#also a good example imo on the other side of the coin

[thevulturesquadron]

Anyone who claims that the secret ending in Veilguard is disrespectful or nullifies agency in the previous three games is either unable to traverse layered storytelling or is being ignorant on purpose.

I am not sure how someone assumes that it was about mind control or magic when games upon games the fantasy setting in Dragon Age has been a medium for telling stories about the nature of people, about different perspectives, about the dangers of applying singular ideals to a complex existence, about how people and the ways in which they interact shape destinies.

How can you not be excited to learn that there’s a world outside Thedas, that the web is more complicated and that when one wrestles to break the threads it vibrates all the way to the spider letting it know it’s dinner time?

[arashi-no-saxlphone]

Screaming along to Requiem this morning and it made me think of the "people like Sol but not I-No" thing again and I just wanna say I know there's issues with how GG handles their women sometimes but like... the GG women are REALLY fucking cool and good. I-No is one of the most incredible narrative foils in fiction to me to both Axl and Sol in different ways. You have Sol Badguy, doomed savior, and I-No, who though we weren't totally aware of it at the start of her character story, has also been put into the same role. The two are at odds because of the future I-No has been cursed to know about and burdened with the idea that she can change said future, and she and Axl are two sides of the same coin in that I-No is stuck in a cycle of chasing a future she cannot change while Axl is stuck in a cycle of chasing a past he cannot return to. And she plays those roles EXTREMELY well. She's written to be a tragic character, doomed by the narrative, because she only has half of what she needs to get what she wants. And she's a Magical Foci - not human - and yet there's deeply human qualities about her that she can't fully embrace because of what she is and the circumstance she's trapped in. I-No willing throws away what little of her humanity is left because she's lost and tired and the crushing weight of all of humanity's hopes being placed into her is so much to bear that she becomes numb - that is a completely understandable reaction that I think anyone can relate to: the exhaustion of existence becoming so great that you just want to give in. She is a foil to Sol, who despite the loss of his humanity refuses to let it go, and chases it to the end, and because of that he's able to save the world (again) at the end of strive. I-No's existence and role in the story is just the other side of Sol Badguy's- it's crazy to me to like one and not the other; their value and narrative weight is identical in my eyes.

Millia and Jack-O both have incredible things to say about the value of one's identity and sense of self. Baiken is a killer example of the gruff revenge-seeking broken person archetype (a role stereotypically fulfilled by male characters) finding acceptance and managing to heal. Bridget tells an exceptional coming-out story (one of the best arcade modes in the game imo the conversation she has with Ky at the end about his fear of going public about his family still gets me). Ramlethal and Elphelt's journey to independence and understanding themselves as more than weapons or puppets. These are characters with incredible narrative weight and substance. It's the essence of Guilty Gear to me.

I don't know, I just thought about this for too long cause of Requiem and thinking about I-No today so sorry for the incoherent dump here.

[amemenojaku]

Akyuu/Reimu for the ship ask, please

hi I um. turned this into akyuurei manifesto. sorry

How differently do they think of each other now compared to when they first met?

I just reread Memorizable Gensokyo and some of the FS chapters where they interact (+the bit at the end of SoPM) back-to-back and it feels like they’ve come to really respect each other. When they first met properly in MG Akyuu tried so hard to impress Reimu, who looked amused by Akyuu’s work but didn’t seem to take her very seriously… I suppose that’s partly because they were younger then. I like that small panel in MG where Reimu introduces herself and Akyuu’s like “:O!!!”… By the time we see them together again in FS, they talk as equals. Reimu acknowledges Akyuu’s authority (she’s still super blunt about the chronicles but that’s Reimu for you lol), and Akyuu trusts Reimu to get the work done when it’s needed. They know they can rely on each other. I’d even go as far as to say Reimu treats Akyuu with a bit more softness than she does a lot of characters�� She worries about Akyuu walking all the way up to the shrine in a latter FS chapter, she doesn’t chastise Akyuu for organizing the symposium in SoPM despite how pissed she is at the other participants (although I do think she was still hurt… more on that below), etc. As they are now they see each other as individuals more than roles I think, which is an important part of their dynamic (and also of Reimu pairings in general imo).

What do their friends/family think of their relationship?

They’d be the type to go in circles for a while before committing to something. Take their time with it. Past a certain point Marisa and Kosuzu start scheming to get them together (much to the concerned parties’ annoyance). When it finally happens they’d be teasing but supportive. I think the relationship would be kept secret for a time… Some people still manage to sniff it out though, Yukari for example; she’d be satisfied with it. Two people she has a weird close situationship with, together? That works. There might be some gossip about them… But if/when they make it official to everyone, I honestly think they’d be blessed by most of the village – it’s the Hakurei shrine maiden and the head of the Hieda clan after all! Might break a few nameless village women’s hearts though…

How do their personalities/skills complement or contrast with each other?

They have a ton of parallels (human but not quite; role directly tied to the survival of the world they live in; bridge between humans and youkai, etc) but also a few differences both symbolically (Akyuu doesn’t fly (she’s grounded to (a relative) reality), Reimu is literally the power to fly (transcends reality); Reimu is the “eternal shrine maiden”, Akyuu doesn’t live past 30 (but even that can be turned into a parallel with Akyuu’s reincarnations*), etc) and in terms of personality (Akyuu being calmer in general and displaying better social skills). Imo it’s one of the relationships with the most interesting balance between contrast and similarities… They’re the same girl but they’re also on two different sides of the same coin and the pining that comes out of it is SO good.

*if you look too hard into this like I do you’ll see the child of Miare’s reincarnation gimmick as a parallel to how it’s implied that the past Hakurei shrine maidens were replaced often (died quickly?)

What is their favorite aspect of each other?

In canon, I’d say it’s how reliable they find each other. They’ve worked together/consulted one another a few times in FS for matters related to the human village, and despite some differences in opinion they’re on the same wavelength on a lot of issues. Now, with my yuri goggles on…. I think it’d be really sweet if they could make each other feel normal. If their similarities brought them together on a level different from their other friendships, where they can understand the weight of each other’s role and that whole “human but not quite” thing they share, and be able to completely treat each other as ordinary. I really really like it when a character with a lot of obligations gets to just be themselves, and I also love it when two characters who’re both special or generally “apart” from everyone else grow close thanks to that, so I’m just mashing things I enjoy lol

Do either of them have pet peeves about each other?

I like to think Akyuu has a healthy lifestyle and her days go like clockwork (except when she’s close to a writing deadline), so she’d probably find some of the situations Reimu ends up in very frustrating. I think that fits well with the fact that Akyuu doesn’t always realize how high her quality of life is and can sometimes act a bit inconsiderate towards people who aren’t as rich as her. Meanwhile Reimu’s a very honest, very blunt person who struggles with keeping secrets for long (see Forbidden Scrollery’s ending), so she probably wouldn’t like some of the secrets Akyuu keeps at times. But Akyuu’s an important figure to the human villagers and she does take her role as a chronicler seriously, so there must be moments she has to prioritize her obligations over honesty. I think that kind of contrast is very interesting.

How would each reconcile with each other after a fight?

They’re both stubborn… But I see Reimu as the first to try to reconcile most of the time. Her soft spot for Akyuu would take over her natural pride imo. So she makes the first move. Akyuu takes longer, but her apologies are sincere.

Buuut there’s one time I can imagine Reimu completely withdrawing into her shell and refusing to even acknowledge that she’s really upset at Akyuu until confronted about it: SoPM. I won’t ever be able to explain it better than que-de-metal did right here so I recommend reading it!!

What would be their ideal vacation getaway together?

Hot spring resort. Quiet, relaxing and good for Akyuu’s health! And plenty of time for Reimu to laze around and read mystery novels. (I’m projecting… I miss onsens…….)

Think of a new way (AU, different situation, etc.) they could have met for the first time.

I’m honestly a bit upset that Memorizable Gensokyo is when they first met proper, even though there’s no way the Hieda family isn’t regularly in contact with the Hakurei shrine maiden. I think it’d be cute if they met when they were both kids and Reimu was in training with her predecessor and they were both called at the Hieda mansion for something. Extra points if Akyuu was intrigued by Reimu’s natural powers and that’s where her desire to impress her in MG comes from, and if Reimu barely remembers that meeting (like with Alice in PCB).

