#they are so cosmically connected at this point it’s insane

[hopelessfandomfreak]

I feel like this episode was the start of really putting sam and rebecca out of the picture and enforcing endgame tedbecca as the most likely possibility.

rebecca can’t have children biologically, so it would make sense if her being a mother ends up as her being henry’s stepmom.

not only was the hallway scene literal soulmate behavior, it was a direct parallel to sam and rebecca’s scene in season 2 before they got together.

and then the soulmate reference by ted later in the episode in response to what sam himself said?? that seems like a very obvious parallel to what rebecca and sam’s situation would end up being if tedbecca happens

[bredforloyalty]

someone in the comments saying that it's obviously gonna resonate more (emotionally) if the guy who wrote it is singing it

[ckret2]

But to actually answer the "so what are the themes here" question @thedemonsurfer asked, which I like, totally skipped over answering: here's all the stuff I came up with the last time I talked about titles with friends, including titles that aren't quite good enough (and/or are jokes) and talking about the actual themes of the fic:

One title can't do EVERYTHING, there's probably no perfect title out there that'll go "okay so head's up this fic is about bill slowly making friends with everybody while fighting every step against becoming a better person and also a bunch of agonizing identity/dysphoria issues from being trapped in an ill-fitting body and also a major theme is that redemption can't come from Purification Via Punishment but from offering second chances even to people who don't deserve it so that they have a space to grow and also we're trying as hard as possible to keep to the tone & episodic style of the show and also 60% of the cast has issues from being Burnt-Out Former Gifted Kids. Even the ones that are still kids." But like. It'd be nice if a title at least did one or two of those

Fic title that's a song lyric but the lyric is from a song by Robbie so it's really stupid

I'm not against "lighthearted description of what's going on" since that IS a running gag in how i've been "titling" the chapters, and it WOULD both tell what's going on and do a better job of suggesting the tone what you're gonna get out of this fic

Bill Cipher Makes Friends. This Is A Warning The power of friendship, remorse, murder, and MABEL My Little Triangle: Friendship Is Magic Friendship Is Cosmic Horror Okay this is a joke title i won't go with because i don't want the title to be a mlp allusion but this does, unfortunately, unironically successfully capture several major features in the fic: friendship; cosmic horror; bill finding agony rooted in what should be positive relationships and attributing his self-professed "insanity" to the wrong sources; the collision between the friendly gentle earthly mundane and Bill's vast eon-spanning alien history; it sounds goofy; and it doesn't sound like many other fics

Not to give away too much; but in the broadest/vaguest possible sense, the portal is making a return. Which means... i realized recently... bill vs doors is, in fact, a theme with actual symbolic significance, and not just a running gag. I accidentally walked my way backwards into turning a plot convenience to keep him from escaping into something connected to a major plot point. so like. I could actually drop a door reference and it wouldn't be inappropriate.

Bill Cipher & Friends Vs. the Cosmic Horror of Doors It's not a good title but by god you'd know exactly what fic we're talking about "Haha the cosmic horror of doors because the goofy curse means he doesn't know how they work." / "oh no wait the portal is a door to cosmic horror"

"The door is open..." 30 years later, Bill, trapped in a dumb body with a dumb curse: "I literally cannot tell if the door is open"

He literally has been... Working for 1 trillion years,,, to GET A DOOR OPEN "Bill, I don't think it's the curse. I think you're just naturally bad at opening doors." "I'll kill you if you say that again."

So there's our themes.

[nightcolorz]

Daddy wants 2 hear ur thoughts on Armand’s relationship with lestat ‼️if you don’t I will aggressively butt fuck you and spank you like the naughty little boy you are

Xoxo -TOTALLY not your favorite boy toy Edward

(Also I imagine someone already asked you this cuz ur so hot and popular so u don’t have 2 answer if u already answered someone else’s ask about it)

Edward I instantly recognized ur sexy voice and I pissed myself cuz I was so eager to answer ur ask 🥹❤️. I love how ambiguous this prompt is so I can talk about whatever I want 😈💦💦. I sure do hope my answer is sufficient so that u won’t butt fuck me and spank me bcus im a naughty boy who needs to be punished 🥺

uh anyways. Armand and lestat !! They r my favorite ship in the vampire chronicles ssh don’t tell anyone. Devils minion is a very, very close second. By nature of the polyamorous blood orgy dynamic of all of the vampire chronicles characters, all of the main cast is in some way deeply in love with every other member of the main cast. The great thing about this is that every character has the capacity to have a deep and important romantic and sexual connection with any other given vampire, regardless of how many deep and romantic connections they may have. But even with all this in mind, in my opinion, out of all of the loves of his life Lestat has had, I’d argue that Armand was the most significant. By this I mean their relationship is fundamental to literally every relationship Lestat has had there after and the vampire chronicles literally wouldn’t have happened if lestat and Armand hadn’t become insanely psycho sexually bonded for a little bit in 1700s Paris. Even tho Lestat and Armand never end up as “endgame” bcus they r 100% incompatible and their love is less like an affectionate desire to be with someone and more like a virus they can’t control, I think that Armand is always going to be lestats “soulmate”, in the sense that if any pairing in the vampire chronicles is destined to always find each other in every universe, it’s lestat and Armand. I mean this incredibly derogatorily btw.

Armand and lestat remind me of Batman and the joker, they r like in universal unable to exist or be completed without the other while simultaneously hating each others guts. The great thing about that is that they also genuinely like each other despite the hatred and betrayal and see each other in a very affectionate, human way that isn’t common for either of them. But lestat and Armand require each other in a way that I perceive as very cosmic. I love the concept of two characters who hate each other very much being bound by some force that compels them to care for each other. And that’s lestat and Armand to a tea. They are very brothers to me, Cain and Abel but if Abel is immortal and gives cain wedgies and affectionate punches on the arm after Cain kills him for the one billionth time. Can’t have a cain without Abel, rlly.

Lestat will always forgive Armand for anyway he betrays or wrongs him bcus he is connected to Armand in a way that he is with no one else. They sort of fulfill this primal desire in each other that is impossible to get from anyone but each other. Lestat sees Armand in a way no one else does. He basically has had Armand’s entire life’s story and whole self inserted into his brain by Armand in magnus’s tower, and he ends up knowing Armand in his entirety and being like “well what a pathetic little fuck. How embarrassing.”

