#bc i never know who wants to be considered a main / who legitimately wants to ship with me

[lyctoralsaints]

so uhm I have bad anxiety and that's why I don't personally send many prompts to people who aren't like horiznwlker or dealsindemise bc I feel like an annoyance but ,,, if yall would do me a favour and like this if it's okay for ME to send you prompts randomly ahshdhd i would appreciate it

[atopvisenyashill]

What if Rhaenyra and Alicent's children took after their mothers in appearances?

this is difficult for me bc the answer is “everything” and “nothing at all.”

rhaenyra has a much easier time convincing people the children are laenor’s bc the only evidence the greens & vaemond put forth is that they don’t look like laenor’s kids (which tbh, in a time before dna testing, saying “hey these kids look suspiciously like the mail man i mean the captain of the guard” is great evidence). if the three oldest LOOK Valyrian, then not only is Rhaenyra’s reputation much better bc she’s not considered an adulterous whore, but it leaves the greens with only one real argument against her and that’s HER gender and not that she doesn’t have a proper heir. The gender argument is still incredibly good because it’s the argument the greens push anyway - Boremund, Peake, Aemond, and that expired jar of mayo Orwyle all explicitly say that their issue is a woman inheriting the throne! Whether Laenor lives in this situation affects a lot as well; if he’s less stressed at court it’s possible he’s a better political ally to Rhaenyra so he doesn’t get offed for being useless & Laenor as Prince Consort during the Dance is just leaps and bounds better than Daemon.

HOWEVER. Alicent’s children looking like her actually gives Rhaenyra a new argument - something something, my son & heir is of Pure Valyrian Blood, look at him with his Pure Valyrian Looks and look at my brown haired baby brother. This can certainly be overlooked by being cool and riding a dragon - pls see Rhaenys and Meleys - but even flying on the prettiest dragon might not be enough goodwill to get people to overlook The Everything about Aegon not even wanting to be king. And an Aegon who doesn’t want to be king AND doesn’t even look Valyrian AND his sister has a true born son that looks Valyrian? Even if a faction forms up around Aegon - and to be clear it definitely still would because Otto will still be pushing it - I think it becomes an uphill battle to get Aegon to actually take up the crown.

I would say that they’d deal with this by betrothing Helaena and Jace but the thing about the Targaryens is that they are their own biggest opps so I genuinely don’t know if Rhaenyra, Viserys, or Alicent would see the sense in combining their lines & do this or if Rhaenyra still decides “Laena & Daemon are my besties of course I’m tying our lines & ensuring Daemon fights for me in the upcoming political showdown” (even tho Daemon was never gonna fight for Alicent in a million years) or if Laenor pushes for a different betrothal (either a smarter one that gets them allies, like betrothing Jace to one of the Baratheon girls, or wants to combine his line with his sisters & pushes for Baela/Rhaena anyways). If Jace and Helaena DON’T marry I think there’s still going to be a succession crisis, and if they still decide to use their dragons to fight that crisis, it’s still destructive no matter what. The main issue is that if Rhaenyra can make the greens look bad, they have less of a foothold in ousting her, but can Rhaenyra use the fact that her sons are legitimate well enough to shore up support? On her own I don’t think so - she got a lot of support in canon even with the boys looking like Harwin, but also needlessly shot herself in the foot like several times as well so - but with Jacaerys by her side (and potentially Laenor as well) I do think she’d have a better shot at taking & holding Westeros bloodlessly over Aegon. But again - while Otto focuses on Rhaenyra being a whore (bc they live in a hellscape and it’s a great argument) the issue is Andal succession laws & Jaehaerys. There was always going to be conflict surrounding Rhaenyra taking the throne. If she can make an ally out of Alicent somehow or even completely bury Alicent’s arguments (ie, why do your kids look like Criston Cole or something to that affect), the issue becomes more akin to Aenys’ problems of having a few unruly lords. Jacaerys and Laenor are good politicians though, as is Corlys, and if she doesn’t have the legitimacy of her children being questioned, i think she has an easier time but that doesn’t mean it might not still come to war.

[ryuichirou]

Hey Ryu!! \(⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)/ I see u replied to my ask Abt Ortho vs *whoever*. Tho there was no fights I still appreciate how interesting it is to get to know the characters a bit more. But I unfortunately have I whole list of scenarios for Ortho and Shroudcest. (Bc I live the ship so much and I couldn't talk abt it with anyone else bc ik I would be judged and thrown out of society if I even dare say anything Abt it. (⁠´⁠；⁠ω⁠；⁠｀⁠))

Anyways here I go!

I was sort of thinking Abt robo!Ortho and Human!Ortho. If they would would be against eachother for Idia's love. But I sort of think they would be rivals for fun and or just bc they want to know who's more fitting to have 'the prize'. When it comes to a challenge they compete constantly to have Idia but the minute sum random guy walks up to him and starts flirting/ harassing/assaulting Idia they will work together and act quickly to protect the beautiful prize and eliminate the unwanted pest. Then when they finished they will either comfort Idia or fck him. I would tell u the challenges those 2 would set for eachother but that would take make hours to finish so let me not-

(Also srry if I annoy u with all of the Shroudcest shit. I just never had the chance to express my ideas Abt this fun ship and ur the only person I can rely talk to Abt this. And it's fun to heard ur opinions. So thank u if u see and accept this ask (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡)

Thank u if u see this ask and have a great rest of ur day/night! (⁠｡⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠｡⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠♡

Anon Anon! Sorry for replying so late, I am so happy that you enjoyed the other reply and that you love Shroudcest and want to talk about it more! This is truly delightful. Even though it is unfortunate that you can only discuss it with us and no one else :( If you’re still here (it did take me a long time to reply, after all), please feel free to send more asks. We are happy that you like our opinions and that more people are considering Shroudcest as a fun ship and Ortho as a proper character and not just a pure and untouchable mascot of sorts.

Your perception of interactions between robo!Ortho and human!Ortho are very fun; frankly, I can see these two competing “for sport”, so to speak. Like you said, if there was anyone to give Idia any type of negative (or flirty…) attention, they would work together to eliminate the unwanted pest. But when they are alone and everything is fine, they could either challenge each other to see who’s more fitting for the prize or just to mess with Idia: they know that the idea of his little brothers fighting over him while declaring loudly that they are fighting for the right to kiss him/be with him/do other things with him would be absolutely murderous for Idia. He would get super embarrassed, and Orthox2 love it when he gets all red and stuff.

But also, both of them are very intense, so even when they are legitimately competing, Idia is the main victim of the event. The attention in general + the stimulation (if things get physical and all…) is too unfairly strong for this weak little hikki boy…

I feel like I haven’t said anything new but once again, your idea is fun! So thank you very much for sharing and for waiting for a reply.

[irlnikeiyomiuri]

🍓, 🧸, and☁️ for the fanfic writer questions? - annie

how did you get into writing fanfiction?

