#and most of them are evil or inclined toward evil or evil acts and i love how julian is just. there. sweating probably

[daedrabela]

broke: still caring about an ex's opinion

woke: not living by anyone's opinions

mental illness: tailoring your life for THEIR opinions

[sabrgirl]

things that aren't inherently islamic but have improved my deen ♡

practising mindfulness

mindfulness meditation (focusing on my breathing for 10-15 minutes a day and bringing my attention back to my breath every time my mind wanders) helps with concentration in salah. through practising this every day, you're able to bring your attention back to the moment much better as you train your brain to do so with your breath.

helps to ground myself in the moment rather than stress about the future and past - allows me to surrender to Allah سُبْحَٰنَهُۥ وَتَعَٰلَىٰ much better and have tawakkul and sabr by learning to enjoy each day as it comes

journalling

shadow work

islam is fundamentally based on disciplining and self-regulating the nafs/ego. if you do not discipline your nafs, you will end up inclining towards evil: '‘And I do not hold my own self (nafs) to be free from weakness; for, the soul is surely prone to enjoin evil, except that whereon my Lord has mercy. Surely, my Lord is Most Forgiving, Merciful.’ (12:54). it was a saying by many elder islamic scholars and early muslims that 'he who knows himself knows His Lord'.

shadow work is when you address the hidden parts of yourself that we naturally and/or subconsciously suppress inside because we don't like them. the ego/nafs does this. you can find journal prompts on google, for eg 'shadow work prompts for anxious attachment' or 'shadow work prompts for male validation' etc - whatever it is you know is a problem about you. or, if you don't know where to start, just type in 'shadow work prompts' on google and you'll find something for you

through understanding in more detail what my ego does through addressing my fears in life and hardship/trauma i've experienced, i'm able to let go of those parts of myself, make an action plan to do things differently and become a better person. as a result, i'm able to make better decisions based off of righteousness and what pleases Allah, rather than acting based off of what scares my ego.

for eg - something happened when i was young that made me have an internal fear of being replaced which i had *no* idea i had. yet, i was acting on this fear subconciously, as i've always wanted to be original and i've had such distinct/original things that other people don't usually have so that i can stand out and it can become impossible to replace me. i was doing this so subconsiously but my nafs/ego was scared inside. when people asked me 'where is that from?' i wouldn't want them to know and would become very upset if they tried to 'copy me'. it wasn't until my best friend wanted to know where my perfume was from and i didn't want to tell her and ended up arguing with her that i realised i have a problem. i did shadow work and journalled about it to figure out why i'm acting this way. after doing this shadow work, it led me back to that big change in my life when i was a child and i realised that it hurt my ego a lot and resulted in me having a big fear of being replaced, with the outcome being i want to stand out and have things that are my own that it becomes so hard for someone to be me. after addressing and realising this, i've now let go of that fear and that part of me. i'm much more kinder to the creation now when they ask me where something i have/am wearing is from and, as i feel much more peaceful inside, i tell them where it's from with genuineness and sincerity. doing this can help with so many internal behaviours like jealousy, anxiety, being unhappy when other people get something you want, anger, attachments to people, love etc.

shadow work helps me get rid of attachments to worldly things and people (as the ego gets attached easily) after understanding why i am / why i act in a certain way too

gratitude

gratitude journalling helps me be thankful to Allah for what he has done for me. in hardship, i'm able to recognise the good that i still have. i've written more about how this has helped my deen here.

writing my feelings when i'm angry and/or upset

helps me process my emotions better and not act on my feelings by being rude to others in the moment

prevents me from backbiting and gossiping bc i just journal about how people have made me feel. backbiting is when you slander someone behind their back to someone else. through journalling, if i'm upset, i can write down my feelings, i can call people losers and get it all out of my system because it's just to myself, no one will read it. after this, why do i need to go to someone else and gossip? i don't need to. i've already released it all.

yoga and pilates

the physical body, mind and soul are all linked. as shown in the book, 'the philosophy of the teachings of islam':

this means that exercising our body affects our mind and soul too. science has shown that trauma and stress is stored in the shoulders and other parts of our body. having movement and especially exercises like yoga that focuses on stretching, flexibility, breathing and regulating blood flow in the body releases this emotional baggage.

islam is a religion of discipline that requires effort. when you feel good inside, you're more likely to be more disciplined and put in the effort, as opposed to when you feel bad inside which can often lead to laziness and fatigue. doing yoga and releasing my stress through exercising and stretching helps me feel positive and good inside, enabling me to fulfil my religious duties better with a positive mind and body. in islam, maintaining physical health is highly encouraged and our Beloved Prophet ﷺ emphasised having a strong and healthy body.

[dreamingofthewild]

I feel like people often misunderstand why Gale chooses to stay behind after you side with the goblins. And to an extent, why he also stands by a romanced character in their evil ending.

Gale choosing to stay doesn’t imply that he is easily corruptible, secretly evil, or weak-willed. Given the limited time he has to find a secluded spot to avoid collateral damage from the orb when ceremorphosis hits, he doesn't really have much of a choice but to think about survival.

Gale has been living with a death sentence due to the orb, one he has been trying to mitigate, so he has had a long time to think about his mortality and he doesn't want to die—especially not while he still hasn't been forgiven by Mystra. His decision to stay with the party, even under morally dubious circumstances, underscores his pragmatic approach to survival rather than an inherent inclination towards evil.

Gale is undeniably drawn to powerful individuals. However, beneath this attraction lies his tendency to see the good in people and rationalise things.

Gale’s capacity for love is profound and intense. His love isn't just affection; it's worship. His romantic devotion is incredibly passionate yet self-destructive. It places Gale in a position where he might find himself in an unequal power dynamic again without him realising it.

His tendency for romantic idealism can prevent him from recognizing toxic patterns. Ultimately, Gale’s decision to stay with such powerful and potentially evil figures is not about compromising his morals but rather about being blinded by love, not wanting to give it up easily and a deep understanding of the complexities of human nature.

In the events of the game he still doesn't fully recognise that his relationship with Mystra is problematic. It stands that he might not realise that he is getting himself into a relationship with another unequal power dynamic.

It might also be that he doesn't want to abandon his loved one, just like Mystra abandoned him. This doesn’t mean that he is going to compromise his own morals, however. He chooses to support and stand by the person he loves, as long as they stand by him. He will challenge them, but he will act with the empathy and consideration that Mystra never afforded him. Once again, his own experience and desire for agency are most likely guiding his choices.

His devotion and hope are beautiful yet tragic, making him a deeply romantic character prone to repeating past mistakes in his quest for love and acceptance.

He does have a darker side which is attracted to knowledge and power. But it's easy to forgot that his intentions are never immoral or malicious.

When it comes to love, knowledge, and power, Gale has a significant blind spot (moral blindness maybe?). Ultimately, he just wants to love, live, and be accepted for who he is, rather than what he can do for others. His desire for happiness and to see his loved ones happy often drives his decisions. As well as a confidence in his own abilities and ability to handle situations.

So, yes, Gale might stay with his romanced partner even in an evil ending. But this doesn't mean he is evil himself. It simply reflects his humanity and the depths of his devotion. Strong emotional bonds can lead someone to remain involved with a deeply flawed and morally ambiguous partner.

It will be a toxic romance, but Gale's willingness to stay with a morally ambiguous love interest reflects not in his morality but in his approach to love. If he'd had a normal relationship and didn't have the orb then his reactions might have been different.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 160 thoughts

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 17

Aqua Hoshigan Status: Incomprehensible

144 held out strong for nearly 20 whole chapters but 160 comes in like a beast to take its crown as Oshi no Ko Chapter That Has Baffled And Confounded Me The Most. The way it talks about the characters and arcs it's trying to convey to the reader is just mind boggling - some of this stuff just feels completely disconnected from the character arcs it's supposedly commentating on. It almost feels like an Oshi no Ko chapter from an alternate universe version of the manga.

I kind of suspect this is actually the case, in spirit at least. Akasaka has previously stated that he's had at least an ending for OnK planned at least since midway through Tokyo Blade based on when this interview was given. You would think the amount of time between then and now would have given Aka the time to organically work towards this but I think the opposite is true here - because the story has organically drifted and grown in the telling, as is natural for a serialized work of this length, the story that Akasaka ended up telling does not naturally lead into the ending he wanted to give it. And rather than compromise he's just… going ahead with it without making any adjustments, which leads to this bizarre sense of whiplash that's come from the last handful of chapters.

It's definitely possible that some of the stuff in here will read better when we're not getting this stuff bit by bit across however many break weeks but… man. I ain't getting my hopes too high.

To my relief, we start off on a note of confirming that Nino and Ryosuke were, in fact, both freaks about Ai way before Kamiki ever got involved with them. Even so, the story's framing of how he influenced them is just… weird. Based on the little flashback panels we see of their supposed friendship I'm inclined to think Kamiki is being truthful here just because whenever we see on-panel flashbacks in this way, they tend to be more-or-less factual accounts of events. Aqua tries to say he's lying, that he definitely intended to do harm but this is really hard for me to swallow, given that this 'intent to do harm' ball would've had to have started rolling back when Kamiki was fourteen at the oldest and long before he and Ai broke up.

