#but they had a whole series to themselves

[ka2ki2]

I only get to pick 5? Going through the art I drew at those ages to see...

Undertale. Undertale, Undertale, Undertale. I was very obsessed.

Minecraft! To the point where my first personas were all themed off The End, and my first social media username was 'EndercheezPlayzMCPE'. I would constantly watch Minecraft videos.

I drew a lot of Pokemon fanart, evidently. I don't know if I'd say it was extremely important? Actually, another one of my accounts at that time was a crossover between Minecraft and Pokemon. I got into Ace Attorney at 14 or 15, I'd wager.

I'd discovered how to download an NDS emulator onto my school computer, and I used various Pokemon games and Ace Attorney to survive school. It's not the nature of the games themselves which was important to me, but my personal history with them. I'm still obsessed with Ace Attorney, though...

I started playing Genshin Impact at its release, but I was already 16 then. Not completely youthful. Still, this game's lore has had a big impact on my own worldbuilding & themes.

So, the list: Undertale, Minecraft, Pokemon (particularly Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire and Pokemon Sun/Moon), Ace Attorney, and Genshin Impact

Honorable mentions:

Hades had a borderline life-changing effect on me. I really saw myself in Zagreus.

I had an Overwatch lore hyperfixation despite never playing the game until I was in college. How was I hyperfixated BEFORE Ramattra existed?!

Reverse:1999 came out in 2023, when I was already 18. Parts of it (cough the Journey to Mor Pankh event, Isolde/Kakania/Grace Hofmann, some other stuff) are still very important to me, though.

Sky: COTL allowed me to spend time with my friends during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. I don't play it much anymore, but it has a soft spot in my heart.

I was really obsessed with Detroit: Become Human for a while. Also the Submachine series is an on-and-off fixation. Love West of Loathing / Shadows over Loathing.

There are many games which briefly touched my soul, but I didn't dwell on them for a long time afterwards: The Sigmund Corps. franchise, Omori, Presentable Liberty, Fran Bow, Little Misfortune, Soma, Oneshot.

If I didn't keep procrastinating on it, I bet Disco Elysium would occupy my whole soul. However, I'm very slow about playing it...

Need for Speed Underground, Midnight Club 2, Mercenaries: World in Flames, Black, Quake II.

Honorable Mentions: Mech Warrior, Doom !&II. 

[diamonddeputy]

Why [DELTARUNE CHAPTER 4 SPOILERS] is an effective villain: a premature analysis

Y’all I’m literally posting this and then disappearing from the Internet for however long to avoid the spoiler brigade. I haven’t even finished Chapter 4 yet, there could be more I don’t even know. I just cannot sleep and am so wracked with autistic mania that I HAVE to get my thoughts in order or I will explode

Character creation and analysis have always been some of my greatest passions. I still have my Ceroba Ketsukane analysis sitting on the backburner, 24 pages and counting, that exists purely for my own enjoyment. Storytelling fundamentals are things I keep in mind for everything I consume, especially in the context of characters. That being said, known character development strategies can be attributed to Carol Holiday, and why she works SO WELL as a villain imo

Back when J.K. Rowling wasn’t a piece of shit, I watched an interesting video commenting on how Voldemort could have been made more effective as a villain. Which essentially compared him to Umbridge who usually provokes more vitriol within the community and pitched the idea of him casting some sort of life-altering spell on Hermione. I can’t remember the exact details, but it was something to the effect of memory alteration or brain function suppression, to take away the one thing that mattered most to her in life, which was her academic success and pursuit of knowledge, which we see her strive so passionately for throughout the whole series. And then the reader would have to watch her slog through life with no sense of purpose, a husk of her former self, and allow that rage to fester. He then tied this back to why Umbridge is remembered (ironically, less) fondly, because the slights she commits are targeted specifically on known flaws and vulnerabilities of the main characters

It’s something that I’ve carried with me since because it really does make sense if you stop and think about it. Being like 13 at the time I initially clicked on that video with more curiosity than anything because I thought he worked pretty effectively. But by the end I was like holy shit yeah that would’ve worked SO much better. And the more I think about it, the more it’s really on full display here

The reveal that Carol is a central antagonist made me feel things, sure, but the thing that REALLY got me was seeing her for the first time, even before we knew just how connected she was. When Susie commented on the temperature seeming to fall when she entered, I FELT that. Because the previous chapters made SUCH a big deal about NEVER letting us see her. She was always cooped up in her office with hordes of cronies blocking any entrances commenting on how busy she is, even when confronted with our teenaged protagonist wishing to report a serious danger that not even the police is taking seriously. Within our centralized view, that paints a cold, scheming picture right off the bat

We were given ample time to create a caricature in our minds, shaping itself to whatever bounds it would allow itself to stretch. This is a common practice seen in comic book theory, with the idea that a scene that takes place in a gutter (the space between panels, or in other words, not shown) is infinitely more shocking, gruesome, terrifying, whatever you want it to be than anything that could be shown. Because it allows the viewer to fill in the blanks for themselves, and the human mind has the tendency to jump to the very worst. So seeing her pale fur, sunken eyes, stony glare, frigid colour palette, just HIT because it reinforced EVERYTHING that had been festering in our minds for the past however long. For me, it’s barely even been a year. I can’t even begin to imagine those who have been holding it for upwards of six

