#and believe we as a fandom should continue to explore it as a means of character study

[fluffypotatey]

Thoughts on the theory that Wukong gave Macaque an immortality peach without him knowing 👀 those are technically longevity peaches, they don’t make you immune to being killed so we can still keep our juicy drama :D

i have always been on board of the theories “Wukong also crossed off Macky’s name” and “he gave Macky a peach with/without Macky knowing”

it just adds to the juicy drama because Macky did die. he experienced that and was died for a while before being resurrected. and it adds even more drama to “did Wukong know he was dead? or did he believe Macky would heal back from his wounds just like Wukong usually does?”

love them

[crowbotss]

I always appreciate posts like this gracing the tf tag,,

Starscream deserved better.

The more and more transformer media I consume the more angry I get at the treatment of Starscream. He’s just desperately trying to survive.

OH YEAH BUT MEGATRON, THE ABSOLUTE ASSHAT?? The ABUSER?? He gets a redemption arc!!! Literally fuck OFF.

‘The decepticons are no more bc I now know what it’s like to be oppressed :(’ fuck off. The reason you are the way you are is because you liked the power. He already knew what it was like to be oppressed, because that was THE WHOLE FUCKING PREMISE OF THE WAR!

I haven’t finished the series but I’ve seen enough from previous iterations to know that this bullshit is going to drive me insane. Here’s an idea: stop giving abusers redemption arcs because you think they’re hot. How about we give redemption arcs to the victims (starscream) instead. OR JUST KEEP THEM BOTH EVIL! IDFC! BUT DONT MAKE IT SEEM LIKE STARSCREAM CANT BE REDEEMED AND MEGATRON CAN. Blatant victim blaming.

EDIT:

Fuck you megatron simpers, if you were a decepticon and real etc. he’d fucking abuse you beyond the point of breaking. He’s an abuser. Deal with it.

[mikkeneko]

What we miss when we don't talk about friendship (in MDZS)

I'd like to open with the statement that this is not about shipping -- none of my thesis is to say "don't ship this" or "this ship isn't real." People can and have shipped whatever the hell they want and should continue to do so for as long as it makes you happy. It's not even a question of "sure you can ship it but it's not CANON," because the MXTX canon is wonderfully good at being ambiguous and supporting multiple interpretations.

What this thesis is to say is that some of these themes and motifs to explore are about friendship, and they don't tend to get talked about much, because people are mostly focused on the romantic and sexual dimensions of a dynamic. Romantic and sexual dimensions are great, but they don't annihilate or even subsume platonic dimensions -- yes, sometimes you can be a lover and a friend, but sometimes you can just be a friend and not a lover and that's no less important. As a post I saw recently said which stuck with me -- don't remember the poster, alas, but it was something in the vein of -- "it's not about the intensity of the relationship, but the flavor of it." Platonic character dynamics can be just as obsessive and consuming as romantic dynamics, they can be discussed and analyzed separately without needing to invalidate romantic and sexual dynamics.

So! That disclaimer aside, let's talk about: FRIENDSHIP IN MDZS, and what we miss when we don't talk about friendship as a dynamic in this story separate from romantic and sexual interest. Friendship shows up repeatedly in this story with its own sub-plots and arcs and undercurrents and hazards separate from the romance that's going on, and it's mostly going on with the Lans.

Part 1: Lan Xichen and friendship

A cornerstone of this analysis has to do with a meta post I read very early on in the fandom about the Lans when viewed through a Confucian lens. Lan Qiren in particular is a very, very Confucian character, and he raised his nephews to those traditions and values. The pertinent one here is the topic of the "Five relationships" which outline the relationships that a man of authority can expect to have throughout his lifetime: self to ancestors, self to descendents, self to authorities and subordinates, self to marriage partners, and self to friends. Each one comes with a set of strictures and requirements which when added up combine to a world that is very, very emotionally taxing and extremely short on interpersonal and emotional support. He is expected to obey and submit to guidance from his seniors, but he can't ask them for help. He is expected to lead and govern his subjects, but he can never be wrong or show weakness or doubt. It's especially important, I think, that Lan Xichen is raised to expect that even any romantic relationship he might have (read: marriage to a woman) would not actually be emotionally supportive to him in any meaningful way; it would be another set of obligations to uphold, another place he would be expected to be remote and poised and never show weakness or ask for help.

The exception is friendship. Friendship is the only relationship structure Lan Xichen can have in his life that has any hope of actually being nurturing and emotionally supporting to him, a place he can let down his guard and ask for help with the expectation of receiving it. It becomes very clear from very early on that friendship means everything to Lan Xichen as a character. He enters the story with a strong, supportive friendship with one of the only true peers a man of station can have (Nie Mingjue) and it's clear that this has formatively set his expectation of what a friendship can and should be. Lan Xichen really wants to be the Friendship Is Magic guy. He believes that friendship is the best way to solve problems, and that everybody would be able to solve their problems if only they had a friendship like his, and that belief is a lot of what runs him into a meat grinder later in the story. He thinks that Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao are capable of maintaining a friendship post-war, and does not understand why they cannot, and his attempts to friend-matchmake the two of them ultimately lead both to disaster.

Part 2: Lan Wangji and friendship

The header says Lan Wangji, but this is actually about Lan Xichen again, and about Wei Wuxian. A pretty common joke in the fandom is that Lan Xichen is "the #1 WangXian shipper," that he recognizes Lan Wangji's sexual and romantic attraction to Wei Wuxian from very early on and supports him in pursuing such a relationship. It's a nice joke, but I think it misses the mark, because the looming specter of their parents' disastrous and traumatic marriage means that Lan Xichen would never approach the idea of his brother entering into a romantic relationship so cavalierly. (Lan Qiren, in some ways, had a clearer notion of what shape Lan Wangji's interest in Wei Wuxian had the potential to be than Lan Xichen did, perhaps because he doesn't have the same obsession with friendship; if he has any close friendships of his own, we're not shown them.)

Lan Xichen is not encouraging Lan Wangji to have a romantic summer fling. Lan Xichen encourages his association with Wei Wuxian specifically because he thinks Lan Wangji needs friends. Not just in the sense of any parent or adult wanting their child to make friends, but specifically in the context of these restrictive hierarchical relationships that hem in their world. Lan Xichen is afraid that Lan Wangji will be alone, and emotionally starved, and have no one he can ask for help or rely on, because that is his experience of a world without friendship. (Lan Wangji, of course, is not in the same position as Lan Xichen because he has Lan Xichen to rely on.) Lan Xichen wants Lan Wangji to have the same kind of friendship that he himself has with Nie Mingjue, and he thinks that Wei Wuxian has the potential to be that kind of friend. That is the context in which he encourages their association, and tries to arrange for them to have time together, and to become closer; not as a potential romantic partner but as a steadfast emotional and logistical support through Lan Wangji's adult life.

If Lan Xichen knew that Lan Wangji would fall in love with Wei Wuxian (had already started to,) I'm not at all sure that he would have encouraged that. In pretty much any arc past the Lan Lectures, he doesn't, both because Wei Wuxian stopped being a good candidate for supportive friendship (he's clearly got too much of his own shit going on) and because he realizes that what is developing in Lan Wangji bears very little resemblence to his own relationships. He might not outright try to sabotage the relationship but he's clearly worried about its potential to bring disaster on Wangji -- and he's very correct to be worried, as it turns out.

Part 3: Lan Sizhui and friendship

So, All Of That Happens; Wei Wuxian dies, Lan Wangji is laid low for years and seems poised to grieve for the rest of his life; Nie Mingjue dies and takes Lan Xichen's support with him. Now we come to the present day, and the present day has Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi.

Let's take a moment to step back and ask from an analytical perspective: Why is Lan Jingyi, as a character, in the story? Assuming that in a novel as polished as MDZS, each element is included for good reasons. Why is Lan Jingyi in the story and why is he Lan Sizhui's best friend? In the new world we're introduced to, the Lan are already represented, and very positively represented by Lan Sizhui. Lan Jingyi provides a convenient avenue for both exposition-dumping and sass -- saying the things that everyone else is too polite to say -- but we could have gotten that through another character (Jin Ling also plays this role) or introduced another Junior who isn't Lan, like Ouyang Zizhen. Why is it important to the story that Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi are friends?

