#and i didn't save any of my original posts again and now i'm completely out of inspiration

[ereinii0n]

The one annoying thing about setting up the blog again is recreating the perfect blocklist from scratch, seeing all the PaliNazi trash that was safely quarantined before, in the Jewish tags anew.

🇮🇱

[amnestria-the-elf]

So we're all just supposed to be fucking grateful that Larian gave us "new Wyll content" (evil ending for a man who is canonically incorruptible, what the fuck) and simultaneously broke him again (giving low approval greetings to a romanced PC, what the fuck).

I... I just... the simultaneous feelings of rage and utter hopelessness are overwhelming.

Listen, if you've read any of my posts you know I have a pretty clear "Don't yuck anyone's yum" policy. If you think an evil Wyll ending is interesting, fine. But here's why it falls flat for me.

First, like I said above, Wyll is canonically incorruptible. It's literally the entire basis of his character. He is a man who was coerced into making an infernal contract to save a city and had to pay a horrible price for doing so, then spent seven fucking years alone in the wilderness doing his damned best to protect the people of the Sword Coast, while all along telling his horrible, abusive patron to just fuck off already.

Now, could you argue that during the events of the game, Wyll develops a taste for evil? Sure. There are plenty of opportunities for his villain origin story to unfold. But they never do. His moral compass never wavers. Turned into a devil? He feels shame, because it's an outward sign that he was doing things for Mizora that were morally wrong, and he didn't see it before. His approval rating for the PC shoots through the roof if you save Karlach, a sure indicator of his true moral compass. His father kidnapped? Fuck that noise, we're gonna save him. Rescue Zariel's "asset"? Ugh, fine, but don't get distracted from the real reason we're here. His father gets tadpoled? Oh hells no, we're gonna take down these assholes and save the godsdamned world. His father accuses him of being an agent of a devil and is super pissy about it? "Everything I did, I did for the people of the Sword Coast."

For fuck's sake, he will leave the party if the PC gets too evil, even knowing it means he'll probably turn into a mindflayer immediately. Even if he's romancing the PC. Unwavering moral compass. So giving him an evil ending without also going back and changing everything about his character just feels like lazy writing to me.

Which brings me to the second reason all of this rubs the wrong way. Wyll deserves so much more content. More romanced greetings, more reactions to other characters' choices, a final boss battle that is actually about him, a default ending that actually makes fucking sense (I have another post cooking about the Avernus ending, so I will leave it for now.)

And please, spare me your "But Wyll was rewritten after early access" bullshit. That's Larian's problem. They chose to listen to feedback and do a late-stage rewrite. They then chose to implement it poorly and never fucking fix it. Other characters, who already have far more content than Wyll, have had even more added over the course of the seven released patches. Wyll, on the other hand, has been sitting around completely ignored until now when we get this evil ending.

Many have rightfully pointed out the inherent racism steeped in all of this. I want Larian to be better. But as Maya Angelou said, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them." I already didn't have much hope about Patch 7 for Wyll, but this... honestly, this is worse than him just being ignored again.

The thing that kills me the most is that this is just going to be more fodder for the fandom to completely mischaracterize Wyll, for those who already haven't bothered to think critically about his character at all to just be like, oh, cool, Wyll is evil now. Nope. You've completely missed the point.

I'm just... so tired. I've worked very hard to put this little bubble of Wyll enthusiasts around me (hi friends I love you all!) so that I can hold on to some shred of sanity in this fandom. The world needs heroes of color. Just let Wyll be the hero in peace.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi , miss Raven

Their is something has been on my mind for while ;

In rook suitor suit vignette he Compose a flattering poem about Crowley

While Ace and Epel was talking about how rook would compliment anyone , rook insisted that he mean every word he say .

And there's this specific weird line

"if it weren't for your presence , I wouldn't be here"

Like what do you mean?????!!

Do you think this line is hinting at the fact that rook didn't join NRC via traditional way or he wasn't chosen by the dark mirror , since he is one of the light trio

Or To the fact that he transferred to another dorm smoothly without any problem?

For some reason I started suspecting rook recently 😭

The fact he was one of the reason vil overbloted by convincing him to watch neige performance and also he is the one who convinced vil to add Ace and deuce as part of VDC team while I thought lilia and cater was a better option

I would like to hear your opinion about it 👀

Ah, so if I'm understanding you correctly... You're theorizing that Rook might be an outside agent of some kind? One that Crowley intentionally brought into NRC to facilitate triggering overblots??

I’ll try to respond to one question at a time; hopefully this will make it easier to follow along! The post got quite long, so it's all below the cut~

Beginning with Rook’s poem, and, more specifically, “If it weren’t for your presence, I wouldn’t be here”. It’s funny that you mention this line, because when the vignette first came out (in JP; the terminology used is similar to “I would not exist/be here”), people interpreted it VERY literally. As in… “Rook is Crowley’s son because he literally could not be conceived without a father! They’re even both named after birds! They have to at least be blood related somehow!” Strange how in 2020, Crowley was suspected of being Rook’s father but now in 2024 Crowley’s being suspected of being Malleus’s father. The poor headmaster just can’t catch a break 😂

Personally, I don’t think that line is implying anything strange about Rook’s enrollment. As far as we know, he did not join NRC though any abnormal means, and nor did Silver. Of the “light trio” (a label that I must stress exists within the fandom but is not endorsed by TWST), only Kalim fits the bill. Kalim was originally homeschooled, but received an acceptance letter to NRC a month into the school year. Another month later, he transferred in. As far as we know, all students at NRC (save for Yuu and Grim) were chosen by the Mirror of Darkness, even the light trio. Again, I want to emphasize that TWST does not use “light trio” or a similar term to refer to or to characterize Kalim, Silverc and Rook. We’ve gotten no formal in-universe explanation as to why those three in particular have light cosmic magic instead of everyone else’s dark cosmic magic. (This is entirely separate from meta theories, which are out-of-universe explanations for why the “light trio” exists. The popular meta explanation is that it’s because Silver, Kalim, and Rook are not twisted from Disney villains but rather “good” characters like Aurora, the Sultan, and the Huntsman.)

On the subject of transferring dorms, the option is always on the table. We see mob students talk about transferring dorms as early as 1-14:

In 6-67 (part 20 with the Pomefiore group), Vil describes the transfer process as being tedious and involving a lot of “complicated paperwork and ceremonies”. Crowley also says the process is “burdensome” in 1-20, but this phrasing is quite vague and could mean any number of things. (Burdensome to whom, the staff or the students? Why exactly is it burdensome?) Overall, it seems like transferring dorms would take a long time and require various formalities, but not necessarily be full of problems.

As long as you’re dedicated and consistently complete what is asked of you to complete the process, transferring should be no issue. I don’t think it’s a given that you’d normally experience troubles in trying to transfer. It should be smooth by default (unless the student backs out, is uncooperative, and/or fails to complete the required steps). So following that logic, I don’t think the poem line is saying anything about Rook’s dorm transfer either.

While it’s true that Rook encourages Vil to watch Neige’s performance and advises that Vil pick Ace and Deuce for the VDC/SDC Tribe, I do not believe there was malicious intent behind these actions. It’s hinted throughout book 5 that Rook’s reasoning for doing these things was to help Vil recognize the value of his “beauty” is something he gains from himself, not from the approval of others.