We’re already starting off with a bang, but the fact she’s so mysterious is then just used to make the small things we DO learn about her even MORE effective. Noelle is scared to tell her she’s locked out of the house. She doesn’t keep keys of important documents anywhere but home. Rudy is spending what could be his last moments terrified of what will happen to Noelle after he isn’t there to “balance Carol out”, in his words. Noelle explains the feeling of seeking out things that scare her just so she can feel comforted. Speaking as someone else with a poor emotional relationship with her parents, the portrayal of Carol as such is not only harrowing, but very REAL. It’s severe enough to push all the right buttons, but not SO much so that she becomes harder to take seriously because a sense of immersion is lost. THAT is just as important, and it’s what really sells the effectiveness

The fact she wants to bring calamity upon the world is awful, sure. But that’s not why I hate her. I hate her because she’s a shitty mother. I hate her because Noelle has gone through so much because of her. And most of all, I hate her because of the implication that she’s using Dess to get her way, if I’m not going batshit crazy and Dess is the Roaring Knight like is seeming to be implied. Hell, she may have even staged her disappearance to be rid of her, as we know Dess wanted to leave home as soon as possible and take Noelle with her, and also that she was a contrarian to her mother’s strict beliefs and did things she never would have approved of. The reveal that, in her words, “I am always welcome in her home” would only have ever intrigued me if I didn’t know what I do about her. Perhaps she has more sympathetic motives than are being shown to me presently! But because these careful steps were taken to establish her not only as an antagonist, but as a VILLAIN, I felt pure unadulterated disgust. And the desire to be anywhere else and do anything else and listen to anyone else and never do what she wants me to do ever

What truly makes a good villain is the combination between narrative stakes and personal investment. And, more importantly than that, the effort to make it believably, groundely REAL, as opposed to overly blunt or performative. I’ve hated Carol from literally Chapter 1, assuming that she was gonna be an invisible driving force for Noelle’s character development and not much more, and now I just have a vessel to fuel all that rage into because the careful work behind the curtain is being unveiled masterfully. The fact there’s even more to know upcoming has my head spinning because I’m already reeling from just how much I HATE Carol, and just how GOOD that is for the story

If you’ve somehow survived my word salad the size of Mars, please please please leave tour thoughts or whatever else. I’ll see it when I eventually finish everything

[ooooo-mcyt]

It's actually so interesting to me how often fanon remembers Dogwarts as one consistent and extremely loyal and unified group, because having rewatched Third Life a few times lately, the reality is a lot messier and more complicated.

I mean, for starters, the unified Dogwarts faction was a very late addition to the series. Dogwarts existed in some form early on in the series, sure, but it was functionally an alternate naming of Renchanting, which was always just Ren and Martyn and their enchanting business. They had allies, but members of the "Eastern Alliance" weren't members of Dogwarts. The expansion and unification of Dogwarts (a functional rebranding of the faction) came after Ren turned red in session five(?) of eight, at which point Ren and Martyn began seeking allegiance from what were formerly more casual alliances of independent players and factions, and the actual solidification of who was part of the Red Army of Dogwarts took until basically session seven if I'm remembering correctly.

What I'm trying to get at by talking about the specifics of the forming of the Red Army is that, while it's easy in fanon to simplify the faction down to "It was Ren, Martyn, Etho, BigB, Skizz, and Impulse from the start (and then impulse betrayed them)", that's not reflective of the actual events of the season. And I think this concept crucially misrepresents things in two negative ways:

1.) Leaving out important alliances in Dogwarts history. Namely Team Crastle. They were, possibly, some of the oldest and most consistent allies of Renchanting from the beginning of the season, and were cut from the alliance remarkably late in the season. Cleo was, abruptly, cut out of the alliance by Ren because she burned down Joel's house, which Cleo only did after being attacked by Joel and Etho. An act which I think is important in characterizing both Ren (who at this point was so fixated on the unification of dogwarts under a single banner and rule that he'd cut out one of his oldest allies for the sake of joel, who joined them that episode and would betray them by the end of it) and Cleo. Furthermore, I think Ren's rejection of Team Crastle is vital context behind both Impulse and Tango removing themselves from Dogwarts (yes, they were both "playing both sides" as personal tactics, but i also very much believe some sense of personal loyalty led to their ultimate decisions to team with cleo and bdubs, and their rejections/betrayals of dogwarts, to me, rely heavily on the context of the alliance between renchanting and team crastle). Team Crastle isn't the only notable alliance that often gets left out either. As I mentioned earlier, Joel was briefly an official actual member of Dogwarts during the Red Army phase, and while this alliance was brief, I think it is important. Firstly because of how Joel's 'betrayal' fueled the paranoia and bloodthirsty nature of Dogwarts, and secondly because of how the whole situation characterizes Dogwarts at this point in how they used fear tactics to pressure Joel into swearing allegiance (and how he only publicly broke that allegiance later on, when surrounded by other enemies of dogwarts who were offering him support and encouragement). It's also worth noting the relationships between Dogwarts and Flower Husbands, because they were in relatively good standing, and their eventual status as enemies came not from real wrongdoing, but from Scott and Jimmy taking issue with the idea of being 'lesser' members of their alliance, wanting to be equal allies rather than swearing their allegiance.

