#its the introduction of the sacrifice theme

[misstoodles]

I’m the wise guy who thought continuing my bad batch rewatch with the end of S2 before Christmas wouldn’t result is emotional damages.

What a wise and totally not flawed idea.

[venxomi]

TBHK Chapter 125 Analysis - Duty and Determination

This chapter has been a lore-heavy one that opened the door to a lot of possibilities.

The introduction of a new 'God'

We always knew multiple gods existed via multiple mentions throughout the series, but the pit god was the only one introduced as such. We now welcome our second 'God', the Sand Clock.

You may ask, "How is the Sand Clock a God?", and I will reply with "Because it's so similar to the Pit God, it feels like a cruel joke".

Its origins unknown, with a will of its own- It wants to be used so it can claim its prize.

"Turn the clock upside down, make a wish, give up your present, and you can redo your entire life". Simple enough, isn't it? Make a sacrifice and get a chance at happiness.

It operates in a very similar way the pit god does, it just works by a different mechanism; It wants you to use it, it lets you use it as much as you'd like to reach your desired outcome, and when you're done wasting your soul away trying, it takes its due compensation in a very 'natural' and ironic way.

It either claims the lives of those who use the clock for themselves or the lives of those they want to save.

One who used it to become rich died at the hands of bandits, one who used it to gain fame died at the hands of envy, one who used it to gain love died with the one she loved- And finally, the one who used it to make another happy made it so that person never existed.

The theme of "happiness" reared its head once again- a honest desire to make another happy turned to ruin. We saw it with Tsukasa and Amane in the Red House, we saw it with Hanako and Nene in the Severance, and we saw it just a few chapters ago with Nene and Amane. We now see it with the watchmaker and his niece. In an honest attempt to make her happy, her existence was erased instead.

Kako's Purpose

After he experienced tragedy himself, the watchmaker decided to seal it. Desire is a part of human nature, so a human couldn't be tasked with guarding this cursed item.

As both a solution and punishment for himself for his actions, he used his own flesh and soul to create Kako, the Clock Keeper- A perfectly inhuman supernatural who would never fail in fulfilling his duty to guard the Sand Clock.

This reflects in the Clock Keepers' Yorishiro, the Key. It's the very key used to unlock the Sand Clock's seal and it is proof of Kako's duty, his purpose for existing. He was created solely to guard the clock, and having his yorishiro destroyed means destroying his entire reason for his existence.

Kako's inhumanity is meant to combat the Clock's ability to fan the flames of desire. It does not allow him to fall prey to the Clock. And it's proven up to a point- Nene tells him of Akane, the Guardian of the Present's death, along with her other friends' death. But Kako is unfazed. Like Akane said in the Clock Keepers arc, they do not value human life at all.

However, it is important to note that it's not perfectly inhuman. The watchmaker only used himself to create Kako, so who created Mirai, a clockwork doll in the likeness of the watchmaker's niece, if not Kako? Does it not contradict his intended inhumanity?

Which leads me to further think- He stored his yorishiro, the key to the Sand Clock, inside Mirai. Wasn't it so he wouldn't be able to use the Clock for himself, so he wouldn't be able to abandon his duty, as he would be forced to destroy the machine that looks like his niece to do so? A bitter reminder of the tragedy that follows.

It is also important to note that it is specified that Kako was created to prevent the Sand Clock's use. So why is it that Kako claims that his purpose is to "use it perfectly"? Is it his pride in his inhumanity that his actions would be based off logic and not desire?

The one thing "that must be protected above all else"

It is something that is so important it precedes mass killings. That it's fine if dozens, if not hundreds of people die, if this something is unharmed.

Most importantly, Kako says it's a secret, but it's something that even if it was revealed, Nene wouldn't be able to threaten Kako with it.

That opens up three possibilities:

It's something beyond Nene's reach, something that Nene can't do anything about anyway;

It's not a something, but a someone; Nene refused to destroy Sumire, who was a human yorishiro- So how could she threaten Kako at the expense of someone?

For me, it's the most likely one: It's someone or something Nene cares about, someone Nene would never want to come to harm.

I do have my own ideas, but I reached them via my intuition and not solid evidence, so they're not meant to be explained here.

The Intruder

The alarm rang since chapter 124. The cat assumed it's an alarm for an intruder, and it's confirmed in chapter 125 by Kako.

But see, Kako says that the alarm rings when someone invades the Boundary. But it didn't ring the moment Nene entered the Boundary, did it? It took one and a half chapter for it to ring. Which means Nene is not the invader the alarm went off on.

Perhaps you remember in chapter 121 when Akane ran his mouth in the Red House about going back in time and the curse of the Red House heard him?

"Still, a clock that can control time... That could be trouble."

Akane, Aoi and Teru put their lives on the line to get Nene enough time to get to the clock and turn back time. But that time seems to soon expire, and Kako will have to confront the issue he didn't bother prioritizing. He will have to confront the arrogant belief that he used the Sand Clock correctly, just because he was made 'perfect', 'beyond human'.

Nene's determination and... self-sacrifice?

Nene's determination is to be admired, for sure. For the entirety of the chapter she is told how the Sand Clock is a curse that brings the user to ruin. In the previous chapter, she is told about how others who attempted to turn back time were turned into mechanical dolls and forced into the Clock Keepers' Boundary for eternity.

She does not waver.

However, is that a good thing?

"I heard what you said, and it doesn't make any sense at all."

No, she does understand. She made it clear that she understands that if she takes the Sand Glass, ruin will await her.

But she doesn't want to acknowledge that she understands. Because if she does, she would acknowledge her own doom. Not only her own, but possibly others' aswell. Or rather, she feeds into the mindset she started having since chapter 91.

She... No longer values her own life nor her own personal happiness. As if befitting her role of a 'kannagi', she has a dangerous mindset- She starts thinking she's fine with sacrificing herself for others.

She doesn't care that she risks more than just her life anymore. She cares about reaching her own goals for others' sake. I, as of now, do not see a good outcome for Nene. Hanako picked up on this mindset and tried to rid her of it early in 91, but it would seem he failed.

I wonder how things will progress from here.

[burrowlvrr]

TENDERHEARTS & TOUCHDOWNS

PAIRING: Joe Burrow 𝔁 Black!Wife!Reader

GENRE: Husband & Dad Joe

BACKSTORY: Y/N and Joe were the couple that all the students of LSU dreamed of being. Their story was straight out of a movie — Joe being the school's star quarterback, and Y/N being the cheerleader who cheered him on from the sidelines. They got lots of criticism, people not being able to accept the fact that Joe Burrow was in love with a biracial woman.

Even before they both transferred LSU, it was still them two against the world. There was a few schedule clashes due to Joe taking online classes and her attending in-person school, but they defied all odds and graduated still happily together.

Once Joe was picked the play for the Bengals, he wasted no time proposing to Y/N. Obviously, she said yes — and they began to plan for their future. As they continued to live their lives, each and every puzzle piece began to come together right before their eyes.

Don't let the all the details of happiness fool you, their journey did not come without its obstacles. Struggling with the pressures of Joe's high-profile status, Y/N must confront her own fears and insecurities. Will their love endure the tests of time and adversity, or will the challenges they face prove too formidable?

"Tenderhearts & Touchdowns" is a heartwarming tale of love, sacrifice, and resilience, reminding us that sometimes the most meaningful victories happen off the field.

★

DYNAMIC DUO — HUDSON & ELIJAH BURROW

BABY DOLL — SAWYER BURROW

MAMA — Y/N BURROW

DADDY — JOE BURROW

★

WARNINGS: None really, mostly fluff and just a little bit of angst. There shouldn't be more than mild sexual themes included in my writing, further warnings will be made if needed! <3

NOTE: Hi! This is just an introduction to my first and probably only little universe, it's titled "Tenderhearts & Touchdowns" — the images above are how I imagine the Burrow family. I do imagine the reader to be black/biracial but of course, it is solely reliant on your imagination for how you look in these imagines! This universe will follow my little Burrow family of 5, Y/N and Joe will have twin boys, Hudson and Elijah, along with their baby girl, Sawyer!

So far, all of my drafts have turned out really cute and I cannot wait to share them. I am also still learning how to work Tumblr, so please, bear with me lol! I hope you guys enjoy reading these short stories as much as I do writing them. Suggestions and ideas are appreciated and I'd love some feedback! Enjoy! <3

— IMAGINES.

• Huddle of Love

• Anxious Victory

• Mortgage Mischief

• Regretful Echos (COMING SOON)

• Sleepless Teamwork (COMING SOON)

• Plotting Perfection (COMING SOON)

• Behind the Helmet (COMING SOON)

• Not Long Ago

[reva-lution]

Moonfam Music Analysis

This took a lot longer than expected, but I have finished a full analysis of Rayla, Runaan, and Ethari (a little bit of Tiadrin and Lain for specks of screentime they had) up till the end of season 6! Truth be told, I still need some time to begin analyzing season 7, especially since I wasn't expecting the direction they took with this narrative thread.

