#Is this considered heavily referenced?? Idk

[starry1avender]

they told me to draw my babygirl and I drew my babygirl,,,,

[yarpharp]

I think one of the key things to consider when discussing Solas as a character is that his life is heavily... Conceptual?

The Elvhen Empire had a language where meaning was extremely interpretive based on every set conversation. They lived side by side with Spirits and Demons, so they reflected an equally fluid yet painfully rigid world. Solas bears a name that means Pride, with plenty of referenced or hinted at evidence that he was once a Spirit of Wisdom turned from his purpose. Specifically by Mythal, in fact.

But the thing is about this... What if naming him Pride was actually far more complex? Pride in what, exactly? Pride in having a body, pride in knowledge and skill, pride to the point of actionable hubris? Maybe that is part of it.

Yet what is Pride for someone who never was allowed Personal Pride? Or more specifically, embodied pride in service? He HAD been tattooed with vallaslin like the rest of Mythal 's slaves. He had been drawn to form a tangible body to serve her. He must have accomplished so many things for her, in wars, advising, political ploys. Was he named Pride for being so proud to serve the one whom he viewed as "the best" of the Gods?

Ironically, it still suits him even when he decides to reject it. He burns off the vallaslin and slightly scars his face, but isn't he truly proud now? Proud and clean-faced, an individual who serves no one now but himself?

Idk I'm just ruminating on that simple little name of his. It makes him such a conceptual fellow. It leaves me endlessly contemplating the layers.

[youkaigakkou-tl]

The TRUTH behind the soul pieces

Preamble: I started writing this expecting nothing, but I actually found something??? not clickbait???? gone right???

Warning: the expected reaction of reading this is “damn. I’ve never seen someone grasp harder at straws” and “I dunno about this one chief”

So. "The soul pieces aren't exactly what we're told they are" is an idea I've had for a while now. (I wouldn’t even call it a theory, it’s just a passing thought.) Not that "they're manifestations of Haruaki's traits" is wrong, but I think there's more to them than immediately obvious. I just haven't talked about this much because even I don't fully buy into it and it kinda verges on horoscope-type confirmation bias territory. It’s kind of a, I THINK there’s more to it but I don’t know what exactly is more.

A brief recap

First one shown is his "worldly desires", animal trio vs Seiryuu.

Second is his "freak athleticism", that Kurahashi's team and Ebisu just ran into.

With just these two he runs off to find Sano

Third is his "cowardice", found by Sano's team and Byakko, which gets away and hides in Sano's pocket.

Fourth is his "memory", originally found by Hijita's team and Genbu, which gets picked up by Genbu and then the whole Heian flashback happens.

And last is his "intelligence", which for some reason is also the one that can use his exorcism power.

So immediately a couple details stood out to me.

Why is "memory" here?? I wouldn't call that a trait exactly??

Also, when it first broke apart and flew off in five directions, it's specifically pointed out that it's "like a five pointed star" (even though it's not really if you look at the actual locations on a map lol)

And the sticking point, if it was as clean and simple a split as “Haruaki’s traits”, why do the traits bleed into each other? “Athleticism” is into sailor uniforms too, and “Cowardice” and “Intelligence” are pretty quick by themselves. Also, even without his “Memory” at the time, he remembered that conversation with Seimei in ch87.

The five pointed star detail, considering everything in the arc heavily relates to the Four Gods and Seimei's star, which relates to Wuxing, almost begs to be referencing that too.

What is Wuxing?

Wuxing, five elements, five phases, gogyo, whatever other name for it: I’ve talked about it briefly in my Kyoto arc analysis

(Wait. Is this actually all I mentioned regarding Wuxing in that analysis???? This tells you nothing!!)

(Tbh I think I had a longer explanation about it but I cut it because I thought it was irrelevant)

Wuxing 五行, roughly translated as five elements or phases, is a concept that comes from Taoism. The five elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water and describes the interactions between them. Here’s the wikipedia page if you really want to get into the details.

The “xing” means movements/moving, and the entire concept of Wuxing comes from the five classical planets’ (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) movements affecting… things? In general? (It’s horoscopes)

In fact, the names of those five planets in Chinese and Japanese are tied with the Wuxing:

Mercury = 水星 water star

Venus = 金星 metal/gold star

Mars = 火星 fire star

Jupiter = 木星 wood star

Saturn = 土星 earth star

You’re taught these as a kid but not the reasoning behind it (because it’s hella irrelevant lmao) but I guess it kinda makes instinctual sense? (Venus = yellow, Mars = red, Jupiter = stripes, like tree rings?? Saturn = brown. Mercury = it looks like there’s rivers? idk how much detail they were seeing in the BC times)

And just to sate curiosity, the planets that were discovered after telescopes were invented are just based off the English names

Uranus = 天王星 sky god star

Neptune = 海王星 sea god star

Pluto = 冥王星 underworld god star

By the way, this is also why the days of the week are named after elements in Japanese; it’s not actually the elements, rather it’s referring to the celestial bodies: those 5 planets + the moon and the sun. It’s the classical Chinese system that Japan adopted around the 5th century AD, and they haven’t changed it since then. (Chinese uses stuff like “weekday 1” for monday now.) And China itself adopted the Greco-Roman system of the 7 day week, days named after celestial bodies around the 4th century AD, which is also why the planets and days line up if you look at the English and Japanese names now.

Would be crazy if they independently decided to have 7 days in a week and name days after celestial bodies and assigned the same planets to the days huh.

(Also, TIL from looking at this chart that the sun (taiyang) is indeed called that because it’s the “great yang star”, and the moon is called the “great yin star”, you know, like yin-yang)

I’m remembering why it’s so hard to research and write about this stuff now. Everything is so inextricably connected to everything else its hard to talk about one thing in isolation. Thanks for indulging my astronomy tangent I love astronomy.

