#that really doesnt have long term consequences or anything to it

[promptsbytaurie]

anything with wing clipping. i once tried to do research on it for a fic and,, it is SO angsty

i got u fam <333 (i have way too much brainrot on this bear with me LMAO)

tips for writing ✨wingfics✨

!!please credit/tag me if you use this!! i'd love to see what you write!!

physical differences:

area where wings connect to their back is insanely sensitive!!

feathers falling e v e r y w h e r e

wings are big!! if the wearer hasn't had them for long, or is younger/inexperienced, they're gonna knock shit over

~birb noises~

they're actually really good singers with insane lung capacity, a lot of them are/could be opera singers

thin bones, so they're super light and even though most think it's embarrassing to be picked up so easily there's always One Dude who's like 'carry me everywhere'

smaller birds = smaller people. most wings correspond to a specific species, and hummingbird varieties are notoriously short (though never say that to their face, they will probably murder you <3)

unless the avian is a kind of waterbird (penguins, sometimes eagles) going into water will clog their wings and they could drown!! adding onto this i imagine that avians have special bathtubs and brushes and stuff so that they can properly clean their wings

on the flip side if an avian does NOT clean their wings they can get tangled or matted which a) is super painful b) could impact their flying and c) could cause sickness !!

dislocated wings >:(( this happens about as often as dislocated shoulders do with regular people. this can be caused by a couple things like blunt force, trying to manuever/twist wings in ways they aren't supposed to go, or flying too often/straining wings.

psychological differences:

preening!! it's intimate, but doesn't have to be romantic/sexual. obv there is room for very fluffy and romantic moments but it can be either way

flock!!! it's kinda like a family or a pack

the urge to Make a Nest and Only Let the Flock In

once the Flock is In the Nest then the Flock Will Not Leave Ever

molting!! old feathers fall out to allow new ones to grow in !

molting is basically the bird version of a period except all birds have it once or twice a year. they're more emotional, super sensitive, and extra clingy during molting!!

if an avian gives you one of their feathers it's basically a version of marriage, except it doesnt have to be romantic. its essentially a promise, like a 'we're with each other forever' kinda thing.

just as humans have discrimination, i imagine that avians have it too. more common species like songbirds, ravens, or crows are probably valued in society way less than those like eagles, doves, or parrots, and there could also be stereotypes against species like vultures or condors.

on wing clipping:

in my mind wing clipping is a lot like trimming your fingernails realllly sloppily, except the difference is that you should NEVER clip an avian's wings.

what i mean by fingernails is that the nails themselves don't hurt but if you do it sloppily there are Consequences: clipped too short -> irritated skin. clipped inconsistently -> sharp edges, snags on everything INCLUDING other feathers

huge violation of boundaries/self!! clipped wings -> can't fly. flying is integral to avian health and if they can't fly their mood and mental health will fall drastically.

clipped feathers take a long time to grow back, and therefore clipping has long-term effects. it also damages the feathers themselves (obviously) in ways that sometimes can't be healed

if an avian's wings are clipped their trust goes DOWN and their insecurity goes UP. its likely that if someone else tries to touch their wings they will freak out

clipped wings also make avians more jumpy and paranoid because they've lost their major way to escape/protect themselves: flying away.

angst potentials in wingfics (spoiler: there's a lot):

like i said, clipped wings -> can't fly. write about an avian's first time flying again. (not super angsty but still)

SUPER angsty: write about the actual act of wing clipping.

an avian is neglecting their wing care and tries to hide it.

relationship between a 'noble' avian (eagle, dove, etc) and a 'basic' avian (crow, raven, etc) and society's dislike of the relationship.

or maybe avians are a minority in a human world, and an avian has to hide their wings to be safe.

hope this helped!! <33

[the-s1lly-corner]

tadc w a hacker!reader

so like, reader hacked into the circus for shits and giggles, and unlike the cast reader doesn't get amnesia or is trapped or anything and they can leave and join whenever

TADC x hacker!reader !

each part for the characters might be a little shorter !! hope thats okay, my brain is a little raisin in regards to this idea </3 no gangle since i ran out of ideas

CAINE:

wha- how??

honestly i almost think he would see you as a threat at first, but im not sure since im on the fence about whether or not caine is genuinely malicious or not (going purely off the pilot, i have yet to look into anything outside of the pilot)

"honey! you're home!" in this loud voice of his (this can be read as romantic or platonic, obvious joke on the "honey im home!" gag(?) in media)

keeps a close eye on you since he cant bring himself to fully trust you, afterall, youre a hacker and he is an AI, of course he would be wary

POMNI:

uses you to keep track of what's going on in the real world, whether it be to the benefit or detriment of her mental health

riding the whole "pomni is trying to get out" thing, she might team up with you to try to figure out what exactly is going on and how to put a stop to it

not much else to be said, really, you try to crack the mysteries of this digital world together

JAX:

not too interested in what's going on in the real world

probably asks you how far you can go to your hacking, obviously with the intention of mischief

this might actually get you into some trouble with caine, though, depending on what exactly you attempt to do and if it will have lasting negative impacts on the worlds coding and shit

so best not to indulge jax lest you receive real consequences

RAGATHA:

oh! cool

unlike jax and pomni, doesnt try to use you to her benefit since that kind of goes against her whole "be kind" thing

really as long as you're not trying to hurt anyone she would be chill with you imo

occasionally asks about things about the real world and what's currently going on

KINGER:

more cautious around you than he would be if you were in the same position as everyone else, i mean he doesnt know what all you can do and he doesnt really want to find out

what else is there to say?

likely forgets you're there because you're not. trapped like everyone else

bonus if you just. pop into the digital world right next to him and give him a heart attack

do not jumpscare the chess piece please

ZOOBLE:

vague interest, basic questions, then back to their usual indifference

i mean unless you can bust them all out, why would they bug you? they're already come to terms with everything that's going on so really what point is there?

"can you make jax shut the <> up?"

"..no.."

[nin-deer]

Ch 143

i mean i think we all knew deep down the kiss was gonna happen based on the flow of the story but i think this chap reveals a lot about gorou and sarina

(uh warning this got a little out of hand so its pretty long lmao)

so.

i dont think anyone's completely in the wrong, but i definitely don't think they're in the right either. (not that i condone incest; its just that their motivations led them to this specific point. would the story have been fine without it? hell yeah. please i actually prefer it that way. but this is the direction the author decided to take it, so we have to take it as it is as a point of learning more about the character's motivations)

Let's first analyze sarina and gorou's relationship pre-reincarnation. I think I covered this in my last post where I rambled about onk, but gorou is doing a doctor thing where he "accepts" sarina's proposal just to make her happy. We learn in this new chapter that he basically catered to her every request, and that's what started that infatuation. we know from previous chapters that her bio family's shitty, so the only place she would get this love is from gorou. we also learn in this chapter that it's not actually a romantic love but a fanatic love, for lack of better terms. she sees him as her idol. does sarina even know what it feels to be romantically in love with someone? she spent her whole first life in a hospital, isolated from others her age. she spent her second life very curated and protected because of her mom and her future career; she couldn't really live a normal life. (we'll get back to this point later) all she knows about love is through her idols, so she's channeling it into (what she thinks is) romantic love for gorou.

gorou, on the other side of this, is an actual adult who had an actual life before all this, so he knows what a normal life is like. assuming sarina is one of his first patients, its obvious to see that he got attached, which is a very risky situation for scenarios like this. we see this attachment made her death worse, as he threw himself into following Ai to cope for her death. not gonna go too in depth about this here because, again, i made another post for this that i'll probably link at the end bc im referencing it more than i thought... continuing! he knows sarina doesnt have long left so he wants to do what he can for her, thus creating that "idol" persona sarina has for him.

we see in his regret in this new chap that he actually knows what he's doing and is aware of the consequences of his actions. ruby doesn't. she doesn't regret anything. as someone who reads a lot of isekai/reincarnation stories, its easy to joke that ruby and aqua are their old age + their new age, but that isn't necessarily true for ruby. sure, aqua is old and this could apply to him. but ruby? she didn't make it past 18 before she died. she's like,,, 13 times 2. double 13. she never fully developed in her first life, and she's developing in this current life. it's like a continue from where she left off. aqua actually was an adult, so he has all the knowledge and wisdom of an adult. why does this matter? shift your attention back to the concept of love for a bit. aqua knows what she's doing is bad and is trying to stop her, but the knowledge that she's sarina is making him automatically succumb to her wishes. a part of his brain, because of the trauma, still sees ruby as the sickly sarina he was caring for.

ruby is naïve. she doesnt know what love is. all the love she's ever been exposed to is whatever she saw online: idols. i dont even think she fully knows what the concept of family is. aqua is her brother? nope. aqua is the doctor she proposed to and now she has a chance to follow through like all the shows she's seen. she's closer than ever to him, so why give up the chance? even as ruby, she wasn't exposed to a lot of normalcy because of idol culture. she isn't able to learn about the difference between platonic love and fanatic love. we even see this with ai, who she sees more as an idol than her mom. the joy is in her idol being her mom, someone who's supposed to care for her. it's like shes living a fantasy made just for her. because aqua was so obsessed w revenge, he didn't have the chance to teach her anything, and it's not like he needed to learn bc he already knows. ruby doesn't.

aqua, as the one who understands these nuances, should have sat her down and explained things, but he didn't because of the trauma of sarina. ruby is ignorant and is treating things like a tv drama, now that her dreams as sarina can finally become true. aqua doesn't realize how serious ruby is about this because in his mind this is just a child playing house. ruby is like,,,, imagine you die and you wake up actually being sold to one direction. or whatever happens to you in your fav self-insert scenario/fanfic. idk a better analogy lmao but its like finally being able to play out your fantasies irl. she doesn't realize the real world impacts of her actions because, frankly, she doesn't care. she gets to live out her life as she wants. aqua was shocked after the first kiss with ruby because he realized then she was being serious, but he didn't speak out about it because, again, the trauma™. (we see him again uncomfy with the whole situation in the next page, but his lack of objection could be bc it's a scene in the documentary and he finds it more important to get revenge rn) ruby kissed him then because she purposefully created the mood like that so it would fit in the story she was writing in her mind.

so what does this mean? because of their shared pasts, aqua and ruby are put in this situation where ruby can do what she wants and aqua goes along with it. even if he knows its morally wrong, he can't bring himself to break ruby's immersion in all of this. BUT. big but. aqua shouldn't act like this. they're both capable of living out their lives as normal (barring the revenge and the whole idol stuff). he doesn't need to act like this anymore; ruby's not terminally ill. he's not a doctor. what he should have done was firmly deny her stuff he knows is wrong because then he can educate her about the reason why. as much as their personalities are inspired by their past lives, sarina and gorou are dead. they need to move on and live a aqua and ruby. (Harsh, I know, but because of this scenes like *gestures vaguely to the newest two chapters* happens. if aqua stood his ground and taught ruby about familial love and that what she's feeling is probably not romantic, i think this could have been avoided. but alas, we need it for the ~drama~)

-

sorry that went on way longer than i thought lmao. i think i covered everything i wanted to say but im too lazy to read back so fingers crossed

if you made it this far and are curious about the other post i mentioned in the beginning, its here. i just think its some context to my thought process but not necessary to understand this post

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I told my dad's girlfriend about his Tinder? He doesn't use it when they're dating, only when they argue.

i (21 NB, closeted as F) currently live alone with my dad (57 M) while I study in college. My dad has been dating this person (52 F) for about 10 years. They met through work and started dating when I was around 12. They say they get along well, but they argue often, and have broken up multiple times in the past. They do not live together because her family dislikes my dad, including his girlfriend's children (20 and 15 year olds). I also have a bad relationship with him. He does provide good quality food, supplies, and shelter, and does favors (according to him) like cooking or not nagging me for staying up late to study.

