#those two are the most relevant to what this post is about so i won't tag anyone else

[witherroze]

So to break down some stuff:

- In the intro cinematic, it’s stated in the narration that this story isn’t about the pirates of the island but rather whatever is happening ON the island right under their noses

- Recruiter CPK states that both he and the factions higher up representatives have absolute knowledge of everyone on the island. Including Martyn, who is a dimension hopper who hasn’t existed in this world before today. Whether or not P!CPK is included in C!PKs OWN canonical dimension hopping lore isn’t confirmed but still worth noting because of the suspicious behavior towards P!Martyn.

- Martyn is interested in finding the “artifact” which he believes may still look like a crystal and is told that Guqqie is an expert in crystals. This helps convince Martyn to join the kestrels.

- Recruiter CPK declares that the first mission of the newly welcomed pirates is to go check out a suspicious island.

- There’s weird purple growths all over the island as well as a tiny purple creature that resembles a sea urchin.

- Mysterious hooded figures show up to the island, claim that they will handle things and that they only need one volunteer of the pirates who they will pay generously.

- Kyle is the first and most willing to accept the challenge. The figures instead direct their quest towards Guqqie specifically, despite her not being as vocal, but she accepts anyways because she’d also like some money.

- Aimsey, who suddenly ran into the mysterious islands depths during this conversation, does not come back out before the rest of the pirates depart. He also does not return to the faction isles the next day.

- Guqqie, who is seemingly assisting the mysterious figures, does not return by the end of the night. They also do not return to the faction isles the next day.

- The strange sea urchin shows up on the Kestrels home shore. It’s unclear if it’s the same exact creature.

- Sausage states he’s suspicious that the hooded figures offered money to try singling out a Kestrel as a volunteer (which is backed up by the fact that they ignored Kyle’s offer to get Guqqie specifically, but were trying to not be TOO direct about it)

- The Pirates twitter account declares that both Aimsey and Guqqie have “fallen”

- There is also still supposedly a 5th “secret faction” we know nothing about. (possibly the hooded figures? or a chance to bring Aimsey and Guqqie back as a “Risen”/undead faction?)

[roseykat]

KINKTOBER DAY 9

TITLE: Don't bite the hand that feeds you

PAIRING: Seungmin x reader

WARNING: minors DNI with this post or my blog. I create NSFW SKZ related content and I know I won't be able to regulate every single interaction with those posts so please do not engage with my work and page whatsoever.

SUMMARY: Featuring Seungmin as your lecturer's student assistant who runs your tutorials and possesses just as harsh a personality as he fucks.

TAGS: Mean tutor Seungmin, oral sex (f!reader receiving), unprotected sex, public sex, swearing.

KINK: Freelance

KINKTOBER23 - MASTERLIST

TAGLIST: @kbitties @luneskies @mal-lunar-28 @kibs-and-bits @aaasia111 @fairy-lixie @dreamingaboutjisung @queenmea604

A/N: this is for all the Seungmin stans out there x

There isn’t any way to work around a more stubborn person. People that you’ve met before don’t even come close to the level of arrogance that this person carries with them. That person being one of your tutors for a class at Uni, Seungmin. For some reason, he always has the time of day to help other people but has an issue with your supposed incompetence in completing a task when it comes to you. 

Seungmin never checks your work, never goes over your answers, discusses your ideas or anything like that. He has a very prickly attitude yet only those needles are only for you. You see the sigh he lets out whenever you need to approach him to clarify something he went over during the tutorial. You see the crease between his eyebrows as the annoyance grows when you ask if he can read a draft of yours before you submit it. 

He never does that with other students. Seungmin is happy to help them, makes conversation with them before class, and always seems to have time for them. 

The difference in his behaviour towards you definitely placed an unnecessary burden on your shoulders. But you’re not one to budge. Whether his intentions are malicious or not, you’re not exactly an easy one to crack, which is why you continued to supposedly ‘bother’ him. 

“Hey,” you approach him after one of his tutorials, hoping you used a good enough manner to not light a fire under his seat. “Would you be able to check this for me?”

Seungmin furrows his eyebrows - not a good sign, and averts his eyes from the whiteboard to look at your paper, “I can’t help you with that.”

“And why is that?” You question. “You had no trouble looking at everyone else’s. How’s mine any different?”

“Judging from your grades, I’d suspect there would be a lot of differences,” he responds.

“I’ll take that as a compliment since I’m one of the top in the class thank you,” you scoff. 

“And one of the top most arrogant too,” Seungmin fires back. “If you haven’t got anything relevant to show me, I suggest you leave. The next tutorial group starts in twenty minutes.” 

Your face contorts slightly, “well since this isn’t relevant enough for you, is it possible for you to check over one of the drafts we have to send in on Friday?”

“Can’t do that either-“

“Then what can you do exactly?” You cut him off impatiently. “Seriously, I’ve been trying to ask you for help for the past two weeks and you’ve only ever given me vague answers to my questions and you won’t proofread any of my work which is what you’re here to do.”

Seungmin takes off his glasses and closes the distance between himself and you, “I don’t help out entitled people like you who always demand things.”

You glare up at him, “I’m not entitled. I was just merely commenting about the fact that you don’t do what you’re being paid to do.”

“And you just keep proving my point as to why you are entitled, because you don’t shut up and you always complain. After every tutorial, you come up to me and ask me for something.” 

“Yeah, just like everyone else and yet, I don’t see you giving the same shit to them as you do to me,” you argue right back with him. 

“That’s because you expect things to be handed to you on a silver plate. Unlike them, you don’t work for your shit with me,” Seungmin responds, placing the cap on the whiteboard marker a little bit too rough. 

“Being here is me working for my shit,” you press back. “You’re just being a stubborn ass because you don’t like me.”

“Well you’re right with one thing,” he sighs.

You roll your eyes and scoff, “fuck you honestly.” 

It took a lot of effort not to just shove Seungmin out of your way as you headed out the door with a fresh stormy cloud looming over your head. Felix could spot it a mile away when you went to meet up with him for lunch nearby after his class too. 

“What’s wrong?” He asks carefully, studying the pained expression on your face. 

“Nothing,” you sigh, trying to let it go. “Just one of my stupid tutors.”

“Is this the same one that isn’t doing his job properly?” Felix questions, remembering the conversation you both had about him a while back. 

“Bingo.”

“You know, he’s probably dealing with things in the background that you don’t know about,” Felix points out, his habit of always giving people the benefit of the doubt starting to shine through. 

“Yeah, pretty sure he’s dealing with ‘absolute fucking dickhead disorder’,” you spit. “And even if he was - even if the worst is happening to him, he has no right to be taking out his anger or frustration on me.” 

Felix sports a disappointed look on his face, “is it just you, or are there others?”

“It’s just me, I swear.”

“Okay, I believe you,” Felix assures. “If he really is as bad as you say he is, maybe just ignore him. We’ve only got seven weeks left, that’s not too long until you can get away from him, yeah?” 

It was easier said than done, because the next round of tutorials that approached in the following week, opened up that fresh wound of just seeing Seungmin’s face and dreading it. All of Felix’s advice went out the gate, almost like it was never there in the first place.

In the end, you simply chose not to speak. What’s the point in arguing with a person who won’t move?

So right after the tutorial, you don’t bother darting straight to Seungmin and asking for his help. He’s not willing to give it to you so there’s no point in lingering behind. As you pack your things up from the table and start to head out, Seungmin peers at you from behind the glasses that you so badly want to knock off his face sometimes. 

He’s not entirely stumped that you haven’t approached him, but he is a bit intrigued. Maybe he had come across too strongly with you the other day - maybe within the past month without being of any help to you at all. Then again, Seungmin isn’t the most apologetic of people. 

“Surprised you’re not asking me to check anything for you,” he projects his voice to you just before you leave the class. 

You heard him on your way out, but what’s a retaliation going to do? Only add fuel to your own fire. Seungmin isn’t the one who’s got something to lose here. He’s just a student tutor who’s clearly got enough competence to reinforce the learning you receive during lectures. At the end of the day, his grades for this class aren’t on the line. Yours are. 

“Y/N,” you hear a voice call out to you, recognising it to be Felix. Caught up in the swirl of your own thoughts, you almost forgot Felix had been waiting for your tutorial to end as he sat in a row of seats against the wall. 

“Hey,” you call out to him. 

“So, how was it? Did you say anything to him?” He asks as you sit down beside him. 

“I just gave up,” you answer. “I forgot that you can’t get your point across to dickheads so I stopped trying. I’ll just go to the other classes' tutorials if they let me switch. Or maybe I can just cross-check my work with their tutor.”

“Geez, that bad is he?”

“The fucking worst,” you confirm.

However, you weren’t surprised to learn that Seungmin’s attitude and behaviour still continued in the following tutorial, close to an essay hand-in date which is what you didn’t need. The only saving grace is that instead of going over the content that you learned in an earlier lecture, Seungmin allowed his students to study for another upcoming in-class test in the upcoming week. 

You spent that time wisely working on the essay you needed to hand in since it was the first due. Then, by two o’clock, everyone started wrapping up their study session. You slot your books into your bag, zip it up, and ready to leave.

“You, come here,” Seungmin speaks in your direction, but you really don’t want to listen. At first to begin with, you were surprised he was even talking to you.

“And if I don’t?” 

“Don’t be stubborn. I want to talk about your assignment,” he replies. He set his bait and waited for you to take it. So you approach him hesitantly from your chair, leaving your bag behind at the table. 

“See, how hard was that?” 

You roll your eyes. Not even a full conversation in and he’s already made you reach your limit, “oh go fuck yourself.”

Upon hearing your nasty sentiment, Seungmin’s hand latches quickly onto your wrist, “what did you just say?”

You look down at your arm in disbelief, then back up to him, his eyes narrowing at you, “what?”

“Say it again.”

“I said; ‘go fuck yourself.”

“Fucking brat.” 

Without warning, Seungmin’s hands grasp the sides of your arms in a flash, backing you against the wall behind him. Out of nowhere, his mouth comes down and crashes against yours in a bruising kiss. There’s no time to process what’s actually going on when you start kissing him back, allowing his tongue to delve deeper into his mouth. 

In the back of your mind, you can’t believe your own actions, but at the same time, pushing back on him also feels like you’re letting some of that frustration go. To take things further, Seungmin breaks away from you for a moment, turning your body by your arms, and backs you straight into the desk until your hips hit the edge.

Your first instinct tells you to lean back while your legs automatically lift so that Seungmin can slot right in, pressing his semi-hard dick against your pussy. 

It gives you the opportunity to wrap your legs around his waist, trying to bring him in closer as you hope for more friction. Seungmin pins your wrists down to the desk, kissing along your jaw and down to your throat where he bites and sucks until there’s a line of future regretful hickies for you to deal with later on. 

“D-Do something,” you stammer, feeling so dizzy from the pleasure that you desperately start to chase. 

“Why should I?” He mumbles into your skin. 

You turn your head, watching figures of people pass by through the frosted glass of the door who could potentially walk in at any given time. In saying that, a portion of you recognises that there’s something so naughty about being caught in the act. 

“Please Seungmin,” you beg for him, feeding into his ego. 

His head rises from your neck, “that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you say ‘please’.” 

You didn’t care what he meant by that. All you care about is relieving that itch inside the pit of your stomach because you know that horny feeling will take a long time to dissipate. Nonetheless, Seungmin seems to listen to you when he unbuttons the first two buttons of his white dress shirt. 

His fingers reach down to your jeans, unzipping them and yanking them right off your legs until you’re just left in your underwear, already soaking through. Seungmin uses the pad of his thumb to brush gently over the fabric which is sticky to the touch. It makes the corner of his mouth tug up. 

“Keep quiet if you don’t want people to come in,” he warns before taking his glasses off and placing them to the side of you before kneeling down. 

Your chest already starts heaving just feeling his warm breath fan across your inner thighs. The anticipation leading up to it has you clawing at the desk when Seungmin starts removing your underwear. 

“Look how fucking wet you are,” he speaks from a stance of astonishment just seeing what he was able to do to you from a simple makeout session and some rough and tumble. 

His comment turns you into a flustered mess that is easily shattered when Seungmin moves his mouth closer to your pussy, kissing your inner thigh and inching closer until he reaches your clit. Your back arches in an instant. One hand clasps over your mouth to stifle a loud moan at the heat of Seungmin’s mouth, the other grabs a fistful of his hair and starts tugging. He doesn’t dare hold back; sucking on your clit, lapping up at what he can to make your entire body shudder. 

It never occurred to you that Seungmin is like this. You’ve always made him out to be some rich, entitled, arrogant, teacher's pet with good grades and an outstanding reputation when he goes and does shit like this – eating you out in broad daylight, in public.

Whatever rabid spirit took over Seungmin, it wasn’t stopping him. His tongue dances perfect circles and random shapes against your clit, embracing your thighs quivering shamelessly around his head. 

“Oh my god, feels…feels so good,” you mutter, using every drop of energy you can to subdue the moans into whimpers. 

Not even the hand you’ve been trying to use to cover your mouth is working because when Seungmin keeps building you up to that edge, you increasingly become louder. But that’s all on him for initiating this, not that you’re complaining. Not when your head is just about thrashing back behind you on the wooden surface trying to syphon all the pleasure you’re getting. It’s like rouge electricity, a live wire inside of you that has no chance of being tamed. 

“Fuck, gonna make me cum,” you mumble, eyelids already fluttering. “So…good.”

Seungmin heard that as a sign to press his face further into your pussy but kept the same momentum and pace that his tongue uses to make you cum, and when you do, every ounce of pleasure pours into all the cells throughout your body. It rattles you in such a good way, that you forget how hard you’re tugging on Seungmin’s hair as he continues to eat you out through to the very end. But you managed to stay quiet – just. 

Your body unstiffens and your chest heaves up and down trying to catch air. The orgasm was so massive that afterwards, you couldn’t figure out what time it was or where you were. It nearly took out every bit of consciousness you had remaining. 

“Been wanting to do that for a while,” he rasps. 

Whatever that means – not that you can articulate it as of yet. You’re still trying to grapple with reality and when Seungmin unzips his pants to free his cock, you know there’s no point in trying.

He’s big in length and has a sizeable girth. He teases you with his tip, sliding up and down from your now oversensitive clit to your drenched hole. Just feeling how wet you are makes him wonder one thing:

“Are you a virgin?” He asks. 

