#obviously some of these are going to reference modern things that didn't exist in the got/asoiaf world but y'know. what can you do

[musical-chick-13]

You know what, I'll bite. I haven't thought about Cersei Lannister since GoT ended. What tunes do you have for her?

YES THANK YOU I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED

"Rest In Peace" - Dorothy (these first two are my Ultimate™ Cersei songs)

"SPITE ALONE HOLDS ME ALOFT" - Lingua Ignota (highly recommend this whole album and everything by this artist but the subject mater is very heavy)

"Seventeen" - MARINA

"I Will Prevail" - Wonderland the Musical (obviously this one would need some rewrites/name changes on account of being about a Specific Other Fictional World, but the general feeling fits, lol)

"Vicious" - Halestorm (warning for glitchy/mild flashing in the video link)

"Even Though Our Love Is Doomed" - Garbage

"you should see me in a crown" - Billie Eilish

"Sometimes" - Melanie Horsnell

"Gasoline" - Halsey

"Crocus" - Boston Manor

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING THIS IN :D :D :D

send me a fandom thing and I'll give you 10 songs I associate with it

[wryterofworlds]

How does it feel to have inspired such a huge trend in dimension 20 fandom? Do you have any more headcannons for your modern AU?

In reference to this post:

Firstly, I do want to shoutout all the people who have made AUs based around the concept. All of them are so good and I can't believe that they exist because of my post. Obviously at this point everyone writing for this AU has their own ideas and versions of events, but here's the extended version of my version of the AU

Links to fics inspired by the original post:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45248404/chapters/113833735

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45109150/chapters/113477032

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45058684

https://www.tumblr.com/weareinvisiblespectres/709282235918991360/this-got-stuck-in-my-head-so-i-decided-to-write-it

Also fanart!!!: https://www.tumblr.com/mylovelyfools/709107455283593216/i-dont-have-my-tablet-rn-but-my-brain-is-moving

LMK If I missed any!

Various headcanons and plot beneath the cut

So starting with backstories:

Gerard was born into a wealthy family, and at a young age was kidnapped

Luckily he escaped, as he had always been a slippery little kid.

Unluckily, by that point his family had already had him publicly declared as dead, so no one believed him when he claimed to be Gerard Greenleigh

He lived on the streets for a while, and befriended Elody, and the two fell in love

It was only when he'd already grown into an adult that Gerard was able to prove his identity and gain access to the family fortune.

From there, familiar territory. He acted vain, petty, immature, etc., he and Elody separated, which brings us to when he adopted two kids

Ylfa is autistic, and she has particularly bad meltdowns and anger management issues. Her mother didn't handle her well and would frequently send her away to stay with Ylfa's grandmother

Eventually, she decided to just leave Ylfa there permanently

What she didn't know is that only a few days into this new arrangement, the grandmother would die of natural causes. Ylfa. Did not handle this well

She froze in place, not wanting to move forward. If she just didn't move, then she wouldn't have to deal with what came next. If she just stayed still, then there's a chance everything could go back to normal

Fortunately, Mr. Wolf the child welfare caseworker had already been looking for her as one of the mother's neighbors noticed the missing child

Unfortunately, it was still two days of her standing there, frozen and terrified, before he found her

The first thing Mr. Wolf did was take her to get some fast food, that she devoured ravenously

(She would throw up most of that food in the backseat of his car a few minutes later)

She ended up in the foster care system after that, as her mother was deemed unfit to parent her

(IDK how child welfare stuff actually works so I'm just taking my best guesses here. Apologies if I get anything wrong)

Pinocchio has chronic pain, and some days he can get by with a cane but other times he needs a wheelchair

His father was a loving, if demanding parent who, along with his kindergarten teacher, were very strict about morals and particularly lying

Eventually, a strange woman approaches him as he's about to walk home and she starts asking him increasingly personal questions about who his parent is, where he lives, how he gets home, etc.

Pinocchio cottons on that she's acting weird and lies, saying his dad will pick him up soon

Teacher Turquina hears this, and goes to give Pinocchio an earful about lying, telling the woman the truth

Geppetto goes missing soon after

Pinocchio is taken care of by his stepmother (his actual stepmother, in this AU), but eventually the way she's been emotionally and sometimes physically abusing him is noticed and he is put into the system

(The stepmother was particularly fond of locking Pinocchio in a closet for hours at a time. He still remembers the way it looked when she would open the door, the only light coming from behind her)

He has complicated feelings about his stuffed animals Spinocchio and Pinocchicrow, given the stepmother is the one who gave them to him. Eventually Pib mauls Pinocchicrow, and given how relieved Pinocchio seems, Gerard quietly moves Spinocchio into storage

Rosamund's backstory probably gets the most major overhaul

Rosamund was 16 and in love when she and her boyfriend (if you want to be particularly on the nose he could have the last name of briar or thorn or something) got into a bad car crash

She woke up from a coma 2 years later

Her boyfriend, who had been released from the hospital just a couple months after the accident, had already moved on, hence her current distaste for romance

Her parents tried to keep her inside all the time, obsessively overprotective after the accident, and she couldn't stand it

She eventually ran away, and given that Cousin Gerard has been one of the few tolerable people to be around (He had been kind and funny when she was growing up; after the accident he was empathetic in a way no one else was. It wasn't exactly the same, but he knew what it was like feeling like you've lost years of your life) and eventually she made her way to an address he'd written down for her saying if she ever needed to talk, she has an open invite

Her parents don't look for her under the belief that eventually she'll realize they were right all along and come home

(that isn't what happens)

Gerard was initially going to just take in Pinocchio, as he felt like since they'd shared experiences with kidnapping he could be helpful, and he could help Pinocchio deal with any issues the way he had

(He has not actually dealt with those issues)

Then he met Ylfa totally by accident, not at all arranged by Mr. Wolf in the hope that maybe this man would finally provide a home for two kids who so many felt were too high-maintenance to foster or adopt

So he ended up with two kids

Pib is a cat

He was originally a stray, taken in by Tomas, put in a shelter when Tomas died and then adopted by Timothy

Timothy has his husband, his menace of a son Jack, and inexplicable beef with a gander from the local park. He wants it dead, and the feeling is mutual

From here it's just general headcanons and little scenes

The non-Elody princesses are Rosamund's friends from an etiquette class that all of their terrible parents made them attend. None of them go to the class anymore but they still hang out

They are...maybe not the best influences. They regularly commit petty acts of vandalism and were maybe responsible for that time the school's library almost burned down

At some point one of Rosamund's friends/classmates says that Gerard is kind of hot in a pathetic way, and her first thought it "gross, that's my dad." She then has a minor crisis over when her goofy cousin became her dad

Gerard still exercises, but since it's his first time not working with a personal trainer he cannot figure out why he's getting stronger but not more "muscular." (not defined) Lifting more weight should be better, right?

This does mean he is strong enough to carry all three of his kids at the same time (because yes, Rosamund is his kid, even if not legally), and has carried them all to bed at once without waking them up before

Ylfa goes over the shoulders, as her grip is strong even asleep. Pinocchio is fully baby cradled in one arm, and Rosamund is carried in the other, her face tucked into this shoulder. Pib got Ylfa's back at some point without Gerard noticing, so actually it's three kids and a cat

Pib knows exactly one trick that he'll do on command, and that trick is "attack," where he runs up and smacks whoever without unsheathing his claws

For unknown reasons, he only does this trick for Gerard. Timothy is definitely not jealous

At one point Mr. Wolf was trying to talk to Pinocchio about setting goals and future careers, and Pinocchio panicked and said stand-up comedian

When Mr. Wolf tried to prompt him to set goals, he said he could come up with a good joke in a year. Mr. Wolf tried to hint that maybe that's a little too long. Pinocchio misunderstood and made it a year and a day

Pinocchio: I think that if I don't tell a good joke in a year and a day he's going to kill me

Ylfa, whose life was saved by Mr. Wolf and has known him for much longer: (100% earnestly) yeah, maybe.

Gerard tries to take the gang fishing. It goes badly. Gerard punches a fish

Ylfa has a dorky middle schooler crush on all of Rosamund's friends, especially Snow White. They think its cute and harmless enough not to discourage, much to Rosamund's chagrin

The princesses are also consistently accidentally mean to Gerard (a la "she's married?") They actually think he's a pretty good guy and by far the best parent any of them have, so they feel bad whenever it happens

Gerard does have minor Gilear energy in this au. Sorry bud.

Gerard and Elody's reuniting

For Elody and Gerard reuniting, IDK what leads to it but eventually Elody agrees to one date after starting to realize how much Gerard's changed

Gerard is very excited and spends nearly the entire day preparing for their dinner date

Unfortunately, the power goes out about midway through the day. At first it's kind of fun and everything's fine, date still set to happen

Then it gets dark and suddenly things aren't so fine anymore

Ylfa remembers the nights she stood, starving, staring at the body of her grandmother, trying desperately to pretend that nothing's changed, even as she becomes too dehydrated to cry

Pinocchio remembers that darkness of the closet, the silhouette of his stepmother, the way he could only ever catch glimpses of her sneering face as the door closed once again

Rosamund remembers the weeks of consciousness before she was able to even open her eyes, trapped in darkness by her own uncooperative body, aware yet unable to do anything, to save herself

Gerard might've asked Timothy to help out, but he'd left earlier that day to go on a camping trip with Henry and Jack, so it's up to Gerard to help his kids

So he does the one thing he's ever been good at. He tells them stories.

Some of them are old stories he's known since childhood, but some of them are new

He tells them stories of a brave little girl who was strong enough to survive despite everything, and a clever little boy who knows that sometimes you need to break the rules, and a bold princess who was able to free herself from the prison others had made for her

He does not tell them the story of a cowardly prince, too unlovable to be wanted by his parents or his wife, who has no one to blame for how things turned out but himself

Instead, his kids tell him a story

They tell him the story of a funny, smart, kind king who was beloved by all his subjects. Who never, ever got mad, and was super strong, and would accept any who would seek refuge in his kingdom. The three (four, counting Pib, who Timothy asked them to watch while they were gone) immediately decide it's their favorite

"How can that be your favorite story? That's barely a story at all, it just a list of character traits."

"Too bad, it's our favorite now, so we're gonna tell it every night."

They pass the night with stories and candles until eventually all his kids are happily asleep, and Gerard crashes onto his couch.