This is most likely Rook’s motivation for suggesting Vil observe the competition or to consider freshmen for the team. It’s exposing Vil to the contentedness that can come with imperfection or not being at the very top, something Vil fails to recognize in himself until the end of book 5. Being as perceptive as he is, Rook would have realized that outright telling Vil the moral of the week would not sway his strong-willed friend’s mind. Thus, Rook devised a more roundabout plan and involved Yuu (who, at this point, has a reputation for settling dorm-wide disputes) and co. (unpolished and clumsy underclassmen that Vil could shape as well as potentially also learn from in a reciprocal manner). Maybe Lilia and Cater would have been more technically skilled, being members of a club band and all, but they wouldn’t have provided the same opportunity for growth that Yuu and Adeuce did.

Rook is someone who has always been portrayed as a supporter of Vil’s, a good friend and a trusted confidant. He does have a nefarious side and is 100% capable of deception (like the time in Endless Halloween Night when he quickened his heartbeat to convince Sebek he was also scared and therefore was not a traitor). However, I don’t think Rook would want to betray his friends by actively harming them and putting their lives in danger (both during book 5’s overblot and immediately after in book 6’s rescue mission); he truly cares for them and wants to see them happy and healthy. (One could argue he should have voted for NRC instead of RSA to help Vil achieve his dream instead of betraying him, but that’s another discussion entirely.)

There’s no reason why Rook would go out of his way to do innocuous things like helping Epel with his UM or imparting wisdom to Deuce unless he actually cared and wanted to see them develop. Beyond the scope of book 5, why would Rook do even more innocuous things like trying to make Epel feel welcome and assisting him with learning table manners? Why wouldn’t he go out of his way to provoke Vil more often? Did Crowley hypothetically have even all of these little details down and instruct Rook to do (or not do) these things??? It sounds too far-fetched to attach a hidden motive behind everything Rook says or does. It could be as simple as “he wants to be there to support his friends”.

Before we wrap up, I’d like to quickly touch on the suggestion that Silver and Kalim too were catalysts for Malleus and Jamil’s OBs, respectively. It’s true that they were, but I doubt Silver or Kalim were aware and did so intentionally. Both seemed genuinely ignorant as to the true stress that Malleus and Jamil were under, and Silver + Kalim do not present as toxic people who would want to inflame their friends’ negativity. Of course, there’s always the possibility that Puppet Master Crowley (™) is orchestrating everything from the shadows (but I’m not going to get into the “time loop to gather all the necessary information and learn what the correct choices are” theory here www). I just don’t think Rook is Crowley’s accomplice in all of this if the time loop + intention overblots theories overlap.

This is one of those instances where I see Rook as being very honest with his intentions and because of his… generally strange character (?), his peers and players alike still suspect there is a deeper meaning to his words. I interpret his poem as nothing more than waxing poetic to expressing gratitude to the one man that makes it possible for him to be at NRC as a student: Crowley. Rook states that he wanted to give an exemplary poem using a subject that both Ace and Epel were already familiar with, so he went with the headmaster. Furthermore, we know that Rook is able to witness many wonderful and beautiful things at NRC, as well as make meaningful relationships with interesting people like Vil. He would not be able to do any of these things were he not extended an invitation to NRC—and it is for this reason that it would make sense for him to genuinely be appreciative of Crowley.

Those are all my thoughts on this matter all for now ^^ Hope it was an interesting read!

[pumpkin-padparadscha]

What if I just read "The Art of Losing" by @wafflelate a million billion times because it's my favorite.

Anyway the rest of this post is just going to be me going !!!!! so, spoilers ahead

Things I think intensely about:

-how suna is going to react to Gaara deciding to become the kazekage

-how any detractors of his new position are going to be IMMEDIATELY shut down because the "first" thing he does is "contract with a seals mistress to get the dead wastes converted into arable land" (who is going to prove it WASNT a seal? Sunas sealing sucks lol. And technically it did originate from a seal. Gelels seal.)

-how devastated Gai is going to be upon learning literally everything Kakashi went through

-how pissed as fuck people are going to be upon discovering that root seals can apparently block soulmate bonds? I feel like sealing people without their informed consent is about to become very very illegal outside of emergency circumstances.

-how the fuck is cat feeling. Does he believe Kakashi is dead? Does he hope Kakashi is alive?

-nara shikakunand yoshino are about to fucking eviscerate the elder council. Either they were aware of this bullshit or they were criminally negligent. Oh, what's that inoichi and shibi? Some of your family got kidnapped too? Maybe we should bring torture back to t&i. Just this once.

-kakashi is going to be so fucking proud of shikimaru. In his super repressed way. Maybe in a he deserves that legacy more than I ever did if he's feeling self deprecating.

-do you think temari has to sit through a million drafts and revised versions of kankuros shikabane play the more information comes out. Soul mates who were cut off completely from their connection, one believing the other dead, and the other never even educated about soul bonds. Them still recognizing each other enough that Kakashi was kind to her and she freed him instead of killing him. Please kankuro why can't you make the fight scenes longer.

-shikaku seeing shikakos complete shadow transformation and being like "yeah that's insanely dangerous to so much as think about attempting, I don't want to consider how bad things had to be for her to create that. Forbidden jutsu on account of who the fuck knows how she didn't end up falling into the black"

-does Gai feel like he failed Kakashi. Does he swear never to do so again. Imagine him thanking shikako for saving his friend. Imagine Kakashi being shocked Gai still considers him a friend

-hi inoichi this is my soulmate Kakashi, he did not take thinking I was assassinated well at all, do you have any self help books because he hates talking about feelings

-obviously she knows about seals because danzo wanted his own nara level intelligent seal master. Obviously she hid as much of her skill as she could from him because she isn't stupid.

-anyway here's a book a better storage scroll some medical seals and the seal to get rid of roots evil tattoo of shittyness.

-actually now I'm thinking about what if she DOES join suna because Kakashi has trouble feeling safe in konoha or just because being around a shikamaru who never knew her and idolizes Kakashi is kind of awkward.

-if they share dreams do you think she explains her original world to Kakashi after he dreams of cities he's never seen.

-wondering who was the first person to remember the lookalike yoshino nara missing nin that got mentioned in that one report.

-if I think about how nervous Kakashi is going to be the first time he trolls shikako and how he'll feel when she grins or laughs or goes along with it I experience An Emotion™

-"I don't know if you'll like them, but here's other you's favorite books. They make a good social barrier, and you've been looking a little overwhelmed."

-yoshino is going to cry so so so much. Her baby needed her all this time and she never knew it.

-kakashi learning that he was absolutely invited to shikakos funeral and danzo is just a dick who lies

[crossdressingdeath]

Can I just... okay, there's something that's been percolating in my head ever since the Durgetash patch 6 crumbs dropped and I think I can finally put it into words. Because everyone was getting so mad about Durge (and it was about Durge, not Gortash; it was an origin character getting their backstory acknowledged in the game at a point where it should've been from the start, saying it was about Gortash is like saying... I don't know, any unique dialogue Cazador gets in Astarion origin runs is Cazador content) getting five or six new lines when Wyll got nothing and... well, personally I think that's a little silly, first because adding a few new Gortash lines to Durge runs would not be taking away from Wyll content (the two characters have different writers, VAs and mocap actors, for the most part they would not have been pulling from the same resource pool), but more importantly because... if you want to point at an origin character taking resources from Wyll, don't point at Durge. Point at Karlach.

