#but i will KEEP making this post for as long as people keep mischaracterising him

[sunsetsover]

you know, i think the reason people fall into the 'kant doesn't care about bison at all, none of what he's doing or saying is real' thing so easily is because he's so good at compartmentalising. it's one of the most consistent parts of his character. we get shown in damn near every single scene he's in: kant constantly sets his own feelings/opinions/wants aside in favour of getting done whatever it is he needs to get done. and if you aren't paying attention it gives off the impression that he doesn't care, but that isn't the truth at all.

i know i talk about kant's role as a big brother a lot, but i genuinely believe that's where it stems from. from the moment his parents died, he had to tuck his own grief away in favour of tending to babe's needs, both emotional and physical. and in ep 6 babe refers to kant as the one who raised him, so babe really must have been quite young when their parents passed - young enough that kant is the one he considers to have raised him, not them. and i know i already talked about it in this post but it's worth reiterating that that wouldn't have come without sacrifice for kant. from context clues it seems as though he went from a student just like any other to basically a single father to a young, grieving child overnight. and kant loves babe. he clearly prioritises his wellbeing - in every sense - above his own. and that means kant's own feelings and wants and desires and even his needs getting thrown aside over and over and over again in favour of babe's. this is a pattern that must have gone on for years atp. kant probably no longer knows any other way to be: he always becomes what other people need him to be. who he is and how he feels get smothered in favour of that every time. and please understand that him doing that isn't an act of manipulation, but likely started as him adapting to the circumstances he found himself in as a teenager and became so ingrained in who he is that he doesn't even realise he's doing it anymore. (besides you can see when kant is manipulating someone. it's completely different. he's not great at it.)

because i mean really, do you honestly think kant was never scared going out stealing cars? do you think he wasn't petrified when he was caught? do you think he never wished for something else for his brother, for himself? do you think he never walked through the streets at night looking for cars to steal, wishing he could just go home? wanting his mum and dad? wanting to someone to take care of him for once?

of course he did. of course he was scared. of course he was upset. he's not a sociopath, nor is he some kind of professional criminal. he's just a guy who's been doing whatever he has to to get by, and sometimes that meant doing bad things, but he still has feelings and wants and wishes beyond that.

but the thing is, as it always has been, is that above kant's wants or needs or feelings sits babe. babe's wants and needs and feelings. his wishes. his dreams. and so kant pushes his own feelings to the side so that he could do what he needed to do - first out of necessity, then because he had no choice. but that doesn't mean those feelings aren't still there. it doesn't mean he doesn't still feel them.

but what place is there for kant's feelings? what use are they? babe needs feeding. he needs education. he needs school uniforms and books and new shoes. he needs someone there, on the outside. kant is of no use to babe in a prison cell. so what good does kant's fear do? where do his desire and his wants and his feelings get him? nowhere. dreams don't put food on the table. so he tucks them away, time and time again. he's scared, but he gets on with it because there's no other option. he wants, but he has babe to think about, so what use is it wanting anything? wanting to go somewhere, to do something, to be with someone - what's the point when he can't have any of it. he has a child to take care of, and that child's needs must always come first. that's the sacrifice any good parental figure must always make. so that's what kant has done. he's spent half of his life pushing his feelings away in favour of making sure babe is good.

why, then, would love be any different?

style can love fadel. he can want him, and he can voice it, and he can show it, because style doesn't have to think about anyone other than himself. there's no one relying on him, not the way babe relies on kant. and so if he acts stupid and reckless and falls in love with an assassin, the consequences of that will be his and his alone to deal with.

kant doesn't have that luxury - the luxury of loving bison. he never has. he has babe to think about. and on top of that, kant can't allow himself to want anything because to him, wanting is useless. it's pointless. he never gets to have what he wants. and he especially can't allow himself to want bison, not when bison is literally his get out of jail free card. kant can't go to prison because he has to look after babe. and it's the same pattern all over again: babe comes first. what kant actually wants doesn't matter.

so he locks it away. he compartmentalises it. we've seen it over and over and over: he gets angry at christ and he swallows it because he can't afford to made him mad. he gets scared and he grits his teeth and smiles. he starts to feel something real for bison, starts to see him as something other than his ticket to freedom, and in the next breath he's reminding himself (or style) that he can't. that they just need to get the job done, asap. if the captain just arrests them, then it'll be over and kant will be free and he can tuck those feelings and those wants back in their fucking boxes and he can move on. over and over and over you see him trying to convince himself of that, because that's probably what has worked before: just one more car, just one more job, just one more time.

but the problem is it's not that simple. being in such close proximity to bison and pretending to love him has shaken the walls he's put up around himself, and they've started to crumble from the foundation up. the feelings that were supposed to be fake, that were supposed to be kept on the outside of the wall have started leaking in to where the real kant is. his walls haven't fallen down, not yet, but they've been breached. and now he's knee deep in these feelings that he shouldn't be having. now, no matter how hard he tries to resist it, he wants.

i think that's what makes the scene in the bowling alley so heartbreaking for me. when i saw the preview i thought that kant was doing it for bison's benefit, to make sure he has one last good night before he's locked away. which he definitely was. but i also think for the first time in the whole show we really get to see kant - no games, no agendas, no angles. even their first meeting wasn't entirely innocent like that - kant was putting on a persona to get bison into bed. but in that bowling alley, when they're all alone and no one's looking and there's a very real chance they'll never see each other again, kant just lets himself be. he lets bison see him, even the ugly parts, the parts that have him breaking into places and cutting off the cctv and stealing from the drinks fridge. because bison told him, didn't he? that he loves every story on his body, even the fucked up ones? so in that bowling alley kant is no longer trying to be some perfect version of himself, the one with no history or flaws, the one trying so desperately to win bison over. he's not trying to be christ's informant. he's not even trying to be babe's big brother for once. he lets himself just be kant.

kant, who wants to be alone with bison in the place where they first met. kant, who laughs so hard his body can't even hold him up. kant, who sets up a fucking projector to project the northern lights all over the walls because he saw the pictures on bison's wall and knew how much he loved them. bison never told him that. but kant is thoughtful, and kant pays attention, and kant is romantic, and none of it is an act. all of it is him, loving bison despite himself. wanting him to be happy. wanting to give and give and give because that's how kant loves: by giving until there's nothing left of him. by putting himself second and the person he loves first. it's what he did for babe, isn't it?

and it's the real kant who, for just a moment, lets himself be reckless and stupid like style gets to be, like kant never gets to be, when he looks down at bison's face and says should we just get in the car and run? and means it. he poses it like a joke, but he means it. he wants it. and it's the real kant who sits in the middle of a bowling lane and plans a trip with bison, who lets himself truly want something for the first time since he was a child, probably: 15 days, kant will drive, bison will run the playlist. they'll see the northern lights and the puffins and the waterfalls. and maybe it's the freedom of knowing he'll never get to have it that makes it so much easier to allow himself to want it, but isn't that so much worse? knowing the only way he's allowed to want anything is if there's guardrails up, keeping him in line? stopping him from making the mistake of actually thinking he ever gets to have what he wants?

none of that scene was an act. none of it. in fact imo the only person he actually puts a front up with in ep 6 was style, trying to convince him to just let them go. that it doesn't matter. bc that was all bullshit and he knew it. and you can think what you want about kant's actions and his feelings up until now, but if after watching episode 6 you still genuinely don't see that kant is head over heels for bison, then you're either not paying close enough attention, or you've let your bias/dislike of his character cloud your ability to be objective about what you're seeing, and i mean that. he is so obvious.

just because kant isn't expressing his conflict or his discomfort or his feelings the way style is doesn't mean he doesn't feel any of it. he does. his words are lies. we've already established that about him. but his conflict and his love are written all over him, all over his face, all over in his actions. the love he feels for bison is delicate and it's fragile but it's undeniably there. and if you don't see that then i genuinely feel sorry for you because you're not only missing out on half the plot, but you're also missing out on something so genuinely beautiful it makes my bones ache.

[where-theres-smoak-2]

Apologies if this comes across as a bit of a rant, don't mean it to be, but I have seen some really bad takes over the last few days. That being said these are my own opinions, no obligation to agree or disagree with them, I am just sharing my own opinions. Also some of these opinions may or may not be unpopular depending on what side you are on, I am fully team black so these views are in support of that.

Daemon is not a morally black character, he's a morally grey character, or at least he is supposed to be, he is literally described as being equal parts light and dark. So I'm getting tired of all these posts talking about how its ok for Daemon fans to like him but they should accept that he is a villain/morally black character. No he isn't either of those things and so when we complain that the show cut all his good moments and we are frustrated that they seem to have kept only his darker moments, its not because we don't thing he shouldn't do bad things, its because by not keeping him balanced and keeping those lighter moments as well they've mischaracterised him. The fact that people can sit there and make these posts saying he's morally black is just proof of how much they mischaracterised him in the show. I haven't even read the book but even I saw that quote going around about him being equal parts light and dark before the show came out, the promotion of his character often talked about this characterisation of him and it was what made me excited to see his character when I knew nothing else about him. So yeah its annoying and frustrating when the show didn't fully deliver on this.