He, unfortunately, could not text Elody about this change of plans as his phone died before he could (his phone hasn't been fully charged since he got kids)

Elody shows up the next morning to be like "Why'd you ditch me and also are you still alive because I can't think of anything short of death that would've kept you from showing up"

She is greeted by a very tired Gerard in his pajamas, who asks if she wants to come inside for breakfast

Elody is very confused to be sitting around a table with three kids and a cat while her husband cooks breakfast (when did he learn how to cook?)

The neighbor pops in to say hi and ends up staying for breakfast as well, and Elody is quickly realizing just how much of a life Gerard has made since they separated

It's not a great breakfast. The eggs are kind of rubbery and the bacon is burnt on the edges, but it's far better than she ever imagined Gerard capable of

She...kind of wants to learn what else has changed about Gerard

She also wants to know when, where, and why he acquired these kids

Anyway, that's all I got. Maybe I'll make a continuation if I have any other ideas

[discommunicator]

!! ART COMMISSION !!

What is art commission? You pay me to make me draw things you want to see, as simple as that, but this is my commission so heed that there are rules/limitations of my own!

If you're seeing this post via reblog, please check the post date and look for the original post, not the reblogs, because commission status and the terms might've been changed/updated by the time you're reading it. I might reblog this myself whenever I open the commission.

Current commission status: CLOSED(taking a break)

SLOTS: [ ] [ ]

Detailed wall of texts guide goes down here, if you're going to apply please read them first so you're aware of what you can expect from me. ↓

I'll ONLY DRAW

Humanoid non-humans

It means anything that somehow shares silhouette of human(e.g. overall disposition of head and limbs), is obviously a person, but is not a human in an apparent way. Be it a goblin, imp, kobold, demon, furry people, inkling, android, whatevs. Go look what I've been drawing to these days, I bet you know what I'm talking about. You can bring them from your original character pool, or from a cartoon, or some games, etc.

Note that what I'm taking now is NOT 'design things from scratch' commission. I require clear references.

Along with those above, I'm capable of drawing some basic elemental visual effects like flames([1][2]), waters([1]), lightnings([1][2][3]), dust clouds([1][2][3]) and earth cracks([1][2]). Just tell me if you particularly want to include those in your commission piece.

I WON'T/CAN'T DRAW

Crossover - I won't put your OCs and other existing media characters together in a same piece. It also applies for different characters from different media.

Webtoon~Comics format

Most sky-scraping tall robotics - Transformers, GUNDAM or in that line of genre.

Background/Landscape details

Excessively complex objects

Realistic modern firearms

Sexual theme, either explicit or subtle

Nudity? - That depends like, Pokémons such as Tinkaton are humanoid and technically naked but look not so naked. Otherwise, unlikely.

Fetishes of all kind

Characters with astronomically huge tits - No offense, I just have no idea how to handle them properly.

Bloody gore element - Though mild body horrors are feasible in some degree. See my OC [Hess] for example. It's neither cuts nor bloodshed.

Independent original characters that belong to somebody other than you - Don't ask for third person's OC, unless you two are friends and there is approval. I'll double-check.

Whatever that makes me feel uncomfortable - Due to strict copyright? Personal preference? It might be anything that I didn't list here. If I don't feeling it, that's it.

THE PROCESS

Contact acenth.1012@gmail.com, then:

Let me know that you're asking for a commission.

Tell me whether it's about drawing your OC(Original Character. I need you to show me proper reference images. Either via email attachment or via image hosting sites.) or characters from existing media(you know, cartoons and games)

If I don't accept, I'll inform you that I'm not interested.

Otherwise, I'll respond and ask you "how do you want it to be". This is about direction of the piece, which refers to how the character will be presented, like the pose, action, facial expression and more. If you show me the exact references (like pictures searched up on Google) that's better. If you're only gonna suggest me a character and want to leave the rest up to me, you can tell me so. I can still reject your commission at this stage If I'm not really into your direction.

If I fully accept I'll send you a transaction link where you can pay directly from your PayPal balance. While you're at it please put a comment regarding your email under the sum section so I can identify your payment. As soon as I check the payment I'll start drawing, and send you the finished piece via email when it's done.

If there are obvious and critical errors I made like missing tail, flipped hand or such, I will fix them of course, but don't expect too much about further adjustment on demand. Even though the final version turns out not so satisfying to you, I can't really help about it. After verifying the delivery the transaction completes.

+ If you're about to upload the final piece which is larger than 850x850 to website like twitter please tell me that so I will send you an indexed color mode version along with the original. Indexed image loses some color palettes but prevent twitter's horrible png resizing.

PRICING

Baseline is $80 per piece.

Includes 1 character, full color and shading by default.

Different characters in a single piece adds up $40 each, up to 2 more extra characters.

If an extra character is extremely simple or small compare to others I might just consider them as an appendage rather than an extra character. e.g. Big the Cat and Froggy (Sonic the Hedgehog series), Harmony/Annie and their clownfish (Splatoon series)

I prioritize drawing full-body. It can be thigh-up or even waist-up depending on your demand (or at my discretion if you didn't give me any direction) but this does not affect the price.

You can ask for multiple same characters in a single piece, but in that case it most likely be one simpler full-body and several waist-ups. This does not affect the price.

Background is flat white by default. I can fill them with different flat colors or put simple figures or put gradients, or make it transparent as you ask. Pitch black background + outline around the character is also doable(check some of the deltarune fan arts I did). This does not affect the price.

Adding some elemental visual effects does not affect the price.

ESTIMATED ARRIVAL TIME AND REFUNDS

I doubt the discussing part alone can be somewhat dragged on due to the time zone/schedule difference, but I also believe the whole thing can be done under two weeks, or more depending on the conditions and real life issues.

Basically 'no refund' once I receive your payment and start drawing the piece, however, I'd willingly refund you if I can't finish the piece in time due to my own personal reason.

REGARDING THE USAGE OF FINAL PRODUCT:

Commercial use of my commissioned artworks is prohibited.

Do not relate my drawings with cryptocurrency activities.

Final products may be used as a sample in my future commission introduction page.

It's okay to post them online, use them as a header, banner, profile or such for your blogs/social media page, as long as it's non-profit use.

I can post them on my own blog/social media if I'd like to.

BEFORE YOU APPLY:

You need PayPal account for the trade. I'm not accepting any other method as of now. Also please pay with USD if possible!

Please take a gander at fanart, original stuff and other's oc on my blog so you get what my art style is like and how I reinterpret existing characters. Applying for my commission also means that you're agreeing to the visual changes I make in the process.

My drawings are .png files and NOT resize-friendly due to use of binary pen! And the final size of a piece will barely exceed 1000x1000 so keep that in mind if you use super wide screen or if you're about to do something with my finished works.

제가 한국 계좌 쓰는 한국 사람인 관계로 한국인이시면 페이팔을 통한 거래가 불가능합니다

If you got further questions that's not answered here(other than bargaining the price), feel free to ask them via my email. acenth.1012@gmail.com

[hamliet]

Hello! @isammy7936 I'm not sure why this ask never showed up in my inbox despite appearing in my email? Tumblr what is u doing. I know I didn't delete it, also...

Anyways. Both, honestly. Sometimes--like in Harry Potter, TGCF, A Song of Ice and Fire, and RWBY--are very, very obviously heavily researched in terms of alchemy. Not only are the basic patterns of dissolve-coagulate stuck to, but there are specific references to historical alchemical works and art pieces. RWBY is going practically by the letter of Ripley's Scrolls and also incorporates a lot from Splendor Solis, for example. Shakespeare's use is also deliberate in a lot of his plays, but no surprise, because alchemy was like, very much still a thing rather than only a metaphor in his day.

Others, like say, My Hero Academia, definitely incorporate some influence but might be more loose with it? Like, the heart-mind-body trio of characters is originally from alchemy, yes, but it's been so commonly used within storytelling that it doesn't have to be deliberately set out to be an alchemical story to incorporate it--though some factors may be deliberate.

And even among the definitely-based-on-alchemy ones, there are differences in depth. Meaning, Trollhunters uses a lot of alchemy and it's deliberate. However, its allusion is more based on Jungian aspects than the hardcore, highly detailed medieval stuff that, say, RWBY and ASOIAF are using.

Speaking of Jung, a lot of Jungian ideas are based on identifying patterns that have always existed within stories across the world. He does in fact apply the patterns he noticed to alchemy, and incorporates more Freudian aspects like id, ego, and superego into his understanding of alchemy as well. So stories that touch on Jungian and/or Freudian tropes, or that use them even if not deliberately, can reference alchemy without intending too.

Plus, fairy tales use alchemy... a lot of the time. Some of it's deliberate. Some of it may well not be, but may in corporate it. Fairy tales and ancient stories really do influence modern stories, too, so alchemy's influence persists through this.

Finally, I think there are aspects of alchemy that culture recognizes at large even if not in these terms. The fire and ice motif, after all, shows up in many stories across the world, and it's chicken/egg in terms of which came first--the opposite association or alchemy.

[alltimefail-sims]

LORE TIDBIT TIME WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Did you know Vlad was apart of the settler colony who mysterious disappeared? This is obviously a nod to the Roanoke colony which I think is sooo cool. What do you think happened to Vlad's colony? I like to think Vlad was turned or became a vampire and whipped them out.

HELL YEAH LORE TIDBIT ABOUT VLADDY DADDY!!! 😏

I'm going to treat this as a "deep dive" into Vlad and Forgotten Hollow, so I'll be adding it to my Deep Dive Series tag. Unsurprising to literally everyone, but this is gonna be a long one.

So… let’s get into it! ↓

Going into this I will admit that I actually did know this about Vlad!! I've been wanting to talk about it for forever but have never gotten around to it haha. 🤭 I'm a bit of a history nerd and I love a good spooky story/conspiracy, so naturally the Roanoke Colony was one of my obsessions when I was around 11 or 12 years old.

I think it's an interesting tie in from the sims team, I'd even say it's a bit meta because I feel like the game normally sticks to making references toward itself and its own canon characters/events while generally staying away from anything that would be too direct of a reference to "our world." Personally though I wish they broke the fourth wall more! I like easter eggs or hidden details that make it easier to imagine the characters existing not in their isolated, imaginary worlds, but in ours instead.

