#not just perceiving spoilers on the tl

[stil-lindigo]

when worlds collide

[sarasade]

One of the most generally useful things to come out of Hbomberguy's plagiarism video and Todd in the Shadows' similar video on misinformation is how they bring transparency to the internet phenomenon of "I made up a guy to get mad at".

Seriously, I've seen people make up a lot of stupid shit on the internet over the years and it's often just a manipulative attempt to paint a group of marginalized people in a bad light.

That's the TL;DR version of this post. 

ANYWAY here is the long version

Those videos are mostly about James Somerton's plagiarism of other queer people's work. However I'd like to talk about that 20-30% of Somerton's original writing- and oh boy. It's mostly about complaining about White Straight Women and misgendering well-known trans creators such as Rebecca Sugar and calling Becky Albertalli a straight woman while it's pretty common knowledge that she was forced to out herself as bi because she received so much harassment over "being a cishet woman who appropriates LGBT+ stories".

One thing that irks me especially is how in his Killing Stalking and Gay Shipping videos Somerton brings up how straight women/ teen girl shippers exploit gay men for their personal sexual fantasies. This gets brought up several times in his videos.

Being all up and arms about Somerton being a "White Cis Gay Who Hates Women and Queer People tm" is not that useful because the kind of rhetoric he's using is extremely common in fandom and LGBT+ spaces on Tumblr, TikTok and Twitter. We really don't need to bring Somerton's identity to this since he is in no way an unique example.

It's hypocritical to make this about an individual person when I've seen A TON of posts, tweets and videos where queer people talk about these Sinister Straight Women who are supposedly out there fetishizing and exploiting queer men. It's pretty clear to me that this is just an excuse to shit on women and queer people for having any sexual interests. At worst these comments are spreading misinformation about BL, a form of media that has been excessively studied by both Asian feminists and Asian queer women.

This all sounds really familiar and I think it's good that people are calling it out as what it is: misogyny and transphobia. I'd also point out the potentially racist motives behind being this hypervigilant about Asian media.

People can absolutely be misogynist regardless of gender or orientation. I really don't know why we need to create some kind of made up enemy to get mad at. I actually think it's almost sinister how "anti-fujoshi" people call Slash shippers and fujoshi misogynists or claim that they have internalised misogyny while being dismissive about women's interests and creative pursuits under Japanese obscenity laws, China's censorship, book bans in American schools and various other disadvances that are part of being a queer and/or female creator.

I think we shouldn't be naive about the bad faith actors who want to turn queer people against each other. For example Fujoshi.info mentions anti-gender (TERF, GC etc) movement using this kind of rhetoric as well.

Anyway if you want to read more:

- about the false info around BL fandom fujoshi.info

-There is the scholar Thomas Baudinette who studies gay media in Japan. Here is a podcast with him and the scholar Khursten Santos

-James Welker is a BL scholar as well. Here is a podcast interview about the new international BL article collection he edited.

-I've already talked about this Youtube channel by KrisPNatz and his great Killing Stalking video that actually engages with the themes of the manhwa

- There is also HR Coleman's thesis DO NOT FEED THE FETISHIZERS: BOYS LOVE FANS RESISTANCE AND CHALLENGE OF PERCEIVED REPUTATION where she interviews 36 BL fans and actually breaks down why fetishization has become such a huge talking point in the fandom discourse. Spoilers, it's mostly about young queer people and women being worried that they will get judged and pathologized for their interest in anything sexual.

-Great podcast about Danmei and censorship with Liang Ge

[roshellow29]

Idk why but I feel the need to rant about trolls band together so here's a warning for SPOILERS.

TL;DR I'll be talking shit about major conflict parts in the movie that I wished were handled differently >:((((

Please take caution (and a deep breath) reading this because I'm very bad at making sense when I ramble ok? Ok les go

OK SO.

The movie was great, loved the songs and I enjoyed branches family shenanigans, including supportive girlfriend poppy I've been WAITING FOR THIS (ifykyk)

But here are some things that bothered me that they could've definitely done differently

1. JOHN DORYS ENTIRE CHARACTER ARC- jd is great. He's actually my favorite! He's a cringefail boyfailiure and I love him for it. In the movie, his whole thing was that he was basically an ass who didn't listen to his siblings and always pressured and bossed them around. Cool, that's established. What's not is, Why??? It's really the whole "perfect family harmony" thing I guess.

Because later in the conflict he says that it was "hard being responsible for four younger siblings" (which bitch me too were litteraly the same) and that all they needed to be was perfect. what I don't understand is why? Why the whole perfect harmony? Where did it come from? They didn't say it was a big thing or that other bands did it? Would it get them more fame? Would it mean that they're perceived as the perfect brothers or something?? Also, why wasn't the grandmother more involved with the kids?? Did she pressure him to care for his siblings because their parents weren't involved or something? That's just one thing that's not really explained to me ig 🤔

And the whole thing that bothers me with jd is that he doesn't do the cliché "branch I'm sorry I was an asshole brother, and I wanna be a better troll to you and our bros. And blah blah blah" like they skip that entire potential jd apology??? I was expecting that with a hug?? I WANTED A HUG WITH BRANCH AND JD OK. He genuinely cares about him!!! You can see it, he really does. He's just bad at communicating. Like extremely - so they skipped that and just made him go, "We'll follow ur lead branch," and that's it.😐 no apology. No proper character development. Just him going "ok yeah I'll follow u one time." LIKE HUH. (This also includes the other siblings cuz they dipped on branch the same, and none of them said sorry!!)

OH and another thing. WHY WERE CLAY AND BRUCE SUCH ASSHOLES TO JD. ESPECIALLY CLAY. like I completely get it, he was an asshole, he pressured and bossed you around, we know that. But that was 20 PLUS YEARS AGO??? Like no you don't have to hug him but damn why r yall so cold???

I'm thinking that because I'm p sure they went no contact at all after they broke up. So how r they so sure he's still the way he was before?? (I mean they were kinda right but still) like you could've been super happy and then get disappointed later when trying to practice hitting the note. It would've made more sense to me idk. Like it just bothers me that they straight up ignore him- it's mean! (But I can't be too mad I mean they all have their reasons ig 🙄)

While we're on the topic of the family, on to my next point.

2. ROSIEPUFF AND HER DEATH. I think it was handled HORRIBLY. Like the whole movie I was just like "plz don't skip over it plz don't skip over it." And then branch drops the bomb on them right (which still caught me off guard like damn) and THEYRE DUMBFOUNDED, GREAT. And then after that there's NOTHING. NOTHING!?!??!?!?!? they don't mention it they don't apologize to branch for what he went through they don't take two seconds to mourn her they're just like "wait she dead?" And then fucking move on like. Why???? they don't question how, they don't question when branch was living in solidarity for 20 years, nothing. and I'm mad as fuck because that was part of Branches entire CHARACTER ARC in the first movie!! They don't mention he was gray they don't mention he didn't sing they don't mention anything. He went through that for 20 YEARS, ALONE. and they don't mention it. I rlly hated that- like they rlly didn't care.

Anyway.

Third smaller topic that I thought was gonna happen

3. I thought clay was gonna end up going, "actually yknow what, I AM fun" and then embrace himself because hes most definitely goofy. But nah they left him trying so hard to convince himself he's serious, and tbh he just came across as branch 2.0.

Alright moving on!!

4. I'm mad they didn't include a little flashback of viva and poppy being inseparable until the escape happened. Like I know popps was an infant but at the same time troll kids talk the day they're born, so it would've been nice to see them be together at least once before they separated.

Also.

I WANNA DECK PEPPY IN THE FACE. you lost your daughter and instead of MOURNING her and spreading her memory you decided to act like she didn't EXIST. WHY. like he was obviously depressed and sad but why didn't you tell poppy stories of her when she was a kid or something? And keep her memory alive??

(And sure. There's the thing with "They weren't gonna give poppy a sister until now" but I feel like they could've at least made poppy remember a small flashback is what I'm saying.)