HM... its funny i really wrote my college admissions essay abt this but don't know what to say. i remember being really socially unawares as a kid? uhhm. i think i got into writing because it served as a means of expression, and thus, communication and connection.. i couldn't otherwise convey my thoughts ! and then that naturally turned to fanfiction both because people dont tend to look at original content online, and because all works are fanfiction in that the things you create will never exist in a vortex, they'll always be pulling from smthn else in some way or form. establishing a clear bond between the stories i come up w + characters/universes that people are already interested in = higher odds of people looking into the stories.

what's the fastest way to become your mutual?

oooh.. this is Hard because i truly just post beta and im also p particular abt who i follow (bc im at 69 people. so..) so?.. idk i tend to consider people my mutuals even if im not following them if we've dmed/they've otherwise said words to me? ig its just abt having a friendly relationship :3.. annie is not mutual annie is a critter i feed egg shells to sometimes. like calcifer !!!! (annie is obviously mutual in every sense of the term). but!! idk. a while ago it wouldve been to post sdra and/or interact w my stuff but main isn't about sdra for the forseeable future, main is about raising awareness. so ya know. beta time if anyone wants to become mutuals it seems

what made you choose your username?

is nikei. is yomiuri. are you a jokester? hmm. idk i really feel like most my usernames that r known this corner of tumblr r pretty clearly tied to my ~brand.. ofc my og sdra blog was irlyomiurinikei, bc canon urls were taken- AND this wouldve been 2019, so being irlcharacter was a p common format!!! then i got deleted and remade as irlnikeiyomiuri AND THEN I GOT GIFTED A CANON URL <3333 which was so kind it legitimately still makes me :'3. and then i took the other canon url. and now i dont sdra post. sometimes i wonder if i had any negative impact on nikeis rep in the fandom but... sighs. ah well

[50cal-fullauto-astarion]

Hey Rags! Sorry, I just need to get this out of my system and ramble for a moment in your ask box. I just reread 'hot in Sarajevo' and I just have to tell you, how much I love the characterization of the woman in your fics. In the cod community, so many times the reader is described as cute, some sweet giggling angelic ray of sunshine (and don't get me started on all the size kink stuff...) and I can see the appeal of pairing these rough military dudes with their polar opposite, but... bro I really can't relate. ^^ I'm not cute. I'm not weak and fragile. I'm fucking 1,83m tall with a more serious bitch vibe and I'd rather die before you'll see me wearing something pink or cutesy. That's why I love Rivka so much for example! She's tough, she doesn't take anyones bullshit, but she's genuinely caring and she's a steady presence for König to rely on and hold onto when things are shitty. I can see myself so much more in her. I love to care for and pamper my man, be there for him in any situation, but I'm not your adorable little housewife...

And I hope you or anyone else won't take this as some kind of 'I'm not like the other girls' bullshit. All power to the cute and dainty ladies out there! But I just wanted to say, that I love the way you give the boys a tough and confident, but deeply caring partner in crime.

i'm so sorry for taking so long to answer this, but i've legitimately been gently holding it to my chest for the last couple of days reading and re-reading it with the BIGGEST fucking grin on my face. <3 <3

i promise, it doesn't at ALL come off as 'i'm not like other girls,' at least not to ME, bc i'm in the exact same boat, and i can't tell you how incandescent it makes me to hear that you feel a connection with rivka (who we all know is the reader i put in all of my konig fics lmao). and she, and all of my other oc's, are purposefully built they way they are bc i almost never see me when i'm reading, esp in this fandom.

like, i'm 5'7, i've got broad shoulders and hard features and big hands. i'm not small and dainty, i'm never going to be small and dainty, my bones simply won't allow it--too many generations of big men and hardy women and starvation-survival and lifetimes of working with hands went into my blood for me to be anything else. and my personality is anything but ingenue, i'm coarse and i'm loud and i can be outright cold or cruel when warranted.

i go into everything i write trying to satisfy my need to see what are considered 'unpleasant' main characters with their 'ugly' bits on full display, and the wish fulfillment of having these canon characters i love finding these sorts of physical and mental aspects not only acceptable, but borderline divine. and i am so so SO over the moon to hear that it hit those notes for you too, nonny!!! if nothing else, at the end of the day, i am writing for an audience of US, and i am so proud and pleased to do it if i accomplished my mission and it brings you the joy it brings me (((': <3 <;3 <3

[emawinslow]

@hidden-joy @behindtheseamp3 you only asked for some fake names to keep all the drama straight but I provided the briefest description of the drama that I possibly could in addition to that. Im not gonna make you read it but it did help me. so here you are.

okay so the suite. there are three bedrooms a small hallway and we all share a bathroom. that’s really all there is to it. here are our players 

me! - whether my narration is reliable is neither here nor there but I try

bella - my roommate. self explanatory. I’m not gonna go over all of it again

cameron- girl who I went out to dinner with basically every night and right before winter break I finally started considering her a friend. roommates with patty

patty - seems super chill but I never really talk to her. she always slams doors tho. cameron’s roommate.

sarah - mean girl suitemate. her and I like clicked on the first day and I thought she was so cool but I also thought she was a lesbian at the time but she is. not cool. first of all she’s straight and she always refers to me as a lesbian even though I’ve told her time and time again that I’m bi. she’s pretty rude to her roommate (marie) even though marie is clearly scared of her. she thinks we’re friends but I Really don’t want to be her friend bc of the whole. rude thing.

marie - admittedly pretty awkward and hard to talk to but it’s really not her fault and she Does seem like a very kind person. sarah’s roommate, poor girl.

okay now the actual happenings. this is a doozy but I’ll paint the whole picture so you can get a sense of the group dynamic. so cameron and patty didn’t know each other before they moved in but they got pretty close through texting and were really good pals by the time we moved in. very early on cameron was inviting me to basically every meal. as previously mentioned sarah and I clicked so sometimes she would join us. In these early days we would have like movie nights n shit with the whole suite. as time went on I saw everybody else less save for cameron who I was still eating with all the time and sarah about once a week when she would join us. the main topic of conversation when it was all three of us was our roommates because sarah didn’t like how “weird” marie was, patty was becoming more distant with cameron and she was taking that very personally, and bella was a slob. but it became clear that sarah was like purposely antagonizing marie by being like rude and passive aggressive and based on marie’s reactions, even in the retellings, it became obvious that she was scared of sarah. cameron and I did discuss this a couple of times out at dinner when we felt like sarah had crossed a line. also sarah just wasn’t the kindest person and I didn’t like how she talked about other women sometimes. anyways cameron and I started getting closer but I still didn’t like her all that much. not that she was like a bad person or even annoying or anything, her and I just didn’t get along super well and it was difficult to find common ground on which to have a conversation which mostly resulted in me talking like 80% of the time because she never really had much to say. and this went on from september to december when it started Finally seeming like we could actually be friends. as for the other suitemates, I kept it as civil as I could with bella, I basically never saw marie, and I rarely saw patty. but when I did see patty she was always like. really rude to me. like she would actively avoid talking to me and would ignore me when I tried to talk to her and once slammed the door in my face on the way to dinner with her and cameron. so I brought it up to cameron because I legitimately didn’t understand why patty didn’t like me but she kept telling me she had no idea. which brings us up to winter break. 

cameron finished all her finals on monday (lucky) so she left on tuesday morning. after my final that day, I talked to sarah and she asked me if I got a text from cameron and I told her I had but it was super normal so I asked why she asked. and after some back and forth sarah read a text conversation between her and cameron. and to backtrack just a bit, over the weekend sarah moved a piece of marie’s tinsel that was in the bathroom (it was very inconvenient) and took down a piece of paper that marie had on their door (she probably shouldn’t have done that but I wasn’t gonna say anything because it was such a small thing). sarah cameron and i had a conversation that sunday and that came up but cameron said it wasn’t that big of a deal. anyways. that tuesday cameron texted sarah “you need to stop screwing with marie’s shit” and cameron isn’t a confrontational person at all so sarah thought she was joking. it became evident that cameron wasn’t joking and sarah (who was genuinely very respectful throughout this whole text exchange) was like “oh I’m sorry it won’t happen again” but cameron kept saying that the way sarah was treating marie was unacceptable and by confronting sarah she was trying to create a “friendly suite environment” and frankly the conversation was much longer than that but it was basically just cameron getting angry and sarah apologizing. at this point I was more confused than angry because cameron isn’t confrontational and every time she’s had an issue with sarah she’s come to me and been like “wasn’t it weird that she was acting like that?” but has never actually confronted her. and I expressed this confusion to sarah and she told me that she thought it was weird that cameron spent so much time around me when she didn’t even like me. and I was like what so sarah told me that cameron had told her that I was a really mean person but i claim

