#and then it doesnt happen and shes forced to make the choice and it absolutely destroys her sense of self. bc heroes dont DO that

[rosykims]

ive played dao like 9 times at this point and still. and STILL the isolde/connor decision has me tearing my hair out gnawing my keyboard stomping around the house ready to lie down and never get up

[prideprejudce]

I think alot more people would enjoy the show if they learned to see Rhaenyra and Alicent as Unreliable Narrators, and characters who are supposed to have glaring flaws and weaknesses.

Mandatory preface- There are Issues™️ with season 2 that are its own other ask- but the complaints ive seen about character assassination on both women kind of tells me ppl just wanted to see the two just GirlBossing around, not being tragic characters trapped in their own circumstances.

For Alicent specifically- she just isn't written to be Cersei 2.0, and while it was really interesting to see motherhood from cersei's point of view, its already been done!! I actually prefer seeing Alicent's mercurial clinging to and abandoning motherhood- its interesting!! She was made a mother at what- 15? An age where you truly arent mentally developed enough to raise 3 kids, AND be a child bride, AND be a queen, (AND be a lesbian).

Alicent is interesting to me because she's stunted at 15 years old, she's an adult woman who talks to and sometimes bullies her kids as if they are her peers, and is obsessed with her childhood crush(es). She hasn't built any new relationships* past the ones she was entangled with as a teenager, she's obsessed with both acting out to make SOMEONE see that shes suffering, (she's honestly pretty blatant for someone who prides themselves on being the Temperate Voice of Reason) but also to erase herself and reset to before she had to marry the king, before aemma died.

I think most of her 'bad out of character' decisions are just these two impulses winning out, her trying to force a reset, go back to a time where none of this had happened yet, when things were simpler and she had love and every day wasn't the worst day of her life™️.

She sleeps with cole, the man she thought was pretty at 15 (her last uncomplicated attraction just before it all went wrong and aemma died) -she doesnt seem to like it that much, but she does seem compelled to seek him out, esp when upset- shes obsessed with, and desperate to reconnect with Rhaenyra, her childhood best friend (and first love) and get back to where they were as kids, AND she still treats and asks her father for absolution as if he's still the only authority that matters to her just like she did at 15. Alot of her 'victim complex/bewildered they took it so far' behaviour in the plotting of rhaenyra's usurption reads to me like a teenager in over her head, she talked big game and now its real and shes panicking!! She's tragic BECAUSE she's still a teenager- so stunted shes unable to meaningfully grow up and learn to make healthier choices for herself, or move on and stop trying to grasp at the 'if i could just go back' urge.

As a mother, I think this creates an interesting dynamic as well, and I do like that in the casting even, she seems closer in age to her kids than rhaenyra does to hers. I think the contrast ppl are drawing with Alicent Protecting Her Kids in season1 compared to her giving them up in season two isn't bad writing to me, just massive differences in context. Sure she protected Aemond in driftmark, but we cant ignore that she probably felt humiliated by her husband choosing rhaenyra's side over hers in front of everyone, did it seem like a grown woman fighting for her son?? or a teenager furious with her ex winning one over her again? or both!! both sides twisted together is still interesting! When she protected Aegon from Rhaenys, is stepping in front of her son the king to protect him from the enemies dragon fire not the most romantic daydream of a deserving death a child bride could come up with?? Was it the impulse to protect the son she couldnt decide if she loved or hated, or was it to have the most heroic death possible to escape the reality that she sees coming. And if Rhaenyra hears about how Brave she was in the face of a dragons maw, and cries about it forever and feels sooo bad and regrets it til the day she dies, thats an added bonus. I think Alicent loves her kids, but is teenager selfish about HOW she loves and protects her kids, and is unable to be a mature, consistant, protective mother to them when she also sees them as having ruined her life. I think in season 2 when she 'gives them up' shes relieved, and once again following the compulsion of 'if i reset to when Rhaenyra was heir, i had no sons, and i wasn't married or queen, everything will be better'. I think theres complexity to it, i think she does love her sons and feels insane about it, but I think Alicent has been trying to Go Back in more and more Intense ways ever since she got married, and we might be giving her sanity more credit than it deserves when it comes to the need to wipe the board clean and go back to being 15.

hey anon are you trying to get married to me or what

[spacedlexi]

I’ve been thinking abt this recently, relating to Violet’s arc when you don’t save her, and wanted to see thoughts as you posted about her relationship with Minerva.

I don’t think it’s crazy for me to headcanon that in 403 when the bomb explodes, Minerva actually abandons Violet prior to it occurring (maybe being drawn by AJ’s gunshot depending on your choice??), because it makes absolutely no sense for them to go “stop the bomb” and then only one of them is burnt to shit. An explosion from such a close distance would’ve logically left both of them at least mildly burnt.

It makes more sense for Minerva to be totally fine in the kidnapped Louis route, but in the Violet route, I can’t help but feel like Violet saying “Where’s Minnie?” with such frustration when she shows up on the beach is due to something occurring.

But knowing Skybound and Telltale, they probably just forgot how explosions work.

LMAO 💀 at that last sentence BUT YES i do at least agree that something had to have happened between them during the explosion but its been hard to figure out exactly what that couldve been 🤔

but jokes aside lets try to give the writers some credit. if vi was so horribly scarred WHY wasnt minnie harmed as well if they were supposedly together? i think its a fair question to ask. especially since in 404 minnie and vi are completely separated with minnie already on the beach and vi struggling to get to shore by herself (burned and blinded 😭). and her "WHERE IS SHE??" does sound pretty furious (and atp she regrets what she did on the boat and tries to apologize to clem a minute later so why would her anger be directed at clem and louis?). we know minnie sacrificed sophie to save herself so why would it be so hard to believe she did the same to vi in the explosion? or did vi possibly try to protect her? or both?? minnie lets vi take the brunt of the hit for her and then leaves her?? i cant imagine minnie giving up on trying to stop the bomb either since shes delta now and definitely wouldnt want the boat to explode. and youd think minnie would be leading the way since kidnapped vi was in a cell the whole time. vi says they headed to the boiler room together to try to stop it but then it seems like everything just kinda went black 💣💥

but if minnie didnt abandon vi before the explosion, why wasnt minnie near vi in the water post-explosion? minnie had to have left vi alone and vulnerable at some point in all of this and we know how vi feels about being abandoned... minnie is more focused on trying to save the remaining delta and doesnt seem to have even tried looking for vi if they Were separated by the blast (and if they were together when the bomb went off (which vi says they were) minnie wouldve known vi was caught in the blast, but it doesnt seem like she cares)

violet being violet i do think shes still also worried about minnie on some level because her whole thing is being the "protector" of the group and her feelings towards minnie are (as she later admits) Very messed up atm (shes always just wanted to save her). where saved violet recognizes minnie has chosen the delta in 403, i think here on the beach is where kidnapped vi is forced to accept it, and she realizes who it is she can Truly rely on instead

