#and thats a major fundamental difference

[sha-brytols]

you see in my mind palace where da2 was written by smart people with sexy brains the justanders merge would have been a slow burn you know. act 1 anders has that outgoing charmer persona he had in awakening and thats why he gets on so well with varric and isabela you know. i mean it makes sense as to why he's so well liked in darktown the refugees feel comfortable around him he comes across as warm and friendly. lirene all but calling him kind and disarming and sexy seems more appropriate instead of mildly offputting. but also you know there's still Something Different about him. he's more insightful. selfless. the way he talks is just a Little More formal. he's less flirtatious and more earnest and tender and he's notably far more respectful with the way he discusses his feelings on spiritual matters than you'd expect from the What If Andraste Was Actually An Ugly Hag guy.

then the justice reveal happens and you come to realize theres two separate forces at work here and you get to know each of them as individuals. the merge is still fresh and they're just so fundamentally different there's still a clear divide which means justice actually has the opportunity to be a character. you get to speak to justice and he's still that passionate, inquisitive spirit who finds value in the mundane and romanticizes humanity as the embodiment of freedom. he's blunt and direct to fault and feels almost alien to the people around him and his interactions with other characters are stiff at best and downright hostile at worst because like can you blame them. that's a demon possessing a mortal host. its the very essence of everything the chantry has conditioned people to hate and fear. but as the player you have this innate special insight to who he is. he's changed too. he's more light-hearted. he has a far better grasp of humor and social cues. he loves animals and theres a running gag where characters find him trying to befriend feral cats. he's oddly charming and is the one that actually hits hawke with those initial anders flirt lines from act 1.

then act 2 rolls around and its subtle at first but theres this undeniable blurred line forming between justice and anders. maybe justice fronts less but anders is still picking up his habits and speaking more and more like him. maybe there's just much more "inbetween" moments where the two bleed into one another than there was before. either way its become clear that the possession is becoming something of a fusion and man maybe THATS where the rivalry conflict is truly born because hawke sees what's happening and is alarmed for the both of them and the major source of conflict is actually that hawke believes they're both losing their identity to this new unnatural being.

idk just SOMETHING that respects justice and anders' characters while still exploring what was objectively an insanely interesting story concept like do you see what im trying to get at here. do you understand my vision.

[lesboygamzee]

i dont even mind angsty art of tavroses abuse but the amount of people who make vriska so comically evil and malicious and everyone just accepts it as 100% canon is really weird . the tragedy of their situation is that vriska is acting out of her own hurt + jealousy ; i wouldnt even argue she hates tavros , i think she hates what tavros being happy means for her - that she is a product of abuse and a deeply flawed society , and that it isnt just ' natural ' for people to grow up cruel and defensive like her , she is seeing someone who grew up in similar circumstances ( on alternia , their individual situations are obviously pretty different ) and who is happy and who is peaceful and she refuses to come to terms with what that means . so she just says tavros is weak and this kind of grotesquely twists back around to vriska trying to make tavros Like Her - cruel and defensive ! so thats where the abuse comes in . its a very twisted result of vriska ' caring ' about tavros and her whole worldview of strength coming from abuse i mean hardship and refusal to accept the fact that she herself is a victim .

vriska isnt cruel to tavros out of any traditional idea of hatred , at least not to me , but because tavros existing the way she does contradicts her worldview and if she thinks about it for too long shell realise that she is a victim and that she didnt need to turn out like this in a circumstance that was in any way healthy . that the fact that she needed to do this to survive is a fundamental flaw of the world she grew up in , and that tavros being the way she is isnt a fault of tavroses , or a sign of weakness . but she is a thirteen year old girl who has been told to think like this her whole life .

when vriska kisses tavros and gets rejected , she feels pathetic for not responding by forcing reciprocation . when she eventually kills tavros , she feels pathetic for feeling guilty . she is the first one to acknowledge how fucked up she acted in the dream bubbles

stop watering down their relationship to ' vriska is evil and a bitch and tavros is good and a wimp ' . their whole relationship is built on vriskas own abuse and would not exist the way it does if she was more well adjusted . youre allowed to feel sorry for tavros , youre allowed to dislike vriska , but you are doing a major disservice to both of their characters by struggling to understand the nuance !!!

[clottedscream]

you mentioned in the chat of a jello stream that you disliked how much fantasy magic crystals were shaped like Quartz. are there any specific crystal shapes you think are underutilized in fantasy?

I always like it when i see a nice beryl-or-andalusite-esque columnar crystal, or something botryoidal or acicular in a way that it makes little pom-pom shapes. And dogtooth (scalenohedral) crystals are a nice way to have that classic spiky shape without going quartz about it. But there's a whole entire world of weird and unique crystal shapes out there to base your fantasy crystals on, and I can't show off every possible shape that a crystal can come in with just one post. Pretty much every shape that a crystal can be is underutilized in comparison to the quartz shape.

the big thing that gets me about the "oops, all giant quartz clusters" method of designing fantasy crystals for your fictional world is that the shape a quartz crystal comes in, even though it's seen as like, the ubiquitous crystal shape that we think of all crystals as being, is actually very specific to quartzes!!!!

This is a figure from the mindat.org page on quartz. the top three shapes (a, b, and c) should be very familiar images to you! These are the most common shapes that crystals will be in fictional media. They're also three idealized crystal habits of QTZ - normal (prismatic), trigonal (prismatic), and pseudo-hexagonal (prismatic).

That's a lot of long words, but it all boils down to the describing geometry of a quartz crystal, and the geometry of its atomic structure.

QTZ is made of polymerized silicate, which, again, sounds fancy, but a polymer is just a long chain of many smaller molecules, and silicate is just the common term for the molecule SiO4. Silicate is a tetrahedron shaped molecule, meaning it's a pyramid with a square shaped base. A QTZ unit cell is made of a chain (a polymer) of silicate molecules linked together.

Here, we use unit cell to mean the simplest repeating building block in a larger pattern. like, say, if you build a giant lego cube out of all identical cube shaped legos, each cube shaped lego represents a unit cell of that giant cube. But QTZ unit cells aren't cube shaped. They're rhombohedrons- ie, 3d shapes where each face is a rhombus.

and if you stack a lot of rhombuses next to each other, they form a hexagon.

So when all the little unit cells of QTZ fit together, their ultimate shape is going to be hexagonal.

Quartz are not the only hexagonal mineral. Calcite famously also has a rhombus shaped unit cell. In mineralogy terms, this is called having trigonal symmetry- tri for three, as in the three rhombuses it takes to make a hexagon, or the three planes of symmetry a rhombus has.

But calcite doesn't form in in those tall prisms that terminate in pointy pyramid shapes made up of isosceles triangles or pentagons. It sometimes forms in dogtooth crystals, but dogtooth crystal faces are scalene, and they don't have that long prism body with a pyramid at the top like an endcap- they're spikes all the way to the base. Why is that? Why is quartz different from other trigonal minerals? why are its crystals weird like that?

Well, theres a lot of reasons, but one major one is that on top of being made of rhombohedrons, Quartz is ALSO made of helixes!

Thats right. Quartz has TWO fundamental patterns happening in its lattice. At the same time!

You can see by the overlayed yellow rhombohedrons in the figure above that each rhombus-y building block of QTZ fits together into a helix-shaped chain. QTZ forms in helixes because each of the basic silicate (SiO4) molecules in QTZ is sharing two of its oxygens with the other silicates its connected to. Because each block of the helix chain is made of a rhombus, when you stack those helix chains all next to each other to get a big quartz lattice, those chains make a hexagonal net. But helixes are also chiral, meaning they have a handedness to them- they can mirror each other and still be non-superimposable, like human hands.

To get the scope on why this chirality makes a difference to the structure of quartz, lets compare it to another mineral with trigonal symmetry, the aforementioned Calcite. If you could see atoms, this is what a chunk of calcite mineral would look like to you:

nice and simple, right? That's a very normal looking rhombus. everything slots together in a very straightforwardly rhombus-y way.

