#being also the ultimate monster fucker and all

[disghostingg]

She's the ultimate fangirl

[room-surprise]

IS LAIOS A FURRY? AN ANALYSIS.

(Laios imagining himself transforming into a wolf in Marcille's mindscape.)

(SPOILER WARNING FOR THE ENTIRE MANGA! This is an excerpt and elaboration from The Essay about cultural and linguistic references in Dungeon Meshi)

WHAT IS A FURRY?

The furry fandom is a subculture interested in anthropomorphic animal characters. Some examples of anthropomorphic attributes can include human intelligence and facial expressions, speaking, walking on two legs, and wearing clothes, but not all of these traits must be present at the same time. Warrior Cats, The Lion King, Zootopia and Sonic the Hedgehog all have huge furry fandoms, to give a few examples.

Many furry fans feel a deep connection to these characters and desire to “become” one through designing their fantasy alter-egos (a furry persona, or fursona), making artwork, role-playing, and if they can afford it, building and wearing costumes called fursuits that allow them to dress up as their fursona in real life.

(Laios' ultimate monster design, you could argue this is his fursona that he's been dreaming about, and refining since childhood.)

Ryoko Kui self-identified as a furry on her blog a long time ago, saying that she “was a furry in high school.” I’ve been unable to track down the original artwork or blog post that states this in order to cite it properly, but I think by looking at Kui’s extensive history, interest, and skill in drawing animals, monsters, and anthropomorphic characters, one can clearly see the “furry” influence.

She has a very clear interest in the intersection between humans and animals, several of her characters are furry characters, and a lot of her work appeals strongly to furry fans in ways that work made by non-furries often does not. She even makes an extremely specific joke about the Japanese furry subculture in a comic about Lycion and Laios arguing about authenticity, which I will get to in a moment.

But whether or not Kui has ever considered herself a furry, I think it’s safe to say that she’s on the internet enough that she must be aware of the subculture, and so it’s possible that she wrote Laios with that in mind.

Laios’ intense desire to become a monster, the way he repeatedly fantasizes about being a dog or wolf, his fascination with all animals (but especially monsters), his skill at drawing animals (and lack of skill in drawing people, or anything else), his interest in becoming a beast-man, and his desire to visit a kobold country because they look like dog-people, all paint a very vivid picture of his interests, and his experiences match up astonishingly well with the experiences of many people who identify as furries.

Western fans often call Laios as a “furry,” or a “monster fucker” mostly as a joke, however I think this should be taken as seriously as interpreting him as asexual or autistic, which are other labels fandom commonly applies to him in a more serious manner… And, incidentally, there is a great deal of overlap between the autistic, asexual and furry communities, so if Laios is one of these things, it’s also very possible that he’s some of the others, too… Even if Kui didn’t intend it, and simply modeled Laios after “some people she’s known” without realizing they were furries, autistic, or asexual, or any combination of the three. This happens frequently in fiction.

I think the most accurate broad labels for Laios would be “therian” and “monster fetishist,” because I believe these two terms encompass the canonical behavior we see from him in the manga and extra materials in a way that I think “furry” and “monster fucker” do not.

JAPANESE FURRY FANDOM: KEMONO VS. KEMONOMIMI

Japanese furries use the terms kemonā (ケモナー) to describe themselves, or kemono (ケモノ) to describe the characters they create and love. Both words mean “furry,” as in, covered in fur.

In the What-If comic where Lycion and Laios meet, Laios awkwardly says that Lycion isn’t a real furry because turning into a beast-man didn’t change him into a wolf on the inside.

“Isn’t that just like wearing a pair of animal ears on a headband and saying you’re a beast-man?” Laios asks, to which Lycion derisively tells Laios that he is just a “beast-man wannabe” or “poseur.”

This is a direct reference to one of the major conflicts in the Japanese Kemono fandom: are characters who are mostly human, but have animal ears and tails really kemono, or do they not count? The general consensus in the fandom is that ears and tail alone are insufficient; these characters are called kemonomimi, literally “beast ears”, like the headband Laios references. Most “cat-girl” characters fall into this category.

A real kemono character includes a muzzle instead of a normal human face and/or an animal-like appearance on the body surface, such as fur, scales, or feathers. According to researcher Inokuchi Tomohiro, this is due to the recognition that "disconnection from humans" is a crucial factor that distinguishes between kemono and non-kemono. He then defines kemono as "an animal that is depicted as a non-human being, but with the potential for mutual understanding/communication with humans.”

By this definition, Izutsumi in Dungeon Meshi is a kemono (furry) and not a kemonomimi (cat-girl), since her body is covered in fur, and she doesn’t have human breasts, but a more beast-like torso. The Winged Lion, the Goat, Kuro the kobold, and possibly the orcs are all kemono (anthropomorphic animal) characters as well.

IS LAIOS A THERIAN?

Though the terminology is very modern, and wouldn’t exist in the Dungeon Meshi setting, it’s possible that if Laios existed in the modern world he might identify as a type of Otherkin known as a Therian. Otherkin and Therians are sometimes part of the Furry fandom, but the two subcultures do not overlap completely.

Otherkin are a subculture of people who identify as nonhuman. Some Otherkin believe their identity derives from spiritual phenomena (such as possessing a nonhuman soul, reincarnation, or the will of God), ancestry, symbolism, or metaphor. Others attribute it to unusual psychology or neurodivergence and do not hold spiritual beliefs on the subject.

Therian refers to people who identify specifically as a real animal of the natural world. The species of animal a therian identifies as is called a theriotype. Therians mainly attribute their experiences of therianthropy to either spirituality or psychology, and often use the term "species dysphoria" to describe their feelings of disconnect from their human bodies and their underlying desire to live as their theriotype. The identity "trans species" is used by some.

Therians may seek out opportunities to perform species-affirming acts like wearing costumes, adopting animal-like behaviors such as making species-specific noises, eating species-specific foods, or moving/performing actions that their theriotype would do.

For example, someone with a horse theriotype may experience joy from snorting and neighing, pulling a cart, stomping their feet, or having a vegetarian diet. Someone with a shark theriotype may want to swim every chance they get, or enjoy eating a lot of raw fish. They may have special accessories they like to wear that make them feel connected to their theriotype, like animal ears on a headband, an actual animal’s tail or a symbolic tail hanging from their belt, an animal tooth necklace, or even just a t-shirt that has an image of their theriotype on it.

In Laios’ case, we know that he likes to imagine himself as a wolf, and in the real world he enjoys/is proud of his ability to bark and move like a dog. He’s practiced and performed this dog impression so often and so well that Falin thinks it’s his most noteworthy and amazing skill. He clearly holds hunting dogs in high esteem and admires them, and says that he learned many important life lessons from spending time with them. He enjoys playing with leftovers from monsters they kill (bones, skin, seeds, fur, etc.) and sometimes tries to collect them for either practical or sentimental reasons… And at the end of the manga he takes the pelt of his ultimate monster form and chooses to wear it as a cape, something that he continues to do for the rest of his life, possibly just because he likes to wear it, or because wearing it eases the pain of no longer being the ultimate monster.

It’s also possible that he’s only wearing it because he thinks it is a pragmatic, politically expedient move, but I think Kui very clearly communicates to us that Laios likes his monster cape, and it is the one thing he immediately thinks of when he wants to try and be king “on his own terms.” He’s willing to accept being king… if he can wear his monster cape. Whether or not it’s a good idea to wear it is secondary to the fact that he wants to do it.

Otherkin and Therian are of course both modern names for this phenomenon, but the concept of people strongly identifying with and being fascinated by animals is as old as humankind itself, so it isn’t impossible that Laios may feel this way, since so much of his behavior overlaps with things a Therian might do or feel.

MONSTER FETISHISM

In English, the word fetish originally described an object believed to have supernatural powers. Fetishes are often used in a spiritual or religious context. However, over time the word fetish has been used so frequently as a euphemism to describe a type of unconventional sexual interest that “sexual fetish” has become the primary meaning of “fetish” in English.

Fetishism is a sexual fixation on an activity, inanimate object, living thing, or human body part that is not normally involved in sex. The object of this interest is called the fetish; the person who has a fetish for that object is a fetishist. The current medical consensus is that sexual fetishes are very common, and as long as they do not negatively impact a person’s life, they are harmless.

Like the English word fetish, the Japanese word 趣味 (shumi), has multiple meanings, such as “hobby”, “interests/tastes”, but it is also used euphemistically to refer to “sexual taste, vice, or fetish.” What meaning is intended must be intuited by the context surrounding the word. I believe the other words used to discuss fetishes are the loan words フェティッシュ (fetisshu) or フェチ (fechi), but these are extremely blunt and direct, and shumi is preferred in situations where polite euphemism, ambiguity or plausible deniability is desired, or is perhaps even necessary in order to make a joke.

Shumi is used throughout Dungeon Meshi to describe various people’s interests, including Laios’ interest in monsters.

Meanwhile Namari’s interest in race-specific weapons and gear is never explicitly identified as shumi as far as I’m aware, but she is called 武器マニア (weapon maniac) in the World Guide, and in the Bicorn chapter, Chilchuck labels her as 武具フェチ (armor/weapon fetishist), and uses the English loan word フェチ (fechi) which is very unambiguously “fetish.”

(The official English translation from Yen Press changed this to “armor fiend.”)

It seems odd to me that Namari’s interest in weapons and gear is identified by most readers (though not Yen Press) as a fetish, but Laios’ interest in monsters isn’t always, when their behavior around their special interest is shown to be the same in the manga:

Both Namari and Laios blush while talking about their respective interests, and get embarrassed and/or excited about the subject. In the post-canon comics, Laios blushes, hides his face, and has to be prodded to confess to Yaad, Kabru and Marcille that he wants to have his body eaten by monsters when he dies. He obviously finds the idea embarrassing and titillating somehow, and is too shy to admit it out loud until they force him to do it. He also blushes on several other occasions in the manga while thinking or talking about monsters.

