#which i think actually plays into the themes/idea i'm trying to present here

[aparticularbandit]

Also. Unrelated. To my previous post.

I've been thinking a lot about the past stuff Kyoko doesn't know about because here's the thing - even if she doesn't know, Junko should - and trying to find the root of this whole knight thing and, uh.

Yeah, at least in backstory terms, this is probably definitely a past ship. Just in terms of this makes sense from what I'm gathering, this is the general scenario I'm seeing.

But it doesn't necessarily need to be that way?

(And I still don't know if Junko was even remotely being legit or if she was just...being Junko. Because like. Matsuda was still very much a thing. I'm definitely already implying that Mikan was a thing. And that's a really quick cycle from one to the other to a third there, especially if Mikan should have been simultaneous to probably both to some extent (and if I remember correctly, DR3 makes that SUPER abusive on Junko's end, and actually coming out of everything with Matsuda, I could see how she ended up there, but that's another theory to think about after I've actually seen DR3). Like there's some layers specifically just to the Junko side of this that I. still want to think through.)

[donamori]

Please indulge me to speak at length about Don Quixote (post Warp Express Intervello)

Unfortunately, this will be riddled with spoilers, however, I'm not necessarily making this post to make any real predictions. I'm mostly just collecting my thoughts, crafting some theories, and talking at length about my thoughts on the upcoming canto, their possible themes, and to gush and wail about my most favoritest sinner ever. If you've finished Murder on the Warp Train then feel free to continue

Alright, end of the most recent Intervello, it was revealed (much to my surprise at least) that Don Quixote, our pride and joy and ever most excellent knight-errant, is in fact a Bloodfiend. A bloodfiend who apparently has their true form suppressed by Rocinante, the shoes Don wears that are named after the steed Don Quixote rides upon in the book.

This new reveal has millions of possibilities forming in my head for the upcoming Canto and here's the gist of what I've kind of formed and gathered from what we know so far in the world of Limbus and Project Moon as a whole, what I personally know about Miguel De Cervantes and his works, and the general thematic ties that are now unfurling within my noggin that I'm trying to spool together in this nice little indulgent post.

Let's start with Miguel De Cervantes:

For those who may not know, Cervantes is the author of Don Quixote, born in 1547, died in 1616. A few important tidbits that I think will be important in the upcoming Canto-

Something that has been known for awhile is that Don's battle sprite does not list her name as Don Quixote but as Miguel. For awhile now I had been wondering if within Don Quixote's Canto we are going to receive some sort of reveal that Don Quixote is actually Miguel De Cervantes. Originally the basis of this theory I had was a quote from Cervantes about how "[he] would not exist without Don Quixote." (Something that was expanded upon in a lecture about Cervantes and Don Quixote that I found on youtube). In fact a large portion of that lecture, which I will link here, contributed to this idea I had built up in my head about the relationship between Miguel and Don.

What this essentially culminates to in my mind is that the Bloodfiend will reveal that they are Miguel, but for some reason or another, they "became" Don Quixote. So, in many loose adaptions of Don Quixote, this connection is typically made. In my personal favorite adaption, The Man of La Mancha, a musical about the book, they present the story of Don Quixote as a play for prisoners after Miguel Cervantes himself is arrested. And who is the man that plays Don? None other than Cervantes himself!

(you should really give it a watch, it's a lovely musical)

Now, within the book of Don Quixote itself, our titular hero sadly perishes at the end. He loses to the Knight of the Mirror (who is actually the Bachelor Sanson Carrasco, a man hired by Don's family to bring him home) and returns home. He then dies in his bed after renouncing the name of Don Quixote and all of his adventures. Saying with much seriousness that he is not Don Quixote, but Alonso Quijana. He leaves money to Sancho and his estate to his niece and then soon passes (after a heartfelt appeal from Sancho to return to adventuring together once more.)

After his death, the book ends with the author who is detailing Don Quixote's history writing this final paragraph-

"For me alone was Don Quixote born, and I for him; it was his to act, mine to write; we two together make but one, notwithstanding and in spite of that pretended Tordesillesque writer who has ventured or would venture with his great, coarse, ill-trimmed ostrich quill to write the achievements of my valiant knight... And I shall remain satisfied, and proud to have been the first who has ever enjoyed the fruit of his writings as fully as he could desire; for my desire has been no other than to deliver over to the detestation of mankind the false and foolish tales of the books of chivalry, which, thanks to that of my true Don Quixote, are even now tottering, and doubtless doomed to fall for ever. Farewell.”

I've paraphrased it a bit, but you get the gist. While the author detailing Don Quixote's history is a fictional author made up by Cervantes, I believe it is a cheeky way of Cervantes to insert himself in the story and express his true feelings here.

Now, with Cervantes and Donqui being one and the same I believe the strong thematic thread tying this all together is one of dreams. It's now known to us this whole time that Don Quixote is in fact, both dream and dreamer. The monster that Don Quixote is sleeps while they allow for their true self to live, ever dreaming. But now that Dream is Ending.

I think we're going to see the 'death' of Don Quixote and some sort of joining of Miguel and Don. I think Miguel wants to keep dreaming. They are a bloodfiend, a horrible monster, one of the more powerful beings that are mentioned in Project Moon's games. But i think that Miguel doesn't want that. I think that Miguel wants to be cured. Something that has never really been done for a bloodfiend, an impossible dream, perhaps?

I think in Don's Canto we're going to see what we see within the book. Miguel/Don's family trying to get him to come back, to stop him, to get him to give up on this silly dream of Knight-Errantry. And I believe Dante will finally be able to help Miguel take the first steps towards realizing this impossible dream.

Some small little thoughts that I've had that i think push this a bit further.

Don Quixote was written by Miguel when he was 50 while he was in prison.

I've been wondering now whether this cell we see Donqui in within her base ego was actually some sort of representation of this. Don Quixote was born while Miguel was locked away. This looming shadow of Rocinante keeping the Sangre De Sancho locked away within this small starry-eyed girl <3

Nothing that I really have any like, evidence for, but based on vibes I think representing the specific sort of Spaniard from this time period as some sort of high class vampire is excellent and really fits thematically as well.

Cervantes has a bunch of quotes about the nature of oneself and death (bloodfiends are undead). Some that I think are quite fitting are :

“A Man Without Honor is Worse than Dead.”

“Take my advice and live for a long, long time. Because the maddest thing a man can do in this life is to let himself die.”

“I know who I am and who I may be, if I choose.”

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”

and finally, to conclude this,

“All I know is that while I’m asleep, I’m never afraid, and I have no hopes, no struggles, no glories — and bless the man who invented sleep, a cloak over all human thought, food that drives away hunger, water that banishes thirst, fire that heats up cold, chill that moderates passion, and, finally, universal currency with which all things can be bought, weight and balance that brings the shepherd and the king, the fool and the wise, to the same level. There’s only one bad thing about sleep, as far as I’ve ever heard, and that is that it resembles death, since there’s very little difference between a sleeping man and a corpse.”

If you read this whole thing, thank you for indulging me. I greatly appreciate it.

[jo-harrington]

Corroded Coffin Fest - Day 27 - You'll Be In My Heart

Summary: Eddie and the boys fight their homesickness when they're on the road for the summer.

Word Count: 964

Rating: T

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Store Manager!Reader

Warnings/Themes: Friendship, fluff, allusion to sex, discussion of marriage

Note: Alright final Saturday of this event, I'm both sad and excited, it's been a really great one. For this day, I'm going back to my fondest series, my baby, The Store Manager Verse. It's specifically set before the proposal in Longevity and it very much explores how Eddie got the idea to propose to Store Manager at all.

And I might've fucked up the timeline and my own fic canon so just...if you notice something, shhh no you didn't.

Check Out the Main Post for @corrodedcoffinfest here! Even if you didn’t start on Day 1, you can still join!

Tagging: @the-unforgivenn at her request.

You can find my masterlist here.

Please do not interact if you are not 18+.

Enjoy!

August 1990

The summer of '90 was a special one.

It was Corroded Coffin's first real life tour. Well, not really.