You’re still trying to regain a bit of consciousness, only able to muster a few words at a time, “no...no I’m not.”

“I pinned it down to either that or someone hasn’t touched you in a while,” he responds. You groan at the embarrassment. Seungmin must obviously be that experienced for him to make such an observation. 

“The latter. Now just hurry up and fuck me.” 

“Shut up,” Seungmin snipes, even though he begins to push his cock inside of you at a terribly slow pace. 

You didn’t realise how much you had been aching to have someone inside you. Your own fingers can’t seem to do the right trick of actually feeling full and satisfied. But now that Seungmin is here, slowly thrusting in until he reaches the hilt, can he make you feel that way. 

“Jesus fuck,” Seungmin bites down on his lip and has to hold onto the edge of the desk beside your body for support. 

He’s never felt anything like it. Even after sleeping with other women prior to you in his past, there’s something about the way you feel that isn’t like the rest. Maybe it’s from the fact that you hadn’t been touched in a while or not, either way, Seungmin can’t contain himself when he starts thrusting properly. 

His cock glides in like melted butter, the lewd wet sounds making you want to hide from embarrassment. But Seungmin revels in it like it’s about to slip through his fingers like sand. So he lowers his body onto yours, resting some of his weight comfortably on you. It’s intimate yes, but it enables Seungmin to start whispering things in your ear. 

“So fucking wet for me, aren’t you?” He purrs. “Such a good girl for taking all of my cock, especially for someone who hasn’t been touched in a while. Just opened up for me so easily.” 

No words could ever spring to your mind in response to that, but it causes your body and mind to have a reaction you’re all too familiar with from about five minutes ago. That tingly feeling starts creeping up inside you the longer Seungmin keeps fucking you. His cock repetitively hits such a deep sweet spot that you don’t think anyone’s ever reached before. 

“S-Seungmin…it feels…fuck it feels so good,” you moan right in his ear, your arms clinging to his back. 

“Yeah?” He chuckles. “I bet it does with the way that you’re clenching around me.” 

Seungmin just keeps finding ways to unintentionally embarrass you, but if there’s one thing that he’s learnt about you and himself, it’s that he likes seeing you so flustered. He thinks it’s cute. In saying that, he doesn’t want to get too caught up in things when the euphoria that has already built itself impossibly high starts making itself known.

Just like you, Seungmin feels too good right now. He’s doused in warmth from the heat wrapping around his cock and the way that your walls keep involuntarily clamping around him. 

“S’too much…” you gasp for air, fingers digging into his clothed arms at this point. “M’gonna cum again please.”

Seungmin presses himself up away from your body but still thrusting at his same pace, “go on then. I want to see your face when you do.” 

It washes over you quickly and he’s fast to clock onto the small reactions beginning to change. The only thing that doesn’t alter is the fucked-out look you have on your face. That remains all the way up until the bliss starts packing its punch. Seungmin’s hips don’t hamper your orgasm, not when he watches your eyes roll back and sees the words to describe how you’re feeling become lodged in your throat. 

“Y-Yes!” you call out, your voice echoing throughout the empty classroom. Your wet walls convulse around Seungmin’s cock, clutching onto him for dear life as you cum hard. 

“I suppose that’s why you cum so easily, huh?” He asks, catching his breath. “Because nobody’s been touching you? Poor thing.” 

Your cheeks burn a bright red as Seungmin continues to fuck you, right up until he’s had his fill. Regardless of how overstimulated you are, he can’t stop because he’s nearly there. His hips stutter forward a few times as he chases the tail of his orgasm, getting hit with it right at the last second. 

“Fuck I’m gonna cum,” he lowers his head, watching where his cock keeps disappearing into and listening to your whimpers. It’s all enough to tip him right over the edge and into a pool of warm euphoria. “Yes – fuck!” 

With a few more grunts and thrusts, Seungmin slows right down as he cums inside you. For a split second there, his vision started to go splotchy. It reminded him of the fact that he hasn’t cum that hard in a while. In saying that, you get to bask in the warm sensation that fills your lower half. 

“Shit,” he gasps, breathing heavily. In the back of his mind, something told him that he shouldn’t have done that. “I’m sorry.” 

“It’s fine,” you swallow, trying to dampen your dry throat. “You’re lucky I’m into that.” 

He lets out a breathy chuckle and for the first time, you’ve actually seen Seungmin genuinely smile. 

-

A/N: I’m not going to lie, I kind of want to make a part 2 to this but reader finds out that she’s pregnant lmao

[ao3commentoftheday]

Hello!

How do you leave a good comment on a work when you notice a large error? Or a small error,m I get so nervous to leave a comment nowadays because not many people have clear statements regarding criticism. So, I'm hesitant to point out anything out/ leave a comment that's anything but positive.

I remember a few months ago, on a BNHA work, I corrected the timeline of canon events that author got wrong (because the WIP seemed to be going down that route of "canon adjacent" work that spawn from a canonical event). The author had a message beneath the chapters that "all comments were welcomed," so I thought it was okay to leave the type of comment I did. But I dealt with several aggressive messages from the author and the author's friends about needless critique and how rude I came off as afterwards (I apologized,but I still got messages for a while).

The whole thing freaked me out a bit because I hate any semblance of confrontation ,so now I'm nervous about commenting any work- even those with explicit statements on criticism (welcome ,not welcomed,etc). I leave kudos and such ,but sometimes I debate over whether or not the author needs my comment about their typos. I try to sandwich a critique between two compliments like everyone says,but then I end up with a paragraph-length comment, and I worry about coming off too strongly.

I'm rambling,sorry.

Is there a guide to good comments for criticism in fanworks? Besides not giving criticism when criticism would not be welcomed??

Thank you for your time.

First of all, I'm sorry that you had such a bad experience. I'm sure that was awful for you, and I totally understand why it would freak you out.

When it comes to correcting things in fanfic, there are a lot of things to take into account.

Why does correcting the error matter to you?

How well do you know the author?

How long would it take to make the correction?

There are others, but these are the bigger "buckets" I see most of them fitting into.

If the error matters to you because you get annoyed when you see typos, for example, then that's more of a "you" problem. You can download the fic and edit out the typos and then when you reread it, you won't have to worry about them.

If the error matters to you because you'd be embarrassed if you had posted a fic and there were typos in it, that's also kind of a "you" problem. If the author feels the same way, they'll likely have an author's note indicating that they want to be notified. Otherwise, they're likely resigned to the idea that typos will happen, and if they reread their work themselves, they'll edit them out if and when they catch them.

If the error matters to you because it's non-canonical, this one is more of a wait and see. Maybe the author made the error by accident, but it very well could be on purpose. Perhaps that small change is relevant to the overall plot they're developing. Maybe it's just a thing that they personally hate in canon and have decided that they don't want to include for that reason. Maybe it's a genuine error that they'd be horrified to notice later. There's no way to know.

And that last one is where we come to the second item above. If you know the author well, you can message them and have a chat and bring it up there. I'd recommend just starting out by talking about the story as a whole and what their plan is for it. As I said, maybe what you see as an error is actually a conscious choice that they've made for the story that they want to tell. During that conversation, you'll be able to figure out whether it's actually an error and whether they'd want it pointed out or not.

If you don't know the author well, you could point an error like that out in a comment but then you need to think about the third factor.

Typos take seconds to change. Plot points take hours, days, weeks, or longer. Asking someone to put in a lot of time to make a change to something they've already been working hard on can be really demotivating - even crushing.

For a lot of authors (possibly even most?) they put a lot of work into their fics before they ever get to the point of posting them. They've read, revised, planned, and plotted. They might even have additional chapters already written that are in the revision process and just haven't been posted yet.

Especially in long works, authors look to the comments as a cheering section to urge them on towards completion, so posting corrections or pointing out errors can feel like someone standing up and booing. I think that's what happened in that BNHA situation you referenced in your ask.

That's why the general suggestion when it comes to commenting with corrections is just to not do so. If you want, you can comment about all of the things you like in the fic and then ask if the author wants a beta. That would allow you to have those conversations about their vision for the fic, and it would also allow you to offer feedback before the work is posted and while it's still being edited and worked on.

Otherwise, if it really does bother you, I'm afraid you might just need to dip out and find a different fic.

[bluegiragi]

hello! i'm gira, i go by she/her, and i've been making fanart for the cod fandom for about four months now :) the majority of that time's been spent on the soapbox saga, which is sort of just what i call the very plot-ridden porn comic featuring ghost, soap and konig. and recently i've been working on the monster 141 au!

i'm here to address the reasoning behind how i assigned certain monsters to certain characters, particularly the POC characters as well as accusations of racism regarding me neglecting gaz in all my art :) whoever you are, if you're reading this in good faith, i thank you! i earnestly never intended to make anyone feel uncomfortable from my work.

The Monster AU

i won't post the blog who brought this issue up mainly because, (realistically speaking) i think people might go after them and spam them with hate so I'm paraphrasing here. but basically..."how come all the POC in the Monster AU are assigned animal-associated monsters? Comparisons to animals can be incredibly demeaning when it comes to minorities".

I completely agree! But earnestly, I think my desire to assign every character a 'monster' that was relevant to their culture overshadowed the part of my brain that would've raised red flags about this sort of thing. There's the argument here that I could've assigned these characters cooler monsters such as Price who is a dragon, and Ghost who is a wraith, but I wanted to be respectful of all the minorities in the COD cast by giving them creatures that reflected their culture and personality.

ALEJANDRO - NAGUAL

In the Monster AU, Alejandro is a nagual, which is considered a guardian spirit in Mesoamerican culture. Typically, it's said that the nagual is the shapeshifted form that powerful men can transform into in order to do evil (although that doesn't apply in this case, Ale's a heroic lad), and can come in the forms of a jaguar, deer, dog or bird. I chose a jaguar, since it seemed to be the most common form of nagual depiction in the resources I was looking at. The 'panther mode' isn't pre-established as part of nagual mythology, but since most panthers are just black jaguars, i thought the association wouldn't be unreasonable.

I chose Alejandro to be a nagual because it's so in character for him to be protective of his home. The idea of him being a literal guardian spirit for all he considers his just made sense to me :)

--

RODOLFO (RUDY) - CADEJOS

In this AU, Rudy is the vessel for two cadejos, which are legendary dog spirits popular in the mythology of Central America, parts of South America and Mexico. Historically, they've been known as psychopomps (guides to help humans into the afterlife following their death) but modern interpretation has shifted to depict them as the good guardian dog and the evil attacking dog respectively.

A lot of the minute information about the cadejos tends to differ depending on the source. Like whether they're actually two separate dogs, or they're the same dog just in different 'modes', or how big they are. My personal depiction of them has them sized as normal dogs (although their spirit nature means they can move into small spaces pretty easily by just becoming immaterial temporarily) and as separate spirits that have been passed down through Rudy's family generationally.

I chose the cadejo for Rudy because although I wanted to include him in the Monster AU, i still liked keeping him as a character who was a bit more 'human' than Alejandro. I think Ale needs Rudy to hold him back sometimes, and having the two cadejo definitely helps with that. Sort of like how cheetahs in zoos have therapy dogs growing up because they're so anxious all the time! I think it also does a good job of showing Rudy's two sides as well, like he's a softie who just wants to protect those he loves, but he's capable of a lot of violence too.

--

VALERIA - GORGON

Valeria is a gorgon which, admittedly, is not part of Mexican mythology. However, I was put in a bit of a bind here, since my research didn't really reveal to me a monster in Mexican culture that I thought would suit Valeria's vibe (manipulative, elulsive) and I just felt like a gorgon would be perfect for her. Medusa's myth has her being continuously demeaned by the men in her life and is a symbol of female empowerment, which I thought was a great reflection of the implied reason that Valeria left the army was due to internal sexism. There's also the perfect parallel of how anyone who sees El Sin Nombre's face dies, and Medusa's whole 'turn you to stone' thing.

I thought i could compromise by making Valeria a gorgon but her hair would be Mexican black kingsnakes but...turns out they're actually not that dangerous. Some people even keep them as pets! So I decided to keep the visual, but make her a pit viper, a subfamily of vipers found in the Americas as well as Eurasia.

--

HORANGI - HAETAE

Horangi is a haetae (해태) which is a beast in Korean mythology that typically comes in the form of a horned lion or dog. It's prevalent in a lot of cultures in East Asia actually, although it goes under different names depending on the region - kaichi for Japan, xiezhi for China. I made Horangi a tiger variant on the creature because...well...'horangi' means 'tiger' in korean. It just made sense to me to put that little twist on it.

Typically, haetae are seen as spirits of judgement, that decide on innocent and guilty parties in disputes and punish the latter. It's also considered a guardian against fire (hence the fire immunity and cloud manipulation powers I gave him).

GAZ - HARPY

Gaz is a harpy which, I won't lie, was purely inspired by the fact that he seems to keep falling out of helicopters. But it's also because...yeah, I did neglect Gaz in the soapbox saga. But I think I neglected...everyone in the soapbox saga who weren't directly involved in the main ship. I sort of just tunnel visioned on the main three, so my exclusion of characters isn't just limited to Gaz, it was included Price, Laswell, Alejandro, Rudy, Graves etc.

I just want to make clear that my treatment of Gaz in particular isn't reflective of any inner preference against him. And to make good on that, me assigning Gaz wings of all things was to help me spend more time on him in the Monster AU! I think the contrast between Gaz being an upstart harpy, and Price being a one-winged dragon has a lot of potential as a mentor/protege relationship (and perhaps even something more) and it's why I assigned this monster to him. I really wanted to establish a connection upfront, but just making Gaz another dragon felt cheap - the harpy thing felt a little more in turn with his character :)

--

I really hope this cleared up any remaining frustrations with my designs for the Monster AU. I hope you can see that I never meant anything demeaning by assigning these monsters to their respective characters - in fact, I earnestly tried to go out of my way and be respectful to their backgrounds.

In any case, if you have any more questions I'd be happy to answer them - I'd just ask you to please ask politely :)

[genericpuff]

zoo wee mama, the new Hbomberguy video is a RIDE and it's absolutely relevant to everything going on in webcomics. let's talk about it.

