#an extremely traumatizing life event that ended in tragedy

[enemy-to-the-state]

i am only slightly ashamed to admit that i borderline hate my dad’s gf

[do-you-ship-this-comic-ship]

propaganda:

They. Just... THEY! It's a funny ship, but is also one that actually helps to explain Alfred's whole THING a great deal better than if they weren't in a relationship together! Alfred may have gone to butler school but it's not really what he ended up doing in life, nor something that he really wanted to do with his life. Alfred actually does a number of things that would be considered EXTREMELY unprofessional for him to do as a butler. But as Thomas and Martha's bestie/lover who also knows a great deal about cooking and cleaning because he went to butler school once...? Why, they wouldn't keep him around if it wasn't for his sarcasm and unprofessional behavior! Plus the whole butler act comes with getting to dress Alfred up in a bunch of cute, handsome, and VERY flattering outfits! (After Bruce was born, they decided to retire the maid's outfit... Temporarialy... They thought it might be a but much to introduce little Bruce to.) And Bruce and the Wayne family fortune going to Alfred, /the butler/, in the event of their deaths!??? CLEARLY Alfred had to have been more to them than JUST their manservant when there were plenty of other candidates for Bruce to have gone to after their deaths! This ship is just taking that to its logical endpoint. More than a servant... Their closest confidant and friend... Who lived in their house with them... And knew their every secret and trusted them to him in confidence... A butler so beloved that they gave all of their wealth and son to him in their wills... Well... Something is going on here, and it sure as hell doesn't smell monogamous! But gotta say, LOVE that for Alfred! Alfred is the BEST! Period. And he deserves the best! And being the lover to Thomas and Martha? Can't get much better than that! You know... other than the tragic murder... But it also just adds another layer of tragedy onto the pile! That was Alfred's husband and wife right there! He saw them only a moment before... The man and woman he thought that he'd be spending the rest of his life with... Gone in an instant. Leaving their traumatized son behind... We all know that Alfred is more than just a butler to Bruce. Alfred is in every way Bruce's father. Bruce could never fire him, even if Alfred is unprofessional and uncouth at his 'job.' And clearly Bruce is more to Alfred than just someone he works for. Bruce is his son. So why not make Bruce his son in more ways than one? Alfred loves the Waynes in all of the ways! He's the glue that keeps them together and sane! And that can include Thomas and Martha! If DC weren't cowards, they would make it canon! Alfred can be bi and poly. As a treat!

[mr-walkingrainbow]

Okay yall! People seem to be posting some hella awesome fanfic ideas and as someone who hopes to in the future run for king of bridgella angst, I’d like to throw my fanfic idea into the mix!

A tragedy in the making:

THE CHOICE

~———————————~

What if?

Red returns to the present. Only to not be able to find Chloe in the crowd.

She spots her mother, who now looks radically different, similar in appearance but bursting with color and joy (picture the reformed queen we see at the end of the movie)

Only when she goes to ask her where Chloe is, she is introduced to three dramatic changes

1. Chloe seems to have never existed in this world

2. their is a very large and menacing looking RING on her mothers finger

Cinderella is walking over, and Bridget’s referencing too her as her WIFE!

So not only does Chloe and Chad not exist in this world. But Red now has TWO passionately loving moms. Bridget and Ella.

And in Reds eyes. This world is a dream come true. There was no coup. Wonderland is a peaceful world. Her mom was never a tyrant. AND was never put through the traumatic psychological breaking event. And Red gets two loving moms. Which is a huge step up from having one extremely manipulative one.

in all seriousness, she should be overjoyed.

but Chloe. Isn’t. Here.

And for all Red knows. There is no way for Chloe to exist, and for the Queens coup to never happen. This Red never saw another result. This is the only other one she’s seen.

So she has to make probably the hardest decision in her entire life. Because going back to the past to change this would not only in her mind be sentancing Auradon to a mad takeover. But Retraumatize her mother, rip her away from a life where she gets to live with her deepest love. AND sentence Cinderella to certain doom.

But doing so would mean Chad and Chloe would get to live.

Would mean Chloe could still be there. Would mean the only person and friend who’s ever believed in Red would still be there. Even in a dystopian world.

What choice does Red make? Well that’s for you to find out!

lol I’m still ironing out a lot of kinks and i definitely haven’t written much. But this has been an au that’s been growing in me head for the last week or so!! Let me know if any of yall are interested!!!

@c-rose2081 @somedudenamedanthony @strugglingsapphic do tell if you think this is a fic worth writing. I love the idea but if you don’t think it’s worth a read I’d definitely take that into account

Also who’s the king and queen of glass heart lol? Who do I go to to throw my hat in for running of King of Bridgella angst

[kimkhimhant]

perhaps the biggest tragedy of aftg is that neil in particular is always going to be in survival mode, as long as the moriyama's are around. if he cannot play exy, the threat of death – his own and his loved ones – hangs over his head. in a way, he's never going to reach "post-trauma" for this. obviously, he has ptsd from everything he's survived up until now, but how much of it can be called "ptsd" when he's still in an on-going traumatic crisis?

for most people, the healing comes after the traumatizing events have ended (although it's more complicated for cptsd, which is what neil and andrew both suffer from due to ongoing, repeated trauma), but for neil post-canon, he has to try to cope with post-trauma symptoms from life on the run, the nest, his father, all while being unable to truly exit survival mode.

in trauma recovery, there is typically a very very low period a survivor experiences once they are safe and able to let their guard down, where the overload of constant stress-hormones and vigilance and all that fun stuff finally catches up to someone (often involves extreme fatigue, depression, increase in ptsd symptoms & illness), and this period precedes "recovery"

but will neil ever be able to reach that point? it makes me really devastated to think that he might never actually be able to let his guard down, that he might never be able to experience true safety and the catharsis that comes with it

[camprell-art]

Hii! Really love your art! Your designs for the mario characters are super lovely. I was wondering tho, what drives your dimentio? Why does he, like, destroy nearly every kingdom he comes across? Why does he want to become king of all worlds when he doesn't seem to mind the 'subservient' role?

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Okay so, this probably will get extremely long ksajhd

Dimentio is unconsciously reenacting what the Pixl Queen, or his sister Shadoo, did. After getting driven to madness by being resurrected in a vessel with the Dark Prognosticus, she brainwashed every Pixl, formed an army and tried to destroy the Ancients for their selfishness and supposed egocentrism, so she is technically destroying a kingdom.

I never worked much in the time-line of events, but before all of that happened, Dimentio and his mother Illuminata died, because Merloo, the father and great magician, was researching the Dark Prognosticus and one day he tries a spell and everything goes wrong.

A recurring theme in the family story is how everyone of them had a tragedy, the father gets obsessed with the Dark Prognosticus and kills both his wife and son in an accident, the mother dies protecting the son, the son is cursed with immortality by being bound to the book, and the sister gets ill because of the dark energy the house had, dies, is brought back, dies again, now by her brother's own hands, gets cursed and also locked away in the Pits.

You can say that Shadoo and Dimentio are the ones who suffered the most, and depending on how you see it, yeah they are, but imagine living the rest of your life thinking that you ruined everything, like, EVERYTHING, because a book was "that" important. That's why Merloo ends up helping with the Light Prognosticus, but also completely alone, as if you see in the game, he's the only sage who, apparently, has no descendants.

Before I forget, Pixl Queen Shadoo had the DP, when Dimentio "kills" her, he takes it, tries to protect it from evil, but reads it in morbid curiosity of what is written there, people steal it from him and then he starts getting insane, just like Bleck. ^v^

In conclusion, Dimentio is traumatized, but instead of having a chance to really think about his past and not commit any crimes, he has the DP talking in his head and leaving every other memory to the side, which is why he has kind of an amnesia and why he knows roughly where the thing is. In other words, the book makes you go crazy, and after living so many years and so many deaths I think that the person is very likely to just go apeshit after some point.