The reasons I don't like him is because we share next to no political opinions, he constantly engages in toxic behavior such as harassing people over tiktok where he spends most of his free time, and holds really misogynistic opinions, such as that women should not talk to men unless they intend to engage sexually or romantically with them. He is also very racist (which is bad bc part of my family is indigenous!!) homophobic (i am closeted to him, he doesnt even know i had a girlfriend while my mother does), transphobic, and ableist (he has joked about doing harm or killing autistic children I worked with, has called my half-sibling with an ID a black sheep "jokingly", and i suspect i am autistic myself, to top it off).... These all probably sound like valid reasons to hate him. I just state them to be clear that I do have a negative bias. The only reason I don't rebel is because I want to study without many disturbances and,. He is just a pain in the ass and stressful to be around, but not actively harmful. He also denies every claim I make about him when I do call him out, so i have to confirm with my brother or bystanders to know I'm not making these things up)

Ok so. facts: Every time he breaks up with his girlfriend, he vents it all to me while they stay apart for a few weeks because he doesn't have other people to vent to. So, whenever they break up, he installs Tinder, matches with random women (he does not look at their profiles and just accept everything until a match happens), then shows me their photos to make fun of them. He usually does nothing serious about those relationships, except the one time he held a long distance relationship with a woman in a different country for a few months in 2018 and he expected me to advise him on that while the original girlfriend was making efforts for them to get back together.

I have talked to the girlfriend about my own problems with him and she validates them too. She is a sweet woman, but really non-confrontational. She insists that the two of them get along well, that he does respect her and love her a lot when they're together and she does want to be with him long term, but struggles because her children and family really don't like my dad and avoid him when he visits. I really do not think she deserves such a prick and if she doesn't know he uses dating apps when they break up then... I think she should know, so she can choose what to do about him.

I really DO wanna tell her, but I am afraid of the consequences for her and me for snitching, and while I dislike my dad for well established reasons, I do still need to rely on him, which is why i don't intend to give this info away. I guess more than anything I just want validation in disliking him and whether making this move would be too far. I'm willing to wait until graduating next year to pull it off from a safer distance.

What are these acronyms?

[poppyandzena]

Honestly, how dare they use their familiarity with therapy terms to abuse other people. Theyll say it isnt abuse, but they know it is.

To stay anonymous in fear of her going absolutely nuclear on me as well, all Ill say is I have experience and work in the same field as her. If shes going to pull out her "Im a therapist" card to act as if she knows better than all of us, then let it be known someone who works in the same field finds her behavior abhorant and I suspect she KNOWS it. Ive heard her speak, she is extremely smart, and I believe she knows exactly what she has done.

All of her texts to Noeh/Max are fishing for an "I love you" response when she clearly told Poppy no. She told you no Poppy. You know that. You just couldnt handle it.

I understand that abandonment melange can feel incredibly, incredibly painful. I have been in a similar situation as you Poppy. I know it sucks when the person you are unhealthily infatuated with doesnt love you. Your limerance for Noeh was painful as fuck, I know as much. That pain is coming from your own limerance, not Noeh. Your heart was so set on a relationship that never existed no matter how much you tried to force it. I've had issues with limerance myself, I know that it can feel like life or death and can make you want to do anything to just make the relationship fantasy you want a reality.

And you and I BOTH KNOW that STILL DOES NOT give you the right to do all of these awful things youve done. It was your job to work on yourself and step back and give Noeh the space she asked for. It was your job to reregulate yourself. It was your job to use techniques to stop catastrophizing.

So much damage has been done so far, especially to yourself by yourself at this point. Your peers have disassociated with you and you lost your job because of actions such as implying you would kill yourself if Noeh didnt love you in the way you thought you needed. Any therapist knows how manipulative that action is. You know. I know because you tried to mask it behind obfuscating therapy talk. I know you know this.

Even throughout all of this, and even though I condemn your actions, I still have sympathy for you in that it is obvious you are in an incredible amount of pain. If you want to heal you need to do the right thing and face your own limerance issues. Not being employed right now could be a blessing in disguise as it gives you time to step back and really work on yourself. I think if you take a break from this you will look back and see how many of your friends and peers who have disassociated with you were trying to help you by showing you your self destructive behaviors.

Its time to face the music. If it helps, Ive had infatuation with several unavailable people and the pain and negative behaviors only truely started to heal once I looked inward and faced a truth I was afraid of facing. That it was me. Once you do its not as painful as your brain would have you to believe.

A beautiful and insightful response. I always love when professionals put in their two cents here. You can feel the experience and knowledge simply through the prose. I've talked to mental health professionals as well and they were baffled Poppy was allowed to practice for so long. I will say Poppy was extremely lucky in her career based on the company she kept, but even that wasn't enough to prevent her behavior from causing consequences.

I've said this a few times. I wouldn't care if Poppy was a barista, or a janitor, or a marketing exec, or a rocket scientist. Those careers don't give you access to vulnerable individuals whom you are responsible for keeping alive. If you treat your child, your partner, your friends the way Poppy treats hers and you are a therapist? You are an unsafe practitioner. Full stop.

[lightningonatether]

Plushie AU: How do Punz and Dream act around Sam post reveal? Does Sam stay in his Plushie form? How do things change as time goes by and the shock of the reveal fades away?

…I have this image of Punz specifically taking revenge against Sam for the prison situation by treating him as a pet cat. Collar and pet toys and everything. 😂

oh god this is a very Thick ask... im not sure i can answer all your questions in one. im gonna focus on short term(say, next few months) consequences of the reveal. i wanted to answer this after i finished my reveal comic but its taking SO DAMN LONG. so instead im answering it now.

dream: he feels... betrayed? maybe not quite the right word. but he was ready to be done with sam. hed given sam a way out. from dreams perspective, this feels kind of like sams obsession rearing its ugly head again. he tried to leave sam behind, give them some distance, and then sam somehow violated his trust AGAIN. it feels, in some ways, more vulnerable than last time. dreams hugged him and cried into his fur for fucks sake, nobody was supposed to see that. to cope with having a guy he just cant seem to get rid of, dream avoids him. he doesnt touch him except when he thinks of something he'd like to test, and doesnt talk to him unless its a short command, he doesnt feed him, he doesnt let him out, he just. doesnt do Anything. that involves sam. he tells punz, you persuaded me we should keep him alive, you take care of him. which punz does :) gladly :)

punz: feels... anger, of course. but most importantly, he feels like he can FINALLY do something to make up for all the ways in which dreams been hurt. he can finally hurt someone back. because sam is now Entirely at his mercy. dream tells him he doesnt care, as long as he doesnt die. so youre right to single punz out. punz is Very interested in taking revenge. hes no stranger to violence and hes got an imagination and a year of pent up frustration to take out. he dedicates a bit of his time to making sure sam will stay perfectly obedient. not even Try to escape. its a thinly veiled excuse to just hurt sam and he wont deny it when sam points it out. it still technically counts as obedience training, right? you take it, you beg, you tell me just how sorry you are, and you dont fight back. because if you do, that just means i have to hurt you harder to make it stick. he thinks sams scum!!! and hes very open about it!!!

(its a funny role reversal. punz is obviously not quackity. dream has to remind himself of that sometimes. and punz is right to be angry, anyway, dream understands why he is, so dream wont stop him. a few times he has to come clean sam up afterwards. neither he nor sam really want to acknowledge how famiiliar this feels)

these also arent like... regular. theyre not planned. punz is having a bad day? sam looks at him wrong? usually he just gets a kick or a glare, but sometimes.. Yeah Hahah. remember i mentioned declawing? thats at the very least a Threat. not sure yet if punz follows through but... its a big possibility.

sams pov will Have to be another ask this is getting long

[spikeinthepunch]

okayyy i finished the new ending in Lisa the Joyful so yeah, heres another long Lisa post. this will more so have a short list of what i did and didnt like of the game since i know opinions are often mixed. but ill have a long focus talking about the new content compared to the rest of the game. and will later go on about characterization and writing in detail.

Also while you can find a no commentary video for the new ending, almost all uploads skip an earlier portion of it, so I uploaded it myself! with timestamps.

TW for uhh the same triggers- sexual, physical, verbal abuse mostly.

SO OKAY. Okay.

The brief on the main game....

What I did like:

I like the general story. I enjoyed the horror of watching more and more joy mutants arriving, even some of the warlords being joy mutants already, and normal characters like the uhh shelf vendor guy being a mutant. additionally things like wearing a mask mattering. i think it was important to too still have some weirdos bc thats one of the key things in displaying the cycle of these men's behavior. music always good too of course. i enjoy Buddy's internal conflict too and i dont mind here characterization-- its just the pacing. I actually liked the epilogues a bit more than what the endings actually told us lol... tbh they carry more weight in terms of giving us information about the past. But the ones that hit hardest are the ones where Lisa tells Buzzo to mutilate her so her father wont want her anyways. and the one with Brad's father forcing him to drink alcohol and go with him to lisa's room (to presumedly watch his father abuse lisa).

