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izzyizumi · 6 years ago

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Digimon Adventures -> Timeline References (Japanese version) + Timeline Inconsistencies (??) “Twelve years ago, he married your real mother and they had you.” “But [the Izumi’s biological son] died when he was just a baby.” “Then, when we were asked if we could take care of you...” Interesting Notes: - the US / American dub seemingly made up the line that Koushiro’s parents “died when [Koushiro] was a baby” - in the Japanese version, that line does not exist. In fact, instead, we get only the reference that the Izumi’s biological son died when he was a baby. - “Twelve” years ago is mentioned despite Koushiro being officially 11 years old in Adventure (only one year behind Taichi, Yamato, & Sora exactly in all official age references). It’s possible this could be referencing Koushiro’s biological parents married around a year before having Koushiro, but the line instead of elaborating further like that literally just transitions right into “and they had you”, as if indicating that he’s actually around twelve years old by this point of the timeline, when that’s maybe not possible going by the official ages (since Adventures begins on August 1st, and this scene takes place before August 3rd wraps up.) [*the one exception would be if Koushiro’s birthday was actually August 2nd - August 3rd and he literally hides it from everyone, or they don’t find out until some time later.] - director Kakudou, however, has also stated that officially, the Adventure characters do not have set birthdays [this would also include birth years] - the Adventures timeline has multiple other potential inconsistencies and timing errors, not even including the OWG issue with Sora’s supposed “birthday” - All this in mind, since that line about Koushiro’s real parents “[dying] when [Koushiro] was a baby” seems made up by the dub... - (unless an official reference can be found via Japanese publications, in which case, please link them with an actual source) -- WHAT AGE WAS KOUSHIRO IZUMI ACTUALLY WHEN HIS REAL PARENTS DIED ??? - Is it possible Koushiro (initially) remembered more than he let on, but he shut the memories out or his memories faded over time due to the circumstances (ala Greymon vs Parrotmon battle in Hikarigaoka ???) - was he already with the Izumi family in Hikarigaoka ?? - if so, was the Greymon vs Parrotmon battle around the time he found out / realized he was adopted ?? OR - if he wasn’t with the Izumi family already in Hikarigaoka ...... - (note: the Adventure novels, written by director Kakudou, do describe the adoption discovery scene, but not that it took place during the exact timeframe of Hikarigaoka.):

Before now, before he had come to the Digital World, Koushiro had considered himself an insignificant and worthless human being. He knew computers, but what use was that? Even he was aware that he stuck out like a sore thumb in class, and he had thought that even if he wasn’t around, the world would still go on. It wasn’t completely unrelated to the moment when Koushiro found out the secret of his birth. When he was very young, he had heard his parents talking quietly to themselves in the drawing room when he was heading to the toilet one night. Hey, honey. When are we going to tell him the truth? Let’s wait just a little longer. If we tell him now, Koushiro will be shocked… From those few words alone, Koushiro knew that he was not his parents’ real child. He didn’t know who he belonged to. His very existence itself was uncertain. He didn’t know how to approach his parents and naturally grew timid about interacting with other people. Digimon Adventure novel #2 translation credit (during the scene with Koushiro figuring out the cards at Vamdemon’s castle)

(note how the above scene only mentions “when he was very young” and doesn’t reference Hikarigaoka at all, but his parents’ deaths likely could have occured around a similar timeframe, if not when he was literally a “baby”.)

EDIT:

(Koushiro voice ‘to support my hypothesis, I would like to provide further evidence--------’)

(more timeline evidences under the read more !!)

[keeping in mind Digimon’s conflicting ages issue and timeline inconsistencies] ‘ wow I wonder when Japanese kids begin [primary] school ? ----- ’

* Children who have their 6th birthday on or before April 1 enter the first grade of elementary school of that year. * School year starts in April and ends in March. * For Japanese nationals, six years at elementary school and three years at junior high school (total nine years) are compulsory. [source] ‘ . . . . . right ’

A COUPLE OF MONTHS A COUPLE OF MONTHS A COUPLE OF MONTHS Taichi comments ‘that’s pretty short.’ in a kinda slightly surprised tone they were basically asking Koushiro what had happened “I don’t know” / “saa..”

cue Jou running up basically all ‘[hehe I can probably explain what happened!!]’

[note: i also didn’t hear the -kun honorific here but maybe that’s just me ?? ? ?]

“four years ago” “four years ago” “four years ago”

@ DIGIMON ADVENTURES MAKE UP YOUR MIND

WAS IT 4, 3, OR 5 YEARS AGO ?!? anyhow, thanks to Jou, we don’t get to hear from KOUSHIRO HIMSELF what he possibly remembered until a bit later on in the episode. Koushiro, meanwhile, took Jou’s answer as the reason for why his family moved. However .....

wow isn’t it AMUSING how the one who LOSES HIS FAMILY IN A

‘TERRIBLE [CAR] ACCIDENT’

---- REMEMBERS MEMORY FLASHES OF

A BUS . ‘ACCIDENT ’

(Sora is the one who remembers the charred phone booth previous, btw)

er. (thanks Natsuko / Yamato’s mom ......)

meanwhile, right after, a younger Takeru remembers the incident / Hikarigaoka; implying anyone who was still a [very young] child / came in contact with the Digimon either partially or fully remembers (ala Hikari). However, they’d have had to seemingly be closer to Takeru or Hikari’s ages in order to fully remember, while Hikari appeared to remember the most [note: a reference in a very early Japanese Tri interview mentioned Hikari’s actually older than Takeru. However, Hikari was in more direct contact with the Digimon than Takeru was during the Adventures movie, too.]

Takeru was maybe 4-5 in this flashback. (if he was 4~5, he’d still be younger than Koushiro if Koushiro was 5~6) Meaning.

KOUSHIRO WAS AT LEAST 5-7 YEARS OLD

AND HE BARELY REMEMBERED A THING ABOUT WHERE HE LIVED DURING HIS ENTIRE CHILDHOOD !?? (THANKS HOMEOSTASIS)

and also ... “You met her [Hikari]?” - Patamon to Koromon “It must have been a different Koromon.” -Koromon . . . . . “but...” -Koromon

N E G L @ THIS FANDOM

IT WASN’T A PLOTHOLE

(YOU ALL JUST DIDN’T WATCH THE JAPANESE VERSION)

(I MEAN KOROMON LITERALLY SAYS THIS)

KOUSHIRO

KOUSHIRO.

LOOK I KNOW HOMEOSTASIS MESSED WITH AT LEAST YOUR MEMORIES AROUND THE TIME OF THE HIKARIGAOKA INCIDENT

BUT WHY DON’T YOU REMEMBER THE YEARS BEFORE THAT OR WHERE YOU POSSIBLY LIVED BEFORE THAT

IF EVEN TAKERU COULD ?

#koushiro izumi #koushirou izumi #izzy izumi #izumi koushiro #digimon adventure #izumis #advs #adv timeline #timeline #timeline refs #refs #koushiro refs #ages #koushiros age #izumi family #mrs izumi #(HEY SO I WAS NEGL KINDA SHOCKED WHEN I SAW THIS LINE IN THE JAPANESE VERSION)#(I NEVER SAW IT REFERENCED ANYWHERE INCLUDING ON WIKIS)#(so much of this fandom including the wikis try to act like their version of the timeline is 'official')#(making adjustments to the ages having no canon evidence and using only the real world setting etc.)#(when Kakudou literally said they do NOT have set birthdays)#(which yes would include sora despite OWG timing issues . which kakudou . did not work on)#(anyhow i've also seen references to hikarigaoka having occurred)#('4 years ago' '5 years ago' '3 years ago' etc. etc. wHEN WAS IT FOR REAL)#(and if you give a concrete year you better have proof from official publications)#(anyway me remembering theory possibilities while crying)#(the timing issues also pretty much effect EVERY character's 'official age' INCLUDING Jun and except for a few)#(anyway just throwing this out there bc whoa do I love Digimon Adventures lore despite the inconsistencies)#(seriously... if he wasn't literally a baby... how ... old ... was ... Koushiro ...)#(HOW MUCH DID HOMEOSTASIS PLAN ......)

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kazuwhora · 3 years ago

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hello hello, i see your requests are open now and can i request izana, wakasa, chifuyu and kazutora with an akutagawa!s/o? hope you have a great day/noon/night! ✨🤗

hi anon! sure! I will try my best with izana and wakasa since there's not tons to work with personality wise so forgive me if theirs are a little shorter heh. im gonna include a little blurb from the bsd fandom wiki for anyone not familiar with his character! I like these kinds of headcanon requests so if anyone wants to see more please feel free to request!

"Akutagawa has a black and white "survival of the fittest" view of the world, claiming that weak people should die and give way to the stronger ones. He is not afraid of pain and defeat His ruthless, vicious nature makes him one of the Port Mafia's most dangerous members, feared by both ally and foe. As violent as he is, Akutagawa maintains a generally composed and detached approach. Towards subordinates and superiors alike, he acts aloof, distancing himself from social interactions however possible. Nonetheless, his composure is fragile. Akutagawa is quick to lash out, ridiculing him for risking the bounty by acting recklessly. This quick temper often gets in his way, fuelling his actions to the core of his very being."

SUMMARY: izana, wakasa, chifuyu, && kazutora with an akutagawa!so

CW: hints of toxicity and violence, mentions of sex but not really all that nsfw-ish so otherwise not much else!

IZANA

- this is an interesting one because from what we know about izana, he is very similar in personality to akutagawa in terms of ruthlessness that stems from childhood trauma and isolation.

- in the case of a s/o with this personality, I think it would be a troubling relationship. lots of bitter fights fuelled by nothing but an inability to express vulnerability, while leaving both of you torn up inside and begging for someone to nurture the trauma and allow space for emotions.

- that being said, with toxicity and trauma also comes intense passion and desire. this relationship brings a lot of fire both in the bedroom and outside of the bedroom, with simple arguments often spawning into intense desperate (and lengthy might I add) sex. like, intense. it's almost like sex is the only safe outlet of these pent up emotions, providing a sort of comfort and also distraction for both parties.

- however as I said in general, this is definitely a toxic relationship. one where neither can help the other when it comes to growth and improvement on a personal level. it's unhealthy and enabling, but for a short lived fling it is hot as fuck im not even gonna lie. lots of hate sex too.

WAKASA

- so wakasa is another interesting one alongside izana given the lack of information and content we have about his character so please excuse the slight kc fanon version I have in my head of wakasa lol

- wakasa has a "don't fuck with me because I do not fucking care" type of vibe to him. I definitely think he's the type to completely disengage from the type of behaviours an akutagawa-type s/o might display. this leads to sort of a sense of competitiveness in trying to get some kind of reaction from him, and it has the potential (much like izana) to become toxic in nature

- any attempts to get under his skin are failed attempts, and the way he looks at you with that half bored expression is something that only triggers more of a somewhat emotional response from you.

- with that being said, my fanon version of wakasa is someone who while cold and aloof, is also quite a rational person. he's been typed by the fandom as INTJ which is quite a quick thinker, and I think he probably (despite not showing it very well) has a soft spot for you. but your passion and intensity (as well as your easily triggered dynamic) keeps him from completely being able to express this care in any way other than not engaging with your antics

- as much as there are some similarities with the type of toxicity in this relationship with both wakasa and izana, the intense passion isn't quite the same as it is with izana. instead, feelings of passion are more to the point and driven by pure instinct and desire rather than toxic passion. wakasa seeming like a very literal person, is actually quite mysterious deep down and has a lot (I mean a lot) of hidden desires and kinks that begin to emerge with time. it's rarely a conversation, and more often just something that happens that surprises you. you just have to go with the flow here, and let him take the reigns for once. it might actually be a good opportunity to allow for vulnerability to take the spotlight for once, which is something wakasa is surprisingly in tune with and quite to the point about.

CHIFUYU

- this is something much healthier than the last two. chifuyu, being an enfp is someone that's able to handle this level of intensity in a person while still being able to understand what's really going on.

- call him the trauma counsellor king. he values each and every response to a trigger that you might have. he notices patterns, he makes mental notes of things, and he does this all without making it seem like he's analyzing.

- to be honest he actually loves the spunk you bring on a day to day level. even though most of the time it's driven by bitterness or hate (not always towards him just in general) he is still able to see beyond that and appreciate you for what you are.

- with that being said, chifuyu will not stand for any toxic behaviour towards him. no sir he will not. threats and pushes for fights wont be tolerated, and he will either disengage or try to expose your vulnerabilities in an attempt at forced submission. this can be hard to get used to, especially with having a personality characterized by the inability to accept being vulnerable. but with time chifuyu is one to create a safe space for you to allow yourself to feel emotions beyond anger and resentment, and he encourages this.

- because of this very feelings based approach, intimacy with chifuyu is just that: intimate. he's extremely loving and doting, hoping that his sweetness can rub off on you a little bit. however he's also very accepting of your need for power over him (especially during sex) and will absolutely submit to your needs in order to please you.

- he really likes to put you in a place of pleasure though, so however that may come to you chifuyu is the one to deliver it.

KAZUTORA

- oh boy. this one is a doozy. listen. if we're talking about timeskip kazutora (as is the case with all characters i write about but I feel it especially important to remind ppl of here given his history), we're talking about someone who is quite literally walking on eggshells in terms of his trauma and emotional vulnerability.

- he's pretty good at being emotionally aware of his needs and struggles as well as the needs and struggles of those around him, but that doesn't mean that he's entirely healed or capable of managing toxicity or his triggers. he still slips up from time to time especially when things get hard, and sometimes finds himself falling into his old patterns. after all, he's only human. but this is where things could get messy in a relationship.

- for the most part, like I said, he's pretty good. so let's focus on that part first since I want to give him credit where it's due. he is very desperate for love and dedicated to providing something to his partner. in this case, he will seek to tap into his emotional vulnerability to provide some sort of comfort for you. he wants to see you happy, and calm, because he sees so much of his old self in you that it gets to him sometimes. but at the same time, he struggles with your relentlessness and can become emotionally drained when things get tough. he'll beat himself up for not being good enough to help you, and this is when he'll isolate and fall into old patterns.

- however, akutagawa's personality type isn't all bad. with a s/o like akutagawa, comes an immense amount of protection and loyalty for their loved ones no matter how tough things might be. in this case it might be hard to communicate this, but there will be times when it's needed in order for kazutora to restrain from old habits and ways of dealing with hardships. but he wants to share his healing with you, he wants you to be happy, and more than anything he understands the struggle of wanting to be happy and healthy but being afraid of losing the one thing that makes you you: your attitude and relentlessness. nobody understands this better than kazutora, which is why things between you can get frustrating and very personal for him.

- much like chifuyu, sex is driven towards pleasing you and only you. chifuyu leans more into switch territory however, while kazutora is 100% submissive. in this case it works out well, however he has a lot of boundaries and limitations when it comes to the way in which you function. he doesn't like degradation. instead, he thrives from praise and any sign of love and care. this might be tough for you to execute 100% of the time, but when it comes down to it the way his eyes twinkle for you is enough to make the ice around your heart melt just a little more each time.

