#Which is very generous of her because it's actually extremely pointless

[loycos]

my head's a bit clearer, some thoughts about act 3

-my biggest gripe is episode 7- cool idea, love the concept of peaking into a different universe and seeing what our characters couldve been under different circumstances, but a WHOLE episode. when you only had 9 episode in this season, that already feel like theyre moving at a neck's pace. for a universe that ultimately doesn't matter to the main universe where the story takes place. the fact it had timebomb made it feel extremely fan service-y.

-no emotional resolution to a lot of characters. viktor and jayce are the only ones i can think of that felt like they got the screen time and care for an actual emotional closure.

-isha wasn't even mentioned in this act. in general she was already a martyr for jinx's character development but guys can you make it less obvious.

-it started in act 2, hence why i was so jaded on it, but it continues here: just where the fuck the political drama between 2 cities go? the conflict between zaun and piltover took a back seat since episode 4 and never came back. the resolution to it isn't bad per say, but when u got so little focus on it in the finale it just feels rushed.

-i loved the cait and jinx scene. but like, that was the resolution to it??? after act 1 thinking about it disappoints me. im not against a conversation being the climax to a story, but that is, and im not joking, the ONLY conversation these 2 have in the show one on one. in general the jinx\cait\vi arc ends with 1 conversation per duo (well caitvi got one fight and one very steamy sex scene but u won't catch me complaining). and after act 1, idk i think i wanted just a little bit more. im biased though- the jinx\vi\caitlyn dynamic is my favorite part about arcane. the teasers for s2 always had them front and center so i assumed it'll play a bigger part in the story???

-i felt like what the show was at its core, which is the conflict between the sisters and the cities, was completely sidelined this season. in general i can't really tell what the main theme of the show is anymore. but yeah look at the resolution to the jinx and vi story.did it feel like it had the emotional impact u expected? cause i felt like it was underwhelming.

-sevika?? didnt speak since episode 4???? huhh???

-maddie was pointless. why was she there?? i don't understand the point of that character. i dont understand her motives. she ended up not mattering at all to caitvi's story. the only thing i got from her inclusion is "caitlyn fucks" but is it that THAT important??? of a character trait??? to add to caitlyn of all people?? in THIS season??? this belongs in the realm of fanfiction.

-a lot here felt like fanfiction actually. every silco inclusion (except of him in the cell with jinx), the whole "nobody dies au" they threw in the middle, even the caitvi sex scene (IM NOT COMPLAINING THO). the caitvi scene at the end was dialog out of fanfiction, wtf was that.

-why did caitlyn lose her eye? im not like against the idea on a base level but losing an eye is very symbolic, and im not sure what its supposed to represent here. caitlyn is an observant person, its a big character trait for her. so youre basically saying she sees less now? that she's more laser focused? i sure hope not. wasnt her whole arc with giving up of revenge about seeing the "bigger picture"? her sacrifice didn't feel in character, because caitlyn is not really a "fight to the death" type of character like ambessa is. if she made that sacrifice for something like love, or for the betterment of other people, that would be more in line. idk, you couldve made me on board with it but im just very meh on it. also caitlyn only really emotes through her eyes, it sucks that we get even less of it now?? though i guess it doesnt matter at this point.

-what was the point of the enforcer that looked like vander?

-ambessa was so wasted in these last 2 acts its crazy. where's the "you have to be the fox and the wolf" mindset from her? she felt like she was wolfing only with no wit anymore by the 3rd act.

-mel????????????? it was. uhhh. maybe you shouldve saved it for another series, riot. but in this show, waste of time. the fight she had with caitlyn against ambessa was cool tho.

-i sound like im a hater but u have to understand. s1 of arcane was a political drama and a character study show. seeing all this discarded for magic and time travel shenanigans on like 4 different fronts was so jarring it took me out of the show multiple times.

-cant believe im saying that, but i wish they'd try to stick closer to the characters' current state in the source material (the cursed game). someof it felt out of left field and done for shock value, which isn't why we love the story or these characters to begin with.

good stuff:

-caitvi sex lmao ill take it babyyyyy

-jayce and viktor's scenes at the end were powerful.

-as usual, the visuals were phenomenal. the animation is gorgeous. fortiche u made this show what it is and youre still its saving grace.

-thank god they dropped the warwick\vander plot

-i liked the implication of the conclusion to jinx's story, even if it felt a little inconsistent with the character.

-the ending to jinx\vi\caitlyn was poetic and i did love it, even if it was rushed and didn't really hit the emotional highs i wanted it to.

[stardustedknuckles]

When I was in Oklahoma there were these pokemon go players, blue team, and they would drive out to the park behind my house and take over all the gyms. Which.... Whatever. But if you knocked their pokemon out, these grown ass men (I never saw more than two despite there being six pokemon in each gym) would get in their big trucks and show up a full ten minutes later to kick you out again. It was about a ten minute walk to the park, dark and often cold so like. As a recent yellow team member to join my sister, there was nothing I could do. They actually camped out in their truck behind a fence out of sight once and spent an hour kicking people out but not taking the gym over. Bunch of kids getting real bummed out and we all thought each other was responsible, but we ended up talking and realized none of us was doing it. I saw the truck parked on the way home, idling around the corner.

It wasn't a lack of coins. They were just dicks and it legitimately made me mad. They also had a guy on red team who would come around and knock their stuff out for them so they could refresh their coin gathering. Complete bullshit.

Context for tonight, when I'm in bed and the yellow gym I can hit from my apartment starts going nuts. There's this one guy who comes by every night and takes over this gym and two more. I kicked him out tonight. He came back. War ensued, and since I was a little high I could feel myself fixating on this but was unable to stop. I could feel the stress coming back of not being allowed to get coins, that frustration. I'm not repeating that experience and I'm not quitting over this, so what can I do? Only one thing.

Anyway after nearly two hours of bullshit (I took breaks) it was very satisfying to grab the team medallion, swap to blue team, and put a magikarp named midfinger up next to their 4k tanks. Petty, yes. But I started out blue team anyway and I HATE the way the yellow team guy looks so I had already been considering it for the past week every time I had to look at him. Really, this was just a nudge.

Now we hope he and his buddy don't swap teams too. It would admittedly be very funny. (important context: you can only swap teams once a year)

[therealdesastrffxiv]

I submitted a suggestion to FFXIV Forums

HERE IT IS:

"I adore FFXIV, but one of the things in this game that is extremely grating is the how alt-unfriendly it is.

I realize people use the excuse of 'we can use all jobs on one character', but that honestly does not appeal to me in the slightest. Most jobs do not work for my character, who I write stories about and roleplay. This same situation applies to most glams, pets, and mounts.

The ironic thing is, I would do far, far more in this game if only it were more alt friendly. I would likely actually try to dive into more extreme PvE content, but as it stands now, it simply is not worth it. A lot of content just does not fit for this character, yet she is meant to remain my main, and I want to do the content on her.

I do not have enough time or want to level up and get through the story on every single alt I want to write a story about, and to have to grind everything out a second time, it makes collecting in this game for people like me pointless.

Therefore, I propose an idea: All mounts should be shared. All hairstyles should be shared. All minions should be shared. In the case of glams, might I suggest a special storage chest that is account bound, allowing you to swap glams to your alt? Quite like 'transmog collections' in other games (and mounts/pets being shared in general).

If the above is considered unreasonable - I think it is fair to at least say we could farm everything multiple times, BUT on a main which then could provide the item to the alt.

Example: A glam drops, you can only use it on one character, but you can transfer it to a different character even if it doesn't apply to the one you got it on.

Example 2: I get a mount drop on this character, don't really want it on this one, put it in my chest to give it to an alt.

Example 3: I have a mount collected already, but get another drop, so transfer it to a different character.

Example 3 would also encourage people to farm even more, because there would be a point to getting multiple drops, as we'd be able to give them to alts.

Please at least consider something like an account bound chest, thank you!"

THOSE WHO WANT ALT FRIENDLINESS IN THE GAME - We'd have to bring it up on the forums, or get the word out there more via Twitter. I use the hashtag #altfriendlyxiv or #altfriendlyffxiv.

Something as simple as being able to mail alts & all shop items being account bound rather than just the non-holiday mounts would be great, in the very least. (Aside from the boosts, obviously.)

The suggestion I had someone leave on the forums is linked here.

[lakesbian]

okay, as i have been encouraged by the public (like 2 people) to go forward with this research, i present the very scientific Tier List of Blonde Wildbow Characters Ranked From Most to Least Likely to Have A Piss Kink. virtually no one wanted this post. i did not want this post. it is 2.1k words long. i wanted to inform you of that before you clicked read more in case you were just expecting a tier list image and did not actually want to read 2.1k words about piss kinks.

wherein:

the tier list exists because of this ask, which was written in jesting response to the subject of victoria dallon's canon piss kink (more on that below) and somewhat intentionally misrepresented by me as being contextless because i thought it was funny to crop it and reply with 'ok.' which led to a massive containment breach and several thousand people not realizing anon was trying to make a joke. sorry. my bad, anon.

here, "likelihood of having a piss kink" is defined as "likelihood of having a kink that involves primarily or significantly urine," and genre of piss kink shall be clarified for the characters where it's a possibility.

no pictures are included for the characters because not all of them have fanart and also there's a lot of them and the tier list is only so big and i'm lazy

characters i do not know well enough to vibe check are not included

rationally speaking it would make most sense to presume that unless a character has a canon or heavily implied piss kink it is heavily implausible for them to have one but this post would be boring and pointless if i went that route so i'm going to include some somewhat baseless vibe-checking/discussion of hypotheticals where it's not explicitly disproven or improbable. with my bestest attempts to remain reasonable levels of character accurate given the post circumstances.

our ranks here are:

canon: this character canonically has a piss kink

highly plausible: there is strong contextual evidence that could be used to argue for the presence of a piss kink

plausible: based on more vibes/less solid evidence than "highly plausible," but a piss kink is still possible

could go either way: there is a lack of evidence in either direction, there's no way to make a clear argument on the matter

not very plausible: there is decent contextual evidence or simply Character Vibes that could be used to argue against the presence of a piss kink

strong evidence against: it can be deemed nigh-certain that this character does not have a piss kink

The Chart:

the characters who were not included because i do not know them personally (opinions welcomed):

all three ashleys

bianca

The Analysis:

Canon:

victoria: stated by wildbow to have some kind of "preferred fluid" you shouldn't drink, knows what urine tastes like. canon watersports kink. i hate her. i hope she stands within 20 feet of fentanyl and overdoses and dies. i hope she goes down a slide too hard.