What i didn't like:

the "original" endings (not the new definitive one) were weak and i am sure most feel that way. I think actually the issue for me is the choice... cuz playing with joy? well i think the "stay with them" makes sense as she gets more fucked up and unstable (and assume addicted). the joyless route makes me feel like i should fittingly take the "leave them" ending bc she is mentally aware enough to know she still hates what happened to her and wants to leave them behind. the choices of them feel conflicting to the routes you might choose but you dont think about it bc there is no consequence to taking joy! the pacing of course is a big complaint. cuz see i dont think the story or writing is horrible i just think it needed to be longer in order to expand on all those things rushed through. the ideas would feel good if the pacing didnt speed through it. the Yado epilogue is fine too but i think just left more questions than answers than the endings themself so i would have rather done without it imo.

As stated i will go WAY more into the characters after I talk about this new stuff. I will talk heavily about what happens in it too so feel free to read this later if you dont watch it... but you really should look at the new Painful and Joyful content as they also kinda go together.

NEW CONTENT..... kind of new ending, it plays directly into it. Unlike Painful where it doesnt alter the actual ending content. and i will go over the normal endings a bit more in relation to this bc of how it affects pacing etc...

So On one hand I like what it added and on the other hand it wasnt great-- which all plays into the games already existing pacing issues. Which is a shame. i liked collecting the items, the meaning of the statues (n the dialog being the same as the Painful one), and the exploration leading up to the warlord fight. I chose not to fight the warlords because they were so damn strong and I like that there was recognition for not fighting back. Idk if i feel like there was a good reason for them to be there but I think it at least gives more meaning to the warlords since they didnt DO that much in the game other than to be killed. Most had barely anything to say.

For the bigger Secret at the grave for Lisa-- I liked this a lot too actually. Getting to hear from the guys their thoughts about Buddy that is from the assumed context theyre already dead here (w how Sticky's death is mentioned esp) is just kinda nice. The further content with Berny and Dusty, where Berny tells him to fight harder and to treat girls with aggression.... yeah that hits. The cycle of abuse really just continues huh. The rest of it is fine, I feel like it does give some better commentary on character's thoughts but it is quite short, and is left on a more metaphorical note with the flowering skull and whatnot.

Now is the part I see more conflict on AGAIN and I dont blame people for being conflicted about it. I didnt mind the way Buzzo talked about Brad in the original-- I dont think that writing was an actual excuse to Brad, I think it was just Buzzo trying to blame himself instead for everything (the new contents dialog with the sticky/rick/cheeks also had good to say on Brad's behavior and not excusing it but talking about the abuse of drugs in the context of that). I did feel that the conversation wasnt enough in the original though, to fully imply that he was talking like that or to give a better conversation on drug abuse. Buuut here we are w the extended new dialog with Buzzo. I did like how he started getting more depressed and angsty about Lisa! And the comment "she would have loved it here" is interesting bc i feel the implication is that she would have loved being in a world where all these men are now gone. but let me move onto the rest bc like, that matters the most here.

woof okay. So Buddy goes off when Buzzo says that which i get. However this conversation falters in the same way the whole game does. Buddy gets a LOT of talking time here. And she kind of keeps going in a way that really doesnt feel plausible you know? The new stuff added more connection between her and Lisa but its not enough to make us think she should be defending Lisa. I think there couldve been a neat exploration of all this comparing to Lisa but Joyful doesnt have that time. While I cant claim it, Buddy's rant kiiinda feels like a rant from behind the scenes with how less in character it feels. Buzzo is made far more pathetic and I don't disagree with this realization that he'd dissolve into a little pathetic man, again the game just doesnt have the time to make it work better.

and dont even get me started on Buddy's inconsistent opinion on Brad... this is like, annoying and I mentioned it in relation to the ending choices. After this new dialog rant Buddy sounds like she is forgiving Brad/coming to realize things about him that gives her more understanding. And i think that is fine BUT the issue is that right after talking to Buzzo the game returns as normal and when she sees mutant Brad approach, she reacts with genuine upset at seeing him and comments how she never wanted to see him again :/

I know at this point there is no way they could have "salvaged" Joyful for this release-- that would be too much and I dont think itd be right to get rid of the old endings entirely (Painful didnt, nor did the new content change anything about it). Its a shame- some of it was good. some of it i think they just shouldnt have done (the end buzzo fight) because it just conflicted more/kind of highlights the pacing problems. if anything i think leaving out that buzzo rant would have made the rest of that feel like it did help the pacing because it gave a pause between the ending of the game. anyways.

CHARACTERIZATIONNNN

righto. i think i covered pacing enough so i will try and leave that out of every comment i make here lol.

So like, I dont have a problem with Buddy's intentions in the game exactly. Her actions in many ways make sense... at least I would say that its fine she is very violent. That is literally the main thing Brad taught her whether or not you look at the start scene of Joyful, it reflects in how she would always be told how dangerous the world is too. The pace of course, makes this all happen so fast.

And of course the biggest hit that I think turns off many is how much talking there is. I certainly love hearing more from characters, Brad was quiet because he was brad, yet no one else needs to be quiet too so i think thats fine. But with Buddy's life it seems like she should have been quiet until her mental state and mindset shifted due to her treatment and justification of violence. even in Painful she seems relatively quiet and Joyful takes place right after pretty much.

In terms of others-- Rando is fine, like hes not that bad. We didn't know him all to well and what we know of Dusty i expected him to be a nice kid, esp w the whole adopted thing. But his back and forth with Buddy was more annoying w how short the game was (doing things, wanting to run to the other place and being stopped for a scene at the campfire by force. repeat.) I did like the whole deal with his friends and later his death too. Buzzo so i dont completely hate buzzo minus the fast jump in the new content. but he was pretty unhinged in Painful and to see it completely drop seemed wrong. i do think it make sense he probably felt loads of guilt for brad... but we just again, didnt get enough time with these characters.

Other characters? Well i mentioned it above but the warlords did NOT get much of any character. Which sucks bc if those parts alone had been extended (their area being longer or more full of interactions) i think it would have helped the game too. In terms of the other antagonist, Bolo, considering he was new for this game I think he was just fine. His role was small in a good way and honestly when he did appear it was for good moments that worked. The whole scene with him, Rando, and Buddy where Buddy tries to save Rando was probably my favorite part lol? Simply bc i think it worked well for all of their characters. For all of them I think it was my favorite moment of characterization-- Buddy's choices to drop or hold him both work for her i think. And yikes, disgusting moment with Bolo. And I will be real, I think Joyful needed that. The game was short so i wouldnt have wanted more but, Painful had it uncomfortable and gross moments and I think that is important to an extent of really pushing the importance of narrative and experiences of Buddy (and reflecting Lisa).

uhhhhh yeah i think thats most of what I can say. iirc i wasnt around for the old kickstarter but Joyful was a stretch goal right? and i heard Austin isnt exactly happy with it either? its really really a shame that it was a stretch goal that felt forced. I get why it was a tempting goal for people but.... it just sucks bc its clear that is why this game turned out the way it did. i wonder often if him not doing much else with the series is simply bc joyful had to be the "conclusion" and its not one hes exactly happy with either. tbh the series could have just been Painful and it would be fine. but if Joyful wasnt a DLC i imagine it would have been likely we'd see a full fledged sequel instead and it sucks it had to go that way. i definitely dont hate the creator for it but itsucks for everyone that even the additions in Definitive cant fix what happened already with that game.

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

thinking about reed's worldview & morality makes me feel sooo insane this guy contains such multitudes it's crazy

(major spoilers for reed's backstory)

like i mean when you take into account all of tesilid's timelines you see him at his lowest and then get up from it and you realise that hey his lowest was pretty low but it really is so far from his default. he did commit atrocities but like it's not an inherent part of him. when he decided comitting atrocities wasn't worth it anymore he did just stop, because being evil wasn't really very important to him anyway.

my read on reed's motivation is that it's not really about him being evil and wanting to cause pain, but a desperate attempt to save himself. i don't really see all his mass murdering as him being inherently evil tbh because like. he had saved the world 8+ times and all of that reset. what is the worth of other people's lives, when any joy they experience, any pain they felt, would no longer exist except for in his memories? i think to reed, every other person becomes like a video game character. it's perhaps disturbing but the immorality of killing them is a little suspect because death and suffering doesn't even have long-term consequences for said person anyway. reed causing some massive destruction is just... morbid entertainment? reed certainly smiles (smirks) more than he ever does as tesilid. glad he's having fun(?). like everyone in the timeline is going to die anyway according to his plans, and they and anyone else who lived didn't have a future even if he did fail, so what does it matter if they died now or not.

but even after he's become uncorrupted tesilid again, it's still clear that he remains angry and vengeful. he chokes and scares the bandit leader Just Because. The bandit leader in this timeline doesn't even know what tesilid is taking revenge for, so all that scaring is really just for tesilid's own satisfaction. Scaring the hell out of the bandit leader is important enough to tesilid that he risks ailette seeing this happen if she just turned around a little early. And in the pandora's box dungeon, he lied to the order of light pillars about having lost his memories about the sculptor's atelier, but "don't worry my memories are coming back!" There's literally no reason for him to lie in this particular way, if not to see them squirm. and he purposely leaves them with ailette, whom he knows will beat them black and blue for him. he's still going to sacrifice himself for others and put himself in danger, but he's not above some schadenfreude and taking delight in the pain of those who'd wronged him, he's not some saint.

he's still angry and vengeful but even as readers we rarely get to see this side of him, because there are things more important to him than revenge. And doesn't that say something about his capacity to love and to be good. Even after hitting the lowest of low, he still picks himself up. He cares about Ailette's safety so much and tries to get along with her family. I kind of wonder if he woke up and went yeah that "destroy everything" plan was kind of whatever let's try something else this time, and picked up his moral compass where he dropped it under the kitchen counter. his attitude to cardinal cartelyena dooming him to a really terribad punishment is really just "yah i was objectively bad so i don't even hold anything against you lol".

like. shakes him up and down. the way he decides to mass murder and then some time after goes actually you know what sorry god that wasn't very nice of me i think i'll be good this time and he genuinely means it. it's so funny he has such a range and it doesn't compromise the integrity of his character at all, his core still feels the same. do you get me. like he's always been intrinsically inclined towards doing good and he has a great deal of patience, but he can also snap and be angry and decide to just be evil but it also doesnt make his inclinations towards goodness any less real you know what i mean.

also he's so good at lying that it's funny. he's lying all the time and no one even questions it, because why would he lie? he's the pushover doormat who always sacrifices himself for others. the only way you would know that he's lying was if you already somehow knew the truth. and you sure as hell aren't getting it out of him. honesty being a virtue (generally speaking) and he doesn't have an ounce of it. and none of the people in universe would even consider it.

edit: i realised that it's not really accurate to say that destroying the world wasn't that important to reed anyway, because reed did expressedly reject ailette because he was so hell-bent on destroying the world. ah well we all have times when we hit rock bottom and he sure hit at least 500km past that. whatever, the point is that he did that and then went oh whoops let's not do that this time and genuinely meant it. what a guy. i love all the character development he goes through. and the great changes he goes through doesn't feel contrived at all.