Ah, and about the thing with being a servant and wanting to be king at the same time, I don't take what he said in that part too literally, because I do believe that his motivation was to make a perfect world without all the rotten evil people in it, that would explain why he doesn't like the Count, Dimentio may know he's bad too, but he's being bad for a greater or purer reason. The role of servant is mostly just a strategy to be seen as someone who is vulnerable and eager to please, a perfect lie to hide the strings he's holding.

I hope this is a good answer to your question! As always I think that I gave more useless information than a direct response. akjsdh

Have a nice day, or night, wherever you are! :)

Edit: Thank you so much for all the compliments!!! Dumb Camprell was so focused on trying to explain the shitshow that is his fanlore that he forgot completely about what you said first!! But know that it's always one of the best things to see in an ask! :3

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

Basil

In Omori, Basil used to be your best friend up until the tragic events 4 years ago, where Sunny accidentally pushed his sister Mari down the stairs. Basil was the one who found Sunny action-paralyzed, realising that his sister was dead because of him. Basil panicked, thinking the police would take his best friend away forever. Thus, he orchestrated making it look like Mari hung herself, worsening the events of the game. Pretty fucked up stuff. Did I mention both Sunny and Basil were 12 years old at the time? Basil is often portrayed as either irrevocably evil or a pure soul who did nothing wrong. Both of these interpretations ignore the central issue that he COVERED UP A POTENTIAL MURDER because he was 12 AND DID NOT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO. Prior to meeting Sunny and his group of friends, Basil was said to be isolated and alone. Finally creating this connection with others seemed to have made him terrified to lose these connections, and he's portrayed throughout the game to be haunted by guilt and characterized by his loneliness and fear of losing his friends, but especially his best friend, Sunny. He seems to understand now that he's older that the whole situation was incredibly wrong, and lives in denial mostly about his friend's hand in the events. Nothing seems to suggest that he doesn't realize what he himself did was wrong by the time of the game. He doesn't speak up, though, for the player's sake. After all, Basil has no idea that Mari's death was an accident, and Sunny has retracted into himself and refused to communicate on the issue. The creator themselves descriped the character like this: "OMOCAT describes BASIL as caring and thoughtful in regards to the friends he so deeply cherishes. However, his loneliness and insecurities are what make him dependent on others, sometimes to a dangerous extent." "In fact, OMOCAT adds that BASIL feels deep emotions for those he cares about, and this sometimes places him in situations where he unintentionally hurts others and himself." An additional moment that occassionally garners criticism, is that sometime in the course of those 4 years, Basil marked out Mari's face from his photo album, which he kept of him and all of his friends. This creates conflict between him and another character in-universe. What many fans seem to miss about this issue is that Basil himself is engaging in the same destructive tendency that most of the other characters also are - trying to deal with overwhelming pain with some form of denial and alienation of his old relationships. At no point is there shown any sort of hostility towards Mari from him as a character. Basil is overall a character who used to be a pure small bean but ended up doing something incredibly serious because he was a scared child, unable to deal with the situation at hand rationally. The horrendous guilt and consequences of the tragedy that happened when everyone were too young to process it make up the central themes of the game. By trying to morally simplify Basil's actions, we're also ignoring the overall point of the story; The deeprooted consequences of something extremely traumatic happening to children at an age where they're not able to handle it, and the permanent consequences it's going to have on their lives going forwards.

There's definitely a chunk of the fandom that likes to over-villianize Basil, I suspect to make the main character seem better. A lot of them say Basil forced Sunny into doing something bad, which given what we know about Basil's character seems highly unlikely. And they also give him a lot of flack for (admittedly bad) actions he takes during a mental health crisis.

Yuno Kashiki

She's far more morally grey than folks want to admit. She's not evil, not by a long shot, but she's not exactly innocent either. She's innocent of her (perceived) crime in her media, but in terms of her attitude and outlook on life, I feel people downplay her incredibly grey actions. She uses / used compensated dating as a way to feel "warm" without forming emotional attachments. She hasn't killed anyone, nor has she manipulated anyone into killing for her, but that's why she's a good representative of a more everyday morally grey person. Her actions aren't outlandish or extreme, and if anything she can fade into the background with relative ease, yet I still firmly believe she's morally grey. tldr; Yuno has far more depth than the (general) fandom sees her as having. She gets misrepresented and her voice as a character is often unheard.

Yuno Kashiki is an 18 year old rental girlfriend and sexworker in Japan. She was incarcerated in Milgram for murder at the start of the series in 2020. Since then she has been repeatedly dehumanized by the fandom. Having her agency and statements on her own life overwhelmingly ignored in order to give her a sob story she has consistently rebuked at every turn. Stating from the beginning even if she had to beg for forgiveness like her life depended on it she would. However, it's simply been handed to her as the audience continually goes she was too young and stupid to actually be held accountable for her actions. The same audience that later tries to vote a 12 year old child abuse victim guilty because she has to learn her lesson and she knew what she was doing. Yes the fandom interprets the eighteen year old who chose to work in the profession they did simply because they wanted to something they have no qualms admitting as having less agency than the twelve year old. They treat her like a stupid baby who's only error was not knowing how a condom worked as a sexworker. They say her only crime is an abortion despite her overtly getting upset at other individuals alluded to be clients throughout her songs. Having the literal lyrics of her second song go, ""Poor naive little girl"? So off the mark, what's it to you? It's absurd. Like really who do you think you are? Don't weigh me meassure me against your morality. Just shut it, will you? You know it all." And "Carrssing me with your "good girl". Who needs your self-righteous pardon?" They're so committed to the abortion equating to the murder she's in here for idea that fans got mad at the writer for even writing it that way when at least several other very not fetuses are alluded to throughout her songs and at points literally shown. Her first song even highlighting her clients belongings throughout it with inverted coloring. But instead of thinking she may have just killed a client who was bothering her they've convinced themselves that she's just a silly little outlier who's not meant to be here because abortion isn't murder her body her choice which fair if it wasn't for the fact the only people putting it on the table to compare to murder is the audience themselves. Despite everyone else in here very literally killing actual people with lives, professions, etc as they frame her case as a feminism issue and say if you vote her guilty you just hate women or are anti-abortion. In response to the framing of her situation as she can hear the audiences thoughts on her she's only gotten more depressed and closed off as tge series has progressed blatantly stating to hurry all this up so she can go home. Because it doesn't matter what she says about her situation the audience and the guard by proxy will just end up creating whatever story they want about her so it doesn't matter she's over it. Which in all honesty fucking fair- Wouldn't anyone be after getting treated like that for going on four years.

[thataddylady]

Analysis: Phillip Crane 'To Sir Phillip with Love' Pt. 1

So I was asked to do a fleshed out analysis of Phillip Crane as a character and what on earth is so appealing about his romance with Eloise for those of us who loved not only her character but her book as well. It was meant to be one post but honestly it turned into a novella so I'm gonna do this in sections. His book with Eloise was my favorite in the Bridgerton series. Phillip Crane is a very complex character. He isn't charming or dashing, he isn't setting off fireworks anywhere. The ones who aren't a fan think he is a toxic rapist at worst or a boring nerd at best. I am not here to argue against that case. I'm just gonna make mine.

Regarding Sir Phillip

Before I can get into why I loved him with Eloise, I thought I'd do a breakdown of Phillip and his back story as presented in the books. So much of his character and mannerisms are informed by his history so to miss it is to misunderstand him IMHO.

