#feelings are complex! and for a literal puppet. very confusing.

[milkyway-micdrop]

small fact, rainy likes to draw Maverick, and sometimes hangs it on their walls

[random-lil-illing]

in honour of the fact that i am still somewhat (?) into dead poets society despite being hyperfixated on fnaf now, have some headcanons about the dead poets and co reactions to fnaf lore.

i just know meeks and pitts would be fnaf fans - meeks, being a fan since the WEEK the first game came out, while pitts got into it around sister location. they just both have different ideas of the lore - pitts would get it from matpat and meeks would get it from first hand sources and gibi's good idea bad idea - meaning meeks can only recount the lore up until UCN, and pitts can keep going until the latest fnaf game. they both still manage to talk for the same amount of time, somehow

ginny would ALSO be a die-hard fnaf fan (being into the games since fnaf 3 - fnaf 4), but like... seasonally. as in, her hyperfixations usually last 2-6 months, and has her fnaf hyperfixation about 1-3 times a year (literally me). knows the basic storyline of fnaf 1-7 and knows some parts of the games after that, but she needs to routinely check the fnaf lore presentation that she, meeks, and pittsie made together to catch up on the details. still she would be up by the fnaf presentation board with meeks and pitts for moral support and to input information about external references (e.g: things the characters/games were based off of)

they'd try SO hard to explain the lore to the rest of the dead poets, but since they're both telling different stories they're all confused to some degree.

todd would be struggling to keep up with both versions of the lore but he'd absolutely LOVE the premise of the games and beg meeks and pitts to help him get into fnaf and other horror games like it (like batim/batdr). he loves horror movies the most but i think he'd be an avid enjoyer of horror games with insane plot too. he wouldn't be as caught up on the lore as meeksie and pittsie but he'd try his best. i feel like his favourite character would be the puppet because of her very poetic (?)/tragic demise and afterlife.

charlie would have no idea what's going on, despite having heard of fnaf before - no matter how many diagrams and references meeks and pitts include the fnaf lore is just way too convoluted (too many dates/two different versions) for them and none of the information retains in their head (mood). that's not to say they're not having fun though - they love all the animatronics and shit and are extremely supportive of this interest despite not understanding a single thing. their favourite character would probably be some variation of foxy (most likely mangle or funtime foxy)

neil wouldn't get a single thing either and he'd be... mildly disturbed by all the murder and dark themes in the game because i think he wouldn't like horror themes that much (plus its his first time learning about fnaf - he had VERY restricted internet access), but he'd still support meeks and pitts (and, later on, todd) throughout their whole explanations. he still thinks it's interesting and LOVES the tragedy of all the characters, especially character like michael and charlie. i think he'd be able to grasp the concept of remnant pretty easily, but the whole 'sharing parts = technically possesing other animatronics' thing would mess with him a little. his favourite character would be michael just because of how TRAGIC and pathetic the guy is

knox would be like neil in the way that he's a little freaked out by the whole thing but tries (key word: tries) to be supportive. he'd heard of fnaf before but he never imagined it to be this complex/bloody. also you know when people judge horror protagonists for doing something stupid? yeah, he'd 100% do that to characters like michael/henry/gregory and everyone else would be like "it's a FICTIONAL, HORROR, VIDEO GAME for a reason, knox!!" would have a hard time with all the lore, but somehow is able to keep track of all the characters. i think he would like phone dude or phone guy best because. i don't know actually i think he just finds them silly (/pos)

cameron would be... very disturbed and concerned for their friends' mental health, is absolutely horrified when meeks explains, in excruciating detail, the whole scooped michael fiasco (she provides scientific input and talk about how it would FEEL for michael in that moment). he wouldn't outright tell anyone that he thinks the whole game is terrifying but everyone would know anyway - still, they keep up with the lore surprisingly well for someone who if horrified by the game, they're only out-bested by todd and ginny (as well as meeksie and pittsie, of course). his favourite character would be elizabeth because he sort of relates to her

chris wouldn't be horrified at all by the game and find it mildly interesting even, but would still definitely be confused by the lore (it's a lot of information - even i can't retain it all that well), and it's not really their style of game anyway. they still show support for the people interested in fnaf and attempts to add her own interpretations during the conversation, even if they end up being wrong. accidentally gets hyperfixated on the toy animatronics and continuosly asks ginny to tell her about them so she can be interested in them properly (her favourite is mangle - they affectionately call it their sick, stray puppy)

meeks would be the one that had to explain the lore to mr keating because she wrote about the tragedy of charlie emily in one of her essays and mr keating didn't know who that was and asked about it. she spends the entirety of lunch and her free period to explain the entirety of the fnaf lore to mr keating. mr keating is mildly concerned about meeks' mental health/well-being and considers calling her mom, but sees how eager meeks is talking about the lore and decides against it. finds the concept very interesting after a while and loves the poetic implications of remnant/william's motivations and all of that. he off-handedly makes a fnaf reference in class a couple days later and all the fnaf fans, and the kids who aren't really fans but know of/about the game just quietly stare at him and each other in horror, trying to figure out who snitched to mr keating about fnaf while meeks tries to sink into the floor

bonus!!

some other teacher (like mr mcallister) walks by the dead poets discussing fnaf lore at an especially gruesome part (more specifically, the bite of '83) and is, understandably, very disturbed and concerned, especially at the way they talk about it so casually. at the next teachers' hangout he brings it up and mr keating just laughs and goes "ah yes, the bite of '83. i remember that." meaning he remembers when meeks told him about it. everyone else thinks this means that the bite of '83 actually happened and the dead poets are just?? casually talking/laughing about an event like that?? it's eventually cleared up somehow but yeah. they nearly end up involving parents before they clear it all up

sorry that it's so long, but i could NOT get this idea out of my head and i needed to write it all down.

[pricemarshfield]

WHAT’S AT YOUR CHARACTER’S CORE?

tagged by @gwynbleidd to take this uquiz for my ocs!! ty dude this one was so fun (and sad. read for filth, my girls!)

tagging @wretcheddthing and also anyone else who would like to do it! below the cut as it’s long

tav khoury AND hojo rine both got: fractured glass

no amount of orchestrated class is ever going to hide the fact that you’re doomed to be alone. you’re a puppet, you’re a weapon, but most importantly? you’re a fraud. your facade isn’t malicious, but that doesn’t change a thing. everything in your life is in your control now, and you chose to let yourself become stiff and distant. you’re guilty of everything you blame yourself for, and your misfortune is the fault of nobody but yourself. your selfish nature forges you into a man-made monster, so quick to blame and so desperate to escape consequence. i hope that you can become someone you’re proud of soon.

the way that rine would cry herself to sleep over this and tav would be like…um okay anyway ♥️

isabella ellis, stele, hellborn — behind the mask

you aren’t slick about whatever you think you’re hiding. glass shatters in your midst, blood spills, children scream. like some of your friends, your personality of choice is entirely artificial. the difference between you and them is that you can get away with it. you’re unknown, perhaps even to yourself, and your goals are complex and unknown. anyone stupid enough to fall for you is setting themselves up to be frustrated and confused, owing to your being ultimately unknowable. i hope you can find an identity that makes you comfortable.

yeah ♥️ isabella is so many masks that she has no idea who she was originally or is now ♥️ and she feels soooo normal about that (lie)

molly drew — spun gossamer

the easiest thing to do is stay quiet when something’s up. you’re not bothered, and you know what? you shouldn’t be! it’s none of your business, even when it’s entirely your business. it’s difficult (read: impossible) to tell if your cheery demeanor is a cover-up for something sadder, or if it’s simply your natural state of mind. you see a lot of things: people coming through town, people leaving the house and never coming back, lies and deceit of the highest degree. what happened to you? will you ever be that kid again? your presence smells like cotton candy, and your fingertips sparkle like stars. whatever white rabbit you’re chasing isn’t going to lead you to wonderland if you don’t start reaching out when you’re not feeling okay.

well. she will be reaching out in a pretty literal sense soon! when your unhealthy coping mechanisms have to be tossed aside for your very survival ♥️

[ch3rryb0mb3rr]

anytime I see anything political on tumblr I get so pissed at my AP human geo teacher (who I will have next year for AP world history (a.k.a AP European history) I fucking hate ap classes). It reminds me of when she said she ‘doesn’t like the term equity’ and misspoke about countries ‘helping’ other countries. I was so excited that ‘omg not all governments are bad and not all of them only care about power and being rich’ and then she decided to belittle me in front of the entire class because I misunderstood what she was saying. I genuinely get upset whenever anything reminds of her backwards views, And am still so surprised about how someone could take AP human geography, learn exactly how other countries shove each other down and the systems and abuse the lower class and why and somehow not be radicalized.

I might even be getting the watered down version of it because I’m in high school and the U.S loves lying to it’s students and telling a white washed watered down version of history than what actually fucking happened. I’m am genuinely shocked at the things she has said, despite the subject she’s teaching. Completely shocked about how I was seemingly the only person in my entire class who was radicalized (even more than I already was) by her teaching and what we were learning.

How do those other students sit there, learning about how our government doesn’t give a shit about us, and how it will actively harm us and others and still be anything but a leftist/socialist/etc. when leaving that room. How do those motherfuckers stay conservatives and hateful bigots when she literally says and agrees that the government will pit us against each other to control us better. How does she agree to that and yet is still a bigot?? And still has the superiority complex that comes sometimes comes with understanding you have privilege??

It’s so shocking to me that people are so self-aware that they are being horrible or are genuinely a horrible person and do NOTHING to try and change it. Like wdym you know your a misogynistic asshole who actively defends a human trafficker, and you are actively aware your being an asshole and hurting your friends and not do anything about it. How do you walk around and exist without feeling so guilty for one wring thing you did years ago?? How??

How can you still teach knowing damn well you villainize people in the Middle East, KNOWING THAT THE GOVERNMENT AND MEDIA ACTIVELY VILLINAIZE THEM SO THAT CAN CONTINUE TO COMMIT ATROCITIES. How can you sit there, tell me to my face that ‘socialist governments would never work and capitalism is the only way’ when you are aware that we have no examples of a good socialists government because the U.S either bombed them, or over through their government and implemented a puppet version and then created terrorist organizations that then backfired and ruined an entire countries economy and government and their society. Like what?? Your aware your spreading misinformation and yet refuse to stop? Even thought you have an active choice to do so? It’s just so confusing.

It also just completely blows my mind that you can allow your child to have hateful views, and just, not do anything about it. That some people will just let their children be blatantly homophobic and transphobic to other family members (when they as the parents are not) and see no problem in it because ‘it’s their opinion’ No its not?? Their ‘opinion’ is actively hurting others?? No its not okay that your child has 0 media literacy, threatens to hunt down and kill other family members, has a superiority complex, and has not only 0 empathy (which isn’t a bad thing, I also have very low empathy) but also 0 compassion for others??? It’s not okay that your child literally only cares when it applies to them??

Having low or no empathy is not a bad thing in itself, but have 0 compassion is. Compassion is the act while empathy is the thought. You could go around having the most horrid thoughts but your actions are of a good person it doesn’t matter. You could go around having the most kind and pure thoughts ever and be a complete asshole and those ‘thoughts’ are nothing and mean nothing because you did not act on them.

[zeta-in-de-walls]

I'm generally a huge fan of the narrative trope "trapped in the prison of your own design" and "you made your bed now lay in it", and that's how I've seen c!dream this whole time.

Everything bad happening to c!dream is a consequence of his own action and everyone knows this. I still remember that sad-ist animation Final Waltz where c!dream held the strings like a puppeteer or spider and then got tangled into his own web once people turned on him. That's where c!dream always excelled in my mind as a villain. He's a very controlling and power-hungry character who embraced his god complex on his quest for more power. And that's the whole point of c!dream. He's irredeemable. That's why cc!dream never streamed his pov. He said that he didn't want people to pity his character or sympathize with him.

So that makes me confused about the ending because once cc!dream had the chance to COMMIT to his character, he immediately backtracks and goes "well C!TOMMY was ANNOYING and C!DREAM was HAPPY before he showed up! He misses his friends and THAT'S his redemption look at this FLASHBACK" and the ccs' twitter likes and the "I'm sorry" at the end of the server really just makes me sad. It feels like they wasted a good villain character. Dream made his bed, now make him lay in it. Dream cut off all of his friends. He tortured people. He abused tommy. Let him suffer the consequences.