Idk. I just wish it was handled differently like why is peppy keeping so much shit to himself lmao.

Oh yeah and then there's just my little nitpick and it's that I wish they included the troll leaders in the wedding sequence ok they're all friends they should've been invited ok I just wanted to see them again 😭(totally not saying thus cuz world tour is my fav but I am)

Anyway, yeah! I think this is just what mainly bothers me about the movie. I just feel like the conflict was handled poorly. But either than that it's still a good watch. I like it a lot :D

If you read this far, God damn you like to read, and thanks for dealing with my stupid thoughts!

If not, that's OK lol.

[sflow-er]

Regarding your August and justice reply, I don't think you take in consideration what August wants when you say you hope he gets helps and realises he's been damaging others. Especially because he is well aware of the long lasting damages he has caused and other than being scared of being found and facing consequences, he hasn't shown to regret or be sorry for the pain and suffering he's responsible of. He's sorry his wrongdoings could cause him problems if found out.

I don't think he'll get any kind of judicial nor poetic justice. I think he'll be shown to kept in his way for the rest of his life, maybe not protected by the crown, but he won't let go of his habits not because he can't be rehabilitated. But because he doesn't want rehabilitatio. And you cannot help someone who doesn't want to be helped.

That's my favourite thing about August, actually: he is conscious of who he is and I don't believe anything can change his ways. Not even love. Opposite to Wille's journey where love changed it all.

About sullying wilmon's eventual happy ending? I think they deserve to be happy away from August's perceived toxicity but also, being away from him would be the only justice they could get.

TL;DR: I think August represents traditions and the nobility and that cannot be changed. Because they don't want to be changed. Just as August who enjoys his 'bad ways' and which make him such a compelling character to other too good characters like Simon or Wille.

I assume you're the original anon - thank you for getting back to me! EDIT: I stand corrected! Thanks for chiming in, August anon 2!

I understand your position, and I agree with parts of it. I'm going to put a cut here in case someone sees this who doesn't want to read any speculation on S3 - I wouldn't say there are any spoilers below, but I don't want to ruin anything for anyone.

The start of your text actually aligns with what I mean when I say August doesn't fully understand the gravity of his actions or regret the harm he caused to Simon. I just don't believe he understands the long-lasting damage he caused. I think August's demeanour when the damage to Simon comes up and sometimes even when talking to Wille suggests that he doesn't truly get why people are making such a big deal out of the video. He wanted to hurt Wille and Simon, he understands that he succeeded, and he understands that he betrayed Wille. However, I think there are many aspects to it that he, as an incredibly privileged and emotionally immature straight man, simply cannot understand. Such as the fact that the video will come up for the rest of Simon's life when applying to jobs and such, or that outing Wille to the world and subjecting him to homophobic hate etc. was nowhere near proportionate to Wille's humiliation of him in front of their peers. We agree that August hasn't shown much remorse. I do think it's possible he feels some genuine regret for the pain he caused Wille, who is a member of his family and someone he was meant to be loyal to, because that's the kind of damage he's been taught to consider. But he doesn't feel as much regret on a more general human decency level, especially for Simon. You are right that most of his regret is purely based on his fear of punishment, and that isn't the kind of regret that can lead to emotional growth. As to your points about August not wanting to change his ways... It's true that he hasn't wanted to so far, but I reject the idea that he couldn't still realise he needs to. The fact is that August already voiced to Sara in S2 that he felt like there was "something wrong inside his head" and that he felt like "the worst person in the world", and he clearly wasn't doing well in between Lucia and the start of their relationship. If he ends up back in that headspace in S3, after the experience of having been expected to take responsibility for the first time in his life and without the miracle solution of the crown being dangled in front of him... I do think it's still possible for him to reach a point where he finally chooses differently. Whether that's him hitting rock bottom, being forced to talk to a counsellor as part of a legal punishment, realising that the breathing exercise Sara taught him and potentially having to care for Rousseau helps him, or something else. On that note, I would also like to push back just a tiny bit on what you said about love changing everything for Wille and nothing for August. Simon's love acted as the catalyst for Wille's change, but the change only happened when the internal processes sparked by that love and his own betrayal of it had run their course. He also needed counselling to get there.

We don't know yet if Sara's love or August's betrayal of that love ends up catalysing anything in him. Not in terms of winning her back, but in terms of highlighting the contrast between her kindness and desire to hold him accountable for his failings vs. his own and his family's unkindness and lack of accountability. That remains to be seen in S3.

As you said, the alternative is for August to stick to his bad ways for the rest of his life - and as I tried to say without saying it directly, I fear his life may not be very long if he does. We've already seen him physically punishing himself for his failings, both with overexertion and not eating, so we know he is prone to self-harm. He's also addicted to the ADHD meds, just like his father was addicted to whatever it was. We know Carl Johan chose to take his own life in the face of ruin, and that August idolises him and must've been brought up with the same kind of worldview.

So, August is displaying some serious warning signs of going down the same path as his father, and unless we get at least some signs to the contrary before the credits roll on the finale, I don't think I personally can find any joy in his defeat/fall from grace. Again, I don't mean we need to see his growth in the show or that I want to see him forgiven by his victims in S3. They certainly deserve to be rid of his toxicity, and even if he does decide to change his ways, he's got a very long road ahead.

But I understand that you feel differently and place more weight on August not wanting to change! It's a very good point that he represents harmful traditions and the nobility, and any change he undergoes would also represent some kind of change to those institutions. Liking his character as the toxic relic that he's been thus far is extremely valid.

Personally, I think August realising that he needs to break free of the toxicity would be a way of 'breaking the wheel.' Either showing that these institutions can be changed after all, similar to how Wille started enacting change at Hillerska in S2 when he encouraged the first-years to rebel...or simply showing again that these institutions hurt even the people who seemingly benefit from them, and when freed, even they can grow and heal.

Please know I don't mean to invalidate your stance in any way! I think it just comes down to the types of conclusions that the show wants to leave us with.

[As a final sidebar, I have to say that I respectfully disagree about Simon and Wille being "too good characters" as you put it. I think they have some morally grey sides as well, the same as most other characters in the show, which is what makes them so very human. But that's a whole other discussion!]

Phew, this got really long... I'm not even going to attempt to summarise it but I hope it made sense. Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

[theconsciouscrow]

A Rant Consideration about Mr. Scratch and his origins (Alan Wake 2 spoilers):

I've been seeing a lot of posts on various social media about who/what Mr. Scratch is. Before AW2 i've visited the youtube channel "Gaming University", which i think it's the most complete source of information about all things Remedy related (i'll put the url to his channel in the comments), and it's been eye opening.

SO first things first, let's make something clear: Alan Wake is about psychology. Ok? Ok.

Remedy uses psychology themes through all the remedyverse. Collective Unconscious? Psychology. Archetypes? Psychology. The Hiss? Polaris? Well, not exactly psychology, but it comes from it.

Sam Lake has been using tropes and themes inspired from a especific psychoanalyst named Carl Jung (the man below). The Jungian philosophy perceives the human mind as the modeler of the world, and not just it's spectator. To Jung, inside the mind we all have a set of actors, who regulate our behavior and at the same time makes us remember (on a conscious or unconscious state) of who we really are.

One of these actors is called the "Shadow". The shadow represents our repressed desires, the corruption, the will to violence, etc. The shadow is a key factor to the process of self knowledge: the ascension in the spiral (weee) of consciousness, and is natural to all humans.

When Alan comes back to talk to Agent Estevez after the Scratch boss fight, she asks "Isn't the shadow possessing you anymore?".

The FBC files mentions the shadow multiple times. Ilmo Koskela states through the game that everyone who leaves the Dark Place "gets out unwell". The Dark Place is a place of creation indeed, but its also a realm of the mind: it feed of memories, messes with emotions, causes despersonalization, psychosis, etc.

Reuniting all that information, we can safely assume that:

Mr. Scratch is the Shadow of Alan Wake given boost and agency by the Dark Place: they ARE NOT separate entities.