ENJOY!! Let me know if I missed anything, what you noticed in season 7, or what you would like me to analyze next! Thanks for your support!!! FULL ANALYSIS AT THE LINK BELOW ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thematic Foundations: “Heartbloom” as Rayla’s Family (popularly referred to as the Moonfam) Theme

“Heartbloom” emerges as a musical representation of Rayla’s connection to her found family (Runaan, Ethari, and by extension, herself). The theme’s tender, layered orchestration—featuring strings, piano, and flute—speaks to the deep emotional bonds within the Moonshadow elf family.

Instrumentation and Tonal Qualities: The consistent use of plucked strings in “Heartbloom” and its structural similarities to “Silvergrove” underscore its ties to Moonshadow culture and Rayla’s heritage. These instruments evoke the delicate yet resilient nature of her family, highlighting their fragility and strength amidst conflict.

Parallelism with “My Heart for Xadia”: The cello’s introduction in “My Heart for Xadia” mirrors “Heartbloom,” connecting the Moonfam’s story to larger themes of love and sacrifice. Both pieces resonate in F major, a key often associated with warmth and tenderness, grounding the emotional moments between characters.

“Because She’s Rayla”: A Personal Identity Theme

“Because She’s Rayla” is closely tied to Rayla’s individual growth and her struggle to balance familial expectations with her own sense of self. Its instrumentation (violin, cello, piano, and flute) aligns closely with “Heartbloom,” suggesting that her identity cannot be separated from her family.

In Season 6, Episode 5, as Rayla sings to Esmeray, the melody’s shifts between major and minor keys echo the interplay of hope and sorrow—a hallmark of both “Heartbloom” and “Because She’s Rayla.” This moment underscores Rayla’s emotional journey and her attempt to reconcile her familial connections.

Fast-Paced Themes: Action vs. Reflection

The fast-paced sequences in Rayla’s confrontations with Runaan highlight their strained relationship. The absence of “Heartbloom” in these moments reinforces the emotional distance and unresolved conflict between them. However:

In the moments when Runaan recalls Ethari or Rayla appeals to him directly, the music shifts—slowing and softening to reintroduce emotional intimacy. For example, in Season 6, Episode 9, Rayla’s plea (“I’m your daughter”) is underscored by “Because She’s Rayla,” signaling a breakthrough in their relationship.

Selective Use of “Heartbloom”

The sparing use of “Heartbloom” in scenes involving Tiadrin and Lain (e.g., Season 6, Episode 9) suggests that this theme is not tied to all familial bonds but specifically to Runaan, Ethari, and Rayla. This distinction highlights the lingering narrative significance of the Moonfam trio, leaving space for future exploration. Specifically, when Rayla is giving her final goodbyes to her parents in Season 6, Episode 9 the Heartbloom theme is completely absent, replaced by melodic vocals and a touch of Rayla’s personal theme.

Key Transformations: Death and Renewal

In Season 3, Episode 3, the minor key version of “Heartbloom” following the Ruthari kiss reflects themes of loss and transformation. This tonal shift parallels Runaan’s trajectory—his grief over Ethari and the Moonfam’s sacrifices. Similarly, in Season 4, Episode 8, as Rayla gifts the butterfly blades to Rex Igneous, “Because She’s Rayla” evolves subtly, mirroring her growth and the ongoing influence of her family’s legacy.

Moonshadow Elf Themes Across the Series

“Silvergrove”: The theme captures the essence of the Moonshadow elves’ homeland. Its reliance on plucked strings and sparse instrumentation reflects their stealth and detachment from the world. Yet, this detachment also signifies the loneliness and isolation that pervades Rayla’s story.

Scene Highlight – Season 3, Episode 3: The melancholy yet serene tone of “Silvergrove” mirrors the emotional weight of Rayla’s departure from her home and her sense of exile.

“My Heart for Xadia”: The opening strings of this piece resonate with “Heartbloom,” linking the broader struggle for Xadia to the personal sacrifices of the Moonshadow elves.

Scene Highlight – Season 6, Episode 9: Subtle echoes of “My Heart for Xadia” can be felt in the mystical glockenspiel tones during Rayla’s reunion with her parents, tying their personal sacrifices to the greater fight for Xadia.

Moon Nexus Motifs: The Moon Nexus themes feature gentle, cyclical melodies on flute and strings, symbolizing the perpetual cycles of the moon and the elves’ adherence to duty and time. These motifs subtly appear in moments of reflection or decision, such as Runaan’s imprisonment and Rayla’s moments of doubt.

Musical Motifs Across Episodes... link below :D

[ianthe-is-a-bitch-and-i-love-her]

Someone You Can Build a Nest In was, in fact, pretty good, but it went in a different direction than I was hoping for and I'm not sure how to feel about it.

The story follows Shesheshen, a solitary shapeshifting monster who hunts the travelers and merchants that pass through her territory, along with the occasional monster hunters who come to slay her. She is rather lonely, and reminisces fondly and lovingly about her mother, who was slain when she was young, and her father, whose body she grew inside and who she ate her way out of when she was ready to be born. On her hunts, she keeps an eye out for someone who might make for a similarly loving parent to plant her own eggs in. After a close encounter with some hunters while in a roughly human shape, Shesheshen is nurses back to health by a kind woman who has mistaken her for human, and promptly falls head over heels. Before she can get around to explaining her true nature and enquire about how her newly beloved would feel about being a parent, they are both drawn into a new and concerted effort to hunt down the local monster - Sheshen herself. Hijinks, of course, ensue.

The thing that immediately captured me when I started reading was how well the narration captured Shesheshen's fundamental inhumanity while still making her layered, complex, and intelligent. Her visceral emotional reactions are shaped by her biological nature as a predator, and these emotions lead to distinctly inhuman values and morals - Shesheshen places no intrinsic value on human lives and feels no compunctions whatsoever about eating sentient people. Her love and lust are consumptive in nature, and she romanticizes this. The fact that she cannot have her cake and eat it too is something she has difficulty dealing with. But she's also capable of a great deal of sympathy and empathy for specific humans, and the love she has for the father she ate causes her to care a great deal about consent - she doesn't want to consume out of love someone who doesn't want to be consumed.

In addition to her psychology, Shesheshen's physiology is also excellently inhuman and conveyed in great visceral detail, and the way her body functions is very interesting. My favorite parts of the book are the introduction and the denouement, because these are the areas where her psychology and physiology receive the most undivided attention. They aren't ignored throughout the rest of the book by any means, but they take a backseat to the plot, which is why I feel a bit conflicted about the book as a whole. I was really enjoying the in-depth character study of the introduction, and would've really liked to have the whole book be in that vein.

The plot, to be clear is not bad - it's honestly quite good, and it delves heavily into themes of generational and familial trauma, self-sacrifice, the normalization and romanticization of profound harm, and the difficulty of growth and self-actualization, all while being fairly entertaining and well-executed as a story. I think its themes were a bit heavy-handed in places, and I think some of its exploration was hobbled and flattened by the book's queernorm setting, but I won't relitigate that old argument here. It was suitably gripping and solidly entertaining.

I think the central relationship was solid and compelling, though again, I would've liked it more if the whole book had been focused on a deep exploration of their characters and dynamics. There's a lot of rich ground to the basic premise of "monster falls in love with human, wants to express that love in a way that is actively dangerous/horrifying to the human, doesn't know how to talk about it", and the story layers additional complexities onto that dynamic that are very compelling, but for as much of that interesting ground that the book explored, it left plenty more untouched. One detail that I did find both novel and enjoyable is that both the love interest Homily and Shesheshen herself are all but explicitly sex-averse asexuals by human standards, which is something I have not encountered in a lot of media. The exploration of that experience is not particularly deep because, again, queernorm, but it is present and it was compelling.

This was a really unique and compelling read, though, and I expect it to be one that stays with me. Given my own interest in body horror and inhumanity (shameless plug for Memoirs of a Flesh Eater in the notes), I wouldn't be surprised to see some influences from this book in my own writing going forward.

On the whole, I definitely enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it, but not without a few warnings. Body horror is a constant element in this book; Shesheshen's shapeshifting is purposely off-putting, and she eats people. This is described in substantial detail. Also, there is a lot of parental and familial abuse depicted, much more than you would expect from the basic premise, so go in prepared. On the other hand, though, if you're looking for a true gothic horror tragic toxic doomed romance or a heavy character study that really plumbs the depths of an inhuman psyche, you will probably be frustrated by how close it comes to being that without actually being that.

[talesfromtheenchantedforest]

sry but I really appreciate your insight into the relationship between galehaut and lancelot. would you mind sharing more about them

I think Lancelot and Galehaut’s relationship is perpetually fascinating - always happy to talk about it! This got so long, enjoy!

I think it’s impossible to talk about Lancelot as a character without talking about courtly love. Unlike practically any Arthurian character, we know exactly how and when he entered the Arthurian mythos: in the late 12th century, Countess Marie of Troyes commissioned Chrétien de Troyes to write a new romance: Lancelot, Knight of the Cart.

