#i don't want to die but i just want someone to understand

[vitaray]

You can disagree with me, but I fucking hate what hotd did to Aegon as a character and how fandom (and his fans too) treats him.

The show has not only made him a comedic figure, but it has also made fun of him (every time they had the chance), humiliating and diminishing him as a secondary character. It's only due to TGC's performance that Aegon has been saved to some extent.

At this point I don't agree with most people on how they view him. Even his own fans by making him pathetic, stupid, good for nothing, just a pretty face little mew mew. He can be that sometimes for fun, but no. You miss the whole point of Aegon's character if that's how you view him.

When I think of Aegon, strength is the first word that comes to mind. Internal strength to overcome everything of what happened to him. To stand up, to accept his fate, to do whatever is needed: marry his sister, take the throne, fight for the throne and take revenge. Many others would gave up, run away or die in his place, but he didn't.

Aegon didn't want any of this, but he accepted it out of a sense of duty. Despite not being perfectly suited for the role, he takes responsibility and listens to those who are more knowledgeable. He wants to end the war swiftly, desires to be loved and make an impact as a ruler.

And let's not forget that he surges to every battle without fearing for his life (it might not be the best decision for a monarch), but it's also admirable.

He loves his family. And trusts them completely.

Aegon is not a fool to laugh at or someone who simply craves violence. He is a complex character (I know people like to laught at that for some reason) and, instead of constantly fighting for sides on who's more right or wrong, or "who's pretty/who's not", I wish fans would rather analyze and understand the nuances of his character and what he could have become with better writing.

[chleboryba]

Feel free to ignore this if you don't want to discuss it ofc op, but the way the game ultimately failed to me as a narrative about hard choices is because

1) at the first major choice it just... doesn't let you do it

2) it often just doesn't let you sympathise with characters who were forced to choose between two horrible outcomes.

Reg. 1) Minrathous vs Treviso. As far as I remember Rook did not give the impression of knowing that the dagger could give them any advantage in the fight (correct me if I'm wrong tho) so really we just sent 3 people here, 3 people there. I kinda expected the quest to be just about that, the refusal to make a choice and commit to it. But no, everyone acted like Rook's presence alone determined which city will be saved, which baffled me for the rest of the game.

And 2) I'm mainly getting at Solas' choices in his memories, Ivenci and Isseya (oh boy, Isseya). And I suppose I could acknowledge that basically no characters want to think about those three in any positive light, fine. But I'd appreciate Rook having a chance to be a bit more understanding. Instead we all approach them with an air of such a moral superiority.

Solas kills his agent. Who is blighted. It's the best thing he could do, it's incurable, she would die horribly (and a GW Rook at least should know it), but our companions kinda act like she'd broken a leg and he didn't want to risk carrying her to safety. Then he sacrifices the spirits to get the dagger. A horrible choice, maybe even a betrayal on his part, but I can easily imagine a Rook that believes that he did a necessary thing (also, Felassan being outraged here is interesting, considering how fucking ruthless he was in The Masked Empire; obvs A LOT has happened until the book, he could change completely, so it's not really a criticism I suppose, just - interesting).

Ivenci is made to be a very cartoonish villain. Everyone and their mother said their piece about the Crows and their morality, but even aside from that - what Ivenci did was just that, making an impossible decision with no good outcomes. And again - I would appreciate a possibility to approach from a place of understanding.

And Isseya, oh, Isseya. That one just pisses me off the most, I think, given how the quest hammers in CONSTANTLY what an evil traitor she is. Again, I understand the characters might be bitter and I understand them not wanting to extend her any good will, but as a player and someone who read the books... It just hurts man, you know? Not being able to acknowledge how fucking awful the situation was, and that they supposedly did what they thought was necessary. How they *didn't want to*, how it destroyed them mentally, but how it ultimately saved the world. (The moral superiority hurts the most here, I think. Good god, people, you're Grey Wardens, moral ambiguity is your daily bread. Don't act so high and mighty.)

Again, don't wanna rain on your parade, op. I enjoyed the game, I know it got tons of hate already (valid and not, but it can be exhausting either way), but this is one of my main issues with it and I can't let it go. It really reads as some being privileged and looking down their nose on others who did not have it so lucky.

Me up again metaphorically pacing my room thinking about how datv is a game about hard choices that don't have a right or wrong answer (but the answer you choose still shapes you and your relationships the same way it shaped Solas and his own relationships)

and a game about regret for things you had no choice but to do (the same way Solas had no choice but to struggle against the rule of the evanuris including his best friend/lover/elder sister)

and a game about how even then you ultimately did have a choice (the same way Solas could have refused to make the dagger or could have allowed flemythal to do whatever she had planned or could have not tried to tear the veil back down which he knew would kill everybody before it fixed anything)

and a game about how sometimes you do your best and do things for good reasons and you still fuck up and you can't save everybody and people will still be frustrated with you (the same way the veil was an accident and Solas was only able to save a tiny fragment of mythal and even that fragment seems bitter about him holding her there even though he does it out of love)

and a game about what leadership does to its leaders (the same way Solas killed his blighted allies, the same way he betrayed felassan, the same way he ultimately betrayed the shard of mythal in flemeth)

and a game about GRIEF and how rook is trapped in it and not being allowed to move forward by blood magic, and how grief cages you (the same way Solas feels caged by the loss of mythal and he's just as trapped as rook is but it's of his own free will and how he uses rook as a method of self absolution for what he did to Varric)

and how every character arc and story touches on at least one if not multiple of these points and how it's all layered in with area quests, side quests, main story quests, that do the same thing. I'm tired of feeling like I have to qualify my praise of datv with "it has problems" because it's a fucking dragon age game. They are all, in their own ways, hot messes. Each one has its weak hinges and its stress points but the level of sheer thematic cohesion and thought in datv is absolutely fucking unparalleled and I don't think I'm wrong to say so

[agirlwithglam]

☆ it girl journalling tips ☆ part 1

TIPS TO REMAIN CONSISTENT AND GET MAXIMUM BENEFIT:

TIP 1: dont follow the “pretty journalling trends" ... unless you know that it’s gonna benefit you in some way and you’ll actually stay consistent.

You know the ones im talking about. The ones with the aesthetically pleasing habit trackers and sleep trackers and water trackers. Those ones. Before you do them, save yourself the time and energy and firstly ask yourself:

If it’s a habit tracker you want: am i looking to develop new good habits? - Is there another easier and prettier way i can do this?(maybe online) - Will i stick with this format everyday? - Am i ready to draw this whole thing out?(except if you’re printing it or its already there, then skip that)

If it’s a water tracker you want: do i need to hydrate myself more and drink more water? - Is there an easier way i can do this? Etc etc.

If it’s a sleep tracker you want: do I need to/ want to fix my sleep schedule? - Do i need to check the best way i can sleep so i have a lot of energy the next day? Etc etc.

And so on. Me personally for example, I’ve decided to start a sleep tracker to figure out a) what time is best for me to sleep, b) what time is best for me to wake up, and c) how many hours of sleep should i get so i can get more energy the next day. This is all so that i wake up feeling less tired and more energised. (Sure you can take tests/ quizzes online on this, but experimentation is the best and also the most funnest.)

TIP 2: have a good and solid WHY

if you're just doing it for the aesthetics, sure it will be fun at first but then the hype will die down and you'll get bored and just quit. thats why its important to journal about something that actually means something to you. don't force yourself to follow what someone else is doing because something that they are trying to achieve and understand about themselves may not be the same as you.

if you know that you have quite a negative mindset, then everyday make the habit of writing down 3 things that happened that you're grateful for in your day!

if you want to get to know yourself better on a deeper level, search up shadow questions and write them out to answer in your journal!

TIP 3: romanticise it!

omg there is NO better way to get the full main character, it girl feel than romanticising it!! it can feel so good and sometimes literally gives me this tingly sensation!!! here are some tips to romanticise it:

light candles

play some music

soft, ambient, cozy lighting

hot chocolate / coffee

late nights

snacks / cookies

cute stationary- pens, notebook

hoodies

getting cozy (can be in bed!)

[purgemarchlockdown]

I'm not really someone who enjoys participating in discourse. I find that the environment is too volatile and prone to ad-hominem to really work as any kind of reasoned debate. People look for the things that confirm their perspective and get mad when they don't. I do that. It's not really constructive and as such I don't really like writing anything about it.

Plus I enjoy writing things about what I care about, and what I find interesting. For obvious reasons, why would I put my energy into something that I find boring or makes me upset?

