#I could talk at length about how it ALSO makes no thematic sense but I feel like I've tapped that one enough lately

[kamidukki]

[AKNK] if one of the butlers turns out to be the traitor...?

Tidbits and brain-rots, if nothing else...

‼️⚠️Spoiler warning⚠️‼️

Contains information from the latest update from main story episodes and some event stories, as well as subjective opinions. Proceed at your own risks.

Also, this article isn't written in a properly ordered structure whatsoever 🙇

A traitor's presence has long been speculated within the aknk fandom; casting one of the butlers as the designated leaker of information to a third party.

So, the angels, not the nobles?

The most recent update sheds some light on two things: 1) who the possible traitor could be, and 2) to whom this traitor works for.

We've been given a lucid answer to the latter: the sentient/intelligent angels. It was revealed that 'the traitor' reports directly to Cherubim, whereupon the angel pointed out how it must have been tough for the traitor to have to 'climb up' every time they communicated, hinting heavily at the location of information exchange to be one of the ancient towers.

Too early to tell it seems. Who knows if this traitor works exclusively for one party? (Apart from the dev, obviously)

As for the traitor's identity itself... While nothing definitive has yet to be imparted, some people (whose posts made their way on my Twitter feed anyway) seem on the opinion that it's certain that the traitor won't be any of the butlers. The target of suspicion now moves on to the newly introduced character ゴート aka Goat, if you like. Although a thematically consistent name, it still gives us nothing deeper to dig at this point. He is introduced as a post office worker with loud, exuberant qualities while possessing massive, unconcealed admiration for the devil butlers (to the point of being a fan).

[On a related note, the event 郵便局の贈り物/Yuubinkyoku no Okurimono is the one where Goat's superior plays a central role... it seems. I haven't read the story yet so I can't talk in length about it 😅]

Anyway, here's a quick list of what might be points of interest:

The traitor, whose existence having been confirmed, having to climb up (Cherubim made a passing remark : 'if only you could fly, you would easily make it to the top where we are' with the top part put on an emphasis in-game). The traitor speaks to Cherubim using polite speech.

The appearance of Goat, a post man who'll be in charge of delivery to the Devil's Palace. High in spirit, showing a favourable attitude towards demon butlers.

The rumoured assassin of the underworld, objective/identity: unclear. Finlay passes the information to Lucas.

Spoiler; on a related note with the point above, Nac was born into a family of professional assassins and trained from a very young age to be one. Hanamaru, as pointed out by Nac, was a former bounty hunter. I've done some translation on both, feel free to rummage around my aknk tag. Another point of interest on Nac and Hanamaru's relationship lies on the 6th chapter of event 水流の唄/Song of the Water Dragon.

While suspicion on the butlers is being temporarily cast aside, there's this interesting scene where Nac, while on night patrol duty with Shiro, senses someone's presence only to stumble upon Hanamaru, who claims he's there because he sees the grave look on Nac and Shiro's faces on the way back from the kitchen (might be wrong, but that's how I recall the scene goes for now). Nac makes a comment on how good Hanamaru is in erasing his presence (as expected of a bounty hunter), to which Hanamaru replies it might be courtesy of him doing that to avoid day-to-day work. The question is, why isn't Hanamaru sensing the presence of the intruder when Nac does? Is it simply because he arrives later on the scene? Or could it be that Hanamaru is...? (No, not likely)

Nac is noted to go on a long period of absence from the manor, exactly like the Twitter post's preview hinted, to look into the matter of this so-called assassin of the underworld. When asked if there are some letters of correspondence from Nac, Goat says, no, there isn't. If Goat isn't a target of suspicion, that'll be all there is to that scene. Otherwise, might he be an interceptor of correspondence? Let's see where the next update will take us...

That's all for now, I think.

Like others, I think the possibility of a butler being a traitor has been greatly diminished with this most recent update. Even so, I'm not completely taking it out of the realm of possibilities yet. At the same time, I'm not even sure if I'd like the prospect of having my heart torn apart at the impending angst if one of them does turn out to be a backstabber. I can think of several routes in which the direction of the story may unfold; they're not pretty 😭

[queenlua]

Writer interview game

tagged by @ultrakatua , hello thank you i’m a slut for attention

(if you're reading this you should feel free to consider yourself tagged, even/especially if you feel like you don't know me that well!)

When did you start writing?

Since I was pretty little… my 1st/2nd grade teacher had this thing where everyone had to write something in their journal every morning and I was SUPER tryhard about it, and when she told us we didn’t have to write about our lives, we could write about ANYTHING, I definitely started making up wild stories n shit

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

I read anything and everything. I guess I wouldn’t be a very good writer of big nonfiction history tomes, but that’s mostly because it requires, y’know, knowing a lot of history first; if I had that knowledge it seems like it’d be fun to try!

I used to say “I could never write a mystery” but then I read Tana French and was like ooooh maybe mysteries are cool actually so. huh. i guess i can imagine myself trying to write just about anything once. (in practice i mostly end up writing a combination of moody litfic and shlocky scifi/fantasy)

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

I’ve occasionally tried to actively emulate a specific author’s style, but that kind of thing feels kind of hard to sustain for more than the length of a writing exercise. it's kind of like trying to talk with a different accent. like, sure, you CAN train yourself to talk a different way… but i like how i talk fine, i’m too lazy to change :P

i dunno if i’ve heard many ppl comparing my writing to Actual Authors! and i lack the objectivity to figure it out myself haha

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

i do the Truman Capote thing where i mostly write lying down (but on a couch instead of in bed b/c partner is an extremely light sleeper and i do most my writing between midnight and 4am lol)

What’s your most effective way to muster up a muse?

god i wish i knew!!! then maybe i’d be able to muster it up on demand!!!

(in fanficland i seem to tend to glom onto a specific character and then just write ten fics Examining That Character From Every Angle. in origficland it’s that but usually with some sort of archetype or folktale or something that i’ve become briefly obsessed with)

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

…I did have a moment earlier this month where I typed a line of dialogue, thought to myself “that sounds faintly familiar hm,” did a ctrl+f on my computer, and discovered I’d used a very similar line of dialogue in an abandoned WIP from seven years ago, in a scenario VERY THEMATICALLY/SITUATIONALLY familiar to the WIP i was working on, and i was like. oh my god. i so have a Type why am i like this

(in this particular situation the Theme & Variation was along the lines of “doing a Horrible Thing under duress but also none of these other fucks are willing or able to do it so i guess i gotta, jfc.” skimming over my past few pieces, inasmuch as there’s any commonality between them, i think i can point at, like… “feeling trapped by a mostly-internal sense of obligation that is nonetheless *experienced* as though it were external,” “people talking past each other for very good yet nonetheless tragic reasons,” “clueless rich guys,” “angry women contemplating murder”)

((wait, also: awful dinner parties and awful sex. fuck, why didn’t i lead with that one. i want to write awful dinner parties and bad sex for the entire rest of my life))

What is your reason for writing?

passes time between now and the grave

(less glibly: i get pretty unhappy if i go a long time without Making something, and of all my creative-ish abilities, writing is the one i find most satisfying)

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

Once I finished playing a game, thought to myself “that was good but I really want backstory for [character] and actually I’m pretty sure I have the only correct take on said backstory,” and then proceeded to write that fic. A commenter came in saying “hey I came here because I was really craving backstory for [character] and now I can stop reading because yours is clearly The One that I was looking for, thanks." That felt really good! how often have i had to write a fic, not because I wanted to, but because NO ONE ELSE had written the one I wanted to read??? Glad to spare you some trouble, random internet person.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

for origfic: the author is dead babey. do not perceive me. i am not here

for fanfic: i still don’t mind if the reader simply Does Not Perceive Me; the work itself is the thing i care most about. but, y’know. if someone reads my fic & is like “i’m insane about this character in the exact same way Lua is, i’m-a slide into her DMs,” i’m very down for that, lol. it’s like whale songs. i’m out here singing my goofy tune and maybe i never hear anything back but if i do that’d be a sweet bonus

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

hmmmm. i’m never quite sure how to think about this sort of question… people often answer with something like “dialogue” or “descriptive imagery” or whatever, but that started to feel kind of weird to me at some point? like pointing at a symphony piece and being like “the low winds were especially good at staying in tune,” like it may be a correct observation, but also the whole orchestra has to be in tune to *some* extent for the piece as a whole to work, and when it *is* working the thing you point out as a strength isn’t gonna be something ticky-tack like that

…but i’m not sure what i’d specifically point to as a higher-order thing haha. i guess, last time i reread some of my own stuff, i was pretty pleased with how much interpersonal *tension* there was in various “ppl talking in rooms” scenes (see: awful dinner parties), so maybe something along those lines

How do you feel about your own writing?

arguably the main reason to write fanfic is so I can go back and reread it 2+ years later and be like “damn this shit rules, bitch was really onto something there”

(i like it! it’s pretty fun good stuff! a pleasing mix of action/plottiness/gratuitousness and, like, actual character and narrative work)

