#i can make a concise story with this

[abiteofhoney]

i wanna get back into my kieran wip but i feel like id need to restart it. there’s a different direction i had in mind and its not currently going that way 😪

[lazycranberrydoodles]

I hate to ask but who is hua Chang

Hua Cheng is the deuterantagonist of the Chinese web novel Heaven Official's Blessing! It's a historical fantasy novel about gods and ghosts and cultivators (xianxia) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. It's also a gay romance (danmei). The main themes are destiny, love, and what it means to be a good person. It has a comic version (manhua) and one-soon-to-be-two seasons of animation (donghua).

He's an 800+ year old ghost who has a sentient sword made from his own dismembered eye, runs a city, turns his enemies into blood rain, creates silver wraith butterflies and has been devotedly worshiping/pining after his god, Xie Lian, his entire life. This book is the longest hyperfixation I have ever had. So I think it's pretty good (understatement of the century).

I can and have written essay length rants about him but here is a paragraph i wrote a while back about my favorite things about him, to sum up:

His gender probably. The way he looked fate in the eyes and said “fuck you, old man” and built a highly successful life of his own. How he is so fucked up but still hyper-competent. How all his strength comes from love. How his devotion changed as he grew up but never wavered. The way he is kind but not nice. His infodump swag.

[worstloki]

Thor 1 has so much banger dialogue and visuals that are that way because of the very specific context they’re in and I love that for them despite all the tilted angle shots 💯✨👍

[raiiny-bay]

least intelligent guy in the apocalypse

[maxdurden]

Lhokta Lore

The Lhokta Star Cluster holds three solar systems together: The Mordician System, the home of humans who over the years have explored, colonized and categorized the Cluster, was eventually abandoned after its resources had been exhausted. The Oneira System, lush with life and magic, successfully expelled Mordician influence but not before years of war brought its previously isolated planets together in a bid for survival. Finally, the Pyrrhic system, rich with resources but sparsely populated, became a refuge for Mordicians fleeing the collapse of their empire. 

(This is a promised lore dump for an OC universe of mine that has,,, wayyy too much worldbuilding going on for its own good. The rest is under a read more because! It’s long! Also fair warning before you proceed further, it’s by no means a finished product, so be gentle. But also! I would love to discuss it with folks if they find it interesting because it’s definitely a constantly growing thing and having people to bounce ideas off of is fun and the info here is honestly only the tip of the iceberg, i fear)

Timeline:

Magic: 

The Elsewhither is a plane of existence which sits atop and weaves through the world of the Lhokta Cluster. Gods make their home here, carving out parts of the wild realm of pure magic to create domains which they rule. All magic hails from the Elsewhither. Most commonly, magic is drawn from the Elsewhither through devotion to a god. Druids gain power from deities to whom they pledge fealty, or make a deal. Gods, whose existence is dependent on the belief of their followers, are often eager to strike such deals to ensure their continued survival. Some magic is drawn from the Elsewhither by nature of proximity. There are places where the plane bleeds into the material world of Lhokta, and there are demigods who pull it closer by merely existing. Those who have this kind of special relationship with the Elsewhither are rare, but possess an innate ability to see the Veil—the partition between the material plane and the Elsewhither—and manipulate it to cast magic. Lastly, there is the study of the language of the gods. When known to and studied by mortals, this language can allow them access to some level of magical ability.

Key Planets

The Oneira System:

⁽ᵗʰᶦˢ ˢʸˢᵗᵉᵐ, ᶦⁿ ᵖᵃʳᵗᶦᶜᵘˡᵃʳ, ᶦˢ ᵐʸ ᵇᵃᵇʸ ˢᵒ ᶦᶠ ʸᵒᵘ ᵗʰᶦⁿᵏ ʸᵒᵘ ˢᵉᵉ ᶠᵃᵛᵒʳᶦᵗᶦˢᵐ ᵇᵉᶦⁿᵍ ᵉˣʰᶦᵇᶦᵗᵉᵈ,,, ʸᵒᵘ’ʳᵉ ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ⁾

