#Really love this game! I love the world and all the characters
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I wish you'd all just say that you don't think art and media is important. Seriously. I said literally nothing against sharing headcanons or having fun but the responses to this make me want to double down and be the huge fucking snob about this the most bad-faith reactions make me out to be.
Words have meanings. "Interpretation" means explaining the meaning of something. The original definition is literally translating from one language to another. By definition an interpretation is beholden to what's actually there in the text, even if it's a really complex text that might lead to differing ones, and one that misrepresents what's there in canon is a misinterpretation. Interpretation is not just your knee-jerk takeaway from reading/watching something or your preferred way of seeing your blorbo's sexuality and you don't need validation for every thought that crosses your mind about canon.
Most everyone can see why spreading misinformation about history and unquestioningly accepting it when you see it is a problem. If some kind of video game was found to be somehow destroying children's ability to think about math correctly, everybody would get why that's a problem. But you can tell yourself art, especially popular media, doesn't matter the same way because it's for entertainment. When the fact that nearly everyone enjoys these things does make them matter, and the fields of study devoted to analyzing them exist for a reason and aren't less important. The shows you watch reflect the real world whether you care or not, and they affect how you see the world whether you care or not. You don't have to turn fandom into homework, but knowing how to apply the absolute bare-minimum critical thinking skills to anything you watch/read isn't just a way to enrich the experience, it's a kind of basic responsibility for yourself and what you spend hours a day feeding into your brain.
"But I'm just here to have fun" This is what I was talking about, it's always "just for fun" when it's convenient to say that. It's disingenuous to pretend this is only a hobby for everyone. Fandoms don't constantly make a huge stink about queerbaiting, fridging female characters, burying your gays, the harm of bad representation, or even just bad writing in general because this is all just about passively consuming things for fun. You can't get all serious about how something you didn’t like in your show was "character assassination" and then clutch your pearls when someone says "Why though, what's your evidence?"
Yes, most art is for enjoyment, but I can't imagine there are a lot of writers with any pride in their craft who wouldn't be kind of insulted to hear "I love your work, what really makes it hit right is turning my brain off while I enjoy it!" Even if a work is bad and you want to challenge it, it helps to have a good grasp of what the canon is doing and how that doesn't work for you. I'm sorry I don't think your teachers were all just making things up about the curtains and bullshitting you. So sorry that I care. :(
Not “Only my reading of canon is correct” or “Interpretations are subjective and all valid” but a secret third thing, “More than one interpretation can be valid but there’s a reason your English teacher had you cite quotes and examples in your papers, you have to have a strong argument that your interpretation is actually supported by the text or it is just wrong and I’m fine with telling you it’s wrong, actually.”
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Alright, Molly, let’s try this again ❤️
What if I say Lloyd Hansen and 1-800-Cupid? 😌 Does that strike your fancy?
be my cupid
pairing: boyfriend!lloyd hansen x female reader
summary: when your boyfriend is away on a work trip for valentine's day, you have a plan to make it special. but then he surprises you with an even more exciting present that you weren't expecting.
warnings: 18+ content (minors dni!!!), smut, piv sex, unprotected sex, creampie, dirty talk, light bdsm, light dom/sub, sir kink, praise kink, finger sucking, aftercare, pet names, established relationship, some insecurity from reader and reassurance from lloyd
word count: 3.1k
a/n: i'm so happy you sent in the "1-800-Cupid" prompt!! i was hoping someone would because it seemed so fun. i really like the idea i came up with for this one—and i think it works perfectly with lloyd! thank you for playing my sweethearts game, i hope you enjoy ♡♡
“Thank you for calling 1-800-Cupid,” you trilled into the phone, unable to bite back the smile that had spread across your face when you saw the name Lloyd Hansen appear on the screen. “I’m your personal cupid, here to connect you with your true love.”
“My ‘true love’?” The familiar voice on the other end of the line scoffed with an ungentlemanly snort.
You could practically hear the whiskers of his mustache twitch as his mouth twisted into a playful sneer. Indignantly, you sat up in your bed.
“Don’t you dare scoff at me, Lloyd Hansen,” you scolded, even going so far as to give your phone a little glare when you knew there was no way for the man on the other end to actually see your expression. After all, you were sitting in your bed, alone in your apartment, while he was half a world away on some business trip.
“I’m sorry, cupcake, I’m sorry,” Lloyd said soothingly, managing to sound genuinely contrite and teasingly playful all at the same time.
You rolled your eyes with affection—it was a feat only Lloyd could manage. But it did the trick and you settled back into the pillows on your bed, playing with the edge of your sweater while you huffed a sigh.
It took you a moment to get back into character, glancing at the short script you’d prepared as part of the surprise you’d planned.
“Now, why are you calling today, sir?” you asked in your best professionally cheerful customer service voice.
“Well, I found a mysterious card in my jacket, with your number on it,” Lloyd said, mirth filling his tone even as he tried to play along. “You don’t think my girlfriend could’ve had something to do with it, do you? D’you think she’s trying to get rid of me?”
It took all your effort to stifle a hopeless giggle. You could always count on Lloyd to make you laugh, even when you were sad about the fact that he wasn’t there with you.
It was your first Valentine’s Day together, but he’d had to go away on a work trip, and you’d come up with a little plan to make the holiday special when you weren’t able to be together. But he kept distracting you.
You took a moment to collect yourself, Lloyd waiting patiently on the other end of the line, seemingly just happy to be on the phone with you, which made you all the more eager to get on with your plan.
“I don’t know anything about that…” you said primly, trying to keep your mouth from curving into a smile and utterly failing. So you moved on, blurting out the next part of your script. “Would you like me to send a photo of the true love you’ve been matched with, sir?”
“You keep calling me sir, sunshine, and you’re going to be getting a photo of my hard dick,” Lloyd muttered, sounding like he was palming the bulge in his pants already.
Your breath hitched in your throat, warmth cascading down through your body and settling heavily between your thighs, wetness beginning to gather in your panties. It was on the tip of your tongue to beg him to send the photo, so you’d have something to touch yourself to when he inevitably needed to go and attend to the work that had taken him out of the country.
But you shook yourself and persevered with your plan. “Lloyd,” you admonished, your voice a little breathy despite your best efforts. “Do you want the photo or not?”
“Sure, princess, send me the photo,” he said. Affection was clear in his tone, which made you soften just a bit.
Pulling the phone away from your ear, you tapped on the screen until you pulled up the photos you’d had taken in a boudoir photoshoot. They were Valentine’s Day themed, with your body swathed in red and white lingerie, surrounded by rose petals and soft silk sheets. In your hands, you held a pink, plastic bow and arrow, making you look like a particularly sexy cupid.
Biting back a grin and a sound of excitement, you sent your favorite of the photos to Lloyd, then quickly replaced your phone against your ear, holding your breath while you waited with eager anticipation for his reaction.
You were rewarded a few seconds later with a choked groan and a muttered curse from your boyfriend. If you didn’t know any better, you might’ve thought he was in pain, but then his lust-soaked voice filled your ears.
“Fuck, angel, look at you,” he cooed down the line, sending little shivers of delight racing beneath your skin. “You look so fucking gorgeous—so perfect and pretty and…” He trailed off, his words dissolving into another restrained groan, like he was biting his hand to muffle the sound. “Is this all for me? Is this my Valentine’s Day present, sweets?”
“Yeah,” you said softly, almost shyly, unable to wipe the grin off your face. The rest of your words left you in a rush of excitement. “Do you like it? I wanted to give you something you’d like even though you’re on your work trip.”
“I love it, buttercup,” Lloyd purred.
His deep voice made you shiver with a desire that you knew was going to go unslaked until your boyfriend got home. No matter how much phone sex the two of you had, it was never quite as satisfying as having Lloyd with you in person, bending you over and taking you hard and deep…
Lloyd kept talking then, distracting you from your dirty thoughts with a surprise of his own.
“I got you something, too, pumpkin. Open your door.”
Excitement shot through your body and you bounced eagerly off your bed. You didn’t think much of his words, it wasn’t uncommon for Lloyd to send you little presents while he was on his work trips—coffee and pastries delivered to your door in the mornings to help you start your day, some jewelry or a book in the evenings because he was thinking of you.
“Oohh, did you get me flowers, Lloyd Hansen?” you chattered happily, padding through your apartment to the front door. “Some chocolates? One of those giant stuffed teddy bears?” You paused, glancing around your cramped and cozy space, wondering where you would even put a giant teddy bear.
Your boyfriend just chuckled softly on the other end of the line, not giving anything away. Your excitement to know what he’d gotten you rushed back in, and you turned to the door again, eager to see what he’d sent you.
Flinging open the front door of your apartment, you were stunned to find not flowers or chocolates or a teddy bear, but Lloyd Hansem himself. He wore a familiar smirk on his handsome face, his blue eyes glittering with mischief in the fluorescent lights of the hallway, his phone still held up to his ear.
“LLOYD!” you screamed, your phone slipping from your fingers and tumbling loudly to the floor as you launched yourself at your boyfriend. “You’re here.” The words came out much softer as you buried your face in the crook of his neck, breathing in the familiar, spicy scent of his cologne.
“Did you really think I’d let you spend our first Valentine’s Day alone?” he teased you playfully, one of his arms banding around your back while his other hand cupped the back of your head, holding you tightly against his chest. He walked you backward into your apartment, kicking the door shut behind him. “There’s nowhere I’d rather be than right here with you, muffin.”
His words filled your heart with joy, and you wrapped your arms tighter around his shoulders, clinging to his big, strong form while he slowly twirled the two of you around, like you were dancing to a silent slow song. You were so happy, it took you a moment for reality to crash back down around you.
“But I wasn’t expecting you,” you whined into Lloyd’s neck, remembering that your face was entirely bare of makeup and you were wearing the same thing you’d had on all week—a pair of leggings and one of Lloyd’s shirts, even though his cologne had long since worn off. “I’m not pretty right now,” you mumbled, hiding your face against Lloyd’s throat.