(I always got saturn on da mind when I think about Seimei cus of this art…)

The only useful part of this essay

So. Wuxing. Here’s a pretty standard diagram of it so it’s easier to visualise

There are five types of processes Wuxing describes:

Generating: Wood feeds fire

The reverse side of generating: Fire burns wood

Regulating: Wood grasps earth

Excessive regulating (destruction): Wood depletes earth

The reverse side of regulation (exhaustion): Earth rots wood

And here’s a full list of it, from wikipedia

With this in mind, you’ll notice that it pops up all over the place in Kyoto arc!

If we take lightning as aligned with metal (because Byakko = metal = lightning user), this is the regulating interaction of metal -> wood

Metal cuts wood, but wood also dulls metal

Water… nourishing wood….???

Water destabilizes earth

(“This is just pokemon lol” WRONG!! Pokemon types and every other element system in videogames came from Wuxing!! (Or Godai))

Back to the soul pieces

So you see, it’s incredibly tempting to connect the five soul pieces with the five elements of Wuxing. It’s basically begging for it. The Wuxing has been associated with lots of things that come in sets of five, including things like senses, tastes, smells, emotions, mental qualities, periods of one’s life, body parts. It has applications in divination and traditional chinese medicine after all. If there was a clear, 1-to-1 match between the soul pieces and the elements, you bet I would have talked about it more by now. But the connections are tenuous at best, and even I don’t really believe it. They might, probably, just be the traits we’re told they are. So this really is just to humor myself, and maybe someone can glean something more from this.

Let’s lay out the things surrounding the soul pieces:

“Desires” was at Arashiyama (a bamboo forest) and Seiryuu was present, both associated with Wood

“Athleticism” was at Ginkaku-ji (silver pavilion), none of the four gods were present, no obvious element associations here.

“Cowardice” was at Mount Kurama (mountain = earth?), Byakko was present (metal?)

“Memory” was at Kiyomizu-dera (clear water temple), and Genbu was present, water association

“Intelligence” was at Kinkaku-ji (gold pavilion), and none of the four gods were present initially. (gold = metal?)

The other thing I’ve yet to mention is all the soul pieces seem to be of different points in Haruaki’s life. (Well. Four of them at least.)

“Desires” and “Athletics” seem to look and act younger (as much as you can tell with chibis…), both wearing simple t-shirts, and “Athletics” t-shirt and shorts look like what Haruaki wore as a kid in the Miki arc flashback. Adding on to that, we’re constantly told how into sailor uniforms Haruaki was as a little kid (literally whenever his childhood gets brought up: Mamaaki talking about it in ch8, him saying his first cry as a newborn was “sailor uniform” in ch43, the ch51.5 extra) (ok to be fair. his sailor uniform fetish gets brought up at every opportunity. but i feel like it’s Pretty emphasized here) Also I feel like “Desires” especially talks like a kid.

Meanwhile “Cowardice” and “Memory” are dressed the way he currently does, and “Cowardice” seems to parallel the way Haruaki was at the start of the series. It’s Sano’s team that runs into him, he acts like how Haruaki did early on just amped way up, and he ends up hiding on Sano.

IQ-kun… still don’t know what to make of him and how he fits into this lol

Put like this, doesn’t it almost seem like, in the order they appear, they represent points in Haruaki’s life too?

Or, this could all be nothing, because they’re all wearing the same thing in the jacket for Volume 14.

So anyway, from this angle, it seems like Desires and Athletics line up fairly cleanly with Wood and Fire respectively, but Cowardice, Memory and Intelligence are a little murkier. Cowardice only somewhat lines up with Earth, and both Memory and Intelligence could align with Water, while Memory could also be Metal. (I dropped the quotation marks bc they were getting distracting)

Here’s a diagram to illustrate.

(See it’s kinda, pick-and-choosey, horoscope-type shit)

Immediately a couple problems arise. First and most majorly is the horoscopey-ness of it all. And then there’s the matter that, if the four gods represent four out of five of the elements and earth is the outlier, wouldn’t it also make sense if IQ-kun as the outlier would be assigned that?

There’s also the possibility that the first four are a set, and IQ-kun makes up the “yin” to the rest of Haruaki’s “yang” (But then what would the first four correspond to individually? idk….)

We’re getting nowhere with this analogy, so let’s look at some adjacent philosophies in sets of five, just for fun, and see if they line up any better.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

This one is the most related to Wuxing, there are five main “organs” in TCM that have associated Wuxing elements. They might be called the same names as the anatomical organs, but they’re actually more like concepts only roughly correlated with locations on the body. This is stuff codified thousands of years ago before modern knowledge of the human body, mind you.

Heart (fire): stores the “aggregate soul” (the mind)

Spleen (earth): governs transportation of qi and blood, and governs muscles and limbs

Lung (metal): stores the “po 魄” (physical soul)

Kidney (water): responsible for willpower or fear

Liver (wood): governs free flow of qi, blood and emotions. Stores blood, which stores the “hun 魂” (ethereal soul)

(The wikipedia page I linked has more in depth descriptions)

And if we sorta line up the attributes…

Desires = Liver/wood

Athleticism = Spleen/earth

Cowardice = Kidney/water

Memory = Lung/metal

Intelligence = Heart/fire

Something like this? It doesn’t line up particularly nicely either, and certainly doesn’t line up with the first theory…

But reading up on this actually brought something useful to my attention: the concept of “hun” and “po”

See, there’s this Chinese compound word “hun po 魂魄” that generally just means “soul”, but if you get really semantic they’re two different types of souls?

The “hun” is the yang-aligned “ethereal soul” typically understood as the wits/mind of a person, whatever constitutes the personality, and is the part of the soul that leaves the body on death.

