#[ it’s both on the blog’s sidebar and the rules too ]

[kappatengu]

NAVIGATION POST

Welcome to KappaTengu! A pokeask blog about two traveling mercenaries consisting of a Nuzleaf and Lombre, named Koban and Lianhua. While there is a vague story going on, I am not immune to memes and silly antics (like 90% of the blog was memes/meme asks before my hiatus). I made this blog in 2018, and pulling it out of hiatus as of now, December 2023. This blog is best viewed on desktop.

This blog will be using a format where plot will be advanced after we reach an ask goal, eg: let’s say I set a goal of 10 asks until X happens, after answering that many asks, I’ll close the askbox, proceed with what was promised, then open the askbox again. There will be times where there’s no goal– called ‘free days’, where nothing is set to happen anytime soon– and there will be times where I will only count asks that pertain to the plot/lore, and any unrelated asks won’t count towards the number. I’ll typically call these “plot asks”.

So if you see the sidebar say anything like “ASKS UNTIL EVOLUTION: 20” or “PLOT ASKS UNTIL KOBAN EXPLODES: 5” those are just the ask goals for plot progression! If you see nothing like that anywhere, then we’re probably in a ‘free days’ phase, and our silly yokais are just chillin’.

So feel free to send serious or memey asks alike! And while this isn't an RP blog by any means, interactions from other Pokemon blogs are encouraged! You may even have impact on the plot, and the characters will certainly remember you!

On rare occasions, I may reply with art should anyone answer an ask I sent to them. I don't mind if anyone does the same if I answer their ask. Just keep in mind they probably won't be extensive/drag out.

Link accessibility for mobile users is still WIP. On desktop, you can use the blog theme links for navigation (the circle buttons to the left).No rules page yet since I haven't had any bad apples come in, but one will be made if trouble happens. I do ask you don't reblog any of my OOC posts (anything tagged "outofyokai"!), and not to send too many joke asks during plot advances. I trust everyone to read the room/atmosphere.

CHARACTERS

About Koban About Lianhua About Budew About Takuya

BLOG STUFF

Ask Hints #Answered Art Asks #Lianhua Answers #Koban Answers #Both Answer #Art Tag #OOC posts

EVENTS AND PLOT

#Intermission 1: Budew and Toxicroak #Egg Arc #Lianhua’s Past #Koban’s Past

A brief "about the blog" description and a summary of what happened on the blog so far in terms of vague plot under the cut.

This blog revolves around a strange Nuzleaf and Lombre, named Koban and Lianhua respectively. They work as self-proclaimed self-employed mercenaries dubbed Team KappaTengu, taking on any work they can, and doing anything they’re hired for, whether it be good or bad.

Koban has amnesia about his past, and Lianhua seems to be cagey about his own past.

Although always travelling, they primarily seem to hang around forests.

WHAT’S HAPPENED SO FAR:

Koban has stolen an egg from Takuya, lying to Lianhua that it was for a quest he accepted. But in reality– and Lianhua has already caught on, too– Koban stole it because it rung something familiar in his head, and hoped that keeping it and perhaps hatching it would help Koban gain any memory at all.

The egg has hatched into a strange Budew.

INTERMISSION 1:

Budew was left on her own, seemingly waiting for Lianhua and Koban to come back. She's attacked by an unknown Fire Pokemon while waiting, to which she was saved by a passing Toxicroak named Takuya. Takuya follows others' advice, and goes to search for either the attacker or Budew's parents.

[vergess]

Hey uhhh question for ya. Do you have any advice on finding friends that talk about sex without being weird about it? I had friends like that in college, but we've lost touch and I can't seem to find others that are as open and unembarrassed. Doing some sexual exploration recently, and finding myself with nobody to share with... doesn't feel great tbh. Something tells me I'm not looking for people in the right places, I'm just not sure what those places would be and wondered if you had any ideas or advice

I don't have much advice, I-'m afraid. I've always been so aggressively open about sexuality that it's a bit self-filtering.

Though, in terms of tumblr specifically, it's very common for people to put in their porn blog headers "DMs are open; not looking for partners" and similar in their sidebars.

So, you can always try DMing those people who mention/reblog similar kinks. I've only done it twice myself, but it went well both times even if we ultimately didn't "hit it off" and become besties. I expect it would be faster if I was more of an active pursues on the hunt for friends.

And I guess you can always DM me! I love hearing about people's sex lives as long as I'm not being expected to participate. It's tons of fun!

You can also just make friends with current/former sex workers; as a rule our professional skill means we're very good at talking about sex in a nonprofessional capacity too. Not always, of course, but often! And everyone loves a friend who doesn't flinch at their work or try to scrounge for freebies.

So I guess that's some advice, though I wish I could be more helpful!

[oozeandgoo-art]

Links, tag system, and additional info.

I try to avoid reblogging things to this account - that's what my main blog is for. If you see a reblog on here, feel free to let me know so I can delete it!

I handle all commissions through my professional email, artcommissionsbyred (at) gmail (dot) com. For the foreseeable future, my commissions are closed.

If you would like a heads-up on upcoming commission availability, please subscribe to my mailing list here! (Mailing list subscribers also get earlier or sometimes even exclusive access to things like limited-time slots, which I sometimes do when I'm hard up for quick cash.)

Outside Links:

Twitter: OozeAndGoo_Art

Ko-Fi: OozeAndGoo_Art

Bigcartel: OozeAndGooArt

SubscribeStar (like Patreon): Ooze and Goo Art

Wordpress: OozeAndGooArt

FurAffinity: TheRedDragon13

Print and Original Art Storefront: OozeAndGoo-Art on ArtPal

Main Blog: @bitegore

Rules of Engagement:

This is a sideblog. I have a lot of people blocked from my main blog, none of which are blocked from this blog. It's okay if you've been blocked from my main for you to reblog from this sideblog - I have genuinely thousands of people blocked, for reasons that are arcane and sometimes really stupid even to me, and if you behave in a rude or unpleasant manner I'll just block you from this blog when it comes up. Go nuts.

This blog contains quite a bit of adult-oriented art, all of which is both marked "mature" using Tumblr's content settings and tagged accordingly. Please browse at your own discretion, and remember to use filtering options where necessary.

In general, off-topic commentary in the reblogs, tags, and replies is totally fine and I like seeing what you guys have to say even when it's not directly about the art. That being said, please do not talk about either how much you hate the character in the art or think the art looks bad. "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything" is a good rule to live by, and also it's annoying and rude. Likewise, don't put discourse on my posts. I don't want to hear about it. If you have an opinion about the characters or art that is negative, feel free to make your own post! You can even add my art to it (with a link to this page) if you really want to talk about the art in particular.

Please repost my work only with credit (a link back to this page). Use of my art for avatars, header/sidebar banner images, edits, remixes, collages, and related is entirely okay as long as credit is given. My canon character redesigns are also completely free to use and no credit is required as long as you've done the actual drawing yourself. If you're using my art for something, I'd like to hear about it, but it's not required - it's just really flattering. Please do not remove my captions, however. Just make a repost.

If you want to print one of my pieces for personal use, feel free to reach out to me! I will happily re-color/re-balance the colors so that it will print nicely if I have the time, free of charge. If you want one of my pieces tattooed, go for it, consider this blanket permission. I'd be surprised and I'd love to hear about it, and also I have no qualms at all. Go for it.

Everything is okay to tag as kin/id/etc or claim as muse references. Have fun with it, I don't care. This goes for my ocs too, I really couldn't care less. However, if you disagree on characterization from what I've drawn, please don't tell me about it.

Obligatory "don't be bigoted." This is a racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, xenophobia, religious discrimination, and everything else-free zone. I'm not perfect, and therefore if I've created something that comes over wrong, you are more than welcome to voice your opinion on that, but please approach me in private first*, and message me on my main blog rather than the sideblog as I actually check that account.

Feel free to ask me to tag for more than I currently tag for- either for search reasons or to be able to more easily filter things. I may refuse to use certain tags at my discretion.

-

Tags:

content warnings: all content warnings begin with the phrase "contents" to help disambiguate them from generic phrases.

#contents: a little raunchy for tumblr - not quite dirty, but still running on adult themes. Rated pg-13 instead of nc-17.

#contents: not safe for Tumblr - the Naughty stuff. All should be marked mature already.

#contents: blood - has blood

#contents: gore - has organic/meat gore

#contents: robogore - has robot gore, presented like something other than organic flesh

#contents: death - someone's dead on screen

#contents: flashing - something in the image flashes in a way that may not be safe for photosensitive viewers.

#contents: dubious or nonexistent consent - there is sex or sex acts of dubious or explicitly nonconsensual nature happening on screen.

#contents: all edge and no point - general assorted tag for finding things that are just really edgy for no good reason. suicide jokes and torture and that sort of thing.

fandom-specific tags:

#transformers - transformers art, including humanformers. At this time I don't tag continuity.

#macaddam - safe-for-work transformers art (for search discovery)

#valveplug - spike and valve NSFW transformers art

#plug and play - cable-play NSFW transformers art

#sparkplay - spark-play NSFW transformers art

#humanization - a character that isn't normally a human, depicted as one.

#rukaan and #deer - Fields of Valhalla (deviantart ARPG) art, mostly depicting fantasy deer creatures. (#deer is there for search discovery and being easy to remember; "rukaan" is the actual name of the fantasy species.)

#dragon - there is a dragon. everyone likes those

#scalie - anthro reptiles - in this case, basically all dragons.

#oc - original characters. Everyone's got em, right?

[character names] - tagged as needed for search purposes. Characters with multiple names may or may not be disambiguated at essentially random. OCs are also tagged by name.

personal navigation:

#red redesign g1 stunticons - my stunticon fan redesigns. sometimes you don't want to see fan redesigns, so now it can be filtered - without having to filter anyone else's stuff, even!

#au: androidformers - the specific humanoid-android designs for the transformers G1 "humanformers" au I have lying around.

#fursona - this character is one of my fursonas. Typically this just refers to Taz.

#mass post - if there's a bunch of pictures in one post because I don't think they can really stand on their own merits or are part of a sequence, this lets you filter that away.

#closerverse - art for a personal original universe.

#self-reblog - posts I've reblogged from this account to this accuont again. Sparing at most.

art navigation:

#background - art with a significant focus on the background or scenery. This may include photo overpaintings where the background is significantly relevant even if I didn't paint the background by hand.

#monochrome - art in monochrome - may include duochrome (two-color) work. This tag used to be "black and white" - older pieces may still be tagged with that instead.

#lineart - art that is just relatively clean lines

#doodle - unfinished art with a focus on round, smooth lines and cute shapes

#sketch - unfinished art with more jagged shapes and realistic proportions

#traditional media - art made in "real life", typically with some element of digital color or retouching anyway.

#3d - art that uses some element of 3d renders in it, either as part of a painting that was then painted over or as a whole 3d render without painted-on effects.

#photo overpainting - art where I saw a cool photo and painted something into it without repainting the entire photo from scratch, so large chunks were not made by me.

#animation - animated work (typically short looping gifs), stuff where the characters move

#animated effects - animated work where elements move, but the characters are static - flickering light effects, stuff like that.

#meme redraw - art made in the style of a meme. Sometimes this is entirely redrawn and sometimes it's a photo overpainting.

#gift art - art made for other people for free or with minimal direction

#commission - art made on commission with significant input from the client

#favorite - something I've done that I personally particularly like

*Why do this in private? There are a number of reasons: the first, and most relevant, that it means other people aren't going to randomly jump in and change the subject, so we can have an actual conversation rather than something that comes over more like a random accusation I may not fully understand out of the blue. Secondly, I have a solid handful of followers that I expect would probably defend me, and you don't need people jumping down your throat for "attacking" a person they like, especially if you're right but even if I think you're wrong. I also don't want to deal with that. Finally, I don't like being stuck between trying to understand more and feeling like I have to "save face" because the latter is bad for actually learning and growing as a person. I - of course - still do my best to learn in public, but without the pressure of a significant amount of outside observers it's easier for me to form an initial response and have a normal conversation. You can always take it public later, if you're convinced I've done something wrong and won't make amends. At that point I'm sure we're just going to be enemies so asking you not to is gonna go nowhere lmao. I take bigotry and my own biases seriously, but it's possible that after we discuss and I do some of my own research, we may come to different conclusions as to the relative problems with a certain depiction, discussion, or behavior. This is a normal part of socializing. Please give me the grace of holding a conversation with me first before jumping to getting on my case publicly. (If you're scared of reprisal, first of all, don't be because I don't like to do that, but secondly, you can just make a throwaway account to message me with. It's easy.)

