#also a reference to tvtropes :)

[moonlightvalleycomic]

p. 3

previous/next

beginning of chapter

chapter 1

[beevean]

Random question out of the blue, but I saw a post on a forum I lurk, that offhandedly alluded to Archie comics nearly killing Sonic even before Sonic 06, due to Sega not paying attention to what was being done with the character until it was too late. Having seen you rant about IDW Sonic before, (which I don't think is the same thing? But still adjacent enough to be relevant) you seemed like the best person to go to for context on what happened with that prior run.

I'm not well informed on Archie, sadly. I tried to read the reboot, but turns out it wasn't a reboot at all because it still required me to know events happened before that issue 😂 and pre-reboot is a complete mess I wouldn't even know how to touch.

I do know that technically the "real" Robotnik the comics start with dies early on, and then he gets replaced by another dimension's counterpart. A bold move, I suppose.

TvTropes gives me this:

Mistaken for Dying: Though he survives some near-fatal adventures, his friends and family thought he had died more than once. Issue 125 was easily the most dramatic as he stopped a doomsday device from destroying the planet. Everyone thought he was vaporized when he was really warped halfway across the universe. It took him a year (in Mobius time) to get back.

Plot Armor: No matter how bad things get, Sonic is always guaranteed to win in the end or eventually rebound from a short term defeat. It's eventually revealed to be an In-Universe case: according to Mammoth Mogul and Eggman, Sonic's long-term exposure to Chaos Energy has essentially made him an Anthropomorphic Personification of Chaos, a living unknown factor; no matter how strong the bad guys get, no matter how ingenious their plans are, and no matter how far they calculate and plan, Sonic will win at the last minute. This has driven Mammoth Mogul to play the Long Game, using his immortality to his advantage to simply wait it out until Sonic dies of old age or just gets too old to fight, and is what led Eggman to create the reality warping Genesis Wave tech to have a way to counter it.

(this last part explains a few fanon misconceptions, huh)

Sorry I wasn't of much help lol. I hope someone else can answer your question!

[shrinkthisviolet]

OC Creator Bingo 2023

Steph Taylor

for the wonderful @avatarskywalker78!

[alexanderwales]

I wish people wrote more and better cultural (and subcultural) primers.

Like "here's the core cultural canon" or something. "Here's a very brief synopsis of this movie, and then here are the two or three bits that everyone remembers from it, and how it's framed by the general public".

Instead we get things like a list of what's in the canon, and this serves a very different purpose, and if you go that route, you probably miss out on a lot of why it's in the canon, or the references and memes and general language that has evolved from the original.

The closest that I've seen is TVTropes, and they're also doing something that's not quite what I want, especially in the modern day, when every entry for every work of media seems like it's full of too many tropes: things that only sort of fit, rather than the tropes that get at the core.

I mostly want this sort of thing because ... it's interesting, right? The way a piece of media can stick with us, the particular elements that stick with us, the way that we form little rituals and understandings. A cultural primer is interesting because it's an attempt to distill down something that can't be distilled, that exists amorphously throughout everyone of that culture.

I wish we had more of that.

[pro-sipper]

"Dead Dove: Do Not Eat"

About the tag, the origin, and why I think no one on either side of the fandom divide knows how to use it

First of all, I'm crosstagging because I think it's a general issue, not just something for pro or anti shippers. I see the tag get misused on both sides and I just wanted to throw my two cents in

So, where did the term originate? Like all culturally significant things online, it started as a meme. More specifically, a meme from the television show Arrested Development. Character A has put a dead dove into a brown paper bag to store in the family's fridge. On the bag, he has taped a sign that reads, in big bold letters, "DEAD DOVE. Do Not Eat!"

Character B comes across the bag, reads the warning, and opens it anyway. When he's met with, you guessed it, a dead dove, he proclaims "I don't know what I expected".

This is an example of (and has since basically become the spiritual successor to) the "Exactly What It Says On The Tin" trope.

If you want to check out the full history and countless examples of the trope, please check out the page on tvtropes. But for a slightly shorter history - it originated in a British commercial for Ronseal's Quick Drying Woodstain, which the tin claimed "dried quickly". And in the commercial they told you "It does exactly what it says on the tin!" So, the tin says what the product does, then the product does it. You get the idea.

In fandom spaces, the trope just means that the title of Thing (be it movie, show, fanfic, etc) tells you exactly what happens IN Thing. If a show is called "Buffy The Vampire Slayer", you already know it's about a girl named Buffy who slays vampires. If the movie is called "Cocaine Bear", you can bet a bear will get into some cocaine at some point. If there's a fanfic called "Fluttershy Has Tea With Jesus"... you get the idea.

