#nested analysis

[ingorohlfing]

"Resolving empirical controversies with mechanistic evidence" - Some thoughts

Recently, I came across the open access article Resolving empirical controversies with mechanistic evidence. I have some thoughts on the arguments made in the article, but first a disclaimer: This is not meant to be a disciplinary beauty contest. The article raises a valuable point: Two or more quantitative models may produce contradictory results. Depending on the research question at hand, it…

[burningcheese-merchant]

No, Merchant, feel free to complain to your hearts content. I'm certainly much meaner to ugly blue alastoroncelerbillcipherspamton from temu and every last inch of his undeserved popularity. I seethe because as an Ovenbreak player of SEVEN YEARS, none of my faves get remembered in a tweet, let alone merchandise. The dragons, who all took over five years to collectively come out, got a pin set and devsis wiped their asses with them then moved on. I waited over a YEAR for another sugar nova odyssey update to come out because xylitol nova and astronaut are my favorite cookies ever and I'm still fucking waiting 🫠 meanwhile the beasts are getting shat out every 3 months with the most rushed nonsensical recycled plotlines held together with scotch tape because making profit is what really matters here, not competent storytelling. I wouldn't even be this furious if the beasts got equal attention and spotlight but we both know that's not true hahaha 😬 they love to shove their (really badly designed) golden cow in our faces because Smilk was lab engineered to get sexyman tumblr girlies screaming their heads off while not even being 1/4th the interesting character they want you desperately think he is. JUSTICE for burning spice, mystic flour, and everyone else who will get done dirty for this boring walmart Jevil 😒

Oh my gosh 🤣🤣🤣 tell us how you REALLY feel, Anon, let it all out. It's not healthy to bottle up your emotions like that (you might want to stay anonymous though, I don't think either of us want an angry mob at your doorstep lol)

I'm anticipating a ramble (as I am wont to do) so under the cut it goes

Gonna start by saying I DO like Shadow Milk. I really do. It took me a little while for him to grow on me when he first appeared, admittedly (ESPECIALLY his voice...), but I am genuinely fond of the little blue jester man. But he's certainly not my favorite, far from it. That title belongs to Burning Spice and Burning Spice alone lol. The only reason I ever turned the English audio back on (I usually play the game in Japanese, I love hearing my fave anime characters speak lol) was so I could hear that gorgeous baritone of his... Burning Spice is everything to me. I love his design, I love his voice, I love his dialogue, I love his personality, I love him soooooo much. He's my babygirl. If Silent Salt turns out anything like the character I've constructed inside of my head, then he will share the #1 spot with Spice. I'll go ahead and say that right away

I'm upset because, like you said, it feels like he got majorly shafted while Shadow Milk gets all the praise and attention. Mystic Flour as well, poor girl, but I'm focusing on Spice just to drive the point home a bit better. He didn't even get a fucking countdown. What was his little merch thing? That weird ass candle (I thought it was a vase at first lol) and that's it. Furthermore, his story feels the least developed. There was and is SO MUCH that could have been said about him as a person as well as his dynamic/connection with Golden Cheese, that wasn't for whatever reason. Episodes 5 and 6 feel like they're missing something (and you feel what the "something" is in that brief flashback to Spice's past. There's more to what became of him than "I was bored", there HAS to be. Boredom is a symptom, not the cause. I maintain that this theory of mine has merit, and it would've been nice if they dove deeper into it than they did), you know? And I hate it. I hate that Spice is basically the forgotten middle child of the Beasts while Shadow Milk gets all the glory. Seriously, for Shadow Milk:

They changed their YT avatar to him for a while (it has ALWAYS been Gingerbrave, they never changed it once to anyone else all these years). iirc they did this on Twitter too

They dedicate an HOUR LONG commentary video to episode 7 and Shadow Milk (arguably fair, because it WAS the 4th anniversary. But even so. Did they do this for any other Beast? Any other episode? Any other anniversary?)

They give him a costume (a legendary one, at that) plus a set with his Ancient. NO OTHER Beast/Ancient pair has that, and I struggle to imagine they ever will. Do you understand what I would do to have a BS/GC costume set? DO YOU???

They make an exclusive, limited edition plushie (that caused a massive shitstorm iirc, justice for everyone that got fucked over during that and fuck scalpers)

They make a whole ass pop-up store event themed entirely around Shadow Milk and episodes 7 and 8

Why? Because he's the fan favorite lol. He's long since been the golden child of this community, and now we know he's Devsisters' golden child, too. (And they're desperate for money because they're drowning in debt. That's also probably why they released Shadow Milk on the 3rd anniversary: to drum up interest on a milestone anniversary by bringing in a beloved character. Thematically/narratively, Shadow Milk should've been released last. But that's just my opinion.)

Again, I really do like Shadow Milk. I call him "Walmart Bill Cipher" affectionately (and because he genuinely does remind me of Bill. In fact, I think Bill might've inspired SM to some degree). But it's unfortunate that other characters, the other Beasts especially, are pushed aside and ignored just so Shadow Milk can hog all the spotlight. It is with a very intense grimace that I agree that Shadow Milk is a Tumble sexyman. He fits the stereotype to a T. It would serve us all well to accept that truth. He even got added to the Tumblr sexyman wiki before it turned to flour lol. Burning Spice is... NOT a Tumblr sexyman. He is a regular old hunk. Tumblr was never in the business of liking big, beefy hunks, at least not the Tumblr I knew 10 years ago lol.

I'm also, to reference it again, just really disappointed that so little was and is done to explore the other Beast/Ancient pairs - and the fandom is guilty of this, too (not to knock the PV/SM anaylses at all! They're all fantastic and I genuinely do understand and love the deep, complex connection between them!). To go back to BS and GC, because they're my lifeblood (not just for shipping reasons I swear)... it's particularly egregious to me that THEIR dynamic wasn't given the attention and detail it deserves. They are LIFE AND DEATH, the very foundation of the world itself, things I (personally) consider significantly more important than truth and deceit because it is from life and death that all else springs forth. Truth and deceit are things you actively look for; life (abundance) and death (destruction) are just there, everywhere you look, even within yourself. You can close your eyes, ears, heart to the truth and you can learn to shun, decipher, defend against deceit; there is no escape from life nor death. None whatsoever. And so much can be done with that. So much can be done with them. Burning Spice and Golden Cheese need each other in the exact same way that Shadow Milk and Pure Vanilla need each other. They parallel each other quite a bit, too. They're so similar and so different. They could have and SHOULD HAVE had so much to say to and about each other, like what Shadow Milk and Pure Vanilla have. But that didn't happen. Didn't happen with Dark Cacao and Mystic Flour, either. All of that love and care and philosophical exploration goes to the clown and the Jesus Christ allegory. Which is FINE, I'm not saying to leave those two hanging, just... show some of that love to the beefcake and the bird, too. And Korean Batman (Cacao reminds me of Batman, I'm sorry 🤣) and Ms. Angel of Death, too. Please, man. Truth and Deceit aren't the only dichotomy that matters and is worthy of thought and discussion

