit. It’d just confuse them. Mayoi: Really. Naruhodō: Basically, you can proceed in the game if you just think about where the contradiction is. He figured that with that, the controls of the game could also stay simple. Mayoi: But, but, why the trials then? Naruhodō: “A story about a detective seeing through lies” wouldn’t be any different from the other games out there. So that’s why he decided to have someone whose job is seeing through lies as the protagonist. Mayoi: So a defense attorney. Naruhodō: Occasionally TakuShū sees magazines introducing the game as “a work that dared to take on the theme of trials”, and that actually hurts him. Mayoi: He never meant to be something as big as that….

(source, from the mentioned blog post)

Ultimately I see how easy it is, if you know a good amount about both Ace Attorney and Japan’s legal system, to come to the conclusion that the games were made as a dig against the latter. However, somewhere along the line, people apparently stopped seeing this as merely a theory and instead as a definite fact. Now, that doesn’t mean that the theory is entirely unfounded--given that Takumi focused only on making trials interesting and fun in the games, you could say that the games work as an light, comedic parody, not meant to make any political statements. And hey, maybe there’s something I missed--maybe there were other people working on the series who did have significant knowledge of law and wrote some parts of the games as intentional satire of the system. Again, if anyone has evidence of this, don’t hesitate to provide it. But with what I know, I don’t think going “well actually” to people who point out the ridiculousness and unfairness of Ace Attorney’s court system is necessary. It’s simply that way to make the games more fun.

#ace attorney #phoenix wright #this was actually kind of fun to research and write!#kinda felt like i was making a statement in a courtroom...

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theartofdreaming1 · 3 years

Photo

Here is my attempt at portraying Peeta’s camouflage skills convincingly 😅😅

As usual, my thoughts regarding this week’s prompts and random thoughts on chapters 19-21 are below the cut.

heart

While I love all the banter between Katniss and Peeta, I think my favorite of these three chapters is: “Trust me. Killing things is much easier than this,” I say. “Although for all I know, I am killing you.” “Can you speed it up a little?” he asks. “No. Shut up and eat your pears,” I say. A classic 😄

mind

I always imagined that Cato went after Thresh before coming for Katniss and Peeta because a) Thresh took the backpack for District 2 (which contained the body armor that would make dealing with Katniss’s arrow so much easier) and b) Thresh killed Clove and Cato wanted to avenge her... Although I have no idea how Cato ended up killing Thresh... he was doing pretty well for himself in his grass-y area... Maybe the Gamemakers wanted to punish Thresh for not killing Katniss and generated that thunderstorm and rain to force Thresh out of his refuge, which would give Cato a fair chance to kill him, I guess...

soul

Lol, honestly, since Peeta just generally seems to be motivated by kindness and love/caring, I don’t think it took much for him to keep the star-crossed lovers angle alive (I could easily imagine him actually noticing Katniss in the willow tree early in the Games and offering to take care of the District 8 girl, so the Careers would get the hell out of there, away from Katniss)

Chapter 19:

Peeta, who’s been wounded, is now my ally. [...] I’d loathe any tribute who didn’t immediately ally with their district partner. Besides, it just makes sense to protect each other. - Honestly, this just highlights what a kind person Katniss is, despite her aloof front; her innermost instinct is always to stick together and to protect. Because it doesn’t really make sense for her to team up with Peeta - she knows he’s wounded and won’t be of much help to her, her chances of survival are way better if she stayed on her own, but it’s not something she’d ever consider now that they are allowed to form a team (and only then does she even factor in the whole ‘star-crossed lovers of district 12′ -angle)

Peeta, it turns out, has never been a danger to me. The thought makes me smile. - Aww 😊 (but also, how heart-breaking that the Capitol will do everything in their power to change that, to make Peeta become a danger to Katniss 😢)

He’s very hard to predict, which might be interesting under different circumstances - Okay, but this just makes me think of that exchange in Gilmore Girls when Paris and Rory talk about how you know a guy is right for you: “Someone who’s compatible but not compatible.” “Yeah, kind of. I mean, you respect each other’s opinions and you can laugh at the same jokes, but I don’t know – there’s just something about not quite knowing what the other person’s gonna do at all times that’s just really exciting.” - fits these two to a T 😏

In fact, I’ve just about decided I’m on the wrong track entirely, that a wounded boy would be unable to navigate getting to and from this water source, when I see the bloody streak - Okay, but how flipping tough is Peeta?! He’s severely injured, with multiple tracker jacker stings and he drags himself to this terrain that is almost impossible to navigate for someone in his condition - a sturdy dandelion, indeed!

