#we're all trying to figure it out

[fairfiona]

In some adaptions of Shrek, Princess Fiona is only seven when she is imprisoned in the tower. As Shrek functions in this quasi-reverent, quasi-social commentary take on fairytales, there’s some many questions I have...so Princess Fiona begins wishing that a Prince will rescue her from the imprisonment she’s banished to when she’s seven. Does that mean that same plea we hear emitting from her when she’s over thirty is still that damaged, scared seven year old inside? Parts of it echo with Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, which explain her...fragile mental state when Shrek meets her, while other parts just seem so haunted and tragic. 

Imagine if a Prince did rescue her at that age, though- I wonder if Lillian and Harold would permit a marriage. Perhaps that’s another commentary on fairytales, and our past likewise- after all, Snow White was seven in her original story. It could just go to prove how frightening some of the Grimm stories are, just as some courtships in the middle ages occurred between literal children and adults. It just puts the past into a different context and explains so many generational curses and all the trauma that persist to this day.

[raycatzdraws]

A Linked Universe meets The Dark Crystal AU! I don't even remember what started it at this point. I remembered that the Dark Crystal and Age of Resistance are things I like, blinked, and woke up three days later with an AU and a bunch of art.

The designs and the story are a wip and for fun so expect a lot of variation! (I have a few different beginnings, ideas for different designs, etc)! :D

In addition to #linked universe I'll be using the tags #the dark crystal lu au and #courage of the dark crystal!

[hinamie]

please any atla gojo lore. anything please im begging on my knees hands pressed together like im praying to god

I really wish I could anon :'> we tried to think of non-spoiler-y lore we could share but turns out every aspect of his character is either a. major spoilers or b. a near-direct echo of canon but make it atla flavoured (ie. his relationships w/ geto/shoko/nanami/haibara; him being The Strongest(tm) in-universe, etc). I guess there's technically the satosugu betrothal but that's already Public Knowledge given that there's art, plus the details are (surprise!) more spoilers

so ...yeah.... unfortunately you'll just have to wait to learn more about him in the fic :"> please accept this compensatory art as apology even though i am Not sorry in fact the pleas of the commonfolk make me cackle

jjk atla!au with @philosophiums

[soaked-ghost]

the three genders: butch dyke, man fag, and grandpa

[kwillow]

will theo ever be happy

Maybe in another life.

[moonxq]

Shin and Midori's friendship was for sure unhealthy but it's also much more complicated than "Midori is pure evil and exists only to cause Shin misery" and there's so much to analyze about it. I use both "Midori" and "Hiyori" for Seaweed-head and Shin is just Shin. There's a little bit of Kai analysis too for comparison. Be warned because there are a LOT of words beneath the cut as I ramble about these characters in a somewhat organized fashion!!

Yes, the Shin AI called Hiyori scary, and he recognized that his friend liked to see him anxious. Shin panicked when Sara accidentally imitated Midori, and he felt that his friend had some kind of darkness inside of him that he didn't want any part of. Their dynamic is absolutely concerning considering that when Shin took on the name Sou Hiyori, he adopted a cruel and manipulative personality—something he learned from experience. Shin freely admitted he feared Hiyori, and Sara said that Shin knew “how scary Midori can be" far before the Death Game occurred. Those feelings absolutely matter, but they are not the whole story.

What also matters is that alongside the bad parts, there were good parts, too. Shin is smiling in the lost memory and the photographs we see of him. He's comfortable enough to "playfully say good morning" and call Hiyori selfish and laugh with him. He's comfortable enough to tell him that he's like a big brother to him. He's distraught reading the test data because he learned that Midori got close to him just to hurt him. Because they were close!! Close enough for Shin to idolize his intelligence, to think of him as an anti-hero, to call him family, and to grieve his absence. The relationship was bad enough that Shin confessed he would've been relieved to learn that Hiyori died, but there was enough good there that Shin was desperate to see him again and did "all kinds of things" in an attempt to make that happen. Those feelings can coexist, and the war between them is a critical part of his character.

And Midori is a difficult character to figure out, but I think in his own messed up way, he genuinely did care about Shin. Midori, however, thinks that breaking people means loving them. He thinks killing Shin with his own hands is affection that no one else can understand. And it's horrible, but it's definitely a product of how he was raised. Kai's mini episode heavily implies this without mentioning Midori at all.

Also!! It's fascinating to compare and contrast Kai and Midori as children of Asunaro. Kai's computer files lovingly record everything Sara likes, which is similar in sentiment to Midori's book of test data on Shin filled with diary-like entries and poems. They both have an unusual dedication to a specific participant.

In Kai's mini story, when Sei asks Kai to kill him because he’s already dying, he can't follow through with it. Kai knew the pitiful love of a father, even if that love came to him in scraps wrapped up in so many layers of suffering. He knew the love of a brother unrelated by blood, even if that connection was fleeting. He later experienced the peace of cooking and cleaning and living a mundane life for the people he cared about, and he admitted he didn’t know what true affection was until then—that it was changing him, that it scared him. To him, even though he was raised as an assassin, killing someone was not loving or merciful. He got the chance to experience the world outside of the darkness he grew up in, and he slowly learned what it meant to take care of someone and be cared for in return (even if, in the end, he's betrayed by the same hand which gave him that peace).

What was different for Midori, similarly a child of Asunaro, that made him believe killing is a loving act? Or that hatred allows him to satisfy others? How can he say that he loves humans, but also call them toys, as though people are just possessions created for his own entertainment? The few lines we get from the woman who's likely his mother don't paint a great picture.