[virginreprise]

dearest VR, have you watched the film paris, texas? i have many jumbled incoherent thoughts about how its exploration of landscapes (specifically the american west) as metaphysical spaces, its prominent age gap relationship and other thematic elements intersect with the same sorts of things i like best in joel and arthur fics (skewing toward the DDLG ones hehe). and the same sorts of things that speak to me in lana's art, too. the film is not smut obv lol but i see strong connections between it and the fics i like best (and stories in general). it is a bit more gut-wrenching than i like the fics i read for escapism to be, like one of the truest depictions of ptsd, domestic violence, substance abuse, and 'the inability to go back' and the age gap is kinda just a fact of the mater. BUT i think you said once you are not necessarily a happily ever after person and i kind of love when age gap fics are not. typing this on my phone, it makes no sense, just thoughts... but wanted to say them after i saw your americana post from the other day on my dash :))

okay nonnie, i wanted to watch the film before i replied, just so i could you give you a comprehensive reply that wasn't just me pretending to agree with what you were saying and promising to watch a movie that would've probably stayed in my to watch list for a long time. soooooo, i watched it last night and it has been stuck in my mind ever since.

its exactly my type of film, so much so that i put in my top four on letterboxd. the shots of the landscape were breathtaking every time, no matter the length, the sympathy that i felt for travis was constant throughout the film and then squandered towards the end with the revelation and that fucking brilliant last conversation between him and jane. the cinematography was impeccable, the acting from the kid was brilliant which is unusual because i don't usually like kids in movies because (no offence) the acting always sucks. however, this time round it felt like they'd just told hunter carson to talk about his special interests and they'll just film him doing so with harry dean stanton nodding along and listening as a dad normally would.

it was just so personable and i don't wanna seem like I'm droning on because half the people reading this probably won't have a fucking clue what we're talking about, but it was so visceral in every way that a film should be. my melancholic nature was definitely stimulated and the age gap was unexpected but also extremely poignant and necessary. i just feel like its so realistic for such extreme age gaps to not have a happy ending, you know?? especially in an american wasteland where two people come together out of comfort that then transforms into obsession and possessiveness that ultimately stunts a healthy growth of the relationship. its something that i want to explore in this next fic i have planned called 'An American Trilogy,' (yes i named it after the elvis song), which is hopefully gonna be a three part fic that spans three months of summer starting in alabama, through north mississippi to memphis (for reasons i think you can gather from the fic title) through arkansas and into texas where...inevitability occurs.

i'm undecided whether i want to write it for joel or arthur because i feel like i've got a good few joel fics now and nothing to show for arthur who has always been my original man. if it were to be arthur then i'd have to transform the setting into a late 1800's southern america and there's a whole load of history that goes alongside it. unless people wouldn't mind a modern au - personally that's not what i like in an arthur fic tho. the historical setting is kinda part of him. let me know what yall think though!!

[mdhwrites]

So, do you find it odd why the Guardian couldn't just give Anne a new set of stones or even the ability to be able to go back and forth between worlds? Like considering they were able to give Anne the means for a one-way trip back home, why not just let her travel between worlds since she made it clear she isn't gonna take advantage of the stones' powers for selfish purposes?

So I've talked before at decent length on how I LOVE the reasoning for the Guardian to have done what he did, how he did it and how it even ties into the show thematically. Part of that analysis of mine in the past has been that the Guardian himself even points out that his experiment lasted WAY. FUCKING. LONGER than he expected because it took so long for one person, out of potentially millions or even billions of people, to FINALLY do the right thing with the stones. What was meant to be fun and spice up his job now became an annoying nuisance that he was too stubborn to take back.

With that said: Yeah, Anne won't abuse them... But you obviously wouldn't want Anne to be the ONLY one using them, would you? Because the point of her having the stones permanently is for a way back to Amphibia. Well... Does the Guardian think Marcy is a trustworthy enough person to have the stones? Sasha? What if one of them decides to just take them and go, never to be seen again, in a moment of weakness like the one Marcy had at the start of the series?

But let's be kind. Let's say the trio only uses the stones when Anne is around because Anne is the only one allowed to use them. Well... What if Anne trips one day and the stones slip out of her pocket? Or hell, they live in Los Angeles. What if on their way to use the stones, a pick pocket takes them? Or someone steals from the Boonchuy's/Anne's house and gets ahold of them? Well, I guess now some other person has unlimited, ultimate power, don't they? Sure, the Guardian could have a fail safe now to nuke them at any given time but that still means that Anne has screwed up and let that power go and now it's gone because of her negligence. She has failed with this responsibility that she didn't even want. If you think she did or she wouldn't fuck up somehow...

Did you not even listen to Anne? Anne admits that she's not a perfect person. She has a lot of growing to do. That could also mean negative growth though. If anything went wrong in her life while she still had access to unlimited power, to the ability to go between worlds to find an answer to solve what was upsetting her... Does she ever abuse that? Does she ever give into that despair or hurt? After all, change is hard. Wanting to deny it and undo it so that you can keep living the comfortable existence you once had is a lot easier to chase, even though it's a mistake. It's essentially the cardinal sin of the show after all. Marcy has them use the music box so she doesn't have to face the harsh reality of losing her friends.

So yeah, he could have made a perfect set of stones that was outlined to need Anne's entire being scanned each time they were used so only she could use them and no one else but... How is that a better ending? Instead of book ending the story with saying goodbye to your friends and having to face that, we'd have a comfier ending for the audience that didn't make sense for the themes of the show and is weirdly bent towards wish fulfillment in a show that's never really been about that. It'd be worse except for the members of the fandom who want Amphibia to give them all the answers they want in their own life. Who don't ever want the discomfort of leaving their frog show behind or the cruel reality that someday they'll likely say goodbye to their friends too.

When that times comes, no god is going to give you a magic set of stones that let you go back and forth as you please. You'll have to accept that change because sometimes change is forced upon you as a part of life. Not even in the worst ways. Sometimes it's just unlucky circumstances or your own choice. Your dream job may mean leaving your hometown because they ask you to relocate or you already knew that the company's offices were FAR away but you still wanted to work there. Sometimes the college you want is too far away for a day trip to your family so now if you want to keep those ties together, you have to put in the work and find new ways to get back to them.

But if you put in the work, you'll be surprised how loyal and deep those bonds can be.

Like I've said so many times: There's almost nothing in the finale, ESPECIALLY once the Guardian shows up and beyond, that I think you could change to make for a better ending to this show and its themes. Period. You can try to be a pedant about it but you're asking for the show to give you more comfort at the cost of a worse story. That's not what I want and it's not what we should want out of our media, not if we actually want it to ever challenge us and help us grow.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[bbygirl-aemond]

I’m really curious where you come up with prophecies and Valyrian lore from? It’s canonically different as Vermithor and Vhagar aren’t siblings. Nor are there any confirmed prophecies about Aemond. There are no multiple dragon riders, even Danaeyrs only rode Drogon. Is the lore canon divergence, or your interpretation of what cannon could be?

Yeah sure I'm happy to compile all of my reasoning for the different magical decisions! I've grounded all of these decisions in different parts of canon, and took a ton of care to make sure I never once explicitly contradicted canon laws surrounding things like magic and dragon heritage. So even if you disagree about the source material I've based these decisions off of, you at least have to acknowledge I haven't violated anything by introducing this lore. I'll mention my sources more explicitly below, but I've drawn from A Song of Ice and Fire, House of the Dragon, Fire and Blood, The World of Ice and Fire, and remarks made by House of the Dragon's showrunners and actors. So let's go through it (for other Stormbreak readers, there might be some interesting hints in here...):

Vhagar and Vermithor

First, a tiny correction: Vhagar and Vermithor aren't siblings in Stormbreak. They're parent and child. This isn't confirmed in canon, but there's a ton of evidence to suggest it, drawing from Fire and Blood and House of the Dragon. According to canon, Vhagar and Vermithor are the only two dragons alive during the Dance with multiple, highly-specific features: Their size, their coloring, and even their bone structure. I've written about this biology aspect in more detail here and here.

It also fits very well into GRRM's narrative arc for Vermithor to have hatched from either Vhagar or Balerion's egg. Jaehaerys with Vermithor is set up as a direct parallel to Aegon on Quicksilver. Aegon dies fighting Maegor, who's riding Balerion, specifically because his dragon is too young and small. Vhagar was still bonded to Visenya at the time, so the next best option for a thematic match to Balerion would be either Vhagar or Balerion's offspring.

Additionally, it's significant that Rhaena, who's coded as a potential dragon dreamer, is the one who puts this egg in Jaehaerys's cradle. Perhaps she foresaw some part of the conflict that would happen, and knew Jaehaerys would need a formidable dragon that would allow him to go up against Balerion and Maegor. I've written about this in more detail here.

Even if you don't believe Rhaena's a dreamer, it's canon that the tension between Maegor and Aenys existed long before Aegon or Aenys ever died and Rhaena would have known her family's political position was very precarious. In this case, it makes even more sense for Rhaena to use Vhagar's egg specifically; at the time Jaehaerys was born, the only dragon on Maegor's side was Vhagar. It would make sense for Rhaena to want to arm her family against the dragon she knew would fight for Maegor's claim and would be trying to counter Vhagar in particular with her choice of egg. And what better counter to a gargantuan dragon than its own child, guaranteed to also be huge?

