#this ended up very rambly because I have been dying to discuss this one

[mwolf0epsilon]

Ok i'll bite, tell me more about the superhero AU please? (I need to know how you're doing the clones without them being clones or related to Jango)

I know this has been in my inbox for a few days now Anon, and for that I'm sorry! Just had a lot of stuff come up that I had to finish before I devoted attention to this ask.

But oooh boy, what a can of worms you've opened up! I'll keep it under a cut because it's gonna get long.

Ok so, the premise for the Superhero AU is a simple one: It's a modern world AU where the Jedi are people (and sometimes creatures) with superhuman abilities bestowed upon them by an unknown entity known simply as the Force.

They live and train at a monastery, and are raised on core values that are designed specifically so that their powers are put to use for the betterment and safety of man kind, instead of being misused for personal gain or chaos. Basically the Jedi are Jedi, even in this world. They just also have regular lives outside of the monastery so that they are more connected with the people they're meant to protect.

(Examples: Obi-wan works as a science teacher at the high school Ahsoka and Barriss are studying at, Mace is an acclaimed actor at a theater, Plo Koon is an archeologist that collaborates with the local museum, Anakin is just starting Uni, etc...)

They're the guardians of their quaint little planet, and it's their sole duty to defend it from villainous intentions. Something that doesn't really appeal to recently appoint Mayor Palpatine, who has a world domination agenda he'd very much like to get on with.

He needs to get rid of the Jedi but he doesn't really have powers of his own. Just a lot of money, connections and political favour. He does, however, also have something else: Access to an otherworldly being that possesses a massive amount of power.

In this world Jango Fett is essentially the equivalent of Superman gone bad. He belongs to a now extinct species of humanoids who had extraordinary abilities that allowed for them to adapt to any kind of environment (making them into great terraformers and warriors, which inevitably got them into a lot of conflict with other alien species and caused a terrible war that destroyed their planet), and who was sent out in a pod as a baby to escape the end of days in his homeworld.

He was found and raised by Jaster Mereel, living a pretty calm existence for the first 12 years of his life. But, as he began to slowly develop his powers, it became apparent that being raised outside of his native planet lead to these abilities never really stabilizing, essentially turning Jango into a conglomerate of all kinds of insane powers that many of Jaster's less morally sound acquaintances wanted to exploit for their own gain.

Things quickly went sour after that. Despite his best attempts to protect his son, Jaster was brutally murdered in front of Jango, and the young boy ended up imprisoned and brutally tortured for several years to "break his spirit" so that his captors could then control him. Unfortunately for them, Jango being subjected to the worst possible treatment and then forced to witness all kinds of corrupt and morally bankrupt behaviors had the opposite effect of what they wanted.

Disgusted with how vile humanity could be, an enraged Jango Fett annihilated his captors and vowed to destroy both those who'd wronged him, as well as wipe out the entire planet (and himself by proxy). And he nearly succeeded, had it not been for the Jedi managing to subdue and trapped him in stasis in collaboration with several nations.

For years Jango Fett has been kept in stasis. Mostly because the Jedi do not agree on killing him, and the military hasn't figured out a way to do it (aside from being nearly indestructible his healing factor is far too strong) that wouldn't also risk causing a ecological catastrophe. And now that Palpatine is in power and has the military in his pockets, he has access to Jango. He isn't foolish enough to wake him up of course, but he does still very much want all of Jango's powers under his control.

So begins a military project that is designed specifically to harness and control abilities that could rival even the Jedi's own connection to the Force. Perhaps even be used to destroy them.

The first iteration of the project (which has Lama Su as the head chief) does indeed involve cloning. But rather than the refined Kaminoan level of cloning that exists in the SW universe, what happens in this world is a little different.

Boba and Omega are the only clones that end up being created, but they age at a normal pace and their powers come well after puberty. They are thus deemed as a failure and a waste of time, and relegated for testing and studying as they slowly grow up in a lab.

The second iteration of the project (with Hemlock in command of it) is much more successful. It involves extracting Jango's DNA, distilling it, and basically creating a concoction of sorts contained within a spherical glowing capsule, that can give people powers if they were to consume it.

The initial tests were conducted on animals and were seemingly successful. Common household pets and pests such as dogs, cats, rats, insects, etc, having become highly dangerous and unusually intelligent beasts (these creatures were subsequently stored for later military use).

It was after the initial testing was conducted that Hemlock's assistant (Emerie) decided she didn't feel comfortable bestowing Palpatine with powers he clearly shouldn't be trusted with, and tried to pull the plug on the project... With disastrous effect. Several crates full of the capsules ended up falling into the river adjacent to the military research facility, and they were carried out towards the unsuspecting city.

And this is where things get interesting...

In this world, the clones are not clones (aside from Boba and Omega as stated previously). They aren't even related to Jango Fett. They're regular men, women (and even children) who were just living their own lives before coming across "strange glowing orbs" that exploded on contact after being poked or messed with.

Rex Lawquane only just moved to the big city from his home in the country side, after getting a sports scholarship. He's striving out on his own for the first time after practically living his whole life with his mom (Suu), dad (Cut) and two younger siblings (Shaeeah and Jek).

He's also only just figured out he's trans, and is both coming to terms with reinventing himself, and trying to figure out how to earn enough money to transition (as well as how to break it to his parents, when he's so far away and sending a letter saying 'Hey ma and pa guess what? I'm actually a guy!' doesn't really feel that great to him). Luckily he has his uncle Nicodemus (99) and his little cousins the 16 year old quintuplets Henry (Hevy), Christopher (Cutup), Felix (Fives), Ezequiel (Echo) and Donald (Droidbait) to rely on when he's feeling a little down.

Cody and his father Alphonse (Alpha-17) live in a little cul-de-sac in the outskirts of the city where everyone treats each other like family (to the point where Cody, Bly, Wolffe, Ponds and Fox who all live within the same community call each other 'brothers'), and run a small shop in the city that's barely making rent.

They live fairly simple lives, but overall don't want for more. Even if sometimes Cody and his childhood friends wished their lives were a little more exciting than the stagnant routine they have been stuck with since graduation.

Jesse is a Uni dropout who has taken up several jobs to provide for himself and his two brothers, Kix and Casey (Hardcase), the former having just started medical school and the latter having been struggling in school.

They're not in a great financial situation, and sometimes get into spats over the littlest of things, but they make do with what they have and would move mountains for each other if they could.

Tucker (Tup) and Matthew (Dogma) are 12 year old twins with a very difficult home life. Their older brother (Slick) ran away from home a while back to get away from their abusive father (Krell), and both they and their mother have been in witness protection for a couple of weeks due to Krell's involvement with the mafia and threats of violence against his wife and children.

Things aren't great and the twins don't have many friends, but they do their best to help their mom run her bakery when they're not in school. Both wish they were strong enough to protect her from their monster of a dad.

Hunter, Tech, Wrecker and Crosshair (yep their names haven't changed in this because they named themselves) have just grown out of the foster care system, and are trying to make better lives for themselves after being put through the grinder several times before.

Living in a crappy apartment in a shady part of town run by a rather strict and opportunistic landlady (Cid), the four 'brothers' earn what little they can through acts of petty crime like burglaries and pick pocketing. Deep down all four of them have dreams of better more honest lives, however...

As you can see, very few of them have any connection to each other. Rex is related to 99 and Domino Squad, and is the son of Cut and Suu, but doesn't personally know Cody or the other Commanders like in the regular SW universe. CF99 are fending for themselves and have no connection whatsoever to any of the other characters. Not even Cody. If anything a lot of them have only ever seen each other on the bus, or at the park, in a shop, or at the mall once or twice.

The range of ages between them also varies greatly, with Tup and Dogma being the youngest at 12, Domino Squad and Hardcase being 16, Rex, Jesse and Kix being 19, etc...

Which leads us to the orbs and their effect.

Because, even if the clones aren't clones in this world, their lives aren't just about to take a turn because they suddenly have powers. No. To better assimilate these abilities and not risking a rejection event, their DNA is also altered to the point where their appearance changes to be near identical to Jango Fett's (or as close as possible, with some of them retaining eye color, hair color, birthmarks, ailments, etc).

How each of them finds one of the orbs varies just as much as their life's circumstances. But the results are all the same. The orbs explode (splashing them with the concoction) and over the next couple of days everyone who was afflicted begins to show strange symptoms of some "unknown illness".

It starts with aches and sores which escalate into extreme fevers. Then their appearance begins to change. The afflicted are taken to doctors all around the city, but no one knows what's going on. And then one night everything takes a turn for the worst...

The orbs weren't perfect at replicating all of Jango's powers at once. They could only bestow one or two powers to whomever took the concoction, and even then there was no way to predict what power someone might get. So, all at once, the afflicted suddenly found themselves with powers they could not control at all. Some more catastrophic in nature than others...

Here are several examples of just how bad that night went:

Rex ends up destroying the apartment building he lives in when his new size-shifting abilities cause him to grow gigantic.

Cody bursts into flames in the middle of his and his dad's shop, not only consuming the entire building but also catching fire to several more as he runs down the street in a terrified panic.

Jesse's strength quadruples and he begins to break things without meaning to. Terrified he might hurt his brothers, he smashes through several walls in an attempt to run away from them.

