#as well as linking to another post that goes into even more detail and explains where these numbers came from.

[astralleywright]

spent like an hour trying to find a post abt the disparity of origin companion's content in bg3 and couldn't so, hey, this fucking sucks

[mostlysignssomeportents]

A media literacy handbook for Israel-Gaza

Next Tuesday (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.

Media explainers are a cheap way to become an instant expert on everything from billionaire submarine excursions to hellaciously complex geopolitical conflicts, but On The Media's "Breaking News Consumers' Handbooks" are explainers that help you understand other explainers:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/breaking-news-consumers-handbook-israel-and-gaza-edition-on-the-media

The latest handbook is an Israel-Gaza edition. It doesn't aim to parse fine distinctions over the definition of "occupation" or identify the source of shell fragments. Rather, it offers seven bullet points' worth of advice on weighing all the other news you hear about the war:

https://media.wnyc.org/media/resources/2023/Oct/27/BNCH_ISRAEL_GAZA_EDITION_1.pdf

I. "Headlines are obscured by the fog of war"

Headline writers have a hard job under the best of circumstances – trying to snag your interest in a few words. Headlines can't encompass all the nuance of a story, and they are often written by editors, not the writers who produced the story. Between the imperatives for speed and brevity and the broken telephone between editors and writers, it's easy for headlines to go wrong, even when no one is attempting to mislead you. Even reliable outlets will screw up headlines sometimes – and that likelihood goes way up in times like these. You gotta read the story, not just the headline.

II. Know red flags for bullshit

The factually untrue information that spreads furthest tends to originate with a handful of superspreader accounts. Whether these people are Just Wrong or malicious disinfo peddlers, they share a few characteristics that should trip your BS meter and prompt extra scrutiny:

High-frequency posting

Emotionally charged framing

Posts that purport to be summaries or excerpts from news outlets, but do not include links to the original

The phrase "breaking news" (no one has that many scoops)

III. Don't trust screenshots

Screenshots of news stories, tweets, and other social media should come with links to the original. It's just too damned easy to fake a screenshot.

IV. "Know your platform"

It used to be that Twitter got a lot of first-person accounts from people in the thick of crises, while Facebook and Reddit contained commentary and reposts. Today, Twitter is just another aggregator. This time around, there's lots of first-person, real-time reporting coming off Telegram (it runs well on old phones and doesn't chew up batteries). Instagram is widely used in both Israel and the West Bank.

V. "Crisis actors" aren't a thing

People who attribute war images to "crisis actors" are either deluded or lying. There's plenty of ways to distort war news, but paying people to pretend to be grieving family members is essentially unheard of. Any explanation that involves crisis actors is a solid reason to permanently block that source.

VI. There's plenty of ways to verify stuff that smells fishy

TinEye, Yandex and Google Image Search are all good tools for checking "breaking" images and seeing if they're old copypasta ganked from earlier conflicts (or, you know, video-games). The fact that an image doesn't show up in one of these searches doesn't guarantee its authenticity, of course.

VII. Think before you post

Israel-Gaza is the most polluted media pool yet. Don't make it worse.

There's plenty more detail on this (especially on the use of verification tools) in Brooke Gladstone's radio segment:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-breaking-news-consumers-handbook-israel-gaza-edition

The media environment sucks, and warrants skepticism and caution. But we also need to be skeptical of skepticism itself! As danah boyd started saying all the way back in 2018, weaponized media literacy leads to conspiratorialism:

https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2018/03/09/you-think-you-want-media-literacy-do-you.html

Remember, the biggest peddlers of "fake news" are also the most prolific users of the term. For a lot of these information warriors, the point isn't to get you to believe them – they'll settle for you believing nothing. "Flood the zone with bullshit" is Steve Bannon's go-to tactic, and it's one that his acolytes have picked up and multiplied.

It's important to be a critical thinker, but there's plenty of people who've figured out how to weaponize a critical viewpoint and turn it into nihilism. Remember, the guy who wrote How To Lie With Statistics was a tobacco industry shill who made his living obfuscating the link between smoking and cancer. It's absolutely possible to lie with statistics, but it's also possible to use statistics to know the truth, as Tim Harford explains in his 2021 must-read book The Data Detective:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford

There's a world of difference between being misled and being brainwashed. A lot of today's worry about "disinformation" and "misinformation" has the whiff of a moral panic:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/10/are-we-having-a-moral-panic-over-misinformation.html

It's possible to have a nuanced view of this subject – to take steps to enure you're not being tricked without equating crude tricks like sticking a fake BBC chyron on a 10-year-old image with unstoppable mind-control:

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/28/fog-o-war/#breaking-news

[dredgen-dumbass]

It's the last week of brain injury awareness month, and as your local TBI patient I figure I might as well use my small platform here to ask the D2 community to donate to the brain injury association of america.

long post under cut. please read.

My audience is still fairly small, but if all my followers pitched in just 5$ that would still be 760$. Even that much is substantial.

The research & outreach that they/their equivalents do is extremely important. I owe them so much for the work they do, as do so many other people. And there is still work to be done, always. If you have the money and the time, please pitch in.

If you can't afford to, that's fine. No judgement, no pressure. But if you're in the US, Congress is brushing us over and the BIAA has a list of ways you can help that take less that 10 minutes.

The least you can do is be informed. I can tell you, any brain injury patient you meet will appreciate it. We're far too used to having to explain everything from the ground up, or counter misinformation. Take the time out of your day.

PDF version

I'm wrapped in with a lot of those statistics. I'll save y'all the details, but trust me when I say it's more than just numbers. Y'all know me well enough. I'm in those numbers. I'm permanently disabled from my TBI. Humanize it.

I'm not as good of a resource on other forms of brain injury. I speak from experience, and no two are the same. That said, there are plenty of resources out there if you have the interest & the time. Especially from the BIAA!!

So here's my fundraiser again. Pass it around. Find out what's most relevant, if you're in another country- but science goes beyond borders. Research happening anywhere helps all of us.

And if you've actually read all of this, thank you. My dms are open if you're curious about any of it or want other links. I don't want to go on forever, but there's always more to say.

Thank you :)

[sinsolstice]

★ 彡 PROFESSOR RIVALRY WITH MIGUEL. ✧ MIGUEL O'HARA | CONCEPT

⋆𐙚₊˚ tags: rivals to potential situationship. ⋆𐙚₊˚ pairings: professor miguel + afab professor reader. ⋆𐙚₊˚ extras: divider creds: cafekitsune.

Molecular Biology and Genomics; two subjects of science that interlink with each other. But unfortunately, you and Miguel do not.

The two of you have this competition in the subjects you both teach your area of interest is molecular biology, whilst Miguel's is genomics. Both of you are professors at Neuva York Institute and this rivalry started back when you and Miguel started as students. Competing for the same grades, trying to come up with impressive projects and research and challenging each other when it comes to critical thinking and debates. Even now as alumni and professors of NYI, the fire between you and him hasn't extinguished. 

You and Miguel always clash when it comes to the subjects you both teach. There isn't a day that goes by where neither of you would miss out hearing each other's name in the classes you both teach. "Oh? Professor O'Hara said that learning about the ACGT bases is just a child's play?" You repeated, nodding to yourself as you tried not to sneer in front of your students. It's not their fault that his students are also your students since both subjects are certainly connected. They think it would help them progress to another year of studying.

You can almost hear Miguel's voice in your head, scoffing at you in his usual treatment. "Well, tell him as the professor of genomics, he should know that without understanding the concept of our DNA molecule, the area of his interest would just crumble into a hypothetical theory. To do a genomic mapping without learning about the DNA structure would just be a fantasy thought in the science department if people wouldn't bother to take my subject. Pass the message to O'Hara, would you?" 

When it comes to presentation research proposals, Miguel is always five steps ahead. He explains his scientific research clearly and thoroughly. But you always find a weak niche of his to point out and debate it. And in Miguel’s case, he shows no mercy towards you about your research proposals. Finding every little fault to the tiniest detail. “That wouldn’t work because the genetic code doesn’t match with what you wanted and it won’t get you the protein you want for your DNA,” Miguel argued. “You’ll have a shit genomic library for your research so come up with a better proposal.” 

You and Miguel would bicker at any point in time. But what’s more applauding is that everyone in the institute thinks that you and Miguel are suited for each other. Even daresay, the two of you would fall in love, already acting like an old married couple. Ha, as if! 

No matter how many times the two of you happen to be in the same room together, making a cup of coffee or tea at the same time, you can’t see yourself falling for someone like Miguel without frowning. No matter how many times you catch his gaze and he catches yours, the tension from the glaring across the room heightens, you don’t see how people can fathom the thought that you and Miguel are meant to be together. 

And no matter how many times you and Miguel bicker in the shared lab room, bodies leaning close intimidated in frustration as the two of you pick on each other’s thoughts, you convince yourself that in no way the two of you would start kissing from the heated passion. Even if that thought lingers in your mind at every argument with Miguel. 

more links to my works and posts.

[greatqueenanna]

I occasionally come across posts that claim that Frozen 2 is racist. One example being is Iduna herself, how she was retconned to be indigenous despite her white presenting self. Another is a video I saw on TikTok saying how they had her marry Aganrr aka her colonizer (even though I sincerely doubt Agnarr would follow what Runeard tried to do her people). And another time I saw a Youtube comment saying how the Northuldra are not Saami but Native Americans cosplaying as Saami.

I've said this before, but I'll reiterate my main viewpoints when it comes to this topic because the response was back in 2022, so might as well refresh it.

My viewpoint on this topic is this -

If you are not Sámi, then I don't think it is appropriate to speak on how well the representation was done. We should let the Sámi voice their own opinions, and not try to interject our own biases or talk over them. This goes for both negative and positive comments.

