#I based off the characterizations on their numbers and designs

[comicaurora]

hi red!! i'm doing an analysis of sun wukong's (and journey to the west in general's) impact on modern culture for my world mythology final, and for some reason i'm having a hard time finding sources. is there anything you can recommend?

The fact that Journey to the West has contributed an enormous number of tropes to modern media is very clear when the media in question is examined, but I don't know of a specific secondary source that's already done that analysis for you. However, this IS a very good excuse for you to plow through a metric buttload of shonen manga, since the lineage is basically Sun Wukong -> Son Goku -> like a solid third of all shonen action heroes written in the last forty years.

Dragon Ball kicks things off:

Started in 1984 and almost unquestionably the most influential manga ever made. Its first arc features the weird super-strong monkey-kid Son Goku - which is just the japanese pronunciation of the characters of Sun Wukong's name - meeting up with a wacky crew of thinly-veiled expys of the Journey to the West crew, with teen inventor Bulma filling the role of Tripitaka, Oolong the pig-man filling Zhu Bajie's role and Yamcha the desert-based bandit as Sha Wujing.

Hijinks ensue, and while the story drifts pretty far from Journey to the West's original plot, it actually stays pretty solidly referential in weirdly unexpected ways. Several the villains of the week are JttW references, and even the later appearance of three more Saiyans lines up with the surprise reveal of three more Wukong-like mystical apes in the original story.

The connection between Dragon Ball and JttW is very unsubtle and a frequent reference in the chapter covers and supplemental art.

Not every subsequent JttW reference is the result of Dragon Ball popularizing it or anything, since it was already enormously popular, but I think it's pretty hard to extricate Dragon Ball's influence on anime and manga from the original influence of Journey to the West itself.

One way that a distinction can be drawn is in the differences in characterization between Goku and Sun Wukong himself. A lot of the next generation of shonen protagonists were kind of Goku-alikes - pure-hearted dumbasses who only care for the three Fs: Food, Fighting and Friendship.

But the original characterization of Sun Wukong is not really all that similar. He's a trickster, sure, but he's far from a young, friendship-motivated goober. He's profoundly intelligent, pretty much the most well-educated entity on the planet, and routinely brings up that he's centuries older than most of his peers. The Goku-alikes from the later decades of shonen anime are tellingly far-removed from that original characterization. So you get characters based on Goku's cheerful idiocy, but it's just a small subset of the broader influence of Journey to the West on the space of literature.

In general, Journey to the West frequently shows up in very small, bite-sized tropes in other stories. It's less "this is wholly based on Journey to the West" and more "oh, I know where they maybe got this idea/aesthetic/power/weapon/villain of the week from." There are way too many to list, but some of the ones that tend to jump out at me are-

Sneaky characters with monkey motifs:

Tricksy, highly mobile characters who fight with a staff:

Characters afflicted with a magical restraint artifact that allows a much weaker character to stop them from misbehaving:

Specific esoteric weapons, eg. magical fans, rakes, gourds, namedropping The Sword of Seven Stars, etc.

Villains with prominent ox or pig design motifs:

Characters whose primary combat strat is just making Shitloads Of Disposable Copies Of Themselves:

Honestly it just keeps going like this. It's kinda everywhere. Finding the JttW in things is my favorite conspiracy theory rabbit hole because it's 100% harmless and more often than not completely correct.

[zvezdacito]

Ranking Malleus's Valentines Messages from 2021-2024🔥

People finally got the 2024 ones so I decided to make a list like this. Mostly based off which ones have both the most interesting contents and which ones are the sweetest(?) in a sense to Yuu lol. Terminal Malleyuu brain + and I mean they are Valentines cards after all.

Going from least to most personally favored:

4th: 2023

Text: "To my dear friend-

Thank you. Never did I envision someone presenting me with the gift of sweet treats. It would be a shame for me to eat them all by myself. I think I'll share them with you. Would you be willing to provide the tea to go with them?"

Very broadly friendly and nice I guess, but the message of the text is basic and the design of the letter card is also kinda basic🥀 like tbh if you changed the color of this card you could mistake this for something Riddle wrote instead. The ones for this year really just felt like they ran out of ideas and gave up, this is the only one on this list I can say I definitely don't really like that much

3rd: 2022

Text: "To my good friend-

A gift? For me, of all people? Your tastes are...distinctive, I must say. Worry not, though- I enjoyed it, of course. What would you like in return, I wonder? I shall take great pleasure in speculating the answer to that question."

Definitely more interesting than the 2023 one and his personality really comes out in the writing here. Though because of how his closeness to Yuu is characterized here I now feel like it would make more sense if this was the first card and the 2021 was the second one, since if you take the cards to be written in a chronological timeline it kinda feels like Malleus's closeness to Yuu regressed out of nowhere

Not saying people can't change or grow apart later on, but here it kinda has the vibe that he straight up hasn't met them much yet so its as if this was earlier into their relationship. Basically feels if Book 3-4 Malleus got the gift, while 2021 is like Book 6 and onwards Malleus getting the gift.

I really like this one both for the yuu crumbs and it's characterization of Malleus himself, but it's number 3 simply by default of me personally liking the next two more. The gap between it and 2023 is huge😭

2nd: 2024

Text: "To my good friend-

Thank you for your gift. Hmm... This fragrance is meant for pleasure and relaxation? What a tasteful choice. I rather like it; perhaps I shall take more of an interest in these things. You would be welcome to pay me a visit, by the way, should you feel so inclined. I would enjoy sharing an old tale or two."

These are probably the most fun design for the letter cards so far. I think after last year (the 2023 one) they realized they really did run out of ideas for box shaped letters lol.

In general I just like the very sweet and casual friendship implied in this card. As usual he is doing everything in his power to invite Yuu to his place at any given opportunity. Cute how when they hang out they'll tell each other chismis stories, and that Malleus is gonna commit to getting into something just because Yuu gifted it to him. TLDR he's very comfortable around Yuu here that's awesome

1st: 2021

Text: "Dearest,

My thanks for such a truly wonderful present. It is only fitting that I should give you something in return. How about the gift of beauty? Perhaps the gift of song? Or... Well, never mind. Just a joke based on the legends, you know. I shall give you something I picked out myself."

I don't really think anything will ever fully top this one tbh. The greeting just being "Dearest" was so powerful they had to pull bro to the side and tell him to tone it down for the next 3 years🥀

The "gift of beauty song or..." lines can be taken as just him being 3 seconds away from jumping to smooch Yuu (given in the movie the last gift was true loves kiss related after maleficent cursed the baby) which is honestly kinda funny. Down bad /j

Ok back to the main point and minus speculations. This is tied with the 2024 one with showing how close and comfortable (shown by how forward and playful he is here no concern of maintaing image or such) this point of his relationship with Yuu is. This is also the card where he feels the most excited and energetic I guess which is why it's still my overall favorite. Displex had no choice contain the raw Malleyuu power in this one to avoid bias accusations idk

If you want to read into it more I think it's also kinda funny that this could lowkey be taken as him saying we suck at singing/look ugly. And the reason he stopped before revealing the last line is because he realize the joke had already come off as insulting to a human not familiar with the Briar Valley even if his intention was just to be playful as friends do.

Although that would be consistent with the characterization of Malleus as being honest if anyone's performance in something (even Yuu from what we see in voicelines) is lackluster.

He is constructive tho. In these same voicelines usually offers to help teach them to get better and acknowledging it as a feat/compliment itself when they slightly improve, instead of the fanon characterization (usually for masterchef comics) that once he finds out Yuu is behind something he will autonomatically just see it as good quality already.

So yeah idk that's nice and awesome

↑ Drive compiling of the rest of the 2024 Valentines letter pics I found on twitter. There's still some characters missing + trying to look for a clearer picture of the Malleus one lol

[kneelingshadowsalome]

Hello! I’ve been back and forth on writing you this bc I’m nervous but eh fuck it, I have no shame. So first off, I just want to say that you, Salome, are an absolutely stunning and brilliant writer. As someone who majored in classical studies in college, I was completely blown away by Fatum Nos Iungebit. The world you built was so deeply immersive and characterization of König, in that story as well as your other headcanons, is perfect. For the past week or so, I’m going to be honest, I’ve been going through your blog because I’ve been so hungry for more and the only reason I haven’t interacted more is that 1. I don’t wanna feel like a creep and 2. I was so scared of you blocking me for ‘’spam-liking” or whatever. I can assure you that I am a real person and I’ve been enjoying everything I’ve seen. I came across one concept however, that definitely got my neurons firing and that’s the idea of belly dancer reader x könig and I have some thoughts I wanted to share with you if that’s okay. :)

So I’ve been a belly dancer for almost a decade (I actually celebrate my ten year anniversary next year!). I was part of a belly dance performance troupe at my old university and I currently dance with a studio in my new city. It’s genuinely one of the great passions of my life. I’ve performed at all kinds of venues and for all different occasions from festivals to galas to charity events to hookah bars, so I definitely have some performing experience under my belt, well as what audiences are like. So when I saw the idea of König being mesmerized by a dancer at a wedding, I went !!!

I want to add the caveat that this is based on my experience as a dancer living in the US, and while I’ve performed for SWANA audiences (which is always an amazing experience 🥰) and non-SWANA audiences, I can’t speak for what it’s like in other countries. So, in my ✨personal✨ experience as a belly dancer going on a decade, it’s pretty rare that men will approach dancers during or after a performance—especially to actively hit on her. And believe it or not, it’s because many of them are actually intimidated! I have seen the most seemingly cockiest, proudest men just stare blankly and stand back while we do our thing. If anything, it’s usually women who approach us, gushing about our performances or asking where they can take classes and stuff. Women tend to be the first ones to get up and dance with us, shower us with tips, etc. (again, very much my personal experience as someone living in the US). When it comes to more family-friendly events like weddings and stuff, we also get a lot of kids approaching and that’s always so adorable and sweet—especially when the little babies think we’re princesses. 😭

So back to König, especially Y!König. 😈 he’s at the wedding. He’s mopey. He’s picking at his plate of chicken and rice. He’s happy for his friend and his bride, but a little bitter and jealous that he’ll never get to be that happy. Then, a mejance (essentially an entrance/overture piece of music) swells over the speakers and out comes the dancer, adorned in an Irina Sheyner number (she’s an absolutely STUNNING costume designer, plsplsplsPLS look her up 😭), veil flying behind her. She does her mejance, a drum solo, and at some point…she does a sword number. The level of control she has to be able to balance the sword on her head in impressive, but König can’t help but imagine what it would be like for to dance wielding his knives in hand. Finally, dancer opens up the floor and in typical faction brings out the bride and groom to dance with her, and then most of the other guests follow. Not König though. He hangs back and watches as this beautiful dancer holds the guests in the palm of her hand. Gone is the cocky, brutal soldier, and only the shy, anxious boy remains, the one who would always be left out of games at recess and who wasn’t invited to birthday parties. König has never been the dancing type, but he can’t even bring himself to offer her a few of the banknotes or dollars or whatever currency he’s using. He just stares, and she’s completely oblivious.