2.) Making the final members of Dogwarts seem more solidly unified than they were. Yes, Ren, Martyn, Etho, Skizz, and BigB were the Red Army of Dogwarts, and they stuck together until the end of Dogwarts. Ostensibly. But things were..messier..than that. Because I firmly believe the group wasn't as solidly loyal as fanon would have you believe. Martyn, infamously, was allegedly planning to betray Ren once they got far enough into the game, he just didn't have the chance to do so. And while one might think it functionally doesn't matter to the Dogwarts alliance, since he never actually betrayed them, I'd argue that the way Martyn keeps one foot out the door and makes plans in the shadows can be felt very strongly in Ren's pov and actually massively contributed to Ren's mental downward spiral and paranoia. Etho I'd also argue was a big question mark. Sure, he refuses to go against Ren when Grian and Scar try to get him on side, but Etho was also largely unsympathetic toward Ren following the loss of Ren's first life, coming to Renchanting to ask for immediate enchanting and implying he was unsatisfied with their alliance when Ren and Martyn responded with frazzled hesitance. Etho all but stated to Ren that he was only in the alliance for what he can get from it in that moment. BigB and Skizz were both more loyal, but they were also on the outskirts a bit. BigB was a relatively late addition to the alliance, pulled in by his connection to Martyn (who as we established wasn't as loyal as people believe). Skizz was maybe the one stable, consistent, and undoubtedly loyal member of the alliance, though Ren was slow to accept him as such, suspecting Skizz of trying to take advantage of Dogwarts and skip out on bargains early in the season (which was fair to an extent because a lot of players were). It's also very important to note that Dogwarts didn't really fight together in the finale, which I'd argue is a massive reason for their downfall. Ren and Martyn largely stuck together, but Skizz was separated and killed early on, and Etho and BigB spent large chunks of time separated from Ren and Martyn not really doing much or feeling any urgent need to involve themselves in the fight when they don't have to (something that's commented on in etho's pov). Even at their most unified, Dogwarts wasn't necessarily the hyper loyal unified group Ren wanted them to be, or that they're often viewed at.

Sorry for how much I've been rambling, I just think Third Life is the most fascinating season from a political angle and Dogwarts is my Roman Empire in how complicated their history and alliances were, as well as in how different the way Ren presented his alliance optically is from how it actually was at any point. Because things weren't as clean or pretty at any point in Dogwarts history as one may believe.

[stars-obsession-pit]

With DP crossover fics (or at least DPxDC since that’s primarily what i’ve looked at), I’ve often seen fics have it be that the gods are actually just powerful ghosts that relate to those things (i.e. the “Ancients”), and that different religions just refer to them differently.

And I’m generally fine with that as a concept but I feel like it’s a bit… underwhelming at times because the stories feel like they’re going “…but only the DP ghost’s version of them is canon, while other versions are distortions of the truth or based on their old personalities that have since completely changed or etc.”

Which feels to me like it’s kinda undercutting those gods they’re bringing up. Those entities usually have their whole own stories attached to them! Think of all the possible plot threads that could be opened up if they’re still impacting the story!!

Dream the Endless carries plenty of plot threads that Nocturn on his own might not fit into—sure some things like when Dream was captured could probably be fit into Nocturn’s past, but what about when Dream died and was replaced by/reincarnation as the human Daniel Hall? I don’t know if you could make that work without having to majorly rework at least one of the characters.

Is Clockwork the father of the Endless (as the entity known as Time), the father of the Olympians (as the titan Cronus), or both, or neither? What would any of those options mean for the greater cosmology? Also, is he willingly estranged from reality and doing his own thing in the Realm of Time, trapped in Tartarus and plotting his escape/revenge, or somewhat free to move around but held at the behest of the Observants? What if a story wants to have the titans escape Tartarus (a thing which has happened in DC comics)?

And that’s not even getting into any of the “less major” gods with similar domains one might try to connect (e.g. if Clockwork is Cronus, then the Olympians presumably must be realms ghosts too, so is Zeus Vortex? If yes, then what about other storm gods like Thor? Are they all Vortex? Or if not, what’s the distinguishing factor that makes some gods also the infinite realms entities but not others?)

Certainly you could tie the past events into the ghosts’ histories and get a bunch of jumping off points that way, but some things might be too contradictory to fit together—e.g. if they had to be doing multiple things in different places at the same time (though that’s mainly only an issue if there’s multiple gods being tied to the one ghost) or if certain events require highly contrasting personalities. Plus, even if you did that, it still wouldn’t allow for any current events to make use of stuff from the other version(s) of the god.

So like I think it’d offer up a bunch of more interesting options if the other gods and whatnot were genuinely different entities that thus can remain present.

Or, to reduce the number of separate godlike entities running around, maybe it’d be better to mimic what the PJO/HOO series did with the Greek and Roman pantheons: there are distinct versions of the gods but they’re also sorta one entity that has to transform back and forth.

