#not that it would have a certain theme or anything. just. a forum where I yeet babies from my regular pairs

[pestilentbrood]

does anyone here want these Guys by the way .i've had them sitting around on the AH for a while n haven't had much luck hkhsdg

(these guys are now both gone, yippie!!!)

[angelsdean]

re: /710631118215495680/sooo-funny-ladies-man-dean-winchester-takes-the?source=share

I just finished a S1 rewatch and it is CRAZY to me how much the fandom misremembers/misinterprets S1 Dean as this huge misogynist who has never so much as taken a sip of respect women bc it's just not true! We get that impression at first glance because he's flirty and talks a big game, but sooooo many of his interactions with women in S1 are like. him making one (1) flirty comment and then proceeding to empathize deeply with the girl of the week and developing genuine emotional bonds and advocating for women like... repeatedly. It's genius sleight of hand from the writers (and on a narrative level, it's a brilliant performance from Dean that Sam swallows hook line and sinker) but it's hilarious that going on 17 years since S1 finished airing people who dedicate whole blogs to SPN still buy the falsehood!

literally !!!!! god i wish i could make spnblr do a mass rewatch and then hold post episode discussion forums where we engage analytically with the text and dissect the character behaviors and motivations and deep-dive into themes and symbols and SUBTEXT. because all of dean's character esp in the early seasons is literally. subtext. what's on the surface is what we're seeing from main character sammy's pov and it's one dimensional and it's a performance and it's a mask and if you literally want to know anything about dean you HAVE to look deeper and read into the parallels often being drawn between him and the victim or monster of the week or read between the lines of what he's saying versus what he's actually doing or feeling. dean postures and overcompensates SO much. he'll flirt (often badly) and shoot charming little smirks and smiles and he'll openly check out women often in a very over the top way and then turn to sam and say something like "she's hot" and then in the next scene he'll be blushy and awkward or so so sincere and empathetic to the girl he's talking to and he gets all flustered and shy over cheek kisses and simple pecks.

And it's just so clear once you're really looking that all of his "ladies man" behaviors are just. this over the top act. It's a caricature. And sam just, takes it for face value and thinks that's all there is to his brother because he's never really questioned it. And that's not all sam's fault because the whole point is that dean is trying to hide a lot of his true self to fit into a certain image and persona, one that he thinks john would approve of, one that keeps him safe. And while Sam can't really see it, we as the audience can once you start really paying attention and peeling away at those layers. It's like, there's Dean Winchester, ladies man hunter in john's jacket. And then when you take off the jacket, that overcompensating persona that covers conceals his true self, you start to see the there's a lot more hiding underneath.

[himboskywalker]

SPEAKING of omegaverse Tag I’ve been wanting to ask you what it is about a/b/o that you like so much and are especially drawn to?im very picky for my a/b/o and you somehow always get it exactly right so I’m curious what you look for in your omegaverse content?

Oof this is a complicated question for me actually lol Keep in mind I’ve literally been reading a/b/o since it’s origin in the Supernatural fandom on LIVEJOURNAL. I read the first a/b/o fic,I was in the fandom space and on the forums when it emerged,so I have quite literally followed along with it since it’s inception,and have kept tabs on its various evolutions through the years and through the different fandoms I’ve been in.

Originally it was much more about the animal characteristics and what I was seeing was very coded into werewolf verses or other creature societies very similar. What drew me in originally was a lot of those animal instincts of dominance and submission,especially with the alpha biting to enforce submission. As everyone on here knows I really really like biting,it’s kind of intrinsically tied in with my views of eroticism,so anything that heavily features biting kink will have my full attention. It’s why I love vampire content so much,or a lot of creature content.

I also have a really strong sense of smell,and in the more creature focused a/b/o fics,and then in Teen Wolf when a/b/o was interwoven with werewolves,scent played a big part in their characteristics. I really really like scent based stuff,in real life the way a partner smells is a large part of my attraction to them,it’s usually one of the first things I notice. For a lot of people,even if they don’t realize it,scent and pheromones play an important role in attraction. I love universes where this is played up,and scents become,not just a more blatant form of attraction,but also a vehicle for characterization and even communication. In a lot of next generation a/b/o the scent component has veered away from the wolf stuff in the OG omegaverse,but it’s something I hold onto and love. Like the force in Star Wars,it offers an opportunity to me as a writer to explore an alternative form of communication and recognition between characters.

At its core a/b/o is a really fun way for me to explore dom/sub dynamics too and in fact the dom/sub universes you see in fanfic now stemmed from omegaverse. There’s something about these sexual preferences being instinctual in these verses that made my own exploration for these wants and preferences somehow safer for me to accept when I was younger. And being able to read stories where a submissive male partner isn’t mocked for wanting these things while also being able to be a strong and independent person helped me realize a lot of things about myself that I always found confusing.

And on that note when done right I thing a/b/o is a wonderfully subversive and unique way to explore gender and gender roles. When I wrote conceal me what I am it was intrinsically interwoven with trans and nonbinary themes and was a very safe way for me parse through my own emotions of how I perceive myself and how the world perceives me. In all,exploring a submissive male character with certain cis female sexual characteristics has been a decade long process of coming to terms with my own gender-fluid ness,and being very comfortable with it,when I think without certain fictional avenues,I would have had a much harder time wrapping my head around it and how I perceive myself.

I think maybe what you see in my a/b/o writing,and what others have seen in it,is my dislike for feminizing male characters that I use as a vehicle for gender and sexual exploitation. This is no hate in any way to writers who do,there’s nothing wrong with it,but it’s something I always found personally distressing without being able to articulate why. More recently I’ve been able to identify that I find being feminized distressing,even though I identify as a woman some of the time.And so I find reading a male character being feminized as distressing because of my own life and raising. I like a/b/o as a means to look into the other,into the liminal inbetween and the hard to identify and parse outside of the rigid gender structures society has given us. So when I go into an a/b/o story with a wanting for that exploration and then it’s a projection of typical heteronormative gender ideals onto a not typical heteronormative dynamic,I find it upsetting. So in my own writing I avoid that at all cost. Again this is not a judgement of anyone who creates or engages with content that does embrace that,I don’t view it as a moral failing in any way,it’s simply something I don’t like and so something I specifically try to circumnavigate in my own art. Or when I do explore the intervening of male and female and other,it’s in a way I understand and perceive the world,and so is a comforting navigation of things I myself am unsure about or don’t quite understand.

It doesn’t have to be this deep. All a/b/o doesn’t have to be a societal deconstruction of gender and sexuality and queer coding. Sometimes it’s as simple as mmmm inherent attraction because of instincts sexy. It can also be mmmm character smells good BITE BITE BITE. It’s what you make it and what you find meaning and/or pleasure from. There’s thousands of interpretations of a/b/o because it’s a wonderful vehicle for exploration of many things. This is just my own relationship with it.

[hoshizorax]

if you think that kentaro isn't going to eat cute themed foods and desserts, you would be horribly mistaken. he will gladly take and eat anything. hello kitty? eaten. rilakkuma? eaten. pusheen? eaten. doesn't matter at all. he will eat it. also, yes.. he works out and keeps his figure.

i imagine satoru being the one to call kentaro "kenny" and him absolutely hating it. correcting him until he just gives up and accepts his fate.

kentaro uses his katana to imbue his cursed energy with it. his domain expansion is lethal as once it is cast, not only does roots hold the target down.. but when he stabs someone with his katana.. roots and flowers rip through their body and tear them apart inside out from his sword. it's why it's called dākuyuri (dark lily).

if you have kentaro's phone number, you clearly are close enough to him to get weird texts from him. he is unashamed and unapologetic in weird thoughts and texts you will get from him at 3 am.

kentaro has a plethora of memes at his disposal. he can and will send you a bunch of them if you need cheering up.

kentaro's domain and powers are very centered around tree roots and flowers. sort of like hanami. the moon is also a huge factor as well. the night is when he's most active and his cursed energy is very powerful. don't be surprised if you see him undressed and can see the root-like markings on his body that show how much cursed energy that runs through him. if you've seen survivors of lightning strikes, it looks like that.

kentaro is the type of person that people think isn't very strong. like his powers aren't much but then they watch him in a fight and are heavily surprised. depending on how much your muse knows him, they could see him as silent or very isolated. even a goof ball. but when it comes to fighting or exorcising curses, he takes it seriously.

kentaro is a 28 year old virgin. never been kissed or anything.

kentaro writes poetry. you may see it, you may not. he does not make it known that he writes poetry. he doesn't make it known that he does a lot of things because that's something he enjoys keeping private. maybe he loves submitting poems anonymously on forums. taking in compliments and criticisms alike. figuring out where he can improve without drawing a face to the literature. maybe, just maybe, you will receive one when the time comes. to enjoy his writing and think back on him.

kentaro, first time in america finding really good restaurants. finds a place called texas roadhouse. is absolutely the one that falls in love with the rolls and literally eats almost all of his bodyweight in that and ends up making himself sick. still craves texas roadhouse rolls.

to those that think they don't want to corrupt this precious bby.. he's already corrupted. he used to get into bloody fistfights with other teenagers when he was also a teenager. cursing them accidentally as well. his parents also died in a tragic accident. this man is silent and calm for a reason.

kentaro is recognized as a special grade 1 now. he was a grade 1 in school but with him not being as strong as a special grade (in certain terms) he was given this recognition once he graduated. he can conjure a lethal domain which is rare and difficult but it also takes a lot out of him once done. his black flashes aren't as rapid as yuji's. he's got to maybe 4 or 5 at most.

kentaro unknowingly got dākuyuri from his biological father.

not only does poor kentaro have the gojo bloodline but he also has the kamo bloodline. poor guy, honestly.

there is a bit of an ability that i finally ironed out in my head. while he can do it within his domain expansion, depending on the intent he can brand people with a curse when he touches them. the grade of curse depends on how angry/irritated he is. mild irritation are very low level curses. severe anger are special grade. it's basically a lure. it's not something he makes known.

[aspecpplarebeautiful]

Hey, i read a lot of romance and I date a lot, at college I made out with boys at parties, and now I'm two-ish months into dating someone. But I think I'm just chasing a feeling that I'm never going to have, and I broke up with someone last summer because of it and I think I'm going to have to do it again and it's just shit, why can't I have that feeling. I don't even know what it is that I'm missing, but it just feels empty, like I'm going through the motions. But maybe it's my antidepressants... Or maybe the guy just isn't right...

I don't know how to be, and I thought I would have figured it out by now. How can I just string this guy along knowing this

We live in a culture that tells us that we're supposed to want certain things to be happy, including a long term romantic relationship. The reality is is that people are actually really diverse and while romantic relationships may be important to some people, others may be more neutral or even find romantic relationships aren't right for them at all.

It is possible that this could be related to your anti-depressants, another possibility is that either this relationship or romantic relationships in general aren't right for you. No matter what someone's identity is or ends up being though, I always think it's a good idea to explore who you are and try and ask yourself honestly and with an open mind, what would make you happy? What way of living your life do you think will make you feel fulfilled?

It won't hurt to explore aromanticism and aro identities just to see if that is what's going on with you. Some aromantic spectrum people do like to date and make out, but don't like serious long term relationships (this is common for freyromantic people for example, which is someone who experiences romantic attraction, but only to people they don't know well and it fades or disappears as they get to know the person they're attracted to).

If you're not sure where to start, I recommend Arocalypse (an aro themed forum with a good faq), and Carnival of Aros as a good place to find aro people talking about their experiences being aro.

If you are concerned about your antidepressants that is something to talk to your doctor about, but be careful that sometimes medical professionals (including mental health professionals) aren't always informed about aromanticism and it's still not uncommon to mistake that on its own as a symptom of a larger problem. Pay attention if there's other concerning symptoms, like feelings of numbness, lack of energy, etc. If the antidepressants are the issue, it likely won't manifest as disinterest in romantic relationships and nothing else.

Hopefully this is helpful and gives you some direction, but feel free to ask if you have more questions or want more information on anything.

All the best, Anon! Good luck!

[fizzigigsimmer]

Imagine a modern AU where Billy is an actor and Steve is the frontliner in an indie band called the Demo Crew. They’re not superstars or anything but are pretty blessed to have a really committed fanbase. Demo Crew is contracted to do the soundtrack on Billy’s latest film which is another huge step for them because of the exposure. Steve tweets about how he is awed that any of those studio suits even knew their unusual music but is super grateful for the opportunity and having a blast, and his fans notice that Billy’s official account likes the tweet. But things really heat up during the press tour when their mutual fans start noticing that Billy talks about the films music whenever he can. He’s always bringing questions back around to how the music makes the film and the scenes what they are etc. “It would have been a totally different film without Steve, Eddie and those guys.”

People start to notice things, like the way Billy rarely just says the band’s name but instead singles out the band members or sometimes just Steve. Like he has a personal relationship with them or something, and the (until then) niche Harringrove Shippers come alive like Muchu. They smell a story and they’re on the case. Somebody digs up old photo and video of Billy’s metal head days before he was famous and a whole theory is making the rounds about how he’s behind a certain avatar on the official fan forum “flayed club” and his publicist is forcing him to hide it for the sake of his clean cut image. Somebody else recognizes a bunch of blurry pins that look like they might be ones from the bands merch store in a couple of more recent photos. Controversy starts heating up between the shippers and some of Billy’s more conservative fans because of the dark themes in the music.

“I loved the soundtrack for the film, but lets face it Demo Crews ordinary stuff is kinda twisted. I just don’t think Billy’s the kind of guy who would be into that.”

“Can someone open a window? I can smell the bullshit moral panic from here. Look it’s obvious that even if Billy isn’t behind “Master_Puppet that he is one of the flayed, and you know what? THAT’S OKAY. It’s insane that in this day and age he’s being told he has to hide his interests just to make himself palatable to a bunch of pearl clutching PTA moms.”

Billy speaks up for his poor management team at the next interview. No he’s never been told he has to hide any part of himself and he’s lucky to work with a really great team who look out for him and always encourage him to be true to himself even when that’s hard for him, but he appreciates how passionate the fans are. He only knows a little about it but Flayed Club is a great space and he loves the energy and creativity happening there. Oh of course Jimmy, he’s a huge fan of Demo Crew. Funny story, he’s known for forcing new people he meets to listen to his favorite album. He thought he was taking a shot in the dark when he suggested that their vibe would be perfect for the project, but it turned out Jan over at the studio was also a big fan. Steve likes and reblogs the interview clip and captions it with “best reference we ever got”.

The fandom is on fire. Master_Puppet confirmed! Also Billy is basically the reason the band got hired. Everyone is rabid to know if/how/when Billy met his favorite band, also if he and Steve are friends. I mean, people would ship them anyway because they’d look gorgeous together but really it’s the way Billy always says Steve’s name first and the way he says it. It’s the way that as Billy opens up more on instagram about his past struggles, and why he relates to certain lyrics, that it just seems so in sync with the things that Steve has said about why he wrote them and why the band chooses to explore such dark material. Mashups and compilations with #soulmates trickle from the flayed club out to twitter and tik-tok, until it feels like the whole world is shipping them. “I know they probably don’t even know each other but I just think they’d be perfect together.”

“But isn’t Steve dating @RockinRobin? 😂 I mean, they live together!!!” The hetero police come out in full force to defend Steve’s assumed hetero, offended at the very idea that someone could think two men might get on well together. Robin would never fan a fan war online, Steve, she’s far too busy and adult for that. But she does make a point to dig up the taco earrings Steve got her for Christmas once and wear them with her Lesbi-Honest T-shirt and take a bunch of selfies for the gram. #theothersoulmate

So it’s pure carnage online. Some people are still convinced that this confirmation that Steve and Robin are partners while others are sure she’s directly referencing the flayed and #soulmates. Robins not the only one who seems to like teasing the fans. They’re always hungry for new Harringrove proof and go crazy when Billy and Steve like each other’s posts or interact at all, and sometimes it feels like Steve’s band mates and Billy’s friends will post deliberate references to the soulmate theory. TikTok queen ElevenEmpirePenguins makes a viral video captioned “When all of your friends know you’re in love with them before you do” with a clip from some rom com Billy starred in, and Max puts it on her twitter. Steve’s band mate Eddie comments “Blue Jean Rhapsody” a popular track on their second album under a picture of Billy and his costar Heather. Which leads to fans lamenting that there’s no music video for that song already and theorizing that maybe the band is going to collab with him to create one because that song was like, made for Billy.

There’s fireworks the first time Billy and Steve publicly meet. It’s during awards season, when Billy and the band are both guests on a talk show. Body language experts are popping out of the woodwork to analyze every look and gesture, down to how close they sat together on the couch. Billy looks at Steve like he wants to lick him up and Steve’s got like no chill. He was either just struck by cupid’s bow or possessed by the spirit of a blushing love bug.