Not only that but I have to stress, again; Nino and Ryosuke were already freaks about Ai at this point!!! They tracked down one of her loved ones under false pretenses and entered his life presumably for the purposes of crowbarring info about Ai from him!!! Wil from the OnK Brainrot server pointed out that this comes off much more strongly like Ryosuke and Nino taking advantage of Kamiki's naivety to prey on Ai, which I agree with and think lines up way more straightforwardly with the Kamiki we saw leading up to 154 and its conclusion.

It almost feels like there's two Kamikis; the victim of circumstance Kamiki who embraces monstrousness as an act of reclamation, who knows he can never again be good so he will surrender to being bad and the flatly evil Light Yagami ass Kamiki who's bad because uhhh he just is ok? It probably goes without saying which of the two I find more compelling and overall more consistent with what the story has been building up so far, but the way the story keeps abruptly switching between the two makes it almost impossible to get a coherent read on him.

At the end of the day, I simply find it very hard to swallow the manga's attempt to almost sweep Nino and Ryosuke's culpability under the rug or to transfer the weight of their actions to Kamiki and hold him accountable for them because of this supposed manipulation. A healthy, well-adjusted person with no tendencies towards violent or antisocial behaviour does not suddenly get mindbroken into a misogynistic murderer overnight because they saw that the subject of their parasocial obsession keeps a toothbrush at her boyfriend's house. I can believe that Kamiki certainly didn't help but the idea that he is solely responsible for turning Nino and Ryosuke into violent murderers is a stretch.

I feel like I'm kind of talking in circles on this point a lot because I'm struggling to articulate why it bothers me so much so I'll end this section by paraphrasing a section of Higurashi YouTuber Bess's deep dive post-mortem on the GouSotsu anime duology. that I think sums up where I'm at.

In it, Bess quotes the original author in describing the actions of the overarching antagonist as "giving a gun to someone who is being bullied and getting emotional" and says that she agrees but points out that if the victim chooses to fire that gun, they are the ones who hold responsibility for their actions and that being the victim of manipulation does not suddenly rob them of accountability for their violence, whereas the framing of GouSotsu is that the overarching villain is the sole person who bears responsibility.

I feel like this is the dynamic at play here with Kamiki and Ryosuke/Nino too - except Kamiki, in this metaphor, didn't even fucking give anyone a gun because both Ryosuke and Nino were already armed to begin with. BUT I'LL MOVE ON NOW I SWEAR…

Aside from ^ ALL THAT ^ I also feel like this chapter's attempt to define the white/black hoshigan dichotomy is also just kind of a flop. It's so overly specific that it doesn't actually match with how the black OR white hoshigans have been portrayed symbolically before (was Aqua using his super special dark and evil star powers to dominate and manipulate others when he was eating potato chips and pumping up a pool floatie? come on, man) but it's also just so on the nose and overly dramatic that it comes off as kind of goofy and hard to take seriously.

It's also really funny and kind of frustration to see this dichotomy established seemingly for the purposes of just propping Ruby up some more. Aqua insisting that Ruby is ~just different~ from him and Hikaru REALLY flops because like… IS SHE REALLY THO???

Understand that I don't say this to shit on Ruby but like. Ruby literally had a whole arc about going black hoshigan and using her talent to manipulate and use people for her own benefit! She effectively utilized girl power to put the jobs of an entire TV show's worth of people at risk so she could clout chase a little more efficiently!!! Literally everything Kamiki tries to assert about him and Aqua are also perfect descriptions of how Ruby behaved during that leg of the manga until it flipped off like a switch and she faced literally zero consequences and learned nothing from it.

This is another indication to me that this conversation is an artifact of Akasaka's originally planned ending because this whole bit gassing up how Ruby is just ~so different~ from Kamiki and Aqua simply does not cohere with a story where Ruby had an entire arc of her just being Aqua 2.0 that was never really resolved and she never really learned anything from. If the framing here was just a LITTLE different, I think it could work - maybe instead of Aqua acting like Ruby is just intrinsically, arbitrarily Pure of Heart or whatever, a point could be made that Ruby is actively choosing to be a good and loving person even after all the shit she's been through and especially after an accidental taste of the dark side. But as it stands the accidental implication of the story ends up being that Ruby's BH era was Good, Actually and the actions she took during it were also good lol.

I continue to have all the same issues with the B-Komachi concert as I did in my previous chapter review so I won't repeat myself on that. I will, however, point out that the song Ruby namedrops in this chapter is a reference to Spica (where we translated it as 'When You Wish Upon Your Star'), in which this is a song written and performed by Ai as a message of support for her fans. That is to say, we are once again seeing Ruby, from a narrative perspective, not being allowed to stand on her own as her own idol but relying on the imagery and legacy of Ai's idolhood.

Not only that but… again, I must ask: why is Ruby the center and narrative focus of Kana's graduation concert? Like, obviously, given that Aqua and Kamiki are talking about her the framing is going to focus on Ruby but why is this conversation happening during a moment that had been massively built up to be about Kana? Why is Aqua talking about Ruby as an idol like the rest of B-Komachi just doesn't exist? Why is the narrative unironically indulging in all the same favoritism and coddling of Ruby that, in-universe, tore apart the first generation of B-Komachi?

I guess at the end of the day my problem is that I'm just kind of fed up with Ruby as a character and the way the story has been bending over backwards to coddle her so it's hard to me to get invested when the story goes YEAAAAHHH WOOOOOO RUBY!!!! Especially when, like it has been for a while now, this coddling comes not just at the expense of other characters but also at the expense of Ruby herself and the coherency and consistency of her character arc. It sucks for Ruby as a character and it sucks for me, as a reader, who used to rank Ruby as one of their top three faves but now just feels kind of exhausted with her.

LOOK OUT KAMIKI HE'S GOT A KNIFE

God this whole bit with Aqua getting double white hoshigans while he pulls a knife on Kamiki is just kind of too goofy to take seriously lol. I have some thoughts about how this potentially recontextualizes some of Aqua's actions through the Movie Arc and during the previous confrontation with Kamiki but. I just keep coming back to Aqua being like "white hoshigans means love r something which i'm going to prove by killing you in cold blood" and just shaking my head. It really feels like a moment written just to be a cliffhanger so, like I have with the last three damn chapters, I'll hold back any commentary on it until we get a continuation of this thread next week.

honestly the part of this chapter I enjoyed most was that creepypasta ass full page panel of Kamiki's fucked up smile. that genuinely really alarmed me when i first saw it and even now I don't like looking at it for too long or i get the willies lol. Genuinely fire horror imagery from Mengo as usual. Can she PLEEEEEEEEASE do a horror manga next i'm BEGGING to get spooked by mengo-sensei

no wait i lied. the best part was that cute panel of ai and her babies. <3

justice for memcho and kana, tho, for real

And I'm sure as none of you will be shocked to hear……….. break next week.

[iamnmbr3]

Severus calling Lily a slur in a fit of rage and humiliation while being bullied - obviously very bad. James publicly sexually assaulting Severus - obviously much worse?!!! That was some serious sadism on display. Yet for some bizarro reason the narrative wants me to judge the words said in this scene more harshly than the deeds done, because at this point Lily - an author self-insert and the Holy Mother of this saga - cuts one off for their crime and falls in love with the other. I do not like that Lily’s romantic choice is treated as some sort of absolution, but it’s what JKR implied. Despite paralleling James’ actions with the Death Eaters ‘sick’ ’torture’ of the Muggles at the Quidditch World Cup! Idk, I was never satisfied with the lack of follow through on the implications of that scene, nor with the textual idea that Snape’s fixation on the Marauders is petty childishness, rather than a quite understandable trauma response.

Yeah. I have a huge issue with the way James is framed by the narrative. It's also weird because in-universe everything works fine. The problem comes when we look at the jarring disconnect between what was written and the way the audience is cued to react. James's characterization - and the characterization of the Marauders - is well done and consistent. They all act and react realistically given who they are. The problem comes when we look at how we the audience are supposed to react. Because we are supposed to see their actions as bad, but not THAT big of a deal. And uh...yikes.

The Snape's Worst Memory sequence is one of the most horrifying and sadistic moments in the series. I find it particularly visceral and upsetting because it feels real in a way that some of the more fantastical scenes just don't. It's so horrifying and personal in a way that Voldemort punishing his minions or a snake coming out of a lady just isn't. The way James and the others so obviously delight in tormenting and humiliating Snape is just horrific. And the fact that they do this out in the open and face little pushback and no consequences makes it even more awful.

Even worse, everything we see in the narrative suggests that what they did wasn't even that unusual for them. The behavior and dialogue we see from Snape and from the Marauders makes it very clear that doing this sort of thing to Snape is a regular pastime. The reason this is Snape's worst memory is because of the effect this particular incident ended up having on his relationship with Lily, not because of the horrible treatment he endured which was horrifyingly routine.