It goes against the entire trope I truly thought c!Dream was based under, and if I talk about how BAD it was narratively inside the dsmp's storyline I'm not going to stop. (You've also summarized a lot of my own thoughts in your own separate posts.) Anyway, I'm going to stop here cause this is a longer ask than I planned. Sorry for that. It's just frustrating cause c!dream is one of those characters I love to hate and despite cc!dream saying in the past he's not going to be redeemed or sympathized with, he seemed to really try last minute- almost literally. Anyway, hope you have a good day and again, I didn't mean to make this like three whole ass paragraphs haha

Agreed! No worries, always feel free to ramble in my asks. I love it!

Yeah, Dream trapped in a prison of his own making was my interpretation as well, which I loved. The idea of him going out of his way to hurt and alienate everyone leaving him alone in a tiny box thinking he's some sort of god. Its great and I really used to enjoy his character as a villain and this finale trampled on it thoroughly.

My first warning came with the staged disc finale reveal showing it was all part of Dream's plan, but this blew that out of the water. After everything, Tommy sees a memory and that's enough for Dream to ask for another chance because all his actions were just because he missed his friends and Tommy ruined that when he joined the server? So what if Dream enjoyed inflicting suffering on Tommy, he should still give Dream another chance and even be his friend!

It's such a bad ending on so many levels.

[tratserenoyreve]

finally finished 3.2 quest! spoilers ahoy!

while i feel the story being told and the way they bring all the moving pieces together is a general upgrade, i do feel genshin still struggles with balancing showing and telling.

there were many times where i was hype to Play As someone doing a cool story beat, but instead we get a fade to black and jump-cut over to another character. i get dehya and alhaithem aren't fully implemented yet as playable characters but that only makes the story more frustrating for me when it is set up to make you think you're gonna get to see them in a fight but are let down with just text.

while a lot happens, the game had me flashing back to xenosaga where i'd spend half an hour in a cutscene then walk a little and spend another half an hour in a cutscene. you're told about a lot more of what's going on while not really participating, which i think is why people feel that sumeru is an exceptionally long chapter. the action is mostly verbal.

while i like characters having complex motivations and mixed priorities, like how nahida personally doesn't want to violate her people's autonomy but is fine with using the traveler to do it for her or in overriding the potential consciousness of a manmade puppet like katheryne, the game isn't going to really think about that for ages. like, the irony of nahida not seeing katheryne or scaramouche as fully being people when we have evidence that they Kind of Are is a neat flaw for her to have, but i doubt it'll be adequately explored as the story hurries onward.

the scene with scaramouche desperately trying to grab the gnosis was very good! but also presents another writing problem, it only has so much impact for me because i've bothered to pay attention to sidequests, events, and artifact lore that explains what scaramouche's deal even is. they tried to summarize it with that animated cutscene last patch but while beautiful it is Very Vague and difficult to understand the context of.

i think scaramouche is a neat antagonist! but if all you know of him is from the main story you don't really get Anything at all other than he's a manmade puppet who hates people and wants the gnosis.

the scene with nahida "meeting" rukkhadevata was bittersweet tho i wish they'd gone thru the trouble of like. i dunno, using something like an animated cutscene to represent her rather than cloning the baby elf model. her requesting her memory be destroyed wasn't surprising, but what is is how -thoroughly- she's erased.

after completing the quest, literally every mention of rukkhadevata is deleted from the game. traveler profile dialogue, books you have, npc comments, are all changed permanently to have her removed.

most terrifying is players discovering the aranara quest itself is different if you do it after doing the archon quest. the story quest about enduring memories is actually fully distorted by completing the archon quest. the forest does not remember rukkhadevata, you helped obliterate her memory as she asked. she is fully, irrevocably, gone.

only the Traveler remembers.

which is important, only the Traveler remembers the other worlds they saw with their twin. their memories are proven to be the most honest and consistent. so, if the Abyss twin is recorded in irmunsul after appearing in khaenri'ah, their memory is now susceptible to being changed. which is why the Traveler twin is so confused and may be part of why the Abyss twin is "different" now.

nahida makes a point of saying the Abyss Twin "appeared" in khaenri'ah, the nation whose king is the namesake of the irmunsul tree.

theory: the Traveler's memory is correct. the game spends too much time frequently presenting how the Traveler's immune to time distortion (the Chasm and their profile dialogue on teyvat's days being short) and how them not being a part of the world allows them to be a Witness (zhongli asks they carry on the memory of everyone in his story quest specifically as a Witness).

the Abyss Twin being recorded in irmunsul means -they are now susceptible to having their memory and identity changed-. this may be acting as a shackle for them, preventing them from leaving. i also believe the Abyss Twin is actively guarding the Traveler from being recorded by the irmunsul and obfuscating their presence.

the Traveler isn't wrong, both of the star twins aren't from teyvat. they just "appeared" in khaenri'ah after all. but, there is a potential that the Abyss Twin may have either purposefully struck the Traveler from the record and/or sacrificed their own freedom (and possibly identity) to guard their twin.

because the Traveler has no memory at all of teyvat when we start the game, and history there can be wholly rewritten, in a way reminiscent of how dainsleif describes the curse that befell khaenri'ah. how higher powers can rewrite who they were completely, erase their identity wholly, and there's nothing they can do about it.

[mrs-dynamight]

Be Nice To Me 3

Part 2.

*************************************************

Pairing: Katsuki Bakugou x fem!Reader, Denki Kaminari x fem!Reader

Warnings: Eventual mature content, angst, hurt/comfort, love triangle, the reader is lowkey toxic, everything will be adressed in every episode (:

Chapter warning: Swearing but just a little bit of it. Kissing because this is still on fluff mode

Chapter: 3/? Yup still don't know

Synopsis: You're in love with your best friend Bakugou, and you're cofessing to him but things get a lot more complicated when Denki starts to treat you different *wink wink*

Word count: 2.2k

Author's note: Okay friends, this is a little longer but it's cute, and it has some interesting things that will be relevant to the story, so read carefully, aaaand I must warn this is a slowburn. Hope you like it

Chapter 3 My Oh My - Aqua

We both left the empty classroom and went directly to class 3A. Tenya saw us coming late and started rambling about how punctuality is key for heroes and how we as seniors should give example and just Tenya stuff.

The rest of the class went pretty fast, I was thinking about what Denki said, he sounded so serious when he said the gig stuff, maybe I was overthinking, he has always been nice with me, just nice, we are friends right?

All those years getting to know each other, being partners in crime, spending too many nights wide awake talking about our future, the amount of pressure being a “hero” meant, how at the end of the day we were still children risking our lives, he understood that better than most of our friends; some of his words were burned in my mind forever: “I love helping people, but sometimes I wonder who’s helping us?” “I’m afraid I’ll turn into a puppet of the hero commission, like Hawks did” “I’m afraid of losing myself in the process”; as far as I know I was the only one that knew this side of Kaminari, everyone else always thought of him as the dyslexic class clown, but there were so much more of him that only jokes and a funny face after using his quirk, such a complex mind, sometimes I wonder if he plays dumb on propose…

Thinking about Denki almost made me forgot how nervous I was for my date with Katsuki, but the ring of the bell that indicates the end of the class made me jump from my desk in excitement.

-Oi dumbass, see you in a while, be punctual- Bakugo said picking up his stuff and heading to the door without looking back at me.

------------

We talked about nothing in the way to the ramen restaurant, I wasn’t as nervous as I were on Monday and everything seemed to be going so smoothly, just as I thought, this was Bakugo Katsuki my best friend, the guy I was in love with, he had seen me covered in sweat and bruises from the hero training, had seen me cry over my failed math tests, he knew me, if he didn’t like me back I could deal with it, but this date definitely won’t ruin our friendship.

---------------------

-Don’t make me laugh when I’m eating, you idiot- Bakugo said between coughs from almost choking with his noodles

-I didn’t mean it, but it’s true my greatest fear are those wacky waving inflatable things they put in the cars sales, they scare the shit out of me- I said laughing and with a bit of embarrassment for telling this stupid thing to my crush, but he found it hilarious

-I’ve seen you take down villains with a single hand and without sweating a single drop, but your greatest fear is ridiculous Y/N-

That kinda sounded like a compliment, and knowing Katsuki it probably was, I couldn’t help but blush but if someone asked me it was the spiciness of the ramen.

-I’m also a little bit afraid of heights, not as I used to, but it makes me a little bit nervous thinking about falling to my inevitable death- I said slurping the last of the broth in my plate

-Heights? No way, that means we can’t go rock climbing because of a certain pussy- Said the ash blonde, finishing his ramen as well

-Why? Is Bakugo Katsuki planning on taking me on a road trip anytime soon? – Oh shit that sounded way more flirty than I had planned.

I turned bright red right after I said that and to my surprise the boy in front of me was just as red as I was, that’s it I just made Katsuki Bakugo blush, I can die a hero now. We were not looking at each other, not saying a single word, just awkwardly sitting in front of each other.

-I… I was joking ´Tsuki- I began but he interrupted me with

-Maybe I want to take you to a stupid road trip, what you’re going to do about it? You can chicken now and saving me seeing you cry in front of a rock, but that wouldn’t be very Y/N of you- Aaaaand just like that Bakugo’s back

-Let’s go, Draw, I still wanna kick your ass in Mario Kart before curfew and knowing you, you will want to play those claw things and get some weird weeb thing, like a figure of that loud anime guy you like, the one who plays Volleyball; and of course you will be wasting all your money in the process- This man knows me damn too well

I was about getting my money to pay but he stopped me

-I got this-

-But ‘Tsuki I invited you, I have to pay for it- I said but the waitress had already taken Katsukis money

-If you beat me at Mario Kart, I’ll let you pay me back, but if I win… Well we will see about that later- Bakugo said without looking at me

Was that flirting? Is Katsuki Bakugo flirting with me? Did he noticed this was a date and that’s why he wanted to pay? Nah, he’s probably doing it to bother me, but if anything made me bush a little.

-Oi, you coming or what? – I was so caught up in the emotion that I didn’t noticed he was already heading to the front door

We walked a couple of blocks to the arcade, it was still early in the afternoon, we had a couple of hours before our curfew and I was going to make the best of them.

--------

After the tenth time losing against him, I gave up.

-This is bullshit, I don’t know how but you’re cheating, there is no way I actually hit all those frigging banana peels, this game sucks, you suck- I said making an overdramatic mouth pout and crossing my arms on my chest.

I could hear Bakugos laughing on my side and when I turned to look at him, he had the most gorgeous look on his eyes, but when he noticed that I was looking at him he changed his expression.

-I told you so, you can’t beat me, but I’m a compassionate God, so I’ll let you choose the next game for you to lose in- His big smile was equally irritating as it was beautiful

Three games in and Bakugo was about to blow the whole arcade up, apparently, he can’t dance to save his life, so Dance Dance Revolution was the perfect game for me to choose. I was literally tearing up from laughter, he was so angry and upset.

-If you had spending more time with Mina and me you could have learned a couple of steps, but you had to go sleeping at eight like an old man-

-Have you seen this face? This is what a good sleep schedule does to your skin, but I guess you’ll never know about that-

-Oh god, is that a pimple? – I joked to make him even angrier, I leaned towards his face to mock him more -Oh he has a brother, and a whole family of angry little buds, this even looks like you-

He turned his head and his nose was almost an inch away from mine, his eyes locked with mines, we were so close that I could feel his breath, a little bit more and our lips would be touching, my mind was going blank, I suddenly forgot how to breathe, I thought that it was actually happening, I should close my eyes and go for it, I leant a bit closer, we were almost there…

-Y/N, we both know there is not a single pimple in this face- Said Bakugo moving his head back and creating some distance between us.

I felt my heart drop to the ground. He didn’t wanna kiss me, I probably made him uncomfortable being that close, I’m so stupid, I fucked up.

-There is the claw machine of the Volleyball dudes, and there is the owl one you like- Bakugo was trying to be a good friend to me, and as much as I appreciated it I was way too sad to even think about volleyball

After more than a half of my money spent, I was walking to the UA dorms with my Bokuto plushie and an ache in my heart. I couldn’t stop thinking about that moment, was I imagining everything? Was he not flirting with me? It felt so real, I wanted to cry, but that would only make things worse, I wasn’t looking at Bakugo for the first time since we’ve met. I couldn’t hold a conversation after that, I used the excuse of being too concentrated in winning the plushie, but now that we are walking side by side it feels weird not saying anything. Bakugo doesn’t seem to care, or even notice, he’s also very quiet, this feels way too awkward, I just want this night to be over and cry my heart out in my room. There is only a couple more blocks and this nightmare will end.