“Whoa. Did we just watch Harringrove become reality in real time?!!! 😍”

When the host asks if they’re aware of the soulmate theory, Steve stays on flustered and Billy gets coy. “Oh yeah, well it’s been a whirlwind and there’s not a lot of time to focus on much outside of work. But yeah it’s great. I think people just love to be in love and if it makes them happy to play matchmaker, well that’s fun. As long as it’s not hurting anyone do what makes you happy.”

[voicesoffiction]

Two Steps Ahead | Takami Keigo/Hawks x Model! Reader

Summary:

You worked hard to get to where you were in the entertainment industry. You spent every single day cultivating your craft, taking acting classes, practicing poses, building your portfolio, attending auditions, and getting rejected from said auditions. The point is, breaking into “the biz” in a city as populated as Musutafu isn’t easy, well, unless you’re a pro hero. Enter Hawks stage left. This bird-child, this sesame street knock-off, this weak ass four piece nugget combo with a side of little bitch gets brand deals handed to him left and right simply because he just so happens to save lives on the regular.

Well, his jawline doesn’t exactly hurt his chances or anything but… Pfft. So!

You land a brand deal with the biggest fashion designer in Musutafu, however, it's hard to keep it together with a certain winged hero's persistent teasing. Can you keep it together long enough to make anything of your mediocre modeling career? Or will you (quite literally) burst under the pressure?

Hi, I hope you enjoy this fic! This fic also has a sequel, Four Steps Backward that takes place about six months later. There are some bits of Korean thrown in the fic as Sun Tae Hee is a Korean fashion designer and Takami knows little Korean. The English translations are in parenthesis immediately after the Korean.

Gender Neutral Reader, Mild Angst, Takami is a lil shit, But he's hot. I also have an Archive of Our Own now??? So here it is haha! This is also the first installment of a multi-part series

----------------

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

Hawks. Mother fucking Hawks the number two pro hero himself sauntered on set vermillion wings taking up so much space like he owned the place. Which you would like to clarify by stating he did not in fact own the place. Honestly between the two of you, if anybody owned the place it was you. Okay well officially no you did not own the place in the slightest, but you were a professional model while Hawks was… Hawks was so ... did you even need to explain yourself?!

You worked hard to get to where you were in the entertainment industry. You spent every single day cultivating your craft, taking acting classes, practicing poses, building your portfolio, attending auditions, getting rejected from said auditions. The point is, breaking into “the biz” in a city as populated as Musutafu isn’t easy, well, unless you’re a pro hero. 

Enter Hawks stage left. This bird-child, this sesame street knock off, this weak ass four piece nugget combo with a side of little bitch gets brand deals handed to him left and right simply because he just so happens to save lives on the regular. 

Well, his jawline doesn’t exactly hurt his chances or anything but… Pfft. So!  

“Doll! Good to see you again!” He gave you a sickeningly sweet smile and a wave from across the set as he made his way toward you. He always did that, he always teased you on set.

“What are you doing here?” You kept your glare fixating it upwards as he grew closer, towering over you, wings practically encircling your frame. That was a dumb question. At this point in your career, you shouldn’t bat a false lash embellished eye at the man in question waltzing his way through the doors of a pastel-colored beach themed set for a magazine spread of the latest drink of the Summer. You see, you and Hawks found yourselves working on set together quite frequently. Whether it was last spring’s athletic wear shoot, the autumn cardigan line, or that god damn Christmas brand deal for Quick’n Chick’n, you and Hawks kept running into each other. You guys had done so many shoots and commercials together, fan forums were beginning to talk. But- like- come on you, and Hawks? A couple? Please. Wait not like— ~ Please, but like— whatever you know what I mean.

“What do you mean?” 

He smirked down at you feigning innocence. “I’m just here to talk about the joy that is Squeeze Soda.” 

He leaned in causing you to stumble back. W-what was he doing. You barely had time to process before he reached passed you grabbing one of the aforementioned complimentary beverages on the refreshment table behind you. You shivered at the brief contact you made as he practically caged you trapping you in the narrow space between him and the table. And the worst part? He thought nothing of it, releasing you upon retrieving his drink and popping the marble cap with ease. He took a long camera-ready swig making a point to flash his Adam’s apple as it bobbed up and down with each gulp and finishing off the ordeal with a dramatized "~Aaah. Man, this stuff really is good, you should try some!" He dropped his voice to a whisper as he leaned into your ear. "Might help quench your thirst." And with that, he began to walk away. 

Oh, this photogenic asshole!

"You know what?!" You called after his retreating figure. "We may be working on set together but you’re out of your tiny little bird-sized mind if you think I'm gonna even gonna pretend to like your idiotic tomfoolery. I-" 

You were about to continue when the loud click-clack of stilettos echoed through the building. Oh, you knew the sound of those Louis Boutons anywhere. Sun Tae-hee. 

Why didn't your agent tell you that the most iconic triple threat fashion designer, photographer, and director in Musutafu would be shooting this spread?! This could make or break your entire career! Even in her heels she still barely reached 4 ½ feet and an intimidating 4 ½ feet at that with her white bob and signature oversized glasses with lenses as thick as the magazines she shoots for. She was like a judgmental grandma, with shoulder pads sharp enough to stab a bitch.

“Hawks my darling, my muse! How are you, how are you?” 

Sun’s cool demeanor melted as she made her way across the warehouse, her timid assistant close behind, pecking away at her tablet and greeted Hawks.   

“Sunny! Annyeong seyo neo jeolm-eo boinda (Hello you look young).” 

“Hawks, oh you are just as charming as ever nae sae (my bird)!” 

“Oh well, it comes with the package.”

Sun giggled before gasping suddenly, “You! With the uh mediocre clothing!”

You glanced around, everyone else was busy with the set, strategically placing beach balls and coolers down in the pink artificial sand. There’s no way she was talking to one of— wait… was she—

“A-are you talking to me?” You asked, your voice shook as you spoke. You were talking to the Sun Tae-hee.

“Yes child, is there anyone else around?” She said. And she was talking to you!

“N-no! Of course not I uh—”

“Go fetch us some iced cucumber water while we wait for the talent to arrive. The other model seems to be late not that I’m surprised and there’s no way in hell I’m drinking this rainbow vomit. I’d sooner choke on the marble inside than let that sugary monstrosity clog up my pores from the inside out.”

Hawks cleared his throat awkwardly before stating, “Uh Sunny, that is the other model, we know each other.”

Great. Your first impression on Sun Tae-hee is that you’re the help. 

“Oh. Oh yes!” Sun quipped, “We can work with this! Um, Hyung Jee?” 

“Y-yes ma’am?” The assistant stopped her typing looking up from her tablet and down at the woman. 

“Casting Director, haego (fire them).” 

“Yes ma’am.” Hyung Jee nodded and returned to her typing this time with a newly lit fire in her.

“Wait.” You muttered, “What was that, what did she just say?”

“Let’s just say it might be time for Sayoko San to consider seeking employment elsewhere.”  

You jumped as Hawks’ voice came from behind you, “when — how did you get here?!”

He eyed you for a second pupils shifting from you, to Sun and back again. Hawks gave a casual shrug “Getting places fast, s’kind of my thing doll.”

With that, he spun on his heel and trailed towards Hyung Jee whispering something in her ear. She gave a nod and pulled out her phone alongside her tablet. You watched with pursed lips as the two exchanged numbers. Wait. Is he — Is he serious? Did this man have an ounce of professionalism in his body?

“Okay!” Sun clapped her hands sharply, causing the two of you to jump. “Let’s go over the vision! There’s sunshine, pretty pastels, sandcastles, and you two! Our star lifeguards, a couple, in love, enjoying an ice cold bottle of — Hyung Jee.”

“Yes Ma’am!”

“What is the name of this bottled diabetes again?”

“Squeeze Soda.”

“Squeeze Soda! The drink of the summer, yes!”

“I-i’m sorry” You nearly choked on your own spit, “Did you say we were going to be a couple?”

Out of all the campaigns you’ve done together, you two have never been together together. You two have posed as sporty pals, study buddies, chicken connoisseurs god damn that Christmas brand deal! And you were barely able to tolerate him then! Now the most critical eye in the fashion industry wants you both to pose as a couple?

Sun paused, her next words came out very slow and calculated as if she were speaking to a toddler, “Hawks, nae sae?” 

“Yes ma’am?” He replied,

“Does your mediocre model friend not speak Japanese? Because I believe — and correct me if I’m wrong — I believe I clearly said that you two will be a pastel couple in love, yes?”

“Uh, yes Sunny that is what you said.”

“So, why am I having to repeat myself to your mediocre model friend?”

“I’m sure it was just a misunderstanding, my friend here speaks perfect Japanese but uh can be a bit slow to pick up on things, you know how models are. Won’t happen again!” Hawks flashed Sun his signature Hawks smile in typical Hawks fashion and all seemed to be forgiven. 

“Good. I sure hope not. You two head over to hair and makeup to get changed.” Sun said as she took off in a brisk walk, poor Hyung Jee struggled so hard to keep up you would have thought it was her in the stilettos. “Chop chop I have seven more shoots today and I’m thirty seconds behind schedule because someone decided they needed to be babied and have everything explained to them — Hyung Jee!”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Rehire the casting director!”

“Yes ma’am.”

“And then fire him again! I want to rub salt in his wounds, make him relive losing his job all over again. Having to tell his kids that he is no longer able to provide for his family because he is such an imbecile! And then when you’re done be a dear and book me a reservation for lunch at that Unagi place we were talking about on the way here. All this yelling really has me feeling peckish.”  

Your stomach dropped, you’ve been promoted, no, demoted?  From the help to mediocre model friend, and even worse, Hawk’s mediocre model friend. Sheesh, at least when you were the help Sun talked to you directly. 

Shaking your head, you followed behind Hawks as we walked ahead toward hair and makeup. 

 “So you know Sun Tae-hee.” 

You couldn’t help yourself. If you could you would’ve given him the silent treatment after that, “you know how models are” stunt he pulled out there, and asking the assistant for her number?! Did he take anything in this line of work seriously?! But you had to bring this up! How was Hawks so buddy-buddy with someone like her? Sun! Not the assistant, you didn’t care about the assistant. Honestly, you didn't see what he saw in the assistant. She was okay, but you wouldn’t necessarily say she was his type. That should be you! 

Again, no, not the assistant. We’re not talking about the assistant, shut up about the assistant! That should be you who’s all close with Sun Tae-hee. You were the one in the fashion industry after all.  

“Oh, Sunny?” Hawks chuckled as he spoke, “Yeah, we go way back! She handles all the costume work at my agency. She can be a bit on the uh… diva side but that’s just ‘cuz she’s a busy woman and she’s passionate about what she does.”

“And you also speak Korean?” You added.

“Oh, that?” He shrugged. “You become pretty well-traveled in my line of work. Especially with the whole…”

Hawks didn’t speak instead illustrating his point by spreading out his wings in all their vermilion glory. Several stagehands gasped snapping quick pics on their phones at the sight of the number two pro hero’s famous fierce feathers on full display, a few even cheered while you — well you choked as you got smacked with a face full of floof. The thing is, you can’t even be mad, you should’ve known. After all, Hawks was walking ahead of you, he was always ahead of you.

While getting styled, you struggled to keep the bitter thoughts out of your head.

"Pfft, ' well-traveled?' Thanks for the brag, asshole. Ooh look at me I’m Hawks and I can get whatever I want because I have back muscles for days meh meh meh."

“I do?” 

Aw fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu —

The man in question poked his head in the entrance of your dressing room. Ohoho of course this dickwad’s not wearing a shirt. Fucking, back muscles. Your thoughts were out of your head alright, so much so  that you were mumbling all of them out loud for the past five minutes. You shot a glare in the mirror towards your makeup stylist for not calling you out on it. She only shrugged and continued to touch up your foundation, taking care to cover up the growing crease in your forehead. “What are you doing here?” you seethed,  “Shouldn’t you be getting styled? A-and why aren’t you wearing a shirt?!”

“First, hair and makeup’s kinda a drag so I tend to breeze through it, and second,” Hawks gestured towards his bare chest red lifeguard-esque swimming trunks that seemed to compliment his wings perfectly, (as everything does),  “It’s a beach photoshoot, and if I’m not mistaken I recall a certain doll telling me I had back muscles for days?”

You kept your head forward, watching Hawks’ reflection in the mirror as a smirk crept its way along his features. Did the makeup artist add blush yet? Nope? She had just moved on to eyes? Okay! Cool! Just wondering!

You let out a sharp exhale through your nose, turning your head to the side in indignation. The makeup artist cussed as she watched her eyeliner work go from “ready for flight” to “jacked up in a fight” in a matter of seconds. Seriously, they looked like shit, could you keep your face still for like two seconds? Please?

There was a beat of silence before Hawks spoke up. “Listen uh, you seem pretty tense, like even for you, did you wanna talk about anything?”

“I — MMMMMMPH!” Revenge of the makeup artist! Your mouth was squished shut as she (rather violently) added some color to your lips. She released her death grip, cleaned up your eyeliner, and stormed out of the room. Rude.

You sighed, massaging your now sore lips, taking care not to smudge your powder. Maybe Hawks was right. You did feel a bit uptight and you shouldn’t be taking it out on him. You opened his mouth to respond, only to be cut off by another person shoving their head in the dressing room. “Shoot starts in five!” it was Hyung Jee.

“Thank you five!” you spoke in unison.

You and Hyung Jee made eye contact as she lingered in the room for a second, well, more like you made contact with her tablet which she held up to her face. It was like the thing was super glued to her hands only letting up to allow her to type and tap away at the keyboard. Eventually, she took her leave leaving you and Hawks alone once more.

“I don’t have anything to say to you.” You snapped.

Welp. So much for apologizing. 

You spared one more glance at Hawks through the mirror. “You should probably head back to your dressing room, see if Hyung Jee needs anything since you two are pretty close now,” you said. “Maybe you should exchange Twittergram handles while you’re at it! Since you already have each other’s numbers.”

“Don’t need to,” he said, “We were already following each other before this,” he smirked letting his eyes rest on you for a second, before taking his leave. 

The shoot was...awkward to say the least. Hawks was right, you were more tense than usual. And why was that? Normally your minor annoyance with Hawks was just that, a minor annoyance. But today, well, if you were being honest with yourself, you were being kind of… mean . Snapping at him and blatantly ignoring him. It went way past the normal banter you two engaged in.  But you weren’t being honest with yourself. You were angry with yourself which in turn made you angry with Hawks. He was the one who was so unprofessional to ask a girl for her number on set and rub it in your face . He was the one who whacked you in the face with his dumb wings. He was the one who constantly upstaged you on every project you worked together on I mean — Here you are struggling to get your name out in the entertainment industry. Your actual name, not just “Hawks and mystery model” as the gossip forums like to put it. Meanwhile, Sun Tae-hee- oh, I’m sorry— Sunny is Hawks’ personal stylist.

You couldn’t wrap your head around it. Like objectively sure, you got it. Hawks was definitely a site for sore eyes, any product you stuck his face on or article of clothing you slipped his toned body in was sure to sell and that’s... great! But! This was your chance to make a good impression on one of the — no, the biggest name in the fashion industry and Hawks just… overshadowed you.

“Mediocre Model! Focus! Are you on my set or are you in Lala Land?” Sun’s voice snaked into your headspace snapping you out of your daze. Sun shot you an impatient glare from behind the camera where she stood on her step stool. Oh. Right. 

You tried to focus on setting the scene, enjoying a refreshing beverage on the pastel beach shore, enjoying a refreshing beverage on the pastel beach shore , you mentally chanted to yourself. Sheesh, your look was less “lifeguard” and more “space cadet”. But it wasn’t completely your fault! Hyung Jee kept fluttering around the edge of the set on her tablet, it was distracting! What, was she stalking Hawks now? 

“Hawks darling,” Sun said, “lean in a little you know how hard it is to get your wings in the frame.”

Hawks gave a soft chuckle as he tilted closer to you. You felt his breath tickle your neck, the slight shiver your body gave as the little hairs on your skin prickled. You clenched the prop soda in your hand so hard you thought the glass was gonna shatter. Shit, stay focused, you’re on camera, don't let your emotions show through your face. 

“Hold that face! It’s charming, it's fun, it's — ” Sun paused, shifting his gaze from Hawks to you, “No, not you. I want Gilligan’s Island, you’re giving me Jaws. Very ‘Ah! He’s gonna eat me!’ nawt a look that will sell rainbow diabetes water.”

She was right, you were way off your game today. Come on, get it together! You two were supposed to be a couple, time to act like it. You decided to change up your pose, reclining your back against Hawks’ chest. You leaned your head back, closed your eyes, and took your own camera-ready swig of soda. 

“Yes yes!” Sun exclaimed.

Yes! You thought.

“Shower me!” Sun cried “I am the Sahara Desert on the driest day of the year, give me a cool glass to drink, give me life, give me … Hyung Jee?!”

Hyung Jee jumped, looking up from her tablet she was hovering offset by you two, tapping away.

