#i didn't elaborate in this bc i might write it at some point

[onceuponaweirdo]

Beatrice and Lilith sitting at boarding school, sitting in front of a pentagram drawn in chalk with scribbled runes around it. Before the pentagram was an alter with offerings of various natures, a skull and lit up candles.

— I'm not sure we should be doing that Lilith.

— You're the one who wanted to do it in the first place! - Lilith glared at her - You want to back out now that we have all of this put together?

— I thought we were going to play with an Ouija board! - Beatrice whisper-yelled - Not have a full seance to summon Lucifer in our room, in a Catholic boarding school!

— Well you should have said that, now we gotta finish it, lets go.

Beatrice sighed, scared for what could come of what they were about to do. And concerned, if they were caught doing something like this it could result in them both being expelled.

They turned, facing each other and held hands as they had seen in the video. With their eyes closed they did a personal prayer first and then started to recite the instructed words that were written out on the book in front of them.

She felt her hands start sweating and Lilith's grip on her hand tighten when a breeze swept the room and some things flew astray. Still they kept citing the words and putting their intents towards it, regret plagued their hearts when all the candles were blown off. They jumped into each others arms, eyes wide open, hearts beating astray in their chests, hands over their mouth in pure horror.

Beatrice was the first to move, in a near sprint, she raced to turn on the lights and before she could swipe her eyes over the room she was back by Lilith's side holding onto her childhood best friend for dear life.

— Was that fun?

A giggly dulcet voice sounded somewhere in the room and they both let out loud terrified screams as they looked towards where the voice came.

There in front of them on top of Lilith's bed were two girls staring right at them. One laid on her stomach with her tilted head perched on her intertwined fingers looking at them with mischief and mirth and something else they could not place. The other was sitting up against the headboard, with her legs and arms crossed, a smirk playing on her lips and a hungry look in her eyes. They were the image of sinful beauty, inside red dresses left nothing to the imagination, their feets were bare of footwear, but they had some weird looking inscriptions that seemed to crawl up their legs the more they looked at it.

— So? - the one sitting up asked ‐ Was it fun?

When neither of the girls on the floor answered, too shocked to utter any words not at all believing what they were experiencing. The girls on the bed got up on their feet and glide across the floor as if they were floating to stand in front of them.

— I'm Camila and this is Ava. - said the smirky curly haired girl - Daddy is busy, but we would love to play.

[midnightsnyx]

girl at home | mat barzal | part 5

pairing: mat barzal x fem!reader summary: you’re eighteen when you find yourself pregnant after Mat leaves for hockey. nearly eight years later, Mat finds out about your daughter and you have to deal with the consequences of not telling him about her.

warnings: swearing, angst, food, fluff, not edited word count: 2.3k authors note: it's my bday tmw and i am going out of town for the weekend so i wanted to get this posted!! also, i have no idea how pr management works so i def got everything wrong so pls don't yell at me lol i feel like this chapter is just like a roller-coaster that went off the tracks and blew up and someones trying to put it back together with tape from the dollar store so im sorry but i hope yall like it anyway and don't hate me pls <3 send your thoughts or come yell at me about this story bc I LOVE hearing from you guys!! It feeds my writing soul. thank u all for the love on this story so far and lmk if you wanna be added to my taglist. also thinking about doing some smau for this fic and wondering if you guys have any ideas or suggestions?

if you asked to be added to the taglist and didn't get tagged it's cause you didn't show up when i searched for you! so shoot me a msg and we can figure it out. also if you want to be added or taken off the taglist please let me know <3

requests are open. masterpost masterlist taglist form ask box

You didn’t think the situation with Mat’s statement could get any worse. You were already being pestered by your mom, your friends and even other parents at the day camps Nora attended. Mostly everyone knew that it was true that Mat was her father at that point so the statement caused questions to rise. Ignoring everybody’s opinions about it was easy but six simple words from Nora were what broke you. 

“I thought Mat was my daddy,” she said softly while eating breakfast one morning. She had been quiet since the day before but it continued when she woke up the next morning. You thought maybe she was just moody and tired but it ended up being much more than that.

It took you a minute to answer, trying to figure out where she might have heard or been told that. It wasn’t that surprising that she might have gotten the impression that he was her dad considering how much time Mat had been spending with the two of you or she overheard a conversation. Kids are very perceptive but you couldn’t see how anyone would directly tell her about the public statement and you had been very careful about what you said around Nora and told everyone else to do the same. 

Apparently someone didn’t get the memo. 

You had two options. You could lie to Nora about what was going on or you could explain it in the best way you could to her. Lying to your daughter was the last thing you wanted to do but figuring out the easiest way to explain it so she would understand was hard. How were you supposed to explain that yes, Mat is her daddy but he was a fucking idiot and told the world that she’s not even though he said he wanted to be in her life. It would have been so simple to take the easy way out but it wouldn’t have been fair to Nora so after she finished her breakfast, you sat her down. 

��You’re feeling a little confused, huh?” you asked, watching her fiddle with a loose string on her sweater. 

She nodded, still not looking up at you and not offering her thoughts. It was a bit alarming because she was usually a chatterbox, even when she was upset about something. She would let you know exactly what was wrong. 

“Who told you Mat was your daddy?” 

She finally looked up at you, and the tears threatening to spill from her eyes made you both angry and upset. You were ready to find whoever told her and scream at them but her answer stunned you.

“I heard you talking to Jaxy,” she whispered. “I wasn’t trying to listen but I was coming out to get some water and you said that you were mad at Mat.” 

She didn’t elaborate on what else she may have heard which was unnerving because you probably said a lot of things about Mat that night when Jax came over to talk to you about it. You hoped she didn’t stay long enough for your breakdown where you had cried for thirty straight minutes. 

She sniffled, wiping a couple tears away. “I don’t understand.”

Your heart broke but you still struggled with how to explain everything to her. Telling her in the beginning was probably a better idea but you were so caught up in your own thoughts and feelings, you ignored the person who should have been your number one priority the entire time. 

“Mat is your daddy, baby,” you said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

I’m sorry I kept you a secret.

“How come everyone is saying he’s not?” 

Mat should have been the one to answer this question because it was his doing, but you hadn’t spoken to him since the night he was at your apartment and the two of you argued. He had texted you the day after but you ignored it because you didn’t know what you would say when given the chance.

“Well, sometimes people make mistakes and Mat said something he shouldn’t have,” you explained, hoping it was enough and it seemed to be enough at first but then she hugged you tightly.

“I love you mama,” she said and before you could reply, she quietly asked, “Do you think Mat loves me?” 

“I’m sure he does,” you told her and it took everything in you not to cry. 

. . .

Liana: dinner at our place @ 6. bring nora and don’t be late!!!

You’re tempted to decline the request and just stay home but you’ve been promising Liana and Nadia that you would actually visit instead of dropping Nora off and leaving like you’ve been doing. Avoiding Mat is becoming increasingly difficult. It’s been two weeks since he released the statement and a week since your conversion with Nora. She’s been asking a lot of questions, ones that you didn’t plan on having to answer so soon. You expected her to be angry with you for not telling her but she took your confirmation that Mat’s her dad with ease. 

So it didn’t come as a surprise when her first question was whether Mat would be at the Barzal household for this dinner. You hadn’t bothered to ask Liana, mainly because you knew it would definitely impact your decision to agree to go. 

“Did you know that Zoe’s mom and dad aren’t together either?” She says during the drive to the Barzal’s. 

You do know this but you humor her. “Really?”

“Yup. Zoe said she spends weekends with her dad and stays with her mommy during the week,” she explains and then moves on to a different topic. You’re a little curious why she would talk about her friends’ living arrangements but when you finally pull into the driveway, your question is answered. 

“Do I have to stay at Mat’s on the weekend?” She asks and if you hadn’t already parked the car, you would have hit the brakes. 

“No,” you say a little too quickly and sharply because she frowns. 

“How come?”

You don’t answer her question right away, getting out of the car and walking around to the other side. She’s already unbuckling her seatbelt by the time you open the door and she’s still frowning. 

“Just no, Nora.”

“But Zoe does!”

You can’t explain custody agreements to a seven-year-old so you say the first excuse you can think of. 

“He doesn’t live here,” you say, taking her hand and begin walking towards the house. She’s dragging her feet, clearly not happy with your response. 

“Do I have to call him dad?” 

“No.”

“Why?”

“Just ‘cause,” you say, stopping at the door and turning to her. Her arms are crossed and she’s giving you the look that says she won’t let up until you give her an answer she wants.

“Do you want to call him dad?” 

She pauses, looking down at the ground and frowning. After a moment she shakes her head. 

“No, but Miss. Jones says you’re not supposed to call your mommy and daddy by their first names ‘cause it’s disrespectful.” 

“It’s not up to Miss. Jones,” you say gently. “This is new, and you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

After a moment, she mutters a quiet “okay,” and then: “do you think Nadia has ice-cream for dessert?”

“Guess we’ll have to go inside and ask,” you reply and raise your fist to knock on the door but it swings open before you can. Liana is waiting on the other side with a big smile on her face. Nora runs straight to her and giggles when the older girl picks her up and swings her around. 

“C’mon in,” Liana says, ushering you inside. So far there’s no sign of Mat so some of the tension leaves your body. After putting both yours and Nora’s shoes aside, you make your way to the kitchen. Nadia is puttering around, juggling a million things but she still smiles softly when she sees you. 

“Can I help with anything?” 

“You can keep me company,” she says and points to a chair. “Sit down and update me on what you’ve been up to.”

You know that you can’t argue with her so you sit and chat idly with her. She doesn’t bring up anything to do with Mat and you’re not sure what to think about it. You almost slip up and ask if he’s going to be here for dinner but decide not to. You haven’t seen him around since you arrived, so he’s probably out. Maybe with a girl. 

Not that you care, obviously. 

Mike eventually pokes his head in the kitchen to greet you and ask how you’ve been. He offers to set the table but Nadia shoos him out of the kitchen, rolling her eyes fondly. 

“Don’t get married, they’re nothing but trouble,” she jokes but there’s a smile on her face that lingers even after her husband leaves. You always admired their relationship, and were certain that you and Mat would be like it some day but it wasn’t in the cards. 

Soon, Nadia calls everyone to dinner. Nora immediately asks why Mat isn’t here and there’s an awkward silence until Liana breaks it.

“He’s busy,” she tells Nora and that must be enough because she just nods and starts eating dinner. Nothing else is said about Mat but just as you’re all finishing dessert, you hear the door open and close and there’s only one person you figure it will be.  

Mat walks into the dining room, clearly caught off guard by your presence. Nora hops off her chair and darts over to him, wrapping her arms around his legs and starts chatting excitedly. He’s trying to give her all his attention but his eyes keep flickering to you. 

When Nadia and Mike get up to start clearing the table and Liana asks Nora if she wants to go watch a movie, you realize that the three of them planned this. It’s almost like you’re kids again, fighting about something stupid and needing his parents to help fix the problem. 

Mat looks at you a little helplessly when the room clears and it’s just the two of you. There’s no way you can yell at him with his family and Nora in the next room and you realize that was also probably planned. 

“Can we talk?” he asks and you really don’t want to, but you realize that eventually you’re going to have to talk to him so you nod. You follow him out the back door and the two of you sit on the porch steps in silence until you finally break it.