While both tags started out with the same intentions and meaning, I don't think it's any wonder that "dead dove do not eat" has been so easy to misinterpret. For one, "exactly what it says on the tin" sounds more straightforward. You don't have to understand the specific reference to infer it means to check the label (in this case, tags) before purchasing (opening) the product (fanfic)

But dead dove is harder to understand if you don't know the reference. And at a glance, it sounds much darker. Doves have symbolism in multiple religions, and are seen as a symbol of peace. A dead dove evokes images of gore, violence, general unpleasantness. It must only apply to something sinister, right?

The thing about "exactly what it says on the tin" is that the tin needs to say something. You can't point at a blank label and say "here's what you can expect". People would be much less likely to engage with your product if that were the case

In the same vein, slapping "dead dove do not eat" on a fic with no other tags can lead to confusion. In this tag's case, it's a warning. But what are you warning about if you don't also put it in the tags? It leaves people's minds to conjure up only grim and upsetting images of what might be in your fic. Especially when, as it's also common to do, the tag gets shortened to simply "dead dove".

And while, yes, the tag is most likely to get slapped onto fics with dark or upsetting subject matter, that means something different for everyone who comes across it.

Most people seem to think it only applies to inappropriate relationships (age gap, incest, etc). But I've seen it applied to a variety of things, from potentially triggering material (like suicide) to things that simply may not be everyone's cup of tea (like excessive gross-out toilet humor).

In the end, "dead dove do not eat" is a tag that, in my opinion, should not be used as a descriptor as to what type of content your story contains. But rather, a gentle warning to say "hey, I'm specifically telling you what you're about to encounter, so whatever happens next is up to you".

After all, if you read the warning and still open the bag to find something you don't like...

I don't know what you were expecting.

[olderthannetfic]

I figure this is the best place to ask to not get a pretentious answer (Tried googling it and the quora preview answers killed her)

The word "trope" is overused to excessive mislabeling these days, anywhere (besides TvTropes*) I can go to refresh myself on actual tropes? Scholar-y places are also okay!

*I had an obnoxious know-it-all phase IRL where I constantly referred to tv tropes in casual convos hoping someone would ask me to clarify. I'm well familiar with it. And in my defense I was in middle school.

--

Anything can be a trope. There's no set list of things that count.

You might be able to find some lists in specific contexts. In folklore studies, there's this, for example:

But really, any common motif/plot device/etc. could be discussed using this word.

[blanceyblance]

A study on Lance's underrated role on the team.

Or, "Yes, there was a Space Mom"

Some time ago, I made a post saying that, the closest thing to a "Space Mom" the paladins ever had was actually Lance and I wanted to make a post elaborating more on why I thought so.

Now this is not me saying that we have to put this Team in neat nuclear family boxes, even Shiro, the one who the fandom collectively agrees to call "Space Dad" doesnt fit perfectly the Team Dad trope, but what I mean is that, this role is one that most of the time it appears naturally in any group of friends/people.

So, lets start with seeing how TVTropes describes what is a Team Mom:

"In an ensemble show, especially of the fighting kind, there needs to be someone to hold this Ragtag Bunch of Misfits together before they kill each other or wander off into the woods like so many Player Characters."

"The Team Mom basically acts as the mother figure for everyone else in the group, regardless of age or family relations."

"Although the role itself is traditionally female, the overprotective dad or older brother can qualify for Team Mom"

"They are by definition never the loner, and will in fact tend to be the one who pulls them into the cast's orbit as a Sixth Ranger. If anyone can break through and bring about a Heel–Face Turn or Cooldown Hug, it's them"

"if any of their surrogate children or siblings are threatened, they can snap into angry Mama Bear mode and kick some ass"

Basically, this role is less about gender and age and more about how the character threats the rest of their peers.

It is hard to imagine resident flirty goofball Lance as fitting in a role like this since, usually, characters that are referred to as the "Team Mom", seem a bit more responsible and mature.

And, admittedly, it is a role that he has to grow into a bit, but even in the first episode he already had some shades of this:

Covering for Pidge and taking the brunt of Iverson's anger, running to aid someone who had fallen from one of the pods (before knowing it was a pretty girl) and protecting Coran from a explosion.

Overall through the show, Lance actually ends up being very caring and protective towards his teammates.

I was unsure on how I wanted to do this analysis since, there is actually quite a lot I want to talk about, so I decided to highlight how Lance acts with every member of the team from this angle.

Keith

The Lion Switch and Keith stepping to pilot Black is what, for a lot of fans, kickstarts Lance's arc of becoming a more mature individual and team player.

But even as early as s1, we do have moments of Lance keeping Keith grounded, like when he stops him from being reckless and hurting the balmera.

In season 3, when Keith is dealing with the loss of Shiro, everyone present decides to turn to Lance to handle it, Lance doesnt even notice what they are doing and instead goes to talk to Keith.

It is interesting that, even Coran and Allura (the adult and the diplomat) also look at him to handle the situation. And it's not a case of just looking at the next person in line, since Pidge is very clearly looking in his direction.

