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And he looked up, serious and stern, even with tears beginning to roll. “Because you’re my son, damn it, and I love you, and I’m - I’m not going to lose you to this.”
i had to make a comic of this scene from the fic another step backwards, another step forwards by @cryinghour because it just took my breath away– i almost cried while rewriting the dialogue oh my god its so good!!! the entire fic is emotionally heartbreaking but so comforting and cathartic.
i advise you to not read it if you aren’t in a stable place right now. it’s not all angst, absolutely not, but there are some parts that can sink their teeth into you if you’re vulnerable to it.
either way, amazing fic. i love it to death. many, many kudos.
(X)
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🍕🍔🍕 fggcomic.itch.io 🍕🍔 🍕Rebel Kitsune, my first text adventure, is out now! It’s the story of a sad fox girl going on a date with a new friend. How relatable! 🦊🦊🦊
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The Magic of Animation ~ Scenery
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
~I ~II ~III ~IV
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ＥＭＯＴＩＯＮＡＬ ＰＲＯＭＰＴＳ
ANGER
1. “You don’t get to say anything to me!”
2. “Excuse me?”
3. “How is this my fault?”
4. “I don’t want to talk to you.”
5. “Move out of my way before I make you.”
6. “That isn’t an option.”
7. “You aren’t going anywhere.”
8. “You aren’t the boss of me.”
9. “What gives you the right?”
10. “Do that again and you’ll regret it.”
11. “Leave me alone!”
12. “I don’t care.”
13. “Come back here right now!”
14. “Go. You go and don’t even think about coming back here.”
15. “Do I make myself clear?”
16. “Control your anger or you’ll have me to worry about.”
17. “What did you just say to me?”
18. “I didn’t ask you to do that!”
19. “Get away from me!”
20. “Let go of me.”
BLISS
1. “You’re such a dork.”
2. “Get over here, you doof.”
3. “Cheeky.”
4. “You’re so needy.”
5. “Kiss me again.”
6. “You’re so adorable!”
7. “Look at you… Goodness, you’re so cute.”
8. “I’m just so happy!”
9. “I can’t stop smiling.”
10. “I like that you make me laugh so much that my cheeks hurt.”
11. “You are being extra sweet today.”
12. “Oh, look at you!”
13. “Your eyes are so pretty.”
14. “I’m really happy that you’re here with me.”
15. “Thank you for staying with me.”
16. “I don’t think I’ve ever loved someone this much before.”
17. “I feel like I’m in the clouds when I’m with you.”
18. “You’re like my heroine.”
19. “I’m gonna tickle you if you don’t come over here.”
20. “My, oh my. You are such a beautiful creature.”
TERROR
1. “No, please don’t take me away!”
2. “What was that noise?”
3. “Did you see it?”
4. “What’s in the shadows?”
5. “No, please don’t turn off the light!”
6. “I don’t want you to leave my side.”
7. “I can’t open my eyes, I don’t want to.”
8. “Don’t leave me!”
9. “Where am I?”
10. “Who are you?”
11. “Don’t leave me alone.”
12. “Get away from me!”
13. “No, please! No, no no no no no!”
14. “Don’t look.”
15. “Whatever you do, don’t open your eyes.”
16. “What’s happening?”
17. “Where did you go?”
18. “Is somebody there?”
19. “Somebody help me, please!”
20. “I can’t see anything!”
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Glimmadora wedding kiss for a ko-fi request - these outfits aren’t very traditional but I sure had fun designing them (and drawing this sweet smooch 💖💖)
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can we please bring back “in poor taste” as a concept
Because at some point it got folded in under “problematic,” and now every damn thing that has Unfortunate Implications or deals with sensitive topics indelicately enough to raise hackles or gores somebody’s sacred cow is treated as a grave injustice or a threat to society. Online activism culture has lost the vocabulary to express “this deals with touchy stuff in a way many people might find inappropriate, and you should probably avoid it if insensitivity on this subject gets you angry/upset, but it’s not promoting hateful ideas or demeaning people or affecting anything but my opinion of the creator’s sense of tact.”