“Why didn’t you come to me about what PR wanted to do? We could have figured out something together.”

He shrugs, looking at the ground. “I didn’t think to ask you about it. I just wanted to fix everything before it got complicated. I wasn’t thinking.” 

“Yeah, no shit,” you mutter. “That’s something you’re great at. You don’t think before you do anything.” 

You jump when he stands up suddenly and turns to face you. He’s angry but so are you.

“No, fuck that. You can’t just expect me to do everything right, when a month ago, all I had to worry about was hockey. I can’t be number one dad overnight! You didn’t even tell me about her for six years!” 

You’re a bit taken off guard by his sudden outburst but you can do anger too.

“That is the exact reason I didn’t tell you about her, Mat. Hockey is always going to come first in your life,” you snap. “And I didn’t ask you to be a number one dad, all I asked was that you be sure you wanted to be in her life before you committed to anything because this is exactly what I was worried about.” 

He falters a little, probably not expecting you to return the anger. 

“I didn’t want to post what they asked me to,” he says, sounding defeated. “But I didn’t know how to say no. When PR tells you to jump, you jump.”

You’ve no idea how public relations in hockey works, it’s possible that they would have posted the statement without asking Mat but you’re so damn angry. You’re angry but you don’t know who you’re even supposed to be mad at now. 

“You should have come to me,” you say again. “That’s how co-parenting works, you know.”

His mouth twitches. “That’s what we were doing?”

You can feel the anger slowly dissipating. Mat’s shoulders aren’t as tense and he plops back down on the steps so you sit next to him, letting your shoulders and knees knock against his.

“Well, you are her dad,” you admit. “And she is very concerned about her future living arrangements.”

He looks at you a little confused but there’s a small smile spreading across his face. 

“Does she know?”

“Yeah,” you tell him. “She’s smarter than you expect sometimes.”

“She gets that from you,” he says, poking your arm.

You roll your eyes fondly. “Well she had to get her brains from someone.”

He huffs but it sounds more like a laugh. You watch him look at the ground, brows furrowed and deep in thought.

“I fucked up, didn’t I?”

Here’s the thing that a lot of people don’t know about Mat: he doesn’t forgive himself easily. It’s something you learned the hard way when you were younger and dating. 

So you know he will beat himself up over this until you forgive him. 

“Yeah, but we both did.” You bump your knee against his until he looks up at you. “We can fix it, but we have to do it together.”

He holds out his pinky finger. ”Co-parenting, right?”  

You hook your finger around his and nod, letting yourself relax for the first time in weeks. It’s going to take time, hard work, and you’re both going to have to learn how to trust and communicate better again but you're sure you’ll get there.

“Together,” you agree.

tag list: @literatureluster @dasiysthings @barzyblogbabe @diary-of-jj @heatherawoowoo @fallinallincurls @topguncultleader @shadowsndaisies @lovinbarzal @whatthepuckisgoingon @alilstressyandlotdepressy @teapartydreams @keiva1000

[iridescentmirrorsgenshin]

HIIIIII

Omd I love your work so much the analysation between Kaveh and Alhaitham is just so ??? (Beautiful wth I probably read like 99.9% of your work bc I just love reading the analysis between them) literally EVERYTIME you post I get so excited like it just makes me smile

Anyway if it’s not rude to ask, Ive read some of your fanfics about them and I just wanted to ask how you make them so.. accurate? Ive just recently started writing fanfics and do you have any tips?

Also knowing how much you analyse these two are there any like details about them you found out abt the pair? I would normally do it myself but im not even up to the Sumeru archon quest 😭

And another thing, do you have any head canons revolving the two or do you just stick by the canon? (If you do head canons i would LOVE TO HEAR THEM.)

Hope this isnt too much to ask!! (Also ignore my horrible punctuation it’s normally better than this i swear)

Anyway like i said your work is amazing and byebyeeee have a good night/day/afternoon

-🍀

hiya!! AHHHH i'm so glad you enjoy my brainrot analysis of these two <333 i'm way too invested so i'm happy that people are invested in them just as much!! HELPPP now i'm kicking my legs and giggling that's so sweet :'''')

firstly !?!?! thank you for checking out my fics!! and !!!!!! i'm glad you like the characterisation! :'''') when i first got into haikaveh, all i was doing was reading fics before i got to sumeru. i had ideas for writing, but i was way too scared of actually getting them up in full in case they were inaccurate, because i felt that i didn't have a great grasp on their in-game characters? (not that this fear should stop anyone - where would haikaveh nation be without the authors who wrote for haikaveh before kaveh was even released??)

personally i spent a lot of time going over their individual character stories and voice-lines, as well as constantly rewatching character trailer videos and clips where haikaveh are together onscreen, and also apart, so i could start the essay, and this definitely also helped me develop a voice for both of them in fic in terms of dialogue and inner monologues.

for me kaveh's inner monologue is going to be almost the complete opposite of alhaitham's, where kaveh's empathy comes out in overthinking, and is fuelled mainly by emotion as he tries to rationalise his perspective (in relation to interpreting alhaitham), whereas i write alhaitham's inner monologue to be more observation based, and where emotion is implied rather than stated - which i find is used in his character stories, particularly character story 5 where his past is given. although no emotions are mentioned, it's evident how essential his grandmother is to him, only there is no detail about how he felt when losing the last of his family, and having to arrange her funeral, and enrolling in the akademiya when he previously believed it to be boring, and the years spent after his graduation, up until the point where kaveh moves in - in contrast to kaveh's character stories which are extremely detail heavy in these regards.

there's a clear contrast between kaveh and alhaitham's experiencing of emotion in inner monologue, especially when it comes to alhaitham's grandmother's last wishes, as it's an impactful line about her wanting him to lead a peaceful life, and there's no further elaboration on this; the emotion is there to be interpreted, whereas kaveh will be explicit about his exact feelings at the time, and how these feelings change, or don't change.

for me, both are interesting to write, as kaveh's empathy ensures that he will be in constant motion, avidly aware of each shift of mood in any conversation, or aware of a thought that alhaitham might be chasing. if writing when alhaitham and kaveh are not in sync, then justifying kaveh's mindset and his interpretation of alhaitham can fuel the dialogue (whether it be typical banter or strained conversation). on the other hand, alhaitham's emotions are more subtextual, perhaps he'll notice kaveh beginning to frown when working, which shows that alhaitham has been staring at kaveh rather than reading, or something. i interpret his inner monologue as him being thoroughly aware of how he feels towards kaveh, and therefore he has no need to reiterate this when thinking - again, in contrast to kaveh, whose mood and feelings fluctuate depending on those around him.

those are just my personal approaches in case it's of any interest to you! if you're hesitant to write because you feel like things won't be 'in-character', i'd argue that fanfiction as a medium ensures that works can't be in-character as it won't be the game's canon; especially as characters can be reinterpreted for each person depending on the plot and the themes. in general, i'd say write whatever, and however you want, so long as you're writing something. you can come back and edit it later, and you may find that new ideas come to you as you start writing. so long as you're having fun!

as for things i like about them in terms of in-game canon(?), i would say that aside from the writing of their dialogue and their character stories, their arguments on the bulletin board posts around sumeru are so sacred and special! when you get to sumeru i highly recommend running around to find them! it feels very rewarding to click through each post to find alhaitham responding to each and every post that kaveh makes <3

additionally, there's the idea that as alhaitham accidentally created an aesthetically pleasing rug print design, with (supposedly) kaveh doing the same by creating a practical, affordable rug, mirroring each other's traits of artistry vs practicality (thanks to haikavehtimely). the devs being thorough in their haikaveh propaganda is so insane, but if i had made haikaveh i would be doing the exact same thing???

as for design inspiration, the idea of them resembling plato and aristotle in terms of their beliefs is rather interesting?? especially with kaveh talking about beauty having a whole form, in that it's a concept intrinsically understood! especially with their splash art poses in mind (which is written about in the haikaveh bible)

blessed be headcanons! i end up writing them into my fics, but i think the spaces in canon leave a lot to interpretation, so i think i end up working around that? a lot of them are domestic for me, for example, kaveh definitely has a skin/hair routine, and i think while alhaitham may not go to such lengths, he values cleanliness and has a lengthy bath time (alhaitham likes the smells of kaveh's skincare and kaveh likes the subtle smells of alhaitham's bath oils).

also!! that kitchen is TINYYY!! i think it's !?!?!? that alhaitham canonically had that research lab redesigned into a house, and approved a design that had TWO bedrooms, even after kaveh rejected the building?? i think he prioritised his dreams of a reunion over realistic living conventions and that kitchen is atrociously small, and kaveh complains about it all the time and clowns on alhaitham, so they have to scrunch up when cooking, or they establish a cooking schedule, which, a lot of the time, goes out the window, as they go to the tavern or get take away <3

thank you so much for your ask! it was really interesting to explore all these questions, i hope it's been useful to you in any way :''') and thank you for your support!

[happyk44]

Ya know what I find really weird in PJO but I can't find an alternate explanation for/scene for and so it must stay in my brain as a "I can't find the solution for this and it's making be rage" thought?

The whole "Greek and Roman Deities Fighting Each Other" for the same brain/body. Like, I somewhat get it from the author's standpoint but as someone who knows both of their myths, I'm like??? They literally both have their own gods without "counterparts" like Bellona, which Rick acknowledges within the series and each deity literally has different values within somewhat same domains. Like, Juno? Entirely different epithets from Hera, although they share the same "place" within their pantheons. And, yes, there are some overlaps which come from the fact that Rome came after Greece and has a lot of influence from the Greeks, just like our books and literature has a lot of overlap with ancient cultures and, very specifically, America with European roots. That's just how humans work! Look at literally any fictional book with its own "world" and see all the things it took inspiration from! Even Tolkien! Especially Tolkien! And now look at the things we took from Tolkien.

It's just. I don't know what to do about this and I'm mad about it. Do I like, make the whole scene change when the gods change. Do I replace their entire beings with the other culture's. Do I make them coexist and just pop up everywhere? Answers, brain, answers.

[Coming from an author who's especially enraged bc he's trying to write a Mortal!Big Three AU after the series with a lot of roman influence but a majority of the series is based on Greek Influence--even Camp Jupiter, who has child soldiers??? Dude, they should be adults-. "Oh what about Jason and Reyna?" Make a funny little plot thing where literal adults are tasked by one of their Patron Goddess to take care of a Small Child which they literally did not ask for and raise him/it to be a functioning soldier. Make it so when we're introduced to The Camp via Percy, the soldiers groan because they're literally being run over by children, wtf man. Anyway, if someone writes this into something or finds a fic with an idea similar to this, send it to me <3--and so now he has to do a lot of research based in roman culture with very little Referenced Points.

{The author's starting to but it's gonna take a while and they wanna write this fic now-}]

<3

Fair warning it's like 4:30ish in the morning as I write this and I haven't slept yet so this might be all over the place but, yeah, Risk doesn't do enough to differentiate between the two sides within canon. So I think a lot of people come out of the series assuming that there's little to no difference between Greek and Roman gods and culture, aside from the change of their names. And since there's no perceived difference, they don't really do their own research.

