#start thinking about something good and then it reminds you of something related thats bad and now its like. yeah this shit sucks

[fatmaclover]

theres something to be said about how mac still holds such a childish adoration for his parents after such a long time. how literally its shown to us by the fact that

mac always slicked his hair back as a child, when he still had contact with his father

he stops doing this into adulthood, but later in life, once mac interacts with his father again, he starts slicking his hair back again

he doesnt stop. slicking his hair back. until his own father walks out during his coming out performance. the guy he put it on for. only after that does he completely stop styling his hair that way

not to mention the constant refusal that his mom (and dad) could be anything but perfect, the way hes so desperate to do good by them, viewing them as the way to measure his success...

and. yeah thats. something.

the internal denial that his parents treated him poorly, the fact that its his primary instinct to deny that his parents suck, the constant dismissal of his own issues relating to family because his whole life hes been told that "other people have it worse". the way hes internalized that so hard. the way it takes his dad walking out on macs coming out performance to him for mac to stop blindly idolizing some guy whos threatened to kill him

the constant fear of his own father, while also believing him to be the coolest bestest guy ever. the way he always assumes his father is gonna get violent when actually talking to him, but sings nothing but praises when away from him

the fact that he still calls his dad "daddy" even.

i mean you cant really blame him for not fully growing up in some areas huh

its not even that i think he doesnt know that his parents treat him horribly, it just really seems like he wants so badly to believe thats not the case from years of having his cries for help ignored or made fun of. he cant have been treated poorly, because charlie was treated poorly, and his baggage isnt nearly as bad as charlies, so clearly macs home life wasnt bad.

i think thats proven most of all by his frustration with his own family at times, it really feels like theres some underlying issues. they can very quickly manifest as frustration and anger, but honestly its probably mostly sadness. the way he reacts to his own mother really reminds me of how i interact with family members i have grudges with but have to pretend i dont. im not actually angry at any of these people, im mostly just exhausted by them.

he very clearly is still aware of the neglect he faced as a kid, to me. he knows his home life was severely fucked up, hes just never been able to express that, so hes coped by just. pretending that it didnt happen.

and realistically i dont know if he could ever properly acknowledge that his home life was fucked and his parents suck. maybe hed acknowledge that his dad sucks now, but it wouldnt have been that bad when he was a kid and wasnt a fag. right? he was loved then. his mom still did a great job raising him, and he really loves her, and he was raised with all the love and care a child needs.

[yetanothergreyjedi]

Ghosts of Our Pasts

DP x DC crossover

Damian Wayne and Danny Fenton siblings AU

Parts 1 & 2 Part 3.

Part 4

He looked more like Bruce than Damian did, which felt right for the brother that had died leaving the assassins.

Danyal's stance was not a League of Assassin's stance. It could be that he was trying not to look openly hostile, but if Dick was honest, it reminded him most of Wonder Woman. Danyal stood like he might throw himself into the air with no expectation of gravity pushing him back down. Interesting, but de-escalation first.

"Richard Grayson," Dick introduced himself with a wave, "But you can call me Dick."

Danyal's lips did the little twitch that everyone's lips did when he told them his nickname. Daynal didn't relax yet though.

"Hi, Dick, I'm Danny."

"I'm Tim, but we established that... and you know Damian..."

The silence stretched.

"Well, if that's all you guys wanted..." Danny took a few steps backwards deeper into the alley, never letting any of them out of view.

"I should have gone with you." Damian said. It was an apology; though someone who didn't know him might not realize. "...I did not understand, not until I came here..."

Danny closed his eyes, looking away for the first time, clearly internalizing something in Damian's words. With every second, he seemed to realize that no attack was coming, and none was going to come.

"Maybe we should go back to the coffee shop?" Tim suggested, good. A neutral, public place would ease at least some of the tension.

Danny grimaced, a hand coming to rub the back of his neck. "Yeah, I sorta... I need to head back there..."

"Okay, cool," Dick said, as if the tension still didn't require tools to cut.

The walk back was an awkward mess of everyone trying to stay in Danny’s eyeline despite the crowd and him pretending he wasn't nervous when he couldn't see them. Dick had already decided that if Danny ran again, he was going to make sure they let him run. Chasing would only make him trust them less, and Danny wasn't a criminal (probably).

He gave them all an unreadable look as they re-entered the coffee shop. Dick wasn't sure what to make of it until an older bald man declared, "Mr. Fenton!"

"Sorry, Mr. Lancer..." Danny said, every bit a sheepish high-schooler. He sat down at the table he'd been at before the chase as the older man began a lecture about safety in big cities and staying with the group. Well... that complicated things.

The barista called Tim's drink.

---

"Are you good, man?" Tucker asked as soon as Lancer's attention went back to focusing on the group as a whole and not just their table.

"I think so, Tuck, but, uh... this... I don’t know, I don't think the just chilling plan is gonna work..."

"Is this related to Gotham? I thought she gave you permission?"

"She didn't just give me permission, Sam, she welcomed me... I know why now... its just complicated..."

"So... is that why the Wayne's were chasing you?" It was said like a joke.

Sam's eyes widened when he answered. "Yeah,"

Tucker stuttered out a confused mix of excited syllables, "Does that mean we get to meet—"

"Their just people, Tucker." Sam reminded, "Spoiled rich kids who at least manage to cause a scene at every other gala, so they get to rank slightly higher than all the other rich kids, because at least their not boring."

"Sam!" Tuckers exclamation caught Lancer's attention. The teacher called on them to restate what he had said. Sam guessed correctly, Tucker and Danny did not, and so the lecture started over.

Danny patiently waited for the lecture to end before whispering, "You guys know how I'm adopted..."

"Yeah..."

"So..." Danny gestured to the group of siblings that appeared to be arguing over... napkins? What were they doing?

"Wait, you know the Wayne's? Why didn't you ever say something?" Tucker exclaimed.

"Uh... well, the League of Assassins stuff..."

"Uh huh,"

"Actually, thats a bad way to explain it... my biological father is Batman."

"The Batman?!" For all of her 'people are just people' talk, Sam was too excited.

"Yes, and I can't fully explain all this without getting into identity stuff."

"Danny, Danny, Danny, first of all fair, but second, how far off is Wes?"

Danny tried very hard to not react to that. Which apparently was the same as saying yes, so he shushed them before they could start.

"I don't know how he connects to the League. This is more secret than mine, okay?"

They sobered, argued that phantom was equally important, but Danny didn't budge. So they excepted it as a weird obsession thing and agreed.

"Wait so, how did you not end up a Wayne kid?"

"The assassins have access to ectoplasm and I traded some for my parents to hide me."

"I hate that that tracks."

"To be fair, I didn't understand how actually messed up it was until later."

"Wait, so is Batman apart of..."

"I don't know, I thought he was. But the fact that I'm not stabbed right now is a good sign."

"You say that like you were planning on letting yourself get stabbed..."

Danny sighed, "It would be easier to fake my death... or like, actually die for a few days, than to resist and have them realize I'd require ending."

"Great." Sam said with forced cheer. "How are we modifying the vacation plans?"

-

-

-

Part 5

Tag list:

Next part is finished but is a bit short, I will not post 5 until I have 6 written and 6 is being mean to me.

Edit: Part six bit me, so it's in time out. But the draft is finished.

@spectralstardustandphantomnights @avelnfear @idfk-man10 @blackroserelina @candeartist422 @mur-ururu @luer-mirin @insufferablecatenthusiast @skulld3mort-1fan @alonedustspeck @voidbornposts @meira-3919 @marshmelloe @aethernorwood @mimilikey @undead-essence @cloudminder @markus209 @everything163 @latheevening226 @roman4517 @moobloomrights @battybatbat @lumosfeather18581 @werv @ahyesanerd @pyramaniac @lexdamo @princessbelix @bun-fish @deeannthepan @edgyboi10000 @thatrandomsarahchick @busterkeel @aconitewolfsbane @spoopyspoony @bright-shade @spidey29phangirl @idontgetpaidenoughforthisshit @keimiwolf @u-a-wizard-jamie @gay-puff @bicerise @itshype @blackfoxsposts @icanneverdecide @lolottes @chubbypotato @jovialherringtacoghost @saltyladynightmare

@pastalavistamf @mysoulspiralbound @mj-arts-n-stuff @andaspoonfulofangst-whoops @apointlessbox

Apparently there is a mention cap on posts, who knew! I will see about the best way to add anyone else.