Rhaenyra's eldest sons did not usurp Driftmark from Baela and Rhaena because Baela and Rhaena never stood to inherit it. Laena was never heir to Driftmark, Laenor was. So this argument that I keep seeing being pushed that Rhaenyra is trying to steal Driftmark from the girls is pointless and not true at all. The petition Rhaenyra puts to the crown is against Vaemond inheriting Driftmark over her sons, the girls had nothing to do with it, they themselves never even put themselves forward as claimants. The closest either of the girls came to inheriting Driftmark was when Rhaenys, in private, asked Corlys to name Baela heir. Corlys immediately shut it down and stuck to his decision to have Lucerys as his heir. So no Driftmark was never stolen from Baela or Rhaena because they were never at any point named heirs to it, you can't steal something from someone when it was never theirs to start with.

As for the marriage proposal Rhaenyra suggests between her sons and Laena's daughters, again this was not Rhaenyra trying to stop Baela and Rhaena from getting Driftmark (because they never stood to inherit driftmark) as I have seen some argue. The reason for the proposal was to smooth things over with Rhaenys and win back her support because Rhaenys believed Rhaenyra had Laenor killed so she could marry Daemon. It was also a very very good deal. Within a generation the Velaryons would have their blood on both the iron and the driftmark throne.

Rhaenyra was in an impossible situation and that is why she has 'bastards'. Yes I am putting it in quote marks because I don't consider them bastards as Viserys publically announced them as trueborn heirs and in doing so made them legitimate, I've made a whole post on it already so I won't cover that argument here but anyway. Her and Laenor tried but didn't succeed at having a child that was biologically their own. So Rhaenyra used Harwin to produce her heirs. But both Rhaenyra and Laenor considered those boys as their own, its not like Rhaenyra was trying to pull the wool over Laenor's eyes, he was in on it and he agreed to it, as did Harwin. Rhaenyra was under a huge amount of pressure to produce heirs, it was consider her duty, what else was she supposed to do? It was her blood that was important not Laenor's in this case, so as long as by blood they were hers that was the most important thing. I saw some say that she just should have not married Laenor, which honestly wtf, because she didn't have a choice. She had to marry Laenor because her father, the king, commanded her to. They both agreed to do their duty then see other people, so I am confused by the claims made that Rhaenyra only cared about her own pleasure and not her duty, like please she took her duty as heir and to the prophecy her father told her about very seriously. If the, she shouldn't have married Laenor, argument wasn't bad enough I then saw some saying well she just shouldn't have had children and should've named Alicent's children her heirs and everyone would have won. Umm, yeah, no, its not that simple. Like Rhaenyra had a duty to produce heirs, like it was made very clear in the show right from the first episode that a good King/Queen provides the realm with heirs, that's the society in which they live. The whole brother as an heir thing is a back up but Rhaenyra would still be expected by the houses and the people to produce as many heirs as possible. If Rhaenyra had chosen not to have any children the realm would only consider that proof that she wasn't fit to rule, it just would have given her a whole other set of political problems to deal with. I mean its the whole reason why Viserys was pressured into taking a second wife, he had heirs, Rhaenyra and Daemon, but this wasn't considered enough he was still under pressure to produce more. For the realm heirs meant security, for the royal house it meant ensuring the throne stayed in their family, continued with their own line. They live in a time when people died really easily of infection and disease, they didn't have modern medicine like we do, babies and children were particularly vulnerable, as was shown by Aemma talking about how many children they had lost. Which is why Aemma and Viserys tried time and again to have more children, why Alicent and Viserys had several children, why Rhaenyra has multiple children, because it is expected of them, because its considered their duty, the more heirs the better. So no Rhaenyra couldn't just shrug and go, oh well guess I won't have any children, my brothers can just inherit after me. I mean you have to think about the way these people think, that possibility would never have even entered Rhaenyra's head, or anyone else's for that matter. All Rhaenyra knows, due to the society she grew up in, is that as heir herself she has to produce heirs of her own, not rely on her father's other children to continue the line. When she realised she couldn't have children with Laenor she came up with another solution, with Laenor in the know and agreeing with it. Yet there are some out there that seem to think this makes Rhaenyra a villain or that she had bastards just because she is privileged and she does whatever she wants and thinks the rules don't apply to her. She wasn't any of these things, she was just desperate and lets be real just as trapped by duty as Alicent, just in a different way.

Rhaenyra's situation with her three sons is in no way comparable to Cersei's and her children. First of Rhaenyra is of the ruling house, it's her blood that is royal and her blood that matters, her boys all still have royal blood. In Cersei's case it was Robert with the royal blood not Cersei so the fact that her children only have her blood is what makes her children's heritage a problem more than them being illegitimate. Rhaenyra did not lie to Laenor or try to deceive him into thinking they were his by blood. So when he calls his sons his heirs he does so knowing that biologically they are not his. If he had lived to take the driftmark throne and he named Luke his heir he would have done so knowing that they didn't share blood. Robert had no clue that Joffrey wasn't his kid, Cersei did go out of her way to deceive him into thinking they were his, including getting him drunk and that getting into bed with him so he would think they had laid together and so he wouldn't question the birth of her children. So when Robert named Joffrey his heir he did so without any knowledge that it wasn't his son. Sorry but these two situations are completely different so you can't use one to justify another.

So the next thing I need to talk about is this, people don't seem to understand how bad it is that Alicent was trying to out Rhaenyra's sons, or why it was that she was pretty much the only person to do so. If Alicent got her way and Rhaenyra's children were acknowledged as bastards publicly then not just Rhaenyra and Harwin, but those three innocent boys could all be killed. That's the potential consequence of Alicent's actions, of her oh so righteous mission to reveal the truth. She is told on numerous occasions how dire the consequences of her insinuations are and yet she continues with them anyway, against the king's orders. On top of that she also makes public insinuations about Laenor's sexuality which again could get him killed. So Alicent is out here risking the lives of Rhaenyra's entire family and yet I'm supposed to support her and feel sympathy for her? No sorry, if everyone else also knows and keeps their mouths shut then so too can Alicent. I mean take Corlys and Rhaenys for example they too know that biologically those boys aren't their son's and they talk about it, but they do it in private. Even when Rhaenys suggests having Baela as heir she says they'll tell people they are honouring Laena's memory as an explanation to why Luke wouldn't be heir, she doesn't suggest hey lets tell everyone Rhaenyra's kids are illegitimate and so we're naming Baela heir, because she knows the consequence of that and whatever resentment she has towards Rhaenyra she won't risk those boys lives because of it. Apparently Alicent has no such qualms when it comes to those boys safety. People act like Alicent trying to out Rhaenyra and her children is some righteous mission but lets be real she's doing it because it serves her own interests. If Rhaenyra and her sons are exiled or killed then its her children who become the next heirs, its got nothing to do with right and wrong or holding Rhaenyra responsible for actions or whatever. Also this is kind of a side note but the thing I also find frustrating about Alicent's little crusade is that she can't know for sure. Like yes I know we as the audience know and everyone suspects it but nobody in that world can know for sure. It's like that story Viserys tells when Alicent brings it up to him, about the black mare, the silver stallion and the chestnut foal. Alicent tries to prove Viserys' point that genetics are weird, by asking if he was there during the act and if not how can he be sure. Here's the thing, the same can be applied to Alicent, unless she was there in the room when Rhaenyra's children were conceived then how can she know for sure that they aren't Laenor's, I mean the guy does have Baratheon blood on his mother's side which could explain the boys features.

The King's word is law and the King can't do whatever the hell he likes are both true statements. I am constantly seeing this argument made that well Viserys is the king so he can do this and he can choose to do that and its all bull, sorry but I think the show makes it clear that whilst yes Viserys as King has alot of power and his word is law, but that doesn't mean he can do what he likes without any consequence. You know which kings do whatever they like, the bad ones. Joffrey, The Mad King, Maegor the Cruel, (spoiler warning for got and fire and blood) and Joffrey was killed by a member of one of his houses, Lady Olenna at his wedding to her granddaughter, The Mad King was killed by his own King's Guard and Maegor was found with his slits wrist on his own throne with no one knowing who exactly might have killed him because he pissed off that many people. So this idea that just because he is King he can do whatever he wants is so false. People really want to paint Viserys out to be this terrible abuser of Alicent, and look I think Viserys made a lot of poor decisions but I don't think you can make the claim that he abused Alicent. Now Alicent's father I could see an argument made for him being abusive to her, he pretty much pimped his daughter out. But here's the truth of it, Viserys was also a victim of Otto's schemes, he was also a piece that Otto used in his political games, he was also manipulated and gaslit by Otto. I feel like some are so much on the lets hate all men bandwagon that they just see every one of them as this evil monster out for their own ends, when really they are all just imperfect characters, some are worse than others but Viserys is far from the worst of them. I've seen people say that Viserys had a choice whether to get remarried or not and actually no he didn't, not really. We saw what the consequence of him rejecting Laena's hand was, Viserys spent the next couple of episodes trying to fix the political problems that followed and the time span of that was four years. The houses of the realm all have resources that the crown needs, whether that be soldiers, ships or gold etc. If the King doesn't keep them happy they can withhold these resources or plot against the King and well then the crown is kind of screwed. So really the only real choice Viserys had when it came to remarrying was whether it should be to the 12 year old Laena, a child, or the 15 year old Alicent which whether we like it or not in their society at 15 Alicent was considered of age and a woman and not a child. So to be fair given the choice between the two it makes sense that he chose Alicent, one because she was a woman grown (in their eyes) and two because for the last 6 months she had been coming to his bed chambers and having talks with him and helped him through his grief. I think its clear that Alicent suffered through that marriage but I don't think the culprit for that is Viserys, its Otto that put them both in that position for his own greed and ambitions. I don't think Viserys was particularly happy in that marriage either but it comes back to what I said above and the expectation to provide heirs. And lets be real here Viserys let Alicent get away with a lot of stuff that other Kings would have likely punished her severely for. Viserys just wanted to keep the peace, like him or not, he was far from a monstrous tyrant some seem to paint him as.