Menaea: The largest surviving human colony in the Oneira System, Menaea is also the seat of power for the Oneiran Delegation. Its development has been closely watched, and shepherded by the neighboring planet of Faerie. This is where the Delegation meets, as well as the Council of Seven, which seats a Septenary from each of the six Menaean provinces, as well as one representative from the neighboring planet of Halou. The Menaean Septenaries are also sovereign leaders of their respective province and aren’t elected. Most Delegate positions have also lapsed into a kind of lazy inheritance, but a few delegates are still elected. This includes the Septenary from Halou, who serves a seven year term before an election is held on their homeworld. Menaea is seen as a hub of culture and the academic study of magic. 

Faerie: No other planet is so closely interwoven with the Elsewhither. Its inhabitants include the fey, split roughly into the Seelie and Unseelie Courts; the dragons, which exist both as wild dragons and those domesticated by the Seelie Court; and the giants, which live in tentative peace with the fey every since they collaborated to defeat Mordician colonists. Aside from the giants, all creatures living on Faerie are deeply magical and immortal. Fey come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, from the Sylphs to pixies to Red Caps. Sylphs make up the majority of the actual Seelie Court, though other kinds of fey are aligned with the court, and the Fey Queen herself is a Sylph. Fey have an innate connection with the Elsewhither, the Veil and magic. Sylphs also traditionally take a bondmate in a dragon, which grows with them and acts as a magical conduit. They hold an event called the Wild Hunt where a contender is chosen to hunt a stag through the feywild. The Snarl denotes parts of the feywild where the Elsewhither practically breaks through onto the material plane, leaving the feywild even wilder and thriving with unpredictable magic.

Halou: The third planet in the ‘Central Ring,’ Halou holds more power than most other planets in the Oneira system. It is a heavily forested planet, populated by Audaxians (spider folks), Alethians (snake folks), and Therons (bird folks). 

Nochta: A planet of balance, Nochta has always been ruled by two god-brothers, one of order and fate and the other of chaos and free will. Aisa, the god of fate, had consolidated power and killed his brother bringing a suffocating stasis to the planet. He saw in the future one opportunity to once again bring his world glory, or else destroy it, and had a child with a mortal queen. Unfortunately, balance could not be restored before colonization by Mordis turned the planet into a husk of its former self. (This planet is mostly notable for being the homeworld of Maire, the child of Aisa, another OC)

Tarsus: The birthplace of vampires. Tarsus is a rocky, mountainous and inhospitable planet. A cult to the goddess Malochre was cursed with vampirism and then subsequently drained the planet of all life aside from themselves. While the curse—or disease, depending on who you ask—has long since spread from its planetary confines, those who live there and are still devoted to their goddess consider themselves to be the only true vampires, while all the rest are lowly parasites. They call themselves the Children of Malochre.

Quoah: A mining colony of Menaea and Faerie in the Outskirts, the people of Quoah are overworked, disadvantaged and poor. This particular colony is notable mostly for being the birth place of Erastos Arsinoe (an OC of mine who becomes their delegate and then gets up to a lot of mischief and mess)

The Mordician System:

Mordis: The human homeworld, once a marvel of scientific progress, eventually turns to a hollow shell of itself. It was the hub of human colonization efforts, stretching itself in all directions as colonists were sent to both of its neighboring systems. In the reckless pursuit of progress, the planet became completely inhospitable to life and its sprawling empire collapsed, retreating to Pyrrhus in the Pyrrhic System. 

The Pyrrhic System:

Pyrrhus: Rising from the ashes of Mordis’ failure, Pyrrhus is a hub for human civilization that appears destined to make all the same mistakes again. It exists as a cyberpunk dystopia, with layers of undercity accumulating in the dark as those with power ceaselessly build upwards. Eventually, the expansion spills from the containment of their planet.

Torr: A mining colony and high security prison, this planet has been commandeered by the Pyrrhic government as a way to handle the vampirism problem that ravages all of the systems. A tidally locked planet, the mines are built on the half of the planet trapped in eternal daylight, making it (nearly) impossible for its prisoners and workforce to escape.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Phullo it is I again!

