#and that one thing they supposedly like doesnt have to define their character

[abnomi]

IDK if i was the first to notice this or not but i havent seen anyone talk about this before!! i love going crazy over colors and now is my Chance.

something subtle but notable about Ralph's design is how he has a teal undershirt. (debatably turquoise or green or something, but it is teal in this post..sorry green/turquoise truthers...)

i wondered for a bit why exactly that was a feature of his design, as it stood out to me for some reason; its a contrasting color to red, his main color, of course, so i brushed it off as an accent.

upon further inspection, however, what does that mean with the knowledge we have of him wanting to be good? or about who he shares a connection with?

green/blue is generally known to symbolize goodness, as its the opposing color to red, a color that can represent evil or danger depending on its context.

as you can see here, this crude caricature of Ralph is lacking that extra pop of color; the nicelanders dont see the good inside of him, only seeing the external deep red hues :-(

it doesnt end there, though. which character in this film is represented by a certain teal color?

someone Ralph carries close to his heart, someone who helped define his personhood and who he is internally. that spunky racer girl who relied on him just as he relied on her. not just a glitch, but Vanellope.

Vanellope represents someone who is able to accept herself and grow stronger because of it, and in exploring her own identity, Ralph took a journey of his own alongside her. she's a figure of love, passion, and resistance. taking this into account, her main color symbolizes the same.

we can also see bits of red in Vanellope's design!

interestingly, the main spots we see it in are her licorice hair tie, the stitches and strings of her hoodie, and the bottom of her shoes.

now i could be overanalyzing this a bit, but each of these features have something in common: they're all used for support. the tie supports her hair, the threads keep her hoodie together, and her shoes let her run around and be a kid safely. yeah, she made all of those by herself on her own terms, but Ralph supports her too, right? shes the heart and hes the practicality.

not to mention the MEDALS OHHH the medals. beware ⚠️🚨 im going to overanalyze this like crazy ok let me be neurodivergent about this

all three of these medals have differences that could mean a variety of different things. I'll break each one down individually:

Vanellope's gift

handmade with love, the medal itself is teal (if we ignore the brown underside). as stated before, teal implies love and resistance. this is also quite obvious due to the gift being heart-shaped.

relating to that last point, notice how he wears it close to his chest? it's practically a second heart to him! what else is close to his chest? TEAL UNDERSHIRT. wow!!! so that love was there with him the whole time!

the ribbon itself is pink, not blue or red like traditional medals. this is less significant, i will admit, but i find it nice how its so simple yet defies what a "real" medal is meant to look like, ESPECIALLY in relation to Ralph's expectations as to what a medal should be.

Hero's medal

It's a reflective gold, something that hypnotized Ralph immediately upon being greeted with it (kind of like a certain racer heeheheehoo)... this is all pretty obvious; gold is for winners, and supposedly, only heros can be winners.

something a little less obvious, though, is the blue of his ribbon. so, why is it blue, specifically? now, this isn't teal, this is more of a royal blue. something similar to Felix's palette... a hero. Ralph treats goodness as something attainable, love as transactional. it's not real, it's not genuine. he wears this symbol of heroism without truly EARNING it.

The cake

notice how the ribbon around his neck is red in this imaginary scene? the medal designed for Felix and his wins? his contrasting color? on Ralph, it's almost indistinguishable from his shirt because he isn't supposed to wear it. it wasn't created with him in mind.

ok ok just one more thing. ☝️ Turbo and Ralph parallel with their color schemes.

red as a color carries a dual meaning. on one hand, it can mean passion, love, adrenaline and strength. on the other hand, it could represent evil, malicious intentions, a warning, something dangerous. both Ralph and Turbo share red in their palettes; something to note, Turbo lacks any cool colors.

Ralph is seen as evil when he is truly anything but evil. the red makes him a bigger target considering his position, but this red relates to him internally on a more positive level. its his strength, what keeps his softer core safe. above his teal undershirt.

Turbo is seen as this intense fireball who's just passionate about racing, a little tough guy who just wants to have fun. we all know that this isn't the case. he is dangerous, he is a cautionary tale, a warning and simultaneously a threat.

considering how much as the two parallel each other, its no surprise that they share a color, one that can be interpreted in so many ways. one that ultimately means the reverse for their roles.

[ivyblooms]

Hiiii this might be weird lol but I saw your addition to the post discussing the correlation between the gay trans men phenomenon to misogyny and you brought up the topic of rising trans slash in fanfics - as someone whose been in fandoms for like 10+ years you’re sooo right!! Even though I do read all sorts of fanfic (gay, lesbian, platonic) I’d say I’ve always had a more critical approach in fandom stuff (plus getting more into radfem theory about 3 years ago) and from the get go I always saw the ~majority~ of male slash fanfic created by women as an expression of romance/smut through a non-misogynistic lens; “men get to be people while women are women yadda yadda”. A perception I’ve always had at the back of my mind, so it always confused me when in the past 5ish years suddenly women who had consumed so much gay fanficton were proclaiming they must actually be gay men

You mentioned the rise in trans slash media and honestly I thought I was going crazy lol. There has definitely been a huge shift, where suddenly the components that made the work gay could just be altered and it’s supposedly still the same. Apologies if this seems vulgar but the switch to now male characters actually being trans, feminization in sexual/non sexual manners, and sometimes just having a “boyp*ssy” at minimum has been really fucking weird, and in some fandom spaces I’m in the change seems to have skyrocketed in the past ~6 months

Honestly sorry for the random ramble and feel free to disregard but I would love to know if you have anymore to say on this topic. I think I’ve only encountered one light discussion overlapping fanfiction / feminist theory, so it’s always interesting when I see the topic brought up!

No worries sis, it's not weird.

I am there with you. I'd been noticing the trend but when I wanted to have a quick look at Captain Marvel femslash I was like 3 pages of results in and still hadn't seen one that didn't include 'girlpenis' or equivalent. I was legit annoyed, the last thing anyone wants when looking for fxf is the word penis getting involved.

I don't want to discount homophobic fetishisation of course. As a lesbian I never really believed that was real until I finally saw some hetero fandom friends genuinely being sexually attracted to males cast in live action versions of a cartoon and I was like .. wait a second u guys were serious?? So yeah thats real, but I highly doubt it's the main reason. Especially when so many lesbians are super into slash fic as well.

So to your point, while I do think the popularity of gay male slash fiction has largely been due to women wanted to escape misogyny, I don't believe it's been a conscious thought. I don't believe many of these girls and women actively thought they are lesser than men, I don't think choosing to write mxm was a decision to highlight misogyny, I think it's just an entirely internalised 'feeling' that somehow putting a woman with a man is demeaning or inequitable therefore they want their favourite blorbo to be with someone that doesnt give them that feeling. And, to straight women, men are hot.

Like notice how so many of the pov men in older mxm fics are the one that bottoms? Even the concept of strict set in stone roles for top and bottom defining your character (seme and uke) really is more reminiscent of hetero relationships that actual real life gay relationships. I truly do think there is reason to believe this is due to making one character (the bottom) more relatable as a subconscious woman stand in. They were always shorter, they were almost always weaker, they had less body hair, they were almost always prettier and more feminine, their male genitalia was small and often barely remarked on and there was no question that their main participation in sex was being penetrated. They were trans men before the idea of trans men and gender being unrelated to sex really ramped up.

It makes perfect sense to me that the next step in that train of thought, that men and women feel unequal and gender is not related to sex, is "well I relate to men as an equal therefore I must also be a man". Like if you haven't stepped back to understand your own bias, how would you ever realise the true answer is women are equal humans despite the way the world treats us? It's not correct and it comes from a place of homophobia where straights consider gayness a club they can join on a whim rather than a meaningful material experience, but it's understandable that's the leap being made.

You are right, it has gotten so much worse over the last six months. Maybe ABO has finally become truely accepted and now anyone feels they can put any genitals on any character like its a mix and match. Maybe trans ideology has finally fully taken over the majority of fandom spaces. Maybe actual gay writers and fans got sick of so much unwanted hetero we have started dropping out of popular fandom spaces.

Seriously trying to find gay fanfiction now is so much harder than ever before, but it's something people not in fandom spaces are missing because if you see nothing more than the characters in ships you'd think it was gay. Fandom spaces are becoming hostile to homosexuality in a way I wouldn't have predicted 10 years ago. I think they probably always were, tbh, it was just that misogynistic straight women didn't realise they had another option and could get by on the fetish until they found this solution.

[thelegendofhino]

Hino analysis time

Aka why i think its strange that Hino is handled the way he is in both games (in a good way)

This ended up being a long post sorry. Tldr, hino is a unique case for how npcs were handled between botw and totk and seems to have the potential to play a larger role just in general but never does.

So i've been thinking a lot about hino (as i do) and noticed that while some npcs that arent involved with anything seem to have changed significantly between botw and totk, for example, spinch and joute, others are mostly the same, such as hino and mezer. Other npcs that stayed almost completely the same are usually ones that were involved in some sort of quest, such as magda with the flowers and loone with her love of ancient things.

Spinch is a traveling npc in botw whos defining trait is that his horse is also named spinch, however his horse is nowhere to be seen in totk (though im not sure if this is just a case of npcs horses not being predetermined) and is also not mentioned by him as he now only stays at the lakeside stable. Joute is another traveling npc in botw who says he prefers horses (or "horsies", as he says it) over people, and seems to be pretty reclusive overall, but in totk hes part of the group of people who get sick from food poisoning and doesnt mention any sort of preference towards horses, and his horse is also not seen.

Magda is still obsessed with flowers and can still supposedly hear them speak, but she doesnt attack you anymore (as far as im aware) and is involved with one of the zelda sighting side quests. Loone is still obsessed with ancient stuff but is focused now on the three leviathan skeletons, which is its own set of side quests. Mezer is another npc like this where he used to sell meat but now he does not sell meat and instead just travels, but still does have his focus on meat, and is also involved with a quest about marbled rock roast.

Hino has been studying the blood moon in both games, though in totk his focus is currently on how monsters function, hoping that something about monsters will tell him anything about why they get revived by the blood moon. His character is mostly the same, but his obsession with the moon in general seems to have grown since botw.