JK Rowling seems to like Snape. But at the same time I think she tends to have a view (common among TERFs btw) that discounts men as victims of assault. Because that's what this was. And I know if a woman had been stripped and exposed by a group of boys JKR would not have treated it as lightly. Yes she thinks what happened was bad, but not THAT bad. And listen I don't have a problem with the story depicting this and I think the way it is viewed subsequently by the Marauders, wizarding society and Snape all work in the story. My problem is with the framing and the way JKR has talked about James in interviews where it makes clear that she doesn't view this with the gravity it deserves.

James shows more of a natural inclination towards sadism and obvious enjoyment of cruelty and violence than young Tom Riddle does. And this is never dealt with. A lot of the real evil people of the world are more like James - people who aren't the way they are because of some dramatic backstory or because of trauma or whatever. They just aren't kind. James wasn't raised without love or forced to suffer privation in an orphanage or anything like that. He comes from a loving home with parents who spoil him rotten. He has a lot of privilege due to both his wealth and his blood status. And he is cruel and delights in tormenting someone weaker than him for sport. Not because Snape did something to him. Not because they quarreled and James went too far in retaliation. But rather because, as James himself puts it, he exists. Which is so typical of the bullies of the world.

I actually like the fact that Harry's father turns out to be this kind of person. It think it adds depth and complexity to the narrative. But I don't think JKR fully understood or intended what she wrote. She meant to show James as flawed, but not to the extent that she ended up doing I think. And I agree that has always bothered me too.

[inbarfink]

Okay, so that previous post was a bit of a goof but also… kinda not?

I mean, I already did a silly rambly post trying to figure out my thoughts about an Ineffable Husbands Petrigrof AU. And specifically about the idea of how an Aziraphale-as-Simon-as-Ice-King would even work and what he would be obsessed with. By that I mean that books seems like the obvious choice but also that might be too well-suited for Aziraphale? You know, when the whole point of the Magic Crown’s curse is that it made Simon into a totally different person. Like, it’s not like Ice King liked collecting ancient artifacts… or books for that matter. Simon loves books too!

And it’s really just recently that it hit me that I was looking at it from the totally wrong angle! Like, Simon was not just generally inclined towards princesses from the get-go - he became obsessed with princesses and romance because he was missing Betty! That’s like a whole Big Obvious Point in ‘Holly Jolly Secrets’!

So what I need to think about isn’t just the Magic Crown exaggerating and twisting Aziraphale’s general personality and behavior - it’s the Magic Crown exaggerating and twisting Aziraphale’s behaviors and emotions when he feels like he lost Crowley forever. The question here is ‘how would Aziraphale cope with losing Crowley’ and then twisting and exaggerating it until Aziraphale feels like a wholly different person.

(or, well, nearly so. I mean, like I said the chasm of difference between Simon Petrikov and Ice King are a very important thematic point I would like to preserve but also… given as this IS an AU, I would also like every variation of Aziraphale to read as Recognizably Azirapahle on some level. So that means the difference between ‘Ezra Fell’ and ‘Snow Angel’ might not be as extreme as the original Simon and IK but… it should still be a Difference!)

So… well… this might be yet another case where Good Omens S3 would end up being very instructive to an Adventure Time AU. Like, how would Aziraphale act if he thought that he lost Crowley forever? Well, just Wait and See in S3! Buuut… S3 is still a long way away (and also the circumstances between the Ineffable Divorce and what happened with Simon and Betty are very different so whatever happens in S3 might not be a perfect match), so let’s see what I can think up right now…

Does Snow Angel just kidnap random people to try and make them his drinking buddies or take them out to dinner? Does he try to go after, like, ‘bad boys’? Maybe he tries to make Evil folks good with the power of his ‘love’? You know, that’s not what the Aziraphale/Crowley dynamic actually is but it is the misconception Aziraphale seems to have about it sometimes - so it can play into the whole ‘whoops turns out my view of our relationship was totally biased and wrong!’ thing Simon goes through in ‘Fionna and Cake!

Or maybe instead of kidnapping people… Snow Angel is infamous in Ooo for putting himself in perilous situations and looking for some romantic rescue that never quite comes? 

Or maybe Aziraphale’s longing for Crowley makes him fall even more into his hedonistic streak. You know, Crowley loves to tempt him, enjoying Earthly Indulgences together is their most common pastime… If Aziraphale was trying to chase the Feeling that Crowley Made Him Feel while the Magic Crown was also eating away at his sanity and his actual memories of Crowley… maybe the thing he ends up chasing in a futile attempt to fill the hole Crowley has made in his life is just more and more mindless hedonism? (And you can actually bring the Book Hoarding idea back into it, it’s just that Snow Angel would be hoarding a lot more than just books)

Or maybe Aziraphale would go in the total opposite direction, maybe he’ll cope by totally turning his back on Crowley and his questions and their mutual love of life and instead start embracing Heaven-like ideas of coldness and discipline and an incredibly black-and-white, self-righteous and self-centered view of the world? On the one hand it feels very thematically appropriate for the Magic Crown’s effect on Aziraphale to be counterpart to Heaven Propaganda…. But on the other hand, I feel like it kinda leads Snow Angel into being a more Serious type of villain than an Ice King Counterpart should be?

I still need to think which of these options I like best, but I feel like I’m finally going at the right direction for this AU! Right now I am leaning mostly to the hedonism focus, especially as it seems like a good way to balance out the whole thing where Ezra Fell and Snow Angel can have seemingly totally different personalities but also on some level are both recognizably a version of Aziraphale Goodomens?

[fantasyquests]

Rewatching Season 1: Some thoughts on episode 6 1. Orcs, Humans and Elves. In this episode, two storylines come together as the Numenoreans come to aid of the Southlanders and join in the battle against the orcs. The same as in the previous episodes, I love that the orcs are presented as complex, three-dimensional beings, in addition to being vicious and terrifying. A case in point is their motivation. It would have been so easy to simplify them and show them fighting as mindless automatons in service of some master, or to show them attacking the villagers just because they like the taste of man-flesh (though they probably do!). Instead, the scriptwriters give us the orcs who are fighting to win themselves a home. This is very a convincing and relatable motive, and very similar to what Arondir expresses in his conversation with Bronwyn. He encourages her to persevere by promising her that if they win the battle, they and Theo will live together in a new home and plant alfirin seeds in their new garden. Some of these seeds are planted before the battle by both Adar and Arondir, who observe the same elvish custom symbolizing a belief that the new life will spring "in defiance of death". However, Adar has to be aware that, in his case, planting the seeds will remain just a symbolical act, or just a relic of his previous life as an elf: because, at a physical level, he is creating a sunless place covered in volcano ash where no alfirin could possibly grow.

There are several other ways in which the writers toy with the idea that the orcs, humans and elves cannot be clearly separated from one another, and that the line dividing them constantly needs to be re-examined. For instance, when Arondir discovers that the blood of some of the attackers is red, and then unmasks their faces to find out that they were not orcs, but humans. And most strikingly, in the conversation between Adar and Galadriel, which is possibly my favourite scene in the entire season. Adar says to Galadriel: "Perhaps I am not the only elf who has been transformed by darkness" and indeed, some of Galadriel's actions and intentions suggest that she, too, has been touched by darkness. It is interesting that she resorts to almost the same strategy as Adar to make him talk. She does not threaten to torture him, but his "children", by exposing them to sunlight. In the same vein, Adar tried to exert pressure on Arondir and make him reveal the location of the hilt key not by threatening to kill him, but by threatening and killing the villagers. This entire scene is a wonderful homage to Tolkien and the dilemma he expressed in his letters, on whether the orcs are worthy of life and can be redeemed. I also love Adar's mention of a mirror -- because, the same as the alfirin seeds, it works at both symbolical and physical level. He tells Galadriel that she should search for Morgoth's successor in her own mirror, whereby the mirror symbolizes introspection: Galadriel needs to become aware of her own capacity for evil. But it could also be a prefiguration of Galadriel's magical mirror, which we will encounter in The Lord of the Rings. I wonder if it's possible that this was the original purpose of the mirror: not to show the future, but to enable the person looking at it to gain self-insight.

2. Redemption. Not knowing who Halbrand is, Galadriel tells him that by participating in the battle against the orcs, he has redeemed himself. "Whatever you have done in the past, be free of it." This is another sign of her immaturity, something that I expect she will outgrow in the course of the series. I would characterize it as a flip side of her judgmental attitude towards Adar and the orcs: just as she sees them as completely evil, she seems inclined to see Halbrand as completely good and is convinced (without any evidence) that whatever he has done in the past cannot be terribly bad. Admittedly, this is partly due to Halbrand/Sauron's masterful deception and manipulation. But while Sauron clearly deceives Galadriel when it comes to his identity and his past (mis)deeds, it's interesting that he seems to be completely honest when it comes to his feelings. I don't think that he deceives her when he talks about the bond he has felt while fighting by her side. In his twisted way, he clearly feels inspired by her and encouraged to start developing new plans for Middle Earth. Perhaps he even hopes that, with Galadriel by his side, he can turn to Light.

