#which exists in our code for some fucking reason

[mx-pokirby]

Deltarune Weird Route & Chapter 4 Spoilers

We just woke up and suddenly having thoughts about Choices in Deltarune

None of this Chapter 1 "do our choices matter?" shit, which is still taken seriously for some reason despite being told to us at the very start of a girl's arc who's about to learn her choices seem to matter more than everyone else's.

I'm talking about the concrete choices we are forced to make. Or Not Make.

(Pictured: Picking "Berdly" makes Kris scream out the choice we just made in sudden shocked confusion)

This happens no matter how long you linger over Berdly's name for to give them time to process, as though while in the box time freezes, and Kris isn't fully aware of exactly how we make the decisions we force onto them.

Despite the UI apparently at least existing on the same plane of reality as the Soul itself. Given that in the weird route, the sudden appearance of a choice for us to make physically teleports us through a wall.

So the UI has been physically diegetic on some level all along? At least known to Kris, maybe not anyone else, due to their connection with the Soul perhaps?

That's good and all, but now we feel compelled to ask. Why can we choose things Kris doesn't want in the first place? Because I wanna point out a separation here. We don't "make" any choices in the dialogue box. And I mean that literally.

The choices are presented to us, and we pick one. Which is already concerning with the boxes being diegetic. What makes them appear in the first place? There seems to be a logic governing what's "reasonable" for us to pick VS completely random options that don't make any sense...

Well. Most of the time. I guess.

But ignoring that edge case, it's not like we can choose to respond to "Who are you going to the festival with?" by reciting the entire Bee Movie script hyper-crushed to fit into the window. We're allowed to pick people we've spent a lot of time with, or to decline.

So at the very least, again ignoring edge cases like above for my own sanity even if it weakens my argument, it seems like the options we're allowed to pick are whatever would reasonably be at the front on Kris' mind, so to speak. Even if they're options Kris would personally rule out immediately without a second thought.

So alright. "The responses we pick are basically just how anybody makes a decision on the fly, between logic & intrusive thoughts, but we overwrite Kris' will and are allowed to pick those intrusive thoughts for them against their will sometimes and there's nothing they can do about it."

Or TL;DR, the choices we get to pick are decided by Kris.

That might almost make perfect sense, explaining why we can choose to Proceed with Noelle in Ch 4, despite how unfilteredly violently Kris' hatred towards us becomes after picking it.

It seems like even the worst choice we could possibly make that they'd Hate more than anything else, as long as we're presented with an omniscient diegetic dialogue box choice, Kris can't do anything about it.

It's not like they had the power to just shut us down completely from Proceeding with Noelle if they truly deeply wan

...

Fuck.

Okay the sarcastic bit is over. What the fuck do we do with this?

I see no other possible explanation for us being presented with this literal Impossible Choice other than

A: With the voice on Kris' phone's insisting that Susie must absolutely not learn the Shelter Code, which we can extrapolate into Susie needing to be kept in the dark about Everything Plot Important (at least until the time is right),

we can infer that Susie herself is a Wild Card that's unknowingly part of The Plan™ capable of ruining things if she knew/wanted to, and making sure she stays exactly how The Plan™ needs is somehow The Most Important Fucking Thing, that it even completely eclipses Kris' willpower to protect Noelle from us.

B: IDFK some divine Gaster interference bullshit so we can't go too far outside what the Prophecy has already scripted out (at least without Noelle's direct involvement) or something.

Because otherwise idfk how else to interpret this, if it doesn't mean that Kris has technically been able to shut down our choices themself all along, ie have actual control over what choices we're even allowed to pick them, which they would necessarily have to have been creating for us the whole time.

But that's already been debunked by Kris' confused shock at us saying Berdly is our date to the festival so

so

SO

I think my brain might be smoking

[rabbiteclair]

PROGRAMMER OFFICE ETIQUETTE

✓ Acceptable: "This service is too large, and needs to be broken into smaller, more specialized services."

⚠ Potentially Acceptable: "I want to chop this service into pieces with a machete."

🛇 Not Acceptable, Apparently: "I want to chop this service into pieces with a machete and dispose of the chunks in half a dozen dumpsters so it's harder for the cops to investigate."

[tanadrin]

Fell down a rabbit hole on ancient Israelite child sacrifice and it’s interesting that 1) it’s basically impossible (without jumping through absurd apologetic hoops) to explain important parts of the Hebrew Bible unless they are reacting to, being revised against, or being overlaid on a literary stratum which assumes the existence of Yahwistic child sacrifice; 2) as such it seems there is a very ancient strand of religious law (renegotiated at a very early date!) which specifically commands the sacrifice of all human and animal firstborn males; 3) like all religious law in the Bible, “one group of elites produced religious literature commanding a thing” doesn’t mean that those commandments represent actual universal and uncontested practices—indeed, one of the reasons people produce religious literature is to argue for a set of practices or to shore up their own position by portraying it as normative, and there is very little evidence that the ancient near eastern law codes (religious or secular) produced for propaganda purposes were used like we might use a modern law code; 4) the Canaanite/Phoenecian/Punic/Northwest Semitic religious milieu was certainly one in which infant sqcrifice was at least irregularly practiced, but no such archeological remains have been found in ancient Israel, but by their very nature this kind of infanticide leaves very little remains behind: infant skeletons are small and mostly cartilage, fire seems to have frequently been involved in such sacrifice, and the reason evidence of Carthaginian child sacrifice survived is bc such remains were interred in jars in Carthaginian tophets. 5) While a lot of modern commentators balk at taking the plain meaning of the relevant passages of the Bible seriously, and think that on grounds of basic social and emotional realism they cannot be read as supporting the existence at one time of Yahwistic child sacrifice, we really do not understand the realities of living in an Iron Age society with its attendant phenomenally high infant mortality rates, where many parents seem to have bonded with their children much later, and fertility rates were much higher to compensate for the basic reality of how often babies died. I would add to that my hunch that people in the ancient past were by modern standards just more likely to be traumatized in general, and that probably fucks up how you deal with violence and the value of human life and how you build systems which create social meaning out of death, too. “People in the past were human beings who loved their children” is not incompatible with “people in the past did horrific shit occasionally because they thought it was spiritually, socially, or materially necessary.”

And I am in some ways sympathetic to people who are reluctant to accept evidence of ancient Israelite, or even ancient Carthaginian child sacrifice. It’s so alien to our own moral sensibilities—it is in fact utterly repugnant to them! Ergo the urge to try to read the evidence differently, even if it requires wild contortions. But we know that (for instance) the death penalty and exposure of infants and religious ordeals would have all been common in the region and it seems a small step to me to imagine some ritualization of these practices that at least imbues infanticide with some kind of deeper spiritual significance, if for no other reason than as a kind of cope. In a way it’s encouraging that we have come so far that we refuse to believe any society could have ever endorsed such a thing. Nor is it a recent transition: much of the overt violence and bloodshed of the ancient Israelite law codes was renegotiated away thousands of years ago, and the renegotiation of child sacrifice happened so early that it was a major part of the formation of those codes in the form that we have them now. That too is encouraging—you don’t need modern, historically contingent sensibilities to look at brutal social systems and go “fuck this, let’s replace them with something kinder and more humane.” That tendency is as much a part of the basic forces that drive human history as our violence or our shortsightedness is.

[hotvintagepoll]

What are some screwball comedy pairings you wish had been a thing? Can definitely be gay ones :)

Okay finally!

One of the reasons I made this blog in the first place is that few things bring me as much blinding rage as imagining the movies we could have gotten, if old Hollywood had stopped being racist/homophobic/anti-everyone for ten fucking seconds. There were so many talented hotties working through our tournament era who only got cameo spots or no-budget movies! for no reason beyond white supremacy! there were so many stories that didn't get told because heaven forbid we acknowledge gay people! If this blog has a mission statement, a big chunk of it would be about highlighting all the amazing hotties who never got what they deserved in their heyday.

So! Let's tear Louis B. Mayer a new one and make some better movies.

Diamond Eyes (1946)

Harold Nicholas, the bored but fabulous son of a Manhattan millionaire, decides to take himself off on a transatlantic cruise to recover from the boredoms of socialites, constant martinis, and west side glamor. When working girl Rita Hayworth snags him into a fake dating scheme to throw off a jealous ex (Cesar Romero), he doesn't mean to fall in love with his false fiancé—or to set the ex up with his scheming accountant (Tyrone Power).

To the Tune of Millions (1945)

Ann Miller and Lena Horne are conwomen besties who use a fake dance act to get into casinos, which they then promptly rob. Unfortunately, an over-enthusiastic talent agent (Gene Kelly) sees the act and thinks they're legitimate, hiring them on the spot as the lead number in a newly opened but already failing musicale review. Who can they hustle at a theater that's barely bringing in a dime? The two ex-cons fall in love with show business, Kelly and Horne smooch at the grand finale, and Miller has an intense will-they-or-won't-they sparring relationship with the hot stage manager (Ethel Waters—and they will).