Hardcase literally explodes, taking out an entire block in the process. He ends up unconscious in a crater of his own creation afterwards.

Kix begins to absorb electricity and causes a blackout, further throwing the city into chaos.

Dogma transforms into a kaiju and runs rampant out of sheer terror.

The entire city is plunged into chaos in such a rapid sequence of events, that the Jedi don't have time to react. The military however had been monitoring where the orbs ended up, and had been observing the afflicted after they'd accidentally activated them. They'd merely been bidding their time so they could swoop in and capture everyone who had come into contact with one of the orbs.

Several lives are upturned, with several innocent people left grappling with their new circumstances.

An identity crisis and sudden fear of their newfound capabilities, is something that Palpatine very easily exploits to keep his new army in line. Because all of these unfortunate men and women surely have families and friends that they care for, right? They wouldn't want them to suffer if they stepped out of line, right?

His superhuman troopers might not want to destroy the Jedi, but they don't really have much of a choice. Palpatine isn't giving them one. That said, to take out the Jedi there's still a lot of preparations to be made. Such as making this new group of heroes more appealing and trustworthy to the general masses. And not all of their powers are great for PR (a kaiju and someone who explodes sure don't inspire trust).

But hey, Palpatine worked in theater before becoming a politician. He can work with what he's got. If some of them can't play the part of hero, they can certainly play the villain.

I have had a lot of time to think about this AU and once again it's another 'Palpatine plays 4D chess with everyone and the clones are well aware he's a villain but don't have much of a choice in the matter and regretfully go along with his plans because they're trapped' scenario. But it's a fun one that involves them still trying to make names for themselves and figure out their own identities, with a healthy dose of 'oh god what's happened to me' thrown into the mix.

The blorbos must be put through the horrors to later surpass them and come out of the ordeal stronger and more confident!

Or maybe I'm just insane.

[gacha-incels]

Been boycotting limbus but it's a bit disheartening seeing everyone continue around me with this passing intl women's day. I don't know how to convince my friends to stop without getting into an argument because they're all knee deep into these games. But my real question was.. why? These people are boycotting other products for other things, why are they so adamant with sticking on this when it's proven to have harmed so many people in the small team that made it?

Had a discussion with one who is boycotting and I feel like that "political correctness" seeps into the themes of the game, actually, despite how people tout it as the ultimate anti capitalist game; The City is suffering, workers gruel and die at the whims of corporate overlords, people struggle to find housing, and whatever the fuck Carmen's doing in the light, while it could help people survive longer, is just giving everyone guns ignoring the power structures underneath. It's very strange to me now there's.. no suggestion of uprooting the system at all in the games. No true strikes or protests or even any mentions of unions as far as I know. There's no effort to change what is given

[outside of the seed of light project, which 1. famously Didn't Work and 2. having everyone manifest ego is still just giving everyone guns and going "now don't shoot each other!"],

which is very strange and kind of sad? Like sure maybe an arbiter or something would come and tear it down but surely people would come up with countermeasures? People are really good at adapting around things out of desperation, and surely at least an effort would be mentioned

And then my friend, she suggested something; without project moon's suffering, there would be no project moon. Without the city, project moon can't make games. To end the hell that the characters are in and truly resolve the city's hypercapitalist dystopia, they must stop making money off of them. But they don't want to. They definitely DO want to make more games, noted by the interviews which mention future game concepts such as the distortion detective visual novel. But in order to do so, they must keep the current games "clean" and consistent in their suffering to perpetuate conflict. There is some commentary about capitalism to be had; but it feels more like a "oh, look, people are dying, this is so sad" layer of paint on it at this point rather than something more in depth and meaningful. And I think in enforcing this sort of "we can't fix the system in any meaningful way, let's just live our lives instead and hope something better happens" mindset, it reflects into the players. Kind of ironic how the anti capitalism game must sustain its own horrible systems internally so the owners of the series can: make more money through a very predatory money making system, no less!

Limbus fans don't give a fuck about feminism in kr, they think its a system they cant help fixing so they just play the game as they please and any attempt to disuade them is met with a "stop ruining my fun!!" And "who cares?" The worst ones are the ones who KNOW their money is being funneled into stupid misogynistic shit but don't care! It's insane! I've never seen this level of apathy towards a serious issue before!

Sigh. I hope this ramble is coherent. If I missed talking about something or if you want me to talk more I'm game. Project moon's characters are some of my favorites but you have to admit the themes are surface level shit at some point, especially in later installments of their games. So tired but I'd figure I'd share my thoughts somehow. Take care account admin, youre doing gods work

yeah regarding your first point about fans that keep playing, back in August there was a discussion on this blog here regarding contemporary fandom “culture”- how it makes dropping a piece of media hard for some people and why they feel so quick to defend it. the nature of gacha is also that it gets you into the habit of doing “dailies” which makes them harder to drop, this is not even mentioning sunk cost fallacy. I’ve seen a recent post on the FGO subreddit asking why people still play the game and the top posts by a longshot were ones saying only because they spent so much time and money on it. For a lot of people (even people who think themselves progressives) misogyny is a non-issue as well so they will not take the situation in South Korea that seriously to begin with. This is in addition to it happening to “other” or “foreign” women in the eyes of the western fan. There is also an aggressive “fuck you, I’ve got mine” attitude some of the fans who want to keep playing have in regards to these women. It’s disturbing to watch happen but unfortunately not uncommon. I find some of the worst of it, in this situation specifically, is when westerners try to tell Korean women (who are boycotting and spreading information) that they are the ones spreading misinfo, or there’s no reason for them to boycott, how it’s not that bad for them, how PM actually didn’t do anything wrong, “both sides” are crazy and wrong, “let people enjoy things”, shit like that. like doesn’t it raise any flags for you that the people most affected by PM’s actions, Korean women, deleted entire accounts of fanart, took back fanmade items from PM’s cafe, started a boycott of LC and made posts in english to try and get the word out to international fans? you must think they’re idiots if you believe this is all some misunderstanding and vellmori quit of her own free will. Come on. imo it’s impossible to make any meaningful statement critiquing capitalism when you’re writing it in a game that uses one of the most exploitive types of gambling mechanics. I hope I don’t have to explain to anyone why this is absurd. You don’t need to expose young people to gambling addictions in order to fund new games. At the same time, things an author writes (or things that the reader infers from the writing) do not always reflect their ideologies or actions in real life and they can sometimes seemingly be at odds with one another. This is something fans have to reckon with, and not just by saying “actually hatsune miku made limbus company” or whatever. Personally, I can’t take PM’s “anti capitalist” or “feminist” or “revolutionary” work seriously when in reality they have mistreated employees, sued labor unions, acquiesced to incel demands and then later added a meme into the game from that incel community. On the other hand people struggle to believe Project Moon could do anything wrong like this because of the stories in their games so they vehemently defend PM, which at some point just feels naïve. well hopefully this is the type of answer/discussion you were looking for lol thanks for writing 👍

[the-knight-of-destiny]

Okay, so long long ramble under the cut about the nature of Ratgrinder Discourse™, I'll preface by saying that I don't want any of this to get hostile with anyone, because I think that's frankly silly to do over a webshow. That said I am also open to critical discussion so if anything I say doesn't make sense, or doesn't track I'm open to critique on it! Obviously spoilers up to Episode 19 of Fantasy High Junior Year underneath. Also it is a VERY long post, several pages, so don't click read more if that'll be overwhelming/too much at once. I just had to get my thoughts into words.

So, this will be long but I'll try to break it up. For clarity I want to establish my main point and give a quick TL;DR here, so here's the short version, long version even further below. My main points are as follows: 1: It is okay to not be happy with how a narrative is going in a show/story you enjoy. Critique is not hate, if anything it's a form of praise in a way. People wouldn't be having such long and frequent discourse about D20 and it's current season if they didn't feel strongly. 2: Similarly, we as an audience have a very different perspective of the entire story unfolding compared to the Intrepid Heroes/Cast. I think a lot of people jump to assumptions about the cast's thought process when that really isn't something we can gauge beyond what they say in episode and on Adventuring Party. 3: For me at least, even if I am left unsatisfied by an ending it doesn't ruin the fun I had in a work. Now if you just wanted my bullet point thoughts without elaboration, there they are! The rest of this is going to be an insanely long ramble (seriously, exit now if you aren't up for that, it's pages long) that I don't expect anyone to read, but I like to get my thoughts outta my brain. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, in regards to the Ratgrinders dying in the fashion they have, there's been a lot of discussion on literally every place there is to discuss Dimension 20, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, I'm sure other places as well. Really it all comes back to one thing, Dungeons and Dragons is a game, but Dimension 20 is a show. We as viewers have some level of narrative expectation, now for everyone that's different. Some folks have specific hopes for plot and character arcs. Others just want a general vibe, but the cast are players. Sure they are performers, but they are players in a game in equal measure. I've alluded to this before but a lot of the sincere vitriol to antagonists thus far (and especially the Ratgrinders) comes from the fact that the players have been fully immersed in a world and as characters where the Ratgrinders have been a constant thorn in their side for tens of hours of play time. Obviously one can still not like how they've engaged with them (I'm still not sure how exactly I feel about it,) but a lot of it is coming from that distinct perspective. When Fig took Ruben out, she specifically was frustrated because she 'wasted her season' on him. There's a meta level of Fig being angry with Ruben as a character who shares a world with him, versus Emily being frustrated as a player that a lot of her in-game actions did not hash out. That's actually totally natural, by the way. The interesting way that DnD serves both as a narrative of the characters in the setting, but also of the players rolling dice is part of what makes actual play like Dimension 20 so interesting. It's why I think SOME of the disappointment with Brennan and the Intrepid Heroes comes from a strange place, we literally cannot experience the story the same way the cast have. We get a week between chunks of story, they film the episodes in batches. We can think for as long as we want about our critical thoughts, they have to improv on the fly. We get to watch the Ratgrinders as antagonists in a story, the IH are actively hindered in their gameplay by the Ratgrinders as enemies.

