#without either of us having shared in depth that much about them to each other

[astragatwo]

At long last... after roughly 12 hours of work...!

Attack for one of my besties @mythicalwatch101 featuring both our OCs Helios (He/Him) and Ocean Gazer (They/Them)! Our most favorite fish people who have also been the source of much turmoil.

You can watch a timelapse of the animation process [here]!

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Well since we introduced blue & yellow Ena to sleep, how would DreamBBQ Ena react to other Ena sleeping since most Enas don’t sleep. What if we tried to introduce sleeping to her too (I’m thinking this takes place after that one post about blue & yellow Ena and DreamBBQ Ena meeting up yknow)

Yeah! I'm glad you liked those hcs!

Note: To differentiate between the two, Dream BBQ Ena is "ƎNA" and Webseries Ena is just "Ena"

...............

After the initially awkward meeting of the two ENAs (in which you had to calm down your partner after ƎNA's Meanie side made her cry), things finally start looking up. They're actually getting along better than you thought.

It finally sank in that they could relate to each other's experiences, finding common ground in dealing with entities who find them unlikeable and even "dangerous" to be around.

You become fast friends with ƎNA, who always makes time to visit you and Ena in-between assignments (or when her current task so-happens to be along the route where your residence is located).

It was inevitable that your blue/yellow girlfriend might feel insecure about being the "unemployed" ENA sometimes, wishing she was brash and confident like Meanie, or charismatic and calculated like Salesperson. But you always reassure her she's your first and only love in this world, and no other ENA could win your heart the way she did.

Before being introduced to sleep, she probably would've had a dozen breakdowns over the idea of you liking an ENA who seemed better put-together. But now that she had improved emotional regulation, she trusts your word and doesn't mind you hanging out with her.

Speaking of sleep, you mentioned it to ƎNA off hand one day, and she goes "Well, I never considered selling mattresses as a side-hustle, but-"

When you explain it more in-depth, you come to realize she hasn't experienced that for herself either....

'Damn, does ANY member of her species know what sleep is????'

So now, you'll also have to convince her that she could use it, but both sides find it to be a baffling concept. A disruption to her work routine that she initially rejects--although while Salesperson verbally lists every possible con until they become nonsensical strings of business jargon, Meanie simply says it would be a "waste of time" to sleep the hours away...although that's her only argument, and you could tell she's lying to herself.

You show her evidence and statistics that prove when humans get sufficient sleep, their productivity levels typically go up. And in case she was still skeptical and believed her species didn't benefit from it, you tell her that Ena is living proof that it's actually highly beneficial towards her emotional regulation.

Of course, ƎNA's emotions were more in-sync with each other, capable of getting her point across in a coherent manner. But you knew her job could be taxing especially with her share of rude entities and demeaning labor, so you plead for her to at least consider trying to sleep.

For a while, it seems like you've been talking to a brick wall.

But one night, she finally takes your advice when she suddenly appears at your residence, hungover and stuck as her humanesque self, which startles Ena as she wonders why she looked so much like you (minus the big gaping hole in her torso).

Before you could answer, ƎNA just... faceplants onto your bed without permission, and the orange projection of Meanie fizzles into reality to explain herself. "Sorry to barge in like this. I had the worst trip and my head still hurts. So I'm willing to give this "sleep" a try....how long till my free trial expires?"

"Oh! Uh...there's no time limit." You reassure her. "You can stay for as long as you want."

"I concur." Your girlfriend nods. "You just rest your pretty little head and don't worry about a thing!"

Meanie just nods and disappears, while her human self tries to fall asleep.

When Ena leaves to take a call from Moony, you realize ƎNA is now staring at you with her eyes wide open, even though you can clearly see the exhaustion in them.

It seems like she's not allowing herself to sleep. It's obvious that she wants to...yet feels like she needs to get back to her job and shouldn't be allowed this "luxury"-

"You know, it helps to close your eyes." You chuckle, sitting beside her and rubbing her back soothingly. "You're safe here. Don't worry about anything else right now, okay?"

Somehow, your gesture quiets the noise in her head, and she has this small smile of content on her face as her eyelids grow heavier.

She thanks you, although the words aren't any louder than a hoarse whisper. But you hear them and smile back.

Once you know for sure she's out cold, you put the blanket over her and leave the room, informing Ena that your mission was a success.

"Wonderful! One by one, you're teaching us the perks of sleeping! It's really, truly, undeniably---the nicest thing you've evewr done for us!! Why are you so nice???? How can you tolerwate us???" She hugs you tightly, giving you a kiss.

"I'm just doing what's right." You smile. "It's helped our relationship improve a lot, and I think it'll improve her job performance, too."

"True and true! But in regards to my question from earlier...."

"Oh, that's just....a glitch in her system. Like whenever you get drunk and have sharp teeth and horns growing out of you."

"....ah, that makes sense! Weird how she doesn't do that, though. Hmm..she's a strange one, indeed."

[otogariado]

only halfway thru the new frieren episode i was almost tearing up because the theme of protecting each other and caring about life more importantly than winning is so poignant. not all the characters are human in species but once again the humanity is blossoming in frieren's story. i was so afraid they'd actually get killed last ep but i mean it's so funny now what was i even thinking. this is frieren. they won't kill unless it was really necessary.

the reveal that richter raised the platform not to make his fight with lawline and kanne easier but actually to protect them from denken's attacks was so good. the "magic is nothing if you cannot imagine it" line is so wonderful because i'm a big fan of magic systems that revolve around that logical "science-y" aspect of like. understanding how it will work in order to do it. (same reason why i love the magic in "world's greatest assassin".) laufen getting caught by frieren even though she knows it's a trap just bc she didn't want denken to get hurt was also so good. the reveal that denken didn't have a grander motive to be a first class mage beyond "i wanna go back to my hometown and visit the cementary there but only first class mages are allowed to enter" was so painfully human and so reflective of real life. it also strikes you because he was introduced as a high-profile, politically influential mage.

i love what denken says about not going out without a fight. i love that the episode ends in a fistfight for him. i love it when media uses fistfights and punching in such an emotionally-charged human way, beyond the violence, instead depicting it as some sort of catharsis really. because sometimes all you need is a good rough n tumble. in denken's case, it's his way of not giving up without a fight. i like that. i also like that this was foreshadowed by denken telling laufen to cut the tree down instead of trying to cut the restraint. "we don't have any mana" "neither do they". sometimes all it takes is to find a differently way to approach your problems and sometimes the solution is simpler than you think.

i'm a big fan of frieren breaking the barrier because she thought it was unfair to cut kanna (and by extension lawline) out of her source of magic, giving her an unfair disadvantage and honestly a handicap. it's a short part of the episode but it's so important, because it shows that if people are given the right tools and the accessibility, they can do for themselves what they want and need to do. i love that frieren is like "can you imagine winning against a water manipulating mage with water around? i can't."

i'm a fan of how the "basic" combat and defensive magic are depicted and treated as in this show. yes, people more on from traditions, but traditions are there in the first place. richter's explanation of magic history in their world provides an insight to how modern magic evolved from the foundations. but the foundations were still foundations for a reason. they made it a point with fern saying "frieren doesn't restrict me from spells" (even tho it was the setup for a small joke) that the point isn't to pick a side between tradition vs modern, but rather to learn from both and decide for yourself what you want to apply to yourself. the depiction of fern and frieren winning with traditional magic and richter and kanne overwhelming each other with modern magic makes it clear that the show isn't trying to preach to either side.

i also like the theme of "pursuing magic out for the sake of magic is enough". it's nice to hear that denken shares this mindset with frieren, because again he was introduced as someone influential and you'd think he thinks like he could use magic as a source of power. and that's the impression i got of him too from previous episodes, but a lot of first impressions of mine were proven wrong later and i'm so happy for that bc these characters have so much depth packed into them in so little time.

what else have i missed...

[your-unfriendlyghost]

I have two things to ask:

1.-Can we be friends?

2.-Do you have any Outsiders headcanons (or any that you haven't submitted yet)?

I mean sure?? Idk who you are since you’re on anon, so not REALLY, but I’m always down to talk!

2. Yeah lol- tons. Too many. Here’s a few (okay like 25 oops) off the top of my head lol, some serious/angsty and some lighthearted/kinda stupid without any real order. (Lotta ‘em are about Steve tbh -there’s so little to him in canon that I have the freedom to hc pretty much whatever I want)

Steve Randle’s nearsighted and has no idea, which is why he’s literally always squinting. (I’ve had that one for like months but only recently mentioned it on here lol.) Steve thinks his vision is completely normal

Dally and Sylvia genuinely cared for each other, but they were both so horrible at having healthy emotions that they just made each other worse. In a bad way, not a fun way.

When Steve gets kicked out, sometimes he hangs with Johnny in the lot. They don’t really talk about anything important like their shared experiences of having lousy parents. Instead they talk about cars, girls, music, school…lighthearted stuff. Sometimes Johnny will find Steve crying, which he never mentions- he’ll just sit down as per usual, which Steve appreciates. Steve almost never finds Johnny crying though. Johnny doesn’t cry much.