For example:

The first two pictures are from totk. The third picture is from botw. In totk, hino refers to the moon as "she" and "her", unless its a blood moon in which he only uses "it", while in botw he only uses "it". He also tends to focus more on the moons beauty now than he did before, with two of his moon phase comments in botw not really having much to do with the moon itself or how he personally feels about it (specifically, his full moon and cresecnt moon dialogue). But overall, his character hasnt changed too much, as his main traits are still very much focused on. With this in mind, it would make sense that he would be significant in some way, or at least directly involved in a quest, like how magda and mezer are, but he isnt.

Once you finish the zora's domain regional phenomenon quest, you can get a side quest from a zora guard named gaddison, who tells you about a monster fort on ja'abu ridge. The quest is just to clear out the fort, but she doesnt mention that there may be a hylian trapped in the fort. Despite this, nothing about the quest is focused on that fact, and the hylian does, in fact, turn out to be hino.

However, hino is also in 4 other forts in the game (there are a total of 6, but hino never goes to the one in hebra, which is also the fort that you can aid the monster control crew with), none of which are ever given any attention to the way this one side quest did. To me this is interesting because these other forts are a lot easier to access than the one in ja'abu ridge, one of the forts is not too far from lookout landing. And, if you save hino from all 5 forts before the next blood moon, he gives you a diamond as a reward (only for the first time you do it). It seems strange to be rewarded like that for something that is not a side quest or side adventure, never really given attention to, and completely optional and easy to miss. Nothing bad happens if you never save hino. He doesnt end up in the forts in any particular order. Its something most players would never find out about.

Hino can also be mentioned by the npcs who read the newspapers, bringing up how there is someone who researches the blood moon who seemed excited to check out a monster fort but that they seem like they wouldnt be able to defend themself. That is the only way you'd find out that someone is captured in a fort if you didnt get gaddisons quest (and assumed hino wouldnt just go to andifferent fort afterwards) or if you didnt just happen to come across hino yourself. From what i remember, this is the only case of an npc mentioning another npc like that, especially one that isnt involved in a questline at all.

So then, why have any focus on hino if he isnt really important to anything? In botw hes even less involed with anything going on, staying at the dueling peaks stable, but hes also the only npc that'll explain the blood moon to you, as hes the only npc who is researching it, or even cares about it at all. My assumption is that he would probably be useful for that one shrine quest that you have to wait for a blood moon to happen, and also to plan ahead to make meals with better bonuses (since the blood moon does that for some reason), but nothing more. Nobody else at the stable mentions him, no other npc mentions him, nobody talks about anyone researching the blood moon. The closest thing we have is that when sagessa is at the stable, she'll sometimes point out that most people that stay there are twins. Hino is the only one who stays at the stable constantly who doesnt have a twin. In totk, more npcs will talk about the blood moon (symin reveals how the blood moon gives you bonuses when cooking which is how i found out about that, and the captains will talk about how the blood moon revives monsters) and yet hino is nowhere to be seen (because he went and got himself captured). Now you cant really use him to determine when a blood moon is happening because he disappears after you save him, and once you save him from all 5 places he shows up in, he disappears entirely until the blood moon happens and the forts are refreshed. You can only tell if you happen to save him on a day that a blood moon will happen. Considering there are no quests where the blood moon is necessary, there probably wasnt a reason to keep hino around for the same purpose, though he does still talk about the moon phases every day like he used to.

Now, the main thing about hino that is interesting that is also fairly easy to miss in both games is that, not only is he the only one who is researching the blood moon, he is also the only npc in the ENTIRETY of both games that is affected by the blood moon. Its a little bit different in both games and ive already made posts about everything that happens to him, but basically he goes crazy and his text turns red, something that doesnt happen with anyone else in either game. It seems to be a full on physical reaction, not just him getting overly excited or agitated, but rather something that is indeed paramormal, and yet somehow partly disconnected from malice and gloom. And this is NEVER acknowledged in either game. By anyone, not even him. He'll at most say that the blood moon makes him "feel alive", but the way that he acts is a lot more... intense than just that, and to never acknowledge it fully seems to imply, to me at least, that he isnt actually fully aware of what happens to him.

But why focus on that part of him and then never do anything else with it? Why make him the only one like that? Why make him the only one who gets captured? Why make him seem like he should play a bigger part?

I dont know! And thats the frustrating part. Everything about him in totk wouldve worked as a side adventure, and yet. Nothing. It even wouldve made sense to have him in lookout landing just because he can tell when a blood moon will happen and im sure that would be very helpful for the monster control crew to be able to prep in advance. He just seems like he would have some part to play in something, but he doesnt. You just rescue him over and over again (something he himself points out) and you just get rewards over and over again without end, similar to addison who gives you similar sets of rewards every time you help him but has a point where there is nothing else to help him with. Its just so odd that thats just the way it is with him.

Even we know so little about the blood moon. Its implied that its a seperate thing from the whole demon king thing that happened, so we just have no idea why it happens and why it functions the way it does other than a great evil power can harness the blood moon to their advantage, like ganondorf did. And for some reason, not a single person in the history of hyrule for whatever amount of time that botw and totk takes place in has ever cared enough to figure anything out about it except hino, and because of that he has absolutely nothing to work with except his own observations and so nothing he tells us about the blood moon is anything we dont already know. I guess it doesnt really help that he doesnt seem to talk to people all that much, considering nobodys ever cared to help him with it either or try to find where he is. He just feels like more than just some guy with a hobby, like he can offer more to us if he was just allowed to. But hes just a really weird npc that seems otherwise normal... and hes my most favorite character in both games because of it.

[sp1resong]

YOUVE ALREADY SEEN IT ACTUALLY it was the one i posted in sqs earlier (although i did tweak this version a little bit a little bit)

however, that is all the encouragement i need

so! the myrrch (lit. cats-of-the-ocean). one of many cultures in my Big Worldbuilding Universe (tm), and arguably the most developed (they have a whole wip conlang ffs). theyre actually an import from a warrior cats story i wrote a while ago but that's unimportant

they live up north in the regions known as the Marrch (lit. lands-of-the-ocean), and are the only cultural group living north of the arctic circle on [unnamed continent where this story takes place]. in their original concept, they were maine coon mixes, but this universe doesnt have irl cat breeds obv so theyre just Ambiguously Big and Fluffy. i mean, this way i can pull in some traits from other big northern breeds, like Siberians and Norwegian Forest Cats

anyways. as such, they tend to be quite tall, heavy, and thick-furred, with broad muzzles. the most common colors among them are grey and black, along with silver and smoke variants of both. they often have some degree of white spotting--they are known to have 'atypical' (by our world's terms) white spotting patterns, specifically spotting that's more blotched rather than your average tuxedo-type patterning.

white fur, high-contrast tabby markings, bluish-green eyes, large ear tufts, and large 'manes' are all considered attractive.

their language, myrrmrarr, is notable for its vowel system, wherein the Vague Idea being conveyed by a word is defined by the consonants and vowels of the second syllable onwards, while the specific aspect/concept it's referring to is defined by the first vowel slot. you may have noticed this already based on 'myrrch' and 'marrch' being the same word (__-of-the-ocean) with a different vowel!

vowel meanings are as follows:

Y – cat of, person of. Typically used in names, but not always. Myrr is cat-of-the-ocean.

UU – unlike (sometimes transcribed as ‘oo’ or ‘w’). Muurr is unlike-the-ocean.

O – used to denote personification/‘deity of’ for abstract concepts or inanimate objects. Morr is the deity of the ocean, and the ocean incarnate.

A – land of. Marr is land-of-the-ocean.

U - just the thing itself. Murr is just the ocean.

Vowels can be used in combination with one another, however the first takes… precedence? ig. For example, ‘muuyrr’ would mean ‘cat of the muurr’, while ‘myuurr’ would mean ‘unlike a myrr’

their religion largely centers around the ocean. it makes sense--they typically live on the coastline as fishercats and sailors. Their creator deity is quite literally the ocean herself, Morr.

A notable figure in myrr mythology is Myrr Syf (Fog), known in the southern lands as Mercy and probably actually the fantasy-etymology for that word. she's something of a folk hero, having supposedly drowned the tyrant king Yrrth (i dont know what that one means yet lmao. it's based on 'arthur' as a little easter egg as to Syf's source--the character she's derived from also ended up being derived into Mordred in my arthuriana thing) via dragging him into the cold ocean, been blessed by Morr, and walked back out of the ocean alive. there's probably like 113143322313232 paintings of that scene, it just seems like the type to Enrapture vaguely cat-medieval artists.

due to their thick fur, they shed heavily in the spring and autumn, and often spin their shed fur into yarn.

they are a ways north of the ex-moltenfire nations, though there is a non-insignificant population of myrrch living in especially the Mirror Lake and Northern Forest Kingdoms, as those are the only ones with a coastline. many of them are sailors and dockworkers who came from the north by sea.

howdy guys do you all want to read the 595 word oc lore infodump i wrote earlier

[semi-imaginary-place]

The Mystery of Naruhodo Ryunosuke

we dont know that much bout ryunosuke. throughout the game we learn very little about him. in a game all about family and fathers in particular, ryunosuke's are conspicuously absent. he never mentions them and we never learn about his family or background other than he sees the baker street gang as his found family. which is an interesting contrast to the rest of the cast. (Other than that his uncle gave him a silver pocketwatch which combined with his lack of ambition in yuumei implies a wealthy/high status family)

i was browsing the in game concept art gallery and ryuunosuke is like the only one without a crest/associated symbol.

ryuu-chan has two themes in the game, supposedly: "Ryunosuke Naruhodo - Objection" and "Ryunosuke Naruhodo - Overture to Adventures". while both tracks bear his name, unlike the other character tracks (susato, kazuma, iris, shomes,gina, stronghart, etc.) these tracks do very little to represent him as a person, instead they contain the main motif of the game and work to represent the games as a whole. ryuunosuke himself has no character track.

we the player only get to see him during trials. outside of trials we get what he says and some of his thoughts but we don't get to see his face or what he's doing.

