#(the haters are myself btw)

[listles-s]

man laios and toshiro's/shuro's dynamic is incredibly compelling to me on multiple levels

when you look at them, you can see the cultural and personal barriers that drive almost every single aspect of their relationship, both positively and negatively. laios is incredibly outspoken and driven by his passions, which he expresses freely even in the face of annoyance and/or criticism- he's allowed to be as authentically himself as he pleases, and it's this drive that allows him and the others to survive as long as they have, especially due to the fact that these passions and interests are intertwined with his skills as a dungeon diver. toshiro, in contrast, is incredibly reserved, not only due to his eastern upbringing but also his status as nobility- a combo of cultures that both demand that one save face, to avoid conflict at any cost, even at the expense of one's own feelings and individuality. this, in turn, has made toshiro the perfect samurai, as he's politely-spoken, agreeable, and an honorable, skilled man. both are also incredibly devoted to falin on different levels, having come to accomplish the same mission of her rescue despite drifting apart from the party.

on the flipside, it's these same strengths that cause them to clash- laios is outspoken but unable to truly decipher the emotions of others, leading to a lot of false assumptions and frustration from those who interact with him. toshiro is stoic but to the point of complacency, leading to a aggressively neutral disposition that's ushered by the needs and wants of others, rather than himself. neither man truly knows where they stand with the people important to them in their lives, and hold the ones that they do know how they feel with a fierce admiration expressed in ways that aren't always traditional.

in the end, they both share a growing feeling of isolation from other people that comes to a head when they meet again in the depths of the dungeon, and they both have different ways of coping with the frustrations that arise, seeing the other as only the things they have seen face to face.

it's laios' ability to express himself emotionally without consequence that sparks jealousy in toshiro, leading to a physical fight born out of miscommunication and envy. while toshiro is a driving force in the conflict, it should be noted that the actual fight is started by laios, breaking the dam of indirect communication through force. nothing is more direct than a slap to the face, and it's only after they start hitting each other that toshiro's true feelings come to light.

however, at the end of it all, toshiro is the one who stops torturing himself, listening to laios and giving him the bell, allowing laios and his party entrance into his homeland should they need it, and ultimately giving him support in his mission to defeat the dungeon mage, albeit in his own way. despite it all, they're still good friends with a conflict that boiled over, but came out the other end with a slightly better understanding of each other. the fight was painful for both of them, but it was a necessity for their dynamic to improve, and for them to be made aware of their faults and improve as individuals as well.

but also, if you think about it, their dynamic is literally just this

[here-there-everyfuckenwhere]

Hmmmmmmm

Feel free to explain your answer in the tags and rub for sample size

[districtunrest]

I shot myself in the foot by reading so many Haymitch's Games fics for years bc I truly am satisfied with that part of the canon, to the point where I've never wanted to write it in full myself and I don't even want it now from the actual author

if Sunrise is a Haymitch POV that begins the morning of the reaping, I worry it'll read like another fanfiction - we learn the names of his mother and brother and girlfriend and get a bit of their personality and their lives before he's reaped, and then he goes to the Capitol, and from there it's fun to see how different fics fill out the summary Katniss gave us and maybe even subvert some things. after that, a confrontation with Snow that Snow wins, and the terrible thing we all know was going to happen that our beloved boy didn't (how to take '2 weeks after crowned?' some portray it as they were killed while he was away, others as soon as the cameras left; there's a fire, there's spread out one-by-one accidents, etc etc), and the hard-to-write/painful-to-read portrait of grief that follows. and then *the* crackdown, the fraying community ties, the isolation, the tension with his friends we met briefly before the reaping. and then maybe... a bit of hope... a hint of the future rebellion to come: Haymitch meets intern Plutarch, meets [whichever named victor] on his Tour (where he'll surely come across that room in the D11 Justice Building) and knows things aren't done here, not like Snow wants him to believe...

like. I'll only be comparing it to all those other Haymitch POV fics that did the same exact thing. unless SC completely surprises us - a time skip? a revelation that blows all our interpretations out of the water? something??