"Actually," you told them when they broke the news to you, "you're forgetting about the Independence Day Tour of '87."

"We didn't make t-shirts for that one, sweetheart," Eddie teased and dropped a kiss on the top of your head before diving into the details.

It wasn't a true tour in the sense that they'd pack up the van and hit the road and never look back until the tour was over--that would require them quitting their jobs for a time, something their wallets desperately couldn't handle. But a few days off here to go to this festival? A few days off there to enter into this Battle of the Bands? That was doable.

It was as close to a tour as they were gonna get for a little while, and it was gonna help them get further in their music career.

It also prepared them.

Being away from home for a few days at a time prepared them for an inevitable week or month or year that they could potentially face if their star grew brighter.

Eddie quickly realized, though, how much he would miss you when that time came, because he missed you terribly now.

He started seeing you everywhere he looked. Foods he thought you might like to try, love songs that reminded him of you. Someone at one county fair even did a cover of Beth, which he would argue was your song. And at one fest, there was a booth with hand drawn postcards featuring cute fuzzy animals with nefarious settings in the background.

It started with one of those.

A postcard of a kitten with a big purple bow sitting in a haunted forest. Purple for Claires, he explained when he presented it to you on their return home. You gushed over it, said that you loved it, and it went up on the fridge.

Until the next time the guys were out of town.

Next it was special chocolate caramel candies with thick sea salt on top from a booth that sat next to the main stage. They had probably eaten more chocolate than any other food during that trip; you had to try it.

Then a big over stuffed teddy bear--

"It's an Eddie Bear, actually." He pointed to the denim vest it wore. "See?"

--that he won playing a game of ring toss.

A huge tin of assorted fudge from Mackinac Island and a promise to take you with next time they went.

A necklace made of special stone beads that supposedly helped with everlasting love or something; he'd gotten to choose a tarot card when he bought it. He got the two of cups, whatever that meant.

Each and every gift that Eddie brought you when he was away was special. Some big, some small. Some made you ooh and aww, some made you cry because of how much you missed your idiot boyfriend, one even earned him...well...lets just say his bandmates, who you shared a duplex with, made themselves scarce for the evening.

But it was the last stop on the tour that brought maybe the best gift, the most meaningful. It made Eddie really stop and think because...well, this was the stop that they were debuting a new song about his parents and his childhood and how the future wasn't set in stone and you couldn't change things that were bad for you, even with the best intentions.

Marriage is a Death Sentence.

So it was ironic that the first thing to catch his eye would be a ring.

Not a typical engagement ring, not a diamond or really anything big and shiny at all. It was strange and artsy and interesting but when he saw it there at that little crafters booth...he just thought of you.

It was a weird thought. Jarring.

And it scared him.

He turned tail and walked right out of the booth, stopped at a stand where they sold little critters made of recycled wire and bought you a tiny porcupine. There, done, gift bought, no need to think of it anymore.

But he couldn't stop thinking about the ring for the rest of their time there. Not when they performed, not when they ate lunch, not when they packed the van at the end of the night to go home.

He hadn't given marriage much thought when he was younger. He liked dating, liked dating you. You never brought it up, neither did he. But then you took him as your date for Jen's wedding a few years back, and the two of you talked about it and of course you were on the same page. Couldn't see yourselves doing the whole commotion, no suits or dresses, no desire to have your families and friends stare at you for hours.

Not to mention some of those vows were just heinous.

No wonder Al and Elizabeth Munson were destined for heartbreak if they vowed to honor and obey...blegh.

So marriage? No, not at all. Immediately no.

But you? Forever with you? You were his best friend. Wouldn't say his soulmate, that was Jeff obviously and you had no problem with that. But you were...you were you.

So the answer was a resounding yes. Always.

Eddie ran, faster than he'd run in a long time if ever, through the booths as everyone packed up for the night, to the little crafters stall from earlier.

"I was just about to pack up," the vendor laughed as Eddie caught his breath. "You made it just in time."

It was fate.

He pointed where the ring still sat, as it if was waiting for him, and said,

"I'll take it."

[reikunrei]

Omg thank you for your post about El!! That theory is fun and all but I can't believe people think it has any chance of happening in the show. It would amount to a "it was all a dream" ending, people who hate it, and most of all, as you said it wouldn't make sense. I wonder what you think El's ending is going to be, staying true to the themes of the show? I have no idea what they're going to do with her character and I'm really curious to find out. There's also that video of Millie saying she saw her character's ending and thought "ooohh" and walked away slowly. I feel like dying isn't a good choice but then she's just going to be living her life with her friends and her new found family? That seems too... simple. I'm curious to know your thoughts!

yeah, it's a theory that really drives me up a wall because it sequesters el into this "she's not actually important at all" role, which is just... shitty. for all their flaws, the duffers have a pretty good track record when it comes to writing strong female characters (for the most part), and so it feels just wildly out of character for them to pull the rug out from under el and say "oh, she wasn't actually real the entire time" (whether that be for will-based or mike-based manifestation theories. in both (or any) cases, it pushes her into a position of solely aiding her male counterparts and undoing everything handled in her own personal arc. thus: misogyny).

like you said, it really does feel akin to the "it was all a dream" types of storylines, which the duffers have explicitly scoffed at and said is not what's happening. so like, even if it wouldn't completely undermine the story as it's been presented to us thus far, we have more-or-less solid confirmation that it wouldn't be the basis of st5's conclusion, straight from the horse's mouth.

the only time "it's all fake/it's not real" really comes into play (from what we've seen) is regarding stuff with the lab and, specifically, the mf and henry. the "it's all just a dream" stuff is already explicitly presented to us as a bad thing, or not the solution and rather part of the problem. even as it specifically ties to el, nina is something that's largely or entirely fabricated (even if it has real anchor points), and while she comes out of it having regained her powers, that's very likely not the only goal of nina (but i won't get into that here, that's something james talks about a lot in his upcoming thesis post) and the unreality of it all is much more nefarious than it's been presented as thus far.

i mean, even thinking about st2 and will facing the mf as if it's not real/just a nightmare that he can tell to "go away"... only to have that trust in unreality be his whole undoing? like... it just doesn't make sense to me to make "she's not real" a conclusion when every single bit of unreality we've seen thus far has only aggravated things.

and i know i said this in the tags of that post earlier, but just to bring it to the forefront here... it really confuses me to have el's arc be about being different, being an outsider, and feeling like she doesn't belong because she's weird or "the monster"... only to say she should just be shut away forever or killed because of it? like... just say you think "undesirable" weird people should be separated from society and be done with it.

it's the antithesis of the entire show. stranger things, at its core, since the beginning, has been about society's outcasts trying to find their place in the world and accepting their "freak" side and not trying to "fit in." our introduction of henry has explicitly furthered this idea by putting the burden of accommodation on society, not on the individual. and i'd be shocked if they had her reach a point where she felt like she couldn't find a place in the world when we already see that she's more than capable of fostering a comfortable environment with her friends. it's too much like just... giving up, to go the route of "she's not real."

as for what i think the end of her story will be... i have no idea LOL i don't feel confident enough in anything to put down something concrete here. basically, i just don't think it's going to be something akin to "she's a figment of someone's imagination" or was "created" by one of the other characters. she has her own story, her own history, her own life. i don't know what millie could have been reacting to, but i wouldn't be shocked if it was less so "el's ending" and more so something about answering the question of who she really is. so... less of "what's her last scene on the show" and more just... generally figuring out what her whole deal is, you know? because there's still a lot of holes in her past that need filling.

so i guess an answer i can give here, which is definitely wishful thinking, is that i believe the way her story is "wrapped up" will revolve around learning who her parents really are and the actual history of her life (ie. she's not actually jane ives, one of the henries is her parent in some way shape or form, perhaps even brenner is her biological father in some way, etc.), while also touching on the truth of what happened in the lab in 1979 and forward/figuring out just how messy the order of events presented in nina was. like, i firmly believe that the ending of her arc will involve having to come to terms with some really harsh truths about herself and her lineage, and finally wrap up the whole "monster vs superhero" argument she's had going on in her head. so i do think she'll get her "happy life" with her new family and friends, it'll just be a very messy road to get there.

which ties very neatly into some of the overall themes of the show: that sometimes good people do bad things, bad people do good things, not everything is black and white, and the answer to everything is love, compassion, and understanding, even when someone does something "monstrous."

anyway. thank you for giving me a reason to talk about this more and sorry for rambling LOL this stuff just gets me heated!! it annoys me to no end to see characters constantly shoved into the position of "supporting byler" at the expense of their own arcs, and it especially stings for me when it's done to el. especially because i'm in the camp of, if the show had to pick a singular main character, it would be el. she's the tie between the outside world and the lab. she's the one person who helps to really keep everything together and offer answers. so it just feels wildly counterintuitive to essentially give all of that to someone else and make her an expendable middleman.