[modtheartifex]

i wrote this into a youtube comment like moments ago, but i feel strongly enough that i will put it out here as well;

Lego Monkie Kid Season 5 does NOT have villains. it has characters that are antagonistic forces and layered with nuance on top of nuance.

not to say previous seasons didnt do this, but this season ABSOLUTELY is entirely filled with characters like this

lmk season 5 spoilers, as well as anything from previous seasons just in case cause idk. might get long too tbh oopsies JINNGFDOIJN

we have a few characters to consider for LMK s5's "villains".

we have Ne Zha's dad (i forget his name, ill probably call him pagoda man), nine headed dragon (consort, 10th king, xiangliu) and nuwa. we could theoretically consider thousand eyed demon, however hes only relevant in one episode so id hardly count that

pagoda man is the easiest to explain, he is an antagonistic force because hes trying to hold onto what little order there is left of the world, he is trying to be the duct tape keeping the sawed in half boat together, and hes trying to minimize risks. does that excuse how he treats ne zha? fuck no, but thats a whole different discussion and depending on your interpretation of how much of the chinese mythos you use for this work will vary. he is just like mk as mk himself points out, it doesnt have to be just pagoda man doing the work, theres people willing to help, and then he joins the heroes side for the end.

cool, great, now. what the fuck do i mean by nuwa?

this is where interpretation is strongest, where it is key. ill just be sharing my perspective. when i was first watching season 5 my partner pointed out to me that in chinese mythos chaos is a core element of the world, it is necessary. this, coupled with the fact that nuwa made mk to fix a cycle she created (which we also dont know how many cycles the world has gone through, it could be one, it could be two, it could be in the hundreds if not thousands, whos to say.) and to keep chaos out... she is keeping the world from being complete. her little cave without the outside world, without proper balance, her little people living blissfully apocalypse to apocalypse. "but theyll all die!" "theyll live again" nuwa says, smile on her face.

she is disconnected from her cave, her world her people, her creations, who knows how long shes been in the limbo, how well she can perceive time, how many times a sacrifice comes in, they get a few words exchanged before they just leave, her in the pillar, only getting glimpses when the cycle is ending of the world, only to be shut in again.

neat, ok, but xiangliu??? hes who was gestured at from the BEGINNING of season 4.

see. heres where we get into the GOOD shit.

this is why it is important to establish that we dont know how many cycles have happened. we do not know how long he has been stuck, how many times he has tried to fix the world over and over. he makes it clear in his ending dialogue, if only he knew how to fix it, that sharing the power of the stones was the key to his freedom. the fact that he goes from what most would consider the least important title to the most important one, his own name, the fact he states he was wukongs friend, his enemy, both, wukong just doesnt remember

that implies longentivity. that implies so many cycles and lifetimes lived inside this cycle, being aware of everything, being so damnably aware of what one considers true freedom, and having to sit at the precipice of that.

it is agony.

xiangliu for the majority of the season is the only one to call mk by his name. mk gets so often called child, kid, nicknames by the others, maybe mei refers to him as mk, but xiangliu has it be DELIBERATE. he altered the course of the cycle to give mk a life, to let him HAVE a life where nuwa didnt care for one, he WANTED mk to grow enough that he would be able to choose. because everything is about mks choice, his ability to choose it all matters on HIS. CHOICE.

the only time this falters is when xiangliu thinks he is trapped for good. he rushes at mk, one final chance at freedom seemingly taken from him. xiangliu never fights mk. he only fights the others when they start fighting him. when its just him and mk at the edge of the world, at the edge of chaos, he talks to mk. tells him what to expect, mentions a mysterious "he" now that mk has opened the cage. and he pushes mk back so he gets to go back to his life. so that mk can have choices still. xiangliu got what he wanted, so its only right mk gets what he wanted too. to live with his friends and let everyone live a life where they can figure something out.

that is why i do not think there are villains in lego monkie kid season 5. they are antagonists with layers of nuance, nuance we arent privy to for reason or another, be it episode count, length, screentime, or that were just not supposed to yet. season 5 does not have an obvious bad guy, a villain, because the nuance is right within our grasp.

thank you for reading this. fucking essay apparently oopsies JINNGFDIJN

[jazzy-art-time]

Paprika - Jarble AU

[ Paprika belongs to @skoodledoodledoo ] [ I had permission to Jarble Paprika / Skoodle sacrificed her to me for me to practice on ]

diagnosis and information below the cut

DIAGNOSIS RESULTS --

Paprika

Job: Boutique (either owns her own or works at one)

Rather lackadaisical at her job, Paprika does still do good work, or maybe it's just that intimidating stare that pressures people into purchasing?

A very stern woman, very to the point and short with her answers most of the time. She probably doesn't find you that interesting to begin with, so why waste her words on you? Good luck chipping through that stone.

She is very much a perfectionist despite how she doesnt want to admit it. "i dont care about my job or you or anything" but is still found being extremely meticulous about every little thing. How dare you not face all the coat hangers the same way. That shade of blue may be the same but it has more green undertones, idiot! How did you not notice that! Oh whatever hand it to me ILL do it and ILL do it RIGHT.

She lives well as she is able to live within the inner city, most would be rather satisfied with her life.

But deep down there is a insecurity to her life choices. Did she make the right choices? Is she actually happy? She stares out the windows of the boutique often, glancing at the travel advertisements that flicker on the large ad screens outside. Does she long for more? To travel? To go on adventures?… No.. That's not her.. It couldn't be her. So she sighs and continues to sort her fabrics.

DEFAULT WEAPON:

Brass Knuckles with fist spikes and a side knife.

Is conjured by snapping a specific claw on one of her hands. The nail used to conjure is usually painted a different color than the rest. Originally used to identify which nail but now is just for pure aesthetic and more of a power move to show off which one does it.