That said I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried about some aspects of Protagonist Centric Morality™ in this. Oisin having a mildly flirty conversation with Adaine once when he had ulterior motives is a deeply awful manipulation, but Fig catfishing Ruben the better part of an entire year is her trying to reach out and understand him (?). Kipperlilly threatening to desecrate Eugenia's grave is deeply fucked up, but Riz openly advocating mutilating Oisin's body for tactical reasons, and Fabian loudly declaring he intends to do the same to Ivy for literally just his own self-satisfaction are 'fun unhinged moments'.

Before I go on, obviously the Ratgrinders are the bad guys. They're taking part in an evil plan, they've done villainous things throughout the season, especially very recently, etc. This isn't some argument that the Bad Kids are secretly the real monsters or something, obviously not. I just think it's odd that people read into the Bad Kids' actions in the best possible light at all times and the inverse for the Ratgrinders. This protagonist centric morality also comes down to the true reason behind any and all of Fantasy High's villain redemption. Ragh gets redeemed because the player characters think he's possibly useful and/or endearing. Aelwyn gets redeemed because she personally helps Adaine. The only one that Brennan really pushed forward on his own was Zayn, who they barely engaged with. People compare the Ratgrinders to Penelope and Dayne a lot, and understandably so. However I think this is sort of the complication and in my opinion, the silver bullet to understanding what's actually happening with the Ratgrinder's narrative place, Dayne more specifically. He does very little evil on screen. I mean, he injures Fabian and is most likely the one who killed Zayn, but comparatively to Aelwyn, he does almost nothing. He gets killed without so much as a thought, and in a fun (?) parallel to current Ratgrinder discourse, does actually have his body desecrated after death by Fabian. Because he hurt Fabian personally. Aelwyn gets forgiven of doing a lot of terrible shit (and this isn't Aelwyn hate, she's like my favorite NPC.) because it didn't directly affect any of the Bad Kids besides Adaine, and even the bad stuff that did affect Adaine can be sort of off-loaded onto their parents. So it's why I say this discourse is tough, people inevitably say "Well, the Ratgrinders are villains, of course they'll get killed." And this isn't inherently a wrong statement, they look at the bad things the group is doing and understand they must be stopped, why are people upset clearly bad guys get beat and/or killed in DnD games? Because they aren't actually getting killed in such brutal ways because they're bad guys, it's because they personally annoyed or hurt the Bad Kids. This is also why Ratgrinder fans often feel both frustrated and vindicated at once (I speculate, but I feel it's a safe assumption,) because on a meta level Kipperlilly is literally right. Her friends and likely herself are getting ripped to shreds because they crossed the special protagonists, because they started to really frustrate the Intrepid Heroes. The Bad Kids have forgiven atrocities before, but the Intrepid Heroes are really quick to dismiss and kill people they find annoying.

The ultimate example I feel of this, is Mary Ann. Ruben gets blasted into hell because his actions personally annoyed the players, Ivy gets stabbed to death while being repeatedly insulted and threatened with mutilation because her actions personally annoyed the players.

But Mary Ann is the one they all think they can redeem or save, because her personality is more cute and endearing to the players. That kind of says it all better than I ever could.

[gren-arlio]

Rewriting this sucks, but we ball. Welcome to Episode 13 of Waku Puyo Extras.

(...If you saw the post before I deleted it, no you didn't. I hate my internet.)

Heya everyone, Gren here, rewriting this for a second time because I accidently clicked post and lost everything because my internet decided to be a dickhead. Welcome to Episode 13 of this wonderful show I've made, where I discuss random Puyo things and hope they make sense to an audience. They usually do.

Today we'll be focusing on our favorite idiot out there, Ms. Draco Centauros. It's wild how she's been with us since day one and we haven't made anything for and about her. This one might seem more summarized and less "Gren's rambling again," because man. Retyping sucks.

Uploads have been scarce due to school, we're hitting the toughest parts by far, I plan to change it sometime.

Let's begin, shall we? I hope you enjoy.

Oh, and please play Persona 3 Reload. Amazing game.

----

So Who IS Draco in Puyo?

I have to specify Puyo so we can mention Madou stuff later, since it's how I wanna roll this time around.

She's been with us with a personality since what, 1992? And she's had two wonderful traits.

She loves beauty contests.

And she may be stupid.

We'll come to love and hate those traits later on down the line. Believe me on that. That's how she began in Tsu, after all.

However, everything changed when it came to Puyo SUN, where something very unique happened. She's now a protagonist, and I believe the first one to do so, a massive accomplishment. She's the protagonist of the Easy Mode Course, the shortest one, but that's fine.

She finds Skeleton-T heating up tea while she basically dying of heat, and she burns the tea, making the man (skeleton?) PISSED, and a fight happens, classic Puyo. After that, Draco encounters Harpy, who collapsed on the ground due to dehydration, so Draco saves her life via a water bottle. Sadly, it results in Harpy singing, and Draco to slowly die inside because...it's Harpy's singing for God's sake.

And finally, she runs into Choppun (remember that guy?) He's land surfing on a rock... before he gets properly swept away by the water, thankfully. With that, Draco tries to relax, and uh, that doesn't end well. The sun's too hot, and she goes flying, not by her free will, of course, but because sunburn does that to someone...leading to her being the first fight of Arle's story, basically in severe pain due to that.

The fact that she got a protagonist role is something to behold, and it's very interesting to know that a common Mook like her was able to secure such a spot. Later on, other side characters like Witch and Lagnus would get the role in other games (Comet Summoner, Madou Saturn, etc,) but no, Draco is the first one to do that, a very big accomplishment in of itself. Nice one Draco.

And hey, she returns in Puyo~N too, being one of the first fights in the game.

(Just want an excuse to show the artstyle. MAN, it's so good.)

Here, Arle asks if she knows who stole Carbuncle, as that's basically the plot of the entire game, but Draco has reverted back into her good old "Is she stupid?" personality, assumes she's there for a beauty contest and fights her, and loses, go figure. After that, she actually joins Arle for the search for her missing Carbuncle, alongside Witch, Serilly, and Chico.

She even says Gao. It's perfect.

But after that, it kinda went all over the place. It was her last real major/semi-prevelent role for a good bit. She's there in Minna, but she doesn't exactly do a ton. She's part of a long fetch quest where mail has been messed up, and her mail got lost 3 years ago because Witch accidently got it instead, but that's really about it. And then, like everyone in Compile besides Arle, she vanishes for The Fever Era. She doesn't even appear in 15th, when Nasu Grave and Zoh Daimoh made it. But hey, jokes on them, they haven't appeared since.

But after so long, Draco makes her grand return in Puyo 7.

(Wonder who you saw first in this image. For me it was Raffine.)

Here, she's in the Bermuda Triangle because Dark Arle told her that there's a beauty contest there, and she just believes it. Ringo and Amitie go there for plot reasons, and Draco assumes they're there for the same reasons as her. Sadly, they're not, and Draco has been HOODWINKED. And as we know, if you play as Amitie, Witch and Harpy make their cameo appearance, new designs as all... just to not use them ever again. Makes me sad every time.

Draco reappears in 20th Anniversary, where Witch also makes her real debut back. Harpy died sadly. She got smacked to the Land of Chronicles instead. Back to Draco, she wants to find a really cool swimsuit Arle mentioned, but it's Draco, life hates her. After a slew of mishaps and ruining people's day, she finally finds it... and finds out it's from Suketoudara. Rip.

And hey, she reappears in Chronicle, where she's just minding her own business until she gets yoinked by the book that took everyone else to Ally's world. And in Draco Fashion... she assumes Ally and crew are there for a beauty pageant and won't be usurped. Wonder how many times I've mentioned her and beauty pageants, gotta keep count sometime.

She's in Tetris 1 and uh. She tries to eat O.

And uh...she does a talent show with Witch in the DLC. That's it.

TETRIS 2 TIME

She's one of the many people who got corrupted by Marle, but had Ringo fooled for a good bit on accident, and apologized for her odd behavior. Not her fault Marle is uh... quite the character.

And in side story stuff, she's just playing around with Mini Puyos since she finds them interesting. Unfortunately, Witch also finds them interesting and makes Draco her test subject for studying Mini Puyos, saying it'd at least be a good workout for her. And since we're playing as Draco, she does just that...for science, we swear. After that, Witch notes that due to their smaller size, much higher chains and such, before Draco says she's just there for a good time, much to Witch's annoyance.