[kudzucataclysm]

SO WTF IS SE ABT FOR REAL??

like whats the STORY u may ask. well, im about to give you the run down right here right now (below the cut...cuz its alot..)

tagging @cosmiccoincidence @constellies and @vacantgodling cuz u guyz liked that post so u have to suffer for it

AIGHT HERE WE GO

SE Arc 1 is (as of now) split up into 4 parts, and contains 4 primary plotlines that are each introduced as the story progresses. If anything its typical of a jprg- we start out with dez and frank doing CrimesTM for money only for things to escalate EXASPERATEDLY by the climax/end of the Arc. Arc 1 is effectively the build-up, and I’m gonna give a run down on each part before going into the plotlines

PART 1 - aka the part im struggling most with rn. EXTREMELY episodic in tone, i want the major plot to sort of sneak in as things move along. The best i can sum this part up is “FUCK BITCHES GET MONEY”; Dez believes he needs a job to help his dad pay the bills, and thats how he ends up doing odd jobs for Carmine (along with various other criminals) with Frank along for the ride (against her will). This part is mostly their adventures while also acting as a basic establishment/exploration of the world of sorts, and plenty of foreshadowing is here. Another plotline that is teased is the one involving the Promethean Society. 

PART 2 - aka ‘what the fuck was that’, in which the plotline regarding the Martian Kingdom gets full attention, and more Promethean Society characters are introduced. Dez and Frank have to deal with the aftermath of part 1, each in their own ways; Francis is newly homeless and confronted with the full scope of her Mental Illness~ and what she is by way of Thursday and her ‘long lost’ twin Ozymandias; Desmond begins to question whether or not its really worth it to continue to be used in the way he has, and he begins to…well, lets just say, he begins to let himself be properly angry. As stated before, Thursday and Friday are introduced and its through them that we get more into the Martian side of things!! yaaaay!!!

PART 3 - aka ‘FUCK it turns out our actions have consequences!!!’, in which the plotline goes full Promethean for a bit, alongside a NEC corporate warfare subplot that actually involves the Martians way more than you think. The ghosts Frankie and Dark are introduced, shit goes down, and Dez builds that nuclear bomb i like to make memes abt. Theres honestly way too much spoilery stuff in this part that i cant divulge, but basically everything kinda falls apart and our unlucky protagonist duo is forced to strike out on their own with only each other to count on.

PART 4 - aka ‘THE INTERMISSION’, which really cant be called a 'part' in and of itself tbh but wtv im rolling with it. Basically a run down of the blistering aftermath of part 3, as well as a HUGE 1000+ PAGES LONG RABBIT HOLE OF FLASHBACKS WITHIN FLASHBACKS. Not to say that the other parts dont have flashbacks as well, but these are gonna be mainly concerned with Lupe, Hammond, Maya, Carson, Azelfafage, Thursday and Friday- basically, the entire 20th century is gonna be covered and boy howdy its gonna be a brick in the face in terms of information and lore im gonna throw out.

NOW THAT THATS OUT OF THE WAY, LEMME SUM UP THE MAJOR PLOTLINES

Desmond and Francis: the two cherubs. The BABIES, who’re thrown into all this BULLSHIT just becuz their families cant be normal. SAD!! Francis has to deal with her extended family, which happens to be, oh, the fucking CURRENT RULER OF THE ENTIRE WORLD, Azel who wants to EAT ALL HUMANS, and her shitty loser ass twin brother; she has to deal with Thursday and Friday as well who in turn, want to KILL ALL MARTIANS?? (or at least most of em); Francis doesnt want to deal with this shit at ALL. Meanwhile, Desmond? Aaaahahaha oh my god. Lupe Altena is a pretty close relative of his (an AUNT) and she’s actually had her eye(singular) on him for QUITE a while now, and as it turns out, Dez is actually a pretty important fucking dude!!! And everyone who knows wants to get their hands on him…

Carson (and by extension Maya): aka the Prometheus plotline. Carson is the granddaughter of Carmine, Dez and Francis’s boss - and she’s a major Promethean Society scientist who’s kinda sorta maybe definitely a fuck up. She’s the one with the plan to sort of take the reins of the human race and end the cold war between Earth and Mars by way of SOMEHOW managing to acquire the finger of now-dead Martian King ALDEBARAN (Francis’s grandfather and arguably the most powerful Martian to exist ever) and to use it to…do that apparently. hm!!! Oh and Maya is very much Not For this lol

Friday (and by extension Thursday, Azel, and Kraz): WOOOOOOOO yeah Martians!! Kill em all!!!!! But yeah, we’re gonna see a shit ton of the alien side of things through their eyes cuz its kinda their job to deal with em, both fatally and diplomatically, to see that…it turns out that ALL Martians don’t wanna eat everything on Earth?? HMMMM!!!

Hammond: his plotline doesnt get introduced till much later (end of part 2) but basically hey, through this guy we’re gonna see history. The guy is almost 100 years old and has been involved in every single major event in the timeline of SE, and where a lot of Mysteries arise- what exactly happened to Lupe? Why DO they want to kill all Martians? Whats the real purpose behind the Promethean Society, and why exactly is Desmond Arkady so important?? We will just have to see!

but thaaaats basically it! Arc 2 is still in the brainstorming phase but i have plenty of ideas. theres soooo much shit that actually goes on between all of this but yeyeyeyeye this is SE, just a plain old story abt two unlucky kids gettin into shit thats way beyond them :) hope u enjoyed!!

[shinraapologist]

time to ante up to the promised essay in your shinra post on which characters in drrr are autistic. NOW

short answer they all are. long answer with receipts under the cut (sources: my autistic ass)

mikado- has trouble navigating social situations and responding "appropriately" to them, and his vocal inflection that doesn't necessarily "match" feelings,. his special interest is the dollars and watching the interactions between them and studying what impact his actions have on them. hes just like izaya fr. i feel like the paralels between them dont get talked abt enough. mikado is izaya if he got scared straight at the end of his middle school homoromantic friendship that resulted in him being stabbed instead of going hm. this will have long term consequences on me actually

masaomi- has trouble understanding the motivations and feelings of others. he masks strongly with his confident "ladies man" persona.

anri- she has a lack of vocal inflection, doesnt make eye contact, has trouble navigating social situations, her vocal inflection doesnt necessarily "match" her feelings. she has sensory issues (wears her her hoodie dress because she likes the sensory input, not to little and not too much.) relies on a routine (nothing ever happens nothing ever changes).

celty- uses strong body language yet struggles to read the body language of others. mirrors extensively. she mirrors everyone to a degree but especially shinra and shizuo. this should not be news to anyone just LOOK at them. i love them.

her dramatic body language is 100% mirrored from shinra. since she spends a lot of time with him and he emotes so strongly she's memorized his body language in association with certain emotions and performs them when shes feeling that emotion. (in SH she's even depicted as rolling around on the floor when shes upset, which is something shinra does 18436 times.) is shown to occaisonally wear regular clothes (mostly pajamas) when shes capable of making anything with her shadow which to ME implies she's seeking the sensory input from the soft fabric. she also tends to think in extremes, everything is very black and white for her.

shinra- has trouble regulating his emotions and helps himself regulate by stimming (dancing/wiggling when hes happy, rolling on the ground when hes upset, getting very still when hes concentrating or anxious.) over emotes to match the intensity of his emotions regardless of the situation. his neutral expression and tone of voice are hyper and excitable. has trouble understanding social cues and social norms. wears the lab coat ALL the time to the point that other characters comment on it. not something a neurotypical man does. his special interests are surgery and human anatomy. he genuinely loves his job in part because even though there's an anatomy "standard" no human body ever actually looks like the illustrations. he loves to study the variances he notices in his work and loves to perfect surgical techniques.

shizuo- has trouble regulating his emotions. his neutral expression and tone is said to be flat and without affect. struggles with overstimulation (wears the blue lens sunglasses to avoid the bright sunlight, wears his vest fitted at the chest for the slight compression) (because hes TRANSGENDER and really liked how his binder felt. brought to u by me who had a phase where i was binding unsafely purely for the stim of it. dont do that btw i can no longer bind at all 🤪) he has meltdowns when he gets too overstimulated. he enjoys uneventfullness and routine but from a combination of powers that be and his tendency to escalate situations when hes upset, he doesnt get much of that. escalates situations due to losing his emotional regulation. he also has trouble reading situations as well as trauma that leads him to constantly feel on edge and anxious.

izaya- somehow the only canonically autistic character. he has a strong mask in his usual calm vaugely smug demeanor that slips when he feels strongly about something. (stomping on the cell phone, laughing when he's delighted by human behavior, punching the telephone pole.) he has very black and white thinking that often gets interpreted as being morally grey. (he is btw. literally everyone in drrr is. its the morally grey fucked up characters media idk what you want) he would describe his special interest as humanity (and does, in canon) but its more sociology and human behavior. just like shinra, hes always in that damn coat. autism behavior.

walker and erika- they are autistic in the same font. twins. besties. wear comfortable clothes for sensory reasons (although erika's interest in fashion is enough incentive for her to sometimes dress up despite the sensory issues it causes. me too tho.) both have a special interest their light novels. both dont understand social norms and theyre both aware of that and neither of them care. legends.

saburo- struggles with social interactions. special interests in his van (possibly cars in general) and ruri hijiribe. had no idea he was autistic until he met walker and erika who assumed he already knew. looked at one (1) website and suddenly his whole life made sense.

seiji- his usual speaking voice is very monotone and his facial expressions are typically pretty reserved. like izaya and celty he thinks a lot in black and white.

mairu- her speaking voice is very monotone and she doesnt tend to express her emotions outwardly. she's selectively verbal also. likes her gym clothes for sensory reasons.

kururi- autism/adhd combo platter legend and we love that for her. special interest in martial arts. she doesnt quite get social norms nor does she care.

manami- i dont have solid evidence for this one i just know that is the hairstyle of an autism hero.

kasuka- speaks in a monotone, has one facial expression, doesnt outwardly show his emotions (altho ppl close to him can still read them). doesnt comprehend neurotypical socialization but gets along really really well with other autistic people.

ruri- she is just like kasuka fr. walker and erika moment with these two.

saki- masks really heavily but is bad at it. me too girl. when shes comfortable and not masking she somehow seems less stiff.

akane- really struggles with figures of speech. hates eye contact. special interest in art and drawing and i hope she starts making art again. i love akane thats my child and the entire awakusus child and shizuos child also.

vorona- she speaks in a monotone and HATES eye contact. she gets away with not making any by always looking at her book instead. reading as a special interest. she has an amazing memory.

slon- struggles with figures of speech and emotional regulation.

kasane- also speaks in a monotone. takes everything very literally. another strong black and white thinker. special interest in cats and cat behavior. cats LOVE her. cats always love autistic legends. also the yellow pantsuit? a slay. no nt person would ever pick that up.

dokusonmaru- got it genetically from his father kasuka. also all cats are autistic inherently.

characters that arent autistic but definitely have adhd: KADOTA. aoba. mika. tom. chikage.

