#so at this point we have a ship of theseus situation

[somecunttookmyurl]

my fellow knitters. you will understand my pain. please, light candles in my honour and pray to whatever gods will have you

i have to knit 1.5 full sweater sleeves in the next 36 hours

[inaconstantstateofchange]

Who Builds Theseus' Ship?

This ties in to a greater discussion about Larian's changes to the game post-Full Release, and whether you consider those changes to be a good thing or a bad thing. Personally speaking, the quality-of-life and gameplay mechanics improvements were appreciated, while the direct changes to characters and especially characterization were not so much.

In such discussions, I often see people downplaying the actual changes to characterization that have been made thus far as "minor" things, but I often see one of the most glaring examples of a characterization change left out, because so many people aren't even aware of it ever happening:

Halsin.

For those who don't know, if you were romancing Halsin at the time of the original full release, and for almost four months afterward, if you took him with you to Act 3's orgy scene in Sharess's Caress, he would open up about a situation in his distant past. He would tell you about how he had briefly been "something between guest, prisoner, and consort" in a drow House, and been kept there for three years before escaping.

He stated that this was something that happened "a long time ago", when he was "a foolhardy young druid", which would mean it would likely have been between ages 100 and 245 — or at minimum 105 years ago, and at (likely) maximum 250 years ago. He closed the discussion with a line that really struck me, and that gave me such an appreciation for his character, and for the writers who had created it:

The passage of time has a strange way of polishing even the most arduous of memories into precious keepsakes.

As someone in their late-20s, with a number of traumatic events in my past, this resonated so much both with my experience of those events – once harrowing and haunting, now just simple happenings that do not affect me the way they once did – and as an inspirational message, that hurt would not necessarily linger forever.

Not only that, I really valued the insight it gave into Halsin's personality, further showing him to be someone who was deeply complex and meditative, always looking for meaning and something to take away or learn from any experience. It also served to showcase the likely reality of the relationship elves and druids both would have to the concepts of time and memory. (Another example of this is the experience of Shadowheart's father compared to her mother at the hands of the Sharrans.)

I started playing the game almost immediately upon its release in August, and was intrigued by Halsin from the start. He was someone who was kind and heartfelt, but also very settled in himself and with a simultaneously rigid and very flexible moral code. It was that complexity that drew me to him, and I appreciated the inclusion of a character distinct from the Origin companions, all at close to the lowest point of their lives.

It was to my surprise to find that this appreciation for his character and perspective on his Act 3 revelation was not unanimous. As it turned out, there was a vocal group of people claiming that this writing was problematic, and that Halsin clearly didn't even realize he was actually traumatized, and that Larian needed to fix it. Not everyone joining in with this crusade had even played the game.

And, ultimately, in a pattern they have continued to follow, Larian responded. They fixed it. At the end of November, as part of Patch 5, they uploaded an edited version of the scene with new dialogue, where the player could express this "reality" to Halsin, in one of the most gallingly patronizing statements I've ever seen.

Sounds traumatic. You may need to reflect on that.

(If someone said this to me after I had opened up to them about my trauma and my experience of it to them, we would not be maintaining a cordial relationship afterward.)

Halsin's new response to these dialogue options is a cringing, self-deprecating cascade of how the player is of course right, and he should have known better, and time could "prove to be a trickster on one's recollections" and that perhaps he had "lost perspective".

Quite frankly, it is a completely different character answering, and an almost directly opposing overall message about the role of time in healing, and the path forward when it comes to trauma. No more "one day these events will not hurt to recall the way they do now". In its stead: "only healing that looks a specific way and follows a specific path is acceptable - anything else and you are simply a poor fool lying to yourself."

The following quote is from a comment left on a video of Halsin's original dialogue in that scene, before the changes, and is just one example of how much that representation meant to more than just me to see:

That said, Halsin is trauma recovery goals for me absolutely. Being able to remember without actually being triggered? Being able to fully and freely engage HOW ID LIKE TO instead of being fettered by trauma responses? Goals. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there 100%, we don’t get elven lifetimes irl, but his level of healing brings me hope.

Ultimately, this post is not meant to argue that you should agree with me that one is better than the other. More so, I want to highlight that this existed — for many people, this was their experience of events and characters, and that is not so easily redacted. And I also want to just state, for the record, that Larian's way of approaching narrative and characterization changes to their full-release game has been incredibly frustrating. I did not agree, in August, to play an Early Access game with the inherent understanding that any potential narrative aspect might change at any time. I purchased a full-release game, and immersed myself in the story and the characters, to get to know them as the writers had originally presented.

And when Larian makes these changes based on fan feedback, they are explicitly making decisions about which fans matter, and specifically, which fans matter most. Rather than allowing everyone to experience the story they decided to tell, and draw from it what they take away, and let that spark discussion and engagement, they made the decision to defer to some fans over others, and prioritize their experience of the narrative — something that, no matter how well-intended, is always going to leave a bitter taste in my mouth.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

https://www.lifo.gr/stiles/optiki-gonia/kaos-einai-i-shesi-mas-me-ti-mythologia

Can they stop with modern labels? Every time they try to say that ancient Greece was a queer paradise where it was far from this.

It was criticised in society unless the man was powerful and rich. Like it was a tiny minority and they create this narrative of ancient Greece have over 50% being queer or something.

It's time for our xenoi friends and followers to learn another Greek term. Xenolatreia. It means "worship of anything foreign (mainly from the western countries)", which is a widespread phenomenon among Greeks for the past 2 centuries. It's the following sentiment: "Anything that comes out of western countries is good and it should be praised because we here in Greece are a bunch of illiterate monkeys who live on trees, and cannot see the Deeper Message our Superior Westerners show."

Lifo has had some decent articles over the years but this one reeks of xenolatreia. Lifo supports that the Greeks hate the series because it has queer people in it. so it goes on a campaign to show that Greek mythology had queer people. Which, sure, I don't disagree, but it misses the point. While some Greeks surely have been offended just by the existence of queerness, Lifo misses the REAL reason why Greeks in large felt their mythology was butchered by KAOS. They even wrote it in the article themselves:

"Zeus is a paranoid authoritarian dictator in mid-life crisis who fears losing his power and murders his aides to vent. Hera is a promiscuous goddess who repeatedly betrays Zeus and has mutilated mute priestesses for protection. Dionysos is a spoiled and immature zoomer who, apart from pranks, indulges in orgies with all genders. Poseidon a sadistic god of the sea, who tortures the crew on his ship for fun. Prometheus is gay and killed his lover so he could overthrow Zeus. Orpheus is a famous pop singer and Eurydice does not love him. Theseus is black and gay. The Erinyes are tough-as-nails mechs that look like they stepped out of 'Sons of Anarchy'. The Fates resemble a three-member jury in a talent show. The Trojans are a terrorist group that acts against the gods. Crete is more reminiscent of California than the Mediterranean."

Queer and diverse identities in general are nothing bad. The way KAOS mixed everything into a salad is the real bad thing, and the showrunners hide behind the queer representation when they are met with any other kind of criticism. It's the same tactic Lifo follows here. Only extremely stupid people would have an issue if Ganymees and Zeus were a couple in the show when it was also a part of our mythology. The problem about KAOS for the larger population is not the queerness.

Lifo continues:

The idea we have of Greek myths is, at best, a jumble of bits and pieces created by the Greek school: Zeus has sexual relations with mortals, Hera is jealous, Dionysus engages in revelry, Persephone for some reason resides in Hades , a bird eats the flesh of Prometheus, Aphrodite is the most beautiful and Athena the wisest of the bunch, Artemis hunts, Apollo plays the lyre: a very general and vague idea, much more chaotic than the mixing of myths which "Kaos" attempts.

What a shitty argument. Did you pay any attention in school, I wonder?? Do you know that we know our myths also outside the Greek school and that the Greek school teaches based on the ancient sources, and we often read the ancient text itself?? Also, no, the situation here is not more absurd than what KAOS does. The mythology is what it is. KAOS takes an already established thing and makes a turd out of playdoh.

Instead, we demand that a series aiming for commercial appeal follow our preferred script line and stay true to what? In our own obsessions, revisions, angulations and Christian puritanisms?

To our freaking culture, dear Lifo. To the myths we wrote and passed down for two and a half millennia, dear Lifo. They are fairly widespread and they are very difficult to get wrong.

[sixpillarsofgenesis]

Carlo, P, and the Ship of Theseus Paradox

I've been working on my fic recently, and I've wanted to put this into words somewhere - because while I love the concept of the Theseus Paradox, I no longer believe that to be the case for Carlo and P's situations, and I wanted to put it in here to explain why.

For reference, I have chosen to name the Player Character Pino.

For anyone who isn't already familiar with it - which was me, before this game ate my life dammit - the Theseus Paradox poses a question: If a ship has each and every component replaced for its life in succession, is the ship you started with the ship that you have now? At what point is that transitional period considered a cutoff?

I used to like the theory, and I still do, but when I finished the game, I had one very big hang-up with it in that, during the Real Boy Ending, it feels more like Pino is a carefully cultured organ donor in Geppetto's eyes than he ever was a replacement for Carlo. The fact that Pino has a wholly separate body from the Nameless Puppet and that the Nameless Puppet has a malfunctioning P-Organ only serves to heighten that opinion.

So yes, Pino is a wholly different person to Carlo. When I think of Pino's Ergo forming around Carlo's, the quote that comes to mind is "Through a Glass, Darkly." That the imperfections of the ideal - the ideal being Carlo - make Carlo a separate person from Pino and allow for a lot of interpretation. I tend to liken them to twins - because I find it very interesting that Geppetto deliberately gave Pino blue eyes and freckles, resulting in an imperfect Carlo.