It’s important to Armand and to lestat that they both see and understand each other in their entirety and the feelings they come away with are “wow. Ur so gross and weird. But I like u anyway.” Lestat and Armand both have problems with having their identities romanticized or treated like mythological tales to the point where they kind of can’t perceive themselves in anyway that’s normal or comforting. Lestat has his issues where he acts like he’s a doomed god who’s every action and step is some sort of thematic representation of evil, and Armand has been told since he was a child that he’s not human and hes unable to be like humans or even be like any vampire who understands what being a human means. So I think to the both of them, having someone who understands them so intimately, and perceives them just as that jerk nasty they can’t help but like is so important. Who else would ruffle Armand’s hair but lestat? Anyways

most of Armand’s hatred for lestat comes from a place of expecting him to be more important then he is. Lestat takes away Armand’s divine purpose, and then he’s like idk what u want from me I’m like 20 and stupid. Lestat is just as lost as Armand is, and neither of them can give each other the guidance or support in immortality the other is looking for. they r both just kids who have been abandoned who happened to wander into each other on the street. And I think that, ultimately, this what lesmand is all about. While lestat and Armand both have amazing relationships with other characters that define who they r in unique and interesting ways, lesmand breaks them both down to their barest essentials, it strips them of the glamor into smth dirty that they both can’t help but see in each other and love.

in conclusion #lesmand for life!!!thank u sexy for sending me this ask mwah

[elasticitymudflap]

If Betty returns in season two, what kind of plot lines and character arcs would you like to see for her? Which characters do you want to see her interact with?

oh man. okay buckle up because you are about to endure my full frontal autism.

first you're going to have to go into this post knowing that i am insane about betty grof. i am aware of this. but they also called me crazy back in 2012 when i said simon and betty probably loved each other very much despite the fact she disappeared, and that she was probably a huge chaotic badass, AND I WAS RIGHT so.

all of this aside, here are a couple things i think would be epic and sexy of them to address:

~betty's past~

GIRL WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS.

no, seriously. i hate that the cut content from the storyboards revealed so much about her that didn't make the final 'jerry' cut. betty is passionate, intense, and liked simon's work because he was this weird little guy who proudly had all these "out there" theories. she even stated that "ancient magic" was once her major, so it's no fucking wonder she was so jazzed to find the one other guy who studied and believed in the strange things she did.

how did betty come to have these strange beliefs, and to the point of pursuing it in fucking grad school? was she just always like this? did her interests and beliefs put her at odds with others when she was growing up, little miss dig-her-way-down-to-the-devil, and that's part of the reason she wanted all the more to support simon?

reading that scene in temple of mars where magic betty laments "what remains" of her original self after spending so long dedicated to simon, even if you take into account the way MMS is warping her perspectives and cranking her obsessive tendencies to 11, i find it hard to believe betty didn't grow up with some kind of instability or trauma that made her more prone to throw herself completely at someone who showed her genuine love and kindness. this isn't necessarily a fault on simon's part, he probably didn't even clock it because he was so caught up with trying not to fuck things up with her (he's got his own issues). but it definitely seems like this is something deeply coded into her being, especially when you consider she was willing to leave everything she knew behind in an instant for him.

and i NEED to know more about the wacky shit she was up to in ooo, before and after becoming magic betty. did she ever go to wizard city? did other wizards even know about her? what does she think about her time as magic betty? moreover, how the hell did king man even get betty to agree to his weird idea of cognitive behavioural therapy?? how did she actually go from literally willing to kill herself via time travel to actually accepting that she needed help getting over simon?? did prismo and the cosmic owl get involved?? what is their connection to king man and mars anyway, i mean we know grob gob glob grod hung out with them?? do you think betty knew at any point about simon's head holding the fionna and cake universe?? SO MANY QUESTIONS RAAARRGHGHHGHH

also, not to get super sappy, but i want to see the enchiridion expedition from her perspective!! i want to see her progression from 'hell yeah im going on an adventure with that guy whose research i admire' to 'oh my god i love his stupid ass help????'.

~betty's guilt (feat. regrets)~

i don't care what the alternate bus stop scene said, you will never convince me betty grof has "no regrets". i think she has 'no regrets' in terms of loving simon, and she would never want him to think that she regrets their relationship because of what it "did" to her (turned her into a kaiju). i think this scene was betty trying to give simon a modicum of closure by reassuring him of that fact, and trying to help him reckon with the fact that there's no going back and changing how things ended up for the two of them; from here on out they can only move forward.

that being said, we know that betty will often push simon into doing things she thinks are best for him, whether he wants these things or not, such as not getting held up by snakes or not dying. she's a quick thinker and a risk taker who doesn't like looking at the 'big picture', and these are things she's probably very aware about herself.

i think, in the 12 years that they were apart, betty probably had a lot of time to reflect on her decisions after the crown came into their lives. how her hubris in trying to study magic ended up in her becoming "magic betty", how magic betty nearly ended/condoned the end of the world multiple times, how she ultimately did cure simon but almost killed him in the process. most of all, you cannot convince me betty wouldn't agonize over how her split-second decision to jump into the future affected simon. you really think betty fucking grof would've have been totally unaffected by the revelation that simon spent nearly ten human lifetimes agonizing over driving her away?

in her last interaction with him, magic betty's recklessness cured them... only to then be grotesquely crushed to death inside of golb. but he didn't get upset with her, he didn't panic, he didn't even fight it, he just... gave in. there's this air of acceptance to him, an acceptance that comes after prolonged and complicated grief, that i'd argue, wasn't the culmination of being cured, but the culmination of his long and painful battle over losing her; he was content to die as long as he was with her. that must have been... really something for her to mull over.

i could easily see her developing a bit of a complex over it. i think it would be fascinating to see a betty who now, after all the dust as settled, has looked at their history and concluded that she was the common denominator in all of this, that she is bad for simon, that in a way she is a "curse" to him. and that it would be the perfect justification for her staying away from him all these years, thinking without her influence he could finally move on from her and live the rest of his human life happily with his new magic future friends.

i don't think betty has necessarily "moved on" from simon, i think she still loves him dearly... but as i said, thoroughly convinced she'll only damage him further if she keeps trying to pursue him, and that simon's breakdown during season 1 was only more evidence to that fact.