Lloyd gently eased you away from his body, having to pry your clinging arms loose, so he could rake his eyes over your bare face. He smiled, his mustache twitching a little, and his blue eyes sparkled with nothing but genuine affection.
“You’re gorgeous just like this, pretty girl,” he cooed, ducking forward and pressing a kiss to your lips. Then he brushed kisses to your cheeks and forehead, even dropping a kiss to the tip of your nose, making you giggle. “You make a very sexy cupid, but you’re always my gorgeous girl.”
“Thank you, Lloyd,” you said on a soft sigh of contentment, dragging him in for a proper kiss.
His mustache tickled your upper lip in the way that you’d grown to crave, and you moaned at the familiar, delicious taste of your boyfriend. Pulling him even closer with your fingers curled around the lapels of his jacket, you kissed him harder, pouring all the affection and happiness you felt about having him home into the way your mouth moved against his.
Kissing you back just as fervently, Lloyd walked you backward until you were pressed against the wall in your living room. He crowded in around you, pinning you to the wall with his big, hard body, his bulge jutting into your belly while he deepened the kiss, coaxing a burning inferno of need to life within you.
Before long, you were pushing impatiently at his jacket, wordlessly whining for him to take it off. Lloyd was only too happy to oblige, shedding the garment and tugging his shirt over his head, his mouth finding yours again for another hot, searing kiss.
His fingers hooked in the waistband of your leggings, shoving them down over your hips and thighs so you could kick them off. Then his hands came up to cup your face, cradling your head while he licked into your mouth, fucking you with his tongue until you were whimpering, desperately needing him to fill another of your holes.
Quickly, Lloyd toed out of his shoes and stripped off his pants, leaving him in only a pair of boxer briefs, while you still wore a sweater and your panties. Glancing down at your shirt before he went back to kissing you, Lloyd’s hands pushed beneath your sweater, his fingers finding the soft flesh of your tits and kneading until you were breaking away to moan.
“Is this my shirt?” Lloyd asked in a low, rumbling voice that was soaked with lust and a little hint of humor. He pressed hungry, nipping kisses along your jaw, pinching your nipples and making you squirm between his hard, unyielding body and the wall at your back.
“Yeah,” you answered on a gasp. “I missed you,” you confessed, your hands curling around his bare shoulders, clinging to the muscles bunching beneath his warm skin while your head tipped back against the wall and you let out a low, keening whine.
Lloyd made a gruff sound in the back of his throat, pulling away so he could look you in the eye. Your head was still tipped back, though, so he cupped your jaw in his hand and tilted it forward, his thumb running along your plump lower lip.
You took the tip into your mouth and nipped playfully before sucking on Lloyd’s thumb, staring up at your boyfriend with half-lidded eyes. You watched while his gaze darkened, his pupils blowing wide with a lustful hunger that made your body clench tight with anticipation.
“I missed you too, baby cakes,” he rumbled, ducking his head to brush a kiss to the corner of your mouth. His mustache tickled and you giggled, turning your head and letting his thumb fall from your lips so you could kiss your boyfriend.
The kiss quickly turned heated again and it felt like both of you suddenly remembered how long it had been since you’d been joined together in the most primal way possible. There was an urgency in your movements as you impatiently tugged your boyfriend’s boxer briefs down, palming his cock while he tugged your sweater off and shoved your panties down your legs.
“Lloyd, please, I need you,” you gasped, wrenching your lips from his to suck in some much-needed air. The fingers of your free hand curled in the hair at the back of his head, clinging to him while stroked his cock, your thigh lifting and trying to curl around his hip. “Need your cock inside me, need you to fill me up, sir, please.”
“Fuck, alright, alright, lollipop—you want my cock, you’ll get it,” Lloyd rumbled, his hand grabbing your raised thigh and lifting it higher. His fingers dug into your plush softness while he hooked it around his hip and you guided his cock to your entrance. “Take it, honey bee, take your man’s cock.”
You sank down on Lloyd’s cock while he pressed into you, filling you up in one smooth stroke that had your head falling back against the wall and a filthy moan spilling from your lips. You weren’t quite wet enough to take him easily, but you enjoyed the slight burn and the ache of being stretched around his hard length too much to complain.
“You’re so fucking gorgeous, doll face, looking so fucking blissed out on my cock,” Lloyd said on a grunt, pulling out slightly and pushing in again, making you both moan. “I could get used to this—coming home to you and filling your cunt while your body clings to me, sucking me deeper.”
“Yes, yes, please, sir, I want that,” you babbled, the words falling from your lips and finding you did want it. You wanted Lloyd coming home to you every day, fucking you over the nearest surface and reminding you who you belonged to every night. “I want you filling me every day, fucking me, taking what’s yours.”
Lloyd chuckled, the sound deliciously sinful while he rocked into your body, fucking you against the wall of your apartment ruthlessly. All you could do was cling to him, your fingers curling in his hair, nails digging into the back of his neck while you held on for the ride.
“You want me to take what’s mine, sweet pea? Are you mine, sweet girl?” he teased mercilessly, fucking you even harder.
It was on the tip of your tongue to say yes, you were his, but then Lloyd changed the angle of his hips. The base of his cock rubbed meanly against your clit with every thrust and you cried out loudly, your back arching away from the wall and your hips bearing down on his cock as you barreled toward your release.
“Lloyd,” you gasped, barely able to get the words out, “I’m gonna cum.”
“Do it, cutie, cum for me,” Lloyd urged, fucking you in hard thrusts, pausing between each to grind against your clit “Be a good girl and show me you’re mine, honey pie—cum all over my cock.”
Between his commanding words and the relentless grinding of his hips, his cock buried to the hilt in your soaking wet pussy, it was too much. Your release crashed over you, making you scream in pleasure while you came on Lloyd’s cock, your inner walls clenching hard enough around him to make him grunt.
With a few more short, hard thrusts, Lloyd followed you over the edge, burying his face in your neck and muffling a loud groan against your skin as he spilled inside you. Your pussy squeezed every last drop of cum from his length, the two of you collapsing against the wall at your back as you caught your breath and rode out the aftershocks of your releases.
Once you recovered enough to move, the two of you stumbled down the hall toward your bedroom, taking a quick detour to the bathroom to clean up before tumbling into bed together. Lloyd had snagged his shirt from where he’d dropped in your living room and he pulled it over your head, swaddling you in his scent before pulling you close to cuddle.
Your boyfriend lay on his back, your body splayed across his chest, your ear pressed to his sternum while you listened to the steady beat of his heart. After a short time of enjoying each other’s presence, you raised your head, your eyes greedily raking over Lloyd’s handsome face while your fingers played idly with his mustache.
“Thank you for cutting your trip short,” you murmured softly, your eyes fixed on Lloyd’s mouth, watching the corners flicker with a smile. “I really didn’t expect you to that just for Valentine’s Day.”
“I did it for you, sweetheart,” Lloyd purred, his fingers closing around your wrist and bringing your fingers to his lips, pressing kisses to the pads of each one until you looked up into his eyes. His gaze was filled with so much affection, it made your breath catch in your throat. He murmured, “I love you.”
It was the first time either of you had said those words and you were surprised by the rush of emotion that flooded your heart when you heard them. Tears pricked at your eyes and you quickly dashed them away.
“I love you, too, Lloyd,” you murmured, pulling your hand away from his mouth so you could replace it with your lips. You kissed him hard, and he did the same, banding an arm around your lower back and cradling your head while he rolled on top of you.
When he started kissing down your neck, you tipped your head to the side and let out a delighted giggle at the way his mustache tickled your skin. You felt like you were bubbling with happiness, and you couldn’t help the words that came out of your mouth.
“So I guess I really did match you with your true love, didn’t I?” you teased playfully, enjoying the way Lloyd laughed against your skin, making your pulse pump harder through your body. “Another satisfied cupid customer,” you joked, your legs wrapping around Lloyd’s hips and squirming beneath his hardening cock.
“Oh I’m very satisfied,” Lloyd said, lifting up to capture your lips in another kiss. His hips rocked between your thighs, grinding his cock against your soft pussy, making both of you moan at the pleasurable slide of your bodies. “You can be my cupid anytime, sugar pie, as long as you’re the one I end up with.”
“Always,” you purred, clinging to Lloyd while he slid inside you again. Then he was stealing your breath with another kiss, fucking you in slow strokes, savoring your body and murmuring his love against your lips.
All told, it was the first of many happy Valentine’s Days with your boyfriend—and future husband—Lloyd Hansen.
#lloyd hansen#lloyd hansen fanfiction#lloyd hansen smut#lloyd hansen x reader#lloyd hansen x you#lloyd hansen au#chris evans#chris evans fanfiction#chris evans characters#chris evans smut#witchywithwhiskey's sweethearts#witchywithwhiskeywork#lauratang
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An earnest question in regards to D&D not being queer (side note, I agree): short of having queer mascots/main characters or being called something outright queer with its title, what would an example of a queer TTRPG look like? Like, your characters being queer has a mechanical impact? The themes of the game being more in line with a queer experience? Something else I'm missing? All of that and more?
All of that and more. It's better I explain through examples:
Monsterhearts is an RPG written by trans woman with an explicitly queer perspective. The genre of Monsterhearts is urban fantasy, specifically young adult urban fantasy featuring teenage monsters in school settings. Its themes are growing up, adolescence, and queerness, and it uses monsters to explore this theme. It is thematically thus openly queer, but the queerness is also present in the mechanics, in both the Skins (the game's playable classes and archetypes) and in the core mechanics.