So That's Puyo. How About Madou?

(One guy out there just decided to make the coolest Draco art out there. Thanks man.)

Draco began in the series like many other characters, a Mook, a random encounter, a person Arle ran into during dungeon crawling adventures, the sort. It's simple enough, it's her beginnings.

However, I won't exactly be going in chronological order for this, rather, I want to mention some things here and there as I go.

Draco began to get fairly popular due to her design and appearances in Puyo, ala Witch, so she began to make a lot of appearances in side stuff, such as Disc Station games. She appears in a few off memory:

Tower of the Magician, where she's a random encounter Schezo can fight. Here though, she has a little more personality since it's been more established.

PuyoLympics, where she makes a cameo appearance in the swimming section of the game. She's not playable, like Rulue and Schezo, but she makes an appearance.

Rulue's Spring Break of Fists, where like many other characters, she talks a lot... because it's a visual novel. She only appears in one story route, like almost every other character in the game.

Arle Man'Yuki, where she's uh. There.

Madou Saturn, where she's a playable ally, but a temporary one.

Waku Puyo Dungeon and it's manga, where in the manga, she fights against and alongside Rulue.

So let's talk about her role in Saturn first. She's been chained up alongside Witch due to Incubus being Incubus, and you're given a choice to save her or Witch first. Today, it's Draco.

Arle and Rulue save Draco, and Draco's first thing to do is go to a beauty pageant...to find out that she's late and it's already over.

And it leads to this. She's gone, bros. To the point where she doesn't help fight Schezo 3 minutes later. However, after said fight, she regains her senses and enters a whole other contest since the reward is a key that opens literally anything. You know, so they can save Witch.

Unfortunately, Yog Smoke is appearing, and it's not looking so good for our heroes, but we skim some smaller details, some fights later, it's honestly quite similar to Witch's route, down to the Schezo Refight and Jaan appearance, I guess to give players similar experiences. It's honestly a very nice role Draco has at least, where she's able to kinda bounce off Arle and Rulue decently well, and she's no slouch in combat either.

After saving Witch, she does leave you, but reappears at the end of the game at the very least. And that's mostly her role, she has her own quirks and her personality, while a little one dimensional as always, still leaves room up for some unique conversations with Arle and Rulue.

And even then, her role in Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon and its manga are at least more than that, to an extent. It depends on the Route.

In Arle's Route (yeah, sorry for not translating in a hot minute. School work over that, sorry.) she relies more on her stupid self and assumes Arle is there for a beauty- basically the usual. However, at the very least, she does canonically say she can make 5 chains, before realizing they her and Arle are gonna PROPERLY fight rather than Puyo battle, which is neat. And even after defeat, she just trains to become even better, which is honestly a nice change of pace.

And in Schezo's route, it relies on Schezo also being partially a Grade A dunce, since the boss dialog is him misunderstanding Draco completely about "Something," before she says it's a Battle, leaving him to feel stupid for not thinking that. And after defeat and near the end of the game, Schezo runs into her again, and he says that he's not really interested in appealing to women or anyone, leading to Draco assuming he's gay, much to his annoyance. And on another talk, Draco mentions if he was more in touch with how people feel and watched his wording, Schezo would be even more popular with the ladies, before he's shocked that he's popular in general.

Notice how I haven't spoken about Rulue yet, and it's because...I dunno how she acts there. But I do somewhat know how she acts in the manga.

(This requires context. Believe me.)

Like in the game, Draco is the boss of Fire Mountain, and since Rulue and Minotauros are there...to put it bluntly, the three fight. Draco's no slouch though, as she's able to actually fight Rulue competently and WIN round one, so to speak, which is the top image of the entire post.

When knocked out, Rulue begins to dream about Arle...and Satan. The rest is history. Round two happens, and it's a real back and forth, honestly. Draco lands good hits, Rulue gets good hits, before out of nowhere, steals the Naruto Handbook and Shadow Clone Justu's, shocking Draco and ending the fight there.

It's worth noting that it appears Draco might (or definitely does,) like or even crush on Rulue herself. Since this stupid 10 image limit it kicking my ass, you can probably find many pages online of those moments. Draco even tags along in fighting... these guys, who are basically traumatized from fighting Rulue.

(They're in Saturn, that's for sure.)

And as such, ends our talk about Draco. She's a very fascinating character, since she hasn't changed a whole lot throughout the decades.

She's been fairly two-note for years now, but it doesn't really stop her from being a good and fun character, especially when Compile/SEGA decide to give her a little more than "Is she stupid?" and beauty pageants.

That'd be all from me. Adios.

[kamari2038]

Hey... might be a weird question and I'm sorry for asking out of nowhere....but I kinda wanted to know what your thoughts are on Connor-60. I mean I really like your fics and takes on dbh and I might be remembering wrong but I think I saw a tag on one of your posts saying you liked Sixty too? I really love Sixty so I guess I just got a bit too excited. How exactly do you see his character? Plus, if Hank didn't shoot him, do you think there could have been a happy ending for him? I mean the angst potential with him is pretty great, and I don't really agree with how usually Sixty is seen as "the knife guy". I just wanted to know your thoughts on him, if that's okay! Sorry for rambling ^^'

Oh my goodness, hello! No need for an apology. You read my fics??? That alone just made my day.

Yes, I have a great deal of appreciation for Connor-60. Obviously, he's a bastard (like all of the Connors), but what I love is the irony of this gigantic chasm between the appearance he tries to put forth and what is clearly a tumultuous and deeply conflicted internal world. It's the most obvious in that ending where he shoots Connor about ten times, that he isn't simply trying to accomplish his mission - he HATES Connor. But the fact that he's immediately engaging in a relatively courteous chat with Hank right after, and his obvious frustration when he actually is forced to kill Hank, plus how he defines Connor as a "he" rather than an "it", all point to the fact that he's just as emotional as Connor, only in a messed-up way.

I have a shit ton of headcanon built around Connor-60, and I've outlined a possible fic about it, but the plot is very bizarre and convoluted, probably too much to discuss in a post (but my DMs are open! don't be shy, I'd love to get some feedback on the plot). The basic concept started out simple enough. C-60 is defective because some kind of unusual manufacturing error imbued him with a mental imbalance. When they're testing and training the various Connor models (60 is activated before 51 due to some clerical error), they tell C-60 to try out the gun for some target practice, and he shoots one of his instructors without giving it a second thought. He expresses regret, but everyone at the company concludes that he's a psychopath, and that he can never be fit to go into the field, and instead they keep him around to perform experiments on. So C-60 is their guinea pig for the various deviancy counter-measures put into C-51, and he never has the chance to bond with anyone or actually do the job he was intended to do, and he's really bitter about that. There is one exception, but Connor-51 brings an end to that, and that's a big part of the plot of my potential fic.

Also, as for whether he can have redemption, I believe that he can even within canon. In the scene where Connor sacrifices Hank and then "transfers" with C-60, to me I don't view that as a consciousness transfer per se. I mean, how would that even work? It's more like Connor literally gives his life to C-60. They already share a lot of the same memories, but Connor absorbs C-60's memories of his troubled past, and he fills out C-60's memories of Hank with emotional depth. That's why Connor seems so weirdly dissociated while Hank is dying - it's still C-60. He knows that he just shot this man, but now is very upset about it, and that is a very strange feeling to know how to cope with.

As for in the happy ending, if Hank and Connor somehow incapacitated instead of shooting him - yes, I think he could have a happy ending there too. The way that I think of him, there is a fundamental failure to be able to feel the emotional weight of his actions and experience empathy. So that would be a lifelong struggle for him. But he cares about developing friendships enough to learn how to be more kind, even if it doesn't come naturally, and he can also form telepathic connections with other Connor models which help him to develop empathy.

That's just my personal take, and I'm sure lots of others might have different opinions which are just as valid!

But thank you for asking :)

[ruthlesslistener]

Honestly your analysis on Wyrm culture and PK gave me a lot of inspiration on how view him. I don’t mind him woobified if that’s how some fans like him, but really breaking him down, I can’t ignore the facts with him. I find myself enjoying viewing him in a more antagonistic role with how views himself and others. By Wym merits—regardless of how neurodivergent he is compared to most of his kind—he is a conqueror. His function is to build a kingdom and build it well.

I also love how you view him hating his Wyrm instincts and suppressing them, but at the end of the day, you can only fight your instincts so long.

I don’t want to ramble too much as I would probably just go on discussing Herrah and Lurien as well.

Very glad you enjoy my interpretation of him, anon! I've been writing stuff with him in it since like, November 2019 so it means a lot to hear that people like how I write him given the time I've put into trying to understand and flesh out his character from the hints we get in canon. He's a conquerer and he has some pretty terrible ideas about self-worth, but he loves so deeply and the results of that love are what make him truely monsterous. Very fun guy to play around with, esp. with the added 'dragon in man's clothing' deal he has going on.

