#because all the characters have red flags because they’re human

[functionalasfuck]

What I think everyone needs to understand is that EVERYONE has red flags because not all red flags point to danger.

A red flag means a symptom that is being displayed could potentially be caused by something dangerous. BUT it could also be caused by something benign. It is a warning to keep an eye on things, not a death sentence.

But some of y’all acting like people should never raise a red flag in their life are entirely unrealistic.

HOWEVER, in media, a red flag is a Chekhov’s Gun. If you point out that there is a gun in a piece of media, and you don’t fire it, why the fuck did you put the gun there in the first place. So if I see a fictional character who is given a red flag, but then the narrative never fires it or even acknowledge it, why the fuck was it there.

… anyways this post got away from me.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Pavlovitz at The Beautiful Mess:

Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz would be her running mate in the coming presidential campaign.

The decision was met with effusive praise from both Blue voters, as well as a disparate group of politicians and commentators. Walz’ effortless warmth, his heart-on-sleeve demeanor, and his undeniable joy for life, which have been apparent for a long time in his home state—have suddenly become a national story. In a matter of hours, millions of people fell in love with the Governor, sharing videos of he and his daughter on thrill rides at the State Fair, and photos of him being joyfully embraced by a group of school children and cheerfully holding a tiny, sleeping piglet. And in the wake of the announcement and of his and Kamala' Harris’ electrifying appearance in Philadelphia at their first rally, the “Christian” MAGA Right rolled out a telling reply that they surely imagined was a real zinger: They created the hashtag #TamponTimmy. Really. That’s where they went. That’s all they got. Not only does this desperate response underscore the reality that Republican voters have nothing left but sophomoric name-calling in an effort to emulate their emotionally-stunted orange messiah in the absence of substantive critique, but it reveals how hateful toward women and how threatened by non-toxic masculinity they are.

MAGAs don’t see how much they expose themselves by using a female medical product as a slur, the way it reveals their complete contempt for women and their agendas toward them. They are so intimidated by a man this confident in who he is and so endowed with natural humility, that they have to attack these things as if they’re some sort of character flaws. Emotional maturity is a red flag for them.

[...] They are fully fed up with Trump and his surrogate’s contrived John Wayne dudebro American tough guy cosplay, and they are ready to embrace a better kind of manhood: one that doesn’t need to prove how tough it is, doesn’t have to be the center of attention, and most of all, is not concerned about showing its deep humanity because it revels in it. Tens of million of boys and young men of this nation have been irreparably harmed by the sexist dehumanization of Trump and the MAGA movement, which have been reinforced by Dark Ages theology, culture war politics, inherited/internalized misogyny, and good ol’ fashioned fragile masculinity. This nation is ready to embrace a masculinity embodied in Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff: one that does no harm, one that gladly defers to a strong, capable, talented woman, and one that makes all of us better.

John Pavlovitz nails it. The masculinity of Tim Walz is what’s needed for America, instead of the kind of masculinity the likes of Donald Trump, Andrew Tate, and Elon Musk push.

[awoogayanderes]

BSD MEN WITH THEIR TOXIC TRAITS

➪ characters : osamu dazai, chuuya nakahara, ryūnosuke akutagawa, fyodor dostoevsky, sigma, saigiku jouno

➪ other notes : i love writing silly angst with silly characters from my favorite silly anime / manga <3 non-edited

osamu dazai :

running away at any conflict with you

- whilst dazai has a lot of toxic traits and red flags, this issue is the biggest one by far

- running away is all dazai has left when it comes to arguing with you

- you’re someone he can’t lose, so instead he pushes everything under the rug, expecting it to go away

- you don’t dare mention his habit, but this fighting and forgetting habit has your hands tied together, not knowing what to do

- one minute you’re at each other’s throats, the next minute he’s gone, with uncomfortable silence choking you

- when you wake up, he’s hugging you tightly in the middle of his sleep as if your previous night’s encounter never existed

- he brings small bouquets of flowers to you when he comes back, wilting away once you get up and put them in a vase

- it’s almost a routine at this point, you fight, he leaves, you go to sleep angry, he comes back with flowers and lies next to you

- a relationship is staying with each other when things get difficult at times, but what happens when they leave you and come back into your arms with no other words said ?

chuuya nakahara :

over possessiveness and accusing of cheating

- this all roots from his previous betrayals where he thinks he’s found a family, only for it to be gone in a split second

- he’s a darling partner except that he can’t seem to trust you as much as he tries to

- ‘it’s just for precaution’ he says when he sends his men to be with you when you go out, it makes you feel weird having someone by you at all times

- if he ever gets the feeling that you’re being too friendly with a random waiter it always ends up with him accusing you of cheating on him

- you beg him to believe you when you say that you aren’t like the people he had in his life before, that you wouldn’t leave him

- he wants to trust you but when someone gets too close to you, it’s almost like a primal instinct to get you away from them

- he spoils you to no end but nothing materialistic compares to being alone without someone breathing down your neck

- it’s overwhelming not having time to yourself, always being surrounded by someone because they’re afraid to lose you

- you love him like a human so why does he love you like a trophy in fear of betrayal ?

ryūnosuke akutagawa :

lashing out at you for caring

- what else were you expecting when you started dating someone with so much trauma that he can only express with anger

- he doesn’t mean to lash out at you for no reason, he wants to make it work but instead of improving, his attitude continues to grow

- he doesn’t like you “nagging” at him to take better care of himself

- you know that there’s a big brick wall that stops you from reaching his heart but at what point is too much, too much

- when you nod at him after he screams at you, it almost angers him more because he thinks you aren’t listening even though you are, not wanting to argue back and cause more chaos

- there’s times where he makes up for his behavior, sometimes he picks a random flower from grass and gives it to you

- he doesn’t know why he gets so angry that you care for his wellbeing, isn’t that what couples normally do for each other

- it’s saddening seeing the own man you let into your life berate you for no reason

- it’s so hard to love someone who just seems to loathe you so much even with his small actions of caring

fyodor dostoyevsky :

seeing himself as your superior and seeing you as a pawn in his own game

- another man with a shitload of red flags and toxic traits, this one rising above them all

- he cares about you, he does ! but not in the way you’d like, he cares about you like how humans care about their pets

- sure he’d give you the world if he could, but he’d also give you up for his ideal world if it ever came down to that

- a relationship is a balance where each partner sees the other one as an equal, yeah not with fyodor it’s not

- you’ve proven your worth to him so many times for him to see you as the same as his level, instead it just makes you seem as a pawn under his control

- despite this, there are times where it almost seems that he cares about you like a person should, when you’re hanging onto his arm walking in a park humming quietly

- he indulges in your needs every so often, not before bringing you right back down to your place beneath him

- not even death would allow you to escape this cycle of rising and being kicked down

- why does he expect you to see him as the righteous hand of god when he sees you as a mere pawn ready to be sacrificed

sigma :

unintentionally guilt tripping you every time you get frustrated at him

- he’s been used so many times, his naivety is something he hates to the core, all he wants is someone to settle down with, a family

- he’s another sweetheart partner when you can push past the teary eyes and begging for you to not be mad at him and to not leave him

- his biggest fear is losing you, someone who doesn’t use him, he’d rather abandon his casino than end his relationship with you

- whilst he doesn’t realize, you notice his wording when he begs you to stay, often saying that he’s nothing without you, that he’d rather die than be without you

- maybe it’s heartwarming for the first few times but once it becomes a cycle you start to truly wonder if he’d actually go crazy without you or if it was all bluff

- even then, you can’t deny him when he guilts you into staying, he doesn’t know any better

- if you ever mention this to him, he’ll burst into tears, thinking you were breaking up with him, it takes hours trying to convince that you were here to stay

- it’s a repeating cycle he doesn’t notice and you can’t break for the sake of both of you

- love is a powerful thing, powerful enough to guilt you into staying with a man who loves you a bit too much

saigiku jouno :

putting his work above you at all costs

- he swore to protect those that need him, he’s not going to break that just for you

- you knew what you were getting into when you started dating the hunting dog, yet sadness can’t help but fill you when he misses important events with you

- after all you’ve been through with him, and not a single happy birthday text, not a single note for your anniversary, nothing

- he knows when you’re upset with him even if he can’t see your face, he can feel you rejecting his touch, and that’s when he reminds you of what he swore and what you agreed to

- it doesn’t help when he has his snarky attitude and almost mocking voice explaining to you why he can’t just walk out of a meeting

- despite this, he does love you, otherwise he wouldn’t waste his time on you, he loves that you still stick with him no matter what

- you really don’t ask for much, you understand his work and what he has to do, but he still thinks you make a big deal out of nothing

- as hypocritical as it sounds, he always expects you to be there for him even if he’s not

- you knew you were never going to be his first priority but it hurts so much more when he makes sure you know

[ghostflowerdreams]

One thing that puzzled me was why the animals weren’t better protected. Just because the monsters were ignoring them didn’t mean they were actually safe. I wasn’t too surprised when the monsters eventually targeted them. I expected the monsters to kill them outright, but instead, they used the animals as bait to lure out the humans.