(and oh my God, dude. The Ovenbreak shit. I've been playing for as long as you, and that shit is diabolical at this point. We get ONE dragon update a year, and they always leave us on the most painful cliffhanger of all time each time. (And this last one... I have many issues, but the most glaring one of all: WHERE THE FUCK IS FIRE SPIRIT??? WHY ISN'T HE IN THE STORY??? HE IS INTRINSICALLY LINKED TO PITAYA DRAGON! THEY HAVE AN UNBREAKABLE BOND BECAUSE OF THEIR DEAL THAT GRANTED HIM SOME OF PITAYA'S POWER AND SAVED HIS LIFE! HE SHOULD BE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THIS ARC! HE SHOULD BE AT THE FOREFRONT! IF PITAYA GETS HURT, HE GETS HURT! FIRE SPIRIT'S WELL-BEING IS DIRECTLY TIED TO PITAYA'S AND THE DRAGON'S VALLEY AND BOTH ARE IN SERIOUS JEOPARDY!!! Oh God I can scream about this for so long. I have a similar issue with the Red Dragon arc in CRK, WHY WASN'T FIRE SPIRIT THERE?) I LOVE the dragons, I love their relationship with each other, I love the conflict between them, even the unique bonds/quarrels between specific ones! And their storyline is picked up and dropped over and over again, left to collect dust until they feel like continuing the story. Hell, remember Gingerbrave and co.'s quest to find where that wizard compass is pointing, and to find a place for them to build a peaceful life away from the Witches? Me neither lol. Sea Fairy's great sacrifice with Sugarteara and the cursed pearl? (SF was done SO dirty in Kingdom, she's an actual character in OB and in CRK all she cares about is Moonlight, to the point that she lets an entire civilization fall to ruin because she refuses to do her fucking job) The Xylitol gang... Well, as of writing this, that's the next update... Which will give us another legendary cookie, hardly 3 months after Dreamweaver lol. Fuck Stevia Nova, I already don't give a damn. Give me more Xylitol Nova and Astronaut and that's it

I have a lot more to say (especially about BS and GC, God I could talk about them FOREVER, they're so interesting to me), but I think I've rambled enough lol. All the love for Shadow Milk, truly, but all the love and justice for Burning Spice and the other Beasts and every other character that gets ignored, too

[if-you-soul]

controversial take i . i dont think it/its seem to be soul's preferred pronouns guys . guys those terms are only used for him alongside a whole other nightmare bucket filled to the brim with dehumanization . guys . guys soul literally gets referred to as sickly, dead, dark, cold, something to be controlled and something that needs to be ruled over . guys i dont think hes coolin

[finalgirlsamwinchester]

today's thoughts before passing out: the demon blood plot reading as a metaphoric fear of miscegenation, a result of classic Western tropes told through a Horror framework.

demon blood is a boundary crossing substance, invasive and transformative. Sam violated in the crib functions on one level as a rape metaphor, but its done so through demonic blood coming in to dilute his human blood. the violation then, comes in as a literal theft of identity. his body becomes the literal battleground between two forces - the domestic world of his family vs. the invading, monstrous outsider. Azazel snatches and preys on civilised children from the crib as a means of recruiting them to his tribe army, literally corrupting them on a bodily level, claiming them from their blood families as his own. and the more demon blood Sam drinks, the less 'human' he becomes (the less of his family's blood in him). Dean's anger over Ruby also ties into Sam's sexual relationship with her, of which the blood drinking is a component. the blood drinking is especially transgressive because it echoes deep-rooted settler colonial anxieties, expressed through the language of pop culture - fears over losing one's blood, family, and identity to a savage Other.

(4.04)

(4.21)

what got me started on this line of thinking was a recent rewatch of John Ford's The Searchers (1956), a movie so ingrained in the modern American cultural mythos that nearly every first year cinema studies course makes it required viewing lmao. it's a subversive Western, concerned with exploring the porous boundary dividing white settler communities from Native American communities, the defining line between the 'civilised'/'uncivilised', the colonial subject and the savage. it was released during an era when America was grappling with undoing laws around racial segregation, and reflects those anxieties through classic American mythology.

so. Sam is a modern interpretation of Martin and Debbie from that movie, and Dean is a modern variant on its leading anti-hero, Ethan Edwards (rather John is our initial Ethan figure, but we spend most of the show with Dean, who takes on his mantle). just to emphasise the connection between the show and this movie - Star Wars heavily references it, and Kripke's always been explicit about this show's two leads as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. well, i'd argue this show definitely owes more to The Searchers than Star Wars does!

Martin is Ethan's adoptive nephew of partial Cherokee descent, made an outsider to his family, by his uncle, at the film's outset due to his blood. he joins his uncle on his revenge mission after a Comanche tribe destroys their home and steals his adoptive sister - Debbie. this mission becomes his coming-of-age journey into rugged frontier manhood, as much as it is his path towards integration into white, 'civilised' society.

the protagonist of the film is Ethan, a soldier who gets consumed by his seven year long, bloody, vengeance-fuelled quest to recover his niece. when he finds Debbie, however, to his dismay he discovers she's no longer the 'pure' innocent he remembers. upon finding out that she's married to the tribe's chief - he literally disowns her as his blood kin, and at one point, even tries to kill her. Martin becomes the one to save her from his uncle's shot and the one to convince her to return home. he later convinces Ethan to recommit to rescuing her, and he ends up doing so.

(15.17 - Sam over s4 functions as a Debbie figure, but Jack also takes up her role. Dean disowns him as Ethan disowns his niece)

over the movie, we see Ethan descend into ever increasing violence and 'wildness', grown closer to his enemy after years spent on the frontier, hunting them down. Martin gets to go home, his civilising mission completed as he marries into a white family. Ethan though, stands at the threshold in the iconic concluding shot below. he's been transformed by frontier violence to the point he no longer belongs to the domestic, civilised world. he wanders back out into the desert, alone.

