#sorry for writing a whole essay lmao

[crystallizsch]

despite twst being a "villain" game

i love it when i see how certain characters speak to certain people. like how people just relate to their struggles/personalities/etc.

there’s riddle coming to terms that not everything has to be perfect, unlearning from what he has been taught growing up that not everything has to be followed to the letter;

ace who is gungho and earnest about what he believes in and has the natural inclination to defend those he grows to genuinely care about;

deuce always striving to improve himself despite setbacks and being aware of his own shortcomings;

leona who acts like he’s given up from being cast aside his entire life and coming to terms to the fact that there are people that do look to him as a leader, as someone who’s worth something;

floyd who unapologetically just does what he wants, choosing to do things that interests him at the moment;

kalim choosing to be happy and kind always, living life everyday to the fullest knowing what he’s gone through;

jamil with the expectations and obligations to essentially "perform" and do things for others more than for himself, especially when he has the potential to shine by himself with his own abilities;

vil rejecting gender norms and restrictions, while still being confident in his own masculinity, and also wanting other people to bring out their best and truest potential even though he may be strict about it;

rook being able to pick out so meticulously the beauty in everything and everyone whenever no one else is able to;

idia with his introverted yet very passionate energy towards things he cares about;

silver with his love and dedication for those he considers his family;

malleus with his loneliness and bringing out his genuine self with someone he's able to consider a friend;

i know some of these sound pretty surface-level but these are the ones that just came to mind at the moment, these are not my full-on thoughts on each of them

my point overall is i just really love seeing when there’s a character that REALLY speaks to someone that doesn’t particularly speak to me because it gives me a whole new perspective on characters i initially didn’t care about or didn’t like and makes me appreciate them more

also it just shows how how these characters are different enough in that sense so that there are characters for everyone to love and relate to 🥺💕

i could gush more about relationship dynamics as well but this is getting long enough hfdsfjsljlks anyways i would love to see others’ own takes and why a particular character(s) relates to them or why they just like them in general 👉👈 i want to spread some good vibes 💖 but anyways idk these are just my thoughts 🤧

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

THE BEST OF SHENKO 1/?

The end of the world has a way of reminding you of all the things you forgot to say do. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (2021)

[aintgonnatakethis]

characters through quotes

Thank you @fortunatetragedy for the tag! 😊

My prompt: a quote about ideals

Telford: "The ends justify the means. It's my job to get my hands dirty and do the hard thing so others who aren't capable of it won't be called on and fail. It doesn't matter whether I can look at myself in the mirror at the end of the day - the only important thing is reaching the goal I have set for myself. My feelings aren't important."

Young: "I want to be a good man, someone younger men can look up to, someone I can be proud of, someone who doesn't struggle with the difficult decisions. I'd know what the right thing to do is because I'd be a good person."

Rush: "Ideals are a waste of time. Success is the only thing you should be focusing on."

Your prompt: a quote about justification

No pressure tagging: @frostysfrenzy @adriankyte-writes @bagheerita @etoilesombre @ashirisu + open to anyone else who wants a go!

[edgelordtozier]

the steddie fics where steve is embarrassingly air-headed and has no clue what bisexuality is even though his best friend is a lesbian are so funny to me (in a bad way). it’s like what’s another way that we can mercilessly infantilize him and make eddie munson (pathetic clueless loser) guide him and navigate the relationship as if steve hasn’t been in many relationships himself?

[kinnbig]

oh my god, tell us more (about the arm tankhun fake dating fic in your head), please! :D

OKAY so the concept is. about 6 months post-canon, the main and minor families are invited to the destination wedding of one of their allies from a hugely powerful mafia family - it's a few nights staying on a private tropical island, and as a respect/trust/hospitality thing, it would be considered really inappropriate for guests to bring more than one or two bodyguards per group.

so Tankhun is like “well then obviously I can’t go?” because while he is now much better at leaving the house, he’s not quite ‘get on a plane and fly to a random island for several days of intense socialisation with incredibly dangerous near-strangers without a single Trusted Bodyguard’ levels of better.

he’s talking to Chay about it and Chay's like “yeah, it's kind of fucked up that everyone gets a +1 but not a bodyguard. how would anyone even know if your +1 was your bodyguard?!” and Tankhun's like “.....Chay you're a genius. Arm, I need you to be my wedding date.”

