#but i'm not sure exactly why they never implemented it

[arendaes]

20 and 21 for Ari? Always fun to see item design at work!

Thank you Emi! These are for this ask game.

20. Is there an item in-game that you felt became iconic to the Knight-Commander?

Yes, though amusingly it's not an item you can get organically in WOTR. The rapier Ariadne uses in Act 5 after going Legend and taking levels in Sword Saint is Revelry, a high-level rapier that originally appeared in Kingmaker and that I manage to get through Toybox shenanigans. Headcanon is that Cayden gives it to her after their bout at the party Wilcer threw in Ariadne's honor; it feels like the best answer to their prayers that Cayden can give them without getting too involved in everything.

21 answered here!

[bakersgrief]

A/n: I know I promised a history lesson, but I hated the first draft and scrapped it. My sources ended up being from Edo period Japan anyway, so. Eh. Whatever! Hope you like <3

WARNINGS: Pegging, a bit of spanking, gn reader, top reader

Kenshin was skeptical when they first brought it up.

"But... why would you want to do those kinds of things with me?"

He shook his head.

"Surely it would bring you no pleasure."

His lover huffed in amusement.

"It's not like that, exactly." They thought for a moment, thinking of the best way to explain it.

"I get my pleasure from your pleasure."

They moved closer to him, putting a hand on his arm. Kenshin seemed dubious.

"Surely you feel the same way, right?" They asked.

"...You aren't wrong," Kenshin still looked skeptical. "But isn't it my job to pleasure you? Not the other way around."

They nearly buried their face in his shoulder to hide their exasperation. Of course he would be worried about something like that at a time like this.

Deciding to use their trump card, Kenshin's lover gave him their best puppy dog eyes and pouted.

"Please?"

Kenshin nearly melted.

"...If it is truly your wish, I will not deny you. Even if I would rather spend our time together seeing you in the throes of ecstasy rather than myself."

His lover had to hide their blush at that. This time they really did bury their face in his shoulder, wrapping their arms around his muscular chest.

A few days later (with some help from Shingen, because of course he knew where to find these kinds things) Kenshin and his dearly beloved found themselves in their shared room, preparing themselves for a new experience as a couple.

Kenshin could barely pull himself away from their passionate kisses, nearly pinning his love under him and proceeding with their usual frenzied lovemaking.

However, his lover managed to push him off of them and stood up, carefully winding the straps of the necessary implement around their waist, hips, and thighs.

Kenshin watched, mesmerized. He could never grow tired of the sight of the moonlight on their bare skin. The way the shadows caressed their curves.

In moments like these he was no longer The God of War, but a mere man worshipping a diety, his diety, a diety of love and beauty. Kenshin knelt at their feet, cupping their backside as he reverently kissed their hips and waist.

His lover chuckled above him, petting his hair.

"I'm going to need you to lie on your stomach for me. Okay?" They asked.

Kenshin did as he was instructed, laying his head on his crossed arms and frowning at the feeling of his naked body splayed out in such a manner. It was... different. A vulnerable position. However, it was only Them seeing him like this. His moon and stars. So he forced himself to relax in order to please the person he loved most.

They kissed the back of his shoulders reassuringly, trailing their slender fingers down the planes of his back and spine. It earned a pleased sigh from the man.

"This will be the best position, I think." They murmured.

Kenshin nodded, starting to get impatient. He was already hard from their kissing and petting- of course he was. How could he not be aroused after even a simple kiss from his reason for existence?

Said reason knelt behind him, between his legs, spreading his muscular ass and reaching down to rub his taint.

"Hmmm. Mmm, haaaaa..."

Kenshin sighed at the sensation. His lover continued rubbing him, eventually moving their fingers to rub at his tight hole.

His body slowly relaxed, becoming more and more pliable under their sensual caresses until they pulled away to apply oil to their digits. They rubbed some along his entrance before very slowly pushing a fingertip inside.

Kenshin's breath hitched. He opened his eyes to watch his darling, who just so happened to be watching him for a reaction at the same time. The two smiled softly at each other before Kenshin's lover pushed their finger all the way in, causing Kenshin to bury his face in his arms to hide the embarrassing noise he had let out at the sensation.

"Shhh. Don't tense up, my love. Relax." They whispered.

Kenshin's breathing grew heavy, but he did his best to let all the expectant tension ease out of him.

After a few thrusts another finger joined the first, stretching him out. Kenshin buried his face deeper in his arms, unconsciously wiggling his hips a bit.

"MmmmmMMM! Ahhhh..." Kenshin gasped as a third finger joined, feeling his muscles contract as his body adjusted to the intrusion. Being stretched like this was new, indeed. But his heart was racing and his impatience for the promised pleasure grew.

The God of War had never been a patient man to begin with, after all.

"Are you quite ready yet?" He mumbled over his shoulder.

His lover laughed their adorable, charming laugh, leaning forward to press a kiss to his lips.

"Are you ready, my love?" They asked.

"Of course I am ready." Was his reply.

Leaning back, Kenshin's partner oiled their fake cock liberally, letting out a pleased hum upon seeing him watching them with half lidded eyes.

Firmly grasping his asscheeks, they spread them open and pushed the head of the toy against his opening, using a hand to guide it in.

"Hng, hrg!" Kenshin grunted. It was thicker and longer than their fingers, stretching him out even more. And there was a ridge near the tip of the toy that was scraping his insides in a way that had him shuddering.

Behind him, Kenshin's lover leaned over him, pressing hot kisses to the back of his neck. As they bottomed out, their kisses turned into biting and sucking.

"Ahh, haa... haa..."

"Mmm, haaa... hnn..."

Their heated moans and gasps intermingled in the steamy air of their bedroom.

Kenshin's love chuckled lowly in his ear.

"Ahhh, I wish I had you on your back right now."

Thrust

"AAH!"

Kenshin moaned loudly in surprise at the first harsh thrust. He could feel his lover trembling in excitement as they pressed themselves against his back.

"I wanna watch your cock bounce and twitch while I fuck you, my love."

Thrust

"HNN!" Kenshin gasped and panted. Was this the prostate? The sweet spot inside a man they had mentioned?

"I wish I had you folded in half-"

Thrust

"Ah!"

"So I could see your pretty face-"

Thrust

"And watch you cum-"

Thrust

"All over-"

Thrust

"Yourself-"

Thrust

"When you-"

Thrust

"Orgasm!"

Kenshin was whimpering into his arms now as he was being pounded from behind. He knew his lover could get rough but this- all of it- was so new, and different, and overwhelming-

Kenshin shuddered in ecstasy as every thrust felt as if it knocked the breath out of his body.

"Hm, mm! Ahh, ahh, haa..."

Fuck. Was he drooling? Probably. Everything was just so delicious.

Kenshin felt his stomach tighten, his cock twitch. Was he going to cum? So soon?

Having the sensitive spot inside him abused in such a way had him careening toward an orgasm. Kenshin toppled over the edge, mewling and squirming in an utterly undignified way as the futon beneath him was painted white.

"Haa... haha... was that good, my dear? Did you like that?"

Kenshin whimpered. They were, they were still- fuck- going-!

"Hnnn, guh, uhn-" Kenshin's words failed him. His brain felt as if it had melted into a puddle of mush as his lover kept their merciless pace.

Behind him, his lover was sucking and biting his shoulders as if to claim him as their own. He already was.

"Sounds like you liked it, my love. You make, haa, such pretty noises like this. How about- since you like it so much- haa, I- fuck- milk you for all you're worth, huh?"

Slap! Slap! Slap!

The sound of hips slapping against Kenshin's ass rang throughout the room as he mumbled incoherently in response.

"I'm so lucky." They whispered.

"So lucky I get to see you like this, my dear. I don't think, haa, I'm going to be done any time soon. Just, uhnn, hang on for me, my love. All right?"

Slap! Slap! Slap!

"MMMMMMMMM uhn!"

Taglist: @shadowylakes @floydsteeth @sh0jun @rou-luxe @mxrmaid-poet @anonymousnamedhera @kanatashinkaifr @rookkunt

@oda-princess this was your request right :3

Kenshin: @cherrykasugayama

[pilfappreciator]

ATTENTION TROLLS FANDOM!!

This is very important. Mostly to me but maybe you guys have been wondering this too idk but anyways:

How does troll reproduction work exactly?

Cuz I'm genuinely curious. I dont think anyone on the series production team has said anything and so far I've seen absolutely no one touch on this subject but as someone who's always had an interest in the habits of creatures (both fictional or otherwise), I kinda sorta maybe NEED to know this otherwise I'll never be able to sleep peacefully again

Full disclaimer that I'm specifically talking about the whole egg situation, I am NOT ASKING HOW THEY GET IT ON IF I WANTED THAT ANSWER I'D GO TO DEVIANT ART OR TWITTER OR WHATEVER LAWLESS PLATFORM GOD STEERS CLEAR OF. This discussion shall remain STRICTLY educational, thank you very much

But anywho. Let's dive in

So trolls come from eggs. This is basic knowledge. First instance of this phenomenon (as far as I know, I've only seen the movies) is from World Tour.