The Juniors in general represent hope for the world to change, hope for the new generation. In Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi, we see that the terrible loneliness that drove their seniors to disaster in the previous generation, is averted. Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi have a friendship that is close and true, and we are never given reason to doubt it. Their priorities are aligned; it's unlikely that Sect politics or personality conflicts will ever drive them apart. They have what Lan Xichen craved: a friendship that will support them through tragedy and disaster. Their friendship stands to demonstrate that in the new generation, things will get better.

[comikadraws]

Hello. I really like your analysis of the political stuff in naruto, and I just read your latest one in regard to Hashirama's odd neutrality towards 'the curse of hatred™'. But I kind of want to know now: could you say the same about Kishimoto himself? Does he agree with the 'curse' in a simular vein as H.? Or is H. a deliberately flawed character rather than something that the narrative primarily sides with? (because that's the impression I've got but it's been a while, so idk, I didn't really get the nuance of the plot in the way that you explore when I first watched it)

Authorial Intent and the Curse of Hatred

Okay, so I've got like ten other Naruto asks in my inbox but I will prioritize this one real quick because it is actually very central to a lot of my posts. I already went a little bit into this mess when I analyzed the "Curse of Hatred", but I feel like this topic deserves a post of its own.

This particular part of the discussion leaves the confines of Naruto as a fictional universe entirely and instead delves into the realms of authorial intent analysis and criticism.

My TL;DR is Kishimoto very much intended for the "Curse of Hatred" to be real and the narrative sides with Hashirama and Tobirama (and that is problematic). In the longer version, I am particularly focusing on Tobirama as he is the founder of the Uchiha Clan Genetic Theories™.

I also apologize in advance because pointing out Kishimoto's shortsighted writing is something I have gotten harassed over in the past. Hence I believe some theoretic knowledge is needed.

<Analysis under the cut>

Note: As always, blue links are external links or other people's posts. Red links are my own posts that add context to my thought process.

The problem with Kishimoto's intent is that the guy almost never explains the intention of his writing. This is why discussions like "Was Itachi retconned" or "Does Kishimoto hate Sakura" persist to this day. The only thing we are left with is to instead infer the meaning from other sources (such as the manga itself or minor remarks from interviews).

My conclusion is influenced mainly by four things: The social and political context behind Naruto, Kishimoto's usual treatment of sensitive topics, the narrative of the manga itself, and fantasy genre conventions.

But before all that, here's a little info dump.

Death of the Author

In opposition to the idea that the "Curse of Hatred" is real in canon stands the idea that it was just Tobirama's racist propaganda piece - and this is actually a fairly widespread thought. Not necessarily a misconception, however, as it depends on your school of thought when it comes to engaging with fictional text - Extreme intentionalism (full submission to the author's intent), Anti-intentionalism (complete disregard of the author's intent), or anything in between. While extreme intentionalism can probably be considered the "truest to canon" (as opposed to anti-intentionalism, which is more like a subjective interpretation or "headcanon") it is also incredibly limiting to our fandom experience.

Before I continue this, I need people to understand that both approaches are valid. Especially in instances in which the author's intent translates very poorly into our contemporary understanding of the world, as is the case with the "Curse of Hatred". Both authorial intent and the audience's interpretation are vital puzzle pieces when engaging with a piece of media critically.

To clarify, I do not support Kishimoto's writing decisions in this. I am not pushing an anti-Uchiha clan agenda. What I am going for is analyzing Kishimoto's intended canon. As I have already pointed out, it is a canon that is problematic and nobody should be forced to submit to.

With that out of the way, back to the main topic.

Social and Political Context of Naruto

Personally, I believe it is possible that Kishimoto intended to portray themes of prejudice in his story. Mostly in the sense in which people get defined for their worst character traits (as we can see when comparing Tobirama's and Hashirama's characterization of the Uchiha Clan) or for their affiliations (as is also the case with Jinchuriki). I do not believe, however, that he was aiming for racism specifically - and definitely not for scientific racism, let alone eugenic ideologies. And this has a lot to do with Japan's lack of sensitivity when it comes to racism.

For starters, Japan has a very ethnically homogenous society with about 98% of its population being ethnically Japanese and therefore having one of the lowest diversity scores in the world. On top of that, Japan has no national human rights institutions or laws against racial discrimination. The Japanese population is rather unsensitized to themes of racism.

To not turn this into a fallacy of composition, a different user pointed out that Naruto (as a story) was possibly influenced by Japan's reactionary right-wing movement (possibly revealing Kishimoto's own political standing). The movement responded to an increase in anti-Japanese sentiment across Asia. Said sentiment was sparked by a controversy in which Japan omitted its war crimes (which is a well-known pattern in Japanese politics).

At the very least, it is correct that Naruto is very pro-state in its way of protecting the state's reputation by hiding its crimes from the public consciousness. Kishimoto himself demonstrates an incomplete understanding of Japan's war history by unintentionally paralleling WW2 crimes in his story or claiming that the war was the result of mere grudges when, in reality, it was racism and imperialist ideologies.

While this is just my hypothesis, Kishimoto's lack of political and social awareness could easily influence his perception of social injustices, such as racism. Insensitivity, meanwhile, might reduce any motivation to engage with such themes.

Inadequate Realization of Sensitive Storylines

So about insensitivity... This might actually be less of a hypothesis when we look at Kishimoto's repeated failure to address sensitive topics in his writing with dignity and/or a critical lens. I've also ranted about this in an older post.

We are talking about child soldiers and death matches between children (Chunin Exams), slavery (Hyuga Clan), human experimentation (Orochimaru), human trafficking (Kushina and maybe Mito) genocide (Uchiha Massacre), and the invasion of neutral territory (Amegakure). In all of these cases, crimes are not further acknowledged than a brief admittance of "damage was done" before the plot forgets about them entirely.

Chunin exams? Never talked about again.

Slavery? Naruto promised to change the Hyuga clan but never mentions it again.

Human experimentation? Orochimaru is welcomed back after his exile.

Human trafficking? The Jinchurikis got stockholmed, so everything's good!

Genocide? Addressing that might tarnish the Uchiha Clan's reputation. So we don't.

Invasion of neutral territory? We never see Amegakure again after Konan's passing.

It is a larger pattern in which social injustice is primarily introduced to add flavor in the form of "tragic backstories" but not actually to resolve it. We are supposed to condemn those tragedies, to feel sympathetic - but we are not supposed to criticize Konoha as a main perpetrator, enabler, or apologist.

To me, it doesn't seem like Kishimoto ever truly cared about those social issues. He knows they are bad, yes, but they were never the focus of the story and Kishimoto barely even stops to consider the implications.

The Manga's Narrative

The story does not engage critically with itself. And frankly, it also does not demand such critical thinking from its readers either.

In the manga, we are often presented with incorrect or incomplete exposition from unreliable narrators. Obito lies all the time, Madara gets the wrong story from Zetsu, Itachi gets the wrong story from who-knows-where, and Sasuke doesn't know what's going on half the time. The interesting part is how the truth behind those lies is usually uncovered.

Usually, we do not know that any of them are perpetuating a lie until said lie gets corrected by another character. Said character is usually a "source" in the sense that they have personally experienced the (until then) falsified events.

It is very rare that the audience gets to pick up on little clues to realize that a character is lying. One such instance is when Obito directly contradicts Itachi in his rendition of the story. But even then, the conflict between their two renditions gets resolved by a "source" character in the form of Kushina retelling the events from sixteen years ago.

Now, let's compare this to the "Curse of Hatred".

I have already mentioned this in another post (where I analyzed the curse and its contents), but the "Curse of Hatred" is first officially introduced by Obito. He focuses on the Uchiha's war-torn history and how that influenced its members. Tobirama more or less builds on that, adding his hypothesis about the Uchiha Clan's Sharingan and its effect on the user. Then Hagoromo adds some things about the reincarnation cycle that might play into this. In the end, Zetsu wraps it all up by revealing that he manipulated the Uchiha Clan for centuries.

The problem is that not one of these puzzle pieces directly contradicts the other and instead, they appear to complement each other. Therefore, no lie gets officially "disproven" in the story itself. Tobirama's Theories are treated as though they were perfectly fine fact that does not require revision.

We can further infer Tobirama's credibility on the matter by judging the present characters' reactions.

Hashirama, as explained in my previous post, tolerates if not accepts Tobirama's ideas. Orochimaru shows himself hostile toward Tobirama but does not take the chance to contradict him. Sasuke, who is an Uchiha and has personal experience with the Sharingan, shows no signs of protest. Skepticism, yes, but it slowly fades away until he seemingly accepts Tobirama's words as truth. He does not even attempt to argue against it.