And then there's his shocking ignorance of common knowledge. as a videogame this is done so susato and other characters can explain things to the audience or comment on historical topics to give the game flavor, but like bruhhhh how do you live like this??? how do you not know these things.

in a void his silhouette and identity become indistinct, he can only be seen in reflections off of other people. on his own he lacks a sense of direction or purpose like asogi or stronghart who have strong senses of justice. but he also lacks the grounded sensibility of characters like susato or gina. its only when he interacts with the rest of the cast that he is spurred into action and that makes him dangerous as he is bound by nothing willing to make countless of the most powerful enemies in the world or shakes the lives of others in pursuit of his goal of the truth.

i saw this story idea someone else posted, there's no way its canon but it manages to strike at some of the very central parts of the game and fits in very well which is why im fond of it. so the idea is that he doesnt have a family or a past even. his life as a human is defined by existing within the memories of the people he meets and he doesnt exist outside of that. before meeting kazuma he was literally nobody but kazuma set him down a path and through that he met susato and sholmes and iris and the others and build a life there in the connections he made with them. maybe he's a spirit, a little mouse masquerading as a human thats forgotten everything so he doesn't have a history.

[qqueenofhades]

Hi. You made a post a couple of days ago about how queer historical fiction doesnt need to be defined only by homophobia. Can you expand on that a bit maybe? Because it seems interesting and important, but I'm a little confused as to whether that is responsible to the past and showing how things have changed over time. Anyway this probably isn't very clear, but I hope its not insulting. Have a good day :)

Hiya. I assume you're referring to this post, yes? I think the main parameters of my argument were set out pretty clearly there, but sure, I'm happy to expand on it. Because I'm a little curious as to why you think that writing a queer narrative (especially a queer fictional narrative) that doesn't make much reference to or even incorporate explicit homophobia is (implicitly) not being "responsible to the past." I've certainly made several posts on this topic before, but as ever, my thoughts and research materials change over time. So, okay.

(Note: I am a professional historian with a PhD, a book contract for an academic monograph on medieval/early modern queer history, and soon-to-be-several peer-reviewed publications on medieval queer history. In other words, I'm not just talking out of my ass here.)

As I noted in that post, first of all, the growing emphasis on "accuracy" in historical fiction and historically based media is... a mixed bag. Not least because it only seems to be applied in the Game of Thrones fashion, where the only "accurate" history is that which is misogynistic, bloody, filthy, rampantly intolerant of competing beliefs, and has no room for women, people of color, sexual minorities, or anyone else who has become subject to hot-button social discourse today. (I wrote a critical post awhile ago about the Netflix show Cursed, ripping into it for even trying to pretend that a show based on the Arthurian legends was "historically accurate" and for doing so in the most simplistic and reductive way possible.) This says far more about our own ideas of the past, rather than what it was actually like, but oh boy will you get pushback if you try to question that basic premise. As other people have noted, you can mix up the archaeological/social/linguistic/cultural/material stuff all you like, but the instant you challenge the ingrained social ideas about The Bad Medieval Era, cue the screaming.

I've been a longtime ASOIAF fan, but I do genuinely deplore the effect that it (and the show, which was by far the worst offender) has had on popular culture and widespread perceptions of medieval history. When it comes to queer history specifically, we actually do not know that much, either positive or negative, about how ordinary medieval people regarded these individuals, proto-communities, and practices. Where we do have evidence that isn't just clerical moralists fulminating against sodomy (and trying to extrapolate a society-wide attitude toward homosexuality from those sources is exactly like reading extreme right-wing anti-gay preachers today and basing your conclusions about queer life in 2021 only on those), it is genuinely mixed and contradictory. See this discussion post I likewise wrote a while ago. Queerness, queer behavior, queer-behaving individuals have always existed in history, and labeling them "queer" is only an analytical conceit that represents their strangeness to us here in the 21st century, when these categories of exclusion and difference have been stringently constructed and applied, in a way that is very far from what supposedly "always" existed in the past.

Basically, we need to get rid of the idea that there was only one empirical and factual past, and that historians are "rewriting" or "changing" or "misrepresenting" it when they produce narratives that challenge hegemonic perspectives. This is why producing good historical analysis is a skill that takes genuine training (and why it's so undervalued in a late-capitalist society that would prefer you did anything but reflect on the past). As I also said in the post to which you refer, "homophobia" as a structural conceit can't exist prior to its invention as an analytical term, if we're treating queerness as some kind of modern aberration that can't be reliably talked about until "homosexual" gained currency in the late 19th century. If there's no pre-19th century "homosexuality," then ipso facto, there can be no pre-19th-century "homophobia" either. Which one is it? Spoiler alert: there are still both things, because people are people, but just as the behavior itself is complicated in the premodern past, so too is the reaction to it, and it is certainly not automatic rejection at all times.

Hence when it comes to fiction, queer authors have no responsibility (and in my case, certainly no desire) to uncritically replicate (demonstrably false!) narratives insisting that we were always miserable, oppressed, ostracised, murdered, or simply forgotten about in the premodern world. Queer characters, especially historical queer characters, do not have to constantly function as a political mouthpiece for us to claim that things are so much better today (true in some cases, not at all in the others) and that modernity "automatically" evolved to a more "enlightened" stance (definitely not true). As we have seen with the recent resurgence of fascism, authoritarianism, nationalism, and xenophobia around the world, along with the desperate battle by the right wing to re-litigate abortion, gay rights, etc., social attitudes do not form in a vacuum and do not just automatically become more progressive. They move backward, forward, and side to side, depending on the needs of the societies that produce them, and periods of instability, violence, sickness, and poverty lead to more regressive and hardline attitudes, as people act out of fear and insularity. It is a bad human habit that we have not been able to break over thousands of years, but "[social] things in the past were Bad but now have become Good" just... isn't true.

After all, nobody feels the need to constantly add subtextual disclaimers or "don't worry, I personally don't support this attitude/action" implied authorial notes in modern romances, despite the cornucopia of social problems we have today, and despite the complicated attitude of the modern world toward LGBTQ people. If an author's only reason for including "period typical homophobia" (and as we've discussed, there's no such thing before the 19th century) is that they think it should be there, that is an attitude that needs to be challenged and examined more closely. We are not obliged to only produce works that represent a downtrodden past, even if the end message is triumphal. It's the same way we got so tired of rape scenes being used to make a female character "stronger." Just because those things existed (and do exist!), doesn't mean you have to submit every single character to those humiliations in some twisted name of accuracy.

Yes, as I have always said, prejudices have existed throughout history, sometimes violently so. But that is not the whole story, and writing things that center only on the imagined or perceived oppression is not, at this point, accurate OR helpful. Once again, I note that this is specifically talking about fiction. If real-life queer people are writing about their own experiences, which are oftentimes complex, that's not a question of "representation," it's a question of factual memoir and personal history. You can't attack someone for being "problematic" when they are writing about their own lived experience, which is something a younger generation of queer people doesn't really seem to get. They also often don't realise how drastically things have changed even in my own lifetime, per the tags on my reblog about Brokeback Mountain, and especially in media/TV.

However, if you are writing fiction about queer people, especially pre-20th century queer people, and you feel like you have to make them miserable just to be "responsible to the past," I would kindly suggest that is not actually true at all, and feeds into a dangerous narrative that suggests everything "back then" was bad and now it's fine. There are more stories to tell than just suffering, queer characters do not have to exist solely as a corollary for (inaccurate) political/social commentary on the premodern past, and they can and should be depicted as living their lives relatively how they wanted to, despite the expected difficulties and roadblocks. That is just as accurate, if sometimes not more so, than "they suffered, the end," and it's something that we all need to be more willing to embrace.

[littlx-songbxrd]

Chain of Iron:Death theory

As the awaited release date for Chain of Iron approaches and the fandom decends into pure madness, I want to put in my last two cents of overthinking before I stop having coherent thoughts

So we all know this is a second book, and second books bring the absolute pain in the shadowhunter chronicles. There is likely going to be a death from the mains considering the theme of this book, and I am here to throw my theory and reasons as to who I think it might be. Im here to sadly theorize about why I think Christopher Lightwood might not make it past the last hours

1. Tatianas revenge

Right now, Tatiana wants revenge after all our main families: the carstairs, herondales, fairchilds and both branches of the lightwoods. For the lightwood-collins theres barbaras death. For the herondales her daughter has been manipulating their son for over 6 years. Theres a theory that the fairy poison Mathew bought that caused Charlottes misscarriage could be traced back to her. And there are other theories that Elias dissaperance between chog and choi could have something to do with Belial. As of right now the only family who is yet to recieve any permanent damage or tragedy are the lightwood-herondales. Which is really ironic considering its the only family that has two bloodlines Tatiana wants to harm. Not only that, but theyre also the children of who Tatiana blames directly for her fathers death, Gabriel. It seems fishy to me there hasn't been any permanent damage in their family, and I dont think that is gonna last for long

2. The family tree

The family tree states that Grace Cartwright (Aka Grace Blackthorn) marries Christopher Lightwood and theyre the ones who continue the line that leads to Alec and Isabelle. Now Cassandra has said varius times the family tree can be misleading, and I am a firm believer this is one of the misleading ends. Why this lie was created, I'm not sure, but lets analize some things. As of right now there are 5 lightwood children. At least 3 of them can pass down the lightwood name. Of those three, if we take into account that Thomas may not have kids due to being gay, that still leaves two branches of lightwood kids that may continue on. As of present time we only have word of one line, Alec and Isabelles. And Robert isnt said to have any cousins, theres no mention in the future of another lightwood line. So the idea that both Alexander and Christopher have kids is pretty unbelivable considering theres only one lightwood line in the future. Unless Alexander goes on to have only girls and Christopher has only one boy, it seems more likely the family tree is wrong. Isabelle and Alec are confirmed as of the bane chronicles to be decendants of Gabriel lightwood (Isabelle makes a reference to looking up her great great grandfather Gabriel Lightwood and telling magnus he was hot in the last story of the book)

So its already confirmed they're a) the last decendants of the lightwood line and b) that line stems from Gabriel. If we based ourselves solely on the family tree and Christopher being the one carrying the line, that would have been believable enough not to raise any red flags. Christopher IS the son of Grabriel Lightwood, able bodied and seems to have a general attraction to women (I mean, we all know hes aro/ace but lets stick with canon). There isnt anything pointing to him not being able to marry and have kids. Where the red flags raise for me is with Alexander

Alexander wasnt in the original plans for the family tree, he was added when Cassie started writting the last hours. If you take into account his role in chog, there really was no reason to add Alexander Lightwood. He doesnt seem to do anything, hes a 3 year old kid, you can very well delete him from the narrative and nothing would change. So why did Cassandra add him?? Why did she decide to make Cecily and Gabriel have another kid ?