They eventually join to talk to Keith too but not before Lance makes the first approach.

And even when it was clear he really wanted to be chosen, Lance still quickly went to support Black's choice and thus, Keith's new position.

Like Allura tells us later, this is what makes Red, the literal right hand lion to call for Lance.

"You value a strong team"

Because thats what makes Lance really shine. His utter love and care for his team.

Even when he was clearly disappointed about not being chosen he decides to forget his own hurt to instead show to his unsure teammate.

And support he did.

After Keith goes to follow Lotor and makes the team enter a difficult situation while Allura is struggling with Blue, it's Lance the one who manages to make him stop and return.

Keith returns with Lance and shows he is regretful of his actions, one would think that Lance would take this chance to scold his "rival" but instead, he just acknowledges that Keith did mess up but now they are going to fix it. Showing Keith he is not alone in this.

After this incident Lance keeps being very vocally supportive of Keith (when he agrees with his orders).

And will usually follow his orders to a T. For example in "The Journey Within" Keith made a system for the team to sound off every certain period of time, and when Keith stops seeing a point to it, Lance keeps going and the team follows his lead.

It is also interesting to mention, these moments of Lance speaking softly to Keith when he is freaking out.

Another example would be when they get captured and Keith calls the name of his teammates, Lance being the first name he calls and the first to answer.

This ended up being quite long and the 10 pic limit doesnt help either so I will be splitting this in parts.

Keith and Allura's section is, unsurprisingly, quite long but I managed to gather a little evidence to talk about Lance's relationship with all the team.

Hope you guys enjoyed this first part

[Part 1] [Part 2]

[finalgirlminamurray]

“meta horror” is another subgenre that’s kind of a hard sell for me. not that i don’t like any films that could be described that way but it’s hard to do well, i think, and if your audience is people with extensive knowledge of horror then it’s going to be especially hard to do it in a way that satisfies them. (it’s me i’m that audience.)

i thought maybe sometime soon i should watch the cabin in the woods again. i’ve only seen it once now, when i was first getting into horror movies, and since then after getting much deeper into the genre and greatly expanding my knowledge of it i probably would like it a lot less. part of that is due to the culture having soured a lot on joss whedon in the years since it came out, for good reason. part of it is due to my realization that a lot of the time when a “meta” horror movie posits certain tropes as universal or at least extremely common in the genre it’s…really not accurate.

a lot of meta horror stories are parodying or referencing slashers because that’s probably the subgenre with the most clearly established tropes and cliches and formulas, but they’ll also expand into “scary movies” in general with classic jokes about characters making “dumb” decisions and the like. the go-to slasher trope is “if you have sex you die” which i’ll agree is largely accurate but it often gets paired with “if you don’t have sex you live” and things like the killer specifically targeting people who have sex, which seems to happen way more often in parodies and meta slashers than in straight examples of the form. but then these parodies sometimes seem to inform people’s wider perception of the genre, even when film series get to the point where they’re parodying themselves. (see: jason goes to hell and jason x both specifically referencing “premarital sex” as something people do at camp crystal lake, and then stuff like that “it’s cool we’re married” meme that are based on a premise of the series following a “rule” it does not have.)

cabin in the woods doesn’t really go too far with the sex = death thing but it does assert that all or at least most popular horror films have a set of archetypes that the main victim characters always fit which is definitely not true in my experience. maybe i don’t watch enough lowbrow dumb slashers but i feel like there just aren’t a lot where you can easily sort the characters into “the scholar” “the athlete” “the fool”. there is usually at least one comic relief jokester guy and you can definitely do something with the way female characters are sorted into the virgin/whore dichotomy but most of the time there’s not really a Jock and a Nerd. it seems more based on teen movie archetypes than horror tropes and you’d have a hard time sorting most slasher movie casts into these (especially if there aren’t exactly 5 main characters, although that is a common number.) might be a consequence of them trying to reference horror movies in general and not a specific subgenre because while horror is a genre, different types of horror have different rules.

(another problem i have is that the film’s subversion of those character archetypes doesn’t really go farther than “the ‘jock’ is actually smart, the ‘nerd’ is actually a jock, the ‘fool’ is actually aware of what’s going on, the ‘whore’ is actually a Good Girl and the ‘virgin’ is actually a Bad Girl.” i do like the conceit that the designated ‘whore’ is just the girl who would have more opportunity to have sex on the trip since she’s going with her boyfriend, while the designated ‘virgin’ is just the one we don’t actually see having sex, but the film doesn’t really have time to explore that further. someone on tvtropes pointed that out. there Is interesting commentary here, it just also goes for broad strokes at other times.)

