#for me most of the Thought Process happens with the themes and symbolism

[herearedragons]

#it's about the THOUGHT PROCESS BRO#which is also why asking about symbolism is one of the more interesting questions

(adding op's tags because YES)

No one ever gets ASKED. "Why did u name ur oc the way u did" even tho it's probably one of the more interesting questions u could ask a creator

[lunarcloak]

Blue Lock Chapter 262: Visual Storytelling

Can we talk about the visual imagery this chapter?? Kaneshiro is always cooking but Nomura cooked extra hard this time with his own illustrative storytelling

An almost entirely white panel. Except for the black spot of Kaiser's hunched figure. Almost as if he's the stain on an otherwise perfect game from BM right now. (He's thrown off balance.)

Here, in the first picture, this is Isagi's view of where Kaiser is right now. On top of a puzzle piece— a symbol of Isagi's power, and also a symbol of how off kilter he is. The second picture is part of a larger paneling of how he's being left on the ground as Isagi runs past him in a flurry of puzzle pieces. Almost as if Isagi's kicking the pieces of his perfect puzzle astray, leaving him to rebuild them from scratch. (The theme of this chapter.)

You can tell he's only barely listening. Eyes are always a huge indicator of visual storytelling— i picked this up from looking at BSD panels for too long. Here there's virtually no pupils, smaller, wider eyeballs because he's not listening to Ness's words. They're going in one ear out the other. Because Ness's words are superficial— He's trying to help, he is, but that is desperately NOT what Kaiser needs right now. He needs to figure out how to FIX this. Not to retreat back into the safety of his cocoon so that he can pretend he's still the star on the field.

NOTICE HOW EVERYTHING IN THE SECOND PANEL CAN DIRECTLY BE RELATED TO ISAGI. The offer from Reale— what if Yoichi gets it instead of me? The throne in this team— what if Isagi takes that, too? Am I about to lose everything I worked to get myself? The whole world is watching my worst performance in years. I can't lose here. I can't be defeated here. Not here, of all places, in Blue Lock.

Negative colouring. The previous, prominent memory I have of this is when Rin went to his "flow" state. It's specifically to emphasise the "HUMAN" wording. It's usually used to showcase a very prominent moment, in this case it's Kaiser realising exactly what the core of his worry is right now. It isn't the defeat, not beating Isagi, not anything. At the moment, he's afraid of losing the very humanity he had thought he clawed himself into. To emphasise this, the black and white being reversed are to indicate that time almost freezes, completely changing his perspective and line of thought at that moment.

Less dramatic, still negatively scaled panel. Emphasising how he's really digging into his psyche here and going "Oh, I'm scared. I'm afraid of losing everything I've got for myself." The last time this happened was when his secret money stash was found— he didn't care as much then, because there was nothing to lose that he hadn't already lost. But now? Now, it matters a lot more. Because he's built himself up on an entirely shaky foundation. Note how he's also sliding below here, losing his footing, like he's lost the stable ground he thought he had.

The angle of this panel makes it look like he's climbing upwards, and he's just lost his grip on the wall before him, and is in the process of falling. It's extremely well done.

Plenty people have already pointed this one out— yeah Isagi's just reached a height that's similar to Noa's. The position Kaiser thought he used to have, but now he's not even on the staircase to victory and the treasure he thought he would attain soon is now inching towards his most challenging rival to date.

You will never see him this tired, this defeated, or this melancholic ever again. At this point, his eyes are no longer that wide, shocked stare of not seeing. Now he's comprehended his stance, and he's come back into himself.

Each petal is a memory, a visual representation of the crumbling of the rose he once held. It's gone now, there's no rose in his hand anymore (nothing for him to hold onto anymore). When you have no roses in hand, you grow a new bouquet. When you have nothing, there's nothing to lose if you go reaching for something to hold onto again.

But HERE, the petals can be interpreted in two ways— either he's being reformed from the petals of a new rose (blank petals, not representative ones). OR, you can interpret it as those very petals dissipating from his being, leaving him as this black, blank slate to rebuild himself. Zero— as in no colour, no petals, no gardens to flourish anymore. Only way to move now is up.

Also I'd like to draw your attention to the negative paneling again— inverted this time, the exact opposite of the previously conveyed emotion. Now he's the one in the black, working to redefine himself. He's already redefined the external aspects.

Your Zero— Your Beginning. I LOVE this page, even if it's a repeat. It conveys so much. Kaneshiro and Nomura are such a GOOD TEAM

A black hand clasps around the core memory— the memory of when he truly had only his football. He can't let that petal float away, that's one he wants to keep. That's the idea he wants to hold onto. He crushes the petal into his hand, assimilating it into his new beginning. That's the one he'll hold onto, to recraft the person that is Michael Kaiser.

[purple-obsidian]

Wellll, since you said it was okay, allow me to analyze this fic like I'm in an English lit class.

First off, what I've been thinking about the longest is him tugging the blanket over her at the end. It's such a small gesture, but it's gonna mean so much when there's almost never any casual intimacy. I would be thinking so hard on what it means. He's offering just the slightest hint of comfort after what seems like a constant battlefield and why? He feels guilty? He wants to show her that he's there? Its the only thing he can offer her when he's so hurt himself? Those are the kinds of actions that would make you stay because he still has to love her. Or at least, that's what you tell yourself when you're alone on the couch.

Next, the scene set up to him cutting her cheek. Oof. I can only picture what he saw in himself in the mirror. I mean, doing the same thing your torturer did to you to your partner? Ouch. And that fact that she still has to try and comfort him and be strong when he's the only that literally hurt and scared her? Ugh. That was painful and she's trying so hard only to get beaten down emotionally every single time. No wonder she was dark circles cause I'm drained just thinking about it. But that would also make me feel guilty because he went through so much more.

And the fact that she had to learn how to react to him! She's only trying to do right by him and gave him space when he asked- aka leaving the apartment- and he hunted her down over it? Wild. But he probably thought she was leaving him. I'm thinking how panicked he was until he found her and then the anger set in once he saw her. I feel like he probably wouldn't have noticed she left very fast. I'm picturing she leaves the apartment very quietly to not disturb him.

On one hand I'm seeing a public scene, but I feel like he would just follow her until she was alone so there's no witnesses. Now that rooftop scene. That's where I feel like she would go to wait to go back to the apartment. Cause it's a comfort, so much so she actually uses it to dissociate. I'm not a writer so I really can't put it into words. The only problem with a confrontation on that rooftop would that any fight that would happen there would taint the memory. So maybe she goes somewhere else that used to be special?

Anyway, I really loved the fic and obviously I have lots of thought. I am still thinking about how he laughed at her in front of his men in the first part. So thank you so much for writing them!

[this is related to my ak jason x reader fic for those who may be confused]

it makes me so happy to hear your thoughts! i put a lot of thought into the little things like the blanket and other details to weave in symbolism and parallels that aren't all explicitly called out, so it makes me happy that they're noticed 💜

that mirror scene was a really intense moment for our poor jay, he had some realizations that he didn't process very well. and the reoccurring theme of 'oh he suffered more so i shouldn't complain or speak out about my suffering' is not doing reader ANY favors.

for that reference to him hunting her down, i initially pictured it to be something like reader gives him space after a fight where he tells her to leave, so she goes for a long walk or to a bodega to get food or whatever or just running a relatively normal errand, with the intent of coming back in a few hours. the only reason his men let her leave the building is because they heard him yelling and telling her to leave too. jason freaks out 20 minutes later and goes off on his men for letting her leave, maybe fires someone idk, and starts searching like reader is america's most wanted.

[i don't think he would go as far as to hurt or fight with his hired men for letting reader go, like he's emotionally unstable and very much not okay but he was still sharp enough to be the arkham knight and go through all that and plan shit out, he's still a fucking tactical genius in my opinion so i don't think he would be THAT unhinged, esp. around people who have shown him loyalty, yanno? but if reader ended up hurt or they actually got away and never came back, that would be another story, but until he knew for sure he would just wanna leave and find reader A-S-A-P like homeboy is DESPERATE to get his person back.]

i like your idea about the rooftop. like if reader needed to calm down first, that could definitely be one of their first choices. with the errand idea, i had a scene in mind where reader is carrying a bag of groceries or some library books or whatever item[s] from whatever errand[s], and rounds a corner to literally walk into the brick wall that is jason and drop their shit while he's still as a statue just fuming. or possibly, he walks up to reader while they're on the sidewalk talking to a random person about directions or the weather, and he's just a menace and yells at them to leave reader the fuck alone, threaten some violence, before dragging reader away by the wrist or even picking reader up and throwing them over his shoulder.

and the memory of him laughing at her in front of his men? i almost wrote that out as a mini-flashback in the first part, like how i did with the rooftop memory in part 2. maybe i'll have to do a little snippit or something to flesh that out some more for ya ;)

thanks for taking the time to share with me! i see your second ask, oh boy i have some thoughts 😈

xoxo sid

[hunter-sylvester]

The quiet sexual assault symbolism in Metal Lords.

[TW] Discussion of SA, SA aftermath, and SA symbolism.

Every time I've written about these scenes I've felt like I had to hold back. But fuck it, right? I was inspired by this ask to actually share a bit more of my thoughts on the topic.

I can't overstate that I don't think any of this was intentional. I don't believe the scene was ever supposed display any more explicit SA, I think it's all purely accidental. Which, if you ask me, tends to be where the best emotional representation happens.

There's two scenes that unintentionally mirror the typical portrayal of sexual assault and its emotional aftermath. The scene where Skip attacks Hunter, cutting a chunk of his hair off. And the following scene where Hunter shaves the side of his head in his bedroom.

