#and i am also extremely and pathetically biased about him

[maximura]

I just want to say that Ni-Ki's voice sounds fucking insane through my house's sound system. The bass, bitch, damm that sounds so full bodied and resonant ughh. That was worth whatever it cost me. And no, I do not think it sounds the same when I play through streaming services for some reason.

[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 😇

[sassysnowperson]

Okay having been the even slightest bit enabled by @musicalsobachka and @supernovafourleafclover commenting on my musing Gerard/Elody coming back together thoughts, I kept musing and went, but who would Elody talk about her very frustrating crush with? I don't want it to be Gerard himself, part of the whole thing is that they both need more friends!

And then my brain gave me the funniest possible answer, and I had to write out a lil bit of it:

"It's a bad idea, right?" Elody leans backwards, her palms pressing into sun-warmed grass. She heaves a sigh and looks at the sky. "I know it's a bad idea. We were bad at being married. We're great at being friends. But I just keep thinking...he's a good guy now. He's my best friend, and he's right there. Why am I still looking? But that's how everything went wrong before. It'd go wrong again, right? Just safer not to go there."

"I think that I am literally the worst person in the world you could have this conversation with." Rapunzel looks down at her scone, put off her appetite by the direction of the conversation. "Please go talk to one of your softer-hearted friends."

"You won't bullshit me," Elody looks from the sky, back to Rapunzel, with the frank, honest smile that Rapunzel appreciates and envies and worries about in equal measure. Good-hearted heros and their big, dumb hearts that they never adequately protect. Then her friend, normally so sensible, continues, "You're not biased."

Rapunzel nearly snorts her scone out her right nostril. "He killed me and ate my corpse. I heavily implied you only fell in love with him out of pity. I'm extremely biased!"

"So just tell me it's a terrible idea and that I should move on!" Elody growls out, frustration evident on every feature.

Ah. So Elody was looking for a reason to not want this. Which meant that she actually did want it. Quite a bit. Concerning.

"He," Rapunzel says, snarling every syllable like a knife slice, "is a soppy wet pathetic rag compared to your magnificence." Then she heaves out a sigh, sending her anger with it. "And he tried to come back for you. In the castle, when we ran them out. Almost died doing it." Rapunzel runs her fingers through her short hair. "He never stopped loving you. He's still a trash pile of a person," she hastens to add. "But if you're into that, he's into you."

Elody blinks. "That wasn't...what I expected you to say."

"I know," Rapunzel says. "But I won't be your excuse. You are the only person who can decide what's good for you." And that's enough emotion for the moment. She picks up a bit of her mangled scone and throws it at Elody's head. "That's for making me contemplate the concept." Rapunzel gives a dramatic shudder. "Waste of a nice summer day."

"My apologies," Elody snorts, shaking her head. "Consider the matter dropped." She looks back up at the sky, frowning a little in thought.

Rapunzel watches her friend watch the sky. Elody could do better. But...there are worse things than someone who adores you. And Rapunzel is done being the spider perched in the middle of a web. Elody can make her own choices.

The slight breeze ruffles Rapunzel's short hair, and she finds she's smiling, as she also turns her gaze to the sky.

[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.

[reflectionlike]

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.)

[mangataonegdaj]

Mun, whats your opinion on FMA 03 vs FMA:B? Do you like one better? Do you like them both? I would like to hear your thoughts!

first off – i apologize , anon , for not getting to this ask sooner . i had an exciting last weekend of summer at the beach , i started work again this week , and i started a class for my master’s degree . i am only just now able to get to this .

secondly – though i enjoy both 03 and brotherhood, in my personal opinion i find the 2003 original series vastly superior for a plethora of reasons, the most biased (though not most important) one being that fma 03 was my first anime, and i watched it when i was twelve years old. it was world-shattering for me ( in a good way , if that makes sense ) and never before had i watched something like any sort of series in which a character i knew and loved so dearly straight up died . it pierced me right through the heart and has towered above other series ( even others with title/main character death ) .

however , more detailed reasons ( an abbreviated list ) fall below…

* I LOVE THE MANGA-DIVERGENT STORY after episode 25 ( which roughly aligns with episode 6? of brotherhood ) . it wasn’t just some garbage thrown together willy-nilly it was carefully executed, carried harsh messages, and contained mature thematic material . it wasn’t crack or a waste of space

* i find 03 to be more of a “brotherhood” than anything … you have ed and al, russel and fletchr, rick and leo, scar and his brother, and so many unique stories revolve around all these brotherly relationships … including scar wishing to tell his brother he loved him in spite of everything , having been inspired by ed and al’s bond.

* i found hughes’ death more suspenseful and the entire build up/during of that scene. envy didn’t change back into his default form after shooting hughes as gracia and laughing, hughes (though not portrayed to have obvious/assumed experience taking a life) doesn’t hesitate to slash envy’s throat open whereas in brotherhood he freaked out. 