-Hey Y/N, wait- This is the first time I hear Bakugos voice since we started heading the dorms

I try to put my best “Everything is okay” face but I fail miserably when I see his face. I started to tear up and just hugged my plushie with my eyes fixed in the ground, I can’t see him in the face

-I’m sorry Katsuki, I wasn’t mean to put you in an uncomfortable situation, I wasn’t thinking and…-

I was grabbed so suddenly I dropped Bokuto

Before I realized his lips were pressed against my own. I was way too shocked to respond to his kiss, to my very first kiss. He pulled back, and a sigh left his lips.

-‘Tch, don’t apologise, I didn’t wanna kiss you in front of a bunch of losers- He said looking to his side, clearly avoiding my confused gaze

I didn’t hesitate, I grabbed his face and kissed him, trying to let him know how much I waited for that kiss. He quickly responded to it, for someone as strong and tough as him he was being gentle and caring, if this ain’t heaven, I dare God to come down and tell me this isn’t what glory feels like.

We kept the kiss, it became more and more passionate, he got closer to deepen the kiss, I could feel his arms around my waist, and I could taste the melon soda he had at the arcade in his lips. I opened my mouth just a little and I felt his tongue slowly brushing against mine. This was the pinnacle of happiness.

We broke the kiss with blushed cheeks and racing heartbeats. This was too much; my head was spinning and I almost cried tears of joy.

-I thought you didn’t wanna kiss me- I said with a broke voice

-I didn’t- His reply felt like a bucket of cold water

-What? You’re kidding, you kissed me- Knowing Bakugo he just said that to mess with me

-Y/N I didn’t want to kiss you, but not because of whatever stupid thing your mind its thinking right now-

-Then why? You can’t just kiss me and then tell me you didn’t mean it, you don’t like me? –

-I like you, a lot, and that is why this is getting way harder that it’s supposed to be, I’ve been dying to kiss you for a long long time Y/N, you had no idea how much I have fantasized with having you between my arms and telling you just how much I like your dumb pretty face, I like you, and don’t you ever doubt it-

-Then, why? –

-I’m going to become the no. 1 hero, and that means I have to try even harder than the rest of the losers in this and the other hero curses, that’s why I will be having internships abroad this semester, with the bests heroes not only in Japan but in the world. I have to be the best in everything, having a girlfriend will only be distracting and possibly a complete disaster because I will be a terrible boyfriend being that busy with hero training, and asking you to wait for me is selfish, even for me. I didn’t wanna kiss you and then leave for half a year, maybe even more, but then you looked at me with those stupid kitty eyes and I just…-

-You’re going away? And you didn’t told me? – Now I definitely started to cry

-Oi! You’re the first one to know I haven’t even told my mom yet –

-I’ll wait –

-What? No I.. –

-I said I’ll wait for you, Bakugo Katsuki I’ve been in love with you since we first meet, I’ve been waiting two years for this, this is just half a year, then we will have all the time in the world-

Now it was Bakugos time to shed a tear

-You don’t have to; I don’t want you to be waiting for me while I…-

My kiss didn’t let him finish what he was about to say, he was tearing, I was tearing, but it was beautiful.

-Six months and then you’ll be mine Katsuki, get it? –

-I don’t think this is a good idea, you dumbass-

-Maybe it isn’t, but what are you going to do? Stop me? - I replied and then we kissed one last time

************************************************

Part 4.

I really liked how this turned out, I'm going to the the masterlist post soon so you can find all the chapters together. As always I'm starting to write and in my second language (just give me my certificate already) so any error let me know, and if you want to be tagged message me. LY

[rg-au-main]

question for the blog-runners: who are your favorite fnaf characters from your au or the actual game cast?

hey im really happy that people wanna know our opinions on stuff 💯 tysm!

in canon? susie, mike, charlie, their stories are all so sad and I feel for them. in the au? Elizabeth and pj! may or may not put a bit of myself into pj when designing but we don’t need to discuss that 💯💯

as for the animatronics?? withered bonnie, ballora, and mr hippo 😈😈😈 - peachy

---

Yeah anon, thanks for asking! Here are my favs:

CANON/GEN: Michael Afton, Henry Emily, & Evan/CC Afton

(I also love Charlie & Liz, but what happens beyond their deaths is so confusing and vague it makes it hard for me to characterize them. At least with Evan you get the handbook to go off of.)

I find these three characters' stories very compelling, with Michael taking top place. The relationship between him and his family, and how he chooses to try to fix things makes for a really neat, very tragic story. These are also some of the only canon characters you get a longer, more complex story arc for, so there's that too! I imagine if other children (cough cough, Cassidy, cough) actually got some characterization beyond "dead child", they'd take top place too.

ANIMATRONICS: Security Puppet/Marionette, Mangle, LEFTY, Golden Freddy/Fredbear, Monty, & Ennard

These designs always appealed the most to me, particularly Mangle's torn-up and messy appearance.

AU CHARACTERS: Cassidy, Jeremy, Charlie

Cassidy is hands-down my favorite if we're being honest here. But Jeremy and Charlie also play big roles, and peachy & I have taken a lot of creative freedoms and made them into entirely unique characters- Jeremy especially, who literally has NO canon personality at all. I love all the missing children though, so it's super hard to choose!

Thanks for the ask! -desble

[harmofud]

Pinocchio (1940) Review

Alright, second movie by Disney. Pinocchio, published in February of 1940. Despite being one of Disney's most well-known films, as well as the direct successor to the fantastic Snow White, Pinnochio was originally a box office flop. Not due to people not liking the movie, of course, but there did happen to be a little disagreement in Europe at that point that seemed to be getting everyone's attention. It was rereleased in 1945 to great acclaim.

Unlike Snow White, which is based off of an oral tradition written down by the Grimm Brothers, Pinnochio is based off a book called The Adventures of Pinocchio written in 1883 by a Carlo Collodi. Apparently, book Pinocchio was a little shit. He wanted to become a real boy, but oh man, that little puppet supposedly acted inhuman. That makes sense, given that he's a puppet, but what a change! Disney's little Pinoc (what a cute nickname by the way, good job Jiminy) is a sweet, if gullible and naïve, very human puppet. The Disney-fication of things start early I suppose.

Relatively speaking, Pinocchio has a significantly more complex storyline than Snow White does. Actually, I would argue that it's almost a little confusing. It leads you to the right spots, but it feels very Alice in Wonderland-y at times, with a hint at the dark story and world that the original Pinocchio came from. To summarize: Gepetto the carpenter builds a little puppet boy and wishes upon a star for the puppet boy to become a real boy. A fairy comes down, gives the puppet all the effects of being alive without the actual heartbeat, and claims that to be a real boy Pinocchio needs to be brave and kind, etcetera. Guided by his conscience, who is a somewhat horny creature that claims to be a cricket (more on that later), Pinocchio goes out into the world and hijinks occur.

Honestly speaking, there are some intense themes presented here. This is not the modern animated movie, scared to say that someone died. This movie is down to show a toned down version of human trafficking (Pinocchio getting captured, told to perform, and when he finally failed he'd die), slavery (the donkey boys being sold to salt mines and the circus), and starvation (Gepetto being stuck inside Monstero and discussing his imminent death). I'm honestly pretty excited to see when animated movies get sanitized for any intense themes, if that ever happens or if I've just assumed so. I'll keep an eye out for that. The story is fun and describes themes of morality for kids, and for adults it seems to tell how people can be taken advantage of. It's not like Pinocchio knew smoking or drinking or… playing pool I guess? Was bad. He literally was only born yesterday.

His lack of a conscience isn't shown very well, in my opinion. Jiminy Cricket is honestly terrible at his job. I don't know why he got that medal at the end. For the entire movie, Jiminy keeps saying, "Oh well, guess that Pinocchio knows better than I do, whatever, guess I better move on. Since when does he listen to his conscience anyways?" Since never. Since he became sentient yesterday. Which you saw. I know it's supposed to be symbolic, but I kind of lose the symbolism and appreciation for somebody ignoring their conscience when we, the audience, know that the main character is literally about 1 day old. It's a source of frustration for me. Also, side note, why was Jiminy Cricket so awkward and horny around inanimate objects the entire time? My man saw a wooden marionette in a dress showing a lot of leg and went insane. Anyways. His animation style was also a bit of a choice to be sure. He is a cricket only because it's in his name and he can jump pretty high. Otherwise, he's just a strange little green egg man.

The other characters were certainly there. Gepetto loves his son and is a great carpenter. Fantastic bit of background storytelling by the way, I liked how they showed that Gepetto enjoys making little things by how fantastical his workshop is. It's delightful. Honest John is not honest (surprise). The caravan man is the devil I guess? I'm not entirely sure what his deal is, but they did make him look quite demonic when he was talking to Honest John. Also not sure what the caravan man's workers at Pleasure Island are supposed to be. Demons, I suppose. And of course, the Blue Fairy who granted the wish. There's not much about her, but she grants wishes and lives in stars. I think.

Boy, I sure hope Stromboli being a racist stereotype isn't going to be a trend Disney will follow for a while!

Why'd the room go silent?

Anyways, onto the acting! It's Disney. The acting was fantastic. While I might complain about Jiminy Cricket's character, his voice actor did an amazing job for this role! Gepetto was also a stand out, and Pinocchio does a great job as well, especially for his voice actor being a kid. It's not easy finding convincing voice actors now. I can't imagine how difficult that would have been when voice acting was a relatively (at least to my knowledge) new industry.

Speaking of new industries, Pinocchio was a direct switch up from Snow White in background music. Like I said in my Snow White review, that movie seemed closer to an animated music video for an orchestra. While Pinocchio had some elements of that in there, the movie had more emphasis on the storyline than Snow White did. Not an unwelcome change either. That emphasis on the story is quite possibly the only thing that allowed Pinocchio to get away with how disjointed the plot feels. Regardless, the background music doesn't entirely end at all either, but it does get more atmospheric in some places, like when Gepetto is trying to find Pinocchio in the thunderstorm. I wonder if this trend is going to keep up. Granted, next movie I'm watching is Fantasia, which is legitimately just a bunch of classical music videos (I think. I haven't seen it before but it's reputation proceeds it). I guess I'll see when Dumbo rolls around.

Timing wise, the story moves at a nice clip. I don't think there's really a part in the film where I was going, "Dear god, move on to the next scene" or, alternatively, "Dear god, what just happened?" I don't have much to say here other than they did a good job on it!

And now here's the real thing I'm going through all these old movies for: how the animation has changed. It's subtle, but if you watch Snow White and then watch Pinocchio, you'll notice all these new things they're trying out. The camera angle when Honest John and his little cat friend are dragging Pinocchio down to Stromboli's is very unique and cool when compared to what they were doing and what they could do with Snow White. It looks as though the camera is hung from the jutting rafter of a building, and it's following Honest John and Pinocchio (and the little cat friend) down the alleyway in a semi-top-down view. That's absolutely astounding if you remember that in Snow White they didn't have many shots that weren't either face front or side view. The only one I can think of is when the Dwarfs are looking up their staircase, but even still I might be misremembering that scene. Regardless, the angles that they use for Pinocchio are pretty amazing, and how rain and water is animated in general here is incredible. Watching Monstero's rage sequence is looking at a marvel of animation skill. I'm not an animator, so I don't know how difficult it is to animate water. I assume it's pretty difficult though. (Edit: I just asked my animator friend. He says it's incredibly difficult.)

The facial expressions were also a massive step up! My favorite scene has to be when Lampwick is turning into a donkey. It starts off humorous, then turns surprisingly horrifying. I think that scene would have given me nightmares had I been a kid when I watched this. I digress. Pinocchio's face when Lampwick starts getting ears and a tail is just a delight to watch. I don't think I've seen the confusion and disgust of, 'What the hell did I just take?' epitomized so well in a cartoon before. Pinocchio's face alone got a few giggles out of me.

All in all, I liked it! Solid A-tier film. I enjoyed Snow White a little more, but Pinocchio was good too. I don't think I really liked Jiminy Cricket all that much, and that ultimately brought the film down for me. In general though, I enjoyed the darker vibe of Pinocchio!

Previous: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Next: Fantasia

[imma-potatoo]

Blond Janus Darkside Headcanons

I noticed how I haven't written down any info on the dark sides (Wrath, Apathy, Depression, Remus and pre-AA Virgil). More will be added.