To me, it seems a lot like the baby carstairs situation . The family tree says Alastair carries the carstairs line, Alastair is a gay man so he cant have biological kids, theres another unplaned baby to carry the line. It seems to me Christopher carrying the lightwood line is a lie, and Alexanders role is to carry it in his place. I even found a little info from an ask wayy before chain of gold came out where it said Alexander had green eyes, but in the book she changed it to blue eyes. The exact same shade the modern day lightwoods seem to have. A trait hes more likely to pass down than his lavender eyed brother who supposedly "marries" grey eyed grace

3. Character Arc

Characters in literature need goals, things to work for or work towards through the story in order for them to develop. We call those things character arcs, and it seems we have all ignored how christophers may have indirectly ended. If you read his short story, or just overall analize his character, his main goal is simple. He wants to create something that will help the nephlim through science. His personal character arc is that he wants to prove himself and his skill to the clave using his passion to be a hero.

An arc that could have been expanded all through the series, and ended with him using his skills in the end to defeat belial in some way, proving his passions worth. Through the story we could have had a glimpse at his struggles, how he was put down, the failed attempts, fustrations etc. This all could have rounded christopher as a character, and brought more satisfaction to the end goal of his arc which is proving the value of his science. But instead, his arc in book seemingly already ended? Because he did it, he figured out a way to combine science with his duty and saved the entire enclave from the demon poison. He is now acclaimed a hero for his skills. All the other characters have things to finish going into chain of iron, Christopher doesnt. Why would she end an arc that could have taken through the entire series in just one book? Christopher is the only secondary character with a defined personality and a lack of arc to look foward too in following books. This could all point that his arc was rushed because it was being cut short

4. Lightwood blood

There has been a lot of theories going around about Thomas being the one who gets killed in this book, which is resonable considering the unerving amount of forehsadowing we've had to him getting himself caught up in something. But I raise you this, why would CC be giving us so much assurance that Thomas was going to get hurt if she was going to kill him? Not only would she be reaveling one of her most devastating murders, she would basically be spoiling a very big part of her own book. Thomas death would affect everyone, if she WERE to kill him she wouldnt be indulging us in our Thomas death theory as much as she has. Itd be too expectable, I actually believe that by giving us all the info she has she has more or less confirmed he wont die.

I believe this is all a decoy. Shes giving us foreshadowing towards something bad happening to Thomas, to cover up the very big reality shes planning to kill someone else. Theres a very big chance that for the resurection, theyre gonna need Jesses families blood. Same way Malcom needed blackthorn blood to raise Annabel. As of rightnow there arent any blackthorns (by blood) left alive, the only blood relatives Jesse still had are the lightwoods. So we already know Thomas gets captured by the murderer (referenece to the art), but it is most likely he gets rescued. People speculate he most likely got captured for the resurection Tatianas trying to do, because of his lightwood blood. But if Thomas escapes, Tatiana still needs her families blood. And I'd like to point out this is also where the fact she hasnt taken permanent revenge on the lightwood-herondales would come in. Theres a good chance that if the murders are releated to her, and she cant have Thomas, she wont stop at just Thomas.

5. Story relevance

In all sense of story, Christopher is the perfect candidate to kill. As hard as that is to say: he's a secondary character, who has a well defined personality, loved enough by the fans that there would certainly be a shock factor following his death, important enough to the story that there would be a big impact to the narrative, and interwined enough with the main characters to cause emotional distress in the story. His arc is indirectly done, this author has a history of killing lightwoods, there isnt much to discourage the possibility he might be killed besides the faulty family tree. And as I said, that tree has been stated multiple times to be misleading

Bonus prove

6. Christophers cut-out

Same way were analizing the hell out of a broken spear, why are we not talking about the skull on christophers?

(Sorry couldnt get better quality pics)

The truth is, I hate this theory as much as everyone, Im genuinly hoping chain of iron proves me wrong. But there are 5 deaths comming, and not all of them can be side characters. Cordelia Lucie and James all have main character protection. I already explained why Thomas dying is unlikely. Anna, Ariadne and Alastair have gay protection (and I think some asks about Alastair dying were pretty much answered with a discreet no)

If there are mains dying, Christophers the most likely to go

[bloodyflashlight]

One thing that I will forever be mad about is that season 4 really gave us the illusion of choice more than the other seasons. There's so much that veiled as us having a day in the matter, but the outcome is exactly the same with a couple lines changed and thats it.

ESPECIALLY when it comes to AJ. Yeah, there's the decision that determines if Violet/Louis or Tenn survives, but that's literally the only time I can think of where Clementine's actions affect him for more than 5 seconds.

For instance, the whole "let me have dibs on abel" thing only matters for a single dialogue change that is never mentioned again. The "no swear words" only matters for a couple more dialogue changes than that.

"Your actions will shape AJ into who he will become. You just tortured a man in front of him."

HELLOO???? THAT ISNT BROUGHT UP AT ALL LATER.

The arrowcards make it seem like its this big defining moment of his character, like what if THIS was the choice that defined if AJ would shoot Lilly later on? But it's just.... a little tidbit thats only highlighted for a brief moment without adding anything substantial to the story.

You can be the world's biggest jerk to Violet and Louis, but if you have romantic feelings for them they'll reciprocate.

You can remind Minnie of Tenn every chance you get (you know, the only reason she still thinks of Ericson at all), but she'll still snap and try to take him down with her even though her entire character arc was wanting to keep him safe.

Even the parallel to Lee's death has an illusion of choice. I know it's heartbreaking to think of an ending where Clementine is dead, but that should have been an option if you told AJ to leave. That's what the choice there is for. A branching pathway with a totally different ending. Isn't that what this entire series is about?

"The story is tailored by how you play" is such a lie with this series its unreal. And I understand they were out of time and out of budget and couldn't add everything they wanted to add, and I'll give them slack for that, but I'm still disappointed in how much doesnt matter in this series that's supposedly shaped by your actions.

[la-carcassa-famiglia]

yo do tell us about harmonization. i never really cared for the concept tbh i think because i dont really read many fanfics with the sky users (oops) so it doesnt come up often but i am curious to your opinion

Hoo boy I have a lot of thoughts and I’m gonna put it in a read more. Not just for length, but because I do feel like this concept is deeply flawed and I have strong opinions on it

For people who don’t know, harmonization is a fanon interpretation of how the sky flame’s attribute of “harmony” interacts with the other flames. Other flames can “harmonize” with the sky and create a flame bond, to the point where they can all feel each other’s physical/emotional pain or even hear each other’s thoughts. It can vary from author to author but these are the main themes and it’s a surprisingly very widespread thing.

▲ My main issue with it is the extreme codependency that happens between the sky and other flames. It just seems manipulative that because of this bond, you can’t ever leave the sky user, or doing so puts you both in excruciating pain. Even if I think most of Tsuna’s friends are loyal as hell by their own will, people can change and leave you, that’s a part of life. Harmonization takes away that agency and automatically makes the dynamic really unhealthy.

▲ The above point is even worse when they physically can’t be away from each other. Some fics have it so Lambo can’t have other friends?? These characters are all kids and I think this would fuck them up pretty hard developmentally, not to mention a majority of the authors writing these are adults and the theme of possessiveness is so creepy. Like some characters will tell each other “you have to stay with us/me for your safety” and that’s just, not great?? 

▲ A huge part of KHR is showing how Tsuna develops positive relationships with the people around him, including anyone who isn’t a guardian. I think this concept really undermines his friendships outside of that circle (with Basil, Kyoko, Haru, Enma, etc). It’s like no matter how hard he tries to connect with other people outside of the fucking bond, it doesn’t count as a meaningful relationship.

▲ Another thing that rubs me the wrong way is that the guardians are drawn to Tsuna because of his powerful flames. Again, this also goes against the basis of KHR. Tsuna isn't some powerful badass that people are crawling over themselves to talk with. He's just an average kid who gets bullied. The reason all his guardians are so loyal to him is because he earned their trust by making real connections to them. They've gone through so much together that they're genuinely really close friends because of that, not because of some kind of supernatural property.

▲ I feel like there’s also a huge issue with consent where they can’t choose who they bond with. It’s a fated thing apparently. I’ve heard of a lot of abhorrent fics where Nana was forced to be with Iemitsu because of this and the content is pretty genuinely disgusting.

▲ It's not great how a lot of fics make it so the guardians are the only people that matter to one another. They don't have a life outside of Tsuna at all. At best it makes for bland characterization and at worst no one should rely on one person so heavily.

▲ This is a weaker point because we make fics to deviate from canon but I feel that it’s worth noting: it’s confirmed in canon that flames have no definite correlation to personality. If anything, it’s mainly their role in fights/a group. There are no set rules. It’s like zodiac signs, everyone has one and there are traits associated with them, but they don’t define your entire person. I get why people want to play with the correlation concept because flames are sick as hell but doing that by creating harmonization where it’s so absolutely ingrained in their existence is just... weird.

▲ Harmonization is usually paired with really weird flame lore. Like, they assign personality traits to the flames that are really extreme and just not how the character actually functions. One example is that cloud is supposedly very possessive and territorial, and they make Hibari act like a fucking animal and describe it as pack bond and that's weird as fuck. In the worse fics, it's really just an excuse to have ABO without making it an ABO fic. With minors. It’s so instinctual and animalistic??? 