The “po” is the yin-aligned “physical soul”, sometimes described as the “baser animal spirit” of a person, and is attached to the body.

This could explain why Haruaki’s soul is also Seimei’s soul, but also Seimei is in the underworld?

This scene I got real hung up about in my Kyoto arc post?

It lining up and being a reasonable explanation is one thing, but whether sensei is deliberately referencing a property of Chinese linguistics that doesn’t have an equivalent in Japanese kanji is another thing. And honestly, I could see Tanaka “I’ll have to read up on Chinese history, but off the top of my head Byakko and Seiryuu are from 4000BC and Suzaku and Genbu are younger” Mai could and would do it. (Good god, what I wouldn’t give to see sensei’s notes. Yohaji fanbook explaining every cultural reference PLEASEEEE IM BEGGINGGG)

Godai

Godai (“the five great (elements)”), while also a thing with five elements that features prominently in Japanese culture, differs from Wuxing in that it originates from the concept of Mahābhūta in Indian Buddhism, and features Fire, Water, Earth, Wind and Void. It’s a more inert definition and describes the elements as building blocks, contrasting with Wuxing which is more concerned with the balancing and interaction between the elements and the changes they cause in each other.

Godai also isn’t ever depicted as a star (and Wuxing is only depicted as a star as a byproduct of all the arrows denoting the interactions, sometimes the 5 elements are arranged like the 5 side of a dice with lines connecting everything) and is typically depicted as a Gorinto, a stone structure.

In order from top to bottom, it goes Void, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, and represents the structure of the universe in Buddhism.

So. Attributes and if they line up any better.

Earth: unmoving, stability

Water: fluidity, adaptability, motion

Fire: passion, power, energy

Wind: growth, freedom

Void: the spirit? thought? there’s not really a clear description of this one. To begin with, originally in Buddhism, it’s just said that “from void emerged air, from air emerged fire, (etc)”

I could see wind = Memory and void = Intelligence, but the rest… I dunno man

The five aggregates in Buddhism

And now, following the thread back from Godai, to the Buddhist concept of Skandhas, or the “five aggregates of clinging”, described as the five factors that make up a sentient being’s personality. (Hey, this sounds like it could be onto something here!)

The five aggregates are:

Form or matter: the material form of a person

Sensation or feeling: the five senses + intellectual sensation, and the feelings that occur whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral

Perception: cognition and recognizing what has been previously noted

Mental formations: dispositions, or something that motivates a person to take action (or sometimes described as the influences of a previous life?!)

Consciousness: cognizance, or the base that supports experience, sometimes translated as mind, intelligence or life force

Wait… This kinda… lines up…? No way…?

Form = Athleticism

Sensation = Cowardice

Perception = Memory

Mental formations = Desires

Consciousness = Intelligence

This… kinda works? They all basically line up and it’s not too tenuous, and there’s enough matching details in the descriptions of the five aggregates that it’s kinda scary…?

I’ll be real, prior to writing this section I hadn’t actually read the descriptions of each of them too carefully (I had the tab open and roughly noted the descriptions kinda worked) and I entirely expected to end this essay with a “in conclusion: no conclusion i learned nothing lol” but there’s actually something here????

And Tanaka Mai is known to reference Buddhism a lot, so this could entirely be intentional…??? I’m kinda shaken rn tbh

I mean, I guess I should have looked to Buddhism first considering sensei’s track record, what with how the arc opened with Haruaki getting put under a waterfall to get rid of his worldly desires, and how 3 out of 5 locations were Buddhist temples, but Buddhism concepts usually use their Sanskrit names and I don’t know how to google for that… (making excuses. classic)

Um. Hope you enjoyed reading this and that you learned something? Here’s all the relevant wikipedia pages if you want to go down your own rabbit hole:

Wuxing (Chinese five elements)

Godai (Japanese Buddhism five elements)

Mahābhūta (Indian Buddhism five elements)

Hun and po (two concepts of souls)

Skandha (five aggregates that make up a person)

Twelve Nidanas (didn’t mention this one, but it’s related to skandhas)

If you read all this you should read all my other long rambly things too if you haven’t, they’re all under the #rambles tag 👍

[synniestar]

A N B U ⟩ 🐆

heavily referenced from an @adorkastock pose!

i'm back on my Naruto bullshit so here's Moonie as an ANBU operative. i chose Leopard in part because i felt Cat was too on the nose, and i couldn't remember off of the top of my head if they repeat masks at all. Yamato has a monopoly on it if they don't, lmao. irls will understand why i chose Leopard specifically 😋

idk how i managed to get this drawing to work considering i haven't drawn in months, much less posted here, but i'm happy it turned out the way it did in my head!

send me an ask if you'd like to be added to the ping list when i post :]

[evphqricz]

— “save a horse, ride a cowgirl”, or something like that idk

idk if this would be considered a sketch, but the amount of times i had to restart to figure out what to draw of sevika (to be honest, i didn’t want to make any major adjustments so i referenced heavily off the official art)

go easy on me chat, i have so much to improve 😔🙏

[n0rtist]

 I rewatched your entire Stema video playlist and noted all my suggestions here. I hope this will be helpful.

The mechanics of Geo types only being immune to Electro if they are grounded. You said you thought it might be too complicated. It would be best if you put it differently. Instead of saying, "Geo types are only immune to Electro if they are grounded," you could say, "Geo types are immune to Electro types, but there are some moves and items that can remove this immunity."

Nautigrade's Cryosleep Attribute: what if they are immune to most damage, except for supereffective damage, like Shedinja's Wonder Guard, except it only works when asleep?

