#and then all the stuff thats ACTUALLY important to the plot and the case begins

[hecksupremechips]

They did Ryuki so dirty in aini and I’m gonna be salty about it for the rest of my life I think

[moodymisty]

Anon that talked about Fulgrim here. The same thing is happening to Yvraine. Also this a rant sorry

She's such a cool character. I'll say that I haven't read any books on her, I only watched some yt videos and read her wiki page. But from what I gathered, she's a total badass who'll do anything for her people. Then why she's just left as "Guilliman's eldar gf"? Because the people who say those sorts of things don't know how to see female characters. The elf being paired with the humans is essentially an ancient thing now and it also comes from this. But, at it's core (and in the case of Warhammer), it's fetishization.

Let's take a closer look at this: Guilliman is, obviously, the golden boy of the Imperium. He's an hard-working and logical man, in many of the main he is the main character or an incredibly important character. Of course, somebody will relate to him, they'll say: "he's just like me". Then comes Yvraine. She's from a different cultures, she looks much different and she, and her kind, are considered barbarians. She and Guilliman develop an "partnership" on a bases of a treaty but they still hate eachother. They tolerate one another for the good of their people. These people, who previously related to Guilliman, will toy with plot so Guilliman, basically them in this context, will get the xeno big titty gf and live happily ever after. They do this because they fetishize how different Yvraine is. They want the main lead to get the girl, essentially.

I've seen on Reddit (god forbid) people actually ask if this relationship is canon. They depict Yvraine as an hungry whore for the human dick. This went to the other Primarchs too. They make a list of which xeno races would be most compatible with each primach. Fir example, I've seen a lot of art showing the Khan and Lelith Hesperax together. My brother in Christ, that woman hates with all her heart pregnancy and pregnant women. I seriously think she's a lesbian (if it isn't canon already). Poor Khan is stuck in the Warp, probably wanting to go back to his sons. He'll not look at an Drukhari and say: "I'll smash that" 💀. Lelith won't fall at her knees begging for his cock, she'll already either have fought him or is fighting him.

Sexualization is completely fine. Hell, I fantasize about the Primarchs or other characters from any piece of fiction all day long. But when this fanon headcanons become canon to some people, I think we should tone it down. I laughed at the Guilliman x Yvraine jokes in the beginning, but these jokes should just stop, they're unfunny now 😕

The Yvraine x Guilliman is totally canon guys posts are always so insane to me because, they've literally spoken twice. Shortly after guilliman woke up, and before Yvraine left. And Guilliman was very firm in saying 'thanks for bringing me back, but that's it. please leave.'

Like there was no UWU THANK YOU YVRAINE~ and no OOOOO~ MON'KEIGH ~

Like i don't mind the shitposting to be clear. If people want to ship it or meme about it thats fine i don't fucking care, what's frustrating is now that it's been a few years since that event happened, people are coming into the fandom thinking that this stuff is like, actually real. And they have some political secret romance going on and Yvraine is going around getting that primarch dick on the reg. And yeah the fact that she's one of the few female characters i'm sure doesn't help matters.

I just wish the memeing wouldn't blend into people's actual interpretation of the lore, like it has with a lot of fans. Brain melting literally.

[the-kipsabian]

listened to a podcast talking about this a bit, so im gonna be unhinged for a hot second about the orange cassidy belt corruption arc

i would love one day to write a kinda comprehensive "guide" to all of this, but i'd have to go back to watch a lot of stuff for it (so it would probably have to be after im done with all kip vs oc rewatch stuff. ofc if theres critical changes to this situation that might change idk let me know if this is anything of interest?), buttttt heres a few misc highlights for what i can pull out from the top of my head

first of all, here. what i believe is one of the most pivotal moments in this whole thing. so during the match with pac where oc won the title, danhausen threw a curse at pac literally right above the title

now this was because pac was trying to cheat by using a ring hammer (twice). which honestly kind of already tells us a lot about corruption, i dont remember if he was already kind of mean and wicked with the hammers before his reign, i mean pac has always been a bastard, but you know. did he start doing this after he won the title? cause that would be saying a lot

this also goes hard in this match, cause after pac is caught trying to use the hammer, oc also almost uses it on him. at this point, its just almost tho. its very close, but he chooses to throw it away, and win the match clean. the key here is, what the title is already doing to him before he even gets his hands on it

anyways. so oc does this title reign. all is swell up until the point kip challenges for it, cause thats where the mind games begin which i believe is an important part of this whole deal. kip separates him from his friends effectively, continuous taunting and mind games, he pushes oc to his limits mentally, forcing him to tap into a very dark place in his mind to overcome the odds to beat kip (also oc was showing the first cases of more vicious behavior in this match so like)

like literally this whole storyline is confirmed by the man himself to be about this like. how could this not tap into and mess with ocs psyche going forward tho

also this is just my things but. at revolution, that one time he tagged with danhausen to challenge for the tag titles, oc was the one to change his gear to black. tbh this is personally for me where this whole corruption brainrot started, but its worth mentioning, cause he has not done it since. even when teaming with hook, it was hook who changed his gear colors to match the denim. im just saying (as in, danhausen has to have a finger in this pie somehow. he just absolutely has to)

i didnt watch a lot of what happened with house of black, but thats where the physical issues started. im just inclined to believe that the physical pains just amplified his need to push himself, to show the world that hes worthy of holding this belt and being a champion despite being injured - cause thats what all this was about, right? oc having to prove to the world that despite how hes been viewed up until this point, hes actually an incredible wrestler and a worthy champion. come hell or high water, he will prove that

and thats part of why the belt was so important to him, which could easily be also turned around to be the so called "siren call" of the belt. get me and keep me with whatever way is necessary to prove yourself as a worthy champion. yes even if it costs your mental and physical health and all your friends

and so this got pushed until he literally couldnt do it anymore as mox took oc to his limits and defeated him after physically beating him down worse than before (or i mean, a week after stadium stampede? yeah both of these are factors here lbr). and you saw the miserable creature oc was after losing that title. finding solace in friends that were champions (hook and kris. i think this is an important plot point, i dont think we saw him around chuck and trent during this time. the best friends with no titles....), maybe trying to grasp for some of that former glory that he used to have

until he won the title again. and he was HELLBENT on getting it back. and after he won it, well.. i shared thoughts about this here. which is a very interesting contrast to the first time, a year ago, when he won it the first time

i dont know if i had more thoughts rn, i have lost the plot so heres everything for now. just.. yeah. i have way more things somewhere in my blog and like said i should watch all this back to get everything, but quickly putting it together heres few key points of things. anyways enjoy or whatever. feel free to share thoughts im all ears (especially if i missed anything seemingly key stuff)

[foxybananaaaz]

Starting with Throne of Glass. The Assassins Blade to be exact.

BUT, I knew Sarah was good at foreshadowing right? But damn, I'M JUST REALIZING HOW GOOD SHE IS!

DISCLAIMER!! IF THIS STUFF HAS BEEN POINTED OUT BEFORE I'M NOT AWARE, AS THIS IS STUFF I AM NOTICING IN MY OWN RE-READ

Spoilers under the cut in case anyone out there still hasn't read the Throne of Glass series!

These spoilers are ONLY for Throne of Glass!

So we know four of the five short stories in The Assassins Blade were published BEFORE Throne of Glass.

All but The Assassin and the Healer.

The Assassin and the Healer, which introduces Yrene Towers was published in the bind up The Assassins Blade, BETWEEN the publication of Crown of Midnight and Heir of Fire.

Now, that thats out of the way, onto the foreshadowing geniusness.

I'm currently only just beginning. Chapter Six of The Assassin and the Pirate Lord. But there's still foreshadowing insanity!

I have seen THREE separate times where Sam mentions how Arrobyn Hamel will kill him brutally. Yes I will count how many times he brings that up now I've noticed in five chapters it's been three.

The Assassin's Blade, Pages 25, 42 & 42

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, Chapters 3, 5 & 5

But then, there's also something else. Something larger to the overarching plot of the series.

The Assassin's Blade, Page Twenty-Three

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, Chapter Three

We learn about how magic has been forbidden and blocked eight years ago(from TAB timeline) by this bit of information from Rolfe, explaining his tattoo on his hands.

But also more.

Until the point I am currently at, there are no name drops of Terressen, Aelin, or any mention of the missing Queen. This is important.

But there's this small piece below(IN GREEN)

The Assassin's Blade, Page Twelve

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, Chapter Two

So Celaena will go to grand parties, posing as foreign nobility? Celaena who is really the lost Queen, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius of Terresen, FALSLY PRETENDING to be Foreign Nobility? Okay. Sure.

It's more like she ACTUALLY IS Foreign Nobility, posing as a citizen, posing as nobility.

But again, there is more, insane foreshadowing. Again, I reiterate that there are no name drops of Terressen, Aelin, or any mention of the missing Queen. This is important. Photo Below. (Green down could consider the sentense/paragraph above the green... but really the green down)

The Assassin's Blade, Page Forty-Four

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord, Chapter Five

While it doesn't mention Terressen by name, there is the name drop of Orynth! We learn, BEFORE THRONE OF GLASS IS RELEASED that Celaena is from Orynth, NOT Rifthold.

When you know, well, this is a big find.

That's all for this update.

Should I update with my re-reading every few chapters or no? I don't know. I just knew I had to share THIS find, because like I said, I knew SJM was good at foreshadowing, but this is another level I didn't see before!