I am very glad that you actually responded and given me an actual advice since I was worried about the question I sent you.

Though besides that I have another question for you (hoorayyy)!

So, about the reading books earlier- I’m fortunately a bookworm too! It’s just that I notice I prefer reading the genre science fiction/psychological horror more than… anything else!

And while the books I am currently reading, ‘Flowers For Algernon’ and ‘I’m Thinking Of Ending Things’ (these books are seriously so wonderfully made they make want to tear my walls), DO have romantic aspects of it- it’s not really the main plot of the story..

‘Flowers For Algernon’ has amazing storytelling and is very unique- though I’m not sure if you’ve read it before but, it’s actually just the main character taking notes. Hence why there was a lot misspellings which honestly makes it a great touch if you know the context behind it.

On the other hand, ‘I’m Thinking Of Ending Things’ too shares the same uniqueness as the other, possibly even more unique if I must say so myself. Though I REALLY don’t want to make my story similar to them since I want to make it more heart warming than fucked up..

Which is why I feel like I have the need to borrow or buy at least one romantic book because, I lack of it. I mean I accidentally borrowed it one time but it was kind of disappointing.

I don’t know if its a good idea and if I should do it or not since does it really matter of the genre, or just the writing?

Still, if you have any good books that are in the romance genre. Feel free to recommend some to me!

-lots of love, from another bookworm

welcome back! happy to hear you're a bookworm as well <3 im writing those titles down since i read a criminal lack of sci-fi despite loving it

i actually don't have any straight up romance recs - i don't actively search it out (outside of fanfic), so any romance i read just comes with whatever book i've picked up. just straight up romance bores me, unless its a fic with a pairing i actively like. and even then, i need to take breaks from it unless the romance is interspersed with an actual plot. im not a romantically-geared person! i dont have single Main Plot Is Romance book on my shelves!

but imo its really just the quality of writing that helps. ive never been in a romance, im the child of two different divorces, and yet ive been told that i write romance fairly well. go fuckin figure lmao.

so actually my advice on romance is to just like. wow idk what i do is pick apart the romances i see on tv / in writing. what makes them good together, how do they act around each other, what are their love languages, what's their dynamic, what traditional romance things do they partake in, what dont they partake in, do they have anything nontraditional, do they work and why do / they dont they - does that make their relationship more interesting or is it flat. are they a good match.

you don't have to have every answer, but ive found that at least understanding their characters / dynamics, and having them interact in a way that suits them will help your romance feel natural. dont conform to tropes or tradition, that will just make the relationship flat and unrealistic. and you can always sprinkle in little things that you like / would like, which will help ground the romance and get you into the groove

tldr with romance, i think it's better to observe real life (whether that's paying attention to couples or reading reddit threads) & analyze in-love or in-a-relationship characters instead of just reading romance novels. bc honestly, and from what i can tell, they can tend to be over the top or cookie cutter

just realized you did not explicitly ask for romance advice! Oopsie! i got a little carried away here....

[steelycunt]

do you have already some ideas for pride au s? i need to know what is going on in that blender that ur brain is. do u see him with high waisted levi’s and crop tops??? is he a total doormat for smiths enjoyer r??? i need to know more

hi omg yes! yes i do! s' deal is slightly different to r's, in that r has no parallel/does not correspond to any character in the original film, so i'm basically inserting him as a figure into the narrative (although as irrelevant as this is, to me he is. closest to bill nighy's cliff if cliff was a young man in the eighties xx), whereas s more or less fills the position that mark fills in the film. but other than that he is completely free 4 me to characterise and i think he will be so fun honestly! from the thoughts ive had so far hes sort of a mess of a guy at least to begin with. he is kind of moving at a hundred miles and hour + throwing himself into organizing this thing but if you were to slow him down and put him under a microscope hes uhhh. quite lost + lonely in a way. i expect it will not take him very long to become quite embarrassingly gone for r i think he will consider him the best thing since. sliced bread within hours of meeting him he is imagining them both as the two maidens of pompeii its. a really poor performance from him. he thinks r’s accent is sooo sexy every time he talks s is twirling his hair like omggggg. say that again or please elaborate please tell me more…please…..

