#I'M FALLING INTO THE DARK SIDE

[thatlittlefangirl]

Omg... Am I getting pulled into the dark (short Snape) side?

[mlichaelm]

did y'all know that Kix was part of Dooku's war chest and originally headed towards Serenno with the rest of it and the bad batch was so close to him without realizing or was that something i was supposed to find out at 1am while doing rabbit hole research for my fanfic

[vertigoartgore]

1999's Star Wars Tales Vol.1 #1 cover by cover artist Igor Kordey.

[2hoothoots]

Revisiting P2 since the docu epilogue dropped and your AMV (<3) popped up as a sign for me to ask something that hopefully you haven't already spoken about years ago: What did you think of the in-game psych explanation for Maligula, that she's the primitive savage part of the mind? P2 is a weird mix of sketchy Freud/Jung concepts that Tim likes meshed with modern psych, and Maligula's deal seems like something they probably wrote a lot of different versions of but never quite solved elegantly

yeah, i think you totally hit the nail on the head - it's always felt like one of the parts of the story that they couldn't quite give enough polish to before they had to finalize it and move on with development. like - i went to go get my artbook to see if it had any insight into the writing process, and did you know that Nona and Maligula being the same person was apparently added way later in development? that's wild! i didn't know that until literally right now! i may or may not have skipped straight to my favourite characters when my artbook arrived and then put it on my shelf without reading the whole thing

ANYWAY, retrospectively i think it being a twist that was added later actually makes a lot of sense in the context of everything you mentioned. the Maligula problem, to me, is the fact that they're trying to juggle a bunch of different things that she has to be in the story. there's Maligula, the ruthless big bad, and Nona, the beloved grandma, and if you suddenly have to also make them both the same person... well, it ends up being kind of a thorny writing problem to make that work, haha.

here's some art i made so this isn't just a wall of text, rest of the answer under the cut

i think one thing they could have done when they needed to rehabilitate a mass-murderer into a lovable old lady was pull back on either end of the spectrum. make your villain softer and more sympathetic, or give grandma a mean streak like she's one bad day away from a tragedy at the crochet club. and to give the story credit, i'm really glad they didn't. Nona is relentlessly sweet and endearing - and that's great! she needs to be in order to make the audience care about her, otherwise the emotional beats are never going to land. likewise, Maligula is a great villain, she's vicious and ruthless and at the culmination of her arc we see she simply does not give a shit about murdering hundreds of people. i love that for her, honestly, you go girl

but then, like - how do you connect the dots? how do you frame grandma having a violently murderous streak in a way that doesn't make the ending of "but she's over it now" feel kinda weird and hollow? and how do you do that while also being sympathetic to the game's themes around mental health? Maligula's informed by the traumatic things that happened to Lucrecia during the war, but she can't just be a manifestation of trauma, because the moral of the story being that trauma makes you a mass-murderer (until you beat up your trauma and shove it in a giant pit) would feel... really tonally dissonant!

so i think you're totally right that the sprinkling of pop-psych concepts we get ends up feeling a little bit like an awkward band-aid. Maligula's story is about how the horrors of war can shape you into a terrible person, who does terrible things - ...but there's also, like, special circumstances, so it doesn't feel weird that she goes back to being Raz's sweet grandma afterwards. special psychic circumstances! she's not just any war criminal, she's the fight or flight response gone out of control!

which - i dunno, i think that line in particular always stood out to me, because that's not really what the fight or flight (or freeze or fawn) response is, right? it's a temporary boost of adrenaline to the system to rev you up for getting out of a dangerous situation. an overactive fight or flight response is called chronic stress and anxiety. i know the games are pop-psych and not actual science, but it always stood out to me as a little awkward.

if it were me in the writer's seat - with the benefit of all the time in the world to workshop it, and no looming deadlines, and the hindsight of having a full completed game in front of me to think about - i might have tried to frame it around connection. i think you could swing the lens to instead focus on how violence, stress, trauma etc., make it harder to understand and empathise with the people around you. the tragedy of Lucrecia's story is that she came home to try and help her countrymen, the people she cared so dearly about. but the more time passed, the less she cared, the less she was able to see them as people. after Marona's death, the Maligula that remains is one who's unable to even care about killing her own sister. the alternative is too raw, too painful - instead, she sheds her last vestiges of remorse, and throws herself into the easy relief of violence. (we see this again, when Nona "awakens" as Maligula - when confronted with the baggage of her past, she chooses to wash it all away with force, unable and unwilling to care about the people she used to call friends.)