[countdowntotwinpeaks]

WONDERFULXSTRANGE - rules

Copypasted from the blog page because those aren't really visible on mobile are they. So, better safe than sorry. If you're on desktop, it's still all linked in the sidebar

Final edition in this format! What a journey this has been. Thank you, everyone.

How does this exchange work? It’s a fanworks secret santa. Participants sign up to create and receive one piece of Twin Peaks-related fanwork that’s as tailored to their tastes as matching will allow. First we will create a shared pool of characters and relationships to draw from (“nominations”). Then every participant will choose from that pool, submit their preferences and prompts privately (“sign-ups”) and, after sign-ups end, be matched to another participant, so that every participant will have one assigned recipient known to them and a different assigned gifter unknown to them. The finished works will be privately shown to this blog before the deadline, just to confirm that they exist, and will be posted by their authors on Twin Peaks day 2024, so that everyone gets to celebrate it with a present. When does it run? Nominations open: January 3rd, 2024 Signups open: January 12th, 2024 Signups close: January 19th, 2024 Assignments go out by: January 24th, 2024 DEADLINE: February 17th, 2024 Works are posted: February 24th, 2024

How do I nominate?

By submitting a list of up to 8 Twin Peaks characters, character groups or character relationships HERE (full nomination rules and formatting at the link)

You can find the nominations pool so far at the nominations page HERE

How do I sign up? By filling this form, which will be available after nominations end.

Please use an email address that you check regularly in case we need to contact you - and notify me of any url changes on your tumblr! Just shoot me a message, “hi I was X and now I’m Y”, it means a lot. I will need to contact everyone throughout the exchange. May I default? Of course, but please do so as soon as possible once you realize you can’t make it, because we’ll need to find a substitute artist for your recipient. Please. Just don’t disappear, okay? If you can’t make it, just say so. That’s okay. Disappearing is rude. Don’t be a Coop.

What if anything else goes wrong? Please contact me immediately through tumblr or replying to your assignment email and explain the situation! We’ll sort it out.

Who can pinch hit (aka substitute a defaulting participant)? Everyone. Pinch hit notices will be posted on the blog and will be claimed via message to this blog.

Does this exchange welcome treats?

Treats are additional prompt fills and they are very, very welcome. Are you done with your assignment and see another prompt you fancy, be it from your recipient or someone else? GO FOR IT. Are you not a participant but something in the prompts list catches your eye? GO FOR IT. Already written five things? WHAT’S ONE MORE (better still, make it two more because 6 is bad luck apparently) The sign-up form includes an option to make your prompts public. All public prompts will be listed on the blog, so that anyone can fill them to their heart’s content and give recipients even more nice things (even past the exchange’s deadline)

What can I nominate?

You can find both examples of how to nominate different types of relationships and the list of all the nominations so far at the nominations page HERE

All sources of canon are allowed, up to and including minor book-only characters.

You can nominate up to 2 crossovers between Twin Peaks characters and specific characters from any other canon.

This exchange does not allow ships with big age gaps, canon or otherwise. Rule of thumb is the “half age plus seven” rule.

Nominating original characters is also not allowed for this year (will be considered for next year if there’s a demand for them)

Contact me via Tumblr ask or message about any questions

What can I offer in my signup?

The exchange has a preliminary nominations phase since this show’s cast is just too big. Therefore, offers are a multiple choices list of all of this year’s nominated characters and character combinations that you can check to your heart’s content.

Offer anything you feel happy and comfortable producing. Having broad offers helps matching and broadening your range of characters and themes can be an interesting experience, but you’ll want to have fun creating too! What can I request in my signup?

Requests are also handled via multiple choices. You will select 4 to 20 options from this year’s nominations. There will be an optional space to prompt specific ideas for any of your choices

For getting an idea of how specific a prompt can get, you can check these old public prompts

While prompting, please keep in mind:

No glorification of abuse (which is not a blanket ban on unhealthy romantic/familial/whatever dynamics. Hell, it’s Twin Peaks)

No character bashing (eg please request all the Donna/Maddy your heart desires without insulting James in the process)

Request at least 4 non-crossover options

What do I do once I get my recipient’s request? Once you get an e-mail with all your recipient’s requests, you pick the one that appeals to you the most and do your best to create something that you believe they will enjoy! Fics have a minimum required length of 500 words, pics should show a comparable minimum effort. Just make something that you can be proud of and try to make your recipient happy. What do I do once I have finished my assignment? You submit it to this blog so I can verify that it exists and then draft it on your blog, tagging it #twin peaks, #wonderfulxstrange and whatever else you usually tag (and maybe mentioning in the description that it was created for countdowntotwinpeaks’ wonderful x strange exchange, for $recipient, filling $prompt). Alternatively, when you submit it to this blog, say “please post this for me” and I’ll take care of the posting.

Posting day is February 24th, why is the deadline one week earlier?

Because nothing ever runs perfectly and we’re gonna need a week for the inevitable cat herding. People disappear, people get last-minute issues! It happens. What will happen on September 3rd? Everyone will post their work(s) throughout the day! You are of course encouraged to show appreciation for your gift by reblogging it with love… along with anything else you might enjoy. It’s a party! Bunch of cool fanworks in the tag to celebrate the anniversary of pt18 collectively wrecking us!

So, in short…

By nominating, you help create the pool of eligible characters and character relationships for this year’s exchange.

By signing up, you commit to create one piece of fanfiction (500 words or longer) or fanart (a finished picture that’s more than a sketch) filling one prompt out of at least four, between July 24th, 2022 and August 25th, 2022, while another participant will be filling one of your own prompts.

[kuruasu]

#i really really wish there was some way to know exactly how much this was because reddit and tumblr both have written 'community rules'#like I honestly think that was it. reddit had rules for each community. we do too- you won't find them in the sidebar but they're there#when twitter users came over we said 'here are the rules' and they said 'you're not my mom+ratio+L+you smell#WHICH MAKES SENSE because twitter has very few fan rules and we probably came across as very odd#but the rules twitter DOES have are all about w/who + how you can interact. so they just... didn't interact because it wasn't clear how tha#was supposed to work. (ie can a fan blog retweet a bunch of aesthetic posts? can you spam like? Is reblogging like qrting or rting?#but our rules make us comfy so naturally no one really. interacted with the ones who didn't follow the community rules#when the redditors came over we said 'here are the rules' and they said 'oh thank god i love reading rules in every new community'#and then they reblogged stuff and followed people and muted tumblr live#because in tumblr the 'rules' are literally just about making the site more enjoyable for yourself and others#so they like it better and blend in better while still retaining a separate identity because they're still using it like reddit#vs the twt users who blend in and like it here but ultimately had to become tumblr users instead of using it like twt#its just that 'using tumblr like its reddit' works better than 'using tumblr like its twitter'

ok this is insane but like.. the new tumblrinas are more acclimated to the culture than some normal users. i mean it. like every single reddit refugee post has an INSANELY CLOSE like to reblog ratio and there all mutualing each other and sending each other asks and dms. like wtf. how are you better at this.

in all seriousness i think its because we welcomed them with such feral delight. like every single tumblr user individually saw the reddit refugees and were like "ok listen. we love you honey and hope you're feeling good and here are the instructions" and they did SO MUCH MORE THAN WE THOUGHT THEY WOULD!!! AND NOW ALL OF THEM ARE LIKE HAVING SO MUCH FUN AND IM SO HAPPY FOR THEM!!!!

and also not to keep going but i adore how everyone is so so emotional about this. like every single reddit refugee is like "oh my god why are you so nicee i havent felt this happy in years holy fuckkk..." and were all like "its ok!!! im so glad you are having fun you are doing such a good job yknow? youre perfect at this!!" anyways if YOURE a reddit refugee lets be mutuals

[madelyncilne]

𝐦𝐲  𝐠𝐢𝐟  𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬  𝐚𝐫𝐞  𝐧𝐨𝐰  𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞  .

down below, you’ll find a set of rules regarding usage of my gifs, along with the server i share with @khadijha where you can access our gifs collectively; and what you can expect upon joining! i understand that not everyone wants to join a discord server to access gifs, therefore, i’ve included a submit form for you to fill out if you feel more comfortable. don’t be afraid to ask me any questions regarding this, i don’t bite! ♥

note:  i’d like to start off by saying that if you’re a mutual, have publicly commissioned a pack off of me or an active content creator you do not have to submit forms to have access to my gifs. we’re all in this together! feel free to im me over tumblr or discord and i’ll send you direct links  ♥  #supportcontentcreators

what you can expect when joining our server: you’ll be met with a set of rules regarding the usage of both of our gifs, which you’ll have to react to before moving onto the next channel. the next channel will contain a masterlist of our resources (respected tags on each of our blogs), along with the rules of submitting a form. you’ll have to react again, then be taken to a submit page. it’s all explained thoroughly in the individual channels of the server!

why discord, and why together? it’s easier to monitor, and it helps us keep track of who is using our gifs and for what reasons. i can’t speak for riley, but i feel we’re both at the end of our tether with giving people the benefit of the doubt and having them walk all over us with the rules we’ve originally put in place. this way, we can keep it all compact. and it genuinely saves us making two servers for each other, so a collective one is also easier too!

𝐝𝐨  𝐧𝐨𝐭  𝐮𝐬𝐞  𝐦𝐲  𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬  𝐟𝐨𝐫   :

01.   smut rps, slave rps, kink rps, krps, harry potter rps, high school rps, real celeb rps, m/m fetishisation. any rps allowing the following: incest/stepcest, rape, dub-con, non-con, underage smut.

02.   indie krp, any smut threads, fetishising mlm or wlw, canon celeb threads, race-bending, gender-bending (e.g: playing a transgender/non-binary faceclaim/canon character as cisgender). anything involving: incest/stepcest, rape, dub-con, non-con, underage smut.

𝐝𝐨  𝐧𝐨𝐭  𝐮𝐬𝐞  𝐦𝐲  𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬  𝐢𝐟  𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞   :

01.   racist, anti-indigenous, anti-black / pro-alm, anti-semitic, homophobic, transphobic / a terf, a zionist, misogynistic.  

02.   are blocked by me. even if you make a new blog & know you have been blocked previously.  i can keep track of these things.

𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬  𝐟𝐨𝐫  𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠  𝐦𝐲  𝐠𝐢𝐟𝐬   :

general rules.   reblog the post on whatever blog you're using the gifs on (you must do this before requesting the use of my gifs, i will only accept requests that have done so). please note that likes only serve as a placeholder.

with my permission, you’re allowed to.   crop, resize, recolour. you can also add to sidebars, create graphics/crackships for personal use, but again you must ask my permission! (also please credit me in edits by @’ing me).

you’re not allowed to.  redistribute, steal, edit and then give to others.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR DISCORD, AND ACCESS RESOURCES.

ALTERNATIVELY, CLICK HERE TO REQUEST THROUGH TUMBLR.

[lugiepie]

Hello. I guess my first ask ever goes to you?

I found your tumblr thru looking up stuff in the male corrin tag bc:

I dabble in smash bros (read: I am effing terrible at smash bros because I just started playing a few months ago),

I recently found out that this random character is not only has DRAGON powers but also has both male and female forms, thus making me

intrigued. I am very, very intrigued about this Corrin fellow. (and I like their male form a tad more than their female form too)

So, since I saw a post that you made over two years ago about this character indicating you found out about then thru smash too, I'm wondering if you have any recommendations about finding out more about them. Because I've been looking at it for a few hours now and I'm mostly just confused.

