#basically the entire book
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quotes from frankenstein by mary shelley that remind me of theo raeken:
It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin.
It was a strong effort of the spirit of good, but it was ineffectual. Destiny was too potent, and her immutable laws had decreed my utter and terrible destruction.
It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw every day and whose very existence appeared a part of our own can have departed for ever – that the brightness of a beloved eye can have been extinguished and the sound of a voice so familiar and dear to the ear can be hushed, never more to be heard.
I was required to exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for realities of little worth.
My attention was fixed upon every object the most insupportable to the delicacy of the human feelings.
The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature.
But now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.
Dreams that had been my food and pleasant rest for so long a space were now become a hell to me; and the change was so rapid, the overthrow so complete!
I felt suddenly, and for the first time during many months, calm and serene joy.
How sincerely you did love me, and endeavour to elevate my mind until it was on a level with your own. A selfish pursuit had cramped and narrowed me, until your gentleness and affection warmed and opened my senses.
The picture appeared a vast and dim scene of evil, and I foresaw obscurely that I was destined to become the most wretched of human beings!
She also was a girl of merit and possessed qualities which promised to render her life happy; now all was to be obliterated in an ignominious grave, and I the cause!
He threatened and menaced, until I almost began to think that I was the monster that he said I was.
I had none to support me; all looked on me as a wretched doomed to ignominy and perdition.
Anguish and despair had penetrated into the core of my heart; I bore a hell within me which nothing could extinguish.
Nothing is more painful to the human mind than, after the feelings have been worked up by a quick succession of events, the dead calmness of inaction and certainty which follows and deprives the soul both of hope and fear.
I wandered like an evil spirit, for I had committed deeds of mischief beyond description horrible, and more, much more was yet behind.
Instead of that serenity of conscience which allowed me to look back upon the past with self-satisfaction, and from thence to gather promise of new hopes, I was seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried me away to a hell of intense tortures such as no language can describe.
All sound of joy or complacency was torture to me; solitude was my only consolation – deep, dark, deathlike solitude.
Often, I say, I was tempted to plunge into the silent lake, that the waters might close over me and my calamities for ever.
Remorse extinguished every hope. I had been the author of unalterable evils.
Banish those dark passions. Remember the friends around you, who centre all their hopes in you.
Thus not the tenderness of friendship, nor the beauty of earth, nor of heaven, could redeem my soul from woe; the very accents of love were ineffectual. I was encompassed by a cloud which no beneficial influence could penetrate.
All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things!
Have I not suffered enough, that you seek to increase my misery? Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.
I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel, whom thou drivest from joy for no misdeed.
I was benevolent and good; misery made me a fiend.
Believe me, I was benevolent; my soul glowed with love and humanity; but am I not alone, miserably alone? You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow creatures, who owe me nothing? They spurn and hate me.
Shall I not then hate them who abhor me? I will keep no term with my enemies. I am miserable, and they shall share my wretchedness.
Listen to my tale; when you have heard that, abandon or commiserate me, as you shall judge that I deserve. But hear me.
If such lovely creatures were miserable, it was less strange that I, an imperfect and solitary being, should be wretched.
Was I, then, a monster, a blot upon the earth, from which all men fled and whom all men disowned?
I learned that there was but one means to overcome the sensation of pain, and that was death – a state which I feared yet did not understand.
Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination? These questions continually recurred, but I was unable to solve them.
Satan had his companions, fellow devils, to admire and encourage him, but I am solitary and abhorred.
They did not appear rich, but they were contented and happy; their feelings were serene and peaceful, while mine became every day more tumultuous.
I was alone. I remembered Adam’s supplication to his Creator. But where was mine? He had abandoned me, and in the bitterness of my heart I cursed him.
I required kindness and sympathy; but I did not believe myself utterly unworthy of it.
I am an unfortunate and deserted creature, I look around and I have no relation or friend upon earth.
Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed?
My feelings are those of rage and revenge
There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No; from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery.
For the first time the feelings of revenge and hatred filled my bosom, and I did not strive to control them, but allowing myself to be borne away by the stream, I bent my mind towards injury and death.
I felt emotions of gentleness and pleasure, that had long appeared dead, revive within me. Half surprised by the novelty of these sensations, I allowed myself to be borne away by them, and forgetting my solitude and deformity, dared to be happy.
The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind.
My daily vows rose for revenge – a deep and deadly revenge, such as would alone compensate for the outrages and anguish I had endured.
I too can create desolation; my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him
I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I noy shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me?
I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear.
I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth.