I think this is because having a “weapons fetish” is normalized: many people have a fetish for weapons or armor and find it sexy. However the idea of a monster fetish makes people uncomfortable because in a story were monsters exist and are a type of animal, they assume Laios having a monster fetish must mean he wants to participate in bestiality.

This is not necessarily true. A fetish of this nature can (and most often does, for reasons of morality and safety) exist entirely in the realm of imagination, and the sexual fixation may not even involve the act of having sex with the fetish object.

WHAT IS A MONSTER FETISH?

In a world where monsters exist, a monster fetish could involve a sexual interest in the sight, smell, sound and feeling of a monster (looking at or creating artwork of monsters, observing monsters in the wild, wearing a monster costume, or owning monster pelts or body parts that can be safely touched, smelled, etc.), the experience of hunting monsters, eating monsters, the fantasy of being a monster, or the fantasy of performing sexual acts with or as a monster.

The fantasy element could be Laios simply wanting to be a monster, and that giving him sexual gratification without any further scenario being necessary, or it could be imagining himself as a human having sex with a monster, imagining himself as a monster having sex with another monster, or imagining himself as a monster having sex with a human.

All of these possible scenarios would fit under the “monster fetish” umbrella. We know Laios canonically does at least six out of these eight things, but we don’t know whether or not he derives sexual pleasure from them… However, we do know that talking or thinking about monsters makes Laios blush in a way that interacting with other human beings does not, and blushing is often a sign of intense emotion or sexual arousal. Kui’s meaning is intentionally ambiguous, but both meanings should be acknowledged: Laios might be emotionally excited, or he might be sexually excited and Kui is leaving it up to us to decide which it is.

This is, specifically, why I think “monster fucker” isn’t an accurate label. We don’t have enough evidence to assume Laios wants to have sex with monsters, or for monsters to have sex with him. All we can tell is that he becomes excited by the subject of monsters, and often times it is specifically the idea of eating them or being eaten by them that gets him the most excited.

VORAREPHILIA

Because so much of Laios' interest in monsters revolves around eating them and being eaten by them, and Dungeon Meshi's plot revolves around the very concept of eating and being eaten, let me make a brief side-bar to discuss the extremely popular, but niche furry sub-culture of vorarephilia.

Vorarephilia is often used as the butt of jokes on the internet, and very poorly understood by most people, so I felt taking a moment to explain it would be beneficial. Most people are probably not even aware that a fetish like this exists, and therefore aren't able to identify that the things Laios is interested in are something he shares with an entire subculture of real people.

Vorarephilia is a fetish that revolves around the fantasy of devouring or being devoured by another person or creature. The prey can either be swallowed whole and alive, or killed and then eaten... But the former is vastly more popular, and most fetishists imagine themselves as the prey, not the predator.

The fantasy of being eaten or eating someone else is just an extreme form of power exchange. Since vore is an impossible fetish in the real world, it exists entirely as artwork, writing, or verbal role play.

Like in most sex practices, the majority of people want to be the submissive partner, and have someone else do the work of pleasing them. You could compare the "predator" in a vorarephilia roleplay session to a "dom" and the "prey" to a "sub" in BDSM. Incidentally, most predators identify as women, and the vast majority of prey identify as men.

Kui's personal work seems to involve some themes that are similar to vorarephillic art.

And Dungeon Meshi features a lot of content which appeals to vorarephiles.

Meanwhile, the many tiny Laioses being eaten by the Ultimate Monster is a classic example of Macro/Micro, another niche furry sub-culture that sometimes overlaps with vore... A giant monster eating mouthful after mouthful of tiny humans is a classic theme.

The vore fandom is extremely diverse, some of them are furries, others are not, and the exact element of devouring and being devoured that appeals to every one of them can be totally different.

What the demon does to Mithrun and Thistle, and Laios does to the demon, is specifically a fetish called "soul vore", where someone's personhood/soul/awareness is eaten and (usually) destroyed by the predator via some kind of "digestion"... Often while the prey is conscious and aware of the process.

For many, the fear and pain the prey experiences while dying is essential to their enjoyment... And remember, most people want to imagine themselves as the prey!

The art on these pages is indistinguishable from things you would pay thousands of dollars for if you hired a furry artist to draw them.

It's also very important to note that on the other end of the spectrum, some vore fantasies revolve around the prey wanting to be loved by someone so much that they would devour them completely, so that they can absorb the prey and keep them with them forever.

Sometimes it's about wanting to become part of something greater that the prey admires or idealizes… the way Laios admires monsters. He explicitly states that when he dies, he wants to become a part of the food chain… While blushing furiously.

And although it isn't about Laios, I think it's important to note that Mithrun's desire was for the demon to finish eating him. A key part of his depression is the fact that he felt he wasn't good enough to consume, that the demon didn't love him enough to want to eat all of him.

I won't go further into vore or macro/micro, because I want to keep this post as simple as possible, and it's already quite long... But if one wanted to dig even deeper into what specifically Laios' interests are, beyond the very broad umbrella of "monster fetishism", I think vorarephelia would be worth considering.

DO OTHER CHARACTERS THINK LAIOS HAS A FETISH?

Characters frequently notice that Laios gets very excited when he’s talking about monsters: he talks louder and faster, his pupils dilate, he blushes, and he forgets what he’s doing, where he is, and what the appropriate behavior for his situation is. This behavior almost universally causes other characters to react with intense scorn, disgust and disapproval.

I don’t think it makes sense for everyone in the manga to react as negatively as they do to Laios’ behavior unless they think there is something off-putting, unsavory, or creepy about it. Their reactions mean they must think Laios’ interest isn’t innocent. It isn’t just a hobby, but of course none of them will say this explicitly, it would be much too direct and rude, and also it wouldn’t be funny if they started accusing Laios of wanting to participate in something as horrible as bestiality.

Part of the joke Kui is frequently making is that nobody says what they’re thinking out loud. For example, at the end of the manga, Kabru gives Laios a disgusted look and warns him to “not talk about your hobby (shumi)” while addressing the participants of the feast. I think we can intuit that hobby/shumi in this instance is probably meant as a euphemism for fetish, otherwise why would Kabru have such a disgusted look on his face? If he just meant hobby, his expression would probably be much more relaxed. Shumi being a euphemism is the joke.

Another example is the fact that Chilchuck frequently calls Laios a psychopath, sick in the head, etc. Those are extremely harsh things to say if he thinks Laios has a completely innocent interest in monsters. He doesn’t call Senshi a psychopath, even though Senshi is equally interested in eating monsters… Because Senshi doesn’t engage in any of the other, suspect behavior that Laios does. Senshi’s interest in monsters is perceived as innocent, while Laios’ is not.

For clarity’s sake: I am not arguing that Laios’ interest in monsters is canonically a sexual fetish, I am only arguing that there is evidence that it is, and that other characters in the story perceive it to be a sexual fetish, whether it actually is or not.

DOES LAIOS THINK HE HAS A FETISH?

People who have fetishes, especially extreme fetishes that are not normalized, often try to hide them. They do this out of fear of social disapproval, and feelings of shame, because they feel guilty for having abnormal desires. This is true even though the majority of fetishes are completely harmless, and morally neutral.

Most people also know that things which provoke sexual excitement are supposed to be kept private, and it’s not acceptable to express those feelings in public spaces, so even if they see something related to their fetish while in public, they will repress their sexual feelings about it.

Laios, who has difficulty understanding social rules and nuance, is aware that his interest in monsters is socially unacceptable, even though there are many other social things he is not aware of.

Laios has spent most of his life hiding his interest in monsters as much as he can, and it is only during the events of the manga that he starts to express himself openly, because his monster knowledge has become useful for their survival, because Senshi encourages him, and because Falin isn’t there to act as a social buffer for him.

But Laios knows people won’t approve, he knows something about his interest in monsters and the way he expresses it will cause people to react negatively, like in the post-canon comic where he doesn’t want to tell his friends about his desire for his corpse to be eaten by monsters, and the part of the finale where he is hiding in the woods, too ashamed to let people see him because they now know that his greatest desire was to become a monster, and not reviving Falin, which he thinks is the "correct" desire that he should have had.

(This of course ignores the fact that the desires the demon preys on are unconscious, and cannot be controlled by the victim.)

This likely means that Laios has encountered negative reactions to his interest in monsters so frequently, and they have been so intensely negative, that it has trained him to conceal his feelings. It is one of the social rules that he has learned.

Laios thinks there is something shameful, wrong, and inappropriate about his desires related to monsters so he thinks it is something he needs to hide.

IS ANIMAL/MONSTER FETISHISM ANACHRONISTIC?

Some may feel that being a furry, a monster fucker or a monster fetishist is something only modern people do, and therefore anachronistic for Dungeon Meshi’s setting. However humans have been admiring, dressing up as and pretending to be animals for rituals (including fertility rituals) since the dawn of civilization, and continue to do so in the modern era every time someone dresses up in a “sexy cat” costume for Halloween, or wears a multi-thousand dollar fursuit to a furry convention.

There are many instances throughout history of people wearing pelts, masks and tails in order to “become” animals, poetry and art of people fantasizing about either becoming a beast/monster (modern werewolf erotica), or having a beast/monster ravish them (the many, many times artists choose to depict Zeus turning into an animal to have sex with women), or coming of age rites that involve animal sacrifice and the adoption of an animal-like persona as part of the process of becoming an adult.

The stigmatization of this behavior, where “sexy cat costume” is normal and “fursuit” is weird, most likely originates from the disappearance of religious and social context for it. In the past, the admiration, imitation and idealization of animals by humans was part of many cultures, but the modern dominance of religions that forbid the worship of anything other than one, immaterial god has left no room for such things, and so society can only view it as the deranged behavior of abnormal people, who have something “wrong” with them, rather than a harmless, common human impulse to admire, fantasize about, and imagine themselves as animals.

[lightkrets312]

Just this once, I'll do a meme, but I'm going from all sorts of time periods in my life. Propaganda under the cut, but here's the poll:

Characters (in order of options)

not tagging anyone, take your shitty propaganda and pick a blorbo

Emma Wilder: This is a character from one of the two movies I imprinted on as a middle schooler, the other movie was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. She bonds with a sentient rabbit toy from the future, I think, and her and her brother run a race against time and the government to send Mimzy (the rabbit) back home.

