#this isn't even subtext anymore. this is just text

[certifiedlesbianvampire]

╔═*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═╗

"How do I put this? Seeing you guys together brings back memories." ... "I also trained with another guy to become honki people."

╚═*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*.·:·.✧ ✦ ✧.·:·.*═╝

the backstory for senya and ichiya this episode was revealed... and it's every bit as gay as you can imagine.

[juriyuna]

ch.9: has a scene where hikaru sees some motherhood magazines on yuna's desk and mistakenly assumes she's having a baby; demands to know who the father is

ch.10: kimochi mindscape section where an older yuna and juri have a kid (ao) together

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) i see

[hideousocean]

Many people are noting that Nimona isn't very subtle about its message and themes (cue the rainbow breathe weapon). And you know what, I think it's awesome. We're used to thinking subtlety is good, and even queer people frequently agree that queer stories should be "well made" and "not too preachy". That's not wrong in itself, but here's the thing: after spending millennia as "the love that dare not speak its name", we desperately need stuff that isn't subtle, but loudly, blatantly, obnoxiously queer... AND well made, because these are not opposites. Subtlety for its own sake becomes just another closet. After realizing it, I won't be comfortable writing queer subtext anymore -- not until I see queer text become commonplace.

[aotopmha]

I'm around level 82 Endwalker MSQ and I know that some really hate the Garlean section of the story, but I really like it.

Above all I really like the nuance in it all.

Firstly, I think they spell out the intentions of the expedition really well – the goal is to help the regular people who are suffering, but not excuse the system they live under.

Secondly, they spell out the really important detail that a bunch of the characters do not support the Ilsebard contingent.

As an example, not all of your job mentors might show up, as was my case with the RDM mentor because of his history with Garlemald, adding important nuance in terms of varying perspectives regards to helping Garlemald.

Reading some takes you'd think everyone agrees that Garlemald is all okay and cool now, but this is not the nuance/subtext I see in the text itself myself.

This was also not the sole objective of the expedition. The towers needed to go for the world to not end.

So it isn't just randomly barging in there to self-righteously "help" another nation. Everyone needed to be on the same page at least somewhat to survive.

Thirdly, I think they gave Gaius and his group enough nuance back in ARR (and Regula in HW) and we had enough decent and more complex good/less villainous Garlean characters across the game (Cid, Nero, Lucia, Maxima) for me to not feel like asking to see them as people was rushed or too late.

The key to me is that even the Garleans who were villains had defined, substantial perspectives and sometimes had non-villainous aspects to them.

The humanity itself was always there.

Fourthly, I see people say it is a thematic mess, but I don't see any of that, either.

The entire zone is full of nuanced perspectives on how fascism can hurt people and not once are we told to push everything the empire did under the rug – if nothing else the horrors of the system are only emphasised.

I agree with the system itself being the central enemy, which to me has been the entire thematic point of Garlemald from the start.

Licinia and her sister, the ceruleum workers from other provinces, Jullus and Quintus all represent very important aspects of how the empire's principles and its own self-made "faith" affected the people of Garlemald and to see it reduced to "oh some of them are just sad now", I think really misses the point considering the foundation of some of their stories.

Genuinely believing you're right, making nationalism almost a core of your identity and being distrusting of your enemy due to far-reaching propaganda are very real struggles under systems like this.

Finally, I've seen people say we are done with Garlemald now and it's so rushed because of this and I'm just not sure about that because to me that has never been the identity of this game.

It's really rare something is dropped and never brought up again, so I always disagree with almost any claims like this.

This is why I think Sky Pirates and Four Lords will also eventually have larger significance.

(And so will the 6.x series.)

I still feel the framing is very much "there is a long way to go here."

Doma and Ala Mhigo both had restoration arcs in various content and are still in progress, really, as the 6.0 role quests, literal "restoration" content and also patch content itself (4.1-4.3, 5.4-5.5 in particular for Ala Mhigo and Doma) attest.

I think we will still see more of the aftermath of Garlemald's collapse in the yet occupied provinces as I still think we will have to open up the huge cloud in the middle of the map in some form, I even think there still would be room for a Garlemald expansion, it just wouldn't be "as" urgent anymore and mixed with other stuff because the empire is an husk now.

As much as Bozja might seem like it was dropped suddenly because of the field notes, I do not think it is like this story to not address important aspects like this until we are unquestionably, completely done.

I know there are some reveals in the role quests and material in 6.x quests that people are also iffy about, but to me most of that seems pretty okay, too.

Garlemald has to reestablish proper trade connections, they have to fight the remainder of their old guard and they can never be complete victims. They also need an entirely new governmental system.

It's the old guard that holds them back, but also crumbles when threatened.

So I think where we are now narratively, we still need more time with Garlemald and I think we are not quite done with them yet and if there is something I personally would dislike from here on out, it *would* be getting no follow-up at all.