…though that then might bring back the “doing more than one thing at a time” issue I mentioned earlier (well, unless they can split themselves, but allowing that would basically make them entirely separate entities again). So maybe instead of multiple fully independent bodies or just one singular body, they can be in multiple places but only fully act in one?

Like… Clockwork could be simultaneously in the Ghost Zone, in Tartarus, and in the realm of time. But then when Danny works with him in the Zone, it leaves Cronus and Time temporarily not active in those other spots (or at least not fully active). Or alternatively if Cronus escapes Tartarus and starts taking major actions on the world, then Clockwork’s powers would be on the fritz since Cronus is using them for something else.

Or with Nocturn, when Dream had been captured, his Nocturn facet would technically still be free to do his own thing but would probably be limited by the effect (perhaps not to the same full extent as Dream, but it should be enough that he can’t just fix the situation). And then when Dream died, that version of him did indeed get replaced (thus with Daniel joining the set of different versions of Nocturn) but Nocturn remained as he was.

It’d get harder to balance it all the more separate gods that fall under a specific Ancient there are, but as long as they generally mostly agree on things I think it’d be more or less fine (e.g. an instance of Vortex would likely be fine with some other one making a storm somewhere, so getting the power allocated to do that wouldn’t be an issue. The limits only really come into play if it’s a particularly big action or other instances of the god try to prevent it)

…or honestly at this point i’ve probably made it so convoluted that just letting them be fully separate entities is the way better option for allowing other gods to still actively influence a story with Ancients in it.

[omegapausestuck]

I've been thinking, since the act has ended, I've got a prime chance to gather my thoughts; and open a dialogue about the merits and perhaps the pitfalls of the current writing direction of the new comic. Besides, this post was getting WAY too long, so I hope to start a fresh one at the beginning of every act so as not to destroy people's dashes QUITE as much. I've never done a liveblog before, and honestly I wasn't planning to, but it just kind of happened this way, so I'm still figuring everything out. Let me know if you think I'm doing the shittiest job in the world, and you know SO MANY ways to improve it!

Anyway, I think we all know the state of the fandom, when hsbc started updating. We had just come off of the tragic release that was the epilogues, and then the subsequent insult to injury that the previous team had left behind with Homestuck². Nobody was left to believe in this thing, and I was certainly one of them.

I had kind of this general attitude of "Let's all point and laugh at how hard they bungle it THIS time!" but then something strange started happening. The writers were actually listening to the fan feedback, for once, and making marked improvements—in characterization, in tension, in dialogue, in art style, and in scope—it slowly dawned on me that I was genuinely excited to read the next page, not ironically.

I think a part of me wanted this to work, all along. Like sonic fans who had to sit through the most painful, doggiest shit of a game, like clockwork, every year, just in hopes that Sonic Team would get their act together and make something great that they wouldn't have to feel ashamed for their clear, undying love and devotion for the series.

So, when they showed themselves capable of admitting their faults, and refocusing themselves on making something that was completely new, and refreshing—I still cracked jokes, but—I started to root for them, too... and I'll tell you right now, that this era of the comic feels at times more homestuck than Homestuck proper.

These characters are no longer pastiches, or flanderized amalgamations of their various assorted stereotypes, but have a renewed sense of depth, and mature emotional resilience that I found criminally lacking as Homestuck drew to a close.

I've been very vocal about my opinions on Homestuck's "ending," if you can even call it that. It was made by fans, for fans; and it ultimately had nothing important to say about anything actually impactful. All of the themes of adolescence, and child soldiers, and societal indoctrination, and the cold calculus of war were thrown out in favor of the black and white brutality of "Big green man video game boss needs beating," and it's nice to see that depth woven back into the world again.

I'm not going to go into any spoilers, but a few standout moments to me were Jake's speech about believing in all the other Janes enough to give up on the monster this one had become, and Rose opening up about her insecurities with her sociopath of a father, where we realized along with him that he genuinely loves her, and didn't want the burden of being in control. Also, Vriska's whole dream sequence was a very close second that I'd feel guilty to not lend its flowers. (They managed to make me give a shit about her again, and that's an ASK! I was so sick of her raggedy, tired ass schtick! Grow up, bitch!) I'm not sure that the former team would have bothered with those scenes, and they're the most gripping parts of the story, for me.

We're still here because of these characters, and the fact that the authors finally understand that, and are developing them in ways that seem both natural, and respectful, have done more to heal the reputation of this franchise for me than any big multimedia push from the likes of Viz Media, or even Andrew Hussie himself would have, ever, achieved.

Now, we have a chance to see something new, and ambitious. I was cautiously optimistic before, and now I'm essentially just overcome with hope. If this is what we should come to expect from Homestuck in the near future, then we've actually got quite the incredible life ahead of us.

I can't help but look forward to it. How about you?

my reaction to that information.....

I guess this is a thing that's happening.