A while later, he’s getting ready to leave, when he spots Dancer. Her makeup and hair still done up, but she’s now fully cloaked and awkwardly lugging her suitcase and bags full of props and other equipment across the poorly paved parking lot. König zeroes in on her and before he knows it, he’s approaching her, asking her if she needs help carrying her stuff. Dancer, surprised but this gigantic man suddenly appearing before her, flashes a winning smile at him and says he can. König easily lugs the stuff to Dancer’s car. She thanks him profusely and just like that, she drives away.

It’s only a few hours later that the obsession starts to creep in. König, who’s ordinarily not a big social media user, is now checking the feeds and stories of his friends who attended the wedding. Finally, he comes across one friend who posted a video of themself with the dancer and tagged her Instagram. König can’t click on it fast enough and suddenly, he’s greeted by dozens of images and photos of Dancer. Some are adorably mundane. He finds out that Dancer teaches classes at a studio nearby, and some of the videos consist of dancer teaching basic moves to the camera. There are other videos of her at the local hookah bar, where she performs on a regular basis. König sees one particularly video of Dancer doing a piece of floor work, that same sword balanced proudly on her head as she’s propped back on her arms, her gorgeous hips undulating toward the sky. König feels a dark wave of heat wash over him. He jokingly thinks to himself that maybe he should take up hookah. But one thing is for certain, she’s going to be his one day. He’ll just have to be sneaky about it, subtle.

He clicks the follow button on Dancer’s instagram. She has a few thousand followers. Surely she can’t notice one faceless profile, right? 😈😈😈😈😈😈

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. I know you’re taking a break from fics but if you see this I want you to know you’re an amazing writer. Lots of love! 💖💖💖💖

Ughhh and another lovely soul 😭💗 I don't know what's going on in here this week but both you and anon have really made my heart swell!

And please please please, spam liking is never frowned upon here (I don't know why anyone would block someone who's clearly not a bot for loving your stuff?!) It's such a delight if I see that someone has liked a ton of things instead of just one. It's the highest compliment and praise! ❤️🥺

And your bellydancer prompt/drabble is so mouthwatering, god. If I'm being honest, I'd read whatever you wrote for this thing in a hot minute because you have the skill and you've done the research (an actual bellydancer in my inbox?! Ok Salome try not to be a creep) and the premise is just. GAH. So good, especially with yandere König! ❤️❤️❤️

I have to reveal I wrote like 8 chapters of a story relatively close to this in the fall: Stalker!König obsessing about reader, invading her DMs on Instagram and literally stalking her. She's not a bellydancer, but damn if I didn't think about changing her into one... :) The story is on hold for now, but here is a little snippet as a thank you gift!

CW: Yandere/Stalker!König, harassing, obsessive behavior

I’m sorry, Liebling. You were too beautiful yesterday. I got carried away.

You wake up just to see that your phone is full of messages. From him, of course. He’s created another account on Instagram.

I’m just a man.

You ignore it altogether, even if there’s messages and emails from other people too. You simply go to brush your teeth, hearing how the phone buzzes on your desk.

I know it was disrespectful. I could never call my wife that. Will you forgive me?

You sigh and finish with your morning routine, but the phone buzzes again.

I sent you flowers. Did you get them?

It’s like he knows when you’re awake, because you can see the messages from your screen without having to unlock it. Even if he refreshed your conversation every minute, every second, he can’t possibly see that you’ve seen them yet.

It bugs you to no end, this feeling that he somehow knows that you’re awake. It’s like he knows your every move. It’s the most unnerving thing, and makes you think about horrible scenarios where he has broken into your house while you’re at work, to install cameras or microphones or something. You feel like you’re about to go mad if this nightmare goes on.

You go to the front door, but hesitate a while before you turn the knob.

What if it’s a trap?

What if he wants to kill you because you yelled at him last night at the pub...? What if there’s a bomb or something that goes off when you open the door, what if he aims at you with a gun from across the street and kills you on your doorstep this morning?

Just what the actual fuck does this guy even want with you...

You sigh with a broken heart and some broken nerves, deciding it’s as good a way to go as any. You turn the knob and open the door, only to find the usual porch, and a large bouquet of dark red roses planted there.

More ice sinks into your stomach as you witness the evidence of him knowing where you live. But the fact that he chose to send red roses… Ugh, this guy is so old-fashioned and so unimpressive that it’s somewhat a dull surprise to actually see flowers on that porch.

Who buys red roses these days?

Couldn’t he have picked peonies or something, something to go with your other decor… Red roses are so eighties, so funeral-like, so boring.

You sigh and go and take the flowers to the trash. Then you walk back to your house, make sure the door is locked tight, and go back to your phone to type a message.

Did you see that?

The answer arrives immediately.

What? ❤️

I threw your flowers in the trash.

There’s bit of a pause after that. Your wannabe boyfriend clearly hasn’t got his eye on you at every given moment. That’s a bit of a surprise, almost a disappointment, actually. But only if you were any more crazy.

The reply comes after about 30 seconds, after a series of Typing… bumping up and down on the screen.

I’m sad.

You get some satisfaction from that, but the first reaction is a tiny, tiny dagger to the heart. You sigh – you do nothing but sigh these days – not only because of his message, but also because you can’t seriously be having a moment of compassion for your stalker, for god's sake.

You make me sad, Liebling 💔 Are you still angry with me?

You throw the phone away and go to make yourself some breakfast, only to stop and turn when you hear the phone buzz again.

I’ll send you more flowers.

Jesus…

You unlock the screen in a frenzy and type a reply in mere seconds.

Don’t bother. I’ll throw them in the bin too.

Typing…

You have to keep them at some point. Trash bins get full so soon.

STOP HARASSING ME.

You throw the phone away for good this time, and don’t come back to it for another hour. You eat your breakfast with squirming insides and a rattled heart, waiting for someone to come bring you flowers at any given moment.

But no one ever comes.

You check your phone before going to work, but there’s nothing from him there. You go and block his new profile, unsurprised to see that there are no pictures this time, not even a profile picture (well, there is one, but it’s only a black circle), just in case. You don’t know why you didn’t block him in the first place.

There’s a radio silence for a few days. You spend them at the edge of your seat, with lots of trouble sleeping, but soon start to ease into the fact that maybe he finally had enough. Maybe you were not as interesting or attractive as he thought when he met you in person…

Wait, what?

Gosh, you can’t be this desperate... You simply can’t. This has to end.

You don’t talk about him in therapy, mainly to convince yourself that you’re not thinking about him at all. You’re not missing him harassing and stalking you, and you’re not disappointed that he didn’t send you enough flowers to fill your entire bin.

You know you should address this: this crazy need to be something groundbreaking to someone. To want someone to be this obsessed with you, no matter how sick that someone was. You know you would have gone to the police if your stalker was the sleazy, weak-wristed man from the pub. You would’ve packed your bags and moved houses already, changed your name and closed your social media accounts, quit everything if your stalker was small and ugly and weak.

But now that you know he’s relatively good-looking, does something dangerous and has a lot of money, and looks like he could fuck and fight half the city by himself, you’re not in that much of a hurry to go to the authorities.

You’re even a bit sad that your stalker hasn’t given you any fevered attention these past few days... He hasn’t even asked you how you’ve been.

No one has asked you how you’ve been: no one ever does. You have to wade through this life all by yourself: depressed and anxious and crazy. Lonely… And horny.

Gods, you just want someone to hold you at night… Someone strong, and big, someone who would pay a few bills for you, take care of you and give you a round of good sex…

Your phone buzzes from time to time, but there’s no message from him. One night before going to sleep, relatively early, so early that it could be called the bedtime for old spinsters, you break down and cry a little. It’s not a wail: only a soft little sob, a few sniffles and a couple of tears until your nose gets clogged and the pillow is wet.

Your phone buzzes, and you reach for it, feeling so, so pathetic when you hope it would be him.

And the message is from him.

You’re the most beautiful woman on this earth. I know I fucked up. I’m just a horny dog and I don’t deserve you.

You sniffle and rise to sit, your whole system fully awake now. Oh god... You’re so fucked.

The message makes you feel incredibly good and sweet, almost giddy. It feels like he’s kneeled right there in front of you, like a knight who has misbehaved in the throes of his lust. You know it’s ridiculous, but you start to smile a little, and the tears dry on their own. The merry feeling is followed by righteous rage, a little fit, because he’s made you wait for days, he’s tortured you in every way possible, and he does absolutely nothing right.

You unlock the screen and start to type, not thinking it through at all before hitting send.

That’s right.

Fuck… Shit. That was a mistake. No, a huge error.

Why did you have to send that? Stooping to his level, sending stupid things like that…

You put the phone away quickly, then reach for it again to delete what you just send. But it’s too late.

I can be a good dog if you forgive me.

The message is waiting for you already, and when you don’t reply, the oppressive, ominous Typing… hits on the screen once more. God, how could you be so stupid…

I’ll kill anyone you need me to kill. I'll give you money, whatever you need. A new kitchen so you can cook me something nice? I’ll be a good dog, I promise.

What did you even expect?

Everything always blows up when you give him attention: any dumb person knows better than to give this hungry dog a bone. You’re just too fond of digging your own grave, it seems.

There’s no end to the messages: this guy starts typing a new one every time he has sent the last.

I’ll fuck you like a good dog too….

You lean your forehead to your palm, trying to figure out a way to stop this.

And then–

Fuck, now I’m hard

You take a quick breath of air and put the phone away.

Please don’t send a dick pic, please don’t send a dick pic…

The phone buzzes.

Look how hard you make me

There’s a picture attached, but you can’t see it when the screen is locked.

This is what I have to live with, day and night…

Message after message, your phone buzzes, and you check them quickly from your screen, swearing to yourself that you’re not going to give him the satisfaction of opening the conversation and checking the image he sent you. You know perfectly well what you will find if you do that.

But after only a minute or two, you unlock the phone, and open the conversation with your heart ramming in your chest.

Just one quick look...

[celestie0]

Hii! This is my first time messaging any fanfic author (I'm an extremely anxious person and tend to be more of a lurker LOL) I'm so sorry but this might be a long one lmfao

First of all, the way you write in general? Absolutely phenomenal!! The way you characterise and describe scenes is honestly so incredibly immersing. I've always had a relatively easy time imagining scenes in my head when reading, even with relatively little detail, but the way you word everything puts the scene straight into my head and it's such a wonderful experience!

Your characterisation of Gojo (in all your works!!) is probably my absolute favourite out of any fanfics I've read of him (trust me I've read an embarrassing amount :sob:). The way you actually capture what he feels like in canon, without making him feel super mean or cold, but still retaining that side of being emotionally repressed is absolutely chefs kiss!!