Okay tangent- I love how Steve and Johnny are low-key foils. Like Steve always seems tough but then cries when pushed to his limit, while Johnny always seems skittish until he’s under a bunch of pressure- in which case he suddenly is confident. (Not necessarily thriving obviously, but confident yk? Like grinning while saving those kids in the fire.) I know SE Hinton probably didn’t intend that at all, but it’s just such an interesting detail to me. One of these days I’ll put it into words better

Johnny’s jeans-jacket is a hand-me-down from either Steve or Two-Bit. (I can’t decide which lol) (obviously Dally would make sense too, but honestly I think it’d add more depth to flesh out Johnny’s relationships with the other members of the gang)

After the events of the book, Two-Bit starts hanging around the Curtis’s place even more. At first the gang assumes he’s trying to lighten the mood. It’s only after he gets sent to the cooler for a month due to drunk driving that they realize he was actually hanging around so much because he was trying to keep his kid sister from seeing him so drunk…

Two-Bit likes to joke that he keeps failing junior year so that him and his sister can graduate together. Which is a very bad idea since his sister is a year younger than Ponyboy.

Sodapop often feels like he’s only good for looking pretty and not all that useful or interesting otherwise. He likes himself, but when he stops to think about it too much, he starts to wonder if he really has anything going for him at all

My H/C for Steve’s home life is that his Mom is sick w/ like cancer or something. Before she got sick, Steve’s life was pretty alright for an eastsider- he and his dad fought, but they always made up for the most part. They weren’t perfect, but they loved each other. But after she got sick, she wasn’t there to mediate between Steve and his Dad anymore, and the fighting got worse and worse. And then Steve’s dad started drinking more and it was pretty downhill from there. Steve’s Dad still loves him, but sometimes Steve wishes that he didn’t. If he didn’t, then he could hate him. But his dad does love him, so he can’t get himself to.

Steve and Dally taught Johnny to drive when they were all like fourteen-fifteen-ish. Johnny is a very reckless driver. He loves speeding.

Johnny also loves fast roller coasters and stuff.

Dally doesn't ‘cuz he’s low-key scared of heights- he likes riding broncos and rodeos, but put him at the top of a roller coaster and he’s convinced that it’s gonna break and he’s gonna die. He pretends he doesn’t mind. The only people who know he’s scared of them are Johnny, and before she died, Mrs. Curtis.

Steve has a napoleon complex. Johnny, who is shorter than him by a few inches, likes to bully him for it sometimes

Ponyboy and Cherry don’t interact much in the school year after the book, but in the summer after, they start to hang out. Eventually they become pretty close. They fangirl over Paul Newman together

Ponyboy still doesn’t let Cherry read his theme though until years later

Marcia and Two-Bit re-meet a few months after the book. (Two-Bit is really scared that she’s embarrassed to be dating him, and Marcia is really scared that he’s embarrassed to be dating her. Neither of them are embarrassed. They both adore each other.)

Two-Bit likes to watch Marcia barrel racing. One time while he’s there, he runs into Ponyboy watching Cherry barrel race and immediately tells everyone much to Pony’s chagrin

Evie knows a little bit about cars, and she sometimes helps out at the DX during summers. Steve is so whipped for her lol (and Soda too Steve has two hands)

Evie and Sylvia are besties, but Steve and Sylvia hate each other. They act civil in front of Evie, but as soon as her back is turned they’re growling at each other like dogs. (Well Steve is. Sylvia just acts condescending as hell. Sometimes it goes over his head, so Steve knows she’s insulting him but isn’t sure what the insult is/means. Which makes Steve kinda want to kill her.)

Steve and Soda are low-key co-dependent. (Steve more so- Soda has his family at least, while to Steve, Soda and Evie are his whole world pretty much) It’s probably not super healthy, and both of them are vaguely aware of that, but are trying not to think about it too hard rn

Ponyboy’s friend group in high school consists of Curly Shepard, Mark Jennings, Scout Jenkins (from the tv show), and eventually, in her senior year, Cherry Valance. (There’s others too but those are the main ones.)

Pony dates Cathy Carlson for a while too, idk if they’re good for each other or not- I kinda like the idea of them being a sweet couple tbh, but no one else on here seems to care about them so I haven’t really explored the idea much lol

In a Dally lives au, Mark Jennings and Dally end up spending a bit of time together through Pony, and at some point they realize that they’re half-brothers lol. Mark is a deeply obnoxious little brother to have, and he drives Dally nuts on purpose. Weirdly I think Dally’s a relatively good influence on him, as much as someone like Dally can be. And Dally does care for Mark, though not as much as he cares for Johnny- Mark is, in his head, not exactly his responsibility.

Well I have (so many) more, but I think that’s enough for now lol. Point is, even though I haven’t drawn in a minute, I love these characters and their romanticized version of 1960s Tulsa so much and I think about them way too often lol

(dw once i get more into the swing of school I’ll be doin more art!)

[putschki1969]

FictionJunction Radio vol.#22 ~ About Kalafina's Reunion and Yuki's Official Statement

A couple of days ago, Yuki announced that there would be a new FJS Radio broadcast coming up soon so fan club members were asked to submit questions. It was all done in quite a rush and fans only had one day to send their messages. Obviously, everyone (including myself) was thinking that Yuki would use that opportunity to do some further "damage control" after her official statement regarding Kalafina's reunion concert went viral and caused quite a lot of turmoil among fans. HERE's my translation of her statement. It reflects pretty badly not only on the organisers of the event but also the members of Kalafina which has led to many fans seeing this project as a sort of betrayal from Wakana, Keiko and Hikaru. It has since been very quiet on the social media front and there have been no updates from either Keiko or Hikaru.

Today, the new radio episode was posted on the fan club site and yes, Yuki is dedicating a large portion of it to this topic. Bless her! The latest mail magazine also includes a brief message from Yuki Kajiura. I'll go through some of the important parts of that before I tackle the broadcast. Please note that I will not be providing full translations. This will be more of a round-up of all the highlights.

Regarding the statement I posted on X the other day (I apologise to those who have not seen the post. A proper explanation is provided on the radio broadcast.) I tried my best to convey everything to FJS members as honestly as possible. This is a decision I made after much deliberation, I was worried about whether or not I could be causing further distress by repeating all of it again. It goes without saying that everything I am talking about in the broadcast is true, but to be honest, there were some questions that I intentionally chose not to address. However, this was not because of "adult matters" but because I wanted to avoid hurting anyone more than necessary, so I hope you will understand.

I think I've said everything I wanted and felt like I needed to say about this matter on the radio episode. I'm grateful that so many wonderful musicians and singers have been involved in the music I've created up until now. Even if we are not always on the same stage, I always hope that each and every one of them will continue to make music in a bright, fun, interesting, and cheerful way, in their own way and on the path they have chosen.

Once again, I apologise for causing you all trouble and concern.

Yuki Kajiura

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ��─────────

FJS Radio Vol.#22 »»—— CLICK ME 🎁 CLICK ME ——««

❗This is Fan Club EXCLUSIVE content❗ ❗PERSONAL USE ONLY❗ ❗Do NOT SHARE on other sites❗

At around 24:00, Yuki starts talking about all the questions she has received regarding her statement in response to the Kalafina Reunion Live announcement. Yuki appreciates that everyone was very careful/kind in their phrasing and clearly tried to not step on her toes. To clear up some confusion and in order to answer a few questions, Yuki is doing a more in-depth discussion of the situation. Initially, she just wanted to write a short text for the fan club mail magazine but she didn't feel like it was enough so it ended up becoming a main topic of the radio episode. This way, it was easier to eliminate uncertainties. 

When she first saw the announcement, her reaction was to ask herself "why??". She was basically in shock. After all, she had not been informed of the project so it was complete news to her. Soon after, it got very awkward for her when she started to receive a lot of inquiries and messages of fans congratulating her on Kalafina's comeback. Naturally, this made her feel very uncomfortable since she had nothing to do with it. Additionally, there was some confusion among fans about the extent of Yuki's involvement because the official announcement from Kalafina Staff did not mention her name at all but both Keiko and Hikaru mentioned her in their statements. For these reasons, Yuki felt like she had no choice but to make her own statement in order to clarify a few things.

She still does not know all the details, for example the exact reasons behind the secrecy and why the members were not able to talk about this to her in advance. Or if this is going to be a one-time thing or if Kalafina will resume their activities.

Yuki says that her statement might have been perceived as quite "angry" because of her usage of certain "strict" phrases (like Kalafina-san, ございます/gozaimasu", etc) but she wants to clarify that she is really not the type to be angry, it was more a sense of shock that made her write like this and the fact that she wanted to stick to very precise/formal language in this "official statement". She wasn't angry or trying to scold anyone. The main focus was actually supposed to be on the latter half of her statement but due to her phrasing, everyone was focusing on that first part (to a point where people were starting to draw false conclusions). She thinks that even the Kalafina members themselves must have been quite taken aback when they read the statement. It was never her intention to create so much backlash for the project/the Kalafina members and she doesn’t approve of it. To avoid further misunderstandings, she posted some follow-up tweets and ultimately decided to record the radio episode. Yuki wants us to know that the sentiment she was trying to convey was fundamentally positive. She does wish the members of Kalafina all the best and she knows that they will do an amazing job. She repeats this several times.

Of course she would have wanted to do a live concert together with Kalafina, it was always a dream she pursued and something she had discussed with Keiko and Hikaru during their activities together. But there were a lot of hurdles and it was going to take a long time. There was no way of knowing if it was ever going to happen (especially with Wakana still being signed under Space Craft) so she completely understands that the girls would look at different options just to somehow make this concert happen. They were undoubtedly presented with a good opportunity so it would have been unwise of them to not take that chance, especially since it offered a faster solution. With an appealing offer like that, it's only natural that the Kalafina members would have agreed to the project. Despite feeling sad, Yuki knows that sometimes things like this happen in life. When things don't work out one way, you need to try other options. She doesn't fault the members for going down a different path. In fact, she wishes nothing but luck to the girls. She supports them all the way and highlights their splendor as singers (especially Keiko who she admires for her discipline). They all continue to have a good relationship and Yuki will always see them as her "music nakamas".