[Chrétien] tells us plainly that the countess furnished him with both the subject matter (matière) and the manner of treatment (sens) and that he is simply trying to carry out her desire and intention. His statement is phrased as a compliment, but it is not difficult to see beneath the surface a note of apology for writing on a theme theme with which he was not wholly in sympathy. The poem is an elaborate illustration of the doctrine of courtly love as it was introduced into northern France by Eleanor and Marie. Here for the first time in Chrétien’s works we find the glorification of the love of one man for another man’s wife, a situation which Fenis, in Cligès, had declared to be intolerable. Chrétien clearly found the theme distasteful and left the poem unfinished; the conclusion is by Godefroy de Laigny. — John Jay Parry, in the introduction to his translation of The Art of Courtly Love

Lancelot enters the Arthurian literary tradition as, first and foremost, an exemplar of the ideal of courtly love. Courtly love, as it was popularized in northern France and England by Eleanor of Aquitaine and her daughter Countess Marie, is pure (purer, indeed, than a married relationship, which is built on obligation, not Love), and brings out the best qualities of the knight who is in love, driving him to the heights of chivalry and heroic deeds. The knight, furthermore, enthusiastically sacrifices his safety, his, body, and his honor, for his lady, in an extreme display of self-abnegation. Knight of the Cart is Marie of Troyes’ treatise on courtly love, using Lancelot to embody these principles. Lancelot is the best knight because his love for Guenevere drives him to the height of great deeds. And Lancelot can only rescue Guenevere because he is willing to sacrifice his very honor for her by riding in a cart for condemned criminals (an event which may sound trivial, but the stakes were high: “whoever was convicted of any crime was placed upon a cart and dragged through the streets, and he lost henceforth all his legal rights, and was never afterward heard, honored, or welcomed in any court” [Lancelot, Knight of the Cart, trans. W. W. Comfort]).

Lancelot does not leave these characteristics behind when he enters the Lancelot-Grail cycle (early 12th century). And in fact, the Lady of the Lake who raises him and gives him training in arms and explicit tutelage in what it means to be a knight, encourages him to find a lover: “you should give your heart to a love that will turn you not into an idle knight but a finer one, for a heart that becomes idle through love loses its daring and therefore cannot attain high things. But he who always strives to better himself and dares to be challenged can attain all high things.” [Lancelot Part I, Ch 28] And of course, he is besotted by the queen Guenevere immediately, so everything appears to be bang on track.

Except! In the middle of Lancelot exerting himself to be worthy of Guenevere, Galehaut appears, seeking to add Arthur’s kingdom to his expansive repertoire, and is succeeding handily. The failure of his conquest comes not from military defeat, but from voluntary self-abnegation at least as profound as riding in a cart for condemned criminals. As immediately and thoughtlessly as Lancelot devotes himself to Guenevere, so profoundly does Galehaut fall for the brave young knight fighting against his own army. He is delighted by the opportunity to sacrifice his own interests for Lancelot’s, exemplified below in Lancelot asking for a favor in exchange for staying on as Galehaut’s companion (Lancelot Part II, Chapter 52):

Lancelot: “My lord, I ask you that as soon as you overcome King Arthur, and his forces are totally unable to recover, as soon as I summon you, you are to ask him for mercy and put yourself entirely in his power” When Galehaut heard this, he was aghast and became very pensive. And the two kings said to him, “My lord, what are you thinking about? There is nothing to be gained from reflection now: you have gone so far that there is no turning back.” “What?” he exclaimed. “Do you suppose I have any regrets? If all the world were mine, I wouldn’t hesitate to give it to him. I was thinking of the splendid thing he said, for never did any man say anything finer. My lord,” he said, “may God never bring me shame, but I beg you not to deprive me of your company, since I would do more to have you with me than any other.”

Galehaut goes on to cheerfully watch his castles and ambition be symbolically destroyed and humble himself to serve in Arthur’s court as a knight (To Arthur: “I prefer to be poor and happy instead of rich and miserable. Retain me with him [Lancelot], if ever I did anything that pleased you; you must do this for me and for him, for I must tell you that all the love I bear you comes to you because of him.” — Lancelot Part II, Chapter 71). Lancelot’s feelings for Galehaut (as, I will add, Guenevere’s feelings for Lancelot) are less explosive — but they are certainly reciprocal. He spends three years with Galehaut in Sorelois, which is longer than he spends anywhere in the entire Prose Lancelot. He weeps, sure that he is not worthy of Galehaut’s love. When he is wounded and scared after his captivity with Morgan le Fay, it is Galehaut he runs to (if, tragically, too late to avert Galehaut’s death of sorrow). When his own world has fallen apart and he is on the brink of death, all he wants is to be buried with Galehaut. Their relationship is courtly, in that Lancelot is now the object of Galehaut’s self-sacrificing devotion. There is the argument to be made (which Galehaut’s advisers certainly make) that the relationship is in fact not an ideal courtly relationship because it is causing Galehaut material harm, rather than making him a better knight — a position that Galehaut clearly disagrees with. He has all the material gain he needs in his beloved: “Galehaut saw wisdom and gain where others saw loss and folly, and no one would have dared make bold to love good knights so much as he” (Lancelot Part III, Chapter 72).

Galehaut’s relationship with Lancelot is set clearly in parallel with Lancelot’s relationship with Guenevere. The text is detailed and complicated in what all of these relationships entail, so I will just try to draw out a few of the things I think illustrate the ways Galehaut and Guenevere’s parallel roles underscore how non-normative Galehaut’s love for Lancelot is. The most explicit tension between Galehaut and Guenevere is given to us symbolically, as a prophecy (In Lancelot Part III, Chapter 75):

Merlin tells us that from the Islands of Jedares, from the home of the Fairy Lady, a wondrous dragon will break forth and go flying left and right over all countries, and wherever he appears everyone will tremble before him. The dragon will fly on to the Adventerous Kingdom, and there he will have grown large and massive and have thirty heads of gold, each finer and more splendid than his original head [this is Galehaut]. Merlin said that there he would be so large that the whole land would darken under the shadow of his body and his wings. He would reach the Adventurous Kingdom after having conquered almost everything, but the wondrous leopard [Lancelot] would stop him and push him back and put him at the mercy of those he had just been so close to defeating. Afterwards, the two would love each other to the point of considering themselves a single thing, each unable to live without the other; but the golden-headed serpent [Guenevere] would come draw the leopard away and take him from his companion and besot his mind. Merlin says this is how the great dragon will die.

This tension simmers under the surface of the first meeting of Galehaut and Guenevere and Lancelot and the Lady Malehaut. Ostensibly Galehaut is bringing Lancelot to meet Guenevere and formalize their extramarital affair; it also formalizes and takes seriously the relationship between Galehaut and Lancelot:

“My lady,” said Galehaut, “he could do you no wrong, but I’ve merely done what you ordered me to do. Now you must hear a request from me, for I told you yesterday that you could soon do more for me than I for you.” “Speak confidently,’ [the queen] said, “for there’s nothing you could request that I wouldn’t do.” “Then you have accepted, my lady,” he said, “to grant me his companionship.” “Indeed,” she replied, ”if you didn’t have that, then you would have profited little by the great sacrifice you made for him” Then she took the knight by the right hand and said, “Galehaut, I give you this knight forever more, except for what I have previously had of him. And you,” she said to the knight, “give your solemn word on this.”

One thing I want to emphasize is how expansive these relationships are, for as long as they coexist. Lancelot does not have to chose between Guenevere and Galehaut, prophecies notwithstanding, because Galehaut will always accommodate them. Guenevere, as someone Lancelot loves, is someone Galehaut cares for. When Guenevere is under attack during the False Guenevere episode, Galehaut is the one she turns to, and Galehaut in turn musters all his resources to make sure she is safe and taken care of. They both love the same man, and they both know it, and nevertheless chose to care for each other as well.

Lancelot is a paragon of courtly love — as the knight in his relationship with Guenevere, and, I would argue, taking the role of the lady, or object of love, in his relationship with Galehaut. What courtly love offers him is the opportunity to fulfill his highest calling — being the greatest knight that ever was. And it is this highest calling, ultimately, that takes him away from Galehaut in the end, not Galehaut losing a straightforward rivalry with Guenevere. Galehaut invites Guenevere to Sorelois, where the three of them live together for the two years during the False Guenevere episode, and when Arthur and Guenevere reconcile, Galehaut follows Lancelot to Arthur’s court rather than allow them to be separated. What takes Lancelot away, rather, is his commitment to the chivalric ideal of adventuring and warfare, which is not something Galehaut can protect him from. And, indeed, this is the thing that first attracted Galehaut to him. He knows practically from the start that he will die for his love, and he decides that the love is more than worth the price.