There is no prove that Rhaenyra ever actually intended to kill her siblings when she ascended the throne. I see this one quite a bit, that Alicent and TG had to usurp the throne because otherwise Rhaenyra would have no choice but to kill them as they were a challenge to her claim. But we are never given any indication that Rhaenyra planned to hurt her siblings and there were other solutions, she could ask them to publicly bend the knee and swear fealty to her, if other houses rose up in Aegon's or the other children's name then she could put them in a position where they can not inherit for example the Night's Watch or a position of honour as a Queen's Guard or as a Maester. Or she could have sent them into exile if it really came down to it. I mean even after they usurp her throne Rhaenyra still shows restraint and is concerned with the blood that would be shed if they go to war so I don't think it likely that she would have just killed them if they didn't try to challenge her.

The animosity between TG and TB's children is mostly Criston Cole's fault but also somewhat Alicent and Otto's fault. I mean Cole really pitted those boys against each other in the training yard, matching Aegon against Jace despite it clearly being an unfair match and also encouraging Aegon to be cruel in his fight against Jace, its no environment for kids to learn in. Instead it just fuelled the animosity between the boys. Add to that Alicent whispering to them about how Rhaenyra and by extension her boys are threats to them and its not surprising that the boys don't get along. When it comes to Alicent though I do think alot of her fear was instilled in her by her father and that is then trickling down into her own children. Otto tells Alicent that Rhaenyra will kill her children and puts that fear in her and then in turn Alicent passes that same message to her children, that the blacks are the enemy. Also I see alot of people claiming that Luke is a bully, that seems to be the justification for Aemond killing Luke, its well Luke took out Aemond's eye and bullied him about not having a dragon. Here's the thing though we only really see one instance of Jace and Luke bullying Aemond and that is the instance with the pig and it was clearly actually instigated by Aegon, the same Aegon who would grow up to enjoy watching children fight each other, which I again blame Cole for, more trickle effect in my opinion. We actually see a lot more scenes of the greens antagonising and bullying the blacks than the other way around. And I know what some will say, but Luke took Aemond's eye out. Which yes, and that's terrible but if you actually watch that fight scene again, the black's children are upset about their mother's dragon and are expressing that, the only one who was actually hurling insults and calling people names is Aemond, whilst the others are fearful Aemond is enjoying it. And before anyone comes at me, no I am not saying that its ok that Aemond lost his eye, nothing about that whole fight was ok and I mostly once again blame the adults, like was no one watching these kids, oh wait just remembered t was supposed to be Cole watching the kids that night so I guess I'm just going to blame him for this one too. The point is though we see Aemond, knock Jace twice in the training yard unprovoked, we see Aemond calling them names etc in that fight with the others, we see Aegon using Jace and Luke to bully his little brother, we see Aegon making vulgar comments to Jace and Baela at the dinner after their betrothal, Aemond making toasts insinuating the boys illegitimacy even after everyone had made up and causing a fight to break out. When it comes to Luke we see him, play the prank with the pig, slash Aemond's eye whilst trying to stop him from bashing Jace's head in with a rock and smile at a pig, which we don't even know for sure if he was smiling at the pig as you can hear Rhaena laughing next to him and so he could have been laughing at something she said. I'm not really sure those last two would count seeing as one was in smile defence and the other may or may not have even been about the pig, even if it was Luke just laughed and then turned away he didn't actually say anything. So like given how much more we see Aemond and Aegon antagonising Jace and Luke, whose the real bully?

Anyway think I've ranted on long enough. I've just done a rewatch of the first season so I've got a lot of thoughts currently. Might make some posts about them, we'll see.

[lemoneon]

Liam and Airy, my own analysis

I'm not usually one for massive txt posts, normally I keep my thoughts to myself. But me and my friend were having this conversation the other day and I just wanted to put it out there somewhere in the world feel free to agree or disagree with me.

However, one preface I will make, is I am not going to argue. This document is merely my own character analysis of HFJone, specifically Liam with some touch on Airy. And the last thing I want is people coming for me just because I interpret characters a certain way.

Cool? Cool.

Liam

I don't think Liam is perhaps as innocent as a lot of the fandom seem to believe he is [at least the parts of the HFJOne fandom which I have met.]

I believe quite the opposite. I personally don't think Liam is a good person.

By any regards, this doesn't mean he's a terrible person who nobody should like and everybody should hate him, quite the opposite. He's a guy with many, many issues, but he also has his positives. But I don't think people should be babying him as much as I've personally seen.

Liam is an angry man. And a weird one at that. He was given the sticky notes by Stone, and though he didn't quote know what they were about at first, he followed them regardless, and once he made it to bryce, he sat outside that apartment until Bryce had no other choice but to talk to him.

Now, it's understandable to which Liam had nowhere else to go. In those 7 months, he'd lost everything, even the thought of naming someone properly, addressing Bryce as Soda Bottle, but it's still creepy as fuck to sit on the floor outside somebody's apartment after stalking them through sticky notes across America to their house until they have no other choice but to talk to you.

Again, context must be applied, but you must also consider Liam's prior experiences with morality, being he grew up on earth, and had only been gone ~7 months [this point is important when discussing Airy]

Lest we mention Liam's later actions. Inadvertently causing Bryce's death- though partial fault of his own- his obsession leading him stalking through worlds with Bryce and Texty trying to hunt down Stone, and find Airy.

Once Liam does reach Airy's dimension, his practical first motion is to try destroy the computer that caused it all. Which is a fair motion, but he very nearly didn't listen to Airy's pleads to leave the computer alone, only stopping when it was revealed it would remove any chance kf getting home.

A very, very solid reaction. 10/10, probably would do the same.

But it's what comes after which I focus on. Texty tells Liam to kill Airy, and Liam listened.

Liam hunted Airy down, chasing him across his small home area with an axe, intent on killing Airy nearly unquestionably, leading to himself getting hurt and breaking his leg again.

And what does Airy do?

He helps Liam.

Airy

This leads me onto my favourite part, my character analysis of Airy.

Again, this considers my prior interactions with the HFJOne fandom, that being oersonally the experience that people characterise Airy as an unforgivable monster who doesn't feel remorse for his actions. I am not saying this is the fandom characterisation as a whole, I understand many, many fans actually have Media literacy, I just have seen a lot of mischaracterisations.

I do not think Airy is a bad person. Nor do I think he's a good person.

I think it's wholly unfair to judge Airy based off our own standards in the first place.

Airy is someone who's been separated from existence as a whole for [from what I remember] at least 10 years. And 10 years is a long time to not talk to anybody. I know I'd go insane in that time. And thus I think its unfair for us to call Airy based on our own perceptions of morality, because that then thus begs the question on where Airy would even gain these perceptions of morality when he hasn't had to apply them for theoretically 10+ years straight. Yes, he presumably comes from batch 1's earth where he would have grown up and learnt these standards, but it's inferrable that these standards would now since be somewhat non-applicable, because these would have been irrelevant for a long period of time straight

But alternatively to this, Airy has shown that he's far from malicious. When Liam broke his leg the first time, he made a cast, and did so too the second time. Airy's actions are not out of malice- an intent to tear these object's lives apart by taking them to the plane and forcing them to compete- but out of sheer naivety. Airy does not comprehend the consequences to his actions, as he has long existed in a place where actions do not have any consequences on anyone, because there is nobody for him to matter to.

He is alone.

So when Liam finds him, he seeks companionship. He treats Liam as kindly as he can, he doesn't quite understand what is compassion and what is malice anymore in terms of society standards on earth, but he recognises to treat Liam in a way he perceives as kind. Yes, this is lost on Liam, so too is Liam's anger lost on Airy.

TLDR; Liam is not as innocent as people I've seen portray him as, and Airy is neither good nor bad, he's just a guy who has done things we would perceive as bad.

This post went nowhere, I'm sure this is the common fandom perception and I've just been really unlucky with the people I've come across in the fandom, I just wanted to put out my personal interpretation of ONE out there.

[localmentallyillwriter]

!!! WRITING BLOG !!!

