#every other character has to come to terms with their deaths realistically

[fencecollapsed]

I absolutely hate it when any show is canceled before getting the chance to tell its full story, it's a deeply unfair thing to happen in any case

but I will admit. there is sometimes a TINY element of relief I feel when I hear what the plans were for the followup that never got to be and the plans were. bad.

[judesmoonbeauty]

My Thoughts & Spoilers On Jude's Route

This will contain detailed major route spoilers. If you do not want to be spoiled, please move on because I will not be filtering my review. Also, not all spoilers and details are being shared. This is intentional. Bear in mind this is written prior to my thoroughly translating his route, so the translation may have some adjustments to this information.

So, I really LOVED it!! It's a very good storyline. Am I biased? Yes. However, whether you're romantically interested in Jude or not, I feel like you'll like in route in general. I do highly recommend reading his and Ellis' Past Records before his route if you can. His route does bring up clips from PR, but it's very minimal and there's a lot of context and extra details in PR that you don't get in this MS. I did my best with this, but my thoughts are still every where, so if it doesn't make sense. My bad.

Tropes: Enemies to Lovers....of sorts?, Slow-burn. Key Side Villain Characters: Ellis, Nica, Victor New Side Characters For His Route: Theodore Walker, Gilbert Murphy, Oswald Simmons Love Language: Physical Touch (I'd just like to say that I called this.) Who Falls in Love First: Kate First Kiss: Kate Kisses Jude First Full Snu-Snu: Chapter 24 Both Premium ends Jude's Fate Tragic End: He will die bearing a grudge against/hating the world. Route CW: Violence, Smoking, CA, Neglect, Mentions of a child's death. Jude's Age: 28-30. Jude's Heritage: Irish-British Jude's Curse: 13th Fairy (An endless cycle of hatred) Jude's Fated End: To die with a hatred/resentment against the world.

Plot: In a nutshell, Kate is trying to find one good thing to like about Jude prior to her term of FTK (fairytale keeper) ending, as per their first promise made together. If she finds one, Jude must fulfill any one request she has. Amidst working for both Crown and Raven, Kate tries to come into her own in terms of standing as Jude's equal, seeing the world as he does, and essentially saving him from not only own his death wish, but from being framed for treason against their country.

My thoughts: Jude's route is very lively, it's got a healthy amount of funny moments, action packed moments, and it's quite wholesome overall. However, it still retains some darkness in the sense of his past, and the fact that he's literally on this tightrope of life and death.

Kate: She is not afraid of voicing her thoughts and feelings, or speaking sarcastically to Jude. I almost died when I read that she stuck her tongue out at him LOL. There's this scene where Ellis tells her she's thinking out loud when she doesn't realize it, so she apologizes. A few minutes later after she greets Theodore, she sees Jude behind him:

Kate: ....And thanks for your hard work too, Jude. Jude: Can ya please stop greet me so sourly? Makes me wanna vomit my mornin' tea. Kate: I wonder if I'm under a curse that'll kill me if I don't say something sarcastically...

So, she is very courageous and gutsy, but she also thinks things through. There are times where she wants to act because she loves Jude and wants to be there for him, but she also knows not to act rashly because her movements can hurt him and Crown, so she opts to bide her time instead.

Out of all of her versions, I think she is the one who gets the most frustrated, the most angry, and laughs the most at certain situations such as getting locked in the office with Jude. She is very optimistic and kind, but not saintly kind.

She is a fighter. She learns self-defense and how to use a gun, a lot this takes place off screen, but she does develop this over time. Which is nice because it's more realistic.

Jude & Kate Relationship: Starts off very rough, and I say it's an enemies to lovers trope, but no one actually hates the other person, they simply don't get a long and it has that vibe. Jude is trying to kick her out of Crown, and Kate is trying to find something she likes about him.

Overall, they bicker and banter a lot. It's cute because in MLE Kate says, "If I say one thing, he has 10 things to say", and in BLE Jude says, "If I say one thing, she's got 10 things to say." They're adorable together.

One scene I loved was when Jude is being attacked by a group of thugs in his office after closing hours, and Kate barges in with her gun. She yells at the men to stop what they're doing, and then she tells Jude to step away from them. And so, Jude and Kate are having this full blown conversation as they're surrounded by these thugs as to why she is at his office, who's fault it is, etc, etc. And when the head thug starts to complain, both Jude and Kate say, "Shut up!" at the same time. This seems like it actually becomes a thing for them, they say it in MLE as well.

Were they childhood friends? No. That was an AU thing only, and a clever misdirection from Cybird. I think key take aways from Dark IF and Prison IF are that they made promises to each other, and that Kate tries to return to little Jude in Prison IF. Additionally, it does hint that two children were involved in Jude's past, just the other wasn't Kate, it's his sister. While some may be disappointed by this, I loved that it turned out this way, it surprised me.

Love Language: Physical. Touch. Lemme say it again. Physical Touch. While their relationship is a slow burn, it's not without it's tension along the way, and the pay off is hella worth in my opinion. I just knew that Jude was going to tear into her, and he does.

But more importantly, Jude touches Kate a lot especially before missions. For example, in BLE just before Kate goes undercover at a criminal organization that is using Raven products, she and Jude are in his office reviewing the plans, and while he does this, he touches her bare skin, kiss or bite her, and then after the mission he'll make love to her. Why? Because Kate made another promise to Jude earlier in the route that she would never die before him, so he doesn't have to suffering loss ever again. So, prior to any missions, he'll touch her up to a certain point like a promise she won't die, and then finish once she returns safely. I can't...he's so damn precious.

They love each other very very much, but Jude doesn't like saying the words. "I love you." Not because he's a tsun, but because they're easily said. So, he'll convey his love to Kate with words like, "I'm taking you to hell with me." If you read his side stories, he'll tell you just how much he loves her, and he admits that there is no other woman in the world that he could ever love like her.

Important Side Characters: Theodore Walker: 21 y/o and he works in the sales department at Raven. Every one calls him Theo, even Kate. It seems that he's worked for Jude for a long time as well. He's very personable, and chatty, and he gets nervous about things like when the president forgets his custom fountain pen as he's on his way to business meetings. He even says to Kate and Jude that Kate is his type, and everyone is like.....um what? I'm really happy that Theodore isn't a traitor. I like him. I thought Cybird would use him the way that contract worker in Jude's first story event would be used. But no, he's just a loyal young man who cares about his job. I hope to see him again.

Oswald Simmons: He is the doctor who treated Jude and his sister after Jude memorized an entire medical textbook in a week. After Jude's sister was sold off, Jude ran to Oswald and asked that if he put Jude through school, let him lodge with him and provide him food, then Jude would pay him back with interest. Oswald agrees and in time, Jude does pay him back with interest. Oswald treats everyone equally, and he finds Jude's intelligence and ability to memorize things amusing. While he does not offer to take Jude in of his own initiative, Oswald does have a soft spot for Jude, as he tries to gift Jude a new pocket watch upon graduation and the success of his new company. He even tries to dissuade Jude from seeking revenge that will only force Jude into be lonely. In the route, he tells Kate to relay a message to Jude, that if he ever gets into a pinch to comeback and he'll give Jude a run for his money. To this day, Oswald still has the watch that Jude refused to take.

I honestly, hope that they reunite one day. Jude doesn't wish Oswald any ill-will (though he calls him a weirdo), and he wished Oswald a long life when he said goodbye.

Gilbert Murphy: He is a high-ranking officer of the British military who colludes with the Privy Council and a criminal organization to frame Jude treason and building military weapons. However, Gilbert truly does think that Jude is going to the moon for monetary purposes. While he is being an asshole for framing my beloved, his motives are to protect the people from potential weapons that can be created with Jude's research. Still, it's sullying Jude's innocent and pure motives. Still, he testifies in Jude's favor and takes the blame of the dead privy council member, as his own form of justice for trying to frame Jude due to his becoming blinded by his obsession to protect his country.

The other villains: Ellis: Ellis is Jude's right hand so he is heavily involved with the plot, especially in MLE. We know about Ellis.

Nica: Darius asks him to investigate Jude, so he does. Twice, he offers information to Jude that he's gathered after he lets him know he's aware of what he's building.. The first time, he tells him that a part from the criminal organization Jude has already been dealing with, the British military want his plans too. And wouldn't it be something if they teamed up to get Jude's research. He asks if he can snatch the robin away from Jude, but Jude says she doesn't belong to him, and no matter whom she dated she belongs to herself.