It is Alan, his corrupted desire to be the best writer, to feel wanted and loved, through all means necessary. Scratch is not exactly obsessed WITH Alan, he's obsessed in giving Alan what he wants in the most fucked up part of his mind.

And let's be honest: having an eldritch variant of you throwing at your face what you really are - beyond all morality and social rules - through its actions is pretty disturbing, traumatizing even. It's natural that Alan understands Scratch as his worst enemy, he still doesn't recognizes it as a part of himself.

Saga has her shadow messed up as well, when she gets to the DP, which was also boosted by the darkness. Her shadow humiliates her as a mother, Casey's partner, and a detective, representing her worst fears. "Seems like i'm my own worst enemy.", she states.

The shadow traps her inside her mind place, since the process of giving conscious to a unconscious part of your mind is so unnatural, that they both cannot be separated. A human mind cannot survive without it's shadow.

Also, the way she'd dealt with her situation is really admiring - Saga proved to be a much more self-conscious and stable person than Alan, who stayed 13 years suffering by the hands of Scratch.

Want more proof that Scratch is a shadow? Look at his photo alongside Saga's shadow in the "Profiling" desk:

Everyone deals with their shadow on their own way

When Casey get's "possessed by Scratch", i don't think that's exactly what's happening: the Dark Presence enters Casey's mind, messing up with his Shadow, boosting his most agressive and corrupt parts of it, and since everyone is in Scratch's Story, Casey's Shadow will do what the Story mandates (world domination).

So TL;DR, Mr Scratch and Alan are the same person. The DP boosts Mr Scratch to a point where he/it becomes another personality, who takes hold of Alan's body to do it's biding. Same thing happens to everyone who gets "touched" by the darkness. Alan kinda understands this at the end of the game, when he shouts "Come on MF, COME HOME!!"

Now, like Jung said, the Shadow has the objective of reminding us who we really are deep down, and as much traumatizing that can be, is by embracing our flaws and accepting our Jungian Shadow, that we reach a state of mind the psychoanalyst calls the "Self": a perfect state of auto consciousness and knowledge, the top of the mountain in the ascension of the spiral.

Let's just hope that Alan is getting close to it.

[addison-was-here]

Before I start speed posting art I wanna talk about this

//SPOILERS//

Okay, Caleb Wittebane...

I feel like every time we get a look at him, he looks more and more gaunt and sickly.

At our first look at him in Hollow Mind, in the paintings, he looks bright eyed, young, and happy.

But then in Thanks to Them, he looks...

He looks bony, and just so gaunt. With the high cheekbones and eye bags, he looks nothing like the guy in the memories. (Again, that may be because it's lower quality, but I don't think that's the case.)

Then, with out latest look:

My guy looks like a zombie. Thin hair, sunken eyes, incredibly thin cheekbones and bony figure, and eye bags that could only top a vampire. Not to mention the tears in his shirt. Like they're from a STAB WOUND.

The closest theory I have for this is... possibly because of the individual perceiving him. The memories show him as he was. They're true. The one Hunter sees is probably this old bad guy (can't find a better word) that he's only read about in human books. Then how Belos sees him is probably from a guilty conscience, or because he's literally haunting him? Seeing him as the brother he killed. That he did this to Caleb. Belos believes that what he did was right in some way or another, but maybe deep down, he truly knows that he's the psychopath that murdered his own brother. Enough to have the knife hanging over his head. The ghost says nothing, but his gaze says quite enough, You did this. That's why Belos sees him as all the pain he's caused, because we know he's killed him over and over again. That's also why he sees the ghosts of the gaurds along with him.

TL;DR : The visions of Caleb manifests itself differenly for everyone

[jorvikzelda]

Also, I think one really weird part of SSO marketing themselves as a "girls' game" and sticking to that really really hard is their rock hard refusal to let the player character be a boy.

TL;DR because this got long: It is not progressive to, in a game about horse riding (a very stereotypically girly hobby), exclude boys.

(Spoilers for Saving Concorde and the Light Ride, but only in the first paragraph.)

We all know SSO's decision to only allow for girl player characters isn't about being Aideen reborn or the game being about sisterhood or only women being Soul Riders. Had that been the only problem, it would've been solved the second Rhiannon explained how Concorde could've been reborn as a mare - I quote, "A soul is not defined by the gender it's born into".

I absolutely do not mean to through this post make it seem like boys' inclusion in SSO is a priority over gender equality in gaming, and obviously I understand that women and girls have historically been excluded from gaming and have not had games catered to them. However, a) (as other people have pointed out) that isn't even NEARLY as much the case today as it was 10-15 years ago. b) I would honestly argue that not allowing the player character to be any other gender than a girl in SSO furthers that inequality. Also, this post doesn't even really touch on the full consequences of not having truly diverse body shape options and some variety of pronoun customization in a game that's "for girls", but in short: if you exclude all non-girls, you also cannot include all girls.

I've seen the (mostly community, to be fair) argument that "boy characters would lead to more problems with romancing", and that's bullshit. People already do that. Start reporting the daily weddings happening in Silverglade if you're seriously concerned about that.

I've seen SSO's argument that "in many games, girls are forced to play as boys", and I would really buy that argument if this was a single-player game with a premade player character, but do you know what games never ever do that except for SSO? Massive-multiplayer online games. That's right: that thing SSO is (or at least calls itself, but that's a topic for another post).

I've seen SSO's argument that boys can play Star Stable, they can play with the girl avatar just fine, but do you know which demographic of children interested in horses isn't going to look at SSO's website and go, "oh, that's all right, I'll play as a girl and it'll be fine and fun!"? That's right: preteen boys.

That's where we get to the next part of this conundrum: there are horses involved. Yeah, you know, that hobby that boys have never been shamed or bullied for partaking in! /sarcasm, obviously. If a boy is interested enough in horses to want to play a video game centered around them, it is more than likely he's been mocked and more than likely that mocking included insults aimed at his perceived femininity for partaking in equestrian sport and/or insulting him for enjoying a "girly" hobby. No 12 year old boy, especially not if he is being bullied a little bit, is going to look at SSO's character creation screen and go, "Oh, what a great feminist initiative! I feel just fine and dandy leaning into the perceived traits that I am being mocked for".

Horse riding is not traditionally seen as a "boys' hobby", and SSE is only furthering that perspective by actively choosing time and time again to not allow SSO's player characters to have physically masculine attributes or for SSO's players to choose their pronouns in game.

It's weird. I don't understand why they're doing it.

Part of me earnestly suspects it's a coding limitation: if SSE wanted to properly include non-girls in SSO, they would have to work for an amount of time ranging from many months to several years to change the way quest text and pronouns work.

I never truly expected them to care about true inclusivity enough to do that. I shouldn't be disappointed. It's easier to keep up the image of this being a grand feminist mission than to say, we would like to do this but our code is flawed and it would take so long and it's just. not. important. enough.

[bentosandbox]

More sporadic Lone Trail ramblings/TLs

prev one here this time more about the saria/kirsten/mumu trio and fanservice and the CGs in general spoiler warning etc etc

1

(From 4-END) Silence asks Saria if she's incapable of standing against Rhine Lab because deep inside she's the same as them and when she finally answers she's like

......I'm sorry, Silence. I did think about it thoroughly, but I can't give you a definitive answer. If Kirsten's experiment does touch a law that should not have been, then I will stop her, just like all the mistakes Rhine Lab has committed over the years-- they ought to be corrected, for I have always believed, the more power one holds, the less they should act recklessly. But if I were to go back in time, to the moment where Kirsten and I first met, when everything had yet to transpire...I would not have stopped her then, nor the birth of Rhine Lab. Yes, even if I knew that Rhine Lab would create this many Catastrophes, even if I could have predicted that Kirsten, Parvis and Ferdinand would eventually grow out of control-- I would still have stood together with them as I did.