I understand where people are coming from here. All they want is to make sure that a group of people are being represented well and respected. They want to be sure that Disney is not just trying to cash in on a half-assed job at representation at the expense of a group that was often marginalized, discriminated against, and colonized.

However, I do think that when we try to defend on behalf of others, we often create problems that were not considered one in the first place, due to our own biases. What do I mean?

I often bring @hb-pickle's post (linked below), where she emailed Professor Veli-Pekka Lehtola, one of the people on the Sámi Advisory group that helped work on F2. He gave incredible insight on the development of F2, and was very happy with the work they did and the treatment they received.

He mentions within his response three main concerns they had during development.

That Yelena was a villain at first.

That the Northuldran attire was at first even more vague than it is now, and looked more like a non-specific arctic attire.

That the Reindeers were running in a circle at the end, as this was not realistic.

You can read the original response to see more details on these and how the team navigated them.

Out of these three issues - not one of them is about Iduna saving and marrying her 'colonizer', or about Iduna presenting white. These issues are things that are brought up mostly by western audiences. Thus, western audiences are creating a problem , and thus speaking over the group they are trying to protect.

In fact, even the film team did this to some extent. With the second issue that I mentioned above, the film team explained to the advisors that the reason they did not want to specifically represent Sami clothing and colors with the Northuldra, is because they did not want to 'culturally appropriate' them.

Thus, the team was making a decision on what the Sami should consider offensive, much like how western audiences are doing the same with Iduna's character.

I would advise seeking out Sami opinions. I have linked some articles below that you can check out.

“Reindeer are better than people:” Indigenous Representation in Disney’s Frozen

Disney's 'Frozen 2' thrills Sámi people in northern Europe

The last link is from a tumblr blog that is now closed. However, you can get a little bit of info from this user before the read more, unless someone has their full article somewhere.

[okamiz36]

MORI IS NOT A PEDO. DAZAI IS NOT A WOMANIZER OR 2D. A rant about the BSD universe, characters, and fanfic writers and how people mischaracterize the MCs

SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK NO LONGER HUMAN

Ok so, for those of who don't know in BUNGOSTRAYDOGS ANIME each main character was based off an actual writer and the character's came to be a blend of the universe/anime mixed with the novelist's books. For example, Dazai Osmau wrote the book No Longer Human which explains the tale of a man who had been acting his entire life, struggles with depression, fitting into society and eventually at the end comes out as gay (shoutout to the soukou shippers because this practically confirms the ship is canon). It shows how Dazai is more then a womenizer and comedian whereas in the anime we just take the character at surface level.

I'm a fanfic reader, I enjoy alot of different stories and right now I'm reading StrayBoundIsakai on AO3, amazing fanfic to some extent. I love it and whatnot but they included some notes on NaomiXTanizaki, and like a true fan I've done a bit of reasearch on the books written by the characters (I read crime and punishment+No longer human because those are my favs plus another Dostoyevsky book I can't remember the name of) So y'know it annoyed me to see people claiming that Tanizaki and Naomi are an actual incest couple because they are not. Here's my theory, Tanizaki n Naomi arent real siblings, in the book Naomi by Tanizaki two lovers have to pretend to be siblings to hide from a man who I'm pretty sure forced Naomi into a relationship with him, ill read the book prob tmrw if i got time, and its a common theroy that Naomi in bsd isnt even real, shes a hallucination ofa dead girl made by light snow ability. So one or the other.

We don't have any confirmation as to pretty much any of the BSD characters so we don't know the details between Tanizaki and Naomi as they've been kept secret. BSD is an odd anime because it goes from silly detective to vampire outbreak, to Fyodor is god, but within layers there are so many hidden clues on what the real story is.

Dazai is a tricky one for me because i've read so many theories on him but my favorite is why he abuses Akutagawa. Dazai is abusive to Akutagawa bc if he isnt and praises aku then aku loses his reason to lvie and be better then he alreayd is, akutagawa needs to be told he's a failure, dazais nice to atsushi bc atsushi is already so far broken if he doesn't get praise he'll go insane and suicide or smth similar. Dazai's character and entire personality is within the book no longer human (amazing read would recommend but it will mess you up) people often call him a womanizer but it's him simply trying to fake a personality as to what he deems is the most likeable persona or sterotypical persona. He's not annoying, his entire personality is a facade in which he's just trying to be likeable because he has no clue how he's suppose to act. In the PM/dark era/15 dazai he acted cold and ruthless because that was what was to be expected of him. Dazai has no personality, he's a pathological manipulator, YALL PLEASE READ NO LONGER HUMAN IF YOU ARE A DAZAI FAN.

And then Mori... PEOPLE PLEASE STOP SAYING HE'S A PEDOFILE. I'm going to take context from a reddit thread and the link will be posted because the post I'm quoting omg is amazing helped me so much, "Elise is the character of a short story by Mori, "The Dancing Girl" [a japanese student in Germany falls in love with a 17yo local girl who was poor and danced for a living, they have a complicated relationship until the guy chooses Japanese Moral Integrity over Love and goes back home. The girl realizes she was pregnant and goes mad, the student finds out and has painful regrets because he wanted a child/family and truly loved the girl" "In "The Dancing Girl", in the end the girl was pregnant with the student's child. Could BSD Elise herself be that child? Well, I don't very much believe this actually (imo BSD Mori and Elise don't have a father-daughter kind of relationship, I will elaborate), but anyway it's something that popped up in my mind. 2) I'm sure I read this somewhere, though I can't remember the source rn, that RL Mori himself said that his sexuality is "like that of a child", meaning that he does not really feel sexual attraction but he understands love and affection, and he stated that he loved his wife and children. So, my personal opinion is that Elise could be just that part of him. That's why it's shaped like a child. (+ Little side note idk if it's something worth mentioning but Elise has blue eyes, blonde hair, western outfit... Is she European? Given RL Mori's literary tastes I mentioned at the start, Asagiri might have chosen this specific design on purpose?).  Anyway that brings me to my next point: What is Mori and Elise's relationship in BSD? Like I was saying, Elise is literally a part of Mori, so she is Mori himself, his preferences, the influences he had, etc. He loves and cares for her because he loves and cares for himself. After all, Mori is not shown being "affectionate" towards other kids: there were Q and Kyōka right there but Mori never showed interest in them if not to exploit their abilities. So is BSD Mori a pedo yes or no?? Here we are. I think BSD Mori might be asexual (as for RL Mori, he probably was, but we'll never really know, also who knew about asexuality in 1800-1900s lol). That said, the character is never shown feeling sexual attraction (and reminder that pedophile means sexually attracted to children, y'all say this word so lightly smh). But Mori really says a lot of inappropriate stuff, doesn't he? Fukuzawa was shocked and Elise picks on him. But what if the shtick is that he just doesn't realize that he appears sus to others, exactly because anything he does isn't intended as sexual in his pov? He's a criminal mastermind but he also probably thinks dressing up Elise is like dressing up a doll and saying she's his wife is like playing house."

Asagiri prob just made him seem creepy because guess what HE'S A MAFIA BOSS LIKE WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?! Link is here please read: reddit.com/r/BungouStrayDogs/comments/17zes5z/vita_sexualis/

Reading or watching videos of recaps on the BSD writers made me hate so many fanfics honestly.... I shared all of these thoughts with my friend @kreepyveebs because they wanted to makea Ranpo fanfic and I figured I should also make a post on this.

I'm going to link a channel who made videos on Dostoyevsky's books just because it helps clearify what Fyodor is even talking about/explaining in the books, it's also a psychology channel so I recommend just binge watchin this guy https://www.youtube.com/@unsolicitedadvice9198

Can writers and theorists also please start figuring out what made Kunikida have his ideals, or made Ranpo the way he is? Ranpo wrote black lizards so me and Kreepy have made the theory of he had mafia parents or somehting similar, maybe related to Hiroshi? (im pretty sure i got his name wrong- ack), stop focusing on just the mains, like jeez.

SHOUTOUT TO @kreepyveebs (second ping mwahhaha) THEYRE AN AMAZING ARTIST AND WRITER AND YOU SHOULD 100% FOLLOW THEM IF YOU SEE THIS POST.

oh yeah @unknowntalesbymiles you should enjoy this post so ping for you!

[lunavagans]

So like, I know a little bit about your world building from your writing. Here's a question for you; how does Link's father view having 4 (or 5? depending?) children after the Links split up again? Does he view them as his children? Or something else?

Alright SO. I talked a little bit about how I think Link‘s family life and childhood was like in this post, just for a bit of background where some thoughts come from! But for this one, I‘m thinking that I‘ll talk about the man himself and what I think he‘s like, his position, and how it influences his actions before and after the manga regarding his children.

Link‘s (the colours’) father never addresses Link‘s other parent, and as I don‘t want to think that‘s because they‘re present but irrelevant, I prefer to say that they‘re either non-existent, dead or distant. This means that Dad is fine raising a child on his own, which is taxing if you work a job like Royal Knight on the by (and I think he was working while he raised Link, you don‘t get that rank without having been years in the field). Which in turn means that he‘s extremely attached to Link, maybe even had a sort of us-against-the-world mindset. There‘s nobody else in the family, it‘s just the two of them. And they make due.

Until it‘s not just the two of them anymore, of course. And Dad was definitely a bit out of it when he learned of the general existence of the colours, on the trip back to the Four Sword Sanctuary. He probably felt like he was having his son‘s brain projected into many more details than he usually gets to see, which was nice but also unnerving. He was very glad for the prospect of the four merging very soon.

