#so like imo i think it's so understandable that i'm kind of just. heavily in my own head as of late. like sorry i finally moved in proper

[sskk-manifesto]

Bungou Stray Dogs: Dead Apple and how “ability users” (opposite to “normal people”) learning to accept themselves through the acceptance of their own abilities is a queer metaphor of acceptance of own's sexual orientation and gender: an essay by me

[wrecking]

crazy how i actually bounced back from my 3 day funk almost immediately after the calendar date was over. back to being parasocially obsessed with men 🫡

[astrowrld300]

Astro Observations

Pt 2

It's so unreal how well Taurus placements can cook. Especially if there's Cancer in the big three. Taurus suns also have natural green thumbs

Cancer suns with Gemini Venuses are in constant conflict between they're ego and what they actually desire for love

This is definitely becoming common knowledge on the internet but all Libra placements that are personal and not generational are gay to some extent. Something about the scales allows them to go both ways I don't know . Depending on the placement and degree, it might make them uncomfortable, or the may proudly embrace it. But personal Libra placements can definitely go both ways

Cardinal signs are obsessed with each other, even though they're so toxic for each other.

5th house and Leo placements really love music. Leo rules the 5th house which is all about music, creativity and fun. So these natives really feel it.

Having your sun in the 11th house is a beautiful placement and creates a selfless person, but its the only placement for the sun to not be about "I" anymore. The sun is all about ego and self, ruled by Aries, but the 11th house is all about the collective, friends and the "greater good". Your ego is also heavily influenced by the collective and how you insert your self into the world.

Taurus moons have round/visible nostrils. They all have a green thumb for cooking as well

Aquarius suns and moons have very square shaped jawlines. Both the men and women.

The best sun+rising combo I've ever seen for Aquarius suns has to be Cancer rising. The blend is really heavenly and harmonious, the Cancer really softens out the Aquarian features perfectly (talking about the women idk about the men). This is only physical though

The best combo for Cancer suns definitely has to be Virgo in the big three. Either in the moon or rising, Virgo gives Cancer this snatched look that blends perfectly with the bone structure of cancer suns. (I'm also mostly referring to women here I don't know about the men) Although physically pretty, the combo creates a super insecure individual

Travel is such a big theme in the lives of natives with personal 9th house placements. It almost becomes the focus of life if there's a stellium.

Having your moon at 17 degrees (a critical Leo degree) makes you hella dramatic with your feelings. They're still valid, but you come off as a drama queen when feeling them.

Cancer suns are just as insecure and attention seeking as Leo when underdeveloped. Even though they're not sister signs they're ruled by the sun and moon, so essentially they are each other inside out.

Pisces is represented by the fish and the suns usually have big/swelled features and look a little bit like fish. Virgo placements have sharper/more defined features and Aries placements have prominent/tighter features.

Neptune aspecting Venus is a very underrated beauty indicator for transits and natal charts

Sagittarius rising are blessed with good luck in life since their chart ruler is Jupiter, the planet of luck. They also have hips on the larger side since Sagittarius rules the hips

Capricorn rules the skeletal part of the body and the native suns really have that skeleton bone structure in the face

Moon conjunct Rising is one of my favorite placements synastry placements for friendships. They are each other inside out and understand each other without words.

The most underrated house for the moon imo is the 9th house. The moon does really well here, there's a natural optimism and lightness to their feelings and emotions. I think this is from the influence of Sagittarius and Jupiter. They're also really funny people naturally and have a kind of intelligent humor

Cancer and Taurus placements are such big foodies. They also know how to cook very well and genuinely enjoy getting fat over other signs. Obviously all signs have the ability to cook, but Cancers and Tauruses make that home cooked comfort food that tastes like the feeling of your mom carrying you to bed.

5th house moons never feel emotionally fulfilled unless they're feeling some kind of fun or pleasure in life.

Taurus suns are the definition of work smarter not harder

Aries Mercuries are so smart especially if the sun is in Taurus or Gemini.

Geminis are known to talk with their hands and Italy's rising sign is literally Gemini...

You can always tell someone is Somali from the size of their forehead and the countries rising sign is literally Aries

Venus in the 8th house natal and synastry is that kind of ride or die love

Capricorn sun men actually think people what to hear their life lessons/lectures. It's really corny but they genuinely think they're helping. They also care so much about their rep but will never admit it. It makes sense because they rule the tenth house which is the house of popularity and is associated with our public image and rep. So obviously when Capricorn is in the sun, planet of self, their ego is closely tied with how they're perceived by others.

Scorpio moons are low key delusional but it's okay you guys had a rough childhood/relationship with your mother

The sexual attraction is crazy when you have the same mars sign as your partners rising sign (example. Leo mars-Leo rising) or if you have your mars opposite to their mars (example. Leo mars-Aquarius mars)

Aries moon women in red or leopard print is so perfect

Your gonna love the sun sign of whatever your rising sign is since the sun will naturally embody all the traits that you admire and will effortlessly be everything you want to be portrayed as.