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My Interpretation of Daganronpa V3′s ending (plus extra goodies)
Hey everyone! Long time no see, but I think I may finally have time to do things regularly now. I’m gonna try and split this blog across Writblr/Fic, Danganronpa, and Edits so we’ll see how this goes, lol. I’ll have a new intro out sooooon!
Anyways onto what you clicked for:
This is a compilation theory of my interpretation of DRV3’s ending. I can justify why I think anything I say here if you want me to, but if I wrote down evidence for everything here it’d literally be 100 pages long so if you wanna discuss just ask me! Some of these things are just straight up indulgent but that’s the fun of interpretations!
1 | The Beginning of Team Danganronpa
After the events of DR3, and I mean LONG after the events of DR3--like at least a century--Hope’s Peak Academy has been diluted into a small and insignificant government program, totally out of the way of society. Talent isn’t as much of a big deal anymore and everyone’s chill now. The concepts of hope and despair, Junko and company are reduced to stories and paragraphs in history text-books.
Eventually, and slowly, the stories of the killing games entered into the world of fiction. The idea of the ultimate clash between Hope and Despair was quite enticing, and so Team Danganronpa was created to make these ideas come to life on the screen.. Reenactments, roleplays, museums, you name it and Team Danganronpa had a part in it. The hardships of the past lead to inspiration for the people of the present. Hope and despair became little aesthetics and concepts for people to attach themselves too, like coping mechanisms.
However, as society grew to appreciate this, it grew more and more perverse. The reenactments became more and more realistic, and the people consuming it cared less and less about the specifics. All they cared for was the mindless and constant clash between Hope and Despair. Good or bad. It wasn’t even despair that society was experiencing, more like a perverted sense of sentimentality. If it sounds like I copied that I did, that quote was from Undertale.
2 | The New Killing Game
Anyways, at the rate things were going, it was inevitable that Team Danganronpa would eventually start recreating killing games using actual students, probably a combination of scouted out individuals and volunteers with actual murders. Remember that this is a society that bounced back from a near-end of the world decision, they’re all recovering, even the kids that were raised by the survivors.
And please note that when I’m talking about the society in the Danganronpa world I don’t think that it applies to the fandom AT AL. In fact I think the society in DR is the exact opposite of the fandom, but let’s keep going.
3 | Rantaro’s Plan
We really don’t know the amount of ‘Seasons’ there’s been, but we’ll just call this one ‘Season 52’. Season 52 stares a whole new story continuing from the ‘fictional’ stories of Hope’s Peak. The only two members of this group that we know are Rantaro Amami...and Kaede Akamatsu, the two that chose to sacrifice themselves at the end of the 52nd killing game. Rantaro and Kaede both get survivor perks for their troubles, and the other two survivors are allowed to have their memories replaced so they can return to society with their sanity. Rantaro and Kaede can leave to the real world too, but they will be brought back for the next season, which is planned to be a sequel featuring them as the fan favorites.
Luckily for Rantaro, this is the perfect situation for his plan to destroy Team Danganronpa for good. Everyone else in the world is generally repulsed by Team DR’s actions, but their reliance on them is too great for them to break away or do much of anything.
He starts out by getting in contact with Kaede’s twin sister, we’ll just call her Haru as a temporary name. Rantaro needs to pitch a good plot for the next season, since it’s a sequel he’ll have the advantage in knowing where everything is, including the one weakness of the seasons mastermind. Because Kaede, being positive and bright, and Maru, being cynical and rude, are polar opposites, a twin vs. twin plot seems like the perfect thing to pitch to Team Danganronpa.
In addition Rantaro also adds Shuichi Saihara and Tsumugi Shirogane to his little squad. Shuichi’s mind is analytical, but he lacks confidence. Rantaro knows Team DR enough to predict what they’ll do with him, so he becomes Rantaro’s backup. He adds Tsumugi only because she and Kaede were dating-A and he thinks she’ll make a good first victim, letting Rantaro get a bit more time to find the mastermind and convince the world to fight against Team DR.
