#and I'm going for the HIGH notes too

[embryhallowed]

I've decided that if the neighbors are going to let their child shriek for ages and run stomping up and down their apartment, then I'm going to take advantage of the good acoustics in the hallway and sing. They can listen to me practice Protomen songs.

[dimension-20-every-introduction]

Everyone Introduced in Dimension 20's Fantasy High: Junior Year episode 20 (finale)

[zaynes-left-chesticle]

HOW THE HELL do I have 4 awakened cards (including an R3 and R1), another R1 level 80, and a level 75 equipped WITH ALL 6 STELLACTRUM MATCHED AND STILL

CANT

BEAT

THIS FKING LEVEL 🤬🤬🤬

[battleclawed]

What if the Sacred Orb survived and was the most doomed girl to ever live... long-ish OC lore under the cut

In my AU, the Battle of the Burning is pushed back a little bit, so Kludd gets to be an alive dad to both the Sacred Orb and Coryn for a while. Don't worry he still dies

I've named my Sacred Orb OC Guinevere as a nod to Kludd and Nyra's Lancelot/Guinevere-ness (bonus points because the root for "Guin" means "white"). She goes by Gwen in daily life, though Nyra likes to use her full name.

Gwen is Kludd's mini-me, right down to her appearance. When Gwen is still very young, she's closer to her mother, but as she gets older and her parents tell her about their plans and her role as heir, her father becomes her entire world.

(As far as Kludd's parenting goes, I can't imagine he likes babies at all so he's in distant father mode until Gwen starts actually having a personality, at which point he's like "Wait. This thing (my child) worships me and I get to tell it what to do and mold it into whatever I want? Sick this rules")

Gwen's worldview and sense of self are entirely built upon the idea that she is not only superior to all non-Tyto owls but also superior to everyone--she hatched from the Sacred Orb, she is the most Pure, she is the perfect heir who will inherit her father's kingdom.

The first crack in this view is the birth of Coryn (who's still Nyroc at this point). Nyra starts paying more attention to Coryn because he's born on the eclipse, which irks Gwen. She's the one who hatched from the Sacred Orb; who cares about some moon magic?

Gwen develops a complex about not being an eclipse baby and takes it out on her little brother, but otherwise ignores him. She thinks he's weird in classic mean big sister fashion. They are not close.

Before Kludd dies, Gwen is unshakably confident; she is, after all, the perfect heir, a great fighter, a Tyto Most Pure, just like her invincible, infallible father, right? The world will be hers one day. She is perfect, her family is perfect, and nothing will ever go wrong.

(Also, there's no way Kludd and Nyra are letting their precious heirs kill each other, so Gwen's TUPSI is her friend Cinder, a Lesser Sooty. Cinder was born into the Pure Ones, completely buys into their ideology, and is perfectly honored to be a sacrifice.)

("I'm honored that my death will make you purer," Cinder whispers. "I'm so happy to die for you." Gwen can't afford to hesitate. Her father is watching.)

Kludd dies in the AU equivalent of the Battle of the Burning, which completely shatters Gwen's worldview. After his death, she takes on the title of High Tyto, dons his mask and his battle claws, but they don't quite fit. She tries to be strong just like her father, but she slowly starts to crack.

Coryn still has firesight, so he still leaves for the Great Tree after seeing visions in the flames of Kludd's final ceremony. Nyra is deeply upset by this. Gwen is glad her mother belongs only to her again, but also plagued by the idea that maybe her mother would prefer for Coryn to have become the High Tyto instead.

In the wake of her father's death, sometimes Gwen wishes her mother would hug her and hold her like she's a chick again, but she knows that can never happen. She's the High Tyto now. She can't afford to show weakness.

Gwen is a good soldier but not as talented of a commander as her father was (or at least, she believes he was). The Pure Ones lose battle after battle after battle under her command, which only makes her spiral even further. (She puts on a facade of confidence to mask this. It mostly works.)

Nyra and Gwen argue constantly after Gwen becomes the High Tyto. Nyra wishes her daughter would obey her. Gwen wishes her mother would trust her abilities. They're all the other has left and yet they make each other miserable.

("I'm the High Tyto," Gwen says. "I'm the one in charge." Nyra counters by pointing out that she is the one born on the eclipse, the one with the great enchantment. Gwen resents her mother more and more, but she has no one else to rely on.)

She wonders if maybe Nyroc would've been better. Maybe it should've been him after all? Maybe this is all because she wasn't born on the eclipse. Maybe she was the wrong choice, except she can't be wrong because that would mean Cinder died for nothing. She can't be wrong because that would mean her father (who taught her and raised her and believed in her) would be wrong too, and that just isn't possible.

Coryn obtains the Ember of Hoole and becomes king of the Great Tree. Gwen wishes she'd been allowed to kill him in her TUPSI after all.

During their final confrontation, Gwen corners Coryn and tries to kill him--tries to avenge her father, defend the legacy he left her, justify her entire existence--but can't go through with it. (It's all too much. She wishes she was still a hatchling. She wishes her father was still alive. She wishes none of this had ever happened at all.)