also i am looking forward to dressing him up in fun outfits again because he is first and foremost my barbie i am just not sure what yet! i am not as familiar with the eighties as i am with the seventies in a lot of ways so. the setting and everything that comes with that will be really fun to research xx although i am struggling to decide on s' music taste!! r lends himself very well to eighties music i think i could build him a record collection easily (including the smiths sad but true) whereas. s seemed to fit better in the seventies :-/ i am not sure what hes listening to in the eighties apart from seventies records he hasnt let go of yet!! and despite the much more glaring aspects of this fic i have yet to turn my attention to frankly. deciding what silly little songs s wants to listen to is currently one of my main priorities xx

[capricornsicle]

Hilarious that the only four reactions I’ve seen to the Teen Wolf movie are as such:

- we can sterek truther about this

- I like the movie because (in depth meta analysis about themes, arcs, and tone and what makes a meaningful story)

- where is stiles who I was told ad nauseam would not be in the movie. this is literally homophobia

- haha butts

[teruthecreator]

the general plotline from wolf -> jamba -> cowboy -> awkward is one of my fav parts of wolf

[wreckedhoney]

^^ "coming to the conclusion that positioning the "can people enjoy things that would be immoral IRL in their fiction" debate as a proship v anti fandom debate is akin to pretending that "should we have the death penalty" is a discussion that only matters in Death Note discourse"

not proshipper not anti but a secret third thing (person who has a career in the media and, through covering legislative politics, has watched "associating with problematic fiction or entertainment is an indicator of moral degeneracy" rapidly become a mainstream GOP position that they are encoding in legislation to target the queer community under the guise of protecting children, thus coming to the conclusion that positioning the "can people enjoy things that would be immoral IRL in their fiction" debate as a proship v anti fandom debate is akin to pretending that "should we have the death penalty" is a discussion that only matters in Death Note discourse — the extent and manner to which fiction affects reality is an issue that is immediately relevant to today's US politics, and to summarize my opinions on the matter in fandom terms would be to diminish the ways this debate is affecting america Right The Fuck Now. and i have stopped taking "this person is bad for shipping the wrong anime thing and being horny about it" in any sort of good faith ever since I saw it literally used as part of a GOP smear campaign against a transgender state legislator in an attempt to defend the right from backlash after they used their supermajority in the Montana house to prevent her from speaking on the floor. Anyway I think everyone on this site, especially Americans, could benefit from ceasing to think in proship v anti vocabulary and instead developing coherent political positions on the nature of fiction that do not directly align with current fascist political tactics)

[red-dyed-sarumane]

i'll write thousands of words in one post on a single aspect of aru sekai and do that relatively frequently & will still be surprised when people say they know me as the aru sekai person.

[maladaptivedaydreamsx]

silvio, growing up watching his father constantly fail to protect the woman he loves:

full offense to the king, but I'm built different

*proceeds to protects the shit out of emma from the benetiote court*

[rigelmejo]

my guy your text blocks are insane every time i see your posts about resources i want to read it bjt one paragraph takes up more than my entire tablet acreen!!!! theyre so long!!!! and so few paragraphs!!!!! so few section headers!!!!!!! help condense for people who keep getting confused!!!!!!!!!!

Tldr: I'm really bad at shutting up and summarizing, I'm probably not ur cup of tea tbh, there's a lot of awesome blogs and sites (and books) that do much better jobs of summarizing and explaining. I am not very good at it.

