#this concept is actually so interesting to me because I know only the bare basics of Christianity

[lapseinart]

And God saw the light, that it was good

FYI I’m not a practicing Catholic (Schrödinger’s Catholic) (I’m agnostic unless my parents ask) and I speedran my First Communion + First Confession + Confirmation so I’m basing this off 6 years of Religous Ed. crammed into 6 months and 15 minutes of googling Christianity in Japan. Yee

Okimura Rin is a dutiful Christian.

Mostly.

Some of the time.

Okay, so not really, but he definitely goes to Sunday mass more often than Yukio and he always helps out around the monastery and he goes to confession once a month, so, really, between him and Yuki, he’s definitely the more dutiful Christian.

Yeah, sure, sometimes he struggles with the theological virtues and the cardinal ones, and if he thinks about the fruits of the Holy Spirit, he isn’t exactly great at patience, gentleness, or self-control… but he tries his best, and he’s pretty sure God appreciates it anyway. Because He is all loving. All forgiving.

It’s hard to think about God when his demonic heritage is revealed. He’s the son of Satan. The offspring of evil incarnate. Why would God let him exist? How could he be anything but damned?

It’s Monday. Rin is alone.

The worse thoughts always come to haunt him when it’s quiet. They prey on him when he’s alone, without any friends to distract him. Not that he has any friends anymore after he revealed Satan’s flames. How could anyone accept something so stupid, so useless, when they were going to Hell either way? Why the hell did he bother?

He needs to get out.

He scribbles a hasty note in case Yukio comes home while he’s gone (not fucking likely he’s never home he hates you-) grabs his keys and wallet and goes wandering around the campus.

Somehow, he walks for what feels like hours but may have only been a few minutes before he finds himself outside a small church. He’s never seen it before, tucked into the little alley like it is. It’s open for confessions.

Rin walks in.

“It’s been…” he wracks his brain as he tries to make himself comfortable in the confessional, “six months since my last confession.” It felt like so much more.

“I haven’t been going to services,” he starts and it’s like he can’t stop. “I’ve fought with my brother more often than usual. I harmed one of my teachers during a training session. My dad died because of me. I… found out I was the son of an evil man,” he explains inadequately. “I’m damned. For these and all my sins, I am heartily sorry.”

The priest is silent for a moment.

“It sounds like you’ve been going through a lot,” he says gently.

“Yeah,” Rin croaks, and it’s only just not a sob.

“How did your father die?”

“He… he was protecting me,” Rin says softly, “from… my biological father.”

“Then I think that he wouldn’t be happy with you stewing in guilt,” the priest says. “Just because your father is evil doesn’t mean that you are evil.”

“But I’m like him!” Rin says, desperately. “I-I-I hurt people!”

“Do you want to do it?” the priest says calmly. “Do you want to hurt people?”

“No,” Rin whispers.

“You are a child of God,” the priest proclaims. “You renounce sin and seek to do good. There is no penance for being the son of a bad man. Try to attend Mass more often. Your penance is three Hail Marys and two Our Fathers. You may now say your Act of Contrition.”

Rin walks out of the church feeling lighter than he has before, like a burden has been taken from him, the reassurance that he can be good if he chooses to be. He feels… different, lighter, after getting it all out of his chest, even if it was inadequately explained to a stranger in a confessional booth. It’s different to have to convince the whole world that he isn’t his father then it is to have someone else tell him he isn’t evil.

You are a Child of God.

You are a Child of God.

Rin takes solace in those words. They’re right. They have to be.

[dramaticallycryingblood]

Things I don’t get about the marauders fandom as someone who’s been obsessed with them for literal years

1. How we let so many characters be only children?? like I get that people don’t necessarily want to make OCs but HOW did it get to this? James, Marlene, Peter, Remus, Mary, Barty, Dorcas, Alice, Frank and so many others! Idk maybe it’s just where I’m from but look me in the eyes and tell me you know that many people who don’t have siblings ALSO the ratio is so off and barely any of them have only child energy. It’s just not right.

2. How sooo many of you aren’t multi shippers. Like what do you MEAN you can only see James with Regulus and Regulus with James?? What about bartylus? what about sunrose? what about draksun/sunkiller? what about moonwater? what about jily? what about prongstail? WHAT do you read?? Aren’t you bored??? WHAT DO YOU MEAN you only have ONE ship for each character???? As a multi shipper, I can be convinced of any ship with anything ranging from a real good fic or a pretty edit to an enthusiastic rant from a random person on TikTok and it just makes things interesting. Maybe my adhd brain just needs more ships to focus on or maybe some of you just lack flexibility ( or imagination), but we need to fix this cause there aren’t enough fics with the ships I like 😭😭

3. THE SHIP NAMES. I can’t be the only one who thinks some of these suck right? Like why are we saying jegulus when starchaser and sunseeker are RIGHT THERE?? Same with jily and flowerpot, and bartylus and starkiller. ALSO some names make me wonder if some of you just haven’t grasped the concept of ship names or if I just got it all wrong cause marylily and jegulily are just annoying, why are we keeping the L in Lily? The point is to merge the names together not stick them one beside the other, I just say marily and jeguily because it rolls off the tongue so much more easily

4. The Peter erasure. I just don’t get it, it’s so easy to include him in things, you don’t have to make him a main character, but just mention him every once in awhile. Sometimes I’m reading an important scene in a fic and everyone is mentioned EXCEPT for Peter! It’s so easy, just make him roll his eyes at his friends being idiots or something. And it’s not like you’ll get his personality wrong, ALL THESE CHARACTERS PERSONALITIES WERE MADE UP BY FANS but I understand that some people lack imagination so here’s some things about Peter I like to imagine: he’s a HUGE gossip, like my man sees and hears everything and he takes notes!! He likes to randomly turn into a rat and take a nap in one of the other marauders’ pocket, he does it so much that they had to tell the girls that they had a pet rat cause they were asking too many questions. He’s really perceptive and his friends are all oblivious so it leads to funny scenarios like:

Remus & Sirius after YEARS of pining: we’re dating

Peter: I thought you guys had been together since third year?

Sirius: I’ve literally introduced you to people I was dating?!

Peter, shrugging: look mate I don’t question you lot anymore, you do whatever you want, I don’t care what you’re into, I just don’t wanna know about it

He also pulls people, like he’s really nice and will gossip to anyone who’s in his vicinity so he’s friends with basically everyone and he’s funny and pretty and he’s got charisma so he just charms everyone and when I say everyone, I mean everyone, even the slytherins have a soft spot for him (that’s how he gets accepted among the death eaters during the war actually). In pranks he’s the lookout so he often has to distract the teachers so he asks them random things and spits out half-made up facts about anything so he’s besties with most of the teachers which means he doesn’t get many detentions.

5. The Black brothers, more specifically the way the speak to each other in most fics, like they call each other “brother” so often and as someone who has a brother I’ve never called him that. Is it an anglophone thing? Like do people who speak English at home all do that or are fic writers only children?? (That would explain my first point actually) Or is it more a rich people thin?? Cause I know it’s not a francophone thing that’s for sure (also special mention to people who don’t know anything about French writing Sirius and Regulus as French speakers, I can tell you don’t know what you’re writing about but I eat it up everytime anyway)

6. This is actually just about ao3 but I WANNA BE ABLE TO LEAVE MORE KUDOS!!! I just loooooove fics but I can’t leave kudos at every single chapter and I’m bad at writing comments so I can’t show the author how much I love their work, I hate itttt 😭

7. Why there aren’t more fics about the Black family, and not just Sirius and Regulus, but Andromeda, Bellatrix and Narcissa as well like that would be so interesting and maybe like a deep dive into the Black family ideals and all that (if you have fic recs I’m all ears!!)

8. How jegulily is a pretty popular ship (which I LOVE) yet SO FEW people ship Regulus and Lily outside of it! They are a power couple and I love them and they don’t need James to work!!!

9. Why there isn’t more background Minnie x Poppy cause they are my mothers and I wanna see them moooooreeee

If you read all of this I love you 🥰 have an amazing day/night

[birdmitosis]

I've mentioned it before, but Voice of the Cold fascinates me and I really keep wanting to pick at his character until I figure him out better, so this is my attempt to do that. (Pretty long essay under the cut!)

There are a few things about Cold's character that really stand out to me, and it's because he's very much a contradictory person. This isn't true of all the Voices; some of them are them all the way through, though there are some others who break out of what you'd expect from them (Contrarian and Paranoid being the most obvious examples, but also Hero, Smitten, and Skeptic IMO). Cold, though. All the way through, he is consistent, but what he is is consistently… odd. "Stop feeling anything" is basically his motto, and honestly a lot of his dialogue circles that concept. He makes it clear that he thinks the best thing, the only logical thing to do in fact, is to just stop feeling what their physical body feels and to stop feeling emotion while they're at it. The former, at least, he does seem 100% on top of, not at all bothered by anything physical that ever happens while he's present -- whether it's having their heart ripped out, their ankle snapped and twisted, or being drowned or burned to death. But even with physical sensation, there's something odd about Cold. For someone who's like "stop feeling what it feels" about the body, Cold's response to The Grey trying to kill them is consistent across both chapters, no matter you choices to get there or your choices while there:

(IMO, Cold sounds noticeably more interested in response to The Drowned Grey; I personally think this might be explained by the fact that he at least theoretically understands what the process of burning to death should feel like, as he explains to the others that the pain will stop when they don't have nerves anymore, but he has no equivalent words of wisdom about the drowning experience.) Following on from this is the way Cold responds to The Razor, where he gets a tone that is… not unique but rare for him:

These are, as near as I can tell, the three times in the game when Cold registers interest in the sensations of having a physical form. They're in response to immensely unpleasant sensations, or at least what Cold imagines to be such, and it seems like the less he can imagine it, the more intrigued he is: He sort of knows about what the body goes through when burning to death, he seems unfamiliar with what it would feel like when drowning but could probably imagine it at least a little, and the Razor just fucking exploding due to blades twisting from under her skin and erupting out until the only thing left of her is her heart is something that a human being (or rather a bird person) could not ever actually experience themself and could probably barely even imagine. So he can tune into what his body is feeling, or he would like to be able to at least in certain circumstances. (Negative ones! Cold please!!) So let's veer away from physical sensation into feeling emotion. Because Cold is imo fascinating in this respect. Cold is a complete contradiction when it comes to emotional shit. It is wild and I absolutely love it actually? He says he doesn't feel emotions and repeatedly advises that the best thing is to stop feeling emotions, particularly in The Moment of Clarity but also in The Grey chapters.