“You’re here to finish me off, sweetheart?” - What an entrance after having gone AWOL for quite a couple of chapters 👌🏼👏🏼

“Remember, we’re madly in love, so it’s all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it.” I jerk my head back but end up laughing. “Thanks, I’ll keep it in mind.” [...] “Katniss?” Peeta says. I meet his eyes, knowing my face must be some shade of green. He mouths the words “How about that kiss?” I burst out laughing - He’s lying in a river bed, slowly dying, and he can still make her laugh 😊

“You know, you’re kind of squeamish for such a lethal person” - It’s such a small comment, but I can’t help but think that Peeta is just kind of intrigued to discover all these little idiosyncrasies that make up the ever-elusive Katniss Everdeen ;)

Impulsively, I lean forward and kiss him, stopping his words. - Aww, she doesn’t even want to consider him dying, so she spontaneously decides to cut him off with a kiss👀👀 Honestly, at this point Peeta has elicited 2 (!) spontaneous kisses (the kiss after the chariot ride and this one) from Katniss, who generally isn’t that big on touching people

“You’re not going to die. I forbid it. All right?” - Stubborn, protective Katniss... But also reminds me of their rooftop “date” in CF and the “Then you’ll allow it?” “I’ll allow it” - exchange

I kiss him awake, which seems to startle him. Then he smiles as if he’d be happy to lie there gazing at me forever. He’s great at this stuff. - KaTNisSs, gurl... 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️

Chapter 20:

But I knew he was injured. And still I came after him. I’m just going to have to trust whatever instinct sent me to find him was a good one. - The very best of instincts, Katniss, don’t you worry😉

Peeta’s struggling to get up when I reach the cave. “I woke up and you were gone,” he says, “I was worried about you.” - Gah, why are the both of them so good?! They just care for and worry about each other 24/7

“How do you feel?” “Better than yesterday. This is an enormous improvement over the mud,” he says. “Clean clothes and medicine and a sleeping bag... and you.” Oh right, the whole romance thing. - Oh Katniss...😐 I reach out to touch his cheek and he catches my hand and presses it against his lips. I remember my father doing this very thing to my mother and I wonder where Peeta picked it up. - Where did Peeta pick this up? From a time his family was less dysfunctional? Observing couples in the town square? Or is he a fricking disney prince and these things come natural to him? Questions, questions...

“You didn’t sleep,” Peeta says. “I’m all right,” I say. But the truth is, I’m exhausted. “Sleep now. I’ll keep watch.” [...] I test his cheek. Hot as a coal stove. He claims he’s been drinking, but the containers still feel full to me. I give him more fever pills and stand over him while he drinks first one, then a second quart of water. - These two are just too stubborn to take proper care of themselves - good thing that each of them is adamant to force the other to sleep/drink/eat when necessary

“Besides I like watching you sleep. You don’t scowl. Improves your looks a lot.” - When presented with the choice of being flirty vs being a cheeky little shit, Peeta will choose being a flirty cheeky little shit every time 😂

“I’m going to make soup,” I say. “Don’t light a fire,” he says. “It’s not worth it.” - Okay, but what he’s actually saying is “I’m not worth it” 😭😭

Katniss telling that story about buying Prim’s goat😊... A young buck, probably a yearling by his size. His antlers were just growing in, still small and coated in velvet. [...] Beautiful. - We are all very much aware of Peeta’s appreciation for beauty, but the same does apply to Katniss, too (she’s just overall more pragmatic)

“Was it [the goat] still wearing the pink ribbon?″ he asks. “I think so,” I say. “Why?” “I’m just trying to get a picture,” he says thoughtfully. - Peeta is so detail-oriented! I have this theory that this is actually something that enables him to overcome his hijacking; we catch glimpses in MJ of how he inches himself out of his condition by asking/focusing on small details or things most people would dismiss as trivial (Katniss’s favorite color, the color of her dress visiting District 7, her Dad singing the Hanging Tree when Peeta was 6 or 7 years old...) and I feel like it makes a lot of sense - his tormentors in the Capitol either wouldn’t have access to distort these moments or not even consider them to have any significance (since they are all about big, flashy gestures in the Capitol), so these memories would remain untouched. Luckily, Peeta seems to live by Robert Brault’s words: “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. “

“Really? What did you cost me again?” I ask. “A lot of trouble. Don’t worry. You’ll get it all back,” he says. - Well, he’s going to cost her a lot more trouble in the future - but we know he’s going to make up for it and bring her much happiness, too 😊