Untitled Three's-a-Crowd Film (1942)

Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, and Ronald Colman are running interference on a corrupt justice system while trying to keep up the act that they are all simply cohabitating in a shared AirBnB and definitely not falling in love with each other. Wait. This is actually The Talk of the Town. This movie actually exists and does veer this hard into polyamorous romance.

Tomatoes and Toast (1928)

Anna May Wong and Greta Garbo eat sandwiches for three hours. It's riveting.

One Soul, Two Bodies (1948)

Farley Granger and Vincent Price star as Alexander the Great and Hephaestion in this sword-and-sandals period piece. Though clearly made on a studio backlot with a budget of $3, the dashing romance grounds the chariot races and cardboard sword battle sequences.

Grand Central Station (1931)

Interconnected narratives of Josephine Baker, Joan Blondell, Dolores del Río, and Fredric March all vying for the last seat on the 5:45 train out to Poughkeepsie. When they realize they're jostling to sit next to the same sugar daddy who's been stringing all of them along, the four decide to unionize. Pre-code thrills; the four-in-a-bunk Pullman car scene remains notable for a reason.

I have more but I think I've gone a bit delirious.

[insanelyadd]

I was a firm Papyrus knight truther and still have a hint of hope but I feel like so much doesn't fit from the new chapters :(

We DID get to see the ribcage of the knight and Papyrus is absent now that the knight is active— two things that help the case.

But the knight seems cold. I can't see Papyrus running away, refusing to speak, and the line on the phone— that's the knight, right? Not only is it not like his speech but Carol comes home soon after the voice says they'll arrive.

But if he's not the knight that's even more confusing??? Idk. What do you think about all this?

No the voice on the phone is definitely Carol (confirmed in snowgrave), but the phone person is not For Sure the Knight. The Knight never speaks at all (perhaps because of a notorious font). There's another thing, where "you" (Kris) don't watch Susie in chapter 4 and you get this dialog instead:

Which like. If the Knight was meant to be confirmed without a doubt to be one (or only one of two) people, then there's no need to maintain the mystery. In universe this makes sense because Kris is obviously hiding things from us, but out of universe, there is no reason for Toby to write the line like this unless the implication is that the Knight is not so obvious.

I DO think Dess has to be involved with the Knight, and I DO think Carol is also doing something shady, but I also have a new theory. So if you'll excuse me real quick-

So basically, a Holiday has to be strongly Connected to the Knight, because while I don't think the Knight's identity is so clear cut as everyone makes it out to be (ah, memories of immediately after chapter 2) I also think Toby wouldn't pull a cheap ass move like giving the Knight antlers, a baseball bat looking sword, and when they dodge, the ball they turn into vaguely resembles a baseball, and then NOT make the Knight have a strong connection to Dess somehow, or to be Dess. But that's the thing.

The Knight's appearance is fucked up and unnatural, even darkner's bodies could be easily mistaken as normal monsters, but the Knight is so much more horrifying in appearance, there is something WRONG with it. If someone saw that walking around town, they would be right to freak out and call the police. But if in the light world the Knight is Just Dess then. Well. People in town will recognize her, and freak out and call the police. Again. So in the Light World the Knight can't look anything like Dess and they can't look anything like The Knight.

I would also like to point out that if the Knight didn't have antlers do you know who people would INSTEAD say is now Totally Confirmed?

A related thing to this overarching tirade of madness is how multiple times, characters warn you not to stay in Darkworlds overnight. What happens to lightners if they stay in the dark for too long? Why is it a concern to have?

What is the danger?

It's likely that Dess got stuck in a darkworld, because I believe the person speaking to us in the code-

[Credit to autisriel on twitter]

Is Dess. The dialog in the third image especially, builds onto my theory. That there's a dark world in the bunker, but it works like Ralsei's dark world. You walk into a dark room and the door slams behind you, sending you into the darkworld when before it behaved almost like a normal room that was just impossibly dark. I think that Ralsei's world functions different from the other dark worlds, even beyond everyone from the other worlds being able to safely exist there, where the world will selectively allow lightners in. Because there's no way in hell that Toriel, Alphys, or the school custodian haven't needed to enter that closet since that fountain was made (whenever that was, and btw I don't think the Knight made Ralsei's fountain, I think he would have mentioned it).

My theory is that another force entirely (probably Gaster since this whole world seems to be some sort of project that he fucking around with with our assistance) made a fountain in the bunker and in the supply closet which is why they behave so oddly. Dess went into the bunker (maybe she ran away? This ties into a point I'll have further in) and the door slammed behind her, she was transported into a darkworld that would accept no further visitors, which is why no one ever found her.

I think the warnings against staying in the dark worlds for too long are because when you stay there, your body starts to change, you're still a lightner but you begin to become a darkner in a way. I think Dess' body dissipated/transformed/transmuted her consciousness into an object, likely one she took with her, probably baseball related, and Papyrus also entered the bunker (maybe he learned the code, maybe he was told, maybe the door mysteriously opened for him) and found that object, which he now has equipped like how you can equip Jevil and Spamton. Dess' body has been (possibly permanently) altered by being in the dark world, and her and Papyrus are working in conjunction with each other as the Knight. There is not multiple Knights, just one Knight, but the Knight is two people.

In chapter 4 I saw people discussing Kris' reaction to the end of the chapter, how they come home to find Toriel drunk and dancing with Sans (who is probably also drunk). Some people take Kris' reaction to be one that indicates that this is potentially commonplace while also mentioning how it's odd that Toriel didn't seem concerned that Kris didn't come home until late, and they most certainly would not be reachable by phone, and her lack of acknowledgement that she couldn't reach them means she didn't even try to.

I also have to point out now that in chapter 4 you don't even get to ask Sans about his mystery brother, and he doesn't voluntarily bring him up either. This is in addition to the fact that, as you said, after we see the Knight for the first time, we can't even HEAR Papyrus in his house anymore. We see Sans outside every single day and we haven't seen Papyrus once, haven't even heard his voice, and Sans brings him up less and less. This is a large contrast to UT where Sans is very focused on getting the human to befriend his brother, and talks about him a lot.

I feel like at this point there's too much evidence to deny that Sans and Papyrus Undertale are actually Sans and Papyrus Deltarune. There was a lot of implications through the total void of Papyrus' life before coming to Snowdin, and the weird shit Sans says about never being able to go back, but that was all contained to UT. Now we have the companion song for "It's Raining Somewhere Else", a companion song that sounds almost exactly the same (but it is different) named "The Place Where It Rained". Now there are connections on both sides.

My point with bringing this up, is maybe in UT Sans feels like he failed Papyrus by not trying harder for him in DR. I think we're watching this arc play out in real time. And I must once more reiterate that since it seems to be true that the skelebros are from DR, then there HAS to be a reason why that it only happens to them. Something BIG is going to happen and they're going to be at the epicenter of it, and they will face exile on the cosmic scale for it.

So Papyrus is home alone all day long, likely being tasked with unpacking everything by himself, because Sans has a Job. Sans can tell Papyrus is lonely, that's why he asks Someone to try to hang out with him, but Sans is also not putting in as much effort as he should, which is why he asked a child to hang out with his adult brother, and why he hasn't really asked to again in a follow up. Maybe Sans just doesn't know how to approach what Papyrus is dealing with.

Bringing it back around to the familial structures we look at in chapter 4, we meet Carol. Possibly Carol, still no direct confirmation I don't think? My #1 pick for an alternate name for her is Cupid because:

Irony

The heart pillows? What's up with that, that's Valentine's not Christmas

Cupid is one of Santa's reindeer so even though the connection is stronger to a different holiday there is still a connection to Christmas

Carol is very cold and hostile and I think is so OBVIOUSLY manipulating Kris, and IMO I think she's abusive to Noelle, like emotionally and verbally at the least. Normal kids with parents who are just strict but still loving don't freak the fuck out and shut down like people are going to get seriously harmed when their parent shows up back at home when they weren't expecting it. Noelle is afraid to ask her mom for the spare key to their house so she just stands outside, locked out. I think a strict but loving parent would rather be bothered at work than allow their ONLY REMAINING CHILD to just be STUCK OUTSIDE ALL DAY. The fact that Noelle prefers waiting for her mom to be done at work, which is likely late into the evening, to going to get a spare key from her, tells us that her MOM also prefers it this way. The reaction is less severe. It's Better that she stands outside the front gate of her own home and wait until it gets dark out by herself.

I would find it harder to say more straightforwardly that what Sans is doing to Papyrus is abusive. I maintain it is consistent across both games for Sans to be pretty emotionally closed off from people. He's good at reading the room, but that doesn't mean he has a magical solution to all of your social problems and it doesn't mean he wants to talk about feelings, he appears to have a very low tolerance for awkward encounters and vulnerability. And I additionally think that Toriel isn't abusive towards Kris. Kris probably is very uncomfortable with Toriel drinking, especially the way she doesn't show concern for where they were, especially how she seems to be perfectly happy being distracted by bringing a strange man into their home (this is something Kris and I have in common with our mothers while we were in high school).