It makes sense—the monsters aren’t ready for their fun to end. By mostly sparing the animals, they’re extending their entertainment a bit longer, watching how the humans react and deal with their situation. But I imagine that won’t last long. The monsters will eventually get bored once they realize there’s no thrill in hunting weak, starving humans. If that happens, nothing is stopping them from wiping everything out and starting over with a fresh batch of prey.

It seems that Jim and Jade’s actions trigger a shift in town, almost like unlocking "level 2" of a video game, causing the season to change and up the difficulty in survival. Meanwhile, Boyd's actions also unlocked level 2 of the monsters. Knowing now there are worse things out in the forest and that there are consequences for killing one of them, especially antagonizing whatever force controls these monsters.

Then, there's Fatima’s pregnancy, which raises a red flag. She was told that the possibility of getting pregnant was zero. Many women with fertility issues are usually told by doctors that they can’t get pregnant, but in reality the possibilities are just really low and not impossible. Hasn't anyone caught on already that people heal oddly fast in this place? We know it doesn't actually 'cure' people; otherwise, Kenny's dad's dementia and Boyd's Parkinson's wouldn’t still exist. But Ethan's leg was impaled, and within a few days, he was walking around with the help of a stick.

Did Fatima somehow heal enough to get pregnant, or could the beings in control of the town be using her to spawn a new creature—perhaps to replace the one Boyd killed?

As for Tabitha, I don’t think people necessarily have to die to escape the town. There’s something about the lighthouse—often seen as a symbol of hope and not just a source of light—that could be tied to a possible way out. In literature, lighthouses represent guidance and the promise of safety, especially during dark or turbulent times, helping lost souls find their way back home.

Victor found his mother’s body by the faraway tree that led to the lighthouse, which feels significant. It’s possible that his little sister managed to catch up to their mother, and during that time, their mother helped her escape. But when she returned to get Victor, the monsters got to her.

They say that in storytelling, you should never assume a character is gone when their body isn’t shown, as they often return in surprising ways. Maybe his sister has been alive all this time, but is still trapped in that place, or perhaps she really did escape? It’s also possible she got turned into one of the monsters. There are still a lot of unknowns.

[prying-pandora666]

On Alucard and Maria

Are there actually fans advocating for Alucard to be written as Maria’s father figure in the new season of Nocturne? Like that would be a good thing and not infinitely creepier? I don’t think they’ve thought this through.

Alucard is the single most popular character in the franchise. He’s also probably the most shipped character. And yet he has only had one canon love interest in the decades since he’s existed. It’s Maria. And you’re telling me that you think that because he’s 300+ and she’s 17-18 when they started living together in the games, that it would be grooming. However, somehow him inserting himself into her life at age 16 when she’s just lost both her parents wouldn’t come off like grooming!?

Does this man look like he should be picking up random children!? He’s literally terrified of his own cursed blood. Maybe LISTEN TO HIM.

I’m convinced fandoms have forgotten what that word means. Grooming has specific features. It doesn’t just mean “older guy and younger girl.” A relationship with an age gap or an uneven power dynamic can be exploitative or abusive without being a case of grooming. Grooming specifically refers to the process of forming a relationship with a child with the intention of leveraging that relationship and trust to train and prepare (aka brainwash) your victim for the harmful activities the groomer wants to normalize. The relationship Alucard and Maria have in the games is in no way grooming. You know what would be grooming though?

Coming into a 16 year old’s life when she’s vulnerable, traumatized, and recently orphaned only to insinuate yourself as a new father figure. This is so highly inappropriate and a huge red flag. Consider what you’re actually asking for here. These characters do not exist in a a vacuum. They have a long history together as each other’s only canon love interests. You cannot fully extract them from the games, art, interviews, audio dramas, animations, and more where they’re depicted as a couple. There are decades of this precedent and you are asking Netflix to knowingly take the characters with an established romantic dynamic that the audience is already primed to see as romantic and instead portray their meeting as him trying to be her new daddy?

“Oh look! Alucard and his… daughter? Yikes.” This is an official advertisement btw.

THAT is grooming! Think about the optics of this! It would be abysmal! No it would NOT fix the problem of their age gap to make him act like a groomer and get in good with her as a dad. You just cannot completely extract them from the legacy of their relationship in the source materials. It will be incredibly creepy and textbook grooming if you get your way.

Is this really what you want to associate with an “adoptive father Alucard”? Because the art we create doesn’t exist in a vacuum. All the old content—official and fanmade—is still going to exist.

What is so objectionable about the original dynamic anyway? It’s a pretty fun subversion of the tired and problematic vampire trope of “vampire man stalks teen girl and coerces her into being his”. Instead in their original relationship, Maria is the one who pursues Alucard! It’s the young woman who takes initiative and is given the agency to go after what she wants. She courts and woos him. That’s part of the fun!

Yes, Alucard is 300+. He’s also a fictional creature that doesn’t actually exist IRL and stays eternally young. There are no actual people who will ever have his problem of staying 20 forever so it’s rather silly to say he can’t date any humans because of course he will have an age gap with any of them.

The only real problem I have seen people bring up is Maria’s age, but from what I can tell, the show’s already fixed this. Check it out.

In The Games

Rondo of Blood: Maria is 12. She and Alucard do not meet. Richter is a brother-figure and not romantic.

There is then a 5 year time skip.

Symphony of the Night: Maria is 17. She and Alucard meet to save Richter. At the end, Alucard says his goodbyes and intends to return to a life of solitude. Maria goes after him because she has developed feelings for him and doesn’t want him to suffer a life alone.

Maria is given agency to pursue what she wants and prove herself even against Alucard’s resistance and hesitance to let another person into his life.

They spend a year together before we get the audio drama.

Nocturne of Remembrance: Maria continues to try to get close to Alucard. They end up saving each other’s lives and in the end he finally confesses his romantic feelings for her. She is an adult and perfectly able to make her own choices. She chose him. He admits he returns her feelings.

How fandom can look at a story about a young woman subverting the trope and chasing the vampire to get what she wants—basically an anti-Bella Swan—and still find a way to disempower her just so they can pearl clutch? I couldn’t tell you.

So now let’s look at what the show did.

In The Show

Nocturne S1: Maria is 16. She’s been aged up from 12, probably to give her a more active and believable role. But this also means she’s within a normal age to start feeling attraction and expressing her wants. Within her society, she’s even considered of marriageable age. However we are spared the discomfort of our modern values clashing with her contemporaneous ones because Maria in this season isn’t interested in romance. She’s interested in revolution, equality, justice. They’ve portrayed her with so much love and strength. There is no indication they’d betray her by writing her as the child victim of a male suitor. In fact she only meets Alucard in the final few seconds of the season and the two do not even speak a single word to one another.

Now let’s remember the games had a five year time skip. The show only needs two years to get Maria to the adult age of 18, but assuming the follow through with the timeline and go for the full five?

Maria will be 21.

21.

Fan concept for adult Maria. Credit:@esp-art

Are you telling me a 21 year old woman is not old or mature enough to make her own decisions? How is this not a total infantilization of women? Do you think a 21 year old badass vampire hunter needs protection from the ace depressed dhampir boy who just wants to sleep and has in no way tried to pursue her until after she expressed consistent and persistent interest in him?

It is not “grooming” to meet someone when they were younger and then meet them again years later as an adult. That’s a thing that happens! In real life! Adults can still make decisions for themselves! It is only grooming if Alucard behaved in a way that would manipulate teen Maria and put her under his control and authority before she can consent. There is no indication that Alucard in the show is going to do this. And yet the fandom is basically demanding it by saying he should make her “his baby girl”?

And what of Maria’s feelings in all this? She just lost her mother and was betrayed by her father shortly after discovering he even existed. She has lived her whole life without a father. She is in no desperate need of a new one. And if she does need a family member, she already has one! Richter is 19 and is her trusted adoptive brother. Why wouldn’t she go to him over a total stranger she just met and who is half vampire - literally a predator creature that feeds on humans!?

Yeah, hi, Richter Belmont still exists. He and Maria consider each other family. Why would you want her relying on a strange man she just met as a “father figure” rather than her trusted and loving brother?

Have none of you even considered how Maria would feel if Alucard even tried to fill the paternal role? He’d have to force it on her through manipulation and coercion. No way she would want to view him that way. Especially considering she is 16 and likely to be as attracted to the sparkly 20 year old looking sculpted marble beauty as anyone else!

