#that's literally the entire premise of qualifying

[awkwardrocker]

I won't lie, I'm a bit disappointed in Max Verstappen fans after Lando's win yesterday. A lot of people are discrediting Lando and McLaren in general. The fact of the matter is that Lando deserved that win.

Yes, it was a lucky safety car. But I think you all are forgetting Max's first win came in part because the Mercedes drivers took each other out. Are you now arguing that Max is a shit driver that doesn't deserve that win because it involved luck there too?

Lando is a fantastic driver and this win is long overdue. It might make you feel better to discuss what ifs but even if we do, that doesn't change the results, and it's honestly just incredibly disrespectful of the work the McLaren engineers put into the upgrades, the efforts of the strategists, and the solid drive that Lando put in.

[clover-system]

The longest list of anti-endo sources I've ever seen

While trying to find something else using Tumblr's infamous search engine, I came across this absolute gem:

NINE SOURCES!!! That's a record!! This is incredible!

@radpocalypse, listen. I am about to tear these to shreds, but before I do, I want you to know that you have my respect for not only compiling the longest list of sources I have ever seen an anti-endo provide, and not only doing so seemingly not directly prompted, but typing out every single link by hand, on mobile, without making a single mistake. Incredible work.

And also, to be completely honest, if I had nine sources supporting a belief, I almost certainly wouldn't look into them this closely. But, hey, that's what strangers on the internet with opposing views are for.

One more thing before the debunk: Endogenic systems do not claim to have DID etc. without trauma. They just don't. Whether it could be possible is often debated as an edge case, usually just to win an argument against someone of the opposing side, but really, it's irrelevant for 99% of the community. A good chunk are questioning OSDD based on later trauma, but as far as I am aware, no one on this website is claiming a completely endogenic plural disorder.

However, I don't want to dismiss entire pages based on this alone without further commentary, and it's a fun intellectual exercise regardless. So, whenever I use green text, I'm just playing Devil's Advocate under the premise of "If I was claiming to have DID without trauma (which neither I nor anyone else afaik is), would this source actually debunk that claim?" My syster will also occasionally pop in with purple, since she was cocon while I was writing this.

My dad just walked into my room and literally said "hey how it's going". You know, like. Like that one post. Amazing.

Anyway, civility established. Now come along with me on this long long journey of ten minutes of reading. Maybe put some music on in the background, if that will help you get through it. I had Near's Theme on while writing.

Here we go.

Link 1: McLean Hospital

Ok, main thing that caught my eye was

According to a 2010 Psychiatric Times article, only 5% of people with DID exhibit obvious switching between identity “states.”

Very interesting! Even with all of the "idk who's fronting" memes, 5% is really not that high. Though maybe online spaces like these help train the ability to identify it? The reference trail leads back to a book by Kluft but I don't really feel like going through dozens of pages for this. Definitely making a note of this though; I wonder if there have been any follow-up studies on this.

Not much to say here other than that. No mention of plurality outside DID.

DID is associated with long-term exposure to trauma, often chronic traumatic experiences during early childhood.

Dissociation—or disconnection from one’s sense of self or environment—can be a response to trauma.

Dissociative identity disorder—a type of dissociative disorder—most often develops during early childhood in kids who are experiencing long-term trauma. This typically involves emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse; neglect; and highly unpredictable interactions with caregivers.

Why "associated", not "is caused by"? Why "can", not "is"? Why "most often", etc.?

Why such weak language?

Not that it couldn't be weaker.

I vaguely remember McLean getting into some hot water regarding a video they posted about DID, but didn't find anything concrete. Half-remembered anecdote aside, the author seems well-qualified.

C-tier debunk of this position. It's not nothing but it could be a lot better.

Link 2: Psych Central

It occurs in women 9 times more often than in men.

Very interesting statistic, but no citation provided.

Alters can show striking differences. For instance, one alter may speak with a different accent or have a softer way of speaking. They might have different opinions or a different gender identity, and even physical differences — like left- or right-handedness, or the need for a glasses prescription.

That's quite a stark difference here compared to the McLean article. What happened to "alters aren't that noticeable"?

But whatever, these are just interesting tidbits. None of this has anything to do with endogenic plurality. Nothing like "this is the only way to be multiple", no comment whatsoever.

DID is usually associated with adverse experiences in someone’s past and traumatic memories.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a mental health condition with strong links to trauma, especially trauma in childhood.

Bruh. This again?

In fact, the American Psychiatric Association reports that 90% of people with DID have a history of childhood abuse and neglect, based on research from the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Bruh. Seriously? 90%? You know what that leaves, right?

According to your own source, 10% of DID systems are endogenic.

But let's break this down. There's a big difference between the system being endogenic, and the DID being endogenic. This statistic is specifically referring to childhood trauma.

The wording's plenty vague though. This can absolutely be read as completely endogenic DID.

One review article from 2017 about the causes of DID noted that there was relatively little research on the condition to date.

The authors said researchers hadn’t yet investigated potential genetic and epigenetic factors. With epigenetic factors, the experiences and behaviors of your parents and ancestors can influence the function of the genes they pass down to you.

The authors of the review said scientists needed to do more research to investigate whether a person with DID might carry genes that can influence if they develop the condition or not.

This is particularly promising because studies have already shown that genes can influence dissociative disorders in general.

So you're telling me DID might be able to be passed down one or two generations? Wow. Again, this still has nothing to do with endogenic plurality, but I'm really glad I decided to play with this second angle, because it's so much more fun. We're certainly not at intentional self-inflicted DID here, but we are at this point a long way from certainly needing childhood trauma in all cases.

And also the reviewer is a military psychiatrist who specializes in ADHD. So uh. Not bringing our best here.

Link 3: Mayo Clinic

Gotta love an article that's nice and short. This is just a brief summary of a bunch of dissociative disorders. Again, nothing about endogenic plurality.

Starting to run out of things to say about this. This whole post could probably be a fifth the length if I didn't feel like playing on hard mode.

Formerly known as multiple personality disorder, this disorder involves "switching" to other identities. You may feel as if you have two or more people talking or living inside your head. You may feel like you're possessed by other identities.

Each identity may have a unique name, personal history and features. These identities sometimes include differences in voice, gender, mannerisms and even such physical qualities as the need for eyeglasses.

Hey, that reminds me of someone.

There also are differences in how familiar each identity is with the others. Dissociative identity disorder usually also includes bouts of amnesia and often includes times of confused wandering.

Again, McLean looking really odd with its declaration of DID's covertness against great detail like this. However, its author is so far the best qualified. This one just says "Mayo Clinic Staff". Can't even know which of them worked on this. Some of them are psychs, but if any of them specialize in dissociative disorders, it doesn't say so.

Dissociative disorders usually arise as a reaction to shocking, distressing or painful events and help push away difficult memories.

I won't bother quoting even more wishy-washy language because this post is already at an ungodly length (about 1300 words so far) and we're barely a third done. But yeah, suffice to say, no nail-in-the-coffin 100% link to trauma.

Link 4: Rethink

We are a trusted information creator and accredited by the Patient Information Forum (PIF).

Their bold, for once. That's an alarm-ringing corporate phrase if I've ever seen one. Also, first thing on the PIF's website is "balancing the risks and benefits of AI in the production of health information". So this article might've been written by GPT. Awesome. And yeah, a lot of this whole website looks to me like a bunch of interconnected pages with stupidly long articles written by stitching together LLM generations. Does pass GPT0's test though.

This one is so long. I'll take the ten minutes to read through every word, which I don't think @radpocalypse did, just to make sure there's nothing here, but one thing that does catch my eye scrolling down to near the bottom is that they misspelled their first citation.

A quick look at this Carolyn Spring shows a lot being sold and credentials nowhere in sight. Awesome.

So already I don't need to read this. The information here is not at a high level of trustworthiness. It's maybe better than nothing, but seriously, one can and should do better. But I'll read it anyway, just for bonus points. Thanks to AccelaReader for making this bearable.

Many people will experience dissociation at some point in their lives. Lots of different things can cause you to dissociate. For example, you might dissociate when you are very stressed, or after something traumatic has happened to you.

Some of the symptoms of dissociation include the following:

You may have clear multiple identities.

It‘s important to remember that you could have the symptoms of dissociation without a dissociative disorder.

So according to this, multiple identities can be caused by intense but non-traumatic stress, and might not necessarily be a disorder. So, while I admit this is a little bit of a stretch, we're four links in and this is the first mention of plurality in general, so I'll take it. One point for endogenic plurality. (And again, none of this really matters anyway because this is the worst source so far.)

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is sometimes called ‘Multiple Personality Disorder.

If you have DID you might seem to have 2 or more different identities, called ‘alternate identities.

Two missing closing quotes. Really not a good sign.

They suggest that DID is caused by experiencing severe trauma over a long time in childhood.

Aha! Finally, something concrete against endogenic DID! Too bad it's buried in the worst source yet. If we believed we had DID, we would absolutely not reconsider that based on a sketchy webpage with suboptimal syntax and no credentials.

Ugh, finally done with that one. What a slog.

Link 5: DID Research

Aha! The infamous psych student's blog! That's what Sophie said, anyway. Not taking her word for it though. Let's see what we can find here, independently.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is the result of repeated or long-term childhood trauma

Why wasn't this first? First sentence, so crystal clear. No two ways about this, transDID destroyed right out of the gate.

DID cannot form after ages 6-9 because individuals older than these ages have an integrated self identity and history.

Why wasn't this first? It's so plain, so refreshing after four pages of strategic ambiguity. Nothing left here for green. But still no mention of non-disordered plurality.

The author is impressively credentialed but doesn't seem to specialize quite near this area. She's certainly better than most, high above any random Tumblr user talking out of their ass, but the good stuff would be to get a DID specialist to explicitly spell out that endogenic systems are not possible.

Also should make note of this big fat legal disclaimer:

While the author strives to make information on this website as complete, reliable, and accurate as possible, the author makes no claims, promises, guarantees, or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of this site and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in the contents of this site.