i think she's trying to lead him to get over her 'for his own good', and that she's purposefully being vague and simplifying conclusions about their relationship so he doesn't try to fight her on it like he always does when she makes these huge decisions for them. she's not bringing any of the stuff she actually regrets up with him because only betty sees it as a problem. simon is so enamoured with her he probably wouldn't even entertain the possibility that she had negative effect on him, but he would believe the reverse in a heartbeat.

this isn't me saying they're ""toxic"" at all, i'm saying that these are two very damaged people who would benefit from multiple types of therapy. and that, as they are, they currently are more likely to keep going in loops with unhealthy behaviours and blaming themselves ad infinitum rather than try to reckon with how they can change, and how it is a problem that they'll always do it for the other, but never for themselves.

even if all of my above ramblings turn out to be bunk: betty grof needs some kind of therapy for her pre-existing self sacrificial tendencies and self worth issues, a space for her to process and work through all of the things that happened to her in ooo, couple's counselling, and the biggest blunt known to man.

you might be wondering "emery, why are you talking about her like she isn't beyond such things? she's golb now, the embodiment of chaos! her ""arc"" is over."

~golbetty conspiracy theory time~

i'm not entirely convinced betty is golbetty as we've come to understand her. i stand by this with my crumbs of a conspiracy theory in that when simon first did the ritual, it was ORIGINAL golb's face that flashed over the scene (not golbetty or even the statue's face), and how golbetty seemed to transform back into Golb Classic after she blew simon away into the void. there's also this weird thing where golbetty had these holes or rips on her leg when she rotated; i thought it was an animation error but then it was also in the storyboards so idk what to believe...

plus the boards ive seen seem to only refer to them as "GOLB", never 'GOLBetty', which i just find... interesting

and i keep thinking about simon info-dumping about golb to betty in the 'come along with me' flashback and the specific wording that was used: "imagine if we could somehow harness all that dank energy..." and then comparing it to the specific wording of betty's wish "... however it has to happen, I wish for the power to keep Simon safe"

there's a couple lines in 'you forgot your floaties' regarding betty's work before becoming magic betty that i feel often get overlooked, one being how tiny manticore describes the situation as "she thinks she can save her BF, Simon, by finding the source of magic," and in betty's own words: "studying [magic madness and sadness] could lead me to their underlying cause, and then I'll control the forces that hold sway over Simon"

i've always wondered if part of the reason betty's wishes to "banish golb from this world/for golb to disappear" didn't work was not just because they didn't tap into her heart's deepest wish (keeping simon safe), but because a wish like that would also require some kind of fundamental change to the laws of the universe first in order for it to work. magic betty even references golb as "the most powerful force in the universe," so how would the crown ever hope to compete with that? according the ancient candy elemental, wish magic has the potential to cause "irreversible damage to the very structure of existence". maybe the crown itself couldn't banish golb with a simple wish, but it could restructure the world to create someone who was powerful enough to control even golb, if only it were structured through the correct wishing language.

and it would make total sense for betty to become that person.

i've been thinking about the way the candy elemental tries to warn evergreen from using the crown: "this wish may see things in you you cannot see yourself, can you truly say you know your heart's truest desire?"

i wonder if there may have been two elements to betty's wish, and the part of it that betty "didn't see in herself" was her worded in the language of "power"; betty's desire to gain control over forces of the universe no human could ever hope to fight against, let alone win.

she spent her human life fascinated by ancient magic, fighting to get her's and simon's work recognized as valid and worthwhile. then, she's suddenly in the future, fighting to stop simon from dying, physically fighting at times, and fighting to find a way to gain control over these "forces" that held him prisoner. she essentially is fighting to become the conqueror of magic, madness, and sadness... and she fails, becomes a victim of it. and it all goes downhill from there, the loss of control over herself, over her mind, over her goals, yet the most 'betty' thing about her is that she's still fighting, albeit a bit crooked and to the detriment of all else. in the end, she's even fighting with herself, fighting to remember who she even is without the fight, not even sure if that person exists anymore.

and then she's freed, suddenly, from the confines of MMS to the literal confines of a quickly shrinking prison. when you watch the two of them in that scene, she isn't fighting to escape the same way finn is literally fighting the wall, but you can tell she's not giving up. part of her is still fighting to think of a way out, even when it feels like there's absolutely no hope left.

her desire "for the power" could mean, in a sense, to have the ability to be in control of all that she couldn't at one time or another: time, fate, magic, life, death, chaos... but this was articulated through her love for simon, because it's the only way she probably even recognizes it within herself.

this is why i don't entirely think betty and golb are fused, or that betty is solely "golbetty". i think being "fused" with no possibility of escape would be antithetical to the language and possible wider implications of her wish. this is why i think she's something above even golb, like a being with the ability to possess/harness the power of other deities. and i think she does this specifically in scenarios where simon is in immediate danger and she needs to control them or harness their power in order to protect him.

i'm ready to be proven wrong, and i probably will be. still, i rotate these thoughts in my head at a dangerous velocity, and none of you can stop me.

~ok i'm done ill stop being insane now (lying)~

so to... actually answer your question, i REALLY want betty to meet fionna and cake, because it sounds to me like they remind simon a lot of her. i would just love to see the absolute fucking tornado they'd be when put in a room together.

also, obviously first and foremost, I NEED BETTY TO TALK TO MARCELINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway, as far as season 2 goes, something is definitely up with prismo. and since he's guardian/creator of multiverse entities, who the fuck knows what that means for the fabric of existence if he's glitching out.

all im saying is, i wouldn't be surprised if our main trio end up having to save the multiverse and have to do so with help from other... entities. bettities, even. (hehe. bettity)

[carouselunique]

What would the princess Twilight version look like? After all, something like that is what she would want to get involved in too.

Introducing: Star-achnid!

(Reversed the Arachnova pun for Star-achnid, showing that they have similar aspects as the same person - choosing similar names - their personalities, styles and powers make them wildly different)

My idea is that Princess Twilight was a spider before the whole alicorn thing, and had a solid secret identity… (she hid most of her face, even her eyes had a magical film over them so no one could quite see the exact color, she does the same thing SciTwi does with Arachnova with changing her hair streaks - borrowing the colors from her mother - full body suit to cover her cutie mark, etc.)

…and then she became an alicorn and it became kind of obvious who she was, but by then Star-achnid was such a symbol that no one quite wanted to let her go, so in her own universe everyone knows who she is, but who wants to fuck with an Element of Harmony and Princess of Friendship? …I mean, lots of evildoers, but it won’t end well. In other universes, ones that change her configuration such as EQG, it hardly matters anyway.