I think the theme in this chapter is how Family is so important to young people, young people who are lonely like Papyrus, young people who might not have many friends like Kris up until recently, young people who don't have many people they can be completely open with, like Noelle. And it's also about how sometimes even when you Need your family, you need them to be there for you, to protect you, to look out for you, to worry about you, they fail to be enough, to be what you need.

Dess might have tried to run away, even if it was only temporary in her mind, and ends up trapped. Maybe Papyrus got fed up and needed to get out of the house for a bit. He ended up in the bunker, he meets Dess there. Dess isn't able to exist in the light world like how she used to by this point. They talk and feel like they have things in common, Dess tells Papyrus about dark worlds, possibly gaining knowledge the same way Ralsei has gotten his knowledge. And together they become the Knight.

I'm still working on this theory tbh. This is only the beginning, before I've gotten a chance to watch videos going over secrets in these last two chapters, which I need to do because my play style with DR is very sloppy, I'm just awful at finding secrets. I didn't know about ANY of the secret areas in chapter 3 before I saw one video going over them. Needless to say, the theory will improve as I learn more. So this is a rough draft.

[hopeymchope]

The selfish assholery of The Hundred Line cast is becoming too much.

I've been too forgiving. Waiting for the other shoe to drop, trying to look past various incidents as I churn my way through the plot of The Hundred Line. But it's been scratching at the edges of my brain... the way four new characters entered the plot and then immediately betrayed Takumi, stemming from a series of incidents that I managed to mostly blame on Kurara's extreme selfishness and abuse.

Finally, last night? I reached a point where I couldn't deny it anymore: I hate most of these people. And as a result? This game is losing me during my very first 100 days.

Frankly, I'm starting to have doubts I can even complete the first 100 days. Because why would I choose to spend that much time with these people... ?

Actually? Kind of thinking about letting you all die.

I don't WANT to give up on the game. Obviously, I've adored Kazutaka Kodaka's work up until now. I've clearly DEEPLY loved all of Kodaka's work within Danganronpa. Even when he didn't script most of it himself and just provided the plot/characters (Danganronpa 3), I loved it. Stuff like Akudama Drive, which, where Kodaka's involvement uh... existed but was poorly defined? Still really liked it! Death Come True? Yup, I was into it! And I also loved Master Detective Archives: Rain Code.

But The Hundred Line cast has a unique-to-them problem that is constantly recurring: The cast of The Hundred Line people are largely willing to fight and die to protect a building for incredibly dubious reasons, but they are utterly UNwilling to ever stand up to their peers no matter how horrific their behavior. They are brave in physical combat, but utter cowards in their daily lives. Torturing some of the cast by starving them for DAYS? Literally abusing your own sister? You can count on this crew to sit by and let it all happen—and maybe even actively enable it! Because they suck.

Remember when Shuichi told off Kokichi at the end of V3's fourth trial? Or when a few members of the DR2 cast jumped and tied up Komaeda in Chapter 2 after he attempted to commit a murder in Chapter 1? The Hundred Line crew would never do any of that. They would let Kokichi walk all over them, would let Komaeda attempt murder DAILY if he wanted to, and would sit there the entire time going "But that's not—" before cutting themselves off and refusing to argue farther because it seems kind of haaaaaard.

I'm going to have to spoil the first 54 days or so of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy to really outline multiple examples, but... yeah. Let's get into how much these people suck ass.

Example 1: Hiruko Shizuhara — Near the story's start, Hiruko doesn't like that some of the group aren't aren't actively choosing to engage in combat (that they don't understand, to defend something they don't understand, for reasons they don't understand). We'll eventually learn that she has more intel on why this fight needs to happen and what's at stake, but she's been refusing to share it because... because... well, because she's an asshole. And that's fine! Every Danganronpa game has at least one blatant asshole among the cast who serves as a major antagonist despite not being THE main villain. A snotty asshole like Hiruko can serve valuable story purposes. But when she decides she's going to try to force the others to fight by starving them — literally denying them any food whatsoever — do we see Takumi or Yakemaru or Darumi stand up to Hiruko at all? NO! Do we see them try to sneak food to the starving classmates? NO—not until DAYS later, when they think they can use food as a form of leverage, that is. And that comes after Hiruko announces she's going to kick out all the non-combatants so they can fucking die to the invaders. At least Yakemaru gets really pissed about this, though all he does about it is... punch himself in the face to deal with his own anger. But does our main protagonist, Takumi, confront Hiruko and argue against her about this planned act of murder? FUCK NO!

Ultimately, I think we're supposed to forgive this becuse we later learn in a private conversation that Hiruko didn't REALLY mean it, despite the fact that everyone completely believed her without question. Because she sure as shit comes off as serious and dead-set on it with no room for any interpretation before that. (This seems like the latest in a misguided trend over the last decade of fiction where a military leader sometimes will withhold extremely need-to-know information from their troops for no reason, and we the audience are supposed to believe this is a good idea; ask any fucking ACTUAL military leader about that, and they will tell you that an informed squad = motivation and morale. Lack of communication = killing your motivation and morale. Happy to share tons of editorials to this effect. Or just Google it.) Anyone in the cast would be 100% justified in imprisoning and/or killing her to stop her at this point, but not even our main "hero" can bring himself to so much as ARGUE with her. Everyone is just too weak-willed to stand up against the starvation torture of the others. Because that's DEFINITELY the best way to get people invested in your war instead of just telling them the truth, right... ?

Example 2: The Second-to-Last Defense Academy members (and Kurura Oosuzuki specifically) — Takumi meets the four remaining members of the Second-to-Last Defense Academy while alone. He soon opts to join them in combat as they defend their school... but in the end, they must flee to the primary Last Defense Academy and meet up with the others. Once there, the four members of the Second-to-Last Defense Academy are disappointed to learn that the "main campus" crew is not nearly as dedicated to this fight as THEY are. This is pretty quickly revealed to be the cast because the Second-to-Last Defense Academy students have more context and intel on why this war is happening and why the fight is necessary. However, Kurura soon sets about insulting everyone she sees, especially trashing Gaku for daring to grow up poor and then starting to physically beat him for arguing against her rich ass.

This shutdown comes quickly on the heels of Tsubasa being like "Can you blame us for having questions after we got dragged into this war?"a and Takemaru asking the Second-to-Lasters if they're going to keep throwing around the term "World Death" or are they going to explain explain what that is. Both of which were entirely reasonble questions/reactions.

This culminates with her deciding that... (a) nah, she's NOT going to share why the world is in danger from the invaders with the main campus squad. Because the Second-to-Last Defense Academy students are SO FUCKING DEDICATED to the war, you see, that they... would rather make sure that nobody else has ANY reason to join the fight, actively hindering the fucking war effort they claim to be devoted to out of... I guess, purely out of classist spite??? You can and should blame ALL of them for this because the other three students from the Second-to-Last Defense Academy all decide they MUST obey Kurura (who is not even their leader in ANY sense) and agree to NOT share the information about the war. In fact, Nozomi goes so far as to privately arrange for the groups to use the cafeteria separately so they will never interact. And during this time, with Kurura nowhere around? She still refuses to give any information about the war or why anyone should be fighting, because she is Part Of The Problem. Oh, and (b) soon enough, an incident with her homemade curry being eaten results in Kurura challenging a (non-combatant!!!!) member of the "main campus" squad to a one-on-one fight. At which point she declares everyone from the main campus must do ANYTHING SHE FUCKING ORDERS THEM TO DO as punishment. And again: EVERYONE FROM HER TEAM AGREES WITH THIS AND DOES NOT ARGUE HER DOWN. They are either too cowardly and/or utterly complicit in her bullshit. And her threats are far from idle ones, either: In the coming days, we can repeatedly encounter these characters in the halls where they can tease us with all the horrific punishments they have in store for us. The only person who doesn't treat us with hatred and mockery is Nozomi—she just treats us with fear and disgust instead. And THAT'S because Kurura caps all this off by (c) convincing Nozomi and Kyoshika — the two other female members of her team — that the main protag, Takumi, wishes to drug and rape Nozomi. Despite the fact that Takumi has literally fought and bled alongside them on the battlefield AND now brought them back to his own campus to protec them Nozomi and Kyoshika COMPLETELY BUY INTO THIS and now are filled with nothing but disdain towards Takumi.

(....oh, and along the way, Shouma tries to reveal some more info about how they got there, more background on the mystery of how they were recruited. This enrages Kurura even more because she says it "DOES! NOT! MATTER! You've been given a mission, why can't you just do it?!" In case you had any doubt that she is 100% devoted to being enslaved without logic or reason.)