The moves are Sublimation and Deposition. Having them only affect Cryo and Aero types would make them too situational to be useful. I would have both affect all types except Hydro, Pyro, Geo, and Electro. Why these specifically? Well, you probably guessed that Hydro and Electro are because of Liquid From Phazorm and Plazorm; as for Pyro and Geo, they would represent the factors of heat and pressure on the phase change diagram.

The weather mechanic. Since the weather affects the Hydro type's Speed and Cryo type's Physical Defense, to keep the symmetry, it would affect the Pyro type's Chemical Attack, leaving moves to be affected by terrain if you decide to implement it.

The possible field mechanic. To maintain symmetry and contrast with the weather, I suggest separating the electromagnetic field into an electric and magnetic field so there would be three with a gravitational field. They would buff and debuff Electro, metalla, and geo moves; the electric field buffs electro moves and debuff geo moves, the magnetic field buffs metalla moves and debuffs electro moves, and the gravitational field buffs geo moves and debuffs metalla moves; I not sure if the science tracks but that's my idea.

Evolution methods. I noticed that the evolution methods on your roster are a little... too varied. The first gen of Pokemon only had three ways to evolve a Pokemon: level up, elemental stone, and trading. I would suggest you narrow down the possible ways your stemas can evolve. If I were you, I would keep the level-up evolutions and create a base evolution (like have your version of Firestone to evolve Malloaf and Gelero) and one more original evolution method, maybe the move type-based one that Stemolt has and expand it to other type changing branch evolutions like Levestress and Tunirad.

First, thank you for taking the time to watch and care for my works! It means a lot to hear so much about my project. As I have been developing my game whilst making these videos, I can confirm/talk about the points you made.

Despite the YouTube Community poll, so far Geo is coded to be immune to Electro. I can definitely see some Electro attacks piercing this immunity, but yeah I think it's easier to remember if they are normally immune. Also as an aside, I do not plan to have held items in this game.

Referencing Wonder Guard would be neat. I hope it doesn't make people think they are too similar. Still, it's something I would heavily consider when I get to coding Nautigrade's Signature Attribute.

Sublimation and Deposition were ways to make Phazorm immediately change between Gas and Solid forms. While it may be situational to apply on other Stemas, the concept was that it was to change the user's type right before attacking as every turn has 2 actions for each Stema.

Having Sunny weather specifically affect Pyro's Ch Atk is a fun way to balance the weathers which I also agree with. A part of me is thinking about possibly removing the Sunny weather and just make Liquid Precipitation and Solid Precipitation be the only weather setting skills... Though thematically Sunny fits really well so there's more of a chance that I keep it.

I actually have specific designs to wield Electromagnetic and Gravitational fields, but they are much later in the game. I'll come to think about the field effects eventually. For now, idk, I guess one would let Electro pierce the Geo immunity while the other makes grounds airborne Stema? I can consider having Electro and Geo damage boosts but it might be too much. We'll see there's a lto on my plater before those skills.

A lot of my advancement requirements have changed while I have been making videos. Some of the specific ones like Tunirad and Jelter were supposed to have some NPCs that can help tell you how to advance them. However, I can see Malloaf and Levestress being Skill-type requirements like Stemotl.

Again, thank you for being invested in my project! It's going to take a long while, but I really hope that I can deliver!

[chocopebblez]

like idk id im being weird for complaining about this, this but this person on pinterest that follows me keepz heavily referencing my art and like colorpicking and stuff and having the same video ideas its making me so uncomfortable man. im considering deleting all my art and never posting on there ever again

[liquidstar]

speaking of greece and also oc side projects, i was trying to do worldbuilding on the "godless" ocverse. still in the concept stage but heres what i got

what i've already established is that this is a fantasy world where all of greek mythology is real, but the gods have abandoned the earth for a long time. after almost 2000 years, we're in the equivalent of the 1800s/early 1900s. the general conditions (as well as designs) are based on real life greece during that era. the main difference is that its much more peaceful- part of the reason im setting this in an alternate world is because im not doing this to tackle ottoman occupation, the pontic genocide, or world wars 1 and 2. a lot of that stuff is heavier than what i wanna do.

but i am still trying to tackle one thing about greek culture, specifically in relation to the gods. the history of hellenism is still something very deeply ingrained into the country's culture, and yet... idk if you guys have noticed, but the country has been christianized (the fact that the gods absence lines up w the anno domini era is on purpose). my goal isnt to romanticize ancient greece by any means, there was a lot wrong with it and im not one of those "roman empire" guys lol. but what i wanna do is get into that weird "gap" in greece's modern identity vs its ancient one, via the feelings of the characters and being abandoned by the gods and the bygone age of heroes. (and im aware ofc that a big part of that IS the heavier side of the country's history, even if i wont directly be tacking the aforementioned real world events)

MOSTLY i want it to be a fun romp though, i wanna pay homage to the adventures of heroes like odysseus, jason and the argonauts, perseus, heracles, etc., who would all be REAL historical figures in-universe! (well, heracles is a demigod) most likely ones the protagonists would idolize in their own adventures. im referencing the cambelion monomyth/hero's journey as a format for that, but i don't intend to lean too heavily on it either.

all that being said, i made a map :)

i chose the name "ilia" from the ancient greek name for troy- "ilion," which is also the namesake of homer's iliad.

the region is split up into different territories. all the territories still worship the gods equally, but they each have one main major sanctuary to focus on the olympians+hades (and i included both hestia and dyonisis, i think it would be funny if both region didnt consider the other one a true part of the lineup). the position of the symbols shows you where the major sanctuary is located.

again, all regions worship all the gods and have different temples throughout (smaller towns and villages may have their own temples dedicated to more specific deities) however, the major sanctuary in each area is what defines it because the hiereus or hiereia of these temples acts as a head of state (of course, a world where gods are real is a theocracy). the requirements for a hiereus/hiereia are to be gifted by the god of the temple, and be a dedicated scholar of their domain. theyre selected from a large group, through a democratic processes, usually leading for life.

i have names for each reason but theyre not set in stone so ill keep those on the back burner

i dont have a lot of specifics plot-wise figured out anyway, but wanted something to visualize the idea. itll put me on the path to figuring out exactly what that could entail! after all, even with the gods gone, plenty of supernatural things remain. enchanted/cursed relics, hallowed ruins, ancient monsters, the underworld, olympus, oracles, and, of course, the gifts!

