#who doesnt love something which has infinite potential

[goldenmorningglory]

2:53 am and I'm thinking about how charles has his hand over his heart after they're told they can stay on earth as ghosts and the parallel to the previous hug when edwin has his hand on his heart. just. them not having beating hearts but the reason the other feels it's phantom beat.

[its-no-biggie]

gets reminded that mario and luigi partners in time exists > wow i really love the concept of adult characters interacting with their younger selves > remembers that i follow an artist who has a similar au for bsd > seems like a cool scenario to put all manner of blorbos in > current biggest interest is orv > thinks about yoohankim as kids > gets sad

anyway lets do it. orv epilogue spoilers ahead

okay first of all. canonically as kids we have: suicidal, possessed by an alternate future version of herself, and literally does not exist. so im gonna come right out the gate and say a mario and luigi-style time travel scenario is off the table just. logistically. and also thematically. you understand.

but luckily the scenario mechanic makes it pretty easy to do whatever you want, so we still have options. are the kids personalities extrapolated from who the characters are now, just younger? or are they based on what they were like at that age? (or what they thought they were like at that age?) do they have the memories of the original? all of them, or just up to that age? if not, would that affect their personality? are they based on/created from childhood memories, almost like an avatar? is it some kind of creature that transforms into a younger version of you? to what end? or is it a robot or doll created specifically for this scenario? and most importantly - how old are the kids?

so heres a potential situation - they randomly encounter a hidden scenario thats meant to test you in some way? i guess i dont really have an idea for a plot or arc yet so i have no idea what the clear condition would be but. hypothetical scenario that creates a younger version of you and forces you to interact with them until you achieve some personal growth. if you wanna get angsty with it, the best way would probably be something like, the kids have all your memories up to that age and you have to help them overcome their trauma (and therefore your own). so in this case the kids would probably be a bit older, like 10-12? i dont remember the exact timeline on the kdj stuff but im pretty sure that would be after his mothers book came out but before he started reading wos. its a liiiiittle older than i was thinking but i think its the perfect age for maximum emotional turmoil 👍

this scenario would obviously be hell for kim dokja specifically, but i think it also has interesting implications for yoo "literally didnt exist as a child" joonghyuk. yes kim dokja has to face a version of himself potentially dealing with the very fresh aftermath of the situation with his mother, but yoo joonghyuk has to face his own lack of identity pre scenarios. probably the more realistic scenario here is that he just doesnt get a kid version of him because he has no memories to base it off of, but what if he does anyway? a quiet, closed off kid with no memories or family to speak of. its just so sad....... admittedly i dont have a whole lot of ideas for han sooyoung here though. well. actually. quick han sooyoung tangent

<tangent>

now. at risk of sounding like i have no reading comprehension. i have to admit that i was never really clear on exactly what memories han sooyoung gave up to create 1863!hsy. because okay. han sooyoung regains her memories when an avatar disappears. and when 1863 disappears is when han sooyoung gains the memories of everything that happened pre scenarios, right? [its actually not at the same time in the slightest but im not here to complain about time travel in fiction or we'll be here all day. theyre presented at the same time so i think its fair to say theyre connected]

so to me that implies that han sooyoung previously had those memories and made 1863 out of them? but why would she do that??? shes pretty careless with her memories but i dont think shes THAT careless. plus she mentions fairly early on that sssss infinite regressor (or whatever its called - her "plagiarized" novel) was based on her dreams - which wouldnt really make sense for her to reference if she previously had memories of 1863 and then forgot them. and that would also create a weird loop where 1863 has memories of herself writing wos, which i dont think tracks because she herself was confused that someone else wasnt writing wos...... and we also know that if han sooyoungs avatars train then she gains the skills from it, so perhaps this is an extension of that? and she gains all of 1863s memories independently from whatever memory hsy gave her originally

once again obligatory "i havent read the back half of the novel in quite a while so i dont remember very clearly" - i could be way off base here because my first read through of anything is usually not very reliable. but the interpretation that makes the most sense to me is that we just dont know what memories she gave up. but it seems odd to me? to specifically mention that she gave up a lot of her memory and thats why 1863 went rogue? not to mention the ways 1863 is so different from hsy.......

</tangent>

ANYWAY the point of this whole tangent is that if the children are based on the memories they had at that age then child!han sooyoung would potentially have an important memory that ours is missing (because she gave it to 1863!hsy). BUT if theyre based on their existing childhood memories, then naturally she wouldnt. in fact, id wager that over the course of the novel han sooyoung has probably lost a lot of childhood memories - that could definitely be a source of angst. its different from yjh who had no say in his circumstances - hsy intentionally threw away important aspects of her childhood in order to survive the present. and these are the consequences - a child who is missing a lot of formative experiences and noteworthy memories. imagine coming face to face with a version of yourself completely distinct from the kid you know you used to be, even if you cant quite remember clearly anymore, and knowing that you have no one to blame but yourself...... ohhhhh i really like that.

lol apparently i had the least to say about kim dokja facing his past self head on - i guess he does do that several times in orv huh. (wait. oh my god. i didnt even think about the oldest dream...... ohhhh my god kim dokja....... like, okay, assuming this happens sometime in the middle of the novel he wouldnt know about the oldest dream but. i guess i failed to consider all the things about his past he might not want to address...... but if this kid hasnt started wos yet then the reader specific guilt would likely be less prevalent. but something to think about......) and in pursuit of a different angle on that struggle i stumbled into yoohans raging identity issues. incredible

omg do the kids have skills?????? well kim dokja has to have the fourth wall no matter what. and probably also orv, but at a lower level - i guess it depends on if he has memories of wos too...... wait holy shit. little kim dokja who has started reading wos....... meeting yjh in real life....... im gonna cry 😭😭 i guess idk how old kdj was when he started reading it - wasnt he in middle school? thats probably older than i wanna go. can you tell i wrote this out of order? anyway. young yjh would have whatever skills yjh started with in the 0th turn (so, not many), but he probably has high starting stats (its only natural). im sure han sooyoung has been writing since she was a kid so she would still have avatar (again at a lower level).

to take it in a different direction though, we could do more of like. a mini clone situation? similar setup but maybe instead of a personal growth scenario its like, take care of your younger self and make sure no harm comes to them for one week. something like that. but instead of who they were as kids its like if you hit each of them as they are right now with an age regression beam. definitely go younger with this one - maybe 7-8? admittedly i have very little concept of the developmental stages of kids. i dont want them to be too young though - they should have some independence but still be way too young for all the fighting. and if sys and lgy are like 10 then a couple years younger than that seems about right? omg i was just checking the wiki for character ages - i didnt realize hsy was 2 years younger than the other two...... she'll be so little....... well i could always make them all the same age but wheres the fun in that

so anyway, in this case they keep all their memories and maybe their skills? maybe only some of them, and scaled down of course. but theyre more emotional and less skilled. vulnerable. child!kdj definitely admires adult yjh more openly, child!hsy is a biter, child!yjh is. strikingly similar but a little more readable. this also has really fun potential if the group gets split up and the kids are paired off with a different adult...... and since the kids are accurate to who the adults are but with less emotional regulation and impulse control, there could be some really fun moments of. your true feelings get revealed without your consent...... ohhhh yeah. its all coming together

[paint-it-dead]

I'm usually not one to power scale, or put hax vs hax, but I had a genuine question that needs answers.

In Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, there's a Stand called "Wonder of U", which holds the power of calamity. In order for his ability to activate, you have to engage in the act of pursuing Wonder of U, which can be activated by merely thinking of him or his user.

Once the power is activated, calamity will befall the pursuer and everyone in their immediate vicinity until they stop pursuing him, which usually involves them just flat-out dying. This power can even turn things as inconsequential as bumping into someone into something fatal, tearing your body apart. It also has a potentially infinite activation range, as it does not matter where in the world you are, Wonder of U will cause calamity to befall you.

Realistically speaking, could this power actually stop the Godhand?

the godhand are men made concepts. theyre like the Gods in Olympus or The Horsemen of the Apocalypse... they represent and mirror humanity's tragedies and pain. they literally exist in another universe but also rule the lives of the people in the real world. where do their powers lie? what are their weaknesses? what are their strongest powers? its not stated in canon. the scope of their power and their vulerabilities are left as a big questionmark because they are meant to be beyond both power and weakness.

can this stand kill a god? does it work in the dimension beyond the interstice? can it be countered or weakened by the abilities of the person who it affects? or is it like a curse or a vex? in the world of berserk that is ruled by fate and destiny if you see this power as an extension of THAT, it might be a pretty big deal and it might work to take the godhand down... but then again the godhand are just place-hold positions, even if you manage to kill the actual one, another one will reincarnate to take its place in an eclipse. you can kill the man but not the concept and all that. so we're back at square one. you killed femto, the archangel of desire? well here you go, have femmentino, the new and improved archangel of desire!! you shouldn't be fighting individuals, you should be fighting the system!! which is basically what berserk is all about....

idk lol, went on a tangent there sorryyy. but i also never understood or cared about power-scaling and tbh i love berserk cus it doesnt either. thanks for the ask!!!!!!!!

[infizero]

one day i will make a beautiful full rewrite of sonic forces like ive always dreamed of doing since i was a 14 year old girl

(ok so um. i started writing stuff in the tags and it accidentally got so long i went far beyond the tag limit. whoops. so this is just an actual post now. read more for my insane sonic forces rewrite ramblings)

i want to so fucking bad. every time i think about the wasted potential that is forces it makes me so depressed ToT i cant help but love forces despite it being garbage. the soundtrack is banging, the character customization is fun, i LOVE infinite, it attempted a darker story like the good ol days..... its so fucking bad but there were so many cool ideas and it drives me insane

also its one of the few sonic games i've actually played firsthand. purely because it was free on like the playstation game pass thing or whatever its called. and i did genuinely have fun with it even if it was pretty easy. also for the longest time of me being a sonic fan, forces was the latest mainline game. that era is when i got into sonic so idk. i cant help but look fondly on it even though its writing choices drive me fucking batty

while thinking about all this i came up with an interesting idea. so. there's something so fucking cool to me about infinite and the avatar's dynamic like. the way that infinite, despite his powers... him being a mobian and that scene of him flying right beside you and stuff..... idk its like he feels more on your level then some like ancient god villain or whatever.

that flying side-by-side scene esp inspired this but ANYWAY. what if, to make him AND the avatar character more interesting.... they were like. childhood friends or something. or just knew each other in the past in general. that would add SO much depth to their interactions within the game of like. infinite calling them weak. flying side by side. infinite's whole classic "character trying to reinvent themself" thing.

like infinite is using the power of the phantom ruby, trying to become strong because shadow called him weak and everything <- which btw this motivation has gotta change/be expanded upon cause this shit is still so silly. shadow called him gay and that's infinite's whole motive. cmon now we can do better than that

ANYWAYS. but that desperation from infinite to become an entirely new person - changing his name, wearing the mask, etc etc. that could become even more interesting if you add someone into the mix who knew infinite BEFORE his transformation.

and i know i know the avatar is supposed to be able to be projected on and stuff whatever whatever. but like idk man. plenty of protagonists have pasts that are part of the story even tho they're customizable. and besides it wouldnt be like a full backstory for the avatar. just the fact that they knew infinite once upon a time. and maybe something happened that split them apart or something. idk. but whatever happened between then and the events of the game wouldn't be elaborated upon, so you'd still be able to come up with your own story for your character if you want to.

and then the avatar's presence in the story could present a conflict for infinite. maybe despite him trying to act like he doesnt care, he like. hesitates. or lets the avatar go at some point. or something. and that gets him in trouble with eggman <- on that note. MORE CONFLICT BETWEEN EGGMAN AND INFINITE. im a little fuzzy on that aspect of the game but from what i can remember that never really goes anywhere. i want infinite being fickle about eggman's orders to MEAN SOMETHING!!!!!