that I’m being mean. like first of all that’s a quote from booksmart second of all I Told cameron that that was something I struggled with (being to blunt and not understanding when I was being rude) and for her to tell me if I ever crossed a line. sarah also told me that cameron said I was just generally a very negative person and she didn’t like being around me which is wild since she invited me out to dinner with her every night. as you may remember. so that was all very shocking and sarah and I started talking about how patty was the most unproblematic suitemate and how she was so cool and chill and just kept to herself. but I was like “I just don’t understand why she doesn’t like me” and sarah was like “wait you don’t??” and I was like “no….is there an actual reason??” and sarah told me why. and it’s apparently because in like the first week during a movie night I made a joke about not trusting people with blue eyes and that really offended her. obviously I didn’t mean that and I was like “oh my god I had no idea no wonder I really never meant to hurt her” and sarah was like “yeah I just figured you knew because patty talked to cameron about it a lot” like. I asked cameron about it so many times because I really couldn’t understand why patty hated me so much and she claimed she didn’t even notice that she didn’t like me (slamming a door in my face and blatantly ignoring me wasn’t a good enough hint) and that she had no idea why party didn’t like me. but yeah she was just withholding that info from me for whatever reason even though I was very stressed about it. also, side note, at the time I was like “omg I totally understand why she would be so upset with me over that” but after explaining the story to more people literally no it doesn’t lol. like sorry but holding a months long grudge with somebody you literally share a bathroom with over a joke like that is pretty ridiculous. anyways. sarah and I had a very lengthy conversation about our own flaws and how we’ve been trying to become better people. I explained more about how hard it is for me to read social situations and how similar we are personality wise compared to the other suitemates. like we kept saying that we have big personalities and are so much louder and more than all the other suitemates which caused us to question whether or not we are the drama lol. in my opinion she is but I’m not I keep the hell to myself man. sarah keept going back to the topic of cameron and calling her a bitch and how she never wanted to talk to her again and that she’s fake and dead to her. but just I kept saying that I wasn’t even upset I was just really confused. which was true. but for the most part that last 30 minutes of our conversation was a lot of self reflection more than anything else.

so sarah went back to her room and I get an instagram message from cameron that just says “I have no personality, huh?” which like. woah. so I screenshotted it and thank god I did because when I clicked on the conversation and she had already unsent it and there was only a text that said “haha” so I was like “I saw the other text what are you talking about?” according to cameron, patty was listening through the wall to the whole conversation and overheard sarah and I say that patty and cameron have no personalities (it is important to note I was under the impression that patty was listening through the wall to this whole conversation. and I’m not gonna hold that against her bc if it were me I would have listened in too). which we never said actually. so I explained to cameron that I never said that about her and so she asked me if sarah had been talking shit about her. I told her that I wasn’t gonna talk about a conversation sarah and I had In confidence and that if patty overheard everything, couldn’t she just tell cameron what she heard? cameron was upset because she assumed that meant sarah was talking shit about her (correct assumption) but apparently everything with me and her was cool because she immediately started texting me about boy problems. in the meantime I texted patty saying that we could talk if she wanted but she told me no she was busy with finals. eventually I did brief sarah on that and she got even more mad. then winter break came and went. I texted cameron happy birthday and we had a brief convo and on the last day of break she texted me asking when I was going to get back and I told her and that was the last contact we had. 

when we got back, sarah was still very upset with cameron but hadn’t talked to her either. also at this point I must admit I was hanging out with sarah a little bit to keep her appeased because she thinks we’re like besties and I don’t wanna be rude. but she knows I don’t have friends and tbh I think she’s treating me like a charity case. anyway. I saw cameron on campus and she avoided me even though I would have said hello but that’s really all that’s happened with her. but more recently I received a text from marie asking if I was here for the weekend but I wasn’t and I asked her if everything was okay and she said no but she would explain later. the next night I was in the suite and she wasn’t there. when I ran into marie in the dining hall I asked her if everything was okay and she said she was “just figuring some things out” but yes she was fine. and that night I had dinner with sarah and she told me that on saturday a boy was over very briefly to pick her up to go on a walk and marie came back and was very uncomfortable and awkward. then that night she never came back to the dorm. at the beginning of the year marie was like keeping tabs on sarah a lil bit just to make sure she was safe and sarah got mad at her for it so sarah thought it would be hypocritical asking her where she was. but the next day marie came back very briefly and brought up an instance from the beginning of the year in which sarah took a picture of marie without her knowledge or consent wearing sunglasses to bed. which is a very weird thing for sarah to do and I told her as much when she first showed me the picture. but bella had told marie about it which was actually very real of her. then marie was gone that night (sunday too). so sarah asked bella what was going on and bella told her that marie was staying somewhere else on campus and that she was fine and that they were thinking about a room swap in which marie and bella are together and sarah and I are together. but that’s all she got out of her. then last night I asked bella if marie was okay and she essentially told me the same thing and that pretty much has us caught up. I’m sure I’m missing some things and it’s a lot more underwhelming when I type it all out but I think you just need to remember that we’re all sharing a bathroom. 

[shitserenastanssay3]

@shitirishaterssay aka Leah Heddington:"It costs zero dollars not to harass people. OR spread private information on them. It's called "being a decent person"."

It now costs 233+ billion dollars for me to stop coming after you for good. Admitting that rabid XY haters targeted XY fans first since 2013 however, in your own words, costs zero dollars. Sorry not everyone loves your waifu iris and that you completely tolerate bullying like I suspected all along. Logically speaking, you tolerated my bullying to you. I'm gonna call myself Iris from now on, same with all of her name in other languages even if most of them are the same according to bulbapedia so I'm gonna bully all the inexperienced people.

*i'm not toxic btw (you always were from the day you made the account) *you have that covered (see the first one) *now leave me the fuck alone (No I will never leave you alone anymore. until you or anyone else admits that rabid xy haters attacked xy fans first, i will continue this until i'm old, gray and even in a retirement home i'll still continue, even in my death bed. i promise you here and now that's the case.) *if they had valid criticisms about iris i'd be fine with that (they always existed, no exceptions. No one cares about your fake racism, misogyny, sexism, so on and so forth) *but it's always “bawww she called ash a kid!” (next time, never give a fucking brat 32 game badges, 4 orange league, 7 frontier symbols and let him catch 59 Pokemon prior to BW and retcon the shit out of it at the beginning of BW. Even the TRio mentioned their previous Pokemon which is safe to say they're unironically the true main protagonists. By now it's like the Palestine genocide which if there are Pokemon fans there, they deserve to die bcs of everything in a span of a decade and by now, includes family and friends even if they're not pokemon fans. that's what it feels like killing off all of Ash's achievements and I'm glad XY even happened as it's karma for bashing anyone who is completely different than you.) *though good on you for admitting you're a vicious violent bully with zero redeeming qualities who would assault someone irl (I guess I'm Iris then. I can't wait to bully people bcs they're inexperienced) *i shouldn't have posted my paypal. that was dumb. (that was your own fault.) *but it's also not hard to just be a good person? which is clearly a foreign concept to you. (If you really wanted me to be a "Good person" which from now on I've decided to label as "think exactly like you" now and forever, I guess I'm a drone. As for XY, it's perfect the way it is and you've fully inspired me to ignore all their flaws from now on.)

--

"I'm okay, though I'm trying to be careful. I've considered going to the cops, though I don't know what his current blog is. That and I don't want to admit I was dumb enough to link my paypal, even if that particular post has been deleted".

Do it! I dare you to call the cops, even the FBI. I'm actually challenging you to do this. Same goes for anyone else coming across this!

--

"Holy shit, this lunatic just won't give up. I'd seriously consider taking this to the police if it continues. Block evading, harassment and stalking. All over a fucking kids show, Jesus Christ, what is wrong with this freak?? Legitimately, are you ok? I've been a fan of this blog for a few months and it's upsetting to see you get this sort of unhinged lunatic bothering you over and over."