* 03 hughes has more screentime like hello i would appreciate that blessing of a man more in my life?

* episode 25 was extremely personal ; roy contemplating human transmutation and taking his own life , demonstrating that hughes was there in his weakest moments . brotherhood didn’t quite get that ring

* 03 features roy directing his vengeance for hughes’ death on not only envy but pride (03 pride, that being bradley) as well, but in a far more subtle way considering the hand he played in his best friends’ death was from afar. in brotherhood it’s as though the entire focus is on envy and nothing else in the constructed corruption in the military . it was a subtle take and i appreciate such subtlety

* 03 ed gets shit on for no character development even though there’s a scene when he straight up acknowledges how he’s grown and changed ?? but how he admits to weakness as well . he grows from immature and selfish to mature and selfish including realizing revenge against tucker was unnecessary , only after he went through much soul-searching and reflection . ed’s “growing up” is recognizing that revenge doesn’t solve anything about his own selfish impulses and tucker was better left to his own shitty , pathetic fate . 

* protags straight up sacrifice their lifelong goals ( roy going after bradley and ed stopping his act as the military’s dog for al’s sake ) isn’t something i usually see . roy and ed verbally acknowledge how similar they are for these reasons. “ there is always something more important than yourself and your dreams “

* also roy fucking put his left hand out for ed to shake it after thinking about saluting with his right . his left hand .

* 03 art with the deep shadows , harsh light , and hard lines is so much better like in my opinion brotherhood is actually … really ugly ? lskjdkjf there was no nice way for me to say that . brotherhood’s art was 100% faithful to arakawa’s art style but it Did Not translate well into animated form from paper . the art of 03 was better than the art of many anime even today .

* honestly i like that roy was the one ordered to kill winry’s parents instead of scar having done it… roy hesitating to attack ed because he saw a flashback of an ishvalan child soldier he had to kill when given the issue of extermination was a good subtle push for the audience to see his ptsd

* the morally ambiguous and controversial themes i feel like were delivered better in 03… nothing is black and white and soldiers ( fan favorites guys ) committed worse atrocities than the people we love to hate like shou tucker and it holds soldiers responsible for their actions even if there’s regret.

* um the desert-dwelling people in brotherhood are pasty ass white people… meanwhile in 03 they actually have dark skin / hair / eyes

* perfect commentary on racism and imperialism-realistic psychology of characters

* i prefer 2003 homunculi origins and how they’re capable of being killed / their weaknesses. also 2003 sloth is superior.

* 2003 lust and sloth are total foils yet are both extremely feminist and sympathetic villains. good female characters all around, and rose turns out to be the strongest of them all, willing to lead and stand for her people with her actions even after being raped and bearing the child of an amestris soldier ( partially a message showing actions speak louder than words and partially a relation back to ed’s message to her of saying “ you have two strong legs, get up and use them ” )

* back to ed’s development , he’s complex and realistic and relatable . he has as much growth to do as any 15 year old

* the show is beyond thought-provoking ( again reminder i was twelve when i first watched this i got my world flipped upside down and everything was spinning after episode 49 though maybe that was because of the spinny room during dante’s monologue… ) and it makes you question your own metacognitions + shows you it’s okay to be wrong + life is full of morally gray encounters

* 2003 has better symbolism in many aspects

* amazing music through the whole series

* scar’s character development good lord

* the fight between og greed and ed in which ed actually kills greed and the trauma that weighs on him after he does so ( especially because greed more or less withheld information from ed ( he was already weakened ) and ed was 100% sure he couldn’t actually kill greed )

* i preferred dante as a villain to father just because of her philosophy but father was ok i guess

* brotherhood didn’t really have it’s characters recover from trauma as clearly / if at all imo

* ed and winry together was super duper forced imo and shoved down my throat for days from everyone and their brother . winry’s character got a nuke dropped on it during briggs arc imo ( even tho i love the briggs arc exclusively because of olivier )

* 03 did some things badly but brotherhood did more and worse

this all said 03 isn’t without it’s flaws ( see last point ) but there’s ?? so much more life in the os than brotherhood in my opinion . and it’s brought about in so many ways , both bold and subtle .

also episode 37 exists .

[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

[theotherjudas]

A few words on Believer

Like many of you, I’ve just watched the HBO’s documentary Believer (2018). For those not in the know yet, this film follows Imagine Dragons frontman Dan Reynolds as he organizes the (first) Loveloud music festival in Utah. Reynolds, a “born-in-the-covenant” Utah-native mormon, served a mission for the LDS church before beginning his music career. A massive blow to his faith came when he became aware of the suicide epidemic in Utah among mormon kids, and most especially among LGBTQ youth. 