The entire set can be charged with electricity, causing a blunt force Stab/Shock/Punch combo. But this can only happen within a certain percentage of her power.

The side knife on the side can retract in and out depending on the scenario. Great for sudden right hooks on others.

Regularly a bright yellow color but during sunrise it will glow a faint red.

EXTRA DESIGN NOTES:

-> Her dress is supposed to resemble the cherish ball. I thought it would be a cute nod to her OG design. But also designed to have a more vampire red goth look? It looked more intimidating in my head. I think it would be neat if she had various dresses based on each pokeball.

-> BIG hair, like absolutely massive head of hair. I know Luxray is known for their mane anyways but like good god. The hair on this woman. She has to be rich to afford all that hair care.

-> She has the more Right Ring Circle sparkle effects on her body, that naturally fade when leaving that ring. In HER case, the sparkles appear near the tail tip and as extra freckles on her face. One primary one being on her cheek. However, her sparkles seem to fade quicker than most when leaving the limits... could be a sign of her desire to change? Or nothing at all.

[mbslost]

hi. yes i came back for another yapping session, ironic.

i would like to express some of my feelings towards... some interesting things.

1. The Strade nazi drawing

i talked about his before, i am aware, but later (while reading other opinions as well) i got reminded about EP (Electricpuke for those who dont know him). did we all forgot HOW MANY nazi drawings he made? dont you believe that's an influence as well? if i remember correctly, Gato cut ties with him because of his abusive behaviour (there arent many people talking about this but some user are aware about his actions. sadly i wasnt in the community when that happened)

literally there are people calling Gato a nazi when she doesn't support the ideology. why did no one act the same with EP? different standards? the fact he left (probably) for good? still its not an excuse to call Gato a nazi. also she apologised multiple times. again MULTIPLE TIMES. even in the callout post in twt you can see the fact she IS sorry for drawing that. that she REGRETS it

edit: kay found a ss on tt from the user @/gorturic where Gato said this as well

again, she doesn't support any nazi shit :/

2. The way others silence opinions that they dont like

im not saying you should be forced to agree with it, but when you make a callout account, normally, you let multiple people say their opinions over that thing. you can even show proof when you see someone is wrong. thats how argument work, crazy ik.

i start to see that if you defend Gato or just leave the community because the fandom its on thin ice, you'll be harassed and bullied for your choices. first of all, HOW ABOUT WE LEAVE PEOPLE THAT DONT WANT TO ASSOCIATE WITH BTD/TPOF ANYMORE ALONE. good? literally saw multiple users being harassed by this. its THEIR decision, suck it up. also can we stop SENDING DEATH THREATS???

or the fact that if you do have a point, they'll immediately cancel it with the "oh but its not important". it can be if you have some proofs for their misinformation (just like i proved the variety of poc characters Gato CREATED. didnt talk about Ren since he's another story)

3. Lack of proof for the side allegations.

if people noticed mods harassing people sm, why didnt they talk? why arent there ss of their conversations? we dont even know (most of us) what they even commented about (aside of Pussyspieler drawing). or the twt user that was wronged. that situation was like.. kind of a "im more autistic so you should shut up" (i have to add that i asked people on the spectrum about this and that was their point of view) of course the mod shouldn't have said it like that but.. its more of a misunderstanding really.. that doesnt mean you cant be upset. you absolutely can. everyone can react differently so dont harass them for feeling down or for being frustrated.

also the spanish (or mexican idk) users that just copied and translated @/renhanasgf posts with little to no new information. just the same thing. (although they said something of Gato not sending merch to latin America. probably because of the laws back then or the fact that the transport fee would be high af. im still searching for the reason tho so ill need some time for that one).

4. This fandom is messed up

people when fans of horror porn games are problematic 🤯. i agree that some people are being like extreme with their reactions, but no one is perfect here. just like i approached the situation completely wrong, they did the same. of course, now if you go around and be a racist piece of shit, you shoudl just stay off the internet for a while. luckily more approach the "like the art not the artist" thing.

look. you can always block users that you dont like (just like i do to those who are either into csam,thanks for telling me ab this term anon!, or incest). i know. shocking that people can block others.

after all these fandoms are not for the weak. there may be some safe spaces in it as well but... lets be real... its still going to be problematic. if you cant handle the community or how others act around here, then id suggest for you to not have a close interaction with others. like uhm, just, appreciate the content, not every person around here. just be aware of the users, stau safe okay?

5. Will i stop yapping?

not until i will see an agreement in the fandom. Gato is a human, of course she will do mistakes. especially if she's anxious or tired. having hundreds of people around you its hard and i can imagine it. having supoortive people only to wake up with people hating you. i hope she's safe and that she wont have to go to the hospital again. i pray for her well being, and to others that got spammed with those disgusting comments.

im not saying we should forget about this like.. her poor management and emotional way of responding to things, but is it truly worth it? to force a person to apologise just because they tried to fix things?

i also dont think ill stop because i just feel like im the only one that does talk here (trying to even prove wrong on some things). if others do it as well, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TAG ME I WANNA SEE THEM😭 also because most people are still so confused about EVERYTHING. for some reason this drama its only getting more popular on tt for some reason.. which is a big no no since there are a lot of YOUNG people. i believe this should be talked here, and on twitter. (idk what to say about telegram)

ill stop here since my sickness got me. i will edit it later to add or correct myself but *sighs*

please stay safe and try to view more opinions over this. DONT SPAM OR HARASS ANYONE WHO ONLY WANTED TO EXPRESS THEIR FEELINGS. we'll see on Sunday how things will turn out.