▲ There's this whole thing about having one of each flame type to complete the set and feel whole I guess, which is already weird but also contradictory to canon. Tsuna has two mists and Xanxus doesn't have a cloud at all. Did Xanxus flame bond with the robot being powered by his adoptive father? What's going on there.

▲ There are cases where characters will use Rain flames to calm down a sad or angry person. In theory sounds fine, but usually in these fics the other person didn’t consent to it. It’s emotionally manipulative and you’re basically just sedating them. There is no communication going on and it’s treated like it’s a good thing and that the rain user is being helpful. In fact, there’s rarely any good communication in these fics at all. People just use their flames to do everything because they’re such a overwhelmingly big focus.

▲ Harmonization fics often seem like an excuse to put Tsuna in pain by losing everyone he cares about, and it ends up being more deeply uncomfortable than angsty or fun to read.

▲ WHAT THE FUCK IS A FLAME WOMB?? FLAME CHILDREN??? FLUSSY????????? WHAT THE FUCK ILL TAKE YOUR LIFE

[goldtips]

okay so ya girl is back at it again. this was originally going to be a reply to someone but well. it got out of hand. i shat all over babylon the anime a while ago and honestly kind of feel bad. there are definitely things that the show does that makes it stand out, esp as a seasonal anime bc you dont expect dir. to spend much time on them!!!! like if we’re comparing this to shows like fanservice anime or any .. mediocre seasonal isekai then ofc this show is better lmfao. the only reason i shit on it is because i expected this anime to be Better ;;;;;;;

mind, i’m not rescinding my statement - as far as i’m concerned, babylon is still a hella frustrating anime because it tries to showcase humans as nihilistic, utilitarian robots that don’t seem to consider the topic of suicide emotionally even though thats supposedly humanity’s defining trait ??? and it deals with the topic of suicide with the care of elephants gallivanting in the fucking savanna :))) the whole show has also been pretty lacklustre in terms of characterization, trying way too hard to be intellectual and feed edgy plot points instead of giving any development - the plot feels reactionary overall and placid rather than exciting. also, the fact that the anime started as a mystery / politico-legal sort of show just makes the transition from that to abstract theory even more forced...........

HOWEVER im promised im going to stop shitting on babylon so lets talk about what the anime does right shall we. more specifically,,, the biblical imagery!!! is great !!!! : D

the show is called babylon. in the old testament (ot), babylon is humanized as a “brutal, callous and proud” woman who “believed that she would reign over the earth forever.” in the new testatment the phrase “she who is at babylon” refers to the new world culture currently at war with the covenant community. in such that rome, as a mistress or whore of the new world, is seeking to seduce and subvert people of god, enticing men to fall “drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

yes,,,, a whore who uses sex to entice innocent men into complying with new culture? who believes herself to be akin to god and also in this context, above the law and morality - im gonna say its not too far a stretch to say that magase was intended to symbolise the whore of babylon.

however, that’s not all - links can be made between the enactment of the suicide laws and the seduction of new culture. who exactly is leading the front? kaika itsuki ( 齋 開化 ), who’s name literally means culture. that aint a coincidence. also, that weirdly-placed reference to roman law / norms during the suicide debate as a way to convince the masses to revert / adopt roman ideology??? also not a coincidence. :))))

in addition, there are two other major biblical events related to babylon:

the book of revelations; and

the tower of babel.

its safe to say that both narratives are being pushed atm.

revelations:

in revelation 17, the spirit of babylon decends upon earth through the whore. she arrives on the back of a beast with 7 heads, “arrayed in purple and scarlet”, “drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” “seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.” the revelations also prophesizes that she will be defeated by a beast, but it is unclear as to which. there are two beasts in book of revelations. the first beast comes "out of the sea" given authority and power by the dragon/serpent. the second beast comes "out of the earth" directing people to worship the first beast, a "false prophet".

in a similar vein, nomaru had secretly vouched for itsuki’s, providing itsuki with the necessary resources for him to rise up in ranks and become the new mayor. the kanji for ryuichiro nomaru ( 野丸 龍一郎 ) contains both the kanji 野 and 龙 which respectively mean field (i.e. earth) and dragon. they are key references to the beasts of revelation

plus according to nomaru, it was also purely because of magase that the political struggle turned out the way that it did, meaning that she is ultimately the one controlling the entire operation. this mirrors the way she is sitting on the heads of the beast (i.e. the proverbial brains of the campaign that itsuki is heading) 

we also see that when magase uses her powers her eyes and hair glow in a sort of purple/burgundy color to support the imagery as well! 

the book of revelations is the final chapter of nt. it is merely an allegory of struggle between good and evil and doesnt refer to actual people or events. kinda like the show huh. nyyy way, we see that the protag john the apostle writes down what is revealed to him through visions to send it to the 7 churches :))

kinda like how zen keeps on seeing magase through visions and has to document !! his findings and report back to admin? ik this isnt exact but there’s a bit where he has to write down her confession and it really struck me as weird until this bit popped up, maybe that was included to as a way of tying in :))

tower:

according to the myth, there were plans to build a city and tower high enough to reach heaven - god who observes this confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other. why? because “now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.”

while not entirely similar, we see recurring themes in babylon that deal with miscommunication and new ideology. the conflict mirrors the myth in that unity of language (or ideology in this case) and its subsequent discordance once differentiated. 

the interrogation scene in ep 4 deals with reconciling differences. magase asks whether those with different values should be accepted, despite them being contrary to norm. all this time, society has been developing an ideal set of norms - the entire country shares the same values and priorities with no deviation. growth has stagnated. in similar fashion to how god commands for many languages to be created, magase sows the seeds of doubt towards long-standing assumptions and moral values in order to create discordance and push japan into a state of new development

in the new campaign, itsuki proposes to apportion shiniki city from japan and instill new values. this confounds the population and sends them into disarray - the tower that they have created is crumbling, in similar likeness to the parable of babel.

SO TL;DR this show has a really cool starting concept i cant lie?????  i for one am not shitting on its supernatural elements (even though the flow was a little inorganic) in hindsight there’s no point in expecting a show called babylon not to delve into supernatural/biblical elements lol :)))

as a right hoe for imagery and philosophy/ethics, this gave me high hopes but the execution of everything else was way below average. why bring in a discussion about suicide that’s poorly researched + try to be edgy abt it and have the citizens to have support it so easily???? ruins the immersion so much

if the anime really wanted to focus on philosophy there should be some mention of ethical theory to justify his point. like, being aimlessly philosophical only ends up being flowery and pseudo-bullshit lmao. one of hte reasons why i was so frustrated with magase and zen’s discussion in the interrogation room. like woman what was your fucking point. its only wasting screentime if you don’t get anything from the conversation. the philosophy was so fucking unnecessary - babylon could have been executed as an in-depth political/psychological anime instead. WITHOUT THE SUICIDE.

this and the lack of good characters really bummed me out. i think that the show was expecting me to connect to some of the characters before they were fucking killed off but i didn’t end up giving a single shit about any of them so. :) the whole show feels more about the shock factor and gore than about interesting plot.

concept 10/10, execution 1/10

[thoughtfulpaperback]

Charmed 02x08 Review SPOILERS!!!!

Sorry this took so long y'all. Family stuff just blew up in my face this month has been just terrible it's been terrible since the end of november to be honest, so I just wasnt in the mood to review. But I shall starts. In general i liked the episode 8/10 for me. I like the pacing, the general plot advancing. I liked it, but I have some complaints though. So let's just get those out of the way. So I'll do pros and cons by subject since there were things I both disliked and liked about each thing.

1. Hacy

Let's just get this big guy out of the way. So abby and Harry kiss was a big no for me, although it was hot for sure.

Now there has been a lot of back and forth about this so I actually wanted to compare to the things that bugged me about Macyx galvin and where I thought one does better than the other.

Communication

So like Harry and Macy do not communicate well with each other right now. I feel that thier communication issues though are better (or at least make more sense to me) than Macy x Galvin.

Macy while communicating with Galvin, as far as arranging things, was bad, but with her kiss on halloween she did make her interest in Galvin known. They both had an understanding that they were interested. So I thought the whole Summer ordeal was worse in that sense because, while the follow through was poorly done, Macy's interest was stated.

With Harry and Macy, it appears that neither of them have stated any interest to one another (neither has told the other thier feelings) and neither is aware. So harry kissing some one else isnt as bad to me as the Galvin x Summer situation because of that (speaking about this area soley).

The passive aggressiveness of Harry and Galvin in certain situation isnt comparable because Harry is doing it more.I felt Harry's reactions are more justified (we will get to the hypocritical portion later) in that he is going through the wringer, is hurting and confused, and self-deprecating and many of us agreed that the thought of Macy preferring Jimmy would be bad and hurtful to Harry and logically make no sense. But harry has more scenes than Galvin did in season one so he feel more passive aggressive than Galvin, but I attribute that to screen time and proximity to the Macy (he always there so more time and chances to interact). But also, for me, Galvin wasnt as passive agressive and his sometimes aggressive or snideness wasnt because of Macy. Outside stuff (problems with summer) would make him snap or his trauma also caused him to snap so the situations are comparable there but, again Harry has more screen time so his snapping feels worse to me because it happens multiple time in one episode versus one or twice in a whole season. Since the situation ( and right now I am speaking soley on the summer x Galvin situation) was different. I am up in the air I as to which was "worse" i think both situations are sucky and i think i am more bothered by Galvin x Summer because again Macy had actually expressed her interest (communication wise) but the hacy situation feels more full of that passive aggressiveness and that will turn it into something I really cant get behind. Right now I feel Harry is in a bad place and probably shouldnt be with anyone until he get himself settled personally.

Love triangle/square or whatever

So like with summer x Galvin it wasnt really a love triangle I mean kind of but not really. Galvin didnt pursue Macy while with summer and was generally nice during that time. Summer wasnt necessarily the jealous girlfriend stereotype she was nice, but did call out suspect behavior.

The abby xharryx Macy x jimmy thing is like aweful. It is the love triangle that I hate most at least where the abbyxharryxmacy part is concerned.

