#I think its a mistake to think that something is lesser because its written for kids

[hyacinthusmemorial]

The Power of Children's Stories: Why "Kid's Book" Should Not Be Considered an Insult

I do this thing when I'm walking, I listen to Kids from the Stranger Things Soundtrack and I imagine Apollo fighting Python, but then I imagine all the heroes that came after him because in a way--Apollo is the archetype of the hero. He's a child, a baby god, four days old in some stories and he's not stealing cows, he's killing a serpent. Then I imagine all the demigods that came after him, and I'm stunned because there's a reason we give children the ability to slay monsters in media when they normally are not expected to do so in real life.

I read a post by @apollosgiftofprophecy, which is a valuable critique of derogatorily labeling something "kid's book". This post I'm writing in no way disregards that, but rather highlights something similar, but different. Rick Riordan's books are powerful (recent discussion about his characterization and stories aside), and just because they are targeted at a younger audience doesn't mean they aren't powerful for everyone. I'm guilty, I called them Kid's books in this post, but to me, Kid's Books are a powerful medium and not a lower one or even a derogatory one. To me, Percy Jackson is a one million times better character than Jon Snow in Game of Thrones because GOT takes its source material so, oh so seriously that it never explores the themes of his childhood in any meaningful way. Percy Jackson on the other hand as well as Apollo because I adore those books too--they use a narration style that is clear, entertaining, and bright and humorous to express very harsh realities of life. I identified with Apollo more as an adult because he uses humor to mask his darkness, which is very much something I do (and honestly anyone in healthcare or who deals with death daily does that), but I adored Apollo because he was hiding.

Clearly, I don't write for middle grade level when I write, I write adult content, but I wanted to validate "kid's books" --not "Just kid's books." Kid's books are powerful.

Examples:

Responsible for combatting Racist views! Absolutely one of the most powerful books ever written, and it teaches CHILDREN and ADULTS to turn around and save someone even when its not the "right" thing to do, but it absolutely is. It challenges conscience. It does this while telling joke after joke after joke.

Another Example:

Another "Kid's books" but not "just kid's books"-- gosh, I could go on and on about LOTR and its themes about power. This book is important for all ages. I still analyze the hell out of it, and so do my friends. Its hopeful, not because its less of a book than its counterpart "its all quiet on the western front," but because its illustrating powerful lessons without despair. Everyone makes it home, everything is beautiful, they rebuild, the Shire endures through the darkness. The Ring is destroyed even though it still very much exists in our world.

What about the Giving Tree, or Dr. Seuss books like Yertle the Turtle or the Sneetches, Artemis Fowl, and all those "kid's books." Star Wars is for "kids," but talking about Cycles of Abuse! Luke means Hope, and he breaks his families cycle of abuse. That's powerful, and its for kids!

I would argue that Kid's books are powerful BECAUSE they are targeted for kids, not in spite of it. Stories are how we TEACH. Grimm's Fairytale's existed because storytelling was a medium through which kid's learned vital truths--they have to be dark, kid's understand darkness, they understand monsters, and while our society sanitizes death away, kid's very much should learn how to understand death too.

I read an article about how a tribe, I think perhaps one of the Inuit, uses stories instead of physical discipline and how they find that this is the superior way of teaching children and adults. Everyone listens to the stories, not just the kids. When someone makes a mistake, they develop a story to show what happens if that mistake is oft repeated. I think about our ancestors gathered around fires and they told stories, and the kids were front and center, but the adults were there too, listening, learning, remembering.

On a completely different note: when a book is "targeted" towards an audience, that's marketing. It has nothing to do with content or value. We need to separate the concept of marketed, and marketing, from the whole value of a book as a means through which to tell a story that discusses important themes.

I very much use my story as a means through which to express truths about personal issues, and I think it resonates. But, those themes and truths are universal in their basic nature, a child can understand what it means to be hurt as much as an adult. A child can understand what it means to be free as much as an adult.

[directdogman]

hello there dog!!! firstly, i just want too say im incredibly proud too see how far you have come, dialtown is so special too me, and for not only that game to be so loved, but also for you too be so involved in the community, is amazing keep up the great work! i do have a question, i am working on a theory pertaining to my favorite characters gingi/milton, and if i may, i have a couple questions about him specifically, if you don't mind of course :) 1. what made you come up with the design/personality of gingi?

2. what are your personal feelings/thoughts on gingi? are you satisficed with them as a character? or are there anything you wish you could change now? 3. this is a wierd one but, gingi generally does not really care what he looks like/what others think, so im really curious why hes so meticulous with making his phone/type head, and if he is so bent up about it, why not try to get someone like Oliver to make him a more proper one? instead of replacing the rotten flesh over and over

4. idk if you can answer this one, but i dont think it can hurt to try...was gingi around, before callum lost his mind?

if you cant answer this, then i have another, what flower would best represent gingi?

Milton question:

ok so....did Callum just straight up cheat on his Marla with Milt?...or am i mistaking something? what i read on the wiki says that milton and Callum had a romantic...fling?

2. did norm know milt? where they friends?

3. does mingus know at least some of the extent of miltons involvement with callum?

4. are there any plans with milton? he seems like such a cool character with crazy potential

that's my questions done, again thank you if you answer! and if not, thank you for making a truly special game, cant wait too see more gingi and dialtown in the future

1)Design for Gingi was primarily based on Frankenstein's aesthetic applied to a the chupacabra. Personality was largely ripped from quite a few unpublished stories/ideas I had before making DT. There's a few protagonists in other things I'd written as potential new game/story ideas that are eerily like Gingi.

2)I'm really really happy with Gingi as a character and I wouldn't change anything that I've established. I like how Gingi starts the game and changes by the end because it's pretty vast, but also not a complete change (and it happens very very gradually.)

TBH, outside of Gingi's interactions in DT, the fandom doesn't really know anything concrete about Gingi due to Gingi's poor memory. Until Gingi formed real human relationships, there was nothing to anchor to, just fragmented and barely remembered individual interactions. Honestly, the bigger picture is really interesting and I'm very happy with Gingi as a protagonist and I'd love to make sequels to DT as I've had concrete ideas for where the character would get up to in potential sequels for years now!

3)Gingi's flesh-head is a bit of a mystery. Gingi doesn't have the same adverse reaction to rotting things that most people do, but does have a general chip in its shoulder about being judged as lesser by others. Gingi (generally) does not make efforts to change its appearance to be seen as less repulsive by others, as we can plainly see from the fact Gingi often forgets (or refuses) to wear clothes.

4)I have all the main character date of births written down, so I could tell you Gingi's exact age... but it's more fun if I don't.

FOR MILT:

1)I'm not really sure why the wiki says that. There's no canon materials that state that Crown + Milt had an affair together. I think someone just read between the lines and stated their hunch as a fact.

2)Norm and Milt met but didn't know each other well. There was a cut mention of Milt in Norm's dialogue, but after a lot of head-scratching, felt the topic was too forced. Norm wouldn't have volunteered the information unless it was relevant to the scene and Gingi would not have asked.

3)Mingus knows about Milt, though not intimately. The only person alive during Mingus' lifetime who could've talked about Milt to her was her grandmother Marla, who was a husk of a person for Mingus' whole life (and in particular, talking about Milt would've hurt too much for her given their closeness.) Mingus knows about Milt from her obsessive study of her paw paw's presidency, but not much more than any historian/social studies teacher would. A lot of information I'd consider very important about Milt was never put to paper.

4)I'm not 100% sure why the fandom likes him as much as they do, given how little of him the fandom has seen (and how little information there is about him out there so far.) I just wanted a few references to him included in canon so I could potentially reveal more about him one day without fans wondering how this SUPER important character had never been mentioned. It's incredibly likely that I'll show more of Milt in future DT stuff due to how instrumental he was in Crown's decision-making + rise to power. There would be no practical way to expand on Crown without discussing Milt more.