Nora Valkyrie: She's ginger, she's a goofball who wants to be taken seriously so bad she scars herself about it, and she has a giant fuckoff grenade-launcher-hammer. It was over before it could even began. It was either her or Ruby Rose.

Elmo: I bonded to this little monster as an elementary schooler, and specifically to Elmo in Grouchland. You can rip this little shit out of my cold dead hands, and you can rip his blanket out of his.

Larry: Specifically from the older veggietales, cause they changed his model in recent years, and I fucking hate it! But he's silly, he plays a tuba, he moonlights as Larry Boy the toilet plunger hero, and he cohosts the show with his good friend and buddy Bob. Him AND Bob are the OG blorbos.

Tricky: THE ULTIMATE NEVADEAN CHAMPION. He's a horror show abomination in most contexts, he's also a funny little fucker, and not even God can make death stick. He's a very funny chewtoy, and I go fucking insane about him with the context of Hofnarr in play.

Bibble: Because I couldn't just pick seventeen Barbie characters. I picked ONE. So I'm picking the funny little jabbering guy.

Janus Sanders: Spent several videos being an ominous little shit who wouldn't even tell us his name, and proceeds to do a heelturn-faceplate directly into camp villain city. Cheese bucket shithead (/affectionate).

Alfindi: (yes he's my favorite. Some of you won't be surprised. I am pointing a nerf gun at you.) He's a smartass, he's got trauma, he dunks on the criminals, and I want to put him in the pear wiggler.

Harley Quinn: I spent 5 minutes running up to goons and bonking them with the giant fucking hammer while cackling hysterically as a kid. All variants are valid but SHE is my OG. Shoutout to her and Ivy <3

[pragmatic-and-eepy]

ok since four people wanted it, headcanons! for the main four, I'll probably do more for the other characters later.

Edd! Full name, Edward "Edd" G. Sworld

A silly guy! He was born human, though he doesn't count himself as one anymore after the dose of his neighbors' weird satellite. He's still got powers, though it takes a while for them to properly return and he isn't the best at controlling him.

5'11/~180 cm and fat, but he loves himself. Big bear man.

Aroace spec, he's demiromantic and biromantic, but he's just asexual.

His main source of income is from commissions as he never actually went to an art school and has trouble getting full-time work. He does have a secret account for his little hero work when his powers start working and sometimes gets money from people who admire him.

He was the proper start of the friendgroup and the only reason the others stay together.

Did I hear someone say heterochromia? He used to only have pale brown eyes, but now a light green ring is around his pupils due to his powers.

Closest reference I have to how he looks in my mind: @/thepolysworldau has the best reference IMO. He just feels right.

Matt! Full name, Matthew "Matt" Doll

He wasn't always stupid, he just lost it for a while after being bit by a vampire :sob:. He didn't have a consistent source of blood intake and that's what made him a bit airheaded.

6'6/~198 cm, stringbean ahh looking fucker. He looks like he could be broken in half like dry pasta.

He's pan through and through, though he prefers the colors on the bi flag. Still, he feels pan is a better label for him so he sticks with it.

Went through the gender exploration phase after he got bit by the vampire but ultimately realized that yeah, he's a man, just fairly nonconforming at times with his style and he really likes makeup.

This man has freckles!!! There more prominent due to his skin not having as much pigment to it anymore, but he likes them so he's not upset.

He also used to have heterochromia! One eye was green, the other was blue, but now they're both red because of the whole vampire thing. His hair's also a slightly more red color now, he just dyes it to be more orange like it used to be.

Closest reference to how he looks in my mind: @/starrixle's Matt design is PEAK (all different images except for the last two words)

Tom! Full name, Thomas "Tom" Bromel

Monster Tom my beloved, but I do NOT vibe with the canon monster design, it's so ugly :sob:. I vibe more with @/albi-finch-blog's design. It can go between the bigger and smaller forms, fully depends on how well he's doing mentally.

The only transgender in the group, he's also a demiboy (he/they/it pronouns, am i projecting a bit maybe i am)

The shortest in the group at 5'3/~160 cm. It doesn't help that they keep slouching. Also definitely on the heavier side.

Its eyes are because of its monster heritage, which came from their mother's side. His dad is just French.

Is he unhealthily attached to Susan? Yes, yes he is. In his defense, Susan was part of his major teenage rebellion phase before he left to live with his friends.

Bisexual, preference for men though.

Closest reference to how he looks in my mind: For his half-shifted form, i feel @/battyratzz's works the best, but for him just being human? I feel @/422kit's design works best.

Tord! Full name, Tord Lorison.

The only human of the group. Debatably so later on but shhhh.

For a while he was around 6'/~183 cm, but after his return he was like, freakishly tall (taller than Matt) and he just kept getting taller until WTFuture timeline (there is a reason for this i promise).

He of course came from Norway but his parents divorced early on and he spent time between the UK and Norway (like, every few months he'd switch places) until his father won full custody of him and he stayed in the UK from when he was around 7 to his early 20s, when he left.

He hasn't picked a label for himself and he doesn't really want to, he just knows he likes men and women and maybe other people it really just depends on their aesthetic.

LONG GREASY HAIR AHH WASH YOUR GODDAMN HAIR BRO UGH. Also naturally very dark-haired, but he dyed it a more caramel color for a while until after he got a bit blown up.

He's OBSESSED with inventing things, has been since he was a kid. Little science kid but engineering was his calling and he's been building for a long time.

Closest reference to how he looks in my mind: To me his style came in eras. He looked like @/pond-child-edd's design for a while until his 20s, became @/anonymousjackalope's design from when he left to a bit after he got explodicated, and then ended up as @/lexisgayok's design but with dark hair and a mask.

EXTRA EXTRA! EXTRA HEADCANONS, SOME MISC AND SOME WITH HOW THEY INTERACT BELOW THE CUT WAHOO! HERE BE SHIPPING, YOU ARE WARNED!

Tord and Edd dated when they were younger, from around 14 to 16 I think. They ended up realizing it just wouldn't work so they broke it off but stayed friends.

Matt was the one who bought the house they all lived in because his parents were actually loaded and didn't care about how he used the money since he was normal enough to avoid some danger.

Tom did not join the friendgroup willingly, he got dragged in kicking and screaming by Edd and never escaped.

Tord ALSO didn't join entirely willingly, but Edd was the only kid who talked to him when he first started living part-time in the UK and he didn't like being alone.

Matt's been crushing on Edd since they were ten and was HELLA JEALOUS of Tord. He still is, but he's let it go enough.

Tom would regularly bite Tord for various reasons up until he moved out. They nearly bit him again when he moved back in.

Tom's bad at emotions, especially handling attraction. His first relationship was with Laurel but they weren't the best at being a couple, his second was with Bully (yknow, from the beach episode) (it was very unhealthy but he thought it was fun), and his last relationship came years after with Tord (it'd been sitting on unresolved feelings for a long time and only really realized after Bully that the feelings he felt for Tord were attraction).

Once Ringo got out of the house while Tord was home alone and Edd was supposed to be gone for a week visiting family, so Tord literally built a fake Ringo from scratch before finding her literal hours before Edd came back. Now there are two Ringos and Tord kept the robo-Ringo when he left.

Edd and Matt ended up starting a relationship not long before the proper start of the WTFuture timeline happened, they were walking to where they would've had a date when the Red Army invaded.

Tom was home alone with Ringo when it happened. She'd been sick and he took the day off work to watch her. Both Tom and Ringo got taken by the Red Army early on.

[fleet-off]

@bustinbustinbustin’s recent mirror meta reminded me of a post I’ve wanted to do for a while: Vegas’s anti-mirror meta!

Because Vegas has a few significant moments in mirrors--the three big ones being naked candle devil time, “I’ll be the leader and my dad will accept me us,” and obviously that final post-credits scene with Pete and Macau--but he also has several where he’s specifically staged to stay out of reflections. Most of these take place during the safehouse arc.

Following the water-reflected drone shot that sets up Vegas’s arrival at the safehouse, the camera begins to avoid showing his reflection.

As he walks up onto the deck and into the house, Vegas gets only an incidental half-reflection and neatly avoids appearing in either the window on the left or the door on the right, where his two henchmen’s reflections ultimately settle to frame and surround him.

The effect is one of being hemmed in--an effect compounded when Vegas enters the house; he passes behind several open windows and (less subtly) the bars made by the stairs. All of Vegas’s machinations have come to naught; he continues trying to present an image of casual authority, but he’s trapped here. And if Vegas looks in mirrors for an idealized version of himself (the leader, the monster)--the safehouse is where those fantasies begin to fall apart.

Reflections are used similarly with Gun in episode 13. Vegas spends his morning trying to build up a domestic dream, cooking a delicious meal for Pete and resolutely pretending it’s no big deal that he left him handcuffed in his bedroom prison. the fucker (affectionate)

The only reflection Vegas gets inside this house is actually the one made by the counter he’s stir-frying his househusband dream on.

The illusion and the meal are both overturned by the arrival of Gun. Vegas attempts to distance himself from his father (“You think I wanted to be your son?”)--but he fails, miserably, with the minor family ring making its mark on his cheek. And we’re left with this tableau: Vegas is framed between two reflective doors. Gun exits from the left; his reflection departs on the right.

Vegas has nowhere to escape. There is no direction he could turn to be free of the man whose ambitions he has turned into his own shackles. There is nowhere he could go that would not leave him literally following in his father’s footsteps.

He was stupid, to briefly imagine he could.

So: Vegas returns to the reflective counter, covered in the remnants of the illusion. He sweeps those remnants away.

And slams his fist into his now-hidden-from-camera reflection for good measure.

[malkaleh]

We sat down with Rupert Graves post Season Three of The Tudors (warning - this discussion will contain huge spoilers for the entire season, particularly the finale).