4 | Scouting of the other members
Before any of this, back when he was recording his Survivor Perk, he made sure to structure it in a way that would motivate a Rantaro in a killing game to get out and survive another game so he could try again. He really wanted to cover all of his bases, he was dealing with a huge corporation by now after all.
In another sect, Kaito Momota and Maki Harukawa, who are both dating, join in with Rantaro’s idea. And, somewhere entirely different, a prince by the name of Kokichi Oma, and his personal maid, Kirumi Tojo, are both scouted and kidnapped by Team Danganronpa for the next killing game. A shy but sweet mechanic whose father is friends with the Queen of the kingdom, Miu Iruma, decides to volunteer.
After much planning from Rantaro’s group, they strategically get everyone in the 53rd killing game, lying on their audition tapes...well-everyone except for Maru. Team DR accepts the whole twin vs. twin plot, and they start modification of the sets, making them seem dilapidated and old to show a passage of time. Right on the cusp of the plans success, Kaede succumbs to her guilt. After seeing the horrors of the killing game her spirit is broken, and soon before the game’s beginning, she commits suicide. The final note she leaves to her sister asks her to end the killing games, despite their differences.
Without a twin to complete the plot, Team DR is forced to improvise. They bring out a beta for a project they were planning, a robot named K1-B0, or Keebo. Keebo’s purpose was to be the audience's eyes, something suggested by Miu to give her friends an advantage in ending the game.
5 | The Start of Season 53
Finally, the killing game starts.
The 16 students are brought to Team DR one way or another. Maru is especially shocked, as she’s never participated in a killing game before, but is treated like she did. Everyone’s memory is replaced, save for Rantaro who’s allowed to keep a set few memories that would’ve worked well for the sequel plan. Everyone wakes up in the lockers, with Maru waking up next to Shuichi, now forced to take the identity of Kaede. She tries to get the hang of her sister’s personality, as we see in pregame, but eventually her entire identity is replaced with a Flashback light when she receives her talent. You could also describe it as an Ultimate Revival if you wanted to. Maru becomes Kaede Akamatsu, now able to fulfill the role that her sister is now unable to.
After the events of the prologue (Which is called Ultimate Revival by the way, I don’t want you to miss that wordplay) Tsumugi wakes up in a locker, right next to Keebo. Something not even Rantaro accounted for happened, Tsumugi was chosen to be the mastermind. Not Kokichi or even himself like he was expecting. However, Team DR saw Tsumugi as a perfect candidate for a mastermind, as her obsession with fiction was seen as relatable. She was a perfect reflection of what society had become.
Tsumugi’s mind was barely touched by the Flashback lights, but all of her relationships with her friends and girlfriend were replaced. Upon waking up and seeing Keebo, he explains to her that they’re currently in a spaceship that was supposed to take off ages ago and the outside world is inhospitable. Panicking, she sets K1-B0 into it’s ‘friendly’ mode and lets him go off and talk with the others, entirely forgetting about his set role as a future traitor, as well as the Flashback Light machine.
However, K1-B0 was set to teach the mastermind how to do their job, and now without that information in their memory, Tsumugi doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do. All she knows right now is that she has some involvement with the mastermind. As a result, the Monokubs, another set of helpers, also have no idea what they’re doing and have to rely on Monokuma, an AI the mastermind can’t control, for instruction.
6 | Tsumugi as the Mastermind
Tsumugi ends up wandering around, stopping and staring at an odd dragon statue. That’s when Shuichi and Kaede find her in-game. Tsumugi can’t explain why, but Kaede touching her cheeks made her feel all fluttery inside. After their ‘first’ interaction together, Tsumugi takes note of the big round ball in the dragon’s hand.
The first motive, The First Blood Perk, comes around, along with the time limit soon after. The pressure of this definitely scares Tsumugi, but she wants to see Kaede get out okay, especially since she feels inspired by her.