She is also looking forward to working with Keiko and Hikaru in the upcoming Asia tour. She is sure they will have fun together so there is no need to worry. The same applies for the summer tour next year.

Yuki then goes on to talk a bit about Satoshi Takebe who she highly respects as "senior/senpai". He actually reached out to Yuki after this whole debacle and they talked about how he kinda ended up bearing the brunt of fan hatred which Yuki found very uncalled-for. She is sure he will do a great job as music director for the concert. And it's not a matter of him stepping in to replace her as producer because his role as music director is not the same as what Yuki did in her role as producer. He is just doing his job. And he always wants to do the best he can so he will make sure to make Yuki's music shine.

Last but not least, Yuki actually addresses the infamous BLOG that I wrote about HERE. She read through it and she wants us to know that all the "supposed facts" are fabrications, complete fantasies, especially all the conspiracy theories regarding Sony wanting to get rid of her and trying to control her.

All right, this was really insightful. Love that Yuki is pretty frank. I think this is her basically clearing up the tension and offering an olive branch to the members of Kalafina (and Satoshi Takebe). She is putting out all the stops to convey a positive message and she is using every opportunity to hype up this project. Her fondness for the girls is also very apparent, she uses the chan suffix almost all the time when she refers to them and she praises them frequently throughout the entire episode. So there is no doubt that they are still on good terms with each other. There has been no falling out or anything!

Now is honestly the best time for the three of them to become active on social media again and release some genuine and heartfelt statement. I feel like this is the only way to salvage this current disaster of a situation. I mean, they can't let this drag on forever. I am actually a little sad that it seems like the girls haven't already talked the whole thing through with Yuki but now is their chance.

They all have events and concerts coming up and the general lottery for the reunion live is about to start soon so they need to come out of their hiding place asap.

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───── ───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────────

PS: There's no need for people to bombard me with tons of messages about stuff like this. Of course I have seen it! Of course I've read/listened to it! Of course I'm going to post about it! Of course I will be providing all the info! Rest assured that I will always try my best to keep everyone updated. But please, give me some time!! I have a real life with a full-time job. Running this blog is not the only thing I do in life so I can't always post about everything right away (even though I would like to).

[veinspookiebear]

Do you perhaps have any Link Click headcanons you'd like to share with the class??

Not immediately off the top of my head, but you've given me a great reason to sit down and think about it SO!! These may be wordy I like to yap when I think about things

(They did in fact get wordy putting them under a cut so it's not a wall of text /silly)

Big fan of the headcanon that LG cuts CXS's hair when it needs a trim <3 I think before they lived together he always got it done by a stylist, but they could never get it quite to his liking. QL did it for him sometimes and he much preferred that, but she couldn't do it all the time. Then LG offers one day when he's complaining about it and gets it perfect and that just becomes the normal (LG never complains because he secretly loves his hair. And CXS maybe loves the feel of his hands in his hair too)

They order takeout a lot cause it's more convenient and works better for them especially when in the middle of missions (no wonder they're broke) but LG and CXS can both cook pretty well with the time, effort, and resources. Sometimes they cook together!! It goes about as well as you'd expect but somehow the food still turns out delicious. CXS says it's because they made it with love

QL (basically canonically /hj) clocks shiguang so hard but I think it'd be funny if she like. not quite wingwomans but does subtle things to push them together that gradually get more unhinged/obvious. Neither of them piece together what she's trying to do and she refuses to explain it even as she slowly loses her mind

QL and CXS have video game nights on the weekends. Occasionally they can drag LG into playing, but mostly he watches and commentates where he sees fit. He's in charge of snacks though

Both CXS and LG have nightmares, especially frequently after the events of S2. Inevitably they wake each other up. They have a silent agreement not to talk about things they dream about, at least not in depth (they can kind of figure, anyway), but they know how to comfort each other even without that specific knowledge. If it's particularly bad they end up cuddling the rest of the night, a constant reminder that the other is there, and they're safe for now, and they're loved.

LG actually has a ton of pictures of cosplays he did before he and CXS met. CXS found them, and ever since he's been trying to convince LG to cosplay again. It's not that he doesn't want to, necessarily, he just doesn't have the time and resources that he used to. Once things settle down, he starts cosplaying every now and then, and a lot of times CXS joins him as the other half to a duo or just another character he likes. QL joins in sometimes too. (Turns out to be a great marketing strategy)

CXS in a dress. Need I say more

(Okay I'll say more. He doesn't wear dresses or similar clothing very often, but he does have a few and occasionally, when they don't have any business and he feels like it, he'll wear one. It's made entirely worth it by the way it utterly breaks LG, without fail. QL insists that's not a bro reaction. She also wholeheartedly encourages CXS)

LG isn't afraid to crossdress either if it means breaking CXS in return. This is exactly what happened the first time he cosplayed a female character.

CXS has a loose workout schedule that he can fit around their job and maybe takes a fighting class every now and then to keep his skills sharp. He says it's for his skills. It's mostly for his skills. Having some muscle definition with his sleeveless shirts and giving LG something to stare at is just a bonus!

Projecting here but I think both of them would love Epic: The Musical. CXS would vibe with the music and know all the words and LG would analyze it and reread the Odyssey and break down source to adaptation comparisons. They would love musical theater in general actually they just have that vibe to me

Also projection but giving LG a weighted blanket. He deserves it

Plushies too!! They don't have any in the show I can recall of the top of my head and I think they would both have at least a couple. A respective dog and cat that look like their shorts versions, for sure

CXS is grumpy about waking up until he's fully functioning, then he's got so much energy he has to get up and spend it. LG is not a morning person. If there's no urgent reason to get up, until CXS coaxes him out with coffee, he is not moving.

[superbecky]

Deltarune Chapter 3 Secret Boss, In Depth Guide! (Spoilers Below!)

I finally after several hours of trying managed to beat Deltarune's secret boss for chapter 3! Throughout fighting the boss many, many times, I discovered and developed some helpful tricks and tips that I thought might be cool to share for those who may still be (or have yet to be) struggling with the boss!

In this guide I will provide what I entered the fight with (Inventory/Stats/Armor), give general tips and provide visuals/explanations for each attack and how I went about them.

Spoilers below (including screenshots!)

PART 1: ITEMS

TVDinner, ReviveMint, and DeluxeDinner were essential for me during this boss fight. I highly recommend fully getting stocked up on these items because of how strong the healing is from them (they heal 100 and 140hp). If I remember correctly, the TVDinner and DeluxeDinner are available from the vending machine found in the Green Room. Having the Clubswich was also very helpful for me as this item gives a small amount of hp for your entire team.

PART 2: WEAPONS AND ARMOR

You should be using your best available weapons on all the characters. Even if you, like myself, are doing a "pacifist run", as far as I am aware this fight does not allow you to spare the enemy and you must fight the boss to win. Here are my main recommendations:

Kris

Saber10: I won this item for getting S-Rank, but there is also a vending machine that you can buy it from.

Put on the strongest items you have that help with either attack and/or defense. Make those numbers as strong as possible. I got the TennaTie (which gives you +5 DF) from doing the gotcha machine a few times. I have seen some people suggest putting on Kris the items Spike Band and Twin Ribbon (I did not have these items, but still won without them).

Susie

Shadow Mantle: This item is essential for winning this fight (unless you... wanna do the fight where you can get killed by 1 hit). I highly suggest that you put this item on Susie because she will be the main damage dealer. If you don't know, the Shadow Mantle helps protect against attacks from the boss.

Jevilstail: It gives you a +2 gain for attack, defense and magic.

Toxic Axe: You can get this weapon from a vending machine.

Ralsei

Dealmaker: This item helps with Ralsei's DF and Magic.

Flex Scarf: Notice how my Ralsei doesn't have it? Yeah, I either bought it and forgot to put it on, or I just never got one- oops! You should be able to find this weapon in a vending machine.

I have seen people suggest you give Ralsei the Twin Ribbon item, but I did not have that item and instead I used RoyalPin because it increases both defense and magic.

PART 3: INFORMATION AND STRATEGY

Ok, let's get into the action now!

Well... ok I firstly want to start off by going over some helpful information and general tips.

Both Susie's and Ralsei's hp will be dropped down to -999 if they are downed. Kris however only drops to -80. Because of this, if you find that Kris goes down then I suggest not using a ReviveMint on them and instead use a TVDinner or DeluxeDinner to bring them back to the fight. Yes, they will have a small amount of hp, but I found that it was just overall a waste to use the ReviveMint on them when I could instead use a less valuable item. Heal them and anyone for that matter on turns where you feel that you can basically not get hit by the boss.

Using Susie's Rude Buster attack is key to this fight. You need to try to use it whenever you can. It is very important that during this fight you try to build up your TP as much as you can so that you can use it every round or every other round. Also, remember that if you tap "Z" right before her Rude Buster attack hits an enemy, then the attack hits harder!