Plus adding in details that aren't accurate to ancient culture/ideology (re: Neptune being hated because Romans weren't seafaring. Like. They were. They had a navy. And they didn't hate Nepetune) and then not elaborating any further on those details (we never see Neptune so we don't get to be exposed to how terrifying or different from Poseidon he is, we have no active child of Neptune to give us a reason why the modern day campers would be fearful other than a story about an earthquake, which I still find ridiculous because really? None of your siblings have ever made a devastating fuckup?)

It definitely could've been more well thought out. I mean I wrote a book featuring different gods, and a key player is Kali. In some text, Kali is an aspect of the goddess Durga. Durga has other aspects as well, such as Parvati. It's sort of similar to how the gods are presented in PJO/HoO. However, I wanted to clarify that Kali is a separate entity, so over the course of the last few centuries and as a result of colonization, she and the other aspects separated out from the principal goddess to be their own. She was the last to sever out. While she is worshipped as an aspect of Durga, she's still a goddess in her own right! But the aspect wording caught my attention and I wanted it to be obvious

With PJO/HoO canon, it could be the opposite. They started as separate entities but public perception caused them to merge. We know through TKC that public perception affects the gods - gods that have been forgotten become senile. Why can't public perception affect them in other ways? In my book, less known mythologies and gods become weaker and weaker, especially as colonization has erased knowledge and artifacts, which is why I had them centralize their power into a collective that equalizes belief among the whole of them (with a little boost for the well-known and worshipped), because hey, if it can happen to them, it can happen to you.

Anyway, a fun way to go about this is maybe making a joke that Hermes and Anubis can't interact because otherwise they start to combine and separating them takes time and energy and other people's help because of Hermanubis. The Greek and Roman gods want to be separate but because public perception tends to conflate them way more than they're already conflated, they're stuck battling it out. Greek gods tend to win more because, again, public perception tends to prioritize Greek mythology (at least I think so anyway) which is one of the reason legacies are so commonplace in Camp Jupiter in a way they aren't at CHB.

By this you can have "designer" legacies - kids with more than one godly ancestor (like Frank) in order to continue on the powers or strengths of multiple gods rather than just the one. With the way New Rome is structured, I can't imagine why demigods wouldn't hook up with one another. With CHB, you can leave so relationships between demigods may fizzle out after the summer or when demigods choose to stop coming back to camp for whatever reason. They also don't have to send their kids to camp, and can train their kids on their own, so less interaction with legacies is had with CHB, and thus godly influence slowly dies out as the legacies don't hook up with one another or other demigods. There's also the ever present risk of monsters, so Greek legacies may survive less.

With CJ, everyone tends to migrate into New Rome when their service is done. Between school, work, and homing options, there's less reason to leave, less likelihood of relationships fizzling out, higher likelihood of multiple godly ancestors among legacies.

One of the things that I've complained about with the Greek vs Roman battling it out thing before and what I wanna reiterate again is that Frank should not have been the one to deal with both aspects of his dad arguing in his head. It should've been Jason!! The one who actually was unsure of his standing as a Roman or Greek demigod.

But there's no differentiation. Even the arguing in Frank's head is just "kill everyone!" and "war is great!" There's no line between Mars as war god and Ares as a war god, despite the reality that there was - Mars being more disciplined and Ares being more bloodlust.

And attempts at describing a difference are either unclear or delivered through secondhand information, like when Thalia claims that Jupiter seemed different to her when he came in that aspect of himself but in text, the actual exposure we get of him feels no different to what we've experienced of Zeus in PJO. Neptune vs Poseidon.

Why does Athena have kids but Minerva doesn't when both are virgin goddesses born from their father's head? Why does Minerva's status as a virgin goddess bear more significance than Athena's to the point she doesn't simply replicate the actions of her other self to have her own kids?

The only line of clarity I can really see is Pluto vs Hades, and even then, the characterization between the two of them is essentially the same, the only weight is in the importance of their godly priorities shown both through their kids (Hazel vs Nico) and described in text (wealth vs dead). But we get little to no other exposure or line of thought from other characters with the same godly parent, just different aspects. How does Frank differ from Clarisse, or Jason from Thalia? How does the chosen aspect of their godly parent affect their personality, their powers, the way they interact with the world or how others see them?

I do like that idea of random adults at camp being given a kid by various gods who are just "take care of this thing for me, thanks" and bouncing off. That's funny. But also lol, Jason being CJ's only child soldier. He's Jupiter's child, and a champion of Juno so he's special and must be treated as such, even if that's by being attacked by wolves nonstop as a toddler and then raised in barracks from ages 3 to 15. And when people go "what about Reyna" or "what about Frank", like, idk how commonplace it is in most places but I know the US has those like junior army clubs or whatever it's called, so why couldn't they just be part of CJ's equivalent to that and then run off to do their own thing with the others because they're teens with ADHD and impulsivity is a thing, especially when you care about your friends.

But, like, also the soldier aspect isn't really key. "What about Reyna?" She was gonna end up at Camp Jupiter either way. "What about Frank?" He needed to be trained because it'd been 16 years and the fact that he hadn't experienced any monsters up to 'til then can be written away as his mom and grandmother defeated them before he could be hurt, and then his mom died and his grandmother realized she won't always be here to defend him so fuck it, let's tell him the truth about his father and send him off to learn how to defend himself.

And again! It's as you said - epithets differ even between similar gods. Their priorities differ - both in ancient culture and with the god themselves. Principal gods differ. Mars was held to higher esteem than Ares - Frank's status as his son should've been exemplified. Mars was second to Jupiter in importance - Jason could've subconsciously adopted Frank as his second in command, which would've been neat because we know Frank struggles with anxiety and confidence and we know he wasn't all that thrilled with being Mars's son at the start, and him getting a bump up in status/importance could've been an interesting arc to navigate, as well as further cement the key moment in HoH when he takes over for Jason as praetor and leads the ghostly army.

[minustwofingers]

exoplanet post-finale discussion

this is a post that goes over some things that i briefly touched on in the tags/mentions some plot points i wasn't able to expand upon! SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS after the cut. so dont look unless u want it to be spoiled

ok so! i want to first of all start out by thanking everyone reading/the ellie community this for being so patient and wonderful and just lovely in general! writing long fics can be so draining for me, especially when i start making poor plot choices and start writing parts that are over 10k words (i at least have the decency to be ashamed of it). i hope that you all have enjoyed reading p7/the rest of the series. i did want to offer a little more elaboration on some points/why i made some of the plot choices that i did. so spoilers under the cut!

petra

petra's character might seem super random, and it's because she actually used to play a much bigger role in this story. my original outline included petra actually coming back to jackson as well as a few cutscenes away to her time working at a bourbon plant in kentucky, detailing exactly how the goods were contaminated/how they actually got past quality control. i cut these scenes bc i was like literally no one came to read about this random oc.

how did terranova get infected (in other words: what petra's story would've told)

she used to have a monologue talking about how everyone in the plants—even the commanding officers—were frustrated with the poor conditions and managed to infect weaker members, tie them up, and drop their saliva into the vats of aging bourbon. this slipped past quality control because you'll recall that 1) the prices were skyrocketing in terranova and 2) there was a festival that involved hella drinking. petra was supposed to explain that since the prices of liquor were so high and quality control could be overly cautious, flagged bottles were smuggled off by guards and sold in a black market. so that's why it was so fast/why it got through the borders!

why didnt u write a smut scene between ellie and y/n smh

i honestly planned to—i had a whole scene where y/n has her little top moment, but i just couldnt integrate it into the last final scenes. to me it just felt too much for ellie to be like yes im opening up 2 u emotionally....now lets fuck in the span of like 20 mins when they hadn't been speaking beforehand. and also i think it speaks to how ellie kind of used sex to put distance between them in the first few parts and tried to avoid any sort of emotional intimacy, so this was a big step for her. also if i were y/n id be sleepy as hellllll at that point and would not have the wrist stamina for any sort of activities that didn't involve tucking into bed after the day she's had!

what next?

so of course there's the epilogue, but that doesn't have to be all. i was thinking of writing an alternate ending that adheres more firmly to tlou 2 canon and involves joel's death + ellie's spiral, where y/n actually chooses to leave terranova with dina to try to find her once she hears from her father about a girl with a fern tattoo that's causing a disturbance just a bit south of terranova. i didn't want that to be the actually legit ending, because i do think it's important for ellie's conscience to know that she's not keeping y/n from somewhere safer.

so in conc: epilogue for sure, maybe an alternate ending, and potentially a few "deleted scenes" (including the smut scene i cut)

why did you choose to do that to terranova instead of having ellie find her or y/n leave?

ellie was never going to terranova to get y/n because she'd never try to take her from there unless she had a genuine belief that she'd be better off outside. so i suppose that there could've been a storyline about ellie finding out about terranova possibly getting infected, but idk how she would know that when communication is so private and tommy wasn't even able to get in contact with any terranovan authorities with his connections.

i didn't go with my alternate ending idea where y/n actually chooses to leave, partly because of ellie and mostly because i felt like terranova needed to get blown up anyway. i was hoping that part of the message i sent with this was that overconsumption is never sustainable and that it will always have consequences, and terranova falling apart because of and not in spite of its resources and suppliers seemed like a good way to get the job done!

this may not be something anyone is particularly interested in but if you have any questions about any things i didn't cover in the finale, feel free to ask ! now that the actual plot is mostly complete and i can't really spoil anything, i have a lot more flexibility with answering things!

[otogariado]

barbie movie was kinda bad to be honest.

if you're super attached and sentimental abt this movie you might not wanna read this bc i don't really pull punches with this one. but here is my first impressions rant lmao. i might come back to it when i've collected my thoughts more and let it stew a little (and maybe see it a second time just by myself at home?)

the way the movie ended was really bad and it left a sour taste in my mouth (📌), but even from just earlier in the movie i already felt like smth was off. and i mean, it's not like i wasn't excited for it even if i tried to avoid a lot of the stuff to not overhype myself (and i usually like going in blind anyway). but even as the movie started i already got the feeling of, oh this is what kind of movie it's gonna be. and for the most part it proves that initial assumption right.

and by "this" i meant like.. a really shallow preachy "feminist" tone. y'know, those kinds of movies/shows that pretend like they're going to say something meaningful about a mature topic but they end up just being shallow and mostly filled with platitudes and such. it's just kinda weird cz i expected more. but it felt like the movie was just using every character as a direct mouthpiece to the audience, and it could still work i guess if they actually had something to say. i think the movie was kind of a mess. i don't know what kind of lesson i was supposed to take away from it at the end, especially when they just start word vomiting at you. at some parts of the movie i wanted to turn my brain off but i still paid attention in case it was gonna pick itself up but like, it really didn't.

i think the rest of the movie was ok. the cinematography was enjoyable still, but the writing was just. so shallow that i couldn't bring myself to fully say i had a blast watching it. it felt like it was more interested in going through a checklist/outline of feminist things to say without being interested in elaborating any of it. it felt like they had too much they wanted to talk about that it just felt scattershot; i feel like it would've had stronger writing if they had just picked a topic to focus on and spent more time with it. they had the chance to explore something more—heck, they had this pretty diverse cast, why exactly did it still need to be focused on "stereotypical barbie" if they really wanted to explore something else? plenty of movies have been successful with an ensemble cast... it wouldn't fix their issue of splitting themselves amongst multiple things they wanted to talk about, but it could help with the focus. maybe have one barbie deal with one topic or throughline then another barbie with another topic, etc. idk. i also found it weird to make a snarky comment about how "if the movie wanted to make a point about barbie not needing to be [conventionally pretty] then they shouldn't have cast margot robbie for this" and like?? you're right lmao. you don't get to be cheeky by saying "guess we were wrong about this one :9 shrug". if they weren't interested in addressing this issue then they shouldn't have just called attention to it in the first place. it just makes it worse. feels like saying "ha! you can't criticize us for this decision because we already did it first."

