#I'm posting this on my personal blog I won't elaborate no more

[baaeluu]

Vidow consumes my mind...

[knightofgoetia]

Netflix's DMC cartoon critique.

This critique in particular will (try) to focus on why this adaptation didn't even try to work as an adaptation. It's a negative critique, at least 95% of it is. Mind you, I'll be as respectful as I can be with it. I won't throw literal insults nor saying something is "shit" without giving an argument beforehand — but given the impact the Devil May Cry series had into my life, I'm afraid that I may slip one or two times regarding that. Maybe four or five. Or twenty or thirty.

So, if you're an avid defender of the show, you're actually very welcome to read it, and discuss my points if so. But do not take it as a personal attack towards you, nor people who have gotten into DMC with it. I'm trying to be as constructive here as possible — even if I know I won't, since I'll have lost my energy halfway through.

I am also calling it a cartoon, because that's what it is. 'Anime' is basically a cartoon, yes, but a specific type of cartoon from Japan. And I've never been that much into Japanese media regarding anime, but whenever western cartoons try to fit into that — it's just not it. But that's for another critique, not one for the DMC series in particular.

This will also be a very long post. If you don't feel like reading, then just scroll by, don't jump at me with the "i ain't reading all that" nonsense.

Once that has been cleared up, here are also some extras that are more of a personal thing of mine than elaborated critiques:

a) If you want a judgemental commentary on the series' showrunner and some examples of experiences the fanbase has had with him, go here.

b) If you want a personal point of view regarding Netflix, and how 'pieces of media' are consumed nowadays, go here.

— Other examples of criticisms that are not mine, but I believe were quite on point:

Example One. Example Two. Example three.

Now that I'm all set, I shall begin. Hopefully, I'll keep my tone down, but don't expect much from me in that regard. I tried.

— Part 1: USA centrism.

The "western audiences" are americans. USA americans, particularly, the rest of the continent isn't included either. And of course that I do get why, I'm not that naive, but the world is too big for "The West™" to be just the United States of America.

I think it's obvious by this point (and if you follow my classics blog, you know it), but I am from Europe. Particularly, Spain. I'm not saying in a "look at me, i'm important too" way, rather in a "just like me, the world is full of other countries that are not the USA". Western Europe is the "western audience" too, is it not? I cannot speak for all, obviously, but which part of these DMC series did not scream "made by americans for americans."

There's, and let me get this clear, absolutely NOTHING wrong with that. So why do I bring it up? Well, because it's not the first time a series that is originally set in either its own fictional world, or another part of the world that isn't USA — suddenly gets an adaptation where it IS set in USA. And maybe, just maybe, that makes it lose part of its charm.

Take, for example, when Hollywood announced (with no context whatsoever, and we still don't know anything else) and adaptation of 'La Casa de Bernarda Alba' that was going to be set in Miami, of all places. This work is set in the rural Spain of the early 20th century, and it's about the repression of women in 'the rural Spain' — so again, why would you set it in Miami, of all places? Is it just the place for recording for the sake of setting a place? Are you gonna make all of the scenarios artificial or something? If it's not rural Spain, the work has no meaning at all.

Same thing in DMC. I... I really don't need airplanes with "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" written on them to remind myself where we are. I don't need to see the USA flag all the time. I don't need them to be in "glory to America" mode during it. Okay, you've taken liberties from the source material — does anything in special come from the show being set in America? No. That's the issue.

The gothic aesthetic, gone. It was already gone by DMC 5, I know, I'm not blind. But even in DMC 5 they keep *some* crumbs of it. Mainly with the first Dante missions. It's not the ideal, and I did miss it back in the game — but it's nowhere near close to the show.

The show's closest gothic aesthetic is the museum scene. Which, isn't good. Why... Why would you keep the Force Edge, which is technically an important artifact with, you see, powers, in a *museum*? Does USA not have any places they can take some crumbs such as ruins, at least, like in DMC 5?

Or... You could have just used another country to set the series in. Or none at all. DMC has had its inspirations, it's obvious, but they do not have the name of the country they're set in written all over the place.

The Resident Evil reference doesn't make up for it, either. Is... Is Redgrave just a bit too much of an edgy game for this, or... Well.

— Part 2: Analogy to the War on Terror.

This... This is gonna be tough. It is hurting me to write it as much as it was hurtful to watch.

So, let me get this straight... The oppressed minorities in this show are the demons. Demons who were made to look, to put it simple, not white.

You made, you know, *demons*. Demons that, according to the dictionary, are vile creatures that carry no humanity in them. Because if they had humanity, they would be human.

Cambridge Dictionary:

"an evil spirit."

Second Cambridge definition:

"a person who behaves very badly."

Oxford Dictionary:

"an evil spirit or devil, especially one thought to possess a person or act as a tormentor in hell."

Second Oxford definition:

"a cruel, evil, or unmanageable person."

Demons being an allegory of the Middle East... Why? Why would you want to portray "the oppressed" as demons, of all things? Making demons 'good' in the show isn't gonna change anything. They're demons. Demons, by definition, are not good.

This is like putting a lion and using it as an allegory for a vegan. A lion, by definition, is a carnivore. It's the animal's nature. You could instead, for example, use a deer — deers are herbivores, yes, but they do chew on bones they do find around to obtain essential minerals that are lacking in their vegetarian diet. In other words, a similar way that humans who are vegan take proteins or similar things to compensate for them not eating food of animal origin.

In this case, you could have used another fantasy race for the allegory — like fairies, who are by definition kind spirits that do nothing but mind their own business.

But not demons.

"They just can't survive in the demon realm, that's why they come to the human world." Look at me. Look at me when you're saying that. The demons are refugees. Demons. de-mons.

"All we're trying to do is survive." Okay. No. Not really. What do demons even need to survive? Do they feed like humans? How is it that they die like humans? The show is trying really hard to make you sympathize with beings that are, by definition, bad ! Making it an allegory to the War On Terror it not making them look good !! For the love of god, they're DEMONS. Just— Just WHY would you choose *demons* to make such an alegory?!

Just... Imagine knowing (or being part of) those affected by the atrocities the show based the Hell invasion on... And then be represented as demons. Minorities that are ALREADY being categorized as demons in our real world by a bunch of fascists... And you portray them like that in a show based on a series that has absolutely nothing to do with that. What's not clicking?

You're not making this point any valid at all if the humans (or, well, americans) are fighting against... Well ! A threat !! Sure, make the 'oppressed' guys demons, make them a reason for humanity to fight against them. Who am I supposed to sympathize with in here... And why? Because "demons fleeing hell because they're treated horribly by their own home" is really not the best way to approach an allegory of AN EVENT OF THE REAL WORLD.

... Playing 'American Idiot' was certainly a choice. But we'll get to the music later. Let's just say that, my guy, isn't this scene supposed to have a dramatic impact on the characters and the viewer? We're watching the (technically) oppressed being in the show being BOMBED AND KILLED and you play "American Idiot". Isn't this like playing a Lady Gaga song during a massacre?

The 'good' demons in DMC are the exception to the norm. And those few 'good' demons don't want to live as demons AND they can't live as demons. The moment you act like a human, YOU ARE a human. That's why Sparda had a human form in the games !

I don't need a story about why the actual american fucking government is bad — sir, I'm very aware ! The showrunner literally should know if he goes around posting this stuff.

Sooo the victim of american imperialism is... Hell? As in. The thing. Were. Bad things occur. There was an attempt, I suppose. Oh. And this happened, too.

— Part 3: ... Lady. Or 'Mary Arkham'.

*sigh* DMC3 spoilers ahead, just in case.

First of all, it's Mary Ann Arkham. Why the 'Ann' is being removed is something I don't get. You're here praising that this new Lady is 'feminist' while the original 'wasn't', and you remove her mother's name, but keep her father's name? Sure, go ahead.

Lady went through half of DMC3 without saying her name. "I don't have a name" has a meaning, and it's that she hasn't been able to find an identity after seeing her mother being killed by her father in a search for power to become a demon. How do you process that in so little time? "Lady" comes from Dante. He said it once, "okay lady", and that was enough to have an impact on her. Because this is Dante. Half-demon, half-human, who has (who knew) family issues just like her. And just as bad.

If Arkham managed to manipulate her with his supposed death in the game, it was because he is still her father. No matter what evil he does, he is her father. And she's never moving on from killing him. Never. Ever. You can't move on from that. It's not a matter of 'moving on', in any case. Just like Dante was never able to fully move on from Vergil's drop into Hell, no matter how hard he had tried.

Meanwhile, Arkham dies when turning himself into a demon. He murders Kalina Ann for nothing. Lady's hatred towards demons stays in the show like that, but... But what is she even looking for after this? To eradicate all demons in the world since her parents died due to, technically, them?

"Maybe a devil may cry when he loses a loved one, don't you think?" That's one of the most iconic lines to come out of the whole franchise that is at least 24 years old by now. Because, no, devils never cry — if a devil does cry, that's not a devil anymore. Lady existed to show how strong humans are without the need to have super strength, hubris or anything else that demons do have. Netflix's Lady doesn't show anything, she's just here to yell at us "yeah humans bad, blah blah blah".

Without power, who can you protect? Yes, true — but what's the point of having power when there's no one to protect? Lady wanted to kill her own father because of what he did, what he was about to do... To humanity. Her mother was gone because of that, and anyone else could be the next.

Netflix's Lady, on the other hand... A cop. A cop who I don't know what ideology she even has at this point. She spends the whole show shitting on demons and cursing all the cursing existing words in the English dictionary... then sees demon refugees and, well, apparently that changes her point of view... aaand then she betrays Dante. That's some interesting character development, she's evolving — just backwards.

You didn't need to make her 10 times stronger than Dante, for her to capture him easily, and to BLOW HIS HEAD WITH A BOMB. You don't need to turn the 'protagonist' into a bloody mess to show me how powerful the ¿heorine? is in this show. If she's 10 times more powerful than demons then — then why are they considered a threat in the first place? Not to mention her swearing, because remember kids, this is for adults, in case you didn't notice. Gore and gore, swears and swears. She genuinely said 'fuck' in four sentences IN A ROW. Not even I with my anger issues swear this much.

She just commits police brutality all around because "america bad" and all that, I get it — but again, her character *doesn't evolve* and the flashbacks do not explain her hatred towards demons either...? Yes, your father turned himself into one, but WHY would he, if demons are incredibly weak in this thing?

Oh, and, I'm afraid I do not recall her age in the show. In DMC3 she's supposed to be 16-18. I don't think she should be the leader of a DEMON HUNTING GROUP THAT COMMIT POLICE BRUTALITY with that age. The Vice President substitute being a groomer for Lady was... Also a choice !

Because humans bad, guys. You get it? Humans only do bad things and act without thinking. Demons... Apparently don't do that, I suppose? Genuinely why would Lady side with people who insist that "we as a nation can do better" and then proceed to colonize Hell. Of all places.

"devil spawn motherfucker" are. are you being serious. right now.

She's a genocidal sociopath (she was already a sociopath in her childhood flashbacks ! what !), and what was the point of Arkham in the backstory, anyways? And Kalina Ann? The rocket launcher was a fucking cameo.

Lady pointing a gun at people who haven't done shit ?? Okay ma'am. Why are you a fascist. What does this have to do with trauma anyways.

Her speech about Sparda? You CAN'T be dramatic when saying "he one day went 'hey this is evil as fuck'", that's not a speech, that's a damn Twitter post.

— Part 4: "Wacky woohoo pizza man".

Jeez. The protagonist not being protagonic sure is a choice as well. And the worst part? Dante is the least badly done in here — that doesn't mean he's the Holy Grail, either. This interpretation of him is just mediocre and forgetable, but better than awful, I guess.

