#(and potentially sidebars spoilers

[ladypeggington]

WOT SPOILERS AHEAD

two thoughts that I haven’t been able to get out of my head since watching season 2:

1. Making the Whitecloaks actually competent in the show is actually such a great kind of change in my opinion from the weird little bullies I saw them portrayed as in the books. Not because they’re any less absurd or not bullies because of it, but because it shows that competent people can still be totally wrong and because of what’s going to happen with Perrin back in the Two Rivers. If things play out like they did in the books, and the Whitecloaks all hang back and just watch the villagers fight I think it’s going to hit so much harder. These are the people that nearly captured a city fighting against the seanchan, and they just sit back and let virtually unarmed men, women, and children fight the Shadow? Fantastic moment to see on screen. Honestly, I’m hoping the entire Perrin arc is supercharged with drama from the Whitecloaks + Fain + Faile + residual Laila trauma. (Sidebar: I think there is potential for great character drama if Bornhald Jr learns that Perrin killed his wife, maybe through Fain or something. But I can just imagine the shockwaves that would send through the tight-knit Two Rivers society and it is juicy drama goodness)

2. I’m really hoping they bring Moridin back. I saw Sanderson saying that they brought his end of series characteristics up early, and that he should stay dead. But like many things Sanderson said, I think that is stupid insane and will be ignoring it. Moridin is way too important structurally to the last few books to be brushed over and I think it would be a huuuge blunder to get rid of him. Personally, what I’m hoping they go for is an expansion on the tearing for death that he shows in the second season. I want them to bring him back, and for him to use his resurrection as proof to a broken and battered Rand that the any way anyone gets any peace is if the wheel is shattered. He thought that death would be an escape, but the DO controls the grave, and so as long as the Pattern and the struggle continue, no one is ever going to be free. This is all incredibly subjective, of course, but I would go feral if this is built into the lead up for the Dragonmount scene.

[canonical-transformation]

Genshin ships: stock market update (Natlan Act 1+2)

(Warning: May contain spoilers for character appearances and dynamics in [Chapter 5 Act 1–2] Flowers Resplendent on the Sun-Scorched Sojourn and Black Stone Under a White Stone. Previous entries here.) This is for entertainment purposes only and is not financial advice: consult with your ship financial advisor before you invest.

4.0 has landed, and our analysts have been watching with interest as Natlan characters have started listing on the Genshin ship market. Here's our recommendations for the weeks ahead.

---

Citlali/Mualani is held together by a single drip marketing quote, but what a quote. BUY OR HOLD.

Mavuika/Xilonen, on the other hand, does not have a proven profit model. No, the potential for a ship name that sounds like "melanin" isn't reason enough to invest. SELL

(Note: Since Xilonen's drip marketing has landed, let's take a second to examine all the cat themed ships. Xilonen/Dehya and Xilonen/Kirara are too hard to call this far out. Xilonen/Lynette and Xilonen/Diona have boring chemistry, SELL / don't bother. And Xilonen/Keqing... oh Keqing would hate her. Hmm. Watch this space, HOLD OR BUY.)

(No, not all cat related ships find success. The recent bankruptcy and dissolution of Osse/Neko should be proof enough.)

Kachina/Bennett — ⚠️ we typically don't cover selfcest ships because there are too many of them. In this case, we'll make an exception to note it's extra unlikely. They're both too busy having coming of age stories and joining each other's teams (not a euphemism) to have any chemistry. SELL.

Kachina/Lumine, Kachina/Aether — sorry, the Traveller is already too busy being the Wise Old Mentor in the first book of Kachina's YA trilogy. SELL— wait does that mean Traveller's going to die 😐

Mavuika/Lumine, Mavuika/Aether — Constantly inviting us to drinks, her shout or Traveller's; long private chats about the family she never talks about to anyone else; giving up her antiques collection as a show of commitment: that is textbook mid-40's cool aunt flirtation. BUY BUY BUY.

Kinich/Mualani — our analysts describe this as "the equivalent of buying the first thing you see in the store", which I think means SELL.

Atea/Mavuika — There's definitely a little chemistry there, but we're unlikely to see further developments. HOLD OR SELL

Atea/Aether — HOLD OR SELL

Atea/Lumine — HOLD OR BUY. If haircuts had sexualities[...]

Small cap market ("rarepairs")

Mualani/that one bandit in her character teaser: nah, no chemistry, she's like that to everyone who tries to rob her. SELL for two-sided, HOLD OR SELL for one-sided.

Tenoch/Tupac — yeah that's been solid enemies to lovers ever since Talking Stick dropped in 4.0. The character model reveals for both of them have only increased the quality here. BUY

Chaac/Waxaklahun Ubah Kan — SELL. Way too early. If you're interested in obscure antiques maybe try Alain/Rene or Marfisa/Parsifal instead?

On that note, our analysts were intrigued by the Heroes of Cinder City. “It's an OT5 RPG adventuring party!” they explain, “like all those tabletop podcasts!” They were, however, quick to note that this was in the same potential rocky area as all Cataclysm-era ships, so HOLD at best.

Little One/Ushi — yeah sure why not. BUY

But coverage of the world quests will have to wait for a future report. In the meantime, let us know what your market predictions are!

Sidebar: phonetics

Wikipedia provides charts for converting writing systems (e.g. romanisations of languages) into the international phonetic alphabet. Below are examples for a couple of languages found across the Pacific Ring of Fire.

May your phone calls with your ship stockbroker be tienari-free!

[bnhaobservation]

Hopefully helpful guide to potentially useful posts

Usually, for navigational purposes, I content myself with just tagging the posts in an organized way and placing a link on the sidebar but, specifically for this blog, I thought a pinned post might be more useful to track some of them so here they are.

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - Places

Todoroki Mansion (Part 1: Outside view) Todoroki Mansion (Part 2: Genkan) Todoroki Mansion (Part 3: Training Hall) Todoroki Mansion (Part 4: Dining Room) Todoroki Mansion (Part 5: Bedrooms) Todoroki Mansion (Part 6: TV room) Todoroki Mansion (Part 7: Kitchen) Todoroki Mansion (Part 8: Butsuma room)

Hospitals (Part 1: Fujitani Hospital)

U.A. High School (Part 1: Infirmary)

Aldera Middle School

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - How they're called

How the Todorokis call each other (Part 1) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 2) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 3) How the Todorokis call each other (Part 4)

The Todorokis, how they are called and how they call others - Part 1 (Chap. 1-21 & Ep. 1-13)

BNHA Observations, speculations and assorted info - Scenes and character histories

Dabi’s way to fight in the manga from the start to chap 363

The first day Tōya burned himself

Pre-marriage Todoroki Enji (Part 1) Pre-marriage Todoroki Enji (Part 2)

The burned photo in the 4th ending

Height references for the Todoroki family

My two cents about Episode 146 (with spoilers about scenes which will appear in future episodes)

The Todoroki Family: Questions and Anwers

Quirk counseling: canon, the cultural references and what we can guess from this all

My Hero Academia Ultra Archive (May 2, 2016)

Prototypes for Todoroki Shōto and Todoroki Enji Main events of the 1st semester

Timelines

The facts taking place during the year that ends with Rei's hospitalization and Tōya's assumed death

The facts taking place during BNHA first year

The facts taking place during BNHA second year: April The facts taking place during BNHA second year: May & June The facts taking place during BNHA second year: July The facts taking place during BNHA second year: August The facts taking place during BNHA second year: September The facts taking place during BNHA second year: October & November The facts taking place during BNHA second year: December The facts taking place during BNHA second year: January, February & March The facts taking place during BNHA second year: April & May

Full “Boku No Hero Academia” Timeline (Last update: 2024-09-28)

Settei

Todoroki family related settei for season 3 Todoroki family related settei for season 5 Todoroki family related settei for season 6

BNHA Observation

Chap 1 [Ep 1-2]

Chap 2-4 [Ep 3-4]