I’ll just end by drawing on Eli’s (of @queerasfact) beautiful summation of his discussion of Achilles and Patroclus’ relationship in the Iliad: “The Iliad is fundamentally at its core a story of intense love between two men and denying queer readings of this as viable fundamentally guts the experience of reading the text and interacting with mythology at all.” (Queer as Fact, Achilles and Patroclus). The relationship between Lancelot and Galehaut drives the action in parts II and III of the Lancelot-Grail, inviting us into a way of loving that both fits within an established literary convention, and opens a window onto a field of possibilities that are even richer. We leave the Lancelot-Grail cycle with two men sharing a tomb, inscribed:

Here lies the body of Galehaut, the Lord of the Distant Isles, and with him rests Lancelot of the Lake, who, with the exception of his son Galahad, was the best knight who ever entered the kingdom of Logres.

[konako]

rant about Thunderbolts*. full spoilers

Huh. This is new for me.

I guess I need a place to process what I'm feeling. So. Yeah. Don't feel like you have to read it, or anything. I just need to write it down... somewhere other than the walls of my skull.

For me, the whole experience around Thunderbolts* was a disheartening lesson on Expectations.

An ice cold bucket of apathetic reality, washing over some rare, youthful of excitement. Rare, at least for me. Which hurts more.

What Is, over What Could Be.

It's funny. You'd think, after years of OUAT, I would learn to measure my expectations and accept when something is not going in the direction of what would be best for a character, but, instead, best for a brand.

I think that was ultimately Taskmaster's fate.

I had this idiotic hope that they would make something of her.

That her tragic story, as revealed in Black Widow, would only be the start of an interesting (perhaps inspiring — but there goes idiotic hope again) character journey, across the grey spectrum of morality she was forced into. I had hopes they would give her voice, personality, traits, goals, dreams, struggles. I had hopes they would make her into an actual character.

Hopes killed as swiftly as her. Put down like a dog.

She was a punch line. She was fodder for Yelena's misery. She was Natasha's wasted effort. She was, in all senses, wasted. Thrown away. Trash.

I was... disheartened. For her, for what it meant to her story, for what it meant to the actress employed for that role (I'm sorry, Olga...), for what it meant artistically. For what it signaled to the audience, for what motivated it, for what it did to the integrity of this work and others...

And all that, in service to what? What did the narrative gain with it, that couldn't be achieved with other means? How did it help the emotional conflict explored in Black Widow? How did it help the theme of "disposable bastards seeking meaning to fill the void" — if she didn't get the chance of even express a single emotion, a single trait? How was she part of the theme (and the team), if she didn't get a chance, period?

I'm a hopeful idiot.

Even after that scene, I was expecting her to return, in some way. A twist, a plan, a secret. To prove them wrong, to join the team, to rise above the odds, to crawl her own way out of that hole this time, to fight for herself and her new chance at life. Instead, the credits rolled.

I don't want to think this was done to appease some man-babies, whining about "the real Tony Masters", and WOKE MARVEL, and "Deadpool 1.0 all over again".

I want to think people could appreciate a new take at a character and give it time and space to grow on them, instead of wanting them discarded and restarted to their tastes, immediately.

I want to think the larger audience influencing the studio's decisions isn't made up of impatient, immature, entitled children, that can't empathize with an incarnation of a character, because it was not taken straight from the page, exactly as they wanted it, when they wanted it.

I want to think people were smart enough to recognize that Taskmaster's appearance in Black Widow was not her proper introduction, but her origin story. Her birth, not her final form. And that her real character would develop over time, given proper space and freedom. That's what I want to think.

But then, I have idiotic hopes. Hoping that a brand wouldn't sacrifice a genuinely tragic, potentially great character to quiet the childish anger of a portion of the fandom. Hoping that a writer would recognize that such a character has incredible room to grow, and, given the chance and space in the narrative, would blossom into a powerful person, and a poignant statement about abuse and agency.

I guess I had hoped that a movie about trauma, loneliness, darkness and self-loathing would give its characters the time to explore it individually; then, as a group; until, finally, the resulting enlightenment of those searches, when united, would save the day —with the power of friendship! And I guess I hoped wrong there, too.

I find comfort in that, though: The movie wouldn't have delivered on a respectful Taskmaster's arc, even if she had been spared the dehumanizing treatment.

Taskmasters was let down first, not last. She was not the only one under-utilized. All of them, with the exception of Yelena, Bob and Bucky (who has had his time to evolve and explore his own conflicts in other appearances), were wasted and denied their introspective moments, despite the chance the bigger narrative presented for that structure. One could argue that Alexei had more room to recognize his demons and assist Yelena in fighting hers, but even then, that was in service to her story, not his. He wasn't a character, he was a tool. Most of them were.

I guess I had hoped that an ensemble movie wouldn't have a single protagonist to exclude the other's narratives. I guess I had hoped their individual storylines would be woven together to tell a single story about overcoming one's inner darkness. I guess we didn't have that, either.

For that, too, I'm disappointed. Even for those who lived.

The rumors that helped my hopes fester in the first place tell tales of a better movie. One where Taskmaster and Ava have a friendship; where Taskmaster has an arc; where Ava explores her meaningful relationships; where the other characters matter just as much as Yelena and Bob.

Instead, the movie we have is a vehicle to a single character's emotional challenge (don't get me wrong, I love Yelena, and this was great for her, yay), and a platform to present yet another promise of something that might not meet its potential, eventually sacrificed for the sake of the spectacle.

I just...

The movie is good. The movie is nice. As a solo adventure for Yelena, as an introduction to Bob/Sentry/The Void. The editing is perfect, the score is moving, the banter is entertaining, the villain is amusing, the special effects are good, the fighting choreography is electric. It's an MCU movie.

I guess I'm just tired of surface level stories. I guess I was looking in the wrong place for introspective journeys. My mistake, my expectation, my silliness. I guess MCU's next big try at the Avengers' high wasn't the place to find a more toned down look into trauma, regret, grief and loneliness. I guess a TV Show would have been a better mean for that message, as the MCU's catalog is proving to be. I guess, whatever idiotic thing I had hoped for Taskmaster would never happen here. Not even if she had survived the first 10 minutes.

I'm just... disappointed, that's all. I was excited for something. Now I'm not. Adulthood, amiright? [fart noise]

Can I say this has killed my hopes? Some of it. The rest of it is resilient.

And I still hope for Taskmaster's fate not to be permanent. I'm still hoping for a twist. Still hoping for a better treatment. But, this time, I won't hope too hard.

[scapegoated-if]

I'll go against the grain here and say I like that MC is genderlocked! I love that her womanhood is a main theme, I'm excited to see where it goes. I feel like for better or worse gender is such a big part of how we have to navigate society and gender-choice MCs often have to sacrifice some of that depth. Ofc, I play those IFs too and love them, but it's just nice to see something different, every once in a while

Thank you for this and thank you for reading my IF! I understand people's frustrations with gender-locked stories, but I really wanted this IF to touch upon gender politics at some capacity. Feminism was such a huge movement during the '70s--I cannot wait to write about Angela Davis and Gloria Steinam in greater detail than I may have passingly mentioned Betty Friedan already--and it is a huge component of the story I'm telling with Scapegoated.

I'm hoping that where it may not come across yet in the Prologue, which at the moment is solely meant as an introduction to the main bulk of the story, it becomes increasingly clear in the chapters to come. I'm really glad you're excited about it nonetheless and I'm glad you see this as something new, because I wanted this to exist on its own precedent.

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

You might’ve already got this before, and I’m asking this in genuinely good faith.

Your essay was very interesting, and convinced me of Erikar as a ship reading. I also really enjoyed your dissection of Eridan as a very honest person drawn into destructive behavior. It very much lines up with his status as a Prince of Hope! One who destroys conviction/belief through conviction/belief.

What confused me was your insistence on the hidden hand of the author. Death of the Author and all that, what’s implied in the text can be taken on its own separate from commentary but you seem to be doing an autopsy— the text implies [this] so *Hussie* must have intended for [this] and then tried to cover it up. If they genuinely thought it was a better ending, why not do it? Why the secrecy, why the feints? I think it’s a little conspiracy-brained to insist on a secret “better ending” that we don’t have author’s word or drafts on.

I’m also a little drifted on your frustration with the deaths of the trolls? You write that the theme of Homestuck— a standard coming-of-age story, a reckoning with society and the exit from youth— is undercut by the deaths of the trolls, because that means they *had* to die, in *punishment*. I disagree. Their deaths are tragic, not just.

Homestuck has a lot of methods of revival, the choice to (for the most part) perma-kill some characters (the trolls for one, and then AR, WQ, and WK) is a deliberate choice to make death mean something. If dying doesn’t mean anything, what are the narrative stakes? Murderstuck marks Gamzee as a threat, Eridan as a tragedy. The deaths there are meant. To be sad. To demonstrate that sometimes kids don’t get to grow up, that sometimes the society they live in cuts them down.

Homestuck is a sad story at times! It doesn’t need an ending where everyone gets to live to keep its coming-of-age conclusion.

I hope this made sense. I’m not trying to attack you, I’m just skeptical of some of your points. I hope you go on to do more analysis in the future!

If you want to believe that, go ahead 👍 again, arguing my points on that front would require its own entire essay, lol, so I'm not really planning to do that as the answer to an ask. The only thing I really want to say here is that while Homestuck is often sad, as you say, its underlying tone is unwaveringly hopeful right up until Game Over/the Retcon, and even kind of beyond that. If you prefer a sad story, then you can have a sad story, but it's just not a reading consistent (to me) with the entire rest of what Homestuck is.