Nica leaves the bar after getting scolded by Jude, but prior to that, he tells Jude that the robin is in the most danger because she's around him. A few chapters later, Nica appears again and tells Jude that his assumptions based on the previous information given have come true, and because he didn't let go (of Kate), he's letting her know the facts. After he explains the situation to her, he tries to whisk her away on a date, but Kate declines. While Nica is a "playboy", it seems that he does care for Kate's well-being.....I am letting my current knowledge of his past events, and bond stories influence me by saying this.

At any rate, at the end of BLE, Darius asks Nica why he follows his orders so complicitly, and Nica says it's because he's on the winning side, and to him, Darius will be or is the winner. Darius is satisfied with this, and when he leaves Nica looks at his palm and says that he will be the happiest someday. It's already been established that becoming the happiest person is important to him, but this has now been reinforced.

Victor: Lore crumbs are very little, but what we do know is that when Kate asks him if he is angry, he tells her that he's forgotten loneliness a long time ago.

Further, when he approaches Jude and asks if Jude is hiding something from him and Crown, he tells Jude he has the means to help him. Jude asks if Victor isn't the one hiding something, and remarks that's why Harrison hates him so much because he knows he is lying. Victor simply smiles and stays silent. Upon leaving his study, Victor does tell Jude no matter what, he doesn't want their freedom disturbed and those are his true feelings.

Further, Victor later tells Kate in the BLE that when Jude says he abuses his power, Jude wasn't lying about that. Later in chapter 24, all of Crown are gathered together in front of her Majesty the Queen for a very important meeting. Victor speaks saying that they wish to grant Kate the position of fairytale keeper permanently, and when Jude finds out, he leaves angrily. In the middle of all this, the Queen never utters a word.

I don't think we learn anything new that we weren't aware of before with Victor to be honest, unless I missed something while reading. But, it's nice to know that we should see something big for his route. We better for how under wraps his lore is kept.

Jude's age: He can't be any older than 30 because in his Past Records he definitively says that he is five years old. In the MS, Oswald states the events he recounted to Roger and Kate took place over 20 years ago. Kate reason's that if it was 20 years ago then Jude had to be under the age of 10. I think he's 28-30.

Jude's Curse: Jude's curse was born when his heart was completely broken, and he vowed to get revenge on those who made him and his sister suffer. It's manifestation was described as a black flame of hatred in his heart. Essentially, Jude has entered a vicious cycle of hatred that never really ceases. Jude fuels this cycle by acting in a way where people want to get revenge on him, and a part of that is because he want's to die.

Jude's Fated End: Jude is fated to die bearing a grudge/resentment/hatred against the world. Jude himself says that his death will not be an honest one. Some have made comments that his fated end is a bit underwhelming, but I am pleased that Cybird left Disney alone, and stuck with Grimm's ending for the 13th fairy. I love it because no one knows what the fairy was thinking or what happened to it, it just simply disappears. This is something that is mentioned quite a bit in Jude's route.

In the MS there is a beautiful chapter with all of Crown gathered for a fireworks beach day, and while Jude is looking at the fireworks, Kate is looking at him. She thinks he is like a firework, beautiful, dangerous if you get too close, and then simply gone.

In BLE, Kate watches a Sleeping Beauty play hosted by local town children where she is staying and even though she knows that the outcome of the fairy is unknown, she is hoping for a different outcome. When the kids stick to the fairytale, it's then she realizes that Jude too - while still stuck in his cycle of hatred - will die. He will never know happiness, and disappear like the burnt body of cigarette smoke, like a firework in the sky.

In chapter 18ish, while Jude is being held captive and being tortured by the British military for information on Crown, he laughs self-mockingly and says that this is the perfect fit for him to die bearing resentment/grudge against the world.

Is Kate Trying to find a way to break the curse? No. Unlike Alfons and Roger's route, Kate is willing to accept Jude's fate, stay by him, make him happy and be his reason to live. That is her sole purpose, to make sure he doesn't die. Kate is obsessed with keeping him anchored to the world no matter the cost, and she even mentions to Victor that even though no fated ends have ever been avoided, that doesn't necessarily mean they are tragic.

Is Jude happy by the end of the route: Yes. Though he won't admit it out loud being the tsun tsun that he is, Jude's first glimpse of happiness occured when he told Kate about his dream and she didn't laugh at him. By the time he puts her to sleep and leaves her behind, he tells her that being genuinely liked wasn't so bad. And of course, Ellis asks if he can kill Jude in his BLE epilogue because it's obvious that he's happy......Jude tells him he can go die, and Ellis is like okay okay. FR though E, I need you to calm TF down.

The depth of his love for her is so great that he tells her that if she ever tries to run from him, she should just kill him. The reason is because she is his only happiness - she is the moon that he's been trying to reach for so long. He'd have no reason to live if she left him.....

Hmmm, here are some of my favorite parts in his route:

He tries so hard to protect Kate, from throwing her out of a window when a house is on fire and telling her she died in that fire so she wouldn't have to return to Crown, to lying to her and accusing her of making a 10,000 £ mistake and firing her from Raven, and other things.

I love that he even assigned people to watch her secretly after he's left her behind in a seaside town, with the intention of doing so for a long time since she is known throughout London for said involvement with Jude. He says things like, if she can live a calm, normal life, then that's enough for me. So, he's resigned to love her from afar.

He does everything in his power to protect even Crown from getting involved with his research so they aren’t crushed and hated by the privy council or others, even undergoing brutal torture.

Jude promises to make Kate the happiest he can before they go to hell, and there are many, many more things he does to endear me even more to him. I nearly cried when he introduced Kate to his sister at her grave he had made for her, saying she (his unnamed sister), was the only family he had left.

Even though he knows his dream of going to the moon is going to be difficult, he is more determined than ever to achieve it, because he's got two promises to keep.

Ultimately, we have our teasing Jude and Kate kicking ass together, and loving each other until their ends come.

Ugh, I'm gonna make myself cry. Well, this is it in a nutshell. Sorry for rambling!

[theblogwithoutfear]

karen page is so annoying in the show...is she better in the comics somehow or is she just like that

So I've actually wanted to talk about this forever, but I kept forgetting to make a post about it. Your ask is a perfect opportunity to write down all my thoughts. Brace yourself, because I have a lot to say. Sorry in advance lmao

I actually prefer Karen in the show. To be fair, I have not finished all the comics, but so far I think her TV counterpart is a lot better (I still like her a lot in the comics tho, don't get me wrong). The NMCU version of Karen Page also has a lot of Kirsten McDuffie (another comic book girlfriend) in her, which is great in my opinion.

A lot of people find her annoying, but to me it's her flaws that make her such a fantastic character. She isn't a caricature, stock-girlfriend character pulled from a box of tropes; she's a well-rounded individual, extremely realistic, a mirror of Matt Murdock, and a woman with real agency. Her actions have major consequences on the plot. In my opinion, a lot of superhero girlfriends (in comics, movies, TV, whatever) are written more like props than characters, and they don't have any agency or actual plot relevance. Which is why, when a lot of them die, their deaths feel so cheap and inconsequential. That's where fridging comes from. It's been a problem with superheroes since their very inception; and a problem in storytelling at large. So often in fiction, women are flat and unrealistic.

So to me, Karen's heavily-flawed character is refreshing. She is extremely impulsive; she's deeply intelligent, but makes such stupid decisions; she can be hypocritical, self-destructive, and petty. Sometimes she manipulates people, even unintentionally. She's very well-meaning, but constantly makes mistakes. And it's these mistakes that move the plot forward, and reveal important things about both her and Matt. Her actions have real consequences for the story, and she undertakes her own journey throughout the narrative. She is almost as much a protagonist as Matt is, in terms of her character development and growth.

For that matter, every one of the flaws that I listed are things that Matt does too. They are almost perfect mirrors of each other; people who are immensely concerned with justice and compassion, people who care for the truth, and people who want to make their city a better place. However, as they go about it, they stumble and make mistakes and endanger other people. They're hypocritical and contradictory and impulsive. They constantly have to call their own moralities into question, because they almost never live up to their high ideals.

(Also, as a side note, I think many of Karen's flaws—as with Matt's—come as a direct result of all the trauma she's been through: her mother's death, her brother's death, her alcoholism and drug addiction, her dad cutting her off, being framed for murder, almost getting murdered in prison, etc. So I think it's fair to give her some grace.)

But what makes both Karen and Matt so lovable, imo, is that they keep trying. No matter what mistakes they make, they get back up and try again. They do everything they can to atone for the blood on their hands.

I think also (and I'm not accusing you of this, just a certain subset of people in the fandom) that people are more willing to accept Matt's flaws than Karen's—because there's a lot of misogyny built into our society, and there's this ingrained idea that women have to be paragons of virtue. Women, both in fiction and in reality, tend to be put under a microscope and dissected, while men can get away with a lot more. So Matt and Karen have identical flaws, but only Karen gets hate for it, which makes me very sad.