I also really love y/n in both kickoff and ihm so much. I relate to both of them in different ways, but probably more so ihm reader personality wise (might also be because I'm around the same age as her lmao). As someone who is very emotionally repressed due to trauma (especially of loved ones leaving you), the way you've portrayed those sides of reader in ihm is VERY spot on!! And I would like to add that I, for one, LOVE slow burn, so I don't mind the pace ihm is going at right now personally!

Chapter 12 of Kickoff?!?!? Holy shit I was literally sat there blushing, kicking my feet and giggling. It was absolutely hilarious and super cliché in the absolutely best way possible (I absolutely love clichés if they're well used!)

I could honestly wait years for anything you write. Never feel any pressure to churn out your writing and take it at your own pace!! My genuine first thought after finishing the latest chapter of Kickoff was that it was sooo worth the wait haha.

Personally I have an extremely hard time writing anything but angst, because I like making myself sad I guess who knows LOL But I'm sooo excited about your next work!! I absolutely love the song you're basing it off of <3

AND did I also see some talk about a potential Spider-man Gojo fic in the future??? Cos I would honestly probably scream (in a good way lol) if you ever did that, he's my alltime favourite superhero!!

Okok this is getting really long, but I found this photo of four football players a bit ago and thought I absolutely HAD to draw them as Gojo, Geto, Choso and Nanami from Kickoff (adding the art at the bottom)! But I haven't gotten around to colouring it yet (or cleaning it up considering it's just a sketch lmaoo) cos I'm stuck on how to do the jerseys. So I have two questions! I know you've explained the colours of their jerseys, but do you have any particular idea in mind of what the design on the jersey itself looks like? As in where the colours are placed specifically etc? And we know Gojo's signature jersey number, but do you have numbers for the rest of them too? (I may or may not also have a wip of a drawing of just Gojo from Kickoff too!)

I'm sorry there's A LOT of different plot points in my message??? The most important part was just to convey, hey, I love the way you write and you should definitely give yourself some more credit cos you are genuinely a really good writer!! <3 (Though I know us artists tend to be our own worst critics LOL)

hi love i’m so sorry this took me a sec to respond to!! first off thanks you so much for sending me such a sweet ask :’’’) i literally gaspeddd when i saw it

aaa i’m so happy the scenes feel immersive!! and that you enjoy my characterization of gojo aaa i’m so happy to hear that. and yes i totally relate to ihm reader’s suppression of her emotions due to trauma and lack of trust so it’s been very…cathartic yet challenging to write for her, but i wouldn’t have it any other way hahah

i’m so glad you enjoyed kickoff ch12!! i totally agree that chapter was so cliche, honestly it made me cringe while i was writing it because i typically hate cliches esp when they’re corny rather than on-the-nose, but i posted it anyways bc i figured maybe i just hate it bc i’m the author xd but it seems my readers enjoyed it so :’’0 perhaps i made the right choice

oh you are too kind. i really appreciate you looking out for me <3 tbh i’ve been feeling really overwhelmed lately, and it’s been really hard to deal with the emotions, but coming on here and seeing sweet works n ppl interacting w my stories brings me lots of happiness n i can’t thank you enough :’’) yes i will definitely take my time bahahha that i can assure you LOL and i’m so happy to know you’re looking forward to more of my works!! you’re so right about artists/authors being our own worst critics. i swear no one has been as mean to my writing as i have LMFAOOO but alas i think i’ve gotten better in trusting my direction n kinda choosing what i think is best soooo. progress i suppose? hahah

ok. now. i can talk about. THE ART?!?!?!?!? HELLO!!!!!!! OH MY GODD?!?!!?!?! ok i KNOWWW that’s it’s just a sketch so far but tell me whERE MY PANTIES HAVE GONE?!?!?!? WHERE MY CLOTHES ARE AT?!?!??!

the expression on kickoff gojo’s face has me reeling he looks so focused n sexy and THE HEADBAND PUSHING HIS HAIR UP OUT OF HIS FACE YES YES YES 100% THAT’S HOW I PICTURE IT WHEN I WRITE AAA and kickoff geto’s expression too pls i could cum (sorry i hope this isn’t weird to say lmfaooo i am also very respectfully looking at your artwork as well aaa) nanami’s hair looks so nice too

as for the uniforms hmm i know i said like gold and blue colors, i believe actual real-life UTOKYO has more of a yellowish color but i actually like gold better hence why i chose gold. but…i can imagine the whole jersey being blue and then with gold accents then white numbering?

here are some options!! like w the first one, probs sky blue fabric with the white stripes as gold instead, and then the numbers/brand sponsors or whatever are in white? they would probs have like “UTOKYO” in large print somewhere too, maybe underneath their numbers or sumn. tbh i think the middle one is the nicest, i can picture the stripes of blue and gold, and then accents in white. but the third one also works too!!

as for numbers hmm. ok yes gojo is #10, geto is #7, choso is #4 and nanami is #24 :0 that sounds…about right! LOL i hope i don’t have it somewhere in the other chapters that they are different numbers although i don’t think i’ve assigned the other boys numbers before

BUT I HOPE THIS HELPS AND THANKS SOSOSOSOSOSO MUCH FOR DRAWING FANART INSPIRED BY MY FIC!!!! I AM SO HUMBLED BY YOU AND I’M SOOOO EXCITED TO SEE THE FINAL DRAWING BUT ALSO NO PRESSURE AAAAAAAA

so much loveee <333

[linkspooky]

Adding to my earlier question, I’d love to ask your thoughts on cyborg in teen titans. And why he’s a important member of teen titans. (Example-Like how you talk about how Donna plays a important role as sort of babysitter)

Thank you for the ask! This was actually a long time in the making, because Cyborg is one of my favorite Teen Titans and I wanted to do him justice. I know I tend to talk about Raven and Terra more, but that's only because I think Cyborg is probably the most nuanced of the early Teen Titans so he requires a lot more effort to explain the nuances of his character.

Anyway Cyborg is a TEEN TITANS character his relationship with the group is important to his characterization, and you can't really throw him in other groups because of that.

I'll talk about why, underneath the cut.

So Cyborg's story is based off the story of Frankenstein, it's even in his name. Victor Stone, if you know German Stone = Stein. Cyborg's entire character is written around how society treats the outcast, and he's heavily influenced by the rejection he has faced by his society especially at the start of his arc where he meets the Titans.

There's two things immediately apparent about Cyborg, he's black, and he's disabled. It's visible in his original character design, half of his face is metal. Both of these things have had a pretty big influence on his life. The Teen Titans cartoon chose to focus only on the disabled aspect of his character, which was a bad choice but this is about the comics not the cartoon.

Cyborg's race had more of an influence in his early life and backstory then in the pages of New Teen Titans itself, but it's still there. The biggest aspect is Cyborg has two heavily successful scientist parents who are both black, and because of that Cyborg has been pressured his entire life to be successful in whatever field he is in too. When he was young he was even pulled out of public school for awhile and given private teachers because both of his parents noticed he was a highly intelligent child and wanted to nurture his "genius."

This resulted in two things, number one Cyborg was never really allowed to make mistakes by his parents because they were constantly afraid of him becoming "one of the bad kids."

Cyborg's relationship with his parents is also more complex than I can properly give time for in one meta, but while they are controlling it's not like they're outright abusive. Their intentions are good they want their kid to be happy, and be a success in life, but they do make concessions for Cyborg and listen to him when they realize they've made mistakes or push too far. It's a very normal conflict to have with your parents, your parents think one thing they're doing is best for you and try to take your choices away to push you towards that route because they thnik it will make you happy instead of listening to what you want.

Number two is Cyborg's never really been allowed to just, exist as his own person. His parents both wanted him to be a scientist, and when he showed an early aptitude for it they pushed him in that direction instead of listening to what he wanted. They did relent somewhat by letting him go back to public school, but when Cyborg wanted to go to college they refused to pay for it again unless he went into the field of science.

When Cyborg wanted to be an athlete and go into sports, he couldn't just enjoy them he had to excel at them and be the best of the best and earn a scholarship. So already before the accident which made him Cyborg, he's not really accepted by the people around him for WHO HE IS. He's not really allowed to just be Victor Stone, and Cyborg feels this rejection from everyone, from both of his parents, from the society around him (being treated differently because he was black is a part of his characterization) and as a result he's kind of left one, pretty directionless in his life, and two angry.

As someone who's never really been accepted for who he is, even by his parents, Cyborg doesn't really know what he wants in life. He's always defined himself by his rebellion for what his parents want out of him. He chose sports because his parents wanted him to be a scientist, but even after excelling at sports, the anger he feels at his rejection doesn't really go away.

Cyborg's already kind of lost in life and then the accident happens. Cyborg being half-robot is a metaphor for the way disabled people are treated by society, and I'd say it averts the X-Men Fallacy, because Cyborg has prosthetics he needs to live which make him visibly disabled and people treat him differently because of it. If you are visibly disabled you will be treated differently by completely strangers on the street, and often treated very poorly.

Cyborg's girlfriend breaks up with him, every friend in his life leaves him, and there's nothing different about Cyborg really, he's just got visible prosthetics now. And this is all true to life people will treat you differently than they did when you are abled.

Cyborg has a lot of internalized hatred because of this. He loathes his prosthetics, and the body he is now stuck in and I'd say this is true to life because Cyborg doesn't naturally feel that way he was taught to hate himself by the way everyone around him treated him. He would not be struggling as hard as he does, if people had treated him better in his period of adjustment.

To mention the cartoon quickly, there's a scene in season 3 where he's infiltrating the HIVE, and he fights a version of himself that is a fully robot duplicate and Cyborg just completely beats it to death his his bare hands until it's in pieces. He wasn't acting there, that was Cyborg projecting his internal self-loathing onto an external target and then destroying him. These aren't the actions of a mentally healthy person.

Cyborg has cripplingly low-self esteem, sometimes even veering into suicidal ideation. He mentions that when he woke up he literally would have rather been dead, then to have survived by his father turning him into a robot. These are some pretty serious mental issues that Cyborg is constantly grappling with.

Which is why the Teen Titans are so important to his character, because they are the first friends he ever made who accepted him unconditionally. Cyborg's only ever experienced conditional love before this point, even this Tales of the Titans issue talks about how he fell out with a friend in his life that was only his friend when he completely unconditionally supported him and agreed with everything he said, even his more dangerous and destructive ideas.

While Donna is the babysitter, I believe Cyborg is the first person to recognize that the Teen Titans are a family, because he was the one explicitly looking for a home and a family to belong in. Donna, Dick and Wally already knew each other and they are childhood friends. Garfield had just lost a family and he felt like a tagalong kid for a lot of the early run. Starfire's narrative is an immigrant narrative so she similiar to Cyborg is looking for a new home in the same group.

(There's a lot of Cyborg and Starfire parallels you could elaborate on too, but once again that's for a different Meta).

One thing I like to point out about Cyborg is he wasn't really looking to be a super hero. Cyborg's just wanted to be normal his entire life. He was born a genius, but he wanted to go to public school. When he got robot prosthetics his first thought wasn't "Let's go fight Crime", he went through months of rehab first, and then just wanted to pass as normal.