also. i guess infinite could still ambiguously die at the end. but he'd definitely survive and show up in a later game, a la shadow. i need him to. my special boy.

anyways but going back to the avatar and infinite. i rlly think this could make both of them far more interesting than they are now. infinite rlly doesnt have like. an arc over the course of the story? hes just kinda. there. we get his backstory but in the present he kinda just. fights you a few times and then he dies. the end. this would actually give him something to do during the story, even if it was just like. brooding over why he let the avatar go or something.

and like..... i feel like forces SHOULD focus a lot on infinite? at least more so than the actual game did. like it doesnt have to be a shadow sa2 situation where like the whole game is centered around his story but i honestly... wouldnt be opposed to that either. like the war stuff is not that interesting im gonna be real.

also btw OBVIOUSLY the whole "sonic being imprisoned and tortured for 6 months with zero consequences" thing would be changed. that shit is so stupid and pointless. idk for sure if i'd just get rid of it outright or alter it, but probably the latter. cause like it IS actually an interesting scenario: how would these characters react to sonic being presumably dead? (long-term. 06 does not count LOL)

like that genuinely is a fascinating scenario to explore but i think one of the main things is that it would have to take place soon after it happened. none of this 6 months later amy wistfully going "sometimes i still dream sonic is with us....." shit, that is so dumb. WHAT is the point!!!

i'd want the story to start like fairly soon after sonic gets captured. and it wouldnt just be "sonic characters act as war generals" simulator. if we're doing this we are going ALL in. full focus on the characters' emotions and mental states which fluctuate over time. at the beginning they're hopeful but as more time passes with no sign of sonic and them losing more and more land to eggman, things start to crack. that could genuinely be so interesting to watch as long as it was treated with the actual seriousness it deserves instead of the cop-out edginess with no repercussions that the actual game has.

speaking of this part. TAILSSSSSSSS tails in forces was the wasted opportunity of the century. im gonna be real after having so much time to think about it, i really dont think that tails cowering after sonic was defeated was THAT egregious. i definitely think it could've been handled better, considering he had both beat chaos before and thought sonic had died before, BUT. tails is, at the end of the day, still a little kid. no matter how much hes grown and everything, thinking his big brother is fucking dead is probably still gonna fuck him up big time!!!

i also think that the idea of tails out on his own is SO fucking interesting and i am so mad every day that they barely did anything with that. maybe tails DID stay with everyone else at first. maybe after enough time everyone else presumed sonic to be dead and tails got upset because he knows sonic can't be dead, he always comes back, he did last time this happened right? and he left one day without telling anyone, attempting to try and find sonic himself.

and then he comes across omega all trashed up, and him fixing him, oh, idk, ACTUALLY MATTERS? (crazy i know) omega gets fully restored (plus some upgrades, of course) and it becomes the two of them against the world. throwing in a little craziness here but what if omega sticks with tails bcuz tails (who is definitely um. a lil more fucked up from everything) promises that hes directly interfering with eggman here, and that he'll actually allow omega to full on KILL eggman if/when they get the opportunity to. (tails is not fucking around) i just really need these two working together to be a thing.

rouge and shadow could also be MIA. i dont know if i'd want them as part of the larger resistance, they'd probably just be trying to help stuff on their own, but maybe at some point they'd realize that shit is really fucked this time and the only way they'll be able to stop eggman's reign of terror is by joining forces (lol) with the larger group. power of friendship and teamwork and all that, as is forces' main theme.

anyways. this is kind of all ive got swirling in my brain right now. i dont know how i'd tackle sonic's imprisonment itself. i definitely dont want to be in a position like the canon story where sonic should 100% be traumatized by what happened. bcuz i feel like thats probably a bit much lol... so maybe keep him imprisoned that whole time but get rid of the torture. idk, if we want to really get crazy with it we could throw in a whole thing where its like hey eggman why arent you just killing him? isnt that what you've wanted to do this whole time? funny how you're... keeping him alive like that. isnt easy bringing yourself to kill this kid you've basically watched grow up huh? even if he is your biggest enemy. idk that could result in way too much going on. but it could give a reason for sonic being kept alive + a reason why his imprisonment wasnt too crazy bad. just spitballing here.

ANYWAYS ANYWAYS. for real thats it I NEED TO GO TO BED. good god. maybe i'll rb this post at some point with more ideas if i have them. hell maybe i'll even write this whole thing someday..... regardless. GOOD NIGHT NEW YORK CITY!!!!!!!!!!

[neptunianchild777]

astro observations

hi siren ✨✨

//

- having scorpio or pisces anywhere in your chart dominates the overall energy of the chart. i feel like people underestimate the powerful currents of water sign energy in general. its v powerful

- i've noticed that leo stelliums / leo risings are prone to having several hair textures around their head. like wavy on the front then maybe completely straight at the back. just an example thou. could have other combos as well. or just have really thick and beautiful shiny hair. either way their hair is prominent which everyone knows atp

- neptune square asc are v prone to getting cosmetic surgeries bc their standards r off the roof n they just wanna feel beautiful ( honestly they are most of the time, neptune in aspects to the asc truly creates an ethereal appearance )

- neptune in aspect 2 asc have siren eyes. or sleepy / half open eyes. it kinda gives the effect of a pisces rising but not like completely. u still have the look of ur rising sign but its just influenced by the celestial energy of the planets its in aspect to.

- lilith in the 10th get very sexualized in the social sphere. putin (i do not support him at all, but im bringing n his chart to back my theory up bc i saw this placement manifesting ) was called 'vladdy daddy', among other things, b4 the war started because gen z tried 2 prevent the war by jokes. obv that didnt work. but yeah, i do feel like theyre sexualized no matter what

- lilith in the 1st housers are more the embodiement of the lilith energy in regard of their identity, but lilith 10th housers may not even relate to the way their being sexualized because its so different than what they think theyre projecting ( i see lilith 10th house energy manifesting in many different ways and this is just one of them btw )

- aquarius and pisces r the most otherwordly signs of all the other zodiac signs

- decans in asteroids exist as well ! might make a post on it sometime

- alot of air signs in a persons chart could indicate neurodivergency. i will make an in depth analysis abt this and explain why i think so.

- i remember @d4rkpluto mentioning that the different races are connected with the planets or smth and i thought about it and i think black people are connected to jupiter. but this is their theory and i'd love to hear their thoughts on this :) <3

- neptune is associated with orgasms and i think it makes alot of sense.

- tall capricorn rising men r gna be the death of me oh my god

- pisces ic has infinite creative potential. more than any other ic sign. neptune in the 4th gives a more intense effect ( esp if neptune is in pisces )

- im so FUCKING tired of people messing up the profection years. when ur in the womb, ur in ur 12th house profection year. which means that when ur 1 yr old, ur in ur 1st house profection year. and so on. n when ur 11 ur in ur 11th house profection year. i see these dumb ass wheels popping up on google when i search abt this saying ur in ur 11th house profection year when ur 10 excuse me ??? no it doesnt work like that nd it doesnt make sense stop just stop

- taurus moons are either the most stable babies or suffer from eating problems

- neptune / pisces in the 4th gives magical baking / food making skills. their food taste like something straight out of a dream, and people may struggle trying to describe what their food exactly taste like. like,, its hard for them to define it. n their food just tastes otherwordly. makes perfect sense. ( im not saying that if u have this placement ur automatically a good cook lol, but this is just one of the many ways this placement could manifest )

- the amount of capricorn 8th housers i've met who have bondage kinks is like.. insane im not even joking. ig they just like that control

- saggitarius risings have a god - like presence

- scorpio doms might want 2 major in psychology. i have an associate who's a scorpio dom and she said she wanna have a psychology degree just to know when other people are lying to her lmfao.

- the age of aquarius is in year 2147.5 purrrr cant wait age of pisces done fucked up everyone with its drugs and delusions. might make a post predicting how the age of aquarius is gna go bc its so interestinggg ahh my aqua moon loves the thought of it. also that doesnt mean im saying the age of aquarius is gonna be all sun n butterflies lol.

- sun in a fire sign in the 4th house has been surrounded by spicy food since they was kids.

- the sign of ur 8th house and the house that sign rules is one of the synastries that could make u vv sexually attracted 2 that person. for example, a gemini 8th house might really favor 3rd house synastry because they find that mental stimulation exciting and it turns them on.

- not astrology related but destiny number 11 ppl are prone to nail biting

- when the moon is transiting thru ur 4th house it's favorable to bake or cook. though i dont recommend this if chiron is in your 4th as well, and if thats your case you should just sit down and really spend some time with your inner child. it's most probably very wounded unless you've already taken the time to help heal it

- cancer mars ppl with female anatomy have nice titties. like they just sit perfectly and theyre soft.

- north node square jupiter ppl r very lucky but they only rely on their luck and do no hard work. like babes get ur ass up u cld accomplish so much more if u combined that jupiter luck w some dedication. ( i dont agree w hustle culture but we live in a capitalistic wrld where u kinda have to work ur ass off to succeed )

- uranus in the 2nd degree.. insane placement im not even elaborating

- the north node is in taurus and everything is getting so much more fucking expensive. like food, cryptocurrency, gas. EVERYTHING. gosh. like capitalism isnt ass enough.

//

do not rip off my shit i'll find you and hex you

eternal love, neptune 🤍

[shoezuki]

Tommy's prison/revival arc isnt well written actually

Anyways ive been wanting to talk on it a while for a bit here but havent had the Time or like. The thought to. But im gonna go off now.

First off im gonna say im ASSUMING this stream and plot of tommy being in the prison with dream is written entirely by tommy and dream. Wilbur May be involved in the latest stream but im not sure.

Bringing tommy back to life after only three days of him being dead did practically nothing to progress plot, the characters, or audience's understanding. In fact i feel that it damaged Other characters' potential and plot and already established plotlines.

The 'development' aspect

A really, really easy way to see if anything has changed or developed through an arc or plotline is to straightup just compare the 'beginning' to the 'end' in terms of the barebones situation. So;

Beginning: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream, his own abuser who has hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. He's terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

End: tommy is trapped in an isolated prison cell with dream after being killed then revived by him, his own abuser whos hurt him in the past, for an unknown amount of time. Hes terrified of dream and being stuck there with him.

Okay. This is simplified obvious. But the point stands. ALTHOUGH the troupe of 'going back to the beginning' is common in the heroes journey its. It doesnt work here. Has tommy learned anything? Has he changed as a character? Is the severity of their situation any different? Have we, as the audience, learned anything new?

Im going to expand on that last point because i think it has the strongest potential argument. Technically for progression in literature and development of plot/characters, things can Change without them being Aware as characters. It can change just by the audience's perception changing or being challenge.

Slight example: i've been reading a webcomic called Your Throne. Its a fantasy/political drama about a noble lady who entered a competition with another noble lady to become the empress. The main lady lost despite her being a better fit, and the comic starts with the main lady trying to assassinate the empress. Its assumed and stated by the main lady that she 'ruined her life' and so thats all the readers know. However, later in the novel we see flashbacks to the competition itself and find that the two ladies were extremely close friends, neither wanting anything bad for the other, but it was the emperor himself who manipulated both of them for his own agenda. Those flashbacks gave us an entirely different idea of who the real antagonist is and completely changed the two main ladies' relationship. THAT is how the audience's understanding of the plot and novel can be used to change the entire story. We dont get such here though

Some things that were brought to light during tommy being dead/revived:

Dream is capable of reviving people infinitely

This was already implicated and assumed. The book dream has being a means of reviving people has been around Technically since schlatt's death. This just 'confirmed' what was known

Time works differently/feels longer in the afterlife

This doesnt really impact much beyond emotions and implications. If we had more insight into what the 'afterlife' is like beyond nothingness perhaps so. But really it just makes it so wilbur being dead for what feels like 9 years and tommy having been dead for 2 months appeal to emotions.