Don’t mind the beautiful eternally young man who looks made of pure porcelain and light. No teen girl has ever been attracted to this, right? No way it could be exploitative and creepy for him to present himself as her new daddy, giving himself authority and influence over her as his child to mold as he wishes, right? Oh yeah, this is MUCH better than Maria pursuing him of her own volition once she becomes an adult, right guys?

We are truly in the stupidest dark timeline.

Frankly, I don’t care if Netflix has them get together or not. They would work just fine as friends too. I just sure as hell hope they’ll ignore the fans clamoring for a creepy daddy/daughter dynamic. Dressing it up as “concern” won’t hide that for some it’s a fetish, and for others they’re just useful idiots who haven’t thought it through.

I implore you to think it through.

[puddleorganism]

Pondering a new rancher au (yes the giant fucking bird is Jimmy) - rambling/explanation under the cut

[Image IDs:

ID 1: a digital drawing of Jimmy/SolidarityGaming and TangoTek, in which Jimmy is a massive approximately 20 foot/6 meter tall bird-like creature. He’s standing idly (to show off his design) with a nervous smile on his face. He has a long neck and long legs that make him look like a dinosaur, but he is covered in light golden-brown feathers and has wings. His wings are huge, the primaries/tips sticking out behind his back. They’re modeled after a turkey vulture’s wings. He’s got a grey hooked beak that is mostly covered in feathers. He’s also got long tail feathers that look just short of skimming the ground. His legs are dark grey with huge talons. All over his legs, wing tips, and tail feathers is a dark grey ash. Tango’s sitting cross-legged on his back/shoulders, hunched over and looking at one of those map books you usually have in your car. (Note: the next image is of Tango, so to avoid redundancy I’m going to describe his appearance better there.) /End ID 1

ID 2: a digital drawing of TangoTek, a humanoid with fire for hair and a long, thin tail tipped in fire; like how a lion’s is tipped with fur. He’s standing idly (again, to show off his design) with his hands in his pockets. He’s got light tan skin with freckles on his nose and wrist. He’s got what look to be black scales on his ears - which are long and pointed - cheeks and nose that have glowing orange cracks in them like burning wood. He’s wearing a red handkerchief over his nose and mouth and has red-tinted goggled pushed up on his forehead. He’s wearing an off-white sweater, a worn leather jacket with red accents, grey cargo pants and black boots. He also has a pale gold and brown messenger bag slung over his left (the viewer’s right) shoulder and back behind his arm. He’s also got two scuffed, worn pins on his jacket; a small, round yellow one and a tiny polyamory flag. He’s also covered in ash - even more so than Jimmy - to the point where his boots, sweater, and handkerchief are stained with it, and are almost more grey than their original colors.

ID 3: simple digital sketches of the above characters. From left to right they are: Jimmy laying down with his head bowed, and Tango standing on his tiptoes to lean against Jimmy’s head. Both their eyes are closed and their foreheads are pressed together. The next is of Tango with his goggles on and looking confused at the map book, which is folded in half in his hands. Jimmy is leaning over his shoulder to look at the map as well. Two question marks float by Tango’s head. The last is of Jimmy standing upright, one of his talons held up near his chest. In his talons he’s holding Tango who seems surprised and is kind of doing that thing that cats do when you pick them up under the arms. This sketch is captioned with the word “hold”. There’s also a small bit of wing from a drawing that’s been cropped out in the corner. /End ID 3

/End IDs]

Ok rambling time!

So it’s set in a that was similar to the modern day, but after in a post-apocalyptic world (recent enough that they both would’ve known the world before). Not a zombie apocalypse or anything, though. There may be Foes but probably not.

I’m not exactly sure what the apocalypse that happened actually is yet, but it’s left the world an ash-covered wasteland with few ruins and even fewer survivors (survivors being organisms in general, not just humans). I want the landscape to be kind of surreal and bizarre, but I haven’t decided if that’s because of the apocalypse or not. Maybe it was just Like That lol.

Anyway, one thing you may want to know more about, is why the hell is Jimmy a giant bird? And the answer is: I like giant birds. In all seriousness though, he’s cursed! Don’t know why. He was a normal ass dude. Now he’s a bird.

Tango might also be cursed? Depends on how edgy I end up wanting this to be lol. He might be an undead wraith or something who knows.

[bellaveux]

cheating Natasha?

take my opinion with a grain of salt because you’re the writer at the end of the day and I’m not sure if you were actually asking for one or just venting… but I can’t imagine there’s many situations where cheating can be forgiven.

when I read a fanfic that involves cheating, especially ones that are one-shots, the two characters being together or agreeing to work on things but the end of the story feels similar to they found out their partner cheated but forgave them for it same day. (even with a time skip)

@ginnsbaker is a writer who’s made a story that I consider an exception and to me that’s because (in the story the reader is no saint but for now we’ll focus on Wanda cheating) we can see all of Wanda’s regret, pain, and the work she puts into improving herself being fleshed out over a long period of time that it made forgiving her make sense.

also I think the reader letting go of the cheating partner and not being immediately paired with another person to focus on healing themselves is sooooo underrated😭

but yeah that’s my rant hope you have a great day!

i love @ginnsbaker’s series so much i cried so many times 😭 i think it’s an amazing story and take on cheating, forgiveness, regret and reflection

and i completely agree !! i don’t think there are many situations where cheating is forgivable. a lot of the time, cheating happens when one partner disregards their partner’s feelings entirely or repeatedly makes selfish choices—which in most cases, i think are truly unforgivable because it shows a deeper lack of respect and trust. and in situations like those, forgiving can feel like giving up self respect and/or ignoring red flags.

the fic i’m writing is leaning more towards something a lot more complicated. i think there’s a different quality to it when two partners both have things that they’re struggling with, something that they both struggle to communicate so that it’s more of a human failure than a blatant pattern of disregard—when both partners get to a point where they are finally ready/willing to work through their problems, address them and the pain, and to take accountability.

that being said, forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting. i think that’s a bit of a problem with a lot of cheating fanfics out there when a character is sooooo eager to forget and is blinded by their love for that person rather than seeing the hard truth. i don’t really enjoy those types of fics and i will try my best to make sure the one i’m writing isn’t similar !

so thank u for the rant !!!! it’s a really big help :)

[yuikomorii]

i think i can forgive yui for anything even toxic simply because she suffered the most because of those guys and deserves to get her lick back. they put her through so much in earlier games, it's insane

// PARDON?? 😀😀

I understand that the Diaboys were bitchy at first and they all treated others as less (which is bad), but other than Laito, Kanato and Carla, nobody made Yui suffer that bad to the point of breaking her. Kou was pretty nasty too at first, but the rest weren’t that horrible route based for characters supposed to be monsters. At the very least, I can name some human LIs who were way worse than most Diaboys, yet nobody seems to hate on them for that. I understand that it must be tiring being pushed around and being treated as “prey”, yet we’re talking about vampires here. They are predators and don’t have the same set of morals as humans do, for this reason humans are a mere food source for them. They can’t live without blood, even if this means having to sacrifice humans to satisfy their hunger. We love cats despite the fact that they like torturing mice before killing them, and that’s because we understand that it’s just how the predator instinct works. The Diaboys might look humanized, but they are a whole difference existence and you shouldn’t hold them at human standards. It’s good that DL showed how vampires were truly supposed to act, instead of making them romantic and flirty from the start.

Even the whole Adam’s apple plan focuses on Eve, a human, making Adam, a vampire, learn about human feelings. One thing about the Diaboys is that they all had growth. If someone is shown regretting their behavior and is genuinely changing into a better person just for you, it’s very insensitive to remind them about what they did a long time ago. They are aware of their actions and they are aware they were in the wrong, therefore bringing up their past mistakes won’t make you a better person than them. A Diaboy could sacrifice everything for Yui and put his life on the verge each and every time she’s in danger, but some of you guys would still only see him as “bad”, which would be a huge insult to his character, given that it would erase all the development he went through.

I’m not going to count the bad endings here, but saying that you forgive all of Yui’s toxic actions is very toxic itself. She is an abuse apologist herself, who tried to convince Ayato that his mother secretly cared for him (despite knowing the full story), Subaru that Karlheinz loved him and the Mukamis that Karlheinz, after he committed a whole genocide, saved them to redeem himself. These are all very wrong. Karlheinz always used everyone for his plans, just like Cordelia used her children for her selfish desires. Neither of them were ever shown regretting their actions. This is just one example of Yui’s toxic actions and I’m not saying that she did them with ill will, but stupidity can make one problematic too. It gives off the same vibes as “but they’re your parents”, after hearing someone talk about how much their parents hurt them.