Now let's look at quartz.

ough.

When you combine these two features of QTZ geometry, the rhombus/trigonal symmetry and the helix shaped network of interlocking molecules, you get a pretty unique structure, which leads it to grow in very unique shapes when it gets bigger- hexagonal prisms with many interlocking chiral faces, terminating in those striking pyramid points composed of isosceles triangles.

That all sounds pretty cool right? it sounds like quartz is a really striking and unique and beautiful phenomenon of geometry, right? so why would I be annoyed? why would I be annoyed that a fantasy crystal has that unique shape? BECAUSE THAT SHAPE MEANS THE MINERAL IS QUARTZ.

Do you understand now? Out of all the possible permutations of different shapes a crystal can grow into, QUARTZ IS KIND OF THE ONLY FUCKING GUY THAT DOES THAT PARTICULAR SHAPE! nobody is out there doing it the way my guy quartz is doing it! So much so, in fact, THAT THIS IS THE ENTRY ON MINDAT FOR IDENTIFYING QUARTZ:

BY EYE.

QUARTZ IS ONE OF THE ONLY MINERALS YOU CAN ID BY EYE.

So, when you designed your mystical blue glowing crystal that has the power to harness a wizard's mana or whatever the fuck? And you picked that shape for it to be?

That means it's not enchantenite, or lunarite, or or whatever the fuck you want to call it. It's quartz. it's just quartz. your lack of creativity and unwillingness to do anything other than the most basic, recognizable shape for your fantasy crystal has all but guaranteed it. Maybe start worldbuilding what trace elements in that otherwise extremely fucking normal quartz you have there cause it to glow.

Because you picked the one shape that basically only quartz can be!

Congratulations!

enjoy your magical silicon dioxide, you piece of shit.

[orphiclovers]

Thinking about how Kim Dokja says nominal determinism was a major factor of the way his life panned out....how being named "dokja" is so vital to his self-perception he built his whole identity around it.....

in many cultures there's a belief that what you name a child is indicative of what kind of life they will lead, so you better pick a lucky name otherwise the child will lead a bad life. and Kim Dokja, who was named by his father, says he believes this superstition. when describing his life he references his name and its unfortunate meaning as explanation..,Just look at the very first chapter and how he introduces himself to us.

"I'm Dokja."

he tells us His father wished for him to be a strong "solitary" person, so named him "dokja". except it ironically backfired, thanks to this name that his father gave him, he grew up a lonely man. then he says to Yoo Sangah, "a Dokja has to live a dokja's life" - its how things are meant to be, no one can escape the cards they've been dealt he was always doomed from the start to end up alone. It's in his name.

but as we all know his name has two meanings.

"…Like my name, I was also a reader by nature." His mother preferred this meaning. Reader. and she is also the one who ignited in him his love for fiction, she told him to "reread" his first novel (and kdj wonders what his life would have been like if she hadn't said those words.) And then later she told him to reread again when he killed his father and she wrote a book...point is there's a lot of "reading" going on of all different types with them.

And throughout all of orv, these are the two fates Kim Dokja cannot escape. he is a reader and that is his literal super power and his strength, its "what he does best" thats how he manages to thrive in the scenarios and escape alive. being a reader/dokja is how he managed to survive, both pre and post apocalypse.

at the same time, he still feels alienated like the "solitary" meaning of his name suggests. even among his companions he is at a distance and cant quite reach them emotionally due to the wall hes built around himself to protect himself.

it wasn't literally that his father's naming him "dokja" doomed him to a solitary life, but figuratively, yes it did happen. it was kim dokja’s unfortunate childhood caused by his father's misdeads that alienated him from the rest of society. likewise, it wasn't his mother prefering another spelling of his name that made him a reader, but teaching him to read books as a child until it became his only solace and escape even as he grew. he can never break free of neither his father's nor his mother's influence on his life and name because these are fundamental parts of his identity. Kim Dokja is always both a reflection of his mother and father.

really these should have been his '--' words. "reader". "alone". at the end of this story that is EXACTLY how he ends up. he is utterly alone at the edge of the universe, forever apart from his companions, and at the same time, he "reads" all of the universe for the rest of eternity. He has to live a dokja's life till the end, with all that it entails.

[itspheenixbaby]

introduction

🎶 now playing … honey - erykah badu

for years i avoided scripting “world changes” to my desired realities because i knew it would fundamentally alter my culture and the state of the world in general. if you take away racism, you dont have rap. if you take away colonialism half the world doesnt have a lingua franca. since i got my shifting “start” on tiktok, my decision to keep the world the same was seen as “wrong” or “bad”. when it was anything but (at least from my pov) all i wanted to do was preserve the culture(s) that i had come to love so much.

but eventually either the peer pressure or just curiosity got to me, and i decided. what the hell, sure. lets get rid of every traumatic racial or social event thats still an issue in the modern day that i can think of. and thank God i caved, because the world i ended up building is ten times cooler.

(i only script this in realities where it probably wouldnt matter either way. like its not in any of my marvel based realities because the usa’s historical events are so deeply tied to all their plots to me itd feel weird to take it out. but for most of my desired realities set on earth, yeah this is our history.)

(i also never try to make the world perfect but what id describe as a “semi realistic good-ending”)

for the rest of this ramble, keep in mind when i say “america” or “american” im referring to both north & south americans. like how you’d say european or asian. if i mean to say united states of american 🇺🇸 , ill probably just say yankee(s) or yank(s). just because my familys jamaican and thats what they call us as slang lol.

alternate history, aka historical algebra

🎶 now playing … agua de beber - astrid gilberto

some people just script “racism didnt happen”; “the us is different/fairer” or “slavery / indigenous genocide didnt happen” but im very detailed. so that just felt like a cop-out. and all events are instrumental to shaping the cultural, social and even economic landscape of all my cultures. therefore, i had to come up with a way to get a mostly similar afro-america, usa & jamaica while re-doing all cultures major past atrocities. but how do you do that? well its pretty obvious. injustice and our cultural traumas didnt just pop up out of no where, so you have to change the history. if you build a home with a crooked foundation, obviously the entire house will be lopsided.

because both north and south america already have similar histories, it wouldnt get the effect i want if one nation was unaffected by colonialism/slavery/indigenous genocide and every other one was or vise versa. so any historical changes would have to be pan-continental.

indigenous-americans

to set a steady and mostly ethical foundation, indigenous culture unfortunately couldn’t be too much of the same. i considered making it that native americans and settlers were just harmonious, but like…realistically, even if they did okay it, who wants some random mofos just strolling into your land and establishing themselves? not me. especially not without indigenous americans holding the same power / advancement in general. you could still reasonably have some kind of racial tension, even if you scripted out racism. and again, i know in some countries esp south america, indigenous-settler relations in the past and the modern day arent as abysmal, but hell if im going all out scripting for a handful of countries why not include everyone? like what the hell, sure.

anyways in my desired reality, indigenous americans keep most of their fundamental culture. but unlike our reality, they were all *extremely* advanced. especially compared to the other four populated continents. characteristically they were a curious people, which is why their educational systems, economics & problem solving were ahead of their time. one example of this is the PCT.

the PCT isnt its going to be the “official” name, but im terrible at naming things, so were going with that. anyways, PCT stands for Pan Continental Transit. it was established in around the 1000s. the PCT is exactly what the name implies. its a road (not a literal modern one, think like the silk road) that goes from canada all the way to argentina. it includes the major carribbean islands too, so nobody gets left out. the PCT transported items, people and ideas across both continents at rapid paces. which will explain ; north & south americas extreme advancement levels, the lack of resistance to cultural exchange & the vast intelligence of the people.