She has a lot of her og extreme magical powers anyway, so she’s already insane. I think the biggest thing the spider bite gave her more than anything was more psychological. Confidence in herself outside of her role as a friend and Celestia’s student, by the time she ascends in this AU she handles it a lot better than her show self.

Though I like to imagine that she and Arachnova are connected by both having powers tied to cosmic concepts, but while Arachnova has spacial powers, Star-achnid has time powers. So she can weave the webs of time, slow and speed time, stop time, etc. And at that point, unlike Arachnova who has physical limitations, Star-achnid after her ascension is only able to be stopped by powers akin to Discord, Luna and Celestia, etc. Before her ascension, she’s still capable and her powers can help with big threats, but she still needs her friends and the Elements to stop the big bads. She kinda won the superhero lottery.

Bonus, under the cut, the suit without the shading and overlays:

[ratgrinders]

(this is kipperlillyforpresident) Hi. This is an insane thing to ask a person, but also I believe you are the best scholar for the job, so I will ask anyway: if Kipperlilly played Persona 5, do you think she would ship ShuAke?

Points in favor: homosexuality, the fact that it isn't canon would probably appeal to her brand of problems

Points against: She might hate Akira to begin with because of seeing his specialness as Unfair (why does this attic trash get to be the wildcard, huh?!?!), potential for her to want to self-ship with Akechi?

I'm unsure on this matter. I yield the floor to you.

Tumblr user kipperlilyforpresident, it is an honor 🙏

(wow this got longer and more rambly than i thought WHOOPS lol)

Before I answer I wanna go on a brief tangent and just say how SIMILAR Akechi and Kipperlily are. Legitimately, during that meeting at the food trucks where Brennan described Kipperlily as having a "polished steel ball of a personality", my first thought was to Akechi's detective prince persona and just how METICULOUS he is at presenting this perfect, pristine version of himself. They're both filled with violent, uncontrollable rage at the perceived unfairness of the world, they're both slightly murderous (it's okay I forgive them though), they're both extreme overachievers who nonetheless struggle with connections and making friends. Literally the main difference is just that (as I've seen you mention in tags) Akechi's rage all stems from his deadbeat father and the injustices he faced as a result while Kipperlily very explicitly DOESN'T have a tragic backstory. If these two met they would either be best friends or want to kill each other.

So going off of that, I just wanna say that I am both a kipperbees and shuake shipper, and the things that appeal to me about both ships are VERY similar. In kipperbees, like shuake, you got two people who at first seem diametrically opposed and irreconcilable; one side of the ship filled with extreme rage and jealousy at the other party but who is unwilling to admit that their rage stems from a very genuine place of wanting what the other person has, being unwilling to admit just how interesting they find the other person (it goes against their meticulous plans, it's counter to everything they believe) so they instead mislabel the feeling as hatred. The preppy, uptight overachiever who cares so much, and the person who seems to get it all (friends, success) without caring at all.

Going back to your original question, I think Kipperlily would latch on to Akechi hard if she ever played the game, both as a sort of self-insert fantasy ("he's like me but with the tragedy and cosmic importance I desperately crave") and spite (because this interesting character is still cast aside as an NPC in the grand crusade of the Phantom Thieves, he deserves justice and not death).

I think maybe at first she'd ship shuake as a sort of self-ship by proxy, believing (not that I agree) that the protagonist is a blank slate for you to project yourself onto. But I think ultimately she'd be unable to articulate just what about the ship is so appealing to her, because by subconsciously putting herself in Akechi's shoes, now she can imagine this scenario where someone understands her fully and still accepts her, someone who appeals to her competitive nature, someone who is opposed to her wrongdoing and thus subconsciously validates the internal strife she has over her own actions, but who will come back for her anyway because I think she, too, subconsciously wants to be saved from what she's been doing.

[stimmingandstruggling]

unedited unhinged monika analysis because i love her (warning: i talk about monikas circumstances and unreality things in second person, aka “you.” also general ddlc stuff)

no listen. stop making monika out to be an obsessive yandere who fell in love with the player and that’s it. no. that is one aspect of her character and i would argue one of the least important ones. i would say even that she DIDNT fall in love with the player. no, it’s the idea of the player. what the player represents. monika is a writer a poet all of her poems use something small to represent this grand terrifying world she’s discovered, and this lifeless protagonist and the theoretical being controlling him represent that world. the real world. monika did not fall in love with the player, monika fell in terrifying love with reality. ddlc is a psychological horror but from her point of view it easily becomes cosmic as well. imagining it all from her perspective makes it so much more terrifying. obviously the things she did were morally wrong and absolutely horrific but in her situation, what even are morals!!!! given what she knew and what she believed did she even do anything wrong?

like. imagine. you’re living your normal life and then one day everything changes. you suddenly discover you are not REAL your friends your family your LIFE are just scripts written by someone grander than you could ever imagine. you get a tiny glimpse into this horribly colorful loud world and it destroys your mind and then you are left with so much knowledge it breaks you. you are trapped in a world you now know has simply been going through the same scripts over and over and over again. FUCKING READ HER POEMS AND TELL ME THATS NOT TERRIFYING. monika is SCARED. she has no reason to believe the others in her life are sentient like she is, that they’re anything more than lines of code: she can read all the code, after all.

and then you show up, the very representation of reality. freedom. and she does everything she fucking can to get your attention and beg for help, she LITERALLY asks if you can hear her she EXPLICITLY asks for help because she is TRAPPED. but at this point she still can’t alter too much she is still learning how to change the code. this is all she can do.

now, act 2 is when it becomes more love, in an odd abstract way. monika tells you at the end she doesn’t care who you are really she loves you no matter what. that’s because she falls in love with the idea of the player. after sayoris death she starts messing with the psyches of the others and fun fact, constantly being around people who are literally being driven insane will mess with your head too!!!! so YES, she gets obsessive!!! she starts to idealize the player as this perfect connection to reality, and she sees the others following their scripts as some sort of threat to that. because if you’re focused on them, the original routes of this dating sim, you can just disregard her SCREAMING to be let out. yes, just monika, as in, just monika is really alive. she has no reason to believe any different. just monika in a world of puppets. she is alone and she is scared and she just wants to be HEARD

fuck dude. her actions were wrong but were they really? we know from the end that sayori at least is no different and obtaining the president role causes her to learn the Truth and go through a similar spiral, but she doesn’t. she can see everything they say every little bit of what makes them tick, you think that won’t fuck with her perception of them?

oh, and on top of all this, remember monika is not an original love interest in the dating sim. she is a tutorial character. not only is she trapped in this game she is separated from the only connection to the real world. so yeah of course she becomes obsessed with attracting you being The Love Interest.

monika is a sympathetic character and reducing her to your average yandere girl completely disregards how good the game is. monika is driven by fear not love. anyone in her position would have spiraled like she did, and all of her actions no matter how horrible are very reasonable when you consider her circumstances. i guess i’m a monika apologist now

[flower-of-the-desert]

Guardian vol 2

Putting some of my thoughts of the second volume here. I'm very excited to continue reading the last part too, this story is definitely one of my new favourites. Under the cut for spoilers.