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thejennyeverywhereproject · 2 years ago

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THGJE: Postmortem

I finished this story about six months ago, though it took rather longer to post. It's already kind of weird looking back on it: in the current phase of history, six months feels like forever.

When I started it, I was still in the early stages of processing the overwhelming isolation and panic of the pandemic, and found it difficult to write at all. @ununnilium had started writing a story that was written one sentence at a time, and I decided to do something similar: something that would let me ensure I wrote a short bit of something every day, no matter what.

I'd made a couple attempts at writing something about Jenny Everywhere (including the previous version of this blog) that hadn't gone anywhere. I basically had given up on the whole thing as the concept slowly died away, but, inspired by @aristidetwain and others' work to archive and build on past Jenny Everywhere material, I decided to give it another try.

I literally had no idea what I was doing when I started it off. I threw in bits of things I'd experienced and books I'd read, drawing on a wide variety of literary influences from Moorcock to Dumas to Brecht to radical trans literature like Stone Butch Blues and Sea Witch.

The pieces of the plot and themes gradually fell into place as I worked on this, and it was around the end of act 4 that I finally figured out what the story was about; the Dumasian portion of the story was the most planned and least improvised. I found it stressful to write but rewarding once it was done.

Over the course of the story I've referenced a bunch of other public domain/open source characters and concepts, most of which can be figured out pretty easily from the pdsh and Jenny Everywhere wikis. One exception was Voyage of the Zephyrus, a project that @ununnilium had been working on ages ago, intended to be a kind of vaguely Doctor Who-inspired story world about a dimension-traveling ship whose captain would share the memories of all those who held that post before them. They've been thinking about releasing the stuff they wrote for it as some kind of open-source project.

I didn't really revise the story as I wrote it, as I wanted it to be an unmediated expression of what I was thinking and feeling at the time as much as possible, and worried that if I spent too long to think about it I'd lose momentum as I had for so many other things. Having come out the other end of this, there's a number of things I'd do differently, but I'll let this story to stand as it is as

As I started this, I'd just moved out of the town I'd spent most of my life in and felt the need to redefine myself as a person and a writer. I wrote this to work through new feelings and ideas, to try and deepen my connection to I wrote this out of a very deep desperation and frustration, a prayer for something better in my life and the world. I don't think we're any closer to that, on the surface it seems like we're farther away than ever.

Still... I did manage to finish a long story, which I had thought I couldn't do. Who knows what else might be possible?

I want to thank everyone who's indulged this story, from the small Jenny Everywhere fandom on tumblr to the people on rec.arts.comics.creative. I think we've proven this concept has a future and I'm really excited to see where it's going from here on out.

I also wanted to add more things to the pool for future writers to draw on, so I'll just say the characters who were created for this including Glendalf/Lailoken, ARCHONET and so forth are open source, and people have blanket permission to use ideas and plot elements from this story.

And last but not least:

The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition: This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, that others might use this property as they wish. All rights reversed.

Thank you and good night.

#jenny everywhere #thgje

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help-i-need-a-cool-username · 3 years ago

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So for AAW this year i decided to explore some QPRs since ive never done that before (does that even qualify for AAW?). So without further ado (i'll try to keep it quick) these are the relationships that give me the strongest QPR vibes theres no particular order just a attempted color gradient

1. Joan Watson and Sherlock Holmes (Elementary)

Ive talked about these two before for AAW 2019(?) so ill touch on them briefly (and i'll put the link in the notes). Disclaimer: This is a show that i watched in bits and pieces, almost primarily from reruns. The longterm focus of this show is clearly these two's relationship. In the beginning they were stuck together, and then they chose to be together but they still had issues, at one point they stop talking to each other (like legit didnt talk one of them moved away and they didnt stay in contact), were together with issues again, and then they were primarily okay, and at one point left/fled the country together even though only one of them had to. Throughout the show there are these spoken moments that really tell the depth of their relationship, from either them or other characters. Off the top of my head theres "you named a species of bee after me," "i think shes the person you love most in this world," "i consider you to be a exceptional person. So i make a exceptional effort to accommodate you," "this is your home," "i'll stay. Of course i'll stay," and that line in the picture. They dont seem to struggle that much when it comes to describing their relationship and believe "partners" sums it up best. They live together, see each other as the most important/favorite person in their lives, and are raising a child together.

2. Aziraphale and Crowley (Good Omens)

Im not sure these two count, being not human and all. In the show and in the fandom (and i assume the book) people, and they themselves, struggle to understand their relationship and on top of that they arent supposed to be on good terms with each other (one is a angel and one is a demon). Are they friends? Enemies? Boyfriends? Best friends? Crowley at one point comes to the conclusion that never having Aziraphale in his life again is worse than the end of the world. One of the definitions for a QPR is "undefinable relationship," which fits nicely here.

3. Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket (Pacific Rim)

Disclaimer: i havent seen this movie since it was in theaters and therefore dont remember much. If i had know what a QPR was when i saw this movie it would have made so much more sense. One of the background themes is strong relationships (you cant power the robots without it) which includes familial, platonic, and romantic. These two were left ambiguous, all the shots were framed in that typical "they're gonna end up together by the end" way only for nothing to confirm it at the end. It was wonderful. You follow two different gendered strangers who become super important to each other and share all their darkest secrets and memories and give each other soft looks to not end up dating at the end. Wether or not you see it as a QPR its a movie that doesnt erase m/f friendship and thats just fantastic.

[sorry guys its 2am now these paragraphs are gonna be a little shorter]

4. Carol Danvers and Monica Rambeau (Captain Marvel)

Before Carol disappeared it was clear she was living with Maria, her best friend, and helping her raise Monica, Maria's daughter, from a young age. Its clear her "death" greatly effected them.

5. Maka Albarn and Soul Eater Evans (Soul Eater)

I recently rewatched this show and their relationship on the surface seems like Two Kids Who Are Opposites And Dont Like Each Other Are Forced To Do Group Project type relationship but its actually so much deeper. They're roommates and best friends and each think the other one is the greatest person they know. They both have arcs centered around protecting the other. Soul states on multiple occasions that he's not into Maka, and Maka compares their partnership to her parents' marriage but never actually expects or acts like Soul is her boyfriend. Its clear they're gonna stay together for a long time coming.

6. Clint Barton and Kate Bishop (Marvel Comics)

Okay so i could say so much on this but let me start this off with a big Disclaimer: i have not read these comics, all of my knowledge comes from fan works (like the entirety of ao3 and tumblr) and wiki pages. These two. THESE TWO. Ahhh i dont even know what to say because i dont know if this is a thing where fanon versions are entirely OOC. These guys have something like a 12 year age difference, so from the outside their relationship seems weird. People (real or fictional idr) keep trying to slot them into familial roles (big brother and little sister, uncle and niece, dad and daughter) but the truth is they're friends and partners. Ya its a little weird with their age difference but if they were both 10 years older most people wouldn't even notice the age difference. Clint makes it clear to us just how much he loves Kate. She's super important to him. Just looking for pics for this post i saw so many panels displaying how close they are. Idk if its canon or not but fanfic really gave the impression Kate basically lives part time at his place. These two give me vibes that they have the kind of closeness where they could cuddle on the couch together and it wouldnt be weird. And i mean full horizontal doing a balancing act in order to get them both to stay on the couch between the backrest and the edge so they could nap. Like if one of them was married their spouse wouldnt be surprised to wake up in the morning and find them both eating breakfast in their PJs. Like these two would kiss on the mouth but it wouldnt be romantic at all just a way to express emotion. They just give me this vibe thats led to so many headcanons and idek if its canon

#hinacu #aaw21 #aggressively arospec week #its 2:30am and ive finished #i started at 12:30 #qpr #qpp #queer platonic partnership #queer platonic relationship #joanlock #ineffable husbands #soma #hawkeye squared #hawkeye^2 #i forget the other ship names #we really need a symbol for qpr like u have / for romantance and & for platonic/famlial/dynamics in general #what should we use like a \ or a + or ~

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essayofthoughts · 3 years ago

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📕

Put “📓” or some other version of a book emoji into my inbox and I’ll explain the plot of a fanfiction that I haven’t written but daydream about.

From what I see of CR fandom there's ... well frankly, not a lot of thoughts about Cassandra de Rolo, which is a shame because she's fascinating, but there seem to be a few specific trends for her. Some people want to give her a chance to be awesome and adventure on her own, which fine, I kind of get but also I think after the five years she had she'd want to unwind and relax and be safe more than a lot of things. Even when dealing with anger and all (with Percy's help, given some of the Wrap Up comments) I don't think that's necessarily the route she'd go. The other trends I see for her are often specifically romantic - and there's two trends I see there. People who ship her with Kynan, due to some of the Wrap Up comments from Matt, and people who ship her with Kaylie for... I don't know what reason. Some combo of Lesbians and, from what I could tell "it'd piss off Percy and that'd be funny" which I don't necessarily believe and certainly do not find encouraging ship motivation.

Sufficeth to say, I do not find either of these particularly compelling.

I've written a small fic about Cass before (here) and one day I'd like to write something that builds on it. Specifically, I want to explore how she might interact with Desmond.

No, not the mapmaker, that's Tyriok.

No, not the person they saved outside of Westruun from the orcs.

No. No. No.

The carriageboy Percy maimed.

Yeah. Him.

See, there's a few things I think that have the potential to make that interesting. Firstly, we're told Desmond is around 18 - which is to say, older than Kynan, around the same age as Cass, and likely around the same age Percy was when the Briarwoods attacked.

(Percy's last words to Desmond before knocking him out, "I want you spend the rest of your life making up for what you allowed to happen", suddenly take on a whole load of other meaning when you consider that, imo.)

He's a Whitestone native, he's not an inherently bad person. Percy attempts to apologise once they return, but gets repeatedly spoken over because he pauses, presumably trying to find the right words to apologise ("I'm sorry I maimed you, I was not entirely myself and may have been under the influence of a demon but that's no excuse and I do not know that I can ever make amends to you for the wrong I have done you" is not an apology that's likely to fall easily from anyone's lips, let us be honest here). He does ultimately try to ensure Desmond gets a position of work - which he may otherwise struggle to find, given his maimed hand, and again, which it is only fair Percy attempt to rectify given his responsibility.

But ah, this is all Desmond and Percy, let me move on to Desmond and Cassandra.

They're of an age. They also both lived through the Briarwoods occupation in pretty close proximity to the Briarwoods - Cassandra as their prisoner and Desmond first as the carriageboy of one of their new nobles and then as their carriageboy. They've seen both the Briarwoods capability for kindness, for protective anger, and for their cruelty and brutality - including towards them. They murdered Cassandra's family; when she helped Percy escape they were shot at and she was shot down under their orders. They abandoned Desmond when Vox Machina attacked; on realising he was their prisoner they sent two invisible stalkers to kill him.

They also were twistedly parental to Cassandra and saved Desmond from Tylieri's treatment. These two undoubtedly have complicated, messy and often unclear thoughts and emotions regarding the Briarwoods. Desmond was offered a job as a courier between Whitestone and Emon but after Musician's Nostalgia he's never heard from again. He may have been killed during the Conclave's attack, if he was still in Emon - or he may have been sent off already. The wiki assumes he lives; we don't know for certain. But I like the idea he lives and I like this specific idea, so I run with the assumption he survived and either made his way to Whitestone or was part of the refugees VM evacuated to Whitestone.

And I like the idea that he ends up in service to Cass, basically as her manservant and personal assistant. Percy wants to see Desmond employed. Cassandra is being left in charge of Whitestone and all the things Percy, in his particular messy way, is not good at dealing with, which is to say the aftermath of so much of what he does.

So Cassandra, partially perhaps as a pointed comment, keeping Desmond as her personal servant - so Percy cannot forget what he has done and what he has left her to deal with.

I do not think Desmond would ever think particularly kindly of Percy. I do not blame him. No matter how much I love Percy as a character and think him well constructed and find him fascinating to explore - I would not blame Desmond in the least for being bitter and angry regarding the man who maimed him, never apologised, ensured he was given employment and just left the handling of that to his deeply traumatised younger sister.

There are many legitimate reasons to criticise Percy and Desmond, in this circumstance even more than canon, would have every cause to see those.

But I also think he'd have a lot of reasons to empathise with and understand Cassandra. I think their understanding of the complexity of their personal relationships with the Briarwoods would make them less judgemental of one another's difficult decisions during the occupation; their understanding of the pressures of the occupation and the grief Whitestone and the families within it bear for what happened - they lived in and amongst it as Percy did not.

I think they could connect on an interesting and deep way.

I also think neither is particularly prone to trusting, given everything. I think they'd take a damn long time to admit their trust for each other let alone anything else. If I wrote it, it would be a painfully slow burn.

But... I like to imagine it. I like to think up how they'd slowly be drawn closer just by working together and seeing each other every day and understanding one another's quirks. I like to think about the steady, quiet peace they build because neither has much care for sudden loud noises or explosive anger. For how their understanding of one another builds reassurance; for how that means they stand firm for each other in tentative friendship and empathetic loyalty. I like to think about the way they act towards each other, starting as the formal standard of ruling Lady and personal manservant and how that shifts as they use that to shield one another from things they know they dislike; Desmond given leave when Percy comes to speak to Cassandra, Desmond interrupting with some small important distraction when Cassandra gets caught in panic or anxiety or a memory. Quietly, persistently, helping each other, and it seeming only as work.

But it's too persistent for just work. It's too consistent for work.

But of course - they cannot just admit it. They have little reason to trust, for all they very clearly trust each other within their set dynamic.

This story, if I ever wrote it, would unfold slowly, small thing weighing upon small thing until the pressure is insurmountable and impossible to ignore.

It's not my usual style, that kind of steady slow pacing. But one day, I'd like to try it.

#samdaharu #percy de rolo #cassandra de rolo #desmond otham #critical role #ask games #ask #fic things #writing things

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iluxia · 4 years ago

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Unsolicited writing advice???

A ton of you have commented with such kind and complimentary words about my Naruto fic Hiding in the Leaves and its characterization through the shifting POVs. Thank you all! I’m gratified to hear that you’re enjoying it. Some are asking how I shift perspectives and still manage to keep the characters in line. Actually, a fair number of readers have asked for actual advice, so here we go. This is a lot of writing babble, I hope it makes sense but feel free to drop me an ask if anything is unclear!

(1) I read a lot. I read all the time. Easily a book a day, maybe two days. And when I do, I practice critical reading—or as they say, reading like an editor, so I can pick at techniques other writers use. Writing is an art you learn largely by example. A lot of what I read influences what and how I write, so when I need to change my tone or voice to fit a different character, I usually read something that matches what I want my prose to sound like, on top of using techniques like changing tenses and playing with vocabulary choices.