(if i missed something out or said something wrong please correct me)

[tomwaterbabies]

I hope the surgery went well and recovery goes smoothly!!! You asked for asks and I saw you have some robo Varian art that's been eating my brain for a few days now. I guess not technically a question but I'd love to hear more about that au if you wanna ramble 👉👈

HEYYY thank you so much! it went really well and the pain is super minimal rn, i can even sit up on my desk! which was recommended by my surgeon to do anyway so thats rad

ANYWAYSSSSS... THANK YOU for the kind words im so glad you like it!! and THANK YOU for reminding me of the fact i never posted about my robot au like i had meant to 💀

here it is NOW (and to anyone who hasnt seen the art here it be)

this is long as hell btw. so sorry

SO. setting i imagine is similar to typical vat7k BUT a little darker and more dystopian. think steampunk industrial stuff... which i know hugo's kingdom is already like lol but just imagine it like. in a lot more places. this is basically a "steampunk" au too

robots are VERY common. invented by a group of scientists with the main ones being donella and ulla

robots are used as service etc etc. theyre not sentient at all so this isnt like. some unethical practice

but ulla and donella are OBSESSED with making them more and more advanced, theyre besties and all that. but ulla is Particularly obsessed with making the Perfect Robot

we know that ulla is kind of messed up in the head. in this au she kind of messes way too much with robot sentience WHILE ALSO getting obsessed with the eternal library. same stuff happens eventually. donella and ulla fight about the eternal library etc etc

BUT ALSO... ulla is working on her Magnum Opus. a son for her and her husband, who she is making to be the perfect robot. quirin is unaware of the shit shes doing and fully trusts her and supports this passion project

and well! she does make the first Sentient Robot. with the use of science and Magical Knowledge she was able to basically give life force through magical means into the robot. The robot of course she named varian. and not only is he sentient, but he looks completely human

she did some messed up stuff tho! again! she's programmed him with fake memories so he thinks he has lived a life fully as a human. he's also programmed to not notice things like the small seams on his body and all that. like his code just immediately disregards all that

anywaysss. after ulla disappears, quirin is dedicated to taking care of varian. he figures it's best to follow with ulla's choice of making sure varian doesnt know hes a robot

MEANWHILE ! because of the schism between ulla and donella, there was some wack shit that happened. namely robots going completely crazy. now all robots are Murder Robots. so the world is pretty Dystopian at the moment

Varian decides he wants to go out and find the source of what made the robots go crazy. bc this sucks lol. like everyone is Just Miserable

so he meets his friends. nuru, yong, hugo!

LETS TALK ABOUT HUGO

hugo works for donella. hugo also absolutely HATES robots. the robots have been messing shit up since he was a kiddo

he's kind of like a robot hunter. harvesting them for parts as well as getting rid of them bc theyre dangerous. usually donella directs him to different missions. and now shes telling him to join this guy (varian) bc she wants the secrets that ulla had hidden and varian is sure as hell after them

sooooo at one point. varian gets hurt maybe, or interacts with something that breaks the code in him or whatever. the code that stops him from noticing his robotic qualities. i think he probably would get super injured and like. he and all his friends stare in shock and horror as some sort of gash or sparks or whatever show a metallic inside

they all find out he's a robot together weeeee. no one is having a good time

so he's living with existential crisis. he's away from his dad so he cant travel all the way back to be like hey What The Fuck. AND he's still dedicated to his goal. but now he's just. confused, scared, and unsure if he's worthy of his humanity that he thought he had

they all try to work with this new discovery (which i think would happen earlier on rather than way later). hugo especially is like. having a crisis. bc he's always hated robots and for good reason. but varian... varian is SO human. he thinks, he feels, he cares, etc. he's more Human than a lot of the Flesh and Blood people he's been around

so you know, hugo starts to fall in love with him anyway. lots of excellent scenes of him helping varian with his mechanics, etc

and of course varian starts falling in love with him too, but is dealing with a lot of confusion as well. like is he even real, doesnt hugo deserve to be loved by a Human and not a Robot, etc etc

ok jesus christ. i think thats all the main stuff. woaghghg

[beelspillowpet]

Also hate how Lilith is just pretty much a plot device. I don't know what the game is doing now but I hate that she's pretty much there to speedrun a relationship between MC and the brothers.

And that's when MC is already developing a genuine bond with some of them.

But if there are any other instances of her being a plot device, I'd love to hear it.

i do wanna make it clear that this contrived plot point that is lilith does not drive forward the relationship on ALL of the characters. just the most difficult two to really complete the list. i refuse to believe that mammon, satan, leviathan, asmo AND beel didnt care about MC before this turd-bomb of a plot point happened, but i absolutely do believe that is the case for lucifer and belphie for different reasons.

i believe it is a method to sort of "punish" belphie by the games weird rule of telling but not showing. it was the first sign of cowardice on the writing team back then for pulling their punches and taking judgement out of our hands; something they honestly do not often enough and too much at the same time with more mundane things, but with it being a multiple choice type game, options were never really ours to make. just the illusion of it.

by making us the very distant relative of lilith we are punishing belphie for his rash action to anger and and giving us a contrived reason to feel bad for him afterwards. which doesnt work when hes still got the blood on his hands, diavolo hot on his trail, and lucifer coming to his defense.

its a plot point for lucifer because until you earn the trust of all his brothers, he could pretend to care, hell he might even care a teensy bit, but no matter how he feels about you, if there is a shadow of a reason as to how you could betray him and his brothers and use them against their will, there is a shadow of a reason for lucifer to not hesitate to kill you.

picture a scenario where all of the boys save for belphie (and consequently lucifer himself) are forced via their pacts to attack belphie as revenge for him attacking you. with belphie out numbers and his own brothers losing control of themselves to potentially kill him, lucifer would be his last defense against those odds. lucifer is nothing if not cautious and powerful, so he could hopefully subdue his brothers in due time. it also helps that in comparison to lucifer, each of his brothers as you go further down the line have a unique type of fear of him that could in theory ensnare them from continuing their assault on belphie at your command. ie. mammon is really afraid of lucifers wrath and more than anything wasnt to avoid having his credit card taken and being strung up from the ceiling for hours. aside from everyone else in the house, mammon is more powerful than THEM compared to lucifer. then next comes levi, a sort of spineless coward-like person i feel (when it comes to a fight anyway, you basically NEVER see him stand up for himself) and wouldnt want to face lucifer and deal with the punishment of that. and then you go further and further down the list and they get weaker and weaker as we go. satan cant combat lucifers spells, he himself far too busy learning how to cast them rather than protect himself from them. asmo is much like levi in that he would rather not lift a finger, if not for fear of broken nail than broken bone. despite this, he could fold beel like laundry (which still doesnt make sense to me but whatever i guess?) and speaking of beel the guy is built like a truck. hes also the only other one lucifer has physically struck with intention to subdue that was tied to a serious event. and i believe it was more than once at that.

my point being they were very specific and careful about who came in the pecking order, and it was for precaution that lucifer be the one able to straighten them all out in the end.