At this point he viewed them less as separate people and more as Link‘s brain divided into different bodies. Part of it was his insistence that Link will return and part was the reluctance to accept that he barely knows the people replacing his son. He might even have a fleeting thought if the colours replacing Link means that they‘re his killers somehow. He knows that‘s not true, that‘s the uncertainty speaking that’s trying to pack all this into concepts he‘s more familiar with. Guy doesn‘t know shit about magic and just went through hell, he can freak out on the inside if he wants to, I think.

Then the attempt to merge fails. (I‘ll explain why in another post that I‘ll finish eventually, it‘s a whole thing.) And the only thing that keeps Dad from screaming into the colours‘ faces is that he still needs to keep up his duty and escort Zelda to the castle proper through a town that‘s been claimed by bandits while the knights were gone.

Then a while goes by where Dad doesn‘t really have the opportunity to talk to the colours which is probably for the best. The town‘s reconstruction is in full swing and all of them are doing their best to contribute, then there‘s the worry about Zelda after her father‘s death in the attacks. Red and Green come by once to try and reconnect - after all, that’s still somebody important in their life, even if none of them are sure if he counts as their father by blood or by choice. It goes well, Dad made them tea and they sat together in awkward silence. (Speaking from own experience here, eventually you just get bored trying to keep yourself from asking out loud what you‘re all doing here. They were all glad when the colors left.)

In the quiet moments, Dad reflects on his own and, with the colours apparently resolving to take on an identity separate to Link (as much as the townsfolk will let them), he decides to try and do the same and basically treat his son like he fell in the attack on the town. This lets him cope with the loss of Link and build relationships with the colors from the ground up like he technically knows they deserve - they shouldn‘t bear the brunt of his grief just because of their origin.

All in all, rather rational about the whole thing. He even appoints one of the other knights to act in his stead for the time being because he‘s aware he‘s bound to be a bit unstable in the coming weeks.

Now, how does he treat the colors? Not all that much, actually. Blue and Green are the ones that stay knights, so he interacts with them on a regular basis (even if Green’s technically stationed somewhere else) and is eventually able to ignore the tiny thing in his skull that‘s pointing out similarities and differences to Link.

With Red, it‘s a bit more difficult since he doesn‘t have as much opportunity to see him everyday, but he‘s still around and in the castle, so they cross paths occasionally. It‘s fine, they‘re civil to each other; the problem is more that Red picks up the relationship where Link left off by habit, which Dad doesn‘t really like. They talk it out, though.

Vio is the problem child as usual. That one leaves the castle relatively quickly and has his crisis about their, his and Link‘s life in quiet. He and Dad never stop being awkward around each other, they try to leave interactions to the polite minimum and usually succeed.

Now, SHADOW. Oh boy. This heavily references my fics (rewriting those currently, so uh I‘ll leave out the details), but Dad is basically present when he’s resurrected by the Yiga, right? And when Shadow tries to flee from the scene and Miss Fairy fetches Dad to get him (unaware of his identity so far), all Dad knows him as is the pitiable but suspicious boy they found at the scene. It stays that way for a bit, and as Shadow makes the deal with Zelda that he‘ll help with he Yiga problem in exchange for safety and staying secret, they work together occasionally; only really because Impa and Dad have to coordinate plans sometimes.

Which he‘s fine with, it‘s necessary. So the new boy he found seems to stay around for good, and he tries to get into conversation a bit. What‘s your name, what happened to you, are you well, those sort of things. Is worried about him, which might partly be because he kind of reminds him of Link. The point is, Dad has a while to observe this new person who overall is a good guy. A bit annoying at times, but will quiet down when he‘s told to. Basically, Dad tries to parent him a bit which Shadow hates. Dad tones it down.

Still thinking about how the reveal would go, but afterwards, Dad would only really be a bit more cautious than before. He knows he only saw Shadow‘s worst side during the manga, and now here he is trying to actively make amends in the few ways he knows how to, which is hunting down people and spying (he expands his repertoire, don‘t worry). And Dad knows that attempt is genuine, he’s watched it for a while.

Dad ends up fond of and exasperated with him. They spar sometimes, and the others around make fun that this random person can pose a challenge to the Knight Captain (is that the title he has? I can‘t be bothered to look it up rn).

ALL THAT TO SAY, nah he doesn‘t really view them as his children, he doesn‘t like the thought of replacing Link like that. Which of course it wouldn‘t be, but also there’s no reason to press him into calling them his sons (which would get weird once relationships start to form, anyway).He sees them more like children from the neighbourhood, if that makes sense? They‘re around all of a sudden and that‘s that.

Thanks for giving me an excuse to yap :D

[yumedoca]

Hi! How are you?

I was thinking about Urusei Yatsura and I must admit I don’t understand Ataru. The more I think, the less I understand! Would you help?

Why is he so insistent with the womanizing? Why he needs it so bad? He really wants the attention of all of these girls or is that supposed to represent his biggest desire for freedom above all else? It’s sort of messed up that he priorizes his so-called freedom and the skirt-chasing above being with the girl he loves and who loves him back and that he knows he’s hurting said girl with his behavior (both the girl-hunting and by withholding affection) and he keeps doing that anyway 😭 (... Not that Lum is a saint either but that's besides the point). Ataru's unwillingness to compromise and to give up on his habit really gets in the way of him truthfully experiencing "True Love", doesn't it? It seems like he would rather lose Lum than commit to her. Do you think he would have acted differently if it was with Shinobu?

Oh, and I've seen some speculation that explained Ataru's lechery as being the result os his relationship with his mother and the lack of motherly love he received growing up, so he actually goes after all these girls because he's that starved for affection. What do you think?

Hai there, Hope you're doing great!!

Sure, I'll help you out!! Ataru is a complicated individual, after all. But first, I think it would help you a lot if you read my write up on 'Ataru's Love for Lum' first since whatever I've mentioned there is very vital to understanding Ataru as well.

And I haven't even started yet but I have a feeling this will be a sequel to the linked post above since this ask does bring up some questions I don't think I've directly touched in that one.. so...

I hope my fellow UY's are having a great day because today on ‘Yuca Analyzes Silly Things (For No Reason)’, we'll be talking more about Ataru and his relationship with Lum!

And naturally there are spoilers so proceed with caution..

Ok now, let's begin!! Your first question is 'Why does Ataru womanize?' As for the initial reason? Not completely sure. The manga shows that he's just always been like that, even as a kid. It's just never been talked about. And I don't believe in the speculation which you stated btw, because I wouldn't say that Ataru had a lack of motherly love. Yeah, Mrs. Moroboshi can be a bit comedically harsh, but most of that ends up being a one time joke. In fact, she actually really does love Ataru and takes really good care of him (to the point where she waits for him to arrive before eating dinner, says she'll save up money on him so he can go to a good college and other details like that which you can catch here and there), she's just worried about his idiotic tendencies, that's all.

The best theory I have about his womanizing is that ever since he was little he's always seen women in a sort of 'very nice and sweet onee-chan' sort of way. What supports this theory is the fact that Ataru's mom seems to be the most involved in his life compared to his dad (who's either at work or buried deep into his newspapers, he does spend sometime though) and has the most agency in the family. Because of that small Ataru probably had a better view of woman, which probably made him want to meet more and befriend them but since he was small and an idiot, he would just cling onto them which naturally annoyed them to the point of there being rumors about him. And as he grew older (and hormones), this 'liking' eventually became lust. Another theory is that it might be genetics since both of his parents have fallen for someone else during the series' run, but that's like the only thing to support the theory. In the end, I'm still not completely sure. Like to be fair, UY is a gag which wasn't exactly written with much thought (yeah, the character development is unintentional. I'm pretty sure it's a result of RT writing each chapter by going with the natural flow of the story, which is why the characters grow gradually. This isn't something any writer can do btw) so not everything would have an explanation.

Next is 'Why is he still womanizing? why does he want these girls?' Because he's young. He's still a teenager and he likes women and he has for years to the point it's a habit. Habits are hard to break so he can't suddenly be dedicated to someone out of straight up nowhere (especially if she basically got them 'married' instantly when he's still just a teenager). His love for women is just a huge part of his personality, it's just not something he can throw away in an instant and because of that he remains attached. What does not help matters even more is the number of gorgeous girls who're usually around him on a daily basis, girls who are incredibly cute, beautiful, sexy.. tell me, just tell me exactly how easy would it be to break his girl hunting habit when that's the case??

As for Lum, Ataru doesn't emotionally hurt Lum with his womanizing for the most part. Sure, the hope he would stop does linger in her but his infidelity for the most part only makes her mad more than anything else, and she recovers from her anger pretty quickly. Lum getting deeply hurt, is actually quite rare (and has happened very few times in the series) since she's mostly very outgoing. Whenever she's that hurt, we, the readers are made aware of her feelings because unlike a certain idiot, she doesn't keep how she feels to herself. But for the most part, Lum just goes into furious rage rather than any sort of deep feelings when it comes to Ataru's womanizing and yes, Ataru is completely aware of that so he knows he isn't hurting her in any serious way.. and if he did hurt her in that manner, he would probably want to fix things with her..

See how Ataru wanted to talk to her here when he thought she was emotionally hurt? But it was actually buildup for her rage..

The next bit I want to talk about is how both of them love teasing, irking and messing with the other, Ataru likes poking at Lum's temper and Lum likes messing up Ataru's enjoyment with women because to them, their daily antics are like a game which neither wants to lose because of their pride. Like that, their 'he flirts, she zaps, she chases him' thing isn't something they take to an emotional value. It's their game, a game which neither wants to give up.