He really just exists. Does he, like, do anything else besides the jokes? The jokes that are, mind you, not funny ! "Your mom" joke from DANTE? Please. PLEASE someone hold me before I say very, very bad things regarding that.

I get it, Shankar, you like pop culture. I get it, really. No need to shove it in my face. But he doesn't do anything else ! The fights have no point if he's gonna lose them anyways for no reason at all ! Why ! Is he ! So ! Weak ! What has he been up to since the damn childhood even of 'my mom died in front of my eyes'? How has he been a mercenary if, like, mercenaries have no plot relevance in here? What do you mean —i breathe in and out— what do you mean. What do you mean he 'got bored' of his missions. What do you fucking mean.

Ok, I get it, it's an AU, they can take liberties — Dante still would not do that. Like. No matter how well or bad he is characterized in any interpretation, he never leaves a mission unfinished, even more if someone is in danger. BUT OF COURSE NO ONE IS IN DANGER HERE BECAUSE DEMONS ARE GOOD BUDDIES WHO ARE BEING KILLED BY HUMANS BECAUSE HUMANS ARE BAD AND THE TRUE MONSTERS AND WE SHOULD GOT EXTINCT DID YOU GUYS GET THE MESSAGE —i breathe in and out— that sure was a way to simplify a character into... Comedic relief ! It's your protagonist, for the love of god. How did he go TWO whole episodes without appearing AT ALL.

Also, Dante not knowing he is half-demon was, once again, another choice ! So the government knows but he doesn't? They can explain that nonsense as much as they want to, it won't make sense to me even once.

WHAT was that Devil Trigger awakening. WHAT was that. Generic action scene for such a crucial moment in original Dante's life? Sure, take creative liberties — but what's the point of those liberties if the changes are gonna be boring and not changing anything in THE SHOW'S OWN PLOT at all? It just looks like the normal, average power-up the hero gets for no reason other than, well, being the hero.

— Part 5: Sparda and Eva.

I think that I've lost any sort of professionalism by now. I apologize. I promise I didn't want to sound like this.

But... Sparda being morally gray? Almost depicting him like some sort of fascist? What does that add to the plot, exactly???

Sparda, who, fell in love with a human woman and realized that his own kind were nothing but monsters. Sparda who rebelled against his own kind and HOME for the sake of the ones who were being killed while they did nothing but have the capacity to love ! That Sparda. A... "morally gray" character according to the script in this.

(the way the show describes him isn't even the definition of "morally gray", but there was an attempt in that intention i guess)

The design really doesn't help — and saying it has to be 'simple' so animators have less trouble is... Ridiculous. I'm pretty sure many complex designs have been animated before? You just pay people for the job and... That's it.

Not like he even showed that much, why waste so little in a figure that is supposed to haunt the narrative?

People saying he's... Hot? Are you guys being serious? Can you please raise your standards a bit? Things are more deep than a figure who haunts-the-narrative to be hot, holy shit, we're not fourteen (... most).

That's not "more simple so it's easier to animate" it's straight up badly done. What are those horns. What is that quality of the million dollar company. Help me.

ALSO. OF COURSE HE'S A "DEADBEAT" DAD. OF. FUCKING. COURSE. RIGHT. WE'RE ALL WITHOUT FATHERS. ALL RIGHT. YOU CAN'T HAVE A DRAMATIC BACKSTORY WITHOUT YOUR FATHER ABANDONING YOU THE MOMENT YOU ARE BORN.

Just why? The twins did know their father in the original story, he didn't disappear the moment they were born. Again, what does it add to the plot? So Dante doesn't know that he's half-demon? BUT SOMEHOW THE GOVERNMENT DOES? So you're telling me you threw into the trash his whole self loath regarding his nature, which is, like, a base of the character? DANTE, YOU HEAL VERY FAST, HOW THE HELL DO YOU NOT KNOW YOU ARE NOT FULLY HUMAN.

Take liberties my guy, but there's a difference between "taking liberties" and straight up changing the plot to the point it has absolutely none of the essence from the original source material besides the NAMES. It just makes it look like you grabbed the IP's name to gain attraction, because if not, the show wouldn't have as much interest.

Again, you picked a story that isn't yours, and tried to make it yours. As GRRM said: "there always seems to be someone on hands who thinks he can do better, eager to take the story and 'improve' on it. Then they make the story their own. They never make it better, though."

About Eva — well, I don't have much to say. It's one of the few things that followed the original narrative... And maybe that's why it wasn't bad ! Who knew ! Right. Who knew respecting the source would do well. Sucks that she haunts the narrative as little as Sparda in here. Being a "single mom" is her biggest trait in the show, instead of her whole symbolism back in the games. Are we being serious here.

How did she even raise the twins alone? What's her job? Is she rich? If so, why? Did Sparda leave her anything? 8 episodes and you couldn't even throw in a line for context? A LINE AS TO WHY DEMONS KILLED HER IN THE FIRST PLACE?

— Part 6: Secondary characters.

Lady's squad and Enzo, absolutely the most irrelevant thing I've seen in centuries. Their deaths hold little to no meaning. You could have removed them from the show and nothing would have changed at all. What were we even trying to achieve here? Didn't we say that humans bad? Why are their deaths supposed to be awful now? Weren't demons in the right? Weren't the demons fighting their oppressors? Make up your mind !

... And that's all. I guess that they fall under the same category as Dante. They're mediocre, not awfully bad. So I suppose that's part of the 5% that's not dreadful from the show.

And of course the deaths needed to be the most grotesque gore an american cartoon has ever shown. Because adult shows, am I right. DMC5 is the closest to that with the intro cutscene, and it carries way more impact.

(Enzo's design also sucks. But. Who am I to judge. And why does the squad look like DeviantArt OC's for the love of god. Girl what's that makeup.)

— Part 7: The White Rabbit.

He was my hope for this show. My damn "at least the villain will be intriguing and has the good design from the manga!" sort of hope. BUT NOPE ! His whole tale of vengance has absolutely no meaning like any conflict in this narrative ! Yeah ! Peak writing !

So. Why was this guy even here. His purpose in the manga was to bring Dante and Vergil together so he could get both amulets. If Vergil gave him his amulet willingly (Jesus Christ when I get to Vergil), why the hell did he go through the whole "down this rabbit hole" thing. What did he achieve. Dante is a weakling in this, he didn't need to take that much of an effort.

Was he just having fun being a furry? Guess I'll respect that, because they adaptated their design really well. Shock. A good thing from this mess.

Not to mention he turned out to be an OC that really didn't add anything to the plot aGAIN. SHOCK. I KNOW. He's a human and that makes Lady sympathize with him suddenly, instead of calling him a hypocrite for torturing demons as he experiments on them while saying he wants to save them ! SO SUDDENLY BY BEING HUMAN HER MIND CHANGES AGAIN? Girl get a grip.

Just look at how much Dante's ass gets beaten up buddy, you didn't need to go through all of that to get him, and the damn dialogues with Dante aren't helping either. They feel... Empty. Why was Dante trying to pull a "i can fix him" in this? Sir, my guy, my buddy, Dante, my dear — Lady immediatly agreed with the White Rabbit when he was revealed as a human. You can't fix anyone in this place.

Who is even supposed to be the antagonist in this show to begin with? Aren't humans bad and demons good? And that's the basis of the White Rabbit? But then demons bad because look how they react to humans and humans are being killed and the White Rabbit is a hypocrite, sort of? So demons are the good guys because they're being oppressed and just want to survive, but then apparently they'll only be "genocidal" if they step into the human world?

It's just one point contradicting the other. And taking the current real life events of the world... It's so painful to watch.

What a waste of a good design. WHAT. A. WASTE. The White Rabbit was so well animated and shown ! The voice acting was really good, too. It was one of my few hopes for the show, really ! But I am not defending an imcomplete villain... Or antagonist... Or whatever the furry is. I'm tired boss.

— Part 8: Vergil.

Eh. Where do I begin. It's been two days and I haven't recovered from the shock. The shock of seeing a character that was so well and beautifully written regarding traumatic experiences in a fucking action game... Being turned into a bootlicker towards the main villain. Or. One of the villains. I suppose. As if the writing was able to explain correctly everyone's role in this shithole.

Look. I tried. I really tried, I did. I promise I did ! I tried watching this twice ! Everything else, no matter how bad it was, was his own thing. Not my DMC whatsoever. Okay, cool, I can live with that. Yes, sure. I can accept the butchered Lady and Dante. I can accept the poorly written politics in it. I can accept incomplete villains due to inconsistencies.

But Vergil? Vergil??? The character blinded by trauma? The protagonist's other half? The Mr. i-am-haunted-by-a-past-i-cannot-go-back-to? The damn Mr. haunts-the-narrative-without-even-doing-anything? Mr. i-rather-slice-my-brother's-hand-rather-than-letting-him-follow-me-to-the-pits-of-hell-which-he-doesn't-deserve? MR. WHISPERING DANTE'S NAME WHEN HE WAS LOOKING AT HIS OWN REFLECTION ON THE YAMATO???

He wasn't just turned into a "generic villain" no. No, no, no. I would have wished it was that. Boy, do I wish.

WOW. JUST FUCKING WOW.

You guys are such good writers ! I can't believe I'm shitting on the "it was my father's fucking enemy who freed me" ! You made such a brilliant narrative compared to the original character who brought to us THOUSANDS OF ESSAYS and ACTUAL PSYCHOLOGISTS ANALYZING HIM regarding his whole story !

Now, trying to speak in a more... Serious way. If I can. I'm trying.

Nelo Angelo. One of my favorite concepts regarding Vergil's character. Imagine being enslaved like a mindless puppet for fighting for over a decade — and in here, that is turned into "oh no, this is just my powerful form after Mr. Bad Guy saved me because Mr. Bad Guy is absolutely awesome and he made me cool". Like. Not even antagonist or generic villain. He's the fucking "sidekick".

Is Mundus even supposed to be 'Mr. Bad Guy' in this IF DEMONS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE OPPRESSED. I DON'T GET IT. MAKE UP YOUR MIND. ESTOY CANSADO JEFE. APRENDED A ESCRIBIR GUIONES. SANTA MIERDA.

Imagine being able to recognize your brother after a decade of imprisonment in Hell, but he's not able to recognize you due to how much Mundus has changed you. Identical twins. The same face. The same blood. Identical twins. A single thing separated into two back in the mother's womb. But he doesn't recognize you due to how much you've changed. And that's when you realize what you have been turned into. That there is no way back for you.

But add the 'funny haha' line at the end, and you're done ! He's the storm that is approaching guys ! Like the meme ! Like the only line we know from the song ! He's so cool ! Despite the fact that he has none of the reasons to act the way he does behind that damn line !

Vergil is... A very particular character. He's very unique in the entire world of videogames as a whole. Just like Dante. Just like Lady. Just like Sparda. But unlike those three, he wasn't just turned into your "average western characters", he was turned into a trope. A trope.

'But what if being raised by Mundus turns out interesting? What is he's brainwashed?' You really think he would side with the ones who killed his family in the show?

'But what if he's infiltrating?' ah, yes, and killing other guys in the process. They really took the whole AU thing to an extreme and made a villain a "what if Mundus was just misunderstood? 🥴" and then ya'll will be with the 'we want villains who are evil just because back!'

— Part 9: Symbolism.

I think it's obvious that I'm growing tired by now. I tried to keep calm, but the more I think of it, the more infuriating it gets.