Highly Plausible:

citrine: we know that accord is certainly and without doubt enough of a control freak (<- said w/ deep affection) that he insists that his ambassadors refrain from Wanton and Unprofessional Bathroom Breaks, but also insists that they never indicate they have to pee (or engage in any other basic bodily function) ever because that's Icky and if they do he will want to Rube Goldberg Machine But The Machine Is A Saw Trap them about it. and we know that citrine gets off on him being a control freak. it can thus be reasonably extrapolated that she's constantly doing accidental omorashi w/ accord and is just as into that as she is all the other aspects of control. the piss is incidental--the main point is still whatever appeals to her about the control in general--but, like, The Piss Is There. extremely does not want to experience what would happen if she ever even remotely fucked up holding, but presumably enjoys the mortifying ordeal of attempting to politely excuse herself to the restroom and/or stoically holding so she doesn't have to excuse herself in the first place.

paige (pact): she textually, literally, canonically, For Fucking Real, is a lesbian who enters into the world of pactverse magic because she's tempted by a hypothetical dom/sub dynamic with a hot professor who is actually a sphinx. (if any of you who haven't read pact yet are reading this post. Please go read pact.) this extrapolation is less blatant than citrine, but it's by no means unreasonable to assume that there could be some bladder control going on here. she can go to the bathroom when she's a good girl and finishes answering all of isadora's questions. etc. hey do you think pactverse would have really hardcore RACK omorashi where you make a statement that you are NOT going to go until [x amount of time] and it's your karma on the line if you fuck it up. i bet people with executive dysfunction in pact do this type of shit a lot. they're like i am going to start my homework RIGHT NOW!!! and then they Have to. i digress.

Plausible:

peter: we have no information about his love life beyond him flirting with ainsley amidst a Serious Disaster involving Demons, so this is just vibes-based, but he's mean and manipulative and unpleasant in a specific way that could theoretically insinuate that he would enjoy accidentally-on-purpose preventing a girl from getting to the bathroom & watching her squirm. you'll have to trust me on this.

Could Go Either Way:

ellie: my consultant re the pelhams vibes-based ranked her higher than peter, but i don't see it. i could see her having one, but it'd be in a different and grosser direction than peter. i feel like blake's comparison of her to a weak, groveling dog in a pack may be relevant here.

rose (old): i don't strongly see it, but based on what we know about her sex life i wouldn't be surprised if she participated in any heat-of-the-moment watersports.

rose (young): somehow coming in with the exact right bizarre psychosexual complexes to score higher than both blake and pre-meiosis thorburn. i don't think it's likely, but i somehow don't see a reason to mark her down as entirely implausible. her theoretical psychosexual complex about blake is marked by a few facts: she says that he has a "hate-on" for her, she does that weird thing where she hugs him for comfort & lets him give her his jacket (what if the lamb you were leading to slaughter was the man you could've been, and for just a moment, you wanted to take kindness from The Man You Could've Been despite the fact that, because you are not him, you will betray him regardless), when he sacrifices himself to fuse with/bolster her the fusing is described in ostensibly sexual language (being Inside her, the two halves grinding, etc), and she does that whole noticeable twice-over to his almost-naked body. she would absolutely never admit to wanting to fuck her "clone," but were she to envision it, the scenario she would mentally craft would involve blake wanting to fuck her (he never would & she knows this) and, like, eating her out like he wants to kill her or doing some boot frotting with splinters. oh and she would give him the most awkward dry unpleasant handjob on the planet where she's very clearly treating him like a program to experiment with, press button A and find out if it gets result B. I digress. one could also imagine a theoretical rose thorburn piss kink which remains an entirely subconscious psychosexual fixation that she freudian-slips into conversation at least once a la "hate-on," wherein the ideal scenario for her earlier into the book would be wetting herself for reasons entirely against her control despite being so very brave and stalwart and stoic, and imaginary blake is like "wow you were so brave and stoic about that...it's ok everyone has gotten into an awkward spot once or twice in their lives. in fact, [personal recounting of relevant horrible memory]. here have my jacket i will tie it around your waist for you with a lingering amount of physical contact." and later into the book that would switch to just Making The Fuck Up that he'd be really mean and humiliating about it and then getting mad about her imaginary vision of him doing that even though he literally would not do that ever. (the hypothetical of him being mean about it would be a kink thing for her also obviously. Hate On, she says.) okay sorry for talking so much about rose thorburn's psychosexual fixation with blake thorburn i think it's really funny for her to be extremely abnormal about the clonefucking quandary.

fell: i don't actually know him well enough to postulate what genre it would be if he hypothetically had one but despite not Expecting that he has one i wouldn't find it wholly implausible if wildbow got up tomorrow and made an announcement declaring that he does. i think this could be utilized primarily for the humor purposes of, like. blake being like "hey i know we can't really pull over right now BUT could you pull over? i need to take a leak. should i say want to? is it technically lying if i say need but it's not an emergency yet?" and fell being like No. Do Not Say Another Word On This Subject And Also I Hate You. which is because he is desperately and fervently and furiously and with great and genuine anger and rage attempting to Not think about Blake Thorburn, A Conventionally Attractive And Very Annoying Man, having to pee. but blake interprets it as fell being an asshole for no reason and is like ohhh ok fuck you i guess should i just pee on your seat then. you want me to ruin your car seat? [accusatory, fully bluffing, would rather kill himself than piss in fell's car] you're a car guy who doesn't even care about your fancy white upholstery? and fell is like [desperately doing mental math on if blake thorburn, whomst is already covered in fleas and bloods and mysterious liquids, would be petty enough to intentionally piss himself to ruin fell's car] . I will make you walk. like you can see my vision right.

Not Very Plausible:

kathryn: i simply do not see it. she could have something weird going on but it's not a piss kink. the vibes are not being served.

sandra: also a simple matter of the vibes not being there. has probably been exposed to it at one time or another but sees it as undignified and so on

callan: not sensing it

lisa: bathroom shit is surely beyond mundane to her just like everyone elses private bodily workings thoughts feelings etc. i dont even think she has any kinks or interest in sex in general

crystal: this is the only interesting one in this section! she was described to me as "very laid back, but also kind of passive. she's a slob in her private life. sort of goes with the flow to the point that it led her joining a paramilitary force with no oversight." i think being in the dallon-pelham torment nexus sort of intrinsically adds +20 Not Likely points unless youre victoria but i can only assume from this description of her personality that if someone she was fucking was into it she would just roll with it.

neil: was described to me as "neil barely gets anything. he's kind of reckless? he trained victoria a lot. he cheated on his wife with her sister. he liked knocking toddler-aged victoria over as a form of 'training.'" probably not very likely at all but who knows. maybe "declines to fuck sarah and watches panty pissing porn instead" is on his list of secrets next to "cheated on his wife with her sister."

Strong Evidence Against:

carol, paige (worm) (this is canary in case you forgot like i did), cuff, theo, sarah: the club of generic respectable milquetoast cishets who would not do any of that shit and would probably judge someone at least a little for any amount of kink (or in some cases even vanilla sex <3), with paige coming on on the less-judgemental end of the scale and carol coming in at the high end of the judgement scale.

ciara: not generic milquetoast or respectable but the idea of her being into it is just like. silly to me. faerie queens aren't into piss that would be ridiculous. unless they're pactverse faerie queens, then it's a "got bored of it 31 centuries ago" situation, but ciara is not a pactverse faerie.

elle: already struggles with keeping up with hygiene and like...general Existence. surely would not associate any bodily function w/ anything but a task to complete or a mess to clean (<- other task). also presumably might need help going to the bathroom/being reminded that she needs to go sometimes so that certainly would not b anywhere near sexual to her

scion: uh. well. I don't think he knows what any of that shit is to be real with you. Does he even fucking count as blonde?

blake: is textually extremely triggered and distressed and disgusted by being dirty/unclean & losing control over his physical body, to the point where not being able to regularly shave is actively seriously detrimental to his mental health. his tragic character arc of having his identity degraded to the point where "is that still blake" becomes debatable a la ship-of-theseus question is viscerally represented by the fact that bogeyman-blake is just constantly filthy, to the point of turning snow into gray, stained slush when he walks thru it. struggling to deal with basic bodily functions & cleanliness while homeless absolutely severely traumatized him. he would react to someone else wetting themselves with, like, appropriately blake-like levels of kindness & concern, but he would still 100% find the actual piss disgusting. he would try to avoid showing it, but he would find it disgusting. we see him reacting with immense horror to conquest threatening to make him soil himself. if he were ever actually forced into a circumstance where he was genuinely worried about the possibility of pissing himself--let alone if he actually did so--he would have a Category 5 DEFCON 1 Mental Health Moment. all of which is a great reason he should have pissed himself at least once during pact! (<- i just elaborated on this point at such great length i had to force myself to backspace it all and move onto the next bulletpoint)

PMT: exact same trauma as blake. because you know. They were Blake before they got got. unlike blake, still capable of wanting to fuck people, but, like, We Know They're Not Doing Anything With Piss. leatherdyke piss kinkster pmt is a beautiful beautiful vision but its not true.

there you go. thats it. thats the tierlist.

[enixamyram]

Arcane S2 Spoilers

I finally got around to watching Arcane and honestly... It was a big let down.

The first half was good but by the second half, I was a little put off by just how much was being squeezed in so sloppily. It just felt like there was so much going on at once, it wasn't giving everything a chance to properly play out. So many storylines were dropped as soon as they started (Jinx leading the Undercity) or there were storylines which didn't go anywhere and seemed extremely pointless and all out unnecessary (the very brief romance between Caitlin and Maddie). Or there were "twist" that were dumb because there was no time to build on the characters enough for it to actually hit (Maddie's entire story) and even bits I really loved; Isha, felt like once her part was done she was tossed aside writing-wise and never even referenced again.

The entire storyline with Vander felt like it was tacked on. Jinx and Vi were supposed to be the main characters, yet during the big battle it felt like they were just fighting one of many henchmen while others dealt with the real threats. You could have easily swapped Vander out for any big henchmen and the fight would have been the same minus a line or two at the very end. Even Jinx's death felt so out of place. It would have been better done during the fight, instead they fake out it being finished and they start everything up just so she can sacrifice herself.