(I'll return to that last screenshot later…) He's not emotionless, though. He has an understated emotional effect, might not feel emotions as strongly naturally as others, and he's very good at letting go of something when, for example, a preference he states doesn't happen or an action he tries to take doesn't work, but… Remember how I said above that the tone he gets in response to The Razor is "not unique but rare for him"? Well, the other time he does it, I first interpreted as being about him anticipating violence. But I don't think that's quite it. I think that of two major times he gets that tone of voice, one is in response to imagining a physical sensation, but the other is in response to the threat/promise of an emotional one:

This clip is a bit longer than the others (like 30 seconds instead of 5-10 seconds), but you can see what I mean, right? When Smitten is just threatening violence or killing them again, Cold is completely blasé about it in his usual way; it's the "I'll make you feel what I feel if it's the last thing I do" part that seems to make Cold suddenly get… intense. (Which is an emotion in and of itself, or at least is inherently a, well, an intensifier of an emotion, so like. Again, Cold please.) But while that's the most obvious, notable moment, there are a lot of moments where it's obvious that Cold… does feel things, if again in an understated way.

(Thank you so much to @butwhosgonnafindhim for the last two screenshots, from this amazing post which shows even more interesting context!) There are also so many times he talks (quite negatively!) about some things being boring, implying that he does feel boredom, and/or something that isn't boredom when there's a new experience:

…And also too many times for me to share screenshots where he's just not letting comments from the other characters pass unremarked-on, needling them if not outright goading them, totally unnecessarily; this is most obvious in The Burned Grey chapter with The Smitten, but also with both Paranoid and Cheated if you choose to jump into the abyss with The Wraith. The thing is, Cold is also inconsistent when it comes to the other characters in a way that really interests me. He needles them, talks about not listening to them (though I want to revisit this in a minute), if you choose to reassure the Voices in front of the mirror if he's there, he even says "You don't have to comfort them." (Sorry I can't find a screenshot of this, I've been looking for ages!) But over and over again in various routes, he also repeatedly tries to advise the characters on how not to be broken down by physical or emotional pain:

(I also noted in another post that in The Wraith route he straight-up says, as shown above, "let's throw the Narrator into a place that never ends and see what that does to him" but then if Paranoid is the other Voice with them and they go with Paranoid's plan to toss yourself into the abyss, when Paranoid gets elated that it worked Cold just has to chime in with a comment basically implying it's silly to prefer this outcome over any other:

Which I like in and of itself but he also does stuff like this kind of a lot as you can see.) (And also thank you for these screenshots, @phospolipid-bilayer!) (And can I also just make a small aside that there are fascinating implications in the phrasing of "if you can tolerate joy"?) I want to wrap this up before it goes on too much longer, but there are three last things I want to cover quickly that I think are other fascinating facets of his character. First, very quickly, I would like to note that Cold is both espousing an absolutely useful way of dealing with horrific situations if you can actually manage it, but is also advising it far beyond the point where it's useful and the usefulness of his approach is limited even in the very specific circumstances that the Protagonist and the Voices are in.

It's not just Hunted and Contrarian making some vague note about a shared experience you can't remember, though; consistently, Cold underestimates threats and is as likely to suggest a course of action that will get you killed as one that won't. Try to kill The Spectre, let The Spectre possess you and let her leave, let The Spectre possess you and stab yourself, just let The Wraith possess you and see what happens… half of those end in death, and in The Razor and The Grey chapters, his advice in the end boils down to "we're going to die, just accept it." While his lack of feeling can be of great use to push through situations, it's not so helpful when he isn't placing any value on survival at all, and that's only not a disastrous trait for him to have because everyone's trapped in a place where death doesn't stick. And now let's look back at The Moment of Clarity. All the Voices in The Moment of Clarity are shattered. This is obvious all throughout the chapter, where they're confused and have for the most part given up; they've been broken down and while they certainly aren't numb the way Cold talks about, they've been numbed and worn down in a lot of ways. It's most obvious in the mirror scene at the end of the chapter, how none of them are afraid anymore of what feels to them like the end in a very final way. But Cold doesn't seem very different, not through the chapter and not in front of the mirror. Right? He's never bothered by the mirror (IIRC he's the only one!) and he's always talking about how the other Voices need to stop feeling. But I think he is, actually. I think he broke too, and I think Cold breaking takes the form of him actually shutting out the other Voices. His trauma response in The Moment of Clarity is the most subtle, but I think it proves that he usually does care -- in The Moment of Clarity, by the time you come back to yourself and everyone is there (and has been there many, many, many times already), he just can't anymore.

Nowhere else in the game is he quite like this. In front of the mirror every other time, he either tells the Protagonist that they don't need to reassure the other Voices, or if the Protagonist decides to tell the Voices it's the end for them he tells the Protag that he wouldn't have told them Voices that/would have kept that to himself. When the mirror is actually approached, where the other Voices usually have some fearful dialogue, I'm pretty sure Cold is always silent. This lack of care, this level of coldness, is actually unusual for him, and is specifically associated with the one chapter where all the Voices have been traumatized and broken down. And I think that actually says a lot about him. (And that line about thinking he was special is also unique, only coming up if you don't do anything and let the world unravel in The Moment of Clarity chapter... I'm not sure what to make of that one, though.) Finally... just... what?

(I said we'd return to that screenshot! 🥳) But you all see what I'm getting at here, right? The former makes the most immediate sense, at least to me. The Voices are shards of the Long Quiet, and I theorize that they're sort of the equivalent of how the Princess changes completely; the Long Quiet can't change the way the Shifting Mound can, but has a part of her in them, so when her perception of them starts to change them a piece just breaks off instead. Whatever is happening, though, the Voices sprang into being the way they are, defined by their descriptions. It makes sense, then, that Cold has always been the way that he is; he comes into being in a very specific way and with a very specific identity and personality. But the latter... That has some potentially interesting implications. It's the "trust me" at the end; it makes it sound like he has experience with this, doesn't it? So is he simply talking about what the Protagonist went through when he was created, implying that this is how he was created (or how he sees it)? Or is he acknowledging that he is in fact trying to stop his own feelings, because he wants to, because there's something about them that makes him want them to stop? That would potentially work with the rest of this analysis, with Cold's inconsistencies and subtle shows of emotion (and, uh, occasional less subtle ones). Including him talking about "tolerating joy." (And even The Wraith's choice of words: "you think you are numb" but "you are hopeless and paranoid.") TL;DR... There's a lot to this particular Voice, and hopefully actually writing all this out will quiet my brain down some!

[magentasnail]

one thing you should know about me is that I'm a little insane

all of the new bill cipher stuff and euclydia had sparked a lot of discussions about the nature of a 2D dimension, so now I have a very strong one sided beef with anyone trying to claim that "we, as 3D beings, can only see/perceive in 2D" and as a 3D being myself I have to disagree and if I don't voice my opinions in public I will lose my mind

so welcome to "magenta's trying to explain physics without actually knowing physics to anyone who's willing to listen"

so first of all, one major key of this debate is the difference between "see" and "perceive", because that can lead to some confusion

in my opinion there are basically 3 stages to "sight" (and any other senses): 1. the information the eyes gets (our retinas?) 2. the image our brains create from interpreting that information 3. us comprehending what we see

I personally think of "seeing" as at least level 2, but for the sake of this argument let's refer to seeing as level 1 and perception as 2 and 3 (separating them to perception and comprehension doesn't add much to the discussion) however I still think vision encapsulate the entire thing, so keep that in mind

if that's the case, I do understand why people claim that we can only "see" in 2D, because in a technical sense: one eye can only see a flat image

for example, if we have these 2 balls in front of us in a 3D space, we wont really be able to tell anything about their distance and size with just one eye

HOWEVER, and that's the thing I'm mainly getting at: we do have the ability to tell size and distance in real life! by this great thing calls "depth perception"

now this is not really a concept I can explain with images since they are inherently flat, but you probably know it already just think 3D glasses, VR, or even just look around in your room! our two eyes + our brain gives us the ability to tell the distance of things from us! you can theoretically map the objects around you on a 3D grid just from looking at them, and if that's not 3D vision and perception idk what is

well, actually, I did see a thing being argued that "3D vision means seeing all sides of an object + inside of it, which is what 4D creatures will see" so lets think about that for a second

this argument stems from the way we interact with the 2nd dimension

as all the flatlands lovers here know, when we look at a world of 2D creatures, we are able to see all of their sides, and their inside, so supposedly a 4D creature would be able to do the same for us

but that's where things gets interesting, so let's go deeper!

this usually comes up in order to say "this ability to see around and inside of an object defines what 2D vision is, and thus only 3D being can see 2D, while 2D beings can only see 1D" however, I don't think it has to do with sight at all! but rather with point of view and existing in a higher dimensional plane !

the special thing about us really is our ability to move on the Z axis and separate ourselves from the 2D plane, and thus get a fuller view! so this doesn't have anything to do with us "being limited to 2D" but rather with us being 3D creatures in a 3D world and 3D perception!!! so supposedly, a 4D creature would be in the same situation, having 3D retinas and an overall 4D vision and perception!

if we were to be on the flat plain along the other shapes, our vision isn't going to serve us much better than it does for the 2D creatures, the only additional thing we will be able to see is the Z axis, which isn't really relevant to 2D beings

so now raises the question: can 2D creatures see in 2D? don't they only see 1D? ( - a line ?)