How many times have we seen female characters cut their hair after an abusive relationship or after being assaulted? And how many of us, regardless of gender, have done the same? Hacking away at our hair with blunt scissors and tears in our eyes. Standing over the bathroom sink trying to somehow cut out the memory.

And we know the likely "why" to the typical post-trauma haircut. It's looking in the mirror and seeing something other than the person that endured the trauma. It's taking back control over our bodies.

Before the attack even happens, Hunter's been slowly losing the control that he at least thought he had. Control over himself, his surroundings, and not to mention: Kevin. Kevin's pursuit of Emily creates an important crack in Hunter's perception of their relationship. And is evidence of the lack of control he really has over it.

Everything about the attack screams accidental SA metaphor. He's ambushed by several guys, overpowered, "gagged." A piece of him is taken, only to be discarded. Because it was never about the thing that's taken, only that it's violently ripped away. And afterwards he's left writhing on the floor. Eyes wide in disbelief. Trying to process what just happened to him.

That scene in isolation already has this theme thoroughly woven into it, but I think it's really hammered home in the one that follows.

Of course, Kevin is there with him. The person he feels most comfortable around. The person he needs now more than ever.

Not only does Hunter directly call Skip's coach a rapist before lamenting that when Skip & his friends come back they'll "ass-rape" him. (Again, I don't think that's a literal accusation, but the fact that that's where his mind went in at the very least notable.)

More importantly: he blames himself.

Kevin justly points out that Hunter didn't "get them suspended." They got themselves suspended by attacking Hunter. But he pushes back. Pointing out that he flicked Skip in the face first.

Let's not let it slide how much of a batshit escalation Skip's actions are. Even if we take everything entirely at face value, Skip is fucking unhinged. As most bullies are.

The fact that Hunter flicked Skip in the face in no way justifies him literally hacking off a chuck of Hunter's hair. But the fact that Hunter tries to justify it as being his fault brings it that much closer to the SA symbolism. It's painfully common for us to assume we must have done something to warrant the abuse we face. That we made the fatal mistake that led to it all, rather than it being a decision made by our attackers.

Obviously, at face value, Hunter shaving the side of his head is a logical way to deal with a chunk of his hair being cut off. It's that or cutting all of his hair off. Part of me feels like that's what Skip would have been hoping for. So choosing the shaved side instead feels like a subtle(ish) "fuck you" in and of itself. It's Hunter reclaiming his hair.

It's also that step towards regaining control. It's destruction on Hunter's own terms. (cough see the fucking jacket post cough) (and for that matter my other haircut post)

It's removing Skips fingerprints in favor of the scratch-marks of Hunter's own nails. Because by fuck is the stinging those leave preferable over the dull aching memory of Skip's hands on him.

For a split second we see him realize even a sliver of the impact of it all. When he's no longer able to distract himself by focusing purely on the act of shaving his head, he can't ignore what's directly staring back at him. That he's not the same as he was anymore. He's a different Hunter from the one that woke up that morning. He's been defiled. Destroyed. Partly by his own hand. Which doesn't exactly dull the sting of it but it at least makes it his. At least he has ownership over his damage. At least some of it's on his terms.

Of course the thing he turns to to snap himself out of this is to seek Kevin's approval.

A plea, perhaps. Tell me I'm not as broken as I feel. Tell me I'm not completely destroyed. Tell me I'm going to come out the other end of this. Tell me you still love me.

(I'm aware this scene is played relatively lighthearted, and that I'm in fact insane. Water is also wet.)

I think that's all I have on this for now. Might add more later idk

[chibishortdeath]

Alright I’ve thought about, I’m gonna actually start posting some of my criticisms of Netflixvania starting with the first season. I actually have a notepad document on my computer somewhere that’s just various rants about it that I’m gonna take from lol

Rant under a cut cause it’s long, spoilers, and also cause uh tldr I do not like the show 💀

Ok let’s start from the beginning of the show, episode one.

The first episode isn’t terrible, it’s a bit rocky, some red flags here and there for what was to come, but that’s kinda expected of animations like this. It usually takes them a couple episodes to pick up and grow into their own, so I was skeptical, but not gonna knock it entirely when I first saw it.

My biggest criticism of this episode was the complete missed opportunity to introduce certain characters from this section of the series’s story. Imagine if they had shown Isaac and Hector in the background of the castle or something at this point for foreshadowing later, as they would’ve already been studying under Dracula at that time. Imagine if that old woman Lisa helped ended up being one of Lyudmil’s family members, cementing them as friends of her for later. Alas, Netflix just decided not to use most of the already written backstories for most characters. But eh, that’s getting into nitpick territory.

And then the second episode happens… I honestly genuinely hate the concept of the Speakers and it’s because they completely replace a much more interesting (especially for the tone and themes they were going for) group for Sypha to be a part of: The Church. In the game, Sypha is a witch, something that’s currently not very good to be at this time, however the church employs a bunch of male wizard soldiers. This is already a perfect opportunity set up and ready to go for them to make their points of the church being hypocritical, add some intense dramatic irony with maybe the audience getting to know Sypha is a witch before anyone else does and seeing her interact with a bunch of people who would have her dead if they knew, and create a super conflicted situation where these church soldiers all die during their encounter with the cyclops, but yet they scrapped it for uh random group of magic users that kinda exist entirely for a plot that didn’t need a new device to work. And Sypha just being all hood down and no hiding just takes away something interesting about her character, making her kinda bland in the process. Like it’s one thing to have the Girl™️ who owns the braincell trope and another to have a character with some actual immediate conflicts. They totally could’ve played up the “oh no if Trevor knew would he kill me” dynamic, especially with witches being commonly lumped in with ‘monsters’ in a lot of other media and Trevor being ya know a monster hunter. And already just from this one design choice she completely loses her symbolic putting the hood down scene for much later in the story to show that she actually trusts people and feels safe enough to not need to hide anymore because she’s got people on her side now.

Also the lack of Grant is just a crime in itself. Grant could’ve worked perfectly as like the everyman of the group. Hell, with his background of being a former noble turned thief presumably after hard times to straight up losing his entire hometown to flames and leading a revolution about it, Grant literally has like almost every common not magical vampire hunter person experience. He could’ve given the group any of those perspectives and been told the perspectives of the vampire hunting life he hasn’t had, ya know? And he’d help differentiate the personalities and humors of the group in general. I literally can’t think of a negative to having Grant in the group.

So we were robbed of character development for Sypha and the existence of Grant, what’s next—

The Bishop character is someone that could’ve been interesting if he was written with any kind of nuance, but instead he’s extremely on the nose and blatantly laughably evil. Otherwise this guy is pretty forgettable besides how lame it was that they used Blue Fangs to kill him instead of ya know an actually recognizable enemy. Like the Blue Fangs design wouldn’t be bad if it was in literally anything else, but compared to the designs of most Castlevania monsters it’s just really lame. I’d’ve even accepted a Warg or something, idk. Personally I think having Death walk in taking the form of Zead and going through that speech while eventually turning into the skeleton form we know him as woulda gone hard but for some reason Death isn’t a thing until seasons later which sucks.

I also absolutely hate Alucard and the Cyclops being in the catacombs! Hate it! The Cyclops kinda had like a courtyard area for it and made sense being there since it was standing guard on the way to the castle. Literally what it is even doing in the catacombs 💀💀💀. Standing guard for… eepy Alucard? Why??? And the whole sleeping soldier thing or whatever they called him is just so obviously an excuse to have him appear faster and make it seem like it tied into the plot. Alucard absolutely should not have been introduced to the main group this early on because again that robs him of a bunch of opportunities for background and character development. He got maybe the one oh no dad don’t commit mass death that’s bad scene and nothing else when they had plenty of time to show him initially following his fathers orders and eventually growing to stand against him. And again??? Missed opportunity for anything radio drama related??? Like if there’s any opportunity to get any of that story more known it’s in an animation? And besides, it’s less work to just use whatever materials and supplemental materials already existed for the game!

Dracula’s Curse and CoD have:

Two games

Two manuals

Three manga (TokyoPop and Preorder)

A couple game guides

Flashback sequences in a radio drama

Flashback sequences in SotN AKA: the game everyone knows

A ton of references in later games cause IGA is a big Dracula’s Curse fanboy

Pachinkos

That is plenty of material to make an animation based on, especially because most games don’t get half of that, especially not NES games. They were literally handed like the NES game to adapt lottery and decided not to scratch like half the ticket 💀💀💀.

Alucard also being able to levitate kinda negates a lot of things. Like what the hell is the point of having a bat/mist form and a double jump then? If he can just be flying vampire Jesus immediately or whatever people call him idk. And you can’t tell me Alucard wouldn’t be painfully embarrassed if someone ever saw him shirtless come on this is the guy that wears like 5 layers of clothing in every game he’s in to the point that even in the modern era he’s choosing a suit over casual clothes. Every action he makes in this introduction to him is obviously fanservice for the sake of fanservice with very little thought behind it, except I’m not feeling very served right now. And having Trevor kinda lose that fight is a reoccurring problem this show ends up having: putting down other characters just to make certain ones get the cool fanservice moment. Contrary to what the writers of this show may believe, it actually doesn’t make me go “oh wow, Alucard is so cool and much badas”, it just feels weird and uncomfortable that Trevor is getting cheated out of one of his canon achievements because the writers preferred one character’s tits more than him.

So, basically, the show starts out with missed opportunities, concepts and characters getting cut out, watered down versions of characters that did make it in, cheap fanservice, poor explanations for things, etc etc. this all culminates into a resounding m e h + dread for later seasons being worse (boy was I correct on that fear lol).

