#and i am also extremely and pathetically biased about him

[yuwuta]

can you assign other jjk charcters a/b/o? Like yuuta, nanami or megumi? I wanna know your heacannons

absolutely, i have thought about this extensively lmfaooo

omega satoru, but also alpha satoru works, too (tho, i am biased and learn more towards omega for him). he uses the power/influence he has to draw attention and whine about how you should be his mate. omega satoru is so unbelievably insufferable and pathetic in trying to get your attention, and then incredibly cocky and a show-off to everyone once you’re mates. alpha satoru is the wet paper equivalent of a man once he has you, he will literally bend to your every command, there is nothing he wouldn’t do to keep you happy, and yet, still, also incredibly cocky. either way, he’s the scariest. as an omega, he uses it as an excuse—bats his eyelashes and feigns innocence for attacking someone he considered a threat; as an alpha, he doesn’t feel sorry and nobody tries to get him to apologize, unless they’d also like to be on the receiving end of that treatment. also terribly horny no matter what, he is always ready to go

megumi fits all the roles in my head, so honestly, it depends on you. as an alpha he’s very nonchalant, and begrudgingly accepts his role. tho, he is possessive; he tries not to let it show/let that take over him, but it’s sort of always there and peeps through even if he doesn’t intend to. he doesn’t feel the need to glare at other alphas or be the strongest of them all, but he does like to nip at you, to make sure you smell like him at least a little bit, and he does keep an eye on you even if you’re perfectly safe. as a beta, he’s kind of apathetic to the whole mating situation and being part of a group. he’s drawn in by others—if you, or yuuji, or nobara convince them, then he’ll go along with it, and usually ends up liking it, but he wouldn’t try to seek out new people or experiences. you’d have to be the one to approach him first. as an omega, he’s not all that different as an alpha—he’s still possessive, but maybe a bit more forthcoming and shameless about it. he doesn’t pout or go crazy if you’re affectionate with your mutual friends, but he’s not nearly as nonchalant about you being close to strangers. it’s not paranoia, or distrust in you, it’s quite literally, pure, shallow possessiveness driving him—he’s your omega, and he wants your attention. and he wants to have it when he wants it. and he’s not above biting you to get it 

alpha kento…. just fell to my knees. he was born for this. he’s a very level-headed alpha; very rarely swayed by his own emotions, or preconceived alpha notions, and is aware of how his presence can affect others. he never uses his status to intimidate—honestly, he’s intimidating enough without being an alpha—he keeps a respectable distance from unmated omegas, he uses scent blockers, he doesn’t engage in petty arguments, nor does he boast just because he has the power to. extremely dependable, all of his friends feel safe with him, and are physically drawn to him even if it’s not sexually. you’ve found satoru and haibara cuddled up, asleep on either of nanami’s shoulders on more than one occasion—and nanami, immune to it all, just carries on reading his book. the only thing that really ticks him off, gets the stereotypical alpha drive going is the mention of children—especially, when other alphas try to come on to you by saying how lucky they’d be to have someone like you carry their kids. then, kento’s not above knocking someone’s teeth out. even when your friends make off-handed comments asking about if/when you’ll have kids, kento can be found snarling. it’s truly his weak spot, and it sort of embarrasses him because he seems to have no control over it, he just knows he doesn’t want anybody else but him thinking about you that way. also maybe that repressed breeding kink of his who said that 

yuuta’s an alpha to me <3 the kind that nobody suspects at first, but give him a moment to shine and it’ll all come through. he doesn’t care to come across as intimidating, but he’s undeniably at his strongest when he has his loved ones to protect, and there are so few things he wouldn’t do to keep them safe. he’s intensely loyal and protective, and takes it personally when anybody infringes upon the safety or comfort of his loved ones. you’ve seen him throw people against walls for picking on toge, seen him break another alpha’s arm because they were trying to intimidate nobara, seen yuuji and maki have to pull him off a guy solely because of the way he’d spoken to you. but if that’s not the case, and there’s nothing/nobody to rouse the aggressive alpha behavior out of him, yuuta’s the one who’s easily intimidated. when you or his friends aren’t in the picture, he doesn’t care to interact with other alphas, he finds himself feeling small and anxious; he’s gullible and always the subject of pranks within your friend group despite his alpha status; he’s shy and sometimes still stutters around you, no matter how long you’ve been together. he’s pretty malleable and not at all what you’d think of as an “alpha,” until there’s a threat nearby and he’s ready to kill someone with his bare hands. 

alpha yuuji agenda and no i’m not biased <333 he’s the kind that feels the need to provide for the people in his life. he cooks, he cleans, he lifts all the heavy boxes, he picks you up and walks you home, he’s the perfect alpha, but yuuji strives for it. he’s conscious about bettering himself and how he can use his strength and skills to serve you. he wants to be the perfect mate, but for you and you alone. lots of things come naturally to yuuji, but he’s intentional in how he treats you, and how how to be a good alpha for you. like satoru, he’s honestly more of a puppy when he’s with you, one that preens for attention and smothers you when he’s happy. and he’s very moody when he doesn’t get that attention, or when somebody else is trying to take it from him. he’s nice and all, but he’s still an alpha with a temper at the end of the day. he’s the definition of “you should see the other guy,” whenever he comes out of a fight. 

it doesn’t matter whether toge’s an alpha, a beta, or an omega, his true sub-gender is a professional brat and part-time troll. attention-seeking 24/7, gaudy with his tactics for getting your attention and then pouty whenever you’re not paying attention to him, even if it’s for a few minutes. bites. all the time, always. doesn’t even leave hickies, he leaves teeth marks. literal indentations along your arm or on your wrist or your shoulder just because he’s that much of a brat, and needs some outlet for his possessive nature. also, doesn’t have a humble bone in his body, he’ll let everyone know you’re his partner and that he’s hitting it raw because god forbid he have any tact. terrible. 

choso is like yuuji in that he strives to provide and tailor himself to being a good mate for you, but the omega version of it. choso knows what he’s good at, but he also knows he’s got his whole life to learn, and he doesn’t think there’s a better way to spend it than learning how to be good for you. he takes care of all the things you have to put off because of a busy schedule, he runs all the little errands you forget about, he learns to sew so he can easily hem your clothes, he learns to cook your favorite meals, he learns to paint so he can take care of that accent wall you dream about, hell, he’ll even learn to how to do your hair if it saves you a trip to the salon. choso will do, or learn to do anything for you; no skill is too small, no task is too detailed. he strives to be everything you need in a partner, because he doesn’t ever want to give you reason to resent or regret making him your mate :(( also… horny. all the time. always. yeah, he does these things for you, to make you happy, but he’s not above being rewarded for it, either 😇

[marajordyn]

hi!! I saw ur comment under that fluff zayne oneshot I think, and you mentioned that u came for sylus but are really liking zayne, and I just wanted to say I'm shocked!

typically it's the opposite, a lot of people switched to sylus when he was released, but specifically zayne fans since they're both the older, mature male lead. I wanted to hear your thoughts since im intrigued, but also im a zayne only player (so far at least 🫢)!!

Hi! I'd love to share my thoughts! (I can only hope that it doesn't become too much, but character breakdowns are one of my favorite things and LaDS has been one of my new hyperfixations...)

First off, I will say that I- like many people since the intro of Sylus- am pretty new to the game! However, since I downloaded it, I have attempted to absorb nearly every morsel of characterization and lore I could come across. As of right now I'm only really missing myths and I haven't finished all the anecdotes and stories. I've also gotten both Sylus and Zayne up to 55 so I feel like I know them decently well at this point.

Sylus as of the moment is still my number one, but Zayne is only second place by a very small margin.

I can't speak for the majority of Sylus lovers, but I personally always fall for the pompous assholes. Well, more than that, those pompous villian/demon/vampire coded characters that aren't really that way but have taken on this role or personality based off of extreme circumstances. Enemies to begrudging allies to lovers? Yes please. Especially in Sylus' case with what we're learning more of now, he gives me "I'll play the monster that will fall on the sword if it's what's best for you" vibes. Characters that will puff out their chest and smirk turning out to be soft pathetic messes really gets to me. Also, I'm very heavily biased with Sylus because he is a carbon copy of my favorite character from another otome game so that's also a big part of it.

In Zayne's case, I was worried at first he would be too similar from what I had heard about Sylus, just maybe with a bit less cockiness. Can the cold on the outside/warm on the inside trope be done twice? Yes apparently! Which surprised me! He'll join in on the MC's jokes without any hesitation even with his more monotone delivery, he'll sit there and listen while they talk, and he's capable of being a hypocrite (which I appreciate since I like my characters to have nuance). And honestly he just seems so SAFE. He's like the hurt/comfort trope personified. And his character is absolutely perfect for whump tropes! I love that many interactions with him and MC through the game are essentially both of them desperately trying to get the other to take care of themselves better.

I love them both so much, and I'm excited to learn more about them and write more on them and just really get immersed into this world!

[cryptix23]

Imagine, if you will, a reboot of The Lost Room, as a full series with all intended content and maybe a couple more seasons. That's what I've been doing with my weekend -- imagining that, I mean; and also fancasting it because why not.

Doing some character analysis as well so there will be some spoilers. Go watch Lost Room.

Note I'm not super familiar with current TV, the most current thing I've watched was Poker Face, so my pool is limited and I'm open to other suggestions.

Probably won't matter but I'm imagining this still set in the early 2000s, because I choose to and because working modern social media into the story sounds like a headache.

Without further ado, fancasting.

Joe Miller

Original Actor: Peter Krause

Our main man, Joe. Joe Miller is competent, not book-smart but picks up on things fast -- he's an audience stand-in for a smart audience. Yes, he's a cop, but he's fictional so we won't hold that against him. He's the loving single father of a bright eight-year-old girl, whose disappearance becomes his main driving force. Violence is rarely his first resort, and he gets as far as he does often by just talking to people and asking them for help.

Joe has to be curious, charismatic, a little charmingly naive, occasionally intimidating, and deliver the extreme emotions of a man who would absolutely rip the world apart if it would get him his daughter back.

Fancast: David Castañeda

(Listen I told you up front that my most current watch was Poker Face. You were warned.)

I promise I'm not just fancasting Castañeda because he plays one of my favorite tough-yet-pathetic sadboys, Diego Hargreeves.

I am fancasting him because he is incredibly good at having eyes, and I genuinely think he would crush it as every aspect of Joe: The smart detective, the naive newcomer to a strange world, the grieving but determined father, the subdued rage facing Weasel and Ruber.

He'd bring a different vibe, sure, but what's the point of a reboot if you don't do something a little different with it?

Wally Jabrowski

Original Actor: Peter Jacobson

Wally is described by the showrunner (...somewhere, I swear, I think it was a reddit AMA but I can't find it now) as being a sort of chaotic neutral trickster figure. He's a weird little imp who wanders the countryside, consigning people to Hell (New Mexico) for any perceived slight. Joe manages to get on his good side using the Key and some sheer determination, so Wally helps him out and ends up becoming his first ally in the world of Objects. How does Wally know so much? Who knows. He's there to dispense key lore to our hapless hero, not talk about himself.

Wally keeps on helping Joe right up until it starts to jeopardize his own safety and comfort, at which point he backs out, because he is ultimately out for number one -- but he sticks his neck out pretty far for Joe before he hits that point.

The actor for Wally needs to be able to sell that gremlin energy, the self-centeredness undercut by a genuine friendship with this guy who refused to stay gone.

Fancast: Natasha Lyonne

Wait no stop hear me out. Listen. Am I biased because, as already mentioned several times, I just finished watching Poker Face? Absolutely. BUT. Tell me to my face that Natasha Lyonne does not have the perfect chaotic neutral gremlin energy to play Wally. Imagine the diner scene with her. Run any of Wally's lines through her charmingly fried voice. She's perfect.

You wouldn't even have to change the name, just some pronouns. Yeah, her name is Wally. Is it short for something? Maybe. Doesn't matter. Enjoy Hell.

The only further casting choice that I'm confident in is--

Suzie Kang

Original Actor: Margaret Cho

Suzie Kang is an information broker. She can dig up information about Objects in a flash and will sell that information to whoever is buying -- although she doesn't come cheap. She never touches the Objects herself, though. She's smarter than that.

