#setting up stuff that will be relevant to the story. even if you dont know it at first

[alicentsgf]

im very set on there being 8 survivors now, anything else cheapens the story a little for me. i think it was always going to be 8, no matter what else changed. even before the writers were set on who the 8 would be they knew the 8 roles the characters would have to fill. this was always implied in the pilot, but now im convinced.

even just going off what we've actually heard via dialogue, any more than 8 feels unlikely. at lotties compound one of them said they were "all here" implying it was just the 6 of them left alive. the other 2 would then be travis and someone else who is either dead or assumed to be dead. i know people have speculated on that line in season 1 about some survivors living off-grid but personally i still think jessica just meant travis.

the number 8 has come up a couple of times in meaningful ways and its especially relevant to understanding why it matters that they're the Yellowjackets, a soccer team. it isnt just backstory, its like the key on a map, symbolic shorthand to help you understand the wider story. their on-field dynamics and roles so often mirror the ongoing dynamics and roles of the characters.

minus duplicates (like allie/akilah being nat's duplicate) there are 8 positions in a starting line up and we know via their shirt numbers all but 1 position is assigned to a specific varsity player. i know this is super hard to visualise if you arent a massive soccer nerd like me so i repurposed a graphic i made a while back.

in soccer specific jersey numbers are traditionally worn by particular positions, e.g 1 for a goalie, 9 for a striker, etc. every single varsity player in this show wears a traditional number. theres no way that happens by accident, it was a choice. the image above shows you what it tells us about their field position. as you can see the unassigned role is the attacking playmaker position, the person who makes the most pressurised, pivotal decisions. the real life or death stuff. misty fills this role, she has both ended and saved more lives than the rest and i'd say destroying the blackbox was pretty damn pivotal. in the pilot when the girls run out for the pep rally she is the only one thats focused on apart from the varsity girls and theres a player missing from the line up. that seems deliberate.

you can also see the only (teen) dead of the 8 are laura lee and jackie. this is where our reserves come in. sometimes also called substitutes or game-changers (subtitution is a major theme in this show just by itself but thats another post). when a player goes down you look to the bench to see who can fill their role. laura lee and jackie have both already been subsituted: travis takes laura lees place at lotties right hand, becoming her partner in the right side of defense, naturally protective but can progress with the attack to support his winger (nat), and then melissa takes jackies place as shaunas focal point, encouraging progression and driving the attack. however, even then travis and melissa dont fit quite right. simply put, people (and cats, no matter how similar they look to the original) cant be so easily replaced. travis, melissa, and misty are often othered. never accepted as part of the core team. (i have a suspicion van was meant to die and have javi take her place positionally. for a while he seemed like he might have a similar ability to deflect death against the odds and a closeness to the wilderness travis and lottie would want to defend. imo whenever the writers decided javi was dying or van was living, the others story inevitability changed too.)

the number 8 relates to the wilderness too. the 8 the knife made at the seance when javi asked if they were all going to die? the way the symbol of the wilderness has 8 elements?

im not saying this diagram shows for sure which element represents who, but i thought i'd give you guys an idea of what im seeing.

to be clear, im absolutely not saying the survivors are all that the symbol represents. if an in-universe explanation is given it will obviously be something else (i.e. that its a map of some sort) but i think the creators of the show chose this design for a reason that perhaps relates more to the survivors than anything else. it being a map would be more of a visual backgronym, with the characters as the actual inspiration for it.

for me the symbol has to represent them because the entire point is that they and wilderness are indistinguishable. us not knowing whats the wilderness and whats them is by design. that promotional poster of the characters forming the symbol? sitting inside of it? supernatural force or not, its in them. like lottie said, "is there a difference [between it and us]?" thats the shows thesis statement.

it makes sense Tai's jersey number is the 8 when she most embodies what the wilderness represents. shes the central midfielder, equal parts attack and defense. two warring halves, neither one exactly good nor bad, just primal vs civil. as shes placed at the very center of the game she has to play equally in both her own half and the other. her finding a way to balance both sides is key and this follows because historically and mathematically 8 has often been the number that is used to represent balance, splitting evenly from 8 to 4 to 2 to 1. life vs death, creation vs destruction, spiritual vs physical. neither can exist without the other. "does a hunt that has no violence feed anyone?" = living requires killing. but too much of either and theres disruption, a hole in the ecosystem as a species exhausts its food source. I wonder if thats what the yellowjackets did. killed too freely and disrupted the balance. once again, tai would embody this. her arc this season would reflect the wider narrative in its entirety - the primal takes over and natures left unbalanced. its why i dont think any of the survivors end this show alive. not because of cosmic justice, this story isnt so much about morality, its about duality and balance. when the wolves are killing too many deer the only thing you can do to reset the scales is cull the wolves.

so yes, it always had to be 8. if the 8th survivor is melissa, then it was very likely decided long ago that one of the extras would eventually come to the fore to play this part. ultimately they were just waiting to see who they thought was the best fit (or maybe what big name older actress they might be able to snag and match to a teenager lmao). either way it always had to be someone who could step into the space jackie left in order to complete the team. no more practices or scrimmages, they know their roles now. the ones we met in the pilot; the butcher, the overseer, the shaman, etc. for so long they had no striker, no sharp point to their attack, but thats not true anymore. melissa subs in for jackie, but soccer is fluid. players can switch position due to substitution. now its shauna who leads the attack, becomes the striker, the captain, placing melissa in the space shes left behind. no more killing for necessity, this is killing for sport and every position is filled. the story until now was just match prep, this is where the game begins.

[elainsgirl]

if they cared about elain like they said they did, they wouldn’t ship elucien. they want her with a man who doesn’t care about her and only does because of the mating bond. do they know or even care that she does not want to be with him in any way, shape or form?? she’d rather watch a kettle boil than spend one second in his vicinity. and in regards to the BB post, i find it amusing that gwyn cutting the ribbon made it onto the list. like are you sure about that? her cutting a ribbon is your FAV moment out of the entire series? be so fr right now.

If they cared about Elain, they wouldn’t want her to leave the NC which she considers her home - a place where she is vibrant and filled with joy. They wouldn’t undermine her friendship with the twins who brought out a spark in her eye, instead they want her to be besties with a man who made an unprovoked r4pe joke about her. If they liked Elain - they’s see how vital and fitting the prison plot for her is instead of her travelling to same lake.

Most think they know whats best for Elain better then Elain herself, they dont take her character,her growth and her decisions/declarations seriously because it doesn’t fit the narrative they’re trying to spin. For them- it’s about making Elain fit Luciens story. Not the other way around, the way it should be.

They dont care - eluciens hve deluded themselves Elain is secretly attracted to Lucien which is a disgusting narrative in itself to push out, eluciens self insert with Elain.

Its the only relevant Gwyn moment they have. That’s why they spammed it through, they need to convince themselves Gwyn is important, and its funny because they where complaining over how elriels where sending in stupid scenes but this is their scene that gets chosen 😭 that too it was set up to loose by BB unless Gwynriels and eluciens mass vote which is likely cause they take this stuff way too seriously.

[doomed-silly]

So I primarily have posted milgram content but I NEED to talk about ochako and toga from my hero academia so bad

FULL MHA SPOILERS BELOW

LIKE EVEN STUFF THAT HASNT BEEN ANIMATED

With that out of the way im specifically wanting to talk about toga and ochako in terms of neurodivergency, privilege, and social norms.

Starting with Toga to me shes well first off canonically LGBT (pan specifically I believe), but to me she reads neurodivergent. Not so much in behavior but in her role in the story/how shes treated. She has a quirk that's at first glance not seen as "normal". She exhibits behaviors that are alarming and also not "normal". You can probably see where im going here, but Toga was born into a system that had 1. Decided before she was born that she was someone who needed to be changed to fit the mold and 2. Born into a system that prioritized the status quo over her as a person.