(From 5-END) Mumu:

Did you know? Back then, Saria and I even picked out Kirsten's clothes. Yup, Saria cares about fashion more than she does! (Control truly only has 1[or 2 lol] things in her brain)

Yara (HR and the one responsible for Silence2's outfit) is basically kind of a parent figure to Kirsten 🥹 (so I guess they're a parallel to Silence and Iffy...)

uhm what else. the 3 of them used to go stargazing together and in a flashback mumu picks up a (shiny) rock

Mumu: Kirsten, see that rock on the ground? What does it look like? Kirsten: ...... Mumu: It's like Saria, right? It's so hard(like, firm) and yet it shines so 'perfectly'! Kirsten: ...Like the stars.

idk how global is going to do this part but in CN (and in JP?) Rhine Lab is literally 'Rhine Life' and mumu asks if Kirsten really wants to name it that instead of something like 'Rhine Physics' since she 'just wants to fly to the sky' and she says no, RL is good, because

I want to know what exactly are the stars we see. I want to know what lies beyond the barrier wrapping around us. I want to know...to see just what kind of land do we live in, if I can really take a look while standing among the stars.......Most of the answers I want are about 'us'.

oh one last one quote out of context for you fic writers Saria (to mumu): You're the same as always. The moment you get a little nervous, you forget just how frail your body is.

2

Love the idea of mumu being doc's bestie/oomfie but her and hol's lines/whatever else have irreparably damaged the AK ecosystem fr tbqhwyf and i thought skadol was bad lol. Now we'll have triple the NTR jokes great amazing wonderful (i launch myself into space)

'But its rationalized they're all the last of their kind!!!!' Justification doesn't fucking matter the damage has been done to their (perceived) characters i want my insane morally fucked up scientists not some generic lonely gf that steals the mc from other girls or some harem bullshit forgot what the term was and i dont want to know

Imagine getting a generic ass cg of 'pov mumu is so sad and helpless and needs your help to rescue her!!' (this happens after and not getting one for the extremely kino saria and mumu fight where you find out more about just how inter-connected the 3 of them were (are…?) and saria is first overwhelmed by all the water and she remarks how shes has never seen water(from mm) this turbulent before but within the waves she cant find the elf and all she finds is are sad eyes and tears…I can only feel pity for Mumu fans who don't give a damn about shipping themselves for her. speaking of CGs...

3

AK is clearly inspired and references a lot of IRL media and it shows with their graphic design work (UI, motion graphics etc) here's a link to a Lone Trail analysis but....for some reason the story CGs are quite bereft of the same energy (dare i say passion even lol) imo

ofc CGs are to immerse you in the story etc etc and they're really pretty but

how immersive is a fucking practically copypasted photobashed kirsten (the CG is very beautiful otherwise I love aZling4's rendering style sm.. probably my second favourite CG after the depressing 2nd lobby one you get post-ST4 where......shes also in the same pose.........motherfuckers)

Like man could you not have posed him any other way than hand in pocket with average cosplayer photoshoot lighting

this CG of hol almost getting rekt by saria is pretty weak imo that grip is non-existent nothing much to say (atm) about hol but that i love fanart where she looks/acts like a freak instead of (90% of fanart)

saria literally just fell from almost space back to earth and she looks almost unscathed lol mumu's water can't possibly be that rejuvenating

Maybe it's meant to be kind of incomprehensible but uh when the story went tonight the truth is finally glimpsed by humans for the first time or something I was like ....what is even happening in this picture lol

idk like doing partitioned CGs like how limbus does it would be so good tbh sometimes all they just show is a face and its like ? all that space? I'm guessing the artists have to do the concept/compositions themselves and some just have fresher ideas than others or time constraints etc basically i would just love to see CGs that are references to kino movie shots or something, they love movies so much right??? what about some good cinematography????

Dont want to sound like im flexing my useless veterans card or whatever but like. im a day 0 fan, i played their OBT, i started my acc on day 1, i remember being so excited about this game being so different from the other mobages, i didn't like how GFL was becoming way way more fanservicey then so AK was like a literal noah's ark with a whole bunch of artists ive revered from my touhou days, and now seeing it (inevitably!) slide towards GFL and the average mobage has me like 'well im glad limbus exists they let their women wear pants and be irredeemably insane(looking at you talulah 🥲)'

regardless of all that complaining this might beat italiano perros for favourite event because i was one of those kids with a space phase and something about the trio's dynamic.... (brain chugging) something about water unable to move unshakeable earth (but it can soften though...) that in turn can never reach the sky you know you know just like how a tiger can never be on the same level as a dragon 'real' animal vs mythical

[fauzhee10069]

TGCF Thought: My Difficulty in shipping BEEFLEAF

!!Major spoiler for non-novel reader!! TL;DR available at the bottom of the post.

⚠️ Warning!! for beefleaf shippers who do not wish to read any negative thought about this ship, just ignore my post. Believe in your ability to scroll down!

Asking to remove the tags will automatically referred to this post. 

Clicking (...) -> block saves you more time than typing a complain in my ask box.

Beefleaf is a highly popular fan-ship besides fengqing and when I’m not actively hate or against it (as I don’t like gatekeeping), there are several factors that make it difficult for me to accept them as a pairing and these factors are greatly influenced by the canon material itself.

Initially, Shi Qingxuan and He Xuan were besties, this notion made fans’ natural attraction to take their relationship further as a pairing. The canon source implies that them being besties is perceived more from Shi Qingxuan's point of view.

He Xuan's initial motivation for infiltrating Heavenly Court was to investigate the cause of his tragic fate. Later, after he found the source/cause, he was getting closer to Shi Qingxuan on his mission of revenge.

Over the course of their relationship as besties, it is a feint on He Xuan’s behalf. MXTX goes even further that she told us: He Xuan has great talent on acting (Yin Yu’s flashback and iirc interview).

Flashforward to Black Water arc, He Xuan’s main target for his revenge is Shi Wudu because he is the active player. The revelation greatly shock Shi Qingxuan who was greatly unaware of this. Even more regretfully, He Xuan never expected Shi Qingxuan's innocence. So while he was acting as his bestie, He Xuan had been harboring the same hatred for both brothers.

To the point that he wished Shi Qingxuan's innocence is a lie (“tell me this is not true!!”), this becomes a great dilemma for He Xuan. Until several times he refused to believe that Shi Qingxuan did not know anything about this switching fate.

So doesn't that mean He Xuan loves Shi Qingxuan?

Not necessarily, because you don’t have to be romantically in love for having moral standards not to condemn innocent people.

Let's put ourselves on He Xuan’s shoes; for decades (hundreds of years in their case) you actively pretended to be his best friend while thinking of getting revenge on him one day. You have harbored and nurtured such feelings for years, is it easy to just let them go?

Oh, you’re innocent? Then I forgive you (understandably, have a nice day)

If you think so, then you are underestimating He Xuan's feelings, pains and what he has been through all these years.

Now, moving on Shi Qingxuan; for someone you trust as bestfriend and suddenly he frankly reveals his secret that all this time he has held grudges and hates you. Even though deep down you know you're innocent, you will still feel hurt, confused, and blame yourself.

Thinking him as your trusted friend for all the time who suddenly says that "I actually hate you"/”we’re not friends” is a shocking moment for anyone (which also happened to Xie Lian & Mu Qing in the 33 gods & auspicious land flashback).

The conflict in the Black Water arc is very deep:

Shi Wudu doesn't want punishment to befall his brother because he knows that he is innocent.

Shi Qingxuan also felt guilty for He Xuan's suffering even though he just knows it at that time, because it was undeniable that his fortune had belonged to someone else.

He Xuan refuses to believe that Shi Qingxuan is innocent, as he has always harbored hatred for the two of them and used to watching Shi Qingxuan enjoying the life and fortune that rightfully belong to He Xuan all along.

So the conclusion of this conflict is; He Xuan killed Shi Wudu and abandoned Shi Qingxuan.

Yeah, beefleaf shippers, you can’t get He Xuan to just forgive Shi Qingxuan all together and let them be the new pair of Water-Wind masters or Earth-Wind masters.