There's a much bigger picture that the fandom hasn't seen much of that Milt is very important to, though it isn't often relevant to the modern day events of DT. Understanding Milt isn't important to understand DT itself, but is to understand both Crown and exactly how the world (and by extension, Dialtown itself) ended up exactly the way it did. And with time, I will discuss that some more.

[punkbxt]

the people in charge of nutrek dont care about the ideals and premise of star trek and star trek: picard is its biggest tell. its a story that would have been much better if they hadnt brought back legacy characters but also would have been much better had it not been written at all because nobody wants more space cops

the moment picard decided to wash his hands clean of the romulan android situation was the moment i knew that oh this isnt the picard everyone has come to know and love. at his core who he is someone that would not let anyone die if he could help it. like thats his thing if he has the power to help he will!! and yeah sure thats shown in pic too but he literally was like ‘fuck you federation im not gonna help u ignore the romulans cries for help’ when he fr coulda just asked for forgiveness after helping with the power he had as a respected captain or whatever he is. something EVERY oldtrek captain has done time and time again

and yes! characters and their ideals change over time but not fucking like THAT

pic takes a tragedy, a genocide, and takes the romulans, a species that has for the most part always been the enemies of the federation and makes them easy prey. it makes them evil except for those that defected or disguised themselves (look up white passing and what it was actually for and why its a thing). and to put it into more understandable words:

lets say the federation is usamerica (bc for all intents and purposes thats literally what it represents) and that the romulans represent people of color and jews. pic serves for us on a platter that the genocide was just another thing that happened and “its okay they died anyways. romulans have never been on the side of the federation and never wanted to be anyways so no loss” this is what the federation believes

pic has been severely affected by white supremacist and antisemitic ideology and like while yeah science fiction is used to discuss and challenge the oppression we experience today, youd think a franchise that has always preached about diversity inclusion and acceptance would finally get over mass genocide of a “lesser” race as a form of storytelling. its uncomfortable and not in a way in which it makes you think but in a way that shows that even hundreds of years in the future vitriol prevails and it fucking sucks. its harmful towards people of color and jews when even in science fiction we cant escape that someone out there wants us dead

we’ve had enough of white supremacy and antisemitism taking a lil seat at the table to cause ruckus there are 100% other things that could have created and interesting dilema. the federation is literally on some cristobal colon shit n the more nutrek that gets made the less star trek holds up the ideals of diversity inclusion acceptance and love that it preached from its inception. we are instead given a narrative that yeah no matter how long you fight no matter how hard you fight you will NEVER win because systemic racism always wins in the end. its a tired and weak narrative and just goes to show if you dont have any other engaging stories to tell just stop telling the stories and stop ruining characters by making them do things they absolutely wouldnt even stand for

we r stuck with characters that suck up to other characters just because of their legacy and the writing when everyone deserves to be way more mad at picard. sidenote all of the genuine progress that has been made in television with diversity and representation has gone like 20 steps back when it comes to portraying people of color bc not ONE from the main crew passes the paper bag test (again ive only seen season one) which further goes to show white supremacist ideals subtly shining through

the point of star trek is that there will be a better more welcoming loving kinder future than the present and the past. and yeah theyve never been good at portraying that exactly because hope cannot exist without despair. but if you do not learn the mistakes of the past you are bound to repeat them and clearly these writers have not been studying the source material

hope this helps idk man i just b saying shit sometimes sorry if some stuff is repetitive

[thekingofwinterblog]

Also the whole "flooding the world thing" - I think its a copout too for Oda to remove any complexity - now even some badguys must simply fight for the good side, cause yeah, nobody wants to drown.

There isn't any ambiguity over marines, like "the goverment may be bad, but it atleast stops anarchy from taking over" - no, now the goverment literally wants to destroy the world, so even Black Beard is the lesser evil, cause supposedly he just wants to rule it not destroy it in a black hole, but maybe thats gonna get revealed too lol.

I actually disagree with this, because this has been foreshadowed for a long time, and the set up for a massive escalation has been building up as the series and our understanding of the World's history has been revealed... But there was definitly a massive change at some pount, am im pretty sure I can pin point what it was.

But to set the stage...

There is one, single canon One Piece Movie. Strong World, written by Oda as Luffy's final adventure before everything went down at sabaody, amazon lily, impel Down, and Marineford.

But there was going to be a second canon movie.

One Piece Film Z was made with the idea of it being canon from day one in mind... Only for Oda to realize there was so many continuity mistakes within the movie in relation to the film, that he wqs forced to scrap it as being in continuity with the manga.

However, the important thing is not that it wqs scrapped as canon, but what Oda wrote as it's plot and how it relates to Imu's eventual plan.

The plot of Z, is that the former Marine Admiral Z is planning on ending the Golden Age of Piracy...

By using a super weapon called the Dyna stones to cause a volcanic chain reaction that would lay the New world beneath the waves(Something that an eagle eyed viewer might realize means all the islands in the new world is part of one, continious chain of tectonic activity, suggesting it was all one continent).

Sound familiar? That's right, this was Oda foreshadowing the eventual big endgame of the series by showing a villain plan something similar, just on a smaller scale.

Also, It's not really focused on before the very end, because this is very much a movie about the Straw-Hats vs Z, but the marines are NOT onboard with this plan at all, even if they would wipe out Kaido, Big Mom, Shanks and Blackbeard by doing it.

The reward is not worth the cost.

Again, Oda puts the reality that for how bad the marines can and are through the series, there are moral lines that even they, even Akainu himself wont cross.

I have a lot of critiques of Oda as a writer, but one thing I cannot complain is just how thouroughly he plans things out and hints at events to come. How well he does that as a norm, just makes the times when he fails look so much more jarring by comparison.

Then of course there is Noah. The giant, giant Ship that was the big unfired chekov's gun from Fiahman isles, made as a response to the reality that the side of the great Kingdom had lost the war, and now had to prepare for the contigency plan.

We have no idea what Joyboy's original plan was, or what he wrote on that apology to his friend/lover/ally Poseidon, but she and her people presumably built this ship as a result, and the reason for it was that Joy Boy and his side must have feared that the endpoint of everything was that the entire world would end up being flooded as a result of them losing the war.

Similarily, Wano, the only other country that we know fought on the side of Joy Boy and his allies, erected enormous walls around itself, which charqcters in story thinks are for defence, but when you have the full picture, it's obvious these were made in preparation of what they must havr thought would be coming soon, a total sinking of the entire world.

Another Chekov's gun that is as of yet unfired is Iceburg's plan to turn Water Seven into a floating Island. Ehich was treated as an interesting solution to a problem at hand, but when you realize where this story would ultimately end up heading, it's actual endgame purpose becomes clear, as one of the island's that are going to survive the comi g sinking, just so happens to be the same one where Pluton was originally built.

Just in time for the Thousand Sunny to fullfill it's purpose of reaching Laugh Tale and the Straw-Hats needing to level the playing field for Blackbeard's coming aquisition of Pluton.

Now with all of this in mind, it's pretty clear that Oda has been planning this endgame for a very, very long time.

So with that in mind, what was the shift i was talking about at the start?

Well, from a story perspective, the eventual flooding of the world was always One Piece's endgame.

But from an in universe perspective, i dont believe at all, that this was what Imu and the Gorosei was going to be about all along.

Rather what i think was the original plan, was that though Joy Boy somehow foresaw this as the future that would take place when he was "Reborn", what actually was going to be the case, was that the plan to just sink the world and be done with it was going to be the result of massive escalation from the World Government's perspective.

From a historical perspective, Imu has been the unchallenged leader of the world for a long, long time.