I wouldn't make this argument or case if Pino had Carlo's memories from the start - but that would be a very different game, because I believe Carlo would have murdered Geppetto the moment they met each other again, honestly. But we - and thus, Pino - get Carlo's memories too late in the game for the Ship of Theseus Paradox to apply. It's still delicious as a concept, and the use of it in the Lies of P fanworks are so far excellent. But I just wanted to share my thoughts.

[lady-harrowhark]

Hello! I saw you mention that Pyrrha remembers pre-resurrection, and I totally missed that!! Do you have any theories as to why?

I have a few thoughts!

Just for context - because I didn't catch that on my first read either until I started going back through! - there are a few instances that seem to suggest Pyrrha remembers at least some of her life pre-Resurrection. Off the top of my head, I know there's one point where she refers to G1deon as G--, just like John does. Nona also says that Pyrrha calls her "Hairy Maclary", which is referring to a series of children's books by a New Zealand author. Here's a link to a picture and some info about Hairy Maclary... I can definitely understand why Pyrrha would call Nona that lol. This one's super interesting to me in that it's such a fantastic example of the way Tamsyn uses memes and references so skillfully! In the previous books, most of the references are fairly organic in that they're things that could conceivably be, you know, just things the characters say; the readers catch it (if they also know the reference! otherwise they're fairly unobtrusive) but the characters themselves aren't intentionally making a reference. This would be the things like "You can't just ask someone why they want to be a Lyctor" and "a hunger that only thumbs could satisfy," etc. The exception, though, is John. The "none Houses with left grief" particularly is SO fun from an exposition perspective (but if I start on that one I'll never stop), and then of course we have Commander Wake Me Up Inside. The implication here being that John remembers these specific things and is intentionally making those references within the context of the story. Pulling that same expository trick with Pyrrha sets them up as both remembering... at least to some degree. The hints that we get from Pyrrha are such that it's pretty unclear to what extent she remembers, leaving a lot of room for juicy speculation :)

I initially touched on it over on this post where I rambled about names, memory, and the Eightfold Word, but I'm copying over the Pyrrha-specific paragraph so that you don't have to dig for it:

When assisting with Harrow’s lobotomy, Ianthe tells her, “If you push your brain too hard, any surgery could simply heal over.” And in NtN, Pyrrha tells Palamedes, “You should be draining and replacing her fucking brain fluid... When Gideon and I designed that trial, I used to crack his skull and sieve it myself, just as a control variable... The only other people I put through that damn trial were Mercy and Cris, because only Cris didn’t mind being trepanned on the regular.” I don’t know exactly where the threshold is for pushing one’s brain too hard, but I suspect frequently draining and replacing one’s brain fluid is in that ballpark. Which is to say, it’s very possible that Mercy and Pyrrha (and potentially others) could have healed over from anything John had done to their brains.

Also, I don't know why this didn't occur to me as I was writing up that other post, but when Pyrrha's telling Palamedes about how dangerous their uhhhhh living arrangements are, and how they're risking brain damage... Pyrrha and G1deon were operating under somewhat similar circumstances for thousands of years. Cumulatively, it's possible that G1deon's brain was racking up damage that eventually eroded away whatever John had done. Another thought is that maybe the fact that G1deon died and Pyrrha didn't is at play here.

It could very well be less dramatic than that, though. We don't know much about how Lyctorhood impacts the brain, although to be completely fair, we also can't say for certain how a typical human brain would function after ten thousand years of runtime either. Our brains are constantly wiring new neural pathways and rewiring and revising old ones. After thousands of years, might we be reaching a Ship of Theseus situation with regard to the neural circuitry impacting pre-Res memories? Which is a fancy way of saying, "Maybe it wore off."

It could be all of the above, too. Assuming that Lyctor brains retain plasticity like we see in typical human brains (and I'm not letting myself think too hard on implications either way, because in sci-fi/fantasy make-believe land, neuroscience can be whatever you want it to be), we'd probably see that effect happening with the other Lyctors at roughly the same rate, but at least as far as we can tell (and that wording is intentional because I'm not taking anything off the table with this series), the others don't seem to remember. So that might be contributing, but not sufficient on its own. BUT perhaps ten thousand years of rewiring PLUS ten thousand years of cohabitation PLUS however long of being "trepanned on the regular" PLUS G1deon dying might override John's meddling.

We've still got so many open questions here regardless of what the specific mechanisms are. Like, I'd love to know when Pyrrha started to remember exactly. And did G1deon remember anything, then? It seems like he was Straight Up Not Having a Good Time so if he did remember, he might not have been relying on those memories much. Whatever's going on, I'm sure it's just as bonkers as the rest of the series!

[hesitantvampirealien]

i worded this badly in the last post so i just deleted it, i wanna start over.

Passing is luck.

Most people don't pass. I know that's painful for some to hear, specially the ones that already deal with an awful dysphoria that destroys you from the inside out and just makes you want to chew your own intestines and destroy yourself in pure disgust.

If you don't pass even when you make as much effort as possible - including hormones - to pass, that's not your fault. But unfortunately you're just not able to pass due to how your body was formed. Depending on your situation, hormones aren't gonna work. In my case, it's complicated. Gynecomastia, testosterone immunity and other than these parasitic breasts, my body is pretty much underdeveloped which means i basically have a 12 year old girl's body due to my fucked up genes. I was born to NOT pass at all costs, basically. I'm a fucking joke. I'm that loser you look at when you want to feel less shitty about yourself. But the point is that none of us ask to have these bodies, and it's easy to sometimes tell yourself you're just an imposter and you're just invading a space you're never gonna belong. And i wish i could tell you that these thoughts are just self loathing and not true, but i know that's not gonna help. Sometimes some people are so fucking lucky to be able to pass, but that doesn't mean they're doing something right and we aren't. They won the genetic lottery more than once and that's their advantage, not to mention that most of the times they're middle class so they can afford to change their bodies as much as they want until they completely get rid of literally everything from their past body, almost becoming someone else entirely. Have you ever heard about the ship of Theseus?

deadly mixture, not passing and having an issue that people always attribute to your assigned gender at birth. Either when you're a transmasc (specifically FTM) who went through SA for example and you don't feel valid, or when you're a transfem (specifically MTF) who has male pattern baldness. Or even things like illnesses. Being transmasc and having a sickness that affects your uterus directly or transfem and having a sickness that affects your testicles directly and feeling like shit because it's like your body is just trying to hurt you on purpose. I didn't mention NB but it's not because i ignored them, i myself am NB. Either way it would fucking suck to have any of these issues while also already being aware that you don't even get to tell the doctor about not being of your assigned gender at birth because then you'll have to go on and on and on and at the end you'll just be dismissed.

Passing is luck. It's a fucking privilege that the majority of us just will never have no matter what, and i refuse to make my siblings feel like shit because of what they were given just because of these few privileged people who got to transition in a way that is nowhere as painful and gruesome as we did and will never understand a fraction of our pain because they had enough money to erase that pain. If you don't pass and you still want to try, if you still want hormones, you should still try, you should still take hormones, i'm not gonna tell you to just give up on everything. The reason why you don't pass isn't because you're not trying hard enough. It's because people suck. You're not ugly or inferior to anyone. Cis women have pcos and beards sometimes and cis men sometimes.. are like me - which i know isn't their fault and it's also not my fault but i can't help but feel shitty.

Well. This part is more for my transmasc fellas, i usually make my posts related to transition a bit more focused on transmasc since i'm masc NB myself, if you ever feel bad about yourself, remember that you'd probably kick my ass easily in a fight. You're not all that bad shit you think about yourself.

[authoralexharvey]

INTERVIEW WITH A WRITEBLR — @daisywords

Who You Are:

Daisy || She/her

I'm a fantasy enjoyer about to graduate from university with a degree in editing. In addition to writing, I like to draw/paint and play the piano. Also interested in linguistics and bookbinding

What You Write:

What genres do you write in? What age ranges do you write for?

Fantasy and Sci-Fi. Young and New Adult, Adult.

What genre would you write in for the rest of your life, if you could? What about that genre appeals to you?

I love specfic in general, fantasy in particular (but the line between fantasy and scifi is blurrier than one might think). I particularly like the potential of alternate worlds to set up situations and character dynamics that simply couldn't exist in a historical or contemporary novel

What genre/s will you not write unless you HAVE to? What about that genre turns you off?

I don't read or write smut/erotica but other than that everything else is potentially on the table. I couldn't see myself doing straight historical fiction, either, honestly, just because I probably wouldn't be able to resist adding some specfic elements and/or unanchoring it from time (Fantasy is freedom to me, whereas historical accuracy is something extra to adhere to.)

Who is your target audience? Do you think anyone outside of that would get anything out of your works?

You mean other than myself?? Ok but actually it's pretty broadly just people who like fantasy. I have one wip that's technically YA just based on the age of the characters, but it could definitely be enjoyed by adults. My other wip is adult/NA but could also definitely be enjoyed by teenagers.

What kind of themes do you tend to focus on? What kinds of tropes? What about them appeals to you?

hmmm….something about the juxtaposition of violence and tenderness? Guilt/responsibility and free will/predestination a la the Chosen One trope. Memory loss trope (so juicy)

What themes or tropes can you not stand? What about them turn you off?

I personally am not a fan of immortal love interests. sorry everyone.

What are you currently working on? How long have you been working on it?

My current main wip is called Deep and Dark, Beautiful and Bright. I started it in November 2020. I also have a back burner project called Fear Me, which has been ship-of-Theseus-ing since I was like 10 lol. And I'm working on two short stories that are being more trouble than they're worth

How long have you been writing? What do you think first drew you to it?