other than the PCT, another key example of the curiosity of indigenous americans was their growing degree of influence. instead of europeans “finding” the americas, indigenous americans “found” eurasia & africa. they especially traded and interacted with western europeans and western africans. this interaction lasted a few hundred years before immigration waves began in the 1500s-1700s. in my desired reality, immigration was a natural step following cultural interest instead of an intrusion.

footnotes / effects ;

indigenous americans mingled with other cultures already, so foreign disease wouldnt have killed off their populations.

indigenous-american culture is respected and rightfully mainstream.

there was no reason to war with indigenous people, and it likely wouldve gotten shut down quick due to their advancement & control over both continents.

african-americans

african-americans, in my desired reality alternate history left africa and resettled in the americas on our own jurisdiction. so then what drove us out of africa? i came up with a few sensible reasons. those escaping tribal conflict and exiled rebels were a large amount of the resettlers. an interest in american education / ideas was also a driving force considering the intellectual power of native americans in this au. and since in my desired realities african-americans were seen as equals, a desire for financial opportunity also drove immigration. and since as i mentioned before native americans frequently interacted with west africans, immigration was already feasible.

pan africanism continues to exist in my desired reality, but it formed in a different way. thats where liberia comes into play. because the amount of west africans leaving the region caused an economic slow/drain, large amounts of west africans returned to africa and formed liberia. slowly but surely, the nation began to thrive. the prosperity trickled down to other west african kingdoms/nations/city-states turning liberia and the general west-african community extremely financially successful. in my desired reality, liberia continues its economic brilliance to the modern day. boasting one of the worlds best economies and largest populations. (mostly west african / african-american though).

footnotes / effects ;

african-americans & africans arent treated or seen as less than by other races & ethnicites.

african-american & african culture is respected.

african-americans mostly have african surnames.

african-americans have always had ethnic or racial pride and known our history.

asian-americans

a. so just for funsies, i scripted in a whole ethnic group. i didnt have any clue what to call them, so i pulled the name “jiuyuan” out of my ass. this group set history as the largest wave of collective east asian immigration out of the continent. with estimates of six million individuals leaving asia for the americas. so, whyd they emigrate? well…its complicated. a chinese former military general formed a new religion/mindset. this religion, yuanism, was cut throat and brutal with remnants of witchcraft/shamanism. it was thought to have been causing a stir across asia. so its practitioners were generally shunned from mainstream society. since they had difficulty finding work and adjusting to society, a vast majority turned to maritime based occupations. this continued for a few hundred years until the exiles began. by taking advantage of decades of maritime knowledge, jius fled persecution in east asia and resettled in the americas. particularly the carribbean, central america and coastal south america.

b. i scripted this change for the dumbest reason. i wanted to keep the name “west indies”. so i scripted in another important group of asian americans ; indo-carribbeans (who, yes, i know already exist in our original reality) but in my desired reality, they didnt come to the americas because of english colonialism/labor. indo carribbeans arrived in large quantities to various carribbean nations (including non-english/patois speaking ones) from western india in the 1500s. would be the second largest wave of immigration from asia to the americas, at around four million. they were merchants, aristocrats, pirates and traders. but they were already so well established and so integrated into carribbean cultures before the cultural solidification of europeans that the region was named “after” them. which in my desired reality is why the carribbean is also called the west indies. (clever, aint it 😉)

european-americans.

europeans still emigrate to the americas for the same reasons, but their effect is extremely different.

european-americans would have more cultural similarities with mainland europeans and possibly more syncretism with indigenous and african cultures in general.

instead of slave labor, you might’ve had very wealthy families or individuals relying on a non-race-based system similar to european feudalism to farm crops in southern states / fertile countries. or mining, entrepreneurship, military, local government & trade/shipping (majority directly tied to mother countries / europe). and even then, none of those would be european dominated.

footnotes / effects ;

no jim 🐦‍⬛, encomienda system, white washing, anti-race mixing or wh1te supr3macy. (censoring bc tumblr might not let me post)

nationality is seen above race in their communities.

most slurs including the n-word probably wouldnt exist.

colonialism

yes, i kept in colonialism. how else would we be speaking english/spanish/portuguese/dutch/french? but it does run differently. i mentioned this system in another post, but europeans were only rulers in name. in actuality, it was locals (of all races, including european) that were running the show and typically more concerned with their own agendas than loyalty to the motherland(s). (P.S, i wonder if when i shift this would cause an “untrustworthy american” stereotype in european media 🤔) this is also the case for asia & africa but even more so because there were less europeans & bigger populations in most of those countries.

naturally colonies did adopt some aspects of european culture including; language, christianity/catholicism, art forms (such as visual arts, music, films, dance & sports) and cultural beliefs, including those spread from movements such as the enlightenment. all with varying degrees of alteration and syncretism.

race

european-americans / europeans wouldnt be able to establish racism (which fun fact was partially invented to pit the poor against each other in our cr 😍 i love rich people), and any attempt would obviously be obsolete because in this reality each race has no reason to not be seen equally.

another non-factor is the classification of race into categories like “black”, “brown” or “white”. while in my base reality i dont find an issue with these terms, i dont think itd be realistic in this context. color based terms would likely be seen in the same way as how asians & indigenous people see the terms “yellow” or “red”. what i figure would actually be the case is either continental or region based ancestral classifications. and even then i figure the classifier level would prioritize nationality, followed by ethnic group and finally any broader racial categories.

(if you peruse my page, you’d see that in my idol dr me and most of the members of my group are classified in accordance, if an example is needed)

and thats it for the americas. now onto things i scripted for other regions/countries/continents or just the world in general. this is a lot more general because im jamaican-american so i dont know jack shit about any other nations histories to feel i should change anything (or even have a place to), but here it goes ;

most stuff is made regional/domestic. aka not everything is from china! literally only because i miss seeing “made in usa” or even “made in mexico” on things :(( like switch it up.

everywhere would be classified as a “first world country” by my original reality standards.

europe as a whole still has hella lions.

women & men have always been equal.

east asia is slightly more advanced than the rest of the world.

more places maintain “traditional” architecture styles. i heard in some european countries they dont build anything thats not cohesive with the older buildings and i was like, why dont we all do that???

the principal monetary system might not be capitalism (or communism, for that matter) i feel like i made the world so different im unsure if itd even still “work” but it might be idk.

and now, here goes the rapid fire intended cause & effect round explaining why the historical changes i scripted matters, if its unclear. but im no historian so i could be inaccurate on some things.

no indigenous genocide & thriving pre colonial pan-americas -> all nations in north/south america have further opportunity to become economically stable & explains the continents diversity without decimating an entire population.

pan-american road -> pan-americanism spreads, usa / canada is less likely to play “big brother” (or even be able to) with other north & south american countries. yankees automatically become like way less xenophobic/racist/isolationist because they never were.

global first world + peaceful status -> less over immigration from foreign countries to the west because there isnt a need to. more immigration in general because of cultural interest/work/school, but from everywhere to everywhere. less need for war & conflict because theres less injustice. less racism & xenophobia because no groups can be seen as literally having less. more technological & economic advancement because of a higher education rate.

fem/male equality always -> more technological & economic advancements because of an always larger work force. better mental health because gender norms (while they could still exist) wouldnt be nearly as intense on both genders. possibly more peaceful politics / social scenes because of more nuanced perspectives being highlighted and masculine energy wouldnt be a status quo.

no racial hierarchies -> no systemic racism in general. ameircan or european racism / xenophobia doesnt exist much less spread to other regions and continents.

weaker colonialism -> while europe & the west in general would still be extremely culturally & economically dominant, other regions and even entire continents would be on the same level….and the term “the west” might not be used? whats more plausible (even though its dated downnn in this reality) is probably old/new world.

more stuff made domestic/regional -> more equal financial clout. higher global production power. less unsafe work conditions. and more employed people everywhere.

europe still has lions -> europe just became like ten times cooler???

fun fact im lowkey planning a 1600s-1700s carribbean / american / yankee dr based on this alt history. itd be FUNN. and you just know the carribbean piracy golden age would just be bat shit insane too. also sooo excited to see different countries take on fashion, since the euro influence wouldnt be as universally strong.

and old hollywoods gonna be way more diverse so that’ll be cool to watch.