I'm saying all of this to state that I have a distinct frustration of the current discussion going around with Amane. Now, I'm biased. Amane is my favorite character. I have an inclination towards defending her. One could argue that should discount me from the discussions but then I think we'd have to discount everyone from it since Everyone Is Biased!

You can't have a discussion if you don't have an opinion, and attacks on someone's character based on what you Think their argument will be like is not constructive! Actually it's usually the opposite. Let's all be reasonable here, and not descend into baseless insults based on what we want our opponent to be like for the sake of our ego.

After all:

The fine line between "Hate" and "OK"Shouldn't you look beyond your EGO, before it all ends? After knowing all, I wonder Can you really say INNOCENT?

Let's establish my argument.

I find the reaction towards Amane Momose after the deaths of Haruka Sakurai, Mahiru Shiina, and Shidou Kirisaki to be disproportionate, and the mentalities and biases at play to be distressing.

I also find that the logic underlying the argument to be faulty and unconvincing most of the time. And this whole discourse to be a distraction from more important and interesting discussions to be had about this whole series!

For one, I don't think the argument of whether Amane should have been guilty or innocent in trial 2 to be relevant for trial 3 and its voting. As due to the fact trial 3 is going to be the Last Trial, any argument for or against the safety of the prison (a major factor in this discourse) is rendered Irrelevant by the fact they won't be in the prison after this.

This is their final verdict and their final fates will be decided here. The most relevant points of discussion for a trial 3 vote is their crime and their current mentality within the prison. As a result the vote that came to pass in Trial 2 is irrelevant to the Trial 3 voting situation.

This is why I think it's a distraction to argue about whether if people were right or not to do so in Trial 2. Now it's genuinely sad that these characters are dead but ultimately we have to live with that. I find it frustrating that people are harping on this so much as if it proves something about Amane's Character (moral or otherwise) that everyone else missed.

One can argue that Amane has shown how destructive her worldview in this moment (thus also connecting it back to the trial 3 voting and it's relevance,) and while I have my own qualms about immediately assuming Amane is at fault for this (we will get to this later) and I, again, find the argument surrounding if she should have been voted guilty or innocent a distraction. I do think it's important to acknowledge that.

One, all these people committing murder was already a showcase that their worldview's could be destructive. You can argue that they're on their best behavior, or that their crime was a circumstantial thing. But then we'd have to ask the same questions regarding Amane's circumstance before the murder she (presumably) committed against Shidou and the one she committed against her mom.

Shidou did not just die because she hated medicine. Shidou was someone who repeatedly made her feel small and talked down to her.

Amane: I warned you. I can no longer turn a blind eye to this wickedness taking place right in front of us. You’re bringing ruin unto yourself. Do you understand? Shidou: No, I don’t understand. It’s my job as an adult to teach you that throwing a temper tantrum isn’t going to make everything go your way. If it’s a test of endurance you want, I’m happy to oblige, Amane.

People might think that this reaction is unreasonable, but the point is not if she's right or not for feeling this way, but that she Did feel that way. And I would like to posit that the stressful conditions Amane was under exasperated the problem, thus pushing her more towards killing Shidou.

And either way, my point is that she's not inherently destructive she just holds the ability to cause destruction when under the right circumstances...like everyone else.

Arguing that she's more destructive because she's "too far gone" misses things like how Muu's worldview hasn't been examined all too much even with the trial 2 guilty, or how Shidou's worldview wasn't examined all too much and he's implied to have killed:

A lot of people.

One can say that they only did these things due to the circumstances surrounding them but that just goes back to my first point. Arguing that Amane is uniquely more dangerous, despite the fact that like everyone else her murder has a specific circumstance surrounding it feels like a double standard.

Two, characters like Kotoko have arguably more destructive worldviews, and while there Was Discourse surrounding how people should have voted her in trial 1, it is not nearly as debated as Amane's is. Which again feels like a double standard.

And ultimately, even if we ignore the double standards at play here and how this is stuff we have Known Since the Beginning, we still have no clue of Amane's Mentality Now, we don't know how she seems in Trial 3 at all.

We can't immediately assume she's dealing with all of this well just cause we Assume that she's the reason behind the events, for one she was close to Mahiru.

T2Q8: If you had to make one of the prisoners part of your family, who would you choose? A: Shiina Mahiru. Her innate goodness might have brought the two of us closer, maybe.

And this situation is really close to something sensitive to Amane. The death of the cat.

As a result we cannot use this to adequately determine her current mental state, my original criticism still stands. The relevance this has to a Trial 3 vote is pretty...lacking. As a result we can't say this discourse exists so that we can determine what should be done in trial 3. This firmly exists as an argument of who was right and who was wrong in Trial 2.

One can call it petty (I have) or a distraction (I just did) but since I'm writing a post on it I am participating in that distraction. We can now travel to the second part of this post. Which is a dissection of the arguments for Trial 2 now that people have died.

Now, obviously people should be allowed to have opinions and have passionate feelings about those opinions. However I think the reasoning behind opinions, me or yours, should be questioned. It's good for a nuanced debate for opinions to be questioned, and for the other party to listen.

I for one have seen a lot of questioning about T2 Innocent Amane now. Some of it being blatant ad-hominem mind you, but lets take a charitable look at the discussion. Do I have a good counterargument against common arguments I've seen about this? Well, sort of, for one I would like to question the assumption that if Amane did kill Shidou that she should hold all the blame for Mahiru's death, first of all.

If we are working under the assumption that Amane killed Shidou and that means she killed Mahiru. Then can't we also say Kotoko killed Mahiru? She's the one who beat her up in the first place after all. And if we're going to say that then putting the full weight of responsibility of the deaths on Amane feels unfair. She's not the one who beat her up after all.

Additionally, if we're really tracing the threads of consequences back to the source then really shouldn't we be the ones taking responsibility due to how we created a Trial one?

Arguing on these grounds inevitably leads to questions about the Audience's own moral integrity if followed to the logical conclusion. If we believe Amane should be punished for this and that the earlier act of voting innocent in Trial 2 is incorrect because we let her "do something bad" then shouldn't that apply to the Audience? To Kotoko? To Shidou for clearly not doing as much as he could to help considering that Mahiru was in his care for Twenty Nine Months? To Kazui for not doing anything to protect anyone even though he Said he would?

I think it's reasonable to say that if any of us put the full weight of blame on any of the other people I mentioned this would be contested. But I'm not saying they should have the full weight of the blame put on them. I'm pointing out a double standard here.

That Amane is treated as if she did all the work killing both Shidou AND Mahiru, assuming that she did kill Shidou and that lead to Mahiru's death. That she's being given a harsher treatment here regrading the consequences of her choices, despite the fact everyone else made their choices and they had consequences. Again, including the one who actually beat up Mahiru in the first place.

And before anyone brings up Kotoko is guilty and that means she's being treated harshly. That's not my point. I'm not saying Kotoko isn't being treated harshly. I'm saying Amane is being treated too harshly Despite the fact that other people and factors we're at play and Despite the fact we already Guilty Voted the one who arguably should have the most blame be put on her for the situation at hand.

Second thing, we...don't know if Amane killed Shidou?

I know that she's Said she's going to do it multiple times over, but this is a series known for pulling tricks on the Audience and giving red herrings to distract from more hidden things at play. Again I have already said that Mahiru has been injured for at least 29 months. That is not a normal time of recovery for the injuries she has received. That is more than 2 years. Even with Potential Milgram Time Weirdness considered it's still an unnaturally long time to be injured and Getting Worse despite being treated by a doctor.

Additionally, with Haruka's death we know with some certainty that the restraints on the guilty prisoners aren't as restrictive as we thought. And we have a certain prisoner here who has been very vocal about wanting to hurt people. Not to mention if Shidou is doing malpractice again then a lot of people probably want him dead.

However, my point here is not that "other people could have done the murder" cause ultimately that feels a bit weak as an argument, if you trust in Amane doing her murder then saying "it's possible that it wasn't her" isn't really convincing.

I wrote all of that to ask a question, why are we assuming Amane killed Shidou? That seems like something I've already answered, she said she would.

However, other characters, have been pretty blatant about what they were going to do and that was Ignored. For one, people didn't think Haruka was going to commit suicide, and even if he did the guilty restraints would protect him (despite the fact we knew from Amane's T2 VD that the restraints aren't as restrictive as we thought, an argument used FOR the idea that Amane should be guilty.)

A second example would also actually be Kotoko. Kotoko, was not exactly secretive about her intentions of beating up the people who Us, The Audience deemed as guilty. She was very clear actually about what teaming up with her meant. And yet we accepted it and then got mad at her when she did that.