but! I'm not entitled to have the story as I want it. I don't even think I'm the target audience anymore. I just wish, if she's going this direction, that she'd written it a little sooner, before I read almost every fan version of it since 2009 lol

[patronsaintofpink]

they butchered my boy's character, look what they did to my boy's characterization (fanon interpretations of the batboys and batman can't seem to grasp the nuances of growing up with trauma and especially growing up as a traumatized cis boy whose main outlet is violence and fighting criminals) (yes, Dick Grayson is an optimist who sees the good in people but he realistically would feel weird about being openly soft around his brothers) (all of them are emotionally constipated)

[the-patrex]

Love tht I have both rtd haters and chibs haters in my dash, keeps me grounded abt how annoying we as a fandom are

[abovetherainandroses]

Stump: […] My big regret with Mania is that I can hear some fear in it. On something like “Young And Menace,” that was kind of fearless, but then as a writer, I got kind of scared of that. I didn’t want to follow that, and I was afraid of alienating people or whatever. If I could go back, I would make the whole record full of “Young And Menace” because the whole thing was to make something challenging and different. So, I hear fear on that record — that’s the thing that I hear on that record; I hear me being afraid of that.

(source)

read this and i simply think patrick stump should be allowed to do whatever he wants forever

[onesizedgirl]

Naur because why the costumes in r*p are so horrendous good god what was the budget? Three peas and a leather boot?😭

[rielohel]

My excellent and creative mind vs it’s tendency to give up or forget

[largemandrill]

Just fought Messmer without a spirit ash or assistance, and when I tell you that I just had the most fun in this game within my year of playing it, I’m in no way joking.

I think it’s 1) I’ve gotten pretty good at this game all things considered and 2) Messmer is genuinely an amazing fight with beautiful attacks followed by great windows and punishes. Him being fun is what kept me from being frustrated with myself. This will permanently cement him as my favorite boss fight in the entire game. There isn’t a competition anymore he won.

[the-martyrfication-of-the-matron]

Hmm

A ghost who haunts a building in which the main cast use as refuge from a wintery wasteland, outside of which werewolf antagonists have kidnapped a significant character that the main character is intent on saving… a ghost who causes psychological damage to the main cast, who can only be released from the building by the efforts of a main character…

And tell me why we got Creepy Ghost instead of Malachi in Emerald Secret again? Remind me why we had to do the kissing thing instead of having our favourite magical dead son?

I genuinely don’t understand why a new character was created for that purpose. We have a character who fits. We have MALACHI. I get that he shows up as the real estate guy, but Emmalyn also appears in MyS prior to ghost… so I don’t understand why we can’t give Aphmau her SON???

[rusty-gloinks]

Really hot take kind of but i love it when some md artists exaggerate J and V’s chests but won’t do it for n even though they’re literally the same body type. He has boobs too man. y’all don’t give him shit😭😭no boobs. no tits. NOTHING!!!!!!!

[akkivee]

i hate it when people gas up posse and bat’s discography and then throw in bb needs to change up their sound as if posse doesn’t have 3 bubblegum pop songs rebranded and bat doesn’t have 3 spoopy songs of the same vibe 😤

[mylas-stash]

art blocks been REAL horrible to me. here's some doodles I didn't share before. #silly

[peemil]

i can't lie i've always found that guy kind of annoying 🤐 but what can i say i have many gripes with this site's Aesthetic and Culture

[olberic]

i wanna hear your law talesofarise thoughts then

ohh this is a can of worms you’re opening rn. im so obsessed with this guy and am always thinking about how the game does him dirty so please share in this with me

(obviously spoilers ahead for tales of arise) (and a few for beyond the dawn)

(and yes im being dead serious about this)

more than anything else or any of the major criticisms you hear about tales of arise, literally my biggest problem with it is how law is treated, both by the other party members and by the writing itself.

