#I know many people who like this open endedness

[the-almighty-bling]

THE DISAPPOINTMENT I HAD @ WRITERS

PICK A SIDEEEEEEE

tao turning to the audience and saying the whole 'let the past stay in the past' speech

[go-go-devil]

Dark Souls Advice for Beginners: A Mindful Approach to a Challenging Classic

Dark Souls is, without question, one of the best games I’ve ever played… Which is why it pains me to still see so much gameplay discussion regarding it being overshadowed by overblown exaggerations of its difficulty or judgemental opinions hurled at others over whatever they think the "correct" and "incorrect" ways to play the game are.

As someone who recently beat the game for the very first time, I want to dispel these unhelpful ideologies and offer some tips I’ve picked up on just from playing the game by myself in hopes that they can help out beginners who want to experience this wonderful game first-hand.

This will NOT be made up of objective gameplay tips that one can find in hundreds of guides at this point (ex: how to parry, best order of bosses to fight, where to get the grass crest shield, etc.). Instead, this guide aims to narrow down the most important mindsets one should adopt while playing to best ease themself into this game’s challenging-but-rewarding mechanics BEFORE they would need to ask for help.

Dying is a Lesson, not a Punishment

Most people who've heard of Dark Souls even in passing are aware of the penalty given to players every time they die: losing your souls and humanity, or basically the in-game currency and natural resistance bonus + bonfire kindler + icreaser of finding item drops, among other things.

And you will die in this game.

A LOT!

Although this game has become infamous for having a high difficulty, it actually handles its death penalties very fairly in my opinion.

Like its predecessor, Demon’s Souls, this game expects the player to die many times throughout the adventure, and the gameplay accommodates for this. While the cost of death is losing ALL of your on-hand souls and humanity, the game gives you a second chance to reclaim those lost souls by returning to the spot where you died and recollecting them on the ground. It is only if you die again before reaching your souls that they disappear forever.

If you find yourself dying over and over again without making any meaningful progress, it’s best to view this as the game not telling you “Oh wow you must be terrible at playing this game!” but instead as suggesting “Perhaps you are not fully prepared to venture through this area or kill this boss just yet.”

Dark Souls 1 offers a lot of open-endedness to its world-design. If you’re stuck in one area, then try exploring another one. You’ll always find something useful wherever you go, and you’ll keep on getting better at the game the more you practice with the freedom you’re given!

Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment

Hopefully this one is obvious to you, but I know some people might be afraid they crafted their Chosen Undead “wrong” simply because of the very first choices they made. Like I said in the previous tip, exploration is the name of the game; not just in the world itself, but also for the gameplay and leveling system.

While indeed some weapons have better damage output than others, and starting characters’ stats often imply that you should go for a certain build (ex: Clerics = Faith Build), what’s wonderful about Dark Souls is that you don’t NEED to stick with one build throughout the entire journey. The early portion is meant to be a time to discover your personal best ways of getting through the game.

For a personal example, I started out as a Thief: a class with great dexterity, but with only decent points in faith and intelligence. While I was primarily building my character around dex and endurance, I did experiment with the various magic systems in the game and found I really loved using various sorcery spells, so I made sure to level up my intelligence & attunement whenever I felt it best just so I could use more. This strategy led to my character being a sort-of-mixed build of sorcery and dexterity, which ended up being a lot of fun for me!

Experimentation is not just limited to weapons and builds either! Dark Souls does an excellent job with placing items to find in areas where you may need to use them, so be sure to try them out whenever you find them. You won’t know how useful an item will be to you unless you give it a go, so save the hoarding for only after you’ve grown to covet them.

Use (but Don’t Abuse) Your Shields

For a newcomer to the game, the shield is a tool that is just as invaluable as any weapon you'll find. In a game so full of unpredictable hazards, the shield is both your lifeline and an important tool to learn the attack patterns of your enemies. 

I hid behind my shield constantly when traveling through the first few areas of Lordran, which certainly saved me a good few deaths I would’ve otherwise gotten from still getting a hang of the controls (and with my limited estus flasks). More importantly, however, having my shield up allowed me to study the speed and variety of my foes' strikes. Once I felt like I understood them well enough, I naturally began using my shield less and less when fighting them, eventually reaching the point where if I wasn't two-handing my weapon I was using my shield for parrying enemy attacks.

However, this is where the don’t abuse part comes in.

While it’s certainly a good idea to always have one at the ready at the start of a new area, it is also unwise to fully rely on the shield for protection against every foe you meet. Eventually you WILL find some enemies that won’t stumble back after you block their attacks, or even ones that won’t be bothered by your shield at all.

Really it all comes down to using common sense when up against your foes. Think of the shield just as you would a weapon; if it isn’t going to work, then don’t wear it down for nothing!

The World is Your Oyster, and Won't Bend To Your Every Whim

Possibly the most important tip I can provide to those just getting into the souls series, so take this one to heart!

One major feature of Dark Souls is the fact that it constantly autosaves EVERY action you make as you play through the game, which in turn means that it makes nearly every action you do permanent.

If you used a rare titanite material to upgrade a weapon you’re still not entirely sure about using or if you killed an npc for their armor/item drops but then felt bad about it, you CANNOT simply reload your save and reset everything. Your actions have consequences, and you need to learn to live with them.

Thinking out your every approach is vital to getting the most out of this game. When you're upgrading your stats, carefully consider what you feel would benefit you the most for the next area/boss you plant on going to. If you have limited resources, then spend some time planning out when and where it’s best to use them. If you have a weapon that requires a TON of souls and/or rare materials to upgrade, then perhaps contemplate on if it's even worth the effort or not.

Dark Souls has very strong opinions on players who are driven by greed, so smart thinking can help you avoid how the game expresses those opinions so to speak ;)

Hopefully these tips will help you out on your own first journey through this truly amazing video game. So have fun, and Prepare to Die!

[lightprkdraws]

ooh okay now I'm curious: what don't you like about v3's ending?

Hhh I hope you won't regret asking this, because I am going to rant a looot about it XDD

SPOILERS for ALL danganronpa main games (also, long rant ahead)

The first thing that I want to say is that it makes me cringe. It makes me cringe so hard when the in-universe characters talk about the previous games and literally say danganronpa. It's too meta for my liking.

Additionally, it feels mean spirited to the player. Sorry, I can't get to the moral high ground here, I just don't like getting lectured for the things I like by the things I like. It's a bit hypocritical too, no? You were the one who made the murder mystery game, not me!

---

Having gotten those two points out of the way, it feels really silly as a reveal in comparison to the previous two games' reveals. The first one basically said that the world as the characters knew it had ended, and the second one not only said that, but it also revealed that they were the ones responsible.

In comparison, DRV3 has a very bizarre (also overused, also juvenile) "we live in a society" kind of reveal. "Ooooh look how uncaring all these people are!"

(also, seriously? who could watch 53 of these killing games without getting bored? that number is ridiculous)

It certainly tries to give it more of a punch with the inclusion of the characters' audition tapes (seeing that they signed up to be psychologically tortured and literally murdered on live TV) in an attempt to make it more like DR2 instead of just DR1, however that aspect is brushed aside in favour of dealing with the bigger issue (the actual murder show). It's so incredibly cartoony and weird, and not in a good way. Maybe if it were some kind of underground, dark web type of deal there would be a better flavour to it.