No one admitted that rabid XY haters attacked XY fans, myself included for 10 fucking years!!! I will never admit that Pokemon is a kids show. It's now an adult show, made for true fans like me. What do I know, you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about that era at all. I have no reason to give up now so enjoy having me do this until we're all old. @sugar-pink-poison

[omegapheromone]

Coming here to vent about dating, romance/love, and a bit of misce/omegaverse stuff bc I don't feel like putting any of this on main

I'm having a lot of thoughts about like... dating, especially w being queer and dating, at this age and how impossible it is (dating apps are something that legitimately scares me so I'm like. No way will I ever use those)

But also wondering if maybe I'm just not cut out for it. I've been managing it alone for a good few years now after a really toxic relationship with who was, essentially, a predator, ended, and while it's not a bad thing to be alone, I guess the sad part is seeing all my peers enjoy happy long-term relationships where they have the unconditional support and affection of someone at all times

I guess what I'm trying to explain is, I feel really starved for romance and affection and honestly? Over anything else? Just someone I can TRUST. Feel safe around. And so on. Like... having a person represent a "home", considering I never feel at home anywhere.

Of course, there's also the omegaverse/misce stuff. It's secondary to me and not a necessary consideration for a romantic relationship, but I also just worry it'll be seen as a weird kink or something. Just one more thing in the pile of things that make me "too much to deal with" for most, I suppose. In an ideal world I'd meet someone who already knows of it and potentially identifies as alpha, too (though it's not like I'm picky lmao) but ultimately that doesn't mattet.

And perhaps it's my own stubbornness about refusing to use stuff like dating apps. Then again, I don't even know which ones the queer folk where I live use, AND I don't want to have to deal with the fear of opening up once again only to witness the other person struggle with the realization of how much trauma I have and how much of it I'm STILL only unpacking, and getting scared and just leaving because they don't want to deal with a broken thing. I'm not asking anyone to fix me, actually I'd rather do it myself anyway, but it's a bit disheartening to see how overwhelming even just a fraction of my issues can be to some people. This is not a bad thing- people have different tolerances for things and that includes hardship. Having to hear about some of the things I've been through and seeing the damage I'm still trying to mend could be extremely distressing and upsetting to some people solely because they're empathizing with it, and I don't want my pain to hurt anyone else

Again, it's all fine, I'm just rambling here obviously. Need to let these 4am thoughts out somewhere so I can maybe put it into better words and then later talk about it with the irl people that might care.

It just gets a bit lonely and especially, hopeless, I guess. Maybe life will always happen around me while I stay stagnant?

Also I'm falling asleep while typing

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

We know the Kamo practice concubinage and Noritoshi's mother was a concubine. Since he's seen as illegitimate that means she was what is called an unofficial concubine

I'm not sure what can make a concubine unofficial (without mentioning how would their child be consider illegitimate when the main wife could adopt concubines' son(s) and.. well I guess that made them legitimate(which I am sure nori's father's wife had to do)) BUT I can think of reasons

I didn't find one I liked though but now. Now I have my headcanon (that I wish won't be crushed by canon one day)

Noritoshi's mom is a second/third generation Zanryū

What's a Zanryū ? Glad you ask !

In 1945, (russia) the USSR attacked Manchuria, a Japanese puppet state (which is nowadays a northeast Chinese territory, north to North Korea (that's a too short explanation, youd have to do your own researches about that one sorry)). Nobody expected that, and the Japanese had to retreat

Soldiers first.

Some men did succeed to bring back their wife and children with them but most didn't. Thousands were left behind and died bc urss and the Japanese gouvernement didn't want to bring them back, going as far as to say some of them were dead

Those people the Japanese gouvernement abandoned are what we call Zanryū. But it doesn't stop here

In the 80s, 40 years later, Japanese gouvernement began a repatriation for Zanryū. Because it refused to give Japanese nationality to children who had Chinese father, lots ofJapanese women stayed in China where they had rebuilt their life. Orphans who were adopted in Chinese family and never told about their origins didn't came back as well (for obvious reasons)(and those who did know probably didn't decide to go to Japan either). Those who (re)married Japanese men came back (alongside those Japanese men and people who didn't get married(with how it was at the time, I don't think there were much if any))

Except. Their children had been raised as Chinese, most didn't speak Japanese or did but poorly. I think you know this but Japan hates when people can't fit in the mold (and there's also the hate/racism they have against Chinese (and Korean(we can see similar stories between Zanryū and Zanichi)(what are Zanichi ? (Descendants of) South & North Koreans who were forcefully moved to Japan between 1910 and 1945 basically)(half of nowadays Zanichi Koreans generation don't have the Japanese nationality even though they were born and raised there)). Even when they are 100% Japanese by blood. They're hatred upon because they aren't 'completely' Japanese. They behave too much like Chinese

( - Unrelated but the current most dangerous/threatening crime organization in Japan is composed of Zanryū descendants. Which was created bc they couldn't - were refused to - fit in)

So yeah. I decided Norimom was a second/third generation Zanryū/the daughter of Zanryū (no need to think far to see why the Jujutsu Society would refuse to make her an official concubine)

[skellebonez]

I'm putting this in an ask as to not derail the post but like, while i can make JOKES about it i'm right there with you about the denial of the spiders(and I'm passionate about it) bc like, it feels needlessly CRUEL to give literally ALL of them such interesting possible continuations, Syntax's implied backstory, Huntsman's teased arc, Giving us ANYTHING with Goliath, Spider Queen's teased arc, and then just deciding that ALL of those were better off on the cutting room floor to emphasize how SCARY LBD is, and not even really giving the tragedy of a really well designed really INTERESTING band of rogues being cut at the ankles the respect it deserved because of the fast paced nature of the show, and yeah the lead up WAS to LBD because she was the final boss but it left everything with the Spiders feeling unfinished in a bad way (which is esp. frustrating because the Bull Family get FAR better treatment despite doing like, WAY worse on a 'villainous actions' scale. the spiders just took over the city once and then stole some shit they barely got started before they were ganked!) Which like, I'm crossing my fingers for Season 4 giving us at least the IMPLICATION of resurrection because that otherwise would feel like a needlessly cruel part of all of this that can't help but leave a sour taste

I'm gonna be honest, after the interview that confirmed the spiders are DEAD dead? I do think they are one very large bit of wasted potential for the show.

I know no show is going to be perfect, and LMK is still close to like... a 9/10 for me. But this is a missed opportunity that really just sucks to see. I know LBD was the main big bad and the arc was hers, but introducing new spiders in the Revenge special and giving only 2 of the 3 focus (sorry Goliath, you didn't even get a NAME) just feels short sighted. I did a bingo character opinion thing before the S3 finale and... well, I said I was hoping the Wasted Potential box could be removed. It ain't being removed now, they legitimately wasted them in my opinion. And I love what we got, so for me to think they wasted something while loving it means that this is one of the only big mistakes I think the show made (and I am not the kind of person who cannot admit the faults of something I love).

Now, considering this is related to my S4 thread? I DO have an idea for an S4 season I want to expand on later! It involves the Mayor being unable to accept that LBD's plan failed and he attempts his own plan by reviving the spiders. Regardless of whether or not they stay? This could give them a more concrete amount of closure than what they have so far. I know it is a long shot of an idea, but still! It could be fun, and it would be a really interesting way to follow up on Mayor as well.

Even if they are never brought back I will still probably love S4. But yeah... the treatment of the spiders post S2 kinda fucking sucks. BUT THEY WILL LIVE ON IN FANON IF WE HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT!

[tweedfrog]

im sorry, but reading ur last couple posts it kinda sounds like you think Ned should have been more overtly racist and bc he wasn’t grrm is racist, but on the flip side giving arya prejudice thoughts also makes grrm a racist and a bad writer? like grrm for sure has dodgy bits but you’re giving him a bit of a no win scenario here. if he had made the targs black like originally planned do you think that would have been better or worse? (1/2)

ok im going to address this point by point because there is a lot of reaching and misunderstanding here

1. I am not here to present a ‘win’ scenario for GRRMs writing. I am discussing the shortcomings of the way he writes racism and yet uses racist tropes. A lot of these are as you state ‘no win’ scenarios because he decided to craft a world where racism exists while having extremely few characters of colour in important positions, AND while using racist tropes. There are many no win scenarios simply because of this tension.