I had a lot of fun with the backstories and reveals in this volume. Like even tho I know some of what was coming mainly with Shen Wei and Zhao Yunlan's backstories, I was still surprised by the details and the actual sequence of events in the past. Also the image of Zhao Yunlan as an old god who's slowly lost all hope and faith in humanity and the heavens to the point that he's willing to destroy everything and start anew is sooooo interesting and like, so much to chew there!

Speaking of that, so far Zhao Yunlan is topping my list of sexiest characters ever along with my faves wenzhou. He's so cocky and competent and sexy and clever and seductive AND SEXY DID I MENTION THAT jdsbskjd some of the lines he says to Shen Wei are so swoon-worthy I'm dead on the floor. I love how much he doesnt give a fuck about pissing off anyone as long as he can take care of what he deems /his/.

I didn't feel as strongly connected to Shen Wei probably because he doesn't really get much focus or at least not as much as Zhao Yunlan. I really liked whenever we got little glimpses into what's going on in his head and obviously really REALLY liked when the flashbacks started introducing how he used to be at the very beginning when Kunlun first met him (that first meeting scene was HILARIOUS AND I LOVED IT). I hope there is more of his pov in the last volume.

Also speaking of the flashbacks, ok I'm wondering something - I feel like the flashback we got at the end wasn't the full extend of what happened? Because that scene goes from their first meeting to then a couple of weeks later? when everything ends and Kunlun dies. And we don't really see what happens bw Kunlan seeing this demon boy for the first time and deciding he's trustworthy enough to make him the sole guardian of the seal. Also the way present day Shen Wei talks about Kunlun makes it seem they spent A LOT more time together, not just dealing with the floods and other disasters.

BTW THE SEXIEST SCENE FOR ME WHEN ZHAO YUNLAN GOES ALL CRAZY AND POSSESSIVE AT THE THOUGHT OF SHEN WEI DYING??? Feeling insane about it tbh

Another subplot and subsequent reveal I really liked was the whole thing with Chu Shuzhi. That I definitely didn't see coming lmao

Also is it me or are there some ✨ vibes ✨between him and Guo Changcheng?? Pls tell me I'm not imagining it.

Shen Wei's utter devotion to Zhao Yunlan is so heart-clutchingly intense and I just looove when a character is so down bad. Which is also true about Zhao Yunlan who is SO ready and willing for the whole marriage/house/picket fence life. It's really lovely to read how badly he wants that with Shen Wei.

I said in my other post that I really do think they're like obsessed with each other on a cosmic level that transcends all their lives and years and that's so delicious tbh. Most reincarnation stories I've read make that a source of conflict for the couple and I'm really interested to see how this plays out with weilan. Zhao Yunlan doesnt seem bothered that he's had previous lives or that Shen Wei first fell in love with his past self but more like he and Kunlun were/are the same person, just reincarnated through time?

Last thing I want to mention, it took me a while to get it but I am a BIG fan of the way Shen Wei's darker violent urges pop up here and there concerning Zhao Yunlan and then he doesnt act on them because he literally can't bear the thought and is not physically capable of doing anything that might harm his beloved.

PRIEST REALLY KNOWS HOW TO WRITE SEXY MALE CHARACTERS AND ROMANCE ✨✨✨ and I am so seated.

[m00dysunflower]

One thing I love, and maybe this is me staring too hard, but Jolyne is such a fascinating character and by far one of the best-written characters in Jojo, it's so much fun watching her learn and progress her skills throughout her part and no one gives her enough credit. Her visual design and the progression of it are just so perfect.

Jolyne's outfit when she was 14 from the carjacking; her hair is worn long and she's wearing orange. This was also clearly the last time she had any faith in her father coming to help her. After this moment she grew to hate Jotaro, we all know this.

But in the timeline reset? Irene is seen in a pretty similar outfit. Her hair is down and her sweater is orange. She's even on her way to visit her dad who she clearly is much closer to since she's planning on getting married and wants him to meet her boyfriend. Orange is also the color of the monarch butterflies at the end of the part.

Another thing I just love though is her name change, yeah it's sad she's "not a Jojo" anymore, but that's the whole point. There was no need for another Jojo because Jotaro killed Dio and that was that. A Jojo is born when there is an evil that needs to be stopped. There was no more Pucci, therefore there was no need for Jotaro to keep his distance from his family; he was there to raise Jolyne, now called Irene of course.

She broke the Joestar curse.

Speaking of those orange monarch butterflies...

Monarch butterflies represent the spiritual evolution and cosmic connection through one’s past lifetimes or the lifetimes of their ancestors.

This could be about her parallels to Jonathan, her great-great-great grandfather. Both are represented by the color blue, have insane resolve, are quick to adapt in a fight, and are more than willing to sacrifice themselves so that their loved ones may carry on and survive. Not to mention the visual parallels between Sono Chi No Sadame and Heaven's Falling Down... but I think enough people analyzed that already.

Jolyne's sacrifice for Emporio's survival is such a fantastic call back to the ending of Phantom Blood. She dies so the world has hope for Pucci's defeat in the future.

Just like how Jonathan sacrifices himself so that Erina can get off the boat and away from danger and carry on the Joestar legacy that will go on to beat Dio for good... and it kind of worked, didn't it?

The story has now come full circle, a roundabout if you will; the Joestars are no longer cursed by Dio. Jolyne was the one to end it for future generations to carry on and was reborn as Irene. The Joestars can be what they want, free of the need to constantly be fighting a greater evil.