It may be the writer in me, but imo flaws are what make a character—and a story—meaningful. A well-flawed character can take a ridiculous, implausible story and make it feel grounded and real and impactful. A well-flawed woman even more so. I love Karen for the same reason I love Jessica Jones and Wanda Maximoff; or, to go beyond Marvel, for the same reason I love Jo March and Katniss Everdeen and Miss Haversham and Katherina Molina. They all elevate their respective stories beyond the initial premise and plot. Flawed female characters are realistic and impactful, and therefore empowering.

Obviously, to each their own. Some people just find her annoying and don't like her personality, and that's fine. But for me, that's what makes her feel real, and that's why I love her.

[ninainthetardis]

Just something I need to get off my chest

I really think that series like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, fantasy novels with high stakes focused plots addressed to children, should be romance free. They would be so much better without any romance in it.

I mean, as a young reader, I was just there for the action, the magic, the adventure, the plot twists, the plot itself, the characters as individuals, some of their friendships... that kind of stuff in general. I didn't give a sh*t about romance, not even when I grew up and became a teenager. And those are books meant for children and younger readers, right? So, I'm going to share the opinion I had when I was younger (the one I have now would be much harsher, not to mention much longer).

Now, all the romance in HP bored me to death; most of it didn't even make sense. I just wanted to know Voldemort's back story and then proceed to see how they were going to destroy the horcruxes, you know? And yes, I get it, they're teens at that point and it's realistic they have love interests, etc etc etc, except it felt like that author (*insert disgusted emoticon here*) only chose those couples to make all the characters related by the end of the series and none amongst the relationships was really developed to make any sense or look good. Take Hermione and Ron. They'd have zero chances to work irl. Be honest. But mostly, they're lame, boring, casual, rushed pairings with no development whatsoever (thankfully, I dare to add), usually involving characters who are not compatible at all/in the long run.

This is about the canon, but moving on to the fanon ships (Dramione/Drarry), I don't think that that author would have been able to write enemies to lovers properly (I'd add the plus: involving an LGBTQ+ couple, for the Drarry). The sole idea of any of it gives me the ick. Like no. Thanks, but no thanks.

About the PJ ships, on the other hand... they are a mess. None of them is even remotely good. They're all just a total mess, featuring the following problems:

Weird/creepy age gaps

Toxic behaviour

Emotional abuse

Physical abuse

Disrespectful behaviour

Judgemental behaviour

Disregard/dimishment of other characters' trauma

Isolation of characters from other characters they care about/may meet and befriend

Pairings of characters who are not exactly compatible/would never work in long term relationships

Glossing over problematic stuff, which is a big problem considering the audience the books are aimed at

Also, when they get together, some of them are still KIDS. KIDS!

(Fanon ships also fall under some of these points)

In both cases, it's not even like they are necessary to the plot. The funny thing here is that these stories would flow much better without those parts. What's the point of forcing romance into a story where so much is already going on, which leaves little to no space to develop things properly, and in which such romance has actually no purpose?

No romance at all is better than sloppily executed romance. And not every story needs romance in it to be compelling. Especially if they're meant for kids and are full of magic, action and adventure.

A better exploration of the characters and their trauma would have been much more interesting for me to read as kid who became a teenager while the series were coming out, instead of reading cheap romance while the characters were, well, you know, fighting wars and dealing with tons of sh*t.

[whetstonefires]

I was really enjoying the recent 'Amanda Waller vs the Entire DCU' Justice League storyline, because Waller is one of my favorites and this story just kind of pulled out all the stops on her.

Sad her Brainiac Queen Oracle-bot 'daughter' didn't get a longer run; kind of like Slade Wilson the fact that Waller is a middle-aged parent who has not done any actual parenting for a long time informs her character in fun ways imo, so the superbot calling her 'mother' was great. Waller is so much fun, and very like with Lex Luthor it's always a delicate balance between letting her be cool and letting her eat absolute scenery. (Before inevitably eating floor.)

Her premise is very much like. What if Batman was just some guy, where 'guy' is gender neutral, and the terms are set that by 'just some guy' we don't mean sane and normal, we mean not in a position to become a fulltime superninja.

Her chosen weapon instead is bureaucracy.

Her backstory, which as far as I know is still current, is she was a normal middle-class citizen whose husband and one of her kids went out one evening and got shot to death in a Random Gun Crime.

To which she responded by going back to school, getting a doctorate in Political Science, and seeking employment with the federal government. Because this trauma led her to crave access to power.

(Because she spends so much time mixed up in questionable scientific research etc you'd think her 'Doctor Waller' was because she's in STEM, but no. Polisci.)

Also more like a normal person and less like Batman, she is not particularly hung up on protecting other people from suffering the way she did, except on the most abstract level where if the world is reordered to her schema, this will stop the Bad Things.

I love this. I love how much of a brass-bound bitch she is. How impossible she is to intimidate or convince to look 'up' to anyone ever. Every time we get to see Waller up against some objectively more powerful baddie and she cleans their clock or just ruins their day I am hooting and hollering. She's fantastic.

But. Just like with Lex Luthor, it is very important that she also sucks. She's selfish. She overreaches herself. Her plans get the people who trust her killed; she cannot resist taking advantage of her position for personal advancement--never anything as trite as embezzlement, either, it's always about power.

She has taken the Suicide Squad down with her so many times and yet she keeps getting appointed to head it up again because she Has Experience (and other people who try to do the job tend to rapidly get eaten by a sharkman or whatever), which is not exactly realistic but it's an exaggerated parody of how management positions do tend to work, so it feels believable.

She has so much contempt for supervillains, and yet whenever it comes down to the punch she falls into the lure of that same megalomania, and then things blow up in her face.

Is there something distinctly Problematic about the character whose destiny is to be repeatedly destroyed by her own hubris in seeking access to specifically institutional power a black woman? Little bit, yeah. But it also works so fucking well specifically because her lack of perspective about when she's gone too far becomes so much more sympathetic, when you know just from looking at her how many bullshit barriers she had to burst through to get where she is.

Anyway I always get excited when she's in things.

[claitea]

do you all wanna hear random pokemon worldbuilding headcanons i've had written down for a while but never really had an excuse to talk about. of course you do here you go

you know how pikachu in the anime says "pikapi" when it refers to ash bc it sounds like satoshi? a lot of pokemon do that. the only ones i've thought of so far are volo's togepi calling him "toto" and emmet's archeops calling him "che-ar-che" (kudari)

my in-game explanation for dex cuts only starting to happen in swsh is that more regulations were put in place to prevent invasive species, after alola's current problem with alolan rattata. you Can have cross-region pokemon still, but you can't release them outside a region they're not native to, you cant breed them, no freeroaming. protag characters arent traveling out of their region so they only use the pokemon available to them

pokemon journeys are a very integral part of the society! its seen as a coming of age thing by most, However, it's never mandatory, and you can go on one at any point in your life. it can be as long or short as you want, you can have a goal from the start or you can just wing it. its not even always about battling, some people do it for contests or just making friends and seeing sights. its not a strongly defined thing

since its such an important part of the world theres immense support for it! its why pokemon centers are free and you can even stay at them overnight in little hotel rooms attached to them specially made for travelers. the gym circuit's purpose is a good progression tracker for people who want to go that route, an easy way to sequentially explore the entire region while battling its best trainers

the poke balls found in the overworld with items in them are specifically left by other people as treats and aid for traveling trainers. its also why people just give you free stuff just for talking to them

"sinnohan form" is technically an acceptable term for hisuian pokemon, but people are so used to calling them hisuian pokemon bc thats how it was written in early dexes and carried over, that not a lot of people call them sinnohan actually

speaking of. sinnoh nowadays has a much higher population of dark type unovan zorua :)

the way rotom work is that they slot their sparkplug body into something in order to possess it. newer appliances make it harder for them to do so. thats why the rotom catalog is a thing now - people have made rotom specific appliances that are easy to possess and are battle resistant

zoroark have photographic memory to produce realistic illusions with. hisuian zoroark mostly do not retain this - most ghost-types born from the death of something else have memory issues especially about their past life - but what they Can do is pull memories directly from their victim's minds and construct more tailored illusions out of that

meloetta also never forgets a song or dance that it hears. when it performs, it can transmit its memories of instrumentals played for it to its listeners. so when you hear guitar play when encountering it in the terarium, thats completely diegetic

when testing a trainer to see if they're worthy of catching it, or when its already captured, legendary pokemon actively hold back in battle. its simply a game mechanic that every legendaries' stats arent like 10000 in every stat. a genuine no holds barred precipice blades would reduce your garchomp to dust. in battles where the pokemon is Actively trying to kill you like eternamax eternatus, your pokemon should be trying their best to dodge every single attack and the huge damage they do sustain is from being Grazed. its extremely rare for anyone to see a legendary pokemon's true power

battling and the use of poke balls simply never caught on in fiore, almia and oblivia. they've historically always been extremely close with pokemon, unlike regions like hisui where people started off scared of them. so, proving yourself with a battle and using poke balls to befriend a pokemon was never necessary