Hi anon. I get what you're saying. My posts are probably not your cup of tea. There's other people saying similar tips who, unlike me, know how to summarize extremely well and plan out their posts in advance. The stuff i note down in this blog for the most part can be found in other places, shorter. And the stuff not on other blogs is mostly just my personal experience notes for me to reference later to track prprogress, or for someone like me who might wanna check someone's experiences and note if it's giving them any ideas for personal study/to compare to other ppls experiences they've seen etc. So tldr my posts are totally skippable. Unless ur super into personal experiences sharing, in which case language learning forums like those below may have some ppl who can summarize better than me (and some who ramble too):

https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/forum/2-learning-chinese/

I'm gonna be real with you, I'm suck at summarizing concisely, it's why I was never on twitter. And this blog is primarily my study notes blog so I just ramble trail of thoughts I'd like to be able to find later. The goal is to post fast before I forget, not necessarily to clean it up as a nice guide on a personal site (though I can find and link a few if you're looking for particular learning style site guides, since I like to read those and find those online ToT).

I do need to put more readmore's in future posts though so unsuspecting browsers don't run into a 10 page post ToT. I can do that quickly, will be doing that in future so ppl don't run into walls of text.

[sabertoothwalrus]

so I’ve been gaining a lot of insight into the animation industry recently, especially in regards to pitching & the creation of new shows. There’s a few ways to go about it.

First, there’s pitching to a studio. When you pitch, it has to be SHORT and CONCISE. You may write a lovingly detailed pitch bible that perfectly breaks down episodes and characterizations, and it might barely even get read. First impressions, first impressions, first impressions!

Most peoples’ first projects don’t get picked up. I’ve heard a few stories from directors that said they tried pitching a story they’d had for years, which got rejected, to then spend a week or even several hours in their car coming up with a new idea, only for that to get greenlit.

But that’s not the end of it. Just because a show gets greenlit, doesn’t mean it will ever get finished. There’s lots of things that can happen. Sometimes, unexpected major world events (like… a global pandemic) can cause projects to get chopped. Sometimes, a CEO change or studio merge means a single person can decide a project “no longer fits with the company’s brand.” Sometimes, the one producer that was rooting for your project gets laid off, and no one else cares enough, so it gets shelved. Sometimes, a streaming service decides to create an animation department, and then they decide they don’t want it anymore. Sometimes, the studio will be simultaneously be developing another project that was too similar to yours and they just didn’t think to tell you until they decide yours is the one with less potential.

On top of that, almost everyone in the industry is saying that “studios just don’t pick up original content anymore.” Studios want something they can franchise, something that will bring in money. New content is risky. Established fanbases are safer.

However! Studios can still be a very good thing. They can be unionized. They can provide better benefits and resources. They can have connections and infrastructure and a larger volume of workers. At a studio, you can divide the labor and produce more in less time. Longer episodes, longer seasons, more consistency in quality.

But this comes with all of the disadvantages of having more in the kitchen.

The alternative is indie animation.

With indie animation, you have total freedom. Full artistic control. It doesn’t even matter if your idea sucks ass, because there’s no one to tell you you can’t make it. You could make it anyway, and you can make it whatever you wanted.

The thing is, making animation is hard. In my production class last semester, the average maximum animation one person could make in that timeframe was 30-60 seconds, and that’s not even counting background design, sound design, or cleanup/color. To make a 5 minute animated short, you should probably have at least 5 people.

And it is CRUCIAL you have a production manager. Ideally someone who’s not already doing art for the project. Most projects without a production manager will fall apart pretty quickly. Once the adrenaline and impulse-fueled motivation wears off, you need someone to hold you accountable and enforce deadlines and proper time management.

Speaking of time, that’s also hard to get. The more people you have, the more likely schedules won’t line up. Most people will have school, or other jobs.

And it costs MONEY!!!!!! You either have everyone work for free and volunteer their time & energy, or you establish a business as a proper indie studio, with people who may or may not have experience on how to handle paying someone else’s salary. And the money has to come from somewhere, so you have to rely on crowdfunding like patreon or kickstarter. (This, by the way, is why I could never fault an indie animation for releasing merch with their pilot.)

And like, maybe you wanna do a series, and all your friends agree to volunteer their labor and time to make the first episode, but it was unanimously not sustainable. Deciding not to produce a second episode until you can raise enough money is not being suddenly greedy, it’s attempting to compensate people rather than expecting them to be continuously taken advantage of.