Masterpost

Taglist:

@mother-snake, @writerstrashbin, @psychedelicships, @cryptidwriterdotcom (ask to be removed or added)

Wrath

Leader of the dark sides

Can induce a blind rage

When the rage is happening the recipient cannot control what they say or do and react simply on their first thought

The rage becomes stronger the more angry the person becomes

Wrath can't bring someone out of the rage. He can induce it but the person has to come out of it themselves

He has almost no control of Apathy because of that due to his lack of emotion

Likes to wear a partial suit. Finds that the coat is restricting and makes more complex movements hard

Still owns the coat. Just never wears it.

Symbol is tattooed on his left wrist

Orange and black color scheme. Like this:

Immediate reaction to almost anything is to yell.

Loves huge parties

If he's going to make a point, he makes it loud and clear. Often in front of other people so they can see what happens if you step out of line

Rules the dark sides more like a dictatorship then a family or of equel footing

Believes that they have to bend Thomas to their will and that the light sides are complete fools who will only destroy Thomas life

Wants Thomas to take what he wants and not to worry about who he leaves behind

If Thomas has to kill a politician to get what he wants? Sure go ahead. As long as he gets what he wants

When angry, Wrath is ruthless

He'll take your deepest fear and taunt you with it until you snap under the strain and comply to his every whim

He refuses to take no for an answer

Because of his hatred for the lights; he takes it out on Janus

He's big on public humiliation

If Janus would step out of line; well, he doesn't need all of those scales does he? He's sure Apathy would love to see the reactions if you rip some off

To aid in the control of the others; Wrath has complete control over the food supply

When the others are listening and followings orders. Good, they get to eat properly

When they don't? Your options are moldy bread or cheese that has been out in the open for about a month.

Him and Apathy eat like kings while the others decide between food poisoning and starvation

Likes to take words of affection and make them have a negative meaning (ex: the word Love.) after beating the hell out of someone, he would make them look directly in his eyes and says that he loves them... And he makes them say it back

He hates it when the others cry

Says that they're doing it for attention and that they should shut the fuck up

Apathy

Second in command

Can nullify peoples emotions. Leaving them feeling like an empty shell. The effects normally break after an hour

If Apathy knows your name he can control you like a puppet

White and black outfit. White shirt with black suspenders and pants.

Doesn't show where he keeps his symbol (its on his right ankle, its more like a tattoo then a patch)

Has a deep obsession with fire

Owns a zippo (a lighter that flips open)

Often feels empty due to his function. The fire makes him feel warm, feel more human (as human as the sides can be anyway)

Doesn't quite understand emotion. He understands the basics of it (cry = sad, laugh = hqppy, yell = angry.) but the more complex reactions confuse the hell out of him. Crying out of happiness is one of the things he will never understand.

Because of his lack of understanding of emotions; Apathy tries to understand through making others feel said emotions

Wants to know how someone would react when you break a precious item? Time to find a couple photos.

Will someone scream when you waterboard them? Hm well, only one way to test that.

Opinions change like a flip of a switch

One day he'll help you make dinner with a plastered on smile. The next he'll knock you out and burn you with his lighter with that same smile

Has only properly laughed twice

The first time was when Thomas accidentally laughed at someones funeral (he couldn't cope that the person was gone and his default reaction was to laugh)

The second was after the three of them (wrath, depression and him) shut off the heating to Janus' room and locked him inside

In order to understand things he doesn't know; he does experiments

He's not allowed to experiment on Wrath and Depression has no fun reactions. So he has his fun with Janus instead

Kinda likes it when blood stains his dress shirt

Because its warm. The warmth that once came from the person now belongs to him and it eases the cold empty feeling only slighty and temporary but its warm

He's indifferent on the lights. They're a little too perky for his tastes

Depression

Third in command

Doesn't really get a lot of say with decisions

Can erase certain memories (he doesn't use it very often)

Wears a medium blue dress shirt, brown leather suspenders with a black bowtie.

Normally keeps his sleeve rolled up

When crying; his eyes leak black

If the tears hit your skin, its a 10% chance that you could collapse and start spewing your insecurities while your eyes leak black

Symbol is on the back of his neck

Doesn't really mind not having the control that Apathy and Wrath have

Less work for him to do anyway

Couldn't care about the other twos blatant abuse of Janus

He sees it as a way to keep Janus in line

If Virgil wanted to play father figure he can go ahead. But that doesn't mean he has to be kind

Respects and looks up to Wrath

Normally just follows the lead of the others

He's the epitome of the duckling following the leader

Wrath has steak and potatoes for dinner? Depression also wants that too

Wrath says that they need to bend Thomas to their will? Well duh! Of course!

Wrath says that Janus has been out of line lately? Well why don't we break his leg again to show him a lesson

Most of the time, the food restrictions have no effect on him bc he listens to Wraths every word

Virgil

Was the second in command before he left

Opposed Wrath on his more extreme tactics

Has the ability to control shadows and others own Anxiety

Hated the dress code that Wrath insists on having. What kind of person wears suspenders and a dress shirt daily anyway?

Still wears the stupid things anyway because Wrath said to and he's not in the mood to get beat

Symbol is tattooed on underneath his shirt. The left side

After adopting Janus he lost his position as Wrath's right hand

Kinda pissed him off when he got demoted. Not bc of the loss of power. But bc he couldn't protect Janus as well

After adopting Janus he became the 4th in power (after Depression)

Remus

Is the epitome of don't give a shit

He has the power to conjure things and cause intrusive thoughts

Half the time he ignores the dress code completely

Typically opting for his normal clothes but does own a uniform as well

(if anyone has a better photo of this outfit pls pls pls DM me. I've looked through hundreds of photos and this is the best dark green dress shirt with suspenders I got)

Symbol is tattooed on the swell of his back

Gets practically no opinion on dealings or decisions with plans

Remus is a indifferent party. One moment he'll help you. The next he'll stab you in the back

He mostly just works with who can give him what he wants the fastest

He actually feels pity for Janus

Not like he'll ever act on that but he still feels a bit bad for the guy

Remus is kinda like that uncle at family get togethers that no-one talks to or cares about but he's always there

Janus

Oh boy, where to start?

Has the lowest rank out of every other side

His power (the ability to make people unable to talk) can only be used on the light side of the mind

He is also unable to heal immediately on the dark side

Meaning that he has to treat his wounds the old fashioned way

Doesn't really like the dress code

Only gets to wear his normal outfit when he's visting the light sides

Blond hair (wow! Really? Not like its the the name of the au!!)

His patch isn't a tattoo

This boi has the biggest fucking sweet tooth you could ever imagine

He is also so fucking short

His shoes have lifts to make him taller

He's cold blooded

When he gets focused, he bleps

This is turning fluffy-

He is literally covered head to toe in scars

Almost no skin was left untouched

Lying is a defense mechanism for him. He's deceit! He can lie his way out of anything!

Heavily disagrees on Wraths views

Thomas should get ahead, of course he should. But that shouldn't come at the price of someones life or the cost of his reputation

Hurting someone to get ahead in the short-term is only going to harm you in the long term

To hide the bruses, he applies thick layers of makeup and illusions if he's on the light side

Hasn't gotten a good sleep in years

He's terrified that someone will break into in bedroom while he's sleeping and finish him off

Or that they'll cut the heating again and he'll slowly freeze to death

Or that they'll drag him out of his room and chain him up somewhere to become nothing but a punching bag

He has agoraphobia (fear of open spaces)

Hasn't had positive touch since Virgil left

He has venom. Its very lethal and only activates when threatened

When angry, his eyes glow yellow and his canine teeth grow sharp and long that they stick out of his mouth slightly like fangs

Was meant to be a light side and function as Validity and Societal Self Preservation. But the dark sides found him first and brought him back with them

Virgil is his father figure

Doesn't really know how to feel after finding out that he's not a dark side

He does feel really really lied to and betrayed

But... Virgil is his dad. Virgil raised him

How could he be upset?

Writes down all of his thoughts and complaints in journals that he keeps in his room

He started writing journals when he was very young, so there is hundreds of them

Honestly doesn't know how to feel about him being a light side.

He's mad at Wrath. He knows that. But he can't do anything because his powers don't work on the dark side

He might as well be powerless.

When on the light side (so when all his powers work) his powers include: silencing others, the ability to repress sides/ make them unable to appear to Thomas and illusions.

His title is technically Validity with the added function of societal self preservation

Still goes by Deceit anyway

----

Has three brands burned onto him via Apathy

Is on his left ankle. Its his snake symbol. About the size of your fist

On his right bicep. The word "monster" in bolded writing. About two fingers in thickness.

Left chest, above his heart. The words "Property of the Dark Sides" in cursive text. The writing sits in a box.

All the brands are extremely painful for Janus if touched. Brand #3 is the brand he hates the most

His scales are more in patches then a perfect 50/50 split down his body

More will be added in the future.

[skaylanphear]

None of y’all are actually understanding The Puppeteer 2 (spoilers ahead)

Okay, so it’s been a LONG time since I’ve written any meta on this show. Mostly because a lot of episodes are now focused on things I don’t care so much about, BUT I was rather inspired by Puppeteer 2, especially since SO MANY PEOPLE seem to be missing the entire point of the episode.

Now, I’m not giving the writers of the show a ton of credit--they have their good and bad moments. But given the obvious budget of this episode as well as the sheer amount of dialogue, I think it’s pretty fair to assume at least some thought was put into this episode. 

So, first and foremost, there were a few points made during this episode.

Let’s start with the Wax Museum and why it’s so pertinent to this episode. The Wax Museum is made entirely up of celebrities. Though we have encountered Adrien and his status before, this is one of the most direct ways they could have drawn attention to it. There is a clear line in this episode--Adrien is a celebrity, his friends are not. Yes, the akumas had wax statues, but the victims and their akumas are not the same people, so to say.

So here we have an “honor” that is only ever granted to celebrities (wax figures) and we have Adrien coming in to work on his. But before that, we have a constant back and forth in the car as to why Marinette is even there--is she Adrien’s friend? His lover? Just a fan of wax statues? This is important because it is less a reflection of Adrien and Marinette’s characters as it is Marinette’s own, let’s say, psychological confusion over how she views Adrien. We’ve seen here make stupid, flustered claims about Adrien before, and these conversations are forcing her to face that head on, even if Adrien remains oblivious as always. 

During the conversation up to the top of the building, we are faced with more of this confusion. Namely, Adrien’s interpretation of his relationship with Marinette versus her own. Granted, Nino brings to light a lot of the problems, but he is less the cause so much as the vehicle with which Marinette’s own inability to be honest is being portrayed. Her behavior causes confusion, even if Adrien is unable to fully grasp that (which is all the more part of the problem). Alya, Nino, and Adrien are ALL responding to the issue of Marinette’s feelings in different ways, because THEY are confused as to what she actually wants and what they’re meant to be doing. Marinette says one thing and then backs out a moment later. As someone who recently went through something similar, my initial indecisiveness to admit my feelings to the person I liked caused a lot of back and forth confusion for the people I had told. Marinette’s situation has spiraled FAR beyond that, which is all the more reason we’re getting these vastly different interpretations as far as how her friends are meant to be reacting. The POINT is that her indecisiveness and timidity is confusing and this is becoming a problem. 

The other thing that I think is interesting in the following scene--which will lead me back around to my main point--is the fact that despite having come with Adrien to support him because the wax stuff is going to be long and boring, all his friends abandon him when he’s literally trapped in the vice of “celebrity.” Granted, Nino and Alya leaving is a bit of a device to move the plot forward, but Marinette also leaving kind of wraps the whole thing up in a neat bow. She’s supposed to confess and ultimately can’t. And instead of staying with Adrien as a good friend should despite her inability, she leaves as a flustered mess. 

Adrien is now alone, his hand clamped in a wax trap. In a lot of ways, this is extremely symbolic of his status as a celebrity and his friends not being a part of that. That Marinette left as a flustered mess only makes this worse, especially since she left him in a manner that is very similar to how a flustered fan might react if they become overwelmed. 

This is important because we’re now seeing a very clear implication that though she desires to know Adrien and has done many things to be a good friend to him, Marinette is still haunted by this “idea” of Adrien that she has that isn’t at all factual. And while I don’t think it’s celebrity worship, as some would argue, I do think that the metaphor of celebrity worship in this episode is a very good use of Adrien’s character. We are seeing that Marinette interprets Adrien in a light that is not entirely realistic, which doesn’t help anyone. 