For example, the whole narrative grapples with the debate of predestination vs. free will. Do things happen in Homestuck because they have to, or because characters are making choices? But with the introduction of John's retcon powers, it lands firmly in the "free will" side of the debate: the retcon powers outright defy the power of stable time loops - a reflection of how Breath is associated with freedom and choice. This is the optimistic option.

Another thing the narrative grapples with is the realness vs. fakeness of magic. I don't think it's hard to argue that between LE's "evil wizard" status and Godtier!Calliope's wand-induced black hole that the arrow falls firmly in the realm of magic being undeniably real. This is the optimistic option (and yet another narrative element that Eridan is extremely relevant to).

Moreover, even post-Retcon, there are elements that are kept that soften the tragedy already present in the story - for example, the concept of the Ultimate Self, and the implication that all surviving characters will eventually achieve it, takes the edge off all their doomed and dead counterparts, who won't actually be relegated to double death in the dream bubbles, since in a way, they'll live on through their alpha counterparts. It turns those sacrifices from bitter to bittersweet, and serves as a counterpoint to common takes like John being sad that he doesn't know the version of his friends that exist post-Retcon. The inclusion of it in the post-Retcon story, even with its botched delivery, says to me that Homestuck is still intended to be optimistic at its core, even with the extreme Giving Up that Hussie did.

And let's not forget how Calliope gets to come back to life, no strings attached, and that her stated purpose is only to live. Up to the end, the tone is that of HOPE, and I think there's no mistake that HOPE is supposed to be what defeats LE.

As I said in replies on that post, as an artist, I just can't imagine spending literal years, and literally a million words and thousands of images, writing something that's so thematically and tonally consistent, only to hard swerve right at the end, without extenuating circumstances.

And the thing is, there WERE extenuating circumstances, and they're fairly well-documented.

The kickstarter got funded, and while the story is muddled, we know the production of the game was extremely troubled, and Hussie was having difficulty being a project lead for that while also grappling with everything else. Everything else being, of course, an ever-increasing number of irons in the fire - more third-party artists he had to commission and manage, more merchandise he had to be on top of, bigger updates to sate the demands of the fanbase.

Which, speaking of, was infamously one of the most awful and toxic fanbases to ever exist, and one that Hussie has deliberately attempted to distance himself from since. I can't imagine the kind of daily abuse, harassment, callouts, and worse that Hussie had to endure as Homestuck's creator during the fandom's peak years. I don't blame him at all for turning against them.

Therefore, given the way the tone and themes hard swerve, the way several characters get bent entirely out of shape (you're telling me Karkat had several means before him of bringing his dead friends back and WOULDN'T SAY ANYTHING???), the way several plot threads are simply left dangling in the air, and the way some characters reach really weird and unpleasant conclusions (davepeta, gcatavrosprite), I think it's actually LESS reasonable to assume that the ending we got was the original plan. Hussie saw that to do the ending he wanted to do back in act 4, he'd need to write for a year, maybe two years more, and then looked at his mounting stress and pressure, and looked at the fanbase he'd come to hate, and just went "nope." And I can't even really blame him for it, lol. In his position I'd probably do the same.

Also, please don't mistake "the deaths are undone" for "the deaths will not have mattered" - I think there's a reason that the game over timeline characters still exist post-Retcon. Their arcs don't end with their deaths, and their failures are weights on them that must be narratively resolved - I believe that they go on to be the ones to defeat LE, although I have much less evidence to support this. It just makes narrative sense to me - the post-retcon team focuses down the Felt, various Jack Noirs, and the Condesce - the latter of which is their final boss, as the ultimate representation of the shitty society they're doing away with on their path to creating a new one.

Meanwhile, the dead and "irrelevant" versions of the characters, the ones who grappled with and were harmed the most by what LE represents - immaturity, selfishness, and cruelty - go on to band together after death, and defeat him in the bubbles, a culmination of their vengeance for the havoc he wreaked. And with him being destroyed in the bubbles by the dead and irrelevant, symbolically, he will be rendered nothing more than a bad dream for the waking, relevant, and alive.

Thus Gamzee is still an antagonist, although it becomes (Gamzee) and (Equius) who go on to form LE. Those deaths and those failures still matter, they still happen, they still have narrative weight. Even without the Game Over versions of the characters still existing and still being important, the decision to welcome antagonists like Gamzee and Eridan back into the fold is rendered more complex and more significant BECAUSE we've seen how badly they can go.

The speech originally given by post-Retcon Vriska to (Vriska) is also, to me, a weird artifact of this hypothetical original ending - as it exists within the actual comic, it's said by the wrong person to the wrong person - Vriska with her character development reset to a (Vriska) who's had her characterization destroyed in order to make the first Vriska seem more right. I think originally, it would've come from (Karkat) to Meenah, the latter of which being the one whose idea it was to fuck off with the treasure, and who caused the Beforus team's worst problems, and who has a track record of fucking off whenever she's tasked with taking responsibility. Thus, it would serve as a conclusion to Meenah and Karkat's arc, as well as Game Over Sadkat's arc specifically, would convince Vriska to go with him, and would give Meenah some narrative commeuppance, which would kickstart some sort of Beforan troll feelings jam that would rally them together to actually be useful for once in their lives/afterlives and contribute to the LE fight.

Again, if you PREFER the sad ending, I can't stop you, but the reason I'm going in on there being an "original ending" that isn't sad is because the sad ending doesn't make narrative sense. Why is the ultimate self speech coming from a combination of two characters that barely spoke? Why is it triumphant that Meenah and character-development-reset Vriska get to be the big goods in the fight with LE? Why do multiple prophecies suddenly get dropped right at the end when all other prophecies DO come true? Why does Karkat spend so long being sad his friends are dead, and also why is he deliberately set up as the Friends Troll (blood = bonds), and then suddenly not care that multiple methods exist for bringing back his friends? Why bother softening the blow of all the dead/irrelevant alternate selves if they're intended to be fully tragic? Why introduce a mechanic that would let them save whoever they want consequence-free and then not use it to do that? Why does Roxy love wizards so much and then not get to meet the wizard boy? Why is the entire rest of Homestuck so carefully crafted, so narratively satisfying, so thematically and tonally consistent, and then all of it goes to shit right at the end?

So yeah lol this is the SHORT version lol this isnt even the LONG version of this essay

[gingermintpepper]

In honour of finishing my hellish academic semester, I present to thee:

A Brief Introduction to 'In Pursuit of Daybreak'

First things first: What is In Pursuit of Daybreak?

A post-apocalyptic fantasy reimagining of the story of Hyacinthus and Apollo! Set in a world thrown into chaos after the sudden disappearance of The Radiant God, it follows three sons of the Radiant as they try their best to bring light back to the world.

Sons of the Radiant? Meet the leading men!

Aristaeus: A pastoral god and eldest of the brothers. Due to having a strained relationship with his venerated father, he is not exactly eager to track him down and have him return to clean up his mess. After being tricked by Asclepius however, he has only one choice: protect his brothers at all costs.

Orpheus: The grieving bard and second son; with the wounds of losing Eurydice still fresh, all his songs have become bitter sorrow. Coaxed by Asclepius to help restore the beautiful world Eurydice loved, Orpheus embarks on this journey in the hopes of rediscovering himself after his greatest loss.

Asclepius: The world's best healer and the youngest son; he is intent on healing the world of its ailment for the sake of his wife and children. Though others might curse his father for abandoning the world to the beasts of Erebus, Asclepius knows better and he will cure this malady even if it costs him his life.

(Hyacinthus: The long-dead lover. Slain by The Radiant's hand, he is a vengeful wraith brought back by Asclepius' dark medical rites. He too wishes to find the Radiant - not for love's sake but for the sake of his burning wrath.)

Genre?

In Pursuit of Daybreak is a fantasy/drama piece with strong romantic themes. It also has themes of family, sacrifice, self-discovery and death.

Production Status

I've been working on this project seriously for about two years! Despite not being historical fiction, I worked very hard on research and development of the concept and characters to retain an authentic feel of the mythology and traditions they come from. I'm still in the process of writing the novel but I also want to get in the habit of speaking openly and confidently about my work, so I definitely also want to talk more and more about my children and their adventures.

Thank you very much for reading this :D Any questions or comments about the concept or my interpretations of these characters is warmly welcomed. Have a wonderful day <33

[veephoenix]

THE SWEETNESS OF LOVE & PAIN*

Enter a world of crime, betrayal, and heartbreak. Upcoming full-length fanfiction featuring Noah Sebastian x Kitsey (og. fem. character) consisting of 3 acts. Coming Summer 2024.

"Loving means weakness, and your weakness has a name, Noah. Did you think we'd never find out?"