You will return and again seek their kindness, and you will meet with their detestation; your evil passions will be renewed.
I felt then that I should survive the exhibit what I shall soon cease to be – a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others and intolerable to myself.
For an instant I dared to shake off my chains and look around me with a free and lofty spirit, but the iron had eaten into my flesh, and I sank again, trembling and hopeless, into my miserable self.
I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn.
I will watch with the wiliness of a snake, that I may sting with its venom.
How mutable are our feelings, and how strange is that clinging love we have of life even in the excess of misery!
Why did I not die? More miserable than man ever was before, why did I not sink into forgetfulness and rest?
Who could be interested in the fate of a murderer but the hangman who would gain his fee?
I was overcome by gloom and misery and often reflected I had better seek death than desire to remain in a world which to me was replete with wretchedness.
Little happiness remains for us on earth, yet all that I may one day enjoy is centred in you.
Memory brought madness with it, and when I thought of what had passed, a real insanity possessed me; sometimes I was furious and burnt with rage, sometimes low and despondent.
They were dead, and I lived.
My life, as it passed thus, was indeed hateful to me.
His soul is as hellish as his form, full of treachery and fiendlike malice.
The only joy that he can now know will be when he composes his shattered spirit to peace and death. Yet he enjoys one comfort, the offspring of solitude and delirium.
When younger I believed myself destined for great enterprise.
I am chained in an eternal hell.
If you had known me as I once was, you would not recognise me in this state of degradation.
I have longed for a friend; I have sought one who would sympathise with and love me
The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain.
What does it avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? I, who irretrievably destoyed thee by destroying all thou lovedst.
A frightful selfishness hurried me on, while my heart was poisoned with remorse.
I knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture, but I was the slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested yet could not disobey.
It is well that you come here to whine over the desolation that you have made. You throw a torch into a pile of buildings, and when they are consumed, you sit among the ruins and lament the fall.
It is not pity that you feel; you lament only because the victim of your malignity is withdrawn from your power.
But now that virtue has become to me a shadow, and that happiness and affection are turned into bitter and loathing despair, in what should I seek for sympathy? I am content to suffer alone while my sufferings shall endure.
I was nourished with high thoughts of honour and devotion. But now crime has degraded me beneath the meanest animal.
When I run over the frightful catalogue of my sins, I cannot believe that I am the same creature whose thoughts were once filled with sublime and transcendent visions of the beauty and the majesty of goodness.
The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.
For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires.
Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?
I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on.
But it is true that I am a wretch. I have murdered the lovely and the helpless; I have strangled the innocent as they slept and grasped to death his throat who never injured me or any other living thing.
You hate me, but your abhorrence cannot equal that with which I regard myself.
I shall no longer feel the agonies which now consume me or be the prey of feelings unsatisfied, yet unquenched.
I shall no longer see the sun or stars or feel the winds play on my cheeks. Light, feeling, and sense will pass away; and in this condition must I find my happiness.
Polluted by crimes and torn by the bitterest remorse, where can I find rest but in death?
Blasted as thou wert, my agony was still superior to thine, for the bitter sting of remorse will not cease to rankle in my wounds until death shall close them for ever.
I shall die, and what I now feel be no longer felt. Soon these burning miseries will be extinct. I shall ascend my funeral pile triumphantly and exult in the agony of the torturing flames.
#basically the entire book#i could write a whole ass essay about why it would be theo's favourite book#but also make him insanely miserable#i love love love mary shelley so much#i need to find her other works as well I NEED THEMMM#teen wolf#theo raeken#frankenstein
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Since book 7 part 5 (the part where we meet Meleanor/Maleanor 👀) is coming to EN this month, i would love to see your take on lilia’s proposal to meleanor! i mean they were like little kids right? it couldn’t have been that serious…i think the only reason she even brought it up again is because she could tell lilia still genuinely loved her…(even if he didn’t realize it himself?) but, oh well! Let’s think about silly childhood shenanigans to numb the pain! ^_^ (orz)
oh shit?! get ready for a doozy guys, it's comiiiiiing ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
I chickened out of posting the whole thing (look, I get VERY carried away when it comes to these wacky kids and their Tragedy), but I do believe that it probably ended with Lilia getting embarrassed and just shoving the first thing he sees into his mouth to try and cover for it.