I'm going to jump through some loops here so I need you to hold my hand and bare with me

lets say we have this triangular fella with one eye, the light information they are getting is linear, so basically a line (which is represented on the right)

now this is where I'm making a bit of a leap: will their vision have 2D depth? like we have?

think for a second of the way we see, technically, even the flat image our retinas see is based in some 3D: specifically, objects appear smaller as they are far away, lines wrap into a vanishing point in the horizon, stuff like that!

the 3D world around us is getting compressed into a flat image with perspective, which we can later decipher back into 3D using both our eyes !

and as you might have noticed, a similar thing is happening in our triangle friend's vision! even though both circles are the same size, the light blue circle is closer, and thus takes a much larger portion of their field of view!

unfortunately, as we have established before, while this is a result of depth, this isn't equivalent to depth perception, as our poor triangle cant tell anything about the distance of the circles! is that circle close to him? is that a giant far circle? who knows!

this is where having 2 eyes might help!

our other friend, the 2 eyed triangle, should in theory be able to have depth perception similarly to us, and thus perceive 2D visually!!

how specifically their brain interprets that information is beyond me, the changes in distance, size and angles/curves might be visible as color changes or even width

it's important to remember that since there's no defined "width" to the "line" of their vision, it's actually filling their entire field of view and perception of sight, so it's not like it's a line within a black void but more of the definition of everything, so when compared to our perception of sight it's something more like this:

and if you want to incorporate the idea of closer objects appearing larger in their perception, it might be something like this (for a bunch of random circles in different distances):

the main thing is, when we are trying to say 2D creatures can only see 1D, it's usually just because we think of "2D vision" as a matter of height and width, when it can actually just be depth and width, both of these are valid ways of representing 2 dimensions! because there are 2 dimensions represented ! it's just a matter of point of view!!

I don't think our ability to see 2D objects from all their sides at once is defining what counts as 2D vision, it's just a way to see it from further away, and without relaying on perspective I guess?

so I guess that's the thing really, the core of this discussion: does perspective count? I mean perspective is what makes the axis that's "forwards" accessible, distorting the size to substitute distance. supposedly, when we step back to look to look at a 2D world, we don't need any of that distortion, and we can easily see both the accurate size and the distance of objects, so does that mean our vision is superior? that it's actually true 2D?

in my opinion, the distortion of perspective doesn't take away from our vision, it's just a way to represent the forward axis! no matter how many dimensions you have, forwards is always the first dimension to exist, and while you are looking straight ahead at one dimension lower than you are, your over all vision consists of a stack of "straight ahead views" along the additional axis, which I consider as giving it it's missing dimension!!

trying to argue we can't perceive the world in the dimension we exist in doesn't make sense to me, we are 3D beings in a 3D world which we intuitively interact with! just like we can move around the 3D space and hear the direction sounds are coming from, I don't understand why vision should be limited to any less, and definitely not perception!

well that was fun! this is basically just a matter of semantics, but thinking and trying to analyze vision and different dimensions was just really interesting! and I hope it was interesting to read for you dear one person who read this! have a candy! 🍬 hopefully now that I release these thoughts into the world they won't hurt me as much !! time to dissolve i guess !

[x-hyzenthlay-x]

Hello I was looking at your "humans are space orcs" master list and I thought it would be interesting to add that not only we can lie, but also the animals on our planet and I think that could be something very interesting to exploit. Other intelligent species also lie, it's normal, but for an animal that acts on instinct to lie directly to someone's face is great. Like for example when you are latching and your dog just started latching too or just pretending he is hurt when he is extremely fine.

ASDFGH this is actually really interesting because lying is also a survival mechanism! Many species “lie” especially birds and insects and humans do it without even realizing.

The atlas moth has evolved to make its wings look like snake heads to scare off birds from watching them :)

Many birds (and animals like cats) will poof up their feathers/fur to make themselves look bigger than they really are.

Humans are interesting though, one of our evolved tricks is standing on two legs and being able to raise our arms directly above us thanks to brachiation/having our arms placed outside of our body barely attached to our skeletons. This is how we are able to hang from our arms and swing on branches ;3 however this makes us look a lot bigger than we really are thus making us look much more powerful to things like other predators and pray who might wish to harm us. Tigers and other cats have fake eyes on the back of their ears to make it look like they’re facing the wrong direction to protect them from attacks from behind!

A lot of survival experts will say that making yourself look bigger is a good thing and making lots of noise. Many animals can’t tell the difference and assume that tall/loud = powerful/dangerous.

Loud noises are often associate to danger, ex: animals attacking, a falling tree or land slide would be an environmental danger, storms ect. Loud noises generally just mean “dangerous” so humans having loud voices helps!

Then you get into the more complex lies. The ones that can be used for malicious intent. I would say that these have their roots in self preservation/satisfaction. Animals trick each other quite often for food and attention and such. Humans aren’t really any different, we might do it out of perceived necessity or in more rare cases joy of watching the suffering of others which is only really found in the more “intelligent” species. Orcas will torture an animal/prey species for fun. Humans have done this too. It’s pretty barbaric.

I like to imagine there’s a certain point where this goes away. Like more advanced beings who travel literal galaxies have kind of evolved past basic instincts. They’re probably still there but not nearly as prominent. They probably know about lies and there’s probably species who have no use for it or never really did. Like purely telepathic species would be able to detect it much easier but they also likely have much less miscommunication issues. I feel like false info in general is so deeply integrated into evolution it’s almost impossible to avoid and possibly even necessary all to some extent.

I think lying is pretty well established in the universe but it would be fascinating to see a species who has no concept of it. They would probably look a lot like the dogs who get fooled by the disappearing blanket trick

It would actually be funny to try this on an alien tbh, sorry this took so long I had no clue I had something in my ask box 😭 it never told me?

Masterlist

[witchywithwhiskey]

okay but will we be getting some fem gloryhole action in the trucker!jake jensen series? 👀 like you know the one where a girl is lying down and just her butt and stuff pokes out of a hole (that was a weird way of describing it lol)

it's so fucking hot. like imagine her just lying there and anyone could walk up and do anything they'd like...

hi nonny i'm glad you're enjoying my trucker jake jensen series!!

i haven't decided yet if we're going to see the reader in that series back in the glory holes. if she does go back, i'd probably write it in a way where it's still mostly about Jake since their relationship is why i like writing that series. (but actually you have given me an idea......gonna keep that one secret for now 🙊)

that said, this is a whole AU with as many chris evans, sebastian stan and henry cavill characters as i want to add and i definitely plan to revisit the glory hole concept, i just haven't figured out how yet. the whole concept is hot but i need characters and a relationship dynamic to interest me in writing something—i think that's why all my fics end up so long 🫣

although now that i'm thinking about it, i have been curious about what kind of reader would work for Ransom, and i maybe have an idea. (18+ content below!!!)

what if you're the daughter of one of Ransom's business associates? what if he has a whole host of clubs—night clubs, whiskey lounges, etc. and Diesel Dolls is his secret pet project that he keeps because he's, of course, a perv.

but you don't know about that side of him. you're a spoiled heiress, with a rich father who's invested in Ransom's night clubs, which means you're an adult who basically parties for a living. and you're a regular at Ransom's night clubs, always getting the vip treatment because of your father, and he's always been so nice to you, just like all your father's business partners.

but one day you learn about Diesel Dolls and you're so curious, you ditch your normal crowd and driver and take a cab to the strip club just off the highway outside of the city.

you're immediately enraptured by the sensual dancers and the low lighting of the club. you've paid for a lap dance and are chatting with the dancer while she straddles you and grinds on you, when Ransom discovers you.

he's furious—he doesn't want your father to find out about his little business, let alone the definitely illegal glory holes in the back room, but you reveal that the dancer told you about the glory holes and you want to see them. or else you'll tell your father.

so Ransom takes you into his office, where there's a bank of monitors on his desk that show a live feed of everything going on in the back room of Diesel Dolls. you're overcome with arousal as you watch one girl with her lower half hanging through a hole in the plywood wall be pounded by a big, filthy trucker.

Ransom presses close to your back, and you're so transfixed by the different views of all kinds of truckers being serviced by the glory hole girls, that you barely notice his fingers toying with the hem of your tight dress until his touch against your thigh makes you shiver.

Ransom mocks you for getting so turned on by the sight of his girls getting railed in his glory holes. he calls you dirty, he calls you filthy, he calls you a slutty little whore who pretends to be a sweet little daddy's girl.

But his words only make you hotter and you lean back against the broad chest of your father's business partner and tell him you know he's jealous, because he wishes you were his daddy's girl.

Ransom chuckles, pretends you're wrong, pretends he could never want a spoiled heiress like you. you're too much of a princess. and you rise to the challenge, telling him you're not too much of a princess to balk at the prospect of getting into one of his glory holes.