You have to consider your output as well. There are some outliers like Worthikids, who afaik does all his animation himself, and afaik can work on it full-time thanks to his patreon subscribers. And he still has only produced a total of 30 minutes of animation (for Big Top Burger specifically) in the past 4 years. This is an IMPRESSIVE feat and this is with using a lot of 3D as part of his pipeline!!

Indie animation also has the complication of being more accessible for fandoms. When you’re posting your Official Canon Content on youtube, it doesn’t look a lot different than the fandom-created video essay in the sidebar next to it. What’s canon vs what’s fanon becomes less distinguishable. The boundaries are blurrier. When the creator is just some guy you follow on twitter, it’s easier to prod them for info regarding ships and theories and word-of-god confirmation. They don’t have a PR team or entire international tv networks to appeal to. And this is when creators get frustrated that their fans snowball and turn their creation into something they don’t recognize (and no longer enjoy) anymore.

So it’s tricky.

Thankfully, the threshold to learn animation is fairly low nowadays!! There are TONS of resources online to learn it on your own without forking over a couple hundred thousand to a private art college. There are conventions and discord servers and events where you can network, if you know where to look.

I know it can seem discouraging in the face of capitalism, but I think that’s all the more reason why it’s so important to BE DETERMINED about animation!! We’re already starting to see the beginning of an indie animation boom, and I think it’s a testament to humanity’s desire to tell stories and create art. Even if there’s no financial gain, we do whatever it takes to tell our stories anyway.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

not me doomposting about l*ona again

I pointed out in an older post that Leona seems to demonstrate a unique ability to unite others under a common cause. This is in spite of the lore stating that it's very difficult to get different kinds of beastmen to see eye-to-eye, so much so that Sunset Savanna's acting king, his older brother, has yet to really unify their people.

WELL.

***Spoilers for Leona's Nightmare Suit vignettes below the cut!***

A central theme to Leona's Nightmare Suit vignettes is figuring out what makes someone worthy of being "king". At the start, everyone is reminded of Jack Skellington's status as the "King of Halloween, which makes him the most important person in town. However, Leona's quick to point out that the title isn't what's important, but what one achieves is. He then expresses interest in what it is exactly that Jack Skellington does around here to earn his crown. His opinion of Jack isn’t that good; in the event story, Leona thinks Jack doesn’t pay attention and doubts that he can have deep thoughts. Jack describes his duties as making Halloween the scariest it can possibly be. He drives around in his buggy, walks his dog Zero through the local cemetery, studies and conducts experiments, and reviews the proposals from Halloween Town residents. An important part of his job is considering his people's ideas! But Leona thinks there could be a more efficient way to do this rather than having the king read the proposals one by one. We can see a divide between their ways of thinking; Jack is willing to hear individuals out whereas Leona is focused on efficiency. This is also reflected in how they assign tasks later in the vignettes. Jack has everyone going up one ladder to decorate, while Leona commands the witches to do this task, as its much faster for them to do on their brooms. I don't know if this was intentional, but the way Jack rules feels reminiscent to how Leona often describes his older brother, Farena/Falena. So often does Leona mention that Falena is too kind and cares too much for others, which impedes on the political and economic gains he could be making if he were just more focused on his goals. “[Falena] could just focus on the kingdom’s affairs–you know, his JOB–but nooo, he’s gotta be the caring big brother who’s nice to everybody." (If you want to read a more in-depth analysis of Falena vs Leona's priorities when it comes to ruling, please read this post.)

Leona claims that the qualifications for king around here are actually really simple--and yeah, maybe there's nothing more to his line than this, but considering that in his home country one's order of birth is also a strong determinant, a merit-based system like what's seen in Halloween Town probably is simpler to him. And that means it's his time to shine and be acknowledged when he wasn't successful at earning this recognition back home.