[fagcrisis]

poppy war thoughts, aka this book was so bad it made me want to get a goodreads account just so i can shit on it in an official capacity

so what initially sold me on this book, is that despite my friend ellis absolutely hating rf kuang's babel, ive only ever seen raving reviews for it anywhere else, and a brief description of its magic system reminded me of gergő és az álomfogók. i love that mainstream fantasy is finally starting to rely on drawing from cultures other than the sort of western mainstream and i was actually super excited to get into it. well it sucked (this contains spoilers obviously)

its 11 am this is not gonna be very structured but let me start off by listing some things i did enjoy. first of all its low hanging fruit and im better than this so im only gonna shit on tpw for being so directly about the sino chinese war that the only actual interesting bits of exposition in the book was what was just a description of actual events a Little bit. listen lotr is about ww2. its fine its all fine. anyway, i had fun with the bits of worldbuilding that were yk, actually worldbuilding. the magic system was really interesting and just super not explored enough, the book handled drug addiction about as sensitively as the dare program, but nevertheless it was a cool concept. shamans who have to get high as hell do do anything and then putting those guys in a combat setting is crazy. really fun concept. speaking of shamans i loved jiang. his archetype is impossible to fuck up and he was loveable and fun till the very end. uhh what else. the fight descriptions were good its something kuangs is decent at, as someone whos watched just truly an inordinate amount of wuxia as a child i rly can appreciate a stupid convoluted fight scene. oh i found it hysterical that the west was just one country that was really fun.

NOW ONTO THE SHIT I HATED

rin is incredibly unlikeable i know its not the point of every book ok but tpw isnt good enough to have a protagonist who is just impossible to relate to this isnt 1984 okay this is contemporary ya. i GET that she sucks and thats the point but im supposed to emphatize with her and throughout the book she just seemed stupid and easy to manipulate and not very interesting. shes an incredibly shallow character which is i guess what happens when you base your ya teenage girl protagonist on CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY MAO ZEDONG. HELLO. anyway. all her personal relationships are very much carried by the strenght of the characters close to her, and because most characters in this book are not very interesting that makes for a shitty fucking protagonist.

most of the conflict in this book is extremely artificially generated until maybe the second half of part 3. everyone in rins life is unnessecarily mean to her because shes just so smart and good at things. the part where they accused her of cheating on the exams and she owned them like crazy came to define much of the book. some kind of mean cunt whose purpose in life is to cause misery is an asshole to rin bc shes so smart and strong and talented, and she owns them with a witty remark. she punches nezha on the first day of school for fucks sake.

speaking of the school, the majority of the book is spent at sinegard academy and it is an extremely predictable and dull affair. i long for the wizard of earthsea. kuang is not a very good writer on a technical level and everything that she tries to imply she ends up spelling out (usually by having a character say it out loud) only a couple pages later. you can get through 2/3rds of this book by just reading every other page and correctly guessing what has happened and what will happen. in possibly the funniest paragraph of part 2, rin thinks about how everybody thinks altan is the coolest guy and yet he has no friends and at this point shes been experiencing quite severe racism from all of her peers and then instead of leaving you to figure out the quite obvious conclusion kuang literally has her say "oh his skin is dark and mine is too. i wonder if he knows what racism is like" just, truly hysterical.

her feud with nezha is unbearable, i knew immediately that he would become a romantic interest because a ya protagonist cannot hate a boy for perfectly good reasons. it always has to be bc shes horny. anyways thankfully when she starts studying with jiang, jiang is there and the terrible dullness of it all is lifted somewhat

as i mentioned before, the actual historical elements in the book elevate it greatly and the third part is almost enjoyable in some sections. however, unfortunately, this is also the part of the book where rin and altans darkling situation begins. i have a sinking feeling altan may not have died, which sucks because i hated this bit. they have virtually no relationship to eachother except altan yelling at rin occasionally. now again there were bits and pieces of their relationship that i didnt quite hate, but honestly i still dont entirely buy the rin is a seerly thing emotionally because she is so detached from it. the revelation only seemed to shock her a little bit and then she was busy with being at war and her boss hating her, when she actually gains the power of the phoenix at the very end its her own hatred and egoism fueling her rather than any connection to her people. overall this again comes back to her being quite weak as a character, and the worldbuilding suffers as a result of that

in any case, ill mull over continuing the series. the ending was actually quite strong i love a genocide as a result of being a stupid fucking 19 year old (dont quote me on this please), so maybe the next one is better maybe ms kuang learned to write inbetween these 2.

[gayleafpool]

Talk about Varian

IM ALWAYS READY TO TALK ABOUT THAT LOSER!! get ready

-> one thing i’ve been thinking SO hard about lately is the potential of a lady caine and varian friendship. imagine it. she lost her dad and varian thought he lost his which drove them to seek revenge against and grow to hate the royal family. they both get thrown in prison. and basically forgotten about. A FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN THEM WOULD BE SO FUNNY he would probably think she was soooo cool. wait imagine if they had cells near each other in prison. imagine if she saw the things he went through w andrew in prison and thought hm wow that was insane and fucked up. what if they meet again later on like post s3 and become sorta pals and feel like they can vent their lingering resentment toward royalty w each other and just like. idk talk about all the shit they went through. WHAT THEN HUH

-> related i get so emo about varian repressing his trauma and like, outwardly it seems like he got over everything that happened to him with the blizzard/amber/prison/etc etc but really it was more relief that rapunzel forgave him and was able to free quirin so it felt like everything should be FINE and it would easy to just leave everything in the past so he tries and he thinks he’s getter better and doing well but he’s really getting so much worse and refuses to address or process any of the shit he went through until it all majorly comes crashing down a while later. there are these little signs in the way he behaves like he acts weirdly reckless sometimes and will put himself in bad situations, just starts to exhibit signs of what happened to him. iykyk u know we know. and it’s so hard for him to rationalize this and accept this bc his feelings are so complicated bc he would tell himself that he deserved to be treated that way or even liked it because he was so lonely and desperate for positive attention so there’s this shame and guilt aspect that makes it 10x harder to talk about and AUGHHHHHHH. i could write an essay. this is so important to me. everyone be nice to me about this

-> okay lighter topic. something i always forget about varian is that he’s a good artist like canonically i think that’s so fun. THEREFORE: varian and rapunzel drawing/painting together. ENOUGH SAID!!!!! i love them

wait now i’m thinking more varian and rapunzel thoughts. rapunzel teaching him how to dance. rapunzel being one of the few people who’s happy to sit and listen to him ramble about chemistry n shit cuz she loves learning new things so she’s genuinely interested. they are so <3 IVE ALSO SAID BEFORE that i think varian looooves learning new languages and he’s really good at it and i think rapunzel would be too!! they just end up having lots of common interests

also i refuse to believe varian ever gets taller than her i just cant see it

-> mmfmfmfmfmf varian and ulla thoughts. the fact that they look so similar makes me crazy. i also like to imagine that his hyperactive inquisitive balls to the walls insane personality comes mostly from her too. cute but batshit 🫶🫶 also the anger issues. u know that image that’s like i inherited my mother’s anger yeah thats varian. also the idea that quirin is so protective of varian bc he feels like he couldn’t protect ulla esp when you factor in that varian is basically just a copy of her. WAUGH!!!!! i’m emo.

something something donella seeing hugo start to catch feelings for varian and being like oh so this little shit is EXACTLY like his mother. bc it reminds her of how she loved ulla but could never have her. and it makes her hate varian sooo bad. girl rein in the projection

this has been explosion hour with gayleafpool come again soon

[quodekash]

EPISODE 2 BAD BUDDY OS2 LETS GOOOOO im so freaking excited holy hell 

i still cant believe that patpran and earthmix are going to INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER??? AND EXIST IN THE SAME SPACE???? HOLY HELLLLLL 

wait hang on 

will we get longtae?? pls give us longtae i need to see my boy 

WAIT hang on how does this work. how do bad buddy and 1000stars exist in the same space if drake plays korn and also rang. i need to make some kind of murder board of the connections between shows holy hell 

tut tut, phu, you need to take care of yourself for goodness sake 

pran is too autistic for this, he doesnt know how to Social Situation and communicate what he was actually trying to say and now they think he wants to be a teacher 

also im gonna slide past the phutian relationship problems bc i dont want to think about it. my dads are not getting a divorce, and thats final 

hang on. there’s new kids now??? where the hell did they come from? 

tian’s teacher frustration is so real 

autism 

HEY 

LOOK AT THAT 

ACTUAL REPRESENTATION OF SOME KIND 

THATS AWESOME 

I KNEW HE WASNT NEUROTYPICAL 

FJEHSBGKVJREB 

i know ocd is an anxiety disorder but there’s a lot of overlapping symptoms and apparently autistic people are more likely to experience ocd 

and even if its just ocd, im still allowed to hc him as autistic 

but either way HELL YEAH REPRESENTATION AND ITS CANONICAL AND ITS NOT JUST IN HIS HABITS ITS AN ACTUAL CANONICAL DIAGNOSIS GJERBDHBDRT 

MY BOY! 