HIII !!! I'm M (or anything I don't care)

English is my first language but I really don't understand it a lot, so if you see many spelling mistakes or bad grammar I'm sorry :(

Continued reading for more info if your interest :3

I'm a writer (obviously lmao) and I would love to take requests from people !!!

I'll mostly take requests for fandoms im in so:

BSD and Sonic (the only two I'm currently fixated on, so i'll really end up only writing about these two sorry)

I'll do mostly anything, and i would do OC x Character, Y/N x Character, Reader x Character, Character x Character, angst, fluff, nsfw, sfw :3 (F/M, M/M, F/F, GN/GN and everything else, you get the gist I'm sure)

I won't be doing any minor x adult characters (pedophilia), any glorified abuse/sh/suicide/sa/r@ape. I wont do any animal s3x but idk if someone wants me to write a warrior cat fanfic or something i'd be okay with that, just nothing sexual because thats WEIRD !!! I wont be doing any fetishes that im really uncomfortable with (ect piss, scat, vomiting, feet 😭) and sometimes i might just end up not wanting to write anything so i wont do your fic.

I promise i will try my ABSOLUTE hardest to finish most requests i get :3 but i do have some mental issues that make me eepy and sad a lot :( but if i have free time i will use it to write.

If the fic is really long i'll post it on my aO3 but if its a short thing i'll post it here :3

(i'd prefer shorter things because yk its easier and i can get more done😭🥲 I'd also prefer writing more angst, or fluff stuff, i dont really want to write smut and nsfw, but i mean, i can if someones wants it)

I dont care if minors interact (well maybe unless your like under 14), but if i write a more explicate fic i'll put a warning and request they dont read it (i cant stop them, if they read it its there own choice) If you interact with a nsfw/sexual post/request something sexual and i discover your a minor then you'll get a block sadly, so please if your a minor just request things that you can read, dont try to read things your squishy little brains shouldnt be reading. (if your an ageless account and request something sexual, i ALSO wont do it sadly because i REALLY just dont want to risk writing something sexual for a minor, because that just makes me incredibly uncomfortable, so i might not also take anon requests as well if its sexual, SORRY !!!!)

I might mischaracterise some of the chatacters if i really have no clue how to write them, but i'll try to make them as canon as possibly. I think the best people im writing are:

Kunikida, Oda and Dazai, maybe Chuuya and Sigma XP Sonic as well

(Also i am not writing Sonic x Shadow fvcking, I could do them kissing or whatever. Im sorry that i keep going over more sexual things, but i just want to make the boundary clear)

IF YOU FEED MY WORK TO AI I WILL FEED YOUR FAMILY TO A MEAT GRINDER- jokes guys, but please dont take my work and put it into ai that is really disheartening, and if i find it out, i'll be deleting all of my works and crying into a corner :D

Also i wouldn't mind doing one shots (i think thats what its called) and just headcanons for things characters might do :D

BYEEE !!!! I dunno how to make this page look cute or exciting but i really hope you would like to read my work lmaaoo :D

(i also made up my mind, anyone under 14, DNI with my page, its could be quite....well intense and not media your smooth brains should be consuming.)

(I love him so much :3)

Stuff I've already done :D

https://www.tumblr.com/localmentallyillwriter/771361410681831424/odaaa

[relaxxattack]

ayo! (wait this might be a bit of a jumpscare dishdks i apologize) i’m op of That Post and was wondering what your opinions were on the whole woobification thing? /gen

because it’s a Tiny Bit widespread within the dream apologists to sort of,, overdramatize stuff like l’manberg hurting him. like they’re not a 100% wrong but if you look at it subjectively you can see some sort of bias going into that sort of thing that makes the character’s mistreatment a bit more blatant and intentional which,, it really wasn’t? and there wasn’t That Much of it either. especially on twitter (tumblr is much better about it) people just jump to conclusions it seems and yeah. since you brought it up i was wondering if you wanted to write a bit about it from your perspective!

we’re kinda from different corners of the fandom but i still notice that once you are too attached to a character you start taking certain evidence and giving it more weight than it actually has. there’s a blurry line between “taking away a character’s humanity” and woobification and it’s extremely difficult to find a balance when said character shows pretty much nothing of his emotional life (e. g. putting up the intimidating villain act in front of only c!tommy, pretty much everything he does making rational sense with no emotional subtext) and a lot of the fandom instantly jumps to one side or the other while it’s like.

we don’t know by far enough to say “he’s traumatized” or “he isn’t traumatized” or “he was villainized and it hurt him” or “l’manberg didn’t affect him at all”

as a very analytical person people constantly jumping to conclusions grinds my gears, but that’s about it for my own view of the situation - sorry for the rambling.

in general i agree with you that both dehumanization and woobification is Bad and i really hope getting Actual Context sorts this out (e. g. him saying he was betrayed by his friends doesn’t mean it wasn’t partially his fault or that they were allowed to leave him, but it also shows that he did care about that happening. mentioning the cat doesn’t mean anything about what happened to c!tommy but it also shows that he did care about what happened to it. it’s just always interesting to get more information about the way he feels because he usually does a very good job at hiding it.) because man.

it’s like being stuck between a rock and a hard place, especially if you also are attached to the character and are expected to automatically agree with everything the people on “your side” say. it just ends up with everyone being mad and the character being mischaracterised overall.

oh wow hello! i didnt expect the op of the post to find me you’re right lol

and yes i agree! you seem to have a lot of very good thoughts tbh.

and by woobification, i mean exactly what you’ve already pointed out— the people who will say l’manberg purposely villainized dream, the people who will say wilbur faked his mental illness to manipulate dream, the people who are pretty much always talking about how badly dream was treated by people who were acting only fairly for themselves, usually.

for example people who act like dream was a perfect peacemaker before tommy showed up, or that tommy started most conflict. these are just actual lies that are told by c!dream himself to justify his abuse of tommy, and people fall for them incredibly easily because not a lot of people watched early dsmp and know that truthfully it was chaotic even then, and that dream was chaotic too. not to mention wilbur soot tried very hard to secede peacefully with l’manberg and dream jumped directly into war with no warning. and then people say he was forced into their war when, no, he started it.

theres also people who will say like, dream and sapnap for example are such good friends. i’m sure they cared for each other, but dream on multiple occasions has done horrible things to sapnap with no regard for his feelings (like leading fundy to sapnaps pets during the petwar, leading tommy to sapnaps pets during the other petwar and encouraging him to kill them, handing mars over to tommy to use as leverage against sapnap, etc). george he’s been less awful too but he certainly spoke over him and ignored his feelings enough that george felt hurt. he had places in his hall of attachments for beckerson and mars. george and sapnap were right to walk away from being treated like that.

there’s also what you just said here — “dream puts on a villain persona for tommy”— but honestly he acts like that around quite a few people (example: eret) and it’s usually when he’s revealing crucial info, which leads me and many others to believe that ‘persona’ is actually a more truthful version of him.

there’s the fact that he really isn’t safe for people to be around (or at least he wasn't before the prison) because he was planning to come up with ways to control every single person by stealing and threatening their attachments (some of which were not items but were living animals, or a real breathing person).

and then people will say dream was doing exile to enforce rules, or to keep the peace— when it’s very clear in canon it was a deliberate plan to get tommy on his own and into the prison. (from the way he was framing tommy for multiple crimes, and having sam set up the prison, and kidnapping tommy instead of correctly exiling him, all at the same time).

not even going into how he wants to kill and revive people for fun or make tommy immortal.

it’s just— ignoring all these actual facts and saying “oh he misses his friends, let’s get him some friends now” reminds me of like. when people would put flower crowns on pictures of serial killers. and then, there’s hardly anyone on the server who wasn’t subject to dream’s plans, so there’s absolutely no one i would be okay with him interacting with.

just remembered about the torture thing, and wow i still hate it so much. it’s someone’s sick revenge fantasy twisted into a way to get a manipulative villain sympathy, and it’s just gross to me on every account. i do think dream is traumatized-- just not by l’manberg, which was a conflict he started on his own terms. i would think l’manberg did affect him, because he was scared of losing control.

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again— my ideal ending for dream would be for him to be sent far away from dsmp to an island full of therapy animals and super strong therapists who have never met him before. and for him to get a shit ton of therapy until he becomes a halfway normal person. and then eventually he could get integrated into society again; but a different one with new people. (although maybe dteam + bbh + puffy can visit him, they might still like him.)

none of the people on the server (who have all been affected by dream) should be burdened with befriending him or rehabilitating him— look how that turned out with sam! sam had a personal grudge towards dream and it ended with the poor dude being tortured every day; and sam himself falling into corruption and literally cutting off his boyfriends arm. like we can all see thats fucking awful right?

no one who was affected by dream should have to deal with him ever again. and contrary to popular belief, that includes a LOT more people then just tommy. dream isn’t just tommy’s antagonist, hes almost everybody’s.

the only person on the server who might also be able to stand to help dream is techno, and that’s from sheer lack of ability to give a shit. but techno is probably THE furthest thing from a good therapist there is lol, and dream needs better then that.

this kind of just ended up being a rant about my thoughts on c!dream, so im so sorry op. especially since it was probably negative for you. i hope you’re doing very well.

i guess in the end it’s true what you said— people will highlight or ignore things based on what characters they like, and it’s especially easy to do in this fandom, where half the content doesn’t even get watched and then we become a big echo chamber of half-truths.

considering dream has hurt so many of the characters i care about, i almost can’t understand how he could be someone’s favorite or comfort character— but he is nonetheless, and it would be unfair of me to be rude about that.

essentially it just bothers me to see someone who was a perpetrator of accurately portrayed abuse and manipulation (using both those words in their actual definitions, not just as random buzzwords lol) being given the flower crown edit effect. especially since he’s hurt the characters i care about a lot.