[oasisofgalaxies]

✋ I wanna hear about rosegold (lol)

EYYYYYY SDFJSLKDF ok so ive talked about rosegold a bit on here!! prolly can find it under rosegold or ikea au (previous name) in the tags but tumblr isnt a functioning site so who knows. a few people know of it from the lovely indy @ind1c0lite's animatics for it (CHECK THEM OUT THEY ARE GOOD)

anyways !! brief overview, Guardians! Guardians are created by the universe, known to them as Mother. Each guardian is a kind of god of sorts in terms of power, but they arent worshiped or anything. Each guardian controls a domain, or domains. If one guardian has multiple domains, its limited to two and they usually go hand in hand! Mori, the guardian of life and death, and Memento, the guardian of time and memory, and Una, the guardian of timelines and reality are good examples of this.

BUT some Guardians come in pairs! Usually these pairs have corresponding or even opposing domains. For example, Sana, guardian of healing, and Aegri, guardian of disease.

Basically Guardians exist as a conduit for their domains. They help maintain order within them and prevent any anomalies. They help keep their respective timeline all in order! Nice n tidy. Sometimes things do go wrong, mostly due to the Collective.

The Collective is one antagonistic force in the Rosegold universe! The opposite to Mother, they are an eldritch hivemind/collection/smorgasbord of chaos and destruction. While horrific, they are the guardian's balance. The Collective destroys timelines, the Guardians maintain new and old ones. Its a cycle of the universe!

So getting into the meat of it all, the plot of Rosegold follows Mem, Mori, and Una. A lot of this is illustrated in the animatics (go watch they are amazing) AND the overview video Indy made!! (CLICK HERE) Indy explains it way better than I ever could but here we go.

So Rosegold's plot jumps around a bit. Doesnt help that we're still building it, things a huge work in progress. Anywho- You got the exposition in the beginning of it all, the beginning of this particular timeline. The start of the universe! Its all well and dandy and the like. It progresses from there, but the past isnt really the main focus.

It all starts around the 50s and 60s when Una, bored i guess (im unsure of her actual motivations for this. fuck around and find out?) makes her existence known to a research facility. The facility was inspired by the SCP foundation if that helps with visuals. Anyways there she meets a human scientist by the name of Marcus Doom.

The two form a sort of working friendship, Una giving Marcus sparse details on the Guardian's Homeworld, affectionately called HQ, and Marcus eating all of this up like the weirdo conspiracy theorist he is. But as time went on, Una visited Earth less and less until one day she stopped coming. Marcus did not like this.

So, theres some unfortunate consequences to a Guardian interacting with a mortal being. Boundless as they are, the mortal mind can't really comprehend them. Sort of like how Greek Gods had to disguise themselves so people wouldn't spontaneously combust at the sight of them. Thats not the case for Guardians, however. It acts sort of like long term exposure to radiation. Just a brief point of contact and you're not likely to experience any harm. But over time the effects get worse. Side effects can vary guardian to guardian. In Marcus's case, he became obsessed, traveling down this rabbit hole as far as physically possible.

This post is already getting really long so if you want to know more!! shoot me another ask!! :D

[ghcstvalleychief]

You know why I hate vegas? Its not because of what his done but rather how everyone reacts to it. Man can be nasty all he wants but why all characters just forgive and move on? He ruins people yet no one is seeking revenge. Like his dad is the bare minimum we get of someone teaching him a lesson but he doesnt count cuz his dad is just shitty to begin with. Not one person let him deal with the pain he causes. Even kinn who hates him does nothing. Like he villian yet no one treats him like one?!

I hate characters who appear to be untouchable like that. For example, there's Nate in Euphoria who is obviously the villain of the series. Yet, he gets away with everything. There's never any true consequences for all of the screwed up shit he's done. I hate characters who always seem to win even when they lose. Meaning - the writers may throw some sort of a negative consequence at this character but the character will eventually still win in the long run. They experience a minor hiccup, but they will still come out on top and I don't quite understand why they do that. Vegas and Nate are just two characters, but writers have done this a lot with a lot of characters in various shows over the years.

They're not the main characters but they somehow have some sort of plot armor that they shouldn't have. The writers want praise and celebration for writing a perfectly good villain/antagonist but they also don't have the guts to actually allow said character to experience all of the fucked up shit the main characters have to deal with. Let villains be villains, but also let them deal with the consequences of their actions too. It's not that difficult, and it makes the story a helluva lot more interesting because it keeps your audience guessing. If the audience knows that this minor consequence is going to happen to this character but nothing else, then you're not really promoting much trust with your audience because they're not going to trust you to allow this character to experience any true negative consequence. They know your M.O and they know your pattern. They know you're not going to do anything different and they're not going to waste time celebrating this small win because it won't mean much in the grand scheme of the show.

These characters have to lose. Narratively speaking, they simply have to lose at some point. Showing them constantly beating the heroes is one thing, but the heroes have to come out on top at some point. I use the term 'hero' loosely here because none of the characters in either of these shows fit the literal definition of a hero. I'm just using that terminology to make a point here.

[jj-stein]

I love your concept of Blank, but Seagull, my dear friend, my beloved mutual, is Blank involved in fucking organized crime or something? Sparse temporary apartment, mysterious disappearance, only eating high calorie food, completely dropping relationships even though they were long term, etc??

Honestly it would be quite funny if he worked for Mad Mike's drug business as hitman, if you'll allow me to spitball. -pxppet

that is actually EXACTLY what i was going for!!! i completely forgot to mention that in my head blank is a lower-level demon that works for other demons, and so he leads a very sketchy and private life that he doesn't tell jameson much about.

another part of the sparse, run-down apartment he lives in is also attributed to the fact that he isn't human, and doesn't care much for physical comforts or has many needs.

blank did care for jameson, and didn't want him getting hurt or having knowledge that would get him in trouble, so i like to think, in a narrative sense, what blank is exactly and what he does for a living is left a mystery. hes more of a "space" or "vessel" for jameson to experience physical intimacy with someone non-threatening, cold and unemotional but still caring. blank's shitty place with an old crt tv and a run-down futon is somewhere that jameson sneaks off to while he's recovering and trying to find his own freedom and autonomy. to be perfectly honest, Blank exists in my lore as nothing more than a narrative ingredient to jameson's character arc and the flow of the "narrative" lol

although i do want to draw him sometime soon, this sallow, hollowed faced ghost holding cold hands with jameson haha

[makiema]

finally finished writing about how much stormbringer enhances the skk dynamic which was at a nascent stage in Fifteen and anticipates the developments which happen later and culminate in Dead Apple where the faith they have in each other is absolutely remarkable! the fact that i said i’d do this in a few hours yesterday but it took me like 24 hrs to finish i have an attention span of a whole 2 minutes 💀

my favorite thing about stormbringer is that it actually builds up on the concepts/themes introduced in Fifteen so it's a glimpse into what has changed in dazai and dazai & dhuuya after one year of being together. As much as it's about chuuya confronting his past and his identity this is also about dazai’s development from who he was in fifteen. chuuya and rimbaud both left their marks on dazai and in Stormbringer we see him, actually trying to emulate or follow in a sense a way of life, that chuuya and rimbaud represented. Stormbringer is not just about chuuya, abt his test of humanity, or he coming in terms with who or what he is. it's about dazai too. it's about dazai developing or at least attempting to develop what he calls “boyish”/ “ordinary” in Fifteen. its not about chuya having an identity crisis. in fact what we understand from Code 04's last section is that chuuya never considered it as his crisis and neither did dazai. so to dazai “saving chuuya is important, human or not doesn't matter” and when dazai gives chuuya time to think abt what the operation will cost him chuuya doesnt so much as flinch form his purpose. This goes on to show unlike verlaine he doesnt care about memory and certainly doesnt consider it as the only determinant of someone being human. He cares more abt yokohama and his friends and in that, in caring abt his “family”, he is just as human as the next person. whether he’s factually human or not comes secondary to his desire to save people. This is a message that the quality of being human has more to do with embodying human qualities or humanity than having memories and lineage. so yeah stormbringer is essentially about embracing humanity but this happens on 2 levels: both chuuya and dazai embrace humanity. Going back to the boyish or ordinary bit, im talking abt this segment:

here dazai is shocked because he assumed everyone “gangsta” and everyone crazy powerful delighted in homicide, in deliberately indulging in the macabre. but he is proved wrong. He logically concluded that anyone with power more than average and belonging to the underground would kill people and delight in that because it’s a given they lack any kind of moral understanding. To that end, they’d be exalted at the prospect of relentlessly shooting a dead body, mutilating it and dishonoring it. The mafia code (any general mafia code) works in a way where honor and death goes hand in hand. So only the lowest of the low would do that to a dying person, who even when faced with certain death is loyal to his own organisation. This really shows that even within the mafia dazai is the only person whos like the devil incarnate. So yeah dazai at this sate far lower than even a mafia member. But chuuya who actually embodiess the mafia code and is incredibly loyal to his organisation and “family” [ putting family in quotes bc he himself calls his friends family 🥺] ofc kicks the gun away. From dazai’s pov chuuya being as insanely powerful as he is should also do the same. But chuuya comes along and suggests that even enemies should be shown respect where it’s due. And that is what an ordinary person, oblivious to mafia life (mafia life as in waht dazai makes of it) thinks. So in undermining the binary between “ordinary” and “mafia” chuuya proves that being mafia doesnt necessarily mean selling your soul to the devil and giving up the last smidge of humanity. In fact by embodying qualities like compassion and kindness and mutual respect, you can make the mafia a better place for yourself and for the other members. Now in Stormbringer, we see how this affected dazai. here dazai is introduced as someone mercilessly killing to set up the channel. 