Again,

DISCLAIMER!! IF THIS STUFF HAS BEEN POINTED OUT BEFORE I'M NOT AWARE, AS THIS IS STUFF I AM NOTICING IN MY OWN RE-READ

Starting my first official REread of all SJM books.

Gonna look for all parallels and theory points.

[madisonrooney]

I think Bunk’d could have had potential but i think it lost that when it didn’t have any connection to the original material or it shouldn’t have had any of the Jessie characters to begin with aside from like one of them it never felt like an actual spin off. I think seeing a Kim Possible spin off would have been fun or maybe even how My Babysitter’s A Vampire did it where the show comes after the movie, in this case the 2019 live action, but I think that or Hannah Montana but with a focus on Mikayla or something with an iconic character but more of a guest character. Although that one would be tricky because I feel like on of the binding forces of HM was lilly and miley’s friendship and I am not sure what would tie the other one together LOL

but anyway you always talk about going to Disney events in the discord, what would be the ultimate dream event put on by Disney that you would want to go to (i.e. parade, museum, live show, all of the above ect.)

take care - ❄️🎄

i do think it was weird for them to have a spinoff when you only have 3/4 of the kids from the original show. ive only seen a few eps of jessie, but im guessing all four kids are equally important more or less. if you had....8 kids in the original show and then 7/8 in the spin off that could be ok but i feel like 3/4 is a big loss relatively speaking. i also think the summer camp concept is a little random and you can only do so much with it. phineas and ferb and gravity falls managed to get summer focused shows right but i feel like thats not an inherently manageable plot.

those are some really neat ideas! i think christie would implode if there was a kp 2019 show lol. i wonder if they ever considered doing that. the idea of a show about a side character is really interesting too. i think that was what they were trying to do with alyson stoner's character in the ep of thats so raven where cory has a guest appearance on a tv show.

oh! speaking of spin offs about side characters, i shouldve mentioned this in my last answer: i know there was a spinoff about varian from tangled the series pitched that never got picked up. i feel like that doesnt entirely count as answer bc it was in fact pitched and theres info about it available online but still (while it didnt seem like the booms pilot got very far), since hes my fav i wouldve loved to have seen that!

on that note, is there a pilot that didnt get picked up in particular that you really wish had?

ive actually talked about this with some friends before, id love to see a museum exhibit dedicated to disney channel specifically! there was a disney channel section of the archives exhibit at d23 this year but i would love to see a full blown exhibit, especially bc that way you could have more variety beyond just the most popular shows and movies (they only had stuff like hsm, hannah montana, wizards, and camp rock. plus they only had costumes besides the wand used for wand IDs). ive been to some touring disney archives exhibits (some of which have included a few disney channel things), so i think that would be a really cool concept to do entirely with disney channel! they cant use any of my liv and maddie props or my stan plush tho lol. what about you?

[safetyrat]

My take on the Jack Manifold being killed by Tommy discussions

This is written so someone who isnt caught up can understand, so lets start at the beginning, Jack Manifolds ad Tommys relationship. Irl Jack and Tommy are very close, but I don’t think they had a strong established relationship in character before exile, especially because Jack was mia for a lot of lore? Many relationships on the smp get taken from the ccs dynamics before the smp (wilbur and tommys mentor/brotherhood, puffychus date), which is why they have been interpreted as close? Jack was part of lmanburg and they have interacted for sure, so I think its fair to say they were friends in roleplay, even if not like,, best friends

during exile, jack visited Tommy- well, tried to visit. Tommy punched him off the bridge in the nether and made sure he died. Jack lost all his stuff and was pissed offed - but that was about it.

The tone of the visit could maybe be compared to the one with Mamacita and Mexican Dream? It was in character, but it wasn’t... serious?

It feels wrong to call it “friendly banter” when mexican dream died, but you cant call it a “Building Character Moment For TommyInnit” either. Jacks visit was similar.

At that point, neither Jack nor Tommy refered to the death as “canon” - the wiki did, however. Not sure what happend there, but it was listed as Jacks second death and when he died on Doomsday, went to hell and back - that part of lore doesn’t work without Tommy killing him.

After Jack came back from hell, he started a bigger character arc with Niki revolving around taking revenge on tommyinnit. Killing him until he is dead permanently. And while that is not presented as the right thing to do - both niki and jack consider their characters villains - its not irrational or without motive.

Tommy has made mistakes and hurt people - whether these were justified is in the eye of the beholder.

For Jacks arc right now, Tommy killing him is an important motivator and a driving point for his plot. Nothing about Jacks current character would be the same without it. Because he acknowledged the death and it was on the wiki for the longest time, its generally considered canon by the fandom.

So, case closed? Tommy killed a man while depressed in exile- yeah, that doesn’t sound right.

A Tommyinnit analysist pointed that out,, earlier today? Thats why we are having this discussion right now. I’m not sure they would appreciate me mentioning their username here, but ive read their analyses before and theyre great, they have a lot of interesting thoughts, and i agree with them bringing this up!! please never send hate to anyone about character analysis!! some people (like me) actually do this for fun.

so, i dont want to touch exileinnit to much, there is a lot to talk about, but... TommyInnit would kill somebody without a second thought. Canon deaths are heavy, theyre big, theyre- and you cannot compare this to punz killing wilbur! Yeah, that wasnt a big character moment for punz, but on one hand hes a mercenary, killing people is kind of part of his job, and on the other hand- the story around lmanburg is not a character focused one, thats a big part of wilburs writing. His main goal is progressing the geopolitical plot and let the character be shaped by it - themes like personal conflict seem less big when there is the fate of a country on your hands.

The exile arc is an entirely character focused story. It deals with themes like mental illness and inner turmoil... do you think it would pass the chance on discussing tommys feelings about killing someone? A past friend, no less?

Murdering someone, on purpose, completly changes the morality of tommys character, and im not ready to commit to that.

There are more reasons I think this, ask me to elaborate if you want, but in my eyes there is no way that Tommy could kill someone in exile with it still being consistent with his character.

So, whats the conclusion?:

TommyInnit killing Jack Manifold is canon in Jacks story, but isn’t canon in Tommys. There is no other way eithers devolopment makes sense otherwise.

This is it. An inconsistency. A plain old plothole.

Oh no, the cinematic masterpiece (/s) that is the dream smp has a plothole, what do we do now?:

...move on? There is no way discussing this will change anything. This type of inconsistency is unique to the dream smp as a medium where the creators have a direct dialogue with the fanbase. This is not the first or last time the wiki has made weird deaths canon, I personally disagree that quackity and schlatt died in the explosion of tubbos execution. This doesnt do against the wiki writers or anything, you guys are so important for this community, but you do stand in direct contact with the creators - an active fan would have probably more, but more importantly different, knowledge of the lore than 90% of the members.

Dont be harsh on the fans, dont be harsh on the ccs, we are exploring a new type of mass reaching story telling here guys.

how do we still make this consistent for the storyline?:

this is where the analysis ends, we are diving more into headcanon territory, but I choose to believe that this was a canon death, but tommy didnt realize it is. In my opinion this just feeds into Jacks themes of being ignored, not taken seriously, etc.

tldr: while tommy killing jack was considered canon for a long time, it doesnt work if you want to have tommys character make sense. Instances like this, where dubious canon gets reinterpreted later happen because of the dream smps unique type of storytelling and should not be a reason for conflict in the fandom.

Thanks for reading, if any of this doesnt make sense after tommys last stream, that I didnt watch because writing this, youre allowed to personally come into my house and assassinate me.

[zhuhongs]

Since rewatching the guardian drama after reading the novel has made me mad about how bad and good both of them are I am Obligated to write out a list of what I think the perfect merger btw both versions of canon are. This will be in list format otherwise I’ll end up writing like 6k words again. 

TLDR: the genre stays as supernatural from the novel and not Sci fi, bc that was rlly not fleshed out well. Shen Wei is a ghost king, and all the dixingren are ghosts or demons like originally intended. The ghost race naturally exists and wasn't born from kunluns shoulder fire or anything. They just exist separate from humans. Not all ghosts are former humans, some people are just born as ghosts, like Shen Wei. Zhao Yunlan has the guardian whip and all the cool stuff that comes with the Guardian order.  Overall, i’d keep the novel’s plot and relationship progression and ending without the backstory. Instead the backstory is a merger of both canons. From the drama I’d keep the characterization and themes as well as like half the extra cases and omit the other half. 

I’ll be elaborating much further on my ideal backstory and other stuff under the cut bc the rest is 1.5k and I don’t wanna clog the dash 

Okay SO In my ideal backstory there are two timelines just like the drama but the mythology of the book. The god Kunlun is actually zyl that went back in time and became a god. But the one that went back isn’t the current Zhao Yunlan. There has to be an original timeline where the god Kunlun never existed. Thus the great seal nor the separation of the three realms don’t exist either. Zhao Yunlan must go back in time to become a god, meet Shen Wei in the past, and create the current timeline where the separation exists but isn’t perfect. The current timeline is the one that the majority of the series takes place in.

In the original timeline, Zhao Yunlan is just some dude living in a world where ghosts, fairies, and all other beings just live in a giant free for all and it's kinda just a mess. 

