#but those og studies do exist

[bookwyrminspiration]

!! This is a thing--media fandom, as long as it's been studied, has been largely a white cis woman space. It's one of those things in acafan (academic fan, fans who study fandom professionally) spaces that's so widely known and accepted it's hard to find a recent source directly talking about/studying it.

Instead, you see it mentioned as a given everywhere else, like: "Whether the first media fandom was U.N.C.L.E. or Star Trek, the women who built those fandoms tended to fit the profile of science fiction fans" (source)," "An offshoot of organized science-fiction fandom, media fandom formed around (mostly female) creative engagements with StarTrek in the late 1960s" (source), and"Media fandom as most of us know it is often largely a female space, by which I mean that many of the circles we run in are made up mostly of women" (source).

There is this Demographic study of AO3 users from Feb 2023 I found though, if you want something more direct and recent.

Of course this barely scratches the surface--there's much discussion of how race impacts gendered spaces (e.g. critique of fandom as white women's space, not as a women's space), the limited gender binary in studies (how does queerness and queer gender factor in), and more. And of course this doesn't mean only women participate in fandom spaces either. But that's more of the rabbit hole and this is long enough.

Also--not an expert, just took a class on fandom once :)

i realise almost everyone who shares their name on kotlc AND i see regularly is a girl. like, is that supposed to mean anything? or is it more coincidental that there are a lot of girls on here? not that it matters but im a girl too

[frankingsteinery]

victor is one of the most psychotic characters i have ever read in literature and it all feels both surprisingly accurate and relatable given the time period; i have been meaning to make a proper analysis on victor's psychotic symptoms for awhile now, but have, ironically, been delayed due to my own psychotic symptoms, so here's more of an informal list--

i'll be breaking down victor's: 1. negative symptoms (loss of functioning)

2. positive symptoms (hallucinations)

3. disorganized thinking and speech/behavior

victor's psychotic symptoms, as well as his initial psychotic break during the creation of the OG creature, are brought upon by the stressors of creating the creature(s), both before, during and after the creation process. the first of these symptoms were negative symptoms.

negative symptoms of psychosis are a loss (thus--"negative") or reduction of normal functioning, and can include restricted emotional expression, lack of speech or monotone speech, difficulty thinking, reduced motivation and/or desire to initiate activities, reduced socialization and social withdrawal, and an inability or decreased ability to experience pleasure. they most commonly occur in the prodromal (initial) phase before the acute phase (characterized by hallucinations, delusions, and confused thinking) and in the recovery phase, which is true of victor's case.

andehonia (lack of pleasure):

"...but I did not watch the blossom or the expanding leaves—sights which before always yielded me supreme delight, so deeply was I engrossed in my occupation... But my enthusiasm was checked by my anxiety... I became nervous to a most painful degree" (paranoia, too) -- Vol I, Chapter III

"It was a most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest, or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage: but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature" -- Vol I, Chapter III (1818)

"By very slow degrees, and with frequent relapses, that alarmed and grieved my friend, I recovered. I remember the first time I became capable of observing outward objects with any kind of pleasure..." -- Vol I, Chapter IV (1818)

asociality (social withdrawal) & alogia (impoverished speech):

"And the same feelings which made me neglect the scenes around me caused me also to forget those friends who were so many miles absent, and whom I had not seen for so long a time. I knew my silence disquieted them..." Vol I, Chapter III (1818)

"Study had before secluded me from the intercourse of my fellow-creatures, and rendered me unsocial..." -- Vol I, Chapter V (1818)

"This state of mind preyed upon my health, which had entirely recovered from the first shock it had sustained. I shunned the face of man; all sound of joy or complacency was torture to me; solitude was my only consolation—deep, dark, death-like solitude." -- Vol II, Chapter I (1818)

additionally, and in general, victor becomes incapable of initiating activities (avolition) while being cared for by henry at ingolstadt.

victor hallucinates several times throughout the novel. these hallucinations are almost exclusively visual, and primarily of the creature:

“'Do not ask me,” cried I, putting my hands before my eyes, for I thought I saw the dreaded spectre glide into the room; “he can tell.—Oh, save me! save me!” I imagined that the monster seized me; I struggled furiously, and fell down in a fit." -- Vol I, Chapter IV (1818)

"The form of the monster on whom I had bestowed existence was for ever before my eyes, and I raved incessantly concerning him..." -- Vol I, Chapter IV (1818)

"I saw around me nothing but a dense and frightful darkness, penetrated by no light but the glimmer of two eyes that glared upon me. Sometimes they were the expressive eyes of Henry, languishing in death, the dark orbs nearly covered by the lids, and the long black lashes that fringed them; sometimes it was the watery clouded eyes of the monster, as I first saw them in my chamber at Ingolstadt..." -- Vol II, Chapter IV (1818)

"All pleasures of earth and sky passed before me like a dream, and that thought only had to me the reality of life. Can you wonder, that sometimes a kind of insanity possessed me, or that I saw continually about me a multitude of filthy animals inflicting on me incessant torture, that often extorted screams and bitter groans?" -- Vol II, Chapter IX (1818)

"Sometimes I entreated my attendants to assist me in the destruction of the fiend by whom I was tormented; and, at others, I felt the fingers of the monster already grasping my neck, and screamed aloud with agony and terror." -- Vol III, Chapter IV (1818)

beyond that, victor's positive symptoms also include delusions of guilt, grandeur and persecution. however, this is complex enough that it warrants its own separate post. for another time... (edit: find it here)

victor also experiences disorganized behavior, behaviors that are inconsistent, contradictory, or don't fit the situation; for victor, the most obvious of which is catatonia, a symptom of psychosis characterized by abnormal movements, behaviors, and withdrawal. he demonstrates both akinetic (staying still, appearing unresponsive, staring blankly, lack of speech) and excited/hyperkinetic (moving in a pointless/repetitive way, appearing agitated or delirious, pacing, etc) catatonia.

"Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room, and continued a long time traversing my bed-chamber, unable to compose my mind to sleep...I took refuge in the court-yard belonging to the house which I inhabited; where I remained during the rest of the night, walking up and down in the greatest agitation, listening attentively, catching and fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of the demoniacal corpse to which I had so miserably given life." -- Vol I, Chapter IV (1818)

"...my spirits became unequal; I grew restless and nervous. Every moment I feared to meet my persecutor. Sometimes I sat with my eyes fixed on the ground, fearing to raise them lest they should encounter the object which I so much dreaded to behold." -- Vol II, Chapter II (1818) 

"Then the appearance of death was distant, although the wish was ever present to my thoughts; and I often sat for hours motionless and speechless, wishing for some mighty revolution that might bury me and my destroyer in its ruins." -- Chapter 21 (1831)

he also displays inappropriate/unusual reactions, another example of disorganized behavior:

"I was unable to contain myself. It was not joy only that possessed me; I felt my flesh tingle with excess of sensitiveness, and my pulse beat rapidly. I was unable to remain for a single instant in the same place; I jumped over the chairs, clapped my hands, and laughed aloud... my loud, unrestrained, heartless laughter, frightened and astonished [Clerval]" -- Vol I, Chapter IV (1818)

victor shows disorganized speech through his "ravings" several times and there's quite a few examples of this but i can't be bothered to pull more quotes. here's just one:

"A fever succeeded this. I lay for two months on the point of death: my ravings, as I afterwards heard, were frightful; I called myself the murderer of William, of Justine, and of Clerval." -- Vol III, Chapter IV (1818)

as a side-note, in the 1800s, the term "fever" was used loosely in comparison to its modern definition, and the health of the mind and body was often viewed as interconnected--thus victor's "fevers" after periods of high stress that triggered psychosis—while being nursed back to health by henry, during his time in prison, etc.—could easily be viewed as mental illness rather than an actual physical sickness, or some combination thereof.

lastly, victor experiences disorganized thinking, which includes racing thoughts, flight of ideas, confusion, trouble keeping track of thoughts, difficulty concentrating, time processing disturbances, etc.

in general, victor experiences dream-like perceptions that leads to difficulty being present, concentrating, and processing reality, what he himself refers to as “strange thoughts” (Vol II, Chapter IX, 1818). for example:

“All pleasures of earth and sky passed before me like a dream, and that thought only had to me the reality of life.” – Vol II, Chapter IX (1818)

additionally, victor is known to lose time and “awaken to understanding” weeks or months later several times:

“What then became of me? I know not; I lost sensation, and chains and darkness were the only objects that pressed upon me…by degrees I gained a clear conception of my miseries and situation, and was then released from my prison. For they had called me mad; and during many months, as I understood, a solitary cell had been my habitation.” – Vol II, Chapter VI (1818)

“But I was doomed to live; and, in two months, found myself as awaking from a dream, in a prison…It was morning, I remember, when I thus awoke to understanding: I had forgotten the particulars of what had happened, and only felt as if some great misfortune had suddenly overwhelmed me.” — Vol II, Chapter IV (1818)

“I seemed to have lost all soul or sensation but for this one pursuit. It was indeed but a passing trance, that only made me feel with renewed acuteness so soon as, the unnatural stimulus ceasing to operate, I had returned to my old habits.” — Vol I, Chapter III

he also demonstrates flight of ideas, a thought disorder that involves rapid shifting of thoughts that are expressed in language. people with flight of ideas may speak quickly and jump between ideas that are not connected in a way that is difficult to follow, illogical, or nonsensical. this occurs just before alphonse visits him in prison:

“I know not by what chain of thought the idea presented itself, but it instantly darted into my mind that the murderer had come to mock at my misery, and taunt me with the death of Clerval, as a new incitement for me to comply with his hellish desires… “Oh! take him away! I cannot see him; for God’s sake, do not let him enter!’” — Vol III, Chapter IV

to which mr. kirwin “regards [victor] with a troubled countenance” in response.

aaand that's a wrap.

there's no real point to all this i just wanted to outline most of his symptoms so i could have it all in one place. i'll probably expand on this sometime with more actual thoughts and ideas of substance as well as building on the implications of a reading of frankenstein where victor experiences psychosis (and how actually acknowledging victor's mental illness forces a much more sympathetic interpretation of victor... which is why people tend to talk around it). do with this what you will!

[starberry-cupcake]

SHORT STORY + BONUSES (read it like when gollum says bagginses) INTERMISSION!!! Today we'll take some time to dive into the Harrow bonuses and a couple of short stories, one of which I should have read before, but such is life.

previously, in the tlt universe:

I finished harrowcita del 9

Bonus 1: BoE google doc for the soldiers

differently from the other recaps, I did these while I was reading them, not when I finished reading a whole chapter/story

so maybe the thoughts are more rambly than usual

sorry about that

ANYWAY I have to give it to the BoE folks, they've got a lot to deal with over here

they're like the audience, coming into this blind

and have to try to understand how necromancers operate on the fly

'bullet to the head but don't be too confident on that' seems to be the most useful tidbit

it's like a resident evil gameplay

BoE is in resident evil, gideon is in survivor and harrow is in a gothic pulp novel

the advice for engaging lyctors is "avoid them at all costs"

I keep spelling it BoA instead of BoE because of her

blood of adam? blood of awake me up when september ends? idk

Pronounciation guide (aka I do what I want, but apparently pronounce nonagesimus like the author)

dr reverend emperor john chose the name gaius for himself, it wasn't his real name

gaius sounds like gallo, the spanish name for gallus gallus domesticus, which in english would translate to cock and alludes to the fact that he is a dick

agustine is pronounced like in english and not like in spanish (agustín), I have been pronouncing that one right but I could have called him agustín all this time

cassiopeia was a queen but we already knew that

sixth house, ceramics, cooking, checks every one of my boxes

"CRIS-ta-bell. Rather than “crees”."

what is the difference oh my god is there a difference there

pyrrah is achilles's drag name, which is cool

valancy and cyrus were like this

I'm still gonna call the mithraeum mithrandir whatnot the emperor's bolthole, it's in the sacred text

the nonniad is in dactylic enneameter, which is a ninth version of greek epics (which are hexameters) and it's making me send my ancient greek professor from uni good vibes wherever he is

Glossary

we know more about the beasts now, or have more ordered info, the gist of it is this

so the RBs are only the nine OGs from the nine planets of dominicus that the emperor fucked up

those are the ones that can go from the river to the physical world and viceversa

the other minor beasts can only exist in the river

I still think this is all the emperor's and the lyctors's fault for starting this nonsense and killing planets for power and whatnot

so yeah, Consequences of your Actions, johnny boy

the heralds, as we had established, are kind of like borg, responding to the RBs

necromancers kinda go mad at all this as if they were looking at cthulhu

I wanted to google what the two first verses of wake's name were but the first results that pop up are tlt sources and I'm not looking into that, in case of spoilers

I've already come this far without massive spoilers, I'm not gonna risk that now

what quotes would you like to have as a name if you were one of these folks?

If I could choose three, I'd probably pick: Yo tengo el corazón como la espuma / das Leben Sie nicht vergessen hat, daß es Sie in der Hand hält / Quieto en la tierra y sentir que mis pies tienen raíz

probably un monceau d’idées et un monceau de douleurs would be another contender considered

idk how that'd be shortened though, maybe espie because espuma

house quiz was book 1, boe name assignment is book 2

The Mysterious Study of Doctor [tumblr keeps blocking my post and I'm gonna try to avoid this word to see if this is it]

ANYWAY, SIXTH HOUSE TIME

from the blurb I can tell that:

1) all this time I thought Dr S was like a funny nickname someone had given palmolive for being correspondence-horny lmao

2) is this the magnus institute???

3) "Enter Palamedes Sextus and Camilla Hect, age thirteen" we're gonna look at some baby picturessss

"Every thirteen-year-old necromancer in the Sixth House is gifted."