if there is an MC out there hellbent on destroying belphie, that is a person lucifer will never trust. and so its rather coincidental that in the heat of the moment we choose to forgive belphie, or at the very least put it off, until "months later" since the game jumps ahead in time a LOT since the killing in c.16 and the end of the years program in c. 20.

lilith being our distant relative was for belphie to feel shame, then quickly feel attachment, only for lucifer to see that if we all get along (or perhaps fall in love with belphie in that short period of time for the belphifuckers out there) hes allowed to feel something finally too. or at least let it show more.

so it was a speedrun not for all of the brothers. lucifer, while he wouldnt hesitate in killing you in an instant before belphie got close with you, i wont say didnt feel anything beforehand. he just puts his brothers before anything and everything; something he makes clear time and time again. it was a speedrun ONLY for belphie. lucifer and MC have a sort of slowburn going on, but to say that their relationship is speedran from c.16 onwards is disregarding the little moments beforehand that were special to his character.

as for if and when shes used as a plot point again later, that requires i redownload OG and look around for it there and honestly playing in a pit of spikes sounds more fun than that. playing nightbringer is already such a painful chore....

edit: im also trapped in the early episodes of season 2 bc i flopped so hard at that boring ass gameplay in the first one lol

[ispyspookymansion]

I do not think of 'The Witch' or 'Midsommar' as 'Final Girl' movies, like yeah there's one girl left alive at the end but like... that is not what makes it a 'Final Girl' movie to me. That is definitely one of the pieces to the puzzle, but I'd argue an even more important piece is that they WIN in the end. Thomasin and Dani do not win, they are having an absolutely dreadful time the entire movie and it is implied that they will continue to have a dreadful time after the credits roll. Like ESPECIALLY Dani, what are her options? Stay with the cult and do weird shit and make babies for them, or (assuming they even let her) she has to go back to America and somehow explain why none of the people she left with came back with her. And Thomasin was forced into a deal with the devil which, like, look if you WANT to make a deal with the devil for unchecked horrific power, whatever, gaslight, gatekeep, girl boss, but Black Phillip and the witch in the woods very clearly back her into a corner where she has no other choice. Like if she went back to the settlement and told them what happened they'd be like, 'Well clearly you're lying and YOU'RE the witch, because woman, so we'll be hanging you now.' Like her only option that does not immediately equal death is to become evil, and that's not a win in my eyes.

TLDR; I feel like if she doesn't defeat the villain/monster or in some way come out on top she can't be a Final Girl, she's just a lone survivor, but I'm being told that this is a controversial take.

i agree with you completely!!!! exactly my thoughts about thomasin’s total lack of choice as well even if there is an element of overcoming and freedom there is no Choice in making that agreement and literally she’s signing herself over completely to someone else which is very much the opposite of empowerment. its def not so much that it COULDNT be empowering to be a witch, its that she has no option but to become one thanks to the actions of black phillip and the witch in the woods!! so shes also very much in a corner i fail to see the sort of confrontation and overcoming that i also typically associate with the final girl trope, sort of by necessity of the archetype in my mind? surviving doesnt mean youve Won or escaped the torment of your situation and i find it maybe interesting, definitely odd that we are starting to give the title to girls who just bodily dont die on screen rather than as a way to describe their arc and an ending which is by necessity triumphant, even if its in a case where she only survives long enough to be helped in defeating or escaping the evil. a final girl who survives but doesnt escape and just has to continue to survive/endure the same threat that killed the others in the film seems to me a hard to reconcile departure from what it is that makes a final girl? much to think about

[chiangyorange]

Are there any lines or scenes in WMAS that you're really proud of that you wanna shed a spotlight on?

this is a hard question bc wmas is smth i like to call an ensamble fic (its literally just pov alternating) so it kiiiinda doesnt narrow ANYTHING down for me in terms of specific scenes.

hm. you know what? lemme show you smth.

(taken from ch 1) Uncle Michelangelo said that the old New York could be really pretty. There were so many lights that made the fog glow a brilliant color that makes everything magical. Quieter, he told Casey that there was always a person behind those lights. Someone was always adding to the beauty.

(taken from ch 2)

He takes his time turning around in place, seeing the tall battered buildings covered in bright colors of paint. Greenery of plants overtake the sides of buildings, framing the bright formless graffiti, the dull grey of concrete to something colorful. It clings to the bricks in a relentless enduring grasp of life. From the windows of the buildings shine lights through them. Multicolored, like they are the LCD screens from Times Square. It’s bright. There are no people, the city is in shambles, but it’s still alive. 

oh yeah the dreamscape is a fucking call back lads. and let me tell you there are more in the fic

(taken from ch 4)

Raph lets out a breath. “That’s going to be hard to find. Some of dad’s old stuff is still in the old lair and we haven’t really… cleared it out the first time.”

(taken from ch 8)

“Is there a reason why Dad and April came back into the lair covered in debris looking upset?”

i keep a lot of details in my brain (dming dnd for my friends trained me whether i liked it or not)

(taken from ch 1)

“Never will the Hamatos continue to live to be sacrificed, not if I have anything to say about it.” Splinter pokes a finger to April’s chest, right above her heart, “I will hold our family close and never let go.”

(taken from ch 3)

Splinter had to think about death a lot recently. Forced to, really. He’s had to think about death a lot in his life in general! It clings to the very fiber of his being in a way where every bad coping mechanism looks just a little too tempting to take up on. Then the Shredder happened, something he thought was complete and utter bullshit that took his mother, seemingly, for no reason. The Hamato legacy he grew up to resent came back to haunt him with a ferocious force, and it hurt his boys. 

(taken from ch 4)

Splinter was so adamant about giving her a second chance after the fight with Shredder. He saw himself in Cassandra in such a personal way that no one else in the family would get. He was willing to let Casey stick around close too. He saw himself in the Joneses that she can never really understand. April doesn’t know the full weight of what it’s like carrying a legacy. She shares that burden with the boys, but to bear it alone like Splinter did, like Casey has been, like Cassandra is doing now?  Fuck, man. How lonely does that feel?