Now to expand the channel one would need to keep doing it right? To mercilessly kill ppl and stuff but instead what he does is hand the channel over to chuuya bc he knows chuuya wouldnt handle it like him. im not suggesting that dazai miraculously becomes v good or anything with dazai the key words is “try” or “to some extent” like in Fifteen when Chuuya asks “do u wanna live” he’s like “ not to that extent”. similarly its not to say he doesnt kill people anymore. it is that he tries to lessen the number of casualties by handing over one of the most troublesome channels to chuuya who would manage it in a much more humane way. That dazai draws from his friends/at least tries to is smth we’ll see again later on when he deals with akutagawa. He talks about odasaku and ofc its baffling to him that a mafia member as powerful as him would be taking acre of orphans. and dazai says but he cant afford to be that kind and proceeds to shoot akutagswa but again does so in a calculated way such that he doesnt end up killing him ( im NOT justifying dazai’s abuse not at all im just saying that its hard to believe he coincidentally knew the exact no of bullets that aku could block. and had odasaku’s words and his way of life not been in the back of his mind he could’ve ended up killing aku) coming back to chuuya and dazai we also see him avoiding further conversation on the jewelry channel thing as he says ���leave that for now”. He does a similar thing again when mori brings up the concept of double suiciding with chuuya.

 Its a HUGE thing for him to digest that him suiciding would inevitably spell the doom for chuuya. this puts an unimaginable responsibility on him. And he avoids further discussion on this. Now we know dazai is the rambly type. Even in the most dire moments he goe son with his LOONG monologues so really he is the last person who’d avoid a conversation but he deliberately does it in these 2 instances because its hard for him to grasp these things. That he can go against his nature and do a conscientious thing by handing over one of the most grisly channels to chuuya (i dont think dazai’s nature is evil. Or even if it is, its a a social construct keeping in mind the war ravaged times or its mori’s construct because he does exploit dazai to the hilt. but dazai ofc thinks of himself as non-human, devious. perfectly devilish...etc.) And also the fact that someone as suicidal as him is actually responsible for the life of someone else is really too much to take in. a whole 10 seconds pause indicates just how much he was thrown off when mori opened his eyes to the reality of things: if he dies, chuuya inexorably dies as a consequence. also i dont think the “wow” here or the next bit :

is something jokey. if it was like haha double suicide with chuuya is the worst haha wanna do it w pretty lady kind of a deal. that pause would have been unnecessary. dazai’s immediate reaction would’ve been whining and shit. the use of “froze” too implies the gravity of the situation. so ofc what is “wow” is how much meaning his life has for someone else. and for some so much....better than him. and what is unacceptable is this sad, sad truth that his life (to which he ascribes no value) would be so inextricably linked with someone else’s and hold so much meaning to them. it is like when a suicidal person at the brink of suicide understanding his life is not his own. his life and death holds consequences for ppl surrounding him. so both of these are huge things to grasp and at both these times dazai is visibly shaken up so much so that he doesnt want to do his favorite thing- ramble in a condescending tone. smth he does in so many instances. this really is a testimony to the fact that things are changing in him. the redemption process has begun. he’s no longer the kind of maniac he was before he encountered chuuya. when zuko underwent his transition in atla he was so shaken up after one (1) right decision he had a fever. i think this is true for anyone who’s trying to change. change is after all a huge thing for everyone. ofc he’ll be unsettled. so anyways this is proof that he has indeed come a long way from being someone who revelled at the prospect of meaningless bloodshed.

now coming to the concept of love he assumes he’d get sick of love and die:

and that death is the singular goal worth chasing after because it makes you feel more alive/get a fuller picture of what living entails. but here he is erring by supposing love is something that’ll bore him/have no meaning. and it cant provide him that “something” he’s looking for. at this point he hasn’t loved so he doesnt know whether he’ll be sick of it or if it'll have no impact. And yet he’s morose and regretful. this is a kind of self-imposed constraint hes putting on himself. he cancels out the v idea of love because hes convinced it isnt worth it. he hasnt even been in love okay scratch being in love that sounds romantic and i really dont mean love in a romantic sense here...its just love. in general. any form is cool. anyway so dazai is not familiar with any kind of love. He is entirely alien to the concept. he doesnt even know what a friend/partner is so he doesnt know what love is. this is cleared out here when rimbaud confesses he did everything for paul and dazai is unconvinced:

chuuya ofc admonishes him and shuts him up for good, he says dazai has no right lookind down upon smth he doesnt understand. he doesnt understand friendship, love. or loyalty. or how important those feelings are at this point. now this situation is turned on its head in stormbringer. but before we go into that let’s look at the message rimbaud had for both of them. ik he specifically asks for chuuya to “live” but there’s purpose behind including both of them in the frame. it’s a message they should both take to heart. and at the end of it its implied both are changed after hearing it:

and in this message the first bit is for chuuya. what he says is basically memory doesn’t make u human... ”you are you” just a frame or not doesnt matter. and even if hes just a frame, he is still beautiful. beauty actually is a v important concept in literature starting right from Plato to Shakespeare. i’d not bring this here but because bsd is so deeply rooted in literature i feel like the reference to beauty, and later on to soul and even warmth and also the universal tone of this message carries some meaning. so the thing is  both Plato and Shakespeare were endorsed the idea of love as a force awakened in the world by beauty which then leads the soul to perfection. so humans and by extension, all life are beautiful frames that can inspire love. this concept is also there in Romantic poetry like Keats and Wordsworth all of them talked about loving beauty in nature and how that can elevate the body mind and soul. so essentially in telling this to chuuya what ehe basically means is that chuuya just by being him, by being a beautiful framework can inspire love and warmth in others and thats a great purpose! how much chuuya understands of this purpose with his one (1) braincell and his low self esteem is questionable but he gets some sense of belonging. now this is a two way relationship so ofc dazai has to be factored in. he comes in the next part: 

these are from 2 different translation so the disparity im sorry ;-; but anyway,  this last part abt the world being a cold place. then paul. then “warmth” is a message to dazai who’s been introduced to us as cold-hearted and having like no bearings of a human being. this is the reason why its important for both o f them to be there. now going back to chuuya being a beautiful framework, the framework can be beautiful in so far as its beauty is appreciate by someone and inspires warmth and love in someone. this again is the whole beauty/beholder nature/the romantic concept that is there in shakespeare and in Romantic poetry where both are a part of a codependent relationship. so what rimbaud implies here is that dazai can have that kind of a relationship with another person (chuuya) just like rimbaud had with paul which makes him warm and the world doesnt feel cold anymore. rimbaud has no regrets about what he did because. so the idea is that dazai and chuuya can share the same dynamic. also after this, the narrative says that their hearts are now changed and wont return to what they were before....and even their souls are refined in a way. but in Fifteen we dont have a concrete proof of how this happened bc the novel ends at this point. Instead, Stormbringer shows exactly how deep the impact of those words is: 

this is the third instance of dazai showing hesitation and once again this has to do with chuuya. the seed of the dynamic that rimbaud was talking about  is already germinating in him. his reactions, his fidgeting, his hesitancy, in response to chuuya’s situation is such a big contrast to his cocksure self when he’s conversing with adam and verlaine. after this of course we have: 

not only does he clearly express his concern but he gives chuuya 2 whole mins to make a decision and based on that he’s prepared to overturn the operation. the success rate of an alternative plan will ofc be lesser than the og one but that doesnt faze dazai. he’s ready to turn the tide for chuuya’s sake and if this is not development idk what is. just a year ago, he was someone to whom the concept of rimbaud going thru all that trouble for his friend was a lost concept. ironically enough, now he finds himself doing something that is along the same lines. he puts chuuya above his mission. to him, chuuya is more important than getting a satisfactory result. another bit that i wanna talk abt is that one controversial section where dazai says he’ll save chuuya, human or not, and then the justification is: 