Wilbur is evil

This one fuckin sucks i cant lie HSKSHSISSGEGDV. Like i was gon go on bout it and i will but it jus sucks. We have nothing to go on besides tommy's word, no examlles of what Horrible things wilbur said could make tommy assume this, etcetc. Ill most likely make a seperate post on how this feels like we're just going to get 'wilbur is a horrible villain' type with him. But still. I feel wilbur Not Being Good isnt a new development.

Dream is going to revive wilbur

This doesnt feel new either, part because phil had wanted to revive wilbur before (ill get to that more later) and that tommy had kept dream alive/initially imprisoned him with the idea of him reviving wilbur.

Dream believes wilbur will break him out of prison

Okau this makes no sense to me actually. I cwnt understand How exactly wilbur would be able to do this? Or why dream believes he even Could? Mans been dead for like 9 years and all we Know of the afterlife is that its black... nothingness. How would 9 years of that make wilbur capable of busting the prison open?

So. Yeah. All in all this plotline hasnt done anything new, developed things, or altered people's perceptions. We just ended up back at square one. Back to tommy being traumatized, dream being 'evil' and horrible and doing villain monologues, and them being stuck together.

Other characters and plotlines

Im pretty damn sure tommy's revival fucked up a LOT of other characters' plotlines and potential development. Honestly i feel this has a lot to do with the writers not communicating with other ccs well enough. But Ill talk about specific characters from least to most fucked over in my opinion:

Sam

He's the best off. He hqd been there during tommy's death, had been close to tommy, had majorly blamed himself and his own mistakes for tommy's death. His grief and self hatred was actually really heartbreaking and well done. The attached character of Sam Nook being unaware of tommy's death and simply waiting for tommy to return was a really good parallel to sam's own grief and anger. like it really snapped sam the guy who cares for tommy and wants to do Right by him back together with him as the Warden of the prison. Mixed personal life with 'just business'.

I feel it wouldve been nice to have him like. Have more time to grieve properly and come to terms eith tommy's death and his own involvement/influence over the events. Him finding tommy alive again Could be a means of him like. Facing his own grief head on if done well.

Ranboo

Mostly in the context of him and sam's argument do i feel it got screwed over. The weight of them yelling at each other and trying to find who to blame and the implications that Maybe ranboo was the one who caused the security breach that closed down the prison on tommy just.... doesnt hit so hard anymore. Because how can there be blame and arguments and a 'who done it' mystery when tommy popped up all fine again?

Puffy

I dony know much of her involvement or how she found out tommy died (besides metagaming shhhhh) but i saw her monologuing of how they 'failed' tommy and like. Her whole 'he was so young we the Adults failed him' spiel is like........... inconsequential? Now??? Like no dont worry he died but hes alright now.

Philza

BET YOU DIDNY EXPECT TO SEE THIS FUCKER!!!!!! But actually though i want to talk bout how this ties into phil. A LOT. for Zalbr ❤. But also because i see ppl tying phil to tommy's death n like nah shutup u doin it wrong. Ill go off more in a Wilbur Post. But essentially: i dont like that dream is now going to revive wilbur. I feel they arent going to tie philza into this Despite phil having originally been trying to revive his son and studying on it and Attempting and Failing. But now suddenly dream can just. Say some magic words and Poof wilbur lives? So we're just going to Kill philza's revival attempts plotline and leave that hanging? This made his efforts seem pointless and Wack like oh why didnt you just Say The Magic Words phil????

Niki

I feel really bad for niki. She hasnt been able to do a lore stream during tommy's 'death' (she tweeted she wanted to but her computer wasnt working) and considering her entire character.... that shit is important. We seen it with Jack Manifold how tommy's death impacted Him considering he literally wanted tommy dead. And since niki is in a similar boat to jack of trying to kill tommy and it being her Only goal...... thats extremely important.

BUT. i feel there wasnt any communication. Did she or anyone even know tommy would be revived? Did no one consider they could At Least let her do a single stream on it? Like jack manifold????

We couldve gotten a Really good niki lore stream. I genuinely was so excited for it and i dont regularly watch her. But we seen it with jack manifold which is why i dont feel he got screwed because mans genuinely did So Good he could pop off with anything n i think it works in His favour. But now........ for niki. Canonically she never even knew tommy was Dead. So its like nothing even happened for her. Is she just supposed to continue on trying to kill tommy with no progression?

What i think would work

This is more me being like 'hey @ the dsmp writers let me in' type speculation sbosegussgs. But i was thinkin on a Really easy way to 'fix' this without rewriting lore and the streams.

Dream should kill tommy again now that he's been revived and Leave Him Dead.

More development for the characters who are affected by his death Especially niki. More time for grief and self reflection and development

A chance for the audience to figure out what the 'afterlife' really is.

Dream is supposed to be smart and a master manipulator or something right? Why doesnt he use being able to revive tommy as a bargaining chip with sam for his own freedom?

The audience would now Know dream's intentions with tommy better, that this death isnt 'final', but we could still see other characters' grief and reactions and coping without it feeling cheap. Ive seen some 'but people dont know tommy is alive so hes still dead in their mind' but that sucks imo.

We'd know more on dream's ability to revive people and that he can just Do It on a whim (which i think sucks but hey im trying) but no one else would know this canonically

Okay. Im done. If you read this. Thankyou. I love you. Hmu.

[tinysatansierra-blog]

Markiplier manor is toxic here’s why

So Markiplier manor (Markipliers official discord server) has gotten a surplus of new people in it, this happened a few weeks ago the manor itself though has been up for awhile. originally a members only server it was eventually opened up for everyone and yes there are alot of genuinely good people and the mods are alright but unfortunately its becoming a toxic environment. 

SO EDIT i have discussed with the mods that being said ... im keeping this up as a reminder of we can do better we can help people who are struggling through something instead of shutting them down we can listen to people who are being oppressed and bravely point out new media that only worsens that oppression and stigmatization and not just the mods who i was kind of harsh towards but who are human everyone as a community can do better and this is a large community think of the work we can do just doing the basics like boycotting problematic content and helping those who cry out for it who need it (and noticing and shutting down manipulative/toxic behaviors) ... i dont know if im going to go back to the manor yet tho im going to let this sit give it a week yall can agree or disagree but know that if you try to be an ass your going to get shut down and your feelings are going to get hurt 

lets start with the basics “triggering topics” triggering topics can be anything in particular but it generally means a topic that relates to another persons trauma. Now while it is important to acknowledge a persons trigger words and try to keep the conversation respectable ive also noticed people use it to shut down people who come on freaking out because their dealing with a stressful situation/something traumatic just happened. This has happened to me personally and to a friend with me it was about being pro choice and having to in short make that actual choice. i was discussing this in the bathroom because i (like anyone else who comes in with baggage) did not know about any pro choice discords at that moment and was afraid of being stigmatized or going onto a discord that says its a safe space only for it to be filled with trolls. Mark manor is labeled as a safe space and many people come on there looking for support with me no one told me that the topic was triggering to them (which apparently it was because a friend of theirs had to make the choice not her herself think what you will) they just went to a mod early on when i just found the server as a member a friend (who i wont name) had gotten.... assaulted majority of her werent online and as someone who has been there and yes when she told me it did trigger my own trauma she needed moral support... the mod shut her down and deleted her comments and didnt give her a pointer to any other discord where she could discuss the topic openly and get moral support and be pointed to resources (it actually took me ten minutes to find and confirm a lgbtq therapy chat earlier this year for another individual discussing mental health) this was before i had gotten on for that day but i noticed those messages and i contacted her when she told me what was up yea it triggered my memories and its not fun but I FUCKING HELPED HER i made sure she went to the police to atleast file a statement (while the police dont always help it is good to have it on file) i even made her a plush and shipped it out to her and i would do it again and again because its not good to basically tell another person to shut up because it triggers others not without atleast trying to help them find another fucking place and making sure their actually ok and in a physical safe place  next is them claiming the manor is a “safe space” a safe space is by definition  “ a place or environment in which a person or category of people can feel confident that they will not be exposed to discrimination, criticism, harassment, or any other emotional or physical harm.” you would also think that the manor would be a safe space in the fact that marginalized and oppressed groups of people would be able to point out problematic content and have an open and free discussion about it and how it makes them uncomfortable. especially people of lgbtq community which alot of people in that chat are. yesterday (and this was what caused me to officially turn away from the server) in the patio (which is the members only chat) a Transgender individual pointed out the problematic content that is huniepop and how it fetishizes trans people as well as other minorities now this game i hear tries to make itself out as a “parody” .... its not its a sexual dating sim what would make it a parody is if sex noises were replaced with donkey sounds and the lewd pictures were replaced with poorly drawn doodles of tits or what have you its a game for incels marks hilarious when he plays it because he doesnt take the game seriously my issue isnt with him its with the developer. and if you did not know (which apparently people dont) the character poli is described as “a girl with a dick” the individual pointed this out because they felt like it dehumanizes them and paints them as nothing more than a fetish... and also apparently you can “choose” is poli is trans which kind of gives off the message that people can ignore trans peoples identity if it makes them uncomfortable... or if they dont sexualize them. and the muslim community is more or less in the same boat i come from the bible belt in usa im not muslim i am not trans but i do have a reason for standing with both and i will get to that in a bit so i was raised in a christian household in a christian setting like muslim women were basically told we cannot have sex and any sexual thought is sinful and we will be punished blah blah blah your even more closeted if your gay or bi because then you can face ... violence that being said to make the woman from the middle east hyper sexual like they did is kind of shitty even for a incel pleasing sex game. the individual who thought it would be ok to discuss this in the server because its labeled as a safe space and is generally “lgbtq” friendly thus believing he would have people agree and discuss ... was unceremoniously shut down by their peers and a mod was notified this person was not hostile maybe a bit frustrated because he wanted to talk about it and thought he would have this genuinely helpful conversation and people would listen and spread the word because to have problematic content be popular can isolate the oppressed group even more so WHEN NO ONE WANTS TO LISTEN TO THEM. if a group of marginalized people notice something problematic with content and you claim to be an ally of said group then you need to acknowledge and support what they say. they told him to go to twitter where he could potentially be bullied and written off ... because again its an INCEL PLEASING SEX GAME.(which means incels if you ever dealt with them will go and say anything to justify the game even using slurs and bullying) and to put the icing on the cake to change the topic they brought up robin ... i actually dont know who robin is as i dont really focus much on youtube creators personal stuff (it feels off for me to not personally know an individual but know their personal stuff without having actually talking to them its weird i know its a thing i have in my head) but apparently they recently came out as female and good for them im super proud of him and the patio members were discussing how they were proud of him as well for beginning to wear makeup and making themselves more feminine which would be great if they werent trying so hard to shut down the trans male who was trying to spread awareness on problematic stuff .... something he pointed out ... and something they gaslighted and said he was being hostile. really its almost as if they only care about trans issues when its someone famous discussing them  so what can we possibly do about huniepop being transphobic and the answer is very easy BOYCOTT IT like... yall were up in arms and boycotted jk rowling with snap and a turn do we only cancel the old and ugly? do we only cancel those who we dont think is funny? mark is not at fault he probably doesnt realize it and any comments made on the issue are talked down upon or drowned amongst other comments im not saying to cancel him im saying to cancel the game HARD. ignore the posts bitch at the dev demand refunds for your game. like consumers have infinitely more power than corps want to admit.  so you basically have a community that claims to be a safe space but only if you want to talk about sunshine and rainbows and its highly hypocritical of them to claim safety.  another thing is emotionally abusive/manipulative people hide in the server and the mods dont ever seem to acknowledge it. i cannot tell you how many times ive gotten into arguments with people who seems nice then turn into assholes then claim to be the victim when i or others go off on them. if you recognize my name you know i dont stand down when it comes to having a snarky or rude comment thrown at me if your going to be an ass were fighting i dont care how nice you seemed beforehand and you dont get to call a mod just because i actually stood up for myself or others sorry not sorry dont be a bitch nuff said.  now why would i care so much about problematic content? why would i care and stand by the transgender and muslim people (aside from being ya know... an actual ally and not someone who claims it for sympathy and brownie points?) its because i am autistic i am also able to function well on my own but there is a movie created by the famous singer sia it is called music it is a movie frowned upon by the autisitic community because infantizes and dehumanizes non verbal autistic people i am fortunate and unfortunate in not having to deal with much stigma unfortunate because i wasnt diagnosed until i was 17 alot of answers about my behavior could have been answered if i had been diagnosed earlier but considering society loves the quiet timid female and i functioned “well” for neurotypicals i was ignored. so yea you bet your ass im standing with them and raising awareness about huniepop and their was this one person when i mentioned this point i cant remember there name nor to do i give a shit about them because when i mentioned how autistic people ... how i was in the same boat with music by sia (again i advise that no one target the actress who was under contract target sia and please boycott her so she knows she cant get brownie points or money for a movie that stigmatizes who she claims she wants to “help” (*cough* profit off of *cough cough*) and only serves as a feel good movie for neurotypicals and ignorant people)  they said “i heard people who hated the movie i heard people who found it alright people are ALLOWED to like problematic content” ... and like ... does anyone else see the problem here? its not hard at all to boycott celebrities for making content  and im going to repeat this point  IF A GROUP OF MARGINALIZED, STIGMITIZED AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE CALL OUT SOMETHING FOR BEING PROBLEMATIC AND YOU CLAIM TO BE AN ALLY YOU FUCKING LISTEN TO THEM AND DONT SHUT THEM DOWN I DONT GIVE A SHIT YOU DONT HAVE A FUCKING EXCUSE. if you cant bring yourself to boycott a piece of media and replace it with the infinitely more suitable forms that supports the group you claim to be for your not an ally your a fucking hypocrite  and that is why i left markiplier manor i am still a youtube special ... thingy member and i will continue to be a member to support mark i want people to overall listen to those who speak up against a creator and a piece of media and listen to us all no matter how “good” something seems. .. also there is a video called listen it was created by nonverbal autistic people  and communicationFIRST a group that sia apparently communicated with for her movie... and then ignored  https://youtu.be/H7dca7U7GI8