When it came to Haruka that was due to infantalization and a belief it could have been prevented through other means, when it came to Kotoko that's cause her words aligned with most people's beliefs in the abstract that we were willing to ignore the warning signs regarding her.

So why then, when it comes to Amane, we take her words completely at face value? What about this situation has changed that make it so we Can't ignore what she says? Can't twist it to mean something else? Can't say "Oh its possible that" and have it be convincing.

We can't say it's because people's lives are on the line, we've already shown that with Haruka and Kotoko that's not enough, and again, we can't say it's because she was clear in her intentions. So what gives?

Now, what I'm about to say might be considered an ad-hominem to some. However, I think criticizing a mentality held by a group and direct attack against one person is different actually. If you've gotten this far and think I'm attacking you, no I'm not.

(You can say I'm straw-manning though if you want. I am holding an imaginary debate here.)

However, I think the reason why Amane is being treated, frankly, unfairly, is pretty simple.

She's a child that spoke out against someone who was older than her. Who's been Very Vocal about how much disdain she holds for Milgram as a prison system. Who in Trial 1 we voted guilty because the consensus was that we needed to "teach her to be better." Now, I'm not saying anyone here is an abusive parent or doomed to become one. If that's what you're thinking.

I am however saying, in our society, we have ingrained hierarchies when it comes to children and adults. Children are below the adults. They have to follow the rules set by adults. When they disobey they are punished by the adults.

This is brought up by Es themself to claim power over Amane.

Es: No matter what you do, no matter how grown-up you behave – you’re a child. That’s an unchangeable truth. Amane: You’re a child, too! Es: Wrong. I’m fifteen, so I’m an adult in Puerto Rico and Haiti. You’re twelve, so you’re a child no matter the country.

This is right after Amane attacks Es. A physical question of their authority over her. Es' response is to Claim that as her Superior she has to Listen To Them and Follow What They Say. That despite everything she is a Child while They Are Not.

I have said double standard so much in this post you're probably sick of me saying it. However, this is why I keep on saying it.

And it's not like Amane is the only victim of it! I already brought up that we ignored Haruka's voice due to infantalization! It just manifested differently here because the way to spite Haruka in Trial 2 was to Ignore What He Said. However the way to spite Amane in Trial 2 is to Accept what she says and Vote Her Guilty Based On it.

This is the crux of my problem. This is not just about what is good for the prison. This is about spitting a child who disobeyed against a perceived authority. I don't think this ideology should go unchallenged. Especially when the subject of it is an abuse victim. Like Haruka was.

Jackalope says it himself in the Trial 2 Report:

Whatever the circumstances may be, she is the one that has to bear the blame. That’s just how it is. Both in and out of MILGRAM, isn’t that right?

Now, look, if you're someone who genuinely voted Amane Guilty in Trial 2 because you understood that to be the best choice and are now upset that what you expected to happen did happen. That's fine.

However, I believe, the reason why we are still debating about this past the point it should be over. The reason why people still care despite me already illustrating that it doesn't really matter for Trial 3. Is because of this. It's because people are upset a child spoke up against them.

And I just find that to be unacceptable to leave unquestioned. Because people will say Anything to deflect from being questioned about this. That it's not that serious. That it doesn't really matter. That people are overreacting over some silly show.

But, you can look through my blog. I just made a few posts about this before I wrote this, most of them un-rebloggable to make sure No One saw them outside of who followed me. I've been writing this in an exceedingly formal tone partially out of fear of being harassed for this.

I'm not the one who brought this argument up again. I'm Responding to people who brought it up again.

Maybe it's just me but...doesn't that contradict that statement? And even so, Milgram is written To be taken seriously. And people Have taken the previous discussions seriously.

Why is it suddenly wrong when this one is taken seriously?

I think the people reading this are smart enough to figure out why.

[coffeegnomee]

Saw a post about trying to understand "new player behavior" from a new viewer standpoint and I thought, let me try and take a stab at explaining it. Anyone who's been around for a while and wants to weigh in, please do.

New player mentality is mostly like running from fights instead of taking them especially if you're good enough or have enough hearts, being absolutely unwilling to die, being unwilling to see if you can survive something you know is a trap, refusing to show up to something because you thought it was suspicious, being paranoid when there is nothing to be paranoid about. Trying to defuse conflict instead of embracing it, not understanding the cycles (even though everyone had their own interpretation of the cycles).

These reflect the unspoken gentlemen's code of honor that exist on the server, though it is notable to note that the main players that care about this are just Mapicc Zam and Clown. Not everyone cares about this, though the older the member, generally the more it is understood and accepted.

But with Mapicc and Zam being consistently two of the only handful of active members at any given time, their opinion will ring loud and with Zam being The most active streamer and the one with The most play time every season, as Zam goes so does the audience go. Creating, admittedly, a feedback loop where we all complain about those dang youngins.

However the mentality is real, and some members, most notably Minute, have genuinely changed from how he was at the start of s5 to who he is now. s5 minute would have NEVER taken a 1v1 he knew he would have lost for the sake of the server.

This risky mentality, story-motivated, picking a side and caring deeply about it, showing up to something you know you have a 30% chance of survival, dying and then retaliating against whoever killed you in that thing you just showed up to (this is the easiest explanation of the cycles), picking a nerf and seeing how it will affect the story, loosing all your hearts willingly, saying yes when someone approaches you for a project and putting your all into supporting this new allyship (despite old teammates or despite old feuds), being loyal to the new teammates because progress forward is better than clinging to the past (betrayal in s1-4 is interesting and can be talked about below), coming up with a plot that will involve the whole server at a risk to yourself, achieving the impossible.

These are all hallmarks of the old members.

Now, there is a layer of nuance here because while all new members fall prey to new member mentality, there have always, always been old members who fall prey to it, no matter how long they've been on lifesteal. The easiest example you'd find looking back at s4 is Pangi and Red running from every single fight even though they had 20 hearts. Red being from s1 and rejoining in s3 and Pangi joining in s2! Hardly new members at the time of infraction.

But that's because, at its core, new member mentality is the fear of death. It's the fear of failure. It's clinging to your hearts for fear of what will happen to you if you loose them.

And what each member needs is time, and experience in difficult situations that challenge their perspective on the server. We call that their Lifesteal Trauma. It's never fun for them and it genuinely challenges everything that they thought they understood about lifesteal. And depending on how it happens it either strengthens their bond to the server and shows them they can withstand anything and everything even abject failure and total betrayal and still be okay, or they take a step back from being as active. It's always different for every player and depends on how they even want to play. I could go through the list of members, but it's primarily and internal belief that they don't articulate and every way of playing the server is okay. And mostly they just need time and a new idea to try.

A final note about betrayals. Lifesteal has always, always been filled with people getting on a team and betraying that team to get the win. So many times a member has been invited to a team and they join and then betray that team. So what do I mean about loyalty to a new team over old teams?

This is something that is growing and changing as the server progresses and isn't as clean cut, also maybe wrong because my memory of everything before s4 is the most shoddy, but in general, those who betrayed a new team had been inactive for a period, were approached by a different new team, and then infiltrated the other new team that was forming,

s1 that was terry being on mapicc's side and then conveniently being in the right place to join the other side and betray them.

I remember nothing from s2 other than MOB and the withers.

s3 that was parrot being added to the resistance group chat while being in a call with decimation and betraying the resistance.

s3 that was leo joining the revive side but being on spoke's side and killing zam and pangi right after the successful getaway.

The betrayals of s4 sparked a new brutality (maybe just because i actually watched the streams and the streams of all those older times are lost) where Spoke did the long con on Parrot before betraying, being loyal to the original wormholers over Parrot.

That was mapicc adding zam to his side of the crown battle against pangi and then betraying him after the fight.

Then there's all the zam betrayals which were ideological differences about the purpose and goals of the teams rather than thought out betrayals that he orchestrated with others. (and in a way his choice of leaving team awesome was an experiment in a what-if that was very enticing)

But the time honored old player mentality towards betrayals is "first come first serve" combined with "old attachments don't matter in the face of new content".

This is why ro betraying the foundation in s5 was a pure act of old player mindset. mapicc is asking? bet.

whereas jumper's betrayal was much closer to spoke's betrayal of parrot: clinging to an original (and secret/non official) team over the new teammates and only after months and months, betraying them.

It's a secret third thing that doesn't fit anywhere into how lifesteal functions and is more a facet of the player themself; are they willing to do that plot.

And yet, because i heaven't yapped enough yet, Jumper's betrayal to me reads far closer to new player mentality because she saved her own skin and her own hearts and never risked anything through her betrayal. she has said multiple times that she likes being on both sides because she never has to worry about dying. If she had gotten caught earlier the worst that would have happened is she lost a single heart because they never knew where her bed was and she could have called minute in as backup in an instant and be protected by the most powerful member under his batman wings. and after she was protected by him at all times.