so let’s start with why law immediately caught my attention as a character at the beginning: hes a turncoat! he’s a dahnan actively working with the renans! the story bring you straight from calaglia, where that would have been UNTHINKABLE, to show you “hey! not only do dahnans work with the renans, some of them go so far as to prioritize that work over their own family!” which is fascinating! we get thrown into a fight with law, where he clearly uses the same fighting skills as his father, he has calaglian instrumentation in his fight music, and he doesnt show any mercy. all this while knowing hes going to become a party member! because then we learn through the course of that chapter (and a little bit later in the game) that law’s working there under duress, that he watched his comrades be killed in front of him, that he was left alive if he joined with the snake eyes. and he still has nightmares about that. we learn that he DOESNT hate his father, just left on bad terms and couldnt reconcile with his father’s way of being a father. he couldnt stand how overbearing and patronizing zephyr was, and the first thing zephyr does when they reunite is do exactly that! no wonder law was frustrated at him! but then you get to see his absolute loneliness as a dahnan working for the snake eyes. he gets no sympathy from the renans who treat him as other because hes a dahnan, and active dislike from dahnans because hes working with renans. but if his other option was to be killed, then we as the audience have to ask if this was a decision that’s sympathetic. but we do get this conversation:

law: “i never did tell you how i ended ip hanging around with the snake eyes, did i?”

alphen: “not properly. all i know is you had a falling-out with your dad and ran away from home.”

law: “getting to cyslodia almost killed me. once there, though, i actually ended up joining a resistance organization, believe it or not. of course, before long someone ratted us out, and we were ambushed by the snake eyes. i’d never seen such brutality. if i hadn’t surrendered…”

alphen: “law?”

law: “i don't know why they let me live. they made me watch as they butchered my friends right in front of my eyes. i still have nightmares. i hear roars of zeugles as my friends scream, the snow stained red with blood. and all the while those bastards, laughing. i thought that with ganabelt defeated, i’d be able to put it all behind me. turns out that was a little optimistic. i was terrified they would kill me, too. so i wound up betraying the memory of my friends, and getting my old man killed in the process. i wonder if i’m any braver now. what if one day i panic again, and end up running away like always?”

alphen: “and leave us behind? you really think you’d do that?”

law: “i hope not. but who’s to say what i’m really capable of?”

[lies down]

so there’s the whole thing with law trying to free zephyr and fight back against the snake eyes. as a dahnan that’d be a death sentence even if it weren’t coming from a member of the snake eyes. and yes cyslodia’s built on betrayal, but it establishes law as somebody who betrayed his father, who betrayed his people, and who betrayed his pledged loyalty. it also establishes that when push comes to shove, he cant stand by as an observer and enforcer — hes a protector at heart. and it gets proven again and again throughout the game when hes the first one to jump into things that he isnt made to be an observer! as a person hes so fundamentally opposed to what the snake eyes do but still managed to be convinced to work with them for his own well being. we see in beyond the dawn that he experiences deep regret for what he did and for how he was directly responsible for the suffering of other dahnans he sent to the pylons. hell, even when alphen gets him come along with them, theres this little interaction:

law: its not like theres anyone waiting for me in calaglia either. …plenty of ditches along the road. maybe i’ll find one to die in.”

alphen: “how about a fresh start?”

law: “after the kinds of things ive done? i don't know where id even begin.”

so we need to keep in mind that even if he doesnt talk about it, even if he puts on a front, that he a) thinks hes irredeemable, b) feels intense guilt for what hes done, c) still has nightmares about seeing his friends be killed, and d) is living with the knowledge that if it weren’t for his actions, his father would still be alive. (and its important to note that he recognizes it’s not just his own personal loss, he’s well aware how deeply zephyr’s death affects both the party and the crimson crows.)

