#I'm literally so sorry this is my only contribution to the GO fandom

[martianbugsbunny]

A.Z. Fell? More like A.Z. Sauntered Vaguely Downwards

[chloeangelic]

thank you and goodbye 💗

I've made the decision to leave Tumblr and continue posting on AO3 instead (including my ongoing series, ie SWID, TMWH and SFTD). I am not deactivating - all my posted works will stay up, but you won't be seeing me here at all, I'm sorry.

I can't stay in a community where people are so concerned with avoiding drama that they're willing to stand around and watch someone get bullied and harassed until they no longer feel welcome here. I understand not wanting to post about it in fear of getting harassed yourself, but that shouldn't stop you from reaching out to the person involved and asking what's true and not. You're still welcome to message me for clarification if you wish.

I wanted so badly to just ignore it and move on but I'm not made of stone. I can't scroll the feed anymore without wondering who thinks I'm a terrible person based on claims that were admitted to being fabricated. I haven't talked shit, I haven't lied, I haven't manipulated, I haven't done anything I've been accused of and neither has Iris. This has been insulting and awful for both of us, and there's been almost zero repercussions for the people starting this drama.

If you have no idea what I'm taking about, please read this post. If you contributed to this through spreading rumors, trashing me in group chats, vagueposting about me, or reblogging nasty posts/anons about me - congrats, you've bullied someone on the internet. Do you feel better about yourself now?

The only way I can continue posting fic is unfortunately by removing myself from what has become an incredibly toxic environment, which is disappointing and shocking to see from a fandom full of grown adults.

So to my readers and the friends I've made here - I love you with all my heart, and I can't thank you enough for your support. My casual readers, my reply guys, you have given me the gift of writing, which has been so healing for me and something I hope to keep doing for a long time to come. I want to stay in touch with you and I want you to be able to continue reading my stuff, so you have a few options.

I will be posting on my AO3 account also called chloeangelic. If you subscribe to me there, you'll get emails when I upload. If you don't have an AO3 user, message me on discord @ chloeangelic and I will personally send you the link when I've posted to whichever series you're interested in. ETA: I tried to make a new account to message with people but tumblr shadowbanned it, so discord will be the only way to get in contact with me.

I might come back one day, but right now, going on the dash literally gives me a stomach ache and I don't see that changing in the near future. I have high enough self esteem to know that I don't deserve to get treated the way I have, and I need to go where I'm celebrated, not just tolerated.

All my love + I hope to see you over on AO3,

Chloe

[lookupthewordjokeinthedictionary]

Sorry to post something more than drawings and this might be an incoherent post but,, everyone has touched on it without actually linking their very similar ideas together, so I wanted to do that for all of you. If it wasn't clear, I will be talking about Sanders Sides.

The importance of every side is a very nuanced subject that barely gets touched on anymore by the fandom. @beauty-and-passion has made a lot of very good analyses, theories and headcannons about the sides and you should definitely check her posts out.

However what I don't understand is how everyone can touch on the importance of Virgil without actually linking every piece together. It had always been confusing to me (ever since I joined the fandom in 2018) what the sides can do and what they can feel. I now understand that what they feel has nothing to do with what they can do, for Thomas. Virgil, despite being anxiety, can feel happiness, can have empathy, can be logical. He understands all the points made by Logan once they're explained to him in a way he can understand.

A lot of people have also talked about ego, id and superego, and how Freud's theory on them is supported by Sanders Sides. I won't go on too much detail but basically, ego is the logical part of your brain, superego is the moral part of your brain and id is the creative part. You can see how that beautifully ties in with Sanders Sides.

However a lot of people have written about how anxiety and your fight or flight can be used as a weapon for self care. Anxiety is a fight or flight response, so it obviously can get you out of harming situations (see: aa part 2). Anxiety can also worsen intrusive thoughts, something we've seen before. But worsening them for a person means making intrusive thoughts (ehem, ehem, Remus) stronger. In AA part 2 we also saw the contribution anxiety makes to the creative process, by making (specifically) Thomas "rehearse and rehearse". Not to mention that ever since his acceptance, he has been siding with morality a lot more, because it's the fear of getting caught that stops us from breaking most laws, it's the fear of being judged (by a higher force) that stops us from being immoral ("Similarly you fear being perceived as a bad friend" -Deceit, SvS). Even Thomas himself has said that Anxiety probably plays the most crucial role, not only with the consequences being so very severe of him "ducking out", but also by his own admission ("You're the one that pushes me out of bed in the morning"). And forgive me for talking from a personal point of view, but as someone who studies science, anxiety is the drive I need to study, contributing to my overall ability to learn.

Virgil, as a lot of you have pointed out before, is one of the most character developed sides of them all. And I doubt that it's because he's so well liked by the public, and more because he is literally the driving factor of the series. Virgil isn't a "dark" side or a "light" side because, as we've seen from 'Fitting in', he can't be boxed in a specific label. He is the one who makes Creativity act, Intrusive thoughts more powerful, Morality abide, Logic work, Self care active and so so much more.

I can't wait to see how Mr. Sanders will continue the series, but I also can't wait to observe more invisible strings of all the sides to Virgil. No wonder he's that powerful, is all I'm saying.

[mwebber]

I think the biggest reason why martian appeals to me over other f1 rivalries is that mark never won a wdc. He came sososo close in 2010 but ultimately was beaten by sebastian. Brocedes, prosenna, makkinen, etc, both parties have ensured that they will go down in history. Both have achievements outside of the other. However, mark is doomed to be forgotton by history and forgotten by everyone. That is, everyone except seb. Mark's career is only defined by seb's, but it isn't the same the other way round. They're obsessed with each other and you have made me obsessed with them. Diagnosed with martian brainrot and i'm afraid it's terminal <3 sorry for the long rant

so much to unpack here... like yeah no i'm with u, it's the whole humanizing factor of "almost" with mark that first made me overcome my initial squick. christ, even just sympathizing, it's a gut-wrenching loss. and immediately it's like, how did he cope, what did he do, etc, and i won't lie and say i haven't contributed to this, but it's really just grief porn, isn't it? bleakly realistic or exaggeratedly unrealistic depending on whose take it is, but grief porn nonetheless. who's the real mark webber?

i get what you're saying, but honestly, i'd contest it. mark isn't doomed to be forgotten by history; he's there in the history books as one of australia's best, and also he's literally a world champion in endurance racing. just because he never got that f1 championship doesn't mean he didn't succeed or find fame in other areas. i think there's this idea that he was shit as an f1 driver and his only thing is getting mopped by seb, but when you look at even just the stats, mark still beats out ricciardo. MARK WEBBER is the third-best driver red bull racing has ever had, third only to seb and max.

plus, like, he's literally fine with everything. he doesn't see himself as a victim or a tragic character, the man is just. living his best life! travelling the world! meeting cool people! girlblogging on instagram! not saying this is necessarily you, but i think when one gets deep in the fandom, it's really easy to latch onto the idea of these people and the fleeting snapshots of their stories that are captured in media, and miss the person themselves.

and i'd also argue that seb's career IS defined by mark. i know multi-21 feels commonplace on tumblr dot com, but when the masses of fans think of vettel, they think of malaysia 2013. they think of red bull and 4 championships in a row. sure, haters focus on the tail end of his ferrari career or how godawful aston martin's car was, and haters often have loud voices, but oh my goodness. seb's racing legacy is so deeply entwined with mark's. i think it's reductive to wave that off for the sake of the narrative comparison.

i love that you're just getting into martian, and i love the renaissance that's happening where people are finding their footholds with the ship and exploring the two of them, because there are a great many treasures to find! just be wary of falling into the larger fanon, i guess is what i'm trying to say. this ship has had over a decade to marinate and both seb and mark have had their identities and stories boxed into one-liners like the ones you've described. what else is there? that's where the gold is.

[ascendancyzine]

Contributor Spotlight: CountessLamont!

WRITER Name: JediHlaalu / Hlaalu Tumblr: @jedihlaalu AO3: CountessLamont

Hi, I'm Hlaalu! I've been a Star Wars fan since my parents took me to see the special editions in theaters in 1997. My college roomomate and I had a star wars "shrine" in our dorm room with all of our action figures, posters, and a yoda pillow. I've made some of my best friends in this fandom, been writing for over a decade, marketing professionally for almost a decade, and am currently praying for a live action Sinjir Rath Velus in Andor S2.

Favorite Ascendancy Character? Ziinda! I think she has the best character arc. And watching her go from the hothead in Greater Good to the only one able to calm Roscu down in Lesser Evil is just *chefs kiss*.

Favorite Star Wars book / tv show / movie? Sorry chiss fans - the Aftermath Trilogy (and Sinjir Rath Velus and Sid Uddra of course) will always have my heart. THEN it's the Ascendancy Trilogy (Sinjir/Conder OTP <3).

Why (or what) are you contributing to the zine? I'll be writing about Ziinda and probably the Grayshrike fam because they deserve infinitely more love than they usually get <3 (I also named one of my cats after Ziinda :D)

Are you elsewise active in a star wars community that you'd like to highlight? I'm a mod over in the Chiss Ascendancy Discord (link). Come join us and hang out!

Fun Facts?: "Countess Lamont" is the protagonist in my fantasy novel! Also, I have an ISD Chimaera tattoo that I've forbidden myself from having finished until I get into the 501st (which -- hopefully soonish ... we'll see). PS: if you've read any fic on AO3 with Sid Uddra in it, it was literally all me. Please someone else get obsessed with this BAMF so I can read stuff about her I didn't write XD Art by @grand-admiral-lawn for JediHlaalu

[linkspooky]

Hello! Is it alright if I ask for writing help? This idea has been shuffling around my head for a few months now. I really want to solidify this idea but I'm struggling to figure which fandom to place him in. They don't have big motivations, no "I want to save everyone" or "I want to live a meaningful life". They're motivated by day to day things, like "I want to buy that new game" and "I want to have sushi for dinner". However this OC is also a big coward, and refuses to give his life for anyone but himself. Essentially, "I am me, I exist. And I want to keep existing."