Here’s some other things for the first season I didn’t know where else to fit:

None of the humor hit for me at all, like not a single joke. The humor was either a no response at best, but definitely a physically wincing from secondhand embarrassment at worst. Related to this, I feel like most of the dialogue reads like either someone who just learned what swear words are and thinks they’re really cool and funny or genuinely forced. At times most of the characters talk with the same delivery, cadence, personality, etc, it’s really obvious they were all written by the same person or group. And that even goes for background and side characters, too. This is a criticism I’ve never seen said: I really don’t like the voice acting in this show. I’m sure it’s no fault of the voice actors at all, but there were times in this where I either could not hear characters properly or could not understand characters properly and I had to watch it with closed captions on. The clearness and volume of the characters voices varies A LOT even just between scenes sometimes. And that combined with all the characters having really similar speech patterns, there were a lot of times where if I looked away from the screen, I genuinely could not tell if it was Alucard or Trevor speaking cause it sounded like it could reasonably have been either of them (and in some cases it literally didn’t even matter that much which character was saying what). It’s an absolute tragedy that the color schemes in this show are not remotely similar to Dracula’s Curse too. I understand why some color combos wouldn’t make it for eyestrain reasons, but the pixel artwork in all the NES titles is beautiful. Same goes for music, like I am never going to forgive this series for using Bloody Tears for a Dracula’s Curse ‘adaptation’ and not Beginning or Aquarius or Dead Beat or Ghost Ship or Clockwork or— ya know? These are two things that the series are really known for so you’d think with some of the fanservice they did they’d be all kinds of ready to use stuff like that for more of it.

Anyway, past season one is when I started watching the series primarily through clips/episodes reposted on YouTube or elsewhere cause I had completely lost any interest in it. I’ll probably go through synopsises online again for season 2 just to try to better remember what happened in that one because I do remember having very little good to say about season 2 as well and I gotta do that research so I can hate things properly :3.

There’s a certain part of this where I just kinda blanked on things to even say, partially because Season one is kinda bland in general, but partially because I started getting sleepy while typing. So if I feel like I missed anything season one specific I’ll just put it in the beginning of the season two post. d(_ _ )

[bitethedevil]

Your character analysis’s are such a fun read! How do you go about analysing a character and what are your favourite posts?

How do I analyze characters (with Raphael as an example)

Cool question! I think my brain is automatically wired to analyze media and finding patterns at this point from studying English too long, and especially when I get really interested in a particular piece of media or character. It just sort of happens, though there is some process to it and stuff I look for when I’ve found an ‘angle’.

A starting point

Those are nice, aren’t they? For me, it’s mostly just finding some small thing and going ‘huh…that’s sort of interesting’ and then go from there. Other times it’s finding some kind of broad thing and see how that fits that character. I’ve made a whole analysis about why Raphael is a cat. I just took that small thing, looked for patterns that supported my claim, and put those together. It could also be some defining characteristic of the character or literally whatever you want as long as you can find proof and support it.

With Raphael it could be his ambition as an example.

When do we see it? When do we see it most? How does he express it? Do we see ambition elsewhere in the story? Oh yes. How is his expression of ambition different or similar from, let’s say Gale’s ambition for godhood or Astarion’s ambition for ascending? Gale and Astarion, to an extent, both think it would be for the better for the greater good if they reached their goal. Does Raphael think the same? Well, yes, it seems so. It might not be a correct statement, but he thinks so. Though we know from Gale and Astarion that such power corrupts (which is a huuuge theme in the work in general). Do we see the same flaw in Raphael? We don’t entirely know all that much about it (except for what he tells us in the ending) but what could we guess would happen after he has gotten the crown, from what we know happens to those other characters?

Patterns, comparisons, similarities, differences, proof, conclusion. That’s the gist of it.

Think about the writer’s intent but maybe not for too long.

It seems super stupid but stay with me. The way the writers have set up the narrative and the character’s place in it are obviously useful and crucial things to consider when analyzing things. I definitely won’t discredit it. However, when doing character analysis, I do sometimes throw it slightly out the window. I can make my own conclusions.

Did you have that experience in school where your English teacher points out that the ‘choice of the color green in that particular section of the book symbolizes hope’ and some kid went: “the author probably just thought green was a neat color” but your teacher keeps claiming that it doesn’t matter and that it’s still important? I’m going to be that English teacher right now. The confines of what we can analyze are not dependent on what the writer wants us to look at. God, all media would be terribly boring if that was the case.

I want to say that all the writers of BG3 have done an absolutely phenomenal job. There is no doubt about it. However, when it comes to a character like Raphael, there are stuff where I completely disregard the writer’s intent (in the final analysis. I still consider it). It has been said before by many others that he is for some reason written to be absolutely pathetic in the third act. That is the writer’s intent, and there is no doubt about it. It’s reverting expectations, I get it. I get the point loud and clear. I just wish it was more subtle and not so much handholding from the writer to tell me “he’s not all that. He is not what he says he is and btw he is also really evil”.

From the infamous shit-bucket, to his house being a mess, to it being hinted that he’s a bottom (nothing wrong with that by the way and shitty that it’s portrayed as being embarrassing for him), submissive (same point), shit in bed (once again) and only likes to sleep with himself. He keeps an innocent cleric in his basement that he tortures (in case we hadn’t gotten the point that he is bad). Sooo much handholding. I’m sure what happened was that he was supposed to play a different role in the narrative and when that got cut the writers were like “shit, what now?”.

That doesn’t mean I will discredit it or won’t analyze it though. I just won’t mindlessly eat up the intent served to me because I like to think myself. I can still take those things and make my own conclusions about it, such as the idea that Haarlep might be (and probably is) an unreliable source.

Character and Discourse Analysis

When doing character analyses, I look at the character as a whole person that exists both in and out of the narrative. We can only conclude things from what happens in the narrative though. What they do, how they do it, why they do it the way that they do, and what their motivations are. It’s important to consider all of it. They might act or react in a specific way to one thing, but does that mean that they would always do so? Are they perhaps under pressure or act differently because they want something?

An example with Raphael would be how he shows us who he is right from the get-go and presents himself as the devil you know. Seems a bit counterintuitive to reveal that you are a devil immediately if you are trying to lure someone into trusting you, right? If you know about Gortash, you also know that he seemed to be a lot more subtle when usually dealing with other people (a warlock came to his parents that might or might not have been Raphael himself). So perhaps this isn’t usual for his character, but why does he do it then?

Another thing I use occasionally is discourse analysis. Not discourse in the way that people might write or talk about a character, but the discourse of the character. How they speak, the specific words they use, and the way the character communicates with others. Discourse analysis is complicated as fuck, so I won’t go super into depth.

It’s particularly useful characters like Raphael who uses such colorful language. I’ve talked about before that he keeps using words and phrases that all boil down to us being small and him being bigger and better. It’s essentially not what he says, it’s how he says it and the way that he says it with the words he chooses. It can tell a lot about a character.

In conclusion

Here I go yapping again. For me, it’s pretty much just making claims and finding a way to support it. It doesn’t make that claim necessarily correct, but it’s about presenting an interpretation in a compelling way. It’s all about proof. With BG3 there is the wonderful thing that it’s a whole world outside the game as well so there is endless knowledge to gain from outside sources to support the things you have found in the game as well. It’s all about how nerdy one wants to be about it.

I’m not really sure if you mean analyses done by me or others when you say favorites. I think I might have linked a few that has inspired some of my own in their respective posts. I also recently read this one about Raphael and sex by @firlionemoontav that I really liked. When it comes to my own analyses, I like to write some of the more far-fetched almost conspiratorial ones like my theory on why Raphael could definitely rule the Hells and the sillier ones like the Cambion Cum Post

(Thank you for the ask <3)

[tanuki-kimono]

Hello! I love your blog bc it helps me a lot with writing and crafting. Thank you so much for making it!

Are there any patterns that deal with poison? Either in the pattern or in the dyeing process?

Even if there's not I'm glad you and this blog exist 💗

(anon continues) Poison in the dyeing process, like when green dresses were dyed with copper arsenite and it was extremely deadly.

Or a pattern of someone being poisoned, like a historical/folktale.

_______________________________________

Thank you for your kind words <3 I tried to keep things organized but the subject is huge so my of the top of my head answer is going in many directions. I hope you'll still find what you need :3

I'll briefly cover here dyes and (pigments), poison motifs, real life and supernatural poisonings. Buckle up we've got a long post ahead!

____ ABOUT DYE

Tbh I had to think for a moment because I don't recall major "poison" stories linked to dyes in Japan, be it fictionous or real (yet that doesn't mean none ever happened, especially considering Japan's history of industrial poisonings...).

Most gruesome details in the fabric industries I know of are about the horrific life & work conditions of female laborers in spinning mill manufactures (as in many countries, Japan industrialization process was ghastly...).

If potters and dyers had excellent practical knowledge, chemistry as a science officially started kind of late in Japan as it was not a local interest, and as rangaku (study of Western knowledge) often favored other subjects like medicine or warfare.

So, until the introduction of aniline dyes (not textile related, but this article about the use of synthetic dyes in ukiyoe printing is super interesting), Japanese worked with "natural" dyes, like ai (indigo) which was the most used during Edo period.

As with any ingredient, being natural doesn't equal safety. Some mixtures could be quite potent/foul, and process could be dangerous. Plants and minerals base ingredients could be toxic (cinnabar and orpiments were then used as paint pigments, and lead could be found in make up), as were mordants used to set colors.

If you want to easily overview which ingredients were used to create colors, I recommand browsing [Irocore] which presents colors with explanation in English in their database (pick a color then scroll down).