[smashits]

╰╮  ⠀  𝚠𝚠𝚠.  ⠀  ❙❘❙❚❙❘❙❙❚❙❘❙❙❘❙  ⠀  ✷  ⠀did you mean : ⠀ DISTURB THE PEACE ? ⠀ what began as an ambitious unit project many were skeptical about soon transformed into a powerhouse idol group the public couldn't seem to get enough of. loud, messy, and chaotic ─ they were the embodiment of what POSER RECORDS wanted to be, what they aimed to bring to the table to a steadily growing idol industry. after years of tedious nitpicking under the eye of CEO and creative director LEE JUNHYEOK, 2016 will be the year his vision will come to light.

DISTURB THE PEACE ( 평화 방해 ), often abbreviated as DTP, were first introduced to the world through a web series available on Youtube and Poser's website titled WHAT NOW? Inspired by found footage films and vlogging-styled content, the videos follow the chosen eleven just minutes after the confirmed lineup was announced. The very first video accumulated over 2,000,000 views in just a week due to incoming fans being obsessed with the unfiltered reactions and emotions each trainee had. The series went on to have 44 episodes with each member getting 2 of their own one on one specials so the public can get to know them more.

By late March of 2016, Poser Records will end the pre-debut series on a cliffhanger where the CEO and COO were about to reveal the group's official name. The screen cuts to black, and after almost two hours of waiting, the social media accounts belonging to the company were releasing the long awaited teasers and dates for DTP's debut.

╰╮  ⠀  𝚠𝚠𝚠.  ⠀  ❙❘❙❚❙❘❙❙❚❙❘❙❙❘❙  ⠀  ✷  ⠀ left to right : ⠀ ISEO, NANO, DAHEON aka CASH, JEAN, ANDREW aka AJ, MINYOUNG, ANTOINETTE aka TONI, SKYE, NEVEAH, HAEUN, ROMEO, DAESUNG.

Composed of three sub-units ( 4-1-1, Project X, Social Suicide ), Disturb The Peace quickly became a household name in 2016 due to their mix of experimental pop, edm, electronica, and occasional hip-hop hits spanned throughout their discography.

And just like the mixed reviews on their overall sound, the same can be said towards the members themselves as no one was spared from a controversy that nearly tanked their reputation altogether. Many REBELS argue online over which unit was the most problematic with most deciding it was Project X while others said that Social Suicide weren't full of angels, either.

As of 2025, Disturbing The Peace is currently not as active as a whole with Poser Records deciding to shift focus onto their other groups whilst occasionally using the units as quick cash grabs in between releases knowing that their fans will buy anything with their names on it. Because of this, it's heavily believed that DTP keeps to themselves rather than interact with their "replacements," resulting in several online arguments and alleged fights behind the scenes that earned the group the title of bitter wash-ups. Despite it all, the members are firm believers that they'll come back better than ever ━ it's just a matter of time until when.

[quirkwizard]

Worth Two In The Bush

Once again, I would like to take about a controversial point within the story. This is certainly one of the more touchy points for the fans. I guess that's what happens when an event like this involves two fan favorite characters. Not only was it one of the biggest points of the Act 2 finale, but drastically changed how everyone through of Twice and Hawks. And it's something that's has always haunted both characters and any discussion of them. Naturally, I have my own thoughts on it.

Let me get this out of the way right now: yes, what Hawks did was morally wrong. The story constantly frames him killing Twice as a bad thing. Between the admonishment of the world at large and the actions of the villains, it's clear that this was a wrong thing to do. Hawks himself admits how much guilt he felt over doing it. Because everything that the series is going for runs counter to what Hawks did. Because heroes aren't supposed to kill people. They are meant to subdue villains. Even though it isn't exactly the cold blooded killing every one makes it out to be. Hawks gave Twice multiple opportunities to stand down, even if he could have easily killed him.

However, it was also the practical thing to do. Twice was the lynchpin for the villains. If he went off, it was game over for the heroes. Arguably more so then even Gigantomchia or Tomura. Twice could outmatch the heroes on a scale they can't even imagine. Could he have been captured? Maybe. Hawks even made an attempt for him to come along with any conflict. Which is a pretty generous offer given the stakes. And given the situation, it's not exactly a bad decision. Twice was a guy effectively screaming at Hawks he was going to set off a bomb and kill all the heroes. And even after being told to stop, he says he's going to do it. It's either kill him, or the bomb goes off.

And I bring those up first because that's what a lot of the discussion is based around. Because it's something that overshadows and repurposes the scene in a lot of people's minds. Hawks killing Twice isn't just "Look at how bad Hawks and the Commission are." There's more depth to it than that. It's a tragedy about two people who thought they knew one another, but didn't. An important factor in this is that Hawks didn't kill Twice right away. He even tries to give him multiple chances to stand down and save him from Dabi's flames. Which is pretty generous considering the sheer magnitude of Hawk's task and the consequences of it. It's clearly something that's hard for Hawks as well.

Hawks thought that Twice was a good guy in a bad spot. A guy who was just being taken advantage of by the group. Which is kind of right, but it's far too late and Twice is far too deep to pull back in the way that Hawks wanted to. The whole point is that Hawks didn't understand Twice. Because all that offer did was make Twice mad. It was an insult to the bonds he had built with the League members and especially Toga. It's meant to be part of the ongoing theme about trying to help and understand the villains. Hawks did try to get close to Twice and wanted to understand him, but never in a way that could help Twice. Because it was ultimately a surface-level read of someone like Jin.