Keeping up with the Todorokis or, just me observing the Todorokis in the various volumes

Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4

Keeping up with the Todorokis or, just me observing the Todorokis (Anime version)

1st series: 1 OP “THE DAY” by Porno Graffitti - Ep. 1 & 4 - Ep. 5 - Ep. 6 - Ep. 7 - Ep. 8 - Ep. 9 - Ep. 10 - Ep. 11 - Ep. 12 - Ep. 13

2nd series: 2 OP “Peace Sign” [ピースサイン PEACE SIGN] by Yonezu Kenshi - Ep. 14 - Ep. 15 - Ep. 16

General Meta

Ramblings about the Shimura family Ramblings about the Takami family Ramblings about the Himura family Ramblings about the Shigaraki family Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 1: Todoroki Enji’s origin and teenager years Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 2: The back that’s too big, the mountain that can’t be climbed Ramblings about the Todoroki family - Part 3: The girl who’s like ice, Himura Rei and how she became Todoroki Rei

Touya and Shouto’s fight or why assuming the other is you and baring fangs wasn’t meant to work

Chap 374 and Touya’s resistance

Todoroki Enji’s atonement arc (Part 1) Todoroki Enji’s atonement arc (Part 2)

Why Tōya and Himiko were saved and yet weren’t

Todoroki Enji’s father’s death and why he feels he’s not a superhuman

My two cents about chap 426

Changing society in BNHA

Did Enji atone to Touya (and his family) and stepped up on his role as a father?

Was Rei a bad mother or not?

BNHA and Japanese law, aka why Enji and Hawks can't go to jail

BNHA ENDING or how a good plan might become something not so good when written down

When Heroes need protecting who will be there to protect them?

‘Code red’ order in Aldera middle school aka teachers supporing bullying in BNHA

Fanfics

Love is a fire Chapter 1: Promises Love is a fire Chapter 2: Effort Love is a fire Chapter 3: Chances Love is a fire Chapter 4: Smile Love is a fire Chapter 5: Burn Love is a fire Chapter 6: Warmth Love is a fire Chapter 7: … Love is a fire Extra: Characters’ ages

[wh40ksummerfest]

How to: Treats

Have you finished your Summer Fest assignment but want to keep the fun going — and surprise someone with an extra gift? You can make a treat!

Treats are a little bit different from exchange assignments:

You do not need to have signed up for the exchange to give someone a treat. Anyone is welcome to create treats for requests in the exchange.

You are welcome to create treats for any participant(s), as many as you like. You do not need to contact the exchange mods or ask for permission. Just submit your treats for the mods to add to the collection (see the guide below).

Treats do not have to meet the minimum requirements for assignments, i.e., they can be shorter than 500 words or art sketches. Treats DO have to follow the recipient's stated Do Not Wants (DNWs).

There is no deadline for submitting treats; the collection will remain open for late treats after gift reveals.

Submitting treats: Step-by-step guide 👇

First, find a prompt or participant you would like to create a treat for. You can see everyone's requests in the Requests Summary.

Once you have created a treat, go to the exchange's profile page and click on 'Post to Collection':

You will be sent to a Post New Work page that is already set up with the WH40K Summer Fest collection.

Things on this page should be pretty self-explanatory. See also the AO3 tutorial for posting a work.

Exchange-specific requirements:

You must rate your work with one of the following Archive Ratings: 1) General Audiences; 2) Teen And Up Audiences; 3) Mature; 4) Explicit. Works listed as 'Not Rated' will not be approved by the exchange mods.

You must tag your work with the relevant Archive Warnings: 1) Graphic Depictions of Violence; 2) Major Character Death; 3) Rape/Non-Con; 4) Underage, 5) No Archive Warnings Apply; 6) Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings. Important! Note the difference between the two non-specific Archive Warnings: 👉 'No Archive Warnings Apply' means the work does not contain graphic depictions of violence, major character death, rape/non-con, or underage sex. However, it may still contain other potentially squicky/triggering content, which should be listed under Additional Tags. 👉 'Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings' (abbr.: CNTW) means the work may and probably does contain at least one Archive Warning, but the author won't disclose which one(s) to avoid spoilers. Only open CNTW works if you are comfortable being surprised by the content they may contain.

You must list your recipient's requested relationship(s) and/or requested character(s) that your treat focuses on. Minor/background relationships and characters, if any, go in the Additional Tags.

Your Additional Tags should list everything else someone needs to know before opening your work, including kinks, potential squicks and triggers not covered by the Archive Warnings. You can also list e.g., minor relationships ('Background Konor Guilliman/Tarasha Euten'), extra information about characters ('FtM Sigismund') or content ('Canon-Typical Violence'), genre ('Fluff', 'Angst', 'Omegaverse'), tropes ('Coming Out', 'Our Vampires Are Different'), etc. Additional tags help people avoid content they are uncomfortable engaging with and find content they really, really want to engage with, so try to include tags that broadly cover the content and theme(s) of your work.

Under 'Associations', the exchange collection should already be auto-filled.

Type in the name of your treat recipient in the box for 'Gift this work to'.

If you have any open assignments in the box for 'Does this fulfill a challenge assignment' (only visible if you do have open assignments), make sure none of them are ticked.

When you click the 'Post' button at the bottom of the page, your work is submitted to the exchange collection and awaits moderator approval.

😱 "Help! I posted my treat, but it disappeared!"

As long as the collection is anonymous, you can't see your own work(s) under the 'Works' tab in your dashboard sidebar menu like usual.

Once your treat has been added to the exchange collection by the mods, you can find it by going into 'Works' in your dashboard sidebar menu and clicking 'Works in Collections' in the upper right corner.

💝 Have fun treating!

If you have any comments or questions (for the mod team or your recipient!), please send an e-mail to 40kfanworkexchange@gmail.com

Happy writing and drawing!

—

Post header art: Full comic | Original artist | Original addition

[dude1818]

To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

Last week I read To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. Full disclaimer, I had no idea that was the same author as the Eragon series until I got to the acknowledgements at the end. This was a thousand pages of hard sf space opera, and the whole time I was thinking "I should check out this guy's other stuff too!"

Imagine The Thing, but more futuristic and set on a potential colony planet. You're halfway through that story, and the alien has started attacking your research crew, when suddenly another race of aliens shows up and now you have to team up with it to fight the new aliens. That's the first hundred pages of this book. So many things happen in this story

The overarching background of the story is the war between humanity and these aliens, the Wranaui. It takes place in the 23rd century, and humanity has settled a handful of stellar systems so far and has found relics of sapient aliens, but not met any yet. The main character, Kira, is a xenobiologist who discovers the alien (more of a symbiotic exosuit) that kicks off the war. The story follows her and the spaceship crew that picked her up as they travel from system to system trying to figure out what the suit is, why the aliens attacked, and how to stop them

Sidebar: there's a really cool FTL system in this world, which makes it possible to travel between stars in realtime months. That's still long enough that crews are in cryo for the trip, and FTL communication can't go faster than that, so you get to have your cake of a multi-stellar civilization and eat the isolated worlds where things can change drastically during your travel time too. (One of the appendices is the introductory chapter to a textbook on FTL and UFT; it's so cool)

I feel like this book could easily have been broken up into two or three, there's so much happening. Around the halfway point, the (non-suit) aliens go from being a symbol of death that appears randomly in the sky into multiple defined kinds of aliens, with their own fleshed out motives and sub-factions that can be reasoned about. It all connects, but that seemed like a change in focus that would've been a reasonable pause point. (The last 10% is a much harder diversion from either of sections, but I'll put my thoughts for that under the cut because it's spoilery)