[th3-new-rom4ntics]

illvermorny (yes with two Ls) in my wizarding world dr

introduction;

one of my least favourite aspects of the wider harry potter universe is the lack of interest that the author has in fleshing out the universe. there are so many questions that i, as a shifter and fundamentally curious person, have about how magic works, different magical societies and more.

the map above is a map of all the wizarding schools in the world. not many, right? and to top it all off, the way they perform magic is identical between schools. again, ridiculous.

in reality, this is not how society works. i'll use philosophy as an example; eastern and western philosophies are fundamentally different due to how isolated these two geocultural entities were from each other and how their values were intrinsically different, especially in the past.

so, when i was narrowing down my harry potter reality, i decided to make my own version of illvermorny school that i felt was far more fleshed out compared to the vague, uninteresting backstory that the author gave.

maybe if she spent less time being a transphobic prick and more time actually writing an interesting story, i wouldn't have to do this, but i digress.

here's illvermorny, where i attended school in my dr. (as an additional note, i spelt illvermorny with a double l at first without realising that it was one l, but it eventually stuck because i thought it looked better.)

part one (history);

there are about 200 or something magic schools in the world. most are small, regional schools focused on providing a decent education in magic to open up doors. some, like durmstrang/beauxbatons/hogwarts/illvermorny, are incredibly prestigious, open to only the absolute best students or those from prestigious families.

illvermorny college of magic was founded when the first pilgrims settled in america, unaware of the wizarding stowaways on the mayflower. although the indigenous peoples of america have their own magic traditions, the few wizards that snuck onto america to escape the chaos of england after the founding of hogwarts were the ones that brought the ‘spell system’ of magic to the country. the first students at illvermorny were young, muggleborn wizards and witches, the first of its kind. indigenous students were allowed to study as well, creating a culture of magic that went beyond the typical pureblood-muggleborn dichotomy of europe and britain. the school's first few years were incredibly proseporous as the magical community thrived in early america.

eventually, however, suspicions rose amongst muggles about illvermorny and the earliest recorded witch trials happened. young wizards and witches were rounded up like cattle and burned at the stake for so-called satanic activity.

only a couple of wizarding families managed to escape, trekking up to applachia, creating modern illvermorny. early modern illvermorny had many strange, outright cultish rituals due to its isolation.

part two (culture);

the school only started accepting new students during the british colonisation period, through a scouting program thats famous across the world for its scale and intensity; illvermorny scouts are said to be absolutely everywhere in america, mexico and canada. students outside these countries have to personally message principal regis to request an interview.

the modern school has no dorms and no sorting totally unlike hogwarts. rather, there are three housing towers where students stay, named after water (maem), fire (iesh), air (avir), the three classical elements. - students live, eat and sleep in these dorms, where the majority of their relationships will be formed. along with that, there are 5 covens active at illvermorny, which is how extracurricular student relationships are fostered.

students board k-12 and spend all of their youth at the school. classes operate on a university style elective system for years 7+ where different timing of classes and professors are highly valued.

there is no uniform or dress code during class, however there is a formal uniform for special occassions.

wands in illvermorny is very different to hogwarts. wands are highly customisable, and typically glass blown by artisans. they are made for the user, customised to their preference. a famous wand making family is the van der zee family.

the actual curriculum at illvermorny in the early years is focused on practical applications of magic. spells are taught exclusively non-verbally at first, and wandless as well. in senior years, high specialisation in fields is prized, particularly because illvermorny values academic rigour. - illvermorny participates in the quadwizard tournament with beauxbatons, hogwarts and durmstrang, and have won 200 years in a row.

part three (american wizarding society as a whole);

blood purity is not nearly as prized by american wizards. rather, wealth is. wealthy, old money, prominent families such as the hastings of pennsylvania rule over american wizarding society. although these oligarchs claim to care about progress, what they value most is maintaining their power.

on another note, american wizarding society is very secretive. the oldest wizarding families have almost no interactions with ‘nomajs’ due to their fear of persecution. each state in america has its own magic community, but the two most prominent ones are in NY and california. a strong rivalry exists between these factions.

the strongest debate in american magical politics is that of the nomaj problem. so-called traditionalists and progressives argue about nomaj’s connection to magical society, if families of magical students should be aware of their status and even if nomaj should be allowed to interact with magical beings at all, even in a non-magical context.

[smiling-stel]

Speaking ab the cover art from a Design pov *aside frm the comments that Cale looks out of character in the lore standpoint of vol. 2 art

(spoiler free, dw)

◇ TLDR; vol. 2 cover is beautiful, but it couldve had better color synergy. I can see why the artists did what they did, its just not my fav.

. man I'm just happy to have an official English print lmao, ill take what I can get

---

At first I didn't like the red shirt cause it was too much the same color as his hair. (Like if it was a darker or desaturated maroon, I feel it would've looked better, at least so he isn't matching with his own hair-)

. But now taking a step back n looking at vol. 2 again, zoomed out, I actually think his Face is the most jarring part [more on that later ◇]

◇ . The bright red of the shirt being lit by a yellower light, altho matching w his hair, actually isn't so jarring to me anymore cause I noticed two things

◇ 1) his pants are also tinted red (if my eyes aren't deceiving me) meaning compared to the background and the other two characters, Cale *in his entirety* is a red-toned silhouette -> this is a illustrative design strategy where the artist assigns a group of colors to a specific subject n *Restrictvely* uses the Hue Differences to their advantage. In my opinion, its a good choice in making him contrast and stand out. You can definitely Tell he's the main character with just the cover art.

. BUT it can also give off an Outlandish or alien feeling because (in this case) Cale is the ONLY red in the scene. Theres no balancing of red tones from his character to the background At All (e.g. the artists doesnt add Any red to the surroundings so his character can "fit in" with the scene- like as if you photoshopped a guy in sunny lighting into a dark room, the lighting differences is jarring n you can tell the guy is just slapped on top [not saying the artist did that at all, but the way they painted Cale to stand out feels jarring in that sense). While this does an insanely good job at putting him in the spotlight, it perhaps does Too great of a job, making him feel isolated or strange compared to the rest of the piece.

. (Then again, you can justify that that was the goal. To isolate Cale n show hes alien from a lore standpoint as he's "not from this world" as an isekai story)

◇ 2) but we're forgetting this is a COVER art. It's not Just an illustration to be pretty. To break my earlier point, altho Cale IS the only red in the *Illustration,* this art piece is - fundamentally - a Cover Art. It has the Title thats a part of its design <-<-<- And if we looksey at the title, what do we see? Red and warm tones. Like what other thing thats only reds? Cale Henituse himself!

. The Title IS the balance I said was missing in point 1). My theory is thats Also why the artist tinted the lighting on Cale to be warmer n more yellow, so as to use the yellow orange in the title (and the contrast of cools n warms from the focal points to the rest of the art) to their advantage. It helps add reds to the lower half of of the piece where the only warm tones are Choi Han's hand (the other character) and the fleeting window curtain; both of those details being at the edges of the piece and Both very small so they hardly have an influence on the overall design.

. So the title, taking up the majority of the lower half of the piece, draws the warmth down n assists in balancing the overall cover design.

So the reds have now been explained, but why are the whites so white now?--

◇ . Earlier I had said Cale's face was the most jarring part of the cover. And I still fully stand by that sentiment. Its the same idea where the reds do Too great a job isolating Cale; the whites do Too great a job contrasting w the background n the two other characters - who are black n cool tones - to the point where it Heavily draws the eye, practically in a violent manner.