Kang is a self-assured businesswoman who knows what's what and has carved her place into it. She has no interest in morality and actively refuses to work with the Legion given that they keep removing Objects from circulation. She'll happily upcharge if you seem new, or desperate, or if she knows you're good for it.

Fancast: Stephanie Hsu

'Did you just cast everyone from the shit mountain episode' SHUT UP

Stephanie Hsu was amazing in EEAAO and, yes, Poker Face, and I think she'd pull off Suzie Kang's amoral self-confidence really well, not to mention Kang's teenage mall-goth sense of style. I can see her delivering the unironic "Those things'll kill you" line with the cigarette burning in her fingers, and that's important.

I'm not settled on any of my other casting choices, but I have ideas for a couple more.

Howard "The Weasel" Montague

Original Actor: Robert Bart

The Weasel is my favorite character in this show and he is such a specific kind of endearingly pathetic little bastard man that casting him is tricky.

Howard Montague is an ex philosophy professor turned small-time criminal and Object hunter, whose main goal is to find the Prime Object, for unknown purposes. He's the first villain we see and kind of sets the tone for the series with his cocksure attitude and unhesitating, physics-defying double homicide. Weasel isn't dumb, but thinks he's smarter than he is, and has a hard time letting go of ideas he's sure of -- contrasting with Joe's ability to think outside the box.

He's vicious in the way that a little dog is vicious, he will bite but he needs the confidence of a weapon like the Pen to pull off any kind of intimidation, otherwise he's kind of just adorable.

He's also just... made to be a henchman. He falls into working alongside Joe so easily when they hit Kreutzfeld's, this man should not be in a leadership position, he is made to be right-hand man. (I have... many headcanons about this, but I will stick with canon for this post.)

Finding someone to fit this specific concept has been difficult, but here's some of the candidates I've considered (and why they do and don't fit the bill).

Potential Fancast: Aidan Gallagher

Back to casting from TUA. Aidan Gallagher as Five proved that he can absolutely play a weird vicious little man who thinks he's the smartest person in the room and you kinda want to punch him for it. The reversed dynamic with his and Castañeda's characters would be entertaining. Unfortunately Gallagher is nowhere near old enough to be an ex professor, not to mention Joe throwing around someone that much younger would have a much worse vibe.

(Gallagher would be great as a longtime Object user, though. Consider him as Harold Stritzke, perhaps.)

Potential Fancast: Con O'Neill

Izzy Hands from OFMD is another favorite pathetic little bastard man and O'Neill could definitely pull it off. I'd buy him as a philosophy prof, too. The problem is... Con O'Neill is intimidating. I buy that he would murder someone, but he would not need the Pen to do it. (As my boyfriend agreed, "he'd just use a regular pen.")

Potential Fancast: Aldis Hodge

Hodge has the least 'weird little guy' energy here, but his role as Hardison in Leverage proves that he can pull that off. Philosophy professor, sure. Small-time criminal, sure. Smart, but not quite as smart as he thinks he is, sure. My hesitation here is that I don't think I've ever seen Hodge vicious. I struggle to see him committing a casual murder, and that's a pretty important part of the character.

Ah, well. I will think further on it.

Karl Kreutzfeld

Original Actor: Kevin Pollack

Karl Kreutzfeld is a wealthy man, an ex member of the Legion, who began collecting Objects and has amassed a pretty impressive collection. He still needs more, though, with the particular goal of the Eye -- which he needs to cure his beloved son Isaac's leukemia. It's obvious from pretty early on that he's not a good man, but his goals seem reasonable, and he and Joe strike up an alliance over their apparently shared goal of saving their children. What's a little burglary and attempted murder between friends?

Spoilers, but if you've gotten this far into a Lost Room post you know or don't care: Karl is the Big Bad. His son has been dead for some years, and he wants specific Objects not to heal him but to rewrite the universe to bring him back. And if that breaks the universe in the process -- so be it.

Karl serves as a sort of dark mirror to Joe. They're both fathers driven to extremes to protect their children. Joe at one point says that he would break the world to get his daughter back -- Karl has the money, resources, and ruthlessness to actually do it.

Karl can be played by someone who usually plays villains, because him being a bad guy is not a particular surprise. It's the depth to which he is willing to go that comes out of left field and leaves you (and Joe) reeling. Until that twist comes out, though, he has to be ruthless but also charming, a loving father, and someone Joe would reasonably trust despite all evidence otherwise. Someone Joe could physically push around is also ideal, given the kidnapping scene.

I had trouble with fancasting this one, but I really like my bf's suggestion.

Potential Fancast: Giancarlo Esposito

Now, I haven't seen Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul (look, I'll get to it) but I know Esposito by reputation (and by his role in Abigail, which was great). He might be a little too big for a weird genre show these days, but goddamn if he wouldn't kill it as Karl.

I don't have specific ideas for the rest of the cast, unfortunately.

Jennifer Bloom

Original Actor: Julianna Margulies

Jennifer Bloom is in product development for a cereal company, whatever that means, but we never see her at her day job (I somehow got the idea she was in real estate, not that it matters either way.) More importantly, she's a Legion member, one of the two that are ever named (counting Arjun, not counting Karl or Marco). She genuinely believes in the Legion's goals of removing the Objects from circulation, having seen firsthand how they drove her brother insane. Jennifer's goals are loftier than Joe's and she has a little bit of that 'ends justify the means' mentality, but not such that she's willing to hurt him over it, or even refuse him information when he needs it. She's not above a little subterfuge, though. There are hints that she has a temper, and that she's a little more vicious than she lets on (with a particular hatred for betrayal, real or perceived), but those traits don't show through often. She believes in the Legion's code against killing and is strongly affected when she's forced to kill in self-defense, but later when shit goes down with Karl she doesn't hesitate and even has a little quip to go with it.

It might just be me, having rewatched the series too many times, but a few watches in I got the vibe that she was supposed to be a red herring -- that we the audience (or possibly Joe) are meant to think she is slipping information to Karl. She's not, but there's a few scenes where you could get that idea. Hitting a little harder on that could introduce some good conflict and foreshadow the actual mole more.

Should this reboot be a continuing series, Jennifer would have a lot to reckon with in the aftermath of the last episode. Her high-and-mighty organization was sold out, most of them are dead, she's attempted murder, and her boyfriend Santa Claus'd himself into semi-godhood.

Who would play her? No idea. There's a lot of great actors out there who could play this part well. The most important elements, I think, are chemistry with Joe and the emotional depth to show how well she is -- or isn't -- handling her world getting turned upside-down.

Dr Martin Ruber

Original Actor: Dennis Christopher

(Sidenote, finding a picture of this guy was so hard, wtf)

Ah, him. This motherfucker. What a tool.

A forensic scientist, Ruber is initially friendly with our detectives, banters with Lou and Joe, and tries to protect Joe. In the meantime, however, his curiosity leads to him seeking out the Objects, and very quickly dives headlong into obsession before he's even directly interacted with one.

Initially unassuming, witty, kind of mousy, Ruber quickly becomes unhinged enough to kill Lou over the Key. Failing to take it, he sets another man on fire to join the Order, and then backstabs them when he has another chance at the Key. By the end of the series he's well on his way to becoming a full-on cult leader with delusions of prophet-hood, handily setting him up as the next Big Bad after Karl.

A fun role for whoever plays this guy, but no idea who that ought to be.

Anna Miller

Original Actor: Elle Fanning

Anna is a bright eight-year-old girl whose first instinct when presented with a magic door is to throw things in there and see what happens. She also has a beloved stuffed animal named Lester Boneyfish. The kid is a born scientist.

She gets kidnapped and then spends most of the series stuck in the Room, so mostly you need a child actor with good delivery and a decent scream. In a continuing series she might be called on to do more, but as is she could be played by anyone.

(I can NOT find good pictures of any of these other characters and Tubi doesn't allow screenshots, might edit something in later but for now you'll have to take my word for it. Or go watch Lost Room.)

Lou Destefano

Original Actor: Chris Bauer

Joe's partner, a good friend who's encouraging him through his custody issues and tries to keep him and Anna happy and occupied. The only person Joe reveals the Key to, and reacts to it well. A great guy all around. Shame he dies at the end of the first episode.

Since he's the first one to die, he should probably be a white guy. He could be played by a bigger-name actor, too, since he'll only be there for a small part. Otherwise, no ideas.

Lee Bridgewater

Original Actor: April Grace

Another Philly detective. Lee has daughters of her own and is friendly with Joe and Anna. When the two of them disappear, Lee points out how bad it looks for Joe, but Lou still suggests her as the first person they reveal the Key to. She's got a good head on her shoulders and doesn't freak out about things. After Lou's murder, she's the first to be skeptical about Ruber's story.

Joe tries to keep her out of all this, even when she arrests him, but that goes down the drain when Ruber hits her with the Cards. From that point on Lee suffers from contextless nightmares about the Motel. She goes after Ruber and fully would have shot him if he hadn't had the Glasses.

Lee is a tough character going through some serious shit without any of the support network Joe manages to pick up, and in a continuing series would probably go through a lot more -- seeing as that motherfucker Ruber is her only source of information on what the hell is going on. Like Jennifer, this character needs someone with a lot of emotional depth to convey just how much she's going through, and I'm not sure just who that is.

The Sood

Original Actor: Jason Antoon

Like Suzie Kang, The Sood is an information broker who works out of a bookshop in Vegas. He has a somewhat more sophisticated set-up, but he also caters to a more exclusive clientele.

I have no strong opinions on who should play him... as long as they can do the Eyes.

[maydaygmooh]

I’m sorry for writing it but… Have u ever seen a real kth solo stan?!

I’m sure all kths are tkkrs. All of them! I haven’t seen a single one yet. Even on twt huge, I mean, HUGE Th fbs that call themselves kths are tkkrs. Tae guide, report for v, streaming accs… All are tkkrs who constantly bring Jm into conversation to fuel Th fans to stream/vote and also drag Jimin on a daily basis

I know jjks are the stupidest breed, the vilest ones without any proper education

But so-called kths are the most pathetic. Stanning a man for the looks? Ok, quite possible. But stanning a man, imagining him being in a relationship with his bandmate and inventing things which always have some connection to Jimin and thus victimizing him? This is just another level…

It’s alright, we can talk here from time to time hehe

Yes, I have encountered th solos and truly Kths akgaes that don’t like anyone else except their fav, with their ego over the clouds and their rush to prove that he is the most handsome human in the universe, or that they simply think his music is the best. Sometimes I wonder in other solos accounts (especially when they are fighting each other and not involving Jimin) to see what they say lmao. Kths are very particular because they were ANNOYING before chapter 2, but after that, in my opinion, they are still annoying but with a bruised ego and no arguments except that Th is handsome ?

I remember certain occasion last year when I was totally invested in a gossip because Kths were MAD , and there was one saying “if you only knew that the only ones that get dragged because of shipper fights are Jimin and th, you would stop the bs and drag the other man (Jk) who is always protected by both big shipper groups (jkkrs and tkkrs) because he is part of them” and I was astonished nodding in agreement . BUT anyways

The thing with taekookers is that they are like cockroaches, a lot, and obviously solos often were armys or shippers, and that mentality is difficult to erase. They would have a soft spot for their previous ship, or a member or even the group. I won’t even defend his big fanbases because they are humans, usually very chronically online and passionate about the member …or the ship, and will find whatever reason to victimize him and fight other solos (this is not exclusively Kths, btw). We can’t even assure that all Jimin individual fanbases are not shippers because I have seen things🫠

What some Th fans are are illiterate and dumb, no factual, subjective and creating unnecessary drama (especially the reporting ones).

I am sorry, jjks are my #1 enemies so I can’t agree with you, but you have a point and I won’t be tolerant with either of them, as I am extremely biased after all.

Pd. A lot of Taekookers are th biased and that also mess the perception.

[huggingtentacles]

Many people in an attempt to paint Malenia as less skilled than Radahn and thus a sore loser, fixate so much on the bloom. They ignore the fact that he was already incapacitated after being impaled by her but BEFORE the bloom. He couldn't even muster up the energy to glare at her. He couldn't do anything as she slowly pushed her sword deeper and took about 10+ seconds to bloom. He also couldn't react in-time to her jump-stab whereas she never slowed down when her arm was being cut off.