Overall I really enjoyed it. There are more works in the series that I'll definitely be checking out. The xenobiology and especially the physics were incredibly well thought out, and I haven't seen someone play with travel times in such an interesting way before. There were some weaker aspects, especially on the politics side (if Kira goes "surely we can tell the military what we've discovered and they'll apply that information in a way that's beneficial to humanity and humane to the aliens" one more time I will lose it), but at least that mostly seems to be an in-universe character flaw (spoiler alert: the military does not). It is kinda funny how Kira makes a big deal about trying not to see the soldiers who get in their way, but narratively we need a bunch of alien mooks to kill, so they have to come up with a contrived reason (alien brain backup tech) to make that not count as murder

Spoilers for the ending:

Context: the final bad guys are a different group of aliens called the Corrupted that are a sapient gray goo, and are derived from the same tech as the suit symbiote. Kira merges with their central body and takes it over, self-destructing their army and converting them towards positive life-preserving ends. That felt a little shark-jumpy, but is fine

How that played out was super cringey though. First an uncomfortable sex scene before the final battle in which she wonders if she can still get pregnant while the symbiote is attached; then she learns that the suit was supposed to be a self-directed terraforming tool called the Seed; then as part of the positive gray goo, she positions herself as the Mother, a weird archdruid-in-space. It all just gave me the ick and didn't feel like it matched the tone of the rest of the book at all

[pinkbowsandprettyprose]

Everything posted so far on Twitter re: TMMN Episodes 13 - 14 ✨

Potential spoilers under the cut! I’ll continue to update this post as more info gets posted.

HUGE disclaimer that this is all speculative based off of what is being posted to Twitter from people who saw the episodes firsthand. Not all of this will be perfectly accurate. Don’t come for me if eps 13-14 air and some of this isn’t quite right 🫠

OP/ED impressions:

Sentiment is generally positive saying that both the opening and ending are really cute, but at least 1 person commented saying the animation quality is not as good as the S1 OP, and hoping they’ll fix it up a bit for the broadcast on TV.

More than one person said that Smewthie sounds like they are getting to be better performers. The person who was disappointed in the animation quality remarked that they think the music was the main focus and got better, while the animation got a bit worse.

Apparently there’s a bunch of ship bait in the opening including Zakumint and Tart/Pudding.

Plot beats (in no particular order):

Episodes 13-14 revolve around Ichigo and Masaya being boyfriend and girlfriend, Deep Blue’s awakening looming, a sidebar about Mint and Ichigo’s friendship and Mint’s home life, and the aquarium battle where the Blue Knight shows up.

We get to meet Ichigo’s mom and dad for the first time! Mint runs away from home in episode 14 and has dinner at Ichigo’s house with her parents / has a sleepover with Ichigo while discussing the trouble in her home life. It’s apparently really sweet. One viewer said they cried during this episode.

Ichigo and Masaya kiss at some point — unsure where this is, I’m thinking this might happen in the scene where they’re hanging out after Masaya’s kendo practice and he dozes off in the lawn, so Ichigo goes to pick a piece of grass off his face and they get super close? Totally speculating here, OP didn’t specify.

The Blue Knight has long pants. Yeah, I know. 😭 Pour one out for the bootyshorts.

Mint has a character song! This probably happens in the scene where she’s staying at Ichigo’s.

Some of the Mews have upgraded/new attack styles. Lettuce was specifically mentioned as having a cool new attack.

As I suspected, Quiche has an existential crisis over his mission with Deep Blue because of his feelings for Ichigo, and tells Pie as much. He goes a lil psycho during this dialog and threatens to do something drastic after he’s told not to lose focus on the mission.

The aquarium battle has all 3 of the aliens instead of just Quiche. In fact, Quiche doesn’t participate in the actual battle portion as much as he’s there just to harass Ichigo.

And oh boy, is the “harassing Ichigo” bit way different from the manga AND the original anime. According to one viewer, Quiche fabricates a whole new alternate dimension that kinda looks like the underwater Ryugu Palace from One Piece, and transforms Ichigo into a matching dress for it (a la Labyrinth). He tells her that even if the rest of humanity dies, he’ll save her. There’s something in here about a scene with a merry-go-round. Obviously she tells him to piss off, so the illusion is shattered.

Quiche is livid when the Blue Knight shows up to protect Ichigo, and has to be held back by Pie and Tart at one point.

There’s one line where Ichigo tells the aliens that they’re protecting their Earth, and Quiche laughs and says something to the effect of “you really don’t get it, do you?” So, expect more building on the alien’s belief that they’re entitled to Earth / the reason between their mission.

The aquarium battle is more intense than the original manga battle. One person used the word “murderous.” Battles might be getting grittier for S2.

TMMN gets rid of the scene of Alto showing up to change Ichigo from a cat back into a human before the aquarium scene.

There’s some food for Ryou/Lettuce shippers 👀 It’s not super clear in the post I just found, but Ryou may have a scene where he catches Lettuce from tripping, and in another scene, Lettuce brings him a cup of coffee while he’s working (Ryou takes his coffee with two milks no sugar)

[lolliputian]

Figuring out Dammon in the story.

Been mulling this over in my head since I started writing the recent chapter of Time and Again. It was out of sight, out of mind until the resurrection ritual for Reasons. But, now that I'm at the point where Heartforge is happening, I'm having second thoughts.

In the end I have my decision for how I'm handling it, but I need to word vomit some feelings about the whole thing. Spoiler warning for the fic and cw: Fr*zer.

We're a bit away from the blowup with Fr*zer. A lot of the fandom's heavy focus on Dammon has moved on, as it does, but the impact of what FB's said and done still lingers, as it also does.

I'll be upfront here: My enjoyment of Dammon as a character has always been that he was a vehicle for Karlach and HER story. And I was okay with that, because, damn, I LIKED that the female character was the important one and a male character was her prop. How often does that happen? And, although I loved Heartforge a lot, liking that ship was ALSO because of Karlach. In Dammon, we have a character whose function in the game is to further Karlach's story; without his involvement, he might as well be any of the other Tiefling refugees who fade into the background for the majority of players. (And, if Twitter is to believed, DID despite him being the reason Karlach's engine worked the way it did.)

I've said to people before that I didn't care much for Dammon until I started writing him, and then I liked the voice I came up with for him. I liked the angle of someone going through the stages of grief over the potential of a person. It led to some fun moments and more that were slotted into a "let's write this later as a companion piece to the main story." I like him developing a friendships with Rolan and Zevlor, and the mostly off screen friendship with Lyric. I really liked my voice for Dammon, and, frankly, getting to explore feelings I don't often get to in writing.

Now, to sidebar slightly: Fr*zer. If you've looked at his social media or Cameos at all, you'd know how heavily he pushed for Heartforge, and how much he DIDN'T want Dammon in other ships. Heartforge was very much the actor endorsed ship, which, at the time, didn't really bother me, since I liked it.

But then, of course, everything came out. And, although many people can still enjoy the character outside of Fr*zer's involvement, many others had trouble with Dammon despite that, and even more so in their ships. At the time, I was more focused on what was happening with the community rather than addressing him in my own writing, and so I put it out of my mind.

Then, of course, we reach the chapter with the resurrection ritual, which I had been building up to for months. And, as I was writing it, I realized a few things:

To me specifically, writing Heartforge felt like it was ultimately rewarding Fr*zer. And, while I have the capacity to write it in such a way that would make it work still, I don't like the ship enough to put effort into it. I'd rather spend that effort on the ships I love in the fic.

The way I had written Dammon's reaction to Karlach's death and his focus on her in his grief sets him up for having very high and potentially unrealistic expectations for her and the relationship. Same with her in response: They built up this idealized version of each other in their heads, and now they have to face who the other person is.

Fr*zer's weird obsession with Heartforge can be translated pretty easily to Dammon having a weird obsession with Karlach.

And, at the end of the day, I'm much more interested in writing things I feel that others aren't exploring. Writing an awkward breakup and figuring out how to navigate that sounds both fun as a writer and cathartic for me personally (to let me sort out my own feelings). It may not make me popular with Heartforge fans, but, let's be real: Fans of Time and Again aren't reading it for Heartforge. ;)

So, Dammon's strange feelings that something was off and the fact that Karlach thinking about returning and not immediately focusing on Dammon were purposeful decisions, and I'm excited to write where that leads.