Aemond as a dragon dreamer

There are a few different parts to why I felt Aemond could have a connection to the future. My sources for this are the HotD showrunners, Aemond's actor, and the ASoIaF series.

I drew inspiration from the writers of House of the Dragon, who talked with Aemond's actor at length about intentionally basing his character off of the myth of the cyclops from Greek and Roman mythology. The cyclops has only one eye because he traded the other for knowledge of his future death. This idea of trading an eye for foresight is pretty common throughout mythology; another example is the god Odin from Norse mythology. From the interview, it's clear that Aemond has some knowledge of the future, because the actor was specifically asked to consider how that knowledge would impact Aemond's personality when deciding how to portray him. I've talked more about this here if you're curious!

The interview then made me wonder whether there might be reasons for two of Alicent's children having explicitly confirmed abilities to see the future (though to varying degrees). So in Stormbreak, the dreaming abilities of Aemond, Helaena, Jaehaera, and the fourth mystery dreamer are all related to their Hightower heritage. I've based this on canonical theories by the Maesters as to how House Hightower originated, plus canonical details about the structure/foundation of the Hightower itself.

As a hint: According to The World of Ice and Fire, the Hightower is built upon a second, much older fortress of unspecified origin. It's made of fused black stone and contains "gloomy halls, vaults, and chambers," so it's a veritable castle/fortress in and of itself. I wonder where else we might find fused black stone in the ASoIaF universe...?

Multiple dragon bonds

This is going to be the shortest part of this ask, because I've already explained everything in a separate post here, but maybe you had some trouble navigating my blog and couldn't find it. For your future reference, I have a document here with a directory of every post I've ever made. If you navigate using the outline on the left-hand side, you'll be able to get pretty easily to the portion that deals with my posts related to Stormbreak.

TLDR: The multiple dragon thing isn't an Aemond-specific ability. None of these things are. And if some of y'all would wait until the fic is finished to come after me for unfairly favoring him, you'd understand that! I mean, I have 2+ members of Team Black planned to end up with two dragons. It's a Targaryen thing, and they're all Targaryens, so statistically it's going to happen.

Part of reading a WIP is that you need to have faith in the author; if anyone struggles with that, they should stay away from WIPs in general, including this one. Remember, that's the joy of fandom- you get to choose to engage with the content that best fits your preferences!

[lucem-stellarum]

@t4llhum4n your tags made me want to expand on a thought I had. It was initially just a throwaway line but then I started thinking. It's not Vega centric, but still your fault :) also tysm I love sharing theories <3

For everyone else, the post in question is this one and these are the tags:

(Photo ID: #I stg this is so cool i legit have never thought about them this way #and Vincent being compared to MARCUS?! #and it WORKING?? #immaculate /end ID)

Under the cut due to length and discussion of canon violations of consent, of the Marcus and Adam variation.

Yeah, Vincent and Marcus. You'd think that Vincent and Adam are supposed to be mirrors of each other, and that's not WRONG, but when talking about specifically attraction and consent, which Mr. Redacted has explicitly said is a very important concept for him, I think there are different fits worth discussing.

To recap: Vincent and Marcus are foils of each other because of their idolization of their respective listeners. Lovely, especially in the first couple of videos, is particularly passive (which changes once Adam kidnaps them and they unleash their powers. I think it boils down to that literally being the first videos Mr. Redacted posts and having to figure out the particular balance between an ASMR listener and an audiobook character. Not that there's anything wrong with that! I couldn't do it. But it is something he's improved on since then). The Android is also one of the more passive characters to start with; this makes sense, especially early on while they were still being built and coded, their personality was literally a "work in progress" under Marcus' direction. Vincent and Marcus both are instantly and deeply enamored with the object of their affection. Vincent uses his charms, mysterious vampire nature, and flirty personality to entice Lovely and gain their interest. Marcus is sweet, caring, even nurturing, and tips the scales with the obsession code. But while both of their interest is reciprocated, it is Marcus' that is forced; it would be analagous to if Vincent were to use a trance to force Lovely to consent and accept his "love". While Vincent bites Lovely when he loses control (which, as per classic vampire stories, thematically is a blatant metaphor for sex), he very importantly waits for their true consent- without trancing them. Due to the obsession code overriding their system, the android at no point is able to give true, uncoerced consent during any of their interactions. They're both narratively confronted by their actions and treatment of their listener. Vincent has his moment of realization after Adam kidnaps Lovely and they get their power that he was (paraphrasing) "treating them like a toy; something to flirt with and tease and use for blood" and that he doesn't like that he's fallen into that pattern of behavior. He apologizes and promises to do better, and he does. Marcus, on the other hand, gets confronted by James about his actions and... well. His apology really doesn't amount to much, does it? Not with how selfishly and thoroughly he took advantage of his power over the Android and ignored any semblance of boundaries they might have had.

But what about Adam? Adam trances Lovely and takes advantage of them, and then gets what's coming to him almost immediately. Yes, that is one correct interpretation of his character in relation to Vincent. But, Adam never cared about Lovely as a person. He never wanted their affection or attention, it didn't matter if they hated him. He wanted Lovely to hate him, to acknowledge and submit to the sadistic power he held over them. All Adam cared about was their blood, their body, and didn't care what he had to do to get both. Lovely wasn't a person, they were a toy, a cash cow, "rare type of cattle that liked it", a pet he could keep and use and take advantage of as he wished. His character and narrative foil is someone... different. To use a different phrase, Adam is hedonistic. He cares about pleasure, his wants, and indulgences. To contrast this, we'd need a character who enjoys the same physical pleasures of the flesh but who values the consent of their partner. Someone who likes to take control but respects the other person's desires and boundaries. Someone like Gavin.

Makes sense when it's put that way, doesn't it? And Gavin is certainly rewarded for valuing and prioritizing consent with his partner. Taking care of them, and being taken care of in return. The relationship between Gavin and Freelancer starts out as pretty...physical and sensual, same as Adam's instant attraction, but that undercurrent of mutual respect morphed into true affection and love. Adam never respected Lovely, and used trancing as a way to disregard their boundaries. Gavin does make a few (a lot) of passes at Freelancer, but if a Sadism demon can use a spark of magic to encourage the worst in people to get larger energy returns (per Caelum) and Serenity demons can calm their charges, then why wouldn't an Incubus be able to do something similar? Plus, demons are so much more magically powerful than humans and it's never specifically said that vampires are the only ones able to cause a trance, just that's one of the few types of magic that they're really good at. Gavin is a strong demon and good at a lot of different types of magic; enough that he's basically just a formality away from full certification. He has the power to forcibly take away Freelancer's consent if he was so inclined, but he chooses not to; he wants the enthusiastic consent of his partners. If you accept a diversion into the Imperium verse, Vindemiator's valuation of consent is consistent across both verses because it's so centrally important to who he is, and one reason why he hates Kody so much (in both universes). Furthermore, vampires are the Sovereign's failed attempts at recreating Incubi among humans; as magical races, they're more closely linked than would immediately be apparent. If anyone would be able to also do a trance, it would be an incubus. So, Adam is the narrative selfish foil to Gavin's respectful hedonism.

So... thoughts? Does this make sense, or am I just talking out of my ass? The parallels are there, but are they narratively the most appropriate comparison, or would there be another one you think would work better? Thank you for sparking this in my brain, I wouldn't have gotten the motivation for this without you!

[postalninja]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love❤

Ooo, thank you for the ask! But how will I choose?? I definitely have a recency bias with my writing, partly because I know that I've gotten better over time so some of my older fics aren't really up to my current standard in terms of things like pacing, especially. But setting that aside, there are still some of my early fics that hold a special place in my heart, so I'll try to pick from across the board. 1. Starting with an old fic, actually, The Measure of a Man (Octopath Traveler, Rated E) is still a favorite of mine, even after 3 years. I just really enjoyed the deep dive into Olberic's sense of self and exploring how, after getting married and starting a family, he would still have some struggles in terms of his purpose and his worth. It was kind of like taking his canon story and bringing it full circle (by the gods I love that man!) 2. Next, Sins of the Father (Skyrim, Rated M), my first novel-length longfic! I put a lot of work into this one, and it was the first time that I managed to successfully develop a plot with, like, a story arc and whatnot. Still very proud of how this one turned out, since it required a lot of playing with lore and developing the backstory of characters who didn't get much of one in the game (including my first fully fleshed out original character who really stole my heart) 3. Another favorite is Fashion Party Confidential (Drawtectives, Rated T) I had so much fun putting together what is essentially meant to serve as a bonus episode after season 2. I structured it similarly to a real episode, complete with drawings made by each of the characters and an original NPC for them to harass help. I re-watched the series before I started writing and felt like I had a really good grasp of the character voices, and I'm very happy with the dialogue and how in-character it feels. And I had fun with the fashion theme of the story, given my background in fashion design and the fact that it fits in canonically with York's story, as well as the opportunity to reflect the players' fashion knowledge - or lack thereof - in the drawings (sorry, Nathan)