Moving onto ochako, I'd argue that ochako exhibits extreme levels of affection like Toga does. The key difference is Ochako does it in a socially acceptable way. Ochakos quirk does not predispose her to expressing love differently from the majority of people. Ochako is a very affectionate loving person, and she is empathetic at heart.

So after setting up some basic information where am I going with this? I wanted to talk about privlidge and ostracization. Since im relating toga specifically back to autism I'll be speaking in those terms. Toga shows affection and love based on the genetic makeup she was born with. Toga is simply doing what is natural to her. When someone who is autistic is born its the same way. We are autistic. The way we show love or socialize or anything that autism effects (which is mostly everything) is inherent to our autism. Once Toga starts deviating from what's considered normal shes sent to get professional help. In this case and what most cases are irl its not about helping the autistic individual acclimate to their surroundings and cope with them its about teaching them to act in a way that's deemed more acceptable. This can be seen with Toga when shes literally told to "quit smiling like that". Just our facial expressions are enough to upset people. I know plenty of autistic people who had to practice their facial expressions in the mirror. But anyways after this Toga quite literally starts masking the visual cue of this is a LITERAL mask she wears. For anyone who doesn't know irl with autism masking is the process of someone who's autistic presenting as neurotypical (not autistic). However this is an extremely draining process. And when you reach a point you can experience burn out which then effects everything in your life including your ability to mask. Toga broke she couldn't keep masking which led to her drinking the blood of her crush. So just some quick recaps Toga was born with a system that was built to force her to conform or face ridicule otherwise.

Next is ochako. In terms of privlidge ochako isn't rich (the poor jokes were plentiful), but compared to Toga it comes down to her quirk. Ochakos quirk doesn't effect her behavior or at least the way she presents to people. She's the type of girl people love. Translating that to irl ochako could be considered neurotypical. Ill speak more about ochako later but for now that's the info that's relevant.

We hear first hand from Toga she doesn't understand why how she expresses love is wrong. To her it is inherent. And irl id say majority of autistic people dont drink blood to show their love BUT we do typically approach love differently than neurotypical people. They literally made a whole show about dating while autistic. And this is where ochako comes in. She grew up in a system that benefited her. She never had to think about her expression of self because the system never faulted her for how she expressed herself. When she is first interacting with Toga shes still trusting the system because she doesn't have the life experience or personal connections to realize that some people are not only struggling under the system but are actively demonized under it. From there toga is able to find her chosen family and ochako attempts to connect with Toga. But now I want to go to their final confrontation. At this point Toga is beaten down. Ochako is fully embracing the fact she was wrong and she wants to understand and help Toga but at this point Toga doesn't have an interest in the system anymore. And I think where it starts getting heart breaking but also really interesting is that ochako is actively taking hit after hit from Toga but still choosing to connect vs fight. Toga has never had someone who was apart of the system willing to reach out to her like this but especially to that degree. And I think the final push Toga and ochako needed was ochako acknowledging that Toga suffered not because of the fact shes a villain and has a quirk that makes her act a certain way, but because this system was not designed to help her. And ochako completely opening up to Toga at her worst literally not shielding herself when Toga goes to stab her shows Toga a level of care and willingness to understand and love her that she till now didnt think could happen for her. Toga desires love and connection. In her own words she falls in love too easily with everyone and everything. She so desperately wants people to accept her and love her, but because she was born in a way that was deemed incorrect shes barred from the connection she wants. Seeing ochako not only accept her but actively fight to get through to her is that connection she longs for. Not just love but a signifier of validation and acceptance that she didn't deserve what happened to her in her past and that people can love her outside of the bounds of what's "normal"

And i think that culminates to Togas question "am I cute?". On the face of it its a bit of a juvenile question. To Toga though this isn't juvenile because to her its her finally being able to let go of the hatred people gave her.

I think what's so heart breaking about Toga is what she even says in her final monologue. Maybe if there were more people like ochako or someone had reached out earlier things could've been different. Toga didnt need to be fixed she just needed support.

And from there we can get more into ochako. During her confrontation with Toga she specifically mentions realizing there's more than just her family that needs help and to me I read that as her acknowledging what extends past her world view. So many neurotypical people or anyone not part of a marginalized group are very resistant to being open to learning past what they know. But ochako saw there's more to the world then just her and she then took action to educate herself and extend empathy. Her monologue to Toga is exhibiting this like when she talks about how she thought Toga smiling while doing awful things meant she liked hurting people and then proceeding to say Togas smile was perfect. Ochako is at this point fully accepting her position of privilege. She is able to see her own prejudices and shes also not only wanting to talk and get closer to toga but is willing to extend an offer that benefits toga and not the system. Ochako has been viewing toga through the lens of the system they grew up in, so once she realizes she was wrong she can't just expect toga to work within those constraints. Toga has been doing that her whole life which led her here. Ochako takes accountability and also makes the space comfortable for toga by saying she'll give her as much blood as she wants. Ochako is fully embracing toga as she is and not what shes "supposed" to be.

I think in the time skip ochako continuing to use her time to help kids like toga is also a testament to her character. I really do believe this whole arc is a beautiful way to encapsulate how autistic people are disregarded and mistreated by our society and also shows how far acceptance and understanding can go.

"This world might not be a comfortable place for you to live in" is the line that has me constantly thinking about these two. It's rare im so moved by a piece of dialogue that it makes me rethink my life. But for all of MHA's faults im glad we have toga and ochako

[sooniebby]

hi! first time anon, but long time reader of your work (been here since the midoriya x bakugo's big bro fic). i wish you good luck in your finals and i hope you have a good break !

i read your motorbike prompt fanfic, i think the plot is really nice and tbh i think transmasc reader is really good for that story !! speaking as a thai person myself, i think transmasc rep is scarce here but that might just be me ??? 😭

tho speaking of which, there was smth that bugged me about the story, which is the part where the mysterious biker called the reader "nangfa (นางฟ้า)" not sure if you used google translate or smth else but by most interpretations, nangfa is fairy/pixie/goddess. i mean, it's applicable to angel, too, but it's not like... the most "right" ig????? if that even makes sense 😭💀 cuz i feel that thai language doesnt really have a direct translation for "angel" bc our language is derived/mixed from/with sanskrit, old khmer, pali, etc., which are languages heavily associated with buddhist scriptures. this is relevant bc in buddhism theres not really any "angels" rather than gods and goddesses (note that some sects do interpret them as angels but in mainstream/legitimized thai buddhism (Theravada) in thai language, they are called gods and goddesses), which means that the concept of angels doesnt really exist, but the closest to abrahamic angels we have are gods and goddesses. another thing is that nangfa has a feminine connotation, bc "nang" means mrs, so nangfa is literally sky woman. it might be a bit dysphoric since the reader is transmasc. tho i dont know the male equivalent of nangfa, never heard of one either personally even tho i lived in thailand for all of my life. mostly theyre just straight up called เทพบุตร (male gods) or เทวดา. also pretty sure mostly facebook incels flirt with girls using nangfa so that was mostly what threw me off 😭 if theyre not facebook incels, theyre just overdramatic, desperate, or old as hell (like 50+ 💀)

if u wanna change it after reading this (which u dont have to), there are some good choices such as "whanjai (sweetheart)," "baby (preferred by most younger thai couples)," "ที่รัก (thi rak -> my love)" ofc phi/p and nong are also good choices. if you want the reader/krist/mystery biker guy to have chinese ancestry (most common ethnic group in thailand), you can also use เฮีย "hiea" (older male) tho if youre interested in the usage of this word i can expand on that in another ask

ALSO I JUST REALLY WANNA KNOW, AT THE PART WHERE IT SAYS

“(Name) Opas Phanuwat, what do you think ‘stay where I can see you’ means?”

