#i didn't even have one because i am not fighting through a 1000 people to use a manky portaloo

[eurofox]

I thought my dad kept appearing in the crowd screens during the Bruce Springsteen concert but turns out middle age white haired Irish men all kind of look the same

[2tcs]

I love your content so far from what I read and I had a crack I did just hit me

After a while the bat family finally decides to get rid of Ra al Ghul like take him down and take his position from him as the leader of the League of assassins to dismantle it

Ra al Ghul never warned anyone if they want to actually become like the main watcher over the Lazarus pits but they have to go to a 2000 door haunted house run by the ghost King who is 15 years old

So I'll be entire bat family is practically being put through spooky's haunted house 1000 doors except it's Phantom haunted house 2000 doors

Danny believes that anyone that wants the Lazarus pits is undirectly like a bad person so he kind of uses it to a trauma dump on people and be mentally tortured these people so they drop out of taking it

He's getting help from Ghost like Ember Techn, Poindexter, Wulf even cujo

Like they put Ra al Ghul through hell and now they're going to put the bat family to that because they have no idea or not if they're good people

So it's just Danny traumatizing them by making with the horrors and some of the deaths of the ghost the last shocker is at the last door they have to relive Danny's death then Danny will come out and hand them a key and then proceed to give them the whole feel about being the new owners of Lazarus pits

I just enjoy the idea of Danny and the ghost being terrifying

I don't think Danny knows enough ghosts to pull off 2000 doors but he does know Ghost Writer. As well as several ghosts who could make them relive each other's worst/most traumatic moments. Ras probably went alone when he did his trial. But if the whole batfam is going in? So much ammo.

It could start out simple. Lure them into a sense of ease.

---

"Huh. When the scary voice said we would be facing trials to prove our worth. I didn't expect sentient, cuddly blobs." Duke said petting one of the blobs that was chirping happily. Not noticing as his fellow vigilantes and friends also began to cuddle the blobs.

It takes them three hours before they realize that they've lost time and begin to fight the calming effect that the blobs exude and head towards the door on the other side of the room.

---

And maybe embarrassing.

---

"Once upon a time."

"WHY THE FUCK AM I WEARING TIGHTS!"

"I don't know. I think they look good."

"Shut up dickface."

---

Even a bit annoying at times.

---

"I AM THE BOX GHOST!"

"WTF! This guy is more annoying than Condiment King!"

"At least he isn't dumping ketchup on us!"

---

The first few hundred doors could even be called easy for people like the bats.

---

"Quit hitting yourself. Quit hitting yourself." Jason said after he ripped off the robot's arm and started to use it to beat the robot.

"Hay. Don't you think you're going too far Hood?"

"Stop your incelence! For I. Skulker. The greatest hunter ever. Shall be the one to skin you alive and use your pelts as a rug in my den!"

"You were saying Dickolase?"

"Give me the other arm. I want to break this pinata open."

---

But that ease does not last long. Soon they are faced with the suffering of others.

---

"What was that. What was that!" Steph shouted as she clung to Tim. Trembling from the adrenalin rush.

"I think. I think we just died? In a motorcycle crash? Did we just get hit by a CAR while on a MOTORCYCLE?!"

"That motorcycle crash was quick compared to how I died! So shut the fuck up!" Jason yelled before stomping toward the next door. And if his hand was shaking as he reached for the doorknob? No, they weren't

---

And even faced with the consequences of their failures. Failures that nearly tore them apart. Failures that could still tear them apart.

---

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"Shut up old man! You never asked! You weren't there! You're Never There!"

---

And temptations.

---

Dick looked around as his family piled into the living room of the manor. Everyone was laughing at something Duke said. Jason laughed the loudest as he slung his arm over Tim's shoulder for support. (Wrong, this is wrong, why is this wrong?)

---

And nightmares.

---

"Give them back! GIVE THEM BACK!" Bruce screamed to the sky as he clutched his kids as close to him as he could. Falling into despair as their bodies, their corpses, grew colder. The echos of their own cries of pain and anguish ringing in his ears.

---

They still manage to fight through the physical and psychological horror. Even when they are pushed to experience torture that not even their most vial villain would do to them.

---

"I'm alive! I'm me! Mom! Dad! Please! Please!" "Shut up you freak! Honey, get the muzzle. I don't want to hear its lies anymore." The woman, the monster, in the teal hazmat suit said as she pulled out their intestine and hung it on a rack for further examination.

---

They persevered. And when they leave the last door behind? And are faced with a young boy, no older than 14, who looks like an amalgamation of all of the Robins when they were that age?

---

Danny watched as the would-be-owner of the Lazarus Pits stumbled through the door. Only for an entire group of Kevlar waring fruitloops to fall out of the door.

"So you are the fools who think to control the blood of King Lazarus. So far you have seen many facets of the horrors that can come from..." Danny started his monologue before he was interrupted by the one wearing a cloak reminiscent of a bat falling to his knees.

"Please. Please say we don't have to fight you. I can't. I can't." He said before breaking down in tears as several others joined him in his cry fest.

"Shit." Danny said as he looked at the people before him. Panicking over what he was supposed to do.

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I invite everybody who took the other users side in that situation to find me a single situation where I was fatphobic and or went out of my way to be cruel or malicious to another user. After these crickets end, I'd like to invite the OP to prove that my reblog asking what their post means caused them hundreds of harassing messages in mere minutes, like they claimed. I will wait.

They posted one single message they got, from a person who wasn't a follower of mine and who responded to them after another user reblogged their post, which was confirmed by that other user. Before they closed their replies and closed themselves in an echochamber of people agreeing with them, I checked the notes a final time and though they did get criticism, as did I (and you all do know I listen to you and hear you and am always, ALWAYS open to conversation), those hundreds of messages of hate were nowhere to be seen.

Do you know why I know for sure they're lying about getting soooooooo much hate because of me? First of all, I've never cultivated a bullying culture on my blog. My followers can attest to that. I never supported users brigading for me. I don't have a cult following either way, but you can say I even discourage brigading. I always ask my followers not to fight others on my behalf. Not that it's necessary, because no one can say I get into drama often. Since making this blog, I can count maybe 5 situations that would be considered 'situations' to begin with. I don't have fans. I have bloggers that enjoy the content I post.

But secondly and more conclusively easily proven with numbers, I simply don't have that reach, nor do I have that many followers who are both active and fatphobic. I don't support fatphobia. I spoke out against fatphobia on this site. I've experienced it myself and I know how hurtful it is. My activity for this blog is abysmal due to me all but abandoning OTID in throes of my mental health battles. My posts get maybe 300 notes in total, over a 1000 if they're a hit reblog but that's it.

Hundreds of hate messages in minutes? Very unlikely. I'm not ashamed to admit OTID isn't what it used to be and that's completely on me and it's completely fine. My struggles stopped me from giving you the best possible OTID experience that you could've gotten and I feel very sorry for that, but I can be realistic and admit that this blog is just not that active anymore, and that's okay. All things die out with time. Lying on me wont change the facts that you're lying.

I also invite the people who say I should've known better and that my intent was unclear in asking the question, to explain about what I should have known better and to prove I was somehow malicious. Why would I be malicious? Why would I attack OP in the way they claim I did? When do I ever do that? How does that even make sense? You can still go through the notes and see that after I asked them for an explanation, nobody attacked them. You can also see that the OP went out of their way to attack me, while they explained calmly to another user what they meant.

What makes us different? Neither one of us understood. I can't read tones online, neither can that other user. I also am not a native speaker, so I sometimes get things wrong, hence why I asked. Why do they deserve kindness and I am accused of ill-intent for asking the same thing? Their replies and notes were off. I couldn't see the replies. This isn't Twitter. If you close those things off, other users don't see them and can't know you've made them. Why would anyone post things publicly but not expect a public response from anyone else?

I'd understand if I was attacking OP and they reacted like this, but I wasn't. My response wasn't malicious. I asked the source to explain, because I didn't understand. How is that malicious? To the people who say they see their point, please explain, because I do not see it and I really want to know. How is me genuinely asking what something that I don't understand means malicious? Even after publicly saying that I actually agree with a lot of things they said on their blog about fatphobia and so on. Supporting the cause? Understanding their points? Agreeing? I'm malicious?

I would also like to invite the people who claim I asked them in a known and rude/malicious meme format kind of way to prove that I did that. I did not know of this meme you speak of, but after checking for it online and finding the "well-known meme format" that was mentioned (which wasn't that well-known since I've never heard of it), my wording was not the same. It wasn't even close. So this argument, how can you claim it to be true?