I mentioned it before but I hate when one or two people use another person as a means of getting release/relief when they are actually interested in someone else. I think it is cruel to both the used character and the main LI. Worse when both are using others because twice the cruelty. IDK what was going on in Harry's head. But I have never like that type of love triangle, and worse so because it is possibly the other type of triangle I hate which is (usually guy) caught between two ladies and one is clearly the villian (I thank novelas for this gem *sarcasm*) and it is mostly a lust thing.

Especially given that James Westwell was a serial cheater, apparently, this idea of "I love one person but am in lust with the other despite thier character" is like the worst to me. Abby is straight up an ambitious murder, and like I guess that maybe Harry's default type because Charity had similar qualities, but again for a guy who supposedly has strong feelings for Macy and was so confused and hurt by her attraction to Jimmy (which apparently wasnt attraction at all) the ease of him doing the very thing he was mad about , and the ease of being able to push aside his feeling for Macy and give in to that abby kiss was gross.

Sorry but although they werent together, for me, guys who can do that easily should be on our cheater radar. Knowing that James was a serial cheater just makes it worse imo.

While the summer x Galvin situation felt worse on the communication front (expressed feelings) it was better done than here because there is a lot more grossness in the dynamics of the love shape thing right now.

Overall, I get Harry isnt in a place to be with anyone and it's all confusing and he is lashing out. He has not told Macy his interest and neither has she so he shouldnt be held to the boyfriend standards. But still the writers are toeing the line here. What happens next will actually help me define whether this turns into a Galvin situation where I end up not liking the two characters together. If Harry tries to continue the passive aggressiveness about Macy and Jimmy. I'll be done. I mean if he does have feelings for abby and trying to move on, but still tries to pull that with Macy it will just be straight up manipulative. Right now I am like okay he was lashing out and I get it and the abby kiss is probably a big mistake. He can continue the mistake path if the writers wasnt to go there, but if he doesnt recognize that he did something hypocritical and still comes for Macy about Jimmy it will be very very wrong.

I think they for sure need to clear the air but if the writers wait to long or do too much damage I wont be satisfied with the clearing of the air.

I am not necessarily mad right now over the abbyx Harry thing because I am waiting to see how they will handle and present it, but I mean it is on that line and writers need to watch out. I dont think Harry was trying to be manipulative and the lashing out happened before abby kiss. As long as the lashing out (at Macy) doesnt continue I will watch and support the development and exploration of thier relationship and dynamic with the others.

2. Maggie

So like Maggie shows her naivety here and I am not that mad. Like she isn't pulling a "I am so in love and blind to the world" thing she makes her decision based on what she thinks will do the most good for the most people. It is still naive, but she is still maturing and you can see that. Her wanting her sisters to trust her judgment and not feel like they have to baby her is reasonable although again those insecurities clouded the main issues here. She is growing and I shall see how she continues to mature.

3. Mel

I think they tried to fit some personal development for mel here and it both worked and didnt work. I thought it wasnt done badly but at some points I was like....okay could this have been saved for another episode or done beforehand. I wanted to see it, just didn't think it felt in place, especially after leaving the wedding. She just had some development and then was like welp guess I am gonna stumble upon this amber. Like mel could have gotten her new powers before, I mean I felt they could have made the stumble upon the amber scene and new powers at any point before and it could have been more relevant and interesting placed somewhere else than this episode.

4. Abby/overlord/parker storyline

Abby was probably the best thing in this episode. I love her as a villian. I am here for it and I want it.

Parker got dark real quick and while I think he and Maggie shouldnt be together, I am glad he didnt die. Also glad abby clarified that his actions weren't caused by the apple. Because at least OG with Cole the tragedy (the first storyline) was that he made a choice to protect the person he loved but he ended up becoming the source and actually being taken over by the source so his actions were tinted by his OG love but corrupted by that force that possessed him. Where as abby tells him, that that jealousy and want for blood was all him. Maybe the apple and that power made him more likely to act on it than of he hadnt, but it wasnt the apples fault necessarily so. I am glad for the clarification, makes me not want Maggie and him together, but I like that exploration of power and choice. Even with Macy while the power amplified those insecurities she still was making choice which also made her choice to give up that power extra meaningful. Power is corrupting but you can still choose to fight that corruption or give in to it. I like that.

5. Jordan

I love this character to be honest. I am still figuring him out, but like dude is cursed and has been basically touched, punched, and robbed by these guys. He can't catch a break and like nobody even checks on him. Like he so far is a pretty decent although suspicious (like he doesnt trust others easily not like he himself is suspect) guy and I like him but he is getting some serious Darryl treatment right now. I dont like that, but I like him and want to see more of him. Plus, what the heck happened? Did they leave him passed out in the gym? Did they wipe his memory? What is going on?

Episode highlights

Jordan trying to defend maggie and get parker to leave

The power of Four looking fine as heck for a wedding

Mel as a fly talking to herself

Macy walking in on that kiss

[catboy-prussia]

Ok but what is hetalia’s clarity of purpose/target if it’s satire? Why does its humor never attack the institutions of nationalism directly, instead depicting characters as transphobic, homophobic or racist jokes? Why does it say “war bad” but never “why war bad” besides “war make my favorite nationalist sad”. How can it supposedly target nationalism when nations are depicted as innocent or absolved of any guilt and nationalists have found safe haven in the fandom?

First: it makes fun of nationalism specifically by turning these perceived ideals and stereotypes into dorks. For example America sees himself as the pinnacle of American exceptionalism, the hero, the best of the best, which is a stereotype conflicting with other defining aspects of his character like being a nosey gluttonous child. If you mean criticizing the governments that propagate nationalism. There are examples, Germany outright calls Hitler a nutcase In one instance. That's not exactly prime nazi behavior.

You have to understand, this is at its core a comedy anime, it's not going to seriously or overtly critique much.

For further reading ->

https://ellawritesficssometimes.tumblr.com/post/176861916256/why-hetalia-isnt-racist-why-it-doesnt-promote

It contains an academic source on the matter as well

Second point. The anime is a product of it's time and culture of origin so YEAH there are some problematic jokes and dumb edgy humor in the DUB and OLDER strips. The NEWER content is much more tame. Hetalia has been around for 10 years it's not gonna be spotless.

On the war bad part. Again the newer stuff doesn't really touch on war at all. It's mostly about historical trivia and cultural differences and similarities. War is brought up more in the older content but in that case you gotta specify what war because they aren't all framed the same way

The nations in canon, represent the common citizen. They DO NOT represent the political regimes or institutions of that nation in canon. America does not represent the American government he is a SEPARATE entity who works with the government. Nations can be lied to, tortured, and imprisoned by their government. Thei absolutely do blame their government for doing bad things but they also blame each other. So no they aren't really absolved of anything

On your final note, what nationalists think they have a safe space here? Because we've kicked nationalists out and we have no problem doing it again. Seriously, come to us with substantial proof and a name and we'll handle it. Or are you talking about countryhumans?

[bi-dazai]

2000 words on soukoku romance-coding in episode 26

i’ve talked a lot on here about how there’s a lot of romance-coding in the canon content featuring dazai and chuuya. here’s a rundown of my base theories here

i didnt add this in my original above post, but ill say now that diegetically chuuya and dazai are usually quite levelheaded and manipulative - both are the two youngest port mafia executives in history. even when dazai is annoyed with other characters (such as kunikida or atsushi) it is clear that he is play-acting. chuuya, meanwhile, is extremely level-headed and doesnt get upset at all - even when yosano and kenji appeared heavily armed. dazai is only slightly upset by shibusawa and dostoyevsky. the only person to genuinely get a rise out of both chuuya and dazai are each other. even so, their arguing has, from the beginning, been petty on the surface, yet upon reading into dialogue and animated/written/illustrated facial expressions show deep hurt at each others actions, particularly on their 4 year separation and dazai covering up his loyalty to chuuya by betraying his trust in episode 21.

i have two more points to add on concerning their non-diegetic relationship. firstly, that official merchandise and posters almost always depict chuuya and dazai either ogling each other (theres a trend of dazai ogling chuuya’s ass in particular) or doing something romantic together (for example there’s a poster where they are depicted hanging around together with no other characters near a christmas tree - christmas is considered a romantic holiday in japan. the same coding is given to many canon fictional couples in japan, and to another studio bones production pairing in bnha kiribaku, which has a similar level of gaycoding).

the second non-diegetic point you should understand about soukoku: it’s one of the most popular ships in japan, and japan’s anime industry tends to be a lot more open about showing same-sex relationships/gay-coding than the west is.

--- 

and for a note on my authorship - i admit that i do ship soukoku, and that this gives me a bias. i am also bisexual and am much more sensitive to noticing homoeroticism than many straight audiences. however, to counter this point id like to clarify that it takes a lot to make me believe a same-sex ship has even the slightest chance of being canon. also, id like to say that i am an author in my second year of a creative writing degree and my first year of a film studies minor. these degrees both involve analysing text within production and authorial context (a lot...). in my free time i read a lot of papers and articles on the production context and general views of lgbt representation in different countries’ media, in particular the usa, australia, and japan. i consume every piece of media i view with an intensely critical eye and i specialise in connected diegetic elements with non-diegetic elements in terms of production, authorial, and social context

---

*NOTE* im going to be doing things out of order here for no other reason than that i realised them in that order as i thought about the episode analytically

today i want to talk about something extremely specific that came up in episode 26, and it has to do with the use of symbolism and shot composition. it’s just a short, short sequence but to me it speaks volumes, both for their canon relationship and their coded romantic relationship.

specifically this sequence. this is just one shot and to me it portrays soukoku’s dynamic as explicitly romantic in a mise-en-scene sense.

before we like to go in, id like to clarify that the dialogue doesnt matter - it’s mainly expository stuff.