(we're just lucky it wasn't a frog this time)
#art#twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland spoilers#twisted wonderland episode 7 spoilers#twisted wonderland book 7 spoilers#twisted wonderland episode 7 part 5 spoilers#twisted wonderland book 7 part 5 spoilers#please excuse the Dissertation that's about to happen (i have too much headcanon about them)#they've been ambiguous about most of the fae aging/developmental stages (plus lilia and mel's species age differently)#so this is entirely me assuming based on context#but i think that lilia being ~99 was probably about the equivalent of 9-10ish?#(i don't think his age maps perfectly onto 'human age times 10') (if only because i absolutely do not believe general lilia is 29)#(but in this case it feels right to me)#and i think of meleanor as being just slightly older (like ~11-12ish)#so like...kids but not LITTLE-little kids#so i think lilia was serious in a 'i have a huge crush on you and i haven't thought beyond that' kind of way#and meanwhile mel was more cognizant of how their dynamic was basically#lilia: i would die for you#meleanor: that's dumb#(lilia 600 years later: man she was right. that was dumb.)#but yeah I think she might've assumed (or hoped) he would grow out of it#except whoops oh no it just got worse#and then raverne made things MORE complicated and you know honestly maybe getting murdered was kind of a relief#meleanor in heaven: well at least he won't accidentally raise my kid to have the exact same -- are you kidding me#(i have too many thoughts to express properly i'm sorry) (i just. love these morons a lot okay.)
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not to ramble about iwtv but i think a lot of people who balk at the unsavory parts of gothic fiction are people who have either 1) never truly had to face an onslaught of the macabre in their own life 2) have not actually sat with the discomfort of the darker parts of existence or simply not learned or had to learn how to process truly twisted emotions within themselves. and i bring this up in relation to iwtv because i see a lot of people pointing out 'problematic' parts of the book or bemoaning which ships are more or less toxic. and it's like it's a cow farm there's gonna be cows on the cow farm.
yeah anne rice wrote some weird shit and some of it is definitely unnecessary, most of those elements were corrected in the show. but a lot of it is just gothic fiction. you don't get to have sexy vampires, romanticism and tortured yearning without the inappropriate attachments, the true face of grief and the blurred lines between violence and eroticism which has evoked great interest in humans for centuries.
#iwtv#interview with the vampire#lestat de lioncourt#louis de pointe du lac#claudia de pointe du lac#claudia de lioncourt#i saw a lot of people on tiktok complaining about how claudia is described in the books#and when i started reading i expected something way worse#and it was like...nothing#it's uncomfortable at points but that is...the enTIRE PREMISE#she's not supposed to exist like that#they trapped an eternal soul in an unfinished body and it's wrong and inappropriate#but alSO i think some ppl just have lost understanding for descriptive language in gothic text#bc modern publishing often pushes for more basic sentence structures and less flowery prose#so when ppl read shit that does have the more classic style and is VERY descriptive w strong words they're like whAt#and it's like bro it's poetic u gotta be less literal
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Prelude (Elucien Week Preview)
Summary: One moment. All it takes is one singular moment to change the trajectory of fate. Following the events of Hybern, everything changes when Lucien instinctively grabs his mate—Elain Archeron—and brings her back to the Spring Court with Feyre and Tamlin.
In the midst of war and ruin, Elain and Lucien will have to face the bond that connects them together if they hope to survive the unintended consequences. To do so, they’ll have to prevail through games of deceit, powerful forces of magic, and deadly enemies. And hope their hearts survive the journey.
A retelling of A Court of Wings and Ruin (ACOWAR) and a Canon Divergent AU.
Notes: This is my big project for Elucien Week 2024! I'm posting a short prelude a week early in excitement for the first seven chapters which will be posted daily for @elucienweekofficial and will continue updating weekly afterward. This will closely follow the book's events and feature Elain/Lucien POVs.
Read on AO3
Lucien suddenly landed in the gravel of the Spring Court’s front drive. It was only at the sound of Feyre’s voice, a near growl, a sharp blade against the gentle air of blooming Spring, that Lucien realized his hand was gripped around a delicate wrist. “What did you do?” She snapped at him.
If you'd like to be added to a tag list for updates, please comment or let me know!