And lastly, can anyone sincerely tell me how does it make sense for me to suddenly have a complete personality change, decide to reblog something to troll a user I don't even know just to be cruel to them, suddenly be malicious and fatphobic and be a completely different person that you all have known me to be for the past six years? If that was really who I am, wouldn't have the masked slipped way sooner? Why would I pretend to be not a complete POS all this time to have "What does this mean?" hill to die on? This is silly.

I wasn't being fatphobic. I wasn't mocking OP. I wasn't attacking OP. I wasn't being 'snarky'. I simply asked them what something they said meant, because I didn't understand what they meant. My brain wasn't computing. I didn't get their wording. I stumbled upon their post on the explore page, and wasn't seeking them out to antagonize them or anything else they might have claimed. I don't like hurting people. I don't go out of my way to hurt people. If I do hurt somebody I want to do everything in my power to correct it.

My followers weren't harassing them after that question. The OP didn't receive hundreds of hate messages after that question. OP is lying and it's easily to prove that they are. I don't know why they're lying and I'm not willing to get into that because I can't even assume, but one thing is clear - OP had a disproportionate reaction to a question that shouldn't have warranted such a reply. They doubled down and continued claiming victimhood in a situation where they haven't been victimized.

I genuinely feel sorry for them. I believe they've been victimized before. I know this sounds patronizing, but I really do feel sorry for them. I just don't appreciate that they've decided to do a victim cosplay over this and tried to villainize me for asking this question:

Ending this with my final thoughts: fatphobia is real and hurts people. I don't support fatphobia. I don't stand for it. I've met a lot of fatphobes in my life and all of them were deeply hurtful and insecure people who took out their insecurities on others. Here on OTID we don't vibe with shaming people for their weight nor for how they look. Fat people are people. Skinny people are people. We're all the same on the inside, bones and organs. What matters is how we treat others. I want to spend my days treating others with kindness and receiving kindness back. I like putting smiles on people's faces, not hurting others. I do get it wrong sometimes, and I acknowledge that, but I always try to correct myself, learn and be a better person. I admit when I'm wrong.

If this is my hill to die on, then so be it. But I promise you that I did not reblog OP's post and asked that question to make fun of them or invite harassment to them. I can't believe I even have to repeat this so many times, but I was asking because I didn't understand. I stand behind everything I've said. If your claim to fame is trying to fight me, you highly overestimate how many active followers I have and the kind of community you'll find here. If you want to cancel me for being fatphobic, I'm sorry to say but the only person I've ever been cruel to and who I've bodyshamed was my own self.

[viaphni]

RUINED REALLTY SEASON THREE: CATALYST TRAILER ANALYSIS

I have to completely admit that the end of season 2 and its epilogue had me very hesitant for the way things are going, and I am still a little hesitant, but i DO BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE 1000% COOKING

First of all, that trailer was AMAZING!

The music, atmosphere, and cinematography were all done very very well (and great voice acting from Rinzler too)

But onto the actual trailer

It opens up on the results of the Soulstice's arrival, with Light alone, showing everybody's souls stolen away and their bodies on the ground. Light has lost it all. He immediately blames himself. It's also made apparent pretty quickly that Soullless is still present in some way, and is going to play a significant role again.

One of the first really interesting things to occur is Light taking the Soul Eater's weapon in his hands.

He stares at it for a moment before picking it up, the screen fading to black. But why would he be using his worst enemy's weapon? What benefit does it serve him? Mostly likely, I think it would have something to do with Soulless. Whether he likes it or not, Light now has a complete tie to the Soulstice itself. As he takes it, he says "And now, another threat is here..."

And Void's new reign of terror is displayed:

We are shown the Yellow Kingdom again, and the areas around it, completely overtaken by Darkness. Void must have taken complete control of the situation, as we just saw Seer with active dominance over their body in the epilogue. Maybe it was a defense mechanism to keep him alive after Corrupt's attack?

After these shots, we see what I think is the center tower of the kingdom—and there is a deep, bottomless pit surrounding it where the moat of lava once was.

It reminds me a bit of the castle entrance to the Depths from Tears of the Kingdom. Void might have something important down there.

A few more shots cycle through of the tower, and we see this—

The camera is descending into the chasm.

Next, we see a room maybe akin to some kind of lab?

It could also be a big machine. Somebody is standing there, but even with heightened exposure and brightness, it's hard to tell who it is. I'm sure it's Void, however, due to the chasm and darkness. This shot is really interesting, too--

--because it seems to be the view of the surface from this area underground. With heightened exposure, the walls look very machine-like.

Whether that or a lab, it clearly serves a primary purpose in Void's plans. (One of my first thoughts was likely a stretch, but I asked myself if it could be similar to the Soulstice--in the way that a machine was created to steal all souls, another would be created now to spread Darkness. Shadow Sabre did something similar in RQ.)

The next four shots emphasize what seems to be some of our new group of main characters.

We see the Purple Leader in his home. Him coming into the main cast will be very interesting, as I'm sure it will give us more opportunities to learn about the histories with people like the Sorcerer and Phantasia, strong links to the Soulstice. I'm sure this knowledge will be vital to the fight.

Now this next photo--I can't exactly tell what's going on here? It appears to be Corrupt's lab? When the exposure and brightness are edited, I can't see any details. But this is 1000% Corrupt is just is trust frfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrffrfr Corrupt is alive

The shot then switches to an Indigo and an unidentifiable Aquamarine who seems to be imbued with light energy, given the white eye. I assumed this could be Aaron, but his soul got stolen. Who knows? The Indigo is the Doctor Indigo, I would think--given the coat and monocle, but he didn't have a design in Season 2, so I'm unsure. Both of these could be completely new characters.

And now, Dimension facing off with the Soulstice. It seems that Dimension will play a much bigger role now and actually put in the work for once. I guess that was his final straw? Or maybe the season will start and he will still show absolutely no concern.

A couple of interesting shots of Light and Soulless show up after this.

In a similar fashion to the Season 2 intro, Light walks towards the camera and glitches into his other forms, this one being Soulless. It only emphasizes his apparent new role in the season.

After this, we see a standoff between the main cast and the main opposition. Light, Professor, Dimension, Purple, and...a strange new variant of Assistant. It makes me think of the assistant robot from A Dark Soul, which was also themed around light. In the beginning of the trailer (and in the thumbnail), we only see the Assistant as a head. I guess he got repaired, and Light was a major factor playing in it.

I'd also like to point out how odd the new Sculk Steves look. They have gray streaks, like light energy. Since Corrupt was absorbed by the Soulstice, I imagine that the light crystal he held became of high use to the Soulstice, allowing it to power up these Steves like this.

The patterns on the ends of their limbs also look much bigger/brighter/saturated, or maybe its just the lighting--like soul flames instead of the typical sculk steve pattern.

The Steve standing above in the second picture catches my eye, though. It seems to be a "normal" being, and even appears to be holding something if you look closely.

Right by the head there. This figure is also standing closest to the Soulstice, so they must be important. Could it be Corrupt? Well if you watch a few more seconds--

Right there. We see Light fighting with who appears to be that figure. But that sword... We have seen that sword before!

Corrupt's sword.

We never saw Corrupt disappear when the Soulstice found him. It's more than probable that he simply could have just absorbed the light energy from him, used it to power up the sculk steves and other operations, and left Corrupt weakened. But what purpose would he have even leaving him alive? The Soulstice has everything it needs now, right?

Light found Toxin, too. And with a potion effect? He seems weakened. Perhaps Void has abandoned him and Light will team up with him? He already seemed to be cracking during his fight with Light in the forest where his prior identity as Soren was revealed. Is it finally time we get Soren back? Or will he still be evil?

The next few shots depict a battle between Light and Void, seemingly at his new base of operations. I'd put photos, but I'm almost out of space, and I want to keep this all in one post. Plus, there isn't a lot to analyze there.

The final shots of the trailer are some of my favorite ones.

There's a good bit to break down here.

We start out by seeing Light's cursed form, except his curse appears to have spread greatly. I've also just realized that he doesn't have his soul-afflicted eye in this form. Images of Purple Leader, Soulstice, Professor, Soulless, and Assistant are not surprising--we already know of their larger roles. I believe that's Corrupt again in the 5th shift. As for the 8th, I'm a bit confused. I don't think we know who this person is. However, the purple belt definitely brings up a few ideas, even if they're stretches. Could we meet a new Purple Steve--maybe even Phantasia?? I doubt that's the case, as it seems pretty outlandish. The Yellow Leader being present actually makes a lot of sense as well. His Darkness should give him resistance to the Soulstice.

