#loose interpretation of fairytale

[leulahart]

jonsa week day three: fairy tale

inspired by la belle dame sans merci by frank dicksee

[lemon-dokuro]

YuugenMagan... An enigmatic figure...

What a cool and unique enemy, especially for the series! The ladies are great too, don't get me wrong, but the appearance is so striking. It hits especially hard when you reach stage 10 for the first time. Such a beautiful construct.

Naturally, the Touhou fandom has taken an interest in the humanlike figure in the center. It really is quite exciting. You can come up with a whole new lady! The silhouette is just detailed enough to give some direction, but still very vague, which provides a lot of freedom. Usually, fanart depicts a blonde girl with a ponytail wearing a yellow japanese-style outfit. The details of the clothing vary from artist to artist, but the sleeves are often drawn as detached. And, you know... There's no problem here, really, it's a reasonable read, and there's nothing wrong with accepting common fan interpretations either, but I don't really like it. It's a cute character design, but it just doesn't feel Yuugen-like to me, or Makai-like. Which is why I'd like to share my own version. See...

After some thinking, me and my friends came to the conclusion that the arms must be crossed. Those yellow pointy things at the shoulders don't make much sense otherwise. Also, thumbs up, yes. lol Basically, what I don't like about the common interpretation is that the japanese-style outfit isn't fitting for the "western fairytale" look of Makai as it is seen in th5, so I have come up with something more western-looking. So it's something like this: loose hair that covers one eye, a shirt with a standing collar, a long skirt with wide pleats, an underskirt (or perhaps a lace trim), pointy-nosed boots and a wide-sleeved jacket. I also like imagining something like a little hair accessory on the uncovered side, but the lines are quite vague. This is my latest version, as a rough reference for myself:

I am quite satisfied with this look now, I want to try making it eventually. Some old versions are under the cut, they aren't actually that different - I've more or less thought of it this way since first discovering that there's a figure down there.

2020, 2021, 2022. Aquired in 2025: haircut, melanin, belt. Lost in 2025: eyesight. (the five extra eyes can see just fine, though)

[pain-indeed]

Every time people characterise Susie it's always some variation of either :

A cold hearted bitch who cannot be redeemed. She has always been a horrible person and won't change. She just wants power.

or

A pure angel who can do no wrong of her own, who regret her actions. She just wanted to see her father again and save the world.

So here's my offering ;

A sweet and innocent but spoiled child who looses everything stable and reliable in her life, from her loving father to her bright future in a rich company. Suddenly, she is trapped in a chaotic, unstable world, scared and lost. To survive, she becomes crual, independent and calculating, because everything in this world is.

She has gone from the second mentionned characterisation to the former.

But when she finnaly return, her world has changed, too. She's frustrated and spitefull against Haltman for not remebering her. She absolutly wants him to, at all cost. So she becomes the company's secretary, climbing the ladder in order to aproach him and make him understand. But to do that, she needs to do horrible stuff, like mechanize planets and stuff. But since she 's already abandoned her morals a long time ago, she has no problem doing it, as long as she gets what she wants.

Sometimes, she looks at herself in the mirror, at who she is now. She regrets her past and self life and will do anything to retrieve them. But she can't stop thinking about wether it's even possible in the first place. However, there's only one way forward at this point. So she stiffens up and prepare for the next invasion.

Eventually the Haltmans invade Popstar. There, Susie meets a knight like those she'd heard of in fairytales. Regardless, she won't accept someone standing in her way and endangering her plans. Also, taking him away could help her proove her loyalty and secure her position untill she can save her father, so she does. She doesn't care about his consent, his resistance, his life. Perhaps she even takes some pleasure in having control of something for once, in seeing someone beside her suffering. She scoffs as he helplessly resist because she thinks she's been trough worse. Right now, only one person matters to the secretary.

At the begginning, she does'nt mind Kirby. He's just some native, unworthy of her attention. That is, untill he raids the company and she, and her weapons are unable to end him. And eventually...

Haltman, her father, the man she's been relentlessly trying to bring back, her whole reason to live, dies.

Because of her poor timing.

In the adrenaline, she helps save the world an herself from destruction. But as the mechanisation wears of the planet of miracles, the realisation of what just happened hits her. She takes off this stupid planet wich took away her future. She hates that kid for killing her father, she hates the knight for not successfully killing the kid, she hates herself for failing. The tought of ending it all crosses her mind.

But she stiffens herself once more ; the only thing left of him, his company, awaits her. It's almost destroyed, but it can be saved. To preserve him trough his will to bring eternal prosperity. To avenge him, too. So she spends her blood, tears, and sweat to rebuild the Haltman company, far away from any star.

When the world is in danger, she decides to help the Star Allies put an end to this threat. Not out of kindness. But because she wants to observe them, learn their weaknesses, to eventually exact her revenge and assert her dominance on the entire galaxy.

Anyways, that was Susie's character as I see it. I see her as a bitch ass villain with a lot of sad things going on that made her like that. From my perspective it's possible for her to have a redemption arc later when she joins the Star Allies, maybe one day I'll post about that.