At some point Tsumugi goes to the bathroom and discovers the hidden room entirely by accident. Once into the room with Motherkuma, she asks about the whereabouts of Kaede, and Motherkuma gives her details about her and Shuichi’s plan. Wanting to help out, but not wanting to seem suspicious, she gets about the bathroom a.s.a.p and goes back to blending in. She’s planning to get Kaede out as soon as she can, but she doesn’t know if she can do it.
Time goes on, and eventually that really loud music starts playing. Tsumugi knows Kaede’s gonna make a move, so she rushes to the hidden room in the library again and starts her own little plan. After stealing a shot put ball from the warehouse, something she did out of inspiration from the dragon, Tsumugi opens up the hidden door in the library to see Rantaro lying crumpled on the floor by the bookshelf.
Without thinking, she smashed the ball into Rantaro’s head and finished him off. She initially thought him to be the mastermind, but after checking his survivor perk she realizes that there’s a lot more to Rantaro, and this game, than she realizes. Desperate for more time to solve the mystery, she rushed back with everyone else to get on with the investigation.
7 | The First Trial
As the investigation rolled around, she started panicking. She formed a quick alibi in the form of her cospox, but planned to explain herself more in the class trial. She wasn’t quite ready to face reality yet. She knew Monokuma was supposed to punish her, so she let herself act like she was innocent until the time came.
Once the class trial DID come around, she realized what Kaede was doing. Once Monokuma declared the voting right, she was confused, but took it as an opportunity to defeat the Mastermind. Her death made her distraught, but she bit her tongue and promised to solve it for Kaede’s sake.
The night of the Class Trial, she went back into her secret room when she was greeted by a Flashback Light. This one, on top of the one everyone else received, was built to make her be a more efficient mastermind.
8 | The Trials After…
Trials 2-4 were largely the same. Just after each Class Trial, Tsumugi was given a different special Flashback Light to get her to question everything around her more, specifically targeting the idea that everything Danganronpa, including Hope’s Peak, isn’t actually real. Monokuma had been no help, fully content holding the truth over her and making her dance around to find it. I don’t have any idea what those Flashback Lights could’ve been, but I DO know that one of the ones meant for Tsumugi was nabbed by Angie in chapter 3. Tsumugi planned for her to find it, but didn’t expect her to destroy it.
By Chapter 4, Tsumugi asked Monokuma to show the “outside world” for the first time, confirming what Keebo said. During this time, she fully believed the scene outside to be real, mostly because she had no other evidence to disprove it. After this, Tsumugi decided to start a plan of her own that she’d enact by herself.
9 | Tsumugi’s Plan
Before getting a look at the Neo World Program in Chapter 4, Tsumugi used a Flashback light on herself to replace the memory of her seeing the outside world with her doing something else. This was because she needed a fresh reaction to seeing the outside world, but also because she needed to avoid Kokichi, who was definitely the closest to being able to figure her out and expose her.The other one she needed to keep an eye on was Shuichi, who could also figure her out if he ever caught his suspicions. In her desperation she never noticed the secret of the Flashback Lights, which lead to her replacing memories instead of erasing them like she was excepting.
The next step of her plan involved her overhearing Kokichi and Miu’s plan to create the Electro hammers. She knew they’d be used to escape the ship at some point, and with a fresh reaction everything would be in place for the next step, which was getting Oma killed to give herself time to figure everything else out so she could finally come clean. Of course, since she really believed the world outside was destroyed, she really just wanted to trick everyone into not committing any murders. That just happened to mean getting rid of Kokichi.
With all of this in mind, she wrote down her plan and used the Flashback light on herself. After having her memories erased, she went through the game as normal until trial 4 passed. Luckily for her, it gave her just the motivation she needed to want to kill Kokichi. She wasn’t quite able to see through Kokichi’s mask, she was blinded by a mix of power, confusion, and rage by then.
Immediately after trial 4, she was hit with her usual mastermind Flashback Light, however this one made her remember something extra important, the script of season 53.