This metaphor is only further expanded after her discussion with Tikki. While Tikki’s advice might seem helpful, what it really does is further support the notion that Marinette’s entire infatuation with Adrien is shadowed by false idealizations. She creates a persona to act as in order to communicate with him. She is literally creating a role for herself that she thinks will allow her to exist in Adrien’s, I guess, “proximity” so as to allow her to “get what she wants,” so to speak. She’s acting--as in, she’s lying. Just as much to herself, I think, as she is Adrien. 

And this whole thing is only made worse by Adrien’s “prank.” He symbolically becomes nothing more than a wax statue during the entire time that Marinette is playing her “role.” She even goes on a tangent about all the great characteristics he has as a statue, highlighting a lot of shallow aspects of why she’s attracted to him. Granted, I think there’s more to it than that (her feelings, I mean), but she’s so confused by the “more” that it’s hardly relevant if she can’t voice her feelings in the first place, beyond how “perfect” she thinks he is. 

Now, this is the “cringe” part of the episode that everyone is complaining about. But to be honest, I really didn’t think it was that bad. It clearly shows Marinette’s idealization of Adrien, as well as the “form” Adrien has within that idealization. That she said all the silly things she did (again, playing her role) and kissed him, while embarrassing, is wholly within her character. Given her tendency to fantasize on extreme levels, I think I’d be more surprised if she didn’t try to kiss Adrien’s wax statue. I get people are annoyed with Marinette constantly being the cause of bad things, or the butt of jokes, etc, but I don’t think that this situation is wholly unfounded given her personality. It was very in character for her to act that way, and I think it made a rather valid point about her feelings for Adrien. After all, she and Adrien may be “friends,” but they’re clearly not close enough for him to feel certain about what she really thinks of him, so she can’t be that close to him, which means there is a bit of shallowness on her side as far as her feelings, even is she would prefer it be different. 

Now, another complaint people have been voicing about the episode is “why can’t Marrinette have a tastefully handled confession like Chat?” And while a lot of you didn’t seem to realize this, the episode actually addresses that.

When Chat Noir flirts with Ladybug, she actually stops fighting to ask him how he so easily is able to express his feelings, because she has such a hard time doing the same thing. He responds with some line about how the people you care about should know how you feel, but the whole point of that episode was to illustrate the differences between Adrien and Marinette, and kind of explain why Marinette’s confession is so long in coming while Chat Noir has confessed, like, two or three times now.

For better or worse, Marinette’s inability to be honest about her feelings for Adrien is a huge conflict surrounding her character and has been from the beginning. Much bigger than Chat’s conflict over his feelings for Ladybug, which tend to be addressed in a more, let’s say, lighthearted manner than Marinette’s feelings for Adrien. Adrien is a very forthcoming person. He likes to think the best in people and is very honest about how he feels with almost anyone. And while I think he should probably re-evaluate the behavior he thinks is acceptable from other people, he mostly deals with any kind of conflict straight out. He doesn’t sit and stew like Marinette does, he doesn’t even waste time thinking about Chloe and Lila. Adrien would much rather think about the good than the bad. In fact, he would much rather ignore the bad (which is probably why he tried confessing so many times--likely hoping for a different outcome. Optimists, amiright?)

Marinette is NOTHING like this. She will sit and stew and plan and make herself anxious and scared and angry over things that would slide off Adrien’s back like water slides off ducks (thank you, Crowley). Marinette confessing is a much bigger roadblock because of this difference in their personalities. And it’s also why she gets all sweet on Chat for his reasoning behind why he can express his feelings so easily, because he makes it sound so simple, which is exactly what Marinette needs. Not overly complicated plans (Nino and Alya) or anything like that. She needs to be able to push back on her anxiety, walk up to Adrien, and just say it (much like how she kissed his cheek in the finale of the last season). No attempts made by her to confess will EVER succeed so long as there is any kind of convoluted plan surrounding it. 

The writers were literally giving the viewers a direct comparison between Adrien and Marinette as far as how they deal with their feelings and y’all missed it because you were too busy being mad. While Adrien overly simplifies situations--which can be both good and bad--Marinette is more likely to overly complicate things--which is also both good and bad. Where Adrien might fail to see how complex a situation is, Marinette will, whereas Adrien is able to make things simpler where Marinette cannot. You even see it in their fighting styles. Adrien ALWAYS goes for the obvious physical attack, while Marinette is the one to strategize. IT HAS BEEN A LITERAL PART OF THEIR PERSONALITIES FROM THE BEGINNING AND YOU ALL MISSED IT!     

The point of this episode was to illustrate Marinette’s issues with her feelings for Adrien, as well as draw comparisons between them so as to better understand why Marinette’s attempts to confess ALWAYS FAIL! 

Until Marinette can pull back enough to see Adrien less as a terrifying mountain to climb and more like a simple set of stairs, she will not be able to reach him. 

And that is the tea. 

[mitigatedchaos]

Review: SAC_2045

(~3,700 words, 15 minutes)

This post will contain some minor spoilers for SAC_2045.

Summary: You may have thought SAC_2045 was a poor entry in the Ghost in the Shell franchise - actually, it's just intended for younger audiences.

Previously: Standalone Complex 202045:1-4 (superseded)

-☆☆☆-

And what did you think of the remaining episodes of GitS:SAC_2045?

[ @irradiate-space​ ]

Standalone Complex

There's a certain indescribable feeling associated with Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex as a work, an artistic touch related to the director associated with it, independent of other considerations. SAC_2045 has it, which isn't too surprising since Kenji Kamiyama is back.

SAC_2045 is Standalone Complex. For a brief moment, while watching it, I inhabited my pre-2016 personality and outlook. I can't tell you how much that means to me. Since the arrival of streaming I've tended to bingewatch series, but on the first run-through I decided not to bingewatch this one.

If you approach this show as season 4 of Standalone Complex (Solid State Society being season 3), it's underwhelming. Now, viewing it again, it's become obvious that a conventional season 4 of Standalone Complex was never the intent of SAC_2045 to begin with.

For those of you who have delayed until now, the English dub has been uploaded - it released without one due to the pandemic. They bring back a number of the voice actors from the excellent Standalone Complex dub, though having already watched it with subtitles, I didn't feel the need to confirm the dub's quality.

Sustainable War

To properly describe a new theory of war is the same thing as to invent it. While the idea of war as a for-profit industry has been kicked around for some time, it's generally assumed that this is a kind of parasitic relationship on the part of the war-making industry.

As time goes on, warfare becomes more abstract (partly because warfare happens where it can happen), much like society itself is becoming more abstract as information moves more quickly and humanity gains access to more energy.[1] In SAC_2045, "Sustainable War" is part of the context of the world and its current issues, but we aren't really told how it works - if it's similar to contemporary information warfare and a blurring of the lines between state and non-state actors, it's bound to be quite confusing.

I believe my earlier assessment of "Sustainable War" is correct. The key feature of sustainable war, the reason they say it's safe if you leave it to the experts, is likely that it involves AIs constantly forecasting against each other and moving units around with few direct confrontations. The goal would be to lock in a victory without having to fire a shot, except for small skirmishes that don't escalate to major incidents (due to the AI forecasting).

The presence of armed separatist movements even in Japan may also indicate that the ruling institutional bodies are engaged in a kind of Post-International Politics,[2] which treats all international relations as fundamentally existing between subnational entities - however, I believe that later information suggests this wasn't their original intent.

What makes it "sustainable"? Since if done correctly, very little is actually physically destroyed, the cost is less than conventional warfare, and thus the war can continue indefinitely. Why does it threaten humanity with destruction? Because there's an awful lot of military hardware waiting for someone to actually pull the trigger.

Season 1: Ep. 2

So what is the intent of the series' creators? I think they may be telling us through this dialogue between Togusa and Section Chief Daisuke Aramaki in episode 2.

Aramaki: Seems time has toughened you up. Togusa: Is that supposed to be a compliment? Aramaki: It is if you want it to be. Togusa: Then thanks for the kind words. “I made the right decision by choosing this line of work over my marriage.” That’s what you’re saying? Aramaki: Perhaps. [...] Togusa: They're bringing back Section 9? [...] Aramaki: But my takeaway from the proposal is this: The PM's reason for the urgent reforming of Section 9 takes priority over his personal motives. I believe his true objective is meeting the Americans' demands for the dispatch of special resources. Togusa: So it's as the Liberals feared? An American-born Prime Minister would be no more than an American puppet? Aramaki: I've yet to meet him in person, so I can't really say. But this is an opportunity to have the Major and the rest of you undertake a major operation for me once more. Togusa: What sort of op? Aramaki: Over the past few years, I have searched for an answer on how to deal with a society in turmoil. I'd like you people to lay the groundwork that will help the next generation find that answer. Togusa: I don't know what a man in my position can contribute, but I'll humbly offer whatever assistance I can.

Those of us who cried, Kamiyama, tell us the future once more! based on Standalone Complex's prophetic analysis of a memetic crime wave were bound to be disappointed. SAC_2045 is less rooted in the near future than in the now - cyberbullying, endless war amidst historic prosperity, employment suppressed by automation, savings eaten up by the complex machinations of finance, and a breakdown of national borders? That's today.

Those of us who hoped for a Ghost in the Shell: Unicorn, a psychically overpowering work that synthesizes the full body of Ghost in the Shell into a single coherent form to elevate us to a higher level of understanding, should have tempered our expectations. To reach each new philosophical level is more difficult than the last - to achieve that with Ghost in the Shell of all things would have required a multidisciplinary genius near the limits of current understanding.

Kenji Kamiyama is just an anime director. And anyhow, Gundam Unicorn was a book before it was an animated series. And who among us even knew we'd have to write a book before 2015? Ghost in the Shell was well-understood enough, so I instead wrote 25,000 words worth of hypothetical country and became a blogger, like the infamous Scott Alexander.[3]

If we approach SAC_2045 from the lens that it's a humbler work designed for younger audiences, however, some of the creative decisions make more sense.

Purin

Just how old is Purin, the MIT grad who joins the team later on? If I had to guess, that's '23歳' on that profile she provides, and Ishikawa notes that she 'skipped a few grades' on her way to a PhD. But she acts like someone a lot younger. She's enthusiastic and we're assured she's intelligent, but seems to be lacking social training. For example, she makes the mistake of assembling an era-accurate music player for Batou combined with a playlist after consulting the Tachikomas to find out what he listens to. There are two ways to take this.

The first is that she's intended as a relateable character for someone who would make this class of mistake. It's the sort of mistake I might have made at age 13-14, meaning that the show would probably be aimed at someone that age or lower. Overly enthusiastic, doesn't understand romantic relationships, impulsive, poor reading of boundaries / poor modelling of others outside of certain domains, impulsive in a way that causes social screw-ups? Yeah that could certainly apply to an ADHD kid of about that age.

And all of a sudden the tone of the first five episodes with the gun-fighting, the literal Agent Smith, the decision to place the focus in America, and even the mystery of the series being much simpler than Standalone Complex 2nd Gig's plot regarding Asian refugees in Japan make a lot more sense. This is Ghost in the Shell for kids!

Wow, I didn't think that could be done!

...is what I should say, except that around the time I acquired the ability to futurist shitpost, and I used that ability to predict that it would.

Purin II

The second reading is that the youth of the future are fucked up. She probably has some tricked out modifications, both cybernetic and genetic. Now usually you would tell someone to try to become a well-rounded human being. But...

The global economy has crashed. Batou mistakes her for a robot - creatures that look like pretty young women are a dime a dozen. In the dating market, she would be competing with full sensory immersion VR pornography on the one hand, and at the upper end of society where cybernetics are more widely available, likely women with a similar appearance but decades more experience and professional standing.

Note that in the original Standalone Complex, the team take down an 80-year-old Russian spy with the full prosthetic body of a 20-year-old. Full cyborgs aren't common then, nor are they in SAC_2045 (though cyberbrains are ubiquitous), but if the economy recovers that may change, and the sector she's trying to get in to (full-time salaried government rather than marginal private employment it would seem) is going to be very tough to enter either way.

So Purin may have to be over-optimized even to just appear on the screen. In fact, she says,

"Just so I could work at Section 9, I moved most of my sentimental memories to external storage."

Youch! It's no wonder she's socially maladjusted. Just how much of her social learning (in particular key events necessary to rebuild logical inferences on the boundaries of behavior on the fly) has she locked away?

Purin III

But you know who Purin looks like? Notorious internet personality, Gamer Girl Bath Water seller, and IRL video game character Belle Delphine.[4]

Or rather, it's the other way around - 2D animation compresses real detail into suggestive abstraction, letting your mind fill in the rest. Going from those impossible 2D shapes to 3 dimensions creates strange results, like training your machine learning algorithm on the salient features of a cat's face, applying it to human shape, and putting pink hair on the result. Belle Delphine adopts that otherworldly kind of appearance as part of her act.