It's interesting to think about why the sims team might have made this connection - was it just a cheeky, unserious little wink to a well-known unsolved mystery, or was it done for the purposes of creating implications and expanded lore regarding Vlad and Forgotten Hollow (a case of them showing us instead of telling us). There are so many theories archaeologists and historians alike have had about the lost colony of Roanoke over the years: some believe the Roanoke colonists could have all died by disease or famine, some believe they could have been victims of a deadly storm, some believe they were attacked by neighboring tribes or by Spanish soldiers. Nowadays there are scholars who will argue that no tragedy befell the settlers at all and that they simply relocated (that would be why they left "Croatoan" behind - there was a nearby location referred to as Croatoan Island, now modern-day Hatters Island).

With that in mind, along with Vlad's own refusal to recall the details of this event, it's safe to assume that the sims team isn't referring to the happier Roanoke theories...the 25 colonists of Forgotten Hollow likely faced an unfortunate end.

Your theory of Vlad being turned and thus wiping out the colony (I'm guessing due to new-turn bloodlust) is sooooo compelling, the implications of that scenario are delicious and I personally never thought of it from that angle! My theory is only a little different: I agree that Vlad was turned on the day that the colonists "disappeared" (whatever that implies), but I have always played Vlad's story not as if he was turned and then killed everyone after, but rather that the thing that turned him successfully killed the other colonists but accidentally turned Vlad. It's a really long story that I play around with for fun in my brain but the short-ish version is: Vlad awoke outside - cold, alert, sweaty, dirty and covered in his own blood - but somehow alive, which he was thankful for. His new immortal condition is still unbeknownst to him at this point, but he felt an ache like never before, so deep in his bones it was excruciatingly painful, but his senses were heightened tenfold. He didn't remember much, just that the colony had been under attack the night before. His relief to be alive rapidly melted into abject horror as he found everyone else (friends, neighbors, family, children) dead. He realized soon enough what had happened to him and stayed in Forgotten Hollow where he would be memorialized as its "founder." He spent his days hellbent on retaliation and retribution, but was also steadfast in continuing the work that was began there before the attack. Eventually he does get to face off with the vampire who attacked him and his people, killing it and rising to power in the vampire world. He keeps the events close to his chest because they were traumatizing and cause him sadness, and he's worked diligently to remove himself from his humanity/human memories and from emotions in general (thus how he has become the person we see today). I always thought if he killed the colonists himself the other vampires in his circle - at least his closest confidantes - would know (as he's got quite the massive ego), but they don't seem to have knowledge of this event and they never mention it. I've thought that it could be possible that sharing the memories of this event would make Vlad feel weak, and he's not one to boast in his weakness. He'd much rather rewrite history in a way that is beneficial to his image; dragging up emotions about dead people would not bring them back to life, and by burying this history of a massacre in Forgotten Hollow he is also creating some mystery around himself and making it easier to play the role of a great-great-great-great grandson (or whatever he's pretending to be, relationship-wise) to the original founder.

But that's just how I play with Vlad! 🤷 I could be way off-base lmao!

Regardless of what happened, we know Vlad is the sole survivor of this event and he is scarred by it, impacted so deeply that he only ever vaguely alludes to it with no clear explanation. Whether he killed the colonists himself or just witnessed their death, the sims team will probably never give us concrete answers (and frankly, that's probably for the best considering their track record). But the clever connection of the LOST colony and FORGOTTEN Hollow are clear as day and I just think that is freaking cool! The occult lore in TS4, especially regarding Vlad and Forgotten Hollow, make interesting framework for storytellers and lore-lovers alike! Vlad is one of those characters who has sooooo many interpretations, and I eat up each and every one!

Okay, I think that's all I've got for now! Sorry about my word vomit! Somewhat related: here's an article I recently read on Roanoke that talks about the archaeological finds which have changed some of the discussions surrounding whether the colonists survived or not! I found it pretty interesting and you might as well!

[bonesandthebees]

If I can give my two cents on this (also obviously /nm, just from like a genuinely place of discussion):

I just think it's not that deep. Most of the people I've seen saying things like "they're my ocs now" are really not coming from any place of malice. There's a lot of serious stuff going on in the fandom with the content creators and it really does not hurt anyone to be like "they're mine now". It's a way for people to be like "I am not writing about the real people in any shape or form. I'm taking the base characters and writing them in aus and such. They're disconnected from what's going on."

People have been doing that for ages in fandom, even this fandom, and it's not some kind of like. crime. It's such a dumb thing to discourse about because like just let people do what they want.

Taking a character you love and writing them differently in a fic or something where they're not their canon counterpart is really really common. Not to mention the many times ccs like Wilbur have said that the characters "belong to the fandom". Also, c!Phil's wings, c!Quackity's scar, c!Wilbur's white hair streak, c!Wilbur's train limbo, c!Skephalo being c!Sapnap's parents, and so many other things in canon have come from the fans. A lot of these characters exist because people made animatics and art which inspired the ccs to keep making the story.

I think as long as you're respecting boundaries when writing them, you're pretty free to call them your oc. Like, within my own fics, I've completely rewritten c!Technoblade for one of my modern aus because of the life that he's lived in it. He's still the same base character at his core and thusly I'm respecting boundaries, but other than that, he could probably pass for an oc. Like I just don't think it's that deep to be like "these are my characters now because I don't like the people who made them."

And I detest the idea of "you hate the media so you have to leave the fandom". It's probably one of the worst takes I've seen time and time again. Like there's a difference between being negative about it every single day and being critical of how it is written. I really love this series even if I hated one part of it. I'm not leaving just because of that.

anyways if this is poorly phrased I am rather tired rn and I wrote this quickly but yeah my thoughts on the whole. I just don't think it's worth fighting over some teenagers wanting to emphasize the fact that their writing is separate from the ccs.

(this entire response is also /nm it's just a discussion)

I think we're just seeing different sides of twitter because I understand saying they're your ocs in a non-malicious way, but I've genuinely been seeing more intense takes on the situation in a way that just irks me. Also, I'm not referring to making them your ocs as in just putting them in different aus and keeping the core of their character, because I do that too! But they're not your ocs in that sense. You're still taking their characterization from canon. They still share the same names and aspects of their appearance with a cc. And again, I'm all for people just having fun in fandom don't get me wrong, I'm just seeing it phrased in certain ways on twitter that's really irking me.

Also of course you can be critical about a piece of media you're in a fandom for. I'm critical of a lot of writing choices in dsmp. That's not what I'm referring to. When I say if you're not having fun then leave, I'm referring to the people who literally hate every aspect of the media and fandom and that's all they talk about. Like, you're just making yourself miserable at that point, y'know?

Overall, I didn't mean to start a discussion on this, but that's my fault for not clarifying when I made my post. I just don't like the discussion going on on twitter right now because it just feels very weird and toxic in a way that's bugging me and I wanted to complain about it. But I'm not trying to attack teenagers for emphasizing their writing is separate from cc's, and that's not really what I was referring to. I can understand why my post might've sounded like that though so I totally get your point here.

Again this is /nm, but I'd rather not make this a whole thing so if anyone else sends me asks on this I'm not gonna answer them unless they have a really good point I wanna speak on.

[gay-jesus-probably]

Okay this ended up being a little bit of a rant, I apologize

Most of the rewrite that my best friend and I are working on is just character devlopment tbh!! Like I think what totk tried to do was make their story both character driven and plot driven, they just failed miserably at both. Like imagine if Zelda and Mineru were parallels!! We have an entire plotline written involving making Rauru a secondary antagonist with that! And if Zelda and Sonia were foils instead of half assed parallels! Like yes, Zelda's a terrible character as is, but she has SO much potential because of her position, both politically speaking and emotionally speaking. It's like you said, it's really stupid that she's just in charge of all of Hyrule again. Why not like. Do something else with her?? Anything else??? And did we just. Forget about her father's abuse in botw? Because she shows exactly NOTHING as a result of that. This is an entirely different Zelda who happens to look the same. For all we care, the real Zelda in game could be the imposter and it wouldn't change a thing!!

Oh yeah, the characters in the game definitely needed more attention from the writing. Or like... literally any amount of attention.

For the record this might just be a case of me doing some sequence breaking and getting through things too early (via setting off the fifth sage plot AFTER finding all the memories and retrieving the master sword), but I truly, genuinely do not understand why Mineru exists. I can't tell what she adds to the narrative. Maybe she was supposed to tell me that Zelda's a dragon go rip a sword out of her head, just in case I hadn't figured that out? But it's kinda weird to have that failsafe, considering that the game is quick to spell it out for you that you should find the geoglyphs to learn what happened to Zelda, and we KNOW she was the last one to have the Master Sword. So Mineru is just a redundant reminder of something the player's probably already done, because yknow going to hyrule castle after four temples feels like a finale, so you'd obviously want to handle unfinished business first.

I mean, I guess the spirit temple boss fight was okay, if only because I found the robot fistfight to be so ridiculous that it was absolutely delightful (though the actual fight mechanics were tedious and annoying). But she didn't tell me anything new, I already knew that Zelda had vored a rock to become her fursona. Sharing that information was apparently the only thing Mineru was there to do, but the game had already spelled that out for me ages ago. She didn't contribute anything. I don't even know if she was supposed to contribute anything. Mineru was just there to force us to sit through the same fucking story about Ganon's sealing for the fifth goddamn time in a row. And then despite being literally the only person left from the actual war, she had literally nothing to contribute. WHY WAS MINERU IN THIS GAME. HOW DID SHE CONTRIBUTE TO THE NARRATIVE. I started jokingly referring to her as Mineral after I got started on the fifth sage plotline, because I knew from the dragon memories she was supposed to be haunting the Purah Pad, but she'd spent the entire game being about as important as a random rock. And apparently I was right, Mineru did literally nothing the whole time!

...Actually now that I think about it, what the fuck did ANY of the modern sages do? Their abilities were just the old powers except worse (give me revali's gale over tulin's thing any day of the week, jesus christ), except for Yunobo's ability which was just to replace remote bombs as a convenient infinite mining tool. The sages apparently were just there to show up at the end as a Big Damn Hero moment to rescue Link from the absolute terror of... red bokoblins. Seriously, WHY did they do all the 'ooooh ganons summoning an aaarmy' scenes using mainly the lowest tier of enemies??? Sir, I'm armed to the teeth, fully armoured, and loaded up on hearts and stamina, why the fuck am I supposed to be intimidated by enemies that were still cannon fodder when I was stark naked and armed with a tree branch. At least the four sages were characters we already knew from BOTW, and they got to do some stuff (though using Tulin instead of Teba was complete bullshit, I DO NOT WANT TO TAKE THIS RANDOM TEN YEAR OLD INTO A WAR ZONE. I FOUGHT A GIANT MECHA BIRD WITH TEBA, LET ME KICK ASS WITH BIRB DAD AGAIN)

Eugh. Just so much bad writing in this game, it's a constantly unfolding minefield of horrible decision making. Good luck with your fic though, and I hope you and your friend end up posting it! I've been finding pretty slim pickings on AO3 so far tbh; it seems everyone like me that's been trying to pick this story apart for good content is still trying to figure out what the fuck nintendo just handed us, so the AO3 has been mostly just people writing awful generic Link/Zelda content, mixed with the Link/Sidon shippers trying to fix the whole clusterfuck of Sidon getting a wife out of nowhere. Though I will say I have been very pleased with the fandom unanimously responding to that whole subplot with "Okay so this is some hetero nonsense because nintendo wanted to sink SidLink, BUT we love and respect Yona anyways". I guarantee if something like this had gone down like a decade ago, Yona would be the single most hated character in the game for it. I'm glad that she's being given love and respect despite having been made to be a shipbreaker!

