neoduelverse

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genuine christmas miracle that this got done despite being around my family

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akane doing ranmas cute long hair!!

+ bonus kiss!

how i love straight yuri

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“…Maybe I should…Bully P-Chan more often….”

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Ranma beginning to enjoy bra shopping and likes how they look is so trans egg coded.

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Redraw of a screenshot I saw on pinterest, but I made it Ranma.

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It's weird how prevalent "oppression is bad, but you know what's also bad? Fighting for liberation" narratives were at one point, especially in video games. Just the weirdest obsession with the whole narrative of "the status quo may be bad, but we can't just go and change the status quo."

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Heavenly Tyrant is out today! It's a weird feeling after so many years of losing hair over it. It didn't feel like I was capable of finishing the book until I wrote the last word. The publication process was not a happy one. I'm not doing any events for it, not even a launch. I'm typing this while lying in bed and thinking about what a terrible year it's been. We joked about 2020 being the worst year ever, yet every year since has been progressively worse. And the coming years do not show any indication of being better.

But a big theme in Heavenly Tyrant is that wherever there is oppression, there WILL be resistance. I have had as much heartwarming support from peers, friends, and readers as I've faced heinous shenanigans this year. When a very, very famous author I met this summer asked me "Are you a controversial person?" after I told him about the stuff I was going through, I answered "To many who hold power? Yes. To regular people? I don't think so."

I want to thank all of you who gave me the faith to say something like that. Most people I know are on the right side of history. If you aren't - I don't want to know you.

Anyway, the book. Heavenly Tyrant is SO different from Iron Widow that I'm pretty nervous about whether people would like it. I want to ask you all to adjust your expectations going in. You're not going to get another breakneck-paced story about a Girlboss Going Smash. The smashing was the easy part. Rebuilding what she broke into something better is much, much harder. The story is a lot slower by necessity, and the problems she faces are way more complicated to deal with. I also ask that you read until the end before making a judgement because, well, developments you don't like might not be endgame! And there's a book 3 coming! (This was always supposed to be a trilogy; it's just that my publisher was only willing to buy 2 books from me at first. They changed their minds after seeing the preorder numbers for IW.)

Finally, I want to bring everyone's attention to the five songs the Bookish Songs Collective wrote specifically for Iron Widow! They're now available to stream whenever you get your music. It blows my mind that MY book would get such epic music?! I can't thank or praise them enough. Seriously, CHECK THE EP OUT.

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How are we feeling today folks. I’m celebrating by speed running turnabout samurai so I can play turnabout goodbyes

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Its time :)

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An Ace Attorney Christmas Carol

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merry turnabout goodbyes

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One thing I find interesting about Pantheon season 2 is the difference between Holstrom and Caspian. Now there are a lot of differences between them, but I’m talking about the the big one. The one that made it so that Caspian could cure the flaw, but Holstrom couldn’t. I’m talking about how each of them feel love. 

Now, throughout the entire second season it’s all, but explicitly stated that Holstrom couldn’t understand love and that’s why he could’ve never fixed the flaw.

It’s a good way to highlight how the two genetically identical men differ, why one is our secondary protagonist while the other is the main antagonist. It also shows the audience Caspians understanding of love though his growing relationship with Maddie throughout the season.

But some viewers may be confused by this difference. After all doesn’t Holstrom have a love interest in Renee?

In fact don’t they spent a large amount of time collaborating on Holstrom’s plan, with her essentially being his arm in the physical world? Does their love not count just because they’re evil?

Well no. At least that’s not the reason their “love” doesn’t count. But to explain why we need to talk about how the show conceives of love.

In Pantheon love isn’t just about people liking each a lot. Not even to the point of where they’re willing to do a lot for their partners. Love is when people push each other along with supporting them.

Real love, to Pantheon, is challenging each other to be better and making each other better. It’s give each other perspective that they couldn’t have on their own. Love is something active between the people sharing it, it can’t be mindless adoration.

We see this healthier love with several of the couples throughout the show. David and Ellen start with several fundamental disagreements over the UI situation, to the point where it drives them apart at first. But when they reconcile you can tell how much they love each other even if they never officially get back together. Then you have Olivia and Farhad, who the show spends an entire episode displaying how they challenge and complete each other.

And of course, we have Maddie and Caspian.

You could make a whole separate post about how their viewpoints change and clash throughout the series while strengthening their relationship. But suffice it to say that the show views their love as the truest it could be.

And taking all this into consideration it should be obvious by now why the show considers Stephen and Renee’s relationship not to be an example of love. Renee doesn’t contribute intellectually to any part of it, she is ok simply fauning over the eccentric genius. While Stephen is content with basically being a relationship with a yes woman who goes along with everything he says and does.

And the most insidious part of their relationship in my opinion also relates to why Renne was chosen to play the part of Caspian’s mother.

We see in the interviews with Holstrom about his past that he never really cared intellectually about anything his mother said. He saw her as someone to care for, and thus receive care in return. Some may call this unconditional love, but Pantheon considers it an unhealthy love.

And as you probably noticed, the way Holstrom described his relationship with his mother sounded awfully similar to his relationship with a certain someone.

Which makes their already messed up dynamic even creepier. Especially when you consider how they wanted to shape Caspian.

TLDR: Holstrom couldn’t cure the flaw not because he couldn’t convince of love, but because his very conception of love was itself flawed.

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Ep5 Season 2 Pantheon(1)

I almost thought that were not gonna be any moment of them in this ep😭

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Ep5 Season 2 Pantheon(2)

Oh no Caspian😱 but how?

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I REALIZED SOMETHING ABSOLUTELY INSANE ABOUT THE SHOW ‘PANTHEON’ (THE AMC ONE)

And it hit me as I was re-listening to EPIC: The Musical.

When I was watching Pantheon I found the Caspian/Maddie relationship kinda weird but now I get it:

THEY REPRESENT ODYSSEUS AND PENELOPE.

CASPIAN WAS GONE FOR 20 YEARS. 20! RING A BELL?

THEIR SON DAVE GREW UP WITHOUT HIM, HE ONLY HEARD STORIES ABOUT HIM, JUST LIKE TELEMACHUS.

MADDIE WAITED FOR HIM, DEEP DOWN.

WHEN CASPIAN GOT BACK, IT WAS NO LONGER HIM. (epic reference 😼)

AND CASPIAN IS VERY SIMILAR TO ODYSSEUS. LIKE FOR EXAMPLE HE’S ALSO A WARRIOR OF THE MIND. 😼

And the whole point of the show title ‘Pantheon’ is to make us question whether we are really capable of becoming gods.

There are so many references to gods in the show.

In the opening and also final scene, when Maddie is sitting in a classroom, as the final line the teacher say this,

“-Family Feud escalates into violent power struggle between a Pantheon of supreme beings and their offspring. A new world is created in the aftermath.”

which references to what happened in the show and compares human history with the stories of gods.

At first, Maddie and Caspian were just ‘mortals’ in the story. Just like Ody and Penelope. (unless Caspian had to become the monster👹😼)

So what I’m saying is that the Odyssey reference in Pantheon is actually quite realistic since there were many other mythology references in the show.

Now I beg you editors please edit Pantheon with EPIC songs.

Not to mention the song “Man or a monster” by Sam Tinnesz was playing in a Capsian scene in season 1.

Thank you for your attention and MERRY CHRISTMAS.