4. Next is Would She Love Me If She Knew? (Octopath Traveler, Rated M) I debated including this one on its own or combining it with the sequel (which, spoilers, is also on this list), but I feel like they are different enough thematically that I can talk about them separately. This fic was me diving headfirst into the royal/guard trope and essentially writing an entire romance novel, lol! It took me 9 months to write and was (at the time) the longest thing I had written. By this point I was starting to get the hang of pacing things properly without rushing them, letting the story breathe and take its time getting where it wanted to go. And I have to admit that this is my favorite version of H'aanit and Olberic that I've written so far - I absolutely loved making them face adversity before they could get together, putting obstacles in their way so that they would pine and despair about ever being able to have a relationship. Oh, that delicious angst! This fic set a new bar for me, and I've become a better writer because of it. 5. And of course, the as yet unfinished (but so close!) The Head That Wears the Crown (Octopath Traveler, Rated T). More than two years in the making, and I'm still stuck on the climax of the story, argh!!! Nevertheless, crafting this one has been so rewarding, given that it ties into WSLMISK but uncovers all of the sinister hints that I left in that story of a bigger issue to come. There's a mystery to solve, a conspiracy to uncover, and so much goddamned trauma to deal with! Some of my favorite character development to date is in this story, and I can't wait to (somehow get through this writer's block and) hopefully give this whole thing a satisfying ending. I've learned so much about plot and how to do foreshadowing and developing a complex villain while writing this fic. And as a bit of a bonus... I'll just say that I have a new Octopath Traveler 2 fic that I am *nearly* ready to start posting (just waiting on feedback from my beta, which *should* happen today) that I am currently in love with. Recency bias may play into this, of course, but I can't wait to share it! It's a Castti/Osvald Gothic Romance AU titled Memories Seep From My Veins :)

[egcdeath]

you trust my opinion and feedback i’m literally crying🥹

this is my opinion and feedback:

the reason i liked that one anon’s idea abt reader initiating the case was because to me it was abt reader coming to the final realization that nathan is at such a level of toxic it’s not fair to keep chloe around him more than necessary, and despite knowing that, i didn’t initially register nathan as abusive, i read him more as just not necessarily a good guy. but when i think about it for literally more than two seconds it’s so obvious that he’s emotionally abusive, manipulative and controlling, especially of the reader,, but i liked the idea that reader started the case being the protective mother she is,

HOWEVERRRRR: upon further reflection, it actually does make a LOT MORE sense (at least to me) for nathan to be going after custody of chloe to control reader, rather than reader trying to limit nathan’s access to chloe. bcos in my mind nathan isn’t really a threat to chloe, physically speaking, but he is unfortunately willing to use her in order to get to reader. so it makes a lot of sense that if he hears that reader and chloe are moving in with joel, nathan, either subconsciously or otherwise, realizes it would be even harder for him to control reader, and the only way he has any control over her is through chloe.

and, at least in his own twisted mind, he genuinely thinks he has a case because joel did punch him once (nathan was asking for itt,, i’m a joel defender and apologist literally no matter what) and from nathan’s pov, JOEL is the one trying to control reader and chloe (does that make sense?? i feel like i didn’t word that right but i hope my point got across) like obviously joel is very much NOT controlling anyone but nathan doesn’t see it that way

but yeah thinking about it more it makes a lottt more sense for nathan to have started the case and i like that more for the story, thematically AND based on the character development

anyways this is actually a full length essay MLA format and all, works cited page to follow ,,

-🍓

i love your feedback and opinions!! i feel like you giving me an avenue to talk about what i’m doing and why is so helpful for me to flesh out my characters, and it’s just helpful to hear an outside perspective!! 🫶🏽🫶🏽

i definitely see the appeal of both catalysts! i’m definitely biased towards nathan initiating it, mostly because i’ve already written a few thousand words around that lol

i think the reader definitely would initiate it if she had any hope that she would actually be able to take away custody from him, but i think she still feels pretty powerless a lot of the time when it comes to #that man and probably thinks that there’s no way she could get full custody. i also think that she doesn’t know how mid of a father nathan has been, other than not really showing up for her stuff. like i don’t think chloe has ever explicitly told her that she doesn’t like going over there because he’s just a deadbeat. like when they were married he was definitely doing Some fatherly duties because she convinced him to, but now he’s kinda just there. and chloe definitely notices. but because of that i don’t think she has any real reason to question his ability to parent to the point where he’d completely lose custody. let me also clarify that nathan never abused chloe. he also never did it in front of her (to his and the reader’s knowledge) so the reader doesn’t have any reason to think that would be going on either.

i definitely agree with your reasoning! nathan kinda just sees chloe as a means to an end, and the end is having control over the reader. i think nathan definitely views relationships as a sort of power game, where the man in the relationship basically owns his significant other. and i think nathan has already felt emasculated by joel, and now in his mind, joel has possession over HIS possession, and he will do anything to change that, even if it means having to take on a daughter he doesn’t really want to be responsible for.

i love a good full length essay!! i love hearing about other people’s thoughts and ideas but especially yours strawb!! thanks 🫶🏽🍓

[a-student-out-of-time]

I do get what people are saying about the voices regarding the switch theory, but at the same time, I can't come up with an alternative explanation. It's odd because I've seen other theories like the Culprit Eden theory that people have successfully made counterpoints about and given an explanation as to why X could be Y instead of Z, but when it comes to the switch theory, people love to say "no, that's wrong" without any evidence or counterargument against it. Yeah, it might be tricky to imitate voices, but it's still possible. As long as it's possible, there shouldn't be any counters saying it's impossible without explaining why first

//I really don't want to talk about this at length rn, but thank you.

//Personally, the reason I find the Eden Killer Theory implausible is not only because I find it makes very little sense from a character and thematic standpoint for it to be her, but that theory also fails to answer a lot of questions that still bother me. Especially because they're questions that other people either completely gloss over or say will be answered in Chapter 3.

//I'm sorry, but if the characters have a conversation about something in-depth early on in a chapter, I think it's logical to assume that information is going to play a role in the same chapter. Otherwise, why is it here and not in Chapter 3? That's just a basic story structure question.

//And even if you think the logic I have for my theory is sound but you find the voices thing implausible, I have to ask what the alternatives are. Any lingering questions about how J and Arei could switch places makes even less sense if you apply it to anyone else ^^;

//And if you don't believe my theory is true, why is the prosopagnosia detail important enough to talk about in depth, what purpose could it serve in this chapter (where it was brought up and discussed) and what other explanations are there? I'm not being rhetorical here, I'm genuinely curious. I've heard a lot of them, but while none have been particularly convincing to me, I'm still open to new interpretations.

//The Switch Theory has never been about "Here's why my favorite character is still alive," it's about "this chapter is weirdly arranged from a narrative perspective and here's why I think that is."

//Does my theory have holes? Sure. Again, I don't even expect to be right about it. I just want people to acknowledge that this chapter has a lot of open questions and we should focus on those and ask what it's trying to say. Not based on what we want it to say, but what the text is saying.

[thedreadvampy]

Ok like I'm sorry for all the Elias discourse but stepping off from OGlias for a moment I legit saw someone saying it was a mischaracterisation to assume Jonah Magnus was himself a rich white dude which

uh

Let's leave aside for the moment that Jonah Magnus not being wealthy and privileged utterly sucks the meaning of of a lot of what the podcast has to say about class and exploration because hey, that's a matter of interpretation

What do we know about Jonah Magnus (from all statements mentioning his original incarnation)?

1816: Interacts as at least an equal with Albrecht von Closen, who has at least one family estate and an aristocratic pedigree and thus could be expected to be at least middle class if not wealthy. This is relevant because Georgian class was very stratified and cross-class mixing heavily discouraged, 1816 is probably fairly early in Magnus' career, and Albrecht doesn't address him as one would a social inferior.

1818: Established the Magnus Institute, apparently without external funding partners because he's the only one ever mentioned in connection with its organisation and his friends talk about it as his own project; it certainly isn't associated with an existing university or academy as far as we can tell.

1824: not a lot of additional information, except that again Magnus' friends are all moving in wealthy, upper class circles

1831: In a position to hire professionals for Millbank under good terms. We learn more about Albrecht, he's definitely painted as wealthy old money, which continues to speak to this association

1841: reasonably close friends with Sampson Kempthorne, workhouse designer, who expresses the expectation of Magnus agreeing with him about workhouses and the treatment of the poor through work. At this time, Magnus is living in an Edinburgh townhouse, by which I'm guessing we're talking about one of the New Town Georgian 4-floors-plus-servant's-quarters which that name implies. Those aren't mansions, but they weren't where a clerk or shopkeeper would live - they were built for ship owners, lawyers, doctors, the upper-middle and upper classes, and as the name townhouse implies they were generally occupied as one of several estates, with the usual occupants being likely to also have a country place.