Re-reading this made me realize that I'm just rambling. It's very badly written and borderline incoherent. So my arguments might be bad. Also I want to point out that I am very biased. No I do not care. If you disagree that's fine, write your own post. BUT if you're the Lore Person and you know some of the answers to the questions I have, or you have your own additions, by all means, please add them. So anyway.

I was gonna point that out in my post about why Malenia totally owned Radahn but whatever I'll write it here.

Basically in Radahn Vs Malenia debate whoever wins depends on your opinion of what qualifies as a "victory". Since they were fighting a war, some would look at it from a militaristic standpoint, in which case you gotta define why they even fought, and that's not even clear. Was it for the great runes and the status of godhood? Well, Malenia probably didn't care about the runes, because she did spare Godrick. Was it just a war of conquest? Well, I'm from Ukraine and I know a thing or two about wars of conquest. There wasn't any occupational force anywhere else in the lands between, so it probably wasn't for the territory. In fact, it seems like Malenia deliberately went for Radahn. Maybe she just fucking hates Radahn's guts for some reason. Maybe their minds were just tainted by the great runes. I do not know what was the military objective. But in a war, like in any other war, there is no victor. In that I would agree that it's a loss on both sides. I can make a case though, that whatever was the military objective of the battle of Aeonia, it was something that was worth sacrificing yourself to an outer god for. Malenia's last attack reads to me as extremely calculated. Run in, sack your arm which would suprise your opponent because he probably didn't fight many people who would keep fighting after losing an arm, leap forward, incapacitate him in one hit and also damage yourself enough to trigger the scarlet bloom. Perhaps driving him mad and stop him from achieving something was the goal. That is up to interpretation.

But in their own personal duel, like, outside of everything else, just straight up a battle to the death... Malenia just won. Like, it's just hard to argue with this. Radahn was one of the mightiest demi-gods. And what state do we find him in? Fucking Ohio. Pathetic. This dude is so fucked he might as well belong to Dark Souls 3. Don't get me wrong, he is still really fearsome, don't hold a festival of war for someone who is weak. But when he is just Not Doing Well. If we came a few months later I think he would go so mad he would've eaten his horse. He's in a really sad state, he just doesn't read like a winner to me.

Malenia though? Well let's put aside the fact that she absolutely wrecks shit for a moment. When we meet her she's just chilling, you know? If Miquella wasn't kidnapped, I would imagine he would find something to cure her from the rot. She had all the chances of just brushing it off. And honestly if our Tarnished wouldn't invade the Haligtree, she might've figured something out. I don't really understand why she didn't go out looking for Miquella, but I would believe she would do that eventually. But maybe it was because of the loss or eyesight. Like yeah maybe fighting is just second nature to her, but navigating an area wouldn't be easy. Or maybe she waited for him to return because he had some sort of plan that was interrupted by Mohg?

In any case, Malenia not only crushed whatever Radahn was trying to do, she also had better recovery from the battle.

Also let's talk about that final hit. In PvP, taking damage on purpose to deal damage to your opponent is called trading. A good trade is used to either win over initiative by dealing more damage than your opponent and staggering them. It's difficult to argue that in technical terms Malenia won that trade. Radahn ended up a fun side-quest for some NPCs and Malenia is literally The Hardest Boss From Software ever made.

[zeravmeta]

Speaking as a diarmuid fan I think a lot of people are defensive about him bc there's such a large amount of people that VISCERALLY hate him. I'm fine if people don't particularly like him but I've seen so many people who talk about him like he's the worst character in fate. They'll say he's the worst part of zero and he's pathetic and whiny and deserved to die. It just seems kind of unfounded to me?? Again if people don't care about him then whatever but when people say they don't like him I just get my own red flags bc people who hate diarmuid are often extremely mean spirited about it

the gates of hell have swung wide open

LISTEN AS A BLANKET NOTE I AM NOT ATTACKING DIARMUID OR HIS FANS ok now that thats out of the way i can understand that pov but i feel like in recieving this anon it like. accidentally proved my point? which look theres no issue with liking diarmuid but it was more a case of having known multiple people who were terrible in the worst ways and them having diarmuid icons. OBVIOUSLY that post is talking abt biases and red flags people have from their own experiences and for some of us it just happened to line up for people who have diarmuid icons.

like diarmuid as a character is genuinely just. mid to me. like hes not the best not the worst i didnt leave any of his stories/materials feeling particularly strong about him and the most interesting things ive seen about him are concepts that do not apply to the actual series.

overall though if youre seeing enough people having strong opinions about fate zero specifically and also about diarmuid specifically and hating him when overall he was just like. an ok character in it. then theres nothing wrong with using the tried and true methods of 'if it sucks hit da bricks' and 'block button no jutsu' no amount of whiny angry internet nerds should ever take away your enjoyment of a fictional man

[flecks-of-stardust]

Gimme your Hollow Knight blorbos

(ask game referenced) [link to askbox]

haha okay thank you for indulging me

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most)

tbh with the description of this it's a little hard for me to answer, because if it were just simply favorite character it'd be lheki, hands down. not even a question. but they are actually Not the character i think about the most; that title, surprisingly, goes to the white lady as of late. for the sake of this game though i'd still go with lheki fgkjjks

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped)

orchid. next question /j

okay but. greenpath vessel. look at them. they are shaped like baby. like how the fandom characterizes ghost but even babier. i'm biased because of how i personally characterize orchid, but just. Look At Them

of course this also applies to lheki, whom i adore and love deeply, but honestly they're less baby and not particularly cute, at least per my interpretation of them? they actually have a big case of flat affect and aren't really that good at showing emotions, even after things have settled down. it's just how they are, and. like. i don't see that sort of thing a lot, and it just feels right for them. so while orchid is really bubbly and chirpy, lheki is very calm and a little detached, just because of how they are.

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

orchid and lheki. do i have to elaborate?? like deepnest vessels aside (who i do have some really small plans to do something with), you have two entire other vessels that appear in the game in major locations, and,,,,,, the fandom mostly makes content of the main sibling trio. i'm happy that lheki gets more content compared to some of my other underrated faves (cough cough thistlewind), but there's almost nothing for orchid.

which, again! is why i'm making it! bite me

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week)

orchid. again. and i Guess thistlewind?? they're technically quite obscure too. like they have two pages of dialogue? and are in a theoretically optional area. but i think they're really interesting, same with orchid, and i am holding them very gently.

that's a lie i throw all my characters at walls at mach one

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave)

changing gears a little here! pale king. not even an unpopular answer for this one, but like. look at him. look at this mess of a person. he's pathetic and a piece of shit. i love poking at him. he literally could not be more of a poor little meow meow. i want to punt him into next week.

memery aside, and i've said this before, but the pale king is Such an interesting character to work with. there's so much room for it too, and i Love playing around with morally grey characters. he's a piece of shit and that makes him Extremely fun to work with.

in a similar vein: the white lady. same thing as above. it's kind of disconcerting how most of the content for her depicts her as some benevolent mom type character tbh, because she is quite a contributor to the events of the game? and also i just want to see more mean white lady content. there's so much room there to work with too, why haven't i seen more people doing it??

not quite a 'poor little meow meow' but i think he's also in the realm of unpopular: markoth. fascinating character who i've plucked from the game and ran off with. sorry not sorry mr. samuel dixon, but he's my character now. so much delicious mystery to work with :D

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason)

pale king and white lady! for the same reasons listed above. though granted with what i create it's kind of. like. everyone fgkjhjks

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell)

to be honest i never understood the superhell meme, so i'm not sure how to answer this. i honestly don't know who i'd even send, particularly not when i'm thinking in the context of dreamless. i guess canon radi and canon pale rulers?

[iaintyourbro]

Your first ask is me? I feel bad now your first ask is about a biased CA... :( I always see you out there writing great ideas and opinions on things! You deserve more asks! About my ask I know other people picked their favorite and all, but that's all they did. A VA is like saying all these things about A fixing C and shit and that's not it. That's not the story. That's not the game. She's putting wrong ideas in the fans/shippers heads while working for SE. I just find that a little pathetic. +

2/2  + but I won't e-mail anyone. That was just me being petty. And kind of joking too. (Sorry for my English)

Oh, please, don’t feel bad at all! I think it’s a great starting question to get me thinking. Also, your English is FANTASTIC. I assumed you were a native speaker! 

I 100% agree with you on how she’s saying the wrong things. I didn’t even know she was going that far. Like I said, I really can’t tolerate watching her because it’s so extreme to one side. 

Based on that, it sounds like she really didn’t play through the OG. It’s clear that Aerith doesn’t do anything to “fix” Cloud. Her job and her role is for the overall plot of FF7. She’s a very important character in that regard. Without her, the world is screwed (well, without her in the Lifestream but). Tifa legit is the only one that can help fix Cloud later on - by guiding him and letting him come to terms with everything on his own.

Did Aerith make Cloud a bit more open? Yes, absolutely. Every character that Cloud deals with develops him further, and I love that. It’s not just Tifa or Aerith. Barret. All of AVALANCHE gives him development. Marle gives him development. The Trio, Jules, all of them. It’s wholesome as hell that he really does listen and refers to things he’s learned later in the game. Watching him go from “Not interested” to being super worried about Wedge when he falls from the pillar is GOOD CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. 

I think Aerith teaches him some social skills - like high-fives. It’s silly, but Cloud was afraid to high-five. His persona won’t let him do anything that’s gonna make him possibly get rejected or hurt. It’s silly, but our boy is pretty messed up at this point. 

She also teaches him sympathy. When she’s talking about Zack in the park she’s just SAD. I felt for her. I was really glad they did so much Zack/Zerith referencing in the remake. This isn’t to say he didn’t show any sympathy or concern before - he did notice a lot if Tifa seemed nervous or upset. This was more obvious, though, because he was pretty closed off from Aerith until she talked about Zack. 

Cloud softens up when he realizes she’s sad about this unknown person who he isn’t allowed to know the name of, which to me is a huge improvement with how he dealt with things like that before. @silver-wield Did a full interpretation of the park scene that covers this in more detail. She also has one on the high-fives.

Him learning to listen to people instead of blowing them off, him remembering the lessons Tifa taught him at surviving life on the ground floor, (he asks her in Chapter 10 if following the stench is another lesson... as he’s smiling btw). 

What actually will piss me off is people saying he was a stoic, closed off jerk until Chapter 8. It’s just not true. He grew a LOT from his first line to his last one in Chapter 7. Before Aerith. Then he continues to grow. Shipping who you want is fine until you start deleting parts of the actual story. 

If the story didn’t go in the Cloti direction, I guarantee you I probably would have gone with whatever the final pairing was. I generally do. Squall and Rinoa, Yuna and Tidus, Celes and Locke, Rosa and Cecil. You know, the linear relationships. 

The exception for me was Lucrecia and Vincent... cuz I just was so grossed out that she picked Hojo. DoC cleared up some of it, but still. I had head canon that Vincent was Sephiroth’s father yada yada. When I found out it’s canon that Hojo is - that there’s legit NO POSSIBILITY of Vincent being his father, I accepted it. I didn’t go online and start twisting the story and attacking people. It didn’t take away from my fan fiction enjoyment at all.

I assume it’s like people who ship Squall and Quistis, for example. Nothing in the game indicates this (he rejects her hard - “Then go talk to a wall”), but people do. That’s okay, I don’t enjoy that pairing (hot for teacher, anyone?), but I know people do. The differences with that pairing and C//erith is NOBODY GOES ONLINE AND FIGHTS THE FF8 STORY TO PUSH THAT SHIP. They don’t sit here and rip the story up, ignore parts, don’t play past certain parts/skip chapters/quests whatever. Then they start quoting things that were debunked long ago. 

I am absolutely fine with shipping who you want. You just can’t change the actual story to fit it and then argue with facts. That’s what makes this brutal. I also don’t care if the VAs ship whoever. They just can’t put false ideas into the heads of fans. It either creates false hope for one side or anxiety for the other. It doesn’t end well, especially since people expect that she may know more than we do. They’ll take those comments to heart much more than a random person on the internet...

Also: I would not judge or look down on you for emailing Square, cuz I think it’s the funny kind of petty! I’d be that petty too, but probably never actually send it!