From the vague details we get in the lost memory scene, it seems like Shin lived in Midori's house for a while. Or, at the very least, he had access to it on a regular basis. Half the shelves contain Shin's items. He has a heater that he can only use at full blast when Midori isn't there, meaning that he stayed in his house even when the man was gone. The exact reason for why Midori was so disproportionately obsessed with Shin isn't defined, but I wonder if, similar to Kai, he was intrigued by what "normal" life felt like. The Shin AI says that you could find people like himself anywhere. Midori is destructively curious about people and their emotions, so I think that if he's given something he's never experienced before—like living a comparatively mundane life alongside Shin, who genuinely looked up to and admired him—then he's going to pick it apart until he understands. And he's going to love doing it, even if in the pursuit of that desire, the people around him suffer.

In spending so much time with him, Midori might have grown to care about Shin on a deeper level than most, like how Kai slowly grew to care about Sara. It's just that while Kai wanted to keep Sara out of the darkness, Midori seemed thrilled to drag Shin into it. Unlike Kai, who distances himself in fear of tainting other people's innocence and happiness, Midori "loves" people until they can't handle it anymore. He exhausts them, and they break down or die.

It seems like he was constantly in Shin's space or crossing acceptable boundaries. He had his hand on Shin's shoulder in the flashback, he always stared and shot glances at him, he excessively took photos and put them on display. While Kai's love is quiet, distant, and secretive, Midori's love is loud, obsessive, and intrusive. It's a fascinating contrast.

Shin was right to fear him. Even if Midori did actually care for him in his own distorted way, Shin didn't owe it to him to reciprocate something that hurt him—something that was always going to get him killed in the end. But Shin did care about him to some degree. He was lonely in Hiyori's absence, with nothing to remember him by but the confused emotions the man left in his wake and the memories of the abnormal adolescence he experienced alongside him.

Midori may have cared, but his affection definitely messed Shin up. That's what makes their interactions in the game so fascinating and painful. They're on completely different wavelengths, from completely different worlds. Shin grew up without the sibling he should have known, and he might have latched onto Midori as a substitute. However, Midori's twisted concept of love could never have done anything but hurt him in the end.

People can genuinely care for you and still hurt you so much, and YTTD depicts that concept so well.

[takemebacktowheniwassane]

"god I hate people who draw falsettos marvin this way" "fuck people who draw whizzer like that'"

*edited*

...guys, do you know what an art style is???? cuz', this seems pointed. I see what you mean. I completely agree.

But hear me out. Along with these posts, could we consider? Maybe? Some constructive criticism? People should draw them more accurate.

They SHOULD.

But how should they do it? Realism art? It's a foreign concept to me. I try and it absolutely fucking sucks and i'd love to be a part of this fandom showing that the characters are real people but

It's kind of

Just

Very "do this. No other explanation. Change it."

Look, I really want to. And I am trying. But could we like, make a space for teaching people? Cuz I am stumped dude like fr. Need some guidance.

sincerely, a tired lesbian who is infinitely more tired of seeing this everywhere. thanks

[fisheito]

watched aegis yaku's r5 and immediately felt the need to balance out the universe [SMUSHES YAKUMO FLAT]

[blood-n-tears]

in case you can't hear what cory is saying

"There was one day Robin and I were out on a pier in New York City-"

[dark-side-blog3]

not really a request! just saw ur tf2 post and uhhh about went a lil feral at the mention that u may consider writing for the characters? 👉👈 love ur content so much pls pls if u choose to write for tf2 i will be in ur debt- 🙏

no pressure tho pls write what u wanna! love ur blog!!!

I really like the idea of the power imbalance that could come from a victim who can't use the respawn machine; especially if everyone else on the base can. The isolation that comes with being a new member of the team that already has years of chemistry, knowing that assassins don't exactly get an HR for interpersonal conflicts on the job site, anyway. You're more vulnerable, socially and physically. If a Pyro decides to light you up, you're permanently dead. Even if you manage to kill someone, they'll just come back a few minutes later.

Maybe Medic or Engineer saying it will only take a week or two until your respawn is available (and "delaying" it more and more, simply because it's funny to watch). Pauling calling you and saying they're not planning to give you respawn until you manage a higher killstreak.

Everyone in the base is a sadist. They probably don't even like you, let alone feel deeper emotions when they all nearly kill you during off hours.

It's probably only after months of constant near misses that one of the members starts to think of just how far they could take your desire to stay alive. Your respawns still not up, so you're not in a position to say no...

OR, for your consideration: someone on the other team realizing you don't have a respawn because there isn't a version of you on their team. Spy is probably the first to pick up on this (maybe Medic is a close second) since keeping a level head and multitasking is his job description. He knows you're vulnerable. And then it just becomes fun to try to single you out every round.

[troublesomecousin]

Attempting to figure out how I want to start this fic, but words are hard. Gotta shake my brain a little more vigorously to see if something comes out. I know what I want to make happen, but how does one put that into text that other people can understand?

[volivolition]

question from @tmbatcat!! volition and endurance are the health pool gang! (volition's is on the inside of his throat, starting at the carotid pulse point, while endurance's is on the outside of his wrist, starting at the radial pulse point)

[nobodysdaydreams]

Giving a complicated tragic childhood backstory to your favorite character is all fun and games, until you realize you need to account for how old all the other adult characters would have been at the time and realize that scenes that would work perfectly if one character was twenty three and the other was fourteen stop working when you need other characters who are played by adult actors clearly younger than they are to be in college at the same time so your story beats line up thematically.

[good-to-drive]

I hate that so many biographers try to paint Paul as an over the top Disney villain when he's clearly a David Chase style villain

[bloodcoveredgf]

i love being in love i love being in love specifically with my boyfriend and living with him now... life is so beautiful its all about loving so much and if lucky being so loved in return (TO ME !)

[cranberrymoons]

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