[roccomoon]

a birth anniversary noticing

7.22.21

1036am

if you’re reading this, maybe you know me, maybe you don’t,

maybe you care, maybe you don’t,

theres no way i could know,

so i don’t really care,

but i do appreciate the energy,

and attention,

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its my birthday today, and im writing this,

typing it,

reflecting on how it feels,

an anniversary that notices when i first breathed life into this form,

it brings something tender, vulnerable, and sensitive out of me,

i woke up this morning, sat up, checked the time, and closed my eyes,

i sat until it felt i was ready to open eyes, i checked the clock,

20 minutes had passed,

all i saw was who i am, and how that wants to be,

how it already is,

but honestly, how that isness wants to be expressed,

theres so much i want to do,

and yet,

only ever one thing to do, that does all things,

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i remember being a young human,

feeling like i was just overflowing with a world inside of me,

it seemed like my dad was really important to a lot of people,

people showed up to his concerts and they cared about the things he said,

they cheered and applauded ,

i wanted that,

i tried to do it in sports,

and failed,

for the past 10 years,

I’ve really been doing my absolute best at creating meaningful art,

and admit-tingly , it always feels really nice when people care,

when they care enough to pay close attention,

when their attention is on me,

when i am in the center of someones attention,

and they’re absolutely focused on my expression,

performing music on stage,

acting in film,

seeing someone really grasp a tech idea that can be a huge business,

it feels really nice,

to be really seen and heard,

and felt , and noticed, and understood,

i guess i don’t need it,

but i actually do,

i have God’s love pouring through me,

and in many ways, that is the end all be all,

it is enough, but as my sadhana deepened,

i realized it was actually a bizarre western roman catholic christian trauma distortion to act like you don't need attention, or want to be the center of attention, or the center of your own galaxy, .. a star.

the west actually, because of toxic christianity mostly, has developed some kind of weird anti ego - egohood...

its like an ego complex about being anti ego...

like its frowned upon to want the spotlight or something...

but as sadhana deepened, and the Parusharthas unlocked much that was suppressed, ... i ... as i actually am, was unlocked, ... and allowed,

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there, here, is presence, that could go unnoticed by others, for centuries,

but i , rocco, now with integration, noticed,

that i actually need to be noticed,

i sat with this, and observed the reality,

i need it,

its not just a want,

it is a literal need. not just human. but a meta-physical need,

of every soul,

to varying degrees,

some more than others,

karmic structure is just as real as physical skeletal structure,

its about potential , and potential being wasted,,,, is sad,

the All is sad when such occurs,

so,

i need to be noticed,

in my growth and evolution,

it confirms that its happening,

and i only discovered this because i did my best to become invisible,

totally avoided my calling, and that "wanting" to being seen,

heard,

felt,

witnessed,

as a kid on tour, i practiced being invisible,

then in art, i wanted to become invisible so the art was seen, but i didn't get in the way,

but that was all still woven with fear of being seen,

for being seen as being the greatest living thing in existence,

which , i am,

i am literally the greatest living thing in existence,

,

not stuttering,

clarifying ,

i , am , the , greatest, living , thing , in , existence,

...

and i want, which is predicated on a need,

to be witnessed in that,

witnessed as attention, attention as awareness ,

awareness as love,

of, and for my evolution and expansion,

and not from lack, but from having,

from abundance,

from being, ,

,,

its not just a want,

its an actual human need,

that i acknowledge is sacred, and actually of divine accord,

why else would i be beaming with these desires,

to be seen and heard,

for no reason?

or for the one and only reason.

sat. chit. ananda.

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i remember being backstage, and getting in the way one time,

we were on tour with kiss, and lynyrd skynyrd,

and i got in the way,

these dudes were pushing huge container things on wheels down the hallway, and i think i was walking while playing pokemon on my gameboy... and my dad grabbed my arm tightly,

and in my eyes, told me to never get in the way like that,

always be aware and cognizant of what's happening around me,

so i did,

that wasn't the first time that happened,

but it was the last,

i was never in the way again,

well, there were probably times, but since then i have been keen on not being in the way if i don't have to be,

since then, i love being against a wall,

or in a corner,

so i am able to see everything that is occurring around me,

i love being able to see, everything, clearly,

even in life, if i go days or weeks without being on top of a mountain, or on a big wide open road, it feels like claustrophobia,,, like i need to see evvvvverryyyything around me... its like a clarification of where i am in relationship to everything around me... and what all those things are...

theres this scene in one of the jason bourne movies where he basically flexes as to how aware he is... he's like... theres 3 dudes over there... one just got divorced... 2 are well trained... then there 4 other dudes over there... one likes pickles... etc etc... its like a sherlock holmes thing too... who is another one of my favorite super hero style reference points amongst the all.

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it feels like that's what happened for several years,

i moved to la,

and just disappeared,

i needed to get bearings on who i was in relationship to literally everything else in existence.

i dissolved most the friendships i had from high school, and became a loner, and nocturnal,

i had actual human friends still, but now something changed,

and i was inward almost seemingly more than i was outward,

my friends were people who i didn't even know,

kid cudi, yeshua, tesla, einstein, thelonious monk,

artists, legends, great ones, channels,

and as i became more and more alone,

i became more and more aware of what i wanted to do with my life,

i wanted to channel the infinite into the finite,

and i although i thought i didn't need anyone to notice,

i realized, after a while of no one noticing, i did.

so if you're reading this. thanks.

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the i am witness seamlessly bright in awareness at these words,

as they move through my fingers and appear on the screen,

when i watch them appear on the screen,

it feels like a mirror,

to me,

that’s how it feels,

i had these sensations inside of me,

and they were just sensations,

but not i am typing those feelings,

and they show up as words on the screen,

that’s pretty cool,

i guess that must be what my dad feels when he plays the guitar,

they were just feelings and sensations inside of him,

and then , because he is a master craftsman ,

he is able to become a channel, and fully express himself into that form,

i feel that when i write,

i feel that when im acting, when the camera is on,

or even on stage,

i feel that when im performing a piece of music i really care about,

i feel like i haven’t felt that in a while with music honestly,

it feels like i got away from just being my most ridiculously authentic signal there,

and i wanted to be cool,

cool feels like death sometimes,

sometimes its nice when it happens, but sometimes it just doesnt feel like who i am,

i don’t think I’ve ever felt cool acting,

i don’t feel like like that’s what its for ,

for me,

i love feeling the feeling of completely disappearing, and feeling whatever is that, fully,

and not having an opinion about what the feeling is,

terror, horror, anger, jealously, hatred, pain, sorrow, torment, love, joy, bliss, fun, happy, friction, confusion, lostness,

whatever,

as long as im feeling it fully,

then i call that “perfection”,

i call that “missing out on nothing”

i call that “fully reflective”

im writing a book about it actually,

its called “moon theory”

“missing out on nothing” means nothing is missing,

when nothing is missing everything is perfect,

resistance-less-nes-

the state of no resistance,

wu wet, zero point, crystallinity , buddhic emptiness,

perfectness,

my version of it,

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…

so im sitting here,

writing this,

and noticing what is present for me,

and the other things i would like to be present,

that feel like, because i don’t see them outside of me,

but feel them within me,

they are missing,

but they are only missing from the outside,

they are present on the inside,

and that feels nice to distinguish,

they aren’t actually missing,

they are loading,

so they are coming,

coming into existence,

growing from thought, to feeling, to experiential manifestation,

from the inners of my inner awareness,

to the palpable touchable holographic matrix i access through senses,

that’s basically where im at right now,

nothing is missing,

but i notice what i would like to add to what is present,

i knew this last year too, but it was less accessible ,

less tangible,

as clarity,

:{}|:{}:}|}:}|{:}:}|:}:{|}:}{:{}|:|{|{:{}|:|:|:{}:}:|:{:{|}:|{}:}{:}:|}:|}:{}|:}{:{|:{|}:

last night my mom said that jesus is the only way to God,

that made me sad ,

cuz yeshua literally came to me and said that not true,

he said folks misunderstood his teachings, and ran with em,

he literally said that he is the crystal soul self,

which all are, and so all can get to God,

and his teachings have been horrifically, violently misinterpreted,

he told me this,

and it feels sad sometimes when those closest to me don’t notice who i am,

it feels sad sometimes when it feels like those closest don’t see me,

or , like they haven’t taken the time to realize who and what i am,

that’s okay though, it gives contrast so when there is the feeling of being super heard, seen, felt, and understood, its clearly noticed,

i know who i am,

and amongst all the things pouring through me,

and into the holographic field of reality,

i am glad to be this one,

with the awareness i have,

,,,

enough thoughts for today,

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i phase out of rocco,

rocco’s eyes glaze over,

rocco looks up,

the channel opens like a flower,

we see rocco looking up to us,

we receive him with love,

he asks us,

what else should he write,

what else should he share with those who will read this,

he feels like not that many people will read it,

and so he feels less important,

because he compares himself to others so quickly,

we reassure him that is not appropriate ,

for the time will come ,

when everyone pays attention,

he feels our reassurance,

the reader wonders who is We,

we are rocco’s guardian guides,

yeshua is here,

gautama is here,

arch angel michael is here,

quan yin is here,

thoth is here,

gabriel is here,

st. germain is here,

melchizedek is here,

abraham is here,

ra is here,

we are rocco’s channel prism guardian gateway keepers,

rocco feels slightly scared to share this right now,

and we reassure him it’s okay,

for he is emptying into the infinite,

and dissolving into resolution,

you reading this is a sacred witnessing of a human beings dharmic resolution,

rocco looks up to us with a prayer hand emoji,

we look to him with the same,

this is enough for now,

thanks for reading,

thanks for paying,

thanks for your attention,

thanks for all you are,

ase, aho, amen, amun,

ra,

co,

,

[300iqprower]

Today’s entry in “Things Fate/GO would have if it was well designed”:

A respec option. Or at the very least a full refund on skill and ascension materials when burning a max ascension unit. The latter is arguably the best possible option in fact, since it means you’re required to actually try and to invest a certain degree of EXP embers as well as have the raw materials required for the ascensions at all, rather than being an easy and potentially abusable bailout button. Bond/Interlude/Rank Up are already cumulative so no issue there. I’m tempted to say make the QP refundable too but i’d settle for a 70% refund or even as low as 50%.