[bluekittyyoyo]

ALTERNIAN CULTURE ANALYSIS: APATHY AS ANTITHESIS. AN ESSAY ON TROLL SOCIETY'S UNDERSTANDING OF EMOTIONS

listen to me. it only makes logical sense that trolls would have a strong understanding of the idea that the opposite of "love" is actually antipathy; having no strong feelings whatsoever. I know what you're saying, "but the quadrants have love and hate as a dichotomy, they clearly think of hate as love's antithesis-" no. wrong. the quadrants are obviously not representative of every emotion a troll can have, the quadrants are a concept of ROMANCE. see there's the keyword here. love and hate are both integral parts of this romance, they do not exist in opposition to each other as in one cancels out the other, they are two sides of the same coin. having quadrant feelings for someone regardless of alignment is indicative of caring about them, of being passionate about them. I know those words typically have purely positive connotations when used about human romantic understandings but disconnect that for a second. basically it comes down to a slightly warped version of "horseshoe theory" (where supposed opposites, in this case love and hate, are actually closer together than the middleground). I think this concept is firmly supported by canon, examples off the top of my head:

from the quadrants explanation;

"The relationships each quadrant describes tend to be malleable, if not volatile,"

as stated with the pitched/flushed vacillation and the canon examples of pale/flushed, but also I think it is implied (though less so) that it applies to every quadrant and there are many ways unexplored in canon that every quadrant can bleed into another.

this famous line:

"It should be noted that in troll language, the word for friend is exactly the same as the word for enemy."

this quote being on the page where equius pesters gamzee, citing that he does so with regularity and thus considers him a "friend" (but that's not the whole picture). this adds to the notion of these relationships not being considered opposite but stemming from the same root idea of investment in a person.

I think it's very interesting because I believe the authorial intentions of incorporating hate as an integral part of troll society and culture is meant to contribute to the idea of them as a cruel and violent society, and while that may have some truth for the ways in which individuals treat each other peer-to-peer in average situations I actually think the real overarching effect it has is trolls coming off as a more emotionally honest society at the cost of simplicity and peace.

the implications of hate being considered on equal terms with love to me paint an image of a society that encourages embracing all emotions to the fullest extent, a society that might even consider the worst thing you can be not as someone who is filled with hate but in fact someone who does not care at all. I'm reminded of the conversation between vriska and aradia in hivebent:

vriska calling her a "miserable soulless witch" followed by repeating she hates her and "only regrets killing her cause it made her so BORING!!!!!!!!"

of course we also see plenty of times that "not giving a shit" is a thing that trolls are naturally inclined to do because you only have so much emotional resource to devote to a finite amount of things. moreover that alternia is a society that encourages emotional "balance", to embrace the love and the hate both with the same passion.

again as karkat rants to vriska also in hivebent:

"A WELL BALANCED PERSON IS GOING TO HAVE A GOOD DISTRIBUTION BETWEEN HATE AND THE VARIOUS PITY HUMORS."

you may also recognize this conversation as the same one where karkat claims this (rather infamously imo):

"PITY IS OF COURSE JUST THE TONED DOWN VERSION OF THE CENTRAL EMOTION, HATE."

(adding more to the "trolls believe hate and love come from the same emotional source" pile even if the manner of it is slightly off-center here)

and vriska's response to karkat's ranting:

"Did you learn this crap from your awful romance movies?" "THEY'RE REALLY INTRIGUING SOCIOLOGICALLY."

I hope this presentation makes it clear but for the audience in the back: karkat's interpretation of emotional composition of trolls is most likely complete bullshit and not at all factual nor, in my opinion, should be taken as biological information about trolls. for that reason I believe the reference to humoral medicine is completely intentional, invoking the imagerey of bullshit pseudoscience. just in the same way as I don't think it would be reasonable to make any similar claim about the nature of human emotions (and anyone who does is trying to sell you something). in A6A615 dave even states that "both humans and trolls are emotionally versatile sentient beings that can feel many hells of different things".

what I'm mainly getting at here using these quotes is that there is a cultural precedent for the claims he is making. karkat did not spawn these ideas about emotions out of thin air or scientific research, he got them from watching romance films. which particularly, as presumably low-culture media in much the same fashion as our own, would in fact make them excellent case studies on the general cultural attitudes of the society that consumes them. and that society, as karkat observes, makes indications that a) emotions of hate and love stem from the same source and b) trolls ought to have a balance of negative and positive emotions, where apathy is considered more undesirable.

so what I mean to say from all these observations, my formal opinion: to trolls there can exist this nebulous feeling of being emotionally attachment to someone, to desire any kind of relationship with them. and with that the average troll has a far better understanding that the most devastating response possible is actually none at all; to be completely unaffected by them.

so what am I saying with all this? it is my idea that in troll culture, trolls have a concept of relationships and emotions that can exist as a nebulous idea of just being *passionate*, of caring about something or someone and the distinction between negative or positive is merely a nuance rather than an opposition, and the actual socially reviled opposition to this feeling is being apathetic.

for example a troll rejecting another for a particular desired quadrant is heartbreaking (or diamondbreaking, spadesbreaking etc), but as there exists a desire for connection generally by virtue of the desire at all, it would be less devastating and possibly could become just as fulfilling for the connection to exist as a different quadrant, even on the other side of red/black. the most devastating possible outcome of a rejection would be that of total apathy, of the idea that one inspires no passions, no emotions of any kind in a person.

and with that established now we can get into my ideas about how alternian media rating systems work, such as a troll equivalent to rotten tomatoes where movies/books/films etc are rated on 5 different scales (also possibly two different modified 3 scale versions) in addition to a simplified two-scale version where the measure of "good" is based on "how much did this work inspire emotional reactions in you vs how much did you not give any shit at all"- the cane hooks me by the neck and pulls me off stage

[darkwitchofthewest]

Now for the deck review. The first deck I got was the Disney Villains Tarot, so this is the deck I will be reviewing.

Before getting into the witchy/actual tarot stuff, let's discuss the nerdy side briefly.

The cards have beautiful and eye-catching illustrations and they are pretty well themed around the villains about 98% of the time (IMO).

Also the span of villains is quite impressive. There's even some minor/underrated villains too like Bowler Hat Guy, Madame Mim and Medusa, and even Yzma.

As impressive as the span of villains is, there's a small handful not present.

For example, Frollo and King Candy/Turbo aren't present. (Which I'll admit is a slight let down, they're good villains and King Candy is my favorite but I digress).

(Not to plug my other blog but if you're interested in my opinion on why King Candy deserved the King of Swords card you could go here if you want.)

Anyway, onto the actual part of the review.

Overall: 10/10. I'm very satisfied with the deck (personally) I would totally buy it again if I lost it.

Quality: the cardstock is firm and fits nicely in the hands. It definitely shuffles comfortably and glides easily along a cloth surface. (I do tarot on my bed for reference, it works quite well)

So in terms of price, I think it's worth it to have for the $22.49 it was.

The Majors are quite delightful to look at. Probably the best illustrations in the deck (IMO). Again, they're themed after the villains, but a few heroes appear in them (as well as in the Minor Arcana).

The suits are the same, save for cups and the pentacles, which are called potions and coins in this deck respectively. The wands are a bit more literal, being represented with actual wands and magical staffs.

I will say, that I do think the illustrations on the Minor Arcana could've been more detailed like the Major Arcana. They're much simpler.

The tarot deck guidebook is quite reliable and I'd say that it's very straightforward with the card meanings, which goes for both upright and reversals. It's also a good start for beginners to tarot (if they've also had prior experience with the Rider Waite tarot). It also includes a few tarot spreads. They're fun and thoughtful and they're a great addition.

As with the theming, the cards are tailored around the villains, so there's some elements from the villain's movies and motives thrown into the card meanings.

A potential downside I could see is that someone who's not as familiar with the Disney Villains may have some trouble connecting with the deck.

Due to the villain theme, it often focuses on the negative aspects of each card, which may not be for everyone. This can be a good thing though, for someone doing some shadow work or looking to navigate through difficult times and emotions.

So all in all, if you're someone who has a fondness for Disney Villains and likes doing some introspection and psychological work, this deck may be for you.

[fumifooms]

I feel we talk and speculate about post-canon Marchil. But what about pre-canon Marchil? They may not yet know much about each other's personal lives by the time the story starts. But from the start we could already see that they have some level of rapport and are able to bounce off each other quite well especially given that they see each other as the saner party members.

But we know its not how they started especially given Chilchucks disdain for elves, and the fact that the previous mage/sorcerer of their party supposedly almost broke the party up with their love agendas.

How do you think it played out from there and getting to the start of the manga?