Not related to poison, but ai (indigo) is traditionally prepared in aigame/enormous floor set jars I find utterly terrifying:

I don't know if this tidbit can help you, but some dyes and mordants actually damage the fabric overtime, leaving them brittle (silk desintegrates after a while which is a huge issue in textile conservation).

____ POISON MOTIFS

Concerning "poison" themed patterns, none would be actually used traditionally on a kimono or an obi beside novelty items ^^;

For example, many plants can be toxic, but I don't see them set as pattern for this property - they'd rather refer to a poem, be a symbol of the passing of seasons etc. Fuji (wisteria) can be quite harmful, yet it's a beloved traditional motif in Japan.

You have much more chances to find pattern with kujaku (peacock) which are thought to be impervious to poison in Buddhism, than say venomous mukade (centipede) or the horrific ômukade (a youkai I covered in a folktale).

Snakes like the habu and mamushi are dangerous, but if used as pattern snakes are most often auspicious and linked to rain dragons or goddess Benzaiten.

If you squint hard, toxic fugu could count as poison pattern, but such a seasonal delicacy as a motif would mostly underline wealth (as those fishes are pretty expensive as they are prepared by specialized chefs), a kind of carpe diem spirit, or just a fun pattern because fugu balloon shape is cute ;)

____ POISON MURDERS

Poisoning was certainly a thing is Japan since ancient times (see kodoku sorcery). Poisons were for example used in some fishing techniques.

I am pretty sure some kuge and buke were disposed of this way - even thought poison was seen as a coward weapon (hence why its supposed to be only used by shinobi/ninja - even if this "fact" is opened to a lot of discussions!).

During Edo period, such murders made up the news and penny dreadful-like illustrated books favored by city dwellers in need of a fright. But those stories didn't pass to posterity beside cheap ukiyoe plates, and were never as popular as some shinjû (double suicides) or ghost revenges like poor poisoned and murdered Oiwa's:

____ SUPERNATURAL POISONINGS

If your poison is both physical and metaphorical illbeing, mushi could be your guys ^^ This term actually covers everything small and crawling, from real worms and insects, to anything inside one's body causing distress - be it a parasite, an unknown illness, an overboard emotion, a curse etc. If you've read/seen Mushishi you've got what I mean:

In fact any illness-causing being could count as poison-bringer. Hôsôkami (smallpox demon) was truly feared by all before vaccination was introduced in Japan.

Finally, continuing the supernatural poisoning trail, best girl is probably legendary fox witch Tamamo no Mae who among other terrible deeds made emperor Konoe fall sick with poisonous miasma (some version of the story attributes the disease to another monster, the nue). I covered a similar murderous kitsune folktale here.

[loserlvrss]

𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐁𝐔𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐅𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐒

✇ 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄 : 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐖 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐋𝐃

authors note // i lowkey forgot this was sitting in my drafts :/ mb gang i’ll post more (she says)

chapter theme warnings // language, mentions of death & killing, substance abuse

word count // 2.2k

Chapter Two: From Place to Place

𝐓𝐇𝐄 shocking flash of light shined through the open curtains, illuminating it only briefly, and causing a groan to escape my lips. It was followed by the loud crack of thunder. I hadn’t been sleeping anyways, not truly knowing how to process what had happened earlier in the day. Everything was set to go perfectly so how did they seep through the cracks? And, now we had lost the only leverage we had into the location of the eight — the core of the rebellion that was on the rise. 

Despite my fears, it was naive to underestimate — I thought that I could do a better job finding information than he could. People, after all, were the most predictable of creatures. The plan would be simple really, but I never got close enough to propose the idea. I know I could be of help because, who would suspect me? Nonetheless, if I ever got close enough to my father, he would either yell or push me from the room, slamming the door in my face before a thought could even cross my mind. 

I knew that his elites — a few old-men with drooping faces — were gathered in his study, holographically. I knew they were discussing their next move, like always. 

I stayed up at night wondering what mindset the criminal had to have to do the things rumored: Kill remorselessly, and sink ships all over the continental seas. The infamous eight pirates, that the commoners would call the symbol of their hope. Their idols. Their heroes. But, the people of the capital would say wannabes. They would say lazy and incapable — only stealing because they couldn't move up in the hierarchy and coin Sector One as their home, like they’d so luckily been born into.

Reality was, nobody joined Sector One without connections. And, most of the time those connections ranged all the way back to the people who had stayed inside the dome four-hundred years ago. 

Thunder echoed again, sounding closer than it had before and shaking the metal jewelry that hung on its holder. It sat upon my unused dresser (because nobody needed a physical place to store anything anymore), but it was for the symbolism. The wooden furniture had been passed down through generations of my family. And, truthfully, it's all I had left of my mother. 

I sat up, the crisp comforter pooling at my waistline, and ran a hand loosely through my hair. I pushed the sheets aside, getting from the bed and walking over to the window. The stories-high, brightly lit buildings towered through the seeable distance. Billboards of holographically streamed TV previews and the next ground-breaking products splayed across them in light pollution. The Autoflyers whizzed dramatically fast through the rain that reflected off the neons — the in-air highway bustling with the city that never sleeps. 

You couldn’t even imagine seeing the ground from where I stayed. 

Decades ago, the only option for the expansion of the district was to go up; And, that’s what they did, tickling the edge of space with man-made metals. 

Now, only the richest of the rich, the 5% if you will, got to live on the most scenic floors of the skyscrapers that swayed with the lightest gust of wind. 

I threw the latest trend in raincoat over my clean, white-silk dress; I had thousands of them, in every style that people long for, this one having a lace section that framed my chest. I grabbed whatever pair of shoes was closest to the door, and opened it, careful of any creaks.

I exited into the dimly lit hallway, walking down it gently. 

“We’ve got him,” I heard through the walls, my father’s voice, “he won’t get away this time.” The door to his study was only a slit, casting a sliver of light to the corridor that I stepped over quickly, pressing my back to the wall next to it. 

Another voice filled the silenced air, “Has he spoken of the rest?”

“Not yet but, he will soon. Trust, Jeong, we’ve got them right within our reach.” You could hear the sighs of relief, “It’ll be over soon.”

“We’ll have a ball.”

My eyebrows knit, how’d he know this? How could he be so confident? Was I blindly trusting a mad-man? They’d gotten through the Reapers before, who’s to say they can’t do it again? 

There was a sound of screeching wood, someone had moved a chair, probably getting to their feet. I thought of excuse upon excuse at this moment. Maybe, if I pressed my hand to the wood first, swinging it open, I could cause enough of a commotion that he’d overlook the fact that I was, once again, sneaking out. It’s not the first time I’ve been caught, but if it does happen today, it will be the last. My father had always been overprotective ever since my mother died, over a few years ago now. 

But then there was a voice that boomed through the penthouse, “And what if you don't? How much longer are we going to let these fucking pests invade the minds of our citizens? My daughter, for God’s sake, has been talking of this stupid rebellion! Fix this, Jang, otherwise we’ll elect someone who will once you're taken care of.”

The contrast in my father’s voice sent a shiver up my spine, “Is that a threat or a promise, Mr. Kim?”

Arguing broke out, excuses to save face from venomous tongues, that I used as a means to escape.

An eerie feeling crept through me, the lights off, the living room feeling all but lifelike — plastic covered furniture, and sleek countertops to match the windows that splayed from ceiling to floor. 

I knew for sure that it was a house, but not a home.

I made it to the shuttle, the door pinging green as I walked through. There were three other people on it, all staring like they’ve never seen someone of my stature before: a man wearing a white fluffy hat (that almost looked too big for his head), a white shirt and big, gray pants that clashed. Another was a woman and a smaller child, presumably hers, done-up prime and pristine, much resembling myself. Their eyes left me once I took an empty seat.

The shuttle moved from place to place, so quickly it seemed like time hadn’t been passing at all — the doors opening and closing one after another in the span of a couple minutes. It felt like time wasn’t a thing that controlled humanity anymore, but exactly the opposite. 

Another stop came up next, the woman and child getting up off their seats as I did too, the doors shooting open. We filed out orderly, and went separate ways down the asphalt sidewalk that was now stained with running rainwater.

The air smelled of arousal and alcohol, the neon signs blinding as I passed tightly knit buildings. Truth is, Sector One was only picture-perfect on the outside. The further you got to the ground, the dingier the place was. Scrap metals as makeshift storm doors, mismatched fabrics flapping against the rhythm of the winds. There was trash that blew around and ultimately got stuck against the impenetrable outside-surface. There were vendors trying to sell their top-secret products, with no ingredient labels, to the rich and naive. The people who would venture to the slums just to see what it was like to live lowly. People who had made it. But, only made it so far up the ladder to live in the shadows of the skyscrapers.

I ignored their pleas — their re-rehearsed speeches — and kept walking past the chatters, avoiding passing citizens.  

I came upon a nameless bar, hustling with fancy hats and sharp shoes. I cut to the front, bumping into the bouncer, the people waiting to enter getting irritated by my actions. I tried to step through the door frame, but not before an arm shot out and my chest rammed into it. 

"Where are you going, little lady?" The bouncer I had run into asked, gold and rotten teeth wafting a pungent smell into the air around me, "Looking for some fun?" 

“Not at all,” I leaned in, our cheeks barely brushing, “I’m looking for the mole.” He smirked, then hummed a moment, nodding slowly. His fingers came into view and he motioned for me to follow. 

Another bouncer took his place, resuming the irritated line. We went through the doors, the music booming against my eardrums, and the lights insync with the jumpable beat. There were girls, sex-workers disguised with shimmering blush-pink dresses. They were sashaying around the club on the hunt for their next tip; the men and women in awe of their artificial-beauty that the place pays for upon hire. 