Dungeon Bitches (by site user @cavegirlpoems) is less coded and more explicit and it is explicitly a game inspired by D&D's genre of dungeon-crawling fantasy: it starts by accepting D&D's premise of dungeon crawling as an occupation in a medieval fantasy world and then asks who actually would end up doing that sort of thing. And the answer it comes up with is marginalized people, especially queer women, and Dungeon Bitches is about playing disaster lesbians in dungeons. The queerness is front and center and the game gives mechanical weight to the fact that the characters are outcast women living outside of polite society, and the mechanics support the bitches getting fucked up, falling in love, and other such cool dungeon activities.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians is probably the biggest name queer RPG on the market and I feel it deserves mention despite my own personal issues with it. It operates in the nebulous genre space of She-Ra and Revolutionary Girl Utena and is very much about lesbians crossing swords and flirting while doing swashbuckling adventures. It gives mechanical weight to flirting and romance as well as combat, and while I think it's quite simplistic in how it touches on queer themes, it is still engaging with queerness on some level.
And like, those three games bring the queerness to the table explicitly as part of the game text, the rules, and the buy-in. Unlike in D&D, where sometimes there's a gay elf, there really is no way to play any of the above games without a queer lens, because at that point you would be playing a fundamentally different game. In D&D the queer lens is optional and has to be brought by the players
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ive shared this essay on tranmisogyny and nihilism with a few friends, and then realised u might as well all have it. circa 3k words. enjoy x
Apology
The complete and systematic account of transmisogyny is, of necessity, a hopeless exercise. Abjection is the mother of the totality after all. We are talking about the constitutive incompleteness of the world, the necessary impotence, the weeping lacuna of artifice that begets all things! If we theorised the whole world, we would not speak of transmisogyny once, because it is a condition on the possibility of theory, and so must be forever excepted
So, what little that follows is a betrayal. Partial by design (to let the light in) and necessity (I am tired. I am weak.), it is a betrayal nonetheless. Nothing could fail to be. So let's be honest. To theorise transmisogyny in full would be to draw borders around its extent and its diffusion. To theorise transmisogyny in full would be to construct and fortify its privileged subject -who is and is not transmisogynised. To theorise transmisogyny in full would be to tell "the transmisogynised" what to do about it. I don't want to do any of these things, and I will fail. There is no conversational path into discussion of what's possible that does not foreclose some options. We, the disinherited, conduct our peculiar miracle by fleeing down paths others cannot even see. So, take what you like and laugh when I give away my limits. Have fun.
Preliminaries
All of this is play, everything is. Nothing really matters. The real, in fact, is a mesh of overlapping consensuses that have been built not merely incidentally, but structurally, on our expulsion. There is no serious, real, or proper way to be a tranny. In fact, it remains integral to the notion of consensus as such, and reality by extension, that we are delusional in our self-articulation, paranoid in our recognisance of our exclusion, and dangerous at the point at which we express any of this. We are thus freed to recognise everything as play, for though those involved in playing out the real have their stakes in us (though they are loathe to admit it) we are disbarred from ever really holding stakes in the real. Because that's what real means.
The enshrinement of this exclusion as unreal is both necessary for the sustaining of the real as really important, but is also absolutely critical to facilitating the social character of transmisogynisation. All affordances granted to us allow us to play, however temporarily, at admission to reality. Those on the inside know we ought to be grateful for this mercy. It is particularly advisable for those who would like more sway over consensus (those who do not see themselves as having that sway already) to let us play inside sometimes. We get cold out here. Some of us get so cold we become frozen, we forget we are playing, we become unable to move, so keen on coming in that we harden into fixed things, like those inside are. But we will know no benefit for it. Even if they wanted to, they could offer us no rewards. Whether they know it or not, it is just a game.
Each magic circle that defines with its border the games of the real is drawn in our blood. Each empire and every banner they flew. Every flag. Every cause. All of it, all of it had its stakes in us. All had to eject us. We were understood to stand for nothing. For annihilation, for nullification, for endings. The family line ends here. The revolutionary project will see no children. In fact, there only was a "we" insofar as we were taken to stand for nothing. We are unified in that we are constituted by resistance to that which ejects us from the social, every social. We are unified in this alone. The trappings of inheritance, family, reproduction, legacy, futurity. What world that is, or was, or is being built could truly love the tranny? At best they'll have us die in the shadow so that their gleaming future would shine more brightly for contrast. No. We have each other. There never was a world for us, because wherever a future was believed in we threatened it in our nihilising impotence. This keeps us vital. Keeps us dangerous. Keeps us laughing.
Strategy, or, how to play
We have no interest in talking about identity independent of conversations about strategy. The way we constitute ourselves is conversationally liquid. To rebuke a tranny for their identificatory strategy is to reproduce transmisogyny, to think you know what living her circumstances might take better than she does. We call ourselves what we need to to survive the imposition of gender upon us. Recalling our movements through the social this becomes trivially obvious. Confronted each with your boss, your local tboy callout artisan, the police, a John, your mother, your ex, the gender clinic, who wouldn't call herself what she did only as an attempt to get what she wanted? When we meet others like us then, we cannot presume they know that we would love them whatever they called themselves. They might see a cop in front of them, might see a John, might worry this'll come back around - the local scene might shun a girl for calling herself a crossdresser, even as a joke (let alone for 'real'). So can they trust you? Do you intend to make that clear? But between us, once we know we are among friends, identification is about options, about imaginative flight, about the proliferation of lifeworlds bleeding from the critical harm done to us. Because what could we stand to gain by insisting that girls cannot be faggots? That boys cannot be trannies? Every should've-been-man of us has run, by herself, the labyrinthine complex of gender as domestication. Are you going to begrudge him calling himself a sissy now, after a lifetime of living in the word's shadow? Get over it! You are being invited to play, to walk through walls! Fool that you are, you cannot see the smile on the face of the trannies you claim to love while they call themselves the things you promised yourself it was really unacceptable to be. You have lost sight of the game, and now you come back to your sisters and you ask them to sober up, to get real. After all, we have cisgenders to convince, don't you know? Real people. Why, if they heard you talking like that we'd all befucked! But they are not here. Or at least, they were not here until you started doing their work for them.
There is after all, no real identity. Or, rather, the claim to a real identity is one move among others, and holds no special weight. It is special only in that it invokes the game of the real, the inside of the magic circle, to push others out. This can be great when you are having sex and a tranny tells you that you're not a real woman like her and that you should [do what she wants] about it. Otherwise it's quite fucking boring. If it happens that the world has fallen at your feet in such a way that you find labels more personal to you, that is, they feel like more than social tools for communicating how you would like to occur to others in the world, we're glad for you. Just don't expect us to feel the same. There is nothing we really are underneath this, in fact there is no need for an underneath. What good has the legitimate, the true, the valid done for any of us?
Transmisogynisation, or, how to draw a circle
A popular school of thought sees transfemininity as intentionally performed through a succession of discrete speech acts through which one establishes a relationship with womanhood while cAMAB. More simply - we identify as trans women, or as transfeminine, and so become subject to transmisogyny. This is a hangover from a history of "born this way" queer sloganeering. That we must always have been settled on the inside, and our targetting is a matter of some transfeminine essence. It's bullshit, which is no problem, but the trouble is that it's bullshit with extremely low explanatory power.
More to the point, transmisogynisation describes a matrix of concrete social and institutional processes, through which cAMAB people may become (forcibly) disidentified with masculinity, and become a part of the gendered abject. What the prevailing model correctly understands, is that some of these transmisogynising processes can be willingly submitted to. We might choose self identification as trans woman or other locally prevailing transfemininity, working “as a woman”, engagement with legal or medical apparatus of gender. However, none of these social affordances (that are deployed by social institutions to effect the circumscription of transfemininity) are free from the potential for coercion. If we want access to any of the processes described we experience pressure to present a legible transfeminine gender identity. If you do not call yourself by the terms of the locally prevailing models of transfemininity your access to social, legal or medical affordances is immediately threatened. There is immediately a pressure to be a certain kind of tranny - the institutionally respectable kind, and this pressure weighs on our self descriptions whether we know it or not. Identity, then, is always already under pressure. What would I have called myself, if I had never had to call myself anything for the sake of estrogen, or for a job, or for community? I will never know. Neither will you. What the position outlined fails to account for at all, is that many processes of transfeminisation are straightforwardly coercive, have no choice element because they are inductive abuse. We did not choose our subjection to social practices of violent harassment and exclusion based on perceived difference, for example. Did not choose to be called faggots, sissies, or retards because of the position we were being forced into of not-a-real-man. Did not choose the rape, the beating, the manipulation that othered us from manhood, carried out in sacred silent complicity over a whole lifetime. Every cis woman ex who forced you into a feminised position of permanent care is in cahoots with your dad who hit you is in cahoots with the tboys you gave a bad vibe are in cahoots with the boys in your high school changing room are in cahoots with your rapists. There was, in fact, a conspiracy to forcibly feminise you. It just wasn't glamorous, sexy, or conscious. It doesn't make sense to speak of our transmisogynisation, then, as a matter of our personal identity so much as it does of our being identified. Target lock, y'know? Maybe something gave you away, maybe it didn't. But identifying a boy who's never gonna make it is socially critical, and you were picked. Picked so other boys could differentiate themselves from you, so girls could have you and know you weren't like other boys - they could hurt you and get away with it. So your ejection from your family could be justified. Even if none of them ever once called you a tranny, they were making one of you.
All this to say, the representational force of specific visions of transfeminity cannot be substitute for solidarity along the lines of that we are transmisogynised. Personal identification, pronouns, these things are secondary - and are no substitute for attending to the specifics of our oppression. We can call ourselves what we want, but falling behind the banner of a fixed identity category just limits our solidarity, makes us rigid, makes us easier to kill.
Theory, or, giving the game away
Transmisogyny is itself transmisogynised. Like us, our oppression is always novel, always ready finallyfor a good welcoming into the fold, always unmapped, always a great way to sell a book. Yours could be the first real, definitive, proper text on transmisogyny! Imagine! Over the past decade alone (say nothing of techniques perfected in milennia gone), round after round of coordinated harassment campaign and social media clean up have left us with a legacy of articulating ourselves over and over, hashing out the same points for each new spawning. A neotenised theory, in a forced state of arrested development. Our place in history continues to be the damnatio memoriae.