commence the fake dating shenanigans! they ‘reveal’ their secret, long-term relationship to the entire family, and then they’ve got to pretend to be a couple in front of everyone while Arm actually works as Tankhun’s bodyguard. as the only other person who knows their relationship isn’t real, Chay is helping to mastermind the entire operation. what Chay also knows is that Khun does actually have very real and Not Fake feelings for Arm - and you can be sure he’s going to be a menace about it.

luckily, Khun is being just as much of a menace in return - the wedding is the first time Kim and Chay have been in the same room since… well, everything, and Tankhun has watched them both silently pine for each other for long enough. background KimChay reconciliation era my beloved!

and so the usual fake dating antics ensue! lots of pining… plenty of acting out intimacy while wishing it was genuine… Chay putting them in so many Situations… lines slowly blurring between what is part of the act and what is real… and. obviously. there was only one bed.

🥰 thank u so much for indulging me, i love talking about blorbos from my shows and my silly story ideas for them! i came up with this with @aikinn and @thewholedamnboulangerie during some kind of group astral plane projection, which makes it especially delicious as they always have the best and most objectively correct Tankhun takes 💪

my brain is currently on 24/7 armtankhun lockdown soooo if u have thoughts about Them… pls… i would like to eat them…

[ask-the-bone-boys]

[[ok gang i am genuinely so sorry to be doing this literally RIGHT before the end of the event but i've got a whole buncha stuff lining up irl that i am starting to reeeaaally need to address/prioritize and there are a couple things that i still want to do for the "finale" here that i haven't had the time to set up, so all of this is to say iiii need to take at least a day or two to Slow Down And Chill for a bit

I haven't entirely decided if this means I'll take a full break like i have been for the weekends or if I'll just post a little less than I have been, it depends on how I end up feeling really. I will absolutely try my best to make up for the days I've missed tho! I have something pretty cool planned that I think has the potential to be pretty fun, just like i said I gotta set things in place first haha]]

[plulp]

guys i'm so sorry i write so much i promise i'm trying to get better at it 😣 i just have so much to say all the time but i promise i'll try to tone it down since i don't want to clutter your dashes

[oflgtfol]

"Bo'katan as Mand'alor" I barely even know what these words mean just from you yelling about them so much but NAW. NAW. THEY'RE REALLY GONNA DO THAT? ON GOD? THEY'RE GONNA SIDELINE THE MAIN CHARACTER OF THE PLOTS THAT DIRECTLY LEAD INTO THAT IN HIS OWN SHOW FOR SOMEONE WHO DIDN'T DO THE PROVE THEIR WORTH THINGS????????

sorry anon i'm going to use this as an opportunity to fully outline why bo-katan becoming mand'alor doesn't sit right with me

1. she was a terrorist. i really don't care if a former terrorist goes through character growth and moves beyond that phase in their life, like the damage has been done. i think you can move past it and grow from it, but you shouldn't be in a position of leadership afterwards, i feel like that should just be a consequence that you have to live with and should be part of the process of growing from it. and if you can't accept it, then that proves you didn't actually learn your lesson and you still need more self improvement until you finally CAN accept it and have fully moved on from it. it's just bad taste to have a literal former terrorist become like, the main leader of their people

2. prior to s3, the show was setting up a character arc for din to become mand'alor. there are several subpoints to this:

2A. moff gideon. the darksaber showed up several episodes before bo-katan herself did, in the hands of the antagonist who, while an enemy of all mandalorians due to his role in the great purge, is set up as a much more personal antagonist to din in particular. moff gideon is din's antagonist, in the pure Character As A Narrative Tool view of storytelling. he is introduced in din's show, he is the one to tell not only the other characters, but even the audience din's name, and he is hunting din's child of all force-sensitive children in the galaxy. the fight between din and moff gideon is, in the broader scope of things, Mandalorian vs. Mandalorian Genocider, but it is also a much more personal conflict between the two of them in particular that transcends all that. so when moff gideon has the darksaber, din is also automatically tied to it by association.

2B. grogu. the darksaber was crafted by the only mandalorian jedi so far, and synthesizes both jedi and mandalorian teachings into one singular weapon. din, coincidentally, has a force-sensitive child who was raised as a jedi youngling and is now a mandalorian foundling. grogu himself is a synthesize of both the jedi and the mandalorians. as grogu learn more about being a mandalorian, it makes sense then for din, a mandalorian, to reflect something of the jedi himself in exchange. the darksaber symbolizes the union of the two cultures just as din&grogu's relationship does as well.