(taken from ch 7)

The hovering and the mother-henning was annoying, sure, he'll give you that. The fact that he had to see how each of his family members grieve over the choice he had to make to save the world? Absolutely hellish, would not recommend. He can see how much it haunts Dad. He can see how much it weighed over his siblings. They all know that it was do or die. It doesn't make the choice any less harder to bear.

something about fucked up legacies, something about generational trauma, something about trying to break a cycle when everything in the world is not letting you

[and a little bonus line for a chapter in the future ;] <3]

[luckyqueenreign]

Tbh what I really miss about the earlier seasons is how well Fb used to write MC close/best girlfriends. Season 1 we had Talia, who didn’t actually force herself on MC for the whole season (Dana take notes babe!) Season 2 we had Hope, Lottie for all us Noah girlies. Season 3 we had Elladine and Genevieve (who even if you were persuing Harry at the start still wanted to be your BFF). Even season 4 wrote Angies storyline SO WELL.

Now I don’t understand what happened tbh. I don’t even want to talk about ex in the villa, but this season I feel like MC is really lacking actual friends? Amelia is a snake, Grace is a paranoid bitch who doesn’t know when to call it quits with Ozzy, and you only see Bella most of the time if your open to dating girls.

Anyway, my point was I’m really REALLY manifesting that Flo is actually there to support MC and be her friend? She is coupled up with amelia’s old partner, so I doubt there will be any couple/ boy drama between us, and I could use a girl BFF that takes the hint and doesn’t want to shag me in the hideaway, but also has a good romatic story line for the W/W girlies. FB do better!

do you know what I like even more and also miss about the game. Outside of Elladine none of these girls were my besties. Which means that the game had so many routes you could take that we both had completely different experiences. For s1 lowkey Tim was my BFF lolol I loved that guy. s2 was Priya/Chelsea I was SO SAD when I had to decide between one of them to dump. I was Hope's bestie when I did a Lucas route and she was SO DIFFERENT to when you're on a Noah route. I absolutely loved her and she is def on the top of my list for besties. s2 just ate period. s3 was Elladine who I loved sm. s4 I loved Angie but this was the beginning of us not having choices when it came to our friends which tbh I didnt like. we barely saw Najuma if you weren't doing a WLW route which is super disappointing. s5 is the season that shall not be talked about lol. And now we legit have no friends again, esp if ur on Ozzy's route. Grace gives me whiplash. bc its obvious that something is happening between MC and Ozzy, she also recognizes it and talks about it often, shoots MC daggers but then in the same breath asks mc so who do you like?!?! u think u'll stay with Elliot??? bih what??? LOL this doesnt even make sense a TINY bit. then u have Amelia who is an absolute snake and doesnt even deserve the title of friend let alone sister. All the while we have Bella who is actually lovely but we never get to see if ur on WLW. The very brief moments weve gotten to interact with her im like I LOVE HER. LET HER BE OUR FRIEND! I fear the same thing is going to happen with Flo. 😭😭😭

[blaqueswanzaghouliishiilikeda]

How do you think the show would’ve been different if Lestat made Lily and Louis vampires?

hmm is this in lieu of claudia or annie? I personally cant see Lily not leaving. she was too obsevant to stay in my opinion. she picked up on things like loustats attraction to one another right away and read between the lines. “you’re his destiny louis” reads that way to me as well as her trying to keep the peace and make her money you know? She was aware that she was in between them as a buffer. im sure louis isnt the only john she’s dealt with hiding/denying what they really want and coming to a swer to fill that need in whatever way—in louis case being able to just talk freely making him more palatable to her, but still.

i like to think she would have got that power and left like claudia wanted and she would have been able to bc she presented as an adult in a way claudia couldnt. maybe louis and her would have caught up to each other later. i actually think if lestat presented her with the option she would have said yes and he wouldnt need to make the choice dubcon. tho idk if that can be avoided since it seems they cant help but be violent about presenting the option. i think the reality would have been a traumatic adjustment as it is for all of them, but i think she would have endured quite well. now if it was forced on her i think she would leave sooner rather than later after she learned what she could from them. but she wouldnt have been stuck with them and just like louis letting claudia leave, he would have let miss lily leave. and shes not dependent on either of them for survival the same way claudia is. also i dont think lestat would force her to stay bc as an adult woman she really does pose the threat he’s irrationally afraid of in claudia. not that it would change louis’ stance he gay. but i digress.

i think she would have to leave eventually bc irt to lestat, sharing louis with her would have put lily in danger. thats why he killed her so swiftly. no, louis cant even have someone he pays to confide in over him. he has to come to lestat yk? and the fact that lily had to be there for the first night to lure louis in all the way would begin to eat at him. like “why did it take her for you to give me a chance, you’re in love with her” type thing.

i think their mess is something she wouldn’t wanna put up with anyways she’s seen it all. swer are in a position where men tell them the worst of things about the relationships they’re sneaking around and cheating on and to have to be eternally stuck in between that shit for free? hell nah. in my head canon if she gets turned she leaves bc the alternative is her death and i wanna know she out there using vampirism to her full advantage and here in the modern age in a nice condo after a long successful career as a top model. maybe she would have been a refuge louis ran to. he would go back to lestat but just that possibility is why she died in the first place. the way she connects to louis in ways lestat doesnt. her blackness being a key component. i dont know that her undead life would automatically be easy. she is a black woman so all the things that come with that would still be true, but she’s a swer. i feel like she would be resourceful in a way say ……Grace!…might not be able to bc of how her circumstances are different. miss lily didnt have a choice but to be resourceful. Grace grew up affluent and taken care of you know it would be different. thats not a dig at grace just an observation. and that’s not to make it absolute that Grace wouldnt figure it out. i just see her being more dependent for a lot longer and that would pose an issue…you did not ask me about grace lmao moving on.

i think lets say she got away and annie still happened and claudia still was roped into this. louis is forthcoming with her in ways lestat isnt (he has his reasons. dont come at me i know). so i think if she’s asking about other vampires and the only other one louis knows is miss lily he would tell her about her. claudia would fixate on her. she would go looking for her. a mother a companion who understands her in a way she cant be understood at home. one who knows loustat and what it is to be in between them. i think she would go out and find her. and i can see lily being receptive to that. i think this would alter the tragedy of claudia’s story the most. so idk if annie would be needed for that long. she might actually have seen that incinerator a lot sooner. bc claudia would be with lily and i think louis would have been good to at least know where she is. lestat might not have needed to die but then it would just be loustat to face all their issues and idk if lestat would see a reason to adjust and change if he was never plotted agaisnt and left to feed off rats in the junkyard after having his throat slit. that would change the trajectory of the whole last half of iwtv. hmm yeah soo many things would be different. what would get him to paris to meet armand? (no loumand 🥺)i think eventually theyd end up meeting sure there isnt many vamps. then how would loumaniel/armaniel come to be?? it could still happen [i say desperately] but yeah so many things would change now that i really think about it.