(Or an in universe Tudors OT3 verse version of The Tudors TV show actor interview. Ellie belongs to @nocompromise-noregrets <3)

So, Norwich is really gone?

Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person!

I was particularly taken by the way the show uses the historical reports that a range of emotions apparently played across his face as the axe fell to say that he realised exactly how much the monarchs valued Thomas Cromwell?

It was such a bloody good way to frame it as a narrative - so much of his [Norwich’s] self image is tied up in being the smartest person in the room and to have his utter unravelling end with that realisation that he’d never understood at all - it’s fantastic to play as an actor, because you get to just utterly take apart the character. It was also personally just fantastic to see this odious fucker getting what he deserved, to understand just how disgusting and small he is.

I was going to ask you about that, about how it was playing someone who is a monster with a handsome face and charm?

So not just as a father, though that was a huge part of it, but as a human being? It was horrifying - as an actor I don’t feel like I need to justify a characters actions - and here especially, because ultimately my Norwich is a fictionalised version of a real historical person or even to understand it but I did have to ‘get him’ to make it work - I made a lot of visits to Welles Hall - they were fantastic.

A lot of guidance?

Absolutely! Ellie (Dr Eleanor Richardson, Chief Archivist and the discoverer of the Norwich Papers) and Ahmed (Dr Ahmed Rushton-Bridges, historian and author of ‘John Norwich: A Biography’) gave me a tour and an understanding of his diaries - it wasn’t a pleasant subject but they did an incredible job. And it gave me more of a sense of him, especially as a younger man with that sense of entitlement.

Did you visit his town house?

I did. I will say it’s a beautiful space now in theory but the atmosphere in the actual rooms makes your blood run cold, that’s the best way I can put it - they’ve been blessed and cleansed and a thousand and one things but something haunts that place. But it did give me something to draw on, both James and I.

[James Frain who plays Thomas Cromwell, Duke of Essex in the Show] He visited as well?

Yeah actually. We both found it very hard going honestly but we both felt it was very important that we went - for different reasons for playing these people. Afterwards we went and had a cry together - did that a few times throughout the season and then tried to keep it light. My method was that to play this we actually needed to have that trust with each other - to both be able to be safe.

Also shout out to that scene with Norwich and King Henry - though I don’t suppose you could tell us what Henry whispered in his ear?

Johnny (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and I have agreed to take that one to the grave [laughs]. No, it was done in silence and so you only see Henry’s back for a reason - it was actually specifically Jon’s suggestion that the absence of words and faces actually works better for the menace and for this being a ‘historical rumour’ we use in the show [historical note: King Henry VIII did indeed visit The Tower shortly before the Earl was executed but the rumour that he did so to meet with Norwich is simply a rumour] - it also adds to the mystery!

Did you know there were people swooning over your character and the chemistry you and James Frain had?

I know a lot of people don’t know the history - I don’t blame them for that, it’s not something you’re going to cover in school in detail and it’s pretty recent but, no to answer this once and for all - it’s not meant to be sexy. Or if it is it’s meant to make you think about, well, the discomfort of how predators don’t look like predators - they are charismatic, they can be good looking and smart and present themselves like an ex lover - which Norwich genuinely believes and doesn’t make it any more wrong or repulsive.

It is meant to make you look back and see just how uncomfortable Cromwell is, how predatory it is - I know there were people who got it and I’m glad we didn’t…we didn’t present it through Norwich’s narrative. His narrative is there, but it’s not the one the show actually has, I don’t think.

And of course in lots of ways it makes sense that people swooned over Norwich - it’s how he was seen in the world before everything came out! The people who try to defend him after that though, that disgusts me.

I have to say you and Jeremy Irons Norfolk do have a fascinating something going on…

We joked that it was very much a ‘worst recognises worst’ situation but yes, there’s something there - a mutual respect and ‘only one I’m fond of in this world’ which I don’t think either of them expected. So yes, that was absolutely deliberate!

[butchybats]

god my fav things about like genderswap AUs is asking like, how does this change the way the characters navigate the world or how other characters treat them, right? so like. I JUST IMAGINE LESBIAN DANIEL AS BEING EVEN MORE PRICKLY. So sick of being treated like a girl all the time, so hyper-aware of all deficits in her experience based on how sexism has treated her, MAYBE POSSIBLY MORE WARY OF CREEPS, EVEN CREEPS WHO ARE WOMEN LIKE ARMAND. Is she as unsafe, as blithely monsterfuckig??? Does he have an ounce of self preservation and survival instinct? Is it harder for fem!Armand to find her when she flees around the world?!? ALSO LIKE. I always wonder how many other characters get swapped in these situations like is Louis also a woman? Did Daniel go interview some fucking man in a seedy room all by herself???????? Where's her safety rules at I gotta know. AND ARMAND. Armand. God. I feel like the cult grinds people's personalities down so much like almost as if every COD vampire was this genderless wraith. Does that change for her? Even as a boy Armand had such a fuckd up life like HOW MUCH WORSE COULD IT REALLY GET FOR HER LOL. And like is CLAUDIA still a girl like where's the jealousy at between them? thereS JUST SO MUCH TO DISCUSS

I am so glad there’s people actually wondering about the intricacies of this because for me it’s just like woah it would be so hot if they were women hghgh but i love thinking about this so much!!!!

LESBIAN DANIEL WOULD BE SO PRICKLY!!! She is so tired of the world’s shit and I can not blame her one bit. “So sick of being treated like a girl all the time” YES!!!!!! Her gender is dyke and she’s butch <3 (this is totally not me projecting) i feel like she’d experience a lot of sexism that really ties into homophobia so she’s had to learn fend for herself and not take anyone’s shit.

Lesbian Daniel is still the ultimate monster fucker I think <33 she wants these vampires so badly it makes her look stupid! I do think she’d be more wary of Armand in the beginning though like I can not imagine her taking public transportation in the dead of night 😭 no leaping out of a taxi into traffic for lesbian Daniel lmao and I also think she’d be great at not giving strangers the time of day so it might take her a bit longer to warm up to her (but at the same time are they really strangers after hearing about her from Louis and then being locked in a cellar by her? 🤔 HGHG like they are literally uhaul lesbians)

AND I AM ALWAYS GOING BACK AND FORTH ON WHOS ALL GENDERSWAPPED!!!! Because sure ideally i love thinking about them all being women but narratively that doesn’t work out!!! Akasha’s plot line is redundant if there’s no men lol also would Gabrielle feel as estranged from everyone if there were no men?? And just like historically it doesn’t make sense </3 personally the people I would love to be genderswapped are daniel and armand (obviously lol) but also lestat and louis maybe nicki?? umm i think that quinn could be a woman too. As a treat <3 but everyone else I’m convinced could be the same I’d love to see how chaotic that story goes (also i need bianca my beloved to stay the same so that we can have venice lesbians <3)

AND ARMANDDD Armand… It would probably get so much worse for her 😭I feel like she would really really latch on to Allesandra like more than canon simply because they’re both women in the cult. Also because Armand is a woman I feel like she would need to try way harder to command everyone’s respect and fear she would have to be VICIOUS (said while twirling my hair and giggling) and while gender stuff is probably the least of her concerns when all of this is going down I think it would still fuck with her over time, especially considering canon Armand’s intricacies with gender. Would she feel like she has to perform feminity to be taken seriously? Or does she play into her androgyny (not that she has much of a choice)? But I can totally see her and Daniel having one of their big talks about gender and how they relate to it

THERE IS SO SERIOUSLY SO MUCH TO DISCUSS ABOUT THIS AND TY FOR TALKING TO ME ABOUT IT! <3 my asks and dms are always open to anyone who wants to talk about gay vampires I feel like I could go on forever about them

[justheretoread-ao3]

Chapter 25: Girls' Night BTS

I doubt I'll do this for every chapter going forward but y'all waited so patiently for this chapter, I thought I'd drop some Lore(tm)

I definitely wrote the first half pre-concussion aka all in September, but thanks to my brain fog/memory issues, I have no idea where the delineation is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My OG plan for this chapter DID include all 4 textures (silk gloves, lace, velvet, and leather gloves) but Darcy and Loki kept getting distracted. (I don't blame them. They're both smoking hot)

All of Loki's past lovers are assholes in some way or another and Darcy wants to tase them all (Loki is utterly delighted by this once they get over their confusion)

I struggled SO MUCH with Darcy's kinda possessive dirty talk ("You’re always gonna be this wet for me, aren’t you?") I know it's only one line but askdjgadk As an ace person, it sounds so absurd but it's not like it's an actual expectation, it's just dirty talk <- directed at myself lmao

After the "Now you can dry everything" line, I wrote 4 pages of Pure Lokemo that I had to cut because WHAT? Shit came outta nowhere and didn't fit the tone I wanted at all. It's saved for potential future use but OOF

I had an absolute crisis trying to resolve it without having to ditch 1600+ words. Alas, the only solution was to cut it

(I, too, almost forgot about the buttplug, whoops)

I overthought Loki becoming overstimulated SO MUCH you have no idea but in the end, I went with the flow

help, pouting Loki is Too Cute, what a sweetie, AUGH

"She looked morosely at Darcy’s breasts." Possibly my favourite line 🤣 It just felt so 'Loki'

The languages Loki speaks are all from places the Vikings visited/invaded/traded with

Darcy speaking Farsi is canon-esque (from the Thor: The Dark World Junior Novelization)

Timothy Dalton is tall, (was) dark haired and has green eyes, and his imdb page describes him as a "swashbuckling, classically trained Shakespearean actor". No idea why Darcy would be attracted to him. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I always wanted Darcy and Loki to have a frank conversation about how Loki's shapeshifting works because a) there's no canon explanation (...or evidence of it) and b) who wouldn't be curious?? But I wanted Darcy to treat it as carefully and respectfully as possible. She's not indifferent to Loki's genderfluid presentations but she's also aware that it's ultimately not about her.