Taurus risings, suns and moons look like bulls

Cancer venuses can lowkey hold down gemini venuses, it’s really harmonious for friendships. Not as compatible relationship wise because cancer venuses really don’t mess with how gemini venuses love. The love languages are just too different but when there are no constricting boundaries and it’s more of a playful friendship this pairing really works

[ot3]

I recently played the trilogy and haven't made it to the forth game yet (I don't know if I should because no Maya and I feel bad for him for losing his badge), could you please tell me what happens with Phoenix and alcoholism? (only if you feel like it)

definitely at least give aa4 a chance! its not for everyone but imo its got a ton of merit

gonna try and make this shortish because im not feeling super hot today and also because ive already said a lot of this. but essentially in AA4 there are bottles of what very heavily looks like wine but in both the english and japanese are referred to as bottles of grape juice

In AA4, stuff is pretty rough for phoenix. he's not in a great place, and he works odd hours at a russian bar/restaurant where he plays piano and poker. So he's regularly in a location where frequent exposure to alcohol is par for the course. Later on, in the game's second case, there's this interaction that occurs in the hospital when you investigate this bottle in his room.

Now, whether or not the game has any evidence for phoenix being an alcohol depends entirely on whether or not you interpret grape juice as being euphemistic for actual wine, or just a sight gag. I'm not sure how much the inclusion of alcohol boosts a game's rating.

i will say that none of the ace attorney games were M-rated until dual destinies. So it's entirely possible that they just called it 'grape juice' to avoid any sort of concern over that. however, i do remember reading that shu takumi's favorite drink is grape juice, which is why he wrote that in there, although I can't find the source for that now that i'm looking for it so take it with a grain of salt. I do think it is entirely plausible within the tone of ace attorney's humor that 'grape juice bottles that look exactly like wine and are just juice' is a gag they'd go for.

but the truth is, i kind of don't consider this debate relevant at all? you don't have to take the extreme of either interpretation. it is entirely possible that phoenix is a character with a fondness for grape juice who also struggles with alcohol. Maybe phoenix drinks wine when he's at the club and juice when he's at home.

It's a matter of public information that shu takumi drank pretty heavily while working on these games, including at the office if he worked nights or weekends, and it's also been well established that takumi based phoenix a lot on himself. so i think interpreting phoenix as a character with an addiction problem has a lot of merit. On the other hand, I do understand that that's not how some people view him, and that's totally fine. My big problem comes in when people try to act like it is impossible, ludicrous, or somehow harmful to the character's integrity to portray him as an addict.

I think when people try and 'disprove' the headcanon it's always a pretty shitty thing to do, given shu takumi's history. why can you enjoy something written by someone w/ alcohol issues but you draw the line at any of that making its way into the story, even euphemistically? yknow?

[letteredlettered]

Stupid ways CQL changed the story from MDZS:

First on most people's list is gonna be the gay, and I agree on a political and societal level that this is an egregious change I can't get on board with. I will say though that on a personal preference level, I don't think the romance really adds much; the magic of this story is not the gay and I'm just as happy with WWX/LWJ have the intense, weird, unstated relationship they have in the drama as I am with the ultimately gay relationship they have in the book.

The Yin Iron plot in the drama is so bad, you guys. So bad. This includes a) there being multiple parts of the Yin Iron, b) WRH having some of it and creating puppets with it, c) LWJ/WWX going to search for it. Did they add this so WWX looks less terrible? So it looks like all he's doing is fighting fire with fire? I hate it. There was a knife fight, and WWX invented guns. That's literally the point of him; that's why he's terrifying; he invented something that was beyond his means to control and it got out of hand and everyone wanted the gun and there was only one. The plot in the drama is just SO STUPID. I like WWX and LWJ getting to bond when they search for it and the trip to the bunny cave, but you could really have them bond and get bunnies a different way.

The most egregious thing, imo, is how the Wen remnants are first portrayed in the drama. After the Wen Clan is defeated we see constant abuse of these prisoners, often pretty much in front of everyone's face. At one point they are even paraded in front of everyone and WWX is the only one who has a problem with it. I get that WWX is the hero, but it makes everyone else look super morally reprehensible. Like, how are we supposed to get behind LWJ if he can stomach that. Actually, forget LWJ, because I actually think the scene in the rain with the umbrella establishes that LWJ is simply unwilling to defy social convention/popular opinion, and while I think it is a slight twist on LWJ's character, it's not a big of one as you might suppose, given the novel. But Lan Xichen? The character who is supposed to be the absolute paragon of kindness, goodness, and compassion? It's always sat wrong with me. Anyway, the novel basically shows that the poor treatment of the Wens is mostly hidden from view of the public, and WWX only finds out because WQ goes to him for help.

Replacing NMJ's dismembered arm with an angry sword spirit was super confusing. Why does the sword spirit attack people's arms, and why does it ONLY do that at Mo Manor? It's stupid and confusing. I assume this was censorship as well? Unwilling to show some dismembered corpses?

