#also asking me to elaborate on my thoughts

[mishappeningss]

I’ve got 2 requests I’m curious about driver y/n and what she does on her down time on and off the track? When in a new country, does she explore the city with other drivers like finding new places to eat, go on scenic hikes, or does she stay inside enjoying the view?

And are there any awkward/funny moments with other drivers that went viral? Like maybe they get caught gossiping or they’re seen setting up an elaborate prank??

“Where in the world is YN?” — here’s what she does in her downtime, and the side quests she does with drivers from grid :)

more about driver!yn

Some days, she’ll wake up early, put a lazy outfit on, and convince Lando or Pierre to go find the best bakery in the city with her (she has lists, she’s researched before she flew in the country).

She’ll wander local markets with Yuki, asking for spice recommendations she’ll never actually use. She loves walking instead of getting an uber, even if it means getting lost. She once found a hidden café in Vienna and swore it changed her life.

She’s only here for a week, maybe even less — she has to see something!

In some days, she just wants quiet. If the weekend’s been intense, she’s the type to stay in, order room service, and watch a local show on the hotel TV.

She’ll sit on the hotel balcony with tea and headphones, writing in her notebook or doing nothing at all. She also loves a solo walk at sunset, hoodie up, face hidden — no makeup, no pressure, just silence.

Sometimes, she turns her phone off completely and lets the city go on without her for a while. There’d be a blurry picture a fan shot of her sitting alone in Prague, legs dangling over the edge, holding a book and a bag of pastries.

“she looked so peaceful. just her and the breeze.”

She also has her main person whenever she travels! Carlos for structured city walks, and good food recommendations, Pierre when she wants quiet company and good coffee.

Lando and Oscar when she’s feeling chaotic and wants to laugh until she cries. Lewis for the occasional serene, a secret adventure no one else gets invited to.

Yuki when she wants to eat everything. George for scenic hikes that turn into accidental therapy sessions halfway up.

She’s not just there to race — she’s collecting memories in every timezone. Whether she’s sitting by a window with tea or running through the streets with three other people and a camera, she always makes space to feel the city.

And yes, the amount of chaos this girl gets caught in with other drivers? They’ve got their serious moments for sure — but their off track moments are absolutely what fans live for.

a hot mic disaster

During a post qualifying press conference, YN turns to Oscar and whispers loudly, “If Charles sighs one more time, I’m throwing my bottle at him.”

She thought her mic was off. It was very much not.

Charles, who was sitting two seats away, blinked directly to the camera. “How can she even hear me sighing?”

gossip cam

A fan filmed her, Liam, and Alex sitting on a wall post-race, whispering very intensely. Alex clearly mouths “He’s a weasel” and YN chokes on her water.

Fan exploded thinking they were dragging Lando. He later posted: “i am NOT a weasel. but also. who was it about i need to know”

“these three gossiping on live camera like mean girls with paddock passes 😭”

Oh, and I forgot. Sticker wars. It lasted for about two seasons and fans still talk about it.

It started when YN slapped a tiny, ugly frog sticker on Oscar’s water bottle as a joke after he left it unattended during media day.

He didn’t notice for three days. Once he did, he accused half the paddock. And from that moment… it escalated. Fast.

Carlos found a sticker of a potato with a mustache on his notebook before FP1. Lando got hit with a middle finger sticker on the back of his phone. He left it on for three weeks because he liked it.

YN walked into the Mercedes garage to find her seat completely covered in Hello Kitty stickers. Turns out? George is a menace with a printer and a grudge.

At one point, the drivers made a “Sticker Bounty Board” and taped it on the wall of the drivers’ room:

$10 to whoever sneaks a sticker on Roscoe

Double points if you can sneak a sticker on Kimi’s forehead without him noticing

No one touch Max. Please.

Many say it’s over, that the stickers are lessening. But they still see frog stickers lingering every weekend on front rears and helmets. 🐸👀

[doubledeadstudio]

So, you guys are probably curious… What is the future of Reanimated Heart in its current state?

I've been quiet about this for a while because I wanted to get a bulk of my work done. Considering I'm working on the last and final Chapter One update, I am now formally announcing that the whole of Chapter One will still be uploaded in public for free.

Considering harassment issues I've experienced, however, I will only be doing it when Chapter One is fully wrapped up. That means that it'll be after the next update and after a final polish. I'm uncertain when I'll be done with all this, but my hope is to put it up in December on the same date the initial demo was posted.

After that, what then?

When I initially created Reanimated Heart, it was with the intent that it was going to be a very longform, serialized thing.

For context, before I started getting into game dev, I was a freelance artist with a background on Language and Literature. I did my best to post art to please an algorithm, but my true passion was writing. I wanted to write stories and novels, but the exhaustion of drawing and vying for some sort of online influence was draining to me.

I concluded that this type of work flow was 1) Psychologically damaging and unnatural, and 2) ultimately, unsatisfying.

Even when I had pieces that would do well, it didn't make me feel good because my heart wasn't in it because I had no time to make the things I wanted to make, I had no time to do what I actually wanted, which was to craft stories about my precious characters that I've had for years and were near and dear to my heart.

And then, I decided to create something that was, essentially, antithetical to this ritualistic pattern of clout chasing I've developed… and that was Reanimated Heart.

Given my background in Literature, I was very fixated on the concept of creating a "visual novel" in a serialized format, like how certain novels used to be published. (For example, Victor Hugo's Les Miserables is only as long as it is because it's a story told in a by chapter format over a long period of time.) I thought that, if visual novels were really to be novels too, then it should be allowed to function in a way novels used to.