[someguy1023]

Something I realized since Holly’s Thread came out, and its relation to Heidi’s tweets

(tldr, because people probably don’t/aren’t gonna want to read this all the way; I realized its possible Jared was lying to Holly (and his friends) about Heidi, manipulating them and leading to this complicated mess. This whole thing compares what both Heidi and Holly said, what was confirmed and denied, calls out parts of Holly’s thread, and is basically connecting some dots that I’m probably just imagining. I have no defense for Jared, and Holly isn’t completely innocent in all this, but based on the facts given, it’s possible theres more to her story than simply “i’m gonna divorce my husband and go against everything I showed I stand for” like everyone wants to believe.)

Okay so lets get this sorted first; I admit that I was a huge fan of Holly before all this. Ever since Heroes of Cosplay, I looked up to her and think that she played a major role in making me a much better person. I am extremely heartbroken and disappointed by her actions.

The reason I mention this is because I’m sure some will accuse me of being biased, completely one-sided in what I want to say. And while I promise I’m trying to stay 100% to remain neutral, I’m sorry if I come across otherwise. Feel free to call me out if need be. But don’t pull the whole “youre pathetic and should die” thing with it like some others are doing please, a simple “this part sounds a bit biased to me and i have a problem with it” is fine.

So. Let’s talk about what Holly said. (I assume most of you are up to date with this, so I don’t want to waste any time or bore you) Holly metioned in her thread that Heidi has shown abusive behavior towards Jared, and had screenshots of texts Heidi and Jared had talking to each other that relates to the whole affair thing. Heidi mentioned they were true, but were out of context, and said that Holly purposefully showed them that way.

...I’m sure some of you are ahead of me, but I’ll still gonna mention it because it plays into my “epiphany”; Holly got the screenshots FROM Jared.

Now, before going more into this, I want to mention that yes, it’s entirely possible that she recieved the screenshots from Jared after the news broke, so obviously, I want you all of this to take this with a grain of salt, and admit that at the time of typing this, we don’t have all the facts, so its pretty much a theory.

(Small correction; considering Holly was in the hospital for her mental health, and people have pointed out phones aren’t allowed, it seems more likely she couldnt have gotten these after Heidi’s announcement. I know people are accusing her of lying about that, but a few of Holly’s friends confirmed they visited her, so I want to give them the benefit of the doubt on that. Also, for people saying the Keemstar artwork picture proves she had her phone, which isn’t allowed for those in the mental health ward, I’m pretty sure she took it after she got out. I know, it probably sounds hypocritical considering what I said a moment ago, but, like i said, grain of salt.)

Heidi had mentioned Day 1 (i believe) that texts from Holly talked about her very negatively, speaking ill about her trying to convince Jared to leave Heidi. Granted, we don’t know when this started in context to the screenshots, especially in regards to the ones regarding DCA and her desperation, considering the timestamps weren’t included, but if we Assume (key word here) that it was after some of these were sent, it kind of makes sense. Jared showing Heidi in this light, claiming to be “scared” of her, would cause Holly’s demeanor towards her to change.

Another point I wanted to bring up is Heidi pointing out how much Jared had lied to others about his marriage. To many of his friends. She also noted that Holly was taking his word on a lot of things, as well as her, abmittably sarcastic, notion that “no, baby, i only lie to my wife, i swear.”

...well, would he?

This brings us to my realization; what shows that Jared didn’t lie to Holly about any part of his actions? Out of everything shown, outside of simply taking him at his word, do you really think he would be completely honest in this situation to Holly, but not Heidi, or his friends/fans?

There a few other things I wanted to note as well;

-Heidi had mentioned before that she put a stop to them trying to hook up while she and Jared were trying a poly relationship, insinuating she never gave permission in the first place. Holly’s text, however, show that she gave them permission, and admitted that she didn’t expect them to have sex, but didn’t seem to have a problem with it. (at least, from the texts she sent to Jared) Holly and Heidi both confirmed in their tweets and the screenshots that, at least at the time that happened, they didn’t have sex and went walking together. I’m not saying this to call Heidi a liar by any means, as the screenshots could have deliberately showed it like that as i mentioned before, and yes, Heidi did change her mind, its simply something I noted.

(Addition; I looked at the screenshots Heidi sent out, and noticed something else. Heidi said that Jared and Holly weren’t being transparent with her, and called it off a short time after Jared and Holly talked. However, and I’m a bit confused by it, it was seemingly due to Jared not texting her back while they were walking. She even told Holly she understood that they didn’t have their phones when they talked. So...was that the reason she called it off? I do want to say, poly relationships can be called off whenever the other person wants to, and she was perfectly allowed to change her mind. It just seems weird that was the turning point. I don’t know, maybe I’m letting my personal opinion leak out, I’m sorry.)

(Addition pt. 2; This had cross my mind when reading this over and realized I never brought up Heidi/Jared’s conversation about Heidi’s other partner when they were poly. Heidi had noted she called it off when she realized she wanted to go back to Monogamy. But, did Holly know that? I doubt Heidi would share that with Holly, and considering Jared’s behavior, I don’t think he would share this with Holly. As I noted, we don’t know when these texts were sent/screenshotted, and, while I admit this could be another stretch, Jared could’ve sent that to Holly to paint Heidi as a hypocrite, seemingly continuing to be poly.)

-Heidi and Holly also confirmed that Holly apologized profusely to Heidi in those same texts with each other, so we can prove that it was true in some way or form. I would also say that Heidi calling Holly also checks out, as it was related to that event, and Heidi said it was true. (I’ll get back to that in a sec)

-While I do want to talk about this more seperately, I also want to talk about the situation with Ross during all this, as many still think Holly and Jared were having sex behind his back. Holly said that they had talked about their feelings in January/Febuary 2018, which Heidi confirmed in her response. Heidi also said that Holly and Jared weren’t together (at least) sexually until October the same year, a month after their divorce. Again, this is a can of worms I want to open seperate from this, but I wanted to at least clear the air that based on the evidence and confirmation provided, no, Holly was not fucking Jared while she was still married to Ross.

(Addition; More tweets have come out recently with Holly saying that she was transparent with Ross about this situation up until their divorce, and that she did not cheat on him during their time together. Obviously, there’s no way to confirm or deny this as Ross said he wanted to be kept out of this, which Holly also noted and said she intended to respect. I simply wanted to include this both to update this, and to keep others in the loop who were uninformed of this.)

(Addition pt. 2; It seems the tweet about Ross has been deleted for unknown reasons. Many say they think it’s a lie, and some have begun to harass Ross with it. Ross skips on streaming possibly due to this. On that note; can you guys who keep harassing everyone just fucking stop? He’s not gonna answer, so stop harassing everyone he replies to thinking he’s gonna answer you.)

-I also want to add, after looking through Heidi’s tweets again, that Holly apparently wasn’t the only one he was having sex with. According to Heidi, he was also having sex with other fans while he was married. When this took place isn’t clear, as well as if Holly knew or not. I’m not sure what to make of it, but I personally doubt Jared would share such facts with her or Heidi. I’m not sure, though, not unless/until more evidence comes forth.

Alright, now to move on to the flaws in Holly’s thread that should be pointed out. I said I wasn’t going to be biased, and I intend to keep my word;

(Okay, I already said this seperately, but it seems like a lot of people, including myself, misread it. It wa/ literally phrased “Why would Heidi go back To Jared’s House after she already moved out?” I understand the confusion, and am not defending its phrasing, but no, its not asking “Why did Heidi go back to Jared and keep their relationship going”)

-The part questioning why Heidi didn’t try to get away from Jared if she was abused was, admittedly, a Big Yikes. Needless to say, people suffering from abuse for long stretches of time can’t just do that so easily. (Being a victim of abuse from my father in many of the same ways Heidi was abused by Jared, which I’ve seeked treatment for over the last few years since his death, I know) This also brings up her follow-up comment about Jared trying to leave his relationship 4 times, as well as an intervention by his friends to convince him to leave. Until the friends in question come forward to confirm this, I’m not sure how true this may be. Also, Heidi had pointed out that she had legally acquired the pictures and texts Holly said she aquired illegally, as well as dismissing Holly’s claim that she broke in to the house they shared together and stole Jared’s play button, which she provided a shot from Facebook to support (more on that later.) Obviously, I’m not an expert on law, so I can’t really comment on this.

(Note; I read over those tweets again, and realized the phrasing is what made it so weird? kinda? Basically, in the second tweet, it looks like she was trying to say “why would Heidi go back to the house if she already moved out?” which makes more sense. I don’t know, its not so much as cancelling what she said, moreso my own realization about what was meant vs what people took away.)

-Speaking of Heidi’s call, I want to bring up the biggest contradiction; Holly texting Jared afterwards. Yes, that does sound very odd, as Heidi had called From Jared’s phone. Many people point this out as a major lie, and I can understand why. However, while this is the Biggest Stretch in my whole throught process, I have considered the possibility that she texted his other phone (i.e. his old phone, though some have noted that old phones don’t have numbers anymore. This is true, but depending on if it was a trade in/upgrade, the old phone can still work. I personally had that very thing happened my last upgrade, as I had bought my new phone while I still had my old one, was able to use both normally before transferring everything to the new device. I imagine that some of you will accuse me of lying on this, but I promise you I have no reason to lie about this.) Additionally, there are a number of messaging apps outside of the pre-installed texting app (Skype, Kik, Facebook Messager, etc.) Regardless, it is a very odd way to put it regardless, and I could understand that being a lie.

-Speaking of Facebook, Holly’s use of Heidi’s private account to support her claims is a bit sketchy. Heidi has said these were said as a joke, and that they were used to further villify her in Holly’s attempt to gaslight others to take her side. I admit that this is possible, and that use of her private account as ammo is a poor move. However, that being said, I do feel that some of them, mainly those related to the Play Button and Perez Hilton are phrased a bit sketchily, both in and out of context. (Though as I mentioned, Heidi claimed them as using humor to heal, which I understand.)

-A minor note, but I also agree that while she claimed not trying to spread hate or be used to bully either Heidi or Jared, Holly definitely didn’t seem to keep to that in tone. While it started out that way, and I want to believe she was truthful about that attempt, it definitely went in a harsher tone as it went on. So, yeah, you dropped the ball on that, Ms. Conrad.

-Another minor note, but I do find it odd that no one has said when the screenshots about DCA and Heidi becoming desperate were taken. I’m primarily talking about Holly, but Heidi hasn’t clarified when they took place, either. This isn’t an attack on Heidi, she’s not obligated to fill in that blank for us. It’s a bit odd, though.

-Finally, I’m not totally sold on the “revenge plot” thing. Heidi had mentioned before and in response to Holly that she had nothing to gain from the whole thing, as she claimed that Jared had tried to use his money for her to keep quiet. So I’m not clear on how such a scandal would benefit her outside of popularity. (Which the Facebook posts whose phrasing I had mentioned having a problem with both held a common theme of, mentioning the various articles about her and her cosplays, as well as her comment about Perez Hilton)

I do want to mention as well, mainly because someone else had pointed it out, that there was a 30+ hour difference between her Facebook post announcing her divorce and Jared’s statement on Twitter, as well as Heidi’s reveal that it was Holly he had been cheating on her with. On the other hand, Heidi also noted that she posted it in an environment of people close to her to vent the pain she had been dealing with, while Jared’s statement was in a public form, allowing him to potentially twist the facts to people who wouldn’t know better, which makes sense. Similarly to the text messages about the walk Holly and Jared took, it’s something I wanted to note.

This brings us to my last point, and arguably the most important one; Jared’s solicitation of and sending to nudes from fans, as well as his former Tumblr account.