Now with that done, I want to talk about what you said regarding 'Ataru prioritizing his womanizing over Lum' which has evidently shown to be incorrect. One example is in the 'Electric Jungle' arc, when he left a date with some girl just so he could go on his date with Lum. It's not always a girl accepts Ataru's request; the chances for that is most probably lower than his chances to go on a date with Lum, yet he still left his date with the girl anyways because he knew Lum was waiting for him. Another example is the fact that Ataru won't accept a harem if it doesn't have Lum in it. If Lum isn't in the harem, the harem means nothing to him. Heck, the reason why he wants a harem is because he needs Lum with him, even if there are other girls. Lum is what matters the most to him.

Next is the topic of Ataru and 'true love', Ataru isn't someone who yearns and is desperate for 'true love', but he still does hold it with value. To Ataru, 'true love' doesn't mean flirting, kissing, etc., it means something much deeper, something that comes from the heart. The former can be done even if you don't love someone truly, but the latter is what 'true love' is. There's also a bit more to it but I've already talked about this in the above linked analysis, so I'll just copy-paste that part here instead of writing it from scratch:

Now if he does love her, then why doesn’t he agree to do couple stuff (here I mean stuff like kissing, flirting, saying “I love you”, etc.) with her? That’s because he does all those things with other woman to the point they have lost that specialness. It may still be special to her, but not to him because Lum isn’t any woman, he’s the only one he actually cares about and he doesn’t want to give her the same treatment he gives other women.

So, yeah, it's exactly what I said..

And finally the question 'Would he have acted differently if it was Shinobu?' Of course, we all know that they used to be exes and we do get to see how it was back then as well so we'll just use that info. The womanizing part remains the same for the most part, Ataru would chase skirts if it's either Lum or Shinobu. But the difference would be in whether he shows affection. With Lum, Ataru knows that she'll never leave him and that she will only love him (which is true) but Shinobu isn't like that. Shinobu didn't have any other options and she was already friends with Ataru which is why they started dating. But when she's presented with a better option (temporarily Rei, though only in term of handsomeness, she turned him down because he's an idiot, and later Mendo) her mind immediately wavers and prefers the better option, after all she wants the one who is the match made for her. Because of this, Ataru can't hide his feelings (which he eventually ended up losing anyways) or else it's literally over. It's also easier for Ataru to show affection towards Shinobu since he's always been friendly with her, unlike Lum who he treated terribly at first.

And I think that's it! This ended up being hella long and I ended up spending a lot of time on this (so.. to those reading, please like and even more importantly, reblog! pretty please?) and I hope I was able to clear all your questions anon! Ataru's a tough nut to crack but once you do it you'll see why it is that way. Anyways, that's it, thank you for taking your time reading this and have a great day ahead!!

[sweet-lemonad-rose-sapphire]

Link Character Analysis Pt. 4

Zelda’s Friend

Link’s Relationship with Zelda

Pre Yiga attack, he’s more of a shadow to Zelda. He observes her and her love of research, but their relationship was nothing more than a knight protecting his princess. This all changed when Zelda was attacked by the Yiga

After this attack, Zelda says in her diary that she plans to open up more to Link in hopes that he does the same with her. And this WORKS somehow!

I also want to point out that it isn’t until AFTER Zelda apologizes to Link about her behavior that he finally speaks to her. I speak more about this little detail in a theory of mine here

Besides Daruk, Zelda is probably the only one Link (post Master Sword) has opened up to like this. And he doesn’t just speak to her, he tells her why he doesn’t speak! He doesn’t even tell this to Daruk or even Mipha, his childhood friend!

Does Link know Zelda has a crush on him?

I don’t exactly know what the difference is between the first time Link saved Zelda (the time with the Rogue Guardian) and this time, but now, Zelda has a new understanding of Link. Well, it’s more of a… crush on him if I dare say. (I’ll explain more of her crush in her analysis)

If Link knew about this crush, he doesn’t really show it. But he shows little or no confusion whenever Zelda seems flustered over him (this mostly shows up in AoC).

Sadly though, there is no other clear answer from what I could find in these two games.

Does Link have a crush on Zelda?

In the memories seen in BotW, Link is seen protecting Zelda from monsters as well as catching her when she falls during the earthquake in the Return of Calamity Ganon memory. Small moments that may mean something in everyday media, but remember, Link’s job is to literally assist and protect Zelda. However…

In the Premonition memory, Link goes a bit overkill when it comes to protecting his princess. Sure, they may have ran into some monsters and he had to fight against them, but as Zelda is looking over Link’s wounds, she tells him “There’s a fine line between courage and recklessness”. If Link was simply defending Zelda, there would be no reason for her to say something like this. This could mean that he wasn’t just protecting her, but maybe even showing off? Also, this isn’t the first time the word “reckless” has been used to describe Link. Mipha was the first to describe Child Link as reckless, but he lost that behavior AFTER discovering the Master Sword. If Link is suddenly acting different than he has in a while, this means something someone has him slightly distracted from that Silent Knight stoicism we’ve been seeing previously!

During the Silent Princess memory, Link is not only watching over Zelda as she’s doing her research, but is down on his hands and knees looking at the flowers with her! He also listens to her as she talks about the different flowers and animals. He seems genuinely interested (except for that time she tried getting him to eat a frog. He didn’t seem too interested in that).

Another moment I want to talk about is in the Despair memory. Whether he was ordered by the king (like in AoC) or he took his own initiative, Link was leading Zelda to safety away from the attack on Hyrule Castle. They must’ve been running for a while when Zelda tripped. Link looked as though he was still running on adrenaline, but when he sees Zelda laying hopelessly in the mud, he doesn’t tell her to get up and keep going. Instead, he sheaths his sword, gets down in the mud beside her, and listens to what she has to say. Even lending her a shoulder to cry on. (So beautiful and sad! 🥹) Link did NOT need to do this! In fact, this action is going against his job of protecting her. There’s literally an entire town getting destroyed right behind them, but he gives Zelda a moment to grieve instead because he knows that’s what she needs in this moment.

One more thing! In AoC, just before Link obtains the Master Sword, he didn’t know he was the Knight of Destiny yet. He was fighting alongside the champions, but the Sword didn’t call him. His sword broke, and the Sword STILL didn’t call him! It wasn’t until Link sees Zelda is about to die, he reaches out to her, and only THEN does the Sword emit a blue light that destroys the evil surrounding the group. DOES THIS NOT SOUND FAMILIAR?!?! Yes, I am still taking the plot of AoC with a grain of salt, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the two scenes of Zelda and Link “gaining their powers” play out in a similar way. Kass describes Zelda’s determination as “her love for her fallen knight”, so why can’t Link’s determination in BotW be for the love of his princess?

[sable-skies]

Fun lil' Anon here!! I have an actual question and a nice message!

Message: I love ur art its amazing and its so cool and cute and fun :3

Question: Can you do a step-by-step thingy of drawing a full body plus the side face you did with your Links Meet AU Art (If yk the pieces im referring to...) Im trying to get better at art and I love your style so I wanna try it out!!

If you're ok with all that I would love that, so thanks a lot!!

- Link to the Random (Aka Legends Legacy AU)

Hello hello!! First off, thank you so much!! <33 again, it always mean so much to me that people enjoy my work and my silly little ideas :'']

I can certainly try!! I've been asked to do similar stuff in the past and I'll admit, I'm not much of a teacher because I have a hard time explaining the thought processes in my head, but I will do my best!

Under the cut I will include the timelapse of the sketch and lineart I did in procreate, and then I'll have images going step by step and explaining what I did in each section! (Note: I don't have any color timelapse stuff due to forgetting to record stuff in Clip Studio Paint, that's my bad whoops).

additional note: I actually have sketch + lineart timelapses of all the designs i did, i can potentially post those if anyone is interested in seeing me dick around for 5 minutes as i try to figure out what I'm doing

First off, the timelapse! And I'm using Twilight here as my example because he's just personally my favorite.

It goes pretty quickly, so my apologies if anything is lost there. Thankfully, I save almost all of my works as multi-layered files too so I can go back and edit stuff if need be.

The first two here are the sketches I landed on and liked the most. The first one is much looser and lacking definition, so I went over it in another layer to get more of an idea of what I wanted to do + started to design him more. But you'll see me start to change stuff even in the lineart itself.

The first image here is the lineart as I finished it in procreate, lacking all the text and ideas for now. And the second image is the first pass I took at deciding his colors. I just eyeballed these from his canon design and the LinkedUniverse design because those were two obvious sources of inspiration.

HERE'S THE FUN PART; so I'm very indecisive whenever I color stuff so I'll take forever to find what I'm looking for / what fits the not so clear vision in my head the most. (i have a form of aphantasia, hard to keep images in my head for long)

What i like to do is copy my layers and then edit them with gradient maps, overlays, mess with the saturation, brightness, etc. It's a bit of digital hoarding but comparing the edits I've made to the first version is always nice and helps me keep my options open if need be, I also like to share my progress with friends for opinions so its good for that too. If you have anyone willing to, sharing multiple options and getting as many opinions as you can I think is a good practice! Thankfully some of my friends are big into design as well so it's fun to bounce ideas between each other.

Here are the final four. In the first image here I think I just edited the lines and added some color into some of them so they were all stark black. The next I added in some details on top of everything sorta-rendering style. Completely overhauled some bits in the third and fixed the profile head's proportions as best as I could, and the last one is simply the greyscale version of everything.

While deciding colors I keep a completely white layer on top of everything and set to the blend mode "color", and i switch this on and off just to check how the values are comparing to each other and if anything needs changed. looking at this now, i realize the belt across his chest and the tunic color are very similar, but thankfully the hues are so different that I think they don't blend all that much.