and here i’ve got to talk about an under appreciated law detail that i love about him so very much: law, the loudmouthed, immature-acting brawler of the party, has the capacity and skills to have been a great snake eye. look — we saw how he acted with zephyr. but in the “stowaway law” skit he says “eh, lets just say i’ve always had a knack for sneaking around since i was little” to explain how he escaped calaglia. hell, for months, as a kid in a brand new realm, he managed to join a resistance cell and avoid getting caught (for a while). when he helps zephyr escape, he uses smoke bombs. when the party is getting tailed by kisara in viscint, hes not only the only person who notices, he manages to fall back, sneak up on HER unaware, and get a blade to her throat! the woman who's supposed to be the best guardsman in the realm! in beyond the dawn, he can sense the party's being followed and calls out nazamil even when she's invisible. and when that zeugle is attacking pharia ranch, law's the first person to be able to track this invisible creature. law’s perceptive, sneaky, unafraid to dirty his hands for the sake of others, and this trait is soooo fucking underutilized in this game…

which probably brings me to why i cant stand tales of arise sometimes. for every incident of law doing this, or showing literally any emotional vulnerability, theres three incidents of the other party members (rinwell) disparaging him. and it pisses me off SO MUCH. its obvious from that first conversation when he joins the party that while he does have a lighthearted nature, hes got a ton of guilt and self-hatred and regret that take precedence, and he’ll put on a joking front to cover that up. because how can he let himself be who is he when he just got his father killed? and this slips out plenty of times in the game — tons of skits have him start to bring up how it felt to lose his father — but every goddamn time he starts to talk about himself, rinwell insults him.

im not fucking joking! ive played this game twice through. i copy down every skit and conversation that law’s involved in for the entire game. law can’t get a fucking SENTENCE out about who he is as a person without rinwell insulting him. the game tries to play this off as banter when its ALWAYS one sided. rinwell gets to have her emotional scenes with other characters without law jumping in. hell, if she starts to be serious with him, he listens! but heaven forbid he get the same respect in turn! and its not just her. shionne never hears him out (and hell, i love shionne the most, but i really dont like that part of her) and its clear she doesnt see much past his front. kisara and dohalim both see him as totally immature.

“but zad,” you say, “law IS immature.” yeah! of course he is! hes 16 and hes never been allowed to have a childhood! hes been involved with the crimson crows since the day he was born! he escapes calaglia as a kid! hes had time to join a resistance cell and end up working with the snake eyes all by the time he’s 16!!! he says it himself, traveling with the party is the first time hes been allowed to be himself. he wears silly wolf decorations because he thinks they look cool and he doesnt have anywhere else to put them. he playfights with alphen. he lets himself have fun in fights. he (unsuccessfully) flirts. he eats good food and learns to cook. hes got immature taste because hes a teenager. i know i sure was the same! he makes ill-timed jokes because he hasnt been able to be a normal part of friendly conversation before. he has a hard time reading other people because he’s only had people patronize him or suspect him until now.

but the fact is that for all his silliness and immaturity, he is more than that. hes sneaky and traumatized and guilt-ridden and has such a big heart that the first things he does when finding himself is to protect others. (hell, he even says “if im not training, its easy for me to get anxious.” ) and it frequently feel like the writers forget his backstory and motivations and treat him solely as comic relief and as a tool to develop other characters (rinwell).

the most egregious example of this is the almeidrea incident, which i can hardly watch. law’s a character who joins the party and immediately gets revenge on the guy who killed his father (which is still an awesome scene), realizes that doesnt bring him back or undo law’s complicity, then stews with that knowledge and doesnt tell anybody. i love a good revenge plot, but i can see where he comes from when he says “killing the person who wronged you doesnt undo what they did”. but what really and utterly kills me is that all of that is a throwaway line used to develop rinwell’s story. time and time again in this game law’s completely disregarded and im honestly so fucking sick of it 😭 the most we get is this line:

alphen: “law left home because of how much he hated his father. i think law spent a lot of time thinking about how they never got to make things right. and if i had to guess, killing ganabelt didn't make any of those feelings go away.”

and the handful of good scenes (law’s pep talk to alphen when shionne’s kidnapped, law’s conversation with the traitor dahnan and the informants)

so yeah. i dont have a conclusion to this. i adore that law’s a traitor and hes sneaky and hes competent and fights like his dad and wears a silly wolf decoration and lives with unimaginable guilt and has nightmares and has favourite foods and flirts badly and likes being a farmer. im just like cheering for this guy and supporting him unconditionally because the game itself sure won’t.

[fearandhatred]

you know i actually have no conception of how my username objectively sounds because i pulled it from a random quote from a little life that means something completely different with context