#elucien#elucien week#elucienweek2024#this has been my baby for a long time now#i am basically rewriting the entire ACOWAR book lol#yes the whole book#this is a “what if elain did go to spring after hybern?” AU#elain x lucien#elain archeron#lucien vanserra#acowar#elucien fanfiction#elucien supremacy#acowar canon divergence
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Sskk redraw of a panel from The Disabled Tyrants Beloved Pet Fish
#my art#bsd#bungo stray dogs#sskk#the disabled tyrant's beloved pet fish#yes I know that title is insane and if you see the summary of the book it’s even more insane but HEAR ME OUT#DESPITE BEING A CRAZY SOUNDING PLOT it’s actually so funny and sweet#like it’s so cute I can’t believe I finished the entire first book in one day#basically a guy was isekaied into a webnovel he was reading and became a goldfish#and he had to become the evil tyrants pet goldfish as his quest or he dies#he does and he crushes his enemies with the power of being an adorable helpless fish#and like halfway through the book he gets the ability to be human for like 2 hours a day so he’s just running around the castle eating food#anyways so this scene is when the tyrant (akutagawa) catches the human version of the fish (atsushi) climbing out the window#and aku thinks atsushi stole his pet fish#anyways that’s my mini summary GO READ JT#ITS WEIRD BUT I LOVE IT
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im being so so brave but also i am gripping you by the shoulders and leaning in and letting you know i am so tired of being brave
#my job has invented new and even more agonizing ways to make itself stressful to endure#and that isn't even counting the fact that i've now seriously fucked up my wrist transporting 30lb boxes up and down stairs#or the fact that i occasionally get piercing shoulder pains if i'm not super careful about how i use the hand truck#or the fact that whenever i come home on mondays my entire lower body is so sore that i can't move beyond a weak shuffle#it's the fact that my boss has no sense of organization#so my supervisor and i are basically salvaging or starting from scratch every week#it's the fact that some of our clients are asking for things we're not even contracted to provide#like access to our company materials or additional resources outside of our scheduled bookings#and that there's this constant looming threat of 'ohhh don't be bad at your job!! or else we'll lose our contract with these people!!'#but 'bad at your job' in this case means 'not bending over backwards to accommodate the least accommodating circumstances possible'#like 'hey you need to lead this training exercise meant for 20 people except actually you only have 4 people'#'and actually none of them are familiar with the prerequisites for this training or have any experience with the skills'#'and also none of them want to be there and half of them just Don't Do These Things as a rule'#'and if you try to make them do anything they don't want to do (even if it's literally the point of the training) they Will leave'#'and then we will no longer have enough clients to pay you'#like. what am i doing. this company was not designed to work with this format. we're not an arts and crafts group or a club meeting#hi so i wrote this post before starting weekend work prep#it has been 3 hours now#im still not done#i haven't eaten and my wrist hurts so bad#i need to.................. take a break................................
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Still working on the little reading/plant room overall but I finished the wall mural in time to enjoy it for Anthesteria! This whole thing was outside of my usual style and I'm beyond happy with how it turned out.
Done by sketching the design out with chalk, making and cutting out leaf stencils then filling in leftover spaces with random fiddly bits and cleaning lines up afterward with the main wall color.
"Chaise lounge" was faked using a cushioned chair I already had with a thrifted ottoman and cunningly arranged pillows. The blanket IS amazing and was another thrift find. Next steps are book shelves, more plant stands, and setting up a wall of random art prints.
#my art#i swear i didnt put rhe Odyssey book there as a pretentious arrangement im actually reading it i swear!!!!!#me: i dont make altars for my worship#also me: basically turning an entire room into a shrine
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To me, one of the most baffling changes the donghua made was making it so demonic cultivation is actually what caused wwx to snap. The book's "wwx snapped after witnessing his clan die, being thrown in the torture pit for 3 months, participating in a war, getting isolated from his family, and suddenly becoming responsible for a clan that's being actively persecuted and the only safe place is the aforementioned torture pit. Wwx doesn't let anyone know the full extent of his pain, so everyone incorrectly assumes the demonic cultivation is what's making him act up. Also Demonic cultivation is the one the one thing letting him keep his illusion of control and power, so he lashes out against people like lwj who are trying to take it away from him" just makes more sense to me and is also more consistent with the idea that resentful energy and the study of it is morally neutral
#mdzs#wei wuxian#I just find the lack of evil demon juice more interesting#i use demonic cultivation throughout this because thats how its translated in english but i am aware he's not actually a demonic cultivator#things morality being assigned by society rather than inherent nature is such a running theme throughout mdzs idk why they'd ignore that#also hate that they had demonic cultivation being like this evil thing pulling him in instead of something he put a lot of thought into#bro was basically a mad scientist in the books#also the entire present timeline doesnt make sense if demonic cultivation is actually evil#mo xuanyu's body is doing fine
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I think about the tapes so often the badass dialogue they use to build tension in 46 the storytelling of both Vanessa's past with abuse and showing it still affecting her and her STILL being abused by glitchtrap/mimic and actually truly for real showing that on screen canonically in a game. steel wool having the chance to put in love and effort into the writing of the human characters. the vanessa tapes being about her but also being about showing GGYs progress keeping everything under wraps and how powerless vanessa is to stop him or vanny or glitchtrap. the 46 tapes giving us cute little information about Rabs character and being so sinister with great voice acting and great writing in the dialogue to tell all this information like GOD. I miss the tapes sooo much I want them to come back so bad they were some of the only surviving actual writing from SB and I know steel wool is still capable of cooking like this. they just havent gotten the chance!!!!!
