#POTION NO. IV : meta .

[danielnelsen]

so ive beaten dao solo before (on easy) and ive never played it on nightmare, what if i.........................................hmm...

[paddysol]

unstable universe is unstabling my universe p1

Everyone say thank you Pluto for encouraging my insanity! Please note I'm solely discussing Wemmbu’s character (and PrinceZam somewhat) in Unstable Universe from a lore standpoint. (This will be a mix of my own hc and how Ive perceived the events on the server- also i've literally only watched Wemmbu and am doing this from memory so bear with me)

God I have so many thoughts on UU!Wemmbu (and Mutiny Duo) dear lord. Like, the necessity of constantly being forced to put up a front due to the hunger games-esque environment of the server, the paranoia that has you looking over your shoulder, presenting yourself as a threat, making sure that you can back that statement as much as you can because if you’re seen as weak then you’re might as well dead. 

We see this in Wemmbu who, let's all be honest with ourselves, cares about the people around him (obviously to a degree, bc of the nature of the server) and the struggle between showing that care and taking care of himself. Like, the amount of times Wemmbu has threatened to ban someone and yet never followed through is Crazy. This man literally has never carried through with a death threat, and the reason why no one realizes that is because of the “infallible” persona he plays up, and his team-up with Zam’s crusade where they chunk-banned several players. Chunk-bans!! A temporary removal!! Someone needs to call him out for his empty threats. This man literally jumped into an arena to save Roshambo from FlameFrags because it was a losing battle and Roshambo was in danger of getting death-banned. He didn't need to. He already confirmed ManePear’s information and solidified their allyship. He didn't need to stick around. He didn't need to put himself in danger. Wemmbu knows he can't fight Flame and win, he actively compensates for those situations and avoids them without extensive planning Because he knows that. 

(Note: I am aware that he killed Tyrad, but consider that was a 3? 4? vs 1 fight on a server where players expect you to fight tooth and nail to live whether it be through totems, stasis chambers, escape, etc. When Wemmbu drops Tyrad there was genuine shock, muted or not. He didn't expect someone to Actually die. Reflecting on it is obviously not an option, he’s in the middle of breaking into a prison with several guards on his tail. Guards, who mind you, are stocked with the necessary effects for a fight. Additionally, when engaging in pvp Wemmbu tends to fight with the intention of escape, not actually killing his opponent.)

Of course, despite the violent nature of UU, developing a genuine relationship with other players is inevitable. Wemmbu makes several comments about ‘if he wanted to play alone, he'd load a single-player world.’ (Obviously a bit meta, but you know what I’m getting at.) And we see him do that. I’m mostly going to be focusing on PrinceZam and Eggchan as those (at least to me) are the most developed relationships, but there are hints of thought and care aimed at players we don't see too often. 

As I mentioned before, there's a struggle to show genuine care for a person on a server that will see that as a weakness and immediately exploit it. And we see that struggle between Zam and Wemmbu, who, despite consistently being at odds with each other, find satisfaction in that relationship. Sure, both of them are walking red flags, but there is genuine care in how they feel about each other, even if they're constantly holding back in order to maintain whatever image they've created for themselves. They're rivals. They constantly snarking, they're at each other's throats, they call out for each other in a fight, they make sure they have a full inventory (potions, gaps, enchant bottles, etc). They dress their worry with a lackadaisical attitude and are steadfast in believing that it's just that, even when their actions become entirely unnecessary. Wemmbu had a monopoly on the elytra, makes a point about it, yet easily gives one to Zam at the most logical opportunity (and then proceeds to give literally all of them to him sir wtf?? Crazy behavior I would never). Zam allows Wemmbu to treat him as someone other than a king, he lets him use the mace even if he was the one who got the heavy core; he trusts Wemmbu to have his back. Wemmbu traded the mace for Zam’s life not even knowing if it would work. They show love in the only way the server allows. And sometimes that care becomes too genuine, and they force themselves to pull back. 

“I’d never betray you- unless it's convenient.”

To reiterate, both Wemmbu and Zam have a plethora of issues, both are incredibly unreliable narrators who barely trusted each other but got very close. “I’d never betray you,” Wemmbu was too honest, that’s dangerous. “Unless it's convenient,” while definitely holding a modicum of truth, the statement feels so tacked on. Letting players know that you're attached to someone or something? Hell no. But even if he didnt mean it entirely and was mostly trying to save face (dare I say warn Zam from getting close?) he still said it. And of course Zam, who came from nothing and has built an empire, who has successfully worked to become someone who cannot be taken advantage of, who knows exactly how soft his underbelly and how to ensure no one else finds out, fixates on that. How can’t he? This is a man who, with every step, is looking back and allowing his history to haunt him. This is something that clashes so loudly with Wemmbu, who can't afford to think about the past, who can only change the present, who must persevere forward. Until Zam blows up the kingdom he asked Wemmbu to build. 

(Note: This analysis? Idk what im doing anymore im just yapping- Is more focused on Wemmbu than Zam, but I am aware that he likely has own complicated perspective that plays into his actions.)

At first the change in their relationship is subtle, small shows of power from Zam, a reminder that he is a king. Then it becomes sickly familiar tactics, tactics that Wemmbu has always accompanied, never faced. Their rivalry turned sour, every interaction they have haunted with what used to be. Wemmbu, who cares so much, watches the physical manifestation of his loyalty to Zam be blown up and thrown in his face, ‘my sweet, sweet Wemmbu’. He was used, manipulated, underestimated by someone who he, against all odds, cared for. Hate begins to fester, Wemmbu calls it a betrayal. You can't betray someone who didn't mean anything to you first. 