BUT, I'm really focusing in on those last three. Louis, Cliff, and,, Seer.

We saw the Elites' souls taken. Clearly, they find their way back to the land of the living eventually (and with some sick new redesigns.) Louis doesn't change much, but Cliff appears to now be entirely a Light Steve. Which brings up another thought--if he is now 100% light, does this mean that he is completely purged of Darkness? Is his Shadow gone? Is his shadow the reason he had to become fully light?

And then there's Seer. There's no doubt that this is him. My friend @chaoticcyprus brought up this photo:

We saw this shot during the semi-finale when Void was battling the Soul Eater. The outfit aligns perfectly, except now his hood is down, and he seems to have been set free from whatever chains held him previously.

But how would Seer and Void separate? I assume it would have something to do with Corrupt's final blow on Void.

Corrupt dealt an absolutely MASSIVE amount of power onto his opponent. I'm sure that the sheer amount of light energy could be enough to somehow split Void and Seer apart. It would explain Void's sudden spike in power and authority that he seems to have in the next season.

As for any final thoughts,,, I can't think of much else for now.

But I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone else has to say, and also what the team presents for Catalyst!

[kydoesthings1]

McGillis and the Pied Piper

because February 24th’s Wordle was piper and I am procrastinating on school work

At 16:57 of S2E21 (E46) Gaelio says this to McGillis before charging him.

(Gaelio is speaking through the comms offscreen.)

(Apparently this line was also used in a game. I forgot which one. I don't play Gundam games.)

Gaelio literally says something along the lines of "Are you still going to play the pipe of Hamelin even when the battle is going like this?" Not sure why this is the subtitle. But they mostly mean the same thing so maybe I'm just nitpicking.

To refresh your memory a little, this is when the Revolutionary Fleet is very clearly losing to Arianrhod, and McGillis just made his pep talk and this iconic frame. They are preparing to retreat and regroup when Gaelio shows up to fight McGillis.

Gaelio referencing the Pied Piper of Hamelin (Hameln, same thing) is of course connected to McGillis's and thus his love of myth/folk tales. Because of McGillis's influence, Gaelio also has a strong liking for stories. He names himself and Gundam Vidar/Kimaris Vidar after Vidar, the Norse god of revenge and silence, son of Odin and slayer of Fenrir (Fenris, same thing but IBO uses Fenrir) the monster wolf son of Loki during Ragnarok. The same side story 'Eve of Vidar' also tells us he used to hit on girls using Norse mythology fun facts, including Yamazin Toka when he was a test pilot for the Schwalbe Graze.

Although these are relatively common knowledge for us, the viewers, they are probably niche facts however many years in the future the Post Disaster timeline is (in UC0079 Hitler and WW2 is considered "middle ages" despite being historically quite recent for us). This is one thing Gaelio and McGillis have in common and it is because of McGillis.

(Also this is kind of a weak diss? Like if you're gonna insult McGillis why compare him to something so cool. "Snake on the moon" - now that's an insult. But I digress.)

But what is the Pied Piper exactly? The Pied Piper, or the Ratcatcher (der Rattenfänger) is a legend of the town Hamelin in Lower Saxony of Germany. There are dozens of variations of this tale, but I'll only be talking about the most popular versions that relate to the events of IBO.

In 1284, Hamelin had a rat problem. Basically there were a whole bunch of rats, and they made life suck for the townspeople, as large numbers of rats tend to do. According to Robert Browning's poem, the people were mad at the mayor for not being able to solve the problem, and were about to kick him out. Then a man wearing a coat of many bright colors (Browning's version says yellow and red, both in McGillis's palette at some point) and holding a pipe showed up. The Piper promised to get rid of all the rats in exchange for 1000 guilders. He then played his pipe and all the rats came out and followed him into the river Weser and drowned.

The townspeople did not follow through on their end, however, and came up with all sorts of excuses to not give him the promised 1000 guilders. This angered the Piper, and he played his pipe again, and this time all 130 of the town's children came out and followed him away dancing and they never returned, nor were they ever seen again. Versions disagree on what happened to the children. In the Grimm Brothers and Browning's versions they went to Transylvania. Others say they went to a land like paradise in a cave. Others say they drowned in the river like the rats.

So how does this relate to McGillis and IBO? Well actually it's pretty obvious - Gaelio is simply saying McGillis is luring Isurugi, the Revolutionary Fleet and Tekkadan to their doom with false promises.

However, the point of this post is to point out some interesting details of this parallel. The Piper lured the children of Hamelin away as an act of revenge on the adults of the town because they didn't pay him what was rightfully his for his service. McGillis's coup can be framed as revenge on the corrupt system of the world Gjallarhorn maintains, and those who personally victimized him.

Interestingly, some accounts describe the Piper as "a miracle of God" and that he was sent to test the townspeople, and punish them when they didn't keep their word. Others call him the devil in disguise, who intended to trick the people and take their children. This is like how McGillis can be seen as a charismatic leader aiming to change the world for the better, or a ruthless, cold-blooded, lying, backstabbing, power-hungry traitor who will stop at nothing.

Additionally, Bael, the demon king, is a fallen angel who was cast out with Lucifer for rebelling against God, and Gundam Bael's gunpla box describes it as "a demon with the appearance of an angel" (this could also apply to McGillis himself).

In many versions of the story, some children are left behind. Which ones exactly vary, but Browning's focuses on a boy with a broken leg who couldn't keep up with the other children, so he was able to tell the villagers where he saw them go. The boy said they went into a portal on the side of the mountain, and on the other side was a paradise where everything was beautiful and peaceful. The boy was very sad he couldn't join his friends there because now he was all alone and couldn't return to that land.

Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?

In the epilogue, Gaelio is in a wheelchair and his bandaged neck suggests that his Alaya-Vijnana implants had been removed fairly recently. Supplemental info reveals that McGillis injured his spine during their fight at Edmonton, and Gaelio was only able to be up and about in S2 thanks to his AVS.

If the land the Piper and the children went to is Heaven, then this could be read as Gaelio being the only one not to follow McGillis into death, and being the sole survivor of his friends (for the sake of this argument Julieta doesn't count because Gaelio wasn't fighting for or against her).

An important difference is the boy longed to follow the Piper, while Gaelio rejected McGillis because he schemed to kill him and his friends.

The Piper's other name, the Ratcatcher? Tekkadan are space rats?

Also McGillis's true name Montag, presumably his surname before Iznario's adoption, is German for Monday, hinting at his heritage, and the Piper is a German story (obviously).

The Pied Piper is a legend that originated in the Middle Ages, and Gjallarhorn's leadership, ideology and overall aesthetic is reminiscent of that.

There is a version of the story that the Piper will return in 300 years. Which he did not do, but 300 years? McGillis, the self-proclaimed successor to Agnika Kaieru after 300 years?

I can't be bothered to write a separate piece on Gaelio's legs so I should also mention that Vidar, the Norse god defeats Fenrir by stepping on his lower jaw with his shoe made from all the collected pieces of leather people cut from their own shoes, and grabbing his upper jaw and ripping him apart at the mouth.

Vidar's special shoes are like how Gaelio says he’s carrying all the wishes of Carta and Ein, and the AVS Type-E also serves as his literal feet. (Also he wears very striking white thigh-high boots that are very hot. What they're not is part of the Gjallarhorn uniform, just to make this connection, in addition to exacting revenge in style.)

In many carvings, Vidar is shown stabbing Fenrir through the heart also, and Gaelio/Kimaris Vidar defeats McGillis by pinning him against the Arianrhod flagship and stabbing him/Bael through the torso.

Proposed origins of the Pied Piper

Now obviously there was no piper guy dressed in goofy clothes that stole all the children of a town with magic music. There are several theories about what the legend is based on. This has nothing to do with IBO anymore and I just thought it was fun so feel free to stop reading if you don't agree.

Plague: According to this theory, all the children died because of illness and the place they went to is a mass grave. The Piper's many-colored clothing represents the sores and discoloration of skin of those who contracted the illness, and he is the personification of the plague/death. Rats are carriers of fleas, which spread the plague. 1284 is a bit too early for the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) though, so it may have been something else.

Emigration: The emigration theory suggests that much of the people of Hamelin moved to eastern Europe in search of better opportunities as only the eldest son had inheritance and the others could only be serfs. In this theory, "children of Hamelin" are not actual children, and it's just a figure of speech to say they were of a certain place. This correlates with some versions where the Piper and the children he took were sighted in Transylvania.