Speaking on NMJ, the character is pointless in the drama. I think you really needed to show the way he helped and trusted Meng Yao and how utterly betrayed by Meng Yao NMJ was to really understand his character.

Speaking of which, it is so completely ludicrous that the Wen Clan attacks the Unclean Realm before the Wen Sect Training/Tortoise of Slaughter sequence. It does say in the book that the Wen Clan and Nie Clan are kind of in constant skirmishes, but that's why the Wen Clan heavily attacks Cloud Recess first and then goes for Lotus Pier; the point is that the Unclean Realm is too well defended. That said--I still find it outrageous that in the book everyone (except WWX, perpetually clueless) seems to know about the attack on Cloud Recesses but sends their children to the Wen Clan anyway. Like I get they're all intimidated but that is too much.

WWX falling off the cliff. So silly. LWJ never would have allowed that to happen. What was JC even doing? That said, the actual death in the book is so unclear; I get that it was the spiritual rebound, but what was JC doing then? What did it look like? I found it really weird how the book just did not illustrate a few very key climactic plot points.

Weirdly, JFM. I actually like the guy better in the drama, but that's a problem. He really is a terrible father to JC, and his terribleness really helps explain why JC is like he is.

[trans-androgyne]

hey, thank you for having and running this blog. you're doing the equivalent of gods work.

first, i'm sorry for the amounts of jerk anons you have to deal with. you literally articulate yourself very well and clearly, and still, people will find a way to twist it or not take it seriously. it reminds me of me "arguing" with terfs back in 2022 on twitter. (shudders.)

and second, how do you deal with the constant negativity? i have found myself doomscrolling the transandrophobia tag, and, well, to no ones surprise, my mental health is down the gutter. do you have any tips to deal with it? mainly with the transandrophobia in general? it is more than exhausting existing as a (gnc & enby) trans guy atm, and it's really getting to me. the thing is, I wouldn't mind it if it were non-queer bigots, but the fact it's coming from inside the community is devastating. i am more than hurt. this intense hatred for men and masculinity, queer, trans, or not, is incomprehensible to me. it never does anything good. anyone who says "i hate all men and anything masculine" is definitely going in the "yep that's either a radfem or a radfem hatchling" box. i partially understand as to why- i had a fear of men myself when i still identified as a girl, and slipped into the "all men bad. kill" side of the internet for a short while but ONLY because of this rhetoric ("you need to be afraid because there are men outside." , "men and masculinity are inherently predatory or dangerous")- but i got out of it because i saw how fucked it was eventually (thank goodness)- but nothing should ever be an excuse to excessively hate a gender or masculinity this badly. and its mostly gender essentialist bs anyways imo, so i do not understand it at all...it reminds me of people saying men/mascs cant be asexual because it's "in their nature to be sexual"- because testosterone. its hard. i just wish we all could respect each other. you're either "one of the bad bad evil men" or "noooooo not YOU. you're AFAB!! never!! youre a girl/woman in spirit!!" from my personal experience with terfs/radfems/idiots.

anyways, sorry for invading your anon space with this long rant, but i just wanted to leave this and the question. i hope you have a nice day/night, and thank you for reporting on transandrophobia as much as you do. it's sadly very much needed right now.

Thank you so much, this is such a kind ask to receive. To be honest with you: I don’t handle my mental health very well around it </3 It’s weighed on me pretty heavily these last few months especially. The things keeping me running this blog anyway are my passion for the transmasc community and lovely anons like yourself cheering me up. When it comes to trying to manage it, the most important thing for me has been finding people I can vent to about it who will understand. I’m lucky enough to have a wonderful discord server full of awesome trans people who will talk it through with me, and that’s been a life-saver. Staying offline for a bit and trying to engage in person with people who are unlikely to be transandrophobic towards you can be a nice relief. I catch myself doomscrolling constantly too, and it doesn’t feel great. If you need to set some sort of time limit on your phone even just to remind yourself not to do it, that’s helped me before and might help you too.

Having this much hatred levied at me for my identity from my own community lately has been devastating. I completely understand you. I’ve always been vocal about supporting transfems in particular, so it really hurts to see so many turn against me for speaking up. I understand how the queer community got this way, though. Antimasculinism has been an issue in queer and feminist spaces for ages. I think people are starting to notice it more and understand why it sucks and how much it negatively affects trans men and mascs. It feels like a losing battle sometimes with how much cultural feminism — the Men Bad Women Good flavor of pop feminism — has pervaded our communities and often led to very overt radical feminism that people still can’t always recognize because they don’t know anything about TERFs outside of them hating trans women. I believe the culture will start to shift soon such that people are able to recognize sexism and gender essentialism that harms all genders, and I will be doing my part to help that happen.

[magicaldogtoto]

Genuinely confused over people insisting that Ultraman Rising is not a good entry point to Ultraman because it "doesn't explain Ultraman's origins enough."