"I was born with four kids in my generation eligible to produce children with me. Palamedes had two"

maybe that's why he went for a correspondence gf

camilla describing that's she's the best and me just going

this thing of 'being attractive' as a category would get me demoted at the sixth, though

but working in data, I can do that

I am really liking archivist zeta

there's something that was sealed for a lot of years and now is unsealed and that's very exciting!!!!

lost media!!!!

so many stairs would be a problem for me, but there's lost media at the end of the tunnel

archivist zeta: don't touch anything

palmolive: including the bone hands?

archivist zeta: the what now

apparently the hands are younger than the time the room has been sealed

with the forms being color-coded, I'm starting to think this is less magnus institute and more office of incident assessment and response 

them making references to other houses remind me that other houses socialized, seeing everything from the ninth made me feel like everyone was isolated all the time lol

add to my list of sixth house love the fact that we have murder mysteries now too

gotta love the sixth house

kinda ominous the hand bones now that we know what we know, of camilla carrying palmolive as a tamagotchi in a bone hand after harrow changed the skull

palmolive and camilla age 13 are a whole other book I would have devoured at age 13 myself btw

giving me his dark materials vibes

there was a skeleton in the air vents above the hands

camilla says she's gonna start taking measuring tape with her alongside everything else and I also can relate to going places with 25 million things, just in case

palmolive steals pens, apparently

I've used this meme for palmolive before but it still fits

the skeleton was possessed by the dr himself, he got kinda stuck on his way there after the fifth person tried to call him and got his hands into his study through skeleton shenaningans

palmolive needs to touch something in order to prove the "why" and everyone votes in favor, because he's on a roll

the cool wooden orb that was in the desk was a cool wooden puzzle, like the Karakuri Creation Group ones

man, I love those

the dr solving a puzzle after his death and coming back to prove it is me with some niche puzzles I used to have a sideblog for

don't ask me

there was paper inside and everyone got outside super fast and started congratulating each other (hello????? you did nothing????) and shaking camilla's and palmolive's hands

they don't wanna give palmolive multiple points for solving a several hundread years old mystery, which isn't fair tbh

"Don’t expire in a fit of hubris." oofffffffff

the paper had letters, which palmolive thinks are love letters

with his years of experience on pining letters

the one at the ends says "Tomorrow you will become a Lyctor and finally go where I can’t follow"

is this about cassie??? aka cassiopeia????

loved the camilla and palmolive murder mystery dinner

As Yet Unsent

this is judith's diary and this is how I imagine she looked while writing it and judging people

judith assisted the BoE with her own healing but it's kinda tough when you're also handcuffed and with your eyes covered and whatnot

judith is still in the emperor's side

I don't blame her, she hasn't met the man

yandere twin has met him and still saved him so, I can't judge judith too much

there's a corpse that isn't rotting

promising stuff

there's a commander called We Suffer

they're wearing masks and camilla is being "converted" to their cause

and she didn't even meet the man, but apparently BoE had contact with the sixth house at some point in the past

cassie?????? is this you??????? who knows

sixth house though, earning more points

also, camilla says that palmolive would want to find out what they know and, you know what, fair

I would too

camilla is also good at chess, because she's good at everything

they're playing ceiling chess like in queen's gambit

judith thinks about martita, who will soon do some awesome things next to mati nonnius

judith is also marinating the fact that everyone was fooled by the twinsies and the fact that regina george twin has no necromancy

she also complains about her being too emotional and prone to trust people

every point regina george twin makes about BoE sounds pretty solid to me tbh

the more I see, the more I think the emperor is a dick, like his name implies

judith argues with regina george twin a lot but also notices that her ears go pink when she's impassioned so...why are you noticing that judith????

how did you notice that???? *smirks knowingly*

judith has to deal with the limitations of medical care when you don't have a bunch of people who do body magic stuff

so she's dealing with recovery in a slow way and with machines plugged to her

it's hard for her because she was from the house where necros are also very able to do physical stuff

camilla is giving her strongly worded positive reinforcement

regina george twin and judith have a lot of moments that go from flirty to fighting

I can't keep using smirk reactions images so (¬‿¬)

regina george twin is also being trained to be rambo barbie and I think that suits her

"In a different time I would have found ways to apologise to Palamedes Sextus, whom I at the very least critically misjudged"

palmolive always getting the indirect compliments my goodness

he's so popular

"The princess has by turns tried to charm Camilla, play with Camilla, flirt with Camilla, and cajole Camilla. Camilla is currently unmoved"

nobody's good enough for her, regina george twin, move along

regina george twin is also being kinda aphobic towards judith's response on her being uninterested to romance camilla

I don't think judith is aro at all but that doesn't mean we have to be assholes about it, regina george twin, thank you

judith and regina george twin think BoE is wrong about necros having orgies and I'm here like

so, apparently, judith propositioned martita because she was pretty much obsessed with her

and martita said no

and she thinks camilla is holding onto tamgagotchi palmolive out of some sense of not wanting to let go of him

unaware of the fact that he's in his river loft waiting for his bones to be womanhandled by harrowcita

also, the BoE has an old ship that judith wasn't helpful with, so they don't really have much patience with her

regina george twin and judith keep flirting in that intense tlt way

I'm starting to think regina george twin has a big crush on judith and I'm here for the dynamics of that

"It said, Ugh! Then it said, Eugh!" is this mercygirl??? it sounds like mercygirl to me

and fixing someone's insides as if they were cleaning a sewing machine also sounds very mercygirl

mercygirl is also curious about this body that doesn't rot and I wanna know what it is because I want so bad for it to be gideon-related but I can't let myself hope

also, she gave them the coordinates to find harrow in the cool planet

"And Camilla said, The Warden and I know they can die like anyone else" 👀

"The corpse of the Ninth House cavalier is as pristine as when Camilla Hect convinced them to take it on board"

YESSSSSSS

YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

MY HOPES WEREN'T UNWARRANTED

LET'S GOOOOOOOOO

GIDEON ARMS INTACT BABYYYYYYYY

regina george twin proposes necro-cav marriage to judith and judith says no because no relationship here can be straightforward

"Why would I ever knowingly take Coronabeth Tridentarius’s, having desired her already for twelve long, stupid, fruitless years?!"

DRAMAAAAA

AND THAT'S IT!!!! FINALLY!!! This took me a lot longer than I wanted it too but I enjoyed the stories ♥ See you in the next one!!

[usagifuyusummer]

I LOVE your picture of Timmy in a victorian era dress! He looked so pretty!

This isn't his default design for this AU tho. (There's a lot that's still in development on this concept/aspect of his character honestly.)

Nonetheless, I will attempt to draw his default outfit in the next concept piece. There's a lot that I have to handle in real life currently, so it'll probably be in progress for a long while. (Like, I have to prepare for a family outing this weekend, plus next semester uni preparation stuff for this October.)

Still, I took the time to draw this short (stupid) comic lol because I felt appreciated by this comment! I actually took a lot of time studying and finding inspiration from childrens clothing of that era when designing this alt outfit of Timmy. Like, you can Google the outfits online, and you'll notice which garments I took lol. Except, for the bonnet part. You have the OG show to thank for that. (I've decided to include the bonnet too, because it is an existing wear during those times, plus Timmy's outfits most of the time will include a type of hat, so that cemented my decision on utilising the bonnet with this alt wear.)

I am actually quite unsure if Timmy has ever been complimented as "pretty" or good-looking in the OG show before? Like, most of the time, I remember a lot of insults about his little pink hat or his large rabbit teeth, but why can't I remember anyone complimenting him? Hm, maybe it's because of the dark comedy and mean-spirited vibes the show has that I can't recall much on this?

Initially, I had a hard time coming up with how he should respond to such a positive comment because I didn't remember instances of that happening too frequently in the show. So, in the end, I've decided to just make his response be neutral-ish (with hints of his low-self esteem) and also attempt to include Cosmo and Wanda's fae mishevious behaviour or goofing off attitude in this short comic.

I do notice from the show that Timmy is actually quite shy, but I'm not sure if he responds shyly to positive comments about himself. This means that I have to hit the books more, study the characters (by watching the show) and the related concepts when in the middle of thinking and formulating about this AU.

So yeah, this is a baby's early attempt at trying to write and understand how the characters work and bounce off each other lol. I think my writing still looks stilted and off, but I'll try to learn from the mistakes I've made as I progress on my creative works. And as this AU is still in development, a lot of things might change. (This short comic is considered a practice round.)

Credits: This AU (Victorian Era FOP) and Cosmo and Wanda redesigns are originally by @keyintheeye-blog.

Overall, thank you for the kind comment anonymous person! It made me feel appreciated about the efforts I took on that piece. I hope you like this silly attempt at a short comic I made to express my gratitude to your comment. Have a nice day anonymous! 💐

[celaenaeiln]

Thank you so much for debunking the whole "Dick was a super angry child" thing the fandom has been pressing hard for the last few years it's one of my pet peeve characterization for him. (The other him being a Playboy) Does he get angry of course he does he's only human but he's usually very level head and even if he was the "Angry Robin" when he first started he was 8 years old and just lost his parents! I feel like anyone especially a child would be hurt and angry then but he didn't want revenge he wanted justice. He was a sweet child who just wanted to make his parents proud.

og post in question

Yes!!

Actually another anon asked me about this too a while ago - that I'll be getting back to soon - and I began writing right away but then I just couldn't. I had to put it on hold because I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of evidence that Dick was a happy robin. Not A happy robin, THE happy robin. I was exhausted because I didn't know where to begin, there was just too much evidence. I needed to create a separate post first.

It makes me so mad when i see Angry Dick Grayson posts because it's not even an interpretation of events. There's nothing to debate, there's no doubt, there's no question, there's no confusion, there's nothing to contest - HE WASN'T AN ANGRY ROBIN.

Jason says it himself! And unlike people in the fandom who've never read a comic in their life but like running their mouth off, he would actually know because he studied Dick. He watched all of Dick's videos when he was Robin. 11 years worth of videos. And this is what he says about Dick's robin:

Suicide Squad: Get Joker Issue #1

Jason straight up says that Dick was the happy robin. And that's just Jason. There's still Tim, Damian, Bruce, Alfred, Clark, the Justice League, and the Titans who talk about it.

Frankly it boggles my mind when I hear people who write takes say that Dick was an angry robin because even if they've never read any of the robin comics, they should at least know what he was like from what the adult characters say right? Did they really never stop and wonder why Jason keeps talking about not being Dick when he argues with Bruce? Or why Tim was so obsessed with Dick aside from knowing him from the circus? Or why Bruce writes entire monologues about how Dick saved him? Or why Alfred goes on massive rants about how Dick was the best thing ever to happen to Bruce and him or why he started crying and mourning when Dick merely left as Robin? Did no one stop to consider when they started going around saying he wasn't happy?

Honestly Angry Robin Dick Grayson characterization is a black hole of logic and intelligence.

The reason it became so popular is because it's a logical fallacy and logical fallacies sound convincing. This particular argument is the hasty generalization logical fallacy. Hasty generalization is when a statement is made after one or two examples rather than relying on extensive research to back up a claim.

For example: I got sick after eating pizza from Aleano's. Therefore, I must be allergic to pizza.

Proponents of angry robin dick characterization choose one example from decades of writing to claim that he was angry after his parents died which-seriously? Besides you'll start to notice that people who write those takes will never provide evidence because it's near possible to find something that doesn't exist. Sure one or two out of context photos might be provided but that's the best they can do to support that type of characterization. As much as we wish we were magicians from Hogwarts, no amount of wishing is going to transfigure the hundreds of comics filled with happy robin to him being an angry monster.

Also it's ridiculous that type of character because they're saying that if he's upset that his parents died, then he's an angry character. But if the Joker's happy that random people died, then he's a psycho. What do they want?! And that's not even the whole truth of it either. Dick was massively sad more than he was angry. He was taken away from his circus family and is left alone like all the time now. His life changed in a second - he's depressed. But he was able to work through it and that's how Robin was created.

Dick was not Robin when he went after Tony Zucco. The reason Bruce made him Robin was specifically because he admitted he didn't want Tony Zucco dead.

The problem is people sometimes hyperfocus so much on one detail that they forget the big picture. They centered 11 years of Robin characterization around one moment.

Let's get the facts straight. Robin is a success story. The greatness of Dick wasn't just that he was the smart, the best of the ages, and the greatest athelete - no. His greatness is that he is able to move. ON. He can do what Bruce never could. He could move on and take his parents death and turn it into something positive. He was able to overcome grief and not dwell in the past.

That's why he was able to be happy. That's why Bruce couldn't. And that's why Bruce needed Dick because Dick made him happy.

Alfred says this about Dick as Robin -

Robin: Year One Issue #1

"The addition of Dick Grayson into the Master's crusade has made a difference in him." "I do believe I saw him smile. There have been occasions in the pantry when I could just discern the muffled sounds of laughter echoeing up from that dreadful cavern beneath the manor."

People don't seem to understand. Alfred never approved Bruce's tenure as Batman. He loathed it so much he punched Bruce for it. It was Dick's light and goodness that changed Bruce's mind because he saw how happy Dick made him and how happy of a child he himself was.

And Dick? He never changed his personality in or out of costume.

Robin: Year One Issue #2

"He doesn't seem to struggle to lead a normal adolescence." "He's had no need to develop the masquerade that Master Bruce felt necessary." "His personality remains the same with or without the mask and boots. "

He's not the troubled kid some people seem to think he is. He wasn't mean or selfish or cast aside or raging moodily in a corner. Actually in the Batman (1940) and Detective Comics, he was seen as a role model for how helpful and kind he was. He was actually the one who went out of his way to help troubled kids because of his kindness, goodness, and empathy.