Also, there were sooo many red herrings in the previous chapters, instead of a slow buildup of the reveal. For comparison's sake:

In 2-2 the characters learn that they've lost their school memories, and, after that, Monokuma starts talking about the world ending on multiple occasions. In 2-3 we read a document about a reserve course that exists at hope's peak. We also learn about protests that were carried out by said reserve course. Then in 2-4 we get the payoff that Hajime is in the reserve course. Finally, in 2-6 we learn that all the people of this game were the instigators of the apocalipse. Hajime's personal struggle is only a small part of the bigger reveal, but it also supports the bigger narrative: the fact that Hope's Peak is an incredibly corrupt organisation that treats people as expendable labrats, and how that led to the protests, and how that helped Junko escalate the situation in a massive way.

Meanwhile, in V3 we get some flashbacks of Suichi talking with a random young kid, him talking with some classmates, him being chased by a mob of people. Then there's a whole thing about getting to the exit through the tunnel and hope's peak building a sanctuary for the last remains of humanity?? And let's not forget Kaede's sister, for whatever reason. I'll admit that I don't remember all the details of V3 because it's been a while since I played it, but all these events are so disjointed and random. There's just so many things shown that in the end don't have anything to do with the reveal (apart from showing how stupid the whole organisation running these killing games is).

Another thing to mention, is the existence of the nanokumas. The creators must have really liked the fact that Monokuma could see everything all the time in DR2, because they had to somehow make that work outside of a digital context in V3. I hate the nanokumas. They are so incredibly dumb as a concept.

And after all is said and done, the game has the gall to say "but who knows what the actual truth is"

Neither of the previous games had such an unecessary open-endedness to them. But ig I have to admit that, specifically with DR1's ending, there is a bias of certainty because we got multiple sequels that confirm what the truth is (although I still believe that it didn't really leave much room for debate).

Both games had a feeling of "and the story continues" but not a "wait, what was the truth after all?", if that makes sense.

---

Now, about Tsumugi specifically. It's really really dumb that she was made out out to be a big bad evil mastermind, when she's just a showrunner. She's got 0 actual power. Nothing like Junko or even Izuru. They were the instigators. Tsumugi is a small cog in a machine.

Idk if I've said this before, but I'd like her a lot better as a mastermind if she'd been some rich spoiled girl who's obsessed with the danganronpa franchise and ends up kidnapping a bunch of her classmates and brainwashes them in order to make her own real-life killing game. That to me, specifically for Tsumugi's character, would be 1000x or even 1000000x more compelling than her canon motivations and role. This way, you can even keep the meta-narrative of the previous games being fictional in the V3 universe, but can completely remove the entire world being in on the joke. AND it would make her more interesting because she'd be so passionate about this game that she's literally willing to die for it!

---

In conclusion: there's probably things I can't remember right now, but these are the main points that come to mind off the top of my head.

Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun playing it until the trial of chapter 5. It became too confusing and convoluted for me after that point. But before that, I liked seeing most of the character interactions.

I do feel bitter that Kaede was killed in the first chapter (it'd be a lot more interesting if Suichi had died and Kaede had then had to learn how to take on his role, there could even be a lesson that one does not need to keep themselves within the confines of their assigned ultimate talent), but it's not like the whole game suffers from this one decision.

I especially liked the interactions between Suichi, Maki, and Kaito during their nightly meetups. Such small moments of bonding time is something that was missing from the previous two games.

[pens-swords-stuff]

Tag Game: This or That Writer's Edition

Dusting off a very old tag game that has been in my drafts for like 3 years now! At this point I don't remember who tagged me, but to whoever it was, thank you all the same!

*note to whoever wants to play: you don't have to write explanations if you don't want to. I just like to do it because I am incapable of being concise and just leaving things be.

1. historical or futuristic

A few years ago, I stumbled upon and discovered my love for historical fiction — historical romance, specifically — and I have been absolutely obsessed with it since.

On the other hand, I'm not a fan of futuristic settings and I've never had much interest in it. It's just not a genre that I'm personally into.

2. the opening or closing chapter

There's something poetic about endings. In my opinion, I think that they're the most meaningful, symbolic and important chapter in the book because it's often where you really get the true meaning and message of the story.

3. light+fluffy or dark+gritty

Mm, I'm personally not a fan of this particular choice because I'm not particularly into either option. I don't believe that something dark has to be gritty, or that gritty has to be dark, and I also think that realism is often conflated with being "gritty and dark" when that is not always the case. (And of course, I see a lot of people look down upon stories that aren't "gritty dark realism" and that is a pet peeve that I have). I also don't have much patience for things that are light and fluffy because I find them to be a bit over the top and too much for the most part.

If I had to choose it would be dark and gritty, but I prefer a happy medium and a balance.

4. animal companion or found family

I love found family and the complicated relationships that form between people who are brought together by circumstance. I have also never had a pet, so while I can appreciate animal companions, I can't really relate to it.

5. horror or romance

If it doesn't have romance, I'm not that interested in it. I absolutely adore romance, and nearly everything that I do will include it. (I guess Project Vestige is an exception though, I recently considered axing the romance subplot).

I'm too much of a baby for horror, anywho.

6. hard or soft magic system

Rather than lay out the lore or have a solid system, I'm more interested in magic that can't be explained and will always remain somewhat of a mystery. We don't know where it comes from, or why, and that mystery, wonder, intrigue and open-endedness is what I like in my magic systems.

7. standalone or series

I have always adored series growing up, and waiting for the next book. I think my greatest writing ambition is to write a long series because it was what I grew up reading.

I have recently also been falling in love with a standalone story though! I think I'd love to write a series of standalone stories someday, even if it sounds like an oxymoron.

8. one project at a time or always juggling 2+

I don't come up with story ideas, they just descend upon me from the heavens at random times. The longer I take a break from writing, the more they begin bombarding me because my creativity just begins to overflow. Recently, I've been more intentional about exploring all of those different ideas and writing at least a little bit down so I don't lose them. Which naturally, results in many many projects that I may or may not get to someday.

It's a blessing to have so many ideas and stories, I think!

9. one award winner or one bestseller

I don't think my writing is the kind to win awards, and that's okay. It'd be cool, but I would love it if my stories become famous bestsellers someday because that means that they've reached a lot of people.

10. fantasy or sci-fi

Full disclosure, not a huge fan of either. Fantasy is a bit overwhelming for me, though I love the idea of it and would someday love to make a proper crack at it if I have something worth working with. Sci-fi is just something I'm not interested in at all.

11. character or setting description

I'm very much a character-driven writer! Characters are the most important think in my writing. And descriptions has always been one of my weaknesses.

12. first or final draft

boy, I'd love to finish a first draft someday,,,

13. love triangle in everything or no romantic arcs

I love romance, and if something has romance in it my interest will increase a tenfold!! I also like love triangles, whether it be the basic, canned version that people like to hate on, or the ones that become realized into polyamory. I love platonic relationships too, but there's room for both in my world.