The soundtrack PLAYS NO ROLE in the narrative. Something that amazes me from DMC and the fact that it's an action game is: how the soundtrack tells things from the narrative. "Devils Never Cry" is an iconic song for a reason — and they went and used it for the ending. That... That was A Choice™ ! Once more !

Do the lyrics of "Devil Trigger" not mean anything to you? For you to throw it into Dante's awakening of his DT for the sake of it being a DT? Did you forget the implications that it has with Nero? Since you're putting odd covers instead of the original versions too, but not enough for the lyrics to change their meaning TO THE SCENE THEY PLAY IN — I guess bringing Evanescence into your amalgamation was too much already. And, see, this is the only good part of the soundtrack that made sense. Because wHO KNEW THAT MAKING AN ORIGINAL SONG WAS BETTER THAN BUTCHERING ALREADY EXISTING ONES. WHO KNEW HUH.

WHY IS BURY THE LIGHT THERE. I don't care if it's popular, it has a MEANING and that meaning has been straight up butchered in the show. The show it's a different thing, I know, it's an AU, I know... But for the love of god that's like putting a Sabrina Carpenter song while a character is being killed or something.

What role did the Plasma even have in here? Why did it take Vergil's appearance if it didn't do anything to Dante at all? It lasted for three seconds. And was never brought up again. Sure, it was brought to show 'hey Vergil is actually alive because the Plasma can only mimic people who are alive!' Why... Why would he still do that with Dante. What's the point.

None of that symbolism is seen in the designs, so what gives? None of the symbolism is seen in the weapons, so what gives? None of the symbolism is seen on the demons, SO WHAT GIVES? Why putting there demons like Echidna or Agni & Rudra, if you spent the 8 episodes showing demons looking as human as possible? So are you telling me only the demons that look human are the good ones? No shit ! Hadn't thought of that ! You need to be human to show HUMANITY ! What a shock !

"Crimson Cloud" is also there. I'm sure I heard it. And again, WHY is it here? Why do the lyrics not mean anything to you? You heard 'fight for your life' and called it a day, didn't you? Because this was just a paintball match but with actual weapons with people and demons killing each other all the time for genuinely no reason other than YAY BLOOD !

Isn't it hilarious how out of the 4 character themes from DMC 5, they didn't include DANTE's theme in particular. And if your argument is "Subhuman sucks" i'm gonna block you directly. That's one of my favorite songs ever. They didn't use "Subhuman" simply because the lyrics make no sense with this Dante. A Dante who didn't know he was half-demon, who didn't spend half of his life depressed and with self loathing due to his own nature — but then again, neither do the lyrics of "Bury the Light", "Devil Trigger" or "Crimson Cloud" fit what is being told... So? So what is the fucking excuse for not including it???? That it's "a bad song"? That is doesn't fit you 'I'm a 2000 guy yaaay' vibe? I'm gonna chop off your tongue.

Actually, no, no... I'm thankful that one of my favorite songs ever was actually NOT included in this thing, so that when I listen to it I don't remember that butchered version of Dante.

"We're here to entertain ourselves, not to read a book", okay, that's fair. Why don't they just do Generic Action Series Number 34™ and call it a day, then? Oh wait, I know, because taking advantage of an IP's popularity is nothing new ! We've been doing this since the oldest works from mankind ! Just HOW many times have I seen a 'classic' being turned into whatever the hell the modern viewer 'enjoys' watching — and it strips off the entire original meaning and concept THAT MADE THAT WORK A *CLASSIC* IN THE FIRST PLACE?

— Part 10 (and finally, last): Cameos.

I gave it a chance because I was told that Lucia showed up. My hopes got up. I thought that they had genuinely put thought into this thing. I thought that, even if it wasn't canon, it would show care and appreciation for the series... That it was 'a love letter to the series' as it had been promoted — but of course, I was proven wrong. Yet again.

So, uhhhhh we have the city from Resident Evil. Megaman for some reason. Nell Goldestein is only mentioned for that??? WHERE THE HELL ARE EBONY & IBORY. LORD. Lady's rocket launcher is used once, for the "point and yell" I suppose. Cindy flirting with Dante was... A choice, as well. And she has no roller skates, when that was a very cool detail for a secondary character ! And all the pop culture references are just *not* it. Even without the DMC skin on, that's yells 'how do you do, fellow kids' so much.

... Lucia appears for three seconds, and she's almost as pale as me.

Say sike right now. My guy, don't you, the showrunner, have that similar skin tone. I genuinely never thought I would be complaining about a SKIN TONE of a fictional character. But here we are.

That's not a lighting thing, my guy, she's in the complete darkness. A bit more and they would have thrown her into the "dark-skinned characters whose skin is grey". I haven't used the term 'whitewash' even once in my life, given how little I interact with fandoms. But, lmao, this is literally that. There's so little poc characters in the series — and you do this?

I wouldn't be surprised if they butchered Morrison into this thing and used the 2007 anime's design instead of the one from DMC 5. Because, out of ALL the things they can take from the 2007 anime, they will take the ugliest design there could possibly be in it !

(Please don't touch Patty. Stay away from her.)

My brother in Christ, you won't have me yelling and pointing at the screen thanks to "references". For the love of god, think about the writing first !

*deep breath* because, after all, this all would have been avoided with good writing ! Genuinely. The music and cameos could have been so fun, and fit so well, if your script wasn't absolute ass (saying that with all due respect, which is none).

— Personal addition.

The constructive and objective critique ends here. This last part is a more personal addition, given how THE series that has had such a big impact in my life has been turned into a generic action show, that is treated as the Holy Grail because people lack critical thinking and will consume anything that shows the protagonist's abs. I can't believe that's a defense argument. How are you guys so basic.

Well... Devil May Cry came into my life just about a year ago, thanks to a mutual. I still hold said person very dear to me, due to many reasons, but this being one of them. I had no idea about DMC, nothing. I only knew the protagonist's name and that it was an action game.

The memes always kept me away, because I thought it was about that, after all. Generic action game about combos and funny hahas. And I need lore, I need a story. I need something else to be in it.

It was this comment that I myself made back then when said mutual spoke to me about the series, that made me give *all* of the games a try:

I knew nothing. I didn't even know about Vergil's existence, for example. I genuinely went to the first game thinking it was going to be just "pew pew die evil creatures" or "Resident Evil with memes" ... And then Nelo Angelo appeared.

That's why netflix's choice of changing everything about that concept pissed me off so much. It's the concept that made me CONTINUE, that made me play THE REST OF THE GAMES. That showed me DMC was a damn Greek tragedy and not just a 'funny haha' meme shitshow !

From there, it just kept on increasing. Some downs here and there, due to a company's awful decisions of not giving enough time to get a game done, but overall, it surprised me how much these series affected me. I told my therapist about them. My therapist.

Any side material, even the niche ones, I searched through them all. Heck. Games, novels, artbooks, interviews, mangas... The Tony Redgrave concept was so impactful. Beryl is the love of my life. DMC3 got me crying over a video game, after almost seven years of that not happening again. The 2007 anime showed how much you can do with little budget.

The protagonist was someone I wasn't used to. The antagonist was a perfectly crafted character regarding all the good kind of stories that I enjoy. The female characters are an insane detail, I can't believe there's so many of them, and I absolutely adore them all.

... So. Take all of that creative series, that has had such a big impact on my life as much as the Odyssey, the epic poem, had on me when I was just 10, and has been stucked with me for a decade. Those creative series that are making me feel the same thing that epic poem made me feel as a child — and turn them into a generic action series, with little to no symbolism, with some sort of political message delivered wrong because it keeps contradicting itself.

And with people calling me 'retard' or 'tourist' or 'hater' or 'whiny bitch' for voicing these current thoughts. For people saying I'm being 'mean' to new fans, when I simply told them I don't get the hype over such a messed up plot — I even offered myself recommendations as to where to start with the series !

I guess this being my hyperfixation to the point where I couldn't do basic tasks, to the point it made my chest physically hurt, to the point it made me cry just thinking about it, to the point of losing my breath when I was (supposed to be) talking about it to a friend casually — none of that matters to them. I'm being mean for trying to get them into the series that changed my life.

I'm not saying "anime only people you suck ass" no, I'm saying "for the love of god, don't shit on the original IP to praise the show".

I have to take what's given. Even if it's not even the bare minimum. Even if it's brought to us by an egocentric jackass. I have to enjoy it, because it's content. I'm being an 'ungrateful fan 'and a 'whiny bitch'.

I prefer not having any more content to play, read or watch, rather than to have bad content about said thing ! I don't need a retelling, nor a bootleg universe, nor an adaptation, to keep my interest going. I don't need it to be turned into a content farm to be satisfied. I liked what it had. What it had is what got me into the series.

I love Devil May Cry for what it meant, not for entertainment only.

And I tried to at least aceept the Netflix cartoon. I've watched it twice, to be able to write this precisely — or well, I tried, since at the second watch I stopped at episode 6. I couldn't. I can't. It feels disrespectful.

It makes me nauseous to see that someone is egocentric enough to claim that he is saving a series that... Didn't need any saving in the first place. "From the visionary mind of Adi Shankar" dude, dude that's not advertising. Get your head out of your own butt.

It's scary. Scary that this type of people have so much free time and money on their hands. There were a lot of things to 'adapt', as the word really means — and you picked not even one !

I'm not saying it has to be completely the same ! Not a 1:1 adaptation ! But it didn't need to strip the original meaning of WHY A DEVIL *MAY* CRY !

If you did enjoy it after reading this, I'm glad, I really am ! I'm very happy that you were able to see something marvelous in it that I didn't, that's beautiful and I'm very happy for you. (None of this last paragraph is sarcasm. Disclaimer.)

Albeit, maybe I was a bit too selfish, and dumb, to expect some extra content on the characters that have meant so much to me. That have both ruined and saved my life unironically. Maybe it's elitist to want that, maybe, I've never denied it.

Perhaps I'm overreacting. Perhaps it's just a silly cartoon. Perhaps.

But I wanted to cry like I did with DMC3 when I watched the series — and I didn't. I did cry... But of rage. Rage, frustration, and impotence.

Just consume. Pay. Praise the minimum effort. Wait for the next product. Repeat.

[sombra-conlangs]

Conlang year 2025 · Day 1 - 4

I decided to try out @quothalinguist's conlang year, it is basically a series of daily prompts that guide you through the process of creating a new language, by the end of the year you will end up with a conlang that is developed enough to participate in relays and lexember, you can find it on quothalinguist.com

It looks like conlang year is mostly geared towards creating languages that are naturalistic and evolved from a proto-language, and the concept I have for this is not going to really fit into that, you'll see why once I start describing it, but I don't imagine that'll be too much of an issue, it's still useful to have a guide for the different aspects of the language I should focus on. I'll try to adapt the prompts to work with my idea and I guess I'll skip the ones that I can't figure out how to adapt.

I'll be combining many prompts together into single posts for convenience, I'll tag these posts as both #Conlang year and #Conlang year 2025 so you can search those in my blog to see them all if you want (once I name the language I will also add it to the tags, but the language doesn't have a name yet).

If you want to see all of the information from these posts compiled into one place I will be adding all of the information about the conlang I create on my website: tekseni.bearblog.dev

Day 1: Set an intention for your language

(warning: this gets a bit heavy, but I try not to make it too dour)

I haven't been feeling great lately, I won't go into details, I'll just say that it can be difficult to manage your emotions when the world seems to be in such a terrible state, living through historical events is not easy.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

I know there's some people who say you have to be constantly staying informed on every bit of news because if you don't you're a bad person, but that's not a sustainable way to live. It's important for us to keep ourselves sane, if you're going to help others through turbulent times you have to make sure you have your own feet on firm ground. I won't be of much help if I'm having a crisis, so taking care of my own mental health is important, and for many of us that can include a bit of escapism and using art as an outlet, using art as motivation to keep going and enjoy life despite the circumstances. This conlang is my escapism.