Beyond specific statement letters, Magnus largely crops up via his association with his wee gang, all of whom are wealthy upper-middle or aristocracy (Smirke, Rayner, Lukas)

He has the resources and social clout to devote his time to pursuing what is, effectively, a hobby; his interest in the supernatural doesn't bring in much income and, conversely, often costs him to chase up. He doesn't appear to have a full-time job at any point; he works on Millbank with Smirke but he doesn't appear on the records, meaning this is unlikely to be a paid management role. His friends refer to his supernatural work as a hobby or interest, not a job, and make it clear that at least by the 1830s-40s this is his whole life (he's "rattling around with his books and letters") - ergo he does not have a need to support himself beyond that.

He had the resources and funds to, by himself and for his own purposes, not only shape the building of Millbank but also to set up an independent academic institution which is still running 200 years later

Like, is it explicit that he's a rich white man? Not per se. Would all of this information make sense if he wasn't? I suppose it's possible but it's a reach, and one that I'm not sure why you as a writer would make without making pretty clear. To be able to move comfortably in moneyed Georgian circles without being born to money, and to be able to do the things Magnus does without having substantial disposable income - that would be exceptional, and would surely merit some sort of comment.

(I've talked about the race politics of Georgian Britain as relates to Jonah Magnus before, but just to sum up: in a time before the abolition of the slave trade and during massive colonial expansion into Asia, being a British man of wealth and not being white was pretty unusual. We can see this in the description of Rayner; he's very specifically described as Black, but also his Blackness is notable to a contemporary narrator. so again, not impossible for Jonah to be a person of colour, but definitely unexpected and it would be an interesting choice to write that unremarked)

just by way of historical context, as I say, class was very structured and immobile in Georgian Britain for the most part. It was also, as I understand it, much more discrete. Whereas now, the lines between working class, middle class and upper class are pretty fuzzy, in the 1800s they were a lot more clear-cut - the working class worked for little money, had little to no education past basic literacy and numeracy, and the entire household would work; the newly developing middle class made a living through highly-skilled jobs (artists, doctors, lawyers, clerks, shopkeepers, factory owners, shop owners and pub landlords, for example) and would have enough disposable income to buy property; and the upper class/gentry may work (but only appropriate to their station; academia, law or the church, largely, and of course a lot of them in the 1810s made bank from Caribbean plantations and their imports) but substantially they lived off the profits of investments, ownership and estate management, built off heritable wealth. 

There’s a big range of middle class though, although it was a small segment of society. At the bottom end, you have your grocers, pub landlords, shopkeepers, clerks and so on - they probably own their homes and business and have money to buy things outright rather than renting. At the top end, we have some really pretty substantial wealth - we’re talking multiple houses and estates, large-scale business concerns, tens of permanent staff, and only one person in the family needing to work. The difference between upper middle and aristocracy isn’t necessarily in quality of life, aside from blood it’s really just a question of whether the majority of your income comes from work or from investment and property management. So for example, Smirke is upper middle, but very wealthy - he has a career in a high-profile trade, he’s notable and welcome in high society, but ultimately his wealth is dependent on him continuing to get work. Von Closen may have more or less material wealth than Smirke, but his money is old money and he does not work; he’s very much a gentleman of the upper crust. Particularly with Industrial Revolution and the profit that the slave trade and the expansion of the Empire were bringing in for traders, the middle class was abruptly getting a lot richer in at the start of the 19th century and if anything class was getting a lot more discrete - urbanisation and industrialisation meant the poor were getting poorer (and less able to exist outside a monetary economy) and the working rich were getting a lot richer (until of course after a couple of hundred years the upper middle class almost eclipsed the idle class as the Rich and Powerful)

So the gentry/nobles/old money/upper class were the only class whose wealth wasn’t to a high degree reliant on them working, and so honestly being a Georgian gentleman was stultifyingly boring. That’s why so many comedies of manners crop up from the lower end of the upper class - you have to find something to keep you busy and social politicking is something. But it also meant a lot of gentlemen scholars - men with time on their hands and nothing they desperately needed to be doing, who got really into eccentric hobbies and niche interests (like social engineering, or art theory, or the occult, or unpicking weirdly specific theological concepts, or a bit earlier experimenting with light and lenses, or a bit later investigating the origins of species, or getting super into a specific aspect of the classics). The idle rich weren’t the only ones doing academia or research, but they had the time, money and resources to devote to really deep dives into things without much financial use.

So my personal take is that, given that by 1818 Jonah Magnus had the capital, the social heft and the time to found and run an independent academic institution focused on his relatively niche interests, and to do so with enough resourcing that it still runs 200 years later, the safest bet is that he was born a gentleman. At the very least, all the people he socialises with are securely upper-middle or gentry; he has a visible disdain for the poor; he owned substantial personal property by at least middle age (the Edinburgh townhouse); he had the social clout to get involved behind the scenes in a major social architecture project - it seems like the lowest this could possibly place him is mid-to-upper middle class at birth (he could have made that much money from working and lucky investments, but to get into a position where by middle age you can afford to become the Idle Rich, spending all your money and time on an obsessive personal interest, you would need to have started off with at least the capital and clout to get a high-level education and/or make significant business investments (say, buy a series of factories or build a shipping empire). You could make a case that he could work his way up from being born to a middling-middle-class family - maybe a country vicar or a shopkeeper - but friends can I show you some numbers I googled?

In the 1810s, being mid- or upper middle class (fourth or above) meant you were richer than 94.5% of the civilian population. Upper middle and above (like literally every person we know of who had social ties to Magnus except maybe the architects)? Literally top 1%. (well. 1.25%).

The middle class in Georgian Britain was the elite. They weren’t the elite of the elite, but they had money, land, property, staff, clout and privilege. You can’t project the class politics of 2021 onto 1818 (that is, in fact, why pure Marxism still requires an updated reading, bc in even the last 150 years the specific distribution and attributes of class and wealth has changed substantially (although the same people do stay at the top and bottom)). 

I think our perceptions are altered by the worries and perspectives of popular contemporary authors. For example, Austen characters often bemoan their lack of wealth, and are firmly Middle Class, and compared to the upper middle and the gentry they are living frugally and on a budget, but with “cottages” that are often six- or seven bedroom houses with several parlours and one or two servants, plus a town house, and with only one breadwinner per family and enough invested wealth to live entirely off the interest (that’s what the incomes of these characters are), they are living in a degree of wealth that would be unthinkable to 95% of their contemporaries, and it would be fair to assess them as rich by modern standards.

You can argue that Jonah Magnus wasn’t aristocracy. You cannot argue realistically that he wasn’t rich. Not only does that make no thematic or character sense (again, that’s a matter of interpretation, but it seems to me to be Pretty Key to his character that he’s an examination of inborn privilege) but it also makes no contextual historical sense.

[lurkingismypastime]

My Mike Afton Headcanons :)

Aromantic asexual, interested in a qpr

Autistic (I’m probably going to make a separate post just for this)

Genderfluid, he/they/she/xe

Deaf or close to it. I’ve yet to figure out if it should be just the natural progression of his hearing or something that happened

His mom was Mexican

Warm brown skin tone (yknow, like how colors can warm or cool)

They have their mom’s wild dark brown hair, and it shows once he takes care of it (and isn’t that a thematic statement and a half)

Curly dark brown hair, grows it to just above shoulder length

Having it pulled back all the time gives them a headache, but they won’t leave it loose if they feel they’re in danger

Complete heterochromia, their right eye is blue and their left is brown

(This was mostly because I couldn’t decide between giving them brown eyes or blue, and now I’m attached)

5′5″ (let Mike be short, it’s what they deserve)

Other Headcanons

Since they have trouble hearing and work in a place where they have to rely on hearing to warn them of danger, they have issues going without aids

Gruffly gentle with people younger than them, but prone to hostility with people older

Will fight as soon as he thinks he’s being threatened

On bad days he panics at everything he thinks could be perceived as a mistake

Loves to people watch (unless they’re having a bad day where they compare themself to their dad) enjoys watching life just bustling around them, it makes them feel more human

Hates being treated like she’s stupid or worthless 

AUTHORITY ISSUES BABY

In an ideal world, xe would be a paramedic or artist :)

Touch starved and touch repulsed

Loves rain, it’s xeir favorite smell too

The ocean is also something she loves

Sunset colors are her favorite

Loves painting especially mural-like pieces

Has trouble making friends and connecting with people, but sometimes finds people that just click

Has been a disappointment all his life, and when he grew up he learned to wear it like a badge of pride. There’s still a wound beneath that though, and it likes to show up on bad days and around parental figures.

Chronic pain, body issues

Once he learns to stand up for himself, he also figures out how to stand up for others

Dry sense of humor

Their wrist getting grabbed is a trigger. If it happens unexpectedly they will fight them off, or panic if that doesn’t work.