Ransom grins, because you've fallen right into his trap. he puts you into a special glory hole—one that isn't open to the public. then Ransom calls all of your father's other business associates and together they ruin you while you're none the wiser about who exactly is fucking you.

but it's a special glory hole for another reason too. he tells you it's because there aren't any cameras, so you can enjoy yourself guilt-free. but really it's because there are tons of cameras, and on the men's side of the wall is a screen with a live feed from a camera placed directly above you. so Ransom and all your father's business parters watch you while they ruin you.

and at the end of the night, Ransom not only reveals all the men who used you—all the men you've known for years and never realized lusted after you—he also reveals the cameras and that they recorded every second of your defilement.

Ransom will use that footage to blackmail you into coming to Diesel Dolls every weekend and repeating the fun they had. and you'll pretend to be furious and betrayed, but a not-so-small part of you is excited about being turned into a free use fuck doll for your father's business partners.

but now i have a question: who are your father's other business partners?

🤭 i'm thinking one might be August Walker. and maybe Steve Kemp and Pete Brenner? 🤔 it can't be anyone i've already introduced into this universe unfortunately 🫤 that would be too hard to keep track of

[lilliththefan]

Okay, I’m gonna do smthn I have never done before on this platform and that is to toss my hat into my thoughts concerning Crowley. Specifically, about her Fall.

Just how she said “Call it a nebula”, call this little crackhead theory: The Booksnatcher Theory (aka: Stealing Books and what it could mean for Season 3)

[Disclaimer: this is just smthn I cooked up randomly so don’t look at it too closely lol. Also I’m not sure if another person has thought of this as well, I just wanted to look at it on a certain angle teehee]

THAT OUT OF THE WAY!!! Let’s start off with what we know about Crowley’s Fall objectively (and by objectively, I mean what Neil has to say about it)

So it’s canon (confirmed via Neil Gaiman himself) that Crowley isn’t the best source for his experience concerning The Fall. According to Crowley, they Fell for two reasons: asking questions and hanging out with the wrong people.

Another interesting thing Neil noted was that Crowley isn’t as good as he likes to maintain while also not being THAT bad as Heaven portrays him to be. So what does that mean?

It could mean that Crowley did something he hasn’t admitted to doing yet.

Which brings me to the title of this random theory I thought of while drinking some milk tea; what if he snatched a book? This book in particular.

If you can barely read the title, you’ll notice that it has the title of “Nebula” along with some (probably) volume numbers that would help identify the book. It was also noted by Crowley that she “wasn’t the original concept designer but that he worked very closely with Upstairs on it.” As some people have pointed out, this was a habit Crowley also did in Hell: taking credit for an idea that wasn’t technically theirs.

Crossing your fingers like this typically means one is asking for luck, OR more poignantly in this scenario, outright lying to another person but not to God as a way to negate the lie you just said. Other people have noted this gesture as well!

Essentially, the theory goes like this: What if Crowley borrowed the Nebula book without prior knowledge or permission and used it to start the star factory without proper clearance?

That basically meant that Crowley stole a Heavenly document for their own gain and created something without an overseer’s approval. Even if it was to satiate their love and curiosity of stars, it still paints him in a bad light while simultaneously not being “that bad” of an angel.

For this theory, Crowley’s angel identity doesn’t matter tbh, you’re free to explore that in your own headcanons. But what matters for this theory, it mainly hinges on the idea that he stole something and did something out of line. Which isn’t all too out of character for Crowley, as he mentioned pranking the cherubs with Beelzebub and threats of the Book of Life.

SPEAKING OF!!!

This brings me to the next part: Why does it matter if Crowley stole a book?

Because that means books can be stolen. And there is ONE particular Book that is currently a Chekov’s gun waiting to be fired.

NOW LET’S 👏 TALK 👏 THE 👏 METATRON 👏

Metatron overall is a VERY shady character, no surprise here. We know barely anything about the guy, which basically meant us (who are into angelology) had to go off of three main things: (1) he’s the Voice of God, (2) he was once human favored by God, and (3) he’s the Scribe to the Book of Life.

So here’s the thing about point 1 and point 2…

…okay so Metatron doesn’t ACTUALLY talk to God and he was never human in the first place, which means out of everything so far, point 3 is the only thing that still remains as true.

What does that mean, then? It means, in the context of this theory, the Metatron would probably be keeping that Book under lock and key in the best way possible: by controlling any single angel (former or current) that has shown instances of showing interest towards knowledge they shouldn’t have.

Which means that it makes sense to make Crowley Fall, if she has been known to steal books. Aziraphale could easily be put under the Metatron’s control due to conditioning. Hell (heh), even Michael backed down the moment Metatron revealed himself.

But there’s one surprising addition to the growing count of angels (and demon) who have an interest in books and that is Muriel.

Muriel was seen by Metatron as a purveyor of books, expressing excitement and curiosity toward humanity and their culture. That kind of curiosity could be dangerous to Metaton, especially if you consider that Muriel basically now knows a demon who has clearance to certain files.

So, in Metatron’s mind, the probability of Muriel stealing the Book of Life might be probable. Not saying it will happen, but the chance of it happening does exist.

It would be an interesting twist ngl, while also making total sense for Muriel. They’re a scrivener, it’s kinda in their nature to validate documents and books fall under that category. We even see them validate the contract between God and Satan during the events of the Book of Job, so it kinda feels like a normal progression for them; the underdog lowest ranking angel overseeing the most important artifact Heaven has.

Hence why the Metatron probably stationed them down on Earth. Not only as someone to look after the bookshop but also to keep them away from looking into Heaven’s libraries.

All in all, this lil theory hinges on the fact that books are important in the Good Omens-verse, from Agnes Nutter’s book of prophecies to the Book of Life. Which also kinda has some symbolism attached to it: Books contain knowledge, and knowledge is power.

And if Metatron has a monopoly on knowledge, less people would be less inclined to ask questions.

But see, that’s the thing.

The questions will always remain, regardless if you’re an angel or a demon. So now, I end this theory/tirade/meta of mine with my own inquiry: If you have a question no one wishes to reply to, how far will you go to get your answer?

P.S: So you know how the Metatron is the de-facto writer of the Book of Life in this scenario?

…yeah…

[featherstorm2004]

Some people can't understand each other au

You know what I think would be cool, I think it would be cool to have an au based on young AFO being yeeted into the future by some quirk and All Might is the person forced to be his caretaker.

Like that would be so interesting! and the reason I would want it to be him is because after the Kamino arc All Might is still fresh from finding out Shigaraki is Nana's grandson and in my mind still kinda wants to save him, then he goes to interrogate AFO on what he's after and what he tells All Might has always stuck with me "Some people just can't understand each other". And that's interesting because when we hear All Might describe him in previous chapters it's clear he knows barely anything on AFO other than what he's done and the fact he's yah know petty and evil.

So, what would happen if he was given an opportunity to understand the Daemon Lord in a way no one ever could before, how would he react to this feral kid whose almost the opposite to the calm presentable man AFO always presented himself as. How would he react to young AFO having no concept of basic things like hospitals, schools, hell even things like taps and lights. And don't get me started on when he finds out that AFO believes that he was born evil because he 'killed' his mother and was abandoned by society, and that his only concept of morality is what he gleaned from comic books.

And I wonder how this new perspective would affect All Might's relationship with hero society and how he views villains such as Shigaraki, and heck maybe this would implement new changes in his dynamic with his students and especially Izuku. Not to mention I would imagine that in this au these developments would cause a strain on All Might's relationship with Grand Torino and maybe he'd start to push back on the idea of not saving Shigaraki. I just think it's a really interesting premise for All Might to have look after this feral kid who had the powers of god, and for young AFO to be socialized and learn how to actually interact people and get lots, and lots of therapy.

But yeah that's my base idea for this au I might expand on it later.

[moonsaver]

It’s me @pix3lplays back at it again, not a request, but you mentioned a SLEEPOVER with the Stellaron hunters and it isn’t leaving my head so please have some thoughts…

First of all oh my gosh just IMAGINE their pajamas I’m crying that’s so funny…Silver Wolf’s is just straight up a Pokémon onesie or something-

Kafka has some very pretty, tasteful silk pajamas with lace…

Blade. Idk I imagine he probably sleeps shirtless or something (I’m normal about his scars I swear) but if he knows they’re having a guest he wears some random t-shirt alongside his sweatpants. Like. He doesn’t care what he wears at night…it’s a t-shirt with a really bizarre Picture or incomprehensible writing on it and you’re just like ??? Okay….

The human cast? Each of them have long enough hair…for a braid train…Kafka doing something really nice with Silver Wolf’s hair…while Blade just does something basic for Kafka, and then y/n gets to experiment with Blade’s hair…if he’ll let you. Important stuff I’m telling you.

Trying to play a board game with them that results in Kafka having to use her Spirit Whisper at LEAST once to get you all to calm down. Do NOT play Uno. Blade got +four carded like five times in a row, you felt so bad for him…

PILLOW FIGHT GONE WRONG!!! SO MANY INJURIES!!! Sam and Blade took it WAY too seriously.

At least one incident of Blade asking you to smother him with a pillow.

Silver Wolf who stays up LATE. So late. You’re all watching her play a video game, and the girl just doesn’t STOP, haha. Eventually you all would like to go to sleep…not her. You try so hard to stay awake to watch her but you end up falling asleep on the shoulder of another Stellaron Hunter.

Kafka eventually makes Silver Wolf go to sleep, but Silver Wolf does that thing I used to do as a kid where I’d just. Hide under the blanket while playing my DS. That’s Silver Wolf.

Blade getting a mara flare up in the middle of the night kinda killing the mood. Sam holding him like he’s a feral animal while you and Kafka calm him down.

Sam who I’m assuming doesn’t have to really sleep? Combined with Blade waking up really early results in them waking up the rest of you by accident in the morning haha.