. The extreme paleness is quite lore accurate for Cale's character, who hes isekaied as, but the extreme lighting Highlighting just his face compared to Choi Han's face is an extremely bold design decision (again, not a bad thing as he IS the main focal point, but adding onto the Isolating Spotlight trait going on)

◇ Ok then, but why's his jacket also so freakishly bright white? I heard from a fellow lcf fan (love discussing w you dawg <3) that they think the jacket is the worst part of his cover design.

N I agree. The reds standing out can be justified as a design strat, his face is the focal point so thats why that stands out, but why the jacket??

. Here i am on my artist apologist era <3

◇ . The jacket being blindly white is (probably) to Dampen the Harshness of his face being so bright.

. Altho the guy looks great in white ☆°• with how extreme the lighting is in this cover art, I think the artist wanted to balance the laser beam that is Cale's face paleness by spreading it out to his jacket, specifically that left collar fold ( i think that's called the lapel?)

. Basically by making the jacket's collar also intensely white, the artist gives their best attempt at trying to make Cale's skin less jarring so as to not make it so ridgedly highlighted. Like black ink spilt onto fresh paper, they tried to spread it out so its not so condensed in high contrast. ...But that only made the jacket join in on the uncanniness- TTvTT

---

(Posting the pic again so yall don't gotta scroll far o7)

Other notes I've noticed n wanted to just point out while I'm here looking through the Design Lense ☆°•

☆ The red of Cale's hair and the red of his shirt n neck scarf sandwiches his face, making it stand out even More. Ealier I said the contrast of the vibrant red to the paleness makes his face draw the eye, but thats also thanks to the *position* of the colors! Not just the colors themselves B) isn't that so cool (tell me yes even if you have to lie-)

☆ The lighting on Choi Han's cape, chest, to face -> the window arch -> to Cale's entire person being lit up + how he's wearing a long white jacket

. It all creates this general arch of light tones and highlighted features which surrounds and hugs the title! The artists really knows how to use their darks and lights !!

☆ Choi Han's entire person, Cale's pants, and our lovely Roan Miru (the dragon) are the only deepest dark black tones in the entire piece! The privilege of being the subjects <3

☆ cale looks crossed eyed lel

. Im glad I'm not the only one who struggles with eyes still

. Or maybe this artist did it right n I just don't know how to draw eyes- (very plausible tbh)

Man I love artists

---

All in all, Im not a fan of vol. 2 cover art but I can see why the artists did what they did

◇ . One of the most important things of commercial art is that its visually pleasing, regardless of design, lore, or even logic. The design choices are golden but putting them all together couldve been done better. Not that the art is ugly in any way. Its still gorgeous af, there just couldve been more balance or overall color synergy.

This is just my opinion anyways :D! No hate anywhere <33

[slowpokedragon]

seeing homestuck analysis made my brain go brrr.

ykw im gonna say it....!!! the idea that matespritship is "the closest to human romance" is fundamentally misunderstood by a majority of the hs fandom! matespritship is "closest to human romance" [karkats words] in the sense that its closest to the human concept of *dating.* the concupiscent quadrants are provocation based, and more align with the ideas of "going out on dates and having sex / one night stands" with people, rather than longterm human romance.

the actual thing closest to "human romance" was the relationship between the signless and the disciple that "transcended all four quadrants"; if i had to pick a quadrant closest to "human marriage" or a longterm relationship, it would be ***moiraillegiance!!!***

moirails are conciliatory yes, but more than that they are *balanced equals, matched pairs.* theyre the closest quadrant to the traditional human soul mate. the one who perfectly completes you and keeps you on an even keel. the idea that moirails are platonic or qpr is just fundamentally wrong. *some* moirails can be qprs somewhat, but it literally is textually just a different form of romance, the same way that dating somebody vs being married to them for a decade are different forms of romance!!!

when youre married to someone for a long time, they often stop surprising you (not in the sense of "i bought you a gift!" but in the sense of the feelings that provokes. when youre first dating somebody, youd be surprised and pleased and a little awed that they went out their way for you. when youve been married a long time, youre still surprised and pleased, but its with this undercurrent of "hah, of course they would do this for me; they *love* me!"); moiraillegiance is the deepest quadrant and the most complex, which is why the presentation of moiraillegiance varies so wildly! look at depictions of matesprits, and youll see they all follow the same patterns of "shallowish romance between two people that have been dating for awhile"; moirails vary wildly!

the two extremes are definitely nepeta and equius vs folykl and kuprum. both pairs are equally balanced and a matched pair, its just that theyre on opposite ends of the "moirail spectrum" in what ways they provide for and ease their quadrantmates. the idea that matespritship is "human romance" is so wrong its laughable and thats why davekat is destined to fail if they dont deepen their relationship from matesprits to smeared moirails or human romance altogether IN THIS ESSAY I WILL

in a canon only reading; davekat COULD WORK and thats what drives me crazy. if they communicated better and changed their relationship it COULD WORK! but communication in romance is fundamentally incompatible w both of their characters! so i froth at the mouth

[hackfixation]

i'd say hating Helena is totally valid, but also i dont think its like...the point the character yknow? like shes detestable and pitiable but shes helly. she is helly in a different set of circumstances. and i think thats such a like major theme in the show is that you do have a fundamental self but also all your experiences relationships and environment shape you.

I think the ideal ending for Helly and Helena wouldnt be Helena dies and Helly gets to live. I think its the same for all the severed characters, reintegration. an attempt to reconcile these disparate parts of oneself. to unite ying and yang. and to eventually embrace that union with love.

Oh I don't care if other people like her, my opinions on her as a person don't negate the story of her character.

I agree reintegration would help her out and as we saw with Cold Harbor she's starting to get a peak that Helena's life isn't that great either. That Helena's cruel actions do stem from somewhere and maybe Helly can grow to forgive Helena for all the violations.

Helena Eagen is a complex person who is trapped in a system, benefiting from parts of the system and has used portions of her power to abuse. Like Mikchick, maybe she'll start trying to rebel but they are both currently enforcing the tools of oppression on the Innies.

As you said she is Helly and Helly is her, but also not? They're their own people with their own desires and motivations and opinions. They're two different people, who may share a core drive for autonomy, in one body. I am excited to see Helly learn more about Helena in the future potentially and that maybe they work on loving each other.

[wildpeachfarm]

I think since the beginning ccs were in a more parasocial relationship with the dteam than the majority of fans were like actually. Whether they wanted to be them, be their "friends", or their envy and hatred.

There are countless examples I could give after yrs now of watching these play out and then these ccs realizing their expectations did not match up with reality and what dteam have with each other which will never happen truly happen with anyone else because they were incredible close years before content. K, q, and t tried and got close to it but at the end of it all what they really wanted them to be was streamer/content friends and envisioned them to be different. Most ccs get a few days of that "fifteen min game" then it's back to the usual with both sides (dranti/"friends").

Also I love dteam but they all have said many times and been very open about how they have a hard time keeping up with plans, "lazy", stubbornness, etc so many people were calling their house a content house but they just wanted to live together. They have no desire to be like "the roomies" or like 100T house. Like no they will not show up to every single birthday stream, etc how many times have we heard other ccs outside of the mcyt sphere think dsmp was an org and that dream was stupid for not doing so?

Even the most "kind" streamers/ccs think like this. The dteam will never be like a professional group of streamers like otv&friends that's not who they are, and it's part of their charm but it def sets unrealistic expectations that ccs around them might feel. They changed the game because they were having fun and then people took it too far (for ex *cough k cough* *cough q cough*)

Yeah I definitely think dteam are fundamentally misunderstood by a large portion of CCs throughout the internet. And I think that has to do with how "simple" they are in terms of content and audience appeal. That it really is just three best friends who want to play games with each other and goof off. They don't make content and friendships with people to climb some CC ladder or turn their bffs-home into a "content house" for views.