During that time, there was very little need, or motivation for Mariejois to flood the world... Why would they even consider such a course of action?

Well, if you pay attention to how we were introduced to these concepts back in Water Seven and Enies Lobby, there starts to form a picture.

Originally the stance of the WG going to any and all lengths to keep the very existence of the void century and the ancient weapons a secret was ironclad.

It was the way of things for centuries.

But then something happened. Something so monumental that they changed from trying to keep them buried, to try to revive them and harness their power for their own ends.

That something was 2. Things.

The great Pirate Era, and rise of the Yonko.

The greatest and most dangerous Pirate in history(So far) was Rocks, a man who tried to upend the entire world order, but at the end of the day, after his death his entire crew fell apart, and his ambitions and legacy died with him.

What really changed, was Roger, and the 4 Pirates who followed after him as the rulers of the next age.

Roger lit the world aflame in the great Golden Age of Piracy, and over the course of two decades, the World Govenrment's grip over the world began to disintegrate in the face of the rise of countless new pirates who took to the seas.

And of course, there was the other problem. The Yonko.

This is a fact that the Five Elder's immortality makes somewhat easy to miss, but not a single one of them, nor the Admirals, are on the same level of power as the Yonko.

Other than the Boar one, Luffy has so far beaten around the Gorosei lime ragdolls with little difficulty, and as we saw with both Luffy's manhandling of Kizaru, and a heavily wounded witebeard, who's age and illness made him unable to use his Haki to it's fullest potential still taking down Akainu in two hits, the Yonko are at a level of Pkwer that the World Government simply has nothing to bring to bear to realistically challenge them.

One, single exception might be Imu, as we don't have a good idea of how powerful the Monarch actually is, but Imu's capacity to actually be able to go out into the world is rather limited given how important total silence is on the very existence of such a figure.

And worse, while Rocks was a figure who's existence could be covered up, the Yonko weren't just pirates. They set themselves up as monarchs of their own, the inheritors of Roger as the rulers of the seas.

So influential was they they the world government couldn't directly challenge them, they couldn't wipe the knowledge of them from history, and they in general just had to tolerate their prescence and the risk that any one of them might go to Laugh Tale and find Roger's treasure.

So with that in mind, they tried(and eventually succeeded to some degree) to ressurect the ancient great weapons of old, to do with the great powers that brought ruin to the world, what their military power could not.

With this in mind, the logical conclusion is to assume that the plan to just sink the world beneath the seas would just be the next escalation.

That something being Luffy's awakening his devil fruit, The Ancient enemy of Poseidon coming back into the picture, and... Blackbeard.

I honestly dont know why he's so important in this situation(It would make way more sense if this happened AFTER he obtained Pluton), but im guessing that the fact he possesses the devil fruit the world government has labled as continuing the power of the Devil Himself has something to do with it.

So with this in mind, it makes way more sense that the final endgame of just "Flood everything and let god sort them out" was originally planned to be a direct escalation of the rising challenges Imu faces.

Just wipe the board clean, rather than risking the pieces doing to us what we did to the great kingdom.

Im honestly not sure WHY it changed to "This was always the plan.", but if i had to guess, Oda's original plan for this was that it was going to be Luffy's awakening that would serve as the final straw figuratively speaking, where Imu would finally reveal themselves and declare that play time was, figuratively over.

However if that was the chain of events, then Luffy's rise to Yonko would be an unambigiously bad thing, that would color the entire end of Wano in a rather grim light.

Rather than a hopefull beginning, it would instead be the final hours of the old age, before the events that took place there brought about the apokolypse.

There would be no way to spin that as a good ending in any way... And if there is anything that marrs Oda's writing more than anything else, it's his horrific fear of letting a story or arc end on a full on downer ending(The only exception to that ever being Marineford).

[starlightshadowsworld]

That's the thing about Nagito though. Fans keep making the mistake of treating him like some anomaly, and that his views are all something he made up on his own. When one of the main points of his character is to demonstrate just how profoundly fucked up the society in Danganronpa is. A lot of his views are consciously or subconsciously shared by many of the cast, including Hajime and to a lesser extent people like Kyoko and Byakuya. Though if you're going to watch the anime later, I would also strongly recommend seeing his OVA. Even as someone who's not a big fan of DR3, I'd argue it's actually the best written part of it. As it recontextualizes quite a bit about him and adds an extra tragic layer to the ideology he outwardly espouses.

They made us laugh at the silly meme man... But he was onto something.

And by that I mean, spewing the same rhetoric as most others in this universe.

Your right though the more you think about it, it's not just him.

It's something to remember the Remnants carry a lot of that ideology not because it's Junko's ideology.

But because it's what Hope's Peak proudly trumpets to the world.

Hence a lot of its students holding that view.

And why Kirigiri, the headmasters daughter turns to that ideology the moment she remembers her talent.

Byakuya in general sees himself above everyone else, this is just an extension of that.

Nagito is just the most outwardly vocal about it without much of a filter to care.

Especially with his own complex feelings for his talent.

Hell it's why Hajime ended up the way he did.

Because he internalised it so much.

Sure is something, definitely keeping an eye out for it.

Also thanks, I'll be sure to look into it and check it out 👍🏼

[jalebi-weds-bluetooth]

Hi J!!

Congratulations on your interview and with Mr. Sobti, it was a delight to read!

I’ve always wondered how ipkknd would have dealt with going down a darker path with arnav and Khushi’s story and wanted to know what you thought

Omg thank you for loving it 🫂

Hmm darker path 🤔 I did hear once they had intended on a darker storyline but had to change as now the show was in Star Plus instead of Star One.

But then their definition of dark was Arnav and La living together (and sleeping together pre wedding) so maybe unconventional would be the right word.

Going on its natural path I think there would’ve been no “let’s make Lavanya desi” track, the office track would’ve been wayyyy longer (I do think that’s how it would’ve played for a big time - they had to rush to family/home setup due to star plus family demand).

I don’t think we would’ve had that much comedy, I definitely think Khushi would’ve been lesser of a traditionalist. Like she’s traditional but still a lot more of her own (see the difference between the first thirty episodes and the next).

The fact that Khushi was looking at Arnav breaking La’s fast for Teej, her affected by it. Them exchanging glances. Her affected by La saying she loves him. That, in my opinion, was deliciously dark.

Because it is crossing so many ethical boundaries.

And she’s justifying that by plainly stating how much she hates Arnav. So it doesn’t feel as much of a transgression.

(Also i do think she’d be less isolated from her feelings. As the show progresses to “sanitize” the fact that she wanted a man who was very publicly in a relationship - thus being the third woman in La’s life - they infantilize Khushi into someone who doesn’t understand she’s in love and doesn’t understand she’s feeling things. That innocence gives her the leeway and slightly lessens the darkness of everything).

So perhaps Khushi, in a darker version, would be quietly more conflicted with her emotions but not in a childlike way but in a more - how improper and unethical this is - way.

And you see that in a certain episodes - Lavanya accuses Khushi of voyeurism when she catches them in the office where La was fixing Arnav’s tie. Khushi quietly has an intense stare with Arnav when La brushes the dirt off his cheek. Arnav looks back to get a glance of Khushi while he helps Lavanya away from the garden side.

THIS is dark and perhaps it would’ve dived deeper into this. People often mistake darkness being it would be more sexual or violent.

IPK, very cleverly, left a lot of silences and I believe played more with Khushi’s character to be more acceptable to a wider audience.

I also like they removed the playboy aspect they wrote in for Arnav in their promos. And even with Liza - it was evident they have shared something.

I felt it fleshed Arnav further as a character and separated him further from tortured playboy trope. And removed the whole trope of playboy has his eyes on nice girl and nice girl “changes” playboy.