With all of that being said, here's my 2 main goals for this conlang:

1: I want this language to make me smile

I want to create something that helps me to find some beauty and hope in the world, I want the choices I make with the language to make me smile, and I want to be able to have fun while working on it, without having to worry too much about how naturalistic it is or anything like that, so ideally I'd also avoid comparing this to other conlangs.

If we compare this to visual art, I'd say this is less like trying to create an awesome painting with perfect perspective, colors and composition, and it's more like me doodling in a sketchbook that is meant primarily for me, but I also want to share it with others in case they find it to be at least mildly interesting or it helps inspire them in some way.

It's not like my other conlangs don't bring me joy, I guess what I'm trying to say is that this time I will try to design the language without worrying about things like naturalism or trying too hard to make my worldbuilding interesting or deep, it's just a canvas where I can throw paint and let myself go wild, trying out things I normally wouldn't, and making choices based on my personal preferences instead of what I think I "should" do, so I guess that makes this is a personal language.

2: This is going to be a surrealistic conlang

I have already decided who the speakers of my language will be, I'll elaborate more in the following prompts but I currently call them "dream angels" because they're basically benevolent beings that exist in the world of dreams, and because of this I want to try my hand at making a surrealistic conlang, @dedalvs wrote an essay on fiat lingua about what such a language might look like, and I keep coming back to it every now and then because I love the concept.

Even before that essay was posted I remember thinking of what conlangs might look like if they were inspired by different art movements, and a surrealistic one fits particularly well into the dream world idea, it will also allow me to fulfill my first goal fairly easily; making something that makes me smile without having to worry about naturalism and letting myself experiment. I've always been drawn to surrealism for one reason or another, not entirely sure why but I know this is something I'm excited to work on.

I'm not expecting this to be the best surrealistic conlang out there, but it doesn't have to be, it just has to be fun for me, and it will work as a learning experience regardless, so if I want to try again at some point I will have a better idea of how to approach it. I'm sure someone out there will make an amazing surrealistic conlang one day and I'll be excited to see it when it happens.

Day 2: Set an intention for sharing your language

Basically the main audience is me, I hope that future me will be able to look at all the different translations, grammar choices and vocabulary I made and feel like it's a fun language that still brings me some joy in some way or another, even if I don't keep working on it for much longer after the conlang year has ended at least I hope it was a positive experience.

I also want to share the language online (on this blog and on my conlang website) mostly because I'm hoping that at least one person is going to look at my conlang and feel inspired, or maybe it will make them smile too, so I'm going to try to describe all the features in a way that is understandable for other conlangers.

Day 3: Determine your speakers and conworld

The basic idea is that there is another plane of existence, one we can't see when we're awake, and the world where dreams exist is connected to this other realm, so when we dream we sometimes come into contact with the ethereal beings that speak this language, and they are kind and loving.

The dream angels usually don't interfere with human affairs too much, but they sometimes help us by making nightmares go away and soothing the people they see, at least while the people are asleep (since they can't interact with us outside of dreams).

They also shift the way they speak to be a bit more familiar to the person they're encountering, so I imagine the phonology of their language might shift a bit from its default form depending on what your native language is, the language would still be unintelligible to you but it would sound a bit like someone speaking your L1 in a weird way (which also means that it will be easier for you to pronounce the language if you are able to speak back at them because you will at least get to use sounds you already know how to pronounce, though you're welcome to pronounce it in its original form).

These beings are very surreal in their appearance, there's probably different types of dream angels but the ones I'll be working with are kind of like a mix of various sea creatures, drifting through space peacefully, building all sorts of things and admiring the nature that exists in their world.

I imagine their settlements are built on floating islands full of all sorts of critters and nature, and their world as a whole is probably a bit weird and doesn't always seem to follow logical rules, in keeping with the kind of things you see in dreams, so they might look a bit like something you'd see in an M.C. Escher artwork, where you're not exactly sure what you're looking at, but it has a certain beauty to it.

Day 4: Describe (or design) your speakers

And finally here's a picture I drew of a prototypical dream angel:

They might look a bit intimidating or scary to you, but I chose to take inspiration mostly from various sea creatures because they help to convey this kind of ethereal and weirdly beautiful aesthetic, when I look at jellyfish I often wonder how those are living beings that exist in our world, they look more like they're inanimate objects drifting in the water and yet they're alive, and they're so mesmerizing and fascinating, like a living nebula.

I imagine different dream angels would have different characteristics, but in general they're basically like some sort of jellyfish with 3 main tentacle-like appendages, many thin tendrils, 6 insect-like arms, 6 little wings (because it makes them look a bit more angelic lol) and they have one eye, but no human has ever seen their eyes because it is always covered by something, in this case it's a butterfly, but whatever is covering their eye it does not prevent them from seeing, this is the dream world after all.

I think there might be other types of dream angels, and they're all able to speak a human-like language because they don't need a mouth to speak, they just telepathically send sounds to other beings, so the speakers of my language will be characterized by being similar to sea creatures, perhaps there's other dream angels that are more similar to other types of animals, or inanimate objects, maybe some are just completely out there and don't even look like anything we're familiar with as humans. By the way if you feel inspired to design your own dream angels go ahead! I think it'd be nice if I was able to inspire creativity in others with my work.

I'm also choosing to use a human-pronounceable phonology because I enjoy pronouncing the words and sentences of my conlangs, but perhaps at some other point I will make a different register of the language that uses different noises as phonemes, maybe sounds of water and nature, or maybe something like one of those really peaceful synths, after all their phonology is not limited by their physiology or even things like logic.

But anyway that's it for now, I feel a bit vulnerable putting myself out there so much, this feels a bit more personal than my other conlangs I've shared, it's not like a regular fantasy worldbuilding project or a fanlang or an a posteriori language, this one is very out there and weird, but again I want to share it in case other people find it interesting, and hey, we need more examples of surrealistic conlangs, so I'm more than happy to contribute to that.

[candiid-caniine]

Hey! Long time no see, i know i said id send you a fantasy i thought you'd like but now ive forgotten almost all of it, oop!

Life happened, and uh, i saw that you mentioned your libido being a bit low, which definitely is my case too (im recovering from depression, now that im okay id love to get my FULL libido back, or at least a good percentage of it) do you have any tips on that?

Also any recs of blogs writing in the same vibe as you? (same-ish kinks would be nice but im specifically looking for queer inclusive stuff!) it makes me 10x hornier than the regular video/photo porn!

Hope you're well, you pathetic little thing!

💫

hi friend!! ugh i feel you. sorry i haven't got any advice on regaining ur libido...we just let mine wax and wane as it will, though denial has been a big help in keeping it steady!

i've heard good things abt ginseng and some other herbs. obvs use at your own risk, mind that some herbal treatments can cross-interact with certain medications, remember that pre-packaged supplement pills are often unregulated and may contain toxins, and be aware that some herbal remedies work better on pw certain anatomy than others, and finally that many herbal remedies considered to increase libido are largely untested on trans folx!

finally, sorry it's taken so long to answer this ask...i'm autistic and have been cataloguing lol. i present to you a list of other blog recs under the cut, organized by general vibe! i've tried to primarily include blogs that do their own posts rather than those who primarily reblog :)

note that my headings may provide some context as to what to expect, but you read at your own risk and each blog will typically have its own trigger warnings addressed in the header/pinned. additionally, i've not tagged some of the ppl below because they prefer that "Men DNI" blogs not interact, and idk if "no cis men" qualifies ahah!

all blogs below are queer- and/or trans-inclusive, if not exclusive! there is no detrans/misgendering, at least I don't think - i don't tend to follow those blogs.

hard kinks (blood, knives, etc; includes primarily-cnc blogs):

@puppy-mommy , who also does general t4t kink content, but does state untagged hard kinks!

@visciousest is someone whose blog i scroll when i'm in a Certain Mood ahah,, i won't elaborate

@hell-hound-bites: just. fuck. would drool on his knife blade.

@snuff-fag: its username should give you fair warning as to how wild its content tends to get, so please browse responsibly.

@condor-bait is taking a break right now, and all my love is with him as he takes care of himself. he made me feel so valid and so fuckable as a young trans person learning to love myself in a new way, and i've always been too shy to tell him how much his content meant to me one-on-one (yes, despite its often-extreme themes!), and he deserves as much time as he needs to heal!

@unwillingfvckpuppy for mostly cnc and medical kinks! if you like his style, but not so much their harder content, he also has a more-tame main blog--i just mainly follow/scroll this one!

@vampvictim: top-tier cnc/intox stuff, plus some great knife/bloodplay :)

@cryptidtid is wonderful and holy shit i follow a lot of hard kink blogs lol. incredible

@cnc-pet: i have been following her for a long ass fucking time lol. they post a lot of really good cnc and stories, but you'll also find a lot of aftercare tips and advice on her blog! i really admire blogs who try to balance horny content with best practices

@dollobotomy

general kinky content:

@excessively-queer . just plain old good shit :) there's a good amt of edging and degradation.

@clouded-king was honestly one of my earlier introductions to the queer/t4t kink community on here and how fucking euphoric it can be :) he posts some hard kinks, but generally it's a balance of a lot of different kinks so read his pinned at your leisure!

@ / cottontailx : just good kinky nsft posts :)

@ / digitalpenetration: often specifically t4t which i love!!

@femmelovefemme can step on me :)

@bigothteddies: could not build this section w/o mentioning him :) they had a big influence on my fantasies for a long time!

@hazelj-xoxo: bigtime want her to cuck me. have followed her across multiple blog deletions lol

@transpidered is forever an icon!

@subspaceemo

@writefinch for great stories and text posts

edging and denial, specifically:

@6irlpet is 1 of my go-to hands-down-pants scroll sessions :)

@droolkink is my inspiration!

@flustersluts does exactly what the name implies lol. a good helping of other kink content too :)

@puppycvnt is a 10/10!

@barkwoofbarkwoofbark: we r denial friends imo!!

@strawbrrysub

@blyssful-abyss

@urhighnessbitch is a big fav <3

non-detrans genderplay:

@butchviolence does amazing butch supremacy stuff and i,,, fucking hell. even just seeing their username puts me in a Particular state of mind ahah. they also post hard kinks so be aware as you proceed!

@mtfdomme: i literally just reblogged from her today lol. tbh i want to be their little stupid pupthing. it's not all transfem supremacy undertones/overtones, but that's what i mainly follow her for, plus just general t4t goodness! also, their general personality? and the way she shuts down people who disrespect their boundaries? huge inspiration for me!

@cuntboydestroyer: take me to the animal shelter and neuter me. good lord.

@the-kind-of-dame is the main inspiration for my recent genderplay post lol

@terfbreaking-tgirl (be warned of dykebreaking if that's an issue for you)

@barbarian-lesbian is my other inspiration for the recent genderplay post

@superiorineveryway

weird asf (/complimentary; my favorite type of shit. robots, ND-focused posts, etc):

@specksizedgoddess has introduced me to things i didn't know, like...existed, and that's saying a lot as one of my special interests is kink! never knew how down bad i was to be a tiny buggirl, nor how much i wanted to be someone's stupid little robot... BIG tw tho: there is snuff and gore content here, so proceed with caution if you don't wanna see that!

@sapphling fucked me up real good with some bird!sub bondage posts awhile back lol

@nobelisha: found them through their ghost cnc post so that's why they're in this category ahah! they don't have a pinned so proceed w awareness :)

@devout-cleric: hierophilia/religion kink, and i'm something of an acolyte of hers :) if you've read this far down you may as well know i'm her Little Lamb anon lol

piss/omo:

@latenightomo

@pissheartmybeloved - their URL makes me crack up every time, plus good content!