It also felt like a lot of things weren't even resolved properly (all the conflict between the Uppercity Vs Undercity) and they should have saved some plotlines to be the focus of their own future stories. In general it just felt like they were trying to do too much in a short space of time. Which sucks because I was so into the show and yet by the time I finished the finale episode, I was pretty much over it.

[lackablazeical]

💙🆘️Mona Lisa🆘️💙

Specific Trigger Warnings -

Kidnapping, forced/unconsentual amputation and restraint, mental/physical torture, stolkholm syndrome, dehumanization

General info -

Mona's birthday is November 23rd. She is a Scorpio-Sagittarius cusp ♏️♐️

Mona's love language to be physical touch, but has since changed to quality time.

Mona Lisa is Demisexual Bicurious.

Mona has PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

Mona has SAD (Separation Anxiety Disorder).

Mona has Stolkholm Syndrome.

Personality traits -

Mona is empathetic, adventurous, sporty, creative, resourceful, extroverted, and a people-pleaser.

Mona was always empathetic, wanting to comfort those around her and help the little guy. This could make her empathize with people who didn't deserve it, though.

Mona has a taste for adventure and challenge, she always loved playing sports and working hard. She loved wandering the streets of the Hidden City, too. Sadly, this resulted in her being kidnapped.

Mona is extremely creative, as well as resourceful. She loves arts and crafts, and thinks of creative (if not complex) solutions to her problems.

Mona was extroverted, and made it her mission to make friends with everyone she met.

Mona was also a people pleaser, wanting everyone to like her, which also translated to being a people-pleaser to Donnie, and listening to what he said, in the hopes he would treat her better.

Important details -

Her dynamic with Donnie -

Mona has stolkholm syndrome, and is empathetic, sweet, and friendly with Donnie.

Mona originally was terrified of Donnie, but began to fawn him in the hope she would gain freedom for 'good behavior'.

Donnie treats Mona much like a pesky dog, and will often insult her or hit her. But sometimes he also let's her have things like crayons and paper.

Mona has long since stopped trying to escape, as she sees it as pointless and is too dependent to even consider it anyway.

Donnie kidnapped Mona when she was 14.

Donnie kidnapped Mona for her acidic spit, to run experiments and have limitless supply.

Mona cannot run away, because her muzzle is completely glued to her teeth with a homemade cement. It would be extremely difficult to get off without causing mouth trauma. The muzzle would also likely lock completely shut, meaning Mona would starve/dehydrate before she could get help.

Her life before the Hamatos -

Mona was originally a popular, well-liked, and skilled teen who was often seen as helpful, kind, and determined.

She had a brother who went by the easier-to-pronounce name, 'Mondo'. They were twins, and very close.

Her family now holds yearly memorials to remember Mona, on her birthday. It's a party, because they know Mona would've preferred a party to remember her then something sad.

Mona had good grades and a bright future.

Fun facts -

Mona's favorite food is fast food, and she likes fizzy drinks.

Mona likes to draw.

Mona is not allowed to sit on the couch/be on furniture.

Mona's actual name is Y'gthba, Donnie just named her Mona Lisa because he didn't care to know her actual name, and because she 'is a work of art'. She barely responds to her actual name now.

Mona loves swimming.

Mona liked to weave her own bracelets.

Her and Raph get along well.

She hates Leo.

Tags that include Mona Lisa -

#addams! mona lisa

[blvcklizard]

I was going to treat this idea as an AU, but while making this post I realised it works out a lot better than I initially thought, so it's a theory now. Unless- disclaimer- it was mentioned that it did in fact happen in canon at some point and I either missed it or completely forgot, in that case it's more like an analysis. While I'm at it, major spoilers for Castti's story and Journey for the Dawn ahead. (Also under cut because it got a little ramble-y and stupidly long, I got carried away I'm sorry.)

Anyway. It would make so much sense if Trousseau encountered a shadow at some point?

The Castti/Ochette crossed path essentially explains that the shadow uses the darkness in your heart (which like, despite his characterisation, he had plenty of), so not only would he be absolutely weak to it (if even Castti almost broke down, someone who's already extremely unstable on that matter isn't holding up for two seconds here), it'd also explain why he lost his mind like that? Like, I can totally see Claude and the Book of Night twisting his idea of salvation, and he clearly wasn't the pinnacle of mental stability before either, but shadow influence playing into his insanity would make so much sense.

This could go two ways, either that the effects of the shadow put him under so much stress he just snapped, or that he was actually (partially) taken over by it, as we've seen, I assume, the shadow attempting to do Castti in her second crossed path chapter. I don’t like the idea of treating these two as entirely separate where one would be correct and the other not, realistically it's probably a mix of both, but for the sake of exploring I'll treat them as two different options.

The first one is probably more in line with canon, because it might as well be a side effect to the poison (rather than an actual shadow encounter). It's very heavily implied he experimented with it, so he probably came in contact with it too. There's no actual evidence that it affects the mind iirc (you could argue that Castti's amnesia/hallucinations fall into that category, but personally I don't think so) but if he repeatedly handled shadow energy, I can very well imagine it resonated with all the issues he already had. It would also explain the changes he went through from Castti's chapter 3 to 4. (This is a small detour but he seemed slightly more sane in her chapter 3, mostly regarding the way he acted towards Eir's Apothecaries/Castti. In chapter 3, he obviously still cared about them despite everything since he wanted to keep them out of the picture, and the scene where he leaves Healeaks is called something like "painful goodbye" [loosely translated as I'm not playing the game in English] too. Meanwhile in chapter 4 he's far quicker to see Castti as the enemy and doesn't try to explain his actions anymore.) This is actually relevant for my next point, which is another reason why I think both cases would likely coexist.

(I'm back at defending a part of his characterisation most people don't like, I'm sorry, it's something I actually love for multiple reasons. anyway) As for the "partial possession" approach, it would also explain the duality of his state. We see this a few times, but the most extreme example is the mid-battle dialogue during his boss, where he (rather explicitly) goes from "in a lot of pain and genuiely believes he's doing the only right thing" to "insane mass murderer" within a few lines. And sure, maybe he truly tried to convince Castti and realised it was pointless, but that doesn't seem in line with his previous actions. So I'm not talking about possession in the literal sense, but rather that two states of being coexist in his mind. On the one hand a part influenced by the book and his general instability, that genuinely believes all life is suffering and there's no other way out, and on the other hand the death-obsessed maniac that's influenced by the shadow.

I just think the distinction between his belief system and mental state is interesting, and if we assume it's true, it'd further support the idea that it has different origins. It'd "realistically" make so much sense too, as far as we can speak of such in this context lol. Claude and the book convincing him that murder is the kindest choice makes enough sense, but imagining his insanity as the result of shadow influence adds such an interesting layer to the whole thing, especially in contrast to Castti in light of her second crossed path chapter.

[comicaurora]

Being a watcher of anime, I just wanted to say that you've done a fantastic job of handling power creep in your comic. Is that something you think about in writing your fight scenes? Like, are you consciously making sure your characters never get to late DBZ levels of bullshit?

Ho yea, definitely. Stay tuned for January, I've got a video on powerups cooking because this has 100% been on my mind.

Spoilers for that, but my general theory is that power creep is a systemic problem that results from flattening the story's conflict struggle into a linear power vs power clash. This is most obvious in stories that are 100% strength-based with things like numerical metrics of "power level" where the thing that determines who wins the fight is who can get the highest number, but it also applies in stories where the starting premise of every new villain is "none of our tricks work on this guy!" Making the new bad guys too tough or otherwise too immune to the heroes' swiss-army skillsets makes everything feel floaty and pointless until the writer finally takes the limiters off and lets them wack 'em for real. It's frustrating because it's designed to be frustrating for both the characters and the audience, but it's also a trap. It locks the writer into an arms race with themself and also devalues all their increasingly cool ideas by virtue of inflation.

Hell, quick tangent, that's why I'll go to bat for one of the most hated mini-twists in the more recent Dragon Ball movies, when in Resurrection of F, Goku is severely injured by a regular laser pistol because it was a sneak attack in the back he wasn't ready for. Everyone got so mad, because of course he's like eight powerups past Super Saiyan at this point and it feels ludicrous that this could hurt him when Frieza death-beams couldn't, but it added a twist of actual stakes to these literal physical gods by recontextualizing their toughness as requiring awareness, preparedness and training. A sneak attack from a random minion could still take them out! Suddenly this conflict structure wasn't just power vs power, because stealth was a factor that could sidestep that power clash and render all those fancy new forms completely unhelpful.

Writing this story is already kind of a hard-mode thing, because I like making characters that are blatantly quite overpowered. There are things that every one of these protagonists are just too strong or tough or magical or socially powerful to (typically) worry about. Alinua is, frankly, basically never in danger of dying, and if she has time she can do feats of magic on a very large scale that basically can't be matched. Kendal and Falst are strong and tough enough to shrug off or push through physical injuries that could incapacitate or kill the others, and Kendal literally has multiple gods on his side, though that's not always a good or helpful thing. Tess is extremely hard to trap or slow down, and bladed/edged weapons have a lot of trouble with her. Erin is so versatile there are almost no situations where he's legitimately powerless, and he's very good at coming up with plans. Dainix has a one-two punch of a ton of combat training and a super-mode that pops out when he's in serious danger or overly stressed, which in writing-land is basically a get-out-of-danger-free card.

I think the trick is that all of these things are overpowered in specific directions, and they are not so overpowered that they can completely disregard other threats.

Kendal and Falst are not so strong and tough that they can just brute-force their way through, say, an entire city or an army of bad guys, and Tess isn't agile enough to completely run away from everybody, which is why they still need to be strategic when dealing with an enemy city, and why Tess's lack of tactical planning in Zuurith was starting to get her worn down by sheer numbers.

Erin and Alinua are ludicrously powerful, but on a much slower timescale than their teammates, so they're vulnerable to incapacitation by fast and agile opponents - and because of the way their magic works, if they're rendered unable to channel energy - like in the fight in Gleicann's forest - they're completely helpless. Because this is a weakness all mages have, everybody knows about it.

Erin has a high amount of social and political clout, but that means he has to play by a set of rules that basically nobody else does in order to retain that clout. He's dealing with a space of danger and complexities whenever they're dealing with other political powers, and he's doing it completely alone.