Human trafficking/the Children's Crusades: In these two theories the Piper is the recruiter/trafficker and the story was made up by the town to please their officials.

Dancing mania: There have been records of dancing mania in about the same time period in the surrounding region, and children were among the affected. Dancing mania can sometimes result in death due to exhaustion. It was originally attributed to a curse by a saint (St. John or St. Vitus) and you had to pray to them to lift the curse. Modern explanations for dancing mania are neurological disorders or collective mental disorders.

Pagan ritual: supposedly the pipe music and dancing children are part of this ritual that took place in the mountains, and the children died from a landslide or similar accident.

"You're reading way too much into Gaelio's one line" no actually I am reading exactly the right amount into it and everyone else isn't reading into it enough

[bookwormstarwarsfan]

A mad rambling about a certain fan community and a rare mention of politics kind of stuff from me, that I may regret, but thankfully only like 5 people will see it sooo

IF I SEE ONE MORE POST SAYING THAT THE PLANNED TERRORIST ATTACK AT THE VIENNA TS CONCERT WAS AN ANTI-TH FANBASE AND/OR MISOGYINIST ATTACK, I'M GOING TO BREAK SOMETHING

It's... it's... soooo.... I don't know... selfish? Definitely incredibly ignorant towards the topic of terrorism, but also a very good example of my problem with th fanbase. No, I'm not disliking you because you are women, no, not because I'm sexist, no, not because I don't like you seeing having fun, it's because this!

I'm a soon to be international relationship expert~political scientist, which is also my hobby and passion, so this is an extra sensitive topic to me, especially that I also lived through the maddening, frightening feeling of the European terrorism wave around 2015-2017.

I can't believe that I had to explain this terrible thing here. But ISIS and any other islamic fundamentalist groups are fighting a war that was born in their broken minds: they just want to kill anybody who is not muslim or the right kind of muslim according to them and making headlines with it. It has nothing to do with TS and nothing to do with the fact that the audience would have been mainly women, they just saw the opportunity to attack an event with a huge amount of people that will be also big news around the world. It's just feels so self-centered to instantly make it into a TS thing. I'm not saying that the attackers couldn't have had sexist motivations, but this would have been a fundamentalist terror attack, that's it.

I'm especially angry, since I'm barely over the shock that the Southport stabbing is also circulating as an anti-TS attack. I didn't even know it was a dance class to her music until I saw a post here talking about how the whole world just wants to murder the fanbase or idk. I'm not ashamed to say that I find disgusting that three children's death and many others' injury is used for this, to make it about themsleves. Could have been a madman who hates TS? Yes, although it's a low chance. Could have been a misogynist attack? Higher chance. But in this situation it's even more important than usual to not to make assumptions. Don't forget that there are violent, islamophobic, anti-migration riots going on in the UK because people made assumptions about the attacker and his motives. But in reality, we don't know if it was an extreme right-wing attack, an extreme leftist attack, a terror attack, a sexist attack, or if he just woke up one day with sounds in his head telling him to kill someone, anyone.

I, like any other normal person, am fully against jokes about how TS fans should be killed or locked up, or any other humorous intended or serious ideas about violence against them, but let's not make it look like it's a niche community of 1000 pursued women around the world who are fans of some underappreciated artist who is in grave danger all the time because the whole globe is against her. Especially that a very big part of this fanbase is systemathically harassing people for various reasons.

Violent misogyny and aggression against people who like and do harmless stuff other's don't like is a serious problem, but doesn't give right to this kind of manipulation of events, and can't be solved by not having clear, honest dicsussion, and especially not by making things up.

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for dying?

Ok to put it more accurately: I didn't really exist? I mean I did—I do, but i'm also just the dream of this giant monster thing.

Anyways I (M 17) was living in dream land as the best athlete in the biggest sport there. Everyone knows who I am but they always compare me to my dad who left and never came back. One day during a big game there was this GIANT monster that was destroying everything! My uncle figure A (knew him through my dad and he's been a better father figure than my dad) told me to FIGHT THE MONSTER and GAVE ME A SWORD so I had to learn to use a sword to not die.

Long story short the monster like swallowed me and I arrived 1000 years in the future in a new world. Thats what I understood anyways. The monster thing is terrorizing the world and there are these holy figures who go on pilgrimages to stop it. Thats when I met my girlfriend, Y (17). She was on her journey to slay the thing and I tagged along hoping to find a way back home.

Along our journey I because a guardian to her and swore to protect her with a few other people including A. Eventually Y and I fell in love. But thats when we learned that in order to defeat he monster, Y has to die and one of use has to go with her. The worst part is that it doesn't even permanently kill the thing! It just kills it for a few years. So I convinced her to leave and quit, screw all of that.

We found a way to kill it, turns out the monster thing IS my dad but thats a story for another time. When we were on our way to kill it the first time I learned that I'm just a dream. Like, I exist but as a dream of the giant monster, so if it dies so do I. I didn't tell Y this but eventually she figured it out. We killed the monster and my dad and I couldn't exist so I faded away and left my girlfriend heartbroken. She literally spent years after that trying to find me because she thought she could get me back.

She somehow did in the end but I'm weaker now and barely exist but we're together. Still, I feel terrible for doing that to her and not letting her be able to move on. Or having her fall in love with me in the first place! AITA?

[itsana004]

Astral for the character thingy? :3

First of all, thank you so much for the ask!!! 💖

I realised I don't have much Astral content/discourse on my blog, so here lays my truest thoughts on Astral

•How do I feel about this character

I really love his character! Whenever I rewatch Zexal, he just wakes up and choses violence that day and I love that.

I think I was intrigued by his character because he was introduced as this serious and intelligent looking naked alien, who roasts Yuma like shish kebab on a daily basis, especially when it comes to dueling, and we know that is going to be their dynamic for a while - but he's much more than that.

I think I really started to like Astral on the Esper Robin episode, he's not just Yuma's foreign alien friend/dueling aid who roasts him and that's it, he has his own interests like watching the Sparrow show (and adding humour to the series with his foreignness about earth), flying around and being curious about the human world, being afraid of cats, when he eats for the first time, teaching Hart how to eat with sticks (so cuteee), has his own Observation series, his banter with Yuma - this are just examples on what makes his character so precious to me.

Also another thing I was surprised by is despite being so cool and collected, he feels fear during duels like when he dueles against Kite? And it made me feel anxious for him when I was watching it?? Astral can feel emotions such as fear and I really appreciate this detail because I think the show writers raised the stakes too high that if Yuma loses then he's going to disappear, so they end up winning every single duel with Astral's magic formula, and therefore most of the time he's unbothered and almost invincible - so when he shows emotions outside of his stoic calmness, I love it. I don't know why I just love to see Astral lose his absolute sh8t

Also Astral's friendship with Yuma's friend group I find it so cute, despite being invisible they still felt his presence because that's how much of an influence Astral had, and when he was gone, they felt it through Yuma's grief (or Kotori told them whatever) and Flip created a crystal/glass gravestone showing how much Astral meant to all of them, the gesture it's just so sweet and emotional. I also loved his friendship with Kite, despite being minimal, he influenced in Kite's decision to not give up on dueling and that friends represent the future which is a lesson he learned from Yuma, which changes his whole trajectory.

Now let's talk about the plot... and boy it's filled with plot holes and... questions.

Astral has a... a very mysterious/confusing background. So he was born as a weapon by Eliphas to protect the Astral world, and one of Astral's character traits is to get split into cards just randomly... Number cards to be exact - whether it's his memories - giving him amnesia, whether it's his powers lost during his battle against Don 1000 - turning into Mythirian cards, parts of him just like to split into cards and I guess I find it funny? Heck he even has an evil twin as a Number card like-

Oh and also fan fact he turns Yuma into Super Saiyan when they jumbled up together.

But 50 of these Number cards possess people an amplify their desires, so Astral was the real villain in this show- no, it was Yuma's dad cause he sent him there by making him have amnesia and leading his son to go through life threatening situations and hell to collect them (I knew it all along)

ALSO, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT DARK ASTRAL- HOLY SH8T THIS MOMENT FVCKED ME UP WHEN I WATCHED IT FOR THE FIRST TIME

Like- I didn't even feel like I was watching Zexal and kind of wish they made these moments of satanic Astral longer. But let's talk about the real satanic Astral, boy I love Dark Mist's and Astral's banter and how Astral just has to fist fight him to not be either absorbed or killed by his evil twin.