@hold-it-a-little-longer - good scenarios/imagines!

@ohmyrashi - (i think) my original intro to omo!

monsterfucking/terato:

@septimus-moonlight was my first real introduction to trans-positive terato and i've never settled for half-fun cis-oriented terato ever since :) mind tags!

@eggedbellies as well!

@bredpun doesn't appear to be active lately but still good for a scroll!

@steamandcream

@of-mutts-and-men

[liminalweirdo]

Hi, sorry to bother you, but I recently came across some of your posts and was curious about the tag "not wearing a mask is eugenics". Can you elaborate on that? I'm genuinely curious, as this isn't a view I've seen before and want to know more about it

Sure! Basically one-way masking (one person wearing a mask in a group of unmasked people) is not nearly as effective at preventing covid spread as universal masking (everyone wears a mask).

Masks are the best way to reduce covid spread and help to keep everybody safe. Basically, masking even if you think you aren't sick -- covid is not always symptomatic and people are still contagious before symptoms show up /source/source/source/source -- is community-oriented. You are invested in protecting other people.

People who choose not to wear a mask and are leaving masking up to the people who "have to mask" or are covid-vulnerable or covid-cautious is a form of practising eugenics; it's the extension of "well only vulnerable and elderly people die from it," which is designating a group of people as "weak" and less deserving of a high quality of life. Or deserving of life at all. Basically, whether you want it to or not, choosing not to mask says. "If I get covid I'll probably make it because I'm able-bodied and have fairly good access to healthcare and medication. And if someone gets covid from me, and they get really sick or they die... oh well! Wearing a mask is such a bother."

It's casual eugenics. It's not caring enough about vulnerable members in your community to go through the minor inconvenience of wearing a mask, including events like Pride, protests, etc., but also just to protect your literal neighbours. The people you share clinics, and grocery stores, and libraries with.

Right now, disabled, immunocompromized, and other covid-vulnerable people have to severely limit their time spent in grocery stores (for example), and are avoiding accessing healthcare, haircuts, the movie theatre, restaurants, pharmacies, in-person jobs, socialization with family and friends, a quick trip out to a café, etc. -- basically all the things that they need, or that make life worth living -- and all because no one is bothering to mask in those public places, and that makes those places too unsafe. I'm one of those people. I haven't been inside a restaurant or a café or a real grocery store in three years. My partner cuts my hair for me because no barbers mask. I have avoided going to the doctor and getting new glasses even though my prescription no longer works for me. I can't go to the dentist because the other patients aren't required to mask in the waiting room, and no one has invested in HEPA filters or good ventilation.

Not wearing a mask says, "I don't care if those people can't access a decent quality of life." It says, "those people might die if they get covid, or become more severely disabled, but I probably won't, so I don't need to bother masking." It's the way no one cares if they can't access public places they should be able to access, and the casual attitude towards the eradication of "those" people if they get covid and suffer severe consequences. That's why it's eugenics.

If you're curious to learn more about this, follow tags like covid vulnerable, covid cautious, long-covid, me-cfs, myalgic encephalomyelitis, or blogs like @i-still-mask-because

[theohshit-r-official]

Long-as-hell OOC post incoming

So, I feel I should probably clarify this, on account of shit going on in the zeitgeist re: Lancer RP on here, and because I and this blog am not an entrenched figure in the community here, so it pays to be as clear as possible what I am here for:

First, let me clarify: this is not about anyone in particular, and god knows I'm guilty of not doing some of the shit I'm going to recommend here. Second, this is, in addition to not being about any one person but instead the different microcultural elements I've noticed on here, mostly a post to explain what *I* am going for with this blog so that *YOU* can decide if or how you want to engage with it and me.

The primary purpose of this blog is as follows and as I will elaborate on here:

To serve as a place for people to dump their shitposts, serious opinions, and in-world takes they don't necessarily want to put out via an established character blog or their main in a more centralized place. This means I WILL publish most shit people send, even if some of the implications are not so great, though I won't publish some of the more egregious shit on account of it sucks. See this article [LINK HERE] for an example of something similar being done by a real world political figure (notably, a known inspiration for the Ungratefuls' Tyrannocleave) for a much better purpose than mine.

This ALSO means I will likely be publishing from people not immersed in the community or party to your established norms. I understand that online spaces largely run on reputation, but I, out of character as well as to some extent in, am an academic and I'm pretty well informed of both positive and negative consequences of this, and this is an intentional choice. DM me or send an ask labeled as OOC if you want to talk about this, I'm happy to discuss it, I'm just not likely to change my stance on it on account of "This is a heavily established, pretty well-researched concept in human social dynamics" so don't expect me to change what I'm doing from the jump. With that being said, let's lay out the motivation a bit:

Part of the appeal of LANCER that was explicitly intentionally designed by its creators is that there are both large structures of recalcitrant, sticky politics (see: Albatross hunts pirates, a group known to exist largely due to economic suffering, for a megacorp that sells weapons to pirates; the KTB is required to maintain an absurd level of extractive industry by Union, which favors their most abjectly fucking awful major house politically; etc) that serve as a shared bedrock for engagement and are pointedly shitty as hell *AND* large swathes of space where you can largely do pretty much whatever you want and have things be as good or as bad as you want so long as you avoid having them be run directly and heavy-handedly by the major players (as a brief sidebar, if you want an example of someone doing an excellent job of navigating the intersection of the larger players and the open, freer space and a damn good homebrew module, I highly recommend Vex Werewolf's In Golden Flame Act 1 [LINK HERE]). LANCER is a game where both the narrative impetus and mechanics are intrinsically tied to political context and dynamics, and the way LANCER allows for space from that for players and GMs is to have a lot of literal space unaccounted for.

The implication of this, of course, is that it is intended to be an equally valid mode of enjoyment to get really into the weeds of the established politics (hello, Siren Song, cannot WAIT to play an idiot in you and see how you break her) OR to not do that and avoid it entirely, but, and this is key, you cannot really feasibly do both at once reliably at scale without a lot of care and awareness, and I do not think that that is a reasonable expectation to have of total strangers on Tumblr. The official Discord community for this game has a rule to the effect of "Do not use your comfort to stifle political discussion unless ABSOLUTELY necessary" (very, very roughly paraphrased), and instead encourages disengaging from shit you do not want to deal with. To give an example of how that translates to practical domains, in the context of the game, if you didn't want to have to deal with Harrison culture, you wouldn't play a game on Ras Shamra, so why would you choose to pursue a conversation with someone playing a proud character from Ras Shamra on here if you don't want to hear what that character would say?

A lot of the conflict on here seems to stem from people being frustrated with people from one side of the aisle or the other interacting with them without establishing rules of engagement and/or where they stand on "I want to enjoy a sci-fi power fantasy without thinking too much about the implications" versus "I really want to dig in on the psyche of a proud Harrison soldier," both of which are equally valid ways to engage with the setting and the game. They come into conflict in no small part because many people in the prior category are expressly interested in using the mechanics of a mecha setting to tell a mostly feel-good story without the political meat and grit of the original setting materials, which, I'll especially note, is not something people coming from other mecha contexts are likely to expect. This means that you have a conflict between people interested in one mode of engagement (which, if I had to guess, comes more frequently from a general tabletop gaming background) and others interested in a very different mode of engagement coming from differing backgrounds, including but not limited to the broader world of mecha fans.

(NOTE: I am not saying that these groups are totally distinct or that this is the sole reason conflict happens, I'm just trying to give a more fleshed out example for people who are less familiar with the draw of the grit. I think the mecha community is a good example for this, as it is both something that a lot of people are peripheral to AND a cultural context a lot of people really don't understand from the outside)

Let me elaborate a little here on where the mecha side of things is coming from, for those of you less familiar. The arguable single most influential piece of mecha media in much of the world (Neon Genesis Evangelion) is in part an express exploration of the ethics of military recruitment and the use of child soldiers. The fact that this piece of media has recently been used to sell McDonald's does not change that weight in the culture of mecha media, nor does it change that, historically, mecha is a genre about war. The most prolific mecha series by far is Gundam, whose villains famously have a point and whose protagonists infamously tend to develop through deeply traumatic realizations that they may not be the unambiguous good guys they thought they were. Mecha media, on the whole, pointedly cultivates a strong sense of engagement in setting geopolitics, the ethics and process of war, and the role of individuals as vehicles of violence, and people coming from a heavy mecha background are likely to be invested in exploring these themes.

That being said, I totally respect wanting to engage with it from another angle, but you can see how people wanting a more free-form, canon-lite experience and people who are coming from a mecha background looking for the nitty gritty of the established, shared setting could come into conflict, particularly when it comes to making claims about established parts of the setting. Of course, in character conflict is fine and well and dandy if that's what you're going for, no shame in that, this is more to do with the out of character aspects, including how you respond to and handle in character conflict.

Here's the thing: this dichotomy of interest does not favor a single, fully connected network of people heavily interacting. It does not favor a community with a single set of hard norms. It favors a lot of individual level variation, it favors many smaller sets of norms between individuals, and it favors good communication about those differences. I am aligned with the creators of LANCER in that I think both approaches to engaging with the material have value, and I want there to be space for both here, and I agree with them that the two are not always compatible. To preserve space for both, we need to prioritize curating our own experience over policing others', which, I know, shocking that the person who linked Anarchists Welcome would make a statement about taking an anarchistic approach to maintaining a stable, healthy social context which allows for conflict.

This is one of the reasons that I, in running this blog, have consciously chosen to almost exclusively respond to other people's posts who I actually have spoken to out of character, despite Umommiest being an extremely vocal HORUS shitposter, because I often cannot tell from character blogs what their relationship to the shared text is and their interest in different modes of interaction. This is ALSO why I'm going to be fairly indiscriminate in publishing asks and submissions, and only have Umommiest respond to what gets sent in when either prompted directly by the material or when it is plainly a shitpost that allows for some play (see also: the 8 year old seeking liberation via artillery platform and soft target elimination frames). As is quite well known in the kink community, consent does not occur in character, and personal norms and interests should be established outside of them. If there is a character blog on here that you have concerns about or want to interact with but are unsure how to proceed, DM them and check in, the same way that you would talk to someone if you wanted to join a game of pickup basketball or something. This is a social activity, social activities have fairly well established means by which to initiate them in a more intentional manner, let's make a point to start using them more consistently.

With that being said, if there is a character blog that you do not want to see, block them. There will be characters that people choose to play that you personally A will not like and B may not wish to engage with. Use the curation tools you have rather than relying on norms all the time, as norms develop from consensus and require other people to change to work. You don't have to put it on others to tailor your experience. I will go somewhere else rather than deal with somebody I don't want to talk to at a bar, and this is a similar sort of interaction. Blocking is not a condemnation, it is a choice to not engage with someone or something you do not want to. On my end, I will be doing my best to consistently tag in-character posts, reblogs, etc with ohshitumommiest going forward so you can block the tag as described here [LINK HERE] if you want to see what people are submitting without any of Umommiest's commentary, responses, etc. I'm also thinking I'll move towards initially publishing even the shitpostier things without commentary and then following up with a reblog with the commentary (so if you want to see just what other people make and not her bullshit, that's cool, too).

For the record, I *am* personally interested in the politics of the setting and Umommiest is a character that is heavily written based on the canon. She is also, frankly, a HORUS shitposter of the highest and worst degree, if you can't tell from her demeanor, and will engage with people who comment in character on posts here as would reflect a highly informed, terminally online political agitator with no formal affiliation to anyone who sees all of her speech as largely without personal consequence. Part of the purpose of the ohshitumommiest tag is to allow you to engage with the submitted material without having to see if and how she replies to you if you are not interested in that. If you are, hey! Looking forward to having some fun together with this horrible girl I've made!