Checkmate (2006) Issue #14

Checkmate is a member of Task Force X under Amanda Waller and an ally of Batman's. She knows him. She knows what Dick was to him and Dick even mourns about the time when Bruce used to be happy. It was his joy and personality that did that.

Of course my argument isn't to be taken one sidedly saying he was constantly happy 24/7, all the time, in every occasion - no. Emotions are a spectrum and no one feels one emotion all the time. Thats silly. But, your personality outlook is based on what you feel most of the time. Dick sometimes got angry, sometimes got sad, etc. But in a dichotomy between happy and angry there is no doubt, no question, that he was overwhelmingly on the happy side.

There's a reason why everyone calls him happy. It's because for an overwhelming majority of the time, he was the happy robin.

52 Issue #25

Way back in the Batman (1940) comic Dick says, "I became Robin, history's first sidekick. And there I was, the laughing boy daredevil--"

Batman and Robin (2009) Issue #9

You can call him crazy, excitable, feral, overexcellent, etc. But never forget that Bruce once went insane after locking himself in a simulator that emulated Robin Dick Grayson's joy.

The incontestable truth - Dick was a happy robin.

[borwski]

spymaster, becoming the doctor, and gardening – a little character study

anyone else obsessed with the master and margarita short story?? no?? just me?? oh well you’re getting a character analysis anyway, long rant about spymasters obsession with the doctor via mushrooms under the cut :3

tw for dissociation and substance induced hallucinations (weird ahh mushrooms as torture)

for those of you who haven’t read the master and margarita (i def recommend its super fun) it’s about what dhawan!master was doing during his 77 years on earth in that time skip during spyfall 2. he’s a mushroom farmer in russia, crazy hijinks and thoschei references ensue. maybe i’m going too deep into it but i really love the idea of him as a gardener and what that implies for everything we see in ttc/potd

i’d like to start with the fact that out of all the masters, dhawans is the one least confident in his identity. classic who masters and saxon held their title with pride with their “he’s the master and you will obey him” shtick. missy, even when she was debating her morality, never saw herself as anything other than missy. her title wasn’t being questioned, it was what she chose to do with it. meanwhile, spymaster just... loses himself after looking into the panopticon. he’s faced with the reality that the doctor is more important than he could ever be, and given that he sees his worth as interwoven with hers (the history between us, constantly refers back to their past/when they were equal), this makes him lose all sense of self. it used to be theta and koschei. the doctor and the master. now it’s just the timeless child and….. that’s it. there’s no significant place for him in her life. what’s he supposed to do now, when he’s based his whole history around her?

easy! fracture himself into different personalities, hide behind disguises (i mean, THREE disguises in one episode? calm down dude) in an attempt to hide his unimportance. while the timeless child is the story of child abuse and colonialism, a hurt the doctor will have to live with even if she can’t remember it, the master sees it as a triumph. he is lesser. she is the timeless child and she has existed forever and he is some dumb timelord who fell in love and meant nothing to her in the long-run. he feels like he’s not deserving of being in his own skin anymore so he hides behind whatever name and personality he can find.

but the thing about all his disguises is that they are so human. agent o, a shy little analyst at MI6 with the wide eyed stare and wits to be the doctor’s companion. rasputin, famous bachelor and a piece of history the doctor would notice. he says he despises humans but he dresses up as them because well, do you know who does love them? the doctor :(

which is why his name and intentions in the master and margarita are soooo so interesting to me. first off, his human alias is mikhail (“son of god”, writer of the og master and margarita) afanasyevich (“immortal”, also the og writer of master and margarita) gospodinov (roughly translated to “lord” and “master”). he steals a name, just like rasputin in potd, with a lot of weight on who he is right now. an emphasis on “immortal” “time lord” when hes dealing with the pressure of ttc. hes basically copying the doctor and making a title for himself like the ‘timeless child’ to feel equal again. it’s not the only time he copies the doctor either, hes basically working for “evil russian unit” in this short story. 

(remind you of anything?? yes im talking about the doctor-master. super cool foreshadowing on how hes been trying to become/be one with the doctor before potd)

and it’s literally in the text. the whole reason he spends months cultivating mushrooms for russia is to change history a bit so that jo grant’s marriage will be ruined. such a Doctor thing to do, kind of parallels clara and danny. to love a human is to be overly dramatic over them. the master, again, uses humans for his own benefit but has never been overly fond of them, with the exception of the doctors little companions. hes copying her again.

but the thing is, he keeps cultivating them. he gains a love for caring for them. mushrooms are just mushrooms until they arent. in a time where he thinks he’s the doctors opposite, he begins farming mushrooms bc of jo grant, a detail the doctor would remember just bc he misses her. he couldve spent his time escaping and getting back to his regular timeline to defeat the doctor, but he stayed. because of a human attachment. very doctor-y.

and if that bit of nostalgia wasn’t enough, he even hallucinates the third doctor in this. Which. okay. give me a non-thoschei explanation for this.

i just really like what that short story has to offer as far as the masters obsession with other people and his disguises go. and what it means for him to spend months of his live caring for something, like the doctor would, when all hes done before is kill. what does it mean for the champion of death to cultivate life :(

nyways, if you made it this far, i really hope you enjoyed !! i just love talking about spymaster can you tell lmfaooo and if you liked any of this id recommend reading the gardener by ritheh on ao3 which expands on his whole “killer heals for once��� thing its soooo good <33 ok bye see u guys next time

[blog-moved-lol]

The Favorite Child

(This is not an OG concept, it's very much inspired 👍)

Dick knew that he wasn't the favorite child. Maybe he had been once, a long time ago, but he saw the way Bruce had lightened the moment he met Jason. The kid might've stolen his tires, thrown a tire iron at him, and called him a 'Big boob' the first time they met, but Bruce had just simply laughed and brushed it off. Plus at the end of it, he still had the kindness to send Jason to a respectable, expensive school to get him off the streets, and when it was revealed that the school was teaching these kids to be criminals Bruce had immediately gone to get Jason away from all of the corruption. Even as Jason grew and it became apparent that he was troubled, reckless, and sometimes even violent because of his past, Bruce had still tried his best to be patient and understanding to the boy. Dick had seen first hand the way that Jason's death had affected Bruce, the overwhelming and unending feelings of grief at losing another person who was close to him, and the guilt at not saving him, not being there to protect the one person he wanted to protect the most. He had watched Bruce retreat into himself, and even Alfred had defeatedly said that Bruce was acting just as he did when he lost his parents, all of those years of progress growing and healing from his traumas thrown to the wind because of a crazed man and a crowbar. Yes, Dick knew the truth. Jason was definitely the favorite child.

Jason knew he wasn't the favorite child. When he was Robin he had known it to be Dick, and after his resurrection he had thought it was his Replacement, though when the new little shit had shown up it became blatantly obvious to him that the favorite child was Damian. Of course it was, he was Bruce's biological son after all, why wouldn't he be the favorite? The kid might be an ankle-biter who swings around a sword, a trained assassin with blood splattered across his hands, but Bruce just pats his head, gives him a hug, and lets him keep filling the cave with various animals like Bat-Cow. Despite this kid clearly having the ability to kill without remorse, just like Jason himself nowadays, Bruce still wants to baby and coddle him as if he isn't the least deserving of being coddled. This kid is a trained assassin, he had been long before Bruce ever knew he existed, while the other Bat-Kids were just that when they met him. Kids. Regular, run of the mill kids. (Well, 'Regular' might not cut it what with Dick being a circus acrobat and Tim having some strange stalking tendencies. If anything Jason himself was the most normal back then, but you get the point..) And yet the tiny killer, who acts cold and unfeeling with his flashy words and hard stare, gets coddled far more then the others (at least in Jason's eyes) who were once small, sensitive, defenseless children who looked up to Batman as their saviour. Their everything. Yes, Jason is painfully aware of who the favorite is. It's Damian, no doubt about it.

Tim knew he wasn't the favorite child. He was the observant one after all, even before he started his training he had watched Bruce, followed his patrol routes each night to take photos of him, hidden in the shadows as he fought, constantly studied the hero he idolized.. From the beginning he saw the chemistry between Batman and his first sidekick, the way young Dick had stuck so close to Bruce's side through all of the battles, the graceful and fluid way in which they worked together as if they had been doing it for years, and on some nights when he was feeling bold he even got close enough to hear their banter and jokes. Perched behind the dumpsters in an alleyway, camera in hand, he listened each night as the two casually talked about eating dinner when they got home, about watching movies together in the in-house theater, about spending the holidays by each others side. They were so close that the young detective could practically see the bond holding them together, and when he moved into Wayne Manor it became even more obvious. The way that Dick had helped Bruce through Jason's death. The way that Dick would always come to Bruce's rescue, as quickly as possible, no matter what. The way that Dick is still so close to Bruce even today. Yes, of course Tim knows who the favorite is. It's obviously Dick.

Damian knew he wasn't the favorite child. Overall he didn't really care, he had no interest in being the object of his father's affection, but the fact that his father had chosen his rival as his pride and joy annoyed him to no end. If it had been Richard he might've understood, or even Todd would've been better, but his father so blatantly showed that Drake was the one he adored the most and the young assassin found it infuriating. Everyone was constantly praising Drake, saying that he was 'Sooooo smart', 'Soooooo bright', 'Sooooo cunning'. Damian tallied each time he heard Bruce compliment the nuisance, and for every kind word that was spoken, he gave his katana another strike against the sharpening stone. It wasn't just Bruce, all sorts of people kept complimenting Drake for his many 'achievements', and it made a deep seated rage boil within him every single time. He was always determined to one up Drake, he had to. He has to prove that he's superior, he's the better Robin, he's the smart one, he's the most skilled. But.. He really doesn't care about being his father's favorite. Not.. Not at all.. Yes, Damian knows which of the children his father cares for the most. It's clearly Drake.

[fountainpenguin]

🌃 City Lights AU 🌃

Fairly OddParents: A New Wish

An FOP series with a focus on exploring characters, relationships, and Dimmadelphia as a setting. Draws largely from "A New Wish" canon, but not beholden to it.

#ridwork guides

What Is City Lights AU?

An FOP: A New Wish-inspired series centered around character relationships... Namely, friendships, adventures, and traumas regarding the humans in A New Wish (alongside studies of Cosmo, Wanda, and Peri as they adapt to life in Dimmadelphia). Magical lore and Fairy culture exist in the background, but are not the focus.

🌃 City Lights AU follows an internal canon. While not necessarily compliant with A New Wish, all pieces within it are compliant with each other. They may build on each other to create larger storylines. You may also like Off the Rails: my AO3 series for misc. FOP AUs (Ex: Random one-shots based on A New Wish that don't comply with City Lights).

AO3 Series: City Lights AU

Blog tag - #City Lights AU

Tone

Mostly Angst, Drama, Romance, and Fluff.

Think "We talk about Dale's trauma, Dev's sadness, and Peri's stress, but we also see Cosmo and Wanda or Hazel's parents flirting while Hazel has a great time with her friends."

Pretty up and down, back and forth, like the show itself.

Characters

Heavy focus on the A New Wish cast. Limited appearances by OG series characters. The ones most likely to return in this AU are folks like Goldie Goldenglow and Sammy Sweetsparkle (Classmates of Poof and Foop in the OG series).

- Peri goes by Poof in backstory 'fics since Cosmo and Wanda seem to hear his new name for the first time in "Battle of the Dimmsonian." (Same deal for Foop-Irep). - Foop's alt personality may be mentioned by the name of Hiccup, as that's his name in Cloudlands AU.

Potential appearances from my existing OCs like Anti-Marigold (Goldie's counterpart), Finley (Pixie kid attending Spellementary alongside Poof and Foop), or Anti-Coriander (Foop's betrothed in Cloudlands AU), but maybe not! We'll find out together.

Most notable OC for this AU is definitely going to be Ed Leadly's daughter, Hadley, whom I set up with Dale back in 2018 (Cloudlands AU) and I think it's really funny to keep that canon in City Lights.

If Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda appear in this AU, they'll be referred to with those names since that's how their voice actors are credited at the end of "The Battle of Big Wand."

Timmy, Chloe, Kevin, Molly, Tammy, and Tommy will likely appear, but I don't expect them to be a focus. Time will tell.

Ships

This AU is not specifically Devzel-oriented, but not in an anti-Devzel way... More like "We don't have time to unpack whether or not they'd work together" / "What do you mean- SWEET GOODNESS!!"

I'm not opposed to Devzel, but there's a very specific story beat I feel is a dealbreaker for both of them. We'll find out together! Leave comments as I post works in this series and share whether you think they can work it out :)

Cosmo/Wanda - Retired, mostly chilling, very much love their son and definitely very good at being human.

Dale/OC - Hadley Harrington comes out swingin'! (Cherry lemon ship tag, my beloved...)

Peri/Goldie Goldenglow dating drama that's remarkably less traumatizing than it is in Cloudlands AU, but not necessarily... great. Mostly Peri groveling for her to take him back because I think it's funny if the kid who had everyone fawn over him during school because he was popular ends up struggling with relationships he has to put effort in <3

Mark/Vicky because I love them and I am not taking criticism at this time. You can pry them from my cold, dead hands.

"Are you going to bring their child OCs over to this AU?" - I... don't know. I think it would be hilarious. So, probably! In Cloudlands AU, she joins Mark on Yugopotamia as queen, but I'm equally fascinated by the possibility that Mark left his royal life to stay on Earth, which I think is 100% in line with his character. I'm into it. Let's do it.

Jorgen/Tooth Fairy - I have kid OCs for them that are very far-future in Cloudlands AU, but due to the way Fae age in City Lights, I think I'll bring them in and let them be baby... Italy and Fang, my beloveds...