I also had this belief that, despite the never ending barrage of corporate shortform content vying for the attention economy, there's always going to be a part of human beings that yearned for something personal, emotionally intricate, and created over a long period of time. People want to invest in something. They want to learn about characters and the settings they live in, follow elaborate plotlines, and watch mysteries unfold. At least when I immerse myself in stories, I want it to really grip my attention like nothing else and have it live in my mind like it has a home there. And so, when I decided to make the game, I decided to stay the course of my original intentions and publish it on a semi-regular basis, with enough content to justify the months of work. I have my update schedule to prove it.

After years of working on RH, my belief has been proven completely correct. More and more people discover it over the long time period, and many of them react like I thought they would… They want to know about the characters, the plot, and the lore. They want more length and more secrets to discover, and I'm more than happy to provide that.

And so, I'll be continuing this update schedule, just in Patreon until the base game's full release in different platforms because, like I said, as much as I want to provide this content for free, its costs and the constant harassment isn't enough to justify uploading it for free.

But, because I've chosen to do this format, I've been asked…

Is this just a grift to get people to invest in your Patreon?

I have been accused of this by many people, including some devs in the so-called "yandere" VN space. Let me make this very clear now…

I am losing more money making this game than not making it.

Before I decided to make this game, I had more time to focus on doing freelance work which earned me significantly more money on a monthly basis. By focusing on gamedev, I've lost a significant amount of my regular clients. Not only that, I also put a significant amount of the budget on other contractors (such as music from Claira, art from Tay, and voice actors) and I've also put other career prospects on pause.

So, why even make something that just loses me money and invites harassment from entitled "fans" anyway?

Passion, as lame as it sounds. This is something that I want to make and earnestly believe in, something that I'll be satisfied with making later in my life. With each update, I'm thrilled by how much the narrative blossoms on the screen as much as you are. I can't keep putting money incentive over my art, because I'll end up right back where I started, which is chasing a number either in followers or my bank account. This isn't even remotely about the money for me. I will keep making this until it finishes or I die randomly.

I want to make something I'm proud of for myself. Signing up for the Patreon is more just about ensuring I can make the highest quality of game possible.

Now that I've made my intentions clear, let me get to some FAQ…

I don't agree with this model you've chosen for the game. It still feels like a grift. How do we know you mean what you say?

Check my update schedule.

I've been consistent and I intend to continue being consistent. When I stop being consistent, then you should react like a responsible consumer and stop supporting the project. If I stop intending to upload, I will make a formal announcement here, in the page, and on Patreon anyway.

If you want the updates but don't want to pay me, there are ways of getting it for free by being active in the server community.

If you only want to pay full price for the game, then wait until it's done.

And if you really don't want to pay anything at all, then don't do it. I am not forcing you to pay anything.

Can I pay only when there's an update?

Yes, that's always allowed. No, I don't think that's scummy. Everyone should be able to do whatever they want with their money.

How long is the time period between updates?

My intent has always been 3-4 months between updates. Usually updates take me a month and a half to write, then a similar timeframe for assets and coding. There are also some stuff irl that I can't help, so I put that leeway there.

Will you let us Subscribe on other platforms?

Yes, but I'm still looking into it. I'm going to do research on what the best websites are for this. I'm going to be looking into Ko-Fi soon.

Will you still be making other games?

Yes! But their uploads will be random and sporadic.

I know there are a lot of people wondering about the drastic genre leaps with my other games (coughs Another Rose coughs), but my justification is that, while I view Reanimated Heart as the novel, my other games are more like… short stories. If you've ever read a Stephen King novel and then get shocked by how random his short stories are, well, that's about the same logic I have. My "other games" are less thoughtful, sprawling stories like Reanimated Heart, and more like experiments for me to break out of my shell and have fun. While some short stories get sequels, others don't. They're pretty non-committal.

Will you ever be opening Reanimated Heart's comment section again?

Yes, I will open it again when Chapter One is finished and uploaded. I only turned it off because people annoyed me so much that I didn't want to work on it. You guys can have discussions again when I'm not releasing updates publicly anymore.

...

I hope this puts a lot of your questions to rest. If there's more, send them to my Inbox and I will add them here.

[vsa-pieldepapel]

Do you have any thoughts on what the prophecy Susie shattered is? I apologize if you’ve already answered an ask similar to this.

At first I assumed it was something like, Castle Town’s fountain having to be sealed and every single resident vanishing. I thought that’s why Ralsei was having an existential crisis and encouraging Kris and Susie to just forget about him and “make real friends.”

I think that may be a little anti-climatic, though? Like, yes, that WOULD make Susie upset enough to shatter the prophecy, but I don’t know if Ralsei would be as terrified of her finding out. I’m starting to wonder if the three heroes will need to sacrifice themselves in some way—I know that seems cliche, and like, why would Gaster write a prophecy that requires for three teens to sacrifice themselves to save their world? But this is Gaster we’re talking about, there’s no way he’s not an antagonistic force.

I also get the feeling that both Susie and Ralsei feel like they’re running out of time. (And Kris too, if they’re aware of the prophecy’s end.)

I honestly don't know! Sometimes there are things where i feel like its just too early to tell with the information we have.

However, my gut feeling is that it involves a sacrifice from Ralsei specifically, and sacrifice here can mean either destruction or immense suffering (i'll elaborate on why I think Ral is agitated in just a second). And it hinges on ralsei for a number of reasons:

susie does suicide jokes and has low self esteem, described herself as a broken toy no one wanted. I dont think she would be as affected by her own death/sacrifice; I feel like she may be more affected by how it would affect her friends. Susie and Ral are very much mirrors of each other in this regard, it's fascinating.

This is why I think Ralsei is upset and agitated: He's not worried about his imminent sacrifice but at knowing from context clues that she would be very upset by it.

Ralsei is set up as the first Darkner we meet, and the Prince of the Dark; if any figure would have to sacrifice for the sake of the darkners, it would be him. He is also the only darkner in the heroes, and the only darkner that is not affected by wandering around dark worlds whatsoever, and the only darkner that has innate knowledge about the working of the prophecy and the world.