Note: I know nothing about Fire Emblem. I'm not really attracted to anime stuff either -- the closest experience I have with it is pokemon (which I adore because of aforementioned DRAGONS and various other wonderful creatures) -- (sidebar: pursuing your tumblr for more info and seeing your various art stuffs has been an absolute pleasure. Love the sense of humor).

(Hopefully I did this asking thing right, XD)

oh my hello!!!! glad you enjoy my stuff :) always nice to know that i can make people smile

as for finding a corrin encyclopedia? that’s a loaded question- i’d say play all three routes of fe fates, but since you’re not into that stuff i’m gonna instead recommend fe warriors (the first not, not the “new hopes” one that’s coming out later). it’s a bravest warriors game just with fire emblem, and although it’s definitely got some flaws in the wake of its story, it’s overall a pretty satisfying “kill hordes of enemies” game in my opinion. the character interactions are all very genuine too, and the supports between characters are pretty funny at times. also quick note, corrin himself kinda breaks a lot of well established fire emblem rules such as a.) half dragon that can transform into a full dragon somehow b.) uses more than one plot device in his quest and c.) is generally written very inconsistently and makes very dumb decisions in context because of it, hence why a lot of people don’t like him in the fe community. i mean he is as close as you can get to a mary sue in terms of fire emblem protagonists.

honestly though, if you don’t feel like playing a whole game, just try to find blogs that have content that appeal to you. i don’t follow any corrin blogs in particular (i just follow the male corrin tag) because truth be told both the fire emblem and smash community in the west don’t have as much of a liking toward our favorite manakete as they do, say, alm or lyn. i know this sounds like a cop out answer lol but i swear curating this stuff yourself and not just going off of what a random person on the internet says is so much more enjoyable in the long run. on that note, maybe i’ll post more corrin stuff because we do be living in a desert here chief.

though, just a quick note, actual canon corrin is more of a totally submissive pacifist who is afraid of hurting people and basically everything, and the way i portray him is more like “his initial adventure from fates is already over and he learned the hard way that sometimes hurting people is an unavoidable consequence when you’re dealing with literal war”, so he instead is much more mellowed out. and a dog because i think it’s really funny to have this grown man with dragon wings and a tail jumping on counters and just causing general chaos without realizing it lmao.

and yes, there is no wrong way to do an ask :) you could’ve sent me a picture of an overflowing trash can with a raccoon in the background and i would’ve answered it in full, welcome to the hellsite that is tumblr

[jesmusicblog]

PIANOWRIMO 2020

November is nearly upon us.

What is Pianowrimo?  

in November 2017 I decided to write 30 pieces during the month — short pieces, just piano, but they had to be finished, recorded, and neatly presented.  And then I did the same thing the next two years.   And I ended up with some pieces I was actually really proud of, the sense of achieving something, and a bit of insight into both my favourite musical elements/fallback habits and what happened when I was pushed past them.

And that's basically all there is to it. 

(Also it's a pun on NaNoWriMo, to which it has absolutely no affiliation.)

But really what are the rules

If you want to keep to my rules, then it's compose 30 piano pieces, make both a recording and a sheet.  In 2017, my challenge to myself was particularly the notation; I was coming up with a lot of little piano pieces and not writing them up neatly, and I've since got a lot better at that.  But you might want to change things.  Maybe you're not actually much of a pianist or aren't able to record things so you wouldn't do that part.  (Or maybe, your challenge would be to write music to your own level that you can play!)  Or maybe you want to add a themed element, borrowed from an art month, there are many lists around.  You can set your own rules .

The main things, I think, are to have fun and to challenge yourself to write some music.  To write what feels like a lot of music, enough that you don't have time to worry too much about whether it is 'good'.   At the end of the month you'll have a whole heap of pieces, and then you'll surely like some of them, if not all of them.

How can I join?

To be clear, there is nothing to join and no prizes BUT - since people are actually asking, and since I always encourage people to join in, I made this post.  Make your pieces, tag pianowrimo and let's all check the tag and support each other!  Also you can reply/reblog to this post to connect to people.

You're very welcome to have a flick through my previous pieces for some ideas of what one can get up to — but if you do your own wrimo you will absolutely make the challenge your own.  Many of my pieces have ended up being some of the most personal things I've made.

My pieces from the previous years are all on my blog, tagged #pianowrimo.  

I also made some minor tidy-ups and posted three albums on bandcamp and sheet music books on gumroad.

there is a pianowrimo TRAILER.

…you can get to all of these my clicking the link in my sidebar, since tumblr hates links.

[drawnaghht]

there is a tag for it on AO3 tho! it's "Leonardo (TMNT) x Yuichi Usagi" (I'll link it in the replies since tumblr seems to eat links sometimes).

I think your post is really clear and sounds polite so I don't see any problem with discussing the whole "ship name" topic in this way. I just wanted to write a reblog-reply bc I think it's something to think about more + talking abt it might help things along. Tho I'm sure thing'll sort themselves out eventually, as fandom tags usually go. Sorry in advance for my extremely lengthy reply! I tried to structure it so it would be easier to read. But as goes the fandom saying, "I've been rotating this in my brain" ( or: this has been on a spin-cycle in my head for a bit of time now and I have more thoughts about it)

I agree! both ships are great and it's nice that people like it and there is more fic and art of different kinds online of either now. But the mischaracterization and mis-tagging is really confusing in general.

I'll put this post under a readmore out of courtesy for everyone else reading my blog bc unfortunately I find a lot of ways to be extra wordy ^^;

The great thing about AO3 is that it has general/common tags for both characters and ships. When a tag becomes more used, it will become a "main tag", so it will be suggested in the filter sidebar if you search it there, for example. Annoying for smaller fandoms where there are <16 fics total and none of the character tags are recognized by the system, but with both TMNT in general and Rise of the TMNT, that isn't a problem. So tags like a newer relationship combo (Leo x Yuichi) become a suggested/common tag if many people use it (I don't know the rules of this exactly, but it's just something I've noticed/read about re:AO3 tags).

When just searching through the tags, I see that there's quite a few fic which tag both ships? and that's confusing because which version of the character are you going to use then? or even if there are a few which have both featured (multi-fic, AUs, multiple timelines etc), so yes, just excluding one character would probably not exclude all these fic with confusing tags (i tried for a few moments and it doesn't seem to work like that - both relationship tags remain ^^;)

So yes, a bit of a problem if people want to read fic of just one, but find that both tags have been used, they pick a fic and maybe they just don’t find that it caters to either ship. I suppose this is sort of a bigger fandom problem. My experience with fandom is mostly seeing recommendations from friends and writing fic with friends, but I’ve always mostly had rarepairs, so going into AO3 I already prepare myself for not finding anything catering to my tastes (and so I write my own fic).

So in my mind I'm looking at this from a different angle (I mostly post fanart on tumbrl and twitter, i try to treat these platforms as archives even if not meant for that). What's confusing for me is when people tag both characters in fanart when only one is present. Or lets say, they tag both, but clearly the look/design is inspired by one character in particular. Lots of earlier posts before the Samurai Rabbit show came out were simply fans’ own versions of Rise!Miyamoto, but later fanart started incorporating more elements from Yuichi (the hair, the clothes). But why did people still tag it as both? Or why do fans still do this? I’m a fan of both the comic and the Usagi show and I like it when I don’t see too many repeating arts in the tags, mainly because then it’s easier to find new posts, so the multiple tagging system becomes annoying because that's not what i'm looking for ^^;

The ship names I can kind of let pass on account of the Yuichi/Leo ship being still relatively new, and people still learning how to tag properly on tumblr. So I want to trust that people will get used to their own separate tag which they'll use more than the other now. I get it, leosagi is an older ship name, easier to say/use if you already knew smth about TMNT before Rise. But it’s still sorta annoying cuz sometimes you wanna see the 03 leosagi ship - what are you supposed to do when the tag is only full of arts about the newer one? lol tagging both just makes it confusing and makes it feel like the newer tags are obsolete by default - but the leosagi tag is still abt the Leo/Miyamoto Usagi ship, so it’s just a lot of tag clogging still. I think after ppl started posting abt the difference in the two ships more, there’s been less posts/twts abt either ship in general, it’s like fans are busy + just have other interests (which is normal) but it could also just be that ppl are thinking abt how to tag stuff now (but haven’t checked anymore bc busy myself too + tired of fandom stuff in general)

In other fandoms I've seen people put things on vote if there are too many ship tags (like YugiOh! or Pokemon fandoms) because the fandom is big and everyone used different nicknames throughout that media's history. Or there's different names for the same ship, bc there are different flavours for that ship, making each feel separate for the searcher (miraculous ladybug comes to mind and YGO as well, with multiple "versions" of the "same" character), which is a valid way to tag ships if people like being more specific. Makes things easier to find when googling and/or using a websites custom search! I ship both Leosagi and Yuichi/Leo so I very much like to separate the two so I don't have to go through 40 pages of one tag just to find one post ^^;; I did not really know in the beginning either that there were separate tags at all. So I think for a while, maybe that's been the main reason for the confusion in the fandom.

I'm not sure I'd want to vote bc the Leochi/Leoichi tags are confusing for me. Which one to use? so I'm the annoying person who made their own tag bc I think the Yuchi Usagi x Rise!Leo crossover ship is unique and feels like it needs it's own searchable keyword to make things simpler. so i made up "yuinardo" for that. But AO3 doesn't really need tags like that. this sort of tagging or "ship smoosh" sort of name is more usable on tumblr or sites like youtube/twitter which dont seem to have a very good tagging system. But the main problem still seems to be here that for fanfic, people will write Rise!Leo and make up their own Usagi based either Miyamoto Usagi (the og) or his descendant Yuichi (from the cartoon). And I honestly haven't browsed with this in mind as much myself, but I have noticed that people for example tag it as "general TMNT" without specifying if it is 2003 or 2018. Now that's confusing. There's no way to filter these sorts of fic then either and a reader wouldn't know which Usagi they're reading until they read it OR unless it's tagged properly. i can't really think of a solution for that other than - create the general atmosphere in fandom that it's better to tag correctly vs over-tag or tag in-correctly. That's all I can really think of for that because well, fandom feels like it should be inclusive as a space. but it also could do with better organization sometimes.

I also think it's interesting how many people combine versions or elements of both Miyamoto and Yuichi Usagi for their Rise fics. Tho it implies that basically fans either got inspired by the 03 ship or different parts of the comics and decided to combine them for fun, or they made a new character/story up for their own version/AU. but also this makes it feel like fic authors don't look further into either series/comics or any versions in cartoons. ^^; I call this phase "people don't do research" bc I don't see that curiosity from fans for a lot for newer shows in general. So for example, I genuinely like the Usagi Chronicles show and it's making me want to continue reading/looking up the og comic more. But I also like learning more about how the show itself was made and what concept art looked like or how the actors felt about their roles etc - this gives something like "extra value" in my mind to the show but also helps me see the characters and world a different way. I don't see it so much as "bad" for a fandom, it's just a bit sad for me as a fan bc there's always so much to find about a show that's interesting or can be used in fanworks as inspiration. Usagi Yojimbo is a really cool comicbook series and Miyamoto Usagi is a very neat and unique character. And it's a bit weird seeing ppl treat the character like he's just part of the TMNT verse Doesn't happen as much anymore but I imagine with fanfic it must be different. I suppose the 2003 show sort of imprinted its own younger version of Usagi onto the TMNT fandom in a large way and we can still feel that influence on fanworks to this day haha 😂

I think this is how I first encountered the "Rise version of Usagi" in the wild too, before finding the Samurai Rabbit series and seeing there was a new Usagi character+ og series as well. I knew about the 03 version, knew about the comic, then saw a bit of 12 and eventually saw ROTTMNT. I forgot the Usagi series was in development and thought, "huh, people are making their own versions of Usagi for Rise. Cool!"