i also have a problem with the thing near the end of "how about normal barbie? barbie doesn't need to be extraordinary! why can't she just be a regular person?" umm. the point of barbie wasn't to make women feel like they should be extraordinary to be accepted?? the point of barbie is that anyone can BE barbie. you ARE barbie no matter what kind of path you choose. it's kinda like spider-man in a sense that, "anyone can be under the mask." ANYONE can be barbie. i feel like the movie made a strawman out of misconstruing the original intent behind the "empowerment" of barbie. the point of multiple versions of barbie and the different playsets and shit comes from the appeal that she can be ANYTHING you want her to be. who are you fighting against, movie?? that type of misogyny where women should excel otherwise they don't matter certainly exist in the real world but like, i feel like it's a bit disingenuous to pretend it's what the barbie franchise wanted to convey as well. (i am by no means a barbie toyline history expert so i'm open to be corrected on this.)

and the whole... storyline with ken/the kens?? like i get what they're trying to do, have "the boys get a taste of their own medicine", but it's just. It's Just Weird. what did they wanna accomplish with it? i feel like this movie suffers from a shallow understanding of how sexism and misogyny and toxic masculinity actually works... like "oh teehee what if men were the ones oppressed by women instead and women were the ones oppressing men?" but they didn't do anything interesting with it, they just switched sexes and that's it. it's still the same except you just switched the men and women label now. (and the movie has a very black and white view of sex and gender. but that's another point to discuss entirely.)

what makes it worse is that the kens rise to power because they craved more appreciation from the barbies, but then they get knocked down a peg by the barbies and they "lose" like they "deserve". like, what is THIS meant to convey if we try to use it as a parallel for real world feminism, if kens = RL women and barbies = RL men?? that women shouldn't demand to be seen and appreciated more by men and that if they try to take on equal footing and power they should get pushed back down the hierarchy or something??? like WHAT??? and even if you could argue that the kens lost because of their egos/pride/toxic masculinity, it still feels off. because yes, there is a certain "masculine brand" of being too prideful but like. anyone is susceptible to getting too egotistical for their own good. idk??? the way they just handle it is so messy. it's not even like, ambiguous in the "open for interpretation, there are multiple readings of this possible that all try to say something different" kinda way. it's ambiguous in the messy, "we don't know what we wanna say" kind of way.

another thing i wanna talk abt is the teenager character. and the mom character too. i feel like they could've done more with them tbh. they hardly feel like actual characters—the mom got more than her daughter, but the daughter is so stereotypically rebellious "i hate feminine stuff" teenager. so much of this movie feels like telling instead of showing. the mom feels undervalued and depressed and she's struggling. yeah, but so what? we don't actually SEE any of that. even if you can argue that the movie tries to tackle stiff happening IRL so it doesn't need to show any of that any more, that's just bull. you still have to establish the setting in your movie's universe and you still have to do actual character work for your characters even if they're meant to represent real people. ESPECIALLY if they're meant to represent real people. like yeah, we do get some flashbacks of her daughter not appreciating her near the start, but that's it. they're just flashes. and that wasn't her only problem that she mentioned. why didn't we have the mom try to pitch ideas to the executives early on, have that be her introduction scene? have the executives belittle her ideas bc they're misogynistic chauvinist asses? like yeah, from context clues of the whole boardroom being men we can see the irony there and we can tell they don't value women enough to give them positions that high up the ladder. but still, implying the lack of something is not as good as actually demonstrating the lack of something. i feel like it wouldn't have been that hard to include at least one scene of the mom pitching her ideas, and then cut to her scribbling sadly on the desk like she was when she was introduced cz they didn't listen to her.

the sentiment of "they hardly feel like actual characters" extends to the rest of the cast, too. like, i wouldn't expect something substantial and be disappointed if they weren't marketing themselves like "all barbies are important :) this is an ensemble movie :)" like no... not really. none of the other characters matter that much and they didn't get a lot of actual distinguishing features aside from their actual job titles. which just feels reductive lmao. maybe that's the point. maybe they're all just meant to be bit characters. but it just adds to the shallowness of the movie i feel like. just bc the point is they're bit characters doesn't give it a free pass for not going anywhere w any of them. i saw someone say they felt like all the other barbies and kens were mostly just there as set dressing and you know what? that's undeniably true. which AGAIN i maybe wouldn't have as much of a problem with if it weren't for how they marketed this movie.

the previous paragraph also ties into what i mentioned earlier abt the quip they had abt casting margot robbie (and by extension, ryan gosling) as the lead(s). like... why did the lead HAVE to be the "stereotypical barbie"? why did the white, blonde, presumably cishet* barbie (and ken) HAVE to be the leads? hell, the mom and daughter characters are women of color and they don't even do anything with them (aside from some jokes abt how the white dad sucks and is very inconsequential?). i'm just saying... it feels like the diversity casting (not just when it comes to being people of color but also in other areas, like having a barbie in a wheelchair and a pregnant "barbie" (even though she's not barbie) and whatnot) of the other barbies and kens was just that. Token Diversity. fodder for The Typical White Leads. idk. i'll say this again but if they didn't advertise themselves the way they did with all those barbie and ken posters making it sound like they were actually gonna give a shit about any of the other colorful cast of characters then maybe i wouldn't be this harsh with them. this didn't feel like an ensemble movie to me at all.

*(bc i don't think this movie was made with any genuine queer intentions behind it lmao. and ik people latch onto the aroace "coding" of the characters and like. if you're aroace and you like it then power to you. but i think this is more of a "technicality"/"by semantics" type of """coding""" so i honestly don't think it counts, speaking as someone who's some flavour of aroace)

idk i feel like I'M word vomiting now too. maybe i'm picking on this movie too much. but tbh it's just. eh. it just feels shallow. it's a shallow nothing movie tbh. it just feels like a movie filled with quips without any interest in exploring any of the topics they bring up. i wanna list specific examples but tbh it's hard to remember them because of just how overloaded it is, like they just keep shooting talking points at you but there's no meat to any of them. i wouldn't be this harsh on this movie if it didn't hype itself up so much. like, i WANTED to like it coming it. i WAS excited for it ever since it was announced, even though i wasn't a super fan and wasn't buzzing about it as much as most people were online. because it had a lot of potential behind it, but it ended up just. being a mess.

📌 i think it's funny that the ending (as in the last scene of the movie) left most people confused, but the most interesting thing abt it is the takeaway i got from my cis mlm cousin where he's like, "oh barbie chose to be a mother at the end and she's pregnant and that's why she ended up at the gynecologist". like. I Guess??? that can be your take??? but it's a weird scene to end your movie on.

like idk what i'm supposed to feel about it. she's a real human now because she has genitalia?? the genitalia was the last crowning step for her to achieve the "human" status? that's kind of reductive. she's a real woman now because she has a vagina?? that's just straight up transphobic. like. what am i supposed to get as my takeaway here with the last scene??

[meirimerens]

hi, i know you headcanon some pathologic characters to be homosexual, like Daniil, Artemy, Yulia, Stakh... what do you think their relationship with their sexuality were throughout their lives? also, i remember in one of your older answers you mentioned Daniil coming out to his mother... how exactly did that happen in your vision?

hello darling this reply has made tumblr give me that "there was an error processing your post" over 15 times now for no good reason. it's like it was too big at first but this is the same length and if you read this it means it sent. anyways.

i had posted something kiiinda similar here (below the cut) including bi characters (eva + the twins) but i had forgor to include stakh + by god i can repeat myself/elaborate (i love. repeating myself <3 for real honestly especially on this) so ooh baby here we

Dankovsky (longest because i'm writing about him so the thoughts are many) knew at a young age (like 11-12) he didn't like girls and instead did boys so he had to come to terms with it in some way Pretty Quickly. to me he was raised christian eastern orthodox, which like all christian denominations comes with its fair share of religious-specific homophobia, he wasn't particularly like. Thrilled per se. + the familial/ancestral culture comes with its own set of expectations around masculinity which homosexuality inherently challenges and the fact that he was already more into cello than like war as a kid made his father raise an eyebrow on him right. so from ages like 11-16, dankovsky was like Well i'm going to have to pretend i don't see it and hope the sky doesn't fall on my head. at around 17 it became evident that was IT really that truly what he was and there was nothing he could possibly do to not make it be this way. it came with a sort of like. acceptance that it just was going to be how it was, but he was already starting to think how he could push the Acting on It part long enough for him to maybe become busy with something else. i think as he grew up he shed the concept of "sin" as he actualized himself atheist so no "hate the sin love the sinner" for him, but you can't really pull the religious guilt out of a man raised religious ykwim. eventually as he accepted that He Was, and that by god it wasn't even a bad thing to be/started Embracing it as one more of his Transgressions (when it. not really is, a transgression comes with a degree of consciousness and will to violate a law or code, the fact that he's gay is just. how it is. that's him forever and that'd be him regardless of context etc), he started assimilating gay codes for himself (the red tie…) to be like. Yes. ykwim. he still had not met a gay person in his life so it truly felt like Him Against the World, but he started being more comfortable with the fact that he was gay. however, it still didn't stop him from started a whole… "i'm not in a relationship rn bc i'm focusing on my studies" mindset. at uni, he truly like. came into his own internally while still trying to maintain a certain ambiguousness outwardly. andrei saw right through that and, even if he's like not gay but bi, he was the first dude daniil met who was also (Loudly) into dudes. dankovsky owes andrei the first like. actual coming out to Someone else than his mommy when andrei would bait him into hanging out with other gay and bi men, dankovsky would sit in a corner not fuckin wit anyone just Soaking In The Homosexuality In The Air, and when andrei went "u got a problem with that? you homophobic?🤨" dankovsky had to go like "i don't have a problem with it at all… when it's other people" [implied: i might deal with it not too well when it's me myself]. and from that point on he was like ah fuck me [not literally] why do i bother being insecure about it. from ages 20+ he was still very much in his Married To My Work Era + as he founded Thanatica he tried to lay low to not get investigated and being very loudly homosexual was not the best way to "not make waves" so even as he settled in himself with the fact that Well he's gay and he's gonna be gay forever so he better live with it, he still stayed closeted for his safety. i think from ages 18 to current game-day 28, not getting laid pardon the frankness led to him developing like an internally Fucking Crazy relationship with love and eroticism and he might have kept himself from entering relationships because he needed someone who Understood He'd Want To Eat Him. (love wins!)

re:coming out to his momma i think she had had her Doubts for a while yknow has had her Doubts. his dad too, but from his dad's perspective it felt deeply Painful (bc when the son is gay it is the father's masculinity that is threatened.. i've spoken about it on the post i've linked in the beginning) whereas his mom didn't have that My Masculinity Threatened. dankovsky knew he was gay since age like 11-12 but only came out at around 14-15, when it became obvious for him and hard to ignore, especially as people begin to have little boyfriends and girlfriends at this age. he told his mom first because he was closest to her and she was like.

she believed him from the beginning because she had had her Doubts. for a while she didn't quite know what to do with this information as it all dawned on her that it likely meant no grandkids, no daughter-in-law to whom she could give her pretty jewelry and so on… but also i think she like. could relate her son's homosexuality to like. fucking Tchaikovsky. who attempted suicide because his marriage to a woman made him so miserable. so she was like… well. that's just how it is isn't it. she's just gonna have to make peace with it whether she likes it or not. i think eventually she came to the conclusion that she spent 9 months building him from her blood and bones and a full day putting him out in the world so it would be stupid to be mad at him for that. + that's god's doing isn't it. she can't be mad at god. and if god's mad at her son he can take it to himself. etc .