Gwen surrenders, but, seized by the need to not disappoint her father even after his death, tries to kill Coryn one more time in an act of betrayal. She almost succeeds, but is stabbed through the back by Twilight.

Gwen dies a bloody death, just like her father. As the world grows dark, she wonders if he's proud of her.

[synthshenanigans]

BRO

Im crying

[foreverxdaydreaming]

x

[longagoitwastuesday]

I am liking Jujutsu Kaisen, way more than I imagined I would, but I foresee it will let me down and it's keeping me from enjoying this as much as I could haha

I think the characters and dynamics are well set, and I think many of them have an incredibly good and deep potential, but I would be willing to bet they'll not get a proper development, enough for them to really hit. A well assembled set of gears is not enough to make the movement go, you have to wind the clockwork.

I think Gojo and Megumi have a fascinating and very complex dynamic, but I doubt it will be given the time and care that imo it needs to actually work. And it is going well enough for now! One could see the intimacy between them was deeper than the one Gojo had with, say, Yuji and Nobara ever since the very first few episodes despite the fact Fushiguro too was a first year. But the pieces forming what they have are extremely complex, and it just wouldn't be realistic if it doesn't show, even if in a not showing way, or if it doesn't have consequences or implications.

It's one of those dynamics that shape one's life, the way one regards the world, the way one establishes or not relationships with other people. It's one of those dynamics that could be full of fondness, gratitude, resentment, admiration, trust, and that imply intimacy, the good kind or the bad, even if in just the knowledge of someone who's been a constant through your life. It could, and would, imply a myriad of feelings, and probably in such a mix it could imply contradictory feelings too. Even the nothingness would weight, even the nothingness would be significant and meaningful.

Gojo took Megumi and his sister under his wing, the son of a man who murdered him, because of both selfish and selfless reasons. Megumi looks like Toji. What does Gojo feel about this? How does Gojo deal with this? How does Gojo go about taking care of Megumi? Would he walk him to school? Make him breakfast? Celebrate his birthdays making him blow candles? Did he take him to the zoo? Does the relationship between them feel professional or is it something more? Gojo appreciates his students, but is Megumi to him just another student? When Gojo faces Sukuna in Megumi's body, did he see the kid he raised, or does he just see Sukuna in one of his students' body? Did he have one faint wavering instant? And how does Megumi feel about this? Is he resentful of him? Resentful of the situation? Of the selfishness behind his actions? Does he feel like a pawn? Is he grateful? Does he resent feeling grateful? Would he rather not? Does he love Gojo? Does he feel nothing about him other than what he could feel about a teacher that sort of annoys him but knows he's reliable in his strength? Does he think it unfair, cruel or unfeeling that Gojo is close, closer perhaps, with Yuuji or Yuta, considering their story? When Sukuna slices Gojo in two, does the remnants of Megumi's soul tremble?

And not just Megumi and Gojo. Yuuji and Nanami, Gojo and Nanami, Yuuji and Fushiguro, Nobara and the boys, or Nobara and Maki, Todo and Yuuji or Yuta, Gojo and Yuta, Megumi and his sister. Gojo and Geto, even! If the pieces are well set, the dynamics are intriguing, interesting, and have potential to be deep, but then the characters have like two plot relevant scenes that punch you hard, but little more, it's not nearly enough. Especially not nearly enough for the enormity that is shonen dynamics and situations. And the potential existing at all, and then not delivering, makes it all the more frustrating when you're left with something mediocre that could have been so good.

The development of dynamics through not only a few plot relevant gut wrenching moving scenes, but also the smallness of life, is important. The friend who recommended this to me said that those things were just unnecessary filler, but I disagree. I think there's a big difference between a large amount of anime-only filler episodes whose existence is based on the fact they had run out of manga chapters to animate, and moments of quietness. The low stakes character-driven moments of quietness can be so telling and so insightful, and they are so satisfactory when brought back later in higher stakes situations. My friend teased me there was no scene of Gojo making breakfast to Megumi, that it would be an idiotic idea, but it would be so telling. How he makes breakfast, what they eat, if he tries hard or if it's all mechanised, if they have personal bowls or if they use whatever, if he just buys them some pastry on the way to school, if the way they have breakfast changes through the years, or if he doesn't make them breakfast at all! All that would be very insightful on their dynamic and its evolution. All that would give a glimpse on how they regard each other and why, even in the present. All that could become meaningful in tense situations and high stakes scenes.

These moments also let the plot breath; if a lot is happening all the time, if every character is always experiencing trauma after trauma, the entire story is so emotionally draining that at some point you don't even care all that much. Besides, these nothing moments or low stakes plot arcs, besides deepening and developing dynamics, also let some in-world time pass, which would make the intimacy and bond between characters more believable imo; between Yuuji eating Sukuna's finger and their last confrontation in December how much time has passed? A few months? Am I truly to believe these characters are so everything to each other in only a few months?