Darcy being turned on by Loki casually shifting between genders during their convo was inspired by discord friend also finding it hot af rofl (plus it makes sense to her character)

biological determinism is the asinine "belief that human behaviour is directly controlled by an individual's genes or some component of their physiology, generally at the expense of the role of the environment" (wiki). Darcy shares my opinion, because it's a sexist af idea

I have lots of Thoughts (tm) about magically genderfluid/shapeshifting Loki and the affect of hormones like testosterone and estrogen/progesterone. Ask me about 'em

Darcy is soooooo down with different genital combinations b/c she is, at heart, a monster fucker (Loki's an alien, c'mon)

Loki is even more not in love with her after this convo

[brandwhorestarscream]

Cybermorph!AU Monster fucker Orion Pax might pull Megatron in with one increasing smarts of the clutch and two by reverting back to ferral in a survival situation. They're in the wastes and he pounces a dipoledoe and drinks from it's fuel lines. Then passes the tank to Megatron with an apologetic shrug. "I spent a long time in the Wastes before Alpha Trion found me."

Higher intelligence isn't really gonna be all that enticing, tbh--the cybermorphs have the same level of sapience and intellect as non-mutated cybertronians. They speak the same language and have(had?) the same type of education that was available on the southern half of the planet, so while they may not be astrophysicists or in other highly specific fields of study, they still have the same baseline capabilities for intelligence. Letting a civilian fertilize his eggs wouldn't result in any higher problem solving abilities or anything

But I am very here for Megatron being impressed by this tiny civilian mecha that's the same size as his newborn sparklings but every bit as feral and vicious as a cybermorph when a survival situation calls for it. Why are they out in the wastes together? Why is Megatron away from his hive without his guards? (I'm assuming cybermorphs probably also have their own version of praetorians, right?) No clue ehat they're doing out there or how this happened, but watching Orion rip some poor mechanimal to shreds and offer him the carcass for fuel is admittedly a lot more than he expected. Pretty much every other civilian frame he's met has been piss scared of him, but Orion in all his monsterfucker glory is like "I'm afraid but also so horny rn" and tbh?? I respect it

If he does decide to let Orion be a sire, man's is over the moon. He's been dreaming about this for years--the ultimate fantasy about to come true

I just think Megatron, as the queen, should be allowed a small harem of sires at his disposal so he can pick and choose what sort of offspring he wants/the hive needs 😌

[emblemxeno]

Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected Thoughts

-Future Connected is 100% done! All quests, all ponspectors, full collectopedia, all Quiet Moments, and full map! For a 10~ hour epilogue, it certainly had its charms.

-Story and characters were extremely good and heartfelt. Melia getting to be unabashedly happy and powerful in her leadership position is a treat to see. Kino and Nene were feel good team mates that brought smiles to my face, and their inclusion led to Riki being developed without even being there! Best dadapon even more so. Shulk's story was over in the main game, so seeing him in a supportive role was not a shock, and he's so damn sweet. And again, Tyrea's story role in this-as well as Teelan being brought in as a full supportive character-was a welcome inclusion, something that I felt was a great bow tied on to XC1's world.

-Side characters were good, for the most part. Surprisingly poignant and nuanced dialogue from named NPCs, as well as welcome funny moments here and there. I enjoyed Maxis and the Companions, as well as their friction with Gran Dell. Were the game to be longer, I'd call it underdeveloped, but since it's as short as it is, it's just fine.

Gael'gar though... kind of weak tbh. He created tension in the story that, IMO, wasn't necessary or impactful. Mixed blood High Entia hating pure bloods as a reversal of the main game's take is an interesting concept, but something that can't meaningfully take hold in a short adventure, especially since the blood heritage thing is woven tightly into the main game's narrative with the Telethia's origins. Gael'gar blowing up the lab was ultimately for naught in my eyes, as yeah it sets back Teelan and Tyrea's research, but reasonably that probably wasn't gonna be solved before the Fog King issue anyway. He lacks threat and charisma either, so he's not even entertaining or engaging, he's kind of just a negative.

-WE MEASURE! FIND TREASURE! PONSPECTORS TIL WE DIE!

I loved those little fuckers, even if some of the quests involving them were annoying. Shout out to the chuuni ponspector, your quest may have been hell, but I loved your dialogue. They were great in the gameplay sense too, adding some meat to the system. Speaking of which...

-I didn't care much for the combat at all. I have an overall really positive opinion on XC1's combat, where even though spikes are an awful design decision and the game is centralized around topple locking, the variety of arts, skill trees and links, and various armors and gems led to a great deal of customization and fun. Future Connected is a short romp, so it makes sense for it to be stripped, but stripping XC1's combat makes one realize that it's not quite that fun in its bare form. Things become a bit more routine or predictable, and I think the devs knew that, so they made enemies a bit more annoying and tanky (I think even one NPC commented that the region's monsters are stronger on the shoulder than they normally would be). Until I got access to the Ponspector Attack, I felt at the mercy of things just playing out with no major impact; like I was a level 60 hero going through the prologue again. It wasn't hard to eventually adjust, but still. Meh.

-Specific point about battling. Getting rid of Enchant makes sense, since no Mechon. However, why not also get rid of Shield and enemy Talent Arts since there's no visions? Shield's main purpose was to stop talent arts before they happen, but with no visions you never know when they're happening ever. At that point, Shield is kind of worthless the first time round, and it becomes trial and error depending on the enemy if you keep dying to it. Most often, the only Monado Art you needed was Armor, since that's more reliable and multipurpose. Just strange.

-What else... music was top notch, I looooooved the Fog Beast theme. Visuals were great, and huge fucking props to breathing life into the Bionis' Shoulder, since that was major cut content in the original Wii release. Repurposing it for an epilogue mini-adventure was a smart move. Exploring the continent itself was fun, so they did a great job. I loved each location, and I oddly enough enjoyed the high concept names for each landmark and the like. Very fantastical.

-Having played XC3, anything and everything about the Fog King and the Rift, like these:

They're such brain candy moments for literature nerds like me, oooh, I love it. The XC3 art book revealed that Alrest had a similar event to Future Connected, just not seen before XC3's events. I imagine, that since FC was a rift above Alcamoth that spouted out a Guldo, then there was most likely a rift in the center landscape of the new Alrest, where Morytha used to be. I like to think Alrest's version of the Fog King would be a Telethia that got caught in the rift.

-Last but certainly not least, JENNA COLEMAN! Getting her back for both Future Connected and XC3 was amazing, and she kills it as Melia. So mature, heartfelt, compassionate, an A+ performance.

-Overall, I had fun! Would I play it again? Ehhh, maybe someday, but whenever I play XC1 again, I'm not likely to revisit FC along with it every time. Still, loved the scenes and what it brought to the overall Xenoblade story.

Taking another break before moving on. Continuing on, I'm gonna play Torna next, then main game XC2. I couldn't be more excited to play those again tbh.

[robthegoodfellow]

Parallel I’d never noticed before and if I thought the Duffs were at all competent writers I’d tip my hat but WE ALL KNOW this was pure coincidence:

So in CJ the X’s recent vid on the metatextual/metaphorical/metaphysical significance of one of the best scenes in all of ST, they highlighted the recurrence of the word “here” during Max’s interactions with Vecna and Lucas:

“You belong here.” -> “You’re not really here.” -> “We’re right here. I’m right here.” -> “I’m still here. I’m still here.”

Basically making the point that Max’s triumph over Vecna is rooted in this reunification of mind/body and being present in the now, rather than be sucked into past trauma/depression in the isolated trap of the mind, unrooted from the present and those physically around her trying to reach her. She reaches out in return, connects with them and reconnects herself.

ANYWHO when I was very responsibly trying to fall asleep at a relatively reasonable hour, the Billy brainrot crept in, as it does, and I thought of the moment we first lay eyes on the fucker:

And how this isn’t something Billy says, as with Max, but something imposed by the metatext of the soundtrack, a promise made by an invisible Greek chorus, but a promise that goes undelivered as it becomes clear how much Billy is driven by the trauma of his past and fear of future trauma.

And yet, in his final moments Billy also achieves a reunification of mind/body when El reaches out to him, rooting him in the now and not in the swirling hurricane of memories, and with his last moment of oneness sacrifices himself to save her. He reaches out in return, only not toward her, but toward the monster, to hold it off.

And how in Max’s letter to Billy, she wishes she had reached out to him and pulled him away from danger, and imagines that if she had, he would “still be here.” That they could have ultimately reached out to each other, had a sibling relationship, been here/there for each other.

And how all of this forms a powerful message about the role of our connections to others (reaching out/reaching back) in being present, being wholly ourselves, and living.

[minalblood]

I figured if Meg, Drake and Nida are streaming an episode,ni may as well be in line and continue my rewatch so here we gooo, ep 5!

Akridaaa here yaay! I love those fuckers! And a lot about the Akrida this episode since we're finally getting to seeing them full on.

God, Dean speaking about pain and letting it out so it doesn't fuck you up hurts. And of course it's highly relevant to this ep, Mary of course once more being the Dean mirror.

Ok lets begin, cuz I've thoughts. We'll do this one chronological aka as the ep goes.

1stly this is the episode when I literally went "oh there you were, u fucker" cuz this episode is the one when John acts most like the version we're used to from spn. Interesting thing, when John's talking to Millie at the beginning of the episode and she asks him.how he is but in a way that he can easily let rest there and he is so in his head about what happened last ep that he preemptively reassure her he isn't affected by the Vietnam trauma which ofc means it is at the front of his mind. Also about that scene, Millie saying she wanted to take a pry bar to the motorcycle heavily echoes Dean taking a crowbar to Baby after John's death. I have many thoughts about Millie saying Mary is good for John like Betty was. Like what does she mean? Why does John need someone to keep him in check tho, because thats the implication there for me, we'll circle back to this cuz my opinion kind changes as the ep goes on.

Ada off the bat is the focus here.She ignored Carlos' mention about the demon after the last time when she was almost sadistically plucking leaves off. She wasn't really listening to the case detail as Mary was listing them. She didn't even really get involved in the discussion except to say they need to work this case and oooof it hurts to see because we ofc now know why shes acting as distracted and worried as she is.