Anyways my point is, I am a huge slut for character studies and worldbuilding, and dear lord have I ever been starved for content. There's so much ZeLink. All power to y'all that ship it of course, I'm glad you're happy, but their dynamic is the single most boring pile of dogshit I've ever seen in my life, and I'm way too aromantic to put up with it. My kingdom for some good character studies and/or platonic fics. Or even just interesting shipping fics that aren't focused on some shitty generic romance. There's a reason I love GanLink and it's not (just) for the porn, it's because those two literally always have some spectacular issues if they're together, regardless of the context. They're a walking psychological thriller, I love them.

[thorraborinn]

Do you think there's a connection between Freyja and the valkyries?

I mean, there is now. But I understand that you're asking whether there was a connection in pre-Christian times, and the answer is that I have no idea. I don't think that it makes sense to call her "Queen of the Valkyries" as many people do given that no connection is ever made between them at all in the mythology we have but it also seems irresponsible to dismiss the possibility of a connection once existing, given that we know of a tradition of battle-slain going to Freyja in the afterlife. But Folkvangr is only mentioned once (Snorri repeats it but he cites Grímnismál and includes no new information so this is still only one witness).

I've said this before but quite a lot of what we know about Freyja (her family, her names) seems to come from a single poem by Snorri's great-uncle, Einarr Skúlason, where he uses family tree to refer to gold through kennings. It's possible that Snorri would have been able to produce those things without Øxarflokkr, but I find it kind of unlikely given that we can corroborate most of what he says about her with other sources. That is, I think he already didn't have much to work with. If Freyja was as important as we think she was, this implies a pretty severe bottleneck. Since her modern importance is out of scale with the amount of actual lore we have about her, modern heathens have replaced some of that loss with inference, guesses, and probably misinterpretations and stereotypes. For better or worse, that's a pretty normal way for this sort of thing to proliferate and probably describes how things spread back in the day too to a limited extent (though yes obviously they also had many additional vectors for spread and development of myth and religion plus a larger body of living lore).

Valkyries on the other hand present a very different problem: loads of information, but often so internally inconsistent that we have no idea how these bits of lore relate to each other, including blurred boundaries between them and other categories of being. On that, see Luke John Murphy, "Herjans dísir." Like, there's a big gap between how much sense is made in connecting Freyja to the madness of battle and the submission of the fate of combatants to higher powers on one hand, and to Valhalla's wait staff on the other.

I think it might be more productive to think out both "yes" and "no" answers (and perhaps the actual answer is that it was "yes" at times and "no" at others). Like, what does it mean if Freyja has nothing at all to do with valkyrjur? In that case, how do the dead get to Folkvangr? Does she have her own associated spirits that we know nothing about? What do her chosen dead do all day?

Side-note: I think it was Jón Hnefill Aðalsteinsson who suggested the possibility that Óðinn and Freyja aren't like captains picking teams from the dead, but that they both get half of each dead warrior, Óðinn getting some spiritual component of the person and Freyja getting the body. I don't know if he argued for this or just brought it up as something to think about, but the latter is what I'm doing now.

[fuzzydreamin]

Random Headcanons for: Paladin Danse

♞ Unless you've caught him fresh out of the shower he's likely got dirt, grease, or sweat on him in some amount. Probably a bit smelly. It's not that he doesn't care about his hygene, he really does, it's just that he enjoys taking part in a lot of activities that leave him this way.

♞ On the up side, he has a strong stomach for grossness. From gorey combat to equally smelly bunkmates. It's not pleasant, but you just get used to it after so long. Though, while he may have gotten used to bad smells, that doesn't mean his sense of smell is any worse off for it. He's actually pretty sensitive to new scents around him and picks up on them fairly quickly. Kind of person to notice/comment on you using new hair product. (that's weird Danse)

♞ Obscenely hairy. He keeps the hair on his head and face in check, but doesn't really bother doing anything about his body hair. And it is everywhere. Everywhere. It also grows super quickly; if he isn't able to keep his beard in check it will grow out fast. Catch him with that depression beard.

♞ Largest companion besides Strong and possibly Ada (depending on her mods). He's a big man even out of power armour. Not like some modern steroid filled bodybuilder though. The only time his muscles are really well defined is when he's been in his power armour all day, or otherwise super occupied, and is thus very dehydrated, and even then he's still got a good layer of fat softening everything up. Just a natural good mix of height, muscle, and fat.

♞ Has always hated mirelurks, and generally any nonsense from the sea, but living in Rivet City made it worse, since they were an occasional problem for those living on lower decks. Just got really done with them. Will always have beef with whoever decided to name them kings and queens. Meet him in the debate hall for a verbal smack down.

♞ Doesn't drink nuka cola. It's the radiation and whatever the hell else is in them that worries him. Quantum is a nightmare and he cringes at anyone drinking it. Actually tends to be pretty picky about a lot of foods, but forces things down for the sake of nutrition. One of his simpler pleasures is just getting to enjoy a meal that's taste and texture doesn't put him off.

♞ He and Cutler were definitely more than just friends, but neither got the chance to confess their true feelings for the other and define what they truly were. Danse of course regrets this, and it also means he isn't comfortable referring to Cutler as anything more than a friend, while also feeling that word does no justice to their relationship.

♞ Obviously fell hard for the Maxson child-of-destiny propaganda, but the thing he most admired was Maxson's defeat of Shephard. Those mutants were related to the Cutler incident, and so he viewed Maxson as a personal hero for stopping them and saving other people from a similar fate.

♞ Lowkey religious, which isn't so uncommon being from the Capital.

♞ Word vomit. He does his best to keep a lid on things when he's around outsiders, knowing they don't share the Brotherhoods views and aren't worth his time, but once he cracks he will give you a whole lecture on whatever subject it is if he can't reel himself back in. Subordinates are free game for lectures. At least he's can be very good at explaining things, so long as you understand larger words.

♞ After BB and before the defeat of the Institute he would have nightmares about uncontrollably killing the people around him, where he was stuck in his body and forced to watch while he had no ability to stop himself. That or being taken back to the Institute and reset into a slave or made into a courser. Before BB he didn't think his sleep schedule could get worse, but there you go.

♞ While, with time, Danse can unlearn some of the hatred and bigotry the Brotherhood instilled in him, he will never feel anything but hatred and mistrust for super mutants. He puts up with Strong's existance for the Sole Survivors sake, but that's all, and he wouldn't hesitate or at all regret killing him if it was deemed necessary.

♞ He's still a little awkward around other synths, when he knows what they are. But he gets that they, like him, have no choice in what they are, and without the Institute around he doesn't fear them (or him) going haywire.

♞ With ghouls, he still finds their physiology extremely offputting, to say the least, and is always a little bit paranoid about them going feral, but he learns to keep his mouth shut and appreciate them as individuals and the work they do. He gains quite a respect for ghouls at The Slog, the same as any other hard working settlers. Still calls Hancock an abomination, but it's said as a joke and Hancock is for it. They gain a weird friendship.

♞ If the roles had been reversed in Blind Betrayal he would have killed the Sole Survivor. He knows it, and because he told them about Cutler, and his only half-joking comments about putting them down if they turn feral from radiation, he knows they know it. He wouldn't have shown them the same mercy they did to him, and would have seen killing them as a kindness. This knowledge is just another thing he has to reckon with post BB.

♞ Didn't think about family during his time in the Brotherhood. They were his family, and he was a dedicated soldier. Honestly he assumed he'd die in combat before he would have the chance to find someone he'd want that with. But post BB, without the BoS to dedicate himself to anymore and an uncertain future on the horizon, it comes to mind. He wonders if it's even possible now, being what he is, and the thought that it might not be able, or that a 'machine' shouldn't have children, upsets him. Whether capable or not he eventually comes to terms with this possiblity, and tries to find joy in other aspects of his life still.

♞ After BB and staying in Sanctuary he's out of armour a lot more. It's super uncomfortable for him since he's been using his power armour as a literal shield from the world for years, but even putting on the flight suit is just unnecessary now unless Sole is taking him with them. However, on top of the whole 'vulnerable without my shell' feeling, he also just has trouble in general getting used to wearing normal clothes. They feel weird to him now, and they aren't protective enough. Especially around his arms and neck. He can wear a jacket for the arms, but what to do about the neck? How can he make it feel better/like it used to with the flight suit? He ponders it for a while and almost shits a brick when he realises that what he wants is a collar. Brb he's gonna go bury himself now.

♞ Joins up with the Minutemen a few months are BB. After everything with the Institute is dealt with he spends most of his time at The Castle teaching the other Minutemen and new recruits how to be better soldiers. Also teaches anyone willing to learn about power armour and other tech. (Haylen is there too, yay, best buds forevers)

NSFW

♞ Mans awkward as hell but he fucks, alright. He's not getting around a lot, but it happens. All those soldiers gotta blow off steam somehow and this mans is horny on main ("I like when you're this close" sir we are in combat). He's slept with a few of his fellow soldiers and scribes in his day. He's always sure that they are the same rank as him and aren't ones he's likely to be teamed up with though.

♞ Bisexual with a preference for men. Hasn't actually had sex with a woman. Not for avoiding it, it just hasn't happened between his preference and men outnumbering women in the Brotherhood. The closest he got was a BJ.

♞ His liking for adrenaline comes into things in the bedroom: he's most ready to get down after a particularly exciting fight or sparring session, so having a playful wrestle with him can be a good way to get him in the mood.