#fuck candy cadet reltelling hansel and gretel i want more tapes#they were so fucking good and so intriguing when sb came out they were such a highlivht for so many people#myself included#everybody loved them & there was tons of discussion behind them like#EVERYBODY LIKES THE TAPES JUST BRING THEM BACK#im so serious guys after sotm and the mimic history lesson era is over we're gonna be so back#now that we know that basically this entire time every game has just been trying to incorporate the mimic and its past#ending with sotm we have an end in sight this whole time theres been no chance but now#when sotm is out the next games will be present day maybe not after ruin but some kind of 2030s lore#and im SO READY TO BE BACK#PUT STEEL WOOL BACK IN THE KITCHEN AND DONT HOLD THEM BACK WITH THE BALL AND CHAIN OF C&P BOOK ACCURACY#pandas.txt
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I just finished reading Sunlit Man and. I don’t know if anyone here is a cosmere person but holy shit. hooooooooly shiiiiiit. holy shit!!!!!! I am Losing My Mind!!!
#Sylvie says#Honestly less of a sanderlanche than I expected in this one#but that may be because it was all pretty fast paced as brando sando said#entire book basically felt like one long sanderlanche anyway#literally cannot forget the experience of hearing the first like five or ten paragraphs in audiobook#and then having to stop because I physically could not process it#fast enough or Hard Enough via audiobook form#and there was So Much happening in the first like five minutes#okay that’s enough chatter to keep me out of the maintag#cosmere
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they're baaaaaack
#art#twisted wonderland#twisted wonderland spoilers#twisted wonderland episode 6 spoilers#twisted wonderland book 6 spoilers#<- are we still tagging those? i don't know where en is#tagging basically just because it's college ortho#anyway HOLY CRAP THEY'RE BACK#TSUMSUTE 2: THE STACKENING#the disappointment at the lack of episode 7 news is tempered by my glee at the return of the most delightfully stupid event of all time#sometimes i think about how the characters were canonically visited by tiny stackable toy versions of themselves from another dimension#twice now!#it doesn't get any better than this#eyes#itty bitty little ominous eyes#look i know it's going to just be more charming shenanigans until the tsums abruptly ascend back to heaven(?) until they're needed again#but if they decided to do like. a tsum slasher flick parody. i would lose my entire goddamn mind#that's why we have fanart i guess
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A. Why does Carmody have to be straight? Let SOMEONE be queer.
B. Doris! Congratulations on your upcoming engagement to someone who isn't Carmody!
(Magazine snippet shared by Servants' Hall).
#Since this Carmody is not the same as book canon and 1978-verse canon Carmody. They could easily make him be gay. Come on.#They basically created an entirely new character and gave him a preexisting name. But Oooooh Nooooo. We can't have a QUEER character.#Yes I'm being silly re: engagements but they keep running the same plotline over and over and over so I just assume that's where it's going#Spoilers#All Creatures Great and Small#ACGAS 2020
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i am being so brave trying so hard to hold back writing a rant about that 'minimizing narrative noise' comment on totk sage concept art bc its actively flying around in my head like the worlds most annoying fly
#ganondoodles talks#zelda#i have .... thigns to say...............#i need to wait until i get a look at the entire book#and cant go on rants on single comments#then again .... what else is in there .................#i am dreading this thing#like id rather know that there was trouble during development than having a dozen of shitty comments obviously trying to cover up-#-for something- this CANNOT be true#yes narrative noise is a thing that exists- but in THIS game????????????????????????????????????????????????????????#like you basically cut down the already boring plot into its bare essentials that isnt executed well either#and then add confusion and menaingless detailes like the sage helmets “”connecting“” the sonau to the shiekah#when rly it just makes it more confusing bc the hsiekah a prectically gone- the fuck kind of conenction is there#like THAT is what id call narrative noise- weird details that make no sense and arent important#also you cant make a character the equivilant of a blank box and then say 'we wanted them to feel powerful and scary' or sth#BC YOUD NEED TO MAKE THE CHARACTER ANYTHIGN -BUT- A BLANK BOX TO HAVE THEM BE INTIMIDATING#ALSO all the ancient stupid sages do is stand around repeating words like they are puppets- you dont see them fight ever#“intimitadtign” my ASS the useless little knife fake zelda throws at sonia from half a mile away and prob wouldnt even have gotten through-#-her hair is more intimidating than any of the blank box mc sages#youd think they learned their lesson when they made the botw champions DLC bc it fleshed their characters out more and added better-#-shrines BUT NO apparently that was a big mistake huh#maybe thats why every single character is reduced to one boring stereotype or a blank box of nothing in totk#having zelda be anything else but a swooing little damsel waiting for her prince was narrative noise needing to be removed HUH#writing team all fired or what- literally WHAT was going on in there
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It happens in Paper Street. Tyler is still gone. The building is oozing with monkeys, but on the upper floors where Tyler and I sleep, I am alone.