Angela/Marcus because I think they're cute :) Probably nothing super focused on them, but they sure do exist.

I'm sticking with my Cloudlands AU ships of Timmy/Molly & Chloe/Kevin; they presumably live in Dimmsdale. Kevin and Molly are step-siblings in this AU too.

Leaning towards Irep/Sammy Sweetsparkle dating life fluff/drama because I want to :) Not sure if that's present-day or in their past. That said, we also might not go that route. We'll see!

Honorable mention to Dev and his many squishes. I don't think he knows what's going on either, but I support him.

Setting

Largely takes place in Dimmadelphia with references to Dale, Cosmo, Wanda, Vicky, Crocker, A.J., and others having Dimmsdale history. Some 'fics take place in Dimmsdale.

Fairy World, Anti-Fairy World, and Pixie World may make appearances, and so could alien planets. However, this AU centers around humans and is mostly grounded in Dimmadelphia... hence the title City Lights!

This series will follow a specific AU timeline, meaning birthdates will be picked for some characters. They might be contradicted in future seasons, but this is an AU, so that's fine.

Is It For Me?

- Pieces can range from G to E (Childhood silliness vs. trauma vs. Dale having a very hard time working up the courage to father a kid).

More info in the AU Notes and Warnings section under the cut.

- Heavy focus on Dale recovery, Cosmo and Wanda settling into Dimmadelphia, Hazel adjusting to moving (and occasionally reflecting on her past), Dev's upbringing, and Hazel's interactions with her godparents and friends.

- If you like 'fics that feel like grounded-in-reality character studies and lean into trauma, you might like this series!

- Limited exploration of magic and Fairy World. For now, this AU uses the same magic system and Fae culture vibes I've already made for Cloudlands AU - Click the Keep Reading for details - but I don't plan to delve into it. It just exists as a backdrop.

Major Themes

- Trauma!! How it haunts you... Letting go... Oooouggggh.

- Relationships! Growth, strain, ups and downs, self-care, break-ups, meltdowns, humility, forgiveness, toxic co-dependent friendships that haunt you long-term... The usual.

- Emphasis on friendship, family, adventures, and kindness... and the unbearable lightness of being a child in Fairly OddParents media.

Nobody has ever been okay in this show or any time after I've gotten my hands on them, but it's fine; that's just how it is, sdklfj...

Plot Highlights

- Dale and Vicky were friends when they were kids... Little by little, their dynamic starts to shift.

- Dale and his betrothed work through courtship and married life... also, Dale works through trauma. Newborn Dev is here too.

- Cosmo begins training to take over as Keeper of Da Rules after Jorgen. Long road ahead, but whatcha gonna do?

- With Cosmo's new position hanging over their heads, Cosmo and Wanda retire from godparenting. They enjoy a 10k-year vacation and settle in Dimmadelphia... disguised as humans and struggling to pass. I hope they pay rent.

- Peri vs. his strained relationship with Goldie Goldenglow.

- Hazel's early explorations of Dimmadelphia and friend-making.

- An exploration of the Peri-Dev dynamic during the 4.5 months between "Lost and Founder's Day" & "Operation: Birthday Takeback."

- Whatever Mark and Vicky are up to. Probably being their flirty, violent selves... Mark adapting mostly well to human life except for when he isn't. Actually, the same could be said of Vicky.

- Background Timmy/Molly and Chloe/Kevin married lives. Shout-out to Timmy/Molly still together because I love them and refuse to divorce them in more than one AU sldkfj.

- Probably not a lot of Hazel content at first, but I'll plan more for her when we find out if we're getting a Season 2. Leaving myself wiggle room for now.

Ongoing?

This AU guide was posted in September 2024 and this AU is very new. Works will be posted over time.

No update schedule- Just wherever the vibes take us~ But my plan is to post the story beats in the Dimmadome arc first (in the "50 Words" style) and then we'll circle back to "present day." In other words, we're gonna hit the ground running, fly through the timeline until Dev's an adult, then loop back for more detailed 'fics and fluffier childhood days :) You'll find out where we're going and then we'll work through how we got there! I post FOP 'fics on Fridays (if I have something to post; any AU)

Related

Relevant info for anyone interested in subscribing to some or all of my FOP 'fics on AO3:

🌃 - City Lights AU - All works for the AU described in this post. 🖤 - Off the Rails - Collection for misc. FOP AUs. This includes works that draw from A New Wish lore, setting, or characters, but which are not compliant with City Lights AU. 🚂 - 130 Reasons Why I'm Fairy Trash - Large one-shot collection focused largely on the OG series. Mostly adheres to Cloudlands AU canon, but other AUs appear as well. 🌈 - Rainbow Train - All-encompassing series for any FOP works that are not in 130 Reasons Why I'm Fairy Trash. ⭐ - Subscribing to both 130 Reasons and Rainbow Train will cover all my FOP 'fics (All AUs).

You can also subscribe to my AO3 directly if you want to. My AO3 is multi-fandom, so the above are the series I suggest looking into if you're only interested in my FOP 'fics. You can do whatever you want forever.

Warnings, notes, and explanations below so readers can learn more about this AU. Don't like? Don't read.

Dead dove warnings, so prepare yourself mentally. I am once again exploring child trauma in 'fics for the show about child trauma and bad decisions.

👀 Take a Peek

New here? You might like to start with these:

- "You Deserve It" - Dale - freshly escaped from Vicky - attends a fancy dinner party with his dad... and reunites with fellow rich kids from his childhood.

- "50 Words of Dale and Hadley" - 50 prompt snippets about Dev's parents (before his birth).

- "50 Words of The Dimmadomes" - 50 prompt snippets about Dev's early upbringing.

- "An Old Wish" - Dev, Peri, and a series of comedic magical attempts to win Dev's parents' love (including time travel, memory manipulation, and raising the dead).

These 'fics are early in the timeline and fairly tame :) At the time of scheduling this, they're unrevealed on AO3, but will be up soon.

Start Reading

Recommended ways to get into the full AU

🌄 First Written - "50 Words of Dev and Hazel"

51. Horror - Okay, so maybe that movie had been a little spookier than he'd prepared for... But even if flesh-eating mermaids haunted his dreams for a year, setting up that chocolate board, pillow fort, and brownie bar for his and Hazel's ultimate horror binge-watch was totally worth it.

50 scene snippets about a snotty rich boy (self-improvement in progress) and an anxious newcomer to the big city (Livin' big and lovin' life) - Set during "The Treble With Rivals" and the week following.

OR, Dev and Hazel go to Tokyo, say hi to Dev's mom, and Dev picks on orchestra kids because #Band For Life.

(G - 5,000 words)

📅 Chronological Start - Lemonade and Papercuts

Dale backstory 'fic that alternates between his extreme childhood trauma and adulthood stress (Especially regarding business deals, his wife's pregnancy, and Dev's birth).

Click HERE for chapter summaries

Not yet written, but very likely E or Not Rated for excessive trauma, uncomfortable arranged-marriage honeymoon, the intimacy leading up to Dev's birth, pregnancy, and probably a childbirth scene. Will update info when confirmed! Btw, I'll be posting Dale's character profile on the sideblog soon- Both that and the summaries page are a great place to get "Who is City Lights Dale as a person?" vibes if you want to read my take on his personality, but don't want to read this intense 'fic. I expect this to be the most intense of my dead dove longfics in terms of upsetting or sensual content as this one won't have started on FFN (with its restrictions), and also... Look at him. He was just handed to me with my favorite trope in the world: "Overwhelming intimacy issues that make bedroom life a cesspool of nerves and doubt" <3 Cupioromantic asexual instinct to strip him to his bones and take his mind apart...

I don't recommend starting the AU with this 'fic unless you're ready, but it IS the beginning of the chronology.

There are several tamer pieces in City Lights AU that touch on Dale's past with Vicky and Hadley if you'd prefer to start there.

🗺️ Worldbuilding - So, You're Studying the Cloudlands...

A collection of worldbuilding and meta essays covering subjects like biology, culture, history, holidays, magic, maps, and a handbook on new godkid assignments.

I'm not planning to change my worldbuilding because it's very detailed and I don't feel like starting from scratch. However, City Lights AU is not likely to deep-dive into magic and culture. Because... the cloudlands are heavily featured in Cloudlands AU. We live on the ground now.

You may also like my @riddledeep blog, where I first posted this meta. New Wish short bios and full character profiles can also be found on the blog.

I'm currently moving lore posts from the sideblog to the guide linked above. This way, the content is backed up and accessible to those who don't use Tumblr.

📋 AU Notes & Warnings

Notable lore tweaks (i.e. not canon-compliant with A New Wish)-

- I've heard rumor that Dimmadelphia is "canonically" not in California. However, in this AU it is because there are many Dimmsdale characters and references (such as the sign pointing towards Dimmsdale, implying it's near). -> In the OG series, Timmy's parents seemingly went to Dimmadelphia to look for Timmy in "Channel Chasers" after he ran away from home (They went inside the Dimmadelphia Cable building), further justifying it being nearby. -> In City Lights AU, it's in California (but you still have to go to Dimmsdale to climb the Rainbow Bridge from the bottom, as we know from OG canon that it touches down there). - This AU will most likely be replacing Hazel's 1 million wishes in "The Battle of Big Wand" with a fairyversary plot, because it just makes more sense to me. - No pasta puberty. My lore is very biology-based, so insect people producing spaghetti from armpits doesn't work for me (Plus, that episode was rough on my hemophobia and it simply does not spark joy). -> In City Lights AU, Hazel had something else going on that fell halfway between human puberty and having a ton of magic in her, kind of like the Terrible Twos from the OG series. - Dale is trying to keep Dev alive. I'll probably keep the part where he knocked Dev over in "The Battle of Big Wand" because it's interesting, but I'm playing him with a "My son needs to be my heir" angle. He will still talk about loving boots more than his wife and son, but he sure doesn't want his heir dead. - "A child must always get what they want" is not in Da Rules. That's not a smart thing to put in the laws that hold the universe together… Why even have a rulebook at that point? - Minor detail tweaks for world consistency - Ex: The people who show up at the school concert or stand near kids in lines likely have connections to them; this influences family headcanons. -> Classroom has consistency - Ex: In the show, Kev tends to disappear so Dev and Hazel can be portrayed onscreen at the same time, but there's no need for me to do that in 'fic. -> I've seen a lot of cool Dev heterochromia headcanons, but in this AU, his eyes are consistently blue. My thought here is that Dev's and Dale's eyes look green under harsh yellow lighting, but blue is what I'm drawing/writing them with.

Morally gray characters abound - No one is "purely cruel" or "purely good." Since I expect to post a lot of Dale trauma content, I want to be clear that he will neither be portrayed as extremely abusive towards his son nor excused from his wrongs.

I'm playing Dale from a neglectful angle where he tends to assume Dev is doing "just fine." He doesn't go out of his way to cause harm, but we don't excuse the harm he does. There's a lot of "Hadley comforting and supporting Dale" themes because... she's his wife and she was there when he was fresh out of his abuse. Just keep in mind that even if Hadley and Dale think they're good parents, we know they're not.

Idealization of abuse & neglect - City Lights Dale cared a lot for Vicky, denied and excused a lot of what she did, kept hoping she’d change if he was "a better friend," and had a hard time adjusting to life after she stopped telling him what to do. He has to work through a LOT of trauma.

Also, general vibes of Dev looking up to his parents and making excuses for them. Lots of rose-colored glasses in this family... Dale definitely did the same for Doug and Pearl.

Themes of guilt and shame - Dale blaming himself for Vicky abusing him… Doug insisting his son keep quiet about his trauma lest people start to talk.

Shout-out to the au pairs beating themselves up over their failures in canon: a trait I will totally be expanding on in this AU. Dale, do you wanna talk about that?

Fairy & Anti-Fairy counterparts consider each other family. They colloquially refer to each other as "cousins," but biologically, they're the same person (one soul split in separate bodies, with many believing they'll reunite as a single person after death).

It's fair game for them to attend family reunions, remark that they're relatives, or reference their shared soul. If that's a squick for you, you'll also want to avoid my Cloudlands AU. Example one-shot - "Scarred" - Stream of consciousness narration where Poof discusses his social and mental relationship with Foop. This is Cloudlands AU, but these vibes apply here.

Peri is a gyne: a biological "queen bee" whose freckles and pheromones lure in drone Fairies (who require preening to stay satisfied). Will he find any of his own in this AU? I don't know... Maybe in this AU, Cavatina doesn't try to kill him. That would be fun!

For reference, H.P. and Big Daddy are gynes in my lore; Peri will have the same bulky shape when he's older. Why is he one? He's an insect person who ate too much jelly as a baby- That's biology!

"You're not gonna explore a different-?" -> No, Irep's still got his pilot stripes (i.e. mustache and goatee), so I have no choice <3 "But he doesn't show freckles-" -> They're still in the pale white stage (and Irep's will still be purple like Foop's are in canon). Peri is still young and his freckles won't darken until he's older.

Poor Peri has a stronger scent than other Fae due to those pheromones. Even humans can whiff him without much effort.

As a "queen bee," Peri is wired to fight other gynes to the death if he gets agitated and loses self-control. I don't plan to delve into this in City Lights since that's what Cloudlands AU is for, but it might be referenced now and then, especially since Goldie thinks it's hot.

In City Lights, he still grew up as Finley's roommate (with Finley the dominant one). Peri is under the usual gyne lore: drones are drawn to Finley over him, but Peri's pheromones start picking up when he's in a place where he's the dominant gyne... like the Dimmadome household. Unless Dale and Dev spook him so much that he stays submissive, which is very funny, actually.