Now. I will state first and foremost that the documentary moved me. Reynolds is an extremely talented, loving, earnest guy. He is clearly trying to do what is right. And at the end of the day, isn’t that most we can hope and expect of anyone in life? The experiences shared by members of the mormon LGBTQ community, their families, and friends/ allies touched me profoundly. Accounts of mental illness, societal pressure, struggles with perfection, depression, and suicide, while carrying a significant portion of the film’s heft, by no means overwhelm the viewer. So, I am imploring you: watch it (if you feel healthy and stable enough to do so) and think about it. And yet, I feel strongly that the message conveyed by the documentary overall is dangerously - fatally -  flawed. 

I will cop (briefly) to my own biases before explaining why. I am a gay ex-mormon man. I left the church when I was eighteen, after coming to the realization some 2-3 years previously that the church’s doctrines and history didn’t stand up to scrutiny. I don’t like being lied to. I didn’t even know I was gay until I left. That is to say, I always knew, but I stamped those feelings and thoughts so far down inside (turn it off!) that I had plausible deniability. I have struggled with anxiety and depression (including suicidal ideation) for over a decade and while I can’t lay all the blame for this at the church’s feet (genetics, home life, messed up brain chemistry, societal conditioning, etc.) I KNOW that had I stayed in the church, there’s a good goddamn chance I wouldn’t be alive today. 

Obviously, the topic of how the church relates to the LGBTQ community is dense and thorny, with a history fraught with so much pain and bad intentions. I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But this is something I feel with all my being: 

THE CHURCH IS THE PROBLEM. 

In Believer, Reynolds receives a formal statement from the church during the lead-up to the Loveloud festival. In it, the church claims that they “applaud” the concert for being uplifting and bringing people together with a positive message of love. This comes, by the way, after months of struggling to get sponsors or traction or attention for the festival in LDS-controlled Utah. Reynolds, reading the church’s statement live on camera, is overwhelmed with joy. It’s a step, he says. But the second he read it, a little flag went up in my head- wait for the other shoe to drop. 

And drop it did indeed. A few months later, at General Conference (2017), Dallin H. Oaks (those familiar know where this is going...) stood before the assembled world of mormonism and in no uncertain terms re-upped the LDS’s church stance against homosexuality. Specifically, he invoked the two-decades old Proclamation to the Family (The Family: A Proclamation to the World, 1995). Oaks is notorious even among TBMs for being far right-wing in his social and political stances. Selecting him to voice this message to the membership is all you need to know. Reynolds recounts what a devastating sight this conference address was for him - I’m sure it felt like a slap in the face, a rejection of all he’d worked so hard for. 

With all camaraderie and respect for Mr. Reynolds, I say: how the FUCK did you not see that coming??? 

THE CHURCH LIES. 

If there’s one thing the church does, it’s survive. The LDS church has a Public Relations machine the likes of which are employed only in the highest echelons of politics and corporate business. Over the past century it has rehabilitated the church’s public image from that of a dangerous outlaw anti-American cult to that of a loving, wholesome if quirky, good-traditional-christian-values group. The church makes NO change unless public sentiment and pressure mount so high they risk losing members. One need only study the most superficial accounts of the elimination of polygamy (19th century) and the priesthood ban (20th) for this to become evident. 

Of course, Mr. Reynolds, the church wasn’t going to challenge you publicly! That’d be bad press. They couldn’t control the narrative. You had the first word, the upper hand... and you let it slip away. They’ll say whatever they need to say to avoid the issue, and then turn around and make life a fucking hell for their LGBTQ members. And anyone else they find distasteful. 

Ultimately, I think it’s better to have this documentary than not. Despite its highly conciliatory tone toward the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints throughout, it offers an insight into some real issues. And YES! Famous mormons like Reynolds and Tyler Glenn (of the Neon Trees, who also played Loveloud) ought to use their voices to stem the tide of young blood spilling from the bodies of Utah’s children. WE HAVE TO STOP THE SUICIDE EPIDEMIC. THAT IS PRIORITY ONE. 

That said, I wish wish WISH someone would have acknowledged the real problem: the church is a lie. It is a fraudulent organization built on a fiction and a conman’s charisma. Change it all you like, reform it, reshape it. It doesn’t matter. You can shine a turd all you like, as they say... The church is rotten to the core. The church is killing children. And they refuse to stop it. Websites, a few kind words, and some half-hearted concessions to basic human rights are a but pathetic band-aid: flimsy and liable to be swept away in the rancid pool water of old doctrine.  WE HAVE TO STOP TRYING TO CHANGE THE CHURCH. WE MUST DESTROY IT. 

My LGBTQ brothers and sisters aren’t killing themselves because the church tells them they’re evil for loving people they’re “not supposed to.” They’re doing it because the church is an organization of control and they happen to BE something the church can’t control... and thus feels it must crush out of existence. 

I respect the approach Reynolds and his ilk are taking in dealing with the single issue of suicide. Please please please keep up the good work! But while we all rally to that cause, let’s burn this motherfucking cult to the goddamned ground. 

[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.

[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)