(definitely didnt completely forget about him) 

his gaydar is going off so much he can smell it (i made the screenshot too big and now phupha in the foreground is making me laugh so hard omg- i swear its the funniest thing ever. im probably tired. its 1:30am) 

THE LOOKS PATPRAN GAVE EACH OTHER WHILE PHUTIAN WERE INTERACTING- THE GAYDARS THE GAYDARS 

(yes, i know they already know about phutian bc of tian’s online diary thingy, but it still counts) 

i wanna read this diary so bad but i cant read thai. and also idk where i would find it. its probably online somewhere. it might be a merch thing. who knows man 

GEHRKDBGV THE FLASHBACKS WHILE HES READING 

IM CRYING 

“why would a good guy come to watch me take a shower?” THE LOOKS PATPRAN JUST GAVE EACH OTHER- OMG I LOVE THIS SO MUCH 

THE LOOKS THROUGHOUT THIS WHOLE EXCHANGE 

ITS SO FUNNY 

I LOVE THIS 

iconic 

i love everything about this so so so much 

the amount of joy that just this one image brings me? help 

ive been wondering why they keep making those movies 

wait hang on 

guys i think we might actually be onto something 

on another but related note: what do you guys spend 25 minutes doing at 2 in the morning when you should be sleeping? cos apparently i make beautiful atrocities like that. 

anyway. 

theyre like little kids, “he liked me first” “NO HE LIKED ME FIRST” 

this is starting to sound very familiar 

pran screaming at the waterfall reminds me of patpran screaming off the top of the hill at the beach 

THEY ARE PLAYING IN THE WATERRRR I LOVE THEMMMMMM 

“i think they kissed” “agreed” “they certainly did” “i agree” okay they didnt but they absolutely should have and we all wanted them to 

they so in loveeee i love themmmmm 

IM SCREAMING AS QUIETLY AS I POSSIBLY CAN, HOLY HELL THE FREAKING PARALLELS 

hah, you bloody americans, they probably had to google what 18ºC is in fahrenheit, but i, a superior australian, know that that is... warmer than it has been recently. its currently 13º. its really weird, im not used to it getting this cold, even in winter, and winter only technically started two days ago. anyway, enough about abnormal australian weather, back to patpran 

i love them so much 

pat, i- 

HELL YES 

OISHIIIII 

FINALLY 

the kid demanding payment through sips of oishi tea? thats my kinda style 

id adopt that kid if i had to. 

i hate kids 

but ice tea? it bonds people. 

lucky kid 

i rly like this karaoke idea, i was wondering how they were gonna incorporate the ost but i guess pat’s gonna sing it 

P’AUUUU 

I THOUGHT I RECOGNISED HIM IN THE BACKGROUND EARLIER AND I WAS RIGHT 

HELLO P’AU HOW ARE YOU 

“actually, my boyfriend and i also fought about who fell for the other first. but in the end, it isnt important. what matters more is that we love each other” AWWWWBHFGHBR 

OH 

ITS THE SONG 

ITS THAT SONG 

GEIURHGUKERJBGHJK 

YAYYYY PHUTIAN ARE SNUGGLINGGGG 

IM SMILING SO HARD ITS DIFFICULT TO SEE 

i love him 

THE SIGNATURE FISTBUMP RJDGBJR 

i love them 

NOOOOO THEY STILL HAVENT MADE UP, GOSH FREAKING DARNNIT 

ooooo phu vs pat drinking challenge, this’ll be fun 

i really like how the young ones are giving advice to the older ones for a change, its very nice. and also just goes to show how powerful patpran are 

omg this kid is everywhere, i love him 

the pure RELIEF when they both see that they are, in fact, wearing pants. 

BRO THAT WAS STRESSFUL 

PRAN NEARLY DIED 

its so funny to me how intense the music is rn 

OF FREAKING COURSE 

well at least we know that means we’ll get more patpran next week, we dont have to say goodbye to them today 

anyway that was wonderful, its 3am and i feel fine currently, cant wait to feel like a dead banana peel tomorrow, goodnight folks, see you next time! 

[dem0nguy]

RAMBLETIMERAMBLETIMERAMBLETIMERAMBLETIME

(Thanks @spinningbagel for persuading me to ramble lol)

Ok so I’m gonna ramble about Sheriff (and a bit of Ryan), and how much I headcannon/theorize he was traumatized throughout his childhood and the effects of that later on.

Starting it off strong, WHERE THE FUCK ARE SHERIFF AND RYAN’S PARENTS??

Like we just have these two silly boys, living on a pig farm, all by themselves??

They had to have parents at some point right? So where they at???

(Unrelated but I find the 2D flashback style in this show aesthetically pleasing, it’s just so smooth and nice looking :>)

I think that their parents just owned the farm, and made Jim and Ryan do all the damn work while they sit on their asses doing nothing all day.

That would explain Ryan’s need to join the army, and to take Sheriff with him. Because he knew damn well that their parents weren’t gonna take care of Sheriff.

I don’t think their parents outright abused the two of them though, I think it was just child neglect (yippee)

Sheriff was still pretty young when Ryan joined the army (probably like, in his early teens) and being in that environment took a major toll on him. It’s likely what made him such a cocky asshole tbh.

Compared to everyone else in the series, Sheriff is the most emotionally immature. Aside from the fart jokes, he is a genuine egotistical asshole half the time. He even gets on Shooter’s nerves, and Shooter isn’t nearly as bad as him when it comes to this. (Shooter’s just a little bit of a dumbass, but its ok, we still love him <3)

This does make sense in relation to Sheriff randomly proclaiming himself as leader of La Résistance though. His only real adult figures were army men who order people around and get whatever they want. So he must’ve taken after them when given the opportunity to “lead.”

It is possible that he picked up a few good things from Ryan, but I think that was greatly overshadowed by everything else.

Later on down the line when the Big Fart happened and Sheriff lost Ryan, I imagine that it took an incredible toll on him. Ryan was Sheriff’s only friend, and only family, and he just lost that in the blink of an eye.

After that, Sheriff wandered aimlessly for a while, waiting for the mutation to overtake him. When he realized it wasn’t overtaking him, he decided to find a new purpose.

That purpose was likely something along the lines of “Ryan would want me to keep going.” Because honestly, he really didn’t have jackshit else to keep going for.

He also 110% has an unhealthy attachment to the star Ryan gave him. He doesn’t go anywhere without it.

He was probably a loner for a while too, he became a treasure hunter(thief) to get by, and then racked up debt with Brutux by stealing from the land he had claimed.

Knowing Sheriff, he definitely knew it was Brutux’s territory and thought he could get away with stealing.

(This reminds me, i need to ramble about Brutux at some point, because my guy is a gang leader and it’s just never addressed???)

I think Shooter was the first person Sheriff had trusted in a while, because although he definitely seemed hesitant at first, he also seemed gullible. He was willing to trust someone he met not a few hours ago.

He was desperate to be around people again, to have someone like Ryan to trust and rely on. Shooter did take quick advantage of that though, which I feel like should’ve hurt Sheriff more than it did.

(Another reminder, i need to ramble about Sheriff and Shooters gayness. (SLOW ROMANTIC GUITAR MUSIC PLAYS DURING THAT SCENE ABOVE, I SWEAR IT. ALSO JUST LOOK AT HOW SHOOTER LOOKS AT HIM! ITS SO GAY!!!))