[eigwayne]

Since I’ve been watching Critical Role from the very beginning, I’m of course getting recs in my Youtube sidebar for analysis videos and such. They always rec the Tiberius analysis first, and what looks like spoilers for the animation which I haven’t watched yet.

So yeah, I watched a couple but really, I don’t need Tiberius analysis videos. As a former DM, I saw the in-game issues clearly- the character had a selfish player whose bad moments far outweighed the clever or funny character moments. I would not have tolerated that at my table. There were so many problem behaviors. Getting pissy when things didn’t go his way in general (thank you for your input, Firefox or Tumblr spellchecker, but “pissy” is indeed the correct spelling), raiding party funds when no one was paying attention, stating he had a new magic item when the DM couldn’t argue for fear of ruining the show (bags of holding, while extremely handy and pretty ubiquitous, are potentially game-breaking tools and should be parceled out carefully. No party should have two. In face, ALL magic items should be approved by the DM and judging by Matt’s face this was not approved). And the unnecessary shouting, rage-packing-up early, telling another player to shut up. Not keeping track of spell points, making check rolls without permission (I would have made him re-roll every single “I got a 22 on perception” or whatever), trying to snake another player’s item while they weren’t there. Handling dice after they’d been rolled but before declaring results- anyone who does that should rightly be suspected of cheating. Doing so in front of guest players! Ditching the party for his own half-assed plans, usually during tense battles. And this isn’t even getting into the grandstanding and failures to communicate and poorly timed jokes and attempts at a romantic subplot.

Nope. Not a fun player. They’re better off without him even if there hadn’t been issues outside the game.

And if you doubt me, watch for two things after episode 27. One, how lighter the mood gets in general. Taliesin in particular but also a bit from the others, they start participating more actively and enthusiastically.

And two, how the rest of the group are all checking each other’s rolls long afterwards. They’re policing each other, and yeah, it’s a good idea but it shouldn’t feel so obligatory. Like they feel they had to make a show of being honest about their rolls. And that ep where Taliesin had really high rolls and ended up switching his dice out to prevent accusations of cheating? Wouldn’t have been nearly as tense if there hadn’t been actual cheating in the past. He really should have swapped at the first joke about weighted dice, frankly, but it shouldn’t have been such a big deal to have a hot night. And we all know why it was.

[astralprisms]

Been playing this for an hour now and I'm absolutely transfixed. It's so cool!! I love getting to chat with everyone's OCs and explore the stronghold. I keep being surprised at how big it is.

And some of the character's responses (Jez'rathki and some map NPCs and some Ocs) really made me laugh. Such a joy.

And of course I took pictures like a proud parent.

I loved Vanquish's interactive room and scouting out OCs I'm familiar with on the map. Some discoveries under the cut (with potential secret spoilers?)

1. The elevator was a fun surprise, especially when I realized it came out into that secret illusion room

2. I noticed that illusion room as soon as I walked by it, but I didn't know about the elevator until I went upstairs and then walked onto it

3. Can we break those boxes? I found two doors that required a "yellow skeleton key" but I couldn't find the key anywhere.

4. I also found that switch that opens the secret door but I pressed it about six times and was never fast enough to get down inside before it closed.

5. Does that room with the little shadowy steps do anything? I tried jumping and walking into the middle and interacting but nothing happened.

I love the rain and the sound effects and I REALLY love the atmosphere outside with the green and gold starscape. The tirsu is also a great architectural touch. I love the trees growing all over, too.

Jez'rathki is so funny.

I did notice a bug in Jamrel's dialogue, for the "perfect day" question - it looks like their answer ended up in the select options and the textbox remained blank with the auto fill inside.

Loved the little nods to gith culture - a fun primer for someone who doesn't know much and wants to learn more. Loved the egg room and the sidebar about the khoalgrim.

The Orpheus holding an audience cameo is great. Is there a way inside to speak to him or can you only observe from afar?

I'll definitely have to play around some more, but I really enjoyed this! I also think I want to throw some more of my gith in here. V'aki would fit in well, I think.

Oh! And I noticed some characters - Vanquish and Rynessa at least - had larger side profiles pop up on their overlay - is that an option for everyone or just something you were experimenting with?

Is it possible to add in Xa'rok's title, as well? Arguably theirs is more canon than Skaro's, since they actually use it. They are "The Astral Envoy".

GITHMAP (Githyanki Stronghold game)

Explore a Githyanki stronghold in this FREE, non-combat, museum-like experience. 

Discover Dungeons&Dragons Original Characters from many other creators, uncover trivia and find secrets in this short one-map GZdoom fangame based on the Githyanki race. 

Inspired by the beggining of "The Lich-Queens Beloved" adventure and using Baldur's Gate 3 as base.

STORY

"Val'ty (Jez'rathki) was investigating the source of the earthquakes threatening her homeland, the city of Tu'narath in the astral plane. 

Following a clue, the Vlaakith's devotee got her hands on a heretical Githyanki disc revealing that Susurrus (Her Queen's palace) is the culprit for the series of tragedies on her land.

However, reporting the findings to his superiors led to the end of the research, the destruction of the disk, and an unfortunate visit from the Queen's inquisitors.

Soon, evidence of Jez'rathki's treason surfaced.

Now, rescued from near death and brought back by rebels, Jez'rathki wakes up in a strange stronghold, but one thing is certain, she still knows the disk's truth, but not sure of what to do with the dangerous information."

DOWNLOAD

// SPECIAL THANKS:

@wanderingnork

Githyanki resources

@des-no9

Gith Language expansion

Help with cutscenes.

@unaarista

For the lovely Jez'rathki postcard birthday gift. :3

OCs FEATURED

@des-no9 with Vanquish 

@tunarath with Kith’rak Ilu

@ardentkurashk with Ka'zalii, Knight of the Silver Void

Rook( @astraltadpoled - @astralprisms) with Xa'rok and Skaro - The Shield of Shra'kt'alor

@dykeguro with Jamrel 

@piipaw with Gum- Unrenoun Cleric of Mystra 

@remornia with Xy'mox

@warmhealerr with Ta’rath, Ra’sha, and Gaalil 

@leadflowers with Rynessa

[deniigi]

also sorry so tuesday again you write a TON and i know youve answered something like this but like whats your planning system for writing stuff?? ive been writing in a notebook for like an hour planning but idk if writing a ton of sentences and words that are mostly questions and sentences like 'lots of food including @ work' and like, mini schedules for what time things happen is useful? im explaining this bad but uh??? just if you have the time and tips or anything? dcsjthankshaveagreatweek!!!

Hey Tues!!

So yeah, I did discuss a little about my kind of arbitrary planning practices here in this post but in terms of like, the nitty gritty, I haven’t really discussed too much because everyone’s kind of got their own process.

So for me, about 80% of the time, I’ll just sit back and let the work go where it will. I don’t do much planning at all. But when it come to sustained fics, I do do some pretty extensive planning.

But let me be clear here, when I say “extensive planning” I’m talking no more than 1 page of general notes per chapter.

In terms of what goes in that plan, like, it depends on your piece, but in general, for me, every piece you write starts with two questions: where you are in terms of narrative? And what is the main goal for this piece?

Really, the big question you’re asking when you go into a piece is, ‘Where do I need to end up?’, but that can be hard to know before you start writing, so I prefer to think of this is terms of the two questions.

–

So, like, here’s an example of what that floating ethereal bullshit actually looks like (we’ll use a maybe-the-next-chapter from Sidebars as an example so you’ve got something concrete to look at):

So first thing’s first!

1. Where are we?

First, in terms of the larger story. Are we halfway through? Are we still at the beginning? Do we still need to introduce characters? Do we still have plot points we need to hit to establish a relationship or motive or enemy?