and i think shifting the focus like that ties it in thematically, too. a big theme (of both games, but especially the sequel) is how important connection is, how being able to understand and reach out to and rely on other people is a lifeline during hard times. PN2 touches on how there aren't really "good people" and "bad people" - everyone has the capacity to do wonderful or terrible things, and i think Raz's line to Maligula about how "everybody's got something like you" works. Lucrecia was never a monster, no matter how everyone tried to pretend she was. she was just a person, the same as everyone else - and just like everyone else, she could be pushed to extremes under the right circumstances. it just feels kind of odd when the implicit context is "everybody's got a mass-murderer hidden in the primal recesses of their brain", hahaha.

but like, again, that's the privilege of hindsight, right? i've definitely also been on the other side of the creative process, stuck with something i suddenly need to make work in a story and having to come up with a solution that feels like a band-aid. sometimes you just gotta call it good enough, and move on. and i think the game is overall much stronger for having Nona and Maligula be the same person - it plays into the wider themes, it sets up some great emotional beats, and i think it's overall well-executed, even if there are one or two hiccups in the writing.

anyway, great ask! thank you for the invitation to ramble, this is something that stuck out to me on my first playthrough of the game and it was fun to sit down and get my thoughts in order

[amypihcs]

Extracorporeal Experience Thursday GO

Alright humans of all sorts, we're at chapter 3, let's see what's going on!

Well, AND FOR GOOD RE- Holmes? Why is that man vibrating in excitement?

Oh well, Holmes always was a rather queer fellow. NOW MORTIMER! Answer my quiz!

Oh yeah so... big doggo?

yep. big-big doggo.

HOLMES! Don't be so very interested, snap out of the case, remember social niceties. Geez, next time you'll tell a poor chap accused of murder that his situation is 'so very gratifying', AH!

Holmes SO WANTS to study Mortimer under a microscope!

And drama, of course comes natural to such a man as he is.

So, do we call the Mistery Inc or are we able to pull it off? even if Mortimer is thinking oh-so-loudly that it's demonic stuff?

... you are not a modest man, we know, and we know the reasons. BUT GOD'S SAKE HOLMES!

This man's hilarious, i SWEAR. BUT HE'S NOT A GHOSTBUSTER! so

How can Holmes be of help? Man likes the case!

Allow an italian a moment to bemoan out lack of punctuality in public transport... And back online! Some gossip and inheritance-legal stuff follows, family lines and so on...

HOLMES! Have a care!

You can't just go on dismissing the man's worries this way, god's sake!

But the local devil's terribly funny to think about, lol.

See? Mortimer got QUITE a bit distressed by that!

W: Don't worry, Dr Mortimer, he's just like this, but he does care.

NOW you've got your job, Mortimer, (shirtcuff note mention), Leave. Me. To. Mine. -cackles madly-

You're going out John?

Now. Holmes is already vibrating from happy case chemicals, And has asked very prettily his Watson for some tobacco. For FAR TOO MUCH tobacco.

H: You'll be out all day, dear? Have fun, we'll compare notes later. W: Sure. Have fun too, darling.

You leave your husband with a 'i love you' and you're sure to return to a livable house, of course. And then...

COUGH COUGH COUGH HOLMES!!!

Always like this! It's INTOLERABLE! DON'T YOU TRY THAT!

H: -deductions- W: DON'T. I'm trying to be annoyed at you. -kissy- Insufferable. H. Deduce me now, Watson?

Okay, i don't want to know or even imagine what sort of cocktail of drugs was in Holmes' bloodstream. Sure too much nicotine and caffeine.

He vibrated himself to Devonshire and back. Alright. So normal.

Just as much as this super normal cat behavior. Another couple of years and he'll buy a trunk to think into it. And poor Watson will have to lure him out of that.

Also, it's not concentration, Holmes. It's carbon dioxide intoxication.

I don't want to think to the desperate scream of his joints either, as a person who often keeps the same cross-legged positions for hours on end as they study.

NOW WATSON. What are your own thoughts about the case?

Well well... Interesting thoughts Holmes... Very interesting.

But now, Watson, let's take this out of our heads! -Watson is discreetly re-opening the windows- First a serenade... and then Will you help a detective to have no thought at all?

We'll know of the conversation with Sir Henry in the next episode! And remember the yaoi goggles!