ANYWAY all of that being said (this got LONG im so sorry op) i am so so excited to get dream’s pov, because although i disagree with his actions strongly i actually find dream’s character very interesting and cool, and watching his POV is going to insanely fun. i cannot wait to see what theories get confirmed or denied

ALSO incase it wasn’t clear this is all /nm at you! you seem lovely and smart, and neither of us can help what characters we get attached to :]

[skinks]

3 things: 1) your writing is amazing and thank you so much for sharing it with the world 2) I just need validation that it's completely okay to disregard the ending of it2 bc like. It's so unsatisfying? I mean sad too but like narratively not good imo? 3) why do so many fics act like richie is a hideous slob lucky to have eddie when bill hader is such a tasty snacc???

1) thank you, I’m so happy that you and others enjoying what I have to share! It’s very encouraging!

2) I have Big Issues with ch2 in general from a basic film standpoint. I really think it’s too long, the change in DP and screenwriter from ch1 are noticeable downgrades, it’s not as tense or spooky (simply bc it’s doing a different thing - it’s harder to keep a script tight when you have to reintroduce characters, introduce plot, go on individual fetch-quests, THEN have a showdown, as opposed to the first film’s simple “kids in scary town” narrative), they keep undercutting the scares with punchlines, but yeah, the main gripe is with the ending. I don’t MIND a sad ending if they don’t butcher the characterisation in the process, y’know? Mike was completely ignored, he’s just there to dump exposition. Eddie’s issues were totally wrecked down to this unfounded (even by ch1 characterisation!) “he’s a germaphobe coward who needs to be told he’s not” thing, and his death is sad because he dies as a mischaracterised germaphobe with anger issues, whose last word is literally MOTHER. His death sucks because they squandered the potential for real good character work and did his lovely ch1 arc so dirty, not because it makes Richie sad.

But to that point, Richie’s ending sucks too. I think we’re supposed to see the bridge scene as a... good thing? When it decidedly ISN’T? Benverly get their scene, Mike and Bill say “I love you” on the phone, but nobody’s calling Richie? Are we meant to see him re-carving the initials as an act of, idk, coming out? Cause newsflash, even with Stan’s voiceover saying “be proud”, he’s still BY HIMSELF. As far as the audience knows, it’s still his dirty little secret! If they had changed the scene to something where the others are WITH him as he crouches down to simply touch the letters, that would be catharsis. He’d be accepted by his friends, and he could remember how he felt for Eddie, have it acknowledged as good and valid love. But instead, having him specifically re-carving it, alone, it speaks to something far more depressing; he’s heartbroken and can’t move on, and idk how we’re supposed to infer anything other than “he goes home alone and drinks himself to death.”

3) ANYWAY!!!!! I haven’t read more than like, four post chapter 2 fics but that makes me sad to hear people write Richie that way. I can understand writing him as insecure about HIMSELF but you just know Eddie’s into his curls and his squinty eye and his hot arms and his love for his friends. I hate when people write their relationship so one-sided, like they’re not both weirdos with hang-ups who are still into each other, where’s the fun in it if Eddie’s barely tolerating his presence?

You’re right. Bill Hader is a tasty snacc and Bill Hader as Richie even more so. U people telling me Eddie takes one look at this broad shouldered big hands square jawed cutie motherfucker in the cold light of Defeated Clown and Divorced Wife and DOESN’T immediately start stammering awkward invitations to see the uhhhh the uhhh view from his new bachelor pad in New York? I have to laugh

[unpopularly-opinionated]

RE: My post earlier about the Ooblets Epic Games Exclusive backlash.

I’m not going to show the Twitter user, if you follow the indie game development scene on Twitter it’s likely you’ll recognize this tweet, either way that’s not who I am. The Ooblet’s account on the other hand is fair-game since it’s basically a product placement.

I feel it needs reiterating how utterly dense this kind of tweet is, and how completely skewed the narrative for this issue has gotten, so let me reiterate in obnoxiously large and emboldened font to try and get the point across:

THE GAMING COMMUNITY IS NOT TOXIC

“Honesty” and “transparency” are all well and good, but unless you’re honestly trying to drive away your own community, perhaps you should try being a little less honest and a little less transparent. No one (or I guess no one but this guy and the few who agree with him) is going to thank you for honestly throwing them under the proverbial bus after they’ve spent months, if not years, supporting your project; your dream.

I’ve heard from others that “this is just how they write” and “it’s meant to be funny”, and to an extent, I can understand that. But let me just include some screenshots from the post in question to reiterate my point, because I feel like my previous post didn’t quite get the point across:

(Context: What the Epic Games Exclusivity Deal means for you, the fan and/or financial backer of Ooblets).

I get that the Fortnite bit is the joke, ha ha, Fortnite used to be wildly popular, I get it, good meme. What isn’t the joke, and what was part of why people got upset was the first bit, specifically the “download the Epic Games Launcher and make an Epic Games account” bit, that bit.

Now, I personally have no qualms about having the Epic Games Launcher on my PC. I have long since looked beyond the ‘scandal’ of tech companies saving and selling my data to distant lands to be used for nefarious moneymaking schemes. Is it bad? Sure, maybe. Would I prevent it had I the chance? Of course. Do I have that chance? Not a chance in the world, so I decide to live with it.

That said, many others have not reached that point of fuck it, and understandably so. I hit that point because of my negative outlook on society as a whole but, praise be, there are in fact still some optimists out there who look at these shitty corporate tactics and say no to them, and good on them for that.

That is what I would say is the bulk of the primary issues people have with the Epic Games Store. The missing features bits aren’t terribly important, as even this post says, if you have a social life on Steam, then use Steam. The EGS does not need to be your do-all replacement.

This is where the post should have stopped. Here and now, had this post ended, any and all issues with this decision would have been but a whisper in the wind. As I said in my previous post, yes they undoubtedly would have received plenty of critical, and non-critical backlash for the decision regardless, but ending the post here would’ve 100% put the developers on the right side in this situation and I’d be right up there agreeing with that tweet.

(Context: Are you angry at Epic and/or us for this decision?)

Referring to earlier when I said that playful tone and humour are all fine and dandy, I understand that this is probably meant to sound playful and humourous, but it comes across as largely self-important and ignorant, and the bits that follow do in no way dissuade from that appearance.

While my response to this complaint was similar to their own, in that you should just use Steam for the features that the Epic Games Store lacks, they go on to essentially say that this is just baby EGS and that Steam used to be just like it and look at it now.

While they aren’t technically wrong, from a development point of view, the big thing they need to understand is how web standards have dramatically changed since 2003 when the Steam store launched. Launching a store, of any variety, without a shopping cart is a big no-no.

As far as missing features go, that’s not like missing a friends list or a IM feature, that’s missing a crucial part of a web-based storefront. Imagine going to a store and only be allowed to purchase one thing at a time, that would be ridiculous.

Their response to this was as corporate as any triple-A publisher, or really any corporation at all, from any industry. Just a complete disconnect from society that frankly is unwarranted from what is quite literally a two person operation. Not to mention, their response is quite literally what every parent warns their kids about at a young age. “But mooooooooooooom, everyone is doing it!!!!” Yes sweetie, but if everyone jumps off a bridge, are you going to?

Apparently, yes.

And not to discount the idea of making money, by all means make money, but let me put it this way, had they left this post exactly where I said they should have previously, all of the blame would be at Epic’s feet. Because at the end of the day, having your game be exclusive to one service does not make you money, it makes them money. So this whole “everyone is doing it” schtick doesn’t fly when coming from the developers. Had this been a post by Epic (and frankly with all the shilling I could be convinced it was from them) then this argument might have made just a tiny bit more sense.

Underlined in yellow are the jokes; the “playful” and “humourous” attitude I’ve heard so much about. Underlined in red however, are what the developers are actually genuinely saying with complete and utter seriousness.

“There are worse things in the world to be upset about.” I kid you not, that’s their argument.

Now, all of that reiterated, to get to the actual point of this post (wish Tumblr let you do multiple “Keep Reading” lines but I digress), the article linked in the tweet here is about the previous “non-critical” backlash I mentioned they’d receive, though multiplied exponentially by their horrendous blog post, and further community responses to said blog post.