Ralsei diminishes his own importance and role constantly and susie opposes this also constantly. I think this was a cope he had from the very beginning to accept his sacrifice with poise and stoicism, and why he says if someone has to suffer, let it be him.

Pinocchio theme; the way Pinocchio's wish of being a Real Boy is granted is thanks to his willingness to sacrifice being rewarded. It was his boundless love and commitment that proved that he had a soul, so to speak.

susie says "especially you" wouldn't allow that, which seems to make whatever will happen emphatically Ralsei-centric.

I think the reason Ralsei omitted all this (and a bunch of other information about the prophecy) was because he didn't see himself and his sacrifice as important enough to burden the heroes with, and he's gaining a sense of his importance as a person thanks to Susie.

Here I must mention a detail that drives me crazy: The two times Ralsei gained independent personhood appearance wise, was thanks to susie! In the prophecy holograms, he appears as a robed mystery figure, as it was when they first met him (which Susie mentions). He was meant to stay like that. Susie was the one to tell him to take off both the cloak and the hat: To give him a face. That was the initial rolling of the snowball to give Ralsei agency as an individual. That drives me so crazy.

Im not gonna say anything about Gaster because to be honest I'm not big on all the tinfoiling around him so I'll keep quiet on that regard until the game shows its hand LOL

I think the sensation of running out of time comes from the dark world shenanigans "leaking" into the real world, more than the prophecy itself; they're more running out of time to save undyne and find out why the knight is doing all this, basically. And after having seen a Titan that makes even more sense. Ral especially, since he knows how the story is "meant to end".

However thanks to the gerson fight I think aomething new has clicked in my head. Toby did say there was gonna be one ending-- but Gerson asked susie how she would like for things to end.

So, I think the One Ending, will be whatever susie chooses. And our influence through kris shows in the minutia on the way there. The one ending is not the prophecy, but her subversion thereof.

My theory is whatever inevitable sacrifice he must do, plus the blood, means if susie has some human in there she is willing to give Ralsei her own [Heart shaped object]. And this, like pinocchio, will be rewarded by the narrative.

Hope this speculation is satisfactory enough! We'll see how wrong I was LOL I honestly don't know this is just my Intuition

[dreamyblanket]

Because i have a coupple asks for him, here's a little redesign for pre corruption sm!

there were some minor things I didn't like about his design so I changed them! It may change in the future but for now I'm happy with this //^^//

[fraternum-momentum]

Isn't Aimee horny with Sindney too, so is he just a fling to her?

HOO BOY OK aimee is def horny for syd ! but she's kind of starting to develop some feelings for him and it's messing with the whole 'leading people on and leaving them dry' thing she has going on. and she's coming to terms with it (it is not going well)

when they met, her initial plan was just to mess with him for a bit bc she found him cute. but once she learned more about him, she kind of grew jealous of how he remained relatively unaffected by the town. why does she have to fight for her life almost everyday while he's all kumbaya and shit? it's unfair, and it really pissed her off. so at that moment, she decided that she will be the one who corrupts him.

(this was also the moment where she gets her demon tf!)

in a sense, she's taking out her anger and resentment for the town and what it has done to her on sydney by taking his virginity and defiling him. it's a sort of crab mentality in a way ?? like if she's going down, she's taking him with her bc she's petty and bitter about it.

usually, at this point aimee would move on to the next person but she does end up liking sydney a lot, so they remained fuckbuddies. plus, she eventually realized that it wasn't fair of her to be mad at him when he really hasn't done anything to her personally, so she felt guilty about that and stuck around.

although there was this particular moment where she realized her feelings for him might run deeper than she had thought

aimee isn't used to kindness from other people, since she's objectified on the daily and is generally treated like garbage by most people so this was a wtf moment for her. it lowk left her in shock for a bit. and currently she's in denial of everything LMFAO

[mochasucculent]

Well your "Dumb thing that wouldn't leave your brain" nearly made me wake up my partner who is asleep next to me lol

Honestly this fandoms artists making Viktor and/or Jayce (honestly usually both I've noticed, its awesome) is so good. Makes me very happy to see so often, being transmasc myself.

I'm so honored by people legitimately laughing out loud at it lolol thank you

And yea I feel like trans Jayvik is such a beautiful self sustaining ecosystem cause I have seen so much trans Viktor stuff that whenever I see cis Viktor I'm like "where are his top surgery scars???" forgetting that he is not, in fact, canonically trans

[itadooori]

Can you draw more long hair Gi-hun please 🙏🏽 I need him wearing a Hawaiian button up shirt!

i sure can! its been a Minute since ive drawn my long hair gi-hun and ive missed him dearly links to my other posts abt this concept if you missed it: 1, 2, 3

[theylovevenus]

Updated relationship chart for my Naruto 2000s au!!

[slasherflicks999]

erm what is slashers relationship with the other creepypastas :3c

before we begin im so sorry this took me legitimately SOOOO disgustingly long to answer holy SHART 💔💔💔 i needed to solidify some of his relationships ngl and i didn’t wanna give a half baked answer :,33 but now that it’s finally hereee…..

slasher room reveal GASP yes he’s sitting at his little computer answering this for u personally :3 i wanted to make it more fun hehe plus background practice…… thank u the sims 4…,,.,,

but anyway THE LITTLE CHIBI THINGS OF THEM WERE SO FUN TO DRAW and also nina with glasses canon i don’t make the rules sorry she’s just too cute with them :,,o

i haven’t been active much at all lately unfortunately BUTTTT more slasher content is soon to come..,.😈😈 TRUSTTTT i shan’t abandon thee tumblr my beloved :333🫶🏻

[vaguely-concerned]

the only thing that brings me more joy than emmrich being SO endearingly peevishly unimpressed with ingellvar pulling watcher 101 platitudes on him as a 'get out of emotional vulnerability free' card is rook's utter cheerful lack of repentance or pretence about doing it

[ratcandy]

Big Huge Irritated Rant About The Latest COTL Update's Story Choices and the Implications

So the lore drop in the new Cult of the Lamb update, Unholy Alliance, pisses me off. The writer's confirmation of what that lore drop means pisses me off more.