I'm tempted to put him in JJK, but given the themes of it I don't think he'd last long. Or even be that powerful, if this isn't your thing please ignore and I'm sorry for bothering you!

So I can't really write your own characters for you, so to try to give you advice, I'll describe the process of how I came to create Michikatsu Gojo, my favorite OC that I've written for my Nobody Dies Au.

The first thing before you even start is you can't afraid to have your character be a part of the world. You especially can't be afraid of having your character interact with canon characters. That is literally the point of fanfiction to put the canon characters in made up scenarios. Your own ocs can be one such device for putting characters into scenarios.

People always say they hate reading ocs in fic, but what they really mean is they hate reading bad ocs. Often I think the problem is people are too afraid to make their ocs plot important, so they turn into nothing burger characters. Why is this character here if they don't add something to the story? Or they intentionally flatten their ocs because they're too afraid of taking attention away from the canon characters.

The best thing to do is just let your ocs interact with canon characters. Let them be plot important. It's alright as long as they contribute something to the original story you're trying to tell. If you want your imaginary little guy to interact with Yuji and Co go for it.

I usually get the feedback of "I don't usually like Ocs, but I like yours." I'm sure there are people who don't like how much I use Ocs in my fanfics, but I assume if it's against their personal taste they just don't read. At some point you just have to accept that either people will like your story choices or they won't.

So that out of the way the first thing is to try to find a place in the story you want to tell, whether it's just a brainfic, or an actual fic you want to write out. With Michi I started out with "I want to do backstory for Gojo Satoru. Gege is never going to tell us anything of substance about the Gojo clan so I'm going to make up my own."

So I created Michikatsu. Gojo's cousin. Someone who grew up in the Gojo clan alongside Gojo. However, while Gojo was blessed and spoiled, Michikatsu because he wasn't born with a good technique was reviled. They are both shaped by the corruption of the Gojo clan albeit in opposite ways. They are connected, and are technically family but in a distant way. Michikatsu is a cousin, he's not a sibling. They did know each other growing up but you couldn't say they were childhood friends or anything. Michiktasu is the foil to Gojo, Gojo is blessed and Michikatsu is curssed, Gojo is strong and Michikatsu is weak.

They also have very different ideologies. Gojo only values strength and only takes an interest in strong people. Michikatsu believes that there's a strength in weak people trying and struggling to live their lives even if they're not strong like Gojo or like Yuji. Gojo is recruiting strong kids to his child army, Michikatsu wants to spare weak children like Junpei, Mimiko and Nanako etc.

So Michikatsu is basically crafted entirely around Gojo to be his shadow and his foil. His main plot purpose is to further characterize Gojo, shed light on his backstory, and inform you of certain things about Gojo by contrasting and comparing to Michi.

The next thing is to try to focus in on the central idea of your character. Characters are just ideas after all. Michi's central theme is motherhood. His central philosophy is that there are no bad children. Therefore there are no bad victims. His goal is to become a teacher like Gojo, but unlike Gojo who wants to teach children sorcery Michi wants to teach them math. Unlike Gojo who wants to reform the sorcery world, Michi wants to take his little family and run away from the sorcery world entirely. Gojo takes in strong students, Michi wants to protect weak children. Gojo can't save bad victims while Michi believes that no children are truly bad so he always saves the bad victims.

I know I'm making it sound like Michi is a better person that Gojo, but like, Michi hung around with Geto and he was fine with Geto murdering people and only drew the line at murdering children. Gojo sacrifices the few to save the many. Michi can only save a few people, and isn't powerful enough to stop the deaths of many people.

Michi also doesn't really care. If a child dies right in front of him he'll care. If a hundred people die, as long as they're not children he wouldn't really care.

So you could really just have a character motivated by only the small things in life. "I want sushi for dinner" is valid. Miwa and Kusakabe both don't have any grander motivations or notions of being a sorcerer it's just a shitty job for both of them. I think your character could be like a person who's like "Well, I can't kill myself because I want to see a new episode of the anime next week." That's as valid a motivation to live as anyone else.

Of course you have to come up with curse technique after that, and remember that curse technique should be a metaphor for personality. Michikatsu's curse technique is mind controlling people and turning corpses into puppets, because Michi has had to learn to become a manipulative person in order to survive. Gojo's technique makes it impossible for anyone to touch him because he believes he's truly above everyone to the point of not being able to interact with the world or being understood by other people.

Character design wise I also wanted Michikatsu to compare and contrast with Gojo. Gojo is albino and pale as possible, Michikatsu is brown skinned, has brown hair, but otherwise similiar face shape and hair to Gojo. They're both unnaturally tall and thin. Gojo is someone who is the ideal of jujutsu Society and fits the mold perfectly, whereas Michi is someone who'd be discriminated against because he's biracial. He's immediately identifiable as different.

I'd also say that I made Michi openly queer, because Gojo is queer too but it's relegated to subtext in the story. Gojo has the most queer relationship with Geto ever but they never say it out loud. Michi is just, he's bigender. He is a woman. He uses He / She pronouns interchangably. He'll show up in suits and dresses. He'll be dressed like a man and be like "Damn, I am a gorgeous woman." He only sleeps with men, but it's okay, if you're a straight man you can still be straight and sleep with him because he's a woman. He will adopt you and be your mommy if you want him too.

When it comes to making a character, what's most important of all is making all the details of that character reinforce that central idea, or at least characterize them further. That's the best advice I can give you.

[panharmonium]

Hi! I love your Naruto thoughts and meta posts with all my heart and I want to ask your thoughts on something that has been on my mind literally since I was 13: what do you think about the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura? I went from being a hardcore shipper when I was a teenager, to being against any romantic relationship in Naruto after finishing the anime when I was in my early twenties. Nowadays I'm very into platonic love and depictions of friendship and I think the anime's obsession with forcing the "romantic interest" curse upon the main female character robbed us of... so much. There are a few wonderful moments in the anime where Sasuke and Sakura acknowledge each other, but because she's always "the girl with the crush", her actions are so often interpret as irrational or selfish by the fandom.

Hi @riemmetric!  It's great to talk to you again! Sorry it's taken me so long to answer this; RL has been making demands of me lately and it took me way longer to finish writing this up than I wanted it to (then again, I knew from the minute I read your original ask that my reply was going to get long, so I suppose I should have predicted a delay XD)

It's funny, my sister once asked me to choose between Sasuke or Sakura for an “unpopular opinion” meme, and I ended up doing Sasuke solely because I think the negative fandom opinions about Sakura are so unhinged and divorced from the actual text that I wouldn’t even know where to start.  People are entitled to dislike whatever characters they want, obviously, but there are some fandom takes that are, for me, so obviously rooted in bad faith viewings/readings that there’s no urge in me to discuss them.  That said, since you asked, I’m happy to go into my own thoughts on this a bit, with the disclaimer for other potential readers that I only write about fandom things for my own personal enjoyment, not as a contribution to The Discourse. If you don’t like Sakura, great!  I have no interest in changing your mind. Please consider this a sincere invitation to scroll on by and go enjoy whatever parts of the fandom appeal to you.

In general terms: I love Sasuke and Sakura’s relationship as much as I love all of the relationships in Team 7.  If we’re talking about them specifically as a romantic couple, then I probably fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum, because I do like them together in a post-canon (to be clear: non-Boruto) setting, after time has passed and they’ve continued to develop individually and reconnect with each other, but I also wouldn’t exactly call myself an intense “shipper,” in the sense that I have no interest in pulling things out from the text and incorrectly citing them as evidence that Sasuke has hidden romantic feelings for her during the canon period. He cares about her in the canon period, just like he cares about Naruto and Kakashi.  That’s not up for interpretation; it’s the text.  But Sasuke during the canon time period does not demonstrate specifically romantic interest in anyone.  

[A note before people who might ship Sasuke with Someone Else emerge to rail against this statement - please just scroll past and continue enjoying fandom in whatever way is most fun for you. It is cool to ship whatever fanon thing you want; I think that’s great!  But earnestly citing any loving or emotional thing Sasuke does re: various characters in this story (yes, Sakura included) as indicative of specifically romantic love isn’t supported by the text. I know there are always going to be enormous subsets of any fandom who insist that it is, and I'm certainly not going to barge into anyone else's space to complain about that (because other people having fun together is harmless and none of my business), but I'm not obligated to indulge it on my own blog, either.]

Anyway, that said - the reason why I love Sakura and Sasuke’s relationship (from here on out I’ll use “relationship” in a general, non-romantic sense) is precisely because Sakura isn’t just “the girl with the crush.” Sakura has an arc when it comes to Sasuke, and its trajectory moves in the exact opposite direction of “irrational” or “selfish.”  She specifically goes from “the girl with the crush” to “the girl who steels herself and tries to put her personal feelings for Sasuke aside for the greater good” to “the girl who knows she can’t put her feelings aside, but who also knows full well that Sasuke doesn’t reciprocate them, and who still wants to save him regardless, because he matters to her as a person and a friend.”

[I'm putting the rest of this under a cut to save everyone's dash, and also to emphasize once again that this is a personal post on my personal blog which I wrote in response to a question from a personal acquaintance, the full content of which no one is obligated to read. I am not sending this post to random strangers and forcing them to look at it. I'm not even putting it in the character tags. I'm typing it up on my own blog and putting it under a cut. If you already know that you don't like Sakura, but you still click the link/read the post and then feel an urge to comment and complain, I am going to copy-paste this disclaimer and remind you that I specifically recommended that you scroll past and go have fun with fandom in your own way. Thanks in advance for responsibly curating your own fandom experience!]

So, from the top:

1. the girl with the crush

Sakura is, obviously, completely obsessed with Sasuke at the beginning of Part 1.  She’s also deeply clueless about him and his history (bizarre though it is, the story seems to indicate that she initially doesn’t know what happened with his family, the same way young!Obito is initially clueless about Kakashi’s father).  But what I like about Sakura and Sasuke’s Part 1 relationship is how this changes over time.