Tsumugi actually wrote herself a fake set of plans as part of her plans. That was the whole ‘script’ thing she was talking about in chapter 6. She set the plans up so that way she truly believed she was the mastermind. She was taking the risk of Kokichi finding her, but she figured the confusion would throw off any secretive actions she could’ve done. The reason why she did this was to give herself confidence. If she made herself think that everything in her plan was already set to happen, she’d believe in herself enough to make it so.
Going into Chapter 5 now, after seeing the outside world for the ‘first time’ she blended in with everyone else, but she did know that Kokichi wasn’t actually the Mastermind as she read the script she made for herself. Tsumugi didn’t plan for this, but it did help her out because it got everyone to go again Kokichi.
After trial 5, and his sacrifice, Tsumugi was hit with her final flashback light. This one made her ‘remember’ her time as a part of Team Danganronpa. This didn’t mess with her plan too much, as she already knew that something would happen to her head before she made herself forget the secret of the outside world. However, after all of those lights..her head couldn’t take much more. There was too much stuff going on in her head, too many confusing contradictions for her to process. She ignored this originally because she thought that the Flashback Lights erased and created memories instead of replacing them, but it was too late. Keebo started destroying the academy, something she DEFINITELY didn’t plan for.
10 | The Final Trial
Without any way of solving the mystery of Team DR, she scrambled around and put together a class trial of her own, leaving the shot-put ball Kaede used in the trash for Shuichi to find later. All of her attempts came crashing down, but she was able to convince Monokuma to shamble together something to make season 53 end with a ‘good climax’.
Trial 6 starts, and after Tsumugi’s found out as the mastermind, she uses a series of Nanokumas to help her cosplay. By now she believes that the stories of Hope’s Peak are fiction, so she’s able to cosplay them...and only them...all she wants. She doesn’t know anything about Team DR’s history, so she makes it all up, including the titles of the seasons, which she shambles together from her favorite fandoms. Monokuma plays along, and even adds in a huge audience set to make it look like everyone’s watching. In fact he’s so wrapped up in how good everything’s doing that he doesn’t realize Tsumugi’s baiting Shuichi into helping her.
During trial 6, she even brings up the motive that no one had a chance to see in chapter 5, the Pre-Game tapes they did when they were together ages ago.
By presenting herself as an ultimate evil, Tsumugi took Shuichi’s will to find the truth and twisted it so that he’d end up finding what she wanted him to. She wanted Shuichi to discover the truth, that fiction can change the world.
At the end of it all, Tsumugi allowed herself to be killed, succumbing to the after effects of the Flashback Lights and letting herself be consumed by the lies. Believing herself now to be some kind of replacement to Junko Enoshima, and thus a ‘cosplay-cat killer’, she allows herself to be killed and finally rest. She wanted to admit what she did more carefully, to say a final goodbye or at least hint to the fact that she meant to help them, but she couldn’t.
Shuchi, Maki, and Himiko all survive, finally able to leave Danganronpa together. Team DR allows it, as it feels satisfying, but they do look forwards to seeing the 3 of them try to truly end Danganronpa for good. Tsumugi doesn’t know what’s on the other side of the End-Wall, but she trusts in her friends to face that truth.
11 | Conclusion
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this read/arrangement of evidence for what I think happened behind the scenes of Danganronpa V3! This took sooo much thinking it’s not even funny. Seriously I spent at least 4 full school periods doing nothing but thinking and taking notes. A lot of this is indulgent, specifically the parts with Kokichi being a prince and the whole Kaede + Kaede Twin Sister switch, I just thought those were neat.
I didn’t say it there but I think that The Ultimate Talent Development Plan was actually two things. The first was a board game released alongside Season 53 featuring all the characters, and the second was actually a real program, sorta like the Izuru project. I don’t really wanna consider the implications of what this could do to my interpretation though, lol.