It’s not that hard to admit that all DL characters have red flags. Nobody in this franchise is meant to be a role model and it’s okay if you don’t like certain actions. I’m a Yui stan, but I get why several people from the otoge community don’t really like her. However, I’m surprised that they see her as really that bad. I mean, she still is mostly kind and sweet, therefore I don’t think her bitchy moments are more significant. Yet, I suppose this has more to do with how they perceive things.

[latibvles]

fix the unfixable.

a bit late but for the next prompt “injured” i was, ahem, enabled into some POW Camp angst by somebody *cough* @thoughpoppiesblow *cough* so here’s that: post-Münster featuring June, Viv, & Lena through Lena’s eyes. No one said i had to go in order of occurrence for these so we are skipping around because it’s fun. General warning for the mistreatment of POWs & discussion of character death, although we don’t get especially detailed about it! Better safe than sorry.

—

“This is bullshit.”

“June.”

“What?! S’not like they can understand me. This is all fucking bullshit.”

Lena’s mouth feels like it’s been stuffed full of cotton: not just because of the lack of solace she can provide, but also because the last spot where they had water was the transit camp. Then they’d been subjected to more of a train, more walking — screamed at when they falter in a language Lena vows to never, ever learn.

And Viv was taking it like a champ the whole time — indifferent in the face of their screaming, chin jut out in silent defiance and refusing help from either her or June up and until she stumbled getting off the train and June had pretty much tossed her body over her own, screaming ‘She fell! She fucking fell!’ in the face of red-faced screaming guards and barking, feral dogs.

Lena stood there, feeling stupid and helpless in all the ways that actually mattered.

They pointed guns in their faces and for a moment Lena thought she would be doing the rest of this journey alone. 

Now they’re half-carrying her, because it doesn’t take a genius to know that whatever’s up with Viv’s ankle isn’t going to be pretty if they ever get the chance to look at it — and the tumble off the platform certainly didn’t help. Viv’s head is both bloody and bowed in unshakable concentration as she tries to keep the weight off it.

Okay, so June’s right, this is bullshit. It’s cold, they’re all bruised and battered and cut to hell, Lena’s fairly certain they’re the only ones that made it out of their fort alive, and the one person she’s known to stand tall no matter the circumstances can’t even use both legs right now. Sudden movements mean getting shot though, so as much as she wants to scream — she doesn’t. She just tightens her grip on Viv, and prays to whatever God might be listening that she and June can make a half-decent pair of human crutches.

Lena hates it; she hates that there’s nothing she can do to fix this.

That’s her job, isn’t it? Fixing things — the electrical problems in their plane, engine troubles, keeping them in the air so the pilot could get them home. Well they were on the ground, now, birds with clipped wings and boulders tied to their ankles. Any attempt to escape would be pointless. And even if they tried, it wasn’t like they’d make it very far, tired and hungry like this, behind enemy lines. What would more likely occur would be they’d get recaptured by some German farmer and be tossed right back into this POW carousel.

The last person who’d tried to run had been shot, his body tossed carelessly onto the train car, and all Lena could think was that leaving his body on the side of the road would’ve been kinder. That’s probably why they chose to toss it onboard.

Lena was never the superstitious type. She didn’t bring any good luck charms on a mission or say any prayers. She complied with the crew’s tradition of smacking the top of the doorframe where they hung Viv’s old PT shirt, the Pallas Athena acting as a flag and a “good luck charm” according to Inez. She’d never believed that either.

But it had to be some type of karmic thing. You go up while your two anchors have to sit the mission out, in a fort that isn’t yours ‘cause yours is too banged up to see the sky right now. Maybe it was God striking their plane down, or guiding the rocket that took out one of their engines.

She couldn’t fix the unfixable — she wasn’t Josie or Willie. Lena could only ever fix the things she could see, and there was no solution here beyond a bullet to the head, maybe.

Viv winces as she stumbles in her attempt to keep off her bad foot, a sharp and quiet sound, and Lena’s jaw clenches.

“Could always get on my back, Captain.” She murmurs.

“M’fine.” On the opposing side, June scoffs.

“You hit your head or something? She’s too heavy.” Lena’s brows furrow, and her lips tug into a frown.

“I could try.”

“They’d shoot you first for sudden movements.”

“And if they do?”

“Don’t you start playing fucking hero too,” June hisses, but there’s a crack to her voice that nearly kills Lena. Birds with clipped wings, or wounded dogs? Some bodies never make it out of the plane and the ones that do don’t always hit the ground.

And they knew that, distantly, and personally, but now they knew that fact intimately.

“Guys, really, it’s fine. Just a slip.” Viv’s voice is still scratchy and hoarse from days without use — solitary confinement will do that to a person. Lena feels guilt settling in her own aching, tired bones, and looking across to June, the sentiment seems to be shared.

“Sorry Cap,” Lena sighs out quietly, and June mumbles a similar, garbled apology. But that's not even the half of it. She wants to splutter a million apologies for a million different things — I'm sorry we had to bail, and I'm sorry I can't carry you, and I'm arguing in your ear, and you'd probably want anyone but me with you right now, and—

Viv shakes her head, and although she smiles, it barely reaches her eyes.

“S’like being back in the air,” she insists. “When you all start arguing about something stupid over the comms…” She trails off, and the silence between the three of them is so loud in that moment that it almost pushes Lena to tears. They're wounded in every way a person could be, and for Lena, that fact alone is humiliating. “That’s a no-go on the piggyback ride though. Save your strength.”

Ahead of them, one of the officers shouts what Lena can only assume is something akin to Shut up, Bomber Bitch all encompassed in one word in German.

Lena cranes her head up to try and see over a few of the heads and get a gauge of where they’re walking to. If it’s another train or car, she might just lose her mind.

Metal wire, wood posts, fences miles high and towers looming over them and touching the slate gray sky. Before Lena can even try to make out what the signs say, the gates are being pushed open, and the rattling is only overpowered by a long, low siren that sends a chill up her back and has Viv lifting her head once more — just barely.

That’s when the shouting starts all at once — loud and low, names and what Lena assumes are nicknames being hurled at them and the group they’re walking with. She can barely make sense of the numbers and names being shouted at her. Johns and Joes and Smiths. She doesn’t recognize any voices sticking out amongst the din, even if she can pick out a few of the sentences.

“Shit, more broads?”

“They don’t got their own camp?”

“Hey blondie, what group you ladies with?!”

Lena looks at June, who’s jaw looks so clenched her teeth might crack, and she wonders if the trembling comes from her own legs trying not to give out or if it’s from the effort not to say something that’ll get them in more trouble the moment they make it down this endless corridor. She contorts her own arm, just for a moment, to pat at June’s where they’re looped around Viv.

“Lena!” For a moment, she’s convinced she’s hearing things. Certainly not her, there’s gotta be another— “Red! Cuh-mahn O’Flannigan, over here!”

She’d recognize that accent anywhere, and even if she didn’t, there was only one group of guys who’d had the misfortune of giving her an itemized list of god awful “nicknames.” Her head whips this way and that until she finds them — and it takes everything in her not to let out a strangled cry of relief at the sight of Crank right by the fence. Harrie Morgan’s practically climbing on top of him, wild-eyed and hollering so nonsensically Lena can hardly understand her.

“Lena! Juney! Holy shit— that you Cap?”

Between them, Viv lets out a noise that sounds like something between a laugh and a sob.

“Though ya got lost! Inez, c’mere!” Lena waves her free arm dismissively, a promise of we’ll come to you posed on her tongue — but that’s not exactly what comes out as Viv begins to feel heavier and heavier on their shoulders.

“Gonna need some extra hands! We got precious cargo over here!”

[fibula-rasa]

Watch More Movies Notebook: October ‘24

Collage of stills from my nine favorite new-to-me films of October '24

October's blog journal has a handful of technologically and creatively adventurous pre-code films and a selection of witches, demons, ghosts, and varied ghouls from six different countries!

Favorite New-to-me Films of the Month

(listed in order pictured above, L to R)

As always, if any other films catch your eye, but you need specific content/trigger warnings, feel free to ask and I’ll try to oblige!

READ on BELOW the JUMP!

Black and Tan (1929) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

When Duke and his band are in dire straits, Fredi, Duke’s girlfriend, manages to land them a job. The catch however, is that Fredi must dance in the act even though she has a heart condition.

Dudley Murphy directs Duke Ellington and Fredi Washington in this short-but-dazzling musical tragedy. Black and Tan’s been in my watchlist for ages, but I found extra motivation to finally see it because I’m still watching through the films discussed in Lovers of Cinema, which I read this summer. I’m not new to Murphy’s work, but as I watch more of it, I’m starting to appreciate how unsung he is as a filmmaker. Highly recommend this one!