I absolutly love to talk about possible character interpretations, especially about how a character can be completly traumatised :)

Hope you enjoyed 👍

[eremorte]

Royal/Rebel Swap au part 1/7

So I'm going to split this into parts because it's a lot. I'll be splitting it akin to the doll releases (I will pair Ramona and Cerise together in the same section though) so this part will cover Apple Briar Madeline and Raven.

So the way I interpret this AU I don't want to fundamentally change too much about the character's actions and personality. Just what circumstances would convince them to become Rebel/Royal (at least at first).

Apple:

She's a Rebel mostly because the event is unnecessary and dangerous. She is a royal by birthright, not by chance. Her fairytale is ceremony. Also with the event of the Wonderland takeover by the Evil Queen, Apple is convinced that Raven will be worse whether she intends to or not. She does not want to be unconscious for who knows how long to give Raven or any other enterprising villain the chance to hurt her kingdom.

However that doesn't mean she is "nice" about it. She remains the same type of anxious you see early on in the story. As well an unwittingly condensing which most fairytales tolerate. However Apple pleading with Raven to not poison her wouldn't sound out of character for the actor of Snow White and many believe she is playing a part no matter what types of arguments she gives.

Raven:

Royal because her mom's conditioning works just a smidge better. Now to be clear she still hates her mom, she just doesn't have the words for it. She understands what her role is in the story and intends to do just that and no more. The only evil spell she will try to learn is the poison apple spell and she will try to make it as painless as humanly possible. Through her mom, she learns a warped version of what is good and what is bad, but because her mom very bluntly names the difference she can easily recognize what most of the outside world follows. Except for what love means, people tend to stretch that word a lot in either case. All she knows is that whatever love she recognizes doesn't make her happy. So she often says she doesn't like a lot of things when really she means the opposite.

This adds to the miscommunication and she is perceived as surly and bitter and adequately evil. (This is probably what Lizzie goes through tbh). She wants to learn to be a better queen for both her sake and the surrounding kingdoms, but through her mom, she is convinced she has to temporarily knock out Apple White to make true headway. (Apple's personality isn't easy for Raven to talk to anyhow) To try and prove herself a good queen she tries to undo the extraneous curses on Wonderland (in my head this take more than just saying the curse backwards/coming up with a well said sentence). Which she is allowed to do because that's just trimming the weeds.

Briar:

Rebel-> Royal

Briar recognizes much earlier on that she isn't going have the chance to live a proper adulthood because she'll be in and out of  unconscious for a 100 years at a time with 16-25 years of actually being awake before falling asleep again. And that's not counting her narcolepsy.

Also I use the term Royal in this case very loosely I imagine she will not apply the logic of everyone should follow their Destiny when she switches more so that with the adequate changes to her original tale she'll find something of her fairytale heritage she's more willing to act upon and thus become Royal (which is probably just an extension of Rebellion. This logic will likely apply for all the Rebel-> Royal switches).

She is desperate to escape this enchanted sleep so she is often found trying to negotiate with Faybelle/studying in her own time to find out how to break this curse but her kingdom is a 100 years behind so it would take a while to catch up to whatever demand Faybelle proposes. (I'd like to imagine that when the dark fairy was uninvited to the birthday of Sleeping Beauty there was a political proposal that the kingdom was rejecting and making a large public show of it).

Madeline:

This one is difficult because Maddie is functionally a Royal already. As I've typed that out that should make it easy yes? No. To keep her wacky charm when she picks a side I think she would be invested trying to tell her second parent's story. She still loves her dad to pieces but telling the same exact tale everyone expects of her bores her to bits. She can argue she's technically following the rules.

[reachexceedinggrasp]

Top 5 Beauty & the Beast* ships?

*interpreted as loosely as you’d like

I'm so sorry I've taken so long to answer this, I wrote like four different openings and kept changing my mind about the parameters and I've been kinda crashing out mental health-wise. Things weren't great before the fascist started openly threatening my country, but that sure doesn't help. Anyway!

I realised I probably should restrain myself a little more, because interpreting too freely makes this almost exactly the same list as my top 5 ships in general lmao

But yeah, it's

Eternal #1 Erik/Christine, which I was strongly debating whether I should include. I've seen some consensus from other people that they should be in a different category and that Death and the Maiden is a fundamentally different trope. And, like, I see the argument, but I was thinking about it and for me it just doesn't make sense not to have the Ur ship in the larger B&tB basket. E/C is so formative to my psyche I don't think it's too far to say they are a big part of the reason I'm Like This, so. As much Erik is a grotesque and a tragic hero rather than a cursed fairytale prince, we're still talking compassion and salvific love seeing beyond appearances. And, to me, they get their HEA because I will continue to read and write that for them

2. Whouffaldi

I think at this point they gotta be nearly top of the heap. They continue to dig their claws deeper and deeper into my soul. As someone who never thought she would ship the Doctor, it is wild that I'm here, but such is their power. I consider them a B&tB ship because transformation, caretaking (gonna brand this a kind of scared hospitality), and intimacy are such major themes. The Doctor is heavily monsterfied as their relationship goes on, sometimes literally, and Clara's ability to recognise him and restore him is heavily emphasised. In classic B&tB fashion, they allow each other to self-actualise.

3. Reylo

4. SSHG I feel like I gotta include it because I never go long without coming back to (re)read more fic. The tropes are too good.