[millilps]

fuck it, we ball clown

so. Susan. Susan Triad. it was all a set up to trap the Doctor. all the mentions of Susan (Foreman) were just to give context to the new viewers. but you know what's interesting here? family.

"wtf are you talking about are you high or something" no no bear with me I actually have a point it's not just pure clowning. well, it is, but I swear I'm trying my best here to make it make sense

it's a long post so buckle up clowns we're going all in with this one

so, I was saying, if you think about it a lot of episodes in this season are more or less centered around or connected to the idea of family in some way:

Space Babies: I mean. yeah. it doesn't really need an explanation. and also the whole thing of being abandoned just like Ruby

The Devil's Chord: we know Maestro is part of the Toymaker's family, and technically also the kid we see at the start? I think? are there theories about that kid? is he just a normal kid and then became somehow the harbinger of Maestro?

Boom: the concept of family literally saves everyone

73 Yards: well, Ruby's family is present in the episode, but also it's interesting how Ruby's fears play out in the episode which is directly interlocked with her birth mother abandoning her, it's kinda there but not as central or as explored as other episodes

Dot and Bubble: it's... a bit more subtle. it's there, kinda. we do have the whole thing of all the people in Finetime being part of rich families, and we also see Lindy's mom, so it's better than nothing

Rogue: I actually don't know. the family of Chuldurs? the marriage proposal? I have absolutely no idea but I also feel like it's there somewhere

The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death: I probably don't have to say much as they are the episodes that actually dive in Ruby's story and the mystery around her birth, but yeah the family theme is obviously there

with the season following this theme, more or less, Susan was an obvious choice.

think about it: the Doctor has lost so many people he cared about that Sutekh pretty much could use every name ever. obviously they also had to explain regeneration to new viewers (hi, new viewers! hope you're enjoying the show!) so the list had to be shortened to only characters who are time lords or have the ability to regenerate, add a bit of "the Doctor regretting his past choices" and you get Susan. and this is tied directly with the theme of family, because she is the Doctor's family, technically the only gallifreyan family member we know about (Jenny, River, the Ponds and probably more that I'm forgetting/don't know about are also family, but in a different way) and also we have no informations whatsoever about her - sure, we have Big Finish, but it's kinda... not exactly canon, I guess? idk. nothing is canon and everything is canon at the same time in this show, you just have to live with it. still, she's one of the biggest mysteries of this show, because while other characters came back or were mentioned with information about them and/or their lives either in the expanded universe that is more strongly influenced by the show (yes I'm looking at Barbara and Ian's wedding in the 50th anniversary DMW that I can't find anywhere, idc what anyone says but that IS canon) or in the actual show at some point, she has never officially returned, and the Doctor has never officially gone back to meet her (sure, we have the story Fellow Traveller in the book Adventures in Lockdown, but it's probably not canon anymore at this point - although, it could be, if we clown enough). and with all the things about family in the season, obviously she had to be the key.

Ruby's family story is concluded: she found her birth mother, she also found her father, and now she has an amazing big loving family. but you know which one isn't? the Doctor's. we've met his adoptive mother, sure, but we know the Doctor had kids, we know Susan exists, and we know she's family to him.

she's out there somewhere. I know. she must be. she could've been mentioned in a lot of different episodes, a lot of different points, a lot of different stories, but she wasn't.

so why all these mentions all of a sudden? honestly I have absolutely no idea, I'm not RTD, I'm just a clown doing clown things, and the clown things on today's list is making theories about how Susan might come back

[frostbitebakery]

I'm so in love with all of your art. My favorites have to be Codywan, Cody and Obi-Wan separately, and your cursed series art.

May I ask how you came up with the idea for the cursed commanders and Boba Fett series?

Ahhhh this message was the best way to wake up! Thank youuuu 💜💜💜

The Unlucky Ones, my beloveds! That one started like all the others: I went “lmao wouldn’t it be cool” and then it grew into a monster of a concept and venus flytrapping @adiduck in the process.

TUO started because for Halloween I had already Eldritched Obi-Wan so it was Cody’s turn.

I love character design. I like to play around with the given themes or throw them into the ocean and do my own thing. So every time for character designs it really does start out like, “I want to draw that character in these clothes”. There’s no plan. That always happens along the way.

For TUO!Cody I wanted him scary but still being Cody. I thought about typical Halloween things and went with skeletons. Mainly because of the white armor and I thought how cool it would look if the armor was shaped like bones. But I didn’t want the armor to look scary, I wanted him to look scary (and badass) (and like a sexy bastard). While looking for bone refs, I saw enough skulls in different positions. Some of them looked like they were screaming, howling. And I thought, duuuuuuuuude. Duuuuuuude. A skeleton projection rising out of Cody and growing taller and lifting its arms and rushing forward with a scream while Cody stands there like 😎??? YES. LET’S DO THAT.

So the concept of the Curse was born.

It always starts as a visually appealing concept. I try to make sense of my decisions later.

For the other Commanders I thought about how to apply the Cody concept art on them. I didn’t want to copy paste the armor design. But I also wanted them to visually belong together in the same verse.

The designs should be distinct and representative of each character. Even if some details seem questionable at first glance, I always want them to make sense in context. So I add snippets to basically explain myself.

Wolffe’s armor in canon went from red to grey in grief and is rather neat with stenciled designs. For TUO!Wolffe I wanted to up that grief given what Wolffe goes through in TUO. The grey canon design turned into rotten fabric and veils. Which turned Wolffe into a banshee-inspired design. The armor design is reminiscent of those fluttering torn fabrics that indicate a tragedy happened here and the grief is ever present. Going with the banshee and with how I deformed Cody’s face, Wolffe got a deformed jaw (think The Mummy when the corpse screams) which he hides behind a bandana.

Adi suggested beauty in decay for Bly. So he’s got flowers growing out of him. And I desperately needed a reason for him to tell Aayla “General, hold my flower”.

Fox has a deformed back which is only known so far to Adi and me. He started with the little white tufts of hair bc I love that on him and wanted it for TUO!Fox. By then it was already established that their hair goes white with each death. So that meant if I wanted the Fox ears, Fox had to have died twice already. Things like that were the reasons the backstory avalanched into a monster. And suddenly you go from “aww, the white hair looks like ears so cute!!” to “actually Cody killed his brother in training because how the Curse was genetically modified and added to the Commanders makes them go into a berserker state” to “the non-command class clones have instated containment protocols for when a command clone goes berserk”.

Now Ponds. Ponds had to survive. I’m not spoiling his whole story but his character design was inspired by “rising like a phoenix out of the ashes”. So his armor has bird bones and wing bone structures. And with how he looks, his backstory makes perfect sense and is heartbreaking.

Boba was a request by a dear friend. He’s not cursed in TUO canon but my friend loves the design so much she asked if I couldn’t do a Boba design. So I did.

[callmearcturus]

Regarding the reception of Ilsa's death, what personally upsets me about it is that by refusing to interact with it on a story level (ie blaming McQ's misogyny, saying that it's just fridging), people completely miss out on the thematic richness of the movie, and how much that death influences that.

It's a pity that people aren't giving them any credit for the story because they focus on that part of it, so thank you for talking about it!

(Sorry, not really a question!)