In connection to this, I wonder why he prevented Galadriel from killing Adar. Was it for a pragmatic reason (because he needed Adar to create Mordor for him)? Was it to pretend that he was good and noble, by helping Galadriel check her rage and her vengeful feelings, and reminding her she should not strike at a prisoner who is chained and unarmed? Or was he really good and noble for one brief moment?

Links to previous analyses:

Episode 1 Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4 Episode 5

[paxopalotls]

RAHH i just read both your tue danny / phantom / dan centric works, and how does it feel to be so correct and compelling and correct? more seriously - what about TUE / TUE Danny do you find most interesting to explore? do you have any characterization / headcanon that isn't necessarily canon compatible? and free space (please ramble about them as much as you want)

Sorry it's taken me so long to go through my inbox! I hope you don't mind the long text; TUE is one of my favorite episodes and Dan is a character that I find very fascinating.

Thank you for the kind words aahh! I don't often write so it means a lot that you liked my works. For context if anyone else is reading this, I wrote a couple IB fics about Dan/Phantom, and my thoughts about him, which I'll elaborate on here.

I have a lot of feelings about Dan, especially since he as a character is so tragic. It's strange to me that no one ever mentions the fact that when Vlad performed the removal of Danny's human half, it was Phantom that betrayed Vlad, not the other way around. I always thought that meant there was something wrong with Dan after the accident also. I delve into it a little in my fic, but I do have more thoughts about his attitude. It's interesting to me that the comic portrays his actions as being motivated by Vlad's self preservation and selfishness, and I don't necessarily disagree, but I do think it's more complicated than that. I personally believe his actions have a very complex motivation, more than just "Vlad is evil so fusing with him made Danny also evil".

It's difficult to deal with grief, and from the few scenes shown, it seems Dan dealt with it by shutting down. I also think he had a lot of conflicting feelings of grief and rage; Danny was the one who regularly defeated the ghosts, but he was also the one protecting them from the human ghost hunters, releasing the ghosts back into the GZ rather than allowing them to be taken for experimentation. I think it would anger him that his lenience towards the ghosts was taken advantage of, leading to the deaths of his friends and family. Vlad never showed an inclination towards abusing the ghosts, so this is what I believe caused him to do such uncharacteristically violent things like paralyze Johnny 13 from the waist down, permanently damage one of Box Ghost's eyes and one of his hands, and destroy Ember's vocal cords.

Something I touched on in my fic too is that I believe Danny has a weird relationship with death, due to the fact that he managed to come back from it, and also due to the general existence of ghosts in his life. AGIT states that all ghosts are people who've died, as well as that some lose their humanity over time. Due to this, I have a belief/theory that Dan expected his friends, if not family, to come back, and when they didn't, he dealt with his loneliness through anger. In TUE, he acts like he doesn't care about any of them, but I think he actually cares too much. He is caustic and taunting towards them, his parents especially, because his anger at them for hurting him is compounded by his grief at their loss.

In addition, the interference of Clockwork probably also contributed to his anger; there are two timelines that exist, the one where Danny lost and the one where he didn't, and the only reason that he won was because of the interference of Time himself. I think this is a lot of what motivates Dan's actions in TUE; he's trying to prove to Danny that the timeline is "inevitable" because he's trying to prove it to himself. His loved ones have already died, and he's angry that this alternate Danny gets a second chance. The only moment of true vulnerability we see in him during TUE is when he realizes that Jazz, his Jazz from his timeline, had always known who he was. It's obvious that despite his efforts to seem unemotional about everything, all of his actions are due to his turbulent emotions, and this is even more evident in canon due of AGIT confirming that ghosts are beings of emotion.

I do think Vlad's emotional state also compounds with this, since Vlad as a character is more prone to hiding his hurts than Danny, which is a large part of what makes up Dan's personality. In addition, Vlad's character is largely driven by a desire for family and affection, but he responds to this insecurity with a need for control and self-aggrandizement. Vlad's goals throughout the show are to amass power, largely to prove himself to those he cares about - Danny and Maddie - as well as to spite those he hates - Jack. His feelings for Jack seem more complicated than that, however; he is upset at what he sees as a betrayal by someone he obviously cared about; the two of them were best friends and roommates before Maddie was in the picture.

I think both Danny and Vlad center a lot of themselves on the people they love, though it's more evident on Vlad's side, and Dan as a combination of them does as well. His tendency is often similar to "splitting" in BPD, where he responds to a perceived betrayal or personal weakness with volatility, which is something Vlad does as well, with Jack, Maddie in some ways and especially with Danny. Dan as well responds with hostility towards people he is attached to who he perceives as hurting him, something that is complicated by the fact that part of what he blames them for is the fact that they died. He is especially ruthless with people he sees as betraying him or his lenience, like Valerie and the ghost rogues gallery; this is also a combination of Vlad and Danny's personalities. Vlad's hatred tends to be more long-standing than Danny's but he also tends to be more methodical with his actions. Danny on the other hand responds to his own anger with immediate aggression, but lets go of slights relatively quickly. Dan, as the combination of the two, holds grudges for a long time, but tends to rely on brute force rather than long term plans like Vlad would have.

He also has a lot of self-loathing, which he projects onto Danny and Vlad from this timeline, Danny especially. As I mentioned earlier, a large factor in this is Clockwork's direct involvement in the current timeline, which superseded his. In addition, I think that Danny and Vlad's interpersonal dynamic might have fed into this; both of them can't bring themselves to permanently harm the other but they do both hold some level of resentment for the other, Danny more-so since Vlad has an attachment to him. Danny's hatred for Vlad especially seems to derive in part from his own fears about himself and his selfishness, and I think that influences the way Dan interacts with both of them.

TLDR: Dan's specific concoction of mental illness derives from both Vlad and Danny, which affects a lot about how he acts and feels. There's a lot to explore about his trauma and how that relates to his new place in the current timeline, and I have a lot of feelings about him. (He makes me sad!!)

[libbee]

Why are Scorpio placements eccentric or unconventional?

This is in reply to a post by @astroismypassion and about Scorpio placements in general.

1. It intrigued me to know that scorpio placements strive to be unconventional and subjective in terms of academics, romance, hobbies, friends and even thoughts, ideas, opinions. They actively want to be different from the herd walk and frequently use the metric "Is everybody doing it? If yes then it is not worth doing. I will do what nobody else is doing." There is also the tendency to enjoy time by oneself alone and be very self aware of their behaviour, words, actions, emotions, thoughts, reactions. Once you identify what a scorpio looks like, you can start seeing a pattern in how MATURE scorpios think, act and live. They are all quite the same or similar.

2. Scorpio is the sign that falls on 8th house and is ruled by Mars and Ketu (vedic) or Pluto (tropical). Almost all mature scorpios have inclination towards self actualization because their feeling function is dominating. Since their method of relating to others is feeling based, they are very aware of how other people act and behave. They reflect upon themselves and find if they have the same qualities as others. It makes them yearn for originality and being unique, especially if their ego and self esteem is weak. One can say that scorpios have the predisposition towards being initiated in terms of spiritual and psychological development.

3. Since 8th house also deals with sudden, tumultuous and catastrophic events in life, scorpios are deeply affected by life events and strive to transform themselves in ways that they can control their life better, avoid pitfalls the next time catastrophe happens and fear losing control or being powerless. They cannot just take it lightly because it is about their power and power is a necessary evil in life.

4. My next theory is that all of us are acting on our active complexes. Carl Jung said about emotions that they are the involuntary reactions from active complexes. He said that emotions and feelings are not synonymous but different. Feeling, sensation, thinking, intuition are psychological functions while emotion is the fire that fuels the behaviour in the native. What it means is that a self aware person knows that their behaviour stems from a core complex and they yearn to solve that problem rather than live in neurotic state with intense guilt, shame, regret and self criticism. For example, they can identify mommy issues in themselves and others; once they identify, they try to outgrow the complex and overcome embarrassing behaviours.

There can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement without emotion.

5. Scorpio can also be said to have primitive tendencies because of their preoccupation with the collective unconscious. They are always reading, judging, thinking others and doing self reflection. They are thinking of why people are the way they are, what is their shadow side, insecurities, weaknesses, psychological issues? With high self awareness comes also the awareness of karma or action/reaction. They are moved by the suffering, sickness, poverty, problems in the world and fear they might face the same fate if they do not live in high morality and ethics.

6. For most of the air/fire signs, it can be said that they are so insecure in so many ways that they do not even know how much they are lacking, but water sign's sensitivity gives them ability to read the room and actively work on their psychological development. As for the claim that scorpio placements look down upon others as being superficial, I think this happens because of their life circumstances and bitter life lessons that make them go deeper, psychoanalyze themselves and others, find deeper meaning in life and deal with intense complexes constantly.