I recently had the chance to flex these writing muscles because I went from writing two very distinct human voices (Tony Stark & Stephen Strange) to writing an alien voice (Loki). It was fucking hard; those in the Marvel fandom might know what I mean. Tony and Stephen are both human, born and raised in America, with specific life experiences that inform their daily decisions and personalities. Loki, on the other hand, is an alien: raised in Asgard, stolen from Jotunheim, well-traveled throughout the Nine Realms, and moreover raised as a prince. Just stop and think about that. When your characters do not have the same experiences that you do, they’re bound to not have the same earthbound concerns that you do. Anthropomorphizing non-human (or even non-living) beings is an age-old practice, but to be faithful to his character, I tried my best to twist my writing voice into a different shape—a shape that more befits the prince of a realm that is somewhat humanoid but very different from what we know on Earth. And in order to do that, I did four things:

I changed my prose from past to present tense; it sounds more immediate and assertive

I read three books, written in present tense, where the prose mimics what I imagine Loki would sound like in his own head

I made a huge spread of everything about Loki (both canon and my own orginal additions) that would inform his motivations, internal concerns, emotional responses, and decision-making processes

I drowned myself in Loki fanwork

Immersion is key! If you saturate your brain in a specific type of rhetoric or style, that’s what’s likeliest to come out of your productive process at the end. So controlling what you read/watch/listen to will help control your writing style too.

(2) This further breaks down what I just said in the third bullet point above. Before I start writing from a specific character’s perspective, I’ll take the time to brainstorm and build that character from the ground up. This might take a day or two and includes a staggering amount of detail—just as much detail as mine or your life might comprise. Silly little things like favorite colors and foods, hobbies, dislikes. Oftentimes, if you’re a fic writer, this is easier because canon gives it to you. Those amazing wiki-pages exist to make your life easier in this regard. (Bless.) What canon doesn’t give you is where you can dig in. Go deeper. Pin your character down. Think about more serious considerations like emotional triggers, conscious motivations, subconscious motivations, coping and defense mechanisms. When hurt or under stress, are they the type to lash out or curl in? Are they the type to hold on to a grudge, or do they prefer to forgive and forget? Do they get hurt easily or do they have a thick skin? I imagine the character’s relationships in life, I rank them and network them in my head. Who do they run to when they need advice? Who do they like hanging out with when they’re happy? Who annoys them, who inspires them, who scares them, who do they want to be like? Even if these questions aren’t necessarily things you might discuss in your fic, it helps inform this person you’re writing about, so it helps you keep a clearer and more consistent mental picture of them as you go.

But most critical of all, I sit and imagine myself in their shoes and think of how they perceive themselves. That is a major factor when writing, because that’s what their head-voice will sound like. And if the story is written from their perspective, then that means you, writer, are writing in that head-voice!

Here’s a more HITL-specific example (I’ll try not to spoil too much lol):

Sasuke

How he sees himself:

Ordinary; not very impressive as a shinobi, but not absolutely terrible either – just ordinary

Average looking

A slow, impatient learner

Awkward with people, but polite and with good intentions

Emotionally stable

A good reader and listener

How he actually is from someone else’s POV:

Incredibly skilled for his age and level as a shinobi

Actually quite handsome

An intuitive learner, very tenacious and will keep at a task forever until he gets it just right; perfectionist much

Quiet, polite, notices a lot about how others act

Absolutely does not handle emotions well

Selective listener; sometimes only hears what he wants to hear

Rationales:

He’s surrounded by a clan of perfectionists and overachievers who constantly laud his aniki for being a genius while paying him no attention. Of course he thinks he’s ordinary.

No one ever compliments him for his looks in the clan compound, and what he sees in the mirror looks just like a younger version of everyone around him. Of course he thinks he’s average, even though he actually has looks.

Because he’s largely self-taught (except for when Obaa-sama teaches him), he thinks he’s slow. (Ever learned a new skill or maybe even a new language by yourself? I have. I can tell you that my perception of how much time I spent learning ‘basics’ was skewed.) He also holds himself to a higher than normal standard because that’s what gets him positive attention (or attention at all) within his family. Add the fact that Itachi was there blazing through everything before him, and it’s suddenly easy to understand why Sasuke thinks the worst of himself as a student. But he (and Naruto) are actually fast learners—we see this even in canon—and both of them boast high levels of natural intuition, or as I (the neuroscientist) likes to call it, pattern recognition. Some people are naturally better at this than others; there have been extensive tests done to show it. But we also know intuition can be trained, so the more Sasuke works at something, the better he gets, and the faster he learns the next skill—as long as the learning is patterned. Which is why Orochimaru, who has picked up on this trait, walks them through learning each jutsu in a stepwise manner every time.

Sasuke doesn’t have a lot of social interaction outside of his family. The Uchiha clan in this fic is very segregated from the rest of the village, so if you’re not active as a shinobi, you probably don’t get out of the compound much. Interacting with people probably intimidates Sasuke a lot so he feels awkward about it and reverts back to habits of politeness and silence that he was taught from childhood. That doesn’t mean that he’s not paying attention, however; Sasuke is naturally observant and remembers a lot about how people act (and not so much what they say). I have a theory about this related to the Sharingan but I won’t go into too much here because it would be a straight-up spoiler, sorry. :D

He thinks he’s emotionally stable because he doesn’t remember many incidents of severe emotional upheaval in his life. That’s because he hasn’t had them; apart from the whole thing with Itachi, he’s been fairly sheltered his whole life. But he actually doesn’t handle emotions well—something he’s about to find out soon enough—and for the same reason! He hasn’t been exposed to an extensive range of it.

Because he’s largely self-taught, he has confidence in his reading skills. He also remembers all of Obaa-sama’s stories so he thinks he’s a good listener. Well, he is—to an extent. If he wants to listen, he will. If he doesn’t, he’s just as proficient as Naruto at pigheadedness. (I think it’s an Uchiha trait too lmao.)

That was a lot, right? But you can see that if I’m writing from Sasuke’s POV, I have to keep a different set of pointers than if I’m writing from Naruto’s POV about Sasuke. The way I think of it is like changing lenses or shades depending on the light outside.

A few more techniques/guidelines I use:

Stay consistent with vocabulary. Orochimaru is far more verbose than the rest of them, Shikamaru right behind him, and Naruto uses shorter, simpler words. You can even assign particular words to a character, a word only they would use when referring to something. This applies to how your character addresses other people too, i.e. Orochimaru calls them ‘little ones’; Shikamaru calls his dad ‘oyaji’ in front of his peers but ‘otou-san’ in front of his sensei; Naruto is quick to give people nicknames and most of the time it sticks.

Watch the adjectives; different people describe things differently. Orochimaru uses more nuanced words that can mean different things depending on the situation and mood; Naruto thinks in terms of emotions, a lot of how does this make me feel; Sasuke is very visual and notices a lot of colors.

Use speech habits wisely; how your character talks should reflect their life. Just like accents, speech habits can tell a lot about a person. Sasuke always speaks politely because it’s how he’s supposed to talk at home, otherwise there’d be trouble. Naruto grew up in a poorer district and had no one to really teach him how to talk politely, so he’s very casual. Shikamaru cusses at age eleven because his parents and family are incredibly laissez-faire and honest around him, so he thinks it’s acceptable and normal (and he was never reprimanded for it).

Play with your tenses. Writing in past tense sounds and feels very different from writing in present tense. Depending on your character, one or the other might sound more appropriate. There are some expressions and figures of speech that sound fine when written in past tense but awkward when written in present tense, so that will end up inadvertently changing your prose a bit, which can be useful.

Read your work out loud. Cardinal rule of prose-writing. What looks good on paper doesn’t always sound good when read out loud. If you read it and it doesn’t sound like how your character talks, time for a vibe check. You might need to change a few words and move sentences around, or you might need a complete overhaul… an editor (and I mean an editor, not just a beta-reader) can usually help you out.

A note about editors vs beta-readers:

There is a cardinal difference! A beta-reader is usually not professionally trained but should be experienced enough to point out things that aren’t right. In fandom, I’ve found that beta-readers mostly focus on a story’s general feel, flow and readability, sometimes character consistency, sometimes they point out typos and mistakes. An editor goes further than that. I’m fortunate to have Tria (aventria) who has edited my work for, gosh, 14 years now, fuck, we’re old! I call her my editor because when she goes through a piece, she will fix everything and make my draft bleed and I love it. (I actually get a little upset when she doesn’t fix anything, even if that means everything was good.) As an editor, she does a vibe check and looks for typos/errors, yes, but she also critiques the prose extensively. She can rearrange phrases or entire paragraphs for better flow. She will cut out entire scenes or make me rewrite them if they’re that bad. Like a copy editor, she looks at stylistic inconsistencies, grammar errors, and iffy word use. She’ll usually suggest or replace the offending word altogether. She has a lot of freedom with the work and can actually kick a piece to the curb if it’s really that shitty. She also questions plot progression, character development, and the relevance of a scene. (She’s made me cut out many, many scenes.) – That all being said, it’s not easy finding an editor, much less a good one. It also has to be someone you trust to have this much power over your work. It’s worth it, however, and my writing has gotten so much better because of the help.

If you’ve read this far, wow, thanks! You’re also probably thinking, “Shit, she takes this too seriously. It’s just a fic.”

I have… gotten into fights in the past before because of this. I feel strongly about the stuff I write. Just because it’s fanfiction doesn’t mean it isn’t a labor of love. I’m a perfectionist by nature, so that’s why I put so much time and effort into what amounts to ‘just a fic.’ And you know what? At the end of the day, writing it gives me satisfaction and happiness, so I will keep pouring into it as much as I can. It’s just a bonus to hear that other people are enjoying it too. (Yes, I’m one of those weirdos who intensely enjoy reading my own work…)

Aaand the final point:

(3) I double-majored in psychology for undergrad and have by now accumulated thousands of hours of clinical hours spent using the theories and techniques I learned from those classes on real people. I’m also specializing in neuroscience, so a portion of my time is spent in psychiatry. Characterization was actually not one of my writing strengths at first, but I definitely noticed leaps in improvement after my clinical rotation started. People skills are just that: skills which are honed with practice. It’s amazing how much you learn about how people think and what make them tick when you interact with a whole spectrum of examples: from your neurotypical everyday well-adjusted person, to high-functioning neurotics and obsessives, to patients who have suffered complex stroke syndromes, to encephalitic brains burning under septic fevers, to druggies stoned so high they’ve breached the atmosphere, to patients whose brains are growing insidious tumors, to schizophrenics and catatonics and the depressed. My job also allows me the rare opportunity to interact with people from all walks of life. All I need to do if I wanted insight about how life is for soldiers who served in an active warzone, for example, is to hit up Bill at the ICU and ask for stories about Korea and the Gulf and Vietnam. Or if I wanted to know about how to survive the Rwandan genocide, I could sit down with Amida, who survived it as a barely-teenager with her brother and sister in tow while only “losing my innocence and an eye.” Or I could talk to Heather, who is building a life with her husband and two rambunctious children, for a perspective on the daily concerns and delights of a ‘perfectly normal and ordinary’ working mother. (Her words, not mine; Heather is amazing even if she eats the doctor’s lounge out of Tita Annabel’s cookies.) Anyway, you get my point. When I write, I almost always write about people, so it makes sense that a lot of my inspiration comes from people too. A lot of my original characters—and even some that are not—often speak with the voices and inflections of people I know in real life. You probably have people with interesting stories to tell in your life; you just have to work up the courage to ask and take the time to listen. You’d be surprised at what you learn!

A few helpful writing resources: (most of these are classics)

The Elements of Style by Strunk & White

The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman

How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler and Charles van Doren

And more books that helped me get into people’s heads:

Hallucinations by Dr. Oliver Sacks

The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon

Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon

The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo

Admirable Evasions by Theodore Dalrymple

I hope you got something out of that. Again, feel free to drop me an ask if you have any questions or want to chat!

#fanfic #on writing #fandom: naruto #answers

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gingus-arts · 4 years ago

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i did this >:) i also wrote a mini informal essay [read: i rambled] to explain my choices in depth and i will post that here because the character limit on instagram will not let me ;;;

also here is it in photos if that's easier 2 read (i,, spent all this time editing them for insta—)

here’s the text version-

“ okay so i'm gonna explain my choices bc i like talkin bout shit :D

0. their heights r just based on what the wiki said and their ages (and sexualities) r just my headcannons based on what i feel suits them, + a bit of what i've seem in the fandom

1. big spoon v. little spoon – i think kai would default to big spoon just bc shin is smaller than him & kai is protective but i don't think kai would mind being the little spoon at all, however his hair gets in shin's face when shin's the big spoon djshjfd. generally i don't think they'd spoon that much just because shin would be pretty hesitant to do something as overtly vulnerable and romantic as cuddling but kai likes that kind of stuff so shin would compromise occasionally u//u and as they're together longer he'd get more okay with it

2. lends clothes v. borrows clothes – i just think shin would steal kai's clothes and kai would let it happen. he finds it endearing (at least,, until he runs out of clothes ajdksj) [oh ya also i think they'd be roommates so that's how he'd steal his clothes u.u] shin probably would deny he was doing it if kai brought it up but it's very obvious

3. doesn't use pet names v. uses pet names – i just think shin would feel awkward using pet names shdjsj and in general show affection more with his actions than words, but i think kai would be okay with the occasional "darling" and "my love," esp if it gets a reaction out of shin

4. introverted v. extroverted – they r just both introverted 😔😔 i think they'd both like their alone time a lot (esp shin). i do think kai would like hanging out with other ppl a lot but find it somewhat draining to function in normal social situations for too long. u could say the same about shin but to a lesser degree, and it's a bit different since it's more about shin having a mask up in public & less abt being alert and not used 2 it like kai

5. affection thru words v. affection thru actions – i just think they'd both be really awkward when it comes to voicing their affections aaa, especially shin, just bc of the vulnerability it requires,, i think shin would try very hard not to make himself vulnerable after having that shit relationship he did w/ midori (ik it didn't specify what their relationship was or what midori was like but i have my hc's ajdjs)

6. confesses first v. waits for confession – i don't think shin would believe that kai likes him, even if it was really obvious that he did, without some very obvious sign. like he'd suspect it but keep denying it and not want to ask bc he might get turned down— i think kai would b a little less likely to get caught up in that because he'd be okay with shin turning him down (like,, not "okay with" per se but he'd understand why because he doesn't think he'd be much of a partner or friend in general 😭😭 so he'd force himself to be okay with it for the sake of not being "selfish") also i think kai would want to get The Feelings over with whereas shin would b like Repress Repress Repress Repre

7. screams about bugs v. squashes bugs w/ shoe – i think shin would b That Brand of afraid of bugs where u just avoid them or leave the room if they're there but scream if they come too close. kai's not afraid but i think he'd let the bugs live sometimes instead of just killing them