Phillip Crane as a character, is a deeply emotionally scared man. He has so much compounded trauma it's not funny, starting from his father's abuse from childhood onwards, his brother's death, his marriage to Marina and ultimately her death which was both tragic and traumatic. Now I know many of you who are familiar will go "She was depressed for ten years and ultimately committed suicide, how is this HIS tragedy?" This is a fair point to bring up. #man pain. I will get to that, I promise.

The book however only has Phillip's POV and when it opens he is six months out from her funeral so not much time has passed. A snapshot of Phillip's life as presented in the book is he and his brother suffered from horrific abuse at the hands of their father. He has visible scars on his back as an adult from the beatings he endured as a child. His escape was two things, his brother George and attending school. He's a plant nerd, and he comes into his own through academic scholarship. His brother, who was a real paragon by all accounts dies at Waterloo, and Phillip is yanked out of school by his father for more abuse to whip him into shape as his heir. Part of this is forcing Phillip to marry Marina. They are both still mourning his brother. His father as some point drops dead of a heart attack right in front of Phillip mid abusive diatribe and Phillip inherits the baronet.

From Phillip's recollections he and Marina were had a decent marriage until her depression becomes extremely bad after the birth of the twins. There is an unfortunate scene (not the first in the Bridgerton series) where Phillip visits Marina at night after receiving permission from her. The sex is horrible because she is not in a good place and he doesn't clock it until it is too late. Going off of their previous times having sex he assumes he is doing something wrong which is why she is not responding. He doesn't realize that she is in fact legitimately not in the mood and her consent in her current mindset is not reliable.

Is it well written? We can debate it. But what it is meant to convey is a tricky situation where sexual consent used to mean something and now it does not. This experience ends up being scaring for both of them because even though he received consent which used to be reliable, this time it was not and he feels like he raped his wife. Marina is upset because the whole experience was probably demeaning for her and she isn't in a place where she can understand or communicate her wants or needs. There are those who argue that Phillip is a rapist but to me seeking consent and receiving it moves this more into really bad or traumatic sex. The consent is never rescinded.

At worst he should have noticed sooner, but at best he's better than Daphne.

Either way this event sets the tone for the next decade of Phillip and Marina's marriage. He swears off sex with her because he realizes that she isn't in a place to consent to it, and instead spends the years raising their two children and trying to help her out of her depression. With what is available to him he does his best but a modern audience knows that this is a losing battle for both of them once Marina's depression becomes what we would classify as clinical. In the end after a decade long struggle on both their parts, Marina tries to drown herself. Phillip stops her and she succumbs to 'lung fever' or some related illness shortly after.

About Marina

Marina Crane is a tragic character; she loses George (Phillip's older brother) the love of her life and is forced to marry his brother with little ceremony or time to grieve. She is written as already having issues with depression before the death of her fiancé, and develops what seems to be postpartum depression after the birth of her two children with Phillip which is left untreated (cause it's 1800') and it devolves over her marriage with Phillip. Because this is set in the 1800's there is no real help for the level of depression Marina suffers from for a decade. She is unable to connect with her children or live well, her husband is unable to help her and in the end she dies from the effects of a su**ide attempt locked inside her own personal hell. It is rough going.

Now while it is true that Marina is a tragic figure, I feel that it is too easily ignored that Phillip is as well. He is someone who has compounded trauma, who also had no escape from his situation and is doing his best to help someone who cannot be helped without any proper tools or assistance at all. He's not Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre who's annoyed about his mentally ill wife and locks her in the attic and denies her existence. He actively tries to help Marina any way he knows how. He seeks advice from neighbors or health professionals, tries every approach and nothing is effective.

Just as Marina was trapped in a marriage with a man she didn't love with an illness she couldn't win against, Phillip was also trapped in a marriage with someone who couldn't communicate, who was a ghost of themselves and everything he does is ineffective.

In this day and age with the medicine and knowledge we have the awareness around mental illness is still sorely lacking, but it is a better understanding than the 19th Century.

All of this is to say both can be and are true. They are both victims of a series of tragic and unfortunate events and circumstances.

There is a reason there are support groups not only for those with depression but the caretakers of those with clinical depression and those who have lost loved ones to it. It is deeply traumatic to feel that you are the reason someone cannot get out of bed in the morning, that if you just tried harder they would be able to pull themselves out of it. If you have been in close to someone who is depressed clinically or otherwise, you know it takes a toll watching it. The longer you are witness to it the harder it is to stay 'logical' about the truth of what is happening. That it isn't personal, the individual isn't "not trying" because of self pity or laziness, they simply cannot control their thoughts or emotions.

If you are a person who encounters it upon occasion it is a bummer but you can shake it off. If you are living with someone suffering from it, it is mental and emotional torture, especially when you feel responsible and ARE responsible for the person's health and wellbeing. The feelings it engenders are dark and complicated. It leaves you twisting between bitterness that they won't try harder, shame that you didn't try harder or be better to help them and are blaming them for your incompetency and grief over the fact that they are slipping away and you cannot help. There is also a 50/50 shot between anger and numb resignation about the entire situation.

These are Phillip's actual feelings when it comes to Marina. Phillip does not see himself as a victim of her depression. He's not just 'pissed that he couldn't get laid by his sad wife'. He's someone who is trying to cope with the result of being handed a series of increasingly bad cards with no room or space or help to manage it all.

He has been second choice his whole life and by all appearances (to his mind) has failed to be the person he was meant to be. Namely, his brother George. George dies because he's serving his country while his baby brother gets to go to learn about plants. His father is abusive and dies because Phillip wasn't good enough to match George. Marina took her life because Phillip wasn't George.

He cannot separate his marriage from his grief over his brother that he never got to process, his feelings about watching his parent drop dead and the life he's been enduring since birth. It has been blow after blow by the time we meet him in the first chapter and it is probably the first time in over a decade that he has time to begin to process his life.

Only he can't because he has two children who are used to having their father around and don't understand why he locks himself away in his green house all day and cannot play with them.

Ok I think that's enough about Phillip, Part 2 will tackle him and Eloise in the book.

Feel free to leave your thoughts but I am not gonna tolerate attacks. If you have beef keep scrolling please.

@whatsaweekend here's the first part of what you inflicted on yourself LOL.

[clreria]

Ria is cool! Is she an oc or an existing character? Also what’s her lore? :)

Thank you so much for your kind words and interest! (I was extremely happy to receive your question though it took me a while to prepare the answer... sorry for that!! ;_; )

(I hope the quality of the image is acceptable for comfortable reading but just in case I'll copy the text in the very end of the post )

Ria is an original character inspired mostly by asian popular culture origins: games/anime/music (e.g., FGO, Honkai Impact 3rd, Madoka Magica, OkameP's songs) and world mythology/philosophy/history, as well as classical literature/music/paintings (e.g., characters like the Count of Monte Cristo and Irene Adler in particular) As for Marvel lore, I was hugely expired by Matt's story and Illyana Rasputina's story Overall, the most charming ideas I personally find in Ria are:

Healing through art that captures the beauty of the world around us.

A human's yearning to find warmth, a sense of home, and connection with others.

The duality within humans—their ability to embody kindness and tenderness while making harsh (and even cruel) decisions for a greater purpose.