IF "OPAS PHANUWAT" IS THE READER'S WHOLE LAST NAME OR IF IT'S LIKE OPAS = FIRST NAME, PHANUWAT = LAST NAME 😭 flash banged, if i am reading this right as โอภาส = opas... cuz my dad's friend's name is that 😭 it's a really old name but it has a good meaning. also, again if this came from google translate, imo it should be fixed as "opad" bc opas is not the correct phonetic sound, tho it's up to you if you wanna change it or not cuz by "romanization" (not sure abt the proper term for this but i think this word gets the point across?) it is right, it's just not read as "opas"... this part, again, is js my personal preference because my name is constantly butchered bc the way it is written vs how it's pronounced is very different in both thai and english 😭 really dont wanna suffer again w this shi

tldr, nangfa as a choice bugs me and really curious abt the reader's name choice

i really like this concept overall and i think it's really interesting !! very happy that this place i call home is the setting of this one !! (tho i think they really didnt need to shut the highway in BANGKOK down 😭 (cries in ungodly traffic jam) cuz illegal races happen regardless but it's wtv) i cant wait to see how this story plays out and who that mystery bike guy is and learn more abt krist !! looking forward to reading your next work !! until then good luck with your stuff and supporting you from the shadows !!

just in case i do send smth again i'll leave off as mcyap anon 😭 sorry that this is like super long

!!!!!! YAY!!!! Thank goodness, I’m so glad you corrected me, please do it again if needed!!!!!! Anyway I’ll explain some of the choices cuz I did only use google translate for angel cuz I couldn’t find what type of pet names do Thai people use!

Thx for the list of choices, I’ll think a bit more on which one suits the biker. But could you explain heia?

For the last name bit, I got the last name from a real Thai actor lmfaooo, Opas Phanuwat was his full last name! But the romanization of it could’ve been wrong lol. I was actually wondering if I should do it how it works in Thai

The nickname first name last name, but I don’t know how many none thai people know that 😩 so I just left it at that, but I can see how it would end up confusing a Thai person fml.

Thx again, really, sure I’m learning more about Thai culture through dramas and readings—it’s nice to have someone actually check me!!

Oh and I’m curious, does this name I have for the biker make sense?

“เสือ” ธาวิน ชัยอริยะกุ�� — learning how last names work in Thai was a struggle, but the way yall names work is so cool 🙂‍↕️

[rqbossman]

Hello Mr Bossman! (and possibly anyone else who reads this)

Its an honour to be here, I have a few questions. First i appologise for the long paragraph, you may dismiss it for the questions at the bottom. For context, i am here after finishing TMA and being up to date with TMAP, i then went over and listened to RQG, and have just finished listening to Epilogue 3 and might i just say, good sir I am grateful for your podcasts. I am currently just a few months away from my final exams of High School, and as someone who even just 1 year ago was very lost, struggling with school and being just overwhelmed. TMA isnt exactly comforting, but the characters and plot managed to serve as a good form of escapism while sorting myself out. I found my self engaging more in creative things that i had originally put aside in favour of maths and science (which i hated but thought i needed to do). I started drawing again, even if just fanart. and i found things going well. By finding podcasts, story telling and these communities have helped me in my own understanding of what i want in life. I got an ADHD diagnosis earlier this year, and almost directly after started RQG and as my first hyperfixation (that i was aware of as an hyperfixation) gosh dang it hit hard. (in a good way). Ive been able to do so much more creative writing and drawings, and got re-involved with a small dnd group with some friends who i played one game with almost 4 years ago now. So overall, inspirational sounds cringe, but it was. Im doing my best with the upcoming exams, but trying to get in to Medicine is not my only prority, and the fact ive been re-introduced to my first love (Literature and story telling), im planning to go do an Arts degree and i know i wouldnt have been able to confidently make this decision, or even have survived this long in the school system without the work you and your coworkers do. Now the sap is out of the way, Question time! (if you could answer even just one of these questions it would be so cool)(they go in order of RQ relevant to random stuff)(dont feel pressured to answer all/any. i know i wrote alot): 1. what would you say is the best way to draft out a long-form story. (with "Erasing the Line" as an example) Did you start at the end, with the links to the overarching plot.

2. When working with the players (in a form of TTRPG), what did you do to make sure you didnt miss relevant timing of plot points/ avoid creating spoilers while still giving enough detail?

3. What are good places to start with making a job out of storytelling/voice acting/audio etc. In the case of RQ, how is this a job and where do i sign up please! /j (what i mean is, how is best way/how did you find all the people involved and was there a common path that you were all on before getting to where you are now?) 4. Do you have recommendations for Terry Pratchett Books, i may be an literary-leaning student, but it seems i have never actually properly read any of his books. so where is best place to start?/What did you read first?

5. Similar authors or similar inspirations? Did you have a favourite podcast you listen to in your free time that you havnt had a hand in producing/directing/working on. 6. Favourite song/album/artist. And more specifically, what you like listening to in background when doing either writing or (for ttrpg) character research/game planing. 7. Since the olympics are on at the moment, what has been your favourite sport to watch, if you have been watching at all. Thank you for your time :)

Thankyou for all the kind words. Knowing our work is helping people really keeps our engines fired up. Let's see if I can't answer your questions: 1. I "sandbox" which is where I just shove everything I can think of into an unorganised bullet point list. Characters, setting, plot, all of it in one big mess. Then I decide what type of story you want to tell, copy and paste to a new document and then start to organise the thoughts (with the sandbox on standby if new stuff comes in I don't know what to do with). I think of it like scultping, you cut away bits and reshape until something comes out the other end that is story shaped. Only then do I attempt to build the sandcastle and put something coherant together like a synopsis or scratch draft etc.

2. Very tricky. I did a complete review and update of all notes after each recording session and don't forget the audio eas edited. I made lots of gaffs that you never heard as audience.

3. I contacted anyone I could convince to take part and just proved I was serious by overworking. I don't reccomend that route. Unfortunately it really is "who" you know. That doesn't mean chase established professionals as much as it means you need to get out there and associate with other up-and-comers who match your vibe. For me the route was long and windy and not a particularly good example. 4. I normally recommend people do not read his books in publication order. Don't get me wrong, its wonderful watching his craft grow from one title to the next but I would recommend new readers tip their toe into his later works to see if they like where he ended up before committing the time. I often recommend 'Monstrous Regiment' as people's first one. My favourite though is 'Thief of Time.'

5. I don't get much time to listen to podcasts in the last couple of years. I used to listen to a lot of non fiction. 'Stuff you Should Know' and that ilk. I also read a fair amount of classic YA fiction to unwind (Windinsger trilogy, Bartimeous, stuff like that.) 6. Paul Simon's Graceland but when working I assemble a playlist for each seperate project that is tonally appropriate. If I really need to focus I listen to Classical Minimalism. Or the Old School Runescape soundtrack. I'm allowed to be ecclectic. 7. I am actually in an incredibly busy work crunch at the moment so haven't seen any of it!