Many have pointed out that Holly never really talked about them during her thread. On this, I disagree. Near the beginning of her thread, before mentioning what happened in February, she noted her disapproval of influencers and celebrity soliciting fans in any sort of way, noting it as an abuse of power, and that no one should do such a thing. She also went on to note that Jared had made poor decisions in that regard. Holly also said that she supposedly had proof that Jared had consent from the fans involved, as well as their age being legal. I’m willing to say, this doesn’t really prove Jared’s innocence in that regard, as he could have easily lied about such facts or omitted details proving otherwise. She also went on to mention that posting such photos without the consent of those involved is considered “revenge porn” and is illegal in most of the US, including a list of said states and the facts about the law in each state (minimum sentancing. I understand and agree that this could be considered a blanket statement or too light of a stance, but I believe that this was her way of acknowledging and disapproving of Jared’s actions. However, Holly also claimed that she can’t legally go more depth into it based on the legal ramifications of the claims, while Heidi noted that while there are legal things related to the subject, she noted that there wasn’t really anything stopping Holly from talking about it further outside of, what she believes, is advice given to her from Jared. At the time, I cannot find there’s anything that proves or deny this, so if anyone can add on to this, feel free to do so. There is also no current evidence that either Holly and Jared are still together and/or still talking.

So what does this all mean?

...honestly, I don’t know. Maybe I have a point, maybe I’m pulling off the greatest ventriloquist act and talking right out my ass. As I said before, there is the chance that I unintentionally looked over or forgot something. I’m more than willing to be corrected. Personally, this whole thing has been heartbreaking, confusing, and just an all around shitshow.

Holly put it best; “People can lie on the internet, and omit information.” As outsiders, we have no real way of knowing how much of the truth is being shared with us from anyone, though that shouldn’t mean we should immediately dismiss Heidi’s word on the matter. Until something else comes to light, whether it’s the truth or otherwise, she’s still the victim in all this, and we should stand by her side to help her. It’s the right thing to do.

All I wanted to do is point out here was a possibility that Jared lied to Holly as well, or at least tried framed Heidi as the villain before all this started. Maybe a stretch, sure, but in context with everything said, with all the facts we have, it’s still in the realm of possibility, at least a little.

So I guess the only real moral of the story is; regardless of what the truth is, Jared is still a lying scummy douchebag who I have no sympathy for :]

(If anyone wants to add, question, or call out something I said/mentioned, feel free to send me an ask so i can reply directly and correct myself. I want the truth, not personal opinions or emotions, to come to light. Additionally, while I didn’t mention it previously, for those curious on why I didn’t simply ask Heidi or Holly about all this, it comes down to two reasons; 1. the possible opportunity to openly lie without the other knowing and present it as fact, and 2. mainly due to Heidi’s insistence that she wants to move on from Jared and all the drama, wanting to heal and start her life anew. The worse thing to do right now would be to keep pulling her back in after her vocal desire to do otherwise.)

[seasaltmemories]

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein Review/Analysis

Really expanding my pallet by tackling a book instead of anime like I’ve done in the past, but I have a lot of complex thoughts about this that I pretty much need to spill out immediately

Summary time:

Elizabeth Lavenza hasn't had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her "caregiver," and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything--except a friend. Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable--and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable. But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth's survival depends on managing Victor's dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.

All my reviews are extremely personal, but this is going to get even more personal bc of the unique relationship I have with the original Frankenstein, I read that back in my senior year of high school and while it wasn’t a favorite of mine, I had my fun with it, I wasn’t the most diligent student, skipping much of the latter half bc I wanted to focus more on my senior thesis, but I really enjoyed Victor as a protagonist.  In contrast to how adaptions portray him, he’s a pathetic teenager/20-something who drops out of college bc he gets offended when his science professors laugh at him for wanting to study alchemy instead of a real field of science.  He gets sick at the drop of the hat, is so self-centered he really only acknowledges others when they are right in front of him, and a coward who can’t take responsibility for any of the problems he creates, all without being particularly malicious, I more enjoy laughing at him than fangirling over him, but there is a lot of humanity there that I find endearing in its own way

But I was an Elizabeth fangirl, the girl goes through equal amounts of hell without knowing it is all the fault of the man she adores.  While the narrative mostly kept her as “love interest” I felt their could be a lot of pathos to her tale and even wrote an essay about it.  However as I looked for academic material/retellings, I couldn’t find any that shared my sentiment

Recently I was brought back to Frankenstein because of a local writing contest that was celebrating its 200th birthday.  While it was looking for horror submissions in general, I wrote a modern retelling with the intent of giving it a female perspective and subsequently won first place for it

So when I discovered this book, published around the same time as when I wrote my own retelling, it seemed made for me.  And oh those first few chapters were a treat, it felt exactly like something I might even write: Elizabeth is someone who plays the angel bc she fears she won’t survive if she is anything less perfect, and no matter the situation this suffocating anxiety grips her every action as she tests people’s reaction to her, I was on cloud nine for all of act 1, other reviews seem to dislike the slow past of that part as it all takes place in one slow day with lots of flashbacks, but I loved marinating in Elizabeth’s inner world as I hadn’t be able to before

Act 2 is where some complicated feelings mixed in, and to talk about then completely I’m gonna go into spoilers.  If you are interested in it so far or tend to like my writing of worn-down girls trying to survive in worlds where their image can decide their fate, then I recommend it.  For full effect it helps to have read Frankenstein since there is so much of the novel is tied to the original and it pays a lot of love to the cultural icon it has become as a whole, but apparently other reviewers have enjoyed it without that prior knowledge.  If you are still on the fence/don’t care about spoilers, let’s dive into the next 2/3rds of it

First of all, this novel reads so much like fanfic.  I say that as not a measure of the quality of its writing, bc at its core it is fanfic, and since it falls into that genre, it shapes many of its strengths and flaws.  For example, Act 2 is the weakest section of all bc so much of the plot is recounting plot point by plot point or the original, and aside while the POV switch makes certain events, like Justine’s death hit harder and in a different way, it also inherits some less tightly-written sections, like Victor traveling to England to build the bride.  But in a way I can excuse that because by then I had started to treat it like fanfiction and took that as a sunk cost that couldn’t be avoided bc of the format

What really shows that this is fanfic is the fact that rather than simply retell the original, it uses the material left behind to build an original story of a woman trying to find an identity that has never felt her own, and I don’t find any fault in that because I have done the same, hell I’ve written about blonde teenage Elizabeths in the 19th century who tailor their entire personality for their dark, morally ambiguous cousin that they are in love with it, but because I can so closely relate to the mere concept of writing a story like this, I find I am much more critical of matters of personal taste than I would be otherwise

To put it bluntly, TDDEF’s Victor is not Shelley’s Victor.  And while it tries to play that “untold story” angle to explain the discrepancies, it does not work.  Here Victor is like one step away from being a literal demon child, lacking any care for anyone besides Elizabeth and always ready to cut someone/thing open with a knife.  He is completely obsessed with her, being inspired to conquer death not because of losing his mother, but because he realized her morality when she catch a life-threatening illness, and while it works for the story TDDEF wants to tell, it is not the Victor I know as he goes on to do even worse things than Shelley’s version

Now again I am faced with having done the same before, taking much less morally gray characters and in fanon dying then a few shades darker, but while this is nitpicky, it makes a lot of the details between the two works not line up so well, even before the narratives diverge

Like for example I never bought Victor’s love or even obsession for Elizabeth here, like Shelley’s version they are often apart and even when together Victor is stuck in his studies, yet here she becomes his entire motivation, part of this was because TDDEF wanted to highlight the problematic elements of the original relationship, but I feel like it still could have been done while veering closer to the original depiction, like despite all Elizabeth does for him, he treats her more like a pet he has to remember to feed and allows her to go through a lot of trauma to save his own skin, that’s still a damning portrayal without falling into the evil cartooniness TDDEF’s version sometimes does, but even within that criticism I can see my biases getting in the way bc I like and write male love interests who mean well but can still fall into toxic behaviors

Regardless, Act 3 is where the narrative really comes into its own, and while I still prefer Act 1, it preferable to the safeness and predictability of Act 2.  It is completely unsubtle about the message it wants to send, and while I can’t fault it for it, that’s when the YA label really starts to show, my feelings about the YA genre could fill an entirely different post, but to explain what I mean about feeling YA  in the most simplest terms, well I would have absolutely adored it if I was younger, sometimes it may get cheesy or self-indulgent but I know if I was the target audience it would have shaken my entire worldview on what books could do and say.  And a lot of that is bc it caters to the adolescent appeal of fanfic, like the narrative could have ended two chapters before its true end, but it instead goes on what feels like a fan’s post-canon imaginings, which while a bit too sappy and simplistic for me, is the type of closure younger me would be starved for

So I am in an odd position, feeling on one hand almost betrayed for it drifting from the vision I found perfect, but also knowing it did so to be true to a vision younger!me would have needed, I guess the best way to describe it is that while Act 1 is still something I personally enjoy, the rest is something I more appreciate from an academic/impersonal perspective.  And while I can’t say I am completely satisfied to be there, I feel like maybe a high school girl who reads Frankenstein for her English class and falls for Elizabeth like I did may now be able to find others giving her the type of love she needs Elizabeth to get

[janiedean]

It really sucks how judgmental you and some people in this fandom are of anyone who doesn't interpret the text the same way as you or who you deem as intellectually inferior to you. I agree with so many of your ideas about the characters, but I hate how high and mighty you are about those ideas. Someone isn't an idiot if they interpret Jon or Cersei differently than you.

......

lmao

okay anon, thing is: one thing is being high and mighty, one thing is telling you that you’re not reading the text.

like. I read yesterday someone being like ‘omg I read someone dared saying C. abused people and murdered someone before puberty HOW STUPID CAN PEOPLE BE’. it’s textual evidence that a) she molested tyrion sexually and that’s even without taking account my opinion re lann*ncest, b) that SHE KILLED MELARA WHEN THEY WERE TWELVE THROWING THE POOR GIRL DOWN A WELL, which means that whoever said it cannot fucking read the text because it’s black on white that she did both those things and refusing to accept it is Not Reading The Text. that’s not even text interpretation, that’s basic textual reading.

now: never mind cersei who gets a pass for about every fucking shit she pulls because she’s a woman, and don’t tell me she doesn’t because if she got as much shit about robert’s fifteen bastards that she ordered dead without even blinking as theon got for two kids that he’s felt guilty about since it happened then we could discuss it but she doesn’t and that’s not even the beginning of it. now: do you see me tagging my opinions? like, honestly, if I think something shitty about cersei, do you see me tagging it? I didn’t even tag the one time I ranted about the valonqar prophecy with her, I only tagged it with the prophecy/meta/the two characters I thought were the v. and the younger and more beautiful queen, because in the middle I said that imo cersei only cares for herself and I know ppl on her tag aren’t into reading that opinion. so: I didn’t tag it. now: how many people came in my inbox informing me my opinion of c. sucked, was biased and so on never mind lann*ncest never mind actually harassing me for it? well, enough that I had to shut down anon to avoid feeling like shit for two days about it. so like, I’m so high and mighty that I keep my opinions about people I don’t like untagged even if I think that the other side can’t read. but okay.

now, about jonc: listen, fact is, there’s exactly ten people in this fandom that I know of who give a shit about jonc period and three of them are fanartists who show up once in a while. like. exactly TEN. I made peace with the fact that no one gives a fuck about jonc, I 100% embraced that if I want content I have to do it myself, fine, whatever. but what I’m really getting sick of is that every goddamned fucking time I see the jonc tag updating (as in, five times each month if it’s a good month), it’s someone informing us of how selfish, pathetic, useless and dumb he is FOR THINGS THAT ALL OF THEIR FAVORITE CHARACTERS ACTUALLY DO ALL THE TIME and for which fandom at large praises them. or something about how him being in love with R is the most horribly pathetic thing that’s happened to adwd, or how he’s an idiot because he apparently hasn’t understood that aegon is fake because his eyes aren’t the same color as R’s when not even dany’s or viserys’s are, but no one says they aren’t targs for THAT now, do they? and sorry but reading that this dude would treat either rhaenys or jon snow like shit when this is canon:

Last night he'd dreamt of Stoney Sept again. Alone, with sword in hand, he ran from house to house, smashing down doors, racing up stairs, leaping from roof to roof, as his ears rang to the sound of distant bells. Deep bronze booms and silver chiming pounded through his skull, a maddening cacophony of noise that grew ever louder until it seemed as if his head would explode. Seventeen years had come and gone since the Battle of the Bells, yet the sound of bells ringing still tied a knot in his guts. 