The critical scene that kicks this off happens right at the beginning of the manga, when she and Sasuke are talking by that bench - she complains about Naruto and blames his behavior on him being all alone/having no family to scold him; and even says she’s jealous that he doesn’t have parents to nag him all the time.  This obviously triggers an outburst from Sasuke, who tells her she has no idea what loneliness means and that she “makes him sick”/she’s “annoying” (importantly, the exact same thing Sakura said to Naruto in anger earlier that day), which in turn prompts Sakura to reassess herself and wonder whether she’s been making Naruto feel this terrible all the time, too:

From that point on, it’s a process of her putting little pieces together.  She still has a MAJOR crush, and she still acts like a twelve year-old, but as we approach the end of Part I, Sakura actually has a more accurate grasp on Sasuke’s current state of mind than Naruto does.  Naruto is initially excited to fight Sasuke on top of the hospital, because he feels like Sasuke’s finally acknowledging him, whereas Sakura is the one who immediately recognizes that something is wrong about this situation.  She is also the one who, after this fight, is concerned that Sasuke is really unwell and might do something drastic like run off in pursuit of the power Orochimaru promised him, but when she communicates this to Naruto, he assures her that this would NEVER happen:

(Sakura isn't convinced, though, because she goes to monitor the exit out of the village anyway.)

I’m not criticizing Naruto for his response here.  I ADORE hearing him say that Sasuke is too strong to need Orochimaru, with such perfect confidence - I love seeing how much respect and admiration he has for Sasuke underneath all their fighting, because that’s the whole reason he’s always baiting Sasuke and yelling at him and claiming “you're not so great!” He looks up to Sasuke; he wants to be like Sasuke; he thinks Sasuke is awesome! (It’s that Obito @ Kakashi behavior, you know?) But the fact remains that he is clueless about what’s actually going on with Sasuke in Part 1, and he remains clueless(ly optimistic) for a long time.  

(Eg, when he catches up to Sasuke during the retrieval arc and Sasuke climbs out of that cursed seal coffin, Naruto waves at him and calls "Come on, let's go!" as if Sasuke has been successfully rescued and is now going to come running home.  Even in Part II, when Naruto hears that Sasuke killed Orochimaru, he beams and immediately says, “So he must be on his way back to the Leaf Village!”  And everyone else in the room is like, “....,” because they know better.  Naruto doesn’t yet fully understand [or doesn't want to accept] the extent to which Sasuke has willingly chosen this path, and it’s not until after Jiraiya’s death/the Pain attack/the Five Kage Summit that Naruto really starts to understand Sasuke more clearly, which is something he himself admits.)

Sakura, in Part 1, has access to more information about Sasuke - she’s there for his first dissociative monologue during the bells test, she’s there for the curse mark’s placement, she’s there for his first violent transformation in the Forest of Death - she is, in fact, the unwitting catalyst for it (“Sakura…who did this to you?”), and her compassion is the reason Sasuke is later able to overcome the curse mark’s influence - so she has a more accurate/complete picture of “how he’s doing,” for lack of a better phrase, whereas Naruto, who doesn’t know about the curse mark in the first place, is still in the dark.  This means that Sakura is able to accurately discern that Sasuke is struggling more than Naruto realizes, and specifically to predict that he’s going to run away.  

(This dynamic is then interestingly flipped in the back half of Part II, since at any point after the Five Kage Summit, Sakura doesn’t have access to extremely relevant [if currently questionable and unproven] details that would in any other circumstance inform her behavior).

Of course, just because she has more info in Part 1 doesn’t mean she has some kind of miraculous insight into Sasuke’s every thought and feeling.  There are parts of her attempt to convince Sasuke to stay in the village that are as clueless as any of Naruto’s assumptions, and they showcase the kind of magical thinking common to childhood - like when she says that if he stayed with her, she could give him happiness, she’d do anything for him, even help him get his revenge - this idea that she herself can do something to make him feel better, that she can love him powerfully enough to defeat his pain - obviously none of that is rooted in realism.

Is this part of her approach irrational and immature and inadvertently self-centered?  Of course it is!  But it’s no more irrational and immature and inadvertently self-centered than Naruto’s stated plan to drag Sasuke back to the village even if he has to “break every bone in [his] body!” 

Hating on Sakura for her Part 1 attempt to convince Sasuke to stay in the village while simultaneously lauding Naruto for his feels like a bad faith misread of what is, to me, pretty clear narrative intention.  The story doesn’t at any point intend for us to see her begging him to stay as a selfish or conniving attempt to get something she wants.  She’s begging him to stay for the same underlying reason that Naruto is: she cares about him.  She thinks he’s making a mistake that will only cause him more pain in the end (she’s right) and she wants to make it so he feels less pain right now (she can’t.  But she doesn’t understand that/isn’t able to admit that, and she’s willing to try ANYTHING that might help).  

It’s critical that this farewell scene is set in front of that same bench from their first important confrontation - she references that day and how angry he got at her, and this time she tells him that she understands his reaction.  She’s learned things and she recognizes how insensitive she was being back then (“I know what happened to your clan, Sasuke”), even though she still can’t fully grasp all the complexities of the situation. She tells him that him blowing up at her back then helped her understand what loneliness actually meant (as opposed to her previous shallow understanding of it), and she challenges him about his choice right now: "So that's it, you're choosing the lonely path?" And when she tells him that she'll be very lonely if he leaves, we're immediately shown a panel of Sasuke thinking of both his friends, with the very clear implication that if he goes through with this, he will be lonely without them, too - that he's still struggling with the idea of leaving them, no matter how hard he tries to pretend:

Sakura at this point knows that Sasuke isn’t interested in her the way she is in him, but she still wants to give him happiness, however fantastical and immature her ideas sound to us (and, I’m sure, to him).  “I’ll do anything, even help you get your revenge/we'll have fun every day, and...and you'll be happy! I'll make sure of it!” - of course, it’s completely childish.  It’s irrational.  It’s ridiculous to think that any of this would ever be effective, but no more ridiculous than Naruto’s belief that he can simply break every bone in Sasuke’s body and keep him in the Leaf by force.

Both Naruto and Sakura are children who have a deeply oversimplified understanding of Sasuke’s situation.  They both still think they can fix him themselves.  They both think they can save him themselves.  They both think they can convince (or force) him to do what they want, what they think is in his best interests.  Both of them don’t yet understand that he has to want to come back, if it’s ever going to mean anything.  Their attempts to keep him in the village are immature and unrealistic, yes.  What they aren’t, however, is selfish, because neither Sakura nor Naruto are doing any of this with the intention of advancing their own interests.  They’re only thinking about Sasuke - how to keep Sasuke safe, how to make Sasuke happy - even when neither of them are taking an approach that will actually work.

Naruto and Sakura are children.  They’re afraid of losing somebody they care about.  Their attempts to prevent that from happening are desperate and messy and ultimately ineffective, but they are also genuinely felt and rooted in a true desire to rescue Sasuke from his pain, which - and this is the single most important thing that should impact our viewing of Part 1 - is something that Sasuke RECOGNIZES.  He doesn’t spend that agonizingly long moment bowed over Naruto’s defeated body so we can pretend he doesn’t understand that Naruto was just trying to help him.  He doesn’t take the time to murmur, “Sakura…thank you,” before laying her out carefully on a bench, just so we can discount it and pretend that he doesn’t recognize and appreciate her genuine intention to make things better for him, however clumsy that attempt might have been.

2. the greater good

If Stage 1 Sakura is "the girl with the crush," then Stage 2 Sakura is a progression to “the girl who decides to put her feelings for Sasuke aside in order to protect innocent people, including (but certainly not limited to) Naruto.”  She’s driven to this decision by interactions with Shikamaru, who all too recently had to grow up fast himself (“We're not kids anymore...we can't allow a war to break out between the Hidden Leaf and the Hidden Cloud because of Sasuke") and Sai, who risks his new friendship with Sakura and Team 7 in order to speak some hard truths and deliver one of my favorite lines in the whole story: “I don’t know what promise Naruto made to you, but it’s really no different than what was done to me.  It’s like a curse mark.”

(INCREDIBLE.  How can anybody be complaining about a season where Sai gets to say something that goes THIS HARD and Sakura LISTENS and takes DRAMATIC ACTION that actually propels the story forward in a meaningful way - )

[Okay, yeah, brief personal opinion interlude - it is just bonkers wild to me that there are people who complain about Sakura in the Five Kage Summit arc. That entire season is the greatest character arc she ever has.  Literally she has never been more interesting and dynamic than in Season 10; it’s the first time she ever gets to be as deep and fascinating as the boys; what is everybody so worked up about?  Oh, “she lied to Naruto that one time” - Sasuke joined infant-kidnapping baby-murdering human experimentation machine Orochimaru when he was twelve years old in order to (dare I say it????) selfishly pursue his personal goals and yet, somehow, we are still able to root for him.  He abandoned his friends/allies to imprisonment and death (Suigetsu and Jūgo) or outright stabbed them in the chest himself (Karin) in order to (SELFISHLY) get what he wanted, and yet, somehow, we are still able to love him, understand him, and be on his side.  Naruto is canonically not upset with Sakura about her lie after receiving context for the situation and I think we can probably take our cues from him without feeling the need to bring her up on war crimes; please calm down]

[Sorry, I just really love most of Season 10 and think it’s one of the best examples of how good this story can be when every single character gets to do something that matters (as opposed to things being all Naruto, all the time) so I get a little bit worked up over people complaining about some of the best writing Sakura ever gets.  I don’t understand what certain elements of fandom want from her. People complain about her being “useless” and not doing anything that contributes to the story, but then they complain just as much when she does finally get to act decisively and have just as complex/dynamic an inner world as the boys.  She’s “weak” for being unreasonably in love with Sasuke, but when she tries to be “strong” and put her love for him aside and eliminate him in order to protect Naruto and the rest of the world, she’s evil, because she should have been more understanding of his situation (despite the fact that she doesn’t KNOW anything about his situation).  But then when she can’t go through with killing him after all because she cares about him too much despite the things he’s done, she’s not "compassionate" or "kind" or "a good friend," she’s “weak” again. Nothing Sakura does in S10 is more wrongheaded or rash than any of the batshit, buckwild things Naruto and Sasuke have done in the past (and will continue to do in the future), but when Naruto and Sasuke have big feelings or take bold action, it makes them interesting characters, whereas Sakura can’t breathe in anyone’s direction without being minutely scrutinized for moral impurities.]  