[charmac]

than copy-paste my ask w/out the stuff about his acting bc the rest of the stuff i said is still completly valid. i don't get why stans refuse to even admit that their fav is some times a bad person and call them out on their bullshit. you can still like him without ignoring or excusing his shitty behavoir

"not trying to start anything i really want to hear your and other ppls opinions. after seeing that redit video today abt the onset fight combined with other stuff glenn has said and done like the antivax stuff. im starting to really dislike glenn. he acts like a self obsessed tool all the time but so many stans baby him so much that they refuse to see or say anything about it [deleted] but maybe you or others have reasons to stan him pls share bc im clearly missing somthing. i dont want to not like him but hes making it very hard"

(the Reddit video being Rob talking about how Glenn freaked out during the filming of The Gang Saves the Day because he didn't feel comfortable getting "shot" in the scene with Dee killing all of them and threw a tantrum on set)

First of all, I don't think anyone refuses to admit Glenn is anything but perfect, and I also don't think anyone excuses his "shitty behaviour," but while you only may have just become aware of this moment, it was first brought to light in 2017, right before Glenn left the show "for good" and has kinda been hashed to death. If you're genuinely asking 'why is no one talking about Glenn's temper tantrums from 8+ years ago,' idk how to answer that question other than: why would we be? It's just not relevant

We know, from set stories and Glenn himself, that Glenn has gone through many ups and downs on the set of Sunny. He's spoken quite a bit about how his attitude has ruined the vibe and created a lot of tension in the writers room and on set before, and it's something he needed Rob to bring to his attention in Season 11 because he couldn't recognise it harmed other people (and that's what led him to realise he needed to walk away). I think it's not, like, a hidden or dismissed aspect of his personality that he's a diva, even today after righting his attitude and returning, he still tends to "method act" to a degree when he's playing Dennis and comes off a certain way

So yes, he's been "exposed" as a brat on set and a little entitled in general, and he's got some questionable views on health, for sure and I think that can make you dislike him and if that's so...that's fine. I don't think anyone in this fandom cares if you do or don't, honestly, but that works both ways.

People who post about Glenn in fond ways aren't going to disclose that they know he's entitled and centrist every time they post anything about him, but whenever something does happen/come out, people do criticise it in the moment. The Podcast brought a lot to light and it seemed like weekly we were scrutinizing something RCG said but, like, there's genuinely nothing Glenn has done in the past year that the fandom has chosen to ignore for the sake of excusing his shitty behaviour...? Are we supposed to rehash dead and buried RCG drama just because it was reposted to a different platform?

I get if you're just learning about him as a person now it can be weird to see most people who are actively talking about him seem to just be stanning him blindly, but that's really not true. The TASP days are just behind us, and Glenn's PR is very strong with his gay whiskey tour front and center (and you're asking me lol).

As to providing you with reasons for stanning him... just search "Glenn Howerton Interview" on Youtube.. or watch this one .. and if you don't get it, you probably just don't like him and that's fine, lol he'll probably get you eventually if you're around long enough

[funnyscienceman]

Ok but like WHYY did ubisoft have to insist with the one game a year thing. Why couldnt they let syndicate cook in the oven more. Why do they have THREE queer men in the same game and not do ANYTHING with them!!!

Like yes, yes, i get it, i get wanting to for once make a story in a fun setting where you dont have to think about real life prejudice and hardships and bigotry and just have characters be silly, i love that too. I do! And id be all for that if doing it just didnt waste a potentially banger study of the characters and the setting ;-;

Like god i go back and forth on this constantly. I already love syndicate as it is, i think it's fun and neat and the happy gaming vibes about it is core to its identity, it's just that simultaneous to that, three queer men in the same game!!!

like GOD im still miffed that there are only, like, two or three fics about this, and so far i havent found any discussion or anything of it, but oh my god how different all three of them are from each other. You could do so much just with having any of them in the same room — and they are often enough in the same room (jacob and either ned or roth at a time), but nothing's really done there!

we have roth who sees fcking nothing wrong with getting kids hurt, because he doesnt actually care about anyone or anything, he's just some fucking joker wannabe that yeah, sure, probably has some anger and resentment at society because he's a gay man in his 40s or 50s by now, but jesus fucking christ retaliation against homophobia does not equal rampant needless unproductive violence roth!!!

then we have ned, who — i mean he doesnt ever give his opinion on whether kids deserve any respect or anything but considering in every other department he's pretty much just Some Guy, it'd be fair to assume he also has the extremely average stance of 'dont fcking kill kids and dont blow up buildings for no good reason??' in the grand scheme of the templar-assassin stuff he has just about as much relevance as roth: roth was just the boss of the blighters, ned just finances the fryes by virtue of them working for him. He probably doesnt even know about it, and tbh i dont even know if he'd care??? But like i imagine roth doesnt care in the way of 'as long as you dont get in my way, it's all set dressing,' ned i imagine would be smth like 'are yall fckin serious? are you kidding me rn? i have to skirt around transphobes on a daily basis, now youre telling me there's a secret society on top of that with even worse ideas?? What the fuck???'

like uh, not caring about it as in 'I cant deal with this rn i need a nap'

HE'S JUST AN EXTREMELY REGULAR PERSON (besides the crime lord stuff) IS WHAT IM GETTING AT.

then there's jacob, who's the youngest out of these guys btw, fckin 21 good god he should be at the club not trying to disassemble systemic oppression— ANYWAY

(ned is 27-28 over the course of the game, btw; we dont actually have a solid timeline for anything, just the year, so tbh jacob could've also been 20 and not 21 yet during the game. both he and ned have late birthdays, just a month apart)

so, yknow, being extremely early 20-somethings, both frye twins just take a train to london completely on impulse and dive headfirst into undoing the templars that've had an iron grip over the city for basically as long as they've been alive, yknow, as you do; and throughout the game jacob has to deal with goddamn daddy issues and fighting with his sister and insecurity and trying to be an assassin — and that's a lot for a guy to handle!! Especially one who's still just a couple years out of being a teenager! That's a fucking lot and if the devs are right, then he hasnt even realized that he's bi yet! Not until roth fucking kisses him while jacob's got a knife in his throat for the aforementioned indiscriminate, unproductive violence!

i mean, granted, yeah there were gay undertones during sequence 8, but i have to admit my bias here because i honest to god cannot take those missions seriously. Roth fucking preaches this and that about freedom and whatnot and then im plopped into the mission and it's the most rule-heavy shit ive ever seen in my short life as an assassin's creed player. Like what the hell, those missions were atrocious. Apprently i need to detonate the bombs a specific way, i cant just shoot them from a distance, i have to hold a button crouching down right next to the bombs, and then run the hell away! I have to avoid THIS and THAT while kidnapping xyz! Like there's freddy's apprehend missions and then there's THIS.

at least with ned's missions all you have to do is get the shit and go… i'm still salty that ubisoft cut his questline because they fucking insist on releasing a game a year >:((

my battery's dying. All these guys are different flavors of queer on top of just being pretty different and pretty similar in various ways, and there's just… barely anything about it. Ned especially, since he's just a quest giver whose screentime totals to, like, 2-5 minutes. I just wish they really did more with the setting; not just the queerness and these three specifically, but like, evie, henry, the class conflict — like there are shreds of it, seeds, but there's not much before you kill starrick and credits roll :((

idk. im just gonna refresh ao3 again cjemddjekjx

[youkaigakkou-tl]

(sorry in advance for the long ask) i feel silly for not noticing earlier but i realized that "Sano Mikoto" follows the same "__ no mikoto" name pattern that several japanese gods have. but that also made me wonder: if the 佐 from sano's name means "help" then his whole name sounds like "the god of help/assistance". but based on how that doesn't align with his yakubyougami nature and how ebisu reacts to hearing the name in ch 53 (his reaction is a bit more clear in the jpn raws) (1/2)

佐 doesn't really mean "help" on its own, it only somewhat means that when it's part of the word 補佐 "hosa" , which means "assistant" (in an organizational structure to a chief or leader) rather than like "helping people". Most of the time 佐 is just used as a kanji to represent the sound "sa", which is somewhat frequently the case for the on-readings (similar to chinese pronunciation) of kanji.