Anyways I think thats all I got folks, hope you enjoyed the rambling! :3

[itslilacokay]

what no sleep does to a mf (i got a paper trail analysis

funny story haha, so in a server i witnessed a few talking about what it would look like if the 7 traits were taken to an extreme, and after that i get reminded of paper trail every time i think of the extreme traits and i had to share this because this is one of the first actual "analysis" stuff i ever do

for those that have not seen nor read paper trail, see it as this has spoilers to the comic! read it right now now nown now n

lets start off with what the extreme traits are (based off two people)

determination -> obsession

bravery -> recklessness

justice -> judgementalism

kindness -> sacrifice

patience -> inaction

integrity -> blindness

perseverance -> stubbornness

(these will be explained further down the post dw)

i thought of these at least appearing once in each dark world with a trait corresponding to a prince world, hell i thought of an extreme trait being noticed in some princes, there are exceptions but the real point of this analysis is that its shown in paper trail so imma start off already before i forget

gotta start off though right off the bat that unfortunately i couldnt notice sacrifice with ralsei happening in paper trail, so thats one exception

kindness, or in this case sacrifice is not going to be mentioned moving forward until proven otherwise, sorry

so lets start with the first new prince we see in the comic instead, which would be eslira

eslira represents the patience trait but now in this case, inaction

inaction is in a way patience to an extreme since you have to wait/have tolerance a long time with patience, but you dont do anything even though you have to in certain situations with inaction

eslira throughout the whole comic, does none shit he does NOTHING at all!!!!!!!!

all the other princes did something somehow, like with aelsir's haste, the super pacify with irales and ralsei, lairse, even SARELI did something and he just lullaby'd with ralsei

but eslira? they dont do anything. they just follow along and stay in the sidelines always worried, basic inaction right there

he could in a way helped the fun gang in some small little way with the yisho fight, or in any fight really in trophy city but he does nothing at all, he just stands there worrying and and sitting and

anyway aelsir's next with bravery, or in extreme form, recklessness

its only shown once in aelsir's respective dark world, with the thunder hills and with the soul just still trekking along even though they get damaged every time a lightning hits which is every 4 seconds

recklessness IS moving along in a lack of regard for danger, while bravery is moving along even something is frightening, so i say this works!

sorry theres not much for bravery boy there isnt much to go off of extreme traitwise for his section haha

irales now

for how i see it, stubbornness is moving forward without really accepting any other paths that could be easier, good or bad while perseverance is moving forward despite difficulty

you could say that for someone to go through a hard path, and moving forward with said hard path even though theres much easier and better path, is a sign of stubbornness to me

for irales, its more of a personality thing

irales is stubborn in a way, since he doesnt seem to accept any other possible reasons and just sticks to what he sees and its only until the end he actually isnt a stubborn little fuc

okay. well you can also say lairse is stubborn as well in a way that he wont accept monsters, but its layered under an extreme justice and for a huge reason, irales' stubbornness is based off i dont know what he sees apparently (refer to previous link)

sareli's up with blindness i mean integrity i mean

as one member said, one can be blinded by their beliefs COUGH CXOUGH @mileymint COUUYGHHHHH so lets base it off that!

integrity is a truth/moral/belief related trait, and you can probably see why blindness is a possible integrity extent after i type this

for integrity to turn into blindness, one must believe that what they are doing is truly right though its really not, and even if others say otherwise, they wouldnt agree since it goes against their morals and/or beliefs, thus leading them to be "blinded" as they cant "see" what is wrong with what they believe or think is the truth

sareli, throughout his whole section, has been doubting his actions since his prophecy just tells him he will fail and even though he gets told otherwise that he CAN help, he immediately disagrees with them since it goes against with what he believed for a long time, and since it turns out he will fail anyway in the prophecy, why would he NOT fail now when he tries to do something?

and now lairse. ohh lairse where do i begin

i admit, i thought up justice's extreme trait. there was scrupulosity, but its more of obsessed with judging of oneself based off if they are against their own morals and/or religious morals/reasons, judgementalism is sortof the opposite, ie judging of others immediately possibly based of their own morals and/or to an extent, religious morals/reasons, instead of hearing their own reasonings and how they are really like

lairse immediately dislikes susie and noelle due to them being monsters, who in his eyes, are sinful for what they have done despite susie and noelle knowing none of that and having no part in that event

hell, he even told them that they weren't allowed to come with him, kris, ralsei and lancer only BECAUSE they were monsters, thats intense judgementalism right there, heading off to racist territory honestl

for determination turned to obsession, i think i can see a bit of obsession in asriel but not in the way you think

obsession can be bomped down to just having a certain idea, person, desire, or thing on your mind all the time

and assuming that while asriel was in college, he still had the thought of the trapped humans in mind almost all the time, id say that is just simple example of obsession shown in paper trail for asriel

but thats not all as i have something else.

the knight.

"but liiiiilaaaacc!!! hes not a prince and he doesnt have a dark world relating to the determination trait!!!!" like i said in the start, this was made due to me realizing how extreme traits are shown in paper trail as a comic, not just the princes. so i wouldnt say this is an exception!

the knight and asriel have, in a way, the same desire; freeing humans. its just that the knight takes it way too far

his obsession to freeing humans has turned him desperate, wanting to free his kind from the depths of the earth, trying all he can, even making a twitter account just for a chance to get us to play the game and possibly freeing all the humans by just simply playing through dark worlds

his desperateness turned to obsession for freedom of humans in a way, is what im trying to say

aaaand thats it i think! thats all i have in my mind

holy dang this took a while i hope you guys like this silly analysis this took me a long while and a lot of researching

who is reading this

[e-icreator23]

Vent again. If you cant read it. Wither: You can't let him do that! He can't be banging or throwing stuff! You think its funny but its- D-d:You need to stop being a drama queen. It doesn't mean anything! Stop it. Where did banging and throwing things get bad? (where did you get that from?!) He's not doing any harm Wither:But it sounds like he's trying to break his controller! [He has a PS5] B-o: WHAT DO YOU CARE?! YOU HAVE A MASK ON AND YOUR A JUNIOR! ITS CRINGY! Wither: And you're a sophomore! You should know not to- B-o: Shut up! No one asked! Aren't you embarrassed?!! This is what happened right now. My brother started to rage at a game and from my room, it sounded like he was banging his controller. I came out to see whats going on and he was yelling before this and hitting something. I told my sister to go to her room and that he was acting stupid. He got mad and insulted me and said I am a nobody and I am embarrassing. My sister got scared from him yelling so got my dad who was drinking. He came it and my brother went back to the game he was getting mad at for loosing and he laughed about it. I told him what happened and he still laughed about it. I got mad since he lets them both get away with things like this and I am tired of the insults. I hate that once they know I will be married to a woman that they won't want me around since like my brother has said and I shit you not he said this word for word "FAGS ARE MENTAL. THEY AREN'T HUMAN" My dad constantly wonders why one of his cousins who came out to them is never around, I can't blame, not at all. It's because none of them support them! They outright show they disappointed in them! My brother says that my dad and him HATE people who are gay or anything relating to it with a passion. They are more concerned of how they look than about anything else, my brother has to constantly remind me that I am more on the bigger side and that he's so embarrassed about it! He said that he will never say hi to me during school even when I say hi, he acts like he doesn't know me and says to others that he doesn't know me. He likes to make fun of me saying I won't get anyone. And even if I do, they will leave me since they never really loved me. I am so tired of this. I want to leave so bad but If I try to leave with another family member then my dad will start to guilt trip me and I don't want to leave because I don't want to leave my friends yet. I know I'm a damn disappointment to them. I know that shit but I have to be reminded over and over and over again. No wonder why I'm distant with them. I try so hard at school to make them proud but it can never make it last. I won first place somewhere big in my state but just "oh nice". thats it. I get Honor roll. "good and stay like that" I am so tired of it and I know I am still gonna push myself to try and get good grades but I know nothing I do will ever be good enough to make them proud of me. They ask why is it hard for me to talk to people, no shit its hard because If I say anything wrong to them, I would get hit. I would get yelled at for saying anything wrong. They told me I am not allowed to tell anyone about my situation, I can't talk to my councilors about this, I cant ask for help. Not even online. If I say something wrong, I feel like they would hate me. If I do something they don't like then I'm the piece of shit. I know they have said that I can talk to them but I feel like I cant since I dont know what they will say. I am scared, I am so fucking scared. I know non of them are bad or anything I am just terrified of them since they are so amazing and I can never amount to them in any way. I don't know what to do. If I eat how I normally do, im told to stop. My health problems are my fault and yeah maybe they are. but still at least be semi nice but no he makes fun of me that I cant breath right. To them ADHD and autism arent real. it's fake so people can be lazy. If I am friends with anyone who's like that then im the weirdo. I'm stupid to even get near them. im so done.