Whereas Spoke's betrayal of Parrot was The Riskiest thing he could have done. He could have been banned from the server and never completed the impossible task he was trying to do. There was real risk to his own ability to play the game in pulling it off successfully.

[seeingstarsinthedaycare]

I love the art so much, and I really love your interpretation!

I have a lot to say about it (que rant below)

They way I see it is that almost every character (namely the Reader, Moon, and Sun) try to answer the questions of: Can there be exceptions to being good for the greater good? What are the circumstances into being ethically bad?

I think Sun believes so. To him, the horrible things he is doing are nothing compared to whatever the other (ex) councilors have done. Anything, no matter what, is justified; and it shall prevent further harm.

To Moon, yes, the councilors are horrible and deserve to die. But not in the way Sun believes it to be. It would be better to cut the losses now and move on.

The Reader might say no. They know that deep down their "friends" have been hiding something from them. Their "friends" are not good people, but they don't deserve torment and death. In doing so, they get closer to their goal of being close with the ex councilors.

Why bring up Moon and the reader to understanding Sun and its symbolism to the Grim Reaper?

Because I understand the Grim Reaper as more of messenger: someone bringing death to another whether they like it or not.

My theory is that Sun is the catalyst for the ex councilors to be there in camp, and hence, most of the tragedies that will happen to him. The call for judgment has been long gone to him. He is bringing death to those people just as he and Moon wanted.

The reader, on the other hand, is attempting to break the councilors' fates. By using an appeal to such judgment that has been already decided. They may have their infatuation; but it doesn't look like they'll be able to succeed. But who knows?

*The Death....

DFtR au by @muzzlemouths

Who knows, I was just scribbling freely and it turned out like this?

I found it in my draft pile from three months ago.It was originally like this:

Actually, I never understood dftr! Sun's behavior…

I thought about it for a long time…

From my understanding of the Grim Reaper, the Grim Reaper exists to warn people to cherish life, and the summer camp members' past actions were extremely bad, and their crimes were enough to punish them.

Sun's character is actually full of pessimism. After seeing that justice in the world cannot be upheld and seeing the tragedy happen again, he chose to let despair permeate himself and become the Grim Reaper to judge the sins of others…

Oh, maybe I am too involved?

[ruporas]

The thing about plant!Wolfwood is that he has never had a say in his own body. It's been used and abused and twisted so much over the years, all without his consent, and he's had to navigate it all on his own. Figure it out or die. The vials won't even let him keep scars, unlike Vash, his body is spotless and pristine, every wound and mortal injury and supposedly permanent scar forgotten almost as soon as it happens. He has never had a say in his body, not before or after the EoM. So him coming back to life as a Plant, or something going wrong and the vials turning him into a plant-hybrid thing, is extra tragic because that's another thing that was done to him without his knowledge or consent, another way that his body has been altered beyond his understanding and without him even being aware of it happening, unable to stop it, too late to do anything but endure and deal with it. Figure it out or die. I don't even think it matters if he gets a fraction of Vash's power. I think the ability to like, telepathically send vibes would be too much for him, enough to make him think of himself as the worst kind of monster, because not only is he going against everything the EoM believed in, but he's mocking Vash for daring to taint his lineage. I think the wings and the sharpened claws and the fangs and things would be just one more thing that was taken from him, another change to his body that he would never understand and can never change, another thing he can never get back. Even Vash, trying to be there for him to walk him through the worst changes and to comfort him, wouldn't be able to give him back what's been taken from him time and time again. Maybe he'll be able to help Wolfwood to love his body in a different way, be able to see the beauty in how he was changed, God's most faithful servant, willing to sprout wings and transform into an angel to better serve his wishes, but regardless, there's nothing that Wolfwood would be able to do about it. His humanity, what little was left of it, was taken from him. Again. Figure it out or die.

😢 it’s entirely what makes it tragic far more for someone like wolfwood. there’s a central part of his ideology that leans on the idea of being human too, what humans must do to live, the actions he’s taken so far because he is human. although it doesn’t make the deeds forgivable, there’s a reason all this time he couldn’t choose anything else.

not sure how to describe it but to me, wolfwood’s relationship with his body has always been fractured. while i think seeing the physical effect of this transformation would horrify him, i think it’d be easier to digest as opposed to anything happening internally. he wouldn’t want the fangs, feathers, wings, and all, but least of all, if he was to go unstable or act without being conscious of it, it’d kill him on the inside terribly. it’s like a true nail in the coffin, no point of return. everything else, while it’s difficult to come around, i feel like wolfwood can adjust to it, foreign as his body is already.

i don’t think vash would assist in him accepting it as reality though, i always imagine he’d be trying to help figure things out - how to revert this change, not live in it. i omitted it from the previous ask, but if we’re taking it as like prior to v7, i’d imagine it’s another question he’d take to knives. perhaps it’s the first time he’s seen it but maybe not his brother, who has done crueler things already. because although not human, vash has lived through it too, when you’re forcibly changed or something inside that he never wanted is pulled out of him. i also don’t think wolfwood would want that reassurance nor would he be super susceptible to it. under those circumstances, i imagined he’d feel resigned to it, but much like wolfwood anything, he’d put up a fight against the loss of it all. his goals doesn’t change, he’ll fight with a gun unless alternatives are an absolute must, he’ll have to keep going until it’s over, and then only after i think he’d be able to grieve properly of what he was made into. much like vash lol

[[[ TRIMAX SPOILERS (V10 MENTION) ]]] in an au like this, i’d imagine he has to survive but if he was to go through that fate, it would be just utterly depressing, like downright Sad😭😭 so i’m taking it as he survives, lives, gets the chance to look back at himself and gradually learn that he’s loved all the same, always has been, always will be. and vash will be there to witness it, live alongside him, and that would be enough. [[[ TRIMAX SPOILERS (V10 MENTION) END ]]]

it’s bound to be a tragic au regardless though, putting him through the wringer and he’ll be suffering ten times over…

[quarterlifekitty]

Sliding into your dms because your pretending to be a man idea got into my brain and won't leave me alone. We'll have to suffer together okay.

Imagine you're a daughter of some lowly destitute baron, he died and now all you have is a house and your brother, Alex. You have to sell the house because your father had debt that hasn't been settled. Luckily, you'll still have money left from the sale. Unluckily, the money is not much. You can either use it to send Alex to the royal academy or you can use it as your marriage dowry, of which your prospect isn't great anyway since you're poor and barely even a noble. Alex wants you to use the money, he's long been disillusioned with the king (Shepherd) and he wants to go help the neighbouring kingdom fight off their invader. He'll sleep easier knowing you have a roof over your head. Still, the thought of being married to some strange old men makes you want to throw up. You think you'd rather die. But you also don't want to stop Alex from pursuing his dream. So you and Alex came up with the idea that will satisfy you both: you will take his place in the royal academy and he can leave in peace, knowing you'll be safer in the academy than alone without a house in the countryside. He'll tell people that he's sent you to live with some distant relatives somewhere.

Years pass and you thrive in the academy. You graduate and despite having no connections or wealth, your capability lands you a job inside the palace. It's nothing fancy, and likely you won't go very far working under a neglected concubine, but she's very nice and funny. The salary is also good enough that you think if you keep working for a few years you can buy a small house and retire back to the countryside. Maybe you'll even stay longer just to accompany your mistress.

All in all, life is nice and uneventful. The great nobles and the king might be fighting, but you and your mistress are so far down the political ladder it barely affects you. Or so you thought and so it should have been, if not for your mistress starting a genuine love affair with Marchioness Laswell.

Your mistress' affection for you causes Laswell to pay attention to you. And unfortunately for you, she's seen the real Alex before. She knows you're a fraud. You think you're done for, but Laswell says she understands why you do it. She says she won't let the public learn your secret.

And she doesn't, because Duke Price isn't the public. He's just a Duke in desperate need of a wife. Someone to help him escape the disadvantageous match that will only put him under Shepherd's control once more. What a good luck he has to meet you, a noble who is unaffiliated with king, at this exact time. Surely you'll be willing to help him out? Being a duchess is certainly better than pretending to be a guy. It's definitely less risky, he says. Do you know that using someone else's identity can get you to jail? What if the king finds out and thinks you're plotting treason? Off with your pretty little head then. Surely being his duchess would be safer. He'll protect you. Take care of you. Spoil you, even. You and your good birthing hips and however many kids you two will have.