Like there’s government in modern context and all and all races live with each other but there's constant tension. ZYL works at some equivalent of the SID (same staff and side characters, but novel vers. Lin Jing is a monk, CSZ a zombie, etc) to protect people and all that and their job is rather hard. One day encounters the thousands year old ghost king Wei (who isnt shen wei yet bc zyl gave him that name in the future) who works alone as like a rouge cultivator of sorts. He lives on the surface undercover as a professor still bc he’s trying to not catch Yezun’s attention but does all the stuff he normally does as Heipaoshi. The two ally together for a case and bc they both have the same goals of getting all races to live in peace. At current, there are forces working together to decimate the human race, all lead by Yezun

As they work together they become closer and all that. Shen Wei tells him about how he was unable to prevent the great war 5 thousand years ago and neither could the gods so  he’s spent the past 5 thousand years trying to make up for it. As they search for ways to stop Yezun, they gather the 4 hallows and learn how to use them to manipulate time so ZYL can go into the past and stop the great war and separate the three realms (living, dead, ghost).  Shen Wei wants to go back with him but he can’t because he was alive all those years ago so if he goes back it will create a paradox. ZYL promises he’ll find Shen Wei in the past and create a timeline where they could be together in peace (that is the current timeline)

When goes back he becomes the god kunlun because there needed to be a new god born at the time to prevent the war.  Also this time traveller looked promising to Nuwa, Fuxi, and Shennong. And I know in the guardian universe gods are usually born and ppl don’t become gods. EXCEPT this can happen when a god passes on smth from their body onto them bc that did happen in the novel with Kunlun making shen wei a demigod. And since fu you and ma gui are supposed to be gods Nu Wa and Fuxi I think that when they die, they should make ZYL a god and that's how this stuff happens.

So like ZYL explains to the gods the time he came from and how he wants to save everything and they make him a god and he works to save everything just like he did in the drama but this time with the novel plotline. During this time he meets young Shen Wei (he’s still like a hundred or so years old) and they get close and all the stuff from the backstory happens. He gives him his name, all that good stuff. The entire time doesn’t let him know that he’s from the future or that his real name is ZYL. He just poses as kunlun. 

The two of them alongside the other gods (who still die at the times they do in the novel) work together to end the war and establish the great seal and set up the cycle of reincarnation, per the current timeline. Although the seal and cycle of reincarnation aren’t perfect. Gods can’t reincarnate, and ghosts still don’t have souls. And just like the novel, doing all of this kills ZYL bc it takes a lot of energy to create the seal even though it isn’t perfect.

Shen Wei of course doesn’t want ZYL to die and zyl says it's alright because he fixed the timeline so there must One day they will meet again and ZYL reveals the truth about the timeline to shen wei before he dies. This becomes the promise that Shen Wei mentions to meet again. Before he dies, ZYL gives him the shoulder fire as a memento ( i still like the candy wrapper necklace deal but i’ll take this too. Maybe both.. The pendant is still just rlly cool.. Gay ppl)

Shen Wei knows gods can’t enter the cycle of reincarnation and still makes the deal with Shennong to strip Kunlun of his godhood and let him reincarnate. This sets us into the novel timeline where isn’t allowed to meet any of zyl’s reincarnations before he becomes zyl otherwise he will die and also fuck up the timeline. The same 5 thousand years of pining still ensue bc Gay Ppl and i love making Shen Wei suffer but he doesn’t have the shrine room thing bc i think thats weird and yea.. Bad. 

In the meantime Shen Wei does a lot of things mostly just protecting the great seal and working for Hell to keep the peace but still does other stuff. He still watches out for ZYL’s reincarnations but doesn’t do much besides make sure they don’t die a premature death. They meet again finally at the beginning of the series and the timeline resumes like canon. And that's my master plan that merges both drama logic and novel logic while making a much better timeline. (I hope that makes some sense)

Da Qing is still Kunlun’s pet cat and important. Novel backstory applies to him. And I already mentioned him kinda but as for Yezun (Gui Mian in the novel) his deal is similar as in the drama but just a ghost. And he is a big player in the great war, he thought Shen Wei abandoned him as a kid but they were just separated. Shen Wei doesn’t know it's him till the end of the war and couldn’t stop him in the OG timeline and vows to bring him to justice and make amends. Shen Wei continuously tries to explain things to him but he just won’t listen and is imprisoned in hell bc yk… war criminal stuff and yeah he’s the main antagonist trying to break the great seal bc he’s still made about the past. Idk. Yezun wasn’t well written in the novel OR the drama so like… honestly he just needs to be completely rewritten and I don’t care enough about that. He can just be a weak villain idk

the drama characterization stays the same for everyone else bc found family go brr. However for Lao Chu i… hmm… i think he should still be a zombie but the reason he killed someone should be related to his brother. I like that addition and then shen wei realized his sentence was unjust and exempted him. i like that storyline merger. bc the brother thing and him admiring Heipaoshi was drama only. in the novel lao chu just murdered some kid for a rlly whatever reason.

uhhh in terms of the cases… id make adjustments to most of them. i think the li qian case should be like the drama bc the novel just had her as a murderer and it was boring. 

For the mountain river awl one was fine… novel version was funnier and more interesting action wise tbh… rip zyl and his exorbitant flirting. uhhh the whole reveal that shen wei was the soul reaper thing was kinda… ehh in the novel but i did love the comedy of afterwards Shen Wei pretending he went into cardiac arrest when he actually just… has no pulse bc he's a ghost. 

ID KEEP THE WORTH IT SCENE AND RAIN SCENE… THOSE FUCK SO HARD… I love the drama for adding those every damn day. the novel version of zyl losing his sight sucked and was sooo boring.  Keep the drama version on that.

also id keep dr. cheng. i'm very pro dr. cheng and her friendship with shen wei it adds so much to his character imo. keep the fruit seller man and his wife for the merit brush..omg it adds SO MUCH the way the drama did it.. like the drams build up with the novels pace of that arc.. mwah. it felt like it dragged a bit in the drama but if it went faster and without the hospital ep and with sha ya (sorry sha ya) that would've been so good. tho keep novel version of da qings memory loss and lao li. that was rlly impactful.

id say keep some of the cases like the mirror one, the eyes doctor one, etc. just to like.. yk have more to fill in general.. novel pacing but drama characterization without the bs that wasn't fully realized. and novel ending ofc. And that’s it!!

I hope most of this makes some amount of sense  but it probably doesn’t. In my head it all tracks but like ik most of u don’t know anything about the novel so this sounds like gibberish. Also I know this would literally never happen but this is MY ideal merger of the two canons that I feel compelled to expand on for some reason. Anyways, as io said,, we need to rebuild guardian. Like literally let me and the mutuals write Guardian and it will be 500 times better.

[prompt-master]

Y'know what? As soon as the contest results are in and I definitively know what the imitator looks like, I think I might try to write something on it. Do you have any specific plot points you think would have to be hit in their story to properly tell it to completion? (Also, for now I'll remain on anon in case executive dysfunction fucks with my ability to actually write askfjalfjhdsl)

Hmmm I'll try to start up a sort of timeline and then perhaps if necessary extra details can be talked about in seperate asks? Keep in mind this is on a whim, youre welcome to add and subtract stuff.

After the events of dr3, the survivors are trying to rebuild the FF. Kirigiri becomes the head chairman, Togami becomes her right hand man (munakatas role) and the rest because leading branch members

The imitator takes this chance to get a job at the FF when the ranks are weak in order to get close to Naegi who they are a fan of and in order to easily secure a posotion of trust and power

The imitator begins to analyze Naegi subtely and upclose, after already havinf studied his methods from the broadcast and various hope speeches

The imitator begins to adopt Naegi's methods slowly, Naegi completely approves because they're doing good.

The imitator gains a small following and begins to up the uwu softboy image that Naegi is uncomfortable with having

The imitator begins making public promises of hope and peace that logically cannot be kept. This inspires a lot of Naegi support to go to the imitator

The imitator starts to lose themselves in the power. They falsely justify it as the right thing, and begins manipulation methods to make Naegi feel bad and seem bad

The imitator does something (idk what) that seems good but is actually Very Bad behind the scenes. Perhaps forced hope studies similar to Mitarai?

People start calling for the Ultimate Hope title to be switched. Naegi agrees. Kirigiri is VERY against it.

Manipulation gets worse and Naegi starts feeling incredibly unworthy.

Imitator triggers Naegi to have a despair episode live on broadcast. Creating a massive catalyst of chaos

The survivors comfort Naegi. This is very important

The survivors with the help of the remnants discover the Imitators wrong doings

together the survivors fight againdt the imitator live and expose all their wrong doings. The confrontation is meant to display the themes dr3 didnt show well. Naegi is sharing the hope burden now with his friends, who have his back. Theyre fragments of hope, all of them

The imitator is defeated, and Naegi gains back his respect and title.

Imitator decides to try and start over again, using their talents for good

You could also throw in Munakata if you use, he would fit in well.

Of course, I'll totally betaread any fics frim aus/concepts of mine for free so if you do write this remember that! If you dont thats fine too its a uhm. Its a big meal to tackle

[everything-laito]

Why Diabolik Lovers is more effective not being an H-game

I haven’t really seen anybody talk about this topic, so I’m just gonna rant about it I guess! If anyone has anything to add upon this, I’d love to hear whatever you have to say! (feel free to either just reblog your comments, dm me or just drop something in my inbox!)