Cooking breakfast for the Stellaron Hunter humans…please I NEED- (don’t mind me not really knowing how to cook but I CAN make pancakes and scrambled eggs lol)

I just…need a Stellaron Sleepover. Elio needs to put it in the script, I’m BEGGING.

Hello, Pixel! Glad to see you in my inbox, hehe.

The sleepover is a very fun concept!

I think your descriptions of their sleepwear is quite spot on. As for Blade.. does.. does he sleep? I feel like.. he just only takes off his normal clothes for wash day. Otherwise he probably just has.. some ripped up, old clothing that's begging to be put out of it's misery. Kafka has to come to the rescue once again and fish out some more appropriate wear for the sleepover and force him to change into them.

As for the braid train, I love it! They're all chattering and snickering, and y/n gets to experiment with Blade's hair. I imagine they temporarily dismantle the train to look at y/n's progress on his hair, and go back into their positions after. I think Blade's hair would actually be kind of silky near the roots, and in the middle. Most likely because he uses either Kafka's, or Silverwolf's bare minimum shampoo products which is miraculous for his hair. The ends are.. crusty, to say the least. But hey! It's not everyday you get to braid and shape his hair all silly. Make most of it!

The card game.. aww. Uno is probably the only thing all of you can really play, monopoly's not interesting enough for Blade to keep his attention, and other board games like Ludo makes Silverwolf too competitive, and Kafka's tried one too many times to cheat the dice. So.. Uno's the only simple option, not like they can't cheat, but.. it's a small card game, so.. whatever. They just stay dormant. Until all of you simultaneously pulled out a +4 and Blade had to pick up almost half of the card stack.. yikes.

Pillow fighting is probably the only activity that gets Blade actively engaged,but it's not long before the threads all snap except a few and the pillow is begging for mercy, Blade swinging it with such force to the point there's only a small bunch of cotton and fabric left.. injuries are even worse than that. Sam is a hair's breadth away from shooting someone through the pillow itself. So pillow fighting is banned until both Blade and Sam learn how to take it easier.

Silver wolf staying up to play extremely late.. makes sense. She would. Forms a small tent with an ominous glow from the inside, and it's just her console. At least, she doesn't quite disturb you as much as the others.

Blade.. poor thing. He himself probably doesn't want the mara flare up. After a while of calming him down everyone's just docile and kind of concerned about his shuddering state. Except Sam, of course. Deathly iron grip. Asks if he's done and if he can go. Dude, read the room!

Breakfast! Silverwolf's definitely not awake by then. Kafka's up and ready, miraculously. She offers you.. questionable substances, if you can even call it edible. But don't worry! Just close your eyes, take a mouthful, and leave it to Kafka if your stomach feels weird. Blade.. isn't someone that's partial to cooking, but all the Stellaron Hunters quietly watch him cook from the side.. watching him struggle a bit, but manage to cook an average breakfast with a few burnt sides. And of course, y/n gets first dibs.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Bleden Mark from the video game Tyranny

the basic concept of the setting is "after the evil overlord has already won" and there are a lot of themes about power and perception. (and legal loopholes.)

the evil overlord is Kyros and Bleden Mark is one of her Archons, specifically the Archon of Shadow. each archon has their own portfolio of unique and extremely powerful magic. everyone else can only do magic by studying archons and using sigils to call on their power.

an archon's power is based on two parts. first of all, you have to be born with some kind of potential. no one knows how it works, but some people can become archons and most people just can't. but it's also based on other people's belief in them.

the more powerful an archon becomes, the more people know about them and have thoughts about them and what they can do, which reflects back on the archon and changes their powers. then people see and hear about those powers, and that reinforces their belief. the more powerful an archon becomes, the more vulnerable they become to belief, and it changes not only their powers but their personalities, their appearances, it molds them into becoming whatever idol that people make of them.

that's how things actually work, but it's not common knowledge. instead, the story is that Kyros (who is really just a particularly powerful archon who got in the business of making everyone believe she's all-powerful and thus is pretty close) is simply a living god, and the archons have their power because Kyros made them archons. this works because she quickly recruits every archon that pops up. or, she has Bleden Mark assassinate them.

Bleden Mark is one of the oldest Archons still around (so centuries old, they can live indefinitely it seems like). he was a soldier who tried to assassinate Kyros, failed, and then began working for her as assassin and executioner.

he's never presented this way in the game, but you are told that for a long time even all of the other archons saw him as a bloodthirsty mad dog who had to be held tightly in check by Tunon, the Archon of Justice, who Kyros placed in charge of him. he was thought of like he barely had a mind and didn't care about anything but the chance to kill as many people as he could, for whatever reasons were available.

in the "present time" of the game, Bleden Mark is still officially part of Tunon's Court and works under him, but is largely independent. he and Tunon seem to have a lot of respect for each other. Tunon (despite his compromised moral position as part of an evil overlord's empire) genuinely cares about law and justice, and he ended up being fair to Bleden Mark (against what I think were Kyros' wishes), saw that he was a person and treated him that way.

the player is also a member of Tunon's court. Bleden Mark taught you a survival course as part of your training, and has a mentor sort of relationship with you.

Because Of Plot, he unfortunately ends up trying to kill you in the majority of cases. but he gives you friendly warnings, doesn't seem particularly sadistic or bloodthirsty about it. he has a sense of humor, approves when you call him an old man, and is one of the more human and normal seeming of the archons. he's much more personable than Tunon (the other archon who has been around a long time, in comparison to the other archons you meet).

And it is so interesting to me that that is true, considering A, how much belief shapes archons (as shown dramatically with other characters in the game), and B, how extreme people's fear of and beliefs about Bleden Mark is / have been in the past.

You get a different view as a member of the Court, but to most people he's just death in the shadows for anyone with disloyalty to Kyros. there's so much fear of him. and it really seems like Kyros deliberately set up this narrative, made even the other archons believe it at first, in order to shape him into a weapon that she could just point at people, by using belief to turn him into a mindless killer.

But it didn't work.

the only path where you don't have to fight Bleden Mark, is the one where you burn your bridges with both of the factions under Kyros that you're supposed to choose between. then Bleden Mark (who Because Of Plot and reading between the lines, i'm pretty sure has orders at this point that you're not supposed to survive) shows up and goes hey, kid. that was wildly unpolitical of you. anyway let's kill everybody else and rebel against Kyros.

Hot Chocolate: I personally have never heard of this game, and I feel ashamed in saying that, because I'm the videogame boy 😅. That being said, your description and detail of the events in the game made me super interested in this game! I've consumed a few stories where God-like beings and their relationship with regular people are symbiotic- My favorites being: Noragami and You Give Me Heart episode of 'Kizazi Moto'. So this sounds right up my alley, so to find out this game Tyranny is an RPG?? I might just have to try it out. Thank you for the recommendation/submission 💪🏾

[redstringraven]

alright, so after a thorough replay of the space-arc and a slightly less thorough comb of the invasion-arc here're some loose observations and thoughts regarding triceraton tattoos. i'm not touching triceratons featured in fast forward because... i don't have interest in that fjkldjks. my apologies.

this is mostly for myself, but you're of course more than welcome to use it as a resource, reference, whatever tickles your fancy. if i missed something, feel free to tell me!

there does seem to be some pattern with rank, so i'm gonna start with "low-rank" and make my way up the ladder.

citizens

we don't get to see a lot of triceraton citizens, and basically all of them are background fodder save for zed and raz (the games commentators). from what i can tell, none of them have tattoos on neither their eyes nor their arms--on the ones with bare arms, anyway. it's probably safe to assume they don't have them on their chests because those seem all-star specific.

rebellion

this is where the tattoo thing gets a bit weird--as in, i don't know if they're actually facepaint that can be removed, or if these are all citizens or green soldiers who've not earned their military tattoo yet. traximus still has his tattoo, but none of his rebellion soldiers have the ones we'll later see on every soldier as well as prison guards. it's definitely possible citizens joined the rebellion, but trax had also mentioned in the arena that he still had friends in the ranks. are they not there? did they remove their tattoos? am i over-analyzing a cartoon beyond what the creators considered? (it's that one).

you can click on the screenshot to make it a little bigger but the bottom-left shot shows an actual solder beside a rebellion soldier, the former's tattoo is barely visible but there. their concept art doesn't have a tattoo, and i didn't see any in-show who had one... but, i did more skim through the invasion-arc, so it's possible i missed one. lemmie know if i'm wrong.

prison guards

all prison guards seem to have a single, thick red-line tattoo over their right eye. the ends point toward the backs of their heads. not much to talk about here. the two in the second-to-bottom-left screenshot are missing theirs, but i'm going to assume this is an animation error.

--also, sidebar, i don't think the blue ""tattoos"" prisoners have are remotely the same type of thing, so i don't think that'd apply to my confusion over none of the rebellion soldiers having tattoos.

soldiers

here's once again where the definition of 'tattoo' gets a little blurry, because if tattoos are a sign of rank and then your rank changes... what do. maybe since triceratons already have advanced technology--and tough skin--they have... a solid form of tattoo removal. again, though, i don't think their tattoos are the same as the ""tattoos"" prisoners receive, so i doubt they'd just peel off?? if that were possible, you'd also think they would have removed traximus's tattoo after he was thrown into the games as another way to shame/derank him, too.

so, your basic and most common soldier seems to have two narrow maroon lines over their right eye. the ends do not point in any direction, they're just lines. they're thin enough that they can be very hard to see if the camera's at a distance, but they're still there--just hard to capture in a screenshot partially due to the quality i'm working with.

next is an ensign soldier, which is basically a low-ranking officer. i think we only see one of these guys (he's leading the group who find the turtles as stowaways at the beginning of s2ep3, the big house). his tattoos are once again over the right eye, maroon/purple, thicker than a soldier's tattoo, and the peak of the outer-most line has a point. for a moment, i thought that maybe you'd build on the tattoo as you ranked, but traximus and mozar are gonna kind of throw that theory out the window when we get to them.

there's also this guy from s2ep5, triceraton wars. he's labeled as "strike team leader" on his concept art, and getting a visible shot of his tattoo in-show is very frustrating and not helped by the fact it looks like they goofed his color palette, too. his tattoo is over the right eye (like the previous soldiers), red, and it's a curved line with ends that hook toward the front of his face. it's the most similar to traximus's tattoo that we see.