Pre-canon and early Marcille & Chilchuck

Yes, very interesting topic!! There are a good few moments that are telling imo. I don't have any fun way to introduce it all so let's just go right into it, it's gonna be a long post though.

Pre-canon

We do see how they start out:

Like you said, Chil, like the other party members, was very hesitant at first on trusting her, that she’d be a good fit for the party etc, though he doesn’t seem to be taking it any worse than Shuro and Namari (which is interesting since Chil’s distrust of elves is more prominent).

The distrust of mages for their party specifically was due to their old one, implied to have stirred drama by being a marriage seeker with every man in the party yes. We don't know the details but it does paint a certain picture I suppose, I really hope The Adventurer's Bible 2 is gonna have new info or pages about the old party members... Doing an analysis of the party configurations pre-canon would be interesting too, for example there’s the buzzcut guy that’s implied to have betrayed Laios and it’s soo cryptic but intriguing and implied to be a significant moment for Laios, would be worth analyzing the crumbs of info we get in canon... But yes yes point is that's one side of the coin, which is eased when the party gets used to Marcille and she earns their trust by being friendly and nice, BUT there’s the other side of the coin to it where magic has been used to persecute half-foots historically, especially by elves, so there’s that bias that remains even for a good part of canon for Chilchuck, and it's stated the most explicitly when he and Marcille argue over dark magic in chapter 34.

To go back to the pictures above, the panel that shows Marcille "working hard to befriend everyone" contextualizes the extra comic in Chilchuck’s Adventurer’s Bible section(the third picture above) to be set during that time of integration into the party for her. We see they indeed had already their comedic dynamic schtick down by then… And I think that makes sense. Even at the start of canon Chil is still adamant about not making friends and keeping emotional distance, so though I’m sure he was much more standoffish and quiet at first I think going from "I don’t know you and I’ll avoid you" to "I’ll engage with you but I’m not gonna be friendly about it" isn't a big jump and it would happen naturally with time as they get somewhat acquainted.

Chilchuck does value having a good professional dynamic, so he wouldn’t want to be rude or shoot her down, and it’s also that will to help a coworker be efficient that gets him to go out shopping for a pouch with her and makes her able to bond with him on that occasion (Yes I do want to make a fanfic about it hehe. He doesn’t like to wait after people but still went with her for a pouch isn’t that sweet). Considering the way she acts with him in that extra comic, she was already very open and didn’t mind overcrowding him and seeming eager and whatnot. Imo she already looked favorably upon him from the get-go because he’s "a kid" and thus sweet and cute™️, but I still think especially with the added context of the pages on her perspective that she was extra trying to be friendly and encourage engaging with her. Even at their "on good terms for work but no actual relationship" stage at the beginning of canon, Marcille worked to get there and to have that good (decent) of a dynamic with Chil.

Although I don’t think it was especially hard either, I just think it took a while for people to acclimate to her. A lot of the prejudices in Dungeon Meshi are eased and challenged through exposure and contact, like getting a scared dog to see you as safe. "Oh, this guy isn’t so bad after all, guess there are good ones -> guess they have a point -> guess that maybe they’ve always had a point and were never all that evil" etc etc, it’s more nuanced and has variations but hopefully you see what I mean, how prejudices are tackled in Dunmeshi is a very interesting & layered topic for another day.

Ah yes there’s also the extra above in which Chil says how awkward it is to wait with Toshiro and Marcille for the others to arrive, and though it certainly could be mostly about how Toshiro and Marcille don’t get along and that's what makes the air tense, I do think it shows a good level of distance and disinterest between them. It’s often referred to in canon that, previous to canon events, they all truly just had a coworkers dynamic.

Even just hanging out outside of work for a drink was very uncommon. The closest thing to a friend Chilchuck would see someone as in the party would have been Namari I imagine, since it’s shown a few times that those two did go out to drink after work a couple times and got along well (as per the extras about it and some small canon moments).

I think it’s very central to their dynamic at that point that their relationship is professional. According to the timeline it’s been around 1/1.5 year that Marcille has joined Laios’ party at the beginning of canon, and since they dungeon dive regularly that’s a good amount of time to develop a dynamic with a coworker. So yes I think a good way to frame their relationship is that they’re two coworkers, who have been working together well for a while but never developed it into a proper friendship, either from lack of interest or failure to do it, like two cashiers sharing the same shift. They have a bond forged in forced proximity and casual familiarity accumulated over time, which does make their relationship a bit unique and interesting since they would have never become friends under regular circumstances. They're like that sweet & salty sandwich that you have to give a chance to, that'll surprise you and have complementary flavors if you try it out despite seeming disastrous.

Early canon

Their early dynamic is super interesting though!! Both see each other as capable, which I do think is the foundation of their relationship early on, since Marcille thought of him as a kid too closed off on himself and Chilchuck saw her as a somewhat annoying person (afaik) and an elf mage (both which make her more distrust-worthy for him) which doesn't make them very friends material at that point. But like I said, they do see each other as capable not only in their job but with their respective strenghts:

Early on we get the sense that they of course have worked with each other for a while and have a good grasp on the other’s character though, and what they say is insightful on how they think of the other. Above, the excerpt is when Laios and Chilchuck come back with the dead Kabru party’s wet food. "She’s right that wasn’t okay to do. Not good I didn’t catch that, that’s Marcille for you." implying he sees her as sort of the moral compass of the team, that she’s strict on such things but seemingly he values it instead of being offput by it. On her side she says how "he’s usually the most mature here." This is in the kakiage chapter so she still fully believes he's a kid at that point, so it's interesting to see that she still recognizes his maturity demeanor wise.

There is respect there, however how kneecapped or begrudging it is. I think the "you’re the next most normal person in the party after me and you have common sense thank god" dynamic was mostly forged right from the beginning of canon but not before that, since Laios while yes still having some of his questionable leadership previously (since his part was losing faith in him before Marcille joined) was more stoic and controlled, so 1) there is no great evil to band up against in the party, plus there were just more people, so 2) less reason or occasion to seek specifically each other out. But then without Toshiro and Namari they were the only person the other had when Laios started showing his interest in monsters and whatnot, the whole party dynamic got thrown upside down which made them gravitate towards each other more than they usually did. And then Senshi came into the picture but Marcille and Chilchuck had already traumabonded like kittens /j and Senshi turned out to also have an interest in monsters. I do feel like pre-canon they simply didn’t interact as much, more one-off moments and short shallow interactions and the occasional deeper, pleasant enough conversation than anything, so canon events is what really kickstarted it into something more than (acquaintance level emotional distance) coworkers.

And on that note, I think that the true shift in their relationship starts after the red dragon arc, when their goal becomes more convoluted and they’ll have to stick to each other’s side through truly thick and thin. It’s right after that Chilchuck gets a shift in character and motivation where he admits that he cares about them, and when the characters start being overall more vulnerable with each other.

I think about this page a ton for example.

"Still, that Marcille…" Maybe I should check out how the original phrased it, the ‘that’ does add a lot, but even without it there's a very impersonal feeling to it. Like they really are just starting to get accustomed to each other after all and sizing each other up, which isn’t all that wrong considering the context of finding something very important about her out that would shift everyone's perception of her, but it does definitely show distance imo, even with this being after the dragon arc at chapter 29. He thinks of her as silly and sketchy at that point as per the scene with Leed... It's rocky, it's rocky, but they do hash things out together and continue to respect each other's perspective and points, as seen for eample how they strategize together when they meet Shuro and Kabru's parties. And yes, that's super interesting!! The scene after his talk with Leed where he admits he cares about the party member is the point where Chilchuck stops pretending to only be in it for the money and he lets himself bond with the others more, so it makes sense to me that he'd have processed the whole "Marcille dark elf" thing and moved past it, but it does show a lot of trust in Marcille that even despite her dark magic show he goes to her for strategy talk and like, doesn't worry about her doing faux-pas and getting themselves killed or in jail unlike with Laios or Senshi which he feels the need to monitor lol.