“You’re not risking your life for me.” “Who said I was?” I say. [...] “Of course I’m not going.” [...] “You’re such a bad liar, Karniss.” [...] Anger flushes my face. “All right, I am going, and you can’t stop me!” “I can follow you. At least partway. I may not make it to the Cornucopia, but if I’m yelling your name I bet someone can find me. And then I’ll be dead for sure,” he says. - Soo.. their love language is offering to sacrifice their life like it’s nothing, huh?! 😳😅

Peeta eats without complaint, even scraping out the pot to show his enthusiasm. He rambles on about how delicious it is, - lol, sounds like a husband trying to get back on his wife’s good side after they had a row 😂

I clamp my hand over his mouth and nose hard, forcing him to swallow instead of spit. He tries to make himself vomit the stuff up, but it’s too late, he’s already losing consciousness. - Ah, the most important indicator of true love: having person A force-feed person B a sedative so they can run off to get them life-saving medicine ;)

Chapter 21:

I lie next to Peeta in the bag, trying to absorb every bit of his fever heat. It’s strange to be so physically close to someone who’s so distant. Peeta might as well be back in the Capitol, - Reminds me how in MJ she’s going to be so close to Peeta (mentally/emotionally) while he will be physically so distant (in the Capitol!)

a tiny orange one [backpack] [...] that must be marked with a 12 - Interesting how that backpack is orange, huh? Why is that? Are smaller backpacks generally orange (like the one Katniss already has) to be more visible or is this simply to connect the backpack to Peeta (though we don’t know his favorite color at this point)? Do the Gamemakers care whether Katniss gets a matching backpack? It just seems like an unnecessary detail to throw in🤔

The table has just clicked into place when a figure darts out of the Cornucopia, snags the green backpack, and speeds off. Foxface! - Honestly, this was a truly brilliant move; kudos! 👏🏼

[Clove] carefully selects an almost dainty-looking number [knife] with a cruel, curved blade. “I promised Cato if he let me have you, I’d give the audience a good show.” [...] “I think...” she almost purrs. “I think we’ll start with your mouth.” [...] she teasingly traces the outline of my lips with the tip of the blade. - Okay, but the idea of Clove cutting off Katniss’s lips is just all kinds of terrifying and disturbing 😨

“No! No, I-” Clove sees the stone, about the size of a small loaf of bread in Thresh’s hand [...] Thresh brings the rock down hard against Clove’s temple. [...] and I know she’s a goner. - Interesting how Katniss describes that rock that basically saves her life (or at least kills her assailant) as bread-sized, huh? “Your district... they sent me bread. [...] Conflicting emotions cross Thresh’s face. He lowers the rock and points at me, almost accusingly. “Just this one time, I let you go. For the little girl.” - Katniss mentions the bread from District 11 as a proof of her alliance with Rue (and the recognition of D11) and Thresh spares her; bread keeps saving her life (while it keeps representing acts of kindness)

Cato kneels beside Clove, spear in hand, begging her to stay with him. - I appreciate this small, humanizing moment with Cato

The last thing I remember is an exquisitely beautiful green and silver moth landing on the curve of my wrist. - I don’t know much about North American insects (not that I know that much about European insects either - just recently came across a relatively rare moth on my walks that I had never seen or heard of before) - is Katniss describing a special/noteworthy species of moth? Or is this a more literary symbolism kind of moth? (Just looked up some symbolism meaning of moths: change/transformation, seeking light; power of regeneration in some Native American mythology, hmm...)

#thgagain #thg #hunger games #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #thg meta #thresh #my sketches and drawings #everlark

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immobulusmalfoy · 4 years

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IRISH YOU WOULD KISS ME // George Weasley x Female!Reader

A/N: I sent this as a request to someone ages ago, but decided to take it back as a smutty request for myself as practice. Enjoy! It’s definitely 18+ (1.3k words)

Prompt: Reader and George have been dating for years and you’re attending the Quidditch World Cup together, but you’ve bought a little surprise for him. SMUT.

Warnings: Smut, heavy make out, vaginal penetration, lingerie. No mentions of death eater attack after the end of the match.

“Ginny, come on!” Hermione huffed as the three girls walked around the various stalls at the Quidditch World Cup. She said something else, but you didn’t hear her as another green stall caught your eye.

George had told you all about the betting plans he and Fred had for the match, and while everyone seemed to think Bulgaria would be winning with their champion Krum, you and the twins thought differently.