Frankly, I don't care where you fall on the spectrum/split of hard text engagement versus loose text as inspiration, but I do care that everyone has an outlet for shitposts and other art/thought pieces on the setting that they think are gold or at least fun but don't have a place for personally. I think Lancer fucking rules, and people have a lot of cool, funny, and beautiful thoughts and ideas on it regardless of affiliation on these grounds, and I want to make this a place to share them without too much worry of how they fit a given blog.

If that nondiscriminatory approach to publishing is unacceptable to you, cool, I don't care, block this blog. Maybe read the linked article first and see if that helps you see a different perspective a little, but, please, use the basic curation tools available to you on this site to help maintain a diverse community that reflects the varied appeal of LANCER's setting.

With that said, play ball, and I'm looking forward to continuing to see the awesome, wild, wonky, and frankly unhinged shit this community continues to create!

PS: if you want to anonymously publish something with a link or an image via this blog, please DM me and I will effectively spoof a submission so your blog does not have to be attached. You run the risk of me knowing that you sent it, but it doesn't get broadcast to the world.

PPS I know that there are some other folks on here who engage with other LANCER online communities (e.g., the official Discord) who share much of the opinions I expressed here, particularly the "Hey there are different, conflicting way to enjoy the setting, and having some understanding around that is healthy for the community" stance, so feel free to share this around as you like.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

Drink Your Villain Juice - FAQ

Contains mild spoilers.

What is the story about?

You play as a science experiment turned undercover supervillain, charged with gathering information on a mysterious new villain group in town. With many skeletons in your closet and mixed allegiances, whose side are you really on?

Genres: Horror, action, traumatised people trying to heal (or get worse)

Who is involved with this IF?

There's the writer, and there's her wife (the secretary!). Both of us are active on the blog, so you may sometimes see posts unrelated directly to DYVJ, usually tagged #unrelated.

What are the protagonist's powers?

The protagonist/MC can grow a protective membrane over their body, forming two tendrils from their shoulders. The membrane makes them stronger, faster, and more resilient.

MC can also select one of three power specialities: inducing wild and uncontrolled mutations of their body, creating small creepy-crawly minions (referred to as 'nodes'), and growing an armoured carapace.

Will we be able to gain multiple powers/will you add new powers?

No: both would add too much complexity and also detract from the significance of the choice.

Will our powers get stronger?

Yes, to an extent, but I don't write based on power levels anyway. :)

Who is this Paradigm/Dime person people keep talking about?

Paradigm, AKA Dime, is the MC! It's their codename with their 'true' faction.

How long will the story be? Is it going to be a series?

Length: I have no idea! I'm not intending to get completely bonkers, but I want to ensure all the ROs get their time in the sun too.

Series: I suspect this will be a duology, but I can't be certain yet as we're not deep enough into the narrative.

Did you say Romance Options!? Elaborate!

There are currently 7 romanceable characters in DYVJ. You can also play the MC as aromantic, asexual, or both. The ROs are explained in more detail on choice of games, but briefly:

Mallory (non-binary), Wilson/Wilma/Willow (gender-selectable), Kay (female), Teddie (male, men only), Control Group (female), Alistair (male), Beth (female, women/nonbinaries).

I'm intending on including at least one poly route, featuring Wil and Kay.

I've heard there's a choice to have a previous RO in the past?

Correct! There's a flashback sequence with MC and some friends before the supervillainy. You can choose to have MC dating or crushing on Prii (nonbinary), Shauna (female), Grant (male), or Beth (female). This doesn't prevent you from romancing someone else later on!

Will the characters from the flashback show up again?

I can promise some level of closure! There won't be romance routes though. (Beth notwithstanding)

Will you make [X] an RO?

Seven is already an awful lot! I don't want to overcommit by adding more!

Can I select all the options for the Juice changing my character's appearance?

I'm presently not planning on adding this. I'd have to alter some code in an annoying way and I enjoy it being a choice with intent instead of an 'all of the above'.

Will we be able to get off the Juice/free from control?

Keep playing and see. ;)

How villainous can I get?/Do I have to be a villain?

There will be opportunities to leap off the proverbial slippery slope, but also to be unhappy and conflicted about what you're being forced to do.

Drink Your Villain Juice! is kind of a goofy name.

So I've heard! I know it's given people the impression that this is a comedy, which it, uh, very much is not. Honestly Drink Your Villain Juice! was the only title that popped for me in the conceptual stage: everything else felt much more bland or generic.

I've found a bug, how can I let you know?

First, please make sure you didn't resume playing on Dashingdon from an old save: updates to Dashingdon tend to break a lot of stuff in the backend and that's been the root of a lot of errors in the past.

If you're confident this isn't the problem, then just send an ask or post on the COG forum! I'll look into it.

I'd like to give feedback on the game!

Once again, send an ask, or post on the COG forum. I also have a feedback form I'm trying out for each chapter, so you can fill that out if you like!

Can I support you?

That's very kind of you! Support from fans is how I can work on the game and update as frequently as I do. I have a Patreon and a Ko-fi, but honestly, I'm grateful just for your feedback. :)

Do you have a discord?

Yes, it's tied to Patreon membership. However, if you have sent a tip/donation/etc, please reach out to DYVJ requests to talk about an invite. :)

[askthenerdling]

A CHALLENGER APPROACHES!

(( Low-key wondering if anyone happened to notice this little pattern I've been doing for the last 7 years...

Practically the only tradition I've managed to keep alive, because... this blog's got no updates outside of this yearly post. Basically, with Kisno's lore, I determined his birthday to be on April 2nd.

The reason for that, I'll just say something happened ten years ago to the day, left me in such a dark cloud. It's still pretty personal so I don't really want to elaborate too much, but I do want to finally at least share a part of it.

I still sometimes think back to it and wondered if it was just a very cruel April Fools joke, but technically it all took place in the wee hours of the next early morning. Even though I had class that day and I shouldn't have stayed up, I didn't care because I tried to mend things, to no avail. With the rest of the day feeling super numb.

All because I had this random idea of wanting to start my own Nerdling blog, and it came crashing down from there.

It didn't happen immediately but a couple of months later, after I felt better and separated myself from the scenario as a whole, I thought up of this comfort character, just thoughts that would pop up and then a couple sketches being drawn and a simple outline. That's where Kisno came to be. This... interesting Koopaling who was then written to be Nerdling's old friend, turned co-star of the blog. Writing and drawing about Kisno really helped me move past what happened. I was writing A LOT of stories with this Koop... and I hope those stories aren't lost to time, I need to dive deep into my hard drive.

But when it came back to that particular day, I wanted to focus on replacing it with something a little more positive. Instead of, "Oh, it's the day where this happened." I could now say "Oh my gosh, it's Kisno's birthday!"

Thought I'd write a little story time since it has already been that long, and I hardly think about it anymore. Heck, compared to how I was before when recalling it gave me chills and butterflies in my stomach; now when I think back, all I can really think about is Kisno's birthday and my head no longer brings me back to that night, so... it worked!

Any who, what did Kisno get for his birthday this year? Aside from oodles of goodies from today's Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, how about a WHOLE FREAKING NEW CHARACTER?!

Well, okay, they're not a Koopaling. They won't be joining the blog. They're not even related to Mario! But they are a character that's not specifically tied to any kind of IP... They're actually a character that I wanted to represent myself a bit more personally. I think you know where I'm going with this so I'll stop there. :')

Thing is, they're still unfinished. STILL, unfinished. I thought up of them almost two and a half years ago, and I'm still wishy-washy about it. Character creation is already hard, but... creating a character for ME?! Goddess of Hylia, help me...

So, they're in the hazy, "?" Super Smash Bros. mystery character silhouette for now. I may drop a couple hints on some of my socials but... that remains to be seen.

Hope you're all doing well and taking care of yourselves! See you next year! This has become a thing, why stop now? =w=;;; ))

[joy-sorrow-joy]

About Me

i'm winter. i'm currently in school to become a vet tech and working as the receptionist in a pokemon centre. i'm 20 so please remember this while talking to me. i will probably act a little sillier online than i do in real life because i do need an outlet for that kind of stuff but i do have adult responsibility like my classes and job. not saying which specific. im unovan (i know. boooooo) but not saying which city specifically because some of the cities here only have a few pokemon centres so i don't wanna make it too easy to find me. also i picked a more monochrome aesthetic for everything for now just cause i didnt know what to use for my icons an everything nd everyone loves a bit of good black and white (my sad grey mom house-core blog)

funnily enough i don't actually have much interest in pokemon beyond a career in helping them and their trainers, i dont have any pokemon of my own and dont intend to ever have any. if anything my interest in working at a pokemon centre is more about the people than pokemon.

i used to be on rotumblr years ago when i was a teenager but quit. this IS the old blog but i scrubbed all my stuff off because ew you don't need to see all of that. i sure was a 14-15 year old back in the day. what brought me back? well im currently having a crisis and the cause is that i have reason to believe im becoming one of those "eeber depos" or whatever theyre called and i know theres a large community ofthose guys here.

OOC:

All mails and their variants are off

Magic Anons are off

Both mun and muse are adults. This blog is not going to be outright nsfw but I likely will make suggestive jokes and posts on occasion. They will be tagged for filtering.

Winter is a half-eeby/hybrid. She will not go full pokemon but she doesn't know that and will not know that until her process of presumably being slow-eebied stops. She also likely won't use eeby for herself much before she figures it out. I'm keeping what pokemon a surprise for now. If you know you know if you don't? Just have to wait and see.

This blog follows a mix of game and anime logic. Nurse Joy is not real, she is considered a mascot character for young kids, instead the person you interact with the most in a pokemon centre is the receptionist (but real medical staff for pokemon do also work at the centre.) More of this probably will be elaborated on by Winter if asked.

This blog assumes Black and White took place around their release dates, and follows the events and setting of Black

Run by @cassi-pokeblogging-hub

[squeremy-rp]

>Hello world!

Ok, yes, I can type here. We are connected. Let's see if we can send it, though. If we can, it would be our very first post here, so go ahead. Make an introduction.

I- Wh- Me? Why me?

Because it was your idea, Jeremy. Go on. We practiced introducing yourself, you know what to do. Take a breath if you need.

Um... Yeah. Okay.

Yo! I'm Jeremy. Sup!

Not... Terrible. Although, I expected you to elaborate a bit more on why we're here.

Oh, y-yeah, right. Um, we, uh-

No stumbling.

Sorry. We're here to answer some questions. Ever since the book came out and then that musical and sh_t... I got some of people asking me to tell more stuff about my experience with the squip. And since I can no longer post on my personal site, I... We thought it would be a cool idea to make a Tumblr blog instead!

Good. That was way better. Yes, we are here to answer any leftover questions you might have. Feel free to ask us anything.

Ok, but... We won't answer anything too wild, right?..

Jeremy, just click "Post".

[umbrasnow]

Taking the Stage

◊ I do hope you will excuse my theatrics. The digital theatre is new to me, frees me of the discomfort I find in speaking aloud. It is quite pleasant now I've been given cause to step into the metaphoric light.

◊ Until recently, I was one of many under the banner of CORSAIR as a member of Squadron Misericorde. I was away, at the time of the fall. Perhaps that is for the best; I do not fare well in open warfare.

◊ I do however, excel in the practise of quiet conflicts. As a whisper of danger on distant winds, or a catching hum over the comms, I am a worthy dance partner. I've found some years of success employing my trade in matters of infiltration, data extraction, and the quiet removal of problems.