Burakh for the longest time um. Didn't know. i think he realized that about himself genuinely age 26 in the 12 days. he's going through an entire coming-of-age/coming-into-place story and i think that includes a realization story lol. i think for the longest time he just thought he didn't love anyone period. up until 20 methinks he was like "well i'm just a late bloomer". then he went to war as a medic and was like "well i'm just so fucked up in the head my mind's full of corpses that's why there's no place for love". then he went home and… lord almighty. for years he thought was just not made for love because he truly. hadn't looked the other way (he's just like me fr fr). he went from not knowing what a closet was to realizing he was in it and the door was ajar to being out and in a man's arm in the span of 12 days. he didn't really have the time to brood about what it meant for his future/himself/his relationship to his people for him to be homosexual because love slapped him across the face and he fell on his ass. as his whole story is about finding his own path and learning to cope with doing things that might not be approved of him and living with choices that are of love regardless it's truly just like. learn to cope FAST. you have way more problems. + as i think the herb brides Know i think he's not given too much grief by his community and doesn't have the religious trauma background of dankovsky. also since his parents are. well dead. he doesn't have to respond to them + his dad textually is like You're gonna have to do something boy. (and that something might displease him but that's out of his hands. and into burakh's).

.

Yulia knew early too like 12-13. she always was a tomboy as a kid and almost just like… naturally blossomed into a masc lesbian. i think from early on she was like. ok well we're coping with that. she already was going against social conventions by being an educated woman a woman in ""typically"" male professions a masculine-dressed woman so at this point the fact that she liked women that was like. well if you don't like it tough luck buddy. she always had a relatively distant (if loving) relationship with her parents so she didn't feel the need to justify herself to them + won't lie they saw it coming. they had it comin… she was not in any relationships for a while because she's kinda like Dry of a person/passionate about things most people just don't see/don't fuck with so while she is charismatic and handsome and knew she could be desired she didn't have any long-term relationship before eva because you truly need a girl who's a lil bit crazy to handle her. and vice versa. so love wins. i think that while she might not have frequented lesbian spaces like bars because her ass does not do well with crowds i think she never felt like she was So Alone like Only Lesbian on Earth. i think she did feel a sense of loneliness about it but it was also mixed with a deep sense of Well I'm Here and I'm One So Someone Like Me Exists.

.

Stakh for a little while was also that "well i'm kinda too fucked up for love" and he was also fighting for his life to be seen as a good student a good protégé a good foster son so romantic love was Far from his mind. i think he realized he was gay around age like 15-16 when it all starts to Dawn on you y'know everything Dawns on you. he was very quickly like. well that's how the cookie crumbles. i think there was a sort of immediate acceptance about the Being Gay factor but more of a restraint about acting on it because he too was like Married to The Student Behavior and didn't want to risk losing his place by isidor's side, especially since he didn't know how isidor would react to him being gay (i know what isidor did to that old man so i know he wouldn't have cared but rubin is not a mind-reader). it was truly like. well i am and i can't do much about it but i'm soo focused rn. as 18-20 came around the corner and his relationship with isidor truly felt like he was fighting for his life trying to be seen as a good student he was like I'm either going to war or becoming a monk. he was fully willing to commit to lifelong monkish celibacy because he's always been. kinda dry. kinda with issues. + i think subconsciously he was trying to not let Desire creep up on him because it would distract him from the menkhu way (nice dichotomy idiot what lies outside of it etc). he went to war [p1 lore which i abide by] and. well when you put a bunch of fit young men together away from the women of course something like this would happen. anyways he comes home having acted on his homosexuality which he is fine with + feels kinda like a weight being lifted off his shoulders but he stil hasn't tasted Desire ykwim. Want. Hunger in the lover sense. but he's like. shrugs. whatever. monk it is. he doesn't become a monk. he clings to being isidor's foster son until his knuckles go white. it ends up being for nothing. grief and anger scythe him right. and in what follows he bonds with someone who's Fucked up and who Knows Hunger and Desire and omg flushed emoji etc. (+ my belief when dankovsky comes to peter's loft to talk about god-knows-what they kinda realize pretty fast He's Just Like Me Fr and dankovsky appreciates his + peter's company kinda like he appreciated Just Sitting There surrounded by gay and bi men even if they barely talk. just knowing you're like. Not Alone. etc)

.

bit long. sorrey.

[altschmerzes]

Ooooh i would LOVE to hear your hot takes about the back half of season 2 and how they could have dealt with Jamie's history of abuse differently. I'm really hoping they show in season 3 that it's either been festering under the surface or that at least Jamie and Roy addressed things off screen. And of course I really need a Ted/Jamie conversation in season 3 about their father issues (and also why Jamie has featured in Ted's panic attacks) (call him your son to his face Ted so I can sob)

heyyyy i would be THRILLED to elaborate on that cause MAN is it something i think about a lot. i'm hoping they return to it in season 3 as well, especially in the ways you mentioned. like. my hat for that, i'd die.

anyways as to specific things that i think could've gone differently in the tail end of s2, i have some general thoughts and one very specific minor thread that i feel Very Strongly should've been approached differently. i'll put this under a cut bc it might get a bit long and i should be pre-emptively planning for that by now XD

(edit: i was right. it's enormous. i am both sorry and not at all sorry. i have one million thoughts and it turns out "narrative arcs related to abuse" and "jamie tartt in that context, specifically" are like, my activation concepts. who'd have guessed.)

alright. so. generally like....... i really wish that literally anyone had addressed what happened at all. like, as soon as the scene cut away from the scene in the locker room in 2x08, it was like that never happened. like we did get the scene of ted talking to sharon, and then beard leaving after that, and those were great scenes! but i found it really strange that jamie didn't come up there Once. like, once the shot cut from him and roy in the locker room, it may as well not have happened.

and i know i'm biased and would've liked to see that yknow, Dug Into, but even from the most 'we just don't have room in the season' standpoint, it would've taken what, six seconds? to have some throwaway exchange as beard is leaving at the end along the lines of "oh, also, jamie doing okay?" "ehhh. unclear. he's on the bus, the guys have him." or something. someone takes a moment to stop and check on him. tell him they're there if he needs anything. it could be anyone, it could have happened at any point after 2x08, but it quite literally is never discussed, mentioned, or referenced again, which seems....... like. idk. that was an enormously significant and enormously traumatic thing to have happen. you have a huge, horrible loss and then your teammate/player/friend's father shows up and you learn 1. his father is abusive, and 2. his father is now actively abusing him a couple of feet away from you, leading him to 3. need to punch his father in self-defense. and it simply never comes up again. i? hm.

and then in specific. the character that really strikes me here, the one that scene was maybe more significant and like......... perspective? shifting for? than anyone else aside from jamie and arguably ted is roy. and i think there's a specific Thing with roy that there was a massive missed opportunity on, vis a vis how things had to have been different for him regarding jamie after he saw that happened, after he stepped in to handle the fallout. i think roy not having to contend with what he saw, what he did there, at all is a missed opportunity overall, especially after he was such an instrumental part of that episode's build-up and boil-over, but there's a particular piece that gets stuck in my craw, to the extent that i may at some point be forced to write a 'what if' about it:

roy's reaction to the news that jamie told keeley he loved her should not have played out like that.

like. okay. hear me out on this one.

(putting that whole... thing. aside for the moment, about which i will only say: that was the most aromantic "love confession" i have ever seen in my life gd bless.)

all things considered the way they resolved the whole like. almost-but-thank-fuck-not a love triangle thing (season 3 do not fuck me on this one) with jamie being like yeah that was my b i'm sorry and roy being pissed but dropping it and forgiving him was like...... that went better than i ever would've hoped it would. but still there's a whole thing where- okay. it was mostly a joke, because this is still a comedy, and comedies do be like that. HOWEVER.

the whole.... exaggerated violence thing around the way that interaction went, "yeah you better talk first cause i'm gonna knock your teeth in and you're gonna need them for the talking bit," and then he tells keeley and she's like oh my gd did you punch him. did you kill him. and then he tells the diamond dogsTM and they're like And He's Still Alive?

i just.... i don't think that roy could've stomached saying something like that to jamie after what he saw happen in that locker room. i don't think he could've watched jamie's abusive father push him around and mock him to the point that he had to defend himself like that, and then held jamie while he had a full-on sobbing breakdown about it, and then like. turned around and threatened him like that not that long after especially with the way jamie is behaving in that interaction in the boots room. (like. he's scared. i don't think i'm reading too much into his behaviour in the scene where he apologizes to roy when i say that He Is Afraid, In That Scene.) i think once he saw that, no matter how mad he was that would've stopped him dead.

i think what would have played way better is if he'd maybe been Going to launch into that and then got into that room and saw the way jamie was standing and Not Looking At Him (seriously he is allergic to eye contact at all times but it's like. the extent to which he won't look at roy in that scene is Extreme) and completely lost the will to say any of it. so jamie gets through his apology and roy yells fuck and it's sort of the same but also for different reasons this time. and then he gets home and talks to keeley, and that goes pretty much the same. he's maybe more reserved, more serious during that bit.

and then we get to the bit with the other coaches and higgins, right. and there's that response again- and he's still alive??? and roy snaps. because why do people keep fucking SAYING that? what kind of a person do they think he is? why the fuck are you people implying i'd have- have fucking done something to him over this?

(which, obviously they did not mean this seriously. they were kidding. keeley and them were all obviously Kidding in these interactions.)

which is a pretty alarming reaction, like whoa, whoa, whoa, okay, rewind, what gives, that was a joke.

and he calms down and is like yeah i know i'm just. i don't want to be the kind of person people make that sort of joke about. (not when i stood in that room with jamie and knew he thought i was probably about to do something to him and he was not joking.) just like. some kind of buildup, buildup, payoff to the way that i don't think roy could've walked out of the locker room at wembley and had things just.... go back to being the same between him and jamie. go back to interacting with him the same way all the time, just. that scene was huge, especially for the two of them, and we have no idea how that affected them. none.

like. this is not in the past, is what i keep coming back to. and roy knows that. this is not Jamie Had An Abusive Father, which would have its own impact for damn sure. this is jamie's father is abusive and is actively still abusing him in the present tense, in fact did so right in front of my face the other day. and just. man. yeah.

anyways. this has been one million words long. i still think it went way better than i could've hoped. it went better than pretty much almost any other show would've done it. the 'i forgave him' thing was huge for roy. but still.

this would've acknowledged what happened, and done, i think, a great service to roy's continuing character arc. like, jamie was a shithead and he sucked in season 1 but roy was equally culpable for those two's specific uh..... rocky dynamic. that conflict DID escalate to violence a few times! not particularly seriously, just some shoving, but it did. and roy has this whole Thing where he's wrestling with leadership and responsibility and influence, wrestling with people looking to him and counting on him and "it has to be me. it can't be anyone else." (we want nothing from you that you do without grace. or without understanding.) the What Could've Been here haunts me. HAUNTS me, i'm telling you. one day i might have to write it just to exorcise that ghost.