Without some smallness, some repetition, some daily life, some low stakes not plot-centric development, the dynamics don't hit, they don't truly feel fleshed out, and dynamics as complex as the ones Megumi and Gojo have, or as supposedly meaningful as the one Megumi has with Yuuji or his sister, should be fleshed out if they're going to exist at all. Otherwise they'd risk making the writing feel awkward and fake. Besides, if the dynamics felt well fleshed out and realistic, they would shape the way the characters interact and act, and how they deal with situations, thus being plot relevant.

The shonen genre has so much happening all the time, the stakes are so high, the dynamics are so rooted in big events and the relationships carry enormous weight and implications. Yet they barely get developed, and it feels so stupid, so plain, the absence of something so important noticeable like a constant void, a shapeless nothingness present in every scene. It makes the characters feel like cardboard figures. Jujutsu Kaisen is already getting a better job than many, but I doubt it will do enough for what I've heard, and I fear I am bound to feel let down, and bound to feel unmoved.

After all, if not enough time and care has been given to develop a dynamic, I am not going to feel pressured by the high stakes; if not enough time and care has been given to develop the dynamic between Megumi and Yuuji, as good potential as it has I am bound to feel little for this last confrontation between Sukuna and Itadori, and his effort in getting Megumi back.

[bereft-of-frogs]

Me: wow I’m looking forward to getting back to the main timeline and getting answers to some questions, including but not limited to whether Indeera recovers and her reunion with Bell, something that is explicitly discussed as something he hopes for and looks forward to in Fallen Star…

Phase III: who?

Like did I get that that wrong? Did I read Fallen Star that wrong? I don’t get it, I feel like I’m going a little crazy with this someone tell me I’m not insane

Like I am not insane right? I did hallucinate this? You are all reading the same thing in the highlights? Did something happen between writing phase I and phase III? I vaguely know the comics sort of answers the recovery question but like what happened with the book authors? Why is the only mention of her name drops as if they’re strangers? This is a genuine question I am really puzzled (and kind of disappointed)

[unproduciblesmackdown]

"winston quant billions: like anyone else, an entire universe" or "the good news is it's just that everyone's been terrible to you, the bad news is it's just that everyone's been terrible to you"

[mintjeru]

ok hear me out. neuvillette in hydro dragon form but he's a small seahorse/seadragon like hatori from fruits basket

[jonathanbyersphd]

Jancy + Academic Rivals to Lovers AU

[averlym]

a word to the wise sometimes the only true rest is looking beyond what you thought was success

so true! adamandi is full of wise advice such as this, including: "and you'll never feel better if you - fucking die- you stupid ass!"

[sskk-manifesto]

FINALLY got around to watching ep 4. To ep 5 now

[catgirltoes]

fun fact: trans homicide rates are lower than the population average. men: 6.6 women: 1.8 transgender: 1.4.

Nonnie, why did you send me this? I'm not even any sort of popular feminist blogger or anything. I just had one post blow up on me. You're gesturing at the idea that trans people aren't oppressed because of an allegedly lower rate of being murdered, yes? You come into my inbox, cite sourceless statistics, and think that'll make me kowtow to this ridiculous talking point. Well it won't because that's fucking stupid.

The sillier answer is that trannies don't go out.

The more serious answer is that even if the statistic is real and reputable, it's only as accurate as its collection methods, whatever they may be. They're probably police homicide reports, let's be honest.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Bio families of trans people will often lie and claim they were cis. It's a common fear of many trans people that they'll be buried under the wrong name. Families will often deny any knowledge of any gender nonconformity.

A neutrally-dressed trans person who doesn't pass that well may not even register as trans to investigators, but instead as a cis person of their birth gender. Even when a trans person is more obviously trans to an oblivious cissexual, they will often be written off as crossdressers. Trans people are consistently recorded as their birth genders in official documents, especially dead trans people who can't speak up for themselves.

How often are the murders of trans people even recorded as murders of trans people specifically? Whether a murder victim is M or F is recorded universally in just about every jurisdiction, but neither Canada nor the States nor any other country I can think of consistently records whether every murder victim was trans or not. This, of course, makes collating data that much harder.

Are the murders of trans people even recorded as murders? Police regularly write off murders of trans people, sex workers, people who use drugs, and other "undesirables" as No Human Involved. Aside from the refusal to investigate, the deaths may be written off as accidents and illness, not murder.

All other questions and caveats that apply to any population-based statistic apply here, especially questions for truth claims in general. Who reported it? Who published it? For what purpose? Did the people who collected the data have an agenda? Biases? What populations were analyzed specifically, and how big were the sample sizes, and how were numbers calculated? Was there statistical fuckery? How applicable are the results to all populations? How large even is the trans population? Is it controlled for age, race, and class? You gotta answer all these questions before it can be considered in any sort of useful way.

People will often not investigate truth-claims that support their beliefs, and I think nonnie here is a prime example of that. The failure of not thinking about how often trans people are misgendered in death is the most egregious, though everything else I've listed here applies.

[plantanarchy]

what is it about this season... and having to redo the same tasks twice because they weren't done properly the first time zzzzz

[arabela25]

are you going to make gifsets of each semifinal's entries? or have you already posted something similiar?

I'm planning on making a few gifsets/edits for the semi finals but I'll probably only post them near the contest date