I'm sure a lot of you have heard about this video going around already (it's gotten 2+ million views in just a little over 24 hours) but if you haven't, I highly recommend you set aside time to watch it yourself, I was surprised to see how much he had dug up especially regarding Youtubers that I never suspected were plagiarizing. He also says some very on-point stuff about how we view content creators and plagiarizing in this "do it yourself" industry that really resonated with me because it's stuff I've been saying for years in the webcomic sphere.

I won't spoil the video much because I think it's best experienced watching it for yourself (especially because he's putting all the money he earns off this video towards compensating the people who had their work plagiarized by one Youtuber in particular who's especially guilty... I'm not even gonna mince words, it's James Somerton) but this passage in particular just felt so validating to hear from someone who clearly holds themselves to the standards that more Youtubers - and creators in general - should be holding themselves to:

"I think a lot of people are inclined to protect creators they like on the grounds that plagiarism is a very academic-sounding problem, like something that happens in research papers or journalism, not something that you can do in a silly video made for entertainment purposes. Why are we holding Youtubers to standards? That would be like expecting accurate history from someone whose name has 'historian' in it! Because Youtubers often project a sense of being scrappy, do-it-yourself amateurs, it feels almost wrong to expect them to be professional... but a lot of them are professionals, regardless how authentic their persona may be. Youtubers are now among the most recognizable faces on the planet, and have become immensely wealthy doing this. Some are so influential we literally call them influencers. Maybe it's a good idea to have some standards for not stealing. Maybe." - Hbomberguy, "Plagiarism and You(tube)" timestamp: 3:35:32

Obviously this has nothing to directly do with webcomics but I do think it's something that reflects very similar behavior within the webcomic community that's, frankly, worth discussing. Many people justifiably want to make a living off their work, want webcomics as a whole to be taken more seriously in the mainstream next to traditional publishing, and for webcomic creators to be taken more seriously as professionals.

But at the same time, I still see a lot of infantilizing of the people in this industry, done by both their fans and the people within it, the idea that being a professional (noun) isn't mutually inclusive of being professional (adjective). It's how we've gotten creators in the past like Snailords, mongie, and yes, Rachel Smythe, who are often shielded by their fanbase on the basis of, "they're just indie comic creators doing what they love, leave them alone!" when they're very much not that, at least not anymore. At least two of those three creators have TV deals (though whether or not they'll make it to the screen is debatable), and all three of them have or have had Webtoons seemingly wrapped around their finger more so than any other creator (though mongie has argued she left Webtoons over unfair treatment, it really doesn't seem like that to the people who know how much mongie was intentionally pushing the rules of what she was allowed to post on the platform, particularly with her Sam x Charles smut).

They are not 'indie creators' anymore and they are not exempt from criticism just because their younger fanbase mistakenly assumes them to be the same age as them. Rachel, mongie, and Snailords are all in their mid-to-late 30's. They all have merchandising deals and either have TV deals or want to have TV deals. They've all been given priority advertising by Webtoons even at the cost of undercutting all the other creators and series on the platform that need it more. They are not "scrappy" creators, they're contractual professionals now and they all do not act like it. Whether it's reacting poorly to criticism or using their characters as a mouthpiece for their own egos or even just using their comics as a poorly disguised fetish, they're all contractual professionals who do not act professional. And they're not the only webcomic creators who do this.

And again, I've talked about this before on here and in the discussions on reddit concerning LO and other webtoons, so it's incredibly validating and refreshing to see Hbomberguy put those feelings into words (albeit about Youtubers, but let's be real, Webtoons is definitely trying to be the "Youtube of webcomics", as is Tapas and other competing webtoon platforms) because that sentiment rings true for a lot of the webtoon creators who have practically failed upwards and only forgo their advertised "professional status" when they're under fire for their actions and writing. Rachel is an "award winning creator" and "self-proclaimed folklorist" until her comic is criticized for its blatant misrepresentation and disrespect towards an entire culture, then all of a sudden "it's just fanfiction". Mongie is the creator of the bestselling series Let's Play until she's called out for racist depictions of Asians and Hispanic people in her work, then all of a sudden she's "just trying to make a fun comic" that's not meant to be taken that seriously. And of course, their audience of teens and young adults who don't know any better keep forgiving them and vehemently defending them because they wrongfully assume that these creators are scrappy teens just like themselves who just started making webcomics for fun and then achieved fame and glory overnight (which they're not!)

We should be having bigger discussions about what awaits the webcomic and "content creator" industry as a whole in the future and what standards we should be holding creators and their work to. We can't possibly expect these mediums to be taken seriously as a professional industry if we don't set better expectations for the quality of the work that's being created and the creators who are building these platforms for themselves.

"In current discourse, Youtubers simultaneously present as the forefront of a new medium, creative voices that need to be taken seriously as part of the 'next generation of media'... and also 'uwu smol beans little babies who shouldn't be taken seriously when they rip someone off and make tens of thousands of dollars doing it." - Hbomberguy, "Plagiarism and You(tube)" timestamp: 3:36:18

[david-talks-sw]

An allergy to the Prequels

While I'm putting together a post about the evolution Lucasfilm's transmedia strategies, this part kinda turned into its own thing!

So I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but, uh... there hasn't been that much Prequel content since the Disney sale, right?

'Couple novels and comics, some episodes... but nothing meaningful.

The more I look into it, the more it feels like a deliberate avoidance to touch on anything Prequel-related - beyond the required quota, that is - to a point where they'd rather tell stories set during periods that are Prequel-adjacent (Dark Times, High Republic) than something set around Episodes I, II and III.

On-screen policy: "pretend they never happened"

I mean, this one's no secret. When The Force Awakens had been announced, with J.J. Abrams at the helm, everyone sighed in relief. "Finally, George Lucas won't keep ruining the franchise."

When Abrams had been announced as the director of Episode VII, I remember this cringey animated video started circulating online, titled "4 Rules To Make Star Wars Great Again" or "Dear JJ Abrams":

“Star Wars isn’t shiny and clean... Star Wars is a western.”

If you ask me, those two things are not mutually exclusive.

'Cause Star Wars has always been both, for many Prequel kids. Both clean and dusty, Coruscant and Tatooine. There was never a disconnect between the Original Trilogy (OT) and the Prequel Trilogy.

Even the documentary The People vs George Lucas shows Prequel-hating fans begrudgingly admit their kids felt all six episodes tied seamlessly.

Abrams, on the other hand, said: "I think [the "Dear JJ" video] was right on." Later on, he also said:

he considered "putting Jar Jar Binks's bones in the desert" on Jakku, somewhere, and

he intentionally made the lightsaber fights "rougher", "primitive" and "more powerful" unlike the fast-paced ones in the Prequels.

Later, we found out he wanted to blow up Coruscant.

It's clear he wasn't a big fan of the Prequels.

But y'know what? Not many fans over 20 were, at the time. And when The Force Awakens came out, most them celebrated it as a wonderful love letter to the OT.

Star Wars is cool again. Mission accomplished 🙌 !

However movies keep coming out, and references to the Prequels - if there are any - are literally just that... references.

Sometimes in the shape of a cameo ("hey look, Genevieve O'Reilly from the Ep. III deleted scenes is playing Mon Mothma again!")

Sometimes in a name (Luke name-dropped "Darth Sidious"!)

But nothing set during the Prequel era, and nothing treating the events that happened in that period as relevant or impactful, beyond subtextual nods.

In fact, the trend of avoiding anything Prequel-related continues as the final film in the Skywalker Saga comes out:

The Rise of Skywalker has a secret Sith society that chants the name "Palpatine" instead of his Sith name "Darth Sidious",

the film pretends the Kaminoans never existed,

and neither TROS nor Trevorrow's Duel of the Fates script even try to bring Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker back on screen. Let that sink in, we're talking about the Chosen One, Skywalker Senior, whose sins caused this whole mess... and his name isn't even uttered once in the final chapter of what Disney dubbed the *Skywalker* Saga (or the entire Sequel trilogy, for that matter).

But hey, The Clone Wars got renewed for one last Season! That's cool right? So many stories had gone unfinished and somehow the animation looks even better than befo--

-- oh. It's not 22 episodes? Only 12?

Four of which had already been shown to us, but hey! We need to set-up the Bad Batch series, so let's shoehorn those episodes in there, and forget Son of Dathomir, Dark Disciple or Crystal Crisis.

*sigh* Better than nothing, I guess.

In other mediums: "just not a priority"

Now this is something that I'll explore more in the transmedia post (and purely my interpretation), but the noticeable change between Lucasfilm's transmedia strategy *post-ROTS* and the one post-Disney sale is that:

Before, the games, comics and novels were the main content. After all, Revenge of the Sith had been released, so that was it, for the movies. Thus, a variety of other content was being cranked out to keep the Star Wars franchise relevant. There were comics set 100 years after Episode 6, comics set 25,000 years prior, games set in the Old Republic era, other stories in the New Republic era, novels galore, a couple of parody films and an animated show, The Clone Wars, which sometimes received its own tie-in comics, novels and games.

After the sale and ever since, most of the transmedia products have had only one goal: promoting the films & streaming shows.

So while in 2015 you won't see an abundance of Prequel content... you'll see an avalanche of OT books and comics come out.

Why? Because the heroes of that era will be in the Sequel Trilogy movies. It provided context to the kids who hadn't seen the OT yet, and reintroduced those films to a new generation of fans, while priming them for the Sequels.

A multimedia marketing strategy that ultimately proved successful.

However, it continued even after The Force Awakens came out.

Don't believe me? Compare how many comics there have been set during the Prequel era vs the OT era.

If they make comics about the Prequels, they're limited runs.

Case in point: before the current Yoda series, the best any Disney Prequel-set comic series ever got was 6 issues.

Note: it's worth pointing out that the frequency of mini-series aren't just a Star Wars-specific thing, it's a comic book industry thing. The readership for comics is dwindling, many people are reading scans online, and so no publisher wants to commit to a story that lasts more than 4-6 issues. My problem is: there absolutely would be readership for a Prequel comic series to warrant an extended run instead of a mini-series.

Let's talk books. There have been give or 64 canon novels published since the Disney sale.

Only 11 of them are set during the Prequel era. And even those stories only came out when the planets were aligned.

Almost half of them were released while being a part of some bigger multimedia push.

Example:

Before the Obi-Wan Kenobi series was being released on Disney Plus, we'd had one novel and like two comic stories about him during the Prequels... released between 2012 and end 2021. That's about three pieces of content in almost ten years.

Clearly a low frequency.

Then, when the series is around the corner, two books and a comic story comes out in the space of months, plus an anthology book with an alt cover with his face on it and a comic with a story of him and Anakin in the first issue, all in 2022.

My takeaway: short of there being a film or series that needs to be promoted, you'll rarely get any Prequel comics or books.

And this is OBI-WAN we're talking about. The character who even the Prequel haters love. Imagine how little attention the other ones get.

Gaming-wise, Battlefront had no Prequel content at all (again, 2015 was the year where OT content was shoved down the consumer's throats to prep them for Episode VII), and Battlefront 2 only released Prequel content a full year later.

All that being said, we did seen some Prequel elements here and there. After all, some actors got to reprise their roles, books and comics came out featuring Prequel characters... but there's a catch.

The stories they appear in are set in-between Episodes III and IV, a time-period known as "the Dark Times" or the "Imperial era".

"Dark Times" being used instead of the Prequel era

It's easy to see the appeal of this era. You keep the same threat from the Original Trilogy - the Empire - but redress it with Prequel elements... while also cherry-picking the best characters of both the OT and the Prequels and giving them a chance to shine again.

The situation is more clear cut, as opposed to the complex one in the Prequels. Bad guys are stormtroopers, good guys are anyone else. And the stories no longer take place in the shiny capital, you're back on the frontier.

But at this point... it feels like a cop-out.

When you consider how much content has been set during the Dark Times, it's nothing to sneeze at. Since the sale, we've had:

2 movies (Solo, Rogue One)

4 series set in that time-period (namely The Bad Batch, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and Star Wars: Rebels).

2 video-games (Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor).

17 novels (such as Ahsoka, Lords of the Sith, the new Thrawn books, etc)

And just a whole bunch of comic book series & mini-series (like Kanan, Princess Leia, various Vader-centric comics including Darth Vader: Lord of the Sith, many tie-in mini-series promoting Rogue One, Jedi: Fallen Order, Obi-Wan Kenobi, etc).

There's been so much content made for this time-period that it feels like an unwillingness to do the work and create something set something during the Prequel era, let alone something that follows its Jedi.

After all, why make a story set in the Prequels (disliked by vocal fans) when you can just take the characters in that story and put them in an OT setting (which will appease the Prequel-haters)?

Maybe these stories get relegated to the Dark Times because:

there seems to be a perception that anything set in the Prequel era won't sell?

or maybe the current SW writers weren't fond of Episodes I, II and III, and don't find those Jedi characters likable, thinking they're too righteous and dogmatic which makes it hard to craft a story around them.

Or maybe it's because they're under the impression that the Prequel Jedi are bad. Like, canonically, in the narrative. Not just in a "I don't like them" sense, but also in a "the story is all about them becoming corrupted" sense.

Let's expand on that last point.

Retconning the Prequels as the "Fall of the Jedi" era

Somehow the rare stories set during the Prequels that we do get seem to automatically be about how "the Jedi lost their way/failed".

The series Tales of the Jedi is explicit about it...

... and I already explained why it contradicts what George Lucas established here and here.

You also see it in Rebels and the new season of The Clone Wars...

... in comics...

... in games...

It gets to a point where the Prequels era has now been redubbed the "Fall of the Jedi" era by Lucasfilm.

You wanna know what that period was referred to before the Disney sale? The "Rise of the Empire" Era.

Because - and I'll never get tired of saying this cuz it's factual - the Prequels aren't about the fall of the Jedi, they're about the fall of the Republic and Anakin, and rise of the Empire and Vader.

So in addition to being overdone, the "Jedi lost their way" is not even the intended narrative of the Prequels (if one puts any stock in Lucas' words). It's a minor subplot at best, hardly the focus of the films, let alone a whole time period.

But dubbing it "Fall of the Jedi" implies that there's another era in which the Jedi were in their heyday.

Because Star Wars authors are in luck! Yet another alternative has presented itself in the shape of a new transmedia initiative, and it's even better than the "let's set it during the Dark Times" solution:

A new transmedia initiative: The High Republic

You wanna deal with the Jedi before the Empire, but for some reason you wanna avoid dealing with the ones seen in the Prequels?