It's just as much a tragedy for both of the characters. They are both nice people with a lot of baggage for how they are used to their powers. Maybe that's what made them such good friends. They were kindred spirits in a way and had a lot more connections than people give them credit for. For how close they were, they could never truly understand one another. And that ultimately led to ruin for both of them. Hawks has to kill someone that he considers a friend. Twice gets betrayed once again by someone he thought he could trust. All because these are two people wearing masks to protect themselves. And, no matter how close they are to someone, they still need that mask to keep things together.

[siffrins-therapist]

Seconding! (And added a few more fics to my ever-growing to-read list lmao)

And here's a few more! I think some of these are already in the notes, but ye (also many of these have spoilers for Act 6/Two Hats, even if they aren't post-canon). (I left out site-locked fics, though, since I'm not sure if any of those authors are okay with their fics being linked.)

Oh this got long sjflisjfisl

Like a Wheel Ever Turning by annasofroma is such a fun series! It's an Odile-looping AU, where she and Loop start off on the wrong foot as Loop panics about Odile being the one looping instead of Siffrin and Odile constantly growing frustrated that Loop is holding back information.

Play Fighting by Aniyha is 0w0 It's post-canon, and after the loops, Siffrin confides in their family that he's a vampire. Isabeau is very normal about this information. And I can't mention Play Fighting without bringing up its sequel Sleepover with the Vampire, where Siffrin and Mirabelle have quality Feelings Buddies time, and it's just very cute and sweet :3

Plus there's Aniyha's fic Nous Dormirons Ensemble, an Isafrin fic where both wake up with zero memory of each other, themselves, or how they ended up in a meadow. It has some very sweet but also some very gut-punching moments that had me tearing through the fic to catch up soon as I started reading owo

how this river runs by crashsite is cute, and I'm always up for more Loop & Mirabelle content!! It's post-canon and Mirabelle teaches Loop how to play tag <3

Parallax by discatded is *clutches heart* It hurts so much in places but it's so good. It's pre-canon, but Mal du Pays pops up and forces Siffrin to have some very difficult confrontations and discussions. Beautifully and heart-wrenchingly written <3

Memory of Black Holes by selkiesongs !!! Siffrin wakes up from a nightmare about eating their friends whole (which selkie adds detail to and I kicked my feet reading that whole dream sequence <3) and the Isafrin is so soft in this fic. And I also need to mention her fic A Trick of the Light! This one is n/sfw, and it grabbed me by the throat with the first line "Something's wrong with Sif."

In Silks and Fangs by TransgressivePistoleer is a fic I read in one (maybe two?) sittings and it was such so good and held my attention from the very start to the end. Siffrin is a vampire and also works at a bordello. Mirabelle, Isabeau, and Odile go there after hearing that a certain dancer might be able to help guide them to where one of the orbs is hidden. It's such a good AU, and I love Mirabelle's new outfit in this fic, very Magical Girl and I love that for her <333

I have have have to mention garden_snake20's Loopdile vivisection fic Let's get right to it. It /is/ vivisection, so CW for that, but Loop's more magical/starry anatomy makes it so it's really not that gory to me.

... Oedipus by Jazz_intown. Just. Okay, so it's a fic where the King is also Siffrin and it's so beautifully written. Lyrical prose if that's your jam as much as it's mine, and I'll just paste in my first reaction in my comment for this fic:

*lays on the floor like Frisk and Napstablook, staring up into the Universe*

It's just. Really good.

Break the News by DarkColdSummer is super fun and had me struggling not to laugh bcoz I was reading it in a coffeeshop. A tabloid prints a rumor that Mirabelle and Isabeau are dating after Mirabelle has a slip of the tongue, and... things spiral from there!

Echoes by reinapepiada!! It's post-canon and Siffrin has a nightmare. Isabeau accidentally makes a mistake when trying to wake them. Siffrin is healing but that comes with struggling to rewire his own brain, how they think/talk to themself. There's little lines peppered through that show how Siffrin and Isabeau have talked, and I love that even though Siffrin almost slipped, he's doing better and has Isabeau to help them up again <3

i will eat you (i hope you'll forgive me) by Bronzeflower! These are n/sfw with biting kink and discussions about kink as Isabeau and Siffrin. I went wild reading both fics in the series <33

This one is still in-progress, but Crown of Fools by circusfable is so good so far! It's Isafrin and will have n/sfw later on, but the world is currently still being fleshed out with Siffrin, the court jester, and Isabeau, the king of Vaugarde, mutually pining over one another (with plenty of delicious Siffrin angst). I love me some royalty AUs, and I've adored what I've read of this one so far ovo

STAY AWAKE by Blazing_rain has prose that kept having me reread previous paragraphs as I went, and this is a very high compliment when it comes to what I like to read. It focuses on Mal du Pays and Siffrin, and reading it made me feel like how I felt when trying to navigate the House in Act 5. Just amazingly written, and I still need to read Rippling out into the Source, a Mirabelle-centric, pre-canon fic where she sees Siffrin's ghosts in the House. I'm already sure I'll love it.