I mean, think about it. Think about how the game runs with these two characters. You likely meet Wyll first unless you go out of your way to avoid speaking to him until you meet Karlach. He asks you to help him hunt down and kill a devil, and you go and you look and you find her and... now you're doing Karlach's quest. They interrupt Wyll's quest in the middle to do Karlach's quest. And she keeps piping up during the conversation with Mizora afterwards, and it turns out that Wyll got sent after Karlach to begin with because Karlach is Zariel's extra-special favourite mortal, and suddenly Wyll's sharing his post-quest transformation cutscene (something which I think we can all agree should be entirely about him) with a character who wasn't even playable until a ways into EA. You can't even properly commiserate with Wyll afterwards, you can only even be nice to him if you choose to read the lines that way; you spend more time chatting to Karlach about Wyll's transformation than you do Wyll! Wyll's act one quest gets almost completely taken over by Karlach, I'm honestly kind of surprised I haven't seen anyone else talking about it. Even him being turned into a devil is barely about him because Karlach's backstory is butting in! There is a reason why no other origins share villains, but where Karlach's connection to Gortash is overshadowed by Durge in a Durge run here she's overshadowing Wyll in every run except maybe (I say maybe because I haven't done it) a Wyll origin.

And it gets even better! Remember how originally you couldn't save Karlach at all? Remember when it was death or mind flayer? Remember what Larian did when people complained about that? I'm fucking amazed I didn't see more complaints about that, given the number of complaints I saw about Durgetash getting five whole lines. Do you want to keep Karlach alive? Do you want to end the game with all your companions still breathing and reasonably happy? Well then fuck what you think is a good, happy and/or narratively satisfying ending for Wyll; you're packing him off to the Hells, because that's the only way to keep Karlach alive if you don't want to go with her (which you probably don't if you romanced someone other than her)! Like, I want you to really let that sink in; they made Karlach's survival completely reliant on how you end Wyll's quest. If you want Karlach to survive and don't want your character's epilogue to be "go to the Hells" (which, again, odds are most players don't) you have to end Wyll's quest accordingly. They could've put that into Karlach's quest! Give her an actual character arc (instead of the line-with-maybe-a-slight-curve she got) where you can encourage her to choose life and go to Avernus on her own or... I don't know, go with Dammon or something! Especially since as it turns out Zariel apparently doesn't actually give a shit, which the PC should be able to point out given Zariel's track record in this game of giving barely enough of a shit to make a token effort at getting Karlach back or killing her! But instead the climax of Wyll's whole damn arc has to share space with Karlach. Maybe not in the game's text proper, but from a meta perspective? If the player doesn't want to go to the Hells but wants Karlach to live, that's likely going to be if not the deciding factor in Wyll's quest then certainly a major one in—as with the transformation cutscene—a situation that should be entirely about Wyll.

I don't really know how to end this. I guess... I fully admit part of it is me being super petty about the sheer number of posts I saw getting mad about Durgetash getting literally five or six lines (crumbs! Barely crumbs! Crumbs that didn't impact Wyll in any way!), but it also really is like... people complained about that but I haven't seen anyone complaining about how Larian warped Wyll's whole story around Karlach. And I think more people should complain about it. Wyll's story got dragged off-course the second they started rewriting it, but they wrapped the whole thing around Karlach when they made her an origin companion to the point where at times it feels like Wyll's playing second fiddle in his own arc, and that's... well, honestly it just pisses me off.

[synthshenanigans]

woah hey a year has been passed wowie :0

First two weren't posted here cos they were too long ago & not CJish related but love the way he took up 70% of the year lol

[ Full images + templates below :} ]

[TW for Bright Colors, maybe blood & very very vague themes of depression/suicide for like 2 drawings I believe]

Long text about the arts if anyones actually curious!!

January: An old OC I completely forgot about until making this. He's based on old radio like things :}

February: Played Person 5 Royal last year & drew Joker cos idk he's neat. Fun fact, the same day I fully finished the game was the day Storm & a Spring came out. Also while grinding in the game, I had his Bidding & VoaC covers on repeat. Which was a bit annoying to do since they weren't on Spotify yet & YT on mobile didn't have looping then.

March: The Hawaii Part ii album cover :} I did post that eventually but that's the time I actually made it. Had listened to TME a couple of months before then which got me into the album, so months later I drew it cos why not? [Also the month Vol.1 fully released on everything. What's funny is my gallery for that day was a handful of memes I saved at 4am before I fell asleep. And then the next image saved is when I woke up which was a screenshot of the whiteboard in TfaR lol]

April: First main Jash art !!! And its not even with any of the songs from Vol. 1 lol. I had his Moss cover on repeat again & now that all of Vol. 1 was out, I drew Heart in some moss. Or really in the image from the video.

May: Lil animation I made of Heart with the song Don't Hit the Lights! Link to my post & the song can be found here :}. Still really like the song & even the drawings. Might remake em eventually idk

June: Sky/socialc1imb's Clue AU! I like murder mysteries & this one was real interesting so I drew it a lot lol. Might remake that one or one of the others I made at somepoint? It'll be a bit later if I do but ye

July: A redraw of a HMS piece I originally made back in May, based on the Three Wise Monkeys thing. I like the idea of it so I keep wanting to remake it.

August: I honestly can't remember if I posted that art or not. Actually yea I don't think I ever did PFFT. It's one of the few drawings I did of myself this year & its from CJs Not Perfect cover [as you can tell by the lyrics on it]. Also one of the very very few vent-ish arts I made. I like the background more than anything but its still neat ig?

September: Art for one of the best songs ever. I love Fine, I'm Fine its so good & I listened to it for like 70% of the 20+ hours it took me to make the drawing. Still proud of it so there's the sketch I drew on paper, the one on my tablet & then the final versions.

October: There was a lot from this month due to Jashtober. I still like this one lot & it wasn't insanely rushed so I picked this one to show lol.

November: I have no idea why I made a fun lil soul. I was having an identity crisis over my art style & ig decided to draw the guy who is a walking identity crisis/j

December: Same as September. One of my favorite songs ever was covered & released, so I made a drawing like everyone else lol.

[tonberry-yoda]

Diegosaur requesting for Gyro wow how surprising and original(not)!!!

LMFAO i cant help it i love him sm

I just rlly rlly rlly wanna try different hairstyles on him bc his hair is so WOOOWW so like HES PERFECT FOR THE JOB

Braids curls pigtails literally anythingomg

I really dont know how to like title this like js use it as some kind of fanfic inspo(??i dont know man is that how it works) so i can save u some time for the topic💯

just having some fun with Gyro and his hair fr🫶🏻🫶🏻

Looks straight out of an ad for hair products if u ask me🤷‍♀️

ANYWAY TY SOOSOSOSOSOSOSOOSOSOO MUUUUUCH FOR YOUR TIME I SAW UR PENDING REQUESTS AND OH MY GOD I (and im sure we all) APPRECIATE U SOMUCHH TY FOR UR WORK🩷🫶🏻

Hair Stylist - Gyro Zeppeli

notes - I have really been missing SBR and my Italian cowboy, so I RUSHED over to my pending requests and literally SEARCHED for this one. It's one of my fav requests and I was so happy to do it for you. I can only imagine how soft this man's hair is, but even so, I'm really happy I wrote this. Thanks for the request! ilysm stay super hydrated!! <333

word count - 367

"What are you doing back there?" Gyro asked for the fifth time, trying to turn around, but you grabbed his hair tighter to stop him from doing it. "Ow! Hey! Just tell me!"