Disclaimer: This story will contain graphic descriptions of violence, including torture and murder, and will involve explicit sex scenes between the two main characters. The story will delve into harsh and delicate themes such as abuse and mental health. The content presented within may be disturbing or triggering to some, so it's obviously intended for mature audiences only. I do not condone or endorse the behaviors depicted in the narrative (except for Noah being a sweetheart to his girl). This work is a fictional piece and does not reflect real-life events or individuals. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

*working title

SUMMARY — INTRODUCTION TO ACT I

Noah has been entangled in a life of crime since his brother Abel’s passing. Forced to right his wrongs and avoid dire consequences, Noah is left with no choice but to commit a series of perilous jobs in order to break free from the chains his own brother left around his neck.  

Amidst the darkness of his life, Noah meets Kitsey, the sweetest creature he’s ever laid eyes on. Awestruck by her bravery and boldness during an unfortunate incident at a party, he falls in love immediately. 

Kitsey, a lovely and passionate librarian with captivating brown eyes, is far from having a perfect life, either. Marked by a troubled childhood, she thinks life would never be truly fair to her. That’s until she meets the most perfect boy: Noah. 

As years pass and their relationship deepens, Kitsey senses that their situation won’t improve unless Noah puts an end to the constant blackmailing he’s facing from the people he’s working for. But Noah is blinded by hope, believing time is on their side. He wants to get his freedom back, and above that, he wants to give Kitsey hers and provide her with everything else she didn’t have as a child.

However, as Kitsey's life hangs in the balance after one of Noah's jobs takes a harrowing turn, Noah faces the crushing reality that his delay in breaking free has put the love of his life in danger, igniting a race against time to save her, uncovering the true cost of his choices and the sacrifices needed to secure a future with his girl.

SNIPPET

Standing on her tiptoes, Kitsey carefully slotted the book into its designated space on the shelf. A faint sight escaped her lips as she successfully nestled it into the snug gap among the other books in the section. She was about to grab the next book from the trolley she’d been pushing through the aisles for the past half-hour when she caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of her eye. A tall, slender figure was approaching from the other side.  

Noah had a soft smile playing on his lips, hands casually tucked into the pockets of his jeans. He was wearing a black jacket, his hair still glistening slightly, as if he had taken a shower not long ago.  

Kitsey’s surprise was evident as she stared at him. He was supposed to be sleeping; it was only eleven in the morning. He had come home at six thirty, and even though that day he had struggled to fall asleep while she got ready for work, typically, he wouldn’t wake up until well past noon, occasionally going to the gym if he woke earlier. It wasn’t uncommon for him to visit her at the library every once in a while. He had never said it, but Kitsey sensed that he enjoyed the serene atmosphere of her workplace and the sight of her engrossed in her tasks. Noah, in fact, adored watching her, his heart swelling with every passing second and each delicate movement of her fingers over the covers of the books. Her presence alone brought him a peace that he hadn’t found anywhere else, ever. 

Today, however, he was there for a different purpose.  

“Noah, what are you d—” Her question was cut short when Noah enveloped her in a warm embrace, his long arms engulfing her.   

Noah’s familiar scent of soap mingling with his cologne brought a comforting sense of security, even in the library where the most threatening danger could be a flame setting the pages of the books on fire. It took her a moment to process the unexpected tender embrace, but as she inhaled his scent, she melted into him, letting his warmth seep through her despite the cold outside.

"I missed my girl, so I thought I'd come see her," he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper, as he drew back slightly to meet her light brown gaze while keeping his arms around her waist. She was dressed in black jeans and a white knitted shirt, a black ribbon holding back some of her hair, her glasses absent. "Any chance I can steal you away for a few minutes and treat you to a hot chocolate?"

His sweet suggestion elicited a smile from Kitsey, making her forget for a while how odd it was that he was up that early and standing there, in one of the library hallways. Surely there was something going on, something nagging at him. She knew him too well after so many years of dating. One way or another, she couldn't keep her fingers from gently playing with the strands of hair at the nape of his neck.

"My next break is in fifty minutes," she informed him.

"I can wait," Noah replied.

"All right, but no following me around like a lost puppy," Kitsey warned, her hand patting his chest.

"I promise," Noah assured her with a grin, lifting a hand in a solemn pledge. "I'll find a good book and wait like an obedient puppy in one of those armchairs."

The sound of her soft little laughter was a balm to his nerves. She was okay. She was safe. She was where she loved to be, in the library, immersed in her work amidst the comforting presence of books. 

Everything was as it should be. 

No need to worry.

Kitsey is safe.

Snippet 2: Meet Grey

[milder-manners]

Which challenge was your favorite from Dream? (I'd say bar manhunt but maybe it's actually not your n°1)

I personnaly really liked the random item challenge and the death swap

- V

(Manhunt is def my n1, don't worry I'm pretty standard)

My non-manhunt favorites change pretty often but at the moment ...

THESE TWO!!!

Minecraft Random Item Challenge VS 2 Hunters my Beloved!!

Like you V, I fricking love this video. The Drama, the unintentional thematic items, the situational comedy, (the story fic potential)!!

The video starts off with pretty standard stakes, Sapnap and George vs Dream. An unfair match, but no one’s upset, the audience knows how easily Dream can turn the tables if the circumstances turn juuust right. And despite what the title says, Dream is a Hunter like Sapnap and George. They all only have one life, and are fighting to the death.

But then, not even 5 min in, the power levels get completely skewed. George and Sapnap both receive diamond weapons and George gets a diamond chestplate, and Dream gets his iconic turtle helmet. Suddenly, the fight becomes a chase, and Dream has to run for his life until a new item spawns in to even the tides. (He finds a ruined portal underwater, and inside its chest is a flint and steel.)

Dream then gets some good armor and a trident, and the dynamics change once again.

The video kind of takes a turn for the comedic here. It’s a 2v1, yet Dream becomes the aggressor. He’s starts initiating fights, the one who chases down Sapnap and George with his dozen tridents, and it’s the duo who begins running off, building up a tower to get away. And this goes on even when George gets netherite boots and chest plates, and Sapnap gets an elytra and rockets; they still mostly engage in guerrilla tactics to basically harass Dream. Dream literally begins yelling at them to come here and fight him.

And that tickles me so much because this is basically a culmination of how the manhunts conditioned George and Sapnap to treat Dream; a guy who’ll prevail against all odds.

And this over precaution is what ultimately does them in in the end. It gave Dream enough time and space to prepare a TNT trap that kills them all.

Man, it’s such a fun video. I didn’t even mention all the little moments between everyone, like “OH GEORGE” “IT’S OH SAPNAP!”, “You have better stuff than us” “Pff—how?”, “George, I know you can’t drive but you need to do a u-turn baby”; and how the items eventually gained a theme with each hunter, creating a pseudo narrative of a sky spirit and rock/metal spirit harassing a sea spirit. It’s such a good mix of tense competition, and silly fun.

Minecraft Hostage Simulator

Another 2v1 video but also a muffinteers video! This one is such a classic for me, I genuinely hope they revisit this one.

The gradual development of Bad becoming a complete menace. The long trek of the horn passing between George and Sapnap and eventually to Bad. That hilarious point in the Nether where the two beat the shit out of Bad while he hangs off the cliff as retaliation. Dream embracing his inner trickster archetype, setting a deal with Bad with specific conditions to loophole around them. Sapnap and George pulling off that incredible boat trick and snatching Bad from Dream. Dream getting murdered by dolphins, a complete turnaround from their usual grace. The dynamic shifting midway in the video to a 3v1 when the Hunters decide to work together to Get Bad.

And that epic fight/chase after the Nether!!! Oh My God!!

The improvisation, the lying, the music with the chase, the buildup of tension from the editing! The sudden introduction of the reason behind Bad being a hostage was that he’s a sacrifice to feed the dragon?!?! Chefs kiss. Incredible ten out of ten.

Again, I hope this video comes back but with a way for Bad to win. He was literally the star of this show.

[azzysecondary]

Ok it’s finally time……

My honest feelings on the ZENO:Remake

Spoiler warning for the entire game ( ESPECIALLY The true routes and Ushirono route)

Also as a heads up….. this will be highly critical…… and long.

(Cws also apply for the content mentioned in game, please look at those before reading! )

I will be addressing Maeno and

Tsugino by their true names for convenience sake

Preface

Before we begin I wish to say, I do not mean to start war with this. The last thing I want is drama, I just wanna analyze and critique a piece of media- Genuinely I am open to discussion on anything I may have gotten wrong (as I am not an expert on Zeno lore or anything, and have not played daily life or the VN), or just for discussion in general! As long as it is productive (please genuinely read everything first though-)

Introduction

So I went in wanting to like this game ! I really did, I had heard nothing but praise, and that it was really good! So I decided to play on a discord call with friends! At first I was genuinely intrigued to the point I did some fanart doodles, and I would be genuinely be excited to play when the time came, and I wanted to see it to the end! The gameplay and puzzles were pretty fun and challenging, I played on chase setting one so I had a sense of dread entering each room, and the mysteries genuinely intrigued me! I also really liked the art and character design (if I had to chose a favorite it’d be Maeno!! Something about short red head characters and doctor characters plus hot heads have a soft spot in my heart!!!) the Music was also pretty good, and added to the vibes! However….. my point of contention comes to the story.