Dainix's regular non-Crucible form, despite being a highly trained and capable warrior, is just as vulnerable to physical threats as any normal non-mage human, making him the least prepared for a straight fight - and his Crucible form is barely understood and even harder to control, making it a tool that's very, very risky to rely on. He doesn't yet know what all his abilities are or what they cost him to use, and the first time it happened he was out of commission for weeks, so he knows there's risk attached.

There are always perpendicular threats or environmental factors that can hamper our heroes and feel totally logical in doing so, as long as their powerup is not just narrative shorthand for "okay they can win now." I steer clear of "the power of friendship has given me the boost I needed" because you can do that anywhere in any situation. I caveat'd the hell out of Vash's literal divine intervention in chapter 18 because "the literal physical god with perfect regeneration and supernova powers can show up at any time" is the kind of absolute stakes-killer I know better than to give free rein. There was an earlier draft where Vash could still heal Kendal (sort of retroactive spoiler alert, for a very long time there was a version of this fight where his enemy fully took off one of Kendal's arms and when Vash took him over he reformed it) but I had a dang good reason to not do that, so I didn't. Giving Kendal imperfect control over Vash's starfire abilities is narratively dangerous in the power-creep longterm forecast, but the fact is, even in the absolute best-case scenario where he gains perfect, effortless control over the raw fragment of a living star, I can still tie those powers to Kendal having access to the sword, and there are still lots of problems that cannot be solved by setting them on fire.

And even if a tool could be used to solve a problem, I think it's very important to focus on whether or not the character would be willing to do that. This is something I focused on a lot in the next couple chapters with how Dainix and Falst are gonna navigate the SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER. Kendal is, for the most part, totally unwilling to kill anything that isn't a chimera, severely limiting the practical applications of being able to crack rocks with his bare hands. Erin could theoretically solve most of his social conflicts through displays of raw magical power to intimidate or brute force his problems, but if he goes wild and stops being seen as a reasonable political player, he loses all of that oh-so-important social capital that makes people value him for more than just a talent for violence. Alinua knows full well the terrifying potential of her magic power, and all the horrible things it could do to anyone and everyone if she pushed her power past their limits, but spending ten years terrified of doing exactly that has left her completely unwilling to even consider that, even for people she hates.

So yea, it's a delicate balance I'm doing my level best to maintain, while still making sure our heroes get their wins and make progress. Reassuring to hear it's working out okay so far!

[docholligay]

Holligay Tries Things That Aren't Running: Kettlebell AMPD

The answer is a very obvious, 'Because people like it that way' but I swear to god, working out in groups is just choreography, and, why?

I walk into Kettlebell AMPD after a full week of doing strength classes, and I'm not too proud to tell you: I am beat to shit. I literally put dinner on the table and ran out in my Extremely Noble Quest to win an overpriced and unnecessary kitchen item, after having ran in the morning, and the idea of lifting a weight is not thrilling to me.

But, the only way to get a sticker is to do this class, and I've picked it specifically because it's only 45 minutes, and not an hour, and I am lazy.

The teacher's name is Lacy*. I am worried that she will think I'm a lazy shit, because I have every intention of picking up a 10 pound kettlebell and being a lazy shit. Echoes of Boot Camp haunt my mind. She'll see me for sure.

Then she struggles to tell the teenage boys playing hoops that open gym is over, and I offer to do it.

I grab my ten pound kettlebell. She ain't saying shit.

A kettlebell is essentially a flat-bottomed bowling ball with a handle. I've been in enough classes involving weight to have a rough idea of what is going to go on here, but what I could not have imagined is that the squats and bicup curls and whatnot would be set to the beats of That's What I Call Music: Doc is in and around High School.

I want you to imagine trying to get a serious workout in while you're listening to Fall Out Boy and The All American Rejects. You're doing squats in time the Good Charlotte. Am I the dad rock?? I ask myself. I never listened to this stuff really, but there is nothing like the popular music of your generation being used to inspire a bunch of greying women in t-shirts to make you realize that the greying woman is you, DocDoc.

All of which would have been fine until some other unspeakable mid00s hit came on, and she displayed a motion of making a wide swing with the kettlebell, trading it over at the top of her head, squatting down and passing it to the other hand, again, through her legs.

Like most people just this side of 40, I have a handful of infirmities, my only saving grace being that they were caused by something other than being old: Being an idiot.

When I was about 19, I fell through the floor of an abandoned farmhouse, from the second floor to the first, and have a handful of issues to show for it. A few light scars that most people never notice unless I point them out, a knee that gives me trouble occasionally, an elbow with a weak ligament that gets overtaxed easily, but most interestingly, a hand that drops something if I grip it wrong.

I assume this is some kind of nerve injury, as it's the same hand that loses feeling in two of the fingertips if it gets cold, but I don't know as I've never had the money and inclination to chase down an injury for which the diagnosis will be: Hell of a thing! But what it means is I often have to be thoughtful about the way I lift something with that hand, especially something heavy. I have done it so long that people never notice I do it, and honestly it's generally easy to avoid.

Swinging a kettlebell around my legs and through the air to the beat is PRIME TIME for me to be grabbing something incorrectly and sailing it off into Kelsey's head. I stand there for a moment like an idiot, unsure of what to do. Then i just go grab a 5 pound kettlebell and .5% ass it.

I would say I got nothing out of the class, but in fairness I didn't really give it anything to reinvest, it's not like I was actually trying. I don't think I would do it again though, it was weightlifting without any actual oomph. I would go to that class every week and never get any stronger.

We finished with a stretching session to Jimmy Eat World's song about a dead person.

*Or, as with these (reviews? Thoughts? Pointless asides?) a close enough approximation of her name.

[lemonhemlock]

i keep seeing so many wildly different takes on the tomshiv fight so i'm gonna throw in my two cents. prefacing by saying that i do really think there is little point in trying to count how many blows one of them struck against the other bc ultimately this was a relationship that was dishonest and mismatched from the get-go. similarly, it's relatively pointless to argue over which character in this show is "more awful" than the other bc they're all arseholes, so i guess the best way for everyone to make a distinction is to just go by your personal benchmark of annoyance. people have different thresholds for what they consider annoying behaviour and rate social transgressions via an individual hierarchy. so, for some people, shiv's cheating might be a bigger infraction than tom's betrayal and so on. but these different reactions ultimately reflect the commentator's sensibilities; they are not meant to be reflective of a universal, immutable truth.

that being said, i personally am leaning more towards tom's side of the argument. he has just spent an entire evening witnessing his wife demean him repeatedly (not a solitary incident or a joke gone wrong) to his guests in his own house and hearing about how he's going to get fired (news to him). he's sleep-deprived and is going to have a very busy and long day tomorrow since it's election day. so he tries to extricate himself from the situation and simply go to bed. i generally see tom as a slimy corporate suck-up but this was really a very composed, civilized reaction. he repeatedly tries to pacify shiv and disengages but she keeps needling him bc she is suddenly regretting her own schemes. she complains that she's betraying her family for this as if it wasn't her idea in the first place - no one was forcing her to go through with it at any point. her plot was so half-baked that it turns out she threw her husband under the bus in front of their guests for nothing, as "a tactical joke". i mean?? i feel like tom is in the right to point out her hypocrisy and extreme privilege here.

so far i think that most people would agree with what i've said, but the thing that i think sets this apart a little is that this is classic shiv behaviour. she repeatedly disregards tom's feelings and situation and minimizes his problems in favour of her own. so tom being upset by her agreeing with the firing rumour is immediately brushed aside because the REAL problem here is that shiv's plot is gonna fail and she's gonna lose against ken and rome. which isn't actually a real problem anyway because she's going to be rich AF no matter what.

i will diverge now from the generally-accepted takes and say that tom pretty much clocks shiv's behaviour but, while she does spell out some truths about him, part of what she says are delusions and projections. tom does impart some hard-hitting truths like calling her broken, not a good person to have children or incapable of love. these things are not false and they are also not insults. i really don't get why so many are saying he is insulting shiv. these are observations based on her own (repeated) behaviour.

whereas she doesn't really respond in kind, i feel. shiv is the one who throws insults at him, calling him a hick and insulting his entire family by labeling them striving and parochial. these are also crouched in classism and made all the more ridiculous by the fact that tom's mother is a well-respected lawyer so "parochial" is truly a delusional word to use in this context, which goes to show how extreme shiv's billionaire privilege is. in return, tom doesn't insult her family and actually chooses the reasonable reply of "that's not a fair characterisation". the part about tom's mother loving shiv more is, again, complete fabrication. so is the part about TOM being the reason she didn't speak to her father for the last six months of his life. shiv is well within her rights to be upset tom revealed her plans to logan, but even if he hadn't, logan would have still been massively pissed at her and her brothers and they STILL would have been estranged.

again, maybe this is just me, but calling someone broken is not an insult, while calling some pathetic is? shiv goes on to tell him that she never loved him and doesn't even like him and he never even "deserved" her, which are hard to label as anything other than cruel. even during this fight tom still tells her that he loves her? idk, man, tom has so many flaws and he is a social climber and he did become prissy bc she kept postponing having children but it feels like shiv spends the majority of this fight accusing tom of things that are not true and calling him mean names

[bonefall]

Oh god, I haven't read books since Omen of the Stars. (I love fanclans/fanfics way more then the books anymore. lol) How have they messed up each clan since the first two arcs?! I know ThunderClan has too many cats and ShadowClan went leaderless or had leadership problems for some reason?? Also SkyClan is there now. Maybe. Again, haven't read the books in forever. (Is the current arc any good? Or better then Omen of the Stars at least?)

The current arc is good, I can promise you that Warriors has never been as slow or as boring as it got mid Po3 - early OotS. I have a lot of issues with AVoS but I would say that all of the modern arcs have been worth reading.

BEFORE WE START: Check out this Helpful Info on my process as I redux the family tree, it contains my Three Strict Rules, the Onestar's Exception, the definition of an Orphan Warrior, etc. Very, very important.

Each Clan has a unique family tree problem;

ThunderClan

The Frostfour (Brackenfur, Thornclaw, Brightheart, Cinderpelt) had THREE cats who were extremely prolific. The entire new generation traces back to them, completely and utterly eradicating genetic diversity.

The fresh bloodlines, from Daisy and Ferncloud, were nerfed so hard with pointless killings that there's no ability to fix modern ThunderClan. The ONLY cats who could save it (Finleap x Twigbranch, Stormcloud) have also been prevented from having kits by the narrative, which is incredibly frustrating.