The Guiding Star by Hardcore_Introvert is another fic that's still in-progress but it's so good so far! Siffrin is a fortune teller with many secrets, which require them to make sure the Saviors of Vaugarde trust him and let him join them to find the rest of the orbs and fight the King. Too bad they're a suspicious fella; Odile is watching them closely.

In Blood and Stars by actingwithportals is also in-progress and will soon be the longest ISAT fic on ao3! /silly It's probably my favorite post-canon fic rn (in my top 3 definitely) and is Loop-centric as they try to find a new place for themself in the party. There are many ups and downs, as healing is far from a straight line, and what Loop went through isn't something they can shake the effects of. I just love how Loop is written here, and I keep trying to snag onto little bits and hints as I follow Loop and try to figure out what's happening. (I love that the Freezing had possibly long-lasting effects, like animals' biological clocks being messed up after being frozen in time for months and it suddenly being fall when it had been the end of spring/start of summer only a short time ago for them and this effecting things like chickens laying fewer eggs. It's just a really nice touch world-building wise, and this fic is full of little details like that, showing it was written with lots of love :3)

She'll be coming around the Mountain by Analytical_Cochineal takes place pre-canon, when Mirabelle, Isabeau, Siffrin, and Odile go out to a tavern for a night out. Siffrin only recently joined the group, Odile is a little suspicious of them, and Isabeau is starting to catch feelings. And then Siffrin gets drunk enough to put on a show :3 Very cute and fun, I loved reading this :D

I still need to read blueshine's Inutile, but I'm loving Four Eyes. I saw "Isabeau POV during Siffrin's loops" and was immediately intrigued. The non-linear story-telling works incredibly well, and I won't give spoilers, but there was a specific chapter that almost made me cry out in the middle of a restaurant, since I was incapable of waiting until after dinner to read once blueshine updated.

Ending this list off with the series The Funeral of Siffrin No Last Name by Kamary, which made me curl up and cry several times. I remember just diving right into these fics when I was supposed to be packing for my move, and reading them was like having my heart pressure washed (very very positive).

reblog with your favourite isat fanfiction so I can go and check it out

[reflectingiridescent]

"I never wanted any of this. I never wanted the business or the legacy. I just wanted to make things."

The White Rabbit is a complicated and fascinating episode, and I always find something new to pay attention to on a rewatch. Today, it's this line from the mark when he and Parker are up on the roof. Seeing as Parker's well on her way to inheriting the family business and Nate's legacy...well, how can we not read into it?

The White Rabbit Job is a Leverage episode with a sympathetic mark. Those episodes are rare, but they've happened before. They tend to throw curveballs, because we and the team are used to dealing with jerkwad executives.

The mark is not just inheriting his father's company. The company also belonged to his grandfather, which ties Parker's story even closer to Nate's. Because in order to understand Nate, you have to know about Sam and Jimmy Ford. The way each successor takes on the mantle, informed by those who have come before them, matters.

The best leader is not always someone who wants the leadership. However, once that person receives the responsibility, they have to take accountability for it. We watch the mark struggle with this, due to his own trauma, his own guilt. But he's also responsible for the livelihood for so many people. He needs to settle himself - his own good and the good of the people at his company.

I think it's so great that his conversation takes place with Parker, who has trauma about her entire past and guilt about her brother. But also, Parker also has so much passion? The resolution with the mark comes at the end of the episode when he's able to release his guilt about Patience and tie running his company back to what he loves - making things.

And Parker - Parker who had a whole episode about trying to find passions outside of stealing - well, Parker loves stealing. Her ability to lead is always, always linked back to her past as a thief - her passion. That's the place from where she draws her strength.

And even though Leverage: Redemption starts 8 years after this episodes, we can see shades of this episode there, not just in Parker and Sophie running cons (and collaboratively, passing control back and forth) but also:

Parker, now the premier mastermind, needing to recenter herself in stealing (and family, right? Because at this point, Nate's is not only gone but has also passed, and she's the one who orchestrates the rest of the gang getting back together in the way that they used to work) a little bit in order to get back in touch with her love for being a thief

Over the original series, we got used to dealing with Nate and his anger. Redemption is a softer show, though, pulling from the theme of season 5 and anchoring itself in the guilt of the whole team, new members included. Anger burns, but guilt buries - a softer, more difficult emotion. For the good of themselves and the people who rely on them, the members of our team have to deal with their guilt, even over things they'd rather forget.

[inchidentally]

Been around since McLaren Toon’d, let me assure fandom Landoscar are the least PR teammate pairing I’ve ever seen *outside of teammates who outright hate each other. Carlos, Daniel and Lando are 3of McLaren’s biggest PR selling points (possibly of the whole league). Lando hasn’t turned his PR onto Oscar at all - not sure Oscar’s ever had any. I wouldn't even know they hang out until fans found out because nowhere boosts it not even McLaren.