But yeah, V3’s ending is really important to me. It upsets me wayy more than it should when people consider it to be stupid or lazy or insulting to the audience of the games. I think what they were trying to do with the ending was both stupid ambitious and super cool. Killing Harmony is like...my 2nd favorite piece of media ever. It’s so important to me, and as a storyteller I totally respect them for what they did with the ending. The idea of using the enjoyment of the franchise against the player was so brutal and effective for me. Danganronpa helped me grow as a person, and being undermined and told the emotional connection I had with everyone was all just bullshit hurt. Buuuut then Tsumugi and Shuichi helped me realize that even if it is just a bunch of silly bullshit, the emotional response that it gave me...and all the happiness I got from it, that’s all real. Ain’t no black and white bear taking that from me.
So yeah, thanks for reading.
Thanks for everything, Danganronpa.
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Tips for dissociative disorder, depersonalization, derealization, panic attacks/anxiety, sensory overload
1. Listening to calm music or ambient sounds: this one is huge for me, because complete silence sends me further into dissociation and derealization. Youtube is great for this. I recommend “Ambient Worlds”. They are a youtube channel that features relaxing movie soundtracks with ambient nature sounds such as the Shire and others!
2. Distracting yourself: whether its with a simple video game, or funny animal videos, distracting your brain from your dissociation can help you from hyper fixating on it and spiralling further. Anything that will make you smile or laugh is recommended! As for games, I enjoy Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and the Terrarium Idle Garden on my phone! I also recommend trying kids shows on netflix such as: Hilda, the dragon prince, troll hunters, avatar the last air bender. Or on other platforms: Steven Universe, Studio Ghibli movies, or any disney movies. Soft, simple animation just relaxes me so much.
3. Talking to someone about whats on your mind: it’s important to realize that dissociating is just your brain trying to protect you from your pain and anxiety. Talking to a trusted friend or therapist about whats bothering you can help immensely. As you work through things, your anxiety will lessen which in the long run will make dissociating less frequent.
4. Sensory stimulation: When i dissociate, I’m extremely sensitive to sensory stimulation and i can get sensory overload very easily. But there are gentle sensory things to do that will help! I like to get a brush (any kind should do) and just gently brush it along my skin. This stimulates the nerves and reminds my brain that I am real, and helps my sense of space normalize. I usually end up brushing my arms, legs, stomach, back, and neck even. If you have sensory issues with textures, use your hands and rubs your arms or lightly scratch them. (Talk to your therapist or doctor if this becomes harmful to you, such as skin picking etc. you deserve help 💕) Also any sort of sensory toy is wonderful for this too. It helps with grounding and its a great distraction!
5. Self care ideas: this is a great distraction for your brain and will always make you feel better. If you can’t do these right now, thats okay too. Heres some things you can do: Cleaning your room (even just a small part), watering your plants, spending time with family or friends or pets, skin care routines, making a quick snack, get some water to drink, take your medication, brush your hair and teeth, deodorant is cool, have a hot shower/bath, light candles, put on a diffuser, turn on all your string lights, make a pillow fort, find all your old stuffies and make a pile in your bed, become a blanket burrito and watch netflix all day, pick up your favorite book again, dance to your favorite song, do anything that makes you happy as long as it doesn’t hurt you or anyone else. Have a you day. Its okay. You’re allowed to.
6. Other tips: I recommend using orange oil, this stuff has literally stopped panic attacks in their tracks for me, just a drop on the back of your neck. Also noise cancelling headphones are a blessing when you’re over stimulated. I bring them everywhere. Always have music and a charged phone with you. If you’re ever lost and alone, it’s important that you be able to find help. And relaxing music helps everything. Also If you have trouble falling asleep because you don’t recognize your surroundings or other issues, maybe try an over the counter melatonin.(read the label for dosage, don’t take too many). This helps on my worst nights. Or there are many essential oils for sleep as well.
7. Also, please consider therapy. It has done wonders for me and its the only treatment that has actually helped me. (Ive tried everything from anti depressants, to natural supplements, to reflexology, etc etc etc) theres no shame in needing it and it will help you recover faster. But it’s important to know you may not have a good experience your first time. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right counsellor. And thats normal. Don’t be discouraged. you deserve to get the treatment you need.