Anyway. Back to a more measured response.  

Every single piece of development Sakura has with regard to Sasuke in this season satisfies me so much.  Her initial shock and disbelief at hearing that Sasuke had joined the Akatsuki?  Good, appropriate.  The fact that she starts to acknowledge the reality of what Sasuke’s done sooner than Naruto does?  Also extremely appropriate, very in-character for both of them.  Her taking Sai’s words to heart and deciding that the promise she asked Naruto to make when they were children is causing him to suffer and she has to relieve him of that burden?  Juicy!  AND thematically significant (promises!!!!  the burden that a promise places on a person, especially when it can't be kept - we've seen that before in this story and we'll see it again).  Her anguished pivot from wanting to protect Sasuke to realizing that she has a responsibility to protect the countless innocents who will die because of the war he’s trying to start?  HELLO THIS IS INCREDIBLE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.  Her knocking out the classmates who agreed to help her so they don’t have to share in her burden (and so the only person Naruto will hate when it’s over is her)?  BRUH.  Her being so committed and focused on her goal of saving innocents and protecting Naruto (not just from being harmed by Sasuke/the Akatsuki, but by the possibility that Naruto will someday have to hurt Sasuke himself) that she tries to take everything on by herself and walks into a confrontation that she absolutely cannot win??  INCREDIBLE.  (Literally the first time I watched this, I said, “Finally!!!  It’s Sakura’s turn to go off the rails!”  I laughed with my sister about how Kakashi isn’t even mad, because Naruto and Sasuke have been pulling stunts like this for years and Sakura was way overdue for her own meltdown.)  And then, after Kakashi intervenes in the fight - Sakura barreling back into the battle when she realizes he’s going to take on the burden of killing Sasuke himself in order to spare her and Naruto the horror - “I can’t let Kakashi-sensei bear this burden!”  I love her for that.  

And then, of course, in the end - her not being able to do hurt Sasuke after all.  Despite committing herself to the act, despite forcing herself to put her feelings for him aside, despite resolving to stop him from starting a war and killing innocent people, she can’t harm him.  She cares about him too much.  This, too, is thematically significant - think about Itachi’s “you don’t have enough hatred” - she doesn’t have enough hatred to kill someone she cares about, even if it seems like he deserves it, even if would be the right thing to do to protect others.  She can’t do it, and Sasuke almost kills her for her compassion.  

I love the dynamic this sets up between her and Sasuke, for a few reasons:

1) Personally, I think Sasuke respects Sakura much more for trying to kill him than he would have if she’d just tried to talk him out of his behavior or beg him to come home (a la their original confrontation in Part 1).  This is the first significant interaction he’s had with Sakura in years, and the fact that she does something SO contrary to his memory of her is an important demonstration of the fact that she’s not the same girl she used to be.  Sasuke spends a lot of time after his defection declaring to his old team “I’ve changed; I’m not that person anymore,” but this is one of the moments where he’s forced to acknowledge that his teammates have changed, too.  Time didn’t just stop for them when he left.  While he was turning into someone new, so were they.  They grew up without him, and his old memories of them can’t encompass the whole picture of who they are now.  

(This is a little tangential, but in general, I love the spectrum of reactions that Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi have in this sequence, and the way that all of them are ultimately messages Sasuke needs to hear.  Sasuke - who we know textually regrets what he did here, who apologizes to Sakura for it later - for “everything,” in fact - needs Naruto’s aggressively optimistic open-arms policy, yes, needs that potential, that unconditional possibility of return.  He also needs Sakura’s refusal to let him hurt her friends and start a war that will kill thousands of people, needs her surprisingly ruthless attempt to take him down; needs just as much her failure to do so, because it shows him that she still loves him too much to kill him even as she condemns him.  And he needs Kakashi’s grim line in the sand, needs someone who very possibly won't hesitate like Sakura (despite the horrifying personal cost), someone who will try to reach him but also won't let him escape and become the next generation’s Orochimaru, who won't let him cause untold suffering to untold numbers of people just because a teacher loved him too much to stop him when he had the chance. 

(And then even Kakashi chooses not to deliver a killing blow when he has the opportunity -)

(I know that in fandom people are more likely to be all, “oh, Naruto Good, everybody else Bad,” but I don’t think the narrative frames Sakura or Kakashi as “worse” than Naruto in any way.  The story goes out of its way to make it clear how desperately they don’t want to hurt Sasuke and how much they care about him.  And [this is just my interpretation, so obviously I won’t claim it as fact], I personally think that Sasuke - Sasuke, who, looking back, can see how lost he was then and how tortured he would have been if he’d gone through with many of his plans - would be grateful to Sakura and Kakashi for making an attempt to stop him when he couldn’t stop himself.)

2) On the other side of this, the fact that Sakura wasn’t able to deliver the killing blow means a lot. Sasuke was incapacitated under that bridge; he was completely at her mercy - but she stopped with the kunai an inch from his back.  She couldn’t kill him, even though she knew that he was completely willing to kill her (because he'd attempted to Chidori-assassinate her from behind just a few minutes ago).  That’s huge!  Sasuke is too out of his head right now to process this or understand it, but later, it's going to matter.  She stayed her hand.  She spared his life.  She loved him too much to hurt him, even when he’d given her every reason to take him down.  She hesitated, and he almost killed her for it, but her inability to strike him ultimately gave him yet another chance to come home, another chance to get better, another chance to have a life outside of his pain.  Despite everything, some part of her still hadn’t really given up on him, and that knowledge will matter later, when he’s finally able to acknowledge it.  

The point of all this is to say that I really have no complaints about Sakura and Sasuke’s dynamic in their S10 confrontation.  This season is the point where Sakura fully grows past her “girl with a crush” stage and into her “shinobi must make very harsh decisions” adulthood, but it never means that she doesn’t care about the person she’s trying to take down.  Her ultimate inability to deliver the killing blow remains a dangling lifeline for her relationship with Sasuke, an open door that Sasuke is able to walk through at the end of the story (literally, in fact, when Sakura opens that portal for him and saves him from Kaguya’s desert prison, and figuratively, too, when Sasuke apologizes to her).

3. she only wants to save you

The last stage in their relationship is what Sakura settles into during the war arc.  She started off Part 1 being just a girl with a crush, then tried to harden her heart and put her feelings for Sasuke aside in service of the greater good, but she was unable to actually follow through and kill him, and because of that, what she’s come to accept by the war arc is actually two things: that 1) Sasuke truly is willing to let her die if it furthers his goals, and 2) she wants to save him anyway.  

She has no intention of pursuing Sasuke romantically.  She knows full well that Sasuke isn’t interested in her.  She even knows that Sasuke isn’t really on their side (there’s a great scene where Sai questions Sakura about Sasuke’s return, and she reassures him that everything is fine, and Sai sadly thinks to himself “even I can tell your smile is fake”).  She’s well-aware that Sasuke didn’t try to help her when Madara stabbed her.  She’s well-aware that he left her to die in the lava pit.  She’s also well-aware that none of this is enough to make her stop loving him.  He doesn’t have to care about her - she still cares about him.  She still wants to help him.  She still wants to save him.

This is not hidden, hard-to-parse character development.  It’s explicitly articulated on the page:

Sakura’s not trying or wanting to make you hers!  She only wants to save you.

I’m not sure if people look at this last confrontation and unquestioningly take Sasuke at his word (as if we haven’t just read 71 volumes/watched 700 episodes showing us how how painfully distorted his thinking is), or if they stop reading/watching before the end of the scene, or if they don’t understand that Sasuke saying something doesn’t make that statement an accurate representation of reality.  The entire point of this scene is to show us how deeply mistaken Sasuke is about Sakura (and, by extension, the rest of Team 7).  He’s locked into a false pattern of thinking.  His single-minded focus on revenge and destruction has blinded him to the unconditional love his friends feel for him; he’s become so accustomed to using others and being used that he can’t understand or accept that someone would care about him without needing a reason, without needing him to love them back, without needing to receive something from him in exchange.

Sakura’s not trying or wanting to make you hers!  She only wants to save you.

Sasuke matters to Sakura as more than a love interest.  He always has.  She does love him romantically, yes, but she doesn’t only love him romantically, and her desire to help him is not and has never been contingent on him returning her feelings, romantically or otherwise.  Sasuke isn’t able to acknowledge that in this scene, but that doesn’t mean we’re supposed to just sit back and agree with his warped perspective.  Kakashi is the one who’s explicitly positioned as the voice of the narrative here.  We, as the audience, are supposed to recognize that Kakashi is the one telling us the truth.

[tangential thing 1: You don’t have to love Sakura's last plea to Sasuke here. It’s not my favorite, either - the best part, other than Kakashi’s speech at the end, is the moment after Kakashi collapses when Sakura’s expression changes from pained uncertainty to pure rage, when she grits her teeth together - when I first saw that, I almost leapt out of my seat like “Oh my god.  She’s finally going to let him have it.  It’s finally happening - ”  I wanted that so badly, and I still think it would have been a more effective writing choice for Sakura’s last words to lean more into her anger at the suffering Sasuke is causing all of them (himself included!) and less into yet another of Kishimoto’s “let me have Sakura articulate what a shame it is that she can’t do as much as Naruto despite the fact that I literally just went through a major reveal sequence in the war to show that she’s caught up to the boys; I can’t make up my mind about whether I want her to progress or not” - it’s extremely frustrating (and it's something he does at the very end of the S10 Team 7 reunion, too, which is the ONLY moment of S10 that falls flat for me).  But at the same time, even if there are ways this sequence could be more satisfying, it doesn’t change the fact that her plea to him is not remotely motivated by a desire to be with him romantically and not anything to condemn her for.]