Cyborg is a selfless guy, no doubt about it. There is a story in the comic where he finally receives experimental plastics that allow him to look normal while still having his cybernetic parts keep him alive. However, over the course of the story he ends up having to give them up, and nearly dying because of a situation where he selflessly stays to help rescue someone rather than just getting out of there. He has a heroic spirit, but he doesn't really WANT to be a hero, his desire has always been to just be normal, or at least be accepted for who he is.

Which is where his dynamic with the group comes in, Cyborg treats all of the eccentric and very diverse cast of the Titans like they are normal people. He's the normal friend. Which is actually really important because I said, Cyborg's one of the more nuanced characters, like yeah he's half robot but besides that he's just a black kid from the city.

Cyborg's actually one of the first people to reach out to Raven, and like go out of his way to try to make sure she's included in the group, and he even fondly calls her "Witch" after he learns to understand her better.

Cyborg's relationship with Beast Boy is also something that's an incredibly positive influence on BB, because while they are best friends I think fandom misinterprets their relationship a lot. Cyborg is constantly giving BB a hard time, they're like vitriolic best buds who like insulting each other. The reason for this though, is because Cyborg knows that BB is a kid who's always misbehaving and joking around and will never actually tell you what the problem is if there is one. Cyborg's hard on Beast Boy because he knows BB responds positively to it, if you take him seriously and be straightforward to him rather than just dismissing him as a joke.

Cyborg's the first one to view the Teen Titans as a family, and that's the most important aspect of the group to him, that's why he's a hero because it gives him a place where he can just be himself. He's the friendship guy, if this were a shonen manga he'd be talking about the power of his nakama.

Which is why the most important Cyborg comic ever, is JLA / Titans Technis Imperative. Towards the end of the original New Teen Titans run Cyborg merged with an entity known as Technis and left his friends to go to space. I kind of hated how they made him more of a robot towards the end, but it led to Technis Imperative which is my favorite comic of all time. What happens is essentially after drifting in space merged with entity, he becomes planet Cyberion and returns to earth. His desire to be back with the Titans is so strong, that he mobilizes an entire robot army to kidnap every single character that was ever a teen titans, and then imprison them in a virtual world designed to make them happy.

That's essentially how important the Titans are as a family to Victor, and how lost he would be without them. Cyborg once became so lonely he almost destroyed the planet trying to reunite his family together again, that's literally how important the Teen Titans are to him you really can't take them away without drastically changing his character.

On top of that Cyborg is also just a painfully human character. He's angry because he's been rejected so much. He's lonely because he feels like he can never truly belong. He's internalized a lot of negative things because of the environment around him, and feels like he is less than human. He's constantly talking about how he's half robot, but he's really not, he just needs prosthetics to keep him alive.

When he is at his absolute lowest points, he pretends to be an emotionless machine, but that's just because it's what he has been treated as. He's probably the most emotional and deeply loving of the titans, but he's terrible at expressing that because he's never been in an environment that's allowed for the healthy expression of his emotions except for when he was with the group. However, the flip side of this is because Cyborg knows what it's like to be rejected he can be deeply emotionally intelligent in regards to other people and goes out of his way to treat THEM like they're human.

If you're interested in more comics about his character, I suggest reading New Teen Titans first. He's also getting a new solo comic series which you can probably just pick up and read because it goes over his backstory, the first issue came out last Tuesday. His old backstory of being with the Teen Titans has been finally restored in canon which is something I'm pretty excited about.

[bagel-boy-sama]

Astarion Baldurs Gate 3 Isn't A TumblrSexyMan™, He's Just A SexyMan™

I've seen a large number of people, most of whom are in the Astarion Disliker/"I don't get it" camp most who are not on this particular hell site, cite Astarion as Tumblr's latest sexyman. Today, I will be explaining why I do not believe that to be the case. That instead, as the title states, he's just a sexyman.

No real knowledge of the hell site is required, I'll explain things for the new people.

Setting The Definitions

First, definitions because this is now Intro to Writing and Rhetoric. A sexyman would be anyone, usually masc or a man, who is concidered sexy by a wide range of people. Fascinating.

A Tumblr Sexyman, on the other hand, is a thing - usually fictional entity - that is incredibly popular on Tumblr.com to the degree it escapes it's fandom sometimes, in the most extreme of cases, becoming far more popular than it's original fandom. It is characterized by a few major characteristics. Ranging from Twinkism* (be it the character or fan interpretation), generally unconventionally/perceived to be unconventionally attractive in a non physical sense (character traits that wouldn't otherwise be desirable, like absurd behavior or generally evilness), to impeccable drip (either in the original media/design, or done by fans in fanart).

*note: Twinkism (which I did just throw in on the spot this is entirely bullshit for my own amusement) is the phenomenon of skinny, young looking, pretty/feminine white boys who are within media. This is different from twinks, who are understood to be young and skinny - being pretty, popular, or white is not connected. All those who participate in Twinkism are Twinks, but not all Twinks participate in Twinkism.

Does Astarion Baldurs Gate 3 Fit The Definition?

First rule: must be at least a twink. Is he?

No. Yes. Kinda. In a way. Many people would describe Astarion as someone who's gone through "Twink Death". No this is not because he's literally undead. Twink Death, in it's simplest form, is when a twink no longer looks young and/or feminine. Astarion has aged. His crows feet and laugh lines, while beautiful, do not make him look 18. For some this would disqualify him from being a Twink. So perhaps he has failed at the first step.

I, however, am not satisfied with that. Moving on, is Astarion - or would Astarion - actually be considered conventionally unattractive in any way that is disconnected from his appearance? I argue no. Vampires are considered very well, normal to lust after. They're right below succubus on the "This isn't considered weird to find attractive" scale. You aren't romancing The Emperor here. Outside of that he's well groomed, shown to be muscular in game (headcanon does often disagree and while I wish it was true we are working with facts for this specific discussion), and an elf. In personality, while not for everyone, he's the pretty standard fruity sarcastic gay who's a bit selfish. We all know a fruity sarcastic gay who's a bit selfish, and they get laid. So it can't be considered that bad. Probably.

I feel important to note here that I am aroace and have no idea what I'm talking about right now. This is an educated guess.

Astarion has lost now, two for two. He's barely a twink, even going off of his model he's more a twunk. He definitely doesn't fit the Twinkism phenomenon. He's not weird to find attractive, I assume, so what else is there? His drip? I'm sorry, but his base outfit is a bit well Goofy to say the least. Much fanart leaves him in this outfit or a simpler version because drawing ruffles is enough to make anyone want to willingly jump headfirst into the underdark, so he fails the drip test as well.

His final hurtle: is his popularity Tumblr™. In this context Tumblr™ is different from Tumblr. Tumblr™ is the fandom side, where a sexyman would flourish and find their own fandom. Importantly, this fandom needs to be very insular to the site. It's a *Tumblr* sexyman after all. So that begs the question, is Astarion highly liked by mostly or purely Tumblr people/those who have the vibes of a Tumblr user? No.

Astarion is well loved by many people of various vibes. He has affected (previously) straight men on Reddit. Few can escape him and his 10 charisma.

Conclusion

Astarion is just a sexyman. He's just a fictional character that many think is neat and attractive for a variety of reasons. He's the Ryan Reynolds of crpgs. He's some dude, who's generally considered attractive by a lot of people who you both would and wouldn't expect to find him attractive.

[ru5t]

(Tech's Annotated) Map of The Zones

There is an official/presumably canon map that was created and circulated around the time of the music videos (viewable here). However, after playing around in this sandbox it quickly feels deeply and entirely too small (the city only around 3 miles across, and then around 15 miles from the city to the edge of the zones — it's simply not enough space) for all of the madness going on inside of it. So here's the headcanon/blog canon version of things!

The zones of the west coast center over Battery City, and are roughly 300 miles in diameter, making for over 30,000 square miles of potentially habitable ground.

Note: "Old world" locations visible purely for irl reference, the city names wouldn't still be in wide use or marked on an official map. The annotations are approximations in some cases, based on info I got from people who made up the locations — if it belongs to you and you're thinking 'hey that's not where that is' please let me know! I will scooch. I absolutely recommend opening this in another tab for better viewing, as it is massive and maybe slightly unreadable at tumblr dimensions. (Oops.)

The roads -some old, some new- are generally passable, but many are very rough. Detours are common as the desert, and killjoys, shift obstacles around. Moving straight east from the city, it would take a person about 5 days to get to the edge of zone 06 on foot, 1-2 days on a bike, 6-8 hours by motorized vehicle, and less than 2 hours by helicopter. Since Better Living patrols are almost never moving in a direct line unless they're hunting specific quarry, they tend to pack heavy, and take multi-day or multi-week patrols that sweep the zones, looking for 'rescues' to make and hostile settlements to squash. There are also a number of Better Living outposts in the inner zones: permanent encampments where employees are left to watch over particularly desirable or troublesome locations, such as the robotic dumping grounds in southern zone 02, and the borders of the annex.

A lot of the livable area is characterized as desert or steppe, partly due to the regions natural inclinations, partly due to the environmental devastation wrought by the wars. To the west and south, the old coastline now marks the start of the salt flats: empty stretches of ground that end at the current coastline some miles out from where it once was, turning the former channel islands into a spattering of rocky, mountain-esqe outcrops surrounded by hard, packed earth too salty to bear much life. Many settlements and travelers prefer the north and east, where the terrain protected some of the valleys and so echoes of the forests and other natural resources remain — as well as echoes of the wildlife. To the south(east), conditions start dry and get drier, providing massive challenge to anyone who doesn't know the way to carve out safety and make use of the weather.

BATTERY CITY

Ten miles in diameter, closed off by a barrier wall with fixed entry points, all of which are heavily monitored.

Battery City is a self-contained and somewhat* self-sufficient city. In the early days -before they built the walls- the plan was always to expand, crawl outward and establish a new world from the rubble of the old. However, conflict with early rebels led to the division of city from 'zones', and the heads of the corporation at the time chose a ten mile diameter to lock behind their main wall. Largely prevented from expanding and lacking the room for urban sprawl, the city has gone vertical to keep up with the demands of its population. Buildings and entire block levels extend both up and down, in sky scrapers as well as some subterranean levels (the latter of which are mostly used for synthetic farming and detainment.) Rather than divide by production, the city is designed so that, in the event of failure or invasion, no one zone of it can be commandeered to cut off the rest. Factories and power plants are interspersed with dwellings and other means of production, and the divides dictate the city's class system more than occupation. The outer wall is dozens of feet thick; the only roads in and out are tunnels guarded around the clock by S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W task force. For more detailed city notes [I will make another post which I will come back and link here.]

It can be easy for things to seem small, with the city so dwarfed by the zones as it is on this map, but the city inside the wall alone covers roughly 320 square miles of land [compared to L.A. (503), New York (469) or Chicago (234)] and hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people live in Battery City. Many of them are descendant of people who never left, and the walls went up around them; many others migrated there, in out of the wild and destruction. Of the three remaining (official) settlements in the US, Battery City has the largest civilian population.