Rather the story becomes further nuanced with the removal of these. So sometimes the fact that it didn’t go darker was actually better cause they could’ve leaned into tropes that could’ve reduced the quality of romance we got.

Episodes are always written daily in television shows - and I genuinely believe some things were for the better as is.

My gripe would honestly be post marriage and the execution of things - but otherwise I think this show did exceedingly well as is.

Best,

- Jalebi

[fancyfade]

What are your thoughts on Batman: Black Mirror? I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with that story mostly because I adore its characterisation of Dick and how the story depicts legacy and history, but Synder's ableism is so apparent.

If it's alright for me to share my two cents: I enjoy that a lot of the arc (particularly the first 3 issues) revolves around the theme of "history repeating; first as tragedy, then as farce" which was typical for Bat titles of the time. The Dealer and James Jr. trying to intellectualise "might is right" despite resorting to same old greed-fuelled murder. Dick Grayson coming into his own as a not-Bruce-Wayne Batman, who's standing on the shoulders of giants and reckoning with the ghost of the Batman's (and his) past. Barbara and Jim Gordon having to deal with Jim's biggest mistakes of all in the form of James Jr resurfacing. I also loved Dick and Babs' moments and their relationship draws on this theme: they have so much history together, they loved each other, they get each other like no one else does, they've been there from almost the beginning, they've been allies, partners, friends, lovers, exes, fiancés, and now they're something pretty un-labellable if you ask me. (Thesis-antithesis-synthesis in a sense :P)

But shit. The ableism is problematic. I think it's two main things, though I might be missing something. First is Dick's nightmare vision where his worst fear is him losing his legs. And second is James Jr being written as a "psychopath" as oppose to, I dunno, the literal embodiment of toxic masculinity (fucking wasted opportunity) to be a foil to our favourite flamboyant, pun-slinging, back-flipping, hoping-inspiring boy scout Dick Grayson.

What do you think of this arc?

I’ll confess that I am the odd one out in that I just. Do not get the appeal of black mirror. Even excluding the ableism (and it is VERY ableist). Like people say it’s great Dick characterization, and it’s fine, but it’s not like it stands out especially among other comics of the time IMO.

Like, Dick and Babs’s moments in this comic are not notable for me, because she is reduced and written as lesser to make her someone Dick has to protect, she is damselled and written as less competent – hwo does James get past her security so effortlessly? Why does she not finish him off when she has the advantage after beating him up initially? Like the whole reason I like Dick and Babs’ dynamic is because they are written as equals in the initial version of their relationship, Black Mirror just made it a stereotypical ‘scared woman (b/c she is treated as scared of James, even tho she does try to break out), strong man saves her’ thing. James Jr would not be a threat to Babs in her own solo title. That means I think it fails in being respectful of the depiction of her history, so I would say that Snyder does not succeed there.

I also would disagree that we see Babs and Jim having to deal with Jim’s greatest mistake, when like I said Babs doesn’t really do much.

I do agree that they had a lot of opportunity to parallel James and Dick as toxic masculinity vs healthy masculinity, but it’s wasn’t the authorial intention at all, so I don’t give it any credit for that. The authorial intention was “Good, neurotypical dick* vs Evil, neurodivergent James”. I would honestly consider the way they diminished Babs capabilities to prop Dick up more ableism in the story as well, in addition to sexism.

I think that critique of the Might is Right mindset is done much better in many 80s/90s Batman comics, including Batman: Venom. The text was much more overt there, and less hidden behind ableism.

Anyway, so sorry :P but basically Batman: Black Mirror is one of those “everyone talks it up” but I’m just like the *insert her GIF*. It’s a pretty stereotypical batman story. In terms of Dickbats stories, I consider it one of the more mid ones. I genuinely don’t know how it is so popular :P

*ignoring headcanons or readings of earlier texts…. The way Snyder writes him is intended to be read as neurotypical

[lubotomies]

So you know the grimdark fic you were talking about where Tord gets tortured by the "black army..."

I think I may have written that back when I was an edgy 17-18 year old who was WAY too into Eddsworld angst. I saw your description and it's so familiar that I instantly started panicking sdkfjfhs

Anyway yeah I absolutely do NOT stand by that writing and I'm so sorry you and anyone else had to witness it. I'm too ashamed to come off anon and face the world. I hope to God if anyone finds out it was me who wrote it that they'll listen to me when I say I've grown so much as a person and writer since then. That shit was absolute trash and I wish I never put it out there.

this is like a church confessional. trust that its completely fine to have made weird shit in your youth especially with the state of the community At That Time. with the asks and discussions on this blog right now i think its clear to people that the community was a rancid place at that point in time and it was easy to get sucked into bad or unhealthy behaviour. i mean, moho was one of the most popular artists within the community with hundreds of people backing her up when she'd get criticised and we already went over the shit shes guilty of, so it should go without saying that the community was very much enabling and encouraging young people into doing things that are in the long run bad for their psyches and regressive coping mechanisms.

it ought to be some consolation that the reason i mentioned the black army one is because it was TAME in comparison to the far, far, far worse shit id seen, which i suppose i can just reveal were things like sex trafficking and holocaust aus. the black army fic for sure is grimdark but grimdark in the same way that cupcakes was for mlp. needlessly violent, sure, but in comparison to the literal fanfic about the eddsworld guys in auschwitz? Um. yeah youre fine dude.

im absolutely proud of you for taking accountability for something that, tbh, you shouldnt even feel obligated to take accountability for. writing overly angsty whump fic is far from being the greatest sin on earth, and being able to admit and regret making content like that is a huge sign of growth even on anon. ive made lesser mistakes that ive still not been willing to admit to STILL TO THIS DAY as a grown ass 20 year old, so you ought to be proud of yourself and the growth youve made as a person. some people get stuck in their ways and never grow out of that 2018 angst obsessed phase.

and again, with the eddsworld community being so... unhealthy, for young developing minds and vulnerable people, you seriously should not feel ashamed for making mistakes as benign as making an edgy fanfic on fanfiction.net. for real the only thing happening right now is sharing stuff that was happening around that time because the state of the fandom was ghoulish and showcasing things that were considered acceptable and wholly encouraged by the community that the modern fandom can easily recognise as being what they are, inappropriate, harmful, unhealthy, etc. youre totally fine dude!

[adarkrainbow]

Perrault’s fairytales: A quick intro

After talking about a lesser fairytale writer of the “second wave”, of course I now need to talk of a famous first-generation fairytale writer... And I will talk about the most famous writer of fairytales to this day, Charles Perrault himself - THE great master of fairytales, to the point French fairytales are now often synonymous with just him. 

Everybody knows his tales: Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty... Or do they? 

I won’t do here a breakdown of Charles Perrault’s life and biography - this will be for another day. But I want to specify something... Very often, not just in foreign countries, but also in France, all of Perrault’s story are placed under one name “Mother Goose’s fairy tales”, “Les contes de ma Mère l’Oie”. In truth, this book does not exist.

Perrault created two different books of fairytales. One is “Contes en vers” (Tales in verse), which contains Griselidis, Donkey Skin and The Ridiculous Wishes. Then came “Histoires ou Contes du temps passé, avec des moralités”, “Stories and tales of the past, with moralities”, which is a prose work (unlike the first book, all in verse) and which contains Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Toads and Diamonds, Cinderella, Riquet with the tuft, and Little Thumbling. 