And then we’re able to witness unfiltered care between Wemmbu and Eggchan. We watch the pretense of the “infallible” player fall as he dresses himself in diamond, giving the netherite to his friend instead. As he ensures Egg’s safety in his schemes, as he trusts Egg to have his back, takes fights he knows he cant take so that Egg has more time to get out. And that loyalty is reciprocated tenfold. Egg is allowed numerous opportunities to leave, yet he chooses to stay despite the hardships. It's everything that was just out of reach for Zam and Wemmbu. (There's definitely a lot more to talk about but this is already gonna be so long). Egg won't stand by as his friend begins to come undone at the seams. He wont play into the cutthroat game this server has spun itself into. Which of course has consequences. While off on their chunk-banning crusade Zam and Wemmbu inevitably learned what made the other person tick. Kidnapping Egg was just another move on the chessboard bc god forbid that even if they hate each other, they take their eyes off each other for a second. 

This functions as the last straw, one last ditch attempt from Wemmbu in his war with Zam, he can't promise success but he sure as hell makes sure that he hits where it hurts. He blows his kingdom sky-high. And eye for an eye and a debt settled.

And then Zam apologizes. It's not necessarily out of the blue, for all the hurt he’s enacted on Wemmbu he's kept him alive for one reason or another (they are emotionally constipated dumbasses who care about each other and refuse to admit it). This changes everything and nothing. Despite the genuine admittance of grief and regret, the two don't pull their punches. They can only guess how many totems they've popped and how many are left. They switch foils. For a brief moment Zam does not allow his past to haunt him, ‘I don't want to accidentally kill you.’ Wemmbu, for all his persevering, for all his ability to focus on what he can do now, cannot let go of their past. For the first time, Wemmbu does want to kill a player. 

We’ll never find out if he wouldve carried through.

(ending this now bc this is too long and i have even more to say about the prison eps tbh, havent written in out yet tho T-T)

[superkitten-poison]

Hi, know that I am platonically in love with you about your posts about Vel's internalized misogyny and homophobia and you love a villain in a way chronically missing from this fandom and I'm hanging every one of your 15 notes rambling paragraph on my fridge.

If you ever feel like your just screaming into the void know I am in a bush respectfully nodding along to your opinions

Vel fans are invited to the Eve-Lilith fans' Coalition against fandom misogyny, even tho she would not want to be there, just drag her along it's fine

THANK YOU…….. pls know that ive. showed this ask to all my friends who’re in fandom it is sooo sweet it is soo nice and know that i Do notice that you rb my lil ramblings and it makes me happy to have u around…

i<3villains and cannot be fazed by fictional morality discourse. you tell me a characters reprehensible actions with the intent of getting me to drop them and it just makes them even more present in my brain. literally of the like four things total we know about velvette, learning that her Love Potion ads in the background are for a roofie drug that is used on screen?? HER OWN BRAND OF ROOFIES?? made me go OHHH (*grinning wildly*) THAT IS BADD (*already writing a meta post*) THAT IS SOO BADD

because literally case in point abt her internalized misogyny! one of the few things we can confidently infer abt velvette is that if women are a class! velvette is a class traitor! and me being someone who’s fascinated by the topic of women’s role in upholding patriarchy and supporting movements that seem to so clearly want the worst for them (everyone should watch every video shanspeare’s ever made btw) that as a character trait is so so compelling to me and i will not spend my time on this earth being coy abt it on tumblr of all places

velvette will join the coalition exclusively for womens month and do loads of #girlboss #girlpower PR while contribuiting nothing and talking shit about the other women behind their backs<333 but i as a vel fan will be there all year wholeheartedly o777

[imunbreakabledude]

after trying out herb minigame my reaction is similar to what the consensus seems to be - i like the concept, gameplay is pretty decent, but the rewards are a bit too costly perhaps and a few annoying/weird things about the game design (like not being able to turn in multiple potions at once, potentially getting bottlenecked by one point type since u need vastly different amounts of different points for the total rewards, the levers on the mixer being tiny, getting duplicate potion orders when there's literally no reason for that, it automatically taking first potion in your inv even if that's not a correct one but you have a correct one elsewhere in inv... etc.)

on the positive side i DO want to shout out jagex for a few choices they made interface and design-wise that help make this minigame that LOOKS way too complex at first feel much smoother once you get past the initial overwhelm:

the combination of color-coding and letter-coding is helpful, and the names of the potions denoting their contents by the letters M/A/L is a fun and cute way to make it easy to figure out without looking at the recipe guide. the little symbols of what machine to use are also helpful (even if i missed that at first lol).

but i do have to laugh at a lot of people complaining specifically about the potion packs. to be clear i think a very valid and pertinent complaint about potion packs is them costing all 3 points - my understanding was they would take only the type of points associated with their tier and basically be a way to use up surplus points you had after buying rewards you wanted. but that they wouldn't really be a good value for points. ive seen a lot of complaints on the subreddit about the potions inside them being bad and like... yeah? what did you expect? if you want specific potions, actual herblore is for making them. it would be stupider if the potion packs were actually weighted towards the best potions and thus let you like, turn dwarf weeds into prayer pots or something like that, at a consistent rate. that would be dumb. that would be a dumb meta to exist. it makes sense that the potion packs are random and meh, but i do hope they change the costs to at least make them clearly fit the usage of being an extra-points sponge. maybe the fact that they cost all 3 types of points is making people think they'll have good contents idk.

[seoeastportorchard]

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[smallbusinesswebdesign]

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Also Read - WebCraft Magic: Elevate Your Small Business with Design Wizardry

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[glitterymarshmellowfem]

Not being a woman who worried about modesty, you greeted the curtain guy at your door wearing your baby doll, nylons and heels. You invited him in and noticed how small he was; he was shorter than you. He had longish hair that was well-cared for. And as he climbed his ladder to check the cornices, you noticed his shapely buns and thought those buns are being wasted in baggy trousers, they belong in tight leggings and stylish heels. When he was through taking measurements he sat down across from you and explained his suggestions for your curtains. You played with him and rejected each of his suggestions and he accepted every change you wanted no matter how outlandish it was. Hmmm, a real submissive.

You suggested a glass of wine as you talked and he agreed. In the kitchen you laced it with your potion that would put him out and make him more pliable. When you sat down and gave him his wine he drank it. You noticed how as he talked he spoke with his hands and pulled his hair back out of his face like a young woman. Danny was such a perfect subject to add ro your stable of young feminine submissives and you were the domme to make it happen.