So, before I begin, I’m just gonna assume people reading this have either played the game, seen lets plays, or just know a general premise of what the games include. I’m more familiar with Laito’s routes (although now that I find more translations of other routes I will play the routes I have yet to play), so that’s what I’ll be referencing for specific examples.

So, Large Rant under the cut!

First of all, if you didn’t know what an H-game is, it really means “hentai game.” Most H-games that I have seen are either mods (H-DOOM; oh god) or DLCs. Nekopara and Hunipop (I believe) both are not R18 initially, but you can get the R18 DLC or uncensored versions with some extra mola. These are the games that I can think from the top of my head. I know there are H-games that also are otome games; aka similar to Dialover’s demographic. So it’s not the gendered demographic that makes an H-game, it’s either the age (18+) or interest in sexual content.

The Dialovers demographic is a bit wonky though. Technically the first game is 15+ (which I don’t know HOW; shit’s fucked up in that game) and the rest of the games (VC and LP aside) are all 17+ last time I checked. Dialovers doesn’t have any explicit sex scenes in there, as we all know, and when stuff like that happens, it’s implied. The people of the Dialovers demographic would theoretically be 17+ who like dark and twisted stories/“romances.” Sure there’s a good handful of people who are younger than that, and hell, I started Dialovers when I was a freshman in high school (which I should not have been that young but we’re here now af;dljkf). 

Anyways, considering the demographic would be a more mature audience, there wouldn’t be much of a difference if R18 scenes were added to Dialovers.... or would there be?

Diabolik Lovers is more than just a fanservice game. Not saying that its not, but that’s not its entire purpose. Otome games have fanservice, I’m not denying that. But it’s also a game that also tells a story; like most video games do anyway. The lore of Dialovers runs deep, and man is it DEEP when you do your digging. In Laito’s case, MAN,,,,, is his character complex. If Rejet just wanted to make a simple R18 otome game with dark undertones, they could’ve made it a lot less complex than it is already. I really treat Dialovers as a mystery, and a dark “romance” (obviously). I like how the “good” endings aren’t always “good,” and the means to reach the “good” endings are by pretty dark means. 

So, what difference does it make to make it an H-game?  It would make all the difference. 

Some people I know like Dialovers for just the mysteriousness and complexity of the game, and not just for the sadomasochism etc etc. Most fans seem to be a mix of both, from what I’ve observed. If R18 content was added, it would be more fanservice based than narrative and character based. I’d say that Dialovers is a great mix of fanservice and deep narrative. There’s always that joke with ecchi anime with “yeah I only watch it for the plot,” given that most ecchi (and complete fanservice based games) just have a basic, simple plot and character development. 

We only have one canon R18 content in this series, and thats the Blood & LoveSweat, but that’s not nearly as graphic as other R18 drama cds. Even that cd has heavy implications. It just leaves it up to your imagination. I personally think that’s not only a good narrative tool, but a great game tactic too. Since everyone’s internal experience is different when it comes to the games (and cds etc), it adds to the mysteriousness aura of the game in general. For example, we never knew what kind of torture device Laito was holding in his early chapters of his Dark route (I think it was Dark 02?) until his manga came out (and now we know,,,, it’s something called an ‘oral pear’. Yikes.).

Adding R18 CGs would make Dialovers more about the fanservice and less about the characters and their development and story. That’s why I believe it’s better to leave those scenes up to the imagination (also not to mention most implied sex scenes in the games are uh,,,, nonconsensual, so that also might be a yikes to put in a canon CG? I’m not sure if there’s other games that have that or not. If so, feel free to correct me). These types of scenes would direct the focus of the narrative and beautifully paced and pretty rewarding character development (my man Laito has come a long way!). The closest to an R18 CG we’ve seen has been the end of Laito’s More Blood route, with him and Yui having consensual sex (yay!), but it’s just kind of the events afterwards. But that’s actually important to Laito’s exposition and development throughout More Blood. 

Anyways if you made it here, thanks for reading this absolute crazy rant. If you have anything to add, feel free! Ciao!

-Corn

[starlightshore]

im kinda want to get into this sort of thing so is it okay to ask u a few questions? if not just delete this, but here goes? would u reccomend game maker studio 2, and how hard is it to use in ur opinion? and is there anything u wish u knew at the beginning of making ur fangame?

aw anon you’re so sweet! don’t worry about asking about this, its really exciting to make games and trying new things! i would not say i’m an expert, and i wouldn’t even say i know gml like. at all. i just understand a how the code is used, but now what the code itself is or what to type exactly. like, i understand the theory more so than actually doing it. which is, eh, fine? i’m getting by, and i’m still learning. i’ve only been using gms 2 for 2 months now.

also, i’m using a fangame engine! i feel its kinda like cheating lmao, but its just meant to be a framework to build your own thing off of. and i still need to learn gms2 to use it, and i plan on doing more advanced and complicated things (ie: changing how battles even work structurally.) so. i’m not good at gsm2 yet, but uh, really once you understand coding its not any harder than i’d imagine w/ other professional game engines. compared to unity, i like this better because it seems built on the idea of making 2d sprite games. its SO much more simpler and the userface (while. i’m not a fan of how it has its workspace but whatever) is simple and easy to grasp.

i can’t say for certain if i recommend game maker. its very pricey and doesn’t go on sale often. (big sales i mean, it goes on 15% somewhat frequently) i really, really recommend doing your research first. 

so here i talk about what game engines i’ve used over the last year. (also i hear Godot is good!)

at the end of that post i said this: “TLDR; figure out what kind of game and story you want to tell/make. i could of saved a year’s worth of work if i just sat myself down and realized i wanted to make a completely new fangame separate from my old blog stuff. and that i wanted to make an rpg specifically.“

and so! past me has good advice. figure out the scope and what story do you want to tell. with AL, I know it has 2 chapters, and rn i’m only concentrating on chapter 1. chp 1 has 7 nights and one area where you fight enemies. its very story/character driven and is more so like. a deconstruction of the rpg genre than an actual rpg game. (i know that the word deconstruction is over used as hell, but it is what this is.)

it builds off the themes of the original, while focusing on things that i want to focus on and develop. ut, at it’s heart, is about stories and grief, i’m just taking it to a different extreme and angle.

uh, anyway, i really wish i knew what i wanted to make and understood the source material more and what i wanted to make. i’ve. thought really really hard over what UT means, what message toby was trying to convey, how he did it and what I thought about it. understanding what YOU want from and for your project is the most important thing. WHY do you want to make this? WHAT do you want people to feel and think about when playing? or even, after playing? it doesn’t have to be super deep either.

so, figure out what you what to make, and then you can work on the how. really plan your story, but honestly i wouldn’t recommend planning it in super big details right off. also, super helpful to have a friend help you brainstorm and plot check things for you. (shout out to my friend the sniffer

anyway, don’t plan things TOO detailed because things are GOING to change no matter how well you plan! just try to get get an outline done, then rewrite it 5 more times and then MAYBE you’ll be ready to tackle a more detailed version. then write it 5 more times. i can’t stress enough how important planning is, and how you shouldn’t expect everything to work out even on draft 10! things will work, and when they do, draft 10 is going to look like bad awful nonsense cause you’re at draft 20 now and everything is much more coherent and better. games aren’t written or consumed all at once on the fly. its not a piece of fanart, a fanfic, a comic. its not updated more than once. its out, and then its just out. plan for it.

and real quick, don’t worry about art assets! depending on how you do the art, that’s most likely going to change and its going to be polished LAST. i could go more into how you should think of art when game developing, but thats another topic. just. honestly use shitty art assets and worry about it later.

kris’ place holder sprite for deltarune ^ it don’t need to be pretty, it needs to be practical.

second advice: start SMALL!!! i feel i should of done this, and frankly i probably will have to sit down and do this lmao, basically, you should make boring small games to learn the basics. I know, i know, nobody really wants to recreate asteroid when you got big ideas of making stories and animations u wanna make. but like. you really need to figure out how the program works and how the code works in theory and practice.

ok so like, think of coding like this. i got this from a skillshare video series, so uh. i’m going to retell this but in a shittier and likely less nuanced way. sorry

ok so imagine. you’re telling this guy who is trying to get to Gary’s house. now, Gary’s house is just down the road, few houses down, now, you can tell this guy that and he’ll likely find the house just fine. but if you’re telling a robot it’s not going to understand what “down the road” means. what road? how long? it needs instructions that are simple and work in a language it understands.

so you tell the robot “go down two houses, stop at sign until x seconds pass, turn right, go forward 1 house, turn ect. stop at house, ring doorbell. IF Gary answers, go inside; ELSE: do not go inside, wait;

so this what i mean by understanding the theory behind the code rather than the code itself. yes there’s complexities and differences in each language, but they’re ALL based on the same concepts. different program languages are less like different speech languages, but rather different dialects of the same. (uh, like us english vs uk english) its just different rules and “spellings” of the same core concepts.

next advice: don’t be afraid to ask for help! but also! do so within reason! if people are OPEN for helping, be sure do so in the right environment and within what time works for them. compensate people for the time and effort if you can. ALWAYS try to figure out the solution yourself first. often with coding, it can be a simple solution that you could of thought of yourself if you took the initiative to. google is your friend, youtube is your friend! (ok, youtube isn’t, but in this case! yes!) the answer might not always be easy to find, and its perfectly fine to look for help but its good to at least try on your own first!

speaking of which! LEARN LEARN LEARN! be ready to devote A LOT of time to watching and reading about game development. this goes to every game making program, not just gms2. i watch. so many videos on gms. i rec having the video play at 1.5x or 2x speed to cut down time. obvs you still need to retain the information, so speed might be not a good idea then. and its REALLY GOOD to pause and type out the code and follow along. but its also good to just understand the concepts, and theres no harm in rewatching once you’ve understood it  better at a different speed.

things WILL click and work out for you, and its going to be a very time consuming and long journey to get there. i LOVE making this game and telling this story but I also had no idea what i was getting into! and i probably will have more advice once i’m further in, (i’ve only used gms 2 for 2 months!) but thats the best i can say for now! i hope you pursue your dreams and start making things!!! you can do it!!! 

the best time to start is yesterday, the second best time is right now! even if you put a little effort into it everyday, you’ll  build up progress and you can learn SO MUCH over time and theres this whole world of possibilities out there! the world NEEDS your story and your perspective, and i think creating it in anyway you can is necessary for humanity! your work will mean something to someone someday, and i am so excited for you to start your journey!