No “Mother Goose’s fairy tales” in sight... So where does this title comes from? Well... it was Perrault’s INTENDED name for the book, or rather the first name of its collection of prose fairytales. His pre-publication manuscript, his earlier drafts, were titled “Les contes de ma Mère l’Oie”, that people like to translate as “Mother Goose fairy tales” but whose exact title should be “The tales of my Mother Goose”. However, as I said, this was the title of the early manuscript - after several other rewrites and drafts, Perrault changed the title to the one we have today. But “Mother Goose’s fairy tales” stayed thanks to one thing... The front illustration of the book, the first page engraving, which is this one (this is a colorized version, the original is in black and white):

And has the old title written on it. Given the mass-spreading of Perrault’s fairytales was through uneducated/illiterate classes that often relied more on the images and illustrations than the actual texts, and through rushed copies that did superficial re-editions of the text, the title on the illustration ended up becoming more famous than the one of the actual book. The reason the illustration shows a different title has led to many speculations - some think the engraving was prepared BEFORE Perrault changed his book’s name, and this is just an editorial mistake, while other think this double-intended was intended by Perrault as a sort of game - because “tales of my mother goose” was one of the common expressions that designated at the time what we could call later “fairytales”. Other nicknames included things such as “tales of old women”, “tales of wolves”, “tales of donkey-skin”, “blue tales”, “tales to sleep while standing”... And you might notice something here: all these common appelations given to these “folk-tales” were actually included by Perrault in his own fairytales, in one way or another. “Tales of donkey-skin” are found in the titular “Donkey-Skin” fairytale, “tales of wolves” are found in Little Red Riding Hood, while “tales of sleeping while standing up” are literaly what happened to the people of the castle of Sleeping Beauty... We see what you did there, Perrault.

It is especially interesting when we realize that this picture, at the front of the book, was designed with a specific meaning - it illustrates the very “tales by the fireside, told by nurses or grandmothers to children” that Perrault pretend to have taken inspiration of/to write about. With here the old, lowly-dressed, spinster woman, sitting by the fireside with various well-dressed youths to which she seems to tell her tale, with “Tales of my mother goose” written on the door. This is a visual metaphor of how Perrault will try to take the old, low folktales, to bring them to a more upper-class, civilized, educated and refined audience. (Or at least, that’s what he pretends... With Perrault, nothing is ever as it seems).

Doré, as you can see above, clearly played with his own “frontiscipe drawing”, by twisting the original picture of Perrault’s first editions into something else entirely. We still have the grandmotherly figure, but who this time reads from a book instead of telling the tales orally - showing the change in the tales’ nature over the centuries. The panel indicating “Tales of my mother goose” is replaced by a painting of the vanquished ogre on the wall, and the profusion of toys in the mass of children clearly shows the “childish/childhood” nature of those stories... But the characters eyes expresses various mixed emotions, from fascination to terror. 

To end this brief intro I’ll take the back-cover of my study-edition of Perrault’s fairytales.

Eleven strange stories. Eleven stories of incest and madness, of desire and cannibalism, of horror and love: under their apparent childish simplicity, the fairy tales of Charles Perrault are one of the most singular pieces of French literature. By celebrating the tradition of “mothers and grandmothers”, these tales manifest the existence of an “ancient feminine memory”, a clandestine storytelling that was fought and buried by the official culture of the “Great Cneutyr”. Ovnis appeared in the pure sky of the classicism, these texts with obscure origins still contain numerous enigmas that critics have a hard time solving. We do not know who exactly is their author (it is a debate I’ll talk about later) and we don’t know their exact sources - there is an aura of mystery around them, which maybe explains the enormous interest of people for these tales. They might be short, but they have built up centuries of commentaries and analysis - by folklorists, by psychanalysts, and more recently by experts of the “gallant literature”. 

[ladysternchen]

🧋 What is your favorite fanwork you've made this year?

🧋 Did you participate in any fan exchanges this year? If so, what was your favorite gift you received?

🧋 Do you have any projects for next year fanworks?

🧋 Did you do something new or more experimental this year? Is there a new approach you're interested in taking in the future?

🧋 Looking back, is there a fanwork you made this year you are dissatisfied with?

🧋 What fanwork have you published this year that you feel shoyld have gotten more attention/reactions?

🧋 What (part of) fandom did you write for the most this year? Which (part of) fandom do you think you'll be focusing on next year?

🧋 What's a fandom trend you hope dies before the new year comes?

1) uuhh, tough one xD

I think that would be ‘I Will Hold Your Hand Forever’ , but it’s a close contest 😆

But I generally do better with that sort of fic.

2) unfortunately no. Personal life (read here: being an autistic mom of autistic/ADHD-kids who need my support doing their day-to-day school stuff in a country that has next to no support for autistic people with “lesser” support needs) did not allow for any time-critical writing- projects. I’d love to do it again next year, though.

3) Maaaany. For one, my current WIP “A Deed Unforgiven” is still to be finished, but I have many more stories outlined that wait to be written, and two completed works that wait for the right occasion to be published.

4) no, not really. I’d love to, though. Only I’m an entirely non-creative person, so I need people to give me ideas 😆

5) not any more (muhahahaha). I was so disappointed with “Yet Were Its Making Good, For This” (can’t link it at the moment, no idea why, but you’ll find it on ao3) at first, but I slowly worked through it and edited it a lot and now I’m quite happy with it 😁

(Oh, and I’m still biting my arse for a mistake I made in the portrait of Olwë I wrote for the Silmarillion Writers’ Guild, but I’m not dissatisfied with the whole thing)

6) uh. Ahm, what to answer to that now… 🤣 I’d say all of them but I can’t do that because its so very ungrateful

No, in all earnesty, I love feedback, I love to discuss my work with other writers and readers and just other people interested in the matter. But I know I’m very specific in what I write (or whom I write about) and the number of people who are into it is limited. That does not make the attention my stories get any less valuable, though. (!!)

If I had to pick one, though, that I wish had got more attention, it’s “The Boat To Irmo’s Realm, Or: The Story Of An Untired Elfling” (again, links won’t work for some reason). I really love that one a lot.

7) Nothing changing anytime soon, I’m afraid. I’ll stay with the Royal House of Doriath (probably for the rest of my (writing-) life 😅 They’re my family and my special interest and my obsession)

8) All the bashing. And the comparing Tolkien’s lore to modern politics, especially without giving it a thorough thought and without making the effort to really see it as a world of its own rather than an allegory for our modern days. Elves and Men are not one race, Elves are NOT a synonym for… nah, not even going close to that row now.

I wish people would stop judging other people by their favourite characters (idk if that works both ways, if people who love the Noldor in Beleriand get accused of being ok with murder or called colonialists, but I’m sick and tired of being called a racist and supporter of white supremacy. Like wtf guys, I’ve been a feminist and socialist my entire life. Just… no! Read. Like READ!)

Also, I’d love to see this fanon-over-canon-trend die down.

Bit none of that will happen. Ah well. Peace, folks!

Thanks so much for asking me and letting me ramble about my works ❤️ That’s such a lovely idea!

[gleefullypolin]

It was such a bad situation all around and felt written specifically to give Penelope the most trauma imaginable, ha. Adding in the laughing at her on top of it all? Terrible choices and does more damage in a way that seems gratuitous vs serving the story.

I think it was smart of have her accuse him of being embarrassed of her when she finally confronts him over it, it would be the first place most minds would go with the way they did it last season. Very much a growing pains story for both of them, Penelope really needs to come into her own and Colin, god love him, he needs to learn to be comfortable in the fact that he's not his brothers. And that's okay.

Losing platonic relationships hurt just as much or worse than romantic ones so everyone is hurting when they come into s3 and I want to hug them all. Eloise is just going through it, Penelope is probably losing her mind, and Colin is just faking it til he makes it only failing and missing his friend. Then he falls in love with her. Godspeed to him.

I would looooove if they wrote it together if for no other reason than to gag the people that are so rude for no reason, hah.