Soon he stopped talking and just stared ahead. You got up, took there wine glass out of his hands, led him to your dungeon, laid him on your exam table, and stripped him. . He had little body hair, but a little Nair all over removed that. You put your smallest cage on his tiny cock. You put a set of headphones ion him and a Meta occular. As his brain was being reprogrammed to think like a feminine little girl, you gave him the first of his fast acting hormone injections and attached the IV in his hand that would feed him more hormones and special chemicals that would alter his bone structure.

You easily flipped him over, readjusted his position, slipped a bolster under his tummy which meant his head was down, and he was on all fours with his ass up. You adjusted your fucking machine started it up and his ass was getting trained for fucking. You left him there for a couple of hours, until the programs finished. You turned off the machine laid him on his back, easily, b/c he must have only weighed 100 pounds or less. You thought with the chemicals you were giving him, he would be even less. While he was still under, you numbed his neck and surgically altered his vocal cords.

Finally you took out his IV, dressed him in a shorty, rayon pink babydoll and chemically woke him. He rose up, stretched and said "Good morning Mommy." in her high lilting voice. You said: "Good morning Danielle, time to go to your remodeled bedroom, put your makeup on and get dressed. We have an appointment today to get our hair and nails done." "Oh mommy I like going to the salon to get all pretty. The ladies there make me feel sooo feminine. I'm glad I'm a girl. But mommy my butt hurts." Well sweet cheeks don't fret over it. A girl like you needs to have her butt well-trained to take a boy's cock in it; you'll get used to it. And your cousin Mike is going to be coming over tomorrow and I know after you flirt with him he's going to want to fuck your ass." "Mmmmm I like Mike", Danielle said:. "he's good kisser and a real hunk." As she took off her baby doll she said: "Mommy do you think I have good looking ass?" "Oh baby girl, even at this young age your ass is sticking out nicely." As she watched Danielle admiring her backside, she looked at her chest and saw she had nicely growing boobies with big areolas surrounding her nips. She thought this little bitch is going to have a nice big rack of DD's. "Okay enough talk. Put on your makeup like I've showed you and then you can pick out what short dress you want to wear. "Oh mommy, I already know what I want to wear: my boots, fishnets, short flouncy skirt that shows off my ass, and low cut bare midriff top, Her mommy thought, oh this is going to be good raising this child. She's a llittle wanton slut already.

[salted15]

I LOVE BALLPOINT PENS

(kirby vp au credit to @wtfgaylittlezooid !! go check them and their au out both are SO fucking cool)

[levered-a]

aklla probably barks at boys in the club

[kozykricket]

random ramblings (minecraft)

sometimes i just wanna play good ol vanilla minecraft then i realize i only ever just... .love talking about it, and not playing it very much. constantly burnt out of minecraft... and recently terraria too ;-; sometimes i try to just play minecraft and then i realize i dont wanna build, not even in creative... or i get peeved by enchanting / villager meta...

enchants are too necessary, progression overall needs more viable options, for a game thats fairly about player choice... enchanting is very specifically hard to ignore and has Best things to do without any alternatives. potions could be fun if they were like temporary enchants but to all your tools or if enchants werent stat upgrades like efficiency or sharpness or protection, but instead sidegrades that arent necessarily better anyways enchanting is something that ive talked about way too much outside of here but i mean, if anyones wondering my problems with it uh, maybe ill make a post outlining what i dont like about enchanting in future

[mitigatedchaos]

Well, as you well know and as I've stated, MitigatedChaos is a performance, like Argumate is a performance, and there are particular aspects, tones, poses, attitudes - rules, as it were - including the ways in which MitigatedChaos is cultivated for reading, such as the shunting of some arguments off to the sideblog.

I contacted another Tumblr user who met with Kontextmaschine in real life, partly out of curiosity, and partly out of concern. I mentioned most of the relevant parts of their report in the obituary I wrote. (Kontextmaschine the 'actor' has interests similar to the kontextmaschine character, and of course if you met me in real life I would talk to you about similar topics to those discussed on mitigatedchaos.)

Both

Kontextmaschine accidentally drinking a “Bisexualism Juice” potion and excitedly noting that benefits include reduced anxiety only to get hit by the Rumiko Takahashi-esque side effect that he turns into a 70 year old for 3 weeks each year, to be determined at random.

And

2026: Yeah so, uh, Kontextmaschine decided to become a Far Cry villain. You: … 2026: He’s calling himself “The Director.” Moved into a compound in the Rockies. Told his followers they’re filming a movie doing “Extreme Method Acting.” You: what

Were gently poking a bit of fun at kontextmaschine's condition in a way that didn't break his character - they were both posts he could have 'liked' himself - but in retrospect they were too soft and indirect, and I probably should have DM'd him directly.

Note that it isn't clear that we could have saved him even if he had listened. Given the choice, I think he'd rather have gone out like he did than died six months later on chemo - but of course we don't know if he'd had that prognosis, and perhaps deliberately, neither did he.

I sat down and wrote that obituary in pretty much one go, with a little help from siikr to dredge up posts I remembered and a few likes from users reading kontextmaschine-related posts on my own blog. I was a bit sleep-deprived at the time, but it was easy to slip into the appropriate writing voice. You can probably figure out the functional purpose of the different passages, such as emphasizing his own dislike of mourning of celebrity deaths, or bringing up the cat at the end (which had about 4 purposes at once).

In retrospect, it should have included one passage with some positive example of analysis, rather than just hinting at it through the argumate quote, but I didn't have one indexed.

We could go over why mitigatedchaos wrote the obituary, blah blah command structure blah blah melodramatic mysticism, though of course I also wrote a piece of meta-coverage covering media coverage of us during the Scott NYT debacle, which was news for us.

In truth, even though I wrote that lengthy obituary, I don't feel as broken up about kontextmaschine's death as some of the others.

This is partly for the reason loving-n0t-heyting (who has me blocked, but whom you conveniently reblogged) described:

my feelings are definitely coloured by the fact he consistently and enthusiastically espoused maybe the most awful weltanschaaung ive ever seen on this site? or, indeed, anywhere? but also that same weltanschaaung would enjoin us to all gloat over this.