14. constant sandstorm or rainstorm

The sandstorm in Breath of the Wild scared the crap out of me and I couldn't get out of it for like a solid 10 minutes so I'm gunna go with a rainstorm for this one. I love rain.

Tagging: @magic-is-something-we-create @writingforfunsies @void-botanist @scorpiolight-madd @thatgayacademic @summer1977 @calicojackofficial @axl-ul @gilgameshians @wordsforarmor @that-gay-jedi @toribookworm22 @serotoninshift @ashen-crest @abalonetea @write-on-world @faithfire @mockingbirdshymn @ryns-ramblings @bardicbeetle @writtenwolves @writingpotato07

If you see this and want to do it too, please do! Feel free to say that I tagged you, I’d love to see.

If you want to be tagged by me for tag games, click here!

[spiribia]

FOR ME gw2 is strongest in its open-endedness and movement systems, its rewarding of exploration. I do have a lot of fun with its linear story, but I feel like some of its narrative issues arise from the disparate existences of a focused narrative localized in a story journal & missable major character interaction or lore tidbits that exist in the open world in random real time events or journal entries tucked away in niches, sometimes taking place in between chapters of the main story without certainty of if you’re even at the point of the plot for it yet. and because of the freedoms the game wants to grant you, there is no way for them to guarantee you experience, not core plot stuff per se, but specific ambient things that pad out story that might otherwise feel oddly brief, abrupt, or empty if you just beeline the story they do guide you on, and yet the main story is written to assume you did all that. I think every player has had a moment of at least minor disorientation, a “who is this npc and what are they doing here”, a “wait, when did this character show up”. SOTO spoilers under cut.

it doesn’t particularly help in some cases that there is a certain detached brevity to some emotional beats. while characters have so much dialogue space to banter, there’s a lot of characters outright telling you how they felt about things you didn’t actually get to experience. here’s what zojja says after you kill an npc that as far as I know merely exists for you as a one-off possessed enemy you come across in a room of an instance.

what am I supposed to do with this information, and how am I meant to parse it emotionally? I didn’t even know that npc at all. She is not brought up before this or after.

I’ve seen a lot of people say they felt distant from mabon’s death. You are kind of just listening to zojja TELL you why this death is devastating to her and what Mabon meant to her basically anew.

Can you think of a single memorable moment off the top of your head between Mabon and Zojja before he died? That isn’t a rhetorical question, & I don’t mean to say that you can’t - but for me, I couldn’t.

When I was first starting out the game, I remember seeing player complaints about the storyline that all the characters do is talk and talk about their FEELINGS, and I thought, that’s a silly thing to hate about a story! Don’t you want to care about these characters and what they’re going through emotionally? But I think that has become part of the problem for me in time – that these characters TELL me what they’re feeling all the time and yet somehow it doesn’t mean anything to me emotionally. A heart-to-heart does make sense – there is sometimes just no other way to hear a character parse out to you specifics of what is going on inside of them – but in many cases I don’t even have the context for the situation to be more than a character all but saying ‘this loss has affected me deeply for these reasons, and I will now undergo character development.’ This isn’t an issue exclusive to SOTO to me, to be clear – there are many times in the broader story when the emotional impact of something has been more told to me than felt.

I understand that they are on a limited runtime storywise in things like a game, but it’s not that I feel like there’s not even dialogue – I feel like there is SO much dialogue and yet major beats in the story don’t feel properly fleshed out to me sometimes. I don’t know how much I can articulate this without textwalling everyone. But I love the game, I actually do. I say this because there have been definitely profound singular moments too.

[arkus-rhapsode]

So MHA ended and I kinda wanted to sit on it for a bit. Know just gather my thoughts. And just a disclaimer cause I know how the internet is this isn't gonna be like a review or like a deep dive or whatever, this is just one dude's opinion.

I thought it was fine. It wasn't great (like I think a lot of people wanted it to be) but its not a disaster (like I think a lot of people wanted it to be). In a sort of "this is what we had to deal with back in our day" MHA's ending is easily better than Naruto and Bleach's. It both themetacally fits with everything and I think it leaves some things open in a very fitting way. And as an actual chapter the story of Deku becoming a teacher and still inspiring kids is a good way to end it. But like many things in MHA I think while this works as an individual chapter when I look at the whole picture.

I have some misgivings about how some stuff played out. The heteromorph stuff was just always under baked and I don't think it was ever gonna get a really satisfying resolution, the quirk doomsday theory is kinda just non existant and feels dropped, there's a metric crap ton of characters in this series so there's a lot of varying on how much you actually get to see of them, and just everything which Deku and Uraraka's relationship which I've just not cared about at all and even I feel kinda fleesed by the open endedness there is a lot of stuff I like being open ended here.

Just the fact that really most of the cast just are pro heroes and not much more is fine for me. They're only in their 20s they have lives that they can live they don't have everything figured out. Its a good type of open endiness I though. I like that it didn't just stress pair people up-who knows what could happen in the future. Nothing is fully confirmed or denied. There's certainly a backdoor for sequels and spin offs. And yeah society is gonna be something that just isn't fixed over night. Like yeah I would've like to see more of it-but I get why it wasn't done. And yeah the last shot of everyone fist in the air is a great shot. I think a lot of this ending is really gonna hinge on how much you are invested in these characters featured. Cause for me-one of my consistent issues was getting invested in a lot of characters in the long term with how they were utilized. But I also can see why people love them and I think you're gonna have a blast seeing them in these last few chapters.

And the last thing is the super suit. I saw this coming-I feel like it was kinda obvious after the all might armor. That said, I just don't personally like it. I know its basically telling the bittersweet ending to shove off and instead have this ending where its never truly over for Deku. But I personally liked teacher Deku more. He's done everything he could when it came to fighting villains. He beat their world's version of a satan. Like im not gonna say he peaked in high school, its just he saved the world one way, now he's ensuring the growth of the next generation. I personally preferred that.

So yeah this ending for a 10 year long series ended about as well as I think it could've. Its not series destroying or WTF inducing. But I can't really say it got me super misty eyed or anything like that. It did well. And I think that's all you could ask

[nonsenuser]

sonny boy thoughts

i wanted to compile all my thoughts on sonny boy since its been about a week (longer now) since ive binged the whole thing and ive since revisited a couple episodes as well

i wanted to sit and think ab what the story meant to me before going ahead and watching all the video essays on it. i think it touches base on a lot of things through its characters and i found that super fascinating and deeply touching

one spot i would like to start is the ending and the concept of other worlds. the other world is great for people who kind of had nothing in the real world. people like asakaze for example loved and basked in the idea at first. i think hoshi really enjoyed himself too. 

then u have people that seemed somewhat neutral about the whole thing like rajdhani. he eventually becomes "one with the forest" so he kind of finds a sort of peace in being in the other world for thousands of years. 