(1.14)

anyways. Supernatural owes so much of its dna to the classic Western, and to this movie in particular. what The Searchers was to collective white American anxieties over desegregation in the late 50s, this show was to collective white American anxieties over multiculturalism at the new millenium, in the wake of 9/11. Sam's demon blood is a critical defining line between him and his brother, as Martin's mixed race status is the defining line between him and his uncle. 'monstrosity' on this show metaphorically stands in for savagery; one brother gets thrown out onto the frontier, a journey towards 'taming' his own nature. and another brother drifts further and further away from civilised society the longer he spends fighting at the frontier, protecting civilisation from its monsters. 'blood don't end with family' comes to a screeching halt when it addresses the prospect of monstrosity. what is demon blood standing in for on this show? what does a monster represent, truly? who gets to step over the threshold into civilised society, and what is the price of that acceptance?

[mrsmiroir]

my two cents on nosferatu (2024) is that a lot of you people are painting your own interpretations as the word of god when in reality they are just one analysis of a work of fiction among many. like not to be too nuancepilled but sometimes you can have differing interpretations and approach works from different angles and the people who disagree with you aren’t necessarily wrong (let alone morally wrong), they just have a different approach?

[spiderqueenpc]

I survived my own execution and all I got was this atypical narrative identity || A vivisection of Kozuki Oden / Yamato's otherkinity

Yamato! Everyone's favorite pseudo-Straw Hat himbo. He's a popular character, and one of the best known outside of the One Piece fanbase due to what I like to call the Bridget Effect (aka being a trans character in a popular series from Japan). There's a lot of discussion about him, and there have been many analysies written on him from a queer perspective- as there should be!

But there is something distinctly lacking in discussions of Yamato, which is any meaningful alterhuman perspective on this character who is just as alterhuman as he is queer. At most, you might see someone jokingly calling him "Yamato Odenkin" or something like that, and that's about where the willingness to engage with his identity begins and ends.

So, I would like to give Yamato a long-overdue look from this angle. But first, a couple disclaimers:

1. I am fictionkin, which is a very similar experience, but I am not factkin myself. I apologize if I have missed anything because of that.

2. I'm not gonna be getting into Factkin Discourse™ here, and I kindly ask that you follow my lead in this regard. I will be approaching Yamato's identity with the same good faith I would approach any other otherkin identity.

Take a shot every time I say "freedom" in this essay if you want to get alcohol poisoning or something lmao

0. A note on the word "kin"

Our vocabulary has been widely stolen, bastardized, and watered-down, so there's a good chance you have a huge misconception about what the word "kin" actually means. So, as a brief clarification:

To be otherkin is to be your kintype. It is to identify as it, not with it. It is a part of who we are at our core, not a game we play or a little hat we wear for fun. It isn't roleplaying, or faceclaiming, or merely "relating". In the same way queerness is broadly not a choice, the same is true of otherkinity.

Alright, back to One Piece.

1. What is the point of Yamato?

Throughout One Piece, pretty much every important character explores some distinct idea related to the core theme of freedom- what it means, what pursuing it looks like, what it's worth, etc. Yamato is no exception. His character and story are about the ways in which self-actualization and freedom are intrinsically linked, and I can hardly think of a more poignant way to deliver that message than through a character like Yamato, for whom the two are truly one and the same.

Kozuki Oden led a life of freedom, being a free spirit who did as he pleased from childhood and eventually sailing the seas as a pirate alongside the freest man in the world. Oden embodied freedom as a symbol and as a person. Yamato seeks to do the same in order to embody himself, and seeks to embody himself in order to achieve freedom.

Yamato himself stresses this connection between his identity and his conception of freedom, even lamenting that Luffy is "more Oden" than him due to Luffy living a life of both material and inner freedom. Putting a pin in this interaction, by the way.

Another core One Piece theme that Yamato has his own spin on is that of inhereted will. When Yamato's identity forms, he is inhereting Oden's will to the extent that it is truly his own will. He is an extention of Oden past death; perhaps the purest distillation of this concept that is so crucial to One Piece as a whole. More on that later.

Yamato's identity is frankly a stroke of writing genius, tailor-made for the exact point that One Piece is communicating with him. If he was only a trans man, or if his kintype was something else, his story wouldn't have the same flawless cohesion and immense impact.

Additionally, the use of an identity that is on the periphery of the periphery in real life is in and of itself is a bold and good writing choice for this. While it can (and absolutely does) lose some readers, it's worth it for the poignance it lends the message. Freedom of self-determination is for everyone, One Piece says through Yamato, not only for those who are deemed "normal" and easy to understand. (Him being non-passing also contributes to this, but that's tangential to my focus here.)

2. It's all us

There's a common misconception that otherkin of all stripes- but especially fictionkin & factkin- don't truly consider ourselves to be our kintypes. We do. It's important to understand that. But there's also, somehow, another common misconception that we completely reject our current selves, or that we "should" if we want to be "valid".

The truth is that we don't, because it's all us. The lives we lived then and the lives we live now both shape us, are both part of our person. Some things are different, some things are the same, and that's okay. It doesn't make either us less us.

Yamato reflects this wonderfully. He introduces himself as both Oden and Yamato- a kind of polyonomy you'll see in a lot of real life otherkin. He wears the exact same kind of shimenawa belt as a visual tie (pun intended) to his identity, but the rest of his style is different. He says he's Oden and that he's Kaido's son, and he's caught off-gaurd when Kaido acts like there's any contradiction between the two, because the fact that there isn't is completely self-apparent to Yamato's eyes.

I would like to circle back around to that pin now. Luffy doesn't really get it, but it's a very real feeling that Yamato's expressing there. Despite knowing that we don't need to be exactly like we were before, it can still, sometimes, cause feelings of self-consciousness or even jealousy to see someone who is more similar to your other self than you currently are. This can cause problems when handled immaturely, but there's nothing wrong about the feeling itself. It's just a feeling, and Yamato handles it pretty gracefully. It's just a sad little relatable moment that really cements Yamato's conceptualization of his kintype.

3. Language

Yamato is fully disconnected from others like himself and largely disconnected from other people in general. He's had to navigate his identity on his own. The results of this are interesting and, in my opinion, pretty realistically written.

Most notably, the language Yamato uses to refer to himself is pretty wishy-washy. Some have used this as evidence that he doesn't actually see himself as Oden, and I can definitely see why it might appear that way if you aren't all that familiar with otherkin. I don't really blame anyone, but the truth is more complicated.