“Hey, ‘Mione, you two keep going. I’ll catch up.” You grinned as you looked at the contents of an Ireland-themed stall. T-shirts, charmed necklaces, blinking shamrocks, and the best of all—bright green panties emblazoned with a flirty phrase.

“Are you going to get the rest?” Hermione laughed once she realized what you were looking at and pointed at a matching bra with shamrocks over the nipples. She hadn’t left like you expected her to.

“Maybe.” You giggled, exchanging a few knuts for the panties. The seller put them in a green plastic bag and handed them over.

“George will get a huge kick out of those.” Hermione shoves your shoulder a bit as you rejoined Ginny by a booth that reminded you a bit of Honeyduke’s.

“Let’s hope his hunch about the match is right then.” You smirked.

Eventually, you made it back to the tent where the boys were waiting.

“Find anything interesting, darling?” George asked as he attempted to peek into your bag.

“Hands off, Weasley. It’s a surprise for later,” you winked, “but only if you’re good.”

George narrowed his eyes at you, but took his hands away from the bag. “It’s not that easy to surprise me.”

“You’ll like this surprise. Now go get changed. Your dad said we’d be leaving soon and I need to get ready too. It’s going to get chilly.” You smiled as you darted off to the room you, Ginny, and Hermione were sharing.

“Better not be stealing my jumper! I’m more than warm enough for the both of us!” George shouted after you.

You quickly slipped on the panties and the jumper you’d stolen from George earlier in the summer before rejoining the group outside.

“Told you not to steal it.” George pouted. “I wanted to keep you warm.”

“Hush you, you know I’ll be right by your side all night. Now you just focus on making sure your bet is right. I wanna be looking at a champion once this match is won.” You smiled up at him and he leaned down for a quick kiss.

“Love you.” He murmured.

“Get a bloody room, you two.” Fred groaned as he purposely shoved his twin.

“Maybe we will.” You quipped, eyes scanning the horizon. George laughed, pulling you closer into his side.

“Yeah Freddie, you wanna sleep with ickle-Ronnikins tonight?” He teased.

“No thank you.” Fred scoffed, “He snores. Besides, wouldn’t want to enable you two.”

“Suit yourself,” George shrugged, “better keep your back to us and your ears plugged.”

“George!” You gasped, slapping his chest lightly.

“‘m only teasing, darling.”

“Woah.” Fred whistled. “This place is bigger than I thought.”

The stadium itself was massive. Once you reached your spot at the top of the stands, you felt like a tiny ant and you closed your eyes tightly, hands grasping onto George as tight as you could.

“It’s alright, love, I’ve got you.” He whispered as he held onto your waist. “If you get dizzy, just turn your head towards my chest, alright?”

You nodded against his shoulder as he hugged you closer.

Soon enough, the match was won and Fred and George’s theory turned out to be correct. You were all screaming and you almost forgot your fear of heights for awhile because you were so excited. George has smeared tons of his face paint onto your cheeks when he kissed you in victory, and you laughed when Fred’s paint started melting down his neck.

When you reached the tent, you pulled George to the side and pushed him against the wall.

“I’m liking this side of you.” George laughed breathlessly before leaning down to kiss you.

“Got a surprise for you.” You murmured once you broke away from his assault of kisses, hand trailing down his chest. “But you’ll have to wait ‘til we’re alone.”

“Done deal, darling.” He left one last kiss on your lips before darting into the tent. You followed a few seconds later and made your way to the room the twins had been given for the weekend.

George was alone cleaning the rest of his face paint off while the others were in the main room of the tent shouting about the match and too distracted to notice you and George has slipped away.

George pulled you into his room and closed the flaps before muttering a few silencing spells and a cleaning spell for your face.

“So about this surprise,” George smirked, sitting down on his bunk once he’d kicked off his trainers. He pulled you to stand between his legs and you laughed quietly as you gently pulled at the hairs on the nape of his neck.

“You have to find it, Georgie.” You grinned as you held up your arms for him to take off his stolen sweater. Your smile was contagious and he quickly stood with a grin to pull the sweater off your arms.

He pulled the sweater off first, then your undershirt and bra. He then took off your boots and popped the button on your jeans. Once he’d removed those, he caught your laugh in a kiss and turned your back towards him. His laugh was immediate as his hands splayed on your hips.

“Irish you would kiss me, huh? This your big surprise?” George’s eyes were sparkling as he turned you around and smoothed your hair down. You nodded.