But generally this is how my process breaks down: sketch, second sketch (optional), lineart, color, color adjustment, merging it all together, final rendering adjustments, final product. my newer works have started to lean into this post lineart and color rendering thing more, I used to be really particular about making sure everything had a layer and was organized. nowadays, i just merge shit and start drawing on top of it (maybe i'm getting old, maybe i'm 23, who knows)

but yeah thats pretty much it! if you have any further questions and what not, feel free to ask! i'm a certified yapper myself so I don't mind typing out long shit like this.

[eternalnexuswarrior]

Most chaotic MFB Beyblade AU to pop up into my head. Part 1: Metal Fusion

Okay this one has been stuck in my head for close to a week to the point where I wrote snippets of it in my Google docs. Basically, all the characters are the same, the plot is relatively all the same, but one or two things makes this all a chaotic mess.

All the legendary bladers are mentally linked together about 2 years prior to Metal Fusion. As in, they can telepathically communicate with each other and sense each other's links.

They all get headaches one day and eventually find themselves mentally linked to each other. At first it's a chaotic mess of "what the actual heck is going on here?!" to slowly learning about each other and their families to "Oh heck, these are my friends and we support each other, however far away we are." They open up to each other, ranging between Dynamis and his family curse, to Chris' troubles and loneliness, and it becomes a friendship/brotherly therapy group. Even Ryuga opens up with them. He's not too much different from main series, but he cares about them and will protect him.

The other thing? Doji has screwed over a few legendary bladers by harming their families. This man is probably eviler in the AU than canon. He's arranged several accidents, including a rockfall that injured Dynamis' father on Mist Mountain, Ryuga's best friend getting injured in a hit and run, and other things.

This changes the situation quite a bit. Instead of Ryuga joining out his own will to spy on this man, end up possessed after grabbing L-Drago, and ending up in a coma. Dynamis, having a bit of psychic abilities due to his training on Mist mountain, is able to sense this, and besides avenging his father's supposed death and Dynamis' father's injuries, Gingka makes it his personal mission to take down Doji and save their mentally connected to them brother.

Enter the Canon.

Gingka meets Kenta and Madoka and everyone as Canon, but during the 1 vs 100 beybattle against the face hunters, Kyoya realizes during the commentary and has that "Oh shit, this is my bro!" Moment and later on meets up with Gingka face to face. The two get along,

And then Doji comes along to cause chaos.

Kyoya: “Hypothetically speaking, if this Doji person appeared out of nowhere in your hideout after a battle, should I be concerned?

Gingka: "...This isn't hypothetical is it?”

Kyoya: “Nope.”

Chris: “Wow, this guy wants blood.”

Kyoya: “....Want me to spy on him for you?”

King: “Oh? We're trolling?”

And from there, the ball gets rolling. Canon events happen while Kyoya gets free training during his spying (hey he's not gonna pass up a chance to train with his friendly rival), he relays what he sees during all this via group telepathy, up until his second battle with Gingka. Hikaru plays a bigger role from this too. Canon continues after that, including Gingka losing to Ryuga and the trip to Koma Village. At some point between all that, the group does learn about Kyoya and Gingka's backstory with both Doji and Ryuga. To which they are surprised, a bit unconvinced, to eventually believing them.

And then the stuff leading up to battle bladers happens. Canon battles happen, the tournament is announced, and everything goes according to the series. Except one more minor detail.

Enter Ryutaro Fukami. I headcanon this precious boi being Dynamis' cousin, with his family being related to a certain... Nemesis blader (more on that in a separate post someday). Well Gingka and Kyoya and the rest of the group make it to the Battle Royale tournament, and they stumble upon Ryutaro during a fortune-telling. He's aware of this link during a visit to his cousin, but is very sceptical about until the two visit his booth

Gingka: Hello! I'm Gingka and this is Kyoya. Your cousin has mentioned you.

Ryutaro: PiscesBlader.EXE has stopped working.

The group explains their backstory, and one thing leads to another. Ryutaro is unintentionally pulled into this situation (and doesn't know what to think of it), and even volunteers to spy on Doji. He gets his older brother (one of few OCs in this case, art is on the site) Ranmaru involved with this, and things slowly start to change from there.

No big changes, Canon continues up to the end of the season, right after to where Ryuga is defeated. Pegasus is gone, but as frustrated and upsetting as that is, Gingka's got his friends and his bros. And Ryuga's got his brothers help him heal. And of course Ryutaro is invited to join in the mental conversation due to his own psychic abilities.

Legendary Bladers: (talking about many things and situations)

Ryutaro: (instantly regrets it and starts stocking up on headache medicine)

Part 2 of this will cover Metal Master and probably Metal Fury.

[innitmarvellous]

I would love to hear about you going on a tangent about British politics and stuff. I find stuff like that so fascinating especially as an American so please do tell and any book/media recommendations would be cool Tysm

Whoa, thank you so much and I even feel honoured! :D I'm always happy for an opportunity to bang on about politics. And I'm sorry, but this will be a pretty long post, haha.

Well, I was sort of into politics ever since my school days (oh, the good old days when I had to explain the German electoral system for my exams haha) and I guess I might have studied something politics-related at university if I had the qualifications...but sadly I don't, so it's just something like a hobby for me. Anyway, at first I mostly just followed German politics, but then I got really into British politics in 2016 after the Brexit vote. I started watching the parliamentary debates on Brexit when they showed them on German TV for whatever reason, then later online and idk, that got me hooked. I have been following current events to varying degrees ever since (mostly via the Guardian and the BBC News because I'm sort of a leftie...lol) and I would say it has definitely become one of my main interests. I think nowadays I'm probably better informed about the events in the UK than about the political landscape in my own country (bit sad, but true). Still, I'm definitely no expert and I've got a bad memory, so I find new and interesting bits and books all the time, haha.

Anyway, book recommendations! This will be by far the longest part of this post…of course this is only just about the stuff I've read, so not exactly comprehensive and probably biased because of my personal political preferences, but…hopefully still a bit useful. :) (Sorry for the Goodreads links, but since I use that site to keep track of my reading it was just the easiest solution. Here's also a link to my non-fiction shelf for more stuff…I didn't mention every single book I've read or else this post would be even longer haha)

For a more general overview I would recommend this series of books: UK Politics Annual Update. They are actually for A-level exam preparations, but I found them pretty useful (especially for earlier years when I didn't follow politics yet) and bought almost all of the older editions. Or alternatively, this book was alright if you want want less detail, but still a quite comprehensive overview. Although I didn't really like how the author's personal opinion got obvious from some bits. For a more light-hearted approach, British Politics for Dummies is also pretty good. I've read a few of this series and it's one of the better books.

Getting a bit more specific now…two pretty good books which are mostly about what happens in Westminster and what could be improved about the way British politics work are How Westminster Works...and Why It Doesn't and Code of Conduct. Especially the first one is really good, and it has lots of interesting stuff in the 'further reading' section for the more hardcore nerds. Yeah, I'm currently going through that list, haha.

Also pretty good, but also quite specific are Chums and Butler to the World. The first one is about how modern politics is mostly shaped by people who went to Oxford (and it was quite depressing sometimes, but very interesting), and the second is about how Britain occasionally helps rich people hide their money to pay less taxes and all that. Another good one is The War Against the BBC, but as it's mostly about, well...the BBC it's only politics-adjacent…still worth reading especially since the Tories these days are attacking the BBC all the time and try to undermine it.

As for Brexit, I'm still looking for a really good book about that…but the best one I've read so far is A Short History of Brexit. It's pretty complicated and technical though, and goes into detail about how the UK joined the EU in the first place, so I wouldn't 100% recommend it.

Three quite different, but interesting books written by British politicians are Go Big, Seven Ways to Change the World (ideas about how to improve British or even world politics from two former Labour leaders) and Unspeakable (despite the title it's not just an autobiography but also explains quite a bit about the work of the Speaker of the House of Commons).

Also, no matter whether you're a rather left-wing person or whatever you think about Jeremy Corbyn, this book was really interesting. Of course it's written from a sympathetic viewpoint, but it was generally really interesting to see the phenomenon of Corbynism in the context of the history of the Labour Party. Same goes for this book, although it's also written from a left-wing perspective.

Also surprisingly good and insightful was this short essay about politics by Frankie Boyle. Yes, the comedian.

Oh, and last but not least: I also genuinely think that watching HIGNFY is pretty useful when it comes to getting an overview about current British events. (Well, "current" depends on whether you're watching an old series or the latest episodes, of course. But it's just as good for older stuff, I think. Some things like, idk, scandals usually don't get mentioned in the books, at least not the ones I've read.) Same goes for the Private Eye annuals, although I assume these are more fun if you do have at least some knowledge of what happened in the corresponding year already.

[asherlockstudy]

It has always been one story

The last days I have been making some analyses based on Rhett and Link’s latest video “We Dug a Medium-sized Hole”. My realisation of what I have been explaining there led me to a new surge of excitement when watching their content. I have talked before about how much I like Hazel but to be precise I never watched the TikTok videos, I had only listened to the two versions of the song, which is certainly the best song they have written and performed so far in their career in my opinion. So a few days ago, my YouTube feed actually suggested the Hazel videos to me and, as I have been in this new RandL surge, I thought “why not”. I thought it will be fun and creepy, and it was, but once again I wasn’t ready for the hammer of realisation that fell right on my forehead. You see, being freshly out of my We Dug a Hole analyses, I noticed a load of similarities between the two. But even more importantly, I noticed numerous similarities between Hazel and the Lost Causes of Bleak Creek. In fact, what I mean by “numerous similarities” is that they are all essentially the same story, and the only thing that changes are the settings, the side characters and other secondary elements. So if this is the case, Rhett and Link have been telling one story again and again for quite some time and, in their words, have been somewhat disappointed at the reaction they did (not) receive from the viewers (Hazel), their difficulty to promote their story in other media (Bleak Creek) and now their decision to not have expectations so that they won’t get disappointed again (Digging a hole). But let’s say a few words for each of these major projects.

