#this was a long response sorry lol

[reverieaudios]

I fully adore Kane's newest audio I don't think you understand it is everything omgggg I keep going back to the part where Kane's speaking in his native language over and over because it sounds so cool!!! I don't know how to describe it but it sounds like a real language?? I know it's not actually a real language but it just sounds so natural coming from him?? Did you actually create a whole language or is it just random made up words? Either way it turned out wonderful!!

Thank you so much, I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun with that part lol

I haven't made an entire language for him and Dion yet (knowing myself it probably will happen someday lmao) but I've had some general grammar/pronunciation rules ever since I started naming various things from their reality

Like they don't have 2nd person pronouns in their dialect, so the "you" is either implied or they use someone's name or title to address them. There's some common prefixes/suffixes for things too. There's also a lot of th's and z's and sh's because that sounds like fire and I thought it'd be fun lol

As for what he says in the video, I didn't make direct translations of everything he says, but there's some words that I kind of singled out and gave a purpose lol. Like "sortem" means "do you understand?" While "sem" is a shortened/more informal version, similar to saying "got it?" (There's a full translation in the pinned comment of that video if you haven't seen it)

[kaelidascope]

Midnight Menagerie Chapter 19 is LIVE

**SHAKES UH OH DOGGY BAG OF TREATS**

This aint an April Fool's joke folks. This chapter is DARK and I wish I was kidding but I'm not LOL

The second biggest chapter I have ever written for MM is LIVE!

Please please please mind the content warning on this one guys. From here on out, we're getting into the darkest segments of the story. Every negative tag will be relevant. For the sake of spoilers, I'll only label the extremely graphic scenes. ALL ABOARD THE ANGST TRAIN! CHOO CHOO

[buwheal]

eeeyyyy, got bored and tried to draw you from memory.

how good is my memmory?

[daily-hanamura]

Do you ever think about how Chie (and Yukiko iirc?) have both previously called Yosuke a disappointment, meaning they were, albeit in part, one of the reasons for his low self esteem

Obviously they didn't do it on purpose, since Yosuke always tries to act like those words don't phase him, always acting like he's very confident

But I wonder, if he were to ever open up to them and start showing his more sensitive side in general, how would the girls react? Like would they feel a bit guilty or something?

Many thoughts... many very, very disorganized thoughts......

Oooooh yeah I do indeed think about this, and apart from Chie and Yukiko, Teddie has also described Yosuke as a "prince of disappointment"/"everyone's favourite disappointment"

Yosuke, of course, also being the one that calls himself a disappointment the most.

So this is just my perspective based on my life experience, but I think that to some extent, it very much reflects the kind of humour that was very pervasive around that time. As a millennial it's pretty typical for friends to rib into each other as banter (see also Yosuke to Kanji) and to employ self-deprecation as a joke, and it's kind of a mark of friendship -- you really only do that to people that you're very close friends with, because it's about in-group jokes (e.g. Chie can call Yosuke a disappointment, but that random classmate can't) and a reflection of just how well you know a person.

It's kind of complicated to talk about because I'm not saying that it was necessarily good, since it can be quite insensitive if you're not conscious of someone's personal issues. And some people definitely don't enjoy that sort of humour, because it's also highly, highly contextual and easy to misread. Some bullies also use that as a justification for why they're saying mean things, which is especially unpleasant in the workplace LOL. I feel like as I've gotten older this has become less common? Or maybe I'm just not as comfortable with the friends I've made in adulthood to want to readily rip into them? But then again I have maybe three friends I'm willing to banter like this with and we've been close friends for about a decade, which I think kind of drives home the point I'm making about how this is the kind of joke you only make with people that you've been through a lot with, which the IT are. I think it's humour that's meaningful in the narrative context because it's a signpost that indicates their shared experience in the TV world was no trivial thing, just like how Yosuke calling Yu "aibou" reflects the same sentiment.

But, as you said, because of how Yosuke puts on an act of confidence, I don't think most people pick up on it other than Yu, because Chie, Yukiko and Teddie probably just think it's part of the bit that Yosuke is doing (Yosuke also refuses to show his weaknesses to anyone other than Yu, but that's probably another conversation). One of the weaker spots of P4/G (and P5), I feel, is that it isn't as revealing about the interpersonal relationships between characters outside of the protag character. Which I don't really expect, but it was really nice to see in P3. So all we have to go on is the spin offs, and I think if we compare Chie and Yukiko's distanced friendliness with Yosuke in the Magician manga vs their expression of reliance and dependence on Yosuke in P4AU, for example, we can see that developed dynamic.