^ the lack of poke balls in those regions did once cause a major issue, where people from abroad realized befriended pokemon counted as "wild" still, so they could easily steal them. this is part of why the ranger union was established, and also why pokemon can let themselves out of poke balls when they wish. its a safety measure. ranger bases can manually tag a pokemon to prevent others poke balls from working on them

the ranger union of fiore, almia and oblivia is completely different to the rangers of the mainline regions, but they find merit in their different ways of handling pokemon so they sometimes swap members

i have several thoughts about the different pros and cons of battling and poke balls vs capture stylers:

poke balls need to constantly be replaced, but a styler is a one-time purchase that a ranger can use for years

mainline region rangers do battles, but that wouldn't work if, for example, the pokemon was already injured and weakening it further to get it to stay in a poke ball would cause it unecessary stress or be dangerous. union rangers calm pokemon by getting them to trust them via styler, but this just becomes dangerous if the pokemon is particularly aggressive.

poke balls are great for transporting a pokemon, keeping it isolated if, say, they have to take an aggressive pokemon through a busy city. but, they wont work on pokemon that have already been captured with a ball. stylers cannot undo a capture, but they can encourage a pokemon to leave a dangerous person and come with the ranger

[ghoulfuckersincorporated]

How do you think ghouls would react or cope with their(maybe occasional) impotence. Cause I have to imagine it’s hard enough trying to cling to yr libido amidst a fallout, & even w/ apathy/desensitization like… ghouls have endured Major nerve damage— burns are one thing, but radioactive burns from enough gamma ray exposure… anyway we take major liberties as fallout fans & I adore (most) every ghoul across the games(god they Always have to have a sad backstory…) but I keep getting hung up on like. The emotional toll, Especially concerning new budding relationships

Friend, I owe you a huge thank you, because this ask came at a perfect time for me; I got it when I was ironing out the finer details of the newest Raul long-form piece and it really helped gel things together for me . I had given this topic some thought before, especially with characters like Cooper and Raul (who are very similar men who have very similar reactions to their traumas IMO...maybe more on that later), who I think would neglect their sexual needs for decades on end.

The physical stuff almost goes without saying. Almost. Yes, I think a large part of the fandom, me included, usually takes liberties with how well most of our favorite ghouls can jump straight into the fray, but too much realism and none of our protagonists would survive very many intimate ghoul encounters. You'd literally have to die for the dick (or metaphorical dick), and not a sexy death, either. I often try to include some of the more realistic physical aspects of ghoulification, though, especially for older ghouls who would definitely be feeling the impact of their age at a few centuries old.

I'd say that the scarring and the nerve damage would tie for first in how much potential they have to hamper your sex life, but I suppose they sort of hold hands. Scar tissue often has nerve damage and hence is less sensitive (except to things like heat and cold, the sensation of which can be amplified by the presence of scarring). The lack of sensation could make it difficult to become fully physically aroused, even with proper stimulation, and it could make sex feel different than it did before, even if you're perceiving the sensations. Some aspects of it could even be unpleasant, painful. I think "outercourse" is probably a big hit with ghouls, honestly.

Scarring isn't the worst situation you could end up in as a ghoul, though. Gamma radiation is incredibly hard on connective and soft tissues, so if you live long enough, well...needless to say, many of the nude feral ghouls you see in-universe have no genitals. Those who are "flash-ghoulified" by a single massive dose of radiation like John Hancock also run the risk of coming out with burns so bad they cause contractures (an injury where the length of your muscle/tendon/skin is shortened and stiffened, causing it to lose much of its function), or burns so bad that flesh fuses to flesh. Ghouls have a wide range of bodies and injuries that decorate those bodies, some much more unfortunate than others. They all still want to be loved on some level.

In terms of the potential emotional roots to impotence, you'd think that that would be just as large a hurdle as the physiological stuff, honestly. I don't think there's a character in the Fallout universe that hasn't experienced significant personal loss and hardship at some point in their lives. For many, life is loss and hardship. Overall, it's a very un-erotic world full of emotionally unwell people. "Apathetic" is a great word to describe the average person you meet. It's not like you can just schedule an appointment with a therapist downtown, either, or call the crisis hotline when things are at their worst. Unfortunately, the most effective way of dealing with one's emotions while continuing to stay alive is to simply swallow them down or drink/use them away. That sort of emotional constipation can have unforeseen physical consequences, especially if it goes on for years and years.

But, as I've pointed out before, love often finds us at the most unexpected times in our lives. It's both a blessing and a curse if you're a ghoul; even those who don't hate ghouls often have no love for them, so actually being desired feels amazing, but to be loved is to be truly known, seen...a level of vulnerability most ghouls actively avoid, lest it be used against them. Tender emotions and sex are both massive, easy cudgels to wield. Ghouls also have to navigate the hostile waters of fetishization when it comes to people who do express attraction to them. Still, the temptation of love, true companionship is enough to make most risk it, and taking that risk makes it sting even more when your body doesn't want to cooperate.

It would be a bit of a vicious cycle: a lack of confidence and too many insecurities causes issues with one's performance in bed, which takes a further toll on your confidence and plays into your insecurities, which makes the issues in bed worse...and on and on. For many, it would definitely be an uphill battle. I imagine that for some, sex with other ghouls would be preferable simply for the fact that you both understand that sometimes your brain and body don't want to be team players. Though, I also imagine there are some who can't stand sex with other ghouls and consider it "depressing". Self-hatred is easy when the whole world seems to hate you, too.

[000marie198]

In some media that have found family and then the friends go their own ways at some point later on, find their own paths, I've noticed the aftermath in sequels that come after time skip of several years is not always... the best. As if the once closest friends, the family, has drifted apart. I mean sure, friends do sometimes drift apart but that separated found family trope creates a rift between friends too and like- I understand that people in real life can be like this but from my personal experience and observations, this shouldn't be, isn't, the case with family. This isn't the case with a group of people closest to you who you grow up with or who supported you in your hardest times and vice versa, who helped you find yourself.

Personal observation, I've literally seen best friends or childhood friends meeting after decades and acting like they just met yesterday. There's no rift, no reserved behavior out of politeness, they literally let go of everything and let out their inner child. They laugh and tease and joke wholeheartedly, are comfortable around one another, rile each other up for funsies in a heartbeat, throwing every piece of maturity out the window. And that's not counting my own personal experience of meeting any of my best friends after several years, we didn't even realize until my mother pointed out that we were acting like we just saw each other yesterday even though it's been years.

Anyways, I'm getting off track here. Point is, I've seen many pieces of media that always create a rift between closest friends or family or found family after a long time of being away from each other and it adds drama and all but while I've seen it excused as being realistic, it isn't. Not in my opinion. Which is one of the major reasons why it always breaks my heart to see this happening and why I hate the Separated Found Family trope. I mean, why even form it in the first place if you're just planning to tear it apart in the end? What's even the point?!

So, whenever such a thing is built up in any franchise, I develop a sense of dread. I'm internally going "plz don't separate then plz don't separate them" about characters I've grown to love. And part of the reason is how media usually handles it, extremely poorly in my honest opinion.

But this didn't end up being the case with Team Sonic when Sonic's closest, life long friends decided to grow and find their own paths in life. Go their separate way. He was happy and proud to see them grow, a little reminiscent and a little sad (though he didn't show it to them) but ultimately happy for them. Would the empty nest syndrome even be a problem for someone who considers the whole planet his home? Perhaps. He respects everyone's boundaries and understands their wishes to not randomly show up whenever he misses them. (Extra bit of angst that when he was setting them free from Cyber Space and becoming increasingly infected in the process, his friends were forced into a situation that got them in a very introspective mindset and each one of them individually decided to go out on their own, leaving him, and he didn't show the literal hell of pain he was being put through that was caused by the Cyber Corruption. He was losing himself with it. He had to come to terms with all his closest friends leaving him after that adventure while he was pushing himself to the brink of death, not even knowing if he'll come out of this in the end, just to set them free. And he didn't let them know so they wouldn't worry.)