[satorugojoswiife]

I know that a lot of the fandom want him to come back but personally I would rather let Satoru rest. I mean, I respect Gege's work but I feel like sometimes his writing is a hit or miss. A lot of the plot was promising and had a lot of potential but he didn't elaborate in some of those points, then you have strong, engaging characters but he also dropped the ball on them and it's okay, its his story but as a reader it's a kinda frustrating. Personally after being let down by one of the big three (Naruto) after investing 10+ years and making peace with it, I like to believe that Satoru is now on his fandom's hands, and we're going to take good care of him, rather than him just getting into perhaps another plot point that Gege might not even give justice to the character. That’s just my opinion as an older fan.

Love your content btw ♥

Again, I feel like it's hard for me to fully form my own opinion on it just because it's still unfinished. I have no doubt we will be seeing flashbacks with gojo present and maybe through those it will tie things together and make everything feel more complete. I also feel like weekly release format can often make the story feel really disjointed, but often once it's all finished and you go back and read it all together it feels alot more put together.

I try to cut mangaka a bit of slack bc of how insane their work schedule and environment can be. What they put themselves through is actually crazy and the fact they are still able to put out the quality they do is amazing. 😭

I get where you are coming from, (especially in regards to Naruto 😬) I think that's a really sweet sentiment to have about the fandom taking care of him 💕 we will for sure continue to love and take care of him<3

[taeloke]

Hello how are you doing? Hope your doing well💗💕👋🌹

Whats a thing in the fandom of 4koa/sds that you don't dare say out loud because you don't wanna get harsssad by people that disagree.?

Tristan and Lancelot are not best friend! Because has it already been showen that lanclot does really see tristan that way...or...?

I'm doing great! I woke up to a few asks in my backlog this morning, which was a welcome surprise. I promise I'll get through all of them at some point--I just gotta make sure I keep a comfortable pace with writing for them! I can't stop writing walls for you all lol ^^

Interesting thing about your ask in particular is that challenge in the center of it. I saw it earlier today and at first I didn't want to answer it, but I remembered what I want this blog to be for me. Though I enjoy creating things and sharing ideas with everyone here, my blog is ultimately my page. If I worry about how people will react to my own thoughts, then I'd be sacrificing myself to appease everyone else's opinions...and that's no good. I don't want to surround myself with people who I'll have worry like that with either, so why shouldn't I light this fuse this early? I used this same logic to confess I'm a roleplayer bc I worried people might find that cringe, and imma stick to this logic till the bitter end. I'm happier when I'm honest about myself even if I may get harassed for it.

So...drumroll...

(CW: Most iconic downsides in SDS, we've all seen them)

I believe complaints about animation quality and pedophilic implications/moments in the series are highlighted way too much in the fandom.

I find those complaints exhausting as soon as I think someone might bring it up. Talking about the anime? Someone's gonna bring up bad animation. Talking about any SDS ship? Someone's going to say yikes over Balaine or another yikes-able ship. It can't be stopped no matter how many times I've seen such talks already. I completely get it--really, I do--but it makes me not want to talk about SDS at all sometimes just to avoid seeing those complaint subjects again.

I get worried whenever I feel this way because I'm sure people will assume I'm more of an apologist than I really am if I share my feelings--especially when it comes to the pedophilic complaints. If I say anything like "it's not THAT bad", no matter how I phrase or elaborate on it, someone's gonna read that as me saying "it's not bad at all". It is bad. It is disappointing that it's canonically built up to the point that it has. But none of it is black-or-white, and there's so much in this story outside of its problems that deserves more attention. That's how I feel, anyway. My opinion isn't black-or-white, either, nor are anyone else's thoughts on this same thing.

Honestly, I'm just genuinely curious about why there are so many "yikes" cases in this series. I have almost no interest in judging it morally. Maybe it's like this because the original Arthurian legends are the same way and it's an adaptation thing? Are they the same way at all? I haven't researched this. I probably will soon.

So there's all that...haha... I'm sorry if this makes anyone uncomfortable with me <3

Anyway, I think you're right about Tristan and Lancelot not being besties in canon interaction. However, the catalyst for shipping interest is usually the potential in a pair rather than the canon possibility. Their canon interactions, intimate or not, shed some light on that potential. I don't ship them because I personally don't see enough potential between them, but someone else may see endless possibilities for them. It's all subjective, yknow?

[corys-nsp-fixation]

[ @ender-niffler I was withholding a ramble about Red so I'm somewhat posting it here to share-]

Hey callback to this post that I never elaborated on!

Well I'm finally gonna talk about it now. I'll give a heads up, long post ahead since that's just how I ramble-

⚠️‼️Spoilers for SGC's TCD series‼️⚠️

So, Red right? Cannibal guy? One of the best TCD villains?

Yeah him. I have a main hc that he's like Max in a way. Not fully walker but not fully person anymore at the same time.

The reason I say he's like Max rather than he's like Ghetto is bc Ghetto was bitten after the apocalypse officially started. And Max was bitten before the apocalypse actually became a problem.

However, unlike Max, Red's mind didn't alter the same way his did.

Now, you might be wondering, "Cory, what was the connection that made you mental enough to post the original post?"

And to answer that, I have to explain my views upon the virus itself and how said virus affects people. Then I can explain what made me very excited while I was watching at that time.

So, the virus. I have several views about it since undead apocalypse spreading affects is something I love to think about due to a completely unrelated Minecraft guy I love but this post isn't about him- back to the main point!

Obviously the final stage is mindless walker. Fully gone, no longer who they used to be. Likelihood of ever being who they used to be? Almost completely none. That's the obvious thing.

My take is that before anything physical truly happens besides the initial bite wound the first thing to start going is your mind. Not overnight, obviously, it's a process that slowly takes you. And before the virus was everywhere, the physical might not even take you. It's a varied reaction per person it takes. Most obviously getting altered but some cases not so much.

Now, what am I even talking about now?

Let me explain.

Max, canonically, was bit before the virus was worldwide. And what happened to him? He mentally lost himself but his physical self unturned.

Back to Red. Remember when I said reactions may vary from early cases of the virus? Well, in my hc Red got bit early spread of the apocalypse (before Nick's area gets infected for time connections).

And when he got bit, sure his mind altered but he didn't lose himself to it and instead he embraced it. Consciously leaning into his urges and making sure he stayed in control. His hunger also grew and conventional food wasn't really cutting it for him as much as it used to, feeling somewhat sick after having too much. Needing to consume something...else

{Side Note; Red & his relation/views to cannibalism is something that I could go on and on about and it's something I have a wip writing for- but relevant information all that's needed to share about that here is that Red wasn't technically a cannibal before however he wasn't against the idea of eating a person.}

Now, again, you're probably thinking, "Cory, relevance? I get it but again, how does this connect!"

And I was just about to get there so thank you for bringing back the conversation! (/pos)

The original post I made was after the time when Ghetto had joined Red.

Ghetto; who's despite having a temporary antidote that saved his body from changing too much and keeping his mind somewhat stable, being mostly stuck with Red; someone who knows how long it takes for a bite to get to some part of the brain. And how long it'd take for easier convincing as well.

We know that Red 1). Isn't against playing the waiting game and 2). Is the reason Ghetto got bit since he got the walker onto the ship.

We know the walker was there intentionally. We know Red planned this.

And since he already understands due to personally experience how long it takes for the mind to shift first, and he already had Ghetto by his side, he just had to wait long enough until he knew Ghetto's mind wasn't completely rational and more walked-esk-irrational.

In simplistic terms: Due to Red's personal experience with being a walker-person-thing he knew how long he had to wait after Ghetto got bit & was off the formula for a while in order to convince him.

{I really hope that makes sense- I had to re-check stuff & my brain is currently looking for the train again to make sure it's packages are correct-}

So uh yeah! That's my ramble- I think that's all of it- like I said I kinda misplaced the mental train and I can't remember if said train has the right stuff or not-

Cory out! Bye! I appreciate your existence! I'mma either go write a bittersweet NSP Fallout idea I had or continue watching Ross or get back to working on that NSP Amino post I've been planning out- probably gonna go watch Ross if I'm being honest-

Byeeeee!!! Hope you liked the ramble! And sorry if some parts don't make sense.

That's what happens when you listen to a mad man ramble✌️ (/hj /neu /pos)

So, still binge watching TCD and I've been having HC's galore the entire time however currently I've just pieced things together that make my HC's even more logical and EEEEEEE!!!! /vpos

[girlwithwolftatoo]

How would Moon boys react when reader slap them bc they need privacy but the boys keep nagging them.

(Funny story: I began to write this yesterday, but for some reason the whole thing erased when I was about to finish)

Steven Grant:

He knows very well how to finish a fight, even if it means hurting his own fist as we already know. There must be a very special reason for him to pull a discussion, and he won't stop until he's heard.

It's very likely you didn't mean to slap him. Probably it was a reflex, like that time he poured water on Harrow, but the boy simply freezes, with those big pup eyes staring at you, and...

"...Steven, no... I'm sorry, I didn't... Oh gosh I'm the worse". You're not trying to play the victim, but hitting Steven, the softest man on the full United Kingdom of Great Britain, feels almost like a major felony.

He's the quickiest to forgive, but doesn't mean he'll immediately do it. Now he's the one who needs some space to process what happened, and you're like two sad meows hiding from each other in different rooms.

Marc Spector:

We know he's not the kind of getting into fights (with a significant other, I mean), but he has enough confidence with you to vent his thoughts and, perhaps, he's taking you to the edge without noticing.

"Marc, stop-" you grunt while trying to physically avoid him. But he keeps going after you and then... "ENOUGH!" you yell as your hand meets his face.

Both stare at each other with horrified looks. Marc turns around and mutters something like "Okay, you're on your own" and walks away.

You get a little worried he might be in a place drinking away his anger, but it's not like you can do anything now. Luckily, he returns to your place after maybe an hour, completely sober. "Marc, I-" "(Y/N), don't. I... perhaps I pushed you a little harder than-" "I was feeling bad but I-" "Hey... it's okay, yes?" he claims as he gently presses your arms with his hands. "It's okay, I... I don't want to keep running from these shit. If... if you want to, we can talk, or... simply forget this, okay?"

Jake Lockley:

Each Moon boy have a special way for verbal fighting. Steven is clever, direct and polite, Marc basically vocalizes his inner feelings. But Jake? Jake turns into fucking Eminem, like spitting thirty words in less than twenty seconds and in two languages.

You cannot escape from him, he doesn't only follow you, he even holds your arm to make you listen. And the very moment he does this, you turn your body and slap him real hard.

His hand slowly releases you, his face goes cold stone, and you don't know what's about to happen and a little fear crawls within. "So... that's what you're gonna say?" he grunts in a little menacing way "Fine, cuando te calmes hablamos" ("when you calm down, we'll talk").