I watched as the bouncer grabbed one of the bartenders’ attention, whispering something into his ear, and exchanging glances like they’d just made a deal. 

He came over, swinging a shot-glass back right before attempting a smooth journey through the people. 

“Trying to leave the good ol’ Sector One?” He leaned in far enough to hear him clearly. I nodded, and he began stumbling through neon lights and second-hand smoke. I had no choice but to follow him as he was the only person I knew would help me out; the only person my father didn’t have tied in his basement of bodies. 

He led us through the back, earning a couple curious glances from the other waiters, and out the door designated for smoke-breaks and quickies. We ended up between two buildings: an extravagant sex-shop that sold anything your heart — or body — desired, and a motel. 

“What’s a girl like you trying to leave Sector One for anyways?” 

I crossed my arms, “Just… Help me out.” 

Still, the question rang through my head and echoed off the walls of my brain. Why was I leaving the sanctuary I called home? The place people live their whole lives for, and yet, I had the crushing desire to know more; It weighed heavy on my lungs, palpated my heart. 

He held his palm face-up as a reply, and I hovered mine face-down over it. A green light flashed through our skin, signaling the payment was successful. 

He smiled in satisfaction, “So, so naive, don’t you think? What if I didn’t know? Waste Daddy’s money on a whisper, a bad guy like me? Don’t you think he’ll have his dogs here faster than you can apologize?” His mouth twisted into a smirk, “The princess of Sector One, leaving? Why? Do you have someone on the other side? Oh, how romantic! I won’t tell.” He mimed zipping his lips and throwing the key into the darkness behind his tall frame. 

“Just show me the way out, or I'll tell my father what kind of business you actually run, Yeonju. Then we’ll see who the dogs bite first.” 

“You’re bold for a girl who can’t fight.” He hmphed, “If I was you, I’d watch that pretty mouth of mine before it gets me in real trouble. Do something useful with it instead — I’ll hire you.”

I darted my eyes, nonverbally telling him to lead the way. He smiled contentedly despite his annoyance — though I was unamused — swinging around, and almost skipping away like a child who had just been given allowance money. 

I caught up to his side, avoiding the trash cans (and loose bags) that made the tight alley a maze of enough dirt and grime to stain a powder-white dress. 

Yeonju looked down at me as we began a steady-ish pace, explaining, “I’ll take you to the edge, that’s all. You know, a guy like me,” He then placed a harsh smack against his chest for emphasis, “Doesn’t leave to be amongst the filth. I live in Sector One, for fuck sake! Why would I ever leave?” His gaze dropped again, stopping us both by standing in front of me and leaning to be eye-level, his rough hands on my shoulders. “And you — the princess of it — fucking, Jang Ahin! Why would you ever have the desire to leave? You have anything you could ever want literally at your fingertips! Are you crazy?” 

I scoffed out a laugh, brushing past him though I had no idea where I was headed to. The sheltering my whole life, blinding me from every twist and turn the network had. 

He stayed back a moment, obviously watching to see if his next tangent would get a rise from me — which was said more like it was meant for himself in the first place. 

“Ah, I get it now. It’s not who… It’s rebellion. You’ve finally had enough of your good-for-nothing daddy. What’d he do, cut you off from viewing the executions?” I paused, fronting like what he said didn’t bother me, and he went on another path in retaliation, “Or! Now, this one is the best theory in my humble opinion… You do have a lover, and I bet it’s the pirate! Ooh, I even bet it’s the one that was captured. What is poor-old Ahin going to do? Betray her president — her city — and let him go?” He cooed, romanticizing the air. “Which is it, Ahin? What’s the rumor going to be this time?” 

I swung around, “What the fuck do you want, Yeonju? More fucking money? I can do that if it makes you shut up and walk faster.” 

He laughed, jogging up to me, and spewing out a reply as he passed by, “Honestly? I just wanted to see the prized-princess swear.” 

My middle finger shot into view and I huffed out, “Happy now?”

He tipped his invisible hat, doing a full three-sixty, “Fucking ecstatic!” 

all rights reserved copyright © loserlvrss 2024

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[spook-is-spooked]

Lisa Frankenstein Theories (spoilers kinda)

@lifelessstar

I'm making this a post because my response is way to long. This is gonna be all over the place but bear with me I have a lot of thoughts

I really like your theory about the shirts, and I do agree that Lisa probably does have resentment towards her father for the situation but personally I think the resentment is more in the context of hating him for not being there when it happened, for remarrying so fast, for moving her away from her home and school, for neglecting her emotionally and not supporting her, for favoring his new step daughter over her while she's dealing with all of this, etc. I don't think its to imply that the actual murder itself is his fault or that he did it but rather Lisa's inability to move on is his fault. I do think the clothing is a very very important part of this film but in a slightly different way. In the scene where we see the killer, he's wearing a very dark sweater with some light patches, which I feel like just match the aesthetic of the bride of Frankenstein mask. Overall, his outfit is very dark and moody which is a harsh contrast from Lisa and her mom in this scene. We see them wearing very bright, light, colorful clothing which goes hand in hand with how we see Lisa being happy and playful and laughing and talking with her mom. Lisa obviously was much more healthy and well adjusted and had a much easier time connecting with people before this happened. In the rest of the movie, we see the dad, Taffy, Janet, and most of the town dressed in very bright and colorful, for lack of a better term "normal" clothing. As well as the entire house is ridiculously colorful and bright, bordering on a Lisa Frank sticker pack.

I think this bright colorful aesthetic all around her and her dad being a part of it is symbolism for how they want Lisa to be a happy, bubbly, regular girl and completely move on and forget her trauma. She isn't given any opportunity to process her trauma, talk about it, feel it, etc. She's expected to get over it and go back to being completely normal. I think this is why she's drawn to Michael Trent, him and his friend (the other goth girl who's name I forgot) are the only people in the town who aren't phased by her differences and he shows some interest even in her weird dark moodiness. Throughout the movie, we obviously see Lisa's style choices become darker and moodier, creeping closer and closer to the aesthetic of the killer rather than the family and the town. One detail I really love is how the Creature actually encourages her to wear the darker outfits and absolutely adores every aspect of her, dark or light. I think Lisa's change in aesthetic is to show how not being able to process her trauma cause her to internalize it and become it. The clothing is a part of her becoming the axe murder. I think a big theme of this movie is that when trauma and abuse aren't processed it turns into a cycle instead. I've seen a lot of people say that we see Lisa become herself when she meets the Creature and starts dressing and acting differently, and in a way I think she does, but not her old self like everyone wants her to be. It's too late for her to ever get back there. Like she says "time is the thing that takes you further away from the place where you were happy". The opportunity to heal properly was taken from her. But she is able to find a new self and that new self is built out of her trauma. The Creature sees her for her, wounds and broken bits included and loves every part of her and listens to her and doesn't try to stop her from being dark and crazy he just lets her exist and absolutely adores her and so much of their love story, for me, revolves around him being the one person who lets her just exist and doesn't expect anything from her. This part might be a little bit of a reach but I think the name of the movie and the wax rubbing she does on the grave is another symbol of this whole thing. The name is a play on "Lisa Frank", representing the bright colorful neon vibe that they want her to be a part of but it ends with "enstein", almost mocking the first part like "she's Lisa Frank...enstein." She'll never be what they expect of her because there's this trauma following her around. In the scene, you can even see the two parts of the name are separated and she's adding on the enstein part to hint at this in a foreshadowing way.

I feel like I explained all this terribly but long story short Lisa dark and moody because she is trauma/axe murder now, town and house and family bright and colorful because they're SO normal and want her to be normal like them, dad bright and colorful because he is part of problem

so shirt colors = dad bad but for.. other reasons???

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

You just said in a reblog that you spend a lot of time thinking about such derails as the trees that appear in the background.

And I just yesterday read a fic of yours (The Guardian) that ends under a rowan tree in Rohan. 🌳🐎

Apart from the obvious similar sounding names (Rohan/rowan), can you tell us more about your tree HCs?

(Also I'm super excited to hear that it is a deliberate decision of yours, because I happen to have a heap of HCs about rowan trees in Rohan that will appear later in pHORSE, as is glaringly obvious in the name of my main OC Rowena!)

“A heap of HCs about rowan trees in Rohan” 👀 Looking forward to hearing much more about that at some point!!!

I don’t know that I’d call mine HCs per se, but I did go through a big thought process on that particular tree, including thinking through:

—What trees do we know are in or near Rohan based on what Tolkien said, or would be appropriate to be there from a geography/climate perspective?

—What trees would be practical/useful for the Rohirrim such that they might prefer them and encourage or cultivate their growth near their homes?

—What trees have folk or mythical associations that go well with the larger themes of the story?

—What trees have an aesthetic that pleases me and fits the moment?

I spent a stupidly long period of time considering different options before settling on the rowan. We know they’re in Fangorn, which borders Rohan, so they’re in the right climate zone. It’s a hardwood that’s historically been used for tools, and it has berries that apparently pair well with game (which is something I imagine the Rohirrim are eating a lot of). So it’s a useful tree that they’d want to have around. And it seems to hold a significant place in a lot of folklore beliefs, most often as a ward against evil (often planted right by a home to offer protection to the family*) but also sometimes seen as a symbol of transition or a threshold between worlds. Since that particular story was one where someone was making the transition from life to death, that seemed to fit particularly well even if those aren’t folk beliefs that I’ve ever put into the mouths or minds of any of my Rohirrim characters. And they’re pretty! The red berries are so bright and vivid, and I’m a sucker for a flowering tree! The idea that a character processing the sad but timely death of another could sit underneath a blossoming tree, with the petals of some of those blossoms all around him on the ground, just worked for me as a mental image.