I think we need to actually visit Dalmasca, Corvos and Nagxia in some form and put a final end to all of those regimes.

Now, do I think more could've been done here?

Absolutely. As I said, we have whole occupied provinces we have still not seen and a whole massive cloud right in the middle of the map still uncovered.

(And I think revisiting Ala Mhigo's and Doma's struggles against specifically Garlemald in some form also needs to happen.)

So as much as I really liked the zone, it is still clear to me there might have been more done there (in fact it was confirmed because we know about a potential Garlemald expansion).

So I actually do share a criticism I see around, I just think what we got still turned out to be really good and really important nuance to go into regarding Garlemald.

Something about asking to somewhat empathise with an enemy faction just destroys any nuanced discussion on the internet, be it the heroes doing something bad (for good or bad reasons) or villains doing something good (despite having really awful views otherwise).

You see an enemy faction just even dip toes into nuance and the story automatically must be excusing them.

You see the heroes not be completely, unconditionally respectful and thoughtful and the story must be disrespectful itself.

It's such a boring way to discuss art (which is also made by people, who are flawed like anyone else) in my eyes.

[frogs-and-books]

Disagree with your post about Riz on two fronts. First, he's no more canon ace than he is canon aro. The word of god statement from someone who doesn't even control the character isn't a definitive statement of canon. That's not how fiction works. If it's not in the text, they could justifiably walk it back at any time. Second, if anything, it's more accurate to call Riz canon aro because of his coding. A character doesn't have to say "I'm gay" to be canon gay. All they have to do is explicitly express interest exclusively in people of the same gender expression to be acknowledged as gay. Why does an aro character have to explicitly state their identity in order for it to count when that's not an expectation for allo queer people anymore? And has never been an expectation for straight people?

I agree no one should be harassing anyone, though. I'm with you there

I assumed that he talked to Murph before saying anything, but I'd hope that if someone just lied about his character, Murph would clarify. But we have no evidence either way. I would still say that someone on the team confirming it is more canon than anything implied, tho. And yep, he shows the signs, but that doesn't make it canon. He does not have a label in canon, we can say how he thinks and feels about relationships and how he reacts to those things as facts, but we cannot factually state one way or the other what his sexuality is (in the romantic sense). Anything implied is up to interpretation, which makes it unreliable. Subtext is fun, but it's like two people debating whether the color red in a painting represents love or rage, no one really wins. It's simply two different interpretations, neither is right or wrong until the artist confirms one way or another.

Something isn't canon unless it's clarified onscreen or stated to be canon by someone behind its creation. Anything else is up to interpretation.

And I think if a character explicitly shows interest in the same gender but never says they aren't attracted the other, they could be gay or bisexual. Maybe someone would get mad if you called them bi, but I wouldn't because they're just two different interpretations of the same thing.

Headcanons are valid, as long as you remember that no one is forced to have the same interpretation of media as you do. That's the great thing about media analysis. You can't be right or wrong because it's all just your interpretation.

So, in the end, Riz is not canonically Aromantic because coding doesn't equal representation and because what you see as coding could be read differently by someone with different life experiences from you.

[unhingedlesbear]

Okay fuck it yeah I'm making the post idc abt backlash. First of all the hidden agenda fandom doesn't exist anymore so whos even gonna have an issue. But if you do feel called out um. Maybe thats ur problem idk bc I'm not aiming at anyone in particular here.

Anyway long ass ramble abt the tiny dead Hidden Agenda fandom below the cut

This is mainly something I noticed looking through the very limited amount of Hidden Agenda fics on ao3, but it's VERY obvious on there. The vast majority of fics on there are centered on Adam and Finn, which I can understand more since they have an interesting backstory and are well written characters, sure. But then you look at the others and the other characters that are centered are... Riggs and Calvary?

In the actual game ofc Becky and Felicity are the main characters. Both of them not only are pretty objectively interesting characters on their own, and even more so together. On top of this they have the most shipping potential of any two characters in that game, it's literally basically canon, it's not even subtext atp it's literally just text. NO other two characters have that amount of chemistry in the game, and yet there is a noticeable lack of gravey fics in that tag. And I'll stress again bc I know how defensive people got last time I made this kind of observation, I'm not pointing fingers or calling anyone misogynistic/racist/homophobic BUT. but. When the two mcs are women, one of which is poc, and they're implied to be lesbians, and they get sidelined by the fandom despite being the focuses of the game... it's kinda hard not to assume there's some kind of bias there.

And on another point, it's similar when it comes to supporting characters too. In a way I'm disappointed but absolutely not surprised that Adam/Finn is prioritized in fan works over Becky/Felicity, but when characters like Riggs and Calvary are also given more attention than them it becomes way more suspicious to me. Riggs is a fine character, I like him enough and I can see why others might like him more, but wbk he doesn't really have all that much relevance. Calvary is even more confusing bc he basically JUST exists to be a creepy misogynistic asshole and as unlikeable as possible. Thankfully I haven't seen him getting a lot of attention but the fact that I've seen him getting any that isn't entirely negative is... hm...