________________________________________________________

The text from the image: REAL NAME: Angelina Mikhailovna Sokolova (birth name), Alleria Betskaya (current legal name) OCCUPATION: Senior ML Researcher at VECTOR Inc., RnD Department; VECTOR’S co-founder and CTO (classified) LEGAL STATUS: Deceased (Angelina), Finnish citizen (Alleria) OTHER ALIASES: Angel\Princess (coined by Matt Murdock), Ri PLACE OF BIRTH: Saint Petersburg, Russia MARITAL\RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single KNOWN RELATIVES: Maria Yuriyevna Sokolova (mother, deceased), Mikhail Alexandrovich Sokolov (father), Victoria Betskaya (aunt, deceased) GROUP AFFILIATION: VECTOR Inc., The Collegium (former) BASE OF OPERATIONS: Worldwide, the Primordial Realm (former)

HISTORY: Ria's childhood was blissfully ignorant of her family's true nature until she and her mother were kidnapped by a rival gang targeting her father, a notorious crime lord in Saint Petersburg. This event changed Ria’s life dramatically. Though the traumatic incident is mostly a blur, she vividly recalls her mother being shot and her last words: "Inherit my eyes." The next thing she remembers is her father's men arriving to find her standing amidst a chaotic bloodbath, with all the rival gang members dead around her. To ensure Ria’s safety and future, her father transferred the guardianship to Ria’s aunt, who ran an elite girls' boarding school. This institution, rooted in the Russian Empire and relocated to Finland post-October Revolution, trained individuals to influence high society from behind the scenes. A harsh upbringing with rigorous training and high expectations instilled in Ria an unwavering commitment to her principles, driven by the doctrine that the end justifies the means. This environment has also fostered a sense of perfectionism and a hidden feeling of inadequacy, well-covered by the perfect facade expected in high society. Ria's excellent education allowed her to successfully enroll in Oxford's School of International Relations, Diplomacy, and Law. Moving to the UK, she became one of the most diligent students while finally enjoying a normal life with friends and hobbies. However, after two years of studying, her aunt urgently called her back home.

Over these two years, Ria's aunt's mind deteriorated, leading to delusions. Mistaking Ria for her mother, Maria, she attacked her in a jealous rage, leaving Ria's body in a coma. Ria’s consciousness was transported to the Primordial Realm, where she survived against dangerous entities, developed new abilities, and joined the Collegium, a group fighting the Corruption that turns beings into monsters. There, she formed a deep bond with Haruko, a medic from a war-torn future. While they eventually found a way to return Ria to the human world and even founded a tech company “Vector”, tragedy struck when Haruko sacrificed herself to save Ria from a primordial entity consumed by Corruption. As the Collegium members began succumbing to Corruption, losing their humanity and being erased from existence, Ria discovered that the Judge, their leader, had orchestrated these betrayals. In the end, she executed the Judge and took his place, leading a centuries-long purge of the Primordial Realm. To prevent herself from falling to Corruption, she sealed herself within her own consciousness, using the isolation to recover and reflect on the devastating events, including Haruko's sacrifice. Upon returning to the human world after a 10000 mental years long exile, where only three months had passed, Ria moved to New York to reclaim her company and finish her friends' unfinished business, trying to retire from her heroic past. But her quiet life was disrupted by a subway mob raid, where Ria stepped in to help Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer, showing him a rare kindness he had never known.

HEIGHT: 160 CM WEIGHT: 47 KG EYES: VIOLET (WEARS GREEN LENSES) HAIR: DARK (DEEP MAGENTA) SKILLS\TALENTS: Ria has extensive knowledge in humanities and technical subjects. She also excels in fine arts (drawing, piano, and violin), and speaks multiple languages. Her strong analytical skills and inductive reasoning enhance her observation abilities, while genetic recombination boosts her cognitive capacities, including nervous system resilience and information processing speed. WEAPONS\EQUIPMENT: Despite her enhanced sight, which could rival Hawkeye's precision and Bullseye's deadliness, Ria is a civilian who does not wield any weapons. Due to a heart condition, she lacks endurance and physical strength, and her childhood trauma makes her uncomfortable with guns and sensitive to blood. Instead, she values information and knowledge as her greatest assets — her iPhone and MacBook are her essential tools and her greatest shield. FUN FACT: Ria has a deep appreciation for the arts, with a particular passion for Gesamtkunstwerk, or total art forms like theater. Unfortunately, her favorite ballet, "Swan Lake," which she saw in New York, deeply disappointed Ria due to Odile's overly flashy and inaccurate portrayal.

[silversiren1101]

1, 15, and 20 for the KC ask game. Only if you want to! -Yunessa

Hi Yunessa❤️ ~ Thanks for the asks!

[Asks are from this ask list]

Questions are all answered from Minovae's perspective

1. Do they think they're going to make it out alive?

Lmao absolutely not.

Well, I suppose it's complicated?

When she's an amnesiac in the beginning of the game, she's headstrong and determined to keep going and get through this nightmare, even with that latent feeling of dread (with no rhyme or reason why) she feels in moments of quiet.

When her memories come back shortly after the start of Act 3 thanks to the Aeon, her entire disposition changes. She pretty much becomes a dead woman walking, only surviving and pressing on because she knows she's the only one that can do this. To stop would be to damn so many others to the fiends, and so she lives only for their sake. She does not believe for a second she will actually survive to the end, though.

Everything changes in Act 5 of course, after her soul shatters and is delicately put back together, letting her begin to heal and re-person herself. All of her emotional and psychological callouses are torn off and she can no longer hide or push on keeping it all buried. She's forced to accept that she is loved and cared for, and so she is forced to fight not just to end this war, but for her life.

15. Which companion do they hate/really don't like?

Minovae doesn't hate any of the companions by the end of the game. She started off hating Daeran and Camellia because of how they flaunt their nobility and use it to get their way by harming others. By the end though, Daeran is one of her best friends and Camellia is... a tragedy. In game, Camellia is killed in her final quest, but in Mino's canon she has her committed and given the chance to be helped.

It doesn't go well. It haunts her for a long, long time.

Otherwise, Nenio is probably the companion she has the most tenuous 'friendship' with. Mino tends to side with Regill's sentiment (though not nearly as extreme) with regards to her: her curiosity and lack of principles could be catastrophic for society and countless innocents.

20. Which event of the crusade traumatized them?

All of it.

She came pre-traumatized, but it's more like a marinade before being thrown onto the pan.

If I had to pick any singular one, it would be Galfrey's 'betrayal.' Minovae idolized and respected her so very much. The sudden banishment to the Abyss after working tirelessly, after all the suffering and pain she'd endured to that point, all of the countless impossible victories... it's the first of the 'final' wedges driven into her soul that leads to its eventual shattering.

[doctor-badadvice]

You know, I often make fun of Bishop, as one does. I call him a man of strong fashion opinions, a nerd and a wretched little gremlin. It’s all part of the process and it’s necessary when you end up liking an idiot of his caliber.

I’ve talked about his personality before. Yes, it’s very black and white (and red) under many aspects. I made a whole post about how that affects his outfits throughout the show.

Though when it comes to relationships, it isn't all so straightforward. Bishop has obviously invested all his charisma points in intimidation. This definitely helps him work as a villain, but his short temper and ingrained need to feel in control of the situation often get in the way of his objective.

Having to deal with people isn’t easy for him. Almost impossible, even. He can spit some raw lines but it also took some real effort to stop himself from strangling the president, which may not be the best course of action, you know?

The only situations in which we see him succeed to some extent are whatever concerns his organization since there is standardization. Times change and so do people. Keeping up with new costumes over the decades is time consuming but military practices? Those rarely change.

Bishop is obviously a good leader. His men execute his orders without questioning and with the highest professionalism, despite the occasional threat of being subjected to unspeakable experiments in case of failure. He also historically enjoyed the respect of at least one president, where again he just has to act like a good agent to get what he wants. Yes, the fake invasion counts in this regard since it proved to the president just what a good investment EPF was.