This kind of fluctuation between "am" and "want to be" language is actually not terribly uncommon among otherkin. Why the imprecise language? Well, honestly, it boils down to the fact that it's a whole lot easier to say, ex., "I want to be a cat" than it is to articulate the nuances of incongruence and dysphoria, or to even fully understand those nuances within yourself to begin with.

It's not universal, and certainly as you get into the academic side of the community, you're not going to see that kind of imprecision amongst them. But for many, and particularly for those who are isolated from the community, that kind of language can be the best they have.

When we look at Yamato- a man who is without guidance and without pre-existing language to lean on- it only makes sense that the way he talks about and conceptualizes himself ends up being wildly inconsistent.

4. Present day Yamato

(Note: At time of writing, the most recent chapter is 1135, i.e. part 21 of Yamato's 'surrogate pilgramage' cover story.)

In the current cover story, Yamato is using his newfound freedom to travel the Land of Wano, and in doing so is growing into himself by following in his own old footsteps. Small note, but I like that this is reflected even in little background details, such as the crowd of women we see swooning over him, much like the Oden before. (Also, same. I would be in that crowd.)

He's also healing as Oden- honoring the will he carries in a very real way. When the original Oden left to sail the seas, Wano suffered in his absence. When Yamato saw the threat that faces Wano now, he knew he couldn't repeat that mistake. I, like many others, was very disappointed that Yamato didn't join the Straw Hats on the Thousand Sunny (and I knew it was coming! I can't imagine what it must have been like at the time.) But now, I've formed an appreciation for that decision. There's a special kind of hindsight that comes with getting to see yourself from the outside as fict/factkind do, and it's incredibly healing to be able to take that and do better. I'm happy for him, because I myself know what that feels like.

5. So... is he good representation?

Overall, I would say yes. Most depictions of otherkin are either mean-spirited or undercut by themselves or both. Yamato isn't either. He is presented as weird, but in the wonderful "yes, and?" way that so many weird characters in One Piece are. This is a story that thoroughly believes that weird is good, so there's no need for it to portray Yamato as normal in order for it to treat him with respect. And best of all, in the cover stories, we see that he is thriving as he grows into that identity further, with the choices he makes to do so also making a positive impact in general as they lead to him helping others.

He's not flawless, though- his identity is played as a little bit of a joke sometimes. But not too often- certainly not enough for me to not love him to bits.

I don't know how much Oda knows about otherkin. It could genuinely be nothing; wouldn't be the first time someone "invented" us out of thin air without knowing we do actually exist. But I will say that if that is the case, then his sheer intuition for how an identity like this manifests is crazy because everything about Yamato makes sense.

Anyway, I hope you found this interesting. Thank you very much for reading.

[the-apocalypse-is-upon-us]

Did you know; for a proper argument to be formed, it needs at least two (prepositional) sentences and a conclusion. Did you know; that an argument being 'valid' has nothing to do with it being 'correct'. Even if the prepositions or the conclusion do have some truth in them, it doesn't really matter; the conclusion just has to have a solid follow through from the prepositions. For example:

Cows are red.

Betsy is a cow.

Therefore, Betsy is red.

This argument is perfectly valid.

Of course, they may be some people that do believe that cows are red. Although, whether the cows are actually red or not doesn't affect the argument's validity, it certainly makes it easier to convince those people that it is also true. You might not be aware, but they are plenty of people that haven't actually seen a cow, and mostly rely on other people's descriptions. They could easily google about the cows actual colors, but at that point the person that told them that cows are red has given them no reason to be doubted. And so, our dear old protagonist, will continue the cycle of telling other people that cows are red, and those people will have no reason to fact check them either.

I wonder if, you, the person reading this, think cows are red as well?

Let me test it out:

Nagito Komaeda has suicidal urges.

Having suicidal urges means you're mentally ill.

Therefore, Komaeda is mentally ill.

Hmmm, maybe that was too easy. Here, another one:

Danganronpa has a lot of characters with unhealthy ideas about talent.

Nagito Komaeda is a character from Danganronpa who drools over talent, prioritises the Ultimates over his own wellbeing and had almost no criticism of them untill he found out they were Remnants.

Therefore, Komaeda has unhealthy ideas about talent.

Aahh, but of course, that was still too easy! Here, another one:

Nagito Komaeda has low self esteem.

Usually, people with low self esteem need constant reassurance and support.

Therefore, Komaeda needs constant assurance and support.

So, do you think you can tell whether the cows are red?

[bonefall]

If Brambleclaw was written like that in PO3 as an example of a "good" father, was kind of light was Squirrelflight shown in as the three's mother?

It shifts over the course of the arc. In the first two books, she's FIRMLY strict and distant. I have mostly negative feelings about it. In The Sight and Dark River, they are trying to "foreshadow" the big reveal by showing Squilf as if she's less of a mom to her kids than the "nurturing" women who birthed their own.

While she has a pretty equal mix of moments where she's being supportive or harsh when you tally them, a LOT of emphasis is put on how she doesn't seem to like being in the nursery, how her job "keeps her away" from her children, and how she's short with them when they're just being kids in public.

Even crashes this one moment where Brambleclaw is just... playing with them before a Gathering. Leafpool is also compared to Squilf often, notably more fretful or concerned for the Three. It's frustrating-- they're trying to contrast her to them.

It's Outcast that starts to really tip the scales, though. She gets about 2 harsher moments with her kids on average in Outcast and Eclipse, outweighed by LOTS of times they're having emotional scenes. The way I LIKE to read this is that Squilf is a better parent to older kids and that it just took her some time to hit that stride.

I feel like that makes a lot of sense for her as a character. She's not a nurturer, she's a negotiator. Physically active and excitable, guiding a teenager through their adolescence just comes more naturally to her.

(though it stays frustrating that they wrote such horseshit like Squilf constantly snapping at... kittens playing, mostly so Brambleclaw can look so special and perfect in comparison.)

The more cynical side of me, though? I think it struck them that The Fire Scene wouldn't be as emotionally impactful if she meant what she said to Ashfur; "Go ahead, kill them, they're not my biokids so I don't care." She has to LOVE them to feel pain at their fury. So as the books progressed they wrote waaaay less "Nasty Squilf Moments" like in Books 1 and 2. We don't even GET one in Long Shadows, until the Fire Scene itself.

And also, I think they realized that having that Fire Scene sentiment NOT be a lie, when she raised them from birth, would be super fucked up. In a bad way. I don't think even the Erins are THAT shortsighted. I'm glad they didn't.