2. I dont want Ned to be a more vocally racist character? And please point out where I said that Grrm was racist because Ned wasnt portrayed as having overt anti-dornish sentiment? I stated that because GRRM created a world where racism exists everything now has to be analysed bearing that in mind. It’s the same as stating that because misogyny exists in universe male characters are possibly (and likely) somewhat misogynistic and their interactions with with women and the way they treat female characters must be analysed in such a way.

Me stating that anti-dornish racism could have been a possible reason why Ned reacted less vehemently to the deaths of Elia and her children is me analysing it within the frame-work that GRRM set up. I’m using this to point out that when white authors add fantasy racism into a story they dont see the raicst implications of what they are writing because they dont understand the way racism impacts almost everything in real life.

For example in our world when non-white children or women go missing or are murdered their deaths are much less publicized than when white women or children get murdered or go missing. So yes racism affects the way that people are treated in such scenarios and when you decide to include fantasy racism in your story you have now included all of this extra stuff and need to do work to make sure that what you are writing does not perpetuate or enforce racism.

3. I literally never said arya having racist thoughts made GRRM a racist and bad writer. I have no clue where you got that. I used Aryas remark to highlight how anti-dornish sentiment clearly exists in the North because 9 year old children dont develop racist ideas in a vaccuum.

4. Where did I ever state that everything that happens to the martells was a micro aggression? I’m also confused as to where you got the word “micro” from??? Because idk about you but things like characters not really caring about the rape and death of a non-white woman and the deaths of her biracial children, a child being shunned because they “smelled dornish” and dornish women being hypersexualised in the narrative are some pretty macro aggressions.

5. Finally you deciding to ‘not discuss the essoss stuff’ is missing one of the main points of what I am trying to say. GRRM’s writing isnt racist because sometimes bad things happen to the Martells. The combination of his writing of the dothraki as savages with no introspection when compared to the free folk, the brutal killing of many martells for shock value, the contrast between the way he portrays Lyanna and the way he portrays Elia, the exotic/erotic trope he uses when writing dornish women, the fact that he hasnt named the princess of dorne while all her male counterparts have recieved names AND backstories and the fact that he made a white character the centre of the essoss plotline and a whole host of other decisions combine to make his writing....kinda racist. If it happened one time it may be a coincidence. If it happens about 10 times its a pattern.

Would it be racist if the Starks were written as inuit and then split up? Probably - given the history of murder and brutal seperation indigenous families have faced! Would making the more visibly indigenous stark children plainer while making the more white passing stark children better looking be racist? Probably - considering the way that eurocentric beauty standards are still upheld! With GRRM his issue is that he doesn't use 1 or 2 racist tropes in isolation. That could be a mistake. He uses several in succession.

Regarding the Targaryens being Black I think that if he wrote them in exactly the same manner (unlikely given how he treats other characters of colour) it likely wouldnt be racist but that the fandom probably would take it as an excuse to be racist.

So now that weve gotten through all of that straw-man criticism about my “take” I’m actually going to suggest some ways that he could have still written about fantasy racism without accidentally perpetuating it

1. If he is going to brutally kill off Elia he needs to AT LEAST have more discussions surrounding her death. Who Elia was as a person (dont just make her a sad cardboard cut out - I want to see some background on who she was outside of being an abandoned wife and mother). One story about Elia by Oberyn isnt enough. I also want to see more societal shock about Elias death because theres a weirdly small amount. The rape and murder of the crown princess shouldve been an extremely huge scandal and should have horrified many more people.

2. Theres no real way to kill off two non white children and have their white sibling be a prophetic hero without dicey implications so Aegon needs to survive and be the actual Aegon and not a secret blackfyre. We dont know if he is a secret blackfyre or not so this may just be a case of the fandom taking an excuse to be racist and running with it

3. Have more Dornish characters that dont die brutally for shock value (Elia, Oberyn, Quentyn). Furthermore when you only have 2 povs of dornish characters,,,,and you kill one of them off, yes that is not a great look

4. Dont introduce the only WoC pov in the whole damn book nipple first and as a blatant play on the brown seductress when she has legitimate political concerns and greivances

And thats only the dornish characters! With the dothraki and most of essoss just.....anything aside from what he’s done would be better. But of course im sure none of this is actually racist writing decisions. No its simply complex characterisation of course!!1!

[janiedean]

Do you think Jonsa is going to happen? I did read some meta about foreshadowing and it's a "squint if you miss it" but there is stuff. For example. Jonnel/Sansa stark in the family tree. People say the fact that Jon didn't care about Sansa being wed to Tyrion, compared to Arya being wed to Ramsay means he his repressing his painful memories and how he has a secret crush on her.

... tldr and sorry for the harshness: no, but if you want to go into the details, with no offense to anyone shipping it of course:

as I already recently ranted, jon and sansa are in two totally different brackets - jon is a main five, sansa is in the following bracket, jon has the entire chosen one storyline plus being the center of the entire story going on, sansa has the I want the love story and I'll get it plotline which does not mesh with jon's so there's that;

sansa's story arc is admittedly painfully clear in the beginning as in: if she thinks she's going to marry a beautiful gallant pretty prince and she thinks it's joffrey who is like attractive and LOOKS gallant but we all know how it went, then she's going to end up with someone who is the total opposite, also if she wanted to be queen in the beginning then it means she's absolutely not going to be in the end bc her entire arc is about realizing that everything she wanted in the beginning is not what she truly wants, and since jon is absolutely poised to get kingship, divide the kingdoms and fuck off to the wildlings after there is no way that her storyline meshes with his like that;

sansa's only viable love interests at this point on page are sandor and tyrion, the end, which by the way are, guess what, not standard attractive and are two people who need to overcome their trauma but never treated her unfairly, and like... denying that in the text sansa is attracted to sandor (she MAKES UP that he kissed her, she dreams he comes to her on her wedding night, she's all like AH BUT JUST *I* KISSED THE HOUND etc like sorry but that's a thing never mind all the knightly investment subtext) and that sandor is her love interest on text is imvho absolutely senseless - you can ship whatever you want and realize that canon isn't going there and write fanfic, no one is gonna stop you, and I can accept the endgame theory from sansa/tyrion shippers even if I think sansa/sandor is it, but sansa/anyone else is absolutely out of the question;

also sandor is the only one sansa thinks about using all the criteria ned used to describe the knight he would find her which was better than joffrey bless whoever went and did the search (brave gentle and strong) and she doesn't use neither of those terms to think about jon, like there's more evidence for littlefinger based on that and idt lf is gonna be her intended;

they think they're siblings and like I know that saying 'BUT THE INCEST' in these books is not like an automatic NO because there's canon incest and the rival ship ie j*nerys also would be incest but like one thing is jc which is not endgame and plainly described as abusive/unhealthy, one thing is targ incests which like the narrative generally is like HEY THIS WAS NOT A GOOD IDEA ABOUT and one thing is falling in love with someone you thought was your sibling and you grew up with like that the moment you find out you're cousins - that... doesn't work like that. and like while I don't have a horse in this race and j*nerys is hardly my ideal endgame sorry but it's a lot more likely that jon would end up getting with someone who he never met before, was the sister of a father he never knew and doesn't even consider his father and he had no relation with before than with... someone he actually thought was his sister, even if he finds out she's his cousin that doesn't change it;

'repressing painful memories' jon has zero issue thinking about catelyn or sansa not treating him great so idk what he should be repressing;

arya vs sansa question: .... well that's like getting close to the entire point but not getting it, in the sense that while jon didn't take wf because it belonged to sansa - but he said he would have if ygritte had been alive and stannis said he could marry her and not val which I mean... says all honestly - technically he made vows saying he renounced his family which is the entire fucking point re arya - the point is that he didn't give those vows up for robb but he would for arya which was the one he was closest to which is what makes everyone else kill him and no he wouldn't have done that for sansa because she was the only one who kept him at a distance, but...