Would they feel guilty? Probably, but they're also teenagers who are still figuring out interpersonal interactions and personal boundaries (and this goes for Yosuke as well), and I think this friction is sometimes just part and parcel of growing up. I do think that if Chie and Yukiko realise that Yosuke does have a sore spot about it they'd change the way they speak with him because they genuinely care about him, especially as they mature into adulthood.

Going a little off tangent now and this is just my headcanon, but I also wonder if Yosuke initiated that sort of humour with Chie and Yukiko shortly after their rescue to help them relax. Yosuke likes to use humour to diffuse tension (which doesn't always work) but it's not hard to imagine him sensing awkwardness from the two of them (they really weren't close friends at all prior to the TV world), so he makes himself the butt of a joke to get them to laugh, and when they latch on to it he's actually kind of happy because it means he's done something useful. (ngl ever since I saw Tamami's clown motif stage in p4d I have not stopped thinking about her parallels with Yosuke)

[cryptidafter]

Lan "I don't give a fuck about anyone or anything except my husband" Wangji...becomes the head of cultivation society?

I know censorship wouldn't allow LWJ and WWX to go have their post-temple tumble in the bushes but there had to be a better decision than that.

[supercalime]

i totally agree with the vast majority of what you posted about shayne and courtney and fans entitlement to their private lives. i dislike that the fandom so heavily sees things through a 'shipping' lens - angela and damien look at each other for more than three seconds, so here's fourteen fics about them fucking. like it's so deranged and so so strange and fundamentally unfair for everyone involved.

it is the same when people want them all to be best friends irl so bad it causes them genuine distress when they say 'we're just co-workers who have a good time'. i understand parasocial relationships and am aware that some are closer than others (some are married i've heard lol) but if it makes you want to keel over and die to hear arasha call courtney her co-worker...genuinely seek help, that's not good for you.

as someone who came back in the buy-back era and who was a fan at the height of the defy shourtney shipping era, i think it's okay to be like 'aww in videos i always thought they had chemistry!' but the stalking, obsessive stuff is unhealthy at best and wrong at worst.

i worry now about the hyper-focus that will be put on shayne and courtney in videos, both together and apart. i think it's super brave of them to go public (also something they may have felt they had to do, given public records) and i hope that people will be able to dial in to respect them and their relationship!!

Thank you, I feel like I’m going crazy, I’m glad others agree!

Bro I can’t even IMAGINE what the “fans” are going to act now. I mean, I can, and it doesn’t look good.

Im calling it now, if the “fans” will keep an even closer look on Courtney’s body now. They will try to prove a pregnancy and I think that will be worse than what it has already been. If there’s an actual pregnancy that somehow gets announced this year, how much you wanna bet that they will use the time Amanda mentioned a smosh baby to prove they were right and knew all along?

If this weren’t Shayne and Courtney, who had to endure stalkers, harassment, unwanted sexual advances from fans, fanfics written about them, people speculate their relationship by every single interaction they had at work, I would have just gone “omg, so cool! Good for them”, but this poor couple had to hide their relationship, hide an engagement! Courtney wasn’t able to wear a goddamn engagement ring, all to protect their privacy.

Im happy for them but again, heartbroken by the fandom once again.

Anyway, all these posts, fights and interactions made me resent the channel I’ve watched for more than a decade so quickly it was actually shocking. Which fucking sucks cause smosh has never been about romantic relationships and this news shouldn’t have affected the fandom for better or for worse.

Im gonna take a step back from the company, at least for now. I’ve unsubscribed to all the channels and unfollowed everyone. I hope I can get back to watching them but for now I legit feel icky, as stupid as it sounds.

I also learned my lesson for good, never ever interact with the rest of the smosh fans, it’s almost never worth it.

[tubbytarchia]

Points at my pinned message. There's a message there in bold. I'm sorry I don't clarify that I'm talking about CHARACTERS ONLY in posts that I don't maintag. I presume if you're on my blog to see these posts at all, you would already know as much. CHARACTERS please... just characters.... I've acknowledged that CC Jimmy is not bothered by the bullying many times. I'm very aware... I'm talking about characters......................

[wildpeachfarm]

sorry if this is random but you’re blog has been so good with having these discussions so i hope its ok i send my thoughts to you.

over the past few days i’ve been really thinking specifically about george’s “behaviour” that everyone believes he needs to “grow from” and even i had that mentality at the beginning of all this however…. i now feel that’s slightly overblown as well?

dont get me wrong not age checking wasn’t good and neither was not being more cautious however those are things i think he can easily correct going forward.

i mean in general. i genuinely think if it had been any other woman in caiti’s place, this would’ve been wildly different (and for starters we never would’ve known about it). the fact of the matter is this was a drunk legal adult making a move on another drunk legal adult. what we now know in hindsight is that caiti is very chronically online, very troubled and largely unstable, and surrounded by toxic unsupportive friends willing to use her as a pawn in their hateful games.

like i genuinely think this is a situation that went bad not so much because of what went down but who it went down with. and that’s obviously not something either of them really knew in the moment, especially not george. and yes there’s an argument about not engaging in things like this with people you just met however that’s a big aspect of clubbing/partying/adult life in general so i don’t even know if that would hold up.

tldr i just think caiti was really the wrong person to ever be in this situation and that’s not something george could’ve known at the time and i don’t even think it was something caiti knew either until after it happened. i just hope she’s able to protect herself more going forward now she knows situations like that make her uncomfortable

thank you for your thoughts anon!