7. As to why scorpio males and females act differently, we might have to look into places outside astrology like how society works, culture, how society treats men v/s women, what kind of behaviours are rewarded and know that behaviour is not proof of inner life. A promiscuous scorpio is not like that because they like sex so much or they like to charm others, it might be because they feel so powerless in other area of their life that promiscuity gives them power over some people & makes them feel important. The opposite of Scorpio is Taurus which is concerned with stability, rigidity and loyalty. Loyalty is about self preservation, not wanting to lose what they have invested in, emotional security and expectation that "if I stay loyal, my partner will also reciprocate too".

8. To conclude, signs and houses should be viewed together in opposites because they exist like that in consciousness and shadow. As I have matured, I begin to see that people cannot be viewed in polarities and indeed scorpio placements will display the traits of taurus even if is it an empty house because they are trying to understand themselves through people and events.

🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼

[horizon-verizon]

The fact that Green stans are throwing trantums because even TG actors couldn’t say why people should be on their side.

There’s no such thing as “Black propaganda” bffr it’s not medieval times, TG actors are not traditionalist Catholics losers who live in the 15th century like their fans, like besides the far-right and male supremacists, who will willingly admit that usurping women & preventing them from ruling on the sole basis of their gender is the right thing to do ? Especially in a favor of a drunkard rapist ? Besides incels and religious fanatics, how many in 2024 are like: “she’s an evil slut for having sex outside marriage, that’s why she doesn’t deserves to rule, and natural children are inherently evil & don’t deserve rights.” They are not awful people like y’all who support femicide.

Professionally, they are all at some level trying to play into their character and for the viewership's primary mindset towards the situations the story on-screen present/how they interpret them. Most of the audience are "team black" /Team Rhaenyra/team woman or just see through the greens' bullshit. Fandoms are also notoriously much more aggressive, acerbic, and defensive in online fandom and public spaces.

At the same time, you see the actors overwhelmingly seem inclined to not bring up the core of the greens' cause/reason to start a war: women and girls should not be allowed to rule before an available male relative, as direct as possible but unnecessary. Such an idea may be valid or the God's truth for some in the fandom (which has been notoriously and sexistly & vocal since GoT ended) but thankfully, we're in a place in time where people are also very upfront and assertive about their progressive politics, at least the younger generations. And women have much more autonomous legal rights than they have had in past centuries. More people conceive as women as their own unique persons, too, even though yes women's rights are being rolled back in the U.S. as we speak. A lot of that expression is geared towards the absurdity of those rights being rolled back and giving historical/contemporary contextual context or just plain reasoning to de0naturalize those acts.

People are speaking up more about IPV, public day rapes, orchestrated and planned femicides, women getting punched in the face. Women online are expressing their own styles, dreams, and humor, as well as telling women and femme-presenting people to decenter men (or to stop attaching everything they do or think they have to do from the prospect or presence of a man/boy).

So I think that they simply couldn't gun for the slogan of "men-first" without getting positively reamed. Plus, the 1st season really didn't lean into the greens' canonically uber-sexist personas bc the show writers wanted to "equalize" the moral characterizations of the two sides. To either/both the greens as sympathetic or to try to insert more complexity to them than what the already-green-leaning F&B book had down as them being mostly ultra-misogynist advocates for self-ambition and hypocrisy. Even Ewan--Aemond's actor--kept to the eye bit instead of Aemond's "cunny", "whore" comments because of these two things. SO while I think it is fair to not hear the actors as themselves play into the sexism in the promos [bc an actor vs character are two different beings and I don't necessarily want to hear a 21st century famous person say sexist shit], I wish the show and its writing itself played more into more of the expressed sexism rather than just the subtle and one instance of Otto's words to Alicent. again, the show did this to make a "balance" b/t the groups and one glaring effect that happened was that it provided a mask for sexists, pick mes, and dudebros to argue for the greens without just coming out and saying they think girls and women should remain subsidary to men/boys in all aspects of life. Especially as candidates for leadership roles. I've had countless anons try to argue that Rhaenyra wasn't a good enough leader and so she should never had gone to war to reclaim her throne, that Aegon at least had a council he'd listen to and would rule in his name...um, hello, I though that the best sort of ruler was one who had the wherewithal to actually rule?!?! Plus, Aegon's moral character has always been inferior to Rhaenyra and you basically admitting that his leadership qualities is nothing to smile at is you basically whittling down the reason he should be king is bc he happens ot have a penis! Especiaally considering Rhaenyra's supporters outnumbered Aegon's and passionately fought for her even after death. Whereas Aegon was poisoned by his own people. Tg just needs to let things go, for everyone's sake.

[negpos-comments]

HELLOOOOOO TUMBLR!

So i'm not sure if someone has created a multifandom!helluvaverse (hellaverse?) but I've got some stuff written down in a google docs document I'd like to share. also, as it turns out, I don't actually know that many fandoms, so I'm requesting input from you lot. SOOOO, Introducing my take on the

MF!Helluvaverse (WIP)

everything about this is a WIP including the name i just thought it'd be funny cuz it kinda looks like it says MotherFucker!Helluvaverse-

Few Notes: I am a big Undertale fan and I tried to curb that here but i kinda made all the rings of hell UT/UTY Locations Im sorry- There are some ships that will result that are, hm, odd, to say the least. I tried to curb that a little bit. I'm trying to go with personality matches here, but i will have to be flexible with a lot. That flexibility will actually show up a lot, but as long as the basic concept can stay the same I'll allow it.

With that said...

Charlie Morningstar - Frisk (Undertale) Razzle, Dazzle, Kiki - WIP Vaggie - Chara (Undertale)

Ok, so the Frisk and Chara interpretations are based off of fanon rather than canon, since there's not much we know about Frisk and Chara's behavior in canon. I feel like I don't need to elaborate much here? I mean, I thought it was clever with the Vaggie-Chara thing, since they both fell from the victorious/more powerful world above, don't like talking about it that much, etc. etc. Charlie-Frisk i feel makes a good bit of sense. This does mean Charisk is a ship in this AU but considering I ship them I'm cool with it. If you don't like it maybe they're not in a relationship but are just good friends/see each other as pseudo-siblings? Any suggestions for Razzle, Dazzle, and Kiki? I had the inclination to use temmies but i feel like i used enough Undertale (especially looking later on with the rings)

Alastor - Bill Cipher (Gravity Falls) Niffty - Peridot (Steven Universe)

So. Alastor-Bill Cipher I feel needs no explanation. They're both tumblr sexymen with cool powers and evil tendencies (personally I feel like Pilot!Alastor is a tumblr sexyman and S1!Alastor doesn't but that's a can of worms for a different time). Niffty-Peridot is the one out of the initial six i spent the most time trying to think of, because I couldn't really think of anyone for Niffty, but then i remembered that she's kinda socially inept/unaware, and then I just thought of Peridot.

When Bill last went up against [Vox], The [Vees] had managed to place a spell on him, draining him of most of his power. The one he made the deal with lent him some power in exchange for his soul. His motivation is to defeat the [Vees], break the spell, and end the deal.

The Spell would be like the Magic Barrier in Gravity Falls, preventing Cipher from spreading his chaos beyond the town, except instead of limiting where the power extends to, it just limits how much power.

Angel Dust (Anthony) - The Ink Demon (Bendy) (BATIM/DR) Fat Nuggets - Boris (BATIM/DR) Husk - Cuphead (Cuphead)

Get ready for some real creative liberties on my part. So. Bendy would act more like the Bendy from that Hell's Kitchen AU rather than a canon version of Bendy. He's basically done with making films (whether you want that to be cartoons or porn films like in HH is up to you) but he still has to do it because of the contract. Meanwhile, I considered how Cuphead went to that casino and gambled his soul away. I also drew a bit of inspiration from the Casino Cups AU and how in that AU Cuphead ended up working for the Devil's Casino serving drinks and stuff. So, we've got a Cuphead who gambled his soul away to Bill and is at a very low point in his life. Because HH is gravitating towards HuskerDust, that would mean that in this AU BendyxCuphead is a ship. Uhh, take with that what you will. If you don't like it maybe they're not in a relationship but are just good friends or smth. Actually you can do this with all of the ships. Boris would be more like a small wolf/dog Bendy has as a pet rather than an actual person/character

Sir Pentious - Dr. Doofenshmirtz (Phineas and Ferb) Eggs - Perry the Platypus Clones (Phineas and Ferb)

This one is the one out of the main cast im most iffy about. Pentious and Doofenshmirtz are both science geniuses that try to be evil but fail every step of the way. Eventually they get redeemed. uhh i just chose lil perry clones cuz i thought'd be funny

Cherri Bomb - Harley Quinn (DC, Harley Quinn)

Chaotic, Fights for the people they care about, i think you can see the connections here

Zestial - Golden/Shadow Freddy (FNAF)

They're spooky people we dont know much about. That's all there is to it

Mimzy - Spinel (Steven Universe Future)

Now, when I say Spinel, im not talking about the Spinel from the Movie. The characterization of Spinel is drastically different between the movie and the epilogue series. Future paints Spinel as just an overly annoying and excited character that doesn't feel like that's what Spinel should be after the events of the Movie. SUFuture!Spinel feels like a good fit for Mimzy (plus they have the same voice actor, innit?). SUMovie!Spinel doesn't. I just wanted to clear that up here.