I am not alone.
There is two of me. I don't have a twin.
If there's two of me, then there might be two of Tyler.
Tyler would probably think killing myself to monopolize him and his clone is a step closer to bottom.
If there's not two Tylers, I have to kill him anyway.
All of this becomes clear to me in the time it takes for my clone to stare at me and shake his head and get his shit together.
I play it cool. I am so ZEN, he will not realize when I reach over to crush his windpipe.
I say, hey. This is weird.
"Yeah," he says, and my voice is way too loud coming from him. I don't like it. He needs to shut the fuck up. "Is Tyler here?"
I ask him, do you think Tyler would know why the universe broke? I ask him like he's asked me if Tyler would like to take a nice little shopping trip through the local designer stores and pay off the companies' tax breaks by giving hundreds to their check out charity.
I think Tyler would know why the universe broke, of course. He'd be the one to break it. Maybe this is another one of Tyler's little tests. This new version of me seems less certain of that fact, more like he's looking for his daddy's coattails, and now I really can't wait to punch his teeth out of his skull. He doesn't have the hole in his cheek, and I can see him watching it wink when I talk. He looks like a jealous rat.
We must both be Joe's Clenching Bowels.
I ask him, do you think we're different? Maybe there's a butterfly effect. Parallel universes. There has to be a reason he's so pathetic.
"I'm sure we are," he says, like he's telling his boss about sawing cross tips into bullets. Touching.
How'd you meet Tyler?
"On the plane. He gave me his number. Called him after my condo blew up."
I smile. I met him on a nude beach. He gave me his number. I called him after my condo blew up. Every word after nude turns my copy's face a bit ruddy, little tectonic nudges to the ring of fire.
"What were you doing on a nude beach?" he spits. "Gargling your boss's balls?"
Watching Tyler. Naked and sweaty, muscles flexing as he pulled around driftwood and pilings to sit in his own hand of perfection. I know I sound like a priest that wants to keep God for himself. I am.
"You're a fag," he says.
I think of my birthmark on my foot. I think of Tyler. I think of Marla. I think of how stupid this version of me is, to pretend he wouldn't get on his knees just for the chance of a taste of Tyler. Is that not how he got the kiss I can see on his hand? His Tyler must have had to lower his standards.
Best not to accuse others of things you're guilty of, I say. I'm willing to face any number of uncomfortable truths if it will get rid of him, I realize.
He's flustered. "No, no, it's not —" he waves his hands. "It's not like that with me and him. No."
Yes it is. It's not love as in caring, sure.
I step closer.
It's property as in ownership.
This must be why Tyler likes it. I see myself wither like a guy kicked in the balls on the first night he attends fight club.
I could be over that table every night for Tyler, I say. You would just be jealous. Just like you're jealous of Marla. Of that one pretty kid you probably pummeled into the ground too. Or did you not even have the balls for that?
Eliminate the competition. Face the truth only to drive it deeper into this jammed copy of myself. Win Tyler's affections. I have already seen the bones in my yard, I can tell, he has not.
One of us is committed. I pull my human sacrifices out of my pocket, throw them at him. One of us wants this. I get in his stupid face.
It's not you.
He swings at me, I'm fighting to the death.
"Tyler isn't here, is he?" he taunts me.
"Tyler left you."
"He doesn't want you anymore."
All things true, but maybe not once I kill you.
I am the abandoned dog, performing tricks so its owner will come home. I am myself, calling my father and telling him about graduating college, like it means fuck all to him. I am myself, pushing onto that next step on his list, anyway. Tyler's my new list, and he wants murder. I've known it. I'll face it.
