#i get it theories are fun but like. personally they are both examples of characters that are sooo much more fun if they're just like

[aretarers]

one thing i've always really (personally) disliked is headcanons/theories that like... take a character whose origins are purposely left unexplained and gives them this really intricate, plot-relevant background, ESPECIALLY if it's a villain and they're given a tragic backstory. like don't get me wrong! i love a villain with a tragic backstory as much as the next guy! but sometimes a villain is better off as just some random cunt

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Aaaaa Yuuna is so cuuutee 💗😆 Her hair is so prettyyy. But with the addition of the new Yuu I’ve come up with a theory that with the pattern the mangas have taken so far, they’ll start switching back and fourth between male and female yuus for the rest of the dorms:

Heartslabyul - Yuuken (Male)

Savanaclaw - Yuuka (Female)

Octavinelle - Yuuta (Male)

Scarabia - Yuuna (Female)

Pomefiore - Male

Ignihyde - Female

Diasomnia - Male

Just something I came up with that i wanted to share with you ^^ Also who is the manga artist for Scarabia 🤔

[Referencing the Episode of Scarabia!]

Lots of Yuuna-related asks recently (and for good reason!) so I decided to lump them all into one post :DD

Yes, Yuuna is very cute~ The alternating genders of the manga!Yuus has actually been a pretty popular theory for a while now, actually! Some believe this is meant to be the Yuus having the opposite genders as the Great Seven member of their respective books/dorms. But yeah, the pattern seems likely at this point.

The mangaka for the Episode of Scarabia is Majiko-sensei! They have previously contributed a chapter to the manga anthology. You can read more about their past works here.

I'm not sure if "[taking] care of [one's] appearance" is the right phrase to use (as it unintentionally implies other Yuus are slobs/don't care about how they present themselves, when that's definitely not the case)? Maybe it would be more accurate to say, "Yuuna has stereotypically feminine aesthetic tastes", though it's more immature and preppy than Vil's is. I think Yuuna has a cuteness that's more characteristic of Cater than Vil--but all three of them definitely have overlap in their interests in makeup, fashion, social media, etc. I feel like Yuuna would get along with them both!! We do technically see her interacting with Cater (they take a selfie before he departs for winter break) and are assumed to have already known each other due to the events of books 1 and 2. Too bad we don't really get to see them interact in those books... and that we won't see Yuuna interact with Vil for the Episode of Pomefiore. We'll have a new Yuu by then (which gets into my disappointment with never being able to fully follow a single manga!Yuu and their character arc through to the end of the main story...)💦

Yeah, it's nice to have variety in the manga!Yuus' personalities, skillsets, and interests! ^^ It makes them a lot of fun to follow, even if we know they'll only be with us for the length of one book/dorm.

I've personally really been loving Yuuta and Yuuna a lot. Yuuken and Yuuka are also nice, but I find that their general characters are kind of similar (athletic and level-headed) and don't differ enough to result in interactions unique from game!Yuu (with perhaps the exception of them being able to physically contribute to battles). This is not true of Yuuta and Yuuna, whose abilities extend to other areas and therefore have a larger impact on the world and its characters. For example, Yuuta's love of food + cooking skill has him shouting at Grim sometimes for not appreciating food, but it also becomes excellent leverage for sleeping over at Savanaclaw later in book 3. You can also see how Yuuna's outgoing personality would draw people to her and allow her to make connections.

The manga!Yuus also speak to the diversity of Yuus we see in the fandom. I know a lot of us were waiting for a girl Yuu (which we got with Yuuka), a Yuu of different body type (which we got with Yuuta), and a very femme presenting Yuu (which we got with Yuuna). Yuuken is also great because he was the first Yuu we got that actually had the ability and the confidence in his fighting capabilities to charge head-on into an OB fight.

As I state in my pinned post, manga raws generally come from Monthy GFantasy, which publishes new chapters of the Twst manga online each month. You must PAY to access those raws.

In the case of the Episode of Scarabia, the full first volume was released in today. It is avaliable on Kindle through the Amazon JP store. This is still something you would need to PAY for if you're interested in seeing the full thing right away.