Back when I was thirteen, Disney released Sky High and Pixar also had just released The Incredibles (both are classics, imo). Those films introduce a new world of superheroes, with little to no explanation of where or how they got their powers. You see the Commander in Sky High, and your mind just immediately fills in the blanks that he's meant to be a Superman expy with his cape and super strength, along with his colors being red, white and blue. (The Commander's wife Jetstream also works as a Superman expy, having the ability to fly.) Similarly in The Incredibles, Mr. Incredible and Elasti-Girl have power sets that are easy to get around to, without having to go into detail as to where they got it. Both works do allude to superheroes being born with their powers, but it isn't given a lot of focus. You just kind of learn to role with it and enjoy the film. The point is, both films start in media res, with a fully formed world and heroes who are already on active duty. But they don't suffer for it.

And remember, Rising was originally going to be an original film that featured an Ultraman expy named Gamma Man. I just feel like people are overestimating how hard it would be for newer fans (especially children, who tend to accept fantasy ideas faster than adults) to watch the film and get behind the idea of a man who turns into a giant from space to fight kaiju.

I'm just wondering how this discourse came about--is it because of how the Marvel Cinematic Universe ingrained the origin story formula quite a bit over the years? Is it because Ultraman isn't a super mainstream hero in the US, so people think newcomers won't have the dialogue necessary to engage with his kind of powers? (The two films I mentioned above are heavily inspired by American superheroes, which mainstream American audiences would understand better.) Is it some other third thing?

I generally want to understand, because from where I'm standing, there's nothing too complicated about Rising.

[tubbytarchia]

Also I need to say SOMETHING because I've been tormented by this for the past few days after having been made aware but yandere Pearl makes me so upset, imo it's such a disservice to her character!! That or other interpretations that just make her out to be evil. I understand the appeal of the trope and for AUs and stuff, ofc go wild!! But that is very much not what happened in DL canon and anyone who thinks that she's only interesting with the yandere trope attached is a fake fan!! Pearl was labelled crazy and of course she leaned into it, because what else does she do? Nobody wants her, everyone believes she's lost it, so she might as well!! At the very least it serves as some intimidation that Pearl CAN use to her advantage but did she ever want to? She's not crazy for Scott, not by any stretch of the imagination. She wanted some kind of approval, or acceptance. She didn't just want Scott to herself or whatever argument people try to make and she most certainly wasn't evil or cruel. Many times when people were getting up to mischief, Pearl didn't take large part if at all even if she was there. She often played along and, yeah, she played along, like most Lifers would, no? I can see how her behaviour could be observed as obsessive when she keeps trying to settle near Scott but, I don't even know how to articulate my thoughts other than to reinforce that that wasn't her obsessing over Scott. I suppose you could view Pearl as evil depending entirely on what you classify as evil in a death game where most everyone has to kill anyway, and where a lot of people commit arson and stuff (Joel killed some Jellies, loved to bully Jimmy, retaliated having the Relationship burnt down by burning every other establishment he could, is he also evil? What makes Pearl evil? Does she just get called that more because Joel is expected to be a menace by default?), but there is so much more nuance there than some form of "she flipped on a dime in session 1 and immediately became a crazy ex after a breakup". But you know what, that's what Scott wanted people to believe and if anyone in the fandom does then I have news for you

Also I'm not trying to say that playing a villain character is bad (Scott is such a villain though not at all a plainly visible one, and he's very compelling as a character) nor am I trying to make Pearl out to be some totally innocent sweetpea. Or maybe I am. #Pearl did literally nothing wrong to warrant this (but like, art of her being girlboss and stuff goes hard still, she OWNED the scene still when she embraced the label. She was mad cool, but it's not "being evil" that makes a character mad cool)

(PS don't take this too seriously, although I do heavily disagree with this interpretation personally, I'm not police and also I love all the Lifers including Scott dearly. Reminder that this is just about the characters they play and it's reasonable for viewers to believe his story foremost if they've only watched his POV and such, I think)

[edoro]

wrt the last post i just reblogged (Halsin cnc meta), i personally tend to imagine him as fairly aware of and comfortable with his kinks, including the ones based on his trauma

in fact i like to think that one of the reasons why he has such trouble accepting that his years of sex slavery were in fact deeply traumatic and abusive is because his response is to heavily sexualize his own trauma - not only was that part of how he discovered that he takes great pleasure in servicing others sexually, but ever since he's sought out situations where he can recreate aspects of the experience

because he's so large and strong and people tend to make assumptions about what kind of sex he wants or what kind of role he plays (or just project their own ideas of what kind of role they want him to play or think he should play onto him), he doesn't get to bottom or sub nearly as often as he likes

although his tendency towards acts of service is imo his own way of taking that control - even if someone wants him to be aggressive and fuck them, if he's doing it as an act of service, then he's still submitting himself to them and making himself their pet or toy and giving himself that satisfaction

this is something that i really like the idea of him and Astarion having in common, actually. i like to think of them both responding to their trauma by sexualizing it, but essentially in opposite directions