Oh yeah, I have empathy for her situation but she is truly unlikable in characterization. If they had presented her as desperate and that gave way to some of her arrogance and almost hateful behavior towards others in her pain and fear for her future, I would get it but no, she just comes off as mean. Treating everyone as lesser than her while they're trying to help her (with her own mistakes at that) was just such a wild character choice. She wasn't even convincing in her trying to get Colin to marry her to me, ha.

So much of the stuff about Penelope being the villain when in all reality, she's not saying anything that others aren't saying to each other (outside of the Colin and Eloise thing for their protection) just comes off as petty jealousy that Penelope/Nicola has more spotlight right now than others. They have handled it better than I ever could!

I am almost sure I am going to cry multiple times this season and I am getting ready for it, haha.

Yeah I don’t know how the explain even the point of it but it doesn’t sound like they even do. I’m glad she confronts it head on. That’s a good start for her. Either way they are both still very young here, unlike in the book where they are in their late 20’s, they are not that far along here by skipping ahead to this storyline.

I’m still seeing so much discourse around the damn brothel scene that NO ONE has even scene yet, but my God people are speculating he is somehow some BDSM Dom somehow out of one stupid tabloid article and a few sentences. I’m over it. Watch the F’ing show first before you become an expert out of something you have not even seen yet. Speculation is fine, but full on judging a character over speculation is beyond the scope of anything. And it truly ruins your own peace of mind. Goodness. Sorry had to get that off my chest!

Back to Eloise LOL! I have a feeling I will be less angry about her once we get to the season. I’m more curious about Cressida because they aren’t telling us much about her and the photos seem quite grim honestly. Her home life seems so sad and dark.

Would it not be the best to even reference the chance that they could take over as narrators of the whole damn show. The uproar itself would drown out everything hahaha!

I do wonder if she ends herself or they have her leave the show in other means for the whole Phillip and Eloise piece. It just feels sooooo dark. Perhaps she comes down ill and dies leaving him with the children. But she’s gotta go somehow for that to work lol.

I mean its hard to make her the villain when things have worked out so well for the Bridgertons if NOT for LW! Lets be honest she’s things work out pretty well for Daphne, Colin, and Eloise whether they admit it or not. It’s not like they live in a time where they are able to take care of those issues themselves. LW has saved their ass without them being stuck in things they could not have gotten out of or losing their heads, honestly. I’d say that’s the opposite of a villain. Has she said less than nice things…sure she called Anthony a Rake. Was he…Yes. Is Colin faking this BS persona…Yes. Soooo she’s honest with a side of bitchy…good for her! Sod society.

[alteredphoenix]

On the inclusion of games from Arise plus the mobile games in An Exercise in Futility: Arise’s backstory is at least hinted at in one night on the wild hunt (as well as, you know, having it written before Arise itself came out). Maybe I can introduce the ToAr cast someday in a fic? Possibly; it’s not really on my mind at the time of this post (but, as usual, the timing can always change).

Everything else, though, where Links and Asteria are concerned, I like to wager takes bits and bobs from them and integrated into the world, but they don’t really play a big role in them (e.g. I like to imagine the main cast from Links to be inner city kids in Pendrago that have heard about Velvet’s time as the Lord of Calamity, who, where they’re from, is considered a legend you don’t want to cross paths with). The Asteria OCs probably stay as far the fuck away from Pendrago as possible lmao

On Crestoria: It’s not something I’ve currently considered, and although I could consider its setting place the “NK of the Modern Tales world” I honestly think that’s a bit too dark, even if it could work in a setting that’s about as Modern Day Earth But Make It Tales Flavored as you can get. If I had to figure out how to make it work, they’d probably be in their own sister city that’s even more riddled with gang warfare and political corruption than Pendrago itself (timeline-wise, though...I’m not sure? That’s another thing to plan out: if ToC’s dystopian plot should have any mention in the current canon). I’m going to have to read the manga just to get a better idea (as it’s already starting to include the original character expies in it) - but again, it wouldn’t affect the overall narrative at large. If anything, it’d just be added fluff to the worldbuilding.

And on Luminaria: Technically and my gift to you is a taste of starlight and everything else that takes place after it does take place in this AU - but the cast is so far removed from the other Tales games a’la different locations that the chances of them interacting are probably next to none. I don’t really have any plans for, say, Celia to meet Velvet during her college years and Michelle mistaking them for being long-lost sisters of the sort (although that is an idea for a separate fic I want to mess around with, because Same English VA). If I had to decide where it would take place timeline-wise, it’d have to be post-An Exercise in Futility - as in, maybe a few years after the last AEiF fic.

Oh, and on the lesser-known, JP/KR-exclusive mobiles from the 2000s: ...I actually don’t know lol They’d just be more added fluff pieces but they’d flesh out the worldbuilding a little more.

[irrigos]

i was gonna reply but i had too much to say lol

its always really frustrating that FL and MotR (and the sunless games probably, but to a much lesser extent) boast about how you can be anything you want in the game, but then really arent able to execute that thoroughly. because like... well from my perspective, it wasnt even a thing they needed to promise in the first place??

especially in motr, they could have made it explicit that your character is british and anglican at the start. they didnt HAVE to say that you could make whatever character you wanted, and it could have probably lead to a stronger game overall. it's hard to write compelling, satisfying dialogue and relationships if one of the characters cant have any explicit personality or history.

i talk often about how my favorite visual novel is Dream Daddy, and part of why i think it works so well is that your Dadsona had a lot of personality and history and interests that the player really has no say in. there is no way I, as a player, can make him NOT be a single father, or not have been in a ska band in college, or not love Paranormal Long Haul Ice Road Truckers. that gives him any amount of substance, so his interactions with other characters can actually feel like something adjacent to human interactions

one of the big problems with motr (and also FL but i think its a little less glaring in FL) is that they werent really willing to add any real specificity to the character, but also there are times when specificity is necessary, or at least would make things overall better. so instead of getting a well-written player character who can actually have personal qualities for NPCs to play off of, you get this weird cardboard cutout person to play, and all the bits of specificity just feel like.... mistakes? like, it doesnt feel like they sat down and decided the PC is british and anglican, they just forgot that someone might be something different? which is, imo, so much worse! you dont get to be something other than british or anglican, but you also dont get to really interact with those identities because then they would have to admit you cant actually be anything you want to be in the game

obviously i cant speak to how alienating it is when you cant be non-christian in a game (being catholic, my religious frustrations with FL are pretty different i think lol) but as someone who can. yknow. read. its weird to play motr and notice how vague and sterile all the players dialogue is, because (presumably) fbg didnt want to take too much character creation out of the players hands, but ALSO still made a bunch of decisions for the player anyway?? why promise this level of character customization if you werent actually prepared to deliver it, AND the sacrifices made to make space for this character customization made the games writing worse?? you cant be anything other than Anglican, but you also cant really be Anglican, either, because the game always says that youve never been to St Albans before, and Theo "doesnt see a regular parishioner" (or something) when he meets you. (Or at least, that's the text I'VE always gotten. with the way the game works, it could very well be that thats not always the case and I just havent had the right background or outfit or whatever. but i feel like it's probably always true.) So instead of letting you make whatever sort of character you want in this world, they decided that religion is a thing that it is impossible for your PC to have any sort of relationship with. Even if I wanted to go along with FBG's decision that I'm Anglican, I still can't! It's really weird!! Like, they dont want to say your PC is Anglican and goes to St Albans and knows the local vicar because that would be making too make decisions for the player?? but also you cant be anything other than Anglican?? so it feels like the motr PC can only be someone who was raised Anglican but doesnt care about religion at all, which is a weirdly strong choice to make on the players behalf, especially when theres so much stuff in the game about devils and such. idk its really weird and very noticable imo

a tangential problem ive been having with motr is that you cant actually pick a gender to be?? like i know fbg has been very proud of the fact that you just pick how people address you in their games, not your characters gender or sex, and that works fine in like. sunless sea, i think. but it's really weird in mask of the rose, because that means i can be playing as a man, and romancing Archie, another man, but no one can acknowledge that thats weird, or something we couldnt have done before the Fall, or anything. like, Harjit seems aware of homophobia, and that two men being in a romantic relationship is. uh. Frowned Upon in 1862, lets say. but everyone seems blissfully unaware that that would be true of me and archie too?? so it really makes it feel like you can romance whoever you want AS whoever you want, but your relationships will always, essentially, be straight.

its just really frustrating overall. they dont want to make you define who your character is, because they want you to be able to imagine whatever character you want, but they also arent able to deliver on that (either due to opportunity costs that come with how theyve set things up, like with the gender stuff, or just because of what i can only assume is unexamined personal biases from being a team of white british people) so the whole thing just kinda comes off as.... idk. clumsy and inept at best. i really dont know why they made it like this, when it would have been easier not to

i'm just. i know i should give mask another chance now that the pacing is fixed but im still kinda bitter over things.