2C. chapters 14-16. the end of s2 has din lose literally EVERYTHING. he loses the razor crest, his home for god knows how long. he loses his child. he loses his sense of identity/connection to his culture/general spiritual autonomy+privacy after removing his helmet. chapter 16 leaves him a gutted shell of a man with literally nothing left because he has lost everything, and all he has to show for it is the darksaber and the claim to a throne he never wanted. it creates this really interesting arc going forward for him that was then continued into bobf chapter 5, where he struggles with wielding the darksaber because he doesn't want it. it sets this clear path going forward: that din's arc coming up is about dealing with the emotional fallout of chapter 16, unpacking all the baggage that prevents the darksaber from cooperating, and eventually coming back into his own skin again and becoming more confident in his role with the darksaber, even if still unwanted. there was such a clear arc. there was so much buildup to this arc. they made this man lose literally EVERYTHING to make his darksaber acquisition hit all the more. it would go to such WASTE if this arc never gets put into play, like what was the fucking point of all that then if nothing actually comes to fruition about it? what was the point?!?!?!

3. it's literally his show! if you're going to make The Mandalorian plot-heavy about reuniting mandalore, it just makes sense to make the, oh i don't know, the MAIN CHARACTER, the active driver of the plot of his own show? if you want to introduce this plotline and have some other character drive it, then this show is not the place to do it. i cannot stress enough, i don't care how vague the title is, this is literally din's show and you're being bull headed if you try to claim otherwise. so following from that logic, it is downright just bad writing to then relegate the main character to nothing but a background character and just switch pov with zero warning, zero foreshadowing, zero anything at all. if you introduce a plot to a character's show, then i expect said character to be heavily involved in that plot (which is also my problem with the whole dr. pershing episode - like what the fuck is happening, this is not the place for that) and considering the stakes of chapter 16, then you logically lead the audience to assume the role din will be playing in that narrative. to pull the rug out from under us, switch main characters with no warning, give the plot that had been building up for din to a different character, it's just well it's asinine it's bad writing it's unfathomably bad writing

4. underdog narrative. this is a bit more subjective but i personally find it so much more compelling to root for the underdog character. bo-katan was raised as royalty, as a full-blooded mandalorian raised on mandalore itself, and overall comes from a much more privileged background than din. din was adopted into the culture as a recently orphaned child, was raised in a fringe group on one of mandalore's moons instead, and was overall less economically advantaged due to 1. just simply Not Being Royalty, and 2. being a fringe group, and 3. after the great purge, literally being hunted and on the run for basic survival. we see this in his original armor, it's beat the fuck up, it's grungy and not pure beskar, it gets destroyed and its dingy and dirty and mismatched ramshackled together. he simply does not have the resources that bo-katan did. he was forced to work as a bounty hunter to provide for his people, forced to do dirty work and compromise on his morals just to get money and do nothing but survival on the most basic level. he and his covert lived in the SEWERS. contrasrt these two characters: one, a royal princess with prestigious heritage and the expectation of ruling, the other an orphaned adoptee, sole provider of his people as they struggle to survive, surviving off scraps and living paycheck to paycheck. to then have the underdog come out on top with the darksaber, this shining symbol of his people and apparent path to leadership, is just well. it's satisfying! the man never wanted or expected leadership, but it's rewarding to see him come out on top anyway. it's just fun to see this absolute nobody become leader compared to the disgraced royal