[gunsli-01]

just wanna say since I've been away from fixating on milgram for a month or so and came back for a skim (I got my therapist hooked, so its on the mind).. I wanna say how the fuck did this happen but I've similar enough that like, I hope you're taking care of yourself, congrats on the marriage (thats recent right?), your posts are always nice to see, I hope Organ Thief's Dance Party is entertaining for you too

I got so carried away beneath this cut that it's just a new Mu post I'm sorry in advance! Before any of that though I'll try to answer your points to the best of my abilities!

I'm so happy to hear about the therapist thing! I hope more people can enjoy Milgram so many that getting to a million views is pretty much immediate during trial three!

I think conflicts appearing in the fandom in and of itself isn't a bad thing it just means people care about the material, but I hope people can do that in a fun and respectful way. Not only to make the environment comfortable for old fans but newcomers as well. I don't believe it's good for fandoms to become exclusionary or too closeknit since that can lead to terrible forms of conflict down the line.

A fandom should be full of various people and opinions. So, I always wanna remind people to look at the views of others outside of mine since it helps form a more well-rounded opinion. It's even helped me better reflect on my own biases. I do like passion, but too much of anything in one direction can be bad, and I want more and more people to like and watch Milgram! So, regardless of what happens, I want people to see the fun in it not just from the content but its fans who do great things in a passionate way every day.

I'm taking care of myself and my dad to the best of my abilities he surgery went smoothly too! I'm still very much enjoying Milgram all the way! I hope none of what I said about the fandom comes off as pretentious or too serious because I know it'd be easy to read it that way. When it comes to the marriage, I assume you're referring to my blog description.

Ah, Star and I have known each other since late 2013! We met through Tumblr actually. That's why I was so upset to have my blog shadow banned because it has a lot of sentimental value and I'd hate to lose it. We started dating maybe three years after and we got engaged two to three years after that. Though, since we live in different countries, we haven't officially tied the knot yet. She's my best friend, confidant, and we hang out often. Even meeting up in person whenever we can manage/afford to.

Actually, she's the reason anybody even gets to see me talk about Milgram at all right now. She introduced it to me! She wanted me to look over the entire series. Because she was very well acquainted with my penchant for deductive reasoning and love of solving mysteries. Because of thar she wanted to know what I would think was going on based off the trial one music videos alone. I was a bit miffed at her at the time, so I was like, no, I don't wanna.

Though she went if I didn't want to watch all of it then she'd at least like it if I looked at Mahiru's song. Causing my response to Mahiru's first trial song to pretty much be you trying to say something about me, huh?! However, I really loved it and pretty immediately went okay I'll watch the rest. However, that was only after she asked what I thought happened and the only thing I could think was with the focus on food, probably poisoning, but other than that I'm unsure.

So, I'm very nostalgic when it comes to Mahiru's song since it's related to a person I love.

If you don't want all the personal stuff here's the Milgram stuff!

I think the thing I'm looking most forward too is hearing Shidou's cover of Delusion Tax given how the VA handled Liar Dance! Shidou's voice tends to be more reserved when it comes to singing his original songs but go hard in his covers. Mu is the exact opposite, her voice being stronger in her original songs but going to a gentle whisper in her covers.

Showing the dichotomy between how she presents herself and how she may be inwardly. That outward appearance of dominance breaking into a soft-spoken stint. While Shidou's soft demeanor breaks way into a more domineering tone with hard enunciation that's so good to hear. So, I'm really curious if that will stay in Delusion Tax just like it stayed for Mu with MKDR.

I like Mu's covers far more than her original songs because of that vocal change and the subtle gentleness like holding porcelain. Especially the scream here and how it directly contrasts with the one here. Her covers really highlight that similarity between her and Futa of putting on a tough front but having an incredibly soft interior that needs a lot of nurturing from their environments.

Something also highlighted by her being represented as Parasitic Wasp in It's Not My Fault.

One of the insects that build cocoons on a host and use the nutrients off them to feed their young. Meaning It's Not My Fault we are literally seeing an artistic rendition of a Parasitic Wasp nest being built on a beehive.

Explaining why Mu is so large in comparison to the others. It's a literal hostile takeover until she gets enough of what she needs and leaves.

This also explains why she's so quick to leave and nothing remains when she does in the end. Since they eat everything and go. Yet, it has another meaning too! Mu being a parasitic wasp can be read as her leeching off of a society of course but it can also be read as her needing external validation to support her own beliefs. Showcasing that she lacks the mental fortitude necessary to defend or rationalize her own behavior or past actions.

This is highlighted in After pain when she's literally drowned in her own negative opinion of herself. Something that used to be feeding her is now eating away at her. Because it doesn't come with that sweetness of external validation. No one else is saying that she's right so she'll always wonder if she's wrong on some level. Because she's incapable of validating her own behavior this is even shown in It's Not My Fault when she basically begs the viewers not to hate her or even look for her bad side the source of her pain.

In a, "Just keep liking me, keep feeding me, I can't do it I can't take it on my own." In a way, reminiscent to the way Mikoto freaks out when everybody, but Kotoko wishes him a happy birthday. It also feeds into why her victim ignoring her bothered her so much and she couldn't let it go. The reason she's behaving this way is perfectly illustrated at the end of It's Not My Fault where she's literally reformed by the previous verdict and breaks away from her host, in this case the hourglass.

Something that very much comes through in the tone of her cover songs. While Shidou- Ah, his are so full of that usually restrained animosity of his that I just love! So, that mixed with Delusion Tax may just get me.

[charmanderxerneas]

(going to be tagging this as ruin spoilers but please dont comment any spoilers because we're not actually done with all the game. We've gotten 2/3 endings and are working towards the secret ending where you have to find hidden cameras while also replaying and seeking out the secrets we missed. This is seriously just insane ramblings aimed at no one i just need to get my thoughts out and suggest u scroll past.)

I seriously like. Am struggling to figure out the whole plot of ruin in an analytical story timeline sense. No i do not read or care about fan theories, i interpret the game and the lore by playing it and looking at all the clues myself thank you very much, so my interpretation of the lore is. different from most fans (you have to consider: very autistic, fnaf a Huge special interest for me. So when i analyze lore, i analyze as much as i can, every single secret. And i feel like a lot of people Miss main lore secret plot points. Im not trying to be a contraian, id love for the fans to have good theories. But like 70% of the time they dont. Or theyre dumb lil kids who blindly listens to mat pat)

my interpretation of sb is different from most fans and theories (mostly because I actually take help wanted and ar into account and can like. Use my brain to understand the differences between the vanessas (there are two. The murderer vanny, who we play as in help wanted, is referred to in ar, and is the one in the therapist tapes) and vanessa the nightguard, who's COMPLETELY unrelated and just an innocent nightguard who happens to have the same name and face as vanessa murderer (though it is also possible to me that like. Murderer vanessa chose to try to look more like nightguard vanessa in an attempt to shift the blame of her crimes, but we dont know this for sure.)and i dont think the therapist tapes are two different people because thats STUPID and it obviously is murderer vanessa (people just. Cannot possibly understand that a person being possessed by an entirely different entity might have changes in her prrsonality. Or that a person with anxiety might have something similar to selective mutism or at the VERY least: troubles speaking because of said murderer in her brain)

ANYWAYS THATS A HUGE ASS TANGENT. MY MAIN THOUGHTS AS OF PLAYING RUIN RN (Please dont spoil things for me im not completely done) is that mainly: i dont know who is speaking to us or who mimic is.

There may be two different people communicating with us with the vanni network (as evidenced by helpi changing eye colors and how like. Some of the motives seem conflicting?) Initially i was like "oh its glitchtrap or williams spirit or something." But that doesnt make any sense because glitchtrap gets Trapped and is worked against.