(heads up this is gonna be a bitchy post!)

Yeah I am to a point that I'm becoming actively annoyed at the discussion around DR1 because I walked out of that movie both times like "I cannot BELIEVE what they're doing here with the IMF, with the ethos of the movies, I can't wait for ppl to get over their shock over Ilsa's death and actually think about the point"

and that has just not happened and it's so boring. To watch DR1 and go "i hate this movie bc Ilsa's death was pointless" and to keep thinking that even after you've cooled off is imo a media literacy failure. like, DID WE FUCKING WATCH THE SAME MOVIE?

did anyone else see Ethan's introduction to the movie, where he gets to play an elder member of this organization basically inducting and welcoming someone into the fold with a distant kindness?

did anyone else see how the Entity affects the entire western intelligence community and cements them as the villain while the IMF are fighting to maintain basic free will?

did anyone notice the purposeful contrasts, how everyone swayed by the Entity's potential power exist in flashy ultra modern sets while Ethan's team live in the warm shadows of old abandoned buildings?

how about the return of Kittridge, the spectre of history and obligation cast over everyone?

HOW ABOUT REFASHIONING THE MYTHOS OF THE IMF INTO A "CHOICE" EXPLICITLY MAKING ALL OF THESE PEOPLE SELF-SELECTING AGENTS OF OUTRAGEOUS ALTRUISM. I'm sorry but how the fuck are people not losing their fucking minds over the fact Christopher fucking McQuarrie has been building on this IDEA since Ghost Protocol, that Ethan Hunt doesn't believe in the trolley problem, that if you present him with a trolley problem he will try to kill himself pushing the trolley off the tracks, there are no acceptable losses even in the face of nuclear armageddon, and they made it fucking CANON

and then they made Luther and Benji go "well yeah that's the IMF, we all chose to be this kind of batshit fanatical to the preservation of life"

Ilsa died OPTING INTO THAT. she was never IMF, she was a loner who occasionally fell into the orbit of Ethan and co, and rather than leaving it up to Ethan to make a choice, she walks open-eyed to save a woman she doesn't even know because why would that matter do you get it yet, we're talking about themes here

I'm just. I get it. Or I got it. For the first few weeks after DR1 came out, ppl were sad that Ilsa died

but now that we are this far out from it and people are still saying "her death was pointless", my patience is done. you failed to read the movie. which pisses me off because i am super into what this movie, this franchise, is trying to say!

anyway yeah my name is arcturus, i love ilsa faust, and i love that she died because her death fucking meant something /jazzhands

[flamerunn3r]

Sorry this is unfinished but I need to post these now just bc idfk when i'm gonna actually finish the rest realistically. Idk it will happen eventually. For now heres the great p5u ramblings post detailing my thoughts designs

This is my own personal interpretations but is also somewhat speculative in nature. I'm mostly trying to deal in already established characterizations and epilogue set ups but there might be stuff I've missed or forgotten (i also haven't played dancing yet sorry if there's something in there I hadn't accounted for). This is kind of like if I took the creative reigns on the story where I'd continue for it. Only the investigation team for now (and 2 boss characters I have an idea for) but maybe I'll do the shadow ops at some point. Only 4 characters for now but I'll reblog with additions when I finish the rest or if I edit any of these

Yu Narukami

He's currently attending school as a journalism student in the city or just starting out as one. Enthusiastic about his field but still tries to find the time to keep up with his friends and visit Inaba on his holidays. I felt journalism made alot of sense for him with the themes of persona 4. I liked the sport jacket and turtleneck but wanted soemthing different so the scarf was chosen to keep the same kind of silhouette. I made the collar on the winter coat large and I feel like Narukami's large uniform collar is a key part of his design. and I wanted to call back to that in his casual outfit. The summer outfit I mostly kept close to his summer outfit from p4. I'm kind of unsure on it though I might come back to it. I mostly wanted to keep his outfits smart and simple. For his meta verse outfit I really wanted to go all out with the bancho (kingpin) stuff and other delinquent tropes. I lengthened the uniform coat a little because I wanted it to look like a tokko-fuku. Alot of smaller detail inspiration was taken from Izanagi. The lenses in the mask are supposed to mimic glasses. I'd imagine he'd take off the mask the same way he throws off his glasses in myriad truths.

Teddie

I can't imagine him leaving Inaba and the TV world behind. Still staying in town and working largely the same job. He's got his own place now albeit small (still a step up from the closet though). At some point the IT asked Mitsuru to pull some strings so he actually has a legal personhood now. The animal hoodie is something that came to me spontaneously but I knew I needed to include it. I really that his normal outfit in 4 keeps the white and red of the bear costume in the outfit so I tried to keep the colour scheme here too. Most of his later outfits are less flashy and more casual so I tried to continue that trend. I didn't want to lose the rose from the corsage completely so I included a rose pattern in the second shirt. Alot of his outfits feature light blue so I wanted that in at least one outfit. I considered making the hoodie light blue initially. I don't think he'd have a metaverse outfit he'd just use the bear costume.

Naoto Shirogane

I'm under the assumption Naoto is still presenting masculinely to the general public as of p5 but I may be mistaken in this. If I'm wrong I'd still probably largely keep the outfits similar to this. Naoto's still working as a detective and I don't think that's ever really going to change. One thing that a hypothetical p5u would have to address is what Naoto and the shadow ops would have been doing during the events of persona 5 and I unfortunately do not have any ideas for what that would be at the moment.

I feel alot of the appeal of Naoto's design is the kind of boy detective fashion. I went at this design with the intention of kind of refining that into something a little more adult while still keeping in a similar vein. I did have to ditch the pageboy hat unfortunately as I felt it made them look too young. These outfits were kind of design as pseudo work clothes which is why I tried to make them a bit more formal then the other characters. Something I consider notable about Naoto's design but deliberately avoided here was the rolled up pant legs. It's very obvious in 4 it's done because Naoto is short but I feel like Naoto would start getting that either custom made or tailored to fit. I was initially going to forgo the blazer on the summer outfit but the design felt empty without it. Naoto having a noir detective themed metaverse outfit is an idea I'd had for years but I tried to incorporate design elements that were princely. I alot of the inspiration was from Sam Spade specifically. Deliberately made similarities to Akechi's white crow design. The band around the hat is supposed to invoke the similar one on the old page boy hat.

Yukiko Amagi

Still working at her families in but is taking online courses during the off seasons. She's mostly happy where she is but is keeping her options open. Occasionally makes visits to other ryokans out of town for ideas for her families own inn, as well as an opportunity to for her to sight see.

The headband was included in her design in p4 as a like retro design thing but I find it too important of a marker of her design to remove it. I understand the why they went with the hairstyle they did for her golden epilogue but I feel it just ends up making her look way older then she is. I thought her having her hair up would be a nice change since she does it so rarely and settled on a ponytail. Tried changing the bangs but the ones she already had just felt right. I wanted her clothes to carry this kind of air of sophistication so I tried to keep them relatively simple and sleek. She's wearing pants in the winter outfit but I chose the longer coat to keep a similar skirt silhouette. The choker was largely inspired by the scarf she has in her winter outfit. Despite being a different colour the cardigan was also chosen to tie back somewhat to the sweater she wears with her school uniform.

In some side material it's mentioned that Yukiko has an interest in western fashion and aesthetics (part of what made the castle manifest the way it did) and I wanted to lean on that in some way for her metaverse design. I ended up going with a masquerade ball theme. I tried to keep the dress to something simple and easy to move in. The gloves and boots take inspiration from her persona in terms of design and size. I wanted to incorporate elements from her work kimono as well hence the ribbon around the torso and flower patterning. Probably the most unsure of this one of the metaverse designs so far. Especially the colours (considered making the reds pinks initially). Might revisit this one.

Ok that's all I have for now I'll probably do Rise's next 👍👍👍

[respectthepetty]

I didn't think I'd be making posts with my random thoughts about Be My Favorite's episodes, but here I am, making posts about my random thoughts because I don't hate the show. That's all I'm giving this show. I. Don't. Hate. It. I can't like it because I'm even more nervous now that all the secrets are out since JittiRain seems to be reaching outside of her usual way to wreck this. Gotta stay wary.