There's nothing more we can elaborate. Jake gets the point very quick and puts some distance. If you mention it again, he'll simply wave his hand and even joke about it. Yes, he's the meanest of the trio, but he´s very tender when you're around.

[ariapmdeol]

please post your coe theory

OK OK SO. I'll put this under the cut bc a) its long and b) it has spoilers for everything thats been translated so far (so up through hajime DLC!). This will involve predictions and theories that probably wont be relevant for a WHILE so there might be things that show up in hermits room/interlude/CoM! If you've played further than whats been translated into english please don't confirm or deny anything, I wanna find out as i play <3

anyways disclaimer over time for my elaborate theory time

HEAR ME OUT. Sanemitsu Isoi's power, his 'will', is the ability to rewrite the past/reality, which is also what the Harada Factor is. It's literally the ability to rewrite the world's definitions and change the world. LITERALLY REWRITING REALITY.

Mutei Harada did this to 'write' Seodore Riddle's Empyrean Cells into existence, which is the 'role' he was assigned (that of the announcer).

We know Sanemitsu is hesitant to use his ability (and hasn't in years). I think he's scared to use his ability to get back what he lost (OG reiji, rai, haruki/being a dad to haruki, hajime and utsugi and his friendships with everyone in the institute) because he knows if he retcons the timeline, he'd never meet Reiji, his SON, who he is so desperately scared of losing. Seodore mentions in Reiji's DLC that reiji is sanemitsu's number one priority, the one person who is desperately trying to hold on to. If Sanemitsu uses his ability, he cant guarantee that he'd be able to meet reiji again and be his dad,, Also, If Sanemitsu uses this ability, I don't think he'd remember the original timeline. I think he'd get bits and pieces, but not everything.

Seodore wanted Sanemitsu on his side because he wants him to Retcon his immortality/let him finally die. This is why he tells Hatsutori that it's not his INTENT to change the past, but as a result of his wish (removing his immortality), the past would change as a result. Seodore's factor (the Riddle factor? Empyrean factor? IDK) allows him to remember the other arrival points in some way. This is what the Purple TextTM is, and why his purple text appears at the end of each ending. it's META.

This also explains how seodore is in the right places at the right times to recruit people; he's slightly/somewhat aware of what happens in the other worldlines/arrival points. When he uses Brugmansia, he just decides on a timeline where That Thing Didn't happen. my evidence for this is the explosion in reiji dlc, which reiji SAW happen. But?? It didn't just look like seo regenerated, it looked like there had never been an explosion AT ALL. bc seo RETCONNED It. He picked a timeline where That Explosion Never Happened and slapped that bit onto our MAIN timeline.

Haruki inherited the Harada Factor, and used it at the end of Arrival Point S to retcon Reiji's death and save him, granting us Arrival Point S+. As an extension of this, All the other endings/loading saves are Haruki using the Harada Factor to fix/change the timeline. Seodore, as previously mentioned, is the purple text and is aware of our attempts to get the perfect ending. Haruki in S+ is aware of S, but not by a lot. I think it's like an impression... or like a dream? He knows SOMETHING happened as demonstrated by the 'no it's not our first time meeting' line, but I think it's more faded and in his subconscious more than anything.

I think Mutei is also immortal, and his assigned role is the Hermit. The story intentionally mentions that it's never confirmed that he's DEAD, just that it's been long enough that we can assume he is. Othmayer or however the heck we spell it... is seodores dead boyfriend. I dont think he died in the car crash, I think he died later somehow and I think he was involved in the mutei-seodore group. also i think that's the 'date' that seodore goes on once a year. Its not a date hes mourning his dead bf :(

In addition to that, I think the bit at the beginning of the DLC where we get the 'lets die together' line is Sanemitsu knowing that he's the only one who can kill seodore (by rewriting his immortality) but in doing so he kills himself. the self he is now. the self that Exists due to these circumstances and the Life hes lived up until now.

OVERALL. The whole narrative about writers, stories, and the COMEDY aspect of it all ties in here. its META. the very game mechanics that we take for granted are a part of the story.

The fact that seodore says that he was 'assigned' a role implies that there are multiple people involved, with other roles assigned. I think these are all the Factors (which are separate from the Fragments).

ALSO heres my prediction for CoM. SO in the dlc, sanemitsu mentioned that there are mirages in japan, and if people see too many of them they disappear. I think this is caused by either a factor or another fragment, and the plot will be solving this mystery. These mirages could be similar to the red/blue-green/yellow ghosts in coe!!

[butwhatifidothis]

hey so, having just spent the last hour and a half pausing multiple times while reading this analysis + rewrite to savor it like a hearty fucking meal, i'd now like to give my compliments to the chef.

firstly: the analysis. i admittedly have a lot of difficulty seeing the forest for the trees sometimes bc i get so wrapped up in the details that i don’t know how to wrap it all back around, so getting to see it all laid out into a cohesive package was immensely satisfying, thank.

secondly: i've always held the opinion that three houses gave claude the short end of the stick but this rewrite makes me feel nothing less than robbed at what we might have had. and to work within the limited chapters and plot elements the game gives us, my god! (i'll be honest, i'm deeply curious as to what you would have done given free reign of the entire script.) there's so many points i wish had been elaborated/shown off more in-game that you directly addressed here that i don’t even know where to begin, so just imagine me sitting here mentally shouting "yes…… YES" because that's more or less what happened. i think i straight up hollered at the merceus reveal (god bless you, marianne)

god just… if i had the ability to do it justice, i'd write a fic retelling the entirety of WC + VW with this rewrite as the basis. thank you.

!!! Thank you so much!!

I'm glad that it was easy to read, given the length of it lmao - I tried to keep things as organized as I could while writing it. Glad it worked out lol!

And that's basically my feelings regarding Claude as a whole lmao; there's clearly a lot to work with with his character, since it has a solid enough foundation to build off of with his personality, actions, ideals, morals, and all that good stuff. The game just, uh, barely used any of it for some reason. I mainly wanted to show that even if VW stayed a copy + paste of SS regarding its general story, that didn't mean that it had to shaft Claude from having a story catered to his character- and I’m happy to see its reception be pretty good, all things considered! :)

If I were given more free reign over the game, I’d give any sort of possibility for the three countries to keep their independence. The game likes to act like unification is the only way for Fodlan to find peace, while forgetting that TWS sowed the seeds of discord while Fodlan was unified, and then later again once Fodlan was made up of Adrestia, Faerghus, and Leicester. They’re, like, either the direct root cause or an otherwise major factor of anything this bad happening in Fodlan - there’s nearly a 300 year gap of nothing of note happening between the countries, between the Crescent Moon War and the events that happen in the game, and those events all only happen because of TWS. So I’d like to better represent that possibility for peace either way: meet certain conditions and the countries keep their independence, fail them and there’s no other choice but unification. That if nothing else would be the biggest foundational change I’d give 3H - though not just for VW, but for AM and SS too since unification literally isn’t the goal for those routes lmao. Feel it would’ve hit harder if CF was the only route where unification was the only endgame option, given it’s a main motive for its lord unlike the other three routes lol

And 😭😭😭 thank you again for the kind words!! 💞💞💞

[nibwhipdragon]

Alright, now that I've slept on it I think I can properly articulate my thoughts on it. Putting it under the cut because I can tell it's gonna get uhh. Pretty long.

I was correct! Very long review unde the cut!

Ok you're gonna read a bunch of stuff that sounds like I feel the complete opposite of what I rated the game but just sit through it ok I'm getting the bad stuff out of the way first <3

First off, I'll start with the story, because What The Hell Man. I do think it's great! Just...the execution of it wasn't that good tbh

Learning that the voice that had been guiding you the whole time was The End was a nice twist, Sage's character was super good and I liked slowly learning about the ancients. BUT. The end of the game shouldn't have me going "that's it?" in the way it did. The tension all just...dissapeared after the whole thing about Sonic becoming fully corrupted and seeing that you had Ouranos to go through still it just didn't have that momentum like the previous story parts did. From Kronos Island, the story was building up to Sonic's corruption, becoming more and more noticeable as the story went on, even his idle animation changing as he got worse (a detail which I really, REALLY liked). You get to Rhea Island and the towers were just. As frustrating as they were they were perfect for both the plot and the challenge. At that point you're nearing the end of the story, learning more and more about the ancients, and Sonic's quite literally on his last legs and is only able to still keep going through sheer force of will. It puts all your knowledge and skills of platforming to the test, like one final trial before the final boss (IT REALLY SHOULD'VE BEEN THE FINAL AREA). The music for the island (one of my faves in the soundtrack tbh) perfectly reflects that, and I know pretty much nothing about music theory and such so I cannot elaborate on that but like. I think it's still mentionable that it fit well. And then, when you shut off all the towers, and Sonic becomes fully corrupted, and he finally frees his friends and practically sacrifices himself as a result...it falls off. The tension snapped too early and though you can have the tension reach a breaking point and snap pretty early in a story and have it still work well, the way Frontiers treats the tension snap was too bad to even consider this. The whole story was building up to Sonic's corruption, and THE WHOLE THING WAS RESOLVED IN LIKE 2 MINUTES!!! WHY????!!? Like I haven't done all the side stories yet (some aren't appearing though they're on the map???) so I might be missing context, but just. H o w do Sonic's friends bring him back by holding hands around him. How. How does that work. They didn't even hold HIS hands. It would've been much better for the story if there was like an actual struggle to get Sonic back to normal. Like. Couldn't they have made like a really long level/hub world that Sonic has to traverse to get back to normal?

Ok I stopped writing there bc i had stuff to do so I've had more time to think about that idea. The voice guiding Sonic was The End wasn't it? And it was stuck in cyberspace and was using Sonic, who could traverse between worlds safely as a means to an end right? The final boss could've been then, at that very point. Sonic going through a corrupted area, a mishmash of all the cyberspace areas and maybe some more, and after getting through all that you fight The End. No Super Sonic, no help, just you, it, and all the experience you've gained on your journey. Hell, they could've revealed that the whole plan was to get Sonic to be fully corrupted by saving his friends so that The End could access it or something, gain a physical body that way!

AND THE WHOLE THING WITH SAGE. As upset I was over the sacrifice, it kinda felt out of nowhere??? And then she was just...immediately brought back after the credits??? What was even the point of it?

The final boss was horrifically easy, and I really don't know how to feel about it. I don't think a final boss should be that easy, even if the story is the reason why. And for that secret final boss in hard mode...

You know that bullet hell minigame that you had to do like 3 times in the story? It's that. It's literally just that against The End right after Supreme. I hate it. Why.

Ok all the stuff I hated about the game out of the way! Time for the good stuff!

Also fuck the pinball """"""minigame""""", there was nothing mini about that score I needed to get

Also this is a little complaint but I don't like that jumping doesn't have your running momentum. Sonic also felt too slow to me. I know you can upgrade speed, but that only does boosting and wall climbing speed, not base speed.

This is a very little gripe which doesn't have much to do with the game itself, but SONIC'S NEW VOICE ACTOR. WHY DOES HE SOUND LIKE THAT I'M NOT USED TO IT. WHY DOES THE 15 YEAR OLD HEDGEHOG SOUND LIKE MY BROTHER WHO'S NEARING 30 MY GOD HIS VOICE IS TOO DEEP (the line deliveries were really good!)