She spends all of Sunrise wracked by guilt though, even before the Gathering Reveal. The climax of the arc is really fixated on how miserable her and Leafpool feel, and that's kinda the point. The story was building to this moment where the family crumbles apart.

[sunflower-chai]

not "pro jedi order" not "anti jedi order" but a secret third thing (realizes george lucas wrote the jedi as peacekeepers and protectors but also no jedi is perfect and some of their policies can inadvertently cause harm)

[mania-sama]

Repetition in Mondstadt (Genshin Impact Analysis)

In response to @sleepytwyla42's request for my thoughts in Old Mondstadt, I present you this: something that is not quite Old Mondstadt but kind of sort of is. If you squint. :)

One of the most common and sensible theories for Genshin Impact's main storyline is that the Traveler is going to return to Mondstadt for, essentially, Round 2 of Archon quests. This is backed namely by the fact that the Mondstadt storyline feels very unfinished, especially in comparison to the other nations. There are several mysteries left yet to unfold, with their proximity to Khaenri'ah being one and the upside-down tainted Anemo Statue of the Seven being another. However, I'd like to present a slightly different point of view on why we are probably going to be returning to Mondstadt before this game is over:

Mondstadt's theme of repetition. Yes, I think it has even Sumeru beat out on this theme. Here's why.

Everybody knows the story of Old Mondstadt and Decarabian. It's fairly straightforward: Decarabian, the god of storms, and Andrius, the north wind (god of ice and snow, if you wish to interpret it that way) get into a small war with each other during the chaotic, power-struggle time period overall known as the Archon War. Andrius covers the land now known as Mondstadt in ice and snow, making it virtually uninhabitable by humans, which causes Decarabian to gather his followers/people into a sectioned-off area. He encases his segment in protective winds, and although it does a good job of keeping out the cold, he also completely traps his people inside. They cannot escape (for the most part), he treats them terribly, hides in his tower to "watch" over them, and is overall an evil tyrant. When evil tyrants rule, revolutions tend to happen. After encouragement from a small wind sprite giving a blessing to a group of Gunnhildr's that left Decarabian's land to live in the cold, Mondstadt's people uprise and overthrow Decarabian's rule. No, we do not know where Decarabian is now. We are not quite sure where his body is or how they managed to contain such a powerful god.

Anyway, now that we have a brief summary of Old Mondstadt, it is time to move to what happens next. Decarabian's (ex) followers all leave to live in the little sprite-blessed town called Mondstadt. The wind sprite strikes up a deal with Andrius; Andrius stops terrorizing the land and gives up his title of Anemo Archon to Barbatos, and Barbatos proceeds to terraform the land to be more habitable to his newfound people. These people pack up and move to Cider Lake, which is then terraformed to keep the city strategically protected.

Now we have (New?) Mondstadt and the Anemo Archon. Here is where our repetition begins.

The Genshin Impact manga depicts two times of Mondstadt's history: one, the Era of Aristocracy, which was Venessa's early life in Mondstadt as a slave battling for her freedom. The second is Diluc and Kaeya's timeline, about 3-4 years before the main timeline events, where their father dies, they fight, and Diluc defects. For right now, we will focus on the Era of Aristocracy.

Here is this thing about aristocracy: it doesn't come out of nowhere. Generally speaking, based on actual human history, ruling clans, factions, and families tend to come from the early founders of a certain city/state/nation. They could also come from the noble classes of other cities/states/nations, and they just use their wealth, power, and status to establish dominance in whatever region they are taking over. Really, truly, the whole of Mondstadt is pretty reminiscent of French and English history.

To tie into Mondstadt: Really, truly, the whole of this nation is pretty reminiscent of French and English history. We see that Decarabian is overthrown by the people. What we don't see, at first, is that the ones leading the charge would later become the major and minor noble clans. Some of them probably already were noble families (case in point, the Gunnhildrs probably were. They most likely used some sect of their power to escape the storms and brave the Monstadt's snowy wasteland). A tyrannical ruler is never going to rule alone. They are always going to have an upper noble class that they have in their pocket to quell the common people and stomp out uprisings. You have to have friends to defeat your enemies. Or, you want to keep those wealthy who are happy, appealing to other proverb keep your friends close but your enemies closer. The noble class can kill you. Typically, peasants cannot.

Until the peasants do kill you. In this case, they probably still did have help from some rich people. See: the likelihood of the Gunnhildr family being high nobles. MOVING ON.

So three big clans established Mondstadt on Cider Lake with the blessing of freedom and independence from Barbatos: Gunnhildr, Lawrence, and Imunlaukr (which seems to have faded into obscurity in modern Mondstadt, but I digress). You may be thinking: what about Ragnvindr? I imagine they were a noble class at this time, along with many unnamed ones; they were likely lesser nobles and weren't those founding Mondstadt like the big three.

What do nobles do when they gain power? That's right. THEY BECOME TRYANTS! Even though Barbatos gave them their independence to escape tyranny, rich people did what rich people do best and they became rulers and tyrants. This is where we see the first major repetition come into play in Mondstadt's history. Even though they all knew of Decarabian's tyranny like the back of their hand, history still repeated itself. Like it always doomed to do.

And like Venti is always doomed to do, he wakes from his slumber to give his blessing to his people to overthrow the tyrannical Lawrence clan. As for the other clans, people tend to herald the Gunnhildr clan mainly for being awesome and helping the people, but they were still a clan that did NOTHING until the common people revolted. Which is also pretty common in real-life history. Rich clans tend to only cash in when it seems profitable, and in order to not be exiled with the "bad guys", even though their inaction was still aiding the tyranny (proverb: "Evil persists when good people do nothing"),

We come to the modern day, where the clans are still evident in different ways. While the Lawrence clan and Imunlaukr clans have both lost significant power and relevance (due to their previous exile) and are more just an occasional societal nuisance, the Gunnhildr and Ragnvindr clans are still extremely prevalent in modern society. And while I am not saying that either of them is going to repeat their ancestors' mistakes any time soon (moreso Diluc than Jean, no hate to my queen though, it's just the archetype of intense, overworked protection leading to Accidental Tyranny), it still shows that Mondstadt cannot let go of the scars of the past. Their aristocracy still exists, it just breathes a different air.

It seems inevitable that one day, it will be the Gunnhildr's turn to be tyrannical. It's just how this thing goes. Or, someone else is going to come in and take over to terrorize the Mondstadt citizens. I am going to use this as a shitty transition into the second repetition: Dvalin and Durin.