I think the bicorn chapter is the chapter that truly cements them as having a relationship in its own right. He opened up about himself and let her in on personal aspects of his life, and that makes him finally ready to fully drop the wall of "coworkers only, no friends nope, our relationship starts and stops at when we enter and leave the dungeon". And of course by the end he's straight up saying he'll introduce her to his family lol <3

Conclusion

So yes overall they do seem to know each other the way longtime acquaintances would, and they have a good grasp on each other’s character, but their vision of each other is severely kneecapped by other factors, Marcille seeing him as a kid and him having a bias against elves and mages and also just optimistic nosy people lol. Chilchuck is only interested in working with her efficiently, without making friends, and besides him being a coworker whose skills are very needed Marcille is only interested in him in a gossip curiosity way and in a ‘Aww I should make an effort to include the kid in things, he should open up more!’ patronizing and infantilizing way. You can’t really bond as an equal with someone you think is a kid after all, so early on it’s more of a caring after attention/interest she has for him, and the process of her growing to see him as an adult is very slow and gradual. They're tough to feasibly work with in a shipping sense early on, like yes ok they have very funny chemistry but at what cost... But I sure do love slow burns and complicated people growing to love each other through learning about them through thick and thin and compromising to better themselves and make it work, so!!

It’d be interesting to have marchil (wether platonic or romantic) fancontent exploring their pre-canon relationship, especially if we were to try and have them learn to know each other more and form a deeper bond and all, but it literally took all of canon to get them there. It took them having to do a desperate emergency dungeon dive with initially only 3 party members, where they don’t have any choice but to spend a lot of time in almost only each other’s company and have to forgo the usual boundaries, when fighting for each other’s lives and learning things about each other like being a 'dark elf' or a 'father of three'. It took 57 chapters and a lie-detecting virtue-detecting monster for him to open up about his wife and family, and who knows how long it’d have taken without that monster or without it having attacked him, serving as evidence that he’d been lying about it. Who knows how long he’d have been fine lying, y’know?? And learning that he cheated on his wife made her esteem for him tank, it’d have made them more tense with each other if anything if the bicorn hadn't proven his lie wrong. Beause it's def implied too that Chilchuck would have said that lie if super pushed int otalking about his wife, which would have happen with or without a bicorn appearing in their path right then.

In the end it’s like how Laios said, thank you Falin for being eaten, and thank you everyone for being the gender that you are, because if any detail had been different the adventure either wouldn’t have happened or would have happened very differently (worse). Best marchil slow burn is canon real?!! Jk there’s so much that could be done with them both pre-canon, during canon and post-canon, but yeahh they’re such complex characters with a complex dynamic that making it both organic and IC would be so hard. I do like the take that he is attracted to her to some degree though, and I feel like Marcille has a general curiosity and interest in romance and maybe experiencing it herself, so I wouldn't say that spontaneous interest would be impossible, but the biggest obstacle is Chilchuck's wife situation tbh because the man is planning on staying faithful and celibate right up to at least divorce if not his grave lol.

Now I do want to write a canon divergent thing where Chil refused to try and tame the bicorn and the party kept on thinking he’d cheated on her and the new dynamic with Marcille though… Eventually she wants to understand him and ask about it, and it keeps getting worse, before it starts getting better because this time around exhaustion caught up to him and he didn’t need the bicorn to make him admit he hasn’t… The whole end thing of his arc would have to happen pretty differently man, whew, especially since he has a complex where he doesn’t see himself as a good man, not virtuous or moral, cowardly and selfish etc etc, so without having a monster with its objective monster senses going "ew you’re a virtuous husband I hate u" it’d have been harder for him to truly consider that maybe the situation isn’t quite as hopeless as he thought and he should at least try blablabla. But Marcille is the next best thing to a bicorn, she can psychoanalyze him and hype him up, I have faith I have faith. Most feasibly though I feel like pre-canon fics with them would be ficlets of moments in which they unexpectedly interacted and went the small extra mile of going beyond small talk and both try to connect a bit, learning to know each other just a bit more, piquing interest or curiosity or making them re-evaluate each other, that’d be fun.

Like you said it's not a topic that's often analyzed and all, so I ended up going all out and being somewhat rambly... Apologies apologies, hopefully this wasn't hard to follow along with, and was good food for thought and had good points! Maybe it feels a bit far from your initial question that was only about going from their first meeting to the start of canon, but I feel like only analyzing their early relationship in that scope and consider the first hurdle in them growing closer fully over and done with doesn't encapsulate the core of their issues with each other and how they deal with them and eventually overcome them. It took a lot of time and insistance and efforts and for their prejudices to be challenged and proven wrong many, many times for it to truly stick and for them to be truly comfortable and open with each other. Early marchil truly has traumabonded retail coworkers energy to me lol, speaking from experience and traumabonded being meant as an hyperbole.

[lyranova]

Since you do the salty asks too, how about 2, 8, 13 (for Nozel and Nacht), 15, 21, 23 and 24 (for Black Clover)? Have a nice rest of Friday 🥰

Hiya Vilandel, i hope you’re doing well 🥰! Of course, I hope you enjoy and have a good rest of your Friday as well 😁💕!

2 Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?*

Hmm…I guess Asta x Yuno would be the main one, since I ship all the other OTPs as far as I am aware 🤔! Imo Yuno and Asta just work better as siblings, rivals, and best friends then as lovers. But if you like and ship them then I fully support you 🥰!

8 Have you received anon hate? What about?*

Yep I most certainly have unfortunately 😅. I have recived some anon hate from that very specific troll that shall remain nameless but who we’ve all encountered at one point or another. But I’ve also recived hate/dislike/dissappintment(?) for YuNeva and Neva in COTF (mainly because they wanted me to put Yuno x Mimosa together in that series), and then a random one from a anon about my headcanon for a Fire Force character which was really stupid 😆!

13 Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

Not sure if this is unpopular or not, but an opinion I have is that Yuno *needs* to struggle instead of being OP all the time. It won’t make him a bad/boring/or otherwise negative character, to me it would be like during the battle with Zenon. It would kind of show that, while he’s powerful, he still has a lot to learn and a lot of growth to show! But since we’re in the final arc I don’t think we’ll see that happen, which is a bit of a shame.

15 Unpopular opinion about the manga/show?

Hmm, that there are waaay too many battle and fight scenes. I get it, this is shounen which is all about battle after battle after battle. But…imo to make the manga and anime even better would be to show the quiet moments where we see the characters interacting and building up their friendships and relationships with each other like in the filler episodes of the anime! It would just make the series so much better, and would just be very nice to see!

21 What are your thoughts on crack ships?

Hm I enjoy crack ships, I even have a few myself such as MagLuck, Finral x Vanessa, Zora x Nebra, and Vanessa x Nozel to name a few! But to me, crack ships also have to make sense for me to enjoy them! For example; Magna x Luck makes sense to me, while I still prefer them as a Brotp, I have slowly come around to the idea of them romantically (thanks to my mutuals and followers 😆). They have a lot of chemistry together and you can see how much they love and care for one another! On the other side of that coin would be Zora x Nebra. The two have had no (?) scenes together, but I can see the “opposites attract” appeal in them (from their backgrounds, to their personalites, to even their color scheme)! While I don’t ship them as much anymore, I still enjoy them from time to time and see the appeal!

23 Unpopular character you love?

Hmm…i don’t know if I really have one in BC 🤔? Most of the characters I like tend to be popular because…I’m a boring person 😅? But I guess William? But tbh I don’t think he’s really unpopular, i know he is disliked because of the Elf Arc, but otherwise I think people like him. Maybe Fana? But again, I don’t know if she’s really unpopular…hm, I actually don’t think I have one…

Well looks like I’ll have to broaden my character horizons!

24 Would you recommend XXX to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend Black Clover for it’s characters, world building and lore (what little bit we get of it 😭), and for just how undderrated it is! I honestly think people don’t really give it much of a chance, and because it isn’t like other anime where it gives you all or most of the information at the beginning, they immediately drop it and call it boring/stupid/insert some other insult here (although the ones that complain about Asta’s shouting and say he’s annoying; i get it. While I personally didn’t find it bothersome, i know others that did, so that complaint is very valid to me!). Black Clover is very much a slow burn series, so you have to give it time and have a lot of patience imo!