Why? Because it's unnecessary recontextualization that was made pretty obviously in favor in one character in particular, and somehow in that process makes that very same character way less interesting. I think it's incredibly detrimental to the story and I will Explain Why in a second.

But before I do, I just want to put this out there: Prior to this update, my opinions on the Bishops and Narinder and that entire plotline were pretty neutral. I'm an NPC enjoyer, I spend my time thinking about that moth with two lines of dialogue. I did not previously have strong opinions on Narinder or Shamura outside of mild dislike for fandom treatment. So I'm not coming from a place of bias here (or at the very least I'm not trying to be). I genuinely, wholeheartedly, 100% believe this writing decision was unnecessary and the Wrong one to make, and I think it severely undercuts the original plotline because this was a retcon and one that sucks pretty bad.

Ok we're on the same page here? Ok awesome. Long rant ahead, and obvs spoilers for the Unholy Alliance update

So first, what the hell am I talking about? What part of the update do I not like? Let's clarify that first.

It's Shamura's dialogue. Like, all of it. For ease of understanding, here is all the dialogue I will be talking about:

"Ah... we gathered here, the four of us, a council of war and I the general. I have not forgot. I did not tell them that chains to bind a God must be forged of Godly matters. What matter of Gods? What matters of Gods? I have not forgot. The betrayal of kin, the breaking of spirits, blood spilled, his and ours. ...the sacrifice of what we had sacrificed so much for... ...shaped into shackles for our own brother. And our wounds always to weep. Such sharp claws..."

--

"He sought to break nature's own laws. Death was his, yet he placed his sacred duty in peril. His experiments... Experiments I encouraged. I am not... blameless. My soul, stained... yet I do not... Ah, The story. Yes the story... He wanted to open the doors between Life and Death, to... to allow their return. Those mere... mortals. Even though he knew their sacrifices, their faith, their fears sustain us. Death must be the end. Otherwise, what use would they have for Gods? They began to flock to him. What he promised, we could not match. He swelled with devotion... while we waned. Would he have let us perish? I could not take... the risk... the hunger... You are lucky there are none left to force such a choice on you. Hail, Lamb. Last God... lonely God... Ah... I feel... unburdened..."

And for fun, before anyone tells me I'm misinterpreting any of this or that it's left up to interpretation or is intentionally vague, Word of God (the writer of CoTL):

And it's this being Word of God that's spurred me into making this post to begin with. Because prior to this, I just seethed about this dialogue's implications in my server and hoped I was wrong. But now it's been confirmed what this means, and I'm . Disgruntled, to say the least!

And since I've started writing this post, there's been another addition made to further clarify parts of this. But I'm going to go over that addition more towards the end, because it also irritates me for separate reasons.

So, let's get this straight.

Prior to this update, the specifics of what happens between Narinder and the Bishops were pretty vague. We were told Narinder was "gluttonous in his ambition," per Shamura's previous dialogue, and that they "introduced him to ideas of change" but "Death cannot flow backward." Heket somewhat elaborates on this by saying he preached "heresy" and "noxious ideals" that would not be tolerated. Heket also notably refers to Narinder as a flat-out "monster." Narinder attacked his siblings and left them each with a big, symbolic wound. Then he was chained by the four of them, with Shamura the one to lead it (in their own words).

There's a lot of talk of betrayal, but before this update, it was unclear if the betrayal was meant to just be Narinder's experimenting with death (which even then was pretty heavily suggested to be resurrections) or the wounds inflicted upon his siblings. There's also a lot of talk of sacrifice, i.e. from Leshy if you kill Heket before him: "After everything we did. After everything we sacrificed. He will not be satiated."

Regardless, the picture this painted was of Narinder being this ambitious, evil, violent God that even his fellow Gods (Kallamar) feared and felt needed controlling. The idea that the wounds could have been in the nail in the coffin to this entire ordeal made sense; as they were obviously planned by Narinder to some extent (otherwise why be so intentional about who got what wound?) and a fair reaction to Being Mutilated would of course be to chain him.

Then of course there's the idea that the wounds were given while he was being chained and in self-defense, which only seems possible if you think Narinder could take on all four of his siblings at once like that and only manage to lose his claws in the ordeal (which was only revealed in this update to be something he's implied to have lost thru the relic). I thought this at first too, but realized it seems pretty impractical for that to have been the case if the wounds were also purposeful in who got what. I mean, sure, they could all be coincidentally symbolically appropriate for each Bishop, but I have doouuubts?

but now we're here, with this update, and all has been revealed.

And what's been revealed exactly?

Narinder's thing he was doing was indeed resurrections (we knew that)

Shamura encouraged him to do it (we also already knew this)

It seems like he did literally nothing else outside of that

His siblings got pissy about this because it made their domains purposeless and got all their followers to flock to him

"Would he let us perish? I could not take the risk" - Implies they literally did not even ask him

Shamura knew that in order to forge chains that could keep Narinder down, it would require a sacrifice of their bonds AND their flesh

They DID NOT tell the other Bishops this

Their wounds were requirements to chain him. They had to get the wounds they bear now in order to chain him. ONLY Shamura knew this. That means they allowed their siblings (and themself) to get attacked knowing full well what would happen. They may have even encouraged it, perhaps provoked Narinder into it, seeing as they knew the wounds were necessary to have him chained. (Or they just knew he would retaliate. Which, like. Yeah. They're condemning him after he went down a path they encouraged and, as far as we can tell, nothing else.)