I liked kontextmaschine. I'm disappointed that he died. It was my duty to write up that coverage, so to speak.

But boy was I tempted to drop a joke about it (afterwards).

going out with, probably, a metastatic brain tumour, telling everyone and himself he was being born again as a superman, a tragic but really fucking AMERICAN🦅🇺🇲 end to one of Tumblr's strangely quiet and respected pillars

rip @kontextmaschine

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Okay, you know how I said I wanted to watch all these german minecraft series and then watch 3rd Life SMP? Yea, I actually dont have the attention span to watch a bunch of white bread boys fuck around in minecraft with little to no story, regardless of wether theyre american or european so Im just gonna write this post and them start watching 3rd Life SMP so yeah.

First, I kinda want to discuss what Im hoping for on like, a meta-level I guess. The only other minecraft RP Ive watched that seems similar to this is Dream SMP so expect lots of comparisons.

I like to split dsmp into three major parts: no story/non-rp, story/non-rp and story/rp.

The first part was literally just a live streamed vanilla minecraft let's play and it was boring as shit. It felt exactly like watching a bunch of dudes play minecraft and unless they acknowledged the people in their donations (who could uncomfortably pushy and even shippy at times) you did not at all get the impression they were even aware of the stream. And as much as I appreciate some level of authenticity in this type of content, I also expect to be entertained by it and this did not even meet my bare minimum standard of entertainment. Admittedly, my attention span is very low so that definitely has something to do with it, but still. I personally have never felt anything but boredom and occasionally intense discomfort while watching anything from this 'era' of dsmp.

The second part was the start of the first conflict, and thus the start of some semblance of a story. They were kind of 'roleplaying' already (both in the sense that they obviously have their personas for their content and in sense that they didnt actually have grievances with one another and were just playing it up for the sake of entertainment) but it was more on the fly, even less focused and less serious. However, it was already legues more fun to watch.

And then we had the third part, where, starting with Wilbur Soot joining and deciding to larp Hamilton, they started to plan things out more and have more complex and/or dramatic conflicts. Needless to say, this was/is the best part in my opinion and what made me see the appeal of dsmp.

What Im hoping for 3rd Life SMP is, that they skip atleast the first part. From what I can tell, it was created sometime after dsmp has been in that third part for a bit and it is a minecraft rp, so Im assuming the people behind it wanted to do something similar, just with the story aspect there on purpose and from the get-go, if you know what I mean. And by the way, I dont think thats wrong or even "copying" in the slightest. Dsmp very much seems like a case of "they did it first, not best" and if anything, I think it would be a shame if people didn't want to do their own spin on this basic concept.

What Im personally hoping for in terms of the 'style' of roleplay itself, I really hope that they dont seperate it as rigidly into lore and non-lore as they did in dsmp. Ideally, they would do it like Ranboo (Wilbur when he was playing Ghostbur to an extend too, but he didnt actually stream and have his own POV back then), where he's always kinda 'In-Character' even when there isnt really anything happening in the plot at that moment. Again, I just dont have the attention span for no story in series like this anymore, so I'd appreciate it on a personal level, but I also think that it could humanize the characters more and potentially add additional depth to them. Especially since it looks like 3rd Life is made by the Hermitcraft group and if the stuff Ive read about Hermitcraft (especially in comparison to dsmp) it wont thrive off intense conflicts and wars in quite the same way, so that could also be a way of making a calmer rp interesting.

And now, some actual plot predictions!

So, the way I found 3rd Life SMP was this really neat 'Pitiful Children' animatic by ZylisticArt. I didnt actually 'watch' it because when I look up animatics I just kinda stare at the screen, not processing anything because Im too busy imagining my own OC animatic to the song, but I did read the description and was mildly intrigued, and its the main reason I wanted to watch 3rd Life so Im going to properly watch it now and post my predictions for the plot below.

***

The description mentions something about the animatic being based on some kinda theory, but I only skimmed it in order to not get spoiled so idk what thats really about. Im mostly intrigued by the fact that the description mentions it being a hardcore SMP (with a twist!), that, combined with the name and the visuals of the animatkc lead me to a couple conclusions;

I dont really know how Hardcore mode works in multiplayer, but in singleplayer you just get permanently kicked out of your world when you die, so Im assuming it works like that on a server too, except on a server, Im pretty sure you have the option of being 'reinvited' onto a server by the admin(s) so you could theoretically have three lives while keeping it a hardcore project where you cant regenerate without potions or golden apples and all that. Again, idk if thats actually how hardcore works but I sure hope it is, because thats what Im basing pretty much all of my predictions on.

In the animatic there were like green people, yellow people and a red guy who was like, the antagonist I guess. I think the green guys still have all their lives, the yellow ones are down to two and the red lads are all down to their last one. Maybe theres gonna be a thing thats like, if you lose a life you lose a part of your soul and that makes you evil or something? Yknow, like the whole "character comes back wrong" thing, except its the conflict of the entire series. Pitiful Children is very much a 'Manipulating Others Into Doing Harmful Shit' kinda song, and I feel like that would be very in-line with a plotline like that, yknow?

Im not expecting there to be wars/conflicts on the scale of dsmp (no blown up countries here bois) but I am expecting to get ridiculously attached to a place that inevitably gets blown up/set on fire by an antagonist.

Speaking of antagonists, theyre definitely also doing the whole multiple POV thing, which means everyone is an antagonist in one way or another and Im a solutely watching every POV from every characters so that I know the full context and story of everything, so I can have the most correct opinions on them, which is both normal to want and possible to achieve.

Since these are the Hermitcraft guys Im expecting some beautiful builds that make me feel insanely untalented and the same thing with redstone shit.

Ghosts. If they havent added some kind of ghost mechanic/lore at the time Im writing this, they will add one in later, mark my words 3rd Life fandom, mark my words...

Thats pretty much it. This is all going under my mcyt tag too, and I dont think I'll be live blogging it, but it really depends on how interesting it is.