[hacked-wtsdz]

Mon Mothma is really interesting to me because she is willing to get her hands dirty for a cause. In comparison to Padme, for example, she is a completely different sort of person, rebel, senator, partner. This isn’t about putting them against each other to say who is better, they were, according to canon, very good friends and co-creators of the rebellion, but the way they work to get to their ends is different. Mon admits that she has learned from the Emperor, she has learned how to lie, how to betray, how to be a wolf in a sheep’s skin, the things that Palpatine is the best at. Padme, who has been Palpatine’s friend and, in a way, student would not do the things Mon does. She puts the Rebellion, freedom, politics, war first, but she wouldn’t marry her daughter off to achieve something. She wouldn’t betray Anakin, first of all, because their love is true, compared to Mon and her husband. But also because framing somebody isn’t morally correct in her opinion. Ideals are extremely important to Padme. She is the golden side of the rebellion: honest, honourable. That is inherently why Anakin fell in love with her, that kid from Tatooine where those words meant less than dust. And that nature passed on to Luke, which is why he was able to save Vader and defeat the Empire in the end. That golden side is crucial to the rebels. That’s not to say that Padme isn’t willing to lie or spy or kill, but sacrificing her morals for a greater cause would be near impossible to her imo. Becoming Luthen would never have been an option. And that doesn’t make her bad or useless. Like I said, people like her were the ones who built the Rebellion in the first place, without them it wouldn’t have thrived. Padme is Nemik. Padme is the Jedi. Padme is Luke refusing to fight Vader, refusing to become like him even to save his friends. In the end, that’s exactly what saves them. But Mon, oh Mon is Luthen. Mon is Cassian himself. Mon is the sacrifice of Kreegyr. Mon is shading faces like masks and lying without shame. Mon is all those people who gave up their conscience for a cause. Mon is the shaded side of the rebels, no less crucial than Padme to their eventual victory. Mon is willing to do the things Padme is not, and by that she is unable to be moral and good like Padme, unable to be the golden side. Doomed to use her enemies’ weapons against him. They are two sides of the same coin, one shiny, one rusted, both make up its value, both a heart with which the rebellion beats. Only before we saw more gold than rust, and now Andor really got to show us the black side of the Rebellion.

[crazilust]

Loyalty through the signs (pt.1)

Please check you Sun and Mars placement.

(I am not talking about faithfulness as in, would they cheat on their partner, think of it more as in "would they have my back, would they defend me, etc.)

Aries (#1) : To me, the top loyal sign. Most Aries I know, once they decide to have your back, it's for life. They will defend and protect you against anything and everything. . Loyalty dictates almost everything they do and will stop being loyal if they don't sense the same loyalty towards them.

Advice : I know how you love to defend and protect the people you love, but some people take advantage of that and purposefully use you to defend them. You can be a little blind sometimes. Open your eyes.

Taurus (#2) : Taurus would be the second most loyal in my opinion. As the sign after Aries, this sign has learned how to only give their loyalty only to the ones that deserve it. Once a Taurus deems you worthy, they'll have your back... forever.

Advice : Let's not forget the Scorpio-Taurus axis, here. You tend to wait until the very end to trust someone and give them your all, scared that the energy you'll invest won't be worth it. Although this is to protect your peace, some worthy people will get tired to jump into your hoops all the time. Trust them.

Gemini : Ah... Geminis. Unfortunately, they are not the most loyal sign out of the zodiac, even though I feel as if there's an explanation to this which doesn't paint them as two-faced demons, like meme culture wishes you to believe. With the twin archetype, they are constantly battling the two sides of the coin. If there's an issue in your friend group for example and you feel like that Gemini friend doesn't have your back, they're probably just trying to see both sides of the problem and feel uncomfortable picking a side.

Advice : Sometimes, in life, you have to pick a side. While I don't necessarily think Geminis are fake (too broad a statement), I do feel like you guys overthink too much and end up not making a choice, hurting others around you. Pick a side sometimes. It won't hurt (or it'll hurt less lmao).

Cancer (#4) : Cancer. My favorite sign to talk about, really. So misunderstood. To me, they're the fourth sign most loyal in the zodiac, imo. Being a cardinal water sign which rules the home, they are devoted to the people they love. I feel like the reason why they're maybe not seen as loyal is because they really don't let a lot of people in. They will only protect the ones they love deeply. Anyone else can go to hell, as far as they're concerned.

Advice : Let people help you when you need protection. We know you can defend us and you will no doubt. But let us help you, from time to time.

Leo : Leos, to me, are kind of average (Now I know they're not happy about that ranking lolololol). They will show you loyalty if needed, but I also feel like they will only show them if it benefits them or makes them look good. At the same time, with the King archetype, they do feel a certain sense of duty towards the people they love, but just like a monarch, in a ... colder way. Like "yea, I'll help you... once I'm done with this, just a sec." Again, this not inherently a bad thing and depends on other placements as well.

Advice : I feel like we don't acknowledge Leo's insecurities enough when it comes to astrology. Even if they're ruled by the Sun, you can sometimes feel pressure to be excellent at all times and I feel like if sometimes you don't offer their help, it's because you feel like it won't be useful enough. Trust yourself, baby.

[windvexer]

Hello, Do you think divination coins (you know the one with a yes and a no) are good? Also what do you have to do to get a clear answer when using divination? Cleanse beforehand?

I've never used coin flips for divination, except perhaps some casual dabbling. I do use pendulum this/that readings which IMO is about the same thing.

Clear answers may be obtained by many means.

The first and IMO the most important method is to be a Diviner. If a person can divine, they can obtain answers from any method - traditional, imagined, or spontaneous.

Becoming a Diviner (tm) occurs with practice and is something I think just about anyone can achieve if they set their minds to it.

Otherwise, cleansing helps - to a degree.

If I have a fine instrument gunked up with grime, it won't work correctly. The only thing cleansing does is remove unwanted debris from your tool.

If your readings are inaccurate because of random astral slime, then cleansing helps promote accurate readings.

Otherwise, it does not help very much.

Reading within a protected space is IMO always safer than the alternative, but if spirit or malefic interference isn't causing inaccurate answers, this method doesn't help, either.

Devoting the tool (in your case, a coin) to a deity of divination will help a lot.

Obtaining a familiar spirit who is excellent in the arts of divination will help a lot.

Practice as a diviner helps perhaps most of all.

If your interest is in yes/no or this/that divination, practice it above and beyond other methods. Interpreting tarot cards as a narrative is not the same thing as practicing yes/no divination.

Find opportunities in your day-to-day life to test yes/no divination. As an example, my car ignition is broken and the key only works if inserted one way. This creates a 50/50 chance that I get the key wrong.

I use starting my car as an opportunity to test my yes/no divination. The key is identical on both sides. Can I read which side will start the car?

Look for ways to test your skill. Results vary, but I find it is best to not overly test with your tool (the coin). Frustration and failures easily attach to tools.

Also keep in mind that not all divination questions are made equal. A diviner can accurately read some things, but not others. Answers that are "nearby" in time, location, and obviousness are easier to read than far-away, distant, and obscure answers.

Lastly, try reading your intuition along with the coin face. "Yes" and "no" may be inaccurate on their own. "Yes, but it sucks and you regret your decision" is an answer that intuition provides, which a querent may find to be accurate - even if they would call a simple "yes" to their question a false result.

[sonderastrology]

🌙🌈✨Astrology Notes✨☄️🌟

*Based on things I’ve noticed about different placements as a Leo sun/Virgo moon/Capricorn rising... these notes may not resonate for everyone but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles baby* MADE BY SONDERASTROLOGY

🧿I see the people I’m close with more as their moon sign with a dash of their sun, almost as if the placements were reversed. This is because the moon sign is sort of hidden at first whereas the sun sign is the core energy. When you befriend or love someone, the moon sign (emotions, mental processes) is slowly uncovered and in my opinion, takes over the general energy of the sun. Of course, all signs, houses, and aspects are important... this is just the way I look at it idk.

🧿Everyone needs a best friend with the same rising sign as your moon sign... they just *get* you.

🧿Also having friends with the same mars sign as you is so important! They can hype you up like no other and vice versa.. your vibes just click.

🧿I’ve noticed that people with opposite sun signs but rising signs in the same element take AMAZING pictures together. For example; A Pisces sun w a Leo rising and a Virgo sun w a Sagittarius rising would make eachother look bomb in photos.

🧿Pisces, cancer, Virgo, and libra placements are proned to being stalked and hit on by weird men... I’ve seen it too many times, protect yourselves!!!

🧿People always tell me that they were intimidated by me at first or even “scared”, and that I give off a bitchy vibe. My placements that indicate this?Capricorn rising (Uranus, Neptune, Lilith in 1st house), Leo venus and Virgo moon in my 8th house, Scorpio MC, Scorpio and Pluto in my 11th house. Other placements that can have this effect: Aries, Scorpio, Aquarius, and Earth signs in personal planets/MC/Rising signs. Personal planets aspecting mars, Pluto, saturn, sometimes Neptune, and Lilith. Mars/Aries, Saturn/Capricorn Pluto/Scorpio in the 1st, 2nd, 7th, 10th, 11th house. 8th house placements and Chart Ruler in the 8th, 10th, and maybe 12th house. There’s definitely a whole lot more placements not just these.