[tangential thing 2: I do like how she remembers that moment when Sasuke says “Thank you.”  That panel precedes her saying “If there’s even a tiny corner of your heart that thinks about me…” (which I’m sure is one of the things that people like to criticize about this scene, aka “oh she’s sooooo self-centered” etc), but that particular line of dialogue is preceded by that particular flashback panel for a reason: Sakura knows that Sasuke DOES think about her.  He thinks about all of them.  Sakura remembers that “thank you,” and it reminds her that despite everything Sasuke has done and said since, despite all evidence to the contrary, she knows in her bones that his expression of gratitude back then was genuine.  He cared about her once.  He cared about all of them.  She’s trying to reach the part of him that still does, if it exists.]

[tangential thing 3: The fact that Kakashi says “she suffers from loving you,” and it triggers Sasuke to remember his own family - thinking about how much he suffered (and still suffers) from loving them - “Perhaps…those are the ties to a failed past” - the idea that it’s not worth it to have bonds if it means you suffer this much…that it’s too difficult, it’s too painful, and if Sakura and the rest of Team 7 were smarter they would just give it up (all Sasuke knows how to do now is sever potential bonds before they can hurt him; so why aren’t Sakura and the rest of his teammates doing that, why can’t they let it go, why are they making this so hard - ) << yeah, he clearly doesn't care about her/them at all.]

4. the shadow of my family

This has all been a really long way to answer the original question, but the short response to “What do you think about the relationship between Sasuke and Sakura?” is “I really care about it,” just like I really care about the relationship between Sasuke and Naruto, just like I really care about the relationship between Sasuke and Kakashi. And I don’t think the story ever asks me to choose between them.

I’m not sure whether it’s the impact of Boruto-era “canon” that gets in the way of other people approaching things this way (I don’t consider sequel material when I evaluate the original story), or if it’s Kishimoto’s frequent disinterest in/disrespect towards female characters, which yes, does sometimes make it harder, or if it's a shipping thing (bane of my existence), or some combination of factors, but for me, taking one member of Team 7 out of the equation hobbles the rest of the story.  I can’t read/watch Naruto while hating one of the protagonists and loving the other three.  It doesn’t work like that for me.  The story wasn’t written that way, and there’s nothing in the text that would cause me to receive it that way.

That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with disliking one of the main foursome (or any character, for that matter) - obviously we're all going to have different preferences, and everyone is free to enjoy or reject whatever parts of a story they want, or to like or dislike whatever characters they want. I know that some people have more fun disregarding canon and doing their own thing, which is fine.  My own personal zone of enjoyment comes from receiving the story as closely to how I think it was intended to be read as I can, and personally, when I look at this particular story, what I see is that all the members of Team 7 clearly demonstrate their love for Sasuke in ways that he himself later recognizes and acknowledges. All of them are driven by their desire to save him and their unwillingness to hurt him. All of them make repeated choices to chase after him when he runs away, to trust him when he hasn't exactly earned it, to give him another chance when he doesn't appear to deserve it. ALL of them, not just Naruto, do these things multiple times throughout the story, and Sasuke owes his life (and thus his eventual recovery) to ALL of them, many times over. Kakashi disobeys Hokage-elect Danzō and breaks the law to negotiate for Sasuke's life with a foreign head of state. Sakura and Kakashi both have opportunities to kill Sasuke in the Land of Iron, and they choose to spare him instead. Kakashi stops Sasuke from killing his only friends at two different points in the story, which would have been a mistake Sasuke couldn't have recovered from. Sasuke would have died in Kaguya's desert dimension if Sakura hadn't saved him (Sakura, who knew that Sasuke wasn't even truly on her side yet, who knew he'd abandoned her for dead multiple times already that day). Kaguya's bone bullet would have killed Sasuke too, if Kakashi, with his intention to die in Sasuke's place, hadn't leapt in front of it (Kakashi, who also knew that Sasuke wasn't fully on their side yet, who also knew that Sasuke had abandoned him for dead earlier that day). Sasuke and Naruto would have BOTH died in the Final Valley if Sakura and a severely injured Kakashi hadn't chased after them to heal their injuries.

Remove any one member of Team 7, and Sasuke never makes it home. Without the combined efforts of all three of his teammates, he doesn't survive.  That’s the way it should be, thematically, for a story whose first and most foundational premise was the importance of teamwork, and since Sakura was just as essential to that framework as everyone else, I’m just as invested in her relationship with Sasuke as I am in his relationship with everyone else.  You can’t remove one leg from a four-legged stool without damaging the integrity of the entire structure, and for me, discounting any single member of Team 7 irreparably damages the integrity of the entire story. 

TL;DR: I love all of the Team 7 relationships, including Sakura and Sasuke's, because despite what some segments of fandom seem to believe, the text of the story never gives me any reason not to.

[wylanslcve]

Something I don't see anyone speak about (if you have and I just haven't seen it... I'm sorry :( ) is how Wylan not only reclaims his identity by the duology's conclusion, but he also reclaims Marya's. I feel like we as a fandom overlook just how much J*n put Marya through in an attempt to erase Wylan from the public memory: he had her declared insane as a grounds for divorce and institutionalised her, leaving her "abandoned along with her defective child" in order to "forever rid himself of any evidence that Wylan had existed". This transcended to J*n not allowing Wylan to grieve his mother's 'death' because, as he put it, "it didn’t pay to dwell on the past" - and Wylan tells Jesper that J*n never brought Marya up after breaking the news of her finality to his son, confessing "we just stopped talking about her".

What we also need to remember is that the Van Eck mansion "had belonged to Wylan’s mother’s family for generations before Van Eck had ever set foot through the door". (Edit: I didn't mean to write that the mansion belonged to the Hendriks - it was part of the property under the Van Eck name. Sorry about that!) Just like how J*n separated Wylan from his mother, he simultaneously took so much from Marya - first her home, then her name, her fortune, her own child. This is why Marya was admitted as Marya Hendriks, not Marya Van Eck: this is J*n quite literally stripping her of her name to permanently erase her from the public memory. The nurse addresses Marya as "Miss Hendriks", to which Marya mutters "Van Eck" in response, because "she was not Marya Hendriks, she was Marya Van Eck, a wife and mother stripped of her name and her fortune." So why is it that Wylan says, "I am Marya Hendriks' son" if Marya Hendriks is the woman who's left after Marya Van Eck had her name and her life taken away from her? Because this is Wylan reclaiming his mother's identity.

If we examine the moment Wylan visits his mother at Saint Hilde, Marya's first words to him are "did you come for my money? I don’t have any money" to which Wylan replies that he doesn't have any money either. The money neither of them have comes to signify the lack of autonomy they have over their identities, which have spent so long confined by J*n's contempt as he gradually works towards making them vanish entirely. J*n tried desperately to erase Marya's memory as a means of gradually erasing Wylan's - however, Wylan is the only one who keeps his mother's memory alive, just like how Marya keeps her son's alive. Upon arriving in the Barrel, Wylan detaches himself from his father's name and, instead, uses his mother's maiden name. Yes, he's doing it to not draw attention to himself (because what would the child of one of the richest men in Ketterdam be doing in a place like the Barrel?), but he's also preserving Marya's memory, clinging to it like a lifeline without even realising it. In a way, it's saving him.

Before I go on any further, I'm taking a brief detour to discuss the transition in Wylan's motivations upon discovering what really happened to his mother (it's relevant, I promise). Wylan completely breaking down when he realises that his father is indeed evil is such a pivotal moment that marks a major transition in his motivations. Jesper comforts Wylan during his breakdown, assuring him that "Kaz is going to tear your father’s damn life apart" - a sentiment that "felt like cool water cascading over the hot, shameful feeling of helplessness he’d [Wylan] been carrying with him for so long". His continued contribution to the Dregs’ mission is no longer about making the money to “get out of town and never speak the name Van Eck again” - now, he's "here for her". Now, it's about punishing his father, saving Marya and returning all J*n took from her: “what am I doing here? But he knew the answer. Only he could see his father punished for what he’d done. Only he could see his mother free.” He realises that J*n's life falling apart means that, with his money, "he could take his mother from this place. They could go somewhere warm. He could put her in front of a piano, get her to play, take her somewhere full of bright colors and beautiful sounds. They could go to Novyi Zem. They could go anywhere." He could save her, liberate her from the confines of J*n's contempt - and only he can do it, because who else would?

Meanwhile, Marya clings to the memories of her child even though J*n took him away from her. While institutionalised, Marya would paint - and in her paintings, "repeated again and again, was the face of a little boy with ruddy curls and bright blue eyes". We know that J*n wanted Wylan to disappear "the way he’d made Wylan’s mother disappear" - what we don't know, however, is what J*n told Marya during the time she was institutionalised. Did he visit her after sending Wylan away, supposedly to study music in Belendt, to tell her that Wylan is dead? Did he ever visit her before then and tell her that her son is dead to expunge his memory from Marya? We can only speculate - but what we do know is that, regardless of whether or not she thinks he's dead, Marya is grieving the loss of her child.

Something that Wylan fears if the Dregs’ mission is unsuccessful is that he’s “going to die and there will be no one to help her. No one to even remember Marya Hendriks” - and the same could be said about Marya’s feelings of responsibility for preserving the spirit of her child. Amidst her grief is the strive to save him and his memory, because she’s really the only one who’s willing to remember him. At the asylum, her paintings are thrown out “every six months” because “there just isn’t enough space for them” - but that doesn’t stop her from continuing to paint the face of her child and, thus, remembering him, making sure he doesn't disappear. Wylan confesses to Jesper that his parents “fought all the time, sometimes about me”, revealing how Marya has always fought for Wylan - and her being institutionalised, having her paintings thrown out every so often, won’t put an end to her fighting for him. She's hellbent on ensuring he doesn't vanish, because there’s no one else who would. (Think of this in relation to the meaning behind “no mourners, no funerals” - if Wylan disappeared, “no one would come looking”, as is the case with the rest of the Crows.)