[piggylobotomy]

~info and boundaries~

Hi I’m Bruno/wrath call me either, I am a multi fandom artist. I consider myself the king of crackshiping and multishipping because idk I do it alot. Also I love pigs, I draw them all the time and half my ocs are pigs

This account is ran by a system so might sometimes use a different name and have a fluctuating artstyle 

Art boundaries:

-Tracing, and reposting is allowed with linked credit. Referencing and using it as a pfp is allowed without credit but credit is appreciated still!

-please don’t get heavily inspired off my ocs, a lot of them are very very personal to me so it would almost feel like identity theft lolll. But getting inspired off them is fine just don’t make it basically just a recolor or same character with different clothes or something idk

-don’t use my art in radqueer or proship media please. You stay off my land I’ll stay off yours

Fandoms I consider myself apart of:

Overwatch

Flee the facility

Mincraft

Dandys world

Pillar chase

Madoka magica

Roblox in general

Lego monkey kid

Fnaf

SpongeBob

Beetlejuice

Creepy pasta (sorta)

Juggalo (icp)

Radio head (I’m ok computers number one fan!!!)

And also my own ocs ofc

Tags:

Art: #piggyneedslobotomy

Text: #oinkoinkoink

Reblogs: #lobotomyrb

[writingsoftrash]

I know I'm posting a bunch of nonsense (i swear i am writing as well, but I'm eating dinner and rewatching the movie to help lol) but anyway

I just got to this part in the movie where he tells David this, and I had completely forgotten that he also mentions in his little monologue to David about being built for a specific purpose like he and every other mecha is. And, realizing I unintentionally, sort of referenced that in his speech in chapter 13. For Joe, it's no longer just that he was built for a 'specific purpose', but that he was built for Alice specifically. :,)

I'll probably expand on it more because one of my favorite things is showing... hm, how do i phrase it. Joe isn't necessarily 'pro-orga!', he still has his doubts, especially considering he's viewed such ugly violence perpetuated by orgas onto not just mecha, but each other as well. (That's actually going to be brought up pretty soon lol) And outside of Alice, he does enjoy the company of certain clients, he considers Claire (and Ricky & Lola) friends - and genuinely wants to believe they think the same. But he still heavily mistrusts orga as a whole - but Alice makes him *want* to believe. Because if he can fall in love with her, and, more importantly (to him), she can genuinely love him, then maybe, just maybe, there is hope.

But, ultimately, to Joe, the rest of the world just does not matter to him. And it's not an obsession with Alice (like with David and Monica), he still works (and enjoys what he does), still exists outside of their relationship. But if it were to come between choosing between alice and the world - he'd choose alice every time.

anyway idk where im going with this im just rambling at this point lmao

[dashiellqvverty]

i really don’t love takes that are like “how can you be anti copyright but also against ai” because it’s like. well first of all i don’t think ai itself, or specifically generative ai (because “ai” alone is imo a pretty meaningless term that refers to so many things at this point), is like. inherently evil. it’s a tool and in fact it is a tool that you can do some pretty cool or even useful things with! and like my issue honestly is not even really with people using ai to generate art, but rather with the gen ai software itself because that’s the actual product.

i often think of a post i saw comparing generative ai that pulls from various artists to like. heavily referencing or emulating specific artists in art. and i don’t think that’s necessarily a bad comparison when it comes to the people entering the prompts and generating the images. HOWEVER i just feel like. if someone downloaded a bunch of pictures from the internet and compiled them into a book or a document and then SOLD it as a book of art references without any credit much less compensation to the artists behind those pictures, whether you consider that theft or not i think it definitely constitutes a Dick Move.

there was another post that was like “oh everyone made fun of nft bros about right clicking their bored ape pics but those same people see it as theft when those images on the internet that anyone can see are used for generative ai” or whatever and it’s like. idk, for ME my line is that when SOMEONE is making money (in this case tech ceos) off of a piece of art, but not the person who made it, that is a problem. and maybe this is just a Strong Autism Conviction thing for me bc i’ve felt this way for a long time but like downloading something for free is one thing but downloading something for free AND THEN SELLING it is another. in my opinion

BUT ALSO there is a difference between what i personally think is right/wrong and what i think should be the law. and personally i think that any legislation about ai meant to target stuff like this is almost certain to do a lot more harm than good. like we don’t need copyright laws getting any stronger 😐

[eskawrites]

For both Elden Ring AUs, please: 3, 6, 13, 18, 25

you are indulging me and i love you for it

3. Did the idea change at all by the time the fic was complete?

For the first elden ring au, there wasn't really an outline (which is something i never do) because I was kinda just writing it off and on as I played? and the ideas were simply 'badass nancy and broken fantasy world vibes' which stayed the same throughout. nothing really changed until the very end after i beat the game and realized I should have made Robin Melina, which of course led to the second elden ring au, and since that follows the frenzied flame storyline it also didn't change much lol