We saw this a lot during the face reveal era because so many CCs were like "why did he face reveal?? Thats so dumb for his branding" when in reality he just wanted to be with his best friend and go outside. Very simple compared to the grand schemes that other youtuber were theorizing about the face reveal.

[stagefoureddiediaz]

honestly maybe it's just me but buck is literally repeating the same steps as with natalia and taylor as with tommy. they meet, he has a crush, go on a date, it's awful and the date leaves, they then come back, then try for real. Like it sounds like even though Buck is off the hamster wheel in regards to his sexuality he very much is still on the hamster wheel when it comes to repetitive mistakes when it comes to his relationships.

Hey Nonnie

I woudn't say that at all. Yes of course there are some similarities - there always will be - between Buck dating Tommy and the Buck who dated Taylor or Natalia. But the reality is they are worlds apart.

For starters Tommy didn't leave because the date was awful, he left to give Buck some space to do a bit more figuring out - he said so himself that his what he was doing. He chose to leave the ball in Bucks court, understanding this was a big new thing for him and that it wouldn't be right to continue anything until Buck was ready. Buck then contacted him when he was and they met up and decided mutually to give things ago.

This is very different to both Taylor and Natalia - both of whom left after something big had happened in Bucks life (Eddie being shot and Kameron popping up out of seemingly nowhere) and then they were the ones to come back - to chase after Buck.

Look we can have whole conversations about the chasing being chased aspect of things but the long and short of it is That both Taylor and (to a lesser extent) Natalia, Ali and Abby chased Buck in one way or another and when it suited them. Tommy has never chased Buck - he shot his shot, sure, made his interest known, but he hasn't once chased Buck. Buck has always mistaken things for him doing the chasing (he is an very unreliable narrator) becuse he gets invested fast and so pursues things. His mistake is moving to fast - falling to quickly for people.

This is the major fundamental difference with Tommy, who is older and wiser and settled with who he is and what he wants. He also has the understanding of being queer and coming out later in life - of discovering that part of yourself that has been hidden and the fact it might take Buck a minute to figure out things.

The other big thing for me is the level of honest Buck is being here - this isn't something we've seen before in this way. He has been completely up front with Tommy when it has been important for him to be so (I would argue he did do the same for Natalia but that he was more forced into it by circumstance). That coffee they had was a very very clear example of that, he sat down, appologised and laid his cards out on the table. He's told the two most important people in his life that he's bi and interested in Tommy and yes maybe going to a wedding is a bit fast, but he also knows most of the people there so he's not walking in to a big unknown in t hat respect and he has a lot of goodwill with the firefam at this moment after flying them to the curise ship so they could rescue Athena and Bobby.

In all honesty I'm far more circumspect about Natalias behaviour as well - far more than a large portion of fandom was towards her. Did I like her as a character or for Buck, No I didn't, but she also didn't do all that much wrong in my eyes, her wanting to take a minute when presented with all that Bucks life is, to think things through before jumping into something is perfectly acceptable and healthy behaviour. The reality is that she was more interested in Bucks death than she was in his life and thats probably what brought her back - that itching need to know more about his death and what it was like.

But she came into his life when he was in a rough place mentally and it was never going to go well for that reason alone. All of Bucks girlfriends have that in common - they met him on the job and then come inot his life when he is having some form of internal crisis. Abby when he had just lost his first person on the job - making him emotionally vulnerable. Ali when he's accepted his relationship with Abby wasn't going anywhere a new guy had just started at work (yes they were getting on by this point but it is still new and an unknown) and his sister had just come back into his life after having had no contact for several years - and he knows she's in a fragile place. Taylor messes hm around but when she comes back into his life and wants to date him - Eddie has just been shot and he's looking after Christopher - he's massively emotionally compromised. None of these are good times to start a romantic relationship.

That isn't the case with Tommy - Bucks actually in a pretty decent place - yes the whole discovering he's queer could be argued as making him emotionally compromised, but he's being given the grace to do things at his own pace - in a healthy way - Tommy is letting Buck dictate the pace they go at.

We also have to remember that we are in a tv show - every single character who isn't a main (or to a certain extent a recurring) is there to act as a storytelling vehicle for one of the mains - their character traits are always going to be those which help get a main character from A to B, to move the story along and to make sure our mains learn something about themselves and their fellow mains along the way.

Abby was about getting Buck from being a bit of a clueless player into a long term (ish) relationship - about growing him out of his jock ways and getting him (and us) to recognise that he isn't a player that he wants real love and a long term relationship. Ali was about him getting over his first big disappointment - about getting hm to move on and about getting him his own place to exist. Taylor was about learning what love didn't look like, about how to treat others and showing him what he wasn't looking for and teaching him not to compromise on his morals. Natalia was all about Buck reconciling himself with his death and rebirth and as soon as he had done that, she was gone.

Tommy is about Buck discovering his queer identity, having a safe space to explore that and about getting him ready for Eddie - its why Tommy is soooo similar to Eddie - Buck will come out of this relationship (whatever form it takes) understanding who he is, and recognising what he wants is what he already almost has - Eddie.

Tommy is also about helping manoeuvre Eddie into questioning himself - another reason why he is so similar to Eddie - Eddie needed to see a gay version of himself - and with Buck to actually start thinking about himself and who he is and what he wants.

So all this to say that Nonnie - Buck has very much got off that hamster wheel and he is very much not making the same mistakes over again. I'm very excited to see how it continues to play out and I'm overjoyed with how the show is handling telling this story.

[imustbenuts]

about kanjis and the jp language in the world building of THLLDA, spoilers for route 0 minimum and maybe a bit after. random thought blerhggehies

so uh. hm how do i begin. kanjis and names i guess?

kanjis are the basic building block of jp language, and each character holds its own meaning. in terms of literacy shift, the jp language throughout history in terms of grammar hasnt had major shifts for over 1000 years. its possible to read a text from 8th century nara, though it would be challenging bc some kanjis refer to different things or have fallen out of use since.

on a very fundamental level, the meanings of kanjis have not particularly shifted too much, though JP does have the quirk of creating their own kanjis which does not exist in chinese, which is originally borrowed from.

so with that, the kanjis that goes into the names of these characters in THL also has the same meaning as today's JP.

so, specifically for Sumino 済野　and Aotsuki　蒼月, their family names mean Empty Field and Blue (pale?) Moon. so far so good, very in line with existing naming conventions. cool.

one thing to note is that JP names tend to be rooted in place and nature. for example, family names like 鈴木 (suzuki, ringing tree) 木村 (kimura, tree village) is very common. sometimes its a vague island, a place, a river, but in general its a vague place.

(exceptions for certain surnames that's more bestowed by the emperor but still following some kind of place locale nature logic)

for first names, it can be often nature or some kind of force. force of nature, force of human emotions, nature, an appeal, etc etc.