THIS GAME LOOKS BEAUTIFUL WHERE THE FUCK IS THE PHOTO MODE WHY DID THEY HAVE TO DO A MHS2 AND NOT ADD ONE FOR SUCH A PRETTY GAME :((((

The titans were so good oh my god they were just hfjdwndjjdkskdkdjdndnssjdkkdkd

The first encounter with Giganto as normal Sonic? Beautiful. The shots changing to all sorts of canted angle shots with every homing attack and every hit on Giganto itself? Truly a spectacle to behold, it has never left my brain.

The fights themselves are so cinematic. They are glued into my brain forever. Of course all of them are good, but my favourite has to be Wyvern. Yeah I'm biased, but cmon. Flying as Super Sonic around Ares Island after it while it launches missiles at you that you have to dodge until you see an opening to parry its attack and whale on it, with Break Through It All playing...I want to wipe my memories of that fight it was so, SO GOOD. ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR. A MASTERPIECE EVEN. Especially since you spend the most time getting to the Chaos Emerald on it. Giganto I didn't even know there was a climbing theme for because I got up it so fast, and Knight I can just...barely remember for some reason. Brain blocked out memories of scary office chair battle methinks

I think the fact you actually moved around the island during it instead of it just being one area did it for me. Like...fuck yeah that REALLY got my blood boiling with murderous ecstasy like how Monster Hunter does

I loved the tower climb to get to Wyvern (I like climbing up things as a form of progression in games as you can tell) and the theme goes hard. I like it as much as Break Through It All tbh. I was REALLY into that fight, it's definitely in my top boss battles ever. Possibly first place because I don't think the aesthetics and music of MHS2's final boss can compare when Wyvern has that and a bunch of other stuff going for it

I did like Supreme for the cinematic feel of it, even if it was easy. Hearing that piano and immediately going "OH MY GOD THAT'S FROM THE TITLE SCREEN" was awesome. And it being the main theme of the game? Genuinely felt as if my soul was set on fire the figjt went so damn hard,,,, Last game I played that did that was Monster Hunter Stories 2 (Rays of Hope and Despair my beloved) and I've played a bunch of videogames since then, which says a lot. Also when the chorus began when I was doing the QTE was absolutely epic. Just.

I'M HERE

REACHING FAR ACROSS THESE NEW FRONTIERS

The island music was really good too. I love how it built up with the more Chaos Emeralds you obtained. I am always in intense desire for dynamic music you see, and Sonic Frontiers is chock-full of that. Even the guardian's music changed depending on what was happening! Hell, the cyberspace clear themes change when you get all 4 missions done! I love that! Chaos Island was really good in terms of map design. Like DAMN babygirl, they even added gigantic chunks of glass to the map! Gotta love volcanic glass! Sure it's not accurate but it's still cool! I wish there was a snowy island though. I love my snow areas where is it why is Ouranos literally Kronos 2 Electric Boogaloo :(

The layouts of the islands were so good I've pretty much got Kronos, Ares and Chaos Island memorised off the top of my head! I'll just be like "oh there's [landmark] to my left so if I go this way I'll end up going to [landmark] and then I'll go that way and end up at [destination]!" and that is PEAK gameplay design!!! I love being like a lil pigeon and navigating via landmarks :3

About maps actually. I love that the challenges that show more of the map make it easier to traverse by adding rails and the like, as well as giving seeds. That's really good gameplay design too. Like they're gonna do it naturally so if they never end up fishing then they'll end up with decent atk/def stats for the story. Progression should come naturally through the story, it should never really feel too much like grinding and Sonic Frontiers did that really well with this.

People have been saying that light puzzle on Kronos Island was ridiculously hard, but I liked it! I love puzzles like that, and to be honest I didn't take that long to finish it.

dont ask how long I took on the crane puzzle though

Pinball minigame was fun but it's on very fucking thin ice. Why 5 million points.

The hacking minigame was a nice surprise! I loved coming up with strategies to get me past the harder levels of it.

You already know my opinions on the celestial starfall, but there's a bit more abt it that I do wanna say here. I wish the game explained it more, for starters. Apparently only the first 10 stars you collect are used for the slot machine (why a slot machine btw???) but it never tells you this. Not that I really care though, my goal is to get 69 stars (closest I've gotten is 61. So close...) and I have fishing tokens for days so I'm not too bothered about that. Also just like the blood moon from botw, this has managed to occur at the most inconvenient times which I must appreciate as a sort of staple for this sort of thing now. Good job Sonic Team <3

Also I think it's noteworthy that one time I had just beaten an Asura, and because I was in its area as the celestial starfall happened, it spawned really far away from where it was meant to. Funky.

About fishing. Who would've thought fishing would be the most broken thing in game? I love it for that. I didn't use my fishing tokens (the ones you get after fishing stuff up) until Ouranos, so I just...bought pretty much everything I needed in one go because the grind ramped up to a boring level at that point. It might be one of the reasons Supreme was so easy for me (atk/def were like lv.63/64 I think) but hey! It was there to buy you can't blame me. The monster hunter grilling minigame too...autism simulator fr <3

You can get tokens from that without having to pay anything like with fishing, so like...that's Certainly Not Broken. Hell actually now that I'm thinking about it if someone was determined enough they could literally use Big and fishing to max out all their stats before fighting Giganto. That's glorious.

Haven't really touched arcade mode yet, but I love that they did that. Like hell yeah all the cyberspace levels in one place!!! When my friends come over to hang out I'm 100% using arcade mode to have fun lil contests with friends to see who'd get the fastest time <3

The combat was...pretty fine actually! I loved all the combos and the speed, it really fit Sonic well. Only thing is, the way some special attacks worked made me accidentally trigger them when I didn't want to, which is frustrating. I think that if they taken a leaf out from Unleashed's book and made light + strong attacks and used them to make combos and specials alongside the triangle button (or the equivalent on consoles other than PlayStation) would've been better. I understand why they left square to be the only attacking button as it's the homing button, but it didn't work well with the combat system they were trying to make.

I might replay the game on hard after I platinum it. It depends if I can go through the ending of the story again really.

Frontiers is really good, was ALMOST perfect in my eyes. ALMOST. Unleashed is still my favourite Sonic game though, simply because I don't think anything will beat the werehog for me <3 werehog Sonic has the character design ever I want to go insane over it but I won't <3

Also you never needed to worry about me not liking Sonic! I had a Sonic phase when I was really young, used to play Heroes with my brother all the time (my favourite team was team dark <3), and then later stole my cousin's wii copy of Unleashed and completely fell in love with that too <3 You pretty much just rekindled my love for a franchise I didn't have time to invest myself in and I thank you for that so much <3

Just finished Sonic Frontiers and. Yeah.

Even though it was likely unintentional, I want to thank you for violently dragging me back into the Sonic fandom <3

I would've passed on getting Frontiers and it's. It's pretty damn good. I have a lot of thoughts on it I'm still gonna let stew in my brain for a bit but it's probably like a 8.7/10 to me, which is like really high for me

You're welcome! Welcome back to the fandom, we have angst! XD

I can't wait to hear about what you thought of the game. Will you be replaying it on hard mode? I heard the final boss changes if you do

Great to hear you enjoyed! :D

[iraprince]

Hey, it's the they/them anon again. Please ignore this message if it's more than you want to deal with, I wound up writing a lot.

I wanted to say sorry, I can see how that was out of line for me to ask. I guess I saw you had answered that other ask about your pronouns and assumed you were open to sharing/educating. However I probably should have figured that you didn't really want to elaborate based on you not doing so in that post already. So I apologize, honestly. If I met you irl and you told me your pronouns as you did in the other post I might still have been confused but I would do my best to use the ones you asked for.

To be honest I don't interact with people in the "community" much, online or irl. (I'm kind of a hermit and don't interact with anyone in general much) So I didn't realize there was that kind of a negative/washed-out view of 'gender-neutral'.

My limited understanding of they/them was that it's a good thing to use when you don't know someone's pronouns (either cuz you haven't had the chance to ask yet or cuz it's a mystery person or placeholder idea of a person where gender isn't relevant in the example being given) or for people who don't identify with he or she. I also felt that just like 'he' can mean all different degrees and types of masculinity and 'she' can mean all different degrees and types of feminity for individual persons, 'they' also means completely different things to the different people who use it. And I guess I thought everyone (who has made an attempt to understand non-cis) used/understood it that way. I didn't know it was mostly used as a lazy third gender. :/ I can see why you might lean away from they/them if you assume everyone who uses it is just putting you in yet another box.

(Sorry for not going into it/it's here, I have a lot more learning and meditating to do on that one before I'll be comfortable with it. Though I would do my best to use it if someone asked me to.)

The point I meant to make here is that when I asked why you don't use they/them; I didn't mean to be questioning your identity, though I can definitely see how it came across that way. I just wanted to know what could be wrong with those pronouns to some people, since I have decided to use them for myself, and because if I try to google it all I'm going to find is froofy disconnected descriptions. I was just hoping to learn a little more, and I did. So thank you. I'm now aware of a possible negative connotation to what I thought were pretty harmless and actually neutral pronouns, which kinda sucks, but now I can be more mindful in the future.

hey, i appreciate the apology and i'm glad that my response showed you a perspective you hadn't encountered before -- that's why i chose to respond to the ask in the first place. i do want to clarify a little based on what u've written bc i think maybe some of the details of what i meant to communicate got kind of Lost In The Sauce bc i was responding in a really individual way and then a little extra conversation spun off of that.

i don't think there is a "negative/washed-out" view of gender neutrality or of "gender neutral" as a term. it's a term a lot of people happily use and identify with and gender neutrality/androgyny resonates w a lot of people -- but not me. what i was expressing negative feelings abt was expectations+assumptions of gender neutrality for anyone who doesn't track with a binary gender, and i'm p sure that's also what was meant by other ppl who chimed in saying they related to my aversion. i also didn't mean to imply they/them as a pronoun set isn't "harmless" or neutral, bc they absolutely can be, and i don't think they're "mostly" used to box people in -- it was again a contextual case where harm comes from carelessly applying it to people regardless of what their actual pronouns are or, as you inadvertently did, seeking Explanations when someone doesn't fall in line with expected gender presentation. (again, i see and appreciate that that wasn't your intent, but it's one of those things where sometimes i think we all just get carried away w curiosity abt stuff that just isn't really ours to interrogate).

basically i don't want you to come away from this convo feeling like there's a new Negative side to they/them pronouns or to modes of presentation or identity that fall in line with what's "expected" from nonbinary people (as much as that can exist, in relatively niche spaces, bc overall people mostly actually just Expect us to be cis lmao. this whooooole convo is extremely contextual), bc that wasn't my point and the sticking point isn't really one specific set of pronouns; it's behaviors and assumptions. i want behaviors and assumptions regarding gender to be examined and changed, not to throw out a flat "some people HATE some pronouns!!! you better watch out!!!!!" and have that be the end of it, y'know? and i DEFINITELY don't want you walking away from this convo feeling sucky abt a pronoun set you use yourself in general. the words themselves are 100% not the problem so i hope i've been able to clarify that somewhat

i ended up writing a lot too lol but again rounding off i just wanna say i appreciate the apology and i'm glad we can talk more abt it. you didn't make me feel shitty and i don't want to make you feel shitty. i just think it's cool + important to talk frankly abt stuff like this when i have the energy for it