♞ Has a lot of stamina, which can work against him sometimes. Likes overstimulation and edge play. Has sensitive nipples. Snuggles afterwards, and he's going to be very warm. Hope you like sweat.

♞ Very concerned with the comfort of his partner, will be constantly checking in and asking before doing something to the point it can almost be bothersome. Makes him really good with first timers though. Becomes better with frequency as he learns what is generally okay with his partner and gets into a rhythm of doing that.

♞ Want him to be more dominant? He can only do soft dom or drill sargeant. And he'll only do that second one after a long conversation making extra sure you're okay with it and setting boundaries. He'll probably want to stop before his partner does.

♞ Doesn't like roleplay. He has no idea how he's meant to act so it just throws him off completely. If you want to put on a bit of an act for him he'll let it be, but nothing crazy or too different or you'll throw him off, and don't expect him to be anyone but himself.

[voluptuarian]

The Worst History/Mythology Posts I've Ever Seen

Idk sometimes I see some unbelievable horseshit on here in the history or myth tags so bad I can't just let it go, I have to address it. However getting into online drama with someone who is obviously clueless or purposely spreading lies is not only a waste of time, but not my style. So I've decided to post up some excerpts from the most offensive takes I've seen for my own satisfaction and your potential viewing pleasure. (I'm not including anything from Tiktok or Twitter, otherwise I'd never be able to choose-- this is just Tumblr brand brainrot).

I love this one-- first off, whiteness as a concept didn't exist, so "white savior" can't be workably applied here, so define what's meant here about these "vibes" with Real Words. Secondly, in a geographic and cultural context where every other Roman of note claimed descent from some god or hero, and were frequently deified after death (and in the case of Julius Caesar, in life), the old pharaohs had proclaimed themselves gods since time immemorial, and even Alexander (whose Egypt she lived in) was identified as the son of a god in 2 different religions, Cleopatra identifying herself as one is definitely too much, right? (Also who "criticized" her-- the Romans??)

----

And on the topic of Egypt, I found this post about Rhodopis-- which to start op claims they were fighting another equally delusional person on twitter who claimed Rhodopis was actually black; op then corrects that she wasn't, she was Greek, but that's the last glimmer of hope we get

kjhfkjdahkhjakgjh just. Where does it say that op. Who said that. What source is there for this concept. (see the above, "whiteness" as a racial concept didn't exist, which makes this even funnier).

The decline of Egypt began with its conquest by the Persians in the 600s BC; Alexander's takeover followed his conquest of Persia, since Egypt was a Persian satrapy (this was in the 300s BC). The courtesan Rhodopis lived in the 600s, Archaic Greece-- 300 years before Alexander got there. Also "fall" is an odd term to describe the Ptolemaic dynasty, especially since it isn't applied to the Persian conquest; Egypt remained semi-autonomous until after the Roman takeover, which incidentally, we're about to get to

This is untrue across the board. First, while Arsinoe and Cleopatra had the same father, we're not sure they had the same mother. So Arsinoe's ethnicity does not prove Cleopatra's and vice versa. The "bones" in question are a headless skeleton which may be Arsinoe's but has not been conclusively identified (the fact that it wasn't mummified being one of the major reasons to doubt the identification); the "tests" in question refer to analysis of measurements of the skull which were done in the 20s-- the skull itself has been lost. The measurements show traits typical of black and North African genetics, but also are not conclusive. So in summation, archeologists found a fancy tomb and a woman's headless skeleton and think she might have been mixed race-- it doesn't prove Arsinoe's race, and certainly not Cleopatra's.

(Also doing my best to spare you all the numerous grammar/spelling errors throughout this post, as well as the superior *nails emoji* attitude that pervades every line)

----

and lastly, some Greek mythology! A post about famously cuddly and loveable war god, and apparent bastion of modern morality, Ares!

First off

words that killed me on sight, I can't even handle it. This is how I want to see every Greek mythology post started from now on

whAT DOES this even MEAN

literally flatlining here

yes, that's definitely an anti-rape stance, not a possessive god thing, for sure. Also if he was so anti-rape, maybe he shouldn't have been the personification of the most violent, animalistic aspects of war and conquest?

putting these back to back because they're basically the same thing, but the *sparkles* kill me. Also, didn't you know that the Spartans were fierce warrior women??? (I swear to God, if a genie gave me 3 wishes I'd spend one on erasing the knowledge of Sparta from the average American brain) Let's not even get into the ethics of "homosexuality" i.e. pederasty here and how they relate to the aforementioned supposed anti-rape policy.

and op doesn't drop the ball with the conclusion, we get this beautiful cherry on top to sum it all up

----

And here ends this installment, but expect this to become a series because sadly there is no end to this shit, and I've got to cope somehow…

[baezdylan]

Been doing some spring-cleaning on my Amy playlist and driving myself insane thinking about Amy/11 as a sun and moon dynamic (obviously, who's who switches constantly, but always tied together, yet can never permanently be that way), so now I'm dead-set (see: deluding myself) on When The Day Met The Night being an Amy/11 song.

Because, and this is going to be a mini-essay, the song doesn't make it clear who's who between the sun and the moon + she and he, I think it's largely read as he being the moon and she being the moon but it can be read both ways -> Amy and 11 never really fitting neatly into one box.

And the song (and the album as a whole) has very overt fairy tale influences -> like a name in a fairy tale

As a bonus, the album this is on, but not this song sadly, has quite a few references to Rimbaud's A Season In Hell

But onto the song itself:

The links to the many gardens, especially the idea that the gardens are where he comes back to her (S5, the big bang Dr finding her asleep in her garden, S6, Amy finding out that he didn't die while she's in her background, S7, the scene with the convo with Rory where the TARDIS can be heard arriving)

Thinking about how 10's regen to 11 going roughly, collapsing and bleeding energy everywhere, literally just hanging on

But also Amy's "why did you say five minutes" in the garden and the look on her face when she says that -> the idea that she spent a lot of her 12 years barely hanging on to a sense of normality and sanity

Thinking about both of them making promises not to leave the other, textually or implied, and both of them breaking said promises....

To end this insane ramble, I'll leave you with the knowledge that if you queue Little Amy (the murray gold track) before When The Day Met The Night and then set the spotify crossfade to 3secs, the two tracks sync really nicely <3

This is an EXCELLENT match (thank you for the rant :")))) Keeping the reply under the cut because things got messy and deranged :/

Just... thinking about Night/Day imagery in general and how 11 and Amy meet during the night and each one of them thinks of the other as the sun while perceiving themselves as the moon. Considering how 10 felt about regenerating and how that predestined 11 to have his actual identity constantly creep up on him which he isn't  thrilled about because he's preoccupied with holding on to everything 10 was. (INSANE how Ten has to deal with Rose's ghost, the ghost of a living person and eventually ends up as one himself. He lives because Eleven wants to keep him alive, but it's not quite him... never a proper ghost, never a proper person...) it's only at the end of his arc that 11 acknowledges 10's vanity of all things. And then regarding Amy, there's the otherness she experiences in every timeline, even in the one where she remembers the Doctor, her drawings and artworks of him exist in her bedroom still. What a crooked solar system! The Moon chasing The Sun, 11 not allowing 10 to go, Amy waiting for 11.

Back to the Night/Day thing (the stuff above was a prelude, I guess), 11 comes back to Amy during the night (5x01) and leaves her during the day. (The God Complex) Key motif of The Romantic Period!!!! But also reminiscent of Symbolism. (Romanticism and Modernism as Amy's Art Movements Agenda is going strong) Actually your analysis here SCREAMS Verlaine's À La Promenade to me. ("and dying, like a sunshine of a dream" it says + mentions of costumes and vows, but again it's so much better in french dbdjdjjdjdjr modernism is freaky translated, but not the freaky that was originally intended to be portrayed bdjdjdjdjd)

Ooooooh the gardens, it gets even crazier with the gardens. The symbolism is ANCIENT, they are beauty and innocence and life, but are also wilderness and escapism and a ticket to nowhere. But for Amy, each reading of the garden kind of starts to exist with all these qualities exaggerated depending on the narrative moment, to the point of all of it becoming unbearable. She waits for the Doctor as a child and the green enveloping her house is too messy, she marries Rory and her new garden is too neat. Too messy and too perfect constantly being presented as the only two options Amy has, they only two ways in which she's allowed to be perceived. Truly haunted by her own dichotomy-defined presence. (never really fitting neatly into one box!!!!!!) "You could really spend a lifetime in here - not that I'm going to." on one hand she's been spending lifetimes in gardens like the TGWW one. On the other hand the TGWW garden is everything she wants, but Amy won't even consider it because she craves the Big Dramatic Moment, the feeling of having something happen to her even and especially if it's unpleasant ("kind of a good hurt") because she's been stuck in the in-between since forever and she doesn't want her dreams handed to her without the journey, without a sense of achievement. Wish fulfilment isn't appealing to her at all.

AAAAAAAND I wandered off here and this is INSANE and incoherent, but YAY for the Rimbaud cameos in music, I LOVE to see it.

[imaginationlandtrilogy]

My thoughts on the recent special/event after watching it twice:

It wasn't that good.

First and foremost, I'm still unsettled with the modern South Park designs. A good portion of this special featured strangers, those of whom have very modern designs, which obviously clashes with the classic designs. This is more so me nitpicking about modern South Park, but it just felt less endearing to me. There was this one background character that just kept appearing and he was far too detailed for someone that's supposed to emulate a construction paper person. He had a different colored beard to his hair, highlights in both, detailed clothing, and a slim waist. Part of the charm of South Park, I would say, is that the characters are designed appealing to that construction paper art style. The modern designs don't achieve that and only alienate themselves further from it with every extra wrinkle in the clothing. This was especially prominent in this special, as I couldn't stop being distracted with how strikingly different these strangers looked next to someone from the early seasons. Even when Steve was next to that realtor in the snow, he looked so different and it was a bit off-putting. Another nitpick I have regarding modern South Park in this special was the background music used. I found it to be distracting and once I acknowledged it, I couldn't stop focusing on that rather than what the characters were saying. It was too prominent than what background music should be in South Park.

I did, however, enjoy the focus on Tolkien and Stan - it was very seamless from the show. Stan even overenunciated 'Tolkien' when speaking to him because he didn't want to mess it up. I love that. It shows that he's still adjusting to that and it wasn't just a one-time thing in an episode where he would have trouble with it one day and flawlessly refer to him as Tolkien the next.