If a refund were present it would solve two often overlooked by very major problems:

Sheer lack of reason to use most units. Despite how much people love parroting the “The goal of the game is to overcome it with your favorite characters” line, a line that I learned the hard way (IE by believing it) is BULLSHIT, the reality is theres tons of units very few will ever have a reason to use, and those few almost always have “they are among my absolute favorite characters” as their reason. That’s admirable and i love seeing 10/10/10’s of trash units. My first thought is always how they must love that character the way I do my favorite (Asterios). Abd I imagine that’s intended and what it should be. But maybe, perhaps, possibly, my second thought also shouldnt be “my god to WASTE that much on them is dedication.” Between interludes/Rank Up quartz and not having that or worry of “wasted resources”, people would have INFINITELY more incentive to at least try subpar or below units, and even grow attached to them by discovering combinations they like but would have otherwise never tried. In short, it gives player a real incentive to try out, and potentially even unexpectedly grow attached to, certain low tier or lukewarm characters (if Osakabehime wasn’t 5 star, I likely would have taken far longer to even touch what has become one of my absolute favorite characters)

Recovery from the massive amount if beginners traps in this game and encouraging player progression. Something i never TRULY had to deal with until at least a year of playing was resource drought. I have no pages, no crystals, no dust, and i dont even spend material i do have because then i wont have them for hypothetical characters i DONT have but like way more, because it takes me up to hours to get a single new one in “ideal” farming nodes. I have characters with tons of investment that are utterly useless either because i have characters who do the same but better or because they are terrible and i was an idiot newbie who stupidly thought because i like them they were worth it or because I misunderstood their kit’s potential entirely because i wasn’t familiar with it in practice (6/7/6 Benkei, 7/6/5 Elizabeth, 6/5/9 Siegfried, 6/6/1 Caligula, 5/7/1 Stheno) Keep in mind these traps are *intentional*. Between Story Locking and Exclusive servants, the game is DESIGNED to subject even new players to having their starting out units powercrept. They explicitly want you to waste resources you cant get back, because it means you have to grind more to get new ones. So they can claim they’re providing plenty of free resources while 1. Giving you paltry amounts to begin with when some servants need over 200 of a single material to be maxed out and 2. Intentionally trying to trick you into wasting what they give you so you’re forced to grind sink personal investment much more into it. So tldr: The game is full of beginners traps that will result in truly new players who don’t have gamepress and a calculator at all times inevitably wasting resources and being SoL when needing them later if they dont wanna waste dozens of hours.

The fans who say that personal love for a character matters make this worse. It. Doesnt. You can grail and lore that 1 star all you want, its stats will always be shit and its skills will always be the first to get powercrept. And as I’ve stated before we’re at the point where broken 5 stars dont just make winning easier, they make winning possible at all. I have vindicatingly yet disturbingly learned as of Lostbelt 5 or 6, the famous airtight defense of “game testers use 1 stars and mash with a hypothetical off meta support only to prove anyone can do it” has a massive fucking asterisk bolted on called “With the allowance of a meta support [usually Waver]” and you can call that minor all you want but it explicitly proves my statement about the game being designed with an assumption you have Waver or Merlin to be 100% true.

But as I said in the second point: it’s by design. It’s a pissfucking gacha of course they want to screw you over every way they can so long as they can get away with it. So unless enough people raise a fuss to them about it, which will almost certainly never happen because of cunts who will tout “well you’re just stupid, fuck you got mine!” Etc etc as they always do with every game. Gacha or otherwise. Even if, like with this respec/refund idea, it would benefit everyone already playing immensely and encourage new players to stick with the game. It benefits everyone including DW.

[lord-king-saint]

✨7TH HOUSE SHADOW WORK (PART ONE)✨

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DISCLAIMER: Depending on your level of integration, you may not relate to these descriptions of the signs. Without integrating the sister sign, there are deficits in the personality. As we integrate our sister signs' qualities, we tend to relate better to the world.

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✨aries: energetic and forceful mars rarely allows others to influence you or "impress" upon you. it guards you with its fiery armor against absorbing too many perspectives-- and rightly so! people who juggle too many perspectives always vaccilate and diffuse their energies! it can feel like a betrayal to you when someone is always taking the middle-ground. a warrior has to attach to its goal, or they die! so why are so many fools getting the jump on you? whats up with those "certain people" who get under your skin and drive you mad? how do they charm you and expose you so easily? its their ability to "drink in" your perspective. they allow themselves to be impressed upon by you, but they use that data like an artist. yeah, their energy is diffuse, and thats why you are so easily drawn into them, like everyone else. you may be jealous of people who are charismatic and very liked. aries can be popular and well-liked too, but its usually because your audience is compatible with your forceful energy-- or they like you despite it! but venusians win hearts, and relationships, because they make room for others in their psyche. can you make room? or does it feel like obliteration?

✨taurus: you see no need to rennovate your entire personality. youve carefully crafted yourself and your surroundings, based on what you think is beautiful, and valuable, and conserves the most energy. you dont have time to constantly deconstruct and rebuild yourself. even though you want to improve in some areas, you won't throw the baby out with the bath water. after all, you have earthy goals to achieve. youre comfortable in your skin and your rituals work for you, because theyre tailored to your delicate sensual nature. you dont want to be ruffled, or hurried, or over-stimulated. thats why those "certain people" irk you so much. theyre always trying to penetrate your exterior and reveal these deep truths about you. whats their angle? why do they want to unravel you? it feels like they just want to tear you apart, and then be the ones to put you together again. it feels like a power play-- and furthermore, it sounds exhausting. you dont need to expose the deep dark motivations inside you. youre doing just fine because you march steady and refined toward your goal. thats why youre confused when people say youre oblivious. when people confide in you, and you dont investigate the secret longings of their hearts, and the bitter past that forged them, they say they feel unseen. you want someone around because theyre "valuable", but when you dont merge with their inner world, youre treating them like an object. you prefer to build trust slowly. you notice that a person repeatedly respects your boundaries, so you let them in. but intimacy demands something deeper. they want to know that the deepest and most vulnerable parts of themselves are safe with you. are they? are their deep and messy hearts safe with you? or they just your "objects"?

✨gemini: youre like a surfer, arent you? it doesnt matter what the current is doing, as long as it gives you that wave! that moment of excitement and freedom! i mean, obviously you study the water, and know which waves will give you the most thrill, and you can probably anticipate when a good wave is coming-- or maybe you dont surf, but, you treat information this way. you know the people who have the best stories. you can sniff them out, you're drawn to them, and you know how to stay engaged with them-- until you don't want that anymore! until then, you download everything you can learn, to redistribute to others later. youre a fabulous messenger. collecting fascinating knowledge, person by person, media by media, and re-telling them in glib and colorful ways, is what maintains your excitement and thrill. your heart adores networking, and you love being at the center of the web you weave-- but then you meet those self-righteous types. those "certain people" who have actually been on journeys. they don't swim in the same surf, waiting for waves. they dont collect stories and glimpses of experiences. they arent messengers. they venture into the unknown themselves, for their own experience or vocation or belief system. these people know themselves. theyre the blunt types who scare people away sometimes. "but those people might've had good stories!" you cry. you hate their candor and their self-righteousness, but you cant help that you love their stories the most. theyre so knowledgable, like a teacher or guru. they may even make you jealous, because they arent just telling stories-- theyre telling experiences. they make you want to go on a journey and have an experience too! you want their self-knowledge and expanded worldview-- but, that would require that you choose a direction. it would mean starting your own story, and commiting to it step by step, rather than waiting in the surf for a thrill. which direction lies your story? can you devote yourself to it?

✨cancer: youve seen the world outside and its scary. everyone is so changeable, and they all want something from you. they all have angles-- but you know who didnt have an angle? mother. she didnt need anything from you, she just adored you and held you and fed you yummy meals and listened to you sympathetically. she would never exploit you. she only wanted the best for you. or, maybe your family wasnt like that, so you built your private world around that loss. you save the photographs of being unloved, and insulate your heart with familiar, emotional security. your pets and plants love you unconditionally, and so do your friends. actually, you make sure that every person in your life is "safe", which is why you tested them and only slowly let them in. you approached sideways, indirectly, but eventually the faithful made it into your den, where you adore each other and feed each other and protect each other's secrets. you take their photographs and hang them in your private world, and you pray to the moon that you dont hurt you or leave you one day, like the others. when the others left, it was too painful to put into words (even though you tried) and you continue to build your private world around that loss. so the scariest people are the insensitive people. those "certain people" who arent ruled by their feelings and they operate exclusively in the public world. whats so good about the public world? sure, you play in the system to give yourself security, but why bother being ambitious when the private world is so much safer? these people are disciplined and want to master the outside world, and even though you feel unnerved by them, theyre sensible providers of security, and security has always appealed to you. theyre brave and stoic on the outside, because they wear the mask of courage to provide for their families-- like an archetypal father. sure, theyve suffered, but their suffering and failures are what galvanizes their self-respect, and motivates them to try again. their resilience appeals to you, draws you like a magnet, but you resent their emotional strength because it makes them seem insensitive. but in order to accomplish our goals in the world, we have to be disciplined, put our feelings to the side, and be willing to fail. are you brave enough to climb the mountain? can you approach the world directly? the public world can be a scary place, but when you have courage and a wish in your heart, it makes for better photographs.

✨leo: your heart is a stage, and your beloved audience loves your warmth and glamor. youre so talented, so dignified, and you have that accessible "older sibling" aura that wins people's hearts. basically youre blessed, and your heart soars whenever you receive applause. like a good actor, people dont always know the work youve put into your identity-- unless, of course, its part of the act-- but youre not pretending! its just that applause affirms your existence, so naturally everything revolves around that. you love your audience and you cant imagine life without being seen and praised. humiliation could destroy you, but you will always rise like the graceful pheonix before a new audience, to dazzle and impress and entertain again. you have infinite creative potential inside of you, a kaledioscope of color and expression is at your fingertips. thats why you cannot stand those "certain people" who come around to expose your ego. these people are usually intellectuals who are penetrating and insightful, and they always try to bring you down a peg. when you tell a problematic joke on stage, theyre always advocating for the audience and viewing your act in an idealistic lense. "its just art!" you cry. "and its my art! so if you dont like it, you can leave!" but when the audience leaves, it always unearths your insecurities. how are these people so in-touch with your audience? how do they forecast the audience's needs so accurately with their insights? youre the one on stage, but these intellectuals know the rhythms of the future, and theyre forcing you to step up and change. you recognize their genius and want it for yourself, because your heart is a stage, and theater is about the interplay between the actor and the audience. can you use your heart to feel into the hearts of the collective? can you change with the age? is that something you even want?