◊ If you would like something a little more... elaborate, perhaps with naught in the way of stage decor to clear away? I am quite happy to relay that I continue to perform with the darling @broken-lovestreak. We've always tread in tune with one another, he and I; in silent or spotlight, you won't soon forget us.

◊ As I had when taking contracts with CORSAIR, I exercise the right to decline any work I find personally disatisfactory. I will dismiss any work under SSC out of hand; my reasons are my own. Of course, Zero is his own man in that regard. Do see if he has any interest, should I pass over an offer.

◊ I am the pilot of a Horus alteration, the Banshee; Sleep to the Freezing is as much my dance partner as any opponent might be. I do apologise if either of us give you pause. I have been told my ocular implants can be... uncanny.

◊ If you've work for me, do reach out.

[ Khione ]

//ooc: hiii this is @mossydice / @mossylocks depending on where you may know me!! I'm also @xiii-e here on lancer rp tumblr :3c This is an RP blog for Khione, a lancer character who rocked up in my mind a day or two back fully formed and drove me insane. They're a sniper build with some tech attack utility, softly spoken but Deeply compelling in all the worst ways (orator talent baybee!!) They're also something of a dancer ☆.:*☆

Tags I intend to use include: ▸ Words of Winter - ic tag for Khione posts ▸ Tales of Umbra - lore and art posting ▸ On the Wind - askbox tag

[turbulentscrawl]

🐇 Intro and Navigation 🐇

Hello, I'm Buns! I'm 21+, overworked, and forever desperate for more x-reader content, so I've decided to make some of my own in the small amounts of spare time I get.

This blog posts ns/fw under the tag "#spicy content" minors, please dni with posts under this tag.

⭒ ⭑ ⭒ ⭑ ⭒ ⭑ ⭒

Masterlist pt.1 (General & A-L) | Masterlist pt.2 (M-Z)

Other Works That I Like (opens my reblog tag)

Requests: CLOSED (Current: 84)

Match-Ups: CLOSED (Current: 13)

Currently Accepting For: Identity V

Please read my Rules below before submitting anything!

🐇Rules for Requesting 🐇

Please do not rush me. Requests will be filled as I have time and inspiration--and because of this, a lot of the time they will be completed out of submission-date-order.

I can write headcanons, short scenarios, rankings, and matchups. Most of what I post won't be longer than a few thousand words tops, so please don't expect anything too elaborate from me for now.

I do not accept "Emergency Requests." While I'm okay with writing heavier subjects, they can be difficult to touch on, so I'll fill them at whatever pace makes me comfortable.

If I've already posted general/relationship HCs for a character, please be a little more specific for any requests regarding them. ie don't send "nsfw for so-and-so" if I've already done basic nsfw HCs. Something even just a little more specific, like "nsfw for so-and-so with a shy s/o" is fine.

I can write for male or female reader, but prefer to keep things gender-neutral as much as possible. If you request a specific gender for the reader in a request, but I determine that it would have no bearing on what I write, I will disregard the specified gender and keep it gn. (if you'll notice in my writing, I try to only use the pronoun "you" for the reader, avoiding even "they" unless sentence structure demands it. Just makes it easier for everyone to be immersed.)

I WILL WRITE- sfw, ns/fw...most things, really.

I WILL NOT WRITE- crossovers (including "reader is like this character), character x character (but poly with a reader is fine), yandere, cheating tropes, non-con, pedo, incest, or glorification of self-harm/suicide

CHARACTERS I CURRENTLY WILL NOT WRITE FOR: Hastur, Violetta, Bane, Bonbon, Will Brothers, Kiegan, Kreacher, Freddy, Servais, Kurt, Murro

Additionally, my baseline treatment for IDV is explained here. I can fill requests with setting differences, just please specify when you send it in.

🐇FOR MATCHUPS! 🐇

Matchups can be sent through Submissions or Asks. Please do NOT dm me your information. If you use asks, please be sure to number any split messages so I can keep them together. If you use submissions and would like to stay anonymous, please specify at the start of your matchup so I know not to post the original.

Things I require for matchups

Your sexual/romantic preferences. You may provide your pronouns and/or gender identity if you feel inclined, but it is not required.

A DETAILED description of your personality. Be honest! Specific things that help me are your MBTI, Enneagram, love languages (giving and receiving), social levels, hobbies, personal flaws, life goals, and relationship deal-breakers. The longer the better, honestly, which is why submissions are open.

Things I do NOT require

Your physical appearance. I don't need this at all, but I will keep it in mind if you choose to include it. I might get it in my head that you'd look especially cute with someone in particular.

Matchups that I provide will include a Primary Match, with my reasoning, some headcanons for your ship, and a Runner-Up Match.

[lawbin-archive]

The future of Law and Robin

Hi everyone - if anyone is reading, this is my first time posting here. A newbie :D I opened this blog to archive my analysis of lawbin since there are limited characters in twitter. And I just want a space to rant about lawbin.

Before you scrolling down, for non-manga readers, please aware that there are spoilers below.

And for non-lawbin shippers, please aware that this is NOT completely logical and I have bias on them. So if you dislike lawbin, please just don't read.

I'm gonna talk about my prediction for Law and Robin in the future. This is very theorize and has a very high chance that it might NOT came true. But I still wanna leave an archive here.

So what's the relationship between Law and Robin now?

Logically, I would say they are good friends/comrade that share the same goals. I think they made a deal with each other about poneglyph. I will elaborate later.

But if i have my bias on, I would say they are little bit more than friends. Because Robin is the only person Law voluntarily told his real name. Because Law searched entire flower capital to find Robin. Because Robin teased him he's following her by sniffing. Because Robin is like ageyo when she said "no fair" to Law. And see how Law walks awkwardly here, it's like he's embarrassed that Robin found he's following her.

really looks like two people who are slightly flirting with each other :/

whoops -

back to the deal theory. I believe Law and Robin might be collaborating on looking the last road poneglyph. And the collaboration is still on after they separated. Because Law and Robin both knew that they have the same goal and finding the same thing (the Will of D). Law needs Robin to decipher the poneglyph in order to reach Laugh Tale and learning what's the meaning of D. So why he's looking for Robin before he left Wano?

Because he wants to collaborate with Robin even after the alliance ends. Wait - they are already collaborating already? I think so and I will elaborate later. First of all, why do I think he's looking for Robin and not for poneglyph? Because Law can't read poneglyph, even he followed her won't do any benefits to him. The only thing he can do is just stand behind her and watch her translate the poneglyph exactly what he did in the manga lol Why would he do that without any purpose? He can just wait for Robin to give the translated poneglyph to him. It's not like Robin will hide it anyways. The only information he learned there is Pluton, but he didn't know about it before he followed her and he can't do anything about it because Momonosuke is the only one can control Pluton. So I think Law is looking for Robin here.

You can also say maybe he's just interested in exploring poneglyph and want to learn more about history, so he accompany her. Or he saw she's not with straw hats so he went to protect her from CP0. (yah - those are from my delulu mind)

You might ask why didn't he find Luffy? Because Robin already told him that Luffy don't care about the Will of D, so he needs to collaborate with someone having the same goal.

And you might also ask, why didn't Robin told Luffy? Because it doesn't matter to Luffy and the deal wouldn't affect him become the king of pirates. Robin hides a few secrets from her crew - Shirahoshi is Poseidon, the poneglyph in Alabasta stated the location of Pluton is in Wano, Sabo is still alive...etc. Not that because she doesn't trust her crew, I think it's just she think telling them won't help the situation and I don't think the straw hats really care. And for Sabo, I'm 100% Luffy would want to find out himself instead of from someone.

Oda did intentionally hide Law and Robin interactions during Wano, only half way through Wano, we found out that Law and Robin actually talked about the Will of D and his real name. Law is someone who will make plans to reach his goal. So I think there's definitely more Wano interactions between them.

One more thing to prove this is - When Robin and Brook initially searched the Palace for poneglyph, they couldn't find any Road poneglyph there. Robin thought that the road poneglyph must be on Onigashima. But she didn't go look for a poneglyph in Onigashima She can literally told Jinbe or Brook that she needs to look for poneglyph and wonder off. Why she didn't?? Kin'emon's plan also won't be ruined without her and her disguise outfit would be perfect for her to search. And we found out - Law was the one who's looking for poneglyph in Onigashima.

My thought is that they exchanged their information before reaching Onigashima. And Because Robin was looking for Poneglyph in the Palace, Law will be the one who is searching in Onigashima.

So, what's the deal between them? To be honest, I don't know. So far I can only come up with exchange information for last Poneglyph? Or maybe when Law found the last poneglyph, Robin can keep it but needs to decipher for him? (Law doesn't have Big Mom's poneglyph, so even Robin translate for him, he won't be able to reach Laugh Tale)

It needs to be something that Robin didn't need to tell Luffy or the crew. Or maybe she did told them but just us readers don't know.

Lastly, why I still think the deal is on? and not just ended with alliance. Because of this scene-

Law and Robin reacted differently about the man who marked by flames. Law looking dim and Robin was just curious. In the anime, we have an interaction that Robin is looking at Law. But I'm not 100% sure that's the right interpretation. Base on the manga, Robin might be looking at Law or just simply curious about Kid saying "the man who marked by flames". And Law reaction just might be he stopped to listen Kid because it might be a hint about poneglyph. I think Oda intentionally put their reaction together to make it seems like they are both related to it. I think that's one of the hint that they are collaborating.

Is Law hiding something here? Maybe. I think the deal Law and Robin made, it's just fair that Law needs to be the one who finds the last poneglyph. Otherwise, it doesn't seems fair to Robin that they need to find the poneglyph and translate to him. So it might be he knows something about the man marked by flames and didn't tell Robin. But I don't think so? Because Law can give the information to Robin, even Robin found it, she will share it with him because he gave her the information. He even gave a poneglyph to Kid and saying they deserved one too. So why would he hide a secret?

I actually think a lot of times asking myself and think oppositely. Maybe they are just sharing information during Wano and didn't contact after. But it just makes so much more sense that Law needs to collaborate with Robin to achieve his goal. I mean there's a person who can decipher poneglyph in front of Law. And his personality is planning everything ahead. So it make sense he at least leave some contact with Robin to be able for him to learn the Will of D. Even he found the last poneglyph himself, there's no way he could decipher it. Of course there are other ways but I just think Law won't miss his chance to build a connection with Robin before he left Wano.

So how do they contact each other? Den den mushi is a must. They need to talk to exchange information. And possibly, vivre card. It's not really possible, but my delulu mind said Law might left a vivre card for Robin to let her find him or make sure he's alive.

Finally, what we can expect in the future for Law and Robin? - they might contact with each other about poneglyph - it might reveal that they have been collaborate since Wano - they might fight together to find the last poneglyph - they might go learn the Will of D together in the future Since they have the same goal, to me, it's just make sense they found the meaning out together. However, I think it might take sometime before they meet each other again. Plus, they both got hurt now :( so we really need to be patient and wait for their interactions again. I really hope we can see at least once in 2024! (I doubt we will tho)

That's the end of the post. Thank you for reading until the end! (If anyone is read it lol) In the future, I will post more analysis about Law & Robin.

[queerholmcs]

okay. you know the drill. i do need to elaborate on some of these, moreso than is allowed within the character limit of the polls; see the read more at the bottom of the post. yes it gets a bit long, i'm sorry, i'm not normal about this show, we've established this.

stop making me watch this. this is indecent. this is not suitable for public television. please get a room.

they all know sherlock and they know that he's insane. where they go wrong is in assuming that john must then be the sane one of the pair of them. (save mycroft; see number five.)