And it doesn't stop there, because the writers for some reason were obsessed with tracking Firestar's lineage through Bramblesquirrel instead of Lionblaze. They wrenched out Squirrelflight's infertility issues so they could shove two kits into her, while also having Lionblaze produce 3 kittens who have kittens of their own.

It's an exponential problem which made Nightheart's ENTIRE ARC in ASC less serious, because half of the Clan is descended from Firestar while he somehow has 'especially high' expectations.

And the bloat. They keep killing off mildly interesting background characters while not building on the ones they have, so now the Clan is just full of nobodies who have done nothing.

ThunderClan is really bad, in canon.

ShadowClan

Link to Diagnosis

The entire family tree from the earlier arcs is dead. Rowanclaw's one of the few carry-overs. Snowbird specifically is the progenitor of half of the entire Clan, to the point where Sunbeam actually can't be shipped with a cat she isn't directly related to (unless you put her with Blazefire, her mentor, or her mentor's brother.)

SnowbirdClan is so profoundly fucked that I can't save it. I can reasonably fix the others, but ShadowClan is so irrevocably destroyed that I can't save it.

WindClan

Link to Diagnosis

In spite of being full of "Orphan Warriors" (cats without a single parent and usually without children) they still managed to inbreed Heathertail and Breezepelt.

Onestar canonically thinking about how cool inbreeding is in his Super Edition made me so uncomfortable that I made the Onestar's Exception rule on the spot-- an exception that makes Rule 1 (no first cousin pairings) even stricter by banning First-Cousin-Once-Removed as well when there are cats alive who are old enough to remember the great-grandparent.

But that aside, most of WindClan is Orphan Warriors.... MALE orphan warriors. They ran out of women, and then Shellfur stole the ONE clean girl out of WindClan for himself.

Which I must admit is VERY funny. But anyway, fixing this tree means blasting the Woman Beam at most of them.

SkyClan

Link to Diagnosis

THREE first cousin pairings :/ And they only had like 3 generations, come on, it should NOT have been this hard to not bungle this.

Most of the problem is Clovertail and her prolific litters... but also, SkyClan is almost as bad as ThunderClan in terms of bloat. Which is weird because it's not even bloated with all the interesting ex-kittypets from the SEs and SkyClan side content, it's just nobodies because SkyClan queens keep pumping out 3 and 4 kit litters for NO reason.

It was an easy fix though. So I guess I can't complain.

RiverClan

Link to Diagnosis

Missing Generation Fog that settled over RiverClan just after TNP LMAO. That's it that's the whole problem.

Really it's a problem for opening up TOO MANY possibilities, like which cats are Reedwhisker's children. Everyone litter works as Reedwhisker's kids. Reedwhisker is everyone's father. Reedwhisker is YOUR father.

[understandingbimbos]

so what i will be doing here is reposting my notes unaltered via screenshot, transcribing them, and then describing how i feel now. What do we mean when we say a bimbo is dumb? Are there multiple ways to be dumb?

In the context of bimbo, dumb usually means "ditzy" -- flighty, playful, and scatterbrained. But "dumb" may also mean shallow, vapid, simple -- focused entirely on superficial and material things. Obnoxious, crass, trashy (classless) behavior could also be considered "dumb". Point is, there's a lot that goes into the presentation of stupidity. General physical clumsiness and aloofness can also be a way for a character to appear dumb. Or subservience and submissiveness. Or childish naivety and innocence. Sometimes a bimbo will be all of these, or only one of these, or maybe even none? Who's to say? What someone considers intelligent or unintelligent usually has to do with their own personal biases, or in this case, turn-ons. It varies from person to person. (Recklessness is an another example of what could be considered "dumb")

I still agree with this wholeheartedly. The debate of whether a bimbo should be dumb or not, or how dumb a bimbo should be, is ultimately pointless because in the end a bimbo will always *appear* dumb. You could even argue that what we've commonly come to accept as "the bimbo look" is actually an extension/reflection of purported "dumbness," a physical expression of stupidity. After all its this same projection that largely formed the concept of the "bimbo" in the first place. The assumption that a woman is -- slutty because she wears revealing clothing, stupid and impossible to take seriously because she's young (see: giggles) or has large breasts, and vain because she wears makeup or has an interest in fashion. "Bimbo," as we know it today just takes this up a notch. "Large breasts" become fake breasts in general. Lip fillers. Dyed hair. Tattoos. Rhinoplasty. Fashion Nova. Botox, acrylics, high heels, waist trainers. Misogyny projects idiocy and promiscuity onto these traits, procedures, items, and practices.

Again, let's take Adam Warren's Empowered for example:

Is Emp a bimbo? To the uninitiated I think the answer would be an obvious resounding "yes". Those familiar with the series may find the question more complex (it isn't). She's not a dumb woman by any means and has her fair share of successes and badassery, but she's also an inept curvy crybaby blonde with big thick lips and a very "slut-tastic" "do-me-riffic" costume.

Her extreme insecurity can render her meek or oblivious. Constantly getting captured and tied up makes her look like a klutz. And I'm not sure this should count, but she likes sex with her boyfriend A LOT.

She's also considered a bimbo in-universe. Not by anybody that knows her closely, of course, but its very widely assumed (as is often the case IRL).

It's less a matter of "can bimbos be smart?" or "bimbos should be dumb" and more a matter of how do you prefer a bimbo's intelligence (or lack thereof) be expressed? What do we mean when we say a bimbo is "hyperfeminine"? What defines femininity?

I think there's two ways to gauge this. Physical femininity - big ass, big tits, clean shaven, soft full lips, etc. Physical femininity can also be expressed through choices in makeup, color, or clothing. Take for example -- drag queens, who can express femininity very clearly while lacking some of the usually associated physical attributes. But then there's also, feminine behavior, the second way to gauge this. Feminine behavior is usually defined by… weakness. Submissiveness. And it's probably why it plays such a big role in this fetish. Feminine behavior can also be associated with gracefulness, gentleness, kindness -- being emotional, dependent, loyal, social, etc -- which are also themes commonly found in bimbofication works. Generally, one of the two (physical femininity or behavioral femininity) will be expected of a bimbo, if not both or a combination of varying degrees (for example: exaggerated soft pouty lips, slutty clothing, and submissive behavior - but a flat chest).

I don't have much to say about this. Yes, I still generally agree with this. It pairs well with my last point and the toolbox theory/sliding scale of bimboism (really not sure what to call it yet) The drag queen example is a little clunky though. I could've just used effeminate gay men in general as an example, and worded it a lot better...

Why does a bimbo act the way they do? Why the look? What does a bimbo want?

For love. Or maybe it's attention, is there really a difference either way? A bimbo wants to be happy, and what makes them happy? Being adored. A bimbo wants to be able to light up a room through their looks, their personality, or maybe both. Some bimbos are happy making others happy. Some bimbos find happiness through what others do for them. Sometimes the love, adoration, and validation of others is enough. Sometimes it's for self-validation. But whatever a bimbo does, they usually do for themselves.

Honestly, it depends entirely on the bimbo and the context in which she exists. A mean, manipulative, bitchy bimbo may act the way she does because she wants the respect or power she thinks she deserves. She values herself highly and thinks everyone else should too. A nice bimbo, ironically, might also act the way she does for the same reason -- because she's high value and pities low value people -- she rather attempt to share her value and be kind to those less fortunate in life.

This one has two because I struggled to come up with a satisfactory answer. Reading it back now I don't really see the point of this question. I still believe bimbos do things for themselves, that's kind of essential to me. I think its because of all the (terrible) bimbofication stories I've read where the man's pleasure is paramount. I do think this applies in general but those stories are really what motivates this "rule" for me. Bimbofication, for me, is not about control. I know it is for some people and that's fine but, and I've said this before, for me its more like MC author Pan (aka panwhowrites) said. Ironically, he's not a bimbo author and as far as I know doesn't really like bimbo stuff but what he said once that applies to bimbofication art and writing to me is that his biggest turn on and interest is female arousal.

The second answer I gave is bad because its half-expressed from my memory. It's based off this:

"Bimbos gravitate toward chaotic good, but are easily shaped by their environment: a bimbo that hangs out with mean girls, might easily assume that bullying is just good fun and doesn't hurt anyone; a bimbo that is spoiled by her sugar daddy can easily become a brat. a bimbo is shaped by her interests and environment like anyone else, don't write a walking self-parody stereotype."

which comes from further 4chan notes I never posted but hopefully will soon.

[cogcltrcorn]

apropos of gay kendall, he's not well at all and is making me unhinged. 1) kendall marrying a woman straight out of college although (or BECAUSE) he is gay. eldest boy, must continue the family line. but it turns out he's infertile. (eu)genetically selected to not reproduce. twice. probably thinks he was doubly denied personhood and continuation. 2) i can see kendall knowing he's gay very early on and framing it like some sort of birth defect: he's accepted, conceptually, that he is homosexual, but can't accept it effectively, can't embrace it (in the same way he strives to be a good father and husband as a concept but he's unable/unwilling to do the things that the role entails). he's twin track, he's gay but he's NOT gay. like i can see him a few years into marriage, seeking help from some shady sex therapist (i mean, dude even has "a great grief guy"), because he loves rava so SO much and he wants to stop zoning the fuck out during sex, wants to be present. but he can't. so he just gets better at eating pussy to overcompensate and ten years later he thinks that's how he can still win rava back. 3) what are YOUR thoughts on kendall's relationship with jennifer, the love bombing etc? 4) would stewy find all of this actually funny?

I am so glad my insanity re: gay kendall is contagious... I love reading ya'll hcs... anyway. Frankly Jennifer seems like another case of kendall trying to prove something to himself re: masculinity, which is intrinsically linked to his father's approval, which is why he Immediately drops her the moment he is faced with logan. not approving of her. like his entire relationship with her reads like him trying to unwind in a way a Real Man would, and love-bombing is simply a natural part of that, merged with the fact that kendall is suffering from a serious condition called "was unthinkably wealthy his whole life". besides everything else: it's important to remember that kendall is Very starved for any form of intimacy. like. he pops a boner because his wife that he's been separated with hugs him. he loves sex because it feels good and because he gets to be held.

would stewy find it funny? no. I don't think so. like I don't think stewy really thinks about the question of "is kendall attracted to women, in general?" he just kind of thinks that every relationship kendall has is stupid and he should stop because he is pretending to be someone he's not and he takes it too seriously. like kendall's heterosexual attempts look to him the same way kendall's waystar attempts look to him. "dude please this is fucking pointless you should be having FUN. you should be doing something you LIKE"

I feel like the whole Gay Thing only gets brought up in the context of Extremely Mean Dirty Talk (which they have definitely engaged in, because it gets kendall hard)

[barbwillbrb]

Hi. About Rackal and Clairice...