Right now, in sidebars when I ask myself this question, I can say, okay. I’m about 3/4s of the way through this story and I am done introducing characters. I’ve established Peter’s relationship with Sam and resolved that mini arc. I’ve established MJ’s relationship with the Acadec kids. I’ve finally FINALLY written the wedding scene, so that leaves me with probably 3-4 chapters to cap off Peter’s Chicago mob situation, to get the Acadec kids to Nationals, and to come up with some kind of ending.

That’s where I am.

So if you’re writing a one-shot, this is going to look different. For example, you need to decide where in their lives your characters are. Where are they physically/geographically? What are they doing in this moment?

(ie. for say, team red, you can say, smth like ‘well, they just met and are trying to feel each other out.’ or ‘This is right after Matt came back from midtown, and Peter and Wade have just started to move on with their lives after his ‘death.’‘–that kind of thing is a good place to start with a one shot)

Once you know where you are, you can start to figure out where you’re going. And that’s when you move on to question two!

2. What is the goal of this piece?

I personally try to pick one main goal and around that, I’ll often have a handful of subgoals going on on top of that big guy.

For example, in sidebars this next chapter must resolve the mob situation. That is the main goal of that chapter.

–

Now, at this point, now that I know where I am and what my main goal is, I can start to draft and weave in the subgoals.

So here’s what that looks like in terms of drafting:

1. Wedding is done. Peter now has time to deal with the mob. Peter needs to gather his team so that they can tag into Chicago to take their turn in the fray. 

2. The problem here is that he is juggling two things at once: he’s got to go deal with the mob, but he and Miles are also due to be in Washington DC for Acadec Nationals in a matter of days.

3. Peter is disaster-prone, which means that something needs to go to shit in one of these areas.

Once you get to this stage, you can start tossing in details and timelines, but until you have these guys worked out, all those little details are great, but not especially helpful in establishing a larger narrative. And straight up? They might even be holding you back at this stage.

For example, in the above example, I really want Peter to ride a motorcycle, so I’m gonna cling to that in my head and I can maybe make a note of that in my planning, but I’m not going to fuck with it quite yet. Instead, I’m going to break my two big plot points down.

That could look like this:

1. Wedding is done. Peter now has time to deal with the mob. Peter needs to gather his team so that they can tag into Chicago to take their turn in the fray.

Peter’s TR has 2 times to meet other Team Reds in Chicago.They meet Gwen and Agave first. This goes awkwardly. These two make Peter reflect on his own time with the Gwen Stacy from his verse.

Shit’s awkward af.

Wade likes Agave. Agave flirts with Wade.

Shit remains awkward af.

After this, Peter and Miles have to scram for Acadec.

(end scene)

At this point, I usually throw in an in-between scene as a transition, just so I know how we are getting where we’re going. So I’d say something like:

The next morning, Peter and MJ nearly miss the bus to Washington DC. It works out somehow that the Brooklyn kids end up sharing a bus with the Midtown kids.

Peter and Flash are brought back together.

The tension is unbearable.

Shit gets real.

And now we have worked our way to main plot point 2. Plot point two is broken down similarly,  and then lo and behold! You’ve planned your chapter!!

You may now start the fun, exciting part of writing the piece. And it is here where you start filling in all the spaces in between those works to bring out textures and characterizations and funny bits, sad bits, introspective bits, world building, etc, etc.

Anyways, Idk if that’s helped you at all Tues. I suppose the main thing I’m trying to say here is that when you’re planning a piece, maybe try staying as big picture and broad as possible. Try to avoid too much detail until you’re actually writing the piece (unless you’ve got a very particular/important detail in mind–in which case, note it on the side, but not in the body of the planning draft) and that might help you a little in terms of shortening the planning process.

[c-chickens]

((Spoilers for up to chapter 125 of JJK))

I’ve been wanting to tackle this topic for awhile now and have touched on it super briefly before, but I want to explore what kind of dynamic itadori and fushi have, the effect it has on them, and how the events of the shibuya arc will possibly impact them in future arcs. In previous instances I feel I had a stronger ground to stand on in terms of things like “evidence” and things like that, but this time around will have a lot more speculation and personal interpretation than usual.

So, with that being said, let's begin by first talking about fushi’s decision to save itadori in the first arc. We know now that it was a selfish choice fueled by personal desire and it completely ignored the potential consequences that spring up later in the manga. Now, fushi isn’t dumb, he knew exactly what he was doing: right before gojo swoops in the save the day he was readying to kill itadori. But he doesn't, and ends up thrusting itadori into a world where he will be forced to kill people and be bombarded with constant suffering and he knows this. And that’s why it hurts when itadori says that he’s a reliable, nice person. Fushi might have saved itadori, and itadori might be grateful for that, but later effects of these actions are MASSIVE and are a result of fushi’s decision.

The guilt of being the person to put itadori in this position would eat fushi up inside and lead him to want to protect itadori as much as he can, to make sure that him keeping itadori alive isn't in vain. The same goes for itadori but in a different kind of way. Itadori was saved by fushi, so i think it’s only right that he wants to keep fushi safe as well, as a show of thanks and appreciation as well as also making sure that fushi’s actions weren’t in vain. They protect each other and save each other and look out for each other to ensure that the events that played out in the beginning aren’t something that will be a regret later. But they can’t always protect each other, they fail, and it's important to think about how that impacts how they see themselves and one another given that their dynamic is centered around protection. (As a quick sidebar here i think a great example of this sort of “protecting” is when they both lied to each other that they’d meet up again after they parted from their battle with awakasa in chapter 95. Like,,, they both “”died”” and were willing to die during their respective fights, but said those things to each other to protect one another even though they knew that wasn’t realistic). 

 Fushi fails to save itadori which leads him to die. That makes him feel guilty and weak asf and so when he finds out that itadori is actually alive, that makes him want to get stronger so that he won’t lose him again (though he was already working towards that). For itadori, there are a few more layers to this: he failed to save junpei, keep sukuna in check, save nanami and nobara, and kill mahito among other things.  Itadori wants to protect ppl, he wants to save ppl bc that is the only thing he’s good for. And if he can’t do that, then he is better off dead, at least in his eyes. While it pushes him to become stronger, it makes him fixated on the wellbeing of others rather than himself. I think the one thing left keeping him on the ground is what fushi said to him: that he didn’t regret saving him, not once. However, if Fushi knows abt this failure, if he knows abt this mass loss of life that came abt bc of itadori, will he regret saving him then? We can see this fear best towards the end of the origin of obedience arc after the two learn that sukuna’s fingers are resonating as a result of itadori eating one of them:

What fushi asked itadori in the cursed womb arc is extremely important here because they've now become the people in that scenario. Fushi is the savior of a murderer and itadori is a murderer that was saved. I can’t help but just see itadori thinking, “you saved me and this is how i repay you: with blood.” While both parties withhold this information from each other in order to protect the other, I believe it was also to protect themselves in a way. If fushi regrets saving itadori, then that reaffirms itadori’s self-sacrificing tendencies and will make him want to die even more than he already does. But I think it's important to specify the kind of regret that fushi could possibly feel here: he could regret being the reason that itadori has to suffer or he could regret saving someone who killed hundreds of ppl, or both. Of course he could also have none at all, but I can still see a potential tug-o-war in his mind over how he should even feel abt itadori at this point whenever all this information comes to light. In general though I just think this next period will be extremely hard, not just for them but everyone, having to cope with the responsibility, with the guilt of being the reason for others sufferings and struggling with facing those facts. While the blood may be on itadori’s hands, i think they trickle down to fushi’s, too. 

 As much as I’d love for them to have this great sit down discussion to sort all of this shit out, i don’t think that’s realistic at all. In fact, i can honestly see them avoiding each other like the plague after this arc (itadori would probably isolate himself from everyone tho tbh), and if they do talk it will be just as brief, if not more brief than before and filled to the brink with tension. I can also see another argument between the two happening as well, but we’ll just have to wait and see where this goes.