Do not waste your TP using Ralsei's heal unless you are completely out of heals or if you have enough TP to spare. For example, I found myself able to get the TP bar up to 100% a few times, which meant if I needed to I could use his healing and also manage to use Rude Buster the same turn.

Easier said than done, but obviously it is very important that you avoid getting hit as much as possible, especially during the beginning of the fight. If I found myself making little mistakes and ending up with too low of hp before the 4th attack (the line of swords), then I would sometimes just give up that run to get a new, fresh start again in preparation for the harder attacks that I knew I could not dodge perfectly. Basically, I was able to have runs where the first 3 attacks I was not getting hit at all, which then meant I knew I had hp to spare for the line of swords attack (which I knew I would get hit from a few times). This was important for me to having a good start into the fight.

You do not need Kris and Ralsei to hit every turn with Susie. Her Rude Buster does enough damage on its own. If there is a turn where you can not make Susie use her Rude Buster, and you feel comfortable enough to, then make Susie do a normal attack and have Ralsei attack with her. Ralsei does more damage than Kris does in this fight... unless Kris is the only one alive. Kris will deal much more damage if they are the only one standing, but I honestly don't think that matters too much because you want Susie alive for this fight and to be doing the fighting, not Kris.

Kris and Ralsei should be supporting Susie in this fight by either using healing items if needed or by defending to help build up TP for Susie. They can also be used to help attack if you think you won't get hit badly during an attack to where they would get downed. Make Kris and Ralsei defend during attacks you struggle with. I went too long in this fight not realizing how helpful them defending was to my survivability. You do not need to be a master at dodging everything- Kris and Ralsei can take a few hits if you make them defend.

For me I found that I needed to wait to heal and revive the team only when I knew the upcoming attack was one that I wouldn't get hurt from or if I knew I possibly would only get hurt a little bit. You run the risk of a teammate getting killed again if you revive/heal them before an attack that you are bad at dodging.

I found that skill and luck are big factors for this fight. You need to be good at dodging the attacks as best you can. There is room for small error, but not much. Luck plays a factor too because sometimes the way the attacks are thrown at you are easier to dodge in some runs than others.

I found that lots of the damage I was taking was from moving too quickly during the fight. Many of the attacks are much slower than they may first appear- remember to try not to rush too much and take your time with some of the attacks.

PART 4: THE FIGHT

Alrighty! Let us get into the real action now! I will do my best to explain how I went about each attack and tips I have for them.

Firstly, I found it was very helpful that I wrote down each attack/named it. This was helpful because not only after doing the fight so many times was it all starting to melt into my brain and I was forgetting everything, but it helped me to know when I had an easy attack coming up so that I could use heals if needed or attack with all 3 characters.

Here is how I wrote down the attack order/small descriptions for each:

Snow 1 (The first "snowflake" attack)

Sword Throw 1 (The swords that turn red and then are thrown at you)

Tooth 1 (The part where you have to dodge what looks like falling teeth or icicles)

Line Sword (The part where a line of swords on top and bottom go at you in a wavy motion)

Slash 1 (The red slashes. Easiest version of it.)

Snow 2 (The second "snowflake" attack. Is just like the first one)

Tooth 2 (Is like Tooth 1 but now the direction you are facing can be changed at any time)

Circle Sword (Is like the Line Sword attack but the swords come at you in a more circular motion)

Sword Throw 2 (The same attack but this time you also are surrounded by circling swords that block how much you can move)

Slash 2 (Harder than slash 1 but in general is the same)

Snow 3 (Starts off like snow 1 and 2 but at the end of the attack you have to dodge bullets that spawn and try to follow/hit you).

Tooth 3 (Is worse than tooth 2 as now you deal with the attack sometimes being diagonal)

Slash 3 (Harder than Slash 2 and at the end of it there is an attack that is a lot like one Sans has).

The Final Attack

In my winning run, this is the exact order of how attacks went, but in the runs where I was not dealing enough damage then sometimes this order would be different. From what I have seen watching other people fight this boss, Slash 3 should be the "final attack" before the actual big final attack as long as you have been dealing enough damage.

Ok, let's now finally move to my strategy (tips) for each attack and how my run went! As a heads up, I played this game on PC so I may be describing certain actions in regards to using a keyboard.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ATTACK 1: Snow 1

My Actions: I made everyone attack together because I knew I could dodge this attack easily. I viewed this attack as a freebie and not as a threat.

Strategy: Stay to the left of the box. Keep holding down your left arrow key to stay right against the box (you get moved otherwise) and simply move up and down as needed to avoid the "snowflakes". After the snowflakes start to slow down and turn red, try to get to as blank of a space as possible before they explode. After they explode I found I barely needed to move away from the bullets and that sometimes, even if they seemed to touched me, I was not damaged. I was very lucky because during this run my open space to run to before the explosion was um... very generous haha.

ATTACK 2: Sword Throw 1

My Actions: I made everyone attack because once again I knew I could easily dodge this attack, so I might as well try to get in the extra damage that I could before I had to switch to making Kris and Ralsei defend.

Strategy: During this attack it may feel like it comes at you fast, but it really doesn't. You do not want to move too quickly during this part. There should be enough time for you to observe which sword has spawned in and which direction you will need to move before the sword is thrown at you. Remember that the direction the sword is facing is the direction of which it is going to come at you.

It would be much more beneficial if I could provide a small video for this attack but... I can not do that right now so... take the image instead!

In this image I am currently moving left to avoid the attack from below, while also noticing the attacks to my right. After a while of attempting and learning how to dodge these, I learned that I would need to then move up to dodge the second sword, and then in a diagonal motion to avoid the third sword (though sometimes I went in the wrong diagonal motion and end up being directly hit).

ATTACK 3: Tooth 1

My Actions: This is around where I know now I will run the risk of taking damage (I struggle a little bit with this attack), so I stop making Kris and Ralsei attack with Susie and instead make them defend in order to build up TP and keep them alive as best I can. I have enough TP so now I start the motions of making Susie doing the main damage by doing Rude Buster.

Strategy: I mainly was getting hurt from this attack by either not having enough time to move out of the way of a "double tooth" coming at me, or because I was moving too fast. Once again, try not to move too fast because otherwise you run the risk of just running into the attack and not avoiding it. Seriously, just try to do little movements for the most part.

ATTACK 4: Line Sword

My Actions: Made Kris and Ralsei defend because I knew I would be getting hit a few times. Made Susie do Rude Buster.

Strategy Part 1: I moved all the way to the left side so that way I had less to look at (this attack has lots of motion which makes it hard to see everything clearly). I have seen some people suggest to only look at your soul and not focus on the swords... but for me I found that it really helped to look slightly past my soul to the right. This helped me because then I was instead able to slightly make out the way the swords were moving and I could move then in accordance to that. The purple "X" I drew roughly shows where I was looking during this attack.

Strategy Part 2: After this is the part where a bunch of red lines show up and then swords are thrown at you. I hate this part. It is very unforgiving and even if you end up in a blank spot where you think you will be safe, the swords can still manage to hit you because they are so chunky. My main tip for this part is to try to go to as big of an empty spot as you can so you don't have to worry about that problem. Though... I often found myself struggling to do so because your reaction time has to be super quick during this part, and my brain just automatically is like "oh there is a blank space, hurry go to it!".

ATTACK 5: Slash 1

My Actions: Because my hp was in a very good spot and because I felt confident enough, I decided to make Kris and Ralsei attack. I also of course made Susie do Rude Buster. Low key I had the hardest time dodging these kind of slash attacks out of all of the attacks during the entire fight, but with this one being the easiest of them I knew that I had an opening to try to get some extra damage in.

Strategy: For dodging this attack, I found that I would mainly be getting hit from moving too much. Keep in mind the slash marks don't stay still, they move too a little bit after forming. Try not to move too much or too quickly. The biggest help I found was literally just moving diagonally up/right and then diagonally down/left for each slash. This helped because depending on where your soul is the next set of slashes spawn there. So, if you are far in one corner then the opening for dodging becomes bigger as you move to the other corner. Sometimes I would still get hit... but regardless I found that doing that had helped me. Hopefully the visual I provide shows what I am trying to explain better!

ATTACK 6: Snow 2

My Actions: Basically a freebie attack again for me because I had no problems for the most part dodging this one. That meant that if at this point I needed to revive or heal a team mate, now would be the time to do so. Because going into this attack I did not have enough TP for Susie's Rude Buster, and because Ralsei was the lowest on HP, I made Kris attack with Susie (to help deal more damage) and made Ralsei defend (to build TP easier and keep him alive easier).

Strategy: Same exact things as Snow 1. Stay to the left, don't move too quickly.

ATTACK 7: Tooth 2

My Actions: I made Susie do Rude Buster. Kris and Ralsei defend to help build TP and because I knew I was not as good at dodging during this attack.

Strategy Part 1: Basically the same as tooth 1, but the direction of which the teeth/icicles will come at you can change now. Just try to remember not to move too much or you run the risk of running right into the attacks. Also, try to stay snug against the green box.

Strategy Part 2: Oh, also important thing to know- the red slash that appears shows you which direction you will be moved to/how the box will be split. Also... the slash can hurt you if you get hit by it!

ATTACK 8: Circle Sword

My Actions: I made Susie do Rude Buster. The other two defend to try to keep them alive for this attack.