Astarion wants to be the one in control, the one doing rather than the one done to, and in contrast to Halsin, i think he would 100% think that makes him a bad person, basically as bad as Cazador

he doesn't really understand kink as something negotiated, as play between willing partners. his only experience is being tortured and exploited, and now that he finds himself with all of these desires to control, dominate, and hurt someone else, to force himself on someone else the way he was forced so many times, he's sure that it must mean he's irredeemably broken by his experiences

meanwhile, Halsin knows that both of their desires are normal and nothing to be ashamed of, but he's got this fun little cognitive dissonance going on where even though he would never think this of someone else, he feels like the fact that he found his experience of sex slavery powerfully erotic means it wasn't really that bad and that he can't really call himself a victim - maybe sort of a victim, but not entirely one, not the way someone like Astarion was

(even though their situations are very similar in certain respects. Astarion says most of his partners didn't even "grant me temporary bliss," but that doesn't mean he never found any of it sexually satisfying or erotically compelling, or never had any complicated feelings about Cazador that included love, a desire for attention/regard, or a sense of comforting familiarity)

i'm just very fond of the idea of Halsin being pretty comfortable in his own enjoyment of submission, including things like masochism, cnc, pet play, various types of power exchange, and just generally a lot of things that are quite specifically aspects of his own past abuse, and getting to walk Astarion through the idea that it's fine and okay to like that sort of thing whether you want to be on the giving or receiving end of it

and MEANWHILE being forced to confront his own internal double standard where he holds himself responsible for things that he would never hold someone else responsible for, due to his direct engagement with Astarion's trauma, and having to slowly come to the realization that he was a captive, he was a victim, it was abusive, and he is in fact Kind Of Fucked Up About It

[esoterichistoria]

Re: pacing issues, imo it can be subjective with what one prioritizes because while some dialogues *could* have been in just one episode i personally loved seeing the details in facial expressions and reactions of the characters that are kind of subtle character building, because I'm always rabid about stories focusing on the psychological aspect of characters which for me nevermore is pretty good at. And i think the plot itself is heavily reliant on the characters so i like seeing chapters that are more of a character study and helping the reader get into the mind of the cast. But it is different for everyone, so i do get why readers who prefer a quicker plot progression could get frustrated. (but to be honest, sometimes i don't understand complaints that the plot isn't progressing because imo, the characters and their relationships to each other IS a large part of the plot. Like people saying the Duke Rescue arc wasn't advancing the plot which i heavily disagree with). I'm mostly pretty content with how Nevermore is handled, so it's been really interesting to read different perspectives from other people!

I can see your point as well!!

I’m kinda neutral on the pacing now, like I can see why some conversations drag out a lot, but I also sometimes wish I could know more since it’s been a while in our time.

The Duke rescue arc was advancing the plot, probably the biggest thing that advanced it too

[youremyheaven]

I want to know the sample Claire Nakti used for her Billionaires video because... I have been researching billionaires on Astrodatabank (with at least a C rated birthtime) and Jyeshtha is not that common at all??

If anything, Uttarabhadrapada, Revati, Mula, Ardra, Ashwini, Bharani moon/ascendant were wayyy more common than Jyeshtha, Pushya, and Hasta.

I keep noticing that a lot of her studies are just... not very replicable? And I find the lack of transparency in her earlier studies about where she got the charts from...kind of weird? Like it comes off as she is trying to make her own narrative or smth.

Idk if she publishes her actual data studies on Patreon bc its a bit weird to me to just blindly believe that her research of 100 people she chose all have xyz placement. There are 2650 billionaires in this world at the moment, I'm certain that a survey of all of their charts will reveal overarching patterns instead of just 2-3 naks that apparently make money.

100 is a very small sample size imo, because people make money in all kinds of ways?? and she focused heavily on Jyeshta's themes of lack and poverty and how that forces them to push through and accumulate materially. I wish she had cited examples??? like why make a whole video if you're not going to atleast insert a quick montage of billionaires who have it??? her 3hr videos all feature actual literal examples,, so her survey videos not really citing them feels sus to me. i understand that in her video she wanted to basically explore the themes of Jyeshta, Swati and Hasta and how that ties to money making ability but like?? out of 27 naks, MANY naks can give wealth/fame, not just 2 or 3. im very tempted to pull up the charts of all 2650 billionaires and find the patterns lmao

about your last point. i think every single astrologer, myself included is biased. obviously there are actual facts mentioned in the vedas and puranas about the naks but the patterns we notice, analyse and focus on, depends on us as people?? i dont know if she's consciously trying to create a certain narrative, its that we only see things from our occult p.o.v. Claire's Hasta video's major focus was on them being literary geniuses and making $$$ bc of their ability to manipulate,, the truth of Hasta's duality and manipulative ability is addressed but also kind of glossed over as she focuses more on how its used to accomplish things,, a different astrologer would perceive and present that info in a very different way.

her surveys have always been super sus to me, esp after one anon said that she made super basic statistical errors in the surveys that were accessible on Patreon