And for... what?

In this version of the story, Narinder was experimenting with resurrections, and Shamura told him to keep doing that. Then he was successful, mortals turned to him, and his siblings (including Shamura, the one who told him to do it) got mad. That's it. That's their reasoning for chaining him. There's nothing else given. "Would they perish?" We have no idea. Is that how it works? Seems like Shamura doesn't know either. Or at the very least doesn't know if Narinder intended for that at all. Gives the vibe that literally no effort was made to talk to him and figure this out. They don't even really go down the "it puts nature out of balance!" path, which would at least have some merit, maybe. It's literally just "we are no longer sustained. What's the point of Gods in this world?" <- idk babe you had all the other ones slaughtered. So you tell me

And then Shamura just took it into their own hands, leading their siblings to their shared wounds (WITHOUT consulting them) and their inevitable destruction because of........... reasons, I guess. (I mean, if you think about it really hard, they probably also already knew what would happen following all this. With the lamb genocide and Narinder's resurfacing and etc. And they had their siblings wounded anyway. For no god damn reason)

And now why does this make me mad?

Because, honestly, in and of itself, there's not anything necessarily wrong with this added context. It's not contradicting anything in the main game. Shamura knowing what was needed makes sense, after all.

But it's... unnecessary. It screws up the motives and makes them more shallow, less nuanced, more... petty. Making gods petty is cool and all, I love doing that honestly, but in this case it just feels like a waste of potential.

But beyond all that. But most importantly.

This entire recontextualization of events REEKS of being made specifically to absolve Narinder.

I mean, come on. He's made out to be the victim, here. Shamura knew what he would do, knew what he would become, and knew exactly what would happen to their siblings if they sought to chain him (without doing so much as talking to him beforehand), and yet they encouraged it.

All blame is being shifted on Shamura. All Narinder did specifically against his siblings was inflict the wounds, which at this point seems to be hinted as self defense or a retaliation against threat or insult (assuming he was provoked into attacking, somehow). Because the wounds were part of the process.

And almost equally irritating, this seeks to arbitrarily absolve Leshy, Kallamar, and Heket as well, as they had no idea what the plan was and were just strung along. Which is just kinda worse, right? As far as they are aware, Narinder did just randomly attack them for no reason, and this wasn't foreseen, and surely couldn't have been stopped. All because Shamura didn't tell them any of it.

Shamura is being made into the big bad. Shamura is at fault for everything, for all of it. Narinder is a victim of Shamura encouraging him down a path they later condemn him for, their siblings are victims of Shamura and Narinder both (the latter of which could have been resolved at any point prior), and now any possible intrigue about Narinder being this big bad guy who tore apart his siblings due to his own ambition getting the best of him is ERASED.

It's GONE. All in favor of making him more sympathetic.

And sure, about a million different excuses could be made for Shamura, or could be used to headcanon whatever you want about exactly what happened. But with what we're given right now, just from the source, no attempt as made to stop Narinder before it got to this point. It is literally suggested they didn't even talk to him.

"Maybe they were too scared" - For the other three, maybe. Shamura is the eldest and clearly the most respected one, by Narinder as well (he holds some amount of respect for them even STILL. After EVERYTHING). They at any point could have stopped this.

"Narinder could still have been a bad guy outside of the attacks" - Sure, but we're given little to nothing on that front. In the old dialogue, literally all that's mentioned is the resurrection stuff and the wounds. Shamura is the one who said his ambition made a glutton of him, by the way. And hell, this isn't even touching the very real possibility that all of the Bishops (Narinder included!) are unreliable as hell.

"But Kallamar feared him even before his chaining, that suggests he was still a bad guy beforehand" - Sure, it could! But that's about all we get! And hell, in this new update, Kallamar's fears are fucked with, too. He states:

"Once, long ago, Followers would worship at my altar just to glimpse the beauty of my temple… of course, it could not last forever. Perhaps my siblings did not understand this, but I have always known. It did not make me less afraid. Cowardly Kallamar, ha…"

Here, it seems Kallamar's fears have been changed to be more about the decline of his temple and the loss of his followers, which was happening because of Narinder. He refers to Narinder's plans as "foolish" as opposed to... idk, horrifying, or threatening, or whatever. He also fully takes on the 'cowardly' title, giving the impression that his fears were somehow unfounded, which wouldn't make a lick of sense if Narinder indeed sucked ass outside of the wounds.

Not to mention he "didn't want to hear it" when Shamura "revealed the plan," but we know because of Shamura that they didn't mention anything about the wounds, so Kallamar didn't want to hear that they... had to chain Narinder? That's literally all he could've been told about the plan. Why wouldn't he want to chain Narinder if he was scared of him up until that point?? Doesn't make any sense!!! EDIT AFTER I POSTED: On reconsideration this might just be referring the lamb genocide plan, but that's hardly better, because now this update absolves Narinder, Leshy, AND Kallamar by making them blameless in everything (both Leshy and Kallamar expressed not fully understanding the plan for the slaughter or, in this case, not wanting part in it). What's up with THAT. Why is Shamura getting the blame for LITERALLY EVERYTHING.

Anyway, my point is

This was a story decision made to make Narinder sympathetic. It's so blatant. And it's so, so irritating. It gets rid of so many potential cool flaws of Narinder and replaces it with "Actually, Shamura was the bad guy the whole time! Huzzah!"

And honestly, had the entire game come out like this to begin with, released at the start how it is right now, I don't think I'd care this much. But being added now, as an afterthought, after the fandom and devs alike have grown to favor Narinder above all others, it just...

It reeks of favoritism. It smells of revising the story to make Narinder more likeable. It's just erasure.