🧿Aquarius/Air dominant people (esp mixed with fire) along with an array of other placements I’m sure, have a VERY hard time with forced structure and routine... it brings out their rebellious nature.My best friend from high school is an Aquarius Sun Gemini Moon (with an Aries mars), and she DESPISED going to school for 7 hours a day, she just couldn’t do it. She would skip school all the time and eventually enrolled in night school. Same went for my other friend who was a Sag sun Gemini moon, both of them would act TF out in class. They’d fight with teachers, the principle, other students... and I really believe it was due to the forced schedules and the power dynamic between teachers and students in high school. The Aquarius sun person is my best friend today, and she’s one of the smartest people I know. Just because you weren’t “good” at school does NOT mean you aren’t smart. Fuck the system is an air sign BRAND.

🧿I’ve noticed A LOT of Gemini sun, moon, and rising people have light shades of hair... mostly blonde or dirty blonde.

🧿I’ve met 4 people born on the 28th of the month and all of them are incredibly beautiful... no matter what sign. Same goes for July Leo’s although I’ve noticed that they’re more arrogant and self centered than August Leo’s who are more generous and outgoing

🧿Your Jupiter sign can help you work with law of attraction and manifestation more effectively. If you have Jupiter in an air sign, try manifesting things by; writing it down, saying it out loud, visualization, and meditation. If you have Jupiter in a fire sign; manifest under the sun, write out a plan even if it’s unrealistic. If you want money, hold even a penny or a dollar and act as if it’s the amount you want. Act as if everything you want is already yours. If you have Jupiter in an earth sign; manifest while doing yoga or on a walk. Manifest outside or read/listen to positive affirmations. Jupiter in a water sign; manifest using crystals and rocks with guidance from tarot. Manifest through the arts and hobbies; draw what you want or make a song. Something where you can use your creativity. *All of these methods for manifestation are effective for all of the signs I just think that certain ways can help certain signs more*

🧿Based off of people I’ve met, air risings aren’t as friendly and bubbly as you’d think they’d be when you first meet them. Even their vibe seems nervous and closed off at first; standing with arms crossed, shoulders inward, I dont know just sort of shy. Once they open up a bit more then their weird side comes out and they become more goofy and carefree. I think air signs of all placements struggle deeply with anxiety even though they are often portrayed as outgoing and quirky, which they are but a thin viel covers it. No matter what, air placements keep an open mind and I’ve always felt like I could be myself around them.

🧿Libra placements are known for disliking confrontational disputes but I’ve noticed that these are the same people to whisper nasty things under their breathe when you start to walk away from an argument... they have you whip back around like “do you have something to say?!”

🧿I’ve seen this before and imo it’s true! Signs in the 8th house rule addictions... I saw someone post that having a water sign in the 8th house could indicate addictions to liquid, more specifically; caffeine and alcohol. Being addicted to something is in other words creating a bond with it- water signs are naturally bonded with liquid so it makes sense that their prone to being addicted to them. Water signs occupying the 8th house might always drink water or have water with them. Since the 8th house also rules finances to an extent, most of their money might go to coffee, drinks, beach vacations etc. For fire signs over the 8th house, they could be addicted and/or spend a lot of money on smoking, spicy foods, or anything that gives them a rush; rollercoasters, haunted houses, skydiving or even drugs like esctacy/cocaine... anything that gives them that thrill or lights a match in their stomach. Earth signs in the 8th house may be addicted to physical things; money, work, food, looks,... things that give them value or that call on their senses and ego. They could hoard/collect items such as coins, cars, beauty products, etc., or generational items passed down... due to bonding with things that they can bulid/see/show off overtime. They are very attached to the physical because as an earth sign it feeds their ego and value, like a tree growing in soil. Money could mostly go to eating, gambling, plastic surgery, materialistic stuff. They could be addicted to buying things and selling them for a higher price. Air signs occupying the 8th house could point to spending a lot of money on or being addicted to technology or all things ‘relevant’. These individuals might be addicted to their phones/social media and the attention they get from it. These people are always posting stories throughout the day or online shopping or even just browsing different apps. They’re addicted to getting information via books, the internet, and through talking to other people... oftentimes these individuals are very good at making money through the internet (depending on other placements ofc). They may spend a lot of money on books, new gadgets, music, tattoos and puzzles. These people are addicted to all things new! They have a thirst for knowledge and experiences and will seek it out effectively. 🧿When I look at a person’s birth chart, whatever gender, I especially pay close attention to their Mars sign and house. To me, Mars represents the overall energy and vibe a person gives off and the house placement is where it’s most naturally acted out. For example ; Aries Mars in the 6th house. Aries Mars person would give off a hyper, motivated, impulsive energy. Physically this could manifest as shaking their leg while sitting, quick movements,standing/walking instead of sitting down, gives off a more to the point and carefree attitude (keep in mind all of this is affected by many other aspects and placements in a chart). Being in the 6th house, ruling day to day routine, health, how we act at work, etc., this means that the Aries Mars characteristics are more prominent during work and day to day rituals (quicker to learn, effectively performing daily tasks, gets shit done, or they could get into arguments at work easily, constantly rush around, might be stubborn about seeing a doctor/health professional, might be more prone to getting headaches at work or in general) again, depending on the rest of the chart

[cha-melodius]

hi! you do fantastic au's, can you give any advice about crafting them? I got my first au idea but I'm nervous about maintaining the characters and translating canon into another setting without losing the ship's magic.

Hello anon! First off, thank you so much, I'm so glad you enjoy my AUs! And secondly thank you for this awesome question, I had to think about it for a little bit but I think I've narrowed in on all my AU Secrets.™️ And by narrowed I mean not really narrow at all, this is gonna be a long one, because apparently I have a lot of Thoughts on AUs, lol. I'm not sure if you're a Lokius reader or Napollya reader or both, so I've used examples from both in this. With the caveat that this is all IMHO...

Strategy 1. First, the easiest way to pull off a successful AU is to drop your characters into a situation where they have the same essential dynamic as they do in canon. There is a reason so many of my Napollya AUs are rivals-to-lovers, especially Extremely Well-Matched Rivals, because that is such a fundamental part of their canon relationship. On the other hand, you certainly have an enemies-to-lovers dynamic with Lokius, but it's not a straightforward rivals thing, there are also aspects of Mobius becoming a mentor and/or being in a position of power. Obviously most AUs are interested in exploring that relationship beyond what happens in canon, but if the starting point is roughly the same, it's going to be easier for the relationship to 'feel' right.

But what about AUs where their dynamic is NOT fundamentally the same, you may ask? After all there are tons of AU situations that people might want to explore that don't fit that first strategy. It's totally possible to write an amazing AU that doesn't fit, just a little more difficult (imo) to make sure you capture the spark just right. Which leads us to...

(read the rest below the cut, because like I said, LONG)

Strategy 2a. Figure out what part of their dynamic you DO want to make sure to keep. Maybe it's the contrast of Loki's chaotic mischief to Mobius's down-to-earth orderliness, or Napoleon's disregard for the rules with Illya's good soldier who follows orders (until he doesn't). Similarly, you have always be thinking about how they relate to each other. To me, Mobius isn't Mobius unless he's Fondly Exasperated by Loki most of the time. Illya is going to be (often begrudgingly) impressed by Napoleon in some way, though how much he admits it to even himself depends on the rest of the setup. To me, the biggest "mistake" (in quotes because it's based on my opinions and preferences) I see people make in AUs is to lose sight of the smaller nuances how they relate to each other. Just because they fall in love doesn't mean that these dynamics are lost, even once they've admitted their feelings to themselves and/or each other.

Strategy 2b. I put these two together because they're sides of the same coin. You have to always keep in mind the fundamental nature of the character you're writing. It sounds obvious, because you have to do that for canon-set writing as well, but tends to be harder in AUs. It isn't enough to put in that Mobius likes jetskis or Illya is good at chess. Those are good details to include, but I will argue that they are not FUNDAMENTAL to those characters. You could write an entire Lokius AU and never mention jetskis, and you wouldn't lose anything from Mobius's character (I know, bold claim, but as I write this I realize I did just that to the tune of 80k...). If you rely on those things to "sell" your AU character, that character is gonna fall flat. You wanna know what I always repeat in my head whenever I'm writing Mobius, no matter what the fic? "Mobius isn't so bad. —Or so good." That's one of the major things I consider to be the fundamental underpinning to his entire character. Obviously I have a lot more thoughts and feelings about the character and what makes him tick, based on his actions in canon, but whenever I ask myself, when writing a story, WWMD? That's what I consider.