Tails, Amy and Knuckles went their own separate ways to grow and find their paths. This looks like it advanced into the separated found family trope, right? But no. The thing is, while many other media used that trope to create rift and drama or something (I'm sure there are good ones out there which didn't do this, honestly kudos to them), this one didn't play out as such. In the latest TailsTube episode, that is proven and shown beautifully. They've all met up before on Amy's birthday and there was a quick visit Sonic gave to Tails in an earlier TailsTube ep and their dynamic remained the same in both, their friendship was just as strong as ever.

But episode 5? God, I'm in love with that episode. Team Sonic coming together after months and nothing has changed. In fact, going their ways and finding their paths in life to grow didn't create a rift between them or anything, it only made their bonds stronger. It made them even closer than they were before. Like how you grow to appreciate and treasure something more when you don't always have it.

This is how found family should be depicted. That's how it actually is in real life too. Found Family doesn't mean you have to stay together 24/7 or you can't grow and find your own paths. It means that even with living life, finding yourself, growing, these people you have come to love will be connected to you just the same. Distance doesn't create rifts when the bonds are so strong, it only ends up strengthening them even more.

[soul-dwelling]

How Would You Design a ‘Soul Eater’ Theme Park?

Enough of my friends who are Soul Eater fans are theme park nerds. 

And I’ve watched enough videos by David Ganssle (Patreon / YouTube) where he imagines hypothetical theme parks and their rides. 

So, what would you put into a Soul Eater theme park? Share your ideas in comments or reblogs. 

Under “Read More” is my idea…

For my idea, on the spectrum of “the sky’s the limit” to “let’s make this realistic,” I am far more “the sky’s the limit.” I am not going to worry here about logistics: I am not concerned about the feasibility of location or its environmental impact, I am not concerned too much about target audiences so much as what I as one fan would want in the park, I am not concerned about profitability or budget, and I am not concerned with how to build the ride or how it would work. 

What I am focused on are eight (for the sake of Kid) of these categories for a theme park: the one symbolic building, location, lodging, dining options, one major ride, one smaller ride, one ride for children, and merchandise. 

Let’s start with the building and the location…

One Symbolic Building and the Location: The DWMA in Nevada

Of course a Soul Eater theme park is going to be shaped like Death City, so of course it has to be situated in Nevada. I am not imagining this theme park as in Las Vegas proper--you would really need this building to look as if it is the one and only city anywhere in sight. 

(Again, I am not concerned with environmental impact or logistics: I don’t know whether such a spot exists in Nevada, and as much as I enjoy theme parks, this is just imaginary, I would rather this be the equivalent of a Theme Park Tycoon or Sim City construction than something I would actually put down in the middle of the desert and threaten the ecosystem and the public trying to get through the desert to see it.)  

We’ll get to what the DWMA has inside when talking about rides. Otherwise, this is pretty much a literal city in terms of size, shops, restaurants, even services like the barbershop where Excalibur shaved Hero’s head. 

Lodging: Dorms and Apartments

Guests would have options for where to stay, some less expensive than others, with the trade-off being the size of the room but the experience you get. 

We know from NOT that there are dorms for students. We only ever saw the dorms for the main trio of girls, and that one was presented as pretty upscaled compared to how others in Death City were living. Maybe one dorm is more expensive for guests and duplicates the NOT look, although the size of rooms may be limited and still require three to a room in some cases. And maybe other dorms are less attractive: this can be a worldbuilding exercise to emphasize that, yes, there were some pretty bad dorms at the DWMA. 

The more expensive experience at this theme park would be recreations of the homes of the main characters. The apartment complex where Soul and Maka live is pretty much going to be a hotel where every room looks like the one Soul and Maka lived in in the anime, including the color scheme, posters, even an animatronic Blair Cat napping in the living room. Black Star and Tsubaki’s home is a more traditional Japanese apartment. And the most expensive option will be Gallows Manor, with just a handful of rooms duplicating what we are left to imagine the bedrooms of Kid, Liz, and Patty look like. 

Dining Options (and Live Performances): The DWMA Cafeteria and Deathbucks

I’m cheating here throwing in a live performance, but that’ll make sense below when we get to the DWMA Cafeteria. 

There have to be more dining options than just these two. And the manga had other options, some that are more open to lawsuits for intellectual property violations such as Death Robbins. But aside from coming up with clever names for typical shops (a pizza place called Tombstone, a candy shop called Death by Chocolate), let’s just stick to these two. 

Deathbucks is going to look like what it did in NOT, including the same type of foods, drinks, and outfits for the (adult, not teen) staff (albeit more suitable to what the employees want, given how problematic it is that it was Spirit designing these clothes). What will make this Deathbucks different from the NOT anime is the holiday offerings. We already saw what the place looks like during Halloween, but how would Death City celebrate New Year’s, Valentine’s, Saint Patrick’s, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas? 

The Cafeteria is like the first anime, and as established in NOT offers a range of dining options from all over the world. But there is one major difference: there is a stage at the cafeteria, similar to how some schools, at least the public schools I went to in the US, would combine the cafeteria and the auditorium--a “cafetorium.” The curtains are closed at the 30 minute mark, but at the top of the hour they open to reveal…an animatronic Excalibur, ready to begin his five-hour recitation. But, no, it won’t go on that long, as the Moomin knockoff with the short attention span will bounce from topic to topic, with a performer operating the animatronic to even remark on specific people in the audience. And of course the event has to start with Excalibur singing his song--and for the finale, a far more impressive big band iteration of his song. 

For other live performances, maybe Hook Cemetery is a stage area. We already have “Thriller,” the old Beetlejuice show at Universal Studios--of course a graveyard is going to be a spot for live music featuring performers dressed as corpses and zombies.  

There can also be dining options that build upon what we know about characters already. Mifune likes candy--maybe he and Angela are alive in this timeline and run a candy store? 

One Major Ride: Asura’s Revenge

This hypothetical is less engaging than the smaller ride, if only because I haven’t figured out what to do with it beyond location and title. 

Maybe it’s an indoor coaster at the bottom of the DWMA? Maybe it’s a maze? Maybe it has a ride component where you have to pick your team--”Meister” or “Weapon”--and whoever gets the most “points” slicing apart Clowns wins? 

In any case, you can’t have a Soul Eater theme park without a recreation of the Kishin Shrine. You can even start the ride with the bag containing Asura ripping open, re-enacting his resurrection as his body regains its shape. How do you stage this with animatronics? No clue--but it’d be fun to have it. 

One Smaller Ride: Dr. Stein’s Wild Ride

This is not the most creative option, I do not like simulator rides, and ripping off of that unfunny fink Jimmy Fallon makes me want to vomit. But this is what I’m stuck with…

Along the hallways of the DWMA are numerous classrooms. Guests enter Class Crescent Moon for the pre-show, staged as that day’s lecture. You hear the familiar “Ding-Dong-Dong-Dead” chimes as you turn your attention to the front of the class and the chalkboard, in this case a screen, and using animation and image mapping enters the teacher for the day. (Which one? More on that in a moment.) 

The lecture continues, pretty much introducing you to the kind of ride this is, only presented in lecture format: “Classes at the DWMA are not for those faint of heart. Therefore, if you have a medical emergency such as high blood pressure, or if you are pregnant or have back injuries, we do not recommend you join us on this ride--er, lecture.” 

But then the class discussion is interrupted. And here is where “re-ride-ability” kicks in: the teacher lecturing and the students interrupting changes each time you enter the pre-show. Maybe the lecture is by Sid, who gets tired of Black Star’s antics. Maybe it’s Azusa who keeps getting interrupted as Marie comes in to ask a troubling question--”How fast do oily rags burn?”--before escalating into utter chaos--”THE BUILDING’S ON FIRE, AND I CAN ONLY SMASH SO MANY TOILETS TO PUT IT OUT!” Or it’s Spirit--and Maka just has enough. In any case, whatever happens leads to the entire class being sent to detention--because Sid thinks Black Star goaded the class, because Azusa just takes it out on the student, because Maka smashed her poor father’s head in with a book and has to pay penance. 

You are escorted by the teacher aides to smaller classrooms serving as detention. This again is a screen-based room, where at the front, asleep with his feet propped up, is Stein, animated like the teachers were in Crescent Moon. When it is time for detention to start, he wakes up, stretches, and instructs you to buckle up your seats. Why do you need to buckle up your seats? Stein has created a mobile detention room--and to keep you from screwing up again, he’s going to scare the lesson into you. He pulls lever and spins out on his rolling chair, with your chairs now propelled forward on a tether after him, smashing through the wall of the detention room and into the hallway. You speed down the hall, you do a sharp turn at the corner, you probably run over Hero along the way, you head down the stairs and bounce up and down each step. You just avoid the Kishin’s Shrine. You head back up to the spires of the DWMA, where you’re just hanging over them before you descend down! 