1. Is there some companions they don't like?

2. Who killed Raphael?

3. Which one is the bg3 faction they despise more.

1.

Rackal

Rackal and Minthara cannot stand each other. Rackal very much wanted to kill her both at the Grove/Moonrise, and the feeling is extremely mutual. The only buffer between them is Clairice, who stands up for Minthara/sees she’s a pawn of the absolute, regardless of where Minthara’s moralities might lie, and calls Rackal out on his hypocrisy/unwillingness to give her a second chance.

They eventually end up in a begrudging, sort of respect for each other halfway through Act 3, primarily because 1) they are extremely effective in combat together (turns out, a pair of berserker paladins with 0 regard for their life/nothing but rage are really good at taking shit out when backed by some spellcasters) and 2) Clairice is the one captured by Orin and her safety is the one thing they can agree on.

Rackal and Astarion also butt heads regularly.

Clairice:

Gale. She drives him more nuts than anything; especially her treatment of the Weave. In general, she finds wizards too stuffy about their magic and he finds her faaaaaar too lax about hers. Overall, though, it’s more of an annoyance akin to that between an older/younger sibling.

Genuinely, she gets along with pretty much everyone, although Lae’zel is extremely thankful she did not pursue things further with her.

Arch nemesis is Volo.

2. Honestly have not thought this one out fully and am not sure!

The main thing I know is that while Rackal, Minthara, and Karlach are off trying to find Mol’s contract/definitely setting off an alarm, Clairice is banging Harleep. Both versions.

She isn’t even doing it for the hammer (the team already got it snagged); she just knows what she wants.

Truthfully I gotta research the full implications of what doinking Harleep means, but if I have my way I like to imagine it’s just no strings attached hells yeah sex. Like, she actually has a charisma check to fuck the devil for funsies, because she just wants to do it. Genuinely pointless with almost no repercussions (except maybe the minor body possession stuff).

… the more I think of it, Clairice is definitely landing the killing blow, even if it’s just an assist as she walks in all “yo your incubus said I was a better lay than you” *fingerbangs* and that allows someone to land the last hit.

3.

Rackal: the Druids (wants to off Kahga asap per Zevlor); Absolutists; Flaming Fists (honorably discharged; starting to really butt heads with leadership before he left)

Clairice: Absolutists, Zhentarim, the Guild (kinda sorta; having a rough patch), the Flaming Fists

Both: Sharess Caress. No one, NO ONE, warned them of the drow twin jokes. They are very much considering burning it to the ground.

[skaruresonic]

About Sonic 3, I feel the only reason the fandom (and what I assume is non-fandom becayse most of their exposure to Maria as a character amounts to "she dies lmao") wants to see her death on-screen so much is because it'll be a "funni maymay" like "this kid-friendly movie has a freaking child get shot on-screen, funniest shit I've ever seen".

Like, remember the very first trailer for the first movie? Did you know that a good number of recent comments under it are actually sad that the movie didn't turn out as bad as it could have been and wasn't a "giant memefest" that people could "enjoy" in an ironic sense? It's just the lowest hanging fruit for those who just want to meme on the movie.

Tangent, but I'm actually interested to see how much this crowd overlaps with the crowd which swears up and down that Mr. Principles is Quintessential Sonic, and if you don't agree, something must be wrong with you on a moral and psychological level. Folks who cry the moral high ground the hardest tend to make for the biggest hypocrites lol.

Dead Maria jokes are nothing new. Fandom's cracked them since time immemorial. The thing is, though, I would think that 23 years since SA2's release, people would be past that and maybe try to follow in ST's stead of giving her life more importance than her death. Because there is absolutely merit to the idea that she only died to give the men around her something to angst about... But the solution to that isn't to voyeuristically focus on her demise to the point of making it a meme?

---

Like, remember the very first trailer for the first movie? Did you know that a good number of recent comments under it are actually sad that the movie didn't turn out as bad as it could have been and wasn't a "giant memefest" that people could "enjoy" in an ironic sense?

(and what I assume is non-fandom because most of their exposure to Maria as a character amounts to "she dies lmao")

Well, considering nonfans seldom respect Sonic as a franchise because of muh inconsistency, I'm inclined to not give their opinion any merit. They can come back when they've played the games. Not holding my breath for that one lol.

I'm just baffled that fans are also clamoring to see Maria get shot onscreen because it's like, et tu, Brutus? You should be past this kind of childishness by now. Much like how Shadow's backstory cannot retroactively become any Deeper by cramming in more pointless angst, seeing her die for the hundredth time will make her death seem more overplayed than poignant. At this point, asking to see her die is just a voyeuristic desire to see suffering for suffering's sake.

Also, if you think about it, neither X nor ShTH showed her explicitly getting shot. They just heavily implied it, to varying degrees of tastefulness (including the sound of the gunshot was... not ShTH's best decision, to put it extremely lightly, but at the very least the game didn't show the bullet going into her body).

I really don't mean to be the "don't have fun" guy. However, seeing everything about Maria online get boiled down to her death, her memory being dangled like a carrot to get a Pavlovian reaction out of Shadow, or her being dismissed entirely as a "generic" character really bugs me as a fan of the character. I'll be the first to admit her handling has flaws and maybe isn't the most fleshed-out portrayal around, but I also feel fandom exacerbates these problems by further objectifying her in this manner. Again, nobody's out here cracking Tikal stampede jokes every time her name crops up.

The whole point of Maria's character is that she's a normal girl, and it is a tragedy that her life was senselessly cut short. She isn't some great scientist like her cousin and grandfather, nor does she need to be. She represents humanity's capacity for goodness in spite of the horrors it inflicts.

Can you imagine the strength of character it must take not to hate the people who hunted you down and shot you, and instead retain your hopes for mankind's happiness? Where do you think Shadow gets it from? Gerald didn't give him a soul identical to hers for no reason.

but nah let's pop a cap in her ass so Shadow can do a cri

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Mod Talks #1: The Progression of Toko Fukawa.

//So, as you all no doubt have noticed, for these last few days, we’ve been having very in depth discussions about Danganronpa 3, and certain writing choices in the series that we agree with or disagree with, and it got me thinking about a new idea for a short side-series I could do on this blog.

//Introducing Mod Talks. Which basically involves me doing two things.

Me giving a comprehensive analysis and opinionated discussion on certain characters, story points or writing decisions from the main series.

Explaining my thought process on how I carried that over to Danganronpa Survivor.

//What I aim to achieve with this is that I want to hear more people’s thoughts and opinions on the topics that I carry over. I’m not necessarily looking for feedback on how I write Kodaka’s characters, or necessarily looking for comparisons. I really just want to have more in-depth discussions with the followers like we’ve been having recently.

//You might have thought that I would start this series off with an analysis on Kuripa, since I did already mention I would be making a long post exploring his backstory (or what is known of it) and my thought process behind his character and his goals. But I decided I actually wanted to start on a different note and get to Kuripa eventually later down the line.

//The main reason being that he plays a significant role in this arc, and lots of things related to his character happen in this part of the story, so I want to wait until we get to that point to discuss it further. For now though, as you can see by the title, I’ll be putting my attention on the protagonist who seems to have the last amount of time in the limelight for now: Toko Fukawa.

//And Genocide Jack as well of course.

//Because if I’m being perfectly honest, Toko losing the first weekly poll kind of made me sad. It’s not that I don’t get it, but I’m actually proud of how I’ve done Toko of all characters in this series, and I want to talk about my thoughts and feelings.

//This discussion will be going over her history, and how she has changed as a person from when she was a lonely young kid, and now in Survivor as an adult mother.

//I also want to hear yours, so don’t hesitate to give feedback. Like I said, the main purpose is to discuss thoughts, feelings and opinions with you guys, because I’ve come to find that I really enjoy it.

//Let’s get started.

Toko in THH.

//The first question I think people would like to know with my discussion is what my opinion of Toko is in the canon games. So I’ll start with Danganronpa 1, when she’s first introduced, and I’ll just be straight up with everyone...

//I didn’t like her AT ALL.

//Frankly, Toko was my second least favourite character in that game, and one of the worst in the series for me for a long while. 

//To me, the only thing in Danganronpa 1 that Toko was involved with in any significant way was the Genocide Jack twist in Case 2. Everything else she did in this first game was pointless and annoying. And not even having Genocide Jack as an additional character in the roster saved her.

//Talking about them both individually, Toko on her own had a lot of things wrong with her. She had multiple negative personality traits that to me made her extremely unlikeable, the main one’s being that she lashes out at anyone regardless of what they say to her, she’s generally rude and nasty to people for little to no reason, and she’s also insanely dirty minded and her words make me really fucking uncomfortable.

//On top of this, her whole thing about falling in love with Byakuya and dedicating herself to him got really old, really fast, and I was not about it. Following Chapter 2, to make things worse, it basically became her whole character: Byakuya’s sole follower, who he treated like shit. And aside from that, there really wasn’t much else.

//Genocide Jack on the other hand is a bit more fleshed out, since she’s got much more personality than Toko. However, she suffers from the complete reverse problem, since she has TOO MUCH of it.

//Those who read the blog’s story might notice that the amount of times that Genocide Jack appears in the main story over Toko is severely minimal, and I’ll say right now the reason for that is because I don’t really know what to DO with her. There’s so much to unpack, and since GJ is just pure craziness, it’s really hard to fit her into any sort of social situation. 

//On top of that, Toko is also incredibly hypocritical, and not in the good kind of way. She explains at intervals in DR1 that she does honestly want to make friends. However, every time anyone (Hina being our prime example) tries to compliment her or be genuinely nice, she pushes them away and shoves words in their mouth. All the while feeling sorry for herself.

//I know that this is probably the point and she’s written this way for a reason, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. And I most certainly DON’T. It’s not like I don’t think self-deprecating characters in media and games shouldn’t exist, but this is an inhuman level of self-loathing. 

//Given her backstory, it’s clear Toko had a major fear or rejection, which explains why she acts the way it does. What it DOESN’T explain, is why she continues to pursue Byakuya for a LONG TIME even after DR1 ends; who as a reminder, rejects her CONSTANTLY.