He even keeps Baxter in line for the most part since they have a very clear deal they both surprisingly stick to (though Baxter has a major hand in this since he knows what’s the amount of snark he can afford on the workplace).

Anything else is a disaster. Romance would be a tragedy from the very first moment. Friendship? We know how that went. Becoming a good person?

Yes, about that.

Bishop’s presidential outfit is extremely accurate. He’s not the man he once was. He has changed his methods and he sees aliens as people he can negotiate with and manipulate when fit. His work has fundamentally changed, as in he at least tries to create something which not only Earth will benefit from.

But he also has a whole room dedicated to spying on everyone through satellites and he personally leads the rescue mission at the Moonbase. The agent never really left, he just comes out whenever Earth is directly threatened.

Do I think that Bishop is still evil in FF then? Not quite.

Having done my fair share of writing for this nerd, I'd say it's somewhere in the middle. Specifically it's a mix of an opportunistic person seeing the chance for a different approach and most importantly, accepting that's actually possible, and a character who was born in part as a critique to real life events that were happening at the time of the show.

At the time of FF, the bigger picture kind of guy has started down a path of good but he still only relatively cares about other people. The public is obviously up there on the list since he has a public image to curate now. Aliens are more or less people. Turtles and random rich teenagers can pick fights with evil (very stupid) shapeshifting aliens if they can make themselves useful. Baxter deserves a second chance despite the little dissection prank he tried to pull.

Still, I can't say it's all Bishop's fault because when you think about it, his two most formative life experiences were both very traumatic events. The alien abducting him right after he got wounded on the battlefield set him off on a path of paranoia and blind revenge. The lab experiment that almost killed both him and Baxter and a symbolic act of kindness diverted him on a more open-minded path, even if the paranoia is still very much there.

Add that Bishop spent like 65% of his life under the military and it's no wonder even when he's genuinely making an effort, he still comes off as manipulative.

Head of State specifically deserves a whole analysis of its own that I might just do at some point because it's a fun episode. But in brief, I think Bishop, in his heavily skewed perception, genuinely considers Baxter as an old friend. He feels remorse for leaving him to die and he actually wants to make up for it.

But again, agent and president are still the same person, even if they may be one clone away from each other. Bishop both resents Baxter for chasing him and the dissection thing (you bet that brought a lot of trauma back. I wouldn't be surprised if people were left wondering what could have possibly prompted the president to take a short period of rest for the first time since ever), and cherishes that the scientist is still alive.

He's just not the best at showing it. But what can you do. Even the most peaceful person will be a bit messed up after living for so long. Bishop has been through really traumatic stuff and definitely wasn't encouraged to be anything but an efficient sadistic bastard for a good while. Even when relearning how to behave around people, he couldn't exactly explain what he has been through so at best, Bishop had to sit on his own and design new procedures like “smile, bring a gift, write a nice speech about friendship and respect”, or “introduce a problem and make it so the one in front of you will suggest the solution you want while thinking they came up with it to ensure they will care”. Or even, “traumatized people need reassurance and physical comfort. I guess I'll have to pet the talking brain and offer him a job”.

If anything, 2105 might be a bit too early. Bishop is still consolidating the PGA, there's no way to get him to work on himself some more.

Perhaps, in a better timeline, FF would have received a second season with a real seasonal arc all about redemption. There's a certain other set of clones who could have benefited from it as well.

[jedivoodoochile]

Martha Wayne’s Joker - In a handful of Elseworlds publications and Batman comics, the reader has experienced if that fateful night in Crime Alley was reversed, if Thomas and Martha Wayne witness the death of their young son, Bruce, and how life in the Wayne Family and Gotham City would exist. Observing a handful of Martha’s presence in modern Batman stories, Bruce Wayne is traumatized by his mother and father's death, creating a vigilante persona to avenge this horrific crime, the Batman. Yet as years passed, Martha has been the sensible voice Bruce needs to continue on his crusade, discovering this was his chosen fate.

In 2011, Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert published the core crossover event "Flashpoint", where, in an effort to save his mother's life from the Reverse Flash, Barry Allen aka The Flash discovers he has changed reality and the life of his allies, which was adapted into 2013's DC animated film "Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox" and inspiration for Andy Muschietti’s live action film “The Flash” (2023). Brian Azzarello expands the Dark Knight's new fate in the 3 issue tie in arc "Flashpoint: Batman - Knight of Vengeance", illustrated by Dave Johnson, Eduardo Risso, Patricia Mulvihill, and Clem Robins. In this timeline, Joe Chill kills Bruce Wayne in front of his parents. His mother, Martha, becomes insane due to witnessing this tragedy, creates a bloody smile by cutting open her cheeks and runs the streets of Gotham as "the Joker". Her husband and Bruce's father, Thomas Wayne, wants vengeance for his son's death and becomes the lethal vigilante Batman.

Within this tie-in, Martha Wayne's Joker kills both Commissioner Gordon and his daughter, ending with Thomas Wayne's Batman chasing her back to Wayne Manor. Trying to calm her, Thomas informs Martha of his encounter with this timeline's Barry Allen, telling her there is a time where Bruce lives a life, yet his life is of a shadowy figure in the night. Knowing her son, in life and death, will suffer, Martha is driven mad and jumps off of a cliff off of the manor grounds. As Bruce Wayne's extreme response to the death of his parents was to be the Dark Knight, Martha's extreme grief brought a fate even worse than her original death. No matter which version we view of Martha Wayne, her life and death have made a large impact on Batman's 84 years in DC. #MothersDay 🦇💐📚

[bellweatherrhapsody]

The first 25

November 13, 1982, a beautiful day for a wedding at the Bellweather hotel located in New York. Jennifer, Minnie's older sister was the bride, she was getting married to Theodore. Minnie was not enjoying this day, she was complaining about  her appearance, the way  her clothes felt, and how annoying the day was overall. So as soon as she had the opportunity she escaped. She decided to explore the hotel, which was huge, bigger than any hotel she's ever stayed at. She goes up to the 7th floor due to the fact that the button was cracked, this interested her because you don't see a cracked elevator button very often. When she arrived on the 7th floor she never expected to see what she saw, room 712 was now a crime scene. A couple of newlyweds whos wedding day ended with a murdered husband and a wife who committed suicide. Young Minnie discovered this and was now traumatized. Now skip forward to a couple of years later, when there is an event being held at the exact same hotel. Now, a braggy, popular girl, Alice and a shy, quiet twin brother, Rabbit. She was the perfect twin, and when her brother received a letter stating that he had made it to travel and stay at the Bellweather to compete in a music competition his sister was not feeling extremely happy for him to say the least. But the next day she received a letter saying that she too had made it. “The Hatmaker twins had broken the curse”. This means that for the first time in a long time two Ruby Falls kids are going to state. From these first couple of pages we find out the backstory of the Hotels First case. Personally I think Minnie is truly getting the worst sister wedding experience of her life, she had to witness such a horrifying tragedy while already suffering with all the wedding activities. A true struggle for someone so young like her. Later in the book we find out that she decides to come back to the Bellweather for some sort of closure, which is understandable. Although it is something that not many people would do, not everyone is bold enough to go back to a place that caused so much trauma. 