Takumi 拓海 (something like Crashing Waves but kanjis mean Clearing and Ocean), Eito 衛人(Defender) and Darumi 怠美 (Languid Beauty) is still in line with that logic.

what this implies is that the meaning of kanjis have largely not shifted in however long the TRC has been in isolation mode. now, we know that language and culture shifts over time even in isolation no matter how hard it tries to be controlled otherwise, so now there's implications going on here.

the biggest issue i see is that in spite of these characters given names still following the Nature and Place logic, there are effectively.... no real Nature or Place in the TRC. words like Sun, Moon and Ocean would undoubtedly lose its meaning and strength over time, so something is going on here. this means whoever is effectively controlling the TRC has made it a point to preserve culture as hard as it possibly can. in a nationalistic vibe even.

we see hints of this in the library itself, where there are a lot of redacted stuff that Takumi can't read. theres culture that are wholesale missing and yet things deemed important enough like certain Foreign (US/EU) films are archived alongside confirmed JP works like the VNs Darumi quotes. (Saya no uta and Sayonara wo oshiete). Naruto and dragonball and the other 100 shounen mangas Kyoshika is into.

this means, kanji is a part of this whole linguistic culture and is still being preserved so hard that they cant fully wipe out the origins to what these words are referencing.

this goes even deeper if we follow the nationalistic angle bc yeah old JP poetry and literature is still revered and preserved hardcore. on a practical level, these culture products serve to entertain and placate the populace as whoever is in charge goes about trying to do... things.

this also means that the culture of TRC has really not shifted much. stuff like takoyaki is still takoyaki and anpan is still anpan. if we deem these as culturally significant, the TRC will likely make it a point to not have that base change.

there happens to also be similar attempts made to prevent the linguistic naming sense of today's japanese from changing too much too. there is a thing called Kira Kira Names (sparkly names) thats a point of contention over in japan.

to put it simply, parents have been giving their kids names written in kanji (as per legal requirements), but giving it pronunciations only the parents would understand. this is the JP equivalent of Tragedeigh names.

these are names like Pikachu (光宙 / ぴかちゅう), and Prince (王子様 oujisama). names like these reportedly give massive confusion in the legal side of matters like hospitals and administrations, bc they are so atypical of how a kanji should be pronounced, or how a person is usually named. (like these are noun names level.)

so if we follow this logic and assume that similar things are happening in the TRC, its very much possible that theres a lot of manipulation and media control to make sure things stay unchanged for as long as they need/want

[dollanganger-in-the-attic]

How different do you think petals would be if Cathy was a lesbian

Not much because you know she would be experiencing major comphet the whole time; some theorize that was already the case in canon- explaining why she has such bad taste in men alrhjwhsheja

But if we imagine she was out and proud in the 60s living her best life, unbridled by religious guilt or the demanding need for male validation, i think she’d be the same lol fundamentally Cathy is self destructive and driven by the desire for revenge- even at her own detriment. She’d probably still get pregnant by Bart just to hurt her mother, and she’d probably deny herself a healthy romantic relationship because she thinks shes unclean.

But thats just my opinion. I’d love to see some fic of lesbian cathy falling in love with a fellow ballerina where they share an apartment in France and have a pet plant on the balcony.

Thanks for your question!

[figcookie01]

some queer and misc. analysis of trish una

im not sure if everyone saw my addition on this post here proposing the theory that bucciarati is a "parental" character in a non-traditional and queer sense, but i wanted to continue that discussion by talking about trish now.. since to me, she has what could be described as araki's first attempt at a true character arc for a female character, who simultaneously has elements that read like queer self-actualization that we watch unfold throughout the story.

for the purposes of this analysis, what is important to recognize about trish's introduction is how she is figuratively (team bucciaratis mission to protect her will get them closer to giorno/bucciaratis goals) and literally (his only known relative and identifiable factor at the start) linked to her father; she loses her mother (loving supportive family), is thrust into a horrifying world out to harm her for factors beyond her control, and is expected to blindly trust her father and by extension his men assigned to protect her. its no wonder she is so guarded, but my point here is how this establishes trish as starting off vulnerable and uncertain of the world she's inadvertently embroiled in beyond her safe upbringing with her mother.

nevertheless, trish is repeatedly described as having the willpower to figure these things out for her own sake, and a tenacity for these frightening events (la squadra's attacks) beyond that on the average person. both giorno and abbacchio mention it at different points (although abbacchios line is changed to narancias in the anime).

perhaps the most notable early example of her gumption is what she first says at the end of the grateful dead/beach boy fight. although bucciarati is not at liberty to answer her questions about both why she is being attacked, and also what the truth about these strange powers are.

however, id argue this is in line with what has been previously established for bucciarati's character to say; that it is up to trish herself to determine what these things mean, especially if they are related to her intrinsic identity.

this continues once they arrive in venice at the church, where we get to see trish's human vulnerability and fear. something i find particularly interesting is that, above all else, she is afraid of the uncertainty about what her father will be like and her personal fate.

this was one of the original things i wanted to talk about under a queer reading; for a queer person to come out to their family, there sometimes may be a concern about alienation of self. that is, coming out may, figuratively and literally, feel like you are revealing an entire side or life you live that they know nothing about. it may be about seeking approval from those who are, in many cases, a major part of life and your upbringing; she wants this week from hell to be over so she can return to some semblance of normalcy as herself, and her father is her only hope for this then.

something of particular note that bucciarati responds with is the probability that she will be given an entire new identity and forced to uproot even further, separated in even her most fundamental identity from the life she once led for the sake of her fathers comfort. even before the horrific reception her father gives her, trishs chances of being accepted as she is and loved are poor, a matter that might be incredibly common for people who try to express who they really are to unwelcoming families.

in trishs case, diavolo has literally never met her at all in any capacity, nor was he present in her upbringing; there is an extra factor of blind faith she must put into him. but he is the only biological "family" shes got; we will talk about nontraditional families and team bucciarati in a moment.

for this reason, bucciarati assures her (whether it is of his own doomed naivety or something else entirely) that a family will love you no matter what, because thats what they do. its a value that, up until that next moment, was something he himself had complete faith in.

as the rest of this arc shows though, that wasnt the case for trish, and never would be.

the events at san giorgio are the turning point for the entirety of vento aureo, with trish at the center of it all. and while this analysis is focused on trish, i wanted to include how it is also an earth-shattering moment for bucciarati, now faced with the culminating reality that the boss never gave a shit about family in the first place, and was only after his selfish desire to be unknowable. his attempted murder of his innocent civilian daughter invokes, to me, the needless cruelty some unaccepting families may have towards their children upon coming out or other realization that their child is both related to them, but not in a way they deem acceptable.

while it is laid out rather straightforwardly, this needless cruelty from biological family is relatable enough to change narancias mind and follow bucciarati after he betrays the gang; cementing once more that the only bonds of trust these characters have are with one another, since not even their biological families will care for them, let alone society.

at the restaurant in venice, narancia is still fearful about how trish will receive this absolute rejection, but her reception is surprisingly determined.

in the past, ive seen this scene used as the real point where trish as a female character finally comes into her own as a person, but as we previously established, she really had it in her all along, and it was only put to the test then (more on her innate courage in a moment).

trish, like the rest of team bucciarati, has no choice but to persist as she is, to exist as her own person even if all the odds are against her. not only this, but she tentatively decides to join in bucciaratis cause, a move that she explains as just to find her own origins or die trying. at this point, her motive might be concerned only with herself, but throughout the notorious BIG fight, that matter changes.

aboard the plane to sardinia, trish grapples with the willingness of team bucciarati to pursue diavolo, even after they no longer are required to protect her. i would say this is when she begins to feel comradery with the team and their cause to exist boldly in the face of someone all-powerful (diavolo) who wishes they were dead, rather than just being someone or something reduced to a secondary role (although how shes treated after this fight is another story...)

the moment trish realizes that she alone can save giorno (and therefore, the entirety of the team), she is struck with the final dilemma of whether or not she wants to get involved with all of these things on the front lines. she decides she does, without being fully conscious of it, because of the courage now awakened and manifested in-full as her stand, spice girl.

spice girl is unique as a stand for being one of the few that seems to have her own consciousness, although it really is a part of trishs consciousness that was always a part of her, now fully realized in literal, physical form.

the courage required for her stand to now fully manifest was in her all along, and under a queer lens this could be likened to a person now being able to live authentically as they are, the incongruity mostly solved now that she has grown as a person and has a (support) group/system of those who have had similar experiences.

notorious BIG concludes with trish delivering her own beatdown and saving all of the team, seeming to fully cement her as a force to be reckoned with within the jojo universe and her nuanced personhood that had been building this entire time.