whedon has said that this film is a “loving hate letter” to the horror genre, or what popular horror films were like at the time, and i can see that - this movie came out at a time when american horror was kind of stagnating, but i also think the remake era was on its last legs at this point and we were just poised on the cusp of a new era of profitable genre trends when the conjuring got big. sources list cabin in the woods’ release date as alternately 2010, 2011, and 2012, which was kind of a transitional period for horror movies. makes sense that you might think horror was just cliches and unoriginal content at that point, but there’s good films in every era if you know where to look.

i definitely get the positioning of the elder gods they’re being sacrificed to as representative of how people just want the same familiar stuff over and over instead of anything new or different, but it makes more sense to have them represent the studios and producers who decide what’s profitable and what isn’t, and therefore what is and isn’t allowed to get made, based on which things have already made money, right? maybe i’m too generous to blame “audiences” for the executives with the real decision-making power who are terrified of “risk” (i.e, the possibility that something might not make them a shitload of money.) and yet everyone seems to talk about the elder gods as representing Us, the Viewers. there is a literal executive committee watching over everything, but they don’t have any control over what happens, and often talk about things they wish they could see but probably won’t because the trends go towards what’s reliable, so that probably makes them the audience…

which is reinforced by the scene of them all watching the designated final girl fighting for her life on a giant screen and cheering and celebrating while she struggles. and that opens a whole other issue with a lot of meta horror in that it tries to “implicate the viewers” and question why they enjoy watching people suffer and die but here’s the thing. there’s a very easy answer to that question and it is “because it’s not real”. again there’s interesting things you can do with the concept of implicating the audience but it is awfully hard to pull off successfully for that reason. if you try to go in on in-universe characters treating the horror as entertainment, then at some point you’re not commenting on horror fiction but true crime and that’s something else entirely. like how the scream sequels have an in-universe series of slasher films based directly on the events of the actual movies, which does stretch the suspension of disbelief a bit when they’re treated just like any other fictional horror movies.

speaking of scream, the reason it works so well is because it’s primarily a good slasher first and foremost. the meta references are part of the appeal but the film would probably work just as well without them. but because it was the first good slasher film we’d gotten in a while it spawned a wave of imitators that often get called “meta slashers” even though they’re really not particularly meta, they just have other things in common with scream like their casts full of popular teen tv actors. and kevin williamson, or a passable imitation of his writing style. (i do love scream 1 and 2 but the first movie gets credited with “revitalizing the horror genre” when really it just made studios realize that horror films could be profitable as long as they were like scream. there were plenty of great 90s horror films pre-scream that just weren’t as commercially successful.)

anyway. this post was just supposed to be about meta horror in general but it turned into me musing about cabin in the woods. i really should revisit it with both a critical eye and the intent to be fair to it instead of basing my criticisms off of my own memory of watching it once. it got a ton of praise when it first came out but now i feel like most people are cooler towards it. some parts definitely hold up (the sequence when they release all the monsters in the facility is a modern classic for a reason, the office workers’ banter is fun, the cast is good all around, and there’s some legit horror in the cosmic sense of being told that your friends were murdered for a “reason” and now you have to either kill yourself or your last surviving friend to “save the world”, what are you going to do? who do you believe in that situation?) ultimately i feel like it’s a reflection of a specific moment in time for horror and movies in general, which isn’t necessarily good or bad.

i’ll see if my assessment of “meta horror for people who don’t watch a lot of horror” is accurate. (as for meta horror for people who Do watch a lot of horror? it’s more slasher-specific but; behind the mask: the rise of leslie vernon. obviously.)

[bonefall]

Hey! Are you ok with people tagging you in fanart they do/making fanart of your rewrite? Your Crookedstar rewrite has me in SHAMBLES and I need to make fanart for it like. Right now

I'm more than ok with it! I try to collect it as I get it over here on this post, which is also linked on my pinned. You should also check out the TVTropes page that @halogenwarrior maintains, I look at it myself time to time because she updates it pretty frequently and I like learning about tropes that way lmao

You can also feel free to ping me as you please on whatever thing you're making that I inspired! That thing on my pinned post asking people to not ping me on OTHER people's posts refers to people going to the personal works of others and making comparisons, asking me questions about my au in other people's replies, etc. Stuff that wasn't considerate to the OP.

All of BB's concepts are free to use and change as you'd like! Credit's not necessary, but I do like seeing what people are up to.

I only ask that you do not steal drawn art to pass off as your own, as I have collaborators you need to be respectful of, and would also personally like to consider doing commissions or adopts at some point. I don't want any mishaps about people thinking those would be free to use.

ALSO BONUS APPLEKIN MARKING SYMBOLISM:

I stopped writing the draft where I did because I had written a lot and had wanted to share at that point, but with the new update on BB!Oakheart being BB!Crookedstar's adopted brother I've already accounted for the apple-leaf-shaped markings that are on his eyes.