Randy. I have mixed feelings about Randy in this special partly due to the overdone 'Karen' joke. South Park often overemphasizes a joke for the sake of comedy, but this I felt was too over-the-top, especially considering it's a bit of a dead meme now. It's done and over with, so having to hear joke after joke after joke in a special that came out years after the joke's peak... was a bit exhausting. Randy is progressively becoming more and more angry and I don't know how to feel about this. It seems to be a problem in multiple South Park characters, as anger is becoming more ingrained in each plot as that anger is utilized for comedy (Pipi, for example, who I'll get to later). However, I feel as if anger is being used for comedy so much with some characters - such as Randy - that it's consuming them. They are becoming the anger that their character exhibits. There seems to be little development with Randy, whether it be a negative or a positive. I couldn't help but let my mind wander back to the end of the Post Covid special, which pushed Randy forward a bit in some area, but... this just didn't develop from that (nor did it in season 25, to be honest). It seems like the ending of Post Covid just didn't matter and only existed for the feel-good song at the end. It's a shame, as I would've liked to see some change in Randy's actions aside from him showcasing anger all the time. It just seems like every character is given anger as a personality trait in recent South Park seasons. Post Covid gave the opportunity for Randy to be something else - anything else - but that anger, but instead Randy's entire personality this special was for a joke that's already been beaten into the ground by the Internet from years before.

I'm going to relate the previous paragraph to WAP, which for some reason played throughout an entire scene. This song was a meme a couple years ago, so I don't know why it's playing in a South Park special two years later. If it had something to do with the scene, it would be fine, but it just genuinely seems like they heard the song for the first time, thought it was funny, and shoved it into the episode. It's just really out of place and that bothers me. It goes along with the Karen meme - it died years ago, so why is it in this episode? I'm not one to get on people for being out of date with pop culture, however, this is South Park, so it is a bit odd seeing outdated cultural references like these in the show. It just seemed very out of place and evoked more confusion than anything in me.

Another negative would be that the beginning and middle was rather slow-paced. I found myself getting bored and not enjoying it to the fullest (which, to be honest, was partly due to the amount of random adults in here). For example, why did the boys believe Cartman when he said his mom needed surgery? It was frustrating because it didn't seem like that aspect of their relationship with him would go anywhere. Why do they keep believing him - especially Kyle? He's proven time after time that he can't be trusted and he does lie often, yet even with South Park in serialization like this now, this part of the boys' relationship with Cartman doesn't go anywhere. They stopped talking to him, they didn't care that he seemed upset or sad - they didn't bat an eye. Yet, when he lies and says his mom needs surgery (which he's lied about his mother before, saying she has breast cancer and he wasn't believed then), they... believe him, let alone feel sorry for him? It just seems to be going in circles and I so desperately wish we wouldn't see the same little conflicts again and again.

(Also, on another note, why did they animate Butters eating the popsicle like that. That's terrifying.)

The last major criticism that I have is, stupidly enough, with Pipi. "Pee" is a good episode, it's very fun and Pipi was a fun character. However, as I mentioned in a previous paragraph, they gave him the trait of anger in order to progress the plot. Pipi was never angry, he was just a silly little guy who owned a waterpark and was too adjusted to how much pee was in there. He's such a minor character, but this special ruined the charm he had by making him evil. He's not an evil guy! He's just a waterpark owner who doesn't mind urine in the water. That simplicity in his character made him funny, especially contrasting with Kyle's thoughts in that episode. That was the joke. That should've stayed the joke. It was funny bringing him into this episode - I got so excited when I first saw him - but making him a 'villain' per se was a bad decision. He was brought back as a callback to that episode and that's all he should've been - a callback to a beloved episode from the past. Going back to his anger, South Park does this far too often - they use anger as a tool for humor or to drive the plot forward. Pipi should not have been given the trait of anger when it wasn't there previously. If they wanted to bring back an old character, it would have been better suited to have a character that is far more likely to be anger... that way, it wouldn't seem forced. This just didn't feel like Pipi and typing that now, I realize how ridiculous that sentence is (South Park, look what you're doing to me).

Minor criticism now: Manbearpig looked so weird. I guess all that red on him before was blood because it was gone in the special, but I always sort of assumed it was skin... like how you would expect a wretched amalgamation of three creatures to be. It's just such a weird design change and I much preferred the way he looked before. I also feel as if the red on his face and torso only added to how terrifying he was supposed to be. I'm a little sad they took that away.

One thing I did like is the development between Eric and Liane. It's clear she's growing more and more exhausted with him, so it was interesting to see her stand her ground on the surgery. In the past, she's been known to do whatever he wants and not really parent, so this was close to her being an actual parent to her child. Even more interestingly, near the end of the episode when Eric tells her he'll just get the surgery instead, she doesn't back down. He expected her to back down on his bluff, but she doesn't. She doesn't so much as bat an eye and even ushers him off. It's clear he expected her to say no, as his features conveyed some sort of surprise, but … she didn't. As he leaves the house, you can see the anger growing more prominent on his face and he speedwalks away, going one step further in his bluff. It was as if Eric was bluffing to Liane, so Liane, in turn, bluffed to him, then Eric once more, and finally, Liane did not back down and let him continue his bluff (no longer a bluff) and get the surgery. These two were challenging each other and that's such a change in their dynamic and as I said before, it's nice to see some change in the conflict in the series instead of the same thing happening over and over again.

Another positive, I enjoyed how chaotic everything was near the end. The events of the rather slow-paced beginning were building up and much like a roller coaster, the events came crashing down all at once. It was exciting. Steve gets mauled by Manbearpig (the audience not knowing if he's okay), Cartman gets breast implants, Pipi apparently has a plan to make everyone drink pee... It was all very chaotic and very true to South Park. It feels like so long since there's been wacky and chaotic plots like this, and watching the end of this was kind of exciting. I missed how crazy this show got sometimes.

My opinion of the special is mostly negative, but I am excited to see what's next, especially after that ending . . . (Although I really hope Steve is okay. He and Linda were among the only good parents in South Park and I wouldn't want a character with an actual good home life have a not-so-good one after this).

[ceilingfan5]

1, 3, 7, and 20 for 24 pretty please!!!

What inspired you to create your oc?

24 my honey my darling my violent shapeshifting dangerchild. hold on im gonna be so normal about this

[deep breath] so shades and shadows came from a dream, i had a weird premise with a gentle nod to a very scrapped concept from a long time ago, but essentially just this absolute Bad Guy that didn't turn out to be such a bad guy, and that became Jasper, and then the plot became that jasper was being essentially held and guarded under house arrest and his guard was orion, the shade, a spooky shapeshifter that was essentially going to play with a lot of wild possibilities with regards to Jasper's love life. lol but i had already created the shades as a concept and im like, well, surely there are more, yeah? he can't have been alone

and i was thinking very deeply about gender and pronouns bc like, the shade group refers the the shades as if they're like, things, like, animate magic constructs for convenient killing, but despite their origins they're like, full people, and orion has the very gender energy of Deciding to be a Man and use he/him. and the thought was-- what if there was a shade that did feel most comfortable being it? gender is fucked up and so is the shade group's uhhh practices and that would be such a wild high pressure environment to find yourself in, like, how does a person decide who and what they are? you see even my based on a dream fantasy ass romance horseshit has Deep Themes, you SEE,

and i wanted to go absolutely ham on the shapeshifter thing, bc like, i had made roe, who is a shapeshifter more on the order of like, a werewolf, and this shapeshifter would get to be Fucking Anything. so like, what would you do if you were a shapeshifter that could be Fucking Anything and had a real intense case of the fuck genders? that's 24

What is the origin of the character's name?

right in line with that, is essentially that like. think of a hermit crab in like, a plastic bottle. it shouldnt be there, but that's where it is and what it has and fuck you for wanting to take it away, what's it supposed to have, nothing?? that's 24. like, the shades were all numbered and 26 of them survived the intense arcano-science that brought them into being. ahh, 26, you say, winking at me. i wink back. orion is 15. of course. when they were young (the shade group Obviously didn't refer to them as children. that would be insane) they gave each other names based on their numbers. some of them were very into it, orion clung to having a name like a fucking lifeline, he wanted so desperately to be like a Real Person. 24 was probably hiding up a tree trying to change into a cat with too many eyes. it only liked orion and only orion liked it, so none of the others would have like, insisted on doing this dangerous rulebreaking vote of confidence for someone they regarded as a wild creacher at best and a threat, for most of them. orion offered but 24 thought it was stupid. what were they doing, pretending to be people? it was a joke.

Does your oc have any notable skills or good personality traits? Why did you give them those traits? Why do they exist in-universe?

24 is super good at: murder, espionage, shapeshifting, theft 24 is not good at: everything else in a modern au, 24 would eat kid cuisines every day in its dark apartment. and when orion didn't come back, and it ran out of kid cuisines, it would then go after orion and demand he return.

24 is sweet in its own way and very... protective of what it cares about, namely orion. and its collections. it likes to steal stuff when it goes places for assassinations, and has lots of different collections of little things, and its most favorite is a collection of little bottles with things that smell nice, like perfumes and candles and so on. very sensory seeking. it's incredibly loyal to orion and no one else, and decides when orion likes jasper that jasper is now its friend also. so it will graciously extend that to jasper, it guesses, fuck. you can definitely tell where all of this came from like, developmentally, with the shade group and all. honestly orion is more of an outlier. lol

Share a random piece of trivia about the creation of your oc. Examples: scrapped ideas or changes you didn't expect to make.

24 ends up in kind of a qpp with jasper and orion! it has no interest in romance. it's also usually pretty small. if you gender it outside of work it will bite you, but if it gets gendered when its shapeshifted for a murder, it will take a quiet thrill in how good it did the shapeshifting. it picked up on orion wanting to be a man way faster than orion did and even though it's kind of disdainful about it, it would take any job it could to make sure orion didn't have to shapeshift to be a woman because it made him uncomfortable.