I cannot provide full chapters to the public, as this is paid content that I receive from my own friends who subscribe to GFantasy and/or who bought the first volume of Scarabia on Kindle. You can make your own decision whether or not you wish to purchase for yourself; however, there is most likely a scanlation team that will put out an English version sooner or later. Again though, this would surely take some time to get done, especially when there's 4 chapters of Scarabia to translate.

[forgettable-au]

WHAT IS THIS AU? HOW DOES IT WORK?

A brief (I'm lying, this is a long post) explanation post for this AU for anyone new <3

As I've mentioned before, this AU is based on the theory that Papyrus is (was) Gaster. I did not create this theory, it has existed for a long time nd I'm also not the first person to do something like this with the concept—I'll touch up on that later.

About the Papyrus is Gaster theory

I've looked up a lot of stuff about it but I don't actually know where it originated. It's not super popular but if you're a Papyrus theorist you might have heard of it before!

It is not a super serious theory, it's more about pointing out the weird connections and similarities between Papyrus and Gaster and giving an explanation to the many weird things about Papyrus and his lack of backstory.

Just to mention some things:

Them both speaking in capital letters, having no asterisks, their weird way of phrasing things, Papyrus being described as forgettable, Papyrus hating hotland, him pretending he doesn't know about a lot of stuff ( The lab for example, he know what a lab is but pretends he doesn't in front of Sans), Gaster being related to hands and Papyrus never taking his gloves off, Papyrus weird connection with phones (his photo-graphic memory for phone calls) and Gaster's weird connection to phones(Fun events related to phones, and getting the garbage noise when using the phone in a darkwolrd), their love for puzzles (The CORE is a giant puzzle), THAT one quote that I still find misterious “beside, it’s rude to talk about people that are listening, right? not everyone is as though as my brother”, Papyrus DOES have Gaster blasters it's pretty much canon even if a lot of people ignore it, Papyrus is very smart—he's knowledgeable on many subjects and knows how to build many things— he's the character with the MOST dialogue in the game yet we don't know a lot of stuff about him OR his past, he breaks the laws of physics and of the game, and he's not yet in deltarune! The heavily Gaster connected game!

That's some of the things I could think about, and look, yeah... I'm probably looking way too much into it and these are all just coincidences! The weird Papyrus things can be related to other stuff! But I still like this theory, not because I think it's real but because I LOVE the possibilities!!!

About how this AU works

This au is basically a

"Pretend this theory is real! How would the Undertale timeline work then?"

We're giving Papyrus his backstory while also making a Gaster-focused story at the same time!

This AU imagines how the Papyrus is Gaster theory situation could play out! (And I'll also add some of my other favorite ut theories as a treat)

Papyrus used to be Wingdings and then Wingdings shattered across time and space, Papyrus and Gaster are different separate people.

Actually I kind of, treat Wingdings before and after the accident as different people also... you change a lot when you become an omnipresent being....Wingdings, Gaster and Papyrus I treat them all as different people.

"How did Gaster become Papyrus?"

He didn't "become" Papyrus just like that. After he shattered, he stopped existing the way he did before, he became a being in another layer of the game! But! physically his body was just there...

This is based on how the Goners and Gaster followers have counterparts that are not, uh, goners. A non-distorted version of them existing separately

Papyrus was just kind an empty shell at first. He still kept parts of Wingdings original personality but his Papyrus personality developed on his own with time!

"How did Gaster shatter across time and space?"

Usually everyone agrees it was because he fell into the CORE

Not here! I don't think the CORE caused his accident, it is a power source not a time and space altering machine. In this story, it was some other thing he was working on....

If you have more questions you can check the frequently asked questions post or send me an ask <3!!

About similar content!

I've seen some people tell me this is a good idea for an AU and I agree!! I love this idea SO much, but as I said before I didn't create this concept or theory I just love it a lot!!

I really thought there would be more people that used this concept before but I couldn't find much... so I'm just making it myself!

One of my goals is to make other people like this idea as well and for them to make their own takes on it!

If you also like this concept as much as I do, here's a section with some inspirations for this AU that are also "Papyrus is Gaster" focused

First, you all should really see "I know that I know nothing" by Linssins

It's because of this comic that I discovered that theory in the first place! And really loved the concept. It's my main inspiration.

Unfortunately the comic is unfinished. If you see it, you will definitely see how I took inspiration... Still, the story in this AU is a very different take on the theory, it goes on a different path

Another inspiration was @askthesciencesquad ! This comic is paused but it's also a Papyrus is Gaster comic!