“Squeeze Soda M-ma’am. ”

“Right! Give me Squeeze Soda!” Sun screeched, throwing her hands in the air and jumping off her step stool. In one swift move, she snatched her camera and somersaulted on the ground to get a better angle. Her eyes were wide, her glasses were crooked and her normally flawless bob was now disheveled, angled this way and that. How was she so limber? Wasn’t she like — sixty-something? Sorry , no , according to the tabloids she never aged past 25. You now understood why her shots were so quintessential. She was a mad woman.

See that Hawks. You thought triumphantly as Sun continued to snap away. You’re not the only one who can serve looks. You hardly noticed Hyung Jee fluttering around Hawks anymore.  

Hawks, being Hawks, played along splendidly and for a moment, you two actually looked like a real couple. Hawks buried his face in your neck, mumbling in your ear.

This was everything Sun wanted! A colorful bubblegum pop drink of the summer shoot!  It was fun! It was bubbly! It was —

“You really think I’m gonna eat you?” 

“PPPPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFFTttt’’

Refreshing.

You both watched in horror as Sun produced a silk handkerchief from her blazer and wiped the Squeeze Soda that drenched her face and…everything else.

Well...She did say to shower her.  

“I believe,” Sun said after a looong beat of silence “That we have enough shots for today. Hyung Jee. Cancel the rest of my shoots, and cancel lunch. Send the helicopter I want to fly straight home and take a loooong hot bath. But before you do all that. Sun eyed you dangerously.

“I want you to rehire and fire the casting director one more time. For good measure.”

Hyung Jee gave a shaky nod uttering another one of her “Y-yes ma’ams” before returning to her tablet and typing away feverishly.

Well. There went your big break.

You woke up the next day to the blue light of your phone nearly blinding you in the dimness of your studio apartment. 

Your phone was —

Bzzt.

Your phone was —

Bzzt. Bzzt.

Your phone was blowing up okay?!

You felt your cheap comforter crinkle as you rolled over to your nightstand to check the notifications. Probably an email notifying you of the end of your modeling career. Fired.

Bzzt. 

Rehired.

Bzzt. Bzzt.

Fired again.

Bzzt Bzzt Bzzt.

Oh look you got your job back!

Bzzt. 

SIKE! HAHA!

Dear Mediocre Model, 

We take great delight in informing you that your contract at Musutafu Modeling Agency has been terminated. No need to stop by cooperate to pick up your things, we’re burning them. Though, if you’d like, you’re more than welcome to spit soda on that too. It’ll do wonders to put out the garbage fire that is your modeling career. In the meantime, we hear Quick’n Chick’n is hiring! We’d send them your resume but they’d probably just use it as wrapping paper for their sandwiches.

Toodles! Sincerely —

Bzzt.

Okay… maybe you should stop imagining things and actually see for yourself what all the fuss is about.

You took a deep breath and unlocked your phone. Wait. This wasn’t an email. These were notifications from Twittergram. Someone had tagged you in a post. Hawks.

So I think we should all take a moment to appreciate this refreshing face. You all know them as Mystery Model but they’re so much more. We’ve worked together on several projects upon my request and while they can definitely be...intense at times. They photograph amazingly, even when they’re not trying. Here’s their Twittergram handle, and if these pics aren’t enough for you to believe me, I strongly reccomend booking a shoot so you can see for yourself.

You scrolled down to see... pictures of you. Recent pictures, like from yesterday. You don’t remember seeing these in the drafts after the shoot. They were mostly taken from side angles and they weren’t posed either, these were from moments in between shots. Your face was relaxed, natural, and it looked good. Hawks face wasn’t in any of these which is next to impossible because, as we already established, he’s Hawks, and if you have a chance to shove his face on something. You take it. You were perplexed to say the least as to who could’ve taken these pictures but that soon turned into full-on bewilderment upon viewing the next photo. You were in the dressing room, fully clothed, of course, sitting in front of the vanity looking right at the camera. Then it clicked.

Of course! It all made so much sense! The lingering glances, the constant hovering during the shoot, it was Hyung Jee. But… why? And how did Hawks get these pictures? You jumped as your phone vibrated again, someone was calling. You didn’t recognize the number.

“H-hello?”

“Hey doll. Did you sleep in?”

You nearly dropped your phone.

“Hawks? How did you — I never gave you my number.”

“I have connections.”

You could practically hear the winged hero’s casual shrug, that and a slight breeze. Like he was standing on top of a building or something, not even 12 hours later and he’s already back to hero work.

“You made a post about me.” You said, cautiously. You felt self-conscious as your eyes ran over his words once more. “Refreshing, So much more, worked together upon his request. So that’s why you were constantly running into him.

“Oh yeah, that.”

What did he mean ‘Oh yeah, that’?! Wasn’t that why he was calling you?

You opened and closed your mouth, dumbfounded as you tried to find words that weren’t profanity.

“Well, w-why’d ya do that bird brain?!”

All of your annoyance melted away as you heard his laugh, its rich tone caressing your ears.

“Hehe, why not?”

“I dunno.” You said, “Because that’s — that’s not you.”

“Oh yeah?” Was it just you, or did he suddenly sound, closer on the other line?

“Yeah.” You countered

“Really?”

“Yes really!”

“Interesting, cuz I’m starting to think you may not know me as well as you think you do.” You pictured Hawk’s stupid sly smirk on his end. 

“Then what should I think about you.” you said, “What kinda guy is Hawks.”

“Hmm.” He pondered, “The kinda guy who recognizes your talent and hard work. Kinda guy who knows you were busting your ass for the approval of Sun Tae Hee.”

“So...you posted those pictures and tagged me in them to get my name out there.”

“No more Mystery Model.” 

“But why, why would you help me?”

“Remember the Christmas Campaign?”

The goddamn Quick’n Chick’n Christmas Campaign. An entire season of doing commercials and promos for the popular Japanese-style fried chicken joint which always saw an exponential spike in business during the Christmas holidays. It was the longest you two had ever worked together. You were still pretty new in the scene and had never done a video before. You would forget your lines frequently and drop your props and ugh your face flushed just thinking about it! And on top of that, Hawks would constantly tease you and distract you on set. It was annoying and — and slowly, you began to push back. It was then that the teasing turned into back-and-forth banter. Now that you thought about it, you found yourself using the quick-witted responses you came up with to wave off Hawk’s remarks as a practice for when you stumbled over your words on set. Forgot a line? No problem, you could come up with a quick adlib that was usually better than the original line. The back-and-forth between you two also looked really appealing on set.

 The client loved it calling it “fun” and” high energy” and you’d be lying if you said it didn’t boost your confidence for future commercial gigs. 

So...this entire time, Hawks was helping you?

“Okay but, how did you get those pictures from Hyung Jee?” You said.

“Who do you think asked her to take them?” Hawks said, “She does photography as a self-care hobby, apparently working for Sun is incredibly stressful.”

You laughed, “Yeah I bet.”

“You should check out her Twittergram. While you may be my favorite photo subject, her other work is pretty nice too.”

You felt your face flush. Did...did he really just say that? A-and just move on like he didn’t just say that? No really did he really just say that or are you just imagining things.

“Uh well that’s great but I don’t think I’m gonna be booking any shoots anytime soon” You said “Unless you forgot how my refreshing face spit soda all over the judgmental face of the-”

“Biggest name in the fashion industry?” Hawks cut you off, always so fast that winged hero. “Yeah, you don’t read much, do you? I thought we were passed the whole dumb model stereyotype.” 

Aaaaand he’s back to teasing you again.

You groaned “What are you talking about?”

“Check the comments doll.” He said.

“You reopened Twittergram and scrolled down to the comments, over a thousand many of them mentioning your name for one, many people asking to book you. You eyed your DM’s, hundreds of them and the number kept going up. That explained the constant buzzing. One message caught your eye. You opened it.

“Perhaps you’re more than a mediocre model after all. Call me.” 

“You’re quiet doll...Don’t tell me you’re reading Sunny’s DM?”

“How’d you know I was — ”

“I had a feeling.”

You heard sirens going off in the distance. Just what was he up to? And why was he calling you in the middle of it? 

“Anyway,” You could hear him stretching his wings. “I'm not gonna hold you up, you being a big time model with important calls to make and all.”

Was this — was this really happening? Were you really getting your big break thanks to...Hawks of all people?

“And hey — If you ever wanna have dinner with a little ol Pro Hero like me. You have my number so… Call me. And maybe I’ll show you in detail what kinda guy I really am.”

And with that… he hung up.

[lizardwithacomputer]

Finding A Specific Missing Announcer Voiceline from DDR: Mario Mix

I just went though unimaginable torment (spent 5 hours trying to do this) in order to obtain the following sound byte:

What you hear above is the voice of Londell "Taz" Hicks (I'm 90% certain of this) who was the announcer for several Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) games, both in the arcade games and games for console, particularly Max, Extreme, and SuperNOVA. Based on ear and the release timeframes, he is also the announcer in DDR: Mario Mix.

The above voiceline has been an inside joke in my friend group for more than a decade. It has tormented and taunted us every time we boot up the game. It comes up any time performance is in the question. Speeches, presentations, concerts, D&D games, everything. I wanted this sound byte for the purposes of psychological mayhem and figured I'd do some quick searching and have it downloaded in time to get groceries.

This isolated voiceline does not exist in any archive I could track down.

So, obviously, I figured I'd get it myself. That it would be easy. And, I'll be frank, despite all my struggles, it could've been so much worse if not for the hard work of media archivists before me. Here's how I was able to track this voiceline down:

Getting into Stepmania/ITGMania/Project Outfox necessitated that I know a thing or two about where to get simulation files for the game. In fact, I'd already gotten the simulation files for DDR: Mario Mix, which is what prompted the idea of finding the same announcer. The files only contain music, album art, and step data (the arrows in DDR), and not, reasonably, anything from the game. So I had to look elsewhere.

Stepmania has a large customization and creation community that makes themes, custom charts, and, most importantly for me, announcers. The first thing I did was figure out the most likely announcer for DDR: Mario Mix, then headed to the Stepmania archive and started downloading. I started sifting through the files, but all I could find was this voiceline from DDR Extreme2:

As you can tell, these may be the same words, but it is NOT the same voiceline. It isn't smug enough. It's too supportive. This will not cause the torment I desire. I started to despair. I trawled every single other game Taz had announced for and only found this same inflection. The smugness of DDR: Mario Mix eluded me.

The next thing I did was try to get them from the game itself. The Dolphin Emulator has a really cool feature that lets you extract the contents of "discs" (in this case, a mounted .ciso file). Once I had that, I started to sift through, praying that it wouldn't be embedded in an obscure bin file.

Instead, I found this, in a folder labelled "sound":

What the hell are these file formats.

Briefly, I gave up on trying to extract things from the disc and started looking in different archives. I found one archive of video game music, that had happened to back up all of DDR: Mario Mix, and it happened to include some sound effects in it! I was hopeful, but after clicking going through every unhelpfully-named file, I was out of luck. Why would an archive lack part of the game? Well I went to the forums tied to the archive and:

DID YOU REMOVE THE VOICE CLIPS I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR, 1425720626? DID YOU?!?!

Anyway. Searching this forum still provided me with some other options. Mainly, a post talking specifically about the msm and pdt files I was confused by before!

And this was figured out 11-12 years ago!! Remarkably, the download for the script still worked. So I loaded it up into VSCode, fixed some of the outdated code (specifically, had to change ord() calls to int(), some bytes stuff, I could ramble about this, but-), and ran it. This python code produced 465 dsp files. A dsp file is an older type of data sequence file that is common in older videogames and is used to play audio.

Since its on the older and obscure side, it's not something a native media player can play out of the box. The forum I've been searching through, it turns out, is actually part of a bigger website (hcs64) that has tools related to video game music archival, including audio ripping tools and, more importantly, a program that can play and convert dsp files called vgmstream.

I used the vgmstream web player to listen to a couple randomly chosen dsp files I had from the 465 I'd gotten from the python. Luckily, there was a small form of organization, and when I hit the files starting with 0003, I heard the sweet, sweet voice of Londell 'Taz' Hicks. And to my elation, the very second file I tested was the glorious, smug, tormenting words:

Everybody is watching you!

This is generally where you stop, because you've got the file now. But since I'm writing this primarily for my own archival purposes, there's a couple other steps I took after downloading the voiceline.

See, vgmstream converted the file to a wav file and I needed an mp3. This is actually easy enough. If you open up VLC (traffic cone video player) and go to Media>Convert/Save, you can convert it easily. I threw the file in there, made a new profile for the conversion settings, adjusted the bit rate to be the same as the wav file...then, instead of making the sample rate the maximum, like I should've done, I left it at the minimum and, uh...

whoops.

[cringywhitedragon]

Rambles: A scrapped idea for a FNAF/Danganrompa crossover: Machines of Despair

I just wanted to put this old idea out there but this is an old crossover idea I had with these two series I just ended up scrapping. So here’s an info dump on it if you guys want to do anything with it.

Be warned: SPOILERS, DARK THEMES, AND A LOOOOOOOTTTT OF TEXT AHEAD

Pretty much it would have been set in the V3 universe and with an alternate ending to FNAF 6 (Pretty much nothing beyond those games as Freddy’s folds for good. No VR or SB.)

The ending of the 53 season stirred up a lot of controversy and ended with the series being canceled and a massive public backlash all over the world. Espically in America, where the series was outright banned as a whole several years prior.

Memorials are held for the survivors, tight restrictions are made on the series as a whole with more and more bans, merchandise and games are lost and destroyed and Monokuma becomes the newest face of evil.

Amongst the controversy, a young entrepreneur decides to use this as a chance to revive a long since dead company from his childhood hoping that with public’s eyes drawn elsewhere would aid in lessening any possible “issues” due to that company’s rather shady past.

The story would follow a former contest (Currently unnamed but lets call him Kai) on the Draganrompa show of a season that got canceled because of an anti-Danganrompa group who’s aim was to disrupt the show, rescue contestants and or get them settled outside of it and was let go and had moved to America some odd years back.

Kai’s formally known as the Ultimate Security Guard and lives with another former contestant of the show whom he met through a forum for survivors and the two wound up dating.

After some recent hard times resulting in him getting laid off from work, Kai finds himself accepting a job offer to be part of the staff for the “Grand Revival” of the newly relicensed “Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza”, this time under completely new management with no relation whatsoever to the now bankrupt Fazbear Entertainment LLC.

The new company is getting ready to launch their new flagship location yet recently. Strange happenings had been occurring around the building in recent weeks following a now former employee that had been tasked with looking for props to help in furnishing the place and their recent “acquisitions” from an overseas auction.

Reports of strange “shadow figures” on the cameras, musical devices suddenly playing by themselves, animatronics behaving erratically, a cryptic warning from a spirit median, on top of many other things usually late into the night, results in the owner and the employees launching an investigation with their newest hire, Kai, being placed front and center as the Night Guard on his first week.

For 7 nights, Kai faces having to keep the malfunctioning machines out of his office as well as battling with his own sanity as he starts to see hallucinations of an entity he names “Freddykuma” (That will kill him if he doesn’t keep his sanity down, and in between night cutscenes called “Freddykuma’s Stage Show”), born from his own personal fears, stress, and repression of his time on Danganrompa all while being guided over the phone by a fellow employee on what to expect and his post-shift tasks while they keep watch from their car.

Though throughout his shift, a certain human-like robot in a heavily damaged state stashed within the backroom/storage room notably catches his attention. The phone guy mentions that it was received as a part of the auction haul brought in by the former employee and the owner stuffed in the background after finding no use for it.

“You may have noticed that weird looking robot in one of the storage cams. Looks quite out of place here doesn’t it? Well you can “thank you know who” for it… Said we could use it for parts or whatever.

In that state I don’t think it’s going to see any use. Plus it gives us all the creeps. I don’t blame the boss for chucking it into that room… Especially after reports that the morning shift kept finding it in the weirdest places…”

The robot in question is in fact, K1-B0. Heavily damaged but still oddly functional, yet lacking of any of his prior intelligence. Compared to the other robots, he’s only ever active once a night going from Night 2 onwards in which he will make an attempt to get into Kai’s office and then go back to his room (He has multiple paths he can take and can be quite dangerous if Kai isn’t paying attention to his audio cues)

After each night, Kai will be tasked with doing some “post shift tasks” which function as short little minigames. Clear these and it’s shift complete, fail and his fate may be sealed by one of the still active animatronics.

Though during these Inbetween night segments is also the chance for Kai to recover any of the 11 of 12 “remnants” needed for the true ending.

But what are these “Remnants” you may ask?

Well, these remnants are actually revealed to be artifacts belonging to the 11 souls of the now deceased students of Hopes Peak Academy and the reason behind the hauntings after being brought to the location as part a series of an auction winnings by a former employee while in Japan.

Due to their rather traumatic causes of death, their souls are restless and unable to be freed until they are given proper closure. Gathering these artifacts is required to get the true ending of MoD and collecting them can be done during the post shift segments.