Violence, threats, and spooks - Canon-typical threats and commentary of the villain variety, keeping in mind that I write semi-realistic physics which can make these things more upsetting than the cartoon.

- Vicky's many weapons. OG series confirms she's left scars all over Mark and he interprets them as courtship signs. OG series Vicky often threatened Timmy and others with blades. - OG series H.P. put shock collars on Cosmo and Wanda and thought shocking them even when they did nothing wrong was hilarious ("Wish Fixers"). - OG series Vicky ate meatballs while believing they were eyeballs and claimed a severed arm served for dinner was "been there, done that" ("Timmy's 2D House of Horror"). - Bad luck can get messy. In canon, stepping on a crack breaks your mother's back. People get roughed up. People may experience burns, scrapes, and general injury. - Harassment charges and potential jailtime (e.g. "What if Tootie never toned back as she grew up?" & "Hey, maybe there should be consequences to Dale stalking a little girl.") - Foop's always had a thing for poisonous spiders and flames

Grossness & Gore - Messy, but always for a purpose.

- Vomiting (Magical backup, pregnancy, allergic reactions, general sickness) -> It is very likely Dale will have an eating disorder (or more than one). Will edit with specifics when I've finalized plans. I've always played Foop's alt personality with body dysphoria and bulimia, but it's never been shown onscreen. we'll see what happens. - Yoo-doo doll damage (Limb loss, smacks, cuts, burns, bite marks, and similar damage that can be inflicted on a doll) - Unpleasant descriptions of decaying bodies and bones. - Heavily implied (and possibly portrayed in L&P) cannibalism (Would that be messed up if I took Vicky's "2D House of Horror" comments literally or what? why did she say she's eaten multiple severed human arms? hey. what. Am I supposed to be normal about that? When will I ever get that 'fic opportunity again.) - Some characters go hunting (For birds, big game, etc.) Other characters (like Chloe, the Pixies, Gary, and Betty) are opposed to hunting. -> Dale (raised by Doug), Hadley (raised by Ed Leadly), Timmy (Pappy & Timmy's Dad grew up in the woods and Sparky is a good hunting dog), and Chester are all hunters (In canon, Chester and his dad eat things they've hunted or foraged iirc).

Detailed discussions of trauma, neglect, child abuse, and misery - Especially regarding Vicky, Crocker, and their influence on other characters.

'Fics are tagged. Trauma is discussed much more in the 'fics with high ratings. Trauma is glossed-over, sillier, or not mentioned in Gen and T works for this series.

- Dale, Peri, Timmy, and Irep in particular have issues with Vicky (Weapons, yelling, bullying, etc.) but that's par for the course. - Peri's Hocus Poconos trauma, such as in a possible post-"Lost in Fairy World" 'fic where a nervous Peri hovers over Dev. - Canon-typical miserable children in the miserable children show.

Character death - I'm committing to my "Doug is dead and Dale misses him" theory. If that gets disproved in later seasons, that's fine; this is an AU.

- Expect a 'fic of Dale witnessing Doug's death. Even if he doesn't, Doug's absence will be mentioned multiple times. - There will probably be minor character (OC) deaths in high-rated 'fics. I've not finalized plans, but it's likely. - Other character may also be mentioned as dead (Ex: Assorted ancestors, Cosmo's dad... Big Daddy could show up and imply he's doing shady things). - Beyond that, I don't have plans to kill canon characters at this time. If I do, I expect it to be in a far future piece where characters are in their old age, or when Fairies have moved on and are reminiscing on the past.

Break-ups & strained relationships - Peri/Goldie are strained for sure. They have a very on-and-off dating life that plays into the popular kid vibes the OG series set up for their school days.

Things are tense, but less traumatic for those two here than in Cloudlands AU (We're not mirroring their dubcon arc over here- They have new young adult problems now like learning to live alone and cook real food)

- Difficult family relationships (Ex: Dale & Doug, Dale & Dev) - Potentially some Irep/Sammy (or Irep/OC, especially if I go the route of betrothal drama). Undecided! I write a lot of Foop/OC in other projects and I think I'd enjoy the Irep/Sammy character exploration. - I don't have infidelity themes planned, but it could be discussed (Ex: My lore is that Big Daddy had an affair with a non-fairy - hence Anti-Wanda's round ears instead of pointed ones - so there's that, but I don't think that will come up in this AU). -> Dale's wife is super paranoid that he'll cheat on her because he hangs out with a lot of rich and powerful folks who are nice to him... but I cannot express enough how spooked of people City Lights AU Dale is and how much he would Not Do That. -> Now that I think about it, I feel like Dev is the kind of person who would try to set his mom up with someone else. Maybe I'll write that. She's a happily married woman, but I respect the hustle.

Sexuality and Consent Themes (Ex: Aspec- or trauma-themed dubcon)

Dating life, married life, aphobia (especially of the internalized kind), and sexual themes... written by an aroace person who enjoys playing with the ideas of attraction, anxiety, and consent [in fiction]

-> Think "Dale trusts no one, but has a kid- Let's talk about it!" and characters with thoughts like "Oh, maybe I'm not as comfy with this as I thought. Good to know!"

-> Imagine internalized aphobia along the lines of "Some of these characters grew up in the amatonormative 90s or early 2000s and don't consider that not getting in a relationship (or not having sex / children) is a genuine option they could pursue, or that there's even a word for their feelings or lack thereof."

- I write a wide range of aspec characters who each have their own preferences (some interested in relationships while others aren't). If you want a peek at these portrayals, I discussed many of my asexual headcanons HERE. - As with all themes, do not come to this AU expecting everything to be hunky-dory. Author deeply loves being aroace, but we raise a glass to drama... especially of the "just realized I'm aspec and not necessarily at a good time" variety. lol.

- I don't have rape themes planned, but it's on the table as something that could come up. Ironically, I can confirm it won't be for any of the characters who have rape/non-con trauma in Cloudlands AU. I do not expect it, but I would hate to not warn and then have it come up. As always, AO3 tags exist for a reason and there's nothing wrong with not reading 'fics that aren't for you- No pressure!

Themes of childfree life - And steps taken to prevent accidental kids. Not described in detail, but very relevant to some characters.

Ex: Dinklebergs are big on childfree life, all male witches are infertile, my OC Finley will die if he loses that much magic, some characters just don't want kids.

Themes of memory, including memory loss or manipulation - Godkids losing memories, Dev and Dale after "Battle of Big Wand," and so on. Peri [Poof] never got to say good-bye to Timmy.

Timmy and Chloe do not remember Cosmo, Wanda, or Peri. They've grown up to live normal, happy grown-up lives. They're chillin' with their partners (Molly & Kevin, respectively). I'm playing this as a positive thing, but it's worth warning for those who don't like AUs where Timmy loses his memories. Alas... the average kid stays average to the end, and no one plays the game forever...

That's everything I can think of right now. This AU is still in the early stages, so things might be added later. Works will be tagged appropriately on AO3. Please let me know if you think of anything I missed!

You can create works based on this AU. Please cite me and/or the AU as appropriate (i.e. for things very specific to this AU). You are free to expand on ideas you've thought of thanks to my AU as a jumping off point. I'd love to reblog or link things to my AO3 works if I see them!

I write content with morally gray characters. Please don't portray my story events or worldbuilding out of context with intentional malice. As in, I request you do not post things created for the specific intention of bashing me or the AU

[deafchild2000]

Updates for my H2O: Just Add Water AU starring the OG trio's character foils (for those who actually are interested in this fic ideas):

First order of business: I'm pushing beyond the PG rating of the original show. I'm going for obvious nostalgia but I also prefer my common sense and realism - so expect a lot of call outs!

I'm bringing the parents in. Like, me and the fans get why they were on the outside of things , but as I get older (even in my mid 20s), I find myself thinking there should have been more moments with the adults being adults & parents.

I'm definitely expanding, or in some cases CRAFTING, better background stories for Charlotte, Miriam, and the Benjamin siblings. (I said this once and I'll say it again) Charlotte had the perfect potential for characterization if she'd been in S1, Miriam Kent is iconic in her own right and deserved more screentime for me, and the Benjamin siblings are a combination of good potential and messy execution that I'm fixing so hard without making them unrecognizable. The OG girls not being mermaids is me experimenting on how their road to friendship would go, with others butting in. (Full disclosure: I'm not a fan of Rikki, so it might show!)

I'm gonna expand the mermaid lore and abilities. Not only is there room for that in 2024/2025, I studied the H2O wiki to find there's opening for it such as physical strength, I may be borrowing from H2O RP Tumblrs because fans can always be trusted to be better content creators.

Because I'm rewatching H2O for ideas, one thing I knew I was getting rid of, under TV Tropes, Louise Chatham's "cloudcuckoolander" trait. I'm not sorry, it was fun to see as a child, but after watching Lilia Calderu in AAA, I'm 90% sure Louise would've dropped the act as Charlotte, Miriam, and Sophie are a different group and would want full disclosure or they won't trust her. Thus, Louise has to see beyond the rose tinted glasses the OG trio let her get away with and help these girls in need of guidance. Plus, she's meeting Gracie's surviving family - which means I definitely can see her take an active role in knowing Charlotte and Annette.

(FOLLOWING ABOVE) Imma explore the 50s mermaids because not only did they deserve it, I hated that Louise and Max had control of Gracie and Julia's narrative in OG. I'm definitely exploring Gracie Watsford because this girl gave up her tail and yet is the only one of her group to have a family - there's so much in that to Louise (a lonely widow) and Max (a hermit) worth talking about as well as the fact she left paintings of Mako Island and the moon pool for Charlotte to have and ended up using in Canon. Julia is gonna be a doozy because she's compared to Rikki but not a lot after that, nor did we find out anymore about her beyond her death in the show. I reiterate again, I have to expand the 50s mermaids because letting two lonely old people tell the group story isn't great.

Surprisingly or not, I'm expanding background characters and adding new ones because it's definitely needed. Charlotte moved a year early, so her mom's restaurant and employees need proper acknowledgement. Miriam is definitely high class like Zane and Emma, so her world is coded for new people. And Sophie is the only one in the group that an adult and active mermaid - she clearly needs some friends outside Will.

Speaking of Will... I'm gonna do my best to make him tolerable since he's physically around the same as Byron, getting more time with Lewis and Zane. Not gonna lie, he's gonna need guy friends and ALSO not gonna lie, we both knew his character existed to make Zane insecure and I'm living for it! Watching him easily become popular because he's him and forging friendship with the other characters (some he never met) is gonna be fun while distressing for Zane.

I'm keeping Lisa Denman along for the ride (and extending it) because I don't think anyone appreciates just how well-written her character was - and just how useful she could be in the narrative. Like if you wanted to combine Lewis and Emma, make her someone important and well-established that people PAY her to go study marine biology anywhere in the world and easy to get along with, then Dr. Lisa Denman is definitely worthy of a threat - but in a way that she sneaks up on you and is worth more than three episodes. And I'm definitely not making light of underestimating her intelligence like canon did.

Two sides of one coin, Mother-Daughter edition. I'm surprised no one realized that if Charlotte was the new girl in town, the same could be said about her mom, Annette. Because of this, in expanding their relationship (and their lives before Gracie died), I'm building potential relationships - especially Annette, dealing with the Sertoris, Gilberts, Bennetts, and Kents (whose friendship goes back years) - just as Charlotte is dealing with Cleo, Emma, Zane and Miriam. A family duo who are outsiders with fresh perspectives. Though I will spoil the idea that the Watsford Women constantly beef with the Harrison Men (a lot of context in bad first impressions and generally unimpressed).

Another thing is the acknowledgement of time, events, and media because S1 of H2O happened in a duration of 8 months since the OG trio became mermaids on Valentine's Day. I'm definitely all for making shout outs for known mermaid media at the time, but definitely holidays and birthdays as well.

In place of episodes that can't happen in this AU, I'm either rewriting or creating original "episodes" as if the show would do. I'm also not shying away from important and serious topics, some not child friendly but definitely issues that could happen in the world.

Small bit: I'm never not using Kim Sertori and Elliot Gilbert. I think there are still fun uses in the narrative for them, but I'm not having Kim entirely intolerable as the fans see her. There's plenty of room for her to grow imo, and I don't believe in underestimating her either.

[misc-obeyme]

do you think solomon felt guilty for taking so long (season 2) to tell mc he was immortal? the hints were there and no one was subtle about it, so it's easy to assume that mc already knew or guessed the truth, but it takes so long for him to say it clearly. feels like a good source of angst, especially since he finally tells them in the reaper's cave

Okay so I had to go back and re-read this part, which is in Lesson 36-3 for anyone who wishes to play through that part again.

But here is the relevant moment:

He seems so casual about it. In fact, right before this if you choose something like wait how is that possible his response is this:

Now. I think this could be read two different ways. You could see all this as Solomon being like, obviously this is no big deal. If you take it at face value, he seems rather unbothered by the whole thing and doesn’t seem to mind telling you what happened and that he’s immortal.

However. I do think that Solomon does this thing where he acts really casually about stuff when he actually feels something more deeply, especially when everyone else is there. In this moment, all the demon brothers are present and they already know this fact about him. So maybe he was not trying to hide it, but not bringing it up to MC on purpose. But when they’re all there, he can’t exactly deny it, so he decides to act as though it’s no big deal. He almost glosses over this and directly after they have this short revelation, they get back to the task at hand (finding Beel’s candle).

So while I think there probably isn’t anything deeper to this instance in the actual story, I DO think there’s plenty of room for reader interpretation. (To be clear, I don’t think there was anything deeper to this moment in season two of the OG, but there certainly seems to be more about the Solomon immortality piece in general, especially in Nightbringer. I think it might be very relevant to the NB plot.)