the entire damned point is that they have to reconnect as siblings. sansa going back north (which is gonna happen) and jon being there and most likely getting legitimized/getting robb's will etc means that they have, as adults (or at least... well not kids) realize that how she treated him was wrong and that they can build a relationship which means that each single text reference to each other which is really nothing romantic™ is posed to tell you THESE TWO WILL BE THE STARK SIBLINGS MEETING FIRST and since they didn't have a close rship before they will forge one now, but that doesn't mean that they're going to be romantic endgame, because jon's point isn't having the uber romantic storyline and sweeping a maiden off her feet and sansa already has at least one love interest posed to do exactly that and while their sl are absolutely meant to intersecate on a sibling finding each other again level they are off when it comes to romance;

also a j*nsa endgame would... imply that she becomes queen of the seven kingdoms and they stay reigning there when sansa is absolutely posed to stay in the north and do her own thing and jon is posed to destroy the united-westeros-because-a-targ-did-it legacy (which like... great bookend bc first legit targ king unites it, bastard stark-targaryen king who most likely is keeping the bastard name undoes it) and he is going to hate each second of it, so it doesn't add up with sansa getting her happy love song fairytale romance... which again she can get from other people that the text strongly pointed at already.

so: no because it makes no sense thematically for either of them and for that matter I don't even think jon*erys is eventual endgame tho I guess it has to happen at this point given the show mess idk but if either of them had to be j*nerys would make a load more sense and I still think that a targ restoration with two monarchs keeping on being monarchs is not what a dude who is obviously anti-monarchy has in mind for the endgame. like no offense to anyone into it ofc but again it has zero textual basis for being romantic endgame and it wouldn't even make either of them happy bc jon is not sansa's gentle brave strong knight and sansa isn't the kind of woman jon is actually into (ygritte reminded him of arya I mean) and idt he'd get romantic feelings for his sister who he's going to think of in that terms anyway so there's my two cents. and I understand that it's not smth that a lot of people would agree with but take it up with grrm because he's the one putting that in the text and not me X°D

[cherrymoonvol6]

i despise the stupid kent year 4 update for Obvious Reasons but there's only two things that i LOVE about it:

one, how kent is shown as someone who still resorts to his bad habits and toxic behaviors BUT calls himself out on that and legitimately corrects himself. him telling bitty "i'm sorry you heard that" and then IMMEDIATELY saying "i'm sorry i said that" is just such an important character moment for him!!! because let's say, jack never really apologized to bitty for the abysmal way that he treated him on y1. or other heavily featured side characters with rocky relationships like dex and nursey just, naturally become friends for unknown reasons and their reconciliation is never shown: we never know what had to change there for their friendship to work out. but kent is probably the only main(ish) character in the comic that goes the extra mile to profusely apologize for the wrongs he did. as someone who is considered to be very immature (bc jack grew kent got "what he wanted" yadda yadda) this is such a stark display of growth!!! especially with how aggressive bitty turns midway through. there was 83938494 ways he could've either dismissed the accusation, changed the subject, shifted the blame, come up with an excuse, maybe idk actually tell bitty that that's not what he said haha... but instead he TAKES it, he ACCEPTS it and he APOLOGISES. he got cornered in that haus kitchen and instead of lashing out like he did the last time, he de-escalates things by actually confronting the problem and telling bitty and the audience what they want to hear taking care of the bad things he did two years ago. and the SECOND he starts giving a bullshit apology, he immediately identifies it and corrects himself.

i think this makes him the character with the most growth in omgcp, tbh. because even bitty mostly stays the same and is the world who changes around him as he starts being more confident on himself, and then on y4 he (checks notes) ...learned to be less overbearing? kind of? what the fuck actually happened with that one whiskey subplot i can't understand lol. and this is also one of the reasons why it's so frustrating that we know so little about this transformation, especially taking into account that a year and a half ago kent was targeting jack to pettily win a game against the falcs, and one year ago he saw jack accidentally coming out while surrounding by at least one homophobic teammate. so like, what the fuck changed on his life or his mind that he suddenly decided that he was going to mature and do things right? if it weren't for the existence of fan-creator interaction, maybe we would know.

...aaaaaand the second one is,

his cowlick standing up on the most cursed panel of the update

[binickandros]

Hey I know it was a few days ago you said this but I'm coming into your asks to also complain about how much they sidelined Nick in the Stand. I legitimately don't understand the creative choice to focus on Harold as the main character and sideline Nick and the other, bigger characters. Yes Owen Teague is a fantastic actor, he was amazing, but the decision was presumably made long before his casting. Why was this the Harold Lauder show whereas Nick was barely in it, I... don't understand :(

Stand ranting anon again: I just wanted to add that I would be fine with the amount of screen time Harold got, if all the other characters got the same amount, like if it was a 20 episode season and we could get a whole episode of Nick backstory, of Frannie etc. We only even saw Frannie pre-plague through the fence whilst Harold was creeping on her, which is really... Not Great. So yeah I just feel like it was bizarre they used their limited time in the way they did, very confused.

Listen, nonny, LISTEN: I may never be over this injustice. I am a CANCER, we hold GRUDGES, and you can consider this one fuckin well HELD. Uh this gets long sooo...

I watched the 94 miniseries when it aired and of course immediately loved Nick. Shortly after that I read the book for the first time and loved Nick even more (Larry is 2nd, then prob Fran, then Stu), and over the years I’ve rewatched the mini-series and re-read the book and I was always like “man, I’d love to see an adaptation of this without network TV limitations, just like dark and creepy and atmospheric, but with the good guys winning the day” as they do.

So fast forward to 2011 or whenever and there are tentative announcements of a movie. Eh, not great, nowhere near enough time. Then!! A limited series!! Which is just a miniseries made fancy.

My dumb ass: more time in Shoyo!! Maybe Rita AND Nadine!! More time with Fran and her dad!! Etc etc

Welp I guess I got one of those things, but at what cost!! A whole entire Lucy, and uh...p much everything else I might have wanted.

I was talking about this with someone else (you know who you are but don’t wanna tag you in case you, like me, avoid the mortifying ordeal of being known at all cost) and we were both like “okay what EXACTLY about our culture right now made the adapters here (including King’s own son, Owen) think that a story about good v. evil somehow needed to focus on the red pill incel????”

Like they obviously had some idea about making the story more diverse, but because of the way they then used those characters, it felt like performative with no substance.

Ralph Brentner is now a Native woman?? Love it!! She’s also a glorified extra until the last few episodes?? Oh pls fuck off.

Larry is Black?? Great! A Black main character!! Except of course he’s NOT because HAROLD IS.

Nick’s now Latino! Buuuut played by a hearing actor. Which actually only matters in principle because we’re going to try to sweep our bullshit decision-making under the rug by hardly having him on camera. Won’t show up till episode 3, gone by episode 6, in one 2-minute scene in episode 5. Good job, guys! *high fives all around the writers’ room*

I’d honestly like to see someone with way more time on their hands do a screen time comparison between Nick and Harold, or Harold and literally every other character on this show. They opened with Harold, he was in every episode in a major way, he got a CLOSING MONOLOGUE and MONTAGE of his LIFE, while Nick just blew up and then was mentioned a few times and that was it.

I mean I guess they attempted something meaningful by having him...looking at that picture or postcard before the bomb? Which was like someone on a boat, so was maybe his mom, or reminded him of his mom? But how the hell were we to know that, bc we got the piece of exposition about his mom from FLAGG in ONE SCENE, and we’d never seen that picture before, nor do we have any idea of the significance of “Silencio,” which was written on the picture and was the title of the episode. It was literally not meaningful AT ALL bc we as the audience didn’t know a goddamn thing about it, and it was “blink and you miss it.”