Egg pops out of Guy Diamond's hair, egg hatches and BOOM, (literal) baby. Now I understand that this whole sequence was probably just a gag and a way for DreamWorks to implement another (merchandisable) addition to the cast HOWEVER this sequence also raises a few questions

First off, as far as I know Guy Diamond has no partner (again: I haven't watched any of the spinoff shows). Either that or maybe the other troll was a sorta one-night-stand/no-longer-in-his-life kinda situation? Which is great either way cuz its shown he obviously cares for his son and we at Tumblr appreciate a loving single father no matter the circumstances, but if my former theory is correct than that would imply that trolls are capable of reproducing asexually. Like onions.

Now if that hypothesis is, as they call it, "cap" then that would mean that some sorta hanky panky has to go down before an egg comes into question. And if that's the case, does this mean that male trolls are traditionally the ones who carry the eggs?

But that can't be right, can it? Afterall, World Tour gave us yet ANOTHER egg scene later on in the movie

In Cooper's flashback, we clearly see Queen Essence being the one carrying the eggs meanwhile King Quincy is eggless. Now, as far as i see it, this could be explained either one of four ways:

1) Quincy was the one who actually produced the eggs and Essence is merely holding them for her husband (since her hair seems more fitting to be a makeshift nest compared to Quincy's)

2) Female trolls are the ones who produce the eggs. Guy Diamond is just a trans icon

3) Troll reproduction differs from genre to genre

4) There is a... *sighs* a/b/o type of dynamic among troll kind where certain trolls are capable of giving birth/siring children depending on a secondary gender

In regards to theory #3, this could also explain why Guy Diamond seems to reproduce and hatch an egg in such a short amount of time (like 5 seconds I'm pretty sure) as opposed to Queen Essence/King Quincy who's eggs presumably went a while longer before actually hatching.

Actually, speaking off eggs, are trolls the only species in their world that reproduce that way?

Because now that Band Together has officially been released, we now know for certain that it's possible for different species to crossbreed. Biggest example? Resident DILF Bruce and his giant muppet wife

(Credit to @captainunderkrupp )

When I saw these two... I swear...

And these two already have a shit ton of kids okay so like... either Brandi was the one giving birth or trollsona Daveed Digs was over here pumpin out eggs, which I mean-

DO YOU SEE HOW BIG THESE THINGS ARE COMPARED TO BRANCH AND POPPY?? Believe me I am PRAYING that Bruce gave himself some serious maternity/paternity leave because my guy is honestly a trooper

But yeah any thoughts? :))

[powerpuffobsession]

I don't like Vaggie getting retconned into an angel

(This one is more of a personal opinion/complaint/vent. I'm just trying to analyze why exactly I dislike this plot change. Viewer discretion is adviced)

When the leaks first said that would happen, I chose to believe it was fake until the very last second. I remember even denying it in my mind when I started watching season 1, hoping that they haven't implemented such a change....

Because the sinner Vaggie premise had so many interesting possibilities - of making her a person, someone interesting on her own, when separated from Charlie

Her sex worker past (meaning the incoming bonding with Angel Dust over shared trauma), her life in El Salvador, her death age that was supposed to be very young (early 20s dead in 2014) contrasting the other hotel residents exept for Niffty (who's from 50s), an interesting dynamic with Charlie where a human sinner gets together with an ancient demon princess - we were promised all of that.

The fandom built plenty of fancontent on the "sinner Vaggie" basis and got used to it. Not many expected an angel Vaggie, and I remember a lot of people saying that would be too obvious and boring and that that wouldn't happen

And in reality, it turned out to be even worse, in my opinion. Now Vaggie is literally one of the faceless Barbie dolls mass produced by Adam. She's so unimportant in-universe, she got broken and thrown away when she was no longer in use. Very symbolic, don't you think?

Her boss, Adam, is objectively more interesting than she is now! By becoming his inferior, Vaggie lost her miniscule interesting features in favour of being outshined by a male character! The one who mistreated her too. So typical... never change since the pilot era

To add salt to the injury, we learned that Vaggie IS in fact, short for Vagina, and that this "charming" name was given her by Adam, the sexist murderous pig! And she kept that name, as if actually liking it! Great!

(Vaggie being short for Vagatha was still unpleasant because Vivzie's dumb humour was obvious through and through, but a lot less offensive than what we actually got)

(And wow thanks a lot for that Vagatha joke with Sir Pentious. Way to mock the viewers by accentuating what was lost)

Also, Vaggie has basically no backstory now - "she was a murderer, then BAM she's not a murderer anymore, and out of nowhere she became a love interest for the main character". And her sparing a child was honestly such a cheap attempt at pulling at the viewer's heartstrings... why did she spend so many years murdering everyone in her way (making her the most effective exorcist, according to Adam himself!) but suddenly decided not to kill a child sinner? Were there no other child sinners before that one? Besides, it's hell, girl! That child could have drove his peer to suicide or killed animals for all we know!

And we are seriously supposed to care about a character who was a boring basic warrior intended for mass murdering just a while ago? Sure, that cliche can actually work with the right portrayal, but not like this! (Personally, I really felt my interest to Vaggie drop when the angel plot twist was revealed, it was like a cold shower)

That leaves Vaggie no choices of showing any personality whatsoever other than clinging to Charlie and having every moment of her life revolve around being with the princess, loving her and helping her. No thoughts, hobbies, world views and goals of her own. Come on, that's so bland!

Vaggie basically just changed one owner to another - from Adam to Charlie, to completely dissolve in their needs and wants instead of devoting some time to her own (which she can't have because she was born as a slave - that is if exorcists are created by Adam)

I feel like I shouldn't complain. I want to believe that if angel Vaggie was given time and space to develop, I'd like her, but really no... the very idea of making her part of Heaven was still-born to begin with, given the nature of hazbin hotel. This cartoon shot itself in the foot with an awful pacing. In the light of that, making Vaggie a significant part of a plotline that had no time to shine was a choice to avoid

And angel Vaggie should have stayed an urban legend in the fandom instead of making it into the show. I feel sad that for me Vaggie was ruined as Hazbin Hotel's aspect I could have enjoyed

I hope she at least gets more interesting interactions with Charlie and other characters in season 2. The ones in season 1 were not so bad, even if they're not the ones I wanted. And I'm still going to love Vaggie out of habit even if she's not the same anymore. Maybe I'll come around and start loving her as an angel eventually 🤞

P.S. why did they change the delicate white colour of her dress and the light pink colour of her bow to bright red shirt and bow? If she's a angel, wouldn't it have made more sense for her to be wearing pallette that has a bit of white in it to make her stand out? Even in that regard a questionable decision was made, dear god...

[shadowmaat]

NeverBidens

We're on a fast track to another Trump presidency. It was already going to be a dicey situation given his popularity among the white power groups, the antiqueer extremists, the misogynists, xenophobes, terrorist militias, and ultraconservative Christians.

Unfortunately, there's another equally large group throwing themselves in the mix. People who claim to be leftists, but whose beliefs align more with the alt-right than anything on the liberals side.

The NeverBidens use Biden's involvement with Israel over Palestine as a rallying cry to oust him. They're furious over the genocide taking place in Palestine and think the only way to "save" those people is to get rid of Biden.

"We need to send a message to Dems!" they claim. This has never worked in modern history, of course, and has led to an increase in suffering when attempts have been made, but that hardly matters. Whether it's refusing to vote at all or wasting a vote on a third party, their goal is the same as MAGA's: get Trump installed as president.

Why? Well, some of them say that Trump can "hardly be worse" than Biden, which shows a significant memory failure, if true. Others have flat-out stated that their goal is to destroy the US: burn it all down and start over from the ashes. This is, they claim, the only way to "fix" the country. I'm beginning to believe that this is what all of them want, no matter what excuses they make or lies they tell themselves.

Some of them may claim that no, this isn't about killing the US, it's about saving Palestinians, but if that were true they'd voting for the guy who is at least starting to waffle a bit rather than the guy who thinks Benji should "finish the job already."

The ones willing to admit they want the violent destruction of the US are also aware that this will lead to countless deaths, both in the US and across the world. It's a "necessary sacrifice" to achieve the "better world" they envision, and they're willing to throw all of us onto the pyre of their beliefs.