Strategy: Now honestly... I found this attack to be rather easy, though I know others find it really challenging. I start off this attack by moving all the way to the left of the green box and then as the attack spawns in I moved into it/go to the center and basically sit there. My biggest recommendation is to move in little increments. There were small moments during this attack where I literally didn't move at all. So yeah once again... move slowly! After the circling of the swords stops is then when you gotta try to dodge like you do in the Line Sword attack. Try to find as quickly as you can some sort of safe spot/blank space.

ATTACK 9: Sword Throw 2

My Actions: Susie does Rude Buster, others defend.

Strategy: This attack was one that kept killing me over and over for the longest time because like many of the other attacks and like I keep saying, I was moving too quick! This attack seems scary but it really isn't that bad as long as you just try to take your time with it and move semi slowly. It is literally just like Sword Throw 1 but you got swords circling around you. If you are moving slow and precise enough then those circling swords are basically not even a threat because you wont even end up near them (though in this run I actually did get hit by them, lol).

ATTACK 10: Slash 2

My Actions: Rude Buster, others defend. I think at this point I was getting nervous for if the run was about to fall apart due to this attack being one I struggle with, and because of Susie and Ralsei's hp.

Strategy: Same as Slash 1, but you gotta move much quicker this time. Important note: even though it may seem like the red lines are on you and you are about to get hurt... for some reason sometimes it does not actually hurt you? Not sure why that is.

ATTACK 11: Snow 3

My Actions: Unlike snow 1 and 2 basically being freebie rounds for me, this one I would proceed to be a little more cautious with because of the end of the attack. That being said though, I knew I would need to get Susie and Ralsei's hp up because after this attack I would not have any opening to be able to (I knew the next attacks I can not dodge as well). So, I made Kris use the ClubSwich healing item I had (to lightly heal everyone) because Kris has the most hp. I made Susie do Rude Buster and Ralsei defend. I knew that keeping Kris exposed was ok because even if they were to go down I would not need to waste a revive on them due to their hp only dropping to -80 on defeat.

Strategy: For trying to dodge the ending part of this attack, honestly I just tried to move around the green box as best as I could/as closely to the green lines and move along them. This did not always work, but for the most part I was lucky to not get hit by doing that motion.

ATTACK 12: Tooth 3

My Actions: Now this one is an attack that I kinda just prayed I wouldn't have anyone get killed to- so therefor same as before I made Susie Rude Buster and the other two defend.

Strategy: Honestly the only advice I can give for this is once again just try to remain calm and move semi slowly. I really just tried to tank my way through this attack as best as I could. The sudden quick switching of where you are in the box can be jarring. Try not to worry about the red slash hitting you and honestly just try to watch out for the "teeth" coming towards you.

ATTACK 13: Slash 3

My Actions: Susie does Rude Buster, the other two defend.

Strategy: As long as you have been able to do enough damage every turn from this point on, then this will be the last attack before the "big special attack". As I said before, these slash attacks are literally the ones I am the worst at. I was very lucky in that I managed to dodge everything during attack 12, so going into this attack I had enough hp to try to tank through the best I could. Try to do the diagonal movement's I mentioned, or whatever you have found works best for you for these slash attacks. At the end of the slashes the boss will pull a Sans Undertale move on you and begin to do tons of quick slashes in the middle of the box that will rotate quickly. Stay semi close to the slashes and just follow them around. You will need to move somewhat quickly during this part.

THE FINAL ATTACK!

Ok. Let us break the format I had going on now. Once the boss begins to glow you will know that the next round will be the big final attack. I had a round before this where the boss did not glow which gave me the opportunity to heal. I gave Susie a TVDinner (she has the shadow mantle, so if anyone was going to survive this attack is would be her). I made Ralsei defend (I should have healed him) and Susie do another Rude Buster (at this point I was not sure if I had met the threshold of how much damage I needed to do before the final attack initiates, so I just was like screw it and tried to throw in another attack not knowing what was coming my way next).

So yeah, at this point once you see the boss glowing- DEFEND. EVERYONE NEEDS TO DEFEND. This will help you as much as possible with the following attack.

I think I ended up attempting this final attack only 5 times throughout all of my runs before I finally won. The boss will try to suck you towards them, so try to make sure you are moving away from them the best you can while also dodging the upcoming attacks. I found that it was best if I stayed kinda in the center and below the boss in preparation for the next part of this attack. I was getting hit a LOT during this and I think the big reason being that I just literally had not gotten to this part that much enough to practice it? That and it's hard too... XD

Part of the reason why I tried to stay where I was at was due to the next part of the attack- the spiral. I don't think you take damage from touching the boss during this part and I found that I literally needed to get up close to them to try to spiral around and dodge this part. I wish I had better tips for this part... but just try your best!

After the spiral part... move FAR away from the boss! Get ready to dodge more of the snowflakes/stars! They will act like "snow 1" and eventually slow down, turn red and explode into little bullets! Just try to be careful and move semi slowly after the explosion!

😲 WOAH MAMA LOOK AT MY TEAM- *ahem*. Yeah I was shaking after seeing that. I could feel it within me that I had only one more hit before I was done for but wow... um, thanks Susie!

Now this is it... the end. You have won at this point. All you need to do is make whoever is alive attack and it's over with. And then... congrats you really did it!!! :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PHEW... ok welp that's the end of all that!

I hope this is maybe helpful for those who are going to attempt or are currently attempting this boss! I have a hard time sometimes explaining things... so if you read through this and have any questions then please feel free to ask! 💜

After having beat chp 1, chp 2, and now chp 3's secret bosses I honestly still think that Jevil may have been the worst for me. Like- I honestly think the only reason why this fight is so hard is just because the damage the boss does to you is so bad. The attacks themselves, though tough, I found them overall to not be that bad once I got the hang of them. Seriously I was starting to get to the point where I felt I could almost do a no hit run (not that I would want to though... I need a break, haha). Not with Jevil though... kinda never wanna do that guy again! <w<

Anyways.... if ya liked this post then maybe check out my other posts? 👀 I draw Undertale/Deltarune stuff... cute girly and magical things... uh, yeah! Bye bye~!

[hkthatgffan]

Hello, there! Firstly, I just wanted to say thank you for keeping the Gravity Falls love going. It always makes me smile to see the amazing art you share!

Going off of a recent question you answered, about Mabel possibly being the focus of a future series, I thought it might be fun to ask: If you had the power to choose what the next Gravity Falls related project will be, whether it be a movie, spinoff series, or anything else, what would you pick, and who would it be about? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thank you so much. Really appreciate that and glad my work in a small way helps keep Gravity Falls alive :)

As for what I'd do next if given control of a GF project, pretty simply put...get the art book made! I mean, it's been 5 years now since the infamous Dark Horse Gravity Falls artbook Alex Hirsch planned got scrapped thanks to Disney Channel ghosting them. And with the success of other art books for DTVA shows like DuckTales and Amphibia, it pains me quite literally to see Gravity Falls lacking one. The amount of art we could have in such a book would be phenomenal and instead it's all just tucked away in Alex Hirsch's mom's basement (that's not a joke either as Alex literally once mentioned he has many GF related things in storage with his mom, lol) and likely never will see the light of day in an art book.

It would be the perfect addition to my ever growing art book collection...

Though, if we're talking project as in new Gravity Falls content, then probably either the Sea Grunkles concept (given it's popular and Alex already has like 5 story ideas for it in mind) or something like a Gravity Falls Anthology series.

Basically a mini series idea where we have long form episodes, maybe like 6 or 8, and each one focuses on a lesser explored character in the series. So, we could have one episode focused on Wendy (or 2 given that girl needs a lot more to make up for all the scrapped episode plots), one on Pacifica, McGucket, Candy and Grenda, etc.

Hell, maybe even also an episode in a prequel setting or spin off focusing on Stan's years on the run, early years of running the Mystery Shack and of Ford in his college years, early time in Gravity Falls and of course, multiverse adventures.

I'm a firm hardliner in my stance that Gravity Falls ended when the bus disappeared in the horizon and Dipper and Mabel made it safely to Piedmont. I think there is far more to explore in a prequel setting with this show than a sequel. It's still so underrated of an avenue, given so many more so mainstream fans have that season 3 bug still in them and think they'd enjoy a shark jumped next Summer series.

I disagree outright! Give us a Gravity Falls prequel and that'll probably bring in so much more lore, mystery and adventure without shooting the finale's perfection in the foot. And I mean, if Better Call Saul has shown us anything, it's that a prequel can make the original series all the more compelling and incredible to watch and add new lore and depth to characters that make stuff we see them do in the original series all the more hard hitting and important (like, look how far Saul Goodman saying “It wasn't me, it was Ignacio. He's the one!” ended up taking the whole Breaking Bad franchise and adding a new layer of meaning and depth to both Saul's character and the whole universe).

Of course, a the end of the day, whatever may truly happen next with Gravity Falls depends on how much longer Alex's cursed Netflix deal is for. Kinda funny how in 2018 that seemed like a blessing...now it's a deadweight keeping GF caged like a hypercar in a garage.

One day maybe...

[tavyliasin]

Villain-Fucker Angst Hours

Good timezone, darlings~ Are you ready to get all up in your feelings? No? Me neither, loves, but here we are regardless so the words are going to flow as they usually do... This is focused on Raphael from Baldur's Gate 3 and his fandom, but the latter section can easily apply to any villain fandom.