They are not labeled as a part of Kai’s nightly tasks and must be found by discovering hidden clues throughout the game which appear in many forms (Collectable notes, Freddykuma Stage Show dialogue, and even an EMF Reader that can be collected at the start of the post shift segments in the office (not required and completely optional but extremely helpful)

Yet that still leaves one more remanent left to collect..

And well… There’s a reason for that….

Collect all 11 and on the 6th night you will get a new phone call from the phone guy after the usual night 6 call.

He mentions that the boss had recently found some old files while digging through some old records belonging to the previous owners of the Fazbear name in an attempt to find out what was going on.

“Hey… sorry for calling you back so suddenly but I just got a call from the boss. He decided to have a look through some of the old records on the company and he thinks that he may have found something.

Apparently at some point Freddy Fazbear’s was looking to expand overseas or something like that since he found some paperwork from a company called “Idabashi Industries” or something like that.

The owner was apparently in talks with the two founders on helping to develop better robots and possibly open a few locations over in Japan but it kinda fell through because the owner had a “sudden and unexpected loss” that forced him to pull out.

It’s all so strange, plus the boss is saying this stuff is completely undocumented and that it was buried in a safe or something. It’s like someone was trying to hide this.

Anyways, I’ll let you go for the night. Once your shift’s over, meet me in the parking lot as usual. The boss wants to see us about that and those strange things you’ve been gathering after your shifts.”

Beating night 6 afterwards will unlock the Idabashi Archives. Kai will need to go through these until he reaches the back where there is a photo of a scientist and a boy. The photo needs to be clicked on where it will then be obtained as an item as well as a keycode.

The keycode will need to be entered on the safe that appears in the office on Night 7 with the photo having been obtained. Doing so will load a series of minigames and cutscenes that reveal something about K1B0 (in this universe):

It turns out that Professor Idabashi was in fact a real person and the robot known as K1B0 was the Professor’s actual biological son, who will simply be referenced to as by Kiibo.

The original Kiibo was revealed to have been murdered by William Afton during the Professor’s business trip to America to negotiate with Fazbear Entertainment which left his father in a deep state of depression.

In his grief, the Professor started to do research into a way to possibly bring back his son. Stealing research from the very man who had murdered his child, Idabashi set out to create a “vessel” that he could use to “bind” his soul to.

It manages to work with the initial prototype but soon issues go away as the vessel behaved “erratically” (aka like any other possessed animatronic) which resulted in Idabashi getting injured and him having to develop a series of internal systems and protocols to “stabilize” the spirit the vessel housed, ones that if they were damaged, would render the vessel reverting back to its more unstable state (As seen throughout the 7 nights).

With his son back, Idabashi tried to live a normal life yet soon found himself unable to look Kiibo in the eye as it “felt all wrong”. He had this son’s deactivated, memory wiped, and sold off his company. Idabashi would pass away at some point some years after the closing of the Fnaf 1 location and before the Danganrompa series was created.

K1B0 at some point would end up in the hands of Team Danganrompa (possibly from the company who bought out Idabashi Industries) and modified to be used as an “audience participation device” for the 53nd Season of Danganrompa before blowing himself up at the end.

Along with many other props used on the show, his remains would be salvaged from the wreckage of the set and sold via an auction in attempt to recoup losses for rather cheap due to growing negative opinions towards the series.

The props were bought by a now former employee of the new Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza and planned to be used to decorate the establishment, unknowingly bringing the souls of those victims with them.

After the cutscene ends, Night 7 will “restart” (WAKE UP)but will play out a lot differently. The time will be set to 3 am and it’s revealed that Kai fell asleep from the phone guy:

“Oh thank god I’ve finally gotten through to you Kai. You scared the crap outta me man! Falling asleep in the middle of my phone call.

You were saying some really creepy stuff there, man! Something about a kid a-and robots being possessed by human souls…

I may have spoken to you over the phone about this history of the old company that owned this brand and well the murders briefly but allow to tell you more in full.

While I cannot say how many since records list at least 11-16, I can say there were at least 6 that were notable. The Missing Children's Incident and the murder of Charlie Emily.

5 children lured into a backroom and stuffed into the suits and other dumped in an alleyway.

Horrible I know. To make matters worse, they never caught the killer. And to top all of that, I’d even heard rumors that there was possibly an even a 7th victim.”

The phone guy will go on to explain the rumor. During this time, Kai will also noticed that none of the animatronics are moving despite being able to flick through the cameras (This is more of an interactive cutscene) with one exception: K1B0.

He will not be in the backroom and instead can be found in the breaker room where he will shut off the power about midway through phone guy’s speech.

“Huh? What happened to the power in there?

…

Oh Shi-

Quickly! Dude, you need to get outta there before-“

Distorted noises

“KAI!! KAAAAAAIII!”

Kai will be attacked by K1B0 but will not die, instead being dragged off to the backroom. This will start the final post-shift segment:

Kai will have to survive in a Fnaf 4 style gameplay loop from 3 to 6, all while fending off K1B0 until the phone guy and the morning shift can reach him.

Doing so successfully will result in Kai’s phone alarm beeping as he goes to leave his hiding spot. Yet before he can leave the room, K1B0 will jump at him and attempt to attack him. Kai will have to hold him off until he drops the photograph from his pocket, causing K1B0 to stop.

He will then proceed to take the photograph, stare at it with a sad expression before going limp, after which his chest cavity will open up to reveal his “heart”/core and the final remanent artifact. Kai takes the core and the robot shuts down for good, freeing the spirit trapped inside.

After that is over with, Kai is rescued by his fellow employees, his boss, phone guy, and a spirit median they had brought along. Wanting to know what happened, Kai remarks it’s a long story and promises to tell them everything while the median remarks that “a great evil has left this place”.

Despite all the hardships, Kai chooses to stay with the company as he gets promoted and they go ahead with their grand opening now that the place is no longer haunted and we see a screen similar to the Normal Ending, this time with the newspaper reading “Grand Opening”, a bigger payout on the check, and a “You’re Promoted” flier. Effectively putting FF’s past to rest for good and the new company set in stone for success.

A small post credits scene will play out with Kai and his girlfriend at a memorial site set up in honor of the lives lost to Danganrompa placing down the artifacts found. 10 of the spirits (Barring Tsumugi) can be seen in the background in a group watching the sunset.

Also present and more prominent is the spirits of an older boy holding the hand of a man wearing a lab coat that can be seen smiling at Kai and the others.

This game would also have a neutral ending akin to that of the regular Fnaf 1 ending if none of the conditions are met for the True Ending, simply displaying a paycheck and a newspaper that reads “Grand Opening Delayed Again”

[lythbounddrama]

Hello, yes, I’m the ‘nitpicki hoarder’ person.I’m going to preface this with I’ve known about this blog for a while. Like, how would I not? I’m sure people have seen drama blog tabs in a few of the screenshots I sent to the lyth server because I forget those are open. I’m not going to justify my reasons for looking at drama blogs other than it gives me a reminder of why I don’t do CS anymore.

I do want to correct the blog on one thing. Not counting adopts I bought from the other staff members(So just Jack’s designs, patreon, and the gem store), I spent 665 USD. It’d probably be closer to 700 if I included money spent on other staff member and GA adopts. Most of this was used for MYOs, with a portion spent on adopts and like….a frame and three pets. This is a lot of money for me, considering I work in retail as a janitor. So my paycheck is shit. I only afforded this because of a bonus program my workplace participated in, so I used that to get giftcards so I could eat but still load money into my paypal.

I didn’t actually notice the staff 'shafting’ me or anything like that. I’m not exactly the brightest sometimes and actually only found out that was probably what was going on via the blog. That shit did hurt to find out and let me tell you, it took a few days for me to come to terms to because I thought I had finally found a CS where the staff wasn’t going to be mean or even passive-aggressive to me because I don’t always know how to interact with other people. Which, I get it, I can get annoying or overstep boundaries without actually meaning to.

Honestly, the only things I noticed were weird were Jack dismissing certain suggestions, being called a whale(Which yes, did happen. I played it off as a joke if I remember), and Lechet going into one of my servers months after I posted the invite link. Which, I’m still working on the paranoia from that. Not going to go into what the paranoia was because it’s both irrelevant and I know that’ll just feed into it. Well, that and there was actually some nitpicking of my art and designs. It’s nothing I’m not used to, though, so it’s whatever.

I will admit that I’m probably why the freeplay update back in I think July was made. Particularly the labeling requirement. I did large 20+ nitpicki arts like every three months because it was fun. I did two with baby nitpicki(One you can probably still find onsite because according to a friend still in Lyth, forum threads don’t get deleted or otherwise marked.) and one with my entire hoard of nitpicki at the time. I will admit I loopholed it into being for a non-freeplay prompt because it was nearly 1k loons. I think it was 800-something? Not really enough loons for the literal months it took me to do, though. All three arts predated the freeplay update and the loopholing was purely because I didn’t want to lose out on most of the loons from that monster of a piece. I downplayed how upset I was when the update was made because I was working on a fighting-game themed art at the time it was made. I never finished it and I still have the file.

Now, those things stated, I do want to say that I had fun while I was in lyth. Mostly I left because I was bored and didn’t really care for the events mostly being the same thing every time. I kinda like a lot of variety and Lyth just didn’t scratch that itch for me. While I don’t get what the fuck Lyth is doing right now because it really makes no sense to me, I don’t actually hold any ill will.

And yes, I know about that chimefish. I forgot it existed. I can’t do anything about it, though. Cake has me blocked(Which, valid. I have offbrands of a CS I most definitely cannot afford to get into that they’re in) and I’m not going to go out of my way to bug the TH admin over a fish. It’s not worth my time and while it’s shitty cake didn’t credit me as a designer on TH, I have more important things to worry about.

[cinnamonest]

Albedo idol girl darling thoughts M A N I F E S T E D

----------

Well, to be entirely honest, he thinks the whole idol thing is a little dumb.

For someone like him, at least. He's a PhD student in his final semester, lots of work to be done and all that. So, you know, he's a responsible, accomplished adult. Not the kind of person who gets into "that stuff," as he calls it in his head.

Nor does he even know how he encountered it... He just takes the occasional break from work to mindlessly open whatever app first pops into his vision and scroll through the feed. He's never watched anything like it in his life, so he's not exactly sure why he gets recommended some idol girl thing, and even less sure why he taps it without really thinking. Probably one of those videos that gets recommended to everyone. Well, can't be that, it doesn't have that many views... Probably loosely connected to some video game he's searched before or something. He's familiar with idols and what they are, and the subculture surrounding them, but he's never really cared about it.

Honestly, it's kinda pathetic that a bunch of grown adult men get so obsessed over these girls, he thinks as he watches. He's seen the type. Lonely, asocial dudes, most definitely virgins whose only female attention in their entire life is their mother, well into adulthood with no real social group to speak of.

...Not that he's much better off, but he hasn't quite sunk down to their level. The only reason he doesn't talk to people much is because they're busy, and he's even busier. He managed to make a few friends in undergrad years. Well, study partners who mooched off his notes since he was one of the top students, but same idea. They were people he spoke to more than once, which is what constitutes a friend, right? And for the record, one time in high school a girl in his class said she liked his hair. He hasn't changed the way he wears it since. Whenever he's sad, he thinks about that compliment from 10+ years ago, and it makes him feel a little better. But now, he's constantly slammed with work and research.

And his acquaintances are also all busy. He sees notifications every now and then from social media he never checks. Everyone is getting married at this stage in life, both friends and even other PhD students in his department. Not that he's ever been invited to a wedding, he just overhears a lot of conversations, sees notifications of posts. And he will too, eventually. He just has to finish up his degree, and then... Meet a girl. Well, that's actually the second step, step one would be finding out how to go about meeting a girl. He's... Never done it before. Probably does not happen sitting in the research lab at 11:30 pm on YouTube. He's talked to one of the other PhD students who's a girl before. And only stutters sometimes. He was even able to look her in the face while he talked to her once. That's a good start.

Ok, so maybe he is a little bit pathetic, but not as bad as... These guys. Reading the comments of the video actually make him feel a little better about himself, because frankly, they're kinda wild. The worship and fawning over girls is one thing, but they even have timestamps referring to various members like "she's super cute here!" Or "you can kinda see her thigh at 3:12!" Etc etc. Yeesh, creepy. And they get into comment fights over who is the best member, as if it even matters. It's fascinating in a human-social-experiment sort of way, the manifestation of a subculture and how humans interact with each other. On and on it goes, hundreds of commenters. He pays more attention to the comments than the actual video, but the song is kinda catchy in that annoying sort of way, and the girls are cute, just kinda... The typical thing he'd expect from idol groups. But the building will close soon, so he taps back to home screen and swipes the app closed.

Unfortunately, the algorithm remembers.

And he's not certain why he clicks the next one either, the following day. The lunch breaks he takes are usually pretty rushed. Not that he has specific class times at his level of academia, but he likes to get his work done. He intentionally eats either a bit later or earlier than the lunch crowd to avoid crowds and interactions. Finds a nice secluded little table tucked away. So when he opens it back up, what do you know, several more videos get recommended. It's absent minded when he taps on one, the kind of numb-brained entertainment every modern person indulges in, videos you wouldn't really be interested in but just watch because they're there.

Ok, this is really creepy. These dudes have made compilation videos of close ups of each specific girl. It's the same group as the video he saw before, same little lewd costumes. Admittedly the girls are kinda cute. He can kinda understand the appeal. But he's not like those guys, he would never become like, obsessed with them.

The song is actually really catchy. The kind of mindlessly addictive, repetitive pop music that's the same four chords over and over, each song is so similar you can't really tell them apart, but it gets stuck in your head anyway. This group has... nine members. Who needs that many singers in one group? It's not like a band or anything, they all just sing and do their little choreography. Guess that's a form of talent, even though he doesn't really get it.

Some of the groups he sees in recommended videos are cute and wholesome, and while this group is cute too, there's a very... Blatantly intentional lewdness to their poses and costumes. A hypersexualized sort of cuteness. Clearly marketed at lonely losers who have nothing better to do with their time than obsess over a girl who will never even know they exist.

He taps another video.

So many compilations, yikes. He has to give the guys credit, they're insanely loyal to the individual member that they decide to fixate on. Oh, and they even make official figurines and posters for these girls, that's... Something.

And a few days later he can kinda recognize the girls. They have color themes, you know, identical costumes except each girl's is a different color. This lead one is red, this main backup is blue, etc etc. Lots of bright colors. Kinda hurts his eyes to be honest.

And he's seen compilations of every girl except... The pink one. The pink one is always kinda off to the side. Well, these groups do have their favoritism, there's apparently one or two lead singers in all of the major idol groups, and the rest are basically backups and dancers. Still, a lot of dudes get super devoted to the non-main girls. So yeah, he's never seen a compilation for the pink one... He can't always exactly remember which one is which but now he's seen enough to know the other girls' names. He's not sure what hers is though. So he googles it and gets the name.

Wonder why she doesn't have as many videos...? Oh, it's because she's the newest member. Only been around a few months. There's... A whole board dedicated to the group, which he's getting this information from. Wow, pathetic. What kind of person spends their free time browsing a forum for an idol group? Well, he's just doing it to find information, not for fun or anything. He was just curious. Now he knows and he can forget about it and never look at anything related to them again... after he types her name and group name into the YouTube search bar and checks the results out, that is.

Oh, so they do have some compilations for her, just not many. "(Name) thigh compilation." Fuck, these people have no limits to how creepy and pathetic they can get, he thinks... as he watches the video. Ok, admittedly there are some good thigh shots there. There's a comment. "At 4:26 you can see her panties." Pathetic. They're not wrong though. Just to be sure, you see, he tapped the timestamp, and you can, in fact, see them. Stripes. Cute.

But he still has to do his work. Can't get too invested in watching mindless videos all day. He's got a thesis to work on.

That makes him curious, though, he thinks as he goes about his research. Do these girls go to school? Do they like, skip college, or do they join some kind of performing arts school or...? So he googles it. He can remember the pink one's name now, so he just finds her Wikipedia page. Oh, so she joined right out of high school and has been in various groups ever since.

Wait, various groups? So she has more groups she's been in? What are those? Before he typed her name into the search along with the group name, but if he just searches her name he gets... A lot more content from earlier years. Huh. Didn't know some of them did group-hopping like that.

Still, no education. Must be all smiles and body and no brains. Guess that's all you really need. Yeah, looking at that whole act they do... All giggly and childish and lewd... She's probably not too bright. At least she's pretty and sings nice. And the thighs are rather good. Smooth looking. They have a sort of jiggle when she jumps up and down on stage. The thigh highs they make those girls wear have that nice little dip where the skin is compressed by the fabric. Like... right there at that closeup. He takes a screenshot.

It's readily available, he's already seen the video and knows the best parts, whereas searching for porn would take time. The sooner he can get the daily stress relief out of the way the sooner he can work on his thesis. So this way is faster. That's why he's jerking off to the thigh video and not taking the time to look for porn. Plus, it makes him cum faster. Which it probably shouldn't since it's just thighs, but... Probably has something to do with the tease of it all maybe. That makes sense.