If we did claim to have DID, this would rattle us a little but could ultimately be brushed aside.

Link 6: SANE

As usual, literally nothing about endogenic plurality. I'll just greenmode this.

The majority of people with DID have been through severe trauma in early childhood

And now back to our regularly scheduled nondefinitive language.

Fun fact: highlighting text on this website turns it invisible. Awesome.

A person needs to meet the following criteria to be diagnosed with DID:

- Two or more distinct identities or personality states, each with its own way of thinking and relating. - Amnesia and gaps in the recall of everyday events, personal information or traumatic events. - The experiences are not part of normal cultural or religious practice, or part of childhood imaginary play. For example, a child having an imaginary friend does not mean they have DID. - The symptoms are not because of substance abuse or other medical conditions.

Ah finally, a direct quote from the good ol' DSM. Notice the lack of a trauma requirement.

Funny enough, using only these criteria in isolation, we actually would count as having DID due to our grayout memory gaps when switching. DID is also listed in the dissociative disorders section of the DSM, not the trauma disorders section, so there is no implied criterion there either. However, there still remains the universal criterion of distress, which we do not fulfill. We are quite happy with ourselves.

DID is caused by severe childhood trauma, such as physical, verbal or sexual abuse.

Well, which is it?? Is it a majority association or a direct cause? Why the contradiction? Or is the emphasis on early childhood trauma?

Eh, whatever. Point is, green is once again shut down. But there is still no mention of endogenic plurality anywhere here!!

And no indication of who wrote this article, though the citation for direct cause is a dissociative disorder specialist. Does he actually say that in the cited paper, though?

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is multifactorial in its etiology. Whereas psychosocial etiologies of DID include developmental traumatization and sociocognitive sequelae, biological factors include trauma-generated neurobiological responses. Biologically derived traits and epigenetic mechanisms are also likely to be at play. At this point, no direct examination of genetics has occurred in DID. However, it is likely to exist, given the genetic link to dissociation in general and in relation to childhood adversity in particular.

I hope you have a dictionary on hand. That sure is a lot of big words that aren't in Firefox's built-in spellchecker. Still, after making sure I got everything, it's clearly not so cut and dry here. And we're back on the "it could be genetic" point.

Tangentially related: I do like the dismissal of the iatrogenic model on the basis of the brain scans.

Neurobiological differences have been demonstrated between dissociative identities within patients with DID and between patients with DID and controls. Given the current evidence, DID as a diagnostic entity cannot be explained as a phenomenon created by iatrogenic influences, suggestibility, malingering, or social role-taking. On the contrary, DID is an empirically robust chronic psychiatric disorder based on neurobiological, cognitive, and interpersonal non-integration as a response to unbearable stress.

Anyway, we're not even on the original page anymore, so I'll call it here. No mention of endogenic plurality, and the citation that claims to dismiss endogenic DID doesn't.

Link 7: NAMI Michigan

While the causes [of DID] are unknown

I'm tired. Aren't you tired?

Treatment for DID consists primarily of psychotherapy with hypnosis.

Yeah I'm calling BS on this one

And no citations on this entire page, nor even the author's name.

Statistics show that DID occurs in 0.01 to 1 percent of the general population.

Research has shown that the average age for the initial development of alters is 5.9 years old.

No sources listed. This is definitely the worst link. Literally on the same level as a rambling Tumblr user in terms of credibility.

Doesn't matter that it says

This disorder is believed to be triggered by physical or sexual abuse in childhood

Couldn't even get this dogshit source to be firm.

This one gets an F.

Link 8: The Psychology Practice

Got scared for a moment there that it said ai. No, that's AL, a name. Also this was written in 2022, so we're definitely safe. Can't actually find any other info on this AL character, but at least we can look up the co-author.

Hm, can't find anything on her, either. Well, at least this is a step up from the previous link. Let's see what it has to say.

According to the Dissociative Identity Research Organisation (2018), DID is formed in childhood due to repeated trauma in early childhood (before age 10) before the personality is fully integrated.

I do like that these later links are direct with this. They don't seem to have a citation for that DIRO, though. Unless...

No. Oh no.

Ok, so this one was written by a couple of clowns who definitely didn't do their homework. Cool. I'm getting tired of humoring awful sources like this, so moving on to the grand finale.

Link 9: NAMI

Wait, this is the same group behind the zero-citation article from Michigan! But that was just Michigan. Maybe the main site can do better.

Ugh, it's just another list of dissociative disorders instead of DID specifically.

The symptoms of a dissociative disorder usually first develop as a response to a traumatic event,

Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired? Aren't you tired?

Often these identities may have unique names, characteristics, mannerisms and voices.

Often? Wow. Sure is a far cry from 5%.

Dissociative disorders are managed through various therapies including: - Psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) - Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) - Medications such as antidepressants can treat symptoms of related conditions

No mention of hypnosis, allegedly the primary method of treatment?? (/sarc)

and there was no mention of plurality being exclusive to dissociative disorders

Oh, and no listed authors either.

So, after three thousand words of analysis, all we've come up with are nothing burgers, dogshit, and dogshit nothing burgers. Out of nine links, only one briefly and indirectly touched on endogenic plurality, and it was in favor. Even the argument against the traumaless DID strawman is weak at best. These sources are bad, to put it lightly.

@radpocalypse, if you're reading this, firstly, thank you for powering through your ADHD and dyslexia to read thousands of words dunking on your masterpiece. Secondly, if you have any more sources that you think are backing you, feel free to send them my way. Just uh, maybe read them more closely next time?

And that goes for everyone here. If you think you have a better source, or if I made a mistake or missed something here, I am open to correction. I am open to the idea that I'm wrong and I have some unknown trauma to work through, but I certainly won't go digging unless I have good reason to believe it's there, and I haven't seen any good reason. And if you haven't either, maybe it's time to reconsider your position.

One last thing before I go.

Have you ever actually seen a pro-endo carrd, let alone one cited in standalone? I haven't.

Here's a much longer list of much better sources than yours supporting endogenic plurality compiled by the traumagenic Guardians System. I don't expect you to read anywhere near the whole thing; just pick a few links at random. And yes, while many of them are peer-reviewed papers, some of them are Tumblr posts, but those Tumblr posts cite peer-reviewed papers, so it's all good.

Thanks for reading.

[silvyavan]

Yuno Grinbellior: Fall From Class Solidarity Grace

This has been a LONG time coming when it comes to Yuno's character, all the power ups and hellacious writing involved with said character. This actually had me re-reading Black Clover just to compile this callout/thesis/whatever the hell this is.

Hypothesis: Yuno's character arc and symbolic meaning got absolutely ruined in Spade arc, on the entire series premises even, to the point where he went from class ally to class traitor. From "You don't have to have massive capital or a prestigious family to have lots of mana and worth" to "Being born to privilege literally gets you everywhere in life".

And even if its not, Yuno's character arc ends up being "always at the important events, never where it matters the most".

ARC 1: THE GRAND ELF ARC AND THE SET UP TO THE CHARACTER.

One of the pivotal moments of the early series is the Magic Knights Exam and how it ends. The choice between captains is arguably the best metaphor for how Asta and Yuno's rivalry feels scuffed and represents that, in a world where mana is everything, big mana DOES get you in high places, even if you're unaware of it.

When Yuno gets his turn to see which captains would want him, all of them raise their hands and he even has the option to choose the best ranked squad, Golden Dawn, a squad that is already built upon with SEVERAL noble houses supporting it, including the Wizard King's own support, and with a repertoire of big mana bitches. Yuno, who symbolises the 4 leaf clover and all the mana and perceived pedigree that comes from it, has the chance to go into a squad that is exclusive only to nobles.

Asta, however, is the more realistic approach of someone who starts from the bottom up and has nothing, as no squads raise their hands because they want him and the only option he DOES have is the squad that's at the bottom of the barrel/with the worst reputation.

This is important because this is aligned with the next instance we'll talk about: Star Festival.

The Star Festival literally has this shit said outright: even if you take THE worst squad out of the gutter and work to the point of disability and get borderline killed trying to protect your country, the squad full of nobles who have:

1) an environment where its much easier to gain achievements (GD being located in Kiten, near the border between Diamond and often attacked, even getting Spade spies, thus making nation relevant achievements is surprisingly easy),

2) more resources and funding due to nepotism and support from rich family members ( having many noble families who can afford tutors, training, education and even connections into getting into squads, often even allowing immediate medical care in case of emergencies), and

3) implicit connections with the higher ups in the government (William being from the same squad where Julius, current wizard king was, the ENTIRE judicial court of Clover being royalists/pro noble faction, likely having relatives in GD)

will still achieve better results for less effort. Asta still has to work harder than Yuno, just for 2nd place. Black Bulls squad can literally save villages and towns, stop foreign invasions and terrorists and they still don't get as much payback as the squad made up entirely from connections, money and massive mana prowess. Is the GD still also doing the same things as the Black Bulls? Yeah, but if you look at the point distributions, Golden Dawn gets SEVERAL per missions/events, with a Spade Kingdom officer being a whole 5 stars.

It's the most obvious metaphor and it leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth, since one of the key notions that one usually gets from the rivalry between Asta and Yuno is that its a friendly rivalry that isn't inherently favored in one direction. And this, and many OTHER instances shown later in the story are testament that that's not true.

Even though Asta and Yuno both qualify for the Royal Knights position, what happened at the actual tournament, concerning Langris, feels like a statement of Yuno throwing away any attempt of principles. Yuno was THERE when Langris went off the deep end, and this guy is his vice captain. Even agrees with Klaus that something is definitely off. But he makes no attempt to actually stop him. Luck, Magna, Noelle, Charmy and Asta all jump in to try and stop him. EVEN JULIUS comes in to try and stop him, so any statement of "he's his superior, he can't go against him" can't hold ground because Julius' judgement clearly says that hes got issues, so I doubt Langris would have grounds in trying to discipline Yuno for "insubordination".