Add to that that Tobirama is generally presented as a truthful character, described as "rational" and "principled" in the databook. He regularly criticizes or insults other characters without the bat of an eye, seemingly having no problem with tarnishing his own reputation, unconcerned with keeping up false appearances. He is not the type of character to lie.

Yes, Tobirama comes off as a bigot regardless, but that's because he's essentially an asshole and not because he is actually intended to be racist. Even in the event that what he says is non-factual, he fully believes it is. But also, the possibility that Tobirama is talking nonsense is not even hinted at (again, he is described as "rational" and no character seems to disapprove of the Uchiha Clan Genetic Theory TM).

Fantasy Fiction Conventions

In fantasy writing, none of what Tobirama says is actually uncommon. In fact, if anything, his theories concerning the Sharingan resemble popular fantasy tropes.

In Anime, many powers are awakened through trauma. This is called "Traumatic Superpower Awakening". The Sharingan is just one of many offenders, even in the story of Naruto. This reflects Tobirama's idea that the Sharingan is triggered through great emotional pain.

It is also a common trope that characters who gain too much power eventually go insane. This is called the "With Great Power Comes Great Insanity" trope and reflects the Uchihas' to essentially take away psychic damage alongside each newly awakened Sharingan power. Kishimoto just specifically linked that insanity or pain to the Sharingan (which represents the power of the Uchiha).

Yet another trope is the "Personality Powers" trope. This one can be seen in the Uchiha Clan's tendency to feel deep love and hate - at least one of which is essential for the awakening of a Mangekyo Sharingan (and, depending on the circumstances, a regular Sharingan). Hence Tobirama calls it "the eyes that reflect the heart". In other words, the personality facilitates the power.

Last but not least, we've got the fantasy races trope. The author invents a race and then assigns it distinct characteristics (both physiology and behavior-wise).

In its most extreme cases, this can be used to create an "enemy race" (such as orcs, vampires, demons, etc.) for the good guys to fight. It usually removes complexity from the story by dumbing down the enemy to simply just being "born evil".

Now, notice how the Uchiha Clan's Hatred could be considered a personification of Kishimoto's idea that wars are caused by grudges? Furthermore, Kishimoto makes that comment at a point in time (February 2012) when all three main antagonists of the story are Uchihas (Madara is revived in chapter 559, which was released October 2011), and then releases Tobirama's theory a year later (February 2013).

This one, unlike the other three, is particularly controversial as fantasy races often get conflated with real-life ethnicities. This is not always the intention of the author, however, as they often never intended to portray racial stereotypes. For two particularly popular examples, take a look at Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" or Itagaki's "Beastars".

On one hand of this debate, you have that fantasy races are unlike human ethnicities and do not necessarily reflect reality, simply because the author decides what is real in canon or not and because fantasy is always a lie from a real-world perspective. Hence the Curse of Hatred, or rather, Tobirama's Theory is canon.

On the other, fiction does not exist in a vacuum and it is impossible not to apply our contemporary understanding of racism and ignore what are otherwise screaming red flags of racist ideology. Hence we recognize Tobirama's explanation as racism and wish to reject the Curse of Hatred as a concept.

But these two ideas can coexist.

The problem is just that Kishimoto likely only accounted for one thing and not the other. His intention translated very poorly into our contemporary understanding of the world, making Tobirama (and therefore, Hashirama as well) the victims of short-sighted writing.

Who cares anyway?

In the beginning, I explained that regardless of what Kishimoto intended for his story, any interpretation is valid. So why should we care about what the author thinks?

In my analyses (which are separate from my headcanons), I will usually take an "Extreme Intentionalism" approach in which I prioritize the author's intent over the reader's interpretation. Not because I am opposed to the idea that the reader's interpretation is relevant to the meaning of a text but because readers' interpretations are unique to the individual. Focusing on such an individual interpretation can easily alienate those who don't share it. Hence I like to focus on something that is more informative, almost objective in nature, such as the author's likely intended canon - which people can then mould into whatever suits their headcanon best.

I have also noticed that, sometimes, anti-intentionalist takes will devolve into full-blown lies (sometimes with the purposeful intention of omitting canon). This lie can then be upheld in an attempt to condemn or rather bully those with intentionalist interpretations. This unwittingly protects the writer (as well as problematic writing conventions) from criticism.

This is why I think even Anti-Intentionalists should inform themselves of an author's intention. This is, more or less, an aspect of media literacy as it allows us to identify biased or manipulative narratives and take purposeful action. In our case, this involves questioning and criticizing Kishimoto as an individual, raising awareness about his writing's shortcomings, and learning from his mistakes.

[thefandomlesbian]

So no pressure at all not to answer if you don’t want to. Just if you do know…

*could* House still have his leg amputated? Would it help?

Initial disclaimer: I am not a doctor and I don't claim to be, any misconceptions are my own!

So we know that amputation was originally on the table in 1999/2000 when House initially had his infarction and then brought back into the limelight in 2011 when he committed bathtub butchery. But outside of those two acute incidents, could he have an amputation in the interim?

It's sort of a multipronged question because amputations, particularly above knee amputations (AKA) are pretty involved, risky surgeries. There's a lot of significant vasculature in the thigh that can be difficult to control. The femur in the thigh is the strongest bone in the human body, breaking a healthy adult femur is the equivalent of cracking concrete. Contrary to what House says when he claims surgeons are going to err on the side of "caution" and take his leg to protect themselves from complications, there are a lot of risks involved in taking a ~70 lb limb from the body. Patients after an AKA are 4x more likely to suffer a cardiac event. It's not just about preserving function if at all possible (though that is a concern). AKA is lower risk than, say, allowing a necrotic muscle to continue to rot inside the body, but if a healthy person with a mobility device walks into a surgeon's office and says, "I would like to have my leg amputated because of chronic pain," many surgeons are resoundingly going to say no.

That is especially complicated by House having had an infarction, a blood clot. Muscular infarctions are rare and almost exclusively happen in diabetics, so for House to have had one as a nondiabetic man in his late 30s/early 40s, he probably has something unusual going on in his blood to cause atypical clotting factors. He should be taking bloodthinners to prevent another infarction from occurring. By definition, that makes him a higher risk patient for any surgeon--he comes off the bloodthinners for surgery, putting him at risk for another infarction, or he doesn't and he's now at risk for hemorrhage.

Add to the equation that House is American in the world run by insurance--no insurance company is going to approve an amputation in a guy who's walking with a cane. Some would probably try to slide it by as a cosmetic/elective surgery to escape any financial responsibility, so he'd be looking at around $50,000 out the gate for surgery alone.

But the question will it help? is one that... really can't be answered. Again, contrary to what the canon displays, phantom limb pain is seldom easily fixed and can become chronic, plus the physiology is extremely poorly understood, so it's much more difficult to treat than standard acute or chronic pain. There's a pretty good chance that, with time and healing after amputation, House would have a fairly normal, pain-free existence, given he'll always be disabled and he'll face the struggles of using a prosthetic/walker/crutches/whatever mobility aid he chooses. There's also a chance that he could continue to live in chronic pain, now less treatable, while healing a surgical incision and learning how to walk again. It could fall either way. (And potential complications, ie a second infarction, cardiac event, no limitations, there's a lot to work with.)

All of that said--this is just in terms of my experience and limited knowledge. I think amputee!House is something that should be explored more often in fandom, from all sides of the equation (1999, 2011, favorable outcomes, unfavorable outcomes). It's worth mentioning that within the scope of the House MD universe, House does believe that he would be a happier person in less pain if he had had his leg amputated.

In terms of fanworks, anything goes! (I mean I literally wrote a soliloquy on how/why Wilson's cancer is considered terminal while simultaneously writing my WilsonLives!AU, so it's safe to say we should all be comfortable hurling realism in the toilet for the sake of Fix It FanFiction.) There are no rules, medicine as we know it doesn't exist, you can do Whatever You Want for the sake of the narrative.