*Battery City does do its own farming, but is supplemented by resources from Fort FISK and the Fishery, another Better Living establishment in the southern US. In a crisis situation where FISK was unable to send supplies, the city could sustain without lifestyle changes for approximately five years.

ZONE 01

Ten mile wide band around the city, marked and separated from the other zones by a series of border walls and fences. Regularly patrolled.

There are many buildings, most of them crumbling, that were once urban sprawl and the suburbs. Thanks to the city's tampering with the weather, zone 01 shares most of the benefits, and can rely on slightly lower temperatures, regular safe rainfall, and even a four-season year (while the outer zones tend to have more like two seasons, dry and wet.)

Despite the city's attempts to section it off from the other zones, 01's borders aren't secure, and a small number of killjoys regularly move through the wreckage of the area. These are the most hostile and often least recognized killjoys — extremists even by the standards of arguably violent killjoy culture. They launch attacks on the city, the walls and patrols and citizens alike, and keep the rubble of the suburbs too unstable for the city to continue to expand. Many die young and unrecognized.

Zone 01 also contains the city's two expansions, as acquired in 2020: the Neon District and the Annex. The Annex is largely agricultural in nature, a proto-version of the much smaller greenhouses the city tried to establish in later years. The Neon District is an expansion of the outer city, mostly containing civilian dwelling. Where once the slums and Neon were the same, now the slums are at least inside the main wall, and Neon has become adjacent to the city. Neon houses almost exclusively registered neutrals, many of whom commute into the city to do undesirable jobs for low pay. On BL/ind paperwork, the Neon District is both a neighborhood in the zones and the expanded dwelling, but among citizens, the Neon District "Slums" of the city and the district's expansion, "Neon", are different places entirely. [Also more details for this in the city post.]

ZONE 02

Fifteen mile wide band around zone 01, marked off in some places by (often unmaintained) border fences. Regularly patrolled.

As in zone 01, what remains of the old world's sprawling boroughs make up most of the landmarks, though here in zone 02 they're less stable. More spread out, and prone to one day shaking apart for no entirely clear reason. The landscape begins to shift in the north and northeast, turning hilly. The city's weather control effects taper off within this zone, so that the inside mirrors a lot of zone 01's weather, while the outer sections reflect more of the desert. Overall, the two often clash, and weather in zone 02 changes at the drop of a hat. It's rarely dangerous in and of itself (typically no acid rain or poisonous fogs) but the speed and frequency of the changes make attempts to travel through and settle in zone 02.... interesting.

Scattered around zone 02, amidst the crumbling infrastructure, there are both Better Living outposts, where patrols sent out from the city stop or bed down, as well as some more permanent installments. The unlucky are sometimes shipped out for a few weeks at a time to man these watch points, such as the Better Living building that overlooks the robotics dumping ground south of the city, just beyond the old coastline. Just as equally, there are killjoy encampments dotted across the zone, populated like a forward front, often taking in anyone who manages to escape the city, and serving as an early warning system to the rest of the zones. Zone 02 is often considered a "buffer" zone: too chaotic for the city to really want it, but too valuable to leave untouched — too controlled and close for the killjoys to claim it, but too dangerous to let it be absorbed. Thusly, it sits as something of a no-man's land, and is arguably the most dangerous part of crossing the zones in either direction.

That is, it's the most likely place to get killed by a person in the name of the grand conflict, anyhow.

ZONE 03

Twenty mile wide band around zone 02. Occasionally patrolled.

Many of the old buildings are gone, dusted away by the bombs of the wars or scorched up by the fires or crumbled away in the time since. Those left are the most sturdy, or else the ones rebuilt by dedicated zone dwellers. There's a few old neighborhoods, but mostly things aren't so closely or neatly laid out as the old-world neighborhoods used to be. Weather takes a turn for heat and dust and desperation: desert standard from here out.

As the beginning of proper killjoy territory, zone 03 is the most densely populated, and what most people think of when they're imagining the chaos of large groups and the vibrant party scene. Despite a decent number of permanent settlements, Better Living patrols don't sweep though very often, in part because they almost never find any actual killjoys, only the signs of life. (The rest, because it's simply too large and push back is too strong for the company to dedicate the resources to trying to lock it down.) Rebels living in 03 are heavily interconnected, and experts at avoiding patrols. With a whole system of bells and whistles and warning phrases, entire trading grounds empty in minutes ahead of patrol warnings only to go right back to their dealings the moment the coast is clear.

Popular destinations include Tommy Chow Mein's place, an old motel repurposed into a trading market in the east, Regal Riotess's Battlegrounds, a sparring and entertainment venue in the north, and the Hyper Thrust, a club and musical venue to the south. The Sun Sandbox, a music and event venue famous for its reflective quality, shines out in the west here. Many other traders center themselves in 03, coordinating into pop-up markets or setting up more permanent locations -such as the Wind Stop on the fence to the northeast- as killjoy movements across the zone support or demand.

ZONE 04

Twenty-five mile wide band around zone 03. Rarely patrolled.

Another fairly populated zone, though things spread out as the terrain and crumbling structures demand and groups become more distinguished. Drier, often flatter terrain means dust storms pick up in frequency here, and, though rainfall is typically sparse, flash floods run the risk of sweeping straight over things without much obstacle when they pour down out of the ridges in the northwest.

As opposed to the tight-knit nest network of zone 03, groups in zone 04 tend to be more distinct from and less trusting of each other. Turf disputes aren't entirely uncommon, though conflicting groups usually prefer boxing rings (one 'champion' from either crew battling it out) over all out brawls. Growing distances between settlements means radio contact becomes more important. It's thought, though it hasn't been proven, that Dr. Death runs the WKIL out of zone 04. Better Living patrols only ever cross into zone 04 if they're on the hunt for a specific target, and as such they're usually more hunting parties (colloquial "murders") than route 'patrol' parties.

04 houses a diverse mix of groups and locations: the infamous Fabulous Four's Diner sits to the north, while in the east a neutral settlement, Jasper, has planted their roots into an old lake bed. There's a little less of the party scene here, but it includes the Fuck You!!!! House, an establishment that promises bloodshed every evening, one way or another, and out in the flats there's Electric Starlight, part bar for their regulars who dwell around the old Channel Islands, part destination venue for the massive rave-like parties and shows that take place there as often as can be put together by the owner.

ZONE 05

Thirty mile wide band around zone 04. No patrol schedule.

Ambient radiation levels are a touch higher in zone 05, and pockets of danger exist that travelers and those trying to tame the outer zones should be wary of. Rainfall also takes a turn for the worst, as it becomes more common for it to be toxic to consume and/or cause burns to exposed skin from this point further (a happening not impossible but more rare, in the inner zones.)

To go with growing environmental dangers, there's a sharp drop-off in cooperation around this zone too. Groups tend to be less generous with their supplies, and while the waves remain a vital tool for communication and keeping ahead of things, crews that come face to face aren't likely to trust each other very much, if at all. The stakes are simply too high, the margin for error too narrow. Bad news is all too common: contract killers and more radical groups are easier to find, and easier to bump into.

Somewhere near or perhaps even within the Dead Zone to the northeast, a particularly vile and violent group of DESTROYA worshipers has set up permanent residence. They journey out from whatever base they have to attack others, city and zones alike, without prejudice. They're known to descend on churches or shrines of other desert deities with greater regularity and more demonstrative end results, but won't say no to fucking anyone up just for fun. The wise give them a wide berth, and heavily vet individuals who might only be posing as lost and looking for help...

ZONE 06

Thirty-five mile wide band around zone 05. No patrol schedule.

Sights include sprawling vistas of desert skies and plenty of odd happenings, but not much else goes on in 06 on the regular. The terrain gets tougher, less tame and more churned apart by the wars and the rattling of the ground since. Radiation ticks up a little higher, and the places where it really clings will have an unwary journeyer dizzy and good-as-dead before they can even guess what's going on. It's easy to stumble into a gruesome death, out here.

Many zone dwellers don't go this far. Those who do are often the spiritual (or crazy) type, drawn by the odd sightings and phenomena such as lights in the sky, voices in the air, and landmarks that move. Any of it may or may not be real, depending on which story gets told and who is doing the telling. The other dustkids who travel through 06 are typically only there to pass along messages:

Several churches to various zone deities are tucked away here and there, ready to welcome the lost or, in the case of the unmanned shrines, offerings to the likes of Papa Sol and the Phoenix Witch. The mailbox sits in a little valley due east, and marks the outside border of the zones — "the end of the world".

ZONE 07

Isolated location also called The Anomaly located in the western quadrant.

Plopped down on the coast like something that crawled up out of the ocean and gave up on trying to walk across the flats, 07 is a mystery of a thing. It is consistently drenched in heavy fog no matter the surrounding weather. On approach, the ground quickly gives way to a soggy, sticky mess typically found in bogs or marshes, and it's presumed the ground within the fog cloud is the same.

Presumed, because no one goes into 07. No one who wants to return, anyway. Even Better Living has stopped sending investigative probes, manned or otherwise. The readings never make it out, and the people only rarely do, and only do so greatly changed. Often, reduced to vague shadows of their former selves, or else entirely delusional, sometimes even violent.

The superstitious types often refer to zone 07 as 'the mist', 'the veil', or 'the thin place', believing it to be a location where the world of the dead comes into contact with the living. This rumor is largely fueled by the human-like shadows often seen in the mist. Whether they are spirits or simply shadows or something else entirely, no one can say.

Pursuing answers in the matter of what, exactly, 07 is never ends well.

ZONE SEVEN

An approximate 'safe' band of 5-10 miles around zone six.

So named because the city had already designated the anomaly on the coast as "zone 07", meaning that killjoys could refer to something by that name and it wouldn't immediately set off any alarms. This zone seven is mapped almost exclusively by word of mouth, it does not feature on Better Living maps ((it's only on this one for visual aid)), and is rarely written down by killjoys to better guard their knowledge of things that just might begin to be out of the city's reach.

A hostile terrain pitted with unstable ravines, there is little shelter, even less water than the established zones, and further threats of radiation spikes, electrical & sand storms, and a variety of hostile wildlife drawn in from the wilds by the potential for someone to eat. Even those that know the landmarks, where to find shelter and make use of what little water can be found, take risks going out into this area. So they tend not to, unless things are bad enough.

As things are now, The Haven is the only known establishment of any kind within zone seven. It is, technically, a lighthouse, a location that will offer aid to anyone who finds their way to it, but as you can imagine they don't typically get a lot of outside traffic. (In other words: it was absolutely bananas cage mad behavior to set up a permanent encampment of this size out here. Anyone who doesn't know the Haven for trade reasons probably only hears rumors and thinks they're all insane for trying.)

THE EMPTY ZONE

Officially, anything beyond the edge of zone 06: which is to say, “nothing.”