Lata took Ada knowing her djinn lore as a ... birds of a feather thing aka Ada being interesting in the lore as she herself is and is so pleased about it. I wonder what she thought about it after finding out about Tony and Ali.

God Tony's entrence is pretty fucking great tho, jeesus. I also love that we start it off on the usual set up for monsters that spn perfected aka the monster of the week doesnt show their face til late in the episode cuz theyre the threat, the danger, the thing we're not supposed to relate to or get close to whereas the victim and the brothers (in spn) are introduced to us with full shot of their face because we're meant to care about them, to associate them immediately with a person and be invested in them, be close to them. So Tony being shot as just his legs as he runs until the moment he sees Ada is absolutely gorgeous to me. It goes from this distant, dangerous thing to someone important to one of our main charaters in the span of seconds. In seconds he becomes someone we're emotionally invested in (even if just curiosity about why Ada has her reaction) only to then really hit home once she says who he is, her son.

I also love that Lata's question about Ada being a djinn is said completely without judgement, just Lata trying to recontextualize what she know about Ada to herself, including the earlier knowledge about djinn lore. And this non judgemental attitude is relfected by Carlos and Mary as well. They're curious, confused, shocked, but not hostile to Ada. They just want to understand. But John is a dif creature here. From the moment Ada memtions who Tony is, John is pissed. He's absolutely furious throughout Ada's story, completely cruel in his reaction and absolutely oblivious about how he comes across for all of it, or willfully ignorant if I'm not feeling charitable. And this after he was a dick to Mary earlier about the motorcycle, but that by contrasr was just a foot in mouth thing That, while yes, dickish, wasnt harmful ultimately. And in both he had no clue how he came across. In the 1st scene, Mary let him know, in the second, because it was so striking that Mary Carlos and Lata chose instead to remove him from Ada's presence as quickly as possible without any chastisement because they knew Ada safety was more important than John being made aware of his behaviour (be it even just the emotional side here, since I don't think they would ever think hed do anything really). And it's this scene that makes it clear beyond any reasonable doubt to me, thay yea, this is def John Winchester and he is just a few degrees off of spn!john and could easily become him.

But the other interesting part here is that it's him having this reaction, the newbie here, the one who's joined this fight without any personal stake really. Like Henry doesn't count since the trauma of losing Henry is an old one that is wrapped more in Henry's abandonment than the actual supernatural world, whereas everybody else has lost people they loved as a direct result of monsters. But they're still empathetic to Ada and understand her choice so much easier than John who just doesn't get it or even try. Because he's already written monsters off as the Enemy thus the evil to his good.Like I said about the previous episode, John views it all in stark Black and White colors.

And now we have the Millie/Ada/John/Dean parallel. Aka the parent afraid of/for their child to the point they end up hurting them. Now importantly, Millie is parallel more clearly with John as parent here, specifically his controlling behaviour towards his kids, Dean most of all Id say and using that fear/worry as an excuse for his shitty behaviour. While Ada is both Dean and John. Leaning more toward Dean, who ultimately did realise that the behaviour was wrong and tried to fix things in much the same way Ada gives Tony the choice to help, to reestablish connection, Dean extends the same to Jack. John never fully does this, he dies still balancing between saving his son vs killing him. And then there is the treating your child based off of seeing him as another person. This one is big too, because Millie and Ada treated their sons as tho punishing them for their fathers, but important distinction, Ada tried not to allow her fear to taint Tony, it was him walking into her nightmare that led to their break. Millie does treat John like this, deliberately. She constantly compares John to Henry and we have to assume this is a behaviour that's been present during John's childhood too because of how prevalent it is.

So we already have all the daddy issues before the main emotional break of the episode is even introduced. And it all paves the way for the John/Samuel parallel's and as such the Dean/Mary parallels once we enter Mary's mind.

And it's important too that it's John talking to Mary that cools John down and it's the comparison to themselves that has him actually willing to relate to Ada's experience.

God I still hate the Saint Miguel reference, especially after the previous episode.

Another important thing about Ada/Dean is they both acknowledge their failings and then choose to do better, whereas Millie is a bit of an inbetween, she's changing as I've said, but is just figuring it out still, she's not really there yet, but she's asking about how to do it which is very important. It means she's willing to put in the work to do better. I also love that Ada immediately believes Tony but so does Carlos, even without the evidence.

Small thing I appreciated about the talk the gang has about the Akrida is Carlos picking up the file and clearly trying to put stuff together themselves.

I love everyone but John's reactions to Ada. So so much. I also love the following your heart advice Ada gives Mary, it reminds me of Mildred (my beloved) giving the same advice to Dean.

God Carlos' lies are awful, how have they been a hunter so long ans still.are this shit at lying. I love them.

I adore the Akrida design as well, i fucking love those bugs soo much.

Aaaand Mary got stung. And Carlos making a joke to difuse the worry is soo soo good and his advice to Ada to just tell Tony the truth is brilliant. As is Ada's talk to him. I LOVE her making sure she refers to Tony as his own person rather than who he is in relation to her, it's her ackowledging his personahood and also her not pushing him and making it clear she knows he likely will still leave and wont force him.to stay, it is such such good communication.

John being signled out makes perfect sense to me here tbh, bacuse outta everyone there, John has been the one to push Mary even when she's been at her most stubborn, he's the one whose been challenging her since they met as she does him. They know Mary can just tune them.out because she's done it before (in this show even) but John has always broken through to her.

John saying you cant fight ur trauma but you can face it, is chef's kiss after last ep. It shows he has been thinking, has been trying to do better even if it's not shown to us. To some degree he knows what he needs to do. I dont even mind thay he's a bit too harsh initially in trying to convince Mary to face her worst memory, bacause it is a time crunch, there's time to process it properly after, once Mary is alive to do it. And he give her the space and understanding she needs once she's going through it, he doesnt make it about himself. So we have not just Mary afecting him like Millie says in the beginning, but he afects her too. This is why they can work together.

But goood I hate the Campbell's just as much as I hate spn!John. For the same reasons, and I still think they were better parents then John, bacause Mary at least had more stability than Dean and Sam did, because she had a stable home. But yea, Mary's tragedy in spn is def partly the fact that her kids had to live what she did, and she has no idea just how similar it was, not really.

John giving Mary the reassurence that shes right to want to leave once shes done hunting is also very very good.

And I gotta say I love the bonding between Ada and Tony at the end, open ended but full of potential and i love lata and tony so so much! And also also, carlos once more pulling that vital vital background work to finally find out about Roxy.

This episode is so chock-full of intergenerational trauma (not that thats surprising, but rather the way it gets highlighted here). There is so so much to talk about and I can't even get all of it out but yeah, heres ep 5. Do i have more thoughts about it? Always. But so far here we leave it

[talesofsonicasura]

Corazon and his Monster Hunter s/o sabotage a flamingo

You know it was coming one way or another. Time for our favorite clown man to get some payback on his psycho brother, Donflamingo. Luffy is still going to pound the blonde into the ground as I have another idea in hand. This can be read gender neutral or preferred gender. Enjoy!

You don't know how the fuck this happened. One second everyone was peacefully sleeping in their beds only to wake in a bloody unknown forest. Also a talking one legged nutcracker. The fuck?

It was only when Corazon woke up did you guys get any answers from the strange toy. This was Corazon's world specifically the very kingdom his asshole brother has in a chokehold, Dressrosa. You had heard stories but never thought to experience it or be deep in enemy territory.

A really bad situation for anyone with common sense. Corazon was still considered an enemy to his brother's crew and this was their home base. The nutcracker or Thunder Soldier, who you chose to call Ky, also told about what your boyfriend's brother been doing over the years. In short, a shitty situation with the possibility of living being turned into a doll or fight for your life as a gladiator.

Any normal person would go into hiding and probably pray. Not you, Corazon or your monsters. This fucker was long due for some good ol' fashion karma. So, the four of you agreed to help Ky.

He had explained all the information he had: the groups helping to stop the tyrant, their defenses, important individuals and places. So the best game to play was sabotage. Luckily the tournament gave you guys the ultimate cover.

You and Corazon split up with two tasks in mind. The biggest priority was Sugar for you, the one who turned everyone into toys. As much as you want to put a bullet through her head, traumatizing her felt perfect. Especially if it revolved around her own power.

Being a Monster Hunter meant you come across all sorts of stuff and utilize them to your advantage. Hallucinogenic poison was often saved for the worst targets, like Sugar. Your most infamous being the Waking Nightmare, a special powdery concoction that puts the victim into the mindset of their tortured prey.

Corazon was in charge of setting up a butterfly effect. Slow acting paralytic toxin that slipped into food n beverages, sabotaging weapons, etc. His brother prided himself in being in complete control of any situation. What better target than that.

As for your Goss Harag and Corazon's Chameleos, they were helping Thunder Soldier sabotage the Coliseum's "trash pile". This was where losing gladiators were dumped and turned into toys. More people to help fight the better.

Tricky's poison mist combo would ward off the guards while the Snow Oni lead the defeated fighters out via a secret tunnel. Don Flamingo kept his powerhouses close to each other so the 'cannon fodder' looked over the least important areas.

Once the four of you reunited, all there was left is for Sugar to set off the butterfly effect. Apparently she had a sweet tooth with sugary grapes being her favorite. Adding ones coated in Waking Nightmare had been easy thanks to the Tontatta, little dwarves enslaved by Don Flamingo.

You geared up in your best armor as Corazon armored himself with a personal gift from you. A set of special armor called Webbed Reaper made from Rakna-Kadaki parts and a very powerful Heavy Blowgun called the Devil's Conduit. The latter had you face an extremely dangerous monster known as Scorned Magnamalo to forge it.

A present he cherished so much that he always kept it in good condition. You guys had just gotten done ready when a loud bloodcurdling scream took over Dressrosa. The second part of the battle has officially begun.

And that's it! This technically a two parter as the next part goes over the Battle For Dressrosa. I couldn't really fit both together as it would be too long.

Corazon's armor, Webbed Reaper, is actually from concept art that didn't make the cut for Monster Hunter Rise. Devil's Conduit is from the latest update, Sunbreak, for said game.