Technically, this a stylistic choice. Within the framework of SAC_2045, this is what "a 23-year-old female" looks like.

Purin is in fact so non-threatening that her big red coat obscures her figure. I'm gonna go with younger audience. Now if only I could remember what pronoun she uses.[5/☆]

Motoko

With a full prosthetic body, outward signs of human-like aging are almost an artistic expression, much like in a world with cheap tissue engineering, visible scars are a choice.

When she was first introduced in the original Ghost in the Shell manga, we don't know how old Motoko Kusanagi is. It was once said that her name is analogous to "Jane Excalibur," which in English would be an obvious alias. In the first movie (from 1995), she's cool, almost cold and robotic.

In the original Standalone Complex, Motoko has a more mature personality than in the manga, but she has a clearly adult look by the standards of anime. Seriously, check out this fantastic character design (combat suit), although admittedly the better-known "leather jacket and bathing suit" design is more ridiculous, fashion-wise.[6] (Fortunately, she gets pants in her much more stylish second season outfit.)

ARISE starts off with a young Motoko Kusanagi in a chaotic post-war period before the Section 9 we know was assembled. This shows in her character design, but it really shows in her personality. This was actually why I had joked about an even earlier Ghost in the Shell.

There is a sense in which the 2017 live-action movie's Motoko is even younger. Scarlett Johansson is a killer cyborg with amnesia. She doesn't even have one day of formal combat training.

Motoko 2045

Ilya Kuvshinov designed SAC_2045's Motoko Kusanagi.

Yes, that Ilya Kuvshinov. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a teenager that hardboiled assassins Saitou and Ishikawa in the background have been hired to bodyguard.

Despite this, Atsuko Tanaka has resumed her role as Motoko's voice actress. Standalone Complex's Motoko looked 25 and felt mid-30s. SAC_2045's Motoko looks 16 and has the voice and attitude of 40.

This may make more sense than you might think.

Through Whose Eyes?

Throughout much of Ghost in the Shell as a franchise, Togusa, the only non-cyborg on the team, who is pulled from a police department instead of a military background, tends to be character used to help the people of our time relate to the future. He's the guy that doesn't know the things we also don't know, so in explaining concepts to Togusa they're explained to the audience.

In SAC_2045, most of the team are off doing cool cyborg things in America. Aramaki (whose in-world function is to create the bureaucratic environment within which Section 9 operates) tasks Togusa with finding them. The original Standalone Complex first aired in 2003. It's been 17 years since it was created - a similar situation to finding someone that reached adulthood who was born after 9/11. And during this time, Togusa's life has changed - the family man is now separated from his wife. And the world has changed - Togusa is now working for a private security firm. Togusa's role in the first five episodes isn't to guide the new viewers.

His purpose is to guide or stand-in for the old viewers.

The New Viewers

"Do you still hold a grudge against the Major and the others for leaving you behind?"

For the original viewers, SAC_2045 is your world, too. Togusa is there. Togusa is you.

The new viewers are Purin. Enthusiastic and smart but awkward and not confident in their skills. How could they measure up to these much more talented and experienced characters? (Also consider who is going to watch any sort of Ghost in the Shell - it's probably going to be a moderately bright and introverted kid, who is the kind of person that may be more comfortable socializing with people outside of their age band.)

But Motoko is visually separated from the rest of Section 9. Batou, Saitou, Ishikawa, Boma... they all have a much more adult look in keeping with their appearance in previous versions of Ghost in the Shell. What gives?

Batou is sort of a cool adult male figure - this is actually a pretty natural use of the character and his sense of humor as previously established in other Ghost in the Shell properties. We especially see this come through in 「PIE IN THE SKY - First Bank Robbery」 episode, with the old folks and the 21st century bank robbery.

Motoko's difference in appearance is because she's acting as a bridge between the two. The new viewer (as represented by Purin) is supposed to grow into being like Motoko as they gain confidence and experience. (The characters aren't each limited to a single role, of course.)

But SAC_2045 is still a work that's shared between two groups, similar to how the excellent Into the Spiderverse features both the teenage Miles Morales and an older Peter Parker that has lost his way, with the loss of the vibrant young adult Peter Parker being what starts the plot going.

The Last Quarter

With this framework, the rest of the work should express its nature as targeted at a younger audience itself. Watch the last few episodes through this lens and you'll see how much sense it makes. One takes place at a school. Even the bizarre 3D style that resembles recent video games makes more sense. If we take Togusa's earlier conversation with Aramaki as a discussion of SAC_2045 itself, later on there's even a sort of acknowledgement that Ghost in the Shell is a difficult work for someone of a young age.

So with that context in mind, does it work?

Standalone Complex

If I remember correctly, years ago, when I was perhaps 15 or 16, I was watching a tiny CRT television some time after midnight, and I saw the thirteenth episode of the original Standalone Complex - NOT EQUAL. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was immediately taken by it. And, from what I remember, I immediately understood it.

It was as though it were made just for me.[7]

To me, Ghost in the Shell is like a textbook. I thought that as a creator who has reached a place where I am able to be involved in that kind of work, I'm in a position where I have to convey its contents to a younger audience. Well, I knew it would be a lot of work, but I figured it would be my way of giving back to Ghost in the Shell. I thought that I needed to accept the baton and offer Ghost in the Shell to a young audience, to the same degree that Ghost in the Shell raised me to be who I am.

- Tow Ubukata, in a 2015 interview, regarding ARISE

For many people, Ghost in the Shell is a profound influence. I felt that it lifted me to a new level of understanding.

SAC_2045

But what about SAC_2045?

I can't view Ghost in the Shell with new eyes. When I first saw it, I wasn't the kind of person that casually memes futuristic ethical dilemmas as a means of practicing politics.

Compared to the anime I watched back when I was 13, would I have watched SAC_2045? Yes. Is it more philosophically and politically sophisticated? Yes. Would I have found it memorable? I think so.

Would a 13-year these days watch it? That's difficult to assess. I bet someone who does data science for Netflix could tell us, if they wanted. I'm sure Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki are considering the same thing.

2017

How does it stack up compared to the rest of the franchise?

For most enthusiasts it's going to be one of the weaker entries, though it certainly does a better job explaining itself than ARISE.

Compare it to 2017's live action movie, however, and I think we'll find it isn't the weakest. The reason is that the writers of Ghost in the Shell (2017) decided to tell a story about bodily consent in which becoming a cyborg is a form of trauma. On some level this may have been a reasonable decision, but they didn't commit to the concept sufficiently fully to execute it well enough to carry the movie - and simultaneously, they dumbed down parts of the regular Ghost in the Shell material for American audiences. As a result the movie flopped both financially and artistically - except for the visuals.

In fact, I wrote a sequence of posts (1, 2, 3, 4) on how to rewrite the live action movie as an actual Ghost in the Shell property. I feel no need to do so for SAC_2045 - and I can't even think of what changes would need to be made.

I look forward to the second season.

-☆☆☆-

[1] It's short, but that's a concept in this post. "Advanced by Left-Wing theorists, Ninth Generation warfare sees all acts as existing on a spectrum of political violence. Most acts of ninth generation warfare consist of extreme pranks."

[2] If we accept the idea of "Fifth-Generation Warfare" as motivated by a desire to prevent the enemy from using their conventional military assets, then a corresponding theory of international politics would involve preventing enemy factions within foreign governments from taking control of those governments' institutions - effectively treating all countries as in continuous level of conflict analogous to a soft civil war.

[3] There is a kind of technique to this, but in my case I substituted ADHD for raw IQ and conscientiousness, which is part of why my posts are so much shorter than, for instance, Moldbug's. In any case, technically, Scott's blog posts on the matter amount to roughly a mere 11,600 words, and the book of the black forest amounts to approximately 26,000 words (which I'm told is entertaining reading), but I'm sure if we go looking we can find an additional 15,000 words worth of worldbuilding from a man known for writing 16,000 word blog posts.

[4] Would it be more of a legal liability to sell regular water with GGBW branding, or actual GGBW that could prove to be a potential health hazard?

[5/☆] There's some future strand lurking beneath the surface here that I can't quite put into words; a culturally divergent moe meltdown where an appearance this ridiculous becomes normalized among some sub-population. To quote the Funko Pop Hatred post,

There are questions about the anatomy of anime people and their internal organs, and particularly about what sort of impact-dampening alien meta-material their softer bits are made out of, but at least homo sapiens gokuensis looks like it’s a branch off a similar starting hominid! Whatever transhuman engineering company was responsible for manufacturing the creatures in the typical harem anime has some weird ideas about human beings, but we’re clearly in their ancient lineage somewhere.

Under Late Safetyism, everyone is a declawed catgirl.

Anyhow, I don't want to alarm you, but I can't guarantee that this won't be the future somewhere. Both Purin and Belle Delphine resemble Xiaoice, "The AI Girlfriend Seducing China's Lonely Men." (2020)

[6] Motoko's ridiculous outfits are a major flex on the non-cyborgs, who aren't indifferent to ambient temperature and whose natural bodies may have unflattering features. Similarly wild fashions can exist in places like Second Life, a 3D digital platform with mostly user-uploaded content. Presumably they're also a flex on every Japanese salaryman who still has to dress like a normal guy.

[7] "It's as though it were made just for me" is also how I feel about the original game Mirror's Edge. Its follow-up, Catalyst, is also a personal favorite of mine.

[ranbboozled]

ranboo & dream’s relationship.

it’s something so incredibly complex and at the same time, something so incredibly simple.

ranboo is to dream nothing but a puppet. someone who will do what he wants, help him get away with the things he shouldn’t be able to get away with, and someone who can earn the trust of others easily.

however, dig a little deeper. why are they connected?

just why is there something that we just can’t quite figure out yet? it’s like there’s something hidden beneath the surface of their already confusing relation.

a lot of people think they’re connected through dreamon, with dream either being possessed by a dreamon or being a dreamon himself, while ranboo’s white half is also a dreamon. i personally like to think that dream currently is possessed by a dreamon, that he actually is human, that he’s alive.

and through that, they are one in the same. they are the exact same person.

“i am you.”

now think about that. it means that dream is ranboo, that they are each other, but not just because of dreamon. there’s something more to this, maybe not purposefully, but there is.

maybe this specific line is only supposed to have one meaning, but still it has more. “i am you” offers so many possibilities, has so many different interpretations. there is always something more to their story.

hear me out: ranboo is to dream what tommy is to wilbur. (in a sense, just hear me out)

not literally. the situations are so very different, but the parallels can be compared and used to explain my point. tommy followed in wilbur’s footsteps, too scared to move on his own, and wilbur could find himself in tommy. he cared about him even though he betrayed him. he knew he would hurt him and yet he still wished for the best for him.

the situations of wilbur + tommy and dream + ranboo are VERY VERY different and their dynamics are not the same, but i think it’s important to use them as a basis for understanding dream and ranboo.

now look at dream and ranboo. how is that comparable? it’s barely there, just a sliver of resemblance, but it is.

take a look at dream from a human standpoint. imagine that he is a human, a vulnerable person with feelings and a past. maybe this past isn’t so great, and maybe it’s why he’s become the way he has. either way, if you view dream with this human idea, then you may find it easier to see the similarities between him and ranboo.

ranboo obviously did not have this relation to dream until fairly recently, or at least until he got into the lore of the server. however, as we learn more about these two, it’s clear to see that they depend on each other. even if fueled by their dreamon sides, they have this trust between one another that may be tainted, may be cruel, may be hurtful, but a trust nonetheless.

dream trusted ranboo to come to the prison to visit him. ranboo trusted him to be there. and when ranboo stopped visiting, dream stopped talking. now, i don’t know if this was an act, or if it was genuine, but since i’m talking about dream from a human concept, i’ll assume the real dream.

dream was upset. you can tell. he’s stopped talking. he has no one. ranboo was his someone, that someone he could always trust and come back to, similar to how tommy was that for wilbur.

if you remember, tommy distinctly said that even though he knew what wilbur was doing was wrong, he would follow him anyways. that’s exactly what ranboo is doing, even if he’s not entirely aware of it. he trusts dream deep down, he understands that he’s the only person he’ll ever truly know and have know him. they understand one another. they see each other for who they are.

which brings me to my main point: dream can see himself in ranboo.

perhaps this is a stretch, but maybe the human inside of dream sees ranboo as a boy with no home. no friends. no recollection of who he used to be. and maybe he understands ... maybe he understands because that was him. that was the boy he was when he was younger too.

alone and afraid. he can see that in ranboo... and he can see that he is also becoming corrupt. because he’s weak-minded. because he has no one who will help him.

just like dream.

the “i am you” line digs much deeper than their relation through dreamon, it highlights the possibility thay dream sees himself in ranboo as well. maybe this is a warning. maybe, just maybe, he’s trying to warn him. even if dreamon is possessing him entirely, perhaps he’s able to find little ways to speak to ranboo. maybe the human inside of dream is the human inside of ranboo too.

maybe their stories intertwine in ways even stronger than we initially thought.

and i’m not a dream apologist — and this is a very sloppy post and my first, but i really really love the idea of dream and ranboo being so similar as people, not as villains. it’s so interesting to me and i also think their dynamic is slightly comparable to wilbur and tommy’s but in a VERY different way. i just wanted to use it to kind of make it easier to understand.

i find dream’s smp character so so so interesting and deep and i actually dislike him (the character) a lot, but it’s fun to analyze him. ranboo, on the other hand, is one of my favorites ever and i adore delving deeper into his persona (roleplay) and picking apart every piece of him. i hope this wasn’t too confusing to read if you did!