I think this is becoming too long now for a read so I am just gonna move on now.

• All the people I ship romantically with this character

I don't particularly ship him with anyone (except Dark Mist maybe) in the show because I'm not simply invested in any of his ships that much? I can see him and Yuma being together, afterall he did say "Aishiteru" (I hope I spelled it correctly) which is the deepest form of "I love you" at the end of the manga, but at the end of the day I'm just "They're cute, next-", and honestly I much prefer Dark Mist x Astral than the latter, it's simply how I feel.

I'd also like to mention a moot has her own ship with Astral and her OC (you know who you are) and I'm definitely more inclined towards that when it comes to shipping Astral with someone because fans are better at writing/drawing romance most of the time, especially because they are not ambiguous or queer baiters.

• My non-romantic OTP for this character

For this section this has to be Yuma and Astral as well. Just as I can see Yuma and Astral being together, I can also see them in platonic light, but there is no mistake that they are soulmates.

I think many years ago I said as to why I felt that way, Yuma and Astral's relationship really reminded me of Nobita and Doraemon and despite both of them going to the ends of the world, time, galaxies to be there for eachother, it wasn't romantic in Nobita and Doraemon's case and they had other romantic partners, because these tropes are so similar, our two zexal characters can also fall into the platonic category. Now if anyone reading this are mad at me for even considering this and seek representation from the zexal series of your fave ship, then good for you, I prefer either way, but I all can say is I really enjoyed Astral's and Yuma's dynamic throughout the show and how their bonds became stronger through dueling, and it's the growth and influence they had in each other that I liked, and I definitely became emotional and pulled my heartstrings whenever they lost themselves and tried to bring eachother back, and the last scene of them parting ways had me weeping.

Ps. Astral's roast to Yuma will be the most memorable.

• My unpopular opinion about this character

Oh boy, I can't really think of any right now? But I think despite being a protagonist I feel like he's overshadowed by other characters, especially Yuma, like we don't really see Astral as invidual character most of the time and it's always him and Yuma, so maybe he deserved some solo attention? (Okay so there is literally a Kotori centric ending song but not for Astral? What-)

Also he deserves clothes-

• One thing I wish would happen/had happened with his character in canon

Zexal III

Zexal III

ZEXAL III AHHHHH

Also can someone tell me how Yuma's dad met Astral and send him on earth but not himself and his wife-

[devsgames]

Video Games Should Probably Cost More

Okay, I'm sick of people saying "video games should be cheaper!" without really understanding the effect that has or why devs are arguing that video game prices are relatively cheap to begin with. I'd like to present my Hot Take: Buying a modern video game should in practice be way more expensive than it is, and the reason it isn't is directly due to the exploitation of labour under capitalism.

To start, folks need to understand that basically the only way modern video games can afford to be made at the scope and quality they are is by exploiting the people making them.

Realistically with the size, scope and budget most productions are operating on, most games these days simply cannot afford to be made in a way that compensates their workers fairly. They're simply too large and the margins - even though substantial in some cases - often simply aren't there.

To get around this, studios exploit their workforce to cut costs as much as possible, which in turn also enables them to cut down the price of games ("passing the savings on to you!!!"). Outsourcers in the Global South fight for their studios to take on contracts for the lowest pay, devs are carroted along on temp positions without benefits or financial security instead of permanent ones with benefits, undercutting QA departments to the point they can't afford to live in the same city they work in, incredibly low starting wages for developers starting in the industry, crunch culture...the list of how this ripples through ever part of the industry goes on.

I've also seen people say "Oh well indies are fine, I don't think THEY should make less money :)" and while the sentiment is nice the devaluation of game labour 100% applies to indies, possibly even moreso: Players have directly told me before that "indie games shouldn't cost more than $10" (!!!) or "your $5 game you put 1000+ hours of labour into and see only 70% profit returns of and hasn't broke even costs too much" (?!?). These preconceived ideas of how much a game 'should be worth' isn't coming from a void; games across the spectrum, and the labour put into them, are INSANELY devalued both indie and AAA alike. The 'indies get out of jail free card' is pretty moot when it comes to the culture of what most players perceive the value and labour that going into a game. Additionally it's always worth noting that because someone is indie doesn't mean they haven't found a way to exploit their workforce - they're not mutually exclusive concepts, and I've arguably seen more exploitative practices in indie spaces than AAA ones.

Obviously the concept of 'minimum pay maximum profit' is not unique to video games and is a general Capitalism problem, but know if studios did magically decide to charge less for games (and let's be real, they won't) it would come at the cost of having found more people to exploit more effectively. They'd find some shmucks who would make their games dirt cheap for them, open a new studio in a poor exploitable country, or even scrape pay off of their workforce. It's similar to when you buy a cheaper product at the supermarket - did the store selling it to you graciously decide they didn't want to earn as much of a profit? No, the probably just found someone who exploited their workforce more efficiently to give them better margins.

Do I think people should have to pay an arm and a leg for an entertainment product? Absolutely not, but I hope at a baseline the people who make arguments for paying less for games realize how prohibitively expensive they are to produce in the first place, and how simply "making them cheaper" would have knock on effects to how they're made.

Am I saying that if game prices increased that all these undercut devs would magically get paid? No of course not. A good chunk of the profit just goes on up to the executive level, or to shareholders first. Most devs don't see any of the money at all (and likely never would if studios had any say in it), but it also doesn't necessarily mean that if the money *did* reach them it would even be enough because, again, the production of making a whole-ass video game is incredibly expensive. Most executives would also gladly lay developers off or exploit other workers before taking a pay cut themselves but the money that does move around probably isn't enough in the first place.

There's no real thesis here because it's still early in the morning and I'm tired, but I just hope folks reflect on what exactly they're arguing for when they say blanket statements like "games should cost less". As a consumer it's an easy idea to throw around, but how you'd hope to see it put into practice behind the scenes is what you really should be talking and thinking about. "I want my video game to be cheap!" is a statement that is generally unhelpful and actually harmful to developers and work practices surrounding them - the money's gotta come off of someone and if a corporation is gunna take it from anyone first it's going to be the folks they have the most power over.

Personally I always think supporting the efforts of devs who are unionizing their workforce is paramount so that at a baseline, so they're at least paid what they're worth for the games they make for you and they have resources to fight back against their exploitation.

After all, I'm sure we can agree that if video games as we know them are going to continue to cost a ton of money to make, it's best that money at least go to the people being exploited most - right?

[a-mag-a-day]

Spoilerinos: Trevor's statement made me SO EXCITED on a first listen! I was shocked and happy that there were people fighting back against the things that go bump in the night instead of just succumbing to the inevitable fear and doom! It opened up a whole new branch of world building...how many more were like Trevor? Brave soldiers fighting back against the darkness? I was 1000% on his side....which made uh... subsequent revelations....hit me rather hard XD. I thought it was so cool to have this character be homeless. The theme that it took someone who was outcast from society rather than part of the system to be able to fight back was a powerful narrative. So many of the statements are all about victimhood, but here we have a person who is one of the most vulnerable and victimized members of society turning the tables and being this ...superhero essentially. I was very team Trevor and I got STOKED when his 2nd statement turned up.

Now buckle up for my long analysis of the Hunt and its effect on me as a listener: It seems like the Hunt was designed specifically to give me hope and then rip the rug from under my feet. You thought you could fight against the forces of darkness? Psyche, you became one instead.

For context, I am a white American who was raised semi-conservative and is now pretty far left liberal, and learned a lot about how fucked up the system is from working in criminal defense. Prior to my exposure to the system I was pretty much in the "I trust cops" mindset.

I was so so pro-Trevor and pro-Daisy and pro-Julia until I realized what they'd become. I wanted to believe that there were evil things in this world of the Magnus Archives, but there were good people who could fight it and make things better. I think this is not dissimilar to the one dimensional hope of people in the "blue lives matter" camp (or even just non-woke people) - it's so much easier to believe that the world is uncomplicated and there are "evil criminals" but it's okay because there are "good cops" who will stop them!

I think the introduction of the Hunt through the lens of a homeless person rather than the cop blinded me to this analogy, and it took me a long long time to walk away from being in the pro-hunt camp as a result. In Trevor's 2nd statement I spent the whole time trying to figure out what was secretly evil about the human drug dealer he killed, totally missing that the statement was about TREVOR being the evil.