Was all of that necessary? Probably not! Am I glad I thought about it, even beyond the joy of procrastination that the research offered? Yes!

*This is also why there is notably a rowan tree right outside Háma’s daughter’s bedroom in other stories of mine.

[dontmixpaintinyourcoffee]

Working on some designs for the White Witches! The concept of them is so fucking creepy and unsettling I love it so much, so naturally I have to draw them. But before I get to do that, I have to figure out how the fuck to do that- so welcome to my process! This is gonna be long as hell, so I've put it under the cut for the sake of convenience.

First we gotta go over what we have. I haven't seen any official art of White Witches, only of the Manus and some Hunters, so we gotta work off of the narration. The first notes I took were from Arc 2, the first ever appearance of a White Witch.

These are the details I got from that scene:

White robes

Gloves

Long sleeves

Long white veil with light green and blue embroidery

Lower face showing, eyes covered

So all of these needed to be incorporated somehow. Step one was messing around with the veil and the robe silhouette.

Silhouette

This part was easy enough, I wanted to stick with the church theme so I started looking through nun habits. I didn't want to exactly copy any specific style, but it felt like an appropriate starting point. What I ended up keeping was a heavy lean on triangles and rectangles.

Veils

This was probably my favorite part to experiment with. The veils are described as covering the eyes, but not the lower half of the face, so you can see the mouth clearly. This detail actually spawned a whole train of thought that massively influenced my design going forward but we'll get to that later-

The first idea I had was to just take a regular veil and make it sheer at the bottom, like a gradient. But I quickly dropped that, it felt too same-y, and with colors it would blend right in to the rest of the white robes. The whole point was to bring a focus to the face. What I ended up sticking with was this!

Once I had it down it seemed so obvious- a split veil! I just put a split across the bridge of the nose and bam, suddenly it made sense. The triangular cut and the cascading folds just kind of happened, it felt natural with the rest of the shapes I had been drawing. A friend said it reminded him of moths, which felt oddly fitting given their association with magic in Arc 1. In retrospect, I think I was subconsciously inspired by early appearances of Blue Diamond in Steven Universe. Not intentional, but I do love how it turned out.

Other Uniform Details

This is the "later" I mentioned earlier, because I am obsessed with the implications of this veil. It's very specifically said that a White Witch is never without her Manus or a Hunter, and the first one we ever see is flanked by two hunters. They are, fundamentally, still seen by the church as threats.

So with that in mind, one goal expanded into two. At first my goal was to make them unsettling, but beautiful. Like porcelain dolls. The church doesn't parade their cruelty around, they dress it up in fine robes and narratives of redemption.*

* This is some extrapolation on my part. It's mentioned in Arc 2 that most witches regard White Witches as "traitors". That implies that their imprisonment is not common knowledge. If it was, they would be "captives" or "prisoners". Even if they turned themselves in, I highly doubt they were signing up for whatever the fuck is going on in that church.

Now I have my second goal: make them clearly, but not obviously, trapped.

This gave me a really clear direction to move in, because now every piece of fabric has an extra practical purpose. For example-

There is a myth that making eye contact with a witch is inviting a curse upon yourself. The veil helps with that. Blocking their eyes eases the anxieties of any passerby or audience (and makes real spells that require direct eye contact impossible). It also heavily obscures their vision, making them reliant on their Manus to move around effectively. The mouth is uncovered so that they can always be monitored for recitations or chanting. Symbolically, the veil could parallel the blindfold of Lady Justice. If the narrative spun by the Church is that the white witches are willingly working in their service, then there is a sense of self-redemption to it. Turning wicked skills to the service of what is good and holy. Repenting as an act of the pursuit of justice. Obviously made all the more ironic and gross by the true nature of the whole thing.

The long sleeves are beautiful, and add to the general elegance of the uniform. They are also deeply impractical. The length makes them easy to trip over, the weight of the fabric makes them difficult to roll up.

There's a sketch on the first image by my friend who suggested that they could have twin trains coming off of the skirt, like moth wings. They create a very sleek and elegant design befitting the image of the Church. They're also easy to step on or grab in the event of a runaway witch. Naturally I took his suggestion.

This is what I meant by "clear but not obvious". None of this stuff is hidden, but most people aren't going to notice it. Someone like Zachary probably would, because he would be thinking from the perspective of how to escape or fight back, so he'd pick up on those details. But the general non-magic crowd isn't going to be thinking about that at all. They'll assume that a lack of literal chains means that there are no prisoners here. So the Church gets to keep a squeaky clean image with the public at large while still acting as a prison.

Basically, I'm having way too much fun with this. And now I have a solid idea of what I want these guys to look like! Next up will be settling on designs for Little One, Pointer, and Middle! (Speaking of which the utter disrespect of calling her "Middle"???? That was one of the details that made "As violently as possible please :D" a very satisfying moment)

[deanwax]

Writer Interview

Cheers for the tags, @autism-purgatory and @the-golden-comet <3

no-presh tag to @dyrewrites and @winterandwords, lets gooo

About Me

When did you first start writing?

I would've cut my teeth in the Neopets roleplay forums around age 11-12, likely didn't start writing standalone fics until age 18-19.

Are the genres/themes you enjoy reading different from the ones you write?

Not really, but also: I'll read literally anything if it's presented as a graphic novel. It's been a useful way to discover new things, and historical graphic novels have been a gateway drug to documentaries and video essays.

Is there an author (or just a fellow writer!) you want to emulate, or one to whom you’re often compared?

I don't really concern myself with emulation these days, but way back I tried to style a novel heavily on the works of Poppy Z Brite. I was too green to understand how to give a gothic horror a point, and "Wailing" fizzled out with not much more than wallowing in edgy misery. I've still never been able to salvage the plot or characters to this day.

Can you tell me a little about your writing space(s)? (Room, coffee shop, desk, etc.)

In order of frequency: lying on my stomach in bed with a heat pack, at my computer desk, hunched up in the corner of a train, being weirdly intense in the bar of a local theatre. So yeah, I do a lot of writing on my phone.

What’s your most effective way to muster up some muse?

I'm actually in the middle of reckoning with my own limitations caused by a chronic pain condition, so I'm more in the camp of "let the muse come to you". I try to check in often, I'd only to smash out a few more notes or paste in some research.

Did the place(s) you grew up in influence the people and places you write about?

No, except Sucks Down Under which is literally set in early 2000s Australiana. For the most part I'm making stuff up freestyle.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing, and if so, do they surprise you at all?

I didn't think there'd be so much symbolic cannibalism when I started out, but here we are.

My Characters

Would you please tell me about your current favorite character? (Current WIP, past WIP, never used, etc.)

Man. Adam "Flicker" Prescott from Wailing was the OG, man. He was supremely socially awkward and couldn't stick up for himself against his trans friend who was too angry about gender to see how cruel they were being. He could see ghosts. Eventually he got separated from his body entirely and became a spirit trapped in the mind of the vampire who killed him. He deserved better.

Which of your characters do you think you’d be friends with in real life?

Flicker could live in the back of my mind if he wanted. I guess he does.

Which of your characters would you dislike the most if you met them?

Setting aside outright villains, I actually would start to avoid Alistair from Impressions of Aire for long stretches of time if I knew him IRL. He's way too socially outgoing, man. That's not my speed. Small doses only.

Tell me about the process of coming up with of one, all, or any of your characters.

The speed at which I can come up with these dudes is too fast to clearly separate the process onto steps. It helps to have a prompt to get the bones down, like a genre or an event that will happen in the story. Then: nyeeeooowwww.

Do you notice any recurring themes/traits among your characters?

Autism.

What’s your reason for writing?

Also autism. Yes, yes, the joy of creation. But also: I am putting the characters through The Situations with wildly different parameters.

Is there a specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating coming from your readers?

Babe, I write original fiction. Any kind of comment at all is a joyous rarity.

How do you want to be thought of by those who read your work? (For example: as a literary genius, or as a writer who “gets” the human condition; as a talented worldbuilder, as a role model, etc.)

A trickster.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Grounding the actions of the story in some kind of reason, or at least a process that can be observed if not clearly understood.

What have you been frequently told your greatest writing strength is by others?

Knack for words.

How do you feel about your own writing? (Answer in whatever way you interpret this question.)

I have loved everything I have ever written.

If you were the last person on earth and knew your writing would never be read by another human, would you still write?

Yes, so I could read it later.

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely what you enjoy? If it’s a mix of the two, which holds the most influence?

Any story where I've tried to inject content that would make it popular has hit wall until I've allowed myself to rework it to be as weird as I truly want it to be.

[noctivague]

Revamping my altar - Part 01🙃

Let's ingnore the fact that I ghosted my blog for the most part of this year and jump right in as if nothing happened....

Starting point

I'm a very aesthetically driven person and I'm bored with my current altar, which has been remained the same for a long time. (I thought I had a picture but I don't and it's gone now so oops...)

I want to create something that puts me in an inspired mood just by looking at it. That looks inviting and beautiful and brings me delight and motivation. A little sanctuary nook kinda.

I want to revitalize things and symbolize the new era i'm in, due to the fact that i recently moved into a new flat, got a new job, and overall my life is very different than it was last year.

So here is the journey of making my new altar :) At the moment it's far from done but here is the first part of the process!

Part 02 will follow once I've received the things I ordered, probably at the end of November or early December.