[himbodiaz]

it's legit so fucked up and I'm never gonna get over it. like, given taylor's background and what she went through, her doing what she did to bobby is inexcusable. and her "explanation" makes it 1000 times worse. if you're gonna tell other people's stories bc you hate telling your own, and you KNOW how devastating having your most traumatic event in life be exploited, you'd think she would be more sensitive and less willing to exploit other people for a soundbite/ratings/clicks. but she's not. maybe if they had her show any remorse and actually apologize for her previous actions and maybe have her report on people suffering actual injustice and getting their story out there, I'd feel different. but she's still doing the same shit over and over, so nah

go off!!!

like, i get she had a tumultuous childhood, but did no one teach her to treat others how she wants to be treated?? she knows the pain of having her tragedy exploited for other's gain. and that's exactly what she does over and over again. so many people who like her said she grew, and she'd changed, but you literally just have to look at her actions in ghost stories to see that she didn't.

like, sure, the whole, hiring a hit man to kill your wife, who then gets hired to kill you, and falls in love with your wife is an extremely marketable story, and one easy to sensationalize. but that's all it is to her--a story, and not a marriage that fell apart so drastically that everyone involved tried to kill each other, and one man ended up shot and buried alive. and sure, the show framed it as something funny and ridiculous, but it doesn't change the tragedy of it, either. and she was being so brash in trying to interview one of the parties that a police officer had to be stationed outside a hospital room to keep her out. i don't think it occurred to her even once that she should ask herself if this was a story that needed to be told.

her lack of empathy and compassion in her reporting will always rub me the wrong way at the very least, and im counting down the minutes until she is gone forever <3

[theravennest]

Let’s Talk About Shang Chi...

I just got back from seeing Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. I had a great time with it. Just a lovely experience.

The fights were dope. The music was rocking. The actors’ performances really sold me on everything. I loved all the Xianxia elements. Y’all know fantasy worlds are my JAM!

But it was the characters that really drew me in. Every one of them were pitch perfect for me. The final act got a little jumbled, imo, but the characters and their dynamics were so good that it was enough for me to completely forgive and overlook the somewhat messy final battle. 

The story had a lot of heart. It was so personal and so anchored in real emotions. I highkey fell in love with all the main characters. I love their journeys and their complex  and grounded relationships with each other. I really liked the movie’s examination of grief, loss, and pain and the lengths people will go to in the wake of being overwhelmed by those feelings.

Let’s dig into it! This is gonna be a whole discombobulated mess, I just know it. lmao

***Spoilers below the cut!***

I really felt for Shang Chi, Xialing, and Wenwu struggling to figure out how to be a family again after they were all broken in different ways by the loss of Mama Ying Li. And each one of them trying in their own way to heal from it, some to extremely destructive degrees. 

How Wenwu treated his kids after being consumed by grief and violence was so utterly messed up but in two completely different ways. 

He treated Xialing like she was anathema, like she was literally nothing. Even when they were older and she had grown into an adult, he barely spoke to her in the entirety of the movie, could hardly even look at her. Partially because she looked like her mom and he retreated utterly from the pain of that, and partially because he constantly underestimated her in favor of her brother. This, of course, seeded the resentful tension between Xialing and Shang Chi from the start.

I’m a real sucker for sibling dynamics, as you all know. They’re my favorite types of family-oriented stories. (Side note, I really love the way the MCU has dedicated several stories to sibling relationships. It’s like my favorite thing in the MCU as a whole.)

I completely ate up the harsh and tricky relationship between Xialing and Shang Chi. Shang Chi completely let her down when they were kids, for her POV. (Not really his fault, he was a scared and traumatized 15 year old. Totally understandable.) But there is something to be said about the fact that she was also a child. A child dealing with her mom’s death too AND her dad’s aloofness. Then she was utterly abandoned by her brother. It’s no wonder she never quite forgives him, even though they mostly team up in the movie. They still have a lot to work out between them.

I really loved that she took on leadership of the Ten Rings at the end. The moment Shang Chi said she was “dismantling” their dad’s empire, I knew what was up. Though, the softy in me does hope that eventually they can find true reconciliation between them. I’m excited to see what we’ll see from her in future movies as a potential enemy of Shang Chi. It’ll be really interesting to see how Shang Chi tackles having to go up against his little sister.

And Shang Chi!!! OMG! Let’s talk Shang Chi and Wenwu now. When Wenwu drop kicked him into the ground and started the blame game for Mama Ying Li’s death like bro!!! I was so heated. He was 7 years old. A whole baby! She died because your thousand years of violence and conquering shit finally came home to roost. 

But that one line when Wenwu said Shang Chi’s 7 year old self “just stood there and watched” while his mom was killed actually revealed so much about Wenwu’s character. (The cutting way Tony Leung, a literal legend, delivered that was masterful, btw.) 

I actually think that it was the first time Wenwu has ever verbalized that he blamed Shang Chi for Ying Li’s death. Like maybe he’s always felt that way and all this time he was partially punishing Shang Chi for what he thinks of as a failure to protect or help the woman who meant so much to them.

Like, yes, he was training Shang Chi to take his place with him in the Ten Rings as an assassin but maybe he also wanted Shang Chi to kill his mom’s murderer as penance for letting her die in the first place.

Of course, it’s clear to see that Wenwu was absolutely shifting his own feelings of conflicting guilt onto his kids. Guilt that his past as a warlord is what got her killed. But also guilt that he put down the Ten Rings in the first place when if he had stayed a warlord, this never would have happened. But also the bone deep knowledge that if he hadn’t put down the Rings, Ying Li might never have stayed with him and loved him in the first place.

When Shang Chi threw it back at him that Ying Li probably wouldn’t love the person Wenwu had returned to, Wenwu looked so shook up. Phew! Perfect emoting from Tony Leung in that moment.

Honestly, Wenwu was having a very tragic and confusing time of it in this movie. Which is probably how that creature from beyond was able to find a crack in his psychic defenses and lure him to the gate. I had a lot of empathy for him even though I disagree so much with what he did to his kids, emotionally.

I really respect the fact that the movie never lost that sense of compassion for all of their feelings including Wenwu. I also respect that the movie really gave them space to grieve not just the loss of Ying Li but also the resulting dissolution of their happy family.

It’s just too bad that Wenwu’s grief made him push his kids away instead of pulling them closer. He completely emotionally abandoned them. A thousand years of power and supremacy yet he was broken because he never in that time fully learned how to process his emotions in a healthier way and his kids paid the price. They could’ve leaned on each other and on the love they found with Ying Li to help them get through but alas that’s the tragedy of the movie. 

I really wanted somehow for Shang Chi to make it through to his dad before he went too far to come back again. I genuinely did not want to see Wenwu die at the end. I wanted him to live and see Shang Chi’s changing dynamic with his father continue. I wanted to see him finally acknowledge his daughter as his true heir and see her accomplishments (dark though they will likely become considering the “softer” version of her is the one that ran an illegal fight club in Macao lmao).

Though I am happy Shang Chi got through to him enough at the end for Wenwu to save Shang Chi’s life, willingly pass the rings onto his son, and somewhat accept his own death after a thousand years of life. That was such a poignant moment between them. And I wonder if in that instant, Wenwu had the thought that in dying he’d at least see Ying Li again.

(Side note: I really hope his soul and the souls of everyone that got eaten were freed when Shang Chi killed the monster. I really want them to be able to move on to the next phase of existence. I really hope they weren’t destroyed after being eaten. I want Wenwu to reunite with Ying Li even in the afterlife, gotdamnit! Sue me, I’m a romantic.)

Let’s talk Simu Liu’s performance here for one second. He was incredible throughout. I completely bought into this strange but so real feeling that while he has a lot of anger towards his father, so much hurt, he also felt a lot of heartache and love for who Shang Chi wanted him to be. And the strange desire to want to help a man who emotionally scarred him so badly.