[ca-suffit]

I know most of the time the fandom's racism is talked about here (and for good reason), but I hope it's okay to send you something about the show. I think, for myself, I have come to terms with not being able to continue to watch the show in the future, due to the ending of the finale and Rolin Jones' approach for the next season, but I still cannot stop being angry at all of it. Two seasons we saw the racialized abuse Louis suffered at Lestat's hands, we saw something akin to a slavecatcher scene when he went after Claudia to drag her back home, we saw how her turning actually happened and subsequently how dubious any consent from Louis was when it came to loustat's relationship afterwards. We saw the trial framing the two black characters as evil along with racist caricatures and Lestat going along with the plan to kill his daughter. And despite all that, Jones wants the next season to be about forgiveness. For Louis to forgive him. A white character who has abused his black husband and child and instead of continuing to show a difficult but interesting and nuanced relationship, we are just supposed to move on from the domestic violence and the child abuse. And I know many Lestat fans claim he is innocent anyways, so that means it was just the evil brown man and the lying black man who are at fault, which also reeks of racism. I cannot for the life of me see any other reason for all the things that Jones is saying, other than that he, just as Anne Rice, really really wants to have Lestat be the good guy. I would love to hear your or your followers take on it. (Thank you for this blog, it's nice to be able to talk about things like this that would get you hate anywhere else)

Hi, it's fine to talk about the show too! I'm glad ppl find this space helpful, so it's open to a lot of discussions as time goes tbh.

I think it's ttly understandable if some fans want to stop watching and nobody should be made to feel bad about it. The fandom's condescending attitude towards feelings like this, as if ur "stupid" for feeling it bcuz don't u know that Lestat didn't do all that??? is....just fucked up tbh.

For my personal idea of how I assume it's going to go is that Lestat is never going to be "innocent" or "the good one" like some fans want to believe. This isn't Anne Rice where everything is retconned every other book (he's still a jerk in the books anyway, so...). Everyone here is complicated and traumatized and always will be. I think what's going to happen is audiences need to find more peace at understanding that there is no "right" version of any story. Louis and Claudia's perception of Lestat is real to them (and also could have rly happened entirely as shown too!). It doesn't make them liars, it doesn't make the scenes "fake." The abuse has already been admitted to by all witnesses in at least one (major) instance that (Lestat) ppl wanted to be fake the whole time prior. Idk if they're gonna in depth explore this but it would help if they did. Interracial relationships are always going to have misunderstandings bcuz of racial differences. Lestat is already shown to be ignorant on these topics so it's not difficult to understand how he could double down on shit that means nothing to him but everything to Louis and Claudia. U see even Sam using the excuse sometimes of "well he's a vampire and he sees things as a vampire, not a person." The thing ppl need to understand is that feeling "right" doesn't mean u are and it doesn't mean ur actions and words don't have an impact on others that maybe u didn't intend.

I don't expect the show to wash all of that away and say "Louis is a big, fat liar and nothing u saw was real LOL!!!" bcuz....what the fuck. I'm sure Lestat will reflect on events of IWTV the way he does in the books, and I'm *sure* his stans will say that's "the truth," but I don't expect the show is gonna be trying to say it is. It's just *his* version of events. Hopefully they don't downplay a lot of it bcuz I don't think that's gonna go over well tbh. But otherwise, I do feel like forgiveness as a theme is possible.....v long term. I think what the show fumbled was shoving Lestat into the end of S2 in a far too positive light all at once to feel believable. It definitely came across like there's a hidden agenda about him waiting around the corner. That's not what happens in the books, but it's no surprise why nobody (of the typical book ppl) is bringing that up when it paints Lestat in a *better* light. It felt forced and awful to the audience tho, who literally has only known this man as everything u listed. Even for me, knowing the books, it felt like a mess. I guess they had to soften him a little for S3 to keep viewers, but I feel like it could have been done a different way. This came across as feeling exactly what u put, that it's gonna be an "instant" forgiveness. I don't believe that's what's *rly* going to happen, but I am interested in how the opening of the next season is gonna feel.

The books between IWTV and TVL are jarring like this too, but the books are about white men. The weight of all this racial violence isn't hanging over it all between them. Trying to translate all of this to a visual medium that needs to retain viewers but also race swapped characters is....a lot. Idk if they're gonna do it well, we'll have to see.

Obviously anyone else can give feedback too. That's my perspective thru this anon account but I'm def not asking anyone to keep watching if ur just over it and done. That's ttly understandable. I think a lot of ppl feel this way tbh, especially black fans.

[felassan]

Electronic Arts Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call (August 1st)

This happened today and Dragon Age was mentioned in the opening Prepared Remarks section of the call (emphasis mine):

"To do more extraordinary things for our people, players and communities, our teams are building the strongest pipeline in the history of EA to drive multi-year growth. Over the next few years, we will launch numerous experiences that grow and deepen the fandom of our legendary IP. Our multi-year targeted investments toward our biggest opportunities include global titles like blockbuster storytelling from Dragon Age, incredible skateboarding gameplay and social connection from skate, and a revival of EA SPORTS College Football that celebrates the action, culture and tradition of the sport like never before. We’re also hard at work on a new experience from The Sims that will transform what players can do with creativity, a sprawling action adventure Iron Man game, a reimagination of Battlefield as a truly connected ecosystem, and the expansion of the Apex Legends universe across platforms, geographies, and modalities of play. The most recent reveal of our Black Panther project — set in a massive, explorable universe — marks the latest chapter in EA’s collaboration with The Walt Disney Company and the Marvel Games team."

[source and full Prepared Remarks transcript]

Dragon Age was then mentioned during the Q&A section of the call (emphasis mine):

Q: "Last quarter it was noted that players were concentrating their spend on major franchises. Just wanted to see first if there was any update to that? And then, Andrew, in your commentary you highlighted a goal for Apex as an experience across platforms, I'm assuming that includes mobile as well, so can you speak to how you envision potentially relaunching that title on phones and how the approach could differ to the prior game? Thank you." A: "Yeah, so let me touch on the first part. I do think we continue to see big titles getting bigger, and live services getting bigger, and certainly as a company with a broad portfolio of large-scale IP and large-scale live services, we believe that we will be long-term beneficiaries of that trend. You know, that doesn't mean that we won't build smaller titles over the course of time. There are these incredible stories that we believe should be told in the context of entertainment. We are focusing our investment so that we can build a cost-base around those that's appropriate, but we're also really getting behind our biggest opportunities, and as we've talked about, our strategy and building these experiences that entertain massive online communities. Our expectation is that will be a large scale growth driver for us. But, you know, when thought about the right way, games like, you know, Dragon Age, and Jedi, can tell truly blockbuster stories and really break into that top category of games. I think what we see today is the mid-tier and lower games that, you know, maybe did pretty well through Covid because people had a lot of spare time - they're the part of the industry that really aren't doing and performing as well. And as we think about our future, you should expect that we'll continue to focus our investments and our energy and our resources against these big opportunities because we do believe that is where the industry is trending."

[source: call audio webcast]

There were no further mentions of Dragon Age, Mass Effect or BioWare during the call.

Here is the latest Existing Live Services & FY24 Title Slate (announced titles), from the call's supporting documents -

[source]

The next EA earnings conference call - for Q2 2024 - is on November 1st 2023 at 2pm PT.

[source]

lastly, when the full transcript of this call becomes available I'll post the link/add it to this post. ^^

Edit: Here is a transcript of the full call.

[caughtredfeathered]

if you've got wings, you should stretch them and fly.

#caughtredfeathered— independent selective criminal keigo takami blog. medium activity. 18+ only. written by puff (she/her 25+).

dark & questionable themes present. please read rules under the cut before following.

bio. memes. multimuse & jason todd blogs.

Rules.

18+ Only. I am over 25, and I will only write with people over 18. If I believe I am speaking with someone below legal age, I will cut off contact immediately.

21+ Shipping. I am so sorry to anyone under 21, but I am more comfortable writing ships / more intimate relationships with those over the age of 21. I’m still happy to write with anyone over 18 in a general manner, but I just don’t want to write that, you know?

No Bigotry. I know BNHA has some HELLA problematic kids, but ooc we do not take any of the phobias. Just leave.

Following. I will probably only follow blogs I see myself having fandoms in common && I will have read your rules. I am happy to write with OCs as well, but I am mainly on tumblr to explore more dynamics in the fandom I love. I will not follow those who are critical of what others are writing in their own spaces. I can respect having boundaries. I do not respect calling people names or hammering down on people for their interest in fictional topics.

Ending Contact / Blocking. The block button is a friend and I advise we all get to know her.

If we are mutuals and you unfollow for any reason other than inactivity please hard block me. I do not mind and I will not dig into it. I mainly do not want to cause discomfort because my forgetful ass follows you again. Moreover, I don’t want to be under the impression we’re still mutuals. I’ve gotten chewed out for it before and I’m way too sensitive for this world.