Even tho that was my first thought: i dont think mimic is burntrap, or william, or glitchtrap. But i dont know what it is, because there are no other obvious characters that it could be in mind (tho since its michaels old fnaf 6 restaurant theyre in, and we saw the blob down there, god knows it could be any number of old ass animatronics or spirits)

Another very fuckin obvious thought is: hey where the fuck is vanny. With the whole mask mechanic, the plot revolving around glitchtrap, ect, you THINK we'd see her st least once. And though she has a cameo in the bad ending which is clearly a vision/fantasy/trick, she doesnt actually appear. The INSTANT That we started this game i speculated: is she talking through helpi? The yellow eyes reminded me of an early sb teaser artwork where we see a close up of a vanessas face with striking, yellow eyes, and i was never sure the significance of that... But i dont think its related at all, as mimic seems to be the one speaking when helpi has yellow eyes. Is mimic related to vanny somehow? I wouldnt assume so.

Whats weird about vanny not being there is it makes it seem like shes not carrying out glitchtraps bidding, which is odd. Dont y'all come at me with that "Gregory helped her!" Crap, the burntrap ending is the canon ending so that never happened. It makes sense for her to be against him (shes never really been on her side, shes the RELUCTANT follower. She explicitly does not want to do any of the horrible shit, but shes beinf forved to) but i just. Gahh i cant figure it out

I WILL figure it out just you wait. I will figure out what my interpretation of the lore as so good as soon as I finish the game just you wait

[hot-take-tournament]

Thank you so much for putting this together, it was really fun to do. These are the best answers I could come up with:

1. In ‘what the hair’ I believe it’s Gothel in the dream sequence right? Thats such a cool way to open a show I think, it really draws to you. But it is incredibly confusing if you didn’t watch ‘before ever after’ first

2. I think in the first opening it’s 3, I’m not sure about the other two. If I’m being honest the first season is my favourite.

3. A music box is laid out and when rapunzel plays it it activates the atomatons hidden in the gift boxes.

4. Okay that’s one’s really hard, I know for a fact Varian has blue eyes and I’m pretty sure Monty does, but I really can’t hunk of anyone else. Rapunzels are Green, Eugene and Lance’s are both brown. I don’t know, Faith? Maybe Frederick but I think his are green.

5. The one in the right I think

6. If I remember correctly, which is highly unlikely, Rapunzel starts the song so I’m going to guess Eugene finishes it as a part of the little back and forth they have. I’m more of a ‘nothing less to loose guy myself’, so I don’t actually remember that song much.

7. I think it’s in ‘Once a handmaiden’, but I could be wrong. That episode is really good for a number or reasons, but there’s something really funny about Varian canonically inventing a gun, good for him.

8. The left one?

9. Happily ever after, I know it’s a reprise of the first song in the ‘Before ever after& short movie but I’m not sure if it’s called something slightly different

I really struggled with most of these, clearly I’m a fake fan </3 it’s fine I tried my best, at least this makes good practice for when I do eventually have to go up against the devil to avoid eternal damnation.

It was really fun though :D thank you for putting this together it was super cool. (Not to be that really annoying guy but I do highly recommend TTS it is a very fun watch)

Also slightly related fun face Zachary Levi plays Rocky in the the new chicken run movie and you can really tell. He uses the same line deliver as he does with Eugene it’s pretty funny to compare the two characters.

it's no problem at all, one of the best parts of this blog for me is being able to learn about everyone's special interests!

besides, considering how much experience i have in combing the internet to research fandoms i'm unfamiliar with (mostly so i can make bad puns), it was kinda fun for me to try and put that ridiculously niche skill to the test under time pressure

though... in retrospect i maaaay have accidentally made some of the questions completely impossible

(also, i know i answered your asks out of order, it sounds weird but the genuine reason is that because of the times you sent asks i was worried you were losing sleep over the stress of not knowing whether your asks were anonymous or not)

anyway, here are the answers:

1. you're totally right, it's Gothel who speaks first - no one else has a line until the 2-minute mark, they just kind of make noises at each other. i know they did it because it's a dream sequence, but it's still inexplicably funny if you pay attention to it, it reminds me of final fantasy

i did watch the first episode in full to get an idea of what this show was about, and i do have a lot of questions - tangled was one of the only two disney princess films i watched when i was a kid and i still don't really understand how her hair has grown back or who cassandra is (she seems nice though)

2. yeah in hindsight this one is basically impossible to get from memory, and when i wrote it i didn't even realise that there were different animations for the later seasons

the first one has 7, the second has 4 (i think?), and the third has 3, though it's really hard to tell

3. i actually got that wrong, i thought the music box turned into the robot, but you're right, it activates the parts hidden in the presents that then assemble themselves

4. people make fun of disney for their disdain for green eyes, rapunzel is the only disney princess who has them

excluding tangled, i can't even think of two human disney characters with green eyes period

well apparently they decided to overcompensate by making it so that almost no tangled characters have blue eyes, and honestly it's kind of hilarious

even characters who had blue eyes in the movie had their eye colour switched to green for the series

i was only able to pick out five because i noticed the trend and started actively looking for it - and even then, it was like finding a shiny pokemon anytime someone with blue eyes appeared on screen

so the fact that you were able to think of five off the top of your head is crazy impressive

he does - so do varian, frederic, faith and monty, so that's five

5. the mirror is the one on the left

the one on the right is actually based on the broken plate from breaking bad

6. eugene sings last, i have no idea what the context of the song is though

i actually was originally going to use 'nothing left to lose' but i changed it like five minutes before the timer ran out because i realised there were a lot of questions about cassandra, she's just in every clip

7. yeah, it's 'once a handmaiden', i think once her imaginary british friend pulls the cloak off it never comes back

i may have got this one from the wiki

8. the yellow eye is her(?) right eye

9. you're right, it is just a reprise of the first song from before ever after

(though i found out just now that disney's official songlist technically calls it 'life after happily ever after', which is dumb, so i'm going to ignore it)

so, overall i don't think anyone can accuse you of being a fake fan, you definitely got most of them

still, i'm glad you enjoyed it <3

[loopy777]

Whats your thoughts on stories where the author has things planned out, but during the story he/she creates a unplanned character relationahip/dynamic that unexpedtedly becomes one of THE defining aspects of the series.

You'll find plenty of such things across manga, anime, comics, animated series, etc, and plenty of movies has sequels where the main protagonists are shuffled around to reflect what ended up working in the first movie, shuffling the intended second leads to the sides(not exactly a dynamic, but one of the most famous shuffles is Jack Sparrow becoming the main character of the franchise).

The bigger question about this aspect of storytelling is of course how an author should react. In planned narratives, do you think its better if they do change things up, or should they stay the course?

Im reminded of Soul Eater, where the unexpected success of the dynamic between the female lead, and her rival villain turned friend crona ended up being the single best part about it, and came to dominate the later part of the manga... But the mangaka wasnt willing to go all the way with it at the end, creating a very anger inducing ending, while the anime adaption was basically the reverse of Brotherhood and 2003 in terms of quality, but while an integral part about it, maka and Crona's relationship was not reshuffled into becoming the defining dynamic about the series... But while the anime ending is much better than the manga, the removal of Crona from the final villain also meant that he and Maka had no relation whatsoever, creating a very lackluster her/villain dynamic.

So it was a mixed bag. The anime could have been perfect in terms of its ending if it fully embraced the suprising hit that was Chrona and Maka's dynaimc and relationahip, but managed a relatively good ending, while the mangaka chickened out at the last moment in regards to their relationahip, leaving it withouth any sort of closure or climax, despite being the single most defining character part of Maka's journey.

And thats just one single, example qbout this kind of reshuffling in regarda to suprise character hits. Im sure you have your own examples of dynamics you ended up loving that was not planned to be so good it became a mainstay.

With an addendum:

Also just a quick clarification, when i said the soul eater manga/anime was the opposite in terms of 2003/brotherhood, i meant the manga started off terrible, had an infuriated ending, and a lot of bad points though, while the anime version was for the most part a solid, great anime from start to finish with a decent, if not spectacular, anime only ending. I probably worded that very badly in the initial ask.

Well, I think it depends. With a work with a primary commercial nature -- that is to say, a work where the primary intent is to sell new installments to the audience over making some kind of artistic statement -- I think the author's job is to shift things as needed to increase and/or maintain the audience. That's not to say they should automatically give audiences what they (think they) want, but if a certain unexpected character or element is providing the most satisfaction, then why wouldn't they pivot on that?