...also, this episode eludes to the fact that "slag" is a triceraton swear word, as zanramon uses it both as an exclamation of frustration and calls the strike team "slag brains". he could also just be calling them all stony waste matter, tho, so. do with that what you will.

there's also THESE GUYS from the invasion-arc in s3, and they confuse me because the invasion-arc not only introduces this new uniform design i don't see anywhere in the concept art that i've collected, but these soldiers have like. no tattoos. and it can't be an animation error because their lack of tattoo was consistent for any wearing this suit design. monza ram steals this suit from one of the soldiers, and looted soldier who reports back to zanramon later doesn't have a tattoo.

i wonder if these guys are like... more engineers than they are soldiers. we mostly see them in the docking bay or in the control room where the boys learn don's location on the homeworld. they're just armed because they'd stand in the way of anyone attempting to infiltrate the homeworld (or escape it), but i don't think i saw any of them leave the vessel itself.

gruell

gruell is an odd one because he has the same maroon tattoos as your common soldier--two narrow lines over the right eye--but he additionally has a tattoo on his right arm. it's of course possible that other soldiers also have this tattoo and that it's just hidden by their sleeves, but if tattoos are a show of rank or status you'd think it'd be somewhere more visible? maybe arm tattoos are additional signals of status when soldiers are in their civvies or something.

regardless, gruell's arm tattoo is the only of its kind we see: it appears to be red ink: an upright triangle that breaks into two longer lines where the top line hooks up toward the triangle and the bottom line hooks down toward another triangle, albeit this one is upsidedown. i'm not sure if this is meant to be an abstract design with the usual triceraton fondness of triangles and jagged lines, or if's maybe a representation of a bi-ringed planet? homeworld before they blew it up oopsie-doopsy? who knows.

monza ram + the all-stars

okay, if there are ANY anomalies on this list, it's these guys. none of them have anything resembling the soldier nor prison guard tattoos we've previously seen.

monza ram is the most unique; he doesn't seem to have any body tattoos, but he does have two thick red tattoos (or one big tattoo?) that rises from his jaw on both sides of his face and breaks into two spikes, one ending before it reaches his eye and the other 'cutting through' the eye and peaking on his brow. it covers the back third of his face, right in front of where his frill starts.

the other three all-stars have a much more narrow tattoo on either side of their face that looks like a jagged scratch, another narrow tattoo across the backs of their necks, then an extremely long one that seems to wrap diagonally around their back and end on their pecks. this is the only instance of tattoos that aren't maroon or red, too, as one all-star has blue tattoos and another has brown.

we unfortunately don't really know anything about the all-stars, just that they seem to be separate from the gladiator slaves, are undefeated (before the turtles), and after they lost their first fight zanramon had them imprisoned, where traximus would later free and recruit them. none of them have soldier tattoos. i know the triceratons love battle, so i wonder if they're more like the career tributes in the hunger games. they volunteered to be gladiators rather than were made to be them. eh. *shrugs*

commander mozar

title revoked because i said so, mozar is frustrating because he doesn't have an eye tattoo that we can see. those marks under his eye-patch are more likely from the injury that cost him his eye since they're a darker color than his skin tone, but where shit gets tricky is that traximus was a commanding officer before he was gladiator'd. so, it's possible that mozar has a tattoo identical to trax's under that eye-patch, and we just can't see it.

important to note, however, that his right eye--the eye where all other soldiers have had a tattoo--is bare. that's where the whole... building on your tattoo as you rank up theory kind of falls to the wayside. he technically SHOULD have one, but he doesn't.

he also has an arm tattoo, but it's on his left arm. again--he might also have one on his right arm, but it's sleeved. his left arm is only visible because his prosthetics must require a shorter sleeve. the tattoo on his arm is red: the top piece is a crescent shape lying on its side so it opens upward, then a long line that dips into a crescent shape so it frames the crescent above it, and finally an upsidedown triangle under the lowest point of the middle curve. this is much more of an abstract design than gruell's, idk what this could be.

traximus

as with mozar, traximus complicates the ranking up theory because he also lacks any tattoos on his right eye; his tattoo is on his left eye, and it appears to be reddish, zig-zagging down from his horn, across his brow, down over his eye, back along his cheek and then down to the corner of his mouth.

he doesn't have an arm tattoo on his right arm like gruell does, and if he has a tattoo on his left arm like mozar, it's covered by either his commanding officer sleeve or his gladiator armor. if mozar's tattoo has any connection to his ranking as a commander, it's possible trax has it, too. we just never get the chance to see it. pity.

the council

the council is a main indication that tattoos might be less a show of social status and more military or warrior specific, because none of the council members have visible tattoos (ignore mozar, he forgot to wear pink last wednesday idk why he's sitting with us). kind of helps me lean a bit more into my engineer theory from earlier.

prime leader (zanramon)

no visible tattoos. none whatsoever. pathetic. let's be real, he'd probably start crying before the needle even grazed his skin.

if you've made it to the end: thank you ONCE AGAIN for coming along with me on one of my dives into triceraton bullshittery. i'm sorry, i will do it again.

[wrinkly-walls]

The Woodsboro murders as a movie

A (probably unnecessarily long) meta post about how, in universe, the killings were thought of and concieved throught the lens of a movie rather that, well, serial killings (in MY OPINION). This is borderline incomprehensible but bare with me ok :)

DISCLAMER! Same as my last post, this is only taking into account what we're told in the first movie. I don't think that what they tried to do in Scream 3(by this I mean Roman, not the movie set which I do think is cool) is interesting and I prefer to mostly ignore it :) Ok that's all.

As we all know, one of the main reasons why Scream (1996) is such a great movie is it's meta aspect: the self awareness and self referential nature of the film, that works both as a horror movie and as a horror movie parody (accomplishing both things beautifully I may add), is what makes it stand apart. I don't think I need to explain why Scream "Do you like scary movies?" is very meta, so I won't.

What I want to get into is the movie inside of the movie, the movie that Billy and Stu thought they were making, and basically why I think that was the case (the fact that rather than simply being serial killers they created a narrative). By doing this I also want to try to explain why they failed in-universe and why it could've literally never worked the way they were thinking about it.

Let's get started!

So, first there is the why. Like why even would they do that, you know? We don't know whether everything was planned before they killed Maureen, or if after the fact they decided to keep going, but either way I think that it was always going to happen. By that I mean that, as I mentioned in my motives post (which you should check out ;) ), I don't think that murder in on itself was enough for Billy. As I said, I think that the feeling of regained control, of making everyone unwilling actors in his movie after his mother left, was even more important that the murder in itself. Something that I noticed on a recent rewatch that I had totally forgotten about is the scene where Sidney is in the bathroom and a cheerleader is talking about how she thinks that Sidney is actually the killer. The girl says something along the lines of "she felt so bad but she realized teen suicide is out this year and she decided that murder is a much more healthier form of expression". Ironically, I think that this kind of applies to what Billy went through mentally. Obviously, he didn't not kill himself because "teen suicide is out", but I do think that the notion of murder as expression, one that aligns with his interests (horror movies) is one that resonates with him. The way they do it, the murders are as much creation as they are destruction, you know? After his mom left, it's likely that he did what he could to cope with that fact, and in this case this would be to parallel himself with the many (many, like there's so many wtf) horror villans that don't have a mom, or otherwise have a complicated relationship with her (as Sid would put it, mommy issues).

With this we have Billy simultaniously embodying two figures of power in movies, on outside of the movie as writer and director; and one inside, as the unnatural unstoppable force of the slasher (I'm not even going to get into the slasher as a figure of power in slasher films because that's very long, but I recomend reading literaly any sort of analysis of gender in slasher because it's very cool). This is basically the biggest expression of power one can achieve: he both decides the "genre", what role people play; and literally who lives and dies. By being what are probably his role models both in and out of the screen, he manages to sucessfully be put back into a position where he feels comfortable.

To go off on a tangent, this is also why I feel that any analysis of Scream that doesn't consider the concept of Stuilly at all is missing some of the complexities of the characters, because while it is clear that by doing all of this Billy hopes to reclaim lost power, he also willingly decides to share this newfound power. Something that I love about Billy and Stu is that they aren't killers, they're slashers. Or more accurately, they're a slasher. And no matter what some people say on the internet (it makes me so fucking mad free my boy Stu he gets miscaracterized in all fucking directions) Billy also lets Stu be writer and director. We are explicitly told that Stu "though up the ending" (another way in which they themselves present their spree as a movie), an ending Billy himself praises, and if that doesn't say something about their relationship I don't know what does. Not to mention the literal stabbing. The only way I can really see the situation play out like this, by which I mean Billy deciding to share what the killings mean with someone else, is if there was affection of some kind. One could also say that it's just because he couldn't do it alone, or to having someone to take the fall; but that would also mean admitting to not being powerful, admitting that he alone cannot neither plan or go through with his movie, and that's a huge admission of weakness. All this to say they were gay.

