#& for yapping/meta blah blah:

[unreliable-narratoe]

☆ Helloooo gaya ( she/whatever) here. SCROLL DOWN

This is technically an all-mxtx-novels-blog so I'll dabble in all three depending on what fic I read that week/ month. Mostly scum villain tho, because their cringefail viles have entrapped me. I usually stumble upon yunmeng shuangjie/ xian le trio (/quartet) posts for the other two. MDZS tag typically has discourse in it [+sillies] and the TCGF one is all sillies.

This is an all-characters friendly blog, ie, I will only dunk on characters affectionately (looking at the jiang cheng and mu qing vitirol going around)

If I'm annoying and go on and on about parallels and circumstance, please just block me instead of "it's not that serious."

Discord is radio_gaya so if you want to scream about scum villain (or the other two too!!) feel free to dm. I'm down to chat! Always looking for fandom moots!! (And yapping about bingqiu and xianle quartet and yunme-- you get the point).

⋆ Art blog with more comprehensive mxtx tag: @blockydunots

⋆ cr: rereading MDZS ( expect yunmeng shuangjie whining.)

[dufferpuffer]

I don't get the 'Dumbledore was rude to leave an injured Harry out in the cold' thing. I'm gonna ramble about it

They are magical. The Death Eaters were active after Voldemorts disappearance - there is NO WAY Harry was left there like... raw? Minerva was there too and also didn't give a shit other than 'well its a pity he has to be raised around muggles...' (A judgement based on two extremely loving, doting parents of a 1yr old child, who likely haven't even hears of Lily's death yet, who aren't mentioning hatred of magic - just living life loving their son... but in a culture Minnie doesn't like)

She could have at least stayed behind as a cat to watch over him but instead she went and literally partied. She was crying for him. They both were, Albus in his more socially awkward bad-at-displaying-emotions way, but she was the one more shocked at everything that had happened. And then she leaves for booze, when staying incognito as a cat is an option she had been doing all day. Unless you choose to believe Albus AND Minerva are both awful: Occam's razor says that two powerful magical people, deeply invested in his wellbeing, deemed Harry to be safe and warm.

If Harry's head was ever injured - it was a scar by the time he was there, which was over 24 hours later. Hagrid didn't drive him straight to Privet Drive. It's HC, but I think timing lines up well enough that he was taken to Hogwarts - one of the few safe places in Britain at the time - and he probably got medical aid there. At least a check up.

...And Harry WAS left in a magical home under a fidelius charm. That WAS the plan!!! Albus' plan!!! His big idea for baby safety!!! It didn't work. Do you really expect him to try an idea that didn't work again...? When the stakes are even higher???

He didn't know where Tom was, what he was planning, whether he would come back in a week or a year or 10 years - so he went "Fuck, shit, what's a spell stronger than a fidelius...? One I know for SURE Tom doesn't know how to deal with, without having to deal with ANYONE who might betray...?!?" He used an obscure old spell tied to love through family lines that could be used to not only protect Harry but also the Dursleys.

The Doylist explanation isn't the only one - it is explained within the text and supported by multiple characters. Albus, Sirius, Petunia, Voldemort himself (I am like 90% sure he, or other Death Eaters, talk about looking for Harry... I can't quite remember. Confirmed through action at least though. The 7 potters would not have happened if Voldemort could walk in. AU where its like that episode of the powerpuff girls where that gem thief is trying to get invited in to steal their cereal, except its Voldemort trying to be invited in to get Harry)

There are a lot of arguments to be made that leaving Harry at the Dursleys for so long was cruel. Abusive. More care could have been taken, more support given, more checks done. Absolutely. But leaving him there in the first place...? Whether it was intended to be a temporary decision until things cooled down, or a more permanent solution - it makes sense both ways, and wasn't cruel.

Next of kin, safe and financially stable, loving parents of their own son of the same age - PLUS super obscure love spell, introduced to them at the same time as finding out Lily was killed in her own home by a powerful Wizard guy who hates Muggles. IDEAL.

Imagine you are Mrs Dursley indeed, dealing with two infants - but you know one of them is the only way your husband and son will be safe from the magic you've spent your life running from. Magic that killed your sister. Once you wrote to Albus to ask him to let you learn magic - and now he has given it to you in the worst way possible: asking you to welcome magic into your home, into your own body and blood, to protect your husband and son. Tragic. Cool.

we all talk about unscrupulous things dumbledore did but never leaving an infant on an unsuspecting family's doorstep in November.