5. Ghoulcy

NO BUT FR, Cooper is exactly the Fallout world's version of a fairytale prince under a curse. Gallant Hollywood heartthrob wife guy who was at some point a real cowboy and a solider, his identity hidden under a monstrous mask! His humanity buried by grief and hardship! And Lucy is exactly Beauty coded in the best way, because she is curious and compassionate and sees the truth which others don't! She hasn't seen him yet, but she willllllllllll. She's already starting to understand him by their last scene of the season. He's already feeling compassion for her and being reminded of his true self.

The set up is absolutely perfect.

Honourable mentions: Pinsty, Puzzleshipping, Lokane (edge case? I think it depends on how you write it. The way I write it, obviously it is in my mind.)

Edit: Not me completely forgetting to mention Rumbelle, the most obvious and most justified possible answer, I am legitimately embarrassed.

[garden-variety-jumo]

Someone asked me about it but they were a TERF so I had to block them. But I wanna ramble about it anyway so voila my post:

Alien Cultural Differences I Love (in Doctor Who, anyway)* :

Disclaimer: forgive my knowledge of Doctor Who being a little spotty, a lot of it I learned purely through the fandom

(Skipping over regeneration because that is a huge one)

NAMES: I cannot emphasise enough how much I adore their naming conventions/them not revealing their "real" names. Like, naturally, there's the inherent trans-ness of choosing your own name, but I also love the idea of choosing it after what you want to emulate. (And if I may mention, the outright insanity that the Master, who HATES humans, used a human term. Which. Hmm. Yeah. The implications. (To me))

There are also academy names, which I think are Super interesting, because from what I can see, they still aren't their real names, but they're never mentioned supposedly after their academy days. So, they have an element of the superstition that their real names have, But they are still like,, placeholder names.

I think I once read a fic where there was a superstition/fairytale about speaking your real name out loud and being stolen by toclofane because of it- which I think is Brilliant!!

Language: First of all. We must applaud whoever designed Gallifreyan writing because it Fucks Severely. What an absolutely beautiful form of writing. Additionally, I don't Believe we've ever heard it in the show, which means it's fully up to interpretation. Something that makes me deeply sad to think about is, at least in RTD's initial era, how the Doctor is the only one left to speak a dead language. I like the headcannons that it's very difficult for other species to learn (while they would never be able to properly re-create it, that doesn't mean they can't learn a form or version to it  though!!) This could be due to vocal differences or even, potentially, psychic elements to it- which leads onto my next point:

Psychic Abilities: I'm going insane what do you MEAN Gallifreyans are a psychic race I'm going to loose my mind. If you take that into consideration, it has to have influenced their society or how they socialise somewhat. What must their perception of the world feel like? What are the social conventions/ethics of it all? I feel like they only scratch the surface of this topic in the show and long story short I would like a handbook that explains all of this in depth.

Imagine, then, going from a society that Could, if they wanted, connect to each other psychically, then having it all taken away. How empty that must feel??

The society: While my memory on Gallifreyan culture is a little muddied, it's been made Pretty clear the culture and socialisation is very different to, at the very least, humans. For one, the hubris Time Lords are taught to believe in. (At the very least, Time Lords being Gallifreyan but Gallifreyans not necessarily being Time Lords)

What other subtle differences might there be from there? I imagine they would be taught cultural norms/habits of other species in order to blend in or better communicate ((for example, the story the Doctor was telling about aliens who communicated largely with their eyebrows)). Time Lords in the show are vaguely "human" with certain landmarks to prove them as a different species, two hearts as the most prominent example. They are also implied to have three brainstems, and I'm sure, other internal differences (isn't it mentioned they have orange/rust coloured blood?) Therefore, what forms of socialising did they evolve differently, that they must adjust for speaking to humans? It's just cool to think about!!!

Biology: Largely touched upon in the previous point but their Blood is Orange. That's pretty neat!!!!!! WOAH ALSO. Their body temperatures being naturally lower!!!! That's an absolutely fascinating detail. I wonder if the Doctor ever discloses these medical details to their companions in case of emergency? Almost definitely not...

Aspirin: It's fatal to Gallifreyans? Insane. And has the Doctor ever mentioned this to their companions, just in case? Probably not.

THE GOD DAMN FOBWATCHES: Insane to me that they can just. Do that. As a lover of Tensimm, I regularly think about the set up of series 3 and how insane fans must have felt watching it live. Fobwatched Ten largely sucks though, my love goes out to Martha always. (But also... does that imply Ten's memories and experiences made the Doctor kind? Or being a Time Lord in itself, though that seems to align less with what we know)

Aaaand that's all I can think of for now!!

*((Special shout out to Mandolorian culture also, though. I am entranced and fascinated by it))

[dxy-drxxm]

SYNOPSIS: Aspiring for perfection will always lead to disappointment.

CW/s: Fairytale based, hurt/no comfort, abstract and not an x reader, bitter ending, impostor syndrome (implied), this can be interpreted but its Furina/Focalors mostly (and my sona iykyk) lmaoooo, this hurts so bad Im sorry yall

In a tale as old as time, there resided a God.

The God that was fond of its lifestyle, and that played a role that it made on its own. Descending down to the land of mortals, it took on a face and decided to see what it's like to live as a normal being.