Also, if youre a 3rd Life fan who already watched all of it, the only thing youre allowed to respond to this with is a meme that is horribly incomprehensible to anyone who hasnt watched it.

Have a nice day!

[eviclair]

I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of your actual thoughts(tm) on khr, so what’s your constructive review on the series as a whole? Like some positives and negatives w/ the writing, characters, etc. If u don’t feel like answering, feel free to ignore this LOL.

 tl;dr because this is 800 words of nonsense. i think you should know i would not know a constructive review if it bit me in the ass.

my guy i have not done a full read of khr in maybe two years and i know that does not sound like a long time but i have the long-term memory of a fruit fly. please bear with me. luckily for both of us i liveblogged the last time i read so i at least have my own sparknotes jdflaksjddaf

first off! khr is a satire manga!!! i cannot stress this enough, i can and will fight you to the death about this!!! “oh but it gets serious later” it grows a PLOT, thats not the same thing. khr is stupid as hell and that is both on purpose and my favorite thing about it.

i fucking love shonen man!!! its all about FIGHTING and LOVING YOUR FRIENDS and HAVING EMOTIONS and. bro im a water sign. my mars is in gemini, there is nothing i can do about this, god made me and said “get that bitch some found family and also some incredible violence” and we all just have to live with that. 

khr is so much all of those things that i did not realize they were being made fun of until very long after the fact so my current opinions are very much not the ones i started with jaldkhjdfhd but man. once i clued in i both loved it so much more and became 100% incapable of interacting with fandom in any meaningful way L M A O

i just. the main conceit is that theyve weaponized the deus ex machina eleventh-hour shonen power up. the “my dead family came back to life to kill me” trope is used three separate times. the big bad student body president is a delinquent. theres an entire subset of above magic god powers thatre just

the tyl bazooka was just ripping on the Timeskip Arc until the Timeskip Arc actually happened?? like fuuta’s special thing is that he can communicate with the Meta Planet to divine Character Rankings, i dont know what to tell you!!! the truth is out there!!! 

like DO YOU EVEN REMEMBER that time tsuna experienced a villain’s flashback sequence FOR HIM because i fucking do, i think about it every day,

so in the sense of “please critique the writing”, i cant do that because im pretty sure 98% of all the tropey bullshit is by design. do i wish people like the kokuyo gang got more characterization outside of being ride-or-die villain sidekicks?? of course i do but thats my own damn fault for seeing cool side characters and losing all higher brain function. on the other hand, hibari being the person he is and having absolutely no backstory or motivation beyond “get out of my school” is really fucking funny and keeps me warm at night, so. win some, lose some.

(the 2% of the writing that isnt tropey bullshit that i CAN critique is whatever is happening with kyoko. Bad Female Cast is definitely a shonen trope but its a shitty one and i want it to die. within maybe four minutes of kyoko being introduced she tries to body a man and then thats just never spoken about again?? wheres that energy queen?!!! let kyoko say fuck!!!!)

((this applies to haru too in the sense that all she really does is make moon eyes at tsuna but the way in which she does so is honestly so fucking funny and unhinged that it comes back around to being great. like yeah yep yes ma’am thats 100% bonafide Girl Who Throws Skittles In A Puddle And Calls It Potion right there please may i have another))

If khr took itself even 4% more seriously it could be really deep and compelling and i think that frustrates a lot of people, but i think i like it better this way?? half the fun for me is reading in between the lines!! the subtext, however unintentional it may be!!

examples: yamamoto is one of my favorites just because theres SO FUCKING MUCH to unpack about him!! canon gives us a lot of information about him just by virtue of the fact that he’s a Main Character, but paradoxically he himself is never really the focus. he just Does Shit and you have to figure out why on your own and i LOVE DOING THAT.

i dont love mukuro because he’s a fleshed out and nuanced villain, i love him because he says shit like “i went to hell six times” and never expounds upon that or “i can definitely trust the information i got from this magic monocle called Demon Spade’s Super Evil Murder Eye or whatever the fuck” and then expresses surprise when daemon spade is an asshole. he goes and willfully fucks up the only job anyones ever given him (impersonate 80 year old leonardo lippi) because he Just Has to shapeshift into a young hot dude and hand deliver byakuran, the boss of the Flower Family, the Family that names all its members after Flowers, a bouquet that means “i am in disguise ;) cant catch me bitch ;)”

like WHAT THE FUCK!!

i dont know man. i just like puzzles and khr is a gift that keeps giving.

(sidenote that should’ve maybe just been the subject of the post but re:i cant shut the fuck up about anything ever, i love tsuna so much. so much. his personality!! his relationships!!! his growth!!! his growth!!!!! his growth!!!!!!! khr has its claws in me because i see tsuna do something cool or brave or even deeply stupid actually and my whole heart goes AAAAAAAAA bc thats him!!! thats my son!!!!! my baby boy whom ive raised since birth!!!!!! suit me up and call me a reborn kinnie, fuck!!!!!!!!!)

[alinaastarkov]

Motherhood - Arya, Daenerys, Brienne and Sansa

So this is in response to an ask I got and it ended up really long so I thought I would post separately. I’m not great at writing proper metas but this is my poor imitation of one at least, so here goes.

Motherhood and children are key parts of Arya, Brienne and Dany’s arcs. They all act as mothers to other characters in their stories and seem to have a natural maternal instinct that you normally don’t find in female characters who are gnc because men usually just can’t write strong women. Ususally female characters get the choice between children or having skills, but Brienne, Arya and Dany get both in their arcs. On the flip side, Sansa on the outside is a prime candidate for motherhood - she dreams of having children, is romantic, traditionally feminine, etc. But GRRM deconstructs these tropes by almost making her not very maternal at all.

Sansa outwardly conforms to patriarchal gender norms but she doesn’t take joy in or have the instincts of a mother. Her dreams were usually limited to marriage and not much beyond that. She’s growing out of her superficial desires, obviously, but she always thought about romance and being a lady, and having babies was a part of that because of the society she grows up in. She never wanted to actually care for children, she was just told that was an essential part of a “happy ending” and so she bought it. Her dreams about children were only ever about babies. She wants the fantasy, not the reality of raising kids. We can see with her behaviour with Sweetrobin - though it is improving - she really doesn’t have those motherly instincts and disdains the truths of having to care for someone younger.