6. How did you decide what tense and POV(s) to use?

tense is weird because I always write in present tense now but that was like a subconscious shift I made several years back? when I first started writing fic it was all in past tense. I experimented with present tense once in a while for like drabbles and stuff, but didn't think much of it beyond practicing something different until a fandom friend pointed out that any time i wrote in present tense, the story was deeply rooted in emotional angst. and over time most of my stories became more deeply rooted in the emotional side of it all, and that trend sort of just took over until one day i looked around and realized everything i wrote was in present tense

as for pov, it was really just a natural decision for both? since Nancy is the tarnished she's the main character so of course it's her pov (I did consider having more Robin pov in the elden ring au ii for a hot second, but that was a beast enough as it is to write and tbh I don't know what Melina is doing whenever she's not hanging out with the tarnished! I do not understand enough of her lore (read: there is not enough clear lore on her) to really delve into her pov, so it stayed as nancy pov until the lil epilogue bit

13. Did you write any of the fic by hand? If yes, which parts? Do you find you write differently by hand vs typing?

lol no, i haven't handwritten any pieces of fic since college, when i would scrawl scenes and ideas into my notebooks instead of paying attention in bio 101. there were a lot of things put on my phone though since a lot of scene ideas for both these fics came from experiences during my own playthroughs of the game

18. Talk about your editing and revision process

honestly my editing process really just consists of re-reading and then re-reading again (and then re-reading again, and sometimes re-reading again). but i guess for the elden ring aus there was also a lot more cross-referencing with wikis and stuff to make sure i was staying true to the lore while also trying not to get too much into it. most of the big edits when i write though happen when i'm copying rough drafts of scenes from my notes doc or my phone into the actual story

25. Share your favorite line

for elden ring au i: it's a paragraph but

Her words sink warmly into Nancy’s chest, but they settle heavily. She thinks, almost desperately, that it would have been easier if Robin wanted the blade between her ribs.

something-something nancy learning never to trust anyone and robin letting her let her guard down for once, and somehow that's even more dangerous

for elden ring au ii: also a few lines but

It isn’t Robin. Nancy has saved her. That’s worth burning for. She’s doing the right thing. She’s doing the right thing. She’s doing the right thing. She’s doing the right—

this was the closest i could get to mimicking the feeling of a hard cut to black after an emotional cutscene. idk if it worked for anyone else, but i'm proud of it

(fic ask!)

[comradekiwi]

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 362 AND AN ATTEMPT AT META //

upon reading the chapter, do I still think bkg is not going to stay dead?

honestly, if horikoshi were ever to kill off a big character, this is exactly how I’d imagine he’d do it. elaborate, detailed, well-built-up, unavoidable, in-character, big beautiful full- and double-page panels, childhood flashbacks, lethal COD

but! with that said. this is bakugou. he’s the deuteragonist, the main character’s narrative foil (and childhood friend and image of victory and closest person and hero inspiration other than AM) and maybe I’m still deep in clownery but the minor events of this chapter felt very intentional. what was this panel of Second that scared shigafo? was it memory bc bkg looks like him? or build up for more, maybe the unlocking of his quirk?

a lot of people agree that however bkg ends up, his state rn will trigger izuku to unlock second’s quirk. is AFO realizing that bakugou will have ties to second’s quirk? is this a hint to what that quirk is?

back to is he will he stay dead. horikoshi made it very obvious his heart burst, an explosion out of his chest made obvious in the last double page spread where the blood is obvious. this is a very heavily emphasized lethal cause of death. horikoshi wants us to know he could not survive this…

….normally, on his own. this could be hori very clearly saying to give him up, he can’t get back from this, but I can’t help but think this emphasis is to set up for his revival. to make it obvious however it’s done is insanely powerful. unnatural, even.

yes I think second’s quirk will play a role in izuku bringing him back. I would have dismissed this for copium if not for the fact that second was referenced in this chapter, as shigafo yelled for bkg to die (literally: break).

hori loves foreshadowing. and leaving things unexplained in order to make a big scene. last we saw izuku, we learned seconds quirk has mutated. it’s unique. probably super powerful…. like if you consider the laws of nature hm

bkg’s death was so detailed, so gruesome, that it’s clear the point was to emphasize that he is very, very not alive. the thing is, hori loves to subvert expectations, so this could be to thoroughly kill him off in a way he deserves, or to make what happens next all the more exciting.

but maybe he’s dead! idk. it’s definitely not a coincidence Second was referenced before bkg died but it might have just been foreshadowing for izuku’s quirk awakening alone, no reviving involved. I just can’t wait to see what izuku will do in two weeks 😳

will forever highly recommend @pikahlua’s meta!!!! they got me all fired up lol (and reassured) and they also have translations of the latest chapter :)

[scripturiends]

before i started watching season 3 (particularly the second half) i legitimately thought all jeroy had going for them was the same set of scenes i would always see in edits or gifs but noo there are actually SOO MANY LITTLE ONES sprinkled in the show that i never found being heavily referenced (like obviously i do wish they had thought of the ship earlier on in the show like in s2 but there was still jara and considering all the circumstances they were still able to write jeroy so well even if they came in clutch

one of my favorite scenes was when jerome came up to joy and said he likes her hair brushed and that it reminded him of letdown hajskfjdj it’s just soo jerome clarke of him bringing up mara’s dog to joy bc it was their first date AND managing to slip in an actual compliment under the guise of teasing like come awnnnn whipped

idk it just made me feel giddy bc jerome can be an absolute sweetheart while still being his usual devious self. same goes for joy who, after greeting jerome sweetly would go back to teasing him and being sarcastic. like that scene in the stairs when he says “i was thinking” and she replies “oh so thats what that sound was” and after their kiss in the house when she says “please dont say youve come around just to get a compliment on your kissing technique” like it’s just so Them it’s so natural it makes sense whoever thought of this ship came to swoop in and said i will give u the most character development within a limited timeframe

[cdroloisms]

Curious on your thoughts. What were cPunz and cDream doing in the main cell before cTommy arrived? Like what possible reason do they have to be in there, the place of cDream’s torture?