Now there ARE in fact male characters that can be both relevant and likeable: Tom and Karl. (I talk shit abt Karl bc it's a joke I started with friends, I'm gonna drop that for this post obv bc we're being fr here) these two are pretty obviously more relevant than Riggs or Calvary, they're literally Becky's partners (Tom can even replace Riggs' entire role lmao, and if he's replaced himself it's by Karl) and I'd say they're also both likeable characters on their own too. And yet I'm pretty sure I found maybe one??? fic with them in it? Probably should have mentioned this earlier but yeah, they're both poc.

So like... I feel like it all comes down to what Becky/Felicity/Tom/Karl have in common and then what Adam/Finn/Riggs/Calvary have in common. It strikes me as questionable. But like maybe I'm just an annoying snowflake though idk🤷‍♀️ /s

This turned into more of a ramble than anything and I'm aware i'm also yelling into a void bc I'm posting entirely for a dead fandom that barely existed to begin with, but tbh this stuff applies to most if not all larger fandoms as well, i'm just looking at it from what I've seen in the remnants of the HA fandom. Again I am not attacking anyone here, I am making observations. If you're like mad or something I'm just gonna assume you didn't even read the whole post. Yes ur allowed to like characters, but I am also allowed to address what I've noticed about what characters seem to be more liked than others.

[gregoftom]

rewatching s4 not over 4x2 tom actively divorcing shiv and then oh ho ho greg's calling him and tom's 'hey buddy' in nervous but affectionate (and oh so friendly!!!) voice and how 4x1 he and greg 'sometimes grab a drink' in a deflective way when shiv's enquiring about tom's escapades

and greg's really his little side piece that he actually cares about and makes him feel a little bit of butterflies and also feels like it's a bit of a naughty secret even though it technically isn't even anything because they're not anything. but also. that's greg and it kind of is they kind of are. but they're not. but they are

and greg always goes to tom, with anything, for anything, when he's excited, when he's nervous. that's his guy. that's his go-to guy. they're close they've got SO close???? like greg's not even nervous to speak to him anymore he's sooo comfortable with him. he holds him he gets right up beside him.

their touchiness is just!!! like it's a slow burn and it's been repressed and it's like tom's let it out in bursts and then reigned back in but always wanted more. and for greg it's just grown with comfortableness and feeling like he can and like tom let's him and it's okay and greg likes it and it's just more and more

anyway it's every scene im not gonna be over every scene forever. they're just. the ✨ dynamic ✨. all the unsaids. they!!!! they make me talk silly

SAY THAT!!! honestly i can't add much more to everything you've said here, like. they make me go koo koo bananas, especially their shift into best friends in s4, and yeah god the fucking. like. subtext which practically toes over the line into text that greg is the other woman, that greg is tom's side piece, is just. god. at the very least it Cannot be denied that they are canonically having an emotional affair, like. it's just insane to me. i think there's plenty of evidence to suggest a physical one too, but i'm happy that at least the former is like. actually True and Canon and can't really be disputed like some of the stuff... what would you call it, you know? there's nothing else TO call it.

even from a platonic perspective it's really something. it actually physically can't be denied that they like each other and have affection for one another without like. ignoring canon and plain text, lol. i love that for them <3

[cleolinda]

Weekend links

My posts

More new followers have come in via the posts about the strikes and, uh, Tree Law. Welcome! But also, I am not sure you realize what you've gotten yourselves into!

Here, at last, a new Varney the Vampire recap. I had to cut 2-3 egregious tangents and may post them separately at some point.

Another new Hozier song! I looked up the title allusion, and I am excited to announce that it has something to do with Irish modernist metafiction and probably the Vestibule of Hell. Truly, I admire this guy so much for writing catchy fucking bangers that I cannot help but sing along with in the shower while having no damn clue what I'm saying. Also for his Kermit drawings.

The strikes

It's more than Hollywood: Broadway, the UPS strike and lists of other strikes on the horizon (Hot Strike Summer).

Why you shouldn't boycott streaming services yet: the strategy of a strike.

Also: some indie projects, including two films at A24, will be allowed to go ahead because they're willing to meet SAG-AFTRA's demands. Bonus: The agreement undermines the big studios' claims that they just can't possibly afford to cooperate.

The possible subtext of the studios' resistance: "Either the studios owe untold millions to their talents and paying it out will decimate their stock prices, or they owe so little because there really is no money in streaming and the bubble of their entire 21st century business model will burst in spectacular fashion."

Tree Law did not come through for us this time.

Reblogs of interest

Tumblr is rolling out a twitterfied dashboard, and no one is happy. (I did this to us and I'm so sorry.)

Twitter isn't even going to be "Twitter" anymore.