This is particularly prevalent when it comes to ancient literature like the creation myths and stories around gods, where the stories originally only existed in verbal form, and when japan adopted the chinese writing system some 1500 years ago, they applied certain chinese characters to the sounds that existed in japanese (the 50 or so hiragana that exist now) in order to put the stories into writing.

(and then over time 50 or so kanji got simplified into hiragana for normal use but thats neither here nor there. but names got to keep their kanji, which is why creation myth gods often have stupid long names that are 1 kanji per syllable, and the kanji used dont mean much of anything by themselves)

(theres also that often the kanji chosen will have been positive words, stuff like "fast" or "wise" or "powerful", in addition to the chinese word sounding like the japanese syllable (which was the more important part). Its unclear whether all these attributes were all applicable to the god named, its just as possible people afterwards applied those attributes to them in future retellings of the stories because the kanji was in the name. sort of a chicken and egg problem. and anyway, does it really matter what the one "true" interpretation of a story is, if one exists at all? it's a very modern sensibility to demand one, when for much of history stories only existed in the air between a storyteller and a listener. im getting off track here)

this is a lot of words to say, what is significant about the 佐 in "sano", is that it's the same one as in susanoo-no-mikoto. susanoo, notable for being associated with storms and disaster, for being exiled from heaven after causing some sort of destruction, and for being a child of izanagi and izanami and born after their first child hiruko (or rather, ebisu).

the thing about the yakubyougami thing, as with every other youkai and everything about folklore, is that at the end of the day, it's a story. youkai are just a set of attributes and circumstances that are wrapped up as a story, and in turn given a name and a face. a kamaitachi is just the occurrence of "wind whipping up suddenly and dust and leaves cutting someone" wrapped up as a story of "what if an imperceptibly fast weasel with knives did it?!"

it's why there can be so many different versions of stories for the same youkai, with behaviors and appearance differing from place to place, or the same "story" being given a different "name" in different places

(relevant to the latest chapter, i sort of suspect this is why theres like 10 different monkey youkai whose lore is just "this monkey is a FREAK")

what im getting at is, this isnt really like scientific taxonomy classifications, where theres genes you can sequence or criteria you can check to see if something is the right species. (and even then, there's birds stranded on isolated islands, fish sealed in caves, microorganisms in general, etc etc) there's not like a "youkai auditor" that goes around auditing if you're Really the youkai you say you are.

nor is it like you intrinsically know what youkai you are and all the lore about it and what behaviors youre supposed to have and what powers you have etc. you're told that by your parents, and in cases where that isnt possible, you figure it out somehow. like with beniko (popped out of a house and raised by humans), they looked it up and people have come up with a name for the phenomenon, which was called "zashiki warashi". or in cases like odawara where you really do just come to life alone, i imagine you either make a name for yourself, or humans who come across you will make a name for you.

which is a lot of words to say, sano can call himself whatever the hell he wants to make his life easier and not have to explain his backstory or have classmates make guesses at his backstory, as long as his traits somewhat fit. especially since recently he's often in the same scenes as kurahashi, who is now confirmed to straight up not be who or what he says he is.

[dearreader]

i was thinking how funny it would be if on a 2025 bingo card someone had “creators of south park come out as swifties” on it and i’m now thinking of an episode surrounding taylor swift. i’m going to bullet point out my ideas, enjoy my south park brainrot:

we open on everyone in south park going crazy and running around

stan and kyle are confused and ask someone

they say taylor swift announced a one night performance in colorado and everyone is going crazy over taylor swift

some people are enthusiastic and losing their minds (going crazy and crying and ripping hair out type. this is going to mostly be the girls in town. maybe pc principle cause i think he’d be a swiftie for some reason, don’t ask i don’t know myself)

some people are protesting taylor swift though. they don’t like her and don’t want her in their state

the core four boys are confused on why no one is making sense on their opinion of taylor swift. and anyone they ask cannot give them a straight answer.

cartman realizes that he can gain power by being a hater. he becomes an active hater. but when kyle asks why he just gets defensive about it and gets mad

stan and kyle decide to just try to ignore it and wait for it to pass but wendy ends up being a huge swiftie and stan’s needs to get her autograph for wendy. this means they have to sneak into the concert and get the autograph, and the show sold out in 5 seconds and caused the entire internet to crash for 48 hours or something.

the entire episode is just surrounding the idea of taylor swift. people follow her to the airport and hotel.

most likely we’ll see cartman be on some tv show being interviewed and travis kelce is also there and they talk about her (they make jokes on him being dumb)

finally it ends with taylor taking the stage and stan+kyle sneak backstage to see her. when they meet her she’s scared but they apologize and are confused because they built her up as some big thing but she’s literally just a person.

stan decides he doesn’t need the autograph as a gift for wendy and they go home. cartman someone loses any relevance he had after a video of him singing love story a few years ago come out.

other details i think would be funny:

at some point someone says joever SUPER SERIOUSLY and stan says “what the f*ck is joever?”

A CRUCIAL point for the entire episode that i want to establish now is that at no point can anyone ever explain why they like or dislike her. there can be no points made. also, taylor swift cannot be shown on screen or if she is shown on screen she cannot speak. anytime anyone is talking about her they must talk OVER her and never listen to her point. THIS US FOR BOTH SIDES.

they refrence kayne west and kim karadashian but it’s random and it just causes everyone to get more angry

mr garrison is some how involved in all this even though he’s the president again

pc principle gives a power point to the school about her

taylor randomly keeps dropping new music and albums during the episode. it goes like “well tom taylor is set to do a one night only concert in denver to perform new songs from her album that came out two days ago. we think it might- oh wait… she just dropped a new album? like right now? like no promo? and it’s sold 1 million copies already? okay”

randy makes a special strand of weed called taylor swift and also one saying anti taylor swift to make money on both sides of the market. shelly and sharon both hate this but it does surprisingly well.

random things about her are mentioned that don’t relate to the topic at all. like “i just don’t like her music.” “oh, so you DONT want her to own her masters and achieve total world domination via music?” “what?! when did i say that” (im imagining that exchange is via kyle and pc principle)

they randomly cut to new reports on her doing random stuff, similar to “brittney’s new look”

some joke about the denver broncos and the kanas city chiefs is made. if you know the show you know it’s inevitable this will be done

randy being lorde is brought back

they somehow animate the cardigan

[bigassbowlingballhead]

so we all know that my dreams are weirdly hyper realistic and plot driven so buckle the fuck up.

number one: everything (like, the rules of reality) was the same as real life except i guess my bf didnt exist (sad but necessary for the plot i suppose). im at thanksgiving at my parents house, which is a weekend long affair. tzp and redacted are married and also there bc they are my friends i guess. im definitely better friends w taylor than redacted but redacted and i get along and like each other. okay. the scene is set.

so, im preparing dinner with my dad and aunts like usual. taylor and redacted have slept in but taylor comes out to help eventually. he is fresh from a shower and wearing a very tight shirt. we talk while i cook and it’s clear that i need to fuck this man like, yesterday. within the dream logic, this is not the first time ive fucked around with him — this is a thing that we do. go me!

so we’re like okay, where can we go, bc i have a one story house and it’s full of family members at thanksgiving. i mean FULL. and redacted is sleeping so we dont wanna bother him, but there is literally nowhere that we can go that a family member wouldnt also be there and see us (damn you, open floor plans!!!) so what else can we do but go outside behind the pool shed, obviously.