✨virgo: your attention to detail is truly a gift, and it enriches everyone around you-- even if they dont notice. you can put your ego to the side and really analyze what truly needs to be done, and then you do it, without fuss. once you find the flaw with your eye for detail, you uproot it. even when its thankless work, you are a major service to those around you because you keep things efficient and organized, just like your own bodies and minds. when things are unclean, you keep them clean, just like your unconscious. in fact, you regularly go into the basement of your mind to take an inventory of your compulsions, obsessions, and needs. you may appear neurotic to others, and you may feel that way too! your eye for detail can sometimes paralyze you with all the ways you need to improve yourself. even when it comes to others, it may be hard not to see flaws and want to perfect them. it may be hard to relate to people outside of this ritual because youre so invested in the routine of that role. when your eye for detail sees all the flaws, how can you not aspire to a future of perfection? its hard work, but everyone should be working to be better, right? thats why "certain people" who are oblivious to their own flaws bother you. everyone has a responsibility to improve, but then you meet those people who laze about and dont improve themselves. and, you notice that they dont try to improve other people either! they accept people as they are, and you resent how others gravitate to them. you assume that theyre coddling them-- but with your eye for detail, you notice something. you notice that people around them slowly heal and improve by their influence, by some strange alchemy! and you cant trace back how it was done! because they accepted them as they were-- they changed, for the better. you also notice that it works personally for those people too. somehow, by not worrying and analyzing, by withdrawing from their obsessions and escaping into art or distraction, occasionally things work out for them! it doesnt happen enough to quantify, but the numerous occasions where inaction breeds positive results astounds you! how do they do that? how do they give their problems over to some higher force by escaping? you can barely escape your own mind without feeling guilty! and you notice that their ability to escape balances their ability to ground in the moment, especially with others. it seems so disorderly and contradictory-- but it works. how can inaction and acceptance change your life too? how would your loved ones improve if you accepted them as they are? can you tolerate uncertainty enough, to reap the rewards of acceptance?

[dahniwitchoflight]

fucking, god, he called his ship Theseus. Oh god im not ready to face this epilogue stuff in actual visual form oh jeesus

Dirk, Dirk pls. no one can take you seriously now that we can actually SEE your Villain-Sona. 

oh god, the second hand embarassment is real.

Alright so there seems to be like, a tinge of Rose existing as her own person, doing things that Dirk dislikes, but its in conversation only, so it seems facetious.

The other true thing though is the narrative is entirely Dirk’s perspective, and Dirk is exactly the kind of person who would absolutely love and believe he was capable of subsuming another person’s soul and idealogy entirely, but we went through this deceit in the epilogues with John and Roxy as well, with John’s unquetionaing hold on reality and what is canon also seeming to have an unconcious warping effect to whatever John thought was important, but Roxy gave a good point of how do you even know you did this and i didn’t choose it or wouldnt have chose it? you dont

So we could see that being repeated here, either as a parallel of that or a subversion, remains to be seen

“ Speaking of which, I think it's time I started undoing some of the more egregious mistakes this story has been subjected to over the years. Yes, I'm talking about that guy. The other orange one. Remember him? Vriska got stalked by him a bit and it was uncomfortable for everyone concerned. Anyway, the point is that he fucked up big time, and I'm here to clean up the horseshit. It's time to get this story back on the rails, back to what it was always supposed to be. I know it, and you've somehow always known it too. There was something else, some other route that Homestuck was meant to take but then didn't, a way that wouldn't've spent so much time dicking around with stuff nobody cares about. Like seriously, why did we all have to sit through talking about everyone's most intimate and private feelings for two hundred thousand fucking words. That would never have happened in Act 1. Where did it all go wrong? “

lol the andrew hussie is peeking through a bit here, so Homestuck2 is gonna be the exact thing I figured a sequel would be, its going to be a sort of retelling of the story, but its gonna flip the importance for certain things in the opposite directions, so right here its saying Homestuck is a story with a layer of importance on the characters themselves and their mindsets and how they lived in the environment they found themselves in, with the lore and the conceit of the story being a huge creation story more of a backdrop than the focus

so Homestuck2 is going to be a more "creation story” focused more on the sburb lore, buts its going to have less of a focus on the characters (perhaps even to the detrimnet? maybe characters will seem strange and out of character? but he kinda already made that feeling i the audience with the epilogues, thats what that intended effect was)

and neither one i think will turn out to better or worse than the others, theres definitely going to be benefit and downsides for both, but its not hard to see that Homestuck1 is the story that Hussie wanted to Tell, and Homestuck2 is how he’s changing it and telling a different story than he originally would have in the first place

not that hes changing Homestucks orignal story at all, but now hes telling a decidedly different one

Thus far, even though I understand Dirk’s basic mindset being “Hussie’s story sucks im gonna tell a BETTER one” and deciding that he alones gets to decide others will is unquestionably villainous train of thought, like why cant we let the characters just decide for themselves what kind of story they wanted to have and be genuine..

I AM dying of curiosity to see what sort of lore and information were going to get out of this, especially with the twist of that sort of focus being brought more into view, it’s a tantalizing glimpse of something very sexy that im into...

WORLDBUILDING :p

The World of Homestuck to me, HAS always been more infinitely exciting and interesting to me than the characters themselves, even though i liked them fine, they werent the reason why i kept reading the story for sure

Anything little thing we get about sburb or the world system out of this im happy with, regardless of what happens to the characters

(Would that be considered a villainous mindset if I was in canon? maybe ^^; good thing im not lol it does give off very “evil mad scientist morally corrupt experiments” kind of vibe lolol)

“ Look, I know what you're all really craving. I've been studying canon—or rather, what's left of it—and I think I've found it. The critical moment, in the wake of which everything started to take a nosedive into the protracted, endless slog of sheer insufferability we got saddled with near the end. This was the single most crucial error in the process that led to the present situation. The day when the story was wrested screaming from the arms of its readers like a bawling infant and carried helplessly away, from then on to be raised according to the whims of a masochistic menace with no thought for you, the common fan. “

I do have to laugh at this though, because your not wrong??? but also, it was inevitable that a story that started out like homestuck and was written like homestuck and ended like homestuck would inevitably turn out the way it did

it was a communal product of the screaming masses that turned into a singular mans story, it was unfortunately going to lose something to everyone, because everyones ideas couldnt all coexist in one canon at the same time (thats what outside of canon is for)

and then Dirk does something I DIDNT expect him to do

“Channelling my full potential as an ascended player of Heart, I expand my consciousness to commune with the boundless force of collective willpower that is the internet. My mind floods with its divine potency, a million formless cries coalescing into a sequence of discrete, formal instructions. It is a maelstrom as chaotic as it is deafening. And yet from this formless, uninterrupted spate of hard, unembellished data, a single suggestion takes form, as if bubbling up from a vast, infinite ocean of possibility. It is a whispered prayer to a compassionate god whose ear attends faithfully the will of his believers.Ok, let's see what you chucklefucks came up with.“

instead of entirely subsuming other’s will like a villain would, he has instead opened up his heart and conciousness to absorb the ideas, suggestions and wills of the masses, he is literally trying to bring back the act1 flavor of homestuck by taking suggestions, be he is ironically doing something no different than hussie did by curating and choosing which one to respond to

hah! he really does think he is the hero of this universe with Hussie as some sort of villain. 

So Hussie has probably intentionally curated this idea of himself as “Author Villain” who drives the story seemingly into mud by seeming to reject and upend the audiences expectation rather than curate them and bringing forth the best out, 

this happens with the epilogues undoubtedly, 

and this environment has gown a character from inside the story to step out and try to “oust” him from this position and instead tell a “good” story one that “everyone” wants, but is in fact detrimental to the story and world that the characters inside it themselves wants, which is was Hussie curated the whims to in the epilogues instead of the audience

So maybe this will be a “good” story, and hit all the marks for what the audience wanted originally, but there is no benevolent force to make sure a happy ending exists for any of the characters inside of it, because what the characters want doesnt matter anymore, only the lore does

[gay-yosuke]

alright its time for me to post about sonic now. nobody asked for this.

personally. i think that the decline of sonic games is. well. nonlinear of course but its a combination of a lot of things that have been present for a while. i started thinking about this because i had knight of the wind stuck in my head while i showered and i thought “yknow i dont think the storybook games were that bad” and it evolved from there. readmore’d cuz its a longass post

first off. one of the things that was present in the games people consider “bad” is eggman NOT being the primary antagonist. i mean. fundamentally this makes sense. eggman has always been the primary antagonist in the games since the beginning, so suddenly introducing these throwaway villains is kind of a shot in the foot. what comes to mind is sonic lost world and the zeti because its like. sega wants us so badly to care about zavok and the rest of them but its just kind of difficult when theyre from yknow. sonic lost world and, fundamentally, throwaway villains. now i thought about this because. sonic lost world ISNT objectively a bad game i dont think. it has bad parts and i think those bad parts are mostly linked to the zeti being the primary antagonists. now this isnt saying that any game with eggman as the primary antagonist is good (ill get to forces later) but it plays a part.

now i couldnt entirely tell you when “eggman ISNT the primary antagonist” first turned up. i would assume sonic adventure because of chaos? which funnily enough links into my next point. the introduction of a secondary antagonist who either a) becomes a primary antagonist in the same game or a later game they’re part of or b) is meant to be some kind of counter to sonic. you could say it started in sonic 3. since knuckles acts as a secondary antagonist for most of the game. funnily enough though hes actually one of the only that stops being an antagonist in the same damn game. hes like “wait a second ive been fucking tricked” and turns to sonic’s side after seeing eggman doing his bastardly actions. so i’d say it actually started in sonic cd with metal sonic. he’s a reoccurring antagonist (the good kind) and was made with the sole purpose of Beating Sonic. in sonic heroes he becomes a primary antagonist in the true ending and whatever. in sonic adventure there’s chaos who becomes the primary antagonist in the true ending as well. now again. none of these games are BAD because of this aspect. sonic 3 is good, as is cd, heroes, and i think sonic adventure has its moments. but again this is just another piece to the puzzle.

the next thing i think thats sort of added to the decline is the fact that. well. corporations. yknow how it is with game design. as a game design student i know that theres fucked up shit going on in a lot of places and sega wanted to make sonic like mario. nintendo knows they have brand loyalty, just like disney does. nintendo slaps mario or pikachu onto something and it’ll sell and they KNOW that. sonic, less so, because hes yknow. got Controversy. sparks arguments about good and bad games. im particularly thinking about sonic boom here because that game had such potential that was stripped away not only by corporate greed (it being forced to be published onto the wii u, which, ill be real with you, i forgot existed) and hardware limitations, but by a lack of commuication within the actual company about WHERE the game was being published to. also dont get me started on how sega shafted the storyline. thats for another day.

overarching plot in sonic games is kind of fun in my opinion. i like a story i can get invested in. one that makes sense and like. you know. adds to the game. and this is the part where i talk about sonic forces.

sonic forces is kind of the culmination of a lot of these things. its a pander to the audience who loves classic sonic (as in, putting classic there for no reason as a nudge towards sonic generations), it features a secondary antagonist who attempts to become a primary antagonist (infinite needs work) and like. objectively id say that the phantom ruby is a bigger antagonist than eggman is. all the things that he does is down to the phantom ruby, and i dont entirely know how the phantom ruby even like. started existing. but we’ll just skip over that for now.

so eggman has infinite who he powers up with the phantom ruby and he becomes the metal sonic-esque character of the game. he’s meant to be sonic’s direct counter which is shown with infinite beating sonic at the start. but infinite just kind of. exists. as a throwaway villain. and the thing with throwaway villains is that infinite creates clones of some other villains (zavok, shadow (????) chaos and metal sonic) and that kinda confused me like. okay so you create fake versions of all these villains who turned against you for various reasons and also metal sonic??? who you could just create again??? but im going on a tangent.

the one thing i listed that forces didnt really feature was eggman not being the primary antagonist. i liked that he was the primary antagonist in forces. i just wish the story was better. and now i get to talk about story problems in sonic games. and as a writer, youre not getting spared.

ive talked abt sonic forces and story. i havent talked about other games and their story. sonic 06′s story was weak because it was trying too hard. the storybook games were good because the story was THERE. sonic gets put into this position of being a character from myths and characters we already know are filling the other positions. it was fun. sonic lost world, i dont really know cuz i never played it but from what i understood, eggman took the zeti’s planet and controlled them with a magic conch, and then the conch gets broken and the zeti fight back?? i dont know why the zeti hate sonic or why they roboticized tails but whatever.

fundamentally. sonic games are go fast. stop eggman. platform. of course eggman can be substituted for other antagonists like in adventure’s case where it becomes stop chaos. everything else in it is adding to the story (or in a lot of cases where its trying too hard, it detracts from everything) and like. adding different things is kind of fun sometimes. people didnt like the clunky controls of the werehog but i thought it was fun having the differences between daytime and nighttime levels. i think werehog had potential.

its less related but i also kinda wish they did what they did in sonic x and had sonic exist in a world with a lot of anthro animal characters instead of humans. i think forces did that okay. a lot of games have human characters like 06 and adventure, and it kind of blurs things. it doesnt make it a bad game if theres human characters but its still kind of. weird.

but anyway this wasnt clear or concise at all i just had some thoughts. i thought some of the marketing for sonic forces was funny like the welcome to the eggman empire video so you dont have to take anything from me.