all this in mind, this isnt to say that trish's character doesnt feel stunted by araki after this point, for no other reason than misogyny. her destruction rank-A level stand and fighting prowess is forgotten after they arrive in sardinia, and during the green day/oasis fight she is conveniently relegated to the caretaker position for narancia, even if giorno is the "healer" and her own stand stronger than his in combat. i would argue the biggest injustice towards trish as a fully fledged character was the enforcement of these stereotypically feminine roles on a character who, as weve just discussed, has learned to be confident, courageous, and unapologetically herself throughout the entirety of vento aureo.

when i first set out to write this post, i was concerned with talking about trish from an almost entirely queer angle. it evolved, then, into something much more full-bodied, with that being simply one lens you can apply to her character arc.

id love to discuss these things (and the stuff in my bucciarati analysis) at greater lengths, and also want to say that despite writing this over a period of time, i may have messed up my wording or made points that seem like reaches... none of this is meant to speak for the experiences of any real person, and are rather generalizations. i hope that regardless of these things, more people can see vento aureo for the narrative value i really think it has, especially to the queer fanbase who, including myself, may relate heavily to the subtextual experiences depicted.

special thanks to @fur-bee for going through this with me and giving me key insights and for my other friends to proofread and such :D

[th3lightyougaveme]

OKAY SO ASSORTED THOUGHTS ON MY ATTEMPTS AT A NEW GUILT GANG

Scan-Lies/Scanny - KEEPING THE ENTIRE INTERNET/CODE MANIPULATING IDEA!!!!! HOWEVER!!!!! changing his name and motif!!!!! whilst a cat motif may fit with his mischievous nature and overall attitude, i feel a dog motif may fit more? hes meant to manipulative from what i can tell, and i think having him hide beneath a cute dog form would do WONDERS in aiding that! after all, who wouldnt listen to the cute digital puppy? his name shall be skipper to fit in even more with that!!!!! hes basically meant to appeal to what the internet finds cute!!!!! his form and name may shift depending on the person but i will NOT finalize that just yet.

Terrence - he gets a name and backstory change!!!!!! i shall name him bruce as of now and as far as his backstory? im going to further expand on his wife and kids death and how that lead him to. being at fazbenders in the first place. because most illnesses are carried over from one of the parents, i think his wife died the same way his son did. im going to say it was cancer that they caught too late (in both cases) and they couldnt exactly do much except let them go out peacefully. that being said, bruce. didnt take that well. he ended up quitting his job and just staying holed up in his house for a while. h. he did have to get a NEW job so he didnt lose his house though. THATS WHERE FAZBENDERS COMES INTO PLAY!!!!! he gets hired there as a preformer, suits up, and bada bing bada boom, you know the rest, PHONE HEAD BE UPON YE!!!!!!!! (ill add more to this in a reblog i DO have more let me COOK)

Eldi - oughh.... eldi..... keepin some things and changin the fundamentals because the way they executed an amalgamation of souls and flesh was PISS POOR. WHY IS IT ONLY THE WOMEN SOULS THAT HAVE A CONSCIOUS!!!!! WHY WAS SHE A GIRL DESPITE!!!!!! I DUNNO!!!!! BEING AN AMALGAMATION!!!!! changing that they/them now because. that is multiple fuckin people. they will still hunger in a way but no more killing random people. considering eldi was likely meant to be RANDOM souls. why the hell do they all collectively decide to KILL everyone they see. LYING!!!!! anyways. they constantly seem to be in a conflicted state. they do have a conscious its just very muddled and a combination of several different peoples wants. they tend to just go after larger animals now but here and there a few people go missing. not nearly as much as before. new name suggestions would be niceeee:)

Mimic - i dunno. it never really had a major role. might just keep this one the same but tone down all the hallucination stuff. like. they dont need to go THAT far. the emotional/mental damage route is fun though:) i feel like itll just be an entity you can make do your bidding as revenge or somethin. it works for you if you give it something. also need name ideas for it❤️

thatsssss most of all ive got for now:)

@employee432-timekeeper

[radiation]

I kind of want to hear your thoughts wrt how anya couldve been handled better. Do you think the pregnancy part shouldve just not been there in the first place? I cant think of any ending for her that is less gruesome that doesnt also change many aspects of all the later parts of the game. And also in general i just think you have interesting takes on the game and i wanna hear more

Good question and i will provide my thoughts under the cut. Listless unfiltered stuff tho Im so out of it right now but im chilling.

As a conclusion of all that precedes it I agree, the ending is properly gruesome and its hard to say it should've been done any other way. If we're being faithful to the story and her character as-is i'd say less so change the major events and moreso change the way they're delivered and slip in more respectful characterization of anya here and there through fleshing out her life and personal motivations, even if it's just hints of it

However unless they really really did a crazy good job i probably still wouldnt like it. But that's like, the unfortunate domino effect of writing a character like her, i feel that her character/place in the story is misogynistic on a pretty fundamental level and eliminating that would require restructuring things about her character/the story. But idk, who's to say they couldnt have.

Its complicated because theres all these different layers of narrative decisions being made that influence other shit and the more fundamental of a choice you change, the greater differences there will be down the road. Its butterfly effect shit. Like sometimes i think about this in my own projects. I think about like, what if while developing my own game, i'd made the 2 main characters completely different people? What if they were fucking like, Kevin and Trent, and id gone down the whole pipeline of fleshing out their characters and actually made them genuinely good. If thats what I made and thats what everyone was used to and then I randomly replaced them with Neal and Jack and the themes associated with them, people would be like. Thats wrong why the fuck did you do that. You ruined the themes bro. But the same is true of the other way around. You have to ask: is what's in front of me truly the best version it could have possibly been, or could it have been any number of things, and I'm just attached to what's right in front of me?

Its not to say you cant write about misogyny or sexual assault, or that there aren't people with experiences like Anya and you can't write about them. It's more asking like, out of all of the routes they couldve gone with wrt having any female characters whatsoever why did they choose this one specifically. If they had from the get-go written a bit of a different character with different themes and went down that whole road, no pregnancy or whatever but some other shit more impactful for what was there, they could have potentially written something equally or more powerful, just tackling a different vein of subject matters.

Like not saying at all this is what they should've written, I think its kind of lame, this is just a random ass example. But what if the conflict between Anya and Jimmy was them previously being like, rivals for the same position at their job, and likely due to misogyny in the system Jimmy ended up getting it instead of her. Anya is essentially in the same position of inferiority under Jimmy that Jimmy is under Curly and while Jimmy is obsessed with this narrative of him not getting what he deserves and lashes out, Anya is forced to grin and bear it, and their characters are meant to call attention to the gap in acceptable behaviors and entitlement that is created by patriarchal society. Idk. I think theres already hints of that and its way less emotionally impactful than whats there rn but the point is like, it still could've been well executed, and if thats what was there, people wouldnt be asking like "wow this sucks ass i really wish anya had gotten sexually assualted instead" LOL do you know wha ti mean.

I dont even know what my point is right now but idk I guess i dont have a good answer for what is the best thing they couldve done differently. I can only speak for my own preferences and honestly I dont write about this subject matter at all. Like ill be honest the specific subject of women being abused/assaulted makes me so upset i dont want to put even a fraction of an ounce of that into the world period, so i just dont write about it, my mind always goes to women dealing with other kinds of conflicts instead. And I generally tend to write more about things like microaggressions and the complexities of relationships rather than unbelievable injustices without relief. I lay a lot of respect on my characters, when horrible things happen to them I offset the events into the realm of neutrality by affording them things like privacy and moments of calm and monotony. I like writing like this and i think its good but its certainly somewhat informed by me living a privileged lifestyle. So yknow who am i to say what experiences you should write about.

Well i just looked it up and it seems like the main developers on the game are both men so im gonna say actually yeah Methinks they should've just straight up written something else. I mean i have no way of knkowing their experiences for sure but im gonna take a wild guess and say they dont have a lot of skin in this game. Also i just realized they also made how a fish is made that game looked pretentious as fuck sorry.