"Surely being a human won't be hard," the God said, and so it took on the appearance of a tailor, destined to create and tailor outfits in its image.

In their opening, not many came, but one customer often came. This customer does not speak, but they often buy something from the tailor— be it materials, equipment, or even the things they've knitted themselves.

The customer often has a peculiar eye, wearing and donning the ones they bought without much fuss. It's a wonder to the tailor with how they would use it till it was worn to its seams, the colors all putrid from its usage, and yet the many things the tailor can dig into is all witnessed from how they used it so often.

It was clear that the customer they've seen everyday enjoyed their works. So much so that they've always kept a memento of them should they be worn, and each time, it was one of the best threads it left.

The God had decided to do something for this customer, after seeing them season after season. And so, it weaved. Weaved, and weaved, and weaved— weaved till its hands became sore and bled into the tapestry.

It became majestic, so majestic that no one would dare touch it! Alas, the regular took it and said their thanks, soon expressing, "Your works have been majestic, as they spoke to me."

"Spoke to you? How so?" asked the tailor.

"They share me many a tales," the customer answered. "So many whispered to me, it's a wonder of how you can weave them. And this one is one so special… One full of tragedy and grace… One I cannot use like the rest."

The God was offended. It had made this tapestry for the customer to use, and yet… The one it focused the most, they won't use it?

"Why? I've spent many years on such a special tapestry for you, and yet… You won't use it like the rest?"

"Nay, I am not fond of extravagant items. I simply desire for the simpler ones. Those who thirst after materials will soon tire themselves of it, and greed will simply overtake them whole."

The God wished it had known, but it found the idea almost absurd. How can one find such fondness on the ordinary things in life? And yet, the customer seemed to choose the worst of the worst— one that they deemed an abomination.

The colors were weaved into the darkest of black, with light maroon and soft touches of lilac adorning and mixing in between, and small dots of scarlet masking like stars in the sky, minus the glimmer. It found the tapestry horrid, but the smile of the customer caught the God off-guard.

"This is the tapestry I want, for the tale is unique. The hands spent on making a tapestry worth it's name is nothing towards the one made with mistakes, with loose holes and dead locks."

"But why? That's an abomination!"

"Abomination? Hardly! Your passion has been in it so much, it screams to me! That one you've put your best in has nothing— it only whispers, but its voice is hoarse."

.. Then, the God is silent. Still.

"As a tailor myself," the customer began again, placing down the gold as they paid for the tapestry they deemed to be a mistake. "You must cherish your first beginnings. This one is imperfect in your eyes, but it is perfect to mine, for the voice and passion weaved into contrasting colors shows that it is honest to itself. Honest to a degree, even to its owner."

"If you cannot see your creations with the same vigor, you may as well make everything like the one of gold a mistake. One not worthy of anyone's eyes but your own."

As the customer left, the God has pondered over what they said.

Truly, is passion something that they can't grasp? Is the tapestry they made something they wished to be rid of, despite the years spent on it?

Or is it just their senses, gnawing at it to stop… And yet, it didn't, for the sake of proving a point?

The God had no answer.

As prideful as one is, one must admit defeat. It's hand spent so long weaving it for seasons, that it in itself looked putrid to the customer. And why, if it truly cared, then it'd never go down the same road as before. It would have stayed the same as all others.

… Perhaps, the God knew that it's ventures to make the 'perfect' tapestry was one of lies. For it has faced prejudice, judgement, hurt… And loss.

The next day, the shop was closed. When the customer snuck in to see what drove for their tailor to close their establishment, what laid on their workspace was the tapestry it offered to them, all worn and ruined with scissors and burns.

But this time, the customer left empty-handed.

No one can take the perfect tapestry now. Not when it has met the ire of the God and lost what made it 'perfect' in the first place.

@.dxy-drxxm | do not republish, repost, or copy my works anywhere | 2023

[sapphiresdumpsterfire]

meta analysis of Extraordinary Things because I have no life

Keep your words on ice

Your gaze lights the fire.

Pretty straight forward, Geralt’s cold attitude and words combined with his gold, “fiery” eyes.

They say keep on playing nice

But I have no desire

This I feel like is a reference to his bisexuality, being told to conform to the typical standards of relationships, or perhaps to accept his nobility as it reflects on his romantic affairs. Play nice and keep in line. But that’s not who he is as a person and he has no desire to pretend like he’ll ever fit that mold.

Why waste our words

When lips were made

For extraordinary things

Fairly straightforward as well, he’s tired of the fancy wordplay and the double entendres of noble life. He doesn’t want to dance around the way he feels or conceal his emotions. Why waste time with talking around how you feel when you can simply accept it. Which is very fitting as he is very open with his romantic life.

It’s not a want, it’s a need

It is paying no heed

To what others say to sing

Another reference to his orientation, however I also feel like this might be a small reference to the line in Her Sweet Kiss “I’m weak my love, and I am wanting” which could be an indicator of his feelings for Geralt adapting and evolving over time. They’ve deepened into a need to simply be around Geralt, even if his role in Geralt’s life isn’t quite was he desires. Geralt matters just that much to him.