nagara and mizuho returning to the real world is very bittersweet. nozomi doesn't remember nagara he's pretty friendless atp, and mizuho doesnt have her cats anymore 

but even when they were in the other world, it was a grim thought to know that they would be static beings for thousands of years

this static ness isnt something that is easy to accept for many, i believe rajdhani was able to accept this while asakaze probably never will. if nozomi didnt die, i think she would've come to terms with it too but who knows 

seeing the ending with nozomi and asakaze is the real world was also bittersweet bc they look pretty content. and it makes me wonder if nozomi was the one to have remembered instead of nagara would she have said "lets me friends" like they initially promised? either way i think it was extremely in character for nagara to just, let it be. the ending feels quite optimistic, will nozomi and nagara be as close as they were in the other world? maybe, maybe not but i saw a bit of hope that there would be *SOMETHING* there in the ending 

my most concrete thoughts r ab the ending (which as u can see r not even that concrete anyways) but i cant wait to revisit some of the middle episodes and see what i feel ab those (esp episode 8, a story in and of itself) 

I wrote this like a few weeks ago and im too lazy to proofread but i'll add stuff if i want to. I really enjoyed this anime overall though, not only was it pleasant to look at art style and animation wise, but it has a great cast of characters, great themes, ost and overall good message. It's def a less optimistic ending than my other fave anime (tatami galaxy) but i like the open endedness of it all and it doesnt leave a bad taste in ur mouth its just not brimming with positivity either. But its very REAL in that sense. I would like to think that nozomi and nagara really do become friends again even though it is not as close as they were before, and that is enough for me because im sure nagara will take away from his experience in the other worlds (and so will mizuho).

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Can we talk about how good Bendy and the Dark Revival was?

Like, it improved on the first game so much. And I loved the first game.

It actually explained the first game (though some people might not like that, maybe, if they prefer the open-endedness of the first one. I don't know. But I get why that was needed for a sequel that was building off the first's ideas. And I, personally, am glad for the explanations). And the new story it provided was just so great, too, and really brought so many wonderful new ideas to the table. I can't wait for the third one now!

And I'll admit that I haven't played either of these games--I'm a loser who literally just binge watched both of them these past two days (I definitely think I'm going to play both of them now, though)--but in watching the games, and watching a video essay about how the sequel improved on the gameplay, I definitely think I can see that.

For some reason, though, I was thinking the horror was better in the first game, however? Perhaps in a "less is more" kind of way? But said video essay has convinced me that Dark Revival improved on that, too.

And we won't even talk about how Dark Revival really improved the visuals--though they were always lovely--while still keeping that Bendy charm.

So all-in-all, Bendy is an amazing sequel, that might be one of those few ones that's actually better than its predecessor (though that's up to each person, of course). If nothing else, it's a delightful follow-up that pays homage to the original so well.

[after-witch]

Different anon than the one who's sent the Small Spaces asks so far, but I just recently devoured the series and was SO excited to see your posts on here! (I figured there wouldn't be very many other people interested!) HUGE fan of the Smiling Man and love seeing all the appreciation he's getting, and I felt very similarly re: Empty Smiles. The buildup was very good, but the climax from Coco and Brian getting to the park on was bizarrely rushed and the ending was abrupt, but the amount of Smiling Man content made up for a lot of that so I couldn't be *too* upset. Given how abrupt the ending was, I appreciate that there was a certain amount of open-endedness, leaving room for more adventures in the future. I absolutely believe that Ollie, at least, will see him again.

Again, really really loving your content and so glad to see the Small Spaces enthusiasm on here!

Thank you for sending this in!! I definitely agree that the climax/ending felt rushed. I also feel like the writing in the scenes that weren't longer interactions with the smiling man often felt more clipped than it did in previous books, particularly the non-Ollie scenes. The writing for the first book remains the best, IMO, but yeah all the smiling man in this one definitely made up for my criticisms.

Re: The future, and whether she sees him again.

I remember the author tweeting that she's often asked at schools if Ollie ever meets the smiling man again. And she said she had her own ideas, but she doesn't share them and leaves it open-ended because she wants readers to be able to imagine what they like.

I can see it both ways, as to whether they meet again.

On the one hand, I think the experience that she had with the smiling man would definitely make her far more aware of the vulnerability that comes with taking his way out. With wanting his help, with accepting it. There's these pitfalls and the horror that comes along with it.

Like, sure, you get your dead brother back, but your life is in the smiling man's shadow until you're taken away. And in the end, your brother chooses to come with you anyway, to keep your twisted self company. And it didn't sound like Caleb had ever had a relationship or children, despite so many years passing, so what was Caleb's life like? "A drowned man breathed back to life."

So I can see Ollie, even if she faced some terrible hardship, swallowing down any urge to ever want his help. She knows that no good will come of it. She knows the price she'd have to pay.

On the other hand...

I can see Ollie, like anyone, being desperate. I can see something terrible happening, and Ollie, wild, hysterical, just reaches out with everything in her soul to the one being she knows can fix it. Despite the price.

There's a certain danger that comes with the knowledge of the smiling man, isn't there? Because yes, you know how he works, you know he's tricky, you know he'll take your soul or worse. But you also know what he can do... and if you find yourself with no one else to turn to, in a situation that cannot be helped by any ordinary means, there's that part of you that aches to call out to him for help.

On the other other hand, there's also scenarios where they might meet again, but not through Ollie's direct request. Maybe she walks into one of his traps--like the carnival, but something different--by accident. Maybe he’s people watching, eyeing potential targets, doing what he did in Book #3 and planting a trap, etc etc, and she happens to walk by. He smiles at her in the crowd and she glances at him and for a second, she thinks... could it be? But her kid pulls her along or someone jostles her and then he’s gone. Maybe it was just her imagination. 

Also fic promotion: I have a WIP Small Series sequel fic I've been pecking at since the fall where they do meet again, but not because of Ollie's actions, rather those of her daughter.

[chaosmax]

On the whole “does Kaiba die / stay or get stuck in the afterlife?” thing

I never thought Kaiba doesn't get back from the ending of DSoD. Yeah, I know there was the ~untested~ tech that was mentioned but honestly it seemed more like a line thrown in for possible sequel bait or just for the sake of open-endedness/vauge storytelling style a la many Japanese story telling (re: my essay on that). 

And from a character point, no, I don't think there's any way in hell that Seto would gamble the chances of permanently orphaning Mokuba again. No matter how much tunnel vision he got for his goal (and no matter how grieved he was. And I hate it that people spin it to pit the headcanoned romantic love between him and Atem against his canonical love of Mokuba and it's the possible and unconfirmed romo love that “wins”. 

[I am NOT trying to bash on pride here, I actually quite enjoy that ship when work is put into it and all the nuance and complexity isn't sucked out of it for quick hurt/comfort or just turned into a glorified/romanticized toxic love horny fest]. But even if it was confirmed canon, stop pitting romo love against platonic love and have one come out as the "winner" mmkay? There's already enough damaging amatonormativity ingrained in society ok thanks.

Grief makes you do wild things, sure and everyone reacts to grief differently. But Seto has never been a gambler and I don't think after all the character development he's been though he would risk his relationship with Mokuba like that (this is taking consideration of how technically this is the manga continuity Kaiba who has done Death T and all that and messed up pretty bad with Mokuba before). I just don't think he'd run off to see/challenge/get closure from Atem and ditch his precious little brother behind with great odds that he would never see him again. Not after all the times he’s put his life on the line to protect Mokuba.