"Stop moving or you'll ruin it!" you told him, starting another braid on the back of his head.

"Ruin what?!"

"You'll get mad if I say it. And I'm already too far."

"I won't get mad, I swear. Just tell me or I'm gonna get even more mad."

You sighed and finished the braid on his head before grabbing a nearby mirror to show him the curls and braids you put in his hair.

Gyro grabbed the mirror from you, his face in complete shock and he touched every part of his hair that you did up even finding some colorful hair ties and even beads braided in.

"Don't be mad." you said, hiding behind a pillow from the couch.

Gyro stared at himself for a bit longer, feeling the soft curls again and again. You peeked out from behind the pillow to find him in awe and didn't know what to say.

"Gyro I-"

"Well, are you gonna finish the job?" he asked, sitting in an angle where you could continue and handing you a brush.

Now you were the one in shock. "Y-You want me to do your hair?"

He just nodded, knowing that he was blushing. He would've never let anyone do this EVER, but knowing that he wasn't going to be leaving the house anytime soon and knowing that you would be the only one to see this was fine with him.

So quickly, you got back to work, tying his hair up and curling it. It didn't take you long to finish the job, which was nice.

"There, done." You showed Gyro his reflection again and he laughed.

"I look like a little girl." he said, playing with the little beads tied into his hair.

"Is it bad?"

"No. It's fun. I like it."

You smiled to yourself and hugged around the back of Gyro's chest. "You have really soft hair."

"Do I?"

You just nodded and pressed a kiss onto his back.

"We should do this again sometime."

~~~~~

jjba masterlist (2) (3) | pinned post

2023 @tonberry-yoda – do not repost or claim ANY of my work as your own! likes, reblogs, and comments are not only welcome, but appreciated <3

~~~~~

[reikunrei]

I didn't talk about this at all in my last doctor who post because there was so much else going on that I wanted to touch on, but after @mikesbasementbeets mentioned one of the closing lines of the episode in the tags, I kinda wanted to just talk about it a bit.

So, this is one of the rare episodes of dw where everyone lives at the end, including all of the victims who outright or technically died. Throughout basically the whole show, but especially the early seasons, and especially s1 with the 9th Doctor, there's an incredible emphasis on "we cannot interfere or else everything will fall apart." The episode right before these ("Father's Day") actually tackles this very idea, which I hope to explore sometime in another post. In short, the Doctor doesn't save people. Doing so often results in more harm than good (unless it wasn't meant to happen, but we don't have time to get into that here lol).

However, at the end of this episode, he does something completely different.

He says everybody lives. He sends out a mass of nanogenes, now reprogrammed, toward the gas mask soldiers surrounding the bomb site and they rewrite and "fix" their DNA, making them all normal humans again without the injuries of dead little Jamie. As I showed in the initial post, even Jamie winds up coming back to life, despite the fact that he was already dead when the nanogenes found his body and used him as a blueprint. Realistically, Jamie should still be dead because he wasn't technically "changed" by the nanogenes, simply brought back to life, which the Doctor earlier says is easy.

It's an extremely profound ending to a dw episode, and it's one that sticks with a lot of people.

Now bear with me because I'm sick with a cold as I write this so it might not be very coherent, but in conjunction with all of the other connections/similarities/parallels between these episodes and Stranger Things, this feels startlingly fitting for (at least part of) the conclusion to st.

Throughout all of st, we've seen time and again that knocking things down with violence doesn't really work. It's especially evident in st4 when Nancy, Steve, and Robin flambée Vecna, blast away a few chunks of flesh, and knock him out of the third story of a house. You'd think that would turn him into a pile of smoldering mulch, but it doesn't! Frankly, he gets up and walks away very quickly. We're shown and told time and again that killing outright does not work.

In these dw episodes, they could have tried killing any of the victims to keep them at bay (at one point the Doctor even pick-pockets Jack's sonic blaster so he won't use it on the victims). However, with the nanogenes present, they simply would have been "fixed" again and brought back to life. Much like Vecna, they would've just kept coming back.

And what winds up saving the day in dw? Love and understanding. When Nancy finally admits to Jamie that she's his mother, not his sister, and apologizes for everything that's happened and comes into contact with the nanogenes, it makes them fix their misunderstanding.

A lot of people talk about how Will said "we have to kill him" irt Vecna/One at the end of 4.09. However, again, we've seen that it literally does not work. And along with everything else surrounding the weirdness with identities in st, specifically with the distinctions between Henry/Edward, Vecna, and One (and Brenner) (check out the original post I linked at the top for links to other folk's posts about this), it's not far-fetched at all to assume that untangling the uncertainty left here will be what brings them closer to "saving the day," much closer than anymore fighting ever would.

We spend a lot of these dw episodes being scared of Jamie. Even Nancy is constantly visibly fearful of him and won't go near him, but in the end, she takes him into her arms despite the risk of her becoming infected. They don't brute force the nanogenes into understanding, they don't try to reprogram them, and they don't physically fight them off. They constantly run away, use words, or even sing them to sleep. There is very little violence in these dw episodes, and most of it comes from the victims themselves and is very tame.

Stranger Things, at its core, is about love, and that extends to the (supposed) villains. The way things have been presented thus far are very unreliable, but we have enough information from the show itself (aided by things like TFS and even bits of the VR game) to prove that there's something else going on, and maybe, just like with little Jamie, someone just needs a little bit of helpful truth.

As Joyce Maldonado once said, "Can love defeat fear?"

[marshallpupfan]

Seeing just how much Marshall merch you got, I've been meaning to ask this for quite a while now but I'm too shy and didn't want to get hopes up (neither mine nor yours)... Anyway I just summoned up courage so let's go for it before I back down again:

Have you, by any chance, ever seen some kind of licensed "self-insert" book?

I know of an online Brazilian book seller who gets licenses to make these kinds of stories. The person goes over to the website, creates their character (like one of those dress up dolls, sort of, picking gender, name, skin color, height, hair, some small variety of clothes and accessories, etc) - they're like "create the child's character" because, well, the stories are aimed for children XD - and then this template-created character is automatically inserted in the chosen book from their gallery. Then, after confirming purchase and payment, the custom book is printed (hardcover, pretty big in size with around 30 pages, the one I checked had 32) and shipped. From what I've seen it's very good quality and the stories are simple but entertaining, inserting the kid into the adventure and having them help save the day in some big way.

They had 4 different Paw Patrol books for that, AND ONE OF THEM WAS A READY RACE RESCUE STORY, which is one of my favorite Marshall adventures (I grew up watching races with my dad) and I've seen somewhere you like this special too - But they're not in their website anymore. I swear it was there barely two months ago! I have some screenshots I took when I did a "let's see how it would look like if I'd buy it".

I could send an e-mail asking what happened and if there's any chance the books will be back available for purchase again. The thing about "not getting hopes up" is just because I'm too poor to buy one of those (it's not even expensive, I'm just actually poor) but I guess I could "bridge" one for you - if they show up again, I mean XD Granted the stories are in Brazilian Portuguese, but I could send along a complete translation too.

Anyway yeah, I just wanted to know if it would be something you'd like to have and if it's a thing somewhere else too or just here??? I've never seen anything like this anywhere else before.

I meant to send all this in the DMs so it would stay between the two of us, but yours are closed (I get it, you got that annoying copycat dude onto you, I saw the post) so I hope you don't mind me sending this as an ask anyway. You can answer me through another ask if you'd like instead of publishing this, no need to follow any of my blogs just to message if you're not comfortable! Hope you're having a good day and enjoying your new merch, those are so awesome!!!