Emily - Crowley (Good Omens) Sera - Aziraphale (Good Omens)

Now, when I say Crowley, I mean Pre-Fall!Crowley, like the one we see at the beginning of S2 creating those stars and stuff. They're both really loving life and trusting of Heaven's plan but then they find out some stuff and things go awry. If you believe Em's gonna fall later in HH there's more parallels. Aziraphale believes in Heaven's plans and all that jazz, sticking to those beliefs and stuff, which I feel kinda mirrors Sera's insistence on the current plan Heaven is using.

Lucifer Morningstar - 10th Doctor (Doctor Who) Rubber Ducks - Mini K9's (Doctor Who)

Originally I was debating on whether or not to use the 10th or 11th Doctor, but i eventually stuck with the 10th. Sure, 11 is more silly, but i feel like 10 is just kinda angsty-filled while still retaining that charm and silliness. Plus, I liked the idea of having K9s as Rubber Ducks

Other Stuff

Heaven - Gallifrey (Doctor Who) Hell - Underground (Undertale/UTYellow) Exterminators - Red Guards (Squid Game) Ring of Pride - Ruins/Dark Ruins (UT/UTY) Ring of Wrath - Hotland (UT/UTY) Ring of Gluttony - Dunes (UTY) Ring of Greed - Snowdin (UT/UTY) Ring of Lust - Steamworks (UTY) Ring of Envy (No appearance yet) - Waterfall (UT) Ring of Sloth - New Home (UT/UTY) Belphegor (No appearance yet) - Medic (TF2) Blitzø - Dave Miller (DSAF)

WIP/Needed I'm still brainstorming and lookin for ideas. If you've got any suggestions for these (or for any of the others), let me know!

Upper Angels Pentagram City Imp City Satan (No appearance yet) Queen Bee Mammon Azmodeus Leviathan (No appearance yet) Moxxie Millie Luna Cherubs Dhorks Stolas Stella Octavia Fizzaroli Striker Crimson Adam Lilith Eve Roo (No appearance yet) Lute Happy Hazbin Hotel Razzle, Dazzle, Kiki Carmilla Carmine Odette and Clara Cannibal Town Rosie Vox Valentino Velvette

Welp. That's everything. I'll be taking any feedback

[yukidragon]

I don't know why, but I'm very sure that Ian's end will be that of the typical celebrity who can't forget his first love, womanizer, never has children and spends most of the with hateful behavior towards others but changes drastically in the public eye.

God! I can imagine a scenario where Ian is acting and sees a boy who looks like Alice, in case regrets from the past, follow the child and he finds out that the child is Alice's son, How Ian would he react to it? I'm sure he couldn't go on anymore

That’s a sad, but possible outcome if Ian never learns to let go of Alice and move on with his life. He’s certainly trying his hardest to cling to the security and comfort of nostalgia where she was his rock, his champion who loved and forgave him no matter what...

Given how Ian was tempted to cheat even while (presumably) very happy in a loving committed relationship, I do think it’s likely that he’ll wind up sleeping around. It’s so much easier to give in after the first time, especially when he’s painfully lonely and aching for love and pleasure.

I’m still debating if Ian was sexually active or not after the break up even while he’s still trying to win Alice back in Sunshine in Hell.

On the one hand Ian is hurting, lonely, and needing comfort for what he lost. He’s not in a relationship now, and Alice even told him that he can sleep around with all the hot models at his new school that he wants when she ended things between them. She basically gave him permission to do it... but it’s not a new relationship! And Ian isn’t strong like Alice is... and maybe if he “satisfies his manhood” while they’re broken up, he’ll never be tempted to cheat again...

On the other hand, Ian could just as easily be repulsed by the idea and racked with guilt at even the thought of it since it’s what made his relationship come crashing down around them.

Plus, I’ve heard that a lot of the excitement in affairs comes from the forbidden aspect of it all. Ian and MC living together and having sex was something “forbidden,” at least as far as his mother was concerned, and he really didn’t want people to know what they do. He might be turned on by the taboo nature...

Honestly, I am inclined towards the former. I can see Ian justifying it as a “necessary evil” of sorts to get out these urges, a way to “fix” what went wrong... and hot sex certainly is a vice many use to distract themselves from painful feelings they don’t want to feel...

After all the lengths Ian goes to in order to try and fix his relationship with Alice and get back with her... In a positive outcome, he finally learns to let go and accept the loss of their relationship and that some things can’t be fixed. In a negative outcome, he just can’t let go, even if he as a loss for what else he can do and otherwise gives up.

Ian dislikes loud parties. Likely he is and introvert, which would be the type of person who struggles with crowds. In order to make it as a model and actor, he had to learn to be able to handle all eyes on him, all the attention. The positive attention feels good, but also overwhelming. He has to be this pleasant persona in front of everyone, and wearing a persona can be exhausting when you’re introvert.

Over time it gets easier to wear the smile in front of the crowds, to be whatever persona that would advance his career best on the advice of his agent. No doubt Ian’s shy nature would be part of his persona now, this down to earth and wholesome sweet celebrity who can be a little shy at times, adding to his charm. A part of that public-facing image he presents is apparently as someone who doesn’t date, if an older teaser image is any indication.

Credit as always to Sauce for this fun mock screenshot that was publicly posted on their now closed twitter. As always, I want to kindly ask people not to repost any of the privately posted content from the SnaccPop Studios Patreon. Let’s give them the support and respect they deserve, okay?

Being a womanizer would be bad for this sort of wholesome image that Ian is presenting as an actor and model. This means that at all sexual encounters have to be kept on the down low, secretive. If “forbidden” things is his kink though, he might enjoy those illicit moments all the more.

Still... an Ian who hasn’t let go of the past, the nostalgia and safety of his childhood friend turned lover, wouldn’t help but pine for those days when he had someone who knew him better than anyone... who gave him so much. How can he not check up on Alice’s social media from time to time? Maybe even a bit more often than he should...

Maybe Ian does manage to stop, at least for a while, to try and forget. Alice ended things definitively. There’s no more hope to cling onto. He needs to move on, even if his heart won’t fully let him. The people he secretly sleeps with are nice, and the sex is thrilling and hot, but he doesn’t feel that same level of love, trust, and intimacy. It all feels so hollow...

On one day off, Ian goes incognito to a park that he and Alice used to play in as children. It’s a place that’s close to her family home and drips of nostalgia. He can imagine those days when they played together. A part of him considers stopping by the King house, but he shakes the urge off, knowing it would only bring him more pain. He lost his relationship with her family too...

There are children playing in the park, with some adults not too far away keeping an eye on them. It’s all so nostalgic. Strangely, certain children draw Ian’s attention, though he isn’t sure why. One is a boy, maybe around 6 or 7... a first grader perhaps? The same year he and Alice met. Maybe that’s why he is reminded of her as he watches this boy play with his friends.

It’s strange why this boy reminds Ian of Alice so much - the child has brown hair for starters. Maybe it’s those blue eyes? They’re not the same shade, but the way they crinkle when the boy laughs reminds Ian of Alice and the way she looked when she laughed.

That’s when Ian hears it, a voice from his past that he could never forget, no matter how hard he tries. He’s far enough away from the playground that she doesn’t notice him, but he can’t miss her and the way she shines.

Alice calls over her eldest son, who reluctantly ends the game he was playing with his cousins. The trip back to her family home had been a fun visit for her and her children, but it was starting to get late and it’s time for dinner. Holding her hand at her side is a little girl with curly dark hair and dark eyes who looks similar to the little boy. Her stomach sticks out more than it used to, unmistakably full with another child on the way.

Alice is beautiful, heartbreakingly so. She looks so happy, glowing with life as she pulls her son into a hug and asks him if he had fun. She’s matured by this point, with a warm, motherly aura, but he can still see traces of the little girl who once asked Ian through a puppet if he wanted to be friends. He can also see the awkward teenager she became who he had a crush on, the tired college student who adored him and would do anything for him... the partner who loved him so much once upon a time.

Ian has to talk to her. He can’t hold himself back. He can’t let this opportunity slip away from him. However, he only starts to stand up when he hears a voice beside his ear... in his head? It’s a man’s voice, low and dangerous... warning him to stay away from Alice. There’s a chill to it that seeps in deeper than his bones to his very soul...

Alarmed, Ian whips his head around, but sees only the branches of the tree behind the park bench swaying in the breeze. It was a warm spring day, but the air felt so cold now that he can’t help but shiver.