Now, let's examine how, by the end of the duology, Wylan not only liberates himself from the pain caused by his father's wrongdoings, but also saves his mother. He'd "chosen to use a portion of his newfound wealth to restore his home", exemplifying how inheriting his father's fortune represents him reclaiming his identity from the pain and abuse J*n's contempt inflicted upon him. However, I mentioned earlier that the Van Eck mansion didn't actually belong to the Van Ecks in the first place - it belonged to the Hendriks. (Edit: again, not the mansion, but part of the property under the Van Eck name.) Thus, Wylan's position by the end of Crooked Kingdom also comes to represent him reclaiming his mother's identity as he returns everything J*n took from her. By "restor[ing] his home", he's also restoring Marya's.

[alchemical-rhapsodaire]

Recently, I've only reblogged posts that speak about the matter, but this is genuinely heartbreaking so I'm choosing to speak up about it here.

First of all, I'm not Brazilian and I don't have twitter, so I can only imagine the pain and fear all the xenophobia and racism the Brazilian community is facing right now. The Brazilian community, at least on Tumblr, are some of the kindest people I've interacted with online and learning about your language and culture has genuinely made this fandom experience so fun and enjoyable. NOBODY deserves to receive any form of hate simply because of your identity. You shouldn't have to be living in fear or be driven out from a platform or a fandom simply because of where your from.

I am extending my heart and giving all my love to the Brazilian community and the CC's that have been through shit and are going through literal hell right now just to receive basic kindness and respect in this community. People have been trying to dig up dirt on Brazilian CC's to justify the hate they're sending to the community, which is just fucking disgusting. This has been going on for MONTHS and has ruined/still is ruining lives to this day. Cellbit should not have had to justify his sexuality for the internet or publicize (words cannot describe) his very traumatic past just to appease a bunch of strangers on the fucking internet.

The QSMP is supposed to unite people of all languages and cultures and create a safe community for all people to engage in regardless of their language or background. It's insane how a lot of people missed the fucking point of the project. If you have been/are being racist or xenophobic to any community regardless of if they are part of the QSMP or not, know that you are not welcome in this fandom and in this space. It's disgusting and ridiculous that so many people are living in fear due to receiving so much hate simply for who they are, where they're from, the language they speak, etc.

If you have been/are being racist or xenophobic, get the fuck out of this community and don't return until you've learned how to be a decent human being. If you can't extend the most basic form of respect or kindness to other people then I seriously hope you get help and reflect on your actions and learn to be a decent fucking person.

It hurts that we must have these discussions and that many people/communities have to beg to be heard and respected in this fandom.

I am so sorry and I'm giving all my love to the Brazilian community during this time. Know that you all are loved and welcomed in this community and in this fandom. We love having you here and I cannot imagine the QSMP without all the contributions, passion, and enthusiasm the Brazilian community has put into it. Thank you and I love you all very much!

[aydaptic]

Sorry if you've already answered this before but I'm new to the fandom and I found your account through your web-comic and I was wondering what is it about Gavin that you like so much? Why is he one of your favourite characters in dbh? (I've noticed that he isn't much of a fan-favourite in this fandom 😔)

This'll be a long post, but you asked (...and I'll happily answer!) I'll add some descriptions for context. At the top of my head, I can think of 21 reasons why I like his canon equivalent.

1. He's charismatic

Gav gives off an energy that makes it easy to hang onto his every word. I can quote all his lines by heart and I like listening to Neil Newbon (in this specific role) talk. I remember some of Kamski's lines as well -- also mo-capped/voice acted by Newbon -- but Kamski doesn't have nearly as much charisma as Gav does.

2. He's expressive

Ppl who 'talk with their hands' are more charismatic. Gav is all over the place in the break room if you stick around. Hand gestures capture people's attention as they emphasize what is being said.

3. He doesn't think androids are alive (...so in his eyes, the way he treats them isn't wrong)

"Could always try roughin' it up a little. After all... it's not human." - Gavin Reed, The Interrogation

That means he wouldn't rough up a human suspect. This alone justifies his unpleasant attitude towards androids. Hank -- who treated Connor way worse than Gav ever did -- changed his mind. Nothing says Gav can't do the same.

If Alexa suddenly said she was alive, the vast majority wouldn't take it seriously (if any at all.)

4. He's sarcastic

"Congratulations on last night, very impressive." - Gavin Reed, Waiting For Hank...

5. He has dark humor

6. He looks down on people that pay for s*x

Quote above. You don't call someone a "pervert" if you agree with their actions. The Eden Club, in particular, is immoral AF... bc those androids don't have a choice. Gav doesn't care about them being androids, but he still looks down on the guy who paid money to get laid, and I applaud Gav for that. Especially when said guy also had a wife and kids.

7. He has valid concerns about androids taking jobs

Anyone who says differently is either in denial, uninformed, or never had a job they were scared to get fired from. There's already been an uproar about ChatGPT and that's nothing compared to how advanced Detroit: Become Human androids are. The unemployment rate in this game is 37% -- higher than it was during the Great Depression and C*VID -- and androids are the main cause.

I've seen a lot of ppl ask this question:

Q: Why not just buy an android and have them do your job for you, then? You get the money anyway bc it's your android!

A: Bc, believe it or not, the vast majority of men want to work. This is a strange concept to grasp for a lot of ppl. I admire Gav for being one of those men who wants to do it themselves. Letting someone else do your job is taking the easy way out.

8. He's a hard worker

Gallery: "...Ruthlessly ambitious, Reed will do anything to advance his career, even if it means treading on other peoples’ toes."

9. He's ambitious

See the quote above.

10. He doesn't sleep well

This isn't just a headcanon. He has literal bags under his eyes. Just knowing he doesn't sleep well already has me asking, "why?" It's interesting.

11. He puts his feet on the table

After Connor interacts with him in the break room, Gav will go to his desk and do this. I'll go into detail about why this contributes to my liking his character in the very last point.

12. He calls Hank out on his alcoholism

As much as most of us love Hank, he's not in a good space mentally. Showing up drunk/hungover to work should not be tolerated. It not only puts coworkers, but also civilians, at risk. Hank should be in therapy instead of working at the DPD until he gets his life sorted out.

13. He calls Fowler out for giving Hank special treatment

"You won't get away with it this time." - Gavin Reed, The Interrogation (after Hank pulls a literal gun on a human coworker AKA Gav)

So Gav has brought it up to Fowler before and is about to do it again. Ties into the point above. What Hank does -- like assaulting a literal FBI agent -- shouldn't be tolerated.

14. He's a control freak

I gravitate towards ppl and characters who take charge. Those who like being in control and know what they're doing. I'm a control freak myself, but I'd prefer to let someone else take the reins as long as I agree with their methods. I like it when ppl know what they want and act on it. Gav does both.

15. He's protective of his coworkers

I was unsure whether or not to add this as I guess it can be seen as a subjective theory and not an objective fact.

Gav only ever steps in with the gun in The Interrogation when Con uses aggressive force on Chris Miller by tearing him away from the deviant. Con did this after disobeying Gav 3 times. So yeah. Gav is justified for stepping in. Hank, on the other hand, isn't justified for pulling a gun on a human coworker. I see this scene as Gav protecting Chris from Con who is showing signs of deviancy.

16. He can't wink

Endearing.

17. He pouts a lot

Again, endearing.

18. He swears like a sneezing kitten

Same as the two points above.

19. He doesn't like Connor

I don't like Con, either. Yeah. We exist. Personality types like Con's "let's be friends" attitude and constant positivity pisses me off. Before anyone comments that the player decides Con's personality... no. Only to an extent. There are several instances where the player has no say whatsoever. Some of Con's pre-determined responses annoy me.

20. He has great fashion

Big fan of leather jackets.

21. I like him bc I'm a narcissist at times

He's essentially the male equivalent of me to the T. I'm only an asshole internally, though. We love (or hate) characters we relate to. I relate to every single point except 17 and 18 on this list.

There you go :)

His OOC fanon equivalent has a huge fanbase -- especially on Twitter/X and Tumblr turning him into a blushing teenage girl -- but it seems like I'm the only person who can't stand that OOC portrayal of him. That said, I adore his canon equivalent in all his asshole glory.

[romajuliettemai]

A few more SSS incorrect quotes

I haven't posted sss stuff in a while and this has been in my drafts for forever so here we go! (Some of these were edited or created by me & take place in a past timeline- also don't ask why some of the spacings are weird idk)

Silas: Do you cook?

Roma: I made a cake once.

Marshall: Yeah, it was good.

Roma: Really?

Marshall: Don’t make me lie twice, Roma.

Orion: Some people are like slinkies.

Rosalind: What?

Orion: Not really good for much but bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.

Rosalind:

Rosalind: Please don't push Alisa down the stairs.

Orion, pushing Alisa down the stairs: Too late.

Benedikt: You need to stop swearing so much. Oliver: Shut the fuck up. Benedikt: Yeah, that's not how you do it. Oliver: Alright sorry. It's just that it's hard not to swear. The words just creep up on me when I least expect it. Benedikt: Now now, don't be like that. Just replace the swear words with 'beep' and you'll be fine. Oliver: Shit the beep up. Benedikt: Oliver: SHUT, DAMMIT! I MEANT SHUT!

Orion: I've never encountered a problem that can't be solved by an spontaneous musical number.

Juliette: BEHOLD, the field in which I grow my fucks! Lay thine eyes upon it, and thou shalt see that it is barren!