I'm not 100% sure, but I think I've seen something like this sold over here in the United States before. However, I could swear ours did things differently, in that instead of a custom-made character, it used an actual photograph of the child so their likeness would be on the cover and on the pages, itself. At least, I could swear that's what they did, but it's been years since I last seen one, so I could be mistaken.

That's pretty cool to see they used Ready Race Rescue for one of these! I'm always glad to see that mini-movie get more attention. As for why it disappeared from the site, I suspect it's because this sort of thing is a lot more difficult to publish than your typical mass-printed book. Most pages will use that custom-made character, so editing, printing, and shipping it out might take all the longer. Perhaps they just got so many orders and had to remove it for a while to catch up? I'm not sure, but hopefully it returns someday.

In any case, I'm not sure if I'd be interested in something like this for myself, since I'm typically not one to insert my likeness into something or create an original character of sorts that represents me, but I certainly appreciate the offer! I do hope that, someday, you're able to get one for yourself!

[whomadewaffles]

Some pjhazel incorrect quotes I've been saving for awhile...I feel like with how starved for content shippers of these two are right now, keeping these to myself would be a crime. I'm SO sorry for not citing sources. I wasn’t originally planning to post these, and finding them retroactively is like.. impossible.

Pjhazel is the focus, but others are included as side characters. So if you don't ship them, then just scroll on by and go about your day, please!

Also, for a heads up that will apply to all 3 parts: expect bad language and sex references cos obviously.

Oh, and this is part 1 of 3, even if it is the longest part

Long post under the cut!

_______

Josie: You slept with Hazel? OUR Hazel? Callahan??

Pj: I didn't know what else to do! She had those big, sad eyes. I couldn't help it.

Josie: ...sure, sounds like you had no other choice.

--------

Pj: I love saying 'fuck me' because it can either be sexual or sarcastic and those are two things that describe me perfectly.

--------

Hazel, jumping out of pj's closet: BOO!

Pj:

Hazel:

Pj:

Hazel: *makes the patented Hazel callahan sad face*

Pj: Ahh! Oh my god! You scared me!

------

Hazel: TERRIBLE NEWS!

Pj: Did you disarm the bomb?

Hazel: If I disarmed it, would I come running in here and shout, TERRIBLE NEWS!?

------

Pj: hazel, you are such a nerdy little dork, you can't pull any girl.

Hazel * has been crushing on her since they met*: okay. that's fine.

*2 years later*

Hazel: so what did you say? Repeat that again.

Pj: 🤡

--------

Pj: It has come to my attention, that I have some unresolved feelings or resentment toward my father.

Therapist: a little late, but I’m happy you’ve taken this first step. Now you can start looking to overcome that.

Pj: Already done. I’ve found a full proof solution…I’m going to ignore it. Completely and utterly.

Pj: just like my dad did me.

--------

Pj: the secret to being impulsive successfully is being faster than the consequences of your actions. you can't let them catch you or its all over

Annie: is that why everytime Hazel even looks at you since you kissed her you run away like a little bitch?

-------

Pj *trying everything she can to kiss hazel again without just admitting she likes her like a normal healthy person*: Hey, are you aware that kissing reduces stress?

Hazel: Okay.

Pj:

Hazel:

Pj: Hey, you look stressed. Like, really stressed. Just wanted to let you know.

--------

Hazel: It’s not that I don’t trust pj, I just... don’t trust her impulse control

-------

Hazel: None of you might remember this, but there was a time when PJ considered herself out of my league.

Hazel: Oh, how the mighty have fallen (into my arms)

------

Hazel *trying to teach her girlfriend how to take better notes in class*: to make it easier, you should always highlight the important things

*later*

Annie: Hazel, why are you covered in different colored highlighter?

Hazel: don't ask

Pj: she's important! okay!?

-------

Hazel: I'm freaking out, How do I make our first date really romantic?

Stella-Rebecca: Be mysterious.

Hazel: Okay!

*later, while on a date with pj* 

Pj: So where are we going?

Hazel: None of your fucking business.

Pj *is shocked and a little turned on* 😳

-------

Pj: Yeah, I lost the ability to give a shit at a very young age. It was a very tragic accident. Never recovered

------

Pj: *on the phone with josie* I can’t talk right now, I’m doing hot girl shit.

Josie: You’re pulling Oreos apart and shaving off the frosting to make a mega Oreo, aren’t you?

Pj: Maybe.

-----

Pj: I love you.

Hazel: I thought I annoyed you?

Pj: You do annoy me. You annoy me more than I ever thought possible, but I want to spend every irritating moment with you.

--------

Pj: Im tired

Hazel: You should come to the gym with me! We could make it a date and exercising gives you energy!

Pj: Yeah, the same energy you need to go to the gym

Pj: Sounds like a pyramid scheme to me

------

Pj *texting*: I'm showering

Hazel *texting back*: oh nice, send a pic of you're hair in a giant spike lmao!

--------

Pj: rest assured, rational me and impulsive me are having a fucking smackdown 24/7 100% of the time

-----

Hazel: Please, this is the 4th time its happened, I'm begging you go to a doctor.

Pj: I'm sorry is this OUR broken nose? Stay out of it.

------

Pj: I asked Hazel out.

Britney: Oh, I’m sorry.

Pj: Why?

Brittney: Well, I assume she said no.

Pj: No, she said yes.

Brittney: Really? Then I’m sorry for her.

-------

Pj: Shout out to my girlfriend who just randomly decided to eat my chapstick.

Hazel: WHY WOULD THEY MAKE IT COTTON-CANDY FLAVORED IF IT WASN'T MEANT TO BE EATEN?!

--------

Pj: You're annoying.

Hazel *in her head*: Enemies to lovers, slowburn, angst with happy ending, 300k+ words

------

Pj: I win

Hazel: I am literally pinning you down

Pj: I know

-----

Hazel: So sorry for making you fall in love with me because of my autistic swag and kissable lips.

--------

Pj: *Drinking a bottle of water*

Josie: Since when do you carry water? I've known you my whole life and you never do that.

Pj: Hazel freaked out ‘cause I told her I never drink water

Pj: Now she’s making me drink 8 glasses a day

Pj: It’s like, there’s water in soda, coffee, the little pools of water on pizza…

Isabel: …That’s grease

Pj: Well it’s wet isn’t it!

-------

Hazel: You're in love with me?

Pj: Unless you're not in love with me. Then I take it back, because, you know... I'm cool.

-------

Pj: You are an absolute fucking dork.

Hazel *singing*: Yeah, but I'm your dork!

Pj *happy sigh*: Yeah, you're my dork.

--------

Pj: I'm a very good liar.

Josie: Yesterday, I asked if you were missing  hazel while she was gone, and you said "no" right before bursting into tears.