[tossertozier]

you mentioned possibly doing a ben or mike writing guide.. would you.. be willing to post a mike one. i'm plotting a fic and im struggling to get my mans down?? also i think abt ur fics weekly bare minimum.

hi there!!! i did my best. i tried to not sound preachy or like a know it all bc y’all know i can barely write. i hope this is helpful in some way!! disclaimer of of course this is all just my opinion & there’s no wrong way to write, you’re the only person who can tell your story!!

[[MORE]]

i think the first really important decision you have to make as Person Writing Mike is his

family & background

-are both of his parents alive?

-if yes, what’s their relationship like?

-if no, who’s his primary caretaker? what’s their relationship like?

-if no, when did they die? did he cope well with it? what’s his relationship with their memory like?

these are really really where you gotta start to write mike imo. or any character! i think one thing stephen king is to be admired for is he doesn’t neglect the parent-child relationship as so many people who write youth do. your parents are the most important people in your life for a long time. i don’t think there’s a wrong or ooc way to answer the above questions tbh. canon has really left a wide open field for you to run amuck in.

(example: i’ve mentioned in the past that my & tfat mike being a small adult is no mistake and intentional. it’s a bit of a throwaway scene, but i mention in on pointe that mike’s parents are coming. it’s intentionally done there too. mike is goofier, more outgoing, more immature in general in that fic in the small bits he’s in & that’s all a response to his familial life. )

culture + friendships

after you answer those questions, important follow up questions are:

-are the losers his first set of friends?

-how much social exposure has he had?

-has he dated? who is he attracted to?

-who influences him? (celebrities, family, culturally)

-what are his cultural interests? what does he do in his free time? how would that impact how he interacts with the rest of the world?

again, no wrong way to answer these. i’ve seen a super broad spectrum of indirect answers to these questions. even thinking about where he might pick up patterns of speech can make him feel much more like a realized character. i’ve noticed some people dip fully into aave to an extent that doesn’t even seem logical in their character’s current situation & it can really seem like a caricature, but i think to write mike without any sense of aave at all is a little ?? too. just be cognizant of it is my only real advice here. it doesn’t so much matter as long as you don’t forget who mike is which next point

humor & personality

-what do you think he would find (shows, comedians, youtube videos) really funny?

-does he have something he quotes often? something he started saying ironically but never stopped?

man i know i’m all there’s no wrong way to write mike !! in this post but i will say real quick that i think mike is funny and i don’t really respect depictions of him where he’s not. i think this is where the movies really just fucked up. book mike drops some of the funniest lines of the book. and honest to god tip is to write out a scene as you feel the urge too, look away for five minutes, look back and give half of richie’s lines away. (or... dialogue.) this sounds like a joke but it was what i did when i first started writing & tfat

i’d always be like “n the funny part goes... to richie.” and thats a fandom inclination too. nooooo. avoid this trap. it doesn’t even make sense. have u ever been in a friend group where only one person... makes jokes? that’d be genuinely so weird. especially bc if you give the joke away to someone else, you can also build on it. amazing things start happening when u start thinking of the characters in flexible patterns. like for example, i almost always give absurdist humor to stan now. wholesome to ben.

mike’s humor is largely situational to me. solid comedic timing & he’s an observant person. sometimes i read back my own writing & have to change the pov bc richies making jokes about things he would never ever notice to make fun of. mike would. mike genuinely sees all. i think he’s just got one of the most analytical brain of the losers. & i think intelligence is subjective and people are smart in different ways but i think it’s foolish to write him as anything other than incredibly intelligent both academically and emotionally. he’s just a natural observer and pattern notice-er. which brings me to my next mike thing:

love & selflessness

i think the biggest part of mike being harder to flesh into a fully realized person is the fandom tendency to make him kind and nothing else. here’s mike. he’s nice. next. bc the book kind of points out his selflessness in his decisions and it makes itself one of his strongest character traits.

especially bc nice seems to trump him having any other emotions. ...no?

i believe in general, but ESPECIALLY in the case of mike, that kindness is a choice. it’s one i genuinely believe he’d make, over & over again. but a choice he makes. he gets annoyed with his friends being annoying like anyone else would. he gets hurt when he feels left out. he feels tired & anxious & hungry and all those other human things. sometimes he might not let it show outwardly, but there’s a difference between that and not giving him feelings at all.

people are selfish. it’s a defense mechanism. it’s to protect us. it’s not a bad thing. we think of how the world impacts ourselves first. we don’t always act upon those thoughts or voice them, but don’t forget to let mike have them. he doesn’t need to be happy for his friends all the time, or rooting for them or supportive. he should have his own things going on.

also. mike’s not a doormat. yes, he stays in derry. but those were life-death consequences for generations of children. it’s really not comparable to almost any decision mike would make in a pennywise free universe. yes, he made a sacrifice in the book but i don’t think he’d just lay himself down in any given universe to whatever fate wants to hand him. but this is where i end this topic bc i’m actually only barely beginning to get to this topic in my own fic!

it’s hard writing the losers young sometimes bc i do feel relationships are naturally a little unbalanced based on basic maturity levels as young people. sometimes friendships just are unbalanced bc of who people are at that time. everyone involved can still be good people in these relationships. it’s about growing together and learning how to be good friends to each other.

for example, in &tfat: certain losers are always checking in with others. others are really wrapped up in their own shit and don’t really notice what bothers the others. it would probably take a chart the size of a textbook to explain how i think this dynamic wholly pans out in full. and yeah, i think it grates on mike a little bit that he is always the checker and never the checkee.

but even when mike snaps, even when he gets upset, i always write it coming out of him with a lot of love. i genuinely think mike, regardless of experience in that fic, has the deepest understanding of love as its own concept and an understand of how exactly it rules his life and and his relationships. mike knows to feel strongly about something he has to care about it. there are lots of things he just doesn’t care about. in the book it’s stated he’s difficult to connect with as an adult. he’s distant. he’s focused on what he wants to focus on. i think mike is actually the most interesting when he becomes a little bit of a disaster man with very little time for what doesn’t interest him.

which last thing, dislikes & disinterests

-what annoys him?

-what makes him genuinely angry?

-what bores him to tears?

i always make jokes that i bring up the nastier parts of the losers bc i love nasty boys but thinking of things people don’t like is as much a part of them as the things they do.

for example, in &tfat, i write richie as making fun of “nerdy” things like anything you could find at comic con. i write bev as not giving a fuck about sports. bill doesn’t care about richie’s music tastes. eddie hates getting condescended to.

bc of the ... kind thing, mike’s one of the harder losers to do this with. i genuinely think mike would listen to any of his friends tell him about anything. & he knows, in return, they can’t say shit when he wants to ramble about history. but dislikes can also be super situational.

again, for example in & tfat: mike doesn’t like when his friends talk about college right now. no one is really being sensitive to him at all. he hates getting blamed for stuff that isn’t his fault, mostly bc it keeps happening.

anyway. i based a lot of my mike (mostly sense of humor and personality) off of a mix of real life friends of mine. it’s a luxury. i know. i’ve been blessed to have friends from literally all walks of life & for me borrowing little habits & quirks & sayings & jokes to slip into my fics and characters is my way of writing one massive love letter to those ive known. i hope i’ve helped you in some way anon. n if not.... don’t be sad i’m hardly one to take writing advice from anyway jandjxjx

overall, as i used to do often, i’d genuinely stop myself and say: is this a person, or a convenience for the plot? and if it was the latter, sigh, and get my backspace key ready.