I’d like to refer to a completely unrelated post I made quite a while ago that really needs to spread like wildfire if you ask me:

RECEIVING INSULTS, UNCRITICAL FEEDBACK, AND/OR DEATH THREATS DOES NOT INVALIDATE THE CRITICAL FEEDBACK NOR THE ISSUE AT HAND.

I am by no means wiping away death threats or mean words as things to scoff at, by all means take them as seriously as you will, but under no circumstances should 20+ people telling you to kill yourself invalidate the hundreds of fans and financial backers who are upset with your recent financial decision, or your response to criticisms to those decisions.

This happens time and time and time again. Someone of note does something bad, for one reason or another, and instead of responding to the completely warranted and justified criticism and feedback they instead play up the 15+ people who IM’d them to drink bleach and throw it up as “an example of the ever present toxic gaming community”.

More or less, the substance to this article is their “apology”, and I use that term very loosely but I’ll get to that, to the community at large for the recent events. The post summarizes the issue from their (biased) perspective, posts some screenshots of the colourful responses they’ve received, the usual woe-is-me schtick.

I’d like to highlight a few bits from it to further exemplify the continued mindset of these people:

I have given the full context to this next statement with these screenshots so that I can now take parts of these statements out of their context to, at least to my belief, succinctly identify the mindset of these folks:

“I understand the relationship people think they might be owed when they exchanged money for goods or services, but...we’ve never actually sold them anything and don’t owe them anything at all.”

I don’t want to get off-topic any more than necessary, but this, this right here is why fundraisers, Kickstarters, GoFundMes, Patreon subscriptions, or any other form of crowdsourcing platforms need to be handled with extreme care. I hesitate to say regulated legally, but I am by no means opposed to that idea.

I want to express this carefully and plainly: LEGALLY, yes they are absolutely right that they do not owe anyone anything. At least to my knowledge, they didn’t have a formal Kickstarter, their financial backing came primarily from whatever it is they do for a living AND the support of their Patreon backers.

And while I do not feel that it needs addressing, for the sake of consistency I will address it: MORALLY they owe the game to anyone who financially supported them with the express purpose of developing the game.

“We definitely owe all of you who supported us, but also fuck off you entitled cunts because we don’t owe you shit.”

When in the face of well-deserved criticism, deflect deflect deflect. As if a broken record, I’d like to again emphasize that yes, legally they owe no one anything. Morally, they do. Legally, they don’t. Morally, yes. Legally, no.

This, in essence, is a response to the majority of people who are like me, who aren’t screaming vitriolic personable attacks, telling them to drink bleach, long jog off a short pier, the works. Essentially: “If you aren’t with us, then you’re against us.”

Because apparently pointing out your blatant mischaracterisation of the gaming community, your outrageously awful personal relations skills, and most especially your morally bankrupt understanding of the relationship between you and the people financially supporting your passion project means we are, by their logic, on a level equivalent in nature to the 10+ people telling them to drink bleach.

Fixed for typos:

Remember how I said this was an “apology” in the loosest form, well what I was referring to was how in the beginning during their (totally unbiased) summary of the events, they more or less said “Sorry you didn’t respond the way we wanted you to.” Beyond that, yeah, it’s not an apology.

And why would we expect one? Nothing they have spat out in the face of their fans so far has even a hint of self-realization or self-reflection in it. Even their acknowledgement of their (horrendously under exaggerated) bad PR skills comes across as a hollow acknowledgement, if it can even be referred to as an acknowledgement at all, because if you truly truly acknowledged it, then this post wouldn’t exist.

As to this anti-Semitic fabrication making the rounds, I have not seen it so I will take their word for it that they did not make one, especially since I have seen fabricated evidence involving Discord messages rearranged out of order. What I feel needs addressing specifically in this chunk though is his reference to “my messages taken out of context to insinuate I don’t care about our patrons/fans”, because if you’ve seen my previous post then you’ll know no amount of context makes this statement look good:

Sure, it’s a true statement of fact now that they have Epic’s money, but it’s fairly obvious that it reads “We have Epic’s money now, we don’t need you anymore.” I’m sure they didn’t mean that, but that when combined with their other statements regarding how they don’t owe their patrons anything, what they are saying is clear as day.

But hey, credit where credit is due, at least with this we can agree:

But of course, as these people are now infamously known for not ending their posts where they reasonably should...

Now I know how much money goodwill, faith, and morals make, and again I would fully expect this kind of response from the likes of EA, Ubisoft, Bethesda, or fuck even Amazon or Facebook to show that corporate greed has no industry bounds, but this is a two person team whose passion project is to make this game which is being financially supported by loyal fans and future customers.

And that’s just it, that is the mind-boggling part to me, that this is all just the self-important, mischaracterising, morally bankrupt, and childishly ignorant ramblings of a small little husband and wife duo.

In summary...

As was said in the blog post, I’m sure that looking from the outside in we don’t get to see the full scope of the vitriolic comments they’re receiving, so to that I give them credit, and the most sincerest of apologies. I’ve received a few death threats and vitriolic hate-filed messages in my time on the internet, and while personally I am unphase by them, I can fully understand that it can be damaging to one’s self-esteem and self-confidence, especially when it comes in relation to your passion project. I am sorry.

But unwarranted, hate-filled, vitriolic, suicide-baiting messages do not invalid those of us criticizing you for the things that you did do, the words that you did say, and the actions that you did take. I mentioned this in my previous post, but as it stands, the centerpiece to this issue isn’t even about the Epic Exclusivity Deal anymore, it’s about you. You and your treatment, of not just the community at large (for which, might I add, is your primary customer base), but of your treatment towards your loyal fans and financial supporters along the way.

You, for whatever reason, act as most of us have come to expect a soulless and faceless triple-A publisher would, when in fact you are just a two person team with public faces. You’re taking the shots that the likes of EA, Activision, or Bethesda would and have taken, but you’re forgetting that it is above and beyond easier to find you then it is to find them.

All we, but more importantly your fans want from you is for you to make the best game that we all know you’re capable of. And for those who supported you this far along the way to be given even an ounce of respect, despite you not needing their support anymore.

[defiestars]

some quick verse + tlj thoughts related info  * *  very uhHHH likely to change as i go / as i remember things more clearly if / when i subject myself to tlj again

i.  recovery   //    in the empire strikes back novelisation luke was in his bacta tank for 12 hours and then slept for another 16 hours for fatal hypothermia.  assuming bacta technology has advanced and become more sophisticated,  particularly because it’s now been synthesised into a suit,  i’d estimate finn’s recovery to have been in the 30-36 hour mark.  (   also, he’s force-sensitive but that’s A Whole Other Topic  !  )   

if we assume:  day 1 post-tfa:  rey staying long enough to get her hot new Grey Jedi Look together  +  organise the gps bracelet plan with leia.  the resistance receiving alerts that the first order fleet is approaching and beginning evacuation plans.  day 2 post-tfa:  finn wakes up,  half a day earlier than he did in tlj,  just in time to offer information on the weak points of the star destroyers and the dreadnought, including helping devise the plan to eliminate the dreadnought’s surface cannons and clear the way for the resistance bombers. 

ii.  allegiance   //   FINN OWES !! THE RESISTANCE !! NOTHING !!!!!!  HE DOESN’T OWE ANYBODY SHIT !!!!!!!  this boy has risked his life and livelihood time and again from the moment he chose not to kill for the first order for complete strangers,  for a movement he had no prior connections with.  even if leaving and becoming a  ‘’’’’’’ traitor ‘’’’’’ to the resistance had been right for his character and a valid development in his character arc,  he does not deserve to be called a deserter for wanting nothing to do with the first order ever again.  like........... does anybody fucking realise that alongside the very possible defeat of the resistance, finn being captured by the first order again probably means he wouldn’t be killed, but  reconditioned  ???????  the first order has had deserters, too !!   they also get tasered !  in the Head, specifically their Brain, where they’re basically restored to factory settings.  not to mention the sheer amount of bravery and courage and heroism it takes for him to turn around and face the organization that destroyed his childhood, enslaved him, and has systematically abused him every day of his life.

with all of that said,,,,,  it makes 0 sense for finn to decide, in the middle of the resistance evacuation, to suddenly up and leave with a shitty ass excuse about needing to be far away for when rey comes back.  like ??????  rey's path is already so deeply and inexorably tied to the rube goldberg machine that is the jedi, the resistance, and the skywalkers,  and finn knows this.  even if he wasn’t fundamentally a person with a moral compass that couldn’t be broken even by two decades of indoctrination into a fascist space nazi regime,  finn does The Things He Does because they’re the right thing to do.  his character arc is not and has never been defined by rey.  i don’t know what dinosaur sloth titty juice rian johnson’s been drinking but repeating parts of finn’s earlier character development to the point of regression is not !!! good !!!! writing !!!!!!!

given that he’s spent 36ish hours in a recovery coma,  finn hasn’t had so much as a Second to process,  or decide,  where he stands in the resistance.  like rey,  he too is looking for someone to show him his place in all this.  unlike rey,  he has no mentor figure, no introspective screentime alone,  no inner dialogue or space to explore who he is now in the post-first order part of his life.  but,  for the time being and given the time-sensitivity of the resistance evacuation,  he is absolutely on the side of the rebels.  these are the people who saved him and protected him,  who gave him the jacket off their backs and something to fight for.  not only does deserting make 0 logical or tactical sense in the middle of an evacuation,  it’s just outright selfish ??  and self-serving ???  none of which finn is, thank you @ryan johnson.