——— ——— ———

Night of the Demon (1957)

[letterboxd | imdb]

An American parapsychology professor plans to attend a conference in England and discovers that one of his colleagues has died under mysterious circumstances. The professor takes up his colleague’s investigation of a local satanic witch cult—his skepticism blinding him to his imminent peril.

Completely unintentionally, I’ve avoided watching this movie for years because I had assumed I’d seen it already. Turns out I had it mixed up with Night of the Eagle (1962)—a movie that Night of the Demon shares more than a similar title with! Both are good though! Up tight academic psychology experts in England using the power of suggestion and hypnosis to face off with witches appears to be a pretty solid horror formula.

——— ——— ———

Wolf’s Hole / Vlčí Bouda (1987) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

A group of teenagers are accepted into an elite skiing camp on a remote mountain top run by three very odd characters. Red flags start piling up as the isolated kids gradually figure out that this ski camp is, in reality, a very sinister experiment.

A 1980s teen horror film directed by the great Věra Chytilová? How could it not be great? If you choose to check this one out, which I recommend, don’t read too much about it ahead of time—the way Chytilová unfolds the reveal is best left unspoiled. As a horror film fan, I loved how the kids being obnoxious is paired with the perspective that you’re still going to care about them and root for them to make it to safety. This is a much appreciated and humane opposition to many (obvi not all) American horror films where teens acting obnoxiously has become cinematic shorthand that they’re doomed to a violent end. It’s a tense, stressful movie with some bombastic choices within the limited setting. And, for those that need to know ahead of time: the dog does not die! Long live Pišta. CW for some depictions of prejudice toward a Romani character.

——— ——— ———

The Bat Whispers (1930) 

[letterboxd | imdb | hoopla (US)]

Infamous archcriminal, The Bat, has outwitted the cops once again and has shuffled off to the country. Coincidentally, out in the country, the local bank has just been robbed. The Bat is after the money, the cops are after the robbers, and caught in the middle is the wealthy society matron Cornelia Van Gorder and her long-suffering maid/companion Lizzie, who, hoping for a quiet respite from the city, have rented the bank manager’s house while he’s away.

Ambitious contrary evidence to the notion that early sound films fully broke from the rich, artistic visual grammar of silent cinema. I won’t go into that debate in too much detail here, as it’s a complex enough conversation to warrant an essay unto itself. But, in short, some filmmakers, theorists, and critics pointed out an overreliance on the structure and devices of drama in sound film that disrupted artistic development in film as its own distinct medium. That’s an oversimplification but the discourse around this—going all the way back to before sound film became the standard—is really fascinating, so please read up on it if the topic catches your interest. All that said, The Bat Whispers, shot on uncommon 60mm film, has extremely dynamic cinematography for a pre-code. Roland West and Co. do a great job of adapting a stage play to film thoroughly and thoughtfully so that it doesn’t feel stagey. The cast of characters are all delightful and Maude Eburne and Chester Morris deserve special credit.

I enjoy the later adaptation with Agnes Moorehead and Vincent Price, but I have to say The Bat Whispers is all-around the superior film. Wide recommendation for this one, even if you don’t have particular interest in pre-codes!

——— ——— ———

The Blob (1988) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

A small town in California is terrorized by a mysterious and deadly amorphous creature. 

Another film that had been on watchlist for ages, The Blob might now be on my shortlist for best horror films of the 80s. A smart remake that recontextualizes the premise for the social anxieties of 1980s America. The characters are primarily fleshed out by how they react in crisis and the film offers a humane and heartening depiction of members of a community coming together and putting aside their differences in the face of abject horrors. In some ways this feels like it would make a great double feature with Vlčí Bouda (discussed above). (The dog also doesn’t die in this film, FYI.) Also the special effects are absolutely horrifying, and might be a little stomach turning if you are sensitive—very different from the original!

——— ——— ———

Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma / 妖魔 (1989) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

Demons called Yoma are ravaging war-torn feudal Japan. A lone ninja is on a mission to kill his former best friend, who is ushering in a full-blown Yoma invasion. This is a two-part OVA adapting two stories from a manga of the same name.

The world of Yoma is so interesting and creepy and I’m planning on hunting down a collection of the manga. Don’t know that I’d necessarily recommend this one very widely, but, Yoma’s horror-fantasy worldbuilding is super cool. Maybe I’ll come back with more detail after I’ve read the manga!

——— ——— ———

The Vourdalak (2023) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

A Frenchman travelling as an emissary for the king is waylaid and gets stuck in the middle of a supernatural family drama while waiting for a horse.

As soon as I found out that the undead dad in this adaptation was a puppet I knew I had to watch it. It did not disappoint! Great evil puppet, great cinematography (shot on super 16mm), great characters, great editing. Not for the faint of heart though as the gore is gory and I imagine for some people the inter-family patriarchal struggle might be too stressful. Also the dog does die in this one. 

This is now the third film adaptation of Aleksei Tolstoi’s “The Family of the Vourdalak”—the first being the segment of Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (1963) and the second being The Night of the Devils (1972)—and I’ve really liked all of them. This source material is getting up there with “The Fall of the House of Usher” as a surefire hit with me!

——— ——— ———

St. Louis Blues (1929) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

Bessie deserves better, but that Jimmy sure can dance…

Much like Black and Tan, Dudley Murphy translates Black American Music onto film. This time the short focuses on Bessie Smith and her no-good boyfriend Jimmy. Not as technically adventurous as Black and Tan, but Bessie is such an emotional force that it kinda makes up for it. All things considered, St. Louis Blues feels a lot like a music video, but so meaningful in the context of capturing Bessie Smith’s work on film.

——— ——— ———

The Phantom / Widziadło (1983) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

Piotr Strumieński is being haunted by his first wife, Angelika, who died tragically young. Angelika cursed Piotr to never find happiness with another woman and always to be haunted by her singing. His new wife is trying to cope, but takes a lover. When his eldest son comes to visit on his break from boarding school, stranger and stranger things start happening around the manor house.

I was really taken by how the haunting is depicted—especially in Widziadło’s editing and sound design. Even though I knew what the ending of the story was ahead of time, it still shocked me! The story almost felt suited for giallo at times, but it’s definitively Polish in its execution. Horror movies were not particularly common in Poland during their socialist period, but the ones that were made will punch you in the gut. 

As you may have surmised by this point, I watched a lot of horror this October, so I will be more than happy to try and advise on content/trigger warnings for any of these films. Widziadło in particular has a lot of potential triggers, so don’t hesitate to ask!

——— ——— ———

Honorable Mention: Body Parts (1991) & Devil Story (1986)

Two very different films that didn’t make the list for very different reasons. Body Parts is way campier than I ever expected (positive) but in the end the film just doesn’t quite come together into something entertaining or thought provoking. I do really appreciate that Jeff Fahey fully committed to this film tho. 

Now, we watched Devil Story after it was featured on Red Letter Media and somehow we still weren’t prepared for the chaos. It is not good by any reasonable metric. It’s also not campy—though clips and stills might give you that vibe. However, this film led my SO and I to go into full-blown Jungian dream analysis mode to suss out what the filmmaker likely intended for Devil Story and failed at. And that’s a good experience with a bad film, which can sometimes be as rewarding as watching a good film and for sure more rewarding than a well-executed movie with a bad or hollow spirit.

——— ——— ———

Monthly Round-up

It sure has been a month.

I’ve put work into the addendum to Cosplay the Classics: Salomé and the next installment of Lost, but Not Forgotten, and I’ve also got at least one noir cosplay I’d like to get out for Noirvember this year. So, I guess stay tuned for what I get done first!

I may not have gotten all that much writing/research finished in October, but I did complete a tutorial on the Salomé costume in case anyone else wanted to try their hand at it for Halloween season.

Unfiltered image of my Salomé cosplay from the tutorial post

I also did a 1910s/20s vintage inspired Halloween costume and photoset with explanations of my inspiration.

My vintage Halloween look

——— ——— ———

I was however very productive in making themed gif/still sets in October!

Footnote to Fact (1933)

(which I talked about in the last installment of WMM Notebook)

Mechanical Principles (1931)

La cartomancienne (1932)

(which I talked about in the last installment of WMM Notebook)

The Telltale Heart (1928)

The Web of the Spider / Nella stretta morsa del ragno (1971)

Tell-tale Hearts / Bicie Serca (1971)

The Bat Whispers (1930)

The Vampire Lovers (1970)

——— ——— ———

Until next time, take care of yourselves and take care of one another. Happy noirvember and happy viewing!

——— ——— ———

☕Appreciate my work? Buy me a coffee! ☕

[thebroccolination]

BOUN & KRIST: I JUST THINK THEY’RE NEAT

I judge a man’s character by how he treats women, and on that score, Boun and Krist get full marks.