--------

[slushgut]

HI HI HI HI I'M THE OTHER PERSON THAT'S WRITTEN WARP FICS ON AO3 I CAN'T BELIEVE AFTER TWO YEARS THERE'S SOMEONE ELSE HERE LIKE THERE WERE THE PEOPLE THAT ORIGINALLY COMMENTED ON MY FIC BUT NO ONE ELSE THAT PRODUCED ANY FAN CONTENT FOR THEM AND YOUR ART IS SO GOOD AND I'M GOING FERAL OVER IT AND SLFJLSFJLFJLKJSDLJF

ESPECIALLY AS SOMEONE THAT HAS HORRIBLE TROUBLE VISUALIZING CHARACTERS AND CANNOT DRAW TO SAVE MY LIFE I AM GOING WILD OMFG SLKDJFLDFJLJFLDJFLJF

To be completely honest with you, I had legitimately forgotten about this series or the fact that I had posted a fic for it at all, a few months after posting my fic I got very caught up in a Bungo Stray Dogs obsession and recently its been all about SVSSS in my brain but my excitement of no longer being 1/1 in a fandom and now being 1 of 2 is so immense it has made me once again obsessed with this series I'm asdlkfjasfjaslfjsfj

I already left a really long and rambling comment on your fic on ao3 so I won't go that feral again here but like alksdjfaljflsfjdd seriously made my entire month right there with your fic and art, thank you for sharing your work aslfjaldjfl

This is so genuinely the nicest someone has ever been in all of history I'm pretty sure. I've spent hours just trying to figure out how to respond appropriately.

I was so prepared too shout my fic and my art into the void and leave it there, I ANTICIPATED it even. I really didn't believe anyone would ever see it let alone you????

By the way your fic absolutely fed me, thank you so much. You are so so talented and its exsactly what I needed at the end of the series. By the end if the last book I felt sorta robbed??? And I really needed a little somthing to their happily ever after.

I'm no writer but your fic 100% encouraged me to make SOME kind of content.

Artemis fowl was my childhood and it remains to be my favorite series of all time, so just recently I wanted to read more of Eoins work???? And WARP was actual art. I loved every second of it and I binged it all in like two weeks.

Thank you thank you thank you for reaching out because I really thought I was the single standing person in this Fandom and it makes me so so so happy to know you're here too ♡♡

[carlos-in-glasses]

Hello CIG! For a very belated Nice Ask Week ask, I have a non-conventional question for you.

You've spoken before about having to remove quite a bit from Where All This Love Comes From (I believe you said it might have been something like 20k words, again WOW) and I was wondering, do you do anything with that writing?

Do you save it for a different story? Do you take a second to mourn what might have been? Do you try to re-imagine things so you can put them in a different scene than originally planned?

I'm AWFUL at having to delete things (I deleted something that was only 100 words yesterday and it still made me want to pull my hair out) so I'm intrigued by how you go about it, if you don't mind :)

Hello! ❤️ Thank you for the belated! The 20k loss was all to do with Gabriel being alive after the wedding - it also featured two original characters (one OC I kept but highly reduced their role; one I removed completely from the story). I didn't fully delete any of it - it's all in a separate document - so I may well re-home the writing depending on what I come up with for future fics. There were a few particular scenes that I was super sad to let go of - it would be great to find a story for them.

Before Gabriel was killed, I'd written about 60k, so salvaged 40k and reworked it into the fic as it is now, which has a totally different plot. (I did mourn. It hurt! I felt blue about it for days before I came up with the new idea.) The key was to change the context where possible, and sometimes I couldn't. An example of change is the fall festival moment, in which Gabriel confronts Carlos. Originally that confrontation involved Carlos doing something else "wrong" in Gabriel's eyes, and it happened post-wedding rather than in 2022 (the flashbacks were at a minimum originally!) But the description of the fall festival is from the original. The flashback in chapter 3 that involves TK, his parents and trouble in school was also from the original, but TK's reasons for telling Carlos about that memory were different.

I didn't have any desire to delete the 20k as if it had never existed, because I think the writing is good and he ideas still interest me. I would only delete writing I thought was truly bad and wouldn't work at all ever. For the most part I think it's worth keeping what you can - eg. you never know if a paragraph that seems awkward in a fluffy romantic fic might fit way better in a fic with a dramatic plot.

I don't know if this is a very good answer 🥲 But thank you for the question!

This is how I looked when I was mourning for my original plot:

[kafus]

i said i wanted to talk about my SV trainer a little bit and i have decided to write a post about this now while waiting for dinner because i am bored lol

i do not have art of her atm so you'll have to take these images for now. i also have no idea what the fuck to name her i somehow haven't been able to decide so we're just gonna call her Kafu even though that is not her name that's just the name i use for online play LMAO. oh and he uses he And she pronouns so if u see me alternating that's why. anyway. this is going to be long i'm putting it under the cut. no pressure to read it i'm just rambling

basically when i started playing violet i had avoided spoilers/leaks and stuff and i had no idea what was going to happen except for what was in trailers, and i knew about the robotic paradox mons so my robot obsessed ass decided okay. you know what. kafu is also a robot and somehow comes from the same place these paradox mons r coming from. i went thru the game with this in mind, this is why kafu wears sunglasses to cover her really inhuman colorful robot eyes, it makes them less jarring and doesn't instantly give her away to strangers. him being a robot is actually a secret (he appears very human/realistic) that the cast of SV finds out about as trust builds throughout the journey. for what it's worth this is also why his sunglasses are off in the credits pic for the main story, he took them off while in area zero where literally no one was around and it didn't matter lol

this is all well and good and gave me an extra point of attachment to sv's cast during the main story but the dlc makes this really interesting in particular because of the crystal pool scene. not only is the time machine and the story of SV a paradox but kafu herself is a paradox. the way i'm handling this is subject to change but my current idea is the following:

there is a prior timeline before any of sv's plot, where turo got the idea for the time machine of his own accord. heath and paradox mon sightings still exist regardless and so does terapagos, who is not pulling the paradox mons literally from the future of sv's world but the future in another dimension (it has both time and space abilities). in this timeline, turo finds terapagos himself and actually owns it and is able to weaponize its powers to make a much MUCH more potent machine than what we see in violet, because instead of drawing on terapagos' inadvertent abilities that it doesn't have much control over, he is controlling its abilities directly. essentially this future realm with the robot paradoxes and the paldea we know are mashed together and this creates an ecological apocalypse. terapagos, in emotional desperation, thru its desire to fix what has happened, calls upon kafu who is one of the few remaining sentient androids from the robot mon world (he has an intrinsic connection with terapagos because reasons i'm still developing) to save everyone. and kafu does, and smth similar to the crystal pool scene happens in which she is the one to give turo the idea for the time machine, instead of terapagos being the cause. this prevents the sort of ecological apocalypse that happened before, since the machine is much less powerful, and now the timeline is in a cyclical paradox where he is the one who gives turo the idea for the machine and is always there at the end to be the one giving him the idea, essentially patching up the apocalypse timeline and making sure it never happens.