8. drives the car v. can't drive lol – i just think kai'd be good at driving since he's very meticulous and attentive, tho i just don't think he'd have too much experience. shin, on the other hand, has experience but is Not meticulous or particularly attentive sjfhdjdj

9. can't cook for shit v. cooks dinner – kai's placement is pretty self explanatory DJSHJF i just think he'd like cooking for shin and he also hates seeing shin drown himself in noodle cups & other store bought things when he could have An Actual Meal. shin,, has barely ever cooked so he's just Not Good At It At All

10. dislikes pda v. loves pda – i think shin would hate pda since he would even be uncomfortable with private affection to some degree (esp in the start of their relationship) because Vulnerability and blah blah blah but kai likes a little bit of it, like h*lding h*nds and occasional kisses on cheeks, and shin can live with that (even tho he does get flustered by it)

11. overprotective v. chill going – kai was (is?) legit sara's protector i think he'd have a hard time giving up the solid sense of protectiveness he feels for the people he cares about, especially when he's quite capable in protecting them. generally i think shin would b pretty chill but protective in the sense that kai can be his own worst enemy sometimes. small things like (subtly, bc he wouldn't want kai to know what he's doing) checking that kai's eating & sleeping enough, making sure no one's taking advantage of kai's tendency(? idk if that's the right word) to take care of others. generally this kind of stuff probably wouldn't be a problem but i think if kai was in a bad state he may fall into it. idk if that even counts as protectiveness tho 😔😔

12. has more relationship experience v. has NO relationship experience – THEY BOTH WOULD HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP EXPERIENCE (except shin w/ sou but that's really unhealthy so it like barely counts sjfjs) and i'd wager that they have,, little relationship experience in general. like, including friendships and stuff. i think that's neat in this case bc they're on the same level in that sense and can learn to communicate healthily and other relationship stuffs alongside each other u//u 👉🏼👈🏼 i feel like mishima would help them out in that regard a lot lol. it'd be fun if joe and sara did too 🥺

13. HORNY LEVEL – i,, i'm not sure if this needs an explanation but— i don't think shin would be too horny and kai wouldn't want to bother his partner with him being horny so he'd just deal w/ it. like his wants have just been stifled by being groomed to be used, if that makes sense

14. AWKWARDNESS LEVEL – soo if this was in general i would've put both of their awkwardness levels lower but i assume this is in the context of relationship awkwardness so YES i think they'd both be pretty awkward around romantic stuff. just not understanding what to do and how to do it and stuff sjhfdfh

15. JEALOUSY LEVEL – okay so, kai and shin are two different flavours of insecure. shin is the type where when he feels inadequate he'd get jealous or bitter / upset, and when kai feels inadequate he'd accept that he's not good enough and shy away, n he'd probably feel pretty sad about it if his inadequacy was prolonged. so, if shin thinks that kai's hanging out with others more than him and seems to be happier with them, he's going to get really jealous (and mayhaps,, kinda feel like shit about it since he knows he shouldn't be jealous or upset bc kai is happy) and maybe a little distant or passive aggressive consequently. kai would just be like "aw shin's making friends :>" and if he starts to feel insecure about how much time or how shin acts around others compared 2 him, he'd internalize it and be like "well yeah i suck so this was bound to happen. Anyway i am going to make eggs benedict and cry now" “

#kaishin #yttd #kimi ga shine #your turn to die #yttd shin #yttd kai #yttd sou #yttd spoilers #your turn to die shin #your turn to die kai #yttd kaishin #some1 pls tell me how this became my favourite ship

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stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 5 years ago

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An Explanation of Why Louis and Violet are Both Terrific Love Interests [2/5]

+Why both romantic routes are not only amazing but better than other games I’ve personally played in the past.

+Why some people are idiots and get off on picking stupid fights.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Romantic Option #2: Warren Graham

Uhm.... Warren’s a person in this story, too.

He, uh, he’s really nerdy. He does some science shit. He has a huge crush on Max which is made very obvious by the everything about him. Uh..... he took a fist to the face and got a black eye because he was helping Max, uhm.... he took a picture that was pretty important to the plot... um....

I literally can’t remember anything else about him.

I couldn’t even remember his last name. I had to look up his wiki to remember anything about him.

That’s how forgettable he is.

Hell, fans of the game took his character and made him more interesting in fanart and fanfics than he ever was in the game! I remember more about THAT version of him than I do about the him in the canon of the game!

I gave you that whole bit about Chloe from memory. That’s how much more fleshed out and important she is within the game than Warren is. Everything I’m about to talk about here if from reading his wiki and remembering things that way.

We meet Warren and find out that he’s into nerdy shit like Max. He’s also obviously into her and does a shit job at hiding that fact, but then Nathan comes over and beats the shit out of him because plot.

When I first played, it was pretty obvious that Warren would be romanceable, and truth be told, I liked Warren. He was fine! He’s dorky and weird, but I thought he and Max could potentially be a cute couple, and so does the rest of the school since you can’t talk to any of the girls without them implying that Warren likes Max.

I kept waiting for Warren to be important, but it never really came! I mean, you could talk to him and help him with a science experiment [in which he fucking blows up] and you text him a lot. Oh, and you can go to a Planet of the Apes marathon with him which you never actually get to go to, but the game constantly reminds you that you’re going because Warren won’t shut up about it.

Let’s see, he also sends you instructions on how to build a bomb so that you can break into the principal’s office, and then he beats Nathan up, and then he shows up and takes a picture of him and Max that ends up being important in the final episode and then.... he doesn’t do much else.

Well, okay, he does talk about Max’s powers a little bit in ep5 and you can give him a smooch or hug him or disregard him completely.

And that’s about it.

........Wait a minute.

A boy with boyband hair who has extensive chemistry knowledge, knows how to make bombs, uses said bombs for pranks, gets fucked up by one of the antagonists AND was a throwaway character that the writers threw in there to further the plot along but doesn’t really do much so the fandom took him and made him better than the game ever gave him credit for...?

.....Welp, that’s a whole thing that I’m not gonna get into. One post at a time, folks.

ANYWAY

Back on topic, Warren’s a romanceable character, apparently. You can agree to go on a date with him and smooch him. You can tell people you think he’s cute. It’s fine.

With all that about these two choices in mind, compare Warren to Chloe.

There is no comparison because Warren’s “romance route” is... is nothing! It’s a whole lot of little things that don’t amount to much! With Chloe, Max has all this chemistry and you spend 90% of the game with her! You forget that Warren exists until you get another text from him or another character brings him up!

You know what Warren feels like? He feels like a character that the writers threw in because they were worried that players wouldn’t want a tragic wlw love story between two best friends, who reconnect and fall in love over the course of five episodes.

Which, fair, because people are idiots.

Could they have made Warren more important? Sure, but like with Skybound and Telltale, they didn’t have an unlimited budget to pack everything they wanted into the game to make it better, and that’s not just limited to the relationships, that’s clear in the endings we got. And I’m sure that some Warren stans will read this and retaliate and tell me that he’s just as important than Chloe, I just don’t understand because I’m a shithead.

And maybe that’s true, but look me in the eye and tell me that if you took Warren out of the game, it would have drastically changed the story beyond repair.

Now, what does all this mean?

Compare Chloe and Warren to Louis and Violet as far as love interests go and how they were handled.

In TWDG, Louis and Violet are fairly even.

In LIS, Chloe and Warren aren’t even in the same universe. It doesn’t matter if you like Warren more, or if you like Chloe more, Chloe got more time and effort put into her story and romance than Warren did.

Think of it like this: Chloe is at a 90% and Warren 10%. Louis is at 48% and Violet’s at 52%, and that’s depending on how you look at it.

If TWDG did the routes like this, then Violet would’ve been way more important, would’ve have ten times as many scenes with Clementine, and if you took her out of the story, the whole thing falls apart because she’d be 90% of the plot, while Louis over here would’ve been used as background noise and plot convenience once or twice. Sure, we would’ve gotten to know him a little bit, but not nearly anything substantial and not nearly as much in comparison.

That’s what we could’ve had, okay? The writers could’ve given us a single love interest and said: “We want you to pick this person... but we’ll also throw in this other person just in case y’all are homophobic/racist/fucking stupid/whatever.”

In conclusion: We were blessed with Louis and Violet who each got an arc and love story, both of which are fairly even.

Have I made my point yet? No? You need more examples? Fine. I’ll give you another alternative to what we could’ve had, or rather, what we could’ve missed out on.

[Note: I want to add that I haven’t played Life is Strange 2, but I know that its playable character is also bisexual and can choose between a boy and a girl to romance, but I can’t comment on how well it did because I’ve yet to play it.]

[persona 4 and the relationships you can’t have]

This one time I tried to romance my partner but he was too busy trying to convince everyone that he’s straight to even notice.

Persona 4 is a game that came out in 2008, then re-released with new content in 2012 under the name Persona 4: Golden. The game follows your nameable protagonist who has just moved in with their uncle and cousin. During his year-long stay, he becomes involved in investigating mysterious murders while harnessing the power of summoning Persona.

Great game, one that took over my life for about a year. Great characters, great voice acting, great story, great antagonists, and great romance and romanceable characters.

While the romance is more of a side thing depending on if you decide to take that route with one of your social links, it’s still nice to have special moments with them to break away from all the TV murder and whatnot.

And you have several great options to choose from! You’ve got Chie, Yukiko, Rise, Naoto, and then you’ve got several other girls around the school that you can start a thing with, but they’re not as important as those core four.

Each of the girls has an incredibly well-written story and share a deep bond with you, the protagonist. So, the reason I’m putting this example here is that the choice between all these great girls is super hard, right?

Wrong.

Because when I played the damn game, I didn’t romance any of them. Not because I didn’t like them or because I didn’t want my character to have a romance, but because the asshole I WANTED to romance wasn’t an option.

Because I’m not allowed to romance the dudes.

And that includes this dude.

Yosuke Hanamura

Remember that pin I mentioned about how great it is that Clementine’s bi because not only does it give us well-deserved representation but also allows the player to romance both girls and boys?

The Protagonist of Persona 4 is not bisexual.

I can only romance the girls because he is straight.

But not really, because MY Protagonist pursued and sought after Yosuke despite the fact that the game would not let me romance him. Which is bullshit, because he clearly feels the same way, and no, that’s not my crazy brain making shit up.

My entire playthrough was pretty much

I won’t get into it because Persona is a long game and a complicated one to even try and explain to someone who hasn’t played it so that’s another rant for another day, but know this:

Yosuke was the perfect opportunity to tell the story of a boy dealing with internal homophobia, falling in love with his best friend [PARTNER] after the girl he cared about died horrifically and faced his shadow learned to accept himself and his insecurities. The potential here was wasted.

There are a shit ton more layers to that, but on the barest of bare-bones, that’s what I wanted.

Hell, according to a bunch of people, Yosuke was going to be a romantic option, but they scrapped it! Insult to injury, I’ll say!

Comparing this to TWDG, you could argue that Clementine only gets to romance Louis and Violet, but some wanted to romance Mitch, Aasim, Brody, ect.

Fair enough, but what I’m saying is this:

It sucked that I couldn’t romance the person I wanted to when I played Persona, and it still sucks every time I play a game and my person of desire is unattainable. This isn’t just Persona, that’s just the first game that comes to mind when I think about characters I always wanted a romance, but that includes all the other missed opportunities from other games, as well.

The Final Season is different.

The writers of TFS could’ve said, “Oh you want to romance Louis/Violet? Oh no, sorry, we were gonna do it but we changed our minds! But, don’t worry, we’ll leave hint after hint that they have feelings for you but you can’t actively pursue them. Allow us to tease you with the wonderful romance that could’ve been! Midnight piano lessons! Conversations under the stars! Lots of smooches! You’ll never see it in canon!”

Or, they could’ve only given us one of them, but that’s the topic of the next game.

In conclusion: They didn’t have to give us Louis and Violet or make them romanceable. If you want Clementine to have a relationship with them, you have the option to do that, which is something you can’t say with other games.

Continued in Part 3

#twdg louis #louis twdg #twdg violet #violet twdg #twdg clouis #clouis #twdg violentine #violentine #twdg clementine #clementine twdg

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bbutter-jjo · 5 years ago

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A Big Ol’ Charlie Brown AU ( Please Read Ahaha)

Kenny Generally the AU’s I think of are very bland and mostly include a different species or something. This time I thought a bit different. I know a lot of artists have drawn in the Charlie Brown style, but I’ve never heard of a Charlie Brown AU. ( If someone has made it please tell me so I can credit em’)

Of course it centers around the harsh life of an outcast child, Kevin Stoley, often known as a loser among his peers. His only best friend is Bradley Biggle, who’s Kevin’s Twin sister, Esther, has a huge crush on. Kevin himself has a crush on a cute little red haired girl, he doesn’t know her name yet because she just moved to town. He loves her long bright red hair, and she’s always hanging out with the girls. Kevin can’t just focus on girls though, he has to struggle juggling his social life too. Always trying to find solutions to problems and antics.

General Ideas and things to keep in mind:

This Au does have flaws, of course not all the characters will fit in place with the Charlie Brown ones Example: Linus(Bradley) has a big sister, but I feel as Henrietta would not fit as the Lucy character, so I changed it to Lola( this might be changed.) I’d also like to remind you the Peanuts kids were very young, at the start they were 4 years old, and ever grew to be 6. The same is with this they are young.

I’ve loved Peanuts ever since I knew about it. ( I think i was 7..?) And, if you couldn’t tel, I really like South Park. Here’s a think I highly recommend: Go to the Charlie Brown Fandom Wiki, look at all the characters I list OK? Learn the history! You’ll learn so much more than you can imagine! If you don’t know what Peanuts is, either give up, or have a whole lot of fun learning.

Characters! ( There are a few!):

And by a few, I mean a lot. Often when you think Peanuts you think “ Hey aren’t there like, 10 characters? Yeah. But some are forgotten, this is when visiting the CB Fandom Wiki comes in handy, even I had to. How many of you have heard of Shermy? Didn’t think so.

Example of how this goes: South Park- Charlie Brown ; summary of character. ( All the characters are based of the CB version)

Kevin Stoley-Charlie Brown An unlucky kid, with people either hating him or being his friend, no in-between.

Esther Stoley- Sally Brown The twin(younger) sister of Kevin Stoley. Often loving him, and crushing on his best friend.

Bradley Biggle- Linus Van Pelt Bradley is Kevin’s best friend, always trying to keep his hopes up, or being brutally honest with him, he truly is a great friend.

Lola - Lucy Van Pelt In Peanuts she is the big sister of Bradley not this time shut up. Lola is always teasing Kevin, and convincing him the lies she believes because she is older. Lola never feels remorse for what she does to Bradley or Kevin.

Token Black- Franklin Wow, I really stooped low, ahaha. THEY”RE BOTH THE ONLY BLACK KIDS AND THEY ACT SIMILAR OK. Token meets Kevin and is often talking about their dads and grandfathers. Token doesn’t live in the same neighborhood like the other kids do, and thinks all the other kids are weird.