Look no further. Meet the Jedi of the High Republic.

Noble, adventurous, inspired by the Knights of the Round Table, they're everything the OT kids dreamed about when they heard ol' Ben Kenobi talk about the Knights of the Old Republic.

That's more like it!

Note: the High Republic was created for other reasons and has many more upsides than the ones mentioned above. Namely, a fresh new spot in the timeline that allows for creative freedom and a beautifully-coordinated transmedia storytelling effort where retcons are non-existent. However it does seem evident that not having to deal with the 'unlikable' Prequel Jedi and their "fall" is one of those upsides.

Another perk that the High Republic era offers is more freedom in terms of storytelling compared to the Prequels.

In 2016, Pablo Hidalgo tweeted he still quotes to authors the following excerpt of West End Games' guide for aspiring Star Wars writers, from 1994.

You can't write "this was the best day in Luke Skywalker's life", for example, because another author may want to write a better day than the one you just wrote.

My guess is that a similar approach applies to how all characters from the movies are treated. They're massively iconic. So you can't write a book that drastically changes how Mace or Yoda or Obi-Wan are perceived overall.

The stories need to be self-contained, disregardable if necessary, because you'll have dozens of writers coming up with new stories for those same characters, and you need to leave them some room.

Examples:

Notice how in the book Dooku: Jedi Lost we never see how Dooku turns to the Dark Side and joins the Sith.

Same goes for crossover comic book arcs of the Star Wars issues, like Vader Down or Crimson Reign... the characters don't really change by much in those comics. You could stick to just watching the movies and you wouldn't really miss anything.

But with The High Republic, you indeed can develop these characters as much as you want.

All stories featuring Avar Kriss leave an impact on her, you can nail down who she is perfectly in one book or one comic arc, both being just as meaningful to her character.

The fact that she's not as iconic/famous a character as Mace Windu means that authors can go to town on crafting an interesting and nuanced character arc for her that'll have a beginning, middle and end... something Mace will never really get.

CONCLUSION:

Back in 2015... let's not kid ourselves. The Prequels were unpopular and Disney is a multi-billion dollar corporation. Opting to make as much money as possible is what they do.

It's the same reason they decided not to go with George Lucas' original plans for the Sequels, in 2012.

I mean, imagine you're Disney. You just dropped 4 billion dollars, with a B, on this franchise. Your next Star Wars movie needs to be worth the price tag. Now, you can pick between two options:

Option #1 is uncharted territory and it explores the midi-chlorians (the cursed word…!) and the guy who presented you with this option also openly admits that a big chunk of customers won’t like it, but he wants this to be done because it’s his vision.

Option #2 is very simple: a soft reboot, that plays on nostalgia that the same chunk of customers (aka the 'boomer and Gen-X fans who grew up with the Original Trilogy and now have kids, grandkids and MONEY) will like.

It's a no-brainer. They gave the customers what they wanted.

But time has passed, the fans who were children when the Prequels first came out have grown up, and grew up with characters like Yoda, Mace, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto and other Jedi as their heroes, aside from main characters like Anakin and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka.

Can we maybe expand on them, flesh them out more?

No, let's either ignoring the storytelling potential of these characters or reducing it to them being "righteous, arrogant and dogmatic".

God forbid we get a story showing the Prequel Jedi in a *gasp* more positive light? One where their POV is more understandable, instead of the same old "we brought this on ourselves" storyline.

There's a whole decade between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones... you're telling me there's no space to show us Anakin's training and how he formed bonds with the Jedi we later see in The Clone Wars? I tried my hand at it here:

Interesting or fun Prequel-set ideas from other pro-Jedi fans on Tumblr can be found here, here and here.

And y'know, part of the Star Wars intent is for fans to take the ideas in the movies and come up with their own stories. You're supposed to create headcanons.

What I'm saying is fans of the Prequels are being given less "imagination food" than the rest, and many of us who like the Jedi in particular are forced to rely on headcanons only. "Better than nothing" is no longer an acceptable standard.

There's a range of recognizable Jedi characters that have already been established in films and TCW, can we maybe expand on them, flesh them out more, instead of whole new ones?

[earlofbats]

Okay so because this post about Harry being a bottom I'm going to give a genuine dissertation on the thematic relevance of sub Harry and maybe a little bit about dom Kim.

First I wanna establish the "Harry is definitely a subby little bottom boy" and is also definitely Bi and probably has some sorta fucking complex about it.

Evidence A. Contact Mike, Guillaume Le Million, Measurehead (when fascist).

Harry tends to idolize and gravitate towards extremely masculine figures.

This is probably due to a reflexive need to feel masculine and have masculine role models in the face of elements of identity that are seen as unmasculine by society and have become exacerbated by the breakup which had to be pretty emasculating for Harry.

Also :

Imma start a Harry's Kink counter here +1 light bondage.

+1 auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Uhm +1 uhh,Spanking? Additional +1 for being what I think is most possibly the horniest thought you have in the game also:

+1 Kim is a Dom.

I think Harry has kept his attraction to men or his desires about men fairly low key for his entire life. The way he conceptualizes Homosexuality in general as an "underground" society filled with whispering rooms and forbidden secrets is likely more of a reflection of how Harry views his own sexuality than how Queer culture is manifest in Revachol. (In reference to the way both Kim and The Smoker kinda laugh Harry about it)

The organizational element of the idea being likely reflective of the way internalization is akin to paranoia.

Harry is also extremely intimacy starved and I think part of that is due to an unmet need for affection and the desire to be taken care of. That masculinity and status as both a survivor and an oppressor was sorta thrust onto Harry, he was born the last year of the war on a hospital floor, given a name associated with war time and survival, grew up probably in a little street urchin gang, got into *Disco* (man I'm sure Harry brushed elbows with the underground then.) Was a gym teacher a good balance between masculinity and caretaker and guardian something that harry clearly excels at and enjoys. Then Dora encouraged him to be a cop for unknown reasons perhaps prestige, money, because Harry has a bleeding heart.

Engage Heterosexual Cop hell for 12 years then an additional 6 single Cop hell years.

And now you're like :

Another element is Harry's tendency to worship and diefy his partners which like man that's gotta be the subbiest fucking thing you can do. I honestly can't articulate all of the reasons why that's just extreme bottom behavior.

Harry is an empathic jelly creature who is forced to handle a job with dead people in it all day and has created this reflexive hyper masculine obsession to compensate for his perceived inadequacy in not living up to the patriarchal capitalist ideal of what's supposed to be his birthright as a well off, able bodied, 'straight', occidental, man.

Except the actual issue is that Harry is mostly perceived or perceiving himself as that, when in reality he's in clear conflict with his actual identity as a Poor, mentally Ill, bisexual, occidental, man.

And it's those last two that end up kind of making this smoke screen to Harrys deficiency in privilege. He can mask or hide behind being an Occidental Man.

Can buddy buddy with patriarchy and take up the idea of a Big Strong Manly Cop.

Something that Kim also seems to be doing by seeking out positions of authority he can compensate for the disrespect he gets as a Poor, blind, gay, seolite, man.

Last of which probably won't get him far because of how "juvenile" his body type is.

Kim can't really coast on patriarchy much the way Harry can. He has to work twice as hard cuz there's not a lot he can hide behind.

Pursuit for control in the face of denial

Vs

Shielding ones self behind control as a means of denial.

Dom/Sub dichotomy.

[moongothic]

Tbh I wanna see crocodile fight someone so we can see how strong he is because the last time he’s gotten in a real fight was in marineford. Does crocodile have haki? Does he need it at all to survive the new world? Like with most of the relevant pirates knowing haki, retroactively or otherwise, it’s kinda hard to gauge what he’s capable of

Anon I am so sorry I'm gonna go slightly off-topic/become deranged because I've been thinking about writing a whole ass post about this very subject and now you just gave me an excuse to word vomit incoherently instead. So I'm just gonna do that. I'm so sorry

(Hey won't you look at that I actually came back and edited this so it's vaguely legible and there's like a proper point to my thesis lmao)

Also I am. So sorry. For how obscenely long this got. Holy shit I have no idea how this happened I am so sorry

I can not put into words just how badly I want to see this man have an actual, proper 1-v-1 fight with someone. Oda, for the love of god let him fuck up someone, please, I c̵͍͛r̶̢͠a̴͕̾v̷̠͆ḛ̶̐ ̸̤͝t̷̟̋h̷̳̓ḙ̵̀ ̷̱͌b̶͓͑l̸̦̚ô̶̠ȯ̸͇d̴̲̕

No for real though, the one, true, proper 1v1 we ever saw Crocodile have WAS with fucking Luffy and like, to be fair they did fight three times, but still, during Summit War? Sure we see him exchange a few blows but it's never a proper 1v1 because we keep on cutting from one thing to another and the opponents keep on changing etc. So there was no time for a proper battle with anyone

So out of principle alone I want to see him have a proper fight with someone (who isn't a Strawhat preferably) at least once before the series ends (though honestly if we could have more than just one fight scene with Crocodile I would not complain at all, but I might be asking too much at that point)

But also yes. I want to know Croc's actual Power Level in the story right now (and I don't mean that in a powerscaling-kinda way, just in a "I want my husband to look cool because it's what he deserves" kinda way)

Like. The Crocodile we've seen in the past absolutely under no circumstances deserves the fucking unit of a bounty he has on his head right now. And I mean, to be fair Buggy doesn't deserve his gigantic bounty either, canonically the numbers don't matter or mean THAT MUCH-- They just reflect what the WG thinks a person is worth, not the true level of threat the person actually poses But also. Croc's bounty has literally gotten like 24 times bigger from his OG pre-Shichibukai era bounty. To be fair, according to trivia his OG bounty would've at least doubled had the WG known about Baroque Works, but his current bounty would still be like 12 times bigger than before. And god fucking knows Crocodile does not fucking deserve a bounty this fucking big if he hasn't gotten any more powerful since Alabasta. No amount of hanging around with Mihawk and running evil organizations should beef up his bounty that much

So surely, he must've gotten more powerful since we last saw him action, right? Surely? Somehow?

But indeed, how?

And that's where we kinda get to the interesting part, don't we? We have no idea what Croc's been up to for the past two years. Like whatever he's been doing, surely it's been better than spending a decade sitting on his ass and barely ever lifting a muscle when overpowering rando pirates attacking Alabasta with his Logia powers, right. Like surely being in the New World alone would be enough to make him break a sweat for a change

But then like, the only two times we have seen Croc post-timeskip (pre-Cross Guild) he has been just sitting around reading the news (to be fair, the scenes were also about him catching the news about Luffy, it's not like he can't do anything else outside of those scenes). So like. I feel kind of conflicted, like on one hand to get stronger then surely he must've been working out or something. But also I do kind of mentally associate Training Arcs with much younger characters, and Crocodile is quite middle aged, like is he even allowed to go through a training arc anymore?? Especially when he's like a such a Proper Gentleman, it's so hard to imagine him to go back to the basics or anything

But also?? How else would he get stronger?? Like?? Maybe there really was?? AN OLD MAN TRAINING ARC??

But also, to be fair

Crocodile did make a big point about how he "keeps on honing and developing his Devil Fruit skills instead of stagnating like some other losers" back when he and Luffy had their first match. So I really would love it if Oda kept that actually true for the character, I'd love to see him actually whip out some new tricks, techniques and attacks instead of us seeing Sables again for the 839423th time

And really he can't really whip out new attacks if he hasn't at least tried to come up with new tricks (and preferably tried them out)

But that was just the basics right, Croc's Devil Fruit capabilities

Then there's the whole mystery of Crocodile's Haki Status. A whooole different can of worms. Considdering how the only actual damage he seemed to take during the entirety of Summit War was because of Jozu's Haki, and the fact that even fucking Blackbeard can use Haki now, it'd feel deranged if he doesn't have any kind of Haki capabilities. Like everybody knows Haki is going to be Croc's persona kryptonite, including Croc himself! And Haki Mastery really is The Thing that decides whether a pirate crew can actually make it or not in the New World (Kaidou made a specific point about that too). So surely, considdering Croc's supposed to be A Smart Boy and all, he knows he'll need to actually figure out how to use Haki if he doesn't want to lose another limb, right. Like surely he's figured that shit out, right???

Now people have been speculating for years if both Crocodile AND Moria used to be Haki users who lost their Haki after getting their asses kicked in the New World. Which, in theory would make sense, since Haki is essentially just willpower, and getting crushed the way they did would give them good in-universe reasons to why they didn't use the ability, as their traumas could translate to them losing their wills. But also it is willpower, that's not really a tangible thing you can really lose, and the idea of "Haki loss" isn't actually canon (yet at least). So although it's great fanon, we can't assume it's true. Like just as an example, we know Hancock can supposedly use Conqueror's Haki but we've never actually seen her demonstrate the ability

And to be fair to Croc (and Moria), the concept of Haki didn't really start to get Truly Solidified in the story until post-War, so expecting Alabasta!Croc to use it a whole decade earlier in real world time would be ridiculous since Oda hadn't figured out the system yet.

And while that is 100% true and fair.

Thing is. Although extremely vague, I do think Oda had been slowly starting to build the IDEA of Haki already in Alabasta. Like we know the concept gets properly introduced during the Skypiea Saga where Blackbeard both namedrops it and we get to see Observation Haki in action, under the name Mantra. But already in Alabasta, when Zoro is trying to figure out how to cut steel (to defeat Daz), that whole "breath of things" and hyper-awareness he gains when near death... I'm not the first one to point out how much that sounds like rudamentary Haki. And like, yes, on paper the idea of the battle was that Zoro became strong enough to cut steel. But also, learning to use Haki would be what would allow anyone to cut through a Devi Fruit ability like that. The same applies to Luffy's final attack on Crocodile too, his punch destroying the sand blade that before would've sliced his entire hand in half before is poetic on its own, but makes even more in-universe sense if you considder the possilibity Luffy might have subconciously been using Haki at the very end, his sheer willpower allowing him to punch Croc.

The reason I'm pointing all that out is that I kinda wonder if we might've gotten hints at Crocodile having not just Haki, but fucking Conqueror's Haki in Alabasta

This is based on two things:

First, Crocodile's pet bananawani. Yes, he could just be Really Good with animals and that would be adorable on its own. But we know Conqueror's can be used to intimidate and tame animals, including really fierce beasts. Keeping in mind that bananawani are meant to be one of the few species of animals that prey on Sea Kings, IDK, if you told me the reason Crocodile was able to tame them and keep them as pets thanks to Conqueror's, I would believe you. It's nothing solid, there's no proof one way or another, but it would make sense in-universe, it is plausible.