Others might claim that the realm was lost when Prince Rhaegar fell to Robert's warhammer on the Trident, but the Battle of the Trident would never have been fought if the griffin had only slain the stag there in Stoney Sept. The bells tolled for all of us that day. For Aerys and his queen, for Elia of Dorne and her little daughter, for every true man and honest woman in the Seven Kingdoms. And for my silver prince.

now: it’s there black on white that he feels guilty for BOTH elia’s and rhaenys’s death, it’s not interpretation, it’s what is fucking written in there same as you can’t interpret that ned’s head got cut or cat’s last thought before she died was about ned loving her hair. so excuse me but I’m tired of going into a character who’s in my goddamned top ten and have to always, always run into people assuming he’s a pathetic selfish asshole (and the one time I tried to argue that there’s no way he’s *selfish*, maybe all the contrary to a pathological degree, the answer was basically ‘lol cannot hear you’ and not even a reblog but nvm that) rather than actual content because any of those people who have a obvious hateboner for jonc can’t just fucking tag it with *anti* jon connington. no, they have to use the character name and it’s never *content*, it’s just this drivel over and over again. and since I don’t do it with characters I don’t like, I’d appreciate if I could have the same courtesy spared for this asshole.

that said, the situation is that *one* single person (that I blocked but that’s apparently not enough for tumblr to spare me from seeing them on the tag) has asked that question to multiple blogs which all agree on jonc being shitty which means that it has popped up on the tag a whole lot in the last month and like....... if you don’t like that character why do you care so much, IDEK, but wow, I wrote one post, that I tagged with the character only, saying that ppl don’t bother to read his chapters (btw, one of the people who replied that he’d have been shitty to both jon and rhaenys was someone I ended up blocking because they were on the tag like ‘lololol grayscale I’m sure elia is laughing from the afterlife’ and when I told them it wasn’t funny and if they could avoid tagging that stuff I got told to fuck off but fine I guess, that was me being holier than thou I suppose...) which is true because they don’t, they only base their reading of jonc on that ONE line about elia which is a) obv. proof he’s jealous, b) way less bad than anything cersei and barristan think about her just to say two but lmao I don’t see them getting dragged for it, but everything else? what? two full chapters? do they exist? tyrion’s chapers? never knew them.

like.

anon, tbqh at this point if you wanna think I’m holier than thou just think that because while I like to think I’m not, if there is one thing I know I’m good at is text analysis (okay, last time I said I got two degrees based on text analysis I got told ‘ah okay so if she studies she’s obv. bragging so she knows nothing’ by someone whose main theory was robb stark is the unsung villain of these books but lol I mean having studied this counts for nothing, right???) and it irks me that in a fandom based on books/text analysis I have to read **meta** which is obviously made by people who haven’t read the text and then when given a counterargument ignore it. but even with that, do you see me engaging with it? nah. I can 100% assure you none of the people I would like to see out of the jonc tag actually go on the jonc tag nor follow me, so they will never know that I think their opinion is shit unless they go looking for it. and this because I might have engaged with at least two of them on the topic once - and nicely, not *judgmentally* - and no one gave a shit or reconsidered their stance, so like, excuse me if once per month I write a post on my own blog venting about how imo a character I like gets a shit treatment.

and for the love of god, anon, sorry, glad you like my opinions, but the fact that you’re coming at me assuming I am judgmental when I come from a fucking month and a half of people literally harassing me on anon over my fucking triple-tagged opinions on c/ersei and lann/incest and ignoring anything I said about how uncomfortable it was making me just because I happened to, in the most generous explanation, WRITE A META WHERE I C/P-ED CANON QUOTES WHERE C. WAS AWFUL TO J. WHEN IT CAME TO HIS DISABILITY which GRRM wrote, certainly not *me*, and it happened to get reblogged by asoiafuni, is really, really rich.

like, I tagged that shit to hell and back so people who aren’t interested in jb wouldn’t find it, I made sure to warn every time, I even tag anti-c/antijc posts so they don’t show up on mobile search in case ppl don’t have the anti tag blacklisted because I’m THAT invested into making sure other people can blacklist if they feel like it, but I can’t fucking say on my blog that I think some people in this fandom pull their meta out of their asses and haven’t even read the chapters of the character they’re supposed to discuss? like... really?

also, I’ll tell you a secret: I don’t remember 90% of what happened in dany’s adwd chapters and I don’t remember about 60% of what happened in her got-asos chapters. zero. now: do you see me meta-ing about dany and/or discuss her arc if not in extremely broad terms unless asked? no, because while I don’t particularly like her, I also don’t think it’d be fair for me to meta about her BECAUSE IF I DON’T REMEMBER HER CHAPTERS THEN I’D BE PULLING OPINIONS OUT OF MY ASS, and I don’t go judging anyone’s opinion re dany beyond the basics because mine is that her chapters are so boring I can’t even remember them. at most I’ll discuss the show version and I can swear to you that even if I’m not a fan or anything I’m still more lenient with her than about 90% of people who aren’t fans, and since I don’t pull meta out of my ass for people whose chapters I haven’t read, I would be extremely grateful of the rest of this fandom paid jon connington the same damn bloody effort, especially when he has TWO of them and hating on him that way is like... why would you, just ignore his fucking existence and let us ten ppl into him have a decent tag.

btw, the ONE time I dared say on a post that wasn’t tagged to hell and back to avoid people finding it ‘it’s kind of hypocritical that people fight themselves over bi!CHARACTER headcanons *because asoiaf doesn’t have lgbt POV CHARACTERS* when they ignore jonc exist and he actually is an lgbt pov character so maybe it’d be nice if they cared about the rep’, I got someone like WELL HE ISN’T LGBT REP ENOUGH, and on the other side I’ve had people actually giving me shit for liking him/writing him content because I’m straight so how do I dare writing a gay dude, and like, idk, since I can’t like him in peace in that sense, can the universe allow me to at least not see bullshit on the tag or is that too much to ask?

and to end this rant: anon, not to be that person, but fyi I’m hardly the person who dictates how the wind flies in this fandom unless we count maybe theon/robb fandom as a ship, my opinions aren’t nearly as popular as opinions belonging to ppl who imvho don’t read these books and that’s fine, I don’t particularly care beyond cultivating my garden as voltaire used to say and see if anyone else wants to come and see the flowers and in case they’re more than free to take some, but like...... the idea that me expressing an opinion about the fact that people in this fandom don’t use the same standards when judging characters and some haven’t read the book or forgot it and assume they know anyway is somehow being high and mighty when I also don’t tag that shit 99% of the time (with jonc I do it just because I know no one but me and ten other ppl goes on that tag) when there’s people in this fandom who outright deny what’s written black on white and actually literally harass you on anon for it when I can 100% swear to you that the only times I’ve gone on anon in my entire life were for a) memes that required being on anon, b) sending people headcanon requests, c) sending people I ALREADY KNEW and who KNEW IT WAS ME personal things that I didn’t want ppl to attach to me because I don’t owe 100% of my life history to tumblr dot com and I always put my face to my opinions.

like, glad you like my opinions, but honestly, if you think this is me being judgmental, fair enough but maybe I’m also tired of having to read stuff that’s based on not having fucking read the book.

thank you.

[sonofhistory]

Hey! I really like your blog and you seem to know a lot about history - which I don't. Long story short: I love the musical Hamilton, wanted to read Chernow's biography and I find it horrible. The bias is INCREDIBLE, sounds like Hamilton founded the US all on his own not just once. Chernow's description of the Reynolds affair made every dead feminist spin in her grave. (in my opinion). Now please tell me - and I wrong? Is the biography that bad or am I just hyper-defensive?

Review on Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow

Bias: 1.5/5

Ron Chernow is an extremely biased author, especially in this biography. Instead of representing Alexander Hamilton’s triumphs and flaws he instead illustrates everyone against him as terribly people. A good biography would not bias the biography to fit the narrative of whom they are writing about and instead show both sides to an argument. Instead he shows Maria Reynolds as a stupid whore, Thomas Jefferson as a pompous asshole and doesn’t ever show any of his flaws–even when it is clear Hamilton was a fault. Newsflash, Alexander Hamilton was NOT an abolitionist.

Accuracy: 2.5/5

There are certain parts of my biography in which Chernow actually disrupts the historical narrative to further prove how amazing Alexander Hamilton is. He shows him as a fervent abolitionist and only mentions on one page in one sentence the *whispers* possiblity that Alexander Hamilton owned slaves. Alexander Hamilton owned one or two house hold slaves, he married into one of the richest slave owning family, he bought slaves for his family member and Chernow tries to say this was all against his will–seriously? Chernow doesn’t provide sources for some questionable parts and there is one thing that really stuck with me: he states Hercules Mulligan was part of the New York Manumission Society, what if I told you that this is 100% just a lie? The story about Martha Washington’s tomcat is also untrue and the Boston Globe stated the emailed Chernow multiple times to no answer. Let us also not forgot to mention the incorrect labeling on the William S. Hamilton picture. 

Entertaining: 4.5/5

I was tempted to give this book a solid ten on entertainment but I remember there were a few places where I lost my train of thought or concentration and slowly skimmed. I found some places giving me tears, some places that gave me chills and it was absolutely amazing entertainment. I am currently reading it for the third time and it is just as great as the first time I read it (thought I make too many angry side notes on the margins).

Writing: 4.5/5

Writing was good. Slow at some points. Used some… not appropriate language (light way of putting it). I loved how many anecdotes. 

Pacing: 4.5/5

I genuinely enjoyed the pacing which is nothing I say often. Slow at bits.

Calculated Average: 17.5/25 70% C-

Don’t read it | Don’t recommend it | Could be better | Good | Great | Excellent

Notes about the book:

Ron Chernow literally writes women in a pathetic manner.

[maiji]

Monks cheatsheet :D

Brain dump of everything I remember about the monks from the actual series, in the hopes that it will help others get to know them better (and put them in more fics and art yaaay!! lolll). You may have seen bits and pieces of these in my art posts/fics/ramblings over the years but now these fun facts are all (mostly) consolidated in one place! 

Note - where conflicts exist, I usually defer to the manga. That said the anime actually added a lot for these guys. 

Blah blah see more under the cut. 

Hokushin

Name meaning: Northern Deity

Ranking: S class

In a nutshell: Raizen, then Yusuke's right hand man. Polite speech, strategic, knightly, very loyal. (These are all totally facts!! I’m not biased! OK I am biased but they are still facts) You can insult him by questioning his integrity lol

Follows Raizen because fighting at Raizen’s side makes him happy.

How long he's known/served Raizen is unknown. However, he specifically says Raizen/Yomi/Mukuro have been in conflict for 500+ years, and that Raizen has not eaten humans for nearly a thousand years (Raizen confirms this later as “around 700 years ago” when talking to Yusuke). He doesn't seem to know Raizen's old friends, nor does he appear to know the actual reason why Raizen is starving himself.

The only monk confirmed to be a type of demon who needs to eat humans for nutrition (similar to Raizen). It’s indicated he only continues to do so because he has to fight in the conflict with the other kings, and that he wants to stop/will stop once it’s over.

Has the stretchiest body in the demon world - can reach out and grab a rock from 20 km away.

His weakness, discovered by Yusuke during training, is that he has a habit of extending his neck when dodging attacks and leaving his torso unguarded.

Doesn’t lie in delicate situations - instead, misdirects by leaving things out. Stops doing that with Yusuke after the latter punches him hard enough to break a normal person's neck 4-5 times over.

Wears a necklace of unknown origins under his clothing (filled-in black in the manga, green in the anime).

Can do cute little sleight-of-hand magic tricks (or generate small objects like toys and flowers, depending on your interpretation).

The last name Raizen says is his ("Take care of Hokushin and the others / I leave Hokushin and the others to you").

Is genuinely shocked at the idea of Yomi being willing to kill Shura, even more than Yusuke.

Touou

Name meaning: Eastern King

Ranking: A class

In a nutshell: The big muscular mountain of a demon with the default "110% done with you" expression. Seems gruff and kind of impatient and sarcastic.

Hokushin keeps telling him to not be rude. He does not talk back to Hokushin.

For whatever reason(s) a fic writer may conspire, he's the only one to accompany Hokushin on both missions out of Raizen's kingdom (to find, then to escort Yusuke).