As long as things are respectful re: other fans, I think that ignoring of original texts can also be fine for the sake of creativity within fandom, but it makes things confusing later or in the case of a more organized place like AO3, because these fans don't seem to actually know which character is which ^^; It makes things confusing to tag+find. And I guess in the case of some of the multi-tagged AO3 fic, it just makes it feel like the authors are switching out one character for the other, but not changing anything to make the character fit into their new role.

And again, OC versions can be fun and interesting too, but then those should not be tagged with either Miyamoto or Yuichi character tags as that is confusing as hell for the future reader.

Like that, it's interesting to think that so many are not sure what to tag it either and so, both leosagi and leoichi/leochi get used. As mentioned before by other fans, and mentioned in RabNerd28's video "Why do we all ship Leosagi", the most likely reason is that people remembered '02 Leosagi, then thought Leosagi was an umbrella term for all Leo/Usagi ships, (2012 show didn't really have as asimilar relationship to 03) or that it would be cute to continue the "tradition" of Leo/Usagi crossovers, since Rise missed out on it.

+ We also have the whole aspect of social media having become a bigger part of our lives over the last 15 years. It's become more commonplace for anyone trying to "reach" a larger audience to tag with "all tags" on media platforms that use tags. This was a thing on blogging site for a while too (tag clouds became a big thing for a short while). And in fandoms, it's become even more common, bc now we're sort of used to seeing it, so depending on the person and how their internet experience is, they might think more tags = more reach inside the nebulous social media algorhitm. But this becomes a bit weird for both blogging sites like tumblr or fanfic archives like AO3 because these don't have "algorhitms" like many social media platforms have become known for ^^;

Personally, I think on Tumblr, it would be simple for the Yuichi x Leo shippers to switch over to either leoichi or leochi since both are fairly popular tags and the fans using it wouldn't lose out on that "reach" - if ppl already know that it's the ship tag for Leo/Yuichi, they'll keep tracking that instead. As already hashed about it in other ppl's posts, it doesn't really make sense to use multiple tags if they don't count for those characters. Overall I think it's just up to the fandom in general to decide what people want to call a ship, and that's I usually just read what the OP of a post has tagged it and decide from there what it goes on my own blog.

I think AO3 on the other hand makes things simpler because there will always be a common ship tag using both common names for the character (so Leonardo (TMNT)/Miyamoto Usagi for example) and then people can use their own custom tags for flavour/exclulding from search (Future!Leonardo for character or Future!Rise Leosagi for specificity) and this makes things easier to filter in/out depending on interest. I also like that it has easier sorting options compared to say, FF.Net or tumblr itself (only "top" and "latest" options and you can sort thru post type). But yes, it becomes a bit hard to sort through fanart/fic when ppl tag a different ship under an older ship's tags ^^; I like both 2003 leosagi and the various versions of rise!leosagi and leochi/leoichi, but it's way too much work to use that many tags for one ship lol, especially when there's multiple "versions" or "flavors" of the same crossover ship idea. I'm not gonna find anything like that! And that's why now on my own blog I just keep the leosagi nickname for the 2003 ship, yuinardo tag for the show/show crossover ship and the rest for any variations.

Sorry if this sounds rambly, it's just been on my mind since january, rotating as a disctraction and I thought maybe trying to reply to this would help continue the conversation in a more constructive or positive way. English is not my native language either so please ask if anything sounded confusing ^^;

Annywayy, it's late and I wrote enough I think, but I'll probably mull it in my head in later posts too and have new thoughts haha :'D

I know the leoichi and leosagi problem has been talked and everything but I feel we should talk about the problem that exits in AO3 too and it's the tagging, again.

It has been stated that Yuichi and Miyamoto aren't the same character, one it's descendant of the other, so it confuses me why Yuichi is the Usagi that appears in the Leonardo/Miyamoto Usagi tag, as it sould be Miyamoto and Leonardo/Yuichi Usagi sould have it's own AO3 tag. It confuses a lot of people bc someone wants to read something with Miyamoto and Leo and has to browse through a thousand fics that have Yuichi instead.

And someone could say "Just exclude the Yuichi Usagi tag and it's done" but it isn't the point, Yuichi is a separate character so he sould have his own tag with Leo, hence avoid the mischaracterization and confusion of both characters as I have seen lately. Don't get me wrong, I love both ships, both are so cute and wholesome but they aren't the same ship.

I don't want to cause a ship war nor attack the leoichi shippers. I want to find a middle ground for both shippers as any other so we can both enjoy our ships in peace.✨💕

[Pd: English is not my first language so if there's any mistake here let me know ^^"]

[yourehomesickiunderstand]

About/Rules/Verses

Hello, and welcome to my Bofur RP blog. This post is a HUGE wall of text, if you are on desktop and would like to see it a little tidier, please see the separate pages in the sidebar to the right. 

Promo Post Found Here

About the Mun

1. Firstly I am over 30, own a house, have a husband, 1 baby, 2 cats, and a wealth of commitments and responsibilities. I will do my best to reply in a timely manner, but will state up front that sometimes life gets in the way.

2. I am in EST and work M-F from 9-5, plus a half hour commute. Please understand that I can not post from work, and will not be posting during those times.

3. In addition, I am Mom to a very active toddler who is my priority over writing and who’s nap schedule tends to dictate when I can post.

4. My native language is English, though I can understand French, and a little bit of Spanish and Japanese. Don’t bank on me carrying on a decent conversation in any of those languages though.

About the Blog

1. When I first set up this blog I didn’t realize that secondary blogs can’t follow back, ask, or submit. My main blog name is Saffity, so if you see that blog follow you, it’s me. If I send an ask or submit, I will mention this blog name so you don’t get confused.

2. My inbox, ask, etc. is open. Please feel free to write me any starters, questions, or whatever.

3. Please send any critiques or suggestions to me. I’ve been on Tumblr forever, but have never really been a poster. If you see me doing basic noob mistakes with my posts that can be easily fixed, please let me know.

4. I will be tracking #yourehomesickiunderstand so please use that tag with our threads.

Mun’s Playing Style

1. I prefer my Bofur straight. I understand Boffins and other ships and have no qualms with them, I’ve been known to enjoy a good fluff fic once in a while, but this Bofur is straight.

2. Please send me an ask or fan mail if you would like our characters to have an already established relationship, I’m totally cool with it. I respond to all cannon characters as known as it shows in the books or movies, but if you are an OC and want something other than a “Nice to meet you” please let me know first.

3. I’m willing to do some fluffies, but not full on smut, if the thread calls for smut (which will often happen), I’ll fade to black when I’ve gone as far as I feel comfortable with. (Don’t worry, I’ll fade when I’m ready, you’ll never get any angry messages from me about going too far.)

4. Bofur here is multiverse, au, indie, whatever you want to call it. I’m sure he’ll fit into whatever crossover or world you decide to drop him in, he’s very easy going after all.

5. I tend to write in the past tense, third person. If you’d prefer a different style, just let me know and I’ll try to accommodate.

6. I’m bad with my images, so bad! I’m still figuring everything out, so if I’ve royally screwed something up, please let me know and I will delete and repost correctly.

7. I am super okay with editing anything I write if it doesn’t jive with your character or where you want the plot to go, please just let me know.

8. I mainly play on mobile, as such, I’m not able to cut my posts down. Please do so whenever you feel the need/want, I won’t be upset.

Head Cannons that go across all verses

1. Bofur has a Northern Irish accent and his hat, always his hat.

2. Bofur has named his hat Bundushathur, which in Khuzdul means “Cloudyhead” and will sometimes refer to his hat as a sleeping rabbit. If Khuzdul does not exist in the verse (like Modern) then the hat is called Cloudyhead and still referred to as a rabbit.

3. Bofur is the everyman, he isn’t special or high born. He is good natured, friendly, and the world’s best wingman, even if it means connecting someone he pines after with someone else. He would rather see them happy and keep their friendship than try to force his feelings on them or lose their friendship because of his pride.

4. The main characteristic about Bofur is that he is unimportant in the hierarchy of society.

Main Verse - The Hobbit/LOTR

Bofur is 4'6" but fairly thin for a dwarf.

Bofur is a dwarf who’s family line comes from Moria. He is of the mining class. He was born and raised in Ered Luin with his brother. Shortly after Bofur became an adult, his parents died, leaving him to raise his brother. Shortly after that, Bifur was injured in an orc attack. Bofur and Bombur took Bifur in, however there were a number of difficult years as they all got used to Bifur’s new personality.

Once Bifur was stable enough, the brothers decided it would be a good idea to head out and find new customers for their skills. They ended up at Bree, opening up a shop to sell Bifur’s fabulous toys, and offer tinkering services.

During their stay in Bree, Bombur got married to a passing female dwarf and moved his overly large family near the shop. Bifur and Bofur live together in living quarters at the back of the shop, Bombur lived with them until he got married.

Bofur travels around Middle Earth, usually west of the Misty Mountains, and most often between Bree and Ered Luin by way of the Shire. He collects supplies, sells wares, and visits many friends and family that are about the lands.

When Thorin calls for assistance in taking back Erebor, Bofur and his kin lock up their shop and head for the Shire.

After the quest they settle in Erebor, though Bofur heads back to Bree to close up their shop and settle accounts prior to settling in for a long life of enjoying his 14th share of the treasure.

Head Cannons that can totally change if my partner is a Bifur or Bombur

1. Bofur’s father was killed in Moria at the battle of Azanulbizar, his Mother died in an Orc attack when Bofur was in his 40s. He has taken care of his brother ever since.

2. Bofur took Bifur in after Bifur was orphaned as well, the three are like brothers, having shared the experience of loss and growing up together.

3. Bombur stopped speaking after their mother died. Bofur’s tried to get him to speak, and has managed to get him to speak sometimes, but usually just small replies and often with much prodding. Bifur and Bombur use the same sign language to speak to each other and those who don’t speak Khuzdul. Bofur takes care of both of them and is the one who speaks to customers.

Modern Verse

High School

Bofur is not popular, though he’s friendly and basically knows everyone. He enjoys shop class, classical music, and historical literature.

Studious and hard working, Bofur can often be found with his nose in a book, when not sitting on the bleachers playing the tin flute he always has on him.

College Student

Bofur is a TA in college. His major is historical literature, and his goal is to eventually become a professor. His passion is delving into historical fanatasy from cultures other than England and Western Europe.

He enjoys learning languages in order to read what he is researching in its original state.

General Modern Adult

In most modern adult verses Bofur is a general labourer, most often a janitor. If he is a teacher, he teaches music and drama.

Ice Cream Shop

Bofur runs a small home made ice cream shop that is part of a coffee shop run with a companion or family member (his partner can be any member of the company). He makes a variety of flavours, and offers lactose and gluten free varieties.

He prides himself on being able to guess his customers’ favourites on sight (like the movie Chocolat).

Marvel

Bofur is a janitor within shield. He can be found on the helicarrier, within the Avengers training base, or basically anywhere the heroes may be destroying things that need to be cleaned up.

While he is quiet and without powers, he has wisdom and a patient ear to lend to those supers who require a moment to vent.

Star Trek

This is the only verse where Bofur stands out. Bofur is a red shirt, but by some miraculous turn of events, he has gone on a number of away missions and made it back alive. Poor Bofur would love to get off the enterprise with his life, and shirt, in tact, but it appears some of the higher officers like to see him lose his mind and suggest him for more away missions, even if only in jest.

Head cannons that exist in all modern verses

1. Bofur and his family are from Northern Ireland, though Bofur travels around, goes to school abroad, and in general can pop up anywhere in the world.

2. Bofur is short for a male - 5'6", with a stocky build, and fairly strong.

3. Bofur’s younger brother Bombur is still at home (or married with kids depending on their age).

4. Bofur’s parents took Bifur in after he got injured during Armed Forces training, as Bofur’s family lives closer to the rehab resources that Bifur requires.