Or maybe it's that cute little giggle he can hear at some parts. She smiles and jumps and spins and laughs.

...It makes him wonder what she'd look like crying. Scared. Whimpering. Covered in bruises and bite marks. The contrast between that state and the one on the screen. The process and the things he could do to get her from one to the other. Yeah, he realizes, it's that thought, rather than the happy giggling on video or tease aspect, that makes him cum.

He's aware that his... tastes... are a little on the fucked up side, but hey, there's plenty of bastards out there far worse than him.

One day he discovers she has social media platforms. He... Doesn't really have any. He doesn't have Twitter or Instagram or any of that but... He downloads the app and makes an account for each. Just to follow her. Ooh, they even have the option to get a notification every time she posts... That's good. Otherwise he might check too frequently. He sets a special sound effect for notifications for her socials. The first few times, you see, he would get super excited when his phone went off, only to be disappointed when it was just a work email. Thus, he made the separate sounds.

He wouldn't say he has a favorite, that sounds really cringey you know? He just... Likes her more than the others. ...Dammit, that's what a favorite is. Ok, maybe he has a favorite, that's not that bad. He's not obsessed. He hasn't bought any merchandise at all or anything, especially not member-specific merchandise. Which they do have, because he visited the store page for a while and spent all his willpower physically restraining himself from buying something. It's not that he's biased, he just thinks she's objectively better than the rest of the group. Which can be backed up with evidence, anyone with eyes could tell by watching the performances.

As to what specifically draws him to her... he's not certain, to be honest. Maybe it's because she's the least appreciated out of the group, new and all. The less popular one. Or maybe her personality... She seems so sweet, even though he knows it's probably just an act for the fans. Or maybe just those thighs. That's also a valid possibility.

He cracks and buys some of the merchandise. Only about $300 worth. But honestly, he gets more invested into just printing out pictures of you. Pasting them onto the wall above his desktop. It keeps him going when the nights are hard.

But he refrains from ever commenting on anything. Some of these losers are just... so embarrassing, he can't stomach the thought of being associated, even if it's just an anonymous comment online. It's still pretty... Distasteful. He still browses the boards every day. You're his lock screen now. And home screen. And also your solo is his ringtone. He only sets his phone on sound when he's alone at home, though, when he's at work he puts it on vibrate. He... doesn't want anyone hearing that. No offense. He has some appropriate amount of shame, unlike the other bastards.

And the girls probably know that most of their fans are these kind of loser men, right? She'd probably be surprised someone nearly graduating with a chemistry doctorate is sitting around watching these dumb videos. Is that more or less pathetic? He thinks less, hopefully.

In fact, the other fans kind of irritate him. They're really cringy and annoying and it gives him secondhand embarrassment. And something... Deeper. Something about seeing the comments upsets him on a visceral level. It's gross. Sure, he's grateful for the dudes who sit around and make a list of timestamps for upskirt shots and the like, but... It kinda bothers him, feeling like there's some other dude out there sitting around, watching these long videos with his gross eyes and recording the times of shots that get him off. It feels gross. But more like... A violation against you. Sure, your group is very blatantly sexualized and intentionally risque in clothing but... Still, it feels wrong for someone to go through and get to see all of that.

Well, someone else. It's ok for him, since he's not a gross degenerate like the rest of them. He does genuinely see himself as... Above them. You know how like, back in the day, how the nobles used to sit around and watch plays from the far back while the peasants gathered around the stage? It's like that. He's not a gross loser or a NEET or anything like that. He's got a life. Well... Not a social life, but he's doing better than them, at least he has a degree, and soon a higher degree, and a job. He has a lot of things they don't. Basic hygiene. Student loan debt. And uh... Well, he's probably more pleasant to interact with, at least he's not gonna be frothing at the mouth like an animal if he saw you in real life. He would certainly freeze up, but that's preferable, isn't it?

And one day there's a video circulating in the idol community - not that he's a part of it or anything, he just keeps getting the dumb videos and watching them for mindless entertainment - where some girl group had an attempted kidnapping. Not her group, but some other group. The video has gone viral. Some dude tried to rush the stage and pull one of the girls away. Apparently the cops found he had an obsession with her.

What an idiot. If you're gonna kidnap someone, put some effort in, jeez. It's not hard to figure out how to do it right.

If that were him, he wouldn't be that stupid, he'd just look for an interval where she's alone. They have those solo or breakout group songs where some of the girls are backstage, just get her then. Memorize the concert schedule, wear something over your face, chloroform her, and stuff her into something and walk right out. Easy.

....

He catches himself in the thought and realizes that might have been a bit creepy, but he was just thinking in terms of hypotheticals. If he was the kind of crazy to do that, that's what he'd do, that's all.

He's always enjoyed entertaining strategic thoughts, really. He's had a couple fantasies about how he would commit murders of this or that person before, and he's never murdered anyone, so thoughts don't lead to actions. He just... Really doesn't like those people, and the fantasies help him... Deal with it. He just likes to strategize about methods, and how he'd get away with it... Stuff like that. Actually, he's convinced it's a very normal thing, but no one wants to admit it. Everyone has detailed murder fantasies every now and then.

Which is why this is no different. He's just strategizing because it's fun. He has no intentions of doing anything for real. He just plans out the details like a game. And tells himself to just never think about it again.

Until one specific night that he's staring down at his screen. Lying in bed. He should be asleep, he needs to be up early tomorrow but... He's just checking to be sure he's reading this correctly. You're coming to his town? He wouldn't think so, since it's not too big, just your average college town. But still, you'll be right here, right in his general vicinity, not far away at all.

Not that he'd ever actually go to such an event. No way. He hates crowds with a passion. He hates loud environments even more. A concert is like his worst nightmare. Besides, knowing the general audience of your group, it'll be a bunch of sweaty NEET dudes who haven't showered in a month and haven't crawled out of their house in even longer. No thank you.

But.

That's when the thought pops back up. It's been a few months since that night he had that strategizing fantasy, and, well, he tried to forget it but... It kinda lingered in the back of his mind. And now it's back in full force.

He shrugs the idea off. It's crazy. He'd never actually do something like that. It was just a fantasy.

...But he could get away with it if he wanted to.

He's not scared or anything, no, he's confident in his strategizing. He knows he could. Totally. It's foolproof. There's no need to carry it out to know that, besides, what would he even do with you?

Well, he's pretty certain he does know what he would do with you. He's watched that thigh video maybe a hundred times now. And even if he won't admit it, he's jerked off to the exact same fantasy for like, several months.

He doesn't really... Think about it. Just kind of slips into subconscious actions. Autopilot. One click and well, there goes $400 on an amp case. His eyes gaze over the dimensions... And then there's your height on the Wikipedia page... Yeah... That should work. He gets it sent to the address a few doors down just in case, and snatches it from in front of their door, but he finds himself backpedaling. What the hell is he doing? He would never actually go through with this, what a waste of money... But he still opens it. Sets it beside his front door. Tests the wheels to make sure they work.

He knows how to make chloroform. He doesn't need YouTube tutorials (unlike a certain someone else), he knows exactly how to do it, even alternate methods besides the usual acetone and bleach combination - so long as you end up with the same chemical makeup, it's all the same. He just goes with the traditional way though... Doesn't really know why he does it. Just mutters as he stares down at the concoction wondering why he wasted his time... But he pauses before pouring it down the sink, and instead puts it in a container and keeps it on the counter. Your weight is on Wikipedia too. Taking into account your height and weight you would need about... Yeah, a very specific amount to knock you out for about three hours.

The concert day draws closer and closer and he can't sleep very well. His mind keeps running what-ifs. Just, hypothetically, what if he did go through with it? What then? What would he do long term? How would that all work out?

Well, you'd probably hate him for a while, right? But that changes. Stockholm syndrome sets in. He would know, he had to take Psych 101 back in undergrad, and the professor talked about it for a full 10 minutes, so he's basically an expert. It's been like, 7 years since then, but he still kinda remembers it. He remembers that it's supposed to set in at about 2 weeks, and solidify with time. If the captor is nice, that is, which he totally would be. ...Maybe not in bed, but most of the time. He would be nice to you, and you would start to like him. Besides, they said Stockholm syndrome set in faster if the abductor has good qualities, so, he could also reason with you, remind you that you're lucky you got abducted by someone with money - or, well, he will have money once he graduates! - and isn't some ugly gross slob. He's clean and neat. Sorta... He'll clean up all those dishes that have been sitting there a few days now, pick up all those clothes off the floor... Ok, now he's clean and neat. And, uh, what else would girls care about... He's smart. He's pretty sure he can say that with confidence, if nothing else.

Ok, so, it would work. He could... Keep you kinda... Tied up here... If you started complying within that two week period, he could get you up and walking before atrophy set in. You'd probably have to get used to the lifestyle... Right now he's kinda on a budget, but, he can get you things to keep you occupied... And so, yeah, it could work. It's simple, just keep you with him and isolated for a few weeks and uh, you'll transform into some kind of hypersexual obedient cumslut and never want to leave. That's... How Stockholm syndrome works right? Maybe he should have paid more attention in that class... Oh well. He never liked psychology.

So the day draws nearer and nearer and he starts really getting into the right... Headspace. It's a sort of manic state that he's in. Operating without really thinking, all inhibitions removed by simply refusing to think about it. He lets the subconscious take over and do all these little things to prepare, until finally that day is tomorrow. And then he kinda snaps back to full awareness and questions, again, what the hell is he doing? He can't just... Kidnap a person! Normal people don't do that... It's illegal, he'll get caught, it'll ruin his life and....

What life does he really have to ruin?

That's the thought that sort of solidifies the decision. He realizes why he's even on this path in the first place. Sure he's got a lot of academic accomplishments, but his life is... Rather empty. He doesn't really have anyone. Maybe that's why he's slowly become... Consumed by this obsession that yes, he's now willing to admit to himself is indeed an obsession. It's kinda slowly taken over his everyday life without him even noticing it was happening. He's... Kinda miserable. And very lonely. And... If nothing else... This one girl makes him feel kinda happy.

... Which is why he's going to go through with it.

And he slips back into autopilot, ends up standing outside the building. It's every bit as loud and headache-inducing as he knew it would be. Ugh. He can't wait to get out of here. If this doesn't work, well, he'll be forced to turn around. The plan is a very simple one, actually... Act like he's supposed to be there. And he does. Dresses in all black like stage technicians do, dragging his big amp case behind him, holding a bunch of cords from random things he grabbed in his house, and tries not to look nervous, keeps a neutral face and walks straight forward and... He slides right in. The security guards off to the side don't even bat an eye.

And then he has a moment of "well, I didn't expect to get this far." Pauses. So uh... what now? Well, probably should find you first. He memorized the setlist, so he knows when you'll be off... And alone. Right now there should be three of the girls backstage. It's pretty easy to find where you are, but he's paranoid that the amp case is too loud as he's dragging it around. It's necessary, though. And then, finally, he stumbles upon the room... Opens the door, half expecting to be immediately stopped, but... He can just kinda waltz right in here, some open backroom, a person here or there coming through, a lady that looks like a makeup artist doing something over there, and an actual, real tech guy over there... And over to the far back corner... Oh. That's you. He takes a moment to revel in the sight, unable to move or even breathe, and has to mentally prepare himself before moving forward. He's... Not sure exactly what to do at this point... It's kind of perfect, to be honest, there's no one around you, and you're right out of sight, where he could turn the corner and not be seen. But he's not sure how to... Approach? He thinks about it as he walks, but again, autopilot is on in his brain and he's just numbly walking forward. Does he just... Keep walking until he's right at you and just... Or...?

And a miracle happens. You hear someone coming and you turn and smile and ask are you the tech guy here to fix my mic? You point to the little microphone attached to your face. They told you someone would be coming to fix it before your next song. You presume that's him, since he's dressed in all black like all the other stage techs. He hesitates a moment, wide eyed, but then nods. Yeah, that's him, he says. His voice cracks when he says it. It's kinda cute.

You smile at him. It's wide and sweet and genuine and it almost makes him pass out on the spot. He has to swallow for a second before continuing.

But, uh, he can't do it right here he says, because fiddling with it could disrupt the uh, frequencies, cause that really shrill sound you hear sometimes. So, um, come over this way a sec, over in this dark corner of the studio conveniently out of the view of all people and security cameras. You don't know how any of that stuff works, so you trust him, it's his job after all. So you get up and straighten your little skirt out - wow those are even more revealing in person - and walk over it the dark corner where he's waiting and... it's the last thing you remember.

He does a quick look left and right to ensure no one saw you collapse in his arms, but sure enough, this area is empty. You fit into the amp case with ease. Just curl your body up and pop the lid on. Wait, can you... breathe in there? Well, it won't take long to get outside. He just rolls the case right out the door, right past the guards again, and no one stops him, no one suspects a thing. Puts the case in the backseat, opens the lid, does a quick check go make sure you're breathing alright. So he props it open by keeping a book in between the case and lid as he drives home.

Once he does get home, he just does the same thing he did before - close the lid, roll you into the elevator and up the stairs and into his place, looking back over his shoulder over and over. And once he gets you inside he just kinda... falls to his knees. Shivering. Disbelief. Because holy shit he actually did it. He actually went through with it and it worked. He sits there and stares at the case and - oh, fuck, gotta open it again for you to breathe. Actually, he might as well... take you out... when he first shoved you in, he was so high on adrenaline he didn't really process any of it, but now... he almost can't bring himself to take you out. That means he has to, like, touch you. He's gotta take a moment to mentally prepare for that. So he does. Deep breaths. And finally, with trembling hands, pulls you out, carries you on shakey legs over to the bed and sets you down.

You know, you're a lot... Smaller... Than you looked on screen. Sure, he knew your height and weight but... somehow you still seem so much smaller than he expected. That's good. Will make everything a lot easier, since you're easier to restrain. And your thighs. They're... so soft. This is so much better than the video. They're so... fleshy and warm in person. Perfect. And wow, that skirt thing is... scratchy. Actually, up close, that whole outfit thing you wear looks super uncomfortable. It probably is. ...Well, guess he now has a reason to take it off.

The rest of your skin is... also fleshy and soft. Warm. Your face... chest... stomach... everything. Your tits are really cute, too. It occurs to him that all those rabid commenters on all those boards and videos would probably kill to be him right now, pinching and squeezing at your nipples. He's seeing something they will never see. It gives him an ego boost, to be honest, makes him feel proud to get a sort of one-up on them. He gets you naked, but refrains from pulling your legs apart. He probably... wouldn't be able to control himself, and he's aiming for some self-control right now.

So he waits. Breathes deep. Restrains himself with every ounce of willpower he has. It occurs to him he has no fucking clue what he's gonna say to you. Unfortunately, that thought occurs to him as you're starting to twitch and mumble, so, he doesn't have too much time to think. Oh, fuck, you're not restrained... well, he bought some duct tape and handcuffs and blindfolds off of amazon too, so he quickly puts those in place as you're starting to wake up, and then finally, you come to full consciousness -- that telltale jerking at the restraints, the muffled little cry of confusion and fear. It's kinda hot to be honest. Well, fuck, very hot actually. You're so scared. It gives him a rush of power. Said rush goes straight to his dick.

He's got a mixed twist of guilt and arousal at the whole thing, but... he's still trying to have some self control... and if you start begging and pleading and crying, it would be too much. Oh, no, not that it would be too much in terms of guilt, no no, just that he wouldn't be able to stop himself from fucking you if he sees you cry. So he leaves the restraints on for now, so he can't see your face emote.

Then, he does something really, really mean. He knows it's cruel, honestly, it's just... so cute. What that is, is that he does nothing. Says nothing. He goes about his work, typing away, knowing you can hear, but doesn't say a word. He knows you're awake, he just wants to see how long you can sit there scared out of your mind before you finally make another noise to draw his attention. Right now, he thinks, you're probably debating, you're probably questioning whether you should keep quiet and make him think you're still out or make a noise... but eventually you will. He can see you trembling. You're probably thinking so many horrible things right now, wondering what will happen, what he'll do to you... it fills him with a sort of sadistic glee that overrides the guilt it comes along with. Sure, the guilt is there, but fuck, he could almost cum just watching you shiver, and that's more important.

And you finally make a noise. A little whimper. He stops typing, and swears he sees you tense when he does. And when he stands up, walks over to you (making sure to stomp hard and walk slow for extra effect, watching the way you curl in on yourself with each step he takes), and stops right in front of you. Finally, tells you not to scream. He's gonna give you water, ok? You nod. And, surprisingly, you don't make any move to scream or anything, you let him give it to you. You don't move a muscle besides your shaking and sucking the straw and swallowing the water. You must be really scared of him. He knows that's technically not what he should want, but... it feels nice.

He spent that time of silence coming up with what to say to you. He says that for now, you're going to stay right here. Don't ask questions. Don't make any attempt to escape. If you really need something, tap the headboard until he hears. Understand?