[nongnaos]

So because trailers are fast, I have a lot of time on my hands and this is the webbed site for doing ridiculous things, I've written out everything that happens in the Only Friends trailer.

@liyazaki has a helpful chart here too, for visual learners.

Characters are: Book (mew), force (top), khao (?), first (?), neo (boston), mark (nick). For the sake of understanding who's who I'm just going by the actors names.

The trailer starts with a voiceover descriptor with images of the related characters:

•"Friends" Khao, Book, Neo

• "Secret crush on a friend" Khao -> Book

• "FWB" Neo & Mark

• "Boyfriend" Book & Force

• "A friend's boyfriend" Force & Neo

Then cut to the actual drama:

• Mark is making adult content of himself alone online

• "Youve been here 4 years and never got laid" Neo -> Book. Then Neo introduces Book to Force

• Wants more than a one night stand - Book -> Force

• First says if they want to be just friends then no sex, Khao says some people become friends after sex

• Mark is interested in Neo but Neo is dismissive "I'll message you when I want you"

• Books birthday - Force Neo and Khao, Neo looks awkward/ashamed but Force is smiling at him

• "Are you sure Top (Force) really loves you?" Khao -> Book

• "I can tell what people feel for me" "what do I feel for you?" Book then Khao

• KhaoFirst argue, Khao likes a lot of people (poly king??), First doesnt want to be anyone's choice (I think this means he doesnt want to be on a list of available people to choose from, he wants only friends (hehe))

• "You matched Mew (Book) and me up why are you jealous now?" Force -> Neo. Neo "i can take back whats mine any time" Mark sees this Force/Neo exchange and looks pissed

• Khao -> Neo "how could you do that, thats your friend's boyfriend" Neo -> Khao "i hope you dont repeat what i did"

• "Damn you Top (Force) have you ever been honest with anyone?" "Well I love you" book then force. Oh boys.

• "Dont let him do this to you" bartender(?) -> First. Cut to First w/ a baseball bat???!!

• "You ruin everyone, without you everyone would have stayed friends" Mark -> Neo "so what, no one told you to like me"

• Bartender Jennie!!

• "If you wanted him why would you match us up?" Book -> Neo. Khao is also there. "You were here 4 years and never hooked up" "Keep that pity to yourself when no one wants to be friends with you, jerk". Absolutely stellar line, you tell him!! Khao pulls Book off Neo as he hits him

• ForceBook dancing together, kiss

• Neo, Khao, Book, walking together drunk

• Mark's sex tape is him and Neo, and I'm guessing Neo has no idea

• Neo, Book, Khao, Jennie hugging!!!

• FirstKhao kissing, being cute and also arguing

• Khao getting arrested!!

• A girl drinking. Who is she? We dont know.

• Force taking a handful of pills

• Mark smashing a glass bottle alone

• Khao having a breakdown in the bath and being held by someone?

• After the end title: ForceBook being cute, NeoMark annoyed, FirstKhao being cute

[sigynsilica]

Mmmm if I may come at this from a vaguely different perspective than what I typically see

Loki was abused by Odin. That's canonical. Frigga is an apologist for Odin's abuse. That is also canonical. If Frigga wasn't an apologist, the line "your father always has a purpose for everything he does" would not exist.

In this scene, Frigga refers to Odin as Loki's father, and Loki sets a hard and fast boundary: Odin is not Loki's father, and Loki doesnt want people to refer to him that way.

He has his reasoning. Odin is not his biological father, Odin has basically disowned him, himself, and Odin was abusive to Loki throughout his entire life.

Frigga doesn't respond to this with any degree of respect. She pulls a guilt-trip, in the form of asking if that means she's not his mother either.

Now we know perfectly well that Loki will estrange himself from whoever he wants to, and he won't from whoever he doesn't. In the script of the MCU, he disclaims Odin and Frigga as his family, but never once does he ever say Thor is not his family.

That's on purpose. Thor and Loki are still brothers.

It is only fair for an adopted child to decide for themself whether they accept the people who adopted him as family, especially if those adopters were abusive.

Frigga, in this scene, is drawing a line in the sand. She's saying that if Loki doesn't want Odin as a parent, he can't have Frigga as one, either. She's picking sides. She's choosing her husband over her son. And Loki lets her.

Why? Probably because this isn't the first time she's pulled this kind of baloney. He's not humoring her. If she wants to go there, she can stay there. It's not an easy thing for him to do. He's close to tears. But he set that boundary, that Odin isn't and shall not be referred to as his father, and he feels he needs to stick to his guns.

Frigga didn't need to go there. She knows she can be an influential person in Loki's life without being his mother. That's not her point. Her point was to be petty and dramatic over who Loki decides to label as his family. Loki could have (and absolutely should have been able to) estranged himself from Odin without leaving Frigga behind in that mix-up.

And then that next line she says makes my blood boil. "So perceptive, about everything but yourself."

PLEASE PAY HEED TO THE FACT THAT SHE JUST TOLD HIM TO HIS FACE THAT HE'S LYING TO HIMSELF ABOUT HIS OWN FEELINGS AND EMOTIONS.

She just presumed to know the contents of his head, and told him she knew him better than he knows himself.

Can I just say that is peak manipulation? She just gaslit him and everyone thinks that was so sweet and tender and sad that she'll never give up on her baby.

That's not what's happening.

She doesn't want her baby to relate to his family on any terms but her own, so she a) forces him into situations and choices that didn't need to be made and b) invalidates him when he makes the choice she doesn't like.

That face in the last gif is not a face of regret. That is a face of resigned irritation. He knows very well that he had to let go of the parent he had a better relationship with in order to let go of the one who was hurting him. He knows that didn't need to happen. He knows that Frigga brought that upon herself and now she's pissed over it.

And unfortunately she literally did die mad about it.

For all the Frigga lovers, I'm not saying Frigga's a bad person, but only because I don't believe in bad people. I think one of the worst things someone can do in Frigga's situation when she saw Odin abusing her children is exactly what she did: about eighty percent A Whole Lot of Nothing, and twenty percent trying to get the Bros to like Odin despite everything. The only reason I bring any of this up in the first place is because on surface level, this does look like Sweet Perceptive Mom Things To Say. So often when Frigga says anything it's that way, because that's how she's written.