The kinds of theorisation that tend to stick around share a basic structure - they are outreach oriented, interested in engaging with a "broader" feminist or queer or historical or marxist tradition. Of course the subsumption of transmisogyny as a mere articulation, a phenomena within this or that more important, more material, more real tendency follows.Theory looks to place transmisogyny on terms that others might recognise, fixing some points of reference in order to reach a presumed shared audience. The trouble of course is that now you are looking to share points of reference, an audience, with a cisfeminist, a twerf, a "transandrophobia" spewing tboy. You might tell yourself that this is only in order that you might convince the undecided, to win new people round, so they see the natural integration of the theorisation of transmisogyny into your school of thinking.
These institutionalising desires exact costs. Foremost amongst which is the need to identify a positive transfeminine subject. The identification of this subject (presently, the sID'd transgender woman) ensures that the framework shares identifiable points of reference with rival theories of gender that emerge within hegemony, in order to more legibly engage with them. Put more simply, it makes it easier to argue with the tmra, the cisfeminist, the twerf, if everybody arguing presumes themselves to already know what we’re talking about, but to just differ in attitude. Whether she's valid, whether she's more or less privileged, whether she's really a woman. Such fun!This is the process of theorisation as marketisation - an audience after all is just a cipher for a market. All debate is in fact spectacle, safely ensconced within its academic home. Irrecognisance is complicity.
By entering into the bloodsport of theory we can endlessly defer the practicalities of articulating relations between the transmisogynised that are aware of the endless hatred the real holds for us, and avoid responding to that weaponised reality lucidly. We can foreclose the conversation about what we do, so that we can settle, once and for all who we are. Of course, whoever finds themselves on the outside of our shining new identity (once we've settled it - won't take long) will perhaps lack our enthusiasm for whatever solidarity we seek to build without them after the fact.
I'll concede that I only speak in these terms (not my own) because you are my kin, and I want to reach you. I am a hypocrite. I made my apology already. I believe in you more than I ever believed in anything real, so I'm going to let you make a hypocrite of me.
For the road, or, from the sickbed
I am tired now, and quite sick. I caught what might be the flu, or might be covid the other day. Things occur to me through a thicker haze than usual. So I am going to be presumptive and pass on some things I have learned talking with my friends, as though you’ve any need.
Pay attention to the way that transmisogynisation picks at and worries received views of agency. When girls tell you that their transness is something they affirmed, they are of course right. The same girls are also right when they talk about how this was done to them. Histories are mobile, histories are strategic. Stories we tell about ourselves are social technologies. We never have to be one thing, never have to resolve (scorn anyone who tells you otherwise), we exist with contradictions of coercion and choice. We have to. What does this mean for the possibility of the transmisogynised historical “subject”? What might we have to say about the necessary diffusion of subjectivity experienced by many like us- what kinds of politics is it incompatible with?
Pay attention to the lines along which people draw their politics. What kind of insults do they use? They are telling you who is other to them. They are telling you who they do not feel they need to answer to, and so in whom the stakes of their real will be placed, alongside you. If they speak of lazy stoners wasting their time in queer organisation instead of joining this or that political project - in my opinion, they have told you more than enough. Anarchist or otherwise. These are the lines that need to be drawn so that a politics can be defined. Those who speak this way, our kin not least, hurt themselves. They do this for a cause.
Kindness is never, ever, called for. Will never be called for. It is not politically substantial. People will tell you that kindness is radical and they are wrong. People will tell you that kindness is no part of a coherent politics - not something you ever owe and they are right. You need never be kind. This is because kindness is an excess. Kindness is an inherently unjustified and unjustifiable gesture, an overabundance of care that no politics invested in its own reproduction could ask for. When you meet trannies, I would really appreciate it if you could be kind to them.
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Im late to this but I WANT TO TALK ABOUT THEM SOO MUCCHHH AAAAAHGHGGHGHHHH im CRAZY ABOUT MY OCS, i LOVE THEM SO MUCH
THESE GUYS IN PARTICULAR IM SO CRAZY ABOUT THEM IM AAAAAAAAGGAHHSSJDHZNDKNGMCNFBSBSBBDSB
THE DRAWINGS ARE ALL MADE BY ME BTW UHM
SO LIKE. THEY WERE ORIGINALLY MADE FOR THE GAME DANDYS WORLD THEY WERE FANDOM OCS BUT THEN I KINDA MADE THEM NORMAL OCS BECAUSE UHM UHM I LOVE THEM A LOT AND LIKE THEY HAVE NO PARTICULAR LORE BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE GIVING THEM LORE WOULD RESTRICT ME FROM DRAWINF WHAT I WANT TO DRAW,, THEYRE EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING!!!!! THE PURPLE CIRCLE HEAD WITH THE SPARKLES IS CHAROITE AND ITS THE NAME OF A REALLY COOL LOOKING PURPLE GEM STONE THING SHES LIKE A COOL AUNT SHE SLAYS SO HARD I LOVE HER AND THE RED BENDY LIKE HEAD ONE IS CHRYS MY FRIEND SUGGESTED THAT NAME AND CHRYS AND CHAROITE DONT GET ALONG AT ALL BUT I MADE THEM TO BE LIKE. PROMOTIONAL CHARACTERS FOR DANDYS WORLD SO THEYD APPEAR IN COMICS AND COMICS ONLY THEYD APPEAR IN NEWS PAPERS N STUFF AND IN THOSE COMICS THEY WOULD HAVE TO GET ALONG BECAUSE FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC!!! BUT OUT THOSE COMICS THEY HHHAAATTE EACHOTHER SO MUCH ALSO I KEEP LIKE CHANGING THEIR OUTFITS BECAUSE I WANT THEM TO HAVE LIKE A WARDROBE AND STUFF BUT YOU CAN SEE THEY HAVE CLOTHING STYLES THEY PREFER LIKE CHAROITE WEARS DRESSES AND CHRYS WEARS OVERALLS N STUFF
This is your sign to talk about the new OC(s) you've made this year :)c
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Ok... is it safe to talk about Sonic Movie 3 spoilers yet? The movie is out on digital and it's been over a month.
Idk. Anyways.
I am both curious and utterly terrified on how they are gonna write Metal Sonic and Amy for Sonic Movie 4.
I will start off with my boy Metal first.
Metal Sonic to me is a very interesting character due to his goals and motivation. His goal to prove that he is the REAL Sonic and that he's better than the "fake" one. The way that he acts is a near perfect replication of Sonic's attitude, from the finger wagging to the poses he does in Sonic CD and the OVA, he is all about proving that he is Sonic the Hedgehog.
Metal Sonic is just not a simple robotic clone, he has depth to him and they expand upon GREATLY when he becomes Neo Metal Sonic and becomes SO OBSESSED with proving that he's the real Sonic by turning into a monster and trying to rule over everything, just so he can finally kill Sonic.
EVEN EGGMAN IS LIKE "Yeah naw dude we're fucked, we NEED the chaos emeralds to have a chance at beating him."
After his Heroes appearance, he became nothing more than a robotic clone used in spinoff games and in terrible mainline games like Sonic 4 and Forces. He only had splashes of depth to him in the IDW comics with this phenomenal scene.
So when i see Metal Sonic and a whole army of him in the post credit scene of Sonic Movie 3, i can't help but feel VERY WORRIED on what they are gonna do with him.
I mean don't get me wrong, the design is nearly on par with the game version, aside that fucking mouth piece thing, it looks AWFUL!!!! I HATE ITTTT!!
WHAT IS THIS!?!? WHY DOES HE HAVE AN ANGRY MOUTH!? ITS NOT SCARY AT ALL LMAO!
But now I'm just wondering, will they give Metal Sonic that depth he used to have? Will we actually see Neo Metal Sonic or will the main Metal Sonic be the coloured one we saw?
I don't want Metal Sonic to be like his appearances in Sonic 4 Episode 2 and Forces. I want it to rival his appearance in the OVA and Heroes dude. I want a fucking great antagonist, not a cheap robot that shoots out energy blasts.
I want a god damn intimidating robot Sonic.
Now... Amy Rose.
As some of you probably know, i like a character wrapped in pink, is hyperactive, wields a giant melee weapon and is always mischaracterized in the fandom they are from. When i was younger, i used to dismiss her or think she was just funny and move on. But as i've gotten older, i've actually grown to really like the character, especially in the older 3D games and with retranslation mods. Her story with Gamma was beautiful, her speech to Shadow, her jokes, her flirty/fangirl attitude towards Sonic. It's really fun to watch. Most media has a boy fall in love with the girl, but with Amy and Sonic, it's the opposite. Their dynamic is unique.
I also love how in some stories, Amy can get REAL PISSED OFF and have anger issues. Even roses has thorns.
However... in more recent stories like Frontiers, her personality has been mellowed out by a lot and her crush for Sonic is pretty much gone now. She's all about "sharing love with the world" now and her anger issues are gone.
Some say she's grown up and "oh she changed!" But we actually don't see this character growth at all. It's one thing to tell a story about how Amy learns that maybe her love for Sonic is too much and she learns to just be a good friend to Sonic. But it's another when the character has a MASSIVE personality change between Lost World, Forces and Frontiers. AND THEN THEY CHANGED GENERATIONS TO MAKE AMY LESS FLIRTY AND ANGRY LIKE.... HUH!?!? WHY!?!?!? THAT'S NOT HOW YOU WRITE A CHARACTER ARC!!!!! YOU GOTTA SHOW IT!!!! (A lot of Sonic characters have this issue too so it's not just an Amy problem.)
And them also doing the whole "Amy is no longer a damsel in distress anymore and her love for Sonic is over" is just... no dude. Amy was a damsel a couple of times and they never lasted that long. She's not on the same level as Peach. And the IDW comics tried to make her a Sally Acorn type character for some reason as well at first. Which was REALLY WEIRD! But maybe it's changed idk, i haven't kept up with the comics these days.
The only Amy that i really like in more modern stories is the one from The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog. Now THAT'S how you write Amy.
So now, when i see Amy come in with a hood on and destroying Metal Sonics with ease, I'm left wondering, "oh no... how are they gonna write her?"