5. she doesn't work for it. considering everything i have already said - bo-katan's history of terrorism, her overall position of privilege from the get-go - to narratively reward her requires her to work for it. and she doesn't. there is zero discussion about her terrorism and her baggage with it, there's no atonement or even guilt besides maybe the "im sick of the infighting" which is the most blasé, centrist, apolitical, boring, one-line allusion to her past that they could possibly shoehorn in, and could just as easily be her blaming the opposition to death watch as it is her being guilty about being part of death watch. she gets hold of the darksaber in chapter 18 and just naturally works well with it despite the years despite the terrorism, she's just naturally badass for whatever reason. they could remedy this: have her have wielded it with zero problem in the past, but have her struggle now as a sign of her internal conflict due to her past, just as din struggling with the darksaber is a sign of his own internal conflict regarding his hesitation to lead. but no, they don't do anything interesting with it, they don't take the time to explore her inner psyche in this new era. she just naturally wields it really epicly. likewise, we don't see her really get to evolve as a more inclusive leader post-death watch. she bonds with din's people, sure, but it's all under din's supervision, not her own. the most she personally did was scope out the nest of the creature that had taken ragnar, and then lead that mission, which like, yay! that was a cool scene for her development. but then in the next episode, the whole "lets expand beyond living in the caves, lets see the sunlight and enjoy life again" plan is from DIN. but everyone is like, oh it's bo-katan's idea too, when like she didnt even utter a word in that conversation? and then the end of that episode, suddenly bo-katan is leading the effort to reunite mandalore again? as if din wasn't just the one to secure them a new, safer home? as if it wasn't din's idea in the first place?

overall, all my external subjective hesitations aside, i guess if they made her rise to be mand'alor again like, an actual cool arc, then maybe i wouldn't so opposed. after all, that's also what i wanted with din, and so even if din does wind up becoming mand'alor in this show i'll still be unhappy with it to some extent. regardless of who becomes mand'alor i need, NEED a journey of growth and self-discovery that ends in this person becoming a great leader, not out of a quest for power or anything, but out of love and hope for their people and the desire to see their people safe again after so many years of hardship. i want the journey to becoming mand'alor be intensely reflective and philosophical.

for din, this takes the form of him being reluctant to step into the spotlight after years of fading into the background, of being a nobody who kept his head down and only ever lived to survive. who's used to being a loner, needing to make moral compromises, of being scrappy and rough around the edges. his intense duty to providing for his people, while at the same time being set apart from them, never quite fitting in. his character growth begins with grogu: of learning to find love and companionship again after years of being alone. to then take this to a broader scale, of not just companionship, but community; finally stepping into the spotlight and follow his duty to its ultimate finish line, from providing for and protecting his small covert, to providing for and protecting his whole people.

for bo-katan, this takes the form of someone who has good intentions, but fell down the wrong path along the way. of realizing the damage her past actions did, and atoning for it. she was a leader before, but she went about it the wrong way and everyone else paid the price for it. now, she rises to leadership again as a changed person, having learned the value of community and camaraderie with fellow mandalorians, regardless of their backgrounds, and finding that strength comes from the people. she learns to be more tolerant, more welcoming, more accepting, and in doing so finds that leadership comes so much easier, and so much more rewarding, than it ever was before. and only now can she finally carry out those good intentions that she started out with and earn peace

but instead, bo-katan maybe sort of is learning to respect din's people, which is maybe sort of leaning to her becoming more accepting of cultural practices that deviate from her own, but it can also maybe sort of be interpreted by a non-negligible percentage of the audience as her just going along with the flow due to being indoctrinated into a violent cult, so. and even besides all that there has been zero reflection on death watch so far.

and instead, din is doing fuck all. no mention of the darksaber no mention of what happened to him in chapters 14-16 no mention of his thoughts on leadership and community. he's literally just standing there and delivering the most basic, stilted and janky dialogue known to man

so as it stands, neither din NOR bo-katan are getting what i want out of this arc.

[miiuusagi]

@goldenlaquer HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! ❤️

[chryblossomjjk]

can you give a teeeeeeenyyyy itty bitty hint to the big spoiler, I'm a whore for dilf jk and oc

[pandoa]

Out of curiosity who from twisted wonderland would you trust to cook for you?

ooohh a lovely question! there's honestly a few of them i would very much trust to cook for me lmao. i'll list them from most trustworthy to least in my small list~

first would obviously be jamil. with how much he's cooked for kalim and the care he is required to give with checking the food's safety for kalim, i'd fully trust jamil to prepare something safe and delicious for me lol. bonus points because i love curry as well and was practically drooling over the food they had in the Al'ab Nariya event, so i would be the happiest person alive if i ever got to try any of the food jamil cooks (even if he insists that the food he prepares is nothing special <3)

next would be trey. this is also quite obvious lmao but how could i resist? if i'm ever craving for sweets of any kind, i would definitely go to trey first—no questions asked—because we all know he can cook/bake too. when playing through the heartslabyul chapter, i was so craving over the tarts they made lol

vil schoenheit. even though everyone was complaining over the meals he prepared for VDC training, i would at least give his cooking a try. because at least i'll know it's healthy and good for me hehe. i'd honestly ask vil for healthy food tips (and maybe some recipes of the food he cooks) bc my malnourished self needs some nourishment

maybe ruggie??? if i had to???? like if i was extremely desperate for food, i mean. really, i'm just curious as to how dandelions taste and would like to know if it actually tastes nice 💀

[doodleduck]

what do you interpret c!beeduos relationship as?

