#anyway its an interesting bit of possible foreshadowing
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hei-ranapologist · 2 years ago
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Spoiler for The Dawn of Yangchen !
With the Abbot mentioning how its unhealthy spiritually wise for the monks to hold captive people, I fully expect the monks guarding the combustion bender to go rogue in the second novel
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mauesartetc · 1 year ago
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Redesigning Helluva Beelzebub
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Hoo boy, roll up the sleeves for this one.
The Original
In my review of Helluva Boss 108, I mentioned that Beelzebub's character design put me in mind of how some DeviantArt kid's fursona might look. And... Yeah I stand by that statement. The most likely reason I can figure Viv Medrano wanted her to be dog-like was to make a reference to her Die Young music video, which featured an anthro wolf singing a Kesha song (for context, Kesha herself voiced Beelzebub and co-wrote a song for this episode).
But for those who are unaware, Beelzebub's traditional depiction looks nothing like this.
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Really the only visual similarities the Helluva version shares with the Infernal Dictionary version are the insect wings, six limbs, and the crown thingy over the head. (At least I think that's a crown-? Kinda hard to tell on both counts.)
Bee's eyes get somewhat more insectoid later in the episode, but that feels like a cop-out. Wow, her eyes and colors changed. Totally a bug demon, right?
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They had the same problem in Hazbin Hotel with Katie Killjoy, who's allegedly supposed to be a praying mantis but barely resembles one, even after her transformation.
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I understand the desire for fresh takes on old figures, and taking creative liberties so the new interpretation doesn't feel generic. But the changes should at least make sense. By now it's pretty clear Viv couldn't care less about representing Ars Goetia demons faithfully, as demonstrated with Paimon, Andrealphus, and now Beelzebub. You could slap completely different names on these characters and it wouldn't change a thing. I posted this meme a while back but it's never been more relevant:
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On top of that, what reason could there possibly be for the design to be this damn complex? Why did she need so many markings on her face? Why did she need so many layers of hair? Why did she need flowing goo for her hair, tail, and body, each requiring dedicated effects animation?
When it comes to a hand-drawn production, less is more. Any superfluous details on a character just make unnecessary work for the animators.
Anyway, here's what Viv has to say about it.
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Alright, I'll admit: The lava lamp bit is a little clever. Basically it works as a regular stomach does, but on demonic steroids. But it wouldn't look so much like Viv's making this up as she goes if we'd seen Bee's stomach performing its intended function in the episode. Let her chow down on a giant piece of food (maybe that cotton candy she's been handing out-?) and swallow it, and let Loona (and the audience) see it dissolving in her transparent belly. As a general rule, if it's not shown or explained in the work itself, it's not canon. Like I've said before, Viv: Elaborate on the nuances in the story you're telling, not on social media.
Also, "Her ears are designed after beehives"? Wh...Wha? Ma'am have you ever seen a beehive.
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(Hell, even if you told me the ears were inspired by the generic cartoon beehive we're all familiar with, I wouldn't have guessed. There's a difference between being subtle and being vague.)
I can kinda see it in the overall shape, but that's a very specific design inspiration that wasn't clear at all in the design itself. Same with the "animal trainer" thing: I never would have picked up on that if Viv hadn't pointed it out. If a character design doesn't visually convey all the necessary information, it's not a successful design. Show, don't tell. There's a communication breakdown between what Viv's telling us and what Bee's design shows us.
(It's possible she actually meant "Her ears are designed after honeycombs", but even then, each compartment has a specific pentagonal shape that's not coming across at all here.)
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I also find it interesting that Bee and Loona have almost the exact same body type. Of course Viv's pretty infamous for samebody syndrome, but it's actually unnerving how similar these two are.
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Might this be a reference to Vortex's "type"? Is this foreshadowing a relationship with Loona? Am I overthinking this? Yeah, probably. Viv's demonstrated a clear preference for tall, skinny body types over the years, so it's safer to assume that's the explanation. It's all aesthetics. It ain't that deep. Occam's Razor and all that.
Finally, Bee how the hell does your shirt work.
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The Concept
So at this point it seems most logical to lean into the "bee" thing for the redesign, and scrap all the canine elements. As for the blobby hair and tail... yeeeah let's nix those too. We're going for a streamlined version that's easier to animate. And because I ignored the ringmaster look for my redesign of Asmodeus, it only makes sense to do the same for Bee's animal trainer vibe (what little there is) for the sake of consistency. I know this version of Hell has a circus theme with its highest-ranking demons, but there's never been an in-universe explanation for why that is.
Let's look at actual bees, then. A quick peek at Google has informed me that certain insect species have smaller, "simple" eyes (also known as ocelli), in addition to their compound eyes. In bees, this manifests as a triangular grouping of three beady eyes on top of the head.
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In her Helluva Boss episode, Bee's full demon form has three eyes, which could be a reference to this triangular arrangement, plus her regular form has two spots on her forehead in addition to the third eye. So it's possible Viv actually did research for something. Pleasantly surprised on that front.
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Next, the body. I've noticed that some folks find Bee's skinny body type refreshing, as the sin of gluttony is too often personified with fatness. And that's fair. That's valid. But consider this:
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Imagine any Vivziepop character saying that about a chubby person. Imagine the series sending the message that fat people can be sexy too, and that they have worth outside of their appearance, enough for at least one character to consider them girlfriend material. That they're valued and appreciated regardless of this culture's beauty standards (which we know nothing about since the worldbuilding is as thin and flimsy as tissue paper, but whatever). Imagine if this show finally had a fat female character who wasn't relegated to the background. Don't know about y'all, but that would be refreshing to me. And when you take into account all the fat-shaming of a character who isn't even fat, portraying a fat character as attractive would be a nice change of pace for this show.
Now let's talk about clothing. In the episode, Bee's clothes show off a lot of her body, with a cutout crop top and short shorts. We can take a similar approach for the redesign (something that still shows off her chest, belly, and limbs, in keeping with the extroverted "party girl" persona), but that perhaps includes more queenly elements.
The Redesign
Because this is a redesign, many elements were already in place, but I still had to figure out how this character would look as a bee. Here's where the preliminary sketches came in. Lots of trial and error in this process.
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Wrestling with this character's face got a lot easier once I realized I could mold it into a pentagonal shape akin to a honeycomb compartment. It took a few tries, but at last, I had a final sketch.
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All that was left to do was test out some color combinations.
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I tried a few different approaches, but in the end, this is the version I felt worked best.
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I used many of the colors from the original, but pushed the orange much harder since orange is the symbolic color of gluttony as a sin. And overall it gives Bee a nice honey-ish look rather than the generic black and yellow we already see on so many bees in cartoons. I thought the colored outlines on her clothing would add a soft, feminine touch, as well.
And just for kicks, here's a quick sketch of her giant form, inspired by the Infernal Dictionary drawing of Beelzebub.
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Conclusion
The canon version of this character exists in the form she does for no reason than to stroke her creator's ego. "Hey guys, remember when I animated that Kesha fan video? Remember how cool that was? Wanna see me foist this unnecessarily-complex character design on other animators while I take a victory lap?" I wouldn't mind so much if Viv animated any of this herself, but she didn't. I could almost excuse this if she had no animation experience and didn't know how much work it requires, but she does. The self-aggrandizing entitlement is just off the charts. But a nonsensical design is leagues better than a stolen one, so... brownie points for that, I guess.
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armandisdaddy · 2 years ago
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Jorrāeliarza Mēre (Dear One) Part 1.
Pairing: Daemon Targaryen x Velaryon Fem Reader
Content: 18 PLUS 🔞, Incest, Age-Gap, Sibling Rivalry,Angst.
Word Count: 2,080
Summary: House Velaryon has come to King’s Landing to celebrate the betrothal of Ser Laenor Velaryon and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. You are the youngest sister of Laenor and Laena. Your sister, now being of age to be married, has set her sights on your cousin the Rogue Prince, himself Prince Daemon. You could care less about being married off just yet, but Daemon has other plans for you.
Authors’s Notes: There will be translations in High Valyrian and it just might suck (their English translation will be in italics next to them.)I’m doing a lot of research to make it as authentic as possible, so bare with me and feedback is always welcome. Thank you and I hope you ENJOY!
Your family's boat has just docked at King’s Landing, the bells of the city bells tolling to greet you, foreshadowing the celebration to come. You and your family have finally arrived at the Red Keep. Being announced to the king and all other patrons, your entourage enters gracefully dressed in gold with your heads held high.
Not too soon after you all have taken your places at the table, the Rogue Prince struts in behind you even after being exiled by the King, but as the Kingdom knows, Daemon listens to no one, not even his own brother. Your sister Laena notices him and somewhat swoons while a servant made a seat for him next to the King’s Hand, Ser Lyonel Strong. “Is he not handsome?” You, on the other hand, were not so easily impressed by his arrogance, but he did have a pretty face.
  “If that is what piques your interest, dear sister, who am I to deny you of it?” Little did you know he spotted you from the moment he walked past and hasn’t taken an eye off you since. King Viserys stood at his feet to welcome his guests and speak before the festivities commenced. “Be welcome, as we join together in celebration. Tonight, is only its beginning. We honor the crown's oldest and fiercest ally, House Velaryon. Reaching back to the days of Old Valyria and the Age of Dragons. With House Targaryen and...”