Someone else noticed in episode one's first scene that it looks like Pisaeng is "sleeping" behind Kawi in class when Kawi picks the name.

If that really is Pisaeng "sleeping", this adds a layer to this story that I'm already trying not to spiral down.

Kawi thinking he's still dreaming, but Pisaeng going out of his way to make sure Kawi doesn't hurt himself is giving me the idea that Pisaeng DOES like Kawi and has noticed him before now.

Kawi telling Pisaeng he is Linda Evangelista all the time is going to be my favorite running theme.

Last week, Pisaeng asked Kawi this, and now this week, Kawi asks Pisaeng. They are basically begging the other one to just admit it, so they can get married. Kawi went from being invited to the wedding, to being the best man in one episode, so episode three should have him being the groom, right? But the groom to whom?

STOP TRYING TO MAKE ME LIKE THIS!

Aou! Max and Kawi were best friends, but aren't now, yet Kawi still knows how Max's life played out (he is unhappy in the present/future), so he had to have kept tabs on him all these years. I'm invested in this rebel with his pink hair.

"I'm too poor to contour!" - - - This is code for "I need a sugar daddy. " -> insert Pisaeng

Pisaeng ain't even fighting the sugar daddy allegations! Kawi admitted to liking Pear. Pisaeng admitted to NOT liking Pear, and seemed uncomfortable with his classmates betting he would have sex with Pear. And here Kawi is spending Pisaeng's money that he could buy a university with (but his family doesn't want that type of business). How long have you noticed Kawi, Piseang?!

WHAT?! I saw someone else post this already, but I still wasn't expecting it to be like this. Pisaeng is drunk and looks like he has been punched or slapped (by Pear?!). Like . . . WHAT THE FUCK?! I

*lays on office floor for twelve minutes feeling the carpet and listening to the rain trying to get my shit together*

I don't know, y'all. These after scenes are going to do me in, but why would Pisaeng marry Pear in the original timeline if he actually liked Kawi?

Every week, these two are trying to figure out which one will say 'like' first! Pisaeng wants to play basketball with Kawi, take a nap at his place, eat with him, and be in his general orbit. Just admit you like him, sugar daddy.

Damn it! JittiRain got me again! I'm invested.

God, I'm so screwed!

[trainsinanime]

That post about titles vs last lines (which is harder) is really interesting, because I see so many people say last lines, and that's not the case for me at all. I feel like talking about that, so here's some thoughts on how I write my last lines. I do not think this is universally applicable, I'm not even sure it works that well for me, but maybe it's interesting.

First things first: The last line is easy because you already got the reader on your side. They read through the whole thing without pressing the back button, and they know everything that happened in it. That doesn't mean you can do a bad job here, but it means they're complicit. What you write here is an inside joke between you and them, more or less. You get to use a something you established earlier, a theme, an idea, a literal sentence or similar, and repeat it or play with it, or do a punchline on it.

For example: Everyone Knows Black Cats Are Bad Luck discusses the common fan idea that Chat Noir and/or Adrien is somehow unlucky due to the black cat Miraculous, through a discussion between Adrien and Plagg. It's a simple dialectic: Adrien presents the thesis (also given in the title). Plagg presents the counter-thesis: No, that's stupid. The synthesis (well, it's not a perfect synthesis, Plagg mostly just represents my views here) is the finale, where they both bond even deeper. And the final line distills that synthesis down, when Plagg says,

"Kid, just remember: If I were unlucky, I'd have never met you."

Another option is to humorously counter the story you told so far. Works well for silly stories. For example, in A Friend Like That, the whole story is telling us that Adrien is enamoured with Marinette, pays super-close attention to her, and doesn't even know that he's doing it. It's all about how he sees her, and how much he loves what he's seeing. The final line reverses that, when Marinette says,

“I don’t know. I just wish, you know, that he'd finally notice me.”

Honestly that line is cheating, I don't think Marinette would actually say that. But nobody's called me out on that yet, because it's such a useful punchline.

Another good option: Imply the whole thing is a bit cyclical. The very short Drabble Absence just literally ends the same way as it started, but now we have a completely new context, and what seemed eery and sad at the start (assuming you didn't read the summary or tags; the thing was a Tumblr post at first) is now fun and light-hearted and silly.

(I still deeply regret that I didn't end Marinette's Choice with Marinette feigning death again. The last line there is okay, but it's just one final joke in a story that is just a list of jokes. If Marinette had "died" again, the whole thing would have seemed like a closed narrative.)

How do you help a good friend? ends with

“Only one way to find out, Chaton. Try following that advice you keep getting and ask me out.”

That's a callback to the very start of the story, which makes it feel like a closed narrative, and also implies the start of something new.

Depending on the story, you can also just go weird with it. In The Haunting Spectre, the level of silliness starts strong and keeps rising, and that's really the key thing the story is about. So when we reached the end and have finally reached max silliness, the end just turns it up a notch, when Chloé asks Alya,

“Anyway, I’m fairly certain Adrien doesn’t know that Marinette is Ladybug, but do you think she knows he’s Chat Noir?”

Of course, the best ending line in any of my stories is in Rooftop Musings, although I feel like I can't give any credit for it since it isn't from me, it's stolen, and the whole story is built just to get to it. After a bit of Kagami wondering about Marinette, Adrien, and that one episode in season 3 that made everyone ship Adrigaminette, you know where they were on top of the hotel and everything, we end with the most bitter-sweet line that I and all old Tumblr users know:

Still, if she could, if she had any chance at all, there was only one thing she truly wanted: Spend an extra hour in the ball pit.

[naranjapetrificada]

Academic excerpts as a framing device

So in the ask game I've been enjoying today, @piratecaptainscaptainpirates asked an interesting bonus question about the academic blurbs I've been including at the start of each chapter of From the Firmament that I started answering on that post, but things quickly go long enough to merit their own post so here it is! The question (as such) was:

(also, I was just re-reading From the Firmament and I will never be over the academic article excerpts. They're just such a neat and fun inclusion! I'd love to hear about your process while writing them, how you go about working them in with each chapter's themes, etc.)

Whatever specific idea that spawned the fic itself is now lost to the vicissitudes of ADHD memory, but it was born in the context of a lot of Thinking About Tropes in ways that were new to me at the time. In particular I was interested in a different first meeting, specifically one that involved Stede actually visiting the Queen Anne or being taken captive by the QAR crew, and Ed having to react to Stede under those circumstances.

I started playing with a draft in that vein that I'm going to come back to at some point, but the other trope I got really interested in (both as a reader of fic and also just like, intellectually) was arranged marriage. Basically every version of that I could imagine required an entirely different world than the canon one, and once I started casting about for the right circumstances I started thinking about history a lot.

The academic blurbs started as a worldbuilding crutch when I was first trying to get the fic together at the beginning, and it was easier to gather all that kind of information in a "just the facts" format when starting out. They started taking on a more concrete form when my thoughts about history intersected with 1) stuff I'd read before, 2) stuff I was reading at the time, and 3) a joke that got out away from me.

1) Two of my favorite novelists period are K.J. Parker (who I've mentioned at least once in the fic's notes) and Guy Gavriel Kay, both of whom are obsessed in their own ways with history in a way that come through in their fantasy work in interesting ways. Kay tends to straightforwardly mention in-world history and historians, without mentioning specific works but making a point to draw attention to the fact that he's speaking from outside of the characters' perspectives. Here is an example passage from Kay's Under Heaven, which is presented in its own separate section between character pov chapters:

It was said to be the case that the emperor's favourite wife, regarded by some later historians dangerously subtle and too influential, played a role in encouraging him to keep that agreement--with a view to securing Kitai's boundaries.