Inspirations

So i went on a quest to find inspirations on pinterest that would sort of align with what i wanted to make.

ngl I dislike most of what I see because I find them too cluttered for my personal taste. The main issue is that i'm clumsy and i hate the idea of my hand having to slither through a forest of objects to be able to grab what i want lol

Still managed to find a few cool examples, here they are:

I love the rough, folk-esque, natural aspects of them, the blend of stone, marble and wood. The branches, the sculptures, the iconic symbols and the fact that there is a variety of heights of things, if that makes sense. I also like having a strong art piece in the middle, which i prefer over having a mirror like many examples i found. Idk i just find the idea of having to stare at myself at my altar a bit uncomfortable lol

But it's still different from what would be authentic for me and also i gotta do with what i have or what i can buy.

The thing is that my altar is not dedicated to a single deity so i can't go with one strong themed vibe but i have to put them all together. Currently, Apollo, Artemis, Hekate, Dionysos, Hermes and Demeter share the same space.

Furniture

Thankfully the new book shelf I got is quite wide and has three levels, which is plenty enough space to give everyone their own space and even host my incense, tarot cards and spiritual books.

I almost sold a kidney to get an antique cabinet, which looked really cool but was not going to fit in with the interior style of my living room, where my altar is located.

So I went in with a more modern yet slightly organic-shaped one:

Not 100% what I was looking for but at least the space is there. Love the curves an the contrast of the two colors, but I wish the wood was darker. I could sand and re-varnish but who's got time for that.

Current state of the sculptures

I've been collecting sculptures and hand painting them for a while now (you can check out my pinned post for pictures of some of them), and although I love what I made, I really want to get some new ones that are higher and I'm even wondering if I should just keep them white and gold instead of colorful.

Also, for the life of me, I can't find a sculpture of Hekate that I like. They either look too bland or too new-agey for my taste. At the moment, I have the classic three women holding torches and stuff that I hand painted in blue, yellow and silver, but idk it's not what I have in mind and I think I'm just going to resort to do clay modelling myself. I'll probably do a separate post for the process!

Btw I'll do a free giveaway in the future to re-home my old sculptures so stay tuned for that!

What I have in mind

Sooo I'm not sure of the exact height and width of the things that I have coming in, and I'm still looking for a strong art piece or relief to go at the center back so I'm not sure if my disgusting mouse-drawn photoshop sketch is going to be accurate at all lol

The more I stare at it the more I think it makes no sense 🙃

So basically, from left to right; Apollo (new statue incoming); Artemis (old statue at the moment but need to upgrade); Hekate in the center (need to craft that); Dionysos (new bust incoming); Hermes (new bust incoming); and on the lower lever Demeter (still love the statue as I think it's my best one so it will stay this way).

Still missing:

one or two candles i use during worship, preferably gold

art piece in the center, either a plaster relief or canva print of something

plant with long falling ''arms'' (idk the word in english)

dried branches to go in the left vase

a way to fix the antlers to the wall

an old key for hekate (need to go to a thrift store)

maybeee a bigger box to store my incense and ritualistic plates and glasses

I don't think I want a table cloth simply because I had one in the past and it was always a mess to clean. Having the bare table is much easier, especially considering that I will burn incense and candles and that gets messy.

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

Okay that's it for this long ass post, see ya in a few weeks for part 02!!!

[sirsirgirl]

Husband Thief will be out on April 4th. Let's dive into the prologue...

PS: The new novel might not be related to Men of the harem at all, but mostly everything I post and discuss about is, so please keep in mind that this analysis supports the theory that this work will be a spin-off, and take everything with a grain of salt. Sorry if I'm bias! 1. Why is the title relevant?

Husband thief or Husband stealer. Among all the words we can link Latil to, "husband", must be one of the most frequent ones. She ended having eight husbands after all.

But what about the title in itself? See, the term, reminds me a lot of another, "man stealer", which is sadly used to call a person -usually a woman- who takes a man away from his partner. Regardless of how awful that term sounds, it could have something to do with Latil. The question isn’t how, it’s who, who could claim Latil has taken away her man/ husband from her?

In fact, there are two women who come to my mind: Domis and Arital.

You know what's something that was never clear to me? Carlein and Girgol always acted like they were so sure that Latil was indeed the reincarnation of their past lovers, to the point that I became intrigued of what would happen if she wasn’t? 2. The secrets behind the cover.

A woman that looks very similar to Latil stands-out for her pale skin, with flowers in her hair, and a ring in her finger that connects her to someone by a thorny trail. What appears to be male hand is behind holding her shoulder. The eyes and the skin

The eyes look amber, and Latil's are dark brown. But it actually isn’t illogical to consider a change of tone in the midst of her slow awakening process. The pale skin and lips also give her a vampirical appareance, which could too be indicative of this transformation. The hair

Eight roses adorn her hair. Eight, just like the number of consorts Latil has. This wouldn’t be the first time they use roses to represent each one of her husbands. Remember that one panel for the second season promo? She’s in the throne and many hands are offering roses to her. If you look closely, you'll also notice how seven of these roses are turning white. This, I believe, is a way of representing a fading love. Roses turn white when they burn, just like ashes. Ashes of love.

The ring and the thorny trail

I believe these are the most evident symbols. The ring is strategically placed in the marriage finger, which is highly related to the nupcial theme. But the thorny trail reminds me of the red thread theory and the thread of fate.

This could be representing the painful fate that every Lord is submitted to in his or her life. It could also mean that whoever the red thread is connecting her to, that love will be full of challenging and hurtful steps. The hand

The hand behind her is the most confusing of all the elements. We can see a ring in the hand that could indicate that is one of her husbands, but I don't know if it's shown in a positive or negative light. So I'll save my opinions for later.

3. What are they showing us in the extracts?

At first sight, some might think the pre-release isn’t telling us much, but I disagree.

"Your marriage, it's ruined once again."

The opening line is so important. Not only is it hinted that this person's could have been married before, but we can also guess that marriage ended terribly for them at least once. I can see this being related to Latil, not primarily because of the harem, but because of her alleged past-lives... For instance, Arital warned her about having children since her marriage and family had been ruined by fate before.

I want to take a moment to point out that, in my opinion, Arital is the turning point of this theory. Where do I start?

"Can I tell you something for the last time? Do you know what was the worst thing that ever happened to me? Loving you."

When I read this, I immediately thought about the concept of unrequited love, and in the beginning it seemed like the only two consorts who fit perfectly in my idea of it were Sonnaught and Guesta.

Sonnaught lost his feelings once and deeply regretted falling in love with Latil at the time. Guesta, on the other hand, isn't afraid to show his true colors in front her anymore, he allows himself to be angry when he is. So it wouldn't be surprising if any of them ever say this, right?

However, that's when the third paragraph called my attention.

"Her face was reflected in the pupils of those blue eyes."

The only consort we know who has blue eyes is Klein. If these lines are truly about the same person, then this one discards anyone who isn't him. Okay, I can't imagine him acting like this, but I guess it's not impossible. Unless... there's someone else.

Yup, I admit I didn't pay enough attention to the second paragraph, but having already reread it a few times, there's something I can't ignore.

Their hands, which were never close together before, were now desperate to push each other away.

Not even think about Latil's husbands. Imagine we aren't considering the spin-off option. Imagine we believe exactly what's apparent: There's a ML who has blue eyes, he's married to the FL and they're on the verge of dying together.

How come, I repeat, HOW COME a man who's been married to the FL never had his hands near hers? Yeah, definitely, this could be just a weird wording, but something there didn't sit quite right. So I put my memory to work... and yes there's someone: The chairman.

The Chairman, a beautiful blue-eyed elf who fall in love with his great friend, Arital. He witnessed her and Girgol's marriage fall, and not only that, he's tried to kill Latil in the past to free the soul of his lost love from the terrible course set by fate. Time is also very relevant to his character, because he's lived a long time, long enough that he's seen many Lords come and go.

For all of this, I believe the extract is showing us the Chairman's last attempt to kill Latil and get rid of the course.

Now, I can't help but remember how I couldn't really understand why the Chairman, Arital, Sell and Girgol were mentioned so much in the side stories. And maybe this was the reason, maybe Alphatart wanted to set the ground to have them shine in her next work.

Anyways. This, friends, is my theory. Enjoy!

Sincerely,

Gobi

[softpine]

Two things: (1) would love some behind the scenes thoughts on your most recent post, especially regarding the background convo Elaine is having (her reactions aren't shown and I just feel like she could be so helpful in piecing some things together/formulating theories) and (2) I'm especially curious about Finn's book selection. What was your thought process when you picked them? Which are his favorites and why? Do some of the themes of the stories, symbols, lessons, or characters line up with Frozen Pines or specifically Finn's arc in general? I love pretty much every single book in Finn's stack and my brain has been going wild all day analyzing them lmao!

thanks for asking!! so originally i did include elaine's dialogue too, but i found it really wasn't necessary and i was able to include more hints by cutting out all the transitions between each piece of information. the thing i found interesting is how lucy is reluctant to speak to them about who finn was as a person, because that's where the majority of her guilt lies. asa and elaine are certainly not the only people who've asked her to talk about her son, and she must know how bad it sounds that she can't name more than 1 thing about him. it clearly causes her a lot of distress. so when asa leaves the room, elaine doesn't bother asking her more questions about griffin -- she gets right down to business, talking about the case, not the person. and lucy opens up to her immediately, because this is easier to detach from. she feels secure in the knowledge that she did everything she could after finn went missing; she has no guilt over that. here's a full breakdown of everything she was saying:

(… why I called my sister first — ’cause that’s where he would’a gone! I never thought something bad happened to him, just thought he ran off …) the first question elaine asked is "why did you wait so long to call the police?". finn ran away from the camp site in the evening, and no one noticed until the next morning, when everyone sobered up. lucy & richard didn't call the police for many hours, instead choosing to look for him themselves. lucy called her sister first, because she thought that would be the first place finn would run away to. when her sister told her she didn't know anything about finn coming to stay with her, then lucy called the police. by then they'd already lost a whole day of potential evidence.