Like, maybe it's just me, but if you see your vice captain go off the deep end and try to kill a contestant from a different squad AFTER its been announced he won, you should probably stop him for both their sakes.

Yuno doesn't, NOBODY from Golden Dawn does, what does that speak on what they view as "going too far"?

And when the match between Asta's and Langris' team ends in a draw, and in a show of solidarity, all the Knights come to Asta to support him, Yuno is... not part of the crowd. People like Klaus, Hamon and Mimosa from the Golden Dawn are. So you've got people from ALL OTHER squads, who don't even know Asta, coming in to his metaphorical support. Its almost out of place how he's not even coming over there, compared to the previous volumes where he was, in fact there.

This just keeps going on until the actual Elf incident, where it feels like Tabata finally remembers "oh yeah, Yuno and Asta are kinda supposed to be friends", and Yuno is immediately worried for Asta in comparison to the previous arcs where he's kind of aloof with him. Can the aloofness be part of the respect for him? Maybe, but this is only because we keep having places where Asta and Yuno are together in a situation. Spade Arc is not like that.

ARC 2: SPADE ARC AND THE FUCK UPS

Spade Arc, has, for the major part except for 2 instances, been an arc that keeps hammering in that Yuno is continuing the saga of acting like the first 15 years of his life mean jackshit.

Yuno is now Vice Captain, has a fanclub and seems to be acting like William is some important figure to him. And all of this feels like absolute lip service.

Vice Captain because Langris stepped down and naturally they needed someone reliable but there's plenty of other, more higher ranking and experienced brigade Knights who could have taken over the responsibilities (assuming that the position isn't just some "second strongest in the building" ranking, and has actual paperwork, responsibilities, workload, etc). So Yuno, getting the position when he's been a Knight for only 2 years, feels like a weird choice and doesn't even give a show of "mana may not be the same, but effort is". They just put any big mana bitch in charge. Even some of the GD only refer to his phenomenal magic as the show of good characteristics.

Yuno and Asta, assuming they both have the same amount of missions and effort put into this, would've had the same position if it wouldn't have been for the Court Rulings and Banishment. And that's what makes Yuno being Vice Captain rather unbelievable or just straight up condescending. Even if the Court Ruling DIDNT apply, it makes no sense for the position to be given to someone who's been in the magic Knights for about 2 years.

The fan club, again, feels like a superficial way to state that "people like Yuno". Yuno is considered handsome, yes, but a fan club usually can't survive off of being handsome alone. There's no actual show of when, how or why this club formed. It sure as hell couldn't have formed in 6 months, even if they're made up of civilians as well. I know the anime has made some supplementary episode on this, but again, the "we accept you" moment feels backhanded.

We know Charlotte has a fan club, but they're all part of her squad. We're not given any example if there's civilians in her fanclub, or if there are other fanclubs dedicated to other famous magic knights.

Even if there wasn't any animosity, for these people to take like a year to accept a new recruit? This fanclub feels more like a representation of actual Yuno fans than a statement that people like Yuno.

The solidarity between him and William. My brother in Clover, where did all of this come from. I'm pretty sure Yuno would've been more pissed about the fact that William chose Yuno because of the elf soul in him. He's not, maybe he doesn't care, but there's not... a whole lot of ANYTHING. It's another case of tell and not show, but maybe because of the timeskip, it feels a bit fake.

The worst of it is, arguably, the moment where he calls out the Captains for keeping William at arms length for the Elf incident.

I want to remind yall, All Of Yall, that the Elf incident didn't just possess the Knights of Golden Dawn, but also EVERYONE ELSE IN THE MAGIC KNIGHTS. 3 (4 if you count Kaiser) WHOLE captains got possessed, SEVERAL vice captains and many other Knights who started blowing shit up all over the kingdom. Patri "killed" Julius in front of Yami, Fuegoleon got ROBBED AND LOST AN ARM due to machinations of the Midnight Sun, Nozel almost DIED in front of his family during the incident, and Jack pretty much had to go and juggle all this shit as the only other non possessed Captain besides Yami in dealing in this.

Like YEAH, no SHIT that they haven't forgiven him, this affected EVERYONE'S bodily autonomy, health and survival. William, bless this homosexual, is a war criminal and I'm pretty sure the Court Rulings, while politically sane, was the only reason his ass wasn't on trial. It's been 6 months, yeah, but the incident has made everyone's life in some way harder and the kingdom's stability worse. They have the right to be mad about this. Even Yuno admits it, he can't blame them for the animosity but at the same time, he's acting like them being mad about it is unwarranted.

Yuno, your autism is bad, I understand, but look back, literally less than 30 chapters ago, and ask yourself, would you be mad as fuck at your coworker if they almost killed everyone? Yes? Because as far as I'm concerned, the moment between Yami, William and Tiny Julius was a closed incident, one that did not have other captains involved. They did not see that shit, maybe they were briefed, but the emotional turmoil was absolutely necessary about this. We're not given the briefing of the captains when William would have had to come clean in front of them. Wish we did, considering how it would've made this moment much more cathartic.

But all this is not the worst offence to Yuno's character. The Prince revelation is.

The thing is, up until this arc, Yuno's behavior might be a bit off putting, but he's still technically a peasant who just so happens to have a lot of mana. The talent and mana was more so his and his alone. His talent made from effort, his mana who he just so happened to he born with. No fancy family, no fancy secret heritage. Just pure, raw autism fueled power.

The Prince revelation essentially smacks it all off of the table and just makes the excuse "of course Yuno is talented and full of mana, he's Foreign Royalty!". Hell, fucking NOZEL makes a "that explains everything" statement.. It's disheartening, cheap and just makes any effort that Yuno previously put into honing his skills feel fake. It is arguably the reason I pray that Asta never gets any secret family bloodline, because its souring the whole character arc and if Asta got that, Tabata might as well cancel the series because that would be a slap to the face for those who wanted Asta to be a winning underdog.

ARC 3: THE PEDESTAL OF BEING IMPORTANT BUT NOT INVOLVED.

This arc has lasted, maybe a bit over 30 chapters (332-369), and it has made not one good thing about Yuno.

Remember the statement I made previously? "Always in the middle of important events, but never when it really matters"? Yeah, no arc shows it as much as this one.

The start of this arc is Lucius attacking Asta's promotion celebration party, a long awaited party to celebrate Asta getting Senior Magic Knight, First Class. 3rd overall, and first in that ranking, essentially saying that Asta's next position would be Grand Magic Knight. In the same title, Fuegoleon says that Asta and Yuno SHOULD have been on the same ranking as Grand Magic Knights, but doesn't say why. Even so, they're not at a relatively similar position of ranking. Most Knights in this ranking are either captains or vice captain level.

This is, naturally, an important event. Orsi, Lily and the kids from the church are there! The captains are there! But not Yuno.

It's implied that Yuno got to Grand Magic Knight within the timeskip, and Asta only managed to get Senior Magic Knight after he was pardoned. But even so, Asta went and celebrated and congratulated it with Yuno. We don't see Yuno's reaction. Only the statement that Asta was always ahead of him. It sounds like ignorance of privilege at this point.

Yuno was out because he, the Golden members and Black Bull members, who have experience with devil activity, were away to investigate it. Unfortunate, but hopeful thinking makes you wonder if he had plans to congratulate Asta after the party, or come in late but still in time for it.

The reality of the matter is that Yuno showed up after the party, after Lucius went and fought Asta and missing quite literally everything. He even says that the attack Adrammelech planned was a feint. Was he not considering the idea that maybe if this was a feint, then something WORSE is going on somewhere else??? Even more so that he went and obliterated high ranking devils in an instant. Hell, with them all gathering in the min hall, it gives the impression that Yuno arrived to this meeting late enough for everyone to gather.

It's almost as if they're treating Yuno's reaction to the events are more important than, you know, actually participating in the events. Noelle and Nero had experience in devils too, but they didn't participate. They actually went and tried to help Asta when he was down! Even the Captains got out to try and help! And yet for Yuno, he's just reacting to it with the promise of vengeance, when nobody knows if vengeance will actually bring Asta back.

This isn't the only moment either. The magic Knights tournament, the golden dawn massacre, and this is a trend in Yuno being involved in the important and big battles, sure, but he's never in the moments that matter in terms of showing the actual presence of the character or weight to the plot. He's almost like a filler character who only shows up in major incidents at this point. Fucking SEKKE has more emotional weight to the plot at this point (I jest but what if).

The arc is, at this point, still ongoing and MAYBE the current state of Yunos character will change (I pray).

But, if I had to give my two cents, my idea of what would make Yuno's character more solid would be the contrast of Yuno who has all the gifts and Yuno who's only got his effort left.

That is to say, put Yuno in a situation where his efforts and abilities are put to the test by reducing/negating his powerups.

One version of this, is that Lucius somehow gets close enough to reach his soul, Elf Yuno takes the brunt to save Yuno, and now Yuno is down to only his Star Grimoire.

Another version, is that Adrammelech vs Yuno happens.

Yuno vs Adrammelech where Adrammelechs (supposed or proposed) Sun magic cancels out Star magic and his wind magic is entirely limited. A fight where Yuno can't rely on his massive magic to fight Adrammelech and can only use weapons made from spirit magic and wind as agility against him.

"Take away the talent and magic and what are you left with" type of fight. It would also add some zest to Adrammelech if he's fighting Yuno PURPOSEFULLY, to separate Asta and him from the fight with Lucius and make it an Asta vs Lucius Rematch while holding his own rematch with Yuno.

If its not, then having the Lucius vs Asta and Yuno might be more of a redemption scenario to Yuno missing the key moments of the party fight. Like how Yuno on his own is kinda struggling due to Lucius using numbers, Asta on his own needed to have hostages used against him. But if they both show up at the same time, then they can counter each others weaknesses.

Those are just some possibilities, and I have no idea how Tabata is gonna spin this, but fuck! Let's hope he doesn't fumble!