The greatest songs are made up

Of unspoken words of love

Okay this line I feel like is the most damning, but possibly not for the reasons people might think. There’s a lot of focus on the “unspoken words of love” section of this line, but I was more focused onto this reference of his music. He’s saying that of the songs he has written, he has embedded his love for Geralt in every line. In particular, the his romantic ballads. He keeps his love songs inconspicuous, switching around pronouns and never revealing a name. Those are expressions of his “unspoken works of love”.

Of them I’ve had enough

With you I have enough

With you I am enough

I am enough

This is where we get angsty. His tone gets defeated and exhausted singing this line. He’s tired of being so desperately in love with someone who will never be able to share that love in the same capacity. He’s had enough of feeling like he’ll never be enough. Radovid has made him feel like he can be enough for someone, but that’s not quite what he needs either (with unintentional foreshadowing to Radovid’s manipulation). He wants to be enough for himself, in his own right, without relying on other people’s perception of him.

Drop the sweet disguise

Your heart’s beating too loud

The fairytale’s and little lies

Can’t drown out all the sound

So I’ve seen this be translated as foreshadowing for him and Radovid’s relationship, but considering that he would have only known Radovid for a couple of days at best, I feel like this interpretation is a little too loose and abstract. We know he writes his ballads about events he’s experienced in his own life, and he doesn’t tend to write about abstract concepts or future events. I feel it’s more likely that this is a reflection of the fact that Jaskier very much knows that Geralt is aware of his feelings. We know that Geralt can canonly hear heartbeats. Jaskier knows that no matter how many pretty ballads he sings and excuses he gives, he can’t hide his feelings, and Geralt will never address them, whether to protect Jaskier’s emotions or their friendship. It’s a feeling of defeat and almost a bit of self-flagellation. Like he’s shaming himself for daring to have these feelings, using a slightly mocking tone while singing these lines.

So take this heart

And break this heart

For extraordinary things

In this, Jaskier is tossing aside these feelings. He’s willing to let his heart be broken and his hopes be dashed to be by Geralt’s side because he sees that Geralt has a destiny and a purpose. He’s willing to go through the pain of never having Geralt in the way he needs because he knows that Geralt has a greater purpose, and he’s devoting himself to seeing this purpose play out.

It’s not a want, it’s a need

It is paying no heed to what

Others say to sing

The greatest songs are made up

Of unspoken words of love

Of them I’ve had enough

With you I have enough

With you I am enough

I am

I am enough…

In short, I feel like this song is very clearly an expression of Jaskier’s feelings of hopelessness towards his relationship with Geralt. He’s desperately in love with a man who he knows in his heart that he will never be enough for, whether due to orientation or feeling like Geralt has a far greater purpose than Jaskier could ever hope to understand or fulfill. He wants desperately to be enough for someone, and to feel like anybody could be enough to fill the hole that Geralt has left inside him. Enter Radovid, who sees this weakness and immediately exploits it to his advantage. But my rant on the cinematography of the scene indicating Radovid’s calculated manipulation and Jaskier’s emotional vulnerability will come another day.

Thank you Joey Batey for another total masterpiece of a performance and a song that will haunt me till I die. 🥹💕

[allineedisonedream]

Hi!! So I saw(and loved) your tangled AU and it got me thinking about how tangled and Frozen are part of the same universe… HEAR ME OUT PLS

I don’t know how familiar you are with Joyfire, or jayroy? But I was think of an au where Jason runs away from Bruce and Alfred for some reason? Maybe he was looking for his real mum like In canon? And stumbles into Kori, who freaks out and injures him with her “powers” (lasers I guess but it could be adapted for the sake of the au) and he recovers, but looses his memory of Bruce and Alfred and his brother, so Kori’s parents adopt him as well. Of course he now has the White hair streak from the injury because. Yeah.

And it would probably be open for interpretation on whether Kori and Jay would be together…

But I’m picturing similar events where the parents die, kori becomes queen and runs away, and Jason goes out to looks for her, when he discovers Roy, (after the events of the tangled au) whose trying to find his childhood friend (Jay) because when he and dick and Wally returned dick home, dick found out about Jason being missing( I don’t know how old you headcanoned dick to be when he was taken but for the sake of me let’s say about 10) and wanted to find him so Roy went looking.

But as we all know, Jason changes a lot in those years away from home, and Roy doesn’t recognise him? So they team up to find Kori and Jay(who is really there all along but… maybe Roy only ever calls him Jaybird? And Jason has been going by Robin or Hood since he lost his memory so neither make the connection

And then I think Jason would slowly get more and more confused? Because sometimes Roy will mention something and He’ll recognise the scenario but have no idea why

That’s as far as I’ve gotten, might draw something for it later if you don’t mind? And I hope you don’t mind the hijacking I was just in love with your idea

(This was not proofread so pls excuse anything that I missed)

Aww, that's a really cute idea. I've kinda thought about this too, like giving every family member a side story that's just another fairytale.

But then I saw the Tangled series and was kinda inspired. I would have probably given Jason Cassandra's storyline, and Tim would follow Varian's story a little bit, but then I lost motivation and never finished it.

Now that I'm reworking the story, I'm kinda not sure if I have the patience to give everyone a side story, I'm probably just mostly gonna finish/redraw my old sketches and concentrate on Roy, Wally, and Dick.