I went in Knowing there was toxic Yaoi, and cannibalism was not the issue…. Those themes are fine on their own, I’ve consumed many a dark media in my time……. It’s how the game handles its themes I take issue with. more specifically WHAT THE FUCK THEY DID WITH NATSU. Ushirono route basically soured the whole experience for me, and I did that after doing both the True and Sin routes + a normal route ending (which was my first) ( the one where Maeno leaves and waits for Tsugino forever,after Tsugino sacrifices himself). so again, my main issues stem from the end of Ushirono route.I was already iffy on the whole “maeno ate Natsu because she told him to” thing, but……

THE INTENTIONS OF HER HAVING A UNRECIPROCATED CRUSH ON AN ADULT, CAUSING HER TO HAVE A FUCKING ZENO ONSET, AND THEN WANTING MAENO TO EAT HER, FOR THE REASONS SHE DID ARE WHERE I DRAW THE LINE. IT GIVES ME THE FUCKING ICK FOR A COUPLE OF REASONS.

The Natsu Ushirono Problem

it was completely unnecessary.

Maybe I’m missing some theme with the whole “love equals food” thing but even then, even FUCKING then it’s clearly shown it’s really not, and that everytime someone is canabalized for another’s sake, it just leads to misery for the parties involved. I’m mainly using Tsugino in endings where he eats parts or all of maeno for example, and then just feels hollow because in the end, despite it being what he thought “love was” due to everything he had been through…. It truly wasn’t what we wished for. He genuinely seemed much happier in endings where he instead gained Maeno as someone to understand him, and as a life companion to heal with. So that from a narrative point to me CANNOT BE THE ANSWER. Genuinely the plot could’ve still been the same, if it was changed to her genuinely experiencing something traumatic. The love subplot just serves to be more shock value, and no genuine narrative purpose that couldn’t have just been familial rather than romantic love. (Please see section after my other two points to see what I mean)

2. It makes no sense lore and narrative wise

To complete the game you need to gain a pretty good understanding of how the Zeno Virus works. Zeno onset in game is caused by a traumatic event. Lets take a look at each character’s cause of Zeno onset in order

Maeno - First onset- I think it said it was either the death of his family, something relating to the ocean, or a mix of both ( take with a grain of salt) of which was cured by eating of the EQUIVALENT OF HIS LITTLE SISTER ( equally or even more traumatic event for him) Other cases of relapses include Him discovering FUYU’s (his childhood best friend’s ) corpse bleeding out in front of him, or in Ushirono route( I AM NOT INCLUDING THE FUCKING BS OF NATSU’S SOUL CAUSING IT BECAUSE IF THAT WERE THE FUCKING CASE IT WOULD’VE HAPPENED ALOT FUCKING SOONER), the director verbally beating Maeno’s trauma into him over and over until it becomes traumatic and he snaps.

Tsugino - already VERY mentally unwell due to his family basically pretending he was non existent, and physically, psychologically,and verbally abusing him since birth. He grew up without a single ounce of love, already a recipe for Zeno. His traumatic event was witnessing Maeno eat Natsu, of which was life altering traumatic to the point it became his whole purpose to “find love like that”. Relapses are caused by him remembering this trauma after memory therapy.

Fuyu-translation made it a little hard to parse but I think it was LEARNING HIS BEST FRIEND ATE HIS FUCKING SISTER!!! Yeah that definitely would fuck anyone up.

So all of these have a couple of thing in common

The death of a loved one/ watching someone die

Something life alteringly traumatic

The eating of Natsu?? ( not important to development of Zeno, but to the main story also not the case for Maeno onset one)

Now what was NATSU’S cause of Zeno?:

GETTING REJECTED BY MAENO WHEN SHE CONFESSED ROMANTIC FEELINGS TO NOT ONLY SOMEONE MUCH OLDER THAN HER, BUT ALSO HER TECHNICAL OLDER BROTHER.

So basically, you’re trying to tell me, that’s equivalent to EATING A LOVED ONE, OR WATCHING SOMEONE DIE. Yeah. It makes no sense

3. Romanticization

( Heads up, most opinion based section, based on what I personally feel)

Lowkey, this is a problem prevalent throughout the entire game. I’m all fine and good with problematic themes IF YOU HANDLE THEM WELL. It feels like most of the morbid content isn’t handled with much subtlety and is very much shoving everything down your throat Again, and again going,

“Hey! Look at how disturbing this is!”

And also giving a somewhat rose tinted lens to the whole “toxic yaoi murder cannibalism”-

diving into the main discussion point, the best possible ending for Ushriono route comes from helping Natsu achieve her goal, showing narratively, it was a GOOD THING that she got what she wanted in the end. She’s seen as a figure of Martyrdom in the narrative which is….. yeah- And even then, even if we KNOW everyone in this game is fucked up in the head (that gen might be why), but this isn’t a literary critique of human nature, I don’t think that was the intention.(again open to discussion, I’d be fascinated to see what people think of the intentions behind the work~)

Now….. here’s a rewrite that addresses the issues I had with with Natsu’s character motivations and agency in the narrative, even without changing much of the general plot. (Keep in mind I am very much not a writer, I just like reading and stories)

Natsu and Fuyu’s parents died due to *insert tragedy here (something most likely watchable, and quick. Perhaps a murder to fit the other causes of Zeno onset) unlike Fuyu, however, who was out with Maeno at the time….. Natsu witnessed thier death right before her eyes, deeply traumatizing her. Thus the also parentless Maeno becomes apart of a little found family of sorts with them. However, she and Maeno both make it to stage three, and in her desperation to see not see another one of her family die, she tells Maeno to eat her. She pleads and begs saying she wishes to let him live on, that’s all she wants. For her brothers to live. And he does, what other options do the two have?

This not only aligns with the other onset causes, but literally changes NOTHING because we don’t even know the status of the Ushirono parents (unless otherwise stated in supplementary material I have not played). It just changes the motivation and inner monologue of Natsu as a character, and nothing else in the game. Heck it gives the Ushironos a little bit more to work with character wise with loss and grief besides just Natsu herself. Maeno then becomes the only person Fuyu has left, and even then he’s absolutely disgusted with and betrayed by his former best friend. It’s an interesting addition to his characterization besides “I will avenge my sister”. Rather he’s lost quite LITERALLY everyone and it quickens the pace of his Zeno onset that he hides because he’s so desperate to cure Zeno in his sister’s name.

The translation

Yeah….. as much as lines like “what the folly”, “I will worship his death” and “-Your brother was happy to become a brother and sister with you. And is happy, will be happy, always......”, and “let me blast~” are funny….. it genuinely did not help with taking this game seriously in later parts. It was decent at first, with some indiscernible sentences here and there , it genuinely only got worse on true route and then Ushirono route respectively, was the worst in this regard. Combined with its subject matter it made the story kinda hard to understand at some points- like to the point I genuinely can’t tell if half of my issues are translation issues. It also led to the last of half of the game being taken completely unseriously by our play group to where we just Abridged Ushirono route completely to cope- like some of these lines came out better than the actual translation when put through google translate like 5 times!!!!! Like HOW?!?? I know the translator was trying their best but genuinely how did it degrade so badly?!?? It was genuinely fine in the beginning what happened-

Conclusion

I’m genuinely suprised I haven’t seen anyone out there talking about this yet- I know people are just here for toxic Yaoi and maybe I’m too Aroace for this/silly (genuinely a joke but I was actually here for the story…..) and I know people were more focused on Maeno and his Zeno induced saw trap death maze, or on the boys getting out ok and wanting them to kiss etc, etc (mostly what I’ve seen for why people like Ushirono route the best), while just outright ignoring this whole very prevalent elephant in the room. While I also was intrigued by the ideas of things like the Zeno virus, the name swapping mystery, and the lore of this universe…….. it was just so disappointingly executed to me that I was just left kinda sad- maybe the translation is what did it in and if I just played it in Japanese I would get the hype! Who knows! But for now, these are my opinions. Will I play Daily life when it gets a translation? *stares at the content warnings that are even worse* probably not because oh god I am scared of where that goes……. Maybe the other VN? (If there’s none of the crush stuff). Again I went in just wanting to enjoy myself I really did wanna like it but I just…. Can’t as of now. Again open to Productive discussion on my views thank you so much for reading if you’ve read my ramblings this far! I kinda just wrote down all my thoughts without any editing so apologies for the scuff- Ive also never done one of these before, the closest I’ve gotten is papers for AP lit a year or two ago - Have an awesome day!!!

[onirique-writes]

THE DEATH OF THE WORLD - WIP Introduction

"Body slick with sweat and trembling, Mavis collapsed onto the floor and could do nothing but watch as the walls caught and the sconces burned. Her hearing tunneled, the Oracle’s cries nothing more than whispers. The building began to crumble, chunks of stone falling to the ground, and she lay there, blinking slowly, her breaths heavy, and her body alight."