I've been making up stories since I knew what stories were. Mostly started out playing elaborate pretend games with my sister. In second grade my best friend suggested we "write a book" together since our teacher would give out blank spiral-bound paper packets. (I think she was mostly interested in my illustration abilities tbh) Anyway we created a series centered around a character named Natalie (who was basically a ripoff of Ramona/Junie B. Jones.) But anyway I think around then is when I actually became interested in writing books as an outlet for making up stories. I didn't actually do a ton of writing as a kid, but I always collected story ideas and had a ton of ocs that I would draw in my secret sketchbook.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Is that how you got your inspiration for your current project? If not, where did the inspiration come from?

Honestly I get inspiration from everywhere. My brain is a very productive idea factory (but not a productive draft finisher, sadly). Other media (for example taking one specific concept or plot point form a move and running in the opposite direction with it), dreams, songs, historical events, offhand comments from friends, etc. Sometimes justt out of nowhere I swear.

Have you published anything? Do you want to?

Not yet and yes eventually

What part of the publishing process most appeals to you? What part least appeals to you?

I want my projects to have a final form and I want other people to read them. I don't want anyone I know irl (or anyone else for that matter) to psychoanalyze me about them. I'm not looking forward to anything to do with marketing, writing to market, tight deadlines, adhering to standardized formats/lengths, etc. but so it goes…

What part of the writing process most appeals to you? What part is least appealing?

I love coming up with ideas and characters and scenes. I love rambling in my notes doc. I love drafting in the rare moments when I actually do it. I really struggle with getting all the pieces of my plot to fit together. I like editing (I'm literally an editor). I cannot do project management to save my life.

Do you have a writing process? Do you have an ideal setup? Do you write in pure chaos? Talk about your process a bit.

Right now what's working fro me is to have three distinct documents. One goes strictly in order. Another is to put all of the scenes I want to write that don't fit into that order yet. The third one is for me to yell about it all (notes). When I'm lucky, scenes form the chaos doc (scene bank) eventually find their way into the order doc.

Your Thoughts on Writeblr:

How long have you been a writeblr? What inspired you to join the community?

I joined tumblr predominantly for the writeblr community in 2018 (don't remember the specifics but I remember seeing writing posts on pinterest and was like hm well might as well go directly to the source)

Shout out some of your favorite writeblrs. How did you find them and what made you want to follow them?

in no particular order and not an exclusive list: @aohendo @mecharose @scarvenartist @woodhousejay @baroquesse @tracle0 @klywrites @garthcelyn @incandescent-creativity @zmwrites @ashen-crest @ambiguouspuzuma @ettawritesnstudies @megarywrites @magic-is-something-we-create @pinespittinink @isherwoodj just a few of the many excellent people here

What is your favorite part about writeblr?

I just love the community aspect of interacting with other writers, or even just seeing what everyone's working on and how it's going. Even if someone's wip isn't my exact cup of tea I still like seeing posts about their work and people encouraging each other.

What do you think writeblr could improve on? How do you think we can go about doing so?

A lot of people say that interaction is dead etc. but I don't really think that's true. I think focusing less on reblogs and more on comments/asks as a form of interaction would strengthen the feeling of community. Not everyone is obligated to reblog everything and comments and asks can be more personal anyway. I like knowing other people are seeing what I put out there, and I especially love getting comments on my work, but that doesn't mean I need everyone to share it. I'd rather have 5 followers that interact with me than 1000 who don't. Quality over quantity, you know?

How do you contribute to the writeblr community? Do you think you could be doing more?

Of course everyone could always be doing more. I like to read other's snippets when I'm in the headspace for it, but sometimes I'm just here to mindlessly scroll and that's okay too. If I read something and I think it's cool or interesting or well-written or anything I try to either leave a reply or reblog with something in the tags. If I can't think of anything to say just quoting a line that I liked will suffice (I like when people do that to me). I do want to try sending more asks to people—I try to always send one when I see someone's reblogged an ask game, but I think everyone would appreciate some out-of-the-blue asks as well :)

What kinds of posts do you most like to interact with?

All kinds but I am most likely to interact with shorter posts about peoples' process or something about their characters. @klywrites will post about tiny interactions between her characters and I literally love them just from seeing tiny scenes on my dash every so often. I really like to read longer snippets and short stories too (there's some amazing writers here y'all) but I'm more likely to scroll past those if I can't spare the focus. Also I love seeing art! even from people who don't consider themselves artists like aww you drew your little guy and I love them now

What kind of posts do you most like to make?

idk I end up just vagueposting about my process most of the time. I love to infodump about my characters/worldbuilding but I don't do it too often. I also like to post about writing things in general, but I don't consider myself an expert or anything so I'm not putting out a ton of advice—just what works for me

[artisanscarecrow]

Toasty's Tron Thoughts: Ares???

Been grumbling to myself all day about this so I thought I'd just complain on the internet and then live the rest of my life in peace haha

I only got into the Tron franchise midway through last year. It was kind of a sudden thing, but I found myself really enjoying the franchise as a whole. This being both movies and the criminally brief tv show. (Tron: Uprising was very good and I recommend it)

I also played a few of the video games but that's unrelated rn haha

So, naturally, I wanted to find out if there were any plans for continuing the franchise.... and now I'm hearing about this new flick.

I have (checks notes) many complaints. XD

First of all, not a huge fan of that Jared Leto guy. I've heard a lot of stuff about how he was on the set of Morbius and Suicide Squad and I dunno he doesn't sound like a cool character.

Also, both of those movies were flops, right? Do we really want him as the main character for a franchise that criminally does poorly in the box office, Disney?

Second.... uh, where are the, you know, main characters of the franchise?

Like, where are they.

I know its heavily implied that Kevin Flynn died and that Tron's status is a bit uh...

...vague... at the end of Legacy...

But I mean, Sam's still out there. So is Quorra.

The first film and the second film both followed one of the Flynns as they adventured through the Grid.

Are we just gonna... ignore that fact for this new film?

I remember reading somewhere that Tron's actor wasn't really keen on continuing the franchise because of how in flux it was, so I kind of get him not appearing (though I am very upset about that, if it's a Tron movie, Tron should be in it I love Tron sm :sob:), but I think I also remember Sam's actor saying he would be interested in returning to the franchise at some point?? So what gives???

I dunno, maybe it's too early to tell what's gonna happen in the new movie, like maybe as time goes on they'll put in more information about how this new picture connects to the older ones.

But currently I'm not excited. I'm kinda frustrated ngl. It's a bit of a ship of Theseus situation:

Can you really call it a "Tron" movie if the titular character isn't in it?

Is it a "Tron" movie if there aren't any Flynns in it?

A movie that's Tron in aesthetic alone to me, isn't a Tron movie, and doesn't really sound like something I'd be interested in watching.

But that's just me. If you're excited, I'm happy for you!

Tron lives!

[eclipsemeteor]

Breathing New Life into Magic Cards

What do you do with your cards when they don't have a home in a commander deck?

Make a new format variant out of them!

(well ok, you don't make a revolutionary format from scratch, you steal take inspiration from the paths trodden before)

My name's Cole, I've been a content creator for Commander and EDH for the last 3 or so years. I was introduced to Magic when I was about 6 or 7 years old, read the earliest Magic novels at 10, and officially started playing in 2011 with Innistrad. I've done two podcasts, the Uncommon Commander and the recently started Hero's Blade Vibe Check podcasts that's available in many places!

One of my biggest grievances as Commander player is that 100 cards never seems to be enough for my decks. 36-41% of the deck is dedicated to a combination of a commander(s) and lands. That leaves you with approximately 60~ cards to mess around with, cut, fiddle with, and optimize, depending on your intent and level of investment.

For people who've had lifelong commander decks, that usually means having a Ship of Theseus situation: more cards come out that are circumstantially or objectively better than previous versions. For whatever your end goal is, you add and remove cards for your needs and eventually may even change the commander!

EDH/Commander is not the same beast it was a decade ago, let alone when the original premise was in its infancy. Decks today are much better than what was around in 2011, and sub formats like PrEDH (any card printed before Commander Precons) are an example of the blatant power creep that we players have had to deal with.

As I've evolved as a player and brewer, I've made my peace with having to make compromises with deck building, but there's always that small feeling in the back of my head that says "these cards need a home, and it's not just another commander deck, or selling/trading these off". Duplicating a commander deck for the sake of scratching that itch isn't enough.

I needed to do something. The thought came to me at 5am.

(Well ok, it stewed for a long time before inspiration struck upon waking up at 5am because one of my cats is insanely regimented and wanted breakfast ASAP, so after getting bitten on my arm, lightning strike and I got to work)

Making Killer Queen - A Compromise

So what is Killer Queen, and what does this have to do with finding home for cards?

I've trapped myself as a Magic player. As I stopped playing Standard back in 2014 and more or less dedicated myself to Commander brewing, a lot of skills have fallen to the wayside. I'm terrible at Limited Draft, subpar at Sealed, and have radically changed my viewpoint of 1v1 magic. Brewing a 360 card cube felt impossible to do myself.

So how do I consolidate these feelings and viewpoints? I make a single deck that everyone can play from like the fan format Dandan (aka Forgetful Fish), use only 3 colours (Mardu/Red-white-black), give everyone the same Commander (Queen Marchesa) and make it singleton.

Boom. Killer Queen, aka Marchesa Dandan, aka MarDanDan!

One 155 card deck (plus 2-4 copies of Queen Marchesa) that everyone plays from, one shares graveyard and a bunch of different ways to set up or influence your opponents!