And the fact of the matter is, currently MC is NOT immortal.

This is an issue that’s present for all the characters, but it has a really heavy impact for Solomon specifically, imo. This is because he’s HUMAN. He isn’t naturally immortal, he should have died long ago. And not only that, but he’s going to live on indefinitely. And all his fellow humans live short lives and die, leaving him perpetually alone.

It’s painful. Imagine always losing everyone you’ve ever loved. Always being the one still lingering after they’re all gone. Imagine being careful to never get too close to anyone because you don’t want to suffer through the pain of losing them later. Imagine knowing about the Devildom and the Celestial Realm and magic and sorcerers with such a deep understanding, but never being able to share it with anyone. Those that do join you in the study of magic will never be at your level because they die too soon. The only friends you can count on having for any decent length of time are demons or angels - beings that can’t understand your very existence.

Nobody can tell me that all of this isn’t something that Solomon thinks about. That maybe this is one of the things he tries to forget about by throwing himself into research. That this is one of the things that plagues his racing mind when he’s trying to sleep.

Then imagine along comes another human who might almost be on your level. Someone who has the potential to understand you in a way nobody else ever has. Someone you’re inexplicably drawn to, someone you can’t help but fall in love with, someone who’s still mortal. Someone you’ll inevitably lose like you’ve always lost everyone else before.

Do I think he felt guilty? Yes. The game plays it off as a sort of quirk about him, but the implications are so heavy that I just headcanon my own thoughts about it. And I think that Solomon would try to stay in that place of ignorance for as long as possible. He likely felt bad about obscuring this fact from MC - again, not lying about it or even really going out of his way to hide it, but just… not telling them.

However, I think that he felt a lot worse about what that truth means for him and for MC.

Oh dear I may have gotten carried away. Listen, you asked for angst and I have thoughts about this lol.

Lemme leave you with one last thing, though. I completely forgot he said this:

LOOOOOL. I dunno about you guys, but I refer to him as an old man all the time. I’m pretty sure we do that collectively as a fandom, so the fact that he straight up said not to do that way back in season two of the OG made me CACKLE. I’m sorry Solomon, but calling you an old man/grandpa/peepaw/etc is too much fun. It’s okay, Lucifer and Simeon get called those things, too lol. It’s a compliment, I swear.

[lucianalight]

Arrogance vs. Humility: Thor

There's an interesting post circling in fandom with many great metas and povs and it inspired me to expand on one of its threads. I have made a new post so the length and a different direction of meta doesn't bother op. I have also divided this meta into two parts. The first one is titled Thor because it is mainly an analysis of og Thor and og Loki in Thor 2011 . The second part will analyze Loki series for those who are interested.

Initially what sparked this meta was @tori-artemis (Artemis)' tags under an addition by @geehollow (Hollow). Initially I only wanted to write a short answer but I'm doomed by the narrative so I thought to first see what science has to say and I came across an interesting study and decided to use it in my analysis.

I used colors to quote each person because I'm going to quote two people, a study(indented) and add my own thoughts and I can't keep tagging or writing their names :P :D

So without further ado let's start. The topic was about the vice of Thor vs Loki. While perhaps the goal of the og post was to analyze the the topic through the concept of seven sins and virtues I don't intend to do that because it doesn't include every possible personality trait and it's not accurate enough from a psychological pov.

Vice is the first trait one should consider when creating a character. Vices embody the vibe that sparked the character in your mind, and in turn spark virtues, goals, backstories, everything. Of course it's different when dealing with characters inspired by already existing mythos, that already carry traits one has to grasp.

In the MCU, Thor's initial vice was arrogance. Deep seated arrogance born of being the golden prince, revered and indulged. Loki's initial vice was also arrogance, but born of thinking he's smartest than everyone else, due to having had to act covertly in order to get what he wants because he is not revered and not indulged. For both of them these are things we can and should infer during the first movie.

As you've read Hollow states that the vice of both Thor and Loki was arrogance but in different ways. Artemis wouldn't call Loki's arrogance because Loki clearly behaves in a different way than other arrogant characters like Thor and Tony Stark. Therefore we must first define arrogance.

According to a new study there are three types of arrogance that can be dissected into 6 components.

Individual arrogance: an inflated opinion of one’s abilities, traits, or accomplishments compared to objective truths; Comparative arrogance: an inflated ranking of one’s abilities, traits, or accomplishments compared to other people Antagonistic arrogance: the denigration or derision of others based on an assumption of superiority. The types and components of arrogance depicted in Figure 1 are meaningful together because some of the concepts seem to implicate others. One cannot be overconfident about one’s knowledge in a domain (second-largest box) without first having some relevant limitation in knowledge about that domain (largest box); if one disparages others unfairly (smallest box), one is likely to fail to take their perspective and, further, one is likely to believe in one’s superiority compared to them (third- and second-smallest boxes, respectively); and so on. Therefore, the position of each component in the figure reflects a close dependency. Yet, it is possible for causation to flow from smaller to larger boxes, as well. For example, if one hates an individual for any reason, one might be motivated to underrate their capabilities or motives.

From this definition we can say that both Thor and Loki have levels of arrogance from the start but while Thor until the point Odin banishes him has checked all the six components in the picture, Loki is at a level two.

Thor with limited knowledge and an overestimation of his power decides to go to Jotunheim. He resists the disagreements about his limits and chances and fails to consider perspectives of his friends, his brother and father and Jotuns. He considers himself and his race superior to others and insults and criticizes Jotuns and his father. Loki on the other hand has overestimated his knowledge, abilities and whether or not everything goes according to his plan.

After his banishment, Thor comes down from the level of his hubris. When he fails to lift Mjolnir and after Loki's visit, he realizes that his rash actions had terrible consequences not just for him but for his family too. He's left alone and powerless. He doesn't see himself superior to these humans anymore. Jane helps him see things from different perspectives and as weak as a human he learns his limits. He knows he doesn't have the power to fight the Destroyer so he tries to do the only thing he can do, apologize to his brother. And when it seems that Thor's dying, he doesn't care about glory or what tales Asgard would say of his bravery. All he thinks about is that Jane is safe and that humility and selflessness restores his power. Loki though, in his desperation for acceptance, has made all the wrong choices.

Just as Thor overestimated his power, his physical strength and fighting skills in his attack to Jotunheim, Loki overestimates his power which is his intelligence and planning skills.

Loki in his arrogance thinks he can stage and ruin a heist, prevent Thor's rampage, and get rid of Laufey and Jotunheim through his usual method of solo strategies. He learns consequences when his plans inevitably stumble into variables he hadn't accounted for–the guard taking too much time in warning Odin, learning he's a rejected Jotun prince, being actually made regent, the Warriors Three and Sif and Heimdall betraying him. It's not the fact that he grew up learning underhandedness was his most effective method, it's that in the MCU he applied it presumably for the first time to real big events and had to deal with the consequences.

Loki lacks foresight. Like he lacks seeing all of the possible outcomes of his own schemes. That's how he ends up in a lot of messes in the first Thor film. So yeah - he definitely doesn't fully think things through as much as he'd like to believe himself to. Tbf he's not psychic. But it's more of an over reliance on his schemes working perfectly. That he doesn't consider all of the possible ways that those schemes can go south real fast (and end up doing so). So to me...it's less of it being arrogance of his own intellect and more like his over reliance on the schemes themselves. As well as an overestimation of his own control over the situation. Which *could* be considered arrogance... tho I don't think the film really displays it as such. Or it's just not very *clear* in displaying it as arrogance - like aside from occasionally calling Thor an oaf basically(which tbf he's kinda right with that assessment). And like - considering humans and Jotuns as weak and inferior at best - and monstrous at worst(which is less of a character vice and more of a symptom of Asgard's imperialism).

According to the definition of arrogance, what Artemis describes is in fact a complete list of all the reasons why Loki is arrogant. I also like to add that even the imperialism that causes Asgardians to be biased toward other races is rooted in political arrogance and their sense of superiority(Although we can argue that Loki up until his conversation with Odin, did not believe the Asgardian propaganda as he asked why the truth was hidden from him. It was only after he thought his parents see Jotuns a monsters that he tried to radically separate himself from his race).

Like many aspects in this movie, these brothers are once again a yin and yang to each other. Thor's brawn against Loki's brain. Thor's strength represents Odin's warrior side and he is praised for it. While Loki's wit represents Odin's cleverness but unlike Thor, Loki isn't appreciated for a trait in which he is similar to his father and that's sth he wants to change.

Loki has a good plan, but he fails to consider how his action seem shady to those who didn't like and suspected him. And how that can motivate them to betray him. Everything would have gone according to his plan otherwise. He had managed to trick and kill Laufey, he unleashed Bifrost on those race of "monsters" and he had bested Thor in the battle of brain vs brawn. He was pinned but he thought he had won. He was at the top of arrogance level in his grief and madness.

"Look at you, the mighty Thor, with all your strength, and what good does it to you now, huh?"

He didn't consider that Thor, hot headed Thor who looked down on other races and tried to solve everything by throwing a hammer at it, would try to think his way out of this situation to save the people he previously hated.

In my eyes, Odin's banishment, Jane's and Selvig's and Darcy's companionships are only the stakes that make him walk in the shoes of the other side of the violence, but the real wake up call is seeing Loki behaving and talking as Thor used to.

Thor 1 is the origin story of both Thor and Loki, young princes who discover they were still untested, and Avengers 2012 shows the progression of their arcs after their vice has been exploited with one differing element: a support net being present or absent. Thor always had a support net, Loki never did, and their intertwined story shows exactly how in real life people go down their respective paths.

So if Loki's vice is arrogance why he doesn't behave like Thor or Tony?

Bc tbh I probably wouldn't have even thought of arrogance as a vice for Loki. Like my initial reaction was ''wait no that's Thor". But when phrased like the above... it makes a lot of sense. Like tbh I don't know if I'd call it arrogance in his own intelligence - while he's certainly clever he never seems to overbearing about it. Not in the way similarly clever + arrogant characters like Tony Stark display it anyways. Loki never really... seems particularly arrogant?? Like I wouldn't call him humble either but... arrogance just seems a bit exaggerated tbh. I'd say he definitely has pride... tho I'm not sure I'd call it a vice. Bc let's consider other characters that are clearly written to display arrogance at various levels. Like. Anakin is arrogant. Tony Stark is arrogant. Theon Greyjoy was arrogant. And then there's Thor. And like I know there are probably levels to this and it could be argued that Loki's on the less extreme side...But for a character to be arrogant there's almost always like an indicator to that arrogance in said character's personality? Like something about the way they carry themselves... something in the way they display their genuine belief that they're The Best. I don't really see that with Loki. Again I wouldn't call him humble... but he doesn't have *that* attitude I guess. Compared to Anakin ''I would even stop ppl from dying!'' Skywalker. Or Thor 'throws violent tantrum after dad said no to war w/ Jotunheim' Odinson. Or like... half the shit that comes out of Tony Stark's mouth. XD

Yes Loki doesn't have that attitude. That's because individual differences in unawareness of intellectual limits and personality traits affect how the components of arrogance show themselves in people.

We can illustrate potential relations between personality variables and Components 2 (unawareness of knowledge limitations), 4 (failure to consider the perspectives of others), and 5 (a feeling of superiority). Related to Component 2, Schaefer, Williams, Goodie, and Campbell (2004) examined how the Big Five can predict overconfidence in one’s performance. Only the trait of extraversion correlated with overconfidence (the difference between accuracy and confidence). The extraversion factor may be most related to the aspect of arrogance involving inflated self-appraisal relative to objective reality (Lee & Ashton, 2018). There also have been occasional findings of relations between overconfidence and other Big Five traits like openness to experience and agreeableness

Thor and Tony are both extroverts, so their arrogance or at least the part that involves inflated self-appraisal shows itself through overconfident extrovert behavior. That doesn't mean that Loki doesn't act overconfident. It just shows itself in more subtle ways, like the way he stares at his opponent and in his knowing grin. He's less like boastful I'm-the-best-and-I'm-going-to-beat-you, and more like silent I'm-so-smart-and-you've-fallen-for-my-plan.

Even in Avengers when Loki acts arrogantly more than any other time, his real arrogance is not in the way he presents himself to humans in Stuttgart. That was just theatrics. His arrogance is in the way he grins every time his plans work. In Avengers Loki is in his most arrogant state because he's being influenced by the scepter. The same scepter that can bring the worst of every person in its vicinity which almost made Tony and Steve fight, and even Thor reverted back to his old self calling humans petty and tiny. I also like to mention that it was Tony who understood Loki the most and one of the reasons was because he saw the same arrogance of himself in Loki.

Avengers 2012, Dark World and the stories that followed should have picked up the threads left from the first movie and continued the progression of the vice (flaws+virtues+background) Vs consequences. Some of them did. Some of them did not.

Tldr: both Thor's and Loki's vices were arrogance built in different ways and their arcs showcased how society's (=worldbuilding) support influences the consequences of the same vice until the franchise was rebooted (=different worldbuilding and vices)

Source: Foundations of Arrogance: A Broad Survey and Framework for Research

Next: Loki

[ahhvernin]

Every so often I come across the story of Cain and Abel and how Cain killed Abel in a fit of jealousy and he was marked by God and punished and everyone hates him because he was a murderer. I hate that story. Hear me out as someone who read the Bible out of spite because classmates kept harassing me for not knowing the art pieces we were studying in Art History Class... I hate it because god created the situation for jealousy to arise. He gave both lads a job. Abel the job of a shepherd and Cain the job of a farmer. Then they were suppose to give Big Daddy an offering. Abel gives him a lamb and Cain gives him his harvest. And Big Papa, dismisses Cain's gift and efforts in favor of the lamb.