In a lot of cases, that kind of thing comes about because the rest of work is more generic, and the audience is focusing on the original or deeper-rendered elements. For example, I don't think there are any people left who actually think Korra should have gotten back together with Mako at the end of LoK instead of starting a romance with Asami, even though you can see the sloppy welding lines where that whole thing was hastily added to an existing structure. Getting Makorra would have been a mediocre-at-best implementation of something we'd seen a billion times before, where Korrasami was groundbreaking despite being hastily scrawled in pencil on a printed script.

That said, one of the great thing about plans is that they're a handy guide to how to change the plan. If you know what you need to set up for your ending, and you now want to change some of those necessary steps, you can see that you need to change your ending, and you not only have an idea of what new path you might now be starting on but you also know what other resources you have to construct a new ending.

That said, I'm a big fan of the idea that a story's ending should be a reflection and/or final statement of what the whole work is about. If your audience isn't responding to the setup for that, your story is not working and at this point -- whether or not you change your plan -- you're probably aiming just to swim to a shore before you drown. If you need to keep afloat on a popular element for a while before bringing things to a hasty and dissatisfying conclusion, at least you were employed for a while and maybe got some good merchandising going.

So I think that's what's going on with your Soul Eater example, although I know nothing about either that manga or anime, so I'm just going by your summary. The original idea wasn't compelling, or at least wasn't anything special. The question then is why the author wasn't able to find a new ending to reflect the more interesting focus.

Well, my understanding is manga production is so fast-paced that there probably wasn't an opportunity for the author to sit down and figure out a new plan. Planning is very involved if you want to create a powerful, resonate work, and manga needs to be written and drawn on a weekly basis. I don't know if Soul Eater kept to that schedule, but the impression I have is that -- aside from a few superstars who have the riches and privilege to take a week off if they're delirious with fever -- manga-production is one of those professions like soldiers, deep-sea fishermen, and Black Friday retail assistants where we expect a high death rate and just consider it the cost of an essential job for society's function. So the publisher might have not given the author the time to both produce the manga and figure out where the new path is going; after all, by the time it ends, the publisher probably has a new hot seller and the audience has already bought all the Soul Eater plastic statues they need.

That all sounds very cynical, because it is, and in the end, I don't know that I can advocate a principle here. It isn't about art. Making changes can create an awkward work that maybe fizzles out in the end. But not making changes can create an elegant work that never even gets to the finish line.

There are also works where the author maintained discipline, stuck to a plan and didn't give in to fan-service, and created something powerful and resonate. There are also works where a little structural clunkiness is almost completely ignored compared to how satisfying its audience finds the overall product.

Ideally, a nice mix can be found. For all that we criticize George Lucas for his lack of collaboration in the Star Wars prequels, he did all but cut Jar-Jar out of the second and third movies in that trilogy, and that wasn't because of his own personal whims. And I think we can all agree that was for the better.

As far as my own storytelling experiences go, I did alter my plans for Traitor's Face to give Zhao more of a role in response to reader comments. He certainly didn't take over the story, and didn't even become a primary antagonist, but I did give him some plot points that would have gone to other characters. Of course, it helps that there was a lot of other compelling stuff in that story (or so I flatter myself, but come on, those mysteries rocked), so I didn't need to lean on Zhao to keep reader interest. It also helps that no publisher was pushing me to turn my fanfic into a massive blockbuster franchise keeping the lights on for everyone for the next ten years.

So my final position is that I'm a sell-out, but I think I would be very good at selling out, if anyone has any money they want to throw at me.

[keefwho]

July 19 - 2023 Wednesday

7:51 AM

I think maybe I have a case of imposter syndrome. Something I was reading related to how I think, “They wouldn’t say I was good if they knew what I was REALLY like.” It makes sense too, believing you’re a bad or broken person despite operating well on the outside will make you feel like that quote. But as soon as I defuse from self criticizing thoughts and develop better perspective, my self opinion improves greatly. 

2:11 PM

I feel like writing every time I am in distress which is almost constantly. Its EXACTLY like when I had my major anxiety problem because there was actually no break. It was constant, every hour. I do feel like I’m taking my first effective step in getting better about my situation though. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself because it’s only been a few days now that I’ve been applying focus on just a couple of things. Those two things are reminding myself that I’m me as much as possible, and identifying/defusing from thoughts that cause me distress. Whenever I feel ‘bad’, I try to think about what exactly is making me feel this way. Often times it will come down to a thought or belief that may or may not be true but either way is occupying my mental space in an unhelpful way. I’m trying to improve on noticing these thoughts and not letting them get to me so much. I can still feel bad about things as long as I’m not getting too sucked in. 

3:29 PM

At my core I just want someone to share things with. Experiences and feelings. Some to feel open and safe with. Someone who loves me as much as I love them. The yearning is strong.

3:55 PM

The thoughts are coming on strong. Thoughts like: “How did I fuck up everything so bad.” “Can I really move forward.” “What if I lose them.” “I can’t talk to anyone, they’ll hate me.” “I’ll never see improvement.” “My relationships are on the downhill.” “What if I stay lonely today?”

But they are only words. They might be true or untrue. They are just appraisals made by my mind about everything I got going on.

Im always irrationally worried that today will be the last time I talk to my bestie. I’m afraid she will become too aware of how fucked up I am. 

4:48 PM

I’m deep in, trying to defuse from my thoughts. There are just so many. I also have to defuse from the thought that I won’t be able to defuse. Its INSANE. I could use some perspective if only I could find a way to get it right now. I feel like I’m stuck in the past in a place that doesn’t exist. 

For awhile I was hopeful that I could rekindle a friendship with someone I had a falling out with but I think I’m far too late. Its something I let slip away and I’m upset at myself for it. I see old pics and feel sad that they are probably looked at by the other person as something hurtful. I handled everything that happened very poorly, all because I didn’t know how to handle my feelings properly and didn’t have a good grasp on myself. Thats why I’m still afraid now. I’m afraid I’m going to mess everything up again for similar reasons. Things I can’t even see yet. 

10:44 PM

This morning I ate beefaroni with some saltines in it and an applesauce. Kind of a weak breakfast but it was different than usual at least and very convenient. I tried making a stellar cup of coffee with extra sugar but got some coffee grounds in it. I did a warmup off stream and a little bit late. I felt very strongly that I wanted to make something mushy for my bestie. Just a little thing to show her how highly I think of her. I started my stream after that and only went for 1 hour 15 minutes instead of 2 because of how behind schedule I was. Since the commissioner is paying double I could afford to do that. We watched the King Ramsey episode of Courage today. I was also kinda brain dead like I didn’t know how to make non-awkward conversation. After stream I procrastinated a little bit before my workout. It was a pain in the ass setting it up but I got my mic, wireless headphones, and xbox controller configured to play VRchat while I walked. I did stay occupied but unfortunately made no conversation with anyone. I watched Henry’s Kitchen stream on the side. I did 2.5 out of 3 miles on the treadmill and ended early so I could mow the lawn which would also count as my cleaning for the day. Half the lawn is basically fully dead at this point and I don’t know what to do about that. I had a quick shower before making lunch. I made Rice a Roni Pilaf with broccoli, green beans, spinach, onions, and tuna. It wasn’t bad but I didn’t cut the onions very well and I don’t like the texture of pilaf very much. At this point I was starting to get in a bad mood and eventually got around to doing today’s request but I decided not to do project work today. I felt like sulking a little bit instead. Also my eyes hurt. I knew I couldn’t just sulk though and tried to work just a little bit on anything I knew I wanted to do. I played Pony Town and made a little addition to my house. I made the Hopping Homies VRchat group and a stand-in banner. I set up 2 new channels in my server specifically for my art and VR content. Might expand that in the future but this’ll do for now. I watched XQC stream and hopped into his discord server’s VC and actually made some nice little conversation while all watching him together. I kinda trauma dumped but so did the other guy I was talking to. It would be helpful for me to stop saying “im fine” even to strangers when I’m not actually fine. I’m not trying to sympathy farm, just be open and honest about being down because it’s okay that I am. I had a little VR time with the bestie after that and a nice  feelings chat with her. I probably have something to talk about almost every night but I do worry if discussing each other’s sorrows so often could be a bad thing. Thats just my brain talking, I feel as though it is good but on the surface it seems like it could get out of hand. But maybe not. It’s something I’ll figure out by feel. 