SV, then, is a representation of what the timeline looks like AFTER kafu has prevented the apocalypse. she's not really in a time loop? she is in her own continuum and actually unaware of the apocalypse timeline, completely amnesiac, until the ID plotline (by the way the literal indigo disk is a remnant of the original apocalypse timeline when turo had direct access to terapagos lol) in which capturing terapagos again allows it to share this information with her. and even then it's not like she's reliving the same plot over and over, it's more like she is in every timeline at once to always save it but my oc is just the one in this one timeline.

to be clear i've never worked this in depth with time shenanigans before so there may be holes or other things i need to work out here but that's the GENERAL idea. ANYWAY here's a list of kafu's relationships with everyone that i made on discord the other day :)

my trainer's relationship with everyone (i'm saying "my trainer" here because i was talking on discord and i'm too lazy to fix it):

nemona: really close friends, nemona was the first person to find out about his robot shit and accepted him with an almost concerning lack of distrust or complaint. my trainer is just as into the rivalry as nemona is and because my trainer has protag energy and cares a lot about being strong, they spar a lot. i think they're qpps in spirit even though they wouldn't call it that

arven: he's definitely more attached to my trainer than my trainer is to him but they are still good friends. i think my trainer has some trauma with turo and she has a hard time dealing with seeing him when with arven, and arven has a lot of heavy shit going on with that that can be hard to handle. but when they get along they really do get along

penny: my trainer and penny are not emotionally close in particular but penny and nemona are dating and so my trainer sees her a lot and they get on just fine LMAO. i think penny has interest in general tech stuff, not just on the software end, and so my trainer might awkwardly go to her if having a bodily function issue or question and penny's always willing to figure that out for the sake of her gf's bestie

carmine: while distrusting at first, carmine and my trainer ended up forming a really good friendship by the end of teal mask. it's a little complicated since my trainer feels terrible for hurting kieran the way that she did, and carmine was a part of that, and for a while my trainer's very bitter about it but they're able to make up and proceed

kieran: BOYFRIEND!! my trainer empathized with kieran's situation from the start. they have some sort of intrinsic connection because kieran's story might not be so disconnected from my trainer's after all… the ending of indigo disk brings them very close together because kieran sees my trainer's shit firsthand and you know. everything that happens in general

also for what it's worth i made a new team for both DLCs and of course i had my initial tam of 6 from the base game so kafu canonically owns 18 pokemon throughout the journey, these guys:

main story: meowscarada/clodsire/rotom heat (shiny)/dragonite/slowbro/tinkaton teal mask: mightyena/ribombee/ninetales/kommo-o/quagsire/yanmega (shiny) indigo disk: flygon/galvantula/meowstic/scrafty/cinccino/metagross <- all shiny

his favorites are meowscarada, yanmega, and flygon though :)

anyways yeah gaming i need to elaborate on my made up kieran lore and draw weird angst art of my oc who i still need to give a proper name and him LOL

[genericpuff]

a shapeshifting time traveler and his apprentice who works as a minimum wage barista get pissed because their perfect speedrun keeps getting ruined by two teenagers with a kill count

they're about to run attempt 9999 and the barista is terrified that his boss is about to end up in some Y2K situation

the time traveler is very old and really does not care for the pop culture references from his apprentice whose strongest skill is creating latte art

they don't even get the bragging rights of being the main characters but still have to do the job of the main characters because the actual main characters are too involved in their love/hate relationship to be any good at saving the world

this is time gate.

---------

OKAY BUT HONESTLY I've been kind of stressing over making this post not because I didn't want to follow through on that poll I hosted, but also just because like... it's original work! And it's original work that I've been doing for over a decade in relative obscurity. So it's a little nerve-wracking to be like "Hey guys! Go read this comic that I started drawing nearly a decade ago! It really shows!" especially when I'm doing it from an alt account (i.e. this one) that people know me for being relatively confident on. It's like being that "one kid" in show & tell with their Pokemon cards all over again 🤣 I kept trying to come up with some kind of post that would "justify" me posting about it all, but nothing felt "good enough" so I finally went back to this draft about Springlock and decided to use that as the icebreaker. It's now or never.

Time Gate is a dark fantasy series I've been working on since about 2007/2008ish. It's existed on the Internet in multiple forms, starting as a Zelda fanfic online in 2009 and then dropping all the Zelda stuff and turning into an original comic series in 2014. Since then its first installment, Reaper, finished in 2021, two hours before the 'untimely' death of Betty White that totally wasn't the fault of my main character who can predict people's deaths. Reaper's completed narration of the beginning of [loop: 9998] clocks in at over 2,000 pages.

Now I'm working on Time Gate: [AFTERBIRTH] which is a direct continuation of Reaper and is drawn in the more vertical webtoon style. Yes, the choice of title is intentional, funnily enough the episode featuring my main character bursting out of a tub of her own blood and bodily fluids only got removed by Webtoons for having "too much boob curve". So I covered it up with more blood and that got Webtoons' seal of approval. Webtoons is... weird.

This series is a love letter to all those "weird kids" who grew up wondering why they got dopamine rushes off of arguments and fights or getting in over their heads trying to grow up too fast. It's a love letter to the people who love hyper-analyzing convoluted and way-too-long narratives with overpowered characters who could only exist within the limitless bounds of the imagination.

But most of all, it's a love letter to the part of me that still adores dumb over-the-top weeb shit.

That being said, this piece of work is not intended to provide comfort, but rather, catharsis. Don't read it looking for any kind of guidance on life or interpersonal relationships. Its story and its characters are only concerned with what comes after - when the lights have gone out and the hourglass has run empty.

This series contains blood/gore and fantasy violence, and depicts adult topics such as post-traumatic stress disorder through a fictional lens. It is not intended for anyone under the age of 18+.

I have a dedicated Time Gate blog, so you might see some reblogs here every now and then as I start to use it more (though I'm currently resting through a hiatus, LORE | REKINDLED came around at the perfect time for me to have something new to work on).

As you may have guessed, with Reaper originally launching in 2014 (when I was literally 18) the comic has... not aged gracefully, at least in my opinion, and could use some reworking, at least the first few volumes (I'm still pretty happy with the stuff that came out around the 2019-2021 mark after I took a nearly 2 year hiatus).

Of course, I can't stop y'all from looking it up and reading it (the original version will still be canon even if it's aged so help yourself) but just know there's a dedicated redraw and rewrite on the way <3

And if it's not your cup of tea, that's fine! It's a completely different story with different goals from Rekindled. The main characters aren't saints and they're in a relationship I definitely wouldn't recommend anyone be in LMAO

That being said, don't be surprised if you hear the subtle heartbeat of Time Gate underneath the floorboards of Rekindled~

[princess-of-the-corner]

So I've read through your ml posts and you seem to dislike the sentimonster theory. Valid, obviously, but I don't know/remember the reason? So I'd like to hear it - if it's because it doesn't make sense, because you don't like the concept, or literally any reason at all. And if it's a reason like logic, what would it take for you to like the concept? Again, it's completely valid if you don't like it at all for no explainable reason, I'm just curious because I'm not opposed to the theory and also I like your writing and what I understand/know about you as a person so I'd like to know why you feel the way you do :D

So! My issues with the Sentimonster Plot have to do with the execution, not the ideas. The ideas I think could have been solid if given proper support!

Let's focus on the downsides first:

The plot holes! There's a lot. Off the top of my head:

Adrien, in the first three seasons, was directly disobeying Gabriel's orders. Him being rebellious was such a big character trait that his introduction in Origins was him disobeying Gabriel's orders! Compare that to Season 4/5, where he does not disobey, where he follows orders. While you could argue that 'oh Gabriel just didn't use the Amok before!', why didn't he when he's clearly comfortable doing so later?

How do Gabriel and Nathalie not know that Chat is a Sentimonster? Though it is later retconned into them only being able to sense the Amok, in 'Feast' Nathalie clearly senses the Sentimonster. (I have gone on a tangent of how she had to have sensed the Sentimonster, not the Amok, because if she sensed the Amok then her knowing that Feast is a Sentimonster is a large leap in logic)

Why didn't Gabriel use Adrien's Amok in either 'Gorizilla' or 'Chat Blanc'? Even if Adrien managed to circumvent those orders through loopholes, that could have been utilized!

Adrien has been hit with Cataclysm before. His reaction was what we see from Humans, not from Sentimonsters.