Now, what REALLY surprised me in these vignettes wasn't that Leona knows how to boss around his peers and put their strengths to use (for example, he tells Vil, who has an eye for detail, to look over the embroidery, and Idia, who is a science and math whiz, to handle difficult calculations). It's that Leona is also perfectly aware of the abilities of the Halloween Town residents--people he has only known for less than three days--and uses them and their skills well too. That's an insanely short amount of time to get to know an entire TOWN'S worth of people and what each of them are like... yet he just pulls it off effortlessly????? HUH... This earns him the praise of Dr. Finkelstein, the mayor, Jack, Sally, and Skully. Sally in particular highlights Leona's strengths very concisely, stating that he can accurately assess the situation and give appropriate directions on how to act in that situation. Skully adds that Leona technically doesn't move himself or do any of the dirty work, he's focused solely on giving orders. This makes him a "king" and a leader of equal standing as Jack Skellington. And then Skully--SKULLY, THE OBSESSED HALLOWEEN OTAKU THAT THINKS HALLOWEEN SHOULD BE A VERY SPECIFIC WAY--says that Halloween was made possible by not one, but two great kings this year. It just goes to show how much one can truly accomplish when not barred by a negative environment and a lack of social support.

One definition of "king" that is offered in these vignettes is "the one who can bring everyone together". That's certainly something that both Leona and Jack do, albeit in very different ways. But then, at the end of the Halloween Town segment of the vignettes, Leona acknowledges that "king" can be defined another way. He realizes that Jack is recognized as king not just because he's a leader, but because he's also needed and loved by the townspeople. This, too, is a "king". However, it seems that this is a definition that Leona somewhat looks down upon, as he basically apologizes to Jack for not thinking highly of him at first. Again, Leona prioritizes getting shit done, no matter what the cost of it may be--and even if it earns him the ire of others. This, as I said earlier, puts him in stark contrast to Jack, as well as his own older brother. But here and now, we have Leona finally seeing the strength that a different kind of ruling can have instead of always speaking so disparagingly about it. Even if it's just a little... it feels like he's growing and learning, doesn't it?

The vignettes end on flashing forward to Leona back at Savanaclaw dorm. A few of his freshmen students are goofing off right before magift/spelldrive practice is about to start. As soon as Leona shows up, the freshmen snap to attention and rush off to change for practice. Jack (Howl, not Skellington, lol) remarks that usually the other first years are so lazy, but their attitudes completely changed when their dorm leader appeared. Ruggie chimes in, saying that Leona keeps the entire dorm in line... THJBAEBVUFAEIYAFIOYBVADFILH ThEN HE CALLS THEIR KING THE BEST... AND JACK AGTREESS... WHAT DO YOU MEAN, SHUT THE FUCK UPAS ALREADY STOP POGINTONG OUT HE'S A AGOODFK leADER DFOR YOUE AEPEOPLE YADFJKHAFLIYVDGVYUADGVUEGAVN

In response to the praise, Leona says that simply scolding misbehaving students doesn't make you a king. If it were as simple as that, it would be a pretty cheap throne build only on flattery. The vignettes end with him telling everyone to move their asses to practice. lh WDBHFAIYOEAIYEIYF BUT TAHAT'S PRETY YMASSIVE FOR HS CHARACTER... These vignettes demonstrate that Leona's not fixated on the title of king, but what it means to truly "be" a king and leader. He doesn't value being called a "king" if he feels it's easily earned, he wants to prove himself worthy of it and earn that title through his talents. This all circles back to a thought I had a while ago: that what Leona is after isn't the literal seat of king, but all the things that come with it but was denied of in his childhood. Respect, admiration, recognition for his abilities.

And 💦 Leona doesn’t realize it yet (either that, or he’s in complete denial) but… He also fits that second definition of “king” 😭 He’s the type of person that gets things done (like what he believes should define a king) BUT GIS DORM MEMBERS ALL ALSO NEED AND LOVE HIM…

OOoogohoggoOGH... OTL I hate how well it comes together...

[fifty-ten]

ok i finally got around to reading the 4 volumes of chainsaw man i got from the library. i get it now.