("Applekin" cats come with these very subtle eye markings that aren't particularly noticed in-universe, as an artsy visual sign of them all being part of a family. They're going to show up on everyone from BB!Appledusk all the way down to BB!Frostpaw.

You can see them okish on this chibi I did of Silverstream, but unfortunately last time I drew Oakheart he was dadly weaning sunglasses so they're not visible. Here is a picture of the crabapple leaf it's supposed to look like)

They begin to develop the moment that Crookedstar betrays Mapleshade. Slowly, subtly, over the course of moons. So slowly that no one seems to notice it except Crookedstar.

At first, he thinks he's just crazy. Worrying too much, seeing things that aren't there. But his brother's previously creamy eyerims start to sharpen. At the back corner, a streak lines the lashes back. The smooth edges of the color spike, as if needle-sharp trout teeth are carefully being planted, one prickle, one week at a time.

No one else seems to notice it but him. But he gets the message. Mapleshade "gave" him this family-- and she wants him to know she's going to take it away, too.

So please, feel free to do with that as you will~

[blood-orange-juice]

Ok, Childe as a wuxia/xianxia trope. It's honestly a bit embarrassing how well this fits.

(blame @a-yarn-of-purple-prose for this post and if anyone here is a wuxia fan feel free to correct me, I'm new to the genre)

Wuxia is a Chinese martial arts fantasy genre you are all familiar with. An adjacent genre is called xianxia, "immortal heroes", it ramps all the fantasy elements up to eleven and skews tropes a bit (we'll get back to that).

A common trope is some kind of unorthodox school/sect or technique, allowing to achieve greater power without the usual decades of training. It could be straight-out evil or just revolving around chaos.

Such a martial school is usually called an evil/demonic sect (sect is more like a clan in that setting, not the modern concept of sect) and their techniques tend to drive practitioners to insanity. Either because they are inherently corrupting or because getting too much power without growing as a person is really not the best thing for your mental health. They are also often cast from hp points.

And then there's the archetype of a demonic sect heir. The best pupil or simply someone who has inherited a lost art. Proud, always greedy for more strength, often noble in some weird way.

*points to our calamity of a boy*

Common elements of such stories include:

Falling into some weird realm or meeting a weird person who teaches the hero a Forbidden Technique

Learning a technique too quickly through some sort of magic/alchemy/memory manipulation

Some people are so singular in their pursuit they become insane (走火入魔)

Ambition bad, loyalty and family good

Conflicting loyalties, generally a conflict between a chosen path and personal weaknesses/attachments (could be both ego and familal love, and this is more of a xianxia trope)

Fits like a horoscope so far but wait.

There's a very interesting case of Korean murim genre (their version of wuxia) where sects are less varied (I recommend this post for a basic introduction) and we get three paths:

Justice/Righteous/Orthodox/Light — theoretically they keep the Evil Faction at bay, and protect innocent people, but usually are corrupt to the core

Evil/Unorthodox/Dark — these try gaining as much power as possible and attempt ruling the whole world

Demonic Cult — usually dont take part in evil and justice battles, follow their own code of conduct based on their religion, value strength above all else.

(I'm sure there's a similar distinction in wuxia too, I just can't find it in the deluge of lore)

"Demonic" is closer to "pagan" or "heathen" than Christian idea of demonic here, their beliefs are often based on Zoroastrianism and worshipping a sacred flame. Do you remember all the Persian themes used for Khaenri'ah? And Surtalogi being the flame on Surtr's sword in Norse mythology. I also had the impression that Genshin gnostic references are based on the Zoroastrian-flavoured branch of Gnosticism.

In murim the trope of demonic sect heir is called "heavenly demon" (I believe, a more correct translation would be "supreme heathen"), they are utterly badass, live for the glory of battle, seem more like forces of nature and follow a very strict honour code often conflicting with normal human ethics.

(do I need to spell it out)

TvTropes also says this about Korean stories:

(do I need to spell it out pt.2)

I'm not sure why a Chinese studio would focus on the Korean version of this trope but I'm sure something like this exists in China as well or maybe there's a popular manhwa that inspired authors.

Xianxia extends the fantastic element further, focusing on Taoist concepts and practices and adding all kinds of magical realms (celestial, demonic, etc) and magical beings and making immortality achievable. I still need to read more about it but if I understand that right, demonic heir trope turns into a demon prince in this case. An actual visitor from the demon realm or a practitioner who achieved immortality through dubious means.

These are fae-coded in a way very similar to Childe and have a certain nonchalance towards things most humans would consider traumatic. They are simply not bothered by them, having a different set of morals or faring from a realm that is much worse.

Our boy isn't that (he's still very much human) but he's aesthetically coded like one, same as Scaramouche is yokai-coded, despite not being a yokai.

So. When people say Childe's arc is a reference to Journey to the West, it's not entirely untrue, JttW is the classic of xianxia genre and Childe does belong to the same genre. He, however, is not Sun Wukong but a different, darker trope.