You're... Surprisingly receptive. You give a twitchy smile and stammer out an o-okay. He's almost pleased, but quickly realizes what you're doing.

You've been trained for this, you see. This kind of thing is attempted rather frequently in the industry. You received training for this situation - comply, don't fight, prioritize your safety, because in 99% of these cases, the missing idol is found and recovered within 48 hours. So you do what you were told to do -- smile, pretend you're ok with it, don't do anything to anger your captor.

He knows that too. He doesn't do much in that 48 hours, in fact, he even tells you he's waiting to "see what happens." He knows he can't control himself very well, so he stays in his living room for the most part and works on research, it might be pointless if he's in jail a few hours from now, but oh well. Sleeps on his couch. He offers to feed you, but you say you don't feel good. He understands.

See, in his mind, if he gets to fuck you once or twice and then be hauled off to prison and never touch you again, well, that would be actual, literal torture, so much so that never fucking you at all would be more bearable. So that's why he forces himself to wait now. He feels like he can't breathe, he's so nervous, like any moment police are going to come knocking on his door. Every little sound makes him jump. He can't sleep.

But 48 hours pass and... nothing happens.

He breathes a bit easier. Finally dares to go online, which he's been avoiding, and check on your situation... Oh, wow, social media has exploded over your disappearance. But... They have no leads. Nothing. Says she basically vanished out of thin air. Situation is, quote, "looking hopeless." Huh. He did an even better job than he thought he did. There's videos from loved ones begging the captor to let the girl go, offering to give him money even. A lot of money. But, you're more valuable than any monetary measurements could ever conceive. And he's happy. It really worked out. Everything went right, and for once, he has something that really, really makes him happy.

Likewise, the 48 hours are even more torturous for you. You start out telling yourself it'll be fine. Hopeful. But that hope in your chest slowly, gradually dies out as you realize you've hit the 48-hour mark. Even for a normal missing person, you've always heard that if they don't find them within 48 hours... the chances of ever finding them goes down significantly. But, that's because they're usually dead, right? And this guy won't kill you, so, your chances are better, right...?

He comes back after that 48 hours and finally, for the first time since you woke up, crawls onto the bed, touches you, grabs your hips with his hands. Tells you that, well, they haven't found anything yet and it looks like they aren't going to, so you're officially his now, and he's no longer worried. You should accept it. It'll make things easier for both of you if you do. You'll get adjusted in no time, you'll see.

Unsurprisingly, you're a bit less compliant than you were when you had hope. You whimper and and struggle, but it's really weak. So much so it's cute. You ask who he is. No one important, he says. Just... A fan of yours. You can hear clothes shuffling. He doesn't waste time, he's already waited two whole days suffering, so he gets his dick in you pretty quickly. Manages to make you cum. It horrifies you and kinda surprises him too to be honest. You must kinda like pain, huh. Well, that works out well.

As time goes on, what hope you had left dies completely. Weeks pass. You realize they're not coming for you. In an attempt to get you to accept it, he even shows you that you've been replaced. They're rather quick to fix the absence. They have a new girl in your spot by the end of the month. He quickly realizes maybe he shouldn't have told you, from the way your face falls and you get all hysterical. Sorry. It's the way the industry is. Don't worry. She's not even half as cute as you.

He shows you the announcement when they close the investigation, too. This also earns a rather hysterical response, but he thinks it's important you see it, so you can finally come to terms with your fate, the way things were always meant to turn out. He gets a bit frustrated. Just accept it. It's not that hard. The sooner you do, the happier you'll be. It's for your own good that you accept it.

And you do. Try as you might. You begin to make conversation. He's the only source of interaction you have. You learn about him and his life. You become invested in it. You start to cum more easily. When he's sitting on the opposite side of the bed typing away, you find yourself slowly wiggling your way over and pressing yourself against the warmth, and he certainly doesn't mind. You ask him about his research just to hear a voice talk.

And sometimes you sing. It's absent minded, soft and quiet, when you have nothing else to do. He likes that a lot. You get sweeter. Nicer. Fight less. It does take a bit longer than two weeks to set in fully. But it does in the end.

He can't be with you 24/7, as much as he would like to be, so sometimes he has to tell you to just hang on a little while. Be good and sit still for just a bit. He'll be back soon. Just give him an hour. You're just really distracting and, well, his progress report is due tomorrow morning.

And you keep getting upset over the new member, bring it up a lot... It must have really bothered you, huh. Well, don't feel bad about being replaced. To him, nothing could ever replace you... you're still his favorite.

[checkmatein3moves]

Hello! What are the RO's favorite social media platforms (and why)?

considering i've only partially thought about the specifics of popular social media in oracle (so far all i have is that the main one, scry, is like if you combined the connection aspect of linkedin, the nosy aspect of facebook, the forum aspect of reddit and like, the vapid news aspect of any tabloid) then for this i'll just do what they would like if they used social media in this time and universe

hebe: mainly on art twitter. posts her art on tumblr too but prefers the exposure of twitter. gets into her fair share of arguments over people reposting without credit and blatantly misinterpreting her favourite characters. complains about the toxic people but likes commissioning other artists to support them and deep diving into constructive criticisms. uses facebook solely to share pictures of her brother's dogs or to shade her sister. posts on instagram with windo and MC a lot, has an aesthetic theme

windo: goes on reddit but specifically the redditships/tifu/aita realm, occasionally the nosleep type subreddits. gets sucked in. sometimes posts in them so people can laugh at the stupid things he's done, e.g. TIFU by offering to hang a priceless painting for a friend. decided to improvise when i realised i didn't know what i was doing. gives advice on the relationship posts. knows there's a lot of fake posts but operates on the suspension of disbelief to connect with strangers. also has an instagram w/ a mixture of goofy, friendship and fashion posts, and a work twitter to give commentary on political articles

sailor: a finsta to scroll meme instagrams. they actually laugh out loud at some of the bad jokes they come across. doesn't have tiktok so they can sit on their high horse in disdain for it but has seen millions in the reels tab anyway. never posts or comments, just likes. they send the MC memes but not through dms or anything, literally will get up and show them irl if they find something they think they'd laugh at like a cat bringing you a dead mouse. don't really do public social media profiles because they value their privacy.

jelly: their finsta that they just post bullshit on. they have like 3 followers and all their posts are like a slew of every thought that pops into their head at 2am. their celebrity crushes, things that made them laugh for 5 mins for no reason, their take on soulmates, on fictional characters, nostalgia posts, dog pics, them listening to one direction, 5 selfies in a row of different angles, drunk posts. their public social medias are all very put together and well curated tho. pretty pics and makeup #ads on insta. eloquent linkedin. no facebook

twenty: barely uses any. dislikes seeing too many opinions that he didn't ask for. had a phase where he used to troll scammers (and sometimes just random people to be a menace) on habbo hotel. wouldn't admit it but he likes taking uquizzes. what kind of emo are u. what horror movie trope would u be. what colour would u be. 9/10 he’s not even happy about the results but he just goes :/ and moves onto the next one. has seen like 5 total tiktoks and only knows what a tiktoker is because jelly has explained it

noir: doomscrolls on various sites, mostly twitter and douban. hates these sites with a passion but continues to consume all the depressing content anyway as just one of many shitty habits. had a sadboy tumblr (because OF COURSE HE DID) in his teens that is semi-common knowledge but old enough news that it’s not really something people bring up to tease him about. black and white big gifs with text, angsty textposts, classics like that. pretends to care about his linkedin but god if it’s not the most boring thing ever to him. posts view pics on insta 

honey: honestly probably normal twitter. her dn is just honey and her @ is something generic and she shares her opinions on condiments and mundane things like that. not really interested in discourse or fandom spaces and is not the most up to date in meme culture. she’s busy a lot, so she doesn’t have much time to spend online. watches those calming asmr baking videos on youtube. in her teens i think she would’ve been a fan of acoustic cover channels. had a facebook when she was younger but deactivated it because she never used it

jareth: his secret letterboxd. actually reviews movies impartially and passionately. nobody would ever guess it was him. not a mega popular account, but pretty credible. likes to take advantage of the fact he’s not taken too seriously by certain demographics, so he shares his more comprehensive opinions anonymously. gets genuinely irritated by most troll reviews. some are funny enough to let slide. he had a wattpad once but NOBODY knows nor will they ever know because he would die of embarrassment if that came out. sometimes says annoying shit on twitter but nothing too controversial or topical

ludo: it’s not really a social media but like......ebay. he can scroll ebay for hours whether he’s window shopping or actually wants to buy something. likes to look in the antique section especially. the habit started because he grew up with barely any money and used to curiously browse the kind of obscure stuff rich collectors liked to buy, but by the time he had income of his own (albeit not that much) he’d kind of convinced himself that he understood why people wanted this junk. now it’s like an addiction. he also has a twitter that’s more clued into memes and references but is still pretty mundane. 

monty: her instagram is very well curated. meticulous, even, with selfies, fashion, meals, more ‘relatable’ backstage pictures, etc. it’s definitely a little too perfect but she’s proud of her aesthetic eye, and her public image isn’t fake so much as presented in a way that she gets to keep her personal things to herself. is the kind of celebrity to do instagram lives just to make her fans happy. made a youtube channel due to popular demand but doesn’t really have a clear plan for it, so it’s mostly just q&a where she talks about her favourite characters, funny set anecdotes and her met gala looks. jareth appears on it sometimes to talk about their drama greenwood creek and he suggests meme reviews and things like that

[inklingofadream]

✍✍🦆🦆🦆✍✍!

Hey, sometimes I get ppl in my fic comments asking why/how when I’m on an update kick I get so many out in such quick succession and the answer is a) i lack the self control to keep stuff in resever but MORE IMPORTANTLY b) I use a writing website/game called 4thewords

It’s got quests and little creatures you “fight” by writing a certain number of words in a given timeframe, and a streak mechanic that’s been really good for helping me get something down every day, since the goal is only 444 words instead of something like NaNoWriMo’s goal. There are forums and you can dress up your avatar and house, all the stuff that makes a lot of cell phone games really addictive but with like! productivity! About once a month they do some kind of special event (ie for Valentine’s day, Pride month, NaNo), and there’s one starting today!

I figured it would be a good time to mention them on my blog again bc I am the Most excited:

[id: a screenshot of an illustration of a rubber duck wearing a hat and white text on a navy background reading “The Pazka Clan of Ducks has been spotted flying close to Mama Tree! They will soon make landfall and officially Kick off Our week-long celebration!” /end id]

so this is both a note that there’s Hope for fic updates, bc i’m super excited for this event bc ducks have been my favorite animal since I was a baby (my first word was duck. i had multiple duck-themed birthday parties. i’m so excited) and a semi-regular recommendation that you check them out!

It’s a paid service, but it only costs $4/month and you start with a 30 day free trial! If you sign up with a referral code (mine is BKDRX51820) then if you decide to continue to a paid subscription you get a referral bonus of the in-game currency used to pay for subscription time (and exclusive avatar/house accessories etc if you feel like it) equivalent to 2 weeks of subscription, and the person who referred you gets a month’s worth bonus! It doesn’t change anything else about your account, you don’t have to idk add ur referrer to ur friends list or give a different kind of identifying info or anything, it’s just a fun bonus

I really really like this site, it has its flaws but I feel like the developers’ hearts are in the right place. If you decide you like the site, they have stuff like a community pool people donate subscription time to so that people in a financial bind can use the site, and I’ve seen them note world events with notes that users effected who let them know via email can have their subscription time and streak frozen until things calm down. Plus you get to spread your internet presence out away from the 4 sites where everything happens these days, to one with anonymity and pseudonyms, which I find really soothing and refreshing.

Also if you decide it’s going to be one of your go-to writing sites, you’re already on there, or you’ve taken my recommendation in the past, lmk/send me a friend request! I’m paperdream over there, same as I am most places! Just make sure you let me know who you are offsite if you use a different username, so I don’t make a fool of myself 😂

[aspecpplarebeautiful]

A lot of ace terminology confuses me, as an allo person. I'm apparently meant to be doing and feeling a lot of things that I'm not? I've never felt attraction that could be placed into one of the types/labels. It's all just. Attraction to me. And attraction is separate from a crush which is separate from infatuation for me but apparently those are all meant to be the same/very similar? I've been looking through a lot of ace/aro blogs and I just don't get it. Am I not allo?

Yeah honestly one of the big challenges of this blog is people do come from various points of understanding, and figuring what needs explained and what doesn't. So don't feel bad, it's a common issue. And I'm always happy to explain when people send in asks asking for clarification on anything.

So crushes, romantic attraction and infatuation aren't exactly synonymous (focusing on romantic attraction, just because we're talking about crushes and infatuation). Romantic attraction would be any pull towards another person to be in romantic situations with them, or be in a relationship defined as romantic.

A crush isn't something that's been well defined in our culture, but I would say the way it's used colloquially, it's when you get a sustained attraction to another person to the point where you start thinking about and focusing on them a lot, but has not evolved to the point of an actual romantic relationship.

And infatuation would be that very strong romantic attraction where you're looking at the other person through an idealized lens and that can happen early in an attraction or a romantic relationship.

Some people do define crushes and infatuation as being the same thing, but I feel like I've seen a lot of times where people have crushes where it's either not strong enough to be considered infatuation or they're not looking at them in an idealized lens.

So basically crushes and infatuation are aspects of attraction, but attraction is more than that.

There's also romantic desire, which is a general desire to be in a romantic relationship or do romantic things but not necessarily directed at another person. And romantic drive, which is how often or how much someone wants to be in romantic situations, indulge in romance, etc.

As for your situation, Anon, not everyone experiences attraction the same way. And that includes how they may experience things like crushes and infatuation and this is true for both allo and ace/aro people. There's also a certain point where attraction comes down to personal interpretation, and two people may have similar feelings but interpret what they're feeling differently. So how you interpret what you're feeling is always going to take priority.

Could you not be allo? I would encourage you to look at it like this--labels are tools, they're meant to be useful. But it's up to the individual to determine whether a tool is useful for them. If someone doesn't need a slide-ruler, why go out and buy a slide-ruler? So ask yourself, would these labels be useful for you?

If this is something you do want to look into more, I recommend seeking out ace and aro people talking about their experiences. It really is the best way of getting a good understanding of exactly what asexuality and aromanticism are and what they're like. If you're not sure where to look or where to start, I recommend Carnival of Aces and Carnival of Aros, which are monthly blogging events according to a theme. Or checking out or lurking around Arocalypse, which is an aro themed forum (they also have a very good FAQ).

I mostly focused on the romantic side of things, but if you have any questions about asexuality/allosexuality or sexual attraction, feel free to ask. For a lot of people romantic and sexual feelings are very wrapped up in each other, but we tend to separate them out when talking about them for simplicity's sake and because experiencing them differently isn't uncommon in ace/aro communities.

Feel free to send in another ask if you have more questions or want anything clarified. All the best, Anon!

[ariainstars]

Ben Solo - A Sad Star Wars Story

Warning: longer post. (And possibly, a few unpopular opinions.)

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For a start: I’m not here to say I like how the sequels ended with Episode IX, in particular the way they handled their protagonist.

It sucked, to say the least.

I am writing this because looking back now, I can hardly imagine how the authors could have wrapped up the sequel trilogy with the happy ending we expected.

Let’s start with that word: happy. Honestly, did anyone want Ben to be “happy” with what Rey has become? I did expect her to fall down the rabbit hole. We repeatedly have witnessed how aggressive and judgmental she is; and by all logic, she had to meet her own Dark Side in order to realize that she has no right to judge the man she first knew as Kylo Ren. The moment I heard Palpatine’s evil laugh in the first trailer, I figured he had come to pursue Rey, not him. Unfortunately, her moment of shock was short and she hardly learned from it; if anything, since Luke sent her right back into the battle. This scene may have been what fanbros expected from Luke, but honestly, it was ridiculous. It did not fit to The Last Jedi’s Luke and it did not do Rey any favor.

And: had Ben emerged victoriously, found his happy ending, how would the title “The Rise of Skywalker” be justified? He is a Skywalker by blood, but in fact he is a Solo.

  Wrapping Up the Saga

The sequels were received with mixed feelings from the start. Fans of old were angry at The Force Awakens since it seemed to say that history was repeating itself; that the heroes or the original trilogy had brought down the Empire but not managed to preserve peace. We saw them separated from one another as they once had been, disillusioned and worn out. Not the mention the wasp’s nest that was raised by The Last Jedi! If the Prequel Trilogy dismantled the illusion that the Jedi were perfect, the Sequel Trilogy definitively does the same with the Skywalker family. Both messages are clear for everyone to see, provided one is ready and willing to see them.

If Star Wars is a tale with a moral - and given its approach and the fact that it was handed over by Lucas to Disney of all studios it is - then the authors are trying since the 80ies to teach our minds to a compassionate approach on both villains and heroes. One of the main reasons why many fans dislike the prequels is that they expected to see the Jedi and Anakin / Vader being cool; they felt let down by witnessing the Jedi’s narrow-mindedness and Anakin’s strong emotionality. The affronted reactions to The Last Jedi were on the same line of thought. The prequels showed that the Jedi were not the good guys, and for the observant viewer this is already clear enough in the original trilogy. But it was only with The Last Jedi that the elephant in the room was finally approached.