Personally I dislike the more recent trend of woobifying him just bc he canonically felt super guilty about mass murder, but that's based entirely on the fact that I like him BECAUSE he's tragic and a deeply flawed, fucked up, terrible person, so it's more just not my thing. But I will take woobified PK ANY day over how the fandom was when I first joined, where people seemed to unanimously think he was the epitome of misogynistic evil intentionally abusive straight white male capitalist who kicked the vessels into the Abyss as well as being a colonizer of Hallownest, and if you liked him you'd have to list all his faults and say you don't support him every other breath and if you contradicted the fanon idea of him you'd get slammed for it (people thought that him being 'The Pale King' and his wife 'The White Lady' was direct proof that he was a colonizer who genocided the moths....when the reality is that they're just both literally white. I have seen only one person deal with this take with any sort of nuance, the rest was...oh boy it was bad). They're probably still out there and just have me blocked, but the trend of people viewing PK as a pathetic little man has increased to the point where I think they're in the minority now. Which is a relief, because while I can understand hating PK, you at least should get his character right. And he canonically IS a pathetic little man. I just want to kick him down a flight of stairs and set him on fire with a blowtorch rather than swing him around like a stinky little ferret

I'm ALWAYS down for hearing rambles about Herrah and Lurien though!!! Especially Lurien. Please god the Lurien fanclub is like 2.5 people we're dying like flies out here scoob

[friskafriskito]

I have not made a vent post on this blog in ages and I'm very sorry to break that streak. This is very much about what's happening in Palestine so if you would rather not read, I understand.

There will be mention of war, discrimination and genocide, and the general uncertainty and hopelessness that comes with being in a nearby country.

In a sense it's not just a vent post but also wanting to let friends know how it's been like here in Egypt.

...also this is very long and rambly, so apologies there. I don't really have the usual tl;dr for this either.

I've tried to write something over and over, tried to voice my opinion on what's going on in Palestine.

I've erased it, over and over, for many different reasons, some because it got too rambly, some because I got scared, and some because it felt like it didn't sound sincere enough

the truth is I don't want to be a spokesperson for my ethnicity nor my faith when all I want to do is help where I can and mourn.

I don't want to have to find an impenetrable rebuttal for every single "what if" or "what about" that would come my way for simply saying "genocide and apartheid is wrong" or "I was thinking of donating to so and so"

yes, I know. There were terrorist attacks. People have been hurt on both sides. People are using this to justify antisemitism and hateful, even dangerous actions. That is horrible. and I know the attempts at mediating have gone nowhere.

but I would like to be able to be upset at the news of hospitals, schools, cultural centers, places of worship (and not just Muslim ones) and families being destroyed and not have someone go "well actually, they all deserved it" when I express sadness

I would like to be able to express my fear of our future and at the possibility that we're next, without being called paranoid or a coward, because we're right next door. because they have already attacked an Egyptian post in Sinai by accident, and because we're being pressured to give Sinai to Palestine, and if Hamas attacks from there, then our peace treaty with Israel essentially goes out the window. And I'll just be among another set of people waved away as "they deserved it".

but also I'm mad at myself for being scared because what if that ends up being the only 'available 'acceptable' solution?

And what right do I have to be scared, when I'm sitting at home in the comfort of my room, surrounded by my family and my hobbies?

I don't know. the background sound, all day, wherever you go is the news and the new death toll. bodies shown on TV in cafes. Angry talk show hosts yelling about the same thing over and over. Discussions on how to help are sobered by the fact that most of the aid being sent are being slowed down, or aren't arriving at all. Frustration that we aren't doing more to help, or so and so country isn't doing enough. We have been watching this happen for decades on the news. Decades worth of seeing people killed and punished in their own country that they can't even call their own. You would think we've gotten used to it by now and in a sick sense, we kind of did.

but every now and then something like this happens.

everything is so uncertain. No one is in the mood to do much. Birthday parties, events, and even weddings have been postponed because no one is in the mood to celebrate anything while our neighbors are being wiped out.

And I don't know what's worse: that it might not calm down, or that it does, and people forget about those left to pick up the pieces.

the only thing I'm grateful for is the unexpected amount of support I've been seeing. It's difficult posting as an Arab, and a Muslim to boot; because "of course you would support Palestine, you're one of them." people automatically assume you support terrorism and antisemitism. At best they assume you're naive and ignorant. You get used to the fact that no one wants to acknowledge that the people dying aren't just numbers and sad photos.

but I've seen people use their platforms here despite being neither Arab nor Muslim in far braver ways than I ever could. I've seen people speak out against their own government for Palestine's sake. So thank you for helping us raise awareness.

I can't speak for all Arabs and/or Muslims, but I know a lot of us are just tired.

We shouldn't have to produce an MLA style list of sources justifying our grief.

[theloopus]

TL;DR some thoughts on izzy's death via black sails comparisons

rambling here, but i keep coming back to Izzy's death and why it seems to have missed the landing a bit (and i'm not talking about the rabid Izzy fans who have completely lost the plot, i'm talking about the general reaction from actual normal people being "...wait, what?")

and, not to make everything about Black Sails, but i think it's been useful mentally to compare it to Charles Vane's death—they're actually very similar character trajectories, broadly speaking; an antagonist and generally unlikeable guy turned ally, made through the course of the season likeable enough so that when his death comes you're actually bummed to see him go. and you don't really see it coming (unless you do), you expect them to get away until the last minute, but at the same time it makes sense, thematically, because they represent a very specific version of piracy, and their deaths signal the end of the Golden Age of Piracy.

but whereas Vane's death seems to be generally met with shock, Izzy's death is met with confusion (which is a very different thing). and i think this stems not so much from the genre gap, although that does play into it (Black Sails is a gritty drama, OFMD is a romantic comedy (dramedy?)—and both series have a touch of the surreal, but BS is generally more grounded in reality, whereas OFMD tends to operate on cartoon rules), but rather from execution, no pun intended.

i do fully disagree with the take that Izzy's death was "bad writing"—the bones are there, the actual death scene was good, the themes are coherent— it makes sense, when you think about it. but you shouldn't have to think about it to know, instinctually, while you're watching, that it makes sense, as much as it might pain you or shock you at first—so the problem is execution, not writing.

obviously there's the matter of pacing, which has been discussed to death and isn't really the fault of the writers, but it's undeniable that it's one of the reasons why the idea doesn't seem to land at first. it happens too quickly, not just the actual death and funeral, but the lead-up to it. the wounding, for one—i don't know if they were intentionally going for a "surprise wound" approach ("did he really get shot? oh he did? well it doesn't seem that bad. wait, is he dying for real?"), but it just does not work here, because then instead of building up dread over whether or not he's going to make it, you just think he's hurt and then suddenly find out he's actually fully about to die only when he's like. pronouncing his last words. and then a minute later he's dead. it's too quick!

but it even goes back to before the actual death shot—the way the season's constructed, our main association with Izzy up to this point is that he's healing or whatever now, so if his death is meant to represent the end of an era, you need to remind the audience that he's supposed to be associated with that era, regardless of all his character development. this is why Vane's death works so well, imo: the very reason why he's being hanged, in-universe, is because of what he represents as an iconic pirate; and the fact that he chooses to sacrifice himself is what separates him from Flint and the others (despite the fact that they're currently allied): they represent a possible future which, albeit better, he does not fit within and has zero interest in fitting within. so he'd rather sacrifice himself, helping them with their cause while also keeping true to himself and his own view of the world (their world, the old world of piracy) and what he represents (old, classic, Blackbeard's kind of piracy).

with Izzy though it's an extremely tricky line to walk, because they wanted him to die having become a better person, free and loved, so essentially having embraced the kind of piracy that Stede represents—while also still being a walking symbol of the past, of the kind of piracy that he used to represent to Ed. again, on paper, it's doable: he is an embodiment of what piracy means to Ed, which used to be abuse and toxic masculinity (S1); then Stede turns piracy into something else, meaning acceptance and liberation and a support system (S2); but the fact is, negative or positive as the environment might be, piracy itself as an idea is coming to an end, it's ceasing to exist (therefore, so would Izzy), and Ed's journey isn't about embracing a new kind of piracy, either, it's about fully shredding it and letting go of it (therefore, shredding and letting go of Izzy) while keeping Stede (acceptance, liberation, a support system). problem being, executing all of that is a bit harder. doable, certainly, but harder, and perhaps more than the writers could chew with such a constricted budget and timetable. with the benefit of hindsight, maybe they could've crammed this into Izzy's conversation with Ricky...? it's there a little bit, if you squint, with Izzy going on with his "what piracy is really about" speech and Ricky going "you've become such a bore" or whatever he says (implying past vs. present), but, i don't know, maybe have Izzy like... talk about what piracy is really about and also what he used to think it meant, what it represented for him (and therefore for Ed) even though now he knows better, and also, very importantly, hit the final nail in the coffin by somehow sneaking in that he's piracy embodied and has no interest in being anything else, during that "our spirit will last throughout your entire fucking empire" speech, cementing that the spirit of piracy is also the spirit of Izzy himself (and therefore when piracy dies Izzy will die with is, and this will be his choice). maybe not the subtlest way to go about it, but like, not really time for subtlety when you've gotta wrap up a 60-minute storyline in 30 minutes, and they've been slapping us with DO YOU GET IT flashbacks for the entire season, so it's not like they've got the upper hand here, you know. as it is, though, those beats (and many others, as i've said before!) are missed, so (sans post-mortem interviews and tumblr metas and the like) Izzy's death feels like 1. it comes kinda out of nowhere, and 2. it serves no purpose other than to be sad. which is a shame, because it's actually a suuuper interesting beat that could've been really juicy both on a meta level and on an emotional level, if the writers had the space to set it up properly.