Any one of these acts alone would be justification for the main campus crew to say "You're not fucking welcome here anymore unless you stop this shit." But of course, no one stands up to them and tells them to fuck off... they're all just too damned cowardly for that. But again, I think they want us to shrug this off simply because it works out retroactively. But it must be noted that the fact that this DOES work out is a complete fucking MIRACLE, and I will never forgive Kurura for (a), (b), OR (c). The fact that she is apparently "not really like that" when she takes off the mask is not remotely an excuse. She's acting this way by choice; ergo, she is ABSOLUTELY "like that." I will also not be forgiving Kyoshika, Yugamu, and Nozomi for being complicit in Kurura's bullshit.

But I'll give them this much: It makes some sense that Takumi is unwilling to stand up against the group because Nozomi bears strong-but-vague connections to his beloved Karua. From a characterization POV, it makes sense that he'd be hesitant to do any further damage to his relationship with the Second-to-Lasters just because he wants to close that distance so very badly.

Example 3: Ima and Kako (a.k.a. the last straw) - It's been obvious from pretty early on that Kako isn't really very keen on how her brother treats her. He acts like he has some incestuous sister complex, and she's clearly extremely uncomfortable with it. And as the story progresses, it also becomes evident that she wants to join the others in defending the school. By Day 53? Kako finally stands up to Ima as best she can. She finally speaks up.

....holy SHIT. The abject fear on Kako's face speaks volumes.

At this point, Ima grabs Kako and literally starts to DRAG her out of the room. Only Takemaru steps forward to block their exit, telling Ima "If you really love your sister, shouldn't you respect her opinion more?!" Which is... an awfully calm way to confront him. But Ima's response is...

...to stab Takemaru for daring to interfere. Holy. Fuck.

Major props to Takemaru for being the ONLY person to try and stop sibling abuse. I also won't hold it against Shouma — I know he wouldn't have it in him to stand in the way of this conflict. I get that. But everybody else in the room? You're ALL on thin ice right now.

This happens at breakfast. Afterwards, Takumi, Eito, Gaku, and Yugamu help patch Takemaru up and take him back to his room, putting him to bed to let him heal. After this, it's suddenly "too late" to do anything else, according to Takumi. He just goes to bed. Ima escapes the cafeteria after the stabbing and drags Kako back to his room. Takumi just says to "worry about them later." YEAH, never mind that Kako is undoubtedly being abused as we speak. Never mind that you decided it's more important to get your beauty sleep than to stop her brother from mentally and almost-definitely-physically tormenting her.

The next morning, Ima comes by Takumi's room. He wants Takumi to convince Kako to stop trying to fight and do what her brother says — and in return, Ima will fight in her place against the invaders. Wow, what an utterly shit deal you've offered me! I get the promise of help from the guy who just STABBED someone for daring to try to stop your abuse! And in return, all I have to do is crush the spirit of your abuse victim!

Sadly, this is a false choice. It's a But Thou Must. No matter how many times I clicked "No" (because "HELL FUCKING NO" was not given as an option), the game simply refuses to move forward until you agree.

I almost quit the game permanently right here. I had to pause and gather myself. I don't like being railroaded into being a horrible human being. When I played the demo for the OG release of Ninja Gaiden 3 on the PS3, and I got to that part where the unarmed guy is pleading for his life and telling you about his family and the game only lets you progress if you brutally kill him? Yeah, I just shut the demo off. And as far as I'm concerned? I beat the game with the only good ending. I won.

In the aftermath of this sequence in The Hundred Line, the good news is that Takumi utterly fails to convince Kako to back down. The bad news is that Takumi winds up convincing her that her brother's "protection" is a beautiful love that she should be grateful for. So now she wants to fight to protect HIM because of how much she APPRECIATES her brother. Wow, Takumi! What masterful work at enabling and abetting years of abuse! You absolute fucking prick.

And making the player character this dispicable really BROKE something in me. You see the issue here. Example #3 is certainly the greatest sin, but all of this has been building.

Kodaka has spoken about how excitedly he wrote the script for this game. It seems like Kodaka was so rapidly writing conflict, so excited to add all this drama, that he didn't stop to think how it reflected on the characters or whether it made logical sense. The answer is that it doesn't make sense—at least not for any decent human beings to act like this. The only logical conclusion is that the characters? Are some MAJOR assholes.

[aliennazero]

☆Headcanon: brother-sister coding, hear me out

I need to get this post done before whatever that will happen in chapter 192. So even if I only got two more days for this theory to be around, I'll be glad that I finally let this out from my chest after a while. So, don't take whatever I will ramble about as something super serious.

First of all, maybe you guys will look at me and says, "what the fuck Alie they're like two different unrelated characters" and while that's true for now and so far, I just... can't really took my eyes off from this "siblings coding" the more I read Chainsaw Man. And I have some reasons and theories why (disclaimer: I did a crazy reach all over the direction) and I found it very interesting.

Reason no. 1: Their First Meeting & Re-occurence

Hirofumi is the first part 1 character that Asa meets (even before Denji). So, I think it's reasonable for me—the reader to be intrigued on what is Fujimoto's plan for their seemingly "not important" (but why be the first?) relationship.

My initial thought is that: oh, they might become friendlier in the future or even become lifelong enemies. Then I remember Hayakawa Family—Aki and Power as the first ever Denji's buddy, specific on Power.

Because even though narratively and character writing-wise Power and Hirofumi are fundamentally different, both of them are written initially to form false narratives that they'll become a token love interest for our protagonist(s) aren't they? They also share a somewhat similar strawberry cake motive, makes me wonder why.

Alsoooo, I think the way Hirofumi & Asa's Devil Hunter Club "date" being portrayed as very differently from Hirofumi + Denji and Hirofumi + Fami "cafe date" (a.k.a. work-related mandated date) is important, somehow.

Reason no. 2: Personal Motives and Untold Family Narratives of Asa Mitaka

We know since the very first time we met her that Asa is very lonely and her motives circling around getting a companion (either a boyfriend or a friend) and living selfishly (which as we can see right now is backfired rapidly, but I'll talk about this separately later, maybe in the future).

However, there's one aspect of her motives that's kinda underlooked, and it's her relationship with family member. Yes, we got a glimpse of Asa and her mom (never with her father so far) and Asa with her lovely pet—Crambon, however they already died years ago, and Asa blame herself for it.

It's unfair that in this world, she still had her family, as they said. So maybe she already gives up on that idea. Which is where the true weights of this headcanon come from. What if, she still could have it? Even though she never asked for this directly. Her getting a family again that she was maliciously accused of unfairly having, could be very nice, actually. Even if it's a very insufferable or a miserable mess workaholic kind of brother (or twin brother).

Reason no. 3: Hirofumi's Motives

This deserves its very own post just like my plan to talks more about Asa's living selfishly motive but to make it simple, Hirofumi lied at the very start because he already formed a parasocial relationship with both Asa and Denji by giving them options to have a somewhat nicer normal life (Denji not becoming Chainsaw Man, and Asa making a distance from Denji to prevent her from turning him into her weapon and thus also prevented her to feel down because of the guilt) even though he knows that another choice never really exist to begin with.

(Asa doesn't necessarily have to be his sister to add more depths to this motive. I just think won't it be very funny if Hirofumi was like collecting information all around, confirming that Asa Mitaka is indeed the incarnation of War Devil in weird case then he took a look at her Koseki then boom they have the same dad!? What the fuck was that. Here comes new responsibility that his father left behind, I guess)

As what we know so far, Hirofumi took his job and his responsibility very seriously and very neat about which one he could improve or "change" for everyone's sake involved. IF Hirofumi and Asa are indeed siblings (or half siblings) however, this gives more explanation on his involvement and his own personal interest. Hirofumi is not easy to read, but he still overshares to Asa (chapter 121 when he agrees on Asa's takes about solitude) and "taking care" of her.

Reason no. 4: Just Take a More Look at Them

Taller than average? Check. More athletic than average? Check. Insane face card? Check. Unbelievable amount of yearning? Check. Arguably suicidal? Check.

Both of them being a human stuck in status quo between human vs devil war like hostages in their own prison—Hirofumi stuck as hollow used cop for Public Safety and Asa stuck as War Devil very own vessel—with absolutely nothing, no one really on their side (Fumiko and Fami as mean of even more control over both of them)? Check.

Even as concept alone, child soldier and war maiden incarnate siblingsm could be developed to be something, very interesting.

Okay, now into more theories territory.....

Theory no. 1: Asa and Hirofumi are the Result of Kishibe Fucking Around and Found Out Post Quanxi Rejection Era

Why Kishibe would do that? Idk but it's a funny math because if Kishibe is in his early 50 now then 17 years ago would be him in his 30s. If Kishibe become devil hunter in his early 20s and meet Quanxi shortly after that and become buddies for 9 years then, the year just lined up lmao. How much chances of them being an oopsies baby thus explaining their very different last names but strangely similar physiques and even narratives? Not zero.