Introverted

Gardening is something they enjoy a lot. They have a lot of plants (some of which are wild/weeds) knows a lot about their properties

Self-esteem issues (but we knew that)

Spoke Spanish with their mom until (something happened, I’m still figuring out what) 

Later picked it up again, or spoke and learned it all through childhood to stay connected to her (dad told him he couldn’t take Spanish because he would ‘cheat’)

His mom used to make heated milk with brown sugar and nutmeg for him. He makes it for his siblings on bad nights, and later for himself when he needs comfort

C-ptsd in general but also about ennard specifically (which makes eating even more of a challenge, and gives him autonomy issues)

They were conscious while Ennard was in them (I’m so sorry) 

She’s got her mom’s eyes and smile. She nearly cries the first time someone points out the resemblance because she’s been compared to her father her whole life

Has xeir mom’s freckles and temperament, but xeir dad’s face and mannerisms (unfortunately)

TOUCH STARVED AS HELL

Fuck William’s accent, Michael has his mom’s accent

Nearly debilitating fear of losing autonomy

Can face the worst life has to offer without batting an eye, but crumbles like a wet paper bag in the face of any positive interaction

Loves space and thinking about it and talking about it

Was an annoying and kind of rough older sibling, but also took on the responsibility of his siblings. William was especially bad the week of cc’s birthday, and that translated into being rougher and more calloused with his siblings. If the joke had gone as intended, he probably would have made it up to him in his own rough way once he realized how much it affected cc.

Don’t tell me you haven’t done something in the heat of the moment that you regret later. I know I have

Being gentle comes easily to him after he gets away from his father and learns to leave the ‘be tough or get hurt’ mindset

This makes him even more like his mother, with his temper turning into spitfire protectiveness combined with a gentle empathy, especially for kids

His mother begins to shine through more and more. Where he once had his father’s expressions and habits, he now exhibits his mom’s

Sorting through my Mike refs, I’m realizing how many of my headcanons were just putting a neon sign above his head blaring ‘AUTISTIC. THIS PERSON IS AUTISTIC’

[leupagus]

You know what else pisses me off? Women's hair and how it's used as shorthand in this show in just the laziest goddamn ways possible and then IT'S NOT EVEN DONE WELL.

Like okay Brienne has short hair because she's a fighter but it's EXACTLY THE WRONG LENGTH IF YOU'RE A FIGHTER. It's Jaime Season 1, the exact length to get into your eyes while you're fighting! You're telling me that Brienne "I've been beating up idiots who thought I was unwomanly since I was tall enough to kick them in the balls" of Tarth wouldn't have a pixie cut???

And then there's Cersei, who DOES have a pixie cut but again, ALL WRONG FOR HER CHARACTER. I can't see her keeping it short, myself; this is Cersei Lannister, the most beautiful woman in Westeros and trained from birth to be beautiful. Who uses that beauty. She might cast that aside once she takes the throne (and if so you need to EXPLAIN WHY SHE DOES SO other than "when lady get power she get manly"), but before? When she's still the queen mother and trying to get Tommen out from under the influence of Margaery and wanting to keep things as they were? And even if you could convince me that she keeps it short as a reminder of what happened to her — which you could! — you have to have her keeping it the length it was during her walk of atonement and not...whatever that wig was. Show me the Cersei who gets her hair cut once a week, so that she can remember and HATE those who were responsible. (She probably kills the barber who does it every week Arabian Nights style! Let's see that!)

And if you want to talk about hair upkeep, WHAT THE FUCK WAS UP WITH DAENERYS'S WHOLE BRAID SITUATION. Like let's leave aside the fact that no scalp in any universe has the hair required to have that many braids of that thickness in it (and god that wig looked so bad, SO BAD, why was the wig department SO BAD ON THIS SHOW). The reflection of Daenerys's descent into "IDK I'm Just Evil Now IG?" by how elaborate her hairdo was doesn't make any sense for many reasons, not the least of which was WHO WAS DOING THAT HAIR FOR HER. I can guarantee you that was not a hairstyle you could do yourself, even with the magical hair follicles of the Targaryens. So who? Not Missandei, clearly. Not Grey Worm (although I would have paid so much money to see that and to see him discover his inner stylist and quit the Unsullied to open a barber shop in the Reach or something). Plus, the hairstyle we see her have in the last few seasons isn't one we see on anyone else, so... what is the point of it? Is it purely a signal for the audience, rather than an actual hairstyle that A HUMAN PERSON would want to put her scalp through every day? (Also again, that wig was so bad, why did it never move or have any whispies even when she'd just gotten off the BACK OF A DRAGON, like have you ever ridden your bike really fast down a hill YOUR HAIR GETS WINDSWEPT god I'm so mad.)

The only note I have about Sansa's hair was that the subliminal cue of having her and Arya and Brienne be the only Westerosi women not wearing wigs was actually kind of thematically interesting and then they gave her the shittiest wig of all for the last two seasons and fucked it all up.

Me before writing this GOT fic: this will mostly be about Sansa, my main squeeze, my best girl and beloved

Me while writing this GOT fic: so instead of the whole dumb shit that happens to Daenerys in seasons 5 & 6 what if instead she’s presiding over Meereen while it invents democracy so it can vote her out of the city. Along the way Meereen invents journalism and soccer.

[sometipsygnostalgic]

This is the post I was working on that I accidentally sent privately before I’d finished it, LOL. Thanks @imorahtarm107 for sending it back after what must have been a confusing request. 

CONT: Rebecca Sugar  has spoken before about how much they dislike the statement by press that Bubbline only became “canon” in the finale, because Sugar and Muto were working on that pairing all the way back in s3, those characters have been canonically queer the whole time. It’s not some novelty thing that was canonized at the very end just because everyone else was doing it, or that the characters were only queer and dating if they got to kiss on the mouth! 

So yeah, I was a bit salty abouta  few things. I mostly thought that season 10 had been underwhelming compared to the spectacular seasons 7 to 9. Honestly, I still stand by that opinion because those seasons were really good. 

I felt that there were some other things missing from s10, but some of those got followed up either in the finale or in Obsidian, albeit less in depth than I’d have liked (primarily the fallout to Elements on the side of the Elementals themselves - I thought this was only appropriate considering what happened in Jellybeans Have Power. Are they not terrified of themselves? What are the long term consequences of that takeover, if any? It seems much bigger than the stuff with the Lich that barely anyone knew about.)  

HOW MY THOUGHTS HAVE CHANGED

Well, honestly? Just hearing more from the crew about the problems they faced on CN, not just the AT crew but also Rebecca Sugar with SU, it clears SO much up. 

Kent Osborne said to Ghostshrimp in a podcast that, even though they knew the show was ending, the team had no idea how many episodes they had left! Unlike the earlier seasons where CN just made block orders of 52 eps, it seems like from s6 onwards, things were far less stable. CN no longer ordered consistent season lengths. I’m not sure if they instead ordered blocks of eps, or if they gave the crew a flexible budget to work from, like Legend of Korra had. 

From my observations and theories, the reason seasons 7 to 9 have so many miniseries is possibly because Adam Muto was using those as a way to appeal to what CN wanted out of Adventure Time, and therefore, to prolong the lifespan of the show. It worked really well as both standalone miniseries and as episodes of the show. Olivia Olsen commented that there were many times they thought they were on the last season but it turned out they weren’t.  Adam Muto pitched the first eps of Distant Lands originally as miniseries to “extend” season 10. He was probably hoping he would be successful! 

Unfortunately, this time he was not successful, and Kent Osborne said that the crew were taken off guard by Come Along With Me being their last ep. When they started work on it, they thought it was a special in the middle of what could be a longer season. Kent even believed they would’ve had another 26 eps left. Adam had to beg for an extra couple of months so they could figure out how they could turn what would have been a gumbald special (whatever that would have entailed) into a finale for the entire show! 

Watching Come Along With Me with the knowledge that the crew were taken so off guard changes entirely what I think of it, because what originally seemed like lazy rush jobs - Simon turning back but not having any time as himself, the ep havingt so much going on, the conflict between Bonnie and Gumbald being a bit empty - now feels like the best possible outcome!! How on earth did they make Come Along With Me as good as it was?? They gave so many characters good moments, they had the whole thematic resolution to the land of Ooo and the themes of the world going in circles but nothing staying the exact same, they paid respects to Finn’s growth, and had the outro as the finale song while showing life goes on! 

Now that I’ve had so long to process exactly what happened in the ep, I greatly appreciate so many scenes that I previously overlooked or dismissed. The intro sections by Steve and Tom are brilliant at building up tension, which is part of why the second section feels so jarring. However, the dream sequence is so funny, with interesting imagery that it’s still nice to pick apart. Jake gets to be a good brother, Finn gets to battle Fern, and you have that chilling swapperoo epiphany with Gumbald and PB. The scene where they’re all on the beach is so cathartic. 

Then the second half of the special is just intense start to finish - everyone working together at the culmination of their character arcs, to take down GOLB! Until the power of a little robot’s song turns out to be the best tool of holding it back, and Betty performs the ultimate sacrifice for her mistakes with a smile on her face. So good.  The ending scenes with Finn and the treehouse, Shermy and Beth, the music hole, those are a thematic conclusion to the show. 