The King being quickly interrupted by Alicent’s rather late entrance wearing the House of Hightower’s colors for all to see. Her lack of respect for the king did not go unnoticed by him or the entire court, but appearances needed to be kept. Taking her seat beside her husband, she turned to Rhaenyra, “Congratulations, stepdaughter. What a blessing this is for you.” Viserys could sense the chill behind her words and only sighed to turn back to his subjects to finish his speech. After the applause, Laenor and Rhaenyra took to the floor to begin with the first dance of the night. Your family knew of your brother’s true preference, though your father would rather deny it. You couldn’t help but notice how out of place he looked, and it saddened you a bit.
You think to yourself, "If being forced to marry someone other than for love is the only way. Then to hell with it." You were the youngest daughter after all, it honestly didn’t matter what you wanted anyway. Once the dance of the dragons was over, everyone else joined them on the dance floor. Daemon had decided to take his niece from her betrothed for a dance. Your sister watched closely and after a while she sprung to her feet and took your hand, practically dragging you along. “Gods, Laena! Are you trying to pull my arm out of the socket!?”
She laughed, “Sorry, Y/N. I don’t want to miss this dance with him.” Being within a few feet from him he noticed you, first noting the annoyance on your face, but his attention had swiftly turned to your sister who eagerly waited for him to notice her.“Hello, my Prince.”, She beamed the brightest smile he could and while she was beautiful, he couldn’t help but want to center his gaze upon you. “Hello, Laena..Y/N. How you both have grown to be such beautiful young ladies.”
His voice quite captivating. You took this time to find a glass of wine to hold onto while your sister was occupied with trying to court him. You slipped away into the crowd hoping no one noticed your absence, but he did. After his dance with your sister, he went looking for you and that wasn’t too hard of a task. You were tucked away into a corner sipping a goblet of wine smiling at your brother and sister dancing together until you noticed someone standing over you.
 “Lilagon lēda nyke gevie.” “Dance with me, beautiful.”  Holding a hand out to you and you hesitantly took hold of it as he led you to the dance floor. You both bowed slightly, and he made the first move, coming around you slowly, his eyes burning into you. You were nervous. No boy nor man has ever looked at you in such a way, but you refused to let him see you in such a state.
 “Issa sȳz naejot ūndegon ao qȳbranna.” “It is good to see you, cousin.” You tried to seem uninterested, but his gaze made you feel dizzy while his hands met your waist. He smiled, seeing the red rush to your cheeks.  He leaned into whisper in your ear. “It is good to see you too, Jorrāeliarza mēre.” “Dear one.”
What was he doing? He hadn’t really seen much of you since you were but a babe. There is no way he could be interested in you. You were seven and ten and your sister was practically throwing herself at him. She looked confused and a bit flustered at the sudden attention she was receiving.
 “I have a question, little cousin. Have you had any suitors offer to wed you yet?” She was stumped for a response. The honest answer? No, not at all. She wasn’t the type for arranged marriages and every chance she had she’d sabotage the match.
 “No, my Prince, but my sister has. In fact, I think she’s rather interested in you, unlike myself.” She gave a smug smile which caused him to chuckle before leaning into whisper in her ear again. “Well, from the blush on your face, ñuha byka rūklon, you seem very interested but maybe my knowledge of body language has become a bit blurred.” “My little flower.”
 Laena had been watching you two and a hint of jealousy washed over her. He hadn’t been that open with her the entire dance and she was more than open about her obvious interest in him. Meanwhile, you were practically running from him as he inhaled your scent. You smelled of honey and you were so intoxicating to him.
 Such a gesture made her cheeks warm and the butterflies in her stomach fluttered ever so slightly. “Excuse me, cousin. I need to get some fresh air.” Bowing quickly, she practically sprinted away, finding herself out in the courtyard where the Godswood stood.
 Your heart was beating out of your chest when the sound of approaching footsteps approached you and the voice of your unhappy sister filled the silence. “Since when did you start having feelings for, Daemon dear sister?” Confusion furrowed on her brows. “Laena…You couldn’t possibly think I have any kind of feelings for him. Sister, I would never betray you like that.”
Of course, that was what she was telling her sister and even herself, but the way his hand held onto the curves of her hips, the intensity in his eyes started a fire within her that she hadn’t yet realized. Laena fiddled with her fingers feeling her insecurities may have gotten the best of her. She saw the way he looked at you and jumped to conclusions of your true intentions with him.
You held a hand out for her to grasp so that you two might sit under the Godswood tree and talk about anything other than The Rogue Prince. And of course, your sister did the opposite of that, so you just sat there leaning against the bark of the tree listening. Letting your mind wander you closed your eyes. You could hear his voice echoing about your mind.
“Ñuha jorrāelagon mēre.” “My dear one.” Feeling someone nudge you, your eyes open quickly to see Laena staring at you. “What were you dreaming about, little sister?” Gaining your composure, you managed to get your sister to go back inside while you continue hiding. Once she was out of sight, Daemon appeared from the shadows. “Skoro syt gaomagon ao ruaragon hen nyke byka rūklon?” “Why do you hide from me, little flower?”  
You moved away from where you were seated with your hands behind you back to go back inside. “Oh..Prince Daemon. My sister was just going inside to look for you. Would you like for me to go get her for you?” A sly smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “If I knew any better Y/N I’d think you’re trying to avoid me. Are you?” He grabbed your arm pulling you into the shadows of a dark hallway pressing your back against the cool wall.
“Cousin..this looks rather inappropriate and my sister wouldn’t appreciate us in such a compromising position.” He laughed softly burying his face into your neck to inhale your scent again. “I rather like this position, Y/N. And please call me Daemon. You and your sister act as if I already belong to her. I haven’t asked for her hand yet and I can see she’s very interested in me, but unfortunately for her my eyes haver wandered elsewhere.”
“Please Daemon, someone will see us.” You struggled to get from between the wall and him, it only made him press his chest against yours harder. “Dōna mēre, I know you want me..but I’ll let you go..for now.” “Sweet one.” He pulled away from you slowly, your breathing was erratic. Why was he doing this? Surely his advances would cause a divide in her own home. Why couldn’t he just be happy with Laena? She would be an amazing wife to him.
You waited in the hall for a moment more before going into your chambers for the night to sleep off whatever had happened tonight. Maybe your sister could catch his attention while you were gone. You closed your eyes seeing him the moment they shut. He took over your every thought even finding his way into your dreams. The feel of his calloused hand caressing your skin, him leaving heated kisses against your skin it felt all too real. You toss and turn, waking up in a cold sweat. This was to be a long night and an even longer week.
The morning light shined through your windows waking you before you handmaidens came inside to do so. You and your family were to have breakfast with the King this morning. After a short bath your maids helped you find something to wear. You decided to wear a seafoam-colored dress with white flowers embroidered along the bodice of the dress. The corset pushed your chest up causing the area to be rather accentuated.
Your platinum hair flowed over your shoulders and down your back while two braids were tied in the back. Taking one more look in the mirror you left your chambers only to be greeted by the man you were trying to avoid. “Sȳz ñāqes, dōna riña. Geron lēda nyke?” “Good morning, sweet girl. Walk with me?” Extending his arm to you, you reluctantly wrapped her arms in his. “Did you sleep well? You look exhausted. But, still so beautiful.” You yawned and quickly covered your mouth. “Forgive me, my Prince…Nightmares...” He smiled, “It’s quite alright, dōna riña. So, what if you ended up being betrothed to someone? How would you feel? “
You were in silence thinking of how to respond. “Well, it seems like I wouldn’t have a choice so I’d do what is asked of me, but I don’t think I would be too happy about it. But, if he’s a good husband then maybe I could be happy.” He listened so intently and reveled in the fact that you were so close to him. His eyes still so intense while he watched the way your lips fell when you spoke. How he wished to feel the soft flesh against his own. He slowed the walk trying to ready you for the surprise that awaited you at breakfast.
Finally, the both of you made it to the hall. All of your family was seated along with King Viserys, Queen Alicent, and Princess Rhaenyra. “Ahh brother I see you’ve found your bride to-be. Come sit I want to make a toast for another wonderful union that further binds our houses together.” You froze in your tracks your eyes searching the room to find your sister sulking in her seat burning a hole into your head. You were in shock and couldn’t believe no one informed you of this until today. “So, when the fuck were you going to tell me about this, Cousin? And you father, mother?” You storm off with your betrothed following behind you seething at your behavior.
To Be Continued….
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stillness-in-green · 2 days ago
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Hi, are you still working on the AFO Retcon Essay? You mentioned a few times you are not sure if Horikoshi retconned AFO's original plan or if he always intended for AFO to take over Tomura, but made AFO act somewhat contradictory from the start regardless. Did this ever make you feel like there are too many possibilities in regards to Horikoshi's original intentions to take into account and could therefore make it harder to write the essay?
Hi there, and thanks for your interest! I did actually talk about this a good while back, towards the beginning of the year; you can find that post here. It says pretty much exactly what you did and goes a bit further--that I'm so distrustful of Horikoshi as a writer that I have no idea anymore what might have been retconned and what was his intention from the start, and further, that even if something was his intention from the start, I don't trust him to have laid the groundwork for those intentions with honesty or good faith.