I think today it would have been best not to make that sketch, only because I sort of promised I would give less to my bestie because of how it can make her feel like she needs to do more. I made sure I wasn’t doing it out of obligation or anything though, I really wanted to do it. I got satisfaction out of it. I definitely wish I hadn’t of procrastinated as much as I did or shirk my project time. I did do a good job of channeling my energy into doing things afterward though. I popped off around VR time because I really do feel like myself around my friend. I feel at home in a way. It’s one of the few times I know what I want and who I am.

[intensemoonz]

This year I’m not going to have time for the level of journaling or self reflection practice that I have spent the last few years building into my life. Thats the reality of becoming a parent! Lots of stuff just doesn’t fit into my life right now and I am mostly okay with that, I’m too tired for starters lol and its also okay to spend a bit less time being as intensely self involved as I was. Everything in its season etc. One thing I am committing to is a little tarot vibe check each month, which will consist of drawing a card at the start of the month, putting it into my daily diary with some of the meanings/associations, and then doing a little reflection at the end of the month about if that card’s energy was present during the month or any feelings that have come up that it might add some meaning to. 

I drew The Devil at the start of January and at first I was like… well this was stupid I don’t think this is The Vibe at all right now, maybe I am not very connected to my deck at the moment as I am a bit out of practice. But then I saw that in addition to being related to matters of materiality and general ignorance this card is all about feelings of helplessness and bondage. And this month it has been really important for me to not get too bogged down in the feeling of how relentless parenting can be, like this is something I have chosen to do and I love my little baby almost an unimaginable and inexpressible amount, and its still so hard and hellish sometimes. But all of it is so temporary. The good times are precious and do not last, and the bad times will be over soon enough. One more thing on the bondage aspect is how I have felt about trying to feed my baby, its been the hardest part by far and I have felt really trapped by having to do this vital important life giving thing, literally keeping this amazing being alive and I am the only one that can do that for her, but also its so hard and maybe not enough!!! Formula exists and is right there and is how my mum fed me and I made it through infancy fine! Anyway, I think I kind of have the hang of it now but woof what a fucking month and so much more energy from this card and such a good reminder to examine my assumptions about each moment and how long things actually last (not that long it turns out).

Also I explicitly asked people to not give us plastic toys as gifts and we got given so. many. stuffed. toys. I guess that is following the assignment but honestly I don’t know what to do with all the stuff people foist on you while trying to be generous lol.

[karatecaulfield]

Hi, may I have a ship for Cobra Kai & Outerbanks. I go by she/her and am bi with no preference so any gender is fine.

Ive been told I typically wear what would be considered 90s type of style but leaning away from more feminine things tho I’m not opposed to dresses and all. 

I do get pretty anxious when thrown in certain situations rather that be talking to a group of people or just one person. But on occasion and definitely when I get to know someone I never stop talking. I am a ranter and rambler which means I could be ranting about something that happened and then start talking about something else that may or may not be related to the original subject. Basically I will always find something to talk about though I do enjoy listening to other people talk. I am considered the mom friend because I tend to be the most logical. Im also a very determined, stubborn person who usually is kinda pessimistic but still has a huge imagination. And despite all the anxiety I am usually a relatively confident person and am not afraid to take up for anyone I care about. Also I am pretty good in school despite having a kinda bad memory. Also an INTJ, Sagittarius, and Ravenclaw. 

I absolutely love writing and have for the longest time. I also love drawing and painting (mostly art related to animals and the occasional landscape) I’ve also been a big music fan since I was a kid, I honestly dont know what I would do without it. I also really enjoy reading, I could spend hours getting consumed by whatever I’m reading. Which also travels into me when I’m watching things. As in I spend a good bit of time just binge watching new or old shows. I also really like walking around and enjoying nature. Theres a few nature trails I love going on and would go to the zoo every weekend if I had the chance. Also I do like going to random places with my friends. 

And thats about all I can think of to say, hope it wasnt too much lol. But anyways, thanks in advance :)

Robby Keene! I think that he would be really drawn to your overall vibe. He kind of likes a challenge when it comes to getting an s/o so I think he would like you being shy and first, then more open when you get to know him. It makes him feel special. He needs someone who is a good listener and falls more on the logical side of things because when he’s upset he can be a little impulsive. It would mean a lot if someone was there to talk him down from his anger. He would love to show you Miyagi-Do karate and help you connect to nature, but also help you connect with him in a way. While he would always be happy hearing about your books and music tastes, there’s just something about the outdoors that makes him feel more bonded with a person.

Sarah Cameron! I think she would love your style, and you’d be sharing clothes a lot. She’s the kind of s/o that would be great at talking you out of anxiety attacks, reminding you that you don’t always have to be the strong one. The two of you would have some really amazing, deep conversations together, which is something that would simply stay between you guys. Sarah would really encourage your artistic side, wanting to see every step of something that you’re working on even if it’s a long time from being finished. Being in Outerbanks is kind of hard unless you are one with nature, in terms of the ocean and things like that. She loves feeling connected to the water, and with you.

A/N- thank you for the request! I hope you enjoy, please feel free to request again if it isn’t what you were hoping for <3

[relatableventpage]

i love you forever and always, I had a this big speech I was going to give you for our 6 month coming up in a few days but now that youre gone I have no one to give it to. I really wish for the best in life and for you to get better with your health. Im always here if you need someone to talk to.

(name), I remember the exact night, time, what I was wearing, what you said to me and the first thing I thought of when we first met. I remember how I literally confessed to you like 4 times and the first 3 you IGNORED ME. But that 4th try was gonna be my last shot and after that I was giving up. (also not to sound salty or anything but you also REJECTED ME FOR VALENTINES DAY) but, Im so glad i tried again bc now ive got to spend 6 months, 6 whole months with someone i just might die without<33. Whenever im meeting new people i cant help but look for the you in them, words cannot express how beautiful you are and nothing will ever change the way i see you and think of you. You genuinely changed my life for the better, you may not have realised it because of the way things happened between everyone, but you helped me understand what real friends are. And the people I was friends with were anything but. You helped me understand the qualities to look for in people, and i really thank you for that. Yes, at times I do miss talking with them and hanging out with them because I mean, I was friends with them for quite a while; but if I had the choice to start over and decide you or them, id choose you again without a second thought, thats how much you matter to me. I know im kinda sucky at conforting people and maybe i come off as i dont really care or cant be bothered, but id do anything for you, if I could stop the world to help you I would. Gosh, if i could stop the world, id stop it just to spend time with you, even if its not in person id stop the world just to talk to you. Just to hear your voice. Please, please, please, if youre ever doubting something or need help, or even just need to get something off your chest, pleeeease know that i will listennnn. I cannot stress this enough aster, i fucking love you so much and I want the best for you. I dont want anything bad to happen. (name), you are the first person to ever make me feel good, about being me. People like that are hard to find and im so lucky to have found you when I did, because if im being honest, before we joined that stupid overly problematic server, i quite literally might have off'ed myself. Youre my first serious relationship and no matter what happens I know I wont love another the way i love you. Also did i mention i love you and if we were stuck in a box I wouldnt just be stuck in a box with you, id give u smooch😚. And that whenever I hear a song remotely related to loving someone you instantly come to mind. Or when i see my favourite flower im like "reminds me of (name)" bc of how much I love it. And when im walking by myself i always think "damn, i could be holding his hand rn to stop my hands from freezing and snapping off." Also you remind me of the song Money, by the drumbs, idk its not the lyrics that remind me its just the tune and instruments? they sound nice and beautiful, they make me happy i guess. Whenever I see a notif from you im like a little kid winning a stupid prize at a carnival, if im laying on my bed i literally kick my feet when im texting you. I dont care how long it takes for us to finally meet but believe me when we do expect the longest hug youve ever had. I know this is already really long but, i will honestly, truely, completely love you, no matter who you say you are. Maybe you feel really masc one day and then really fem, maybe you feel like absoultley nothing another day and all 3 at once the next. I dont care, I love you so much and you mean the world to me. If I lost you, id lose everything, because theres nothing worth more in my life than you. Happy 6 Months my love<33