Yeah I think some people are treating george like a serial misogynist or sexual predator and that being his "behavior" when I just think it's miscommunication, maybe not thinking through things enough to ask her age or get explicit verbal consent on top of the non-verbal consent but like you said, things that can be very corrected and he has already shown willingness to correct them.

[plposting]

Tell me more about Antole... their dynamic.. what is your vision soldior

Unfortunately the other member of the Antole nation has not finished the rest of the series as of rn so a lot more of the serious character introspective will come later But for right now here's a simplified list what we’ve come up thus far when taking the two Barbie dolls and making them kiss:

For a simple dynamic they are a Vampire and Phantom of the opera duo

inherit comedy of the two of them in the same room dressed the way that they are doing mundane things

two very dramatic and emotionally volatile men, both with plenty of angst abt lost partners

Descole is the over the top schemer + Anton who's totally an enabler to said scheming and drama

Refer to gif below vvv

[gholdengodaily]

[Reply to] [@book-of-legends]

Mac listens to Sirius's answer intently, repeating it back to himself in his head a few times until he was satisfied he had committed it to memory. After all, actually learning something here is probably some of the best encouragement Mac could give to Sirius, but Mac's painfully aware at how quickly information can get lost in his mind, and it certainly didn't help part of his attention was caught on Sirius's prior comment on his interactions with others thus far.

What kind of Pokemon did Sirius say the messenger was, again? Ah, heck... Still, at least the important parts of the story were there. Mac returns Sirius's smile at the conclusion of his answer with a wide grin of his own.

The air above Mac's hand begins to shimmer and fizzle. A warmth radiates outward from it. Suddenly, a crack! like a can being opened, and a coin appears, falling into Mac's waiting hand.

Mac drops the coin into Sirius's hand without waiting for any kind of response. The coin is pleasantly warm like the air before its creation. A slight hum can be felt hold it, and when the light catches it right, it shines iridescent. Gold, yes, but clearly not normal gold.

[sisterdivinium]

Liking or disliking fictional characters is wholly dependent on subjectivity, but as there will be those baffled by others' attachments, I thought it might be interesting to delve into an unforgettable, uncomfortable scene featuring Ava and Mother Superion to see if the latter's so-called cruelty "should" soil our opinion of her as some apparently believe it must despite later developments.

Let us begin with a quick recapitulation and a summary of what we see when we arrive at this scene: we are at the Cat's Cradle soon after Ava's coercitive conduction there (rather than autonomous arrival), hostile ground very reminiscent of the orphanage where she was mistreated by another group of nuns for years on end. On the other hand, the convent is familiar territory for Mother Superion, her turf, her natural habitat, even, something she would protect at any cost. She is the active enactor of "cruelty" while Ava is its (not-so-passive) recipient -- a woman facing a girl, the representative of an institution facing a lonely individual with no such backing, a believer facing a sceptic, a master and a rookie, someone who once held a certain position and lost it to someone else who holds it now.

There are a number of opposing values embodied by these two characters in this moment, but perhaps, most of all, what thickens the atmosphere around them is their own relationship to the halo: the object which brought Ava back to life, thrusting this outsider into a secret, hermetic order, is the same coveted object that ambiguously rules the OCS, the cause of both grief and anticipation, essential to a beloved sister warrior's death as well as to the aborted ascension of another to the simultaneously prized and feared status of halo bearer.

Here is a dead girl reborn and hungering for some new kind of life, set against a living woman so well-used to and prepared for death as only an experienced, battle-worn soldier can be.

The clash is inevitable.

Even their positions in the scene itself announce it: the vertical aspect of it, with Ava on the floor, her foot stuck in the wall (the same extremity which first twitches and denounces her resurrection after her being unable to use it for so long) while Superion towers darkly over her, symbolically supported by the dogma of centuries with which she is all but blended while Ava pops out in contrast with the empty, colourful wall. The hierarchy is more than clear and, as the one more advanced in said hierarchy, Superion is bound to be the one wielding the metaphorical whip for which her cane is an apt replacement as an instrument of visible, chastising power.

Here is a superior ready to admonish an unruly subordinate, heartless rules and expectations ready to punish someone who did not even choose to be placed under their majesty to begin with.