“Do you like it?” You asked, pressing kisses to his jaw.

“I love it,” he breathed before pulling you in for a searing kiss and slipped the panties off. He quickly picked you up and situated you on his lap as you worked to pull his jersey up over his head. The jersey was the easy part compared to his pants.

“Darling, stand up for a second, will you?” George huffed, then promptly tripped over his pants as he tried to quickly yank both layers off. You couldn’t help it, laughing at the sight of your boyfriend on the ground next to you.

He growled, yanking on your ankles and knocking you down on top of him. “That’s much better.”

Soon it was all kisses and a flurry of hands as he situated you over his cock and helped you sink down onto him. You both groaned at the feeling, having not been together for weeks.

“I love you,” George whispered in between kisses. “You’re an angel, my Irish angel.”

“I love you too,” you gasped, him hitting just the right spot inside you. He reached a hand down to rub at your clit and soon you were gasping at how close you were. He nodded and sped up the pace, both of you chasing your highs. And then he was groaning and you were swallowing both your moans as you reached your peaks together.

George smoothed our your hair again as he pulled you off of him and grabbed a clean towel to clean you up with.

“Have I ever told you how bloody amazing you are?” He smiled at you as he grabbed a clean tshirt, your bra, and a pair of his basketball shorts for you to put on. You took them gratefully and got dressed alongside him.

“Only a few times a day, but a girl could get used to such comments from her wonderful boyfriend.” You kissed his cheek again before pulling him out his door to join the others.

“What took you two so long?” Fred yelled as soon as you’d made an appearance.

“Georgie needed help with his face paint.” You winked, and Fred groaned.

“You two better have cleaned up your mess.” Fred warned you both quietly.

“Don’t you worry, Freddie, I made sure to toss all the evidence in the top bunk.” George smiled innocently.

“But that’s mine!” Fred blanched.

“You did say to get a room,” you shrugged.

#george weasley x reader #george weasley smut #george weasley #quidditch world cup #immobulusmalfoy

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dontcallmecarrie · 3 years

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Replying to the commenters of this post [heads up for angst]:

To @kine-iende, who said:

hot damn. if "our" justin was a mom-friend in their home-universe, here people would start questioning if justin was in secret a very motherly scrull or something (and be fine with it ^^). but yeah, love the trope too. was it "for the want of a nail" or "through a mirrorm darkly"? well, contrast and a what could have been would be lovely. feel enabled, whenever you want to write this :)

I am not very familiar with the concept of Skrulls [...iirc, that’s something introduced in Captain Marvel, which I have yet to get around to], but yeah, that tracks. Assuming it’s a thing they know to look for, though, because here Justin’s being themself is the biggest and most obvious way to establish that they are not canon!Justin.

Sure, they’re identical physically, but the moment either Justin opens his mouth, the jig’s up.

As is, not five minutes into this strange hellscape where their oldest rival looked at them with no small amount of disdain in his eyes at first, Justin had already managed to charm their way out of holding and into a very relaxed “we’ll keep an eye on him” Avengers custody.

Well, on paper at least— in reality, most of the team doesn’t really give a damn one way or another, whereas Tony starts out morbidly curious as to just how different NHDD!Justin is to the one he’s used to dealing with, and ends up getting a concentrated dose of All The Feels™ because the moment NHDD!Justin realized this Tony had a metric buttload of undiagnosed-and-constantly-belittled mental health issues and a support system that was equal parts duct tape and caffeine, he went “oh, so this universe is the Hell Timeline, okay, makes sense :) :) :) dammit Ivan you’d better fix this stat”.

In retrospect, Justin’s not sure when exactly the horror show started; if it was the absolute lack of concern or care the Avengers had for their Tony, or the minute they noticed the gauntness in his face. Maybe the tension between Iron Man and Captain America, or the obvious bravado this Tony used– and the fact that none of the others so much as noticed.

All Justin knows is, a version of someone they care about is hurting, hurting badly and has been for a long time now, and that’s more than enough for them to go “oh, okay, mine now”.

For his part, Tony has no idea what the hell’s going on. The non-annoying Justin Hammer who crash-landed an Avengers debrief is...something else, and he’s torn between shock, pleasant surprise, and no small amount of existential angst and jealousy because in the span of a few hours, Tony’s had a brief taste of what some other version of him had for a lifetime, and...