If I unfollow from inactivity or just no interaction, I'll probably soft block. I just prefer to do so.

If I’ve blocked you and we’ve never interacted? I just don’t see us meshing and/or something in your rules made me decide my blog may not be for you. No one is perfect for everyone.

If I am made to feel uncomfortable for any reason, I will cut off communication and block. The block button is a friend. We love her.

Triggers. This blog can and probably will contain dark, questionable, and possibly problematic themes. I will tag things as appropriately as I can. I will not tag things out of fanon thought (i.e. ‘they’re like brothers’ does not equal incest). All ship art / ship threads will have tags. Block them or block me. Again, I don’t mind. I don’t have many triggers, but will not be writing the following:

Any terminal illness au threads or any thread that has terminal illness romanticized.

Any romance / sexual relationship between a minor and an adult. All my muses partaking in a relationship WILL be 18+, though more likely 21+.

Anything regarding scat or vomit.

On Shipping.

Do not force ships on me. I will not force ships on you. I don’t mean don’t approach me and ask— I mean don’t have your muse automatically talk about having an intimate relationship with mine without discussion. My muse USUALLY need to work up to ships and I most likely will NOT instantly ship unless we’ve discussed it due to an AU plot.

Also— please do not take me talking about a certain ship and/or writing fic or drabble about a certain ship as me trying to pressure you into it! I enjoy EndHawks, DabiHawks, and would probably like many other ships should I be exposed to them!

Length. I’m not a stickler for matching length by any means, but PLEASE give me something to work with, even if it is continued from a meme. I will most likely not reply to one-liners.

Writing Multiples. I am open to playing multiple characters within a thread (NPCs included).

Characterization. My characterization of my character is my own. Do not force your headcanons for my character on me. This blog is canon-divergent.

Literate. My job includes copy editing... so I don't want to write with a mass of errors. I expect my writing partners to be literate-- though of course errors happen and I'm perfectly understanding!

God Modding. Do not godmod. Do not assume things of my characters. Do not try to control the actions of my muses— NPCs I am happy to share 'custody' of. Exceptions are made for small things that help more the story forward.

Drama. I REALLY didn’t think I needed to add this. Do not, under any circumstances, involve me in your drama. Do not take our mutual status as a reason to bring me into your battles. I do not want details, I don’t want information, I will block you. Unless someone is harming REAL MINORS or doxxing people? I do not want to know your beef.

[bloomeng]

(before i get started this is just a vent post, but i want to make it clear i’m not a proshipper or an anti. i choose not to align myself with either but no i really don’t like “problematic ships.”)

It irks me. No one seems to understand the true definition of proship anymore. It does not mean you ship problematic ships, it means that you believe people should be allowed to explore things (mostly relationships) in fiction without harassment. It’s tied to the dead dove do not eat rule on Ao3. But also being a proshipper does not automatically mean you ship incest or pedophilia, which is what seems to get passed around.

Anti on the flip side means that you believe fiction effects real life.

Now the part that has always confused me is these two statements seem as if they should be able to coexist yet they are considered to be opposites. To me it seems obvious that problematic things should be allowed to be explored in fiction AND fiction effects real life. (ex: the book Lolita, obviously very dark and i don’t like the book itself but the author suffered from CSA himself and needed a space to sort that out)

But the real issue with the proship rhetoric right now is that it pushes dangerously into the territory of censorship, which is what fandom has fought against for years. I’ve seen this wave of younger fans policing what is and isn’t problematic and that leads to dangerous places. Especially considering the term problematic these days is so overused it can range from the worst thing imaginable to something completely arbitrary.

I mean hell I hate pedo and incest content too, I don’t like seeing it, and it gets annoying to repeatedly come across, but this is why blocking and filtering tags exist. Trying to ban “proshipping” doesn’t make these types of people go away, it just pushes them out, while simultaneously pushing people who are trying to grapple with their own trauma out of a space they can explore that.

And then there’s this blurred line of what is considered “problematic.” It starts as a trickle and then pretty soon, you get puritan fanatics being given the chance to shut Ao3 down because it dared to show “sinful relationships” (aka homosexuality). And it sounds dramatic, but we’ve seen this happen before. In China a stupid argument over rpf in the mdzs/untamed fandom spiraled so far it got Ao3 banned in the country. Just know that there are literally always forces at work trying to get places like Ao3 shut down.

Basically the debate itself is harmful and the definitions are not mutually exclusive.

And if you want to say in a byf/ dni that you don’t want interaction from people who ship incest or pedo content, just say that directly. That’s your space to curate however you want (and I mean it’s the type of space I would want to curate too), but using a word incorrectly just fuels this debate even further. I think we can all agree we want to continue to have fandom spaces. So please protect them.

[broke-on-books]

☕️ WNSD

🎶 We're coming after you, We're gonna solve that mysteryyyyy 🎶

No okay but I loooovvvveeeeee What's New so much oh my god. It's probably the iteration of Scooby I've seen the highest percentage of episodes of (excluding SDMI) and if I had to pick my favorite Scooby series of them all. More than any of the others really (although a little WAY), What's New was the Scooby of my childhood, and so many of its episodes are just total classics for me as well.

I think WNSD is very beloved by the Scooby collective (and for good reason) but honestly STILL is underrated in my mind, especially the early episodes. I absolutely adore some of the little "plot twists" of the WNSD era and how creative it could be within the confines of "the Scooby formula". I mentioned many of these in another post recently but having unexpected solutions/elements like "the monkey did it!" or "we caught the wrong guy! We need to go back!" every few episodes just blew my brain wide open as a child (especially the second one there. I'm STILL in shock on that one) and are underappreciated by scooby fandom. (Despite WNSD winning the favorite scooby series poll I did lol)

Being my favorite doesn't mean that What's New is perfect though. There are still some moments I don't like, or that, while useful for a joke, fall flat for me character-wise. One example I think I've talked about before is the scene where they split up differently and Fred is left alone searching for clues with Shaggy. The punchline of this is the idea that Fred and Shaggy just don't have anything in common to talk about, going along in awkward silence until Fred asks Shaggy if he 'saw the game last night' to which he says no and they continue on in awkward silence. For me, that's not my favorite joke because I do believe that Fred and Shaggy are good friends and DO have lots to talk about, and while not my favorite interaction between the two, I can still mesh it pretty easily into my own personal canon with a few simple Watsonian explanations. Ex: They were both overthinking it and didn't know what to say, Fred grabbed a conversation starter from his go to list (he's been working very hard on his social interaction skills, okay?! Only 3/4 of them are about nets/mysteries/the gang/the Mystery Machine!) and struck out big time.

No but as I was saying as much as I adore WNSD, nothing is perfect, and at times (especially in some movies) What's New also suffers from the WAY/TSDS cultural................. awkwardness that comes from the "white guy dressing up as native/cultural legend" plot line.

OH AND THE SOUNDTRACK. What's New rightly gets its due (lol) for having an absolutely killer theme song (and sequence too!!!!) but I think it should get extra points on top of that as well for the chase music in each episode. What's New easily has some of my favorite chase music (leading to some favorite chase sequences) which makes watching it an even better time (some of those songs are catchy!!!!!) And I just love the way it handles music in general. What's New really just finds creative ways to explore and make interesting all aspects of the process, and move between them subtly and infrequently enough that it doesn't feel forced or thrown at you, but as a genuine exploration of what can be done with Scooby by people who care about it. (And while we're talking about music?!?!?!?! THE HAUNTED MYSTERY MACHINE EPISODE???????? 🤯😵🥰💘)

To me, What's New is just a really good show that is kind of seen as being "simple" (plan lol. Sorry I keep doing that but I can't help myself) or basic but really is much more creative and complicated than it looks when closely examined. It's a series that I think gets a lot of love while at the same time still not getting enough for everything it accomplished. Also it has some of my favorite Scooby castings out there. I mean, COME ON! Casey Kasem Shaggy at the same time as Grey Griffin Daphne? With Frank Welker Fred AND Scooby along with MINDY COHN (<3333333333333333333) Velma? Don't get me STARTED.

Anyways I just have SO much love for this series all the time. All the time. 24/7. Hope that answers your question on how I feel about it

[bcbdrums]

I’ve heard this supposedly popular fan theory (except I have never heard it before) that Shego can’t actually bring herself to kill Kim. With differing reasons like being in love with her, seeing her past self in her, not wanting to commit murder.

Ahhhh I've seen this convo elsewhere on the internet. I didn't know other people thought about this.