This also explains why he has that "shonen anime protag but not quite" vibe. Shonen was heavily influenced by wuxia but this trope never quite made it to anime or maybe never became popular enough. It's not a deconstruction, it's a different story. Or perhaps a deconstruction of that different story.

[king-crawler]

BABYGIRL. CAN I CALL YOU BABYGIRL?? babybird. theydy. you HAVE to know about the turbo creepypasta virus rp blog that was running for literal years. you can't tell me it's not on his tvtropes page anymore and that you didn't scroll all of it

alsooooo i loved your video!!! i'm so glad it got so much traction and i'm so proud of you for making it!!! also the bird breaks. v nice.

has anyone ever considered a piece of turbo/king candy getting into vanellope during their glitch transfer tho. IMAGINE???

JOKES ON YOU CREEPER-PASTA WAS ALREADY A MAJOR INSPIRATION FOR ME HEHEHAHAH. I found it from the TVtropes page too! Unless ur referring to a different blog 👀

It’s been on a permanent hiatus for a while but ever since then eldritch god-complex virus Turbo has Really stuck with me. That and the super unique artstyle

IM GLAD YOU LIKED THE BIRD BREAKS!! It sounds like they were really helpful to a lot of people and that makes me happy :’] Thank you so much for everything!!

[vyl3tpwny]

after seeing your post about how you do not like being called a brony or furry it reminded me that there is a page for you on tvtropes that refers to you as a "brony musician", i assume you probably don't like that

Vylet Pony (Music) - TV Tropes

it's going to take some time for ppl to rlly understand and accept how i perceive things. it's not a high priority rn for me to ask other ppl to change their publication tendencies towards me. i also dont even feel like updating my website until at least i can improve my website design and consistency as well as writing a new and more effective bio page anyway :3 but yea if anyone wants to stop using brony and furry terms for me in publication that would be a good thing. i'm not really focused on it at the moment though!

[eros-vigilante]

Another Eden's "Gender Unknown" 5★s: Ciel and Clarte

Ciel and Clarte are the only 5★ characters in the game listed as having 'unknown' gender, despite both being referred to with he/him in English.

Ciel

Ciel's quests involve many scenes where he is assumed to be a girl. Even Aldo thinks that he's a girl until the first time he says that he's a boy. Some of Himmel!Ciel's fans argue about what gender he is.

Ciel does not express much discomfort with being misgendered. Both Ciel and Himmel!Ciel say that they don't care about the concept of gender. Ciel is only once upset by someone refusing to believe that he is a boy after saying so.

Ciel's event quest, Foreign Skies and the Ship to Freedom, has themes of the oppression queer people face. A vague description to avoid spoilers would be that Ciel's parents and older sisters grew up in a highly oppressive environment that punished deviance from the norm, and wanted Ciel to live without bearing that past. His family and family friends are described as "eccentric" by the narration, and "loonies" by the antagonists.

I interpret Ciel's 'unknown' gender as representing how crossdressing can be a genderqueer act, and that while he identifies as a boy he isn't upset by being assumed to be a girl, implying he is not attached to being cis or binary.

Clarte

Clarte's ENG voice actor is a man, and their JP voice actor is a woman. While the actress is said to be 'typecasted as young men', her performance for Clarte is sometimes ambiguous.

Clarte's TVTropes.org entry for 'ambiguous gender' says that some of their sprite's stock animation rigs are ones used mostly or only otherwise by female characters. I don't have any recorded, but I can remember seeing them have animations used more often by women than men.

The strongest lore about Clarte being nonbinary are heavy spoilers for the final chapter of Mythos: Song of Sword and Wings of Lost Paradise. I will stay as vague as possible but it will be below the cut nonetheless.

The English localization uses he/him for Clarte, and I'm a bit disappointed that this is the case as their lore would make they/them most accurate.

However, I don't believe it to be malicious. I'm assuming that as the story released in parts, the people translating/writing the early story didn't know Clarte was explicitly implied to be nonbinary by their lore. There's a line in Ciel's event story where his mother refers to him with she/her. Localization teams being split from the writers and/or being outsourced leads to mistakes. Another Eden also just has poor proofreading with occasional typos and spelling errors being normal.

The fun interpretation of this would be that Clarte is nonbinary and transmasculine, choosing to go by he/him despite having no assigned gender. Being referred to with he/him doesn't mean that the EN localization suddenly decided that Clarte is a cis male, just that they go by he/him. I personally am going to use they/him.

Most basically, Clarte was "made" for a purpose. The purpose was not related to emulating humans, so they very likely have no genitals at all, as there would be no reason for them to have any. Thus, they have no sex, and no way to be cis.

TVTropes says that NPCs from where Clarte is from express "confusion over what Clarte's gender is", and that they were supposed to "be neither male nor female".