[saraa-lancee]

I just.... wanna talk about how important Elvis having the death totem was. Especially because ive seen some people digging into it.

It really opens up the potential for a very special and meaningful conversation about death.

A lot of people complain that a warrior of some kind should have gotten the totem but... i hate that. (I agree, it could have given us some fun and interesting characters, like maybe Churchill or something idk). Not only because people in general are obsessed with war (they want to see their favorite historical figure. Which don't get me wrong, I don't blame them.) But because of the relationship that a warrior has with death-- a relationship we see with Sara. And Sara didn't even want to hurt people, especially not the people she loved.

But the totem made her. Imagine the power of the totem in the hands of histories greatest warriors and generals-- people who wanted to hurt other people. Sara rejected the power of death, and she hates herself for what happened and for her past. But others... wouldnt have those same feelings. Any other warrior who felt the same would also have rejected the Totem, pushing into the hands of the guiltless. Making them (and their cause) practically unstoppable. And do you think they would give the totem up alive?

They would weapanize the totem, pervert the dead to their own whims, use it to kill even more.

But... that's the easy story. Its obvious. (And a story of a warrior 'seeing the right path and giving up the totem is great and all but also incredibly easy and predictable). Its easy because death is scary and to be avoided at all costs, death is a tragedy no matter the circumstances. The real challenge, the deeper story, is love, and Peace. Not hatred and war.

We've seen that the totem has the power to destroy-- the first Anarchronism was that it destroyed Memphis. And thats often what we see death as-- destruction.

But there's more to the power of death.

Elvis was desperately seeking connection. Not power. Not vengeance. Not destruction.

He wanted Love.

The ghosts he accidentally summoned... they just wanted love and acceptance too. They wanted to be remembered. They weren't really intending to destroy the town and hurt people, but nobody else besides Elvis (with the totems power) saw that. The ghosts were hurting people by accident, because the people were afraid of them and they didn't know how to communicate (that's also just... an incredible metaphor too, I think).

Elvis was using the totem as a crutch-- it was seeing into his soul into his deepest desires and he desired the relationship of a brother. He, in real life, spoke about his dead twin-- he honestly ached for that connection. He was an only kid in a poor family. The prospect of having a twin-- a constant companion and close friend-- would definitely have appealed to him a great deal. He probably felt robbed of that, especially during those roughest times. The ache of everything that could have been. Elvis was just lonely.

And a lot of people are lonely. Especially by death-- singled spouses, children who lose parents/parental figures, parents who lose children, the untimely loss of a close friend. Death feels like loneliness. And nobody wants to be lonely.

Elvis didn't use the totem for power. He never intended to have power over others-- that was an accident. He used it for wisdom. He used it for love. He used it to gain acceptance about the loss of someone so dear. (Just because someone dies as a baby doesn't make them less dear, not even to those who barely knew them-- in many cases, it serves to make them more dear. Its all of the empty potential. All of the what-could-have-been. Elvis might have felt, especially as an identical twin, that a part of him was gone, that he'd lost half of himself.), to gain understanding that just because Jesse was gone doesn't mean he was completely gone-- Elvis could still love and cherish his brother and invision his pride. A lot of times, its the emptiness of death that gets to people-- but just because they're gone doesnt mean you can't remember them, cherish them.

The episode also gifts us with the idea that those who are dead are reciprocating that love-- they didn't want to be forgotten. They also wanted to be loved. That death maybe isn't quite so empty after all. (The idea of someone you love 'looking down on you' or other similar ideas). Its the idea that the dead aren't truly gone, unless we want them to be.

Also, because thentotem was fused to the guitar and yet came off so easily at the end suggests that Jesse didn't want to leave Elvis either. At least, not until Elvis truly understood.

Once Elvis understood, he easily handed the totem over. Because sometimes love is about letting go.

Elvis deserved the death totem because he was able to turn it into a story about family, about love, about loneliness and the human condition.

We don't need a run-of-the-mill story about power. That's literally the entire conversation about Damien Darhk. That's literally the conversation in the next episode with Sara. Thats the easiest conversation to have.

Elvis and the totem brings balance, and thats what the six totems are all about-- Balance. Yes, death can be about power. But death can also be about love. Power is easy. Love is infinitely complicated.

(And I haven't even talked about this episode and music, and I could probably lecture on that. As a musician, it means a lot. But nobody cares lmao. Honestly, nobody will probably even read this far but its cathartic to get these ideas out of my head like this.)

[dandelionpath]

Hey, Comet! Is there such a thing as seeing fake signs and signals? Or can certain things not be messed with because the universe is more powerful than that? Honestly, what does the universe tolerate people doing? I'm in a philosophical mode today lol

ANON I AM SO HERE FOR THIS!!! THOSE ARE SOME LARGE QUESTIONS!! I LOVE this kind of discussion honestly!!!

OKAY SO. “is there such a thing as seeing fake signs and signals?” YES. ABSOLUTELY YES. more clearly, though, there is such thing as seeing things and MISTAKING them for signs and signals. sometimes things are just mundane, and we mistake them for a sign, especially if we’re really desperate for a sign. HOWEVER. there’s an idea that I've been playing around with lately, and that is that there may not really ever be such thing as coincidences and that everything happens for a reason. but even within that track of thought... there can still be mistaken signs. I think there’s also something to be said for entities that want to fuck with you either for their own amusement or for more malicious and nefarious purposes: an entity can definitely mess with you and give you “signs” that you interpret as from a deity or whoever, when it’s actually just an entity leading you astray. YOU HAVE TO BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL WITH SIGNS!!! I uh... controversial here, but I actually don’t rely on signs very much on my practice. I used to always want signs, but tbh? If i’m getting what I need out of my practice with what i’m doing, and i’m practicing good discernment in my encounters and path, then signs aren’t really needed. signs are mostly for getting your attention or “proving” someone/something’s existence. but signs can be faked, just like anything else!

“Or can certain things not be messed with because the universe is more powerful than that?” I think that while the Universe is very powerful, it ultimately does not toy around with us very often. I think that the Universe is this overarching energy and force, something that is a blanket of sorts over everything and anything. But within that, there are the deities we work with. and underneath the deities, there are the other entities. the Universe is BIG, some might even say INFINITE. and while we are all offspring of and part of the Universe, we are miniscule next to it. we are not forgotten, but we also are not very important to it overall. we don’t have a lot of sway over the grand scheme of things, and we are like little ants, just busy going about our business.SO WHAT I AM TRYING TO GET AT IS THIS: the Universe is powerful, yes, but ultimately it doesn’t particularly care enough about us to get involved. deities can send us signs, but it’s probably extremely rare (if it ever does happen) for the Universe itself to send us signs. the universe does its thing and if it works out then great, but if something gets a little bit scrambled along the way, then that’s just kind of... how it goes,,,,, hmmmm. I haven’t really thought tooooo much about this sort of thing, because I haven’t worked with this sort of thing much yet! But I’m definitely going to be doing some thinking and experimenting now!!also: the universe probably doesn’t care enough about you specifically to be like “hey this entity is fucking with you and those are fake signs so beware”. it’s up to us to practice and use discernment to keep ourselves safe! don’t rely on outside sources, especially if they are incorporeal!! 

“Honestly, what does the universe tolerate people doing?“ GOOD QUESTION. I think that the Universe respects that we all have our own agendas and while there might be some sort of “grand plan” (ineffable hehe), we still have free will and do our own thing. which COULD potentially fuck with the Universe, but also...hmm. here, i’ll hand out a bad metaphor to try and explain this. Let’s say the Universe is the Sun, and us humans are ants. That’s not even the scale we’re working on, the Universe is MUCH bigger than that, I’d imagine, but for the sake of clarity, we’re just gonna work with this. so the Sun has its agenda: keep burning, keep twirling around space, keep doing its thing as it’s supposed to, etc. and the ants have their agenda: keep working for the queen ant, keep getting food, make sure their race doesn’t die out, etc. if the ants do something that doesn’t really line up with what ants are supposed to do, like lets say a few ants decide to go bonkers and kill off a bunch of other ants, that’s not going to affect the sun very much. BUT. if the sun decides to go bonkers and fucks right off to who knows where, abandoning earth, then the ants are gonna be screwed!thats kind of how it feels with universe vs humans! so the universe tolerates people doing their thing, and it actually super doesnt care very much bc we can’t really affect it. but if the universe ever decided to fuck with us, then yeah we’d be screwed!!!

I HOPE THIS ANSWERS SOME STUFF, ANON, AND REMEMBER THAT THIS IS JUST MY OPINION AND MY THOUGHTS AND MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE!!! if u have more questions, feel free to raid my inbox, I LOVE discussing stuff like this!! also helping ppl and answering questions!!!

[loverholicrobotronic]

☕️ the whole sm ent

Theres so much to say here i dont know how to go on about this with pretending i know what im talking about.... Musically the absolute best like there are groups with extremely good discographies under other labels but no other label can compete as a whole. Its entertaining how they go through collective phases and set the trend of the season for the rest of the industry like in 2009 it was alternative electro rock and around 2015 house electropop and so on and throughout the year all of groups' comebacks are fairly cohesive among each other not just the sister groups which is... so pleasant and unmatched. I dont know who coaches trainees vocally but theyre literally the backbone of the company they granted them their collective trademark singing technique with the subtle vibrato the breathy singing. Dancing coach.... not so much like do better (apart from nct who are all pretty solid dancers). They have some absolutely iconic soloists on top of all the group members we know and love. Other than the idols we know they have amazing artists signed like Kenzie is the real money maker every other sm hit song has her name on it idols go up to her say 2 words then she has the song ready no matter what they want like she wrote Stranger, Shift, All Day All Night, Sexuality, At Gwanghwamun, La Cha Ta, Red Flavour what is a genre of predilection? For the amazing always new concert performances especially shinee's taemin's and nct's on top of some iconic choreos like Replay love like oxygen lucifer hot summer rookie etc... you can thank miss Rino Nakasone. Like its not just the celebrities all the artists under sm are distinguished. I also like that theyre one of few companies who dont prohibit dating (actually i think theyre too enthusiastic to confirm their celebrities dating rumours but anyways) but i think something about the directors not changing for decades allows them to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. Like first you have Big Infinite Boy Group Super Never Ending wow.... you have the obsession with having a breakthrough in the chinese market so they keep taking in chinese trainees and debuting chinese subunits while being xenophobic and mistreating chinese artists and them eyeing china this much doesnt even make sense when they could be more invested in japan where people actually love their work.... how girl groups so blatantly get less attention and credit than boygroups... when they force these personas on performers who clearly dont want it..... inconsistent content output though personally i dont think its much of a problem (except for f(x) where it's just getting ridiculous) ..... giving even more opportunities to members that are already disproportionately more popular than their teammates instead of letting lesser known, very talented members shine like luna or taeil.... and on that note the promoting. I dont really understand this whole bit just yet but when you see less popular groups' mediocre passable at best comeback do better than an incredibly good sm comeback its so confusing. They have this whole thing where they will promote a group well in their first few years until they get a steady fanbase then leave them fend for themselves and its so frustrating like... arent you interested in reaching their maximum potential? Dont you want their fanbase to carry on exponentially growing instead of just barely? I dont understand. Like i see a song from a jyp or a yg group its unbearable its pollution you literally cannot listen to it and its everywhere you cant miss it and it does so well and an sm group or soloist comes out with a top notch all around work piece nowhere to be seen maybe twice in the following promotions... how can you allow this. On top of that from what ive seen their contracts are so ugly... sometimes they take some big risks like the sm the ballad or sm the performance units or more recently this super m hybrid group or when they bought mystic entertainment. When i say risk i mean it has the potential to be a success move!!! And it always is but they never push through with it.