Gets in trouble with Yusuke for suggesting Yomi and Shura in the same grouping is an advantage for them during the tournament. ***Note: in the anime, they make Hokushin repeat the same sentiment later and get in trouble again (which I ignore because it seems out of place)

Lower long-distance stamina than Hokushin (manga, he’s way more out of breath when they get to Raizen’s kingdom).

The anime gives him the entry number 0051 for the tournament (I dunno who’s gonna care, but I wrote this down lmao).

Stops Yusuke from getting blown away during the demonstration of power from Raizen's old friends.

Seizan (Seitei in the anime)

Name meaning: Western Mountain ("Western Emperor" in the anime)

Ranking: A class

In a nutshell: Eyes closed, thin, very calm/chill. (I realize he looks extremely displeased in the screenshot above, but everybody is pissed at Yusuke there.)

Along with Touou, accompanies Hokushin to the Human World to find Yusuke.

Collaborates with Hokushin a lot - in the manga, he and Hokushin appear to take turns challenging Yusuke’s position with his naive “everybody will fight for themselves, don’t strategize!!” tournament idea.

Prevents Hokushin from getting blown away during the demonstration of power from Raizen's old friends.

Nankai

Name meaning: Southern Ocean

Ranking: Unknown, but must be A class or lower. Likely one of the strongest/most loyal/important monks in the kingdom as he entered the tournament along with the other three. And also gets to sit at the front of the class with the other three when everyone is glaring at Yusuke.

In a nutshell: Youngest looking, expressive face, seems excitable and dorky, eyebrow game strong. Drawn the most inconsistently, but what are you gonna do.

Keeps yelling that they’re being invaded when Raizen’s old friends show up (this is an anime English dub-only modification, but it cracked me up the first time I heard it).

For some bizarre reason, his tournament badge number appears to be 0004 or 0009 (or possibly 0007), which makes no sense as such a low number should have gone to someone present at the initial meeting with Yusuke and Yomi. (I assume it’s the animation team giving up. The scene also flashes by so quickly, with Nankai standing right at the edge, so it’s impossible to catch unless you specifically pause at that part like the pathetic person I am)

[pieartsystuff]

Izuku and Unmitigated Communion [Self Sacrifice]

Inspired by this post by @explodo-smash​, I decided to write a post about something I've been mulling over for a few days: Izuku's self-sacrificial ways in terms of something called unmitigated communion.

What is it?

Unmitigated communion (UC) is a personality trait defined by "a focus on and overinvolvement with others to the exclusion of the self". Basically, caring so much about other's problems that you neglect your own needs. Communion is a personality trait that's about focus on connection with others. Unmitigated communion is that focus to an extreme, unchecked extent.

There are three aspects to UC.

Basing your self-esteem on others' perceptions of you

Being overinvolved in other people's problems

Self-neglect

(Quite a lot more) elaboration and images under the cut. Note that this only goes up to Chapter 99, because those are the chapters that I have the VIZ books for (I am caught up with the manga though).

IZUKU’S SELF ESTEEM People with UC are overly concerned with others' views of them, which is partly why they focus on others so much in the first place. Unmitigated communion (but not regular communion) means that whatever you think of yourself is determined by what others think of you.

Izuku has a very low self-esteem, most obviously in the beginning of the series. He shrinks into himself very easily when confronted or drawn attention to, especially by people like Bakugou. When people insult or speak negatively about him, he doesn't fight back because he thinks they're right.

Why? Because people have written him off his whole life for being quirkless. From his doctor, to his classmates, to his own mother, people have consistently told him that he could never be a hero - the type of person that he clearly values and looks up to most.

He looks for validation from others, and in his formative years he doesn't find it. When All Might also tells Izuku he can't be a hero, it absolutely wrecks him. Again, he doesn't protest or fight back. He just silently agrees. And the dream he's been tenaciously holding onto for 14 years, he's ready to throw away.

When All Might changes his mind and tells Izuku he actually can be a hero, Izuku literally cries from not only happiness, but relief.

In a similar pattern, when he thinks he hasn't gotten into UA, he immediately calls himself pathetic. He sees their negative judgement of him as a reflection of his own character. But as he is accepted, he automatically goes back to thinking well of himself.

This behavior, I will note, Is completely understandable and sympathetic. I wouldn't expect anyone who's been told this their whole life to act any different, especially not a young kid. But it's not healthy.

While communion is associated with positive feelings about other people, UC is not associated with any feelings, positive or negative. People with it tend to have imbalanced and problematic relationships with others, which brings me to my next point...

IZUKU AND OTHER PEOPLE

Izuku cares a lot about saving other people. A LOT.

People high in UC take helping behavior to an extreme. They are overly nurturing, intrusive, and self-sacrificing.

Notably, in the series this is not presented as a good thing from most characters' perspectives - except All Might's (most of the time), which I'll get to later.

Another aspect of UC is imbalanced relationships in terms of receiving and giving support. While people with UC love giving support, they tend to be uncomfortable with receiving it. There are several explanations for this, one of them being that UC people can feel like burdens when others help them, which stems from a view that other people are more deserving of help and support than themselves.

This doesn't seem to apply too much to Izuku, as he always seems grateful to receive support. However...

He is determined and pushes himself forward due to support from others. This is a good thing. But, sometimes, it seems a bit off to me. Like he's holding it over himself. Just receiving help isn't ok; he feels like he needs to prove to his supporters that he deserved it in the first place. Often that leads him to drive to succeed, of course. But when he doesn't succeed, he tears himself apart over it.

When people with high UC help others, Helgeson and Fritz (the authors of the paper that I'm referencing) argue that a large motivator for them is not simply to benefit the other person, but also to benefit themselves. Basically - they help others so they can receive rewards like others' praise or personal pride, or they help others to avoid punishment like others' disapproval or personal shame.

Interestingly, people with high UC actually feel worse if the person they're trying to help finds help elsewhere. They feel rejected and useless. This is most notably seen when Izuku is trying to hurt the League of Villains at USJ to save All Might, but is interrupted from his self-sacrifice by the other Pro Heroes arriving. He should be happy that things turned out alright, and yet...

IZUKU’S SELF NEGLECT

The last key aspect of UC is that people with it help in a way that hurts them. They willfully ignore and suppress their need for selfcare because they're trying to put others first. The paper mostly talks about how this causes general psychological distress, but with Izuku, the effect is much more extreme. Again, it's not seen as a good thing, but rather as what it is: a self-destructive, unhealthy, and unsustainable behavior.

ORIGINS

Why does Izuku act this way? He appears to naturally be a helping person - a person high in communion - since he reaches out to (and later tries to defend against) Bakugou even back when they were children. But why this extreme? Well, as stated, he starts with pretty low self-esteem. People often develop high UC from a sort of feedback loop - they realize that helping people means validation, which boosts their self-esteem. When they don't help people, they don't receive validation, which drops it. So they develop the need to help people in order to feel good, worthy, and happy.

The paper also mentions that another way a person can learn UC behavior is from watching it in others. And you know who else prides himself on self-sacrifice?

One of the people that Izuku has idolizes the most for his entire life.

All Might constantly compliments and admires Izuku for UC behavior. At first this is presented as the moral of the series - self-sacrifice, intrusiveness, and caretaking being what makes a true hero.

Izuku has certainly taken this dogma to heart.

But eventually this viewpoint is seen as biased. From Recovery Girl's comments to Gran Torino's, several people disagree with All Might and chastise him for teaching Izuku this mentality.

I don’t really know how to end this but this concludes my TED talk about Izuku’s extremely high unmitigated communion.

I hope you enjoyed!

Source is mostly A Theory of Unmitigated Communion by Vicki S. Helgeson and Heidi L. Fritz. A lot of the time I took quotes from the paper or only reworded them slightly.

Yes, I’m that big of a nerd.

[dudence-blog]

Dear Dudence for 13 February 2018

Wow, it’s been like a month.  I’d apologize but, honestly, I do think for fun and the time I spend reading, thinking, and writing had to come out of time spent with family, work, or school.  Also, I realized I needed there to be something in the NuPru source which made me go “ugh, that is just wrong.”  Maybe some Stockholm Syndrome has kicked in and I see her point of view on things I used to disagree with, and life is too short for me to get too wrapped around the axle about something written by a lesser advice columnist. So, with the non-apologetic apology it’s off to the letters.

I live in a condo that has a gym, which I frequent. Unfortunately, another gym rat in the building smells very bad. She might not care, or she might not even notice; I’m not sure. But the gym is small, and the stench is so unpleasant that it makes me cut my workout short. (We’re usually the only two there at the same time.) What’s the appropriate way to say something? Or should I just avoid confrontation and file a gentle complaint with the property manager?

Dear How do I Tell?  Do you want a condo war?  Because this is how you get a condo war.  The gym is one of the few parts of modern American life where the natural human funk can be reasonably expected to be tolerated.  I’m also impressed because you’ve managed to make something I thought was pretty sad: religiously working out at the apartment “gym” and make it even sadder.  Religiously working out at the apartment gym, and sharing it with someone who now really resents you.  I get it, some people can really get a good stink going on, or they might wear those fancy moisture-wicking fabrics which need a bit of extra cleaning to get the odor-causing bacteria out, or there might be some cultural differences in personal hygiene, or you could be frequenting the gym to spend 15 minutes on the ellipitcal’s lowest setting while she’s in there for an hour trying to find extra weight to put on the machines because they’re just not enough.  This is a conversation which has a 45-45 shot of either her being shamed into doing something to make her merely-normalish-stink or she goes to the mattresses on you.  The remaining 10% is that she either has a medical issue and she knows she stinks like that, which is why she uses the private gym where she lives and not a real gym, or she’s from France and you’re a racist for suggesting she stinks.

Well, the hard part is over. My boyfriend of two years and I are breaking up. It’s excruciating, because I love living with him. He is clean, polite, funny, a kick-ass cook, and handles conflict well. But that just makes it harder that he’s not very affectionate. He doesn’t share much of himself emotionally, or put his arm around me anymore, or initiate sex. I could almost have dealt with it, but when I told him I needed him to take sex more seriously or it would end the relationship, he didn’t make any changes.

Dear Breakup Lite, I’m really glad that you and your soon-to-be-ex have had such a mature break-up.  I know they’re hard, especially when they’re someone you care about, but when you’re incompatible on something as fundamental as… wait… I’m still reading your letter… wait… what… oh… oh no…. oh nonononononono honey… don’t tell me you… ohhhhhhhhhh.  Sweetie… listen… I really hate to be the one to break this to you, but your ex-boyfriend is going to make some other woman (or man, it’s 2018 afterall) very happy.  But your idea of “I’m going to let him go free to bang other people so he learns how to bang me better” is going to blow up in your face.  

I am a white woman married to a black man. We live in a mainly white town, and I grew up knowing racism was alive and well in our town. I have a few friends left from high school but have abandoned many due to their racist views. One of my friends, “Melissa,” has never said anything overtly racist in my presence, but every single man she has ever dated has been a racist who proudly shared his views on social media. She is now pregnant and is trying to reach out for support, as she is not with the father and doesn’t have many close friends or family. Meanwhile, she recently started dating another guy who posted racist comments on social media last week.

Dear Covert Racism, how hard-up for friends are you that you’ve remained friends with someone you think, covertly, is biased against your husband because of his race and are now trying to figure out how to exploit her desperation for support during a pregnancy where the father of the child has abandoned her to confront her about your your beliefs?  I mean, of all the ways “my racist friend dates racist men and she’s asking me for help,” could go I think I’m most surprised by “how do I explain to her that I think she’s racist?”  Are you going to blow off her request for support unless she recants?  Are you going to support her through her pregnancy regardless of her dating choices?  What sort of saint, or demon, decides “This chick is pregnant with another man’s baby, I’m going to date her,”?  But, you know what, one of my guiding principles as Dudence is that I answer the question asked.  And, to that end, you stop talking to Melissa about the racism of her boyfriends, but about how that makes her look to you.  You talk about how you condemn her boyfriends as racist, but you don’t talk about how you’ve told her that makes it look like she is one too by letting it slide.  Or, in her case, letting is slide in and out and in and out (OH!).  I’m sure the isolated pregnant lady will take your criticism to heart and will handle it with grace, aplomb, and will be thankful for your help.