now, it IS november in philadelphia, so it’s not WARM, but we’re making it work. i got this man bent over in a tiny corner of backyard, shirt fully off, making him see god. weve got our shoes on and mostly pants except for the important parts. hes not making as much noise as i want him to make (bc duh, we gotta be quiet), but im doing my damnedest to make him squeak, so im touching every inch of him that i can. i remember that i was thinking “i wish i had another hand to grab his hair, bc i already have one hand on his balls and the other on his dick and im not willing to give up on either of those for the sake of making him arch his back.” obviously this was a tough decision by me, but what are you gonna do. also at this point important to mention that i dont actually remember all the details, just flashes of stuff and general vibes. i was definitely like “hurry up and come man, we are on borrowed time here,” but taylor was apparently in no rush no matter how much i played with his dick. also at some point i put my hand on his stomach and could feel his abs and how he was moving every time i did and whew. that was hot.

so TRAGICALLY we were interrupted before the grand finale. i am not pleased but hey, if it’s time for dinner then it’s time for dinner. so i sit next to tzp at dinner and redacted sits on the other side and im TRYING to enjoy my MEAL but those two are definitely doing something under the table. whores.

things get a little weird and dreamscape-y here so i’ll skip most of dinner but the only relevant plot point that came up is i found out about something thats been seriously irritating me at work is happening again and so i was kinda pissed. but anyway.

so after dinner all the cousins decide to get in the pool which is insane to do bc it is NOVEMBER and my parents never even have the pool open at thanksgiving, but it’s my dream so fuck weather patterns in guess. so we’re all in the pool and taylor has clearly still not gotten off and redacted and i are having a good time messing with him, you know how it goes, standard pool shenanigans but nothing too bad bc my parents are RIGHT THERE so. keep it pg. but after we go inside?? oh all bets are OFF.

now here’s where things go bad for me. we go inside and we’re only in our towels and we’re all three looking for a place to fuck and we CANT FIND ONE. it’s only a three bedroom house and all three bedrooms are occupied. for some fucking reason we try my parents room first (which im glad was occupied bc i would not be down to fuck in my parents room, ick), but my little sister and my cousin are in there watching a movie with the little cousins, so thats a big fat no thank you. then we go to my sister’s room which yeah, i wouldnt feel GREAT about fucking in there, but it’s a redacteds threesome on the table and if i have to do it i will. but thats where my uncle and aunt are sleeping and hes in there napping after all the pie so thats another no go. so now im pretty pissed off bc of the work thing and also pls why cant we find a place to just FUCK.

so we go into my old bedroom and im thinking this will be fine, this is where redacted and taylor are sleeping anyway, (why didnt we go there first? whos to say) this will be open and we can get down. but we get in there and two people ive never met before are in the bed. what.

so my family tends to take in a lot of strays around the holidays. if you dont have a place to go for thanksgiving and you know a relative of mine, you are automatically invited to my parents house. theres always like 5-6 unrelated people at dinner just bc my uncle or cousin or whomever showed up and was like “i have extras!” and my mom is always like “dope! come in and eat!” it’s a lovely representation of the welcoming nature of my family and culture and it’s something that i always love to see around the holidays but it is also currently FUCKING ME OVER BC I JUST WANT TO BANG THESE MEN IN PEACE!!!

so im like “excuse me, with all due respect, who the fuck are you.” and the one guy was immediately rude (sir you are in MY BED) and was like “your mom said we could stay here so fuck off.” and im like??? YOU fuck off?? but then another part of me is like “no, your mother raised you better than that, you need to be welcoming to people so they dont feel unwanted.” the thing is that at this moment they are in fact VERY unwanted. so taylor is also pissed and redacted is trying to calm him down but keep in mind that taylor hasnt finished still so hes a bit bitchy. and redacted is like “what if we just went and got a hotel room somewhere,” and im like NO, we are in nothing but our bathing suits, we are all horny and ready to go, this is HAPPENING.

so i go back into my parents room and i ask my cousin hey have you seen my mom and also maybe you guys could watch the movie in the basement bc desperate times call for desperate measures and im not gonna fuck in my parents bed but maybe the floor would be fine. and shes like i think your mom is doing the dishes but why do you need a bedroom all to yourself? and i just gave her a look and i was like come on. why do you think. and she asked “ohh, okay, so wait, where do you see this going with taylor?” and i was like “oh it’s not going anywhere, he’s married to redacted, we just fuck around. it’s great, sometimes redacted joins, sometimes not, but it’s always a good time.” and she was somewhat scandalized and i was like oh right. within the context of my family that would be an objectively insane thing to just drop like that.

so anyway. after that the dream gets all weird and dreamy (there was some plotline with kamala harris i think? i think i worked for her? but she was actually also my irl boss interchangeably? idk). but thats the story of how i fucked taylor at thanksgiving in my subconscious. also i just remembered that while i was fucking him and had my hand on his stomach i could feel the outline of my strap through his abs. have a good day i love you 😘

the outline of your strap though his abs is CRAZY GIA. i love it.

also where'd the strap come from, was it stored behind the pool shed for safe keeping, are you just strapped at all times always ready to bend over a gay man? (me next)

[darkdemeter]

Dem Hi! I'm back with a bit of an unhinged ask here:

Im sure this doodle gives you an idea where this is going. I was just making myself some tea, and I was thinking about Lovers In Eden (i was going to listen to a song called Eastward of Eden by Amelia Day,hence the association). And Since I am a film student, a writer and i took script classes as my subject las trimester, i offer you this unhinged recap of my conspiracy theory. So LIE (Lover in Eden) introduces us to the idea that Strife killed Y/N after a bloodlust outburst,right? Well, at first i didnt think too much of it, but then the chapter ends with the four on earth, which felt a little disembodied from the prologue. Which brings me to the hipothesis which is: Strife's lover is on earth,reborn without their memories. My proof for this theory is this: 1) We know that in the darksiders universe there is such thing as a well of souls, we know they go through the kingdom of the dead to repent and then be reborn through the well. 2) you wouldntve put the line "Love slayer" if it wasnt relevant to the plot. (Writing often times includes phrasing things a certain way to hint at other things). 3) Why would you close the chapter where you did? What relevance does the fact that the four are now on earth have? Simple, Strife will find a reborn,survivor Y/N and will fall in love with them (and have a crisis once he realizes its a whole like soulmates finding eachother again situation) 4) and last (which came to me as i wrote this) if you were to center the story only on Strife and the reader without the reader being reborn, you wouldve just started it from the medieval age/wherever strife met the reader and not end with the four on earth. Of course dont gotta tell me if im right,dont want to spoil the whole fic anyways. But I felt the need to share this with you. (I genuienly felt like the pepe silvia meme). And yeah, one offshoot of all this is that maybe the reader isnt a reborn soulmate, and that the prologue could just set up this inherit guilt and fear towards love that Strife has. Until we get the next chapter, i lay in wait...scheming/lhj/hj Have a nice rest of your day and i hope you've enjoyed my unhinged ramble. -Jer. PD: i feel so silly for sending this whole thing but as a fellow writer i know theres nothing we love more than ppl theorizing about our stuff. So here you go. I hope it doest read as overbearing,i just genuienly love your stuff.

First off, I love your pepe doodle! It’s so perfect. In fact I find it so funny that I made this a little bit ago myself... (As much as I'd love to rant and such about my AUs' lore and headcanons, I made this for shits and gigs)

I absolutely adore hearing theories readers have about my fics. (Sorry this has taken FOR-EV-ER to respond to, I'm terrible with replying at times)

I also fucking LOVE that you're a film student, I think that makes this whole theory situation even better because I do tend to have a very movie-esque thought process when writing. (Blooper reel and BTS footage rent free in my head)

And I think I've got the mind stewing a bit with that recent post, Flowers From My Lover. Without hopefully giving away anything, you do have some valid and interesting points in your theories and has me going, "Oh Jer is good little detective." You get a cookie for your theory skills!