I've always thought he comes back. It just may have a cost and may not be a straight shot there and back. I think the ~untested~ tech means he doesn't know how long it will take or how much stress it puts on the user, a la the purple particles eating away at Kaiba in the post credit scene that seem to be threatening to send him back to his own dimension (again DIMENSION it's not a time machine). No, I don't think it's anything crazy like YEARS pass before he gets back. I think a couple of weeks at most. And no, I don't think Mokuba was crying and begging Seto to not have this goal in the first place. Mokuba is quite gung-ho the entire movie about getting and defending the puzzle. Hell, he headbutts Diva off the puzzle container when Mokuba had no way to know if he'd land safely or just die. He interrogates Diva to try and get the puzzle piece. He closes up the shop for Yugi and says a happy hi before the tournament. That seems far from someone who wants Seto to just let it go.

This is a bit more on the speculation side for canon hates digging into Mokuba’s feelings much sadly, but I think Mokuba has his own sense of unfinished business with Atem as well which plays a part in his motivation to help this goal. Atem is also someone he had bonded with on some level. He and Yugi were one of the first people to help him, ever, that wasn't Seto. They aided him in Duelist Kingdom. Then again in the Legendary Heroes arc when he had no one else to turn too. He seemed so...surprised in both cases. Clearly someone who's not used to being able to ask for help, much like Seto. 

But now this person is gone. One of the few people Mokuba felt he could go to if he had a problem or needed to ask for help. I can easily see Mokuba thinking, “how come he cared enough to help me all those times but not say goodbye?” (though again, we don’t know exactly what happened there, if the Kaiba brothers were unable to contact or of the main crew literally just didn’t call them up, so I’m in no way trying to assign blame here, but I could see how this is how Mokuba would see it and feel about it).

 I think Mokuba misses him too, or at the very least misses him as someone he can depend on and place his trust in. The following may be a bit of a stretch on evidence for I don't know who writes the lines for Duel Links, but if you challenge Yami Yugi as DSOD Mokuba and win, his expression is sad, saying, “You thought you could run from Seto without one last Duel?" I think Mokuba certainly sees the departure hurt Seto, but I also think it hurt him. I think he’s also trying to say, ‘You thought you could run from us without saying bye?’

So no, I don't think Kaiba runs off to Atem's afterlife forever for whatever reason ship or no ship and ditches everyone and everything (don’t forget KC and Kaibaland, his life’s dream pride and joy) behind in the living dimension. I don't think he fails to get back. While the prospect of something going wrong or the tech failing is an immensely interesting fic/AU/etc idea to play around with or such because of the added mysteriousness (or because it's edgy and dark or whatnot I feel like that’s how the theory Kaiba dies really gained it’s first traction lol) I don't think that's what happened. I think it may take some more time than expected, perhaps have some magical cost that the soft magic system didn't really specify (such as having a set number of uses or something until whatever remnant power in the cube runs out, be physically straining, etc.) 

But I will never believe Seto gambled the chance of possibly orphaning Mokuba. That's my interpretation.

____

[Note: I’m not here to argue, of course you can have a different headcanon or reading of the events to DSoD, these are just my thoughts, with the textual evidence to back up my thought process.]

[cctinsleybaxter]

What are your favorite and least favorite endings to novels? I'm v curious

Oh man, I've read so many books that it would take a long time to go through and pick out bests/worsts, and even then I know I'd forget some! So here are some loosely-grouped thoughts:

I like novels with a kind of bittersweet open-endedness to them, and hate novels that over-explain themselves. Authors who try preemptively counter audience questions and spoon feed them information drive me crazy; it's okay for your story to leave people wondering

Catch-22 comes to mind as great example of a book (i'm nothing if not predictable) that has a very defined ending while not really ending at all. Plot conflicts are resolved, but we don't learn what happens to the main characters

Books I have on hand that I enjoyed the endings of include Galápagos, The Only Good Indians, Midnight Cowboy, In the Woods, and Something More Than Night

Odds are if I didn't like an ending or thought it was sloppy/tacky I also hated the rest of the book, but there are exceptions! Despair is probably my favorite Nabokov book and it totally shoots itself in the foot; The Master and Margarita is one of my favorite books period and has an ending that's just, eh, okay

I read a horror novel recently that I adored for a good hundred pages but then couldn't get on board with the back half, and I think that's common for horror. Endings are very easy to fuck up like do you just kill everyone? Do you start infodumping about the big bad? ...Do you do what Stephen King did in IT?

I honestly really like the way a lot of middle grade books end. I think it's because they make a point of being satisfying while also encouraging kids to understand that the characters are still off having adventures somewhere. Some fantasy stuff like The Hobbit and Howl's Moving Castle, but my personal MVPs are Daniel Pinkwater and Judy Blume

[hattythewriter]

Post-Pacifist in Undertale and taking heart

One thing that's been on my mind a lot recently with writing Wholehearted Half-Souls, along with uploading the sprite teaser comic for it, is how I've heard lamenting from various people within the Undertale fanbase concerning being in agony that Asriel will supposedly, according to their claims, always be in his Flowey body "forever" and never see his family again. Yet, all of this is built on assumptions. Quite frankly, this is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

NOTHING in the game is saying that Frisk would *never* go back for Asriel/Flowey. If anything, it's likely they do because true pacifist Frisk isn't the kind of person to forget their friends or simply *not* care about the monsters. Moreover, the OPEN-ENDEDNESS of the ending leaves so much room to tell so many thrilling sequel stories. I'm writing a sequel story now, and many have before me. It's a BLESSING IN DISGUISE.

If Undertale's ending weren't as open-ended as it is, then stories like Wholehearted Half-Souls, but also works like Endertale, Beyondtale, Souls' Link, Over the Void, Growth Spurt, the Best Friends Forever collection, and more wonderful sequel stories would never exist. Again, it's a blessing in disguise that it's open-ended. That way, Undertale fans can use their brains to show all of the various ways that Asriel can either have his real body back or perhaps stay in his Flowey body but come to live with Frisk and Toriel again, continuing his redemption arc established by both the barrier break and also at game reopen after true pacifist.

Honestly, there's *no* reason to be sad. There's *no* reason to be in agony. Because, with UT finishing with being somewhat open-ended, now fans have all the opportunity to write wonderful sequel stories about how Asriel/Flowey's redemption arc can continue, along with seeing how our favorite ambassador Frisk would take care of him, like how they take care of all the other monsters. Heck, write about other characters, too. I can't count the number of Sans AUs out there. Back to the point though, with how true pacifist Frisk is, it's anywhere from *likely* to *inevitable* that they would go back to help Asriel/Flowey. It's just who true pacifist Frisk is. The other Frisks from other timelines would probably not do that. But true pacifist Frisk? You can count on it, based on how their personality is in that timeline. Besides, nothing's saying that you can't make a canon-compliant/canon universe sequel story and not get away with it. Just follow the lore and write well.

Let's enjoy how there are so many great sequel stories out there that do their part in telling wonderful sequels about our favorite cast of video game characters, especially for a redeemed goat-flower child and his new cherished friend, Frisk. And, if you desire to make one and you have the proper vision, why not make your own?

This isn't Deltarune; your choices DO matter and because of how there are no sequels and the ending is still semi-open ended, the writing room is your playground. Take off; run with it.