That's all I have for now! Until next folks, see you back on the Grand Line! I'll be adding links to Rakna-Kadaki and Scorned Magnamalo. This is partly cause those with arachnophobia won't want to see the former plus it wouldn't make sense to add the latter if I cut one.

I can show both Corazon's weapon and armor though!

[lightheaded-dullahan]

As payment for the ask you gave me, I demand you do one for Yu Mei Ren (joke, you don’t have to of course)

Jokes on you fucker (affectionate), I’m into that shit (Yu Mei-ren)

Favorite Thing About Them

Fuuuuuuck she’s sooooo cool

Her power??? Metal as fuck.

Her looks??? Godly.

Her personality??? I beg of thee.

Fuck also just how her artist draws her outfits - the flaming blood, it’s soooooooo fucking coooooooool

Least Favorite Thing

Her summer alt base artwork. Like I’m not the biggest fan of her swimsuit in general but- her arm????? What the fuck is that??? How did this get past quality control???

This never gets updated too so??? It’s supposed to look like that??

Fuck it bothers me so much.

Favorite Line

Like there are a lot of lines from the summer event but I just—

OTP

We all know it’s with Xiang Yu tHEY MAKE ME EMOTIONAL PLEASE

BrOTP

Like the obvious answer is Changgong (Lanling Wang) and Xu Fu — but honestly I like the idea of her and Archetype: Earth being pals , I think Arc would be too wild for her taste, but the more subdued princess who never encountered her fate — i like to think about how they’d get along. The executor and the immortal. While Yu Mei-ren hates humanity (with few exceptions), Asc3 Archetype: Earth has yet to hate it or experience it. They both have a royal presence- honestly if it wasn’t for Xiang Yu I might be shipping them more seriously but I also just like the idea of them being friends.

NOTP

I don’t like her with the player (Gudao/Gudako) tbh. I know why people do it, but it just ain’t it for me. Other than that, I just don’t generally like NTR stuff with these sorts of things. You have a lady whose so focused on getting her husband back and then it’s just “ok but what if she cheated on him”

Unless you’re drawing Xiang Yu being in the know and okay with it. Or you know, don’t be a coward and draw the monster horse cock. If you’re going to draw Yu Mei-ren NTR, draw Xiang Yu NTR as well. Make them both fucking a third one. They can share.

Random Headcanon

I like to think she and Kadoc talk at Chaldea, and that she’s a tsun type friend to him. And Ritsuka is their little junior with Mash. I just like them all being friends.

Unpopular Opinion

I hate how her hair looks in her second and third ascension sprites, I don’t even really like it in the artwork. I’m sorry but her braid is just so pretty in the artwork. I think other artists make it look better but in game it’s just— uuuuuuugh.

As for a less design oriented opinion, I

wish she was more unhinged. Like, an inhuman level of it. Not just “oh the immortal wishes to die except not anymore” but like, I want her to be so fucking weird .

Song for Them

It’s more a theme - but honestly Ultimate Madoka’s Gacha Theme from Magica Record.

Favorite Picture of Them

It’s a three way tie between Sailor Yu - Super Cool Mei-ren - Summer Style Fun

[exceptionally-stupid]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: vampire fuckers are class traitors AND have shit taste.

One: the lore of monsters, or: why the werewolf is the everyman’s sexual partner

Werewolves are part of the monsterfucker catalog because they are demonized on the grounds that they are werewolves, something they often have no control over. That gets demonized because of their perceived nature, that it is essential to the being of a werewolf that they are inherently bloodthirsty, savage, dangerous, and animalistic in a way that taints and renders any of the “were” (human) part of their being invalid in all ways that matters. Those that fear them are unwilling to either see or accept the beast within, and so express their fear to control it, and if not, destroy it. A werewolf is feared in a form of oppression. There is a beast within, and it is capable of ripping and tearing, and that is scary, but that you don’t see immediately what else is there is why werewolves are made monsters.

Vampires are made monsters because they prey, both literally and figuratively, on the lower class from mansions bought with slave money. What, you think becoming a vampire comes with riches? All of it’s blood money. And the victim? A thrall to their sire, unable to express their own will, long dead and now just an extension to their cruel master, who gave up love for this perverse power.

Then there is the symbolism. Werewolves in folklore come, in part, from the long-standing fear of wolves, and the werewolf hunter as a hero comes from the noble wolf-hunter who culled wolf populations in times past. Now, am I going to have to tell you why the wolf-hunter was, ultimately, a bad idea? Do I have to explain the vital role apex predators play in our ecosystem? Better question, are you going to miss this opportunity to express gratitude for wolves’ service? Wolves are also social creature, and so in most lore in which werewolves are not forcefully hunted into solitude, werewolves are too. They would treat you like family.

And vampires are based, once again, on the rich. Don’t tell me you’re going to fuck somebody who’s planning to tear down a homeless camp so he can build a house he’s inevitably going to use as a vrbo because you think that’s hot. If you want to have a vampire boyfriend, you have to come to terms with the fact that they will be much richer than you, but that by no means implies that they will be your sugar daddy, and will instead take the Swedish approach to sharing.

Two: the mechanics of sex

When it comes down actually getting down and dirty with your choice of sexual partner as listed above, the fact is that werewolves have things to offer that are simply better than what a vampire has.

Let’s start with what both have to offer, which in common lore is two things: strength and fangs. In both of these, I am of the firm belief that werewolves do both of them better. A vampire is guaranteed at least two fangs, but for argument’s sake, we can assume all of a vampire’s teeth are sharp. This will still be marred by the fact that they have to fit in a human mouth, so most of that becomes “human teeth, but sharper.” There werewolf’s maw is much more conducive to sharp teeth, allowing for bigger teeth across the board. When it comes to strength, a vampire will most likely be stronger than a werewolf, but what’s more important is the build to go with it. Vampire strength in lore is often magical in nature, whereas most of werewolves’ strength comes from actual muscle. In terms of build alone, a vampire will almost never be built like a brick shithouse in favor of just some guy, and so is limited in the ways they can use that strength on you in ways that would be comfortable. Werewolves in most lore, however, ARE build huge, so even if they were to hold you with just one arm, you could still feel as if you were lying in a bed that has the ability to crush you if it wanted.

There is one more way vampires and werewolves are similar, and that’s that I’m assuming that whatever monster we’re choosing to fuck (given that we are not ourselves a monster in this scenario) is going to be a dom. Both monsters would, by nature, excel at domming, but do so in different ways. The werewolf achieves this by virtue of animalism; they will be savage and instinctual with it, and actually use their body to dominate. That’s excite their partner with adrenaline, like a monster is supposed to. Vampires, on the other hand, while having the raw strength to do so by force, rely on vampiric charm to dominate. That either comes in the form of hypnosis (to which I say two things: 1- there is a difference between domming and taking advantage of someone, and 2- you would black out for the duration of sex, rendering the entire escapade pointless to anyone but the vampire), or the rich people method of domming, and if you are of the mind that vampires are good at this, I am about to ask you a question that you will dislike me for:

Is this sexier with the knowledge that a vampire is doing it?

With that out of the way, we can get into the differences. A werewolf has a small yet enticing set of assets. As I’ve already mentioned, they most often boast an impressive size, but have something else to go with it: compared to vampires, a werewolf’s fur would be very soft and comfortable to the touch. Werewolves also possess claws in all lore. And last but not least, they have an irregularly shaped penis, which can be used like normal, or for knotting, an act more intimate than what you would do with a vampire’s standard human-y penis.

What does a vampire have? Magic powers, which on the surface, admittedly sound good. That said, the main one for use in sexual intercourse would be telekinesis, which would in practice be more disorienting than pleasing without sufficient experience. Even bdsm torture machines don’t give you 0g nausea.

And what do vampires have aside from that? The body of a corpse. No body heat. No pulse. No breath. No cum. You could shove an ice cube up your ass and achieve much the same feeling as fucking a vampire. Is that it? Is that what you want? Anna frozen voice do you wanna fuck a snowman?

Everything a vampire lacks in that regard, a werewolf makes up for just by virtue of having a warm, living body.

Now, as I write this, vampire is winning. Please remember everything I taught you now and fix this.

RB for the largest sample size this site has ever seen. it's time to put an end to this.

[hel-phoenyx]

OHOHO I HAVE TIME IN MY HANDS AND NO ACCESS TO MY GAMES, LET'S HAVE THE INFAMOUS VILLAIN RANT

Huge ass spoilers for La Peste Moderne, Lysara IbRu'Ael and Azilis Chronicles ahead

Ah, villains. An interesting subject, for that matter. I am very well known among my friends and polycule for being the Notorious Villain Fucker, but aside from that villain psychology is something I find utterly fascinating, and the way people write their villains is very, very often telling of their own opinions about life.

There are many archetypes of villains. Some I came across in my mates' stories are, for a non exhaustive list, the iredeemable bastard just here for the laughs, the person with a goal and ready to do unfathomable things to reach it, while knowing damn well he went too far, the broken beyond repair that can't or won't pick himself up because finding redemption is so scary, the endoctrined man who never knew anything else than evil, mundane cruelty.... And of course, evil parents, but evil parents are less antagonists and more backstory-related, so I won't dive into it.

Personally, I realised my main antagonists fall into two main categories : One which is less about being a villain and more about being morally grey, being broken beyond repair in excruciating need of hope, but still able to love, still able to feel, and wanting to feel; or, the absolute bastard, iredeemable fucker, but with a knack for show.

There are exceptions, of course. The Ultimate Empress, for example, falls into the inbetween of those two archetypes. There's Yuuki, too, which is antagonistic on her very role but not on her behaviour. Or Shizuka, who falls more into the bastard category but has no interest for show. But these two are more secondary, and less villainous than the other people I will talk about.

Main antagonists share a caracteristic : They are FASCINATING to write about. Taking for example my boy Mairù. Mairù evolves in two very different persons depending on the universe : In Lysara, he starts out not as a villain, only as an antagonist : He is moderate, tries to keep in control the excruciating pain his body is inflicting to him, only joins the antag's side because of a genuine want to make things better... He is the enemy, yes, but he is not a villain per say. In fact, he is more than happy to help the protagonists once they share an objective : Stop a third party wrecking shit up.