'here, use mine' as the obvious opener. but then we also get the bit where john returns to baker street and sherlock's like 'oh haha yeah i called you across town to ask you to send a text' and john gives him the most exasperated, reluctant look before giving sherlock his phone (heart). because at this point, there is no other option. (i won't say more. essays have already been written on the matter.)

the way a point is made to demonstrate sherlock's deliberate ignorance of molly's attempts at flirting. and john's painfully awkward attempts to hit on mycroft's PA. contrasted with their every moment on screen together. 'we can't giggle, it's a crime scene!' SHUT UP.

where do i start with this one. (mycroft is my favourite. i'm not sorry.) he puts so much effort into this stupid little trick and john completely holds his own against him. he's also the only one to see that john is also not sane and that as much as sherlock is going to be some sort of influence on john, john is going to do the same to sherlock. 'might we expect a happy announcement by the end of the week?' → 'i can see from your left hand that's not going to happen' → 'time to choose a side.' hello??????? thank goodness mark gatiss mycroft holmes is here to spell things out for us.

it all starts when john says 'i looked you up on the internet last night' (weird move, it has to be said) and then doesn't immediately praise sherlock's blog. but then he also doesn't tell sherlock to piss off for deducing him and airing his family secrets like that? and from that point on, every remotely clever thing sherlock says, he looks to john for his response. ('do you know you do that out loud?' 'sorry, i'll shut up.' 'no, it's... fine.') i maintain that he only points out anderson and donovan's little affair to show off for john.

look. do i even have to say anything here. we establish that everyone sherlock interacts with thinks he's gay. we establish that john and sherlock are both unattached and that girlfriends definitely aren't sherlock's area and that it's fine to have a boyfriend, by the way, john thinks this is fine, just if you wondered, he's also unattached and it's fine if girls aren't your cup of tea and have we mentioned they're both unattached? and they have what is about the most intimate eye contact ever for far too long while doing so.

chance or chess? play the game. engage with the story. read between the lines. is it a bluff? or a double bluff? or a triple bluff? play the game. (mention the game one more time. i dare you. shut up.)

this is in both the physical and the metaphorical sense. they have no concept of personal space, either of them, and it is a bit awkward for everyone else in the room who's forced to watch them make bedroom eyes at each other. on the metaphorical side—john is the first to say 'actually, it's not obvious, so get on with it and share your thoughts with the class, would you?' and '...bit not good, yeah. maybe be slightly more sensitive to people's emotions, there.' and 'you're so full of it. you absolutely do guess, admit it, i can tell when you're lying.' lestrade watches them interact for all of ten minutes and then declares that, though he's known sherlock for five years, he still doesn't know sherlock nearly as well as john does.

who is he? well, he's with sherlock. it's sherlock holmes and doctor watson. they're a set. (do not separate!) they go together, they are defined by each other, they balance each other far too perfectly to ever be removed again. welcome to The Dynamic. you'll never know peace again. (or is that just me?)

[sophieinwonderland]

i hope you get genuine help. living like this believing that you're like some savior for the endogenic community cannot be healthy and receiving death threats and whatever else screws up your mentality and is probably just pushing you further into your savior complex. please genuinely go to therapy. i am saying this out of the best intentions for you your account is starting to look like a manic and delusional spiral without the short time in between posts due to mania.

i know i'm not gonna change your endogenic views but please. therapy for yourself. it can't have been healthy (assuming your plurality is real, i personally don't believe it but you do) to have been suppressed for that long therapy for that is needed too if this isn't an elaborate prank/hoax account

I wasn't "suppressed."

Do you think that when I realized I existed and was my own person, we didn't explore all the possibilities?

We read so much about DID and schizophrenia early on because we wanted to explore everything.

In the three years since, there have been no indicators of DID. No past trauma rearing its head, no secret trauma responses. No memories I've sealed away in the darkness of my mind.

I've looked into it. I bet I've read far more papers about dissociative disorders to understand them than you have.

I'm not someone who will just accept the first possibility I'm given. I wanted to UNDERSTAND what I was, and I put in the work to do so. That's how I know I don't have a dissociative disorder.

Also, I'm not interested in being a savior to the endogenic community.

I'm just interested in pushing progress forward as much as I can from where I am. And I realize that's actually pretty limited when I'm acting from Tumblr with only a couple thousand followers. Yes, that's a lot for a system blog on tumblr, but it's nothing next to what TikTokers are able to accumulate.

If I was going to be a savior, I would be brave enough to expand to a large platform instead of being paralyzed by fear of my voice being heard

I do my best to be as loud as I can, but I'm smart enough to know how limited my reach actually is here, even if I try my best to magnify it as much as possible.

I'm one person. (Me, specifically. The rest of my system doesn't actually care about syscourse and some have said I spend too much time on it. *glance at Abby*) I'm not able to change the world on my own. I want to light a spark in people that inspires them. But really, my goal from the beginning was hopefully inspiring people who could be better than I am and do the things that I know I can't.

Which... I guess is another reason I don't actually care about my reputation that much, and have even done things intentionally to put dynamite on the pedestal some people have placed me on. I never intended to be an actual leader of the endogenic community. And the fact that I'm terrible at working with other people means I make a pretty awful one.

I'm not here to be a savior. I'm a propagandist. (In a neutral way because not all propaganda is inherently bad.) I have a message that I think will make the world a better place for plurals and I do my best to spread that. Because that's all I can do. It's the specialized role that I think I'm good at.

And maybe with that, I can inspire other people who could be the actual saviors and community leaders we need to lead us into a plural future. But I know I won't be it.

[merakiui]

For that ask game, i'll be answering it genuinely and with how i truly feel when it comes to your writings. Forgive if it's long-- Here goes:

👀👀👀👀👀 putting you on notif even; always a joy to see your new thoughts everyday

⏰⏰⏰ Sometimes you drop two or more bangers on such a sort span like, ma'am-- how do you do it??

💀💀💀💀💀 few examples that haunt me till today is DRU and promising young man; the fear i got from reading them are so delicious

💌💌💌 always nice to read extra tidbits and extra headcanon, or just seeing your ask posts in general <3

🤡🤡🤡 and boy, there are times when i feel like i have a clown nose ready to plaster onto their faces; clownery and irony are sisters in some ways

💖💖💖 your writings are so delicious i'm actually tempted to read the ones outside of twst, specifically the ones abt scaramouche (thank u for introducing mouchey to me <3)

🥵🥵🥵🥵 literally horny gripping my thighs for dear life--

💔💔💔💔 i remember having to douse my head in cold water after HBE; anyway, yes, your angst gutted me more times than i could count--

🍓🍓🍓 When you write fluff they always got me soooo >_< they're downright diabetic!!!

🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸THIS. THIS BE THE MAIN REASON I"M DRAWN TO YOUR BLOG LIKE SHARK TO BLOOD

🎀🎀🎀the same with the fluff, the way you write these scenes always give me butterflies and got me sooo 🥺🥺 <33

🧠🧠🧠🧠🧠 methinks your brain should be studied and put on display in a museum <3

🌺🌺🌺 even when all the death/bad end flags are there, i still hope the otherwise because i want them to survive so badd

🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄 i'm insane about how you write them actually, loving the mental gymnastics i go thru whenever i read them <3 you really bring the freaky out of these freaks uwu

🩰🩰🩰🩰🩰 not exaggerating, but the first time i found your blog i felt like finding a hidden gem and has been in love with your writings until today (and i suspect for an even longer time <3)

🌞🌞🌞 and sometimes they turn me into an emotional mess and make me insane (affectionate)

⭐⭐⭐ not only they draw me in immediately, they refuses to leave my head; they're living rent free as we speak--

🎨🎨🎨 plenty times i have to look up meanings and symbolism from your writings and it's so much fun gaining new knowledge!

💡💡💡some of your fics really do got me thinking "How did you come up with this???" and i am always INTRIGUED

🧸🧸🧸 how can i not when they're THAT good?? They's comfort fics! (and said comfort fics have not given the characters comfort AT ALL)

🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀 the emotional rollercoaster you put me thru everytime i read your stories is real; i don't think i'll be getting off soon.

📗📗📗 THEY SHOULD BE BOOKS IN MY OPINION ACTUALLY

🧩🧩🧩 oouughh it's got me acting like that one meme of a guy with his whiteboard

💐💐💐i ADORE how you write your MCs, each one of them has such a distinct personality and a refreshing point of view!

🧶🧶🧶 they flow so nicely and smoothly >_< especially love it when you write bickerings like old-married couples

🧊🧊🧊 even when said character may not act like this in canon, the way you write them actually feels like they might??? Somewhere in the multiverse of this specific character, there's this character acting just like how you write them--

💎💎💎 and i especially love it when they're unreliable narrators and/or slowly descending into madness <3 but yes, i just love you write thought processes of each characters in general

💧💧💧both tears of agony and joy, definitely. The butchered got me bawling actually, getting so attached to Marisa even though knowing she won't survived... OTL OTL

🌌🌌🌌🌌 some i wish you'd elaborate more, like that aein in ant hill fic with floyb because i'm honestly curious with worldbuilding of that one

😱😱😱 and you make an amazing build-up towards it too! They're not so sudden and you can even pick the crumbs as the stories go. love it when my suspicions are proven to be correct

🎵🎵🎵🎵🎵 like a moment of epiphany; and i have to say, "Good Luck, Babe" would make a good fem!rido song--

🍇🍇🍇 very very great taste i must say, they're like *chef's kiss* ✨✨✨

🍆🍆🍆 considering they make up the majority of your writings, AAAAAA yes i do love how you write them >_< (they're very much canon in my heart)

🪀🪀🪀 they're definitely not a quick read to me, but they're highly enjoyable!!

🔮🔮🔮 i can't say how many times your plot twists make me feel like getting hit by a baseball bat-- (in a good way) and sometimes (many times) i have to put down my phone and go "....hUH? WUH???"

💣💣💣💣 countless times you've put me on the edge of my seat and got me bouncing me leg in anticipation >_<

🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬 they way you write your stories are so vivid that it's so easy seeing them portrayed scene by scene in my mind (sometimes i like to even imagine them in a visual novel game format)

🎱🎱🎱 and they blew my mind every time <33

🎩🎩🎩 everytime you update new chapters, i like to re-read the previous chapters in order to refresh my mind and see the current plot in its wholeness

🧛🧛🧛 so much that i'm dropping everything i'm doing every time you posted a new fic <3

In short, i bow before your throne of godly writing skills and rejoice for the feast you kindly bestowed upon us <333 again, i'm sorry of it's long >_<

(ask game)

KHEYY, YOU ABSOLUTE MADLAD!!!! YOU DID ALL OF THEM AND PROVIDED EXTRA THOUGHTS????? Sending you lots of kisses and happy vibes in a package because WAAAAAA THIS IS SO SWEET AND KIND OMG?!??!?!?!?! ｡°(°.◜ᯅ◝°)°｡ thank you so very much!!!!! I am cradling this message in my heart forever and always,,, 🥺💖 please don't apologize for the length!!! These positive vibes added so many years to my life!! (〃´𓎟`〃) I am incredibly honored to be a blog worth putting notifs on for,,, and to say my works should be books, that they can be imagined in VN format, that many aspects and more can be enjoyed so thoroughly....... AAAAA OMG YOU'LL MAKE ME CRYYYYYY!!! T^T

These pictures illustrate how I felt reading every one of your lovely words. I'm so flattered,,, orz orz uuuwaaaa I will continue to cook up the most delicious of feasts!!!!!! ᕙ( •̀ ᗜ •́ )ᕗ