Like, sometimes I see Thai actors at these fan benefits looking smug or impatient or bored with their predominantly female fans, and it makes me appreciate Krist and Boun so much more, because they’re so genuinely excited and sincere when they’re interacting with their fans.

It’s especially nice because both of them could easily coast on their respective popularity, and they’ve certainly been in the industry long enough that being jaded or standoffish would be perfectly human and understandable.

But.

Last year, I saw Krist spend three hours greeting fans on the second day of his five-hour solo concert showing pure enthusiasm and sincere joy the whole time, and Boun always has these bubbly, adorable reactions to fans teasing him or trying to match his energy. They don’t have to, but they choose to.

Also, tellingly, Krist and Boun are both incredibly sweet to and highly respectful of the women in their private circles, too. They don’t spend all their time only with men, which can be a teensy flash of red.

Boun’s always been close with the Wabi Sabi ladies like Sammy, Pineare, and Yindee (she was a staff member at SWS and one of Boun’s former roommates who passed away in early 2023), and he has female friends from university that he still spends time with.

Meanwhile, Krist’s friendly and comfortable with his current and former female costars—including Namtan, his former crush (and if that isn’t peak green flag, nothing is)—and he’s been adopted by every woman in the industry who’s been in the same room with him for ninety seconds or longer.

(the cat hair on his shirt in the photo with yada akdldkskdjd relatable struggles)

And of course, both of them are close to and openly proud of their mothers, who are both loving and supportive of their sons’ careers. :’)

The thing with celebrities is that, yes, they’re strangers and parasocial relationships with strangers can be harmful if you get too emotionally invested, but I just like recognizing when the strangers who do creative work I admire are also lovely in other ways.

I mean, liking and respecting women is below the bare minimum, but considering the world we live in, it’s nice to celebrate a win every now and then. \o/

NOTE: There are a ton of other women in their lives, I just ran out of photos I can post to tumblr on my phone and I wasn’t willing to cut down on the photos of them with their mothers because they’re stupid cute. That whole episode of Arm Share with Krist and his mother gave me terminal diabetes. He kept holding her hand—he adores her. And his relationship with his grandmother who raised him! Okay I’m done.

[dennydreadful]

HI THANKS FOR ANSWERING MY UNHINGED ASK THIS WILL BE VERY LONG BUT I READ THE COMIC IN ONE SITTING. im now going back and forth between imagining what kind of deeply toxic pseudo-vigilante shenanigans bunny (and caleb by association) get into post epilogue and thinking up scenarios where before shit got really real they both get soooooo much good therapy and heal together and end up toxicly codependent and kinda bad for each other still but in a way that doesn’t involve murder. like one of those aita posts where the general consensus is the couple should stay together bc even tho they’re both just exacerbating each others Issues at least nobody else is getting hurt. also i think dave and juicybaby hook up at some point.

have you ever seen that post that’s like “media in which it’s so very obvious all the problems could’ve been avoided if this guy got some therapy and a consensual bdsm relationship but that is very much Not What Happens in the story”? bc i feel like that applies to caleb. rip caleb you would’ve loved being a more well adjusted girl’s puppy and being led around the mall on a leash until security kicked you out. maybe next time king.

none of this to say i didn’t enjoy the comic as presented immensely btw. despite my ramblings here i think the comic ended in the most satisfying (for the audience at least) way possible. we love to see a dogboy beg for his own demise <3 we love to see a pretty girl go from justified anger to righteous rage <3 we love when characters have a deeply unhealthily fucked up perception of love and care and mental stability <3

like imo psychological horror is at its best when you take relatively normal people facing relatively mundane horrors then letting the aftermath of those horrors warp them beyond repair. in a good psych horror (at least when it’s like ii is and based on deeply human characters dealing with stuff in the most unhelpful way they can) you should be able to understand why and how things turned out like they did. you can think of a million ways it could’ve turned out differently if only the characters had seen the end coming, but the end they met was inevitable bc they *can’t* see it coming. the red flags aren’t obvious bc they increase so gradually. the bones of the building were there from the very beginning, but how were the characters supposed to know whether it’d be a home or a slaughterhouse? there were no plans, just bricks to lay and a storm coming. and that’s exactly how i felt finishing ii.

anyways. a caleb shaker charm would be so awesome i would love to go darla from finding nemo on his ass. thanks for the incredible comic my brain chemistry is different now and i’m kissing u on both cheeks in thanks MWAH MWAH

Cut because this post ended up really long, but here's Dave and Juicy:

idyllic island is a big old vent comic in a lot of ways. i drew on a lot of my own emotions and experiences to make it. i was in a very dark place for a very long time. i could have very easily gone down an even worse path, and very easily have been taken advantage of in a very dangerous way. but "guy goes to therapy and learns how to stop climbing into a wood chipper" is not a terribly interesting story imo, even if it's obviously the better outcome in real life. much more interesting to read about characters hurtling headlong towards certain doom lol

that said i always enjoy a good tragedy that leaves me feeling like "it didn't need to be like this..." (even though I know it was always the only way it was ever going to be) and imagining a happy world where everything worked out as best it could, so it's really cool to hear about someone doing that something I made!

before you read the next part just know that i LOVE hearing people's headcanons so feel free to disregard anything/everything i say here. death of the author and all that lol

imo he would have needed to never meet bunny for him to actually heal, and for her to not charge ahead on her path of destruction. even if he had gone to therapy and straightened himself up, bunny is so toxic she would have found exactly the right way to break him again (and honestly she would enjoy the added challenge). and couple's therapy would be SO BAD for him because she'd learn how manipulate and gaslight him even harder.

honestly I can't see a future for bunny where she DOESNT commit murder. she's a scorpion. it's simply her nature. it's not her fault we live in a society. perhaps she could have become a doctor and euthanized her patients discretely. i think she'd enjoy forensic science as well, but that would literally make her girl Dexter lol. maybe she could work for a three letter agency.

but yeah I absolutely agree that caleb would have LOVED to be in a 24/7 lifestyle BDSM relationship with a girl that did not want to grind him down to dust and scatter him on the wind. being a kinky freak with a loving partner would have fixed him 100%

[sepublic]

I will say though; I love the design for General Alex Miles from Federation Force. It perfectly blends the Federation Marine and Federation formal attire together perfectly;

Given one is from Prime and the other from the mainline games, Miles’ outfit basically marries the two depictions of the Federation from either series together. The gold is such a nice touch too… I’d love to see fanart of Miles in a non-chibi art style, and as a full-body portrait too; I don’t think we ever see Miles in person, just from the chest up?

They’re an interesting character to me; Neither their gender or even species is clarified, but the latter might be human because of the name and build. Miles’ name reminds me of Adam Malkovich… Alex Miles… They’re the Federation Force’s CO, their own Adam, just as the pilots themselves are akin to Samus in terms of gameplay and being unique Federation assets. Miles notably wants the Metroid egg on Talvania, saying it could bring “good” to the galaxy… Big red flag of course.

But it IS worth noting that the primary objective of the mission is to destroy all Metroids on Talvania by activating the self-destruct; The egg is optional and secondary. And when the Metroids are released from containment after the Federation Force activated the self-destruct countdown, Miles tells them to forget about the Metroid egg and just focus on getting out of there; You have to go against their orders by retrieving the egg anyway, and risking yourself to do so.

So Miles is interesting to me in that they might actually be well-intentioned? Or at least care for their troops. Given their introduction in Federation Force, which sets up Sylux’s plans in Beyond, it makes you wonder if Miles will appear there too. Are they corrupt? Do they care, in a “The path to hell is paved with good intentions” sort of way?

Will we see them replace or work alongside Dane in Beyond? They’re a General, which means they command ground troops and infantry; Dane commands the fleet. I speculate the planet we see at the start of Beyond, as well as the rainforest, are both the same world; Probably Cylosis, possibly across different points in time. Which means we won’t see much of space nor the Federation fleet; Which makes Miles more suited as a CO for Samus here, since all Federation allies will be situated on the ground.

Then again, Miles is seen commanding a fleet during the Doomseye battle in Federation Force, so maybe the titles are being loosely used and the developers don’t care for real world accuracy when it comes to military ranking and hierarchy; Tbh I’ve normally never cared either and am only researching it for the sake of reconciling the different depictions and uniforms of the Federation, as well as considering how characters such as Dane, Adam, and Miles interact.

I remember seeing someone suggest that Alex Miles is Sylux; This is why they suggested getting the Metroid egg, and how they were able to sneak in, operate the tech, etc. But this makes you wonder, if they hate the Federation, why value the Force’s lives? Why help them defeat the Space Pirates in the Bermuda system? I guess it all boils down as to the exact nature of Sylux’s hatred for the Federation, if it’s because they’re corrupt but they sympathize with troops they know personally as good people.