Of course we side with Ava, how could we not?

She is the weaker link, an innocent being condemned of a crime she did not commit, moved to tears by vile accusations and conduct -- she is the protagonist whose point of view we have followed from the start of the show two episodes ago, whose inner thoughts we are privy to through voice-over comments the likes of which we do not receive for any other characters for the duration of the story.

Superion, however, is introduced only now, a few running minutes prior to this conflict. We don't know her, we don't trust her, we are not allowed any intimacy with her and so the only impression we can rely on is the one provided by Ava's perspective.

Boss bitch, wicked stepmother... Those words are not neutral.

Our opinion, then, is smartly "manipulated" thanks to the lack of independent information we can gather at this point. We have no choice but to condemn Mother Superion, her bluntness, her harshness by the end of this tense dialogue with Ava.

Interestingly, as vicious as her words about Ava are in the following confrontation with Vincent -- callous, hurtful words that stick with us and reinforce our negative impression of her ("a sinner" who "killed herself", an "aberration", a "cancer") --, those terrible words Superion uses were never directed at Ava, not to her face. Calling someone a coward, as she does within the study, might be offensive, but poor Ava's tears might have flowed more abundantly had she heard these other terms being used about her.

Turns out Mother Superion was honest when talking to Vincent earlier.

She didn't go easy indeed, but she also never revealed to Ava the full extent of her contempt. There was some amount of self-restraint and regard for the newcomer despite appearances.

When speaking of Superion's "cruelty" towards Ava, it's "sinner", "aberration" and "cancer" that come to mind... But she never spoke those words to Ava, just to Vincent.

We hear them, we may judge her sternly, but what did Ava actually get from her? Is it really that much of a stretch to understand Ava's forgiveness, to the point where she demonstrates she cares about the nun's view even before their encounter at the Vatican in 1x09 is over, when she attempts to sway Mother Superion's opinion of her by telling her how she is fighting and protecting her friends even if it looks like she's running from trouble yet again?

In reality, what Suzanne speaks of within the red room is Ava's accident, of her death caused by overdose, of how it must have been a nightmare... There are bits of false or biased information given her source, but there are bits of truth in there as well, if tactlessly delivered. The accusation of suicide is heavy, that of coward is perhaps a tad too strong... But nothing of the words exchanged in that moment, however heightened they are by Sylvia de Fanti and Alba Baptista's shining talent, can come close to the rawness displayed in the conversation she has with Vincent -- a conversation Ava is not present for. "Coward" is a speck of dust compared to "aberration".

Of course there's a reason for this mixture we, as an audience, are likely to make between points of view. This was a practical, clever way to nudge us towards sympathy for Vincent and antipathy for Superion, as a means to enhance the later effect of the former's betrayal and the latter's change of heart at the end of s1. Without this scene, both of those events lose their lustre -- but with its inclusion, it seems there are those who are distracted by it and who will still point an accusing finger at the nun, insisting on seeing her in a much more negative light than Ava herself could, oblivious to the character's evolution as the story unfolds.

If at first we rely on Ava's impressions, this scene provides us with Vincent's perspective, which flattens our view of the situation and might lead us to ignore the surprisingly emotionally charged reaction on Superion's part -- which should vehemently suggest to us that there is much more happening underneath her mask of severity.

Moreover, taking Vincent's "side" seems reasonable enough in this episode, but the revelation of his shaky moral grounds further on should at the very least cause a viewer still full of antipathy for Suzanne, even in spite of her redeeming actions, to question whether they truly wish to maintain their ideas when this fallible man who is cruel in his own way has helped cement them.

We could make a case for these two scenes, the one between Ava and Suzanne as well as the one between Suzanne and Vincent, as being only one. Looking at them together is the best method of ascertaining their effects to the fullest extent.

As a result of their confrontation, Ava is left crying... And, at the end of the debate between the priest and the nun, Suzanne leaves the scene in tears as well, if more contained ones. There's a strange sort of equivalence for both women, as the consequences are the same, their emotional reactions are essentially the same and both are left feeling deeply hurt.

That correspondence is perfectly understandable, if shocking at first to those who haven't yet regarded these events with a wider consideration. For, despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary, despite their myriad differences, their power imbalance, the way they are shown on-screen, visually antithetical to one another, the truth is that Ava Silva and Mother Superion here are precisely the same.

The environment, the camera cuts, the authority... It's all a decoy.

If we look at the relationship between speaker and listener, between two individuals who are supposedly participating in the same process of communication together, both Ava and Suzanne choose the same approach: one which negates the very possibility of dialogue, of exchange, of alternating turns between speaking and listening. They are as two negative magnets, irrevocably repulsed by one another's identical charge -- hence the also identical result of both women being moved to tears in the outcome to their meeting.