[dadbodsarehot]

under cut for pkmn sw/sh spoilers. just some things ive been thinking about 

so like. as much as i LOVE leon and the gym leaders and the new gen in sw/sh and how people in the stadiums congratulate you after you win matches the story is like... so SEVERELY lacking. i feel like the stuff with rose just comes out of NOWHERE and like. is really confusing ?? like he wants to put the whole ass region in mortal danger just so they wont ?? run out of energy ?? but its not like at any point during the game it was mentioned that theyre actually running out of energy or in danger of it, at least not for at least a thousand years, not even HE mentions anything like that afaik, unless it was or he did and i just missed it somehow. but like. if that had been a plot point and an Important one, shouldnt they have ?? mentioned it ?? or made it so if they did mention it it wasnt something you could ?? miss ?? and it was really unclear whether or not oleana was manipulating him INTO doing this or if she was just one of his pawns, because the dynamic they had the whole game a la miss bellum and the mayor of townsville just SHIFTS right at the end for ?? no reason ?? and that whole scene where leon is supposed to meet you for dinner but he meets with the chairman instead and you have to find the key to the lift to go get him plays out like he was straight up KIDNAPPED and being TORTURED or something but like ?? the minute you both get there he finishes the weird conversation he was having with the chairman and just?? leaves with you of his own free will ?? so why in fucks name did we have to rush over and go get him like he was in some sort of danger ?? and the bede plotline was really weird too, like it would have been clever if the chairman disowned them and they started their own evil organization but then they just get ?? immediately taken in by opal ?? and i guess become the new ballonlea gym leader ?? even though thats a fairy gym and most of their original team was all psychic types ?? all because they ?? wear pink ?? and like after you hear the chairman “turned himself in” but like ?? what did they do to him ?? did he go to jail ?? does pokemon HAVE jail ?? team rocket didnt go to jail, archie and maxie didnt go to jail, i dont even think ghetsis or n went to jail, and they all did equivalent or MUCH WORSE things than rose! did they just fire him ?? so whos the chairman now ?? most of the important shit happened offscreen while people told you not to worry about it and just focus on your gym challenge and it didnt have the GRAND SCALE of being a HERO and saving the REGION that all the games before it did, and while were AT IT team yell being the “”evil”” team of this region doesnt really work AT ALL. like yeah, team skull was goofy and did stupid bullshit and were comic relief, BUT they also werent the ONLY villains in sumo/usum because they just werent threatening and didnt have lofty goals for the most part. thats why the aether foundation was in those games, to present a real turnabout late stage villain that posed an actual THREAT. i feel like they tried to replicate the pattern of team skull / aether foundation with team yell / rose, but since they have nothing to DO with each other and rose has no goals that make sense ANYWAY it just falls FLAT 

and thats the way i would describe the experience in general, as just FLAT as far as the story goes. it felt like a half finished paint-by-numbers of a pokemon game instead of a fully thought out title. none of the towns have anything to do in them besides beat the gyms and leave because thats where the focus is, on the gameplay and not on WHY youre playing the game to begin with, which is to immerse yourself in the fantasy of being in this world and being a HERO and having an ADVENTURE!! but i didnt feel like i was having an adventure, i felt like i was being led around by the nose like the game thought i was an idiot until it was time to easily decimate the next gym because all my pokemon were over leveled as HELL and i could easily sweep people even when they werent 

off topic but i also got bored of the camping system rather early, i think they should have combined it with some form of pokemon refresh so that you could still pet your pokemon and bond with them that way because i didnt camp for most of the game until the very end to get the bond with my pokemon more and get the full benefits of that. the curry minigame is repetitive and i feel like you need a premade GUIDE to be able to know what youre doing in it because youll never get beyond bronze class just fucking around 

all in all i really hope this isnt the direction they keep going in with this franchise because while there were definitely things i like and the game LOOKS amazing and the new gen is a lot more tolerable than i imagined, all in all it feels like a case of style over substance, and im sure somebody has said all this stuff before already but like. it just makes me really Sad. 

//rant over 

[archer3-13]

Thoughts on Other Students in 3H

in no particular order

Hubert: evil snake boi, i kinda like you. i just wish there was more actual meat to ya then what there is. still, he does his role effectively and unlike edelgard plays into the whole evil empire thing with more gusto so i ironically find him more palatable because atleast the game isnt trying to pretend he isnt shady as fuck.

Dedue: oddly charming despite his straight laced attitude, he gets some interesting nuance in how well he highly respects (cough loves cough) dimitri and likes individual people from the blue lions, he doesnt have any particular fondness for faerghus as a whole which is definitely understandable given his history. hes essentially using the camus/murdoch aspect of undying loyalty and even borrows elements of the female camuses line of romantic interest in their liege however heavily implied it might be and applying that to a male playable character. Plus he just has some fun and interesting interactions with other characters in general.

Lorenz: I have difficulty saying whether i like him. on the one hand, he ended up being more multidimensional then i thought he was going to be with his internal conflict between keeping up appearances for the sake social status and societal order and his desire to pursue his own personal interests and ideals against the needs of his father and thus societal conventions. on the other hand, the game never really runs with this as much as it should and hes still treated as a bit of a joke character so... c+ to b? 

Ingrid: the token heterosexual of the blue lions whos still kinda gay anyways, her whole struggle with being a knight over a housewife seems a bit odd on the surface considering theres plenty of female knights and no one throws much of a fuss in universe, until you learn that it isnt so much that society expects her to do it as matter of course and more so that shes struggling with whether to pursue personal duty to her family or personal desires and ideals kinda like lorenz. in that respect she hits the mark a bit better then he does.

Raphael: kinda insubstantial but i liked him anyways, his sheer exuberance can be kinda refreshing in the games darker moments and hes got a few angles of his own such as his refusal to consider his parents deaths as part of a larger conspiracy so as to not hurt his friendship with ignatz nor ruin his own life and his sisters. plus hes just generally a nice guy. like a big huggable bear. just a shame that being a nice kinda dumb huggable bear is all thats really done with him.

Ignatz: his painting stuff and personal insecurities about wanting to do it over being a knight which his parents want him to do, more of that duty over desires and ideals thing again, is well enough and his probably misplaced guilt over raphaels misfortunes is definitely a highlight of him but he never really grabs as a character for some reason. probably because theres a lot of other characters in the game that hit those same marks and do it better then him.

Sylvain: has a lot of aspects that never really feel like they get proper follow up, his big thing is less womanizer and more so that he covers up his own mistrust and personal feeling by pretending to be a shameless flirt and philanderer. basically, maybe the emotional pain will go away if i flirt with girls and act the fool. but again there never really feels like theres any proper follow up for all this, others comment on it and then its more often then not dropped in story. hes fun enough but never really realized if that makes sense.

Caspar: shonen protagonist is kinda an apt word to describe him honestly, and that idealism of his clashes with the more grey on grey morality of the world hes within which is never a particularly bad direction to take the shonen bois in if done well like hunter x hunter. And he is done well, or at least satisfactorily to the point that hes another one i ended up liking more then i thought i would. his problem is more so that his interactions with most other characters in the main cast which feel duller then they should on most occasions.

Dorothea: probably gonna get a bit of shit for this, but i have no interest in her. her insecurities about her future and getting a good husband is well and interesting but manuela does that better honestly and outside of that dorotheas a bit... not shallow but hazy and insubstantial if you will. she obviously has appeal to people but like ignatz she failed to grab me in part because others did what she did and better within the game itself.

Ashe: soft boi chose to be soft instead of hard, one of the characters i found liking and one i expected to kinda like to begin with. in game he gets accused of being childish and naive a lot but i dont see it personally, hes not naive but more so tries to look for the best in people and in life like lonato did all those years ago for him. that said, the speed with which lonato dies damages his identity as a character a bit by happening before we really get a chance to feel for his relation to lonato, its not to big a bug bear as it doesnt hurt his character all that much but it does feel a bit frustrating.

Felix: teenage angst personified, his main gripes seem to be a distaste of warrior culture and its glorification of bloodshed and sacrifice but instead of approaching it with sadness or pacifism, he lashes out against what he feels is the unfairness of the world. hes not exactly wrong in his feelings and as a character it makes sense and works for his abrasive attitude, and its an interesting twist to the navarre type to have their isolation come not from stoicism nor sheer blood lust or a combo of the two but rather from a rage against the machine of society mindset.

Ferdinand: he got more interesting as i got farther along, and i personally feel he works the best as a character when going against edelgard since thats where more of his personal drama comes from. hes eager to succeed and prove himself worthy of his title over time and holds a chivalrous mindset very similar to others in the cast but his growth is less about learning how to hold onto those ideals in the face of reality for the sake of personal fulfillment but more so about learning to define himself by himself and not by societies needs. ultimately he comes to value chivalry not because its what people tell him to value but because he truly values it and i enjoy that. but its also why i feel he works better on other routes then edelgards since there hes still valuing himself not for himself but for the expectations society or edelgard in this case is placing him under, one tyrant for another in a sense. i admit i dont remember much about him on edelgards route though because i just like him more on the others.

Leonie: poorly timed support aside, she has an odd charm to her that a lot of modern fire emblem characters just dont have anymore. but knuckling past jeralt senpai shes an interesting blend of stingy and work effort that goes to inform itself and her relations to others. and like a lot of the golden deer she has a lackadaisical attitude of ‘i might not know what the fuck is happening, but i do know someone needs an ass whooping!’ and it works especially well in her case since her character is very attuned towards focusing more on her personal matters then the grand scheme of things because she has rent due in a few months. if she was in a more traditional fe set up she would definitely be a beowolf archtype that you need to pay to recruit. in fact im surprised thats not an option on other routes to begin with for her.

Hilda: honestly suprised me by not being a pure serra type. she has aspects of that on the surface with the selfish almost vain attitude towards life and others bur well serra is more about puffing herself up to hide insecurity and contribute towards a desperate desire for grand social status, Hilda downplays herself and her abilities due to living in her brothers shadow if unintentionally and seeing the stress it can bring. they’re both lazy and vain, on the surface anyways, always getting others to do their work for them but well serra seeks more social status to escape it hilda seeks less social status to escape it. plus it was kinda funny to see hilda act as claudes unofficial number 2 you could still recruit.