I thought 9 hours would give us more time for backstory. That’s what I was looking forward to. Like Fran burying her dad was sad bc duh he’s her DAD and he’s DEAD, but it’s so much more meaningful when you’ve seen them bonding. Even the 94 miniseries, which had to cut some stuff for time, showed us how close they were, and the scene of her stitching his shroud was heartbreaking.

How did Stu, a 45-year-old man (tho that’s James Marsden’s age and I think they mean for Stu to be younger), come to fall in love w Frannie, a 20ish-year-old girl?? Who knows! He saw her on the road and thought she was cute and I guess that was that. She’s a college student from Maine and he works in a calculator factory (or something idr) in East Texas and there’s a huge age difference, so what do they have in common? Ah fuck it who cares let’s see what Harold’s doing.

I just honestly would like to know the thought process here. I think. Let’s be real. This is what happens when your main creative team is nerdy white boys. They identify with Harold: he’s an “outsider,” he’s “misunderstood,” if only people hadn’t been so mean to him!

An adaptation created by 2 white dudes. A writers’ room with all white dudes, except ONE woman who, for all we know, was just there, again, as tokenism. This is what happens when white men create for themselves without any real input from women, POC, or members of the LGBT community. Because the “gay rep” on this show is a whole other rant.......

Anyway, nonny, I’m writing a Nick fic rn that will hopefully see the light of day soon, and it’s literally. All Nick. And an OC bc Nick deserves love too!! And no Julie does not count. I’m not saying that just as shameless self promotion, but also to show that I was so incensed by this bullshit adaptation that I’ve now written 35k words and they JUST LEFT SHOYO, all while starting school doing something I’ve never even dipped my toe into before, so it’s fairly intense work.

Justice for Nick Andros. He deserved better from the source material, and somehow an adaptation made in 2020 (when we should all know better) made it So. Much. Worse.

[insomniacowl]

Neon Genesis Evangelion analysis Chapter 16 Seele, Gehrin, Nerv and…

Seele All-Star Special?

The United nation in the world of NGE is merely an assembly of multinational military forces that finds itself struggling to keep itself together amidst the devastation and strife the Second impact has brought onto the world. As we have discussed in previous chapters, the secret organization Seele was behind this catastrophe. ‘Seele’ is a German word meaning ‘Soul’ and we are shown that there are fifteen members at its highest level. While many believe the correct number to be twelve, in just one single scene in the renewal version episode 24 when they are talking to Kaworu, we see fifteen monoliths.

Because they are loosely based off of the twelve apostles of Jesus twelve seems to be the correct number and perhaps showing fifteen monoliths were a mistake that slipped through the cracks of production. But, I argue that this is born out of attempts to legitimize the Christian symbolism more then it was intended and that there is something that could be said regarding the number of monoliths that we see here. This I will cover in greater detail in the chapter (19) covering Kaworu.

Out of Seele's members, we are familiar with five of them, namely Lorenz Keel, and four others that we do see the face of. All other members are shown only via voice coming from the monoliths that are numbered. Considering that another inspiration for this organization was the Freemasons, the numbers likely refer to their hierarchy or order of admittance. 

The face of Lorenz Keel

We are never told where Seele originated from and this secretive origin is canon; not even the residents of the world of NGE know their past. But we still know that they are influential to the point they can mobilize the UN to do their biddings and that work under the guidance of the “Scenario” that is laid out in the Dead seas scroll. The Scrolls also contains the information of the two moons, Lance of Longinus, and the number of angels they are to expect.

Some believe that the scrolls also mention Evangelions, but that is a rumor. There is no evidence to suggest that.

Let us now talk a little about Keel. What kind of person is he? We can tell from the end of Evangelion that half of his body (Maybe more) has been replaced with cybernetic implants. Perhaps the goggle that we always see him wearing might not be a goggle but cybernetic eyes that he uses. 

This points to the possibility that Keel is actually older then he seems to be, this leading some to theorize that Seele might be “A group of immortal robot-human hybrids” but due to other members of Seele not being shown in this sequence, we cannot say anything definitive about this argument

The truth of Keel Lorenz

A little side note on the End of Evangelion where we are shown Keel’s mechanical body. While many interpret it as the producers of the series showing us the long time and great effort Seele’s members have invested into achieving HIP, I believe that we can also see this as (at least) Keel being a complex character who speaks of wanting to ‘transcend’ life and death via HIP while having an obsession with life so great that he has chosen to extend his life by artificial methods

The council of HIP

Coming back to our main topic and move onto the scene where we see five of the Seele members. This special meeting is aptly naming the “Human instrumentality Project council special summon” and are conducted among five of the top members of Seele and happens five times throughout the series. The colors on each of their tables symbolize the countries that each of them comes from.

First White for Germany and Keel. Yellow for France (this character shares the VA with Fuyutsuki), Blue for Russia, Green for the U.S, and Red for the UK. In the series itself, we are only told of the country of origin of the Green in episode 14, the rest is information from the Evangelion collection book. Some would have realized that four out of the five mentioned here are the 'Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council', the difference being China having been replaced by Germany.

Why this choice of a dark room though?

Out of the five nations represented, Germany plays a significant role in the world of Evangelion. Germany suffered one of the biggest damages of the Second Impact, has the 3rd Nerv operations base where both Kaji and Misato worked in the past. Germany was also the country of origin of Asuka and was where she received her training.

In the bible, seven eyes represent the ‘All-knowing’

This is about all we know, thus able to discuss Seele. In the end, they are sort of Deus Ex Machina that is used to explain away financial, influential, political requirements required by Nerv. Even if the viewers complain that "This is unrealistic!", Seele serves to explain it away.

Moving on from Seele, let us now talk about Seele’s subordinate organization Gehrin, and its successor Nerv.

Akagi Naoko, first-generation member of Gehrin

In German, Gehrin means ‘Brain’ and is the name of the organization that Seele gave their line of support after the Second impact. It was an organization that focused mainly on the construction of the Evangelions and was shown building its headquarters in the third Tokyo city (where current Nerv headquarters is located). It was headed by Gendou with the support of Akagi Naoko working as the head researcher. Since the nature of their activities had to be kept a secret, the public was told that Gehrin was a UN subordinate research facility focused on researching ‘Artificial evolution’.

Ironically, this cover identity falls in line perfectly with what they were actually doing. once the goals of constructing Evangelions were achieved, Gehrin disbanded and was replaced with Special operative organization Nerv run by the same people who were in charge of Gehrin. Simply said, the biggest change was their name. 

Yet the organization's name was not the only difference these two organizations had. While Gehrin focused on creating the capacity required for using Evangelions and were completely secretive of their activities, Nerv was more public (although with half-truths) of their activities and publicized goal of the organization ‘an organization focused on repelling the angels’. Across the seven operation bases around the world, they focused on achieving ‘peace for humankind’ and even had an active PR department. 

Let’s also talk a little about the iconographies of Nerv. Nerv is the root word for Nerve in English and is used in the same way. It refers to the nerve in our body but also to the ‘Nerve to do something’. As an organization that succeeded Gehrin (Brain) and carries out its plans to fight the angels, I believe the name is very apt.

The Nerv logo is a leaf of a fig tree. In the book of Genesis, Eve uses the leaf of the fig tree to cover herself when she felt shame after eating the fruit of knowledge. For Seele and Nerv that operate to undo the original sin, the choice of the fig leaf is also highly fitting.

The passage on the bottom of the logo “God’s in his heaven. All’s right with the world” comes from Robert Browning’s ‘Pippa Passes’ and is a cynical way of saying that even without a god, the world runs well enough on its own.

Commander: Since when did the UN become a toy (Unit – 02) delivery service? 

If they had the money to spend on such toys, they should send some funds our way.