And I totally wouldn’t mind you drawing something for it. I would love to see it^^

[procedingfishingboats]

I've been thinking about the song Transmetropolitan by The Pogues. It's one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands, but it unfortunately has some quite homophobic lyrics. The second verse goes

From Brixton's lovely boulevards To Hammersmith's sightly shores We'll scare the Camden Palace poofs And worry all the whores There's leechers up in Whitehall And queers in the GLC And when we've done those bastards in We'll storm the BBC

Its so unfortunate that a song that is so proud of the poor and working class areas of London, and is mainly about letting loose and raging against the powers that be has to direct some of it's rage against queer people, and that it places us alongside the "leechers up in Whitehall".

There has been lots of controversy over the use of the word faggot in Fairytale of New York, but when Kirsty MacColl sings "you scumbag, you maggot, you cheap lousy faggot" in that song, it has always felt endearing to me, and a celebration of queerness--even if that wasn't the original intent.

However, I find it much harder to recontextualize the lyrics of Transmetropolitan. The use of the slur poof doesn't really bother me but rather the promise of violence against queer people, and while I believe that the lyrics where actually intended to be an insult against the cishet powers that be rather than a threat of violence to queer people, that interpretation still leaves it decidedly homophobic.

I think there is something good to be found in these lyrics--possibly framing this verse as a celebration of the fact that queer people are everywhere and will unite to "storm the BBC"--and I'm going to keep searching for a queer interpretation because I love this song and I care about punk music being queer (especially as I continue to discover my own identity as genderfluid).

Until then, I'll try to keep the Trans in Transmetropolitan

[twinsandselfships]

Hello! I love your platonic/family ships! I also find it interesting that you have f/os, that I’ve never seen before as an American person (Aster and Hatter) Would you mind telling me about them? Like your relationship to their source/them?

Oh my stars!!! We were just thinking about how we should probably talk about some of our F/Os niche sources, and here you are! We're very glad (and excited) that you asked us!

Let's start with Aster. He's a character that appears in the 3rd season of "Fantasy Patrol" - a russian animated children's show about fairytale characters living among humans and a team of magical girls helping them and saving the world. In the 3rd season the main characters go to the Magical College, where we first meet Aster, who is actually a secret villain and the main antagonist of this season! But he's also an adorable clumsy dork who just wants to be loved, he simply makes a lot of wrong choices for that. We adored Aster from the very episode he appeared in (S3E1) because of his unique design and how adorkable he is 🥰🥰 Later we liked him even more, as he turned out to be more important to the story. So eventually we created Rufina (OC) as a way to comfort him, haha 😅😅

As for the show itself, we really love its world and possibilities of interpreting fairytale, folklore and mythological characters from all over the world, even though the writing isn't the best after the middle of season 2. Also, it looks very colourful and pretty!

Hatter is a secondary character in the russian 2D-animated movie called "Ginger's Tale" in english, and it's loosely based on a Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale "The Tinderbox". This movie was made by a small studio "Vverh". This beautiful masterpiece came out in theaters in 2020, when the pandemic attacked, so it failed at the box office and bankrupted the studio. ABSOLUTE INJUSTICE!!! 😡😡 Sure, the movie isn't perfect, but it had passion! It was gorgeous to look at! And it had wonderful characters! We recommend everyone to find it somewhere (🏴‍☠️) and watch it!

So, all characters in this movie, even the secondary ones, have a lot of personality, and that includes Hatter (or "Padlock" on the official website, but it doesn't make any sense): he's one of the three friends of the main characters, but he caught our eye for some reason. He's the shortest of the bunch, he wears an almost comically large hat and he likes friendly pranks and jokes! We dunno, he's just a cute lil' fella! 😊😊

We'll probably expand on this in the future, but that's the gist of it! Hope it answered your questions, and thank you for asking! 🤗🤗

[richardsmilktea]

📖 Don't Let the Forest In

🖋️ CG Drews

🌟 4.25/5

I have decided that whatever flaws or loose threads etcetc. this novel has—I don't care. I recognize that there are certain aspects that could've been improved upon (mostly regarding Dove), but I enjoyed this too much to focus on all that. Beautiful prose, great character work, ending that made me go ????. Brilliant.

*spoilers ahead about the ending*

I've read reviews where they interpreted the monsters as a figment of Andrew's imagination—and that he and Thomas simply snapped and became murderers. Now, whether the monsters were real or not, I have chosen to believe that everything that happened did happen. I strongly dislike the interpretation that erases the fantasy of it all. Erasing the magical aspect of the horror cheapens the story to me. Like, yeah, sure it's valid to interpret the monsters as part of Andrew's delusions and that he (& Thomas) actually committed murder. But consider—that's boring!! because then what's the point in writing a horror fantasy? His downward spiral throughout the story ending with him ultimately choosing the fairytale he crafted is both fantastical and real and just so much more interesting. It's all pretty much open to interpretation but having Don't Let the Forest In be this grotesque fairytale makes it all the more compelling to me.

Man, I love fairytales.

read: [10 Feb to 12 Feb 2025]

[kxllerblond]

❛ If you start thinking this is reality, you'll just slip into the abyss. ❜

❝ Do you know what they call my kind? The little information I've been able to find or drag out of the holy and unholy alike? ❞ he answered with a question, continued to button the cuffs of his undershirt as though the conversation was not entirely worth his full and undivided attention.