Since cPunz seemed so adamantly upset about cDream’s torture, “unspeakable things.” Do you think cDream told him details? Clearly they were open with each other about limbo, but cDream also doesn’t seem the type. Or do you think he found out some other way? Also if cPunz and cDream have truly tortured others and themselves in the name of science, then when Punz says “unspeakable things” that would be on a huge scale wouldn’t it? Which really begs the question, what the heck happened in Pandora’s box.

Also, if cPunz could always revive cDream, then why did cDream beg so much in prison for his life. Would it not be easier to do your plans secretly when everyone thinks you are dead? Was daily torture for months truly preferable to death? Which makes me wonder, what is cDream’s limbo that he would rather be tortured and would make cPunz so angry when they killed cDream. And if limbo changes then why is he trying so hard to avoid it. Clearly, Death no longer holds the same meaning, so why does cDream seem to want to avoid death so badly?

All good questions! A lot of which I'm... not sure if I have the answers to, honestly, but I'll throw some thoughts here.

I have suspicions that c!Dream's death meant more than it looked like on the surface. c!Dream fights hard against his death in the prison arc, we know that there's issues with the 'balance' as referenced by several characters atp (c!Punz, c!Dream, XD, idk abt any others) and death + revival obviously has meaning and implications that have not been fully explained. c!Dream and c!Punz going from seemingly doing nothing to gunning for the plan, encouraging c!Tommy and c!Tubbo to collect the server to their location to 'try and stop them' in an effort that they're apparently completely confident will fail? Yeah, that was sus, and c!Dream's death - as far as we can tell - seems to be the catalyst for all of it.

I think whatever was happening in the main cell could have to do with c!Punz and c!Dream's apparent planning - or it could have little meaning at all. It's hard to say, honestly. There's a lot of things that were happening all at the same time and the way that said events were carried out and the circumstances around them are rather convoluted, not to mention how we haven't gotten some of the apparent finales yet. The Incident, whatever it was that caused the white flash and (seemingly) caused the Reset, has been heavily implied as not being the nuke ooc by cc!Tubbo - and the only real thing we can point to as being able to create a server reset (at this point in time) is what c!Dream and c!Punz said about making the world reset. (Personally, I think that also adds some fun context to "it's too late" as well as being an interesting mirror to c!Tommy setting off the nuke and then having a chance for reconciliation right before it hits, but that's not really proof in of itself.)

The Limbo experiments feel ... interesting. I believe that they happened to some degree, for sure. We all know about Vikk and Lazar (though the months claim is something I'll admit I'm suspicious of - iirc, c!Lazar and c!Vikk were both seen right around Doomsday, and c!Dream was imprisoned by the 20th of that same month. That gives them at most 2 weeks, unless they did some more human experimentation post-prison break.) Changing Limbos in some manner also feels accurate - again, to some degree. c!Tommy's Limbo is different the two times we've seen it, for example (but then there's interesting things to consider like Ghostbur and c!Wilbur sharing a Limbo, for example.) Frankly, it's hard to make claims on Limbo imo because everything about the death mechanics in the DreamSMP is just so ,,, variable? Like we don't really have anything to go off of except for their word, and like. We're talking c!Dream and c!Punz talking to c!clingy, here. Not exactly what I'd consider the pinnacle of reliable narration

I don't think c!Dream would willingly tell c!Punz details on the torture without some rational reason to justify to himself. Whether that means what c!Punz knows comes from extrapolation or c!Dream unwillingly telling him (because he's not lucid or something, as an example) or because c!Dream tells him as a warning for some kind of post-prison Limbo experiment (like, fyi, pulling a knife on me might make me have a panic attack lol) - I don't think I have a particularly firm opinion either way. And that, of course, is assuming that c!Dream told him anything at all. c!Punz was keeping an eye on the server, after all, and he could've just. Known about c!Quackity torturing c!Dream (considering he was trailing blood literally all over the server) and filled in the gaps himself.

[thepeachykey]

Brain is full of donketsu lyrics

i dont know how to use tumblr anything for wansho i guess Still think its silly that the official shortened ver. of What kind of an ending are you wishing for?/donna ketsumatsu ga onozomi dai? is donketsu LMAO ANYWAYS!! donketsu as in the tuyu song for wansho. for a Rui focus. right off the bat its already depressing but like. yeah. I’ll also be considering Miku’s lines to be connected to Tsukasa! You should read this with the context of what happened in the story since I don’t really recap anything lmao. also really bad spelling so uh. yeah

Starting off with this. I feel like both the Emu and Nene lyrics generally fit them, with Nene always thinking about how wxs will eventually break apart and Emu with the thing about feelings, since she also tends to understand them well. The Tsukasa line might also be connected to how his card looks? He usually tends to be extremely positive about things like the future and how wansho will end up which reflects in the lyrics. The reference to flowers (IMO) are genius considering how Rui is in the greening committee, so it makes sense for flowers to be associated with him. “The flowers of the bouquet” could also equal his feelings of wanting to go pro and staying with wansho.