How do you avoid dying? …I haven’t thought that far through this. Maybe Gen has a new drone to haul you up. Maybe Granny ropes you up and swings you back with her incredible weight. Maybe at the bottom Tezca opens a mirror that sends you into the Death Room, where an animatronic Lord Death greets you and asks you to enjoy the rest of your visit--before asking you to sign a waiver so he doesn’t get sued. You exit out the Death Room and through the guillotines before ending up in a gift shop. 

One Children’s Ride: Patty’s Carousel of Nutty Animals

It’s a children’s carousel, only the animals in it look like something Patty would draw and design, including ones that are mythological and incredible. Instead of trying to catch the ring, you have to aim to crack the giraffe’s neck. And as much as I loathe Fire Force, it is not as if you can’t pull from designs from Vulcan’s taxidermy to really amp up how creepy-cute the animal designs are--or even strongly hint that Patty did use taxidermy to make the animals you’re riding, to Kid and Liz’s disgust. 

Merchandise

There has been plenty of Soul Eater merch over the years, so enough of that can be sold or made again to sell here. You’d have the typical anime fan stuff: figures, shirts, cosplay outfit kits, replicas of weapons, plushies. 

But what can be sold here that is not available anywhere else in the world? Just having “special edition” keychains, shirts, food, and other merch is kind of disappointing. 

Or, since this is an entire city, maybe the merchandise is just stuff you would typically buy in Death City? Soul buys albums, so maybe there is just a regular music store there. You can have loads of bookstores, maybe even literal libraries--with lessons on how to properly use a book as a lethal weapon. Maybe expensive speciality shops to “forge” your own weapon? 

Or is the point of the merch here supposed to be about unique activities, not tangible products? Do you have Tsubaki doing a cooking class, only to be interrupted by Black Star? Kid trying to teach painting--only to get disrupted by his insistence on symmetry? 

One Last Thing: Immersion and Cosplay

One other detail I’ll add: since this is unrealistic and more about being “the sky’s the limit,” you would have guests encouraged to show up in cosplay and act out who they want to be as a meister or a weapon. I am not worrying about security having to check the replicas of weapons being brought in, people hiding their identities in their outfits--this is not about realism, this is just imagining what could be if all things were ideal. 

Thoughts? 

So, those are my quick ideas for a Soul Eater theme park. Which rides would you put in your version? Let me know in comments or reblogs. 

[niko-jpeg]

hi. merhog silver artist here and sorry for suddenly appearing in your asks but PLEASE feel free infodump about benthic areas in my tags. if you want. no pressure (⁠◕⁠ᴥ⁠◕⁠) (I think learning about the environment/planet is cool) (and i will use this knowledge to think about merhog silver in Situations™️)

MY TIME HAS COME :D!!!! Thank you so much, I would love to talk about the bottom of our oceans. I love mer aus because I have a special interest in the ocean and it’s biosphere, and I’m glad you’re open to my insanity fhskbslauslsj!!!!

So the ‘benthic zone’ is really an umbrella term for the sea floor, or the floor on any body of water. In this case in the Mariana’s Trench, the bottom layer would be below the “Abyss”/abyssopeleagic zone, in a zone called the Hadal Zone. That’s where Challenger deep is!

Deep sea zones are always very full of life, even if it doesn’t look it. Because of the extreme pressure, in a fictional setting Silver would have to spend a lot of time repressurizing and whatnot on the way back to the surface to not accidentally kill himself with the expansion of oxygen in his blood and also his tissue could turn to mush (I mean, take a look at the blowfish). Realistically, an animal that can go that deep probably can’t go to the surface, but since this is a fictional hedgehog mermaid, creative liberties can be taken out the wazoo. So feel free to pick and chose which details you keep and do away with for plot or situations ™ reasons!!

The ecosystem on the benthic areas of a body of water can vary, depending on how deep the water goes. In a No Light zone, as I like to call them, you begin to see animals with bioluminescence, and this luminescence can vary in color, as it serves a different purpose for each animal. Some may have red, which they have developed a special eye to see (as red is the first color to fade when you start to dive. I did a fun little activity showing this off in my marine science class, it turns almost a brownish), or the bioluminescence may be blue, which is the color that sticks around the longest. It depends on the animal and purpose, and for a character like Silver, maybe if he possesses bioluminescent traits (like in his hands, quills, where ever) it’s for warning off anything that may try to eat him. Though, in a real setting, a creature as big as him down there may be the apex.

Speaking of apex predators and whatnot, I’ll talk about the ecosystem! Most food is provided to the animals so deep through marine snow (excess nutrients that have fallen to the floor from the surface) and whale falls, which are when whales die and drift to the bottom. They will then be a source of food for months, and every creature, from the initial fish who get the muscle tissue to the bacteria that eat the bones, everyone benefits from the death! In a fictional setting, there is a chance you could have creatures in the deep terrorizing Silver, or he could be from an are with a lot of hydrothermal vents, which have their own ecosystems as well, though mostly of the krill and plankton variety. But they are EXTREMELY hot.

Silver, by the looks of it, may eat the flesh from the whale falls, other fish, crabs, and scavenge whatever corpses he may find. He also may be a slightly slower mer to begin with (which kind of matches his in game lack of speed in his levels in 06), as energy is a rare and valuable resource. If he continues to have psychokinesis, he may use it to speed boost and defend himself, or not understand the extent of his own abilities until in a photic (light) zone, like in a reef, which I’d imagine is what Green Hill would be. He might make himself sick hunting and eating whatever he can find in a safer environment, because wow! So much food, so much energy.

The deep isn’t quiet either! It has the echos of everything above it, and though the sand may cause a little dampening, it’s certainly not silent. I think he could probably be able to flare his quills too, as well as flatten them to streamline. But it is lonely down there. Animals don’t cross paths too often outside of hunting or going to a whale fall, and Silver may be on his own a lot of the time, which is sad :( hopefully he makes some friends closer to the photic zone. Maybe light may hurt his eyes a little? He’s spent his whole life in the dark with a limited color palette, so it’s a possibility! If you have any questions about anything ocean related, feel free to ask!! I’d love to share. The ocean is a wild and fun place, and mer aus make me so happy because it shows that people are willing to give it a chance, and by extension, spread knowledge and an adoration with the ocean.

Thank you for letting me ramble <3

[jetwhenitsmidnight]

Take All of Us by Natalie Lief

Publisher: Peachtree Teen / Holiday House

Release date: 4 June 2024

Genre: young adult apocalyptic/dystopian horror

If you like:

Unbury-your-gays

Disabled kids surviving an apocalypse together

Found family

Zombies 🧟‍♂️

Some light cannibalism

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

Synopsis

Five years ago, a parasite poisoned the water of Ian’s West Virginia hometown, turning dozens of locals into dark-eyed, oil-dripping shells of their former selves. With chronic migraines and seizures limiting his physical abilities, Ian relies on his best friend and secret crush Eric to mercy-kill any infected people they come across.

Until a new health report about the contamination triggers a mandatory government evacuation, and Ian cracks his head in the rush. Used to hospitals and health scares, Ian always thought he'd die young... but he wasn’t planning on coming back. Much less facing the slow, painful realization that Eric left him behind to die.

Desperate to confront Eric before the parasite takes over, Ian joins two others left behind—his childhood rival Monica and the jaded prepper Angel—on a journey across town. What they don't know is that Eric is also looking for Ian, and he's determined to mercy-kill him.

Content warnings

Death, violence

Ableism

Blood, gore, body horror

Cannibalism (but its not super graphic imo)

Vomiting (but descriptions of vomit is minimal)

Abandonment

Past medical content

Epidemic

Hallucinations

Mentioned physical/parental abuse

Review

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!! 💀🧟🛢️

There's a post about how if people became zombies they would just continue going about their day-to-day lives because that's what their bodies remember. That is literally this book.

I found the synopsis to be rather misleading. It gives the impression that this book is a scary survival thriller, where the characters have to fight to stay alive, against terrible odds with heavy angst. While Ian, our main boy, does do some angsting, for the most part, this book feels really cute and cozy to me. The begrudging-allies-to-found-family pipeline is real and I eat it up every single time. The characters initially beef with each other upon meeting, but quickly bond over their shared circumstances (being abandoned, chronic illnesses, being outcasts). I liked how the author quickly established their personalities and circumstances, making it clear how their dynamic works from the get-go.