Imagine you're mrs dursley and you have to deal with two infants, once of which has head damage and a paralyzing fear of green lights who has to be covered at every traffic light

i mean, there's no evidence that harry actually had any type of head damage (since his scar never hurt till his first year) or that he had any fear of green lights...not to mention that even if both those things were true i doubt the dursleys would notice or care. but i definitely agree that it was extremely messed up that dumbledore left him there. he could've been placed in a magical home under the fidelius charm and he would've been just fine. bu then i guess he would've been harder for dumbledore to manipulate and have control over. like i get from a doylist pov things happened the way they did bc that made the story better. but unfortunately due to later world building choices jkr accidentally made dumbledore kinda evil.

[coffeegnomee]

All About You

This is about to be the most meta analysis post of my life, but something that has fascinated me the most about lifesteal recently: chat is the 38th member.

As a live stream story, lifesteal is always going to be affected by the live audience, the streamer reading messages, talking back and forth, sometimes doing what chat wants. This is the streamer-chat dynamic. It's natural, it's part of the story.

But something that has fascinated me particularly since season 4, particularly post zam's break s5, and Particularly in s6 since I've started interacting on tumblr, is just how much chat influences the lore and how much we influence each other.

At each of these moments there was a shift in the PrinceZam streamer-chat dynamic.

Season 4 was a lot of anti-lore chatters. People who blah blah blah'ed it up whenever Zam went into a spiral about what he should do. It heightened the feeling of isolation and confusion, especially as some chatters (shoutout van) tried to gently encourage zam in his decision making, giving counter points to the negativity. Unfortunately it often just lead to more confusion as chat was split 50/50 on almost every decision.

In season 5, after the break, there was a reset of the mod team to the team we have now (knowing most of you are here potentially reading this is weird.) These were the best chatters of s4, the ones who became highly invested in Eclipse, and lifesteal in general, and Zam in particular.

In season 5 the hivemind of the mod team getting excited about lore was hilarious to watch. Half the team reprimanded backseating of the rest of the mod team (shoutout meep), the other half lored it up (shoutout chips), everyone loved it. 'Credit to the artist' was born as direct quotes from chat made it into the character.

Read that again: Direct Quotes From Chat Made It Into The Character.

That is weird.

No longer was it simply the mind of PrinceZam forming the character of Zam, as we watched and reacted, but chat itself became an integral part of the lore (these are his amends. make him repent) forming and shaping it, right alongside Zam, into what that season became.

In particular the conversations as the Joker (specifically the Jumper yap in your president doesn't care about you) brought out comparison after comparison to past seasons of princezam as chatters brought up and compared jumper to zam season 3. This sparked a huge renaissance of past season analysis of Zam which became heavily integrated into the final months of the server, with zam to minute, with minute bringing up his own inspiration of season 3 zam, and with zam musing about how each character approaches what past seasons mean to them (concluding, iirc, that they remember it but it doesn't matter to them. tell that to s6 zam lol).

In season 6 the dynamic has shifted again. Credit to the artist has died down, usually in favor of admitting he's reading a suggestion from chat, but the back and forth conversation, reading out specific messages, from often the same few people (shoutout arch and van and citrus (hi citrus)) has flourished more than ever (also shoutout the new chatters. there's been a turnover again and a lot of new names who are consistently affecting the lore)

Right at the end of season 5 I began interacting on lstumblr and writing and reading posts. It came from the end of season conversation about The Mering essay, Barrier Blocks: a breakdown of lifesteal in 22k words about season 4 and conflict. It wasn't the first time that essay and the story of Eclipse Federation was brought up and analyzed on stream as Zam encountered head on that his darkest time on lifesteal was the defacto fan favorite story of the server.

The analysis of the chatters was being shared with the streamer and therefore, the character. These were the seeds of thinking deeply about his actions in s4 and s5 and how he actually felt about them and not just moving on and forgetting.

And then something else started happening. Maybe it happened often before, and I was just not aware of it; I do remember a few times in s5 the mod team referencing and asking zam questions about his character that they had talked about or mused over between each other on discord. So it was happening to some extent, but particularly since starting to hear your opinions and analysis about the story on tumblr, I'm seeing a new trend in s6.

The fandom stream snipe:

When someone in chat innocently brings up something I damn well know was talked about on here just the day before.