TLDR, you pretend to be a guy to escape marrying strange old men only to marry another (worse) strange old man

So first of all. I LOVE THIS. And now for my paltry additions….

I think that once Price found out about you, he became extremely fixated for a number of reasons. One? He’d met you before. He visited the academy as an alumni, occasionally donated to the institute, and would visit to check on the allocation of those funds.

And he remembers seeing you, swimming in your too-large uniform. Absolutely decimating your studies. In his observation of the academy, he’d unwittingly found himself following you around to your different lessons and seeing you sweep the floor with every other student. It was clear you were extremely bright, and he heard the whisperings about you.

A shame about your lowly birth. You might’ve made a fine tactician.

Price, as a rather meritocratic man, wanted to have you in his service as soon as you graduated. But as with many of the finest things in the kingdom, you were plucked up and handed off as something of a present to one of the king’s newer, shinier consorts.

So when Laswell starts her dalliance with that very consort, it sparks a memory in Price. And he asks after you. Which gets Laswell to commit you more to memory when she meets with you. And suddenly it’s quite obvious. She tells Price all about it, with amusement on her face, at one of their weekly meetings.

Suddenly there’s a little click in his brain. Like everything’s slotting into place. He was denied you once, in one way, and it won’t happen again. Now he can have you in all ways. With the forces at his disposal, and your brilliance in tactics and writing, he may well have the makings of some serious political sabotage. With him as your husband, you could soar in a way your class and gender never would’ve allowed. And at the end of it all? You’re quite pretty. A new dress and a circlet for that boyish cut of hair and you’d be bewitching. He was eager to see what those loose tunics had been hiding.

You can’t refuse his offer. Suddenly, Alex is called by letter to care for an ailing relative who has no other means of support. The same relative that had supposedly taken you in. And John quite selflessly takes you in following, and from a public perspective, it all went so naturally after that. What could be more heartwarming and dreamy? A generous noble taking in a common born girl in an act of charity, and the two falling in love, enough to defy the gaps in their stations and marry. It’s the kind of thing that only happens in fairy tales.

But despite all of John’s political aspirations, he knows it must appear as if nothing is amiss. That means doing what any noble would do with a young, pretty bride. It means spoiling you with all the finery he can… and it means making sure that you’re with child within the year.

[k0nanharv3y]

OKAY I CANNOT LET THIS DIE

Part 1 of this bullshit

"Hero? Villain? or misunderstood mind?", "Has he done more good for Gotham than its own inhabitants? What Wayne has to say about it", "The reality of the situation; Statistics of the recent attacks on Wayne Enterprise and Gotham City"

Tim didn't read the newspaper, it was boring, he didn't like it and he didn't have time to read the latest gossip from Gotham when he was most likely there. And he didn't need a piece of paper for that, that was contamination, he could get all the information he needed with just one search. So, yeah, Tim didn't read the newspaper

But then Riddle was imprisoned without even knowing it thanks to the newspaper and so Tim set himself the task of checking every single newspaper that ever mentioned him. And damn... Reddit was a thing when it came to twisting things, but this? This is blatant show-telling

Some called him a villain who didn't know how to do his job (in the first cases, really understandable, Tim barely knew what he was doing), but he had never set out to harm Gotham and apparently some people got angry...? Because... because he didn't kill anyone? (Joker doesn't count, he wasn't anybody) ...???. Others dared to lump him in with the Bats (And God bless the spilled coffee he spat out while choking reading that) saying how come; Apparently Tim was seen as a good guy and the explosions and cyber attacks on Wayne Enterprises had not been him but another rogue who was defeated by Tim???. But the others called it "The Evolution of Batman" and refuted his statistics. Batman's way was to go out and beat them until they calmed down, Tim's way was to cut them off at the root (Joker exploding in a building was nothing more than poetry. But the trafficking networks were eradicated by giving legal and stable jobs to those who distributed it, Tim didn't take their lives, not the literal ones at least, Tim changed them)

He finished high school early and dedicated himself to helping Gotham. It wasn't even illegal (stealing from the rich isn't illegal, their mere existence is illegal and unjust) Tim wasn't a villain, the citizens of Gotham seemed to love him just like they loved Batman; and if some building had to be blown up, at least nobody lived there and it was only to piss off the Bats

Batman's attempts to stop him seemed to cease... But Tim was greedy once... just once, and that led him to mess with forces he couldn't control. And then there was a price on his head, and Shiva and Deathstroke were after him. Because Ra's doesn't find it funny that a 14-year-old kid hacks into his systems and steals money to give to the poor. Shiva ended up being kind of... weird? She didn't kill him, but she threatened him that she would sooner or later, when Tim is a real threat to her (Tim learned to fight, thanks Shiva, but fuck it, it hurt) and Slade let him live because...??? I mean, he slit his throat and gave him enough trauma to last a lifetime, but he let him live... Tim doesn't think he's that lucky, this was already playing god

And then Ra's killed his mother

///

The irony is that Tim didn't WANT his mother, of course, she was his mother and he loved her deeply, but... it was like, a love out of responsibility, Tim was a child who was presented with, look, these are your parents and you must love them and respect them because they are your parents. That Janet's death hurt him so much... it was more a matter of pride, Tim didn't want revenge because Ra's killed his mother, he wanted revenge because Ra's killed his mother

And now he wasn't going to stop Gotham from burning. He was going to create the fire for Ra's to burn with whatever it took

If Batman stopped him, he didn't care, Tim had nothing to lose. His mother was dead and Ra's would pay for it

///

This is... actually before Batman's death, but after Damian became Robin, I'm working on this as I write, I don't have anything planned so...

Someone: Oh! Plot Hole!

I throw a brick at them and make sure they don't move anymore

Me: You didn't see anything.

Part 3 because i forgot to mention it

[sporadicallyanenthusiast]

It's interesting, because I'm reading a Brazilian Portuguese translation and I've been finding some differences from the English one, which I suspect may be truer to the original Greek. For example, in Portuguese, Menelaus is described as a blond instead of a ginger, and Athena is described with green eyes instead of gray. So I think that's the reason there might be a misconception on my part, since in the scene when Menelaus tells Telemachus what he knows about Odysseus, he says Proteus told him so after Menelaus captured him, instead of it being a dream.

I mean, if it had been described as a dream, it'd be very understandable why he wouldn't say anything! That's not trustworthy information you just go sharing out of nowhere, indeed. But since it was a prophet God that told him that (in the book I'm reading, at least), I thought it was a bit jarring he didn't try to warn anyone, you know?

Especially after he told Telemachus he liked Odysseus so much, he'd empty the island of Ithaca and relocate all of its inhabitants to Laconia, make a whole new kingdom for Odysseus there, just so they could rule nearby each other. Which is why I made the gay joke, by the way haha It's my first time reading Ancient Greek mythology and I admit I was caught off guard by such an earnest expression of Menelaus' love for his friend. Honestly, I get it, I would do the same for my best friends! Haha And I agree, I don't ship them either (even tho I haven't read the Iliad yet - yeah, I know 🥲) and I think it should be more normal to express how much we care about our friends the way Menelaus does.

Regardless, you are right the poor man had enough on his plate already.

And when you put it like that, indeed it's an awkward letter lol

Still, maybe I'm projecting too much here, but if I were in Penelope's or Telemachus' place, I'd like to know something, anything. As useless as the information may sound. They knew Odysseus didn't die in the Trojan War, so what happened? I'd find some semblance of comfort in knowing someone heard my loved one is still alive and he wants to get back to me. I can understand where Menelaus would be coming from, if he thought knowing wouldn't help Penelope of Telemachus at all, but if it were my husband or my father, I'd be furious no one told me.

And maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, but who knows, Penelope might have had some leverage to hold the suitors back in that scenario. It would be extremely disrespectful to try for the Queen's hand if there's a chance the King's still alive. And maybe then Telemachus would have had a chance to prove himself earlier, to show he is already a man and capable of taking over the throne, if he had traveled to look for his father sooner. I mean, Athena herself goes to Telemachus and essentially asks him "Why don't you finally kick those men (the suitors) out of your palace? Why don't you go try to get information about your father?". So maybe having a lead earlier on may have had saved them some of the trouble. At least that's what I was thinking when I read that scene.

And yes, you're right! There is a chance Menelaus did try to send a letter and it never arrived. And maybe he thought he ought to "repeat" the whole story to Telemachus, since the poor boy went through the trouble of getting to Sparta and asking him about Odysseus in person.

Well, at the end of the day, you are the scholar here, I'm just reading those myths for the first time hahaha. To be honest, I wrote the og post as a silly joke when I was half asleep, I didn't expect it to get any attention at all. So I apologize for any misinformation I may have spread on accident!