[medievalandfantasymelee]

THE HOT MEDIEVAL & FANTASY MEN MELEE

QUALIFYING ROUND: 39th Tilt

Father Beocca, The Last Kingdom (2015-2022) VS. “The Mayor of Hamelin”, The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957)

Propaganda

Father Beocca, The Last Kingdom (2015-2022) Portrayed by: Ian Hart

“We stan hot priests in this house. He is LITERALLY everything you could want in a man. He's so kind and sweet, so patient, so caring. AND HE’S A BADASS. He’s got a sharp tongue and a hot temper. If he says you’ll die by his spear and burn in the fires of hell, then by God (literally) it will happen. NO ONE loves his wife as much as Beocca, and that is SEXY.”

“The Mayor of Hamelin”, The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1957) Portrayed by:

“SHUT UP I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS Alright, listen - I get it, the premise is silly and goofy but this guy is the ultimate silver-haired fox of a DILF. Just LOOK at the size of the rings on his fingers! That rich velvet CAPE? The GLOVES?? He honestly gives off such dragon energy (grumpy, treasure-hoarding, and powerful) and I need him carnally. He speaks entirely in rhyme (hey, it's not easy!), can sing (his baritone voice is such a lure in itself), dance (on a table), drink, gaslights the townspeople he rules over, and prioritizes money and his prestige over everyone and everything (what a girlboss). He's also a father to a daughter (bonus family man points) and is constantly dragging the members of his own cabinet (forever throwing shade and giving well-deserved side-eye). His "burdens of office" include sampling the finest of delicacies Hamelin has to offer. As he puts it himself, "[he] was not made mayor for his beauty alone". Forget the Pied Piper's pipe - one listen to this velvet, honeyed purr and you'd follow him into the river to drown along with those rats.”

Additional Propaganda Under the Cut

Additional Propaganda

For Beocca:

(+ Bonus Uhtred)

For The Mayor:

[Gifset]

[Gifset]

[Gifset]

[Gifset]

[wack-ashimself]

John Oliver taught me new things on student loans debt.

1-last summer, biden did try a small bail out for student debt. The supreme court OVER TURNED IT. I hate our supreme court. Entirely. Hope they all retire, by choice or force. They work 100% EXCLUSIVELY for the rich.

2-Old people are going into debt. So...when I was a kid going into college, I was furious my parents refused to cosign on my college loans. At 38, I AM SO GLAD they didn't. They were rigged! It would have FUCKED THEM out of retirement, and THEY DESERVED TO RETIRE; they're so happy. In the show, he shows a guy who paid his kid's loans from 2004....and they wouldn't be paid off till 2040!!!!

3-I guess there's low income payments. See, I knew of the 10 year program: make regular, consistent, semi large payments for 10 years, NEVER MISSING A ONE, and whatever your debt was is forgiven (however, if you missed ONE PAYMENT, I am not exaggerating, you're fucked forever). But I guess there's another one, same premise, but for 20+ years (show hinted 25 years!), where you get a TINY payment and, after 2 decades, all is forgiven. Here's the problem: of the 2 MILLION people who qualified recently, only 32 (literally 32) actually got it forgiven. What the ever loving fuck!?

4-We all knew these federal loan programs were garbage, but, intentional or not, debt services 'forgot' or were late on mailing out bills, and over 800,000 people were late on payments due to it. THAT IS MALICIOUS!

5-So the last summer biden dismissal of student loan forgiveness had ads against it. It was ironic. Cuz first it said don't forgive rich people's loans, when, logically, historically, rich people don't HAVE loans for college cuz their parents pay for it. DUH. Secondly, it was mocking theater degrees....with actors paid to play 'regular' people hating on theater degrees. Like, irony squared.

5-He pointed out how we can have tax payers pay for stadiums not everyone uses, but we can't forgive student loans?

6-Oliver, like normal, jerked off the government anyways at the end. He does this EVERY FUCKING SHOW. 'The government/the rich/the media are to blame for everything, but I promise they will get it right THIS time if we just give them patience and power.' I fucking hate his sell out ass in that regard. He never demands immediate action from us; trust those who originally cause the problems to fix them. Dumbass. I watch cuz he is informative, but he is a sell out too.

7-As I said on other posts, forgiving ALL major debt (public/personal) would ONLY fuck the banks who WE BAILED OUT, so they owe us anyways. PERIOD.

8-I know this is me watching too much of this show, but I could tell, by his tone alone, he was going to say they were off next week. Serious.

[goodluckclove]

ok ok ok Clove i need to know: who are some of the best writers here in your opinion ? who do i need to follow if i want to follow the next generation of great writers ? i need new blogs to follow

oh shit let's party.

first off i can't say that i know all the best writers here. i'm still learning! also, maybe i like things you don't. the usual disclaimer. but i'll still take the chance to rave about some of the immense brilliance of some of my colleagues on here!

first of is @ivaspinoza, who is the first person to send me her writing the very first time i asked. she writes the most beautiful, almost prophetic word pieces. not quiet prose, not entirely poetry. it's language you can really seep yourself in like a heated milk bath. she's working on a longform vampire novel in the same style which i have seen snippets of and it is truly incredible. love her dearly.

i'm actually in the middle of Song of the Heartless by @rkmoon, because he was hesitating to post it and i harassed him into sending it to me. and oh man, it's great. really solid premise and a world that feels vibrant and expansive and also shit because it's kind of dystopian and the vibes are not great. obviously as another aspec writer i love the representation. it's great to read yourself on the page and still see your struggles draped in thematic excitement. i can't say any more without spoiling it but i really want to. this could easily be a fucking great movie adaptation.

i feel insane pointing you towards @godsmostfuckedupgoblin because he doesn't really post his writing as far as i know but he's got some of the best mastery of dialogue i've seen in non-published writing and his excerpts are always so exciting and fun to read. maybe if enough people him to share more he will but until then his memes are lit as a child has once said before.

@stajorathefallen is working on a longform Lord of the Rings fic that is truly beautiful. I would rather read this finished product than the actual Lord of the Rings. I don't know if she'll find that a compliment or a war crime, but it's just nicer. It feels warm and cozy to read. I actually don't even know if it's referenced the original canon at all since I saw the movies but didn't pay attention. I was not qualified to look at this fic but I got to anyway and it's great.

@cssnder is someone else who doesn't post enough writing, but my hope is with enough confidence she'll branch more into sharing. Literally every time she drops a line everyone's like huh?? wow!! and then she whispers a thanks and disappears back into the catacombs. if you like dark academia based on tiktok you should follow her to see what those tiktoks wish they could capture.

this is obviously not everyone. these are not even all the people that sent me writing to look at. i have two separate emails that i still need to marry, some people are still in the egg-cracking stage of being a writer, and my adderal can only do so much. if you aren't one of these people just know that you are amazing and you need to post more of your work so i can point people to your page please thank you i love you.

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

The Darkling

Okay so this guy is the main bad guy of the series. He made “the fold” this barren wasteland of darkness and monsters dividing the land, causing like hundreds of thousands of people to die. He killed his mom. He psychologically manipulated his girlfriend (like, he caused her to hallucinate and a whole bunch of other crazy stuff). He made one of his followers (a young girl) use her body to slowly poison the king over time. He started a cult. He did a LOT of crazy stuff. However, we do see his backstory of him as a kid, and learn that he did all this in the name of equality, so people would stop torturing and killing the ‘grisha’ or the witches/magic users. Later, he fakes his own death and starts a cult worshipping him and acts as the leader of the cult, going by his old name Aleksander. He is a very complicated character. So tell my why everyone thirsts after him and is like “he did nothing wrong” HELLO?! He is NOT your poor little meow meow he is complies please please don’t sanitize him.

Mikoto Kayano

Mikoto is really kind and friendly, he gives people nicknames, and he tries to talk to everyone. He cares about his little sister and his mom; he doesn't want to worry anyone and will hide when he's really stressed out and try to act like everything is fine. He just laughs and hopes everything will work out. He overworks himself and thinks that he needs to keep working, even after he's already pushing himself too hard. He doesn't remember killing anyone and he's in MILGRAM because of it and he got voted to not be forgiven in the first trial which is making his stress worse.

Mikoto's characterization within the fandom is either sexy man or baby who couod never hurt a fly. Despite that in his introductory voice drama he folds a fifteen year old for several minutes abd the fact that he's now in a mystical prisoner for definitely committing murder. Like the entire premise of the series is contingent upon everyone who is in it killing a person. Mikoto has dissociative identity disorder the fandom uses this to basically go normal Mikoto the one Milgram arrested (the prison that can look into people's minds by the way) is the good one. He hates violence and I'd just a silly little office worker but the other one I'd the literal devil. An evil man who likes violence and just hates people real antisocial. The fandom is so bad at understanding moral ambiguity and dissociative identity disorder that despite his songs being called MeMe, Double, a line in the second song being literally "Just the two of us" and one of the creators puting out a statement after the seconds songs release saying "I wonder what will happen to the two Mikoto's now"- A good majority of fans have convinced themselves there is a third very normal and chill alter (because they seperate them by emotional states like this is fucking inside out for some reason) who is just a guy and consistently state Mikoto will be bad representation if there are only two. It's to the point that a good deal of the fanbase are fans of this character and not actually Mikoto. Only using his actual character for ship fodder to fuel their switch fetish. I don't know if it's not understanding moral ambiguity, just not knowing how to fucking read, or hating a minority of people simply based on how a dissociative disorder presents in them which is apparently a bias that the dissociative identity disorder community has had for a long time i.e treating people more poorly based on alter count but whatever it is I believe it's enough to qualify him for this.