AI: "You cannot complain about AI being used to fuck over your industry and then turn around and use it on somebody else’s industry."

More cheerfully, OP was a teenage werewolf.

Video

Keep going. Continue.

Mwah!

The sacred texts

Two particularly legendary posts:

The Mushroom Post

Sharks are smooth as hell

Personal tags of the week

Moon Landing Day

TREE LAW (What is Tree Law? Satisfying and cathartic, until NBC Universal got involved)

[mrsmarymorstan]

Zen wanting himself, Obi and Shirayuki to be together forever isn't even SUBTEXT anymore it's JUST TEXT.

"You might have a trio who lived completely separate lives... but came together in the palace... to spend their lives together, side by side."

Look at that smile, he believes it and he knows it. The three of them are soulmates your honour.

[patricia-taxxon]

defining AI art out of the capacity to have context or subtext because there's an intermediary step where the prompt crafter doesn't have direct control over the finished product seems wrongfooted to me. Would Duchamp have had to create Fountain by hand for it to count as art ? Would it have had to be a bespoke urinal design? If his signature had been printed on a label digitally and plastered on, would that have removed the capacity of the piece to be interpreted, in absence of the ethereal Creators Intent which we can never have access to across any medium? I'm not prepared to categorically deny algorithmic art as being crafted, but also I'm not sure that craft or intentionality are metaphysically relevant to classification or valuation of art (the former because a dividing line between acceptable tools for lessening strain on creators vs Theres No Craft Anymore So Its Trash would inherently be an arbitrary distinction so long as there's any level of input at all, the latter because intentionality is epistemically inaccessible to audiences by definition). I can understand an aesthetic distaste for particular works but this essentialist attitude of "oh there's somehow a miraculous spiritual process by which the context of a pieces production determines whether it is Imbued With The Animating Spark Of Creativity" just feels wrong to me. All that being said I do want to say I respect your aesthetic arguments infinitely more than any copyright based objections to the theft at the heart of derivative works or whatever, and make it clear that I'm not a stringent advocate for AI art as like, an actually Really Good Thing, I think the majority of what the software produces will be uninspired and uninteresting, but the construction of it as opposed to Real Art doesn't feel well grounded to me

Once again, your winding diatribe opens with a few odd assumptions that I can't follow, mainly that the craft of AI art prompting is comparable to generative or readymade art, which it isn't. It's not even comparable to the purposefully text-less minimalist sculptures of Carl Andre or Dan Flavin, cold arrangements of industrial materials (bricks, lamps etc) the artist had no hand in making contain more of an authorial voice than a diffusion engine's output does, and your thoughtless conflation of the two shows your lack of respect for the former more than your advocacy for the latter. Minimalist sculpture was born from a human desire to represent space and dimension as literally as possible with resistance to biographical interpretation, readymade sculpture came from a want to see beauty in the mundane and not-yet-arted, the use of consumer grade AI art engines barely requires the application of taste let alone craft.

It is absurd to paint my argument as some takedown of the nebulous concept of art made via process, when that is a distinction that I have been working to reinforce this entire time. My arguments remain in opposition to the specific concerted ideological push we are seeing from the massively funded actors in this specific industry.

[thephantomcasebook]

Dude, I saw your rant on another site about how much stuff got changed in the "Dance of the Dragons" canon from the last time you read it.

Bro ...

BRO!

You're mad now at all the shit that got changed? You should see "Rise of the Dragon" illustrated book that just came out.

He changed it again!

Now, not only does Criston not die trying to rescue Alicent. But he changed it so now Aemond and Helaena don't even die on the same day.

What the fuck?!

Why can't he just stick to what he wrote the first time?

Ugh, that's it.

You got me started!

I'm started now!

Batten Down the Hatches!

CONTEXT!

After a deluge of people accusing me of 'making stuff up' and 'writing fanfiction' ... finally some old trusted friends from the "Game of Thrones" fandom days messaged me and said simply:

"Matt, you're not wrong. But neither are the douches ... that shit isn't in there anymore."

And I was confused.

So your boy went down to the rich people's "Target" and purchased the updated, tie in, version of "Fire & Blood" to see what got changed.

...

turns out ... EVERYTHING!

Everything's fucking different now.

First of all, now there's no ambiguity of if Alicent was actually in love with Criston. There isn't a mystery of if Criston was really Rhaenyra's friend or if he was just doing his job. No more rumors of a secret Criston and Alicent affair on the side (Yes - fuck you - that shit was in there! I ain't crazy!)

The entire relationship is now boiled down to Pro Rhaenyra maester said that Ser Criston wanted to runaway and Rhaenyra said gross! And Mushroom said that Criston said 'Begone thot!' and Rhaeynra immediately went and jumped Ser Strong till she break boned.

The whole - Queen Alicent brought Ser Criston back into her confidence with open arms and he was forever seen with the Queen's favor in Tourney and Battle - is fucking nowhere to be found anymore.