[bestworstcase]

"[Rapunzel] stops accepting blame for things that aren’t her fault". I've seen this mentioned before on other blogs talking about Rapunzel's character growth over the series, but I don't understand what it's referring to. Sorry if this is too vague/broad an ask, but what are you thinking of in seasons 1 and 2 when you say that Rapunzel has learned to stop taking the blame for things that aren't her fault by season 3? Apart from Rapunzel's Enemy and maybe QFAD, I can't think of anything.

i think this is one of the more understated things about rapunzel’s characterization in that there is never like, a specific moment where rapunzel Verbalizes acceptance of blame for things she clearly isn’t responsible for, but it still imo informs a lot of her behavior?

and it goes all the way back to the film. right out of the gate we see that guilt tripping and blame passing are two of gothel’s chief weapons: when rapunzel’s feelings get hurt by one of gothel’s “jokes,” gothel chides rapunzel to “stop taking everything so seriously,” which is abuser-speak for “nothing i say is wrong, it’s your fault if you’re hurt.” 

then there’s digs like “oh, rapunzel, you know i hate leaving you after a fight—especially when i’ve done absolutely nothing wrong...” 

and the big one, after gothel loses her temper and yells at rapunzel, and then immediately collapses disconsolately into a chair and says “ugh, great—now i’m the bad guy.” overtly blaming rapunzel for “making” gothel snap at her. (this of course gets called back to at the end of the film, though it’s less a guilt trip there than it is a threat.)

aaaand right before “mother knows best (reprise)” when rapunzel asks how gothel found her, gothel says, “oh, it was easy, i just listened for the sound of complete and utter betrayal and followed that.” this one imo is the clearest illustration of how all this impacts rapunzel emotionally, because she goes from scared/alarmed/startled to just. sagging, in obvious guilt. 

but then of course there’s also the scene right after rapunzel leaves the tower, where we see her oscillating wildly from jubilance to despair and guilt as she frets over what her leaving will “do” to gothel, how mad / upset / betrayed gothel will feel, etc. so even when gothel isn’t there, actively reinforcing this behavior, we can see that rapunzel very much feels that gothel’s feelings are her responsibility—and if gothel is upset, that’s rapunzel’s fault. 

anyway!! all this adds up to rapunzel leaving the tower with this subconscious mindset that all problems are her problems, and we see this expressed very early on in s1. i would even argue as early as before ever after... with both frederic and eugene. 

BEA goes really hard right out of the gate with driving home how restless and uncomfortable rapunzel feels in corona; how stifled she is, and how badly she wants to go out and explore the wider world. but it also shows how hard she tries to stuff it down, because her success as a princess is “important to [her] dad.” she tries to bring up her discontent with eugene, but in a roundabout way so as to avoid actually saying she’s unhappy—and then when he says that he’s perfectly happy and content, rapunzel takes a deep breath and agrees with him. it isn’t overt text, but she’s still in “managing other people’s feelings” mode, and there’s a reason the only person she is honest about her own feelings with is cassandra—because cassandra signals very clearly that she is not going to feel hurt, offended, or disappointed if rapunzel is less than happy in corona. quite the opposite, cass is the one who suggests sneaking out in the first place!

now obviously, neither fred’s nor eugene’s feelings are rapunzel’s responsibility and i think both would be horrified to know that rapunzel feels like it’s her job to make them happy... but that doesn’t really matter, because rapunzel has been trained all her life to do this and that’s not a pattern that just goes away overnight. 

and then also in BEA, we see how quick rapunzel is to castigate herself for doing something that upsets someone else... when eugene proposes and she panics and runs away, her reaction is “i feel horrible about eugene” and to feel guilty/upset about not wanting to marry him Right Now.

aaaand of course caine blaming rapunzel for stuff frederic did goes entirely unremarked upon, partly because things like the hair reveal took priority over that but partly also, in my opinion, because rapunzel just kind of Accepted That because she’s so used to being blamed for everything.

this is sort of a recurring theme throughout a lot of s1. you mentioned RE, but for the sake of completeness—i think the most telling thing in that ep is that, when rapunzel finds out what booing really signifies, her first question is what could i have done to this person?, because the concept that this might be a HIM problem doesn’t even cross her mind. she assumes that it’s her fault he doesn’t like her. 

and then there’s stuff like pascal’s story, which i think is an interesting one because like... frankly, it’s not entirely rapunzel’s fault that she stood pascal up. yes, as the princess she could have stood up at six o’clock on the dot to say no more petitions, i am going to dinner. but also she’s the princess, and she’s busy, and pascal’s story is as much an episode about pascal learning that just because rapunzel is busy that doesn’t mean she doesn’t still love him as much as it is about rapunzel learning how to navigate work/life balance—but it’s also very clear that rapunzel’s perspective is “i have been a HORRIBLE friend and i need to put EVERYTHING ELSE on hold until i have FIXED my TERRIBLE BEHAVIOR” when the reality is more like “rapunzel and pascal are both going through a major adjustment period and need to have a realistic talk about expectations now that rapunzel is, like, training to rule a country.” 

in painter’s block, rapunzel feels so traumatized by the (largely correct) decisions she made in QFAD that she can’t make any decisions at all and falls prey to sugracha’s manipulation, and i personally think this is the beginning of the tipping point for her where she begins to see that hey... she’s just a person, she literally cannot be responsible for every bad thing that happens, she can’t be in two places at once, she can’t fix everything for everyone... and sometimes she needs to prioritize one problem over the other. that’s why the emotional climax of that episode is rapunzel saying “difficult choices are what make us who we are.” that’s her letting go of the horrific guilt she felt about choosing corona over varian, and letting eugene and the others put themselves in danger to save her parents. 

that epiphany carries her through SOTS and enables her to make the tough calls she needs to make re: stopping varian, but it also doesn’t mean that her tendency to blame herself for stuff that isn’t her fault goes away altogether. just look at BTCW: while she’s trying to make sense of how/why eugene could be marrying stalyan, her first instinct is to blame herself. to wonder if maybe this is a response to her kind of sort of turning down his kind of sort of second proposal. 

and the rest of the vardaros arc is like... i would say half rapunzel delaying moving on because she’s scared of what waits for her at the end of the black rock trail (as freebird confirms) and half rapunzel making vardaros’s problems her problems and trying to fix them because she feels responsible. 

curses is... not a good episode (canardist, why) but the plot basically hinges on canardist successfully making rapunzel feel guilty / dubious enough about taking back her own telescope that she starts buying into the curse stuff and psyching herself out. 

*as a sidebar here, there are also instances in this same period of rapunzel acknowledging her culpability in stuff she DID do wrong, for example in under raps—but in these cases, it’s interesting to me to note that her apologies actually aren’t very good apologies. in the under raps example, for instance, she also foists off blame on cassandra (saying basically, well i wouldn’t have interfered and put you in danger if you had told me everything, even though i am terrible at keeping secrets and we both know it). and this makes sense, because gothel certainly did not model good, healthy apologizing habits for rapunzel, lol. so she’s in this weird zone where she tends to feel guilty for everything / feels responsible for other people’s feelings but when she DOES mess up for realsies she also doesn’t really have the skills to navigate a true apology. this poor girl

i would say that RATGT is about the point where rapunzel switches gears from accepting blame (both for things that aren’t her fault, like all this stuff, and for things that are, like when she apologized to cass for being a dick in goodbye and goodwill or when she apologized to pascal for belittling him in king pascal) to sort of... overcorrecting and entering her “i’m right, you’re wrong” phase. RATGT is when she starts overtly shutting cass down, and RATGT is when cass’s injury happens—something so horrific and scary that i tend to think rapunzel just cannot process the guilt. it’s too much, too painful, and not something she is emotionally equipped to hold onto or work through in a healthy way...

...so she shoves it away and blames cass instead, very openly. she transmutes her guilt into anger, lessening the pain she feels. and she sticks to that throughout RDO, throughout the rest of s2, and evidently through the rest of the series given she literally never apologizes for it. which is outside of the scope of what you asked alksdfjklsfd but i tend to think basically, rapunzel is not very good at distinguishing between “i feel guilty, but it isn’t my fault” and “i feel guilty, because it is my fault” so in the process of unlearning the former behavior she also forces away the latter, and at the end of s3 she’s in a place where she needs to re-learn how to feel guilt in a healthy, reasonable way. because guilt isn’t always a bad emotion, sometimes it’s just your brain’s way of saying “i did something bad, and i want to make up for it” and That’s Good. 

[imagesbyele]

don’t reblog, this is a redirect post from here (the post with the old version with all its features, which are still present in this one).

the remastered 'Emma - light and dark' theme

 pastebin here - preview of the free version - preview of the premium one which is the same whether you look at this post or at the old one, it was automatically revamped

like or reblog if you use or even just if you like. Reminder I have a ko-fi if you want to support me <3 Edit as you like, don’t change the credit.

what I added to the the old version (which got a bit revamped too with video scripts and semi-transparent controls, but doesn't have these): -lightbox (click on one photo and it shows you the image on hover instead of moving to the ugly blue tumblr page), pixel union photosets (you pick the margins) between images changing ‘gutter’) all by shythemes + the little fix to their script by chloethemes.   -npf fix by glenthemes (now present in the original version too) -unnested captions by annasthms, which you can toggle on and off depending on what you prefer, one for textposts and one for all others (in case you use xkit to edit textposts and you don’t like the final result).

Example: 

-slightly shorter container so it’s not cut off in small screens -asks you reblog from other people have now their own style instead of just looking like a question and a blockquoted comment under it. 

+ obviously everything the old version has.

do NOT look at it through your preview in the editor page, it messes plenty things up and you can’t even see the npf photosets. Keep a tab with your blog open to see the real changes there.

added features for “premium” which is a gift if you buy me a coffee (just send me a message with your url/email for the link), and you can see in the preview:

-ability to add a message on top of your regular askbox, where people are redirected when they send you asks from the dash -your usual dropdown box, what I call 'updates tab’ in the sidebar (you can add more if you go in the html and simply copy-paste what’s in the body section as needed) -popup links for you to customize in the html, and, to give you what I call a “template” so you know where to start, I made it so that in one link (or box2) you will already find tabs, divided in rules, bio, verses and navi. In the bio tab you also will find slide-down boxes again, adjusted to fit there. In the navi tab you’ll get navi buttons, and in the verses tag a potential template of image-name of the verse with link to it-description. Then a separated popup with an askbox and a submission box, both with a frame with gradients like the container. You can take the html and move things around, remove or add more as you please. -optional glow around your container, description and updates tab you can switch on and off. -your popups are styled so that you can remove the background color of the popup_block and add an image (on the corner/make a frame) with transparent background (500x640px right now), the content of the popup will have its own background behind, of a color you’ll pick, of 460x520px. But you can obviously modify sizes as you please -optional ‘not allowing people to right click on your blog’ which if you don’t want is very easy to delete (just go in the editor and delete the script, the label is on top)

[lexpertztechblog]

How to use blogs to bridge to your website and increase traffic

The Importance Of A Bridge Site

If you are like most Internet entrepreneurs, you start to collect different websites or web presences that are useful for generating traffic back to your site. Some of these places, like Digg, Facebook, or article archives can be a great resource in advertising your sales website on the Internet to specific demographics. However, many third-party sites have specific rules about the types of pages that people can use in their comments, their articles, and/or biographical information. Ezinearticles, for instance, won't allow you to link back to a sales page, and yet, this is at the heart of Internet marketing. You wouldn't be out there, if you weren't trying to get someone to buy something from you. So, what do you do? That's where you start to realize that there are ways to get around the rules that others put in place to limit your Internet marketing activities, and bridge sites are an important strategy to exploit. Even when a third-party doesn't ban you for linking to a sales page, there are also other times when it's just jarring to go from a link, say like in Facebook, to a sales page. In some ways, social networkers will judge such a move as “too commercial” and you can lose credibility in your authenticity that way. So, again, you want to implement a bridge site to smooth the way.