[grim-vs-lizard]

Hey guys!! We are FINALLY back with a new bracket, this time pitting our biggest interests against each other... introducing

💥THE BRAINROT BRACKET!💥

This first round will have 13 polls with some of our all-time favorite pieces of media, the first 5 being shared interests, the rest being individual (Grim on the left, Lizard on the right)

There was some confusion with our last bracket so we wanted to clarify that the only criteria for these polls is to vote for which one you like over the other!! We'll have silly titles just because we like coming up with any kind of connection between unrelated things, it's what we do

SO, all that being said, we're looking forward to getting this bracket started!! Expect to see the polls tonight (7/1)!! Links to all of the polls will be in the reblog of this post :)

[highbrasshighkass]

"We will always struggle, but that is the test. It's the choice to keep fighting that makes us who we are."

—Cere Junda

[multifandomaceflux]

The Dark Side

@amypihcs and @jelloduckie , you know what you did

To the rest of you, sorry for the zero context heheh

[lifblogs]

Star Wars is just Shakespeare in space.

[weepylucifer]

AND ANOTHER THING about hot sith girl summer, i've managed to write myself into addressing a common issue in the codywan fandom, but in a weird way: that thing where fandom sometimes treats cody like he's only there to babysit obi-wan and his every single thought and action revolves around obi-wan

like, you know who'd also think of cody as existing only in relation to obi-wan, as a kind of appendage of obi-wan? vader. it's probably the only reason he keeps cody alive after cody challenges him between chapter one and two. as bait to draw obi-wan out of hiding, and just to fuck with someone obi-wan held dear, to cause him pain. and wouldn't it be interesting if cody noticed this and started chafing at it, even as he also feels (irrational) guilt over what he did during order 66. and even when he escapes vader and takes up with maul, he expects the exact same treatment: to be treated as a thing that obi-wan owned, and that can now be used as a tool to exact revenge on obi-wan (but he and maul are actually going to have a rapport, weird and fucked up as that's going to be in its own right. but at least it will be true, equal-level codependence). so he's just like "oh it's gonna be the same humiliating dehumanizing shit again but at least i'm no longer in the empire... so i'll take it 🙄" (but then it is actually different, eventually, as maul begins to see the merit of cody as simply cody)

[beastsovrevelation]

I recently found out people ship Cassandra with Apollo.

My initial reaction was...

Just tan their hides. You know what happened to her because the the bastard, don't you?..

Then, I was overwhelmed by morbid curiosity, and checked AO3. People are writing rape fics about them. ...Why?..

Could I ever see Cassandra x Apollo?.. I don't know, maybe. But, definitely not the nonsense I mentioned. Dubcon at most. I guess, he might somehow coerce her into sleeping with him, and later rescue her from the fall of Troy, because she's pregnant with his child, or something (Zeus would be pissed, I'm fine with that).

Sounds like an intriguing story, with a lot of morally questionable elements. I can imagine Apollo confiding in Artemis, wondering why his wife is so upset. She'd just go "are you serious rn?.. -_-".

...What, you're surprised I'm among those I wish to hide with a broom? Don't be. It happens quite often, actually.

[vaguely-concerned]

the ultimate act of futility it is to argue about the rightness or wrongess of the jedi and their world view only through a watsonian lens with in-universe information, without taking into consideration the doylist perspective that this is fundamentally a cosmology constructed by a guy whose self-described religious views are those of a 'buddhist methodist' who was hopped up on campbell. friends we are never going to get something entirely coherent out of this b/c what went into it wasn't either and that's fine, that tension is probably part of what makes the franchise so enduringly interesting, please stop tearing each other apart I'm so tired

[steakout-05]

as an Australian you American blokes have got to stop talking about huntsman spiders like that. don't diss my weird little lanky wallclimber friends, they're not horrible awful freaks of nature who chase you and bite you on contact. they're actually very docile and timid and they're very reluctant to bite. like, all they really want to do is hang out on your walls or your ceiling and eat bugs all day. huntsman spiders are way more likely to run away from you and go hide away in your pantry than they are to go out of their way to bite you. biting you would probably put them in even more danger than if they just ran away, and if you are messing with a huntsman spider enough for it to bite you, you were likely being an asshole to it. they do not want to bite people! they don't chase you either, not on purpose anyway. the reason it might seem like one is running towards you is because huntsman spiders have pretty bad eyesight and literally cannot see you properly. it can absolutely be frightening and jarring, yes, i would understand as i have arachnophobia and have expereniced the fear of a huntsman unintentionally jumping or sprinting towards me, but they do not want to chase you or scare you. they are trying to run away. they are in the same boat as you, they're scared out of their wits and are trying to avoid danger. huntsman spiders are not these horrible dangerous freaks, they're just little (and sometimes not so little) guys. they can be scary, but all the miconceptions about them are not warranted or deserved in the slightest! and anyway, they're not even "only in Australia". we are home to many huntsman spiders, but they are also present in Asia, Africa and some places in America. they're not even exclusive to this country so i don't get why "only in Australia" gets hurled at them a lot.

actually, the whole attitude Americans have of Australia having weird and dangerous wildlife and the same old "only in Australia!!1!! kill it with fire lol!!!!1!" reddit drivel is pretty shitty overall tbh. every continent on the damn planet has weird and dangerous wildlife, why are we acting like it's JUST Australia you should stay away from???? America has some fuckin strange animals living there, you don't see as many people making a big stupid spectacle out of that. Australia's wildlife is unique and beautiful and wonderful, no Australian wildlife slander in my notes.