I still cannot believe McLaren had a whole animated series for years ;__; and then w Carlos and Daniel there was like a whole tv show worth of high quality material every season but now we might get smth done with a phone and above 1 min if we're lucky (and that lbr this is precisely down to landoscar not liking PR work)

and no fr anon I literally got sucked into f1 fandom at all bc carland0 and dand0 pandered to my interests hard enough for me to get past not rly liking sports just bc the bromance PR game was so strong aslfsaljfashas

like I always wanna make clear I do LOVE the pandering and accept it gladly and most of my rb is content are the guys who love hand feed it to me and yes those friendships are real ! but fans looking at these guys who arrange pro videographers for social visits and post every single time they interact on sm and fully team, f1 main, global sponsors etc etc repost every scrap about them and get massive fan engagement.... only to then look at Lando and Oscar and say THEY are the PR friendship ?? like whattttttttt

and there are literal McLaren girlies who don't know they hang out outside of work bc they don't ever post it in sm and we rely on someone else or a fan or another driver mentioning it. I've even seen some who don't know that Max (and even P) talk about Oscar and they've remained friends bc fair enough no PR is made of any of that, you have to follow Max's stream content to find out. but that's the whole point - you'll only see landoscar's friendship if you pay attention and look for it, it's not promoted or pushed at ALL. and they haaaaaate doing PR unless they're given space to relax and be themselves. but as soon as they're given a script to work with or too many cameras they clam up.

so on the one hand I can't blame ppl for getting the wrong take on landoscar precisely bc they don't do a PR layer to their relationship.

but as one of these legacy rpf bromance fans myself, u cannot in all honestly receive such bounteous content from two men about their friendship and not realize oh yea most of this is fully intended to have this effect it's literally point of sale bromance content and we as fans are impulse buyers lsafgjlsagfal

(I think it's why charlos to me is extra compelling bc yes they happen to work amazingly well for PR content but!! they also do not hide the other realities of their relationship and don't try to gloss over how complex and sometimes fraught it is)

but straight up wanna know what ppl think the PR meetings would be to artificially create Lando and Oscar saying how Oscar won't play golf despite being invited and then a year later Lando telling a small group of fans at a Jack Daniel's m&g that he wishes Oscar would play padel and then like a week or two later Oscar's playing padel (when tennis was always his preferred game w Kim and Mark) and then they start playing padel together in Monaco and on the road... or "okay Oscar you're gonna randomly and not at all consistently help Lando with words but we won't even make it a thing or acknowledge it like we would have with other pairings" or "ok so you guys are gonna smile super affectionately at each other but otherwise be really awkward with reading this copy ok it'll be certified gold"

and yea as you say anon this is literally the first pairing in decades that McLaren has dropped the usual PR game with - if fans think this complete lack of pushing landoscar as a bromance (when they still very much do with carland0) is PR trying to sell a teammate relationship then just scroll back on the McLaren yt page babes

[homoeroticcolonoscopy]

in your head. what made them both realize they had feelings for each other

i thiiiiiiink after the whole drinking movie night incident (important in the deep ppns lore) theyd have an unspoken arrangement of sleeping together like once a week. both gaslight themselves into thinking its purely physical and its not like they like the guy or anything.

peppino would definitely be the first to crack though because hes more emotionally mature. i think what would make him realize would be a morning after where he makes theo breakfast and theo's asshole persona finally slips and he goes soft and peppinos like. aw shit. hed think though that theres no way in hell noise feels the same so hed just try to bury that.

now for noise. in my head noise is the master of masters of repression bottle everything up dont think about it uh no i dont feel anything cause im a bad ass guy. he has a very big ego thats hard to get through. i think hes so emotionally constipated he wouldnt be able to admit to himself that he has feelings for peppino and hed need someone else to hit him over the head and tell him how stupid he is. i like the idea of noisette being the one to talk sense into him and tell him to be honest with himself, because i think shes really good at reading him (and it pisses him off to no end)

but ya thats my beautiful fanfiction thank you for reading. ive wanted for a while to make a mini comic series based off these ideas but comics are hard so idk. thank you for the ask friendo !

[clarissaweasley-10]

JLB fr is like that one teacher who always shows favourism. And we all know who the fav student(s) are....

[crazy-fangirl2524]

Andrew’s “bottomless rage” and Jean’s “old and ugly rage” are the same in this essay I will -

[roseaesynstylae]

Alpha-17 being a mother hen to the other Alphas* is something we need to see more. Jangotat survives because Alpha stomps in, shrieking obscenities, and drags his ass away, pausing only to yell at Obi-Wan for daring to put his little brother in danger (nevermind that that's what they're currently supposed to do). Maze doesn't tell him about Ordo punching him because if he did, Alpha would make sure the body wouldn't be recognizable as a corpse. Muzzle and Fordo don't get that brotherly overprotectiveness because they're just as prone to mother-henning as Alpha is. On their days off, the three of them team up to make the lives of anyone who dares fuck with their siblings hell.

*Specifically the Alphas that serve the Republic. Do you really think Mr. "They grow up loyal to the Republic or they don't grow up at all" would be at all sympathetic to Sull and Spar's reasons? The best case scenario is that he tells them that he's pulled some strings (read: blackmailed and threatened) to get them back into the GAR scot-free and if they do not accept it he will break their fucking limbs and drag them back.

[al-luviec]

compiled whatever this is (and I run out of tag space)

meh HoT gifs (3/?)

[the-way-astray]

guys i really hate to break it to you, but elves would not consider the moon landing to be a particularly outstanding achievement