It was more than Sansa could stand. "Robert, stop that." Instead he swung the doll again, and a foot of wall exploded. She grabbed for his hand but she caught the doll instead. There was a loud ripping sound as the thin cloth tore. Suddenly she had the doll's head, Robert had the legs and body, and the rag-and-sawdust stuffing was spilling in the snow. Lord Robert's mouth trembled. "You killlllllllled him," he wailed. Then he began to shake. It started with no more than a little shivering, but within a few short heartbeats he had collapsed across the castle, his limbs flailing about violently. White towers and snowy bridges shattered and fell on all sides. Sansa stood horrified, but Petyr Baelish seized her cousin's wrists and shouted for the maester. - Sansa VII, ASOS

Robert's lip quivered. "I was going to come sleep with you." I know you were. Sweetrobin had been accustomed to crawling in beside his mother, until she wed Lord Petyr. Since Lady Lysa's death he had taken to wandering the Eyrie in quest of other beds. The one he liked best was Sansa's . . . which was why she had asked Ser Lothor Brune to lock his door last night. She would not have minded if he only slept, but he was always trying to nuzzle at her breasts, and when he had his shaking spells he often wet the bed. - Sansa I, AFFC

Alayne understood all that well enough, but it meant that the burden of getting Sweetrobin safely down the mountain fell on her. "Give his lordship a cup of sweetmilk," she told the maester. "That will stop him from shaking on the journey down." "He had a cup not three days past," Colemon objected. "And wanted another last night, which you refused him." "It was too soon. My lady, you do not understand. As I've told the Lord Protector, a pinch of sweetsleep will prevent the shaking, but it does not leave the flesh, and in time . . ." "Time will not matter if his lordship has a shaking fit and falls off the mountain. If my father were here, I know he would tell you to keep Lord Robert calm at all costs." "I try, my lady, yet his fits grow ever more violent, and his blood is so thin I dare not leech him any more. Sweetsleep . . . you are certain he was not bleeding from the nose?" "He was sniffling," Alayne admitted, "but I saw no blood." "I must speak to the Lord Protector. This feast . . . is that wise, I wonder, after the strain of the descent?" [...] "Just give him a cup of the sweetmilk before we go, and another at the feast, and there should be no trouble." "Very well." They paused at the foot of the stairs. "But this must be the last. For half a year, or longer." "You had best take that up with the Lord Protector." She pushed through the door and crossed the yard. Colemon only wanted the best for his charge, Alayne knew, but what was best for Robert the boy and what was best for Lord Arryn were not always the same. Petyr had said as much, and it was true. Maester Colemon cares only for the boy, though. Father and I have larger concerns. - Alayne II, AFFC

In the last quote she says she has “larger concerns” than Robin’s health. All these characters are forced into motherly roles, even if they don’t like it at first, but Sansa is the only one of them who never actually feels that instinct to care for the child over other concerns. Not all people have motherly instincts so this is not a bad thing, it is simply a truth about her character. She does not have the connection to motherhood and children that others do.

Brienne, Arya and Dany on the other hand don’t conform to gender norms but they don’t disdain traditionally feminine women and all have super maternal instincts. Motherhood and children are an important part of all these characters’ arcs. With Dany, it’s blindingly obvious, and Brienne and Arya have this on a smaller scale, but they all care for and protect people like mothers. Sometimes this means being forceful to ensure they listen and are protected, but all mothers do the same.

The fire leapt from one house to another. Arya saw a tree consumed, the flames creeping across its branches until it stood against the night in robes of living orange. Everyone was awake now, manning the catwalks or struggling with the frightened animals below. She could hear Yoren shouting commands. Something bumped against her leg, and she glanced down to discover the crying girl clutching her. "Get away!" She wrenched her leg free. "What are you doing up here? Run and hide someplace, you stupid." She shoved the girl away. - Arya IV, ACOK

They found Gerren too, but he was hurt too bad to move. As they were running toward the barn, Arya spied the crying girl sitting in the middle of the chaos, surrounded by smoke and slaughter. She grabbed her by the hand and pulled her to her feet as the others raced ahead. The girl wouldn't walk, even when slapped. Arya dragged her with her right hand while she held Needle in the left. Ahead, the night was a sullen red. The barn's on fire, she thought. Flames were licking up its sides from where a torch had fallen on straw, and she could hear the screaming of the animals trapped within. Hot Pie stepped out of the barn. "Arry, come on! Lommy's gone, leave her if she won't come!" Stubbornly, Arya dragged all the harder, pulling the crying girl along. Hot Pie scuttled back inside, abandoning them . . . but Gendry came back, the fire shining so bright on his polished helm that the horns seemed to glow orange. He ran to them, and hoisted the crying girl up over his shoulder. "Run!" - Arya IV, ACOK

"Mostly just roofs," Arya admitted, "but some chimneys were smoking, and I heard a horse." The Weasel put her arms around her leg, clutching tight. Sometimes she did that now. [...] "If we see any leg potion, we'll bring it," Gendry said. "Arry, let's go, I want to get near before the sun is down. Hot Pie, you keep Weasel here, I don't want her following." [...] "You leave Weasel alone, she's just scared and hungry is all." Arya glanced back, but the girl was not following for once. Hot Pie must have grabbed her, like Gendry had told him. [...] Lommy and Hot Pie almost shit themselves when she stepped out of the trees behind them. "Quiet," she told them, putting an arm around Weasel when the little girl came running up. [...] "She ran off when she heard you coming," Lommy said. "You made a lot of noise." And Arya thought, Run, Weasel, run as far as you can, run and hide and never come back.  - Arya V, ACOK