8. IF YOU’RE NOT FEELING WELL BECAUSE OF THIS MENTAL ILLNESS, YOU’RE ALLOWED TO STEP BACK. YOU’RE ALLOWED TO TAKE A BREAK AND COLLECT YOURSELF. YOU’RE ALLOWED TO CALL IN SICK. YOU’RE ALLOWED TO REMOVE YOURSELF FROM ANY STRESSFUL, ABUSIVE SITUATION. YOU’RE ALLOWED TO HAVE BOUNDARIES. I didn’t know this, it’s important.
9. Remember that its gonna pass. Take a deep breath. It might seem scary right now. This might all be new to you, and you might not know what to do. BUT. Its going to be okay. This is normal and it does make sense. Your brain is just trying to protect you from all those things that stress you out. You’re not going insane. This is okay. Accept that you are spaced out today. Take your time. It will pass and you will get better. I promise.
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Kyouko Kirigiri: A Heroine’s Journey/An analysis on an emotional girl
Kyouko Kirigiri’s is a story of emotions, and how the girl came to respond to them. You may try and assume she acts so very detached because of some crippling emotional weaknesses, but the reality is that people that can hold back their personal feelings and endure stoically are often people with the strongest grasp on those feelings. I know this from experience.
Let’s dive right into the mystery that is Kyouko Kirigiri.
Keep reading
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How to Write Better Descriptions using Negative Space
The Power of Negative Space
A late spring breeze drifts through the open window of your studio, carrying the scent of freshly cut grass and cigarette smoke. You reposition your easel to better catch the light, then dip your brush into black paint. With full strokes, you paint the silhouette of a vase, then step back for a look.
On the canvas is a vase and two faces. You only painted the vase, but the untouched white canvas, pressing in on the edges of the black paint, seems to form the profiles of two faces.
You’ve painted Rubin’s Vase, an illusion that uses negative space (the unpainted canvas) to imply shapes and images. It shows how with just a few brush strokes, you’re able to imply just as much as you explicitly create.
That’s the power of a line — and to harness it is an advantage, whether you’re painting a picture, or writing a description in a story.
Writing Descriptions like Brush Strokes
As writers, we’ll never perfectly convey the images in our heads, because our descriptions rely on the imaginations of our readers to come to life. We can try to fix this by packing a description with excessive details, but that often just bloats the image, which bores, rather than stimulates, the imagination.
That’s why you should write like an artist — in brush strokes.
And with negative space.
Instead of describing every painstaking detail of a scene or a character’s appearance, highlight instead a few key, unique details — building clear images, which in turn imply an entire scene in the negative space of your reader’s imagination.
Take, for example, my introduction above. The late spring breeze, drifting in through an open window, smelling of freshly cut grass and cigarette smoke. You, readjusting the easel to catch the natural lighting, dipping your brush into black paint.
I’m not describing everything in that scene. I’m just providing a few specific details and actions that activate your imagination and bring the scene to life. (That being said, if I were writing a full scene and not just a short blog intro, I’d probably provide a few more details, such as your paint-splattered jeans and boots; yesterday’s coffee, cold in a mug on the windowsill; your sheared fingernails and cuticles, shortened from a habit of nail biting.)
Writing better descriptions can be as simple as that. Here are a few tips for writing descriptions in this fashion:
Ignore commonplace details. Readers are able to fill in assumed details (like hair/eye color) on their own, so prioritize details that make the setting or character unique.
Write clear, descriptive actions. Above, I didn’t just write “you move to a better position,” I wrote, “You reposition your easel to better catch the light.” I said very little about the easel, but now you’re picturing it all the same, likely with your hands on its wooden leg and brace, and you’re seeing the canvas brighten with natural lighting as you move it closer to the window. But I didn’t say all those things: I only offered a few specific nouns and verbs, and your imagination filled in and extrapolated the rest. That’s what happens when you write actions with specificity.
Write as much, or as little, as space and style dictate. Like I wrote above, I kept this post’s intro description short, because I wanted to usher you into the meat of the content. A longer description would have hindered that goal. In a full scene, you may take more time to really breathe life into the setting or character. Or you might not; never forget to factor in your personal aesthetic and narrative goals.