Going back to the main thing, the narrative is not that of normal killings. As is established pretty clearly in the movies by the fact that Sid is the main character, the way the the killings are planned are also done with her very clearly at the center. The plot of Scream is that, a plot, one that is (at least at the start) not really that different from other slashers. You have a murder in the past, in this case the main character's mom; which establishes some stakes and just makes the character more interesting. Then, the new murders start, and at first it's just two people who don't really matter: they are killed, on a narrative level, just to start things up again, to get Sid (and the, for them imaginary, audience). After that, a violent attack, complete with taunts about Sid's mother; and then- the boyfriend! He gets arrested, Sid feels completely crazy, just to then be taunted again about how she gets innocent people in prison. Then the party happens (I skipped the bathroom scene because to me that was not them, it being them makes no sense to me), classic final act. And that's certainly a great movie plot, but it's a pretty stupid murder plot. It's way too complicated and risky, Billy could've not been released; and the party is way too ambitoius. To many things could (and actually do) go wrong.

Another important thing that I sorta already mentioned is the way they talk about it, both before and after the reveal. Before we have the scene at the video store, where they talk about "suspects", and they mess with Randy saying that according to movie logic (which he himself follows during the movie: he actually thinks in a very similar way to Billy and Stu), he could be the killer. Then there's Billys creepy-ass "it's all a movie", and I don't think that needs to be explained. And in the third act-well, it happens a lot with the "ending" and the virgin thing.

But again, as is said in the movie and I sort of said on my motives post, the way that it is a "movie" is not a "crazy" way. By this I mean that they absolutely knew what they were doing, and if they didn't do it like that they would've done it some other way. Billy himself says that "movies don't create psychos, movies make psychos more creative!". So the "artistic" side of the murders is just how the violent thoughs they surely had before manifested in this specific case, with this specific characters.

So, I've established that the murders are thought of like a movie, and why they would even do that (or why Billy would, as I said in my motives post Stu basically did it for funsies and 'cause he's in love, I don't think to him it was that deep. Though of course he still benefited from the control aspect, and maybe that paired with the murder of Casey and Steve...). Now what's left is why I think that this conception of what they were doing is actually the reason why they lost.

The main thing is obvious: in-universe, they are actually killing people with a movie plot. That is stupid behavior, because well, in real life things don't have "narratives". In real life it's not that you can't pick your genre, is that there are no genres to pick. In real life, there is no way you can control as many things as they were trying to (as they needed to for the plan to even work.)

One of those things, to me, is the fact that Dewey and Gale were not characters in their murder movie. Why would they be? They literally have nothing to do with the plot. They are outside the friend group, in a different age range, and if you narrated Scream from Billy and Stu's pov they would only appear at the end, and maybe as background characters before that. So when these two show up at the party, it's a real fucking problem. You can even see Stu a little bit after they show up, and for a second he doesn't look happy at all. We have no way to know how much they had to rework the "third act" to fit with this, but ultimately, it is because of Gale their plan fails. Gale, this random fucking reporter they see on TV sometimes.

There's also the "slasher immortality" thing. Stu himself talks about "the sequel", and in slasher franchises you basically have two ways to do that: either the slasher is the same, or the final girl is the same. The first is obviously much more common, and it's clearly what they were hoping for. The slasher can't die, so they can't die. (what they don't realize, and what makes the scream franchise sort of work even if I don't like where they took it, is that ghostface is the slasher, not the literal killers in each movie. By making their costume so obscuring of who's behind the mask, and giving ghostface a personality of their own, they are separating themselves from the slasher. You can have a sequel with different killers, because like the victims in so many slasher franchises, they are completely replaceable.)

Another reason they fail is very well known, and that's the goddamn stabbing. It's really the most stupid thing they could've done at that moment, but- knowing how things are structured for them, can we really blame them? I mean, they had to do it while Sid was alive, otherwise it wouldn't have been in "the movie". And according to the way they behave, they are so fucking sure they've won. They aren't worried at all, because in their narrative, this is the end. Everything that they accounted for is on it's place. Nothing can go wrong, right? It's a perfect ending.

And just the ending in general. As I said, the party is way too ambitious. Before that, we know they've killed four people successfully, but in all those cases they didn't have to really try that hard. Maureen was just one against the two of them, and she didn't expect it. They had total control of what happened. And the same happens with Casey and Steve: these people had no idea they could even be in danger, and there were few. Even Casey and Steve were taken care of separately. Same with the principal, and even later with Tatum. What they wanted to do with the party is, logistically, a huge jump in difficulty. But they think they can get away with it because that's how slashers work: of course there are higher stakes at the climax! It'll work out anyway, because that's what they wrote!

This overconfidence in their movie logic (ie the fact that Sid has to die because she's no longer a virgin) is what ultimately kills them, but it's not the only "movie thing" that does. Because when she ends them, Sid is literally dressed in their slasher costume, using the same lines they did before. She takes their movie and runs with it, but as she herself says, she doesn't like scary movies, so when Billy wakes up for one last scare she doesn't hesitate. She doesn't give a fuck about the so-called rules, or the narrative, or anything.

And that's why, in her movie, they fucking die.

[mdhwrites]

The Grimwalker as a concept was so weird. Mainly that Hunter was all 'ohhhh no we cant tell them im a spooky Grimwalker!' But... why would anyone care? The only reason given is that hes a reincarnation of a guy nobody even knows or cares about. Theres not even like, a spooky myth about Grimwalkers because its got such a vague ruleset and premise. He's barely different from a demon.

That COULD have linked to the demon discrimination plotline youve talked about, but there is none so it cant be that. Which i understand was partially because Dana wanted the gays to just exist, so she scrapped discrimination in general. But, a big part of forming cultures and identity is 'Otherness'. People compare themselves to others and define themselves by how theyre different. So scrapping discrimination ends up making the witchs and demons feel like nothing. They have nothing to compare their identity and culture against because theres just no conflict to spark comparison.

This lack of substance also means the fans don't care about Grimwalkers. See the moring comic where the Grimwalker was turned into ANOTHER way to say 'haha Boscha so cringe amirite? point and laugh because she has nobody who loves her.' even though the grimwalker is to reincarnate the dead.

OH MY GOD I'M SO HAPPY SOMEONE ELSE NOTICED THAT! *SCREAMS BLOODY MURDER* Like I know Mark just writes Boscha how the entire fandom sees her (which hasn't helped me enjoy A Hint of Blue, not that I think it's good regardless) but seriously what the fuck!? Why do that to her except just to be mean!?

*sighs* What were we talking about? OH RIGHT! Grimmwalkers.

So for why Hunter has anxiety, it actually is because TOH is doing a very basic clone/artificial human storyline with Hunter and those arcs are actually a lot more internally motivated than externally motivated. Clone lives a life believing they're their own person, then one day finds out they're not, perceives themselves as less because of this distinction but then in the end decides that regardless of their origin, they are their own person and so throw off their shackles, embrace who they are and become better for it. It has nothing to do with race and while it is baby's first clone story, I also still like it conceptually because, well, there's a reason why it's the default clone story. It especially is good for kid's media because while the clone can struggle with the anxiety of it, their friends never have to actually be bad or discriminatory against them because the point is loving yourself for who you are and not who you were made to be.

But I've talked before about how this basic framework actually has a Catch 22 built into it when it comes to Hunter... Which apparently Tumblr wants to tell me I've never done before. Thanks search function. The short version is that this template requires not only a rejection of what they were made for but for them to become distinctly different, usually opposite, to their purpose/original. For Hunter, he only knows Belos so this takes shape in trying to be the opposite of him. The problem is that the opposite of Belos... Is Caleb. Who Hunter mimics in every action he takes after getting away from Belos. There's literally no way to follow this template without adding complexities like him accepting his true origin and being okay/happy with that, something that was probably unlikely in general but especially wasn't going to happen with the shortening, which I will actually give people for. Because the Grimmwalker twist happens so late, they either had to cut it or had no time to actually do anything with it which like... Why not cut it? You did nothing with it and it actually made sure you didn't have the time to actually have Hunter reject Belos' morality so that his redemption doesn't come across as self serving and for survival more than an actual, you know, change to his beliefs.

As for how interesting Grimmwalkers are... They're just clones. Boilerplate, boring clones. Make a body based on another person, put memories in, BAM! Got yourself a clone. Doesn't get more classic than that. It's hardly even magical honestly besides the components, especially with how it actually doesn't give them magic despite those components, or have weird quirks since they're not actually made of flesh and blood, elements that the fans have had a lot of fun with that the show never does, though admittedly part of that is due to how late it happens. Then again, all magic in TOH is boring so it's not likely they would have anyways. Also, you know, a lot of shows will do a single clone episode and have more fun and magic to it than TOH does with one of their core cast members being one so *shrug*

Now, for the final part, I do want to also touch on the 'other' aspect because while discrimination is one way to do it, you can get this across in other ways. One such way is the core defining trait of the Grimmwalker from a tangible standpoint: He doesn't have magic. In a society that mostly has magic, him not having it is a big deal. It's literally what gives him and Willow their first connection as a couple, as insulting as that scene actually should be to Hunter.

And then Hunter is 'fixed' when he gains his magic. His 'other' status removed because he's a real boy now. *SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH*

I have so much more I could say about TOH and 'The Other' (made a blog about a lot of it between writing this draft and publish) but I'll leave it at that so it actually stays on topic instead of the half a dozen tangents I've deleted. None of this makes it good by the way and with how TOH tackles most subjects like this, it's incredibly unlikely that more time would have made it better. After all, being a Grimmwalker is only one of like a half dozen TANTALIZING character/arc concepts for Hunter that are never addressed. The fact that he is trained to kill witches and likely has. His relationship with the Isles because he doesn't have inherent magic. The fact that he is filled with such care for the nation and its government that it blocks out all else in his world. How a sheltered child reacts when they suddenly have freedom and are thrust into the wider world. Etc. etc. that are just footnotes to the writers more than anything to actually build a complete arc around or else they wouldn't have just keep adding to the angst bucket without actually resolving any of it.