While Felix being a Sentimonster was mildly foreshadowed, Kagami being a Sentimonster came out of nowhere.

There are other things though!

For one thing, there's the fact that this came with saying that all Sentimonsters are Sapient Beings. Not only does this seem unlikely given how..... not Sapient most act, but it adds in horrifying implications as that jacks up the series' on-screen kill count.

It also wasn't set up well. Not even with the plotholes, but because there was no buildup. Sentimonsters weren't even introduced until the last few minutes of the Season 2 finale! And we didn't start getting hints to Adrien being a Sentimonster until /maybe/ the end of Season 3. I compare this often to other kids' shows with twists like Steven Universe or Gravity Falls, where the twists are foreshadowed as early as the first episode.

Given the fact that we currently don't have any way to truly free a Sentimonster from the Amok's control, I do not like the narrative there. Even if Adrien is given his Amok, there's always that possibility of someone else controlling him. It would be much more satisfying if he's freed from it, whether it be by Maribug saving him or by him going all Ella Enchanted and giving himself the order to not listen to orders. But even that latter one has been proven to not work. Not to mention that, even if he manages to hold on to the Amok, the Peacock User could just dispel him in a snap.

Another thing I have with it is a more biased note rather than a criticism of Canon, but I don't like how casually the Peacock can create Sapient Life. I personally feel that the act of creating Life, even accidentally, should be a difficult process that takes time and energy and even a little danger. This maaaaaay be because I came from FMA:B. So ya know. But I feel that the Peacock casually creating Sapient Beings is too OP, and it should be nerfed by either being unable to do that, or by the Sentimonsters having /potential/ to become real, but not by default.

Now! That said!

I do like the /theoretical/ idea of the Sentimonsters! While I criticized the version in ML, I do love the idea of Sapient Life coming from some non-Sapient source! Whether it be Cloning, AI programming, some sort of Homonculus, or even just going full Velveteen Rabbit, I love that. Bonus points for the 'how do I know I'm real/alive/have emotions/etc' angst! I also do like the idea of Adrien being controlled in some way, but I want him to be able to fully break free.

So ways to fix it:

Foreshadow this earlier. Firstly would be introducing the idea of Sentimonsters at some point very early on. Mention them and let us learn more, so that we could match it to Adrien's behavior. Speaking of! Have Adrien follow Gabriel's orders more! If you want him to still be rebellious, have him be sneaky! Use loopholes and wordplay to let him say '/technically/ I'm doing what I was told!'.

Have Gabriel utilize the Amok in times where he suspects Adrien of being Chat Noir. Adrien could still utilize loopholes here to get out of it! Like Gabriel orders him 'Tell the truth, are you Chat Noir?" and Adrien, using the logic of how he's not Chat Noir right now(aka: not Transformed) says 'nope!'.

Give a reason that Nathalie and Gabriel can't sense Chat being a Sentimonster through the Peacock. Either Canon's retcon of 'only sensing the Amok' or something like 'being Transformed muddles the signal'.

So on and so forth.

Fix it so that Adrien (and Felix and Kagami if you're keeping them all) is unique compared to the other Sentimonsters. Whether it be because he was designed to be Sapient, or because something else was added/done to make him Real, have that. This would free us from the fucked implications of Maribug's killcount.

And then give us the freedom! Again, I'd prefer something Ella Enchanted-esque. But if you have Ladybug's Cure do something or drag in the Eagle Miraculous, it's fine.

[rw47vr-key]

Duskwood Fic Rec List

As I already mentioned here, I've summed up a few of the many fanfics for you to not miss it! (Fics I've read before joining the fandom)

I don't own any of these below said writings!! .All the credits to the respective authors.

(A note for authors: I'm so sorry that I didn't get to ask you before posting this.And please do notify me in dm/comments/asks if you want me to remove your links!💕)

there is no particular order of the fics here.

And apologies for my poor quality summary, feel free to jump directly to the links😅😂❤

Well then happy reading ,dearies! 💕💫

ps : please make sure to go and like/appreciate/comment the original fics of the writers mentioned here :D ♡

❃ Cosmic Railway by @love-we-write ❤

Jake and MC are soulmates indeed, their dreams and fate beautifully depicted - multichapter of a total 7 parts!

❃ Tempt me by @mysticpetals ❤

Oneshot♡ - A snippet where MC with wings as white as her soul,is a guardian angel who had a connection somehow to the Mwaf who is a demon, in a totally AU!

❃ Play me! by @hacked-by-jake ❤

Oneshot♡ - Find out how MC mesmerised Jake, with their passion in playing piano!!

❃ We are family by @the-flowerwolf ❤

Oneshot♡ - A brother and sister relationship of the Hawkins, a warm feeling (+warm tears?) is guaranteed!

❃ Beautiful dream by @zmayadw ❤

Oneshot♡ - After solving the kidnapping case and slowly turning towards the peaceful path, Jake and MC meet but, how (dare) could Jake try to run away from his love immediately?

❃ The game has just begun by @escapethewonderland ❤

Oneshot♡ - Someone that MC thought of as a caring brother, is actually what they truly feared not to be.

❃ The forest was never still by @lyricsofravensong ❤

Oneshot♡- What if MC was one among the people who own the word 'guilty' craved in their heart because of the you know who's death, 10 years ago?

�� Where past is forgotten by @booklover-01040 ❤

Starting with the end of episode 6,how about encountering and reading a different, unique ending of this game?(completed before ep10 release) . A multichapter of about 36 parts!

❃ No stay! Please by @non-binaryzombie ❤

Oneshot♡ - Jealousy gone too far between Darkness and MC's relationship.

❃ Written in the stars by @dreamer-writer-fangirl ❤

Oneshot ♡ - Takes place after ep8, Jake and MC who are practically far away from each other, prove that long distance can never reduce the love they hold for each other.

❃ Ciphers inside of me by @ephemeral-sorrow ❤

Oneshot♡ - A past between young MC and Jennifer , that makes you wonder.

❃ Let's dance by @i-desire-jake ❤

A really cute, sweet highschool AU, pairing Jake x MC - has two parts!

❃ Therapy by @digital-corruption ❤

Oneshot♡ - Funny and unimaginable combo of Dr Ulric Barret and the chaotic duskwood group.

❃ Bullet for him by @lois-carroline ❤

Oneshot♡ - MC would go any limit to save their love, Jake. And now, a bullet.. Are they and Jake safe?

❃ Consequences by @jakeismylover ❤

Oneshot♡- You(MC) always imagined of running together with Jake from his persuers, but instead you're running away to save yourself from him(Jake as mwaf)

❃ You're mine by crow-chaos❤

A Phil x MC x Jake x FBI based fic. Yay That's all info I can give, I'll leave it to you to read further - has two parts!

❃ Your Favourite Gone Place by @duskwood-legacies ❤

Oneshot♡ - A heartmelting side of Phil Hawkins! , pairing Phil x MC

On the contrary, I basically held myself from pouring out my overwhelming emotions about these fics rn😂😭, So a huge thank you , dear authors!💝❤ Thank you very much for making our days better with your writings! ✨(this 3000% goes to all fandom writers and other creaters too, of course🥰❤)

I know I've haven't added some other (g)old fics here. Either it is not showing in search or I don't remember properly. It wasn't intentional, I am sorry :( ❤

Seesh I almost rambled.I'll stop before I start again .Take care of yourself and much love! 💝🌸