Bebe Stevens - Peppermint Patty Often being seen as the cool kid, she doesn’t mind Kevin and even calls him nicknames, she flirts with Kevin and is always there to help him with his sporting skills. She isn’t too bright of a bulb, but she has enough energy to fill in that gap.

Wendy Testsaburger - Marcie The smartest and most mature of the kids, Wendy often sticks by Bebe’s side, and helps her with her homework, telling her the right thing to do, and keeping Bebe in line. She never separates from Bebe.

Annie Knitts - Frieda Always talking bout her ‘naturally curly hair’, Annie always is complaining about a certain someone’s dusty and dirty person, though she might be crushing on him. She is on neutral terms with Kevin. But will not hesitate on making fun of him with the other girls.

DogPoo - PigPen WOW HOW DID I MAKE THIS COMPARISON ITS SO OUT OF NOWHERE HUH. Just kidding! It’s obvious the original DogPoo was based of PigPen, often being seen with a cloud of dirt that makes being cringe and cough, he doesn’t mind his filthiness, and once he washes he immediately becomes dirty. He is great pals with Kevin, never even teasing him, and plays baseball with him.

Craig Tucker - Shermy Always being seen as a better and more successful than Kevin ever could, even having a boyfriend, and being amazing at sports and kite-flying. He tries not to rub it in Kevin’s face, but ends up doing it anyways.

Tweek Tweak - Schroeder and Patty I was very torn on the decision for Tweek’s character. But I was set on having Craig be based off of Shermy I also needed him to be Patty. In the comic Patty dates Shermy and I needed that to be indicated. The other character, Schroeder is the piano kid, and uh, y’know why. Schroeder is often being annoyed by Lola, but I am taking out that aspect. Other than that chunk of information, Tweek is a boy who teases Kevin sometimes, but not always, he also loves piano and it helps calm himself from the stressful life.

Clyde Donovan - Violet Gray Always smack-talking Kevin because he thinks so highly of himself, he always brags and boasts, his best friend is Tweek and they will often bully Kevin together, Tweek doesn’t do much though because he’s playing piano. Clyde takes pride in having a dad who works well in business and will often bring it up.

Kenny McCormick - 555 95472 He is forgotten.

I will be working on this much more, and even intend to make a few comic strips!THIS IS JUST GETTING STARTED!

#few that was long #sp #south park #cb #p #charlie brown #peanuts #sp au

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theorynexus · 5 years ago

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Yeah... somewhat to be expected. This is why it would have been best to return with her early. And... yes, Home is a fluid, complicated concept. That’s why they say it’s where the heart is. That’s why this must be so difficult for her.

“I,” he says. Disgusting. I don’t really have all that much in the way of energy to comment further on this. I still don’t see how it could have been possible for Dave to fail to stop him, though. Certainly, it wouldn’t have been without narrative interference. It feels natural for there to be a little bit of a time skip, here, by the way... . The amount of leverage that fact gives Dirk is making this feel like it’s losing its coherence and mooring in factual plausibility, though. It’s strange. For some time, the characters have had sputtering fits of being closer to real people than gods who have the minds and hearts of real people. I drift now into the future of the tale, uncertain how invested I shall be in this dubious canon. (Now I understand the vague wording on the top of wiki pages, which if clicked would presumably lead to the epilogue or post-epilogue version[s] of the characters’ stories.) However, I will attempt to pursue the reading as logically as possible, and puzzle out what I can that interests me and might interest you. Perhaps this is just a logical result of my crying. I always seem to have somewhat muted, dour emotion after I am done with it.

Ugh, gah, this truly demands some sort of reversal by means of dramatic irony, some time in the future.

***eyes twitch with frustration***

***facepalms and groans***

Sad, sad, sad. Dirk treats politics as if it’s just some amusing diversion for him to “win” at, unrelated to and unimportant to his greater goals for the most part. He just wants to dominate everything. I am actually beginning to pity the fool, and not in the trollish meaning of the word.

I look forward to seeing what those changes are. Also: Yeah, it’s sortof natural that Roxy smells a bit like Dave. I will not begin to speculate on that Legacy of Responsibility~ Oh, hey, Dirk recognizes the same thought/defense as I do. What a shock.

***laughs weakly, for I truly do enjoy the mockery of SSJ3 and its monologue on Goku’s part, but am not feeling it fully*** Oh, umm... and good for Roxy, trying to figure things out.

Surprisingly moderate of you. Glad she’s finally got shades~ Have fun on the Archimedes... or the Daedalus... or... let’s see, what was the actual name? ***remembers that it was plastered on the side of the ship in poor penmanship, along with stupid-looking scribbles on the side*** Theseus. ***flips him the bird*** Screw you and your disinterested, petty garbage, you ignorant, horrible calamity incarnate!

Heh heh... heh.

That’s very nice of them both...~

Eh...? In dorkiness, or because she’s mean instead of sweet, or...? ***sighs***

That is creepy but also very sweet. I’ll actually approve of this. As for that... the question of whether she’ll wake up is definitely an important one. I sortof imagine that she miiight wake up right after Dirk blasts off, so that he’ll be just beyond Alt!Calliope’s influence, somehow, when that happens~

Sounds like Calliope’s getting visions of Gamzee. Could be wrong. The nudity factor is very intriguing. This is all very, very intriguing, in general, and I think it’s probably very important for the future. Their drawing paintings on the walls doesn’t seem too terribly bad, though. They’re a very artistic person, and having some sort of major awakening like that after the revelation of Alt!Calliope’s revival poses a very... curious probably-not-a-problem for their (collective) future(s).

Good to hear that most of it is nice and cute. THAT SAID... Terezi should take this as an opportunity to investigate, and to bring things into proper order. A criminal investigation is at hand!

Okay, then, you’re the Seer of Mind. I’m sure you’re a better judge of such choices than me.

Ahhhhh!!!~ Please answer the phoooone! >^< Also, that’s a silly thing to think. I’m sure that you’ve talked to more people than that. Like Dave. Man, her mind is sortof messed up, right now.

(Hehehe~)

Well, I wouldn’t call The Furthest Ring “The Medium,” but okay. You probably haven’t been thinking about these things for quite some time. That’s alright. Also: Pffft. (I really do hope that, like Doc Scratch’s inability to see past pockets of void such as those around Equius, this shall in turn cause Dirk a great deal of consternation in the future, when she does something important.)

Mind. Lies. Facade. She is grieving. There’s no need to fault her, here.

Feels like this is a mock reflection of Hussie and the Homestuck fandom on various different levels.

Dot dot dot. Seers being able to hear the voice of the narrative like this = quite logical. It is much more interesting that Terezi is able to sense that Roxy is trying to express masculinity that way, though, when Dirk seems to be struggling with the comprehension and coherent expression of Roxy’s gender. It’s quite funny to think that Terezi could act as a messenger from Dirk to the characters otherwise involved in the story, like that, though.

***eyes narrow a la the Fry meme, for I am not sure whether this is suddenly sincere (and probably somewhat sexist) or sarcasm on his part, and unreliable narration*** (Probably more likely to be the latter, though~)

***slow blink*** I appreciate that she recognizes this as nonsense. Also that she is speaking for the audience, here. I also also really quite do appreciate Roxy’s affinity for Silence, every now and again, which is a thing of Void.

Neither of these are very nice thoughts to put into words. Very petty of him. And he most definitely should not be trying to stop her from finding a way to create a home for herself there, even if she, like John, had/s trouble embracing the place. >:

Yeah, I’m not sure that they’ve ever talked, either, outside of these narrative interactions. I am at least willing to hear him out, though. I sortof have to be, or otherwise quit. I don’t feel like abandoning Homestuck right now, sooo...~

Oh, so you want to have her come with you on the Theseus and maybe figure out a way to revive him later, huh? Well... that could certainly be interesting, though I sortof have doubts that it would work out. Hmm. : |

This is why I accused him of orchestrating Egbert’s death. He’s just exploiting it now to his ends like the piece of garbage that he is inevitably suggests by nature that he would. Ugh... . (Also, interesting that he can choose not to let her hear his narration, or indeed to let her do so. I assumed in fact that he had been purposefully having her do so from the start, given the fact that he’d shielded her from the noise at every point since she met Egbert [Calliope interlude not included], but still, interesting.)

#Homestuck Epilogue #Homestuck Spoilers #Homestuck Liveblog #Depression #Meat Epilogue #Dirk Strider #Terezi Pyrope #John Egbert #The Aftermath

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bloodfcst-a · 5 years ago

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Hey, y’all. Tumblr’s been setting off my anxiety in the last few days, thus the reason I’ve been away. I’ll give you a full explanation under the cut for those who are interested (though I’d really appreciate it if you all read it anyway), and provide some contact information for places you can find me.

Discord: conjure. ☆#6443 Twitch: ninabeanxo Twitter: mishtadelet

I’ve been kind of quiet on Discord lately & I’m the most active on Twitter. I also announce when I’m streaming on Twitter, so... yeah. Sorry about this.

I want to be here. I really do. But there’s something about the summers on Tumblr that are really hard on me. I also think people’s attitudes change & idk why, but people seem to treat me pretty rudely? I try so hard to be approachable, to be kind and positive and supportive, but the amount that people try to take advantage of me or are just plain rude to me is?? So wild. So for those reasons, I’ve just kind of been isolating myself lately, and I may seem a little distant/less approachable/not talking much about myself because tbh... some of y’all are just haphazardly setting off my anxiety / panic attacks and I seriously can’t do it. I already have PTSD, so it’s a fucking nightmare lmao.

There is no gentle way of saying this, but it really needs to be stated. Please respect my triggers, or I will not talk to you. Please respect if I ask you not to mention something or someone to me.

and this is a really big one....

Please respect my boundaries.

If I have mentioned to you that I am not vibing with someone, do not send me media of them / that includes them, do not ask me about ships with them, do not tag me in posts of / with them, and please stop asking me about group verses / affiliated servers. In my time on tumblr, I’ve dealt with theft, bullying, emotional abuse, sexual harassment & solicitation. I’m constantly asking myself ‘ Why me? ’ but more than that, I’m really trying to avoid further situations from happening. I haven’t found an answer. I’m guessing it’s ‘cause I’m soft / nice? idk. Stop ruining a good thing. Y’all are gonna make me bitter, dang.

When I made this blog, I was explicit that I do not want to be in mainstream FF fandom. When I promo this blog, I even say primarily fandomless & canon-divergent. There is way too much messiness in the fandom, extremely toxic people & tendencies there, and I just don’t like fandom discussion. Regardless of my reasons, the point is that I’m not interested, so please stop trying to entice me to go back. It’s so blatantly rude & shows you think your interests & wishes are more important than my comfort level, and I don’t appreciate that sentiment in the slightest.

That being said, I know Yufi reads differently. That’s why I put so much work into her metas. I even have two tags for all the content. At some point I’ll even have a less minimalistic blog & with more links so it’s super accessible ( in the off chances searching for the ‘ meta ’ and ‘ kisaragi ‘ tags don’t work ). But in the meantime... ask questions. Read. Join a stream. I’ve literally streamed games & movies for folks privately & occasionally stream now. I actually started a new file of VII not too long ago and just got Yuffie, so I could literally have a gameplay stream where we go through canon together. I’m like... nearly begging. Don’t make assumptions.

Again, there are so many resources. There’s wikis, there’s the tags, there’s the inbox ( just ask! ), there’s streams, there’s gameplay & commentary videos, there’s stuff. If you are confused or unsure, I would much rather you reach out. This is regardless of how long I’ve known you, ‘cause some of us have known me for a while and still don’t know anything about me or my portrayal or how to interact, in- or out-of-character.

On the topic of assumptions (because it really is that important, so many issues stem from assumptions & you continuously making the wrong assumptions will leave me less inclined to speak with you, nevermind interact), let’s address some.

I do not write a hyper-sexualized muse. I know this is fanon because of her choice in clothes... however, clothes are a fashion choice, and do not reflect a person’s... existence? I don’t know if it’s the masculinity or the rape culture or what but... what she’s wearing does not mean she deserves any hypersexual treatment... and also as an extension, myself ( bc this happens way too frequently-- please stop seeing my muse and then approaching me about your personal sexual fantasies. It is extremely uncomfortable, as someone who is sex-neutral & demiromantic, to be randomly selected to talk about sex? with me personally? via my muse? Or about my muse when we have zero chemistry? Why do y’all think this is okay??). When I do choose to write sexual / nsfw content, it’s always after conversations ( plural!! ) with my writing partner & after I feel comfortable with the topic and with them. But even if I had her hoein’ it up on the dash, that doesn’t mean to make assumptions about her character (bc maybe there’s character motivations I need to write a meta for & it’s part of her background) or me (the mun is not the muse!! say it with me!!).

I do not write a kleptomanic. Again, this is entirely fanon, because Yuffie says in literally everything she’s mentioned in that she does not steal without a purpose-- and the highest purpose is that she’s stealing items that would restore the power and glory of Wutai or for her personal safety. However, I very rarely write theft... I try really hard to steer clear of the topic because I’m aware that it’s like the #1 thing she’s reduced to. She’s a thief class, yes, but that is not the only dimension to her. I could go on, but I think that’s enough.

Just because our characters share canon does not mean they’re going to have chemistry. I am canon-divergent. But not only that... Yuffie just doesn’t vibe with most people as a canon fact. She is an outsider to like... 99% of people, exclusion being Godo ( Wutai ) & the Turks & the WRO. She doesn’t even claim herself as a member of AVALANCHE. Not only this, but the dynamic she has with one Reeve or Cloud does not represent every duplicate-- that comes with plotting and with chemistry. We will have to plot & work together to figure out exactly how our versions of characters mesh. This is a collaborative hobby.... so the collaborating shouldn’t be that much of a surprise.

If you come guns-a-blazin’ without clearly having read anything about my portrayal, with completely inaccurate characterizations & just assume because we’re friendly out-of-character I’m gonna be pleased with it.... you’re dead wrong. I’m actually just... a very kind and nice person. I may just gently offer you some suggestions or corrections. But if you repeatedly come with your assumptions & pre-conceived notions and it’s clear you’re not paying literally any attention to me or my ideas about my portrayal... I’ll probably just recommend you to another duplicate. I know one who stole a ton of my content & former friends, so you’ll be in good hands.

If you’re here, I assume that you want to write with me, not the idea of me. I’m a person with feelings & interests too, y’know ?? I feel like somehow that’s easy to forget with me for some reason, given how often people feel inclined to overstep my boundaries & act so disrespectful to me. Which is... fucking wild, honestly !! I’ve even had a person deadass say to my face “ I didn’t think/know you’d want to be treated with appreciation and respect. ” What the actual fuck does that mean? What kind of dominant abuser mentality ??????? Y’all on this site stress me out!!