Alisa: Uh, I think I got your lunch. *Holds up a note that reads: ‘I am very proud of you. Love, Orion’* Rosalind: Oh yeah. I didn’t think this was for me. *Holds up a note that reads: ‘Be good. For the love of God, Please be good.’*

Rosalind: I owe you one.

Orion: It's ok, you can just date me and we'll call it even *winks with two eyes*

Alisa, after getting a library card: Now I know what true power feels like. *proceeds to climb on top of the bookshelves*

Roma: Guys, Orion is missing. Celia: Good.

Alisa: I tried to write ‘I'm a functional adult’ but my phone changed it to ‘fictional adult’ and i feel like that’s more accurate.

Orion: Oliver is at that very special age where a kid only has one thing on their mind. Phoebe: Girls? Oliver: Homicide.

Phoebe: Hey! Wanna hear a joke? Silas: Sure. Phoebe: Your life! Silas: Actually, my life isn’t a joke, jokes have meaning. Phoebe: Silas...no.

Orion: Now, if I may speak for good-looking people everywhere... Oliver, rolling his eyes: Only as their rodeo clown.

Benedikt: Celia, we tried things your way. Celia: No, we didn't. Benedikt: I did it in my head and it didn't work.

Roma, clearly exhausted: Did you have to stab them? Future Katherina: You weren’t there. You didn’t hear what they said to me. Roma: What did they say? Future Katherina: "What are you going to do, stab me?" Juliette, calling from the other room while sharpening her knives on a bowl: That’s fair!

Roma, rubbing his forehead, annoyed: In what world?

Alisa: I desire moisture. Oliver: Please just say "I want water" like a normal person.

Silas: You know I think my life has value. Orion: Who are you and what have you done with Silas?!

Sorry for not having posted anything Secret Shangai in a while- just been super busy. Probably not going to be as active on here just because I literally do not have the ability to be- but I'll hop on every so often and check in! Thank you to everyone doing their best to keep the fandom alive, I'll continue to try to contribute to that! <333

[uriekukistan]

1, 23, and 24 for jjk for the ask game :p

suddenly i'm scared to have opinions but i do wanna get a lot of these things off my chest so

1 - the character everyone gets wrong :

i wanna say the character people get the most wrong is gojo actually. so many people just portray him as a cocky, silly guy, and miss the deep loneliness and insecurity that comes from being the strongest. its kinda sad because i think his inability to form a true and vulnerable connection is not only heartbreaking, but fundamental to the way he acts and how the story has played out thus far.

that being said, the most frustrating thing for me, and this is not an everyone thing, but i would say the overall...horniness of the jjk fandom contributes to a lot of mischaracterizations. im not saying there's anything wrong with writing or reading smut fics, but i think for a few characters their smut fic personalities have led to a more shallow understanding of their character. gojo is one, as i just mentioned, but also choso and sukuna. (im a bit scared to put this opinion out there, but it's been on my mind for a bit, ever since the gojo figure incident)

23 - ship you've unwillingly come around to :

i guess choso and yuki is one? i didn't really see it at first, but i guess it's kinda sweet, if a little bit one sided. i just don't see choso as the type to be seeking anything out like that, his priority is very clearly protecting his family.

there's more ships i wouldn't touch with a 10 foot poll that i don't see myself ever coming around to, such as MEGUMI AND SUKUNA???? aside from the fact that megumi is 15/16 and sukuna is 1000+, it's still an absolute no from me.

24 - topic that brings up the most rancid discourse :

i try not to get involved in jjk fandom discourse (except this post maybe?), and i wouldn't say this is "rancid" more-so irritating, but i mentioned today how i think specifically the tiktok jjk fandom lacks basic reading comprehension and analysis skills. people are understandably bored with the kind of cyclical writing gege has been putting out there recently, but also some of the ways in which they are criticizing jjk just show a lack of understanding of what's actually happening and the story that's trying to be told. spoilers here i'm sorry you thought the biggest supervillain of the series was going to be taken down easily? i'm sorry you weren't expecting lots of battles in jujutsu kaisen, which literally means sorcery battle? i think it was pretty obvious that this wasn't going to be a normal power of friendship manga from the junpei incident. the whole point of the hidden inventory arc was to show that the point was always to raise a new generation of sorcerers who would be able to work together and be the strongest together. gojo was never going to singlehandedly take down sukuna, and neither will any other character. the individual battles themselves could have more variety, but the direction the story was going was clear from pretty early on. no more spoilers

yeah anyway that's not really "discourse" im just sick of seeing the lists of reasons people think jjk is "mid" now, and all it is is them saying they dont understand plot points that were clearly established and explained.

[halfagone]

Hey! So I haven't watched Danny Phantom series for literal decades now, but somehow stumbled my way on this Fandom recently. Found DP x DC crossover is a thing and having absolute blast enjoying all those AMAZING fics, fancomics and arts!!!

What i want to ask is, since when DP x DC crossover is a thing? Sorry, i'm just really confused lol

One of us, one of us, ONE OF US!!

But in all seriousness, it's great to have you here! Always happy to see someone fall into endless pit with us (don't worry, it's a nice pit. Much better than the Lazarus Pits for sure). To answer your actual question, I will have to admit I'm not quite certain myself. I've perused DP/DC crossovers for quite some time, but haven't been around from the start. So if anyone knows any better, feel free to add on!

I know this was a very simple question, but I don't do simple. I write essays. So, sorry for that!

From my estimation, I would say most of this crossover starts with DP and Teen Titans. As you probably already know, FF.net has been around since before Ao3, and if you check the pages for DP crossovers on FF.net you can see that the DP x Teen Titans crossover has the most stories. You can also see that some of the very first DP x Teen Titans crossovers appeared in 2005. Which makes sense, seeing as DP and Teen Titans aired around the same time. This very likely contributed to some of the earliest crossovers between these two fandoms.

It definitely helps that Danny is, as we like to say, prime Wayne-adoptee material, and it all kind of goes nuts from there. I think early on there was a lot of either Danny/Dick fics, or Danny and Dick being twins or siblings of some sort. However, as more content aired with other Batboys, I'm sure that also helped with the variety of surprise (and/or mystery) siblings fics popping up. And then, of course, there's the ships. But we don't really need to get into that now.

I remember a time when DP x DC crossovers only had, maybe 100 fics on Ao3? Probably a little more than that? And this is with other fandoms thrown in there for some of these stories. I wasn't writing fanfiction for this crossover back then either, but as you can see it's grown a lot since then.

I don't know if this is technically correct (and perhaps an exact timeline would be helpful, but I wouldn't know how to find an accurate one anyways), but I think it was when Ghost Kings and Gotham Bats got popular, that I saw this huge surge in fanfiction for this crossover. Suddenly there were so many fics that had similar concepts, aka Damian and Danny being siblings/twins.

At this time, some of the most popular (by Hits, not Kudos) were:

Lazarus Green Eyes by Keetajet *One of the biggest fics of that time that really tapped into the potential of Jason's connection to the Lazarus Pits in conjunction to DP's ectoplasm.

A Ghost in Gotham by SassyAngel *Definitely one of my fav Damian/Danny fics. I hope the author's video game has been going well!

I Don't? Work Alone by DomesticatedOpossum *I think this was one of the only Jason/Danny fics I could find for a LONG time.

and

Crash Course by Carmic *aka the very first Anger Management fic that I know of!

(Do keep in mind this is not a full list, but simply some of the big titles from early on in the crossover days on Ao3 that I can recall.)

But if this tells you anything, back then the fics with the most hits only had... maybe 20-30k hits? Which is still a lot for a crossover, but when you think about how the top three fics of this crossover today is at, like, 300k? That's a huge incline of popularity.

All this is to say that I have no idea how it happened. I think it was a steady progression at the beginning, and then at some point it just blew up and never stopped blowing up? Not yet anyways. Tldr; it started with Teen Titans, it's never stopped. We have grown more powerful, we consume more souls into our fandom!

It's great to have you here, I hope this answered your question! Somewhat. lol

[lightofraye]

So as everyone knows Elta weasled her way into the Wales comic con. That has me questioning what was the con promoter/booker thinking?! I think Misha was originally supposed to go but backed out. So they got Elta to fill that spot. Which out of the 2 I would have preferred Misha. Cause we all know Elta is going to go for the cringe PDA kiss like she did at the con she went with him to last year. She has no reason to actually be there her character was useless. It brought nothing to the plot taking her character out changes nothing. She has nothing to contribute since she was in only 5 episodes. Also despite what she says when she claimed she knew all of Cas’s lines we all know that is a lie. Why is it a lie? Cause Jensen exposed her saying she basically only watched 5 episodes which knowing her it was the episodes she was in. Elta was in Supernatural for 2 reasons first reason she didn’t want to be a liar. Fans had asked her when was she showing up in Supernatural. She replied on Twitter if Supernatural made it to season 13 she would appear. Her character shows up Sesason 13 episode 13. Also her saying if it made it shows she had no faith in the show or her husband. The main reason she was on there is cause Gen was on there in season 4 and people talk about how she fell in love with Jared. We all know Elta tries to one up Gen every time. So she begged Jensen to get her on there. I still think someone hated her cause her character Anael take out the e it’s Anal which she can be at times. I just know Jensen’s joy will not be there. We won’t see that eye crinkling beautiful true smile of his we will see the fake one he gives when he is not feeling it.

I know I am rambling I am sorry just miffed she weasel her way into a con. But what I find hilarious is the pics they used to advertise her looks like two different people. One is her as Anael the main pic is from her early days before all the fillers and Botox. I believe it’s from her OTH days. But it looks like 2 different people there. Her “fans” want to say oh she is just getting older she didn’t have work done. Uh yeah she did have work done. If you get a picture of Danneel from OTH to now you can literally see she has work done cause she looks unrecognizable. If Jensen wasn’t with her people wouldn’t know who she is. Can’t wait to see what new face, horrible clothing choice and messy hair style she has then.

Hi anon!

Also another apology to be issued for the lateness. Life, y'know? But thanks for the message!

Now to respond/address what you've said.