By the time Dvalin comes around, the Archon War is finished and done with. This also means that dragons are Not Liked by General Populous, so nobody really likes this new, innocent creature. Nobody tries to befriend it. Except for, well, Venti. Venti and Dvalin the Dragon become friends. They are ride or DIE, okay. And then the abyss strikes.

While Mondstadt's people fight a war on the ground by sending out a squadron to the apparent source of the abyssal monsters (Khaenri'ah), Venti and Dvalin fight a sky(?) war against the Khemia-dragon named Durin, who is most notable for being Evil, corrupted by the Abyss, and for terrorizing the citizens of Mondstadt. Dvalin and Venti manage to defeat Durin, but not without grave hits to their health. They both seem to follow the path of deep slumber to recover from the abyssal corrosion they suffered from the fight. And while Venti seemed to heal... Dvalin, with an immense lack of Venti's archon power, is not so lucky.

Dvalin is then woken from his slumber and his abyssal corrosion from his fight 500 years ago is used to by the Abyss to be Evil and terrorize the citizens of Mondstadt. Sound familiar? Yes, because this is the second major repetition. While it isn't the exact same circumstances, it is still similar. Proper measures were not taken to root out evil (like the Mondstadt aristocracy), and thus, evil came back with a vicious bite. Thankfully, the Traveler's ability to cure abyssal corrosion seems to have solved the biggest of these issues. Still don't know what's going on with Durin's heart, though. That's kind of. Concerning.

But on the topic of dragons, we do have another pretty important and relevant repetition, which concerns both the first and the second half of the Genshin Impact manga, and now with our favorite evil organization: the Fatui!

The Era of Aristocracy is a painful time in Mondstadt's history. It is also a point in time when Ursa the Drake was roaming around Mondstadt. For those unaware, the creature drake is essentially just a dragon/dragon-like animal. So, by accordance to our pre-established rules, Ursa was not very well liked at this point. She was also a bit of a foul creature, unlike Dvalin, who was pretty innocent and unassuming at his point of roaming Teyvat originally.

Vanessa and her tribe run into Ursa the Drake while traveling in the Mondstadt wilderness, which is what leads to their seeking of refugee, capture, and subsequent enslavement by the high nobles in Mondstadt on Cider Lake. They do eventually have to fight Ursa the Drake again in the gladiator-type arena while attempting to win their freedom, and while they think they've killed Ursa, they've merely driven her away.

Which is why she comes back, 1000 years later. Ursa the Drake serves as sort of our third and fourth repetition. For now, I will just focus on the third major repetition: the mere fact of her return. Just like always, something that is not properly vanquished will come back to bite in Mondstadt. And so it does: Ursa does not merely terrorize a group of traveling tribesmen. Ursa indirectly kills Crepus, Diluc's father, which leads to a massive political scandal. Eroch, a high-ranking member of the Knights of Favonius, tries first to make Diluc take credit for killing Ursa (at this point in time, Ursa had only been driven away again, not killed). Eroch suggests this because Diluc, newly 18 - quite literally, it was his birthday - and promoted in the Knights, was the only one there at the time of Crepus' death. Diluc, enraged by the suggestion, promptly quits the Knights and flees Mondstadt entirely after a fight with his adopted brother, Kaeya. Eroch takes claim for the defeat, but that is quickly uprooted and dismissed.

As I've repeated, nothing that is not killed comes back. Nothing that is not defeated will bite. Ursa does not come back again, but she is killed by a Fatui Harbinger: Il Dottore, the Doctor, the Second of the Eleven Fatui Harbingers. And the big thing to understand about Dottore is that he is not a dumb man; he does not do something nice for the sake of nicety. No. This action of eliminating a major threat to Mondstadt makes Mondstadt indebted to Snezhnaya and the Fatui Harbingers.

You all have (presumably) played the Archon Quest. You know that the major point of concern for our leaders of Mondstadt is to make sure that the Fatui have no hand in eliminating Dvalin. That would put them in an incredibly horrendous position with Snezhnaya, and they could not afford it. Hence, our fourth major repetition: a dragon that terrorizes Mondstadt and leads to immense pressure from Mondstadt and the Fatui Harbingers. A problem that is not killed or defeated coming to bite them in the ass, as always.

It is also at this point that Venti makes a reappearance in Mondstadt. He wakes up again to help his people, as he always does when it is apparent their freedom is in danger. So far, this has been recorded in these instances (excluding the Archon War/and the years following. Only starting from when he first relinquished full freedom to his people): the Era of Aristocracy, the Cataclysm, and the Stormterror.

... But it really isn't Stormterror, is it? Because we know that Dvalin was never really out to kill anybody. He was being hurt and manipulated. That situation is quite unlike the Cataclysm, in which he likely also received a calling from Celestia and the other gods to, I don't know, do something??????????? So it can't just be Stormterror. Venti knows that his people's freedom is at stake.

And, well, that Abyss issue was never really resolved in Mondstadt, was it? Durin's heart is still beating, Venti's statue is corroded and upside-down, and the hilichurls and other Abyssal creatures still have strongholds and are forming true offenses against Mondstadt. And the Fatui are still, you know, around. They were never defeated. Only minorly wounded, a mere setback in their plan.

If I know anything about Mondstadt, it is that their oversights will eat them alive.

At least Barbatos is sticking around for this one.

[bleue-flora]

So… I have been obsessively rewatching streams to get as canon accurate as possible (as a perfectly sane person does… of course) and it kinda sparked a question. Clearly, Quackity’s lore is on the more scripted and edited side, so Punz’s talk with Purpled wasn’t a live impromptu and one of the things he specially highlights is “6 months” as the time frame for Dream being tortured in prison (not to mention the unspeakable and past people’s limits parts which there is no way Dream signed off on, but that’s a whole other can of worms…) We know that according to real life, Quackity tortured Dream daily for about 67 days if his last visit is the stream of making Dream write the letter (May 22nd, 2021), 75 days (from March 17th, 2021 - Quackity’s first visit stream to June 6th, 2021 - Techno’s stream where he visits Dream) if he holds up the deal to not torture Dream for a week or 82 days if he doesn’t, (we know he doesn’t get tortured while Techno is there because Dream mentions it in the podcast stream), which brings us to almost 3 months. Given this, why would Punz say 6 months? This isn’t a live stream slip up, this is scripted. They have time to verify the actual facts. So why would they say that and emphasize that point. 3 months is still a long time to be tortured daily, there’s no reason why that time frame wouldn’t be sufficient to convince Purpled of its ferocity.