Self-Analysis of Devil-Fuckery, Or Why Do I Adore Raphael When He Is Very Obviously Evil: A Short Essay by TavyliaSin (Who Still Cannot Name Anything With Less Than A Full Paragraph) ((NSFW)) (((Game Spoilers)))

The following may discuss heavier topics, but without specifics, so whilst it should be safe for most to read without triggering any difficult memories please be aware of Raphael's entire vibes, the content and context of his story, and I'd also like to mention that this isn't a "woe be us for we are terrible people" piece, it's actually more about:

"There is an inherent kindness and warmth to much of the Raphael fandom, and I think there could be some common threads behind that, pulling us all in closer in a comforting blanket that we wrap around each other to keep out the cold of the world."

So, what in the nine hells am I on about? Well. Raphael-fandom is a wild and wonderful place to be. The rest is in sections, so feel free to skip through to what you feel is relevant to your interests. I am so prone to waffle I should open a restaurant~

Who Are Fans Of Raphael? What Do They Want?

We are feral, unhinged, all sheets to the wind "I want that devil man, carnally, and there is no force in all the planes that could stop me". There's the vanilla to the extreme and every level in between, tops, bottoms, versatiles, Doms, subs, and switches - there are a whole lot of people who would love to get their hands on either (or both) of Raphael's forms, for a simple smooch or something far more spicy~ [edited in] To add on to this, not all of us even desire him in a sexual way, for many it is romantic, soft, or even just the rather pleasant thought of spending an evening with drinks by the hellfire because he would be fascinating company. Aces, Aros, and AroAces may all find themselves well within the devilish corners of fandom too~ which is a whole other essay~ [end edit] So, I see you. I'm one of you. Extremely loud and utterly hingeless in my fan appreciation for Raphael. He's one of my favourites to write about, I seek art of him, and the same goes for his mirrored other half, Haarlep, who I arguably love more despite there being far less content of them in the game.

And the Fandom? The Vibe?

From my experience in the Raphael Fandom areas, we have a very deep and abiding understanding of consent, respect, and treating each other with an absolute and uncompromising kindness. We've had talks about keeping each other safe in fandom, exchanged details of people we have encountered who need to be avoided, even shared details between moderators of different fandom servers to pre-ban people proven to be creeps and/or art thieves. We've also discussed consent, including the issues with it in the game, and how areas of the story can only really be considered dubious at best and could easily be triggering for people. And these discussions have been open, honest, fair, and with the acknowledgement that most of us love these scenes anyway. So there's a sense of care that runs through everything, behind the horny-posting and fan content, behind the endless thirsting after our favourite fictional characters. We have a depth of kindness that warms my sinners soul every time I see it.

What Does This Have To Do With Self-Reflection, Raphael, or Villainy In General?

Well let's look at Raphael. He's a villain, obviously. He's manipulative, devious, and inherently evil by his very nature. He keeps Hope chained in his basement, constantly subjected to endless torture. There's also mention of how Gortash was sold into his service at a young age, clearly not an enjoyable experience given the other details and how things turn out (particularly as Raphael would need Gortash's own plans to fail entirely in order for him to succeed in his own and get that crown). And as fans, we accept that. We don't sit making excuses, or trying to say "well actually Gortash is a little shit and Hope probably deserve it", and we don't shy away from or conveniently ignore those darker sides of him with malicious intent to enable more evil to flourish. What I noticed, when I allowed the thoughts to continue, is that there is a theme here.

If Evil Can Be Loved Then So Can I

That's the core. Of course, darlings, I am not claiming to be a heinous monster. I certainly do not have a laundry list of crimes that would make the devil himself say "Uh, that's a bit much." But I sure as fuck treat myself like I do sometimes. You see, I think a lot of us have that tendency, to judge ourselves far more harshly than anyone else. Our patience, understanding, and forgiveness for others runs deeper than the Mariana Trench, but when it comes to our own flaws? One minor mistake and we think ourselves to be the worst beings ever to disgrace the earth. Thus, the villainy we see reflects how we are treating ourselves. So by loving and accepting all of those things that should be terrible, hated, we are actually learning that no matter how poorly we think of ourselves that we can be worthy of that same love and acceptance. We are extending the affection we are unable to show ourselves to someone we see the worst parts of ourselves amplified within. And that's why villains attract the people with the most kindness. The most forgiveness. Because it takes someone with a truly huge amount of empathy to find love for the embodiment of evil.

Or, IDK, maybe villains are just hot and we're too far down to care.

But wait, before you go!

THERE'S SOMETHING WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT.

All of this is about FICTION. We should never be accepting of the kinds of evil we see in the game irl. We do not owe anyone kindness if they do not show it to us.

What is hot in fiction is not always OK IRL.

Look after yourselves out there, remember that consent is key in all things, and please do try to learn to love yourselves, darlings, you are worthy of it and you should judge yourself by the same standard you judge others. If you are in doubt, if you are worried, if you feel afraid - reach out, talk to someone. There are many who will listen.

Treat yourself as you would treat a friend. You deserve that much.

Oh, and all Raphael fans who understand kindness are welcome around me, any hour of the day, I adore our little fandom circles and would gladly collect all of us together. I'm following a lot of you as soon as I find you, like hunting shiny pokemon~

See you in Avernus, my darling Little Mice, may we all find joy in the Cambion's Embrace~

[ilovepinof]

HI! I’m currently making a Dnp Youtube playlist so I can fully introduce them to my mother (since shes going to TIT with me). Do you have any favorites/recommendations??

I’m adding more post hiatus vids since thats the energy we’re mostly getting on tour, but i’ll take anything :]

A silly bonus: The other day I gave her a short rundown of the timeline, and she pauses me and goes “Oh they live together?”, and I said yes expecting her to inquire further but she just went “Very nice.” 😭😭😭 so either shes completely clueless on the dynamic or understood it immediately, but I found that funny.

(I literally saw a big post about this yesterday I wish I could find it but alas I will try to give my best suggestions)

This post can be useful for anyone who has friends/family going to TIT with them that may not know much about Dan and Phil!

This post could also be useful to share with any friends who want to get into Dan and Phil

Feel free to pick and choose, you obviously don't have to watch every single one of these with your TIT buddy.

Category 1: Dan and Phil Lore - There are a few current videos that can give insight into past&present Dan and Phil lore without having to go super duper in-depth with her about everything.

Dan and Phil React to Every Phil is not on fire! #1 - I feel like anyone whos seeing TIT should be aware of Pinof lore but maybe thats just me because...I mean look at my username. I think watching PINOF react #1 is good enough because its the core trilogy and explains their origins well

Are Dan and Phil Connected? - I'd describe this video as taking a ton of shots of Dan and Phil lore rapidly at once, though she wouldn't understand everything she could at least begin to know stuff!

Both Pizza Mukbangs!! Here is mukbang 1 & here is mukbang 2. I feel like these two videos really encompass a lot of what Dan and Phil have gone through in the last few years and lay a good foundation of the tour.

Halloween Baking - SLIME AND SADDNESS CINNAMON ROLLS - Dan and Phil baking is a core part of Dan and Phil content and cannot be missed. This one doubles as a fun activity! You can bake and watch Dan and Phil together! Me and my (non phannie) partner did this and it was so much fun.

Any WDAPTEO - Heres a link to the most recent one

One final option in this category would be either of the dnp react to phan twt videos because it would explain the fans more but I don't feel as if this is necessary.

Category 2: Dan vs Phil - I feel like Dan vs Phil really shows a lot about their individual characters and dynamics. I'd start her off with these videos to get her into the world of Dan and Phil a little. Here are the ones I suggest.

Dan vs Phil IS BACK! Switch Sports

Is Dan smarter than Phil?

Dan vs Phil - FALL GUYS!

PARTIAL KITCHEN REVEAL SHUFFLEBOARD SHOWDOWN!

Category 3: Misc - Videos that I could not fill a full category for but I think would still be good.

This game ended our friendship - Bread and Fred - In a similar way that I feel like Dan vs Phil shows their dynamics well, I think it's important to also show the chaos of their team work. This one was one of my favs I rewatched it so much.

Who is the liar? Dan Phil or Pj - Whats a better way to get to know someone than Dan and Phil with one of their good friends? I highly suggest any Dan Phil Pj Soph video!!

GOLF WITH SLITS - Dan and Phil Play: Golf with Friends #9 - An iconic channel series.

Category 4: (some of) ILOVEPINOF's fav comeback videos - These videos were just my personal favorites. Think of this list as kind of "extra things you could watch" because they're all reallly good videos in my opinion.

Dan and Phil's raging Trombones

Trunk Dexting with Pan and Dhil

Dan and Phil Dress Each Other

Forcing Dan to Watch MORE Tiktok Likes

THE BACHELOR PARTY - Dan and Phil play The Sims 4: Season 2 #5

[whispersoflullaby]

"Breaking" the gendering of media: A case study on Shiguang

A question kept coming back to my mind again and again, that why do we tend to criminalize whenever we see a media which was "canonically" (the term canon icks me to the core) built to portray a broader political or social issue being used to deconstruct personal emotions? For example, a song used to portray the pain and horrors of partition being used to reconstruct the grief of personal loss and also about loss of identity. As if talking about personal loss is making a topic less serious or not respecting the depth of a subject. As if it is the continuation of the gendering the places being implicted upon media. The "oikos" (the personal space) , the "non serious" personal emotions are not meant to be dragged into the "polis" (the public sphere). When we take the journey from the home to the world, our personal journey becomes a palimpsest of many others which give us a feeling of community. When we get the feeling that our dilema is not only ours but a shared feeling of many, we tend to raise questions and break the boundary of the "home and the world", it tend to give us a vocabulary to curate.