So, yeah, it did a great job. To an extent it’s better enjoyed if you pick it apart than if you watch it all at once, since it’s unfortunately not as hard-hitting as a lot of the single 11-minute eps of Adventure Time, including the previous season finale Three Buckets. However it absolutely does its job.

As for Bubbline, well...  Adam was trying to get the show extended, and if anyone looks at the twitter comment I currently have as my pinned post, then you’ll understand that there’s no way PB and Marcy could have kissed or made their relationship undeniably explicit unless it was the very end of the show :/ 

Adam said himself that he didn’t see it as much his fight to battle the decisions of execs as Rebecca did. And while that hurts, it makes sense - he was the owner of someone else’s show that is a smorgas board of a large number of people’s ideas, whereas Rebecca was the owner of their own show and felt that if they weren’t able to express themself in their own show, Sugar was willing to completely take down SU. And that actually happened - Steven Universe got cancelled immediately!!! Adam was not prepared to do that with AT, especally when CN were already talking about cancelling it. 

The good news is he didn’t give up on having PB and Marcy’s relationship be at least fairly clear, especially s7 onwards. I don’t know what happened behind the scenes, but it’s likely a number of the crew members taken on at that time found it important to press for Bubbline, and Adam decidedly agreed. If someone other than him had taken over as showrunner, or even if Pen stayed in charge (he supported it but didn’t want to be wrapped in controversy), I wonder if they’d have never interacted after What Was Missing :/ 

So yeah, with that in mind, as annoying as Marcy and Hunson still is, I can forgive the crew for doing a finale kiss. Rather, I can really thank Hanna K for pressing for one - she knows how important it was to at least confirm what people had expected, without a retroactive tumblr post ala Korrasami. 

[ghostchasersmagazine]

Found this pretty neat piece of Butch Cassidy concept art on eBay today:

Some particular notes of interest to me (under the cut for length purposes):

- Perhaps the most obvious difference between it and the show as we know it is Wally’s design (or Harvey’s, as he was known during production). He was originally a redhead with straight hair instead of brunette with curly hair. (Honestly, his original design makes him look like how Danny Partridge appeared in Goober and the Ghost Chasers, so changing it seems like the right call.) His clothes were predominately light pink with dark pink highlights (plus a nice purple necktie) at first, though that got reversed for his final one (and also no purple). He might have also possibly had freckles originally, it’s hard to tell.

What I find particularly interesting about this design is that it’s slightly different from the design seen in that one storyboard I talked about a bit ago, as in that one is hair is curlier (but not quite as it is in the show):

Clearly Wally’s design was something that got workshopped a lot throughout production of the show (and just his character in general since his name was changed too). Part of me wonders if at least some of the inspiration for the design change came when Micky Dolenz was cast to voice him, since Wally’s final design kinda resembles how he looked in season 2 of The Monkees.

- Moving on from Wally, Elvis also had a very different design originally as he was a whole different breed of dog. I’m not exactly sure what breed he was, I’m thinking one of those short-legged Bloodhounds maybe? If that’s the case then changing him to an Afghan Hound (I think) for his final design isn’t too drastic then.

- The girls aren’t too different from their final design. Like shown in that storyboard, the main is difference is that Merilee is the one with bangs and Stephanie without. Their colors were also reversed from their final designs, with the dark pink on the top and the light pink on the bottom. Looking at it I kinda like it that way, since I think the white of their belts go better with the link pink and Merilee’s light pink skirt looks nice over the dark pink tights, but ultimately it’s not different enough to have a strong opinion on.

- Butch’s design was more different than I was expecting it to be. Looks like his hair was originally going to be black instead of the dark brown it ended up being (though its inconsistent enough in the show you could argue it still is), and its that slightly longer style seen in the storyboard. What is particularly interesting was that he originally wore pink like the rest of the Sundance Kids. I'm torn on wether or not I wished they kept that detail. On the one hand, I do think that the blue of his final design sticks out a bit too much and doesn't match the the white/pink/yellow color scheme of their plane and drum set and stuff. On the other hand, since he is the protagonist and its emphasized throughout the show that people view him separately from the rest of the Sundance Kids, it thematically makes sense he gets his own color and blue does get linked with pink a lot. Maybe the real answer here is that he should have worn yellow instead, they could have even made “golden boy” jokes about it or something like that.

I also think its neat that he’s hiding in a drum set in this concept art, since that was something the show kept for the intro.

- I liked the little detail that all of their sleeves had buttons on them. I’m sure that was gotten rid of for ease of character animation (and frankly I do like their final sweater-like sleeves they ended up with), but it’s a neat detail nonetheless.

[strawberryjamsara]

Keiji and Sara’s relationship throughout yttd

In which I analyze the found family dynamic between Sara and Keiji then nobody reads it. But jokes aside, I realized back when that anon asked me for my thoughts on Sara that I had enough thoughts on the relationship between these two alone for its own meta so here goes. What Sara and Keiji’s relationship means in the grand scheme of yttd.

ALSO THIS IS NOT SHIPPING SHIPPERS GET THE FUCK AWAY

Sara when she meets Keiji is distrustful of him. And how can she not be? The guy has some creepy bags under his eyes, doesn’t seem to care about the situation, and for no reason is gravitating towards her. And his response when she asks why the hell he keeps putting a random stranger in charge? “Because you’re cute.” Yeah. I’d stay within 50 feet of this guy too Sara. Especially when he’s not spilling a word about himself.

Alright we might as well get the gross part out of the way. To clear things up. In the Japanese version, the word he uses “Kawai” can be seen as a more fatherly word to use with a kid. But the comments about going on dates from himself and from Shin? Those are still there. And I still think they’re really uncomfortable and wish they weren’t in the game period but we can get thematic significance out of them.

We still don’t know Keijis reasons in game for being attached to Sara. My theory? She’s his handicap. He was told to get close to the higher scorer who could easily backstab him, and he’d be stuck with her. It just kinda makes sense to me. But since that’s just a theory I won’t lean to heavily on it for support. But let’s talk about his comments.

Keiji… well, it’s shown at many points in the game that Keiji just thinks of himself as doomed to be a bad person. It can be seen during his day two negotiations when he calls himself a killer and explains he can’t even trust himself so Sara shouldn’t really bother and more explicitly so is the classroom scene between him and Ranmaru where he says he isn’t fit to protect Sara because of his sins. The flirting is both a way to distract people, and to put distance between himself and Sara. He’s not really “protecting” her.

Okay gross bit nobody wants to talk about is over I promise we won’t talk about it again. Let’s talk about Russian Roulette. In this scene, Keiji once again tries to make Sara the leader with no explanation, but then, Sara yells at him, something he didn’t expect. And through this he actually reveals something huge. The source of his trauma. His shooting. For Keiji to have actually revealed something that big, I think that this is the first moment he began to see Sara past whatever reason he first started making her a leader. This is the beginning of their bond.

This bond gets solidified over chapter 1-2s investigation. Keiji is still putting her in charge because his handicap said to build her up for whatever reason, but they’re able to have chats, and she keeps picking at his armor. He reveals his dark sense of humor to her, and she, suspicious just sort of keeps him at arms length. Also she rides his shoulders to screw in a light and he complains which is funny. The scene post Nao also helps the two of them sharpen investigative skills together, as they discuss the mystery of Miley, and Mishimas head.

Then another significant scene. The white room. I call this scene significant because, instead of letting Sara investigate the gruesome scene of the first trial, Keiji for the first time, allows Sara to walk out. Something that will become relevant later but until then, Keiji has begun to put Sara’s well-being above serving whatever purpose he had by building her up. So keep that in your pocket while we go over the main game.

There’s only two points for the main game I want to cover. While Keiji and Sara do put their heads together a few times, Sara still doesn’t fully trust him, so I will only go over 1. When Shin brings up Kai’s emails. Keiji has been fully logical this whole time, questioning everyone’s alibis including Nao’s who he saw the emotional plea from, but when Sou brings up potentially damning evidence of Sara, he just asks if he read the emails wrong. 2. When Sara is panicking over being chosen for the final round, Keiji loudly shouts “GET A GRIP SARA!” With a serious expression. Before quickly backtracking and going back to a devil may care expression. This shows he is both already emotionally attached to Sara, but unwilling to stake himself towards giving himself to a new cause.

Anyways, he stops her from pressing the button blah blah blah, onto chapter 2! I’ve made a post about this before but it seems as early as here, Keiji is trying to talk Sara down from pushing herself further. But at this point, Sara has already dedicated herself to the role because her best friend died due to her priority to protect everyone. Keiji sees the problem and he tries to get her to rest up, but he still doesn’t spend the time to have a serious talk about it because as he says in the classroom. He isn’t fit to protect her. He doesn’t think of himself as a good person who can help her. He thinks of himself as a murderer and he doesn’t allow himself to recover from the trauma.

Sara however is starting to rely more on Keiji. He’s been willing to comfort her in her times of grief and furthermore, she has something to relate to him on. They both have deaths of important people in their lives they feel responsibility for.