Then the murder thing happened. BUT

Its never explained why the God didn't like Cain's offering. God, the entity who supposedly made the Garden of Eden, or OG gardener, didn't like or accept a harvest gift!

Now anyone who gardens or anyone who receives harvests from a gardener, knows how much work goes into growing those veggies and fruits. The grower generally is pretty happy if anything grows, often wants to share it, is happy to share it, and is happier when someone accepts them, and the receiver is usually pretty happy too.

But God was like , nah bro, you didn't it wrong, but you should still be happy even though what you did was wrong. Chill, or Sin will get you. For all we know, Cain tilled the land, seeded the land, fed and watered the land, tended the fields, maybe even let Abel graze in areas that he had worked on or even gave Abel some of the weeds and harvest to him and his sheep. And God just dismisses all that hard work! Cain probably felt REALLY scorned by this.

Because honestly. Imagine being told to do a job, and you put all your effort into it, and finally make something, and you present it to the person who gave you the job and they were just like "Yeah I like John Doe's work, you can put that away. Smile. So what if I don't want to look at it. You should be happy that you did it." Fuck. I would be broiling mad too! My rage would be so high I would probably be destroying things too. I'd probably hate John Doe too! Because more than likely I would have probably been like, "yeah buddy I'll help you out here, we're in this together. Lets get the jobs done" Story conveniently leaves out if Abel came in Cain's defense and was like "Hey Lord, look at Cain's offering too!" or maybe he was just like competition won, bro. We don't know!

Sure, the murder was wrong, but given that it was probably the first time it was really experienced in human history, the emotion probably didn't even have a name yet. And amidst of all of that raw emotion, God punishes Cain, and literally tells him that he will never be able to tend to the land and leaves him to wander as a nomad. Like my dude. This isn't about rage quitting, this is all about God giving Cain a job. dismissing his hard work, and flat out was like you can't do the job I gave you anymore and if you try, I'll make sure you fail for the rest of your life, oh and everyone will know you as the one who killed your brother in a fit of rage with no fault from me!

That Shit would not have happened, if God just accepted both, and accepted that both are offerings and neither is deemed more worthier than the other because the intention of giving was there. But Cain though scorned, still built communities, his children made homes and tools. So fuck the people who only know Cain for his jealousy and crime and use his name to continue to scorn, dismiss and treat people badly, without ever trying to see what lead them to their bad actions or just simply existing and doing their best. So then we bring it back to my AP Art history class. I read the Bible, so I could better understand material and hopefully not get harassed by classmates... Some of my classmates told me that it didn't matter that I read the Bible or could recognize and understand the class material better now, I would NEVER really understand the art and that their years of going to church somehow made them understand the art better. I got a the highest grade for that unit and got a 4 on the AP exam. So yeah Cain.

My take away from the story was, people will dismiss your hard work, you will get slighted, sometimes you will do bad things, you might get ostracized, realize some people cannot be changed and some cannot be bothered to learn about the truth, so separate yourself from them, find people who will support you, be resourceful and success in yourself and for the people who do care for you.

AND don't be gaslit into smiling, nodding and doing unnecessary or unrecognized work-- because you deserve recognition for your efforts.

PS. If you don't like my take on this, sure. I read it on my own, with a lens of wanting to learn and with curiosity, not to be converted. I read it solely to understand another human being's work and possible thoughts when creating a piece of art and not wanting to be harassed by classmates. which I still did. And what I got out of the Bible is solely my experience, and I thought God was rather a temperamental figure, I had many qualms with the stories and this was one of them and you don't have to like or accept this take. But also know what I got out of it... even if you don't like it....I still hope people recognize the time and effort you do and you are not solely recognized for the one mistake you did.

[stupendousfoxthing]

The way you shippers get defensive when someone points out the inconsistencies in your logic and narratives should be studied because why are you getting so defensive? I didn’t send you an ask in bad faith and I certainly wasn’t trying to save you from shipping either but as a blogger when you put out certain information and open your inbox for people to send asks, shouldn’t you be ready to get asks that disagree with some things you say? I was honestly just trying to hear what you thought about the ever changing narratives because i noticed that you are one of the more non delulu tkk blogs on tumblr but you got so defensive and even a little insulting for what? Is your ego so big that you can’t handle people challenging your beliefs or questioning your logic? I wasn’t planning on dragging this topic because I honestly just wanted to get your take on one thing but let me see how many things you can disagree on or how many more insults you have in you. Ofcourse you can choose not to post it, it all up to you.

“I've been in the fandom for almost a decade, and a Taekooker since 2016, I promise you they did not just become a thing in 2023”

Ofcourse taekook didn’t just become a thing in chap 2 and neither did all the other numerous ships we have in BTS. They all didn’t start now but the fact that a ship has always existed and seems to get more attention at a certain time doesn’t mean that ship is real. I have seen tkkrs argue that taekook is one of the OG ships so that means something. Yes, it means that people were able to spot their closeness and bond very easily because of how obvious it was but that doesn’t mean that bond and closeness remained exactly the same through out the span of 10 years and that certainly doesn’t mean the ship is real. How long a ship has existed doesn’t determine if the ship is real or not.

“Meanwhile, despite that previous anon going ass over tit trying to make it look like it was Taekookers narrative that changed, it didn't. At all”

Tkkrs, or most tkkrs narratives changed and it will continue to change. If you don’t know that it did you are either not very aware of what most tkkrs say or you are lying. Are you trying to tell me that tkkrs didn’t go back to, “the company is separating them and forcing Jk not to mention Tae” after the Taennie incident? Before this, tkkrs said taekook were finally free and they could be themselves but after taennie what did tkkrs say? I have literally seen tkkrs send asks to tk blogs commenting abt the increase in tk content. What were the narratives when most tkkrs felt like they didn’t get enough tk content? It is beyond ridiculous to claim that tkkrs narratives didn’t change when all you need to do to know that this isn’t true is to visit some of the biggest tkkr accts on twitter and search their tweets from the era before chapter two. I am aware that tkkrs are not monolith but you can get an idea of how much a narrative is accepted within a fandom by how most of them react to it can’t you? Ofcourse there will always be those who don’t agree with the narratives but from my observation, majority of tkkrs did. I have noticed that the tkk community on tumblr is a non toxic one but don’t think that just because few of you on tumblr aren’t negative, the rest of the tkkr community isn’t because you need to visit twitter, instagram, tiktok and facebook to see what tkkrs there do and say.

“For people who thought Taekook weren't close until they were very close in 2023, the cognitive dissonance has got to be louder than a jet engine. “

Are you trying to say that after all the years of BTS being together you don’t think some of their dynamics changed over time? You don’t think some members at certain points grew closer while others grew more distant? Just because taekook seemed visibly closer in chapter two doesn’t mean they didn’t go through periods where they grew a little distant. That is perfectly normal in every relationship whether you like to accept it or not and maybe if some of you took off your shipping lenses for a moment, you would be able to see things a little more clearly. People didn’t just start thinking Taekook weren’t close out of thin air. People started thinking they weren’t close because they gave people the impression that they had grown a little distant and this impression was further strengthened by them barely been seen together and a very visible shift in their dynamic which even taekookers noticed at the time and complained about or are you also about to tell me that tkkrs didn’t complain about something feeling off with taekook and then convinced themselves that the reason for that was because the company was keeping them apart? Will you say this didn’t happen too?

“But the truth is that when the group was given the freedom to go their separate ways after a decade, freedom to pursue their lives and goals as individuals, Taekook remained at each other's side. In the way we always believed them to be.”

This is where you lose me because there was never a time when members were required to spend time with each other except when working and if you believe anything contrary to this, you are too far gone. Even while living together in the dorm, they were not required to spend off time with each other if they didn’t want to were they? Have there not been a few instances where Tae mentioned that he didn’t know Jungkook’s rooms while they were on tour? Would you say the company also forced them apart them or hid them? We are also talking about members who moved out of the dorm in 2019 and were free to spend time with who they chose outside of work because they weren’t bound together by the same living area again but taekook still didn’t seem to spend time together did they? They had a break in 2019 but taekook didn’t see each other at all did they? I mentioned other moments like on birthdays where they also mentioned not seeing each other to celebrate with each other and you said it is jkkrs narrative, well I don’t know what jkkrs say about that, I am speaking based on the information we all got from the members themselves or are you saying that if we search we wouldn’t be able to find things like that which they said? The only difference btwn chap 1 and chap 2 is that they didn’t have to do group activities anymore and see each other frequently at work. They temporarily dispersed but only as a group at that time because they had already dispersed individually way before chapter two as they didn’t live together anymore. It’s not like they were given any extra freedom they weren’t allowed before. It is beyond ridiculous that these are the narratives you have to cling to inorder for things to make sense. Do you think that before chap 2 the boys were held prisoner and forced to only spend time with certain members? So what do you mean they were given freedom as if they were all locked up together before? Yes they had freedom to do solo activities for the first time and not only work as a group but this freedom had nothing to do with who they choose to spend their time outside of work with. If your narratives were true, then yes we probably wouldn’t have seen much of taekook on official content since some tkkrs claim they were edited out of official content but we would have seen or heard about them hanging out in their free time like we did in chap two wouldn’t we? Instead didn’t we constantly hear of or see them both choosing to constantly spend time with other people? Tae mostly with wooga squad, Bogum and some other friends and Jk with members like Hobi, Jm and his 97 line friends and then taekook confirming themselves that they didn’t see each other or spend time together? During their break didn’t Tae choose to travel with his wooga squad and didn’t see any of the other members for the entire break, while Jk hung out with his friends (wasn’t that when we got the mijoo scandal?) and also with members like jihope? When they had some time off in 2017 didn’t Tae travel with his family and Bogum and Jk with Jimin? After PTD in LA didn’t Tae travel with his family and Hobi’s to Hawaii to vacation there while Jk went back to korea? These are instances where they had free time and choose to be with other people instead of each other over the years but you say they prioritized each other in chapter two? You keep saying taekook spent time together but then you show a twitter post from the time when all members were still living together and the other proof you have are noises in the background of lives or sightings with no proof whatsoever. Didn’t taekook themselves make it clear that they weren’t involved in each other’s lives as much? Is this a lie too?

Now you say that in the one moment where they were free to do their own things they choose each other. This would have made sense if all the members were deep in schedules or free at the same time but taekook still made time exclusively for each other but this wasn’t the case was it? You cannot say people choose each other or made time only for each other when everyone else pretty much wasn’t available because of work and they were the only ones who had some free time to hang. Isn’t it instead an issue that at the moment when all the members schedule aligned and they were still together as a group but living separately Taekook didn’t spend time together but only did when only their schedules kind of aligned out of everyone else’s? It’s just like saying that two people made time to be together just because they were the only two left at home while everyone else had to go out to work. If we saw other members constantly hanging out in different pairs and taekook with each other then ok, that would have made sense but other members didn’t do that and we know for a fact that all of them were busy. Taekook are friends so they can hang out when they want to and also in their free time but your narrative that they prioritized each other over anyone else just because they hung out the most just isn’t true. This narrative would have also made more sense if taekook kept up with the constant hang outs even after they both got busy with their own individual stuff and Jk stopped being a couch potato but they didn’t did they? When taekook hung out alot we could tell because of the knowledge they both had of each other and also the fact that Jk shared 7 first with Tae but it was obvious to anyone who isn’t biased that it wasn’t the same after they both got busy with their own stuff. When Jk made 3D, RM and Yoongi heard it first, Jk didn’t know if Tae’s album had been announced already, Tae didn’t know about the process of Jk’s album and Jk himself said he didn’t know where Tae was and that he didn’t keep up with the members all the time. This was very different from taekook at the beginning of the year who had alot of knowledge about each other because they hung out alot in their free time don’t you think? If all the members were extremely busy at the same time including taekook and they both still made time to be with each other, then I would have seen your point but right now, you are the one not looking at things from every angle. You are only paying attention to the angle that favors your argument.

“ It was not work, it was not any other obligation that kept them together during that time. _Their_ time.”

Someone hearing you say this will think that taekook both did everything in their power amidst busy schedules and loads of work, jumped through hoops to make sure they spent time together. They wouldn’t believe this happened when Jungkook had nothing doing and used to spend 6 days in a row at home doing nothing. Ofcourse it wasn’t work or any other obligation that kept them together at that time, it was their friendship and the fact that they had time on their hands to spend with each other like normal friends do. None of the other members need work or any other obligation to be with each other. They spend time with each other when they can and when they want and other times they spend time with other people in their lives and as Jk said, don’t keep up with each other all the time. Just because it is in the past you are trying to act like taekook have always spent time together when there is more than enough evidence showing that they didn’t at some point and not only because we didn’t see it but because they said so themselves but I guess we should continue arguing with them about things they said while continuing to believe that the sounds in the back of their livestreams or made up sightings with no proof are proof enough that they spent time together.

The way you shippers get defensive when someone points out the inconsistencies in your logic and narratives should be studied because why are you getting so defensive?

You asking the questions and me answering puts me in the defensive position by default. This is just another example of how all of your asks have been in bad faith. You send me something you want a response to, and when I respond I'm "defensive". In the most literal sense I am in the defensive position here. Do you see how that works? You didn't point out inconsistencies in my logic and narratives, because the logic and narratives you asked about aren't even mine.

I didn’t send you an ask in bad faith and I certainly wasn’t trying to save you from shipping either but as a blogger when you put out certain information and open your inbox for people to send asks, shouldn’t you be ready to get asks that disagree with some things you say?