It wasn't until Daisy as an actual cop was introduced AND until she attacked Jon that I made the connection of what was going on. Even /after/ that for a fairly long time I thought "sure, the Hunt is part of the problem, but it seems like it's still overall doing good even if a few innocents get caught up in it?" Eventually it clicked for me. I don't even remember what did it, possibly Jon running into Julia and Trevor in America? It was thoroughly jarring to go through the experience of losing "faith" in the police again (or in this case the "hunters"). I almost felt sick with myself that I - who think of myself as pretty "woke" - didn't see it for so long. The whole concept of the Hunt and its parallels to issues of cops and criminal justice in this show is incredible. I'm not very familiar with policing issues in the UK, but was blown away by how well this reflected the issues of the US and the experience of being a conservative that has to face the fact that in their blindness they were part of the problem.

I'd be curious to know if people who don't share my background were able to see it faster, or whether it was the carefully crafted world building of the Magnus Archives that deliberately led it's listeners astray in order to pull that rug out.

Thank you for sharing! This podcast really brings up alot of complex issues and moral dilemmas which makes it that much more interesting to discuss.

I remember this especially being a sensitive topic in the Magnus Archives fandom in the past so if you choose to react in the comments I ask you do so respectfully :)

[incarnateirony]

This goes outside of what you’ve been talking about recently, but I’m sending this on the chance you might answer. Recently I’ve seen some discourse on how Wicca is a tradition that is, due to its origins, inherently racist, sexist, transphobic and cultural apropriation, since most of it was taken from other cultures by a european. Since you’re the most no-bullshit person that understands of this sort of things I know of on the internet, do you think that’s true at all or is this a lot about nothing?

Listen, like. No.

I don't like wicca, lemme make that clear, but this is "let me shove as many buzz words in as possible to justify why I don't like a thing."

Wicca didn't steal from (insert list of minorities). Wicca stole from a white man named Aleister Crowley, then spent the last 70 years denying they did so. Because how dare you, this is a feminist movement, how dare you say it came from a MAN. [throws papers and histories in the incinerator] NOTHING TO SEE HERE

I'm a follower of Crowley's work. Most of my meta even cites Crowley's work. I've even gotten into fights with fellow hermetics and thelemites on my blog before.

At the end of the day, there's some severe SJW brainrot going on. Don't take that as being "anti SJW" or "anti woke", but pretending the brainrot to justify Things I Don't Like never hits is absurd.

Religion is a form of storytelling, belief, and structure. If you don't live in a tumblr hole of argumentation, studying anthropology shows how the entire evolution of deities, myths, etc all comes from storytelling sharing, and a lot of ideas are innately shared, just like our heritage. Versions split as people traveled over thousands of years but Campbell, while reductionist to some extent, Had A Point with Hero With 1000 Faces. So this whole "someone's religion stole MY religion's thing" shut up, literally every religion "stole" everything, it's how religions happen.

To roll back to center, Wicca started initially as a branch of a thelemic lodge. It used to be closed doors, and have graded promotions (similar to my old Zelator > Adeptus > Dominus > etc). It used to have formalized learning and education structures. Then when Crowley died his sidekick rewrote Literally Everything and tried to take Campbell's argument to make a FAR LESS EDUCATED OR ACCURATE tale of "the global ancient witch religion" and spun it out into being an open door process anyone can google fu through and say they're part of.

That's what the fuck Wicca stole from. Right down to Do No Harm or Do What Thou Wilt.

One could argue her Global Witch Religion was an Act Of Theft since it lacked the actual history of it, but the Theft started at hijacking another religion which did have the anthropological studies behind it to warrant it. Thelema was designed to use other mythologies as a unifying method while removing the constant centralization on christian deities (eg, hermetics/alchemy often went into jesus juice from christian influence, so Crowley rebelled by finding syncretics in other/older religions to get off the jesus juice.) His was studied and backed. Valentina's was witch fanfiction, so I guess you could say "she stole it" but at the end of the day, it's "she was the first ff.net witch with tildes on her name making shit up."

People will stop being confused about wicca if they stop listening to what 14 year old witches on tumblr claim about wicca.

io pan, io pan, i am a man, do what thou wilt as a great god can.

I hate nothing more though, than when tumblr tries to forcefully corral gods and ancient mysteries into invisible borders, like the gods don't have passports. Your Almighty Creator only exists in fuckoffistan, I guess. There's a boundary being crossed, and it isn't "humans displaying anthropologically consistent behaviors", it's "people that want to treat entire religions as fetishes that must be beaten into borders and never travel." Meanwhile you can track the origin of dragon mythos, for example, from south africa, upwards through africa, then southern asia, then east asia, then a later chapter going into the indoeuropean era in general, and also the bridge crossing to the americas, you can literally find these threads and use them to discuss our similarities and connections, as long as you don't try to overwrite the cultures themselves and HOW they explored the divine in association with their form of it. You can actually--holy shit--RESPECT each other.

Human history gets pretty interesting once you crack open anthropology and partner global mythology's evolution according to the migration of man. Or we can just go yell at our ancestors to not "steal" each other's descriptions of the divine. Like kids taking their ball and going home. NO U CAN'T TALK TO MY SUN GOD, MY SUN GOD IS TED, HE'S A DIFFERENT SUN THAN YOUR STUPID SUN GOD BOB.

I don't know how to explain this to tumblr, but the previous sentence is why wars happen.

There's a wholeass thing going on in Palestine about this shit right now. Sure it's about land/right to live but let's dig kids, what's the real argument between these groups for the last forever.

So stop it.

[cookinguptales]

Guillermo de la Cruz

favorite thing about them I love everything about Guillermo, lbr, but probably my absolute favorite part of his character is the way that he really, truly believes he's the straight man (so to speak) of the series, but in some ways he's the most unhinged person there. He's so sweet! As he calls in a bomb threat to a church!

least favorite thing about them the iffy writing in s4 regarding the time skip His tendency to make big, dramatic exits and then come back approximately five business days later. I love melodramatic mess as much as anyone, but it kind of loses the punch after the first time. Even though it does seem to be effective on Nandor, at least, every time.

favorite line This is hard for me, because my favorite things about Guillermo are typically what he does more than what he says. That said, I fucking gasped at his little "I didn't have to" when Nandor accused him of cheating during their last fight. Guillermo, my beloved.

brOTP Probably... Laszlo, maybe? Except they're not bros, they're vaguely antagonistic but occasionally supportive coparents of the creature that crawled out of their deceased friend Colin Robinson. I do really like their dynamic in s4, though, where you can tell that Guillermo is 1000% done with Laszlo but Laszlo is slowly coming around to respecting Guillermo's opinion (even if he drives him nuts) and that makes Guillermo come around, too. I think Guillermo growing some claws has grudgingly impressed Laszlo, even as it's confused and thrilled Nandor.

OTP I feel like this one is... obvious... I've written many thousands of words about why I love Nandor/Guillermo, and I'll probably write many thousands more. They're both fucking insane, but in a way that suits each other so well. I love their incredibly complicated power dynamics. I love the way they make each other better, when they let themselves. ;o;

nOTP Honestly, probably every other character with Guillermo. lmao. I'm a terrible monoshipper like that. But I especially hate any female character with Guillermo, Laszlo/Guillermo (just not the vibe I see there), Colin/Guillermo (feels... like incest now...), and... honestly, probably Derek/Guillermo. I feel like Derek can do better, as cruel as I am to the man.

random headcanon Guillermo's love language is providing for people. He's got an almost pathological need to be needed, but I think that especially comes out with food. We know that his family feeds people to welcome/comfort them (see: his mom in 2.10), we know that he used to have a job in food service, we know that he's an excellent baker (and is adorably proud of that fact), and we know that when he wanted to reconnect with his family, he chose to do so through a dinner. I think food really probably is Guillermo's love language, and it drives him crazy that he can't share that with his vampires, especially Nandor. It's assuaged a little bit by procuring victims (especially virgins) for them, but I think he really wants to break bread with them, so to speak. I foresee him going out to feed with Nandor a lot some day. If he ever gets changed.

unpopular opinion Guillermo is my sweet little baby but he's also a gigantic asshole -- to humans and even occasionally to the other vampires. I see a lot of people saying he "deserves" good things, but I don't think he does. I think he deserves exactly what he's gotten. He made the choices that got him here and they've been deeply cruel choices. I love him more than pretty much any other character on tv, but he's incredibly selfish and petty and mean. I love that for him, but I'm not willing to pretend that he's some sweet cinnamon roll, y'know? He'd be so boring if he were.

song i associate with them Quite a bit of the bird and the bee's work, tbh, especially Again & Again, You're A Cad, and Birthday. (And for a bonus, I associate their song Man with Nandor.) And, of course, Danse Macabre. (ETA: A lot of people didn't know that I didn't choose Danse Macabre for Guillermo when I wrote Sway! No, guys, that's Guillermo's BGM in the show! They use it for him a lot!)

favorite picture of them

my sweet, insane darling

but seriously, him smiling after showing off his stakes in his mini fridge was a close second.