[literary-illuminati]

do you have any recs for completed web serials? i went into pgte, worth the candle, pale, and now the flower that blooms nowhere before each was finished without realizing. i guess also books would be good but i like the length and energy of something published in installments

hmmm, If you've read Pale I'm assuming you're already at least aware of Wildbow's other works? And I mean PGtE technically now qualifies! :P

But hmm, okay, I'm not sure any of these are really total and unqualified recommendations, but stuff that's complete and that I finished without resenting the effort I was putting in to finishing it-

The Last Angel: Extremely over the top space opera about the mad-with-grief/rage AI dreadnought that's the last relic of human civilization after an alien empire destroyed Earth and deported the remainder of the species to a reservation on the far of the galaxy then thoroughly obliterated their history and culture. Story is fine, love the worldbuilding, cursed by how much information is in author answers to the dumbest commenters in the world. There's a sequel which I didn't both reading. Main characters are lesbian rep of the 'clearly written by a straight guy but, like, he's trying his best' variety.

Unsong: In a world where the Apollo mission crashed into the crystal sphere surrounding the earth, a young man in California works methodically vocalizing and recording the results of random collections of syllables for a company attempting to discover and patent the secret names of God. Sadly basically the entire book goes downhill from that utterly sublime premise. More clever than good, really, but the chapters of worldbuilding by chains of esoteric word association games are a lot of fun. Nonezero amounts of real r/menwritingwomen shit, IIRC.

Shadows of the Limelight: Renaissance Europe, but being famous literally gives you superpowers in direct proportion to how famous you are. Messy, but actually followed through and kept its nerve on some big reveals, which I appreciate. If you liked Guide (and especially liked hating the heroes in Guide), you'll probably enjoy?

An Unauthorized Fan Treatise: Read this one two weeks ago so will put together an actual review sometime soon. Story of a murder mystery involving genre tv actors as told through the creepily obsessive essay series of a fan proving two of the leads of her favorite show are fucking. Don't regret reading it, but was left feeling that the entire third act was nothing but one long series of missed opportunities.

Anyway going to throw open the door to suggestions from people who actually read more than two web serials at any given time!

[beautifulpersonpeach]

https://www.tumblr.com/beautifulpersonpeach/732115125629321216/i-find-some-your-reactions-towards-tae-pretty?source=share

The one I couldn't quite stomach was borderline implying date rape - that Tae would get women drunk to have sex with them. That's crossing a line to imply such depravity.

Not only is he probably in a committed relationship with a girl since late 2021 if people believe the Taennie rumour all the way through, he can't really drink a lot and was literally peer-pressured into drinking by other men on the team such as Yoongi, Jimin, JK and possibly Jin. I can respect you BPP for how amazing your grasp of the industry is, but when it comes to members it seems very coloured and biased by discourse in various bubbles rather than actual content.

***

Your link.

Lol! Now we're getting somewhere. I know I probably shouldn't dismiss what you're saying given how aggrieved you appear to be and how serious this charge is, but now that I see the basis of your recent asks... you're not giving me much of a choice here lmao.

I kinda thought you were talking about my reaction to Tae's recent habit of Black cosplay, and was prepared to tell you exactly what I think about your taking issue with it. But the reality is far more silly. Thank goodness.

So, what got you ticked off, (or led to your current conclusion of how I feel about Tae) was this post.

*

After publishing it I got a bunch of asks from people I assumed to be akgaes of various members (only Jin akgaes didn't respond), and I deleted them all almost instantly because I thought they were silly. Thinking about it now, and looking at your writing style, it's possible your ask was among them. And the only reason I'm taking your ask seriously this time, is because you've leveled a pretty serious charge, and so I realize I'm probably not giving you enough benefit of doubt.

I understand tone is generally difficult to convey through text, but if you could not tell that entire thing was a massive shitpost, and that nothing untoward was even actually implied for any member... then you have me wondering about more than just your sense of humour.

Speaking more generally, I've talked about this before but I've noticed the cultural zeitgeist now is this weird combination of a puritanical black/white attitude to topics around sex but in a culture that claims to be more sex-positive and self-aware than any generation that came before them. Like people generally okay with the idea of women engaging in casual sex or one night stands after a party, but eliminating the agency of the woman in initiating, consenting to, and participating in it to claim she's advocating for being date raped...

...as you've managed to do in this ask.

Because, again, the premise of the original ask was, and I quote: "...the one who would make YOU feel the best in bed?"

But maybe I'm not giving you much benefit of doubt.

Maybe you've experienced some sexual trauma in the past and so you're sensitive to any mention of casual sex + alcohol/drugs

Maybe you're religious and so the whole idea is abhorrent to you on a moral fundamental level

Maybe you've seen this characterization of Taehyung made before in more unkind spaces and felt I was feeding into that

And this is aside from the general posture in online spaces these days, where the default is to presume the worst possible interpretations and so people constantly couch their words in qualifying phrases to prevent someone else taking it the wrong way.

...all that aside, allow me to spell it out for you that:

This was a shitpost. It's not meant to be true to life for any member.

There's nothing actually wrong with a person (a woman in this case) comfortable with a man being attentive to them at a party and keeping their drinks (or legal drug of choice) flowing so long as they consent to it.

There's nothing wrong with a man (or person) propositioning another person for sex at a party. Obviously.

I understand there's some debate about this in some circles, but I believe it's possible for a person to consent to sex while drinking. If someone is so drunk they can't walk straight, speak or think relatively clearly, then obviously they cannot consent, and nowhere was this actually implied in my post.

I almost can't believe I'm saying all this lol, but I also get that such is the nature of the internet where you're exposed to all sorts of people, each with their own belief systems, and while I assumed most of my readers are adults, it's possible you might not be.

So Anon, if this was the basis for your sniff test on whether or not I hate Tae, you can rest assured that's not the case. Neither is it for the other members I painted in other colourful ways in that post.

[paragonrobits]

What do you think of the idea that the Gaang are children soldiers? I met with someone who said that I told him that this is an uncharitable view of the series.

My immediate response was to think 'NO THEY'rE NOT', pause a moment to reflect on all the way things apply in-universe and I amended this to 'no, they're not, you could ARGUE they are from a specific point of view but it requires deliberately disassociating from the premise of the series to come to that conclusion'. Such, I say, is the province of the sort of people who act extremely smug about getting one over on the series (or that's the impression I get) and for some reason also generally tend to be the people who ride the 'Azula is a badass girlboss' train so hard that they've wound up viewing her as a tragic victim of circumstances and everyone in the show is mean for not dropping their entire lives to parent her 24/7.

I suppose this is a roundabout way of me getting to the preamble that this is an uncharitable view of the show, most certainly, and it seems common among the sort of people who seem to treat the very premise as a series as something to mock and then act like they won something? I dunno. It's weird.

To get strictly technical, I don't think the Gaang are child soldiers in a literal sense, at least no more in the sense of 1. being soldiers and 2. are children. They're not trained as soldiers, they do not follow any formal chain of command beyond 'do what Aang thinks sounds good after he discusses it with everyone' or 'Chief Hakoda is hear so lets see what he has in mind'.

They're warriors, certainly, in a loose sense. Sokka is explicitly a warrior of the Southern Water Tribe, though its honestly unclear if he would actually be expected to fight in a conflict. Personally I am leaning towards 'no', since a lot of the stuff surrounding Sokka in this context feels like its not the sort of thing that normally happens in the Southern Water Tribe. Sokka is the youngest warrior in the tribe, and it feels like he IS considered a warrior (based on Hakoda specifically asking him to stay as a fellow warrior, during a big meeting) but while he was apparently trained as one, a lot of it seems self taught and based on him feeling obligated to try to be a warrior, rather than any kind of formal training. He's definitely a hunter, but that's not strictly part of being a soldier of any kind.

Something similar applies to the rest of the group. They're definitely warriors, in the sense of people who are capable and willing to fight outside the context of a formal chain of command, but they're not trained soldiers, except for Suki and possibly Zuko. While the Kyoshi Warriors seem fairly autonomous, it does seem likely that Suki is the leader of their group, as they defer to her, and is definitely wearing a uniform. I don't know if Zuko, and by extension Azula, are technically soldiers or not. I would guess they qualify more as independent agents. Ozai does send out Azula to perform tasks, and she has considerable authority, but again I don't really think she qualifies as a soldier, despite her training, given this specific context.

So no, they're not child soldiers in the technical sense of 'soldiers who are children'. The term is used a lot to refer to any child protagonists that engage in conflict, usually with an unspoken cry of 'and the older characters are HORRIFYING to allow this!'.

This basically kind of requires ignoring the central premise of the series, however, and making judgments on Hakoda, Iroh and other older characters is uncharitable in the extreme. Avatar the Last Airbender is a action-adventure series primarily geared at tweens and young teenagers; old enough to love the gross out humor and visual gags, but old and mature enough that the complex philosophy and moral questions won't go over their heads. As such, the show is meant for kids to watch and to like the protagonists. As such, it requires protagonists in that age group to go on cool adventures.

If a hypothetical viewer is going to complain about how the responsible adults aren't stopping their adventure to fight their own battles instead, they need to be reminded that this IS an action-adventure series, and the viewers are meant to think the characters are cool for doing this stuff. Criticizing characters for letting them fight is missing the point; they're SUPPOSED to fight. That's the point of the show.

From an internal point of view, there's an unspoken suggestion that while the adult characters don't want the kids involved, they honestly don't have much choice; much as Hakoda left the village behind, despite wanting to stay there with them, there was a war to fight in order to prevent the certain destruction of their home, if not worse. His children are now involved, and he doesn't really have much option in it one way or another. There's some argument to be made that maybe Hakoda has silently decided that if they do wind up getting killed in the fight... well, its their choice. He doesn't like it, but the situation is severe enough that risking your life in this situation is your own decision, and he might have made the grim algebra decision that such is the demands of the times.

The other thought is that Hakoda, and the other adults in a similar position such as Iroh (though not Ozai who absolutely does not care), are willing to allow them to make their own decisions given the momentous state of events; such is a time of destiny, and all must answer to it as they see fit. They have few warriors of any kind left, and the Gaang are powerful, and willing to bring balance to the world, so what are they to do? You can't just tell them 'no, go home, you're just a kid', because if the adults DON'T win the war, its going to be a moot point. Those kids will go home and then die anyway when the war comes for them, or face a more gruesome or horrific fate in the same way.