DETAILS

☆genre : fantasy ☆pov : third//multi ☆themes : martyrdom & victimhood, fate, human divinity, grief of a nation & oneself ☆status : drafting ☆draft # : 3

CHARACTERS

☆mavis : believes the world is inherently rotten. her parents abandoned her, demons terrorize the streets, and in her most vulnerable moment, the people of the world she is meant to save did not pause to help her. and now she knows that she was saved for the sole purpose of dying an even more agonizing death in service of a world she does not care for ☆an :  inherited a fracturing empire in the wake of a plague that has all but completely destroyed it. when a girl with the power of a god shipwrecks on his island, he is forced to reckon with what is right and what his people need ☆juai: has spent her whole life without imperfection in order to prove to her family that the mercy of letting her live was not a mistake. she is willing to pay them back with everything she has, whether it be through magic or marriage. but meeting mavis reveals wants in her she didn't know she had; although she understands mavis is marked for death, the more she gets to know her, the more she needs that not to be true

SYNOPSIS

Mavis was born to die. A thousand years ago, a young girl burdened with the power of a god sacrificed herself to save her people and became known as "The Death of the Empire." Now, Mavis has been born with that same purpose-- to sacrifice herself for the greater good-- completely unbeknownst to her. She lives within the kingdom of Yvelin inside of its wretched capital city, Rohaire, lorded over by the Blood King and his host of demons. Until one day Mavis makes a shocking discovery and the demons smell un-captured magic in the air and come for both her and her adopted father, leaving only tragedy in their wake. Alone and with powers she doesn't know how to control, she flees and shipwrecks within the archipelago nation of Catar where she must hide both her abilities and her foreign identity in order to receive the aid she needs and fulfill the prophecy, even if it means sacrificing herself.

EXCERPT

Mavis’s heart stuttered in her chest, both from fear and the sickening knowledge that there was nothing to be done. She had been born to die and she would, no matter what. «It will be painless. You saw Imene, how she smiled.» I’m not worried about pain. It was true. Why worry about pain when she was too consumed by the grief of knowing that she had so little time left and had not even lived much of life? Why am I a Champion? Why not just call me a martyr? «You are not a martyr yet.»

TAGLIST

☆ask to be +/-

[bluginkgo]

On today's Ginkgo rambles we have: the teaser, yet again. What? I really liked it.

Spoilers, duh

Instead of dissecting it again, which many smarter people have already done, I kinda wanna ramble about how well the teaser was well... a tease. It's titled The Beginning of the End. A bit cliche, but it works here both in the context of the end of this season, and hopefully the beginning of the second.

The beginning of the end that is called Season 1. And the beginning of the true end, that is the universe of Murder Drones- be it Copper 9 or the actual story.

Not to mention, this beginning of the end theme keeps up in the entire teaser. I guess you can say I'm a sucker for being nostalgic and seeing how far the show has come.

It starts with Uzi's Booting up// Exposition: "We are worker drones." Closely followed by what is happening to her as of Dead End. So much for the innocent worker drones, am I right? "It's not like we revolted and killed all humans or anything, mostly because they handled that just fine all by themselves." At this point, and especially in the teaser, it's heavily implied that maybe the humans didn't actually do that. Sure, they were probably the ones that caused it. But seeing as we get a shot of Tessa closing Nori's room/locker and then the core collapse from the pilot... eh, I don't know about you, but I think she's got something to do with it.

Then, we have N. His cute little introduction and his killings in the pilot, followed by Dead End's scenes. A disassembly drone- a demon that has been depicted so many times by other worker drones, one of THE murder drones of the series, reduced to nothing but a scrap of metal by sentinels. Not to mention the only person from his past, V, also in grave danger. We hear him call out to her just like in Dead End throughout the entire teaser. I also wouldn't be surprised if his last desperate call for V that we hear right before we get the actual scenes for eps 7 and 8, to be used as the trio fall down in the elevator at the beginning of ep 7.

Closely followed by V's first words. "And yet, I still feel nothing." Then we see her sacrifice at Dead End. From a simple and mindless murder machine to a friend and an ally who was willing to give herself up so the rest of the group would be safe. (D*mmit, V, come back queen😭)

Now as for something I don't quite understand/see. So please, feel free to point it out.

BUT WHERE DO PEOLE SEE THAT HER VISOR IS CRACKED? All I see is that her visor must be turned off, because the floor is reflecting in it.

Another thing I kinda wanna touch on briefly, is Uzi's hand.

As many people have already mentioned this, Uzi's hand lights are yellow. Of course, so far, this teaser has been for both episodes 7 and 8. So we can't confidently say what scene is from where. But this constant switching in Uzi's lights might lose its meaning. Of course, these might be the only times that Uzi's lights actually change. But if it isn't... the anxiety and fear that ought to come with seeing Uzi's purple lights turn yellow, might be less severe. Unlike in Dead End, it was both anxiety inducing and cool to see Uzi be posessed by Absolute Solver. Eh, it might be just me, though. Of course, teaser is just that. A tease. So there isn't much to go off of.

You crazy for making it through that entire useless rant. Have a cookie. ^_^

[instaquarius]

100 DBZ OC ART CHALLENGE

1.) Introduction.  2.) Flight.  3.) Hero.  4.) Full Moon.  5.) Transformation.  6.) Rage. 7.) Fusion (potara, Namekian, or finger fusion) 8.) Great Ape. 9.) Master and Student. 10.) Tournament. (Worlds Strongest Under the Heavens, the afterlife one from that one filler episode/arc, universes 6 v. 7 tournament, or the Tournament of Power) 11.) Fighting. 12.) Destruction. 13.) Ki control 14.) Aura. 15.) Blasts. 16.) Rivals. 17.) Quest. 18.) Family. 19.) Danger Zone. 20.) As a baby. 21.) With the Z sword (or training with the Z Sword) 22.) Victory. 23.) Death. 24.) Loss. 25.) Crisis. 26.) In other world. 27.) Snake way. 28.) Playing Baseball. 29.) At Kaio Samas' place. (In heaven?) 30.) In hell with HFIL ogres. 31.) Kaioshins' planet. 32.) Lovers. 33.) Doing Ginyu Force poses (or actually IN the Ginyu Force if you want XD) 34.) Saiyaman/Saiyagirl poses. 35.) 1st form, 2nd,3rd, 4th, (Golden or 5th form) 36.) Training in Gravity room 37.) Weighted Gi 38.) Wearing Earth clothes; casual 39.) in Dragonball art style (Like, before Z, Super etc.) 40.) Protection. 41.) Powering up. 42.) Fighting Frieza, Cell or Buu (or a movie villain) 43.) Universal Tournament. 44.) In the future. 45.) Immortality. 46.) Clones 47.) Finding the Dragonballs 48.) Meditating 49.) Fighting a God of Destruction 50.) Ritual 51.) Fighting the Legendary Super Saiyan 52.) Fighting in the Tuffle War 53.) Mind Control (by baby, Babidi, Towa/Mira etc.) 54.) As a Time Breaker 55.) As a Time Patroller 56.) Fighting the Z warriors.  57.) On Planet Vegeta. 58.) Getting absorbed (by a Majin?) 59.) False SSJ 60.) Getting turned into candy 61.) Inside the healing tank (like on Friezas spaceship) 62.) In the Hyperbolic Time Chamber (or Room of Spirit and Time) 63.) Eating. 64.) Revenge. 65.) Pride 66.) Sacrifice. 67.) Bloodied.  68.) Fear. 69.) Heart Virus. 70.) Meeting Arale (from Dr. Slump) 71.) Using the Kaioken. 72.) Climbing Korin Tower (like in original dragonball before flight was a thing) 73.) Wearing a Turtle Shell. 74.) Determined. 75.) Getting Married. 76.) Best Friends. 77.) Screams. 78.) Rescued. 79.) Mafuba. 80.) Killing. 81.) Defeat. 82.) Sadness. 83.) Happiness. 84.) In a Saiyan spacepod. 85.) Hatred. 86.) Crushed. 87.) Beam Struggle. 88.) Genki Dama (Spirit Bomb) 89.) Showering 90.) Wearing the pink Badman shirt 91.) Scheming. 92.) Fighting Merged Zamasu (or Regular Zamasu) 93.) Fighting a Black version of your OC (hint: Goku Black) 94.) Unlocked Potential.  95.) Confused. 96.) In highschool. 97.) Tears. 98.) Act of kindness 99.) Tag team 100.) With you (The creator of OC/artist) saying they survived the Challenge

Rules~~~~ 1.) Can go from any order you wish. It doesn't matter the order you do these in. 2.) Be creative. 3.) All writings/drawings must be related to DBZ in some way/the theme you choose to do. 4.) Link if you do do this? I'd love to see :3 5.) Also please leave a mention to this in your submissions~ 6.) You can use both OCs and cannon characters as long as its related to the series. 7.) Can be done whenever you feel like~ (No deadline or each theme has to be done once a day or anything) 8.) (Your also free to copy paste to a journal or something the themes to keep track of them as long as credits back to me)  9.) Have fun~