Truthfully, as a kid watching the show for the first time, I also thought Shego (or anyone) wouldn't bring themselves to kill Kim. But that's because kid me wanted the villains to be redeemed, thought that deep down everyone is good and can be redeemed... But the reality I've come to know as an adult is, sometimes...things just don't work out. Allow my brief fandom digression here...

Batman and Catwoman will never work out if we stay true to the characters. Batman HAS to be the good guy. If he has a weakness, and allows Catwoman to continue in villainy while having a relationship with her, then he's morally compromised and is no longer the hero. He's knocked off the pedestal. Likewise, to have the real relationship, Catwoman can't stay the villain. She'd have to actually give it up. BTAS did it best in the episode "Catwalk." One can watch that episode and apply the principles to many characters and ships, and non-ship relationships... Sometimes, the character staying true to themselves means we don't get the happy ending we want.

Another example from BTAS... Joker x Harley can never have a happily ever after. Joker would have to change who he is. It's not happening.

Now, can one enjoy the creative writing possibilities in sadly ever afters? Oh yes. Joker x Harley forever, for me. It will never work and I love continuing to try unraveling that mystery knowing there's no solution. I love the battle of staying canonical, staying true to the canon characters, fighting for ways to make it happen and knowing that to stay true, it's doomed. But the character explorations that happen as a writer... Yeah man, I love that.

Circling back to Shego, now... Canonically? She and Drakken have tried to kill Kim many times. "How about 'whipped Possible'?" (Two to Tutor) Or the time she and Drakken chain Kim in a crate under ice, with a shark and a squid (Hidden Talent). I can go on... They clearly have no qualms about murder. None whatsoever. Acknowledging THAT is what's true to these characters.

One can invent believable reasons why Shego doesn't kill Kim. And if one goes the redeeming the villain route, believing Shego to still be good deep down... I can see it being written believably. Or having a good streak at least. It's an idea I fancy myself. I also fancy the idea of Shego seeing Kim as who she should have been, could have been, had she not switched sides... All fanon/headcanon that I could see written believably. BUT...we must remember, Shego HAS tried to kill Kim many times.

I think the question is not why doesn't Shego, or any villain, kill Kim. The question is...why doesn't Kim die?

Cuz she can't. She's the hero. And it's a kids' cartoon. Not a dark kids' cartoon like BTAS or 90's Spider-man. It's a Disney Channel kids' cartoon. The hero is not allowed to die. THAT is the plain and simple answer of why Shego (and other villains) don't kill Kim. Nothing else to it but that.

[dazzasarchives]

So I have recently decided to go about and read Marvel Comics in some form of chronological order. ( I'll leave a link to the website I'm using to undertake this task at the bottom.) I will also give my thoughts as an amateur comic enthusiast, on the comics that I have here as well as hopefully some helpful information. Speaking of helpful information before I continue I'll also state that the Marvel Universe timeline is on a sliding timescale, so some historical mentions and references should be viewed differently such as the name of the President of the United States and so on. Also the timeline is roughly that every ten ish years of comic publication could be deemed as a year within the Marvel Universe. Of course there's exceptions, there's always exceptions. Anyway I've decided to start with the Silver Age, which for a long time has been the birthplace of the main Marvel 616 Universe. With starting with the Silver Age then that Means that we start with the very first Fantastic Four Comic.

The comic stars the "First Family" of Marvel comics, The Fantastic Four. Which act as the first team and first four heroes introduced to us the readers. Despite that canonically there are other heroes within this world from ages past. The Fantastic Four consists of Four members, Mister Fantastic ( Reed Richards), Invisible Girl ( Susan "Sue" Storm ), The Human Torch ( Jonathan "Johnny" Storm ), and The Thing ( Benjamin "Ben" Grimm ). It is written by Stan Lee ,and penciled by Jack Kirby.

The comic starts off showing us our heroes using their newly acquired powers before showing us their origins. Which we find out was caused by them going into space and then being blasted by cosmic rays. Though this does have some slight changes later on due to the sliding timescale. Their spacecraft ends up crashing and the Four members land safely although they do have a freak out over their new abilities. I mean hey so would I if I caught on fire and could fly or turn invisible. Anyway the group is then forever changed, they also give themselves their superhero names, which reminds me of when I was in college and had everyone call me Smurf because my hair was blue and I didn't want to be called Sonic and have to run around everywhere. Right sorry back to the story, after this the Fantastic Four is born.

Anyway later on the Fantastic Four hear of these massive sinkholes that have been dragging items underground. There's also these massive creatures that come from the massive sinkholes and terrorize the surface world. Well we come to find out that all of this, is the devious plan of the Mole Man ( Harvey Elder ). I also have the names of his monsters, I love that Marvel Fandom wiki included these guys. We have Giganto, Tricephalous, and Rock Monster Guardian ( Ugu ). We also get a brief backstory of the Mole Man. Essentially he got made fun of a lot and then went cave exploring before being trapped in the caves, just goes to show don't make fun of people. Anywho, The way the Mole Man is defeated is very anticlimactic Reed and the Mole Man face of in a stick fight, but then Reed just picks him up and carries him away.

But then even after Reed grabs onto him as the tunnels begin collapsing around them, Reed let's go of the Mole Man, so he still got away in the end. That's really it for the first issue.

Alright let's talk about the characters of this story, sorry Ugu that doesn't mean you, first let's start with our main man himself Reed Richards.

I don't mind him all that much in this comic, I know personally I have never been the biggest fan of the Mister Fantastic or the Fantastic Four in general but in this issue he's ok, I don't mind him, but I definitely do not believe that he is the smartest man in the world.

Anyway on to our second hero, the Invisible Girl.

What can I say about Sue Storm. She turns invisible I guess. I'm so glad I have future comic knowledge of her otherwise I'd ask what the point of her character is, granted I am aware this comic came out in 1961, so they weren't really sitting at a table discussing to themselves, how can we make the Invisible Girl cool? As of right now she's not my favorite character,but I can't wait for that to change because I know it will.

Now for the hothead himself, the Human Torch.

When I was younger I loved the Human Torch, which yeah that's his role he's basically the younger groups character, the one they can associate with. I'm older now and honestly I can't really stand Johnny. Again like his sister I know this will change in the future, I just get annoyed with him, though on a good note I think he's at least the second strongest member as of right now.

Now for the strongest member of the Fantastic Four, The Thing.

Honestly I love the Thing, he's big, he's sassy, and I can't help but feel bad for him. He's essentially the joke of the group but he's super strong, I just feel bad because everyone sees him as a monster but not me no siree, I like my big pile of orange rocks. So far he's my favorite member he has the most use, and is definitely without a doubt the strongest member.

Now for our Antagonist the Mole Man.

What can I say about the Mole Man. Honestly a weak first villain. He doesn't do much, gets beaten in a stick fight and then just slips away. I'm amazed that he's become a mainstay in comics and is still a villain in recent issues.

Anyway that's me talking about the Fantastic Four Series 1 Issue 1. It was an ok start to the Marvel Universe I can't wait to see where it goes from here, until next time. Excelsior!

The site I've been using to read Marvel comics chronologically:

Also the art depicted on this post is not mine and does belong to Marvel Comics. I'm not that good of an artist to turn an arm into a lasso

Also if you would like to continue the story in Chronological Order follow this link:

[lesvegas]

Question 12/13 for the fallout ask post? Also love ur blog sm <3

12. What’s a quest that everyone hates, but you like?

While I don't think anyone outright hates Come Fly With Me so much as they just find it tedious to do over and over again (and believe me, I Get It), I genuinely do enjoy going through it. Even though I can easily skip over Novac altogether let alone this one quest, I tend to do it when I can anyway because I like the tension that comes with sneaking around in cramped, dark corridors full of invisible guys that can easily kick my ass if I'm not careful. I also like disarming all the traps in the room Hadrian's in. Honestly it feels like a quest that caters to my overly-cautious stealth play style on top of being one of the most interesting side quests in the whole game.

13. Which companion quest did you enjoy the most?

I think it's a tie between Old School Ghoul and I Could Make You Care. I may be biased because Raul and Veronica are my two favourite companions, but imo they're also two of the most well-written companions with equally well-written quests.