One could make the argument that when Dream told Punz about it, he said 6 months because he didn’t know how long it was (which is actually what I thought at first), but Dream actually has a decent understanding of time at different points in prison so that’s not super likely. When Techno comes to visit Dream, Dream even says, he’s been there for 5 or 6 months (and that’s after Tommy’s stay and revival and stuff). We also know based on the jailbreak streams that Sam kept up the lie to Quackity that Dream escaped so even when Techno leaves it’s not like Quackity came back.

So, c!Dream knew, cc!Dream knew, cc!Quackity knew and given their attention to detail, I feel like they wouldn’t let cc!Punz get it wrong on accident. There’s no particular reason for c!Punz to lie and it’s not like an - I forgot how long let me just mention type of thing. No, this was one of the times in that talk with Purpled that he repeated himself for emphasis. So, why did he say 6 months?

[akkpipitphattana]

it’s also kind of funny that kant mentions he likes the quote because it’s about bees and he also has another bee tattoo cause like. what’s the most common thing people tell you about bees? they only sting you when provoked. guess what he’s fucking doing 💀

[deprivedofbraincellsandsleep]

I always found it somewhat annoying whenever Kevin's first response to whenever someone is injured/hurt is to ask if they can still play exy. But it makes sense that that would be the first thought kevin would have. That boy was raised on exy. He has nothing and is nothing without it. It's a natural reaction for him after being in the nest, where if the ravens didn't show up to practice, they'd be punished. I know many people get annoyed at him for always thinking of exy first even in dire situations, but it's only an appropriate response for him, he always had to be well enough to play exy.

[mynonclicheblog]

the way i loathed the choice to have colin enter his slut era in s3 only for it to now kinda be my favorite part of his character journey 😭

it's the clearest manifestation imo of what his arc has been all along. he who lives to please others but lacks a purpose of his own... colin "i am trying out a new personality" bridgerton, attempting to find something that feels like an identity... an insecure middle child searching for approval and respect, but at what cost? we see that he is ultimately unfulfilled and exhausted and disassociated from this lifestyle because being a rake IS NOT who he is. colin is soft-hearted, romantic, empathetic, sensitive, loving, led by emotion. he just wants a life filled with meaning and connection.

ironically his dip into the brothels exemplifies this about him more than anything else the show has done thus far -- it makes a point to show us how colin juxtaposes the other men of the ton, especially when he outright rejects it all in the end.

[alicesadventuresinffxiv]

What are the most popular F/F Final Fantasy XIV ships?

(*on AO3, as of October 13, 2024)

I like writing femslash, so while I was doing the FFxivWrite challenge, I had the thought: wouldn’t it be fun to try writing each of the top 10 most popular FFXIV F/F ships? 

I figured it would be a good way for me to learn to write characters I wasn’t used to, plus hopefully it would mean some of the well-liked but rarely-written pairings would get more fic for them!

But then I ran head-first into the question: what are those F/F ships? I hit some interesting challenges attempting to figure that out, so here’s a post about how I reached my answer!

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First things first: I’m using AO3 stats for this analysis, entirely because AO3 has the most robust searching and filtering tools. Trying to wrangle this kind of analysis on tumblr or twitter would be a nightmare, as much as I’d love to know the answer on those sites!

Second, let’s quickly double check my assumption that F/F ships are indeed rarepairs in this fandom.

Yep, if you’re at all familiar with @centrumlumina's work on AO3 stats (which this analysis is somewhat inspired by ^^;), this is exactly in line with general fandom trends! For reasons that I understand intellectually but not in my heart, F/F fics tend to hover at around 6% of AO3 output overall.

Interestingly, this small slice of femslash makes FFXIV more similar to large, broad fandoms like the MCU or MHA (pictured above), and less similar to other online multiplayer videogame fandoms (pictured below). You might think that given its friendly reputation, FFXIV would attract more women and/or LGBTQ+ players and therefore have a higher proportion of femslash. But nope!

(Admittedly, pitting FFXIV against the fandom that contains Arcane feels a little unfair... :P)

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So alright, with that out of the way, let’s start by doing the obvious thing. Hey AO3, what are the top 10 relationship tags when searching FFXIV on the F/F category?

[Note: Since the Warrior of Light is typically written as the author’s original character - especially in cases with multiple WoLs - I am combining the WoL/WoL and WoL/OC tags together.]

If you’ve been in FFXIV spaces for a while, you probably already guessed the #1 result! But as someone relatively new to the fandom, I was actually quite surprised. None of my previous fandoms had nearly this much focus on original characters!

Indeed, WoL/NPC ships and OC/ OC ships absolutely dwarf the numbers for any NPC/NPC ships, with the exception of the three largest M/M pairings (Aymeric/Estinien, Emet-Selch/Hythlodaeus, and Thancred/Urianger). Also, given that not everyone tags their OCs using either of the WoL or OC tags (ack! please use tags, your works get lost otherwise!)… you can always expect results for OCs to be an undercount. Woah!

Anyway, since WoL ships are so huge, I decided it made the most sense to give them their own list:

Another thing that surprised me is that male characters in FFXIV are so many times more popular than female characters that genderbent M/M pairings will show up in these F/F lists.

And… I wasn’t quite sure how to count those ships in my tallies.

On the one hand, genderbending (not to mention trans headcanoning-ing!) characters is a fun and often subversive way to approach popular ships. More power to everyone doing it!

On the other hand, part of the underlying motivation for my own writing goal was that I wanted to write pairings that fandom somewhat overlooks. 

As such, I went with a compromise: I’m including pairings with canonically male characters in my graphs (those are the pink bars), but I kept the lists going until I reached 10 pairings involving characters who are portrayed as women in the source material.

(There were no nonbinary FFXIV characters which placed on any of my lists, sadly. Apologies to Feo Ul, who is still the loveliest of branches in my heart.)

Other than that caveat, the results here aren’t too far off from my own guesses. Anecdotally, I’d seen that a lot of WoLs are self-inserts for their players, so it makes sense that typical WoL ships are with NPCs that are generally considered to be attractive by the fanbase. Correspondingly, the Reader/Character fics that are somewhat common in other fandoms don’t even rank on these lists, which might suggest WoL/NPC ships are largely fulfilling that niche.

(Something something, FFXIV is a dating sim with combat, in this essay I will…. :P)

.

Anyway, WoL ships are nice, but what I actually wanted to write were NPC/NPC ships. So let’s add a bunch more excludes to the filtering… and…

Hm. That's interesting. There's a bunch of F/F ships that I know I’ve seen fic and art for that are missing from this list!