Telemachus is so much stronger than me for real. Cause if I had traveled for days, by sea AND land, arrived at the palace of my father's friend and my mother's cousin to humbly ask if they know anything about my missing father and instead of just fucking telling me already, this mf started a monologue about how gay he is for my dad and about the time he captured a God that granted him wishes three, I'd already be telling him to Hurry The Fuck Up. IT'S BEEN TEN YEARS, I DON'T HAVE ALL DAY.

But if the same motherfucker then turned around and told me that he had known FOR YEARS NOW that my dad is trapped on an island AND THE MOTHERFUCKER DIDN'T TELL ANYONE!!!! NOT A SINGLE LETTER!!! I would have already strangled Menelaus with that fucking blond hair of his in front of his wife and children, unhelpful son of a bitch.

[bigmoon-is-bigwife]

So Red Faction did manage to get their kill in this week with Coy but the factions NEED to end with in the next week or two. Or at least the killing requirement because it was a bad idea from the start and is blatantly unfair. The idea of requiring kills was never a bad idea but it was just so clearly not thought out and how they went about it was bad. I can understand creative kills in the sense that it wouldn't be that fun to have people just team up and murder some random weaker person to get it over with but I think there could have also been more communication and rules about it. Like lean into the roleplay aspect and trust that people would make it fun and not be cruel about it.

The main problem though, that hasn't been addressed for some reason, is that the Red Faction was doomed from the start by just being newer to a grindy server. Everyone they were meant to kill had weeks to get established and get far ahead and the levels differences on The Realm matter SO much. It's nearly impossible to kill someone who's higher level than you. Not to mention most of the people they chose to be on Red Faction are people who don't play a lot of minecraft and were never going to be that active. When you pair that with the fact they would have to spend hours and hours grinding to even catch up, that's going to be super intimidating and they're just going to give up and not log on. I don't blame the vast majority of them for not wanting to even touch the killing quest, that was an absurd expectation and very daunting.

If it was not for Pili the Red Faction would just die. Like full stop. They were lucky they happened to invite Pili who took up the challenge and was willing to put in the work to fight that uphill battle when no one else was. There is also credit to give to Bad who was one of the only people to immediately see that this was going to be unfair and try and help them out. The newer people they just invited seem more willing to try and help out but there is still that massive disadvantage of being new and the amount of grinding it takes to catch up. So it still falls to Pili and it's starting to bleed into out of character frustration because that is so unfair. It's to the point where I have heard people from every faction agree that it's not fair for Red Faction. I have a feeling Pili is just going to refuse to be the one to do it this week and I don't blame him. I think this is my only real complaint with the server and I love it a lot but I cannot fathom why the admins are not seeing a problem here. I'm hoping some of the other players from other factions start speaking up more about it because I think most of the active players have seen and agreed that the kill thing has too many problems.

[nerevarswritingstuff]

Yes, I would love to see your icks🙏

HOOOOO BOY OKAY THEN buckle up kids this is gonna be a LONG ONE. Probably. We'll see by the end of this just how long this list actually is.

For the sake of everyone's sanity, I will be putting it under a read more just to be safe, because I have so many words to say about these things I hate reading. :)

AND just to note, most of these will revolve around LMK fics, or reader-insert fics in general. Just... things that make me drop a fic entirely and never finish it.

HERE WE GO!

Isekai

I cannot, and I mean cannot stand isekai fics. I can't stand isekai stories in general, but in my opinion, they're worse in fics. Nine times out of ten, the character just thinks the new world is better than their old one and forgets about their home. OR, they're panicking and worrying about their family and friends back home and how they're going to get back. Spoiler: This is forgotten after like maybe three or four chapters.

Isekai fics, in my opinion, are just lazy and boring. I've given too many of those kinds of fics a chance only to be sorely disappointed. In an isekai story, I'd like to see more of the plot line where our MC's sole purpose is to go home, no matter how much more colorful and whatnot the new world is. OR they slowly but surely accept the fact that they're not going to return home, and start to just rebuild their life in the new world.

Sadly, I've yet to even find a story like this, and I won't waste my time trying to look for one.

Awful Grammar

AS A DISCLAIMER: If English is not someone's first language and they struggle with grammar, that's fine. The same is said for people who suck at grammar but are trying. Grammar is a nightmare even for native English speakers, I can attest to this.

The reason why this is an "ick" for me mainly because of this: if the grammar is bad but I can still get an idea of what's going on even if there's a few mistakes here and there? I'll still read it. It's fine. But if I can't make heads or tails because the grammar is so fucking bad I'm unable to understand what's going on? I'm clicking off that fic RIGHT QUICK.

This is where I beg. On my hands and knees. PLEASE get a beta-reader. If English isn't your first language, then get a beta-reader who DOES understand English grammar. GET SOMEONE ELSE TO HELP YOU READ THROUGH IT AND FIX THE GRAMMAR. P L E A S E.

Dog Shit Pacing

The plot either goes too fast or too slow. You already know I'm a slow-burn mother fucker over here and I'll die on this hill. But I also like to keep the plot moving forward slowly but surely.

(Which, don't worry, now that the Big Reveal has happened, the pacing for the Show Plot™ will be a BIT faster, but we're focusing on Wukong and Macaque rn)

I'll give a TINY bit of leniency because pacing is hard to master, and even I'm still trying to find a nice point for it, but I don't like pacing that's so fast I get worse whiplash than riding a rollercoaster at a sketchy carnival.

When it comes to slower pacing, I need to stay interested. Give me some hints, some teasers, a few cliffhangers! I dunno man, it just bores me if I'm 15 chapters in and still see no end to the horizon besides Hatsune Miku.

In all seriousness, if you want your pacing slow, then that's fine, but you have to make every word count to keep your readers interested.

MC With No Backbone

I. Hate. This. Trope. I hate reading about OCs or Reader-Inserts that have little to no spine, and just get treated as a doormat. It's not interesting, and it's not fun to just read about a character that's constantly dogged on (9 times out of 10 for NO FUCKING REASON) by the other characters.

I will only like this trope if it's used in a way as character development where the OC/Reader-Insert learns to stand up for themselves in the end. I'm fine with that. Otherwise, kill this trope with fire.

The next point goes off of this point into...

The No-Backbone Character Snaps

This trope makes me mad for one specific reason: EVERYONE MAKES IT INTO SUCH A BIG DEAL. First, it's out of place, and second, every single character is just SOOOOO SHOOOOOCKED THAT THE DOORMAT ACTUALLY TALKS BACK. LIKE HOLY SHIT IT'S NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL SHUT UP AND MOVE ON.

And the FINAL POINT FOR THIS...

"Strong" Characters

Allow me to elaborate on this. You read about a character that's supposed to be strong-willed, sassy, and have a backbone. The complete opposite of the one I was complaining about earlier. Sounds great, right?

WRONG.

Because every FUCKING story I've ever read, these "strong" characters are just badly written. Period. The "sass" is quite literally just being a jerk. The strong-willed goes into that bit, too. They just literally act like a dick. There is a difference.

The most frustrating thing I see is when reading ANY kind of story, any "strong" character, and this is for ANY gender but ESPECIALLY female characters (OC or Reader-Inster), suddenly just... lose any sense of fight in them when around their love interest. They're submissive, they're a doormat, and just let their LI do whatever they want. I hate it.

I'm tired of this, grandpa. I'm so god-damn tired of seeing characters who are portrayed as strong, and out of nowhere when their love interest shows up, deciding to be more aggressive, the MC just crumbles. Stop that. Just stop. Seriously.

(The "no backbone character suddenly snaps" bit also applies to this.)

MC Can Do NO WRONG, APPARENTLY?

This is especially bad in LMK, but holy shit, guys. Calm down with this bullshit of "MC is the perfect person and everything they do is perfectly fine but the second someone does it to THEM suddenly THAT PERSON IS WRONG AND DUMB AND AWFUL!! >:("

Why do you think I make Nibby the way they are? They're right a lot of the times, sure, but they're equally WRONG a lot of the times, too. They make mistakes, and they own up to it. They fuck up. They do good, and bad. They. Are. Not. Perfect.

I'm so fucking done with seeing MC's (Reader-Insert or OCs) being treated like they know everything better than everyone. I'm so FUCKING done with MC's being treated like perfect demure little princesses even when they're the ones who are wrecking shit. They can do no wrong? Shut the fuck up and get out of my face with that.

CONSTANT, and I Mean C O N S T A N T POV Switches

This is mostly for writing and not really in any kind of comic or drawing aspect, but holy shit.