Mother Superion is, as we know well, strongly prejudiced against Ava when first they are brought together... But so has Ava formed an opinion on her and on the Order of the Cruciform Sword. Both of them have judged the other based on sources of knowledge they see no reason to suspect: Suzanne takes the word of a fellow nun for granted, keeping to class loyalty, while Ava trusts her empirical learning in the direct contact she had with other nuns. Opening an interesting epistemological debate, illustrating how serious the failures of understanding the world through only one fixed method are, ignoring that a complex, multiple existence requires multiple points of view in order to better perceive its truths, neither Suzanne's faith nor Ava's direct experience can fully qualify them in dealing with the other. Both fail to see through the image they have construed of one another, trusting in the surface, in stereotype all the while closing themselves off to genuine connection with one another.

They have both made up their minds about the other party prior to any real dialogue, so their interactions simply cannot be done in good faith -- not by an Ava who doesn't take the nuns or their vocation (or their grief) seriously, not by a Mother Superion plagued by issues of self-esteem and envy.

Another element determines their proposed equality. It is possible that some degree of recognition regarding Ava and their common status, on Suzanne's part, takes place fairly early on, feeding the animosity.

I've been asked before whether Suzanne might not have seen her younger, foolish self in Lilith's arrogance, but it would be just as feasible to assume she might see herself reflected in Ava as well, in her impulsiveness.

If Suzanne might be linked to Lilith through a shared instinct of aggression, then she might as well see a connection to Ava through her indiscipline, her refusal to conform during that initial stay at the Cat's Cradle.

The horror of seeing oneself in "the other" should not be underestimated. It is a moment of realisation wherein this "other" is revealed as not-so-other to begin with as it carries a portion of ourselves in it -- or vice-versa, which only serves to denounce how artificial the obstacles we erect between one another truly are. We can't separate life into neat little boxes of "us vs. them", we can't build hierarchies, rigid orders based on how alien someone else is when we see through the lies and accept that either we, too, are monstrous or that those "monsters" out there are just the same as we.

And if Superion does see something of herself in Ava early on, it's no surprise that she would reject it as well as Ava just as she rejects herself and the echoes of her own actions, her own brashness on that fateful night where her Mother Superion was indirectly slain by her own hand, as a result of her own indiscipline.

That preoccupation with her girls and their safety which Suzanne demonstrates, despite Vincent's inference of her having other intentions when she pushes Ava away, is highly unlikely to be insincere.

Moreover, Ava is an outsider... And, in some capacity, so is Suzanne.

Imprisoned within her own guilt and sentiments of inadequacy, she distances herself from others to such a degree that she might well be on the outside looking in.

Just as Mary can pinpoint this fault with unerring precision and play a central part to Mother Superion's turning the tides at last, so does Mary fulfil the same function in regards to Ava, opening her eyes as she does Suzanne and strengthening the parallel between the two women.

Mary identifies and helps correct both women's conduct as Ava and Suzanne both pushed others away in their own fashion and for their own reasons; the problem is much the same, as is the catalyst that ultimately drives them towards a solution.

That solution, of course, is building bridges instead of burning them down; it's coming to terms with the fact that there is something shared between even those who seem most inimical. Ava and Suzanne are the same, like an estranged pair of mother and daughter who finally set aside their generational differences or incompatibilities, who finally reject the power of fabricated opposition to embrace a much more authentic, honest way of seeing the other as well as themselves and meet in the middle. They accept the fact that what sets them apart is not as important as what brings them together; they overcome the easy, lazy, automatic barrier of antagonism (not without a struggle) with the end of mutual benefit where once there was only mutual injury, lifting the veil or banishing the shame or fear of seeing underneath it only the most familiar of faces.

It's no surprise, then, that their ultimate reconciliation comes through a literal scene of recognition as that in 1x09. Whatever horror there might have existed in Suzanne's facing her reflection in Ava fades as Ava gets the opportunity to be the one staring into the mirror for once.

This scene, once again masterfully played out by Sylvia and Alba, wouldn't even be possible without the previous negativity surrounding their relationship. Now it is defined by what renders them equal; now that equality is not denied and so there is no further miscommunication between them.

This is all reinforced, of course, in s2, when Suzanne opens up to Ava about her time as the halo bearer (thus, as someone who has been in Ava's position, someone just like her) as well as when Ava tells her she will do what she must alone, for the sake of the others -- and Suzanne understands and supports her despite the lessons learned during her own tenure as the warrior nun.

In a world so large and complex, where we are more and more prone to defining ourselves against others as we attempt to reduce some of that maddening complexity, the definitions that really allow us to approach and coexist with our fellows are those that provide healing, that pull them towards us rather than not. Only they can reopen the routes for clean, generous communication, unhindered by problems of malicious (mis)interpretation, and, therefore, facilitate the genuine human connection we all so crave.