There's now almost an entire page defending Daemon's creepy relationship with Nettles and if he did or didn't fuck her. When, in the original it just says that - yeah, he probably fucked her - Rhaenyra was big mad, he didn't care. Now, Martin has gone back and wrote some meta lawyer shit about the philosophy of their relationship and how she was some perfect fucking successor to Daemon's coolness and that, no, their relationship was actually beautiful.

Also, Nettles was fourteen fucking years old! Now she's at the age of consent in most countries and states in America.

The timeline is all fucked up. There was a rhyme and structure to the war! Now, it's all weirdly mixed up and things happen at the same time for no reason. like King's Landing now falls to the rioters ... before the second Battle of Tumblestone? The moment that Rhaenyra abandoned the city and the dragons died - Daeron would be racing in to take the city and rescue Alicent! He wouldn't even think about it, he'd just go!

Oh and, don't even get me started on the retroactive Daeron retcon!

They not only took out the whole bit about Daeron being Alicent's sworn shield and his rivalry with Larys Strong. But now they legitimized what was clearly the Maester taking liberties with his history in which the subtext was clear that Daeron was the commander of the Southern Army. Now, there's only the part about him being young and indecisive as a leader. When in the original text it was obvious that the Maester was simply retroactively rewriting history to biggen-up the Hightowers who were loyal to Aerys when the book was being written .

Gone now is the passages where no one wanted Daeron Targaryen smoke. That he was an incredibly dangerous fighter and extremely brave. Not only that but with removing his beef with Larys and tampering down of his hated rivalry with Hugh Hammer there also goes the biggest part of his character. He was the readers' evil detector. All the people that Daeron had feuds with were genuinely evil people - some of the most evil in the entire book. Which was supposed to show you that this guy was the best of both sides.

Listen, if two of the evillest people in the book - Hugh Hammer and Larys Strong - hated Daeron's guts and were afraid of him ... what the fuck does that say about Daeron as a character and who he is as a person?

There's entire scene where Daeron and Hugh Hammer - the biggest and baddest dude in all of the Seven Kingdoms with the biggest dragon in the world - are arguing. And Daeron throws a goblet in the dude's face for claiming that Aegon ain't shit and that he - being a Targaryen Bastard and rider of Vermithor - should be king instead. Hugh Hammer, bodybuilder physic, goes at him for the bloody nose. And Daeron doesn't back down, he squares up to this giant ass mutha'fucker and looks him dead-ass in the eye without flinching.

Hugh Hammer, rider of "The Bronze Terror" actually backs down when going eye to eye with Daeron "The Daring" Targaryen. Imagine a dude as big as a professional wrestler - like "The Rock" sized dude - with roid rages issues and is a brutal rapist and murderer and he blinks first at this seventeen year old Knight who just wants his mommy back?

That's straight Alpha shit right there!

Now, in the new tie in version, Daeron just throws wine in his face, they take out the straight alpha shit of backing Hulk Hogan down, and basically just cut to the part where Hugh Hammer storms out. Then, they cut out the anticipation and build up of this coming duel between them and instead sub in this secret Illuminati murder meeting that Daeron wasn't even at.

Now, you're telling me there's a new book out and he's changed it again?! That they're even changing Aemond and Helaena dying on the same day? And Criston isn't even dying to rescue Alicent anymore? That was crucial to his entire character arc! He dies for his queen! The woman he loves and worships as a saint!

Criston Cole is the opposite of Daemon! When Alys tempts him, he says no and stays true to his vows and Alicent! When Daemon is tempted by Nettles, he can't bend her over fast enough! Daemon abandons his wife and children to run off with an underage girl! Criston dies trying to get back to the woman he loves!

That's the contrast!

Rhaenyra ignored all the rules, got everything she wanted, and it turned out to be empty!

Alicent sacrificed everything for duty and she found loyalty, devotion, and love from those around her!

Ugh ...

I'm so annoyed.

What the fuck is point in reading any of this shit if Martin is just gonna continue to change it?

At this point, I'm just gonna wait for Season 2 ... that'll be the only canon I'm gonna adhere by.

[lesser-mook]

"The logical conclusion to Kratos fighting every pantheon." (I really, really like this concept, only because of how batshit insane Lore acc Jesus is strictly from a power-scaling perspective and despite everyone on the Planet knowing who Jesus is, most have NO idea what he is.)

not a bad concept, though they wouldn't have a reason to fight beyond Jesus' 2nd mission:

Off the top of my head, according to lore, he projects a sword out of his mouth, while riding a flaming horse or some shit, the sky split open (meaning the fabric of reality is breached) hence commanding legions of Angles hording through (which from text & recent visual interpretation actually look like Lovecraftian demons) to literally conquer Earth. like an interdimensional alien warlord pressing the sleep button on Humanity.