The last two weeks have been legit stupid stressful on me, and I’ve had some interpersonal changes with folks in the last month (mainly in private) all regarding these subjects. About people here feeling entitled to be rude to me & finding all sorts of justifications for it (I’ve heard everything from “my grandma was sick” to “work’s hard”-- what’s that gotta do with you curb stomping me & my ideas/feelings, and telling me my emotions aren’t relevant in comparison to yours? It doesn’t). And it’s just been weighing down on me a lot. I don’t usually go on main here to discuss issues like this, but because it’s been OVERWHELMING in the last few weeks (and also, bc being nice to everyone is kinda common sense ? and idk why folks here seem to think I’m excluded from the ‘everyone’???), it just seemed like now, while I’m isolating a bit in an attempt to focus on some self-healing, would be a great time to discuss things.

I know this was a long post... but there’s been a lot of injustices done to me on here & in life, so....... if it burdens you to read all this, imagine how shitty it feels to have to experience it. Yeah. It’s rough, pals.

I don’t know how to really end this post godhsaohof. I’m hoping this will kind of open someone’s eyes & like... maybe things will change. I’ve stated before, but I have chronic illness so I really can’t handle stress or, for lack of a better term, a lot of bullshit tbh. If you wouldn’t say it to someone with a dying illness or cancer or a soft sweet grandma, don’t say it to me. Because that’s literally me! I’ve got an illness I’m dying from & I’ve had cancer & I’m soft and sweet! tl;dr, stop being so mean to me dang. I didn’t do anything to deserve this.

#♝ mun.#long post /#please read though.#people on this site have been wearing me out.......#and i just kinda needed a break from it all.#i want to be here! hopefully i'll be back to normal soon.#but i just need some time to recharge & i would like if folks could just be nice to me.....#gosh.#watch me lose followers bc i'm trying to practice some self-love and respect instead of my usual self-loathing lmao.#whatver.... i don't care about follower numbers anymore.#i just want kind and genuine interactions.... is that so much to ask for.

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sonicfanj · 6 years ago

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Why I dislike Amy’s Piko Piko Hammer

I’m a relatively strange individual in that over the last couple of years I’ve come to dislike Amy’s Piko Piko Hammer. I know that it’s an iconic part of her character but I just can’t bring myself to like it any more. As it has become a topic in most discussions that I seem to have anymore I wrote up a 6300 word explanation to try and detail why i dislike so it would be easier for others to see where I’m coming and thought I’d share it here too. So here it is

Amy Rose, one of the most well known and controversial characters in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise since her adaption into the games back in 1993. Debuting as a fangirl damsel in distress who Sonic rescues and subsequently flees from, she would continue to persist in the franchise in spinoff appearances interacting with the rest of the cast and continuing her crush driven pursuit of Sonic. Come 1998 she was granted her first chance at being in a mainline platformer entry in Sonic Adventure. In this game Sonic Team experimented with giving every character their own unique way of playing through the game with each playstyle being further and further from Sonic’s own, and the one that put the franchise on the map to begin with. Some were reasonably accepted and others weren’t. Amy’s was one that was criticized primarily for a lack of speed and made the toy hammer she used in Sonic the Fighters a staple of her character. In time the hammer would become an element of Amy’s design that I would come to dislike and not even believe that she needed at all. To understand the many problems I have with the hammer, the role it has in gameplay, in its use, thematically, and Amy’s reliance and affiliation on/with it, I must first provide a retrospective of my own history with the franchise and how my viewpoint of the series changed when I looked back on it with the announcement of Mania.

At the age of five in 1991 I was living with my parents in the house they had just bought. My dad was a diehard SEGA fan who hated Nintendo with a passion and owned both the Genesis and Master System and he was finally allowing me to start playing video games. I immediately became attached to Alex Kid and though I was no good at the games I absolutely loved them. Then one day my dad brought home Sonic the Hedgehog. It was unlike any game I had played or seen my dad play and though I was not good at it, it completely enthralled me. Then came 1993 and Sonic CD, and my mind was blown away again. From the diverse levels and time traveling experience to the amazing opening and ending animations it was the game that solidified my interest in Japan and that I finally got good at playing Sonic games with. I was the first of my family to beat it and everything about the game won me over and Sonic, Amy, Metal Sonic, and Eggman won themselves permanent places in my heart. To me anything American made was dead and to this day I still do not know how I knew about Eggman and Amy’s Japanese names at that time as they were not used in the USA. Then though the dream was over as my dad sold his Genesis and Sega CD. I would not be able to see Amy again until my dad bought Sonic Jam for the Saturn and she appeared in the updated version of the CD ending as well as the CGs that were included in the game. For years I played the original trilogy with my younger brother but those games never captured me like CD did. Then Adventure came and I was enthralled all over again. But things were different, there was voice acting that was nowhere near as good as the Japanese voices in the OVA trailer included in Sonic Jam and Amy and Eggman had been redesigned almost beyond recognition and Amy suddenly had a hammer which origins I learned about through game magazines at the time. But back then that didn’t matter to me. I could play as one of my favorite characters and it was awesome with me loving her Hammer Vault more than anything else she could. I would spend hours just running around Station Square Hammer Vaulting over and over again because it was just so much fun. Then my sister one day brought home Sonic R and Sonic CD for Windows and the magic of that game was rekindled. I would play for hours and it was the greatest thing in the world. It was Sonic at his purest and nothing compared, not even the uniquely enjoyable Sonic R. I enjoyed Sonic Adventure 2 when it came out, but it was not CD and Amy had been removed from play except in competitive mode where she was just a slower Sonic, who himself disappointed me beyond instant Light Speed Dash compared to Adventure 1. Then the end seemed to come as SEGA withdrew from the console market and I was faced with the fear of Sonic having come to his end. Fortunately that was not the case as Sonic Heroes debuted across all platforms and I played it on my older brother’s Xbox. The game had everything in it that should have made it my favorite, but the cheesiness and way Metal Sonic was handled just disappointed me. There was also Amy who though playable again, was lacking her Hammer Vault from Adventure still and stripped most of the fun out of playing her for me, and when combined with her teammates and easy mode difficulty left me almost never revisiting the game as even Sonic was missing that purity that I so loved. Not surprisingly I returned to Sonic CD and mostly just watched my sister and younger brother play Shadow. Then 06 was revealed and something about it captured my imagination like nothing else had in a long time. Even with the game’s problems I was one of the few who was fortunate enough to not have that many glitches appear as I played the game and generally enjoyed it. But there were more disappointments and my family pretty much stopped caring for the franchise at that point beyond my younger brother who mostly stuck to CD like I had for year before as well. When Unleashed was first teased I remember being apprehensive about the Werehog idea but then that first trailer with Endless Possibilities won me over and everything about the game seemed right. Sure I was disappointed by the Werehog and how Tails and Amy weren’t playable, but they seemed so much better represented than anything I saw in what little I watched of Sonic X. It was a grand adventure again and Sonic was Sonic again, at least during the day. At that point though, while my younger brother played Unleashed even he had pretty much given up on the franchise having forward progression and pretty much stopped talking to me about the franchise. Fortunately for me I had discovered the SEGA forums around this time and between the community and the wikis my eyes were opened up to so much more. I learned a great deal about the Archie Comics which I had previously ignored due to my preference for the Japanese side of things and discovered so much more. I just soaked up as much of the franchise as I could. When Sonic Colors came out for Nintendo only it was disappointing but the forums kept me informed and in the game to an extent. Then there was the day of Sonic Generations reveal and my dad showed it to me when I got home from work and it was a game I had to have. But the more I studied it, the more it was wrong. Classic Sonic was round and chubby instead of sharp and dynamic. I was exposed to the belief that he was always cute in greater form than I ever was when I first heard such comparisons drawn by Morgan Webb on X-Play back when Heroes released. Everything seemed wrong but I bought the game anyway and was blown away by what was being done level-wise for Modern Sonic but was disappointed by so much of the game that I couldn’t revisit it. It wasn’t just Generations though, everything was going completely sideways from what I knew and loved about the franchise and I could no longer even retreat to Sonic CD because the PC it ran on had pretty much died and all of the working PCs could not run a Windows game that old. Christian Whitehead’s remake was a godsend in a way, but it too was wrong. I was able to finally experience the Japanese soundtrack for the first time, which immediately won me over in game context, but Sonic felt so heavy and slow compared to the Windows version that I just stopped playing because it didn’t feel right. Somewhere around this time I managed to finally be able to watch the subtitled version of the OVA with my younger brother and it was one of the most nostalgic experiences we had ever had. Sonic was Sonic, Metal Sonic was Sonic. Tails was fast and competent, and Knuckles was probably the most enjoyable I had ever seen him even though he was removed from his role in the games. It was everything I wanted though, bar Amy missing, and it made me wonder how much I was missing from the old days of the Japanese side of the franchise that never made it over. It was at that time I found Sonic Retro’s archives and my world was opened up again in ways that the Mania previews couldn’t touch.

Of all the arguments that never made sense to me in my time in the fandom it was that Sonic was a children’s franchise so it should be full of weak comedy and Teletubby levels of childish harmlessness. It was an argument I had never seen pre-Shadow the Hedgehog and made no sense in the context of Sonic being a teenage rebel with an attitude as I had been introduced to him back in 1991. I found myself frequently siding with Adventure diehards in the belief that the games were so much more but I had no real context for what I was talking about. But I finally realized that Sonic really was a children’s franchise when my younger brother translated the story in the first Sonic Drift and I saw that Amy addressed Sonic as Sonic-sama. It’s so hard to describe what it was that clicked due to the use of that Japanese honorific, which implies utmost respect and on occasion even admiration, but in that moment I realized that characters around Sonic’s age actually undermined the franchise being a children’s franchise. Sonic was a character of the nineties, a character who parents feared being a bad influence on their children because of his rebellious ways and cheeky attitude yet here was this eight year old girl who looked upon Sonic with such admiration and respect. And why wouldn’t she? She was a hedgehog and adventurer herself in a world where Sonic was the most famous hedgehog in the world, so much so that even a fox (a hedgehog’s natural predator) wanted to be like him. He was a role model. He was the cool teenager that your best friend’s older brother was. The problem solver. The one you wanted to be like because he was that awesome. That was who Sonic was and I had forgotten that at some point in the years since I was first introduced to him. I wanted my brother to translate more of the untranslated material from the Japanese side but he refused for reasons unknown to me so I instead started reevaluating the series and what it was. Everywhere I looked where another character around Sonic’s age was introduced it smothered the influencing effect he had on young children in favor of the Shonen Jump tenet of friendship, and Sonic changed over time from being the cool teenager who young kids looked up to into this shining beacon of righteousness who corrected the path of everyone he met. But who he was was no longer there and Tails trying less and less to be like his hero as the years went by nigh completely erased that aspect of Sonic’s character. But back then even Amy had that idolization of Sonic, instead of a hammer that she swung at him with if he refused to go on a date with her. Her idolization was gone in favor of violent jokes played off her infatuation. She was not the genki girl I loved but some green eyed monster who was routinely accused of being a stalker and yandere. While plenty of arguments were made in her defense it was not enough for me. I had to see what was missing from Amy’s character and so I studied the games and discovered some amazing things. Amy was introduced as a damsel in distress, but how much of a damsel was she? If I went by Sonic Adventure she should have been perceived as a helpless damsel before then but this clashed with her tomboy description and Rascal nickname from CD so I would have to look at her from before then. My starting point was again the Japanese manual of Sonic Drift where, according to what my younger brother translated, the car that Sonic drove was praised by the hedgehog for being nearly as fast as he was. That meant that since Amy was competing that she was driving a car that could nearly keep up with Sonic. Taken in context that means she had the strength and reflexes to control such a car and actually race against Sonic. This was taken to its extreme in Sonic R where Tails supposedly upgraded her car and she was now competitive with a cast of characters who could keep up with Sonic on foot in one way or another. She was significantly more impressive than some average person or damsel in distress. But how much further back could I trace this astounding competence of Amy’s. As it turned out, all the way to Sonic CD where she debuted and Sonic Team Japan presented her as a damsel in distress. What they did not do though was make her helpless. She traveled to Never Lake under her own power led on by nothing but a message from her cards and a love for mysterious things. Upon arriving she didn’t just hang around the lake but got herself up on Little Planet which the only demonstrated way up within the game and manual was Eggman’s chain, which can be inferred to mean that Amy made her way up there by that method. Then on Little Planet she demonstrates enough strength to hold Sonic in place if he is moving slowly enough and makes it through Palmtree Panic to Collision Chaos before Sonic. Later in the game once she is rescued from Metal Sonic she appears at the end of Metallic Madness after Eggman’s defeat, but is shown catching up with Sonic. This can be inferred to mean that she made it through Metallic Madness on her own, navigating all of the death traps designed to stop Sonic himself. But what about her being a damsel in distress? Considering she was captured by Metal Sonic who even Sonic cannot straight up defeat in head on confrontation instead having to simply outrun him, then Amy’s capture makes sense. She’s not as fast as Sonic and even Sonic can’t beat Metal so of course she is captured. Not because she is helpless, but rather because she was simply outclassed by something beyond her abilities. In light of this, when discussions about Mania and Amy being included were ongoing I proposed that Amy did not need her hammer and could be included without it. This resulted in me being ostracized due to a general love of Amy’s hammer and her Sonic Advance 1 gameplay amongst the community. Faced with such a reaction I decided to look at the place of Amy’s hammer in the games and the more I studied the more I disliked the hammer and the more I believed that Mania was a chance to re-explore Amy without it as it had no place in Naka’s original rolling gameplay that gave birth to the franchise itself, no less Sonic the Hedgehog, the object of Amy’s affection and the hedgehog who she has enough respect and admiration for to use the -sama honorific in pre-Adventure content.