So, once more, it would seem that a negative occurrence in Warrior Nun begets positive outcomes.

What we think of as a vicious, savage, unforgivable attack is, first of all, bad but not as vicious or savage as we might initially feel it is -- just enough to affect the very person responsible for it as much as her target, which should be enough of a hint as to how truly merciless this character is(n't). Moreover, it is the first, shaky step both characters take in the sinuous, parallel journey with a common destination that betters them both.

Funny how all of that "cruelty" amounts to a fairly (or deceptively) simple question.

One which, like it or not, prompts Ava to ponder and act, to move, faithful to herself. Her more immediate answer is what we see at the end of 1x03, of course. But the following events in the narrative, in Ava's life, force her to consider what it might actually mean to live -- and we know how that progresses, where that takes her.

And so might we reconsider alongside Ava: our sympathies, our understanding of characters' motivations, whether any of them can be fully right or wrong... If we're paying attention, we shall see that all of them triumph and commit blunders regardless of whatever moral standing they possess, of how central or marginal they are to the show, of how much we might individually like or dislike them. They're built as human as can be, themselves a reflection of our own sprawling, complex world, where most things are relative rather than absolute.

Prejudice is blinding. Identifying and not shying away from our commonality is infinitely more conducive to social life, however difficult it might be to act so. We all of us are susceptible to judging others incorrectly. Even difficult experiences can make us grow us as people in the end -- if only we're willing to find out how.

Now, I cannot speak for all self-avowed fans of Mother Superion, but I find that her presence and importance in the story and in Ava's path is abundantly clear.

There are other reasons to love her, but the next time someone claims it strange to be so keen on a character who was so "mean", perhaps it will be a jolly good opportunity to help them realise how, as Ava and Superion themselves, this person might just be a little too caught up in their own premature conclusions. They are, by choosing to ignore the very well-wrought development of both characters, thanks to one another, adopting the very posture they claim to abhor in Suzanne by denying her complexity and groundlessly seeing her as nothing more but caricature.

And to do so is to fall for the very trap this wonderful show is so earnestly trying to warn us against.

[emblemxeno]

I know Azura and Corrin get a lot of flack for not having shown the orb to the Nohrian Royal but ... weren't they supposed to conquer Hoshido either way ?

Pretty much.

Hypothetically, showing the orb to the other siblings and successfully getting them to fight against Garon relies a lot on unrealistic occurrences going their way:

1) The siblings believing Corrin and Azura are telling the truth. Elise would probably believe them, but wouldn't have the power to stop things by herself. Camilla could go either way in terms of believing, but ultimately she cares more about not dying. Xander and Leo though? Good fucking luck lol.

2) The siblings believing the orb isn't a trap or a falsehood. Leo only entertains this aspect in BR because he was beaten before Azura gave it to him. The other three literally can't use it, so even if Leo does, if he isn't convinced that the orb isn't a Hoshidan trap, why would the others go along with it?

3) The siblings getting over their fear of Garon to fight back. Even when the truth is on the throne in front of them, the siblings aren't gung-ho to kill their dad. Even after all the things he put them through, it's not easy cuz he was their fucking dad and to expect them to flip the switch is to expect poor writing. It's only when Xander inspires them that they're able to do so, and Xander is the hardest one to convince.

4) Having the power to effectively do anything. Azura comments that half of the Nohrian royal army is loyal to Corrin, Xander and Leo, and the other half is loyal to Garon, Iago and Hans. She says this in chapter 23, 8 chapters after the orb is relevant. Safe to say, there wouldn't be enough manpower to rebel against Garon at that point.

5) Doing something that's effectively believable to the player. When the orb comes up, the war has been underway for a while. The Cheve rebellion has been put down, with Scarlet, Orochi, and Reina dead. The Cyrkensia townsfolk are in danger. Corrin has crossed blades with the Hoshidan army more than once. Realistically, what could Corrin's group do to Garon, that also takes into account the war going on? Joining Hoshido isn't an option (and shouldn't be one cuz that defeats the purpose of joining Nohr in the first fucking place), especially when Ryoma is the way he is and Takumi is already possessed. And you'd have to be an idiot to think that Hoshido will just sit on its hands while Corrin rebels against Garon, as if they wouldn't take advantage of the opportunity to take all of Nohr out in one fell swoop. There's precedent for this already, with Hinoka, Ryoma, and Takumi willing to use Nohr's negative reputation to their benefit.