iii.  rebellion   //   so there’s been a lot of differing opinions on finn and rose’s storyline and after agonizing a lot of this i’ve come to the almost final decision that it’s Not As Bad as ppl want it to be.  like a lot of mischaracterisation fuck-ups in tlj,  it mainly comes down to  how this storyline was treated in the grand scheme of tlj and how significant it was to the overarching plot.  canto bight only seems irrelevant because ryan johnson is a terrible fucking writer who thrives off sidelining his characters of color.  thematically, it served it as a damning critique of the powerful ruling class and political economic elites that are actively profitting from the injustice and oppression of war.  rose showing those kids the resistance emblem in her ring is one of the most iconic moments in the film;  inspiring a whole generation of children to rise up against their oppressors is  everything the resistance symbolizes and fights for.  

throwing in an unnecessary oc spitting some half-assed  ‘ everything isn’t always good or bad, sometimes there’s just grey areas ’  message in a parallel of the jedi story and ultimately having the undercover mission serve No Purpose Whatsoever was a shitty move.  in keeping with the fandom interpretation that tlj is a story about failure,  this would’ve been okay  only  if  the detour onto the star destroyer hadn’t been for absolutely nothing.  because there Needed to be fucking somETHINg,  instead of just benicio del toro rihanna.gif winking with the parting words that  ‘ hey sometimes people are just assholes ’.  star wars isn’t a story... about... people being fundamentally shitty..... it’s a story about good vs. bad and the enduring struggle for Balance between them;  People Are Both.  it doesn’t matter what you are but what you  do  and the choice you have to do good or bad.  to counteract the shittiness of dj fucking off,  leaving two poc to be forced onto their knees by a white fascist villain,  and a black character to be slapped upside the face by said white fascist villain we needed Something.  WHERE WAS OUR STORMTROOPER UPRISING, hMMMmm MMm MMMM mMM MM ????????????

bb-8 showing up as deus ex sight gag was funny for 2.5 seconds but now i'm just.... like crait.... a whole Salt Planet.  we could have had, it All ?  i don’t even specifically know where this part of my tlj-divergent verse goes because it actually requires other non-canon characters to exist but.... hey if any ex-stormtrooper oc’s wanna hmu.... u kno where i’m at.  basically,  i picture a handful of stormtroopers defecting,  escaping with rose and finn,  becoming part of  the rebellion that is reborn. 

iv.  battle of crait   //   this... fuc king scene..... god.  let’s just get the wampa out of the way.  rose’s  ‘ that’s how we’re gonna win.  not fighting what we hate, saving what we love ’  was totally narratively undeserved.  this is not a criticism of the character but of ryan, again, the man who was paid millions of dollars to write this garbage.  in under 18 hours,,,, rose has decided that she has gotten over her lifelong hatred for the first order,  her very recent and fresh grief over losing her sister who died Fighting The First Order,  and oH,  she LOVES FINN ?  WHAT.  cool.  coolcoolcool.

in my canon, i’m going to go with the idea that rose did not kiss finn.  but they have a fantastic dynamic,  and rose crashing into him, saving him and saying something similar to what she said but more along the lines of not wanting to lose another person she cares about to the first order would have been much... better....  i view this ship as primarily platonic, at least far as tlj goes.  finnrey and finnpoe barely had any screentime / development so ryan johnson is flat-out playing no-homo games if he thinks he’s going to sail a ship based on 18 hours of knowing each other.  but i’m totally open to seeing where it goes with proper development, etc. in rp,  so if there are any rose’s that would like to plot with me and discuss finnrose stuff please !!!  i’m begging you !!!!  

if ya made it to the end,  thank you,  ur the real mvp,  u are now obligated to message me to plot or yell at me abt ur own tlj salt / headcanons / character analysis. 

[nyangibun]

I keep seeing people say that Sansa was rooting for killing the traitors' children but I didn't get that at all. She just wanted to reward the loyal ones and at least have some consequences for the traitors which is completely fair and understandable. She of all people knows what it's like to be a"traitor's" daughter so if she didn't get killed, why would she expect those kids to be? I feel like it was Jon who was dramatic and made a bigger deal about it more than it was. What do you think?

[cont. – Sorry, part 2. If anything, Sansa was going against Lord Glover because he wanted to destroy the 2 castles but she only spoke up because she knew they needed all the strongholds they could. She actually was with Jon on this, she only disagreed on who should have those castles. And then Jon went all reactionary and emotional on her. Sansa, I argue, was actually fair. Only thing is they should have made her more “courteous” since that’s a lady’s armor and would have been more in character for her.]

The only people who think Sansa was rooting for the murder of those children are anti’s who completely mischaracterise Sansa anyway, so it’s better to just ignore their whiny little butts. 

Secondly, it’s not that Jon was being dramatic about it. I think he had every right to be annoyed with Sansa for speaking up in that way, just as Sansa had every right to be annoyed at Jon for not punishing the traitors. They were both right and they were both wrong. They both really could have done with discussing the issue before meeting with the Northern lords so they were a united front. It’s on both of them. 

This post explains what I think is Jon’s POV on the manner.

And as for Sansa’s POV on the manner, I’m going to copy and paste this from my very long half-baked review of the premiere: 

I also want to clarify something here before anti’s get all up in arms about this scene (not that I think any of them follow me or stalk my blog but if you do: hi, how are ya?). While I do agree with Jon’s decision, in the end, I also understand Sansa’s opinion on the matter. If I had gone through what she had under the ministrations of Ramsay and knew that these Houses who have sworn up and down in the past to fight for the Starks sided with him, I’d be furious. There wouldn’t be a damn thing anyone could say to me to get me to forgive their indifference and compliance in the trauma I went through. Sansa has every right to want to strip the Umbers and Karstarks of their land. I can even understand being angry with Jon for not understanding this, but here’s the thing, she wasn’t.

And so I hope this makes things a little clearer for you. 

They’re both silly munchkins that need to just bang communicate better, but at least they’re trying. It’s been a long time since neither could fully trust someone, longer for Sansa. Jon at least had Sam and Edd. 

[nitacus]