It's been a recent project I've been working on since October 2023, and while games are far and between, it's been my personal answer to my issues of cards being shuffled around decks with no real home, but still having commander-like gameplay that appeals to people in general. Public sentiment so hard? It's a neat way to play Magic, and it's something that can be brought along to game nights in case people want a change of pace.

It's been a great exercise, and makes me go back to my original point: there's a lot of ways to play Magic. There's a lot of ways to engage with Magic that isn't just constructed formats, and you can do it on a budget (or using online creatures like Moxfield's playtest feature in tandem with a digital camera program like OBS).

So where does that leave us?

People are frustrated with the direction Magic: the Gathering is headed, and I encourage everyone to healthily engage with this game we've all come to love, or love to hate, in a way that is satisfying to you.

If you're unsatisfied with Universes Beyond, don't play the cards! (just don't fault anyone for playing them) Go back and look at old sets, and forget the new ones. There's lots of hidden treasure in New Capenna, I hear.

Get back to your kitchen table routes if you have to. Do a Commander League, a deck building challenge, get wild, get crazy! Or take a break! Magic isn't going anywhere right now.

Do a deep dive on Scryfall, whatever it takes for you to enjoy this game in peace.

[cozza-frenzy]

how did you get your insys form?

I'm assuming this is directed at me (Terry, the host) and HOO BOY that is a story. Our therapist - who knows about our system - once half-jokingly called me "the captain of the ship of Theseus" for a good reason. So... when we first started, I didn't look like I do now. Post-discovery, when I got involuntarily yanked out of front for the first time and realized I wasn't in the body, I was a 4 foot tall grey humanoid. Our still-current PFP on tumblr? That's basically what I looked like. The only notable thing about me was the shadow over my eyes was permanently there, even when I took my hat off.

Then we paid a visit to our family in the UK - and being more aware of things, more able to process trauma and so on? Things began to change for me really quickly. Martin was the first to notice in-system, telling me to take my hat off and pointing out I now had four eyes instead of two. This was swiftly followed by two extra arms, digitigrade legs, a tail (for balance) and other minor changes.

Some more time passed, I mourned the loss of what I used to look like, and realized I had to keep moving on. Then Rocky - one of our smallest fragments, with a very limited purpose - spontaneously fused with me. That was... upsetting, at least at first. In one fell swoop I lost one set of arms entirely, and suddenly had a completely different face. Some of the other alters didn't recognize me when they walked into front.

But I adapted again; I took my time to process things, took my time to grieve. Accepting these changes can be really difficult; feeling dysphoric and having an identity crisis when you have The Identity Disorder can be especially distressing. But after fusing with Highwind (another fragment), going through a transitional form where I looked like the above but with horns and awkward arm-wings, my next evolution looked like this:

Celeste - another alter in our system, now fused, who was the same -in-sys species as me - told me that turning starry like this is a mark of maturity. Apparently all Beyonders start off grey and kind of generic-looking, but we're supposed to adapt constantly to our environment and our experiences, so we all end up looking very different. We gain our stars when we've reached a form we're comfortable enough in, that any further changes to our appearance are minor. ...And if anyone wants to use that against us, I didn't make that up intentionally. Our subconscious just, hands us lore sometimes - shit that pieced together from our knowledge, experiences, and imagination to try and make things make sense. We just tend to roll with it, because if we go into denial it starts to push back even harder, and that makes us unstable. It's like a wild animal you can tame - we can make our subconscious "do tricks" through manipulation, but sometimes we have to let it do what it wants. But that brings us to today!

As of recently I've fused with Caddy and Hyi, and better integrated Highwind's parts. And like Celeste predicted, my form has remained largely the same, but it has made me somewhat biomechanical. My eyes are projections on a screen, and there are parts of me that have something like armor plates, but everything has an organic or semi-organic quality. What it comes down to is the same reason I'm the host - I'm meant to be "the adaptable one", strategizing and thinking on my feet to cope with rapidly-changing situations. I'm always evolving, and a lot of the others in the system have changed over time too, but every change is all part of moving forward. And I'm glad I look like I do now - honestly, I think I'm really cool. - Terry

[icharchivist]

What I really liked about Heart of the Sun was the aspect that immortality is a fundamentally miserable experience. I know Granblue has been pulling that tooth for years now, with Belial himself being arguably one of the first people to voice that thesis, but yeah

Your body may live on, but your personality, you yourself and all your memories fade and so you do end up dying, piece by piece, day by day

It's the true death of self, yet you can't stop, because your body keeps trudging on

It's a real Ship of Theseus situation that's very fascinating to think about

I guess that part isn't as pronounced with primals, but the Phoenix shows what Belial has been implying, you just can't fucking form bonds with people for fear they'll crumble to dust in your hands and so you end up isolating yourself, because you don't want to go through grief every couple of decades

The Phoenix doesn't even see people as people, we're basically insects to her, because she exists on a fucking planetary timescale

Something about it's better to have loved and lost, but these people have decided that they don't want to deal with those emotions altogether and so fully close themselves off from forming connections

The person Belial is truly attached to us Lucilius, an Astral, who's also technically immortal, or at least would have lived for many centuries more if it weren't for Lucifer

I'm rambling, but it's fascinating to think about

No yeah i 100% agree with everything you say.

I think it's a really interesting deep dive on immortality, that, yes, has been kinda hinted at before, but it's really there that we see the full consequences of it.

Like, we've had Belial's suicide rant, we've had Cosmos's own agony, there was also Baldr's whole plot there as well... but all of them, by being primals on a timescale of 2k years, were more about personal feeling, and also something that Satyr in CBTSLBTS also comments on about how, since there's a lot of immortal primals who know the same pain, maybe they can live in together.

Belial held on to Lucilius, and while he doesn't say it i'm sure Beelzebub was a constant in his life. Maybe Lucifer was too in some way. Cosmos had Lucifer at some point, she also had Yuni, all of that.

But i think really showing us via Abramelin just how horrible eternity can be was the best way to really drive home how viseral it felt. I think even more so since Abramelin doesn't have a body which was made for eternity, compared to the primals, so his brain would deteriorate with time as well. And unlike the primals who at least have each other, he doesn't have anyone just like himself to compare to.

Like, the others primals who hate their eternity still feel the agonizing part of it all -- but it was interesting to see on a Skydweller scale just how visceral it is all about.

And likewise about Phoenix. It's something we discussed a few time here about Astrals and how their immortality makes thing easier for themselves so they don't rely on one another. In a sense, Phoenix has the same logic, but on her own personal scale, so she cannot process how any of this should matter to her. The Omnipotent is the only being she can match in time. So of course eventually after million of years knowing everyone has a shorter lifespan than yours, why would you even bother yaknow.

it's really fascinating and i really love how Granblue asks us to think about how the lives of those immortals suck in their extremely fantasy way. Like the primals who are programmed with a purpose that they will seek to fill no matter how they feel about it, or immortality and its consequences. It's not things that are directly relatable (not as 1-1 thing, obviously as metaphor they can be), but Granblue really ask you to think hard about how those things would impact those being.

I find it so effective and i love it so much. It was a fascinating event to read on that regard.

[piratejenna]

Day 5 of @justleaveacommentfest and it's time to shout out some of my favorite comments!

I have received some incredibly sweet comments, and they never fail to make me smile! So here are a few of the comments that have continued to stick with me:

from @villklovn

GOD I HAD A MIGHTY NEED FOR AUNT ZISKA AND TRUCY BONDING Franziska relating to Trucy and her favorite Christmas memories all involving Miles and her not being able to say no to Trucy we’re all adorably heartrending moments Also Franziska fearing Trucy could be like Kay agsjahsh screaming Also Franziska’s characterization is absolutely spot on 10/10, and Trucy and Nick too. Also Miles trucking her into it agsjah he absolutely would do that This was so lovely, thank you so much for sharing thissss <3

from LostGuard on AO3

I actually meant to comment on this a while back, but I couldn't figure out how to word it. Yet this is the third or fourth time I've reread it, and it still hits just as hard (maybe even harder) as the first time I read it, and so I finally decided to force myself to comment (I really should make a habit of commenting!) Poetry fics are something that I find quite rare and underrated. Practically every time I've seen one, I've loved it, and this one certainly isn't an exception. I love how you implement and bounce off of the canon dialogue, and I love the main point as well - I completely agree that Asougi isn't necessary different, he's just showing another side of him (yeah, looking back at case 1, you can see the threads of his later characterization poking through). You manage to perfectly encapsulate his feelings/emotions on the subject! The Ship of Theseus is something I've learned about through fics, and I love the usage of the reference here, subverting it in a way ("Seems irrelevant when you haven’t fulfilled the only prerequisite"). My first instinct was to comb through all the lines and pick out some of my favorites, but I can't do that, because there's so many good ones! There's also the fact that the lines are all intertwined so well; they lead into each other so well and I feel that every word, every line, has a purpose. Essentially, I really like this, and I just wanted you to know that! I hope you're having a great day, and in the event that you choose to write another fic/poem in the future (as mentioned in the author notes), I hope you'll have fun :)

from tigerharting on AO3

IT'S KAY!!!! i love that this edgeworth is a little more realistic because he's less confident, i definitely dont think someone raised by von karma would be rich with confidence even at 20 and especially not for his first case, and i especially loved how his uneasiness is built up through the elevator incident and the nightmare which makes it even MORE realistic so it's really fun to read and gets you into his headspace way easier. i also love how edgeworth immediately notes the similarities between his situation and kay's, even before faraday's death, and can't really shove aside his emotions with his logic yet because of it. great chapter!!! i am so excited to read more thank you so much for writing and sharing this with us!!