Meanwhile Parker, who includes the names of specific fictional works and specific fictional historians, is more likely to bring up history in the flow of the narrative, when at any time the next sentence could discuss history and/or in-world philosophy:

Saloninus, in the Exceptional Dialogues, speculates about the end of the world. Will it be a great sundering, the sky falling on the land, or a great inundation, the sea gradually rising until the last treetop is drowned, or a great fire, or—Wrong. The end of the world is like this, and a deaf man who couldn’t lipread wouldn’t even realise what had just happened.

I enjoy both of these approaches despite (or maybe because of) their differences, and when you've read as much of either author as I have this sticks with you.

2) at some point after I started playing with the idea that would become FtF and the draft of Chapter 1 coming together, I picked up Parker's Sixteen Ways to Defend A Walled City. One thing I really appreciate about both Kay and Parker is that they almost never tell their stories from the perspectives of rulers (with the occasional exceptions of rulers who began as commoners and are usually, like canon Blackbeard, some combination of bored, overwhelmed, and made miserable by their position at the top). Kay tends to alternate between a few main characters, with individual one-off outsider POV sections, while Parker tends to have several characters whose alternating perspectives cover the whole story. In either case those characters usually span the middle 3/4 of their given society, neither prince nor pauper. People who aren't starving but aren't wealthy, mid-level bureaucrats, low-ranking government officials, generals who we met as lower officers, etc. This was true of that novel, and helped me arrive where I did with Ed and Stede in my WIP's world (yes they're both high ranking, but neither is a ruler as such because that didn't interest me). I think looking at them in the canon world and realizing where I wanted to put them in the world I was building led to point #3:

3) "Wouldn't it be funny if Stede was accidentally incredibly influential?"

In some ways that question is a central question (and joke) in the show itself. Like, this guy shows up and starts doing things differently because he can't help but be who he is, and his desire for the world to be a better place then spreads beyond anyone's wildest dreams? And yeah Stede isn't the catalyst for the end of traditional piracy in the world (that's the British Empire, their culpability as represented by the death of Izzy "The Avatar of Traditional Piracy" Hands), but he is the catalyst for it on board the Revenge. And the place he was able to influence intersects with the wider world after a series of accidents and unlikely events, and even without season 3 (😢) we can see the way the world is changing now.

And how that got out of hand was I started thinking about contexts where accidentally becoming important to history would be the most unexpected (and therefore the funniest) and ended up at republican-era Rome. Something about the pomp and circumstance and veneration of it all, and then here's my favorite little guy with his inherent kindness and autistic whimsy, ready to turn everything on its head.

And from there: the blurbs just became a means to an end and the best way to draw attention to that joke. I couldn't stop imagining people talking about Stede Bonnet the way they do about Rome and laughing about it, so here we are.

As for your process questions: I tend to write them on their own, whenever a given topic seems interesting or like something that could fit into the world. The blurb in chapter one kind of just sets the stage for things, but when I first wrote it it was significantly longer and was much more about the documents cache it mentions, because at the time I was thinking about historical document preservation. Since it needed to be much shorter and kick things off I just reshaped what I had to serve my purpose. I do still have plans to incorporate the rest of it later!

The second one came from thinking about Edward "Daddy Issues" Teach's relationship with violence and how having a father who is different from canon was still going to allow violence and daddy issues to still intersect. The idea for the arrows it describes is lovingly (if shamelessly) borrowed from the Parker book I mentioned above, in an attempt to create a situation where Ed could still have (misguided) ideas about the capacity for violence being something inherent about a person.

Lastly, I'll say that while I'm not intending the opening blurbs as obvious statements of purpose for the chapters that followed, they do fulfill a worldbuilding purpose relevant to where they show up in the story. So the first one is, by necessity, an introduction, and the second one is both meant to inform and remind everyone of the bad blood that exists between the parties trying to bridge the gap between them with the marriage. I won't say yet what the third one is but I will say that I've foundered way too long working on Chapter 3 because I didn't immediately establish which one I wanted to open the chapter with. So they're important scaffolding, important worldbuilding, and in the way of worldbuilding they'll be relevant to later things when those things come up.

Thank you so much for asking this question, it was super fun and helpful to nail all of this stuff down like this and get it out of my head!

[werewolf-girl-knot]

SO. About W5...

I ended up "legally acquiring" a digital copy of the core book and just finished my first read through of it. Some thoughts.

First of all, let me say my major gripes about it re: indigenous and disability erasure remain present, and do end up being a deal breaker for me regarding Paradox and giving them any money.

Still, there's some interesting stuff in here. I am personally a V5 enjoyer. I dislike 'gothic superhero' type chronicles, cumbersome lore and mechanical bloat. I do like Personal horror, power that comes with serious costs, character-focused storytelling, urban fantasy that feels contemporary and grounded, and brave, direct political themes. so V5 ended up being a general improvement for me over V20, give or take some small things. These are the biasas I'm carrying into my thoughts on W5.

The good: Rage Dice make a return from V5's hunger dice, and with improvements! Hunger dice were controversial in V5, but personally I found them to be a fantastic way to keep the Beast as a present threat in your chronicle. Finally, a reason for being a vampire to actually feel like a curse! And Rage dice in W5 I like even more. I enjoy how they turn failure into success when you're trying to accomplish something violent, but otherwise can cause critical problems with your approach when you're *not* trying to be violent. It really encourages you to get into character and play your character more impatient and aggressive when your rage is higher. Finally, Rage that actually feels like a double-edged sword! The things Rage does is also an improvement for me. I dislike extra actions in TTRPGs, ironically I find that they just slow things down with too much dice rolling. Making Rage something you spend to regenerate faster is a much better idea.

The forms are more distinct and interesting now as well. This is one of the things W5 takes from Forsaken than it very good. Finally, a reason to use Hispo and Glabro! Crinos feels extra powerful, *and* risky, with its rule that it will enter a frenzy if you don't kill something that round making it much more threatening and dangerous, which is precisely how it's always been described in the lore, but never really represented in the game very well until now. Claws are high damage but only deal mundane types of damage and Bite is lower damage but Agg. Also good from a design standpoint, makes the rule about not eating human flesh finally matter.

Harano and Hauglosk. Harano finally becomes a present threat for Garou. Something they need to fight against, and help their pack against. It seems to operate a bit like a humanity stat, only that your sweet spot is in the middle. Too far in the other direction, and your character starts to flirt with fanaticism. This is just fantastic for making Werewolf have an actual morality system, a balance in their faith/convictions based on actions taken in the chronicle. Much more interesting than Gnosis as being an essentially meaningless resource. I have seen some braindead takes about this being a way for STs to punish players?? Don't play with STs who try to punish you and force you to do what they would do. Simple as.

The bad: new takes on the tribes. Generally I like how the book explains lore concepts, but the new tribes are so sanitized with any possible ounce of controversy taken out of them, that the political themes most of them were built to explore are totally absent, or significantly muted. In a vaccum I would think making the Get of Fenris fall would be a very interesting way to drive forward the plot, but the execution here makes them feel a little cartoonist. Very roundabout in saying that they've become werewolf eco-facists, a better way to do this be making a Hauglosk-ed version of each tribe to represent the corruption of each tribe's ideology. The cult of Fenris work as a general condemnation of the worst side of Garou in general, but having the bad guys camps in W20 just worked better for this, and had lots of room for improvement. As with all the other tribes, the Get of Fenris feels flattened and removed from its cultural context.

The Ugly: Paradox being horrible and racist. If you haven't read about this already, then... Idk how you found this post really. But this post covers it more thoroughly than I could.

The book attempts to address this with a note I put in the bottom, listing some facts about the issues experienced by indigenous groups, while making a half hearted attempt to connect it to the Garou. In the face of this erasure from their actual game though, it feels like a platitude.

As for the removal of crinos-born Garou, it's another flattening of a complicated part of the game's politics. It might have been nice to see Garou culture advance a bit, but removing them entirely removes the representation they embodied. Most of the direct representation in this game has been removed, but I think the the indigenous and disability represent the most egregious loss, especially in a game about those who are most actively being sacrificed in the name of capitalism. Which isn't some fandom interpretation, it is literally stated in the book.