But I see a lot of my own mother in Frigga, and not in a good way. Even if she isn't as obviously the bad guy as Odin, she's not a better parent than him. Most apologist parents have better relationships with their kids than the active abuse parents, because that is exactly how the apologist parents want it.

Tldr:

Thor: how do you deal with all this trauma?

Loki: I call my mama ☺️

Thor: that's beautiful man ☺️

Loki: ...call my mama a bitch >:)

“He’s not my father!”

[whomeidontknowthem]

I've just finished the last part of mourn them (even if this post is going to come out later as it has spoilers for the entire thing, if you haven't read it yet you can find it here (it's a short read, about 6k words total)), and I must say it was one of the most satisfying writing experiences in my mind.

Playing around with alphabet prompts was So Fun

(even if I did end up using them more like a vague suggestion of a vibe than anything concrete; but I mean, how concrete can you go with "Emotion"? The vague associations are there and that's what matters)

(I could yap about the associations I worked with, though. Say, in Emotion the title signifies not any particular emotional turmoil characters go through (arguable it was force in parts before), but the fact that Niveth gets to make her only real choice during the story -- and it is completely driven by emotion.)

It made me approach structuring the plot as more of a puzzle with defined rules and limitations. No need to wonder if I could maybe write this scene separately, it could be interesting in its own right -- no, I had nine letters, nine parts, nine prompts which defined which every one of them was supposed to include. Telling an overarching narrative this way was a bit more challenging from the point of planning, but absolutely delightful.

The fact that it's the first time I managed to do post a narrative I find satisfying before finishing it -- it says a lot. I wonder if I can incorporate some of this experience into my regular writing.

The limits meant that there was little time to waste, and it meant scenes that weren't serving the purpose (and weren't dramatic enough) got cut mercilessly. Every part had about three hundred words completely trimmed from its beginning so that it started right where the fun part began. The first few times it happened, I felt annoyed about having my writing "go to waste". The ninth time it happened, I figured this was just the way it was going to be. I should remember that Cutting Stuff Out is actually Really Good Sometimes.

Sadly sometimes it meant I cut out interesting context.

In Reinforcement the details of what Niveth is punished for remain vague. She "disobeyed and order" and "nearly got her superior killed" -- in truth, what happened was that she froze when she needed to act to protect. She knew she would die if she acted, and for just a few seconds she was too terrified to fullfil her purpose. After the first panic passed, she did act, breaking a leg in the process. Her superior was left only with a few scratches and bruises -- it was still enough of a reason to punish her halfway to death.

Speaking of, "Miss T--" (Miss Taya originally) is the only character besides Tane and Niveth that got their name mentioned. Before the edits, every handler had a name, a different personality and a different set of pronouns; it seemed too overwhelming and, knowing the distaste of the community towards named characters, I simplified them all to just be "the handler" (which I think was definitely the right call). As a result, they can now be read as a person who is Really confused about their identity -- gender or otherwise. It's funny so it's canon now. (Not really but it is funny)

(What is more that just a bit despite never being mentioned in the text itself is the fact that in my head Niveth is trans. And like it doesnt matter to the plot and I had no way to mention it naturally, so it can as well not exist. But it does keep my character's chance of being trans in some way at the nice 45%. For seeing me tackle transness as an actual plot point see... No, actually, I haven't written the blinding gold yet. Stay tuned for that!)

I knew the ending even before I wrote the first sentence, which was a special kind of torture. I wondered if I could change my plans and maybe maybe somehow make it a happy ending -- I was trying to give the readers and the characters hope that it can still turn out fine, and I wished that could actually be true.

Except that it couldn't actually happen. The moment Tane saw Niveth, they were doomed: he couldn't leave her there for any longer, she was too far gone to make it easy, and the handler had more information, more resources, and most importantly -- too tight of a hold on Eighteen. There was not a chance that this could lead to anything but a disaster. There was hope that somehow miraculously it could until the very end.

And it's ended! I'm probably going to come back to it at some point, for some final edits, and then post it again, all parts in one, but not too soon.

I think I'll be taking a break from writing now. It's been rather intense and the next few weeks at work are promising to be rather difficult. And who knows which of my stories I'm gonna write then, but there'll definitely be something!

[dual-fantasy]

eridan also has a whole 'killing trolls adoptive animal parents(lusus . my description of them is basically it they are conscious & smart animal things that adopt & raise troll babies because their parents left. ) because hes been expected to feed his girlfriends also adoptive animal parent(except this one eats other adoptive animal parents) so it doesnt kill everyone' but i dont hold it against him and anyone who does is stupid. im going off the assumption that when he started he was the same age as vriska when she started feeding spidermom(also her adoptive animal parent except this one eats babies) and thatd make him Way too young. like, age not even in the double digits kind of young. the murder of lusii(and indirectly the troll they were raising) was expected of him and not something he wouldve had a choice in(when he was too young to speak up against it, and when he was old enough to understand it was this or Everyone Literally Dies). i think its one of the things that made him the way he was the most, actually. He was exposed to extreme violence as a child(and expected to be the one inflicting it) and it absolutely took its toll on him growing up. he absolutely couldve and shouldve done worse. hes Literally been expected to keep the entire universe alive with his friends limited help since he was a child through killing parents and dooming their troll babies to dying on their own(something hes Aware Of. he is not sheltered from what would happen to the trolls the lusii were raising, and even if he was he would've figured it out eventually) . he deserved to do worse. his first actual introduction is him shooting a hole in the side of a whale lusus with his giant gamer gun. he definitely deserved to do worse. GRAVE DOG !!!!!!!!! i do not think this is comprehensive just propaganda to convince you to read homestuck. silly guys actually really fucked up in the head because of expectations forced on him as a child

Homestuck wild omg. killing the lusus is something that's been expected since he was like. 6? I'm assuming its that young because of the wording. he could either do that or everyone in the universe dies? and as a child he understood that he could either commit murder or destroy everything and that absolutely resulted in the way he grew up. literally insane that ppl would try and act like he was evil he's literally just a child who wasn't raised right. I can't comment more on this BC I haven't read it but the propaganda is propaganding. my ass is NOT immune to propaganda