Instead of the AFO Retcon Essay, what I've been poking at instead is some sort of massive retrospective of all the problems with BNHA's endgame. That's going to require a reread on my part, and some decisions about formatting--namely, do I want to do the reread privately, on my end, and then write the Mega Chonky Essay and post it when I'm finished, or do I do it publically, read-along liveblog style, documenting the problems as I go?
At the moment, I'm leaning towards the second. I have some tentative ideas about keeping a running list of (to use a witticism from the Twitter fen) Themes & Such, ideas and ideology the series sets out and how well it lives up to those ideas--or how it fails to. I'd also like to keep track of things like character arcs and foreshadowing, documenting things with an eye to where those arcs go, what the foreshadowing amounts to, whether the series keeps its implicit promises, and so on. I suspect it would wind up looking something like a cross between the heteromorphobia essay and my chapter thoughts posts.
On the other hand, a format that deals with one group of problems at a time could feel more focused, discussing all the evidence at once of any particular topic rather than having to keep many (many) plates spinning across a retrospective of the entire series. I also already have the broad outline for that, since it was my plan last time I was seriously poking at the idea. It would probably still end up being posted in multiple parts; the parts would just cover different groups of characters or aspects of the series per installment, rather than e.g. each installment covering an arc and everything in it.
I suppose there's nothing stopping me from doing first the former and then the latter? I'm planning to reread the whole series anyway, after all.
In any case, I like that kind of installment-based format not least because I'm also in the early stages of getting a Patreon set up aimed at supporting my meatier chunks of fandom writing and potentially giving people some ability to point me at this or that topic. A multi-part analysis of BNHA--something in a similar style as my documentations of heteromorphobia, the problems with the anime's adaptation of My Villain Academia, or even, to reach back to an older fandom, my episode-by-episode write-ups on Human Debris in Gundam IBO!--strikes me as a good way to get that off the ground.
I've got one or two things to finish getting off my plate before then, and I'd want to wait until the last volume of BNHA officially comes out (12/4) just in case of any thirteenth-hour surprises, but keep an eye out! I'm not inclined to paywall my writing, but maybe an early access sort of model? I'm also going to want to find a blogging site that's more aimed at hosting long-form writing than Tumblr is. We'll see!
In the meantime, to give everyone an example of the kinds of things I'm looking at tracking through the story, one of the things that most vexes me about the ending is how it not only fails to resolve its contradictory ideas of saving and heroism, it feels to even recognize those contradictions. Here's a chunk of my notes on that topic from the outline of The Mega Chonky Essay in its current form.
• Nana says saving isn’t just saving someone’s life, but also making sure they’re smiling in the end. But that means that saving their life is the prerequisite. If Eri died smiling, her smiling would not prevent everyone from recognizing her death as a tragedy.         • “Perfect Victory” is defined as both “winning” and “saving” flawlessly—that is, every fight is won, and no one is left unsaved. This is introduced first as an ideal for Deku and Bakugou to strive for, with both of them needing to work on different parts of the equation, and continues to be an aspect of Bakugou’s characterization, as it comes up again in Joint Training. But it doesn’t stay locked to them, as All Might says directly to the American pilots that they can’t be allowed to die because the kids are aiming for a Perfect Victory.         • A pivotal question for Toga and the larger series is, given that Heroes are supposed to save people, how do Heroes justify killing Villains? Do they not think of Villains as people?         With all three of these ideas in place, the challenge becomes how to navigate the endgame to a place where all three concepts are honored/resolved. The ending must demonstrate that Heroes do see Villains as people while also being able to achieve their desired Perfect Victory—they must win against the Villains while also saving them, where “saving” means that the Villains’ lives are saved and they’re smiling in the end.         Or must they? After the first war, the series introduces another concept of how to save people, albeit one that runs directly counter to Nana's definition of a saved person as someone both alive and smiling: Gran Torino says that killing someone can be a way of saving them. He and Nana can’t both be right, so to confront and resolve that discrepancy, the story will have to acknowledge one of them as wrong. (Spoilers: It does not.)         In the end, Toga dies, and Deku kills Shigaraki, and if both of them die smiling, well, you sure as hell can’t say the same for e.g. Gigantomachia or All For One or Dabi or any of the thousands of unhappy Villains who wound up in prison (many of them likely bound for the gallows!), alive but decidedly not smiling. Heck, All Might, in trying to console Deku, moves the goalposts even more by suggesting that all Deku needed to do to get the credit on “saving” Shigaraki was make sure his inner child wasn’t crying anymore. Not only does he not have to live, he doesn’t even have to be smiling! An absence of obvious grief is enough!         Thus, you wind up in this place where you have an unsolvable problem: somewhere along the line, either someone failed or someone was wrong, and the story, in being unwilling to confront that disharmony, winds up undermining other established themes and goals. Did the kids “lose” because they failed to meet the criteria for the Perfect Victory? Was the definition of “saving” wrong? Was Gran Torino wrong or was Nana? Was the definition of Perfect Victory wrong? Was Toga correct in her fear that Heroes don’t see Villains as people?         No matter what the answer is, it runs afoul of some previously established Theme in the story. Even if the idea is that the ending is downbeat and bittersweet because the kids failed (and the story is using All Might’s goalpost-moving to resolve the dissonant definitions of “saving” in Gran Torino’s favor), that still means yet another theme is violated: that of BNHA being a story of how Deku+his classmates become “the greatest Heroes.” After all, the story also defined “greatest Heroes” for us! The greatest Heroes are those who can achieve Perfect Victory.
Whatever form this essay winds up taking, these are the sorts of concepts I want to discuss in terms of how the series sets them up compared to how it winds up following them through.
Thanks for the ask!
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bestworstcase · 8 months ago
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Okay- Salem throwing in during the Great War especially with Grimm would belatedly justify that card game from Volume 2 because of how it was over control of Remnant besides as an in show ad. Especially with the whole bit of the Nevermore card.
Salem as supporter of revolutionaries fighting for their freedom... One that fits extremely well. Two it puts additional layers to Cinder approaching the White Fang and also just ... Cinder being taken in.
I also would find such a reveal in show to likely be extremely hilarious as the implications hit the audience and cast.
my god i wrote that entire fucking post without remembering the great war Board Game existed
you’re right though, it would be a sly piece of foreshadowing if that’s the intention, esp bc the nevermore bit is between ruby (playing atlas) and yang (playing mistral) and a dice roll which of their forces it attacks.
in terms of the worldbuilding that game has always kind of interested me for what it says about how grimm are viewed in military contexts by the general public; qrow in WOR suggests that grimm on the battlefield was an automatic ceasefire until they were driven off again, but also that “grimm came in droves” while ozma laid waste to his enemies with the sword. and then there’s this grimm card in a war game where the mechanic is “flip a coin to see whose soldiers get mauled”—implying that opportunistic “let the grimm attack your enemies” tactics are not unheard of.
and… then. there’s arrowfell. the grimm lures the antagonists use were developed by the atlesian military, and… the only practical use case for a device that summons swarms of grimm is to weaponize grimm against human targets, ideally a safe distance away from your own forces. like, they’re grimm bombs. and these were developed post-war! in a time of peace! the great powers during the tense period before the great war must have been thinking about how to point the grimm at their enemies, too.
but unless you’re salem, or have salem on your side, weaponizing the grimm will always be a double-edged sword—as yang says, that’s just a risk you have to be willing to take.
anyway yeah if i’m right, the reveal would be so punchy. and i do for sure think were due for some sort of revelation about the great war—it’s been set up and referenced over and over, and they made a deliberate choice to convey this information through a heavily biased perspective, and the great war ended in vacuo, and everything the narrative is building up to the last stand in vacuo. something about history coming due, and the truth coming out.
it’s also be a neat counterpoint to the Team Oz narrative, which is very black-and-white (mantle and mistral were the bad guys, vale and vacuo were the good guys, don’t ask too many questions about valean expansion into the likeliest origin point for those desperate crazy founders of mantle or vale’s involvement in the complete destruction of its next-door neighbor centuries ago or the part where ozma magic nuked everyone so hard that allies and enemies alike bent the knee.) whereas the truth seems to be more complicated with vale also having imperial ambitions prior to ozma assuming the throne, and then at best prioritizing the status quo.
an interesting possibility that i think about sometimes is that ozma may have been the one to withdraw vale from vacuo; less out of anti-imperialist principle than because the vacuan people were increasingly unhappy with valean rule and he recognized that the only way to avoid a war for independence in the long term would be to give vacuo independence first. and then mistral swooped in like a vulture because ozma neglected to do anything but formally recognize vacuan sovereignty, rather than make reparations and provide support needed to allow vacuo to emerge from centuries of valean occupation as a functional country—the same conflict-avoidant, shortsighted approach on display in his choice to “share the land” with mistrali colonists in eastern vale.
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positivelybeastly · 2 months ago
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X-Men #4
On time for once!
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Let's do this.
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Hmm. Not quite sure how I feel about this? Admittedly, Illyana is a character about whom I know relatively little in the grand scheme of things, but given that she's been fighting for control of Limbo for a while, been a protege of Scott Summers, and was a War Captain on Krakoa, I would think her tactical skills would be up to snuff enough that she could be half decent at chess?