It's after that that he gets into his villainous arc. Mairù is, fundamentally, a broken person : His trauma defines all his life, all of who he is. He is a prophet, he is a weapon, and even his own family can't see him as a person. He tried, for a long time, to find people who make him feel like he isn't a monster : The problem, or the problems, in fact, is that these people always end up, one way or another, leaving him behind.

Lina broke up with him. Kal threw himself into his attempt for redemption, something he was very good at, and Mairù was very bad. So, to try to salvage what little mental health he has left and not hurt the last person he has left, Asura, he left for his training arc, hoping to come back stable and worthy of her affection.

She didn't wait for him.

That was the last straw, the last hit in his already fragile self. He became the villain of the story, leaving all forms of selflessness behind him. At this point, he is tired of waiting, tired of trying, only for scraps. It expresses itself in his love for Asura getting insanely unhealthy, borderline yandere, but fundamentally it is a visceral reaction to being left on the road one time too much, and his resentment also expresses itself towards Lina, Baku, or even Kal.

Fundamentally, despite doing atrocities, all he needed to put himself back in the right path was a held hand and a solution. The moment he is helped, the moment he is loved, he changes for good. He is the living example of how a single ounce of understanding and genuine help can change a person, bring him back from the hole he was crawling into, pushed voluntarily or invonluntarily by all others before.

He is a villain, he is an antagonist, he is broken and thought it was beyond repair, but affection mended the cracks he was desperate to fix.

That's where he is different from his azilian version. Mairù at Azilis starts already broken, in a world far less accepting of people like him. he is already at the point where lysarean Mairù breaks down. The problem is that there is no Kal to follow : Mairù creates his own path, his own revolution, and is responsible of his own downfall.

Unless this time he picks up the pieces of him himself. He realises brooding won't do him any help, that the people he has left need him to pick up the pace. He was the instrument in his own downfall, so he will be the instrument of his own redemption.

In fact, I think the huge difference between lysarean Mairù and azilian Mairù is that lysarean Mairù is the victim of his world, while azilian Mairù is the actor of his own story.

They're the same and different at the same time. Same basis, same cracks in the shell, same pain, same will to be important in the eyes of people. They just had a different story, one as a puppet and one as an outsider, but still yearning to be good, yearning for understanding and acceptance. They are in the concept morally white-gray : Not wanting to hurt peoble, screaming for help, but still to be held accountable for shit they do.

Both of them are a narrative foil somehow for their other sibling, and boi do I have things to say about them : Akira.

Akira is a peculiar case. They started devoid of emotions each time, except for a deep longing for revenge and a craving for what they lack : But as the two Mairùs, their path changes drastically to the point where azilian Akira falls out of both the archetypes I was talking about earlier, while lysarean Akira is the epitome of the showman bastard.

They start the same way. Akira, despite being emotionless, is the first of his siblings to fall in love with Lina. Like, the very first, starstruck and all. This is a bit cliché I'll admit, having all three of those fuckers infatuated with my protagonist, but Mairù gets over it each time, Baku ends up marrying her and as for Akira, Lina acts as a narrative foil for everything they want.

Lina is the embodiement of the first strong emotion he ever felt. She is love in his eyes. She represents everything he longed for : To FEEL. So naturally, he pursues her to the point she becomes quite the obession. The problem being each time, whe he awakens, she is already taken and can't be fully his.

He loves her like a man would love a prized possession. He wants her to be only his, no matter the cost, no matter if Lina prefers to be her own. That sounds obsessive, because it is, but it finds its roots in the fact that Lina embodies his emotions.

And then the game branches.

In Lysara, Lina becomes queen, and Akira is able to use Baku as his anchor to try and obtain her. He thinks about nothing else, the rest of his life is filled with empty cruelty in an attempt to feel something he knows will never be satisfying enough. Knowing his plan needs patience, he delves into the darker part of his personnality, channeling his need for adrenaline in absolute cruelty. In this iteration he's a complete and utter sadist, feeling pleasure in other's pain and not seeing any wrong in his way of acting.

She believed she would just play the long game, take possession of Baku before revealing the imposture to his beloved and either pose as the king or snatch her away, completing his lifelong goal of feeling that emotion entirely. The only problem is that Lina is polyamorous, and ends up falling in love with Shera next to Baku. Thus shattering her plan to take her peacefully.

At this point, Akira becomes more cruelty than love. And the birth of Carolyn gives him a new opportunity to obtain his full being, separated from Baku.

Her plan is completely separated from his love. Not to get into details, but once again she plays the long game, up until she gets completion and discovers her new emotions are... Not all positive :D

She is now completely defined by her cruelty and sadism. Still, she is motivated by her love for Lina, but now it gets overly bloody, and she finds more pleasure in shedding blood than in completing a goal she knows is doomed to fail. She is the kind to do dramatic reveals, enjoys presentation, because the fear people feel towards her is delicious. She loves being venerated, and in fact, there may be more than one cult in Lysara dedicated to the Angel of Death, cruelest nightmare harbinger ever known in this era. Her arc is one of complete bastardisation and reeling in blood and gore.

Azilian Akira, on the other hand, sees Lina dying before he can even prepare an erzatz of plan. So his arc is about grief, and about his own freedom far earlier than lysarean Akira. His cruelty has little time to nurture, and is replaced by ruthlessness and dedication for his objective. And since he has no one to direct his love unto, it quickly dies into regret.

This Akira is still a bastard, but an emotionless one. He knows what he wants and does whatever it takes for it. Only the results keep him going. He does find new people along the way, but his heart is closed to every last one of them and, even if he feels comfort in their presence, he doesn't love them per say. His emotions are sparse, some rush of adrenaline when he fights or kills, some kind of pleasure when he is in bed with people, but nothing else but regret and determination.

He knows on a intellectual level what he does is seen as wrong. He doesn't care. His goal is the only thing that matters. He has no time for pizzazz, showmanship or anything that will make him lose time. And his goal is completely selfish since it's about becoming more than a god.

So there you have it. Iredeemable, in no way wanting redemption, still cruel and destructive, still a bastard. But a bastard done with life rather than a bastard who takes the most of it.

The "bastard who takes the most of life" is actually the most fitting of Artist. Artist, my second Monokuma, is the secondary antagonist of The Art of Creating Hope. He is the fulfilled kind of bastard. He doesn't have a goal per say, or rather, he already achieved it, and is still living it : Living Art with a capital A, without limitations or rules or care for the world.

That goal led him to trial, but he carried on, and ended up among the Monokuma. There, he finally fulfilled his lifelong dream : Creating a work of art in a new medium that will revolutionnize the world. That medium being the killing game.

He acts as a narrative foil for Emerens in many ways. Their shared hate, thir shared past in the link created by Adelheid van Heel, but also in their shared goal. They couldn't be anymore different.

Artist is cruel to the last degree, and has no limits, no barriers. He only lives for Art, and to create again and again and again in his own twisted way. He doesn't care for anyone, likes to see suffering, and lives a show in any moment of his life.

Emerens, on the other side ?

Oh boi. Do I have things to tell about my little bastard.

Emerens is the embodiement of grey morale. He started as an innocent boy, that got broken again and again and again, picking all the pieces of himself down the road while forgetting some (too many). He has too many coping mechanisms that make him go from bullied at school to Mean Girl Archetype(tm). He commits legit atrocities during his killing game and even before, blackmailing, manipulating, gaslighting his way into a comfortable life.

To modern worlds standards, he is irredeemable. Many of his acts are worthy of life prison. But the problem with Emerens is that he CARES. He cares way too much. His parents opinion at first, then his beloved's safety, or his despair plaguing the world (something that can and DID happen way before the beginning of the story). He does what he does because he cares.

He is a bitch that can be unnessesary cruel at times, detached from reality because he is hiding behind his cocoon of hypocrisy, false security and coping mechanisms. He has the skill to subjugate or walk all over people and he does, more than once. Both before and during the killing game he is pictured as selfish, independant and secretive, following his own agenda. Many of his acts are nurtured by a hate rooting in his own traumatism.

But at the core of his being he is just a little boy who didn't grow up hidden behind a whole persona, a boy he refuses to look in the eyes, that didn't learn right or wrong properly and as a result has a twisted sense of morale. He is a man that wants desperately to love people no matter the form, no matter the cost, who throws himself in every crumb of affection ANYONE gives him, sex, friendship, relationship, no matter. He is someone that is ACHING for softness and security, the kind that won't get tainted by betrayal.

So of course he acts rather unhinged. Of course there is nothing worth suffering the loss of his love. Of course he would do anything for the first one that showed him genuine affection, or even the ones that followed.

Emerens is full of love that he does not know how to direct properly. His devotion make him act... Rather unkindly towards the masses. Unlike Akira or even Mairù, he is not desiring possession or even reciprocation : The only thing that matters in the killling game is getting Thibault to safety. No. Matter. What. Even if he would reject him. Even if he would hate him. His life is the most important thing in Emerens's perception of the world.

He is not a kind man or a victim of his own story. His convictions are twisted no matter how you look at them. Misguided is very far from the truth of his core. His feelings are spilling everywhere in such a way that he manages to distract the attention of everyone else from them. But he is not evil per say. Just broken beyond repair in a broken world that didn't allow him to find the help he needed, and fed his hate instead of nurturing his love.

There is no coincidence he is so different in the AU without killing games. He's still the same little bitch, but far more moral and kind to people than his TAoCH version, with a system that helped him instead of bringing him and people like him to slaughter.

The best, or worst, part, in my opinion, is the fact that, would have he gave in to his despair, he would have just killed himself without hurting anyone. But he met people he loved, found again people he loved, and threw himself in that connexion and that deep desire of protecting them to a point nothing else mattered other than makng sure NOTHING could hurt them.

He is a villain because he loves.

And that's a point I find quite a lot in my favorite antagonists.