I'm sleep deprived and running out of steam so the rest of this review is in bulletpoints.

The Romance

Cute!

It's giving 😳👉👈

I didn't expect it to turn out the way it did, given the synopsis, which made it sound very ominous.

The Chronic Illness Rep

idk how accurate it is, as I have no first-hand experience

The synopsis says that Ian gets chronic migraines, but he is dead for most of the book, so he doesn't have any migraines in the story, but he also doesn't mention it ever

He does talk about his epilepsy though, but mainly in terms of how people react to him (staring, calling for an ambulance when he doesn't need it)

The synopsis says that Monica is chronically ill, though the book doesn't state exactly how, and she also uses a cane

Character Arcs

Ian's arc is mainly about how, as a chronically ill person, he struggles to take up space because of the guilt he feels from needing people to help him

I think Ian's arc was well-executed, but the arcs for all the other characters were lacking

I wish Eric could have gotten his own arc, he has a bunch of stuff that goes unaddressed

The Premise

The most unrealistic part of this book is that the dead people have oil for blood and the US government didn't round them up and throw them in the Oil Extractor 3000

The most realistic part of this book is that the government (belatedly) discovered a parasite in this town's water supply that turns people into zombies and instead of trying to clean the water or evacuate the townspeople, just told them to drink filtered water

Amount of Horror

Most of this book didn't read like horror to me, other than the light cannibalism

The last 10% is the most horror-y part, very trippy and strange, with more gory bits

Overall

This wasn't the best written book, there were some minor plot holes, and the character development could use some work

But! This was so entertaining and so much fun to read so 5 stars just for enjoyment reasons

[rewritingcanon]

i would just like to SPECIFY and go into a bit of detail about what each thing actually means:

this may not seem so bad, but when i mean they will comment on anything, i mean anything. it doesnt have to be marauder-related. it doesn’t even need to be related to harry potter. i saw a tiktok on a gorilla eating a banana and someone deadass commented “thats cool and stan james potter 😝” and lord FORBID if you include anything with snape in it. want to make an edit of him? backlash. want to talk about how you like him because hes interestingly written? backlash. want to deconstruct his character due to how badly fanon twisted him and actually analyse him? “anyways stan james potter” may be the dominant response to that, just so you know.

“sirius would never say that about mary!” said the marauder fan, heartbroken. “canon sirius would hate himself in atyd!” i respond usually with “canon sirius is a white boy in the 70s, hes not the ‘slay feminist yass 😍’ king you think he is.” this elicits quite a plethora of negative reactions, and i understand why. misogyny is stinky, no one wants their favourite character to be acting like that. so this option doesn't mean "fans who like a characterisation of sirius black that isn't necessarily time period realistic," but rather "fans who deny canon evidence for a fanon conception and then hate on things that expand on the canon evidence provided to them." "they are wizards, which isn't realistic, but you choose the time period misogyny as a hill to die on?" the marauder fan replied to me (and im quite literally quoting on what a creator said to me, this isn't an exaggeration). meanwhile canon sirius black: *harrasses snape for dressing more femininely/more outside gender norms* yeah and you think that boy would be a feminist...

you may think to yourself: when did [insert ship] become a thing? why is this happening? who even is this person? most of the time, it's all in good fun, sometimes, however, ships are created that purely contradict the entire point of said character. snily was criticised for doing exactly this, and now look at where we are.

after reading these points, you may come to the conclusion: holy shit the problem is just marauders fans. in fact, you may take it one more and remember more shit that had occurred due to this sub fandom of the harry potter universe. ever been criticised for not characterising purely fanon (dorcas, marlene etc etc) characters properly? ever been attacked for calling out the hypocritical stanning of barty, evan, regulus and peter whilst piling all blame onto bellatrix or snape? yeah me too babes.

i know we've talked about tiktok a lot, but i raise one more thing: the inescapable hell that is dracotok. this usually consists of those young teenage girls thinking they are very hardcore for participating in death eater practices despite its mirroring of being violent oppressors on a discriminated group so they can impress none other than draco malfoy. this, or they're the badass 'girlboss' that can change him. completely and ironically misunderstanding the point of his character aside, every cringey POV/thirst trap you have EVER seen on tiktok is probably replicated and 10x worse on dracotok.

i swear i haven't heard the term "gryffindork" since 2016, but alas, there has been a comeback. i call hogwarts legacy fans 'baby' hp fans, because i seriously do believe that these people have not interacted with the fandom until now. that would be okay if they weren't regressing everyone to early 2000s discourse. are gryffindors not being invited to ravenclaw, hufflepuff and slytherin raves that deep? no. but those three houses wouldn't be having raves in the first place

we've all seen them, need i explain or go into detail? "b-but harry doesn't have any chemistry with ginny!!" so he does with DRACO of all people? "b-but lily and james are basic!" dont forget the roots from whence you came. its misogyny within the fandom disguised as allyship or whatever the hell this is. ship your ships, but leave the gals alone

this didn't get on my nerves until i suffered from years and years of randoms going into detail about why slytherin/hufflepuff was the best harry potter house and then getting genuine mad when idgaf. maybe you have experienced this tragedy too. there are grown people getting into genuine online beef with others because they made a joke about slytherin being evil or hufflepuff being useless. makes me think you are just evil and useless (just kidding, but please wake up and realise that slytherin & hufflepuff quite literally do not exist)

i sympathise for people who like snape, i do. i do not sympathise for those who attempt to justify or excuse his actions. this normally comes with a side dish of misogyny, because more often than not they will find a way to blame it on lily. other times, they will blame his trauma. i want to be clear: his trauma explains his actions, it doesn't excuse them. that is the whole point of him ruining his chances with lily (not even as a lover, but as a companion). you are doing your own injustice to his character by trying to make him innocent, please stop

it's understandable why the cursed child is so hated. it's meant to be seen, not read, in my opinion. there's a lot of things in it that i too wish didn't exist. but that doesn't make it "not canon" because it upsets you. and of ALL the things that these types of people would choose to complain about, these are the things they chose: albus potter's namesakes (we've been going on about this for years like can we stop now please), harry being a 'bad dad' (think about his own upbringing a tiny bit more and maybe your brain can make a little more sense of his actions), delphi being voldemort's child (probably the only thing that i agree with these people on), and albus' name again because they REALLY hate it (but then they will counter this by saying "james sirius" is a good name, when it's still mid asf). anyway, it doesn't matter how much you squeeze your eyes shut and writhe around about it, the cursed child is canon. soz lol

[shmorp-mcdurgen]

something i love about your aus is how (almost) every character has a bad ending/fate for them

alt mark, alt thatcher, alt jonah, and alt cesar are doomed to an eternity of suffering. cesars mom was crucified, sarah got a chunk of concrete slammed into the back of her head, seth is all alone after finally getting close to people he considered his family.

prophet adam lives with crippling anxiety that the parasite will decide to come out and kill everyone he cares about, just like it did to jonah. thatcher's parasite breaks his bones, practically mangling him every time it comes out. evelin lost herself(?), becoming one with her parasite.

im not educated about the lab rats au so ill avoid commenting on it

guest mark is part of a house he hates, nobody listened when he said something was up with it, not even his own best friend. cesar is stuck all alone in the reflection of a mirror. guest jonah cant move at all, completely stuck in a wall. guest adam can move, but he cant ever leave.

spirit cesar literally got erased from existence by his best friend. shadow mark has to live with the guilt of that.

the characters lives get absolutely wrecked in ways that could never happen in reality but you write their reactions so realistically that it feels natural. their pain and grief and trauma are so realistic that its easy to have sympathy for them, even alt mark. alt mark is an absolute asshole but i think anyone would be if given his fate.

you can see how the characters got in the messes they did. its easy to be like "oh, theyre so dumb, i would never get myself in a mess like that" but you write the characters so realistically that it doesnt feel like a silly horror movie.

something that really stuck with me is the part in the alt au prologue fic where mark runs upstairs and quickly realizes he made a mistake just like so many characters in horror movies did. that detail made it feel so much more real.

GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA THANK YOUUU I LOVE THIS ANALYSIS /GEN

AND YEAH. I want to make it clear that. these characters are. well. human. at least in how they act and react. No one is perfect, with even the most moral and understanding characters having flaws that can lead to bad things happening, or simply being doomed to begin with. Even the villains have motive, and aren't your typical cocky, one note evil bad guys who just want pain on people for no reason.

These characters get bad endings not because of who they are or just for fun. but because in that scenario. A good ending would be. bittersweet at best. And the most likely scenario, taking into consideration the characters and how they act can be. bad.