It may be hard at times, but it's honestly really worth it. I know I love reading and writing about these wonderful characters at the end of the day, and I hope you do all too.

Take heart. The sky's the limit. And please, above all else, stay DETERMINED.

[hellev8or]

man... ik im not special for this lol but,

I Miss Hyunjin !!!!!!

...and it’s a tricky scenario, i know.

it’s just that i feel like we should be able to talk about the situation (and others like it) with a lot more nuance and humanity than we are currently.

it sucks when i see people trying to say he did “absolutely nothing wrong” and that “all the allegations are 100% false !!!!!!” bc like, no? :

first of all, we don’t know that, like at all lmao? idk why, as fans, we can read a few tweets and statements and feel like an authority on the issue??? the truth is, situations like this aren’t always so cut-and-dry to even the people involved in it, much less strangers overseas.

further, why do they NEED to be 100% false for him to be shown any grace or forgiveness? the stories are from middle school - i know i personally said and did things im not proud of back then, and im sure many others feel similarly. no one has ever been perfect, no matter what we want to think! and honestly? that’s ok! while it doesn’t automatically excuse any and all actions, it’s part of growing up and learning how to coexist with people. but reflexively denying any possible wrongdoing is not only inaccurate (bc he is Literally Human), it’s also inconsiderate of people that may have been hurt.

we need to start getting comfortable with moral grey areas ! our idols are normal people, and they cannot be perfect. and when they mess up, you are going to have to make a judgment about whether or not YOU can personally continue to support them - have they apologized sincerely? have they shown growth and learned from it? was it something you feel can be forgiven? see, no one else can answer these for you. and i think that makes us kinda scared. we’re scared of being wrong, being ignorant... being imperfect. we feel safest in a crowd, where we’ll never have to fear defending our thoughts by ourselves, and we will collectively adopt either one extreme opinion or the other and share it as loudly as we need to, so long as it means guaranteeing our group safety. but the truth is, neither side will ever be right, because no one will ever be 100% angel or 100% evil - and in our desperate fear of fucking up, we lose sight of this truth along the way.

all that said, i personally believe he’s a good person, AND i believe hurt others in middle school. these things can coexist! i feel like his apology was sincere and he has apparently met with the victim who accepted it. i believe he is sweet, loving, and kind because i see it with his members, staff, and Stays. i think he’s also dramatic, sassy, snarky, and sarcastic, which i love about him, but can imagine could have easily gotten him in trouble at some point! but i think he’s learning and growing as a person every day, and i am excited to see him again someday because i believe in him.

with this in mind, i really don’t understand the thought process of the indefinite hiatus and open-endedness of everything rn... it doesn’t feel fair to the group, to Hyunjin, or to Stays. if they’re just going to kick him from the group (which i desperately hope doesn’t happen) then leading us all on for months like this really sucks. if he will be returning, then at what point will he be allowed back? what will be different in a month from now or more?? it just doesn’t make sense and it feels so awful.

anyway,, im SO sorry if you read all that bc it was Long Boi, but:

i hope you’re doing well, and i hope to see you soon, Hyunjin! sending lots of love <3

[faustonastring]

Could I get headcanons for the main six with mc who is obsessed with stuffed animals?

Thanks for requesting I hope you like it :)

Request are open! :))

Main six with an mc who is obsessed with stuffed animals

Asra

He thinks it’s the cutest thing in the world

Every time he travels away from you, he always brings you one back that represents where he traveled (a modern day example would be a teddy bear with a sombrero to represent Mexico, (just so you get the picture)) he also gets to them as presents for birthdays and holidays anniversaries

In a modern au, you both more or likely have a beanie baby collection hiding somewhere in the shop, you both probably brought another beanie baby snail so you could recreate the “snesbian”(snail lesbian) wedding you saw on tiktok

Early in you’re relationship (pre-upright) before he can take you on trips with him he finds it really comforting to know that you have a cuddle buddy or two to keep you company while he’s away, but after you’ve been together for a while (post-upright) don’t be surprised when you wake up and all your stuffed animals are on the floor (that is if you sleep with them of course!)

I also really like the idea of asra trying to make you a stuffed animal for your birthday or anniversary, or any other celerbration (something a like his Faust trinket you can get from the wheel, just a little more improved, )

Apologies in advance for the angst BUT If you’ve had this obsession pre-memory lost, when you’re,,,, y’know (trying to keep this as spoiler free as I can for some of the new guys!) he clutches on to it every night while he’s trying to sleep, crying out you’re name, (and probably uses it in his studies to try to get you back,) and post-y’know, he brings it with him during all his trips because of how much he hates being away from you, and if you’ve grown fond of that one, he’ll bring another one you like a lot, he feels bad but he can’t help it, he just misses you so much

Also some of you are gonna hate me for this but piggy backing off of that angst I just wrote, imagine Julian and asra in the shop, doing...their....studies..(if you know you know) and Julian just sees the stuffed animal in the bed and asks why asra has it (and being himself try’s to make a joke about asra needing to sleep with a stuffed animal, when he can just sleep with him instead-) and asra just kicks him out, and they never talk about it again.

Nadia

She’s on it. She’ll ask you a million questions, “what kind do you like, do you need to sleep with any, do you want a custom one, or a spefic kind?”

Her room is so cluttered with stuffed animals by the end of the week, that she makes you pick out you’re favorite one (which quickly turns into ten or twenty) and the rest go to their own separate room in the palace, where they’re put on display, and easily accessible for you to switch out with any of the ones In you’re too, that you’re bored with

In a modern au I feel like Nadia would also be on bored for collecting beanie babies, but unlike asra who’s only in it for the snesbian wedding she wants all of the rare ones doesn’t matter how much they cost, she has them, it’s not even about you at this point, when Nadia gets a kick you just gotta let her ride it out.

I think it’s canon (or atleast close to canon) that Nadia loves to design clothes, I mean we all know she loves to tinker, but I think she’ll find it really relaxing destining new stuffed animals with you and clothes for some of the ones you already have if you’d want (and yes. She makes matching ones for you and you’re favorites)

If you do sleep with them, Nadia might find it a little hard to sleep with all the clutter around the bed so she’ll thoss the ones your not cuddling off the bed (or if she’s having a real sleepless night, she’ll throw them across the room) but nonetheless if you’re happy she’s happy, she’ll never get agitated at you for having your own interest (despite tripping over like three of them while trying to start her day)

Also I feel like atleast one of Nadias sisters had that stuffed animal phase as a kid, if you know baby....then you know so I feel like it’s really refreshing for her to be able to keep stuffed animals around without having to hear someone scream and whine because they couldn’t get the one they wanted

Julian

The day after you tell him he brings you a doctor teddy bear, wearing a hand-sewn eye patch witch Portia more or likely helped him make (note that I said helped he wanted to try to make it on his own... but surgical stitches are a lot diffrent from things such as cross stitches,,,, and the fabric is just a lot more flimsy then human flesh)

He likes to bring you ‘fun’ ones as he calls them, teddy bears dressed as pirates, doctors, flappers, any kind that matches you’re faveroite animal, pigs decked out in fancy clothes (the vesuvia verson of Miss piggy) espically if he knows you like them, he would do anything to see you laugh and smile, especially if it’s from one of his gifts, it makes his heart jump

In a modern au, you could spend your quality time making fun of the ridiculous beanie baby prices, but for the love of god please don’t say you find a beanie baby who’s highest bidding price is over one hundred dollars cute, because HE WILL bid on it and the price DOESNT MATTER (also- self indulgent but If you have a furby espically the older ones, it will freak Julian the hell out, and he will quickly turn it so it’s not looking at him every time he enters a room)

Every time you travel together he checks all the touristy gift shops for a stuffed animal you like, and will happily buy you any type you like, and it doesn’t matter how big it is. He WILL make it fit in his suit case, even if it means he has to leave a couple pairs of shoes behind.....