Simu really brought both sides of Shang Chi’s journey to life. Like, he was tying to find his own path, reconcile with the mistakes he’s made in the past (his sister, killing his mom’s murderer), and facing up against his father’s ideals and expectations. But there was also a side of Shang Chi’s journey that was about finally understand both his sister and his father’s point of views, and of learning/embracing his mother’s history. 

That moment by the lake when he revealed to Katy that he had actually killed the man who killed his mother. Whew boy! The emotions were so poignant. Simu Liu played it like *chef’s kiss* beautiful.

Speaking of character choices, I really rate this decision to have him actually go through with the assassination. It puts Shang Chi in an interesting position emotionally and somewhat morally. Instead of having his breaking point be him unable to kill as his father wishes, it’s instead the feeling of guilt and shame that he actually did kill the man.

I wonder if he felt a sense of satisfaction before the disgust and shame settled in. Because Shang Chi literally watched his mom die, he probably initially wanted to help his father hunt down the man because of that bit of dark need for vengeance. Until he got it, and felt ashamed to fully face his mother’s memory afterwards.

I’m interested to see how future Shang Chi movies and Simu will dig into and unpack that little bit of darkness these events instilled in the character.

Let’s talk Ying Li for a second here. This woman was incredible. An incredible martial artist, for sure, a mystical guardian and warrior...but she was also just an incredible person in general. Mama Ying Li was so self-assured, so steadfast in her convictions. She struck me as someone who knows exactly what she wants and is never afraid to reach for it.

Fala Chen portrayed her with such grace, warmth, and strength of character. It was extremely easy to see why Wenwu fell in love with her. She met Wenwu, a literal thousand year old warlord, and through shear strength of character led him to put down his weapons and his empire to make a home with her.

This man threw away his entire shadow army of assassins, threw away his whole plan to literally demolish her village in the pursuit of power...in order to play Dance Dance Revolution with her and their kids. (The highlight of their romance and the family flashbacks, for me, tbh.) 

And I know it’s not necessarily...positive BUT there is something...hmmmm, crunchy in the fact that Ying Li so completely altered Wenwu’s life by simply loving him that when she died he was willing to raze the whole world to get her back, damn the consequences.

Trying to properly explore toxic and negative turns in previously loving family dynamics is such a difficult task to take on. I really liked the complexity of the Xu family. All the actors really sold the family side of things. It was an almost tangible thing how much you could see how the love they felt had turned bitter and painful over the years.

The final battle was epic and mind blowing (There was a fucking DRAGON flying around for gods’ sake!) but I do wish it had stayed a little more grounded for longer in the beginning of it when the Ten Rings were fighting the Ta Lo warriors. I wanted to see more of that fight before they had the turn to becoming temporary allies against the soul suckers. It became a little too much of a CGI mash, for me, in some parts of it.

Still, the emotional beats held and the core of the story of this grieving family trying to hold on to the tatters of their world stayed consistent even through the final battle. I can forgive a lot because of the strong sense of character and connection there.

Plus, it’s a comic book movie. Spectacle is the name of the game and at least this one had cool fantasy beasts and dope fight choreo. 

Anyway, I’ve rambled enough. Let’s wrap it up here. Suffice it to say, I had a wonderful time with this movie. I’m ready for the next one!

[noxiatoxia]

i liked it. i really love stories with themes of unconventional happiness and moral grayness, that there is no "right" and no "wrong", and no right way to be happy. Killer Killer was certainly that kind of story. Everyone was fucked up but when everyone is fucked up that becomes the new normal.

I really liked the psychology behind Hijirihara and Fujigawa both becoming killers of serial killers for different reasons as a response to the same traumatic event. They're both extremely hypocritical in their approach which I think adds to it. Fujigawa kills serial killers because he thinks murder is deplorable, but obviously, this makes himself a serial killer. Not to mention his first killing was a straight up murder witu no justification and his mentality could be read as him coping with the fact he IS a killer. Hijirihara kills serial killers because he despises their lack of passion in their crime, but the irony is found in the fact that he too lacks passion when killing other serial killers for these faults. In the end his first and only passionate killing was a lover's dual suicide - we don't see it but I want to assume it wasn't a murder suicide but a joint suicide, meaning the only passionate killing he comitted was unto himself. I like this ending being framed as bittersweet. It's what he and Asano both wanted. Speaking of Asano, her joining FF was because she wanted to help change the world, but in the end she kills herself with Hijirihara and seemingly doesn't care about anything else anymore. Reasonably, after both FF and random strangers tried to kill her to disarm the bomb collar, she had no reason to want to serve humanity anymore. And ironically, the only person who cared about her wishes and that she in turn loved and trusted was a serial killer. I love stuff like that. Morally gray swag.

Also, I do like Hijirihara's backstory. They build up in volume 1 how he falls in love easy with pretty women and cares immensely about passionate killings. Later they show as a kid he was abolutely terrified of the world and being killed and had a fear of blood, but after hiding in a locker and watching Mukuro Ikusaba kill a classroom full of other kids, his "falling in love easily" trait made the idea of murder and blood become a passionate, twisted thing as he fell in love with Mukuro as he saw her kill everyone. I like that. I think sexual arousal and fear are more interlinked than people think. A lot of people have phobias that are also their fetishes, so I think it's an interesting backstory.

I will say one thing: this manga had basically nothing to do with Danganronpa until volume 2, and even then, it really means nothing. Besides random DR3 characters showing up or the backstory with Mukuro, there's really nothing related to DR here besides mentioning the tragedy once or twice as an explanation for why there's so many crazy people in the world. And this isn't like a BAD thing. The story is very enjoyable on its own. But you could EASILY replace every single Danganronpa element and it would not change the story. None of the main characters talk about hope or despair and the Monokuma iconogrophy is BARELY used. It's really just a wholeass new story with the Danganronpa logo slapped on it. Again that's fine, I found the story very enjoyable. The art was good and rather creepy at times, which makes sense. Hijirihara and Fujigawa had undeniable toxic yaoi happening. Well, more like Fujigawa was borderline yandere for him and Hijirihara wanted nothing to do with it.

I really liked the dual dialogue between them, where they both come to the same conclusions about murder, but their summaries are completely different, with Fujigawa calling it "disgusting" and Hijirihara calling it "beautiful". I also really loved the line, "It's when you're about to kill or be killed that human life shines the brightest."

It very much is my kind of story, up there with Mogeko Castle and Happy Sugar Life, about what it means to truly live, what it means to be happy and what it means to be good or bad. And that in the end, there is no way to define these things, and I feel these stories give a good insight on that sort of murky world. Some people have an easy time defining a black-and-white "right" and "wrong" to happiness, morality, and love. Other people like myself have always struggled to view these concepts in anything other than a cloudy gray, which is why I can accept suicide being an ultimate happiness, or the true way to be alive. Stories like these really speak to me.

Anyways yeah I enjoyed the manga :]

i just read danganronpa killer killer and wow is all i have to say. give me a moment here.

[orionshounds]

I’ve been knee deep in dsmp lore streams and I just want to ramble about it

Dream smp lore is so good, it’s so good!!! Not only is the story itself just fascinating, but how it’s presented so uniquely through the medium of minecraft of all things is just so cool. One of my favorite parts of the lore is seeing how everyone on the smp has their own “style” they present it in, and watching them find the way they find the most enjoyment in is so cool. Literally no two streamer’s lore stream quite like each others and it’s just incredible! It just speaks to the flexibility of roleplay as an artistic medium and really shows everyone’s individual personalities. 