Like i know I already made a post on it but the literal description of the game makes it seem like you can pick who you are!!! ‘who were you before the Fall? Who will you be now?’ sounds nice, but the reality is ‘who will you be’ can only be christian and english. This was an issue I had hoped wouldn’t be carried over as much from Fallen London, but the capability for the suspension of disbelief of being anything else is worse here due to the dialogue. I understand limiting the scope of writing if you feel you are unable to write anything else properly, but this needs to be specified at least in the backgrounds or the description.

 It is always disheartening to be presented with a game that aims to advertise its option of playing as ‘yourself’, which then turns with the expectation of only one type of person. It is a shame the game will not let you be of an  Irish, Jewish, Scottish, etc. background, with the added aspect of those types of characters being present in the game making it all more confounding. Having a diverse cast does not feel as meaningful when the game doesn’t let you, as the player, be a character of your own background.

[madwoman14]

What really gets me about associating "Nothing New" with Rory is that it really hits upon the idea that Rory feels like she has to achieve greatness to be worthy of love or even her existence. She can't just be "moderately successful." Going to "college" in general isn't enough- it has to be Harvard or Yale or she's failed. She can't have an ordinary career doing office work or working for some small-time paper (which don't really exist anymore anyway)- she has to have her name in prestigious publications like the New Yorker or the Times. And I think all too often people assume that means she thinks she's "too good" for lesser things, but honestly I think it has more to do with this anxiety that constantly haunts her: that being "good enough" isn't good enough. She has to be "brilliant" and "impressive" or else feel like she's letting her family down and she doesn't deserve to live. And I think it would kill Lorelai to know that she unintentionally made her daughter feel that way, but she does. No matter that Emily told her way back in Season 1 that her existence "isn't a disappointment," the implicit undercurrent in all the family arguments has always been that Rory's existence has ruined their family, and Rory has always felt desperate to make up for it.

OH YEAH- i can’t remember what fic i read this in but it was like Lorelai couldn’t let herself become a teen pregnancy statistic, so all the pressure was on Rory whether Lorelai noticed it or not. But Nothing New was written after two major success, where Taylor was probably feeling the apprehension of just “a success” where she loses her novel status, and she feels like she is going to disappoint everyone and society will just discard her like she’s seen happen before. Rory feels the same way when she can’t just go to college, she HAS to go to one of the Ivies, which was why Chilton acceptance was so important to all of them because it guaranteed her path to Harvard. And if she didn’t go to Harvard after all that money and effort in Chilton?? That only made things worst. You’re so right with the way people hate on her for “looking down on jobs” but when that much pressures on you, you have to shoot for the moon, landing among the stars means nothing. Her “I have to be great or nothing” thinking certainly made it harder for her to bounce back, partly because she’s never had to?? Also can we talk about the fact that the pressure to become a top journalist has been on since she was four??? When I was four, my life ambition was to be a Barbie ngl (still working toward it btw). Even now, I know only a handful of people who work in the same field they entered their first year of college with, so imagine how claustrophobic it would have been to stick to your inner 4 year old self’s dream. But she was never allowed to explore, her goals couldn’t be dynamic and that’s why she struggled to reach them. We saw the way Lorelai reacted when Rory applied to other colleges. (honestly who applies to just one college, don’t do it kids that is the worst idea ever), so Rory could never try to change her goal she was set upon since she was four. We also see this during the conversation of Teach Me Tonight where she says something like “I’ve been talking about this for like ever and it would be really embarrassing if I couldn’t do it” when Jess questions if its right with her. There we see her motivation, yeah to travel the world, but like she needs to do it. I think that Rory sees the way her mother is humiliated and hurt, and she will not let that happen, so she has to succeed brilliantly, she has to be someone enough so that society leaves her mother alone and Rory isn’t just a mistake anymore. Honestly to me its surprising that Rory didn’t breakdown earlier with pressure from Lorelai, Emily Richard, and mostly herself. Also they way I read this ask so many times because I was certain you heard all the thoughts in brain?? this ask was so superbly written and i thank you so much for the food for thought.   

Also the fact that the line  How can a person know everything At eighteen but nothing at twenty-two? lines up perfectly with Rory just amazes me. \

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SPIRALLING NOW!

[n0tamused]

Hellooo hon can i request pls? Can u write for tobirama a one shot where he rejects his s/o but then he sees her with another guy in the village often and starts to realize about hia feelings but its late bc she is marrying this other guy? I need some angst hahahah. Its ok if you don't want to write it! Thank you 😘

A/N: Hello anon, thank you for the request! Here's some Tobirama angst. It made me sad to write this but here we are. The things we do for angst. Hope you enjoy.

Warnings: none. Just pure sadness.

Words: Around 1.475

' The Fire Which Didn't Burn '

-"No. I do not love you."

Those words echoed in your mind days after his initial rejection. Over and over again until it was all you could think about. It stung your heart each time you repeated the sentence. The never ending feeling that it was something you did wrong wrecked your mind, it made work harder and rest scarce for a while. You didn't understand. You were sure he felt at least some semblance of love for you, in the end you were the one he truly did let in his company. One he could rely on for anything that he may need. Or did you read the signs that wrong? At that point it wouldn't be a surprise if it was all for business sake, seeing as you both worked together on making the village prosper and bloom.

But that was almost an whole year ago. Even more. Since then you have moved on from the heart ache. Although a few select close friends knew of your pain, you never indulged them with your gloomy moods that came and went. It was a tendency you seemed to pick up from the younger Senju and the years you spent at his side. Not letting anyone really in. Only letting them scratch the surface of it, to know enough to leave you be.

It has been a whole year since the last time Tobirama had spent proper time with you, a whole year since you both sat down to unwind and discuss things amicably. At the confession of your feelings for him he was rather cold, cooly brushing you off and trying to get back into his work. He didn't feel like it was such a big deal then, he believed that it didn't matter as long as you both still remained a good bond. But he was proven wrong. You recoiled from his reach and even disappeared from his sight. His ears seldomly heard of you anymore. It was as if you disappeared from the village all together. Even if he saw traces of your work, your signatures and reports. It was all superficial.

At first this didn't bother Tobirama much, even if he was initially worried about your lack of communication with him. The man was simply so drowned in his work to take some kind of action, to do anything to smooth things over with you again. On certain days, when work was lesser, he would indulge himself in things he did with you once. Only then feeling the effects, the weight on his shoulders due to your absence. There was no more of your reasoning voice, no more laughter, no more endless teasing when the two of you were alone, no more long nights where the two of you shared your worries and even fears. There was none of it. Only distant memories.