The more I think abt this whole situation, the more complex I realize it is, and I kind of curse myself for not being able to elaborate on it better. I'm sort of just barfing out text and hoping it makes sense and that the message gets across. And the more I write about these two the more I also realize how fucked this all is, like everyone feels guilty, everyone feels unworthy and like scum here, even if they really aren’t and it's completely unavoidable. How do you even patch this up? How do you “get over'' this when the events that lead to the mass killing of hundreds of people are so deeply rooted in one event that built the basis for your relationship with that other person? Jfc, and the fact that this is only a *crumb* of the possible ramifications of this arc and probably doesn’t matter that much in the grand scheme of the manga just shows how fucking insane the shibuya arc really is.   

[bestworstcase]

If this doesn’t spoil anything later on, did Cass being trans also impact the captain’s hesitance to hire her in the guard, aside from the concerns of her being Saporian? Was he worried about her being outed and subject to abuse after?

unfortunately. spoilers alksdfjk

there’s some big chunks of trans lore™ coming up in 13 and 14 that will shed more light on this so you will not have too long to wait

but! for now i will say:

1 - no, because he didn’t know

2 - if he had known, absolutely this would have been a gigantic worry for him that would’ve gone hand in hand with his other reasons for keeping cassandra off the guard. 

in... very general terms, like - i’ve mentioned before i think that i am loosely and partially modeling the coronan attitude towards gayness and transness on medieval europe in that both get lumped together as a form of gender nonconformity, such that cassandra being trans and cassandra being a lesbian would in corona be seen as pretty much the same thing, and the thing is ‘doing gender wrong.’ (and this cuts in both directions - in that she’s a gnc woman and that gets lumped in as ‘doing gender wrong’ as well. and sir peter def worried about the repercussions of that part of it, even as he offered her tacit support by letting her run around in trousers riding horses and swinging swords whenever she wasn’t working.)

but like anyway - saporians being wrongheaded about gender is like, a strong stereotype in corona so this distrust and disgust of transness is intertwined with the discriminatory attitudes towards saporians and i think as far as cassandra is concerned it’s all One Thing with many ugly facets; she wasn’t afraid of being outed per se because it was all snarled up with her fear of being perceived as saporian, because one would innately imply the other, it’s all a mess.

and - this is drifting further and further from the subject of your question jksdfjks rip - the reason that stereotype exists is gender transgression is a part of zhan tiri’s sphere. she isn’t the only god associated with gender in this way (p much any god who is associated with change in some way will have at least a handful of sects doing transition rituals with their magic kjsdfkj) but she’s one of the best known for it. which also means that in cultures where zhan tiri is hated or feared there tends to be a correlating amount of suspicion of gender transgression in whatever forms

tha-at all being said i think like - coronan gender roles in bitter snow are a little looser i think than they were at any point in medieval europe because i think of them as being largely constructed around somewhat garbled old understandings of the dynamic between huma and turul, which then set into Tradition as corona became more and more secular / the sunlit temple detached from huma herself and became more, like, philosophical heliolatry. but its basically: women as life-bringers / healers / steady and constant but also potentially dangerous and destructive (like huma) vs men as guides / explorers / clear-sighted and adaptable but also capricious and temperamental (like turul). men need women in order to shine; but like - in folklore in the bitter snow verse the sun is often associated with vengeance and wrath, and the moon is often associated with clear thinking, clear judgment, honesty - and corona’s specific brand of this is the moon as a balm and a guide, reminding the sun of her light in the darkness, that sort of thing. and this informs a bias towards men being in leadership rules because. decision makers should be able to think things through and discern truth from lies; women are seen as more impulsive, more reckless, more gullible.

whereas the cultural understanding of gender in saporia is a lot more nebulous and flexible because the thorn syconium was such a dominant force in the culture for so long and like, adding to that, cathay’s take on gender can be boiled down to ‘well bones are bones are bones, who cares, flesh is temporary and doesn’t matter’ and the splendorous temple’s entire approach to choimghē is about elevating the profane to the level of the sublime and the concept of gender being something one sculpts and shapes and perfects over the course of one’s life of course synergizes beautifully with that. all of this combined over the millennia of saporia’s cultural development has kind of produced this attitude toward gender that is just wildly different from corona’s.

and then bc of the xenophobia and like fear of the ternary that has been endemic to corona for so long there is this kind of feedback loop of - gender, talking about gender, exploring gender, these are seen of saporian things, so it isn’t talked about in polite company in corona, and the more it isn’t talked about the more strongly it’s perceived as a saporian thing, and that i think has made coronan ideas about the ways men and women should look and act congeal over time. like: trousers have been popular for men and women in saporia for centuries, because saporians have been traveling by air in balloons and magical airships for centuries, and it’s a lot more convenient to just wear trousers than deal with a skirt flapping around or having to tie it up and then oh no your legs are cold because you’re a thousand feet in the air and it’s windy - vs in corona trousers historically are just a thing men wear when they ride horses, and then coronans visit saporian cities and see women going around in trousers and go but why? they don’t even have horses! and that contributes over time to this cultural feeling in corona that it is Wrong, Somehow, for women to wear trousers. stuff like that. 

as a tangential sidebar here, saporians esp in rural regions tend to go barefoot a lot during the summer, because saporia is very boggy and wet and that makes wearing shoes on the regular an exercise in misery, so in corona there is this association of barefootedness with, specifically, Rural Saporian Poverty, and while of course no one would ever say anything to the lost princess’s face i do think rapunzel’s hatred of shoes got a lot of side-eyes from snobby upper class and aristocratic folks because of this

[scrimmification]

taking a self care day and was instantly hit with temptation so u know what. here’s that dhurkemara essay. but it’ll be under a cut because i’m polite like that

the following is some canon facts sprinkled in with mostly my own headcanons and opinions. but i’m right about everything. cw for mentions of trauma and aa6 spoilers.

i should actually start this by saying that i see a lot of polycule dhurke/amara/jove or dhurke/amara/datz and while it is cute i feel a bit weird about using a poly relationship as just a “oh he has two hands” solution to love triangles. not that poly relationships aren’t valid, but it’s usually just people putting characters together without thinking about how the dynamic would even function. as if a polycule is a band-aid solution.

but that’s not important because this essay is about why dhurke and amara should just be friends (post SOJ)

i do not respect capcom or its canon, but here’s a bunch of canonical soj facts that are kinda fucked up;      - when nahyuta is born, amara is 19 and dhurke is 20      - when the palace fire breaks out, amara is 21 and dhurke is 22      - there’s a gap of approximately 8 years of time where dhurke thinks amara is dead before they reunite and have rayfa (they’re each around the age of 30 at the time)      - there’s a period of time anywhere from 9 months - 1 year that they’re living together again before rayfa and amara are both kidnapped      - following this, dhurke never sees his wife ever again

because i have extreme brainrot, i sat down and feasibly considered the amount of time they would’ve been together. like, genuinely face to face together. if you only take into account the numbers the game gives you, then that means out of 25 years of marriage, they only see each other for about 3 of them. i tend to tack on an extra year or so for dating, but that’s still a really short amount of time, with almost all of it being before the palace fire ever happened. not to mention, they married incredibly young, and amara is royalty. typically royal families will push for children to be wed as soon as they come of age. 

there’s also the fact that canonically, dhurke was not wealthy to any degree. he mentions in a throw away line having a bunch of weird odd jobs including both farmer and street performer (side note, street performer dhurke is hilarious). considering amara was basically hailed as a goddess by virtue of existing, i kind of doubt they were childhood friends or anything before that. my own hcs for how they met and got married initially tend to fall into a romeo and juliet style of mushy romance. plucky lawyer steals the heart of the queen with his humble charm and promises to whisk her away kind of thing. idk i do actually think they were very in love when they were younger, and maybe like... TOO in love, but my essay and thoughts tend to skew towards characterization through how the two of them grow through their traumas. so let’s just go in order of events here;

the palace fire

i do not care what capcom tries to tell me, dhurke has burns. if amara has a giant chest mark from being in the fire for a very short amount of time, dhurke would have full body burns from literally breaking into and out of a burning building. do you know how hot fire is? it’s fucking hot. it’s also genuinely terrifying. my point is i hc dhurke has some form of pyrophobia.