Lindhart: Sleepy boi needs a nap and thats kinda it really. exaggeration maybe but unlike a lot of characters in the game and the series as a whole he really doesnt have a reason to be there as a character. as a unit certainly but not a character, in terms of motivation anyways. He hates blood, fighting and violence, hed rather sleep or pursue personal interests then work or politics, hes insightful and intelligent but the important players in the plot have other advisers and hes not interested in stepping up in that regard anyways. his only real reason for being there is academic interest and even then a pin has to be put in that when war breaks out. hes not a bad character overall though, his sleepiness and insight make for an interesting double act along with his blunt mannerisms, i just have trouble pinning down motivations for him.

Mercedes: big team mom energy, which i suppose goes along with the whole being older then everyone thing. a bit dopey and airheaded at first glance shes one of the more receptive characters to how others are feeling and well she does try to nurture shes not above scolding if she feels it would help someone more then praise and reassurance. of course shes also very detached to events of the world mostly just there to help the people around her from the bottom rather then the top which is not an insult and more one of the things i find fascinating about her. it all makes for a very interesting character and one of my personal favorites of the cast.

Annette: overworker, issues with her dad, magic bubbly, and hits things with axes. a nice recipe of a character but it never feels as if the game can get it all to blend properly. more so to the point is that most of these elements work independently of each other and not to inform each other despite the games insistence. theres a lot of dramatic potential involving her father as well and though the game makes the best use of those aspects its not to the benefit of the rest of her character. it doesnt hurt her either though and she has some appealing dialogue with other characters.

Marianne: I had trouble getting to like her, perhaps more so then any other character among the other students. not because i hated her but because shes, well, very boring. alot of the characters in the game are into the self deprecation thing already and well her personality aspects of acting quite and submissive to fall into the background from a lack of self confidence it also feels like the game came up with two different explanations for it and couldnt settle on whether it was because of her adoptive fathers pressure or her families history and instead of weaving both together decided to use them interchangeably. Sometimes shes a wallflower because of her father and a lack of confidence to state her mind and self loathing over that lack of confidence, other times its because of her lineage and self loathing over her cursed history. never really at the same time.

Bernadetta: another odd favorite for me. recent support changes aside, the basic gist of her history remains the same in that her father was a tyrant in regards to her future which caused her to grow up with no confidence and a crippling fear of society, so shes already off to a good start as a character by basically doing mariannes schtik but better. well its hard for me to definitely say she ever grows past that as a character, thats fine in my opinion because her development is less stop being a recluse because society demands you dont and more so about making actual friends and learning that not all people are garbage fires just most of them. in most of her supports anyways. she just feels the most rewarding to interact with alright, and she was the one i always felt the most upset to mess up a speak thing with. Let us hug and stay inside watching cartoons together.

Petra: i went in wanting to like her and really liking her at first, but shes hit a middle of the road for me now. her speech gimmick wasn't particularly egregious and gets even less noticeable after the timeskip, but her actual character is a very straight forward ‘national pride demands independence’ package and doesnt really escape past that boundary all that much. its very understandable motivation, id even go so far as to say that shes the one with the best reasons to betray the empire of the black eagles characters, so like ferdinand i feel she works better outside of the black eagles in term of her own character identity and motivation/development as she finally stands up for her peoples right to exist on their own in an fe6 echidna kinda fashion. outside of that though shes... foreign to the other characters. thats kinda it.

Lysithia: as a unit she hits like a truck, as a character shes functional but hardly revolutionary for the series. i mean i did like her since i have a fondness for her archtype of weird magic prodigy poor social skills, but more so that she doesn't hit any particularly new notes in that regard. Shes a lot of lute, with some delthea childishness in her, some of sanakis sharper political wit and dark history, and a bit of miriels scientist on top. that said its all blended very nicely and she has some nice scenes for herself that got me to feel and care for her, some kinda adorable moments, and a history well woven into the games background and more so then most of the other deer and a lot of the other characters from across the houses in general. for a minor character anyways.

you may now all stone me to death.

[sights-on-the-scifi]

Violence in MASS EFFECT.

Alright Tumblr i’m gonna try even harder to satisfy your content laws... God I hope this posts.

MASS EFFECT 2 Marked a change in the creative direction of the series in many ways not just limited to style and presentation. But also in how it tackled violence in its narrative and gameplay.

It developed a near uncritical affection for its violence. Removing any semblance of scepticism towards its application with exception to a few storied and mechanical instances all for which will be talked about as we progress.

VIOLENCE IN GAMES AND OTHER FORMS OF MEDIA AS A WHOLE.

Before we begin ill like to explain to you why violence in a video game is so fun to the player on a mechanical basis. You see video game violence is complete fantasy that much is obvious just from looking at it I hope, it has no real basis in reality. For example the simple fact being that you are interacting with simulated combat via mouse and keyboard on a flat 2D surface, not with your hands, feet, arms, firearms, grenades and depth perception... Some games like the first CALL OF DUTY title go out of their way to communicate this very important distinction to you with its death quotes system, which communicates a famous anti war saying every time you die on the digital battlefield, and you do die a lot in the game so the words always have time to sink in...

The chest high wall games of wack a mole and close range engagements you typically find yourself in are inherently ridiculous, but something that is true about these portrayals is the deep psychological stuff that occurs in the back of your mind through play.

Fight or flight. Those instinctual, primal/animal like areas of your mind that govern responses to threats and general dangers that were extremely useful during our species evolutionary development as hunter gatherers, if a game is designed well enough it can take advantage of those responses and insert them into game-play loops which encourage positive reinforcement when taking down digital combatants... These are the things games tap into and the things military companies etc also tap into as part of training or recruitment programs especially in modern digital age armies where focus groups have to find new ways of getting young people interested in soldiering without conscription and a national crisis to absorb individuals into service positions. Anyone has the capacity to be violent and become a killer you need only the right training and psychological conditioning and in the army that is one part of basic. Popular video games and films provide you with that psychological training in a very subdued, consumer friendly fashion and that is through desensitisation. “Image training”

It is turned into a power fantasy, for military recruiters it is also an effective strategy for recruitment purposes.

“War is delightful to those who have not experienced it” Erasmus.

Violence in real life is brutal, random and horrifying even in a domestic sense to any sane or normal person with the capacity for human empathy (Though sometimes there are forms of desensitisation that override this), not even most soldiers who undergo psychological conditioning to be able to kill are immune to this trauma. Violence is not fair, violence is not graceful and more often than not it is also used irresponsibly in any situation where in it is absolutely necessary to be used, even then those situations are themselves questionable. Especially in present day conflicts waged overseas out of sight and mind of the general public for wealth, oil and resources.

I have experienced forms of domestic violence throughout my childhood such as being beaten by my parents and having animals ordered to attack me, I understand how awful it can be to live in absolute fear and experience excruciating pain and misery as a result of this so making a post like this I hope makes you think about this a bit more from that personal lens too.

Games and movies on their own dont cause violence that much is certain from studies no matter how vivid their depictions get, but they do desensitise you to its realities in strange and weird ways both mechanically, visually and also sometimes in the narrative. (Until we can someday reach the point where in we can perfectly simulate reality and violence there is no way in hell military companies are going to rely on it exclusively to train soldiers). But they can rely on the positive mental associations they bring to warfare.

HOW MASS EFFECT 2 PORTRAYS VIOLENCE.

MASS EFFECT is by no means a game that is used as a vessel to drive up real world military recruitment, there is no indication of official army endorsement since it is just a trilogy of science fiction video games after all. But it does include violence that tries its very best to make you the player think its wicked cool in addition to finding it fun if the game-play loop is effective enough. Which in ME2 it is especially effective and the marketing wanted to push that.

So how does MASS EFFECT 2 and to an extent MASS EFFECT 3 make its violence so fun and “Cool”... Ill break this down into a variety of factors starting with your enemies.

DEHUMANISATION OF COMBATANTS AND KNOWING YOUR ENEMY.

MASS EFFECT 2 takes players to the Terminus systems and other parts of the galaxy that do not fall under official council law, so naturally this means there is an seemingly over abundance of private military and mercenary organisations. But ME2 is not interested in what these things represent completely, more so it is interested in using their presence as a convenient means to provide the player with thousands of disposable henchman to shoot, stab, pull and blow up in a variety of fun and exciting ways!... (Those gamified ways) All the while giving you the excuse to not feel bad while doing so no matter how cruel you are in the application of your response to incoming fire.

In fact throughout the whole ME2 experience you probably kill more mercenaries comprised of Turians, Humans, Asari, Krogans, Vorcha and salarians, more so then you do the Reapers or Collectors who are supposed to be the primary antagonists of the series... Which it seems is pretty antithetical to the overall themes of uniting the galaxy to fight a common threat which threatens all life, perhaps you have already done the job for em in this regard. What you are seeing here is a form of precision engineered dehumanisation of combatants for purposes of providing a player with something to shoot and kill without much thought and sympathy... and the military also employs this tactic in real life to dehumanise other humans for soldiers to shoot and actually kill.

Make your enemies faceless, inhuman or “irredeemable” cannon fodder and the feelings you get for uncritically slaughtering them all are palpable, especially with such entertaining gameplay systems that make the whole endeavour that much more exciting. The same was true for Cerberus in ME3 effectively turning the whole organisation into faceless storm-troopers with filtered voices and intimidating armour again another form of enemy dehumanisation in addition they are all conveniently indoctrinated so thats another justification hooray!. More bad guys to shoot right?