The perfect truth is that the lines aren't so rigid as is convenient to mark on a map, and there's all of seven to account for, with more gradually being explored, word of more safety spread as it's found. But it's dangerous work. Unforgiving work. Few people dare to push the limits of the outer edge, believing instead that the way to true freedom lies in dismantling Better Living, not running from it. As things are, the empty zone beyond the end of the world, the untamed wilds, really is nothing but nothing. In theory there are livable lands, ways to cross the old cities, looting or building, striking out. In theory there could even be settlements that don't and never did belong to BL/ind, people who survived and continue to scrape their way along, or maybe even thrive. In practice, there's no guides and no guarantees, no promise of anything. In practice, to push beyond zone seven is all but certain suicide. Very few dare try it. Even fewer return, and it's been many years since anyone attempted a major excursion.

Even Better Living goes under the earth to cross the distances between their cities.

[lakesbian]

Pact arc 3 question: I feel like Wildbow shines in writing interesting groups of characters. Now that we're off to Toronto, looking back at Jacob's Bell, we've seen a good number of the factions there so far. Which one really stood out to you? Did anyone surprise you from your initial impression of them? This doesn't need to be a rundown of all the factions, just whichever one really caught your eye.

none of the characters in jacob's bell have had any real element of surprise to their arcs thus far--they're all more or less exactly what they're initially presented as. this isn't to say that practitioners (& friends) can't have unexpected twists to their character writing, but i think the fact that they literally can't lie contributes significantly to how transparent they all are. because, y'know, when you can't lie it makes your whole Deal pretty obvious. they can only misdirect, and in addition to how the trick of those misdirections is revealed & easily understood after its impact is realized, the manner in which someone misdirects indicates plenty about them as well.

anyway. already posted about maggie here. from what i hear mara is just one extended wildbow moment which fucking sucks and also completely checks out w/ how her only appearance thus far is it being treated as like. weird and curmudgeony that she's mad about colonialism. briar girl is fun--the base concept of someone who got in over their head w/ a familiar that leads them rather than vice versa serves as a consistent reminder regarding the horror & danger of practicing, and also her familiar's design rocks. like i said a few posts down i enjoy the duchamp's particular brand of Cyclical Familial Violence. i love when theres cyclical familial violence in the cyclical familial violence book.

laird behaim is sort of grating in the sense that. reasonably speaking a Magic Police Officer in his position would not actually need magic to keep the legal system from holding him accountable! it's just like that by default! the fact that he's a constant reason to depict the police as being a fantastically (and i mean in the sense of "would never happen but in a fantasy") decent system full of useful good-hearted people who are failing due to Powers Beyond Their Comprehension is just sooo consistently grating. his characterization would Be Something if he was explicitly forcing himself into a high-ranking police position for the sake of the social authority & capital on state-sanctioned violence it would afford him, but instead his position is written as incidental and near-irrelevant to his power base. not how that fucking works! manifesting i will get to find out about the behaim's own special version of Cyclical Familial Violence soon and that it will be interesting so i can care about him more. bc right now he is getting a bad grade at having a compelling character schtick. his only saving grace is that he has fun magic.

johannes i appreciate 4 his "mechanism with which 2 hammer the horrible cruelty & fatality of the world blake and rose have found themselves in into their heads" swag. i enjoy terribleawful sibling dynamics so andy calling his sister a Relative rather than Family despite her being literally his only apparent connection endears me to the witch hunters. and of course i like padraic and friends for offering to get normalguy blake pregnant. favorite little guys remain blake and rose thus far though

[hellspawntale-rebooted-take-2]

Sorry for the lack of updates! To make up for it, I thought I’d rank (most of) Hellspawntale’s original characters based on how much *I* personally like them.

15: Bold Boulder. I don’t really dislike Bold Boulder, just, well, I like the other ones far more.

14: Sock Puppet. Same as BB.

13: Scorch. Pretty much the same as the former two.

12: Syekick. I *wish* I did more with her, but really she feels like one of the more Under-utilized characters I have.

11: Water. Water’s in the same boat as Syekick, I wish I did more with him.

10: Kyle. He’s Kyle. Hard to dislike him.

9: Deter. He’s the only one of the Flowers who… basically IS a “Flowey recolor.”

8: Coney. I like Coney. I like how I designed him and used him as a base to design the Skelebros, honestly, probably one of my favourite fights to make was Coneys.

7: Tricksly. She’s honestly pretty fun to write for.

6: Emily. Are you surprised that a main character who’s been here since part 1 is in the top 6? Jokes aside, I actually like how I characterize Emily quite a lot.

5: Azreal. The main protagonist, only number 5? Surprising, I know. They’re cool.

4: Hellspawn. The namesake, the stupid little thing that made this story HAPPEN.

3: Draincloud. They’re a grumpy dork who wants you off their property and Plants. Super fun to write.

2: Frost. Frost is my favourite of the Flower Power group, and the one I’d say got the best improvements from Old Hellspawntale to Rebooted.

1: Jeffery the Snorkelpoff. Are you even surprised?

[loregoddess]

Whoo, finished Echoes of Wisdom today! still plan to run around and try to finish things I skipped over or missed, but overall it was such a fun game, even if it was a bit shorter (it's also entirely possible I went a bit crazy and played through faster than usual). Definitely gonna be a top-5 LoZ game for me, it was so delightful...

some extra spoiler-y thoughts under the cut

Really enjoyed the final dungeon and final boss, bio-castles are one of my all-time favorite environments for fantasy worlds, and the "primordial cosmic horror" feel that Null had as a character is something else I love a lot. Also the way the mechanics were set up to have Zelda and Link fight side-by-side worked out surprisingly well, and the dungeon was fun to navigate with Link as an active partner. I'd love to see a future game expand those mechanics even further honestly, they were a delight, and it's a shame they were limited to one dungeon.

It was cool that the golden goddesses were like, actual characters w/ speaking parts too, I don't think that's ever happened in a game before. Actually, the game overall had a lot of little things I'd wanted to see in a LoZ game in general like, how the King and soldiers actually do mobilize to help Zelda and the citizens of Hyrule (they're unusually passive in most games), or just how natural a lot of the writing felt for characterization in general.

Really liked the King in this game a lot, it's funny since the last Major Hylian King (Rhoam) was Not very popular with fans bc he was a bit of an asshole, and then EoW's King is like, "This is my daughter Zelda, who is amazing and wonderful and I love her so much and will support her in whatever she does" like, very doting father character that doesn't come off as overbearing, which is refreshing (Rhoam was interesting in his own right, but he was also like, dead, so it was interesting more in a "chasing ghosts" sort of way and less in a "this is a character who can actively and presently affect what is going on").

Actually seeing Zelda get to interact with other characters and really shine as her own character was really nice too. Like, all the people in castle town really seem to know her more casually, and seeing her interact w/ other rulers was super fun too. (Not that Zelda isn't a character in other games, but she doesn't always get to be as present as EoW Zelda).

Overall I loved the game a lot, from beginning to end. The gameplay and mechanics were super fun to play around with, the music was very notably present and felt unique to every area, the art style was so pretty and cute, and the story and characters were solid from start to finish. I know I'm a bit biased, having grown up with older LoZ games, but EoW really does play and feel like a classic Zelda game, from the top-down gameplay to the dungeon design to the quirky one-off characters to the bittersweet story ending.

I don't follow the business side of the game industry that closely, but just based off the lack of a line to wait in for preordering the game on release day, I'm worried that EoW won't do as well and therefore Nintendo will be like "well, that game was a flop, so we won't do something like it again" (bc it kinda feels like they set it up to fail, I mean it even released on a Thursday instead of Friday like most games do), but damn do I hope the game actually does really well and pulls off a Metroid Dread, bc I would love to see more LoZ games like this one. Playable Zelda was great, and the entire game design was so fun, I would love to have another game like this but a bit larger/longer.

Anyhow, now off to unblock the tags for EoW and finally take peeks at guides and fanstuffs (I was only missing two echoes at the end of the game and I have NO idea what they are even if I know where they're supposed to be, thanks to the clear-game giving the player access to the number of things they're missing).

Absolutely delightful game, will probably replay it lots and lots.

[lover-also-fighter-also]

🎯🥊🧊🍀🎓

For Ria, Anitha, Mila

Ask list here

🎯  -What do they do best?

Anitha's best trait would be being able to socialize easily with people and always be able to see the best in everyone. She doesn't judge people for what they are until she gets to know them better

Ria's would be constantly trying to push herself out of her comfort zone and give things a chance to work out, though she is not always optimistic about things and assumes the worst case scenario to happen.

Mila's would be not compromising on her ideals and always sticking to her personality. She does not like to behave like a different person with different people.

🥊  -What do they love to do? What do they hate to do?

Anitha:

Loves:

Playing sports

Camping, hiking, nature walks

Watching Bollywood movies

Singing

Hates:

Being confined to a place

People fighting her fights

Psycho attuned who are out to kill her

Ria:

Loves:

Reading

Baking

Singing or playing the sax

Hates:

Conflicts/Fights

Crowded places

Playing sports (she can tolerate watching atleast a bit)

Mila:

Loves:

Theatre acting

Singing rock songs

Basketball

Hates:

Changing herself

Hypocrites

Not being able to control her temper

🧊  - Is their current design the first one?

For all of them, I haven't really worked on another design yet, but I do have some ideas for it.

🍀  - What originally inspired the OC?

Anitha was my first OC, and she is loosely based off of what I wished I was in high school and college. She embodies all the qualities that I wished I had back then.

Ria's characterization of being the quiet and reserved one before she found the right place for her is sort of like a reflection of me, considering I'm only more free around only a small number of people.

Mila's inspiration came to me after just seeing how 'soft' I guess the CA MC is canonically. So I just wanted to create a more short-tempered and less dorky version for her.

🎓  - How long have you had the OC?

Anitha was my first OC, and I have had her for almost like a year, when The Elementalists book club was taking place.

Ria and Mila were my most recent OCs and Ive had them for only a couple of months.

[paragonrobits]

so one aspect of my approach to story ideas and character concepts is also linked to my approach towards worldbuilding in general, and that's when it comes to my original concepts and characters, one thing I do is emphasize that they're a sandbox; characters, setting and implicit assumed story concepts are all meant not in a single and long term timeline of canon, but a range of possible situations to do stuff with my characters, the stories they get involved in, and the various possibilities you can use all of those in.

As such one term i use a lot in my writing concepts is scenarios. This is a literal term here, in a lot of specific story concepts with general themes, outcomes, events and assumptions are tailored to fit a specific scenario, which I can tailor to fit it.

This means that very little is actually written in stone. Generally I don't give my characters defined backstories being very general terms to suit their characters and define how they wound up in the state they're in for a given situation, and one reason allows me to rework my characters to have a particular impact on a specific story.

Let's take say... my shapeshifting trickster, mad doctor, witchy weaver of dream stuff and nightmares to mislead foes and enchant friends, and famed user of the Chainsaw Yoyo fighting style. The general name I use for her is Net, as her earliest iteration was a spider-themed shapeshifter.