And for what. Like, I don't want to be That Guy, but I cannot help but notice that one of two nonbinary characters (outside of the Lamb/Goat themselves) is being this heavily demonized in favor of absolving a Man of his crimes. What's, uh. What's up with that.

Oh, and that addition by the writer I mentioned was made while I was writing this.

This was made after Jojo was questioned whether this was a retcon as to who caused the wounds, as this whole thing could also certainly be read as Shamura being the one to directly wound their siblings (which I didn't think was the case, but still).

"I don't know if they thought it would be so severe" - How do I put this in a nice way. This feels like a weaseling out answer. This feels like giving Shamura an out only after being questioned on this writing choice. How could they possibly not know how severe it would be. This spider is Knowledge. This spider has Foresight of some kind. And how do you not know what they thought. You are the Writer. If you want to clarify something like this you gotta say it with your full chest.

Not to mention a good portion of the fandom probably won't even see these tweets, so this context is all missing from the story presented in the game. This is Tacked On Context on top of already Tacked On Context. It's unnecessary retconning all the way down.

Anyway. I realize the fandom at large will not care about this, because (and I mean this in the nicest way I can manage) the Narinder favoritism in this fandom is already impenetrable, but for me personally? This retconning that was so clearly done out of that favoritism?

It ruined Narinder's character for me. More than the fandom possibly could have. I mean, if it's fanon, it can be ignored. But this was canonized. Because Narinder is the dev team's favorite guy.

And I can't stand it.

[frog-chemicals]

hi did you finish the fic about the bad kids and their various autistic traits? I'd love to read it

Oh! It is nowhere near finished! (I’ve been doing SO many Other Things)

But! That does not mean I will not be informing you of my Many Elaborate Headcanons and Why I Have Them!

I think either Gorgug or Adaine would be the first to get diagnosed with anything.

Adaine, obviously, gets diagnosed with anxiety first. I think from there on out she gets Actual Therapy, which then leads to her getting diagnosed as autistic. I think she really struggles with learning how to unmask and actually be comfortable in her own skin, in being her own person.

A lot of the autistic traits she does not hide could be explained by her being a High-Elf Wizard.

She’s very blunt, she’s very fixated on things making sense, she hyper focuses on Her Specific Field of Interest, she’s peculiar about how her things are organized. She only likes when a select few people touch her and that’s not even all the time.

When she does allow herself to unmask, I think most of her stims involve swaying and repeating phrases, spell names, spell ingredients, those sorts of things.

Gorgug’s parents care about him so much. However, I don’t think he actually gets diagnosed until he’s in his teens. There’s probably a few reasons for it ranging from his parents simply not realizing due to gnome culture being incredibly autism friendly to it being really hard to get a half-orc kid diagnosed with anything that won’t end up with the stigmas of said diagnoses causing them more difficulty in life.

That being said, Gorgug’s autistic and probably deals with a lot of body dysmorphia.

He’s one of the people who adapts most easily to learning that What He Experiences Has A Name. He probably does have a brief moment of “Oh. So I am different.” only to once again realize that everyone he’s surrounded himself with are also different and they’re awesome, so him being different is, if not also awesome, completely okay.

He generally struggles socially (bad at social cues, doesn’t know how to make friends, awkward around strangers), he likes listening to Brain Explosion Music, he doesn’t pick up on a lot of things at the same speed that most other people seem to.

I think that when he stims, it’s usually not something very obvious. It’s a lot of playing games it’s his hoodie strings, drumming on things (picked up from Fig), humming a song to himself. That sort of stuff.

I think it takes until after Ayda discovers she’s autistic for the rest of The Bad Kids to Figure It Out.

In my mind, at least, it starts with her asking Fig and Adaine for help making a presentation so she can explain Herself better to her friend.

Adaine already knows a thing or two, having also been diagnosed (probably pretty recently) but it takes her reading Jawbones books for things to fully click that “Oh. We’re all like this”

She still helps Ayda with her presentation, of course. She is her best friend, after all. But it does very much result in a secondary presentation in which Adaine thinks all The Bad Kids are autistic, which several of them had already started to suspect during Ayda’s presentation about herself and her autism.

Riz is most obvious. The only reason he’s not diagnosed is the fact it’s expensive and there’s not a lot of mental health professionals who know anything about goblins in the area.

He’s autistic and has both anxiety and insomnia as a direct result of it.

Initially, he tries to deny it and goes to his mom basically trying to convince her to agree that it’s just goblin stuff, right??? She tells him that not only is he a Remarkably Autistic Goblin, he gets it from Pok.

I think his stimming involve a lot of, for lack of better words, instinctive behaviors? He chews on things, he chitters, he taps his claws on things, he takes cover in small, comfortable places (like his friends backpacks or jackets, especially while they’re wearing them).

But a lot of it is also very,,,, Detectively. Yeah. That’s a word. Why not.

He repeats words and phrases regarding his cases, he scribbles down notes even if he already has the information, even if he knows he will remember, he clicks his pen and probably does some pretty sweet tricks with them too. His clue board making should absolutely be considered a form of stimming, in my opinion.

(Also, him joking about Shooting People being a stim is Very Funny to me)

Kristen I think is pretty chill about it initially, only to have a breakdown about her entire worldview being changed again at a later point.

She has a pretty blatant special interest in religion to me.

She also has adhd and dyspraxia.

Most of her stimming involves a lot of movement. She picks up on hand flapping from Ayda, sways a lot, brunches her legs, taps her feet, taps her hands on things, stretches out and flexes her body a lot. She probably used to play with her hair a lot when it was longer. While she still does, she’s mostly moved on to using the frankly absurd amount of stim toys she’s keeping stored somewhere. Most of them end up getting “borrowed” and lost in the pockets of her party at some point.

Sometimes she sings old hymns.

Fig tries to act cool about it. Fig is not cool about it. She already struggles with Being Herself and Wearing Masks enough as it is. Finding about the ADHD makes sense, really. Finding out about the autism is a slightly higher hurdle to get over.