[hardytoms]

Hi! I do have a question about politics and Biden/Harris. I want to preface this by saying that I am not American and all I know about the elections is from the internet & Philip DeFranco. I recently started following a youtuber who, when Bernie dropped off the race (i lov him sm), she told everyone to STILL VOTE GREEN in the elections in november, that she couldn't respect people who voted for Biden because they thought he was the lesser of two evils (1/?)

she said that if you were from a swing state and you voted for Biden, that you didn't really care about people, that you just wanted to get Trump out of office, and that it'd be better if you voted green. I felt like this was a little... harsh? extreme? because of course you (i was about to say we as if my voice counted LMAO) want to get Trump out of office. is that not the point? I really am trying to understand, I swear. I know Biden/Harris are not great, but definitely better than Trump (2/?)

and i feel like ultimately, any votes that don't go to Biden right now, are going to Trump. I don't know. I'm sorry, I'm mexican and I don't know much, but... it does worry me that, for example the last elections, the people who voted for Harambe or third party ultimately helped get Trump elected. EVERYONE would have to agree to vote third party to not get Biden or Trump elected. right? she has a pretty big following and it scares me a little that she could be influencing them. (3/3)

Ahhh yes this is such a good question!!! Thank you for asking!!! And honestly your thoughts here are really the root of the struggle with this election (at least in my opinion). I totally don’t speak for everyone so I want to make sure that’s said. I also wanna say I 1000% understand why American voters are feeling disenfranchised and not wanting to vote at all so I want to make sure I approach this with empathy because so many people’s lives are going to be affected negatively no matter who wins. My answer might be all over the place because it totally is a complex and really nuanced issue so if anything is confusing at all please lmk!! 

In terms of a Biden vote meaning you don’t care about people, I think for most rational Americans, and those of us who are leftist/socialist (at least those of of us who, at the minimum would have voted for Bernie and even to a lesser extent, Warren), the point is to get Trump out of office but many people who don’t want to vote for either aren’t voting because they truly don’t feel that Biden is the better option. For a lot of people who aren’t wanting to vote at all, it’s because they feel they’re voting for just sliding scales of morality and both Trump’s and Biden’s morals (and therefore the policies they’ll choose to support) are corrupt. Trump is the obvious and outspoken fascist, but Biden is just wrapped in a veneer of progressivism because he doesn’t explicitly say he wants to disenfranchise voters, he’ll just do it by picking a VP that has a long and icky history of turning Black people into felons and therefore excising them of their right to vote ever again. (For what it’s worth, people with a felony record in CA where Kamala Harris was DA and senator can vote with some qualifiers, unlike many other states). For a lot of people, especially BIPOC, their lives are threatened under both candidates so why vote for either if neither will make them feel safe or care about their basic human rights?

It’s hard too because we do know what a Trump 2nd term will bring and it’s fascism and the removal of everyone’s rights/healthcare/access/etc. as much as he possibly can manage. With Biden those particular risks are just not at the same level. The way he is damaging is in different ways and people are unfortunately being forced to choose whether he as a president will be more harmful or less harmful than Trump, so it’s really about what each individual person is willing to sacrifice and “put up with” because clearly all of us are going to sacrifice in very painful ways (to put it lightly) no matter which candidate is picked. I do think part of it too is playing into Republican hands to make Biden look as bad as Trump, which I feel is what they did in 2016, as well, and it worked. If we’re talking about the basic, will Biden put children in cages, will he build a border wall, will he refuse to leave office if he gets elected and loses re-election, will he xyz - no, I personally do not feel he will. And if that, for me, is the bar I’m voting at, then he’s getting my vote, if that makes sense. (For me personally, it just doesn’t track that the right can get a spray-tanned used sock into power and all unite behind him in unison, but the moderate to liberal left can’t unite behind one fucking person to keep a fascist from exercising his dictator inclinations.)

One of the other big things people feel is that centrism is the death of progressivism. Malcolm X and MLK both talked a lot about this with respect to being Black and in general, a person of colour, and I’m REALLY going paraphrase it here but basically, lots of people feel that voting for Biden will make Democrats/centrists/liberals complacent. The republicans and conservative party are getting more and more extreme and far-right with every new candidate so the fear is that to be a “moderate” democrat and to be successful, you have to bend to the will of Republicans to even casually get both sides to agree, which inches each “moderate” Democrat further from being left-leaning and more toward being right-leaning because the demands of the GOP are such fucking thinly veiled fascist demands at this point, if that makes sense.

With respect to the idea of not voting for Biden meaning a vote goes to Trump, it’s sort of true and not true at the same time (in my opinion). If someone doesn’t vote for Biden, it’s not *literally* a vote for Trump because you *literally* voted for a third party candidate, but in the nuance of how electoral politics work, the American two-party and electoral system does feel like it turns it into “if you don’t vote for one of the major candidates, your vote won’t count at all.” It’s easy to say “well if everyone voted for the Green Party then they’d win”, but as we saw in 2016, the person who wins the most votes doesn’t necessarily win the presidency, so even if most of us did vote for a third party candidate, we’d all have to do so in EVERY state enough to outvote not only Biden but Trump as well. And it ABSOLUTELY would mean the states with a lot of electoral votes (in particular Florida because historically whoever wins FL’s electoral votes generally wins the presidency) would have to go toward the Green Party candidate.

I do feel that telling people if they don’t vote for a third party candidate that they don’t really care about people is harsh because a vote for Biden isn’t just a vote for the president, it’s a vote for a supreme court judge (who rules for their ENTIRE life or until they actively choose to step down - this person WILL be as disgusting as Kavanaugh under a Trump 2nd term at best and at worst, a 2nd Trump presidency will get to choose two more SCOTUS judges), it’s a vote for hundreds and hundreds of political offices approved by the President and confirmed by the Senate, it’s a vote to kick DeVos and Barr the fuck out, it’s a vote for climate change and for abortion access and LGBTQ+ healthcare, it’s a vote for someone who won’t tweet his presidency (the bar is so low), it’s a vote for representatives of the US who won’t act like fools in front of foreign powers, etc. etc. Lots of people are being forced to vote for him even when they don’t want to (like me) the same way lots of people are feeling forced to note vote at all because both of them feel dangerous to themselves in different ways. 

For me, it feels like a MASSIVE gamble to say I’m not gonna vote for either because I think that we as a country need a revolution. I said this on Twitter but feeling like the revolution needs to happen before you’ll vote hinges a lot on that revolution actually happening and if we’re gonna be honest, I don’t think it will happen. Will I be a part of it? Yes. Will I attempt to dismantle the system we have? Without a doubt. But I’m also going to vote for the candidate that will keep my rights to be able to do that even if I think he’s kind of a sentient sock puppet.

Here is another post that talks about it that I agree with.

This was SO LONG and I’m super sorry!!!! I hope this at least sort of answered what you were getting at?? It’s a complicated question that people understandably have a lot of mixed feelings about so I hope my answer made sense!!

[scrollingkingfisher]

Gabriel Through the Seasons- Control and Self-Deception

An excessively long essay, by me.

Evening peeps! So the topic of Gabriel’s relationship with control came up in the discord last night and it resulted in an entire TED talk which I didn’t even know was in me. So here we go, all tidied up and ready for meta consumption!

So Gabriel’s complex relationship with control is written into his character from the very first time we see him on screen. In Crawford Hall, he orchestrates the whole thing- he punishes people, but it’s always from a safe distance, never getting his hands dirty. He's actively manipulating the Winchesters for the entire time they're there in a similar way. Illusions are one of the first ways that he uses to control situations and keep them at arm’s length- let’s call them his first line of defence. Through them he can distract and confuse, and it means he doesn’t have to get too close to the action, either emotionally or physically. He uses his illusions to give the Winchesters the impression they got the better of him, but really I think that was him sizing them both up, and using his persona as the trickster to keep some emotional distance from the situation- his second line of defence.

Next up- Mystery Spot. Gabriel's control complex comes out big time. The apocalypse is getting closer, Dean's played his cards, Gabriel's family-related trauma is rearing its ugly head from where he'd managed to stash it under all those layers of repression, and the situation is suddenly more immediate than he’d like. So what can he do, both to maintain distance from the situation, get some kind of control over it and to try and avert having to deal with his brothers? Oh look, a convenient vessel of the apocalypse! But he can't just tell him what's gonna go down, because that would require trust, and then the ball would be in Sam's court. Telling Sam what was going to happen would have meant relinquishing control of the situation, and he doesn’t want to get too involved either. Better to stay in his comfort zone of using his alter ego to teach Sam a lesson from a distance. It works out excellently, obviously. Sam is particularly good at cutting to the chase, over the seasons- probably because he has a similar (but not identical) relationship with control and autonomy. And that's the first time we really see Gabriel break character. Then we get to see what imo is probably closer to what he's really feeling. When somebody takes that control of the situation away from him, it makes him either scrabble to get his mask back on, or get incredibly angry and absolutely fucking lose it, or he gets overwhelmed and runs away from the situation. Which is exactly what he does on this particular occasion. Sam calls him out, Gabriel realises that he’s no longer in control here, he gives up on teaching Sam a lesson and he’s off.

Changing Channels is a whole ‘nother ball game. The complete control Gabriel takes over the situation- literally puppeteering them around his own sets- he’s eve controlling their environment. Throwing the Winchesters around and teaching them a lesson like he can't do with their angelic counterparts. Bullying them into playing their roles, because if he can't stop the apocalypse, he needs to feel like he has control over what's happening somehow, yeah? The angry outburst when Dean calls him out. And that anger when provoked is another recurring theme. If I had to guess, I’d say that the anger is another shield, his third and final defence- this time though, it’s a shield against himself, and his own emotions about his situation. Gabriel is not about facing his emotions head on. Repression is the name of the game, and like nearly everybody on SPN, he’s very good at it. And then, finally, the Winchesters know who he is and the layers of deception peel away. Gabriel can't hide any more; they know what he is. He can't run away. And he manages to keep it together, just, but I think it's a close thing, because the bitter resignation as he finally explains to the brothers what's going on? That's as honest as he gets.

Then we get to Hammer of the Gods, and this one's a little different, because as the audience we're seeing Gabriel's shields and attempts to control the situation from a slightly different angle. Gabriel is cool as a cucumber while he's with the other gods, because he NEEDS to be otherwise they'll slaughter him and he knows it (story of his life- he can never trust anyone), but as soon as he's alone with the Winchesters, he drops the act, if not the attempts to control the situation. Then he spends the rest of the episode desperately running around, trying to maintain a series of ever-more-convoluted deceptions, until he finally has to face Lucifer. And as much as I love Gabriel's return, it was absolutely in character here for him to pull one last layer of deception and nope out of the entire thing. He's stressed beyond belief. His brother just nearly stabbed him. He needs some RnR and several liquor stores.

Maybe that's why he lets his guard down with Loki and relinquishes control of the situation. And immediately it's proven why Gabriel can never let his guard down, even with his ‘allies’, because they fucking sell him. Cue eight years of torture. 