There are indeed certain key details and clues I put in on purpose and it's so interesting to see what readers pick up on. And yes, the well of souls is involved to some extent in this plotline, but not in the way you might think...

I also find your choice of the word "reborn" interesting. Very obviously and right out the gates, I will say that yes, reader is alive in this story. But it's the manner in which reader's alive and again, the reborn theory is interesting and again, possibly not in a way you're expecting. Though it seems rather simple, I will tease that there is... quite a bit more to it than what's at face value.

And I wanna tease this little clue too because it is one of my favourites: It's interesting how the fic's title has a double meaning in plain sight...

[exanuz]

my mutual, @tangerinelabyrinth, has been curious about exactly how many languages martha might speak. so, during my almost..... year long.......... process of reading the book "story of martha", ive documented what i thought was noteworthy in regards to this topic!

of course, due to the fact this has taken almost a year, there might be some things i missed. ill list the reasoning behind why/why not i think a certain thing, but do take what you see of the canon text over my own label of it

of course, shes canonically spoken german in the show, but thats not relevant to this book, we all already know she speaks german anyways

everything in brackets are quotes taken from the book

for languages she most likely does speak... we have japanese and turkish! the reasoning behind her possibly speaking turkish is pretty simple -- this line: ['coming in now, miss jones,' the pilot radioed, in polite turkish]. basically, she was able to identify someone was speaking in turkish, and understand what it meant. doesnt need more jusitification.

for japanese -- i think the main reason is her being in a japanese labor camp, and being able to understand peoples cries ['were going to die,' he kept mumbling, 'we're all going to die'] obviously, i doubt japanese people, in japan, are going to be crying to themselves in english. or turkish. and, she was meant to have a contact in japan, but they never showed up, so she never had anyone she knew that could help her out if she struggled to understand the language (and, also, i dont think a translator would be translating people randomly talking to themselves and crying over their past life and lost loved ones....), so i believe she does most likely understand the language.

however, one possible --- HIGHLY UNLIKELY --- thing ive had in mind during this period is, "maybe, somehow, due to her perception filter being part of the tardis, it could be translating for her" however, i believe it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY in general, because. do you think the master would be letting that happen? probably not. he likely turned off all the tardis' translation abilities to hinder her as much as he can. but, regardless of that, her perception filter stopped working when she entered japan, so even if that extremely unprobable scenario had been the case, it would not have been so in japan. however.... there were a different set of aliens who had taken control of japan, and set up their own country wide system, so? ??????????? maybe they set up automatic translations akin to the tardis'????? but i still think the most likely situation is just that martha understands japanese. at the very least, she canonically knows the japanese words for a decent amount of colors. [smaller, subsidiary domes, like metal blisters, surrounded the main plants. there were four of them: ao, midori, aka, and kiiro - respectively, blue, green, red, and yellow.], so make of that what you will

now, a language she canonically does not understand! (or, at least, didnt understand!), FRENCH! [pierre said something very gentle in french that the tardis had the sensitivity not to translate] the tardis had been needing to translate french for her -- atleast, before the year that never was, so case closed. while she did end up in france, she had a person travelling with her, so while its possible she could have picked up some french, its likely that she could have also had this guy, matthieu, serving as a translator for her

and now, stuff people probably care for less than "does she explicitly understand this language or does she canonically not": languages she definitely encountered, but we didnt see her encounter, she just mentioned having went to where they were spoken

of course, before i list the three countries and one general area i can remember that she said she went to but we never saw her go, i will remind everyone she could have had a translator temporarily travelling with her, and also, by the point she reached these countries, she had made contact with groups of rebels who were trying to help her, so its possible that they could have taught her a bit about the languages she was going to encounter so shed be a bit better off if she had to be on her own. but theres no canonical reason to think she can or can not speak the languages found in these regions, so just think whatever makes you happy

now, these countries are:

RUSSIA! she got on the ship to take her to japan from a russian port

UKRAINE! she went there

OTHER POST-SOVIET COUNTRIES! she went there

SLOVENIA! she was gonna meet people there

[she'd even ridden a freight train for two hundred miles between labor camps in the ukraine]

[she'd moved through europe and the ex-soviet states to the gateway of the east with the help of the underground]

[five members of the slovenia cell had died getting martha out of ijubljana]

and this is all i have. there might be more "she went to places these other languages were spoken" situations that i havent listed, but either i didnt notice them, forgot, or i assumed a town/city/whatever name was from a different country she did go to... im not very good with geography, sadly

also, she went to france before she made contact with the rebels (the underground being the group name of them)

if you noticed anything from this book i missed, or know any other languages she canonically does/does not speak from other books or official media, feel free to add them!

rough numbers of the pages cited (you may need to go back or forwards a few pages to find certain pieces of information i referenced): 122, 124, 146, 157

[romainlettusdinnerparty]

in honor of me starting my 2947829184th glee rewatch i wanted to post a light analysis of finn hudson vs mike wheeler that i was reminded i wrote down in a time i was (sadly) much more convinced of a byler endgame than i am now,, cuz i kinda had a point

here she is:

i would love for someone to do an analysis of byler vs kurt hummel and finn hudson (would like to interject here to say someone should definitely do this and do it better with like actually siting stuff) like how a show (also explicitly about outsiders) purposefully creates an unrequited gay man to straight dynamic and how entirely different that is from how stranger things sets up mike and wills dynamic.

i mean they’re completely different shows and glee is a satire so it might be hard to compare them 1 to 1 because glee doesn’t tend to give that much weight to any relationship in its like first twoish seasons but i think its a good example for how it would be so easy to just make mike so obviously straight and not at all into will (it wouldn’t even have to be about el, with finn its not about quin or rachel, its just that hes not into men and is into women) and they’re choosing not to, they are choosing to lean into that dynamic and (this is important for this comparison) NOT in a brotherly way, not in a familial way, their relationship is never once compared to that (mike and el’s is but thats not entirely relevant here). In glee kurt liking finn is much more about his identity than it is about a romantic relationship with finn, they explore their relationship in depth in seasons 1 and 2 (and never again we dont have to talk about it yes i am bitter) but it is never not once implied that kurt’s feelings could be reciprocated, no lingering shots on finn’s face while hes watching kurt, nothing flirty, finn shuts him down multiple times, finn knows kurt likes him, its not used as a big reveal because that is NOT WHAT IS PLOT RELEVANT!!

what is relevant is kurt coming out to his dad and kurt’s overall identity and learning to stick up for himself and finn helping him do that in a BROTHERLY way (by the end of season 2 their parents are married and they are literal step brothers, there is no way to misconstrue their relationship) if wills feelings for mike were not reciprocated or at least impactful on their relationship there is no reason to make the audience anticipate mikes reaction to them, to save them for a reveal with an incredibly plot relevant lie that has to be uncovered, this has to alter their relationship in some way and literally what purpose would it serve if it was just a rejection?? why would you wait to reveal that if its only purpose is then essentially will’s identity? if the point of season 4 was to build back up mike and wills friendship, why not use that is something they have to overcome in the beginning of that season? why save it as a reveal? the actors have harped on the fact that mike doesn’t know about wills feelings so when they are rebuilding their friendship this is at least not a factor for him. (back to glee) when finn and kurt were building their relationship as brothers and friends, kurt’s romantic feelings were acknowledged as something they had to work through, they were not saved as a big aha moment because they wouldn’t have changed things. bottom line is that the reveal of wills feelings will change the nature of mike and wills relationship and there is no reason (besides like a villain origin story? thats all i can think of. cuz his arch isn’t about figuring out he doesn’t need romance or that he has the love of his family and boys arent important, he doesn’t have romance and the entirety of seasons 1 and 2 were about how much his family love him and the whole boys are stupid thing is for el) for that shift to be in the form of a rejection