Do you guys know the Rhetorical Triangle of persuasive writng? It's ethos (showcase of author authority through citing of sources or taking care to establish a base argument), logos (building up a logical audience), and pathos (appeals to audience emotions). Most storytelling is persuasive. For your story not to be utter dogshit, you need the central theme/argument to be believable, the logic of a story's circumstances and context in order to believe it, and the emotional weight to get the reader to care and invest in it.

The above "solutions" to the orb issue, would sacrifice the ethos (Corrin sticking to their path, the Nohr siblings being consistently written) and logos (not having the power to start a rebellion, Hoshido canonically taking advantage of Nohr's internal troubles) established in Conquest before chapter 15, in order to maybe satisfy the pathos of some of the audience. I say maybe and some because only a fraction of the fandom has this double-think thing going on where they hate that Corrin gets worshipped and followed for "no reason" but also that Corrin should be totally believed and, in fact, followed earlier to topple the king while there's a war going on. Another subsection also hates Corrin for being a "spineless, whiny coward" so those people might also like this alternative better.

But again, that's a fraction of the total. What about the rest? How would they feel about this change in this story? How can you guarantee that they'd care when you've sacrificed two other major persuasive tools to possibly achieve one for a small and annoyingly persistent group of wannabe story writers? It'd look amateurish and erroneous, not to mention the script's prose in the English versions is already scuffed thanks to Treehouse.

The only thing left for them to argue would be "well, they shouldn't have added the orb in the first place, because it just results in these questions being asked" which... okay! Yeah! In the grand scheme, it doesn't serve anything more than getting Corrin, a character known for his trust, to trust Azura's word. But that kind of critique is useless, cuz it boils down to "well this story should've been better", which can apply to every damn story in the world, and has been said about FE stories in the past. Robin's fake Gules plan was the magic orb of Awakening, same with the blood pact in Tellius, same with effectively every villain dialogue in previous FE games (like Ursula in FE7) that betrays what their ultimate goals are, same with the Turnwheel, Divine Pulse, and the Time Crystal in the future FE games, and countless other examples. At some point, you gotta roll with the punches and accept what the game is trying to tell you, rather than deride it constantly, cuz eventually you'll just hate everything in every story.

Hell, why do you think people say FE stories have never been good? Not cuz they're actually bad, it's cuz people refuse to set aside their biases and faulty evaluations/expectations in order to appreciate what the writing is doing in the grand scheme. It's a lame excuse more than it is a meme, IMO.

[cybernetic-kneesocks]

otaku quirking it up on gaia online

[13eyond13]

People hate on Light for many many (mostly valid) reasons, but you can't deny that he's so incredibly organized and so determined to handle most things by himself that being his admin or his receptionist or his assistant would probably be a dream

[upsidedownsmore]

Hi!! I was wondering if its okay to ask what brushes u normally use in krita? I love your art!!

Thank you so much!!! I only use the ones available in Krita by default and I tend to jump around based on what I think will work best for each piece, but I can give a little rundown on which ones I use the most and what I use them for :)

Here's an image guide with each of the brushes I've used and that I recommend checking out:

I'll highlight my favorites as well with some examples where they were predominantly used! (though in some cases multiple or even all of these brushes were used)

Marker Details:

Varying opacity and size makes this one my favorites for sketching, especially since it can easily be nearly transparent or fully opaque which helps with value range.

I also like using it for silhouette sketches!

It can also be used for final linework, but it takes more work to get to a full opaque and its lack of texture makes it a little less interesting than Ink-7 Brush Rough imo.

Ink-7 Brush Rough:

Really good for linework, especially for comic styled drawings with it's slight texture, varying weight, and opaqueness.

Also good for just filling in entire areas with a single color as well as non-smoothed shading!

Wet Bristles Rough:

Actually just an amazing brush, its pressure sensitivity is crazy.

Blends strokes like paint and can vary in size and opacity.

Also has a nice subtle texture!

Amazing for smoother coloring and shading, especially if you want a more painterly style.

Watercolor Texture:

(hard to show examples of this, just assume that I've used it in any piece that has smooth shading lol)

Not the best for painting/drawing on its own, however I've found it to be really useful when set to white or black on an overlay layer for adding extra shading and/or highlighting on top of the shading I've already done.

I usually shade individual figures, objects, and parts separately, but using an overlay layer with Watercolor Texture (or even Shapes Square) on top of everything helps make the entire piece feel more cohesive.

Also adds a hint more texture!

Another thing to note is the importance of layer modes!

I know that you asked about brushes specifically, but many of these brushes (particularly those to do with effects and textures) work best when experimenting with different layer modes other than Normal. Overlay is generally a safe bet and most of the best for, well, overlaying multiple layers for interesting effects. But please try out all of them at any given opportunity, sometimes things like Burn, Color Dodge, Soft Light, etc can have more interesting effects!