 Asmodeus was probably the literal worst thing that could have happened to Gabriel. Because if it had just been pure torture, I think he would have held up quite well. But Asmodeus stripped away Gabriel's control and autonomy. All of it. He’s a slave, but it’s worse than that, they condition him and break him until he doesn’t even run away. And that speech in Unfinished Business? Wow. He felt absolutely violated by what was done to him, and it's never explicitly talked about, but it's made fairly obvious what happened. When he comes back, he has no walls at all, no deceptions, no control over his situation or himself, and he spends the majority of the episode quivering in the back of his own mind. Sam eventually manages to coax him out, but not before showing weakness of his own by basically begging for help, and therefore handing Gabriel a little bit of control back. And then Gabriel finally at the end of the episode manages to gain back a bit of control over his life when he realises there's an opening to kill Asmodeus, and WHAM, the masks are back up, witty quip time, look at me I've got my powers back and I'm gonna burn you in a very Extra way because this rage inside has nothing at all to do with how you ripped my self-control away from me. And then Sam asks for help, and he sees a potential for someone trying to control him again, and obviously, he's gone.

Next up: Unfinished Business. Whoo boy there's a whole lot to unpack here. First off he's hunting the people who sold him. Not because they're posing a threat- they probably still thought he was still with Asmodeus until he started hunting him down- but because they caused him massive trauma and REVENGE SIDEQUEST has a better ring to it than fall-apart-alone-because-I-don't-dare-to-trust-anyone. And Gabriel has to have control over his own reactions even more than he likes to control the people around him. Gabriel never lets himself be vulnerable, even to himself. And he is hurt, and angry, so revenge quest it is! He starts before he's ready, because letting himself wallow is a no-go, so obviously he gets stabbed and ends up with the Winchesters again, because they're his least-worst option. He knows they're hunting for him, but he went to them, so he's in control, right? RIGHT! So he spins the Winchesters a story (dubiously realistic emotional mask of hot babes and decadence ahoy). But obviously Dean's that git who can't keep his fingers out of the emotional cracks, and he pushes a little too far and Gabriel loses control, and we see what Gabriel's feeling again. Or rather, what Gabriel's letting himself feel, and that’s all anger. But under it, reading between the lines, there's the emotions that he can't control, that feeling of incredible vulnerability and violation, of having your control taken from you.  And that carries through to when Loki, who obviously knows him, who Gabriel has obviously confided in previously ("boohoo, Gabriel with his mean older brothers"?), uses his knowledge of that vulnerability to absolutely rip into him, to really grind in the point while he's helpless, and even after he's defeated (by Sam throwing him the sword, not by Gabriel being able to do it himself), there's no celebration, there's no witty quips, because Loki tore down Gabriel's self delusions of control. It's an empty victory. And we see that in the scene outside where he's talking to Sam. The shields are back up, he has control of the situation and himself, and he knows that Sam knows he's faking being "swell" but at least going with the Winchesters provides something to do, a little more control for a little longer. But inside? He's even more vulnerable now, because Loki took away any sort of internal defences he might have had with his little parting speech. This is where his descent begins. His expression when Sam turns away? Absolutely hopeless and dead inside. His self-defence of anger is gone, and that's not a good thing.

I haven't watched the rest of the episodes quite as obsessively, but I'll still do the broad strokes. Getting it on with Rowena? Exercising power and autonomy over his own actions, with a healthy side-helping of "Could a depressed person do this??" He doesn't have as many problems with confronting Lucifer as one might expect, but then again, he's in control. He's got Lucifer drugged up to the nines before he even drops his disguise, and then he takes gleeful advantage of the situation to play with him for a little bit because finally, he's got control over that brother who caused him all that anguish! Revenge is almost second nature at this point. But he never breaks character through the entire confrontation. He maintains that emotional distance. Fast-forward into the apocalypse world, and I think Gabriel is genuinely deeply upset by his inability to heal Sam. One more time where he was absolutely helpless to do shit all, he has no control over the outcome, and he's not raging this time, but he's quiet and withdrawn, and that's a bad sign because he's nearly fresh out of coping mechanisms. Then Lucifer comes back. Gabriel spends the next however long scouting way way out ahead or skulking on the edges of camp, because he knows that this time, the ball will not be in his court, and at the end of the day Gabriel likes to avoid confrontation when at all possible, because why risk it? And we see him slowly sinking deeper into that depression, those thoughts that he'd managed to put off earlier through anger and revenge. He has no power. He has no control over what happens to himself or anyone else. But he manages to hoist the shields up reasonably well when Lucifer corners him, enough to get in a few good quips. But they're pretty damn transparent by this point. He's not cocky any more as he chews Lucifer out. He's just tired. And then Michael attacks, and, well. What do you do when you have no more power over your own trauma, no more leverage or self-belief, and the only control you have is which metaphorical train you throw yourself in front of? 

Gabriel sees one last opportunity to take control of his destiny. 

And he takes it. 

[moved99999999999]

U guys wanna know what I think about that hell hotel show

I feel like twitter’s very tired of seeing ppl talk about Hazbin Hotel, so I putting my opinions on tumblr where they belong. I’m not a “professional critic” by any means, but I’ll try my best given what I know. And don’t worry, I’ll be incredibly nit-picky to suit the internet’s needs.

I’m gonna mainly focus on HH itself instead of Vivzie’s accusations because that's a WHOLE other can of worms to open.

During the time of me writing this, I haven’t watched any YT reviews, but I’ve read a few threads criticising the show, so take that as my social influence bias.

My ted talk is allllll below the cut. Enjoy~

Context: 

My first exposure of Vivzie’s work was her “Die Young” animation that I came across around 2016. Instantly I fell in love with how “smooth” and lively her animation was, and especially the fact that it was hand drawn. Animation like that was extremely rare to come by (and still is) and seeing her execute it so well with such complexed characters was amazing to my fetus self. 

A few years later and I see the first trailer for HH. I instantly went OH I RECOGNISE THAT STYLE AND THOSE CHARACTER TYPE DESIGNS and was looking forward to what it had to offer. 

On “opening day” I watched the pilot ASAP to avoid my opinions from getting warped by all of the key-mash memes and post call-out bitching (literally the extremes of the HH opinion spectrum), and overall.....

I thought it was good. 

Not ground breakingly amazing, not horrifically terrible, but charmingly good.

(Ok now it’s actual review time)

Animation Quality:

As a hand drawn animation that has the freedom to get creative with its shots, a lot of effort was clearly put into how everything moves (it definitely didn’t take any lazy flash puppet shortcuts for the main sections of the show) and I can appreciate that. However it tends to be... rather inconsistent, most likely due to the varying skill level of the animators on the project. It’ll be nice and smooth one minute, and then awkward and choppy the next which can make the viewing pretty confusing at times. I’ll be honest I found myself overlooking these inconsistencies due to the characters and backgrounds themselves being very visually engaging, especially considering how over designed some of them can be (which I applaud the team for handling cuz wow that must have been painful). However, the needle thin and exaggerated art style makes some things incredibly hard to look at. While it helps with adding fancy details, it hurts in catching peoples eyes in the right place.

It’s also chalk full of little details, visual gags, and references that are hilarious to look at if you have the luxury of pausing every two seconds (the news segment and Sir Pentious turf war w/ Angel and Cherri are good places to look). But I feel like these lil details were put in at the cost of some some continuity errors (Charlie not wearing her coat in one shot, and having it back on in the next, papers being blank, etc.) and lip-syncing issues which really shouldn’t be happening considering all of the detail they were able to put in. There are also some shots that have just SO MUCH detail put into them, only to be shown for less than a second. I get that’s the cost of animation sometimes, but save the detail for the shots that need it, because at that point you’re just causing the animators to waste their efforts.

However, I was surprised at how professional the soundtrack and editing was. Not one but THREE songs in this single episode was really surprising, and the variation and quality of each was great (as cringy as Charlie’s song is)

But overall, the production quality is surprisingly good for a project like this, the editing, sound effects, and sound track act like a cherry on top. Of course there are some noticeable drops in quality, but given time and a budget, it has enough chops to look like an actual show.

Writing: 

As far as overarching plot goes, it seems like it’s going to be one of those procedural shows that tries to be serialised, but it’s a creative twist on hell and has an interesting premise to begin with. You can get really creative with seeing how you’d dive into getting redemption out of all of these seemingly lost causes, and I’m sure there are many people willing to know the backstories our main cast. As a pilot, it did it’s job of launching the plot very well, setting up the premise of the hotel and introducing characters in a very engaging way. I was legit really interested in each segment with who in introduced, and it didn’t feel like I was being overloaded with names to remember (which can be a problem for many medias and introductions). The cohesion between each scene is VERY smooth, and I genuinely enjoyed some of the cliché cuts/gags. 

Unfortunately I can’t extend this interest to our main character. Charlie is one of the most generic tropes we’ve ever seen. She’s a boring Disney princess who has a “cute happy positive goal to change her world” and the only thing that would make her more generic is if she wore a dress and cried “I’m tired of being so privileged”. 

(Although it’s impossible to tell, I honestly think Viv is just projecting through her, especially considering how horrifically accurate the hotel’s opening mirrors the internet’s reaction to the pilot itself)

I would be more forgiving if she was a supporting character or someone less important, but she’s the freaking protagonist, arguably the character that has to be the most interesting. Angel’s personality seems to be “flirty porn star”, and while that’s just as bad as being a boring Disney princess, at least he gets a few jokes and has a profession more interesting than Charlie’s. Around the end of the pilot he just seems like he’s getting involved because Viv likes giving him attention. If he’s supposed to be leeching off of the hotel, wouldn’t not care if it survives or not?

(There’s that whole stereotype issue that everyone keeps bringing up, but I genuinely think that’s BS because people are blatantly ignoring the fact that Angel is a porn star, Vaggie is portrayed as helpful, and that the show takes place in H E double hokey sticks.)

The transitions may be smooth, but the dialogue pacing can get really awkward at times. This paired with the animation sometimes having awkward quality drops makes some movements incredibly jagged, and has some detailed shots show for incredibly unbalanced screen time as mentioned before. 

I don’t have enough to give voice acting it’s own section so I’m just popping it down here:

The voice acting is legitimately better than several big name projects I know. It’s consistent, great at expressing the character’s mood properly, and each voice fits each character perfectly. My only gripes are that Alastor and Sir Pentious tend to grain on you after awhile due to them keeping a single tone for too long. 

Character Design: AKA the only thing I have legitimate experience with.

First thing’s first. The characters are WAY too over designed. There are so many markings and accessories that are incredibly unnecessary. I think the mindset for these characters was “the more complicated and attractive the better”, which makes them look like they’re designed by an edgy tumblr artist (heck I fall for this too some times).

Especially if a character is going to be animated, you have to keep in mind the value of simplicity. You absolutely don’t have to fill in your character with markings and trinkets to make them look unique, I mean just look at the gen 1 pokemon starters. Thanks to the limitations of the game, the sprites were forced to be simple, and it was that simplicity that made them such unique and varied creatures. You can tell Blastoise is a bulky water blasting turtle just with a quick glance. 

Many of the characters suffer from over complication, but I’ll look at Husk for example. He has these stripes all over him that do not contribute to who he’s supposed to be at all, and only look like they’re added to make him more unique. The markings that DO help are the little card suite marks on his wings, because those at least infer he’s linked to a casino/gambling type of theme. I would say his outfit helps as well, but formal wear and bowties are worn way to often by the main characters, which brings me to another problem.

They may look different, but they feel way too similar. From the same skinny body type, to generic head shapes, to outfits, the focus characters just don’t stand out amongst each other. Even the ones with interesting features still suffer from feeling generic. I’d say Sir Pentious is a good example of this. He has a serpentine/naga body and clever hair style that make his concept really creative, but his skinny body type, complicated eyes all over his tail, and generic “young but supposed to be at least middle aged” face just push him back into obscurity. He’s even wearing the SAME outfit as Alastor (who's an even worse offender of that generic face problem), and unless Viv has some plan to link the two, I’d say the characters need to stop using a dress code.

A successful character design can to tell you who the character is just by looking at them. You should be able to tell if a character’s personality, function, age, the universe they belong in, and if they’re important or not, and that’s a big problem when it comes to the background characters. If you pause on one of the extras for a minute you can see all of the effort put into designing them, and that takes away so much attention from the main cast. Not only that, but they have actual variations in their body types and outfits, which makes them more intriguing than who we’re supposed to be interested in.

Regardless, this pilot has potential, and if they can get someone to comb out the flaws, you can end up with something good. No one can deny a legitimate animation was made here, and the team successfully executed the start of a story, and that’s something anyone can look up to.

TLDR: The pilot is good. It has some major flaws, but it has potential to be a good show.

If you actually read this far epstein didn’t kill himself.