That being said, the trope that tactical ability can be measured by chess ability isn't one that I think has to be followed. It's as much a test of logic as it is of tactical planning and forethought, and between Illyana's more chaotic nature and her lack of formal schooling, maybe it's just the case that she would rather show you how good she is in the field than go on about chess ability. And I can think of a good reason why she would choose to play chess with the person she has blocked, rather than any other game.
Anyway!
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Trevor Fitzroy isn't allowed his weird little gremlin bro-pal possible love interest guy Bantam anymore, because of woke. (I know fuckin' nothing about Fitzroy, incidentally, this is based off of their weird relationship in that one X-Men: TAS episode I watched.)
And yeah, what WAS Krakoa all about, huh? Where DID all those babies that got abandoned go?
. . . Well, anyway!
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Hank, chairs are for sitting on, not perching on . . .
It's interesting that we're doing split team issues - clearly, this run is taking cues from New X-Men not just in terms of some of its plot points, but also some of its structure; there were multiple arcs that focused exclusively on Charles and Jean, or Logan, Scott and Fantomex, with the rest of the team in the ether. It's not a bad way to tackle a team of this size, and given the news that both Magik and Psylocke are getting ongoing solo series, I'm less worried about them getting focus in a team book now.
Where is the Marauder, incidentally? I can't imagine you need that for a psychic rescue? Unless Max is using it, I suppose. Something that'll come up in #5, I imagine.
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It's a sign of just how poisoned the discourse about Hank McCoy is that I saw multiple comments on Reddit saying that this scene heralded a return to evil Beast, because he also didn't like to go out on field missions and would regard his work as more important.
That being said, this reaction was weird to me, given that this Hank comes from an era where he was at his most pro-active, heroic, and willing to fight for people he didn't know - until I read the Infinity Comics, which made it all make a good degree more sense.
Hank isn't being cowardly or showing a case of poor priorities; no, instead, he appears not to trust himself, and he'd rather not place what he perceives to be a volatile, potentially morally untrustworthy element (himself) into a live situation. Working on Magneto's illness is a cut and dry net good with no downsides, so it makes sense he'd want to keep working on that, especially if Hank has reason to believe a similar condition could affect any one of them at any time.
Not sure I love Illyana's antagonism towards Rogue here? Feels kinda like it came out of nowhere and is just being done to foreshadow the upcoming 4 part crossover where these two teams come to a head. Scott's frustration with Rogue's attack on Graymalkin in #3 felt a bit more naturalistic than this.
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Idie icesliding like that really does make me wonder if MacKay also wanted Iceman for this team but he was earmarked for Eve Ewing's Exceptional book. I doubt it, just because MacKay's done some really good, pointed work with Idie, which continues in this issue, but the visual parallel is just hard to get out of my brain.
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I missed this Hank, a lot.
Also, good time to note that we do have a different artist here! Netho Diaz's style isn't a million miles away from Ryan Stegman's, so it's not a very jarring shift, and I do like how Diaz renders a lot of these characters - less heavily stylised, but heavily styilised isn't always to everyone's taste, so I feel like this was a good pick of fill-in artist.
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Man. Have I mentioned I missed this Hank, a LOT? That happy little smile on his face in the bottom right panel really does delight me.
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Still not quite the bouncing effervescence of Defenders Hank, but this is still very solidly 90s Hank, who I do rather enjoy, especially when he's in the hands of a writer who knows when to really let his loquacious qualities out to play, and when to let brevity be the soul of wit.
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Idie's really come a long way since Wolverine & the X-Men, and I'm really, honestly, very happy to see it. She's coming from a place of real experience and wisdom and the struggle of loving yourself in what can feel like a loveless world, and I hope MacKay continues to showcase her maturation and development. Considering how worried I was that she'd be wallpaper in this series, this is encouraging stuff.
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If you had asked me which member of this team of X-Men I expected to give what amounts to a really popping Batman speech, I would not have picked Cain Marko, but this feels real and earned in light of his genuine Krakoan redemption. The elevation from avatar of destruction to protector, to bodyguard, to living target, is fucking awesome.
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Yeah, work that pole, Hank.
That being said, this dialogue does still sound kinda weird for Hank. This feels a little more like X-Force Beast than anything else, so I'm wondering if this is a seed of something, or if Hank is just kinda frustrated that what feels like a side quest popped up just as he was about to progress the main quest and enter act 2. God knows that if I woke up in the morning and found out I had to tangle with Trevor Fitzroy and the Upstarts, I would also be a little annoyed - this feels a little bottom of the barrel for the X-Men.
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The X-Men fandom at large just heaved a great sigh and said, in unison, "Oh, this fucker."
Not the AoA geneticist I would have wanted to see in this book, but I'll take it, I suppose. Hopefully we get an explanation about where this guy came from, because I was fairly certain he was dead? Not that that's ever stopped anyone before, but just, you know, so we can put it on the Wiki and all.
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Laksa! Apparently a spicy noodle dish, usually made with thick rice noodles, with toppings such as chicken, straw, or fish - that being said, given we were told that Glob is a vegetarian and that he therefore only cooks vegetarian, I have to imagine this might be a coconut soup laksa that might include eggs, deep-fried tofu, beansprouts, and herbs, or some variation thereof.
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Hank definitely seems to approve. :)
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God, please tell me that Colossus is going to join the team, I would absolutely love for Jed MacKay to get to work on our beefy Russian lad, he deserves some TLC after the trauma conga line that was Krakoa and the years before that.
Interesting that he's a blocked number and yet they're still interacting, but then again, I have a browser extension that blocks Reddit on my computer, and I still go on Reddit, so maybe that rings truer than I'd like to admit.
This leads me to my guess as to the reason of why chess - it's playable long distance, and doesn't require any elaboration on moves. You just say the piece and where you're moving them to. Something easy to play with someone who doesn't feel communicative. A way of talking without really talking.
All in all, a decent issue, but it definitely feels more in line with #2 than #1 or #3 - I almost have to wonder if the edict to double ship issues came down, and MacKay felt more able to decompress things and spread them out across multiple issues as a result, especially since I think that, if this were paced more tightly, we'd be progressing through the plot fairly quickly.
If we're taking New X-Men as the blueprint, Morrison would absolutely have squished the last four issues into two - but they weren't double shipping, so.
If we're looking at odd numbers being the plot heavy, characterisation heavy issues, and the evens being action and a bit more 'filler' issues, then I don't think that's an awful structure - I just think that, in a world where single issues cost $3-4 a pop, people might start skipping the even numbered issues in an effort to save money. This might read better in trades, which feels A) bad to say, and also B) increasingly common about modern comics. Not sure how I feel about it.
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tonydaddingham · 1 year ago
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alright next up on the list of ideas to dredge up from the drafts and talk about in more detail is the focus on books in this season, because its driving me around the bend
but because i literally have no answers whatsoever to this, im just going to do a crowley-core #justgirlythings and just ask questions:
ep2 goob (rip) lines: "books are key!" which ok yeah obvious but:
"and see, the big ones can be used as fly swats - and i know what you're thinking, but it's okay, because the beauty part is, it never works!"... hmmmm
but also earlier on, goob asks aziraphale "what [letter] comes after 'K'?", which is 'L', but goob then immediately refers back to his book that he's alphabetising, which is A Tale of Two Cities, and that starts with 'it'...? so why highlight the letter 'L'? (this might be something of nothing but given Book of Life idk could literally have been ANY other letter)
but then we have the rest of the episodes that cascaded from the two things above; first, the book blueprint of the universe in ep1, which AWCW was referring to, but only from page 11 onwards (so what was on pages 1-11?):
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ep2: crowley discovering that jane austen wrote books (like, other than it being a comedic point of their conflicting remembrance of her as a person, and gives the "you think you know someone!" foreshadowing, it felt very pointed that crowley learns that she was a writer as well)
ep2 also sees aziraphale looking at a huge tome which, given everything that's going on, seems weird that he'd be randomly consulting? idk what the book is so not doubling down on this... anyone know if ive just missed something obvious?