Granted Sylux’s intro in Hunters might indicate otherwise, but there could also be other context to that scene, or they don’t know those troops and can’t take the time to evaluate them. As for attacking the Space Pirates, maybe Sylux is strategically maneuvering both factions into destroying one another; It would explain why they’ve never worked with the Space Pirates before and even competed against Weavel in the Alimbic Cluster; They hate the pirates too!

Miles is probably meant to be male and the developers just never considered the gender-ambiguity of the name Alex. But it’d be fun if Miles was a woman, maybe even an alien because Chairman Keaton has a name like that despite also looking like that. And we could meld this with Female Sylux speculation if they’re the same character after all. They’re both mysteriously masked too, though for Miles I imagine it’s because the developers thought a human face would look too silly in the Chibi art style, hence why everyone wears helmets, and Samus never takes hers off. I guess ‘Sylux’ and ‘Alex’ have similar second syllables…

[turboacek-blog]

The Mina Ashido race convo

Never talked about My Hero so I’m a bit out my element tbh…

But basically from what I gathered Mina Ashido has been coded at least by fans as black/blasian (Black and Asian mix)

And in the recent preview of the next episode season 7 episode 18 or ep156 her pink skin is “fading” (overuse of her powers loses her general different appearance pink skin black eyes etc) and we see the more Asian/pale skin tone which “disproves” that she’s black

And some fans aren’t happy from what I’ve seen online

My quick thoughts

Mina isn’t black as I think they would of made it clear if she was supposed to be plus you would be surprised the crossover or things adapted by the Japanese from African Americans but there’s nothing wrong with people wanting her to be and it honestly is harmless in the grand scheme and I think saying she’s Blasian is the best compromise as it allows her to still be of a lighter skin tone but gives both sides their wants

My full(ish) thoughts below as I go into more details of how I reached my final thought

Fan Coding

Mina Ashido isn’t the first anime/cartoon character that has been fan coded to be a different race

Two of the most popular examples are Piccolo from Dragon Ball and Knuckles the Echidna from Sonic the Hedgehog as fans have coded them as black

Which gets reinforced when an actor like Idris Elba voices Knuckles in the movies

Anime and cartoons tend to leave the standard character as the “default” pale/less melanated human skin color but everyone else whether other humans to aliens to whatever that series has that can be different from standard human characters has more non-human colors like green skin, red skin, blue skin and in Mina’s case pink skin

So they’re sometimes not whatever the default race is whether White or Asian so fans usually of the other races like to project onto these characters different races (and various identities)

For a character like Knuckles, his quills can be seen as dreadlocks which codes to black hair even if in reality it just quills and can elude to different hairstyles as well

For Mina people took her curly hair as a similar thing to black curly hair and anything different chalked up to her being blasian and the Asian hair genes or how anime draws hair or other reasons

Amongst other things like her breakdancing, people take her being louder as a trait, etc etc

My thoughts…

There’s nothing wrong with projecting race on race ambiguous characters to me at least

People usually just like finding themselves in characters and when a cast either all one race or all non human characters people latch onto things they have in common

Plus it’s been evident that some characters that aren’t explicitly black or Hispanic or Asian or etc are implied or written to be that way and couldn’t be that due to a number of reasons

It’s similar with lgtbq+ where a lot of characters especially from older shows and movies are lgtbq coded but due to the time period they either have to force the girl to have boyfriend or they can be gay but can’t kiss another man and so on

A recent thing I saw (I don't fully buy it but first thing that came to mind) was Ryan and Kelsey from High School Musical franchise were coded to be gay and lesbian respectfully but due it being older Disney they didn’t do that and constantly gave them the opposite gender partners they even got paired with each other in the third movie

Diversity

There’s been a big push for diversity in all forms of media not just anime. And while I know people have issues with how diversity has been done in recent times. It is still a push a lot of people want, as having the default all-straight white cast or whatever raises some flags

So when you see essentially an all-Asian cast then there’s one character whose race is ambiguous because of the pink skin I can see people wanting her to at least be the token black girl in the show they like

Basically when a show or movie is all one race is it bad to want someone of a different race in the cast for diversity and representation?

Especially when that show/movie is enjoyed by people of all races and identities

For example an anime like Naruto the whole main cast is generally the same race

So when we see Cloud Village ninjas like Killer Bee and Ay they’re technically just super tanned or darker skinned Asian like the rest of the world but in a series with no diversity and when a lot of black people watch the anime I think it’s natural to assume that the anime/manga finally gave some representation. Not even including other factors like the hair and rapping and more

We already have that instance with Mirko as she's darker skinned than most characters but I think its confirmed she isn't black or mixed just tan (don't kill me if it isn't confirmed)

And I'm sure you can find some but you don't see the same convoy when the blonde blue/green eyes character is called white

Race swapping in general

You see this in fan art a lot which I think is mostly harmless

But in the world where we now have a black Ariel (little mermaid), black tinker bell, Indian Velma, etc

The conversation has been getting brought up more and more as more previously white characters are being turned into other races

Like is it weird and funny that basically all previous white redhead (ginger) characters are being turned into black characters

Yes

But is it also weird and funny to think that the redhead was their version of diversity back when a lot of these characters back then ‘Hey they’re not brunette or black-haired or even blonde’ and that every character was white (or Asian in anime) so diversity wasn’t truly a thing

Also yes

The race conversation is a lot heavier than I would like to cover in a Tumblr blog post about an anime character lol

But it’s about the idea that how crucial is the character being white and does it change if they were a different race?

Mina Ashido/Pinky character in particular

So if you do some research on the character Mina seems to be more inspired by Gyaru fashion style in Japan

You can read up on it yourself but yes it appears a lot of design elements for Mina are taken from that

And obviously, she has the alien design elements

So if we ignore her outfit and hair and other things like personality

Does break dancing enough to be black coded

Not really like mentioned earlier Japanese people and people around the world have adapted thing slime break dancing into the culture

A woman from Japan just won Gold in the Olympics for breakdancing

But do want to note break dancing did originate from African Americans as far as I can tell

What does it mean it mean to be black? And does race matter in this form of media?

Basically, this is for both sides the side that wants Mina to be black and the side that says why would they make her black and not leave her Japanese

The question I would just ask is does it change anything?

If Horikoshi (creator) announced tomorrow that Mina is black/blasian would it be a big deal?

It will obviously get the fans talking about it for a bit as it is one of those headcanons that would have gotten confirmed

But in the grand scheme it doesn't affect story or personality or anything in the vain, at most it just asks the question of Mina’s heritage

Race erasure

On the flip side of making her black, you are taking away her being Asian

(it's why Blasian I think is the perfect middle ground for this as even Blasian people aren't dark skin so even if she's super light skin she could still be mixed with black)

I think it is important to note that Mina does represent that category of Japanese/Asian girls and taking that away isn't great as it's understated how much people look towards characters as their windows to different things

Even though some might not like or accept it anime is still going to be primarily based on Japan and Japanese elements

So yes even though there are global similarities like going to school with the energetic girl, the emo boy, the kid with family issues etc this is still a school based in Japan (not even like a fictional Japan-like country they explicitly say Japan) a country with a 2% foreign population and .02% of the total being black

Mina Ashido being Japanese makes more statistical sense

And the one black character we have in Rock Lock does give us that .02%

Even if in the grand scheme changing one of the hundreds of Asian characters might not mean much

So tieing in the black coding, race swap & erasure, and diversity elements

Is Mina Ashido Black/Blasian?