If you sleep with any of you’re stuffed animals he doesn’t mind, I mean sure he ends up laying on a couple of them, and the do end up getting tangled in his limbs, but he finds it cute and is willing to make a sacrifice, and if he were to come in late from working overtime and caught you sleeping cuddling the doctor teddy bear he gave you....with the eyepatch that he helped make....he wouldn’t want to disturb you... so he pulls up a chair and watches you sleep in the least creepy way possible

If you two are ever trying to do the do and your stuffed animal is In the room... or even better facing towards the bed... I think it would make Julian the slightest bit uncomfortable but would just laugh it off and say something along the lines of “I didn’t know we had and audience” or “looks like we have a guest” which would be terrifying if he were to say that mid-ya know

Portia

You two vibe so hard

Out of everyone I feel like she is definitely the most enthusiastic and chill about having stuffed animals in her cottage, and I mean sure they’re everywhere and she’s tripped on atleast six of them... but as long as pepi doesn’t get too any of them( again) you’re fine

I like to imagine she has something (other than Julian) that survived the ship wreck with her, wether that be a blanket or a stuffed animal (for the sake of this head canon it’s a stuffed animal) that she holds very close to her yes this is very unlikely given, well all the factors but she deserves something, and if your really against that idea, a little stuffed animal Julian gave her when she was a kid before he left

I can’t keep headcanoning that every one has a thing for beanie babies in a modern au, even though she has a snesbian wedding in her garden with a snesbian officiant which she photographs and gets tiktok famous off of.... she’ll be more into anything Sanrio related, like don’t leave this girl alone in round one because she’s already spent 150 trying to win the rilakkuma stuffed animal that’s riiiiight over the edge (after many many try’s, she does win it, and gives it to you)

She is the type to sew, or crochet, or even knit you stuffed animals, and those are usually the ones she ends up giving you, if not? They definitely were handmade from somewhere, probably a small shop or from an old lady selling them at the heart district

If you sleep with stuffed animals....well good news because so does she! Throughout the night not only are you to fighting for the blanket (if it’s during winter) but now you’re fighting over the stuffed animals, and every night as soon as one of you says you’re going to bed, it’s a race to see who can get to bed first and hog all the stuffed animals, (which may lead to a pillow fight if you’re lucky)

One time pepi tore up one of you’re faveroite stuffed animals and Portia felt so bad about it that she not only made pepi her own toys to play with, but sewed up your toes up one, and if it was beyond repair, she would make you an identical one

(Also Portia is the type to spend 100 dollars at a carnival trying to knock the milk bottles down so she can win her s/o a cheap stuffed dog that pepi is gonna claw into anyway...but it’s the thought that counts :’) )

Muriel

Does. Not. Understand. But hey! He’s trying~! A+ for effort right?

He wants to make it clear that it’s NOTHING to do with you, he finds it ADORBALE! He really really does and he’s trying hard to express that but depending where you are in your relationship with him....makes a little bit of a difference, so for the sake of the headcanon muriels headcanon is gonna be soon after his upright endeding so expect some assumptions about his character but I do know that people just don’t change over night so one things for sure....he still doses to fully understands soft nice things

I think Muriel likes to hear you talk, like sure he prefers the quiet, but out of everyone in the world, your the only person he doesn’t mind listening to (how sweet! ) so he probably asks you a lot of questions, but not necessarily like Julian, more questions that ask why you like them, because he wants to like them too, and you want him to like them too, but you do still have some work ahead of you

In a modern au.....build a bear dates @lisa-frank-cave did a headcanon on it a while back that I REALLY liked, it is a little buried so if you’re having trouble finding it lmk and I can reblog it for you, but atleast visits their page and look for it because their stuff is super good! :) so for sure go check out their head canon for it if you want something more in depth but to just elaborate my thoughts on it, it’s just something the two of you could do together (and I feel like Muriel loves spending time with you no matter what activity it is) I also feel like he’d like being able to make something with you, which works out great if you can’t whittle to save you’re life,,,and I dunno,,,it just makes me soft,,,,

I don’t like the head canon that Muriel has bug clumsy hands, he can whittle for gods sake! And used to make masquerade masks for asra to sell pre-plague times, (and made his own in every route but his own) so I feel like Muriel would atleast attempt ONCE to sew or crochet you a stuffed animal, it’s a little tragedy looking, and over time it starts to fall apart at the seams, but he made it for you, and seeing you love it so much let’s him know all his hard work payed off, and he’ll make you another one or two

He doesn’t mind if you sleep with stuffed animals, but he apologizes in advance if they get crushed (the bed is barley big enough for the both of you) and gets a little jealous if you’re cuddling you’re stuffed animal instead of him, he won’t say anything but he’ll for sure get pouty about, and as cute as he is when he’s pouty make sure you don’t cuddle you’re stuffed animals more than him, because if you do it will start to get to him if you know what I mean

Also refuses to have sex if stuffed animals are on the bed or facing the bed, if they’re on the bed, he’ll throw them off, facing the bed, he’ll turn them around, he just doesn’t like the idea of being watching while being intimate with you

Lucio

If I’m being honest will make fun of you a tiny bit at first (he’ll stop he he strikes a nerve) but soon finds the appeal

Mama morga didn’t let him have stuffed animals growing up, for a while there she didn’t even want him sleeping with a blanket, so he’s alllll over this, but yeah you’re stuffed animals are cute, but he wants a spefic type of stuffed animals.... next thing you know Lucio says he got some stuffed animals for you two to share, and it’s just about 30 diffrent variations of goats. But hey! Atleast he offered to share!

In a modern au I feel like lucio would be overly enthusiastic to go to build a bear that he nearly crushes a kid with his knock off red bottoms trying to get in there, dragging you behind him, then impatiently rushes the whole process not making too enjoyable for you (depending on who you are of course) but lucio just seems to be having fun! (Also goes on a Saturday afternoon and they are like four kids celebrating their birthday and a line that goes out the door, unlike Muriel who goes early Sunday morning or Tuesday night to beat the crowds)

He personally likes anything goat related, but also likes custom made ones made with red velvet and and gold stitching, and will happily buy you or get any kind you want customed made, and on you’re birthday? When you wake up in the morning the room is covered with all diffrent typed of stuffed animals, and lucio is beaming proudly in the middle of it

If you sleep with them then no problem! Lucio would too! But if he catches you cuddling a certain stuffed animal more than him then it might just....disappear for a while...but if he sees you upset or worried that you can’t find it, don’t worry! It will reappear again.... or something very similar to it.....