There’s also the fact that Keiji sees a lot of his old self in Sara. An idealistic person, being beaten down, and worrying over the idea they might be becoming a bad person. He feels the same as her.

Not to mention… Keiji follows through on his promises. He actually tells Sara about the person he respected like he said he would which establishes a further sense of trust.

However, something that tears that sense of trust apart is the tokens scene. When Keiji doesn’t even let Sara hold 50 tokens, it raises suspicion. Sara already knows he shot a person- what more could he have to hide? That scares her away. The negotiation event is an attempt for Keiji to win back her trust. But it slowly turns into Keiji’s self-loathing session. And his declaration maybe Sara shouldn’t trust him.

However, time passes enough (and Keiji supports Sara enough in the final attraction) for them to get together and investigate in 2-2. And there’s a lot of moments I can talk about there so I’ll be just doing a few rapidfire things. So first, Sara is in peak weird girl mode and Keiji can hardly control her chaos. Second, Keiji makes a full on decision at one point to go against Sara when she’s putting herself in danger of getting caught for their search so they can hide. Third, his response to “I don’t intend to die” when he asks “will you die with me” is that’s a good answer.

And fourth… a moment I really wanna touch on… Keiji watches something that could easily incriminate Sara. It’s not just some word of mouth thing like with Shin who lied about things several times before this point. But in that moment, he still relies on Sara and says he wouldn’t feel bad betting his life on her. The message is clear. Keiji supports Sara unconditionally.

Now let’s talk about Keiji totally dropping Sara’s ass with the card trades.

The way Keiji makes his trades is very telling. He first, steals a keymaster card from either Sou or Kanna to give to Sara. This is supporting Sara, but it’s doing it in a way that supports his view of himself. That he’s a scumbag who would steal someone’s immunity just to give it to someone he likes more. And would a shithead like that be “worthy” of sacrificing themselves and taking the card for Sara? (And he knew she had it. Qtaro had to tell him for their plan to happen) no. Instead he essentially opts for a revenge plot. A plan to ensnare Shin and kill him for pawning off the sacrifice to Sara. Basically, he wanted to fuck up Shin like how he fucked up Megumi. Nice going Keiji. This is… kind of his low point in the story.

But 3-1….. man this chapter hits in all the right ways. I don’t remember 3A that much, (although I do know that Keiji shows a lot of concern over Sara potentially being triggered by Joe memorabilia) and also if you fail the Keiji Midori fight you can have Sara attempt to tag Keiji and he rejects. And how can we forget… the mr policeman flashback. As Sara says, this is Keiji’s first time opening up on his own.

And then… coffin saga. Sara through everything is not willing to let Keiji die. Although she’s had her ups and downs with him, leaving him to die is inconceivable to her with everything they’ve been through together. So she opts to sign the contract both times she is offered it.

Keiji clearly is somebody important to Sara. Important enough that Ranmaru bringing him up is enough to snap her out of her murderous trance. Enough that she throws logic out the window when she has a sign he’s okay.

Likewise, the scene in the classroom for Keiji is… a huge step. When he’s alone with Ranmaru, who is unstable, in that classroom, his priority is Sara. He turns his back to the threat to hold Sara and try and make sure she’s okay- dumb move, but it shows how far he’s come.

And again, I want to reiterate- Keiji is Sara’s anchor. At the banquet when Sara is about to give up, she imagines Keiji talking to her which brings her back in the game. Much like Joe did back in chapter 2. The message is palpable. Keiji is Sara’s new Joe. And when Keiji comes back to comfort her? He’s now fully willing to sacrifice himself. It winds up not being needed seeing as Qtaro is the one that died. But in that moment, we see Keiji has made a huge leap from chapter 2. He almost sacrificed himself for Gin. And he would’ve used his final moments to comfort Sara. He’s embraced that he’s a father figure. He allows himself to be a good person.

Anyways I don’t know how to conclude this and I’ve been writing for hours. Bababooey.

[centaurianthropology]

Thoughts on Critical Role C3E3

Spoilers below the cut

Well, shit.  That really was a fantastic episode.  Lots happened, the group came together in various ways, and we got a proper gut-punch of an ending.  

- We’re learning a bit more about Imogen.  It seems like she either has memories or at least dreams of a great red tempest that’s tied to her past and likely tied to the way she got her powers.  I also think that it’s likely something happened to her family.  We’ll probably learn more as we go, but yeah, the more I see her the more I think Laura drew some definite inspiration from Caleb from last campaign.  I was also really impressed with her during the fight.  Seeing Laura cut loose was great, and once again reinforces that as she grows in power she’s going to be an absolute beast on the battlefield.

- Less Laudna this episode, which makes sense since last episode was her big lore-drop.  I think we did finally figure out what sorcerous origin she is.  We knew she was an Undead Warlock, but she also seems to have a Shadow origin, which fits her thematically.  If she’s going classic sorclock, she’ll have taken those initial levels in warlock and may now lean heavily into sorcerer, especially if she wants to go a mostly-magic build, so I’m guessing we’ll see what she can do and which of her classes she chooses to level when they bump to 4.

- FCG also didn’t get as much to do, although they got some clutch heals and damage shares in.  We also figured out what their ‘temp hit points’ when they share suffering can do.  They can actually turn them into damage against their enemies, which is a really neat trick to take damage meant for a PC and deflect it.  They’re also clearly very worried about Ashton, and I think with good reason, which brings us to ...

- Of all the new group, Ashton is the most withdrawn, the most held back.  He definitely contributes to battle plans and strategy, but he avoids talking about anything personal with anyone but the people from the crook house.  We found out a little more about him, though.  We now know that he’s got massive debts, huge damage to his reputation, and that ‘she’ comes around and is either a danger or at least a trouble to him, and seems to be tied with the last crew he ran with, which went very south, hard enough that the thought of a new group seems to intrigue them and scare the shit out of them in equal measure.  It seems like he might have been betrayed by a patron, because his reaction to Lord Eshteross is to avoid talking to him at all costs, and he looked genuinely worried when that cake came out.  Something really bad went down with his last patron, some huge betrayal.  I don’t know if ‘she’ is a former colleague or connected to that patron, but I’m guessing we’ll find out at the worst possible time.  They once again demonstrated the coin-flip approach to their life, when deciding whether or not to stay with the group, he let FCG be the one to do it.  But it’s clear they’re doing their best not to get attached, to hold all the others and everyone else at arms’ length.  Their reaction to Danica’s death was cold, mercenary, and shows a sort of bleak outlook that I think reflects as much about them as it does about her.  I think Ashton thinks he’s done something terrible, that he tangled with the wrong life, and now he’s on borrowed time too.  These people could probably save him, but it’ll be a long while until he opens up enough to let them try.  I’ll be interested to see how the events at the end of the episode effect them.  They still aren’t that close with this group, but still.  It’s the first chance on people they’ve taken in a long time.

- We still don’t know much about Fearne, although she remains a guaranteed source of hilarity and chaos.  I’m interested to see how a creature of the Feywild fits into this group long-term, and how living in this plane of existence will effect her.  She right now very much retains her own sense of otherness, but that may fade over time.  I also loved the Bert and Fernie joke, as thier duo was one of my favorites.

-   Orym was mostly support this time, though I really hope he finds a way to up his CON and AC.  He’s way too squishy right now, and the dex does not seem to save him as much as we’d hope.  It was interesting to find out that the person he was looking for is a ‘good thing’, not something dangerous.  We also found out that there is a shadowy someone or something he’s seen before, masked in dark clothing, and the look on his face says that that is a sad and painful story, very possibly tied to why he wants a fresh start in Marquet.

- Dorian was great, and I’m liking Robbie as a part of the group more and more.  My theory about him is that he’s a special guest, but they’re using this as a testing ground to see if he wants to stay, if Matt feels like he can run a table of eight comfortably, and if it fits with the story.  I like Dorian a lot, and I think he adds something to the group.  Him and Imogen made a good team as faces for the group, and I liked the balance between retaliation against Bertrand for being an ass in the darkness, but also forgiving him and playing him music.  Their final scene, and Bertrand’s little confessions about his former group and about not really knowing anything about the city were beautifully bittersweet.  

- And then we get to Bertrand.  I was always half expecting it, given his higher level and the fact that Travis seemed to be deliberately holding back in combat, but it’s a tribute to Travis that over the course of three episodes he really made me love this ridiculous old man, to the point that his death at the end of the episode was a genuine gut-punch.  And I think it was partly because, in the end, after being a coward, and betraying his party, and being a cad time and again, Betrand made a stand.  He refused to collaborate with the dwarf, refused to even entertain the notion.  He stood proud, happy with the fact that he was finally back on top, part of a good group of people.  He was out to see one more sunrise.  As soon as he said that, I suspected things might go wrong.  But Travis sold the shit out of it, and I’ll admit that it ached to hear Matt describe him walking into the tempest in Imogen’s vision as he lay, bleeding out in the alleyway.  I’m sure I’ll like Travis’ new character plenty, but damn, I’m going to miss this adventuring grandpa in amazing clothes.