❝ World-eaters, god killers, reality warpers. Little bastards capable of upsetting the natural order with a passing thought if given the space to do so. ❞ his lips quirked in amusement at how dramatic it all sounded. It sounded like a fairytale or some plot device to a young adult novel that perhaps should have never made it to bookshelves. But, as it were, it was the truth of things.

❝ All unfounded and unconfirmed, mind you. It could be bullshit, frankly. One would hope it to be. They kill most of us as infants and so there's no real proof of any of these capabilities. But you must understand my hesitance to entertain the idea of what you're presenting given the fact it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. ❞

He moved to reach for the blazer that hung on the doorknob and slipped it on.

❝ I must adhere to the current rules of the universe. I need to have some grounding belief in a presented reality. Because if I am allowed to believe the definition of such is loose and up to interpretation... if I am allowed to make my own rules, who is to say what might happen? Slipping into some abyss is a far better outcome than running the risk of confirming anything I've been told. Wouldn't you agree? ❞

A gesture then to a box nearby. ❝ Can you hand me those cufflinks, please? ❞

[mo-rosemary]

Cantarella Companion Quest 10/10 [MAJOR SPOILERS]

I'm going to list down the points that I loved about the main story quest and Cantarella's companion quest! This also involves how I interpreted some of the themes and symbols that stuck with me. Major spoilers up ahead, so I HIGHLY encourage you to finish both before you read this. Going in blind will also make you appreciate both stories more I'm sure! Posted this first on Reddit!

On to the bullet list!

Terrific story.

It hooked us in with a cryptic riddle that started off as some indecipherable fairytale that later turned out to be clues for a more tragic tale.

Got a glimpse of the Fisalia's dark history surrounding the Divine Trials, which greatly supplemented some of the loose threads in the main story quest. Breathtaking visuals

I loved Egla Town's Halloween vibe! It was a cute mix of spooky and warm. The dramatic vendors who gave us the riddles added some cheese to it that made the early segment charming and fun. It was a great way to ease us into the dark turn the story would take later on.

The Sea of Ghosts sonoro sphere was equal parts stunning and oppressive, but never dull nor suffocating. It was vibrant yet somber, and held a sense of danger that was present at every turn. Excellent exploration of themes and use of symbolism

Poison being the bedrock of the Fisalias' legacy as the parallel to their duty of withstanding the Threnodian's "poisonous" whispers.

The Fisalia's deep-sea motif. It shows their "allegiance" to the Leviathan and creates the sense of mystery and unease that come from the fear of the deep—the unknown, the dangers lurking in the aquatic world, the semi-paralysis of thrashing through the waters. It also brings to mind the picture of how deeply entangled the Fisalias are in the truth behind the history of Rinascita and its faith. The waves on the surface are but a glimpse of the thrashing currents and all-seeing abyss waiting beneath.

The contradictions within Cantarella herself. She is the matriarch of a family of poison makers, yet she has instead endeavored to create cures and medicine out of poisonous plants. The Sentinel's chosen resonator, yet she chose to return Their power and give it away to Fleurdelys to give her a fighting chance against the Threnodian. She is a leader who chose to fight the Threnodian's deceit with illusions of her own to rally the truth she believes in: To free her family from this brutal responsibility and the cycle of death and torture that have plagued them for centuries. Steeped in her family's brutal past, yet eyes geared towards the future, she is the perfect person to forge the dangerous path ahead towards freedom. The Defier in every sense of the word.

Themes of trauma and innocence

There are tons of it, but I'm only going to involve what stuck with me.

Innocence as portrayed by fairytale books you'd see in some of the rooms. In the game, the process of returning them to their respective bookshelves feels mournful, like a process of giving tribute. The memories they held filled Cantarella with pain, yet those stolen moments of fantasy and laughter with the other candidates were also fond memories. Either way, they are to be tucked back into the shelf as they are things of the past, finished, but never forgotten.

The door as a wound. According to Cantarella, the maiden candidates formed a friendship with one another despite being direct competitors, and agreed on secret codes to communicate amidst prying eyes. A special sequence of knocks on the door was one such code, and we used this to open the door when it first appeared, It's a common theme in horror games for a door of great significance leading to greater, more personal horrors. This door is not only significant to Cantarella, but also to the other girls who sought for friendship and comfort, much like herself. The door appeared in each room where the fantasy books laid, and you have the option to read through them, hear Cantarella's thoughts, and return them to their respective bookshelves, before interacting through the door and going through it. The entire sequence felt a process of mending trauma by re-opening the wound and cleaning up the painful memories that were messily stowed away.

Side note about healing: Revisiting long-buried pains, especially at that magnitude, and amplified even more by the frequencies of shared pain in the sonoro sphere, was a monumental task that even wore away at Rover. Yet the depth of their involvement made even the door familiar with Rover and Cantarella, and pulled them deeper inside notwithstanding. It may have been subtle, but I like how the story lightly touched on the idea that healing could be a tedious process because it requires looking deep into the shadows of our past and selves and cleaning, unknotting, or beating through the muck of unpleasant memories, regret, and shame. Psychological housekeeping. Just like what Cantarella and Rover did.