There are two options regarding this though. It's either they're twin siblings or half siblings. Half siblings mean they have different mothers but same dad, and twin siblings mean they have same mother but got separated at some point during their lifetime (Hirofumi went with Kishibe and Asa went with her mama who probably re-marry or just simply raising Asa alone and lying about her dad getting eaten by devil or something because her love story with that drunkard crazy man is just that bad).

Kishibe avoiding child support for 17 years and this is the consequences, also both of them got their ass kicked out by the very same lesbian who rejects their father, I'll say it's a beautiful storytelling.

Theory no. 2: Sinister Look on Vol 17 Cover and "Hirofumi will appear in Asa's Dream"

We will get into a more sinister area here because I believe the Makima-esque vibes, "necessary evil" narratives Hirofumi brought up to the table are not coincidences or neglectable at all. Even more sinister because his cover is him standing in front of alleyway just like how Makima cover is her in front of the door in Denji's dream.

Which led me to think that this could indicate something. However, kinda different on how it was portrayed, I think this make things clear that Hirofumi is not endgame antagonist since his cover came a bit too early than what we—the reader anticipated (there is absolutely no fucking nobody in the fandom that expecting Hirofumi to get a cover during before the cover reveal). However, he might be the key into Asa's end dream reveal later on.

Maybe he will appear on her dream being vague as fuck, or maybe direct her dream into a more "false happiness" directions since all he did is lying (see reason no. 3) to distract her focus on dead chickens. Personally, I think the latter will be more interesting because it will be the opposite of what Makima did in Denji's dream, if this "Hirofumi will appear in Asa's dream sooner or later" theory is true. The government and the church need Asa in her stable conditions to unleash Yoru anyway.

"Then what does this imply into your siblings theory"—because siblings should take care of each other, ideally. And I think it will add more depth, if true of course.

Theory no. 3: Hirofumi Cares About Asa (maybe more than what we see on-screen)

To put on more disclaimer, this is just what I imagine to fill out the gap in between narratives and it connects to reasons number 3 (again). Despite how he positions himself and blending in the crowd like invincible, Hirofumi is actually easy to care and feel guilty too (and the reason why he could kill the Immortal Brother assassin in part 1 is because he has the ignorance privilege, but with both Denji and Asa? Not so much).

I have no strong basis for this theory I just have my own feelings and a dream, and this is basically what I think Hirofumi has done so far for Asa (subtle) in the story:

Hirofumi just let Yuko loose and kill Asa's bullies during Justice Devil Arc. This may sound dark, but it fit his character in a way that he's okay with doing violence as long as it could benefit his mission (and maybe this time his personal interest too). Because he knows Asa got bullied at school. If this could solve her bullying problems, then why not? That's why Hirofumi is just sitting around during the whole fight until Denji interfered.

Hirofumi is the one who brought Asa to hospital after Falling Devil Arc (which is somehow in line for how I think he's Denji blood-giver in the same arc). Because well, I don't think Public Safety cared enough to get her conditions checked, but Hirofumi is aware about her injury conditions (arguably this is so that she could be a bargaining chip for Denji but we know that the main chip is Nayuta, I think Hirofumi just want to let him know just because also let me have this imagination for the sake of this agenda).

The reason why Hirofumi didn't or more likely can't kill Asa during CSM Church Arc is not necessarily just because War Devil has become stronger. Paneling focus on their face's expressions indicate that Hirofumi just can't bring himself more to do so (after he saw Asa's hand and her in pain), thus making him fail this mission to capture War Devil dead or alive. It's the guilt kicking in.

I think Hirofumi is somewhat relieved after he saw Asa's hands are back (yay) in Aging Devil Arc. Also, that's what he put his focus on FIRST after he got vomited out before asking his own situation even.

Personal View and The Main Takeaway (really): I need this to be real just because I think it will be so fucking funny

To end this unbelievably long ass post, I think it's important to note again that they have like five screentime together and I'm just insane. But if I should be honest, this is not me being rational at all, I just think the whole situation would be funny up to seven more factors if my ramblings are true.

Because this headcanon imply that the fandom meltdown towards them (as individuals or as in characters dynamics) is unnecessary at all. Like aside from Hirofumi being read mainly as queer, maybe him acting kind of mean and nonchalantly distant (and somewhat awfully playful) towards Asa are just because he like being petty and doesn't want to look like he wants to bang his sister (as a sister myself, yes I do feel the need to annoy my other siblings whenever I can just because I could and it doesn't have to be hatred, sometimes it's the love aggression kicking in).

Lastly, thank you guys for coming to my yapping ted talks.

[daniel-oneiroi]

Millions of votes are uncounted. YOU can do something about it!

Take less than 10 minutes to register your protest.

Tell the White House to investigate election fraud. There is a sample statement in this post.

Bitching on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter will not help. If you are an American who is old enough to vote, please take the 10 minutes to do this. Post it on your Facebook, Twitter, whatever you have.

Bomb threats called into 32 polling places

Ballot boxes burned in Vancouver WA and Portland OR; hundreds of ballots damaged, casters unable to be contacted. The city had issued a request for anyone who dropped off their ballots after the previous collection time to come forward.

Ballots declined for spurious, questionable reasons, like physical signatures not matching the shitty electronic pad ones.

These 4000+ were in Pennsylvania alone.

An unprecedented number of mail-in ballots were denied, in fact.

Major disasters along the SE means entire CITIES displaced, and someone can only vote at their polling places. With documents. So what happened to thousands of people who don't have ANYTHING? And what happened with polling places that do not exist? Entire TOWNS that don't exist? "Record numbers" DID vote in NC, but there are *other places?* What happens to people who don't have transportation? Many states do NOT have protected days off for voting. Many places do not HAVE transportation to polling places.

y'all, there was a dude not far from me who went after people at a polling place with a fucking machete. cops did something right and took his ass to jail. motherfucker went after a 70 year old?? wow u r so brave

Voter intimidation has been rampant. People here in Tampa FL were wearing piles of Trump merch while voting, which btw is illegal, but of course they weren't turned away in a red county. And some of the cops here are KNOWN white rights members so who tf you going to call.

KNOWN Russian propaganda, such as the vote fraud video "in Georgia" was rampant and convincing people to not vote or that voting polls were rigged

Don't have energy to come up with your own writing? Think like a high school essay. Include some specific bullet points.

You MUST put your REAL NAME and ADDRESS (or temporary/registered address, whatever you have.) This shows that you are a REAL PERSON and not some fucking bot. Yes, you need to do this EVERY TIME you contact a government official, or you will not be counted.

Include both investigation reasons AND recount reasons. Weird shit like bomb threats and Russian propaganda should trigger an investigation.

I shouldn't have to tell you this but keep the fucking anger out of it. Do NOT make ANY veiled, passive aggressive, or even potential threat to ANYONE. jfc.

"I urge you to investigate the 2024 election on grounds of (reason, like Russian propaganda influence) and (reason, like bomb threats preventing us from exercising civil rights.) Domestic terrorists have burned ballot boxes, attacked voters at polls, and intimidated voters. An unprecented number of ballots have been thrown out or called into question for reasons such as signature mismatch, which is not something a ballot counter should know anyways. Those ballots must be cured, the caster not simply notified of an issue through e-mail. I am greatly concerned that foreign influence has especially changed the nature of our elections. This is a matter of national security. It determines who owns weapons and who can use our nuclear codes, while calling into question the integrity of the American people. I urge the United States Government to demand an investigation into these issues and to ensure that everyone has been counted. Thank you."

I'm not saying "wahhh, wahhhhh, my guy didn't win!!1" I'm not demanding election investigation because I didn't Like the Results. I'm demanding an investigation because people's lives were threatened, our civil rights were widely disenfranchised, and we cannot have a clear idea of who REALLY won (regardless of who) until we remedy this national issue.

This is a matter of national security. Now act like it.

original post @sunnys-aesthetic ; tumblr won't allow Blazing.

[erkauberscream]

"sir, there's a christianity in your murdergame" - on religious motifs in End Transmission -part 1/2-

- a christianity? just one?

- just one.

- a singular christianity. a singularity, if you will.

Okay so I finally decided to write down my thoughts on the biblical motifs found in the End Transmission chapter. They mainly come from the Book of Genesis, but you'll have to forgive me for not quoting specific verses, especially since I've no idea which version to use. For context, I grew up Catholic, and thus most of this stuff feels fairly obvious to me. None of this should go into any sort of deep Bible lore, in any case.

I promise it'll all make sense in the end. Huge thanks to my bae @whispy-witch, who brainstormed this thing with me and is currently translating it, my co-player @triopse who's responsible for my obsession with this silly murdergame, and @blue-jacket-blues, who prompted me to finally write baby's first meta.

With that out of the way, let's start with the thing that tipped me off.

1. The Fruit

That's probably the most obvious one - Gabe's first memory in "Existence", the part where he asks if he can eat a fruit he found on Dvarka.