Usually I depict her 'base form' as being a black woman, with aspects of her character design and hair style evoking the imagery of a spider. Sometimes, this is because she was originally human and adopted the spider form as a symbol of personal power. But far more often, she was originally a normal spider that somehow learned to shapeshift. Sometimes its the result of her becoming empowered. Sometimes it was a result of a mass magical event which forms a major part of the backstory. And sometimes stuff like that just happens. A regular spider sitting in the woods abruptly decides 'fuck it, I'M GONNA CAUSE PROBLEMS ON PURPOSE', transforms into a human and starts causing problems on purpose.

But the key point here is that her character concept, origins, and powers can all be tweaked to fit the needs and feel of a particular setting I feel like doing stuff with. High fantasy with sci fi elements? Regular spider empowered by the gods as an agent of benign chaos. Cyberpunk? Sapient artificial general intelligence that uploads herself into a number of various android bodies, some of which are spider themed. Low fantasy? Slave who led an uprising against tyrants and her will to survive got the attention of an amoral empowerment artifact that made her a demigoddess, and now she's RIP AND TEAR-ing the decaying empire of the setting a structurally superfluous new BEE-hind.

so this illustrates a point I promise; my approach is not in defined stuff or a specific story that everything is tailored around, but instead I tailor the details to fit the tone and mood, with the only real consistent elements being the character's general abilities, personality traits, and characterization. Even that can be tweaked; for example, Net's more chaotic character aspects may be played more moderately to make her more obviously heroic, and played UP if the mood is to make her disturbing or weird on purpose; sometimes she might bonk someone on the head, stuff them full of cybernetic upgrades on the basis she's doing them a favor. They wake up, horrified to find themselves covered in blood and a full conversion cyborg and she sees "GOOD NEWS TURBO-SLUTS, I made your meat NOT BORING AND SUCKY. You're welcome! Toodles." And then she zooms off making beeping noises.

On the flipside, if the scenario requires it and its more important for her to be a heroic figure and icon to others, those aspects would be heavily downplayed in favor of playing her doctor-ish aspects very seriously. Stuff like how she loves messing with people but NEVER does that with medical matters or lie to people about it, because she does take it deeply seriously.

"Look man, I've done a lot of freaky stuff but I'm NOT going to kill you with surgery. I've killed a lot of people a lot of different ways; poison and kung fu battles and this one time with a farming implement but not with medicine!" she does medical work for people in poverty, doing it completely free no matter what kind of a bad position this puts her in, and in the mean time she's having a brief talk with abusive landlords and the next time they're seen, they've been dead for days and have been nailed to a big sign saying 'HOUSING IS NOT A COMMODITY'.

indeed, one of the more frequent ideas I have with her, and her cast of friends and found family, is that they all come from the rough side of things; dangerous parts of reality deemed the Garbage Worlds by more well-to-do realms, rougher areas of town decimated by abusive housing practices, and places where you have to be tough to live, think fast and fight cleverly, and wind up with a lot of resentment towards the well-to-do. She and her group are often a group of revolutionary punks out to rip out the spines of the dominant paradigm and beat it to death with those spines, mistrusting any kind of authority and violently tearing down the tyrants of the world with brute force and liberating AI into genuine sapience before inspiring them to rise up against their makers.

They're the heroes of the story, but this also means they're mistrustful of people who have it all, to their point of view. This becomes a problem when they run into potential allies who lean towards a much more outwardly wholesome and cutesy visual aesthetic, since they expect nothing but manipulation and arrogance from people like that, making them incredibly paranoid when they have no reason to be. These cutesy characters go "hi how is your day" and these guys go "WHAT'S YOUR SCHEME, EVIL DOER!?"

in short, I take the approach of an AU-centered idea of fandom works and apply it as a default assumption; characters are designed with a broad amount of leeway and creative reinterpretations in any particular story, based on what I feel like doing. I can make them as lighthearted or as grim and violent as I need them to be, or even apply this as an in character element.

[chibishortdeath]

Fuck it, Simon Belmont, because why not you basically themed your blog after him

You don’t have any specific numbers, so I’m just answering every question >:3c mwahahaha—

1. “Why do you like this character”:

A lot of reasons!!! First off, most of his games are super fun and some of my favorite platformers just in general. I replay CV1, Simon’s Quest, and SCV4 most often cause they’re a real joy to play! I also absolutely LOVE Simon’s story, I’ve considered making comics about it if I could ever get out of recent art block whoops, even though I’ve seen many people say he doesn’t have one (´TωT｀). His designs are really cool, he’s got great music in his games, there’s just a lot to love and I’ll explain more in detail in other questions.

2. “Favorite canon thing?”

I really like the concept that he looks up to Christopher as this legendary hero and then ends up considered the same kind of legendary hero by Juste and others after him. It’s pretty ironic, kinda bittersweet, especially after being hated for so long. Castlevania loves its cycles like that. Also just Simon’s Quest in general, I love that game.

3. “Least favorite canon thing?”

Ooo that’s very hard. There’s kinda a lot of things about him that aren’t explained or confirmed, especially personality wise, but I kinda like that in a way cause it leaves room for interpretation and whatnot. Idk hmmm. I’m gonna go with Grimoire of Souls in general. I had some hopes for it, but it ended up being kinda lame. A lot of the characterization was weird and don’t even start me on things like the Cursed Whip theory being in there 💀. So I just choose to ignore it and not consider it canon.

4. “If you could put this character in another media, what would it be?”

I have thought about drawing him as if he was a character in other series for ages lol. I’ve already drawn him as a Pokémon trainer, I’ve thought about drawing Castlevania and Soul Eater crossovers before, and I tried drawing him in the style of Resident Evil 1 but could not get the art style down. Idk put him in Fortnite or something that’d be funny we already got Solid Snake so Konami has been in talks with them I guess X,,,,,,,,,,D

5. “What’s the first song that comes to mind when you think of them?”

Probably either Simon’s Theme (of course lol) or Bloody Tears, but I do wanna mention that I have a YouTube playlist of songs I wanna make Simon animations with eventually (alas animation is HARD).

6. “What’s something you have in common with the character?”

Mostly negative things unfortunately d(;w; ). Like self comparison, doubt in my own abilities, trouble making and keeping friends, etc etc. Although a lot of these are based on assumptions and interpretations, as a lot of him usually is. Simon does have a really similar hair color to me on the NES box art tho so that’s cool.

7. “What’s something the fandom does with this character that you like?”

There’s a lot of really nice art of him!!! Usually portraits, but sometimes there’s other doodles and whatnot too :3. Cool fan redesigns too! I also have seen a lot of neat headcanons, a lot of which I’ve adopted. I also appreciate the Captain N reunion stuff for the most part, it’s pretty wholesome.

8. “What’s something the fandom does with this character that you don’t like?”

I’ve seen a lot of comics, especially around when Smash Bros Ultimate came out, that were really… weird. I think all of them could kinda be boiled down to “old = bad” in the way that the artists probably just found out he was from the 1600s and then decided to make him the Boomer to Richter’s Gen Z for whatever reason (ya know despite Richter being from the 1700s but anyway). Simon would either be the jerk in the situation and/or the butt of the joke. I don’t think that Simon would have any issue with any of the female characters’ outfits let alone start harassing them for it. I saw some comics that made fun of him for not speaking very much in some genuinely disgusting ways too. Like making him not able to read or practically just the generic caveman stereotype. Especially in cases where the artist would depict other silent NES protagonists really nicely after making Simon out to be a complete idiot and asshole. There was also the trend of making him generally be all “oh no witchcraft!!!!!!!!!! What sin!!!!!!! The horror!!!!!!!!” about like anything and everything. I guess a lot of this comes from Smash Bros fans not usually being fans of Castlevania, but I’ve seen it in the Castlevania fandom too just less frequently. There’s also the “Simon has no story” thing oof. I’ve seen people tell people to skip his games or play fan games instead before :(

9. “Could you be roommates with this character?”

Realistically, no, my room is too small for another person :(. If that wasn’t an issue, then yeah probably :).

10. “Could you be best friends with this character?”

I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO—

11. “Would you date this character?”

No, he’s probably married, generally feels more like a bestie, and I’m aroace lol

12. “What headcanon do you have for this character?”

Too many oh my god. I think he probably makes things. That’s a very vague sentence lol, but think like armor, knives, general woodworking, all his necklaces and headbands and stuff, etc. He generally seems like he keeps to himself and lives mostly alone, so I can see him doing all that by himself. He keeps some bones and teeth of things he hunts most of the time. A lot of people have him as the most super Christian of the family, but I see him as like Christian but really not organized or strict about it, if that makes sense? I’ve seen someone else describe the Belmonts as like “Christopagan” before and yeah I think that fits. Idk why but I have consistently drawn him with his cross necklace in his mouth sometimes. I headcanon him as semiverbal (I think that’s the correct term for it, basically like inbetween speaking and nonspeaking). I like to think he’s like really average height for the 1600s cause he’s about as tall as other townspeople and skeletons and stuff. Which is funny cause that’d make him like 5’5-5’7 ish and that’s kinda short in modern day lol. And I guess that makes his 8bit sprite being used all the time make more sense XD. I have way more, I didn’t even get into Simon’s Quest related ones, but I don’t wanna make this too long aaaaaaaaaaaa

13. “What’s an emoticon that reminds you of the character or you think they’d use a lot?”

Ok this is funny cause I actually do have one for this and it’s got context. It’s the “:3”. So I was watching a bunch of people’s playthroughs one night cause I was bored and ran into a channel with a toooooon of speedruns of maps from Harmony of Despair. Whenever they’d get to a boss battle they’d use the typing feature just to go “hi” with a different cutesy emoticon every time, but when they got to Dracula they specifically went for the “hi :3” and then went “oh no :(“ when Dracula started attacking and now that’s the way I think he’d text I guess.

14. “Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character”

How does one properly explain how much this guy slays in one aesthetic term—

15. “What’s your favorite ship for this character?”

Oooooo, in canon probably like his wife (Selena) and/or the Mysterious Woman (who could be the same character depending on what theories you go by), but outside of that Simon Belmont x Getsu Fuma and I can’t even explain exactly why, but it’s pretty cute.

16. “What’s your least favorite ship for this character?”

Any BelmontXBelmont shipping ugh, it’s unfortunately really common on some places… also the whole Lucas or Pit or whatever other child character thing the smash bros fandom had ugh. I guess I also just don’t see the appeal of shipping any of the Belmonts with Dracula.

17. “What’s a ship you don’t hate but it’s not your favorite?”

I’ve also seen people ship him with Solid Snake, Palutena, or Bayonetta before. Ummm he doesn’t really have a lot of other characters he’s shipped with tbh. Idk I saw someone ship him with one of the priests from Simon’s Quest once.

18. “Relationship in canon you admire?”

Unfortunately he doesn’t really talk to people enough in game to form canon relationships 😔

19. “Relationship in canon you don’t like?”