The robots in tutus symbolizing the "performers" or the Fisalia maiden candidates. All the candidates were only young girls who were forced to participate in the brutal competition of the Divine Trials. The slightly singed white tutus stained with red at the hem and turning completely blood-red down to the shoes give the impression of wading through crimson waters, deep enough only to reach up to the hems of their tutus, yet deep enough to have to exert force to wade through. This is a heavy-handed metaphor of the Divine Trials eating away at their innocence as the trials grow more dangerous and cutthroat. And with how the mechanical dolls moved in jolty motions, this could also be a twisted depiction of bodies convulsing in pain as they suffer from the effects of the poison they are required to feed one another.

Yet therein also lies a picture of resistance. The image of the wearer wading through the waters and doing her best to not sully what of her clothes remains clean shows a stubborn resolve to not succumb.

The performance reveals another facet when we learn that Cantarella set up her own "performance". Using illusions, she was able to protect some of the candidates and secretly offered them a safe place in Porto-Veno when she became the matriarch.

The giant jellyfish. At the deepest part of the sonoro sphere, we saw a humongous, luminiscent jellyfish that loomed over the horizon. We could only see it from below, and it possessed no discernable humanoid features. It seemed inanimate, but its cap was an imposing dome, and its tendrils swayed and drifted, alive. It was static, but our knowledge of a jellyfish's extreme poison, and a giant one at that, informed us that we were at the mercy of this figure. I think this is the true form of the Leviathan. We've only seen representations of Leviathan and the Imperator joined together, but none of Leviathan's features besides the lower fish half of the amalgamation. But even without a face, it successfully plagued Rinascita, digging its tendrils into the country's consciousness and seeping poison into its faith and perception of the truth. This giant jellyfish is the perfect representation of Leviathan in that respect.

(There's also something to be said about Cantarella having jellyfishes, but I don't have the bandwidth for that right now)

Kurogames always excels in using game mechanics to reinforce thematic storytelling.

The themes of Past and Present are fundamental in this story. Cantarella mentioned that the Sea of Ghosts is a sonoro sphere where frequencies of the past and present collide, influenced by the Fisalias dark history. With a lantern we obtained upon entering the Sonoro sphere, we can switch between the past and present dimensions to fight enemies, solve puzzles, and move forward in the story. A very apt mechanic! Traversing between the past and the present allowed Cantarella and Rover to unravel the frequencies that "haunt" Porto-Veno, and in turn prepare it for the peaceful future that Cantarella strives for herself and her family.

Main takeaway

This is certainly a top favorite among the companion quests so far. There was so much to chew on! The storytelling had a solid start, using a riddle to increase intrigue and unraveling the mystery it held. Cantarella is I believe also one of the most compelling characters they've written to date. She's a complex character filled with contradictions and is submerged in layers upon layers of intrigue, but her heart and vision shine through without fail. I love, love, love her! And her story!

[sock-kaleidoscope]

Interpretation of the Frog prince fairytale,

but the prince was turned into one of those frogs that's poisonous to the touch, and the curse takes multiple days to go into affect. Plus that progress is lost as soon as whoever kisses him leaves or dies.

He keeps falling in love, and kissing more people, only for them to die of poisoning. He becomes hardened by this. He no longer feels any romance in a kiss. There's no longer any passion. Because he knows that no matter how wonderful and selfless they are that they will die.

He resents his role as a poison to someone's heart as well as their body. He resents himself. And then after years and years of people he cared about dying for his cause. Someone makes it. They are sick when it happens. He doesn't know. The prince has long since lost that title, and he has long since forgotten his name.

He feels a rush when he transforms back. He's finally free. He tries food he likes again. He's fashioned a new outfit at the tailors. Its days later before he thinks he ought to go thank the one who finally managed to break his curse.

He goes to their home, and no one is there. He checks with the neighbors who say they're at the hospital. So he goes there, and he buys some flowers and a card on the way.

He goes to the hospital with his tacky clothes, full belly, and arms filled with gifts. He asks a nurse where the one who saved him had gone.

She tells him they're dead.

He goes to the graveyard. It's cheap. The dirt sinks into divets that collect rainwater like the ponds he used to visit. Loose newspapers mimic lily pads he used to sit on. He finds their grave, poorly carved stone and simplistic words. All it says is their name.

His flowers are wilting, and the card got lost in the wind. He sits soaked in the rain. With his cheap colourful clothing and a full belly.

He had wanted to be a prince so bad. He forgot that part of the deal was that they had to love each other. He didn't know he cared this much.

He only loved them when they were gone.

[alecbicheno]

Live brief initial ideas

We were given a live brief today from Playground Games based around the story of Hansel and Gretel. We had to get into groups and come up with a story which follows the same basic story beats in a similar fashion to the fairytale. It didn’t have to be the exact beats, it could be loosely interpreted, but I decided to keep my ideas staying close to the original, focusing on the betrayal of two protagonists by one antagonist during a reveal.

I had two ideas. One was to simply just recreate the actual story, but in Unreal Engine it would look amazing. The other was of a fantasy theme, and revolves around the two protagonists being betrayed by a new companion in a dungeon of sorts. I chose to go with this second idea to develop further and share with my group when we decide to share our ideas.