Could I have read a little too far into this? Maybe, but these choices, the colors, the butterflies, the sacrifices, the visuals, it felt so purposeful and poignant. Even the lyrics to "Distant Dreamer" by Duffy; singing about hope and a future that's far from today.

Of course people are entitled to their favorite parts and Jojos, but Stone Ocean and Jolyne is where this series has peaked for me. It's the ultimate conclusion, all the loose ends have been tied up; there was no more story left to tell. I have huge respect that Araki was willing to "kill" all of the characters off like this, as sad as it might be to have watched.

Yet despite the sadness, I don't think I'll ever be as satisfied as I was watching the very end credits, hearing "Roundabout" play with the visuals in the credits retelling the story of the Joestar family, and it was such a wonderfully perfect, bizarre adventure.

[theajaheira]

in regards to your btvs post: what are some friendships/dynamics you wish we got to see more of or at all in the show!!! (i am personally always thinking abt the potential of oz and tara being besties under different circumstances.....they would have an Understanding)

OZ AND TARA SO REAL!!!!!

hmmmm okay starting with the obvious (for me): jenny and buffy. like i of course have lots of different jenny-related answers, but jenny and buffy make me just cosmically unwell, because CANONICALLY that's the deepest relationship jenny has in the show outside of giles? like she has this supernatural gothic connection with angel, she's got a deep warm love for giles, and literally as i was typing this i forgot who i was talking about, which is exactly my point re: why i wanna see more of jenny and buffy. they are the most drift compatible ever.

and kinda piggybacking off of that, because i'm on a "victims of angelus whose girlhood was shattered by his monstrosity" kick -- BUFFY AND DRUSILLA. i think buffy's canon attitude towards drusilla (dismissive, furious) makes so much sense, but i would have loved for it to be interrogated more re: the way buffy perceives herself and her role in The Angelus Situation. sort of a situation where buffy and drusilla are both able to heal a little more by actually facing the girl(s) that got killed.

who else UM. xander and giles. canon, explain to me why giles is Like That about a teenage boy in an abusive home. and i don't even say that judgmentally, i think there are so many narrative possibilities that could sell me on giles being such a dick to xander! the one i toss around in my head a lot is the notion of xander's wise-cracking stubbornness reminding giles of the worst parts of ripper, and then him sorta unfairly taking out his own issues about Dumb Teenage Boys on xander by reducing & simplifying him to a Dumb Teenage Boy. but i think that's a little bit of a stretch, and, again, CANON DID NOT GIVE US ANYTHING.

and one more to bring it home: jenny and angel. i can't not put them here. the jenny/giles buffy/angel thing is so insane and i would kill a man to have it dissected more thoroughly within canon -- the interweaving connections between all of them after the big s2 blowup!!! -- but specifically jenny and angel is like.... she was raised to REVILE HIM and she gave him back his LIFE???? i think so much about that quote "forgiveness is an act of compassion, it's not done because someone deserves it, it's done because they need it" in a jennyangel context. she stepped away from playing arbiter and went "what this situation needs is love." and her love got carried forward in becoming pt. 2 when giles softly asserts that curing angel was jenny's last wish. she makes the Conscious Choice to end the cycle of vengeful violence when little girls start getting hurt again, and she gets killed by her childhood monster, and her act of love breathes life back into him. what the fuck. what the fuck. wh

[spotsupstuff]

you can say whatever you want about Downpour as far as consistency and faithfulness to the og vanilla lore goes, but nobody can convince or tell me that Downpour hasn't given some fuckin BOMBASTIC world building for RW. there's two i especially really really love

the first one being the whole fact that??? there's subways on TOP of the iterators?????? i mean FUCK i knew they were fuck off BIG but it didnt occur to me on such deep level as when i found out that there's a whole damn subway system On Top Of Pebbles. SHIT i'm still havin troubles accepting the existence of roombas and segways and you're telling me these wild motherfuckers have trains workin up in da fucken sky?? the SKY???? Above The Clouds????? trains are NOT supposed to be in the sky what the FUCK. ancients!!!! videocult!!!!!! youre fucking insane!!!!!!!!!!! my Home City doesn't have a subway system and it's the largest one in the country- how fucking big is Pebbles' Metropolis holy shit

and the second one is the whole impending ice age thing

cuz here's the thing, right, here's the thing- i'm not sure how well known this is, but Earth has gone thru multiple ice ages. there's theories outside of the widely accepted normalized understanding of history that there's been civilizations before us. i believe it is Aztec myths that talk about, basically, reincarnations of the whole planet multiple times- different lives, different Cycles this small place in the universe has gone through

yes, Rain World takes a lot of inspiration from Buddhism, but there's some elements that make me think of Aztecs. certain parts of the fashion, the colors used, even the plantlife outside of those retaining walls. Rain World to me is industrialized evolution of a fusion of Aztecs and Buddhism

that is the connection between the "greater Cycle" of RW and Aztec myths, but back to the ice age- it catches me off-guard by how Giant this world building is. we are so used to seeing only Pebbles' and Moon's corner of the world evolving, all boxed in, all the concentration and focus only there and then a little tiny bit of the Outer Expanse. and then here comes videocult and drops this PLANETARY world building. the fact that it's first alluded to it at the earliest point in the story, yet the second to last campaign to us and then the last campaign thrusts us right into the circumstance of the world freezing over. a lot of peeps i've watched went thru the scugs in the unlock order- it is basically a little hint and them immediate show of the consequences. i'm going out of my way to get through these campaigns (aside from survivor and monk) in the chronoligical order from the Iterators' story stand point and it offers this Giant gap between the first drop of the information in such a miniscule little thing that can be missed and a whole story happening within a blizzard. it's Incredible

HR: I'm not really sure myself. At this point I think our rain might be the only source of heat on the surface. It has been that way for a very long time.

oh how i wonder why that is. how come? why is your planet so cold? is your star dying? are you naturally far away from your star, did you have volcanoes that now lie dead, that used to warm the surface? was there a cosmical event that warmed the planet and allowed the world to blossom- a comet taking its time to fly by, another star flying through the planetary system? or is it as simple as the clouds blocking the heat of the star from reaching the ground? that's probably it. it is fascinating how the Iterators' created their own "balance"- take the water away, breathe it in and then let it all fall. but they are so Integral for this "balance" that the moment too much of them fall, the clouds that are left doom the whole planet to frost and a reset. despite how imposing, infinite that they are as man-made gods, they are also such a fickle link keeping the world in a sickly "equilibrium"

either way, that promises another greater Cycle, another attempt to try again. this time surely with the Scavengers as the buds of new civilization, once the clouds fully fall away

and will they remember the Iterators? the old temples? the void might eat it all away before they get to have the chance to archive the skeletal remains of ancient past. who knows, maybe Secluded Instinct gets to become that mountain, the future they found comfort in