I've said this before in my little writer tips thing, but oh my actual lord, I cannot stand when we can't stay with just one character's POV for more than two paragraphs. I'm begging on my hands and knees, just stay with one character for at least half a chapter or an entire chapter. We do NOT need to know what everyone is thinking immediately. Just. Stop. STOP. AAAAAAAUGH.

ENDLESS. ANGST. TRAIN.

Oh my god I talked about it in my writing tips ask before but let me tell you something, guys. I genuinely hate it when angst doesn't stop. THE BEACH EPISODE IN ANIME EXISTS FOR A REASON. IT'S A BREAK FROM ALL THE BULLSHIT THE CHARACTERS GO THROUGH. PLEASE JUST STOP. LET THEM HEAL.

Before y'all try to be all "oh but Nerevar, you've written angst!" Yeah but did you forget I also write the healing that comes after? The growth of the characters that come AFTER their angst episode? Yeah, didn't think so.

I've read so, so, SO many fics that have had just... non-stop angst and it gets so tiring and beyond boring reading it. We get it, they're suffering. Can we please get to the healing, now? P L E A S E?

Hating Wukong for NO FUCKING REASON

This is mostly because of those annoying ass Macaque stans who will blame Wukong for everything that happened to Mac and call him horrible. Need I remind you Mac was willing to kill MK in episode 9 just to get Wukong to fight properly? Mhm, yeah, now sit back down and shut up.

I cannot stand this unnecessary hatred for a character that's actually morally grey and complicated with complex emotions, thoughts, and feelings. And it's always, always for the dumbest fucking reasons. Has he made mistakes? Yes, but who the fuck hasn't. He, just like everyone in the show, grew as characters.

And speaking OF Wukong...

Making Wukong Stupid For EQUALLY NO REASON

Oh my actual LORD I hate this so fucking much. One little joke between MK and Wukong has given birth to my least favorite headcanon in this fucking fandom.

MK: Can't read? Wukong: Uh... I get stage fright.

And now everyone's pointing and laughing at Wukong like "LOL HE'S SO ILLITERATE HE'S DUMB HE'S A BIG STUPID IDIOT"

We're not even going to go into the actual JTTW Wukong, this is SOLELY on the LMK version.

Ok, so, if he's illiterate and can't read or write, then how in the fuck did he write that letter to MK in episode 3 of season 2?

PROOF INSIDE THE PUDDING.

WOW SO ILLITERATE. SO DUMB. VERY LOL.

Like, have we watched the same show? Wukong acts stupid to lighten the mood. He knows how to take shit seriously, he knows how to turn off "funny guy" mode and enter serious mode.

I am the number one Wukong defender and I will NEVER STOP DEFENDING HIM NONE OF YOU CAN KILL ME IN A WAY THAT MATTERS.

Anyway, yeah, I hate that headcanon and y'all can keep that shit far, far away from me.

Six-Eared Macaque's Six Ears

Hoo boy here's the fun one. I have lost count on how many times I've seen this dog shit trope, and every time I see it another one of my brain cells die. If you're caught up with my fic, and have read chapter 35, then you already know that my version of Macaque is not bothered by loud noises such as thunder or fireworks or the like.

Why?

BECAUSE HE'S NOT A FUCKING CHILD.

"Oh, but Nerevar!" I hear you cry as I sit in my rocking chair. "He has six ears! He hears so much more than the normal human! Wouldn't that mean he'd hate loud noises?"

I'm sorry, are we seriously debating if the several thousand year old monkey can handle a little bit of thunder or fireworks? Are we seriously going to baby this actual adult?

Whether we go down the route of "muffle magic" or not, this man has had SEVERAL MILLENNIA to train his ears to handle such noises. Would some still annoy him/bug him? Sure. Yeah. But to render him completely inconsolable and lying on the ground clutching his ears and crying out in agony? Yeah, no. No. Get off my lawn and stay off my property.

(I also hate the follow-up trope of Macaque suddenly getting noise-cancelling earphones from the MCs. I seriously just don't get it. It's happened in every single fic I've read before. I don't get it and I don't want to because I hate it it's stupid.)

The Infantilizing of Literal Adult Characters

This is where some of y'all really start to piss me off. The only characters who are the youngest in this god-damn show (and are STILL LEGAL ADULTS) are Mei and MK. Before you try to come at me like "oh but on [insert unreliable website here] it says they're this age!" That's not confirmed.

Their ages are never fucking confirmed, that was just a fan-thing.

More fucking proof before you try to "UHM--ACTUALLY" in my dm's. Try me. You will lose this battle. Fuck off.

AND YET Y'ALL STILL WANNA INFANTILIZE THE LITERAL ADULTS. I will not give any leniency here. I hate this. I hate it so much that the minute I see any motherfucker treating the characters (Wukong and Macaque ESPECIALLY) like literal children, the desire to commit violence rises. They are not your precious little uwu babies you can coddle. They're actual adults. Please go touch grass and learn how to interact with society. I would LOVE to watch you talk to a real life adult the way you would to Wukong and/or Macaque in your dumb ass baby talk and see what happens.

Wukong, as goofy as he is, would hate to be treated like that.

Macaque would despise it.

Stop fucking infantilizing them. They're adults.

This is also especially bad with MK just because he acts more like a kid than the rest. Almost like he is, but he's still a legal adult (at the very least 18 bc that's the legal driving age in China) and should not be treated as such. He wouldn't mind people caring about him, but there's a difference between caring and coddling.

Allowing Macaque To Be The Asshole But Not Wukong

Get out of my house. Right now. I love Macaque and Wukong so much, you know this. I have a whole damn fic about how much I love them both. But what I will not stand for is this DISRESPECT TOWARDS MY MEN. Oh, little Macaque can do no wrong because he was ~*~twaumatized~*~ but Wukong is the awful person for saying a few things wrong?

Fuck off. :) Don't ever talk to me. :))

Macaque is an asshole. So is Wukong. They're both complex characters with complicated ass stories interwoven with one-another and y'all playing this "X is better than Y" bullshit annoys me. This is half the reason why I hardly ever interact with the fandom at all. Because some of y'all try to force these head canons down my throat and it makes me want to beat you with a broomstick.

Conclusion

This is honestly all I can think of off the top of my head. But yeah. These are all the things that make me never want to read a fic. In all honestly, it's half the reason why I stopped reading fanfics entirely, not just from LMK but other places. They're just so bad and each one is worst than the last.

I will never say no to fic recommendations, nor will I hate on anyone who LIKES the fics that I don't like, or even hate with every fiber of my being. You do you, my word is not law. We can enjoy our shit and still be chill with each other. Just don't try to force me to like something I hate. Please and thank you. <3

[greenerteacups]

Hi GT absolutely love lionheart, I just wanted to know how in your headcanon would others perceive Draco in the Lionheart universe, l think one of the rear glimpses we got to see how other individuals view him was from Ron in Chapter 71: Auld Lang Syne which was kind of heart breaking especially the part Ron says/implies that he doesn't want to be like him

So it got me thinking do others view Draco as this cold, quiet, unattached, nonchalant person, and if so then I imagine him to be the quiet and reserved member of the golden quartet.

If that's the case then the dynamic between him and Hermione would be absolutely adorable, her the firey passionate loud mouth, and him the quiet, nonchalant, dangerously competent posh boy.

I think so! I'll sometimes go back and review dialogue for group scenes, and it's striking how little Draco says. He's not at all forthcoming in a group; most of his remarks are little asides or one-on-one conversations with someone while the group keeps talking. He's not shy, by any means, but he's just not the most sociable person in the world. And like, Gryffindor knows this, and they've grown used to (even affectionate for!) him, but it's like: yeah, that's Draco. He don't say much. Except to Hermione when they're doing a plot. Maybe don't get too close to that, though.

That impression also comes out through contrast with the people he hangs out with: Hermione is Hermione, who runs the Tower like a navy battalion, and Harry/Ron are both pretty sociable, friendly dudes. You see the four of them sitting together, and odds are it's not Draco who's talking.

I will say that Ron's being harsh on Draco in Chapter 71 — understandably, since he's worried his dad's going to die, but perhaps not with the most clear-sighted idea of who Draco is or seems to be. They're discussing Draco's tendency to suppress inconvenient emotions when they arise, which is (a) what lets him function despite his bespoke childhood trauma gauntlet, but also (b) a very stark contrast with Ron, who feels things deeply and obviously, and regards losing that quality as a kind of death. I think there's also a bit of miscommunication happening between them about what Draco means when he says "like this" — Draco's saying, yeah, I've learned to repress and compartmentalize and function despite loss, and Ron is hearing, I figured out how to stop caring. Which is not the same thing. Or maybe it is! But they have very different perspectives on the subject.