You dont have to feel bad if there is nothing to feel bad about right? You are Commander Shepard! Or a soldier in the military you are right in all actions and decisions you make by virtue of the fact you fight for a cause like stopping the Reapers.

VIOLENCE AS AN ONLY MEANS TO A DESIRED END.

Despite MASS EFFECT’S status as an RPG experience, the games rarely if ever provide you with substantial opportunities to employ diplomatic solutions to various problems where in it would seem feasible that it can be at least attempted.

Most of the time you will be exhausting dialogue options on a screen and shooting faceless thugs behind chest high cover throughout the entire experience.

In the narratives themselves this refusal to resolve conflicts peacefully are actively supported by characters or hand waved as being frivolous by the plot and sometimes even Shepard himself. Kill or be killed rains supreme in again, But in real life that mindset is far from being realistic or preferable.

THE BADASS CHARACTER CLICHE.

Something that will severely age the MASS EFFECT 2 experience is its over reliance on making every single character a BADASS stereotype. Even beloved Mordin Solus falls victim to this strange fixation with violent attributes and histories being considered wicked cool bro! In combat Mordin will utter lines that hint to the fact that he very much enjoys the killing he is participating in.

“Killed that one!”

“Thought I was harmless did you?”

“Oooh headshot!”

“Here... Enjoy” (Plays during times he sets people on fire with his tech attacks)

He also lists at one disturbing point in the story, all the ways in which he has killed people. Which includes using lethal drugs and... farming equipment, thats funny right? Actually MASS EFFECT 2 seems to include a lot of moments like that in where people list off hilarious methods they have used to kill people.

Every character in one way or another has the capacity to kill and does kill, they kill quite a lot of people actually and in some cases this is celebrated with gleeful enthusiasm by the plot.

Even Shepard can participate in a little bit of casual BADASSERY no matter if you are renegade or paragon. Be that shooting through hostages, threatening Batarian thugs, shooting Konrad in the foot or generally acting like a ruthless prick all for the fun of it like when you trick a injured mercenary into thinking he is going to die from minor wounds. This is a stark contrast to ME1 which at least tried its best to codify violent or aggressive acts as morally questionable. You are the first Human spectre in that game after all a shining beacon to all humanity in the new frontiers of space, what you do in that story is emblematic of the attitudes the whole of humanity express going forward.

Jack is probably the most blatant example of this new approach to violence the series took for reasons I have already described in previous posts.

To be clear, I’m not saying MASS EFFECT 2'S inclusion of glorified fantasy violence is entirely a bad thing. I just think that if you are gonna include violence you best be a little more intelligent when it comes to its usage in mechanics and narrative. Because it can be a powerful thematic tool if used right, in some cases there are moments in ME2 wherein it does get used extremely well but those moments are also still few and far between.

We can do so much better.

[dottie-n-stripes]

i know this isnt a question about your characters, but do you have any tips on making comics? i’m trying to make one but i’m having such a difficult time (btw i absolutely love your art!)

it’s ok! i dont ever mind attempting advice! HONESTLY i have a lot of trouble doing slightly longer-form comics myself… in the past i usually just have the main idea and just hop right into sketching but that is hard if ur ideas are murky and ive moved away from that a bit unless my ideas are extremely thought out

what ive been doing lately to start is typing out an outline, aka write out the story beats i want to happen. with the points kept kind of brief and general, it’s easy to move them around, copy and paste them in different orders to finesse the story. it’s worth being familiar with important plot elements here, if u arent. ive found i tend to think out the climax of a story first, then craft the build up and aftermath around that. bc good stories need a bit of drama! even if ur comic is just a conversation and so is more char driven than action driven. u need some satisfaction out of reading it, theres gotta be some change from start to finish, again, even if small!!!

when the outline is more or less in okay shape i start typing out a script, aka like the specific dialogue, expressions, actions, etc that need to happen, divided into the chapters or parts. and when that feels solid enough i begin thumbnailing the panels and pages, pretty rough so its easy to move around stuff and not get too married to any drawings just yet.

and thats kind of how ive been working! stuff changes a lot along the way, like with the squid comic im working on rn, already some of the dialogue and story elements in the thumbnailing phase are kind of different from what i wrote out in the outline.

also i kind of let stories sit for awhile, mainly because i’m busy so it takes time for me to actually get to doing a project i had planned (lol!) but also its something i had a teacher recommend once. even if you’re not consciously thinking about your story, odds are your brain is actually still subconsciously working on it in the background, and u may come back days or weeks later with an idea on how suddenly ur plot can actually work or can be even better. and it def has happened to me! so if something isnt working, try not to force it or rush it maybe!

i also find as i go about my days or w/e i often randomly come up with shards of interactions or whatnot, like sometimes i’ll be doing errands and ill think of something that a character would say to another and its just so in character that despite me not having specific context for it yet im like GOTTA use this. in these cases, i alwaaays try to write stuff down, i have a bunch of stuff in the notes app on my phone that’s all these ideas ive gotten on the fly. often stuff comes to me while im lying in bed trying to fall asleep and even if im close to falling asleep if i come up with something i do grab my phone and jot it down hehe so i def recommend keeping track of ur stray thoughts

i digressed a bit but yeah!! making a longer-form comic is a bit daunting and i still havent (nor probably will i since im not particularly a trained comic artist) but you just gotta break it into parts so it becomes easier to tackle. storytelling is a lot of work but it is so rewarding and i kno u can do it!! ^^

[scribe-the-write-thing]

Where I’ve been & and what comes next...

So, hey ya’ll, it’s been a long ass time. I’m not even sure how long. So I kinda think something of an explanation is likely in order -- dropping off for a while and all. I’ll structure it so if any of you just want to get to updates, then you can! Because I’ve got some exciting stuff coming up in WIPS!

So! What do I have planned?

1) Between the Pines is going to be kicking off soon. I’m so passionate and so into beginning to make this little project. And I know so many of ya’ll have been asking to be on the taglist and that honestly makes me ecstatic!

2) Strings -- a new WIP I’m bringing out the woodwork, will be launched soon. Honestly, after some name changes and plot tweaks, I can’t wait for you guys to meet Warren and Dominik, protag x antag all the way!

3) I need to catch up on VV. If you’ve tagged me in anything and I haven’t engaged lately, I’m so sorry! I’m trying to get up to speed with anything so if you see me reblog old stuff thats why!

4) How to Pirate, unfortunately, is likely coming to a bit of an end. I just have a whole lot of associations with that story that, well, writing it makes me sad now. And I just don’t want to have to deal with that. HOWEVER -- there is a ‘rebirth’ of sorts in a new pirate WIP I have cooking, and some characters (Jess, at least) may resurface there. Those of you who were interested in How to Pirate, would you like to be tagged in that now? ^.^” it’s totally understandable if not, since it’s a revamp entirely. (Just gonna tag everyone still on that list: @quilloftheclouds @ps-nippets @graceomeallain @cawolters )

ALSO QUILL. KNOW THAT MOODBOARD I PROMISED YOU MONTHS AGO? Yeah I’M GONNA BE WORKING ON THAT NOW I PROMIS. I just needed the MOTIVATION.

Anyway, that’s it for the plan! In the mean time, anyone who sees this, I’d love to hear what ya’ll have been up to while I’ve been out, so let me know if you want!

[Hoh, last warning here before you go on. This is all about where I’ve been for a little while.

Trigger warning here: suicide mention, depression, all that dark stuff~ I’d recommend maybe just reading the part above the cut if that kind of stuff gets to you.]

So, what’s been happening with me?

A lot of scary stuff in a very short amount of time. I’m going to try and keep it short and less personal because it’s a sort of raw topic for me still but -- long story short, I ended up considering ending my own life. This isn’t the first time I’ve thought about it; it’s a nearly constant thought I always push to the back of my mind. This is the second time, however, that I’ve come close to actually doing it -- upon telling a friend, though, I was directed towards Samaritans(nothing religious, just an amazing organisation) and I spent two hours on call with them. I was talked down -- and the woman on the end said something, after I mentioned that I’m trying therapy, CBT, positive thinking, ect, that I’m trying to instil in myself-

“You’re doing everything you can to help yourself. You’ve found the right path, you just need to keep heading down it..”

I reached out to some good friends. Two, to be exact -- one I contacted during the heat of my most awful thoughts and she halted everything to speak with me, and then hook me up with the hotline I mentioned.

The second I spoke to after. We settled and we talked and she made me feel more validated and wanted than I have in a long time. I was able to sleep that night (or, well, not straight away because we stayed up hella late both my time and hers) knowing that I mattered. At least to the ones I loved -- and that’s all I needed. She knows who she is and she’ll probably read this asdfghkkshf so Hi and keep the fresh memes coming.

They were the only two I felt comfortable talking to -- and that’s important. I learned then that you don’t need to explain yourself to everyone. No one is obligated to open up to everyone. In my case, only the people I feel need to know actually know the intimacies of what happened; there’s a lot I don’t feel comfortable going into in a tumblr post as a heck of a lot of people can see this.

I opened up to a third this morning -- and in turn, found even more support. It’s what pushed me to this so I can claw myself out of my funk a little.

Also, dark humour? Still my coping mechanism. But I’ll address that another day.

I guess my point of including this is that you always have someone out there. It’s never too late; and you’re wonderfully talented, loved and you all have so much ahead of you.