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but also makes a point of consulting the bible after goob recites what god said to job in the bookshop. which, given that he and crowley readily recognise what god says (he even says to crowley, "I most certainly do [remember]"), seems weird that they'd need to consult a book to remind them who job was and his story... could be exposition and for the cool fall-through effect, but possibly felt a bit unneeded. plus, it got aziraphale so absorbed that he totally conked out and missed crowley leaving the shop:
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aziraphale writing in his diary at his desk on his bed, lying in his tummy, feet kicking in the air, in ep3:
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the magician's pamphlet that not only follows aziraphale's epiphany of realising he's in love with crowley but also literally sets up the opportunity for aziraphale to demonstrate how much he trusts him, and is ultimately used against them in being discovered as (at least) being traitors to their respective sides:
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plus the Hoffman book, and the angel field-guide:
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like, oversimplifying, but literally all of ep5 being based on jane austen works
emphasis on muriel wanting to read books in the background of the Showdown going on in ep6, being chucked The Crow Road by crowley, and metatron being weirdly interested in the fact that they're reading it... like, how would he not know what a book is? why is it "excellent", and a "perfectly splendid thing to do"? odd choice of words even if you want them to take over the bookshop:
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now this one i can believe is literally just about goob in the shop and that's fine, but again the emphasis on books anyway (and also michael's weirdly strong but conflicting memory? might write a different post about that bc i think michael got got by metatron somewhere along the line):
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back to ep2 but fitting to bookend on:
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so okay yeah sure, im certain the book of life comes into all of this somewhere (ive posted about it here but im fairly certain it's not what heaven/hell seems to claim it is, and i think only the metatron truly knows that). there's been a lot of emphasis on memory too in this season, but taking that out of the equation a minute, the main things giving me heebie-jeebies is goob's line about using big books as fly swats, and obviously metty-babes' weird reaction to the crow road...
idk where im going with this and ill probably look at this again but all of this was floating around my noggin and i couldn't take it anymore
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ratcandy · 10 months ago
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hi hello hi!! i just finished bingereading cogr and i hope you don't mind if i yell into your inbox about your fic lol
SO FIRST OF ALL. i never expected i would get so attached to zote. but now i am! i will never get the neglect achievement after reading this. but i can't even be mad it's so good
i have to say that it's a really, REALLY good example of how to add depth to a normally unlikable character! like by the end zote is still at least a bit of a bastard, but after knowing how horribly literally everything in his life has gone you can't help but feel bad for him and hope things start looking up.
plus, it provides an explanation for why he's Like That. genuinely if he got therapy to work through his multitude of issues he'd probably be, like, 10x nicer about everything.
also while i did read the tags, i can't say i expected it to be THAT dark, mostly because i was thinking "it's a fic about zote being a nosk it can't be THAT bad." but nope! this man is suicidally depressed and by the end he's barely even trying to hide it. i don't mind though, it's DELICIOUS angst
OH and the format of the fic, where it's presented as zote talking to Someone Else, is absolutely GENIUS for this fic. genuinely this choice makes the fic so much better. i mean ok to start off i normally hate first-person pov in fanfiction but this sort of format i like. HOWEVER that's not my main point here
this structure lets zote's personality really shine through. if it wasn't filtered like this, first of all everything would be revealed way too quickly but also the writing would lose all of its character and emotion. plus the tangents and mid-sentences corrections, the way he corrects and interrupts himself...it's all BECAUSE of how this fic is framed. i just...aaah!! i don't know how to FULLY express how much i love the way cogr is framed. just know that i think it was a perfect choice on every possible level
OH I JUST REMEMBERED!! it makes the ending possible, and holy shit the ending. it's SUCH a gutpunch to realize he's all alone, talking to nobody, and then he just...keeps on talking. i am still reeling from it as i type this ask. bravo i think this is one of the best endings to a fic i've seen, especially for a sad ending
other things i've noticed!! first of all, there is excellent use of zote's unreliable narrating for foreshadowing, as well as wonderful callbacks and parallels!! i don't remember everything 100% since i was admittedly reading pretty quickly but from what i DO remember, i'm pretty sure i could go through cogr and find a TON of good stuff like this.
one thing i noticed in particular, the way he based himself off of vessels...DELICIOUS parallels there. i don't remember everything like i said but i'm pretty sure zote says some stuff about how it was dangerous to express emotions in the nosk den? stuff like that makes the way zote chose to disguise himself as a vessel just...augh. perfection 10/10
i also LIVE for your nosk lore and worldbuilding. i don't have much to say about this i just really like worldbuilding and this is quality
i also decided to read the trivia doc and first of all. the yikes ending would have been...i want to say cruel but honestly i'm more inclined to say tragic? although cogr is already a tragedy...ooh that would be interesting analysis, although i don't really have fully formed thoughts on it yet
ON A LIGHTER NOTE, the au in the trivia doc with zote AND two siblings?? it's one of the only ways that this whole mess could go happily (although that's to be expected of a hollow knight thing tbh), and i am rotating it in my mind.
ANYWAY that's all i have to say!! or well it isn't but it's all i can think of and actually communicate understandably lol. anyway cogr is a 10/10 fic and i will be thinking about it for the rest of my life
I'M SO NORMAL ABOUT THIS ASK <-- SHE'S LYING SHE MIMED PUNCHING A WALL AND YELLED OUT LOUD "YEEEAAAAHHHH!!!!" WHILE SHE READ
I am deVOURING this I . HOUGH. Big long ask about my big long fic I must consume it so vigorously. my TTEEETH are ripping INTO THIS
OK !! 1: GOOD That you're attached to Zote now!!!!! I love hearing that I've dragged people into Hell unimaginable!!!! Fuck yeaH!!!
AND 2: hhoughHHHhhgouh ;s;;;;; hhhhg;sh. This ask is so nice I am smiling so much and giggling and kicking my feet. also the hdgKJH "It can't be THAT dark!" hdgkJH YEAH. IT. Tends to blindside people from what I've heard!!!!!!
Hhoguhhh ;;; I wish I could respond in a more cohesive manner but I am jus. Gushing . Thank youuu thank you so much I'm so normal about getting complimented
ALSO YOU DRAWING THE PARALLEL BETWEEN HIS DIGUISE BEING A VESSEL .... I kid you not I Out Loud just went YES!!! and started clapping and hooting and hollering because i"m so normal especially when my Funny Symbolism gets noticed dhKSHDGKLHG
AS for whether CoGR counts as an honest Tragedy ... obviously I would DEVOUR any analysis on it BUT From My perspective. I go with a Maaaybe ? Since tragedies are like. The downfall is brought about by the protagonist's own actions. And like. Yes! But also ? but also Sort of! I'm not sure!!!!!!
AND SIBLINGS AU YES!!!!!! That one has been developed a bit more since that trivia doc thing!!!!! I'll tag the siblings au tag in the. Tags, an u can go through what we had for it!!!!! It is indeed the only happy version of the story (with some inevitable angst still sprinkled in of course) but!! YEA!! Bronze (Zote's brother) and Silva (Zote's sister) are my beloveds for all time
OK I'm normal now. I'm so normal.Yep. Thumbsup emoji THANK YOU SO much for this ask I .will be returning to it frequently I'm sure. just so I can go EEE and flail my arms around and rip my teeth into it <33333333
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fountainpenguin · 5 months ago
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Hi! How are you?
Anyway... I hope it's okay to ask this (if not then please ignore this) but I wanted to ask why is "This is Halloween" (prompt 128) isn't on Ao3.
I went through the list there a couple of times, and I noticed it was missing (I noticed it a while ago but double-checked today). I know you said in the original AN for that fic, that it's skippable and if we didn't read it it's like nothing happened, so maybe that's why but I still think it's worth asking.
Thank you for your time and have a great day and a great week.
Thanks for taking an interest! I'm a bit ill and tired, but all right. "Only an Idea" and "This Is Halloween" are only available on FFN at this time, though the other 130 Prompts thus far are cross-posted.
I'll post "Only an Idea" to AO3 at the appropriate time for its appearance in Reedfilter Rules AU [+ FFN Link] because I thought it made more sense to post its content in chronological order (which is why RR updates slowly, as the pieces are vague and scattered in my drafts). I'm excited to post more for this AU, but I'm handling it as carefully as I can so I don't have regrets in my posting order down the line.
At the moment, it'll probably be posted after Chapter 11. I'm still waffling over whether I should post it as both Chapter 11 and a separate piece or just one of those things.
Likewise, I plan to post "This Is Halloween" at the time I deem appropriate, and preferably around Halloween. I don't regret writing it; it was a fun piece for a year Halloween fell on my update day. It's intentionally vague, misleading, and dripping with foreshadowing. I think it's fun and there's nothing wrong with reading it now.
It's up on FFN for readers to find and enjoy if they wish, but it's a complex piece that I do think is more impactful if read with certain context (Like nature spirits and the members Anti-Cosmo selected for his camarilla court).
Ex: Anti-Cosmo is Sunnie's medium in "This Is Halloween" (and in all 130 Prompts that take place after he becomes High Count). Notably, in "Halloween," Sunnie leaves Anti-Cosmo's body and they have a fight over whether to stay and defend the Anti-Fairies (what A.C. wants to do) and Sunnie's preference (Fleeing as far across the universe as possible).
The Anti-Cosmo-Sunnie relationship is very messy. Them figuring out how to, y'know, share the same body (particularly as H.P. and Anti-Wanda watch from the sidelines with increasing anxiety because A.C. has a bad habit of idealizing his abusers and now he's sharing a mind with someone his friends can't hear) is the main arc in Act 4 of Frayed Knots. So, y'know... That's gonna be a party!
We're currently 6 chapters into Knots' Act 3; we still have to get through the war before we meet Sunnie
I'm sure not all my AO3 readers follow me on Tumblr, so I thought it would be more effective to post "This Is Halloween" at a relevant time than it would be to make a Tumblr post saying "Hey, go check out this piece I wrote in 2017." Once the story is up on AO3, there's not much I can do to point people towards it, so that's the main reason.
I enjoy "This Is Halloween" and I'd love to discuss it with readers someday, but the chances that people will be willing to chat about The Implications™ and the many complicated layers involved in this piece seem higher if it's posted at a better time than now /shrug
That said, if anyone has read "This Is Halloween" (or any other piece of mine) and wants to send Asks about their theories or tag me in posts, I'd love to respond :) There are a lot of secrets and details in that one.