We Dug a Medium-sized Hole

Let’s start from the last one, which is also the smallest and most superficial project. It is a humorous video with a prepared song and a predetermined concept which is supposedly unscripted. I analysed it in excruciating detail a few days ago so I will just give you links to my posts “They Dug A Hole” and “The ‘We Dug A Hole’ Discussion”, which I would recommend because they will help make this post much clearer as well. Anyway, to summarise, here’s what goes down: Rhett and Link agree to dig a medium sized hole without examining this agreement and intent thoroughly and carefully enough to see if they are on the same page fully. They slowly get the hang of this, Link becomes very invested and loses control entirely. Rhett panics and tries to help Link get back to his senses and establish control between them again. Yet, if you remember this part from the “They Dug A Hole” post,

well, it had intrigued me then but it actually proved to be unexpectedly significant for real! Despite Rhett being the one who tries to establish control in the hole-digging process, soon he is the one to fall back into it the hardest. True enough, the second time it’s Rhett we see running the excavator. There are no other characters in the video, except for the mole who supports them but is accidentally killed. Rhett and Link have revealed this is the first of a series of similar videos (and songs, perhaps).

The Lost Causes of Bleak Creek

If you haven’t read their novel yet, well this is simply the best thing they have made so far and I definitely recommend it. I have always found it curious how little tumblr fans speak of TLCOBC, especially since it is RAGING with innuendo and symbolism that is not even subtle. I will give the story in very broad terms, however there are going to be some strong spoilers here because I don’t have another way to prove my point. Be warned. Of course here we have a different setting and the main characters are preteens. The setting is a dark twist of Rhett and Link’s actual childhood. Their small town with its extremely puritan, conservative community. The book has many characters but once again there is only one more character that can be considered as “main”, Alicia Boykins, their female best friend with whom they are secretly both in love. Well scratch that off, there is also Janine who is important, she is clearly Stevie’s character. But anyway. Rhett and Link have implied in a Mythicon that Alicia is a symbolic character who represents “their ideal selves”, “who they wanted to be”. So in short Rex, Leif and Alicia is a trio of best friends who live in this small Christian town hiding a dark secret. Leif falls in love with Alicia first and more profoundly, Rex a little later. Alicia is kidnapped and sent unfairly to a notorious reformatory school. Rex and Leif agree to save her but the whole plan goes wrong and Leif falls in a trap, in a very dark, deep and hopeless place, where Alicia also is, where you lose memory and the sense of self. (Won’t spoil more.) Rex returns to his town in utter panic and frustration and creates a master plan to rescue Leif. After a lot of allegories and adventures, Rex dives in the dark deep place and saves Leif (in a very romantic way btw). Alicia is rescued too. They confront the evil guys who control the reformatory school. They resume their peaceful life in their town. The book ends in a cliffhanger where Alicia sees something while bicycling that is a major sign that the cult / curse / that thing that was going on there is not defeated. So here we have as common themes: Link losing control because of how invested he was (in Alicia), Rhett panicking and trying to save him and correct the situation, and another main character who is a mysterious symbolism. It’s a little hard to be certain of what Alicia exactly symbolises, just like it is the case with the mole. What we don’t see in TLCOBC is Rex being the one to fall in deep the second time, but I bet this is the intended plot for the second book.

Hazel Macon

I watched this video a few days ago for the first time. Hazel is a fantastic project Rhett and Link came up with but the platform they chose to execute it on originally (TikTok) literally executed its chances for success. I will explain this in more detail. Rhett and Link promoted Hazel to the unaware GMM viewers by saying they were pulling an all-nighter to compose a song with their fans through TikTok. So they overestimated how many would go to TikTok for that. However, for those fans who signed up for this, they had already prepared a short movie separated in short bits, being uploaded gradually, telling a very creepy story. Here’s the plot: Rhett and Link start their all-nighter in the Creative House by uploading videos on TikTok. In order to get some ideas for their new song, they randomly choose the album Yearning by Hazel Macon. Link is confused because he does not remember this album, although Rhett argues confidently it’s Link’s and he acquired it in GMM (true). They play it and it is a haunting song of a girl wandering lost in a forest (as also evident on the album cover), waiting for someone to play her song, so she can be set free. They both hear whispering in the song and they figure it is backmasking (messages recorded backwards) so Rhett plays the record backwards to decode the message, to Link’s discomfort. Rhett says the message is there for a reason and he mockingly parallels it to satanic subliminal messages. He hears “I just want out. Just open the door. It’s been so, so long. I feel so lost. “ (Needless to say, this is in the official song obviously too.) Meanwhile, dead birds (crows) fall on their doors and windows every time they try to get out of the house. As they listen to the secret messages of the song, the girl vanishes from the album cover and they hear her singing from the back of the house. Scared to death, they see her emerge from the middle room (👀) . They try to hide in the kitchen where Link attempts to say something final and heavy with meaning to Rhett in case they die, but Hazel appears behind him and touches him causing him to fall into shock. She vanishes. Rhett stops playing the record but Link is now in a dead-inside state, the video suggesting Hazel is now inside him. Rhett roams the house but there is no way out as birds fall on every door. In a moment that Link escapes Rhett’s notice, Hazel reappears, turns Link into Harlan Macon, a reserved southern dude coming straight from the 1900s, and leads him to the middle room. Rhett follows in panic but there is nothing there when he opens the door. The Yearning album cover has changed and now it’s both Hazel and Link on the cover and on the record singing. Rhett in despair realises that he will have to play the record again, open the portal, find Link and save him (again, like in TLCOBC, see the trope?). As Rhett walks towards the door listening to Link’s voice from somewhere deep, he says “I don’t know if he can come out. I don’t think I want to go in there but I think I am gonna have to go in there”. This time when he opens the door to the middle room, it is an opening to a forest during a very dense night. It has a claustrophobic feel. Long story short, Hazel attacks him and turns him to Hardy Macon. However, when Hardy meets Harlan (Link), Harlan is “way too deep”, in Rhett’s words, he doesn’t recognise Rhett and he has assumed a different personality. Hardy!Rhett orders Harlan!Link to follow him, he bumps Hazel with a fallen branch, finds the door of the middle room and saves them both. Rhett immediately stops the record and Link returns to his normal self but has no memory of any of this. The album now has only Hazel on it again. Rhett tries frantically to get rid of the “Yearning” album but the “Yearning” album proves to be indestructible. It does not break, it does not melt and when he tosses it in the yard, it comes back.

Then there is a hilarious joke which Link now films; that Rhett is locked in the toilet for way too long, and Link thinks Rhett has shitted himself (however I bet the implied joke is that he was trying to wank it out, as a last resort solution to deal with Yearning). Link then explains to the fans how he still doesn’t remember the Yearning album and hypothesises that Rhett must have brought it earlier to him and ruined their entire evening. Link concludes that if he plays the record backwards again, he will decipher the message and be done with it. Rhett screams from the toilet but it’s too late. Hazel reappears and turns him to Hardy again. When Hazel and Hardy appear to Link again, the camera drops from his hands. The album which had turned to have Hazel and Rhett on the cover and record once Link started playing it again, now morphs into having Rhett and Link together, implying that they now both are lost in those woods with no way out. An unknown hand turns the record to play the normal version, by the Macon Brothers.

Notes and conclusions:

* It is important to note that all of these projects have an either neutral or bad ending. The most neutral one is the digging a hole one, where they have succeeded in making a medium hole but there is also the unintended massive hole behind them, which they choose to ignore. TLCOBC has a fake happy or ominous ending, as the threatening sign appears just when everything seems to be working out well. Hazel is dark and ends in melancholic despair - Rhett and Link remain trapped in that ominous forest hiding in the middle room of their house. These are not happy stories even though all feature Rhett and Link’s light humour (the fork in Hazel came to mind, this joke gets me every time).

* Alicia and Hazel clearly stand for the same or a very similar symbolism. They likely are the personification of yearning, of confronting the truth openly, of being free, as Rhett said Alicia was an allegory for who they truly wanted to be. In two of the projects, they are trapped female entities, whose steps Link follows.

* All of the projects were meant to be part of a series. The book ended in a cliffhanger. Rhett and Link had revealed in their EB for Hazel that they had more scenarios prepared to execute in the same way. Alas, this podcast was filmed before Hazel aired and apparently they were very disheartened by Hazel’s failure. Imagine all that I described, it didn’t take more than 76,000 views in TikTok and most video bits only made like 11,000 views, which must have been a stab in the heart. Ironically, they later uploaded the whole thing on YouTube, and it now has half a million. I mean it’s still not as much as expected for this type of production, but it’s better than the 70,000. In any case the moment was lost then. Now they return with the hole digging which they announced it is the first in a series of similar videos coming. They emphasised how they were determined to ignore the views this time, and even though they did not mention Hazel, I believe the concept is connected directly to the concept of the Hazel video series, postponed for two years after their disappointment. The videos tell the same story, accompanied by a song, but in totally opposite styles.