the first sc is the first shot we see of dazai and chuuya ‘alone’ in this scene. it’s unclear where mori is exactly. even though mori is clearly orchestrating the two of them and this entire scene’s dialogue, he isn’t in this shot until the very end. this defines the soukoku relationship, as well as their first meeting being entirely incidental, as being something that was supposedly orchestrated by mori but on a deeper level something they created and grow themselves. it is their relationship from the beginning, not mori’s. even though we know that mori is orchestrating this, we are told that this story will be about chuuya and dazai, not mori’s plans. along with that, it’s also the first shot of open sky we get in this scene, and it’s with just chuuya and dazai looking at each other, silent. it’s open and refreshing and new, but there’s something there already - which i will discuss now.

so. let’s talk about the vapour trail. the vapour trail has no real relationship to the scene or story at all. it would be perfectly logical to just place clouds here, or even place the vapour trail somewhere else. but this vapour trail is very specifically placed to form an arrow to comes from dazai’s heart and reaches towards chuuya, passing over mori’s head narrowly. mori watches the trail, dazai and chuuya watch each other. mori knows the middle part - that they will be tied together to be a device of violence of his own making. but at the other ends dazai and chuuya are tied together in a way that goes above and below mori’s knowledge. this symbolises their future together, and indicates a subtextual level to their dynamic.

the choice i want to focus on here, however, is the choice to have this arrow reach from dazai’s heart. as a writer, if i was trying to symbolise the general strategic soukoku dynamic i would have this arrow go from dazai’s head (the brains) to chuuya (the recipient and conductor of dazai’s plans). in fact, i have a dynamic im writing right now that is similar to this, in which one is defense and one is agility. however, these two also end up in a same-sex romantic relationship together later on. in order to code and foreshadow this, as well as add romantic subtext, often when using symbology i adjust my symbols to fit a romantic context subtly. as an author myself, this shot is a clear hint of adjusted symbolism in order to code dazai’s feelings for chuuya.

and if i’m to read further, i would even say that the fact that the arrow flies over chuuya’s head suggests that dazai currently has romantic feelings for chuuya that chuuya does not yet return (but comes to, something that i have discussed in my linked post above).

---

secondly, tumblr user @cream-and-punishment made a fun joke post about dazai and chuuya “exchanging wedding vows” at their first meeting. firstly, it’s funny as fuck and when i first saw the post my reaction was just “haha it does sound like that!”. however, i keep looking at that post, keep returning to the script and that scene, and my reaction is now “wow. it does sound like that. like. exactly what soukoku wedding vows sound like. huh.”

for the lazy here’s the script (translated by the funimation subtitle team):

Dazai: You’re a cocky, overconfident child. You’re the kind of person I hate the most.

Chuuya: And I hate condescending pricks like you more than anything in this world.

and because im thorough, i ignored my english subs and listened the original japanese script as well (with my limited japanese to basically check for anything that could be translated differently or means something in japanese that is culturally untranslatable). what i found was that the english subs are right, and capture the original lines quite well.

dialogue can function as a tool for multiple results. in this two-line exchange, neither of the lines are meant as views into the character’s true interiors. instead, the purpose of this interchange is meant to be foreshadowing, specifically into the fact that this is how chuuya and dazai spend the rest of their relationship (up until the current point in the canon manga plot) expressing their opinion towards each other. it mirrors the kind of dialogue we see in episode 10 in which dazai and chuuya’s dialogue works as exposition for their past and their base dynamic, and here it is used to foreshadow what is considered backstory in the main plot (if that makes any sense?).

however, chuuya’s response to dazai is where im interested. im gonna pull my writer’s card here and say that if i was, again, just foreshadowing hatred and frustration as well as cooperation, i would cut chuuya’s line to something like this:

Chuuya: And I hate condescending pricks like you the most/just as much/etc.

“more than anything in this world”, of course, could just be incidental. but considering how a lot of soukoku’s dialogue is clearly double-entendre (read my original post linked above), it makes me consider a second option: that we are already putting that romantic double-entendre into their dynamic. if we refer to the future soukoku dynamic, in particular in episode 21, we are shown multiple times that chuuya genuinely cares for dazai’s well-being (secondary to rimbaud’s hat of course hahaha). chuuya would be genuinely upset if dazai died, and its implied (though still up to interpretation as opposed to the explicitness of chuuya’s shown feelings, however i would argue that dead apple is fairly explicit in dazai’s trust and feelings) the vice versa is also true.

going off that, often how both of them express concern for each other is by making ‘hateful’ comments towards each other. in episode 9, it’s clear there is uncomfortable tension in the room. there is 4 years of unspoken confusion lingering and chuuya is clearly, clearly upset. so dazai, in referencing an unchanging nature of what makes them them, calls back to one of his first mocking entries - how short chuuya is. it’s funny and it’s mocking, but the blows they trade are familiar and even when theyre brawling, despite being on opposite sides they take genuine pleasure in each others company. considering both of their personalities and histories as well as their trauma, both of them tend to struggle with interpersonal relationships and opening up. but chuuya and dazai canonically feel comfortable with each other, and know how to read each other well enough to both bounce off each other while also understanding what lies beneath.

so when chuuya says something like “i hate you more than anything in this world” we are pulled back to the present (in the plot), where chuuya says these things but moments later is concerned or worried for dazai’s wellbeing. chuuya in this line prioritises dazai as the foremost person in his life within minutes of meeting each other. diegetically (to the characters) we know this is them exchanging tense negotiation. non-diegetically (to what we know of the script and their future, as well as this entire exchange being mostly foreshadowing), we are clearly meant to interpret this to mean that chuuya will, eventually, hold dazai to be incredibly important to him, and vice versa. 

of course, we also have the fact that the phrase “more than anything in this world” is yet another soukoku romantic double-entendre. as i mentioned with things such as “the silent treatment” and mentioning drinking heavily when someone abruptly leaves you, it’s clear that these are used almost entirely as romantic tropes. i’ve discussed this before so i wont get too much into it, but just say that this scene adds yet another line to that long list of soukoku double-entendres.

---

considering at least the first 3 episodes will be related to exploring the soukoku backstory, ill be trying to post an analytic of soukoku for each episode of the 15 adaptation. furthermore, these posts won’t be explicitly about the potential of canon romantic chuuya/dazai, but will analyse soukoku scenes in a focus that i see fit for each episode. whether this is examining it like this post again, or examining it for foreshadowing or cinematographic details etc, will be decided once i watch each episode.

anyway lol! yet another rambling analytical of something nobody cares about haha

[actualbird]

yo you totally made me think about low empathy michael and it like totally makes sense and i think about it a lot when i listen to two player game bc ye like he OBVIOUSLY cares a lot about jeremy and he loves him and like jeremy's stating his problem and michael keeps saying the same solution cause like "that's the answer bro, don't be down" bc he cant wrap his head around the emotions and connect w them that well so in his mind he's just saying this completely fool proof solution i love this hc

yo i got this ask while balls deep in three books of discourse analysis i could only understand by like 10% but because of that was in the mood to just. keep thinking my brain in circles.

so heres a stupidly long answer cataloging canon instances of michael being low empathy af/exhibiting other traits related to this. along with like, characterization to extrapolate from that (at least by my own personal interpretation. obligatory disclaimer that how i see characters is not law, this is just My Take). 

but before that, im gonna define some terms outright so we’re all on the same page. empathy is a person’s capability to understand and feel what others are feeling. basically how well you can put yourself in somebody else’s shoes. this shouldnt be confused with sympathy, which is feeling compassion, pity, sorrow etc. for another. empathy is recognition/replication while sympathy is more on the caring about it. here i focus on empathy and the lack of it. 

im not an expert on Anything but speaking from experience as somebody who has very low empathy, this causes some complications. when you dont feel what others are feeling, sometimes you dont notice other people’s feelings at all. this results in stuff like bluntness, trouble reading social cues, insensitivity, etc. all things that 1) may happen unintentionally, 2) can be worked through via healthy communication, 3) are not inherently bad, just a result of how one reacts to external emotions and 4) things i totally think michael exhibits because hes a low empathy goblin i love with my whole heart. 

let’s get right into it. in more than survive, right after jeremy and michael discover their boyf riend backpacks, this exchange occurs

this seems pretty normal at first glance but it is the first instance of what seems to be michael’s go-to pattern for when he notices his best friend is feeling down, which, at least, kudos to michael, he very obviously noticed jeremy’s feelings. hurrah! so his process for how to fix this goes a little like “step 1: notice jeremy is upset. step 2: cheer jeremy up! step 3: unknowingly kinda mess up step 2“

jeremy is upset about the backpacks but then jeremy provides an out with something supposedly positive. michael latches on to it. it turns out to be negative. michael tries to salvage the situation by cheering jeremy up! by giving him a cool science fact! hell yeah! except it’s a shaky save at best because he does call the both of them losers but in an “it’s okay :D” way. 

all in all this is nothing really, just some friendly fast paced banter between best friends. whats important here is the 3 step pattern aforementioned because it 1) shows that michael Cares about his best friend and tries to make things better and 2) is BASICALLY the entirety of two player game

TWO PLAYER GAME is such a BOP and, at its core, is a song about how michael has got jeremy’s back and vice versa. but tpg is also textbook the 3 step pattern with added sprinkle of unintended invalidation. ive briefly spoken about tpg before so this might look a lil familiar but at its gist:

like you said anon, in tpg jeremy tells michael a problem he has, and throughout the course of the song, he continually makes it known that hes upset and has a lot of issues. step 1 has been achieved: michael knows jeremy is not doing too hot. time to do step 2: cheer him up!! and what better way to do that than to think positive with his trademark line “guys like us are cool in college” like, over and over again. because….it makes sense for michael. things might suck now, but just keep swimming yeah? it’ll be better later.

but it’s not better now and thats what jeremy actually needed validation on. michael thinks the solution is to look to the future but jeremy has his problems bothering him in the present. for all that michael says this is a two player game, he’s unintentionally dismissive because he doesnt understand that this isnt something that can be fixed with a simple “look forward to two years from now” mentality. neither of them are in the wrong, really. theyre just not on the same page.

onwards we go to something else entirely. the chili fries

this is a RIDICULOUSLY SMALL MOMENT but it stuck out to me because imo it is pretty obvious that jeremy says “leave me alone” because hes bummed and is being dramatic, but michael takes it literally and uses the opportunity to skedaddle and get his sweet sweet discontinued soda. im aware michael had to be gone for plot reasons and also the discontinued soda is foreshadowing for the mtn dew red, but taken at face value, this is something that happens a lot w/ low empathy: things are taken literally. 