This is part of why I say that NeverBidens are a death cult: whether they're willing to admit it or not, they know a lot of innocent people are going to die, and they either want that or don't care as long as they "win." Many of them may not even care what comes next as long as the rest of us are punished: for allowing the country to get this bad, for voting Biden into office in the first place, for not managing to fix everything already.

Do the people calling for the death of the US honestly believe something better will take its place? Or do they just want the country to die and don't care what happens next? Hard to say. I'm sure some of them could probably outline grand plans for a better future, one where everyone is treated equally and nothing bad ever happens and all is wonderful and perfect, but that isn't the same as believing it's possible. And it isn't the same as being able to successfully implement those plans without any hiccups or dissent.

As an aside, I remember reading about a group of disenfranchised fic fans who decided they'd had enough of AO3's lenient content policies and decided to start up their own perfect archive: one where Immoral Content™ was forbidden and all the creepy perverts on AO3 wouldn't be allowed.

Which might have worked well if they had been able to agree on the specifics of the immoral content and where to draw the lines. Except, y'know, everyone has their own opinions on "immoral" and eventually the arguing got so bad that the project was abandoned.

Anyway! NeverBidens are a death cult. A lot of them get angry when you point that out. No, no, they don't want more people to die, they want the Palestinians to live! How, exactly, that's supposed to be accomplished with Trump as president remains vague and undefined. And even if, by some miracle, Trump suddenly decided to stop sending Israel money and weapons, A) I'm pretty sure Benji could continue to cause damage without us (we're his biggest supporter, not his only one), and B) what about the rest of the world? What about the genocides in Sudan, Ukraine, Afghanistan, etc? What about the hellscapes in the DR Congo? Haiti? Nigeria? Mass death and violence is happening in so many places across the world, not just Palestine.

While Palestine deserves to be recognized, so do all the other people who are suffering. And yeah, the US is going to get significantly worse under Trump, too. As is planned. As is desired by certain factions, including the NeverBidens. But hey, a little mass death, stripped rights, global suffering, and terrorism is better than letting Biden remain in office, right?

[prodigal-explorer]

here are my current sanders sides height headcanon obsessions

i'm sure by now you all know that i do not have set-in-stone height headcanons for the sides (for the most part) because i don't really care and i like mixing it up! but here are my current favorite height headcanons for the sides that i just adore for so many reasons and implement into a lot of my most recent aus!

i can never decide whether i want roman to be taller or shorter than remus, but recently, i've been really digging the idea of roman being just a smidge taller than remus, and he holds it over his head ENDLESSLY while remus is like "whatever dude i'm older so-".

i usually really like when the creativetwins are among the taller ones (i'm 5'3 and i live a tall life vicariously through roman) but i think it's such a fun idea to have them be on the shorter end instead. they're like little balls of energy with huge personalities.

i'm always a sucker for patton to be really short because i usually make him an antagonist character and i LOVE the idea of people assuming that he's innocent and harmless because he's just a tiny boy and then they get totally blindsided when they find out the hard way that there are many more ways to do harm than physical brute force. i also resent the idea of small people always being seen as innocent/fragile and big people always being seen as scary/tough.

i've recently been obsessed with logan being the tallest in the group. like in most instances he's a very gentle giant, but when he loses his temper, he will LOOM.

i am a "virgil is super tall because of heightened anxiety" believer and truther. it is one of my favorite things of all time. i picture him being just a bit shorter than logan.

in terms of height, i see janus being somewhere in the middle. he's definitely the side that i'm the least sure about when it comes to height, i give him a different one every au LMAO.

FAT LOGAN. FAT VIRGIL. FAT JANUS. this, my friends, is the holy trinity. yes i know the fandom loves giving patton a dad bod. that's great for them. but guys. fat logan, fat virgil, fat janus. and i see them being like three different types of fat, if you know what i mean.

janus being like very curvy fat, he loves wearing bodycon stuff cuz he knows he looks SCRUMPTIOUS, but it's also a bitch for him to find well-fitting clothes because the fashion industry doesn't give a fuck about people with his body type. so he is really great with a sewing machine, mostly out of necessity, though he does enjoy it!

okay why don't more people make virgil super muscular. i see him as muscular fat. he's FIGHT or flight, guys!! he definitely has a punching bag in his room. i don't exactly see him as like a gym bro, but he definitely hits the weights when he needs to blow off steam or anxiety.

logan is somewhere between curvy fat and muscular fat, he's just a big guy! he is always very mindful of his size compared to others, mostly because he's worried about accidentally abusing his strength. but he literally never ever does.

the twins have islander bodies guyssss i know i saw themmmm. and by that i mean they're small and pretty lean, but they also have a bit of stockiness to them, especially in their legs. and they get endlessly teased by the other sides for their small feet.

[thatsparrow]

debriefing thoughts on mafia nanny after having read it all in one sitting*

*all that's available so far without accessing additional episodes, which is currently up to ep25 (spoiler warning, etc. etc.)

I'm genuinely enjoying it so far! I think it's very charming and has lots of well-developed characters and dynamics (undeniable highlight is mikey, on his own, but also him and davina together, him as motivation for davina to stay in the house, him and gabriel, how him and gabriel informs davina's understanding of gabriel, etc.)

it's also so goofy in a way I didn't expect. like, maybe unintentionally goofy in how it implements some tropes or gets characters from point a to point b, but also unexpectedly goofy in ways that I'm gonna assume are intentional (can we talk about raphael's olives? i'm dying to talk about raphael's martini glass chock-full of olives.)

honestly I think ep 1 is—not the least strong, exactly, but in its efforts to introduce the characters and get them all interacting, while setting up the dynamics it wants to have, it makes some choices that are both very wild and also very cliched?

like okay, so we start with davina as a child, her parents were nebulously involved in organized crime, they get killed off-screen. lots of very familiar mafia story elements here—she's an orphan, she starts with her foot in the mafia world, she has motivation to get closer to someone else in that same sphere in an effort to find out what happened. sure, all very run of the mill

then we find out she was saved by her nanny, who promised to take care of her and teach davina to protect herself and others (also, sure, I'm with you so far)—by taking her to a secret school called the "elite nanny academy" (ENA for short) where davina and other women are trained how to be. well. what it says on the tin. elite nannies.

hey. what

like alright, the story needs justication for why davina would get hired by this mafioso, and also (liam neeson voice) "have a unique set of skills" such that she's able to help mikey and gabriel if say they feel uncomfortable turning to their guards or don't trust the people around them. sure. i'm with you. that said, introducing the concept of an elite academy of nannies who are not only trained in every aspect of childcare but also self-defense, computer programming, and more is. it's bold, I will give you that. I want to live in this world where secret academies of elite nannies exist. I want the entire webtoon just to be set in davina's school years. the fucking whiplash from this very run-of-the-mill backstory of losing her parents to a smashcut of davina learning to become a literal supernanny—unparalleled. no notes. such a big swing, and my god, I'm glad they went for it

(oops this is getting long. more under the cut)

okay, so we've established davina's credentials (again, in one of the wildest ways possible), and then the story immediately swings back into very familiar, well-trodden territory in how it introduces gabriel

a) first, his character design. I'm scrolling back through the comic for reference, and, oh my god, I fully forgot that the first panel he appears in, his pecs are fucking bursting out of his button down. tits for days. the exact level of cleavage anyone shows when hiring a new nanny for their four-year-old son (jesus I also forgot how much I loved his tasteful little cross necklace)

b) his whole demeanor—aloof, intense, and sort of positioning davina for a "not like other girls" framing when he's like "I want someone who's never worked with anyone else" and then of course he picks her out of the lineup, zeroes in on her directly, and is it because he's attracted to her? because he knows something about her backstory? because he wants something that's unique to her specifically? probably a combination of all three! but like at this point, gabriel is just checking all the boxes of a mafia romance lead, these are all familiar tropes, we know how a story like this goes

and then more whiplash! because we go straight from that office scene to the flashback of gabriel threatening the bartender when the story introduces mikey, and immediately gabriel stops feeling quite so much like any other male romance lead because who brings their four-year-old to a mafia business meeting? and what four-year-old then proceeds to conduct himself with a level of assurance and familiarity that suggests he's very aware of his father's business and has lots of opinions about it? absolutely blindsided by this, not at all what I expected from davina's future charge, or the father-son dynamic (also, I don't know kids, but is this at all how four year olds behave? I don't ultimately care all that much, because I think it's fun, but it did still have me pausing)

maybe this isn't a real thing, but I think gabriel's head is too small for his body—or, I guess, that his body is too big for his head. I get that the creators want him to have that classic triangle-torso physique, but I can't get over how comically broad his shoulders are

I'll be honest, as soon as adam showed up, my immediate reaction was "date him instead"—obviously that's not how this works, but he just seems much more laid back, inviting, charming in comparison to gabriel

the way this comic will use any excuse to have gabriel suddenly and intensely in davina's personal space is also very funny to me. don't get me wrong, I enjoy the tension of it, I'm here for it, but it's so deeply unsubtle (which I guess is itself a question, does it need to be subtle? maybe what I mean instead is less that those moments feel unsubtle, and more that they feel unnatural. like, is this really how these people would behave, how much of this feels manufactured for the sake of building tension? then again, you read a romance for the romance, and so long as the tension is there or the moments feel like they land, how much does it matter how you get there? anyway)

now can't remember if the comic explicitly addresses it or not, but curious if mikey being so involved in his dad's business pre-dated his mom's disappearance, or was a consequence of gabriel wanting to keep him closer because his wife went missing

I do really love all of mikey and davina's interactions, particularly all the moments where he's clearly set on being stubborn or trying his best not to act like a kid, and davina suckers him into it (getting him to show her his room, playing in the pool, art class, etc.)