While Old School Ghoul physically amounts to dragging Raul around while talking to some old guys, it also acts as a vehicle for him to tell his own stories (which I can listen to all day) and brings up the subject of... well, aging. Of growing up and growing old and changing as your body changes, while remaining who you are despite that. Raul was only around 30 when ghoulification hit, and is basically a young man 200 years older than he should be, and his body began to deteriorate while still in his prime. Despite this, he's tried to make himself Useful TM as both a handyman and a protector, facing the worst of the age of raiders and living long enough to remember it all. When he fails to protect someone, he seems to give in to his perceived uselessness in 'old age', giving up his guns altogether and settling for simply finding purpose in repairing things. It's only when he sees a few older men still doing what they can that he considers not relegating himself to a quiet life, though he still needs the courier to tell him that it's something to admire and that these guys aren't useless or should live a certain way just because they aren't physically the same as they've always been. You can convince Raul to take up his guns again to become a protector during and after the events of FNV, just as he had 200 years ago, and he does a damn good job of it despite his cataracts.

Meanwhile, I Could Make You Care starts with Veronica seeing just how well the rest of the wasteland is doing, from the Followers to the Boomers to even the Fiends (at least in how much trouble they give the NCR compared to the BoS). Exploring the outside world forces her to come to the conclusion that the Brotherhood, her family, is slowly dying because they refuse to change their ways even slightly to become self-sufficient. You have the opportunity to help her find something that will make the Elder wake up, from farming technology to an advanced weapon, but even with evidence the Brotherhood refuses to change. While you can technically convince Veronica to remain, I think it only narratively makes sense for her to leave, whether she ends up joining the Followers or not. She's seen how everyone else has adapted and continues to, and how the quick the Brotherhood is to turn their back on her the moment she challenges their dogma. Even if you can't relate to her on a personal level here, her quest is a powerful conclusion to the Brotherhood's role in Fallout as a whole (by which I mean fo1 and fnv) and serves to symbolize how fast humanity has grown in the last 200 years since the world ended. This quest is so fucking good it makes me wonder why all I ever seem to see from the fandom about Veronica is how much she likes dresses. Sure, it's a cute fun trait and we love her for it, but you'd think that's her main quest instead with how much people sleep on this one.

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

This is a little out of the blue, but I'm curious if you have any headcanons about Ingo and Emmet's general state of health when he returns to Unova. I've started reading pla fics again and reunions tend to vary wildly, including if Ingo and/or Emmet have any health issues or not. Being kind of a fandom hermit, you tend to stray from the norm (in a good way! I find it very refreshing and insightful), so I thought it'd be interesting to see if you've ever given it some thought.

ACTUALLY IT REALLY DEPENDS ON THE SPECIFIC SCENARIO hskhssh but yes i have. given it Thought

i think in general ingo's sort of let his standard of self care slip in hisui bc he just... doesn't. care i mean. he's not really consistent about things like sleeping and eating, out of a combination of like... brain static and indifference. like half the time the feeling of "wow i am exhausted and my arms hurt from climbing" doesn't even make it to consciousness, and then half the remaining time he doesn't care enough to act on it. i think there's also a sort of disconnect/reluctance around meals specifically which i've like. vaguely nodded at in one or two things i think? but he has a hard time like, Sitting Down For A Meal, bc he always feels like he should be waiting for something. someone? whatever it is, it's like a kind of exec dysfunction-adjacent fuzz that makes it hard for him to like, commit to eating, so half the time the food will be cold and unappetizing by the time he manages to will himself through whateverthehell that block is anyway.

also if you like, having a human body, and radically switch up the level and type of your physical activity without any real lead-in or instruction, that's uh, not safe generally. so i feel like there are probably some stress injuries hanging around that he's just been ignoring bc sadly hisui doesn't really. do physical therapists. so i guess the tl;dr is his state is generally Bad but in sort of a lowkey way. this is not mentioning the brain stuff bc that's Definitely there but it's not really related to like, physical health

meanwhile if we are talking abt an emmet who has been in unova aware that his brother is just Gone the entire time (as opposed to one who was like, also caught in the distortion, or anything) i think he's physically fine but he's just been like. a robot. he takes fine care of himself and doesn't overwork himself to a point that anyone can call him out on, bc those things would make other people complain and be a pain in the ass and he's trying Not to make any more work for himself, but it's all like, entirely mechanical. there is zero life behind his eyes. there might be some like stress based health issues but i think he's been trying to actively counter them, under the assumption of like, he's continuing to believe that Eventually ingo will come back. and if when he does come back emmet's a wreck and gear station's in total disarray well that'll just be a whole thing on top of whatever circumstances surround his return. can't have that. gotta keep everything neat and orderly. including himself.

though semi relatedly but on the topic of like, injuries, i think if he got into a situation that was actually life threatening or whatever he would not. give a shit. he's already maxed out on things to worry about just by like existing day to day, go ahead and shoot him, that's fine, c'est la vie or whatever they say in kalos. it's actually a similar problem to ingo's general indifference but caused by almost the opposite underlying thing (Too Much going on internally instead of too little). not that i think he's routinely getting into life-threatening scenarios but like, it IS pokemon, evil teams grow like weeds over there, so who knows really. that could be a fun postcanon to explore actually, if ingo gets back memories included but in the meantime emmet's gone and decided to fight [insert bad guy here] bc they were Being A Problem so he decided to fix it and did not have the bandwidth to be impressed by any threats they threw at him. gce but in reverse kinda

this is getting long i hope any of this makes sense it's. late. i guess the last thing i would leave off on, which is kind of another tangent, is i think the one thing both of them DO have going, in terms of self maintenance, is that they both have teams! very well trained and closely bonded ones! who simply Will Not Let Them get that bad. they all Care obviously but i think chandelure and kadabra/alakazam specifically are like, trained emotional support pokemon, if maybe not like, technically service ones. but they've got like, psychic as a pressure source and to pick things up, hypnosis as a bandaid for insomnia, etc etc and also they're among the smartest of the teams in terms of human intelligence. chandelure has a very close bond with both of them and they've worked out a system over decades so it's perfectly suited to emmet. meanwhile kadabra has simply self adopted the role kind of begrudgingly after ingo gave it a vague half-remembered instruction in the concept cause otherwise its trainer will like, starve or something, which would be Annoying, cause it likes this setup. it gets soup. it will do whatever is necessary to ensure regular soup opportunities in its future.

[peemil]

i saw a post earlier today about how the meaning of “ship” in fandom has shifted over time, from previously meaning “this is a dynamic i am interested in exploring in fanon” to becoming “this is a relationship i need to become canon.” (readmore because i don’t really want this post to gain traction, just want to see what my friends/mutuals/followers think about this since i’m open to hearing different perspectives on this)

part of me wonders if the shift in question is partially responsible for a huge portion of modern fandom d*sc*urse, because we have two generations of fans using the same word very differently: one meaning that it’s your “one true pairing” and need to get the creators of the work to canonize it and show their support for it, and another not necessarily meaning you believe in it or support it or even like it, but are intrigued by what other people have to say about it.

i generally think there’s some romantic or sexual dynamics between that are... kind of weird for you to be overly explored, like if you’re writing smut of underage characters from bluey please please please stay away from me. but there is a difference between saying, “i think it would be interesting to see what other people have to say about this” and treating relationships between fictional characters as like, some sort of fanatical religion, that by being interested in it you see no issue with any aspect of it, that you are genuinely attracted to all aspects of it, and that you need other people to “convert” to your ship and support it too (and what better way of getting people to do that than the creators making it canon).

like, let’s take krisnix for example. i don’t want them to be endgame. that relationship would be toxic and disgusting and miserable (and miles is LITERALLY RIGHT THERE) and i don’t want to see phoenix living with the man who ruined him for the rest of his life. but i think saying they never had sex even once during the 7 year gap is also... just factually incorrect lol. i think the idea of hating someone so much you have to have sex about it, like fucking bonobos, is worth exploring in fiction, i think the idea of them fucking to get “closer” to each other to get more intel is so spy movie, and also i’m Very Fucking Nosy and want to know if it was completely impersonal, treated like a business deal, and done only under the harsh fluorescent lighting of an office bathroom (which is kind of a fetish in itself), or did they have their own idiosyncrasies and sexual quirks that were employed consistently and intentionally? and these aren’t questions i really have the answer to, so i look to other people’s interpretations to see what they have to say.

again, there’s no interest here in the two as a romantic couple. there’s no desire to see anything happening here long term. but i’m an adult, they’re both adults, and adults do stupid things sometimes for kind of crummy reasons. and saying that matter-of-factly is very different from saying, “ah, yes, this is a good thing that should continue for the rest of eternity, because i believe this is fundamentally good.”