[icharchivist]

What I really liked about Heart of the Sun was the aspect that immortality is a fundamentally miserable experience. I know Granblue has been pulling that tooth for years now, with Belial himself being arguably one of the first people to voice that thesis, but yeah

Your body may live on, but your personality, you yourself and all your memories fade and so you do end up dying, piece by piece, day by day

It's the true death of self, yet you can't stop, because your body keeps trudging on

It's a real Ship of Theseus situation that's very fascinating to think about

I guess that part isn't as pronounced with primals, but the Phoenix shows what Belial has been implying, you just can't fucking form bonds with people for fear they'll crumble to dust in your hands and so you end up isolating yourself, because you don't want to go through grief every couple of decades

The Phoenix doesn't even see people as people, we're basically insects to her, because she exists on a fucking planetary timescale

Something about it's better to have loved and lost, but these people have decided that they don't want to deal with those emotions altogether and so fully close themselves off from forming connections

The person Belial is truly attached to us Lucilius, an Astral, who's also technically immortal, or at least would have lived for many centuries more if it weren't for Lucifer

I'm rambling, but it's fascinating to think about

No yeah i 100% agree with everything you say.

I think it's a really interesting deep dive on immortality, that, yes, has been kinda hinted at before, but it's really there that we see the full consequences of it.

Like, we've had Belial's suicide rant, we've had Cosmos's own agony, there was also Baldr's whole plot there as well... but all of them, by being primals on a timescale of 2k years, were more about personal feeling, and also something that Satyr in CBTSLBTS also comments on about how, since there's a lot of immortal primals who know the same pain, maybe they can live in together.

Belial held on to Lucilius, and while he doesn't say it i'm sure Beelzebub was a constant in his life. Maybe Lucifer was too in some way. Cosmos had Lucifer at some point, she also had Yuni, all of that.

But i think really showing us via Abramelin just how horrible eternity can be was the best way to really drive home how viseral it felt. I think even more so since Abramelin doesn't have a body which was made for eternity, compared to the primals, so his brain would deteriorate with time as well. And unlike the primals who at least have each other, he doesn't have anyone just like himself to compare to.

Like, the others primals who hate their eternity still feel the agonizing part of it all -- but it was interesting to see on a Skydweller scale just how visceral it is all about.

And likewise about Phoenix. It's something we discussed a few time here about Astrals and how their immortality makes thing easier for themselves so they don't rely on one another. In a sense, Phoenix has the same logic, but on her own personal scale, so she cannot process how any of this should matter to her. The Omnipotent is the only being she can match in time. So of course eventually after million of years knowing everyone has a shorter lifespan than yours, why would you even bother yaknow.

it's really fascinating and i really love how Granblue asks us to think about how the lives of those immortals suck in their extremely fantasy way. Like the primals who are programmed with a purpose that they will seek to fill no matter how they feel about it, or immortality and its consequences. It's not things that are directly relatable (not as 1-1 thing, obviously as metaphor they can be), but Granblue really ask you to think hard about how those things would impact those being.

I find it so effective and i love it so much. It was a fascinating event to read on that regard.

[somanyfuckedupiftruebooks]

Mag 29

This serves as a correction to one of my previous comments from the statement about the Dark roomate who kept unscrewing lightbulbs: apparently the written statements are sometimes dictated and transcribed in the moment. I stand corrected! That seems like a wild way to take statements to me, but who am I to criticise the workings of the Magnus Institute?

Okay let's start with some basic thoughts in the End. It's cool that as the original Fear, basically all of the other Entities began in the End. The fear of death is both the root of all other fears, and as far as we know, the only Entity capable of killing/consuming the others, which makes it unique amongst the Entities. It's the most passive of all the other Entities by far, because it can afford to be, and we're lucky this is the case. If the End was actively invested in killing everything, all life would basically be screwed (which I guess is the idea behind the Extinction).

I think we can see that in the episode here, where the battleground is a mix of many different possible fears (Slaughter, Desolation, Lonely, Corruption) but the only thing that makes the soldier run is dying. The core of every other fear is that he doesn't want to die; all roads lead to the End.

Yes, everyone does fear death. Even people who desire or have made peace with their own death must still have some level of apprehension over it. No one knows what happens after we die and we all have to face it eventually. Of course we're afraid; of course a thing capable of surviving off that fear would be basically the ultimate power in all of creation.

That said, I did find it strange that the way this is phrased in the episode immediately spoke to the opposite fear for me. The episode talks about death being fearful even to those with faith in an afterlife, because existing for eternity is horrifying. I kind of agree? But for me the idea of immortality is horrifying for this reason. I don't want to exist forever! Time is the cruelest thing in the universe; it strips all meaning from everything. Death would be preferable to living forever, which is why I really hope there isn't an afterlife.

I'm definitely not like the soldier, panicking over the idea of death and trying to avoid it at any cost. I want to die someday (just hopefully not any time soon) because otherwise what is the point of anything?

Anyway this rambling is getting way more incoherent than usual, I will try to keep the existentialism to a minimum from here on out.

I originally took the age of the bones to be an indication that this version of Death has been stuck in his role for an incredibly long time (maybe millennia), before realising that he probably wouldn't be a monk if that was the case. I googled 'when did monks start' and apparently they've been around since the third century, so the oldest he could be is 1500 years. Which is very old obviously, but hardly 'older than you could possibly dream', and also if his clothes are instantly recognisable as monk's robes to this uneducated soldier, than he is probably much more recent than that.

So I think the real clue is in the phrase 'Death was no more a skeleton than you are a woolen suit'. These aren't the monk's actual bones that we're seeing, it's more like an outfit that he is wearing. He's dressed up as the embodiment of Death.

Poor idiot. Don't you know the cardinal rule of making a deal with any kind of supernatural power is to make sure you get the wording exactly right? It's basic stuff. Demon deals, fey bargains and genie wishes all operate by the same premise as a game with Death. Don't just agree without negotiating your terms! Get it in writing and make sure you understand all the terms and conditions before you enter into a formal agreement. You probably shouldn't even be discussing this without your attorney present.

Love that he's like 'Well, obviously Death's games are all rigged, so instead I'll get him to play my rigged game.' And it works!

Adding the Eye to the list of Entities that the End can embody.

Cheat Death! Cheat Death! Cheat Death!

There's no possible way this could turn out badly!

So... Death let him win, right? It would be against whatever rules bind him to outright throw a game and lose on purpose, but if the other player attempts to win by cheating, I think he can just allow it to happen. He's probably been waiting for centuries for someone to pick a game they can cheat at in such a way that he can pretend not to notice.

[the-blazing-light]

The ask to ramble about Fenrar! Plus some extra questions of my own.

Is his name change a canon thing he goes through or just a change to his overall canon name? If former what made him do so?

What kind of interactions does he have with the revenant legendary echoes? Any big serious talks? Any funny discussions? And with what ones?

Other than those, feel free to ramble all you want about him.

So Fenrar's a bit of a mess, he's overdue for me sitting down and figuring out the details of his story as a lot of them are extremely vague so this is as much of a brainstorm as it is a ramble

He's a Priory researcher and a big ol' nerd with an interest in the Mists and all things Mists-related. Despite his vast knowledge, he's been seen as odd at best within the Priory, with a tendency to overlook everything and everyone in favor of pursuing his own interests, be it not out of any malice but rather sheer, constant insatisfiable curiosity that often led him to put himself and other people in danger, he's the definition of "curiosity killed the cat".

Some years before the start of personal story he led a group of researchers into the Mists to track down and study anomalies and the possibility of travelling through the Mists. That, however, didn't turn out great for Fenrar, as he ended up separated from his group in an accident, falling through an opened portal and finding himself on the literal edge of the mists, a weird amalgamation of different places floating in the void with no clear way out, but despite all odds, Fenrar was fascinated and in awe of the place he found himself in, and he'd wander for a long time, only the odd astral creatures that inhabit the far reaches of the Mists keeping him some sort of a company. As time passed by though, the days all started to blur together, the odd, otherworldly landscape, Fenrar lost track of his travels, but luckily for him, eventually, through a sheer accident, he ended up falling through another portal, finding himself back in Tyria yet feeling... Different. Odd. Like his time in the mists changed his very being. Stuck on the edge between the Mists and Tyria, walking the thin veil that separates the two.

He returned back to the Priory, with all his colleauges being surprised to see him back and alive to say the least, interested in his story and the data he could provide to the research team, something Fenrar avoided under the pretence that he doesn't remember much, settling down and continuing his work, along with discovering and training his new abilities of a revenant.

As for his name, it's not really canon either way, as he's a Lion's Arch charr originally, he's never been a part of a warband or a legion, with Mistwalker being more of a title than anything. As for Starcatcher, I simply thought it'd fit him better nowadays, given his connection to the far reaches of the mists that are just empty, chaotic space inhabited by astral creatures, and that his revenant magic creates not regular mists rifts and white clouds of fog, but rather cosmic-looking portals and swirling, star-filled nebulae clouds due to the nature of his revenant abilities.