THE POOL like this is what I'm talking about in terms of how goofy this story can get. the concept of "pool day" is actually very cute in terms of thinking about mikey wanting to spend time with his dad, who is often unpredictably called away on business, and so here's this holiday they've come up with as a way to address that. but, from a reader perspective, it feels so transparently motivated as an excuse for eye candy of gabriel sprawled out in a speedo and to compel davina to spend time with the two of them at a pool, where she now also has to be in a swimsuit and oh is that gabriel checking her out?

having gabriel and davina aligned on wanting to keep mikey out of the mafia world, mikey being dead-set on taking over as the next don, and raphael who clearly intends to have him raised as heir and successor is all a very fun interlocking set of interactions. I like that it gives gabriel and davina a way to be on the same side and get to know one another in a way that's divorced from romance, there's obviously the tragedy of this very young boy who believes he has to grow up so quickly, and then the danger element of raphael as a threat to all the characters if they deviate from his intentions

so, does gabriel know about davina's past? I can't remember what triggers it, but there's the bit where he confronts her about why she's really there (edit: it's the bit where she's helping him identify who left the teddy bear and he wants to know how she knows so much about organized crime), or if she has ulterior motives, and she comes up with the lie about being a freelance hacker, which—either he already knows who she is, and that's why he picked her, and so presumably can suss out that she's curious about her own past and how it might relate to his family, and he was lying or putting on an act when pressuring her about her reasons for being there OR he genuinely doesn't know about her past, in which case, why did he choose her out of the lineup? I think at that point in the story, the only thing she has to distinguish herself is her computer skills, which I guess isn't nothing, but isn't what I expected

maybe it's just because I haven't really grown my hair longer than my shoulders in a decade, but I swear whenever davina lets her hair down, it distinctly looks like she has way too much of it to then put it up in such a petite bun

THE OLIVES i still can't get over raphael's obsession with olives. every shot of him either with a martini glass overflowing with olives (is there even any liquor in there) or the scene where he's just eating them straight out of the jar before drinking the juice or the bit where's at the party and says DOUBLE THE OLIVES! sir!! your glass was already so full!! where are the rest of these olives supposed to go!! anyway, deeply funny the first time it happened, so unexpected, such a funny running gag, I enjoy it every time it crops up again

man I am and continue to be a sucker for a "helps someone to bed" "carries someone from point a to point b" moment whenever it happens. it's a genre staple for a reason, it always hits

"sir we may have a problem" "is it your outfit" truly I never know what I'm going to get with raphael, and I'm ready to be surprised every time

nico and valentine are fun, no question, but valentine's outfit makes no sense to me. who's out here wearing a skirt that short when you know you could get into a fight at any moment? a skort, at the very least

wait hang on, I just caught this on reskimming—when davina is looking for information on her parents, is her name "davina diavolo"? DIAVOLO AND ANGELINl come on that's so funny. it's fun! but it's also very funny

the doctor is hot, I'll stand by that

(although then again, it's a mafia romance. all of them are hot)

I think that was everything? last we left off was the fire after the party and davina finding the safe in gabriel's office. tldr, I'm enjoying it, I'm invested, it's fun and goofy (SO goofy at times, my god), but the plot is solid, the stakes are engaging, the characters and relationships are compelling, and honestly I'm not sure if I'd be enjoying it as much if it seemed like it was taking itself too seriously

[pomplalamoose]

Hey bae 🙏 do you think we could get something about turning sith!luke to the light side?💗

Hiii dear anon, thank you for your ask🩵

It's been a while since I received one and I'm sooo excited, especially since I get to talk about Sith!Luke, my beloved

I wasn't sure what exactly you wanted but I hope you like this discussion of possible scenarios anyways <33

• when it comes to turning Sith Luke back to the light, I think it really depends how and why he choose the dark side in the first place and what interpretation of him we're talking about

• if, for example, he turned during the original trilogy, you'd have to approach him differently than it would be the case if he grew up raised by Vader

• while his struggle to remain on the right path for himself and the galaxy is often highlighted in the movies and books, trilogy Luke never strays too far away from what Obi-Wan and Yoda taught him

• he certainly has his darker moments in which he considers everything he loves lost, but ultimately, even then, he'd rather sacrifice himself for the greater good than reach for the power Vader, and later the Emperor, offer him

• "Never. I'll never turn to the dark side"

• "Soon I'll be dead and you with me"

• so should he fall or, for whatever reason, deliberately make the decision to join the dark side, I see two possible ways in which this could turn out, his stubbornness and wish for justice and equity being one of the more important factors

• 1) he's convinced it's for the best and in favor of many

• it's hard to resist a seemingly easy solution in times of crisis, especially if it's offered in a tempting way and Luke is by no means unreceptive to manipulation

• however I do believe he'd realize his misconception rather quickly and so the most prominent thing keeping him from pursuing the light again wouldn't be his ignorance but his deep shame

• because of the weight he carries he's very hard on himself and no less so as a Sith

• consumed by the dark side he'd probably be less focused on improvement but on self doubt and hatred instead

• he may even go as far as to remain in this situation willingly as a way to punish himself

• not only would he think himself deserving of being miserable but also think it's for the better if he never comes near his loved ones again, afraid to hurt them

• here his stubbornness hurts him decidedly more than others because obviously there's still good inside of him, he just isn't allowing it to be there in favor of another misconception and self doubt

• ("I don't deserve to be around my family after what I did.", "Because what if I'm truly evil and don't know it?", "What if they fall victim to one of my mistakes and get hurt?")

• in this case it'd definitely be possible to make him see reason

• Luke is able to and eager to learn from the past, as well as adapt to a new point of view

• if he can believe it's for the best to join the dark side, he can believe the opposite once more

• it may need patience and coaxing, much affection, assurance and insistence but through your love (romantically as well as platonically) he'd be able to find himself again

• 2) his opinion of the galaxies political situation changes to such an extent that he's convinced his fall to the dark side is genuinely important in order to implement a just system

• I will be honest, I have no idea how that would even happen but let's stick with the idea anyways because we're taking about Sith!Luke here

• (maybe he was brainwashed???)

• in this scenario I imagine it to be rather difficult to make him reconsider

• not only is he now convinced of what he's doing is inherently good but also of the fact that the people not sharing his opinion have some devious plans to make those he's so set to protect suffer

• Luke firmly stands by what he believes in and while that is a wonderful attribute to have it's rather problematic when it's used for harm

• that man is ready to fight for his convictions and I see him defending them in a way similar to how he resisted the dark side in RotJ

• he's still Luke though and not stupid, I belive it still possible to reason with him especially if you're someone he admires or otherwise holds dear

• in order to get him to listen to you though you'll need time and patience to get under his skin

• now let's take a quick look at the interpretatiom of the Sith!Luke I write about

• to some extent he's still the same person as trilogy Luke but while they share certain traits, they turned out like opposites due to the circumstances they were exposed to during their lifes

• basically my Sith!Luke is a "What if Luke and Leia were raised with the dark side by Darth Vader"-version in which he grows up in a galaxy after the Empire defeated the Alliance and thus doesn't know anything about Jedi since they just,,,don't exist anymore

•(granted, this is a rather dark AU but I saw no other way in which Luke would act like he does in my fics, without any hope of him changing his ways)

• (there are of course works that discuss a different outcome, exploring Luke turning to the light side despite being raised as Sith, so it is of course a possibility if that's what he's set up to do)

• (I, however, like to center my Sith!Luke around the idea of just that being unthinkable since it's so far fetched and ooc for a person so full of light and good)

• (please keep that in mind when continuing to read, xx)

• this too is the only case in which I think it wouldn't be possible to turn him to the light side because the concept in itself is a foreign and outdated one

• it does exist, yes, and Luke is aware of it too, after all he's well studied and educated, has to be if he is to be the successor of his father

• but it is nothing that seems worth looking into further since the classical "fight" between good and bad is a thing of the past

• because while Luke may not agree with every political stance his family takes he knows he'll be the Emperor sooner than later, able to make changes as he likes

• in this regard, depending on the role you take on in his life, you might be able to slightly influence his decisions and/or his treatment of a certain group of people

• if you're important enough to him he'll listen to what you have to say, though he won't necessarily implement it into the system

• you are well advised to approach such attempts carefully though since you don't want him to suspect you of disregarding his status and position

• or, even worse, want to alienate him from his family and loved ones

• because no matter the universe, Luke would move worlds for those he cares for and accordingly (mainly Sith!Luke) grows easily suspicious when someone so much as questions their behavior, motives, etc. or insinuates to be against them

[yandere-wishes]

General Grievous is not a nice yandere. I hc that these feelings towards his darling are more suitably classified as a morbid obsession or curiosity.