Will they actually show Amy's crush on Sonic? Will Amy just have Sally's personality? Will they give her some damn thorns? Will they make it to where SONIC IS THE ONE WITH THE CRUSH!?!? PLEASE DON'T DO THAT! DO NOT GO THE GENERIC ROUTE PLEASE!!
If they make it to where when Amy takes off her hood in Sonic Movie 4 and immediately falls for Sonic I'll eat all of my words, but i doubt that would happen....
Anyhow, those were my thoughts, i know that it's too early to make a definitive statement on things but i just wanna voice my concerns due to other recent Sonic stories not landing in the characterisation department for me.
#sonic the hedgehog#sonic movie#sonic movie 3#sonic movie spoilers#sonic movie 4#sonic 4#sonic cd#sonic heroes#metal sonic#amy rose#rambles#ramblings#sonic ova#neo metal sonic#metal overlord
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Skeptic for the ask thingy? :D
I'm getting through these so slowly 😭 Sorry for the wait! Time to ramble about everyone's favorite detective bird-
[Send Me a Character and I'll List Ask Game]
favorite thing about them
Weirdly, it's the contrast between how intelligent and logical Skeptic is as a character vs. how absurd and irrational the Construct is. The way Skeptic fights and seeks universal singular truth in a world that, by design, does not have any... which was so masterfully highlighted in the Cage and the new Den. I remember genuinely exclaiming "SKEPTIC NO, STOP-" when the tunnel began collapsing (though in fairness, Hero is the one who started it). And the way Skeptic blamed himself for not "thinking it through," because that's how he thinks the world around him should work:
"Why for the love of everything did I not think about the stability of the tunnels?! I'm supposed to be smarter than this! I'm supposed to have a plan for everything."
And the entire dialogue with Hero following that line, too-
...Long story short, there is something very tragic but incredibly appealing about putting a character, who is all about facts, logic, and deduction, into a world that shifts based on your perception where nothing is certain. Sorry Skeptic, love you Skeptic </3
[What's up with all these asks getting so long... more under the cut </3]
least favorite thing about them
Rewritten and deleted lines from the Prisoner. Hands down. It's one of the few things I dislike about the DLC, and I choose to not accept it as canon. I really, really miss that triumphant "I knew it!" followed by "She couldn't tip her hand to Him. He wouldn't have let us leave." It really highlighted Skeptic's intelligence, along with an innate desire to trust the Prisoner, to think of her as someone with a plan. She wouldn't just cut off her own head like that, and he knew it.
I understand that this was done to make the lead-up to the Cage easier / more natural... but I feel like there were other ways to do it! Hero is right there, and he just watched Prisoner cut her head off, he could be disturbed and panicking about the whole situation and really want to leave, which would feel quite natural too! And then perhaps Skeptic was sure that Prisoner had a plan, but after you choose to leave her behind... he isn't so sure anymore, which could lead to him slowly losing his mind and devolving during the Cage. That would've been perfect, at least in my opinion!
Honorable mention goes to the fact that, even after the Pristine Cut, he still feels a little underutilized to me. I talked about it in my Paranoid character ask, but Deconstructed Damsel -> HEA should've had Skeptic instead of Paranoid (T v T)
favorite line
"You have the attention span of a fly. How are we supposed to unravel the mysteries of this place if you're so easily distracted by empty promises?"
Honestly I feel you, Hero, I also have the attention span of a fly-
And of course, how can I not mention: "Yes, yes, don't believe a word she says. Just go in, take the knife, and do what you're supposed to. Wink."
brOTP
I already talked about how I really like the Grey Brothers (Skeptic + Smitten) dynamic in Smitten's post, it's very fun to imagine these two as very different people who have very little in common... but who still care about each other.
But I also want to mention Skeptic + Hunted. I liked the idea of them being comfortable in each other's spaces even before the extended Den. And with them working together so well in the Den post-Pristine Cut, I think they would have a pretty close friendship.
Everest trying really hard to explain a dynamic they like, without resorting to just "they cool. me like them"-
OTP
For the record, I HC my Skeptic as aroace (or demiromantic asexual, I haven't fully decided yet). That will not stop my QPR-Skeptunist from completely taking over my brain <3
There is something very appealing about their dynamic - Opportunist is trying to get on Skeptic's "good side" and is interested in how intelligent Skeptic is (and how he could utilize that intelligence for his schemes), while Skeptic is curious about Opportunist and that rat brain of his (/aff), trying to see what's beneath those layers and layers of masks that Oppy likes to wear. In a way, they are both almost trying to outsmart one another, but from a place of curiosity... which could lead them to slowly enjoy each other's company :]
Also, this ship is really funny, and it's hilarious to imagine all the stupid scenarios they find themselves in- OH, and I wrote this on them like a month ago:
"I do genuinely feel like they would, not always but often, enjoy each other's company and yap - we all know that Skeptic is listening to Oppy's endless rambles to understand that gremlin mind of his, but I feel like he would come to like Oppy's weird plans and logic as a sort of 'new perspective' - and Oppy really appreciates someone acknowledging 'his genius,' and maybe in turn, he would also listen to Skeptic's esoteric rambles on stenography (it feels like they would be interesting, and depending on the topic, Oppy could actually be genuinely interested in Skeptic's yap in like a "oh, this would be helpful for my next scheme" kind of way)"
...I like this ship way too much for how little they interact in the game (which is "not at all")
Honorable mention almost goes to ParaSkep, courtesy of @/wintergrofyuri and @/itsonlypolite. It's so close to clicking with me (it feels like a dynamic I would like, I want to like them)... but it's just barely not it, I don't know what exactly, but something is missing / just not quite clicking with me (T v T)
nOTP
Don't think I have any nOTPs for Skeptic! I haven't seen any ship with him that I disliked :]
random headcanon
I already mentioned like 3 headcanons in this post: the fact that my Skeptic is aroace (or demiromantic ace), the fact that my Skeptic knows shorthand (and writes exclusively in it), the fact that Skeptic is actually a yapper who likes to explain and go in-depth on the topics he finds interesting... /silly
Let's add another one! I like the idea of a linguistics nerd Skeptic, who is really into the etymology of words (I talked about it in this post where I talked about voice's hobbies!), sounds like the kind of thing Skeptic would be interested in.
Are any of these HCs based on anything from the game? Nope! These are all entirely based on ✨ vibes ✨.
unpopular opinion
To be honest, I don't know what counts as an "unpopular opinion" for Skeptic. I don't think I have any? At least none that I feel strongly about, most of my opinions about Skeptic are either directly based on the lines from the game OR are completely irrelevant silly HCs based on nothing but my own likes lol
song i associate with them
I very rarely listen to just instrumental music (outside of lo-fi and a couple specific artists)... but none of the songs I listen to really fit Skeptic. And so my first instinct is... the original Objection! theme from Phoenix Wright-
Also Open the Game by Jiro. Not the kind of music I usually listen to, but a friend suggested it to me as "music that fits Skeptic" a while ago, and I agree with my friend, I think it really suits him in terms of musical style :]
favorite picture of them
...I'm going to be honest, I'm currently debating if I should give Skeptic a major re-design (because something about his current design just irks me). But if I had to pick an image for Skeptic that I made, it would be this-
...I don't think I shared this before (I probably will in a doodle dump of "voices in dresses" sometime in the future), but this is Skeptic in Alice in Wonderland's dress. A few friends and I joked too much about how awful of a time Skeptic would have in Wonderland, and so this was born!
#ask#slay the princess#eg chatting#voice of the skeptic#it's 1200 words on Skeptic WHY IS IT SO MANY WORDS /lh
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SOME THOUGHTS that drivin me nuts ...
You know I think Shards character could have need so much more character development. Like for all the trauma and insecurities he had/has to endure ... in a world, which hold (atleast a little) grudge against artifical life ... due to Eggman.
He was a famous killer robot. Mocking animals ... maybe killing them?? I know Sonic universe ... kid friendly and stuff, but these sharp fingers aren't there for nothing ... He might was causing a bad future, where every living thing is a robotic slave ... he saw how the Eggman Empire could have been. And now he tries everything to adjust to the "good side". Finding a place in the world. Seeking for forgiveness and a chance to prove himself.
Maybe he even can't move on from this. Alwayd playing the brave clown, while he's actually scared and frustrated. He probably stuck in his past. Always confronting himself, blaming himself ... Everytime he looks in the mirror he might not even see his current appearance ... just this menacing stare ...
Also, what I believe to recognize is that Eggman seems to got softer over the years. You know like in the beginning he hated nature, life itself and Sonic (of course) so much, that he just wanted to destroy everything. But nowadays it seems he has fun challenging the rodents. It's more of a game ... So I thought it would be interesting if his designs were gettin "softer" too.
And Shard might has the trauma of failing. Never won a battle alongside Eggman. Never enough for Eggman. Constant failure. Everytime reprogrammed. Everytime upgraded. Yeah of course does he want to constantly prove himself.
And yes then there is the fear of abandonment. One mistake and you're just scrap. Trash. You will be left to rot. Nobody will help you, repair you and give you a second chance ... and with Chuck exactly giving him this second chance, he might be really afraid that this hedgehog, this father figure, will also leave him, when he fails.
Oh and then maybe sometimes ... old habits sneak through. I also think there is this fear to go back to his old ways. No control about his "darker side".
I just love these redeeming characters. They try their best 💖
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//HI i got tagged in this so i figured i’d be nice and do this as well and shout out some blogs and blorbos i like (but i’ll try not to tag too many bc some people have already mentioned them before)
//list is below the cut because it’s a bit long
@from-ultra-space - fellow blue bitch! we’ve written a ton of integral plotlines together and they’ve been an ally of pandoria since the beginning.