Some analysis about a previous stream. Some wishful musing about interactions we hope to see. A tidbit about a previous stream that was unresolved.

And it changes the lore just as much as Planet is known to change the lore by talking to Zam.

The two instances that got me really thinking about chat being the 38th member were recent:

After 4c betrayed there was of course a lot of discussion and the general consensus was the we would love to see another 4c and zam conversation. Especially after 4c gave kab the disc, and zam did the short confrontation of him with derap. Multiple people, I mean it was on everyone's mind, wanted another interaction.

And when the timing was good, chat struck. Or should I say, van cooked. After Zam wrote signs about kab and wondered what to do about his interactions with her, someone mentioned 4c, and the door was opened to talk about what we were all wondering about. Van delivered, nearly single handedly driving the conversation towards talking to 4c, musing that it felt unresolved. When zam got distracted by demi talking about his base, van brought the discussion back around to 4c and the rest of chat started cooking too, innocently encouraging a second conversation. And Zam /msged 4c to talk.

It would not have happened without chat.

The second was yesterday: talking about Leo potentially being a mole. I had analysis, I know zy had analysis, I think others did as well. But until chat started bringing up fandom analysis, zam and derap were not sus of Leo in the slightest. Zam was only partially suspicious about Mapicc wanting to kill Flame, but he only thought of it in terms of letting Mapicc down.

And it got me thinking; at what point are we stream sniping ourselves? It's not really stream sniping (though the 4c one gets very close) because it's based on our own analysis, and usually just based on zam's streams, or doesn't include knowledge that isn't known.

But that Leo analysis was lifesteal spoiler walled. It was, by default, something that was kept hidden from lifestealers on tumblr (though less for zam and more for anyone else), though, as a theory, is it really a spoiler? But as a theory, is it really meant to be seen by the character? Unless we were a member and wanted to tell our teammate we thought something was up?

It's an interesting conundrum. Our analysis is a hivemind of hyperfixating viewers who Think about lifesteal all the time, rewatch streams, watch everyone and know how everyone is likely to be thinking and acting, breaking it down, reading each other's analysis and cultivating a deep web of theories and hopes and dreams about this lovely server of ours.

And that holds weight. All the minds of the viewers pushing together to have an affect on the server. Honorable mentions are our opinions/analysis on lskab that ran rampant in chat for that like month, and, in the opposite direction, mer's rewatch of s4 ending in a "i wish zam could talk to vitalasy again" post which plausibly reignited the deep dive thinking about that season and then culminated in this past saturday's stream!

Would PrinceZam the character ever have wanted to talk to vitalasy nearly half as much without the love of the fandom (not just mer) for eclipse federation that persists to this very moment nearly 2 years later?

We mighteswell be a member on the server asking zam to talk to someone!

Not to give us a big head.

I'm in no way criticizing these actions. I don't have an opinion either way for when it's too much. It's part of the medium to have a chat. Lifesteal would simply not be lifesteal without the audience interaction and this influence is hardly new to the story. One could say the ls story never got started until the audience cared enough about the story as story to have an opinion on where it should go.

And it's the same with the server members: they have to care about the story enough to log on and be in the story. And then they start affecting it and the story is created.

[davekat-sucks]

I disagree with your notion that we need action, partially cause bad action like collide (imo) leaves a sour taste, and the talking can obviously be fun. Also you know, the epilogues had a lot of action as well; doesn't mean it was good. But I do agree and raise the problem that HS is in a rut with stuff it does. Cause looking at 2, everyone seems to be planning something. Dirk has a plan, Alt!Calliope has a plan, both Calliopes and Roxys have plans, Aradia has a plan, Terezi has a plan, Rose and Jade had a plan, Jane has a plan, Jake has a plan, Karkat and the resistance has a plan, Vriska had a plan, the sprites have a plan, Snowman in the bonus update had a plan, and so on. Fucking Dutch Van Der Linde didn't have this much plans!

Is it any wonder that Sollux, Harry Anderson, and candy Kanaya are breaths of fresh air, given that they're being normal, and in Kan's case, is getting sick of this scheming bullshit?

Then why introduce fight scenes or give characters special abilities or weapons if they aren't going to use it? That's like saying your magical school Harry Potter ripoff won't have kids actually performing or seeing any magic until the final act. The meta narrative bullshit don't mean anything if all they do is blah blah yap yap bitch bitch. The conflict would have been about anything else that didn't involve the split timelines and you'd still get the same results.