So of course Grimmwalkers are bland while being a fine to good concept that's then made terrible by narrative implication or neglect. That's EVERYTHING to do with Hunter.

======+++++=====

Sidenote for this one: It is funny that Dana wanted there to be no bigotry in the Isles when her villains entire scheme is through religious persecution. You know, bigotry. Whole other blog I could go into.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

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And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[tmntkiseki]

I have finally watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (beware for OPINIONS)

And the tl;dr opinion: I am surprised by how much I liked it

Obviously, it wasn't as good as the first movie and I definitely have a few issues with it, the biggest one being that with the exception of Donatello, the turtles barely used their weapons. I know this was because people complained that the first movie was too violent, but C'MON, PEOPLE. If Leonardo has a pair of swords strapped to his back, he should be using them, damn it!

My other big issue is Casey being completely absent from the plot. I might have been forgiving towards this if they provided an explanation somewhere in the script (something like "His mother is not doing well and he needs to take care of her,") but he's just gone with no acknowledgement that he even exists and it is so jarring when he was such a prominent member of the cast in the first film. Subsequently, I'm extremely divided on Keno. I do really like him as a character, and I wouldn't mind if they brought him back in another iteration at some point, but he ultimately feels like a substitute for Casey that they didn't actually need.

But otherwise, most of my complaints range from minor nitpicks to stuff that I'm not necessarily sure is actually a problem. For instance, the turtle costumes don't look as good, but I feel like that's more to do with the brighter lighting rather than a genuine decline in the overall quality (the darker lighting of the first movie did a lot to hide the imperfections in the suits.) April being played by a different actress certainly is weird, but Paige Turco does a pretty acceptable job playing our intrepid reporter, even if I do still prefer Judith Hoag. The overuse of slapstick comedy is a little grating at times, but there were a lot of jokes that made me laugh so I can let it slide. You win some, you lose some.

The really interesting thing though is that unlike the final two seasons of the 2003 series, the tonal change didn't actually bother me all that much. I think it was because despite the tonal change, the turtles, for the most part, still felt very in character when compared to the first movie. In Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer, there were a number of lines that genuinely went into "He would not fucking say that" territory, but here? Yeah, it' still the same turtles from before, just a little bit goofier.

And now for a bulleted list of pretty much everything I liked or am at least accepting of.

Even if I'm sad that Leo, Raph, and Mikey barely use their weapons, the fight choreography for the movie was still fantastic.

I know that both Raphael and Donatello's voices were recast for this movie and in terms of Raphael, Laurie Faso does such a convincing impression of Josh Pais performance that you can barely tell that the actor was changed.

As for Donny, I actually like Adam Carl's voice for him better than Corey Feldman's (not sure if this is a controversial opinion or not, but that is how I feel)

Speaking of Donny, they did put more emphasis on him being the tech guy of the turtles. That was the only thing I found off about him in the first movie, so I'm glad about this.

Listen, I know Jordan Perry's character is basically a stand-in for Baxter Stockman and he might as well just have been Baxter Stockman, but there is something I just absolutely love about him and his dumb bow tie.

Tokka and Rahzar... not entirely sure how I feel about these two? I think I like their concept enough and for the sake of the movie's plot they were utilized reasonably well. I just wish they had more personality than "literal infants." (Also, I feel dumb. I've been pronouncing Rahzar's name as "Raah-zahr," but for most of the movie, it's pronounced like razor.)

Even though there aren't really any significant character arcs in this movie and thus very little character development for the turtles, I did really like the brief angst that Don and his brothers had after finding out their mutation was a complete accident.

Frikkin Super Shredder. His appearance was extremely brief, but I can understand why the concept has been revived so many times in the franchise since this movie because it is so cool.

Do genuinely love the movie's soundtrack. Who the hell is Vanilla Ice, though?

[bettsfic]

In reference to your recent ask. I know some writers, me included bare really scared to ingest media in the genres we are currently writing in, for fear of accidentally sounding like the stories we just consumed. Is studying different genres before drafting actually important, like you said books that have been doing well in the last ten years for that specific genre?

first, i think it's flawed logic to avoid reading your genre because you're afraid of copying someone else. unless you straight up take their words, the worst that will happen is that someone will be better than you or have a similar idea as you and you'll feel bad about it. but you need to know what's out there in order to make informed decisions in your own work, in the same way you have to do research to develop a thesis in an academic paper. just because a novel is creative writing doesn't mean you can write in a vacuum. all creativity exists in response to existing work; your work can only ever get better by reading what else is out there, because there's more stuff you can respond to. and if you do take from someone else, by the time your manuscript gets into the hand of agents and editors, anything you might have borrowed will have been distorted into something new or completely edited out.

but that's broadly speaking. while actively drafting something new, writing's relationship with reading is a complicated one. i think it's important to read in your genre between projects (at least), and once you have a full draft, that's when you might want to begin more in depth market research, because that will help you create your pitch. market research isn't reading for funsies, it's developing a familiarity with the greater industry of publishing. that means you may only read the first 25% of a book and then the last ten pages, and move on to the next thing. reading for research is a completely different skill than reading for fun. you take what you need and you move on. your genre, whatever it is, is smaller than it seems, and the more you know about it, the more real it becomes to you. eventually you'll walk into a book store, go to your genre's section, and one out of every twenty books is going to be by an author you've met, worked with, or befriended.

you may be interested in more than one genre, or writing cross-genre, and that's fine. actually, that narrows your work significantly. the world of literary or upmarket science fiction, for example, is far smaller than literary fiction and science fiction separately. it's also a much newer market. if you're writing some kind of experimental, highbrow post-apocalypse novel, your predecessors are the road, station eleven, and a handful of others.

it may seem overwhelming, but the key is to read what interests you and let it inspire your work. ideally what interests you is also what you write, but i know that's not always a 1:1 scenario. then when you're ready to start sending your work out, that's when it's most important to buckle down and see what else is out there, so you're not sending an MS out into the world thinking you've created something wholly original when your basic concept hit the bestseller list last year and that author already sold film rights. you need to be able to acknowledge that other text in your query or pitch and explain how your story is different.

[soullessjack]

so im on s5 of miraculous and i keep thinking about cat noirs whole “kept at a distance” arc bc it’s genuinely really interesting but gets so wasted by always winding up with him basically validating ladybugs nonsensical decisions and treatment—the same treatment that we were already shown upset him enough to destroy public properly about it. the most consistent reason LB ever gives cat about why he can’t be fully trusted or relied on is that he’s too much of a liability for their partnership to work—either because he’s too reckless, too in love with her, or his cataclysm would be too dangerous to use.

whatever it is, the baseline is that she thinks he’s a liability, and obviously that’s like salt in the wound for cat since he genuinely loves her and enjoys being partners with her, but it’s also just sad to see him continue to respect her decision and act like it isn’t a problem for him when he’s literally upset enough to physically lash out and use his powers to do so. and I know a lot of it can probably be explained by ladybug’s experience in the cat blanc timeline, but 1) she starts holding him at a distance way before that even happens, 2) she’s actively making it worse by not telling cat noir about cat blanc and why she thinks she has to exclude him for his own safety, and 3) SHE SHOULD HAVE TOLD HIM ABOUT CAT BLANC TO BEGIN WITH BECAUSE IT’S LITERALLY A WORLD ENDING SITUATION INVOLVING HIM DIRECTLY‼️‼️‼️‼️

instead she just allows him think he’s unwanted and unnecessary, calls the shots on how he should feel about “having more free time” and ironically makes him even more susceptible to being Akumatized because of it. ladybug might not be aware that cat is adrien and has a terrible home life he actively uses his miraculous to escape from, but she’s playing right into all the key aspects that adrien resents from his father; she decides what he wants without considering or asking him, she trusts him conditionally and still distances herself enough for him to just not know certain things. it’s done with good intentions, but it still clearly affects adrien very poorly, and it’s just such a frustrating glass-chewing miscommunication that only needlessly complicates the situation

don’t even get me started on Kuro Neko where ladybug falls head over heels for the changed version of her partner and narrowly avoiding her having to actually screw up and learn a lesson about accepting cat for who he actually is because catwalker is just “too perfect” for her to function—instead of being an obedient idealized version of her best friend who lets her be in control of everything (WHEN ADRIEN LITERALLY USES HIS DOUBLE LIFE TO HAVE THE CONTROL HE DOESN’T GET AT HOME).

theres so much potential for the base concept of the miraculous of destruction and its Kwami/holder being distrusted outliers among the rest of the Kwami/holders, but the magic system sucks and it kind of loses any chance when the other Kwamis are established to be catastrophic if they use their powers without a holder. and it gets even more confusing if you consider that Fu specifically chose adrien to hold that miraculous, but then encourages Marinette to keep her distance from him and barely acknowledges him as a hero in general. Like why did you even bother testing adrien for his worthiness or whatever if you obviously don’t think he’s worthy of knowing anything about you or the rest of the miraculous OR his best friend’s identity??? but you’re totally okay with her just giving them out to anyone in Paris who’s conveniently around and having her know their identity???? master fu when I catch you master fu

auugghhhfgg I don’t know the magic system thing could be its own separate post but likeeeeee I just think the miraculous of destruction whos constantly mistrusted for no reason and goes Kamehameha Krazy in another timeline is very special and could be treated so much better if the writers were good at their job and didn’t make every character’s sole purpose be validating ladybug/marinette even when she’s in the wrong