The popular central theme of this guy is he doesn't die or live in a traditional sense, and the only reason he allowed himself to be killed was to be a martyr by choice, to make a point.

Give humanity a couple thousand years to find "his/the way" supposedly, otherwise according to lore, his comeback is "The End" of post-modern humanity itself than it is the literal end of humans, I have to read it again tho.

Then another millennia of apocalyptic fallout. No nukes, no armor, just this guy showing up.

Not only would biblically acc angels be a horrifying aspect to put in a game, but Jesus himself is actually a terrifying entity despite the nice guy nature humans took for granted at the time.

Technically he can't be beaten, because everyone knows his mortality. Nobody knows what he can actually do, which is everything. He's the original Gary Stu.

We're not even factoring in the Quantum intelligence that is "God" or even the Holy Spirit which is like a glorified proxy medium. All the Angels, their ranks, their subordinates, etc.

That game would have to be psychological/cosmic horror epic themed, surrealism.

most People only know the Sunday school tales of the human side of prophets and judges, the people God used to manipulate lives to set a narrative. From beginning to end.

Going by the book, Humanity is the original (The SIMS) game.

The BIBLE? In it's raw form, it's a tale of hope, flawed characters, redemption, perseverance, with an over-arching horror story subtext. Constant genocides at God's hands, only for Humanity to pick up the slack without his help.

And In a meta sense, in theory, WE ARE The Cliffhanger.

God itself doesn't reside in Heaven strictly, like Zeus or Odin.

That's just where the followers go to honor "it."

Jesus likely wouldn't want to kill Kratos, but if this is post Revelations arc Jesus. This would definitely be the game Kratos dies in cosmic epic glory.

Because that Jesus isn't preaching love, he brings war, and his physical form is G.O.N.E.

I would love to see Kratos go up against a straight up hax-ego centric narcissist being that can't bleed, be reached or touched. Having no form.

And it's only form, his kinder nicer, human self, his Son. In canon is no more. Jesus as a physical being that can be hurt, doesn't exist anymore.

(JESUS), unbeknownst to most "Christians", actually existed simultaneously throughout the Bible since Genesis/possibly pre-Gen.

Meaning this guy CHRIST, can pass through time itself. Because he did, does, will do.

I shit you not.

Superman RED Son's (novel) ending plottwist has NOTHING ON this.

That's what i mean by "-doesn't die or live in a traditional sense", the guy existed before he was born, before he did, before he resec himself. Think about that.

Kratos needed to go on a whole ass side-quest to go through time. Jesus can just do it, technically the fabric of space-time is something he can possess, re-write, or see. Because REALLY think about what it means to exist in the past, present, and future: At the same time.

The past is gone for humans, we always live in the present. But Jesus still exists in back then. As we're in the present, waiting for the future, where he ALSO exists.

See how broken that is?

How in the actual fuck, do you "fight" that?

Everyone says the meme "Flash can go back and kill you as a baby". Jesus apparently can do the same thing. He is simultaneous.

When the text states God is everywhere, that includes timelines, dimensions, etc. This is a beyond 10th dimensional being.

Manifested himself in flesh.

Defied death after 3 days, not as a rule, but just to make a fucking point. That shit is both petty and scary.

The (Pan) in Pantheon.

Post-Revelations Jesus IS THE God, of War. And death.

That would be the sheer irony of pulling this off as a game

This is why it claims to be "THE" God. The thing, It, is literally every superpower you can imagine. We're talking serious beyond Haruhi Suzumiya+Dr.Manhattan+Cthulhu on steroids type shit.

no god of the sea, no god of dreams, none of that shit. This one wanted the title of "THE".

Alpha--Omega, period.

This thing, is next level. The religion aspect is what people turn away from, including me, but from a strictly "kaiju"/Cosmic being standpoint, "Yahweh", "Elohim", "Christ" is a serious monster.

Unless Kratos drops in during the NT or before OT even happens, because again Jesus existed during & thus by proxy before Genesis.

I used to think the whole book was corny but the Shit is mind-numbing apocalyptic, straight insanity.

Kratos cannot afford to be holding back with this one, even if he doesn't, it won't help.

The problem is most god's Kratos has fought has had physical silhouette's one way or another

Or that time he fought Zeus' ghost

or he’s had some kind of weapon to tangibly touch spirits. (GOW3)

This one, pantheon and all, is a whole different beast. These things are omi-dimensional avatars-- Vibrating between dimensions because reality is just a frequency that our atoms reside in.

Which is why we're not going to find Aliens in space or in the Earths Core. They're literally next to you, in another frequency of reality-- A dimension, that's what Parallel Earths in Comics represent. Thats what Heaven is. A frequency.

That's HOW gods do it, through sound, frequency science. Not spaceships.

And thats why people resonate with music so much, how it can control moods, frequency of sound is power, it taps into dimensions if the sound is strong enough.