MIKU WHAT ARE YOU HIDING!!! Wansho Miku is always so.1!?!?!?!?? But I feel like this line could heavily be associated with tsukasa&nene (nene with her trauma, Tsukasa with... whatever the hell he repressed idk.) Rui’s line is definitely relating to what COULD'VE happened to him if Asahi hadn’t stopped him. his place with wansho, what could've been the future of wansho would be something he won’t be able to see :((

there's a whooole lot of places where wansho finished each-others sentences, like this part. They also do this in 1-2 fanclub, and i’m guessing this set of lyrics can be related to all of the characters, especially rui. I also think that instead of these, the lyrics might look more like:

“looking back, we came to show so many enchanting smiles” Either way, these set of lines seem to be reminiscing about what they’ve done. Nene and tsukasas part can also be a message to Rui: with Nene worrying about him in the event it could very well make sense she’s singing that, and tsk could be a follow-up. BUT!! tsukasa’s line is somewhat suspicious to me.

so far, rui has not sung with wansho. The reason nenekasa got the first line could be about how their dreams include having to leave wansho to achieve it. To become a world star Tsukasa would need to leave wansho, and nene would have to aswell if she wanted to sing around the world. The second line resonates with Rui especially. With that “smile” he gave to asahi while accepting his offer, this makes soo much sense. The Emukasa line might also relate to Rui, who had to tackle the question: “Do I want to stay with Wansho, or pursue my dream?” It could also very well relate to them, but I’m not too sure about how I could explain that. The last 2 lines... “all the logic in heaven and earth” could be reflecting how long Rui contemplated about joining Arc Land to pursue his dreams, and how he said he’ll join. In the event, Rui listed all the logical reasons as to why he should join Asahi. And then he accepted the offer. With all the logical reasons. Make sense?? I also find it ironic wansho miku is singing that with him, because she is nothing close to reasoning and logic www

I think this might be a lliiiiitle inaccurate. When I first heard this line, I thought it was more like: “Can’t these two feelings coexist with each other?” Either way, this is probably referencing about how Rui wanted his feelings of wanting to go pro and wanting to stay with wansho have difficulty coexisting.

I think the Miku line is closer to “If you were to set this bouquet aflame, “ so i’ll be going with that. This is the same bouquet mentioned before. The bouquet is DEFINITELY a reference to either Rui’s 2 feelings or his bond with wansho.

I don’t have much to say about these lines, but to me it also seems like wansho might be talking to Rui? They’re also singing affirmative lines. This part could also reflect the part in the story in which Rui reflects about how important Wansho was to him.

This always makes me think about how much Rui cares about wansho, and how much they all care about eachother :((

Rui is finally singing with wansho(nene)!! BUT ALSO THE LINES!?!?!?!? This part is where the mood drops a LOT compared to the other parts aswell... I feel like its really important emukasa r singing these lines, because they're also the ones with the Ferris wheel scene (which took place during wansho’s temporary disbandment) BUT ALSO. This is one of the only lines in which tsukasa shows weakness/his worries, and it also shows us apart of emu’s worries :(( THE THE THE ruinene lines too!! Rui&Nene tend to be the more negative of the group so them dreading how it might end or how much time they have left is!!!! so fucking evil of colorfulpallete. The last 2 lines are also. Even after all the logical reasons Rui pointed out, he STILL wanted to stay with wansho. His heart was louder than reasoning. The last line could be a question, to rui: What kind of ending does HE want? One that's as painful, one that he comes to regret, or one that ends in smiles? I feel like that message is genuinely so important for this event too. Rui eventually realized he didn’t want to end his time with wansho yet. And if he did, it wouldn’t end in real smiles! It would be regretful.

The very last verse!! The first line, unlike the other times, feels much more heartwarming. Maybe that’s just me? But unlike the other times, it also sounded less depressing? The second line could serve as a question to everyone in the group in SO MANY CONTEXTS. Tsukasa also mentioned it was somewhat painful to experience a month surrounded by so many talented people (although he dismisses it by saying he learned alot and it was overall great for him and what hes trying to achieve.) It probably serves to show how Wansho can go back to their plays, with rui safe and secure. They can go back to making others smile. There’s also alot of mention of seasons in this song... Instead of going away like seasons, this time it’s more positive: About the returning of the seasons. Rui is not answering the question, maybe? As in: not giving the answer might have been the best answer of them all. AND the 4th verse!! Rui coming out to understand that no matter how good that offer from Asahi was, he still wanted to stay with wansho. Finally, Rui has a response. The ending with wansho will surely be a happy one.

AAAND there's no way i can end this analysis like that

(pun is not intended) This song brings me to tears and screaming and crying and uhh you get the jist of it. GOD... Overall, everything is somehow able to be connected with time. At the start, it talks about the summer heat, the night and the breeze that comes with it. These are different TIMES of the day, and not everything is summer. Summer=a season, seasons change, Seasons changing is also related to TIME passing. The gacha is also called "Temple of Chronos Gacha.” Chronos, like the god of time. I feel like the concept of time in this song is just so. aggravating? Time can mean so many things. An end, a continuation, and more. It also makes sense with the hourglass motif of the event. I AM IN TEARS. I can’t get over the theme of flowers either. With flower meanings that can be thrown around and how much it connects to rui, its just... Rui also deeply cares about flowers and tending to them. The wansho colors in the flowers of their outfits might event represent that: the fact that rui cares about his bond with wansho: his friendship with wansho THAT MUCH. (i want to put rui kamishiro in a blender) This event was just so. GOOD. it made me feel super hopeless and sad when i was done but at the same time it just resonates with alot of problems people may relate to, and the message of the story is great. The way they portrayed everything, all of the things connecting to rui as a character in the event, and its just. GOD............. Thank you project sekai for making me want to explode Its also beautifully written. The event fits so well with how much they’ve been foreshadowing wansho drifting apart. I doubt it’ll stop here, because emu and tsukasa’s feelings about these kinds of things haven’t been revealed. I also think it’s worth thinking about the difference of the TUYU and Wansho versions. In my opinion, I feel like the Tuyu one could also reflect what Rui might have felt like if he were to actually join Arc Land. In Tuyu’s the final line sounds like the character is trying to convince themself their ending will be happy, because they came to regret the decisions they made to achieve their dream. That’s...oddly similar to what could’ve happened in the event, and also a different take on the lyrics. Wansho stories are so beautiful I cried a little BUT YEAH tldr get these kids alot of therapy