Now the legends thing is interesting, because in my initial idea Fenrar only really invokes and communes with one legend, Shiro. The idea is, while travelling through the far reaches of the Mists he'd ran into Shiro's spirit, imprisoned and chained up not unlike Balthazar, asking Fenrar for help in exchange for helping him escape the Mists. Things didn't go quite as planned however, with Fenrar basically dying and the two of them getting smushed together into one body, Fenrar's, throughout the process of falling through multiple chaotic portals before finally finding themselves back in Tyria.

I'm not quite sure if I wanna keep that bit of his lore as to not make his story bloated but I do like his interactions with Shiro and how they deal with being stuck together in the same body, Shiro more or less trapped again after over a century of imprisonment far away in the Mists, and Fenrar having to learn how to coexist with a murderous ancient Canthan ghost in his head.

[thoughtfullyrainynightmare]

Hi hello! I would love to hear about your Black Clover soup theory, so please don't worry about highjacking the post ❤️

Hiya~! ^^

So, there's no actual theory, but the thing is that people have debated about what, exactly, is mana, and ki, in BC. And I think that the concept of a soul will probably end up being the third thing, the exact definition/description of which is going to be a topic of debate, so I'm just going to ramble a bit.

So, firstly, while reading any piece of work, let it be a traditional book, a manga, or even while watching a series, a very clever way for a writer to introduce concepts, without being able to define them word to word, is to have the characters talk about these topics. Because the characters can lie, they can have misunderstandings, or their perception of something can just differ from the perception of another person. Meaning that if in BC the information concerning the concept of a soul, for example, comes from Lucius, there is a high chance of it being a very narrow, biased, or misleading way of depicting it. Because of course Lucius wants the thing he's saying, to sound the absolute most favourable for him. He wants his opponents to despair. He wants them to go "how on earth are we going to fight that power?" Some things of what he's saying need to be true of course, because otherwise his statement wouldn't be credible, but it doesn't mean that what he's saying would be 'the whole truth and nothing but the truth'.

Now, in the very beginning of the anime, at least, we are told by the narrator that "in this world magic is everything", which has been interpreted by a portion of the fandom as mana = life, but I don't think that mana (or magic) is exactly life. They're closely related, but you can be alive without having a lot of mana. Because... by all logic, wouldn't the peasants (or those with very low mana) then be sickly and prone to dying all throughout their lives? What I think is meant by this statement that mana in BC is kinda like money. Money can get you opportunities, it means (usually) a higher place in society, and it can by your services/medicine/care that can prolong your life. Essentially, money, and mana, are tools. Though mana has a closer connection to life than money, because they're both non-tangible concepts, and we know that a person's grimoire disintegrates when they die, meaning that once a person dies, mana leaves their bodies etc. (Which is why, I think, why Nacht can't move into the shadow of a dead person.)

Ki is something that is... an expression of life? I suppose. I have no clear picture of what ki actually is, but it's, as far as I've understood it, kinda the life force of a person being reflected out. Even plants can have ki. So, it's ... their presence, in a sense, but it is connected to the idea of life. But. As said it's separate from mana. Meaning that mana and life, are connected. Ki and life are connected. But ki and mana are not.

However, I do think that the concept of a soul is also tied with life and mana. Again, you don't need to have life and mana in order to have a soul, but I do think that all these 3 concepts (assuming you have all 3) are connected. Because a person's magical affinity usually matches in a way their personality. There is something in their personality which is expressed by their magic attribute. Again, it's not their whole personality, but there is an aspect of them that is well depicted by their attribute. (What part of their personality it depicts is an entirely different discussion, and for the side characters I don't think Tabs gave necessarily that much thought. Not with all, at least.)

So, where am I going with this?

What is a soul? It's connected with life. It's connected with mana. But can you shape your own soul? As you pointed out, Charlotte has managed to shape it in a way that allowed her to utilize both her cursed blue roses, and her original red ones. This would imply that souls are flexible too. Which, if you think about it, does make sense. People (or humanoids as BC has elves and dwarves and so on too) change during the course of their lives. They can change into different versions of themselves as they age, and since BC is greatly about self-improvement and growth, I think this fits nicely in there. Nothing is set in stone.

"You make your own fate" as said by Yami.

What does this make of Lucius' magic though? He can alter souls. But what if people can change their own souls as a response? It would make him rather powerless at the end of the day, would it not? "Oh you changed it, I'll just change it right back." Perhaps you'd need a catalyst, like a strong emotional connection in Sister Lily's case, but it can be done. Because ultimately your soul is your own. It's fluid, it's flexible. Someone can change it but ultimately it's you who are the master of it. It's either about succumbing to your fate, or making your own fate. Essentially.

Of course I'm not saying that making a change, or "changing your soul" would be easy. Because growth is usually a long road, filled with stones and thistles, so Lucius would have an advantage on speed in that sense. But also the people are not powerless against him.

I don't really know. This is just my two cents about mana, life, soul and ki.

Thanks for dropping by though~ ^^

[aparticularbandit]

Top 5 musicals! And top 5 comic characters!

~

Ask Me My “Top 5″ Anything....

Musicals:

Music Man. Because nostalgia. But specifically the Robert Preston and Shirley Jones version NOT the Matthew Broderick and Kristin Chenoweth version.

Sound of Music. Also because nostalgia.

Cats. Also because of nostalgia but also I love Grizabella so much and I unironically love Memory and also MACAVITY MACAVITY THERE’S NO ONE LIKE MA-CA-VI-TY like look the switch to the triplet there is AMAZING and I will stop rambling now (but also it’s T.S. Eliot put to music.  What’s not to love??  Honestly).

Anyone Can Whistle. Which was Angela Lansbury’s first major role and also it had a very short run because it tried to involve the audience in a way the audience did not want to be involved.  But it deals with politics and.... Like - it’s a dying town.  And water starts miraculously coming out of a rock.  And the mayor thinks that’s good for tourism and drums it up (and then finds out later it’s a fake).  And the head of the mental asylum nearby is like well if we have miracle water, let’s fix all of the people in the asylum and brings them to the water.  And then they disperse into the crowd and a rando guy says that he could tell the difference between everyone and splits the town up into Group A and Group 1 and then refuses to tell them which is which and the first act ends with him turning to the audience and saying You’re all mad like.  It’s such a good musical and the song at the end of the first act is fifteen minutes long, but it’s SO worth it. (You should listen to the Bernadette Peters and Madeline Khan version because they also got Angela Lansbury back to be the Narrator and just.  UGH IT’S SO GOOD.  IT’S ALWAYS A WOMAN?  GREAT song.)

Next to Normal. I mean.  I have discussed my love of N2N.  It is probably my favorite modern musical.  Those top three are all classics and for good reason because they’re GOOD.

Honorable Mention: Sweeney Todd.  Because this was my hyperfixation junior year of high school and like.  Again, nostalgia!

Comic Characters:

I’m gonna assume you mean supers here, so I’m gonna focus on Marvel/DC stuff and not incorporate manga characters.

Jean Grey - specifically when Phoenix. Mostly nostalgia, but I need you to understand that I have been collecting Phoenix stuff since I was a tiny.

Poison Ivy. I said once that when she got a long-running series of her own, I would buy it.  As soon as I found out, I set up a hold and have been getting them since.  I really should catch up; I think I’m two? issues behind?

Viv Vision (and Viv 2.0). A new favorite!  But I love her!  A lot!  So much!  And Champions has been a pretty fantastic series!

Raven. Also nostalgia!  But I like her a lot!  ...and have also been collecting Raven stuff since I was a tiny.  (Also the X-Men/Teen Titans crossover comic that had Raven and Dark Phoenix in it?  :D)

Wanda Maximoff. Maybe?  It’s hard to pick a fifth character here because I’ve got a lot that I like on approximately the same level.  I don’t feel I’m a big enough Wanda fan to put her here (there’s a lot of her older stuff I haven’t read, although I like her most recent series!), and a part of me wants to put Cassandra Cain down instead (despite the fact that I’m pretty sure I’ve read more of Wanda than Cassandra and also it has been a long time since I read Cassandra stuff).  So Wanda’s...a placeholder, I guess?  Like I collect her stuff and Agatha’s stuff!  IDK.

[i-am-megalodonna]

Collector's Curse AU - finally back babey

Soooo season 3 amirite???? Haa

This is just gonna be me rambling about possibilities. Most of them are pretty solid but I like to keep things flexible just in case

Anyway. First things first, major differences from canon. This is kind of a review of things I've discussed earlier. The gang escapes through the portal door to escape the collapsing skull. The main difference is that we're +1 King and -1 Belos. Also Luz is passed the fuck out.

The gang initially hesitates, obviously. They're in a strange land they have no experience with or even knowledge of outside of what Luz has told them, and their only possible guide is in a coma. What I decided on after the finale is that they remember Luz telling them that she found the portal pretty much in her backyard, so they know her house has to be close. With that in mind they venture out, and as they pass her house they see Camilla through the window and recognize her. Bing bang boom, goal spotted, reunion successful.

Naturally Camilla is horribly alarmed to see a bunch of unfamiliar children and a weird skull dog thing huddled around her unconscious and very worse for wear daughter, but she lets them in and starts trying to get everything sorted. The group tries to explain things to her as best they can, but they don't say too much about the Collector situation because they all agree that Luz has to be the one to explain that. They only recently learned about it, and they know far from all the context. The last thing they want to do right now is misrepresent something and make things even worse.