This all leaves me very sour on the game's fiction, which for a storytelling game like Werewolf the Apocalypse, is important. Which is a shame, because I see a lot of good steps forward in the mechanics, making a game that's more fiction-first, without all the terrible attempts at capturing D&D's wargame combat. But frankly, it's hard to want a game who's treated it's writers so poorly to do well, even if I do think the current writers did very well with the constraints they were given. It's hard to recommend that anyone pay money for this.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

https://www.tumblr.com/rawliverandgoronspice/718014251940315136?source=share

Ill be honest and say i think the removal of sheikah related lore was not for internal weird racist reasons and instead simply for game design reasons, why the zonai tech is so similar in concept and execution. totk is a sequel and also a redux, they needed technology for mechanics and a reason for the world to change and introducing an entirely new race of characters would be the perfect scapegoat. it feels like it ignores botw almost entirely because 1) new players 2) to be a finished version of botw more mechanics and more content. the narrative was barely a thing in this game because what mattered the most was design and gameplay above all else. i don't think caring about gameplay first particularly bad, it's a fun game they will probably revolutionize the industry once again, and that nintendo doesn't care about lore at all but it really wasn't the priory here at least that's how I felt when i play the game. i adore the overworld and the npcs but the main quest (tears) story itself is very stale. best praise i can give to it is character design and zeldas sacrifice/how they handled her and link that's literally it (vague because i don't know if you've gotten there yet, it's after the completion of the tears quest and getting the master sword). zelda lore at this point is a sandbox and us fans will do what we want with it. sorry for the ramble!

Hey, thanks for the ask!

So I sort of agree, especially on the first part. I absolutely believe that yes, sheikah were not sidelined for malicious reasons, and the ease of just having one super-powerful ultratech culture you rely on was cleaner than having the old relics hanging around. I actually think it's the cleanest choice to make (one that would have been *even cleaner* would have been to write a story and think of a world that reinvent its landmarks based on that new ideas of archeology and the past bursting back into the present, which is theme that coats the game but doesn't ever permeates it). I still think any acknowledgement that it used to exist would have enriched a world that has, ultimately, very little new things to teach us about itself (I have scoured the Depths a bunch, and it's a combat/exploration hotspot, and that's cool but also what a missed opportunity to try some proper FromSoftware-style worldbuilding down there!). I don't think this would have confused new players; if anything it could have hinted at more and gave the new players any reason to pick up Breath of the Wild? But: the world is a playground! That's cool. I think it could be a much more meaningful playground, that's all. There's a category of players who kind of need some light modicum of internal consistency to be invested in exploration, and will just get bored otherwise (I have seen a bunch of people making this exact remark, and honestly... yeah, there are areas in the game I'm not interested in exploring just because I know it's a consequenceless challenge in the end --I'm just not the kind of player that is hooked by a game loop on its own merit, I need to understand what I'm building towards or I lose interest. It's the kind of thing that wouldn't have changed anything to a regular TotK's enjoyer experience, but would have greatly enriched the experience of players like me)

Still think that making Sheikahs a subset of hylians was a very weird choice. Not an outright malicious one, but one that does build up with all of the other weird choices and make this Hyrule feel like a revisionist Hyrule; and one they simply... didn't have to make.

(I'll maybe do another post about this, but there are so many things in this game that would be very confusing to a new player either way also --but that's kind of going into another territory)

I disagree about one general point, however, and I may get offtrack here a little but I guess you gave me an excuse to rant a little about how narrative design is perceived by the general public and what has been frustrating to witness in regards to the conversation surrounding this game from my perspective.

Mainly, this notion that "they had no other choice" because they chose to prioritize gameplay. I'm going to overshare a little (again sorry) but I work in gamedev in real life; I am actually a narrative designer that did quest design and game writing on a couple of games, some of them that also qualify as AAA open worlds. I think it's completely fair to see this game from a player perspective as a series of compromises struck to privilege the aspect of the game they were the most confident with --however, it is literally my real life job to walk through situations that can be extremely similar to this one and find solutions that weave narration with fun experiences game and level designers managed to put together. It doesn't mean that story has to swallow gameplay: if anything, narrative designers always try to privilege mechanics first and treat them as narrative devices in their own right before whipping out the actual cutscenes and the constant writing (and this game was somehow under AND overwritten in my opinion, especially in English --so I don't think it even solved this aspect?). This is not at all aimed at you in particular but at the internet at large; it ends up being quite grating to see assumptions being made about what can and can't be done in non-linear narrative as like, a fact of the universe instead of it being a specific field that deserve research and investment just like any other graphical advancement or intricate interactive feature, and explain away poor design decisions by the strange notion that they had no other choice, as if Nintendo studios aren't comprised of a bunch of humans who made active and passive choices. Like, I worked on very similar issues. There are solutions to how you feed information to the player in a non-linear way. There are ways to maximize impact and depth, even when you let the player guide the story. Again: it's fine if it doesn't bug you or a lot of people --but there are flaws. It happens. It's gamedev. It's a miracle any game is made at all --and this one is its own sort of miracle. What strikes me as strange is that I never see that level of excuses made for companies that do not cultivate that same image of being an unapproachable, united workforce, that get instead torn to shreds at the slightest sideway brush --but that's another subject maybe (maybe).

Narrative design is this thing that, when it's not there, people don't realize it could be; and when it is there, people take it for granted unless it's very visibly front and center like in Edith Finch or Disco Elysium or any other number of indie games (generally it's the indies who do all the research and development and take all of the risks on that front --like seriously I worked in narrative-driven studios, known for their narrative games, where 2/3 of the game designers couldn't care less about emotional impact beyond satisfaction/frustration/boredom, and it's infinitely frustrating (heh) to have your specialization considered optional fluff when you know how far thematic cohesion can push a game when handled well ANYWAY anyway). So: I was always going to care about the way they handled narrative, because it's how I'm wired, what I research, and I also played this game in part because I was very curious on how they'd push their explorations of BotW's possibilities, which were very interesting if a little limited. Needless to say, this was a let down. And I think it's not unreasonable to have higher narrative standards than this.

I do want to autocorrect myself on a statement I put out before, however, that being the notion that not enough research was put into narrative. I think I want to push forward a new theory that sounds much more plausible to me (again based on nothing but speculation and weird déjà-vu vibes, which is perhaps why I care that much :) :) ), and that being: a lot of research was done, and then cut. It seems very plausible the narrative used to be much more ambitious than this --and then, for one reason or another, somebody panicked, or the thing got out of hand, or they couldn't get it to work exactly right, and everything was downscoped pretty late into production. Six years of development is a long time, and I don't think anyone with the standards of a Nintendo employee would have been happy with handling the storyline the way it was. It kinda feels like a rushed cobble-up of loose threads after a massive downsizing, leaving plot holes and suboptimal emotional experience. Again: just a theory, no proof at all. But I absolutely wouldn't be surprised, and it would explain a lot of things.

[grahamcarmen]

Asking possibly a stupid question, but i don't really understand the opera symbolism of swan lake I understand carmen as foreshadowing for her and grays relationship and the flying dutchman as foreshadowing for grey's role in the finale but I don't understand swan lake.

Also why is your ask box named snapcracklepop.

I dont think its stupid. Lol I was asking the same thing (while mildly acknowledging maybe its just cause like carmen the opera is an easy peasy pun, swan lake is a recognizable ballet even if youre not into ballet) because idk its fun and even if its not meant to be 1 to 1 im trying to give the writers some credit since the thieving magpie and flying dutchman are absolutely not recognizable ones but while not 1 to 1 have a few beats that can be compared

:3

Here's the Wikipedia explanation of whats happening technically

I'm looking at this ending and it looks more like a bow to me ... but point being its something hard that needs all the players to look and dance in unison since they're literally all linked

+ the context of what is happening in the ballet

Siegfried is promising his love to Odette to break her spell so that she and her friends can be free (and cause he's smitten with her aww)

So its their pas de deux and then the little swans [in the version i watched anyway] + some swan company dancing before returning to seigfried and odette

end act

Start next act and storybeatwise the following happens

Rothbart will present odile to him and seigfried promises his love to someone who only looks like odette.