Wilbur was dramatic as hell and wrote eloquent speeches. He started a drug operation under the guise as a country, and it lead to a revolution in which he was able to explore the spiral of a man who loses control of everything he had built. And after his arc and he wanted a break from the server? He created ghostbur, an amnesic comic relief with just enough touch of tragedy that he is still able to make heartbreaking monologues when he wants to.

Tommy is able to run around with his friends and cause as much chaos to his heart’s extent, but there is so much more than meets the eye. He is incredibly social and isn’t afraid to start conflict with a lot of people, bringing them into the roleplay. He doesn’t back down from storytelling either. His character goes through terrible situations and he fully explores the trauma that comes from those experiences. His character goes against the “stereotypical” trauma I see alot in media; instead of being shy or scared he’s reactionary, he’s angry, he’s violent, he’s depressed. I’m actually really impressed with the heavy subject matter this 17 year old teen has managed to portray (I’ve connected with it quite personally at certain points), while still being able to keep the light hearted fun that’s so intrinsic to his personality. 

Tubbo isn’t really interested in serious lore as much. Even in dire moments he tells jokes and just has fun. So, in his recent lore, he just streams as normal while putting mysterious writing on screen that he doesn’t acknowledge or have to explain, which I think is just a genius work around for him to participate in lore. He still has his dedicated lore streams sometimes, and when he is in the acting zone he has some of the most powerful moments out of everyone on the server.

Ranboo, while having stake in the greater smp lore, is much more character focused. He presents his lore through long monologues and fucking heart-wrenching voice acting. He loves working in themes of horror and causing a specific feeling in the viewer. So he chooses specific music as a themes for events/characters and creates visual queues in his overlays to draw out that desired reaction. He also values improve a LOT, if something unexpected comes up he just runs with it and he has made huge changes to his lore as early as 30 min before a stream.

Technoblade, while arguably one of the most powerful people on the server, prefers a more light-hearted yet dramatic approach to lore. When Dream was at his house looking for Tommy, Techno had no problem joking around and making fun of him for being homeless. He tore down an entire nation on the server and had so much fun doing it! He’s more of an antagonist than a true villain in my opinion. And lets not forget how dedicated he is to the game, he’s cracked at the craft. He spends hours grinding and creating farms on the smp, for amazing pay offs (his several vault reveals, the withers, etc), most of which weren’t even on stream!

Karl Jacobs is extremely social, so he created Tales from the smp as a way to involve TONS of people in lore while exploring the past and future of the server (it was also a way for viewers who weren’t that well versed in dsmp lore to join and not have to worry about it!). And through this premise, he took the opportunity to develop his own character on the smp; making an incredibly tragic story of a time traveler trying to save his home while slowly loosing his memories. Not to mention the beautifully shot cutscenes of the Inbetween and the Other Side. He includes so many people behind the scenes as well, collabing with other members on lore, hiring building teams and people to make intros and credit scenes, and promoting fanart and fansongs from the community!

Quackity explores his lore through heavily scripted events and amazingly shot cut scenes. While the way he expresses his lore comes at the cost of improv, the payoff of the visuals and story is well worth it! The shots he makes of the smp is downright gorgeous, no to mention he’s the first person to include irl footage in his lore (not counting facecams)! He’s not afraid of thoroughly examining his own character, being one of the only people I can think of that shows us “past events” leading up to something that has already happened.

Badboyhalo, Antfrost, Ponk, Skeppy, Captain Puffy, Punz, Awesamdude, Hannahxxrose all work together on shared lore and the payoff is amazing! By introducing the Egg, a constant antagonistic force that constantly pulls on character’s relationships with each other, everyone is able to stream together to battle for or against the egg! There’s also plenty of room for people to do individual lore that's more intimate to their respective character. They spend hours changing vines, putting up posters, slowly shaping the smp in a way that makes it exciting to watch streams to see just what has changed everyday. Because there’s so many people necessary to tell the egg’s story, it does comes at the cost of time (the egg has been around FOREVER). However, they all work together super hard and I just admire their commitment to the story they’re trying to tell!

And Sam! He has several different “Modes” his character is in (and an entirely separate character, Sam Nook) that he gets to explore lore with. He’s a terrifying warden, he’s a money motivated businessman, he’s a conflicted lover, he’s a traumatized victim of the egg, and just so much more. Through having so many different “roles” in the rp he gets to explore relationships and plotlines with a whole array of people. Not to mention he’s absolutely cracked at redstone and has some of the most impressive builds on the server.

And Puffy! So much of her lore is calling into question the morality of the server and really makes you step back and think critically about the characters. Her character also has, in my opinion, one of the most interesting relationships with Dream, the main antagonist of the entire server, which is just fascinating to watch unfold. Not to mention she’s one of the first people to start exploring the backstory of her character!

George doesn’t exactly do lore. In fact he’s slept through so much of it it’s become a meme. And you know what? That mad man took that and ran with it. He explains his absence in the story by having his character literally being asleep through it, creating mystery where there used to just be an absence. He’s able to goof off with his friends and have borderline nonsensical streams, then at the end sucker punch the audience emotionally by “waking up” and have the viewers question just what was real and what wasn’t?

The smp has the freedom for people who want more independent lore to be able to explore their character’s that way as well!

Hbomb, Connereatspants, and Purpled don’t have a lot of lore on the smp, generally only coming on to have fun with everyone, but when they do have their moments it unfolds in very interesting ways!

Sapnap, Eret, and Schlatt maybe aren’t as active as some other people, but when they are on they actively participate in lore and have lasting impacts on the story (Ex: Eret’s betrayal, Sapnap’s visit to dream in the prison, Schlatt becoming president).

Philza mostly does his own thing, improving the server or making some bomb ass builds. He has incredibly devastating roles in lore (killing wilbur, blowing up L’manberg for the final time, starting the syndicate with Techno), but he also has quieter moments that speak to the depth his character has, such as fishing with fundy or reminiscing about his dead son and how it went so wrong. Like Techno, he doesn’t like to take lore completely seriously, often laughing no matter what’s happening or teasing chat after something big goes down, but his character is solid with a lot of potential for future lore.

Foolish has only started on his character and its already super interesting. The hints at his dark past as a “god of death” and his current conflict with the egg are intriguing as fuck. Not to mention the MASSIVE builds he does for everyone, helping to progress their lore as well.

Fundy has a lot of freedom with his character to participate however much he wants in lore. While generally he’s a trickster who loves to prank people he has enough tragedy build into his backstory he’s able to break the viewer’s heart with a flip of a switch. Not to mention his recent, almost surreal, stream that explored his character’s disturbing dreams that may or may not predict the future.

Niki is very character driven, exploring her character's grief of losing her best friend and her anger of being ignored in the very country she helped create. She has incredibly emotional moments, and even though she’s on her own building an underground city she still participates in other lore via teaming with jack manifold or the syndicate.

Jack Manifold’s lore is VERY character focused, and while he’s described his story as a “B plot that occasionally intersects with the main plot”, the story he tells is still fascinating. Being pushed aside not taken seriously his whole life, his character develops into a fun cartoony-esque villain who begs to be taken seriously, that has the depth of a truly conflicted person who is torn between wanting revenge on everyone who’s done him wrong and just wanting a friend.

Last but not least, the man himself, Dream. The most fascinating thing about his lore is that absolutely none of it is from his pov. All we know about his character is only from what we see from everyone else’s povs, and in his case it leads to a very intimidating villain! Not to mention, mans owns the damn server and yet has made himself the main antagonist! He is the only character I consider a “true villain” on the smp. His voice acting and writing is downright sinister. I could write a fucking essay on how his character’s obsession with power has led him to the point he thinks himself an unstoppable god

Everyone on this server is stunning and I love all of them!!!!!