[queen-scribbles]

Regardless of how I resolve the quest, this is one of my favorite exchanges on Tython😂

[amypihcs]

"Cut the poetry Watson." "You really want me to?" "... No."

HELLO! Hello, my beloved darlings! Time to actually get to Devonshire! Shall we?

Awww, Holmes accompanied them to say goodbye properly to Watson give a couple of last instructions and advice, of course, nothing more.

Most of this is 'write to me often and be very safe, my dear Watson.' They'll miss each other so, so much.

And so, to hide it, what's better than some theorizing and work even before Watson boards the train?

Watson you are much better than that, dear man! No, observe and be careful.

And be armed, and remember to sleep. And don't everextert that leg of yours, please, Watson. I'll miss you so much. - Holmes being a worried husband. Be carful y'all-

W: I miss him already. Look at how handsome he is. H: Hope he'll be careful. I miss him already

Now Watson, time to tap on your natural advantages of being able to chat and make friends!

Ah yes, some bisexual descriptions

Eager to get home, is he?

Insert some more phrenology and countryside and here we go, hop on a 'Wagonette' and up to Baskerville Hall, such a nice countrys- HEY!

What's that, why? AH A MURDERER!

And Watson knows of the case!

Uh- if this is the business...

WELL, there's the hall!

WHY! AND TEH FAMOUS BARRYMORE TOO thanks for the bisexual description, Watson

As Holmes foresaw, Sir Henry and Watson are alone at the Hall.

AH! And even the Butler wants to get himself out of the way ASAP

awww, sweet puppy you are, sir henry<3

Sir Henry and Watson are feeling something that hasn't escaped me either

No shit Sherlock. Oh, Well. Henry.

And now Watson going to bed. And i truly want to thank the granada production (And Jeremy and Ted) for having copied the scene by the letter from the book!

Included, of course, Watson missing Holmes.

Get ready for some handsome Ted Hardwicke GIFs because we all need them.

And maybe a bit more of Eveningwear Watson since we all deserve to see how cute he is.

He's too pretty in his shirtsleeves.

And also taking care of Sir Henry.

Remember the woman crying in the night. We'll see what happens next in few days!

[scribe-of-hael]

Tumblr from a Twitter user perspective

as someone who had Tumblr as a major site they used for a long time and then went over to Twitter. I can say Tumblr as it is fine. Perfectly fine with it reblog chains. Its how its always been and makes it unquie.

Why did i move to Twitter? Cause when Tumblr decided to not do nsfw my original blog was restricted (still is despite my appeals) and I lost motivation to continue my blog because of it.

I regret joining Twitter. I really do. It has its moments but it is just a hot garbage pool of toxic vomit everywhere. I see it 24/7 on my tl and it's so hard to escape. Not to mention that it is IMPOSSIBLE to find art on twt or anything really at all.

Tumblr is a place where I look up what I want and I fucking find it. I love reblog chains that's like the whole way we communicate? Where the best memes come from, other ppl building ontop of another. Its a sense of community and connection i missed from this place.

Twitter is so- fucking hollow and it feels like despite having akot of followers no one is there. I'm sure other Twitter users who are cretaors could agree. Hell major artists that were in Twitter said they felt better coming back ot to Tumblr.

Yes it takes a minute to get adjusted to the site but it doesn't take that long at all. It doesn't make sense to bow to new comers cause I can assure you, if Tumblr is in the red. Twt users are not gonna save you. Absolutely not. The reason twt users are even coming here is BECAUSE of the stupid bulkshit Elon Musk keeps making over there. Making changes of the core functions of the site (take fucking notes Tumblr), breaking it and making just so anti user friendly.

Tumblr doesn't need go conform. It need to lean into it's strengths that make it different and BETTER than the other sites. It hasn't survived this long for no reason. If its struggling you need to ask your USERBASE what they think you could improve. Cause right now. This ain't it.

I'm honestly surprised there isn't talk of a strike or tag of some sort to voice our discontent for this rn. It is Tumblr.