He Xuan still stripped Shi Qingxuan’s divinity and abandoneddisgraced him as beggar as he wants Shi Qingxuan to feel the suffering that he went through before.

And Shi Qingxuan (who even though you repeatedly said he is innocent and don’t deserves it) willingly accepts his new fate.

Another MXTX’s interview even said that Shi Qingxuan doesn't want his damaged limbs to be restored (which of course really saddens me as I love Shi Qingxuan as a character too but), this further strengthens that Shi Qingxuan feels guilty and does not deserve his fortune and divinity and he accepts the loss of them which were not his in the first place.

We may disagree with this outcome, but this is what those two characters (beefleaf) decided.

Now these two canon breakdowns that:

He Xuan is straight since he had female fiancée at some point in the past.

Albeit his godhood allowed him to be genderfluid, Shi Qingxuan is more comfortable as a man than woman as we can see during Paradise Manor infiltration arc, he switched back into his male form despite still dressed up as a maid and he would be more powerful in female form because in this timeline he was still active as the wind master (not losing his godhood yet).

The problem of ‘beefleaf’ portrayal

As I said at the beginning that I don't like gatekeeping, I also don't necessarily dislike beefleaf as a pairing.

But so far I'm having a hard time liking this couple due to their portrayal of most of the fans which is mostly uhm… problematic.

Most fans like to belittle He Xuan’s revenge and put He Xuan feelings & sufferings aside.

They progress that during He Xuan's act of being Shi Qingxuan's best friend, He Xuan has fallen in love with Shi Qingxuan.

They made He Xuan abandon his revenge journey just like that.

Bearing in mind that He Xuan's revenge is not merely to relieve his anger, but also as an act of filial piety to his family who had also become victims of fate switching carried out by Shi Wudu.

That is the meaning of the scene where He Xuan brings Shi Wudu's head to his family's urns as an offering, in Black Water arc.

The Black Water arc generally still happens with Shi Wudu’s still paying for his sin, but as for Shi Qingxuan, beefleaf shippers are back on the route: “oh, you’re innocent? Then I forgive you” aka. understandably, have a nice day.

No, it doesn’t work like that.

What make He Xuan forgive Shi Qingxuan so easily just because he supposedly falls in love with him?

Shippers might put the revelation of Shi Qingxuan’s innocence early, before the Black Water arc was supposed to happen, so that He Xuan can forgive Shi Qingxuan much early.

Worse that he just falls in love without knowing Shi Qingxuan’s innocence first.

But this creates further problems when He Xuan has to punish Shi Wudu, Shi Qingxuan's beloved older brother.

“I love you, I forgive you, but I have to kill your brother.” You expect that Shi Qingxuan will just nod off?

Okay maybe not kill him but… natural reaction from Shi Qingxuan would be begging for forgiveness, or at least leniency on his brother.

Or worse, wishing that He Xuan to just abandon his revenge, which again, you belittle his pain.

You can't just simply choose: your lover or your dearest sibling? This will put Shi Qingxuan in a great dilemma. Which might be good for a drama, but very complicate to make it a happy ending.

Most stories like this actually end in tragedy.

Another take is by having Shi Qingxuan and Shi Wudu embroiled in family quarrel, which generally ends with Shi Wudu ready to take the punishment. However it generally also ends with He Xuan granting leniency.

“Well, he needs to pay for his sin, but I won’t kill him” like a husband comforting his distressed wife.

But for God’s sake, this is about He Xuan!! Not Shi Qingxuan!

He Xuan is the one who has the right to determine for himself how he will resolve his conflict with Shi Wudu, how much Shi Wudu will pay for his deed, he is the one who has suffered all this time, he is the main victim of this goddamn fate switching!!

And again, you belittle He Xuan’s suffering, of him losing his fortune, of him losing his divinity, of him losing his family!

Even worst that some fans babytrapping him and Shi Qingxuan!!

Yeah, they’re having baby, so He Xuan is not going to abandon Shi Qingxuan (and their unborn child) just like that (as in the canon).

“I have to take care of them, I can’t fail them/let them down, let's put aside this grudge for a moment for their sake…”

You belittle the tragedy of Black Water arc MXTX carefully made.

TL;DR beefleaf portrayals are mostly hardly believable, that’s what makes me hard to be convinced with their love story.

How can ‘beefleaf’ work better?

Let Black Water arc happens as in canon.

Therefore you value and acknowledge He Xuan’s past, his pain and his journey of revenge as it is.

And leave Shi Qingxuan with his current state post Black Water arc.

Therefore you respect his decision and acceptance.

Their romance does not happen in canon.

Doesn’t mean that their romance couldn't happen post-canon.

Their progress can be started from the post-ending. He Xuan has finished his revenge, has started to extinguish his hatred, has started to move on, to make peace with the past.

After his heart calmed down, make it a moment where his heart starts to ache for Shi Qingxuan, wondering what he is doing, thinking back whether they could start over.

As for Shi Qingxuan, it's very likely that he wants to avoid He Xuan at the moment. No matter how innocent he is, he had lived a life that was He Xuan's right, so his guilt won't just go away, he would be uncomfortable to face He Xuan.

This would be possible if it is He Xuan who opened his heart first. In the moment of their first meeting post Black Water arc, let Shi Qingxuan know that He Xuan has made peace with his past, that he is ready to move on, that he forgives Shi Qingxuan, offering Shi Qingxuan to let’s start over once again.

Let it happens slow, slow burn is beautiful.

Perhaps, Shi Qingxuan is ultimately willing to get his limbs restored.

And no babytrapping for God’s sake, let that happens after they truly reconcile.

Because that's the only thing I can see how beefleaf truly works.

So TL;DR you're free to ship beefleaf, but please make their progress more believable. Don't ditch/simplify the Black Water arc. Understand He Xuan's character & situation better. Don't underestimate his problem just for the sake of fluffiness. I'm looking forward for beefleaf content post-canon without excluding the after effect of Black Water arc and have them learn to cope it.

THE END

PS: If you still want Shi Wudu to somehow survive, do it.

But think about how to do it without putting aside He Xuan's pains and suffering as the main victim of his fate switching.

PPS: I’ll give you a free pass for ignoring Black Water arc if you write modern AU beefleaf.

[blizzardrush]

( Hey everyone! Since Sons of Theseus is basically a fic, I wanted to make an author's notes sort of post explaining some of the things going on in it.

Directly under the cut will be a TL;DR so you can get up to speed with my muses' current main verses without reading SoT, though I'd appreciate if you did. Spoiler alert!

Anyway, let's get to it! )

Too Long; Didn't Read:

Bryan: After being trapped in a false reality for over a year, Fury had difficulty grasping if he was actually free of his perfect dream or still stuck. He found Dragunov during the eighth King of Iron Fist Tournament. Due to their shared history, Fury made him his basis of what was real or not. Sergei died during Azazel's rebirth, causing Bryan to rampage across continental Europe, Dragunov's corpse in tow, to the HQ of the Gold Raptors. He witnessed Sergei's resurrection and went with him to the Battle of Yakushima (after all, who was gonna stop him?). He panicked when he perceived Sergei on the brink of death again and intervened in Dragunov's fight with Victor. Sergei was only enacting a ruse, however, and attacked Bryan instead. Their tussle was interrupted by Devil Kazuya. When the dust settled, Bryan realized Dragunov is just as strong as he ever was, and thus knows now for certain that he is in the real world, and it is his for the taking.

Sergei: An attempt to give a graduation gift to his younger sister was hideously misinterpreted, causing him to lose his temper and have a painful coughing fit. He was dispatched to the King of Iron Fist Tournament to represent Russia and defeated Shaheen. Part of the Coliseum collapsed during Azazel's appearance. He was crushed under rubble and killed. At the instant of his death, the Gold Raptors captured a snapshot of his being down to the quantum level and reconstructed him, minus the cancer in his lungs and throat he did not know he had. The Major, leader of the Raptors, sent him to the Battle of Yakushima, where he fought with Victor. He feigned an injury to catch the Raven off-guard, but Bryan "rescued" him before he could follow through. Outraged at the lost opportunity, Dragunov attacked Bryan instead, stabbing him in the thigh. Devil Kazuya brought the entire battle to a fiery halt. Initially despairing over what he thought was a complete failure of his mission, Sergei realized that he had almost killed Fury without much effort. If he could do that fresh from the grave, then his future potential is limitless.