As stubborn as he was, he would finally come to terms that he, in the very least, missed you greatly. That he should've done something sooner. Now he felt embarrassed to even try after so long had already passed.

Tobirama had recently started to seek out information about you. Head full of things, horrible things. Were you alright now? Have you moved on?

As it turns out, yes you were alright and yes...you have moved on. You were still working as a ninja, so how you managed to keep out of his sight so much and for so long surprised the silver haired Senju. And when word reached him that you were getting married soon. He was...he didn't know how to feel, actually. You had found another man to love and share your burdens and future with. He had spotted the pair of you once in the village, walking peacefully side by side. Hand and fingers entwined together. You pressing into his side once to give him a quick hug. Him smiling down at you, a genuine, earnest smile which you reflected back just the same. It made Tobirama ill. A deep, gut wrenching feeling over took him so much that he wanted to bolt. As unlikely as that was for him.

Perhaps this was karma. You were his most trusted friend. You understood him at best and at worst times, and you dealt with him when he was being difficult. You were with him at his side even when his brother got fed up with his arrogance. The amount of times you sat at the stairs on his porch, waiting for him to cool off were countless; even your company alone was salve enough. And not to even mention your beauty, you were the rare one that really caught Tobirama's eye, like no other woman has before. And yet, he pushed you away. Perhaps this was his punishment. The maker gave him a chance, a chance to be happy and content and have someone with him and he let it fall and shatter to the floor. Tobirama could only scowl, and he found himself in a sour mood ever since.

He wouldn't admit it but his heart was aching. Was this how you too felt?

-"Tobirama!"

You exclaimed. Shock written all over your features, the basket of fruit, fish and vegetables hooked onto your elbow. Neither of you knew what to say at first. Tobirama was just as shocked as you, regretting not using his sensory abilities to sense you and turn in another direction. Now that you two ran into each other his tongue felt dry.

Your breath stopped in your throat as you searched his eyes, his face for anything that could indicate some sort of reaction. Yet the only thing you found in his scarlet gaze was yearning, and then emptiness once he collected his racing thoughts.

"Y/N. It.. it has been a while."

He spoke, clearing his throat while his heart felt as if it was going to burst out of his chest. The clothes he wore suddenly felt suffocating and scolding. A tangible tension grew between the two of you.

"Yes. It has been...How have you been doing? I surely hope you are getting some proper rest, I heard there was quite a scuffle recently."

Trying to keep the conversation average failed. A frown became prominent on his lips as he only nodded, in a almost mechanical fashion, but didn't respond to the question. You caught his gaze flickering, only for a second, down to your ring finger. Where the silver ring was. A small gem held on the top of it. And you understood, in a way.

"Oh..."

A wind breezed past the two of you, but it didn't feel comforting. It felt chilling and hot and dry all at the same time, like raking hands that clung to the both of you. If you were paying just a little more attention to the Senju, you would've seen the sadness collect in his eyes. Even if his face remained cold and unreadable. His eyes gave it all away.

The conversation ended rather awkwardly with both of you wishing each other well and saying your goodbyes. So many things were left unsaid then. It wouldn't take Tobirama long after that quick encounter to really admit it to himself that he has grown feelings for you, that he was in love. Realizing a year too late. A year he wished he could get back so he could be with you instead of that man. A year that could make it all better, for the both of you. But no matter how many sleepless nights he had, no matter how much he wished and even prayed, he couldn't take your happiness away. He couldn't even dare do such a thing, couldn't dream of it.

Sometimes you would even worm your way in his dreams, his mind visualizing a future he knew he couldn't have. A happy one with you at his side, in a house different from the one he was in now, with enough space for the both of you and even another addition. No matter how much he dreaded those dreams, he let himself drown in the comforts of them even if for a moment. Letting himself experience what could have been. The phantom touches and plush kisses that soon turned to dust in his mouth when he woke. The image of you still dancing vividly in front of his sleep hazed eyes.

Other times he even found himself crying in those dreams, angry, bitter and regretful tears. Clinging onto you in his dreams, pleading to not wake up yet to make it all better. It pained him. That he couldn't have you anymore. You were now married to someone, and that someone wasn't him.

Tobirama saw how happy you were, genuinely. And he wasn't going to take it away just because of his own mistakes.

Now it was his turn to share the pain you went through. He accepted it all. It was now his responsibility. His mistakes.

[signedeclipse]

Frequently Asked Questions

Hello!! Ive had a lot of questions recently via dms and inbox that I felt I could address publically for anyone who has the same concerns! This will be added to my pinned so that you can easily find it!

I recommending looking this over before submitting a request, as it might help clear some things <3

SIgned, Eclipse

What characters do you write for?

Almost all of them! I can make a list if you really want, but im familiar with both manga and anime, as well as fanbooks and extra media characters!

I even do 'lesser seen' characters including every lower moon,

What characters don't you write for?

Any characters that are just parents, characters that weren't named, and thats it!

Characters I only write platonically include; Naho, Sumi, Kiyo, Rui, Senjuro, both Ubuyashiki twins, all Kamado siblings, and Kotetsu.

Characters I only write romantically or less include; Nezuko and Aoi

Characters I age up (18+) for NSFW include; Kamaboko squad (including Genya and Kanao), Gyutaro, Daki, Murata, Muichiro and Sabito.

I may be missing a few, but overall my decision is based off the characters overall maturity in the manga. Every aged up character will display adult characteristics and nothing less.

Do you take NSFW requests?

I do! In fact, NSFW is one of my largest talents when it comes to writing, so please don't be shy to request it! You must be 18 or older to do so.

Dont be afraid it include kinks, too! The only kinks I won't write for is vore, toilet stuff, violence/extreme pain, non-con (cnc is okay), zoophilia and pedophilia/age play.

Ive written for lots of extremes, including hyper-parts and tentacles, so trust me when I say I can handle it.

Do you have any limits?

When it comes to writing, I really don't enjoy writing the reader being in a toxic or abusive relationship with the character. I wont write anything where the character harms the reader purposefully unless its for an event.

That being said, the reader can be harmed by others in the story (including strangers, parents, ex-lovers or other characters) and even killed, but I will never let it be the love interest unless accidentally.

What can I say, im a comfort writer, I just want readers to have something nice and fluffy to read! But ill still write angst and breakups, dw ;]

Can you do a part 2, 3 etc...?

Yes! I usually do my best to leave a oneshot open to being continued. If a oneshot is popular enough, ill even turn it into a series. Just request you'd like another part and i'll get to it!

Rarely I may feel something cannot be continued, if this is the case I will tell you, and ask you what you'd like to see happen next instead <3

How many characters can be made per request?

It depends! For oneshots, Ill do as many as you want with a reasonable limit, like all the hashira x reader or upper moons x reader.

For headcanons, I do a max of 3. However, you can have up to 5 if it is the kamaboko squad (zenitsu, inosuke, tanjiro, kanao, and genya), Upper moons, lower moons (or a mix of those two), and hashira! For groups that have more than 5, you can pick which or let me choose.

I also do headcanons with 1 character, and it ends up being a little more specific and fleshed out.

Trios, as in character x reader x character count as 1 character.

What blog tags to you use

There are only a few! But the unique trait is they all contain 'eclipse' and end in 'z' instead of 's'

#eclipse talkz - For any posts where I am answering an ask that isnt a request, or where I am just talking outside of writing.

#eclipse thoughtz - For my headcanon option where I give my opinion and there is no x reader portion.

#eclipse recommendz - For writing that is not mine that I really enjoy and think my readers would like.

#eclipse retweetz - For anything else that isnt mine but I just really want to share, its just a reblog! I call it retweetz because it was a mistake when I made it!

#eclipse gamez - For ask games and other things readers can interact with differently.

#eclipse goalz - For events and milestones!