* Settings, secondary elements and characters vary - the main plot remains the same always in at least 2/3 of the projects at any moment. For whatever reason each time, Rhett and Link decide to do something that unexpectedly makes them vulnerable to a truth they either had not realised or hid well within themselves. Link is seduced or trapped by this truth and falls deeper and deeper, there is always this trope of him falling in deep, either because he wants to or because he has no choice. Link reaches a desperate, helpless state and Rhett realises that he will have to help him out of the situation. Rhett is always very scared and very panicked but in every version he is determined to bring back Link or bring him back to his senses or save him. Rhett struggles and he gets into this dark zone or loses himself in this seductive trap momentarily in order to get Link back. However, he succeeds. They are both back to normal, figuring things out properly. The success is short-lived as Rhett eventually realises he is in fact trapped in way too deep as well, that he is trying to fight something he cannot defeat. The moment he realises this, Link relapses again soon too. This of course is given in a very cheerful, carefree way in the digging video while the plot in the book doesn’t reach the moment of Rhett’s defeat yet.

* The traps in all projects share some common characteristics: the bright sun doesn’t make it clear at first but a hole in the desert is still a hole in the desert. The bigger and deeper it is, the harder it gets to escape it and beneath it there is just darkness and dirt. The forest in Hazel is accessed through a portal to the Creative House’s middle room, it is dark, dense, quiet and claustrophobic. The trap in the Lost Causes is the most mystical, underwater and deep and with other dangers looming as well. Another common element in the last two is the memory loss and losing the sense of self or consciousness.

* Does religion have anything to do with all this? Yes, lots. Is religion the only thing that has to do with all this? No…

* On a lighter note, the Hazel song slaps! It is so good that it is haunting even when played backwards!

* On a heavier note, I was already convinced Rhett and Link are hiding a message in all these projects. I am still not sure however, whether they want this message to be decoded by people or they just make it in order to vent, to get the sensation they escape for a bit the walls of the room, the house, the trap. Hazel is perhaps the boldest of the projects (although the innuendos in TLCOBC are the most glaring) as a main plot because Rhett himself in the video brings awareness into the fact that their song has a hidden, forbidden message that subtextually yearns to be heard.

PS. Just to lighten the mood

[bizarrepotpourri]

I received a link to the article above in my inbox and of course they had to remind me of a work-in-progress story that I can't finish. Mostly because as unashamedly horny as I am, I find writing sex scenes awkward.

From the nerdy point of view, the article - a bit rambling and stream-of-consciousness, as befitting "rough draft notes" - gives some really good points that fit with my #Special Officer 432 stories, like:

the British relationship with the noose is intertwined with concepts of celebrity which remain relevant to this day. That is to say, the gallows is both a stage and a celebrity drama.

This is, pretty much, the vision of a society I had in mind while creating the fictional Kingdom. I focused on it the most in "The Murderous Brat", where I wrote down four different tabloid headlines including absolutely spoilerrific "YES SHE DID" and went with a full battery of jabs (and a booster) against lowbrow sensationalist "reporting" by the tabloid press. Because the more I researched, the more I noticed the pattern.

There must also be a charismatic quality in the criminal, or alleged criminal, if not in themselves, then in how they are portrayed and what they come to represent. Take for example how Beatrice Pace, who was tried in 1928 for the murder by poisoning of her husband, attracted huge crowds of sympathetic women to her trial. While acquitted, it is clear this ‘fandom’, for want of a better word, and her image as tragic widow cum black widow would have followed her to the gallows.

When it comes to the stories outside of the Officer series, my intention is to make the characters distinctive in some way. Sometimes, they're inspirational in a bad way, for leading a band of brigands or pirates, sometimes they're supportive in some dirty way, like offing their perverted step-brother to save their sister or providing certain solutions like Aqua Tofana to other women. Even the narrator in "View from the Window" hints that she's ideologically motivated, part Greta Overbeck and even larger part Charlotte Corday. I want the readers to know that when they go, they go for a reason and are resigned but somewhat proud of their fate.

Celebrity must be built up, and raised to a crescendo. But then the celebrity must be brought low and destroyed, through their hubris, restoring order or the illusion of it. This degradation is a public spectacle, or at least comes with it an audience of some sort or another.

Well... This explains why the condemned in my stories are executed naked or mostly naked - aside from the expectations of the genre, it also fulfills this need for degradation in a straightforward and aesthetic way. You have a seductive woman on the scaffold, exposed at least partially, and in a moment you will witness her meet her grisly end.

This audience for celebrity must also be urban in nature, and atomised on a personal level, a product of industrialisation and post-Enlightenment society.

And this is where Mr Hay is wrong. Very, very wrong as history proved multiple times already. The fascination with criminals and their executions dates back a long, long time and both ballads and horror stories from the Medieval era prove that making someone famous or infamous doesn't need the trappings of modern society to happen. For example, we have the story of Klaus Störtebeker, as famous for his life as he is for his death. The popularization of print merely helped save some of the stories for posterity.

The rest of the article goes into a lot of interesting details about the case of Marie Manning and her husband, both executed in 1849 for the murder of Marie's lover. While I knew the basics of the case and got the idea for a story from it, it turns out from Mr Hay's notes that there's more to it when it comes to Marie's role in planning the whole thing than Wikipedia cared to publish, and the quotes from contemporary press he brings up indeed prove the sensationalistic tabloid approach to such cases. It also, unfortunately, throws the entire concept I had out of the window, even more than my dubious ability to write sex scenes. Oh well.

[tsugarubecker]

El and Choice

Byler/platonic Elmax/platonic Elmike analysis below the cut (extensive)! You ready for 🤯? 🔻🔺

How much of El’s life has really been choice? I’d argue not a lot of it. In the above scene with Brenner, Brenner even mentions Henry manipulating El. Probably most of us watching that scene thought “wow, pot calling the kettle black much?”

But it’s not just those two. Most of El’s life has been other people making choices for her. It is the times when she takes control into her own hands and makes her own choices when she is at her most authentic and most powerful, as seen above. (Other examples include when she escaped the lab, ran away to meet her mom, left Kali to go rescue her friends, chose to go get her powers back, chose to stay with Brenner, etc. Moments of growth for El are often linked to moments of choice!)

I want to call attention to choice as it relates to El and her relationships - and additionally, as it relates to Mike and his relationships, too.

I made a diagram! 🤪 Sorry, I had a lot of coffee today lol. This diagram isn’t perfect and there are some errors in it (for example, I strongly believe that platonic Elmike is very important to this whole story but I didn’t represent that well in the diagram…. oops) but do you get the idea/my intention at least?? 😅 Take your time looking at it, it’s a bit convoluted. Feel free to come have another look after you’ve read on.

Throughout especially seasons 3 and 4, we see a couple triangles involving El and Mike. In season 3, we see the El / Mike / Max triangle almost as prominently featured, I would argue, as we see the El / Mike / Will triangle. But, the former is a platonic triangle. The latter is a romantic love triangle.

In S3, Mike and Max are constantly shown visually as a triangle with El, constantly pitted against each other, and constantly shown as the two “options” for El. Who will she agree with? Who will she side with? Which of these two will she prioritize?

Same in S3 in regards to Mike needing to choose between El and Will. Y’all probably don’t need me to extrapolate on this one (think of their “breakup” scenes being contrasted visually with lighting and mood, etc).

Then in season 4 this theme continues. Most of volume 1 is focused on the El / Mike / Will love triangle, right? But in volume 2, especially right at the end (as we go into season 5) we begin to see a big focus again put on the platonic triangle between El / Mike / Max. I don’t think I need to explain the love triangle, but I do want to talk a bit about the end of volume 2 and the resurgence of the El / Mike / Max platonic triangle.

We get a parallel between S2 and S4. In S2, El goes into the void, sees Mike in danger, and leaves her “jedi training”. In S4 she goes into the void, sees Max in danger, and leaves her “jedi training.” Mike and Max are being put back into a triangle.

As soon as the Pizza Gang rescues El she immediately says they need to go to Hawkins to rescue their friends (Max). When that plan doesn’t work she figures out a way to save Max from Nevada.

El then spends the rest of volume 2 fighting to save Max. It’s all about Max after this!

S4 V2 even ends with El not really talking much with Mike, going into her bedroom and thinking about Max. The end of V2 is very platonic Elmax-centric. El is beginning to truly prioritize her friendship with Max over her romantic relationship with Mike. She is beginning to make her choice about what she wants - and it’s based on what feels more real and authentic to her.

Others have written a million hours of analyses about Byler - check my pinned post for some excellent examples of those analyses - so I won’t get into that in too much detail here. Suffice it to say, I believe that Mike is also beginning to lean into what feels more real and authentic in his love triangle - and that’s his relationship with Will.

If they both lean into authenticity, El’s narrative arc leads towards Max and platonic (friend/family) love. Mike’s leads towards Will and real romantic love. Both of their arcs necessitate acceptance of self - and learning to believe that their inner moral compass is not wrong, it is good and right.

Right now Mike and El need each other to affirm for one another that they are not monsters. El has believed for years that deep down she might be evil. Mike is gay and closeted - he also believes that deep down he is morally wrong. Their arcs revolve around discovering that they are not monsters - and truly believing it, on their own, without relying on each other to prove it 🤯!

So. What does this have to do with choice? I’m glad you asked!

El chose Max. Mike chose Will. El and Mike did not choose each other.

El and Mike did not choose each other.

El chose Max. Mike chose Will.

El chose the person who trusts her to self-determine. Mike chose the person who believes he is The Heart. They both chose to put someone in their life who can help them see that they are not monsters. Who can love them for who they really are, as they are.

Season 5, I am confident, will center on El finding a way to save Max - and maybe on Mike finding a way to save Will. In any case, I strongly expect to see El leaning into the person she feels the most authentic with - and same with Mike. I expect - or maybe hope - to see their narrative arcs come to a satisfying close as they each choose to trust in their own inherent goodness.