[issilya]

I hate answering this because it's something I really go back and forth on when it comes to Esha.

Like, she's a crow. An alienage elf with a fucking death wish. She probably doesn't see a reality where she doesn't die young.

It's not that she wants to die - fuck no she doesn't! Before death takes her, she will break her fingers clawing out of its grasp.

But. She's a pessimistic realist, if that makes sense. She doesn't allow herself to dream of the future, because the future is unsure and cannot be trusted. She accepts the reality she is in - the reality of being Viago's bloodhound. The reality of having to cheat death on the regular. She's fearless, but part that fearlessness on the job? It's not being resigned to her fate. It comes from the fact that she's afraid of being alive. She's afraid of the future. She's afraid to dream. She's afraid of the good times because the good times always end and hurt so fucking much when they do. So it's easier to not have them. Just resign herself to the here and now.

And then, despite all of that, she actually does enjoy what she is. She enjoys the thrill like the adrenaline junkie she is. And she's aware of it.

So it's not that she's really *opposed* to getting married. But she's also not really that into it. She never thinks it's something that happens to her, period. That's it, move on.

If that ever comes up between her and Lucanis, she goes full panic and full denial mode. Like, what do you mean? She's an alienage elf. He's the goddamned First Talon. Doesn't matter if they killed gods, there is a gap between them that makes this difficult. Uncomfortable.

And then it means actually committing to something long term. It means looking to the future. It means dreaming. And that's not something she ever allows herself to do.

All that not even taking into the account what it would mean politically. She's a de Riva, not a Dellamorte, she will not become a Dellamorte regardless of how devoted she may be. Names are who you are and what shapes you, and she would not change hers. It would be like erasing her identity. And then, what does it mean for the First Talon to marry someone who will not give him children? Because even if she ever wanted to, she can't. Does she want to? Eh, probably not, but it's not like she ever considered it knowing she can't anyway. It doesn't bother her, but it does carry weight once *marriage* is a question. Like, do you think Caterina doesn't care about having her bloodline continue? Because I'm sure she does and family pressure is helluva drug (poor Lucanis).

So I think the answer to that is... I don't know. I think she *would* get married, but it would require a lot of work to break down all the walls and shatter all the fears she has.

But once she's okay with it - oof, then there's issues about Andrastian rites vs elvish rites and all that shit. She's not disconnected from her roots. Even after all that, she still sees is as something that's important. It's not about gods, fuck the gods - it's about the community. The rites that keep the community together, the history that gets carried. She understands that, and she's not willing to just play the part of an Andastrian wife. What does that even mean for these two? How Andrastian is Lucanis, anyway?

Jokingly, maybe they almost break up over this and then decide to elope. Have a ship captain marry them because ship captains can do that. I have no idea. They're a tangled mess of opposites and conflicts and I love them. I'm not even sure they get a happy ending after all.

/edit

Yeah after considerations it's not about whether or not she wants it or how she wants it, if they get married, it would be Lucanis pulling some shit like asking her and then within 10 minutes having the ship's captain marry them, because if she has time to think, her brain will overload on panic - gotta get her while she's still in shock lmao

Hey, hope you all had a good weekend! Unfortunately, it’s Monday =/ Fortunately, it’s time for Rook Intro Hour! 🍀🌺🌼🌸

How it works: I ask you a question about your Rook(s) and you answer it with as much brevity or verbosity as you desire. You can do this whenever you want, and I’ll reblog it + add some comments! There’s no time limit— if you want to do the older ones, they are collected here! (The post is updated on Fridays!)

Today’s Question(s): Does your Rook want to get married to their LI(s)? Do they care about where? Is there a specific tradition/traditions they want to follow, when they do? Who would they invite? What would they wear?

Have fun & thanks for sharing!

[doodler16]

Big rant because making a critical account for my yapping is a stressful path I won't take, very sorry. You are brave. Feel free to delete if this is all too much, I am Literally just the frustrated yapper

Helluva has been Super Disappointing for me and as a result I've been leaning more for the critical side. Issues I have feel addressed and pointed out Sometimes in this end of the field. But I do read fans with more "positive critique" to make sure I have a full plate of Helluva Analysis.

And it's very frustrating. Which is what helluva boss encompasses tbh, being frustrating. I'm aware I'm not going to agree with every person I see, obviously. But I just can't find a positive critique that I DO even slightly agree with, and it's frustrating! I love when people enjoy things that I don't, it fills me with this joy about the beauty of people and our differences. But I also like UNDERSTANDING! And I don't! They talk about things they say are "so obviously portrayed in the story" and I don't see it!

I mostly look up Stella opinions so this is where my experience with this comes from. Opinions on her from the positive people are so inconsistent it adds to my confusion. "She has character! You need to see Stella as more than just a idiotic bitchy ex wife! She's been manipulating Octavia against Stolas! She's Mother Gothel! Her abusive character is actually well done and researched." Where are you getting that from, when has Stella ever done that, what are you talking about, It would be NICE if she was but that isn't there it's literally not there, she's mean and wants Stolas to die but then Andrealphus appears and takes care of the rest of it. Then on the opposite side of the same positive analysis:

"It's fine that Stella is a flat character! Hellooooo, Disney villains? She doesn't need to be built, it would bloat the show." It would bloat the show??? It's fine to have a FLAT supposedly Main Villain in our RICH CHARACTER DRIVEN show????? And so she IS flat, you agree she's flat??? Then it shouldn't be a problem if someone wished she was a fuller character, feels like she isn't a threat to anybody for her flatness, and that the role that should've been hers was handed off to a suddenly appearing Male Character? Who was given more personality and motive than her mind you!

"It's commentary on the society. The male character overtakes hers because she's a pawn for high society, the one that hurt her and Stolas" how did we get here, I'm positive that isn't the writer's intent what-

"Stella isn't a character she's symbolism for the cruelty of the society that forced this marriage, do you lack media literacy? This is obvious." What are ANY of you people talking about!!!!!!!

"the show isn't even over. They could build Stella next season and you're having an issue with arcs that aren't finished yet." [Blows this one up with my mind before this gets Any Longer]

What am I missing that's so obvious that everyone else is seeing?? I see wasted potential and they're telling me it's not and then explain the a made up playground game. Then when I don't get what they just drew in the sand I'M the idiot with no media literacy?? It's not even that I'm upset that "helluva boss didn't do what I personally wanted so I think it's bad.", I don't know what it IS doing to make people see it as GOOD!!!? Pulling my hair,,, frustrating. Helluva Boss and it's positive analysis or "critical crushers" is frustrating I want to understand but I don't,,aghhhh

💀 Reading this made me realize, I barely talk about Stella. Yeah Anon, Helluva Boss can be frustrating at times especially with the plot holes. I think the main problem with Stella is the lack of attention she gets in the show and we the audience don’t know much about her besides Stella throwing tea parties and being a Stolas hater. So people create head canons about her to fill in the gap.

The worst part is that the things you listed above can make Stella so much more interesting. Hopefully, Stella does something worthwhile or actually takes the lead in season 3. Because for most of Season 2, Andreaplus was doing the planning, fighting, and scheming instead of Stella, the one is affected most by Stolas.

[ifindus]

Have you ever had a relationship with GOD/YHWH? Have you asked HIM things, for help/understanding?

What is stopping you from pursuing a life w/ someone who will never leave you & has your best at heart?

𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱: 'If you do not know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter which path you take.'

I'm always saying I don't know what is happening or why I'm feeling despondent

— so I agree we don't know how to live.

We're all unique snowflakes, but I think divorce & drugs and alcohol exists so we can try to calm down from all the anger and rage we feel when 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 — or the way we want to be treated or remembered.

1.]  If 𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗺𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿,       Hell is basic entry level for everyone, &

2.]  If GOD sent HIS SON to die on the cross in our       place to avoid this Hell and lead us thru life by       HIS HOLY SPIRIT; &

3.]  HE says there is only 1-way forward & JESUS       is the way/truth/life, that no one comes to       the FATHER except thru JESUS. [John 14:6]

Why would we ever avoid HIS easy yoke? Why wouldn't we ask HIM in to show us the way?

We clearly don't have life/truth/way to GOD, unless we accept JESUS, & life/death begins forever after we're ejected from earth.

I wonder if you were to die in your sleep suddenly: Are you ready to be drop-kicked into eternity?

I'm cleaning out my inbox a little bit atm, and this has been sitting there since 2023 😭😭 I just couldn't let it go, it always makes me laugh so much, I think I only understand about 50% of these combinations of words