I don’t recall where I first heard the story but I have seen it revisited several times over the years; how Naka when tasked with creating a paltformer franchise created rolling momentum based gameplay based on the movement of a ball so as to allow continuous movement without stopping to attack, instead bumping into enemies to defeat them. While that formula was tweaked heavily over the years, and even abandoned for a time, it is still something that is genius in its execution and simplicity. Using a hedgehog, a creature that naturally curls into a ball to defend itself, was even a further stroke of genius as it created the necessary imagery to connect the concepts of attacking and rolling together due to a hedgehog’s quills and the motion of a ball. When Sonic curls into a ball you know instinctively that a ball of spikes will do damage, so it is naturally affiliated with attacking, especially since when Sonic jumps he curls into a ball and damages any enemy he bumps into. Then the fact that Sonic curls into a ball when he ducks tells the player that if Sonic curls into a ball while running he will roll and carry any momentum that he had while running. It is absolute genius simplicity that provides both depth and ease of play. There is no memorizing numerous button inputs and combinations, just running and curling into a ball. Deceptively simple, but when combined with solid, engaging, and imaginative level design the possibilities are near endless, and above all, fluid. The intention of achieving continuous movement is met with this simple design that is both easy to pick up and play and provides as much depth as the levels have variety. It is this formula which the franchise built itself upon and that always pulls me back on the gameplay side of things. As much as I enjoyed Amy’s Hammer Vault in Sonic Adventure it was never as engaging beyond just enjoying doing it. It required sometimes excessive effort to pull off and in turn was frustrating in level where it was meant to be used. The compromise for this was to create a complex command system for Amy that has been described by many as a hard mode in Sonic Advance and excludes all traces of the original rolling gameplay to defeat enemies by bumping into them. Simplicity was gone and what should have been intuitive instead required major experimentation to even begin. Yet in the same game the traditional gameplay still existed and could be used to complete the game without the use of any other ability tacked on. So why make Amy so complicated? I’ve heard plenty of arguments, some ranging from thematically to others that argued for uniqueness. None though could ever address the fact that Amy is a hedgehog who lacks her natural ability to curl into ball and take advantage of the original gameplay design. But gameplay complications further arise from there

Jump /\ /__\ Run Roll

Jump /\ /__\ Run Swing Hammer

Take the two triangles above. They describe the basic gameplay that the franchise began with and Amy’s gameplay. While they are similar, 1/3 of Amy’s gamplay is completely different and leads into a series of complex additional commands as well as a focus on melee gameplay which requires stopping to fight instead of maintaining the flow of continuous movement. As the versatility of “Swing Hammer” becomes even more in depth the triangle become unbalanced and you no longer have a platformer but a brawler with platforming elements. It is fairly disingenuous and betrays the simplicity and intention of rolling so as to not need to stop to defeat an enemy. It puts an emphasis on combat based gameplay instead of movement based gameplay. When approaching Mania and its return to the top triangle and the simplicity it relies on there is no room for the hammer, and thus Amy if she must have it. As someone who wanted Amy playable in Mania and was starting to have a desire to see how she could be explored without the hammer in a setting where it was not as much a part of her character, the insistence that she had to have that overly complicated gameplay even in a setting that thrived on the use of simple gameplay played into my dislike of the hammer. In a way, it was keeping one of my favorite characters and gameplay styles separate. I could not have both and that just seemed wrong since Amy originated in that gameplay era.

Further discussions I would have about Amy’s hammer and its use in the franchise would only fuel my dislike of it as I began to see it as a rather twisted and horrible tool. To me, Amy is a genki girl, or a girl who is overwhelmingly positive, optimistic, energetic, and is always trying to get everybody to have as much fun as she is so that they too can be happy. She is joy incarnate in a way, yet the hammer is the very opposite of that. While it is designed as a toy, a hammer is technically a tool for building things but that is far from what Amy primarily uses it for. She doesn’t build anything with it beyond fear as she wields it as either a sledge hammer or war hammer destroying everything that gets in her path. This destructive use of the hammer combined with the temper introduced to her character in Sonic X would convert what was once a silly toy into weapon of entitlement where any time Amy would not get her way she would bring out her hammer and get her way in an instant. She was no longer a genki girl, but an over entitled brat that no one would put in her place for overwhelming fear of her hammer. If she didn’t like something, just swing the hammer and the world would fall in place, a far cry from the bubbly and energetic girl who could win people over with kind words and a smile by calling out their inner good. To make matters even worse, she would turn that same hammer against Sonic, the very hedgehog who holds her affection and who she was once demonstrated as having enough respect and admiration for to use the –sama honorific when addressing him. But even beyond Sonic, her supposedly best friend Cream is also an unfortunate victim of hammer abuse if some her lines throughout the franchise are anything to go by. As the lead heroine of the franchise I find this type of behavior from her completely inappropriate, and further, as someone who sees the franchise as a children’s franchise it is content that can teach children all kinds of twisted values. It shows that if you want something bad enough you just have to swing anything you can make a weapon out of, even your toys, as hard as you can and everyone will fall in line. It’s a horrible lesson and not one that should be being taught on any level. For example, take Knuckles and his ability to punch. In his debut game he is demonstrated punching on a number of occasions, including at Sonic and Tails, but once he is playable his punching is a not an option for the player unless they try to use his glide leaving him instead to use Sonic’s special abilities. To a small child this can appear as only villains punch people and it is very hard for a good guy to punch anything, but instead a good guy has special abilities that they use to defeat bad guys. This can leave a profoundly positive effect on a child and can even potentially lead to a child having an interest in learning the right ways to deal with bad guys and maybe even becoming real life heroes like our police, firefighters, doctors, and soldiers. In contrast, Amy’s hammer encourages a more villainous approach of using weapons to get what you want and that if you act sweet enough everyone will let you get away with. It is disingenuous and is a horrible message to pass along to children. But it gets even worse. When Amy is using her hammer against her friends they are shown as weaker then weapons which undermines the roles of the heroes having special abilities to beat the bad guys. But then, if you take Amy’s hammer away from her she is usually made to be completely useless and helpless promoting a need for weapons and self armament. It is spectacularly tonally dissonant with the rest of the series and her optimistic ways.

Over the years the Sonic franchise has gone through many changes but one thing has stayed consistent; the image of a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog running with a confident smirk on his face to his next adventure. It is so iconic an image that at one point back in the nineties I remember hearing that Sonic was more globally recognizable than even Mickey Mouse. It’s lavish praise for a simple blue hedgehog who loves adventure but it speaks strongly of his image; red shoes for running and a shade of blue that evokes the freedom of the open sky and peacefulness of that scene. He may have a strong sense of justice and won’t stand for injustice but at the end of the day even he enjoys the peaceful times when he can run to his heart’s content. And that brings me to the image of Amy’s hammer. What does it imply if not combat. When it comes out everyone knows that Amy is intending to do harm. That does not evoke the peace that Sonic fights for and represents just by being. It instead evokes the very images of the conflict that Sonic puts an end to and is an opposite image of the optimistic girl that Amy is supposed to be. While it can be said that combat is as much a part of the Sonic franchise as adventure, to me part of what works is not glorifying traditional combat and instead using the fantastical specialness of a hedgehog’s ability to curl into a ball. It makes Sonic and his cast of characters unique from other franchises and can make any blue ball evoke thoughts of Sonic, or yellow with Tails, and red with Knuckles. But what about Amy? Well, when I see hammers I think of construction work, or the Animaniancs, or Thor and his hammer Mjolnir, or even Harley Quinn from Batman with the Tales of series usual being my first thought when I see the type of hammer that inspired Amy’s. It also doesn’t help that a hammer does not make me think of Sonic gameplay in any way and it does not conjure up images of rolling and running. As an Amy fan who wants to see more of her this lack of strong identifying imagery means that most people outside of the fanbase would not think Amy if you showed them a picture of a hammer limiting demand to see her. Even in fanbase it is not good as her hammer is usually affiliated with her violent representations where she uses the hammer in ways as to make people feel like she is a yandere, a type of character who harms those who show interest in their affection even going so far as to kill their affection so no one can have them. Further, when the hammer appears arguments for combat centric gameplay arise and sense of adventure is washed away in the wake of a clamoring for action. Praise is constantly heaped onto the hammer for its deep and involving platforming and combat. No mention is made of exploration and discovery with the worst parodies of the hammer simplifying Amy down to a cheep Incredible Hulk knock off. Imagery like this while made in good fun in some cases is disingenuous with Amy’s character. When you can show her on one hand as a bright and cheerful girl who you can’t help but smile at and then on the other where she is a hammer wielding force of terror it can be horribly jarring. While it could be argued that it shows multiple facets of her personality it can also be argued that she is treated almost as a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character due to how different the personalities are. This change in imagery though is all controlled by whether or not her hammer is out. When there is no sign of it she is typically cute and adventurous with an all around cheerful disposition. Once the hammer comes out though, she becomes something else which is almost always affiliated with combat and destruction. This dual imagery is not conductive for a character that is intended to have a single image, especially one of being, curious, optimistic, cheerful, and adventurous. By affiliation with her hammer Amy is portrayed as having two extremes she can exist in which, while reconcilable are rarely shown as such with her either being in hammer mode or normal mode. As a fan of Amy’s character, hammer mode feels like a detraction to me that smothers the genki girl that she is at her best.

Amy’s affiliation with her hammer does more than just give her an unneeded violent image, it also affects her interactions with those around her. The first thing that typically comes to mind even in universe when Amy’s hammer appears is typically fear. Or occasionally in the reverse the sign of hammers will make the characters think of Amy. Her affiliation with her hammer makes her interchangeable with the sight of any hammer, effectively reducing her role to just hammer. If something needs hammered everyone thinks of Amy. It is a gross simplification of her potential in the franchise. She is never addressed as an adventurer or someone who has a great sense of intuition, or even just someone who can listen to your troubles and lend a hand. Her affiliation with her hammer and overreliance on it also cuts off her own potential for growth. As mentioned above, I see Amy as spectacularly competent and that she has been since Sonic CD when she debuted in the games years before she was given the hammer. Like Tails, she idolized Sonic and made every attempt to chase after him. Unlike Tails though who was gifted with the concept of flying like a helicopter to keep up with Sonic, Amy was given nothing back in that period and when she finally was adapted into a main game she still was not given gameplay that would reflect her pursuit of Sonic. Instead she was severely undermined and was even slower than Big the Cat. In a platformer series where you run fast and plow through enemies without stopping by curling into a ball she was made excruciatingly slow and provided a weapon that brought her to a stop every time it was swung unless she was going fast enough to Hammer Vault. In fact, her affiliation with her hammer at that time required you had to be going fast enough to attack without slowing down which was counter intuitive with Sonic design up to that point where you attacked by rolling so you did not slowing down. In other words, her hammer represented slow methodical gameplay in a franchise that was about moving fluidly with speed as a reward. Amy was instead rewarded with fluidity for moving fast but to tell you that you were going fast enough to be rewarded you had to wait for her hammer to appear, an almost cruel reminder of what it was that was keeping you slow in the first place. Even when the problem was resolved in the Sonic Advance series by giving her speed, she was still deprived of the classic rolling gameplay which allowed for fluid play as soon as you picked up the controller. But her hammer association would not get better from there as her next and final in her modern design platformer gameplay appearance in 06 sacrificed everything she had built up in prior games. From there it would not get better. Her violent image continued to get worse outside of the games and she was only considered relevant if she had her hammer. Her hammer became so relevant that when the Archie Comics did their 25th anniversary celebration with the Mega Drive Comic, Amy was only allowed to follow along because of her hammer and how it was useful with Sonic even then seeing her as at risk if Eggman decided to go after her. Her hammer is treated as so representative of her that when Eggman is bested in Cascade Temple Zone and everyone attacks him, Amy is left off screen with only her hammer being visible. In the next volume things get even more out of hand with the hammer as it is practically the only reason Amy, Tails, and Knuckles are able to best a dragon robot as swinging the hammer keeps Amy safe from its attack. Yet in the same issue her hammer is then useless against an animal container that Sonic can plow through with ease using the classic spin attack which is shared by Tails and Knuckles. She is again shown as useless if her hammer is unavailable even though she herself is a hedgehog who chases after Sonic and should be able to imitate him if Tails can. The fact that she doesn’t at all also cuts off some of her potential as a motivating character. Her and Tails were both introduced as characters who idolized Sonic and chased after him with Amy being the optimistic and cheerful one and Tails being the one who struggled to be confident. From a narrative standpoint it was a perfect opportunity to create a relationship between Tails and Amy as Amy cheered on Tails’ efforts to be like his hero even going so far as to give her best examples to show him that one could be like Sonic without being Sonic. Unfortunately it was a wasted opportunity and now outside of Sonic Mania even Tails has not attempted to be like his Hero in well over a decade. Amy meanwhile is waiting for a game where her hammer can fit in so she can finally be playable again. If she was not so affiliated with and dependent on it she would already be playable again and accomplishing who knows what. Just like Tails, the game she was introduced in showed she could keep up with Sonic and make it through Eggman’s death traps with only the most extreme of circumstances being beyond her, in her case a metal doppelganger of Sonic even he could not directly fight in game. It was a theme at that time that could have been followed to spectacular effect showing how Sonic could motivate young children to be all they could be in pursuit of what motivated them without fear of what others thought while subtly hinting at what is good and bad. Instead Amy out of all of the main cast, barring games like Sonic and the Black Knight and Shadow the Hedgehog, was the only character to be given a permanent weapon and not to have any lessons attached to it creating an image dissonance between a sweet bubbly character and nightmarish over entitled brat who even her friends were terrified of. It brings nothing to her character or her best moments, but her affiliation with it bars her from more traditional takes on the series and leaves her with a violent psychopathic imagery at its worse.

Though argued by many, I, after my long history with the franchise was able to look back and see it as the children’s franchise that it was supposed to be. A story about a blue hedgehog and his adventures and all of those he met and inspired along the way. As a children’s franchise the characters who best represented that were Tails and Amy, but where Tails was able to be like his hero for a while Amy was left out until she was given a hammer that did not allow her to truly belong. In light of the current times where equality and equal opportunity for all is being fought for in the public eye again, as well as equal representation for women, it really is a shame that Amy is held back from being able to achieve what Tails did in favor of a hammer. A message is left with Amy for any girl who wants to chase their dreams and that is that they will never be able to catch up to their heroes and so they might as well take up arms and make a ruckus until the world bends over backwards for them. That is one reason amongst the many above that I have detailed for why I dislike Amy’s hammer. I acknowledge its iconic place in the franchise but I would like to see Amy put it down for good and become a character like Sonic who fights for what is right and what she believes in without relying on the way of villains. I want to see her smiling brightly as she chases after Sonic with her heart on her sleeve and believing that she can catch up him. To me, as long as she holds onto her hammer she never will, because all she will be is the one who hammers, and not Amy Rose.

Whew that’s a lot. Anyway, I hope anyone who took the time to read this can at least see where I’m coming from. Not trying to change anyone’s mind, just trying to help them see why I have the stance I do.

#sonic the hedgehog #Amy Rose #piko piko hammer

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greyliliy · 7 years ago

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You know what? It’s after midnight and this is when I should be asleep but instead make random posts, so here’s another one:

MY FAVORITE MY HERO ACADEMIA Characters (in order from Top Favs to wherever I stop listing):

1. Iida - Look, this boy had me in the first episode he showed up where he asked Present Mic about the robots and then later when he accused Izuku of trying to interfere with other contestants. It only solidified when he immediately apologized on the first day of class and it’s just been downhill from there. Iida’s adorable & I literally had to stop watching the show during the Stain arc because I was not ready to see Iida go through all that.

My Ships for Iida: Midoriya’s first up because CUTE & Todoroki’s second because bonding over having family members who are Pro Heroes. Uraraka is third because also adorable.

2. Bakugou - I have a weakness for unrepentantly angry & violent characters. They’re like walking catharsis for all the angry emotions I can’t do anything with because I generally try to be a nice person. Bakugou can be a horrible person all he wants with zero consequences and I kinda love it. Don’t get me wrong, I also like his character development and how he’s learning to care about others like Izuku & Kirishima, but I also kinda hope his overall character doesn’t change much. His fixation with Izuku is also super fascinating, won’t lie. But I mostly like him because he’s a violent little brat with feelings.