//I don’t attribute my dislike for Toko to being poor character writing however. There are few holes in her overall backstory and it’s not like her attitude goes unexplained. However, even explaining it, while it does make it more well-rounded, doesn’t make her a character that I can sympathize with.

//With that in mind though, I’d like to start talking about my thinking process when it comes to Toko’s backstory, and a lot of elements that happen within it.

Toko’s Backstory and the Existence of Genocide Jack. 

//One of the interesting things about Toko’s backstory compared to every other DR backstory we know of is that her’s actually can be traced back to the moment she was born.

//I’ll try and lay it all out as best as I can, but right from the get go, I’ll say that Toko’s past and the life she’s lived before she first met Makoto and the others in DR1 was just as unstable and messy as she is herself.

//When Toko was born, she was born at the same time as another child in the hospital. This other child was born with a severe medical incapacity, that ended up taking it’s life the very same day. 

//This kind of situation isn’t necessarily uncommon in the real world, however, another aspect was discovered about the situation, being that the two women who gave birth to the two girls had both slept with Toko’s father. And due to a mix up with the hospital involving this, the professional’s were not able to figure out which mother was the one that gave birth to Toko, and which one gave birth to her late half-sister. 

//When Toko explains this to Komaru in UDG, Komaru points out that a blood test may have been able to resolve the issue. While this is correct, Toko affirms that both mother’s declined the exam. As a result of this decision, Toko ended up living with a father and two mothers.

//The normal expected decision to not taking the blood test would usually be to not live with the guilt that your child could have died. This however, is not the case, and Toko very quickly came to realize this; in reality, both mother’s WANTED their child to be the one that died, not the reverse.

//It’s never explicitly stated why, but the obvious conclusion to reach, and the one that I go for with Survivor, is to do with Toko’s father. Neither of Toko’s mother’s were aware at the time that their two girls had the same father, until the day of the birth. Thereby, the child that they were carrying had the DNA of a man who had cheated on them. 

//However, based on the way that Toko talks about her parents, and her specific phrasing when she explains her childhood to Komaru, I don’t think that’s really the case. I came to think about this from Weeby Newz’s character analysis of Toko, hence why I used the screenshot above, so let me reiterate her point.

//For one thing, Toko explicitly states that her father wasn’t married, or even in a real relationship, with either of the two women. At least not to her knowledge. It’s also important to note that Toko’s specific words about the supposed “affair” are “They also discovered that both women had slept with the same man”

//“Slept” i.e. not SLEEPING with. In my eyes, the more likely scenario was that Toko’s father had a one-time fling with both women, and accidently got them both pregnant.

//And as much as that sounds like a reach, it’s also important to note that the conversation in that exact same scene starts like this:

Toko: It’s my mothers fault that she was born inside me. I never thought of them as my real mother’s, not even once. Komaru: Wait, “them” as your “mothers?” Don’t you mean your mother and father? Toko: I’m a novelist, I wouldn’t misspeak like that. I said “them” and I meant it.

//And it’s important to keep this in mind, because it explains my writing process for Toko’s father.

//For those who might have missed it, one of the chapters of “The Life and Lies of Akeru Yozora” Toko opens up to Komaru, Leon, Sayaka and Makoto about how her life with her parents really was, and why it’s making her determined to rescue Akeru from the same childhood.

//In said chapter, it shows the birth of Genocide Jack, at the hands of Toko’s mothers constant abuse. In said chapter, when Genocide Jack is finally born, both of Toko’s mothers succumb to the serial killer, being her first victims and only FEMALE victims.

//Toko’s father on the other hand, is not only spared, but after Toko runs away from home, he decides to take the fall for her. This is my way of saying that Toko’s dad is not the piece of shit that Toko’s mother’s were. He’s still a bad parent for not sticking up for his daughter, but it’s also important to note that he didn’t want the situation he was in just as much as Toko or the mother’s did.

//In context, the only reason why Toko was even living with two mother’s in the first place is for legal reasons. And if the scenario of them both accidently getting pregnant is true, it also explains why they were such awful mothers, since it implies they were both, for lack of better words, hussies, who’s lifestyle’s would be severely interrupted by the burden of a child.

//Putting more focus on Toko’s mother’s however, this same line, Toko practically confirms that it’s because of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother’s is what gave her second personality life. Hence the existence of the chapter where Toko opens up to her friends and classmates.

//If someone is not born with Dissociative Identity Disorder like Toko has, usually an alter would be created as a coping mechanism to abuse and trauma. And from my perspective, this is the exact cast for Genocide Jack. It’s already pretty clear from Toko’s personality alone that she’s had to put up with a lot of emotional abuse and bullying, but to have a split personality, the trauma has to be EXTREMELY severe. Undergoing something like this causes your brain to form barriers that allow a distinct identity to develop and the individual to cope with the trauma by repressing the more distressing details of it.

//And as stated multiple times already, it’s very clear that neither of Toko’s mothers were kind to her even slightly. One of the things she mentions in UDG is that she was once locked in a closet for three days, without any food or water, which developed in her a severe fear of the dark. Going by that same logic, I also attributed Toko’s fear and dislike of taking baths back to the abuse of her mothers, and came up with the idea (which again is mentioned directly in the chapter where she exposes her past to her friends) that her mother’s would scald her arms with hot showers. 

//However, Toko’s life with her parents wasn’t the only issue. Her life outside of home was equally as bad since, as I mentioned, she had to deal with a lot of bullying and abuse from other people too. For example, the time she was framed for a theft she didn’t commit, and as punishment, was tied to a jungle gym with a garden hose. 

//Hence why throughout all of it, Toko’s most valued companion and the one that was taken hostage in UDG was her pet stinkbug Kameko. Since Toko figured the bug didn’t judge her for being herself, like everyone else did. 

//The next important part of Toko’s backstory is the story with her first love. It’s important because it explains, at the same time, how both Toko and Genocide Jack got their Ultimate Talents. 

//The full story is that Toko met and fell in love with a boy in elementary school, who was the only person she ever felt comfortable talking to. When she finds out that he and his family are moving away to a different part of Japan out of her reach, she gives him a sendoff by sending him a love letter confessing her feelings. 

//The result of this was said boy revealing that he actually hated how much Toko used to talk to him, and that he was ridiculed for it often, deciding to get back at Toko by pinning her love letter to the bulletin board to shame her, giving her even MORE emotional trauma to deal with.

//When this happened, one of Toko’s teacher who had read Toko’s love letter reassured her by telling her that she had a real talent for writing. This teacher’s words are what prompted Toko to pursue a career as a writer. 

//At the same time, once learning of Toko’s rejection, Genocide Jack chased the boy all the way to his knew home, and murdered him, thus marking the beginning of Genocide Jack’s killing spree, murdering any boy she came across that she thought was attractive. She confirms this in her own FTE’s.

//There’s a lot to unpack with each aspect of her full backstory, and this isn’t even all of it. Even after Genocide Jack’s birth leading up to becoming an Ultimate, there’s so much more emotional abuse and trauma that this girl went through and was forced to overcome.

//In a later section of this analysis, I will explain a little bit more about how all of this ties into Toko’s character for Survivor, namely her role as a parent herself, but now I want to move onto the most integral part of the discussion, where Toko was arguably at her pinnacle.

The Unspoken Theme of Ultra Despair Girls.

//One of the things about Danganronpa that is consistent throughout the series is that each game has a different main theme. Usually along the lines of “Ideal A VS Ideal B” And I’ll quickly walk through them.

//Danganronpa 1 obviously has the sole theme of Hope VS Despair. And that theme has become a staple of the entire Danganronpa series, arguably being the series most important.

//Hope and Despair are two sides of the same coin, in many senses. Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire about a result and despair is defined as the lack of hope, or lack of such a feeling of expectation and desire about a result.

//If hope is associated with an expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen, when we hope we are essentially concentrating on a result. If that result doesn’t occur, then we may fall into despair, which is the lack of the expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. We cannot have hope without despair. They go together. If you can feel hope, then it is equally possible to feel despair.

//This is best represented in the dynamic between Trigger Happy Havoc’s main protagonist and main antagonist -  Makoto Naegi and Junko Enoshima. A boy who believes his one redeeming quality is his overwhelming optimism, and a girl who’s a natural genius talent with many redeeming qualities, but applies it to literally watching the world burn.

//Danganronpa 2 also plays with the idea of Hope and Despair, but it also has another theme that plays very well on the game, especially at the finale. A Terrible Past VS a Better Future.

//It ties into DR1′s theme of the battle between Hope and Despair by elaborating on what comes after it. The moment that defines this is Hajime’s final decision to abandon his past actions and face it’s consequences, while fighting to redeem himself and live a better future for him and his friends.

//Given their past actions as Junko’s terrorist cohorts that were wiped from their memories, this is how they choose to deal with it.

//V3 is a lot more complicated, because there are actually two running themes across the whole game, all of which are different from the typical Hope Vs Despair dynamic: Truth against Lies, and Logic VS Belief.

//The first idea is best represented through the main protagonist, Shuichi Saihara, and his arch-rival, Kokichi Ouma. Kokichi being a consistent liar and Shuichi being a detective who fights for the truth. The penultimate conclusion to this theme is that Truth VS Lies does NOT constitute to Good VS Evil. Sometimes a lie can be a white lie designed to protect people, while finding the truth can lead to a terrible outcome (i.e. Shuichi’s backstory exposing a man for a crime done to avenge his family.) Shuichi even states in the game “Some lies can lead the world to hope...Some truths can lead the world to despair...So I don't think anyone can really say which is more right in the end.”

//Logic VS Belief meanwhile. is best represented in characters like V3′s deuteragonist, Kaito Momota, who doesn’t base his assumptions off anything other than his own assurance and faith in the people around him. While this is narrow-minded at a glance, Kaito repeatedly proves that his assumptions and belief are well-placed. Not always of course, but often enough that Shuichi considers his belief’s when it comes to his accusations. On the other hand, there are characters like Angie Yonaga and again, Kokichi Ouma, who’s assumptions are grounded more in logic and facts, sometimes making them overlook the bigger picture at hand, but also the only sure basis for a grounded conclusion.

//It’s never explicitly stated, but the way I see things with the spinoff game, and what ties it back to Toko, is that Ultra Despair Girls has it’s own secondary theme to the typical Hope VS Despair 

//And that is...Companionship VS Solitude.

//And going further with that, Trust VS Betrayal.