i think a lot of people got mad bc of this and honestly at first glance i was peeved too. as a chuuya stan some of the shit dazai has done so far did rub me the wrong way. i love skk obv but still those were moments that kind of left a bad taste in the mouth. i’ll discuss them later on bc stormbringer helps allay that feeling. coming back to the “i wanna see chuuya suffer” part firstly context is important. ofc someone like dazai cant be expected to be upfront about his feelings with ppl (or AI) he barely knows. so what be relays to adam, is only partly true and its actually a kind of a twist in concept. the things is, and this is  smth dazai knows all too well is that ppl suffer simply on account of being human. human suffering is brought on because humans, by virtue of being humans, feel. so when he says he’s willing to acknowledge chuuya as human despite what N and Verlaine said he’s already admitting that chuuya suffers. so there is really nothing “new” to see for him. he knows chuuya suffers already and he does too because they’re both humans trying to make it thru their messed up lives. also chuuya “ceasing to be human” is a p huge concern for him bc he himself is like that. just like with the suicide thing, it bothers dazai when someone else shares his situation/his fate like as long as his life is his own, he has no problem ending it whenever but the situation is complicated when someone else’s life span is determined by that decision. and similarly, as long as he is “no longer human” its not that much of an issue because he’s like resigned to a doomed fate but someone like chuuya ceasing to be human or worse yet never getting to know if hes human or not are pressing matters. so anyways what he actually means here is that in saving chuuya, he saves someone who suffers just like he does and in their case, even the cause of suffering boils down to a shared psychological conflict: what essentially constitutes being human and if im human or not. now this sharing of pain and suffering is the foundation of forming a connection with someone, which makes life a little better. here again, what rimaud imparted to dazai and chuuya is driven home. also dazai’s key anxiety is not finding meaning/anything. this “anything” can be assumed to be something that justifies life. so all his anxiety and frustration stems from the fact that there really is no discernible meaning to be found in the mechanism of life. so it is an empty pursuit because it is true that nothing can explain why feelings of pain and suffering are exponentially heavier than feelings of happiness or why after getting to experience one (1) free day we’re back to square one where life is grueling. these are questions that really dont have an answer so every time dazai like gazes into the abyss and says he didnt  find anything, he is not so much asking if he’ll ever find anything as swallowing the hard truth that there is nothing to be found, no singular entity exists that can magically justify everything. again drawing upon literature or philosophy more specifically, there’s a concept called Absurdism which says the only philosophical truth so to say is this that life is absurd and looking for meaning is futile. instead what we can do is accept that it is absurd and deal with it in the best way possible, by finding little sources and moments of happiness, and strewing them together so we feel somewhat content. even if it is just for a fleeting second. and this happiness/contentment amidst a wretched life (altho temporal) can be found in friendship, in sharing, and even in having fun with people you’re comfortable with! this is actually why dazai wants to save chuuya and now it may seem like im interpreting his words through the shipping lens but thats not so and it can be corroborated by looking into dazai’s words to odasaku. after chuuya, dazai’s next attempt at friendship was odasaku who he found “interesting”. now when odasaku sort of like threw hands and chose death over having to live a life without the orphans, dazai tried to stop him not by saying stuff like life is good. and things will def change for the better. but instead he admits that living is hard and the sense of void is ubiquitous and yet he doesnt want him to  up and die because then he would be sad. because the little comfort that he got from odasaku and something he probably assumed odasaku also got from him would be gone. [how much odasaku considered dazai a source of comfort remains unclear. in fact the reason odasaku gave up and died was because he did not have this. this feeling of sharing in someone else’s suffering and seeking comfort in friends in the real world. instead he was too vested in his ideal world. his over reliance on an entirely idealistic concept is actually what pushed him over the edge. and this would have been the case for dazai too had he not encountered and sought comfort and companionship in chuuya and eventually in odasaku ] so this again goes on to show how rimbaud’s words changed dazai’s heart. and in a way dazai really has been doing this unconsciously form the v beginning like by teasing chuuya continually in Fifteen. you dont expect someone as cold as him to indulge in friendly bickering and taunting so often but he does. that there is significance and even happiness in that is something he learns over time, after rimbaud’s words to him. although these things seem futile on the surface they give a moment’s respite. so although chuuya spinning dazai on a rope in stormbringer might seem weird to everyone, they still serve a purpose:  

what shirase puts forward is particularly relevant here because neither dazai nor chuuya is fully aware of the extent of their feelings (or even what those feelings are like they dont know what label to put. so typical oblivious lovers) for each other or what they stand to gain just by driving each other nuts but there is something intangible but satisfying to be felt. a kind of contentment that helps him continue. one day at a time. there is no one great “thing” that can make him like wake up one day feeling like he doesnt want to die ever again. but again like i said before, the key word for dazai is “extent” so, these little things to some extent contribute to a sense of fulfilment which helps him keep death at bay. thats why he’s bent on saving chuuya bc he knows they can share in their suffering and make life better for each other. its not like he wants chuuya to suffer. chuuya will suffer nonetheless like every other human. but in suffering together there is something to be found so he doesnt want him to cease being human. 

this covers more or less the intertextuality between Stormbringer and Fifteen. i just wanna talk a bit more about a couple other moments in Stormbringer that i feel are p important because they put some things in the series in perspective and also made the dead apple moment 10x more emotional 🥺 one thing that really strikes me is the absolute fanon level of comfort that dazai and chuuya share in Strombringer. its like scenes form k-drama lol. 

so yeah this stuff. compare this with dazai’s reaction @atsushi when he drops im not saying that its not just a joke and that what im saying should be the right way to look at this contrast. its not like that at all. but what this does is give an estimate to the readers just how close and comfortable dazai feels when its chuuya. and this plus everything i rambling on abt for so long also gives us an estimate about the sincerity of dazais feelings. now 2 things always bothered me : the fact that dazai actually left chuuya and the fact that after the fight against lovecraft he actualy deserted him (this again can ofc be construed as just a humorous bit but still it did leave a bad taste in my mouth) dazai leaving the mafia is ofc something he had to do to fulfil oda’s dying wish but it still dint sit right with me that he would abandon chuuya. just like oda levaing is harder on dazai, dazai leaving is harder on chuuya. its always harder on the one left behind. so anyway, these sorts of things sometimes made me doubt dazai’s feelings but now that stormbringer clears it all up i do think there is a larger motif at work here. when mori offers dazai to come back to the mafia in s2 we see him saying that it was mori who kicked him out and that he did so because he was afraid dazai would usurp his position. so he set it up in a way that dazai would be forced to leave but on his own accord. now more than usurpation i believe what mori really did fear is that dazai had no allegiance to the mafia (which is actually true) bc he doesnt have that sense of loyalty and that to him his friends were more important than swearing allegiance to mori. (which again is true). so by getting oda killed, the message that mori seemed to be giving out was if dazai didnt leave he would do it again. and if we consider ango’s betrayal which had already transpired at that point, the one mori would next target to sort of get at dazai would inevitably be chuuya. this is only conjecture but still, i do believe this might as well be true because then it would explain why dazai didnt carry chuuya back to the base after their fight [something he was v comfortable doing in Stormbringer. in fact in the first case he carries chuuya back to the billiards bar and not to the mafia’s base so he could hear albatross’ last words 🥺] its because mori needs to know unlike dazai, chuuya is absolutely loyal to him which regrettably he is. it kinda becomes imperative therefore on part of dazai to make it seem that way to mori. that they really are at each others throats and that dazai is insignificant to chuuya. and that the mafia comes before dazai. (which is not true bc we see chuuya protecting his friend [shirase] while also staying loyal to the mafia in Stormbringer) 

mori also in his own way tries to provoke hostility b/w them like in Dead Dpple when he was all like yeah so dazai is the star and chuuya is merely bait. so it kinda makes sense if dazai left the mafia not only to like do good work but also to protect chuuya from mori. also the fact that chuuya did the same thing— left the Sheep and joined PM to protect Shirase from the mafia makes be believe that my speculation is plausible given all the parallels we find between dazai and chuuya. 

and the last bit is about the brilliant Dead Apple scene and how much added context it gets in light of Stormbringer. 

in this scene dazai first says: “you used Corruption believing in me?” and then the translation is “how beautiful” which is an okay translation but the exact thing dazai said was “nakasetekurerune” which literally is : youre gonna make me cry you know? now my knowledge of japanese is like duolingo level but i do know “nakasete” has to do with crying and “kureru” is used by the receiver to indicate he’s receiving a feeling/object from someone close. so basically chuuya trusting him is something so beautiful that it could almost move him to tears. now lets look at dazai’s intro in Stormbringer:

dazai, being dazai, ofc would be able to tell genuine trust from fealty out of fear so ofc the fact that chuuya has this kind of blind faith in him is overwhelming for him. also stormbringer really expands on the sight effects of Corruption in full detail. its so PAINFUL and to think that chuuya would jump into it right away for dazai’s sake.....no wonder he is so soft when deactivating him. and then he proceeds to flirt for a little bit with the Snow White and the kiss of life reference. but this flirting doesnt seem even a little out of place now. it doesn't feel like smth meaningless or smth that dazai is just saying as a joke. that there is absoluetly no subtext to making a statement like that. instead that kind of flirting feels like smth inspired from a deep, deep familiarity with someone who really shares his heart and soul. when he talks to chuuya abt the problem of not knowing whether he is human or not, it is a problem that is as central to him as it’s to chuuya. not feeling fully reconciled to a human identity is a problem thats fundamental to both of them. I don’t think familiarity gets any deeper than this where you share the exact same psychological problem. so its really wonderful how we can trace the skk development now: what starts out as a crush on part of dazai or not a crush exactly rather, a feeling of perplexed admiration because chuuya is breathtakingly beautiful inside out, eventually gain all these layers and develops into something meaningful where they have so much faith in each other and where they literally help each other live. knowing someone out there shares your exact issue so you’re really not alone in this is perhaps the greatest comfort in the world. also now its clear how both of them would have turned out had they not met each other and had they not taken in rimbaud’s advice. chuuya in his desire to learn about himself and frustration at not being able to do the same would have perhaps spiralled downward and ended up becoming like verlaine. he is his double here after all. and had dazai not seen chuuya up close being the wonderful person he is, he too would have probably ended up developing a god complex and becoming like fyodor. dazai is there to save chuuya literally from dying a monster and chuuya is there to remind him he too can try and mend his ways and embrace his human side. after all chuuya has so much trust him in! (despite him having questionable methods) for both of them, it starts out as an attempt to be more human, then establishing a fruitful partnership, and finally coming in terms with their feelings to some extent. for dazai, he’s comfortable enough to engage in occasional flirting at this point and for chuuya it’s playing along with dazai’s antics (well with the ones he get 💀 pretty boy has half a functional braincell) and openly showing his concern for him. so really by confirming their feelings what strombringer does is enhance the skk development in a way that Dead Apple doesnt seem like fan service anymore. the fact that dazai would casually flirt or be comfortable with chuuya landing on his crotch 💀 all that isnt as ridiculous as it first seemed because stormbringer lays the groundwork and anticipates all the intimate/flirty skk moments that have happened till now and ig will happen again soon. 

[pocketsizedquasar]

it’s been a bit now so. misc 200/end of mag in general thoughts? under a cut because this is a bit long, and i will preface this to say that i mostly enjoyed the episode but this is going to be mostly my criticisms, bc i feel like the good parts have already been well covered by people other than me. so yeah just a warning this is mostly crit

- it’s Still very hard for me to parse how i feel about this episode, but i think after sitting on it for a bit, i’ve come to the general conclusion that i am very satisfied plot-wise (in terms of tragedy/the structure of tragedies, the open-endedness of our ending, the general Writing TM), but not so much satisfied character-wise (in terms of arc and relationship resolution). I think we deserved more resolution on wtgfs -- i wanted more with them! more with melanie and jon; more with the melanie and georgie and basira’s side of the plan. more than that really small tidbit that we got at the end! and... honestly? a little bit more emphasis on the weight of Jon actually dooming other worlds in the end, and what that means for Jon and for wtgfs/basira. Especially with the context of the consequences re: the Web...won. no caveats or complications, the Web got. Exactly what it wanted.