Second, this scene.

Does that blast of Ominous Air/Energy on the third page not remind you of one of those Conqueror's Haki shockwaves?

Of course, considdering Luffy was able to knock out Bon-chan with his untrained, uncontrolled Conqueror's in Impel Down (though to be fair, in the Impel Down scene Bon-chan was in rough condition anyways), if Crocodile was displaying his Haki here, either

A) Shit's real fucking weak or

B) He must've intentionally "kept it down" in this scene just to make sure his agents didn't actually pass out on the spot

But of course, if Croc had fullblown Conqueror's that he was able to control that well, you'd think he might've actually used it to subdue weaker enemies at some point or something (though, again, Hancock also supposedly has it and we haven't seen her use it, and if we had seen him use it on Luffy or something then the story really would've ended in Alabasta). So if that really was Conqueror's, I'd personally maybe rather lean on it being weak as hell (especially if Haki Loss was canon) over him having perfect control over it

Of course, just because that ominous blast of air in hindsight might resemble a weak ass Conqueror's Haki Blast, it doesn't mean that's what it was. Just like with the Bananawani example, there's nothing solid here to go off of, it's just plausible

(Also just for clarity's sake, Crocodile doesn't need Conqueror's Haki. I just think there could be evidence to suggest it if you overthink it just right)

All of this to say

Regardless of what Croc's Haki Status was during Alabasta and Summit War, the fact is that the dude really does kind of need Haki just to survive in the current storyline. So if he can't use ANY KIND OF HAKI, I'm just gonna be speechless. Like Luffy could kill him by just farting on him at that point Not to mention I'd actually love to see the Haki Loss-concept explored in the canon. Like either have it debunked, or somehow confirm it's a thing and show off what a horrifying threat Crocodile can be when he's actually putting his everything into a fight (same for Moria btw, if all he has to protect rn is Perona I'd love to see him go apeship and use Haki to protect her)

BUT THEN THERE'S A WHOLE DIFFERENT DIRECTION WE COULD GO WITH CROCODILE'S POWER LEVEL

OH DID YOU THINK I WAS FUCKING DONE WITH THIS POST? NO, WE'RE STILL FUCKING GOING MAN

So I've seen a lot people speculate about Logia Awakenings and what they could be like. Most people seem to agree on the theory that Punk Hazard being the way it is could be a result of two awakened Logias (namely Akainu and Aokiji) clashing. Similarly that Enies Lobby could be where an Awakened Light Fruit did a thing in the distant past, causing the eternal daytime on the island

I'm not sure I'm entirely convinced that's what Logia Awakenings will be like (some people have also suggested Enel's Final Form was a Logia Awakening, which I kinda doubt but okay), it's a neat idea in any case, we'll just have to wait and see what Oda has cooking for us

Regardless. On a mere narrative level, if they're even possible then I think it'd be cool as hell if Crocodile could act as an introduction to Logia Awakenings and what they're actually like. Because, depending on the role the bastard is going to take going forward, it could prepare us and Luffy for what's to come with Akainu (the real threat)

And again, depending on his role in the story, I think he could be an actual candidate for someone who could deserve to be Awakened-- like the whole Awakening State is sliiightly OP, and Logias are also kind of OP by default. So between OG Croc being kinda weak as hell (by current standards), but also him being an experienced pirate who's known his abilities for god knows how many decades... IDK I think he could deserve The Honors, y'know?

Like compare him to someone like Sabo or Blackbeard who got their Logias only recently and are still learning to use their abilities (more or less). If either of those fuckers somehow Awakened their Logias before Sir Fucking Crocodile I'd be kinda pissed off y'know?

The Admirals are kinda OP to begin with anyways too, I kinda just don't want Smoker to get The Honor of being the first on-screen Awakened Logia either, and really that would leave us with like... Ceasar and Enel as our only remaining options

And Dragon, if he does have a Wind Logia (which remains to be seen)

So. Yeah. If Logia Awakenings can be a thing, I think Crocodile could be the perfect guy to actually introduce them in the story (depending what his role will be).

All of this nonsense to say

Mr Oda, please, I would like to see Sir Crocodile in action pwease

And I want to know what the hell that weird spike thing was

Mr Oda please, I wish to see the Husband and see what kind of tricks he can do now after all these years, please allow him to commit a murder or two or three

[kyouka-supremacy]

A little, not very polished ramble on Fukuchi and political theory, initially meant to be the answer to an ask questioning what I thought of the last chapter but posting separately because it ended up having little to do with the actual chapter.

This arc is good. I mean, the politics dilemmas it tackles are real and relevant (or maybe it's just me and loving politics discussion, that's a real chance too). Themes and interrogatives such as whether the eradication of states is possible; the critic to democracy in favour of a single authoritarian leader as the optimal solution for citizens' wellbeing; the utilitarian reasoning behind the justification of sacrificing a few in order ensure the greatest good to the most; the trolley problem– would you be willing to sacrifice five hundred in order to save two-hundred and ten million; the general interrogatives on why war happens; those are all real questions that political scientists try to give an answer to. I feel like bsd still hasn't cleared up where it stands in relation to these interrogatives– a lot of it is going to be determined on what Fukuzawa is going to do with his role of Army of Mankind's leader, whether he's going to accept it or something else. But I'm EXTREMELY curious to find out how the author will answer them and the worldview bsd is going to propose accordingly.

So far, bsd has seemed to me to propose a nihilistic-political realist-nationalist worldview: good and evil are meaningless binomials (Oda in his last speech to Dazai), every man acts in their own interest and the strongest prevails (Teruko in chapter 76), a strong sentiment of pride for own country that often translates in denigration of foreigners (the way all characters from other countries are villains, a somewhat reverence for military police (though other people have interpreted it being exactly the opposite))¹. Such reading of bsd is reinforced by Fukuchi's speech in chapter 85, with Fukuchi's character being made overall unsympathetic to the reader. At that point, I was like “Ah! Of course! The nationalist-realist manga makes of the anarchist an unsympathetic terrorist!” (and I'm quite confident I'm not misinterpreting by saying he was framed unsympathetically, at least as far as his ideals go. A lot of emphasis is put on his role of torturer, and the story protagonist looks very upset by it, which feels like inducing the reader to be as well).

But perhaps I was mistaken? Maybe I really jumped to the conclusion by believing this arc would have turned in one anti-anarchism morale. And even though it's still too soon to say it won't, in the arc conclusion we saw so far anarchism was at least framed in much more favourable lenses. Episode 5x11 and the last chapters have vastly subverted the lenses the reader is called to see Fukuchi under, and it's been SO interesting to see. Because Fukuchi isn't made unsympathetic, and as consequence his anarchist ideals aren't being framed as the senseless ravings of the villain anymore. Which I didn't see coming, and was pleasantly surprised by!! Fukuchi's desire to stop war by erasing all states, if not feasible, is now at least being framed as sensate and even noble; which is quite silly given that it's the same ideals he was carrying on in chapter 85, just with more details on political theory and positive lenses. Moreover, the world integration and creation of an single-state is framed as being a natural and unavoidable progression of history, which is CRAZY to me. I mean, it's crazy because it wholly contradicts the nationalist worldviews I found previously quite solidly established in this manga (which, again, might be just a big misreading on my side but. Wow.). Double crazy because there's about one million political scientists who would disagree with it… I don't think it's that much of an affirmed theory anywhere? If anything, because it's got some pretty strong historical negations: I'd like to ask Fukuchi how the gradual disgregation of states reconciles with the dissolution of the ussr and the objective difficulty to maintain wide pieces of land unified, the equally objective difficulty to concretize the goal of European integration, the new wave of nationalism in the world and new countries actively seeking independence rather than cohesion. In the end, Fukuchi seems to propose this insane hybrid of anarchism and authoritarianism with the denial of all states and one single leader detaining all the power (aka no separation of powers, the most rudimental basis to democracy), which sounds absolutely insane to any sensate person but I suppose can even make sense in the bsd world where there's no end to craziness.

I'm very very curious to see how the army of mankind's leader thing is going to be solved. Because if Fukuzawa accepts it, that's quite affirming that the best outcome for society is an authoritarian, antidemocratic regime. And although Fukuzawa himself was shown to be critic of that much (“Even if war did cease to exist, what would remain in that world is a single leader– a dictator. History has shown time and time again that dictatorships only rot.”, chapter 112), him being cornered to ultimately accept the role would seem to suggest that THAT is the only possible answer. Which is an odd subtly not-so-subtly authoritarian agenda which would be… Interesting to see affirmed? but at least that one *is* coherent with the previous signs of nationalism. That said, again, Fukuzawa was critical of it, so I'm not sure he will be willing to follow through (and I find it hard to image a new bsd where world order has been changed. And with Fukuzawa on top of the world, for the matter.) But Fukuzawa did not crush One Order… And overall the narrative seems to have trapped him into yielding to take on the role… Aaaahh, I'm just very curious from a political theory standpoint to see how the author is going to untangle the dilemma!!!

¹ In parenthesis I'm only bringing up the most notable indicators, but those doctrines are an underlying pattern of the whole manga and several events can lead back to these beliefs; for example, how Atsushi's abuse by the hand of the orphanage director is not morally condamned and even implied to have made him stronger, the emphasis on the great power of Japan (here emblematically represented by Yokohama) as a small country / city able to stand up against several evil foreign powers that make repeated attempts to destroy it, and more.

[a-new-superhero]

Fall From The Stars (Straight Into Your Arms) (One-Shot)

Summary: Maybe it should have been obvious to Jimin, after so many years.

Maybe, after so many years, it sometimes was, if he let himself think about it, let himself believe.

Sometimes, Jungkook would look at him in such a way that Jimin would feel himself falling falling falling. In love, in lust, into the galaxies in his eyes.

Pairing: Jungkook x Jimin

Warnings: Canon compliant, coming out, mentions of homophobia, mild self-loathing

Word Count: 4,322

Masterlist || AO3

Author’s Note: Well, hi there! It's been a while (note to self: when all of your author's notes start that way, you definitely spend more time procrastinating than writing...). I have been trying to work on the first proper chapter of Shattered for months now, but writer's block is actually real, I swear, and it's just not coming easy to me right now.

This, however, came out of nowhere. I wrote it in about two hours yesterday evening, and I'm not even sure if I like it or if it's any good, but I have had A Day and so, I figure, fuck it! Let's actually get some work posted. What's the harm?

So, have some unplanned slightly angsty, awkward Jikook circa 2015ish. Enjoy!

P.S. The title is from the song Stars by Simply Red. The song itself isn't at all relevant to this little one-shot really, but the title fit too well to not use it.

——————————

Maybe it should have been obvious to Jimin, after so many years.

Maybe, after so many years, it sometimes was, if he let himself think about it, let himself believe.

Sometimes, Jungkook would look at him in such a way that Jimin would feel himself falling falling falling.  In love, in lust, into the galaxies in his eyes.  And he'd sometimes think - sometimes wonder - whether Jungkook was perhaps falling too.  It made him feel a little better to believe, just for a moment, that he wasn't falling alone without a parachute, without a hand to hold or the promise of a safe landing, lost lost lost in those starry eyes.  Maybe he and Jungkook were freefalling together.  Maybe they were floating, weightless.  Maybe.

But then he'd watch the easy way that the younger would laugh with Jin, the way he'd wrap a nonchalant arm around Taehyung's shoulders or fall asleep curled up to Hobi on the couch, and he'd remember the hesitance that painted the maknae's face the last time he'd made physical contact with Jimin, just a tentative hand at the top of his arm, and he'd convince himself that it was all in his head, those looks, the notion of the two of them riding an air current, defying gravity, reaching reaching - always reaching, for each other or for a future they couldn't help but hope for.

“He's just a kid,” Yoongi would assure him, on the rare occasion when Jimin would whisper his confusion to him in the deep dark of night, two hushed voices frighteningly loud in the sleepy silence of the dorm.  “He's awkward.  He doesn't know what he's doing yet.  It's how it's supposed to be.”

“But he won't even…”  Jimin would tail off, searching his drowsy, overworked brain for the right way to explain.  “It's like I disgust him.  Like he knows what I am, how I am, what I feel, and he hates it.  Maybe he hates me.”

“How could anyone?” Yoongi would murmur, so nice, so kind when there was no one else awake to witness it.  “Jimin-ah, don't you remember what it was like?  How you'd fumble around your crushes when you were still trying to figure shit out?”

“Well, yeah, but…”

“But?”

“But I was never friends with them.  I didn't live with them, work with them, spend every second with them.  This is- It's different.”

“Yeah, it's different.”  Yoongi would fidget, all sharp angles and long limbs against Jimin's firm muscles and soft curves.  “He's having to do all of this with everyone watching, with a camera in his face the whole damn time.  Of course he's gonna be self-conscious, second guess himself.  It's not like this is the most accepting industry.”

“I know, but…”

“He's scared, Jimin-ah.  Give him time.”

And he knows.  That’s the thing.  Jimin knows Yoongi’s right.  Jungkook is scared.  They’re all scared: of failure; of success; of being seen; of their secrets being torn from their chests and held bare beneath the spotlight for inspection.  He and Yoongi most of all, he thinks.  They’re the ones with the most to hide, after all, the ones who know who they are and what they want, but couldn’t ever dare admit it for fear of losing it all, everything they’ve been running towards.

Fame is fickle, but the team is a family, and neither one of them could stand to let their family down. 

But Jungkook…

He’s brave, Jimin thinks.  So shy, so afraid with his bitten-red lips and bambi eyes, staring staring, always staring, as if he can’t quite believe he’s there, in the midst of the show, in the centre of the stage, on the covers of the magazines.  But he’s still there, standing in the middle of their line-up, glaring defiantly at the cameras even as his cheeks flush pink at the attention.  He’s still belting out his high notes and hitting every beat as they perform their hearts out, desperate, so desperate to be accepted, to be loved.

He’s brave because he fears but does it anyway, chases his dreams, and so, maybe, if he’s not chasing Jimin, it’s because Jimin isn’t one of them.  Maybe Jimin is just another brother to him.  Maybe everything else, anything else, only exists in Jimin’s imagination.