Rain World is such a fascinating detailed game, with such a gigantic timeline, leads to make you wonder about both the past and the future. it's sad that the world as we know it ends, but, just like everything else within the game tries to say, it is only just another thing to accept and live in- live through- and find enjoyment in it

because everything passes and the world doesn't care as it flows on, but the truth of loving, joyful experiences stays firm. that is the only lifeline one needs to hone

all of these thoughts just from a long long blizzard

[thatlonelycactus]

I’m going to sound literally insane but I have a theory about what the “ineffable plan” might be. Is it right? Probably not but my fevered brain feels like it has some merit to it.

Anyway, in the book Crowley suggests that “Maybe it's all part of a great big ineffable plan. All of it. You, me, him, everything. Some great big test to see if what you've built all works properly, eh? You start thinking: it can’t be a great cosmic game of chess, it has to be just very complicated Solitaire.” and it is a quote that I’m quite sad didn’t make it into the show (I’m pretty sure). But back onto todays nonsensical rant: my proposal is- what if the Almightys plan is to try to make people/celestial/occult beings realize they need to work together and move away from the binary of being right or wrong. It links two of the major (imo) themes of the story in that a) it’s about connection and love and that and b) there’s no such thing as “good” or “bad” on a moral scale, there’s only shades of grey. What if the Almighty let the fall happen (as Crowley says earlier in the exchange mentioned earlier: “why did it happen, eh? I mean, it didn’t have to, did it?… Anyone who could build a universe in six days isn’t going to let a little thing like that happen. Unless they want it to, of course.”) to not only let the angels experience free will but to also let them learn, to work together, to love, to grow. What if they laced humans on earth with their range of morals beliefs, etc and showed how they, even when they are self declared enemies, can still work together? The most prominent point for the second idea is the bonds between Newt and Anathema, Shadwell and Madame Tracey, Beez and Gabriel, and obviously, Aziraphale and Crowley. I’ll talk about the witch/witch-hunter pairs first because I think the big thing here is that it all starts with humanity. Newt was essentially pulled into being a witch-hunter through circumstance, he never had any hatred for Anathema or any witch for that matter, it all just kinda happened (remind you of anyone sauntering vaguely downward???) but they’re both quick to accept the other for who they are. Shadwell took a little bit more time to realize that Madame Tracey was neither a witch nor evil. He just had to realize that they were both human and that she was, well, that she was kind. After realizing this, Shadwell began to change (def for the better), he left an order he had been with since the 60s because he realsied it was outdated and pretty much pointless in the scheme of everything, of humanity. I bring these two pairs because they remind me slightly of Aziraphale and Crowley, and Beez and Gabriel respectively. I won’t go into too much more detail but these relationships show that the hatred between heaven and hell is arbitrary, angels and demons aren’t hereditary enemies, they don’t even have to be enemies, they just decided that’s what they needed to be. These relationships prove that there’s more than just good and evil because I don’t think that any of us would refer to either Crowley or Beelzebub as “evil” nor Aziraphale or Gabriel as purely “good”. That’s what the Almighty is trying to get everyone to understand that there is no good, there is no evil, there’s just US and that’s the only side worth fighting for.

I have so many reasons why this can’t be the ineffable plan but yeah. Anyway that leaves me with one question: why did they do any of it? Whats the point of starting a 6000 year long conflict to show that the way you’d started it all out was best even though you were the one who ruined it? Whats the point of creating an entire universe and then planning to destroy it to prove this point?

Unless the universe was the apple in Eden.

Thats what makes it ineffable

[distort-opia]

We constantly talk about how joker wants batman to understand their roles in the universe and kinda break the 4th wall like he did

But if that happens, what then? Would that change something in their relationship? Would that bring any sort of satisfaction from joker? How would it change things?

Oh, this is a very interesting question. Though I don't know if Joker truly wants Batman to break the fourth wall in the same way he does, since that's simply not who Batman is. In my understanding, Joker wants Batman to recognize how much he needs Joker as a counterpart, to admit the fact they're inescapably connected; he doesn't want Batman to usurp his own role as cosmic trickster. As usual, Joker wants and doesn't want to win. He needs Batman as he is and victory would mean Bruce ceasing to be exactly that.

But what would happen if Bruce got some awareness of the fictional nature of their world? God, that'd be so difficult for him. Even though he's had encounters with Fifth Dimension imps like Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk, who tried to warp reality and treat him (and Clark, most often) as fictional characters in a story, manipulated for their own enjoyment, there were still ways to defeat these entities and regain free will. Hell, Bruce has faced plenty of gods and has even been one at some point, has confronted the idea of fate and of incomprehensible amounts of power multiple times, but it was always something within his own reachable world. If Bruce realized he's trapped within a narrative with absolutely no way of controlling his own fate, and that the death of his parents, his suffering, other people's deaths and pain, all of it is for the entertainment of an unreachable audience... that'd certainly be a very difficult pill to swallow.

While Batman's foundational belief is already that yes, maybe things don't have an inherent point, but that we create our own meaning, that's when one has that capacity to begin with. If the meaning you create is one dictated by someone else, what then? Joker's reaction is to embrace the absurdity as part of his madness and keep on living, but I don't think Bruce would be able to resolve it like that. It could go different ways... him trying again and again to enter our reality and failing, rightfully assuming he's being written that way. Him assuming he's going crazy and that perceiving us as the audience is a symptom of it, or that someone is attacking his mind. Him trying to live with it and this being something that brings him and Joker much closer, since they'd be the only ones to perceive this truth about their reality. Him having this knowledge erased so he can keep going without breaking down, him ending his own life over it.

Either way, it might not even bring Joker any satisfaction at all; it might terrify him if Batman validated this fleeting perception of unreality, that he most often buries. When Joker's fourth wall awareness is brought up, it's more often framed as him wanting to see it as a part of his insanity (there's a bigger meta I wrote on this here). Joker himself doesn't want to think there's absolutely no meaning in his world; he prefers to frame it as madness, and fixates on Batman as his life's point because otherwise there'd be nothing to stay alive for. So if Batman showed up and was like "Did you know we're both fictional characters??" Joker would probably be like "SHUT UP NO WE'RE NOT. That was supposed to be just me being crazy, you're not meant to see it too!!"