(There's probably some leeway in thinking that some characters are thinking that the kids probably WILL die fighting, and if they do, at least they do so with honor, instead of waiting to die as their homes are conquered. It's a grim thing, but the state of the world is grim for them, and it might be better to die with dignity instead of pretending you actually get to have a say in whether they live or die.)

This, of course, ultimately brings us to the big point of it: Aang.

The first bit, of course, is that there's no one left to actually stand as an adult for him. He has no one, except the Gaang. He has a few peers, most notably Bumi and some members of the White Lotus who are likely to understand his perspective and cultural position, and from their few interactions its clear that Aang would at least hear Iroh out if he said something on it one way or another. But he is, at the title points out, the last Air Nomad. Who is going to speak for him or tell him that he's just a child, and that this isn't his fight?

The answer is tragic, in a couple ways. The first is, well, it IS his fight. He is the Avatar. All fights are, by definition, his fight; to keep balance and bring peace to warring nations is the precise reason he exists, and everyone knows it. The other sad part is that Gyatso did, and no one listened. And now there is no one left to listen or speak for Aang at all. Not many people will speak like a parent or teacher for Aang, not when they don't really know him.

And the second part of it is, again, he's the Avatar.

He is the spirit of the world itself incarnate in human form. He has mastered the elements over a thousand lifetimes again and again. He is both human and spirit, the crossroads of destiny itself. By his will and right is all moral decisions given to him; should he decree that the time of humanity is past and everyone should perish and thank him for thinking of them enough to make a judgment, that is his right. Less misanthropically (and more in character), if he decides that this is his fight, no adult in the world has the right to say 'no' or argue with him.

He is the Avatar. What he says, goes, and they know it. The thing about Aang is that he is moral enough to probably feel this isn't good enough and there needs to be a moral framework beyond 'what I say goes', and that's a good thing, but at the same time that's still his decision.

At the end of the day, the affairs of the world are Aang's business, and whatever he does for it is his own decision. No one is about to second guess him or argue about it with him except for Katara, Sokka and the rest of the Gaang, because they're the only people he has left, in any way save Bumi (who is also likely to not argue with him on this).

The state of the world is desperate enough that, in character, they probably need everyone they can get who is willing to fight. The story itself is set up around the cool adventures of a group of friends fighting the big evil empire; trying to call them child soldiers is really missing the point!

I mean, if someone is going to be smug online and go 'WELL ACTUALLY all the main characters and villains are actually child soldiers and the adults are bad people for allowing this', I'm going to take a wild guess and assume they're not actually engaging with the narrative or its requirements. I'd say its a manifestation of the same insufferableness as the people who complain when the characters in a story do not constantly act for maximum efficiency and rationality, make mistakes, or do other things that smartasses on-line like to criticize to be smug.

I certainly think there's plenty of room to analyze WHY characters make these decisions, in universe; you can argue that Hakoda doesn't want them to fight, but knows he doesn't have a choice about it, or that Iroh has already made his peace with the possibility Zuko will die and the rest of his family are likely to be casualties (not that he really cares that much for anyone in his family but Zuko, and given that its people who have outright tried to kill him, I really don't think he can be blamed for that, or that its reasonable to see him as a villain because he implicitly holds a grudge over it).

But ultimately, calling them child soldiers is indeed uncharitable. What do you expect them to do? Wait in a room for a few years until they hit 18 and THEN go off to war? Or that Ozai is likely to put the war on hold as he goes "Ah, yes, of course, my family may be genocidal conquerors and I am absolutely DELIGHTED to burn the entire Earth Kingdom down and possibly dance on the ashes, but fighting children? Perish the thought! I'm putting the war on hold until they're adults. Oh, wait, right. I'm evil, I'm going to kill them all anyway. BACK TO THE CHILD MURDER, EVERYONE, YOU ALL KNOW I AM POSITIVELY GIDDY ABOUT IT."

But we all know that's about as likely to happen as Azula realizing on her own that a lack of active malice from Ozai is not the same thing as him actually caring about her, or that picking Ozai's side in their perpetual family conflict was a good idea. That is, she's not going to realize it without Destiny spending a few years bonking her on the head with a big list of all the time Ozai showed himself to have the emotional capacity of a rock while shouting 'HOW ARE YOU THIS DENSE??'.

So, uh, not very likely at all!

[thephantomcasebook]

Ryan was talking about how Aegon is gReAy and how he is not joffery then he made him worse than joffery lmao this is insane

To be fair, It wasn't Condal.

The stuff about Aegon raping a maid and the child fighting ring was not in the original scripts. They were added by Sara Hess just before shooting.

The galaxy brain "writer" openly and proudly admits it to anyone that'll listen, like somehow she's some sort of fucking genius for literally ruining the entire premise of the Dance and the plot of the show. FYI she was also responsible for the massacre at the Dragon Pit cause there wasn't enough "Girl-Boss moments" for Rhaenys - Yes, she literally said that. She's the fucking worst ... how anyone thought she was qualified to write fantasy and historical fiction is beyond me.

She might be in the running for worst writer working in Hollywood right along side Jonathan Kasdan, Scott Derrickson, Jessica Gao, and the morons who wrote "Rings of Power".

[hollowwhisperings]

"Speaker For The Dead": Bran Stark as a Reference to Ender Wiggin.

I read the first two Ender books when FAR too young to handle their themes of, y'know, the intimacy of xenocide when you're a child soldier. Scary stuff for a kid of age with the protagonist.

So colour me Unsurprised upon relearning that the language the aliens of SFTD's aliens to speak with humans... is named "Stark".

Because of course GRRM would find joy in a conveniently horrifying-by-implication Pun.

The Premise of "Speaker For The Dead" (the sequel to "Ender's Game", a Differently Horrifying inspiration for some of my childhood nightmares) is this: human colonists and the local alien species had been more-or-less at peace until a human is Suddenly & Inexplicably Murdered by the aliens who considered him a Friend.

Due to [the Plot of Ender's Game], Humans are wary of Jumping To Conclusions as to this seemingly Senseless Violence and Ender Wiggin (of Ender's Game) stops at the planet to Speak at some Funerals. To properly Speak for the Deceased, Ender investigates the Murders and because of [the plot of Ender's Game] feels certain that there has been a Fatal Translation Error.

Spoilers for SFTD & comparisons to Bran's POV Arc under cut.

He's Right.

The Piqueninos (the aliens) are still learning to communicate with the humans they're sharing a planet with, using a language named "Stark". The deceased men were both held in great esteem by the Piqueninos, one of the primary reasons why [A Xenologist Expert] was sought after: why kill someone who was their Friend?

It turns out that Ritualistically Vivisecting respected males of their society is how the Piqueninons Evolve: they had spent the entire book calling Trees their "Fathers" and they had meant that literally.

The gratuitously violent murders of their human friends were efforts by the Piqueninos to honour these men by making them Fathers, using the same method of Deification on the human men as they would to their own kind.

Cue the Horrific Revelation that, no, Humans Do Not Transistion From Life Phases via being Ritualistically Killed to Become Trees: the Piqueninos efforts to "honour" their Human Friends actually Killed Them. Permanently.

Now let's reevaluate what Bran Stark's been up with the Singers in ASOIAF.

Brynden Rivers has been sending Dreams to kids with Greenseer Potential and directing them North.

Jojen & Bran, inspired by such Dreams, go Beyond The Wall to seek out this "Three-Eyed Crow" who will teach Bran how to "fly".

Bran & Company end up in a magically warded Cave populated by the mythic "Children of the Forest" (Singers) and someone they call "The Last Greenseer", a man who has a weirwood tree growing through him & introduces himself as a Man Formerly Known as Brynden.

contextual clues identify him as "Brynden Rivers": one of three Great Bastards of Aegon IV had with Lady Melissa Blackwood*, Hand & Spymaster to Kings Aerys I & Maekar I, a Disappeared Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.

the Singers confirm the religious beliefs shared with the First Men as being Literal: the trees are gods and the gods are trees. Incidentally, Jojen brings up how Revered Greenseers are by those who worship the Old Gods.

Jojen has Greensight and Bran, as someone who can both Skinchange AND Greendream, qualifies for "Greenseer" status. Except... the Singers Very Consistently call Brynden "the Last Greenseer" even with Bran Stark right there contradicting that There Can Be Only One (the Singers also mention greenseers as existing in Plural, historically, & that those of their Own Species have "died out/[faded?]").

Brynden "The Last Greenseer" takes Bran as his [apprentice]. Part of this Training is going into the Weirwood Tree [Hivemind], a network that transcends Time & Space (because Roots, i guess?) and allows Bran to see all sorts of varyingly traumatising Visions.

Bran's lessons require his sitting on a Weirwood Throne beside Brynden who is, incidentally, a body horror Weirwood Tree-Human hybrid now.

BTW, Bran's "training diet" features an Ominously Described "Paste" fed to him by the Singers. It's made from Weirwood Seeds, apparently.

(hey isn't everyone stuck in this spooky underground cave because leaving it means getting eaten by zombies? whete are they getting these Weirwood Seeds from- oh. Hi there, Brynden the Tree-Man Abomination)

wait, if Bran's a Greenseet now then how come the Singers still call Brynden the "Last" Greenseer? is this, perhaps, an instance of, say... interspecies life phase transitions being Poorly Translated to humans due to Trees Being Gods and Trees Transcending Time & Death?

has Jojen, perhaps, Made An Assumption about "when" that Title of "Greenseer" is gained? He had said that Greenseers were Deified as Weirwood Trees, implying they were entombed upon death...

...but what if Dying is part of the deification process?

(well, for a given value of "dying"... *looks at Brynden The Tree-Abomination Rivers*)

...the Cave Singers are totally going to ritualistically vivisect Bran and make him their new Tree God, aren't they.