[llycaons]

ep46 (3/3): this is what it's all about. but I talk about surgical policy and jc's innumerable issues for several paragraphs first

this is legit one of the most achingly tender scenes, maybe the moat romantic and beautiful until the very last shot. or even more so. debatable. I really love the last shot. but we're starting with...torture

so in order to wrap my head around the truly absurd prospect of someone being awake for 36 hours straight AWAKE given that the pain and physical stress of surgery would cause way more issues, I'm going to assume that the pain wen ning refers to is only partially physical. the rest is what he describes above - the spiritual pain of tearing out the core and feeling that life and energy drawn out of him until he's empty and cold inside. that makes sense to me. the ramifications of having a blood-and-guts awake operation for that long is dizzying. that is straight up torture

ALSO saying he couldn't have painkillers and had to be awake is such a blatant angst-milking from mxtx. usually the story toes the line just enough for believability but this (and wwx living on the streets as a 4 yr old too, tbh) really stretches the imagination. not that homeless young children don't exist but it seemed like wwx really had NOTHING and he hadn't starved to death or frozen or been mauled despite frequently being attacked by wild dogs so idk it seems like a lot to accept. ANYWAY

god this is so depressing for wwx. so I don't want to critique wen qing because modern medical ethics around surgeries were decades in development and it was kind of an unusual situation, but I really don't think wq should have done the transfer. wwx was a healthy individual with a very high risk of death from this procedure. according to some googling (I know), the highest risk for a non-emergency surgery is an exploratory belly case, with a 47% chance of death.

surgeons can and do refuse to operate if the risk is too high (which is partially about surgeons maintaining their numbers, but still). and jc didn't medically need this surgery, so there was no risk of death on either patient. wwx pestering her to try shouldn't have even mattered...like not to deny his bodily autonomy but that kind of medical decision would never fly today. also jc didn't consent blah blah but actually he did? it wasn't fully informed but he knew he was getting a gc from somewhere. also you could argue he wasn't in his right mind but I'm not the surgery police so whatever.

obviously that's not the point and I'm not castigating wq for doing a favor for someone she felt she owed deeply and probably preventing jc from like killing himself, but I can't help analyzing it from a modern periop perspective bc that's kind of what I'm trained for

god, I kind of wish jc had died though. sure it would have been rough and wwx probably would have been hounded by guilt forever and the jiang clan wouldn't have been restored bc jyl would have never gotten the kind of support she would have needed, but ummm maybe wwx could have married lwj + convinced him to help the wens and jyl could have married jzx and it would all have been fine? no, that's silly. jgy was still out there, and if he'd killed jzx and broken jyl's heart then wwx would never have let the matter go. well it's nice to dream

btw I read a fic once where he died and it was a really boring modern AU. jc is a really great rich character I would miss him I'm just SO sick of him these days. start weeping again IDIOT

*glares at the fanfic that made wwx say he would rather die than be ordinary*

REGRETFUL FLASHBACK TIME!!! strictly speaking lwj didn't NEED this the way jc did because he always changed his ways but he wouldn't be lwj if he didn't take it hard. and he's already been supportive but I can see this making him even more caring and attentive bc jesus christ what a thing to learn

aw yeah the elbow grasp. I love this shot. so many point of contact

wwx bitterly reflecting on what a brat jc's always been - petty, looking to hurt, brash, saying anything as long as it gets a reaction. you'd think he'd grown out of it but wwx seems to be resigned to the fact that he just hasn't grown up at all

...so THERE fanfic author that make him react happily when jc insults him! canonically he dislikes it and is annoyed that jc can't grow the fuck up! it's so annoying when fics make jc the mature one to wwx's silliness bc that's literally the opposite. jc being mean and harsh doesn't mean he's mature and it's really bizarre to see people take him so shallowly. and if reconciliation is to happen jc HAS to get over this he HAS to mature a bit and not act like a bitch when he's mad and take out his rage irrationally on other like that!!! even if he blames wwx for jyl it makes zero sense to blame lwj for his parents he just wants to cling to a justification bc otherwise his life's tragedies have made zero sense. anyway he has issues

awww he was worried about lwj! dw baby I don't think he cares what jc says about him

oh my god it's shijie 😭 the music going I'm going to cry. he sees her in the woods he sees her in the water he loves her so much he misses her she was everything to him love and safety and parent and stability and affection and family and he's never going to stop loving her or missing her is he! I'm miserable

and of course wen ning is like ? and then she vanishes and wwx feels so lonely and empty and sad he just repeats what he used to say to her bc she understood when he needed comfort bc showing love and family through food is such a huge theme in this series

here's what I don't get. why did wwx do this himself and then have lwj scold him?

that isn't very tender lover of you lwj!!! who cares if the lake has an owner, wwx is hungry!!

god wn is so funny here sitting with his lotus seeds <3

what they should have done was have this happen FIRST! lwj sees wwx is hungry and reaches down, breaking the stem and the precepts in one fell swoop! anything for his beloved, who he's just realized has been through even more terrible suffering than he could have imagined! I like to think they get there and he's still not used to this, but come ON writers!

all else being said, it IS a very romantic scene. even if wwx looks flabbergasted like that. like, touched, but also very confused

and HE LOOKS TO WN FOR CONFIRMATION I love that moment and wn is like nodding like yeah young master wei! it's okay! he loves you! yeah it is a surprise he did that isn't it! but it's okay! let's eat some lotus seeds! what a sweetheart

nice shot of wwx looking happy for once in this goddamn episode. happy ending to this awkward yet very sweet impromptu comfort food-stealing boat ride

omg I forgot that it's from the jin clan. fics will have the lans use these ALL the time.

and this is so funny too he gets so excited the boat rocks and lwj has to steady him

I always loved this opening shot for yunping! so so colorful

I had to delete some other shots bc I love this so much. excited about being remembered like this

and then so happy!! this is one if his most enamored looks. sappiest. most in love, even

personal highlights: this is such a delicious episode. SO satisfying

all of wwx's longing looks staring at the ancestral shrine. gutting

wwx sideways acknowledging just how much myu punished him

jc really pressed all of my buttons but in ways that made the response from lwj and wn really satisfying, so I guess he was a team player for that one

that one shot where jc looks just like his mom? their mannerisms are SO similar

wwx stopping lwj with a hand an inch from his pelvis region. awkward and yet very intimate

lwj pushing jc away from wwx very roughly and then so so tenderly bringing wwx to safety

wen ning's passion + excellent memory

jc sobbing. YESSS CRY

"let's quickly take young master wei away from here'

my epiphany that wwx's surgical pain is partially spiritual. it's still pain but do not take this away from me I can't understand it otherwise

elbow grasp 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

wwx complaining about what a terrible personality jc has always had

'I'm hungry' 🥺 and after an awkward stumble lwj came through!!! yess that's what wwx needs

wwx's adoring and pleased little smile at the very end. he's in loovveee

[thebaepatricia]

Here's Exactly Why I'm Blogging Again

I thought I was already over blogging, but apparently, regardless of the audience and if it's still a "thing" or not, I still honor it to heart.

Since around mid-2022, I felt an itch to blog again, but I didn't exactly have the heart to completely commit to it. Plus, I wanted something easier, more exposed, more.. modern. So I created an Instagram account. But then, that didn't go well for me for two reasons:

It was an impulsive decision with no plan whatsoever

I felt even more pressured with the whole aesthetics thing

And I'd like to believe the pressure was actually existent because if I was using a platform like Instagram, obviously, it's the images that would be seen first before the copy. So, by design, it prioritizes looks over substance. For someone who just wants to write, that system feels wrong. For instance, what if I had no image to share - just thoughts? The app is obviously not my ally in that case.

So I paused. I sat back. I thought, and thought, and thought. I slept on it and slept some more. I let it sit there while I figured it out in my head.

But as the days passed, the blogging itch remained. Plus, I'll have to admit - my work had a big influence on this decision. Every time I would pitch to a blogger influencer and see their websites, I would feel this tug of half envy, half inspiration. I would always catch myself thinking, "I miss blogging."

I knew in my heart of hearts, I had a lot of things to share. I just couldn't figure out how to start again.

When you think about it, if you're just living in the truest way possible for you, you don't have to force anything.

You'll be sharing things from the life you live, instead of living so you could share something. Massive difference.

I wanted the former. I have it. No matter how trivial my days seem, it's in my nature to romanticize events in my life. And by default, I like documenting things. And I believe that our ideas are planted in our heads for a reason. It feels heavy in the head and you can't stop thinking about it because you're meant to do it. It's not meant to stay in your head - it requires action.

So I acted on it. My impulse was to go back to Wordpress because I was used to it, and it's what everyone uses now. But it still felt overwhelming and too much for my personal blogging goals. It was frustrating.

I just wanted to write. To document my days. To save links to online articles and YouTube videos that gave me a nugget of wisdom or two. I needed something more accessible and straightforward.

Ah, Tumblr, then.

This time, I want to reduce, if not completely eliminate, my people-pleasing tendencies, and just write. For me. For my younger self. For my future self.

You could consider this...

...a badly written memoir ...an assortment of documentations ...a gallery of reference for the amusing things I find online ...a virtual diary for my spiraling thoughts and feelings ...a journal for my self-healing practices

I don't have a concrete plan about this. And that's the point. This time, I'm just going with what feels right, instead of what looks good.

Emphasis on me!

So, with all this said...

Welcome back to blogging, self! 🫱🏻‍🫲🏼 Let's enjoy this journey! 🖤

[n1kolaiz]

The Six Realms

Okay, so I was pretty close to giving up on writing analyses but I'm back LMFAO plus I see we're close to 100 followers and I just want to thank you guys for being so very supportive <3

Alright, I'm not sure if anyone's ever written about this, but if an analysis like this exists, please do let me know because I'm kind of curious as to what other people think about this, too!

Remember that time Fukuchi spoke about bringing "about the five signs of an angel's death"?

I read a little bit more about it, and as a minor content warning: this analysis will focus on a few religious aspects (Buddhism + Hinduism). So if I get any of the facts wrong, firstly: I do not mean any disrespect to either religion, and secondly: please do correct me if I interpret anything in the wrong way.

Spoilers for BSD chapter 90 onwards + BEAST!AU under the cut!

So I'll start by talking about the Decay of Angels. As we all know, the members include Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Sigma, and Bram Stoker, and their leader, Fukuchi Ochi. After Fyodor's arrest, the Decay of Angels came into light with Nikolai murdering four government officials in a week. These murders symbolise the Buddhist cycle of existence, or otherwise known as samsara: the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

"We are the Decay of Angels—hiding here as terrorists, a 'murder association', five people who will announce the demise of the celestial world."

Nikolai Gogol, chapter 57

Samsara is described to be a concept beyond human understanding. According to Hinduism, samsara is the physical world where every being has its soul trapped into a physical vessel. The Hindus believe that everything has a soul, and due to a soul's attachment to desire, it is forced into a deathless cycle of being born, dying, and reincarnating into a different body. In Buddhism, the ultimate way to break free from this cycle is by obtaining nirvana.