from @mrsnaildood

Uhm. Hello, I loved this fic so much that I drew fanart of it?? Thank you so much for writing for this AU. It's everything I ever wanted to see. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time reading this, and you write Jove perfectly(the way he teases Klavier, the way he comforts Apollo, all of it). I really, really can't wait to read more of it ;u; Here's the link to the art: https://twitter.com/YJ_Doodle/status/1280554888854831104?s=20

from DoodleSweet on AO3

HI. It's taken me WAY too long to comment on this but OHMYGOD I LOVE YOU SO MUCH That anyone wants to write Jove and Jolassa makes me so, so happy, I've been so invested in them for ages! (I've got two Jolassa gift fics in the tag!) ANYWAY. You write so well! I love what you're doing with Jove and your lives AU is so close to mine! I love so much that we as a Jove fandom agree on so much about him! Including the later chapters (which I won't spoil here in case!) with more dadding. Bless you! <3 You're amazing and wonderful and I can't wait to read more!!

from @sunflowersforphoenix

Hey! So I came across this fic while I was taking a break from housework, I had just put a sinkful of dishes in hot water, and I was like “I’ll just read the first page while my dishes are soaking” and now it’s two chapters later and my dishwater’s cold and I’m still reading! XD My favorite part so far is the flashback scenes between Jove and Thalassa, they make such a sweet couple, you can tell they really care for each other. Now I’m wondering how far Jove will go to unravel this mystery and find out what really happened to his wife. Thanks so much for sharing your writing and hope to read more soon!

from merinarasauce on AO3

DELICIOUS. EATS THIS UP LIKE GROCERIES. i am SO happy you came back for this one!! i thought it might've been gone for good, but i checked my email (of all things, lol) and saw that you'd updated to finish it out. thank you for sharing this with us! it was a wild ride from start to finish, and i enjoyed every second of it. i hope you're doing well, and have a great day!!

If you've ever commented on one of my fics, know that I have read your comment, probably multiple times, and likely have saved it to my phone. Every single comment means the world to me, and I am so thankful for them!

[saneperhaps]

Here I'm posting quotes from a movie I just watched so that I can read them everyday.

*~If a ship is replaced part by part up to a point where not a single original part remains in it, is it still the same ship?

*~You know how you doubt sometimes if what you remember is your own experience, some dream or something somebody told you that you pictured so well that it became your own memory.

*~I got you a gift. Alphabets. It's amazing how we imagine that just these few alphabets will someday arrange themselves in a way that everything will suddenly make perfect sense. A permutation of known words suddenly bringing forward a previously unknown meaning.

* We invent God, soul... heaven, afterlife...even life-imitating technology, all sorts of transcendence to cope with the idea of an absolute end. And then, we die for an idea that promises us some sort of immortality

* ~There was an island and you were to be reborn as a tormentor or a slave. The tormentor would make life hell for you, will give infinite pain to you and your kin, just for his pleasure. And he had no remorse over his actions to crush his victim. Add to that there was no karma, no soul, no retribution, no being responsible for your actions. And you had to choose any one of them. Who would you be?

* Does reality exist when no one is looking?

* A frog once asked a centipede how is it able to walk on a hundred feet, so gracefully synchronized while the frog finds it difficult to manage even two. The centipede took a moment to analyze its own walk and was baffled. So as it tried to walk further its feet got entangled and it tripped.

* Look into your own religion. There's constant reference to relativity. Your ancients, they were masters of understanding that there is no one ultimate rule book for all situations. The woman churning curd into butter, she has to pull one end of the rope, and let the other end go otherwise the rope will break. Contradictions and polarities are two ends of the same rope. You can pull one end and let the other end go.

* Monks are supposed to be celibate, then why this much intellectual masturbation in first place?

* Aaliya: I have to draw opinion and assurance about my own art away from what everyone else says.

* It gives me some kicks though, to know that, a part of me was a part of an animal once, a flame, a star. A part will become mineral, flow in a plant, sprout in a fruit, get pecked by a bird. Every atom of my body will be recycled by the universe. You think you are a person but you are a colony. A microcosm which has ten times more bacteria in its body... than it has human cells.

* We are all blind men trying to see the elephant.

* Why is it so amazing to not have any limits or doubts?

* Charwaka: I always knew monks are closet drinkers but unfortunately liver cirrhosis is going to give you away.

Maitreya: You know it should have more to do with intoxication than with drinking

Movie: The ship of Theseus

I don't have words to explain what emotions this movie made me feel , I felt changed as a person, the three stories and beautiful cinematography everything top notch. I feel different person now.

[slytherinsnekxvii]

let's talk about lily evans and the marauders, aka moony, wormtail, padfoot and prongs. given that i didn't use their actual names, i think you can figure out where this is going. it's also long as hell, so. canon vs fanon, marauder edition, except snek is sleep deprived.

now, before we begin, i don't dislike the marauders. or lily, tbh. if I'm being perfectly, genuinely honest, i still go back and forth sometimes but they've been growing on me for a while now. the canon versions, at least. fanon does them real dirty, and that's part of why i'm writing this, because i'm genuinely tired of it. it's an injustice.

you can at least make excuses for james and lily, who were so undeveloped that jkr practically dropped a fill-in-the-blank sheet of character information in our laps, but sirius, remus and peter were around long enough for y'all to get real acquainted with them.

in canon, sirius black is an unhinged mf. genuinely. this isn't to say he's a bad guy, in fact, we see that he's still capable of doing good things, still capable of love, still capable of all the things that prove he's actually not bad at heart, just,,, severely traumatised and very steeped in negativity from his time with the dementors. what i'm saying is that this man is absolutely, no questions asked, no holds barred demented, and how could he not be? the guy sat wrongfully imprisoned in azkaban for twelve years, a good portion of which he spent as a dog in order to protect himself from the dementors. he certainly wasn't completely insane, but you cannot tell me that he was all there. he got out of azkaban fuelled almost solely by the intent to get revenge on pettigrew, tried to commit murder in front of three witnesses who were also children—one of whom was his godson—ate rats and was also malnourished, which i'm certain did not help the situation any. this man is off his goddamn rocker, and you know what? you love to see it. good for him.

oh, but, snek, that's what he's like as an adult. what about when they were at school? before azkaban? my guy, the reaction he has to grimmauld place is not the reaction of someone without trauma. i don't believe that walburga and orion were the type to physically abuse their children, but whatever happened in that house helped to fuck him up enough that he skipped the joke of part of practical joke, and pranked snape by telling him how to meet a werewolf that he knew would be fully transformed and dangerous to humans. more than that, the werewolf was remus, whom he's friends with, and who—best case scenario—would be facing a trial if james hadn't stepped in. you can say that maybe he didn't think about or understand the gravitas of his actions, but at the end of it, that's not how properly sane people react to people they dislike, and that's not how they treat their friends. if anything, it reads like he was in the middle of a breakdown and absolutely losing his shit and he wasn't thinking at all.

my guy went through some serious shit, and was in no way completely mentally stable. we can see pretty clearly that he's got a serious dark side to him that probably would have gone unbridled had he not disagreed with his family, and yet, fanon took one look at him and went, "teehee, uwu bad boi go vroom."

fanon said padfoot is a pretty boy with nice hair who is tastefully traumatised from his horribly abusive household. sirius rides his motorcycle and plays jokes and flirts with anything that moves, but he can do no real wrong and always comes back to his soft, bookish, chocolate-loving boyfriend remus, who will laugh about his lycanthropy and quietly disapprove but secretly laugh at his friends' antics while hiding his smile in his cardigan.

respectfully, what in the absolute fuck.

i'd put that meme in here if i could, the one that's like, "well done, you've broken _______ down to its bare essentials," but no. i can't bc it doesn't even apply. this isn't a meme, it's theseus' fucking ship.

fanon broke it down, and replaced the pieces one by one until we got to this point, where we need to sit down and ask ourselves, "is this even the same character?"

the answer is no, by the way. it isn't. when people talk about woobifying characters—you know, taking away every flaw they have, romanticising everything they do and making them only capable of doing good, wonderful, lovely things?—this is what we mean.

and it'd be one thing if it was just the one character, but, no. fanon went all in and made them all squeaky clean and boring, especially peter, who draws the shortest of the straws.

remus got fucked, too. not just because fanon insists on sticking him into a relationship with sirius. which, we'll tackle wolfstar in a bit, but that's not even the worst of it. here, we have yet another example of blatant, rampant woobifying. again, is he a bad person? no. we know he's a good guy, we know he's generally kind and well-mannered, we know that he wants to fo the right thing but hey, fun fact. did you know that you can be nice and a coward? did you know that you can be benevolent and good and kindly and have the greatest of intentions and still be shady as fuck? no? ask dumbledore. the man played people like chess pieces when he needed to, and he was a twinkly grandpa. these are things that can coexist.

teenage remus is a coward who, understandably, does not stand up to his friends, likely for fear of being ostracised, and doesn't uphold his prefect duties as he should and takes part in their bullying of snape as a result. he lets them romp with him in werewolf form while they are in their animagus forms and then, he lets them continue to do so even after they have multiple close calls, which, again, had anything happened, would have resulted in a trial in the best case scenario.

grownup remus is still a coward, he tells no one that sirius can move about the school in his animagus form despite wholeheartedly believing that he's a mass murderer, he tries to run out on his wife and unborn kid. he isn't deliberately making attempts to harm anyone, but he's content to sit back and let things happen to him and around him so he doesn't rock the boat, although he is capable of action, which we see when he is more than willing to help sirius merk pettigrew in the shack. he can be careless, he runs out to the shack knowing he hasn't taken his wolfsbane and ends up transforming in front of the students he, as a teacher, is meant to be protecting. of course, this doesn't negate his good qualities, it just bears repeating that his flaws do exist, and they're pretty serious.