Strategy 3. Ok, this one is the one that you have to use WITH RESTRAINT. Weave little aspects of canon into the story. Individual lines, a play on a scene, details here and there. When deployed well, these are excellent and fun little moments that make your audience say, "I understood that reference!" It's easy to go overboard, though. Personally, I'm not usually interested in reading a canon scene re-created in exacting detail in an AU. Fics can get bogged down in too many canon references.  It's an AU, I want it to feel like one. As with the details about your characters, details of canon are nice to include, but you shouldn't rely on them to tell your audience who your characters are.

I think those are the biggest things I’m always thinking about when I’m creating an AU. I hope this was at least a little helpful! Best of luck with your AU, and if you’re not sure about something when writing, my last piece of advice is just try to strip everything else out of the scene and set it in canon instead, and ask yourself what the characters would do. You’ve got this, anon!

Thank you so much for the thought-provoking ask, obviously I like thinking about crafting AUs almost as much as I like writing and reading them. 😅

[vampiremourning]

hope you don't mind a mild rant but honestly, nines and the malkavian fledging seem like a good example of opposites attract. he offers encouragement and real stability. the pc offers understanding and zero judgement. i feel like they could let the other see all their weaknesses and demons and not feel ashamed about it. they could actually have total honesty in a world where trusting your fellow kindred is usually a death sentence.

anon i respect u & your truth however i think im gonna actually have to disagree on that one fgfhgjhk

under the cut because i got lengthy lmao

it's been a bit since i've done a replay but i do play the malkavian pc almost exclusively when i do, and while i do recall him being one of the characters who treats them a bit better than some people, he's not exactly their biggest fan. in fact, if you try to take the dialogue options that do expose a bit of his inner workings, he gets pretty irate. as much as i love him i don't see him as someone who would enjoy being with someone who can get inside his head like that non consensually. maybe if the fledgling holds off a bit then it wouldn't be the same, but imo because nines is someone who clearly has some sort of wall between himself & 99% of the people he interacts with, i see him having a constant low-level wariness of malkavians at best. honestly, i'm not too sure he can offer them the level of stability you describe here.

i also read a lot of the malkavian's transparency, esp at the start, as just saying shit without really being aware of kindred culture & society. later on they might do it to make people uncomfortable to gain an upper hand when interacting with them, but initially it definitely struck me as someone who just didn't know the rules yet.

also if we're talking opposites attract in our ships lmao, i stand by my brujah/ventrue preferences. when developing the relationship between nines and katerina, it takes them a hot minute before they're able to read their partner well. years, in fact & the connection between them is fundamentally based on their shared set of values that override any issues they have with the other clan. it's that stubborn resilience and the deep capacity to care for their loved ones while also grappling with the impulse to keep the world at arm's length. ventrue & brujah come off to me as two sides of the same coin, they just approach problem solving in ways that can sometimes conflict. i enjoy that push and pull dynamic between kat/nines and want the audience's takeaway from them to be two people who aren't together because of fate or destiny, they're together because they want to be & because they work at it.

it also helps i think, that she's very much not the fledgling--they've got a few decades of history & knowing each other to work with, and based on what's going on & how it affects his mental state, i think he would be far more open to getting with someone he already had something established with vs someone new & young. i can't see him actually being comfortable with engaging with the fledgling that way, regardless of clan. less about the potential age gap (we're all adults here it's fine), more about the power dynamics he would no doubt be aware of & the difference in life experience. he's somewhat of a celebrity in anarch circles, especially with the neonates, and i'm willing to bet he puts some very intentional distance between them because of it. conversely, when working with katerina, she's actually got about a decade of vampirism on him, and she also knew him before he was the baron of downtown. there's no issues with them calling the other out on their shit or being too starstruck (for lack of a better word) to address certain issues. imo the 'level playing field' aspect of them is a major asset.

now, malkavian ships? there's a reason i hooked up my malkvian pc, mitchell, with beckett post-game lmao. she's actually in a polycule scenario, but her main partners are beckett & VV. vv i just like a lot as a character and she gets little enough screentime that i can fill in the gaps with her (she also doesn't seem uncomfortable around the malkavian pc unless they ask her about susan, otherwise there's no real change i picked up on in her interactions). and beckett specifically i think may be the only character in the whole game who doesn't talk down to or show discomfort at any point around the malkavian fledgling? there may be someone else im just not recalling atm but he stuck out to me. he really just talks to them like they're any other person and doesn't get defensive or dismissive, which is very much appreciated. and even then i still can't see him pursuing anything with the fledgling until after the sarcophagus business is taken care of. basically, he just comes off as someone who inherently respects them & doesn't begrudge any of their quirks.

again, love nines to death but there's room for improvement when it comes to his interactions with the malkavian pc.

[itsclydebitches]

There's something really strange about how certain parts of the RWBY react so negatively to criticism of the show. There is a complete denial of the criticism, especially if its in good faith, for reasons only tangentially related to the critique. For example, the Youtuber hbomberguy made a really good faith critique of RWBY and I saw fans utterly dismissing it because he says he was a life long fan of Monty's work and they found screenshots from 2008 where he said he didn't like Monty. (1/2)

Yeah, outside of that primary point — that disliking an author/the author's work more generally doesn't automatically invalidate critique; there might be bias at play, yes, but it's not a foregone conclusion — there are a lot of complications there. One that I've actually been thinking about lately is this idea that opinions are not allowed to change over the course of our relationship with a text. There's this assumption that if you said you didn't like Monty in 2008 (whatever "didn't like Monty" even means in that instance — the person? The authorial persona? His company? Some works? All his works?) then you'd better either dislike his work the exact same amount now, or love it without question. No developing new or complicated opinions across twelve-odd years allowed. Which becomes the core of the, "Why are you watching if you hate it?" question that is constantly leveled at those who post critique. "Hate it" is an incredibly narrow approach to not at all easy to define feelings about a show and "hate" means something very different for every fan. For many, the knee-jerk response is simply, "I don't hate it. If I truly hated it I wouldn't still be watching." It's ouroboros eating its own tail: if you hate RWBY you shouldn't watch RWBY, but we watch it, so we must not hate it. Now what? The conversation often stalls when someone refuses to acknowledge that there's more to interacting with a text than the two neat boxes "I love it completely" and "I hate it completely."

But I'm getting off base here. The point is that changing opinions crops up a lot when discussing the critical side of the fandom, with some assuming that if you're critical now then you've always been critical and you're nothing but critical. The idea that you once loved RWBY and are now negotiating a different kind of interest in it, or that you're frustrated by the show while also enjoying other aspects is, it seems, not on the table. It's presented as that either/or situation: you like it, or you don't, and if you've got any gripes with the story, the author(s), or the company at any point... then you're in the "don't" category.

But beyond all that, I also mean that opinions aren't allowed to change in the sense of fans not acknowledging that online spaces are a kind of Wild West where opinions as a whole are incredibly malleable. To use myself as an example, I've posted A LOT of stuff about RWBY. That means I've said a lot of stuff and given how humans work... a lot of that stuff contradicts! Sometimes it's for easily explainable reasons — I got a new piece of information and changed my tune accordingly, a new Volume warmed me to a character or topic that I wasn't previously interested in, etc. — but other times it's just... a mess. Because our relationships with texts can be a mess. I've got posts where I'm criticizing Sun when talking about RWBY. I've got posts where I'm defending Sun when talking about Before the Dawn. I've got posts where I'm 100% backing Ozpin's choices. I've got posts where I acknowledge he really fucked up. I've got posts where I gush about how much I love Ruby's optimistic outlook. I've got posts where I express how much I can't stand her naive outlook. This stuff isn't static and it's certainly not neat and tidy. Not only do our opinions about texts and their creators often change over time, they don't always change across a set number of years for easy consumption by an outside observer. Sometimes your opinion changes daily. Hourly. Sometimes that occurs through conversations followers never see, posts that are later deleted, nothing but your own thoughts because we're not posting every hour of every day. And then you're back saying Thing #1 again because it's all just messy, repetitive conversation expressed via quickly written tweets and the like as an informal hobby. No one is double-checking our work here, demanding to know if we really, truly back what we're saying 100% because someone might one day drag it back out into the light and try to hold you accountable for it. Presenting any one, quickly expressed opinion from over a decade ago as some sort of 'gotcha' is in far more bad faith, imo, than the critique that's getting dismissed.