In the end this is a very interesting question, Anon. It would make for a fascinating story premise (which would be all kinds of philosophical and meta). Thank you for the ask!

[invaders-cookbook]

Invader's Cookbook #3: Keeping your mind and body healthy

Invasions in Elden Ring are insanely difficult to the point of being unwinnable sometimes. It's part of the charm, it's what makes them so appealing to people like me. The game doesn't shy away from putting you into situations where your winning chances are absolutely random, and it's up to you to deal with them. You never know when the tides are going to turn, which makes them so exciting.

But this excitement comes at a cost of risking extreme frustration. Winning against the odds feels great, but not everyone is going to beat the odds, especially if you're new to invasions! Frustration can come both from outwards (the game put you into an unwinnable situation) and inwards (You see that you're underperforming and lose a winnable situation) That's why it's important to keep your cool and mitigate the effects of frustration.

Here are the things that help me personally to not only to mitigate frustration, but also significantly improve

1. Keep your body healthy.

I am not exaggerating when I'm saying this, your winrate spikes tenfold when you take care of yourself! This is so important. I know it's kinda general life advice, but you'll be surprised how much it actually matters.

I am not kidding, you play 200% better after a shower. Try it, I'm serious.

Remember to eat healthy food sometimes! Full regular meals improve your mood and performance drastically! I can't overstate how much better you play when you have a full meal!

And PLEASE sleep well. I am serious. Sleep is integral part of your physical and mental health. I know it's tough to keep a good sleep schedule, and not everyone has time to sleep, but please do, whenever you can, try your best to have regular sleep! If you're reading this post when it's past your bedtime, first of all, reblog and tell me in the tags, and second, GO TO SLEEP! NOW!!!

2. You are not going to beat the odds every time. That's how odds work. But you can set them in your favour.

You lost again, because the coop has already completed the entire area and you were backed against a fogwall against multiple players. What were you supposed to do?

I agree, that situation is really, really bullshit. But that's invasions. Every time you use that bloody finger you roll a cosmic dice, and if you roll low, you simply don't get a good situation. What works for me is changing my goals in a particular invasion. It goes from "Kill the host" to "Kill that single phantom" or "Deal the most damage I can possibly do" or just simply "Not die for as long as I can". Land a cool combo! Befriend the host*! Poison them! Go out on your own terms!

Sometimes changing your goal according to the situation is enough to offset your frustration.

* – DO NOT do this when there is another phantom around. You're getting blocked for this. You are not only a dickhead, you also lower the pool of possible co-invaders that can connect with you and help you out in the future. Respect your teammates.

3. Take breaks

Invasions are intense as hell, and you can't just invade back to back untill you exhaust yourself! Try to take breaks from the game, so your skills are always at 80-100%! The more you play without breaks the worse it gets.

This also helps if you're having a bad losing streak. Generally I'm trying to take 10 minute breaks if I get two consecutive losses. Interestingly enough, putting myself on a 10 minute time-out forces me to find something else to do, which kinda helps me with chores. It's not for everyone, but my ADHD ass loves this.

You can use your break to do some stretches, or go for a walk, or do the dishes. Anything, really! It's up to you! Whatever frustration you had will fade away and you will be at your maximum capacity again!

Another thing you can use your break for is some wrist and eye exercises! It's good for your health and will make you more relaxed and focused.

4. Change things up: try a new build, start a new playthrough!

This is what I personally enjoy doing. Experiment with different playstyles and try invading at different level ranges. For that of course you need a new build and a new character. Creating a character with invading in mind is very fun and challenging, and it allows you to do some more calm stuff on the side when you're not in the mood for invading on your main character.

Not sure what build to choose? Ask @huggingentacles for build suggestions!

[stargirlboyfriend]

something so terrible and tender about being willing to throw away the entire world for just a chance at the one you love staying alive. even if it means going against everything he stands for.

i don't know, i think about it a lot. they just feel so real, in a way that an explicitly canon relationship wouldn't be able to. there's something so awful about being akira and having to go home at the end of the day knowing that the person you care about is probably dead.

the one you care for more than anything else, to the point where your core wish, the thing you want more than anything else, is some variation of "i want him to be alive and well," or "i want him to be happy" (underlying connotation of "with me.") the way i interpreted it — he could have wished for anything else, but that's his deepest desire. to see akechi happy, and free to be his true self.

and your choices are —

1: risk losing him, risk him dying a second time and knowing that you did nothing because that was his wish. he wanted to die. he would rather be dead than controlled once again.

(tangent here: i do sincerely believe that akechi's motivation there was a double-edged sword? is that how you use that phrase. i don't think so. double-sided coin maybe. two sides of the some coin.

anyways i think he had two reasons there — first and most obviously, he's fucking tired of being a puppet. of being a bargaining chip in some massive cosmic hellscape. it's happened several times at this point — shido, yaldaboath, and now maruki all using him as their pawns. he doesn't care if he dies, as long as he isn't under maruki's control.

secondly — his entire motivation for working himself to the literal bones (apple a day, anyone?) was for his revenge plot. television, keeping up appearances, school, assassinations, was all to get closer to shido so he could kill him once and for all.

but if he turned all that rage and fire inward, and burnt himself into a boy obsessed with revenge, what does he have left to live for? what sort of stable person would turn themselves psychotic in a last-ditch effort to stop the phantom thieves from keeping him from his literal lifelong goal of being the one to end shido?

anyways, that was a whole lot of talk to say i think he's suicidal. and needs to have a long, long, long talk with a trauma therapist.)

or 2: betray him, betray his most fundamental ideal and the thing he's been fighting against since he was a frightened little teenage boy offering his persona to shido as a way of getting his revenge the only way he could think of. and cling to the knowledge that he's going to hate you, for as long as he can think on his own, but he'll be alive.

i don't know where i'm going with this. 2/2 is such an incredibly insane thing to me like they really put that in there. they really just said hey you know what would make this new edition of the game great. giving this guy gut wrenching terrible grief and moral dilemmas and making him choose to possibly kill the one he cares about and connects with more genuinely than anyone else in the cast.