@pkmnspacehistory - really cool integration of actual aerospace history with the pokemon world in addition to being an interesting concept in general
@vulgrados-best - MIGUEL. OH MIGUEL. i’ve been following the redux crew intensely for the past few months and i love all of the muns and muses within that storyline but especially miguel. i can’t wait for hir to get in the spotlight but im also scared because the redux is. a lot. (for the sake of the other muns of the redux crew, i will not be tagging them all but there is an ongoing arc with them and @/yveltal-real that is happening and if you want to check them out because their storylines are so good)
@wandering-white-dwarf - another zinnia blog! god there are. a lot of them, but this is the one i’ve interacted with the most. i love seeing people’s individual takes on canon characters and this is no exception
@lumenflowered - i have never played bloodborne but all i know is that lady maria of the clocktower is so fucking cool and all of the arcs you have done with her and other fallers connected to the soulsborne games are so interesting to me.
@tinkatinktrain - they mylahhhhhhhh. god she’s just like me fr (attempting to be silly despite the horrors persisting). even if our character’s haven’t interacted that much, seeing their posts on my dash makes me do the occasional audible chuckle.
@water-pokemon-appreciator - another rotumblr funnyman. pandoria may be sick of his shit but i’m not. sidon is such a good way to make an “overpowered” character seem down to earth instead of someone who just overexploits their abilities. i mean, he does use them in incredibly mundane situations sometimes and it’s funny.
@battle-subway-ghost - YOU. the one who tagged me for this ask game. i’ve been loosely following paris and sprite (@/thatfailedpokemontrainer) ever since i started rotumblr. much like with the reduxverse, i’m engaged with a bunch of the plotlines you’ve come up with over the amount of time i’ve been in the community.
// what if we all tagged our favorite blogs and went to check eachother's favorite blogs out as a result of tagging our favorite blogs. what then
#ooc reblog#//there are so many other amazing blogs out here that i didn’t shout out#//i tried not to tag EVERYONE i knew but i thought of some accs that i’ve come to appreciate#//AND THANK YOU FELLOW MUTUALS I LOVE YOU TOO
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Wolfstar modern au hcs!!
Here are some little ideas I had about r/s in a modern world <3
Remus and Sirius both love doing the nyt mini games together, but especially the mini crossword. They usually compete against each other.
Remus has Sirius saved in his contacts as "Sirius Black" because that's how he saves everyone, but when he notices that he's saved as "Moony ❤️" in Sirius's phone, he adds a heart as well.
Sirius sends Remus photos of critters that he happens to come across throughout his day, and Remus always replies to every single one
Remus sends Sirius bitchy texts about his coworkers that make Sirius laugh
Remus loves to watch either really trashy reality tv, or dramas that are incredibly over the top when he's had a long, stressful day
Sirius complains about it, but can consistently be seen lingering in the doorway or standing behind the couch where Remus sits, watching and asking questions about the characters. He refuses to sit down and watch though.
Sirius tries sexting with Remus a couple of times, but it always fizzles out because Remus will inevitably send "???" because he doesn't understand what his lines are supposed to be
Remus calls Sirius all the time while he's at work to tell him about his day and to let him know that he loves him ❤️ it always makes Sirius smile.
Remus and Sirius are a generally very sweet couple, but when it comes to playing Mario kart, they will throw down and it WILL get ugly.
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What is the most embarrassing thing each pokehusband was obsessed with a child? (roblox, one movie on repeat, a funny toy, etc.). My personal opinion is Cyrus watched a childhood cartoon on repeat but he would never admit that to his S/0... he hides his red face when replays are on I also wanted to ask, are you and the new admin dating? A comrade in arms perhaps? Thanks so much!!!!!!
she's one of my best friends, anon, haha
she's actually been the secret shadow admin for a minute in helping shape a lot of AUs. (Bugtlers, Dragon AU, Fox God AU, most Cyrus things, a few Grimsley things.) we just share a lot of interest in the Same Guys.
cw: fluff,
characters: Ingo, Emmet, Lear, Cyrus, Nanu, Colress
▲Ingo▼
● Embarrassing? Ingo struggles to think of anything that he would necessarily deem as embarrassing. Buuut, other people might find his collection of stuffed toys a little embarrassing. Emmet certainly made some faces at the growing pile on his bed during their younger years. He simply enjoyed how cute many of them were and felt comforted by their presence. It was not the most masculine of hobbies, but Ingo was not the type to be overly focused on that kind of stuff. Of course, he still has this collection, but it is a little more hidden away. They all were things slowly given to him over birthdays and various other events. The memories attached to them meant the world to him.
● Though, as an adult, he does show them to his partner, despite whatever feelings may linger about possible judgement. Really, if they love him, they would not care. But, there is a bit of hesitation in his heart mostly related to being perceived as childish. Granted, after he does, he would feel relieved if they asked pleasant questions about them after picking one up. The lack of judgement puts him at ease as he speaks about the history of each one. The most surprising thing is that he is still building onto it. They are truly important to him.
▽Emmet△
○ He blinks at the thought of something embarrassing. He is far too confident… Well, until someone sees his collection of figurines. Somehow, he got very much into video games and animated shows and started collecting various characters that he enjoyed. Why is he embarrassed? Well, because he feels that he outgrew most of them, but also simply because he remembers getting strange looks during his youth from his classmates. Really, he cherishes them for what they are, but those feelings from his development struggle to leave. They are kept hidden away in his room on a shelf, and he will admit to forgetting to dust sporadically.
○ Will his partner find out? Yes, absolutely, to his dismay. They likely poke around his room and find it. He tries to pretend that it is something he has been meaning to get rid of, far too embarrassed and flooded with memories from his younger years. When they instead ask about a show or game character they recognise, Emmet feels more at ease. A discussion begins, and he realises they are not judging him at all but rather interested. His front breaks, and he happily chats with them. It seems he finally feels that stigma is broken in his mind – At least with his partner.
👑Lear💎
🪙 The prince declares he has nothing embarrassing about him. It is also no one's business. Except, maybe… No. He refuses to even consider such a thing embarrassing. No, he will not say it. The answer? Well, he had a blanket he was quite obsessed with as a child. Of all the things he could take to his horrible school, this was one of the few. It brought him such comfort through the worst of it all. Yet… It is not very kingly to derive comfort from such a thing. So, he keeps his lips closed about such a thing still being present in his quarters. The blanket was one of the few things he could recall his mother gifting to him, so he never will truly let it go.
🪙 He struggles to admit such a thing to a partner. The idea of being judged for his possession bothers him. Though, it does clearly stand out among the other lavish gatherings on his bed. It is more of a small quilt than anything, made of varying fabrics and patterns. The homely-ness of it seems out of place to his tastes. Picking it up results in him panicking and snatching it from them. A simple explanation of it being his and important leads to more questions. Eventually, he breaks and explains the history of it. This results in them likely finding it sweet and telling him that it is adorable. This makes his face turn red and him stomping off. While still holding the blanket.
🌌Cyrus🛰
☄️ Cyrus's embarrassment is quite simple... A certain toy robot is on his desk. It is brought between work and home, but it is always there. The toy is simple and cute, likely made by a child. There is no function of it anymore, but he will never toss it out. Why? Such fond memories are attached to it. Memories he will never admit to, yet linger in his mind when he least wants them to. A simpler time in his life where he dared allow himself to be playful and to have… He stops himself from remembering. It hurts too much to recall.
☄️ So, when his partner comments on the toy sitting on his desk, he tenses up. Embarrassment floods his heart for having something so childish linger around him. Yet, when they just ask about it without any clear judgement, he simply explains that he has a few memories attached to it. This intrigues them more, naturally, but he is simply biting his tongue with little interest in going into the specifics. All he says is that a friend used to play with him with the toy. More questions than answers. Cyrus never really feels able to elaborate, not with the intense, horrible emotions in his chest. The toy robot remains, at least.
🐈⬛️Nanu❤️🩹
🌑 When he was a boy? That far back? He struggles to recall anything. Well… A certain cute cat character unfortunately pops into his mind. It was mostly popular among women and girls, but he simply found himself interested in the simple design. He had quite a few figures in his home as decoration and maybe a charm or two on his bag. Nothing is overly noticeable. He could never admit to enjoying it. It was far too embarrassing and almost seemed like a waste of money to him. Yet, he still picked up a few items.
🌑 As an adult, the brand is still around, and he notes that Acerola quite enjoys it. Under the guise of getting gifts for her, he often buys himself one or two things while giving the rest to her. Granted, he gets flustered when his partner picks up one of the figures sitting candidly in his home. His immediate excuse for it being for Acerola falls through when they mention having seen it a few times during their visits. It is then that he admits through gritted teeth that he just likes the design. He expects to be teased, but when they just nod and admit it is cute, he feels shocked. Then, he gets immediately over it and realises that his partner would be the last person to judge him over his interests.
🥼Colress🛸
🧪 His obsession when he was a child? Mostly mad scientists. Is he embarrassed? Only about the incorrect science. Really, looking back on his fascination, he feels more flustered about the incorrect concepts used than the fact he was fascinated with villainous characters. A testament to his future nature as someone who does not necessarily align themselves with morality. Sporadically, while in public places, old movies will play on displays, and he finds himself taken back. Silently, he tries to pretend not to be mildly annoyed with the inaccuracies present. That is more annoying than his own previous fascination.
🧪 He simply tells his partner about it while some old movie plays on the television. It really is not some shocking revelation to anyone who knows him. Really, he could almost fit the archetype if he did not keep himself within the basis of reality. He does mention something about wanting to make more hybrid pokemon, which gets a stare from them. Later, he will admit with little embarrassment that he outgrew the interest because he could not stand the lack of actual science. He feels confident in speaking to them since he has already established a bond with them. Once again, they are not surprised since it is Colress.