I don't know if Misha was supposed to go, as I had never seen anything about him going to Wales. But it's possible. Or Elta insisted on having her own little European vacation after seeing Jared and Genevieve having fun.

That's the hard choice--which one do we want, Misha or Elta? Can neither be the answer??

God, that PDA kiss at last year was AWFUL. Cold fish kiss. Zero love, passion or chemistry.

Yeah. Anael/Sister Jo had zero reason to be in the plot. And the writers had to have known what they were doing by making Anael a materialistic bitch.

Yeah. Elta basically forced Jensen to get her added to Supernatural because she wanted to be involved, and used the Destiel fandom to harass and abuse her husband as well. She wanted the attention and loved how uncomfortable it was making Jensen. It's also why she kissed Misha's ass and gave him a lap dance.

Yes… Jensen will be miserable in Wales. I'm not looking forward to his sad smiles.

It's okay to ramble! I do it all the time! That's why my blog is titled "Ramblings of a Writer". I ramble!

Yes! No recent photos of her for them to use? Really? So they use unrecognizable ones? Haha!

Yep. She absolutely had work done, numerous times. Her hairline moving north means numerous facelifts. Her smile--called the Joker smile for a reason--shows other work having been done as she looks horrific.

She needs to lay off black. Black emphasizes nothing good on her. She needs color. She needs an actual stylist because if Marcus is responsible for past choices, he's an awful one. Get a vocal coach because her voice is just AWFUL.

And then, y'know, therapy to fix her narcissistic soul. If that even works.

I feel you, anon. I'm not looking forward to her being there at all.

I only hope Jensen will be okay.

[castlebyersafterdark]

Also me: hey guys so I'm literally Will Byers

HAHAHA awww vinny!! i mean i been knew (in the most loving way <3) purely because of a slow build up of lots of things, even the way you are vibing with your storytelling and fic rn! i think its so so natural to lean towards one more than the other. you gotta, right? chances are. even in a vague way that might only make sense to you.

your recent confusion re: noah also contributed to my going hmmm. in an abstract way it sounds like you might even be able to appreciate your own self a little more through adoring will and noah recently? maybe you are a sexy sleeper agent too :)

sorry if this is too bold hahaha. keep doing what youre doing! i love it here <3

Goddddd, too seen, too seen!! 🫣🫣🫣

I guess there's this inner battle when you like a piece of fiction too much, you maybe don't want to be seen as someone who's projecting too much or insisting the characters you like are just like me! for fear of judgment or people saying that you're not interpreting characters right, you're just using the fandom as a self-insert situation and then people think it's cringey because they assume you're falling into the dreaded fanon accusation, or are gonna be one of those who argues when canon stuff doesn't line up with your own mental image. And well - none of that's true at alllll for me, but I guess I just had this silly air to be like, oh I love this character. Nothing like him though, I don't really relate!!! Brrrrrr. Wrong. Guess what, you've been called out and seen. Oh lordy....

So maybe all that's to say, I've really been telling on myself, huh?? 🤭 Fascinated by the initial shock of this one reading me for filth here. Nah, reading me with kindness, I.... get it. My time in this corner has been a journey. I am what I am. Maybe reframing some things, but it's all chill.

Sexy sleeper agent ohhhhhh we're too far gone, that one I'll own up to like I think we all know I'm (lovingly) such a fucking slu- 😵‍💫😵🫨

sleeper

[mushr00mfriend]

same anon that asked for advice again! sorry for asking a bunch of questions lol, i swear these'll be my last, and thanks for the advice because it's genuinely helping me a lot! i was wondering, how do you personally worldbuild, if that makes sense? that and, how did you start planning delirium and stuff? i seriously love your work, and i'd like to know your thought process behind if! (without any spoilers ofc) so, whos been your favorite character(s) to write and whose been your hardest? i also just reread, and was wondering how the bonds work and will reader be forming one in the sequel? and, not really a question, but i loved how everyone seems to care for eachother as "family"! such a good detail, and this may have been mentioned somewhere in the book already, but does slenderman share the same sentiments about them? or does he just care about them since they feed him (lol)?

anyways, i swear thats it, sorry for literally bombarding you with questions, u dont have to answer all of them lol. again, your advice is seriously helpful, and i can't wait to see what else you create, whether its involved in the creepypasta fandom or not. take care of yourself and i hope you have a nice day!!

I don't mind the questions at all! I'm actually really happy to have you ask them, I love talking about my baby :] I'll put some dashes in between each section addressing each specific question- and of course, a readmore.

So, Delirium branched off the 'all the Creepypastas live in a mansion with Slenderman as a pseudo-father figure' trope that was super popular back in the day. The whole thing was mainly peaceful, with the Creeps living in relative harmony like a big ol commune situation barring when an enemy (usually Zalgo) upset that peace. It was a silly premise for sure, but it was also incredibly loved and mostly the same from one author to the next (with some distinct outliers). There had been some pushback that I had seen in regards to that scenario, mainly that it cut a lot of the horror elements of Creepypasta down to basically nothing, and as much as I agreed somewhat with those people who didn't like it... I went along and I thought, "okay, so how would one make it realistic?"

And that's where Delirium came from- I wanted to create a universe in which the trope had weight, a place where it would make sense for the Slenderman to have a mansion, and for Creepypastas to populate it. Basically the idea of looking at something completely satirical or comedic and taking it seriously. I've said it before, but Delirium is a love letter to that trope, and all the authors that contributed to it. It's also a prologue, the set up for the world I've been planning. What snippets you've seen there are really a shallow look at what's going on. I'm quite excited to submerge you all in the realm of the Gloom >:]

--

Worldbuilding for me has been literally eight years in the making. There's been tons of rewriting, editing, and researching that's gone into creating something that is detailed and nuanced. I have developed a great respect for authors who've made their own worlds- its exhausting even with already established characters and tropes to work with!

I first started with the very basic ideas of a world; flora, fauna, biomes, magic systems, and theology. I took the current trope and walked backwards, thinking about the steps it would take to get to that point in time, how relationships and factions would develop. Then I thought about the lore- who would know everything? Who would only know some facts, and what would those facts be? Who would know basically nothing, and how would relaying these facts happen?

My first piece of advice is: don't rush it. Seriously. You're going to be finding a lot of plot holes and contradictions otherwise. The easiest part is writing it, everything else needs the time to settle together.

My second piece of advice is to create a trophic pyramid of information. Who is the apex predator, the one who knows all the history, everything that has happened (The Slenderman)? Who are the secondary consumers, the smaller predators, the ones who know a lot, but not all of it (the Proxies)? Who are the herbivores, the ones with only a little knowledge (the Shades)? Who are the detrivores, the one's with basically no knowledge of anything (the humans, MC)?

The plants in this pyramid, the ones at the lowest rung, are the readers. They know nothing about the world they're going into, and frankly they shouldn't. There should be things that are never outright spoken, and there should be things that are only half-truths. Information shouldn't be spoonfed to the reader- an infodump is what can turn a lot of readers off. Instead, ease them into it.

Say, for example, a Bond. The meaning is pretty straightforward, but it isn't something that is used in everyday life. It has a special meaning in Delirium, it is something unique to the world. You first hear of it when Kate thinks about her relationship with Ann, that they are in a Bond. Instead of saying what a Bond entails, I wrote about how Kate represses her feelings so Ann can't sense them, how she can hear Ann's thoughts and respond to them. I wrote about the care she had for Ann, and vice versa.

When chapters focused on Masky or Hoodie, I wrote about them sending mental images to one another. Coordinating their movements, relaying plans. Bantering back and forth. When Jeff and Smile were the focus, it made it clear that a Bond is not exclusive to Proxys. All of these things show your reader what a Bond is, what its purpose is, and who experiences them.

As for how they work exactly, well, it's a bit spoiler-y, but I can say that they're very similar to how Illithid parasites in BG3 mentally connect people; only that one, it's usually only between two Shades or Proxys, and two, it's completely consensual. No accidental peeks into one another's mind.

Of course, I've left some stuff out still, and that'll be explored in Delusion. Crow will, in fact, develop a Bond with someone (or several someones) >:]

--

My favourite character to write probably has to be Hoodie. I really liked his character in Marble Hornets (both as Brian and Hoodie), and translating a lot of the behaviours in MH to Delirium was very fun. His ability to travel via shadows is due to the fact that, in MH, Hoodie seems to disappear and reappear just out of sight, traveling much farther and disappearing much quicker than an average human has the ability too. I decided to make him selectively mute due to it being a popular headcanon, and already had an interest in learning ASL. Researching different signs and describing them in writing was challenging, but in a good way. It made me focus on body movements more than dialogue.

I also really liked writing the scenes between Masky, Hoodie, and Toby because they are my little blorbos I squeeze like stress balls and put through Situations. Their banter is top tier.

The hardest to write was probably... Cathy, to be honest. She started out as an analogue to someone I once knew, but a lot of details and dialogue had to be tweaked over time. Mainly because doing a 1:1 of a real life person is cringe, but also because she became much more extreme than this person ever was. Some of the events in Delirium that she was a part of actually happened in real life to me, but a lot of it was also written in to 'round out' her character. Cathy is perhaps the weakest link in Delirium, a flat antagonistic tetragonist who only exists to spur the MC on in some ways and is ultimately discarded. More of a plot device than a person.

--

Such an important question there at the end. I'm just going to repeat it below, due to the fact that this has gotten quite long.

i loved how everyone seems to care for eachother as "family"! ... does slenderman share the same sentiments about them? or does he just care about them since they feed him (lol)?

The members of a flock care for each other to an extent, due to the fact that they're herded together. Disagreements may occur, but when a hierarchy is made, it is maintained.

The shepherd of a flock is not affected by their flocks disagreements, or their emotions. They care for their flocks health because it keeps the wool growing. In fact, the shepherd can never understand the plights of their flock. There are fundamental cognitive and biological differences that set them permanently apart.

They aren't even the same species, after all.