I think she’s a character that like Piccolo and other characters will never be actually black as most anime characters are default Asian/Japanese unless stated otherwise

But in the sense that her race and race in my hero in general doesn’t truly affect anything then why can’t she be black to at least the fans

It’s not like they’re trying to say someone like Uraraka or Momo are black they’re just trying to claim the pink skin black eyed dancing extroverted girl with horns is black

Like if there was someone in class 1-a to was a different race it’s between her, Aoyama as white/European, and Hagakure as being invisible means she could have been anything

And if they were to adapt My Hero in almost any other media I don’t see a reason why Mina can’t be at least Blasian whether in drawing style or casting

Black appearing people have appeared in My Hero so it’s not like the author is not including them and Mina isn’t that highly important of a character that I think should even be having people fight back on this tbh

Not that she isn’t a good character she’s one of my faves of the class personally

As of class 1-A alone of the 20 students, she’s like maybe 10th important and that’s kinda pushing it

(To me you go Deku, Bakugo Shoto, Uraraka, Iida, Asui, Kirishima, and Tokoyami for an easy 8 above her but then Aoyama, Denki, Momo, Jiro, Mineta, and Shoji are all fighting for that 9-15 spot and maybe for totality I would put Aoyama over her but then it’s between her Denki and Momo)

And that’s not even including the teacher's upperclassmen, villains, and other heroes like All Might lol

So even if for some reason in the next episode they show Mina having less melanated skin than some fans want I don’t think it should stop the fans from coding her as black

Quick edit 9/16/24

Apparently part of the discourse isn’t that fans were just head canon-ing Mina as black but some people truly 100% thought she was black and was spreading that info as if it was true therefore it spreads and you have a whole sun group truly thinking Mina is black

And in that sense yeah please keep your headcanons as headcanons, there are inferences or filling in blanks for some character or story element and just making things up which the Mina thing mostly is

It also falls into the space of thinking you can do better than the original creator which isn’t great in most cases

So if that’s the main issue then yeah please don’t let your headcanons run too wild they’re fun but not true and you have to remind yourself it’s not canon

[bleue-flora]

https://www.tumblr.com/bleue-flora/756891956367556608/ngl-i-thought-the-anon-that-said-a-few-characters?source=share

Good points although I suspected it was about them because c!quackity had the urge to burn down kinoko kingdom because he felt left behind by his friends lead to him self sabotaging, also the whole controlling c!slimecicle thing ect,,, then for c!tommy ig attacking c!wilbur with a sword when c!wilbur said he was going to utah, hating c!ranboo for taking c!tubbo away, and the other self destructive based. Apparently directly after the 'the discs were worth more than you ever were' there was a lot of regret, which reminds me of going from saying something horrible then immediately regretting but I don't have bpd, I've only been told by a therapist that I have bpd traits so I cant say much either. Now that I think more about it, maybe they meant c!wilbur

To be fair, wanting to burn down Kinoko Kingdom after losing his fiancés is a fairly understandable urge (especially given the context of the dsmp vs the real world you wouldn’t go burn down someone’s house because they hurt you) and I’m not so sure controlling Slime is a very BPD thing to do, is it? Eh I’m not sure, given his history of manipulating others to his agenda I’d say Slime is only one of the victims, just the most impressionable. And given his other behavior I think we are perhaps dealing with another person with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). His disregard and non consideration to how other people may feel. To the point of blowing up Purpled’s spaceship and thinking he’d be fine with that. His lack of understanding of the consequences of his actions, like being utterly confused by doomsday, as if they didn’t poke the bear by attacking Technoblade. Perhaps because he’s older than Tommy is, he has a little more skill in blending in with society and has grown his manipulation skills to get what he wants…. I don’t know, certainly his enjoyment of torturing another human being for about 80 days is a bright red flag…

I mean both of those things happen at the point where Tommy is already getting more unstable, and him stabbing Wilbur for leaving makes perfect sense to me honestly. And Tommy is scared, so lashing out as someone who makes him feel safe is leaving would trigger a strong reaction. As for Tubbo, their friendship is very… messed up and I think while Tommy doesn’t seem to value Tubbo more than the discs, he still is more akin to a valuable thing to Tommy. A thing Tommy feels entitled to, and that belongs by his side following his every whim, and just like the discs he doesn’t appreciate Tubbo being stolen from him. But also jealously is a typical thing to happen so that isn’t the most deranged thing he had done to be fair.

I mean we all say things we regret later, especially in the heat of the moment with emotions high. But even though he seems to regret and want to take it back minutes later, his behavior has also backed up this statement. Again dragging Tubbo into war and war to get hurt, his hesitation to give up the discs for Tubbo’s life in both of the disc finales. If it was one isolated statement then sure, but it’s backed by his actions which reflect a similar sentiment.

I think we can have some traits that perhaps look like a lot of disorders or whatever, but that doesn’t mean we are, if that makes sense. I’ve had people say that about autism where they’re like - well I do that too so does that mean I’m autistic, everyone can’t be autistic just cause they do blank - but it’s not about one thing or two things or even things that look similar. It’s about a culmination if that makes sense, as well as the context and reasoning behind the behavior.

As for Wilbur I don’t think he has BPD but instead I actually think he’s a Narcissist, I mean reading the Millon Theory breakdown of Narcissism [here] it just seems to fit to me.

[jackalopesao3]

Solomon is Prime Suspect Number 1 and I don’t think he is our Solomon

So I know there’s been some theories floating around that Solomon in NB isn’t our Solomon but the Solomon from the past. I’ve been suspecting it myself at times, even at the very beginning of Nightbringer. Lesson 14 has only increased those suspicions. I also remembered something that should have been a big red flag, which I’ll put below the cut.

What I think may have happened is that past Barbatos, under past Solomon’s orders brought MC to the past/this timeline or past Sol used past Barb’s abilities to see into the different timelines and found that specific MC’s.

It could also be that Past Solomon is just an opportunistic interloper but I’m more inclined to believe that Nightbringer could either be Barb being made to do this under Solomon or even an alias of Solomon and Barbatos being a team. Or maybe it is our Solomon and it’s lighter than what I suspect. I’ll post more about everything under the cut.

1. I know I posted previously on Solomon being particularly mean in Nightbringer. Pushing the brothers into the bathtub seemed pretty mean to me, especially with how he tricked Leviathan, the most insecure of them all. He genuinely seems surprised at how MC can befriend demons, especially Diavolo in Lesson 14. He says he wasn’t considering a pact with Levi but would now.

2. He makes a pact with Asmo when he’s been feeling insecure and therefore vulnerable. He even told MC that he would not pursue a pact with Asmodeus in the past but then does so anyways. Which brings me to another point: What if he never had the pact to begin with? Asmo didn’t feel anything towards Sol before this pact like he did with MC, who does hold a pact with another version of him.

3. And then there’s the obvious red flag, that’s been right in front of us the whole time. MC does not have pacts with these brothers yet they still can syphon some of their powers to cast spells like opening the gates to the Celestial Realm or stopping a rampaging Beel.

Solomon not only summons Barbatos to his side but also makes him open a portal back to the castle. Our Solomon does not have a pact with this Barbatos. He should not be able to do this. Solomon should have to reforge his pact with Barbatos just like he would Asmodeus unless there’s some weird exception to him and Barb.

So either our Solomon never showed up at all or Past Solomon replaced him early on. Or our Solomon is up to something, whether it be bad or good.

4. This would also explain why Barbatos is absolutely furious with Solomon. Barbatos used to freely travel between timelines and ended up hurting people. His penance is serving Diavolo and having a pact with Solomon. For Solomon to make Barb use his powers like this would be the ultimate betrayal, especially after Barbatos made him into Solomon The Wise. I do think Solomon knows why Barb is mad. They’re very close in SWD and Barb trusts him. With their friendship, I believe he’d remember an event where Barb was really upset with his actions.

5. Solomon tried to have MC make an unbreakable vow to side with humanity at the fountain. Had it not been for Thirteen coming in and stopping him, this could have turned out worse than the end of Lesson 11.

This is out of character for our Solomon. Our Solomon has always stressed he is humanity’s protector and that he would like us to join him but he has never tried to force us into it in SWD. The choice has always been ours and he’s always been a supportive mentor. He had a huge blowout with a former apprentice many years back and you can tell he has regrets. I don’t think our Sol would do that to MC.

Solomon is not stupid. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He knows the rules of that fountain because Thirteen based her rules for her cave on it. He didn’t forget.

I also think Past Solomon has studied our Solomon quite well to know he is a terrible cook and acts like a “cheerful idiot” at times and has taught himself to play that role.

Now onto MC. I’m not sure if they know at this point. I’d imagine if they did, they’d keep quiet for their own safety.

I also have want to add something else that may be nothing but it’s brought up several times, including recently. Many characters do not even consider Solomon human anymore. Yes, he is immortal but he’s technically human. Is there a deeper meaning behind this or is it just because of their human biases and the fact that he’s extended his lifespan?

Solomon’s Goal

What’s Solomon’s purpose here? To get MC to make the pacts with these brothers and then force MC to side with humanity which would also make them use their pacts and the brothers for humanity against the other two realms. Michael said we’d be an enemy to the Celestial Realm should we side with Nightbringer who very well could be Barbatos, albeit under duress, working under Sol’s orders. Or, on a possible lighter note, using MC as an example to why humans should stand on equal footing to angels and demons.

We will need to find out who the person was that Solomon was talking to as a child. We know he talked to Thirteen but it’s not her because he already told us that. Maybe it’s Lilith? A new character?

Whatever is going on, I believe we are in a different timeline than our original and RAD not being founded yet was actually done on purpose as well as Simeon and Luke appearing now in the DD.

I would love to hear what others have to say. Maybe we can brainstorm? Let me know if I missed something or got a detail wrong! I’m perpetually sleepy like Belphie these days so I may have missed something.