So you do know how this works. You did send me three asks in bad faith. I explained why. There's multiple reasons these arguments you brought here are bad faith ones. If you weren't trying to save me, you were trying to save other "delulu" Taekookers and you can start your own blog for that if you want.

I was honestly just trying to hear what you thought about the ever changing narratives because i noticed that you are one of the more non delulu tkk blogs on tumblr but you got so defensive and even a little insulting for what? Is your ego so big that you can’t handle people challenging your beliefs or questioning your logic?

And the "changing narratives" you asked about were things that you had twisted them into yourself. Narratives that were never mine, that had no logic, and that I'd never seen anywhere. Narratives like "Taekook are real because they're never seen together". You even had to backtrack because you know that was absolute bullshit that no one had ever argued.

Ofcourse taekook didn’t just become a thing in chap 2 and neither did all the other numerous ships we have in BTS. They all didn’t start now but the fact that a ship has always existed and seems to get more attention at a certain time doesn’t mean that ship is real. I have seen tkkrs argue that taekook is one of the OG ships so that means something. Yes, it means that people were able to spot their closeness and bond very easily because of how obvious it was but that doesn’t mean that bond and closeness remained exactly the same through out the span of 10 years and that certainly doesn’t mean the ship is real. How long a ship has existed doesn’t determine if the ship is real or not.

🤦‍♀️

I had to post your starting "point" in its entirety because oh my god, we have gotten nowhere. No one said, and I certainly didn't, that how long a ship has existed or how much attention it gets is what makes it real. You're starting off again with some twisted logic that makes no sense and trying to act like that's my or other Taekookers' position. This is crazy. I talked about the fact that I've been a Taekooker since 2016 to establish that I've been here for a while and my narratives haven't changed, and that specifically the Jokers' new fave talking point that Taekook weren't close until 2023 is false. You want to talk about changing narratives but I can't say "I've been here since 2016 and my narrative hasn't changed?" I'm not saying that to argue for the validity of the ship itself. You seem to have some sort of reading comprehension issue and it's tiresome to have to answer to absolute bullshit like this.

Tkkrs, or most tkkrs narratives changed and it will continue to change. If you don’t know that it did you are either not very aware of what most tkkrs say or you are lying. Are you trying to tell me that tkkrs didn’t go back to, “the company is separating them and forcing Jk not to mention Tae” after the Taennie incident?

No they didn't. So I either agree with you or I'm a liar now? 😂 The only "narratives" I had during this time period is that Tae got way bolder in his queer expression, and that they were busy as hell and had very successful solo debuts, but that Taekook stayed Taekooking. Jungkook talked about Tae before and after the "Taennie incident". How would the company even separate them in solo era? They clearly didn't. After the "Taennie incident" we saw them at Yoongi's concert and they arrived, watched, and left together. They wore the matching Sweetheart shirts, Tae supported JK at Inkigayo. 😭 Whatever narrative switch you're talking about once again was not mine.

Before this, tkkrs said taekook were finally free and they could be themselves but after taennie what did tkkrs say?

Free to what? Come out? You use these no nuance set-ups to try to make everything a gotcha and you fail miserably. No one expected them to be free to come out or that risks didn't continue even after the group went on hiatus. Taekook were exactly as free to be themselves as far as their relationship is concerned before and after, which is what you're talking about.

I have literally seen tkkrs send asks to tk blogs commenting abt the increase in tk content. What were the narratives when most tkkrs felt like they didn’t get enough tk content?

What. What Taekook content? Do you consider all of the solo era outings and moments as...content? I don't know about you, but "content" to me is official releases from the company. There was no marked increase in Taekook "content", and if you want to argue with me about my position on that go read my first response to you and the "drought" I called overexaggerated. I'm done with you after this, but it would have been great if you had considered even a single thing I actually said before coming into my inbox with your third essay.

I have noticed that the tkk community on tumblr is a non toxic one but don’t think that just because few of you on tumblr aren’t negative, the rest of the tkkr community isn’t because you need to visit twitter, instagram, tiktok and facebook to see what tkkrs there do and say

Do you think I live here? 😂 I'm well aware of the toxic mess on Twitter where I have over 100k accounts blocked. Instagram is a cesspool. I don't know why you think I'm interested in answering for the positions of some of the worst and dumbest people in the community when I place no value on what they have to say myself. Go ask them. If you're trying to use that to point out inconsistencies in MY narratives and logic, you can understand why we have a problem here.

Are you trying to say that after all the years of BTS being together you don’t think some of their dynamics changed over time? You don’t think some members at certain points grew closer while others grew more distant? Just because taekook seemed visibly closer in chapter two doesn’t mean they didn’t go through periods where they grew a little distant. That is perfectly normal in every relationship whether you like to accept it or not and maybe if some of you took off your shipping lenses for a moment, you would be able to see things a little more clearly.

Where did I say that. I'm 42 years old, I'm well aware of how things change. That's not what you asked me about and you kind of just shot your own argument in the foot here. People changing over time, circumstances changing, is not the "narrative" changing. Do you know what a narrative is. It's a story of connected events. Over time. Through changes in people and circumstances. Do you get how those changes can happen within the narrative? If you can't grasp that that might be the core problem here.

People didn’t just start thinking Taekook weren’t close out of thin air. People started thinking they weren’t close because they gave people the impression that they had grown a little distant and this impression was further strengthened by them barely been seen together and a very visible shift in their dynamic which even taekookers noticed at the time and complained about or are you also about to tell me that tkkrs didn’t complain about something feeling off with taekook and then convinced themselves that the reason for that was because the company was keeping them apart?

Once again, I do not care what other Taekookers complain about. I have zero complaints. A Taekooker who is "complaining" about Taekook is the kind of person that would get an instant block from me and over 100k people on Twitter have.

This is where you lose me because there was never a time when members were required to spend time with each other except when working and if you believe anything contrary to this, you are too far gone. Even while living together in the dorm, they were not required to spend off time with each other if they didn’t want to were they?

I didn't lose you, we were never on the same page. And you did not get the point I was making about them working and living together. They were required to spend time together working, nowhere did I say that working and living together forces a relationship to happen. You came at me with, the point you backtracked on, that Taekook were never seen together. I was saying there is no point in trying to argue that Taekook did not spend enough time together in chapter 1. You can try to break it down and say "But they didn't spend THIS day together", but as I also said that is not what I do. I don't know their day-to-day and I don't need to. There is a ton of their time unaccounted for. What I believe is the narrative that has emerged for me when looking at all of the connected events over the years. That's it.

The rest of your essay goes on the exact same way and I'm tired, but I'll post with my added notes. I don't think responding to all of this will accomplish much, because I can see that you are going in circles with the same "logic" while missing the basic point of these three attempts I've given to answering. I'm not blocking right now but if I find myself in the mood to answer you again I'm doing it with this essay. This is plenty. You send me more of the same, I'm deleting it.

[theinkbunny]

intro

(cant find og poster of the bunny but if i find it will update. Deer is @thecouncilofidiots !)

self ship blog @thesam-manselfshippingblog

welcome to the blog of a palaeontology obsessed, game fixated, art loving therian!!!! If you decide to befriend me there is a h i g h chance of receiving any of these things at random. also warning this blog *will* have things like bugs, unsettling animals, and overall weird creatures from around the world. Love little fella’s like that. I am also a huge fucking nerd 99% of the time so if you need help on like math or smth just ask. I’m decently good at it!

DNI

Proshippers

terfs

nsfw blogs

aphobes/homophobes/transphobes

anti-therian

You can find me on YouTube, cohost, and on crk under the name “theinkbunny”

he/him

names to call me!!! : Ink, bunny, some formation of those! (Also don’t mind being called deer related things lol)

The sparkle twink of the lilarky fandom , which consists of @mikomikomadness @sharky-the-idiot @lilacthebooklover @whale-the-genius and some others who’s handles I forgot because I am a DUMBASS. I do roleplay, however it is sometimes hard to keep one going as I do study, draw and create a lot of things so I am usually busy.

if you wanna reach out for help, or just to chat go ahead!!

my online parent: @staplegxnn

my kids vvv

@s4gefr0g

@mikomikomadness (I literally love her omg . Could eat tf outta her art and her writing)

@r0und-4b0ut

@sharky-the-idiot

@unfortunately-i-exist

@acr0tic

and one of the sweetest gals I’ve had the luck of meeting, @godofautism

[the-deadcode-utau]

UTMV DEAD CODE AU Ramblings

DEAD-CODE DEFINITION: A section of code in a program that is not used or accessed during the program's operation. It can refer to code that is never executed, or code that is executed but has no impact on the program's output. It’s a deceptive element that can be found in software projects. It can waste time and memory, and often goes unnoticed. Removing dead code can change the program's output and create bugs, so compilers are usually conservative when removing it.

AU DETAILS:

The Dead Code AU (or the DC) is a small pocket/“mini-verse” that is composed of unused, discarded, or thrown away code from other AUs/timelines.

The small pocket contains characters, music, objects, and backgrounds; which is glitched into the Dead Code area when the timeline is started, reset, or overwritten.

When things are transferred into the Dead Code, the effects can be mental or physical. The glitch will mainly affect actual characters and their souls/bodies, although music and objects can also be affected.

Some examples of the effects are: missing certain physical features, glitching soul/body, glitched magic (can have positive or negative effects), and insanity/negative mental symptoms.

Unused V.S. Discarded Codes

Unused Code— When code never ran in the timeline it was made for when the timeline started. Whatever isn’t used to begin with is an Unused Dead Code.

Discarded Code— When code is removed or replaced when the timeline resets or is overwritten. Whatever is no longer used is a Discarded Dead Code.

Unused Codes are a lot more stable, due to it never being in its timeline and never becoming physical. Discarded Codes are a lot more likely to be unstable and mentally unsound(if it even can be) due to being ripped away from its timeline without warning.

Environment and Community

The environment is very similar to the OG Undertale timeline, however some parts are more dangerous and glitchy than others. As far as the people who are in the DC know, the surface doesn’t exist.

The more dangerous parts include Hotland and The Core, as the unloaded chunks of magma and rock makes it hard to traverse.

Because The Core in the Dead Code is not functioning properly due to the transition to the DC, the ventilation system has been compromised. Any scientists who are able have been tasked with studying the area and fixing The Core.

More medically knowledgeable people are tasked with helping others who have been affected/disabled by the transformation. They are working on finding ways to restore others to their original forms, however no positive results have been recently reported.

As the Dead Code grows, so does its community. There has been a very simple government program established, with some laws and regulations to keep things orderly.

Most ‘citizens’ in the DC are assigned a patch or pin to wear that resembles an unloaded texture (pink and black checkered pattern), it symbolizes safety and stability for those who wear it. (Stable + Unloaded Patch, SLP)

For the more unstable and mentally unsound, the caution tape pattern is used. It can be shown in different ways such as jewelry, belts, clothing, etc. It symbolizes danger and power for those who wear it. (Unstable + Dangerous Patch, UDP)

Most people have a SLP, but it’s not uncommon for some to have both. If they do have both it’s most likely that they’re unstable but not that dangerous or powerful and vise-versa.

[thedevillionaire]

Cheating a little bit on the director’s cut asks (only if you’re not oversaturated with those!), but you’ve referenced the longevity of your recurring universe a few times and I am SO curious to know if you remember what the first fully-formed story that came out of it was (whether it was ever written down or not). AND if your main characters have changed in any significant way(s) since then!

Hello, and thank you so much for the ask! In terms of written-down stories, I absolutely remember, and in fact still have a copy of it. It's called And She Danced, and it's kind of a character study? Sort of? About a Demon character of mine - long gone, never major - who could see others' darkest fears and/or deepest secrets, and kind of fed off...psychologically manipulating them into a state of terror, I guess. She called it 'dancing'. (Not actually dancing. Entirely psychological.) It doesn't feature any of my main-these-days characters, and isn't openly an Underworld piece, as I wrote it for my English/creative writing class at the time, which is why I still have it. But technically, that's the first Crimson Charisma story I ever wrote. I also have a lyric about the same thing/character/situation, and I like that a lot better than the story. I was 16 when I wrote the story, I think, or thereabouts, and...well, it kinda shows lol:

(A sample is plenty of that now! haha) Otherwise, for a long time, the Underworld and its residents existed as my bedtime story to myself, as it were - the soap opera I'd play in my head nightly before falling asleep. I called it Nightgames at first. I've actually always kind of done this, with various characters and indulgent soap-operatic happenings. Since childhood. (My first next-door universe of this kind was called Catland. It featured cat people. I set it in Russia because that was so far away and foreign to me, and also huge, so maybe there could be a part of it populated by cat people, right? lol) Anyway, so I had an ongoing running story, of a sort, but I didn't write any parts of it down as recognisably "itself" for ages. Not in full, anyway. I do have a notebook with all sorts of character lists and lore and "plot points" from Back In The Day, but no full stories from the first...year or even more, I think. My first "primary main" OC, Echo, still exists to this day, though he's a lot less prominent than he used to be. Lilith and Aera were both OG characters, and they've had excellent staying power. Aera's story is a complex one that definitely got developed over time, but I had Lilith pretty right from the get-go. She's fairly straightforward in a lot of ways, lol. Cerberus is not quite an OG, as such, although he's certainly been around for a damn while now. He is what I term "first generation", although I had about 30? 40? characters by the time he showed up, about six months in, intended as a one-off plot device. GOOD JOB, ME. (He did actually fulfil that purpose, but then just...didn't fuck off. Thought he'd take over the whole damn place instead. 🤣🤣)

Anyhow, he's changed in many ways, and Kia in particular changed him in a way I didn't even think was possible, but his core essence has remained pretty constant. He knew his deal right from the start, he's always been more than a bit insistent about it, and I, as ever, have no control.