jeremy is upset. jeremy said to give him some space. thats cool, i’ll go for a bit and come back with something neat that might cheer him up—hey, where’d he go?

and now let’s jump to something everybody and their dog knows about. michael in the bathroom. except not really. because mitb isnt what interests me so much as what happens before.

pre mitb is very, very interesting. before i say anything i’ll be clear in saying that literally nobody had even remotely a nice halloween night, it’s a disaster for everybody involved, but keep in mind that jeremy goes into the pre mitb scene immediately after the clusterfuck that is do you wanna hang and also getting chased down by a sloshed but aggressive jake. many people have said this before me but i’ll say it again: jeremy was not doing well. at all. 

and this is where michael fails step 1 of his pattern. he doesnt pick up on this at all. michael is kinda stuck in his own head right now. hes pissed. hes confused. hes betrayed. he cant understand other people’s feelings and now he has to deal with his own too. his head is a melting pot of AGH and he takes it out on jeremy. yeah, he tries to help jeremy, but he doesnt do it very well. it’s all very accusatory, and jeremy just had a terrible night, so jeremy lashes out.

teenagers are bad at emotions but theyre not bad people for it.  //cue mitb notes, we know the drill

to the play!!! 

recap for maximum contextualization: jeremy realizes the squip is bad fucking news and wants it gone. michael makes an entrance with the one thing that can kill it. and then this happens

AIGHT okay so the whole “i need an apology” scene is obviously played for comedy, and it does a good job at suddenly diffusing the end of the world stakes with some more down to earth teen friend drama but that aside, this scene is a good candidate to be listed under the definition of the phrase “bad timing” because michael, holy shit. BAD TIMING. like great timing for humor but bad timing as a human being. 

here we have jeremy clearly in possessed distress and michael has the antidote but he only wants to give it on a condition. it is absolutely a dick move. yeah, michael is is valid for wanting an apology, but not at this moment with the current stakes. this is michael thinking pretty selfishly. hes stuck in his own head and his own thoughts. he cares about jeremy and wants to help but…this apology important to him. it’s easy to get stuck on things like this when you cant empathize with others. the low empathy means that the only feelings you really get to really interact with are your own, so theres a tendency to focus on them. sometimes even at inopportune moments.

unintentional asshole-ery behold. in fact, this can be pushed even harder by this snippet in the score of be more chill that had some lines from an earlier draft. 

the fetus version of michael makes an entrance is hilariously low empathy, oh my god. this happens while jeremy is rolling around on the floor fighting an invisible-to-everybody-else squip and this is the first thing michael says. it’s positively dickish. 

SO with that done, a little bit can be extrapolated in terms of characterization. i think michael is low empathy so the dominos fall. michael is terrible at feelings. hes got a tendency to get stuck in his own head and not see what others are going through. his emotional periphery is abysmal, hes like a horse with those things that stop horses from looking to the side. in spite of all this, he still has a lot of love and good in his heart and he tries his best to show that in the ways that make sense to him. post-canon, the rift between his brain and jeremy’s brain can only be bridged by a big healthy heap of communication where michael learns that what makes sense to him isnt always what makes sense to other people. hes a good kid. he can do it. 

of course this is, again, all my take. the fun thing about transformative work and fandom is that all interpretations are valid and there will always be somebody out there who agrees. or disagrees. but on this blog, this is my michael. or at least one aspect of my michael. //shrug

ANYWAY im glad you like the hc anon!! ive obviously got a lot of feelings about it since i used your ask as an excuse to aimlessly ramble for, holy shit, 1.6 k words lmao. i hope you have a good day!!!

[kissingcullens]

(Nerd alert TAZ talk ahead) Im not mad about it but that popular TAZ post that basically says that Griffin gave a bunch of love and attention to Taako's character-- but that he didn't do the same with Magnus and Merle?

I don't agree at all and every time I see it I wanna push my glasses up and say "Well ACKtchually!"

So I'm making my own post haha

To go on and on about how both Magnus and Merle also got arcs that really challenged them as characters. They all got so much thought and love lavished on them by the story. For example-

Magnus was defined by physical strength, and that was his whole identity starting out- he's introduced as all action, no thought... but then he's literally robbed of his body and forced to deal with being weak and dependent on his friends.

Magnus spends the first half of the Adventure fucking up automatons and chopping off limbs, and then he is trapped in the body of an automaton and gets a limb chopped off-

Magnus "All action, no thought!" Burnsides turns out to be the one who is in possession of all of the secret knowledge, subtlety, and independent decision-making toward the beginning of the end-- he is the first to begin to remember everything and has to strike out alone to figure things out.

Griffin could easily have placed that information and responsibility with the more supposedly intellectual Taako or Merle but he chose to give the mystery to Magnus because it enriches his character and challenges him against the grain.

And the fact that Griffin describes Magnus' death is not a jab at Travis' character, but rather a way of honoring him by reuniting Magnus with his wife and showing that he led a full life and died surrounded by loved ones.

Merle is given a lot of stuff to work against too; he's introduced as irresponsible and totally attachment-free, but Griffin gives him a family that he loves and that he has to work to reconcile with- not only a son, but a step-daughter who he treats as his own.

Merle was played as someone totally without sympathy for others for a good deal of the game, but through his love for his kids and his connection with John, he becomes this symbol of compassion by the end

I think it doesnt give the other dudes their credit for the depth they got as characters, and it makes it seem like Griffin only did cool, against-type stuff for Taako so anyway that's my 2 cents about that

[blacksurvivalnostalgichanges]

How about collectively writing our complains to ARCH... NimbleNeurons about all this fancy magic stuff they implemented? This is getting out of hand.

I’m honestly considering that by now

I know they have a site, nimbleneuron. rocks (spaced because tumblr is finicky) and they have an email there

I wanna fully elaborate on the exact nuances of the issues so that anyone who does write the email has a thorough understanding of why Bianca isn’t a good character, why Echion wasn’t good either, and what can be done to stop it since just pointing out it’s bad or ‘cringy’ isn’t doing anything (sooooo constructive criticism)

From what I saw on BLM email stuff it’d be best written by each person instead of a model that’s mass-sent too, those can be strained by an algorithm that takes these identical emails to spam and if it’s all the same thing copy-pasted it doesnt register as real criticism; mostly i’m just giving fuel to what one could say and phrasing it in a way that makes people be able to fathom the exact issue and arguments related to it

*cahem*

The magical stuff is far too different from what we had before, and it’s not a good sort of different, I’m sure they noticed that the reactions to the otherworldly aspects in a game that was grounded in reality before, weren’t positive, at best just excited because the character technically looks nice

The fact that the fandom hasn’t liked the new characters much (aside from echion who was literally a thirst trap anyway) is evidence that people aren’t into it, too; an add-on to the thirst trap part is that the characters can be hot enough to appeal to the fans but they should really have something beyond that, or at least not be so uninteresting that folks forget about them quickly once a new one’s here; plenty of characters are hot and I haven’t seen them be either forgotten or only a funny meme in a week

Folks didn’t just forget luke existed aside from expectations once rozzi came out, I have a luke simp follower and if they aren’t the same person as the discord luke simp then there are TWO of those, and even I personally greatly enjoy luke, he wasn’t forgotten immediately because he has SOMETHING interesting, he has an interesting story and his personality is captivating, he isn’t JUST hot

People asked me to make more hart content, people responded well to sissela and nicky content, never seen a single soul wanting more echion content and i’m sure there won’t be a soul wanting more bianca content either

I thought echion was a one-off but bianca’s proof that there’s a pattern now, the new characters were mostly fine besides a few that feel too similar to older characters, but even THAT is mostly alright if the character has more, i quip a lot on rio and yuki being similar but I KNOW they are different, rio battles with loneliness neurodivergency and socializing issues while yuki battles with the expectations put on him to be perfect, these are not the same character, only the same ‘japanese student who acts kinda cold’ archetype, but grouping vaguely similar characters into archetypes is easy

Barely matters that bianca’s different from echion because bianca has the same issues:too unrealistic after characters who could exist irl, way too edgy even for a game like BS to a point where this could be made by me when i was ten and obcessed with murder instead of horses, and with skills that even despite levelling are very powerful and can easily break the game

Eva also has the same issue, where it’s just magic and people quickly forgot about her beyond gameplay.... because her entire character is magic powers and the other things revolve around it. I only begun enjoying her when I projected qualities on her, and I shouldn’t have to force a character to be human. I should be able to have a human grounded character without my own interference.

If they really want to keep supernatural aspects, nicky’s the golden standard; she has MORE beyond supernatural aspects, she’s an actual character with normal and human qualities. She has superhuman strength, but she’s a stunt actress, she can’t remember faces, she’s accidentally cute, she’s gung-ho and has a sort of genki aspect to her, she’s *human* and has a personality. The issue is when it’s so entirely defining the character it blindsights you to anything else; she’s still grounded in reality, and the superhuman aspect’s even ignorable since it’s implied and only said explicitly in her journal.

The only defense I could see being used on this is the same defense as bad art in the game, which is that it’s writers having fun with what they write (this isn’t a teenager trying to find meaning in life, this is a company owned by grown-ass adults that’s selling a product and that has to actually answer to any standards in quality, and by all means shouldn’t be comparable to a teenager having fun on the internet writing on tumblr about their favorite characters being part of a soulmate au; we aren’t paying the teens to write it, but we’re paying this company money to get their product. we wouldn’t expect this sort of argument towards a product on a shopping site coming ripped or wrong, right? or a game you bought to play that’s supposedly complete coming in with a bug that makes it crash when you do a main mechanic, right?)

.......and uh, that’s the essay. i hope this is comprehensive enough. i’ll try and write an email about this, set the standard since i’m the one asking this of you all, but i hope other people are also bothered by this and want to cut the problem at the root before the plant starts deteriorating; i like black survival but the fact that the creators themselves seemingly aren’t listening is making me really stop enjoying it