For a lot of her life, she was so incredibly focused on fitting in, on making the pretty popular girls like her enough to include her, on making sure no one noticed just how much she felt like there was something different about her.

And then it turned out she is different. She’s a tiefling. She’s bisexual. She’s autistic. She is so little like the girl she used to be, like the girl she pretended to be.

It’s difficult, for a while, I think.

But, one thing about being nothing like the kid others expected you to be, is that it’s supper fucking punk.

It still takes a good long while to discover who Fig truly is, but she’s finally starting to feel true confidence that she doesn’t need to know just yet. That she’s allowed to be figuring herself out. That she’s allowed to be complicated and messy.

I think the way she stims is pretty similar to Kristen. There’s a lot of movement to it. She drums on things, bounces her legs, shifts her weight around a lot when she’s standing, plays with her hair, generally likes keeping her hands busy with something. But she also has a pretty big oral fixation. While her chewing habits aren’t quite as intense as Riz, I do think she tends to chew on stuff like pens when they happen to get near her mouth. I think her smoking habit is also pretty strongly influenced by this.

Fabian is the one who struggles most. While it’s fine for his friends to all be a little odd in all their different ways, he cannot have anything wrong with him. I think it takes a lot of talking before he even accepts that maybe it’s okay for something to be strange about him as well. Even if he is becoming his own man, that boy still has so many insecurities about who he is as a person.

I think he has a similar social struggle to Fig. He seems like someone who fits in. He feels like someone who’s supposed fit in. He adapts so easily whatever situation he’s put in, hoping that maybe if he’ll bend himself the right way, he’ll actually fit somewhere.

But he’s never actually had friends his own age. Sure, part of that is because he’s been on pirate ships up until he was, like, 16 but part is also the fact that, for so long, he’s been trying to be who his father wants him to be that he barely knows how to be his own person.

He struggles socially the same way Fig does. He doesn’t know how to fit in with people that actually like him, so he puts on his rich boy jock persona and he fakes it until, well, something happens. He uses humor in an attempt to deflect the fact he doesn't understand when talk about things in roundabout ways. He acts like he doesn't care when people talk about things that he struggles to understand. He barrels through a team sport solo because he figured it would be more effective that was.

And unlike Fig, who could have probably continued to be that sweet little cheerleader for years to come hadn’t it been for her horns, people realize he’s different, realize he does not fit in.

Fabian struggles with accepting it the most but he does have somewhere he fits in, even if he spent so long trying to deny it. He fits in with this party of weirdo misfits that love him just as much as he’s realized he loves them.

I think, when he finally allows himself to unmask enough to stim, it’s a lot of dancy movement and a lot of vocal stims. He bounces on his feet, he sways on his legs, he hoot-growls to himself a lot. Also, because I love projecting onto Fabian, I think he gets a "Kipperlilly Copperkettle" vocal stim at some point. I also like to think of him as dylsexic but that is a purely self indulgent headcanon

[dailyjasontodd]

Hi! I saw your last post's tags, and I was wondering, what was your favourite theory for Robin Lives? How did it get debunked? Somehow I haven't seen proper speculation for this comic, only criticism 🥲

Oh my very early first theory (like literally thought about it after reading the very first issue) was that Jason's therapist would kill the joker, there was a page that could've been really neat foreshadowing if it went that route, but well. -🐅

[necrotic-nephilim]

Give me your most controversial dc opinions!!!

HA YES GLADLY I WOULD LOVE TO (added a read more because i had a lot of words oopsie)

The Titans Tower Incident was in character for Jason Todd. at worst, it's a *bit* over-dramatic and a little cringey, but if you consider his actions, his motivations, and what he *actually* does, i honestly don't think it's OOC for him. he's just kind of a dramatic asshole in that era and i stand by that comic. the issue isn't the comic itself, it's how people interpret it.

i think the DC fandom, specifically the Batfamily fandom, really likes to claim to be progressive for brownie points, but then will have the one token woman that everyone decides is acceptable to hate. like, it's one thing if you dislike Carrie Kelley, i get it. Frank Miller isn't a great writer of women and she can be a lack of a character in the original Dark Knight Returns. but if you go out of your way making constant edits and posts shitting on her, it's *weird*. especially when most of the people shitting on her haven't even consumed her source, and their reasons for disliking her can apply to any other Robin, especially Tim. but as long as you put say, Steph or Cass on a pedestal, you can talk on and on about how you want to kill Carrie for the crime of existing. it feels like acceptable misogyny. i also think this extends to writers. if you put say, Gail Simone on a pedestal, you're free to blame everything under the sun on Devin Grayson. (to be clear i think you can and should hate Devin Grayson for a lot of things, but most rumors about her are untrue and if you look at every badly written comic and go "sounds like something Devin Grayson would write" that's really weird bc everything she's done, men like Chuck Dixon, Tom King, Tom Taylor, Marv Wolfman, etc have done in tenfold.) like, misogyny = bad unless it's That One Woman We've All Agreed To Hate. it's weird and i keep noticing it. and no one seems to unpack it. (i mostly see this on TikTok, not Tumblr tbf)

i don't care if you ship BruDick or not, but it's not weird for canon content to imply or state Dick had a crush on Bruce when he was first taken in. even in canon where Dick sees Bruce as a "father figure" in the most generous sense, that bond took years to build and when Dick was freshly orphaned, he *had* the memory of loving parents and didn't want Bruce to fill that role. you don't have to ship BruDick, you don't even have to like batcest, but if you're vitriolic toward just the idea that "hey maybe a young kid on the cusp of puberty might have some weird feelings to work out about the canonically very attractive mysterious playboy who took him in before seeing him as family because that bond took years to build" is nasty and terrible and wrong to you, you don't like the Batfamily, you just like the nuclear "neat" version of it in your head

the Batfamily characters are *all* too hypercompetent. like all of them are just *too* good at what they do that in order to write them in interesting arcs together, you have to willingly make some of them OOC in order to not immediately have the Problem wrapped up. i get it, Bruce is the greatest detective, Tim is wicked smart, Jason's a heavy hitting brawler, but we've reached a point where all of these characters have so many buffs they're not *fun* anymore. especially not in a group setting where you need to justify them needing each other's help. and even worse-so when they interact outside of the Gotham, you end up making every non-Batfam character seem useless just to make the Batfamily look cool. it's exhausting. i want to see these characters lose fights, look stupid, and not be the best for once. they're all getting so good they're just kind of. boring. which is the worst sin for a character, IMO.