(and, from the looks of Brynden, some decades into HIS initiation... this process will Not Be Quick nor "Pretty")

Brynden is probably complicit in the Singers' Scheme to Make Bran A Tree, if only due to Brynden being the "Weirwood" Bran's Paste Training Diet is made from.

Brynden might also want Out from the whole "Unnaturally Alive & Conscious This Whole Time" thing because WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO BE ALIVE AS YOU ARE TURNED INTO A TREE.

let us Not Recall the descriptions of: Brynden's current appearance, the many non-peaceful expressions carved as Faces for Heart Trees, the states of humans "honoured" by the Piqueninos in SFTD, any descriptions of what Becoming A Tree involves...

...and any investigation into what, exactly, a Weirwood's "seeds" may be. I stop at "Horus in Set's Salad" and THAT WAS ENOUGH.

MOVING RIGHT ALONG, when Not Being A Tree Hivemind, Brynden & thus Bran seem to fulfil a role not dissimilar to that of "Speakers For The Dead": they examine historic events as Outside parties. Brynden instructs Bran on evaluating his Visions objectively, without reverance nor judgement. At least, I think he did. Again: preservation of own sanity > exact visuak descriptions of events in ASOIAF.

Interestingly, being an effective Speaker for the Dead requires much of the same skillset as a Competent Kingmaker (or, at least, a King UnMaker).

To Conclude, the Similarities*** between Bran's interactions with the Cave Singers and those of Human Friends & Piqueninos in "Speaker For The Dead" are Multiple &, knowing GRRM, probably Deliberate. Let's just hope Meera and Jojen have gone AWOL because Meera is Plotting Arson, not because they're of Interest to the Cave Singers' reproductive purposes too. Both series do enjoy subjecting female characters to Grim Maternity &/or Horrific Relationship Revelations.

Arson is my Ideal Plotline for Meera, Grand Elk Larceny as a distant second. All those "Last Hero" parallels Bran Stark has going on should be Recognised (by Meera) and AVOIDED (by Meera) WITH FIRE. I'm lowkey convinced Brynden would actually prefer being burned alive to "indefinitely trapped in rotting human flesh as he slowly becomes a Tree (potentially for the purposes of interspecies repropogation)".

Footnotes

*Lady Melissa Blackwoof was likely an aunt or sister of Lady Melantha Blackwood of Winterfell, Bran's great-great grandmother: there is almost certainly at least one other Blackwood in Bran's family tree, likely as one of his 4 unnamed great-grandmothers through Grandpa Hoster Tully & Grandma Minisa Whent.

It's also possible that all the Movement at the end of Brynden's reign as Hand (the Lords going to KL for the Great Council that made Betha** Blackwood Queen of Westeros & Grand Escort from KL to The Wall to send off Maester Aemon & Ser Brynden) was how Lord Beron Stark's Heir, Edwyle, ended up married to a Riverlander like Melantha Blackwood.

**Queen Betha & Lady Melantha were almost certaingly "cousins" of some sort to Brynden through his mother, Melissa Blackwood. The exact degree of relation is unknown but It's There.

The degrees of relation from "Lady Melissa, Paramour of Aegon IV" to "Lady Melantha of Winterfell" connect Brynden (through his Blackwood mother) to EVERY living Stark, courtesy of their one unanimously agreed shared Grandpa (Lord Rickard Stark, of "murdered by Aerys II & Part 3 of 4 Extremely Valid Reasons for Ned's Rebellion").

Lady Catelyn's being a Riverlander, specifically a Tully & a Whent of Harrenhal, make it likely that Brynden's related to HER too.

Jon, of course, has Black Betha as all 4 of his paternal great-great grandmothers AND Lady Melantha as one of his maternal ones (the others being Marna Locke, Arya Flint, & Lorra Royce): Jon's somehow being "5/8ths Blackwood" is how I got distracted by the blood ties of Brynden & Bran in the first place!

[semper-legens]

175. The Coven, by Lizzie Fry

Owned: No, library Page count: 435 My summary: Witchcraft is real. It's the oldest tradition in the world - and yet, the men want it to be suppressed. Only women can have magic, but magic is often harmful to men. Magic is illegal, women split into criminal witches and 'Goodys', with women being imprisoned if they dare to show any signs of magic. But there is a resistance ready and waiting. Soon, the One will appear. And the witches will have their day. My rating: 2/5 My commentary:

I'm ever confused by the categories the library I work in uses for the stock. This is about witches, and is set in a modern-day world where witchcraft is a known reality of life, and yet it apparently doesn't qualify as being fantasy. Anyway. One of the things that will instantly draw me to a book is if it includes magic, witches, or witchcraft, so you better believe I snatched this one up as soon as I saw it on the shelves. And…do you ever feel yourself getting steadily less interested in a book as you read it? I started out interested in the world and in the premise outlined here, but as the story went on I was just becoming more and more bored with it, to the point where I only really read the last third of the book out of the sunk-costs fallacy, rather than any actual desire to finish it. There's good roots to this story and to this idea. Unfortunately, those roots didn't sprout a book that lives up to the promise of its premise, and the result was just sort of…meh.

Firstly, I had a real problem with the plainness of the prose, especially as things went on. A lot was pure exposition or stating things like 'she was happy about this' or 'she trusted him now', with not a lot of nuance. Hell, the entire epilogue, rather than being a wrap-up of where our characters are now or anything, was just an exposition dump in the form of a school lesson featuring characters we've never seen before and don't care about! It's just not the most compelling style of writing. When questions are answered, they're answered in a very direct way, and the author seems to have struggled to communicate some elements of world building in a well-integrated way. There's a device used in the earlier chapters where we see glimpses of in-universe speeches, pamphlets, and propaganda which carry the load of the exposition, but that seems to be quietly dropped in later chapters, so the characters have to do all the expositing and it doesn't quite work as well.

Secondly, the feminism espoused by this book was kind of muddled, and very shallow. Men are all oppressors bar a few Good Ones, and loudly decry any men who help women as cucks. Granted, most of the men we see are part of the anti-witch Sentinels and so are trained to be egregiously misogynistic, but the overall feeling is the same as any 'boys vs girls' story from a children's book. I didn't think the feminism was particularly in-depth, is my point - and the attempts at intersectionality felt half-hearted. There's a minor character who's revealed to be trans in an incredibly clumsy way and just feels like she's there to show that trans women are women - alright, fair enough, but given the premise of the gender-based violence in this world I would have thought that the idea of a trans witch might merit a bit more discussion. She literally just exists to almost (and I hate to use this word) virtue-signal without any thought of the wider implications of a transgender witch. It just rubbed me up the wrong way. Add to this that the feminism of the book still continues to uphold gendered stereotypes. Ethan is strong and manly. Adelita is a mother to Chloe. Women are fighters through magic or cunning; men use force. That sort of thing.

It also doesn't help that our overall villain is a woman who is very feminine, carefully calculates her appearance, and overall fits the evil girlboss kind of stereotype. But she feels like a cardboard cutout, as do many of the characters. Adelita is plucky and sensitive, Ethan is macho with a sensitive side, Chloe is troubled. Ethan in particular doesn't really get the development he should - hey, it's not that you can never write a sympathetic recently-ex-fascist character, but the author throws in stuff like 'his family were literal Nazis' that doesn't get followed up and really just makes me lose a lot of sympathy for him. A lot of characters are introduced, which means that many of them are one-note and don't really amount to anything interesting. It's just not enough, it could be more, and that's what really frustrated me about the book in general.

Next up, ever wondered how to survive in medieval England as a frugal wizard?

[babysharl]

Hope I'm not too late for the WIP ask game. What about #1 and #3? Also is there really going to be a continuation of the Christmas one shot you wrote?

You were not late for the WIP ask game !! But I definitely am, sorry it's taken me a couple days to answer 🙏 Thank you for the ask, love!

You have all the answers under the cut so I don't make an annoyingly lenghthy post ^^

Okay, so #1, Lest is my 2022 season fic. It has like 25k words written, but it's mostly dialogue except for a few fully formed scenes, and it spans literally the entire season. I wrote it as it went on (it's divided into 28 chapters), but it's too gargantuan of a WIP to work through :S Maybe I'll reconceptualise it into a oneshot, cause I like the character arcs in it and there's scenes I love a lot. Max is poly in this and in a serious relationship with Kelly, and at the start Charles is with Charlotte too. Charles and Max start developing a closer friendship, and then ✨feelings✨ start to appear. They go back and forth without addressing said feelings for a long while.

Here's an excerpt of a scene post Singapore qualifying:

"Hey." He said quietly, debating with himself for all of two seconds before he took a seat next to Max, self-consciously still leaving a gap between them. When he finally settled down, it seemed like Max came out of whatever revery he had been in. 

"Sorry we're up here." He muttered, his voice cracking up in the middle before he cleared his throat, still looking ahead to the skyline that was visible. "Kelly was asleep already." 

Charles hummed, but didn't really know how to answer that. There was a weird feeling hanging between them, and Charles would be lying if he said on his part it had nothing to do with having met Kelly the day before, or Max mentioning her being in their room and bed right now. It made him feel awful, too. But he doubted anything going on between them had anything to do with Max reaching out so late and when they should've been closing the curtains in their rooms and getting to bed. It was nearing midnight in Monaco's time. Way past their bedtimes. 

"Are you okay?" He braved, waiting with bated breath to see if Max would lash out. Charles still didn't know what to expect with him. He was better at reading Max now that he had ever thought he would be, but Max still seemed so out of reach sometimes.

The other man only let out a long sigh, though, stretching his legs and letting them rest against the pavement of the roof. 

"I lost it." Charles frowned, confused, but then Max kept talking and he suddenly knew what about. "Such a small issue, completely and understandably something that can happen –not that it should, but I know it can happen, and I shouldn't complain because the team ever so rarely makes mistakes–, and I…. completely lost it."

Charles took a deep breath, then let it out slowly before admitting in a quiet voice, "I heard." He doubted there was anyone in the paddock who hadn’t. And the press… not their most forgiving day when it came to Max. Charles was selfishly glad that he usually had the press on his side, that he didn’t have to know what was being on the other end of it, being labelled as the villain time and again.