𓆚 | 𓅓

Stuff I Want to Mention:

The thread's title, Sons of Theseus, refers to the Ship of Theseus thought experiment: "is something still the same thing if it has all of its original parts replaced?" Both Bryan and Dragunov go through some hefty changes through the story. Fury gets his entire perception of reality rocked, deeply disturbing him for possibly the first time in his life. Sergei gets it worse -- he is literally rebuilt from the ground up.

There are two songs embedded in SoT: Dead Man's Party by Oingo Boingo, and Silent Running by Gorillaz. Both have lyrics relevant to the story.

Dead Man's Party:

I was hit by something last night in my sleep It's a dead man's party, who could ask for more? Everybody's comin', leave your body at the door Leave your body and soul at the door

Though I mostly used this song to go with the jovial atmosphere of Bryan's dream of Hollywood stardom, in his first post, he is hit by something in his sleep: Dragunov talking. The sheer shock of this is enough to snap him out of it!

Silent Running:

Stop, 'cause you're killing me You brought me back and made me feel free Rowdy waves and your energy You pulled me fragile from the wreckage Well, I got so lost here Machine assisted, I disappear To a dream, you don't wanna hear How I got caught up in nowhere again

This song was a HUGE inspiration for SoT as a whole. These lyrics practically happen. Why?

Because Sons of Theseus is fix-it fic. imo Bryan and Dragunov have a lot of potential. Yeah, I know, I get it, T8 isn't about them. But blizzardrush and unbrydledfury are! With any luck, I gave them a compelling narrative to go along with the canon story.

Speaking of which, the entire thing, like most of my fics, was the result of brainworms. I didn't get T8 right out of the gate, and though I tried to avoid spoilers, I heard that the losers of the KoIF tournament would be killed. Since Bryan and Dragunov are villains, I assumed they would likely be goners. How was I supposed to write them if they were canonically dead? This wasn't the case, of course, but I liked the idea of actually killing one of my muses. Sergei drew the short straw because I was having trouble deciding how his character was developing. Now he has a blank slate! What a lucky guy!

I didn't want his resurrection to be an ass-pull handwaved by oh the Foundation Raptors are ~*~spooOOooky~*~ military mad science, but then I remembered there is precedent for them doing shit like this :^)

Bryan being stuck in a lotus-eater machine was the result of much brainstorming about how to keep a nearly-invincible cyborg subdued for over a year. Turns out it's easy -- you just target the ego. Fun fact: the duration his black box reports was the length of time between that post and the last post I made on unbrydled :')

Finally, there's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference Bryan makes to a "thing in Vegas". He's talking about the three-way thread between him, Dragunov, and icecoldwilliams' Nina, in which they're chasing down a lost nuclear bomb before someone sets it off. I love continuity in my RP blogs; I feel like it gives them more weight.

So there you go! That wraps up SoT. Bryan and Dragunov are officially updated and back to regular programming.

Thank you for reading! <3 )

[nirvanai]

ok i Will actually get onto the topic of how i think the narrative structure of aini works to show Ryuki’s mental health. but quick foreword i guess lmao this will probably be a bit disorganized because adhd brain go brrr. also i’ll be fair and bring up a way the narrative I think maybe could’ve changed a touch to strengthen this effect in the second half of the game, though hey if we get dlc maybe it wont be an issue-

so, the tl;dr of what I meant with my last post on the topic is essentially this: by playing the game both as Ryuki and Mizuki, we’re seeing both how Ryuki perceives the world around him, and how people perceive him as interacting with the world. and I think that what they do with this is good, both as a means of building tension, but also in terms of showing (especially on a second viewing) how his disability impacts his view of the world.

(also big spoiler warning for endgame characters and plot points.)

so despite this being a Ryuki post i’m actually gonna start with looking at things from Mizuki (Bibi)’s perspective, in specific the scene at the rooftop amusement park after the shooting incident. From Bibi’s side, we get to talk to boss- and while it’s very clear that she’s (rightfully!) angry at him over this, it’s also very clear that boss is concerned for him. When you wink psync with her, it’s pretty obvious that she does want to protect Ryuki as best she can. And while her somnium representation of events isn’t 1:1 with reality, i think it does a better job of showing how she feels. 

Bibi seems pretty worried about Ryuki too- despite the obvious conflict that’s going to come up soon between the two of them, there’s no real indication that before that she ever hated him. She’s concerned whenever he’s dissociating around him, maybe a bit unsettled but doesn’t like him pushing himself too hard.

In comparison, we look at Ryuki’s scene where boss is chewing him out, and see none of that. Boss reads only as angry, and on a first viewing of the game, it feels fairly undeserved. (Yeah, he let the figure from the cathedral get away, but its because they dropped the bridge on him! Is that really his fault?) The consequences and potential demotion feel wildly unbalanced compared to what we as players just saw, and boss reads as almost overreacting angry.

Now, obviously with the context of the full game, you know that she’s angry for pretty understandable reasons. But all of that concern you’ll see on Mizuki’s side doesn’t seem to come through, and even her wink psync somnium in that scene reads as mostly just exhausted and frustrated.

So for how this ties into Ryuki’s mental health and storytelling- in my opinion Ryuki shows very strong signs of RSD, or ‘rejection sensitive dysphoria’. It’s a common symptom in people with ADHD (and it can also be a symptom of other disorders too! I’m just most familiar with ADHD personally), and sparing a big explanation, people with RSD are generally hyper-sensitive to most forms of criticism and rejection. It’s important to note that this doesn’t necessarily even mean actual critique and rejection- even perceived “negative reactions” from people around you can set of RSD episodes when those people are actually perfectly happy with you. As a result people with adhd often tend to either procrastinate a lot or become intense people pleasers (or both), in order to delay potential judgement from peers out of fear of the feelings that comes with.

It’s also important to note that RSD responses usually aren’t just sadness or frustration with yourself- it’s a genuinely catastrophic and often times extremely distressing emotional response that can be very difficult to predict or control. You can see it in Ryuki in that scene- boss says he’s being demoted, and immediately he gets extremely upset and goes as far as to say he’d rather be a bum on the street than a disgraced cop. Tama has to calm him by reminding him its not the end of the world- which is very much how RSD episodes can often feel when you’re dealing with it.

So what I’m getting at here is this pair of scenes actually does an excellent job at demonstrating how Ryuki’s mental health impacts how he perceives the people around him. While with Bibi we see boss being concerned and pulling her weight trying to protect him, with Ryuki it can feel like she’s almost irrationally mad and practically ruining his life. By hiding the actual context of why he’s being reprimanded, it does an excellent job and portraying those feelings of catastrophizing and hurt that come along with episodes like that.

When it comes to Ryuki’s dissociative episodes and memory issues, the game starts off right from the very beginning making sure that the player is fully aware that Ryuki isn’t entirely okay. There’s trivia bits about it, characters will comment on him acting strange and suggest he get checked out at the hospital, and his file from the future section makes it very explicit that he already had problems, but they got worse due to the case. We go into things knowing that Ryuki is Not Okay, which I think is very important to how we experience him as a character.

While playing as Ryuki, we see how he experiences dissociative episodes in first person multiple times. We also get to see Tama’s repeated concern for him because of it, though- she can’t see exactly what he sees and she can’t just read his mind, so he’s alone (with the player) in this. People are often asking him if he’s okay, if he needs help, suggesting he should go see a doctor, but he brushes it off every time. To him, that’s a fair response on the subject. His expression after these moments is usually tired for a bit and then a smile to reassure Tama that he’s fine. 