She would make much better time on her own, Arya knew, but she could not leave them. They were her pack, her friends, the only living friends that remained to her, and if not for her they would still be safe at Harrenhal, Gendry sweating at his forge and Hot Pie in the kitchens. If the Mummers catch us, I'll tell them that I'm Ned Stark's daughter and sister to the King in the North. I'll command them to take me to my brother, and to do no harm to Hot Pie and Gendry. They might not believe her, though, and even if they did . . . Lord Bolton was her brother's bannerman, but he frightened her all the same. I won't let them take us, she vowed silently, reaching back over her shoulder to touch the hilt of the sword that Gendry had stolen for her. I won't. - Arya I, ASOS

Arya with Weasel is such a strong example of her motherly instincts. Even though Arya is only 9/10 herself, she takes it upon herself to care for others even when everyone else is telling her not too. Like every other mother, she forces Weasel to do what’s best for her, protecting her even if it makes Weasel upset for a while. At least she’s alive and safe. And she’s good at being motherly too. Eventually, Weasel is actively seeking out Arya as her protector, clinging to her leg, and Arya holds Weasel so casually and naturally, it’s pretty much automatic. And her attachment to her “pack” throughout is just an extension of this because she is always “at the head”, the leader, the protector, the mother.

"They will not hurt me," she told him. "They are my children, Jorah." She laughed, put her heels into her horse, and rode to them, the bells in her hair ringing sweet victory. She trotted, then cantered, then broke into a gallop, her braid streaming behind. The freed slaves parted before her. "Mother," they called from a hundred throats, a thousand, ten thousand. "Mother," they sang, their fingers brushing her legs as she flew by. "Mother, Mother, Mother!" - Daenerys IV, ASOS

Dany had left a trail of corpses behind her when she crossed the red waste. It was a sight she never meant to see again. "No," she said. "I will not march my people off to die." My children. "There must be some way into this city." - Daenerys V, ASOS

Safe. The word made Dany's eyes fill up with tears. "I want to keep you safe." Missandei was only a child. With her, she felt as if she could be a child too. "No one ever kept me safe when I was little. Well, Ser Willem did, but then he died, and Viserys … I want to protect you but … it is so hard. To be strong. I don't always know what I should do. I must know, though. I am all they have. I am the queen … the … the …" "… mother," whispered Missandei. "Mother to dragons." Dany shivered. "No. Mother to us all." Missandei hugged her tighter. "Your Grace should sleep. Dawn will be here soon, and court." "We'll both sleep, and dream of sweeter days. Close your eyes." When she did, Dany kissed her eyelids and made her giggle. - Daenerys II, ADWD

The motherhood part of Dany’s arc is pretty much undeniable. She is the mother to dragons, mother to all her people. She calls them her “children”, they call her “Mhysa” and their care is her primary concern. As seen in the last quote, she agonises over not protecting them well enough, she worries constantly that she is putting them in danger when all she wants to do is keep them safe. Missandei reminds her that she is their mother and she is protecting them as best she can, and like Arya and Brienne she acts motherly in a more personal sense here, making Missandei giggle. Without a doubt, Dany is the best protector her children could have asked for. Motherhood I’m sure will only become more prevalent in Dany’s story going forward.

So far he had been true to his word, and Brienne had been true to hers. Podrick had not complained. Every time he raised a new blister on his sword hand, he felt the need to show it to her proudly. He took good care of their horses too. He is still no squire, she reminded herself, but I am no knight, no matter how many times he calls me "ser." She would have sent him on his way, but he had nowhere to go. Besides, though Podrick said he did not know where Sansa Stark had gone, it might be that he knew more than he realized. Some chance remark, half-remembered, might hold the key to Brienne's quest. - Brienne III, AFFC

Brienne had been betrothed at seven, to a boy three years her senior, Lord Caron's younger son, a shy boy with a mole above his lip. They had only met the once, on the occasion of their betrothal. Two years later he was dead, carried off by the same chill that took Lord and Lady Caron and their daughters. Had he lived, they would have been wed within a year of her first flowering, and her whole life would have been different. She would not be here now, dressed in man's mail and carrying a sword, hunting for a dead woman's child. More like she'd be at Nightsong, swaddling a child of her own and nursing another. It was not a new thought for Brienne. It always made her feel a little sad, but a little relieved as well. - Brienne III, AFFC

One of the women was very old, one was heavy with child, and one was a girl as fresh and pretty as a flower in spring. When Meribald took them off to hear their sins, Ser Hyle chuckled, and said, "It would seem the gods walk with us . . . at least the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone." Podrick looked so astonished that Brienne had to tell him no, they were only three marsh women. - Brienne V, AFFC

"Podrick has never harmed you. My father will ransom him. Tarth is called the sapphire isle. Send Podrick with my bones to Evenfall, and you'll have sapphires, silver, whatever you want." [...] Brienne felt the hemp constricting, digging into her skin, jerking her chin upward. Ser Hyle was cursing them eloquently, but not the boy. Podrick never lifted his eyes, not even when his feet were jerked up off the ground. If this is another dream, it is time for me to awaken. If this is real, it is time for me to die. All she could see was Podrick, the noose around his thin neck, his legs twitching. Her mouth opened. Pod was kicking, choking, dying. Brienne sucked the air in desperately, even as the rope was strangling her. Nothing had ever hurt so much. She screamed a word.  - Brienne VIII, AFFC

Brienne is similar to Arya in terms of motherly instincts. She maybe begrudges her responsibility to Pod at first, but she recognises that responsibility straight away and takes it on nevertheless, protecting him, teaching him, encouraging him. Pod meanwhile seems to love Brienne, taking pride in being her squire, wanting to be at her side at all times. In the end, honour, quite possibly the most important thing for Brienne, is sacrificed to save Pod’s life.

It’s another deconstruction of classic fairy tale characters. Motherhood is associated with protection, and so the gnc women in the series taking on protector roles of the more traditional sense (ruling, wielding a sword, knighthood, etc.) are also mothers at the same time, and the classic princess is what she would realistically be like - superficial and largely without those instincts. It’s another reason to think Arya/ Brienne/ Daenerys will end the series with children of their own.

[mysterylover123]

My Hero Academia Episode 74 “Lemillion”

mysterylover123

Prepare  for incoming tears.