My Ships for Bakugou: Izuku because they’re like fixated on each other and it’s fun, and because I’ve always been weak for a Bully x Favorite Victim when it comes to unhealthy relationship pairings (when it’s Bakugou pursuing; when it’s Izuku playing the “I’m gonna’ make Bakugou Mine” game, I downplay that aspect more). Kirishima is kinda a given second fav as long as they’re more Bros than sappy because their canon friendship is amazing. Todoroki is also growing on me as an option. Same for Kaminari.

3. Shigaraki - If we ignore the part where I hate his costume (the hand on the face is okay, the rest of it can go), I love Shigaraki because he’s a spoiled brat. He’s got his own personal babysitter/butler, and his Master actually cares about him, and Shigaraki himself is just a great blend of being completely insane and also intelligent/knows what he’s doing. Also on the more shallow spectrum: I love his Quirk. You do not understand how much I love his stupid, angst-for-days, terrifying Quirk.

My Ships For Shigaraki: Dabi. Aesthetically they look good together & personality wise they’ve got great bicker-buddy potential. Toga because I kinda OT3 Shigaraki, Dabi & Toga and like all versions of the three of them interacting. Kurogiri also makes the list because I’ve read a lot of “Butlers/Servants of some sort x their Younger Spoiled Masters” BL plots and well, *waves hand at them* that’s what they are. XD

4. All Might - One hundred percent confession, the first time I saw the My Hero opening, I had convinced myself that All Might was gonna’ be some sort of scam or fraud and Izuku would have his dreams kinda crushed somehow and then go on to be the real hero. But I was wrong. I was so wrong. All Might is 100% legit and amazing and I love him. He loves everyone (even Endeavor!), and he’s strong, and even has the decency to be human with doubts and mistakes and just. All Might.

My Ships For All Might: Endeavor. They’ve got the Izuku/Bakugou thing going on and I like it. Though I kinda ship it as more of a “what could have been” Melancholy thing. I really don’t have a lot of ships for him but I can say for absolute that my NoTP is All Might & Inko. Just no. Inko is a married woman and until we’re told otherwise she loves her husband who’s working abroad. I’m really sick of everyone assuming Izuku’s dad is a bad guy because he works abroad and doesn’t get to see his family often. WAIT. Tsukauchi. The cop dude. Him & All Might are adorable. There’s a ship. xD

5. Todoroki - This brat grew on me so hard. He was always a character that was just sort of “there” for me ‘cause I wasn’t too invested in him, but then he let Iida be on his team in the Sports Festival & when he apologized to Sero and started to melt him from the ice I was like “Okay. You’re adorable.” And then again, it just went downhill from there. Todoroki’s adorable and awkward and he’s trying so hard. *pinches his cheeks* Also he’s super over powered and I kinda love it.

My Ships for Todoroki: Momo is first on the list. I like their interactions and I think they’re sweet in general. They’re both quiet and smart and I think they’re good for each other. I mentioned it above, but I also rather like Todoroki with Iida & Bakugou. Last on this though - I don’t like Todoroki & Izuku. At all. They’re great friends, I’m really glad they had their awesome canon moments, but I don’t ship it at all and I’d rather not see it either. XD;

6. Aizawa & Present Mic - They’re sharing a slot because I’ve just started thinking of them as a unit. Their best bro friendship & contrasting personalities is just that amusing to me. But yeah, Aizawa’s awesome and I love that he seems like the only person on the planet who kinda doesn’t like All Might (I mean, he does, but he acts like he doesn’t and I love it) and he’s got “I’m super strict but I actually care” vibes all over the place. Kinda like Piccolo in DBZ. Present Mic is just fun.

My Ships for Aizawa & Present Mic: Each other. Friendship or more are both acceptable. I got nothing else for them, really.

7. Kirishima - Boy needs to start wearing his hair down & stop dying it, but aside from that, I love this boy. He’s bright, he’s happy, and under it all he’s got as much self-esteem issues as everyone else in this school. I like that he reached out to Bakugou & was cool enough to impress him, and I enjoy that he’s just a generally uplifting and spirited person who connects a lot of people together in the class.

My Ships for Kirishima: Bakugou, first off. Kinda easy to see why - they play off each other well, and if I want some happy/healthy relationship goals for a change, they fit the bill nicely. Mina is also a very good option, especially after hearing about their shared schooling days in Middle School.

8. Sero - I just like Sero. He’s walking common sense with a touch of ego that makes him a well rounded character in the side lines. And I love his smile/teeth. They just look nice.

My Ships for Sero: I don’t...really have any. Maybe Mina? Mineta? I don’t know. Psh. Maybe Todoroki because their Sports Festival match is what made me start to adore Todoroki.

(Okay, I had to open up the wiki at this point to browse characters to see if I missed anyone, so I think we’re down to the wire. Plus, I’m starting to fall asleep so you can see these posts get more rambling as I fade out. :D)

9. Endeavor - Don’t look at me like that. The dude’s freaking awful but he’s also the number two hero for a reason. He’s a horrible person who’s also like...awful in that way I love--like that “He’s almost unaware that he’s horrible” kinda way. Obliviously awful. And as messed up as it is, you can’t argue that Endeavor doesn’t adore his kid (or at least one of them...). He’s good at what he does (the dude’s kinda bad ass when he’s working), and I’ve seen previews of recent manga pages and it looks like he’s getting an attempt at a little redemption arc. I’m weak for horrible people who realize their mistakes and try to make up for it. It’s not realistic by any stretch of the imagination, but it is still really nice to see. Some of my all time favorite characters in fiction are horrible, “irredeemable” monsters turned good guys (*cough* VEGETA and like half the cast of DBZ *cough*) and I kinda want to see it here.

10. Dabi & Toga - I don’t actually know anything about them yet other than the fact they’re both aesthetically pleasing & I like their general character tropes (the cool jack ass and the yandere). Plus they OT3 with Shigaraki like WOW and I love it.

11. Tsukauchi - How do you not love Normal Guy in a case of super heroes and quirks? Nice guy. Super cute with All Might. Awesome side character for the win.

12. Bakugou’s Parents - Look. His parents are adorable together and I love them. Also Bakugou’s mom is basically a grown up Bakugou and I’ve already established I love Bakugou so why not her to?

And I think that’s it. That’s what I’ve got. Generally speaking I love everyone in the show (even Mineta) and I just realized Izuku didn’t make the list and that’s kinda hilarious. He’ll get an honorable mention. But for real. I love everybody including Uraraka and Momo and Aoyama and all of them. Good show. Good cast.

HONORABLE MENTION: Izuku - I like Izuku a lot, but not as much as everyone else. I think my favorite thing about him is his obsession with Bakugou (”Kacchan” - I love it.) and frankly his fixation is like my favorite thing to play with fandom wise in this show. I love that he’s a reckless, anxious, unstoppable force and generally Izuku’s a great character. I think the only reason he’s not higher on the list is I always felt there was a bit of missed potential by having him be a Quirkless, BadAss Normal Hero (kinda like his prototype) that kinda lingers whenever I’m watching the show.

My Top Ships for Izuku: Uraraka is, funny enough, up first because I think their canon, mutual crush on each other is freaking ADORABLE and I think they have great chemistry. Bakugou is up second for obvious reasons *cough Izuku is obsessed with him cough* and I kinda picture that no matter who Izuku ends up with, they’re going to have to tiredly condition themselves to getting used to the fact Bakugou’s a huge part of Izuku’s life and he’s not going anywhere. Iida is also a fav for this ship because of awkward cuteness.

Now I’m done. *passes out*

#This was longer than #I had anticipated it would be.#Look at all these characters.#So many to love. XD #Liliy Stuff #My Hero Academia

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knightofbalance-13 · 7 years ago

Text

We all are.

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/163386771476/i-am-so-tired

Yeah, we all are, you two. Well, not me. I find this kind of logical deconstruction fun.

I am so tired of being told that I have to be The Good Gay™ and take all the homophobia and harassment and beatings and everything with a smile on my face in order to be respected. That I have to be grateful when someone laughs in my face because they noticed me!

Okay, let me break this down quick:

1. Yeah, you do have to fight for it. Respect is not entitled to you, it is something you earn. You earn people’s respect by doing the right thing, by being cool headed and logical in debates, by enduring. You can’t just have respect handed to you: That devalues the concept. Yeah it sucks but welcome to life.

2. What homophobia? What Harassment? What beatings? I’ve never seen that around here and if it is as common as you say it is, then surely you can prove it. How do I not know you are just crying wolf for attention or trying to make yourself look like a victim to do whatever you want or maybe you were being a dick about something that is only tangently related to your sexuality at best? Without context and proof, why should anyone listen to you?

And if it’s not happening directly to you: Then don’t talk abut it as though it is personally happening to you. Especially if it’s not happening in your country since who knows what the other country is like and the way you talk groups all of humanity together which we are NOT a hivemind.

And what does being a “good gay” actually entail? because with you Invested, it could mean anything from “taking abuse” to “not screeching homophobia at everyone who doesn’t exactly agree with you.” Because I have seen you attack people for saying you are looking too deeply into stuff when you YOURSELF agreed you were looking too deeply or when a content creator just thinks shipping has gone out of hand (http://invested-in-your-future.tumblr.com/post/161686615570/wait-can-i-ask-what-the-issue-with-murderofbirds). And BTW: Being called a bigot in this world of ours is worse than being black or LGBT or whatever, especially since minorities are treated as not being ABLE to be bigots and that the “majority” should just take the abuse with a smile.

Because unless you are one of The Good Ones™ who always is nice no matter what kind of privileged bullshit Straights™ keep spewing, then you are literally a demon for daring to feel awful and to want to have equal rights.

Exactly that: equal rights. Equality. That just means that people should stop caring about you and treat your argument about your sexuality and race the same as everyone elses: Nonexistent. People stop giving a shit about what you are both ways and treat you as WHO you are. And considering this is the type of person who screams homophobia at everyone who disagrees with you (including members of your own community!)

And you talk about the “privileged bullshit Straights” when you used a similar statement to be sarcastic about the situation with the Good Gays, meaning that you are being malicious towards straight people the same way you perceive malice being directed at LGBT people, especially since the context of this post stells me you want every straight person to support whatever you do because you are LGBT: You are literally being a bigot the same way you say people are being towards you. A straight person calls you out for calling a series creator(s) homophobes for not pandering to you immediately and not supporting your attacks on them? Well, then they are a bigot and not being a Good Straight and is wrong.

You want equal rights? Okay then: You are a liar since you lied about JAC’s video being anti-LGBT when it was anti-shipping, you tried to portray Murderofbirds as being a homophobe when eh just dooesn’tw ant to get into the whole shipping debacle. (http://invested-in-your-future.tumblr.com/post/161686615570/wait-can-i-ask-what-the-issue-with-murderofbirds) as well as lied about them being involved in the BMBLB controversy. Which brings me to my next point: you act like BBLB is being homophobic when this exact same thing happened to Black Sun shippers so by your logic it would be equal because they did it to the biggest hetero and homo ships in the fandom. (http://invested-in-your-future.tumblr.com/post/162372941890/you-know-its-funny-people-keep-claiming-rt-is-so) You misinform people by saying the person is calling you a crazy feminist when they were just asking you why you have to act like everything is political and they don’t want politics in their media, which is good considering how blatant politics ruin media. You are a hypocrite in saying that there are homophobes in the fandom when the top ships in the fandom are LGBT (Bumblebee, Sea Monkeys, White Rose, Freezerburn, Lady bug, Monochrome, Nuts and Dolts) and you are seen as weird for not shipping LGBT, a big compliant in the fandom is no LGBT characters and the big names are LGBT. You act like you are entitled to representation and such even as you attack and insult whereas if someone criticizes you, they are labeled with one of the most dangerous labels in our society. None of this is because you are LGBT: I would say this all to a straight person. What is going is that you are just not a good person and it becomes associated with your sexuality because you force the two together.

Its kind of hilarious because it all stems from the very same heteronormative bullshit of “normalcy” - unless you conform to the privileged heteronormative society and say “thank you, kind sirs” for every hit, the Straights™ will go out of their way to shame you and claim you are not normal or you are dangerous.

Heterosexuality IS normal: it is literal the norm being about 75-80% of americans at most (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_sexual_orientation#United_States / http://www.alternet.org/sex-amp-relationships/19-percent-americans-dont-consider-themselves-heterosexual) and around 5% at least (http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/us-adults-overestimate-homosexual-population-much-tenfold) fact is: being heterosexual is normal. Not being hetero isn’t bad: it just means you’re not normal. And that’s not a bad thing for sake.

And homosexuals DO have more rights in some aspects than heterosexuals: If a baker doesn’t want to bake a cake for a heterosexual couple, no one would bat an eye. But if not for a homosexual couple, a controversy is created. If a straight person is stereotyped, it’s fine but you can’t be stereotyping gay people. This comes right down to phobia: homophobia has a lot of stigma behind it whole many people refuse to acknowledge heterophobia. Straight people are not the only privileged people on the planet.

And guess what? You, Invested, ARE dangerous. Not to straight people but to your own brethren. You keep talking this way, acting this way, speaking this way and thinking this way soon enough people will give up on trying for representation and equality because they will think the LGBT community is unpleasable and just not even bother anymore. And at time, real bigots will come in and take that one step further and start taking your rights away again. until the world you are talking about actually happens. All because you keep asking to be treated specially and differently instead of equal.

Well you are goddamn right I am dangerous threat to society - I have ALL episodes of Orphan Black and L Word on DVD and I am not afraid to watch it!

... You’re an idiot. That has nothing to do with the topic at hand. And if you want t live in your little bubble for the rest of your life: Well, humanity won’t be missing much except for another bigot,

And now for...Dudeblade.

The “Normies” should be afraid of disgruntled minorities. They should be very afraid. Nothing is scarier than a person who wants equality, and has nothing to lose. This is why the Civil War happened people. The African Americans weren’t going get their equality by being The Good Black™ and taking all the shit that they took back then. Why should the LGBT+ Community be the same?

First off: These people are not like African americans back then: They have rights now. They have equality now. Now, they are asking to be treated like delicate angels who should have whatever they want. And they are going to fuck it all up for everyone. Stop defending these people, Dudeblade: you’re just making things worse.

And you’re right they didn’t get their equality in the Civil War. Ever heard of Jim Crow laws? Segregation? the Grandfather Clause? All happened after the Civil War and all limited the rights of africian americans. The time they got their rights was, shocker, the Civil Rights Movement in which they acted EXACTLY the way you mock. The only thing that extremeists got in that time were fear and their cultural counterparts: When the Black Panthers went to far, the KKK rose up as a result. Do you WANT an LGBT version of the KKK? because that is what will happen when things go too far.

#rwde bullshit #invested in your future #dudeblade

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