I have found the NPC that says Clarte has no gender, and while it's worded differently from the TVTropes, it says the same thing: that Clarte has no gender.

[beevean]

Thinking again of this post, because I read a Fridge moment on TvTropes that made me think:

Well, to me it was rather obvious that Lenore put on makeup, and took time to brush her hair in that complicated hairdo, and chose the prettiest dresses: she clearly cares about being beautiful. Of course, being just "beautiful" is not the point: it's being humanly beautiful. Carmilla is also an attractive woman if you're into #girlbosses, but she has chalk-white skin, hair that matches, and long claws, so she's very clearly inhuman.

And this all feeds in Lenore imitating humanity. While with this logic it's a bit odd that she doesn't hide her red eyes and pointy ears, otherwise she puts a lot of effort in her appearance, and most importantly to look human and vulnerable. She cuts her claws and puts blush on her cheeks to look more human, less creepy. She says she enjoys eating human food to "live well".

Another underrated line is this:

Lenore: You didn't hear me enter. Hector: No. You have a scent. Like… jasmine and wine.

It's easy to chalk up this as a way to make Lenore even more appealing, in an outstandishly Mary Sue-ish way for a grown professional writer lol. But why would a vampire smell like flowers? What if vampires naturally carried the reek of the dead, but Lenore cannot afford to be anything less than perfectly attractive, so she doused herself in perfume to the point that Hector was able to smell her out as he was engrossed in his book? It's all calculated to the detail.

Everything is, of course, in function of her role as a diplomat. One, she needs to be approachable, and put the other person at ease: basically, she wants to avoid falling into the uncanny valley vampires naturally reside in. Two... well.

Lenore, thematically, goes against Dracula's thesis.

Did you hear Godbrand down there? "Livestock," he said. So many of my kindred are the same. They can no longer conceive of humans as thinking beings. Just livestock. It's the privilege of our condition, I suppose. You can't hate livestock. They are simply what they are. Grazing animals to be slaughtered. But you two are different. You are human. You are not looking at the scouring of humanity from the earth as an opportunity to get the livestock under control and to fill stables, and abattoirs, and pantries. You hate your species. You hate humans. You have a focus and clarity that the others lack. You understand that humans think, and scheme, and betray. You understand why they all must die.

The reason Dracula trusts Hector and Isaac more than his fellow vampires is that, according to him, vampires have essentially blue and orange morality regarding humans, and don't see them as sapient beings. They kill because they feed on them, and that's it, they don't spare much thought about them. The Forgemasters, as humans hurt by humans, understand how they think, and as such empathize with Dracula's plight.

Dracula was right when it came to the other vampires. Carmilla waltzes in and the first thing she asks is why is Dracula mobilitating all vampire forces for what she sees as a pet: in fact, this is more or less the whole reasons she schemes against him. When Hector is dragged to Styria, Striga refers to him as an "it", like a stinking dog. Carmilla herself has to be told that maybe beating a Forgemaster and then expecting him to work for her is not exactly a galaxy brain moment, because well, said Forgemaster may have feelings. You have vampires on one side, and humans on the other side, and they see each other as nothing but beasts for different reasons.

Lenore is, in theory, the exception to the rule.

Yes, at first she also saw Hector as an animal, as some sort of stray dog to domesticate. But unlike the others, she understands how humans think. She knows which buttons to push. She's better than Carmilla at pretending to care about Hector, who only limited herself to some shallow praises and to spin her plan as "it's going to save your life"; no, Lenore asks what Hector wants, she's physically affectionate, she compliments not just his skills but him as a person, she even asks him if she can come visit him again pretending Hector has a choice in the matter, with the purpose of making him feel wanted.

She knows how to talk to a human, like a human, looking human.

And this is what makes her much more terrifying than Dracula or Carmilla, who at the end of the day are only monsters with human feelings.

You're not likely to encounter a genocidial madman who plans to kill all people in the world because wife died, or an insane radfem who wants to conquer the world because men stupid.

You are, however, very much at danger of falling into the trap of a charming sociopath who knows very well how to pretend to love you, and tricks you into loving them, only for them to imprison you in a terrible, humiliating, stifling, toxic relationship - and then they have the balls to pretend they're only acting for your own good, mocking you all the while.

This is how Lenore blurs the line between vampires and humans. This is what made her, despite all the other writing flaws of S3, an interesting character. This is how humanizing a character can be a bad thing. And incidentally, this is how you incarnate the themes of a mask (that really should have gone to Carmilla): Lenore puts on makeup and perfume and acts sweet to hide the monster inside her. (yes i know that actually she sounds smug and condescending af, but i'm going with the intent)

Lenore might not want to target all of Europe which makes her less of a threat than Dracula or Carmilla, but she's the incarnation of human hunger for power, as she clearly enjoys mentally subjugating other people (her "diplomacy" is, after all, nothing but a bunch of lies and gaslighting), and she perfectly looks the part, and it's actually very clever.