[dany36]

ALRIGHT SO after just...three days i finished final fantasy crystal chronicles: the crystal bearers and....wow....this game....sigh!! where do i begin!!!! i went in expecting nothing and came out of it just...WISHING even MORE that nintendo or square enix will pick up this terribly underrated game series again and make another game to immerse us back in into its beautiful world. the game's story seriously crushed my heart and surprise surprise!! left on a cliffhanger and it SUCKS cus there probably won't ever be a sequel to this game!! :)))) but ahhhhh the ffcc brain rot is back stronger than ever and i love it. more super long junk thoughts below!!!

ok so let's start with the bad things, the most obvious one being the gameplay. i knew beforehand that this game was big on motion controls and that the main character's power of telekinesis heavily relied on it. so it's nothing like the previous games in the series where you fight with swords or lances or magic. so it's kind of...unusual....that the way that you kill enemies in this game is by flinging them around or throwing enemies against each other. and to be honest it took me a good 8 hours (mind you i completed this game at about 11 hours in) to actually get used to the gameplay and find some sort of joy in it, because well it's just...not really like any other game i've played before!! it isn't until i started to actually leveling up my accessories (which farming for materials in this game is a PAIN) and improving my range/focus that i started to somewhat enjoy it.

anyway, about 2-3 hours in i started to realize that this game is more of a...game that decides to tell a really good, fascinating story with motion control minigames in-between. and it wouldn't be so bad if the minigames were somewhat fun, but really i think they're the worst part of the game, and it makes me wonder just...what were they thinking lol. i'd say the worst offenders are that beach battle and the one where you have to sneak around the train. like...they were seriously tedious and would make me stop and think "wow what the hell kind of game am i playing...?"

the one part that really bummed me out was that...well, not to compare yet again to the original, cus heck even in most video games when you're in a town and you see NPCs, normally you can talk to them and learn more about the world or tidbits of information. but this game? you can't speak to ANY of the NPCs. the only people you can talk to here are this moogle that guides you on where to go next, and NPCs that trigger minigames which...to be honest, i think i only ever did two or so, cus again i didn't find them enjoyable to play at all.

and it made me sad because one of my favorite parts of ffcc was that you could speak to pretty much any NPC in the towns you'd go to and you'd get to learn more about the town, get lore information, or even get to know more about the NPCs and their lives. like that girl in marr's pass that would talk about their parents getting a divorce? or learn about how the ferryman's mom was sick and that's why he sold you that ferry pass to get money for her?? it just makes towns and the world feel much more lively! but here the towns, even though they would look bustling with activity and NPCs interacting with each other, it just felt...empty and not very fun at all to walk around and explore.

and it's such a shame because the world in TCB looks so interesting! like there's all these clavats and selkies and lilties out and about in the overworld, in the lett fields, in the vineyard picking fruit, in the red leaf area just chilling in a pond, and i want to talk to them!!! i want to learn more about it and how the world has changed from 1000 years since the miasma stopped tormenting the world! but no, instead of learning about it through NPCs or talking with other people or even sidequests, the game gives you this information through news crawlers that show at the bottom that i sometimes would forget to read because hey, i'm trying to walk around and see what i can discovery! oh wait, i lied, now that i remember, you CAN talk to NPCs but only in...yuke city! and from what i remember, they don't really say anything important that made me go "whoa" like when they TALKED ABOUT HOW CRYSTAL BEARERS CAME TO BE and WHY the lilty kingdom considers them an abomination!! cus they think it's a curse from the yukes!! like what!! how are you just gonna say that to me in a freaking news crawler!! aahhhh!!!

WHICH brings me to my next point....is anyone gonna talk about the miasma streams?? like hello??? what's going on here lol. like the first time i saw them i was like uhhhh oh the miasma streams are...back? but no one really seems to mention them?? unless i missed it in a news crawler but it's like WHAT those bitches were scary AF in the first game and here it's like...nobody really cares! truly wild.

sigh. but ANYWAY! enough about the bad things. let's talk about the good things! and of course my favorite thing about video games is...the soundtrack, which this game's is just FANTASTIC. this isn't the first game that i've decided to pick up and play because i happened to listen to its soundtrack first instead of the game (see: nights journey of dreams, sonic colors, sonic unleashed, etc.). and just...without words. like...it's no secret that the original ffcc is one of my all-time favorite OSTs, so the first time i heard alfitaria capital city, i was completely blown away and had to stop what i was doing at work. like this game REALLY did manage to capture the sound and atmosphere of the original alfitaria city and modernized it to fit the era of crystal bearers. and i mean the game WARNS you from the start that you're about to play a game with a badass soundtrack: it greets you with such a gorgeous song right at the title screen (a sacred haven), which it BRILLIANTLY reuses in an intense scene towards the end of the game!! i wanted to cry!!!! like UGHHHH i love video game music so much and alskdfjlaskjdflaskjdf.

honorable mentions of the soundtrack are: snowfields (now THIS also reminds me a lot of the original ffcc soundtrack...fucking beautiful!), the pioneer spirit (loved this song in the eastern wildlands but now when i hear it it makes me want to cry cus it's the one that plays in the ending scene with belle out looking for layle and keiss heading to the selkie guild to take care of his tribe aND alkdjsflksjadflkjasdlfkj just stab me in the heart already please), and the moogle woods (this...is honestly such a soothing melody like wow i want my mind to be in this place every second of my life PLEASE). there's obviously more but those are the ones that stand out to me, i'll definitely be listening to it more in the coming days now that i'm more aware of where/when these songs play. and more tears will be incoming!!!

and lastly, the story and the characters. i don't even know where to start. first of all, the designs of the characters are fantastic. i mean, the world and lore of FFCC is just honestly amazing and seeing the characters now with a more "realistic" approach to them was such a pleasure to see instead of the chibi-like ones we saw in the original/DS games. like seriously, everyone looks so fucking cool in this game! keiss, belle, layle, AMIDATELION MY FUCKING BELOVED, just...everyone! i mean the yuke already looked cool as fuck in the original, but here i don't know what it was about them that increased their cool factor by 1000%. and i think that's what makes me so angry about this series! there's so much potential in the world of FFCC and its characters and it's such a shame that we might not get to see more of it! it was honestly driving me insane as i was playing through the game because like i mentioned above, there is so much to explore and so many possibilities but instead we got this severely underrated game with a gorgeous story but that was badly executed.

ok so the story! i'm not sure how much of it would make sense to people that are new to the series. i mean i don't think the game does a good job at explaining its setting or the tribes or the history of the lilties. i mean, we know that they had already ruled the world by the time ffcc1 came around and some of the NPCs were mentioning how they wanted the "glorious age of lilties" to come back. so when i found out that the lilties and the yukes were in a great war that caused for the yukes to all but vanish i was just like...what the fuck man!! not the freaking power-hungry lilties at it again wanting to be the all-mighty tribe to rule over all of them!! sheesh!!!! and then you have the selkies who are still more or less outcasts and loners, and then the ever-peaceful clavats that are poor but always hard at work (fields of fum anyone?). oh and witnessing the hatred that existed between the lilties and selkies, with the lilties being called onions? like HELLO!!! again, so much potential and room for exploration but it all just left me wanting more!

but i think even not knowing much about the past games, this game's story manages to be super engaging and interesting. and it all takes a huge fucking turn once you discover that jegran aka the lilty high commander is...a fucking crystal bearer!!! what the hell! and his power is beyond fucked up!! i seriously WAS NOT expecting amidatelion to die, like she was just trying to save her tribe, her family, and she sacrificed herself for layle!! and put her trust in him to carry out the resurrection!!! 😭😭😭😭😭 i was in just utter shock!!! amidatelion is seriously one of the coolest characters in the game, and them being voiced by caitlin glass just made me love them even mrore. and then the whole thing in the aerial prison with jegran turning the selkies into crystals?? finding out princess althea was ALSO A CRYSTAL BEARER??? like the game starts out pretty slow in its storytelling but once the whole jegran/crystal bearer thing happens, the intensity of the game is just nonstop. honestly i REALLY enjoyed the more "mature", darker storyline that TCB took and it seriously makes me want to do a new game+ to experience the story again. it is just THAT good and satisfying to watch all of the plot twists unravel into the final battle.