#pokemon x reader#ingo x reader#emmet x reader#cyrus x reader#lear x reader#nanu x reader#colress x reader#pokemon/reader#pokemon ingo x reader#pokemon emmet x reader#pokemon cyrus x reader#pokemon lear x reader#pokemon nanu x reader#pokemon colress x reader#ingo/reader#emmet/reader#cyrus/reader#lear/reader#colress/reader#nanu/reader
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An Evening With Mr. Yang
In the infamous words of one Shane Madej:
Who doesn’t love this episode? Are you kidding me?!?!?! The tension is great, the acting is great, Mary Lightly is so much fun, ALLY SHEEDY! There are so many great things in this ep i got a bit overwhelmed haha
Mary Lightly is an amazing character! Jimmi Simpson is such a great actor that i started watching films/ tv shows because he was in them. Like, i watched Westworld just because he was in it (well, and also because james marsden was in it and i love him as well) and he did PHENOMENAL in the black mirror episode the USS Calister! With Cristin Milioti??? Its my favorite black mirror episode (cause I’m also a star trek nerd. That ep was tailored to me specifically)…i went on a bit of a tangent. Anyways, Mary Lightly is one of the top guest characters in all of Psych hands down.
Apparently Yang struck in 95, and we know shawn graduated in 96, so we know in 95 super cop Henry was still a detective. Which begs the question, why wasn’t he chosen by yang?? Im so curious what happened the first time that 6 people died. Was he originally supposed to have been chosen by yang but it was kept secret for some reason?? Ooooo or what if henry had been chosen originally but refused to play the game because he didn’t want yang to come after his family so yang had to go with another cop or simply killed ppl because he refused so henry holds some guilt for those deaths too and thats the real reason he quit??? Or maybe because his marriage was on the brink of collapse henry wasn’t at the top of his game when yang came around. Mmm grasping at straws i suppose, but really though, he should have been chosen (and ill discuss yang more as we get through the trilogy).
Maddy is the worst lol why is she so bad at communicating with her own child??? Shes a psychologist!
I have to call this out because it makes me cringe but bernsens line reading here was not great haha
James though, man he killed it in this! It was understated and heart breaking at the same time!
And Ally Sheedy was in what, like, less than 5 minutes of the whole episode, but goddamn she made an impression! I mean, what an amazing introduction to a character! I have endless praise for this whole scene with her and shawn! What a freaking get.
Lastly, juliets confession. What a great scene too! I like that she called out her sending mixed signals (i almost pointed that out earlier in the season) because uh, yeah, she was confused and thats okay. And like i mentioned before, if im in juliets position id be confused too. She doesn’t know hes a fake yet so all she sees is a highly effective goofball which can be fun, but yeah, maybe not the best if you need someone reliable- which she does considering who her dad is. But this really is terrible timing lol like, bro just saved his mom from being killed by a serial killer and having the most stressful 24 ish hours of his life and shes like, you know what he needs? Romance. (Btw she kind of framed it like, you deserve a treat, i.e me, which in my world means hanky panky lol)
I thought the kiss on the cheek was very sweet (though kind of messed up since hes literally on a date with someone else haha)
What more can i say? Its a near perfect episode and a great introduction to a great killer with a memorable side character and a solid mystery. Gus was actually solving quite a bit of it too so major kudos to him. All around fantastic episode! So uh, yeah 👍
#psych#psych rewatch#psych tv#shawn and gus#shawn spencer#burton guster#james roday rodriguez#james roday#dulé hill#dule hill
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Ok now I’m curious about maxiel, do you have any fic recs?
yes ofc!!
I generally bookmark based on authors rather than bookmarking individual fics so I’ll share some of my fav authors with you + a few individual fics that I realllyyy liked. most of these are rated E or write E so I hope that’s okay!!
also I generally delete fic recs from my blog after 48 hours so if u wanna save these somewhere or mark them for later you should!!
I hope you like these and I would loveee to know your thoughts on them if you wanna share!!
AUTHORS
•Citydreaming: https://archiveofourown.org/users/citydreaming/pseuds/citydreaming/works?fandom_id=15322
They write lovely maxiel, one of my favourite ones is where Daniel is an escort and Max is a 5x world champion. Another really good one is a time travel fic where younger Daniel gets transported to the future. Almost all their work is rated E.
•Yekoc: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yekoc/pseuds/yekoc/works?fandom_id=15322
They specialise in pathetically obsessed with each other maxiel and they really capture the intensity of this ship so so well. One of my favourite works of theirs is ‘glory, from a high rise’ which is an AU with Daniel as a bartender and Max as a finance guy in NYC. It’s got the usual levels of yearning and angst that go with a situationship setting but I never read non happy endings so everything does work out. they have an American high school one as well that I’m currently reading and loving too. All work is pretty heavy E though.
•WhichisGolden: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whichisgolden/pseuds/whichisgolden/works?fandom_id=15322
This author has a few really good maxiels but my favourite one has to be ‘max, an unwilling adventurer through space and time’ where max is basically exploring a bunch of Danny rics in different AUs or this other one where Daniel is a masseuse and Max is an f1 driver. The core of their maxiel is max imprinting on daniel and being completely in love and obsessed with him and you can really FEEL how much this author’s max enjoys Daniel, the dynamic is just done really well.
FICS
•To the Victor Belong the Spoils
It’s a Hunger Games AU where Max and Daniel are both victors and Daniel helps Max navigate the horrors of the Capitol. It starts with a situationship/fwb almost situation but turns into deep devotion and obsession (in a way that I find only maxiel truly embodies in f1 rpf). also has a bunch of other drivers who aren’t the focus but are really interesting and enjoyable side characters.
rated: E, it’s pretty loaded with explicit scenes but also has a really great romance
https://archiveofourown.org/works/44035396/chapters/110719339
•Motion Sickness
I love this author, they have a bunch of really great Maxiel and some great charlos too, set in a bunch of different AUs. This work in particular is great because they’re still racers but there are elements from Ancient Greek mythology which are integrated really well into the story and are super interesting. The vibe between maxiel here is definitely opposites who can’t live without each other/daniel soothing and taking care of max and understanding him to ease all the ways he’s been neglected.
It’s rated E but is not super intense from what I remember.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52138468
•In That Iron Ground
a beautiful story where Daniel’s father dies and he has to navigate his grief while allowing Max to care of him and resisting the urge to be the “stable” or “happy” one in the relationship. It’s genuinely such a well-told story. It’s also E and there are a few explicit scenes but it’s really special as an exploration of grief and the complicated feelings that come with leaving home and building a new life with someone you love. This author has quite a few other good maxiel stories too!!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/40934145
rated: E for explicit but also E for entirely broke my heart and then rebuilt it!!
•Cool Things to Say to Your Soulmate
It’s a collection of soulmate AUs and it’s done super well. Not too long but really captures the most special part of maxiel to me: the inherent sweetness of falling in love with someone when you were young and the wonder of finally being with them. There’s some internalised homophobia also, maybe bc of the Jos of it all (I don’t fully remember) but it’s a great collection of stories.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/44567689
rated E but from what I remember it’s not tooo bad.
they really are an amazing pairing I promise!! and I feel like maxiel is a dynamic that frees max of a lot of characteristics his other ships force him to have: like being the pursuer or the character who is more successful/stable in life or in a position of greater power or the one who more consistently takes care of their partner rather than being the one in need of care.
#maxiel#maxiel fic recs#just realising how many of these are AUs#goes back to my point of maxiel being so good in loads of different contexts#no one brings out down bad max like maxiel writers#nothing like you and that guy you’ve been obsessed with since the age of 12#max verstappen#daniel ricciardo
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ik doing game recs isnt your forte but this seems worth a shot since its relevant to some things you do talk about. Are there any non-dnd games youd recommend to someone coming into rpgs whos less confident in freeform RP but more familiar with tt war n skirmish games?
Ik its one of those things where dnd might on paper be an actual suggestion but in practice its like ive seen you say where every group seems to want to ignore most stats and especially in combat try and make ""theatre of the mind"" work when it feels like its be easier to all involved if we just dropped some little guys on some graph paper but everyone seems desperate to avoid that
Yeah, if you're coming from the direction of tabletop wargames and skirmish games then yeah D&D would actually work. But I think there are other good options if you want a game that's explicitly about moving dudes on a grid and doesn't pretend otherwise (I have a huge rant in my back pocket about "theater of the mind" and how it's actually one of the biggest lies ever concocted by D&D's designers and the fact that the player base has bought that lie is maddening, MADDENING I SAY).
First of all, I'm going to hype up Tactiquest by @level2janitor again. It's a game very clearly inspired by D&D in its genre and it's a very neat RPG that is very much about teams of fantasy folks hitting each other on the grid. The current playtest edition is also completely free!
Beacon is a tactical fantasy RPG that is basically like. What if we took the mech combat of Lancer and made the mechs fantasy RPG characters instead? It's a very tactically deep RPG with a sort of a Final Fantasy meets D&D vibe to its setting, and there's a lot to love there.
Speaking of Lancer, there's also ICON by one of the creators of Lancer. Also grid-based, also heavily about tactical combat. Very cool presentation. Yeah
And finally, Trespasser: Dark Fantasy Tactics. This one is fun because it combines so many influences from all around the tabletop RPG space: there's a bit of Dungeon Crawl Classics, 4e, there's domain management, there's a pretty clear campaign framework to follow. It's filled to the brim with so much cool stuff I really hope to be able to take it out for a spin some day.
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The reason those C3 fans shit the bricks over the Charity stream was because they viewed the charity stream as a win for them and bells hells. Not like you know, an actual good thing to help people in need. Because when it was announced they were in the qrts and on twt yelling that the cast closing to play as Bells Hells was cause they loved them above all. That BH were "winning" because MN didn't get one shots while airing. No1 expected anyone BUT BH to be played so they were fighting air tbh.
[Cont. So when Laudna got yeeted and Beau joined it, it's like they suddenly hit with the fact that the cast like all the times. All character sheets were available and BH was being played by default of the one shot happening during c3. But they hung their entire world view on BH being extra special that they broke. Saw them also being PISSED at Ashley and Liam for getting MN members to the top before everyone else and especially the gate was "showing up BH".]
Here is what gets me, as a person who does not follow sports in any form: The Mighty Nein are a juggernaut of popularity within the fandom. I think this is for the most part deserved and I also think a lot of fans of C1 who never vibed with any later campaigns are simply not active in fandom any more since it's been 7 years, and Critical Role had more recognition with Campaign 2, so like, numbers within active social media fandom are not a perfect indicator of quality, itself a subjective measure.