She also acts as the perfect foil to Hector, who is a human who doesn't think like a human, doesn't empathize with other humans, and can suggest to enslave other humans without a hint of malice in him - much like vampires feed on humans not out of cruelty, but because it's part of their nature.

And this is one of the infinite reasons the Lenore of S4 offends me. Now her beauty is a sign of her inner goodness. Now her proximity to humanity is used to make her sympathetic, because poor thing she's appalled at Carmilla's insanity, as she wasn't an enthusiastic participant when it was convenient to her. In a frantic quest from the writing to give her "humanity" in the sense of "a good side that makes her deep", she becomes duller, flatter. In her way, S4 Lenore still has potential as an interesting character, as it becomes more obvious that she's the unfavorite of her sisters much like Hector was considered an idiot by Dracula and Isaac, and that could have been used to explain why she seems so famished for control over the one creature weaker than she is. But after the heels of S3, it comes off as whitewashing her for the sake of a ship pandering to the fans who found her hot and nothing more in S3, and it's at the very minimum dishonest. She was much more interesting as a double-faced amoral villain made of nothing but masks.

[compressednerve]

Has anyone been able to transcribe what this document says? Or like, texture rip it? I was so intrigued by it but the text is so teeny tiny and the pencil's in the way! I also haven't seen this document get mentioned anywhere except on TVtropes, of all places??? I transcribed it as best as I can- IF ANYONE HAS ANY BETTER TRANSCRIPTION PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTRIBUTE!! 🥴🥴🥴

As the incident report (PIR-1995-07-091) details, Deputy Head Trench single-handedly prevented a catastrophic containment failure of AO-SNC-0401 (hereafter referred to as "asset"). As research logs show, the asset creates a destructive sonic wave every 23 hours and 14 seconds. However, due to the previous incident with AO-TMP-0014, the alarm timer attached to the asset's crucible had become de-synced.

[Deputy] Head Trench noticed this disreprency between the

[]

the accompanying logs while the asset was in

[]

personally took the crucible and reached the

[]

ge, placing it inside. He then proceeded

[]

acuation of the nearby area.

[]

ually [] ypted and the timer was successfully

[]

Deputy Head Trench's commendable initia-

[]

the incident [damages] were mild: the

adjac[] lost and three employees suffered minor concussions.

1 RECOMMENDATION

In noticing the imminent danger, Deputy Head Trench

[]

played a keen eye for []

his exceptional []

[princehendir]

Before you use the term "found family" STOP.

Despite having a rather broad definition, there's a possibility that's not actually what you mean! "Found family" most often implies that the family dynamic is intentionally and actively chosen, by persons not related by blood, and doesn't exist solely due to marriage or adoption! It also necessitates that the persons involved actually consider themselves to be family, or have a family dynamic, whether they are emotionally intelligent enough to verbally phrase it that way! The TvTropes page actually covers the definition and nuances very well, gives examples of similar but different tropes (Band Of Brothers, Fire-Forged Friends, etc) and is a recommended read!

Other terms to consider that may be more accurate to what you're describing, but aren't in the TvTropes article above:

Ensemble cast

In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time. The term is also used interchangeably to refer to a production (typically film) with a large cast or a cast with several prominent performers.

In contrast to the popular model, which gives precedence to a sole protagonist, an ensemble cast leans more towards a sense of "collectivity and community".

(from Wikipedia)

A great multi-use term that refers more to narrative function than in-universe relationship. Can refer to coworkers, roommates, blood family members, all sort of things, there's no strings! They just have to be given roughly equal screentime and narrative weight. Give it a shot!

Blended Family -or- Stepfamily

A stepfamily is a family where at least one parent has children who are not biologically related to their spouse. Either parent, or both, may have children from previous relationships or marriages. Two known classifications for stepfamilies include "simple" stepfamilies, where only one member of the family's couple has a prior child or children and the couple does not have any children together, and "complex" or "blended" families, where both members of the couple have at least one child from another relationship.

(from wikipedia)

Also: family through marriage! They don't even have to like each other for this one, they have no choice!

Team dynamics

Again, pretty broad, and more than a little vague, but that's what makes it great! They don't have to like or love each other, they don't have to be there voluntarily, they just need to arguably be in some sort of team, and have some sort of dynamic. Possibly even multiple dynamic. It's very versatile!

And many more!

Disclaimer: while this post was admittedly made in a state of some frustration, it is not meant to shame or criticize! The purpose of this post is simply to inform & encourage clarity and the expansion of your vocabulary. It is also meant to discourage the further collapsing of "found family" into a useless umbrella term for when there is more than one guy in a piece of fiction.

Have fun 🖤