fanon moony is always pleasant and kind and soft-spoken and bookish, and he always has to have his chocolate. he knows when to tell off his friends, and he'll do it, even if he's secretly amused by everything they do and laughs about it with his best friend, lily evans, who coincidentally spends all her time with them so he and sirius can go on double dates with james and lily and no one has to remember peter exists.

why. theseus' ship 2.0. does the actual character still exist or is this something entirely different thing bearing the same name?

as for peter, who needs peter pettigrew, the actual, legitimate, fourth marauder when you have lily evans? canon pettigrew is opportunistic as fuck. he's latching himself to the biggest bad on the block and he's going all in. for teenage peter, that was james and sirius, and for adult peter, that's voldemort. canon peter is good enough at transfiguration to master the animagus transformation, just like his friends, and he's good enough at potions to brew the potion that gives voldemort a body. and honestly, you can't say he wasn't brave. he could've run off somewhere and died, or changed his identity or something after he faked his death and framed sirius, but, no. he goes and resurrects voldemort. that's fucked up, yeah, but it happened and honestly, i respect that it. he stuck to his guns.

fanon wormtail is lucky if he exists beyond being a spineless sycophant for james and sirius, or an evil conniving little rat who's looking to toss his entire friend group to the wolves at eleven.

of course, this isn't meant to negate his bad qualities, he still murdered people and framed sirius and sold out the potters to die, but his good characteristics do exist, and james, sirius and remus genuinely were his friends.

and now, we get to lily and james.

we have hardly any information on either of them. they're a pair of cardboard cutouts that we can paint and stick flyers to and colour outside the lines however we want. we can do whatever the fuck, as long lily is brave and smart and somewhat kind and james is brave and willing to die for his family. we were essentially handed a pair of ocs.

and yet.

what little bits of canon we have are thrown out of the window regardless.

james is privileged and rich, and he throws hexes for fun. he's willing to hex lily when she disagrees with him, and then, he goes behind her back to continue hexing snape after she believes that he's stopped doing so. and that's all we know about him until he dies for his family at twenty-one years old. once again, say it with me: this does not negate his good qualities. he definitely had them, he took sirius in when sirius ran away from home, he became an animagus to keep remus company as a wolf, and he saved snape in the shack, thereby saving remus and sirius by extension. him having flaws does not make him a bad person.

fanon prongs is a feminist. he fights for equal rights for women everywhere, and he constantly treats his girlfriend, lily, like an absolute queen. he's the hottest boy in school and everyone claps when he walks through the halls. mcgonagall and dumbledore are always patting him on the back and making jokes with him. he has a built-in dark detector that helps him sense when someone is a evil and needs to he punished.

give me a break. the dude's cool and all, but was the gary stu treatment necessary?

...oh, he needed to match fanon lily? right, right.

canon lily is a contradiction unto herself. she's supposedly a great friend, but since we see her at a point where they were already drifting apart, we see her putting little effort into keeping their friendship afloat. she victim blames based on rumours, she doesn't seem to care over much about what snape has to say about the people who have been tormenting him since day one. and she's justified, of course, she doesn't have to stick around. canon lily is a bit of hypocrite, she says that snape calls everyone of her birth mudblood, but then that begs the question why she still hangs around with him if that's the case. he calls her mudblood, she retaliates by calling him snivellus, and finishes up with a dig about his underwear, which, sure, it's kicking a man with a rusty spoon and pouring salt in the wound, but she's, again, justified. i get where she was coming from. and then, of course, she dies for her kid after marrying the guy who relentlessly bullied her quote-unquote best friend for their entire school careers. but, like i said, canon lily is, in many ways, a contradiction.

lily is basically a plot device. she pushes everyone's narrative but her own, and does little else.

of course, this trend would continue in fanon. fanon lily exists to be the perfect girl who gets really angry over the slightest injustice, and of course, she gets to be one half of one of the oldest enemies-to-lovers "it was just sexual tension" cliche pairings in the book. she's just,,, a mary sue. in so many fics, so many headcanons, she's just pettigrew's stand-in, a girl to form a gang with marlene, mary and dorcas—who happen to be more undeveloped ocs who also get the woobify mary sue treatment—to parallel the marauders. there is nothing compelling about her character when she's presented as a saint, and even less when she's supposedly the other moral compass for the marauders that doesn't actually work because she thinks that james is cute.

and this brings me to the next topic. jily. what, why, how. this was supposed to be a healthy, happy relationship that would have lasted in the long run? absolutely not. even for its time, i can't say that i see it lasting.

first of all, jkr presents james' crush on lily as just that: a crush. a mildly obsessive one, but a crush nonetheless, which she tries to liken to the pulling of pigtails. and then, we see that james' way of getting her to go out with him consists of blackmail, and when that doesn't work, he resorts to threatening her. this could have been set aside if he had actually, genuinely changed when they started spending more time together, but as we're told by sirius and remus, he didn't. he just got better at hiding what he was up to. and it has to be that he hid it, because if she knew, this further damages the character that she's set up to have and paints her out to be either unable to stand up to him or an enabler.

regardless, they get married. and while i have trouble believing that it was out of genuine love, there are scenarios that could make some semblance of sense. it's wartime, after all, and maybe lily is worried about her stability in the wizarding world, so why not marry into an established family whose son is already showing interest? or perhaps, she falls into the trap of every bad boy cliche ever, and she thinks to herself, well, i got him to be better then, maybe i can get him to do even better in the future. or maybe, she doesn't get into a relationship with him immediately and sees him on and off, until eventually, she accidentally gets pregnant and they scramble to have a shotgun wedding so as not to leave lily alone at nineteen with a baby. or maybe they marry each other because they're there and sure, neither of then is ready and they don't know what love even is but what else is there to do when there's a dark lord about? anyways, the point is, they get married.

and then what? if we count pottermore into canon, he goes on to further damage her relationship with petunia and vernon, to the point where she ends up crying. if we don't, she fades into the background enough that nobody has anything to say about her. she's harry's mum, she's james' wife, lily potter, she was kind and smart and brave and that's it. her agency is gone, anything else we have of her personality is gone.

jily just,,, wasn't built to last. and, yeah, this,,, this is a hill i'll die on.

same with wolfstar, honestly. there are so many reasons why it wouldn't work, but fanon has made it so fucking prevalent that it's literally everywhere no matter where you look.

first of all, i've said it before and i'll say it again. sirius is more likely to get with james that he is to ever end up in a relationship with remus. their chemistry is just,,, underdeveloped. net zero for a relationship.

secondly, sirius instigated the werewolf prank, and lupin would have paid the price for it. this could have been overlooked, but he doesn't seem the slightest bit guilty about any of it when it's brought up in poa. he could have been responsible for lupin losing the security of his place at hogwarts in the best case scenario, and in the worst case, his life. and he seems to look forward to full moons, even though they clearly aren't pleasant for remus, which,,, yeah, you're going to have fun, but like, maybe be concerned about the fact that your friend undergoes excruciating pain and it isn't a pleasant time for him? read the room, my g.

thirdly, they don't trust each other as much as fanon seems to think they do. they were both willing to believe each other the traitor before ever suspecting pettigrew. sirius thought remus gave away the potters, hell, he thought remus was a spy for voldemort, and remus was convinced that sirius was a mass murderer. neither of them needed to be convinced.

fourthly, maybe i'm reading too much into it, but like. sirius had money. remus had no money, since, yk, he was a werewolf and struggling for cash and still, sirius,,, did not leave him any money. i feel like if you had money to spare, you would give to your friend who is literally poor. but, again, maybe i'm reading too much into it and this isn't as valid a point as i think it is.

and ehh, the fifth reason is that it's,,, actually very much not the representation for the ltgbt community that fanon says it is but y'all aren't ready for that conversation.

anyways, just,,, even when you set the couple shit aside, the power dynamics between everyone here is fucked. like, james and sirius are clearly at the top of food chain calling the shots and egging each other on. then there's lily, who isn't even a marauder, but is always ever-so-slightly above remus but still not on their level, because, well. neither of them actually listen to her. remus is the novelty friend, the friend who's,,, alright, i guess, but you keep them around specifically because they're funny or they can dance or they have something that you can either show off to other people or keep as your little inside joke, your little secret, yk? and peter is just sort of there. like, yeah, he can do what we can but does that make him as good as we are? no. does he have a funny little something about him that we can exploit? nah. therefore he sits at the bottom. and like, yeah, james and sirius are on the same level, but james is yanking sirius' chain, not the other way around. anyways, like i said. power dynamic's fucked and it bothers me that we were given all of this, and fanon decided to take it all and throw it away so they could give us flamboyant!badboi!sirius black x softboi!motherhen!remus lupin going on double dates with feminist!trustfundbaby!james potter and saint!lily evans while ignoring peter pettiwho?

theseus' fucking ship, indeed.

anyways, this needed to be said. it might not make as much sense as i want it to, considering it's 4:12 in the morning as i'm posting this, after taking a break from writing to do some research and coming across way too much content about fanon marauders, but it's here and it still makes enough sense that you can read it and understand what i mean. and like, at the end of the day, you can go ahead and headcanon whatever you please, you can write fic and make art and do whatever you like, just,,, remember that they're exactly that. headcanons. stop presenting fanon as canon. please. i'm literally begging. we actually have evidence against it. just,,, acknowledge that they're headcanons and stop putting them forward as though they're able to fit into canon. please.