For example, the alt au has that ending because of the fact that Mark refuses to let go of the past. the bad ending is his fault, and not because he's a one note villain but because he's just. unable to come to terms with what he is and the circumstances of his "death."

The MP Au gets that ending due to Adam's lust for knowledge he shouldn't have, and he is suffering the consequences for it. Not only he drags himself into damnation, but everyone around him as well. All because he was too focused on his own goals to care about those around him.

The HSH au ends up there due to cruel circumstances. Home used Mark and Cesar's poor friendship to its advantage to make them drift apart, feeding off of their negative feelings towards each other. Were either of them in the wrong? no. but neither of them were in the right either.

The only au I can say has a pretty good ending is the lab au, where the patients eventually escape. but. it's not all sunshine and rainbows cause. the damage had already been done. they can't magically reverse the mutations or mental fuckery they've gone under. They're like that for the rest of their lives, but. they're free. Bittersweet, really.

But yeah, the point is. the MAIN goal with these characters is to be. realistic. No one has magic plot armor where no harm can be done to them, no one is the perfect person who can easily be framed as the hero, no one is necessarily absolute pure evil as they have their own motivations and in some cases believe what they're doing is right. They're people. And their actions lead to scenarios that sometimes lead to horrible endings. It all depends really.

[tired-fandom-ndn]

heyo! any opinions on the new scott pilgrim show on netflix? or general thoughts on the scott pilgrim series?

Overall, I enjoyed the show a lot. It was funny and well-made and more true to the heart of the comics than the movie.

WITH THAT BEING SAID, it completely neglected the twins yet again (you can literally count their lines on one hand) and got weirdly preachy in a lot of places, especially in the finale. Its intense focus on its messages of self love and healthy relationship communication felt, well, childish, like it was intended for a much younger audience than the rest of the show.

It felt a lot like it was trying to challenge the perception of Ramona as a manic pixie dream girl but it did that by softening her edges A LOT and making her just. . . better than she is in the comics. Which sounds like a good thing but a charming part of the original series is that every single person is a realistic asshole; Ramona is selfish and has a bit of a cruel streak, she has a history of ditching her partners and cheating on others, and she runs away the moment things get tough. A lot of that was missing in the show. A lot of Scott's asshole-ishness was missing too because HE was missing for most of it.

Also this is kinda nitpicky but (spoilers) Scott "dies" in the first episode, like everyone genuinely thinks he's dead and there's a funeral and everything, but no one seems especially bothered? Like I know it was a comedy, but the aftermath of his "death" is that everyone just. . . moves on like he never mattered to them. No one actually grieves him, not even his sister. It was kinda fucked up.

In terms of my thoughts of the overall series, I think the comics are a hell of a lot of fun and they get into SO MUCH MORE than the show and movie ever did. The worldbuilding is absolutely fucking wild and the characters are realistic in how they're complete messes and just trying to struggle through surviving and growing up while being huge assholes (because EVERYONE is an asshole).

The development is less obvious than it is in the show, but it's also better for that and it doesn't come off as the characters reading a bunch of self-help books. The relationships are messy and difficult and dysfunctional; characters enable each other's bad behaviors and lie through their teeth and distance themselves without communicating with each other. It's less of a romance and more of a coming-of-age, a story about people figuring themselves out in their early 20s and all the awfulness and difficulties and hurt feelings that come with that.

Also, not to talk about the twins again, but I really do feel like their exclusion from the movie and show was a deliberate attempt to make Ramona "nicer"; it's during their book that we really get a look into how mean she can really be BECAUSE SHE WAS TWO-TIMING THEM. It's mentioned very briefly in the show but not actually touched on in regards to how it affected Kyle and Ken and what it means for her relationship with Scott (another cheater) like it is in the comics.

Also Wallace and Scott's relationship is ridiculous and amazing and the teasing we got in the show was somehow less gay than a lot of their interactions in the comics.

[roobylavender]

in terms of character deaths i know youve spoken about bruces death but who else do you think will also pass for a reason other than old age and how will they die? in my head everyone lives (except technically jason who then obv gets revived) in order to see bruce die because i want them to grapple with that <3 but thinking about a batkid dying early as well is too painful…. even though its definitely more realistic

i'm sure this is a severely unpopular opinion but if we're talking about the bats specifically i think for jason's death to have any kind of gravitas it has to be the only one of its nature. which is to say that it has to be the defining moment for bruce through which he realizes he can't prioritize the emotional whims of a child over their actual safety. and i think that's still something you can rationalize tim's subsequent indoctrination—for lack of a better word—within bc at the moment tim becomes robin it's not that bruce doesn’t recognize that tim is delusional—he does—but that everyone around him believes tim is rational in comparison. which is a bit silly bc anyone looks rational compared to bruce following jason’s death. he’s in a crazed state of grief letting himself get beat up all around town. and obv that situation changes over time and bruce processes his grief about jason and his own inability to save people, and that presumably sets him up to be.. somewhat more sensible. enough that he starts to visibly care about the impact of being robin on tim's personal life regardless of how the latter actually reacts to that interest (eg blowing up at bruce when he tells steph his secret identity). in an ideal world that leads to a tim retirement arc bc there really is no way to rationalize him being robin. he doesn't need to be robin. that's never been true. the takeaway from his 90s arc regardless of however chuck dixon (or anyone else) wants to rationalize it is unmistakably that entrusting robin to a kid as some kind of legacy deal that comes packaged with being batman is absolutely absurd and it has to end. permanently. that much i agree with starlin on albeit for obv wildly distinct reasons and to different ultimate effect

but to circle back to the original point. all of this is to say that i don't think tim should die, nor damian, nor cass, nor steph, nor anyone really. cass and steph i don't treat the same as robin bc there are very distinct reasons as to why they do what they do. spoiler is to steph the way robin is to dick in that they are distinct identities birthed of their own experiences (which is why i am personally neither a fan of steph being robin nor batgirl). cass is a legacy character in the truest sense of the word in that it's less about trying to stick someone into a mold where they won't fit (robin) and more about truly rising to the occasion of espousing the same principles and values as your predecessor bc of shared experiences and subsequently birthed ideology. there's not really a narrative purpose to killing either of them if that's understood about their characters

the idea of bruce dying an early death stems from the fact that he carries too much of the burden on his own shoulders and it is realistically not possible for him to do that forever. it’s likely denny o’neil understood as much when he posited the idea. but the kids’ circumstances should be different. in an ideal world where the purpose of the batman mythos isn’t to drive its every character into an inescapable prison of everlasting trauma, there's every reason that the kids should get to live in comparison. and if anything an early death for bruce should only emphasize on that further, bc they won’t make the same mistakes he did

[ladynamida]

DMC Questions Anon here!

Take every character you wish to and tell me what you think is the most emotionally devastating situation they could be put in and how they would react to it.

Oooooooh... hmmm....

Dante first... I think if he were to ever lose control while triggered and kill his family - this includes Lady and Trish as honorary family members. I don't think he could (or would want to) get over that. I think that would be the end of the road for him... doubly so, since he wouldn't have people there to try pull him out of his pain.

Vergil... losing Nero and Dante to Mundus. Not to death but to the Angelo armour and being in a position where he is unable to help for some reason... perhaps being placed back in the armour himself? Eternal torture for those for those he cares most about... A fate worse than death. Sprinkle on top a situation where he blames himself and.... voila! Orrrr maybe the disappointment of Eva if some crazy time travelling event were to somehow occur, especially as he is still coming to terms with the fact that his mother didnt abandon him afterall that fateful day - quite the opposite.

Nero... first I thought about losing Kyrie because she was killed but then I thought he is such a good kind person that he would eventually try to carry on in her name and protect the things she loved and valued. But if Kyrie were to permanently reject him due to hate and fear that would hurt him more... telling him he is the monster he always thought he was... no idea how that could ever realistically happen in canon though.

Trish... being manipulated into believing that she is still a servant of Mundus. She has learned nothing, gained nothing, her friendships with the crew are a lie. Bonus angst points if Mundus somehow turns her freedom into a crucial part of some bigger evil scheme to which she is (unknowingly) instrumental.

Lady... I think she cares a lot for her older friends, and even Nero (who by all accounts she doesnt know very well) as she makes herself emotionally vulnerable as the van tries to escape the Qliphoth. But I think the worst thing for her would be the apocalyse to end all apocalypses (apocalypsi?) where the human world is overrun by demons. No post apocalyptic survival in a mad max style world - an actual game over. I think she is so strong willed and determined to protect others from demons wearing demon skin and human skin that if there were nothing left for her to fight protect, she would lose all meaning in her life.

Another good question DMC Questions Anon 😈