the years after the palace fire and before rayfa is born aren’t given much canon information, but it is stated that amara is convinced dhurke was out to kill her and willingly lives in the palace outside of the public eye. she’s convinced that dhurke is evil and was trying to kill her for at least twice as long as they were married. that kind of skews your perception of a person, no matter how much you might have once loved them. even if you STILL love them, it’s different. feelings change with time, and i think that’s a really fun thing to explore in fiction. 

the rescue/rayfa’s birth

so here’s where i add the drama. just sprinkle it in. there’s a very sneaky line in the game that they kind of slip in during dhurke’s recounting of events around the time rayfa was born, and i have not stopped thinking about it for 2 years.

so plot wise, when apollo presses dhurke about lying about amara being dead, he talks about how he (somehow) got a tip that amara was alive and still being held in the palace. he broke in to save her and potentially run away with her, datz, and and nahyuta into safety, but they add something else in there. dhurke has a moment where he says she didn’t initially believe his innocence. and it’s kind of just played as a joke.

but because i like conflict and i do not write dhurke the same hyper-toxic-masculine way they do in canon because i think Men Should Be Allowed To Have Feelings i thought. man that must fucking suck. everyone in the entire kingdom thinks he’s the devil, and the one person he’s been doing it all for the sake of - his wife - initially doubts his innocence. of course this is obviously an understandable response. she was basically trapped and gaslit for nearly a full decade over an event that nearly cost her her own life (and would have to instead come to terms with the fact her own sister wanted her dead) but like it still. it would still suck to hear that from your spouse?

they were together for under a year, and in this time rayfa was born. this is probably my favorite window of time to explore a dhurke and amara relationship adapting because they would be such different people now. time already effects how you personally grow and adapt, but the kind of horrors they went to would drastically change them both. neither of them would be the same kids they fell in love with, and dhurke had just shipped one of his kids to america in an attempt to protect him. he’d already be down bad, but to have to deal with that, his wife not fully trusting him, nahyuta not knowing their own mother and most likely not trusting her initially, and also an entire pregnancy... that’d be an incredible amount of stress, on top of the fact they’re both living under the law. 

(sidebar; because of how weird they had to twist the timeline to make it so apollo was gone before rayfa was born so they never met, i tend to headcanon this as dhurke trying to send both his kids to america to protect them, but not being able to initially send nahyuta because of their royalty status, and it quickly becoming too late.)

something else that confused me was why the hell they’d even have another kid while they’re both trying to save themselves, and that... uh. okay maybe this is an unpopular thing to say in terms of headcanon, but i actually believe rayfa was an accidental birth. like logistically, if you see your wife for the first time in almost a decade, you’re going to do Something. and you don’t have protection in the mountains. i’m just. i’m just saying.

but all of that being said, more than anything, i think they’d still be in love during this point. or more accurately, i think they’d be trying to convince themselves they’re still in love. they wouldn’t be the same people anymore, but the only thing dhurke has left is his family. it’s the thing he’s fighting for, and amara would have just been told she can’t go back to her sister for her own safety. there’s this kind of pressure to stay together for both themselves and their kids. there’s also a part where dhurke implies that the two of them were planning on trying to escape khura’in together and cross country lines before shit hits the fan.

turnabout revolution

so if you’re a coward who actually considers canon, after rayfa and amara get kidnapped, dhurke never sees them again. sure, he gets spirit channeled by amara in the final trial, but he never sees her face to face, or gets a chance to speak with her. if you’re like me and simply refuse to believe your favorite characters die, then that means there’s a 14 year gap between the next time dhurke and amara speak to each other.

what’s the first thing amara does when they see each other again? accuse him of murder.

in fairness, she’s under threat of blackmail to do so. she’s trying to protect both her children at this point, and clearly had a role to play in inga’s murder herself that she doesn’t want to admit to. but at the same time, when apollo reveals that dhurke was actively hiding evidence because he still loved her, she seemed genuinely surprised. this revelation is the thing that gets her to actually go against ga’ran’s plot. there’s also the obvious point of her picking her children’s safety over dhurke’s entire revolution, and what he’s been working on for her sake for most of his life. and honestly I thinks she made the right and most understandable choice. the real part that makes me think they wouldn’t get back together after the events of soj (provided dhurke isn’t an epic ghost guy) is,

amara chooses her own safety over dhurke’s, while dhurke chooses her safety over his own.

dhurke’s a very hopeful character, a very jovial one. throughout all his screen time, there’s no point where he genuinely thinks nahyuta has betrayed him. there’s no point where he thinks apollo isn’t capable of handling the case without him. he clearly cares a lot about his family, and would do anything for them. this includes amara. he’s not asked to hide evidence for her sake, he just does it. at the risk of undermining his entire revolution and destroying it entirely, he tries to hide evidence that’d implicate his wife of murder.

amara’s more of a realist. she doesn’t give up information until she absolutely has to. she doesn’t even admit to loving dhurke until the last moment she’s on screen. the only lines in the game she has as herself are during the trial, and half the time she’s just telling everyone how horrible and awful and terrible her husband was. and again, i must say, this would probably suck to hear.

the aftermath

the country is kind of a little fucked after soj. sure, it ends on a positive note, kind of, but there’s both a lot of political stuff to fix. and a lot of family stuff to fix. dhurke basically has to rebuild his relationship with every single one of his family members (and in rayfa’s case, from scratch). while I do think marriage is important and stuff, I don’t think it’d be... the most important.

what i’m saying is i think they’d be friends. even if they stayed married, they’d have to relearn almost everything about each other. they haven’t seen each other in forever, and also amara just threw dhurke under the bus. that’d sting! i think he’d forgive her for that, but it’d sting. knowing your partner would have willingly let you and your entire cause go up in flames sucks. it all sucks. soj is a very downer aa game.

and also i value m/f friendship a lot. i value older adult relationships a lot. i value exploring unfortunate and uncomfortable themes in learning to grow as a person and dealing with your own trauma a lot. i think there’s a lot to explore in characters like dhurke and amara. alot of people prefer thinking about the relationships between nahyuta and apollo and rayfa as siblings, which is great! but... i don’t know. i really like fictional dads. i like thinking about him getting more time with his kids. i like thinking about amara learning to become a person instead of a revered goddess. i like them becoming real people instead of just figureheads in a political war.

also i think dhurke and datz should kiss because they raised kids together in the mountains for 20 years

[katamarigender]

If you are planning to follow me, please be aware that I don't tag posts with content or trigger warnings. This includes sexual content (art or text), unreality, bright or flashing lights in gifs and videos, and gore/body horror, among other potentially triggering things (if you're a minor then i recommend you don't follow me). I also do not tag spoilers.

I do have a separate nsfw blog. You can ask if you're really curious about it.

This is meant to be a personal reblog spot more than anything but if you really want to follow me then the above warning is for you.

Tags I do use:

☆save - I want to remember this for some reason

♤ref - art references

♡dragons hoard - art I really like

♧ocs - character stuff

◇fun - looks cool and I want to check it out

○reminder - personal things for me to remember

□music - tunes, sometimes funny sometimes cool

fave - posts I really like

my stuff - posts I made

[various credits below the cut]

^ blinkie made by @booberfaggle

Avatar art by me

Desktop theme background from Rain World

Desktop theme sidebar art by me

Desktop theme cursor - edited by me, original sprite is from Pokemon X/Y

Mobile header from Little Big Planet, gif made by 8z

[emmys-grimoire]

Blog Overview

About

Like it says in the blog desc, this is my theorycrafting blog. I make posts of varying lengths analyzing the storyline of Obey Me! as it unfolds. I enjoy trying to predict its trajectory and, with some luck, my followers enjoy my insights.