[holdharmonysacred]

The F/GO Ooku event discourse is back again, so once again I need to complain about how all the complaints about people wanting a happier ending for Kama *in this specific event* are dumb because the characterization the writers committed to for her makes such a happier ending completely unfeasible without the cast doing a spontaneous 180-degree “if you just tell the villain ‘No!’ they’ll stop and be your friend : )” OOC nonsense turn. Kama’s redemption arc works fine in post-Ooku interludes and events, where she’s actually cooperative and friendly to Guda and co. enough that said redemption arc has room to Start and Exist, but in Ooku specifically? The event where Kama is nothing but a horrible rotten asshole with no redeeming qualities? Absolutely not. Not possible without overhauling not just the event, but Kama herself as a character.

The problem is that you can’t give Kama a happy redemption arc ending when Kama’s spent the whole event unironically cackling like a cartoon villain and bragging about how much she wants to destroy and ruin Guda, the rest of the cast, and the universe itself, and then actually tries to do so. Yeah, she’s got that tragic backstory of getting blasted off into space, but quite frankly the event does NOTHING to make her sympathetic beyond “tragic backstory Exists” (and as we should all know from decades of villain discourse, it takes WAY more than a tragic backstory to make a villain actually sympathetic and redeemable). She’s not written to really bond with Guda in any way, and given that damn near all of her scenes are some flavor of “Kama tries to drag Guda into depravity in order to get her Beastly schemes rolling” there’s not much of an opportunity TO have such scenes in the first place. You would have to rewrite the ENTIRE event to soften Kama as a character and insert some scenes where she stealth befriends Guda or something in order to make a “Guda offers a hand of mercy to Kama” ending feasible, because Guda during the event has no incentive to do anything other than send Kama blasting off again. Because, contrary to what their status as self insert might imply, Guda *IS* their own character, not a doormat designed to completely bow to the whims of the player. It does not matter if the Villainous Gacha Character Of The Day is your blorbo - Guda is consistently written to Do No Harm But Take No Shit, and if blorbo is trying to hurt them and their friends, they’re going to get their ass kicked. They’re more than happy to help blorbo get therapy if they get summoned to Chaldea and are confirmed On Guda’s Side, but that’s not the situation going on in the Ooku event. Guda has no reason to turn the other cheek *during the Ooku event*, because Kama *as written during the event* would just take advantage of Guda’s kindness to screw them over. She’s got no redeeming qualities during the event, and she doesn’t even WANT redemption in the first place - Kiara has to drag her ass to Chaldea Community Service to justify her summonability in-story. You’d have to completely rewrite Kama’s ENTIRE CHARACTER to justify a more sympathetic ending for her, and at that point I don’t know if that would Ship-Of-Theseus her into being a completely different character or not.

For a comparison here, think back to the CCC event. Imagine if the CCC event did to Kiara what people here keep wanting Ooku to do to Kama. Imagine if the CCC event ended with Guda going “well you tried to destroy the world, but you have a tragic backstory, so let’s be friends : )” after a whole event of Kiara torturing and murdering their allies and melting Guda to death in the first time loop all while trying to do a horny ascension. That would be a nonsense swerve, yes? That would be really shitty writing, yes? That would be kind of bananas to have happen when Kiara during the CCC event is consistently written to have no redeeming qualities and Guda’s hand of mercy has no buildup, yes? Especially when Kiara, as written in the event, would probably just use it as a chance to melt Guda to death again. Guda extending a hand of mercy to Kama in Ooku when Kama has shown zero intention or even potential of doing a heel-face turn would be similarly nonsensical, because Kama is consistently written as a cackling evil villain who gleefully tries to brainwash Guda into Tokugawaness and burn all the world’s love into nothing. Maybe if Guda had the chance to befriend Kama during the event, you could have an ending where Kama’s own growing care for Guda is what leads to her downfall, leading to her Getting Blasted Off Into Space having an actually tragic undertone and not a cartoon villain sendoff, but at that point you’re not writing Kama anymore, you’re writing Oberon.

TL;DR - Most of the complaints about Ooku’s ending are dumb and call for Kama Happy Ending without stopping to consider what that requires of Kama’s character and how the story should get there. Kama during the event is consistently characterized as an unrepentant asshole, and giving her a happy redemption arc ending would require ACTUALLY MAKING HER REDEEMABLE. Tragic backstory does not a redemption arc make, and you would need to completely rewrite both her characterization and the event plot as a whole in order to have her befriend Guda and give Guda a reason to offer her mercy. Guda cannot offer her that chance of redemption without turning into a doormat and yeeting the plot into nonsense territory - Kama’s character needs to budge first. The Ooku event’s writing is sucky, yes, but this is not a “just give it a different ending” kind of fix. You would need to completely rewrite both the event story as a whole and Kama’s entire character in order to make that different ending feasible, because there is no other ending that can work for Kama as she is written in the event besides “and then Guda and co. kick her ass”. Kama is an asshole, she’s an unrepentant asshole, she has to be dragged kicking and screaming to a redemption arc, you would have to remove damn near all of her event characterization to make her Not An Asshole in order for a mercy ending to make sense.

[vampelune]

kamukomahina gender/body headcanons

a bit of a ramble about my body, gender, and general appearance headcanons for them bcuz someone sent me a curiouscat prompting this 3k words of hyperfixation nonsense

Komaeda:

- He has a naturally lithe body, with a thin waist, broad shoulders and hips, which give him an hourglass. and a rather andrognyous body, which is "lucky" for him, because I hc him as nonbinary and gender non-conforming

- Gender-wise, as I said, I think he's nonbinary. Usually I do view Nagito as AMAB but I indulge in transmasc Nagito from time to time depending on my preference and how much I wish to uh, well, project, lol. But either way I think he would use he/they pronouns in a western sense. In japanese, however, they don't use third person pronouns that other people refer to them with, and in canon he uses the first person pronoun "boku", which is a "soft" masculine pronoun, in comparison to the "hard" masculine pronoun, “ore” (which Hajime uses btw!) which fits quite nicely, in my opinion! Also, in Japanese, you can be 'fluid' with your first person pronouns depending on the situation, so I think he could use more neutral or feminine pronouns should he desire it, too, to play on his gender non-conformity.

- Komaeda is very secure in his gender, regardless of being AMAB or AFAB. He does not care about stigma, or discrimination, he does not care about being "accepted" by broader society. Broader society is sort of meaningless to him, the average person and their ideas about gender and presentation and effeminity mean NOTHING to him. Whether or not a random person the street genders him correctly or treats him with respect is sort of, pointless? Because to him, most ordinary people are pointless nobodies. Their thoughts do not matter to him. I think he is still prone to insecurity, however, when around his "betters" but I just struggle to think he would degrade himself in regards to gender. to him, it's the least of his problems. what he cares about is hope and talent. He could dress femininely or wear makeup or straight up crossdress and not mind it, really. He thinks people would find a problem with it are the problem, because why does it even matter? It speaks to the way Komaeda is detached from societal norms & "normal" people, he did not grow up in normal circumstances, so he doesn't interact with the world normally by any means. he can mask and act normally to the best of his ability, often unintentionally?, but he simply does not fit into broader society and doesn't seek to.

- Komaeda loses weight really easily, and doesn't gain weight that well. This is mainly due to his many illnesses but also the medications he's been put on. He has a low appetite and burns weight rather easily, even though I headcanon that he eats like garbage (mainly junk food & takeout, since he obviously cannot cook). This makes him overall, health wise, not very healthy, and stick thin because of it. A stiff breeze could knock him over, tbh.

- He has a lot of faded scars, self-inflicted or not.

- Pre-despair (in HPA) he is fairly healthy but still lithe, and progressively his body deteriorates through his 2 years of hopes peak before the Tragedy begins.

- During the Tragedy itself, his body is at it's worst. he is almost nothing but bone at times, barely kept together by a need to live so he can see hope triumph. His weight fluctuates but he's very unhealthy. He's not anorexic or on death's door, but he's not well off, either.

- After being put into the neo world program, right after waking up, he's very, very thin and gaunt. he was in a pod on feeding tubs for an indiscernible but at least probably a month's worth of time? So he's just very weak, like he could collapse if he moves too quickly.

- But a while after waking, he goes into remission, and starts to gain more healthy habits due to being rehabilitated and cared for by Hinata, and gains some weight, finally at a healthy, normal weight. I still think he would struggle with putting on too much weight, but I am slightly fond of the idea that he gets a bit of healthy pudge after a while. To him, it's so foreign being healthy, that he honestly think something's wrong with him at first.

Hinata:

- Hinata has a very... average body, true to form. His hips and waist aren't too pronounced but he has a loosely "hourglass" shape, too, just not as exaggerated as Komaeda's in comparison.

- Gender-wise, I am EXTREMELY fond of transmasc Hinata. While I think I portray AMAB Hinata more than transmasc Hinata (in art and writing), I still firmly prefer transmasc Hinata. The reason I think portray otherwise more is just out of comfortability, but I've been getting better at comfortably portraying FTM Hinata. I have some reasons I prefer it and think you can extrapolate it from canon, but let's get into that

- Hinata, in my eyes, has an arc and story that fits perfectly into him just. Being trans. His desire to be someone else, someone better, someone he can proud of, and the way he overcompensates for himself and has an extreme inferiority complex would easily lend to him having similar feelings about his gender. To me, Hinata is a trans man who overperforms his masculinity out of insecurity and a need to pass. I see him as someone who would strictly use "he/him" in a western sense, which is lended to by his use of the "ore" pronoun in canon, which is almost hypermasculine.

- Even if he were AMAB, I think it still works, I think he's still someone who's insecure and tries to assert himself more strongly and therefore performs masculinity in a way to appear more confident than he is.