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kradogsrats · 1 year ago
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Hoi! 🙂 Any theories about why Kpp’Ar was able to move in his coin when Rayla looked at it, and what that is supposed to foreshadow?
We do see Runaan moving in his coin early on, which I think a lot of people forgot about when they saw Kpp'Ar do it:
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and that is a different pose from where he has settled when the coins come into Rayla's possession:
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It's actually very important from a storytelling communication standpoint that Runaan move when we first see him in the coin, because the audience needs that cue that he's alive and trapped. I bring this up because there are quite a few places where the "rules" of magic are bent or inconsistent in order to preserve storytelling impact or theme. This is particularly true of Viren's corrupted face appearing, but I'm sure there are others. Maybe we'll eventually get some piece of info that ties all of that together, but maybe we won't! Sometimes the answer is "what the story is trying to say is more important than the rules."
Anyway, there are kind of two questions at hand, here: 1) how is Kpp'Ar able to move in his coin? and 2) how is Kpp'Ar even able to perceive Rayla in order to move and look at her? I find the second question more interesting so I'll start there.
Possible scenarios:
Everyone in the coins has full perception of the world around them. Now, fifteen days of solitary confinement can be enough to do psychological damage. Add sensory deprivation on top of that, say being kept in a fucking pouch? Possibly for years? The same person is not coming out of that coin as went into it.
I mean, heck, maybe that's the answer: maybe everyone can move in the coins at any time, but once you've suffered enough psychological damage from the situation to go catatonic, you just kinda... don't.
Everyone in the coins has no perception of the world around them, being either in a state of stasis with no perception of time, to eventually wake up as if they are still at the moment of being trapped, or existing in some kind of weird dreamscape.
Some fudged option where they have full perception of the outside world but somehow this doesn't cause massive, irreversible trauma to Rayla's family. Realistically, I think this is the one we should probably expect.
So if we assume that you can't perceive the outside world with normal senses from inside the coin, how does Kpp'Ar know to turn and "look" when his coin is picked up? WELL, here is my theory: dark mages, as their corruption builds, become sensitive to both dark and primal magic. The coins themselves are at least partially inherently linked with dark magic, so sensing that isn't going to help much... but who picks up Kpp'Ar? Rayla, who has a natural connection to the magic of the Moon primal.
That is absolutely not going to be the actual answer and I'm just insane, but shut up let me have this.
As for why he is capable of moving... well, the easiest plausible explanation is that it's because he's also a dark mage and having the right kind of knowledge or strength lets you struggle a bit better. I assume since we see Runaan moving early on but not later, the magic kind of slowly solidifies.
Alternately, if we want to get just a little bit wild: in his dream, Viren asks Kpp'Ar what's wrong with his arm. Now, Viren reacts with surprise to Kpp'Ar's presence in what I will remind everyone is Viren's own secret study, right where his coin is stashed. How is he there? Did he somehow get out? But the implication is that Kpp'Ar wasn't like that when Viren put him in the coin. So if we theorize that actually, the people in the coins occupy a weird little personal prison Aaravos-style... well, someone's been busy.
Relevant:
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There's also the fact that the symbol on the back of the coins is very reminiscent of the deep magic symbol (which might be worth its own post at some point, because they are not the same but also too similar to be unrelated), and given the provenance of the staff, there may be something deeper going on there, magic-wise.
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roaldseth · 1 year ago
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6-8 for the tri strat ask game! :)
6. Favorite Chapter?
This question was answered in the previous ask, however I'm going to use this opportunity to talk about the Falkes battle (Chapter 7 Utility) because it qualifies for point 2, "which chapter I keep returning to again and again." Though I don't have any particularly strong feelings towards this chapter on a base level, however there is stuff to unpack underneath it and much potential here in my silly little brain, all of which in what this marks for the Wolfforts.
Regardless of path, Falkes's fall marks the beginning of the greater clan's fall, possibly its "end" depending on how you want to look at it. And this point or foreshadowing or whatever, Falkes is vocal about it. Utility side, he addresses Erador like what the fuck man? He had fought with Benedict and Erador, and this kind of direct confrontation between these two parties, I'm----I'm chomping at the bit. I want more of this charged tension. I want to look at it, be provoked. I want Benedict especially to get called the fuck out as the steward, as Symon's representative prior to Serenoa's lordship. It is so thematically chef's kiss.
From my experience, I know Falkes gets a lot of flack for "being stupid," "not a good lord," and "being too loyal [to the crown]," and I disagree mostly with that because that comes from a modern perspective and also Symon exists up to the north. Yes, Landroi, don't burn your fields if you don't have to, Serenoa also says that, but even then I can at least understand why he does that. It's not relevant somewhat relevant, but Silvio's approach in general is also a topic that I also can understand because he also gets flack for caution and cowardice, but his father was Gorde. We know one thing about Gorde, he was the advisor, and I think we see bits of him though Silvio, but Silvio also was raised in a different time under different circumstances so that's why it's only bits.
TL;DR I have a lot of feeling for Landroi. This is a sizable chunk of the feelings, but there's still more. There is the flip-side, Chapter 7 Morality and its Chapter 8, but I said I'd talk about the Utility side specifically, so it ends here. Also Julio as a Falkes angst lives in my mind ready to strike at any moment.
7. Favorite Battle?
This is being judged largely in terms more mechanically--map, units, etc--instead of the ramifications on story. That being said: I have little clue. The naval battle, Chapter 14 Morality, sticks out the most. Fueled by my feelings about Norzelia's river warships, it was an interesting, unexpected choice, and for that, it's kinda neat. I really liked the detail that they made the signature metal plating of Aesfrosti warships conductible. I struggle to recall if there are other maps with metal, except the mine. We also don't really get ship maps for obvious reasons, the closest thing is probably the Wolffort harbor map.
Close runner up for maps is Twins Gate though. I won't elaborate. That one's strictly vibes only.
8. Favorite Ending?
I regret to inform I am a Liberty End fan. Though anything to make Benedict Pascal "happy" is the surface level reason why I like Liberty End, but the subterranean level is how much he shoots himself in the foot with his stubborn blindness. No longer to make Benedict Pascal happy. Anything to make him go through more bullshit, especially if it's his own fault.
But not only does he shoot himself in the foot, but he also puts that last nail in the coffin and then buried Wolffort in it. Landroi is dead (head Falkes representative), Silvio is dead (head Telliore representative), Serenoa (Wolffort's head) is put on the throne--and for the sake of not trying to stammer out an alternative explanation--is then Glenbrook-ified. Sure, he retains Wolffort in name, and this probably drastically changes things for future generations of the royal line down the road, I don't have my local history expert at the moment, but anyway there's abandonment in morality, ethics, land (subjective Serenoa still technically owns it), heritage, and such. It's the Liberty end, Morality is forsaken to achieve it, and the triangle topples. Worse case, you also let Benedict Pascal do what he wants, and the land that was entrusted to the clan also underwent some damage. Don't worry captain we'll buff out those scratches.
HOWEVER, all in all, regardless of this, this is all still done while achieving at least face value of Benny Boy's catchphrase goal--for the future of House Wolffort--because the House in title is still raise to imperial household, but it's at such a steep cost to what it means to be a Wolffort. That meaning of No Matter the Cost is so delicate and fine in the Liberty End. Poetic cinema.
And with that I think at this point I am tying too many red strings between dots, so I will end there. But, if provoked I could run deeper.
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sovonight · 7 months ago
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i finally sat down to try and chart out radri's bg1 journey so that i could write early xadri with some actual regard for the events of the game, and realized that since i always make a beeline for xan and then explore absolutely everything outside of baldur's gate before finally entering the city, the majority of the game happens in chapters 3 and 4 for me 😖
(meanwhile xan's journal has him only starting his silent treatment when you first enter baldurs gate--which is insane to me, like in that timeline there's a very real chance you return to candlekeep right when xan's just decided to give the relationship a chance?? but i've never liked xan's journal anyway, so--)
my reasoning for why radri doesn't start exploring and doing side quests in earnest until after recruiting xan is that it makes sense to me that radri would be too shaken by gorion's death to do anything but follow other people's suggestions for her in the first 2 chapters--first gorion's last instructions, and then jaheira and khalid's existing obligation in nashkel. (it's also supported by the game's timeline, since you arrive at nashkel "with your hurried flight from Candlekeep barely behind you," but i do ignore the intended timeline a lot so i don't want to reference it too much lol)
honestly i think jaheira pulled radri out of her fog a bit on the way to nashkel, by teaching/lecturing her about leading and adventuring; the feeling of being back in "lessons" was kind of comforting in its own way (even though jaheira is too brash for radri to have actually liked the unsolicited advice then). it's not like radri was comfortable with jaheira and khalid yet, but she at least was assured that these are the people that gorion knew and trusted.
as for xan's recruitment, it's not like it was a huge moment for either of them--for her he's just someone she was unexpectedly able to help, and for him he was just relieved to be free--but his presence in the party dynamic definitely throws radri off autopilot. he asks so many questions of her, and compared to the other party members is such a total newcomer to her, that it means she has to think about things again. like, jaheira spoke at her most of the time (not out of inconsideration but just out of, like. jaheira thinks radri will speak up when she has something to say, when radri absolutely will not); khalid tried to be considerate about her recent loss by keeping things polite and surface level with her; and imoen is replaying familiar dynamics with her, trying to keep things light and upbeat. meanwhile xan is actually having conversations with her, and it helps that she finds him kind of familiar (books, turning pages, scholarly study), interesting (he's a font of elven cultural knowledge that she was always too embarrassed to show much interest in growing up--after all, what's the point of learning about a people she will never get to join?), and oddly compelling (everything else about him).