1. Your First OC ever? Oh gosh, I'm fairly sure it was a robot/cyborg girl (I think because I really liked the Androids from Dragonball Z) I annot remember her name I do remember, she had some love interest who was blond, and didn't discover what she really was for a while. Her maker was evil, I think I wrote it when I was like 8-ish ugh how embarrassing.         2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OC's? Oh gee probably Riea just because she is the oldest long term one who I've written for, and recreated and built upon many times, but it's hard to pick favourites out of them all. 3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from somebody? I genuinely don't remember ever taking on another persons character, I have made suggestions on how a person could characterise their OC better so I used the, temporarily to demonstrate but never took one on long term to keep. I would though if I thought they were salvageable, or if I felt they possessed a story inside of them waiting to be told. 4. A character you rarely talk about? Does Cyborg girl count ^^' if not, I don't really discuss the Knight Commander with people, even though he's an antagonist. Other than him, there is a blonde female who my succubus character (also female) seduced who I haven't discuss much, mainly because I haven't determined how she's going to be reintroduced yet. I might make her a witch and thus aware of her soul having been stolen. 5. If you could only make only one of your OC's popular/known, who would it be? Viseran ( my deaf/mute character) a scouting party member, from a post apocalyptic future story. 6. Two OC's of yours that look alike despite not being related? That I made similar intentionally? Or I only realised were similar later on? None spring to mind who weren't related. 7. Are your OC's part of any story, or stories? Yes, that's what my entire list of OC's consist of. 8. Do you RP as any of your OC's? No I have never RP'd before. I sort of just work through everything in my head. 9.  Would you ever be willing to give any of your OC's to someone else? I have no idea, perhaps some old, or abandoned ones. It feels weird saying I'd give one to someone else though. 10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? Complicated how? Like their character and personality, their story and purpose, or their actual design and appearance? A) Little Empress, B) Riea, C) God knows but probably Aymia Crewe. Little empress is a succubus, on the side of evil, she is a literal empress despite others having turned it into a sort of pet name, much to her distaste, and the story follows her and she sort of ends up working for the other side. 11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a 'sunshine'? Zeriste/Rabbit is the only one who springs immediately to mind. 12. Name an OC who isn't yours but you like a lot? Some of the Dragon Age OC's that people have made are super interesting. I saw a thunder god one on deviant art that was pretty cool too. 13. Do you have any troublemaker OC's? Oh yeah I've created a few. Else witch, Blade, Peydion, immediately come to mind 14. Introduce an OC with a tragic background? Aymia Crewe applies due to having become permanently stuck in a child's body of ten, even though she is like nineteen years old. A number of her childhood years were spent as a child soldier, of which she was only one, another character of mine is also a child of warfare, however refocusing on Aymia due to her being highly skilled, and being one of the longest surviving children, as well as children being more compatible than adults, with the experiments to enhance soldiers on the battlefield. Due to being one of the subjects experimented on, a side effect of that was her body ceasing to age, she also has successfully enhanced battle skills, but she kind of feels trapped in a never ending nightmare. 15. Do you like to talk about your OC's with others? I rarely talk about my writing projects unless they are finished and I am content to discuss them. 16. Which one of your OC's would be the best at Biology (school subject)? Uissade, he is driven to seek achievement and learning above all else.  17. Any OC OTP's? Of my own characters - Riea and Blade though they probably will not end up together given the significant trauma in her past, Novice Witch and the Main Character, Aleksis and Vio, Riel and Lief though sometimes it changes, in other words I have several 18. Any OC crackships? Mine or from other media because I have a lot that belong to others. Sometimes I enjoy one-shots of various interactions between my characters, even cross overs from different stories 19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why) - Riea purely because she was my first OC that I designed as an adult, with a complete story and background and she has morphed and gone through many changes over the time since I created her, so I feel that I know her best and where she is coming from during the story. 20. Do any of your OC's sing? None actually, I have yet to make a musical OC. 21. Your most artistic OC? Out the ones I've created thus far Acera fits this best of all, she's artistic, creative, addicted to bright colours, popular, and collects shiny knick-knacks. 22. Is there any OC of yours who people tend to mischaracterise? No, I don't really mind how people view or characterise my OC’s, as the only one who knows what I had in mind when I created them is myself. I am always intrigued to see how another person might view different characters.  23. Introduce OC who has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like? Riea, she's changed several times as mentioned above. 24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be, and why? My former slave turned free traveller and fighter for justice, he's kind, sees the best in people and has never become bitter or angry over the hand life dealt him, I admire that. 25. The OC who resembles you the most? Auli, she has some differences from me namely her ethnicity, but she has dark hair and eyes like me, is kind but passionate and fiery whenever defending those she cares about. Also loves her family, culture, good food, and isn't afraid of expressing herself.  Therefore yeah definitely Auli. 26. Have you ever had to change your OC's design, or something else about them against your will? No, I am stubborn when it comes to who I perceive a character to be, or how they firm as a complete person in my head. I take constructive criticism, and allow others to suggest things whether a flaw or a positive trait, but I know who they are overall, and I know the story they are telling, so if they need to be rebuilt, I sift through trying to identify what I need to change for it to feel right. 27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? None that I remember ever creating. 28. Your most dangerous OC? Gees, many are quite dangerous in truth, however the most dangerous character I have who isn't a straight up villain/antagonist is probably Aymia, she looks like a small child physically, but is an experienced, capable, killer, seeking a cure to her current condition, or punish those responsible, so definitely Aymia. 29. Which of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they're going? Serafien out of sheer stubbornness, Aymia, possibly Riea too seeing she can be very impulsive and isn't used to involving others in her plans or business. 30. Which of your OC's would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection? Sayah because she's always acting tougher and more aloof than she really is. Possibly also Jarei. 31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their Tumblr blog would be like? Peydion would reblog the latest fashion trends, she would always be posting hair and makeup tips for others as naturally she has immaculate taste. She would post skincare products, the only other types of things she would reblog would be fundraisers, and anything for a good cause as Peydion despite being vain will always champion the causes of the underdog, she will defend the picked on, indifferent to status. Acera's Tumblr would be a crafty, artsy collage of style and colour, I feel like she would make her own fashion accessories, upload her paintings and drawings, and make eclectic music playlists and suggestions for people, I also feel like she would have sections of her page dedicated to black and white photographs to break up all of the colour every now and then, I feel she would be a sweets and caffine addict to. 32. Which of your OC's would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why?  I feel like Jarei, would be a matter of fact and rational protagonist, however she might be far too sensible to end up there in the first place. Therefore...I'm going to say, Iris would be unique in that type of situation. She's extremely different, spends the majority of her time amongst nature, and her powers as an empath would make the entire journey extremely interesting. 33. Your shyest OC? I can't really think of a shy character that I've written, I have expressed pain and distant characters, cautious and uncertain, bold and fiery, I've written introverts and extroverts, good and bad, jealous and vindictive, cruel even but I haven't written shy oddly. I will make that my next OC goal. Out of my characters who exist right now, I guess I would have to pick Iris or Briayla, because they are more introverted, Riea is also. 34. Do you have any twin characters? Yes three sets. Paige and Kat, another set of girl twins who are thus far unnamed still, and then there's Alex and Cole 35. Do yo have any sibling characters? Apart from the sets of twins ^^, not that I can recall. 36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends, etc)? Belongs to someone else? Like another writer with their OC? Or who the character belongs to in the story? I wouldn't say any characters belong to, or with anyone in any of my stories, they are each, their own person. But if you mean as in another writer's OC, no. 37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human? Riel and Lief both count in this case, essentially both are members of a group of beings who possess roles and responsibilities on the earth, they manage a particular job in everyday like that makes society function. A civil war breaks out, Riel is attacked and almost killed, she manages to escape, but at the same time falls into the mortal realm with a tear in her spiritual essence. Each being has an emergency, corporeal body which they inhabit within the human realm, Riel ends up being trapped within hers, and they are only supposed to be used minutely therefore the reliance upon it weakens her, so she's stuck, and during the initial aftermath she doesn't remember until Lief shows up and restores her memories of this, as they were sealed along with her powers within her. They are a part of her spiritual essence, it's intended to both protect the mortal realm as well as ensure mortals never discover their existence. Other stuff happens, war is being waged by both sides, that's all I'll say. 38. Which of your OC's would be the best dancer? Serafien, Else Witch I assume given the time period both women are from. 39. Introduce any character you want. Nine has white-blonde hair in a styled ponytail, with a messy braid running through it, and red eyes due to being albino. She is scrawny, and badly scarred along her right side and hip. Nine has the ability to kill, but she needs to picture how your organs work, in order to cause your lungs to seize up, she has to know how the respiratory system works, and picture it's inner workings in her mind, only then can she disrupt or shit down how it functions. She also has the ability to increase or decrease the potency of medicinal plants, herbs poisons, and all alchemical draughts she makes, making her both a brilliant healer, or killer depending on the necessity. 40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Other than writing for them, being complimented on one or two. One time I made my sisters laugh with one of my OC's. A ghost and secretary working for a organisation of guardians, and although she is incredibly good at her job, she's of course incorporeal. Which means she cannot answer the phone, get the door, sign for packages that sort of thing, so at times she gets frustrated over it and her ghostly abilities act up, so office supplies randomly end up scattered about the lobby and that sort of thing. Also her partner as a receptionist who does answer the phones etc is a male mummy, who roller blades to work because he really enjoys human inventions, of course concerns that he might unravel means that he often puts tape on his bandages to keep them together. That sort of thing tends to make people laugh. 41. Has anyone drawn fan art of your OC's? No. 42. Which one of your OC's would be the most interested in the Greek Gods? Gaia considering her name comes directly from them, I also think she would be interested in her namesake and others among them. 43. Do you have any certain type when you create OC's? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It's time to confess. I lean mostly toward fantasy settings, I confess to liking troubled OC's, and the only physical features that I can say I lean towards is dark hair colours and bronze or tan skin colours. I try to represent as many ethnicities in my writing as possible, therefore I've made, French, English, Greek and Italian, Middle eastern mixed, Asian mixed OC's, a Hawaiian and Samoan OC, Native American, African American, Jamaican, as many as I can because I think everybody deserves representation, in stories and adventures, so it really depends on the setting I'm building, if it's a future society then I use our world ethnicities and say countries and nations have mixed and shifted etc, if it's a fantasy setting then I create and build my OC's and their ethnicities or cultures from scratch, likewise if I make a sci fi story which deals with alien races. 44. Something you like about your OC's in general? I like that they are all uniquely different, I try to explore new personalities and mindsets. 45. A character you no longer use? Well I haven't thought about cyborg girl in well over a decade but I might recreate and build her anew in a future story because I'm feeling some real nostalgia right now. 46. Has anybody ever told you that you treat your OC's badly? I would readily confess to doing so, you have to push characters to their limits, to determine what they are made of, that's how you work out who they are deep down. So yes I do think I act quite sadistically, and I'll kick them when they are down at times. 47. Has anybody ever (friendly) claimed any of your OC's as their child? No, no one has. 48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure. Mayyyybe Zeriste, she's the only character I can think of who falls into the sees the best in everybody, innocent type. Every other character I've made, ever, has been more complicated and more flawed than that. Zeriste isn't an old creation though she's a relatively new OC. 49. Which one of your OC's would most likely enjoy memes? I feel like roller blading mummy would be down ^^ he likes human creations. 50. Give me the good ol' OC talk here, talk about anything you want. If you want tag your answers as #yetanotherOCmeme so I can check them out too. I don't really know what OC talk is being referred to here. All I shall say is make them as varied, flawed, and three dimensional as possible. Be brave when challenging them with a difficult situation, and never hand OC's an easy way out. They can only build character in the face of adversity.