I reblog fanart I happen to like and other blogs that also dabble in OM! analysis, but I try to keep this blog primarily about my own writing. 

It is important to remember that I am opinionated and I have no interest in hiding my biases and I will acknowledge that I have them. I will be rough on the characters, writing, and devs if I feel it’s deserved. If you’re averse to hearing criticism towards the things you like, I suggest politely moving on, because everyone and everything winds up in my crosshairs eventually. 

This is a spoiler heavy blog. I always tag my posts when they have them and leave them under a cut, but wade through here prepared to see them. There’s still spoiler free content, but the bulk of what I write will include them.

The Run-down

For easier consumption, I try to categorize my writings in a coherent manner.

Analysis includes writing that isn’t as comprehensive or put-together as theories, usually focused on one particular aspect of a whole. It usually involves studying the nature of something in the story or determining something’s essential features and the relationships involved. I usually write post-lesson analysis + predictions that assess what happens in that particular lesson, how certain aspects of that lesson may be connected to prior lessons, and how those aspects may determine what happens in the later lessons. It’s me trying to connect dots, essentially.

Commentary used to be daily play-by-play summary + critique + opinions of each lesson as they’re released. Now it’s mostly commentary specific scenes because tumblr no longer lets you put 10+ images in text posts. Sad.

Lore is something I do occasionally. These are compilations of in-game worldbuilding lore that can still be analytic, speculative, or interpretative but are generally aimed at “refreshing” the memory of the readers of events they may have muddied recollections of, or informing them of details they may simply have never learned (turns out there’s important content locked behind Devilgrams and hard mode lessons). Some, if not most, lore posts are ongoing or works-in-progress.

Reviews are what it is written on the tin. These are mostly reserved for seasons when they complete, and occasionally events and Devilgrams. I don’t do reviews for individual lessons because a lot of what I would say usually just ends up in the commentary and analysis posts; it’d be redundant.

Theories are proposed explanations for events or phenomena that unfold in the story. While I try to stick with established facts and canon, they're still conjectural and subject to my interpretation. Even if I think one theory is more likely than the others, I still offer alternative explanations that may make sense. They vary in size but I usually use screen caps to back up my evidence.

Clicking on the corresponding links in the sidebar will make it easier to find a specific type of post.

Notable Writings

These are a few popular examples:

Lesson 54 Analysis + 55 Predictions

Past And Future Sorcerer’s Society Shenanigans

Luke’s Prejudices and the Potential Path Forward

Angelic Demons

Michael Analysis

If you have any questions about the Obey Me storyline (it can get confusing), my theories, or simply want my input on something, feel free to drop an ask. I enjoy them!

We have a discord where we chill and discuss the story, but it is VERY SPOILER HEAVY. Everyone’s welcome, but you’ve been warned.

[sokaiweek]

SoKai Week 2020

SoKai Week 2020 is exactly what it sounds like—a week dedicated to Sora/Kairi!

Starting on July 5th and going till July 11th, there will be a new prompt every day centered around the pairing. Anyone is welcome to participate, and you can do as many or as few of the prompts as you’d like.

Prompts

To be announced! We’ve got some ideas, but much like last year, we want to hear yours as well. Stay tuned for more info!

FAQS

1. When is SoKai Week?

Sunday, July 5th - Saturday, July 11th, 2020.

2. Who can participate?

Anyone! Writers, artists, graphic editors, gif creators, cosplayers… you name it!

3. Do I have to do all of the prompts to participate?

Nope! Feel free to pick and choose which ones you want to do. You can do one of them, a few of them, some of them, most of them, all of them… again, it’s up to you!

4. For writers: how long should each prompt be?

However long you want it to be!

5. For artists: any size or medium guidelines?

Nope, feel free to create whatever you’d like! (within the rules)

6. Can I start working on my fic/art/edit/photo/video now?

Absolutely! We’re announcing this in advance so that you have plenty of time to prepare.

7. Can I start posting my content now?

We certainly won’t stop you, but there’s something fun about posting our works together at the same time, you know? Makes it easier for us to reblog your content as well. If you want to post teasers of your WIPs before SoKai Week starts, though, that is absolutely okay!

8. Can I post my content on other websites?

Absolutely!

9. Should I use a certain tag?

We will be checking the tags #sokaiweek and #sokaiweek2020, so feel free to use either tag (or both, if you’d like).

10. Are Re:Mind and Limit Cut spoilers okay?

Yes! If you’re worried about spoiling other people, you can always tag your works accordingly. 

11. For writers: is this challenge on AO3?

We’re glad you asked! It is indeed. You can find it here, and we will include a link in the sidebar.

12. Can I collaborate with other fan(s)?

Absolutely! We will not be arranging such collaborations unless there is a high enough demand for us to do so, in which case we will set forth specific rules for collaboration, but you are free to make such arrangements yourself and work with other fans if you’d like.

13. Can I create content that is not based on the prompts?

Sure, so long as it follows the rules!

Speaking of which…

The Rules

1. Remember the human

Treat your fellow SoKai Week participants with respect! Kingdom Hearts celebrates friendship and love above all else, and we want SoKai Week to be a reflection of that. Any works that are snide towards other fans or towards the fandom will not be reblogged; this is not the time to take out your frustrations with other fans. 

2. No ship bashing and notes on other ships

Even if you don’t like certain ships, please refrain from ship bashing and focus on what you love about SoKai instead. We want everyone who loves SoKai to feel welcome to participate, and that’s difficult to do if you see another ship you like getting bashed. Any art, fics, gifs, etc. in violation of this rule will be removed from the AO3 Collection and will not be reblogged on the SoKai Week blog.

Please refrain from including other ships in your work(s). We considered allowing other ships, but that opens up a whole lot of potential issues, and we want to keep the focus on Sora and Kairi and their relationship anyway. Feel free to include other characters and friendships, but limit the romance to Sora and Kairi only.

3. No character bashing

Again, we know certain characters in the series are divisive, but we want everyone to feel welcome here. Seeing your favorite character getting bashed is no fun, so let’s refrain from doing that. Make your fics a celebration of what you love about the series and about SoKai, not what you dislike. Any art, fics, gifs, etc. in violation of this rule will be removed from the AO3 Collection and will not be reblogged on the SoKai Week blog.

4. Restrictions on content

We reserve the right to use our discretion when reblogging content. Anything with explicit sexual content and/or graphic depictions of violence will not be reblogged. Kissing, hugging, holding hands, etc. is completely fine, as is mild blood and violence. Use common sense when figuring out where to draw the line, and don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions. If you do create angsty or dark content, please remember to tag appropriately with common warning tags (character death, violence, blood, etc.). 

5. Absolutely no harassment whatsoever

Any harassment of artists, authors, gif creators, etc. over these rules and/or SoKai Week in general and/or over SoKai itself and/or for any other reason will NOT be tolerated and will get you blocked and banned from participating in the event.

This rule is not limited to tumblr, either. Violations of this rule on other social media sites, including but not limited to, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Newgrounds, Pillowfort, etc., will be handled in the same way.

6. Why all the rules?

This is for your protection as well as ours. Yes, this rule list may seem strict, but we want to minimize potential issues before they even begin and ensure this is a fun event celebrating a ship we all love. Our hope is that these rules and guidelines will seem excessive and unnecessary because everyone will treat each other with respect and courtesy, but in case issues arise, they are here for your protection. If you see any concerning behavior related to SoKai Week from anyone, feel free to send us a message or an ask.

That being said, the most important rule of all is…

7. Have fun!

Have fun and enjoy all that great SoKai content that awaits us!

(A big, big thank you to @teganberry​ for making the beautiful banner for us this year!)