The Bride of Grievous

(A snippet from a Yandere!Grievous fic I've been dying to write) 

You have no idea how feral I am over this man!! The body horror that would come with being his sweet little darling!! I'm studying Robotics and Mechatronics at university and I gotta say I LOVE Robot/cyborg characters. They are my holy grail!!😍💞😍💞😍💞😍

You're 100% right Grievous is one of the worst Yanderes. He's obsessed with turning his darling into something he finds attractive and worthy. overdosing in a morbid curiosity to see just what he can turn you into. 

Listen Grievous does NOT like organic beings. He prefers cyborgs and droids to anything else. So for this to work, you're going to have to already be a cyborg to even catch Grievous' eye. Sure a talented mechanic or the heiress to a droid manufacturing company would also draw the general's eye. But there's something about your mechanical essence that draws him in. Bonus points if you're both. 

Now I'm playing off the idea that the reader comes from a wealthy family of engineers who are the prime supplier of droids for the empire/separatists (idk which timeline to set this in exactly). You've been left with a few cybernetic implants after an accident that happened when you were too young to have formed a functioning memory. 

There's something about you that's...not right. You build the most advanced automatons but instead of programming them to become soldiers or anything remotely beneficial to warfare. You merely treat them as family. As your children. Your dolls. Doting on them as a mother would. You blame it on your heritage. On the accident that left you tettered between machine and mortal all so many years ago. 

Not quite human 

Not quite robot.

Another option, a secret third.

Glitching between realities. 

When Grievous makes a personal visit to your family estate. Needing to strike a new deal for a rather large shipment of androids. He's surprised to find you, the heiress, taking charge of the transaction. He's even more interested when he notices your cybernetics. And how you don't hide them but instead seem to have made many personal enhancements to them. You're pretty too, and it's been such a long time he's been with someone sentient. 

He's just so interested in you. Following you around like a wolf does its prey. Listening carefully to your jovial tone as you go into great detail about all the new features of this new batch of battle droids. He's even taken aback when you reprimand him for belittling a R0-GR.

Maybe somewhere along the line, you offer to work on him. To implement some new weapons. Add a few folding missiles into his casing. Even going so far as to propose giving him a speedy digital processor to clip into his brain. He scuffs at your boldness, pushing you aside as he moves past you. What a disgusting offer.

So why does the thought linger in his head?

When he returns to base, he finds his mind wandering to you. To your bizzare existance. You've practically shredded your humanity. Yet it still clings to you like a leech. He wonders if you'd thank him for taking it from you. Swoon over him for having saved you from the pesky flesh and blood. He falls asleep dreaming of the sounds your new metallic body would make as it clangs against his. 

He kidnaps you soon after that. Stealing you away in the dead of night. Your family can search all they want, and send all the bounty hunters they want to try and retrieve you. But Grievous won't let you go. He loves watching as he makes you take him apart. Nibble fingers peeling away metal layers to access his wires. Pulling off prosthetic limbs to enhance them. With you by his side, the Jedi will never be his match ever again. 

But it's Grevious we're talking about. He's a greedy creature, never satisfied with what he's given. He blames Dooku for this behavior and blames the benefits of being half Sith and half machine. He's become spoiled. Maybe it's not such a bad thing. 

He starts to return the favor. Tearing you apart piece by piece. He used his lightsabers to cut through bone and replace it with metal. Drugging you with ecstasy and spice as he plucks away your humanity. He adores the love-sick looks you give him. Loves how, even when you've come down from your high, you still crawl onto his lap and litter his cold body with kisses. He'll keep your face just the way it is. He loves the feel of your chubby cheeks and soft lips too much. 

Soon Grievous will turn you into a creature much like himself. 

His perfect little creation.

A loving robot who can think for herself (with the general's help of course)

He's finally found a lover worthy of him.

All this being said I now need a poly fic with Maul, Anakin, and Grievous with a cyborg reader. 

[horizon-verizon]

You’re a whole coon, of course Rhaenyra hates women, especially Black women, she tried to murder a 16 years-old Black girl, slut shamed her, called her racial slurs, and linked Nettles “ugliness/attractiveness” to her Blackness. Rhaenyra literally acted like a pathetic pick me in regard to Daemon and Nettles. If given the chance, Rhaenyra would have enslaved her. TB must truly despise Daenerys to compare her to Rhaenyra, they couldn’t be more different. (The way Rhaenyra is never mentioned in Dany’s chapters and GRRM has never discussed them in conjunction with the other, finally y’all can thanks HOTD for turning her into a progressive and flawless Mary Sue).

And really an insanely privileged white woman dying after putting a bounty on a lowborn Black’s girl head should be a good thing right ? We just gon have to celebrate Rhaenyra death with Nettles.

If you say so, anon, I guess I'm a straight up coon. 🤷🏿‍♀️

I suppose arguing how no one can be a feminist in a medieval world is coonish. I guess that pointing out how unconstructive it is to go "she wasn't a feminist so we shouldn't care about any possible effect her coming into power like the men before and after her have been able to will have an effect on other noble women's power to maybe implement some pro-women stuff in their own domains" to us analyzing why/how Rhaenyra is important to the history of Westeros and Daenerys is coonish.

I guess it's coonish of me to flout so many non-Nettles arguments of Rhaenyra's supposed bad leadership and amorality not once, but TWICE (that I remember), where it clearly just veers into straight up sexism: HERE and HERE....thus coming into why I even bother defending Rhaenyra (in some points).

It's not like I haven't already wrote several time in several posts how Rhaenyra's trying to get Nettles' head reveals much about the Targ-Andal paradigm she grows up in and tries to use to bolster herself through her going after Nettles to the end. It's not like I don't see how essentially different Daenerys and Rhaenyra are as people through the Nettles event as well as how they grow up and come into their positions of power and how/why they desire those roles:

It's not like I haven't already written about the Black Jezebel stereotype at least three times, including on Twitter and here. It's not like I have defended Nettles not just from "dettles" stans but also from people who call themselves Rhaenyra stans while bashing on Nettles and Mysaria, totally misunderstanding both characters and what even a supporting character is.

But sure, I'm a coon bc I don't want to ignore the journey of Rhaenyra's downfall and make distinct where she decided to destroy another woman vs her being the victim. Sure, I'm a whole coon.

And for the last fucking time, "compare" does not always or only mean "these two things are exactly alike and I will show you how"! "Comparison" analyses means that you will list out what traits or developments two things have, what inspirations, and see how they differ and how they don't. And through such a process, you will find out how many and how well/or not these two or more things are alike and how.

For Dany and Rhaenyra, I never said these girls/women were the same person. I said that both women, as women in male-designated positions of power, have to deal with people in world AND out of world must contend with misogynist feelings towards of their not deserving power or leadership on account of their gender, no matter what sort of characterization either had BECAUSE even with the main series not being like F&B, not being a history book, PEOPLE IN THE FANDOM STILL TEND TO MISREAD OR TWIST DANY'S ACTIONS AGAINST HER CHARACTER AND GRRM'S INTENT. Rhaenyra is meant to contextualize that very experience into a real event of catastrophe, she was set against ever since she was 10 bc she was female and another, older woman wanted power denied to her directly bc she was a woman. This is a fact, you nor I can change that. There is a difference between what we learn from the events to make the conclusions of who should rule ideally and what we should shoot for VERSUS thinking of the situation at hand for what it would have been like for the character.

F&B (having been written after the main series) continues even this "analysis" phenomenon; what do people choose to believe when it's a woman at the center of their stories?! No matter her real circumstances or their knowledge of things not present in their understanding of the world and of history?

I also mention, several times, how it is here, Rhaenyra's end, where the Targs lose their dragons because they have assimilated into the intenser patriarchal paradigm already mentioned to the point where they weakened their women's positions by denying them their autonomy and political powers...which plot sequence wise leads to the end of the dynasty as whole and Dany's exile. I'm must be a coon to not want Nettles, a 17 year old, to fuck a 50 year old, esp with her being his bio daughter. No, anon, I am too repulsed with direct vertical incest (parent-child, grandparent-grandchild, etc.).