All of which is, of course, far from just a RWBY issue. We see this kind of behavior everywhere online, where past opinions, mistakes, or just casual responses are dredged up with the intention of erasing any and all present credibility. Pay no attention to what the person is saying now, instead form your opinion of them solely by what they said years ago, with no possible wiggle room allowed. Fans dismissing RWBY critique? That's fine. No one needs to engage with criticism of a favorite show — if anything, I highly encourage those who dislike critique to steer clear of it — so as frustrating as it can be on our end, it's the cleaner side of a very ugly coin. If the worst our community ever did was go, "Your critique is invalid because you said once in 2008 that you don't like Monty's stuff" and left it at that... said community would be a far kinder, gentler, safer place. As it stands, that urge to go digging for a 'gotcha' post generally leads to full-blown harassment (which, frankly, I'm sure hbomberguy got anyway). It is weird that fans are so eager to use an old screenshot to "disprove" a two and a half hour video... I just wish that's as far as that kind of behavior ever went.

[chasing-sirius-in-circles]

Some syncretism bullshit comparisons* bumping around in my brain whom I must write down to make room in there, though further research and probably many corrections are still in order:

Ra and Osiris > Indo European creation gods (Horus as the warrior would make sense, Set unclear if this is the comparison we go with), maybe similar to the mycenaean conception of Zeus/Poseidon (who back when was also the underworld deity)

Osiris Set and Horus > Cain, Abel, Seth (hilariously, Horus is Seth, not Set), proto Indo European twin gods and warrior

Osiris > Hades (you cannot take this from me idc if the Greco Roman Egyptians didn't roll with it) and Dionysus (on Earth, this also makes for a Horus and Dionysus connection), and, I'm gonna say it based on comparisons in antiquity of Isis and Demeter, Persephone. Also Hel (regarding early conceptions of a dreary but mostly neutral afterlife for most people who weren't a king or elites). See also Proto Indo European Manu. Husband of Innana/Ishtar (who apparently the greeks placed between Persephone and Aphrodite which would track with the myth of Osiris fathering Anubis with Nephthys and his being a god who must spend time in the underworld)

Set > Loki, Proto Indo European Yemo, Typhon (I guess?) and, getting crazy here, ancient/archaic conceptions of Eros (it's the vigorous coition), Ares

Isis > Demeter (makes things be alive?) possibly Hestia, maybe aspects of early Despoina/Persephone (yes I realize this seems contradictory) though I'm gonna be honest I don't think I've come across a good comparison for her anywhere, you could imo also argue elements of Hera and Frigg or Freya, but I think she also could be called a rare example of a trickster goddess/a check on and director of divine willpower which is why she maps onto tons of other kemetic deities (an eye of Ra for ex), also any mother of god archetype like Mary (which I realize is odd when I just compared Osiris and Set to Eve's sons but fuck it, mother of god who is also your ticket to the afterlife/salvation, it tracks), maybe even SOME elements of Hermes (who is incidentally somewhat akin to elements of Loki which brings me back to my fringe tinfoil trickster thing again), Innana/Ishtar (who I guess brings us around to Aphrodite!?) with echoes of Neith she shares with her sister

Nephthys > Hecate (cares for shades entering the underworld/afterlife, associated with Isis and therefore some degree of magic or proximity to it, and Isis and Osiris do hold traits also present in Hades and Persephone though not necessarily in that order), Ishtar's husband's sister Geshtinanna, echoes of Neith

Osirs, Set, Isis, and Nephthys re: each other > Isis and Set feel like counterbalances to each other to me (he is basically raw power and Isis is legendary for holding the power of Ra's name, some generational repeating themes there maybe?) while Isis and Nephthys are extremely complimentary to the point where I'd look at them as a unit/two sides of one coin/two modes of being for a same force, which would suggest the same of Osiris (Osiris-Horus? I'm making that up but you know what I mean) and Set, two sides of kingship and complex and ergo heirarchal civilization

Nut > Nyx

*In my head gods are the faces humans can even begin to comprehend for all but unknowable infinite 4 dimensional tessellations of the many natures, laws, forces, and patterns of the universe so I'm pretty open to the idea that any given deity can be reflected many times in many others and vis versa. mythological chronology and circumstances don't have to be perfect matches for me to consider them comparisons worth noting.

This is my personal take and I'd love to discuss all of this with the understanding that this is just my worldview that helps my puny human mind conceive of these things and it is therefore equivalent to a theoretical framework of choice, I'm going to default to it but that does not mean I think all other views are incorrect--this is just the conception that I'm starting from.

[mariaiscrafting]

About dnf and mcyt homophobia...I think people should ask themselves if they would feel the same way if one member was a woman. Take GNF for example. Same personality, same skills, same background of friendship etc. Just as a woman. Would ppl still watch her for "sitting pretty infront of the camera"? Would people find it cute when D brings her up at every chance? Would they find it cute when he spends a lot if money on her on stream and openly praises her shows affection? Probably not.

I have... mixed feelings about this ask.

So yeah, I agree that there are lots of double standards to be addressed with dnf, as in many other aspects of media and life. Imo, for true equality to be achieved - that is, for all relationships with any combination of people of different gender identities to be seen as normal, capable of the same criticisms and respect, without degradation or special treatment of any kind - we need to each individually question, how do we treat and perceive certain relationships? Are we treating some ships in real life and in media differently than we would if the orientations were different? If so, why? There’s this notion that homophobia is solely based on hatred or degradation, which isn’t true. Homophobia isn’t just seeing mlm/wlw relationships as lesser, less valid, or gross. It’s also the treatment of those relationships as Other, which includes treating them in ways you wouldn’t otherwise treat heterosexual relationships. 

So yeah, a good practice to eradicate this kinda treatment of relationships as “Other” is active thinking. When we ship things, ask ourselves if we’d do the same thing if GNF were a woman, rather than a man. But, I think that your assumption that “probably not,” in regards to whether or not most people would be treating him the same, is a bit presumptive. Some of the things you listed are things most of my peers on the Internet are against when it comes to women, and I think is unjust. Like, I’ve made a post on my main blog ranting about how the immediate assumption that any man who calls a female CC pretty/beautiful that day is misogynistic? That kinda peeves me and I think is an attack on the femininity of a woman and contributing to society’s derisive attitude towards female CCs who try to present themselves as sexually attractive and/or put efforts into their appearance. First of all, this is just my opinion and personal take on the topic. Second of all, I think this speaks to how we need to understand both sides of the coin when we’re talking about what exactly is oppressive/bigoted. We might think we’re helping the purproted victims of certain forms of bigotry, but to claim that things that aren’t actually wrong are wrong can actually be really detrimental to those vulnerable groups, rather than helpful.

But I’m getting a bit off-topic, so back to your original examples. The first one is really, really valid, imo. The first point brings up, not a point about homophobia exactly, but more about male objectification. I know current Internet culture is focused more on the objectification of women and criticizing it. But there’s this giant double standard, in that so many women and people attracted to men excuse the same behavior when it’s targeted at men or non-women. There’s nothing wrong with watching streamers because you think they’re attracted. But when you’re using language and having discussions about their attractiveness, always keep that same mentality in mind of; would you be okay with the same thing if it was directed towards a woman? Are you crossing lines you wouldn’t cross when talking about female CCs. There needs to be this balance, between understanding that it’s okay to watch women for their attractiveness and to comment on it because it’s not inherently a bad or objectifying thing, and not being super creepy and objectifying of men in those discussions on attractiveness.

To your second choice... this is really subjective, imo. Like you seem to not think this is okay, while I personally am okay with it? I point out when people in non-mlm relationships/ships bring each other up all the time, too, because I think it’s cute. But that’s up to you, really.

To your third example.... uh, this is an... opinion. Like yeah, I genuinely do think most people would be okay with those things? I’ve seen examples of female streamers receiving a big amount of money from someone they’re being shipped with/have romantic connotations with in their relationship, and frankly, I don’t think either is more or less weird than the other. Maybe that’s just because I don’t have this mentality of women versus men being the breadwinners in relationships, but I understand how some people might see that as another form of women being financially dependent upon men in relationships, which is Problematique, yeah. But... openly praising someone and showing affection? Like.... even when a man is doing that to a woman, is that a bad thing? I still think it’s cute? I think most people would treat this the same, whether George/Dream were a het ship or not...

But again, these are all ~my opinions~ warped by my personal biases and experiences, so to each their own, anon. Ty for the ask <3