Link Click as a series breaks this notion of differentiating between the the struggles. The suffering of the world is mine as well as my sufferings are also a matter to discuss, to analyze and to deconstruct, it's of everyone. For example the the incidents of sudent suicide due to excessive educational loan or even if it is about trying to save one's mother or about spreading the word of love, even if it is about the very domestic banters of Shiguang or it is about taking a step further to help Xu Shanshan and not taking money from her and just mere "helping" her to unite with her beloved .

As a very close friend of mine once mentioned " Shiguang through their love creates a brand new "vocabulary" of love" (if they gives me permission I will definitely tag them), the vocabulary enables them to question the normativity. And questioning the normativity makes you a threat to the authority - cause when you ask the right question at the right time , it makes your identity identifiable and then the authority can't treat you like a mass, a mass to be dismissed, to be discarded. I can't control my urge to quote Derek Walcott's "The Schooner's Flight" here- "I am either nobody or I am the nation" .According to me, probably this is how censorship also works - they fear the creation of the new vocab. The love which revolts but don't conform: a love which doesn't leave , but questions the normativitives. We try our best within our capacity - but what love does it doesn't know the capacity. ( They just don't know, how much love is too much love). That's what is so unique about the love of Shiguang. Here I am gonna quote TGCF " Your Highness..do you know why I refuse to leave this world?... because I still have a beloved in this world." - বিনা যুদ্ধে নাহি দিবো সূচাগ্র মেদিনী - ( I will not leave even a pinch of soil, without a fight). The guts to challange the person in control even though one is not sure about the price he has to pay, even self anhilating from each and every freaking time is probably a better option. You are not someone I choose over everything, you are the one who is inseperable from the concept of "being" of mine- you are the "I" of my eye.

The abilites here not only stand for the ability to change, but taking away the ability also stands for usurping one's ability to try, the silencing of emotions. Once your voice is strangulated you are creating a "destiny" for the opressed it is no longer their fate. Here I am gonna refer to a Bengali song "মোদের কোনো দেশ নেই,মোদের কোনো ভাষা নেই" (We don't have any country, we don't have any language)

But do you know where link click breaks the very gendering? When it identifies the silencing, the numbing. Many media portrays the consequences of the silencing, how the torture affects the people etc etc. But Link Click does is, it identifies where the mess ups are and it doesn't promise that "everything will be ok" and life will be "a bed of roses". No, it never will be- that's not what post modernism teaches us. Rather, Link Click teaches it may not be a smooth walk but still we will take the path as there is no "correct" path. As the author of the Ronxi chronicle mentions - it may not be the easiest path but you will never regret it. The concept of "correctness" is a construt, the "originality" is a mere myth and "TIME"!! … As we all know " Time is a hypocritical construct"...

[wrenkenstein]

CLONE X OC WEEK

DAY 2: QUALITY TIME

Ya girl is a bit early today - college calls, and I need to go to bed early tonight. But... why not indulge in some cute clone content before I sleep? ;) And even better, I get to spotlight some of my favorite artists who've drawn Juntech before as well!

As usual, here are some important links:

Juno's bio website

Juntech informational hub (outdated!)

And the tag! @clonexocweek

Without further ado, here's todays content!

What does 'quality time' look like for Tech and Juno?

For two braniacs of similar prestige, Tech and Juno have a lot of ways they like to spend time together. But quality time for them isn't always just working on shared projects!... Even if that's something they enjoy doing to wind down. No, Tech and Juno have multiple ways of sharing each others space...

Museum hopping

Art by my beloved @cloned-eyes

It makes perfect sense that two nerds would enjoy such activities - a perfect excuse to be in eachothers company, AND one where they can engage their minds? Museum's are a favorite place for Juno and Tech to visit whenever they stumble upon civilized planets, and they always make an excuse to take a "Rsearch venture" to the local museum, if possible. But the trips to the museum do more than just give them an excuse to be learning on-the-go; there's quite a bit to be said about how such an excursion is made even more enjoyable by having the right company around. Tech and Juno adore being able to have an excuse to just... talk to one another about their interests. Not that they needed one beforehand, but being surrounded by so much intrigue prompts discussion, and they indulge hours of informational exchange - and cute comments sprinkled in, where Juno will compare Tech to a particularly strange bug, and Tech will feel his cheeks flare a bit.

Shared invention

Art by my perfect @echojedis

Working together on shared projects might seem like a chore, but to these two, it's something they adore. Being able to throw themselves into invention and work together offers them great alone time, and keeps them engaged and constantly bouncing around better and better ideas together. Tech is happy to have someone so invested in building like he is, and Juno is happy to be able to assist however she can - even if her expertise lies more in science and experimentation than it does engineering and assembly. Tech uses this time to actually teach Juno how to be a better and more informed engineer, which has already proved to pay off, as Juno is rapidly growing more and more fluent in the art of inventions and design - and she's already capable of keeping up with Tech. And Tech? Well, he feels adored just having someone around who cares enough to learn.

Discussions... long, long discussions

MORE @echojedis ART

What did you expect out of the two chattiest people around? It seems fitting that the other has finally met their verbal match, as Juno and Tech love to talk. Either jumps at the excuse to continue in-depth discussion about various topics of interest - astral engineering, planetary biology, diversity between biological fauna, you name it. These two will never shut up. Crosshair wants to kick them both in the mouth for how often they keep him up at night, chattering away like two eager birds. But nobody has the heart to stop them - this is the first time in their lives they've had someone else willingly engage in thoughtful dialouge with them about their interests. Who wouldn't want to spend hours talking with their favorite person?

Sleep

Art by bloodbroox

Sleep is a touchy thing for Juno, who has never allowed herself to sleep near another living soul. During missions, she'd stay up all night keeping watch, using it as an excuse to never fall into the vulnerable state of sleep - and this was a habit she intended to continue abiding by... until Tech showed up. Tech figured out pretty quickly that the level of vulnerability and saftey sleep required made it something Juno rarely sought out, to the point it was affected her abilities. So? Under the guise of research and improved efficiency, Tech suggested they start napping together. (linked is a fic, if you want a detailed read of how it happened. ;))

And it didn't just work. Juno became addicted to the feeling of another warm body, and soon, she became dependent on needing Tech around to sleep properly.

Tech is more than happy to accomodate - he can sleep anywhere at any time, and it just seemed logical to help Juno break her clans destructive habits and embrace sleep. It's a test of trust, one of their unbreakable bond, and Juno tests that trust every day whenever she sleeps with Tech... and Tech has no intention of breaking that promise to keep her safe.

[princesssarisa]

Hey, what do you think of Dreamworks' The Prince of Egypt? I like you, or not so much?

It's been a long time now since I last saw it, but I think it's an outstanding movie.

It's visually stunning. The music – both the songs by Stephen Schwartz and the orchestral score by Hans Zimmer – is magnificent, one of the best animated film scores to come out of the '90s, despite stiff competition in that field. Its voice cast is full of distinguished names – Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Sandra Bullock, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Pfeiffer, Danny Glover, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Ofra Haza – who all make the most of their roles.

While it does take some obvious liberties with the Bible, it's fundamentally a faithful adaptation of the Exodus story, with all the gravitas and spiritual power the subject deserves. Jewish, Christian, and Muslim clergy were all consulted to ensure that the film would be effective from a religious standpoint, since the story is so important to all three Abrahamic faiths. Yet the film brings human heart and drama to the story too, especially through its chief plot twist: that Moses and Pharaoh Rameses, two of the Bible's most legendary enemies, were raised as brothers who loved each other. This choice obviously adds both emotion and depth to the story, by humanizing and complicating both sides of the conflict – we see that Rameses' tragic flaws are a product of his upbringing and the pressure to uphold his father's legacy, while Moses never cared about the Hebrews' plight either until he learned he was one of them – yet thankfully without ever crossing the line into "Both sides are equally at fault."

I also have to give the animators credit for not whitewashing the story the way so many lesser Biblical adaptations do, and portraying all the characters as the people of color they would have been.

The film has its flaws, of course. I'll admit, I used to find Tzipporah slightly annoying, because with her blend of fiery attitude and "exotic" sexiness, I thought she was too much of a knockoff of Esmeralda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. (I'm not sure if I still feel that way or not, though.) And while the animation avoids whitewashing the characters, it's unfortunate that most of their voice actors are white. But as a whole, it's one of the masterpieces of non-Disney animation.

Musical theatre fans can also partly thank this movie for the existence of Wicked. Not only do they share the same composer/lyricist, but if I remember correctly, Stephen Schwartz has said that the decision to center Wicked around Elphaba and Glinda's friendship was partly inspired by The Prince of Egypt's focus on Moses and Rameses' bond as adoptive brothers. Schwartz obviously likes the theme of two people who are pitted against each other in a grand-scale, nation-shaping conflict, yet who love each other on a personal level. (And now I'm imagining Moses singing "Defying Gravity" at the point where he kills the slavedriver and flees from Egypt, with Rameses singing Glinda's part: it would only need a few lyric changes.)

[eliotbaum]

Hi Eliot! First of all, I wanted to tell you I love your art so so much!! You inspire me so much as an artist and you and Viv are one of the main reasons I'm backing The Book of Devotion Kickstarter!