Why Blogs Are Ideal Bridge Sites

Web logs, a.k.a. “blogs,” are an excellent way to bridge from a site like a user-interactive social networking site to a commercial sales page. That's because they tend to be a mix of both. You have your daily blogs that you post, that are typically informal, casual in tone, and friendly, and you have links that are put on a blog that are expected to link to more commercial endeavors. The casual style is much in keeping with the style of social networking, and so it is less jarring to people who can be harvested from these sites and do not realize that they have begun to be marketed. This gives you an edge because there is less buyer's resistance on this format. Also, as long as you own the blog, you can link to anything that you want to link to, so that makes it ideal as a bridge site. And, the major search engines love to crawl blogs frequently because of the way content is updated more regularly, so you get a wider audience. In addition, you can put links in your blog posts that send people to different sales pages. You can set up a blog anonymously or with a pseudonym, and thus, no one has to know that the links you promote are from your own website. Once someone visits your blog, they should have an easy to remember URL that is all yours. Blogs can be addictive because the information should be updated once daily, if not more. As long as the information is informative and entertaining, you can get people to subscribe to your blog. This converts them from an anonymous viewer to someone who is now basically entering your sales funnel. You can then begin to offer them some deals or introduce them to the product lineups on other websites you own, that can convert them from subscriber to customer.

WordPress Is The Gold Standard

So, now you see the value in having a blog as an intermediary from third- party sites with massive traffic streams, to get potential customers into your sales pipeline. But, where do you start? WordPress is the gold standard of easy to implement blogs, and there are even some hosts that will put a site for you, which you end up customizing. However, there is a bit of confusion with WordPress that is important to clarify. The WordPress.org is a shareware software package that anyone can use for free. Some commercial people took that software and built WordPress.com, the .com extension signifying it is a commercial endeavor. That's a community of bloggers with WordPress blogs with limited features and heavy-handed guidelines. Some of the guidelines on WordPress.com don't allow you advertise the way you would want to do on a Internet marketing blog. In particular, you can't make any money off Google ads from your blog using WordPress.com. So, you want to make sure that you are using WordPress.org hosted on a site where the rights to add Google ads to the blog is not banned. That way you can make money through advertising too and you get all the features that are important to develop your Internet marketing blog.

Some Plug-Ins You Want To Use

WordPress features can be added through the installation of third-party software called “plug-ins.” There are many different plug-ins that are beneficial to the Internet marketer as there are numerous developers who are interested in pushing this market forward. The following list is far from comprehensive, but it gives you a good idea of some plug-ins you definitely want to get and install: - Akismet This plug-in is a spam filter and can save you loads of time moderating comments. It follows a database that is regularly updated of known spammers, so you don't have to read every single comment that comes to your blog. It will automatically filter the spam out and put it in a spam folder where you can look at it at your leisure. - Adsense Deluxe This plug-in lets you even add Adsense code directly into your blog posts, not just the sidebar. - DoFollow If you have a “do follow” blog you are more likely to attract visitors and blog commentators. That's because no follow blogs do not give credit for a backlink, which is why many people post in the first place. - Email Users If you are going to use your subscription list as an email contact list for your Internet marketing activities, you will need to add this plug-in. It lets you send email to your registered users. - Gregarious This helps you to connect to other site by giving the option for social bookmarking posts to places like Digg, Reddit, Facebook, and more. - WordPress e-commerce You can add a shopping cart to your blog with this particular plug- in. - All In One SEO Pack A “must have” plug-in for Internet marketers as it optimizes your pages to get great search engine page results. It's a great way to attract a lot of attention from search engines with minimal time investment. - Subscribe To Comments This plug-in helps people to track a comment stream on a particular post and keeps them coming back to your blog.

Grabbing Traffic From Third Party Sites

Once you've set up the blog and understand how you will take people from there to your website pages, either via links in your blog posts or sidebar, you still need to get people to visit your blog from other third-party sites. And, which third-party sites should you try to get a web presence on? Let's go over a few of the different places you can begin to cultivate a web presence for the purpose of grabbing traffic, and how to use each one with your blog to lead people from that area to your own. Other Blogs Once you've set up a blog, the natural place to start looking for traffic is other more high profile blogs in your market niche. If you don't know who these people are, you need to visit Technorati.com and put in a few keywords that are in your market niche to determine who the big players are. You should make it a point to build a list of blogs that you can add to your blog roll and see if by doing so, they add you to their blog roll. The blog roll is a list of blogs that other bloggers recommend and by getting added to a blog roll on a popular blog, you'll automatically get more traffic from the target niche that you've selected. Another way to get more traffic from blogs is to comment on the top profile blogs and leave a link to a blog post that addresses some aspect of the post. This way you play off on an already popular topic and you contribute to the conversation too. It's not considered spam to put your URL in a comment if it points to something that contributes to the conversation, not just a sales page. Again, you are using the bridge of your website to grab eyeballs and then once they get to your blog, you can market them there. Finally, you can also go to blog communities like WordPress.com and look on their featured stories and categories. Find one or two blog postings that you can reply to and contribute to the conversation. Once these blog posts are put on their featured page, you will get a lot of traffic if you post something interesting with a link back to your own blog. Since you're dealing with people who already to subscribe to blogs, it's a natural for increasing your blog subscribers too. Digg.com Digg is a social news site where people submit stories and other people vote on them. The more popular the news story becomes, the more it is highly ranked by Digg. It can even land on the front page of Digg, which will provide a megaboost of traffic for anyone who happens to land there. You can submit your story to Digg and get your friends and associates to vote for it. It can be a story you put on your blog on a popular subject. It doesn't matter than you're not an expert, as long as you can talk about the subject intelligently and make the story entertaining. If you know what subjects are generating controversy on the web, those are always a good subject to try to get into Digg, just be careful not to draw negative attention to your blog instead of positive attention. Social Bookmarking Sites Delicious.com is social bookmarking site that allows you to add different pages of your blog to a site where others can view it. Just be sure to use a permalink to a particular story, and not the entire blog URL. That way, you can tag each story with different tags and people will be able to zoom to them when they search the social bookmarking sites. There are many different social bookmarking sites, like Reddit too. They tend to have a large number of people and can be searched very easily. Social Networking Sites Facebook and MySpace are two examples of social networking sites. These sites tend to have strict rules about what you can post online on your profiles. Facebook, in particular, does not want people using their profiles to spam or soliciting other people on their business offerings and this activity can get you banned. However, there are ways to mine the rich vein of users that come to social networking sites to mingle online. First, you will have to set up a profile with your own name, not your business name. You can put up a Facebook page for your business, as a newer feature for those people who are trying to use Facebook to market. However, the Facebook profile should be all about you, not your business. There is an area in your profile where you can list your URLs of interest, and that's where you can add some of your business sites. The key to Facebook is to join in the casual atmosphere and network your way to more contacts. You can do this through groups, pages, friends, and networks. You should try to meet people who are in your market niche, but not to solicit them directly on Facebook. Instead, you can email and network through different commenting areas to get people interested in your blog. There are different applications that can help you insert your blog into your profile too. There is a Blog Network application, now formally called NetworkedBlogs, that allows you to post your blog, claim it, and get people to become a fan of it. You can network with other bloggers on Facebook too, by visiting their blogs and becoming a fan of them too, since it lists them too. It allows you to see blogs in your category fairly easily and to promote your blog to readers through the network. Send them a friend request to anyone that becomes a reader, to any other bloggers in your market niche, and now you have access to some of the audience that is in your market niche. When you comment on the wall of people you have friended, all of their friend's will see your comment and it can lead them to your blog. Just be careful not to spam their wall and make any comments relevant and not a solicitation. The blog network will take them directly outside Facebook to your blog and provide a steady stream of new people looking at your blog who are involved in your market niche. It's actually pretty simple when you know what applications to use. Another great feature on Facebook is the ability to create a page for your business, a brand or product, or if you are a performer, you can create one as an artist, band, or public figure. The difference between a Facebook page and your profile page is that you are allowed to actively promote your business on the page, but not the profile. And, your profile is limited to 5,000 friends, whereas the Facebook page is not. Some people even create a page for themselves when they hit the 5,000 friend limit, so they can continue to network on Facebook and add fans, if not friends. Another feature is groups, where you can add a group on any topic and get people to sign up. Like the Facebook page, people will become a fan and then you have a captive audience there. You may not have their email address, but it's the perfect place (both on the page and in the group) to promote your blog and get many people to go from Facebook back to your bridge, so that you can start to collect their email addresses. The funny thing about Facebook is that they are super paranoid about having marketers harvest emails. So, they don't add the email contact information in as text, it's an image. You can write the email down for each friend that you have, if it is showing in their information tab, but even sometimes it's not there either. So, it takes a bit of work to collect an email list from Facebook and if they catch you spamming or soliciting people with it, you risk losing your account. The smart way to do this is to simply entice them off Facebook back to your web log, where you have an offer that gives them something for free for providing their email. And, since Facebook has a culture of non-commercialism, the blog is a perfect intermediary step from Facebook to your sales page eventually. If you were to link in to the sales page directly, you might end up being banned by Facebook or at least dropped by a few friends. No one really wants to be marketed harshly on Facebook, and it takes some finesse to get people to trust you enough to buy from you. So, don't spoil it by being overenthusiastic with your business on Facebook. Master the art of the soft sell, and use an intermediary space to set the stage for your marketing offer. Article Directories People all across the web are in search of quality content. Sometimes they go to article directories where anyone is allowed to post free content, as long as it meets the criteria of the article directory. EzineArticles is one such directory that you can sign up for and start creating content for other people to grab and post on their websites. While it may seem counterproductive to create free articles that people can add to their own sites, as long as they reference back to you or the original article, it is just because of this feature that it makes it a great way to get traffic from many different places, not just the article archive. If your article becomes very popular, you may have several different places on the web linking to it, excerpting it, and all pointing back to you or the original article. This is in addition to the tons of traffic article directories naturally get from their own readers and the high placement in search engine result pages. Now, every article directory gives you, the author, a resource box where you can link to your own enterprises. You probably won't be able to actively promote your links within the article, as there are strict rules forbidding linking from an article in an article directory to a sales page. However, you can post a link in your resource box pointing to your enterprises there and you are typically allowed at least two links. As your articles grow in popularity, they can generate third-party traffic to your sites for an extended period of time. At first, you will get an instant boost because the article will automatically go on the front page for a period of time. After that, it will depend on how well you optimized it for Google keywords and popularly searched topics, as to how often it is read or accessed. So, you do have to do a little extra work to get your articles to be highly searchable for a period of time. But, after that, once they're up, you can forget about them and let the article directories, the search engines, and the topic do the work for you. What's nice about submitting to article directories is that you can post multiple articles on different topics, related but not exact. So, if you have many different websites, you can post on different topics without creating a new account. Readers who like one story, will see other stories you have written and might be tempted to go further to look you up. Always give them a reason in your resource box to click on the link you provide to your blog where they can find even more material that is relevant to that article. Social Search Engines A great way to grab traffic is to go to a social search engine like StumbleUpon. This search engine doesn't use keywords to assign relevancy. All the pages are submitted by users of the search engine who categorize them and they can even give them a “thumbs up.” Even if you don't get that many thumbs up, just submitting different posts from your blog can help to drive traffic there because the pages are randomly “stumbled” when people search for different topics. So, you stand a pretty good chance of showing up on anyone's pc if they use StumbleUpon as their search engine. As with many other types of services that are social in nature, the less commercial you appear, the better it is for you. And, you want to keep submitting content to the search engine repeatedly to get more hits. That means your blog is ideal for submitting permalinks that go to different stories on your blog to attract attention there. Once people visit your blog, they can be lead to other areas of your web empire via links in the blog post, links in the sidebars, or promotional offers to subscribers of the blog. In order to use StumbleUpon, all you have to do is install the toolbar into your web browser. From there, it's a simple matter to use the thumbs up button to quickly add your submissions to the search engine. Just make sure you add the permalink and not the entire blog URL, or you will have multiple copies of the front page instead of multiple stories showing up. And, of course, the story on the front page of your blog changes when new content comes up, so the categories and tags change too. Read the full article