i think we should go like. a good year of all Justice League-related teams not having a single Bat on the roster. just as a cleanse so *someone else* can shine. i get why non-Batfam DC fans are sick of the Batfamily bc jesus. it's oversaturation of the market.

power scaling "who would win" fights are fucking boring and i don't care. that's the least interesting thing about the fandom. you're missing the point of all of these characters if you only care about who could win a brawl. also it's just a stupid debate because the answer will *always* be: whoever the author of the comic wants to win.

the Batfamily is too damn big. i love every single one of them do not get me wrong. i'd die for the little niche characters who are likely never going to be relevant again like Julia Pennyworth or Kate Spencer. but it's too fucking big at this point. it's insisted to us that these characters are family but like. half of them have barely existed on the same page together more than once. it's ridiculous and it cannot sustain itself. none of these characters are allowed proper shine because they'll just get dropped for the next new shiny character. i think Maps Mizoguchi is a cool lil lady, but i know in my soul in like. three years she will fade into comics limbo and we'll have a new shiny character to fawn over. it's a brutal cycle bc DC doesn't know how to give any of these characters follow through, just wants to wave around cool new concepts.

both Under The Red Hood and Death In The Family are mediocre adaptations and strip the most important emotional elements of Jason's story from the plot. you can't properly adapt Jason's death if you leave his mother out of it. like they're phenomenal movies as their own pieces of media, but they lack the necessary emotional weight for Jason.

on the note of adaptations: the Young Justice cartoon is i think the best case study of "how do you react to a piece of media that's amazing on it's own, but is a fucking horrible adaptation?" because like, i can't discredit it. it's a good show. but it's a bad adaptation and i think people using it as an entry point for DC can make their views of certain characters and teams *very* warped. the Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey movie falls into a similar vein for me. if that movie was it's own thing with original characters, it'd likely be a top five movie for me. but because it's *such a fucking bad adaptation* i can't help but hate it for brutalizing the characters and the general concept of the BoP. it should've been a Gotham Sirens movie, and Young Justice should've been a Teen Titans show. and sure, adaptations don't owe us accuracy, but they have negative effects on the comics when they gain popularity. so i struggle to like Young Justice bc of how badly it's affected certain characters.

also on the note of adaptations: the best adaptation of how comic media operates is the Sandman tv show. adapting comics to tv shows or movies is difficult bc comic arcs don't operate the way show/movie arcs do, but the Sandman show proves it's absolutely doable to adapt the storytelling style while still making the typical adjustments you need for an adaptation.

DC needs more Deaf representation. in most areas, DC either matches Marvel or outperforms Marvel with representation of marginalized identities, but it's fucking tragic we have no deal Deaf rep in DC whereas Marvel has quite a few to pick from. this one is personal bc i'm Deaf but it does fuck me up the only option we have is a side character from Tim Drake: Robin who doesn't appear anywhere else and isn't a great character overall. DC i'm in your walls.

on the note of representation, if i see one more person say Titans had "perfect casting" while in the same breath admitting Dick was whitewashed, you are weird and i dislike you. it's really fucking weird that whitewashing is permissable to this fandom if the actor cast/fancast is hot. Dick should've been a Roma actor. Damian should not be fancast as a white actor. it's the bare minimum.

i have so many more but i will end with this especially controversial one: Dan Mora's art is overhyped. that man has the worst same face syndrome i've ever seen and i will not lie half the time i can't tell which Robin he's drawing. his art is technically gorgeous and it's so pretty to look at, but begging for every comic series to be drawn by him is boring and terrible. the art style of a comic reflects it's genre. wanting all comic art to look like Dan Mora's art is sucking the style out of comics. i miss art styles like Todd Nauck's that clearly reflected the genre of the comic.

i lied i have one more i'm REALLY passionate about: Tim's vigilante name after Red Robin should not be bird-themed. naming him Sparrow or Cardinal is *just* as bad as naming him Red Robin longterm. they're *just* as derivative and they *sound* cool but don't hold any real unique identity for Tim outside of Robin. like it baffles me we all agree he needs to move on from Robin and then decided "let's name him Robin Lite". if he has a bird name, it should be Jackdaw so at the very least, he's not red anymore. and Jackdaw could be a fun callback to Drake, in that it uses part of Tim's real name (his middle name, Jackson) while standing out a bit. but if i really had creative control i'd give him a completely unique name. if it has to be Batfamily related, Gray Ghost. but in my head, his name should be Conspiracy. i could write a lengthy meta on why and tbh it is based in my love for the Question and wanting Tim to have a similar detective noir-esque gritty solo, but i genuinely don't think he should be Cardinal or Sparrow. those names only continue his identity issues of being trapped as either Robin or a Robin knockoff.

[loverboybrightsideghost]

yo are there any semanticists on here

[insomnova]

thinking about how both tfa (2015) and rogue one (2016) came out post-disney's acquisition of lucasfilms (2012) and both those films live on so fondly in my heart but have also, somehow, been earmarked in my head as the last true additions to star wars canon to have come out ever since