Then there is how the Bloodstone Emperor and the Amethyst Empress and how the former usurped tha latter and plunged the entire world into mythological "darkness"--thus leading up to the importance of the Azor Ahai, aka Dany, directly seems to reflect how another brother--Aegon II--usurped his older sister--Rhaenrya--and thus the world loses a strong magical tool against darkness "dragons". An obvious link....

In fact, I tend to repeat how different they are as people! There's this whole thread talking abt the very thing I despise abt some critiques of Rhaenyra. I even say many times that Rhaenyra couldn't have the throne after the Nettles letter, that at that point, there needed a "refresh". Up until then, there was simply more reason for us to not think her a real terror except for maybe Addam and Alyn. But I have my misgivings there and it comes down to timing and grief.

No, Rosby and Stokeworth do not count and why? I already wrote why, but for someone who doesn't stan Rhaenyra or is not a fan of hers but actually stans just Daenerys--the previous ozymalek says:

I have myself said several times how I disliked how they rewrote show1Rhaenyra to make her a much less assertive version of herself, and I agree with others how they made her female-friendless. No matter how amoral or moral she was, similarly to Dany, people have written her sexistly in the show. I believe that this is CENTRAL to the point of F&B, how people refuse to see the point of it.

Finally, I really don't see how the hell show!Rhaenyra even is a Mary Sue or a NLOG, bc for the first, she displays no skill she excels over others at. A Mary Sue is:

Show!Rhaenyra, for some reason, seems "perfect" to some people. Esp with Luke saying so in epi 8. I never felt that way, I always thought she (older, not younger) was too meek and that is her great flaw---due to the sexist writing, but if kept at face value, that's the great flaw. Other definition: Who is inserting themselves into her character on the show? you got proof?

A NLOG (not like the other girls) is a Cersei like character who goes out of their way to destroy/diminish most women who are competitors for their power or destroy any semblance of socially-defined femininity and socially-coded feminine "weakness" so as to appeal to the male authority and get privileges. Problem is that EVERY SINGLE FEMALE MONARCH AND WOMAN IN SOME SORT OF AUTHORITY OVER MEN IN EVERY SINGLE PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY had to convince their male supporters that they were the one they should follow to some degree more than any male heir or candidate--during a time where they had to either fight for their "birthright" or they were planning coups (Catherine the Great), came into power through some accident, or whatnot--that their rule was in it for them. There is no pattern of woman-hating or self-hating to define Rhaenyra as a NLOG, where she consistently tries. NLOGs tend to hate women even in their own "race" or group for perceived acts of upheaval and destabilizing their positions of power. Alicent was and she uses misogyny to do so, so Alicent is not Rhaenyra's victim; other way around. Rhaenyra has all reason to despise Alicent, justified even. It's more than the positions, it's the whole targeting since 10 deal and trying to espouse Rhaenyra's inherent unworthiness for power.

So Rhaenyra deciding to do the Rosby/Stokeworth bit is her seeing how her greatest ally, a sexist man, has basically all her ships during wartime and insisting she does not give those girls their father's seats is Rhaenyra choosing wrongly, yes, but something I don't think that you or a small number of women would bow under considering the other shit she was going through. Yes, even black/PoC women. Again, this is not about Nettles but about women vs women (yes with them all being white or white-adjacent) bc I know that this will be the next thing some will say as a counterargument to what I'm saying here.

You are correct, however, in how similar Rhaenyra's behavior abt Nettles is pick-me-ish and NLOG concerning her intent to turn Daemon back to her and how this was her seeing Nettles as competition for "control" over Daemon, who was one of her principal military commands as well as her romantic partner...and like i said once before, this is a reflection on how this Andal-Targ patriarchal paradigm makes its own female "terrors" through misogyny. To ignore the process is to endanger its justified repetition. Yeah, Rhaenyra ends up becoming like Alicent in that way after the consistent losses, and I mean defaulting back to destroying another woman for a simulation of power. This doesn't mean that she was a feminist or that she didn't intend on using the Black Jezebel reasoning to get rid of "competition" to feel more in control. It does mean that her behavior reveals her enmeshment in the xenophobic, aristocratic, patriarchal Targ-Andal feudalist paradigm that she chooses to use to, again, construct more feelings of power at a time where she seemed to feel she was losing more and more--after the betrayals and the deaths of her sons in that moment. And yet if there is anything to be extracted from her narrative it is how that built-in classism (the companion and parent of racism) can become the thing these women default onto to retrieve/gain the agency & power denied to them. I believe this is also where you can draw a core similarity to Cersei, who is rather the starkest extreme example of that classism making up for her internalized misogyny through her Lannister Exceptionalism.

The discourse has to include how we, the readers, over-blame Rhaenyra for things she has either very little control over or what she had no control over and for trying to, again, assert herself (before Nettles). She's a reflection of her times and situation; doesn't mean she isn't still a victim. You don't need to like her. I never asked for people to do so. I don't care if you do or not, I've never needed that. Just don't lie or twist information or ignore clear patterns GRRM establishes that are also important, or try to erase the lines of harm done to her and undo the work GRRM is doing to point out this pattern of misogyny that contextualizes one very key aspect of Dany's journey: sexism doesn't care how good or classist you are, you are a woman so you will be subject to disenfranchisement, distortion of facts, and destruction...if you are not like Dany, who intuitively and "rationally" discovers lanes of power while reintegrating her being to the natural process and relationships between herself and her dragons for the ecological benefit of the entire world (the Others, again). Unlike Rhaenyra, Dany doesn't fall into the ideological "trap" or the noblewoman's save-grace of exploiting of lowborn people AND dragons but intelligently seeks other non-exploitative ways to use her dragons and those inspired by he bravery. This again, does not erase or override the sexism and specific elements of gender politics that tie these two together.

It's a paradox, not a contradiction.

[momo-de-avis]

Your video talk reminded me of an archeologist guy that saw so much mis/disinformation and conspiracy theories being peddled on tiktok, that he started to make videos debunking all that bullshit, and ended up kinda making a career out of it. Milo Rossi, Miniminuteman on YouTube, he's hilarious.

lmao know exactly who he is, he's so goddamn funny, he doesn't even debunk shit, he just clowns on conspiracy theorists now which honestly is the way to do it

my whole reaction yesterday came from a video I came across some little boy who was talking about a "great book he read" and its a book Ive seen, never felt inclined to even touch it, smelt of shit to me in the distance, it's "as razoes do atraso portugues" or something like that by some economist (economists always think they know history) and this little dude summarised the book and its apparently... bc of the MArquis of Pombal. And he did this in the Gen Z tone which made it even more obnoxious "yeah, the guy we were taught at school was so awesome! that guy!" what school? what school taught you that? "he ruined our economy because he made sure the gold found in brasil [which had been pouring in since before he was minister of jack shit] was misapropriated and then he kicked out the jesuits who were responsible for education" absolutely no nuance on matter, one of the most interesting, most controversial figures in our history that I always describe to my clients as "one step forward, two steps back" a guy who is described by Brazilian historian Laurentino Gomes, who dead describes XVIII portugal as the most backwards and delayed european nation (because it WAS), as the only moment of progress in our history because how hard can it be to grasp that a man who was raised on the Republic of Letters, who was taught among some of the brightest Liberal minds of Austria and England was responsible for some of the most incredible progress in Portugal AND YET was also responsible for some of the greatest set backs due to his paranoia and dictatorial ruling as Prime Minister? Where is nuance?

The dude in the video also said that, according to the book, the Marquis of Pombal was responsible for implementing Absolutism... is John V a joke to us? Do you think absolutism sprouted from Pombal's ass one day when he went to take a shit in Rua do Século after the earthquake? Do you think we call Manuel I proto-absolutist because it's just a fun little quirky thing historians dug out of their sphincter?

Why do yall think the medallion with his face in Commerce Square is there with the completely wrong that, something like 1838?

Did people lose their ability to think?

Stop reading history books written by economists. I am a fair believer than anyone can become a historian so long as they learn the methodology and digs into the sources (I'm not a historian myself, I'm an art historian) but economists are doomed to fail man, fuck them

[i-heart-hxh]

I found that question about the Zoldyck's training really interesting and wanted to add my thoughts on the topic and see what you think about them.

I totally agree that all their kids go through a well established training regimen, but I'm not sure if the torture training is something all the generations of Zoldyck's went through especially since Zeno doesn't seem to be keen about it, I wonder if it is something Silva implemented, this a complete head canon of mine but I feel like he is obsessed in finding the strongest heir since he himself never managed to become stronger than his father.