Maybe.

***

It’s late.  He should really be back at the dorm, Jimin knows, trying to get some rest before another day of schedules - interviews and pre-recordings and practice practice practice.  He should be tucked up in his bunk, catching up on the sleep that his body desperately needs, but his mind refuses to switch off, stuck in a loop of Jungkook Jungkook Jungkook and it’s enough to drive anybody mad.  But Jimin… Jimin is exhausted.  He’s drained physically, emotionally, mentally.  And he’s almost certain that his mind’s refusal to stray from the youngest of their team might actually send him spiralling into insanity if he gives himself over to it, and so he’d dragged himself up and out, and now he’s here: in the gym, skin glistening with sweat under the harsh glare of the fluorescent lights.

He can see himself in the mirror as he runs, feet pounding against the treadmill, eating up the miles as he wrinkles his nose and tries not to hate the way the bright copper of his hair makes him look paler, the way his tiredness paints dark circles beneath his eyes and makes them droop, the way no amount of hard work and no strict a diet seems to lessen the roundness of his cheeks.  He never used to judge himself so harshly, he knows, but it’s different now.  Everything is different now, with so many eyes watching him, assessing him and finding him wanting, always wanting.  He’s not a boy anymore, not a man either.  He’s an idol and that means he has to be perfect.  There’s so much about himself that he can’t change, but his body, his hair, his features…  They’re fair game, so much that can be done with exercise and dyes and wax and make-up.  He can at least strive for physical perfection even if he so often falls short.

What’s beneath…  He understands by now that there’s no changing that.  God knows he’d wasted enough years trying.  There’s no make-up that can change how a body yearns, how a heart loves; no exercise that can train his gaze to submit to the teasing swish of a short skirt around full thighs rather than the taut flex of muscle under skin; no dyes that can colour him anything other than what he is.  He just has to trust that, if he can work a little harder, if he can get as close to perfect on the outside as possible, that it might be enough of a distraction that nobody will care to look any deeper.  Maybe.

The soft sweep of the automatic doors sliding open at the other end of the room tears Jimin from his cutting inspection of his own reflection, and he snaps his head to the left to see who has intruded on his late-night workout, only to find himself gulping nervously when Jungkook shuffles in.  He’d been sleeping when Jimin left, he was certain of it, but now he’s here in the gym, soft brunette locks pillow-tousled and broad shoulders looking smaller somehow in his oversized tracksuit, though, of course, he’s bigger than Jimin.  Has been for some time.  

“What are you doing up?” Jimin asks - hates that his curiosity sounds so accusatory when he didn’t mean anything by it, except perhaps, ‘Why aren’t you sleeping?’ or ‘Are you okay?’; hates that Jungkook’s mouth curves down into a frown.

“I woke up and you were gone,” is his only explanation, as if that’s enough of a reason to be leaning casually against the weights machine at 2am, watching as Jimin slows the treadmill he’s using to a brisk walking pace.

Jimin says nothing.  The silence between them feels stilted, awkward, and he hates that too; hates so much about himself and this and the whole situation that he’s scared he might scream it out into the void between them if he dares to open his mouth.  So he doesn’t, turning back to the mirror and continuing to march on the spot, letting the whirr of the machine and the steady thump of his pulse drown out the stifled sound of his loathing.  

“Why’d you leave, hyung?”  Jungkook is moving closer, seemingly unwilling to let himself be deterred by Jimin’s determination to ignore him, and Jimin wishes he wouldn’t because when he’s standing right in front of him he can see the creases in his cheek where it had been squashed against his pillow and those damn galaxies in his eyes, stars on stars on endless stars.  He feels winded all of a sudden, as if he can’t draw in a deep enough breath, and he slows the treadmill to a stop, leaning heavily on the handrails as he pants.

Jungkook watches him.  Waits.  He keeps waiting as Jimin leans down and grabs his water bottle, popping the cap and taking a sip, letting the cool liquid soothe the fire that’s burning in his veins.  Finally he shakes his head, raising one hand to wipe away the sweat that’s beading on his brow.  “Couldn’t sleep.”

“But you’re exhausted.  We all are.”

Jimin nods, waits for Jungkook to say something more, to ask him why or if he can help at all because he’s like that, would do anything for his hyungs, but instead it’s Jungkook’s turn to stay silent and he just watches watches watches as Jimin finds himself falling once more.  

“Spot me?” Jimin asks, but it’s not really a question.  It’s a demand or perhaps a plea for help, a way to drag himself out of the starry depths he’s losing himself in and ground him.  The padding of the bench gives a little beneath the press of his spine when he sits down and lays back, but it’s still firm enough, still solid, still real.  He’s not floating.  He’s not falling.  He’s here, and the cool metal of the barbell is bliss beneath his sweaty palms, the weights either end forcing him down down down towards the earth, exerting his muscles and it feels good.  It feels like something other than weightlessness, so he’ll take it, enjoy it while he can.

But perhaps he didn’t think it through all the way because, of course, Jungkook is spotting him, and that means he’s watching Jimin intently, gauging his abilities, his comfort, how much more he can take.  His bottom lip has disappeared between his teeth as he watches - he’s always watching, waiting - and Jimin has to close his eyes because he can’t breathe again and how can he work out when he can’t get enough air into his lungs?  He can’t.  He can’t and now his arms are shaking with the strain, his biceps aching, failing, and he’s sure he’s going to drop the bar, crush his ribs beneath its weight, until he blinks and it’s gone and he’s floating again with nothing to weigh him down.  Or perhaps he’s falling.  He’s not sure he can even tell anymore when Jungkook hovers over him, concern pinching his brow.

“Hyung, are you okay?” he asks, slightly panicked, his voice an octave higher than usual.  “What happened?”

“Must’ve overdone it.”  Jimin can hear the words leaving his mouth but he can’t quite remember forming them.  Jungkook’s hair is falling into his eyes, starlight shining through leaf-laden boughs and dappling Jimin’s skin, and all he can think is pretty pretty, he’s so damn pretty, and Jimin just… He wants to touch.  His arm lifts on its own before his mind catches up with his urges, and his fingertips are almost there, almost close enough to brush against Jungkook’s cheek, trace his scar - pretty, so pretty.  He can feel the warmth emanating from the other boy and he wants wants wants.  

If he thought falling was painful, lonely and endless, then crash landing, Jimin finds, is excruciating.  Jungkook flinches at the close proximity, and just like that he’s plummeting back down to earth and the impact hurts.  It’s jarring.  He yanks his hand back like he’s been burned and maybe he has because his eyes are burning too, his vision blurring and no… No, he can’t cry, won’t cry, not in front of Jungkook, not like this.  He won't cry and he pushes himself up from the bench to hide the telltale puffiness of his lids and reddened face, wiping away the threat of tears as if they were just more beads of perspiration.

There's silence behind him for several long moments, and then movement, footsteps, the brush of fabric and the creak of the bench under new weight.  

“Spot me now, hyung.”

It doesn't make sense.  That's Jimin's first reaction and his second and his third, because Jungkook just watched his arms almost give out, had to save Jimin from weeks of pain and bruising by plucking the barbell from his grasp just as his strength was about to fail him, so why on earth would he trust Jimin to spot him now?  But his fourth reaction is, of course, to do as the other boy asks, because when could he ever say no to Jungkook after all, and he turns and takes up his position at the maknae's head.

He watches, swallowing hard when Jungkook’s hands wrap around the metal where his own had just been, wonders if he can still feel traces of Jimin's body heat beneath his fingers.  Jungkook adjusts his position, shifting on the bench, and then he lifts and Jimin can see the tendons in his neck strain as he bears the weight.  

“Hyung, can I ask you something?”  He's barely done a rep when he starts talking, starry eyes fixed somewhere far above them.  

“Just focus on lifting, Kook-ah,” Jimin tells him, but the younger just grits his teeth, lowering the bar almost to his chest before heaving it towards the ceiling once again.  He used to be such a scrawny kid, Jimin thinks, cute but lanky, like a string bean.  Not anymore.  He's growing up, his body changing, broadening, and it suits him.  It suits him far too well.

“I wanted to ask…” A pause, another rep, and then, “Jin-hyung said I should just ask.  I was talking to him about it but,” - another rep - “well, he couldn't really help me.”

“Help you with what?”  

Jungkook looks more at ease now that he's into the rhythm of his lifts, or perhaps he's just too distracted by the conversation to notice the strain anymore.  Perhaps he's showing off, just a little, after Jimin's pathetic attempt.  “With…  Well, the thing is…”

“Spit it out, Jungkook-ah.”  Jimin forces back a wince at the bite to his tone, but he’s growing agitated, his mind filled once again with Jungkook Jungkook Jungkook when the whole point of coming here was to drive those thoughts away.

“Hyung…”  Jungkook sucks in a deep breath, and Jimin notices a tremble in his hands, so slight he may have missed it had he not been focusing so intently.  “Hyung, do you like boys?”

Jimin's first instinct is to laugh.  He's not entirely sure why - habit, perhaps, or hysteria.  He feels the corners of his mouth twitch, air escaping from his nose in a soft huff of amusement, but then Jungkook's gaze settles on him, seemingly studying him upside down, and Jimin is sure he can see right through him, right down to his heart and soul, so what's the point really?  And, more than that, what's the harm?  He can trust Jungkook, he's sure of it.

“Why'd you ask?” Jimin hedges, buying himself a little time to think - he just needs to think - and Jungkook is still watching him, his joints locked with his arms extended and the weights raised above him.  

“Jin-hyung… He said he thought you might; thought Yoongi-hyung might too.  But he wasn't sure.  And I just wanted to be sure.”

“But why?”  There's that tremor again in Jungkook's hands, and this time Jimin reaches out, takes the barbell from him and sets it back down, anything to distract himself from that look in Jungkook's eyes.  He doesn't know that look, can't read it, and it's setting him on edge.

Jungkook sighs, long and heavy, as if, now that Jimin's taken the weight from him, he's left with the weight of the world bearing down on him instead.  He looks small in that moment, shoulders hunched, and Jimin's reminded of the boy he used to be, so cute and so so lost.  “Because I do,” he says and he's almost whispering but it sounds loud, so loud, in the empty gym.  “I think I do and I just need to know I'm not alone.”

Jimin is silent.  He's not watching this time though, or waiting.  He's reeling.  Because he'd thought and he'd hoped, and he'd wondered if maybe he was just seeing what he wanted to see, despite Yoongi thinking so too and agreeing and being absolutely certain.  And he trusted Yoongi’s judgement above all else, he really did, but he hadn't quite let himself trust his hyung this time because if he'd been wrong… If he'd been wrong…

But he wasn't wrong and now Jungkook is looking at Jimin, galaxies swirling with equal parts hope and terror and Jimin's mouth won't work and so all he can do is sink down beside the younger boy on the bench and hope that their arms pressing together provides some level of comfort.

The silence is suffocating.  Jimin wants to break it, wants to reassure Jungkook and confess to him and wrap his larger frame up in his arms and tell him that he's there for him and that it's all going to be okay, but he's worried - that it might be too much all at once and he's not sure he knows how to be anything but too much right now.  So, instead, he clears his throat and asks, “Why me?”

“M’sorry?” Jungkook mumbles, shooting Jimin a sideways glance full of confusion.

“Why are you talking to me?  Why not Yoongi-hyung?”

Jungkook thinks for a moment, then shrugs, shakes his head, sighs again.  “You didn't answer the question,” he points out, a slight challenge to his tone.  “Answer my question first, and then maybe I'll answer yours.”

The gym floor is linoleum, yellowing, with small cracks criss-crossing the expanse and faded patches beside each machine where hundreds of feet have worn it away over the years.  If Jimin squints, he's sure that he can make out words in some of the marks, just like he would make out shapes in the clouds on a summer's day.  His sneaker leaves a black scuff mark behind when he drags it over the aged surface with a high-pitched squeak.  

“Yes,” he says, when the moment has dragged on too long and he realises he has no choice but to be honest, because he wants to hear what Jungkook has to say, needs to hear it like he needs oxygen in his lungs.  “Yes, I like boys.”

“You never told any of us?”

“Didn't come up,” Jimin explains with a shrug, though he knows there have been ample opportunities should he have wanted to take them.  “Yoongi-hyung knows.  Only Yoongi-hyung.  I'm sure some of the others think… I mean, obviously Jin-hyung does.  But I've never actually…  I mean, it's hard, y’know?  You never know how people are gonna react.”

“Idols can't be gay,” Jungkook states, matter of fact despite the fact that Jimin's sure the conflict is tearing him in two.  It certainly had Jimin.  He isn't sure he'd have managed to put the pieces back together, make them somehow fit without Yoongi's wisdom.  Sometimes he forgets that his hyung is only 2 years older than him because he just deals, he copes and he doesn't falter, and Jimin has needed that more than anything else as he's come to terms with himself and tried to reconcile his heart and his dreams.  He hopes that Jin has managed to do that for Jungkook, at least a little, but he's not sure it's possible for anybody who hasn't been through the struggle to really understand.

He looks at Jungkook now, huddled in his too-big sweatshirt, wide eyes fixed on his fingers as he twists them together, and his heart bleeds and bleeds and bleeds.

“Your turn,” Jimin says, clearing his throat when his voice comes out a little thick, a little too full to the brim with raw emotion.  He hopes that Jungkook won't notice.

Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't.  Maybe he's too caught up in his own thoughts, his own insecurities, to register it.  His lips are chapped and red, moving wordlessly as if he's running lines inside his head, and Jimin wants to rub the pad of his thumb over the bottom one, soothe the sting that he knows all too well comes from gnawing on it endlessly.  He tucks his hands beneath his thighs in case his urges should take over again, doesn't want to make Jungkook uncomfortable - more uncomfortable.

Jungkook stays silent, his mouth stilling, eyes hazy and unfocused as he continues to gaze down at his hands, and Jimin's about to tell him it doesn't matter, that he doesn't need an answer, even though he does.  He needs needs needs so badly, but he also cares, and he doesn't want to pressure Jungkook when this has already been so hard for him, so intense.  And then the younger boy speaks, his voice so quiet that Jimin has to strain to hear him.

“I- I wanted to talk to you.  I thought about going to Yoongi-hyung, thought he'd be… I don't know… More practical about it.  Better at giving advice maybe?” He pauses, shrugs.  “But then I realised I don't… I don't really care if Yoongi-hyung’s gay.  It doesn't matter to me whether or not he likes boys, or whether he likes girls or both.  I don't… I don't think I need to know.”