Sm the ballad had 2 albums grand total and they all were amazing and did surprisingly good for albums full of just........Ballads and thats it we never heard of them again for over 5 years. They bought most of mystic's shares and didnt even merge. Like what are you doing. Do you want more success or do you not stop messing around. Im mad now

[crossgartered]

P5R Liveblog (13/?)

Haru arc

[[MORE]]

Oh...? Are you hung up on Wakaba, too, Doctor?

Oh, Rumi. ...Who's Rumi?

IS IT KASUMI'S SISTER??? bc you know there's weird stuff going on there

Probably not but this is for wild guessing anyway

If we can believe Kasumi then her sister is younger than her

And that'd be pretty weird to talk about in a romantic context

The problem is if kasumi is to be believed

she's dead I know she's dead I don't think she knows she's dead but she's super dead

Or in a coma I guess but let's be real here

I don't trust Shibusawa in the slightest. He's definitely going to try to take that research. I wouldn't be surprised if he was one of those men in black suits, either. He's rich - he goes to the Wilton on a whim, with his "buddies" - he could definitely be one of Shido's men.

OMFNDJD THIS LES MIS KNOCK OFF FILLS ME WITH JOY

Hoo boy. Maruki... I don't think you'll be very pleased with our answer. I do think you have good intentions, now, but you will definitely be an antagonist here.

I'm still really impressed with Chihaya. She really thought that the protag would hate her once she told her story, that her fortune said he was supposed to hate her, and she "never thought [he] would overturn even that fate". And yet, she told him anyway.

A Yusuke & Ann showtime!! : D I wonder what it'll be like?

THATS SO INCREDIBLY ANIME I LOVE IT

Haru idolizing superheroines vs Ann idolizing lady villains fight

I cannot waittt to see what they do with cognitive Haru, if they decided to make her this time around

YUSUKE CAN DUPLICATE IN PALACES?!?!?

A Will Seed with lasers barring the way? Interesting.

FUTABA FINISHING TOUCH FUTABA FINISHING TOUCH!!!!

Huh, it's kinda goofier than I was expecting.

"When a person is continually faced with oppression, they come to welcome its presence." Yusuke : (

"Such psychological trickery is being used here. I... experienced it first-hand for many years." YUSUKE : C

It's kinda nice that those workers are being blocked by lasers instead of us being too intimidated by their number to just go after them. ...Am I remembering this correctly?

Oh, Noir... I'm glad I get the option to ask if she's okay.

The Yumizuki High uniform really does suit Yusuke.

I wonder if there's a way to talk to people about their outfits.

Does Futaba's thing happen in place of Joker's, now? That's kind of a shame

HEY DO YOU THINK IT'S POSSIBLE TO HAVE FUTABA SHOWTIMES?!?????

Airlock time.

Man I want to see robot/cyborg Haru so badly come on Okumura I know she's here

This stuff about being okay for 30 sec as long as you close your eyes and mouth sounds wrong but I don't know enough about the condition of the human body in space enough to dispute it so okay I fuess

Anyway this is run by clap your hands if you believe kinda magic so it doesn't really matter anyway (also, thank god for Futaba saying that it'd work)

It's interesting - space factories/stations aren't a typical heist target (nor are castles, tbh, but museums, banks, pyramids, casinos? Naturally) (space stations in general can be, in the right genre. But this is set up a bit unusually for that). Corporate offices of shady companies, however...

Spaceeeeee ahdskdjs this is SO COOL

what the fuck what the fuck was something else going through the airlock?!?!

Ugh, how aggravating. I had been able to get the Will Seed the entire time until I pulled the lever that allowed me to progress

What is this shadow???? I'm not sure I know it! "Pagan savior", huh?

No, guys, there's another airlock room. Stop saying 'the treasure is just beyond that door!' when there is a whole other area/floor to go through. Especially since you have a map

Futaba gets motion sickness...oh no I'm so sorry ;u;

I...actually remembered the first half of the solution to the transfer line. I got out of there in practically no time. Heck yeah!

"Thou hast to awakened to the ultimate secret of the Sun, granting thee infinite power..." Yoshida...! TAT

I always end up maxing him right around the end of Okumura's Palace. I feel so bad. His newfound popularity is gonna absolutely tank soon. ;-;

Man, who even gets elected after the populace starts caring again? I don't know how Japanese politics works, really, like at all, honestly, but probably he has a subordinate who can take his place. But like, his whole crew's gotta be corrupt, right? Especially someone who'd be his replacement. Though honestly, considering how paranoid he got by the end, he probably chose someone weak-willed in order to prevent

Oh wait hold on I just looked up how this works. Apparently, uh...

Huh. I'm not sure if the cabinet resigns if the prime minister does usually or if that's just if the house passes a vote of no confidence. But, the prime minister appoints the ministers, so if the prime minister changes then there could be an issue there, probably?

But anyway. Looks like the Diet would immediately try to vote for a different person once the prime minister seat is vacant.

Huh, I wonder who gets voted in, then. Well, we only know of 2 candidates other than Shido, and Yoshida doesn't have the funding or even (yet) the popularity to become prime minister, so Matsushida is really the only other choice unless they pick someone we haven't heard about.

Oh my GOD I hate the school. They're being such assholes to Kasumi. She got 3rd place!!! That's amazing!!! This isn't even a school specializing in gymnastics!!!!!! YOU SPECIALIZED IN VOLLEYBALL AND EVEN IF THAT WERENT THE CASE YOURE TERRIBLE

*ahem* Anyway.

You can tell that Maruki is quietly pissed and honestly? Valid. Super valid. Same, Maruki, same.

She's not gonna get that text, with how her phone is.

"we took in those sisters to improve Shujin's standing, but at this rate, we're only going to end up suffering for it." Oh??? Oh??????

"not only have we lost one of them, but the other ones not doing us any good. Talk about a waste of effort..." Hooooly shit you asshole

Wait, hold on, it's October already????!? November's just a month away!! I have less than 3 months for social linking! And I still haven't maxed knowledge or kindness! (Or guts, but whatever) I've only maxed 1 person! Although I'm close to maxing Ryuji & Ann & Yusuke. And some npcs

AHHHHH CUTSCENE CUTSCENE!!!!

So the keywords - lab, stadium, and ... Either Maruki or Kasumi for the person. OH MAN AND EITHER WAY IM ALREADY IN MY PHANTOM THIEF CLOTHES

ONE OF THEM DOESNT TRUST ME

It's probably Maruki, right? Bc of the lab... But also I thought the whole wish fulfillment thing was going to be his cogpsi project... With the help of Jose, maybe...

Speaking of Jose, Jose looks like a toy, especially with that hair and those ears. I wonder what material he's supposed to be? Based on the ears I'd say plastic, maybe, but the hair looks more ceramic to me.

Anyway, back to the relevant FUCKING PALACE WOOHOO

I haven't even sent a calling card for Okumura yet so we're not dealing with this anytime soon

Ooh, this music... <3

Oh man, I totally forgot I had Morgana in the maid costume. I gotta get him into something more serious

Why is dancewear not the p5dsn costume??

This is...really empty...

I am suddenly really scared at what the people are going to look like

There are pigeons here...

But wait, if this is Maruki's Palace, then this is bc of all his grief... He doesn't want anyone to hurt, ever again. The people will be their ideal selves, probably...

...I'd love to see a cognition of myself, tbh. That won't happen, but I'd love it.

This place is really beautiful... With the music it seems like a sad place...

Look at all these wires

That's probably the sister, right?

Unless that's the cognition of Yoshizawa when she was alive and her current self is her ideal self.

The shadow attacked the cognition???!?!

YUP this is definitely Maruki's Palace

Hmm. Interesting.

Oh, Cendrillon really is perfect for her, huh.

SHES DOING A MAGICAL GIRL TRANAFORMATION WHAY

WHAT

WHY????

IM NOT UPSET ITS JUST A LITTLE WHAT????

Does her outfit look like mine a little bit bc she's using me as a role model for her source of confidence - confidence that she is using/interpreting for her inner rebellious spirit?

Wait, lost my train of thought

Aww, I mistimed that. I was hoping to get a Kasumi finishing touch

MORGANA-SENPAI

It is definitely an unfair consequence

Oh, so that's why, narratively, her phone sucks. It's to prevent us from figuring out whose Palace it is.

Yeah, this time it's entirely on you, Morgana.

... it's because of gymnastics? And not because you disagree with us on an ideological level? ...okay. sure. Whatever.

Hoo boy. This is gonna suck when Okumura has his mental shutdown. I wonder how she'll react.

She is of the Faith arcana, whatever that means. Maybe she'll keep faith in me? I did max her half-confidant

It's cool, Kasumi. I really didn't do much. You may have a debt of gratitude or whatever but like you don't actually need to repay it. Just keep being my friend and maybe one day you'll quit keeping score

*sigh*

If only. Too bad you're probably dead.

SHOWTIME WITH HARU? SHOWTIME WITH HARU? PLEASE?

Oh, Mona-chan. I figured as much, but I was still hoping...

Anyway, Haru&Mona showtime still very good!

Man, I would kill to hear their explanations for what they're doing.

...this is incredibly violent, isn't it? I anticipate it with bated breath

Oh man, can you imagine a showtime with Kasumi? Maybe with Akechi, if Atlus isn't going to give me one

Which, fair enough, from a gameplay standpoint

Still. : (

"the Phantom Thief Basic Training"?

Oh, good, we're actually addressing cognitive people with Haru.

Oh, this is either gonna suck if they address the implications, or we're gonna see cognitive Haru. >: 3

Dream world, huh...

THE YUSUKE-HARU FRIENDSHIP IS SO UNDERSTATED AND UNDERRATED I WANT MORE CONTENT

THERE SHE IS!!! THERE SHW IS!!!!

Oh, man, I had a lot of feelings during that fight. That time limit though

I like how they updated this fight

Although I think I'm a little underleveled, potentially. I could not destroy her before she self-destructed, and it took me a while to beat the chief directors and executive director. Oneshotted Okumura himself, though.

OH MAN I SHOULD HAVE READ THIS BILLIARDS BOOK EARLIER

I DIDNT REALIZE I COULD INCREASE MY TECHNICALS????

I already thought that technicals were beefed up from how they were - I guess this is part of that!

Wish I had another book on kindness, ugh.

SO THATS HOW THEY CHANGED POSITION HACK

Ann & Haru have such similar colors. I wish they would have darkened Haru's a little bit more

Wait I never got to see the Haru-Mona showtime

I even had both in my party : (

GOD IWAI YOU'RE SO SHADY

I forgot to start his social link until now whoops

Although I've only had my guts high enough for past ~2ish weeks so there's that at least

Guh, I have to get to Mementos and start up Shinya's...

How many part-time jobs does this have? Like, 5? Maybe 6, if you count him helping out Sojiro? The convenience store, the beef bowl place, the flower shop, Crossroads, and now the gun shop. Anything I'm missing? I feel like I'm missing one.

Desire & Hope is really pretty. The Desire underneath is kinda weirdly desaturated compared to the hope, though. Not sure if it actually works as well as Desire did by itself. Idk. They're both good, but I liked how Desire looked a bit more. I understand that D&H has personal meaning, though. Who knows, maybe in person I would feel differently

I kinda really like that Yusuke tends to go more abstract with his stuff, even if he does try out a bunch of different styles

Maxing Yusuke. And thank god for Affinity Readings. Finally got Ryuji at a point where I can max him.

Oh. I had forgotten how Kamu Susano-o looks. ...