/a

cBeeduo being /a is so important to me. Mostly because as a person on the aroace spectrum, getting non alloromantic non hetero relationships is a gem. They don’t have to explain their relationship or necessarily their feelings towards each other or to anyone. They love each other and that’s all that matters. They are soulmates. They are friends. They are husbands. Their relationship doesn’t have to have a label on it. Yes they are platonic partners but they also got married and sometimes kiss. Some days they are just best buddies and others they are more intimate with each other. It’s a spectrum and their relationship is all over the place. That’s what makes it so special to me. You can interpret it however you want and make it special to how you perceive it

[jeanmoreaux]

Hi, I'm absolutely loving all of the literature talk (your taste is exquisite<3) and wanted to ask you what you love about Frankenstein (if you would care to elaborate). I just finished it today and enjoyed it, but didn't love it and I would love to hear your view of the book

hi! i am glad you enjoy the occasional literature talk—it's what i live and breathe for :') i think my love for frankenstein really comes down to how closely i worked with the text over the years. i think i read it for 3 different classes throughout my academic life, so i had the chance to really read the text thoroughly and engage with it from different angles. what i love about it most is probably how much is just *there* in the text; it's about parenthood, it's about nature vs. nurture, it's about hubris, it's about humanity and what it means to be human, it's about the romantic sentiment, it's about the consequences of your actions, it's about the scientific progress and how to (not) approach it and the responsibility that comes with that, it's about the consequences of being ostracised to the human psyche, it's about the cycle of violence, it's about transgenerational trauma, it's about what it feels like to live up to other people's idea of you, it's about being forced into a life you haven't chosen for yourself, it's about taking responsibility, it's about language, it's about writing and the creation of art...... and that's not all of it! i mean, you can adopt basically any of the lenses of the literary analysis toolkit and have the text make sense from that perspective (from historical criticism to marxist, feminist or queer theory -> the feminist and queer theory ones make for such interesting readings of the text. i mean i am sure you've heard about how the creature can be read as an manifestation of victor's homoerotic desires (and subsequently a externalisation of his internalised homophobia). the queer subtext in victor's dynamics with henry and elizabeth is definitely there. and ofc when looking at it from a feminist perspective how there's a clear absence of women with agency in the story and as a consequence the absence of female qualities and how all that contributes to the characters' eventual downfalls. yet the story is framed, presented AND centred by (indirect) women's narratives that seem to be almost overshadowed or suppressed—women's writing is essential to the existence of the story BUT there is only the indirect allusion to women narrators, we never actually read from a female writer (think captain robert walton's letters to his sister margaret walton saville in the most outer layer of the story and safie's letters at its core -> also consider the historical implications of how the writing of narrative letters was often practiced by women etc.).) do you see what i mean??? that's just a couple of examples and far from an exhaustive list of readings!!!

((there is a text post that provoked this ask that brushes on some other aspects of the novel.))

this novel really gives you so much to think about and talk about when you take the time to really engage with the text and sit with it. that also makes it great for rereads bc every time you go in with another focus you'll get something else out of it. and i love when a novel is able to work on so many levels.

and ofc it's also such a monumental text. that fact alone manages to sparks awe in me???? i mean, mary shelley really wrote the first sci-fi novel at 17 and lay the foundation for one of the biggest genres we know today. that's just mind-blowing to me as well.

that's the gist of it, really. but yeah, i have a lot of love for this novel in my heart. it's definitely my favourite classic.

[ishikawayukis]

someone correcting third world countries to developing countries......... they both suck lmfao

[dagdasgodslayer]

someday i can and will transcribe all of nanashi's relic descriptions

[tempests-bards-and-birds]

my loathing for romeo and juliet is pure. concentrated. unadulterated. absolute. consuming. ever-blazing like the fire in the pits of hell-