- on that note,  From a uh. Critique against capitalism standpoint I’m not sure how I feel about the ending? And I don’t really want to. Read too much into what isn’t there? But I mean mag has long been a pretty explicit anticapitalist narrative so...? Yeah, I’m not a big fan of the implications of WTGFs and basira basically just being treated as narratively right in terms of letting the eldritch evil stand-in for capitalism have whatever it wanted and feeding it and doing exactly what it asked them to do. and having Little consequence as a result of that. Obviously they’ll still face loads of hardship, but that comes from the apocalypse, not from, like,.,, doing the direct bidding of the Capitalist Monster/System/etc to be clear, i’m not like...mad they made the “wrong” decision; there was no wrong or right decision here. but I am a little upset that for all they spent 199 discussing the various consequences of each choice, we got to see very little of that actual consequence playing out...none of the survivors seem to really be carrying the guilt or even the full understanding of what they did, because they never saw the suffering they could create as anything more than a hypothetical. i feel like we could have spent just a bit more time with them dealing with that. a bit more time even with jon dealing with that, a bit more time spent on jon changing his mind. other people have said as much better than me but. yeah

- i feel like there was a lot of character stuff brought up in s5 and especially act iii that i would’ve loved to have seen more resolution of. why have that whole thing about Georgie telling jon to give melanie his last words himself, if Jon was going to come back but then never bring that up again (full disclosure this is smthn that @pronouncingitwang​ brought up!)? Why have Jon say he was “going to go  apologize to [his] boyfriend”/Jon tell Martin multiple times that they were going to talk about their fight “later” and then not have that happen on screen? Why did we have two whole episodes of cultist interactions if they were just going to be removed off screen? Why have martin’s “I’ll get jon to destroy me like the others” decision if that doesn’t really come up? what about salesa!! why tell us melanie hating jon is a projection of her self hatred and then not bring that up again? why give annabelle all those juicy interactions with martin and then turn her into a monster when jon shows up, why give her so much character and backstory and then so thoroughly remove her agency? why have all these really cool parallels between jon and annabelle if annabelle is just going to be this monstrous and agency-less plot device with no follow-up? what happened to her!

- on that note...annabelle. They... really took this character who is a Black woman and who had so many parallels to Jon and who they could’ve like. very easily Actually made into a protagonist of color (because we only got one!! and she’s a cop!!!!) (or if not protagonist, at least smthn more sympathetic), (which wouldn’t have negated previous racial problems w tma, but would’ve shown growth from them) and made her a scary monster who just Serves her capitalist entity overlord without personal agency and then bows out when she’s no longer needed...you can have whatever diagetic/watsonian explanations you want for how 197 went, like sure she was just ~being dramatic~ and putting on a show for jon, but all that is still something the writers Decided to do in the real world, and the racial implications of her character arc are just. not great. and her character had So much more narrative potential. idk i will forever be salty about annabelle

- i Still Don’t Like the web being sentient!! i said this after 197 and i’m sayin it again! i think it makes it less frightening and less interesting! with the End being aware of its own, well, end, I actually thought that worked, and i really liked the corpse routes ep, but for some reason I didn’t with the Web? which seems hypocritical of me, I know, but, look: The embodiment of the fear of dying being aware of and welcoming its own dying emphasizes the inevitability and the truth of that fear. Which is why it works for the End. It’s still not recognizably /human/, because it is inexorable and certain, in a way nothing human can be. So its awareness of its own end DOESNT feel like flattening the worldbuilding. And using my own logic, I guess sure you could say the embodiment of the fear of manipulation and schemes being capable of scheming does the same thing but it. It rly doesn’t feel the same to me? Bc that’s rly a fear borne of human sentience & behavior. and so to give it that sentience makes it feel more human, and less interesting within the context of the horror. this is definitely just a personal taste thing as far as how i like horror and eldritch deities and such but yeah.

- i liked the statement a lot like, as a little self contained story? it was really nice to have jon give us one last story before the end. I thought that was sweet and i liked how the statement was written! on the same note though, i could’ve also gone without knowing like. the entire cosmology of how the fears came into being. again, just a personal thing, i don’t like my horror to be known, even at the end of it all when it doesn’t matter what we’re still scared of anymore. I just. I want my fears to be frightening and beyond comprehension and unknowable. it just leads me to have more questions than i really need at the Final episode? i would love to keep the jon giving us one final statement thing, and you know what? i would've loved: statement of the archivist, regarding jonathan sims. no idea what you’d do with that but it sounds cool in my head.

- very minor and very specific-to-me thing but i Don’t Like that basira got to be the Last Words...sorry y’all I just don’t like basira i can’t get behind trying to make me feel sympathetic for a cop who stood by and let people get murdered by the state for years and only felt bad about it bc fearpocalypse i just can’t. i don’t like her never have never will and also melanie and georgie are right there why didn’t they get to have the last words it would have been so much better ... why not have the person who loved jon and Knew very deeply his tendency to self-sacrifice say something or why not the person who is in-canon very similar to Jon and self-admittedly projecting her self hatred onto him say some sort of her own attempt at peace why not either of these two ahhhh

- i uhhhh. really liked jon killing jonah. jon for once getting to be angry for himself. that felt really nice. no ceaseless watcher nonsense either, just him and a knife and beating the shit out of this guy who even now continues to underestimate and belittle him. and i liked jon doing what he did in general -- i actually changed my mind on this; i really didn’t like it at first but i do now. i’m sad that it came at the expense of his promise to martin, but it makes sense and...i don’t want to say jon was right, because i again don’t think any of the decisions were right per se, but in terms of like... not doing what the “elder fear deity who wants to feed on fear and pain for literal eternity” wanted... yeah. i get it. he would never have been able to go along with that willingly. and he really shouldn’t have been, considering all that he went through being a puppet for said elder fear deity. and from a tragedy standpoint too, i actually think it’s a really really well written end for him. considering how my favorite tragedies are structured and how the way out has to be presented to us, but the tragic hero Ultimately will always fall back on their faults, yeah, this makes a lot of sense. hamlet is granted a way out and he doesn’t take it; he always always hesitates. captain ahab is granted the chance to turn and leave his chase and love instead, and he doesn’t take it. orpheus turns around. etc etc. I think it was also really lovely that jon got a twist on that, that in the end he did change, for just a moment, and chose love instead. even in the face of all the horror that that might mean. i really like that he and martin are together, wherever or however they are. that martin is allowed to feel (rightly) furious and betrayed and still so, so unconditionally in love. 

idk i have more thoughts probably but again they’re very hard to parse and mostly just getting into the super specific realm which i don’t think is particularly helpful

i have a lot of feelings for jon and martin and their ending i think it was the best possible ending we could’ve gotten for those two and i Am really. I just have a lot of feelings.

[haveyouseenthisskeleton]

ive got one! you can pick any skele's you want, but how would they feel if their child befriended frisks/charas kid? the kid is perfectly normal. doesnt know anything about resets or monsters or anything. the skele doesnt even have to see frisk, the kid is just really chill and having fun with their child.

Undertale Sans - He's ok with this as long Frisk is not coming home. Frisk knows anyway Sans will not welcome them very well. Though, if Frisk breaks his child's heart, he will really not be happy about this.

Undertale Papyrus - He is happy he now has an excuse to see Frisk again regularly without Sans. He really doesn't mind and still think his brother is exagerating a little.

Underswap Sans & Papyrus - They are both fine with this, since they are in good terms. Though, Honey might sometimes be a bit sassy, or put poop in Chara's cake, but it's only what you get for killing his brother.

Underfell Sans - He thinks Frisk is doing that only to taunt him, but other than that, he's cool with that. Frisk never did genocide in Underfell and they are always hanging out with the brothers anyway, so why not.

Underfell Papyrus - He's fine with it too, but gosh, he is regretting so much. Frisk teached his kid all of his weak points so now, everytime Edge say something, the two kid do the puppy eyes and it's driving him insane because he can't say no to this, and they know it. + the kid always find a way to ditch him when Red is not here and they want to play outside. Like this one time they tied him to a chair playing cowboys and... left him here and run to the door. Edge screams at them, jumping with the chair on his back.

Horrortale Sans & Papyrus - No, nope, never. If Oak sees Frisk near his kid, he's killing them on sight and doesn't care about the consequences. Willow is bit more moderate but will ask Frisk with a very threatening tone to never interract with his kid ever again.

Horrorswap Sans - As long as Chara don't go near Papyrus, he's ok with this. Nugget is not angry at them for leaving the Underground, he got over it a long time ago, but Pumpkin still hates them and he would never let them get hurt stupidly.

Horrorswap Papyrus - When he was locked down in his cell, Underground, Pumpkin learned to hate that human. Just because he defended them in the first place, he got tortured for many years, his brother got abused and he had to do things he would never have think he was capable of. Like Oak, if they ever see Chara again, they won't hesitate one second to kill them.

Horrorfell Sans - The kid broke the truce. Copper has only one rule : as long Frisk stayed away from him, he won't do anything. But this is clearly provocation. He will ask only one time to stay away from his kid. If Frisk insists, he won't hold anything back.

Horrorfell Papyrus - Just the sight of Frisk means he will have a panic attack, so no. He can't deal with one of his major trigger everyday, leave him alone. If Frisk doesn't understand the message, Copper will make sure it stays in head.

Swapfell Sans & Papyrus - Lol, N O P E. Chara would never do that anyway. The brothers are still after them to make them pay for hurting them and letting Rus broken. If they cross their road, it's instant death for the both of them.

Outertale Sans & Papyrus - They're very fine with this. Frisk is a part of their family, so they're happy their kids go along with them.

Dancetale/Dancefell/Farmtale Sans & Papyrus - Their Frisk is already an adult, so that won't really work.

Mafiatale/Mafiafell Sans and Papyrus - I mean, Frisk is basically their child already, so they're sort of found siblings at this point. MT Frisk is not living with them anymore though, so it's mostly a distant relationship.

Ink - It depends of the universe, but he usually doesn't care. Ink is mostly childish too anyway.

Error - S/O will need to convince him his kid needs social contact to grow up first, but once he'll get over it, he doesn't care much.

Disbelief Papyrus - Of course, why not let his kid hang out with his brother's murderer? Now, Delta is nice and can forgive, but even this is too fucked up for him. Let his child alone if you don't want a second lesson in the judgement hall.

Dustale Sans - Lol, now this is really just provocative. He's the only monster left with Asgore and the kid is clearly half skeleton, so Frisk is just trying to make him angry at this point. And it's working. Frisk better hides well because he's hunting tonight.