In addition, mess with filter masks! You can even edit where they apply by drawing on the mask directly! HSV/HSL Adjustment (also accessible with ctrl+u) in particular is INSANELY useful for fiddling with the colors and balance of a piece, from individual layers to whole groups and drawings. I also really like blur filters, often times I'll duplicate a layer and make the bottom one blurred to add a glow affect to something without losing its definition.

While this latter stuff isn't about brushes specifically, its generally very important to how I use and experiment with all these different brushes!

Anyways I hope this helps!! I kinda went overboard with this post, but I had a lot of fun writing it! Thank you again for the wonderful ask!! :)

[forzafinally]

What was it that made you a Charles fan last year?

Hey! So my first exposure to F1 was through a few friends here who were very much into F1 and big Lewis fans. I didn't really know anything about Charles till I watched DTS in August I think because I was curious about what the whole hype was about.

The last season they had shown on DTS back then was 2022 and as sensationalised as the whole thing might have been, I was actively rooting for Charles to win the WDC while watching the show. I really liked his passion towards racing and the whole mythos surrounding Ferrari as a team. It seemed like something that was genuinely worth rooting for.

So then I checked the results of the latest race around that time which was Monza. I was hoping that Ferrari has finally got their shit together. As they were in contention for the WDC last year, I assumed that they would have learnt from their mistakes and built a car that was able to challenge Red Bull as they obviously had the technology and skills to build a car that was fast. Charles had come P4 iirc and I was like maybe that isn't so bad after all. But then I checked the results of the rest of the season and well, we all know how that went lol.

Singapore 23 was the first F1 race that I ever watched and I think that a Ferrari win gave me slightly unrealistic expectations about how competitive they could be. However, that race was also a Ferrari strategy disasterclass and I was just sitting there wondering how the hell Charles was staying with a team that couldn't handle two drivers being competitive at the same time.

Over the rest of the season I watched Charles drag the SF-23 to the front row multiple times and that was something that was impressive to me. Yes he wasn't able to match the Red Bulls in racepace. But even coming P1 in qualy is something that isn't easy. I can't imagine Max not wanting to start P1 even if he knows he has better race pace and can make up the positions later in the race. And it wasn't like Carlos was able to get the same results from the car.

Multiple people say that Max is what makes the difference as a driver in Red Bull, it's not just the car. Similarly it is Charles who was making the difference in Ferrari and not Carlos. The funny thing is that he was getting absolutely slaughtered for it by the media which is just?????? Any other driver was being hailed as a miracle for being able to challenge Max at all but when it was Charles it was somewhat taken to be a foregone conclusion. The bias was astounding.

Las Vegas as a race genuinely impressed me not just because Charles came P2 but his attitude throughout the entire race. Despite the fact that Max had won the championship at that time he still wanted to win the race and I don't think it was just wishful thinking on his part - he genuinely believed that he could win it. Looking at other driver's interviews throughout the season, I always got a sense of inevitability. That no matter what they do it's going to be Max who wins. Also if Max would overtake them once over the race it was over. Not many people would think they could challenge him again. But in Vegas, Charles kept trying multiple times and it was that tenacity that impressed me. He didn't settle for P3. He overtook Max just before he pitted the first time and overtook Checo on pure race pace on the last corner and that is something that showed me that he was a driver worth rooting for because he's not afraid to take that extra risk.

Also, in one of the end of the season interviews a reporter asked him how it felt to finish ahead of his teammate and his answer was that none of it mattered if he wasn't finishing first in the WDC. Now that's what a winning mentality is. I don't know how anyone can say that he's not serious about being a world champion when he keeps saying things like that.

Also, Charles also seemed to be a genuine team player with how he was trying his best to help get Ferrari P2 in constructors last year. To me it did showcase a fair amount of maturity and growth and being selfless enough to look out for the team instead of just himself as an individual.

Also all the fan interactions that I would see on social media were overwhelmingly positive which is a huge green flag in my books because at the end of the day not all celebrities are kind to their fans. But Charles always seemed to make an active effort to be polite and kind and just not take that love for granted if you know what I mean? Lastly, it's obvious that his fellow drivers respect him so much. He's someone who is considered to be both a safe and fast racer which isn't something that you see a lot.

Ultimately, he's a tiofoso and a Ferrari driver who wants to win the championship and I think that's something that's worth supporting. I also don't think he's just blindly loyal to the team and it's all just emotion. He has been firm enough to put his foot down where it actually matters like getting Fred at TP and classy enough to not be messy in the media. 26 is not old enough to even consider him being washed. Ferrari has given him one of the longest contracts ever for a reason. And I personally don't think he has reached his full potential as a driver yet. I can't wait to see what happens when he does. So yes the season as a whole wasn't the best for Charles but I see great potential in him and I intend to stick around to see him live up to it :)