(is2g immediately clear the guy is an engineer and not a biologist. Gabe is like a fucking cat, this clone is gonna land on a new planet, see a fruit, ask "can I eat it?" and not wait for an answer. he probably chews on foil too.) The answer is obviusly no. The fruit is forbidden... at least for now. In the Book of Genesis, first people were allowed to eat everything in the Garden but the fruit of one specific tree and were told eating it would cause their death. The reasoning Gabe receives is similar:

2. The Garden of Eden

Not much to say about this one. The Garden was supposed to be an ideal place for humankind... and boy, the way Dvarka is described sure sounds like a paradise, eh?

(let's all agree to ignore the way Toba Landing map looks in-game. maybe the Entity fucked it up, bc this shithole is far from how I'd imagine heaven on Earth)

3. The "Eve"

tldr Eve was tempted to eat forbidden fruit, which resulted in humankind knowing right from wrong, good from evil, and being banished from the Garden - to the dangerous outside world.

Guess which little freak gets to be Dvarka's Eve...

Hux gaining sentience can be easily interpreted as an Eve allegory - though in this case it happens by accident, by him touching an alien crystal in ancient temple. (The fact that was specifically a temple feels meaningful as well.)

He gains knowledge about the meaning of death and, what's more important, he's able to judge his own actions, describing them as "clearing - no, destroying" the remnants of ancient civilization.

This may be a reach but my qpr (who hates horror and know all the dbd stuff only from me by proxy, the poor thing) pointed out the fact that the first thing Adam and Eve did after consuming the fruit of knowledge was to cover their naked bodies...

...similar to Hux' whole quest of creating himself a new body.

What also feels important to notice is that Eve was created to serve Adam - much like co-bots were constructed to serve humans.

And talking about Mr First Dude...

4. The "Adam"

So with all this in mind, you may ask: where's Adam in this methaphor? And I think I may have an answer.

Eve shares the fruit of knowledge with her husband. Only one person beside Hux had a contact with the alien crystal... and it was through Hux's data.

This person was Gabriel.

(btw it's funny that to this point Gabe was only trying to stop Hux through non-violent means, even after seeing him holding Sarah's fucking head. All it takes is one look at some alien code and our boy Soma is fighting for his life while also trying to kill the murderbot with fire. That's growth, baby!)

Anyway that's all for now. I decided to leave the last bonus point for the next time, as it's not connected that much to the Book of Genesis. I'll probably write part 2 in a few days or so.

[kompaktcat]

Sasha here!

CW here for references to hypnosis;

With the recent vibe of robot girls being The Thing on here lately I thought it might be fun to share a related thing of mine that's been an ongoing project for a while. While I have not had the drive or capacity to really work on new updates for it for a long while (I just kinda came out of a bit of a dormancy which does not help), this project was the collision between my enjoyment of machine/robot/pet play, hypno stuff, and a l o v e for prop making that we don't get to indulge nearly enough.

The goal with this was to make something that looked like it was plucked straight out of its universe and plopped into ours, and while not perfect, I'm proud of the work that went into it. It's intended to carry the vibe of an old software manual binder, but in a retro future sorta way.

The other goal was "Imagine if a robot girl had a manual to mess with her firmware" because let's not dance around that.

Please note that within the context of this project, where "System" appears, is meant to convey "operating system," as this project was conceived prior to RealisationsTM

Presenting the Firmware Operator's Manual

Neofelis Integrated Systems is imagined to be a prominent industry leader in the electronics integration and cybernetics field, that is rumored to dabble in biosynthetics and synthetic intelligence development, but these rumors are unsubstantiated outside of the company. In reality they're a Bit Fucked beneath the surface.

Opening the cover, numerous post-its are scattered on the interior, to help sell the idea that this manual existed in a real working environment. An extra LOTO tag is included in the manual, Just In CaseTM

The interior title page mirrors the outer cover, but with some additional information. Numerous pages within this project are also dotted with UV reactive EUrion constellations to depict anti-duplication measures.

Contents 1/2. The second half won't be shown here because Reasons. EPM here refers to Elevated Permissions Mode -wiggle eyebrows-

You can't just design and construct synth prototypes without proper regulation. That just won't do. Everything is definitely above board here.

These pages are just such a vibe. I can't help but add them between sections.

There are a few graphics that were made and sprinkled into this project to really fuel the software manual vibe. The chassis diagram in the print copy is now out of date, slightly. Also, never miss an opportunity to hide memes in a creative kink project. We like easter eggs.

Beyond this there's complete sections regarding ethics and safety (some of which is genuinely important SSC/RACK info, because that's important), and the sections containing various hypno commands, which will not be shared openly for obvious reasons. There's also the Error Codes page at the back, full of error codes I really have not bothered to memorise admittedly.

Anyways, that's all to share. Questions are encouraged though!

[strawberryraviegutz]

I really REALLY hate those kinds of stupid “hot take” posts. I think they’re just garbage to purposely farm more discourse to cause infighting, but I’ve been holding this in for so long and I need to get it out of my system so here it goes.

Alastor fans are allowed to dislike Valentino. Valentino was made to be a dislikable Villain while Alastor BY VIV’S OWN WORDS is a chaotic neutral antihero based off of Dexter with a moral code. Of course people are gonna like Alastor more than Valentino. The antihero/vigilante is a very popular beloved trope. I mean just look at Magneto and Venom.

You guys claim to want more nuanced characters but when we try and tell you that Alastor is more nuanced BASED OFF OF EVIDENCE FROM THE CREATOR and little possible context clues in the show we get accused of “babying/woobifying him”(as if Val fans haven’t done that to Val). This isn’t a hit piece against all Val fans/simps btw. I may hate that moth, but you guys should be allowed like him without receiving hate and or death threats.

It’s not “hypocrisy” to dislike Valentino or the Vees and like Alastor for the reasons I said above and the four of them aren’t comparable. Yeah they share some traits but overall the only thing Alastor and the Vees have in common are the mistreatment of the souls they own. Like I said, Val fans shouldn’t be attacked for liking him but the thing is…if you’re gonna preach those words then do the same for Alastor fans/simps because we get attacked too.

(Again it’s not all Val stans but it sure it a lot of them. I’ve all so seen Val haters do it too.) Yall claim not to harass people over fictional characters yet will go under Alastor posts and or discussion threads and be like “Uhm actually him and Valentino are the same🤓☝️”.

“He’s worse than Val” “Why can’t we just have a good villain” “Just accept that Alastor is a villain stop babying him” when we’re just minding our own business. Not to mention people going under fanart of Angel! Alastor and being like “erm actually he’d never go to heaven🤪”.

Along with yall bullying the hell out of Alastor selfshippers/simps and using tumblr sexyman as an insult(which reaks of internalized misogyny btw because majority of Alastor simps are women + women are always the first to be made fun of when it comes to characters that Classify as tumblr sexymen being found attractive by them or any character you personally wouldn’t find attractive.)

And yall going around and keep calling Alastor ugly under posts about people gushing about him and i don’t mean lighthearted jokes either because i make fun of the back of his head sometimes too. And full blown harassment. When an Alastor fan provided evidence of Alastor being a more nuanced character which were clips from Viv’s streams, people in the comments and qrts were being extremely rude and dismissive. It got so bad that op deleted the og tweet.

Don’t go around and claim to be against cringe culture but then make fun of people for finding Alastor attractive. And for goodness sake STOP FUCKING CALLING HIM A SLAVE OWNER. And yes he owns souls but that doesn’t matter.

Alastor is canonically half black and its overall disgusting to slap the label “slave owner” onto him knowing damn well that he grew up in the Jim Crow era of America in the Deep South of Louisiana. His existence as a mixed black person back then was basically considered an abomination. With how terrible it was for black people back then, Alastor probably bore witness to a lot of messed up shit growing up and if that’s the case then it’s no wonder he’s so messed up in the head.

This type of behavior has been going on since the days where we only had the pilot and it’s only gotten worse since the show came out. As soon as I saw that scene with husk and Alastor in hell’s greatest dad I automatically knew what was coming. I’m not saying that Alastor Is a good person nor am I saying that what he did to husk was ok. But to go after/make fun of Alastor fans,purposely denying evidence of his character while in the same breath preach against bullying people over liking certain characters makes YOU the hypocrites. So much for anti-harassment. I’m tired. Bye.

[hikarry]

With playlists I create and don't keep private because I like to share them around, I always try and keep the songs in the English realm. Max I stretch it into French, especially when it comes to my Good Omen's Playlists because the fact that both Crowley and Aziraphale (the angel tries, cmon) know French helps me make sense of it, sometimes I dare some Italian

However

I keep both European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese songs at bay cause, sure, people fuck with English and French, even Italian, but Portuguese? We live in our little world, our songs aren't mainstream

But

There's this Brazillian song that has been stuck in my head for weeks and every time I listen to it I can only picture Crowley post season 2 getting absolutely smashed while listening to it

As an exception, I added it to the Crowley & Aziraphale Playlist because...They know every language in the world, yeah? Brazillian Portuguese counts, surely?