(on a sidenote, radri did recruit montaron and xzar, but purely for safety in numbers; she was creeped out by them and barely interacted with them at all, and was relieved to ditch them for xan)
my reasoning for why radri stalls in chapters 3-4 instead of completing the main quest in a timely manner is, again, that she procrastinates because she's afraid. the assassins, the mysterious spells she's been gifted, and the foreshadowing in her dreams... it's easier to chase side quests and fix things and help people to get that tiny dose of "i'm doing something right," than to let the fear of what's coming for her escape the back of her mind. if you asked her about her delay she'd come up with an excuse, but tbh the excuse is for herself too, because she doesn't confront her fears herself until she's practically forced to at candlekeep.
i started putting an outline together just using the wiki, but ideally i would play through the game again to mark down what order xan's conversations happen in T_T i know it's possible to suss it out from the dialogue files, but i've never figured out how to read the trigger conditions lol. ofc, chapter 3 has the most bullet points atm--
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(a back to back assassin encounter, because somehow that's always the way it plays out in my playthroughs. i fight nimbul, get hurt, go into the inn, forget that there's still an assassin there from earlier, trigger a fight with the other assassin, heave a big sigh--)
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the way that (iirc) xan's like "the boy has more sense than i do. i don't know why i let you keep dragging me around 😔💗" when he's already proposed is so funny to me
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thisonesock · 9 months ago
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Since my hyperfixation is kicking in and I am bored, I started researching a bit about the religious background to Hazbin Hotel and its connection to actual Religious Sources. Especially Lilith, since she is not only a big question mark but also portrayed in the final scene as a giant red flag. (Thank you, creepy foreshadowing music in the background). So let’s just gather what I found in in my two hour search. I just point out, these are all my personal consumptions and interpretations that I could make through the meager things I have found. I will show you the things I have found out and then tell you, what I think could be possible. I won’t put the sources in, since most of them are German, but if anyone of you wants them anyway, just write me and I give them to you. So let’se go then!
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Lilith is an extremely interesting character from a religious point of view because she has many characteristics. There isn’t that much about her, but let’s gather what I have found.
She is mostly seen as the equivalent of Eve and is often seen as a modern-day figurehead of feminism because she refused to submit to the patriarchy. She did not want to submit to Adam, especially in a sexual sense. (She's a top bitch, not a bottom. That might also be the explanation why Lilith wanted Adam gone and Lute replace him.) This eventually lead to her banishment from Eden. After her Eve was made and that lead to a natural rivalry between the two woman.
There are also texts that say that Lilith and Eve are two sides of the same coin. Lilith, as an independent, wild woman, Eva as a family loyal, submissive mother who has been told all her life how dangerous Lilith is.
Both women meet one day, exchange ideas and finally decide to work together and be independent. ➡️ That gives a fucking lot to make theories about the future episodes. Eve and Lilith working together could open so many doors. And when we maybe work with the idea, that both woman look the same, let’s see what can be done with that.
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There are theories that the woman in the flashback of episode 5 Eve is. Both of them working together could explain why Eve would be able to get into Liliths Place. It explains the connection to Charlie and why pictures are more motherly role in that scene.
Lilith, that way, could easily replace Eve in Heaven. (Adam has been in Heaven, so why wouldn’t Eve, right? We have seen nothing or her or have a mention of her since the Overture in the first episode.) Maybe Lute found about about the secret that Eve and Lilith have and threatens to tattletale? My theories aren’t fleshed out yet and there are many open questions and things that debunk them. So let’s just leave those here and move on, shall we?
Lilith is also referred to in many traditions (in Jewish text elements and in Aramaic) as a child murderer. This is said to have been a punishment for her rebellion in Eden. As a result, she is said to only suffer stillbirths; being infertile (or have demon children, but I haven't found much on this) and actively murder newborns and, something I've come across quite often, her own children. Lilith is also (in the old testament) often equated with a deadly danger. She is often directly associated with snakes and birds of prey. (venomousness and quick grabbing).
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So what can we do with that information? Well, it's a damn good explanation why the woman just packed her bags and left without a word for seven years. It would also explain the final scene with Lilith in heaven, where Lute demands she does something about Charlie.
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So, since I am tired and don’t have the brain energy to look further, is just leave this here and let you all do with it, what ya want. I remind, most of that is my personal interpretation and it is possible that I didn’t get things quite right. Feel free to add something or correct me. I’m not free from flaws, especially when I’m sleep deprived!
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tvitr · 2 years ago
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So...
How did Grusha get into Pokémon training anyway?
I don't think there's actually a canon reason in the game so fuck it, have my headcanon.
(Also consider this a part one because man oh man did this get long and unwieldy)
Tl;dr he actually has friends and they're the ones who got him into it. Kind of.
More specifically, he has a group of friends he goes snowboarding with. He's known all of them since his pre-pro days, basically since they were all children, and though none of them ever reached the same heights he did in terms of their own respective careers, they've all just... stuck by each other.
Naturally, following his accident and subsequent retirement, Grusha was obviously... a bit upset. He'd still venture out onto the slopes every day to at least get some form of social interaction, but it was clear that he just... wasn't himself. He was quiet, less enthusiastic, seemingly always lost inside his own thoughts, and most worryingly, no longer confident in his abilities. His friends obviously knew why he'd changed, but as a bunch of emotionally stunted jocks who probably thought they'd all catch The Gay if they ever so much as thought about talking about their feelings, none of them were really equipped to engage in any meaningful or deep conversation with him. Not now, at least.
So, they did the next best thing they could think of; buying him a Pokéball. "You're the only one out of all of us who doesn't have a Pokémon," they told him,
He dismissed their concerns, obviously, telling them that he was fine (he wasn't) and that they were overreacting (they weren't), that only middle aged people stuck in jobs they hate and don't exercise get depression (wrong, also foreshadowing). He appreciated the gesture, sure, but he definitely wasn't going to ever need a Pokéball as he had no intention of using it.
Plus he wasn't entirely on board with the idea of abducting and attempting to tame a random wild animal anyway.
He puts the Pokéball in his coat pocket and forgets about it eventually, until one day he's returning home from another listless day on the slopes when he notices a Cetoddle following him. It's cute, and he stops to play with and talk to it, but knows it'll probably either lose interest in him eventually, or will stop following him once he descends to a lower, warmer altitude.
But it doesn't.
It follows him all the way home.
It seems uncomfortable with the balmy Medali heat, though despite him reassuring it it's okay to leave, and that he'll be back out on the mountain tomorrow, it still follows him to his flat. Part of him wonders if it's even a wild Pokémon at all. Though he knows Cetoddle are an exceptionally curious and friendly species, he's never seen one venture this far down the mountain.
He lets it into his flat.
It perks up once it enters, possibly due to the cool tiled floor offering it some respite from the evening heat, though it still seems tired and worn out. Grusha then realises he doesn't have the slightest idea on how to take care of one of these things.
He spends most of the evening on his phone, browsing various forums and websites on Cetoddle care, all the while the Cetoddle in question dozes peacefully next to him. He strokes it with his free hand, eventually coming to the conclusion that so long as he brings it to the mountain each day to graze in its natural habitat, he should be fine to feed it whatever. He gets up to check the fridge.
He remembers the Pokéball.
Cetoddle looks up at him curiously as he finally pulls it out of his coat pocket. He fumbles with it, almost dropping it in fright as it opens and pulls Cetoddle inside. It twitches.
It clicks.
A bit more fumbling and he releases it again, quietly vowing to only use the Pokéball to transport his new pal to and from the mountain to avoid it overheating like it did earlier. Sure it might require him to rearrange some of his furniture to make it easier for Cetoddle to move around his flat, but he's still not sold on the idea of keeping it in its ball 24/7. Plus, it is extremely cute. It feels stupid to admit it, but his heart does feel a little lighter just by looking at its bright smile.
He names the Cetoddle Persik, as per family tradition. Persik accompanies him to the slopes the next day; he is of course, lightly ribbed by his co-boarders for finally giving in and catching a Pokémon (despite his insistence that Persik literally followed him home), but they quickly warm to their new teammate. Despite all of them having Pokémon, they rarely battle, preferring to let them roam or chase them as they carve their way down the mountain.
That is, until, one day.
Grusha didn't know where the group came from or what their damage was, but they were all on skis, which was enough to make him dislike them from the offset. Coupled with the fact said group on skis were hogging his group's favourite slope, and he could tell this wasn't going to end well.
The skiers challenge his group to a Pokémon battle, their apparent leader singling Grusha out for a one-on-one battle. He tries to explain that he's no battler, he doesn't even know what moves his Pokémon has, but it's to no avail.