(side note: I actually read a bit about queerness in Japan and how it relates to gender performance and the use of pronouns, and read a bit about how queer women in japan tend to use "boku" and "ore" to perform masculinity, which I find neat. “Ore” was also sometimes used exclusively to show anger and dominance, which is why it's categorized as a "rough" pronoun. I think Japanese language, gender, and expression, and how those all relate to one another, are extremely interesting and if you get the time you should read about it lol)

- Body-wise, pre-despair, I think Hinata would. not have top surgery, obviously. I think he has a fairly average but leaning a little on the hefty side chest (pre-op) and binds it, hence the '91 cm' (but also he still has 91 cm post-op because bazongas). I also just think he leans on the "twunk" side of things at this point, not buff but not stick thin or without muscle, just kind of average with average strength and all, though I think Hinata would've tried to do sports and stuff to find his talent so he's in shape :)

- My personal, kind of amusing, but also kind of... thematical? Headcanon, is that during the Kamukura project, he also underwent gender transition. to be honest, while it may not make sense in modern Japan, I think we can suspend our disbelief for fiction, and also make the argument that Hinata's "transition" into Kamukura CAN be read, in some part, as relatable or at least familiar to the trans experience. Iit is not out of the realm of possibility, either, to assume that because many bits of society in Danganronpa are advanced (specifically science, is extremely ahead of our understanding, almost sci-fi like at times) certain attitudes about gender and sexuality can be smoothed over more in a Japanese context.

(side note: I also think that science-wise, we can suspend our disbelief, and assume that top surgery and bottom surgery are much more advanced in this universe, given the almost unbelievable levels of science in Danganronpa, such as memory wipe, mind control, completely realistic virtual simulation, um literally everything about Kamukura which is body modification and brain modification to an extreme, etc. I think it's kind of fitting within these to assume that... Hinata/Kamukura could just, gain a functioning penis, lol)

Kamukura:

- Kamukura would have a. "Perfect" body. it's stated, I'm pretty sure, that they modified not only his brain but his body, because he needs to be able to perform every talent under their belt with ease, and his strength, instincts, technique, are all superhuman. So it's clear to me he'd have a buff body. toned muscles and all. He wouldn't really feel a need to keep it up, though, but I think since they're very... artificial (basically fucking steroids?) they wouldn't fade from a lack of keep-up.

- Kamukura also rarely ever is injured, but when he does, his body heals rather fast and can care for himself adequately, because again, his body is modified to a point of almost inhumanity.

- Gender wise, Kamukura genuinely does not care. however, I am not one to think that Kamukura is "a different person" from Hinata, rather, he is separate from Hinata, but an extension of Hinata as well, proven that he experiences some of his emotions even if subconsciously and without understanding them. he isn't a different personality or person developed in Hinata's body, but a very traumatizing, repressed, and manipulated version of Hinata given a new name, with memories repressed. He's like Theseus's ship in human form---if you get rid of everything that makes someone themselves and replace it, bit by bit, is it the same person? Technically, yes, but... truly? Who knows. 

Because of this, I think Kamukura would have a leaning toward masculine gender performance (in canon, in fact, he uses the soft masculine pronoun "boku" in stead of "ore" like Hinata) BUT I think he is still very nonbinary. In a western sense, i think he would use he/they pronouns, but not really care if someone mistook him for a woman, I suppose.

- His appearance, unironically, is very nonbinary or "he/they" to me because he's wearing a suit, the archetypal form of masculinity, but has extremely long hair, which is considered feminine, and speaks softly (dully). Of course, the bishounen "pretty boy" appearance isn't uncommon or considered less masculine in japan, I think, but there is still a different between soft masculinity and rough masculinity in japan, which lends itself to being interpreted sort of gender non-conforming by western audiences :)

- Kamukura, due to his apathy, struggles with self-maintaining, but as we all probably know i am extremely attached to KamuKoma and thus headcanon that Servant helps him, sort of like a royal servant would royalty in the old days, take care of himself by bathing him, brushing his hair out, grooming him, etc. partially out of duty, partially out of appreciation for Kamukura's body, and partially out of maintaining his sort of "perfect" look since Kamukura, especially post-Junko death, is perceived widely by the public as the new leader of the ultimate despair, even if he is ambivalent to such a title.

Post-DR3 Hinata/Kamukura combined:

As I rambled on about previously, I don't think that Kamukura and Hinata are separate people or personality, I really dislike the interpretation that they are like a "split personality" or operate like DID, because they do not "form" like DID, but also in canon, are not portrayed as separate people.

In post-dr3, Hinata instead says that he is both of them, because he is. Kamukura is Hinata, always was, but had been given a new, false identity, had been stripped of his previous self, his memories, his personality, and crafted into something new. but that did not "split" his brain into two people. It simply repressed who he once was, and made him someone he now was. But when Kamukura regains his memories, his past self, through the means of the new world program by restoring his own memories after SDR2 concludes and he wakes up, as well as doing the same for everyone else, he decides to be "Hajime Hinata" who he always was, but carrying and shouldering the weight of what "Izuru Kamukura" had been, become, and done. Hinata *is* Kamukura, he answers for Kamukura's wrongdoings, his crimes, as something he had done as a different person who's mind operated differently, due to being artificially suppressed, modified, into an apathetic tool for the scientists who made him, and later and aimless, bored individual who simply sought meaning he did not have in the unknown of what despair would be at it's climax. And if hope could overcome it.

As such, I think, when Hinata's self is brought back into the mix, and he now deals with Kamukura's apathy and boredom in part, but much less consuming and much less often, I think hinata is less staunchly "masculine", does not overperform it anymore, and is trying to understand what his past means to him, what his present is, and what his future will be. I think that Hinata would still primarily use he/him (or still use "ore" in Japanese, as it's also a means of his personality, which is a bit rough around the edges and blunt), but be more ambivalent to rigid gender expression, still finding comfort and idealness in masculinity, but not be made dysphoric or feel frightened, uncomfortable, with non-comformity or anything like that. being boyish, masculine, is what he enjoys, but he's comfortable in it now, doesn't need to prove himself or overperform it. He can explore nonconformity without feeling like his gender or masculinity is at threat, even if it's not his preference outright.

Body-wise, I think it's safe to say he retains Kamukura's muscle and all, but Kamukura didn't put much effort into the everyday machinations of being a human being in general, and Hinata is much more fond of food than him now, eats more often, and I enjoy the idea that he gains a little pudge and has a kind of "dad bod" almost, post-DR3? lol.

Both for Hinata and Kamukura I don't see their bodies as “bara” or overly buff, masculine, but a kind of comfortable middle ground between twunk and hunk, lmao. I think they're also averagely hairy, not overly so, very lightly. kind of well groomed, and all. Hinata, pre-despair, put not so much effort into his appearance but still some, especially in trying to pass. (In fact I think his hair cut looks like a home job, all choppy and stuff, which fits him in my opinion, something done by his own hands even if messy and imperfect, he still prefers to be in control of it. also fits the trans headcanon tehe).

Izuru put very little if any effort into himself, only the bare minimum necessary to function, but servant helped him upkeep it to a perfect standard. Hinata, post-dr3 now, finds himself putting you know, an average amount of care into himself and his body, enough to be healthy, but not overly critical and conscious of himself.

Komaeda i have always seen as someone who takes a good deal of care about himself, merely if to alleviate the "disgust" of his appearance and body, by practically preening himself. He is someone who is good at cleaning and seems to appreciate clean and well kept spaces, so I think he would have a similar attitude toward himself. even if he is insecure, and of course, struggles with mental health and may slip at times in his routine in keeping himself well-kept, I think he still maintains an appearance for the most part, at least in his later years (teen to young adult). An argument can be made that he cared less in his adolescence because he had much more apathy about the world, but when he gave himself a purpose with hope and talent, I think he would care for himself a little better, even if his was spiralling mentally.

His hair is always washed, it is just very curly and prone to mess, so it often looks like perpetual bedhead, even when he combs and brushes it. His skin is soft even if a little worn by his tendency for accidents & injury, it's still soft and almost luckily so, and he takes pride in moisturizing and cleaning himself. His skin is a little sickly, still, and I think that despite having blemishes, scars, etc. Komaeda manages to look pretty in a strange way, not conventionally beautiful, but almost ethereal? He's just *pretty*, there's no way to explain it, he is nice to look at even with all his "flaws" and imperfections. Even when he's sickly and bony, even when his cheeks are gaunt or his hands shaky and weak, when his hair is a tangled mess or his clothes are dirty, he's nice to look at in a way that's nonconventional, and it's sort of mesmerizing.

Hinata I think is very average but also in a way that's nice to look at it. He's not ground-breaking hot or conventionally attractive, he has a good body, a nice face, and hair you could play with a little if you wanted. I think what's appealing about him is his normalcy, he's not trying too hard or "gifted" gene wise, but he's just kinda nice to look at, he's enjoyable to be around, an understanding person, or at least tries to be even when he fails, and despite having flaws, insecurities, blunt, he is someone you're drawn to because he's one of those people that's just, easy to talk to? An emotional anchor, almost. The kind of guy everyone kind of knows and has talked to at least once, even if you're not friends with him personally, not because he's cool or popular or anything, but because he's a normal dude who's easy to trust and talk to.

Kamukura, on the other hand, is intimidating, appearance wise and personality wise. he looks, strange, anything but normal, his eyes are red and his hair is this dark cloud that envelops him. His face may still be that plain one Hinata has but faces can be changed by the surrounding attributes as well as expression and such is true for him, with his apathetic and cold expression as well as otherwordly characteristics, he comes off as much more beautiful in a dark way, kind of? In a way that's intimidating or a little daunting, but he's still very beautiful. mesmerizing.

okay, thats my ramble. ty.