on the other hand, you have s*f*kuras (censored because i don’t want them finding this), some of whom are just like “i see a lot of myself in cl*ud and i think seph*r*th is hot and i want to fuck him.” i don’t really have the energy to unpack that/don’t care enough to form an opinion on that because i have like, actual responsibilities in real life. i’m also not gonna sit here and pretend s*ph*roth isn’t hot.

 there is an obvious canonical power disparity between s*ph*roth and cl*ud that makes me... generally uninterested in, if not outright opposed to, the pairing. but i’ve seen people shift that dynamic in new ways, and create differences in perceived power that (or, at least, weren’t initially, before basically backtracking on that and making shit gross again) aren’t necessarily bad: perhaps cl*ud is a newbie in a leather club, and s*ph*roth is a long-time member who shows him the ropes (no pun intended). there are going to be newbies in leather clubs, and there are going to be longtime members, and they are going to have sex—this is a difference in experience that could actually be healthy, because a veteran who knows what they’re doing, who knows the safety rules, who knows how to be responsible, is better than some middling member who maybe doesn’t have everything down potentially mistreating the new guy.

but the thing is, the majority of stuff i’ve seen between the two (because i am, in fact, a hater and a hate-reader, and a pretty salty person overall) is... not that. it gets weirdly defensive about how their canon power difference isn’t actually all that bad (it is), how cl*ud is a consenting adult and can do whatever he wants (he wasn’t when they first met), how other ships can be equally as toxic (if we’re aiming for canon-compliance, they really can’t), how everyone else is just interpreting their relationship wrong and oh my god why can’t everyone just fucking agree with the author for once (because—and hear me out—the author’s entire premise is wrong). there are a few s*f*kura fics wherein z*ck realizes, “hey, this is kind of weird, actually, maybe we should get you out.” and he’s right lol but it always turns into this weird thing where like, z*ck becomes the actual manipulator for playing the “he’s x amount of years older than you” or whatever other card because he wanted cl*ud all to himself, and blah blah blah. like are we for fucking real. and it just feels like such a dig at z*kkuras, of all things, like why are you getting so defensive about this. if it’s “just fiction,” as you say, then why is someone disagreeing with you and saying “i don’t want to read that kind of story” such a threat.

and that’s where i have a problem, is when the “ship and let ship” crowd, of all people, gets so moralistic about it. like if you really were just playing with a dynamic and treating characters like moldable putty, and not treating it as “i’m right, i’m right, i’m right and this is Good and everyone else should Like It and Support Me” it’s kind of hard for me to believe you don’t actually support the things you’re portraying in your work and seek out in others. if you don’t actually support the things you’re portraying, why are you treating an unhealthy ship like it has to be endgame and you will destroy anyone who gets in your way. like... dude. do you hear yourself right now

i guess part of me wonders, if people see shipping d*sc*urse and are members of the former category could potentially mistakenly be aligning themselves with the latter category, because they don’t realize the word “ship” as a verb has shifted in meaning. do people see folks in the first category and lump them in with the latter because they’re young and that’s the only context they’re used to seeing the word used in. are people aligning and misaligning themselves in this debate all because we’re using two very different definitions of the word that lies at the center of this d*sc*urse.

[giftedfangs]

Is there something in Vampair that wanted you to move away from it?

Yes, and I will put this under a cut because the subject matter is very--- gross? IMO at least and not something I want to partake in if Daria is making this canon.

Content warning for: Predatory behavior

So in RBB (raised by bats) we look more on Duke's backstory and we are able to find out from a magazine that he was 17 years old in 1991. From context clues we (as in most of the fandom id assume?) Though that Duke, after running away at 17 years old, was near immediately turned into a vampire as the only differences between him having run away and him being shown being bitten is a change of cloths, and he grew out his goatee.

Now one might believe time had passed, different outfit and he grew his beard, cool.

What I don't think is reasonable to assume: IS 19 years had passed between him entering the city and him being bitten.

There is no evidence of this change. At all. And Daria herself had said she will not be exploring anything that happened in that 19 years of blank period time. That instead the reason for him being turned at 36 is so that he purposefully would be 2ce missi's age. As she had *just* turned 18. And she wanted to make the relationship "more creepy"

I didn't, nor had I really wanted to believe, that Duke would be a 36 year old man, who knows Missi is barely 18, would try to enter a romantic relationship with Missi. Daria claiming again one of the only reasons he doesnt have sex with her in canon is because he doesn't have his full dick (though she said there were a few other reasons too but that is the main one) and it just. disgusts me.

because knowing he is supposed to be seen as 36 (not 42 like he should be as the series takes place between 2012-2016) recontextualizes everything.

Daria in my opinion has dont a really, excuse my language, piss poor job at displaying them as not romantic. Stuck With You is literally has them doing slap stick and cuts to very intimate moments between them. The first fucking comment is a joke about how they're getting married

WHEN HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE 36 YEARS OLD. AND SHE JUST TURNED 18. AND HE TRIED TO HAVE SEX WITH HER WHEN SHE WAS 17.

I am not saying him mentally being in his 20s makes what he did in The Night justified. But it makes everything AFTER that different.

Especially since Daria isn't taking his real age into account just his age from when he was turned. Meaning he's mentally at least stuck in that period of his life, he will effectively be a 36 year old for the rest of his life.

So knowing that the idea that they're "equally bad" to one another DOESN'T APPLY.

Bceause let me re-tell the story with the knowledge that from the start, duke is 36.

A 36 year old man is about to leave his house for the evning. Instead sees what looks to be a young woman, possibly highschooler due to the bookbag she's carrying with her and how she dresses. Chooses to keep him adn force her to stay in the castle just to mess with her mentally for the whole night.

She ends up killing him since she believes her life is at risk.

Duke dies. Is brought back to life.

Duke, is now trying to murder this person, after episode 5 HE KNOWS HOW OLD SHE IS AND WHO SHE IS. Missi, to our knowledge, DOESNT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT DUKE. THERE'S NO CLUES GIVEN THAT SHE WOULD KNOW ANYTHING INCLUDING HIS AGE.

As such he comes back to murder this 18 year old girl. She cuts off his thumb, Duke stabs out her eye.

They agree on a truce and this, again, 18 year old woman moves into his castle of which HE RESPECTS NONE OF HER PRIVACY.

The 36 year old man, invades her bedroom as she's sleeping. Uses her bathroom. Possibly even shares her bed. Sneaks into her coffin if she lays in it. And all around continues to be very sexual towards her of which she retaliates via physical abuse.

All throughout this she is show to be CONTINUOUSLY DRINKING. AND IS NOT ALWAYS SOBER.

So here is this 36 year old man, living with a barely 18 year old who is becoming an alcoholic and being very sexual towards her and not respecting space and boundaries, all while still beating her and she retaliating it

YOU DONT MAKE THEM EQUALLY BAD. MISSI'S ABUSE OF DUKE IS BORDERLINE JUSTIFIED BECAUSE HE'S LOWKEY KINDA PREYING ON HER.

Only for at the end of Stuck With You THEY NUZZLE UP TOGETHER IN THE COFFINS IN A VERY INTIMATE SENSE.

AND NOT TO MENTION RAISED BY BATS WHERE HE LITERALLY PULLS HER CLOSER BY THE WAIST

REMINDER

HE IS SUPPOSED TO BE 36.

AND SHE JUST TURNED 18 LESS THAN A MONTH AGO IN CANON TIME.

NO IM NOT OKAY WITH ANY OF THIS AND YOU CAN'T TELL ME THERE'S NO ROMANTIC INTENTION HERE, THESE ARE VERY INTIMATE MOMENTS THAT UNDER THE LIGHT OF DUKE KNOWING SHE'S 18 AND SHE MAYBE KNOWING??? IS REALLY, REALLY CREEPY

like no, i dont feel sorry or bad duke was abused because he's preying on a woman struggling with mental health, just turned 18, and is drinking EXCESSIVELY.

HER ABUSE OF HIM. IS BORDERLINE JUSTIFIED BECAUSE HE'S TAKING ADVANTAGE OF HER IN CANON.

of which im not okay with IN THE SLIGHTEST

and i really wish daria would have been upfront about it at the start because THERE'S NO INDICATION HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE THAT OLD. HE ACTS AND LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE HE DID WHEN HE WAS 17 OUTSIDE OF LIKE, BEING SKINNIER AND HAVING A FULL GOATEE