It was the middle of the night, and Charles’ phone told him it should’ve been at least a bit colder than it was during the day, but the heat remained even as high up as they were, his t-shirt clinking to his skin in a way that not even the humidity in Monaco managed to accomplish. Singapore was beautiful, but Charles had never liked how sticky it made his skin. 

#3 F1TV -> this one started as a 5+1 and I'd really like to finish it. I have 3 and a half out of 6 written, so odds are I may actually do finish it. Premise is Max keeps analysing Charles' onboards to "study the enemy" (full suspension of disbelief cause they have both said they never watch other onboards and just focus on their own hahahah). Here you have a little excerpt from it:

After that second time, it becomes a thing. Max keeps asking G.P. for the race onboards, he makes a habit of watching them either on the plane back home or once he's home, so he can watch on a screen bigger than his phone. Sometimes if he’s told it’s a particularly good race, he sets up the video on the screen of his simulator, and analyses it while replicating every movement Leclerc does with his own hands on his steering wheel. He can't find a way to explain this weird obsession other than he's trying to find cracks in Leclerc's driving. Because about halfway through last year's summer, Leclerc signed to Sauber. And even though Max shouldn't be concerning himself with someone driving such a backmarker car as a Sauber, he knows Leclerc from his own karting days, and he has seen enough onboards from him by now to know he's not going to be driving a midfield car in Formula 1 for long. He'll step up sooner or later. And Max needs to be prepared.

And finally, as for a continuation of As Long As I Get To Keep You, it's not so much a continuation as me tying loose ends for my own peace of mind. I don't know if it'll ever see the light of day, but here you have the conversation that made me create that WIP:

It was only later in the day, when they were both once again cuddling in Max's bed, that Charles remembered something. 

"What did…" He started, but for some reason the words got lost along the way as his finger slid up and down Max's chest, taking in the way it rose and fell with each breath.

Max indulged him, but he still whispered, "Hm?"

Charles had to make a conscious effort to tear his eyes away from the skin he had littered with hickies. It made something stupid and primitive go nuts inside him, Max being all marked up by his lips. But the curiosity about this particular part of their day in that world itched his brain. It probably wasn't even that important. Charles still couldn't help it. 

"When Jules called." Max takes a deep breath, as if he felt this conversation was going to go down a route Charles wasn't intending it to, so Charles rushed to finish his thought. "When he called, and you took the phone." 

"Yeah?" 

Charles turned a bit in Max's hold to be able to look at him properly. 

"What did he want to talk to you about?" He finally asked, meeting Max's eyes and seeing confusion in them, then something else entirely.

Thank you again for the ask! 💙

[lesbiancolumbo]

Love to hear your thoughts on Martin McDonagh's movies. I'm excited for Banshees but I don't know much about his work outside of watching In Burges years ago. People are saying Banshees is par for the course for his writing and as you're the only film buff I trust I'd love to hear your unfiltered opinion on his work

unfiltered? ok but you asked for it lmao

i think three billboards outside ebbing, missouri is the worst film of the last ten years. an absolute atrocity on almost every level. one of the worst screenplays ever, just an absolute hamfisted mess. sam rockwell winning that oscar is one of the most criminal moves in the entire history of the academy - i know that's saying a lot, but i'm sorry, he is horrible in this. i don't even want to talk about woody harrelson in this either lmao. frances is fine, probably even good, but she's not given anything better to work with - her Big Scene too is just SO overwrought and like. ugh. flames on the side of the face. this movie sucks. i think that people embraced this as much as they did is so telling about like, the state of hollywood and what people think qualifies as good writing/a good performance.

i am editing this post to just link to a review i pretty much am in complete agreement with. it outlines all of the just plain UGLINESS of this fucking film. the hate i have for it goes all the way to the marrow.

i'm working my way backwards here because that's the path my brain is taking me on. i think seven psychopaths is a gross, misogynistic film, and i hate it too, though the one thing it has going for it over billz is that i haven't seen it since literally 2012. i also don't find it as egregious as billz either - it's just your run of the mill ha ha hee hee it's funny when women get shot and die bc they're bitches and whores misogyny.

the thing is, i like in bruges, or i should say, i liked in bruges when i first watched it more than a decade ago. knowing what i know now about this man and the way he writes, i don't know if i'll continue to love it!!!! lbr!!!!!! and honestly i have to wonder if what i do like about mcdonagh's films is the writing or the performances he gets out of his actors.... but also how much of that is him as a director? we know colin farrell can act. we know brendan gleeson and ralph fiennes and frances mcdormand can act. i could probably direct a good performance out of them, and i have no experience in that area. so idk.

i am excited to see banshees (i love a breakup movie lmao) and have plans to go when my market gets it in a couple of weeks, but hearing people say it's par of the course writing-wise for mcdonagh really worries me! because i think par for the course for him is sexism but in a script just good enough to make people go "but it's so good! i can overlook the way women are treated!" which like lmao good for you but i'm over that. so who knows. the premise intrigues me, people i trust like it, etc. HOWEVER....... the big thing people are saying is that the performances are good. which, see above. so i think it probably will be another typical martin mcdonagh movie in my esteem. however i'm happy to be proven wrong! just not expecting from him at this point

the best martin mcdonagh movie is actually a movie that his brother john michael mcdonagh made, a beautiful and haunting little movie called calvary (2014) that i couldn't recommend highly enough.

[faerieorbitars]

hi hello how is the disney anime boy game going. what kind of freaks are in there

steeping my fingers together. i’m glad you asked! allow me to extrapolate about anime guys. i will try to be brief (1/484)

i’m partway into the 2nd book of the main story now (there was a halloween story event i paused the main story to go play really quick) so the only book i’ve properly beaten is book 1. but that’s the one with my favorite guy and also i’ve picked up a few other things from unlock-able character vignettes so i’m qualified to talk about all a lot of these guys i think

the basic plot of the game is that you, the mc, have been isekai’d into the twisted wonderland for an unexplained reason, and you find yourself in a magical academy with no way back home. so the headmaster let’s you and the annoying animal sidekick you meet enroll at the school and live in the abandoned dorm while he looks into getting you home. various shenanigans ensue as you meet the other students and try to get them to become friends with you (and with each other (because crazy enough, villain based characters tend to not like togetherness and team effort))

also in the lore of the universe the villains were the founders of the school and i think some of the established kingdoms across the land so obviously they’ve written history to favor them so the funny anime guys you meet aren’t actually Them. they’re meant to represent their villain and do have some of those characteristics but they have story arcs and become generally good people if they aren’t already

one thing i’m enjoying so far is with a premise like that you’d expect a dating sim aspect but no. no dating sim . this is a friendship sim. you’re all going to get along or so help me god

far and away my favorite character is riddle rosehearts who’s based on the queen of hearts he is so. look at him

the 1st book centers around him and his dorm and the fact that he’s a tyrant harshly enforcing the millions of rules put in place by the queen of hearts, which all the students in his dorm hate so so so much until they eventually all stand together and he’ll him Hey we literally can’t stand you and the way you punish us for bringing the wrong flavor of tart to an unbirthday party. you have control issues. and also anger issues. to which riddle has a magical temper tantrum and then gets persona 4 shadow self’d about it

(there’s a recurring subplot about how magicians can become victim to a condition called overblot, where an overuse of magic combined with extreme levels or stress and duress corrupt the mage’s body. it also gives you a very sick ass outfit. overblot riddle was fucking SERVING)

(i also just like this sprite)

so you beat the ink out of him and learn via flashback that his childhood was literally so shit because he had a very controlling terrible mother (planning every day down to the hour his Entire life) and since he ended up becoming the honor student she wanted from him he decided she Had to be right so he’d emulate her because otherwise he’d have to confront some Truths about himself and how he was raised and he didn’t wanna do that shit at All. and then he cries and makes you an apology tart and loosens up on the rules

all of the stories seem to be following this plotline so i will bring more updates of how things shake out for the other funny guys as i get to them

as an aside here’s my second favorite character so far kalim al asim. he’s not based on a villain he’s supposed to be the sultan from aladdin . he’s literally the only nice person at the school before the mc shows up to spread friendship amongst the populace

also he has a moment with riddle in one of his vignettes and it’s so. hm. i mean what do you want me to say about this

other epic characters: epel felmier who’s based on the poison apple from snow white. he’s a 5 foot pretty boy (same king represent) from the dorm with a passion for fashion and all things beauty and elegance and grace but he’s just a farm boy who likes sports and magical motorcycles. also i think there’s something wrong with him (this is from a vignette where he’s carving apples into little figures)

and another top favorite is lilia vanrogue who appears to be like. just some kind of bat. but he’s like hundreds of years old and used to serve as a lord and knight to a queen fighting in epic battles and doing wars and then he settled down and raised/trained like everyone in the diasomnia /sleeping beauty dorm . like he’s actually adopted and raised one character in that dorm from infancy who openly calls him father At school. but no one has seemed to figure out that this guy is not a teen/young adult/whatever. i think he enrolled at the school as a bit

they don’t even do any of the weird shit you would usually see with a character who’s older than they look trope. he’s like. just here as a gag. and he says weird things that imply he’s much much older than everyone else but he has a good laugh about it and treats all the other students in a very goofy fatherly way but he also gives like good genuine advice when they ask for it. also his relationship with his son is good and it’s very obvious how much they care for each other. they had like a rocky bit years ago where his son (silver) finds out he’s adopted and runs away in the rain and gets very sick but lilia nurses him back to health and silver decides that he doesn’t care about being adopted anymore bc he knows his father loves him. fictional fathers that actually care for their children and their emotional well being and are there for them when needed win #boygrind

that’s all i got for now boss. like it’s not but this is a lot of information so i’m choosing to say no more. once i get to book 3 with azul the ursula guy i Will come back with more because there is SOOO much wrong with him i can TELL

anyway goodnight tristate area