[blueskittlesart]

how would you pull off a dark zelda game? or do you believe zelda should always be colorful and bright? i often think about the botw concept art for “organic” guardians, i wonder what the game would have been like if they had gone with those, imo they were cool :)

I do think that zelda games should always be bright, and i don't think that dark themes should be exclusive to aesthetically "dark" games! there are multiple games in the zelda franchise ALREADY which tackle dark themes and subject matter without sacrificing their aesthetic, notably mm & oot, two of the most widely beloved games in the franchise. in my opinion any take on zelda which removes the bright and colorful aesthetic ceases to read visually as a zelda game. these are games which owe their start to the NES, a console which displayed 56 colors total. the foundational games of the series were characterized by their brightly-colored graphics and the creative use of the colors available on their consoles to bring the world to life. any game that attempts to become aesthetically darker by decreasing saturation across the board or making black/gray a central color element is going to lose the colorful art direction that unites most of the rest of the games, making it feel out of place aesthetically and immediately losing some of the brand recognition that the zelda franchise has.

I think it's also worth noting that loz's physical game mechanics are often reliant on the player being able to easily see approaching enemies and terrain--being real-time combat and dungeon-based, the gameplay relies heavily on the assumption that the player will be able to understand and interpret the onscreen visuals quickly and easily. bright and colorful graphics lend themselves to this kind of gameplay, but if you deliberately darken the game overall or decrease saturation across the board, you're making it more difficult for the player to see and react to the terrain and enemies that are coming at them. for a real-time-combat dungeon rpg, I generally think that's a bad move. (that's not to say that dark graphics can never be successful, but it takes a LOT more effort to make dark graphics easily readable at a glance, so they're generally easier to pull of in games which don't require quick reactions like turn-based rpgs or visual novels, or in games that use that decrease in reaction time as a mechanic or storytelling method, like horror games. loz's niche specifically just doesn't really work with darker aesthetics.)

all that being said, i'm in no way opposed to darker SUBJECT MATTER being depicted in loz games, and in fact my top 3 zelda games (oot, botw, and mm) are all GREAT examples imo of successfully tackling darker subject matter while maintaining the bright, colorful aesthetic that characterizes loz. these games talk about war, trauma, death, agency, etc etc. in incredibly real, thoughtful, impactful ways while still being bright and saturated and full of color and life, and I'd even say the art direction LENDS to the themes rather than detracting from them. if done thoughtfully and intentionally, bright and colorful art direction can compliment and enhance a darker storyline, and loz already has a rich history of stories that do that perfectly. I think if future games want to lean into darker themes it's still important that they keep the bright and colorful art direction and work WITH it instead of against it.

[sibylsleaves]

Can you expand on your thoughts on redemptions in the show? I enjoyed Hen’s mother’s and Eddie’s fathers because we saw they are genuine in their willingness to change and have an understanding how they have affected their children. They aren’t perfect but it’s taking accountability and it’s a start. The others? No. With Taylor they give her a backstory to distract from her bad actions that seemed never ending. Now with Tommy. Do you think the writers/Tim think the general audience doesn’t pick up or remember how these people’s actions deeply affected the other characters(Buckleys, Chim’s dad, Taylor and the other T) before they bring them back and force people to have sympathy for them? I try to invoke nuance and empathy because losing a child is horrific but two living children did and still suffer from the Buckley’s actions. I am glad that Buck and Maddie appear to be moving forward despite their parents unwillingness to address and accept their role in how their children are to this day but that’s got to hurt deeply. As well as Chimney’s dad. And when Taylor left after causing the chaos and hurting so many people over the years they bring in someone else that has a grimey past that is already overlooked

you sent this to me a while ago and I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to answer it. I saw it and I was like hmmm interesting topic I will ruminate on this and then of course I forgot about it.

Anyway. This IS an interesting topic to me because I feel like the concept of redemption is in many ways the raison d'etre of the show. Or at least they want it to be, given how they set up Bobby's character arc in the first season. It's definitely a theme they keep returning to with, imo, mixed results in their execution.

Part of the problem I think is just that 911 is fundamentally a basic network procedural television show, which is always going to tend more toward the schlocky and heartfelt. Which, don't get me wrong, is also one of the selling points of the show imo--we are not watching this show the way you watch prestige television that's maybe more willing to take its characters down a darker path and grapple with these questions with more complexity.

So at the end of the day it's kind of in the show's nature to want to tell feel-good stories, and to that end I think they are maybe more likely to brush off past wrongdoing in order to make the point that redemption is always possible and reconciliation is, almost always, the end-goal. There are a few storylines where they have characters who are simply painted as irredeemable monsters (Doug and Jeffrey are the main ones that come to mind) and what's interesting to me about that is they really have to heavily emphasize the monstrousness of those characters.

But fundamentally the show is just ill-suited to telling the story of like. Here's a kind of shitty guy (or woman) who isn't a complete and total monster by any means but nevertheless will not actually learn from his mistakes and seek redemption because sometimes people are just incapable or not interested in doing that. Or even: here is a kind of shitty guy or woman who did something fairly reprehensible and is trying to do better but nevertheless the people affected by their actions have every right to NOT forgive them or want them in their lives.