//Elaborating on both for a moment, here’s how I see it. Both Toko and Komaru at the start of Ultra Despair Girls are both in a poor position, and neither really know how to cope. Toko has barely changed from the horrible person she was in DR1, while Komaru starts off as a weak-willed, vulnerable girl.

//By the end of the game, Toko’s attitude has drastically changed, and she opens up to Komaru in a way she never did to Makoto or anyone else before her, and Komaru becomes a much stronger person, both physically and mentally, going from being the one receiving the rousing speeches to the one giving them (like she does for the adults in the secret encampment.)

//And the obvious conclusion to reach is that the development of both these characters can be attributed to one another. Komaru is made a more responsible and down to earth person, taking matters into her own hands and resolving the problem in her own way thanks to Toko’s influence on her. At the same time, Toko, an extremely pessimistic person with little faith in her fellow human, is made to become the voice of reason for Komaru, simply because she NEEDS it.

//And despite their bumps along the way, and how they don’t start off as friends and work together more as allies than anything, the companionship between these two girls is the one and only reason they were even able to Survive the demon hunting game.

//The PARALLEL to this, is Monaca and the Warriors of Hope. Who if you think about it, have the EXACT REVERSE DYNAMIC.

//When UDG starts off, you see as the game progresses just how close these kids are to one another right from the get go, having been through a similar experience to the girls in working together to overcome a shitty situation that they all have been through.

//And for most of the game, their friendship seems strong and genuine, but then you get to the conclusion of the first boss fight against Masaru. Where his defeat against the girls results in him being pulled under and out of sight by the masked Monokuma kids; a scene that obviously reminds Toko of an execution.

//And as the game progresses, this continues happening, and when it does, the other kids really hardly bat an eye, and try to move on. But the more it happens, the more concerned they begin to grow, Nagisa especially who even tries to resolve the situation, strongly desiring to protect the dream he and the other kids share.

//At least that’s what he believes, only to find out that Monaca has been playing him and the other Warriors from the start, never truly intending to be their friend, or helping them create the paradise she promised she would.

//In comparison to Komaru and Toko’s strengthening bond, the Warrior’s who seem to have a strong bond at the start, weaken as a result of Monaca’s secret betrayal. Something I believe goes overlooked often by most people.

//Another thing that people can see from this, is that by the end of the game, Toko has gained every trait she needs to pass as a true Danganronpa deuteragonist, fitting the same traits and actions as the others before her (and no, slapping Komaru to knock some sense back into her doesn’t count as part of it). Doing what all of them did at some point, and rescuing the main character from a truly awful situation.

//Who was it that not only rescued Makoto from the garbage heap, but also kept his spirits raised when things started to look bleak? Kyoko.

//Who was it that restored formality to the group and saved Hajime from falling in Despair forever in DR2? Chiaki.

//Who were the one’s who rescued Shuichi when he gave in and tried to hide from facing the truth? Kaede and Kaito.

//And who was it that saved Komaru from the burden placed on her that she didn’t deserve? Toko.

//Before this point, Toko would not have ever been able to fit that role, but by the end of Ultra Despair Girls, she’s become attuned to being by this girls side, and being the moral compass she needs. And she is GOOD at it. And it’s only BECAUSE she’s grown to care for Komaru, putting herself on the line for her sake, that she is able to do this.

//Toko has lived a life of abuse, bullying, betrayal, doubt, sadness, and unjustness. But none of that matters when someone who truly cares about her is falling into Despair. Meeting Komaru, while she wouldn’t openly admit it even after the fact, was the best thing that could have ever happened to Toko.

//And meeting Toko was the best thing that ever happened to Komaru as well.

Toko in Survivor. How has she changed?

//Now we’ll actually get into my own personal thought process for Toko in this blog. How much she has developed PAST the last time we saw her in Ultra Despair Girls and DR3. And there are three main things to focus in on here:

Her progressing relationship with Komaru.

Her role as a mother.

Her change in lifestyle.

//Keeping in mind what I said about Komaru and Toko having changed and developed one another plays a big role in their characters from the start of Survivor, and how much they’ve changed in the 8 year timegap.

//On Komaru’s side, she’s obviously become a much more confident and eager person. Someone who screamed and cried while fighting for her life back in Towa City, now greets fights with open arms and ready trigger finger. She’s no longer afraid of the threats she faces, and now with Toko by her side, is actively ready to stand against them.

//Toko’s changes are obviously a lot more integral. She doesn’t stutter her words or needlessly blame others anymore, always thinking about the situation at hand before she starts putting words in each other’s mouths. And while she still cares for Byakuya, she no longer idolizes him in the way she did, nor does she have any dreams of pursuing a life with him, instead sticking with Komaru and trying to sort herself out. Even Byakuya admits by this point in time, Toko has become a woman worthy of his attention. Which is why it was so nice to write that one segment of Into the Ocean where they teamed up together, just the two of them.

//I also believe that Toko and Komaru would have started to develop feelings for each other during the timegap. Most people would think it a little odd that they decide to get married almost immediately after confessing to one another, but to me, it’s not that strange.

//They would have had a lot of time to spend together, and they would clearly recognize their love for each other. After all, if you think about it, Toko and Komaru’s dynamic is basically the EXACT SAME as Makoto and Kyoko’s. The Naegi siblings have a lot in common, as you might expect, with both of them being strong-willed people at the core, as well as one’s who have the power to inspire hope in others, but also each having a fair share of inferiority complexes. Toko and Kyoko on the other hand, are more down to earth and logical, and balance their respective partners out.

//And if one of them can grow to care for each other beyond a point that canonically is implied to be more than a friendship, why can’t the other?

//Toko hasn’t completely changed of course. There’s still a lot about her that remains relatively the same from the canon games, mainly that she’s still quick to frustrate, and still isn’t immediately trusting of anyone she meets, however being more willing to give them a chance to prove her wrong.

//But the primary way in which Komaru has influenced Toko is simply by being a genuine friend, partner and companion, teaching Toko how to be more confident in herself, as well as overcoming all of her past trauma’s, slowly but surely. This in turn, would have led to Toko living a much healthier lifestyle than the one she had before, and as of Into the Ocean, it certainly shows.

//Toko’s redesign as of Into the Ocean sports her signature purple, but also a much brighter and happier blue in contrast to her previous designs where her clothes and outfit are much darker all around. She’s also discarded her glasses for contact lenses, and started wearing shorter skirts and leggings, showing her change in attitude and character, and how she’s a lot more self-assured, and confident in herself.

//This is the face of a woman who’s been through a lot of trauma, and through the power of love and companionship, has overcome it. That’s all it ever took.

//And then of course, there’s not only Komaru as her wife, but the newest addition to their family - Akeru. Who the girls decide to adopt as their own daughter.

//Upon finding out her true backstory, Toko gravitates almost immediately towards Akeru when she finds out just how similar the two of them are. Having both been raised by abusive mothers, and having murdered them as a result of the trauma.

//Even after her mothers died, Toko’s life did not get better. If anything, it only became worse. So when Akeru was finally saved from the clutches of Narumi Osone, Toko endeavored to make it so that Akeru didn’t go down the same path...By giving her a family and a new life that she could learn to love.

//Toko has been through some shit, but thanks to this natural progression and strength she has found, she’s able to become the exact authority figure that a young girl needs. Though she lacks in real experience, Toko goes out of her way to do whatever it takes to make sure that her girl grows up happy and healthy in the way she never could, without deflecting her own childhood trauma on this equally damaged girl.

//In a way, she’s doing for Akeru exactly what she did to Komaru. Hence why the chapter of her exposing her past to her friends is so important. Simply to emphasize just how much the girl’s suffering means to her.

Where are we now?

//To end this, I need to make a quick observation of the blog’s current events, and analyse where every main protagonist, the one’s that carry this story, are standing right now.

//First of all, most obviously, Makoto and Kuripa are both HOT MESSES right now. Not just in the wake of the death of Mukuro, but with every bad thing after bad thing that’s been thrown their way, they’ve been severely wittled down to the point where both of them are barely hanging onto sanity. 

//Kuripa obviously isn’t new to this attitude or feeling, but when Makoto is at a point where he’s not only lashing out at the people who love him, but is physically assaulting the wrongdoers; something usually out of character for him, you know he’s going through some shit.

//Hajime is not much better. Obviously he’s currently in an indefinite coma while Izuru takes control of his body, but even before that he was clearly suffering at the hands of a situation out of his control, that he still wholeheartedly blames himself for. 

//The actions of both Ayumu Fujimori and Nagito Komaeda he attributes back to his own incompetence, and believes that most, if not all of what the Future Foundation is currently going through, is his own fault.

//Shuichi and Kaede seem relatively fine, but it’s clear they’re both struggling with their own issues. Shuichi’s will be elaborated on, but Kaede is so severely traumatized by her past, it makes her act out stupidly, and she’s beginning to have severe doubts about herself.

//And Shuichi feels like a fish out of water, having a branch to lead but not quite sure how to take charge when it counts.

//Even Komaru isn’t quite sure what to do, and has made her own handful of stupid decisions. On top of not being there for her brother and being blissfully unaware of the Future Foundation’s fall in wake of her own family’s interests, she also gets so desperate, that she takes matters into her own hands and makes a fucking mess of things.

//I.e. blaming the entire mess on Kuripa with little to know grounds on such an action, and kidnapping and trapping Makoto for “his own safety.”

//And the amazing thing throughout all of this, is that looking at all of these protagonists and comparing to Toko...She is the ONLY ONE who has remained relatively sane throughout the entire pandemic of Despair.

//In Into the Ocean, she comes through as a mediator and protector for Komaru, Akeru and Byakuya on multiple occasions, comforting them when they’re in a difficult situation (very physically in Komaru’s case ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) and having their back, even when they try to go solo on dangerous missions.

//And in The Monster in Me, she’s the first member of the Future Foundation who defects from Komaru, her own wife’s, authoritarian methods to stop Kuripa and Katagiri, simply because she remains in her right mind and realizes that something is not right, and Kuripa isn’t the sole person to blame.

//This is the same woman who always jumped to conclusions and put words in others mouths out of her own self-loathing whenever anyone tried to have a basic conversation with her. But now she’s thinking more rationally than any of the “heroes” and seeing things for what they are, taking it on herself to sort things out and help them just as she did to Komaru back during Ultra Despair Girls.

//Toko Fukawa over the course of her life has gone from being one of the weakest-willed and traumatized heroes in Danganronpa...to easily one of it’s most confident, rational, and strongest.