A lump has formed in Jimin's throat and he can't swallow it down, can't shift it, can't speak.  He's not sure he wants to speak, feels like he should, but what if this isn't what he thinks it is, what he hopes it might be?  What if he's wrong and he says the wrong thing and it goes wrong wrong wrong?  He couldn't stand it, couldn't…

But Jungkook's still talking, still not looking at Jimin and Jimin just needs to see the stars.

“I wanted to talk to you, hyung.  I realised that… that it bugs me that I don't know who you like.  I don't know why but it does.  Jin-hyung said he thought you were, and it put the idea in my head, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.  I just… I just know that it matters to me if you're gay.  I needed to know.”

“And now you do,” Jimin rasps because he's found his voice, finally, but that lump in his throat is still there.  “Now you know.”

“Now I know.”  Jungkook nods slowly, taking it in, and then he turns to Jimin, meets his gaze and Jimin almost whimpers.  Because he can see the stars now, those galaxies that he finds it so easy to get lost in, and they're on fire, blazing bright, endless and beautiful and burning burning burning. Jimin’s cheeks are burning too, set aflame by the intensity in Jungkook's eyes, and he knows he's falling, a meteor hurtling through space, on course for collision and eruption and heat heat heat.  “I'm not…” Jungkook starts, stops, tries again.  “This is new.  I can't… I'm not ready to-”

“It's okay,” Jimin cuts him off, surprised by how steady he sounds, how sure.  “You don't have to be.  We've got time.”

Jungkook nods again and Jimin swallows hard, finally letting his urges take over again as he frees one of his hands and lets it cover Jungkook's, tangling their fingers together and staring in fascination at how the younger’s fingers seem to dwarf his own.

“I'm scared,” Jungkook whispers.

“You're brave,” Jimin whispers back, and Jungkook squeezes his hand, bringing their palms together.  Warm, Jimin thinks.  Warm warm warm.  Warm hands, warm smile, warm heart.  Everything about this boy is warm, but the fire in his eyes is blazing hot.

***

Maybe it should have been obvious to Jimin, after so many years.

Maybe, after so many years, it sometimes was, if he let himself think about it, let himself believe.

Sometimes, Jungkook would look at him in such a way that Jimin would feel himself falling falling falling.  In love, in lust, into the galaxies in his eyes.  And he'd sometimes think - sometimes wonder - whether Jungkook was perhaps falling too.

Now though, he knows.  Jimin is falling, hard and fast and endless, hurtling through space.  But he isn't afraid.  He is in awe.  Because he’s amongst the stars, so high above the ground and surrounded by so much beauty, raw and timeless and hot hot hot.  And maybe, just maybe, the stars are falling too - into him, around him, for him, constellations collapsing and being born again, starting anew but always beautiful, always brilliant, shooting across a vast black sky and painting pictures against the mundanity.  Jimin thinks, if he squints, he can make out a vision of the future in the patterns they paint, just like he would make out shapes in the clouds on a summer's day.  Two figures shifting and dancing and together together, always together.  Collapsing and being born again, starting anew but always beautiful, always brilliant.

And he thinks, maybe, that's exactly what the future has in store for him, for Jungkook too, the both of them, together.  

It's too early to say, but maybe.

Just maybe.

——————————

Feedback is golden! Don't be shy! And holler at me if you'd like to be added to my tag list 🖤 Thank you so much for reading!

[donnerpartyofone]

I'm sure @staff has kind of a lot on their plate right now but while I'm thinking of it, this would be nice to have:

Add a Fandom community label. Or a dedicated universal tag, or a box you can check during post creation, or just anything that has the ultimate effect of allowing users to filter fan content.

This could at-least-slightly ameliorate problems with the search.

I have come into acceptance of the fact that fixing the notoriously dysfunctional search, even on individual blogs, is just way, way, way out of scope for some reason. Tumblr must know that a functional search would radically increase engagement, so I assume that the persistence of this glaring problem means that there is simply no way to fix it. I tell myself that "search" really just means "give me a handful of related suggestions" and not "show me every instance of X". I am learning to live with this.

What compounds this issue is that there is no way to separate fan content from content directly related to your search terms.

EXAMPLE: I search for a popular movie, and the results are so overburdened with people's personal stories and drawings that it's impossible for me to find anything actually related to the film. I give up quickly and Tumblr loses engagement from both me and the people who post screencaps/gifs/music/production info/etc.

EXAMPLE: I'm searching for something--anything--but my commonplace search term happens to be related to a very specific fandom. Perhaps I have never even heard of this fandom. But after scrolling through yards and yards of fan fiction, I have to give up, and Tumblr loses engagement from me and also whoever is posting about the actual thing I wanted.

OTHER NEGATIVE EFFECTS:

1. I stopped tracking ALL tags because they were constantly serving me fan content. I haven't bothered with tags for years because of this.

2. I blocked tons of innocent users because I couldn't avoid seeing their fan content; in order to stop seeing it, I have to sacrifice our entire ability to interact. I'm not alone there, sometimes I even see a note about this in someone's header ("Sorry you're blocked, it's probably because Tumblr won't stop showing me your fan art").

All of these scenarios happen to me and other users all the time and we have been vocally complaining about this. And I know Tumblr has rebranded itself as the fandom app in recent years, but I would say that even a fandom person still wants to see i.e. actual movie & TV show stuff and not just other people's drawings and stories.

So basically Tumblr has two big, related problems: Search doesn't really work AND is clogged with fan content that drowns out everything else.

BUT what if we could just have ONE problem? What if the search had a toggle that includes or excludes fan content. Then even if the search only gives me limited results, I can improve those results by making sure they are ONLY related directly to the thing I want. This would make the Tumblr search instantly, hugely more useful and I would do way more with it, way more often.

Maybe it could even work both ways, like I can choose to ONLY see fan content for a given search term, fandom folks would probably have a use for that. But the main thing for me is that even if search functionality is unfixably limited, I could refine the limited results and get only the most relevant stuff by excluding one common piece of metadata. Problem not-solved, but significantly reduced!

[lets-try-some-writing]

In the grim dark archives what would happen if the kids died? Whether it was by the autobots or some outside threat. I vaguely remember you posting something a little more in depth regarding the kids but heaven forbid I can ever find anything with Tumblr’s horrible searching system. So correct me if I’m wrong

But I remember you said Optimus specifically needed Raf for something. So if he dies we might have an issue

But Jack and Miko are solely there to keep their respective bots occupied. So if those two died would they just replace them with kids who looked similar enough and prayed the bots didnt notice?

The Grim Dark Archives: Transcript #003 Hypothetical

[Transcript taken [Redacted: Sensitive data] from [REDACTED] after concerns regarding the children were raised by personnel and the higher ups. I decided to ask [REDACTED] a few questions about a hypothetical where the children perished.

It was mostly for my own sake, so I decided to keep it all as a transcript. The higher ups don't read transcripts as often since they technically aren't official.

Transcript begins.]

══════════════════

Agent Witwicky: The children... what would happen if they died? [REDACTED]: Rafael won't die. Prime won't allow it. He's going to join the Archive soon enough. The Archive protects its own. Agent Witwicky: Then the other two. What about them? [REDACTED]: Let's not get it twisted. Miko will die. She's with Bulkhead. He will kill her eventually, probably in a fit of boredom. Jack will likely expire at some point too. Arcee doesn't know how to care for squishies like you lot. Agent Witwicky: Answer the question. [REDACTED]: Dang, harsh crowd here tonight. [REDACTED]: Miko will get replaced. Simple as that. It isn't hard to find a rambunctious kid on this planet of yours, especially since your culture is swimming in media that paints alien lifeforms in a positive happy go lucky light. Agent Witwicky: So Bulkhead doesn't care about her? [REDACTED]: I wouldn't say that. To him, I can only assume he views her like how you humans may see a pet goldfish. He will take care of her, but when she expires, he will get rid of her and move on quickly. Agent Witwicky: How long do you think she has until she... expires? [REDACTED]: Hard to tell. Wreckers take pets a lot. Some care for them properly, others don't. I didn't exactly take the time to get to know the Wrecker units since I valued life. Agent Witwicky: Right... and Jack? [REDACTED]: If he dies and Arcee fails to bond to another human, Arcee will likely be executed shortly after the boy's death. Prime keeps Arcee around simply because she's vicious and because it invokes fear in the enemy. Agent Witwicky: He isn't concerned about eliminating a threat then. [REDACTED]: Exactly. I think there is a core element most miss when it comes to Prime. Everything he does is two sided. Agent Witwicky: That's not surprising. [REDACTED]: No its not. But what I mean by that is, well, he's not the mech I knew. When he joined the Archive, he was still a mech that I could recognize. Now though? It's like someone else is walking in his frame, and that person thinks this whole war is FUN. Agent Witwicky: Can you confirm that? [REDACTED]: No. I have my theories, but they aren't relevant right now. For the time being, just know that when those two kids expire, Prime will find replacements for them or for Arcee.

══════════════════

[Transcript ends.

The more I hear about the Autobots, the more my childhood dream of being friends with aliens dies. Prime is terrifying and I haven't even met him in person before. I don't think I want to. If he is as [REDACTED] says, then we are better off hoping that this Megatron character kills him soon.

Agent Witwicky signing off.

Recording end.]

[guacamoleroll]

𝖆𝖓 𝖆𝖓𝖆𝖑𝖞𝖘𝖎𝖘 𝖔𝖋 𝖋𝖞𝖔𝖉𝖔𝖗'𝖘 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍 ⋆⭒˚｡⋆

author's note. i apologize for the post being made much later that i intended. i won't delve into the details, but these past weeks have been either busy, stress-inducing, or both. it's been difficult over on my side of the screen, but with the time on my hands, i wanted to finish these thoughts, so here it is!

There are many details of Fyodor Dostoevsky's supposed "death" to theorize about in a canonical way, with plenty of creators using that approach to speculate. However, that is not the main point of my discussion. Rather, I wanted to explain my thoughts as a writer and the importance and relevance Fyodor's "death" could have on the plot and series as a whole.

There will be a series of questions throughout this post, so be prepared to think!

Here is my first question: does Fyodor's death seem anticlimactic, sudden, or out of place?

If your answer is "yes," you're not alone! It might be hard to put your finger on the why. Weird, isn't it—that a moment that had seemed so built-up to seems so strange. If this is the moment that is meant to serve as Fyodor's final scene, the end of his character arc, why does it not feel right? 

Those questions are where a writer's lens can come in handy.

And there's a fairly simple answer—it's not supposed to feel right. Because this isn't an end, though, there are different paths the narrative can go down (but I'll speak to that in a moment). 

As an audience, we have been left with more questions than answers and more loose threads than ever before. What is Fyodor's ability? What is Fyodor's background? What is Fyodor himself? And the reason these questions are so important is because Asagiri has indirectly shown us their importance. We observe characters speculate these questions time and time again, only to come up inconclusive. It causes us to speculate. And neither the characters nor ourselves, as the audience, has come to any answers. 

This series is not known for leaving loose threads at the conclusion of a character's arc. When a major character officially dies or has retired from the spotlight on the screen, it has always followed a conclusion to the questions that surrounded them. And if a major character dies, it always serves a greater purpose. But because Fyodor has not been concluded properly as a character, his "death" feels wonky.

This leads to a split decision to make—whether to conclude him following his "death" or to conclude him while he is alive. I'll address the latter first.

There are multiple ways to approach an official Fyodor death, whether that is to reveal the answers to his identity through characters like Sigma and the next antagonists or something entirely different. But that does lead me to my next question. If he is dead, what is the point of revealing the answers to these questions? What would be the point of revealing an ability if it had no effect on the narrative further down the line? The answer is there wouldn't be one. It would be pointless, like slapping duct tape on a crack. In many ways, it would seem like a rush job, a last-ditch effort to conclude a character that has no point in the plot going forward.

So, in some way, Fyodor will have an effect on the rest of the plot, even if he isn't alive to see it.

But I'm a bit biased, and personally, I don't find that to be the most dramatic, nor the most satisfying conclusion to his character. So let's discuss the path if Fyodor is alive—not how, but why would he be?

To clarify one point, on the surface, Fyodor's death makes sense. It is the peak of the Meursault battle between him an Dazai, with perfection versus spontaneity, and trust versus suspicion. It makes sense for this to be the mental conclusion to the philosophical arguments these two have been having over the course of several chapters and episodes. But Fyodor isn't simply tied to Dazai's character—in proper character, he is tied to many other plot points and people. So he isn't done just yet.

The question here is why would Fyodor be killed off in the first place, only to be brought back later? Why not have him escape, but still evidently be alive?

And I have a question of my own: wouldn't an audience grow tired of having the same villain for many consecutive volumes and seasons? The answer is almost always yes, even if the villain is a fantastic character. 

The answer to the former question, the question of why, could be quite simple—intrigue. If he's alive, for the sake of the story, he still needs to be offscreen. To kill him is to allow him to become a background player once more, looming over the world while we stare into every thread of the plot, wondering if he's alive and if he's involved. It's almost like the scenario of Schrödinger's cat, you don't know whether he is truly dead or not, and until Asagiri opens that box, we may never know. But we keep guessing. We keep speculating. And the story remains within our minds. 

There are only two situations where a major character has died or has faked their death—when they have served their purpose and completed their character arc (Oda), or when their death was faked in order to lead the plot in a new direction (Kunikida, Dazai). 

The former has not been done with Fyodor yet—he hasn't been concluded properly. 

We don't know too much about some of the characters that have officially died, like Oda. But with those characters, we were indirectly introduced to questions when they were introduced, and those questions were often directly or indirectly answered at their conclusion. That isn't to say that it isn't fun to learn about smaller questions and speculate about their backgrounds, but we are firm in who they are, even if we don't know where they came from.

That is not the case with Fyodor. We don't know who he is, and we barely know where he came from. He is such a fascinating, but hard character to write personally because those are foundational to his character. He is hard to grasp. And there is so much emphasis surrounding both who he is and where he came from, that we are left with only a fraction of a character. As an audience, we can theorize, but he still remains an enigma.

And an enigma is only one more reason to keep watching and reading, is it not?