Specifically the method that Christs coming is announced is through Horns, Sound. Punching through our dimension like a battering-ram on a door.

Sound is a stronger element than Humanity realizes, well the uninitiated anyway.

All in all, I genuinely want to see that game happen. Even if not accurate, (because if it is, Kratos loses hard, it's not even a fight), the interpretation alone would be cool.

Though his death was trash, GOW Thor was awesome.

[queens-nightmare]

Writing is an interesting process. Sometimes you manage to write something on the first try and besides maybe a few adjustments, it's pretty much the final draft. And then sometimes you write something that doesn't fit (anymore after a while), so you have to scrap it.

I was talking to some friends on some RP server about my writing and told them how Step 24 was rewritten into 4 new steps (which pushed the steps after that back). It was a mess because rewriting them meant I had to rewrite the steps coming after the pushed steps.

...This might sound confusing, let me draw something quickly, lol

Quick info: Step 24 was the original end of what I call "The third floor (mini) arc". But with the rewriting, Step 27 became the actual ending.

Okay, and how was the stuff rewritten? :) Let's look at the scrapped Step 24 for this (under the cut. Also long post)

Read it? Good.

When I write stuff, I have a problem with exposition. I love giving it, and explaining stuff so that hopefully everyone understands what I try to convey. Probably comes from the fact that I have a harder time understanding subtext often, so this gets mirrored in my own writing ^^;

The panel with Snatcher explaining #76's backstory was a response to an ask I got ages ago. Which... in retrospect wasn't a good move on my part. I shoehorned it in, so that I could answer something about this Minion. And just, the whole page feels just "a speedrun of clearing the problem between Snatcher and Moonjumper."

No.

No, no, no, no! Snatcher had gotten a burst of uncontrollable emotions after learning that the letters from his family are still intact. He wouldn't be this calm menace who just tells Moonjumper his reasoning. Even it maybe could make sense that Snatcher is calm about it because, well, it's been 300 years, and he probably got calm about his own death and everything surrounding it...

But on the other hand, everyone and everything in Subcon must be in a more emotional and irrational state currently, because it's been only like 2 - 3 weeks since Vanessa was rescued and it's been only a day since Moonjumper appeared.

There is tension in the air.

======

So, with scrapping this calm conclusion to the "third floor arc", I wanted these steps to be an emotional rollercoaster between the characters. After all, Snatcher as quite a lot of bottled up emotions, and so does Vanessa too.

After making Snatcher and Moonjumper have an actual physical fight, and also making it as long as it felt natural for Snatcher wanting to get that steam out of his system, I wanted to give Vanessa a little bit of an emotional spotlight too.

But there were two options how to go about it in Step 26.

In the scrapped version, Vanessa is delusional about it. She doesn't want to believe that the issue of the freezing isn't just easily talked out with some snacks and tea. So, she, as a naive young woman who was friends with a dream being for 10 years, thinks during the fight between her "BFs" (Best friend and (former) boyfriend) that all this must be a bad dream.

Right? She probably is just dreaming all this and Moonjumper here could change it to a good ending, where everyone gets along. But this isn't a dream, this is reality and so Snatcher has to swoop in and bring her to her senses.

However, I felt that this version took something away from Vanessa, which is something that is important to all this:

Vanessa is selfish.

She is selfish for wanting that Snatcher just accepts Moonjumper and gets along with him. And also getting potentially back into a relationship with her since she was trapped for 300 years in her mind, so she technically is still the Vanessa right before the freezing (plus like 2 weeks of slowly adjusting to the new Subcon).

But Snatcher wasn't. He had a mindful journey of 300 years of experiences that changed him. He is Snatcher now, not that naive young man anymore named Phoenix Burnbright.

So, to give the hint for this, I shifted the text so that Vanessa is aware of how selfish she is. And Snatcher knows this too because he uses Moonjumper to stop Vanessa from turning the room into a fridge.

Not himself, or the Subconites, or anything else. He chose Moonjumper to stop this as quickly as possible. Oh and of course, Snatcher acknowledges that it technically makes sense from Vanessa's POV to have these wishes.

Who wouldn't wish that everything can be solved that easily?

Wait, I just realize that Vanessa isn't as delusional about life as you maybe think now. It's true that she probably has a false sense of real life because of Moonjumper allowing her to have beautiful dreams each night, but she also had to dance around her mother Elizabeth for 10 years, so she knows not everything can be just solved with the snap of a finger.

Also unbeknownst to Elizabeth, she technically prepared her daughter for the harsh would of the nobles, lmao. Y'know, putting on a mask around other people to keep your real thoughts a secret.

But yeah, Vanessa isn't screaming for Moonjumper to stop this bad dream but instead states very clearly that "If you [Snatcher] can have an emotional outburst, that I should be allowed to have one too."

And so I shifted it to exactly this. At least I think I did. I know my writing, but it always depends on the readers if the author managed to get their point across.