Through Rey, The Rise of Skywalker makes clear that wanting to be a Jedi does not entail actual heroism but the conviction of being a hero. And Rey’s dyad in the Force, the tragic figure of Ben Solo, warns about the dangers coming from a child and teenager no one believed in as a person because everybody only saw his powerful potential.

The Jedi’s Failure

Neither Luke nor Anakin nor Rey needed the Jedi in order to become heroes. They already were good-hearted, brave and idealistic when we first met them. The Jedi ways did not make any of them happy; they learned to use their powers and employed them for short-lived “victories”, but they never found lasting peace.

Not a few fans have wondered how Luke Skywalker, who believed in his father despite all, could give up on his nephew that fatal night (even if it was only a moment of panic). Simply put: as strong and mature as he is by the time of Return of the Jedi, Luke suffers from a father trauma, and he desperately wishes for Vader to become Anakin again, his father, who used to be a hero. When he asks Vader to leave and come with him, it is not out of pure idealism but also a personal request. But Luke did not need his nephew. The moment he had at the temple was a personal issue, it had little to do with Ben’s strength in the Force or his status as Luke’s model student: Luke was afraid that Ben would be the end of everything he loved. Luke, Leia and Han were thrown together by a trauma bonding; Ben had no place with them because he hadn’t been through the same.

The actual tragedy in Ben Solo’s life was the bitter realization, over and over, that he was not needed by anyone (except for being abused, e.g. by Snoke). Ben desired Rey even before he had met her because she was powerful but unexperienced, and he hoped to find sense and belonging by protecting and instructing her. No wonder Rey’s rejection in the Throne Room drove him out of his mind with rage: it was another confirmation of what he had experienced all his life - that people can do without him. So he decided, bitterly and sullenly, that he could do without others as well. But over and over, he had to realize that he could not escape his want for connection. He kept hunting for Rey; and he was very conflicted both when it came to his father and his uncle, letting on that he did have an emotional connection with both of them although he didn’t want to accept it.

Ben’s tragedy was that he did not want to be special at all, and that contrarily to his uncle and grandfather he was aware of it. Ben simply wanted to belong somewhere.

It is an intrinsic part of the saga that a hero is never a hero “because he is superior to others for… reasons”: Star Wars does not bow to that cliché. Some people are born with the capacity to tap into the Force, but not all of the saga’s heroes have it. The morally good qualities a person has, the right decisions they make are not inborn but passed on, learned, communicated. In A New Hope Luke was saved by Han, to whom he had offered companionship and set an example by trying to save Leia. In Return of the Jedi Vader was won over by his son’s loyalty and sacrifice. For an average action film hero, this kind of attitude or outcome of his adventures would be unacceptable: a hero is expected to be triumphant, not saved by someone else. And I know enough fans who don’t understand Luke and prefer Han or Vader to him, who are both cooler and more predictable.

In film, where characters need to be introduced to the audience within the scope of minutes, narratives are applied in a way that the general audience gets them quickly. The downside is that this goes at the expense of nuances. Fans don’t like to see Anakin being passionate and stormy because as Darth Vader he was coded as brutal but cool; they don’t get Obi-Wan’s many mistakes because he was coded as a hero, or Yoda’s arrogance due to his status as a wise old mentor. The sequels brought this dichotomy to a new level coding Rey as the heroine although she has a bad attitude and comes from bad blood, and Ben Solo as the villain when his attitude is conflicted at worst, and who is the offspring of the original story’s heroes. The difference lies in their intentions - hers are good, his are bad. This is interesting because it makes us, the audience, question ourselves as to how and why we believe we can tell good from evil.

You could probably say into a megaphone that the Jedi are not the good guys who always win, that the Force is not a superpower belonging only to the Jedi and that there is no simple Dark and Light but that the Force needs balance: some viewers will never get it. I guess everybody feels the saga’s subtext on a subconscious level; but woe betide if someone like Rian Johnson brings it up to the surface for everyone to see.

  Narrative Key

One of the main reasons why The Last Jedi is so divisive is, I think, that its major theme connecting all of the others is communication. While the prequels told much about miscommunication or lack thereof, Episode VIII is packed full of beautiful examples of what happens when people actually manage to communicate; and even when they do not, they learn from their misunderstanding one another (e.g. Poe with Admiral Holdo).

It is a common but major mistake not to question the narrative key to a story. Many Star Wars fans believe the story is simply about the good guys defeating the bad guys, so they overlook the deeper themes of the saga and respond with outrage when the authors try to humanize their heroes, bringing them down from their alleged pedestal. It is e.g. helpful to know Joseph Campbell’s monomyth theory; to consider that a film saga is not the same as a TV show and that therefore if the characters go through changes these must be significant from one instalment to the next due to the time limitations; to watch a few films by Akira Kurosawa, in particular The Hidden Fortress, to understand the significance of a major event seen through different eyes; or consider the prequels’ parallels with legends, classic literature, or the Bible - Lucifer’s fall, Romeo and Juliet, the tales of King Arthur. Star Wars is a conglomeration of many narratives, from Western films to the Japanese to French fairy tales to Greek mythology to Shakespearean drama. Who approaches these films expecting mere “action” is bound to be disappointed. It is understandable, however, that if you are used to certain kinds of stories, you will assume that every story should basically follow the same lines, and you will have difficulties accepting anything that is different, or believe it’s just badly made.

I still remember the (sometimes vicious) quarrels I followed in an online forum a few years ago about a Japanese mecha anime who some fans by hook or crook wanted to fit into the structure of a French novel. Of course, those two narratives don’t fit together: no wonder most of the other fans didn’t accept that kind of interpretation.

The Phantom of the Opera’s film version of 2004 was largely a failure both with regard to quality and audience appreciation because it made a tacky Byronic romance of a story that actually is a mystery thriller, probably expecting that it would be more appealing that way. What the filmmakers accomplished was making the story flat and the characters annoying by stripping them of the drama behind the original story.

Filming Rebecca’s film version from 1940 Hitchcock managed the transition excellently maintaining the storyline of the original novel; but Daphne duMaurier’s book is a coming-of-age story, and who expects a crime thriller may feel irritated by the narrators’ meandering and detailed inner monologue.

Game of Thrones also could not culminate in “all’s well that ends well”. The last season was not well-made, but I think now that was not the whole reason behind the audience’s disappointment. The show always was very crude and included loads of horrific events; even the worst victims of the war, who seemed to have a justification for their actions and seemed well-meaning, at times did terrible things. It would be a misfit to apply a happy ending to a “sex and violence” narrative as with another martial epic, like Aeneid and Iliad. Who waits for happy endings ought to avoid this kind of story from the start. (Yes, I know, I should listen to my own advice - had I imagined how depressing Rogue One is, Star Wars fan or not, I would probably have skipped it.)

Stories of this kind can be dissatisfying because as an audience, we follow our heroes’ adventures, sometimes for years, and we usually want to see them to find their happiness in the end. But in all honesty: we should have imagined.

That is why I think it was naïve to believe that the sequel trilogy would lead Ben to a happy ending with Rey. I have read more than one fanfiction which irritated me at first, until I realized that they were told on the lines of Fifty Shades of Grey, or Pride and Prejudice. That may work well for a fanfiction, but Star Wars is not a mere romance. Even if there was a hint of the overture to Romeo and Juliet during the abduction: couples based on that trope are not destined to end well. I myself was hoping for a happy ending due to the fact that the saga’s rights were in the hands of Disney of all production companies; and giving that the Skywalker family is one of the most famous in pop culture, I was certain they wouldn’t wipe them out. However I was not quite sure how they would do that and make it convincing, and I was wary when it came to the assumption (which many Reylo’s took for granted) that the love between Rey and Ben would be strong enough to save the galaxy and give them a happy ever after.

When a guy is introduced by murdering a defenseless old man, letting an entire village be wiped out with practiced ease, going on with torturing another guy both physically and mentally and climaxing with the horrible crime of patricide, one can hardly expect a happy ever after for him; even less since so very little was explained in terms of his childhood and adolescence. Some viewers identified with Ben Solo and saw his abandonment and abuse issues; many others didn’t, and none of the sequel films really thematized them. That he made peace with his parents and died to save the girl he loved is sufficient for a convincing redemption arc, not to offer him a happy closure.

  The Trope That Comes Closest

There were a lot of speculations with regard to the trope Ben (Kylo) and Rey were actually modelled on. Romeo and Juliet, Hades and Persephone, Pride and Prejudice or Beauty and the Beast, and there were probably more. Rian Johnson is known for loving The Phantom of the Opera more than any other musical. I don’t think that’s coincidental.

- The phantom is disfigured by birth, Ben is extremely powerful by birth; and Ben also gets disfigured by Rey during their duel. (Vader’s sunken, charred face under the mask was, for a long time, how I imagined the phantom unmasked by the way.) - The phantom is highly intelligent and has huge musical talent. Ben was born with a strong power in the Force. - Both wear masks and look much less threatening without them. They also wear a cloak, and black clothes. - The phantom had committed terrible crimes both to protect himself and to punish a world which would not accept him. Sounds familiar? - In the musical we do not get to know how he became a ruthless monster in the first place. Ditto. - The phantom dies (or disappears, in the musical) because only the girl knew that he was lonely and unhappy and that he still had goodness inside him. She had forgiven him, but the rest of the world wouldn’t have believed her or forgiven him.

Both Kylo Ren and the Phantom are creatures who are at the same time terrible and wonderful. The normal world, populated by average people, cannot accept them because they are both too fascinating and too terrifying. In order to find lasting fulfilment, Ben ought to have found back to humanness. The phantom couldn’t due to his disfigurement and his criminal past; and though Ben loses the scar on his face, the Cain’s mark of the patricide he committed, his deed and his former status as Supreme Leader of the First Order never would have been forgotten.

“Yet in his eyes all the sadness of the world Those pleading eyes that both threaten and adore…” Christine in The Phantom of the Opera (on the rooftop)

  Heroes: Dynamic and Static Characters

A general rule of storytelling is differentiating between dynamic and static (also called “impact”) characters. A static character is like an anchor for others: while they live through crises, learning and maturing, this character always remains his old self and always stands for the same values. He may be misunderstood, opposed and belittled, he may lose the battle, but never the war; and after having helped others through their troubles, he usually is on his own. (Cue: cowboy riding into the sunset.)

Superman stands for peace and justice, Jack Sparrow for freedom, Peter Pan for the innocence of childhood, Paddington for faith in people’s goodness. No wonder they are so popular: it is familiar and reassuring to follow the adventures of someone who is always like a rock in a storm. Static characters are in essence childlike, two-dimensional; which is probably why our child self easily gets attached to them and may be outraged at the idea of them changing, or maybe (gasp) being wrong about something.

But George Lucas developed his saga along the lines of personal growth, and by exploring its themes: thankfully, otherwise it would have become as boring and repetitive as so many other franchises. To continue a story you can either make it dynamic, or press the repeat button over and over. The Skywalker men with their strong emotionality may be unusual heroes, but much more interesting than other, “cooler” guys whose actions are more or less foreseeable. So, I can understand the Disney studio’s choices. On the other hand, it is not surprising when fans of old get angry when their supposedly unalterably perfect heroes make mistakes: everybody wants to know that some things (or persons) never change. Even if on the long run, change might be for the better.

I think one of the sequels’ most important messages was that the Skywalker-Organa-Solo family failed their heir precisely because their mindset did not change. Ben grew up in another world than they did; obsolete political structures, dictatorship or rebellions did not matter to him. But his family wanted him to adhere to the ideals that had gotten them through the war against the Empire, discouraging him from searching and finding his own place in the world, a world that now was very different both from the old Republic and the Empire.

Whether a static or dynamic character is more relatable to the audience is a personal matter. Many fans adore Darth Vader, Leia and Han Solo etc. precisely for the fact that basically they always remain their old selves. Padmé also is a favorite, probably due to the fact that she does not change considerably. Anakin changes a lot, which is perceived as a sign of weakness. Some fans may relate more to Luke, who undergoes serious trials and emerges from them stronger and wiser, far away from the greenhorn he was in A New Hope. And yet Luke’s final decision to throw his weapon away before Palpatine is often perceived as weird to this day. It’s not “heroic”.

The outraged fans who ranted at Luke’s portrayal in The Last Jedi did not realize that Luke was doing something both Obi-Wan and Yoda, or the other Jedi for that matter, never had done: he took responsibility for his actions. In this context Ben was the audience’s self-insert, he was as appalled at Luke’s misstep as we were. Such a blow is enough to send someone on a lonely island to meditate about his mistakes for years, convinced that the world is better without him.

But for the action film audience, that is not acceptable. If you have a light sabre and the Force (an alleged superpower), what do you need responsibility for? You can’t do wrong if you’re the hero, right? Luke also was the only character from the original trilogy who underwent character growth, which makes it all the more ironic that the many, many critics who tear the sequels to pieces are fuming at how Luke could be so “defiled”. Luke grew beyond the person he had been in A New Hope; these fans obviously did not. Which is why the studios thought they had to produce The Rise of Skywalker in order to “appease” them and to give them the Luke Skywalker they wanted.

  Where Does the Galaxy Go From Here?

A conversation between my husband and me, about a year before The Rise of Skywalker came out.

Me: “I hope Ben Solo will survive at the end of the trilogy.” Him: “I do hope that, too. But they won’t give him a happy ending.” Me: “Why?” Him: “He killed his own father.”

I hate to admit it, but he was right. I’m not aware what ethics code is under use in the film industry now, but in any case, the horrible crime of patricide was done; even if it was under coercion, the son traumatized by it, and it ultimately brought him back to redemption. You can’t make a patricide, the former right hand and for a time leader of a terrorist organization a hero and give him a happy ending; in particular when you are Disney of all film studios. (Not to mention that he killed Han Solo, a very popular character.) And from exchanges with other viewers I am aware that many do not understand how Ben killed Han under Snoke’s coercion, and the implications that led him to kill Snoke: they believe he simply did it because it’s something an evil, power-hungry person will do.

Ben dying without anyone knowing that he was not a villain at heart and worse, leaving the fates of the galaxy in the hands of a young woman whom we often saw giving in to evil influences again and again within the scope of minutes was a dangerous turn. If he was but “a child in a mask”, Rey is a child who believes to be a Jedi. How is Rey supposed to be a heroine, with the other half of her soul gone? She and Ben fitted together perfectly because she had the good intentions but a violent attitude, while his intentions were bad but his attitude desperately conflicted because inherently good. Rey came from evil blood but was kind-hearted because she believed in her parent’s love. Ben was the heir of a family of heroes but did not feel loved by them, which made him lonely and bitter. What good is Rey on her own, even more so when at the end of Episode IX she deliberately leaves her friends and goes to a literal desert? The little girl inside of her is still starving for connection, and neither being a Jedi nor a “Skywalker” will appease her. She had to meet Luke to realize that he was a good man but still just a man; a lesson she didn’t quite internalize yet. The sequel trilogy wasn’t her story because her personality hardly developed. It was Ben who went through hell and back.

Films (and film sagas) have a determined length and as a film studio you need time to explore all themes, which in Star Wars are quite complex. The worst mistake I found with Episode IX was that it broke the Campbellian monomyth in favor of a Marvel type B-movie to appease the fans of old who had hated The Last Jedi. Which is understandable from their point of view, but went at the expense of quality. The Rise of Skywalker may have quenched the fire a little, but as a film, it’s frankly forgettable, and compared to the other films from the saga, I doubt that it will age well. Had the sequel trilogy continued Rian Johnson’s approach instead of putting a band-aid on The Last Jedi, it would have been good enough to make a cultural impact the way the classics did. If the sequel trilogy was meant to follow The Hero’s Journey, no one completed it: Ben died and Rey went into exile, and no one brought any kind of elixir or salvation into the world.

All of this is not to say that I have grown to like The Rise of Skywalker and that I am not disappointed about the ending, or no longer sad about Ben Solo’s death. I hope that the next trilogy will give him a second chance: I am still convinced that his ultimate fate should have been to bring lasting Balance to the Force. If I am wrong and his existence practically cancelled the past without improving anything, the whole saga loses its sense. I think that by now he atoned more than enough for his sins.

When I learned that Rian Johnson had negotiated his own trilogy after The Last Jedi, I remember wondering what it would be about. After all, almost everything had been said about the Skywalker saga, hadn’t it?

It hadn’t. I had naively assumed that like with Episodes III and VI, the final revelations were preserved for Episode IX. By now it seems to me like The Rise of Skywalker is meant as an appetizer for the next sequel. It can’t be that the studios unlearned how to make good films in so short a time after The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, also considering that everything else they made about Star Wars in between (Rogue One, Solo, The Mandalorian) is solid work and not by a long shot as flat as Episode IX.