Feel free to go overboard in draft 1. When painting, you can’t easily take back a brush stroke — but in writing you can. So feel free to write excessively in draft one, to get a lot of details to choose from, and then trim things back in revision.
Good luck and good writing, everybody! Feel free to comment or reblog if you have any questions.
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Your stories are worth telling. For tips on how to craft meaning, build character-driven plots, and grow as a writer, follow my blog.
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I’m really in love with the new She-ra designs and I can’t wait to watch this show!!
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the many faces of danganronpa 1: trigger happy havoc, and whether or not you should beat the shit out of them
spoilers, duh
1 makoto naegi
he’s a good kid, but he has one of the most punchable faces i’ve ever seen. are you saying you see this loser’s face and don’t want to shove him into a locker? not to mention he’s the worst protag. kick makoto naegi’s ass to teach him a lesson.
2 byakuya togami
not only should you beat the everloving shit out of this bastard for being a capitalist, you should beat the shit out of him because he’s an asshole and he deserves it. beat up byakuya togami, but be aware that he will most definitely pay a hitman to take you out in revenge.
3 sayaka maizono
sayaka is most definitely a psychic, so she would see intentions of your attack coming from a mile away. i would not recommend beating the shit out of sayaka maizono, because she might stick a sword in you if you even think about it.
4 hifumi yamada
you WILL beat up hifumi yamada, not because he’s fat, or because he’s ugly, but because he tried to fuck a computer, and that’s the greatest sin of all.
5 kyoko kirigiri
do you REALLY think it’s a good idea to beat the shit out of kyoko kirigiri? not only is she arguably the most capable and competent of any of the trial helpers, she has MAJOR father trauma and will not hesitate to take out that frustration on you. kyoko can and would snap you in half. do not attempt to beat up kyoko kirigiri.
6 chihiro fujisaki
you could beat up chihiro fujisaki, but why would you want to? she’s the smartest character and is responsible for saving not one, but TWO classes from a killing game. not only is she the unsung heroine of the series, she’s also working on getting jacked as hell AND has many friends who would pummel you should you even attempt to fight her. do not beat up chihiro fujisaki.
7 leon kuwata
leon kuwata is athletic by nature which could pose an issue, but thankfully his aspiration is to become the doucebag playing wonderwall on his untuned guitar at college parties and public parks. his stupid goatee offers an ample grabbing point to throw him to the ground, so you could beat him easily. beat the shit out of leon kuwata.
8 kiyotaka ishimaru
you can try to beat up kiyotaka ishimaru, but he will haul your ass to the prinicipal’s office and have you expelled before you can so much as put your hands on him. not only will you be thrown out of school, you will have mondo to contend with, who will have no qualms about kicking your ass. beat up kiyotaka ishimaru at your own risk.
9 aoi asahina
do not be fooled by aoi asahina’s cute appearance. if scorned, she will deliver onto you the anger of one thousand pissed off lesbians. she was more than ready to have all of her friends perish for the death of her girlfriend, and she will have no problem hand delivering your ass on a platter if you even attempt to kick her ass. do not beat the shit out of aoi asahina.
10 mondo oowada
mondo oowada will impale you on his disgusting corn hair for so much as looking at him wrong. you think he wont sic his biker gang on you if you piss him off? do not beat up mondo oowada.
i dont know how to post more than 10 pictures. fuck you tumblr ill do part 2 in a second
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page two: elderflower — a responsive navigation/tags page featuring lots of emojis. made for codingcabin’s fruitilicious challenge
version one preview: without sidebar icon / code: pastebin, github version two preview: with sidebar icon / code: pastebin, github
features: search bar, tag dropdowns, option to give each tag box a unique hover colour, optional emojis. the page is also fully responsive; resize your browser window to see it in effect.
notes:
instructions on how to edit the tags, change/add/remove the emojis, and change the link hover colours are provided in the code.
basic knowledge of html and css is highly recommended for editing the code
credits:
feather icons by Cole Bemis
search tags by shythemes
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