(... come to find out, the only thing they took prints off was the cigarettes. Now tell me how that makes any sense, that a killer would stop to smoke Griffin’s own damn cigarettes? They never found ...) finn didn't smoke, but he did carry a pack of cigarettes in his back pocket at all times; mostly to look older. when his body was found, the cigarettes were also found, alongside a bunch of broken glass from a beer bottle. the police never took fingerprints from the bottle shards, only the cigarettes. this is ridiculous to lucy, and elaine agrees. the killer never would've touched the cigarettes. they used the bottle as a weapon, so if ever a fingerprint was going to be found, it would've been found there. but now we'll never know.

(... cousin was never the same. She got herself institutionalized, you know. She said she could see Griffin, hear him talkin’ to … ) this one is a deep cut lol. lucy's sister has a daughter, liz, who finn was pretty close to despite them living so far away. after he died, he spent most of his time following liz around, trying to talk to her. she couldn't see/hear him at first, but slowly she began to recognize his presence. she was terrified. eventually she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where she was prescribed heavy antipsychotics. at the same time, finn decided to leave her alone because he didn't want to scare her, so she falsely assumes she was hallucinating the whole time due to grief. this is when finn got so lonely & sad he basically hibernated for a few decades.

(... damn cruel, that’s what it was. They had no right to tell me that way. No right. Treatin’ me like a murderer ...) finn was missing for 2 weeks before his body was found. the police have long suspected finn's parents are the ones who killed him. as a way to get them to "crack" they decided to inform them finn was found dead while they were in the middle of a televised interview, so everyone would see their reactions. ever since, people have judged lucy & richard for how they went completely stone cold and "showed no emotion". elaine is angry on her behalf too, because there's no possible "good" way to react to that information. it was always meant to be a trap.

(... always getting himself into trouble. He used to be such a good kid, and then, well, I don’t know ...) elaine had to bite her tongue at this part. lucy is basically saying she doesn't understand why finn started getting in trouble at school, stealing things/money, fighting back against his parents (to some extent). she still doesn't understand the gravity of the abuse she played a part in. like no shit he started acting different after his most formative years were spent in survival mode 🙄

(... ’bout two months before our old friend Chris killed himself, cops brought him in again. Yellin’ at him. Telling him they had all this evidence they don’t got. He was …) she's talking about chris porter, steven's dad. the guy who jada saw a vision of and who asa sees in spirit form every night. steven also wondered if his dad might have killed finn. when steven himself was about to die and was briefly able to talk to finn, he said: "[Chris] came home late that night drunk out of his mind, and his shoes, his pants, everything was soaked. I know they were, 'cause he threw a shoe at me and I had to clean up the mud. And he was different after that. I never saw him smile, never again. When the cops finally came 'round, I lied and said he was home all night. He was my dad, what was I supposed to say?". but lucy clearly doesn't believe chris did it. elaine remembers hearing about chris' death (it's not every day someone decapitates themselves on the train tracks) so she was more curious about what evidence they claimed to have gathered on him. she's not sure she believes it was ALL a bluff on the police's part, but she doesn't say that to lucy.

sorry that was so long omfg but to answer your question about the books: i think the prevailing theme is mostly "books a 10, 11, 12 year old shouldn't be reading yet" -- not because i think pre-teens can't handle these types of themes, more so because i wish no kid could relate to them yet. these themes include forming concepts of morality and justice, feeling ostracized from society, lacking control over your own life, complicated family dynamics, loss of innocence, and of course, abuse. there are moments in finn's journal entries where he sounds exactly how old he's supposed to be, but mostly he just sounds so much older and more exhausted than he should be. he couldn't relate to most kids his own age, let alone books meant for his age range. instead, he took solace in horror and mystery novels because of these themes. stephen king is clearly his favorite; he has almost every book of his written before 1982. he also has a TON of books that were later turned into movies (some he was able to watch, some came out too late). i can't even list them, there's so many. he loved comparing film adaptations to the original work and he was a big fan of movies in general. the really sad thing is he writes about wanting to see blade runner and that he's going to read the book that inspired it first (do androids dream of electric sheep? is actually in his stack of books) but blade runner came out just a few months after finn died, so he never got to see it :(

oh and i also was going to scan my own copy of the outsiders and create some annotations that finn would've written (which is why lucy mentioned him writing in the margins in the last post). because the outsiders was my favorite book that i read when i was around finn's age and i can seriously quote it cover to cover, so i had plenty of ideas about how finn would've reacted to it. but i decided it just wasn't necessary after all those journal entries. maybe i'll still do it for fun someday lmao

[jabberwockprince]

on the subject of hanahaki disease x NSR, I'm specifically thinking about how it applies to Yinu and her mom since they're. plant beings to an extent?

putting this under a cut because it got a bit too long and it turned into mostly an analysis lmfao

like, for example, Mama's most prominent trait is the fact that her hair changes into branch-like tendrils when angry, so I assume hanahaki would be harder to recognize because. they're already plants. changing radically, coughing up petals, growing flowers and stems or whatever wouldn't be too alarming for them in GENERAL? since those things already happen with their different moods and emotions, perhaps even health, so how does extreme repression look like? growth of invasive plants that they certainly shouldn't have maybe? symbolic flowers for the type of things they're repressing? a slow process of decay? something else?

LIKE. HEAR ME OUT. OK. I HAVE A THOUGHT PROCESS IN HERE SOMEWHERE. BEAR WITH ME

Mama as a character is so very interesting, because she's clearly an attentive, loving and protective mother - but at the same time, she and Yinu represent the concept of young prodigies forced on the spotlight by parents who live vicariously through their kids

maybe Mama is aware of hanahaki disease, but hasn't experienced it herself because she already has an outlet for all of her feelings - her own daughter. whether she does it on purpose or not is up to you and how you like to characterize Mama, but personally I like to think is something she does unconsciously specifically because Yinu takes so much after her father. IF YOU LOOK AT THEM SIDE TO SIDE? the only things that Yinu and her mother have in common are the forehead markings and the possibility that Yinu's hair might be actual flowers, like Mama's branch-like hair.

"But the rose motif-" PAPA. TAKEN FROM PAPA. THE GOLDEN ROSE IS ATTRIBUTED TO HIM AND THEN INHERITED BY YINU. I don't think they outright say this anywhere, but the implication that the piano Yinu plays used to belong to her father explains her attachment to it and why their entire fight ends when it's broken (you could even argue that the roses on Mama's outfit were influenced by Papa, since she goes from a white dress with yellow roses to a black dress with red roses after his death, yknow. mourning widow and all)

(the last picture is taken from this official tweet, drawn by one of the concept artists of the game!)

but back on track, the point I was trying to make here is that I think Mama unconsciously projects all of her feelings about losing her husband through Yinu. instead of the usual "I want to be famous, so I will make my child famous", it's more of a "I'm keeping the memory of Papa alive through our daughter" vibe? if that makes sense?? and that's why Mama presents as this very collected woman who can, and will lose control if angry - because she's not used to repressing.

which then takes me to how that affects Yinu, my favorite subject ever.

they both bond through music because it's the legacy that Papa left them, but taking into account Mama's overbearing and overprotective nature towards Yinu, using her as an outlet and whatnot, that definitely. has consequences.

I vaguely remember the devs at some point saying that Natura, the lungs of Vinyl City, has a lot of crystal domes around because they represent Mama's desire to keep Yinu safe since Yinu is represented as a flower? but take that with a grain of salt since I can't find the source rn </3 (still, I love thinking about each charter's relationship to their own district and all so I'm eating that up anyway) and it's obvious that the puppet themes allude to the fact that Yinu has no control over her career and/or life.

there's also the thing about Yinu being. INCREDIBLY SMALL. LIKE. LOOK AT HER. SHE COULD STRAIGHT UP FIT INSIDE DJ SUB'S SHOE OR SOMETHING. yeah, she's 9 years old and it makes sense for her being small, but I wonder. what if this is how hanahaki manifests for Yinu?

she's visibly small and lacks any sort of presence when compared to everyone else because she's, essentially, carrying her mother's emotional baggage. she's actively being smothered and kept from properly growing because of it. and Yinu is much too young to properly recognize her mother's actions as harmful - this is her mother, she might be scary when angry, but she loves her all the same. someone her age probably does as told with one thing in mind: to make her loved ones happy.

hanahaki affects her because Yinu is confident, in her skills and in the way things are supposed to be. she plays and the entire district, NSR and Mama are happy - so I imagine she would struggle with the idea of being unhappy when nothing is physically hurting her. with the idea that her loved ones are putting her in situations that make her uncomfortable and all. like. come on. shes literally a child.

and maybe that's why it's so hard to notice the signs of hanahaki within Yinu, because she's stagnant. nothing changes, she doesn't grow or develop, she remains the same and that's exactly why it goes unnoticed, nothing is visibly affecting her. that's why Mama doesn't realize anything is wrong for a long time. until the stress of hanahaki starts to actually take a toll on Yinu, with the accumulated stress and repression affecting her body - maybe her petals start to fall or and no one understands Why. maybe her plant abilities start growing inwards instead, taking root in her organs and such. something something, plants will always find a way to adapt and grow under harsh conditions