He gets me in a headlock, hits me over and over, opening up that hole in my cheek. I go limp, drag him down, flip him over myself and grab his throat. I slam his head into the ground. It's soft, moldy wood, not concrete, so I have to start squeezing, instead.
Death will commence in five.
Five, four.
He's gasping, slamming his palm into my nose, breaking it over and over.
Four, three.
Three, two.
His body is shaking under mine. Seizing. He has the primordial strength of a man about to die, and I have the primordial strength of a man about to live.
Death will commence in two.
His eyes are rolling back. I can feel his throat giving in.
No more chance for breaths. It crumbles beneath my hands like the ribcage of a hummingbird.
No chances for evacuation.
Death commences.
Now.
On the upper floors of Paper Street, I am alone.
#fight club#my writing#book narrator vs movie narrator.... book narrator is more Committed imo#battle of the sewer rats#i prefer to avoid using slurs in my writing but I think at least one is literally entirely unavoidable with the narrator meeting himself#the book is also a lot darker overall. sorry movie narrator you never stood a chance this rat is larger than you#in case it isnt obvious though 99% of the book narrators thoughts are entirely and totally hypocritical#which is what makes this very funny to me#this is a silly lunch doodle for me basically#so dont take it too seriously
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BNHA Ch. 429
So, I guess Toga is dead, and people are losing it.
I get why people liked her--she was actually queer, being pan/bisexual. She was representation for them and that's rare in shonen manga. But here's the thing--she was bad representation at best and insulting at worst. Nor do I think she was made queer because Hori really wanted to represent a queer girl. Himiko was always the author's poorly hidden fetish--she just was. She liked girls as much as boys because Hori wanted to draw a girl touching sexually on another girl. You can see this in how he draws her and Ochako in solo pics together.
I mean, people seem to understand this when it comes to Momo and her outfit being overly sexual or that both Himiko and Hagakure's Quirks either leave them naked or they have to be naked to use them. These are excuses to draw girls in a sexual manner. Himiko being into other girls is the same thing and that's the kindest interpretation.
Given how Himiko acts and her Quirk being heavily coded sexual desire, and therefore her use of it against someone unwilling being sexual assault, it could just being playing into harmful stereotypes of predatory gays.
As a queer person myself I just found Toga insulting. She was designed to be overly sexual and give the male author a female character that he could draw being suggestive with his other female characters. When he did flesh out her character, her backstory was eventually the trope/fear of straight people, that gay people will be so overcome with their lust that they end up sexually assaulting them.
In the end Ochako accepts this part of Toga and says she'll giver her blood forever, but as much as a lot of readers took that that as some deep lesbian confession, for me it really fell flat. Hori never really gave any of the main kids time to actually learn about their villain or show how that changed their minds toward them. Shoto only works because Touya is his brother (even though he admits he barely remembers him). But Ochako goes from not thinking of Toga at all pre-first war, to one thought about her during her speech, to suddenly caring about her so much she--given how Toga's quirk is coded, is willing to essentially fulfill Toga's kink for the rest of their lives.
It's weird and it comes out of nowhere. It's made even stranger because Toga doesn't actually change or show remorse for anything she did, which included personally hunting and murdering people before she joined the LOV. None of the death and destruction she is also partially responsible for is brought up either, something that Ochako was rightfully upset about during the first war when less people and property had been destroyed. Ochako just accepts everything about her suddenly and her past serious crimes are forgotten so they can cuddle and cry.
Am I shocked Toga died--a little. I didn't think Hori would have the guts to kill off a young girl character, especially one that he clearly got a lot of joy drawing in sexy poses. But at the same time, once he killed off Shigaraki and ended Touya's story with his slow death, I'm not surprised he went the same route with Toga.
This isn't Naruto--Hori isn't really kind to characters that do something wrong, especially if they don't try and change. Enji, Bakugo, Hawks, and Aoyama all sort of got punished for what they did. Enji is the worst off, being permanently crippled, missing an arm and burned everywhere. Bakugo's hand is damaged, his heart weaker, plus he feels bad that Izuku lost his Quirk so they can't compete the same way he wanted them to. Aoyama, despite doing way less wrong and even helping his class during the forest raid, still leaves school because he doesn't feel he earned being there yet. Hawks lost his Quirk and even though him running the HPSC could be seen as good for him, Hawks always wanted a break, but now he has one of the most time consuming and stressful jobs out there.
So, if this is what characters who actively did good things and even changed and fought to be better get, what would characters who never changed and never did anything positive for anyone but their friends/themselves get?