Something something forced conformity (choice being taken away) that’s what killing the kids

Thanks for reading!! 🤪😅😁

[phoenixyfriend]

[rotates a fic concept based on a Frozen fic I read years ago]

(I'll link the fic and explain the premise a the bottom of the post. If you've read Ghost on the Wire, that's my inspo. If you haven't, check the bottom for the summary.) Easy option for the AU in question is Domino twins because [gestures at Echo], buuuuuuuuuuuut I think it would be interesting with Anakin as the kidnapped experiment sibling and Obi-Wan finding him years later.

Consider:

Ahsoka, age 12, is the padawan to Obi-Wan Kenobi, who lost his first padawan seven years ago and has been in mourning and self-doubt since; everyone thinks it's a miracle that he took her on, and she tries not to rock the boat because what if he decides he's not ready for another kid after all?

She's got a weird friend online that… well, if she complains about a senator or a mission, this person hunts down files pointing to questionable behavior by said senators and then dumps them in the Jedi's evidence box.

Since they're anonymously provided, the Jedi can legally use them to gain warrants, etc, because even if the law was broken to achieve it, they didn't do anything illegal, pay anyone to do anything illegal, or encourage anyone to do the illegal thing.

Obi-Wan takes a bit longer than he should to catch on to Ahsoka having a definitely criminal online friend, but decides to allow it so long as she lets him monitor interactions with this one specific person. He realizes that Ahsoka's random mentions of details coincide with certain infodumps, which Ahsoka wouldn't know because she's not privy to the fact that said data dumps happened at all.

War breaks out. Obi-Wan is frequently in a panic, because he already had one underage padawan die under his watch, and he's terrified of it happening again.

Various shenanigans, Ahsoka keeps up correspondence with her friend but it's much more heavily monitored now, in case of security violations. The friend still gives her heads up about suspected Separatist activity based on algorithmic analysis of shipping patterns and the like.

The friend tells Ahsoka he's in trouble. He needs help. Given the amount of information he's been giving the Jedi, they can consider him a confidential criminal informant that needs extraction and could continue being useful (important so they can justify using military resources when the Senate asks about budget expenditures).

They find Anakin, in a very similar setup to S7 Echo

Obi-Wan is. Not okay.

Ahsoka is freaked out by Anakin's physical state but fuck it! Friend! He needs medical help and he's really not exactly cognizant of the world around him.

Get him back to the ship. Get back to the Temple. Get him some medical help.

Figure out what the fuck is going on.

Turns out Anakin was captured on Sidious's orders when he was like... IDK ten. And then underwent experiments under the supervision of the Sith Lord. He still doesn't know who the Sith is, because Sidious saw his chatting with Ahsoka and only allowed it for as long as it wasn't anything too damaging, which means it was all either something that benefited Sidious, or something Anakin only barely managed to hide inside larger data packets (including his final request for help; he's gotten much better at cyber security on his own brain over the years).

But Sidious never did let Anakin know what his real identity is.

IDK where this goes but I do know Anakin is incredibly insistent on helping Ahsoka and the Jedi, and also that Obi-Wan cries on Anakin a lot.

He definitely would NOT be allowed out in the field, into battle, because the amount of physical therapy he needs. Immense. But he's probably with the 501st and 212th as their main data analyst/strategic dude? In this situation, the 501st doesn't technically have a Jedi, they're just a legion under the larger command of Obi-Wan and Cody, with their direct CO being Yularen, but Ahsoka's paired up with them regularly and she is honorary Jedi for the legion and everyone expects to get her officially once she's knighted, if the war lasts that long.

I do know that he chose Ahsoka to befriend because he had a vision of her becoming Obi-Wan's padawan a few years before it happened and went OH. BABY SISTER.

Any fic on this topic would have a heavy focus on Anakin's experiences with disability and recovery.

I feel like, while he can recover from a lot of the muscle atrophy etc, he probably has permanent damage to his bones and general health. He needs mobility aids, maybe a service animal to keep an eye on his physical state. Possibly epilepsy, since there was so much done to him neurologically. He definitely sleeps more than most people, has a very specific dietary plan, and relies a lot on the Force for things like getting things off of shelves.

A lot of this fic would by necessity happen with Anakin in a medical pod, communicating either in chat format or with a speaker. Possibly projected as a hologram approximation of himself despite the real body being in the pod.

Especially early on, he really is just text chat, before the war starts.

I think for the first few months of the war, when Anakin is still just a criminal internet friend Ahsoka happens to have, there are a lot of instances of him slicing into her comm during a mission and offering directions or information while she's like. Three quarters of a mile into a sewage system infil.

He's been on mute this entire time, but someone asks if the others remember which way to go, and he just pops up with "turn left."

It's the first time Ahsoka's ever heard his voice (or rather, an approximation of what he thinks he'd sound like at this age using some synthesizers normally used for waiter droids,) and it scares the crap out of her.

He wants to tease his baby sister! Sure she doesn't know she's his baby sister yet. But it's his obligation as a big brother.

They spend most of those months thinking he's some super cool slicer in a basement lair with eight screens and a bottle of orange soda and, basically, they're imagining Hardison from Leverage.

It's uhhhhh not quite that.

I think Ahsoka's a little betrayed at first that Anakin didn't tell her who he was, but she gets over it in favor of THIS IS MY FAVORITE PERSON LOOK HOW COOL HE IS pretty quickly

"It's my older brother's birthday and if everybody doesn't clap for him I'm going to blow up this entire ship."

Ahsoka: I'm gonna rob a BANK and Skyguy's gonna help! Obi-Wan: Ahsoka please he's still reco-- Anakin: DAMN RIGHT I AM where are we going

A whole lot of the emotional core would be the development for Anakin and Obi-Wan in a context where one's been mourning the other for so many years, and feels guilt for accepting his death instead of searching for him, even though he had evidence of Anakin's death (like "Sidious used Anakin's DNA to feign an accurate corpse burnt to a crisp" levels of evidence).

Obviously, there needs to be a heavy plot regarding figuring who took Anakin, why they did what they did, and whether there's any way to find them again.

I think the Domino twins steal Anakin for shenanigans of their own regularly, in part because they were usually the two with Ahsoka when Anakin popped up and started offering advice unasked.

IDK how I want to do the Rex&Anakin dynamic. That part's still percolating.

I do think Obi-Wan is very… delicate with him? He fusses. Anakin appreciates the part where Obi-Wan regularly tells him he's proud and loves him, but he's quickly very irritated by Obi-Wan treating him like he's made of glass.

Obi-Wan, however, is much more emotionally delicate than in canon, because he lost his master and his padawan within two or so years of each other, and blames himself for both. Part of him is convinced that Anakin also blames him.

(And part of Anakin… does.)

(For giving up on him, instead of searching for him even after evidence of his death came up.)

(Even though he knows, from conversations with Ahsoka before he revealed his identity, that Obi-Wan mourned him for years upon years before he took another student)

There's probably a specific medic whose job is at least 25% "Skywalker stuff."

I feel like it's easy to assign Kix to be Anakin's primary medic (there's a Jedi back at the Temple that's in constant contact) BUT I think it would make sense for there to be someone on hand as an assistant for the day to day, since he's on a military vessel and most of it isn't built in a way that's easy for him to navigate, especially with the Force, so I think it would be interesting to have Dogma assigned as Anakin's temporary care aide.

He's definitely someone who'd thrive on having a detailed list of Things That Need Doing, for a Jedi that has trouble remembering to take the medication that Kix said he needed, or to eat, or what have you.

And Anakin would. Probably have Dogma help him break many laws and regulations. Could be good for him.

Anakin: I want some hot chocolate. Dogma: That's not on the list Kix gave me. Anakin: But I want it. Dogma: ... Anakin: [starts levitating ingredients] Dogma, vibrating and maybe tearing up a bit: SIR PLEASE--

(Obi-Wan can be convinced to give him the hot chocolate. His brain is just going Baby Boy. Baby.)

Dogma makes so many calls to Kix for help keeping Skywalker alive.

Someone suggested he get an exoskeleton-style aid (think Rhodey post-CACW), but I think he does prefer more mundane mobility aids. Like, he's been forcibly teched up for… eight years? It's nice to have something that's just. Not that.

It's a chair with a motor. It's crutches with special padding. It's the Force, sometimes. Yeah he could take a shot at complex external support, but... he'd rather stick with the basics.

It's also like. A separation thing? He still uses his neurological hookup to do data analysis and slicing for the GAR and the Jedi (even though he was told MANY times that he doesn't have to and everyone would like it very much if he just stayed home at the Temple and focused on recovering), but he'd like to be able to ditch the complex tech stuff by choice when he's not at work.

I think Anakin puts a lot of stock in his ability to be useful. He'd want to 'detox' from it, so to speak, for a few months at a time very year or so. Just get out somewhere rural with lots of nature and a manageable number of people, and minimal tech. Regular missions with AgriCorps, maybe.

But he'd still think that, now that he has these skills and connections, it's irresponsible to not use them to help people.

I do not have the energy to write this out as an entire epic, which it probably deserves, but. Concept.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The Frozen fic was ghost on the wire.

Cyberpunk AU. Major element is that some people get neurological hook-ups to the internet and slowly get addicted to it to the point where they lose themselves to it (think the dream addicts in Inception, I guess?) The parents had died early on, and the sisters had been split up Anna made friends with a weirdo online, used this friendship to investigate the suspicious deaths of the parents. Weirdo is an insanely good hacker. Goes on a Recovery mission for the weirdo. Turns out the weirdo is actually Elsa, who was forcibly hooked up to the internet as a weapon? Ish? IDK she's a mega-useful hacker but she's been trapped in a medical pod thing for the past however many years and can't walk. Can barely talk, and regularly gets back inside a medical pod due to the lack of motor function and medical instability, and she needs to speak clearly to plan Cool Heists for the conspiracy investigation.