[airlock]

so, while I believe I’ve made my stance reasonably clear wrt defending edelgard, I also rapidly find myself annoyed by the slice of the Fire Emblem Three Houses fandom which is bent on swinging that pendulum the other way and accrediting her character far below all proper merits. perhaps it’s high time I dedicate that concentrated manic/spiteful energy to another long analytical text post

thus, the topic of today’s blathering on this blog shall be this: the ending of Crimson Flower, the frequent interpretations on the ways it’d secretly suck for everyone, and, without claiming that it wouldn’t suck (because it would), which of these interpretations simply don’t hold up to less motivated scrutinity

-Thesis: Edelgard can’t/won’t actually purge Such Individuals Who Carry A Snakelike Stride To Negotiate Spaces That Are Void Of Light

one of Edelgard’s most notorious points of discussion is her alliance with Fódlan’s baddest, flattest dudes. more charitable readings register it as either a means of playing her enemies against each other, or as a matter she initially has little say over, but can overturn by building up her power base. less charitable readings may register all of Edelgard’s reservations about the alliance as mere theatre -- includingly when she’s not addressing anyone other than them, apparently -- or cast suspicion on the idea that she really did sever her ties with them in the postgame, being that this crucial event is relegated to offscreen and acknowledged only in the epilogue text, which, on all routes, is notoriously difficult to take at face value

the matter with the former is that, just because Edelgard isn’t always honest with her allies, some of the fandom has gotten obssessed with this idea that anything that comes out of her mouth is passible of decanonization, as though one can only ever be 100% honest all the time or a pathological liar. sometimes Hubert also gets hit with some of it, including colorful theories that he’s secretly working with agartha on a deeper level than Edelgard and ultimately intends to usurp her for the ultimate evulz. it’s almost as if one’s not engaging with the same characters at all anymore. but hey, if we must deal in characterization absolutes, let’s go with this: Edelgard and Hubert are both very pragmatic characters -- why, then, produce so much blatantly unecessary theatre? like, there’s an entire paralogue dedicated to Hubert sowing the seeds of a future St. Patrickening; going through so much more trouble than they’re getting worth isn’t how these two operate

the latter issue will give us a little more to chew on, though, because there have been a variety of arguments made to sustain the idea that, despite the epilogue text, Edelgard cannot or will not hunt down the Dudes Who Do The Worm At The Club once the chips are down. a popular one is that Edelgard wouldn’t have enough resources at her disposal to pursue that purge due to having a fucktonne of fresh annexations to deal with; another frequent customer roots itself in archetypal allusions, arguing that, as Edelgard is a blatant second coming of Arvis from Genealogy of the Holy War, her regime should be expected to be headed for the same ignobile end

on the matter of whether Edelgard can wipe out agartha, I’m moved to ask: are the people who push this angle forgetting everything we do see onscreen of agartha? in VM and SS, one month is all it takes between realizing they exist and ending them; in AM, they’re smothered into dust as unintentionally as Dimitri destroys every sewing needle he picks up, largely because Thales somehow figured it was a good idea to stand squarely between the two factions he’d been trying to play against each other.

these guys are jobbers. they’re some of the most weaksauce major villains in the history of Fire Emblem. furthermore, CF concludes with them down several key members and stuck on the endlag of their nukes, which also tipped Hubert off to the location of Shambhala, because I guess it was that important to throw a nuclear tantrum over Cornelia. why would Edelgard be the only one of the three lords who supposedly can’t vamoose these dudes with a sneeze? is it just because she’s the only one who didn’t do it onscreen? and because offscreening it alerts us more readily to what a risible anticlimax the whole thing is, I guess?

as for archetypes -- it’s entirely correct to claim that Edelgard draws heavily from Arvis, and her tentative allies, from the less completely incompetent (but still really poorly written) loptyrous cultists. it’s also correct to claim that the secret spotlight-stealing squad of doom outplayed Arvis and took over his government. still, what sort of logic is this, where an archetypal resonance means everything will play out the exact same way? Perceval is heavily based on Camus and his other imitators, but you can recruit that dude. Jill is heavily based on Minerva and her other imitators, but she can defect back to nation she’d left, if the player is sufficiently incautious. there’s absolutely nothing to obligate Edelgard to follow the same script as her predecessor, least of all to such a point it’d contradict existing canon

(sometimes the ending tapestry also plays into this, because it features a dark bishop behind the crowd, carrying a dagger behind his back. supposedly, he’s threatening the crowd to stay in line. with the dagger that he’s not holding to them. please, rub those last two brain cells together and figure out who that guy is probably trying to kill in that tapestry.)

-Thesis: Dimitri has a secret unidentified heir who’s going to become the new Seliph and make Edelgard his Arvis properly

in a cutscene in ch17, Dimitri tells Rhea that he’s not too worried about getting himself into a straight deathmatch with Edelgard, because even if that ends poorly for him (as it does), there’s another who will carry on the Blaiddyd bloodline in his stead. the fandom has been scrambling for a while now to figure out just who the hell he’s referring to when he says as much

playing off the whole thing with how Edelgard surely must be a carbon copy of Arvis on all aspects, an ascending theory is that Dimitri went and spawned a secret offscreen baby, who will grow up to become Seliph 2.0, and thus, the blade on which Edelgard’s empire ends

the thing is, Dimitri did not spawn a secret offscreen baby. lo, by the combined forces of occam’s razor and conservation of detail, I give you the true identity of the secret remaining Blaidyyd: it’s just Rufus

remember Rufus? Lambert’s brother, was regent when Dimitri wasn’t old enough to be king, wasn’t much of any good at it? you may have written him off because he was murdered in AM, VW, and SS. you know who else was murdered in AM, VW and SS, but not CF? one of Dimitri’s eyes. and that’s not just a crack at Dimitri, either! the reason why he gets to keep both eyes in CF is because the coup d’etat that nearly killed him -- and did fully kill Rufus -- never came to be.

(sidebar -- canon implies that this difference occours because Byleth cast the elusive Summon Conscience spell on Edelgard; I’d say there’s a much more reasonable reading in that, with Rhea alive and relocated to the Kingdom, wiping out the royal family is a lot of trouble just to give her a pretext with which to rule the roost herself. still, see, we can interpret that reasonably without creating another stupid ass Edelgard Totally Lied spot!)

now, I do have to concede that Rufus isn’t explicitly confirmed to be the remaining Blaidyyd that Dimitri was referring to, and it’s also not totally impossible for Seliph 2.0 to be the product of Rufus’s grand royal womanizing. it’s just, at this point, the supposedly clear-cut archetypal resonance is now nothing more than unsubstantiated fanon direly clinging to that last cliff of technically being possible

-Thesis: Almyra will sweep into the wartorn Empire and crush it like a bug

maybe, if they did, we’d finally learn anything canon about them at all-

but see, that throwaway joke is a fantastic starting point. whenever almyra gets brought up in terms of FE16 endings, it seems to be under this unspoken agreement that they’re able, willing, and intent on unleashing a colossal invasion of Fódlan, effective soon enough to take advantage of the depleted and unstable society left in the continent at the game’s end.

why should we start from that assumption, though? it’s not rooted on anything other than the fact that Almyra at one point in the past was all of able, willing and intent on unleashing an invasion of Fódlan that was fierce enough to force international cooperation. what little we’re told of Almyra at the time of the game consistently indicates that this is no longer the case.

in CF alone, Almyra does attack, twice: once as Claude’s reinforcements, and then again when the usual noncomittal border raid meets the new leadership. Edelgard’s forces trounces them both times. note how that’s just Edelgard’s forces, too, and not the continental coalition that was previously required. but that should figure, shouldn’t it? after all, after the Locket was built, Leicester alone kept any new Almyran offensives from getting that serious. and Claude himself points out to Lorenz, in their supports, that Almyran raids dropped a lot in frequency around the time of the game; that may be just pre-timeskip, but all in all, the increasingly clear picture is that, even if Fódlan stirs itself for a bunch of years, Almyra doesn’t seem to be able, willing, and intent on squeezing that opportunity for another major invasion.

sometimes, the centerpin of this theorama is Claude, and specifically, his fate in Deirdriu. supposedly, there’s a catch-22: if he survives, he’s taking his ambitions and schemes back to Almyra in order to come back to Fódlan a few years later with a vengeance, and if he dies, the vengeance will instead come from his grieving parents. now, I know that correctly interpreting Claude’s character isn’t really in vogue yet, but both of those scenarios fundamentally misunderstand him, his development, and his circumstances.

let’s say he survives -- would he be eager to come back with an army behind his back? he might have all of his ambitions, but he’s a guy who rarely holds grudges, loves being alive, and just found out he doesn’t like war very much at all. and let’s say he dies -- sure, his parents aren’t going to like it, but is that all it takes? think back to Claude’s backstory, and to the amount of people who tried to kill him; didn’t these people just finally get what they wanted?

in fact, if Edelgard wants Claude -- and/or his parents -- off her back, accomplishing such is possibly just as simple as entreating with their enemies inside the country. remember, the paralogue where she fights off an Almyran charge also ends with her expressing a desire to reach across the Throat diplomatically, where previous authorities of Fódlan failed to do so because of their strict adherence to xenophobic dogmas. chalk that up to Edelgard’s naïveté or overconfidence all you might want; the long and narrow of it is that the possibility of exploiting inner Almyran politics to Fódlan’s favor is new ground that she breaks by herself.

of course, when it comes down to it, she might not even have to do any such heavy lifting, because it’s just not a given that Claude and/or his parents would be able to enact this vengeance that’s being expected of them, or would even want such a thing. this is, in fact, the breaking point of a lot of other smaller theses about someone who would hypothetically raise the flag of revenge against Edelgard’s regime. y’see...

-Thesis: any number of polities in Fódlan will never accept being violently subjugated by Edelgard

over the course of Edelgard’s march, a bunch of people die, and a bunch of territories get conquered. any number of the families that lose something in the process will then be assumed by fans to be plotting to retaliate against Edelgard for it. this, despite that the exact opposite of it happens over and over again in canon.

and do note, I’m not even just talking about CF. on all of the other routes, you spend a significant amount of the post-timeskip fighting your own country-of-choice’s forces, because a whole bunch of Fódlan folded to Edelgard without a second thought and another whole bunch is just going to stay on the fence unless you demonstrate enough force to draw them to your side.

in the Alliance, about half of all the most influential families side with Edelgard immediately, to the point of being willing to fight the other families over it. furthermore, it seems that Goneril, one of the families that isn’t a part of this pro-imperial bloc, often gets cast as as a focus of post-CF imperial opposition, because they’re very protective of their baby girl who probably died in the war -- nevermind that they don’t seem to be at all uncomfortable with asking for their dutiful new overlords to take care of the Locket while Holst is having another sick/poisoned fit. as it turns out, Hilda can keep her responsibility for choosing to give her life in that battle (against explicit orders, even), and warrior families can get over the fact that war gets people killed sometimes

the Kingdom is the same story; an entire territorial half of it will fold to the Empire on all routes. outside of CF, this requires a little coup, but if none of the western lords ever stood up to Cornelia, what would make them any sort of eager to stand up to Edelgard? hell, AM shows us Annette’s uncle having to give up his own life just so Cornelia doesn’t so much as get the impression that he’s colluding with Dimitri. and then, in CF, there’s no coup, but that same half of the Kingdom flips like a yugioh card as soon as Edelgard gets past Arianrhod, despite that the Kingdom, with the church’s help, is still exhibiting roughly enough military strength to keep pushing the Empire back.

in case you missed it, that’s Edelgard’s whole strategy: she tries to take the fight straight to the people who would never surrender to her -- because once she’s dealt with those, then everyone else surrenders. most of the authority in Fódlan is held by scattered people who put their own individual interests first, and happily base the side of the war that they support only on where they see the best odds of not getting killed, as opposed to any manner of loyalty or loftier value. this aspect of Fódlan gets called out a lot in the game, too

regardless, though, it sounds like there’s a lot of the fandom that’s still constantly projecting a specific type of loyalty onto these people. some sort of devotion to king and country, an appeal to a sovereignity which none of these countries, not even the Empire, probably really have. most of the nobles in Fódlan don’t actually give a flying shit what government they’re currently operating under, and haven’t given one since Adrestia was whole. even the ostensibly tidy three little country arrangement that we’re presented at the onset of the game is actually historically recent.