The studios assuredly will keep their secrets as long as they can. The Mandalorian was met with huge expectations, yet nobody knew about Baby Yoda before the first episode was aired. Due to their depth and love for details, Star Wars films can be watched and discussed over and over, and the message regarding the necessity of Balance is still widely unknown or not accepted by the fans. If this is supposed to be not only an entertaining but also an educational tale, authors must give new fans room to get to know the saga, and old fans time to let the new ideas sink in. Lucas and his collaborators have taken decades trying to teach us that morals are not black and white. But still when The Last Jedi came out, the message was utterly hated.

Whatever Johnson’s trilogy will be about, it can’t be a part of the Skywalker saga any more: they are all dead. Even if Ben is brought back somehow, he is a Solo, so this time it would be the story of his own family. The Skywalker saga was basically Anakin’s, and by reconciling with a Palpatine and giving his life to save the woman he loved his grandson ultimately made up for his sins. The Last Jedi was a bold move; but what are “bold moves” supposed to be good for if they are not followed through? Apart from the fact that the sequels weren’t even exactly bold but drawing sums from what we already could see in original trilogy and prequels about the Jedi and the old Republic.

  Family Is the Key

Star Wars is a family tale. It is for families and it is about families. One of the most frustrating things about The Rise of Skywalker was, for me, that the “new” heroes didn’t make any kind of home or family of their own; and a Star Wars film or series never works without a father figure at its heart. I am sure Ben Solo was ultimately meant to be a father figure; the sequels couldn’t work without even giving him the chance to be one. Anakin and Luke both founded a family - one through marriage, the other befriending many different people. The third generation did not even get a chance either way.

“I believe that you are redeemed by your children.” George Lucas

In Star Wars, children always have to pay for their parent’s sins, and only they can make them atone. Which makes it all the more tragic that Ben is not a father; by this logic, only his child could have saved him, or an adopted one. On seeing the enslaved children of Canto Bight, of whom one is Force-sensitive, I was convinced that the sequels would be the children’s trilogy. (I might have accepted Ben dying had he saved and left them with Rey, who also is an abandoned child and so would have found a meaningful task.)

What the galaxy needs most are not heroes but people. Heroes exist to save desperate situations; lasting peace can only be made by normal people. With Luke becoming a hero in the original trilogy and Anakin a villain in the prequels, I was expecting Ben to find back to humanness. Since we have another trilogy to look forward to, I do still hope Ben will get another chance and this time he will find his happiness; but I also believe that he will have a long way to go before that. By the end of The Rise of Skywalker he is a hero, but in order to be happy he would need to learn how to be fully human, realigning both sides of his personality and healing the gap between them (the way Anakin couldn’t). And you don’t learn how to embrace your humanness quickly after having lost it within the scope of years and years. Ben wanted Rey because she was the only person in the galaxy with whom he could be completely honest. But being human also entails bonding with other people, not only with one’s significant other.

Ben tried to pull off the “bad guy” role and failed because it’s not in his nature. A lot of fans see him as a loser, because whether good or evil, a male protagonist is supposed to be always unfazed. The gentle, nurturing and emphatic personality that comes out in Ben when he is balanced is not that of a warmonger but of a peacekeeper: I see nothing inacceptable or emasculating in that. Unfortunately, who has Luke, Anakin or Han as blueprints for “real” men, won’t accept someone like Ben Solo. I hope that in time, he will be more appreciated, and that his life story will be a warning both for the audience and for the saga itself, i.e. that it is more to the point not to punish a criminal but to prevent him from becoming that way in the first place. Which brings us again to the topic of children and a better way to raise them, Force-sensitive or not.

Rey and Ben both are children with unhealed wounds. Their brief moment of harmony during the Force connection on Ahch-To was so powerful because both were speaking to each other’s inner child: Ben saying to Rey that she was not alone, Rey offering Ben an understanding he had not known before. Padmé also always saw in Anakin the good little boy she had first met; one of the reasons of the unbalance in their relationship was that he felt powerless to do something for her in return.

I think that the sequel trilogy of the Skywalkers wanted to tell us is that even if you save the whole galaxy, it’s not sufficient if afterwards you can’t support and protect your own offspring. When we met Han, Leia and Luke again, their personalities were pretty much as we left them; their mistake in handling Ben can’t have been something they actually did to him, the blunder must lie somewhere in their attitude. All three of them were traumatized by cruelly losing or never having known a healthy family life, so we must assume that after the war against the Empire, they tried to build a new world that would fit to their needs. But if adults build a home, they must do so thinking first and foremost not of themselves but of the ones who need it more than them. Children shape the future, not a victory of “good” over “evil”. And I find it interesting that the codebreaker DJ, who had such a pragmatic view of war, was also someone we met on Canto Bight, like the children. He was a traitor, but as everyone in the saga, even he had a point when he said that ultimately, wars are useless because they always flare up again.

“Good, bad, made-up words. You blow them up today, they blow you up tomorrow.” DJ in The Last Jedi

The last scene of The Last Jedi showed us a Force-sensitive boy sweeping an open space before looking up at the sky and dreaming about being a Jedi. I still believe that this scene’s meaning was “Clear the stage, it’s time for us - the children.”

The Jedi, respectively Force-sensitive creatures, must find new and better ways if they want to be advocates for peace and justice. No institution can claim to have a moral standard if it does not protect, nurture and encourage their most vulnerable and needful members, i.e. the children. Watching the prequels it is shocking to follow how the intelligent, brave and affectionate child Anakin could become the most hated man in the galaxy, crushed in the powerplay between the “good but narrow-minded guys” and the “bad but not always wrong” guys. Both his and his grandson’s dark fate could have been avoided, had it not been for the Jedi mentality based upon the conviction of having the right to destroy everything that does not (or does not seem) to line up with them.

The Star Wars saga told us over and over that power is not what it takes. The Jedi lost the Clone Wars; Vader was a lonely, bitter guy (not to mention Palpatine); Kylo had all the power his grandfather never had and it did him no good. Anakin, Han and Ben all were loved most by their women when they were at their weakest. And this brings me back to what I stated above: stories can be interpreted in different ways, but what about the message the author actually wanted to convey? If I am not getting it all wrong, it’s that compassion and not power is the key to everything good.

Episode VII and IX mirror one another, only VIII hints at a possible balance. Star Wars has a cyclical narrative; Anakin / Vader had his happiest moments and successes in his youth, while his grandson in his own youth hit rock bottom and committed his worst sins. If Kylo Ren’s destiny, as per Adam Driver’s words, is supposed to be the opposite of Darth Vader’s, how can The Rise of Skywalker really be the ultimate ending for him?

  P.S. What do you think, could baby Yoda and Ben meet? Then Obi-Wan and Yoda would be together again in a new way. P.P.S I would also like to see the Force, for once. I’m sure it’s not black and white at all. How about a rainbow? (Does anyone have Rian Johnson’s e-mail…? 😊) P. P.P.S. On the other hand, if the next film starts with Rey being pregnant and not knowing how, I might be sick… ☹

[popwasabi]

Why I don’t give a fuck about canon

Recently, after randomly coming across some dope pictures of Transformer toys on Instagram that gave me a strong case of nostalgia, I was inspired to revisit an old childhood favorite in “Beast Wars.”

“Beast Wars,” in case you never watched or heard of it as a kid, is the continuation of the Transformer’s story set in the future as descendants of the Auotobots and Decepticons, the Maximals and Predacons, respectively, accidentally travel to prehistoric Earth to continue a centuries long battle between the two opposing factions.

There’s a lot of to digest there, so I’m not going to go into extreme detail over the plot, but the cast features colorful characters such as Optimus Primal, Cheetor, Rattrap, Dinobot and Megatron to name a few. They all have interesting and distinct personalities and generally play well off each other. It was a big part of my childhood and I collected an ungodly amount of their toys back in the day.

(This was my first ever Beast Wars toy and I think it’s beautiful.)

My rewatch though was…a mixed bag to say the least. The graphics have not aged well. The adventure of the week setup of the plot was repetitive and lacked real character development at times. There were characters that were added in last minute to the show clearly to promote a new action figure over the story on numerous occasions. Though I found the humor to still be pretty good, the action was stale and just lacked high stakes most of the time, save for a few episodes.

I was not shocked it didn’t land terribly well on my rewatch but you know what did? “Beast Machines!”

“Beast Machines” was the follow-up to Beast Wars that had the Maximals fighting on Cybertron where Megatron has taken control of the whole planet using a virus that changes Transformers into mindless drones to do his bidding. The remaining Maximals manage to survive however after Optimus discovers The Oracle which reformats them into animal robot hybrids that are both mechanical and biological. This sets them on a quest to stop Megatron and bring biological and mechanical balance to Cybertron once and for all.

The series is much more narrative based than the previous as it follows a steady trajectory to its epic conclusion. The animation is much sharper, and the soundtrack is fun as hell to listen to still. The pacing is much faster as the stakes couldn’t be higher for the Maximals and all the old characters from the previous grow in interesting ways and develop into more organic people (literally in some ways). Optimus is a more hardcore and emotionally damaged leader and Megatron goes from being something of a punchline in the previous series to a far more menacing and calculating nemesis. The story touches on themes of balance, authoritarianism, PTSD, love and reunion to name a few and for a kids’ show it is, dare I say…more than meets the eye.

I absolutely loved it as a kid and I might actually love it even more as an adult, so it was shocking for me, to say the least, when I read further into the history of the show, that a lot of fans straight up rejected it back in the day.

Common complaints I came across were they didn’t like how characters, such as Ratrap especially, “changed.” They didn’t like the new bio/mechanical Maximals and couldn’t believe that Cybertron was once an organic world.

Their big reason (in just about every forum and video I saw about it)? It didn’t adhere to “canon.”

Now, I’ll start this by saying there is no objective way to critique or even not critique a story. People can like or hate something for a variety of reasons that don’t follow a strict logical pattern. Gods know I have a few questionable/divisive favorites in my catalogue that I have written about here that are based on abstract ideas and personal experiences.

(The Matrix Reloaded is still great btw)

But I will say, if you judge a mega franchise’s latest entry on how well it is supported by established canon it is, in my opinion, a flawed way to critique a work of fiction.

Canon, sometimes referred to as “lore” by fans, is most often applied and used to describe the long running back stories of franchises that stretch beyond just the main books, movies or series, or even the original narrative of the plot. Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, and to a certain extent Harry Potter, all fall into this camp of series with so many interconnected parts, with more than one main character featured in each, that fans follow along this canon like ancient monks studying scripture and history books.

And they can be just as fanatical and over zealous about it.

(I wish they were more fanatical about proper hygiene or at least deodorant...)

My problem with the ways fans often view canon is that their conceptions of what a new story should be is based entirely on the past rather than what is happening right now with the story and what themes the writer is trying express with it this time. 

They base their impressions of the story on external continuity more than the internal continuity.

Yea, the changes in a series like “Beast Machines” are jarring to say the least. Cybertron was formally an organic world like Earth? Rattrap doesn’t have confidence in himself and actually at one point sells out his comrades? Transformers can be biological now? It’s a lot to take in but when watching the story play out it’s not like these elements aren’t explained through the text of the new story.

Cybertron lost balance between its robot inhabitants and its biological life forms and its why it’s out of balance now, and Megatron is the logical progression of that inbalance. Rattrap is struggling to understand his new form, half his friends on the Maximals have been turned into drones, and the remaining team out loud say they don’t have confidence in him. He has PTSD from both the events of this story and the Beast Wars and feels insecure because of how others view him and that’s perfectly logical to not just the story but also the canon. If a fan is willing to give a story a chance they will see that the canon hasn’t actually been destroyed in much of any way and the logical progression is actually there if they simply listen to what’s going on.

(Seriously, it’s not that deep.)

Fans need to stop confusing a character achieving a franchise long arc with being “suddenly different.” In this way, criticisms of canon in new entries in long running series reveal that fans really just lack imagination to connect the dots. It would be like complaining that Luke Skywalker can’t become paranoid and make a grave mistake in judgment because people never change, nevermind the character already has changed a lot from his origins in “A New Hope” to where he was in “Return of the Jedi.”

(Oh wait, people did do that…)

But that’s not to say you have to like the new direction either. You can understand these changes and still be like “well, it’s not for me. I don’t care for a PSTD angle or a new origin for Cybertron,” but that’s whole lot different than saying the new series “rapes your childhood” or “Bastardizes the canon.” All the old canon you hold nostalgia for still exists. My love for “Beast Machines” is not harmed by the existence of newer Transformers properties that don’t meet what I look for in the series.

Too often, fans take changes to established “lore” very personally because it doesn’t fit their expectations or have the same nostalgic feelings they had before. When new entries in mega franchises occur fans often try to judge it by how much it is like what they watched before, rather what makes it different and what it is saying now. Again, you don’t have to like new directions in tone or character but consistency to established work DOES NOT equal good storytelling.

I have not been immune to this myself in the past, of course. Back in the day I wrote a 2500-plus word diatribe on “The Amazing Spider-man 2” that mostly went after how it changed the character I grew up with in a bad way and butchered the established back story I knew him by.

You know what other story doesn’t follow canon very well though? “Spider-man: Homecoming.”

(Now, hear me out...)

Spider-man in the MCU is generally agreed upon to be a good thing by fans. Both movies were big hits both critically and financially and fans often go as far as to say Tom Holland is the “definitive” Peter Parker. 

But Holland’s Spider-man differs quite a bit from the comic-book webslinger. This Spider-man does not have a spidey sense. His best friend is not Harry Osbourne but in fact a retcon of a Mile Morales character. His father figure is Tony Stark, something that never happened in the comics, instead of Uncle Ben, which no matter what way you spin it is arguably his most important relationship in the series.

His character is a reverse of traditional Peter Parker too. Where comics Peter is a reluctant hero, who if anything hates being Spider-man and the burden of his responsibility, “Homecoming” Spider-man actively seeks out responsibility and in many ways enjoys his role as the famous webslinger. In fact, his whole arc is about him earning a spot as an Avenger. He wants to be THE hero and be worthy of it. It’s completely different from what we know of Spider-man.

(He just wants Tony sempai to notice him uWu)

Now I know some fans actually do complain about this Spidey from a “canon” standpoint, but most don’t. So why did this Spider-man get a pass for many but not “The Amazing” one? Quite simply it’s because stories, as cheesy as it sounds, are about feelings and stories like “Homecoming” tell a good story that effectively make those feelings connect with the audience.

We root for this Peter Parker and his journey to becoming an Avenger and successor to Iron Man because the story is told well, the emotions feel earned, and frankly both films are fun and enjoyable.

It’s easy to complain about canon for many nerds because it’s something tangible that they can point to and make a big stink about when they don’t understand why a movie isn’t reaching them. I don’t doubt that many neckbeards genuinely hate a film like “The Last Jedi” (Hell, I’m not a big fan myself) but when those same nerds enjoy something like “The Mandalorian,” a series that has its own loose relationship with canon and establishing new rules in the series, it tells me it’s not about the “lore” to them.

(Easy, fanboys...)

I have come to understand, in my growth as a nerd, that my problems with a lot of movies and TV shows in my favorite series rarely, if ever, have anything to do with the story not meeting some arbitrary guidelines regarding canon. It has more to with the story simply not connecting with me emotionally. The story isn’t drawing me in and keeping me on its narrative path. I’m not feeling the same magic that someone else might feel enjoying it because either a) it doesn’t feel earned to me or b) it just stylistically isn’t for me.

To paraphrase a line from another mega franchise, also owned by Disney, the canon is more like guidelines than actual rules.

(Didn’t expect to see ol’ Barbosa in this write up, did ye?)

It can show you where a story comes from but it isn’t law that you strictly adhere to it. Of course, when writing a new work in a popular series you should consider what came before it but I would like writer’s the freedom to try something new and most importantly fans to be open to it. You don’t have to like it but the idea that new entries in a story MUST remain strict to the canon is bull shit. Not even the original Star Wars trilogy adhered to its own canon perfectly, as clearly the writers were in fact making it up to a certain extent as they were going along.

(hmmmm...)

And that’s ok, because some of those changes were great! Made the story better and made the conclusion stronger.

Again, you don’t have to like every new entry that tries something bold or confrontational in your favorite franchise but if writers strictly followed canon to the T we wouldn’t have things like “Homecoming,” we wouldn’t have “The Mandalorian,” and we certainly wouldn’t have my favorite Transformers series “Beast Machines.”

Canon shouldn’t be a trap for writers and it shouldn’t be a litmus test for fans digesting it. There are so many better ways to judge a story than whether or not it fits neatly into established lore. A good story is a good story, regardless of whether or not it’s supported by something as static as canon.

“Beast Machines” has its flaws here and there, but canon isn’t one of them, at least not for me. Again, if you feel that the lore is important, that’s fine, you don’t have to ignore it but I would ask you to look beyond what came before when critiquing a new story.

Otherwise, you might miss something special that comes next…

Now then...