By the time Ian turns back to where Alice was, she’s already leaving. Joining her and her children are more adults - a couple of her siblings who also have grown up, he now realizes - and other children, a big crowd that warns him away from approaching her. He knows he can’t approach her now, not after everything, and not in front of so many people who might see him break down.

It forces Ian to watch from a distance, his heart breaking as he clutches the half-heart necklace that he still can’t bring himself to get rid of. Alice looks so happy talking with her family, her children... Is she talking with the air too? Sometimes she looks up and away from the others at a particular spot, and so do her children. Something about that spot of air feels cold even as far away as he is... dangerous... warning him from approaching them.

By the time Ian gathers up the courage to try anyway, the entourage have already left. He knows he could follow - hell, they probably all went to the King family home. He knows the way there from here by heart!

Unfortunately the idea of confronting Alice and her family... after seeing her so happy with a family of her own...

But... but maybe it’s not what it seems! Maybe Alice just got chubbier than Ian last saw her, got into bad habits without him! Maybe the child that ran up to her and called her “mommy” so enthusiastically was calling someone else while giving his aunt a hug. The little girl was probably a niece as well. Alice has so many siblings, there’s no end to how many nieces and nephews she might have since he lost touch!

Alice couldn’t have really moved on with someone new, right? That “Jack” person from her socials years ago... that was just a fictional boyfriend she made up, right? A fantasy to fill the void in her heart just like sleeping with other people filled the void in Ian’s?

Alice... couldn’t have forgotten Ian. She couldn’t have found someone else to love, marry, and have kids with... just like they talked about when they were together before his stupid mistake tore their world apart.

Alice couldn’t love someone else the way she loved Ian... not when he couldn’t love anyone else the way that he loved her.

Ian has nightmares that night, of watching helplessly from a distance as Alice happily lives her life with adorable children who call her “mommy” and a large husband with blue (brown?) hair who keeps giving her wide warm smiles and loving kisses... occasionally shooting him secret vicious smirks.

It’s torture, but that same haunting voice reminds Ian that he only has himself to blame for being so worthless... for not really loving Alice the way she deserved. The best thing he could do for her and himself would be to leave her alone and never even think about trying to take her away from this new family who loved her far more than he ever could...

The man who just kissed Alice - Jack - the same figure as those drawings she made, talks to Ian directly. He makes sure that Ian knows that whatever Ian feels for Alice isn’t love. Someone who loves her, truly loves her would never make her suffer as he did.

Alice is happy now. Don’t ruin this for her, Jack, or their children.

Ian wakes up in the middle of the night, shaken by his nightmare. In the dark of his room, he can only cry and mourn over losing someone who brightened his life like a ray of sunshine... knowing that he only has himself to blame for how cold and dark his life has become.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore  

[autumnbrambleagain]

So IF, say, a Marlfox ended up in Qud, this is why I think it would naturally form an army of snapjaws.

Consider. Marlfox the book literally has a part that goes:

This narrative has been edited by Florian Dugglewoof Wilffachop, Actor Manager Impresario. Who insists that the entire tale is a drama, which he will be later performing as a play, hence the three parts being named as acts rather than books. We crave your indulgence for this deviation.)

Like all Redwall books, they're post-edited propaganda made to make the landlord goodbeasts look good, and the oppressed "vermin hordes" look bad.

No, the marlfoxes weren't there to steal trinkets, they were there for medicine. Their mother was old and sick and dying, and they were sent out to get stuff to keep death away? It's a metaphor. Redwall chroniclers have twisted the truth.

No, the marlfoxes weren't constantly murdering one another. That's propaganda to make the Redwallers clean of conscience. If the books were up-rated in age I'm sure the marlfoxes would be like, committing incest with one another constantly just to hammer in how ~evil~ they are and how they don't have ~morals~ like ~us.~

The water rats celebrating the marlfoxes' deaths and becoming peaceful farmers? Really? In a series where rats are biologically impelled to be evil, selfish, nasty, mean, brutish? Aha. Tell me more about how the native populations celebrated the civilizing light of the British reaching them, Mr. Jacques.

So obviously the Marlfoxes were cool ninjas, yeah, sure, probably did some bad things, yeah! They, like all other "vermin" races, have spent their lives having the arable land owned by selfish, snobbish upper-crust goodbeasts. Of course everyone wants to conquer Redwall--they control all the good land, and refuse to allow the filthy, lower, base vermin races access to them.

Okay! Established. Marlfoxes are awesome, Redwallers are all entrenched oppressors. Let's say one gets sucked into a space-time vortex and ends up in Qud.

So, after some culture shock, there's some things they'll notice. Snapjaws will be nice to them, because the law of mimicry means they'll recognize the snout and the fur and be inclined towards it. The marlfox will see another people desperately scrabbling together a hard-fought life, and, ok, have you seen snapjaws.

They get killed by equimaxes.

They get killed by horned chameleons.

They get killed by salthoppers, dragonflies, and dromads!

Do snapjaws raid peaceful settlements? Sure. They have their forts and their castles, but they're rattle-skattle things shored up poorly against the salt around them. How else can they survive but in raiding? This isn't like the goats, who dominate the land. Snapjaws are forced to the edges, and everything is their match or more.

So I'm thinking a marlfox, being clever and having been in that situation most of their life, will experience a feeling between sympathy and opportunity.

While there are peaceful snapjaw settlements, how much land is there in Qud that can support a village? This is something that's finally going to come up in Proselytize soon enough--one of the big theses of the story! There isn't enough resources for everyone to live in peace. It's just a hardboned fact. The Brambled Fae is gonna have a lot to say about it!

So obviously the marlfox would accumulate snapjaws, build a castle, and history would repeat itself. But there are no Redwallers who own everything. Each village is a small center of power at best. Yd Freehold, Ezra, the Six Day Stilt, even these centers of power don't project force externally much.

And that's why it's ENTIRELY 100% CANON that my Redwall marlfox CoQ crossover OC donut steel is going to build a snapjaw empire, and bring prosperity to snapjaws everywhere. Probably at the expense of, oh, let's say, I don't know. I'll roll dice to determine who to destroy the homes from.

[ewingstan]

Okay, for the philosophical ask game: Jack Slash. I'm curious as to what this one could possibly be lol

SEND ME A WILDBOW CHARACTER YOU LOVE. I WILL TELL YOU WHICH PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT EXPERIMENT YOU SHOULD GET REALLY OPINIONATED ABOUT (SLASH DEVELOP A PSYCHOSEXUAL FIXATION ON)

This is less a specific thought experiment, but a lot of ethics and metaethics will have "person who is very inclined to harm others, very good at harming others, and cannot be convinced to stop harming others*" as almost a stock character of sorts to pose a variety of questions. They're often invoked as an edge-case to test various common moral claims, especially claims about what ground morality. For instance, most ethical systems are based on commonly shared moral intuitions. If we all have the same basic beliefs about what's good and whats bad, the claim goes, we can use that as a foundation to decide the more complicated stuff. But we can invoke the stock badman to question this—if someone doesn't have the same basic moral intuitions, should it throw our confidence in trusting such intuitions into question? Or the claim that rights are based on a sort of reciprocal obligation members of the moral community have towards each other—would such a person be part of the moral community? If not, do they lack rights?

Probably the most famous example is Plato's Ring of Gyges, where a man presents the case against justice by arguing that if someone could get away with being unjust—if they had a ring that allowed them to be invisible and commit crimes without being seen—they would obviously do it and be better off for it. The whole of the Republic is a response to this position, arguing why it would be in someone's best interest to act justly even when unobserved.

*Notably, this often gets conflated with psychopaths, especially in philosophy of mind and neuroethics. Which I'm not the biggest fan of. I think you can have a lot of interesting philosophical explorations of "psychopathy" as a label, and even a lot of exploration about how specific symptoms and causes interact with various ethical theories, such as models of moral responsibility. But a lot of papers that invoke people with psychopathy treat psychopathy as an ontological category instead of a way to say that someone checks some number of boxes on a large checklist of related behavioral symptoms. And then they misrepresent what people with psychopathy are like, because they often use them to mean "people who don't have moral intuitions" which is a huge oversimplification. There are specific symptoms associated with psychopathy or ASPD you could explore the ethical implications of, such as a worse emotional theory of mind than "normal", or greater impulsivity, or a lowered tendency to change behavior after encountering negative stimuli. And you could talk about those in isolation or even all of them in tandem, or you could just talk about a theoretical person who lacks moral intuitions. But nooooo lets just pretend a group of people fit the abstracted view of moral intuitions as a general category that I need for my argument. Its lazy is what it is.

And that's not even getting into the philosophers who use psychopath to mean "ontologically evil person who will always behave horribly." All the ethicists who do this shit need to A) learn how psychologists actually talk about psychopaths and more importantly B) do their goddamn job and analyze the assumptions said psychologists are making/what principles are behind their taxonomies/what different assumptions and principles might lead to. Criminal psychologists aren't carving nature at the joints, stop treating this like a metaphysical category and certainly stop treating it like an ethical category. This is what happens when ethics keeps the concept of "moral character" as a concept that gets taken seriously.