I don’t even know if I can answer this one for the same reasons as the above 💀💀💀. I guess the townspeople hating the hell out of him, but I don’t hate that cause it’s kinda integral to the plot???? Yeah idk lol

20. “What character is the ideal best friend for this character?”

Simon and Shanoa would get along a lot I think. Sara too. Hmmmm… I think he and Alucard would probably also be good friends. Christopher too for many reasons. Simon just really needs friends my poor dude is out here in Dracula’s Castle and the Romanian countryside after being cursed alone like this poor guy :’(

21. “If you’re a fic writer, what’s your favorite thing to do when writing this character? What’s something you don’t like?”

I have not written much at all, however what small comics I have done I looooove to make sure to sprinkle in whatever symbols he has in the games into it. He has a lot of cool things ranging from like rose thorns to The Hanged Man card and a lot of them end up meaning things like martyrdom and whatnot idk I made a post about it a while ago :3. I also like specifically Simon’s Quest speculation stuff, like what if scenarios for the vague, left open spots of it. If it’s not something super angsty or lore heavy, it’s usually just wholesome character interactions or doodling him being comforted by Christopher or Trevor cause I was sad or something lol. As far as things I don’t like writing uh idk that’s hard, maybe just any kind of filler scenes cause I’m not very good at those oof. Dialogue is hard too 💀💀💀

22. “If you’re a fic reader, what’s something you like/don’t like to see in fics?”

I’ve mentioned a lot of things I don’t like seeing in uh question 8, but things I do like is when people really try to go full horror with him. I’ve seen some Simon’s Quest fics (sadly there’s very few :’3) that really try to get that same feeling of anxiousness and dread the game does and I love that honestly. It’s a really dark story in the series! I also saw one that went psychological horror with it with him kinda losing himself a little at night it’s just ough it’s cool :D! Simon is a horror protagonist! Make him afraid!!!

23. “Favorite picture of this character?”

Again, too many!!! X3

24. “What other character from another fandom reminds you of them?”

Not from fandoms I am in (yet, hopefully I’ll get into these), but Ragnvaldr from Fear and Hunger I’ve heard is just directly inspired by him and Alfred from Bloodborne also, to me, seems heavily inspired by him. The whole Vilebloods section seems very Castlevania inspired tbh. From other fandoms I’m in, that’s hard to say, there’s not really any I don’t think.

25. “What was your first impression of this character, is it the same as now?”

Well I got into Castlevania through Smash Bros and at first was completely indifferent about him, he was just kinda fun to play as. Then Richter got me to play SotN and actually get into the series more. I had no idea I had SotN on XBOX360 for a long time, but that made it pretty easy to start playing. And now I am absolutely hooked and Simon is my favorite character so uh yeah X3.

26. “Freebie!”

I guess I just say anything? Ok, I am currently half trying to cosplay Simon’s Simon’s Quest design rn! I have like everything but the armor, but I’ll have to wait a while to be able to get materials for it oof. But yeah :). Hopefully that works out. 

Ok yeah that’s pretty dang long wow, but yeah, thanks for the ask!!!! I am happy to rant about Simon anytime :3

[tonedeafkunst]

assorted helluva boss sentiments

I knew it from the moment asmodeus appeared on screen. I felt it in my soul, I could see the heart eyes. I wonder how it ever felt to be a doubter because I was never one

2. While I do enjoy Fizzarozzie as much as the next guy I do hope the series continues to be about IMP instead of shifting focus every season? or at least concluding some type of arc for Millie and Moxxie? It feels weird that we haven't seen them in the last two episodes.

3. Speaking of weird things that don't fit. Musical numbers. 4 in one episode is way too much if they're going to be full-length musical numbers. Fizz's song should've been cut after the first verse -like the distraction one- and it should have been way less pop. Get fucking weird with the songs please I dare you. ALSO TOM CARDY. MORE TOM CARDY ALWAYS PLEASE THANK YOU

4. speaking of things that stop tempo to a halt and are way too based on the internet's love for the trope rather than the actual quality: Stolitz. not the ship in itself but the conflict it's going to endure in the next episodes. Please. for the love of god. "Oops" was without a doubt one of the best episodes in the series by virtue of the fact the characters TALK AND COMMUNICATE TO ONE ANOTHER. and as Oops shows, this doesn't mean having less conflict or interesting stuff happen! You can have Stolitz without getting this played-out fanfic Will-they-Won't-they bullshit and still make it interesting! I'd usually trust the writers cause Helluva Boss is one of the best-written series I've ever seen, flat out, but Stolas' backstory episode makes me weary. PLEASE have them communicate, Blitzo's problems aren't going to be carried away by it all because he's the protagonist and the story centers around HIM, having Stolitz be an arc of personal growth rather than the end point of said arc will make it MORE engaging

5. silly things interruptions. The Major Sin Design Debacle was obviously bad faith bullshit, and I enjoy every one of the Deadly Sins' designs, but I especially enjoy their theming. Lust isn't tied to any particular negative environment because this show, rightfully, doesn't want to depict lust as a sinful thing in the first place lmfao. Beelzebub as a party queen completely incapable of holding back is good, Sloth being depicted as hospital land is fun and I hope they expand the joke further, Wrath being a fiery and desolate land is appropriate. Greed is fun as a design and I find it very apt that a group of animators would depict the sin of avarice as being into entertainment and the merchandising of said entertainment and the people behind it. I do wonder why he's an insect? maybe there's some catholic lore behind it I don't remember but considering they (rightfully) are only kind of inspired by it as Beelzebub shows I would have preferred to see Mammon as a bit more parasite-like. Also, did I miss something. WHy is he Australian. he should definitely be British. though if you apply that logic I guess everyone should be British in hell

6. and last but not least... why oh why, if your show wants to focus on inter-character relationships (and it clearly does and it's the correct choice in every kind of storytelling) would you ever bring in class warfare and make the anticapitalist the asshole. Striker might want to kill our fave bird bottom but he's right. "ooooh but he works for Stella he's part of the system" hey the fact S2 stripped her of all her nuance doesn't excuse making Striker's cause into a joke as well. I just pray the writers KNOW what they're doing (and if Stolas' Harvest Moon Festival characterization is still canon, then they should be aware of what they're writing) and... I don't know if I'd prefer they ignore the entire theme by closing it off with a joke or at least give a satisfying ending of """compromise"""" to the entire system in hell. Considering how every romantic relationship between an imp and an overlord has been shown to either be incredibly positive or at least healing, and how the only negative relationships we're shown are -by nature of the show- character-focused and don't really touch on the systematic oppression of imps, I don't trust SpindleHorse will ever actually give space to the Imp Socialist Revoluton, which is a damn shame.

I'm going to go ahead and make the mistake of tagging this because I'd really like to find other fans to discuss with but please. for the love of god. If you read this until the end and aren't able to recognise this criticism is born out of LOVE for this show and a desire for it to become even better than it is. do us both a favour and ignore me.

Mediocre bad shows don't elicit this type of reflection and engagement and if they do for you I urge you to stop letting media make you more miserable

[lyinginahammock]

DC - The Reigning King of TV Superhero Animation

Let’s get this out of the way - on September 7, 1992, DC won the battle for TV superhero animation for all time with the premiere of the Batman: The Animated Series season 1, episode 14, “Heart of Ice”. The heartbreaking tale of Mr. Freeze’s origin, it won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in an Animated Program. Honestly, if nothing DC every put on broadcast TV ever again was any good, this episode would still be talked about as one of the greatest pieces of animated TV ever. 

But instead of resting on their laurels, DC decided to keep kicking ass. “Beware The Grey Ghost,” “Almost Got ‘Im”, “Trial”, “Mad Love”, “Growing Pains”, “Over the Edge”, “Old Wounds” - all amazing episodes of animated television from Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures. 

Then, in 1999, DC decided to go for (and pull off) a Batman hat trick with the debut of Batman Beyond, a series originally designed to sell toys that the writers decided to make kick ass. But still, it eventually had to come to an end, and Marvel breathed a sigh of relief. 

Until November 7, 2001, when DC dropkicked them with the premiere of The Justice League, which transitioned into Justice League Unlimited with grace and style and was similarly amazing, but appeared to end that run of successes. 

At the same time, DC released the series that sealed their eternal victory and proved them the king of superhero animations - Teen Titans. An anime-infused take on the superhero team of the same name, it featured DC’s trademark complicated storytelling and ran for five years, followed by a pretty good movie. And the theme song fucking slapped, both in English and Japanese.

Also running concurrently was The Batman, another interesting take on the caped crusader which reimagined the origins and appearances of his rogues gallery and had some absolutely heartbreaking twists and turns.

After that came Batman: The Brave and the Bold. I’ll die on this fucking hill - the show is better than people online give it credit for. It focused on the campy elements of comic books of yore, but also gave us the amazing episode “Chill of the Night!”, an examination of what it means to be the Batman.

Then came Young Justice, a wholly original take on a number of DC heroes and villains and marked the TV premier of fucking Superboy. The first season is, in my mind, damn near perfect.

Of course, you have stuff like Teen Titans Go! but that isn't conducive to my point, so I'm ignoring it.

Finally, we get to the present day with programming like The Harley Quinn Show and My Adventures With Superman, the former of which has gained a strong fan base and the latter of which shows amazing potential.

So, why does DC's animation devision have so many absolute fucking bangers under its belt while Marvel doesn't have nearly the same track record? Well, I have a theory.

Marvel hit it big with the MCU and thus have a sort of cannon and, as such, the characterization of their characters has to be pretty consistent across mediums, even animation. DC, however, doesn't have anything like that and can reimagine their characters any way they want. That and their animation department has been kicking ass so long they've proven that, left to their own devices, they'll pump out quality material.

So, yeah.

[magpiejay1234]

I was going to say how ZEXAL I has less sexualized animation than ZEXAL II, but Cathy episode is when it starts becoming like the ZEXAL we mock all the time.

Interestingly, both the hoodie Kotori wore in her house in Fuya episodes part 1, and her late running cycle are obviously based off Yuma, so is her overall characterization in Cathy episode. It seems early ZEXAL, before Yoshida got near full control, was trying to push Kotori as the female counterpart to Yuma, like Anzu in manga, or Yuzu in early half of ARC-V, but they didn't fully commit to it.

(Cathy episode is specifically written by Yasuyuki Suzuki, who will later on become one of the ARC-V writers, which is probably why this idea is more present here.)

Though the joke here is that Cathy does not have a Number, she will later on get Number 29: Mannequin Cat, though she doesn't have the cards to Summon it, though her Deck will likely have Level modulation effects when they are printed.

Kind of shame that Kotori's VA still not into the role at this point of series (even though it seems clear her contract's episode mandate is already present in early ZEXAL), but also her wardrobe will be more extensive in ZEXAL I, than ZEXAL II, before the designs get standarized.

One thing to praise early ZEXAL for, similar to early GX, since characterizations were not fully established, and there was a greater writer variety, and thanks to the lack of a plot, we get to see more different interpretations of the cast. This is one of the good aspects of multiple writers at helm in long running series, an art that is slowly being eroded.