(fun fact: did you know that, when Leicester first became its own thing, Faerghus was also two separate countries? those two got back together, but Leicester decided not to get back together with them and they made a whole war about it. I feel like that’s a little less than the stark sense of nationality that folks keep projecting on these territories)

so yeah -- there are still lots of fair accusations to make of whether Edelgard’s regime would be a good thing, and whether it would survive. but here’s some that ought to be discarded, at least for those of us who aren’t in the edelhating bubble

[ibukiiiiiiii-a]

🍉 - If you considered a time travel thread, when would your muse go? 🥕 - What do you think about the current theme trends?

the source

🍉 ~ ((a time travel thread? hmmm... well. of course. probably back to before The Tragedy, when everything was perfectly fine and okay and nothing bad happened yet.))

🥕 ~ ((like, blog themes? omg. they are all so pretty, but i have a couple of issues with them: 1. why is the text always so damn small like do y’all want people to be able to read your blog or not? my eyes are godawful even with glasses, so some fonts i just cannot read if they are too small. 2. where are the links to rules and about, come on. with some blogs, entering ‘rules’ and ‘about’ in the address bar don’t always work since some people use a different word for both those things and it’s just. where are they. pls. where are they, where did they go, please instruct me. some themes i just have no idea where to click after i’ve tried clicking everywhere i think they should be.

oh, wait, there’s a 3rd thing too: the googledocs thing. i’m not hating on anyone for using googledocs; shit, i use it too, but i never thought to use it for my rules or my about. it seems like it can get really... clusterfucked with multimuse blogs? idk. i don’t think i’d ever redirect people to googledocs to read my rules and about, but that’s probably just because i have no idea how to put it on the sidebar because i’m old, i guess, so... idk.))

[petalsbloomed-a]

VERY LONG  CHARACTER  SURVEY !! RULES.  repost ,   don’t  reblog  !    tag  10  ! good  luck  ! TAGGED.  stolen !!! TAGGING. anyone who wants to do this tbh cuz this is long as shit and i dont want anyone to do this who might not be able to aljdhfskjdhkj

BASICS. FULL  NAME : galo thymos NICKNAME : himbo, idiot, rookie, newbie, #1 firefighting idiot AGE : 21 BIRTHDAY : june 30 ETHNIC  GROUP : japanese (+ korean / western european) NATIONALITY : american LANGUAGE / S : english / japanese / studied french and spanish SEXUAL  ORIENTATION : demisexual ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION : biromantic RELATIONSHIP  STATUS : single HOME  TOWN / AREA : promeopolis (i envision this being around nyc / tri-state area) CURRENT  HOME : lives with older sister and niece PROFESSION : firefighter, undergraduate student

PHYSICAL. SKIN : pretty fair tan, but he sometimes appears a little darker than usual. his skin does a strange thing where it changes shade in different lighting. his skin is usually smooth, but right after getting finished with work, he sometimes is covered in dust and appears somewhat dried out. EYES : slightly upturned, deep-set, wide and somewhat of an almond shape. irises are usually very round, and are a bluish-cyan color. pupils often alight with mischief. in intense lighting, you can see a little red dot reflecting off his eyes. LIPS : pretty thin and nude, hard to notice. matches his skin tone very well. usually quite smooth. tends to get chapped after working. COMPLEXION : pretty fair, but in different lighting, he can look a lot tanner than what he really is. BLEMISHES : he has a few moles here and there, but overall his skin is fairly clear and clean. he doesn’t suffer from acne nearly as much as he did when he was in grade school. SCARS : he has some tiny, barely noticeable acne scars on his face, chin, and neck. the most noticeable ones are on his left arm from when he was practically set alight by a burnish flame. these are thick and quote coarse, and can cause some discomfort when touched. he also has a very small nick in his left ear, which was how his sister identified him when he found her after being separated from their family after the burnish incident when he was a kid. TATTOOS : an arrow that goes right below the nape of his neck to the middle of his back. the point is at about the small of his back, and there are a few decorations along the arrow. HEIGHT : 6���0, 183 cm WEIGHT : 165 lbs, ~75 kg BUILD : very muscular, quite athletic. very beefy arms, strong chest, well-built abdominals. however, his thighs and waist are pretty thin and trim. FEATURES : his most distinct features are his dramatic haircut and scars on his left arm, as well as the small white line on the outer helix of his left ear. his chest and shoulders are also quite broad in comparison to his rather thin waist. ALLERGIES : slight peanut allergy, dust, pollen. USUAL  HAIR  STYLE : undercut with a dramatic, spiky blue mohawk. USUAL  FACE  LOOK : mischievous smile or smirk; sometimes looks a bit wistful, like he’s thinking about something. USUAL  CLOTHING : is normally shirtless, wearing thick red firefighter pants with a yellow “3.” most often wears black rubber boots, black gloves, ear lobe piercings, and an industrial piercing. sometimes wears a black tee-shirt.

PSYCHOLOGY. FEAR / S : spiders, bugs, needles, being in love (kind of), losing his sister or niece, finding out his parents are dead. ASPIRATION / S : to continue his firefighting career, to receive a masters in emergency medical technology / fire prevention & safety technology. POSITIVE  TRAITS : brave, caring, friendly, modest. NEGATIVE  TRAITS : daring, reckless, sensitive, over-attachment. MBTI : entertainer (ESFP-A) ZODIAC : cancer TEMPEREMENT : choleric / sanguine SOUL  TYPE / S : performer ANIMALS : zebra VICE  HABIT / S : twiddling thumbs, jiggling leg (usually the right), twirling & playing with hair, biting nails, chewing lips, swearing, sighing, pen clicking. FAITH : none; would consider himself agnostic. GHOSTS ? : yes. AFTERLIFE ? : not sure. REINCARNATION ? : not sure, but leaning towards no. ALIENS ? : yes. POLITICAL  ALIGNMENT : independent, opinions slightly more left-leaning EDUCATION  LEVEL : graduate student

FAMILY. FATHER : nikanor thymos MOTHER : agape thymos SIBLINGS : danai thymos (older sister) EXTENDED  FAMILY : james (ex-brother-in-law), aria (niece) NAME  MEANING / S : his first name is of an unknown meaning, but it could mean “from gaul” in greek. his last name comes from the greek word “thumos”, which means “spiritedness” or “the need of recognition.” HISTORICAL  CONNECTION ? : not that we know of, i think ???

FAVORITES. BOOK : harry potter / hunger games MOVIE : the lion king 5  SONGS : rick astley - never gonna give you up, lady gaga - born this way, beyonce - countdown, ariana grande - god is a woman, pitbull - timber (feat. kesha) DEITY : zeus HOLIDAY : christmas MONTH : july SEASON : summer PLACE : his bedroom / the lounge at work WEATHER : partly cloudy SOUND : meditation sounds SCENT / S : coffee, flowers, fresh baked desserts, fresh pizza, light cologne TASTE / S : coffee, vanilla cake, milk chocolate, parmesan cheese, green tea anything tbh FEEL / S : soft blankets, comfy pillows, loose-fitting clothes ANIMAL / S : dogs NUMBER : 13 COLORS : teal blue / flame red

EXTRA. TALENTS : piano, singing, writing, linguistics, thinking quickly, firefighting BAD  AT : drawing (sort of), getting himself organized, following orders (sometimes) TURN  ONS : kindness, sensitivity, acceptance, openness, agreeableness TURN  OFFS : irresponsibility, lack of free time, ignorance HOBBIES : piano, singing, writing (stories, poems, etc), karate TROPES : ambiguously gay, antiquated linguistics, broken tears, calling your attacks, the chosen one, firemen are hot, going commando, hunk, idiot hero, innocently insensitive, large ham, mr. fanservice, oblivious to love, the protagonist, rookie red ranger, scars are forever, shonen hair, you gotta have blue hair (found here, there’s a lot more actually) QUOTES : “medals are made to be awarded to and from people who deserve them.” / “you can’t just kill for no reason!” / “[i’m] the universe’s #1 firefighting idiot!”

MUN QUESTIONS. Q1 :   if  you  could  write  your  character  your  way  in  their  own  movie ,   what  would  it  be  called ,  what  style  would  it  be  filmed  in ,  and  what  would  it  be  about ? A1 : honestly??? i think i would keep it the way it is, BUT i would like to have seen some more canonical information about galo’s family. as of right now, we know that kray saved him after his family was attacked by the burnish. if i were to direct a new movie about galo, i would focus it mainly on his family. Q2 : what  would  their  soundtrack / score  sound  like ? A2 : i think it would be a mix of melancholic music as well as more upbeat stuff. on my blog’s main page there are links in the sidebar to both a soundtrack playlist as well as a pop music playlist; i definitely think it’s fair that a variety of genres would suit him and his experiences. Q3 : why  did  you  start  writing  this  character ? A3 : when i first watched promare, i was instantly drawn to this buffoon himbo. i’ve always had a thing for upbeat, energetic characters who are also quite caring and a bit dumb (which yes galo is very smart but he has his moments). while their personalities differ greatly (despite having the same personality type), he reminds me a lot of lance from vld, who i absolutely adore as well (and i also rp him too oops) Q4 : what  first  attracted  you  to  this  character ? A4 : again, probably his personality. while i’m not as energetic and upbeat as galo and i have a very, very different personality type than him, i feel like i definitely do understand him. i understand why he feels he needs to be overly confident, and i also have my moments where i just need to storm off and be alone. god i could write paragraphs and paragraphs about why i like galo but i wanna keep it short and sweet and just stick with those two points, which i consider to be the biggest points. Q5 : describe  the  biggest  thing  you  dislike  about  your  muse. A5 : look, i know i said i liked confidence, but something about galo that annoys me is the fact that he can often seem too confident. like yeah he seemed pretty humble in that pizza scene at the beginning of the movie, but i can’t help but feel a twinge of annoyance towards people who put themselves right into the center of attention and be all like “yeah i know i’m great.” like my boy i love you but do u have to announce urself every time u appear on the scene??? and pls stop being so reckless u honestly might die too soon one of these days we want u to be around for us to enjoy u Q6 : what  do  you  have  in  common  with  your  muse ? A6 : i definitely feel like we both have our moments where we just need some peace and quiet. of course, everyone needs this, but when galo talked about running off when he was pissed reminded me of me; i tend to go and cool off and vent to myself if i’m annoyed about something. we’re both naturally people-oriented and love to be around others, even though galo likes being the center of attention a little bit more than myself. Q7 : how  does  your  muse  feel  about  you ? A7 : in the sense that if galo were real, i honestly think we would get along fairly well. we have different ways of dealing with things, but we have similar habits and personality traits. however when it comes to rp blogs, while i do like to headcanon things about my muses that mirror my own opinions and beliefs, i do consider the mun/muse relationship fairly symbiotic. we as real people can learn so much from fictional characters and in how we play them, and of course, the mun will determine some things about the muse that will deter from canon. Q8 : what  characters  does  your  muse  have  interesting  interactions  with ? A8 : i just started this blog and have had very minimal interactions, so it’s hard to say ! i’d say that an interaction with a kray muse would be the most interesting. part of me wants galo to forgive kray and to have a better relationship with him post-movie canon, but there’s still so much about galo and kray’s relationship pre-movie as well; what was their relationship like? was kray like a father to galo? how can i describe the psychological mindset that galo had after finding out that kray betrayed him? there’s so much about these two that i really want to discover and look at, while of course providing my own insight (cuz that’s what muns do, right?). Q9 : what  gives  you  inspiration  to  write  your  muse ? A9 : i like to study galo’s actions in the movie, and try to find the underlying cause of the actions he takes. however, when it comes to headcanons, i will often think of a scene or an idea in my head and then internally apply it to galo and see if it works. this is usually what kindles my writing fire: the thoughts that often rush through my head. Q10 : how  long  did  this  take  you  to  complete ? A10 : like two whole days lmao im so slow