And about Killua receiving a special treatment, I kinda disagree with that, the main reason is that Killua out of all his siblings (excluding Alluka) is the only one who has expressed dislike about killing, Illumi doesn't even hesitate to kill innocent people, Kalluto said that he tends to torture his enemies and lose his sense of time cuz he enjoys making them suffer slowly, Milluki seems eager about experimenting new ways to kill people. So Killua, under Zoldyck's standard, is a problem child, he was tortured and being taught how to kill since birth, and yet he was healing injured birds with Nanika behind his parents back, he also has that other "problem", caring too much about other people, probably that is the reason why they made the needle make him forget about Alluka and Nankika.

When you think about the Zoldyck family and how they would deal with a problem child, I don't think talking to him or spoiling him is the way they would go about it, they probably tried to beat him out of it, especially since he has the most potential, he probably was expected to survive harder punishments. When they noticed that he wasn't changing they most likely decided to use Illumi's needle, which imo is a rather extreme measure, if you think about it, while the needle would keeping safe from stronger people, without it he could have been forced to analyze those fights to try to come out with a plan to overcome a fight where someone is stronger than him, Killua is a smart boy after all, instead the needle made him want to run away instantly, that in one way or another slowed down his training.

Finally, I think his siblings, minus Alluka, have way more freedom than him, we haven't seen Illumi getting scolded for forming an alliance/friendship with Hisoka, and from what we've seen, Kalluto hasn't been forced to return home or punished for joining the spiders which will make him develop relationships with a group of people, and Milluki never leaves his home, but when he goes to the auction to try to get Greed Island he is allowed to go without any complaints, I think Killua caring too much for other people is the reason he why wasn't allow to have any friends and is the reason his mother was so reluctant to let him leave.

Sorry for the wall of text but this topic is so interesting too me that I can talk about it for hours hahaha.

Thanks for writing this up, it's interesting to hear other peoples' takes on the Zoldyck family dynamics! They are super interesting, and while a lot of things are established with them, there's certainly some room for different interpretations on exactly how things work with them and how they feel about each other more specifically than the relationship chart tells us, especially because their relationships are complex. I enjoyed reading your thoughts!

I actually don't disagree with you about Killua's treatment, though in my view he was simultaneously privileged and treated differently than his siblings due to his status as the heir, and at the same time punished and beaten down for his compassionate and friendly tendencies, as well as his rebelliousness. I do think there have been "benefits" to being the heir for him, but they're benefits of a double-edged sort, especially because he doesn't want to be the heir in the first place.

The benefits likely included special treatment and focus on him to a degree, praise, and a sense that he excelled at training when compared to his siblings. Of course these end up being drawbacks in some ways because he's not happy in this situation in the first place and the increased attention was smothering, particularly from Kikyo and Illumi. I think he can receive preferential treatment and have it be both a thing that boosts his ego and makes him enviable to his siblings because everything centers around him, and at the same time even just the special treatment itself is a drawback for him.

The drawbacks are that he likely had a different set of expectations on him, his freedom was possibly less than the other siblings like you said (both because of the increased expectations AND because of his rebelliousness/personality that I'm sure the family felt they needed to force out of him at any cost), and when he does deviate from how he's "supposed" to be, I'm sure the punishments were indeed awful. I'll bet they tried all kinds of things to try to change the way he is, and as he got older he likely started hiding his real thoughts and feelings to avoid trouble as he considered his options for escape.

Killua seems to believe he has a good relationship with his father, he has respect for him, and he seems to like Zeno as well. Of course, from an audience perspective we know Silva has been majorly manipulating him and giving him freedom only because he anticipates that the needle will cause Killua to betray his friends and come back for good. Even though Killua ran away and clearly doesn't want to be an assassin and take over the business, he generally doesn't seem to hate his family members--or, at least Silva and Zeno. This makes me think the way he was treated directly varies a lot from family member-to-family member, and he does innocently see his father and grandfather as being some degree of "fair" and "able to be negotiated with."

Also, his attitude at the beginning still does read to me as being someone who has been praised a lot and is used to being considered superior to others. See how he acts about Gon being assessed above him in the Hunter Exam, for example, and just generally how cocky he is early on. I'm sure it's partly an act, and partly a result of legitimately having self-confidence due to being not only a Zoldyck, but among the most talented of all the Zoldycks. That comes from being confident in his power and talent, but of course his actual self esteem is horrible, because he's never been accepted prior to Gon (except perhaps by Alluka) for who he truly is as a person.

But I'm only disagreeing a tiny bit, because I do generally agree with you. Like I said I think both things are true at the same time. I definitely think he's faced a lot of difficult treatment from trying to be forced into a role his personality doesn't fit, but to me his upbringing feels like one of both privilege and special status and at the same time horrible treatment, loneliness, and pain, as a result of the "normal" Zoldyck training regimen and also any punishments he received for being himself.

[olderthannetfic]

EOTWR is at heart asking for common decency and trying to appeal to the fandom community's sense of common good. Racism is an issue in fandom, let's be the good people we proclaim to be and rally behind a righteous cause. Yay!

Amazing how call out culture can turn a good thing into a shitshow.

We just went through a global pandemic that pretty much proved that common good stops being a priority when people feel inconvenienced or think their freedom is curtailed. I certainly fantasized about screaming out all my rage at any anti-masker I encountered. Would have felt amazing. Not gonna change minds that way though.

I don't understand what results they were expecting when taking this exact approach with their campaign. It's all call out culture language! The very thing that is making fandom a general nightmare for everyone right now! The very thing that watered social justice language down until you genuinely can't tell good actors from bad actors anymore.

How were people supposed to know different when their language, the language of the supporters and the language of their most infamous member are basically indistinguishable from the language of the bad actors.

They're tired, they're angry, they're just trying to enjoy fandom in peace. It's not their job to educate us, answer any questions or perform the emotional labour to handhold white fragile hands through confronting their internal biases.

Ok, then don't be an activist because that's kind of the job description.

The people EOTWR failed to connect with are just as tired, just as angry and have also never known peace in fandom.

They're not going to perform the emotional labour to check if this callout is genuine when it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck.

And they can just not reblog, simply not engage, just not react AT ALL because we're on the internet and block functions exist. And from what I have seen everyone who DID engage but had questions and concern was immediately suspect.

Perform more rage at them while not gaining enough support to make a blip on OTW's radar. Keep wondering why they feel in no hurry to even REPLY. They probably took one look at the Campaign and breathed a sigh of relief because THEY know their audience well enought to know exactly how this would go.

I don't get the circular logic here. They approached the community call out first, got the entirely expected backlash, doubled down on calling everybody out and then performed more outrage because the response proved what they were saying all along!!

So they KNEW they were asking a bunch of awful racists to implement anti-racist policies in an awful, racist organization and decided the best approach was... *gestures*

The counterarguments will be all about tone policing, respectability politics, etc.

But that's just a lot of noise from people who are embarassed that they fell flat on their faces with this. I'm sure it's also a lot of genuine disappointment that fellow fans seem to care about other fans welfare so little. I get that.

So I'll be on the lookout for another campaign that is willing to meet people where they're at and for arguments that actually speak to the target audience. I'll reblog that one.

--

I'm sure some people did feel that way...

But this kind of "failed" campaign also operates how sending your cult members door-to-door does: it reaffirms that Outsiders are all Bad People who are against them and sucks them in tighter to the group. If someone's looking to recruit loyal followers, this is exactly how to do it.

[paradoxcase]

Chapter 9 of Nona the Ninth

I'm not sure what Hot Sauce expected to happen here, or why she thinks the contents of Nona's fake conversation could have had an effect, since if I understand right, she wanted Nona to hide her mouth so that whoever was watching could read her lips? if they were reading her lips, I guess they would have seen her say "hello, hello, I am having a conversation with Crown" which may mean something to someone, but I'm not sure how Hot Sauce would know about that or what she thinks the watcher leaving means. It seems like she would have been expecting the watcher to leave regardless, since I don't think there's much else that she would have noticed happening? But possibly that caused something to happen, due to all the shooting that transpired

It is interesting that Nona loves swimming so much, and salt water in particular. It can't all be because of the pool scene memories, can it? She also doesn't seem to like eating any food, unless it's like the mush and doesn't register to her texturally as food

I'm not sure what this means. "Water cure" is apparently a kind of torture?