Thanks for reading, hope my text wasn't a tangled mess :'D

[bylerswiftie]

yes. it is okay for a character to be unlabeled. i've seen it in shows recently where they've done that very well (ex. Wilhelm in Young Royals)

here's the thing though. will has never been interested in girls. never. he's been very heavily queer-coded the whole show. he's been called slurs, he was even made fun of for being gay after his "death," and hell he pretty much has a confirmed crush on mike this season.

will is clearly, clearly gay. and to give no confirmation of that is wrong. his sexuality isn't up to interpretation at this point, it's pretty much shown through subtext and even just simply text.

so yes, a character can be unlabeled. that's fine! i'm even unlabeled!

but when it is super clear what a character's sexuality is and you just decide to "leave it up to interpretation" ???

that's bullshit.

i hate to be negative, i really do. but this sucks.

same thing with the whole vickie thing. they introduced a love interest for robin and she was only there for two scenes??? wtf????

the writers of this show are on thin ice.

im actually so tired of stuff like this happening, and honestly something like this might make me consider quitting the show and leaving the fandom, because shit like this is not okay.

it's not even good writing. sexual identity issues is one of will's arcs, it has been since the beginning. it was one of the things that connected me to his character, and for them to throw his sexuality under the rug as "up for interpretation" and "him just being confused"

it's tiring and boring is what it is.

again sorry for being so negative, this just really upsets me :/

not to mention the fact that they are sidelining will and even forgot about his birthday this season 🧍‍♀️ like it's actually getting ridiculous at this point. will is literally their punching bag and it's so stupid.

i'm not trying to sound ungrateful, but they had one job :/

i guess i'll wait and see in vol 2.🧍‍♀️love you bylers!

edit: ALSO WILLS WHOLE PERSONALITY SHOULDNT BE "third wheel 🤪" BECAUSE THAT IS SO DUMB AND HES MORE THAN THAT. HES LITERALLY THE START OF THE SHOW. WITHOUT WILL THERE WOULDNT BE STRANGER THINGS. IM SO TIRED OF HIM BEING SIDELINED AND MADE FUN OF LIKE ITS NOT EVEN FUNNY ANYMORE. sorry for the rant im just tired

[sufficient-tenacity]

In some ways, I hate literacy. Literacy killed symbols. Killed architecture.

We don't crucify people anymore. Not that we should have, it's barbaric, but crucifixion means something.

Nothing is symbolic anymore. Everything is base and textual. Even the texts no longer occupy physical space. Data. Everything is reducible, ultimately, to binary. Fixed states of current.

We communicate more with text than ever. Everything becomes textual. Nuance is dead. Subtext has gone the way of the dodo. The space between lines has gone to live on a farm upstate.

Architecture is dead. We lack the skills to build a gothic cathedral, a romanesque. We couldn't build a neoclassical facade if we tried. We haven't needed to for so long.

The space we inhabit grows homogeneous. Every building a five-over one. Wood, mild steel, glass.

In some ways, as an autistic woman, I couldn't ask for a better world. I don't have to read tone.

Then again, what's to read in a thousand tons of brick, thrown into a generic apartment block, dittoed two or three times, provisioned with surface lots? It's functional. You live here. Nothing more.

There's no cure, ultimately. The dream of pastoralism was slaughtered with enclosure. We don't cloister nuns anymore. Forty thousand Luddites couldn't smash enough printing presses to kill the bastard literacy.

The Greeks lamented the birth of their alphabet. They declaimed that it would cause the death of the oral tradition. They were right. When's the last time a bard sung Homer?

This isn't in the vein of "this is what they took from you" Aryan-girl-pastoral-scene-racist-overtone tradposting.

Every step forward means abandoning some of what came before. I could just as well lament the adoption of telephony and the poor telegraphers who are out of work. I've a historical mind. I look to the past more than the future.

I read Boethius and Ovid more than Harari. I suppose that's a fault of mine. But this world now feels damned. I don't see a future, what's the point of futurism?

[deanismysavior]

Do you think it's correct to call will being gay and into mike 'subtext'? In s4 I mean, disregarding interviews etc. I always viewed subtext as something much more subtle, like to me the ending shot with all the couples is subtext. But all the long looks will has sent mike's way or the painting scene, aren't those text? In my opinion, at some point viewers can't hide behind the excuse of 'subtext' anymore just because something isn't stated out loud or clearly. People who didn't realize will's feelings or even that he's gay aren't 'not picking up on the subtext', they're misreading the text at this point.

Yeah I really agree with you. Season 4 is where we saw the subtext come into the actual text. I really don't consider most of Will's character or his feelings for Mike in this season subtext, because it was clearly shown and stated, at least indirectly. I would consider subtext to be more of the themes, parallels, symbolism, and metaphorical language that's used to convey a message. You have to look closer to see the subtext. Will's feelings for Mike were blatant.