as for the ending, i'd say i'm pretty happy with it. i seriously cheered and clapped of joy when princess althea and a group of yukes shook hands to signify the start of a new era for all tribes (SCREW YOU JEGRAN). and honestly...whatever belle has going on for layle, i support it lol. i thought it was super cute how she, of all people!!, is the one that refuses to give up hope on layle being alive (and she's right!), so she sets out to look for him while my boy keiss goes to help out the selkies after their leader sacrificed himself. i mean, i can't say i understand why layle is still a bearer even though it looks like the game wants you to think that bearers lost their power (like althea), but if so, would that mean that jegran is also still alive somewhere??? GOD obviously a sequel is probably never going to happen but the possibilities of it just make me heart itch!!!

all in all, the gameplay truly is the worst part of a game that has such a wonderful and engaging story to tell, and if there are any other ffcc fans like me that were put off by the gameplay, then PLEASE at least look for a let's play to see the cutscenes because wow, the story is MORE than worth it if you're a fan of the series.

so i guess next step for me is to play ring of fates cus i never did play that, and replay echoes of time because i played it in college and i have almost no recollection of it lol. but i doubt anything (not even the original ffcc) will come close to just how this game, despite its many shortcomings, managed to build a fantastic set of characters that you empathize with and learn to love as the story slowly but surely develops. what a ride!!!

[kritischetheologie]

top 5 albums you like to listen to straight through (if you do that?)

I love to listen to albums straight through! I'm going to list the albums that I listen to straight through so much that it just feels objectively wrong to only listen to tracks or so much that I don't even know what the tracks are called

the midnight organ fight, frightened rabbit. don't get me started I will cry. they did it straight through in new york in february 2018 and I almost flew out for it and I didn't because it would have been absurd to do and if you know anything about what happened next you understand why that's my biggest musical regret

for emma, forever ago, bon iver. maybe my favorite album until, like, 2012, and then I didn't listen to it again for almost a decade, and now i'm back listening to it and it hits. so hard. it's so very very good.

the sunset tree, the mountain goats. the really funny thing about being a mountain goats fan is that you tell people your favorite album is the sunset tree and watch them go through this mental calculation of whether you said that because you haven't heard any other albums or because you've heard all of them and recognized that it is, objectively, the best.

passive me, aggressive you, the naked and famous. this one is cheating a little since "girls like you" is my favorite song ever written however the album itself is also just brilliant. perfect album to run to or work to or dissociate on the train to. main character energy.

1000 gecs and the tree of clues, 100 gecs feat I am not listing them all. the original 1000 gecs album is fine. this remix album is transcendent and the only thing I listened to in 2021.

[iguessitsjustme]

8 Shows to Get to Know Me

The rules seem pretty simple, just to list 8 shows to get to know me. Some people have explanations and some don’t so we’ll see.

I was tagged by anonymously

Hello my dear anon! Thanks for the tag even anonymously! Now I have to pick 8 shows? I know a lot of people struggled because there's just so many but I move on from shows pretty quickly. I'm not sure if any BL is actually going to end up on this list because if it's shows to get to know me...well there's very few shows that I hold near and dear to my heart like that and can help explain the person I am.

Psych - This has been my favorite show for forever. This show was there for me when I was losing friends left and right and I was left alone. Watching the friendships in this show (not just Shawn and Gus though obviously they're the best) really helped me through some dark times. Some bits of this show have not aged well at all, but this show grows and progresses and every time a new movie gets announced, I make sure I am able to watch that movie as soon as it's available.

Haikyuu!! - This will most likely not be the only anime on this list because though I don't really post about anime, these shows are and always will be a large part of my life. I love this show so much because of the friendships and relationships built not just within the team but also with the rival teams. Plus, I actually like sports but not real sports. I like fictional competition where the result has already been decided. Plus best sunshine x tsundere ever. They're both volleyball idiots and I love them both so much.

One Piece - This show is the reason for one of my friendships with one of my best friends in the entire world. They sat me down in college and made me watch and here I am, 1000+ episodes later and still in love with it. I like there is no romance. I love the crew. I love the story. I love the humor. I do not love that the women characters look like they keep all of their internal organs in their boobs though.

Merlin - There seems to be a theme for these shows. I love the friendships and the story and the interpretation of the King Arthur legend. Also Morgana's journey from genuinely good person to brainwashed villain is so incredibly good. I love a good villain and she was the best.

Vincenzo - Sometimes I just need to watch our main character constantly winning. It's very satisfying. It's very violent but the kind of violence that I enjoy. The side characters really make the show though. I also hold the villain in this show as my gold standard for villains. If they aren't as unhinged as him, I don't want them.

Galavant - Someone took my sense of humor and my love of musicals and medieval literature and put it into a show. Also I will watch anything and everything with Timothy Omundson.

Yuri on Ice - I watched this show on repeat 3 times on the worst day of my life. If it wasn't for this show, I truly don't know what would have happened. I love all of the characters (Phichit is the best fight me).

Ouran High School Host Club - This was the first show I ever saw that had a character that didn't care what gender they are perceived as and it was...enlightening. It was the first time I even thought about gender. Plus it's just damn hilarious.

I did it! I thought of 8 shows. I have no idea if y'all have done this, but I'm going to tag you cause I want to see your shows @heretherebedork @pose4photoml No pressure though!

[tales-of-cerano]

As 2022 comes to a close I'm starting to look back and reflect on the past few years, something I haven't really done much in the past. Now I will for anyone who is willing to listen. You don't know me, I probably don't know you very well, but I invite you to do the same.

2020: The Year of Pain

An edgy start I know but a lot happened in this year. Fear in many flavors, opportunities closed, regression we're all themes of the year. For me personally nothing terribly tragic happened. I most likely had COVID and gave it to my whole studio in the beginning of January before I even heard of it (parents friends who had a business trip to china got a weird illness and it just worked it's way as it does). A hiring freeze locked me out of an opportunity with a university conservatory that I was extremely excited for. I felt lonely without my friends. Besides COVID I was consistently stressed about future graduation and career choices. It's a year that went so slow yet now I forget most of it.

2021: The Year of Transition

I went through 3 major transitions in my life during this year: graduated college, started a salaried job, socially and medically transitioned. Way more than I expected and probably more than I could handle. It's weird now that I think about it how much actually happened. The imposter syndrome took a lot of the good out of those accomplishments at the time but now I am starting to see it. I also will flex here because it wasn't really recognized but I was valedictorian of my college. My class rank was 1 out of not just the major/department I was in but also the entirety of the NCState class of 2021. Like 1/6000 people. I don't tell that to anyone really cuz I don't want to be a bragging asshole but I worked really hard for it so I'll flex in front of internet strangers who don't know me.

2022: The Year of Change

Not a lot of "things" happened this year like last year but I finally had enough time to actually sit down and reflect on things because of things slowing down a bit. I worked with a therapist for a few sessions. I started listening to Healthy gamer gg stuff and started thinking about my mental health as something that was a part of me rather than something to solve. My outlook changed. I can safely say that I am 1000% better with being comfortable with myself than I was before. Anxiety attacks over things went from being dissociative and lasting for weeks to being something manageable. It's nothing I ever thought would ever happen. I think the biggest thing that kick-started my change was to give things the benefit of the doubt and try them. I used to fight meditation saying it was something that wouldn't work for me cuz I'm too in my head until I just said you know what let's try. What's gonna happen it won't work and I waste an hour. So I did and now its one of the most influential things of my life.

2023: The Year of Forgiveness

This upcoming year I'd like to focus on letting myself live with mistakes I've made in the past and let go of some deep shame I have. I was dumb and while I never did anything like commit a violent crime against anyone I still feel like I caused a lot of emotional damage like bullying people in middle school and being critical to my friends. It's all stuff that I've either worked though, became aware, and changed. Of course I don't want to just toss it aside like it didn't happen but I want to recognize that while it was something I did it's also something that I can forgive myself for and move past as a better person.

This might change and who knows it might be another year of pain. Could be anything tbh. I'm open to it.

I wish anyone who reads this an insightful new year. Thinking and analyzing the past can be helpful to some. Tho if you have issues with deep and intense trauma I recommend you talk to professionals first. Exploring the past can cause things I think and make things worse when there is trauma.