I am also a DnD player and I wanted to ask you, do you ever feel disconnected from your characters? I am currently playing a campaign set in Ravnica from Magic the Gathering and I absolutely love it (100% recommend as a setting as well) and I love my character Daphne, but for some reason the past few sessions I've been feeling very withdrawn and unhappy with my RP choices, I feel Daphne very far away from me If that makes sense? Have you ever experienced something similar? Would love to hear your thoughts on this!!

Thank you!!

Wah thank you so much!!! 🥺 it's SUCH a fun concept I hope you'll enjoy it! Oh man, I'm sorry to hear you're feeling disconnected. It's such a bummer when something that got us so immersed and invested feels more distant. I've only played one campaign with the same character, so I'm not sure if I can give the best advice here. But yes, I do know the unfortunate phenomena! I'm actually struggling with the same thing right now so maybe we can figure it out togethaa. I'll answer more in-depth under the cut but if anyone else has tips, do feel free to drop them.

So yes, this all sounds familiar. Recently I'm just "going through the motions" of playing a character, without being immersed in them. Even if we still very much enjoy everything about the character or the game. Personally, I tried to pinpoint where this could come from. Is it an ingame thing, or is it something outside? (stress kills my creative drive) Has this campaign been going on for a while, have there been any exciting things happening with Daphne? Have you had fun opportunities for her to shine, was there anything that moved you? Just throwing some questions out there to help the wheels turning. I think bringing this up with your group and DM is also worth considering. Being invested in roleplay and your character is such a major part of the game (to me!) and maybe there's something where everyone can help. Be that giving you opportunities for dramatic or heartfelt moments, or simply hyping each other and their characters up around the game, not even just during sessions. But, onto the actual things that have helped me: I found a song that feels very Kasper to me, and I always try and listen to it before a session to get back into my PC's mindset and get that special spark and feeling back. Deep immersion mode... I also find creating art or writing around the character also very rewarding and exciting. I often see folks write a diary in character, or simply write up how their character felt after a session. I did that for a while after work -- and rereading diary entries with some very dramatic sombre music in the background brought a bit of that connection back, haha. Rereading notes for next sessions, or old ones is also worth a shot. What's your character all about and what's important to them? In the same vein I like to indulge in some Imagining, Daydreaming of past and future RP moments that excite me. Of course, all while listening to dramatic music...

Anyway I hope either you did figure it out in the meantime, or this helps just a little. Wishing us all to have fun, be crazy for our little OCs and sharing exciting moments and stories with each other.

[the-east-art]

It Took Luke Paneling Ramble

Okay just some rambling about the paneling in It Took Luke (BUY IT NOW BUY IT NOW). Gore warning! It Took Luke was writted by Mark Boucard and illustrated by Bayleigh Underwood (@iceghosto - HIHGLY recommend their art is so good). Although I’m not here to discuss the story really right now, I’m here to ramble on about my thoughts of how Bayleigh Underwood uses paneling in the book - to be honest this is mostly thoughts I had while analyzing the book, and I’m hopeful that writing down my observations will help them to stick in my mind more firmly - so you reading them is just a by product of that. 

Loosely speaking, Underwood has three-panel heights per page - a top, a middle, and a bottom, usually having each section divided in two, either in half or with one panel taking up ⅓ and the other taking up 2/3. By no means is this a hard rule or anything, just a pattern. The first few pages are pretty action packed so they don’t really follow this pattern: page 1 is two sections and pages 6,7,8, and 9 are all divided into four sections. However a quick glance will show that the 3 section pages are the ‘norm’ - they take up a good chunk of the exploration pages or the book where we feel we are between major dramatic beats. Three is a natural number that people are drawn to, three section pages give the characters time to breath and stretch into the space without taking up so much that it feels TOO important. If I did my job right I should have a few 3x2 pages shown above that show the pattern - you may notice that the majority is not all of these have the horizontal length even with the page justification - again an indication of regularity. I would also noticed that the 2/3 and 1/3 divisions alternate.  

So here are three section pages that don’t follow the 3x2 pattern or use it in a unique way. Here’s a subtle subversion - a crack in the facade. Still divided up into the 3 panels high, two sections of which share the space, but all are on a subtle diagonal now. When an action beat is in a three-sectioned page it usually compensates for only taking up a third of the page by then stretching clear across the page horizontally, rather than sharing the space with a second panel - as we can see when ‘It’ took Luke. Taking up more space means that we dwell on this section of hte page longer and see it as being more important than if it was divided in half. While still three panels tall, each of these panels stretch across the entire page, and all of them have a diagonal line - a diagonal line indicating action. Notice how this diagonal line is more severe of an angel than the one previously illustrated. 

These two pages I really like as well: In the first page we have two full length horizontals, and in the middle one a half cut panel - the smaller the panels being loosely the smaller amount of time we are witnessing - we are too assume that Sal looking at the monster and reaching for a distraction are happening mere seconds apart, if not simultaneously - I also like the little bonus panel showing Sal grabbing the flour - because it doesn’t match the typical panel layout and lies above all other panels, it feel booths important and sudden. I mention the second image because while it uses the ‘exciting’ version of the 2x3 format (the tilted angle version) it divides that top right panel in half to imply the slice of a blade! We don’t actually even see Sal wind up or follow through or make that swing - we just see the hairy lines and the sound effect and our brain puts the rest together. Really clever! 

I’m not really going to go into depth about pages that are 2 panels mostly because they are used less often and they are more straightforward to me - an establishing shot follow by the explanation. The half panel space is used most often for added background details, or to make us focus more on a character for a period of time. Two panel high pages therefore feel slower, since less information is being shot at you and the largeness and detail invites you stay a while on those sections. I will point out this page which uses a 2x2 format to enhance the feeling of verticality that comes with stairs. 

Following this we can see four-panels tall pages about as we would expect them to be read - the smaller panels mean that we are focusing closer at smaller periods of time - in the beginning of the story this is conversation, dialogue, exposition. The squad is chatting, this takes less time than climbing through a building, and we need more panels to change character POVS and give them chances for more word bubbles. The things that happen in four panel tall pages are to be perceived as happening faster - with smaller panels your eyes may dart past them faster, and smaller moments are highlighted (this is also done sometimes in three panel tall pages by dividing the horizontal space into 3 rather than 2). 

There’s WAY more cool paneling and WAY WAY WAY more cool art in this little book than I could possibly discuss all in this post (I actually had to cut part of it because of some internet related issues) and obviously I'm really just talking about panels right here! Talking about the way that the characters are placed, the lineart, the ways lights are darks are used action lines is a WHOLE OTHER THING, but it was really fun to analyze :3 If you haven’t I highly recommend buying It Took Luke - It is a horror, a tragedy, and filled with gore, but if you can manage that it is a great read and honestly such eye candy for the reader. 

[skunkes]

I've talked about this before I think but I think "art theft culture" is actually what makes scenarios like this worse... and I Know because I've mentioned that it happened to me before, where a few years ago I was heavily inspired by an artist for a couple of style study drawings without acknowledging them as inspiration, they contacted me after their friends notifed the similarities, and it was resolved as I explained that I had no "plans" for long term theft or passing off as my own, I was just passing by and figuring out what I liked about the style. But I should have just mentioned them!

And that's the point I'm trying to get at here, I feel for a lot of people there's still either shame in using references (I took the upper half of a pose for a recent comm from one of the first memorable google image results for it... How embarrassing!), and there's similar in openly admitting that somebody is currently directly inspiring you, or that you liked something someone made so much you're making your own spin on it.

This is probably because you don't know how people (your audience or the original creator, or THEIR audience) are going to react with regards to """theft""" (which I also feel varies. Like everyone I've seen trying to emulate my style has never gotten close. Which is how it works! Its a good thing! Absorb it into your own! Thats what I do!

But I've also had someone lift every aspect of my art identity and basically try to replicate exact pieces, poses, and dialogue of mine with their characters like oh ok nvm this is kinda weird.) so I get it, because it's scary! It happened to Me, I was a perpetrator LOL and that's that it was style inspiration and not direct copying so I get it... I feel it all the time too, but I wish it wasn't like this in General ykwim. Wish it didn't feel so humiliating to admit influence

EDIT: THIS IS ALSO NOT ME SAYING "you need to list off all your inspirations every single time you post a drawing"

Its more like oh this person is using my exact brushes and exact colors and exact half traced poses and my handwriting and exact dialogue and personal symbols to the point where they're pretending my autobiographic doodles happened to them while pretending they've never seen my stuff in their life, or even shit talking me. Some of these individual aspects are okay (I've literally shared all my brushes with everyone, for example, who cares. My colors are awesome...who cares. 4 petal flower shapes don't belong to anyone, I don't care.) But all of them in combination is what's weird. Ykwim. Like that level of "hey man what the fuck"

I'm about to answer an ask going more into depth about this but I also need to explain that it's hard being on the other end of this too because it really isn't that serious ykwim... I see ppl on twitter get clowned on every day because "you can't steal a style" and that's mostly true. Me and some mutuals "steal" aspects from each other all the time without "crediting" because it's obvious, or we know each other, as well as the "stolen" stuff being something we already made our own thing, so I promise this isn't about that. Art is meant to be shared and inspire and influence.

I'd never point fingers unless it got severe over a long period of time (not adapting it into your own style), with someone who wouldn't talk it out with me but sometimes I wish I could show some of these specific examples, like I promise I'm not blowing up because someone """stole""" uhhhh the little squiggles I add to my commissions. I myself "stole" that from deco sticker sheets. Who gives a shit.