HOWEVER. If you want your team to win, the most efficient way to do that is to start rooting for the winning team. I get that this is considered treasonous to genuine fans of sports. But like, if your biggest priority is Number Is Bigger then there is an obvious solution and it's called jumping on the bandwagon. Otherwise, perhaps you should consider a different metric, such as "did I have fun at this game? Were the snacks good? Were there some cool plays?" (from this you can see my priorities re: live sports namely are my friends here and did I get some nachos and a beer but you get my point). Honestly, this is how I and a lot of other people have been approaching Bells Hells week to week for some time now: were there some cool scenes? Did the character they liked most at the time say something funny? Did NPCs do anything? Were the fight mechanics interesting?
I have a post that I am saving for next week about specific elements of C3 that goes into more depth but I feel like Campaign 3's fandom in particular fell to a certain attitude that feels very specific to a younger (to me, an ancient crone, so like, mid-20s) crowd, of obsessing over numbers: how many fics. how many notes. how much screentime. can you believe that Episode 100 didn't even have Bells Hells in it????? And it's like. who the fuck cares. Is it good? Is it satisfying? Because right now we're watching you guys all admit it hasn't been and 120 episodes in you were waiting for the campaign to REALLY begin.
I don't think the cast dislikes Bells Hells! I think they all like all of their characters, and frankly when the cast gets asked directly a lot of them go with a "you never forget your first" and give their VM character anyway so like, the vitriol at the Mighty Nein really is a petty popularity contest in the end. But Bells Hells are the party that the cast happened to be playing during the Moon Plot Campaign and the party that the cast happened to be playing at the time of the livestream. None of the three main parties are uniquely special. They are special to their individual fans.
I made the Elon Musk comparison for C3 fans earlier this week and I don't want to go too hard since like, he is truly horrible, and I do think that a lot of C3 fans, while currently shitty self-absorbed people, are also quite young and it is my hope that a sharp but ultimately harmless disappointment like this campaign might shock them into fixing their hearts, but the final lines of this post came to mind while writing up a lot of my responses: "And in fact I would argue that seeking to put yourself above other people is inherently going to leave you empty, because egotistical as you may be, you've adopted a values system where your sense of self worth intrinsically depends on other people. Congratulations, you played yourself."
If your day can be ruined because your blorbo wasn't present for 100% of a live stream for charity and the cast likes all of their characters? You should work on that! I'm not saying it's easy or fun but it really is a thing you should work on because right now, the worst thing that's going to happen to you is people laughing at your misfortune on social media. But if you keep up this behavior, you're going to be bitter and miserable forever, and it will be your own fault because you're getting mad that something that was never about you continues to not be about you. Learn to accept that you had a good time (if you had a good time, anyway) and it's over and that's okay.
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Got a tag on my post about how Makoto becoming principal in dr3 is in character that argues that while it is in character, it’s not in character for the themes of the franchise as a whole and is a rather surface read of the ideas. This rubs me the wrong way as first of all Kodaka was involved, he was the supervisor of the project, Makoto becoming principal would have fallen under his decision. As well as the fact it carries onto v3 so dismissing it as a failure to understand the themes is just incorrect. Kodaka knows his themes for his own series.
Danganronpa always has had a theme of circular violence, trauma repeats when one doesn’t take the time to truly heal for it. Whether it be Mondo killing Chihiro, the Warriors of Hope’s everything, the constant use of amnesia as a plot point, the final chapter twist of v3. The circular nature of unhealed trauma and despair is very much a theme. Not repeating cycles is something portrayed as not easy and taking a lot of strength even back in the first game, it’s not easy to end the killing game, to finally truly bow away from the game and it’s sadism and find a new path.
The recreation of Hope’s Peak falls fully in line with the themes of abuse, manipulation, and dependency around Hope’s Peak we see time and time again in the story, the fact that it isn’t so easily stamped out, was always present. Future Foundation’s focus on talent is even shown in goodbye despair emails we see and how they treated the remnants before they realized they were remnants. The lack of respect for Makoto is also shown in said emails. Nothing about future foundation we really learn in dr3 goes against this.
If anything Hope’s Peak staying gone would have been a bigger betrayal of the themes of how structural injustice is a constant problem. See everything about Ishimaru’s FTEs and his hatred of the word genius and the idea of talent. While some of Hope’s Peaks actions get criticized, the characters struggle to see the full picture of the school itself being an issue because everyone trusted and loved the school.
Things get shoved onto Junko, or dismissed as a personal issue of one group or person and not an inborn issue because Hope’s Peak has always kept at least the image of perfection and privilege to the world, and after another killing game, where he almost lost Kirigiri, almost killed himself, and had to witness nearly everyone else in future foundation die, raw and guilty snd unhealed, it makes full sense for the themes of the story that he gravitates back towards Hope’s Peak, the source of it all, and rebuilds it, starting the cycle up again because he was never allowed to heal from it and thus familiar and stable.
In DR3 we learn fully well just how unhealed Makoto is, he’s a very haunted person constantly being pushed to extremes for survival and constantly as all times being reminded of how he’s supposed to be the Hope. Him recreating the school of his trauma is extremely in line with how the circular violence is shown to us. Especially if we take in v3s story and show how it resulted in yet another killing game farther down the line, with Makoto being placed in the same position Jin was in the videos, asking his students to leave everyone and everything they ever knew forever for the chance of survival and hope for everyone through the arc, with them too going through the same kind of memory erasure as Makoto did when they find out it was never that simple and death was already inside. I am aware the it’s all fiction makes this kinda confusing but I’m focusing more on the story tsumugi was telling before it fully broke down and how it relates into danganronpa’s themes
Makoto’s optimism is a point of contrast to the darkness that both shows why he could become Hope but why he also fails to grasp how fucked up everything was from the start. It’s to be taken side by side with the truth of the school from the audience, purposeful contrast, not a denial of the darkness. He is the innocent bystander, the fool card, he simply does not see, and in turn, cannot call out what is hiding in plain sight
Dr3 just has more focus on Hope’s Peak to the audience. The cruelty of the system and the fact Makoto rebuilds it are taken side by side in DR3, but whenever Makoto is in scenes or Hope’s Peak, he’s sheltered, his eyes turned away from the darkness. Even when others attempt to force him to see, his luck or someone else swoops in to protect him from it. Makoto is actively protected by the plot from being allowed to see the themes of cruelty and hate that permeates the system. He is very much kept purposefully blind by the story, because his thematic role is as an embodiment of Hope’s Peak, not an opponent of it.
He’s the golden boy, the shining example, the propaganda piece. His role in the narrative is to not challenge Hope’s Peak, but be the representative of everything Hope’s Peak is supposed to be but never really is. He is the onlooker who sees the gold and sparkle and shine and doesn’t see the bodies behind the curtain, the average joe success story of the lucky draw. He is what’s good about the system, because there is some good in it. The talent system can uplift those in poverty, it can give resources and respect to those who genuinely can use those to do good in the world. Everything good about the talent system is reflected in Makoto to some degree. He uplifts, he gives resources, he protects, he speaks of a better world, he wants to use talent and hope as a force to give people strength and something they can stabilize on /rally around. Makoto is the good of Hope’s Peak.
Makoto recreating the school was practically destined to happen for Makoto with how heavily his Hope talent gets tied up in the school. Makoto never has a reason to question Talent outside of thinking Luck is kinda lame, he has no reason to not try and bring Hope back through what he sees as the symbol of hope.
While Izuru talks to Komaeda about how he was taught and the audience learns that, it’s not information Makoto gets, I’m pretty sure Makoto doesn’t even know the extent of Izuru’s everything until Junko tells him. Makoto simply is in too privileged a position with an inability to be allowed to process his trauma healthily or seek outside voices to his echo chamber, something likely intentional to the themes of the corruption of the idea of Hope, Makoto is pretty intentionally never ever put into a position where he rejects Hope’s Peak or is allowed to actually examine what Hope means because people keep trying to use or kill him, often at the same time.
It’s thematic irony, not a failure to understand the themes. Hope’s Peak cannot be uprooted by someone who was kept away from its darkness. Makoto drinks the kool aid too hard to be the destruction of talent. To him, it simply is how the world works, and he never has a reason to doubt that. Again, how he interacts with Ishimaru in his FTEs. Especially with how Makoto’s response to insecurity and trauma is deeply avoidant, looking Hope’s Peak in the eye and calling it out for what it’s done simply isn’t in his nature. If he has a problem, he will simply throw himself into a project to not think about it.
Makoto and his group of survivors never could have been the ones to challenge Hope’s Peak, too ingrained, too benefited by the status quo, too martyred and traumatized, too sheltered from the darkness, too lacking perspective and options, too deep to question if talent is truly an inherent thing. It would break the story if someone like Togami suddenly was like “actually talent bad.” It’s just not a group built for that part of the story
Calling out an ingrained structural issue with society is very very different then calling out a blackened in a class trial. As one takes deep contemplation and reflection to understand how you and everyone around you is subtly impacted and influenced, the other is a situation where you can ignore yourself and throw yourself into it without letting yourself remember the stakes.
Shuichi was a much better fit for rejecting hopes peak by the end of v3. He was someone burned by his talent so heavily, who seemed to genuinely view his talent as making his life worse. Who watched as talent was never fully a positive thing for anyone around him. Like just Maki’s existence with such a fucked up talent of forced cult assassin makes his group be prime to point out the flaws of the system and reject it. Shuichi was never sheltered, even when he really should have been. Shuichi was primed to see nothing but the darkness destroying him, with his character arc being about finding his ability to still keep moving despite that darkness and fight against the idea that the darkness was his fault or inherent, and instead fight for the right for no one to ever go through it again.
#meta#oh this got#long#hm#ndrv3#makoto naegi#danganronpa#goodbye despair#trigger happy havoc#musings from the music manager#danganronpa 2#danganronpa v3#shuichi saihara#Hope’s peak#danganronpa 3
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