[pessimisticshapewithablog]

What are Demons in COTL?

My personal interpretation and theories.

Spoilers for Relics of the Old Faith Below...

Ω Introduce

I made an observation a while ago about the demons in cotl being named after gods rather than actual demons unlike most characters in COTL. After some contemplation, I have come up with a few theories as what Demons could be within the world of COTL.

Ω Demons, what are they?

Demons, IRL, are not always seen as evil entities in cultures that believed in them. They could be helpers or hostile, reflection of the darkers aspects for human emotion or forces of nature. Exorcist canonically exist in COTL so we know demons did sometimes have negative interactions with people to need to be exorcised but, then there are the more benelovent demons like Hathor, Paean, and Vosegus.

Θ How I interpret Demons.

In my opinion, Demons act as foils to gods in mythos. Gods being untouchable and unknowable to mortals. Always above them. Whereas Demon are more grounded and perceivable for mortals. They too are below gods but exist within the same capacity as they do. The realm of the representational concepts and the supernatural. Within COTL they are more tangible and seem to exist as individual species. Their names refer to the type of demon not a personal names. There are many Orcus or Hathor and they are all referred to as such. I interpret this as the demons being derivatives of a larger being who originated that singular type.

Theories

1.

Demons in COTL are fallen gods.

More specifically gods that have been punished for some transgression. IRL demons, in Christian theology, are fallen angel cast out of heaven for rebelling against their God. As there aren't angel equivalent beings that we know of in-game, I am substituting Gods in their place. Who in COTL would have the authority to punish a god and what for? Other gods.

Inspiration

In IRL mythos, there are gods that receive punishment from others god for one reason or another. The main reason I can find is giving mortals forbidden knowledge of some kind. This is inspired by the legend of Prometheus, a greek titan who defied the gods of Olympus by teaching mortals higher learning and technology. There are many versions of this tale but the reason can simplied as thus, mortals gaining knowledge pushed them away from worshipping the gods or show respect to the gods in a way they saw fit. In a world like COTL, where gods seem to rely on mortals/their followers for power and relevance, I can imagine them collectively punishing gods that cause all their followers to stray. These God-turned demons could have more inclined toward the welfare of mortals under their protection. Unlike the gods we see in-game, who care about the resources their followers provide them.

How does a God become a Demon?

Thanks to the new DLC we learn that the bodies of gods and their possessions can hold power that can he harnessed by others. We also learn that the spirit/soul of a dead god can effect things even from beyond the grave. Demons could be the soul of a god possessing the body of a mortal. As far as to what makes a fallen god I can't quite explain. The act could be willed by the fallen god, one last act of good will or malicious intent. Or inflicted by the persecuting gods, the fallen deity never knowing the sweet release of true death being used a tool by the mortals they loved so much.

11.

Demons are physical, supernatural manifestations of the emotions of the person they possess.

As in, they respesent the deeper, core personality of that person. A need to protect, deep saddness, anger etc.

Inspiration

Ratoo's Quest is what lead me to believe this as this is the only time we see a demon having come from a person directly. Ratoo's physical heart seems to have been possessed by a Hathor demon. This could mean demons can possess more than just a person but individual bodyparts and inanimate objects too. With objects it could be that it held significant sentimental value to it's owner, enough to draw the presence of a demon. Like Ratoo's heart, the sentimental value could be from Ratoo himself, or the person who came to possess it, his Lover. Or both. I like to imagine the process is like the creation of relics only, rather than already having innate worth or power from a god, demons , and the things they possess, are mundane objects given held in such high regards by mortals that they gain supernatural properties as a result.

Sidenote

Conclusion

While we are able to decline giving him Hathor, it can still be given at a later date, even if it is from a different follower. Although this may just be a game mechanic.

Demons are funky little critters and I find them fascinating. I wonder if Massive Monster will ever expand the demon summoning system or add actual lore about them oneday? They have the potential for some interesting worldbuilding.

[essayofthoughts]

so you've discussed a bit how percy would handle the briarwoods living and atoning. how does cassandra deal with it? what's their relationship to the people of whitestone? what relationship, if any, would they have with the chamber? how do they cope with scanlan being Like That?

For Sylas Briarwood Lives AU?

I mean, to be fair, a lot of Percy's handling it is to Not Deal With It, because he's Bad at that. He avoids them a lot, and still hates them even if he doesn't fear them quite the same anymore, but it's important to remember that Percy is kind of shit at dealing with his emotions and especially his trauma.

Cass is... also in a bad way. Not helped by Percy's... everything. I think she also avoids the Briarwoods - very much helped by the people of Whitestone, which she has incredibly complicated feelings about. After all, under the Briarwoods' thumb she led so many Whitestone citizens to their deaths - and yet here they are, trying to protect her from the very people she let others die to. I think she copes badly for a stretch, though the Briarwoods not being allowed anywhere near her probably helps. I think, too-

I'm playing interestingly with Sylas in this AU because like... I don't think he was entirely 100% a good person, but Delilah seems to have dipped into Necromancy specifically due to his illness and all. I don't doubt she was capable of being dangerously deranged before then (she was, after all, on the Cerberus Assembly, and with the C3 news of the Healing-Preventing-Poison - look, I wouldn't be surprised if Ludinus decided to fuck with his colleagues to see what would happen) but I think it became both more obvious and more overt due to Sylas' illness. And like I said, I don't think he was 100% good - he loved Delilah, and she certainly wouldn't have been, as part of the Assembly, but I think that before his illness they were... well, not normal. But closer to it. After all, they are mirrors - parallels - to Vex and Percy, and they go to great lengths for each other but aren't quite deranged.

Consequently... I don't think Sylas, if given back to his old self... would necessarily be happy with the emotional warping and inherent alignment shift of vampirism. I don't doubt it works most effectively as demons and devils do, by leading people towards sins they'd already be more inclined to commit, but I think being sharply given back to his old self, without the inherently evil necromantic magic of vampirism urging him towards it - I think it'd set his vampiric self in sharp relief to his human self, and I don't think he'd like it! It might even shake his faith in Delilah some - of course she'd go to any length to save him, but was it him that she raised from his deathbed? What does it mean that she loved that significantly worse version of him? Obsession and grief?

And of course, it's the Briarwoods, I have no doubt they're able to reconcile this one way or another but this is all to say - I think Sylas is more capable of being Normal about things than Delilah is, even if only by a smidge.

Consequently, I think he is also the one to realise just how severely and badly they fucked with Cassandra.

Making amends for Whitestone and the de Rolos as a whole - that's a huge undertaking. That's the kind of thing that might never happen. But Cassandra? What they did to her alone? That is simple and tangible in comparison. That is something they can do something about. I think Sylas might perhaps lead the charge in finding ways to make amends to Cassandra in this AU.

Delilah may take a little more convincing - besides, overall, they are very much dragged kicking and screaming over the line into "no longer abhorrently amoral selfish bastards", doing it primarily out of necessity so they don't get summarily executed for their acts in service to Vecna. Self-preservation is a powerful drive.

But... yeah. I think they volunteer help to the Chamber and to Whitestone as a way of trying to make amends and I think Whitestone as a whole do not like them, but acknowledge, grudgingly, that they are doing something. I think Whitestone doesn't like them at all - they're the wicked witch who lives deep in the wood and they can't be removed but no one's happy about it. I think the Chamber has to accept that due to Pike and Keyleth and Vex, and especially Pike's ideals of redemption, they are going to have to put up with the Briarwoods despite everything, and the best they can do is put them to work fixing everything they broke. (Perhaps, some of the older heads at the table suggest, fixing what they broke might teach them to value it more.)

I don't think Cassandra is ever comfortable with them. Not after the trauma and the stockholm syndrome and everything else - I think she avoids them as much as she can and I think as much as the Briarwoods can they respect that and give her space, though I think Delilah does retain a twisted fondness for her almost-daughter, and that Sylas is... weirdly quietly proud of her for surviving so well? For having such boundaries? For persisting? I think he'd respect that.

I think Percy, in Chamber meetings where they're present, gets incredibly bitchy - I can very much imagine sniping matches between him and Delilah that go nowhere but are a great way of letting off steam when work's been going nowhere. I think it also helps to humanise the Briarwoods to people, though I don't think it'd help for Cassandra.

I think, in the end, Cassandra probably takes Percy's suggestions of holidays away from Whitestone much sooner and much more willingly - space from the Briarwoods, a break, I think is a blessing. (I think too, this forces much more of rulership and the Chamber onto Percy's plate. He's not happy about it, except he is, if it means his sister is healing.)

As for Scanlan... I mean. I think Sylas, back to his human self, is happy to drink and tell stupid stories and jokes with Scanlan. I don't think he ever takes Scanlan seriously, but I don't think he necessarily minds Scanlan.

Delilah, I think, does.