Tony’s not sure how he feels about it. He’s a genius, he can wrap his head around string theory and all that good stuff, but numbers are one thing, having to live with the fact that somewhere out there, a version of him grew up with someone so unfailingly kind and supportive and—Tony can’t think of a better word for it than nurturing— and, in the span of seconds, had been able to call him out on his bullshit and seemed to instinctively push him to be better but not in the demanding way his father or the rest of the world had—

If he thinks about it too long, it makes him want to cry, just a little. Somewhere out there was a Tony who’d been enough for someone, who had never been asked to change himself, who’d been pushed up instead of repeatedly torn down and he didn’t know how to deal.

He’d thought having a non-annoying Justin around would be funny.

This was not, it was goddamn distressing is what it was, because Tony hadn’t even known it was a possibility but now he is acutely aware of the fact that he got stuck with his Justin— the human embodiment of one of those yappy dogs who nipped at people’s heels thinking they were so tough, despite not being able to back it up.

This Justin was, uh, not that. Tony wasn’t sure if he was always like this, or if it was only with him because he shared a face with someone Justin cared about, but... was he always this much of a mom friend? And where’d that granola bar even come from, anyway? Not that he minded, it was a nice change of pace, but really?

...Tony was really going to miss him, once they figured out a way to send him back home.

To the commenter who said:

Stephanie isn’t a canon character, is she? Because if not, NHDD!Justin might be able to pull off a “the birth of my little sister awakened my previously deeply buried parental instincts” to explain his whole… [gestures uselessly].

Technically, she could be, in that Justin Hammer has a sister and nephew in canon [according to the wiki and a deleted scene, apparently]. I chose to make her a younger sibling in NHDD, to really emphasize the ‘reincarnated with shitty memory’ aspect of this AU. Specifically, while it’s never specified, Justin’s past life was...not great, and part of it was the fact that their younger sibling was sick.

With what, they don’t remember anymore, but sick enough that they know health isn’t something to take for granted; sick enough that towards the end, they remember their parents had to choose between paying hospital bills and electricity, remember going to bed hungry because meds were expensive and their next paycheck wasn’t until Friday.

...suffice it is to say, there’s a reason Justin’s so protective of those he cares about, even if his memories faded a bit on the specifics as time went by.

To be fair, canon!Justin also cares for his sister and nephew; it’s just that NHDD!Justin acted more like a third parent than a sibling, once Stephanie was born.

Bear in mind that canon!Justin’s situation is very different than NHDD!Justin’s, because canon!Justin was basically set up to fail from the start as a normal kid who was constantly compared to a child prodigy two years younger than him and terrible parents. While NHDD!Justin’s situation is similar on the surface, the difference is they’re literally a reincarnated OC, with all the baggage that entails.

Maybe, if their second life hadn’t been surrounded by adults with A+ Parenting Skills, 0/10 Do Not Recommend, their issues and traumas from last time wouldn’t have been exacerbated. If they’d been born to a regular family, Justin would’ve been a good kid but nothing special, and their memories of a past life would’ve faded away by the time they hit puberty.

But instead, they were born to the Hammer family, and proceeded to be put through the wringer.

Which is bad enough, and meant they immediately started leaning hard on everything from their past life because these people wouldn’t know good parenting if it bit them on the nose, but...then Justin’s little sister was born, which immediately kick-started every older sibling instinct they’d ever had because last time they’d been responsible for their younger sibling’s health and safety and you can probably see where this is going.

aka yes, some of Justin’s behaviors could arguably be called trauma responses and/or coping mechanisms and it’s something I only realized as I was writing this, and no, this AU was not supposed to be this messed up

Justin’s responsibility, their willingness to deal with shitty parents and do tremendous amounts of emotional labor if it helped anyone they took under their wing? That’s no accident, that’s what happens when a soul has to be the adult, has to step up because nobody else is going to. There’s a reason Justin has so much disdain for Hank Pym and Howard Stark’s immaturity, why they have so little patience for their parents as time goes on; their mental age means the older they get, the more they’re looking at the adults around them and judging them hard.

...ahem. Sorry for getting a bit off-topic, but hey, at least now you know a bit more about what’s going on inside Justin’s head!

And yeah, if he had to bs an explanation for why he’s such a mom friend, Justin’d be more than happy to point to his little sister as an excuse. So long as they know she exists, anyway; if not, he’ll just laugh it off and try to chalk it up to one of the differences between their universes.

edit to remove the stuff that got through my nonexistent brain-to-mouth filter because I was averaging a not-optimal amount of sleep as I got used to my new job

#No Hero [Downward Descending]#Naught replies #replies #thinking aloud

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