One time Mercedes and Melchior tore up one of you’re favorite stuffed animals (again) so lucio had them kicked out of his bedroom...or so he said, what really happened is while he was waiting for your replacement to come in, he wanted to act all tuff and kick Mercedes and Melchior our to assert his dominance, but secretly still played with them and let them back in you’re room when you weren’t around. You know. But you pretend that you don’t

Thanks for reading if you would like something more spefic welll.....

My request are open! :)

[queerhannibal]

Hello! I just read your response to another new anon. I also haven't had as much time to marinate on why S4 may not be great. Your response was very enlightening so thanks. I know Bryan has said Dark/Lost Will and Cuba for S4 but I've seen hints on other tumblrs that ppl aren't crazy about this "because it sounds played out". Do ppl mean this in the sense of thru fics or something else? What do you imagine Bryan's getting at plot-wise when he suggests this + did you have different hopes for S4?

It’s not that we think we’ve seen that too many times in fics (we haven’t: almost no one writes s4 the way Bryan describes it) it’s that the way he said it, “Will’s out of his mind” implies that, yk, Will won’t be in his right mind and will not be engaging with his darkness or Hannibal from a place of clarity, and that puts us in mind of season one Will who was losing his mind, which is many people’s least favorite place that Will is in in the show

I’m assuming that what Bryan means is that Will will have some sort of mental break, either bc he can’t reconcile his feelings for Hannibal and murder with his morality/sense of loss for his past life/anger at Hannibal, or bc he gets WAY too caught up in the joy of killing and like, goes feral? Presumably they run off to Cuba and Will loses it and then the rest of the season is Hannibal trying to get Will to come back to himself enough that they can have the real relationship he’s been wanting, possibly with some marlana and Bedelia entanglements along the way

From the way Bryan has described it my guess is that Hannibal initially kind of encourages whatever is causing Will’s mental problems and then maybe later realizes they’re a problem? He hasn’t really said anything to the effect of “Hannibal helps him with this problem” but I literally cannot imagine even Bryan thinking that Hannibal prefers Will in a state so bad he can’t even properly consent to sex at this stage. That would be Wild.

But yk we the audience overall also don’t prefer Will in that state!!! We’ve seen Will lose his mind before, so it’s not a new or exciting dynamic, and at this point I think most people want season four primarily just bc we would like to see hannigram kiss on screen. Like the show is PERFECT as it is, it’s beautiful, it ends in an absolutely AMAZING way that basically no other ending could ever top in terms of thematic consistency and open-endedness for fans—hell, a lot of the reason there’s even still a fandom at all is bc that ending is So Good in terms of where it leaves the opportunity to create fan content—and the only thing that’s missing is getting to actually see Will and Hannibal’s relationship escalate to an actual capital r Relationship

So to be told that season four won’t have that because instead Bryan wants to retread the “Will goes crazy” concept is pretty disappointing to a lot of people (not to mention how little sense it actually makes for Will to lose his mind)

[almaasi]

reaction post typed while watching SPN 15x20 “Carry On”

* cries happy tears for half an hour *

04:53pm

alright bitches let’s do this

BRING ME GOOD THINGS, EPISODE

BRING ME. GOOD THINGS.

-

04:54

no “carry on wayward son”..........

what’s the bet it’s the song that plays us out at the very end

-

DOG

DOG O

DOG

DOG

DOG 

I’M DELIGHTED

BUT ALSO HE STILL SLEEPS ON ONE SIDE OF THE BED........

god the dog cuddle. he loves that dog so much. nothing bad better happen to it

-

dean: “AAAH bread”

-

04:58

dean’s a messy bitch and i love that

-

RINSE YOUR FUCKING DISHES

DEAN’S A MESSY BITCH AND I HATE THAT

-

05:00

what if the dog is cas

i mean at the very least the dog is a metaphorical cas replacement because “man’s best friend” yadda yadda

-

i hope the ending of this mirrors the beginning, and we see the exact same routines but with their partners.

-

“dabb’s pies”

hee

-

I LOVE SEEING DEAN SMILE

-

did....................................

did dean just

check out

the lumberjack

....................................................

did that really happen

IS IT HAPPENING

-

so i rewatched the shot and sam’s looking at the family with kids, and dean’s looking at the lumberjack

iiiiiiNTERESTING

-

i like that this is back to like... early season vibes, i like that

but GIVE ME CAS

-

“vamp mimes. son of a bitch”

HOLY SHIT I DID NOT REALISE HOW LONG IT HAD BEEN SINCE HE SAID SON OF A BITCH

-

05:13

i love that, free of chuck, the winchesters are terrifying

-

05:21

lowkey expecting dean and sam to die in this fight and then go to heaven or wherever. hopping around between heaven/hell/purgatory/the empty

-

uhhhhhh okay?? woman who survived ages back shows up just to die in 2 seconds???? why???????????

edit post-episode: no literally what was the point of this

-

there is a spike on a pole and it worries me

-

yep. saw that one coming.

-

“stay with me”

time to

c r  y

-

“always keep fighting”

T~T

-

tears. pouring down my face

-

05:39

eeyy it’s the weird monkey thing

-

05:43

dean sits in the car and i cry again

something in the universe went right because,,, if they’d filmed this 6 months previously, when they meant to, it would’ve been winter

this. is so much better.

-

oh my goddddddddddddddd dean’s driving through time to get to sam

-

i’m just

crying

and watching dean drive

this is beautiful

-

sam’s grey hair looks fucking terrible holy shit

-

“yyou can go now”

BAWLING MY EYSS OUT

THIS IS PEREECT

-

this music

i

-

05:52

it’s over

i 

i’m just

sniffling

AND THEN DEAN AND SAM GO FIND CAS AND HE AND DEAN ARE TOGETHER FOREVER TOO

to be honest i...........i think i actually like it like this, without firm resolution between dean and cas

because the open endedness is what has made fanfic possible this whole time, and now there’s space for a million stories about what happens next

and it doesn’t piss shippers of any kind off, and it did need to be an ending that would make as many people as possible happy

and technicALLY destiel is canon, right?? and according to bobby, cas helped put heaven right, so he’s around somewhere, not permadead

i’m happy with this

legitimately one of the best endings to a show i’ve ever seen. right up there next to elementary.

okay the more i think about this the more i love it

thank you andrew dabb

11/10

would canon-canon on-screen reciprocated destiel have been better? yeeeeah. but... i’m still happy with this. (but also why the hell did the women die in this, idk, that annoys me) ANYWAY I’D RATHER FOCUS ON THE GOOD STUFF

I’M REALLY GLAD THIS MADE ME CRY SO MUCH

I LOVE BEING MADE TO FEEL FEELINGS

BUT THEY WERE NICE FEELINGS

thank you, spn and destiel fandom, for giving me so much in my life. i would not be here, in any sense of the phrase, were it not for this fandom and this show. the show ends but IT’LL ALWAYS BE WITH US *bumps chest* RIGHT HERE.

i have a spn/harry potter destiel fic i wrote in 2015 posting within the next week, but after that....... who knows. c:

<3