I was a professional dancer for about six years before I was in a car wreck that ended my career. Since then I have married and now work at a nonprofit. I was contacted by a friend who introduced me to several gifted but underprivileged dance students. I saw myself in their talent and struggles. I have taken a few on as a personal instructor and coach. I do this on my own time and pay for it from my own pocket. When my sister-in-law heard I was teaching, she got it into her head that I should include her 7- and 8-year-old daughters for free because I am family. I told her no over the phone, and then she drove over with the girls in dance gear. I told her no again and refused to let her in the door. She threw a fit and since then has been blasting me over all social media and got the rest of my in-laws on her side.

Dear Private Lessons, your problem is ceding the narrative your sister-in-law.  Well, the root problem is your sister-in-law has an outrageous sense of entitlement, but let’s deal in tactics because it’s easier.  So now you are the selfish monster who isn’t willing to help your own kin while giving yourself freely to strangers.  You have two allies in this fight and it is time you called in whatever favor you have with them.  First, you say you’re close to your mother-in-law, and even if her discussion with you was supporting her daughter, it is a reasonable tone and there is room for discussion with her on it.  Explain to your mother-in-law your reasons for who and why you’re teaching.  If you need to embellish it a bit by over-stating the time commitment you’re making then do so.  Or, and I like this option, figure out how much you’d charge for the lessons you’re providing, increase it by 50% because that is the premium you charge to mix business and family, and then double that because your sister-in-law is a bitch and that’s your “bitch” surcharge, and inform her you’ll happily give your nieces lessons.  Do like Neil Gaiman and charge enough to make it worth your while.  Sorry, I got off on a tangent here.  So, back to your mother-in-law.  What you want to do is at least get her to see reason, understand your position, agree it’s a reasonable stance and that she’ll at least get the rest of the family to back off.  And if she doesn’t come around to your point of view you’re no worse off.  Your other ally, and the one you need to be willing to go nuclear, is your husband.  Is he so far off the grid he’s unable to get internet at all?  Because if he’s not you need to get him into whatever Facebook group your in-laws are using and tell them to shut the fuck up because this situation is not your fault; he supports you completely, and his sister is off the fucking path causing this drama.  

I have been involved with a man for almost a decade. He is wonderful to me, extremely loving and attentive, and even helps me with projects around the house. We see each other several times a week, vacation together twice a year, and have a great time when we are together. We plan a future together. The problem? He is married. His wife left him for another man, which is when we got involved. She came back after she was dumped by that guy and begged to be taken back. She promised she would be kinder to him and even get a job to help out around the house, but she didn’t. She mainly sits around the house and watches TV. My guy doesn’t kick her out because he has a heart of gold and she literally has no friends and nowhere else to go, and if they divorced she would get half of his net worth. Plus, he obviously has a lot of freedom.

Dear I Should Feel Bad, I don’t think you should feel bad about what you’re doing.  You’re not the one violating wedding vows after all.  I think you should feel a bit bad that you’re getting played like a fiddle.  You want to bang some married dude, you go on with your bad self.  You want to be some guy’s Nobody, you do you.  You want to be Linda Davis to Reba McEntire, it’s a free country.  But you need to do it aware of what you are, and I don’t think you are.  Being independent and self-sufficient doesn’t make you immune to played.  He has not spent 10 years married to this pathetic, friendless, helpless woman out of the kindness of his heart, nor out of fear of losing half his wealth.  Don’t feel bad that you’re someone’s mistress; it’s a position (snicker) with a glorious history.  Feel bad that you don’t recognize that you’re a side piece.

My sister-in-law cannot control her daughter “Ally.” Her father died a few years ago, and since then Ally has made it her mission to make everyone around her as miserable as possible. She started sleeping around at 13, had an abortion at 14, and got pregnant again at 15. She has no clue who the father is. She had the baby, only to abandon him and run away for a month. She has been suspended and failed so many classes that her education level is of a seventh-grader at 16.

Dear Niece my heart breaks at this story.  That there is the teasing possibility of a happy ending, but the knowledge that there are so very, very many ways it can go completely sideways, and it being a story with no villains.  So, let’s go ahead and get to answering your question.  First, you have to accept this might be a situation where you can’t get it through to your husband.  It’s his sister’s daughter; his own blood.  He could very well believe that he can be a moderating influence in Ally’s life, or, at the very least, alleviate some of the burden on his sister by taking some of the stresses she’s feeling off her plate.  So, after you’ve established for yourself whatever boundaries you need, and the consequences for violating them, I really think you only have one course of action.  You need to pull your spousal privilege card and say “no.”  You can make a rational appeal to your husband; Ally is just going to be able to get into different kinds of trouble, you’re not able to give her the support she needs, etc etc, but it’s running into a buzzsaw of a brother wanting to help his sister.  I don’t like that course of action because it’s got a high risk of, undeservedly, making you the bad guy.  But if your husband is otherwise set to do this then I don’t see any other option.  Now, if you’re open to being persuaded that Ally isn’t beyond help then may I suggest your husband goes to his sister and Ally for a bit and see what is going to be involved in taking her in, but in her own environment.  If your husband’s influence is going to be a positive in her life, it will be so whether she’s in her mother’s home or yours.  And, maybe, your husband getting some first-hand experience dealing with her in a guardian way will disabuse him of what he’s capable of offering, or will assuage you that it is a course of action which can work.  Regardless though I think it would be good for all parties involved for you to not write off a grieving child as hopelessly broken at 16.

I got pregnant as a teenager and gave the child up. The child is now grown and knows who I am. We don’t have much of a relationship; his family is his family. But that’s not exactly my problem. When the situation was fresh, I was quite open about it. However, as time has passed, and I’ve moved away from the friends that were close to me when the trauma was occurring, I have less desire to talk about my teen pregnancy and subsequent failure at parenting. As I’ve grown into myself, I’ve decided against starting a family. I haven’t told anyone about the child (now an adult) in almost a decade.  I’m in my late 30s now and am trying to date after taking many years to focus on myself. I’ve moved far away from “home,” started a new career, and am getting to a decent place. The problem is my naked body.

Dear Childless with Stretch Marks, have you tried banging doggy style?  Sorry, that was trite but it really was the first thing that came to mind when you said you don’t like exposing your abdomen during sex.  I’m really shocked that BadPru got through two paragraphs of response to you without once suggesting you see a therapist.  Because, honestly, it sounds like your situation is one where the services of such a professional would be valuable.  A very important part of a generally healthy life is being cut-off to you because of how you feel about something which transpired two decades ago.  This is an issue which calls for the help of someone with skills beyond “Failed Humor Website Founder” or “Dude Whose Muse is Hate-reading a Failed Humor Website Founder”.  You might might find that spending some of your cosmetic surgery money on someone who can help you deal with the emotional issues surrounding your feelings about yourself will go a long way to help you deal with the cosmetic issue the surgery was to address.  

[kokeggy]

my brain is filled with ouma and i cant stop it

i totally forgot the time man, its almost been 2 months since i played the game and it totally didnt feel like that at all

i still can recall a ton of things fluidly and as for now i dont see a particular reason to replay the game (other than wanting to get to know ouma better) 

but oumas character is just.. so tragic. i cant even begin to explain the depth of his character, it would be pages long and im way too lazy for that. ill always just write mental drafts and let myself feel when it comes to ouma

ill a cut here since its already a bit long rn lmao

and i think ouma is a character who is deeply troubled by his insecurities/possible mental illnesses (such as bpd or servere depression) in a way that these insecurities are his most memorable characteristics. that is absolutely sad and tragic

furthermore since the moment i started to play this game i always thought it was suspicious that ouma claimed he hated liars even tho he was one himself. sure that couldve been one of his lies, but my intention rlly didnt like this idea so i thought he was actually speaking the truth. i realized today that ouma was hinting at shuichi that he hated this persona that he had to create for the sake of this game

but i do agree that i sometimes tend to overthink ouma lmao while is incredibly intelligent, he couldnt have figured everything out, plus his trust issues and paranoia were in the way of looking into every possible situation. yet i somehow believed that he did a lot of stuff while being completely aware of their consequences - but thats not possible. ouma is not a superhuman who can figure out what happens to the world in [insert year]. hes a character with deep flaws which balances his cunning behavior 

to his actual personality, i might seem like the most biased person in the world but i truly believe that ouma didnt want to harm anyone. its just that the killing game... happened lol

as far as i can self-insert, i do believe if i happen to be in a killing game i would be quite similar about it. minus the creating a fake persona thing for me its absolutely impossible to trust 15 people whom i just met that they wouldnt kill me under stress. you know, if you activate the right buttons on someone, they can work how you want them to. and this is what feared ouma (rightly so)

anyways i take the anthologies as canon material since theyre approved and licensed by spike chunsoft, and we obviously see that ouma is nowhere near as antagonistic as he was in the game. although, i only have read the first anthology (also while we are at it, i cant wait to buy the thjree v3 anthologies even without knowing japanese, lulz)

but we also see his character actually getting darker and darker with each chapter, with chapter 4 probably taking the point. esp on when it ended. at first i was kind of conflicted about his oversentimal reaction towards gonta being executed, because that felt just as fake as his overly evil presentation afterwards. altho after some time thinking abt this, i came to the conclusion that he just leaked a little bit of his juicy true self(tm), realized that what he meant was actually genuine and then proceed to vent his emotions in making him seem like the most villainous person u ever met. because i think one of the reasons ouma acted out like is because he believed he was at fault for gontas death. so instead of trying to sweet talk yourself, he just took the oppurtunity to make him the least likeable person. cuz who would ever want to like someone who jokes about genuinely being concered about someone dying? yeah no one dude

also i think ouma is ironically a bit well-mannered (yeah guis im not joking here). ..  .if we ignore all his stupid pranks.. so you see, whenever i got rejected after dates with ouma in salmon mode.. it went like this for example “eeh, wow you are going to the libary with me and now you want to leave? that hella rude man, why am i wasting my time like this” or “wow you really must think highly of yourself if you think you are worth changing for, how arrogant”  which looks like he knows what is appropriate and what not

i remember what he said that and i suddenly went like “shit i cant believe im hearing this from you man” which was kinda funny as a side note btw

anyways, to his motive video. oh shit, his motive video . . . even without having known how messed up the translation was, that damaged me.-.. i mean i always thought that ouma exaggerated the size of his organization, at some poiint i just thought that his entire organization was a lie and his tru talent was the ultimate liar. which obsly wasnt the case lmao 

but his motive video.. just wanting to prank ppl for laughs and entertainment. its so light hearted compared to what he claimed it to be that it hurts another thing that i think is worth noting is that DICE was his motive video, not his family. DICE, who is like family. but not his actual family. what does that mean? does that mean that his actual family wasnt like family to ouma? i sure as hell thought so and i still do 

a different thing is that ouma said that nobody would care about him dying and that his organization would be better off without him, plus that it seems that monokuma said that ouma knows what happened to DICE in the motive video which leads me to.. uhh.. what if ouma did something he absolutely regretted doing (since it caused DICE trouble?) - but im not entire set on that theory

its also sad that he constantly had to hint about hiimself instead of just talking abt it to shuichi. like, he wanted shuichi to help him or actually even hinder him at carrying out his plan, he low key hoped for it because shuichi is a detective which showed to be shrewd enough to be able to make proper deductoins in class trials, furthermore he isnt a dick towards ouma and actually respects him in a way. something that ouma most likely didnt calculate

which mades the statement that shuichi said in the end of chapter 4 even more painful. shuichi was the only person that ouma kind of trusted and relied on. and prob the only one he wanted to show his true self to, that very person told him hes 5 ever alone with no friends at all. that hes a pathetic little brat who should start to view the world differently (def not what shuichi said 1:1 but.. yeah idk my own interpretation) 

im pretty sure that hurt ouma a lot 

hnnng, i truly wished for ouma to be one of the survivors. altho i figured that hes gonna plot something absolutely mind blowing in chapter 5, i seriously couldnt believe that he was actually dead... well, not until the closing argument. as soon as there were the words “closing argument” all over my screen i began to cry like an idiot. i couldnt even read properly man, thats just how blurry my vision was from all the tears

in other hand: i was (and still am lol) extremely attached to ouma and his death was very unsatisfying, since he died quite heroic but nobody considered him so. also he never made up with these ppl. also fuck kodaka