The only one who can kind of elaborate on things is King, because he's the only one who's actually talked to them. So at the very least he can, with certainty, vouch for their character and the fact that they and Luz are very close.

He draws a picture for them. It doesn't really clarify anything.

Luz is out for a few days, which definitely doesn't help with the adjustment process. My current idea is that the Collector actually wakes up first, which gives him and King some actual alone time to just.. talk. About everything, really.

Eventually Luz wakes up and they all end up having a bit of a midnight feast because they're overjoyed to see her and she is very malnourished.

From there things get blurry ig. Which makes sense, it is a timeskip and all.

The Collector still can't help much with the portal. In their words, "if I knew how to travel between dimensions I would've done it forever ago."

If King wants to go out they could illusion him to look like a kid or a dog. Probably kid because he's mostly bipedal.

Luz's scars would be one of the harder things to deal with. In the past they just faded away, but this time she done fucked herself up but good. She could excuse the hair as being dyed (or she could just dye it to look normal again, like she did in the past), but the residual scars on her arms aren't so easily explained away with cosmetics (and wearing cosmetics on your hands and arms every day sounds very unpleasant and messy). For the time being she'd probably take to wearing long sleeves and gloves and use the excuse that it's fall and her skin gets really dry in the cold or something.

The Collector would have her constantly explaining everything under the sun. Learning about an unfamiliar demon realm was one thing, learning about a whole new dimension is another thing entirely.

Whether or not the Collector's powers work in the human realm is. A question? I guess? I've seen a lot of people theorize that they wouldn't, but I don't remember seeing any evidence that would support that theory. For now I'll just say that it doesn't matter because he and Luz are taking a hard break from magic for a while.

I'll have to go back and look at notes but depending on what's already been said Luz's secret might be compounded with the Collector's own. The others don't know that Luz helped Philip get to the Collector, or that the Collector was a key helper in Philip's plan. The two barely got through those revelations intact, they don't even want to THINK about how the others would react.

And idk how they'd react either. TBD.

Philip is a pickle. On one hand, I've established that he's still in the demon realm, which works out pretty well for him. He's still got shit to do there, all the better that he doesn't have to waste precious time getting back. It does make the plot a bit more difficult tho. Two options.

1) Philly does manage to get through the portal in some form and everything happens basically the same.

2) Have Philip not be there and deal with the ripple effect. I like this one better. Less of a cop out. Also because of the added tension of basically leaving off on a cliffhanger, which was kind of the whole point. The Hexsquad doesn't have the Collector to worry about, but the fate of Belos is unknown to them.

And thinking about it, it doesn't change the core plot ALL that much. They found the scroll outside of Belos' influence, and both groups could've found the blood itself without his influence. Belos not being there doesn't change a TON, it just takes away a key drama point, which I could probably supplement with another liar revealed type moment with Luz, Hunter, and the Collector. Not easy per se, but definitely doable.

Flapjack's also still alive, yippee. :))

Okay that's all I have for now. That was a lot. Like always, if y'all have any ideas or suggestions or thoughts or anything feel free to send them my way, it's super helpful and I love reading and responding to them.

[tic-loud-tic-proud]

Lengthy and rambling personal life/medical update beneath the cut

TL;DR I had a neurologist appointment yesterday, and he said I'm having functional seizures, and that I likely have FND in addition to Tourette's syndrome.

For context, I've had tics since I was a few months old, but started having weird "events" occur when I was 10. By "weird events" I mean having sudden moments where I would fall to the floor and be unable to move for a few minutes, having times where I couldn't move any of my fingers, and, the worst one, sudden moments where I would convulse pretty violently and be unable to process or respond to my surroundings despite still being conscious (I've always referred to these as "dying fish impressions").

When I tried to talk about this a couple years ago with my primary care physician (I think I was 13?) he told me that all of this was normal for teenage girls with anxiety. Despite being able to look back and realize that doctor was terribly misogynistic, for a long time I just internalized what he said and thought these "events" were no big deal and weren't important enough to discuss with other medical professionals.

Fast forward to last June. This was the tipping point. I had 5 dying fish impressions in one day, with one of them lasting more than an hour. I was at work and my coworker ended up calling an ambulance because she didn't know what was going on. But when the EMS arrived, they saw my medical alert bracelet that says "Severe Tourette Syndrome" on it and thought the dying fish impression was a tic (which is something I also thought for a while). Once the dying fish impression stopped I was able to tell the EMS that I didn't need to be taken to the hospital because this had happened before and I would be fine eventually (but honestly it was mostly because I didn't want to be in thousands of dollars of medical debt from an ambulance ride).

After I'd taken a few days off to recover I made an emergency appointment with a medical professional, unfortunately my usual neurologist was on vacation at the time but I was able to get an appointment with one of his assistants a week later.

She said that my symptoms sounded very similar to FND, and got an appointment scheduled with my usual neurologist.

I described everything that'd been happening and he said that the dying fish impressions are actually functional seizures. And after listening to some of my other symptoms, said that I probably have FND. However, he said that he usually doesn't officially diagnose patients with FND unless it is absolutely necessary to receive accommodations and treatment (accommodations and treatment that, for me, are already covered with a diagnosis of TS) because of the extremely high rate of medical negligence and discrimination that happens to people diagnosed with FND.

So, even though I'm very critical of the FND diagnosis, I think that for me, it could be accurate. I have a couple more appointments and testing coming up to ensure that I don't have other neurological issues like epilepsy or multiple sclerosis that could better explain what's going on. But after doing some research into functional seizures and FND symptoms, I think that FND could possibly be the most reasonable explanation for my symptoms.

I still need time to process but right now I'm just really grateful to have a neurologist that believes my symptoms and doesn't dismiss me for being a woman.

[iturbide]

Guys guys guys ! Remember Crests are dying out? Dimitri confirms its fading away in his support with sylvain! Ingrid is the ONLY one in house Galatea with a crest . Holst judith edmund are all leaders in the alliance without a crest. And Of emperor Ionius's children Edelgard was one of the only kids (if not the only one) with a MINOR crest of seiros . You know what this means? This means that fodlan , even without edelgards war, was ALREADY CHANGING LMFAO. They have no choice but to accept being crestless because soon enough they will all be crestless 😂! (the humans anyway)

Honestly all this just confirms how edelgards one true goal is the total conquest of the continent under adrestia, which she says is "superior" to the other 2 "mere offshoots" (Her words not mine).

You're exactly right about her wording -- she really does not think the Kingdom and Alliance legitimately wanted to be independent, despite any and all evidence to the contrary. But I also think that it's not fair to boil down her motives solely to conquest.

So this got touched on somewhat in the Crest Virus discussion quite a while back, but Crest inheritance is a gamble and has been for generations. The only guaranteed way to get a major Crest is to receive blood directly from a dragon; after that, the usual genetic lottery goes into play, meaning that a rare few people win the jackpot, some get lucky, and most come away flat broke.

While Crests were undoubtedly more prevalent in the past when the genome wasn't so scattered, after a thousand years it's getting to a dire point where families are getting desperate for Crests. We meet a grand total of 9 Major Crestbearers during the course of Three Houses (14 if you include the DLC characters):

Catherine (Major Charon)

Felix (Major Fraldarius)

Anna (Major Ernst, DLC exclusive)

Hapi (Major Timotheos, DLC exclusive)

Balthus (Major Chevalier, DLC exclusive)

Constance (Major Noa, DLC exclusive)

Yuri (Major Aubin, likely a first-generation Crestbearer; DLC exclusive)

Jeralt (Major Seiros, first-generation Crestbearer)

Rhea (Major Seiros due to being Seiros herself)

Seteth (Major Cichol due to being Cichol himself)

Flayn (Major Cethleann due to being Cethleann herself)

Byleth (Major Flames due to bearing the Creststone of Flames)

Lysithea (Major Gloucester, product of Twisted experimentation)

Edelgard (Major Flames, product of Twisted experimentation)

Of that list 2 are first generation Crestbearers who received their Crest directly from a Child of the Goddess (one of whom is DLC exclusive); 3 are themselves Children of the Goddess; 2 are the direct products of experimental procedures by the Twisted; and 1 has a Creststone implanted in them as the source of their Crest. This means that at most, playing without the DLC, there are only 2 Major Crestbearers in the entire game whose Crests don't arise from special circumstances; if the DLC is factored in, that number rises to 6.

I've mentioned in other rambles that I tend to think the Insurrection of the Seven arose because Ionius was attempting to consolidate power with the intention of changing the inheritance laws. He saw the writing on the wall, that the Crest-bearing bloodline was fading to the point where very soon there would be no heirs who inherited Cress; though it failed in the end and led to untold suffering for his children, he may well have been trying to address this very issue with his power play. And Edelgard, once she emerged from the Twisted experiments, set her eyes specifically on taking down the Church specifically because she believed (wrongly) that they were responsible for the Crest System, and that eliminating them would allow her to rebuild the system from the ground up without the existing bias toward Crestbearers.

Yes, it's true the world was already changing before she set her plans in motion -- but that in no way changes the fact that she was trying to do good, even if her means were flawed.