Before the last Arc started, when so many people said the LoV were 100% going to be redeemed I had doubts and always thought it wouldn't make sense with how the story presented redemption or treated other non-LoV villains in the past. That if the main LoV did get some happy ending where they were bffs with the main cast it would clash with how other characters had been treated.
That doesn't mean that I think how Shigaraki, Toga, and Touya ended up in the manga was well done. I think their endings fit far better then a last minute redemption would have, but at the same time you can feel how rushed everything has been since the end of the first war arc. Hori was done with this story months if not years ago, yet he was contractually obligated to finish it. Because of that I think he left out as much as possible. As much as I think he's written some pretty obsessive stuff, particularly towards women, I can't really fully blame him cutting corners or the story being shit at the end.
We know Manga authors, particularly those that work with Jump are treated like shit. That they suffer incredibly long hours at times not even getting to go home for days. We've gotten messages for Hori saying he's sick quite a few times. On top of that, weekly story telling is not a great way to tell a cohesive narrative. Ideas probably change week to week or at least month to month and you can't go back and change the last chapter no matter how much you need or want to. Then you remember he also gave a lot of ideas to the people who made the movies, which would also change his plans for how he wanted the main story to go.
The story is bad--it has been for a while, but I think a lot of people put their hopes on their favorite characters getting a happy ending, even when there were signs that probably wasn't going to be the case. I know how much it sucks when a character you love gets a shitty ending (Stain was my fav, but he got an absolute dogshit ending) but at least, knowing what I know about the industry I can't really blame Hori the way I see some other people doing. Criticize it, sure, but saying Hori hates his readers or is horrible writer isn't true. BNHA was popular for a reason--he's great with characters and the beginning of the story had some great pacing. We'll never know, but I wouldn't be surprised if BNHA could have been amazing if Hori had been treated better and the story hadn't needed a chapter every week.
If anything BNHA has taught me how much a story suffers when authors/artists are treated like crap and forced to work past burnout.
#bnha 429#bnha spoilers#bnha critical#bnha#idk i just feel bad for the guy#i think he's sexist as shit#but no one deserves to work under such bad conditions#and frankly idk how any weekly story turns out any good#especially when its gone on for so many years#like when you think about it the chapters aren't even real full chapters#they're like half or even a quarter of a chapter that you'd find in a book or monthly manga#of course you're your going to have an incoherent story when you write like that#I mean the only other thing written like that are some fanfictions#and those authors can and often do go back and edit things#heck I've seen some that go on hiatus with the specific purpose of overhauling the entire backlog of chapters to make it a better overall#and I think part of why BNHA is perhaps worse then other weekly shonen is because he had a lot he wanted to say#on top of trying to find things that kept him invested in a story he clearly was tired of writing#I mean Lady Nagnat is great example#he watched a movie and thought the female assassin character was cool and it got him excited to draw/write#so he shoehorned in this character that was really only there because she made the story more fun for him to write and draw for a while#like American comics aren't great either when it comes to consistency or coherent plots sometimes#but I do wonder if BNHA might have been better if Hori could have left a story bible and basic outlines of what his plans were#and then someone else could have worked on it instead#because he really didn't seem very into by the end of the first war arc#like I think he wished that had been the end#but it wasn't and he was really tired and burned out#and probably already working on fumes
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Is it fucked up to have favorite historical deaths? Anyways. Frederick III, Habsburg, was simultaneously the most lucky and unlucky guy at the same time. It's so impressive, honestly, that he made it to age 77(!!!) in the 1400s, like?? But the way he died kills me 😭
The fact that he survived an amputation in the 1400s at age 77 is so shocking honestly???? Yet guess how he died. A couple months later....from eating a fucking unripe melon. BRO YOU SURVIVED GUARANTEED DEATH, HOW ARE YOU GONNA LET A MELON TAKE YOU OUT!?!?
#charles vi continued the legacy centuries later by dying by mushroom 😭😭#tbf who knows how accurate any of this is#but the idea that this old ass dude survived his LEG GETTING CHOPPED OFF#in a time where leg chopping off basically meant death#yet he gets taken out by a melon????#its fitting for him 😭#i need to find the other post i wrote about him#i was kinda sad cause the habsburg book ive been reading lately#kinda undersold how crazy his story is#he is the habsburg w the longest rule as emperor#but like. its literally bcs every challenger just. died.#and his son who had a much shorter rule is way cooler and impressive#but Frederick III makes me laugh cause his sheer luck and lack of luck#idk any habsburg seems to always be hanging by a mere thread at all times imo#melon.....i think about this too much#guys should i just recap the entire history to you atp 😭😭#catie.rambling.txt
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