Which technically speaking carmen recruits gray for a mission where her movements for the electric gates/panels...what are they called again...anyway- will have to be synchronized...like a dancer she says ^^ along with player and gray doing their roles perfectly which they manage to do good enough once

However somethings wrong with the feed causing gray to leave his spot

So at the very least its technically a " the working in unison has been broken"

Context wise that I can overthink because I can??...uuuuuuh

Carmen really does not want VILE to have him but is also having a hard time separating graham from gray huh.... and in the mission "keep gray away from anything that could transform him back" plays a part because carmens all set on the idea that these conditions (an extremely dumb plan) keep gray safe from VILE influence, promising to put his safety first but ultimately protecting a VILE constructed persona [WHICH I DO PERSONALLY TAKE ISSUE WITH I DONT THINK GRAHAMS ACTIONS THAT DAY IS SO ENTIRELY WITHOUT GRAYS OWN TRAITS >:0...but yeah lol he usually does not care at all about what the right thing is overall] with a lot of romantic insinuating outside of that dance of little swans

Points i guess for carmens underlying suspicions that she puts to rest for the moment but graham just absolutely gone for her by the end

Little swans squished in the middle of gray very blatantly wanting to be with her and carmen 🤭hoho he likes me😊

Here's a fun one I found via google

...hmmm...idk those people tho so take that with a grain if you instead want to watch and judge the ballet and its themes for yourself.... there's actually a lot of free ones on youtube :D

+ a section in the version I watched where the company talks about how pledging love to odile is odettes doom and the love isn't as pure as they're pretending it is...Carmen! 😑 gray! 😑...but isn't wholly unsalvagable because of the forgiveness and actual true love they do end up showing each other.

With the swan lake ballet having that dichotomy between true self, curses, and a flat out fake who only looks like the beloved

it is a plot point that this happens and almost dooms them ...I mean they die but its like in a ballet dang I guess their souls live then cause they manage to stick it to rothbart

In the end their true selves DO end up together.

+ bonus round

Gray being part of the little swans until he decides instead to be the one who found the red swan (haha...neatcodename) at the heart of a VILE facility and its his constant assurances that he's on her side that help carmen think she can beat VILE and keep him around/ are kinda a point . See him having and then throwing away the crackle rod when she looks all :( to help her instead (seigfried in the forest with a crossbow)

Anything for the kiddos huh...but also lending his expertise outside of the dance of the little swans to help her and her mission

Having a little rendezvous with her beforehand and then after the dance of swans mission only for her to disappear into elusive carmen (sorry watching odette be turned back into a swan)

He actually does fall a bit in love and keeps his interest in this strange girl

+dark! Carmen being chosen for a hot minute before gray sacrifices his own ambitions and loving Carmen for who she truly is is what gives them both a chance at breaking the curse- i mean VILE influence and brainwashing

TLDR: supposed to be working together only for the dance to be interrupted

And looking at beats from the whole ballet is fun to compare actually. Lottsa pledging love but also who is the true self 🧐?

My askbox is like this because

SNAP.CRACKLE POP RICE CRISPIES!...and crackle the dude...

[junkshop-disco]

13 and 23 for the fanfic writer asks!

Thank you for the asks!

13. How much planning do you do before writing?

I usually make an outline of some sort, where I decide on the beginning, the middle, and the end, and note down some themes or ideas I want to explore, and if any of those things require research I'll do some preliminary digging around to see if it sparks any additional inspiration. Then I write the whole thing pretty much start to finish, and then when that's done, I'll go back and do more in-depth research if I need to in order to fill in any gaps. And sometimes I'll realise what I thought would be the ending when I was planning is actually just the end of the middle or that the ending makes a better starting place than what I've got, and I'll move stuff around until I'm happier with how it flows. I try not to ever be a slave to the plan.

23. How do you choose where to end a chapter (if you have multi-chapter works)?

I think mostly it's a feel thing? I try and keep chapters in a multi-chapter fic to around the same length, but if I've got one that's all action action action, sometimes they'll run longer, and if there's any that are really introspective or angsty with very little action or dialogue, those I'll end at a good point even if it makes them shorter than the others. I stick very roughly to a 3 act structure with most longer fics, which gives you natural break points to try and hit, but occasionally a cliff hanger opportunity presents itself that's just too juicy to resist.

Questions here if anyone wants to play!

[candy-pants]

Oh no I’m so sorry!! I hesitated to say anything cuz I wasn’t sure if you were just taking your time lol. Sorry we’re down to the last day but let’s pack in a lot of questions in that case!! First off, Ashley is kinda slaying in that vid ngl. And I love learning more about latam Disney channel, thanks for sharing!! What show were they on?? And you have a point about Sabrina lol. Switching gears, ofc ik you love descendants and mal and Ben in particular, who are your favs outside of the core four and why? What are your fav ships besides bal and why? And what are your biggest hopes for rise of red? I hope you have a great holiday and enjoy your gift tomorrow!! Sorry again for the miscommunication!! -gcwca secret Santa

don't worry! i was thinking you were busy or something so i didn't say anything either sdjhdhdsj i know tumblr tends to be the worst functioning website on the planet but we're all still here so i guess that says something about us

okay this is gonna be a long one buckle up

1 - they were in a show called que talento! (yes with an exclamation point) and they were basically playing themselves if they went to high school and were still amateurs lol i really liked the theme song but only the show version bc the studio version sounds awful sorry bruno i know you produced it but it sucks

2 - out of the core four (and ben) i have to say uma is a huge fav for me, probably my 3rd favorite character of the franchise. when i heard china anne mcclain was back on disney channel to play her i was sooooo excited and i can't imagine anyone better for the role. i love that she has such a strong sense of justice and community even if her ways aren't necessarily the best. obviously i love that the franchise makes sure to let us know she and mal are two sides of the same coin and if they weren't both so proud and stubborn they'd be friends, but i like that uma isn't just a carbon copy of mal like they're very much two different characters. uma is driven by collectiveness and she cares so hard about everybody it's almost aggressive and she's such a great example of leadership on the isle (as acknowledged by both ben in d2 and mal in d3 (and as a side note i'm obsessed with mal, ben and uma's dynamic and i could ramble on about it for the next 10 years but that's not the point)) and if i don't stop now this is gonna turn into a mal vs uma analysis

3 - i really really love the idea that mal and uma are exes. like to me that's just canon and no one is gonna tell me otherwise bc it doesn't contradict anything! "and how would you know, mal? you've never had [a boyfriend]" so in my head she could have dated uma idc it was probably quick and messy bc they would have this toxic power struggle which ultimately ends in mal not letting her join the gang. i think they would absolutely kill each other as a couple now bc of how similar they are but as exes? hell yeah that's a vibe

as for present day relationships i'm a fan of harry and uma getting together at some point in the future bc lbr those two are in a weird situationship lmao i also love jay and gil!!! very unexpected but jay realizing how jaded he's become after seeing the beauty of gil experiencing things with such wonder and then deciding to do a gap year so they can travel the world together is something that can actually be so personal

ALSO i'm not usually one for crackships but harry x evie had me like 👀 in d3 bc sorry wtf is this

for the record i don't think they should realistically get together, i don't think they'd work out, but the chemistry is there and for some reason kenny chose to highlight it so idk

4 - oooo so rise of red. here's the thing. i'm fully expecting this movie to be bad sdjdshjdjhsjdh i'm mostly worried about these seemingly amateur writers they got. like. even if descendants is its own little fanfiction thing let's at least try to make things coherent inside its own universe. the fact that they all went to school together defeats the purpose of beast UNITING THE KINGDOMS but well anyway let's see what they're gonna do

i like jennifer phang as a director though! she did two eps of cloak and dagger (one of which is 2x01, one of my personal favs) and the pilot of secrets of sulphur springs, so i know she's competent. and mark hofeling is coming back which is GREAT bc changing the production designer would be a terrible move for a spin-off partly set in present day. i just wish kara saun would come back to do the costumes but oh well

i'm so excited to see your gift!!!!! i hope you have a great holiday as well!!!!!!