(Sneaky lil link to the playlist wink wink)

You guys need to listen to it. Very Brazilian, surely not everyone's cup of tea, but, fucking hell-

I didn't find any good translation to english of the song (which is a shame, really. It's a lovely little song. IDK about internationally, but European Portuguese people tend to look down on Brazillian songs for some stupid ass reason, but, fucking hell, this fucking song-) so I put my professional skills as a translator into good use because I need you guys to see my vision

I'm gonna leave the video linked here and put the translation below if you want to check it.

Just

Cmon

So fucking Crowley coded - if you nevermind the whole farmland undertones because, cmon. It's Brazillian folk. What did you expect? Just feel the vibe, for real

Translation below by yours truly. If you catch a mistake, don't tell the people that actually pay me to translate shit, 'kay? I need to pay my bills

Our Picture - Ana Castela

Everybody has a love that when they lay down and look up at the ceiling

They wonder: If it was today, would we work out?

An episode that will never air, an unfinished album

A story that was interrupted in the middle, you can only imagine the rest

It's this longing that takes, that takes

That takes over me

And it doesn't make me feel remorse, nor anger

Nor hatred, only makes me feel sorry for the end

Now that picture of us getting married at the church

It won't be hung up, it only exists in my head

The two of us looking after the cattle, the cowboy daughter

Our life on the countryside only exists in my head

It will still be love even if it doesn't last our whole lives

It will still be love even if it doesn't last our whole lives

There are things that even if we want to, we can't forget

The end of 2017

Me starting dentistry and you working as a vet

Your denim shirt in my truck

My friends ask what happened to you

My father doesn't give up, he still wants to be a grandpa

Time wasn't so nice with the both of us

It could have been, but it wasn't

Now that picture of us getting married at the church

It won't be hung up, it only exists in my head

The two of us looking after the cattle, the cowboy daughter

Our life on the countryside only exists in my head

It will still be love even if it doesn't last our whole lives

It will still be love even if it doesn't last our whole lives

[johaerys-writes]

i’d be super curious to hear your thoughts of the characterisation of achilles in the iliad! because while he is considered honourable and respected by the standards of the culture, surely by modern day standards he wouldn’t be so much? which is why i think that MM did such a great job, because she basically modernised him so that we would see him in the same ways that the greeks did re: his nobility versus his arrogance, but i thought the general consensus on achilles is that he’s an ancient greek hero which equals Not A Good Guy by our standards (but my formal education in classics is limited, i mostly partake as a hobby, so i’m always looking to expand my understandings and opinions and you’re obviously a very intelligent and considered person)

So I think the most important thing anyone needs to do when engaging with ancient greek works (and indeed any sort of work, especially those created millennia ago) is to keep an open mind. Importing modern moral judgement is anachronistic when it comes to the Iliad; hubris, as we understand it now, simply does not exist in the Iliad, there are no Good Guys vs Bad Guys, there are no Heroes or Villains. Those notions came much later and are very much a Christian thing. A hero in the Homeric world has no moral implication; he is simply a warrior. A dude that does things, and not necessarily admirable things. So it would be pointless to try to view Achilles or Hector or Agamemnon (or even the gods in the Iliad who do some pretty fucked up shit) as good or bad guys, because such a thing is irrelevant in the Iliad.

That being said, I feel like Achilles is portrayed generally positively both in the Iliad and also in other ancient Greek works. He is noble, that is, he is of noble/divine lineage, he is well-spoken, well-educated, generally reasonable and polite with pretty much everyone, except for Agamemnon in that opening scene in the Iliad (who was a dick to him as well). He is also honourable and with a very rigid moral code: in the Iliad it is stated many times that he prefers to ransom back captives instead of kill them, and he even lets the body of one of the Trojans he slew be burned with his armour on as a sign of respect, even though it is a thing of great importance in the Iliad to claim the armour of the people one slew. He is not greedy and doesn't flaunt his wealth, he is generous with his Myrmidons and is generally rather well-liked. Until Patroclus is killed and he goes on his rampage, he is a pretty chill dude; and then after Hector is killed, he organises the funeral games for Patroclus where he is shown to be very diplomatic and reasonable, even with Agamemnon; and then when Priam goes to ask him for Hector's body back, Achilles treats him with respect and the two men bond over their grief. So like, idk about you but those don't seem like the actions of someone crazed or extremely arrogant or bad, even by modern standards.

I think what is most telling about how a character like Achilles was perceived in the culture that created him, is that his portrayal in later ancient greek works, mainly the theatrical and philosophical works of around the 5th cent BC, is generally positive. Some playwrights depicted him as a bit of a hothead or a little boisterous and full of himself, but that isn't really framed as a bad thing. Achilles in those works is a famous and powerful hero who knows how good he is and how much the army needs him, but he isn't needlessly flashy, he always keeps his word, he is brave and heroic even by modern standards: in Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis, Achilles goes to great lengths to protect Clytemnestra and Iphigenia from the mob, and it is pointed out many times how averse he is to trickery and lies and that Chiron brought him up to be honourable, steadfast, to keep true to his values and to stay away from wickedness (which is what Agamemnon did, essentially). So I think it's really clear that for the ancient Greeks Achilles has many admirable traits.

You mentioned MM and how she modernised Achilles and made him sympathetic to a modern reader's eyes, and I simply don't think that's true. I think MM's portrayal of Achilles is pretty close both to the Iliad and how other ancient Greeks imagined him. She simply took away all those layers of nonsense that had been piled on top of him through centuries of literary criticism that took all the later Roman works that depicted him as a sadistic monster a little too seriously or only focused on how awful he was compared to Noble Hector (no hate on Hector but those classicists really need to find a new blorbo *smh*)

I also think that MM went a little too hard on the arrogance/pride thing and on his obsession with glory without preparing the ground for it enough, but that's just my personal opinion. Achilles is very concerned with his glory in the Iliad as well, but we have to keep in mind his position here: Achilles gave up everything for that glory. He knew about the prophecy and knew that he would die in Troy, and made the choice to fight in the war because glory is just that important within the context of the Iliad. I think that many of the heroes we see in the Iliad would have chosen the same, if given a dilemma like that. So Achilles gave up the life he could have had, his kingdom, his family, just for his name to live on through the ages, and then Agamemnon royally fucked that up by disrespecting and insulting him publicly in the vilest of ways. Achilles then made up his mind to abstain from the war and to go back to Phthia and thus giving up his claim to glory because he was so over the war, and he probably would have done that had Patroclus not died. And then there was nothing else for him to do other than to die as well.

So like.... idk. His actions make sense to me. He is a passionate character who is swept away by his emotions, he has flaws, he isn't perfect (if such a thing even exists) but I think he's all the more compelling for it.

I hope this answered your question, anon! Thank you for giving me the chance to ramble about my favourite fictional man <3

[tanadrin]

Do you think it's possible there's a planet with multiple stable sentient species who interact? Or would such a situation inevitably end up with one getting wiped out or the two hybridizing

Well, they could only hybridize if they were closely related, like humans and Neanderthals. And IIRC there's some evidence that humans and Neanderthals/Denisovans probably weren't all that interfertile to begin with, with most coding Neanderthal alleles getting weeded out of our genome.

I think it would be very difficult for two sentient species that shared overlapping niches to survive. H. sapiens and Neanderthals were both smart, seem to have both had language and culture, and had similar levels of technological sophistication, but the latter had a much lower population and so couldn't really compete when their cousins invaded their territory. And maybe some of this is a function of the wider human clade's tendency to engage in warfare and ecologically disruptive hunting--there's a big wave of megafauna extinction that seems to have followed the expansion of human populations all over the globe--but I'm not sure how many species of big-brained tool-users any niche could support.

But I do think that species with very different niches could coexist peacefully, at least long enough to work out that species in other niches were sentient, and to develop the ethical frameworks necessary for coexistence. If there were superintelligent squid, they wouldn't ever compete directly with humans for habitat (though we might have eaten a fair few by accident). We have also managed (just!) not to render extinct cetaceans, which are fairly intelligent, or our close cousins the chimpanzee. I could also imagine a science fictional scenario where two intelligent species were in some kind of important symbiotic or commensalist relationship that would stabilize their coexistence.

I think the other tricky thing though would be timing. It took a long time for the genus Homo to develop intelligence. AFAICT the australopithecines were closer to chimpanzees in terms of intelligence than they were to us; H. erectus was a lot smarter, but probably didn't have language; it's not until 700,000 to 200,000 years ago you get human species that are more fully developed in terms of their intelligence, and that feels like a super narrow window in terms of evolution for another intelligence species to also emerge. Because once you do get intelligent tool-users who spread over most of the globe, they seem likely to me to start to modify their environment in profound ways, like we have. So if another intelligent species doesn't already exist, the circumstances in which it is likely to arise after one species comes to prominence are going to be very different--more of an uplift scenario, maybe. Like I think if we discovered a group of chimpanzees with rudimentary language tomorrow, we would do our best not to fuck with them, but we would inevitably have some kind of impact on their existence for better or worse, right?