I'm so relieved to learn that "jandals" is a genericized trademark that originates from "Japanese sandals" and was not, as I feared, "jean sandals"

More burning bodies. Do they think necromancy can only be done on dead bodies, or do they just really not want any chance of the dead bodies walking around? It sounds like people are dying all over the place right now also, so they must be burning a lot of bodies just to keep up with the new ones

I know this is a fantasy novel and an exoplanet and all that jazz, but I actually checked and there is in fact at least one IRL species of jellyfish that can kill you within five minutes, which is a kind of not-fun fact. I have to wonder, though, how Nona's Lyctor healing abilities deal with the jellyfish toxin exactly? Like Harrow and Ianthe and the other Lyctors were in fact able to get drunk, they were also able to undrunk themselves immediately, but it was a conscious action that required necromancy and not something that happened automatically. And Pyrrha gets drunk sometimes, I don't think she would do that if she didn't get an effect. But Pyrrha did survive drinking bleach, and she isn't any kind of necromancer. I'm not sure if there's rules about which toxins are automatically purged without a conscious act of necromancy to do that, or if it's just the immediately fatal ones only for narrative convenience

What intel do they want? Do they think that Camilla has information about the Wake-aligned BOE and it would be easier to get it out of her than to get it out of the actual BOE? It doesn't seem like they're interested in Nona, since they shot her

So my understanding is that Palamedes and Camilla merged temporarily by both being in control at the same time and this gave Palamedes temporary access to some kind of Lyctor abilities or Lyctor-like abilities that he then used to kill the Merv Wing guys. But because it's in Camilla's body, which is not used to exposure to this much thanergy, she has more serious side effects from this than a regular necromancer would have, with this extreme blood sweat and the "thanergy shock" that Pyrrha mentions later. Or possibly it's also because it's a kind of necromancy that ordinary necromancers wouldn't even be able to use, but the actual Lyctors never seemed to get blood sweats or anything like that, so it's probably either because of Camilla's body's lower tolerance or because they're not exactly a Lyctor?

But it wasn't really a one-way ticket for her, was it? Unless there's something we don't know

A couple things here:

Why is it killing Palamedes too? I don't think we've ever seen Lyctorhood also kill the necromancer

Isn't Palamedes like, already dead?

And also, like... I was kind of hoping that Camilla and Palamedes would have some kind of sane implementation of a necromancer/cavalier relationship, or even a Lyctorhood, if that's possible, and they wouldn't be an absolute disaster relationship like Gideon/Harrow or Ianthe and Corona, but they totally are. Like, this is a horror story, and yeah, there are some monsters that occasionally show up, but I don't think the horror is about the monsters? The horror of this story is what if you were in a relationship that was so codependent that the other person literally devoured your soul and you were like yes please, do that some more. It's about what if you were the soul-devourer half of the relationship and didn't realize it until it was too late. And like, I've shipping unhealthy relationships before, I get why people do that and everything, but I can't really vibe with this, it's too much for every time one of these characters talks like this the bottom drops out of my stomach

[genericpuff]

What makes a comic good in your eyes? And what makes it bad?

Oof, that's a BIG question that I can't exactly give one single answer to. There are a ton of factors. For me the biggest thing is writing, while the art might be a turnoff if it isn't polished in the beginning, it's still not a dealbreaker for me, I've read tons of comics that started off still figuring out their art (and that's the beauty of webcomics, really). It's when the writing isn't interesting or good that I tend to drop off. Maybe the plot doesn't make sense or takes too long to establish what it's trying to do, maybe the jokes feel forced or poorly written.

I think writing tends to sort of take an unintentional backseat in webcomics, and it just comes with the territory. Tons of online artists naturally come up with their own characters that they want to write stories for, so they gravitate towards webcomics. Whereas writers - even online ones - don't tend to see webcomics as the default, they'll usually end up in the fanfiction circles or on Wattpad or even just ditching the online format entirely and going straight into trad publishing. It's why there are so many writers looking for artists in the webcomic community, you won't find artists looking for writers quite so much because they usually wind up using webcomics as an entry point into writing. Writers can't use webcomics as an entry point into drawing quite as well, there's a LOT more upfront work into learning how to draw vs. learning how to write (but writing is ultimately harder to master, knowing how to write scenes on the page doesn't necessarily mean you're writing those scenes well).

So I find more often than not the writing ends up being a dealbreaker for me. Art gets me interested enough to take a peek, but the writing is what keeps me invested, so if the writing isn't sound, I'm probably not gonna stick with it. If a comic does feel like it isn't written (or even drawn) up to what I would define as "good", I try to identify what exactly what's wrong with it, not just so I can better understand why it isn't working, but so I can implement that understanding into my own work. It's not just learning what works in a comic, it's also learning what doesn't work.

Still, I try to distinguish between whether a comic is "good or bad" vs. whether or not it's even meant for me. I've definitely read comics in the past that didn't click with me but I could totally see why people liked it, it just didn't appeal to what I was looking for or my humor or whatever. Some comics are objectively great and they just don't connect with me, like Scoob & Shag, Homestuck, etc. where I can respect why people like them, I just like, couldn't get into them no matter how many times I tried LMAO And then some comics are objectively not great and I enjoy them anyways, like Deep Fried Pudge, which is literally just a daily single panel dad-humor-full-of-puns comic, it had no right being in my subscription list when I was still on Tapas but something about it was so charming to me. I feel bad even calling it "bad" because it's not trying to be anything, it's just this humble little passtime project that someone started and never stopped. And I mean it has not stopped updating since 2012, every time I check in on it I'm astounded to see it's STILL going at 4,036 episodes. I have no idea what power the person who makes this possesses but they will surely outlive us all, I can only rationalize its existence as the closest I've ever been to perceiving God.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I love totk, love it with all my heart. But even I feel a bit disappointed with a lot of the aspects.

The one that gets me the most is just, the Zonai in general?

When I think back to botw, I remember all the wild and exciting theories and thoughts about what the Zonai could be.

I remember theories that they were some iteration of the Kokiri because the spiral symbols were similar, and a lot of the structures were in forests. I remember everyone being so sure that they were a warlike race because the Barbarian Set were found exclusively in the Lomei Labyrinths. Everyone was wondering what the owls, boars and dragons meant to them.

Then we actually get to see the Zonai, the big mystery of botw and there's just.

Nothing.

All we learn is: there’s 2 of them, they had advanced tech, and they had magical macguffins.

It feels so hollow knowing there was so much potential for another race to be introduced to the Zelda universe and we essentially get Sheikah 2.0 with some Mesoamerican vibes.

We don't even learn anything about them as a race, like where the rest of them went or how they were accepted so easily as rulers or why they're called "Secret Stones" when it seems like everyone knows what they are.

The only real upside to this total lack of info is that it lets people with actual creativity create headcanons and fits without having to worry about being canon compliant.

Just rings hollow.

Yeah, I absolutely feel that. I think the Zelda theorists, and I both include myself and say this with all the love in the world, tend to overhype the specificity of things that tend to remain vague in Zelda (and sometimes that vagueness is great, because it's exactly what fuels us next!), but.... I have to agree that Zonais really didn't deliver on that aspect for me either.

To be frank, I was never super into Zonai lore (because I was never super into BotW lore, but it's really on me and not at all a criticism or anything, the community and I missed each other on the hyperfocus moment), but I got super interested to see the Mesoamerican vibes going on in this game to the point where, when Nintendo dropped the Gameplay trailer and I got... honestly pretty underwhelmed (like design wise that sounded great and fun but it kind of cemented the sort of playground direction they were going with, and it got me pretty worried about other aspects, namely the story :) ), I decided to spoil myself with the leaked artbook just to give me... something to latch onto I guess? Because I really wanted to get excited! And the Mesoamerican vibes did the trick: I got super curious about what that could mean, what the Zonais would bring to the table culture-wise, what sort of cool legends involving them would be investigated, etc... Also it just wasn't a kind of setting that Zelda ever really explored (and still has not, in my humble opinion), so it kind of quieted down my worries of having a game that looked so similar to BotW in terms of artistic direction, to the point where I became afraid it wouldn't have anything different to say (which... ended up kind of being my final opinion, unfortunately).

I think the Zonais both lost a lot of their mystery while not really clarifying anything? I kind of would have loved them to remain otherwordly figures, almost? Or maybe to just have hints of a culture that would be very different to Hyrule's, instead of basically the same thing but with robots and things fly around also --I would have loved deeper implementation of Mesoamerican mythos or cultural elements, instead of it remaining.... kind of a costume, honestly? Like, what even is zonai culture, beyond the automation (which was already kind of the Sheikah's thing anyway?) Where do the stones come from? Where are the other zonais? I'm not asking for direct answers, but just enough vagueness, murals, legends, ancient spirits to set the theorists' brain on fire. The Depths would have been amazing to hint at more (and doubly so for the Sky Islands), but right now, in spite of having spoken to two different live (kind of) Zonais, I still have zero idea what their deal is. They could have been hylians and nothing would have really changed.

So, yeah! Agreed! And sorry for the late ask aaa