I hope everyone who read this far enjoyed my little ramble, and that it was cohesive and easy to understand! I'm interested to see if any of my other fellow writers have any thoughts on this. Have a wonderful day! ٩(^ᗜ^ )و ´-

taglist: @atsquie

[nientedenada]

Why the Altmeri Commentary on Talos is Important to Lore Discussion (Even if It Isn't the Thalmor's End Goal) 

Originally posted on r/teslore three years ago. To be clear, important in this context means if you're trying to guess where TES might go in the future. And as the years go by, and we now have an almost complete turn-over of developers at Bethesda, it may be less relevant. Still, the new developers will have all these old ideas to rummage through.

This begins with a split among fans, though I don't think it has to be a nasty split. There is a very strong opinion in /r/teslore that Out-of-Game texts are valid if you want them to be, if you find them interesting enough for your Tamriel. And there's another very strong opinion that only official lore is really valid for theorizing. To be completely honest, we all probably dabble in one or the other at different times. Sometimes we are more creative and speculatory about Tamriel, other times we are arguing out the Lowest Common Denominator of agreed-upon lore. (It's never actually agreed upon, but that's part of the fun.)

But there's a third possibility: examining Out of Game texts for the perspective they can give us on In-game lore. A really good example of how this works would be the document: On the Nords' Totem Religion. It was a design document for Skyrim which was not incorporated into the game directly. However, the document gives a lot of insight into the little we do see in Skyrim of the ancient Nord religion. It is useful in interpreting the game itself.

It's also useful for going forward. When ESO returned to Skyrim this year, we could bet that the devs would be taking a closer look at the local religion, as they had in Elsweyr last year. And we could also guess that they might turn to that unofficial Skyrim design document which best explained the original ideas for the Nord religion. As of a few weeks ago, much of the Totem Religion document's lore has been added to the official lore as in-game books in ESO.

The totem religion document is as uncontroversial example of this process as you can find. Most everyone in lore circles has regarded it as a very useful document. You won't find that agreement about all OOG unofficial writings. But I'd like to make the argument for why the Altmeri Commentary on Talos is worth knowing and discussing even if you don't end up thinking it's true.

So, I'll begin with quoting the whole thing. It's pretty short.

What appears to be an Altmeri commentary on Talos To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison. To achieve this goal, we must: 1) Erase the Upstart Talos from the mythic. His presence fortifies the Wheel of the Convention, and binds our souls to this plane. 2) Remove Man not just from the world, but from the Pattern of Possibility, so that the very idea of them can be forgotten and thereby never again repeated. 3) With Talos and the Sons of Talos removed, the Dragon will become ours to unbind. The world of mortals will be over. The Dragon will uncoil his hold on the stagnancy of linear time and move as Free Serpent again, moving through the Aether without measure or burden, spilling time along the innumerable roads we once travelled. And with that we will regain the mantle of the imperishable spirit.

What it doesn't say: Nowhere does it say it's a Thalmor document. Nowhere does it mention the Towers. Those two points are pretty well-known in lore circles, but they come up enough to make it worthwhile to point out.

Second thing to notice: its date.

Submitted by Lady N on Sun, 09/19/2010 - 19:53 Obscure texts Author: Michael Kirkbride Librarian Comment: Many of these are in-character snippets taken from various forum posts.

It doesn't have an exact date; the old forums have been deleted. But we do see that it was re-posted on the Imperial Library on 09/19/2010, the year before Skyrim came out. This important detail is glossed over in a lot of the discussion of its relevance. It is not a document written after Skyrim trying to put a creative spin on some details in-game. It's a document published before Skyrim came out, and hence a window on the discussions that were going on in the development of Skyrim. We need to look at the stuff in Skyrim with the question: Does the Altmeri commentary shed any light on what's going on here?

Well, the fact that the Altmeri Commentary suggests that Talos needs to be erased from the mythic makes it very relevant. Maybe this is not the reason for the Thalmor's Talos ban in the game that eventually was released. But it's evidence that during the development of Skyrim, the reason was being kicked around by someone in discussions with the devs. It's that context that finally informs the two lines in-game that might refer back to the Commentary.

The first and most often quoted is Ancano's boast:

You think I can't destroy you? The power to unmake the world at my fingertips, and you think you can do anything about it?

It's pointed out that he can simply be boasting of his power there, without any reference to a supposed greater plan. And yes, that's true. But remember, we aren't interpreting that line in a vacuum. There was a development-related post that brought up a fanatical Altmer idea of unmaking the world before Skyrim, and it's just a coincidence that a fanatic Thalmor member boasts of having the power to do so in the game? These things have nothing to do with each other?

And then there is the other line from Esbern which I think is even more significant.

I don't suppose they want the world to end any more than we do. Or at least, they'd prefer it to end on their terms.

Esbern's statement does not confirm this is the Thalmor's plan. What it does is confirm that the idea this is the Thalmor's plan exists in-universe. And Esbern is not some random conspiracist; he's a lore-master. Dragons were his hobby but we also know from his dossier that the Thalmor consider him responsible for two of the most damaging operations on Dominion soil. He knows his stuff when it comes to the Thalmor. His opinion may be affected by paranoia, he may not even hold the opinion very strongly (suggested by how he corrects himself there), but he is not some random guy in the pub with a conspiracy theory about the Thalmor. If it's a conspiracy theory, it's an important one in-universe.

So, we have a timeline that suggests the Commentary is important, and two references in the game of Skyrim to the idea presented in the Commentary. The references are independent, coming from ideological enemies, Ancano and Esbern. I'd say that makes a very strong case for the Commentary's ideology existing within the universe.

If this concept exists within the universe, the Commentary is important even if it does not represent the Thalmor's ultimate goal accurately.

But where does one go with that? With Michael Kirkbride's historic and ongoing influence on the TES franchise, elements of the Commentary are quite likely to make it into future games. On the other hand, the Commentary may be a window on an idea in development that was tossed around and ultimately abandoned. Maybe it's not Thalmor belief, really. It could even be Blades propaganda. Maybe Ancano believes in it, but he's actually a fanatic who's out of step with the Thalmor in general. etc. etc. etc.

Acknowledging that an Out-of-Game source is relevant does not mean accepting it as the Truth Bound To Be Revealed by TES VI. TES fandom has had enough of that over-certainty already. I think we've all met someone who takes some random developer's post as The Gospel Truth that cannot be questioned. That's frustrating, for sure. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. It doesn't make sense to ignore it completely in discussions about the Thalmor's ultimate goal. There are enough sources to make it worth looking at, both inside and outside the universe.

This post was about the relevance of the Commentary, but if you're interested in how the Commentary's ideology could function within the Thalmor, I can never recommend enough this old /r/teslore post: Analyzing the Altmeri Commentary on Talos.

Additional reply in comments: I thought I'd hedged enough on my statement. I won't claim Esbern as an expert on the Thalmor's ontological goals, although he definitely is more knowledgable about the Thalmor than the random guy at the pub. I do think, however, that his statement confirms that some people within the universe think this is the Thalmor's end goal. I see his statement there as he's not certain himself of it.

In the comments of the original post, a user who has since deleted their account posted a very interesting timeline of the development under discussion. I also recommend this discussion with Misticsan about the post and whether fans give the Commentary undue importance in contrast to other sources on the Thalmor.

This was only the beginning of a very involved journey into the weird fandom status of the Altmeri Commentary and the Towers Theory. It's a lengthy saga, and I've put off formatting it for tumblr but I do mean to eventually copy all the teslore posts over here.

[howtofightwrite]

Hi! Are there certain types of asks you don’t respond to, and/or do you have a huge backlog of them? I sent one in like 3 or 4 months ago and still haven’t seen it come out, so I’m just curious as to what’s going on :) (I’m sorry if you do have guidelines posted anywhere I could not find them)

There are a few topics we won't touch. As a general rule, we're not particularly interested in covering sexual violence, violence on children, child abuse, and animal abuse. That list shouldn't be much of a surprise.

Beyond that, there are a few other things we, generally, won't cover.

The most common are cases where someone wants us to write their fight scene for them. We do offer that as a Patreon perk, but it's not something we're ever likely to do for free here. Off-hand, I think we've gotten about a dozen of those asks this year. The most recent was in the last couple weeks. Now, some of these asks do get public responses, but it's usually in the form of discussing world-building, or because one of us thinks we can get something interesting out of it. The recent “water horse,” question was one of these. So was Professional Monster Removal, now that I think about it. The original ask didn't come through Tumblr, and so I decided to revise it without the prompt. Which, part of why the tone of first couple paragraphs didn't exactly match the rest of the text (if anyone noticed.)

We also can't privately audit your work. At least, not through the ask system. This does come up from time to time when someone will send a sample of their writing (this did happen twice in the last four months.) There's two issues here. One, I wouldn't, so you'd get Michi editing and she is an absolutely merciless editor. The second thing is, there isn't really a way to do that privately in Tumblr. If you did it through Patreon, it would probably be through a shared Google Doc, or via Discord, but if you're in that tier, get in touch, and we can work with you.

I know this isn't relevant to you, but hate mail doesn't generally get a response. This should go without saying, but, I did publicly clown on that Dragon Age fanfiction writer over her attempted death threats a few years back. Similarly most of the misogynistic responses from Women are not Weaker than Men, or any of the subsequent posts, tends to get summarily executed. That stray fan of Shane O'Mara who never really understood his work, tends to get ignored. Though, I haven't seen anything from them in a year or two. Similarly, that guy who wanted me to know that “Space lizards are very important for the economy,” will probably have to wait... forever.

The real problem you're running into is probably because of how our backlog works. It tends to runs in a FILO pattern. That is to say, “first in, last out,” meaning new asks go on the top of the pile, and pushing down earlier questions in the queue. This has more to do with how Tumblr organizes its inbox rather than an intentional decision. For example, if I remember a question from five years ago, and want to answer it, I probably could not find it. I might be able to write up a post without that ask, but I wouldn't be able to notify the original sender (assuming they still use Tumblr.) This is the other reason that the dude who wanted to talk about space lizard economics will have to wait forever, that question was in 2013 or 2014, and there are roughly four-thousand asks burying his inquiry. (As a general rule, the only stuff that actually gets deleted is some of the hate mail.)

Another way to ensure a question won't get answered is to send it to Michi's personal Tumblr blog. There's only 153 in there, but, when answered, they don't get posted to How to Fight Write, and as a result, they're likely to get missed. (To be fair, the most recent ask in her inbox is from April 20, 2021, so that's not you.)

If you're asking about invisible lightsabers, I wouldn't completely give up hope. It wasn't really suitable for a full post, but assuming I can get Tumblr's inbox to cooperate again, it might show up in a batch of questions like the ones earlier this week.

-Starke

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get access to new posts three days early, and direct access to us through Discord. If you’re already a Patron, thank you. If you’d like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

[mdhwrites]

Different anon here! About your post about the owl house, just out of curiosity, how much do you think is forgivable due to how Disney screwed them over? I do agree, the arcs feel impatient and couldn’t dedicate the time to the middle of the arcs, but that’s also in part because of how Disney cut the show prematurely short and they were scrambling to tell the story.

No. Zero. Nada. Nothing. Jack Shit. How many more ways do I have to put this: The cancellation is NOT why the show has writing problems. The show has writing problems because the writers are bad storytellers who have no clue how to actually do plot. For just the most obvious, basic example, let's take the end of S1. Belos presents himself as the big bad. Eda, Lilith and King are almost killed because of him and Luz destroys the portal door to make sure his plans cannot come to fruition. By all means, the show is ready to start its story and Luz is ready to start facing off against the Emperor's Coven.

She won't until Hollow Mind. Now you might disagree with me on this because Shifting Tides has her face off against the Golden Guard, Escaping Palisman is Golden Guard and Kiki, Eclipse Lake is Kiki and you even have Terra showing up in Falls and Follies. What are the character's goals in those episodes? Hunter is a surprise villain in Shifting Tides while Luz was just looking for cash, in Hunting Palisman, the two literally had no clue about the other until Luz was accidentally abducted and fighting them is just saving the palisman, not standing up to the coven. In Eclipse Lake, the coven just happens to be here at the same time as Amity, Eda and King and in Falls and Follies, they aren't standing up to the coven... They're getting Eda's love interest back.

The idea of Belos being evil and of facing him AT ALL... Happens in Hollow Mind. And Luz brings it up right after Eda's old wild witch pal says no to fixing Luz's magical cloak. Which, you know... Has problems for WHY Luz is now deciding to yell in public about how evil Belos is.

Instead, that time is spent on Hunter, who really has a very minimal effect on the plot overall. Like... Besides giving screentime to Belos where we still aren't learning anything about him, his relevance is just very low. We also Lumity which NEVER has plot relevance and King gets a few episodes episodes but still not much despite easily being the most important character in hindsight as far as the plot goes. Raeda and angst about that is given at least half as much screentime though and the closest you can come to justifying that is the failed plan of the CATs.

If you REALLY need something not from S2, then just look at Amity. She was already 99% reformed by the time Adventure in the Elements happens, if not Lost in Language and those are her fourth and fifth major appearances. Worse yet, their treatment of Boscha and her friend group is effectively the EXACT same as how they treated Amity's parents. Just an obstacle to be blown aside for Lumity to happen. The flaws in how TOH is constructed from a basic level are there even in S1, it's just easier to ignore them because the show was willing to be fun back then.

None of this even gets into the Collector, who was explicitly chosen to be moved forward in their plans when the show was cancelled. Instead, you know... Not. Just not introducing a character you have NO TIME to do anything with.

Then there's the condemnation of S3's creative decisions. If they REALLY had a plan for all of this stuff, S3 should feel like it's constant payoffs without proper build up as they wrap up loose ends, deal with the threats that are unresolved, etc. like that. Instead, S3 is so desperate for ideas to fill its runtime that the finale starts with a 7 minute dream sequence that actively goes against the character arc, shit as it is, Luz went through during the time from Hollow Mind to Watching and Dreaming.

If the shortening could be used as a real excuse, you shouldn't have been able to cut 80% of S3... And lose nothing. TOH is not bad because of the shortening. It's bad because because the writers are bad storytellers. (Yes, this was technically asking about the arcs but I decided to focus on how they just wasted time in general, especially on characters or elements that didn't matter. I still stand by the idea that TOH either NEVER wanted to end or that it wanted five seasons to cram literally every idea it had into it. Shortening S3 doesn't change the flaws of either approach.