As a show it is overall more optimistic than realistic about the human condition--and again. I do think that's a selling point of the show and often what makes it work. Just thinking about personally some of my favorite moments of the show which are heavy on the "heartfelt/feel good": everyone coming together to lift the firetruck off Buck, the scene with the christmas lights during the black-out, the part in Defend in Place when they are all praying together in the parking lot.

But. all this to say. That does mean that sometimes their depictions of something as complex and messy as "redemption" can fall a bit flat. I do think the show has a pattern of "redeeming" characters without actually showing us that they understand what they did was wrong. They use short-hand instead--the Buckley parents sticking around after Buck was struck by lightning to show us they've changed, Tommy shaking Chim's hand after he saved his life, etc. And skip over the actual messy parts of the process of redemption. Which is also in part because these are, at the end of the day, side characters, and their internal lives are not really important except with respect to how they influence their relationships with our main characters. Which is also why I think the most nuanced take they've managed to do is with Bobby's story--at least with SOME of the Amir storyline it's clear that to Bobby this process is far from complete and the fact that Amir did not actually offer Bobby his forgiveness at the end is, in my opinion, the closest they've come so far to telling this story in an actually nuanced way. But even then they tied it up with about as neat as a bow as they could.

[danlous]

mmm that rolin quote about louis doesn’t sound good tbh, this is gonna be only lestat show from now on just like the books, they are even lowering the expectations in the loustat of it all imo, it makes sense in a way, but this is what I was fearing and it’s happening, Jacob and Sam are also less all in with them i think, it contradicts what Sam said to Autumn the other day but yeah it’s not looking good for Jacob.

Answering these together because i feel they're kind of in the same vein. I've read a shitton of interviews today and they're getting mixed in my mind but i don't remember that part about other writers not liking the change right now. I think him saying that they're not going to show what happened between Armand and Daniel was probably a joke especially when the transcript says he laughed after that. Rolin has said he loves Devil's Minion and i don't think he'd want to excise so pivotal scenes with them. I think it's too early to say anything about what is going to happen with Armand's character.

Wrt Louis i'm not worried about him being completely sidelined like in the books and even less worried about loustat's importance being reduced, because everyone involved with this show is obsessed with loustat and that relationship is the heart of the story. What i'm slightly worried about is Louis' own perspective and character arc getting lost with the increasing focus on Lestat and him becoming a character whose main purpose is to support Lestat's story and be his love interest. However i think it's too hasty to draw a conclusion like that from one or two interviews when we have many interviews - plus the show itself - saying other things.

I was in Supernatural fandom for 7 years (awful experience. wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.) and there was a common saying "PR is not showrunning". That means that everything related to promotion (which includes all interviews and public appearances by cast and writers) should be taken as exactly that, promotion, and not as a direct reflection what the show is actually doing. Promotion is aimed at specific subsets of audience or potential audience or producers or investors and is meant to advance specific goals. Different outlets get different interviews and content. Actors, writers, directors and producers frequently have different opinions with each other. They also often contradict themselves and might have really surpising interpretations. Interviews are often heavily edited, sometimes flat out misrepresented, and the tone and other more subtle things don't translate well in written text. People creating fiction for living are also suprisingly often really bad at expressing themselves and say some stupid or weird shit sometimes. All this is to say, everything related to promotion should be taken with a grain of salt, both things we like and dislike.

I was waiting to read interviews after finale because i thought they would make me understand better the decisions that were made, but i've just kind of gotten more confused the more i read. Lots of these interviews seem to contradict each other or what was seen in the show itself, or both, and i feel some of the cast members are slightly confused themselves. That made me remember that spn adage and realize that i really shouldn't be relying on dozens of interviews published immediately after finale to figure out what the show is trying to say or what are the future plans for the season that hasn't been even written yet. We simply have no way of knowing what's going to happen right now. Perhaps Rolin & co aren't sure either (i get an impression that Sam and Assad aren't sure what their characters' motivations were meant to be, though again, they could be just playing coy). We know that the network has strongly pushed Lestat's prominence, and that could be why Rolin is also pushing it in some of those interviews. Or it could be that whenever he promised that Louis would remain important it wasn't entirely genuine. We don't know at this point.

Even though you can't take pr at face value, patterns in it can tell something when considered together with the story. For example, everything combined that has been said in interviews from the cast and writers over the past few years and constantly putting Eric and Assad and Luke together in interviews strongly indicates that the relationship between Armand and Daniel in the show is considered important. The first two seasons have centered black characters and made race and racism a very integral part of the story, and the writers and other cast members have been constantly talking about Louis' and Jacob's importance. This makes me think this show most likely isn't going to suddenly sideline black and other characters of color for a white man and forget the racial aspect of the story.