Nirvana is a Sanskrit word for the goal of the Buddhist path: enlightenment or awakening. In Pali, the language of some of the earliest Buddhist texts, the word is nibbana; in both languages it means "extinction" (like a lamp or flame) or "cessation." It refers to the extinction of greed, ill will, and delusion in the mind, the three poisons that perpetuate suffering. Nirvana is what the Buddha achieved on the night of his enlightenment: he became completely free from the three poisons. Everything he taught for the rest of his life was aimed at helping others to arrive at that same freedom.

- TRICYCLE'S definition of nirvana

As Fukuchi mentions in the panel above, there are six different realms of existence. These realms represent every possible state of existence, but one cannot live in a specific realm forever. Depending on whether or not one's past actions were morally good or bad, an individual is born into one of these realms. Basically, the controlling factor of which realm a person is born into is dependent on their respective karma. The realms are separated into two categories: the hellish ones and the heavenly ones.

The Deva Realm: where beings are rewarded for the good deeds they have done. This realm is void of anything unpleasant. It is basically paradise— empty of unfulfilled desires, any form of suffering, and fears of every kind. Religious individuals, however, do not seek to be born into this realm since its attitude is more or less carefree.

The Asura Realm: where demigods are admitted. Asuras are driven by greed and envy, and may come in conflict with human beings since they are quite similar. They are powerful beings, but quarrel with each other quite a bit, making this realm quite undesirable to be reborn into.

The Animal Realm: where beings are given the form of an animal (you probably guessed that lol). Individuals here don't actually have good karma to take pride in, but rather, they are born into this realm to work off their bad karma (by being slaughtered, hunted, or forced to work, etc). Being born into this realm forces one to atone for their past sins by living out their life as an animal.

The Hell Realm: where one is punished for their evil actions. The most merciless of realms, where one pays for their transgressions through pure suffering, methods of which include: dismemberment, starvation, and psychological/physical torture. However, once a person's term is fulfilled in this realm, they are presumably promised to be reborn into a higher state.

The Preta Realm: similar to the hell realm, in which beings pay for their past sins (specifically: greed and stinginess) by having to survive through hunger and thirst. This realm is also known as the 'ghost realm,' because some pretas are psychologically tortured by being forced to live in places their past selves have lived in. They are invisible to human beings living at that time, which pushes them to face the depths of despair and loneliness. Your typical horror movie, really.

The Human Realm: the only realm where one's actions determine their future. The status (social ranking, physical wellbeing, and so on) of a human being in this realm is determined by their past actions, but due to the fact that a person has their own conscience to differentiate good morals from bad, the actions they commit in this realm have the power to determine which realm they are sent to next.

Okay, so now that I've got that out of the way, let's shift our focus to the Book. Very little is known about the Book, but the basic fundamentals of how it works is that whatever is written in the book will come into existence only if its contents follow the rules of karma. In addition to that, only a few sentences can be written into a single page of the Book, and it must follow the current narrative of the story.

If I'm not wrong, the first time the Book was mentioned was by Fitzgerald, who wanted it to resurrect his deceased daughter in hopes of restoring his wife's mental health. The next time the Book is brought up is when Fyodor's intentions to possess it are divulged; his goal was to decimate the global population of ability-users. And now, the current arc has the Book as its central focus, with a single page in Fukuchi's possession.

[ BEAST!AU spoilers ]

The Book acts as the central point of multiverses, with each character's lives differing from universe to universe.

Dazai committing suicide in this alternate universe stands in sharp contrast with how he decided to start up a new life in the main universe.

Oda staying alive to act as a mentor to Akutagawa in the ADA differs from how Oda uses his death to prompt Dazai to "be on the side that saves people."

And of course, the way Atsushi and Akutagawa have their positions switched in the two universes depicts how different their lives would be if they were given the chance to be mentored by different people— these are just a few examples of how the Book houses an endless amount of possibilities.

[ end of BEAST!AU spoilers ]

Hypothetically speaking, this kind of reminds me of the differing realms I mentioned before, where suffering is promised in some realms, and better things are granted in the rest, depending on one's karma, or the deeds they've done in their past lives. In this scenario, perhaps one's past life can be understood as one's current life in a different universe. That's just a personal opinion though. Take it as you will.

side note: Keep in mind that the person who is more or less impervious to the Book's effect is Dazai, with his nullification ability. I wouldn't want to propose any theories in this aspect (I don't believe I'm fully fact-checked ;_;), but I could use Dazai as a raw example of how your choices affect your future. If Dazai had decided to stay in the Port Mafia after Oda's death, or if he even decided to go through with his suicidal fixations, life would've been different for him in the root universe (obviously, ryley) I mean, you could basically understand that from how he ended up in the BEAST au, but imagine if he really did slip up in his decision-making in any of the universes.

Many analysts have proposed that he went MIA (early in his life) from the main universe for a while to figure out how the BEAST universe worked, whilst having the Book to his advantage. Perhaps his actions were guided? I'm not saying he's all-knowing, but he's sure as hell smart. I'm not sure if Kafka was trying to highlight the concept of karma when it comes to Dazai, but if he is, then I suppose you could say that Dazai is pretty much unaffected by the rules of karma, existing as the centerpiece of all the multiverses. No Longer Human is the namesake of his ability, but the book talks about disqualification from societal norms and generally, the world. I was talking about it with a friend, and they reminded me that Yozo (the main protagonist) was pretty strong in his views against society. Like he didn't speak out of total defeat, he spoke out of defense. If there was anything Dazai actually lost to, it was his guilt— "Living itself is a source of sin."

Then again, that's my personal interpretation since everyone has their unique perspective of his writings. In terms of the actual adaptation, you could translate the word 'disqualification' to 'insusceptibilty' when if it came to the Book's effects on Dazai? This side note is becoming really long lmao anyways I'll link a few theories which afflicted me with brainrot down below.

Another thing before I wrap up, the name 'Decay of Angels' stemmed from Yukio Mishima's book entitled 'The Decay of An Angel.' This is the final novel to the author's tetralogy: 'The Sea of Fertility.' The main protagonist, Honda, meets a person he believes to be a reincarnation of his friend, Kiyoaki, who takes the form of a young teenage boy named Tōru. The last novel of this series enhances Mishima's dominant themes of the series as a whole:

the decay of courtly tradition in Japan

the essence and value of Buddhist philosophy and aesthetics

Mishima’s apocalyptic vision of the modern era

Again, this could be referred to what Fukuchi goes on to say:

Some people view the concept of samsara optimistically, justifying it by saying that perhaps each individual is given a second (third, fourth, fifth, who knows) chance to refine their actions in order to be birthed into a better realm, with their karma being the independent variable.

On the other hand, other people, specifically the Hindus, view the cycle of existence as some sort of plague. To them, the flow of life and being forced to endure the suffering of mere existence in any form was somewhat frowned down upon. Some Hindus viewed samsara as a trap. Besides, having one's soul being limited to a physical body for the rest of eternity was not very appealing, especially since where they ended up at depended on the karmic value their past actions surmounted.

Even so, particular types of Buddhists don't seek nirvana, but instead, like the Hindus, they make an effort to be good people of society, building up their good deeds to increase the likelihood of being reborn into one of the better realms.

As mentioned before, the Deva Realm was the home of angels, the most carefree, gratified beings to exist. Fukuchi describes these angels as the people who don't get their hands dirty, the people who act as the puppeteers of society: politicians.

In terms of parallels, angels were the most fortunate and powerful, but they didn't have anyone ruling over them. A lack of supervision would lead to the abuse of power, which is what I believe Fukuchi was referring to. Deeming himself the Decay of Angels, he sought to prove himself as the 'sign of death that falls on the nation's greed.'

A few fun facts (okay, not really) about Yukio Mishima: he committed seppuku (ritual suicide by disembowelment) on the day he held a speech to voice out his unpopular political beliefs to the public. Mishima deeply treasured traditions and opposed the modern mindset the nation was advancing forward to adapt eventually. In his last book, The Decay of an Angel, he spoke about the five signs which complete the death of an angel:

Here are the five greater signs: the once-immaculate robes are soiled, the flowers in the flowery crown fade and fall, sweat pours from the armpits, a fetid stench envelops the body, the angel is no longer happy in its proper place.

The Decay of an Angel, p.53

The reviews about this series I've read so far describe Mishima's works to be quite complex; his writings demanded a lot of time to deconstruct and understand. They were highly symbolic, and he was pretty obsessed with death and the 'spiritual barrenness of the modern world.' I think you could attach a few strings from here to the mindsets of the DOA members. Of course, this parallel is completely abstract, but I'll go on rambling anyway:

He should have armed them with the foreknowledge that would keep them from flinging themselves after their destinies, take away their wings, keep them from soaring, make them march in step with the crowd. The world does not approve of flying. Wings are dangerous weapons. They invite self-destruction before they can be used. If he had brought Isao to terms with the fools, then he could have pretended that he knew nothing of wings.

The Decay of an Angel, p.113

I suppose you could resonate Nikolai with that excerpt. As much as Fukuchi takes the lead in this whole murder association, I'd like to believe that each member of the DOA plays an equally interesting part in whatever movement they're trying to execute. Fyodor feels it is his god-sent purpose to cleanse the world of its sins, his motto being, "Let the hand of God guide you." Sigma doesn't know where he belongs, since his origination comes from a page in the Book, and is fueled by the desperation to find a reason to live. Bram holds one of the most powerful abilities which is counted to be one of the "Top Ten Calamities to Destroy the World."

What I mean to say is that the DOA members are incredibly powerful, and they're not your ordinary antagonists (or I'm just biased). It's not just overthrowing authorities, mass genocide, and world domination— you could say that each individual is trying to utilize their purposes to their fullest expenditures, and the way they're trying to assert their plan into action is a little more passive-aggressive (framing the Agency, having a convo with a suicidal dude in jail, etc). They're the gray area between evil and good. As they framed the good guys for their own crimes, they're trying to conquer the bad guys for exploiting the innocent as they please.

This post would definitely age well if all hell breaks loose in the current arc (as if it didn't) and Kafka doesn't give us a happy ending.

That's all I have to say for now I guess! Thank you for reading, and once again, if anyone else something they wanna share, feel free to do so <3

sources (tryna follow Q's example ^_^) :

the six realms

samsara

the decay of angels

beast!au

the book

the sea of fertility

yukio mishima

theory: dazai’s emotional/mental state in beast!au

q’s theory: dazai being the protector of the book

theory: beast!dazai and the book