Of course, he loses. Spectacularly.
He feels a strong pang of guilt as he recalls Persik into the safety of his Pokéball, though that guilt is quickly swept away by anger as the skier returns to his herd, gloating loudly that he'd just taken out the great Grusha Ibáñez with hilarious ease. Grusha has a good mind to bend down, pack a hard snowball and peg it straight up the back of the skier's stupid head.
But he doesn't.
Just as quickly as his guilt gave way to anger, his anger gives way to something else.
Determination.
For the first time since his retirement, he feels a familiar spark ignite deep within. It's the same spark that drove him for years back in his glory days, it's his drive, his passion, it's...
It's like his old life returning to him, just in a different form.
He heads straight to the nearest Pokémon Centre, first healing Persik and then stocking up on Pokéballs, potions, antifreeze, everything he assumes a rookie trainer will need. That skier seemed to know how to battle competently after all. He'd need a lot of practice if he wanted to have a hope in Hell's chance of beating him. As well as more Pokémon. He couldn't bring himself to battle with Persik again.
He throws himself head first into learning how to battle; gregariously reading every book, magazine and website he can find about Pokémon battling, studying different forms and techniques he can apply to his own developing style, how to use each Pokémon he's been able to catch and train so far to its full potential. Admittedly his team stays quite small, still in part due to his reservations about catching wild animals unless they seem like they want to be caught, however eventually his team expands to include a Cubchoo (Arbuz), Snom (Klubnika) and a Sneasel (Yezhevika). He trains them all relentlessly, and to eventual evolution (even shedding a few tears when Klubnika evolved that one frigid night), getting to a point where sparring with his fellow snowboarding pals is no longer satisfying. They'd agree with him as well; though obviously it's great to see Grusha finally enthusiastic about something again, there's only so much getting their asses kicked repeatedly that they can handle.
He decides it's finally time to track down that skier again.
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kikuism · 1 year ago
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hi mariam!!! 💖💗💝 choosing a book off my tbr list is like going to war but i'm in love with your library book piles so i'm curious what makes you pick the ones you do and do you manage to get through all of them before the return date?? i hope your reading journey is going well. it looks like you've read so much. oh! and i loved the last unicorn, it was magical ✨
hi jenna!! 💕💫 i'm so happy you enjoyed the last unicorn! magical is the word for it. it was such a beautiful book.
okay i get my book recommendations from a few different places: from youtube, since there are a few booktubers i love and if they recommend something that sounds interesting to me, i add it to my list. also, if i've heard of a book a lot but just haven't gotten around to reading it, i'll add it to my list, like for example persepolis. sometimes, and i really don't do this often, but i'll google 'more books like [book i recently loved]' and see what i get. that's how i found kill the boy band which to my surprise ended up being such a fun read. the last place i get recommendations from is goodreads, because for some reason seeing what a book is rated before i’ve read it affects the way i read it (i hate it.....i wish my brain didn't work that way but it does. i don't want to know anything about a book before i've read it other than a vague synopsis). as for how i choose what to read when i end up getting these giant hauls from the library, it really just depends on my mood.
hfjshd okay i'm digressing but i'm actually not a fan of when books have those award stickers on the front. i know it's marketing, but it also frames the book in a certain way, like it tries to influence the way you read it when it says it's a pulitzer winner or the women's prize winner. and i'm like nooooo i don't want to know any of this, i just want an unadorned book. because so much of the time, the book doesn't live up to that expectation. i read less and it didn't scream pulitzer prize winner to me. and same with hamnet. they didn't read like award-winning books and i was just....irritated that the whole time i was reading those books there was a voice in my head that was like 'this won an award! does it feel like an award winning book?' which just didn't make for what i felt like an authentic reading experience because i was constantly judging the book based on what it was being advertised as. then again, this doesn't happen with every single book that's marketed like this .....
but anyway, lately what i've been doing is that i'll read two contrasting books right after each other so the juxtaposition between them makes each one stand out more in my head. so after i finished hamnet i read paul takes the form of a mortal girl. and that was actually something i did after i started noticing that i'm kind of going into a reading burnout 😵‍💫 i didn't think this was possible but ... when i say i've been doing nothing but reading, i mean it. i'll finish one book and immediately start another one. it's been going like this for some time now and i feel like the books are all blurring together in my head. so i'm telling myself to take it slow, or to at least change up how i read. if a book is divided into parts, i'll tell myself to just read one part a day. i could make a book last for 4 days like that, if it has 4 parts. i tried doing this with tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow but i still ended up finishing it faster than i told myself to. so another thing i'm doing now is that i highlight. it's never something i did before, but i do it now. it's actually really fun. whether it's a really nice bit of writing or some kind of foreshadowing, it gets highlighted. and when i finish the book, i like looking back at everything i highlighted; i feel like it tells its own story, in a way. it makes the experience of reading feel more active.
and i always tell myself after i finish a book, 'okay, let it sink in, don't just jump into another one'. that helps too. i try to space them out by at least a day or two.
as for reading them all by the return date ... i always manage to finish the contemporaries. the others really depend on my mood. i've had elektra sitting on my table for so long now. i just need to be in the right mood to read a greek mythology retelling. and i don't think i'm going to get around to one hundred years of solitude for the same reason. books like that demand more concentration and commitment so they're harder for me to just pick up like that. i think when it comes to books like that, i should have no other books to read at that moment. like when i read the green bone saga, those books were all i had. so i didn't feel the pressure to get started on other book, i could just focus all my attention on what i had. i think that's what i'm going to do from now on, actually, because while getting 10 books from the library is fun, it does make me feel stressed hgkshfhf and then i think it makes me read even faster so that i can get through them all in time. even though i do have the option of renewing the books so sometimes i have these books with me for like more than a month hfjshfh it really just depends on my mood. i borrowed elektra such a long time ago and still haven't gotten around to it.
so i would say my reading journey is going quite well, actually, i'm having a lot of fun and reading so many different kinds of books. i just need to space out the books because otherwise they all start to blur together. like actually it would be so nice to just read like 4 books a month, i feel like each one would stand out so clearly in your head. that's impossible for me though.
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honeyhotteoks · 11 months ago
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Hello! This is a bit of a late response considering I read the 3 new chapters on the day you released them but I’ve been super busy and wanted to fully compliment them rather than respond in a rushed manner. I was actually on a college residential trip in Germany but dropped everything to read the new chapters, I was so excited and it did not disappoint! So here comes my stupidly long list of thoughts that no one asked for but I’m giving to you anyway because I am hyper fixated on this fanfic-
As a Hwa bias, chapter 10 was cruel, but in the best way possible. The way their alpha x alpha relationship is similar to that of wlw or mlm one in real life is so painful but such a smart metaphor. My situation is in fact very similar to his, being queer but financially dependant on my parents, so this definitely hit home. I hope the best for our Sanhwa but I love the subtle representation this dynamic is providing for us. The fact that neither of them let Wooyoung in on it because they want to protect him from the truth, are you trying to break my heart?! I can’t wait to see what you’ve got in store for them in future chapters. Mingi admitting fault is my favourite thing ever. I hate the trope of the main love interest being as close to perfection as one can be, Yungi having flaws humanises them so much and adds a whole lot of depth to their characters, making the story itself so much more interesting. But I’m also so happy that we are back into Yungi x Y/n fluffy era.
Chapter 11 was the prefect breath of air between 2 very angsty chapters. I literally love Wooyoungs character so much and getting to see him happy made me feel all giddy inside. Also love that Yeosang and Jongho are more included in this chapter. I hope we get to see Woosangs relationship develop more in future, they're such as cool side couple and deserve the best. The way Minseoks character slowly became more prevalent created great foreshadowing to the threat he would become, it’s paced so well and is such an enjoyable sense of anticipation.
And chapter 12. Oh chapter 12. Alike to chapter 10, I like the way that it represents trauma while being in a fictional and fantasy context. It gives the opportunity of being able to empathise with such an experience as it acts for a metaphor of traumatising experiences many of us have have in real life without directly describing it. And my god is it described well. I feel so much rage towards this fictional character, its not even funny. Once again Wooyo and Y/ns omega friendship that non of the others will ever be able to understand is so heart-warming and the way that Yungi and Woosanhwa put their differences aside when the person they love most was in danger. But also…wdym Hwa was sat with his head in his bloody hands?! I need to know! I didn’t even stop to think about the guys perspective because I was so invested in how Y/n perceived it but that teaser you dropped has made me so hungry for it. It’ll add weight to this climatic portion of the plot and so much depth to characters as were able to see how such an awful situation will influence their rational.
Once again Chai you have blown me away and allowed me to enjoy reading in a way I never believed I could. I’ll continue rereading these amazing chapters until the next update. Much love,
- 👻 anon
oh my goodness thank you SO much for this comment. i've read it a couple of times now, and i just really appreciate that chapter ten resonated with you. it took a while to figure out that dynamic with san and hwa, but i'm really happy with how it came together.
i hope you also enjoy the chapter 12 from the boys perspective release.... your comment on seonghwa's bloodied hands..... all is revealed and i really hope you enjoy that too!!
thank you as always!
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