Maybe your best bet for multiple sentient species would be to have a reason that the first species (singular or plural) that arose didn't come to dominate the entire planet--they were aquatic, and so never mastered fire; or they were otherwise highly restricted in the biomes they could inhabit; or they were small in number like the Neanderthals, but could retreat to refugia in mountains and forests rather than be wiped out; or they were a diverse clade like early humans, but they also spread out very rapidly, and were subsequently isolated by climate conditions. Like, imagine Denisovans (who were already in Asia) had crossed the Bering Strait land bridge to the Americas, and then sea levels rose cutting them off until the Age of Discovery. If you had a planet that didn't effectively have a two supercontinents like Earth, you might have many more opportunities for related-but-geographically-divided species to develop (though that doesn't avoid the problem of what happens when they meet each other and start competing then).

[lord-squiggletits]

Thinking about IDW Optimus again and the fandom's aversion to even acknowledging he exists bc he's a cop or whatever and like. Most of the time people literally just replace him in fic with some white bread knockoff archivist/librarian, not even bothering to keep in IDW OP's personality (which just bolsters my theory that the problem isn't him being a cop the problem is that he's too multifaceted but I digress).

And it's annoying because you could totally write IDW Optimus as not a cop while still keeping his canon personality. You just have to realize that the reason IDW OP became a cop in the first place is because his formative experiences when he was young shaped him to basically have two priorities: 1. To help people and 2. To do it by being on the ground actively doing something about the bad things happening to people.

IDW OP would not be a fucking librarian or archivist because even though those are noble pursuits that can help people and change the world, and Optimus is educated/smart enough for the profession, he wouldn't be satisfied just teaching people or spreading information about activism or social-historical studies or whatever. He's a mech of action: he needs to be doing things right now, in front of him, to people he sees/interacts with in his own eyes, improving society with concrete actions rather than indirect action or abstract inspiration.

So basically the alternate job ideas I can think of for IDW Optimus are something like being a firefighter (or any first responder really) or even whatever the equivalent would be to international charity organizations, those ones that send volunteers across the world to do stuff like build housing/infrastructure or distribute food or whatnot. I mean I can't imagine that the equivalents to these things would be exactly the same in IDW Cybertron, so you'd have to get a little creative with it, but these are just some ideas of jobs that would fit IDW Optimus' personality while still filling the niche of "not a cop" for people who are just that opposed to it.

Though I think the revulsion against coptimus is annoying in general tbh because IDW is already a continuity that rejects the idea of easily defined good/evil people or groups. It feels like people really want Optimus to be a good person in a very sanitized and academically approved way, so he has to be nice and squeaky clean but also like, a perfect leftist who knows theory and holds the most progressive opinions on every single issue....

There is no room for the idea that good people join bad institutions, there's no room for the idea that the reason people think cops are good guys who help people is bc of the government propaganda everything is saturated with. Hell there's even later issues of the Optimus Prime series by John Barber where Optimus like, MULTIPLE FUCKING TIMES, is shown in flashbacks grappling with the fact that he as a cop/Zeta's regime that he works for might not actually be improving society like they say they are, and dealing with the fact that he feels more like a lesser evil compared to the Decepticons (perhaps not "lesser" at all).

It's like there's this idea in fandom of like, fictional media and opinions on media having to strictly adhere to progressive ideals at all times. So people just go "cops bad, this character is a cop, therefore they suck" without being willing to engage with the idea of like. IDW OP is born wanting to fight injustice and protect people -> a good way to protect people is to fight the people who are hurting them and committing crimes -> surely following the law is a reliable moral code to guide him in this -> becomes a cop because he's been indoctrinated into a society (much like our own) where he was told that the state/the law exist to protect the people and being a cop means you get to fight bad guys that hurt people. There's really so many interesting concepts there that could be (and CANONICALLY IS) explored about how good, well-intentioned people can be led to harmful actions simply because they have been fed the idea that the things they're doing are good/helpful/noble. Which is especially important for a character like Optimus, I think, who has a cultural icon status as The Irrefutable and Perfect Good, so it's really important actually to use IDW Optimus as an example of how even the most noble people you know have held problematic beliefs or done bad things at some point in their life. You know, because no one is born perfect and ideologically pure, and in fact society is constructed in exactly a manner to make people drink the kool-aid and believe that the systems designed to hurt them/others are just a normal, if flawed, society.

I mean the writing in IDW literally has Optimus deal directly and indirectly with the harm he's done as a cop and how people don't/didn't trust him because of that. I don't know what the fuck else this fandom wants if the source material literally saying "OP realizes that cops suck and he hurt people and earned their disdain by doing the things he did" doesn't stop them from going EW cop bastard sucks and is the worst Optimus. Like the narrative barely stops short of outright saying ACAB and Optimus himself would agree with this sentiment.

At that point, the collective fandom beef with IDW OP isn't because he's a cop and the narrative didn't do enough to condemn that. The problem is literally just that people don't read and don't care

TLDR: Consider the fact that good people can do bad things sometimes especially when living from birth in a corrupt society that thoroughly disguises its vices/oppressive structures as completely normal parts of existence

[ominous-faechild]

I have a Problem in that I love to over-explain things even when I don't need to.

Especially when I don't need to. 😭

On that note! I'm working on my introduction post again (take a guess how many times I've gone to work on it and then stopped) and I went too in-depth when I should really be focusing on making it shorter, haha.

Except... I don't want to get rid of what I've written, and still want to share it.

SOLUTION!

My Obsessions:

✦ Fantasy, horror, mystery, action, and exploration of realistic characters' reactions to the things they go through.

What I write tends to be a reflection of this. My main works are high fantasies placed in what I feel is a more realistic setting--not as in grimdark "realistic", but places that are very used to the existence of magic. Someone who's grown up in a place with magical basically-electricity shouldn't spend five pages fawning over the existence of teleporters. Maybe they'll be surprised. Maybe they'll even be impressed. But unless they have some kind of a special interest in the subject, they'll probably spend more time thinking about how convenient it'll be for them rather than how it works, what it means, and the long, long history of magic... which has been around them for their whole life.

✦ Fairy tales, mythology, and folklore

I called myself "ominous-feychild" for a reason, haha. I like horror, I love fantasy, I adore faeries, and dear god--am I in LOVE with putting them all together! In folklore, faeries weren't cute little pixies that helped everyone around them... or even tiny little pixies that annoyed everyone around them (most of the time). They were the things that went "bump" in the night, that you huddled in close with your loved ones when you thought you might've caught their attention... Or, they made you question if your sister's eyes were always that far apart. Wait, was your bedroom there before? Did... did you even have a sister??? Well, you do now. And you might want to start running.

✦ "Ye Olde History" and language

"Ye Olde" meaning "the further away from modern day, the better." I can appreciate steampunk and actually often implement it into my own writing, but I do not consider Victorian England to be old. Civilization has been tracked back to as early as 4000 BCE, and it's way too easy to google that to think history actually started when Jesus was put on the cross. (Note: I am a merciless agnostic and hate what Christianity did to our world's history. So much was erased just because some bigots thought "stupid people don't think and act exactly like me, they're clearly barbaric! Time to erase their entire culture, massacre their people, and/or destroy their creations! Empathy be damned!!!" Fuck Christianity. To any Christians reading this, I don't mean you--just your religion. But you have to admit, it really sucks.)

✦ DIVERSITY!!!

As I just alluded to, I love learning about things that are unlike me. And, even more than that, I love people feeling like they have a place they belong. I've gone most of my life feeling ostracized, I'm not just going to perpetrate that cycle myself. Besides! It gets exhausting being in echo chambers with the same-old white cishet stories all the time.

✦ Explorations of "evil-coded" characters and abilities--aka, not just showing them as evil. Show them as people (for characters) and tools (for abilities)!

This is actually kind of personal to me. Autism and other disabilities have historically most often been relegated to villains because we're somehow "worse" than everyone else. Even I fell into that trap in the past, accidentally making a villain autistic-coded before I got my diagnosis. Now, I love putting people with questionable traits, powers, and backstories on the good side while the typically "good" things end up as villains. Something something, humans want freedom and freedom is chaos, something something, order is forcing things into boxes they might not particularly fit in because "otherwise, where else would they go???"

✦ Learning!!!

This might be weird, but I have a genuine love for just learning! (Not school, just learning.) I go down rabbit holes researching things all the time--and not just for writing! Obviously two of my favorite subjects are history and language, but I also love earth science and the ways our planet regulates itself to try to maintain balance! (And then we humans screw it up but.) Even in general, I love learning about random things, so if you ever have a weird infodump you really want to share, feel free to tag me in it and I'll check it out!!!

Yeah, by the way, this is linked to my actual intro post!

Divider by @cafekitsune