Ooh, putting the “these erase powers” info right at the beginning. Clever.

This is in the manga, btw - Hori deliberately has Twice correct Chisaki for misgendering Magne. I’m betting that was his way of getting back at the censors for ‘innocently’ mistranslating Tiger’s bio info “once a woman, then he went to Thailand” (ie, for reassignment surgery) as “I once visited Thailand”. C’mon, guys. That’s not an innocent mistake.

Ooh, I love the way they animated truth-teller guy’s quirk! (sorry, don’t remember his name.) Another clever touch by bones, a way of setting up the drama of the ep to come.

HAHA WOW NICE.

Summarizing this section is basically: Bye bye annoying maze guy! (sorry the pic’s so blurry, i paused it in the middle of the action)

Bye bye my lovely Best Boi Deku, for another episode! Nice to see you again for like 2 minutes, kicking ass and taking names and being awesome! (cool your jets, imaginary me who doesn’t know where this is going, your impatience will be rewarded).

Oh boy. Here we go.

And just like that Nemoto became my favorite of the Hasaiikai. We really need him to use that quirk again on some of our main players in the future. Force some tragic confession that creates some “!!!” drama. Maybe one of those “Top Reveals” I was talking about before.

See? The “truth potion” thing is really helpful!

Ah, Viz translated that as “phantom Menace”! Like maybe they didn’t translate it that way cause they didn’t want to get in legal trouble with The Mouse, but c’mon, half the buildings in BNHA are named after Star Wars things anyway! (He still says it as Menace, so I’ll just have to see what happens in the Dub later.)

I will never get over that imagery. Also, I love how Hori never lets the damselled characters just be passive, sentient Macguffins. Eri has a lot of agency in this narrative, despite being kidnapped; it actually all depends not just on the heroes’ ability to defeat the Yakuza, but on Eri’s willingness to fight for her own freedom. None of this would’ve happened if she hadn’t tried to get away in the first place, and....well, I’ll avoid spoilers. Let’s just say this is important.

Aw! 

F*ck off with your gaslighting Chisaki! 

So cool to finally see this panel animated! Look at those colors!

Overhaul you are The Worst.

Screw you Edna Mirio says Yes Capes!

Oh, Overhaul backstory. Yay?

Here it is. Oh man. Mirio.

I’ll be honest, I actually cried reading this part in the manga. It’s just so well done.

Thanks Hori & Bones I didn’t need that heart.

You know, Hero Society is really being stupid by shunning people without powers. All Might, Deku, now stripped-of-power Mirio? You guys are stupid.

no no no ow damn watching that again...

HOLY CRAP BONES YOU ARE BEING REALLY GOOD WITH USING THAT OP IMAGERY!

And finally, DEKU! OMG IVE MISSED YOU! PUT THIS CHISAKI GUY IN THE FUCKING DIRT!!!!

Episode 74, or if you like, Season 4 Episode 11. That was great. Good job, Bones. I was a little worried when you  stopped last episode before the living maze died, but now I see why. This was perfect. The perfect way to adapt this chapter. They animated it brilliantly, and basically added even more touches to make this section as heartbreaking as possible. Like I said, I teared up when I read this in the manga. It’s so sad, and while we know on a meta level the reason for having Mirio lose his power (the whole Nighteye - Deku - All might thing), even if you ignore that part, and look at Mirio’s story on it’s own, it’s just...sad and elegaic and weirdly perfect. My heart goes out to Mirio here. He really just...impresses. Of course, ngl: My biggest hype moment in the arc is yet to come. Go on, MIdoriya. (points dramatically at camera) Now, it’s your turn.

[hungwy]

wall of text about worldbuilding problems lol

a problem im having with worldbuilding right now is magical systems and deities. i want to include the supernatural and the mystical in my universe but since i approach their inclusion the same as i do everything else in worldbuilding (that is, from metaphysical naturalism) i cant help but think their existence would change literally everything. it is impossible for me to consciously make an alt-earth with magic and gods -- hell im having trouble justifying in my head that humans evolved at all, since their environment isn't perfectly geographically African (im using a realistic randomly generated map, so i cant just edit it either...) so you can see that i basically do nothing but consider the butterfly effect all day

ive been playing skyrim lately and i noticed that, since magic exists in the world, theres no real sense of magical wonder. reactions to strange events with “how did this happen???” seem incredibly stupid to me considering people KNOW about destruction, illusion, restoration spells, etc. and potions that have similar effects. i wouldnt want this in my worldbuilding. if someone turns invisible, i want people to have a justified freak out, because no one just turns invisible. therefore magic would have to be very limited in its scope, at least in the public eye. but i cant really convince myself that magic’s potential would stay secret for very long. it would be completely unrealistic to have a worldwide taboo on magic, either; there will always be people who think using magical power is fine, and there will always be some way to access it. so im kind of stuck at this highly decisive crossroad either to not have any real wonder to mysticism and have it basically be known for sure that magic exists (which follows that people with extrapolate its potential) or to have a true wonder to magic thats basically completely inaccessible and irrelevant in its application and power.

so that gets me thinking maybe i would have gods that bestow magical powers upon people, right? having a conscious mind cherrypicking who gets magic still keeps the wonder of actually possessing magic and makes sure its actually potent power. but that opens up a huge can of metaphysical worms... that would imply gods make direct contact with humanity and i really want humans to grow organically. i would even like human ideas of deities to stray away from the actual truth about them so that theres variety, but that would statistically mean one religion (the most conservative) would probably get a lot more right than every other one... which means, if the gods are anthropomorphic in any way, they WOULD FAVOR that religion. i both dont want the meta implication that some religions are more valid than others nor have anthropomorphic gods, because if gods exist in my world, they certainly dont embody human-ness. this kind of strays into lovecraftian territory which is fine i guess but i feel that i shouldnt get too close to those ideas or else it’ll seem like im using them instead of growing my own. im just not sure how gods would fit in with the science either... everything is hard when youre a metaphysical naturalist and want to make everything hyperrealistic...