This has been a super long-winded way to say that after considering i'm leaning more towards those specific quotes being poorly phrased outliers that don't necessarily tell us much about what s3 (and seasons after it) and different characters' roles will be like. I think i need to wait until we have much more info before forming any opinions. If the show continues to be great, great, if it sucks and becomes just a lestat fest, then i won't watch it. I'm trying not to worry about it too much now because i'll just end up making myself stressed over hypotheticals and things i can't influence

[moistvonlipwig]

6, 9, 22 (kara/lena/both) for cwsg please? :D

och aye you lot are turning me into a cwsg blog! i am beset by the consequences of mine own actions...

(answers under the cut!)

6. Show us a bit of a WIP!

I'll do two little excerpts, since I did two for Weentulf. This one may or may not ever get fully written, but it amuses me to think about:

The thing is – you’ve always considered yourself a good person. You were respectful to your teachers as a child, even when they got things wrong. You’ve always been patient with your meddlesome immigrant parents, who have spent your whole life fretting over everything you’ve ever done. Your friends consider you kind, honest, and reliable. You go to protests regularly. You tip waiters well. And now you’re in a deep dark cell somewhere no one will ever find you, all because you snapped one day and tried to kill the worst coworker you’ve ever had. It’s not your fault she just happened to be Supergirl.

And this one I'm hoping to finish sometime this year:

James Olsen never thought he'd be attending Lex Luthor's funeral. Clark sweeps him up in a hug when he arrives. “Thanks for coming, Jimmy,” he whispers, in that corn-fed Kansas drawl even Lex found irresistible, and James doesn’t have the heart to tell him he’s here for someone else. She’s not hard to spot amongst the crowd. She never is, but especially not today. She stands apart from the rest of the funeral-goers, her coat buttoned and her silhouette sharp and her eyes hard as jade. James watches her from afar and has no idea what she’s thinking. Sometimes he wonders if he ever did.

9. Write a recommendation of someone else’s fic you enjoyed!

Where Lamps Go to Die by WastedOn (in which the DEO stages a fake relationship between Kara and Supergirl) is, IMO, the platonic ideal of a Supercorp fic. It leans heavily on the dramatic irony of Kara's secret identity and plays it for both comedy and drama in a way that is just so excellently delicious. If I could only recommend one Supergirl fic, it would probably be this one.

22. Give us a headcanon for [character]

Hm...I don't necessarily have a ton of headcanons for either of them but I have built up an extensive headcanon for Kara's favorite dumpling place, which I have decided is called Mama Chen's Dumpling House and is run by the eponymous Mama Chen and her half-alien son Hongsen, who wants to someday be an actor. Mama Chen and Hongsen are good friends with Kara, since she's such a loyal customer. But Hongsen is part of several alien rights activist groups and when Kara (inexplicably) reveals herself as Supergirl, and Supergirl's activities with the DEO inevitably come to light, I think she is going to have a lot of groveling to do before Mama Chen sells her any dumplings again. (Also, it's my headcanon that they were Mysteriously "out of dumplings" throughout all of S5 whenever Kara tried to order from them, because Lena secretly contacted them and wrote them a huge check to pay for Hongsen's acting school on the condition that they not sell dumplings to Kara.)

Oh, and I guess my other headcanon is that, whatever form their relationship may take in the future, I don't think Lena will ever stop keeping some amount of kryptonite on hand, Just In Case. (Not secretly, though -- I imagine it would be more like Superman & Batman in the comics, where Kara knows full well about her stash [just not where it's located, for security's sake] and has come to understand and accept that it is a good thing for a superhero to have people who love them enough to be willing to take them down.)

[skepticalarrie]

Yeah I wonder though how's gonna be watch Louis tell his history if he can't reference the biggest reason why he was so heavily held back since 1D. Like, is this gonna be honest enough if the "struggling" on his career is to be left in the dark by his bandmates after the hiatus? I'd love to hear him talking about success, industry, choices and happiness but focusing on how he's a great daddy while maintaining a laddy lad image and painting a part of his fans as deluded might not be my cup of tea

Mhmm I know what you mean, it’s a bit unsettling. Maybe I haven’t learned my lesson after so many years around here and I'm being way too optimistic about the entire thing, but I don't think Louis is the kind of person that wants to tell half-truths. Especially in this kind of documentary format and the fact we know he has been holding back and biting his tongue a lot through the years, out of One Direction he’s the one who talked less about all the struggles. So I’m really choosing to be optimistic about it and giving him the benefit of the doubt, since I believe AOTV is Louis finally doing things his way. This is the opportunity he has been waiting for, I fully believe he was given a chance to clear things out and speak up before, but he didn’t. I understand the concern about Larry, and maybe we will have him tip-toeing around it but to be honest IMO Larry is just the tip of the iceberg. I still think he can be entirely honest and tell us a lot about himself without necessarily having to exposing in details what him and Harry went through. This is a great opportunity for rebranding and new narratives (real ones) and you know… finally taking a turn and being publicly something he’s more comfortable with. Baby steps. Anything is possible and I think this is a step forward and not a step back.