Out of curiosity, I did a few searches specifically on these missing pairings, in case they were so rarely tagged as purely F/F (or so commonly shipped alongside a WoL ship) that trying to find them via excludes didn’t work. These were:

Alisaie/Tesleen (20 total, 13 tagged F/F)

Krile/Tataru (14 total, 7 tagged F/F)

Ysayle/Heustienne (5 total, 5 tagged F/F)

Wuk Lamat/Sphene (4 total, 4 tagged as F/F)

[Note: The first number is what I used during the writing challenge last month… which is how I ended up putting Krile/Tataru over Lucia/Hilda. Oops! But the second number is more in line with the rest of the analysis here, so I will use that going forward.]

Seems my expectations were flat-out incorrect! Of these four, only Alisaie/Tesleen makes the top ten. Meanwhile Wuk Lamat/Sphene is a pairing consisting of very new characters... so perhaps it will grow over time!

Right then, let's add Alisaie/Tesleen in, and while we're at it, let's run direct searches on all the potential candidates rather than using excludes to ensure no fics are getting needlessly thrown out.

With those adjustments in place... I reached my final top ten!

Not bad! Predictably, pairings that get more focus in canon (Gaia/Ryne and Sadu/Cirina) tend to place high, as do pairings involving Y’shtola (since she’s a very popular character overall). 

As a Lyse-enjoyer, I found Lyse getting 3/10 spots on the list to be pretty funny, as was the heavy presence of Stormblood characters! Apparently I’m not the only one who thought StB was a good expansion for lesbians. :D

There are also a few pairings here that I hadn’t ever considered before doing this analysis. But hey, that was the point of making the list! And trying to figure out the dynamics for pairings I didn’t usually ship did indeed turn out to be a fun writing exercise last month.

So what do you all think, tumblr? Did the results surprise you like they did me? Or did I overlook a pairing that really deserved to be included?

In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading this analysis!

[tenebrius-excellium]

I'm a bystander in all this, but I do wonder why you have such trouble believing that hiccups isn't some naive pacifist when in the very first film he chooses to kill the red death instead of trying to tame it? Or at least try and understand it? Like for the pacifist you think he is, that would be the very, very last option even when his loved ones are in danger, for any pacifist that would be the last step the one he didn't want to do (which he obviously did as every show/film after that shows hiccup feeling no remorse or disgust over it). And for hiccup letting his enemies walk all over him, that's most likely a self-preservation thing? For all the years of abuse and neglect he's been through, just because he's letting that happen doesn't mean he's not still thinking of ways to destroy them It's just to keep himself safe? This isn't hate or anything towards you, I like your blog, but I just think it's really part of the phenomenon that's so prevalent in fandom spaces nowadays that fanon/someone's hcs get so big they often get mistaken for canon and not a lot of people are engaging with the actual story in any way after a while, or they skim it so they don't get the depth of what's actually the truth. Again no hate obviously but I guess It's difficult for people like me to see takes like 'Hiccup is a pacifist' when everything else tells us otherwise or tells us he won't feel bad using violence and death to get what he wants or to get results when we know a real pacifist is usually a centrist and hiccup is very much not that

Heya! Hoo boy there are some misunderstandings making the rounds now oops.

My original take on this was: Og Hiccup, which means Httyd1 Hiccup, and Httyd1 Hiccup ONLY, is NOT a pacifist. Og Hiccup knows exactly what's at stake and acts accordingly. Og Hiccup is careful to extend his trust, as are the dragons he comes into contact with. And og Hiccup gives his love fully and lavishly when his trust is rewarded while simultaneously not hesitating to take out the Red Death because that dragon is clearly the source of all the pain that Berk and the other dragons have been through.

To me, every other Hiccup, especially RttE and Httyd2 Hiccup, is a pacifist. @/howtodrawyourdragon correctly opened my eyes to the fact that Rob/Dob Hiccup might not have been a pacifist after all, because that's when Berk was still characterized as tough and violent and everyone was still cooling off from the whole 'killing dragons' mindset. Enemies were also not 'misunderstood friends' yet. Like. The first enemies young Hiccup encountered were literal Outcasts. I don't remember if it was ever actually explained if the Outcasts are merely a tribe like the Berserkers, but the term Outcasts alone gave me a kind of impression that made the Berkians correct in treading with caution around them. Like. Outcasts are typically people who have failed to be integrated into society, so they have been banned to Outcast Island, no? Idk, anyway, it was full of evil-meaning thugs. There may have been a reason for Hiccup to stay vigilant.

What surprises me, through and through, to this day, is that Httyd2 Hiccup was written to be such a well-meaning pacifist. Like. Httyd1 Hiccup wasn't like that, why suddenly go there? It's like the director fumbled an arc out of his sleeve that Hiccup had to "go through" for growth, only... to me, Hiccup never needed that particular lesson. "A Chief protects his own", please, what else was the fight against the Red Death? The fights against Alvin? Hiccup had been doing that already. It was a fictional lesson to create plot for Httyd2.

Hiccup went soft in Httyd2. Artificially soft. Pacifist soft.

THAT is what I was aiming to analyze. I should have specified more.

RttE Hiccup fluctuates, but I don't want to open that can anymore.

I do not think og Hiccup is a pacifist. I think Httyd2 Hiccup was unnecessarily written as one. THAT is what surprised me. To write Hiccup as a peace-loving animal activist with a flower crown who can't understand, even after repeated warnings, how Drago might not share his starry-eyed opinion. When he had been fighting his own father on his stubbornness for at least a whole summer back in the first movie. Hiccup is not that blind, or dumb. Especially at age 20.

So I agree that the fandom milked Hiccup a bit too much for his supposed pacifism, but it's clearly a canon post-Httyd2 issue as well. Since RttE came out AFTER the second movie, the RttE writers had to somehow match Hiccup's character with what would lead up to his decisions in the second movie. That, to me, is why RttE is a bit sketchy in this regard.

It's all in good faith here, thank you for taking the time to send such a lengthy ask. You made very good points, especially considering the fact that Hiccup was an underdog who had to learn how to stand up for himself first (the 'keep head down out of self-preservation' thing). This is very true and might have made a better arc for Httyd2 imo. Telling Hiccup "babe, wake up, you're not being bullied anymore, you have actual influence now and people want you as Chief. You just gotta find the confidence to believe in yourself." Yeah.

Does that clarify things a little bit?

Cheers

Reddie