In comparison, when we see him as Mizuki and as Bibi, it becomes even more clear that he’s really... not. In the second half of the game we get to see Ryuki not how he sees himself, but how people are seeing him, and his issues start to feel a lot more obvious. He’s been denying help for a long time now, and he doesn’t want to stop the investigation for treatment- he literally walks out of the hospital after being told he has a serious memory disorder.

And the comparison between how he views himself and how the Mizukis view him is an intentional one- when they point out him acting strange due to TC-PERGE, he says “is that how I looked?” in response. It’s largely used to build tension and sow some distrust in Ryuki in the second half of the game, to wonder just what the hell is going on with him, but that’s also part of why that scene in the cathedral was very cathartic to me. 

He’s been struggling due to his problems, the narrative has made sure to contrast what it felt like to be him vs how people are seeing him, but his problems do not mean he’s not worthy of compassion from the people around him. Date challenges him directly, reminding him (and the player) of something Ryuki himself said on his route- that no matter how many times he’s hit down, he just needs to keep rising back up. Telling him to climb above the debris is so important- other people can and will help, and they will cheer him on and support him, but he has to remember why he wanted this too. he has to fight for himself as well, and he does. For a character like Ryuki, who we know is very motivated by his past and the people he’s lost, being reminded that he can still have a future by someone he betrayed directly is very important.

(just adding this cap bc this dialogue makes me want to cry)

So honestly, the one thing I really wish we’d gotten out of the narrative after this moment is a scene where you play as Ryuki again. I understand why that didn’t happen from a development POV- it’d likely have made things additionally complicated, and the story very much was moving to be about Mizuki and Bibi’s situation. Which does make sense to me (even though i love Ryuki), Mizuki is the returning character, she’s the one I’d imagine the dev team would expect people to be a lot more attached to.

If anything, I truly wish we’d gotten to see Ryuki and Amame talking after her somnium, because I think those two can function as incredible foils to each other. They’ve been through similar things, and I think Ryuki could absolutely understand her pain. Ryuki says himself that he would kill the criminal who murdered his brother, if given the opportunity- and Amame is someone who was given that opportunity, and she took it. (I may make a separate post abt this sometime too, bc oh boy do i have thoughts about how the narrative could’ve explored these two more. Amame’s somnium on Ryuki’s side is absolutely loaded with painful questions for him. Uchikoshi i am begging you for a dlc-)

But back on topic, I think that having one more scene where you play as Ryuki on the true end route really could’ve further strengthened this effect. Finally getting to see things from his perspective at a point in time where he’s struggled and suffered but explicitly has the support of his friends and coworkers- I think that would’ve been a very good opportunity, and I truly do hope that may be something that could be explored further later. It would’ve put a nice bow on things to get to see his feelings on things from his perspective, knowing that it doesn’t have to be just him and Tama anymore.

Anyways if you read all of this: thank you for reading, don’t feel like you need to take any of this too seriously lol, but I’d be curious to know what other people think on the subject! I really really liked looking at how the game presents both sides of its story, and I think narratives presented out of order like AI:NI was often give potential for extremely fun storytelling. 

The compassion the game ultimately has for Ryuki made me very happy, he suffers and struggles but he continues to fight to move forwards because he is so very human. It all ties back to that core theme of love- to have compassion for himself, and for him to accept the love of the people who want to see him succeed and get better. He has problems, they aren’t going to just go away, but he deserves the support and the friendship of people around him. He can climb above it when he finally accepts that he is not alone.

[3dchoujinbag]

Comparing the JJK fan's current experience with my experience with Jojolion

From 2020 - 2021, the Jojolion fandom was a pressure cooker: fan theories and coping and criticisms were everywhere. Some were determined to keep the faith, some were proclaiming the story ruined, but we all were held hostage by our need to know how it ended, how everything payed off. Reading JJK weekly now, I feel like we are going through something similar. Spoiler-heavy observations and parallels below the cut.

TL;DR - watching, chapter-by-chapter, as a story you care about makes mistakes (whether perceived or not) near its end is maddening. Read Jojolion.

Disclaimers:

1) I very much love both series, warts and all. 2) Even while reading weekly/monthly, both series have great moments and art. It's never all doom and gloom. 3) These are feelings that are massively exacerbated by watching a story you're very invested in finish in slow motion. Jojolion's last arc works better in hindsight (warts and all), and I'm sure this arc will work much better when it's done -- think about how much hate the Culling Games got while that arc was coming out.

Heavy, HEAVY Jujutsu Kaisen and Jojolion manga Spoilers below:

Reasons fans began to dread the end of both JJK/JJL:

Major character that has been very plot-relevant getting an unsatisfying, abrupt death. You never truly shake the feeling it was intended to be a fake-out death

(Literally no one believed Jobin was dead for years) (Gojo can apply here too)

Hyped-up, fan-favorite side characters end up feeling underexplored, getting extremely quick and underwhelming deaths

Too much of the finite remaining page time and plot relevance is being given to characters with no real apparent arc or fewer interesting character dynamics

(Love both characters but its true)

Resisting the encroaching fear that long-awaited moments will never come until the story ends abruptly (JJK will most likely end abruptly). "This can't be the last arc, I've been obsessing over this unaddressed plot thread for months!"

Phases of the battle/arc feel extra long due to wait between chapters, protagonists can feel stuck in one place for months

Fan-favorite character dynamics being absent for long stretches of time (YasuGap, Most of JJK's cast lowkey)

The story frequently references its framing device, keeping the faith alive that everything has been meticulously planned

(Don't get me started on the flashforward)

All this, slowly stewing in the fanbase over months, can make fans feel trapped between faith, dread, and pessimism as the story moves at a seemingly glacial pace towards its ending.

I feel like by the time Jojolion was finally ending, everyone's nerves were so fried that we barely even wanted to discuss the ending at all. I hope we can avoid a similar collapse, but we'll see how Gege chooses to end his story. As someone deeply invested JJK's ending, I think it's been important for me to separate from the story for a bit when needed.

Again, keep in mind that I've learned to appreciate Wonder Of U, and I am still enjoying JJK quite a lot. Both series, while very different, never fail to make interesting choices in how they interact with battle manga tropes and structure. They can just be perplexing and frustrating at times, especially so close to the end.

I'm sure this is not a unique phenomena. It's basically what sports fans go through, in a way. These are just two recent examples that really stick out in my personal experience.

[herbamemoria]

HERBAMEMORIA // priv. ind. sel. ARVEN of POKEMON SCARLET / VIOLET. penned by emmy, est. 11.21.22. rules are located beneath the cut. !! spoilers are present here, but tagged. even so, please proceed at your own risk. !!

hi there. my name is emmy &&. this is my low - activity blog for arven from pokemon scarlet / violet. i’m 22, go by they / them, &&. have been into pokemon ever since i was a kid with a gameboy color. 

tl;dr don’t be a bigot. no nsfw will be present here. i perceive arven somewhere between 18 - 19 years old during the story, but please don’t be a creep towards him or i will hard block for my own comfort ty.

my discord is available for mutuals, as is my switch friend code. feel free to poke me if you want to add me in either place.

as stated above, this blog is probably going to be low - activity. i am juggling college + work, so i will get to replies whenever i have the energy. if you see me lurking on the tl or not replying to your messages, i’m not ignoring you, i’m just Tired.

don’t feel like you have to meet my length or formatting. i generally tend to try to match my partner in terms of icons, so don’t feel bad if you don’t have any, i won’t use any myself for our thread to keep it even. write how you want to &&. enjoy cooking w him <:) 

[antiqua-lugar]

geralt, jaskier and "why can't men just be friends"

spoilers for season 1 and 2 of the witcher netflix, also it's 4am and i drunk half a bottle of muscat

I have heard variations of "why can't these two male characters just be friends" for ten years now, which has now peaked into "why can't men just be friends". The idea is that shippers just don't understand how friendships work and therefore perceive everything as gay.