While Nerv is considered the UN’s subordinate organization, it appears that this is only concerning the direction of funds flowing towards Nerv. We can see that the UN is in fact under the control of Nerv. This is shown well in Episode 8 when the commander of the fleet complains of the state of things and how powerless he feels following the orders of Nerv. Furthermore, we can see in episode 21’s newspaper that the UN moved its headquarters to the third Tokyo city for convenience. Of course, we know that Nerve has a strong influence only with Seele supporting them. When Seele stopped their support, we all know what has happened to them. So we can say that Nerv was in its best operative condition when they were fighting off the angels. After all, that was what Nerv was made for.

Calendar of important dates in Evangelion

4 Billion BC

Adam arrives on earth

Lilith arrives on earth

First Impact

 1947

Dead Seas scroll discovered

 9th April 1956

Birth of Fuyutsuki

 19th April 1967

Birth of Rokubunki Gendou

 30th March 1977

Birth of Ikari Yui

 1985

17th June Birth of Kaji Ryoji

21st November Birth of Akagi Ritsuko

 8th December 1986

Birth of Katsuragi Misato

 11th July 1991

Birth of Ibuki Maya

 1999

Fuyutsuki meets Yui

Fuyutsuki meets Gendou

Yui and Gendou begin courtship

 2000

12th September Gendou returns to Japan from Antarctica

13th September Second impact

Professor Katsuragi Dies

Birth of Kaworu

15th September India enters into war with Pakistan

20th September Old Tokyo destroyed by a nuclear bomb

 2001

14th February Valentine peace treaty signed

6th June Birth of Ikari Shinji

12th September Birth of Aida Kensuke

4th December Birth of Asuka

26th December Birth of Suzuhara Touji

 2002

Gendou and Fuyutsuki joins arctic exploration team under UN investigations council

18th February Birth of Horaki Hikari

 2003

Construction of Evan begins

Blueprint of Magi drafted

Fuyutsuki joins Gehrin

China – Vietnam war begins

Japanese self-defense force created

 2004

Death of Ikari Yui

Ikari Shinji put under the care of ‘Teacher’

Gendou proposes Human instrumentality project

Birth of First Rei

 2005

Death of Kyoko Zeppelin

Asuka begins pilot training

Misato meets Ritsuko

Misato begin cohabitation with Kaji

Construction of third Tokyo city begins

 2007

UN headquarters moved to Second Tokyo

Misato break up with Kaji

 2008

Construction of Magi begins

Ritsuko graduates Second Tokyo university and joins Gehrin

 2010

Misato and Kaji joins Gehrin

Magi completes. On the same day, Naoko and First Rei die. By suicide and straggling respectively.

Gehrin becomes Nerv

 2012

Ikari Shinji meets his father for the first time in eight-year at Yui’s grave

 2014

Ayanami Rei joins the Third Tokyo middle school

Asuka graduates university

Entry plug constructed

 2015

Angel advances

TBC Chapter 17 Angel advances

[plush-anon]

Would you ever write... a Scooby Doo and Phantom of the Opera crossover?

Ooooo, that would be a tough one to do. I would LOVE to say yes... but I honestly don’t know what I would really write, if that makes sense. 

(now allow me to vibrate intensely in place and hyperfixate over two of my earliest and most influential fandoms for about a thousand words please and thank you)

As much as I love these two fandoms (and I REALLY do. POTO 2004 helped pull me out of a REALLY ugly spiral in middle school - I dare say my worst - and Scooby Doo was THE fandom I first wrote/posted fanfiction for), meshing them would be... difficult.

Some Scooby properties have already played with Phantom some - Stage Fright actually did okay on their Phantom monster figure, esp in that he was a spirit focused on ego and NOT obsessing over Daphne (like they’ve done in other films - thanks Music of the Vampire TT_TT) - though considering every OTHER misstep made in that movie, it’s a damn miracle they even got THAT right. And Be Cool Scooby Doo had an episode with a Ghostly Prima Donna that hits a lot of the same points - amazing opera singer who wreaked havoc on a theatre when scorned by the owners.

(And if you wanna get into the actor side of it, Lego Scooby Doo: Haunted Hollywood’s plot focused on the ghost of a Boris Karloff/Lon Chaney Sr mashup haunting the studio with his horror characters, with the unmasking being the Mashup Actor JUNIOR wanting to carry on his dad’s legacy, a la Lon Chaney Jr. Again, not a great movie, but the mystery/monster element was handled alright)

The meshing of the two doesn’t really inspire much plot to it that hasn’t already been done to pieces. If it’s just a traditional Scooby mystery at a music competition the Phantom is trying to control/ruin, well - just see the above examples.  Regardless of the rest of the movie/episode’s flaws, WB actually did okay with the Phantom-esque elements. If it’s a modern POTO retelling with Mystery Inc trying to stop the Phantom, then, well. It’s basically rehashing Sherlock Holmes and the Phantom of the Opera adaptations all over again (of which there’s at least five and a comic miniseries - no joke, those actually exist), but with wacky hijinks and a talking dog. Not much new or interesting there, IMHO.

It would be VERY tired, low hanging fruit to have Daphne get kidnapped as the Christine replacement, and Velma’s family history is firmly established in Germany from Frankencreepy (and while that movie has... many problems, Velma’s family backstory is actually pretty damn good on its own, barring some minor quibbles over details mentioned).

I guess you could do Fred as like... the descendant of Raoul and Christine? Christine was OG Swedish in Leroux, and Fred’s family is primarily blonde and blue-eyed by WNSD standards (I refuse SDMI on principle). There could be something about Fred being targeted by Erik for conflicting reasons, his spirit sent into extreme emotional flux with what was Raoul and Christine’s great-great something grandson, while another mystery goes on framing Erik for something else... There could be something there, but I wouldn’t be the one to do it; main reason being, I am NOT great at writing Fred. 

For me, Fred is a difficult character to write, period; I have a better time of it with the live action Scooby movies Fred because I can play around with the flaws (read: bashing in the first movie) more. Fred in general is a tough character to write bc he’s played as the straight man, the generic leader (tho I forever mourn my lost draft of my post-SCOOB AU mashup with Orpheus in Eurydice - I actually had him there! *cries*).

More recent stuff plays around with him being an engineer - BCSD played him up as a neurodivergent mechanic, and I love that one to pieces - or a charming enough if frustrating at times himbo (WNSD), or in some cases an obnoxiously jealous dumbass who doesn’t know how to use buttons or listen to basic fcuking instructions (Moon Monster Madness, Music of the Vampire, also WNSD) or occasionally the dude SO obsessed with the Mystery Machine he may actually want to fcuk it (Frankencreepy, Happy Halloween SD!).

On the whole though, he’s not one ever really associated with music except when forced unrealistically (see again, Stage Fright for the sake of Fraphne baiting that they NEVER fcuking act on in these movies, to the point it’s legitimately frustrating and cheap to pull - Stage Fright esp so, bc Fred and Daphne spend the ENTIRE goddamn movie talking about having feelings for each other, KISS ON STAGE, and WHAT do they do?!? WHAT DO THEY DO?!??!?! THEY QUESTION THE KISS AND REVERT BACK TO STATUS QUO GODDAMNIT IT I’M JUST WHY) or when the gang is suddenly a band (WNSD, Legend of the Vampire, a background shot with him playing guitar in Witch’s Ghost, BCSD Screama Donna) or both (honestly all of the above, though BCSD played it for laughs best with Fred on the drums).

The closest we EVER got to Fred being interested in singing/music was an old ‘Behind the Characters’ short Hanna Barbera made for Cartoon Network, where Fred admitted he used to be in theatre and loved singing tunes from Showboat.

So him being the tie to Erik feels like a dead end to me. Not impossible, but still just... yeah, not a clean fit in my mind.

As for Shaggy and Scooby... they have enough problems to deal with without adding Erik on top of everything else. ‘Nuff said.

So yeah, unfortunately I have to say no on this one. There’s nothing I feel like I could do in them that wasn’t already tired (as opposed to the ROTG/POTO mashups I thought up forever ago), but hey, that could just be me.