[the-gaping-wound-of-christ]

ID LIKE TO REBLOG RAGING LOOP SPOILERS

what is raging loop you ask? its a visual novel about....what if the game werewolf was anime and really cool. jokes aside, some guy called haruaki fusaishi finds himself in a remote village after a motorcycle accident and the place is surrounded by a strange mist that prevents its inhabitants from leaving, while some of the villagers turn into werewolves and must kill each other... im not so good at summarizing but this is basically it.

am i recommending raging loop?...............yes and no. i cant recommend the whole novel in good conscience because uh it really goes places. it has non-graphic depictions/questionable inclusion of pedophilia and rape i really dont agree with (THE NOVELS FOCUS IS NOT ON THIS STUFF BUT IT IS RELEVANT AND WILL COME UP OCCASIONALLY) but even without that the story takes on a direction and has revelations that are...just not solid.

the first route of the novel is excellent and perfect you can just read that and stop afterward. but i feel like natural curiosity would get anyone to venture further. i do think the first route is worth reading though its simply that good.

with that being said ill reblog this post a couple times and if you have any interest in reading raging loop yourself i recommend you blacklist the tag "#raging loop"/"#raging loop spoilers" cause thats what ill be using

a little more elaborating under the cut

i have immunity to anime bullshit but even i got a bit frustrated at times with this novel. the more the story goes on the more muddy the quality of it becomes...the end is really...a mixed bag. im still not sure how i feel about the resolution of it all. but the werewolf discussions are the best part and it has a lot to offer in terms of interesting characters. for one the protagonist of this is fucking insane and i need him badly. but honestly theyre all good characters i can barely think of anyone i didnt like. its just a shame the flaws are what they are. the novel is smart in so many places, the humor is great and the concepts and set ups so interesting and cool.....the music is so awesome the voice acting so good... if only they consulted me specifically before publishing it...with that being said the story still has great moments even later into it but its just ughhhhh . if you know you know.

[sleepy-vix]

What would your ideal book be like (as in, what theoretical book would be your absolute favourite) what genre, page count, setting, characters, etc would it have?

oohhhh this is such an interesting ask. hmm i'll have to lay this out in dot points

BE READY FOR LOTS OF TEXT!

also i am indecisive and messy so my opinions will probably change idk T-T

alr here we go

- genre: psychological novel? im not exactly sure what the genre is but i love when books follow a mentally ill character that's just trying their best to navigate through life, and the book is about the way they interact with their surrounds and respond to issues and cope with their past and come to decisions, iykwim?

BUT I WANT FANTASY in it too so it will be epic. i love fantasy world building and i love when it makes so so so much sense. it would be cool if they had elements and got sorted into elemental groups too- that is so satisfying and fun to read.

- page count: probably 500. personally i think a normal book is 300, and it seems daunting when it's got like 700 pagesz but considering that this is my ideal book, i think i'd be sad if it had less than 400 pages (cus the story would be over soon) so i'd say 500 pages is the perfect amount.

- setting: in terms of time, i never really cared for it. i realise that i should probably have a preference on which century i like to read, but i find that characters can be mentally ill and epic no matter if they are from the future or the past.

in terms of location, hmm i wouldn't want to read about a character being anywhere with tropical or summery vibes. i like my characters knee deep in snow and drenched from head to toe in rain. it keeps them depressed and relatable ^^ (/hj....?)

oh also it would be cool if the country and places were mad up, since that this is a fantasy.

WAIT OR asia. i am obsessed with books that focuses on/is based off asia :)

- characters: trios are the best and i will die on that hill. ok like i dont need the trios to be together 24/7 but i need there to be THREE main characters if you know what i mean. one of them can be an antihero idc. it just has to be THREE.

oh also i love to read in the perspective of characters who are ambitious and feisty and impulsive because they're the opposite of me. but also i'd like them (idc abt gender) to be cunning, witty and good at making plans.

another character that i need in the trio is the smart one. there HAS to be a smart side character or else i will NOT fall in love with the book. i need the character who makes all the entensive plans. i need the character who is a walking dictionary. i need the character who hates to fight and would rather be learning but is somehow good at it and therefore forced to fight alongside the makn character. (oopsies im just describing the poppy war. but that is not a crime ;])

if its a soldier poet king trio i will be obsessed with it forever and ever

ok so for the stuff that u didnt ask but im gonna include:

-writing style: advanced. work my mind to death but enrichen it at the same time. i dont mind a difficult and layered magic system- in fact i LOVE THOSE, as long as they make sense and they are creative. do not give me that "she let out a breath she didnt know she was holding" bs.

i want "the night circus" level description when it comes to settings. i need to see taste hear smell FEEL the fucking surroundings

-vibe: doomed from the start. i dont want my characters to be happy. make me fall in love and then break my heart and do not apologise for it :,) (shit am i masochistic? damn)

- others: it would be cool if it is somehow relevant to our present irl current political state/ real world problems. it would be even cooler if it somehow fits a ton of mitski songs. also gayness is very welcomed

yeahh thats all i got for now. oops i wrote alot. at the start of my reply i was thinking along the lines of solitaire and crime and punishment and no longer human, but then it was all scrapped and i based it all off of the poppy war trilogy because it did fantasy and character dynamics/personalities/backstories SO RIGHT.

tysmmm for this ask. i would love to ask it right back, but i dont know who you are :(( ahsvsj feel free to tell me anyways tho in my askbox as an anon !!

*this was not proofread

[wiltking]

finished price of a thousand blessings by ginn hale. first off, i would not recommend this as a starting point to ginn hale. structurally this is not her strongest work. for reasons you might be able to pick up on from the book's description (and early in the book itself) its hard not to compare this to the rifter, and the way some revelations are presented in thousand blessings just dont pack the same punch or weight as they do in the rifter. i also found half the side characters to be one-dimensional, with repetitive quirks that erred more on the side of mildly annoying than charming. i enjoyed the few that we were able to get to know better towards the end of the book. but there was too much time spent on those repetitive traits, and also too many sections describing what every single character is doing in a group setting (and where exactly they are sitting) in one continuous scroll of text that didn't give them any favors either. i was also confused by how chill everyone seemed to be about the bomb at the start of the book. even if they didn't know it was a bomb per se, something was still very clearly wrong, and not even our deeply injured main character seemed to feel any urgency about the potential reason behind a massive bombing attempt at a majorly important event. neither did the intended targets (?). and the whole spywork / espionage plot (and cymin's conflicting feelings about it, and the role he's supposed to play in it) didn't seem to hold much relevance after the first day or so, which was kind of a let down.

that being said. this is only volume 1. im still very intrigued by the story itself. there is some really juicy stuff going on here and it feels like things are being set up to get even juicier and potentially blow my hair right off my skull. i will preorder volume 2 as soon as it drops. i am invested. and im also enjoying the world itself. i dont normally like seeing more modern tech in my high fantasy novels, but theres enough magic powering the tech in this world to make it fascinating. and who doesn't love trains? finally, i have to say i'm very interested in a (sort of) spoilery element regarding deities and the.... spread of their memories. it puts a fresh spin on things and i have no earthly idea how it will all play out, but i so badly want to find out.

tldr; i want to see where this goes.