A common rebuttal to this argument is that very few people protest M/F ships in the same way, to the point that many works of fiction don't even bother writing a M/F romance anymore, they just smash together an attractive straight cis man and an attractive straight cis woman and then who gives a shit.

And of course, another important thing to consider is amatonormativity in our society. As a consequence, most work of fictions work under the assumption that romantic love moves the sun and other stars. Those works of fictions are the first one to "dismiss" friendship in favour of romantic love. Friends are important, but they can never be THAT important.

Paradoxically, this results in these works of fiction being the ones answering question "why can't men just be friends" with "well, because they are each other's important person, that means romantic love, because romantic love is the most important thing ever". Like you can't come into my house and ask me why Steve and Bucky can't just be friends, Steve Rogers is just giving up everything to be with him and that's why they are besties! Like with Peggy, he gives up everything to be with her and that's why they are best-- married, that's why they are married. Married for romantic love. Uh.

All of this doesn't even take in account how male friendships in media are often depicted in a way that validates them as "masculine" and "no homo" and "broes being dudes".

tl;dr: contemporary media whining about "why can't men just be friends" is quit often the same media who does not give to friendship the same importance as romantic love WHICH IS WHY I think it's important to praise The Witcher's portrayal of friendships, especially between Geralt and Jaskier, because they don't pull this shit. Jaskier is Geralt's best friend and Yennifer is the love of his life, and both relationships are equally important. On the mountain, Geralt breaks up with Yennifer and Jaskier. In season 2, both Yennifer and Jaskier are hurt and he has to apologise to both of them. Jaskier is openly allowed to grieve the loss of his best friend in the same way Yennifer grieves losing Geralt and everything it meant to her. Their own relationship is born out of the fact that they both love Geralt (and Ciri). Burn Butcher Burn is not played for laughs, as Jaskier goes terribly quiet and sad for a moment. Geralt immediately kisses Yennifer and he immediately hugs Jaskier, remaining close to both of them as if he can't believe they are there again. Geralts credits Yennifer for having changed him, but he changes for the better and he changes for the both of them - he is more open, more talkative, more expressive, he tells Jaskier that he needs him and seems willing to apologise as many times as Jaskier needs him to.

The Witcher Netflix recognizes the importance of friendship and does not wish to downplay it or erase it and it certainly does it not seem to care if there is anything "shippable" tl;dr The Witcher Netflix is not a coward and that's awesome.

btw, this is not an attack on shipping. i am not an hypocrite. this is praise for taking friendships seriously.

[germanlang]

Audiobooks in your target language

Making TL-Audiobooks work (and why you should try :)

Here's my personal experience and some audiobook-tips:

I've got an advantage comprehending my target language (dutch) because it is (to an extent) made out of my two main languages (english and german) and most of it's idioms and weirder words are quite similar to their german counterpart. This being said, I was still quite unsure of listening to an audiobook of all things, that's scary! So despite having one at the ready, it took me a while to start listening.

Here's why audiobooks are great language input:

- The focus on listening - when watching videos or shows you can help yourself by using context clues from everything that is on screen and understandable from just visual input; with audiobooks you are limited to audio input which strengthens that skill!

- You're not limited to the audio - while it might be hard to easily get your hands on it in your country, there's a good chance you can get the book in the target language and read along; this can be a crutch if you feel more comfortable simultaneously reading the words but it can also generally help identify written words with how they're spoken

- The pace is not too fast - since this isn't a podcast or a conversation between friends or a recording made on a busy street, the narrators talk slowly, emphasizing speech, mimicking some sounds (like sighing) and all this in their quiet studio - perfect for getting used to just hearing the language

-  It is interesting - An important thing about language immersion (in my opinion) is that you care because if you don't, it easily becomes a chore. The audiobooks on Spotify tend to be more interesting than the made-up pharmacy conversation you have to listen to in class.

- It's a whole, well-written story for real people - These were not made for language learners, so they're not easier or more comfortable, but instead try to tell a good story, instead of one with x amount of new vocab-words. And since it is a whole story that doesn't actively shy away from "easy" sentences in order to challenge the learner, you get all types of sentences and there OUGHT to be one that gives you enough context to go on

And here's how I listen to an audiobook:

(Spoiler alert: it's much  more time consuming than just a listen-trough)

Like I said, I was wary of staring an audiobook with only half of Duolingo done (PLUS my advantage) so I had to give myself some rules and a push:

1. Listen to at least 10min at a time, do not stop, do NOT look anything up. This maybe sounds drastic - 10min of constant input even though I might not understand a word? Yes.

If you've even considered maybe listening to an audiobook, chances are you know a couple words in the language - so you WILL understand something! Might that be only the pronouns? Maybe, but then you can already tell whose perspective the book is written in. Might you only understand every 10th sentence? Maybe, then you have a basic story-structure (1. He goes somewhere, 2-4: ???? 5: He fights a pig) which you can then fill later (Where’s the pig from? Why are they fighting?) The first listen of a 10min-sequence has the following goals: 1) Get used to the narrator 2) Hear the words being said (they're new and strange now but you will recognize them in the second listen - they will not be as strange anymore) 3) Recognize the protagonist or names involved (MAYBE gather basic information (where, who, when, what))

2. Listen to the 10min again, do not stop, do NOT look anything up. Again? Yes, sorry. You can't argue "it's boring, I know what happens already!" ;) Listen again, you will recognize things you've already understood, you might then be able to hear words you did not even perceive the first time around, and you will for sure understand one sentence or more that you didn't before. Part of that is that you've listened to 10min already. Chances are that those 10 minutes spanned two or even three chapters so you will not be stuck on the first page of a book, but you will already have heard content 5 or 10 pages in. This is your key: context through time. If in chapter 1 a kid goes to the store and you hear that a BUNCH happens and a lot of words are being said but you have no clue what was going on, you'll be quite lost if you try to just listen to it again and again. But if in chapter two you then hear that the child is now at the police station, you can listen to chapter one again and you'll recognize the signs of chapter 1 leading to chapter 2 (police officers, arguing, phone call, stealing,...)

3. Keep notes of the chapters. Wasn't this supposed to be listening input? You can keep the notes in your mothertongue or your TL, whichever you feel comfortable with (You can also mix them, using TL words in MT sentences or the other way around) I've realized that if I jot down what happens in my notebook and leave some space below, I can concentrate on the listening better because I don't have to always remember the whole story - it's written down. I also leave space for my 2nd, 3rd, 4th listen through so I can add/correct notes when I've understood more.

4. Tackle the next sequence Just like Step 1, except I advise you to also listen to the last part of the first sequence again just to get back into it. Making them overlap helps not lose track of what happened, get back into the language and helps with context!

After that it is just a matter of rinse-and-repeat. After the 3rd of 4th listen when I notice that I get most of it but that one word throws me off/is missing, I look it up! And that's a-okay. I listen to the chapters over and over again even though I'm at only 1/3rd through the whole book and I start listening from the start every once in a while - every single time I hear something I didn't hear before, I understand something I didn't understand before or I get the chance to appreciate the writing itself - all of it feels magical!

I admit, this way it takes a long-ass time to get through a book, but you WILL notice improvement and the more you listen (and listen to the same stuff over and over) the faster you will improve your listening! I promise!

I'm curretly 3h into my 8,5h book and I have listened to it 12h in total (if not more) and at this point, I go in 20-min sequences and don't listen back as much as I did at the start and - most importantly and beautifully - I'm loving the story and I am understanding it!!!!

It takes courage to start a listening-focused exercise and if you find that you are not ready yet that's okay! You can also use an audiobook as just sound-input, not to understand but to just get used to the sound of the language. Use audiobooks the way that they help you in your goals and if you need to read along - perfect, you'll hear the words AND read them, that has other great benefits!

________ For German learners: I know for a fact that Spotify has a lot of Sebastian Fitzeks books; they’re mostly thrillers/crime novels and they’re quite good! For fellow Dutch learners: One of Fitzek’s books is also available in dutch - “Geschenk (onverkort)” ;)