I was very happy to find it, it is also a very different take on the concept but I liked where it was going.

[yanderespamton78]

sometimes i feel like toby fox made spamton and the addisons especially for people to hyperfixate on. everything about them seems so perfect for people to go rabid about its insane to me

for one, spamton himself pretty much counts for 4 people, those being addispam, big shot spamton, in game spamton, and spamton neo. now sure you mostly see people going rabid about in game spamton but ive seen plenty of people who are obsessed with a version we dont get to see on screen

secondly, even the main in game spamton himself is kinda up to interpretation. loads of people characterise him differently. if i compared two aus to eachother theyd often be very different and depending on the ones i chose could be almost like 2 different people, and then if i compared those to in-game spamton, theyd still be very different. also since you dont see addispam and big shot spamton on screen you dont even know what they acted like so again basically you can make your own guy to fixate on with a few prompts as to what he was like

dont even get me started on the addisons. now im biased as fuck here seeing that ive been fixated on the addisons for like 6 months now (send help) but toby fox basically gave us 4 templates for us to have fun with. sure based off of in game dialogue you have a bit to go off of when it comes to their personality (pink being an asshole and blue being caring for example) but even then every addison in every different au is slightly different and i have never seen two addisons turn out exactly the same. ALSO you dont even know the relationship these characters have to spamton meaning you can have them be siblings, you can have them be friends, or you can ship them based off of what you enjoy. OR you could just ignore them altogether (which a lot of people do lmao)

also another thing is the fact that you dont necessarily need to have your addisons' personalities just reflect off of spamtons. I mean the main 4 addisons give you enough to go off of to make your own, and you are given cyber city, an entire fantasy world for you to put them in. cyber city again is up to interpretation, some people have it be like a normal city, some people make it a utopia, some people make it a hellscape. the choice is yours!!

and even then in game spamton is so versatile. he is perfect for angsty stuff, fluffy stuff, or jsut silly stuff, and none of it is out of character. you couldnt really make an angsty spongebob edit could you, itd be weird and out of characer and no one would take it seriously. but also you couldnt make a silly walten files video, sure people do but its out of character and wouldnt actually happen canonically. but spamton on the other hand. hes the kinda guy who you can draw holding a wallet in his mouth like a cat and generally being silly but also you could draw him sobbing at the bottom of dumpster and neither would be out of character!! AAAA

also extra thing i thought id add but his backstory is also very up to interpretation, like i dont think ive ever seen two people who think spamtons rise and downfall went exactly the same. sure everyone has the same general idea of how it went but some people believe in acid theory, some people believe in puppetification theory, some people have a mix of both, some people have their own idea of how it went down, and with that you can project different parts of your own trauma onto whatever happened to him.

ok sorry that was so long thank you for reading my very biased ramble about why spamton is perfect byeeee

[sammys-magical-au]

Night Furies & aging - a theory on the changes in Toothless’ design and behaviours

[I definitely didn’t accidentally delete this post the first time I tried making it and scream silently for five minutes]

Ok so strap in y’all, cuz this’ll probably be a long one, but I have some ideas as to why Toothless looks and acts so differently between the first and third films, since it’s something I’ve noticed a lot of people in the fandom talking about (especially recently with the announcement of the unnecessary live-action remake), and while a lot of the criticisms are totally valid (and this post is not meant to argue against those criticisms), I do have an alternate theory/headcanon about the changes we see in Toothless’ design and personality that I like a lot better than just thinking it’s the design team purposely fucking up a really good character to make him more appealing to children (even though that’s definitely what it is, again, I’m not saying that interpretation is wrong, this one is just more fun bc I get to ramble about biology and such 👌)

Y’all with me so far? Good. Let’s dive in, shall we?

Basically, my theory revolves around the fact that Toothless is a lot younger in the first movie than we may have thought. This is even kinda backed up in the second movie, because Valka points out that Hiccup and Toothless are the same age - so, that being considered, it’s likely that humans and dragons age similarly and have similar lifespans, and therefore in the first movie, considering how young Hiccup was, it’s not far out of the realm of possibility that Toothless was a juvenile dragon at this point in the timeline. He was practically a baby.

If that’s true, then that could be a very good explanation for the changes in both his physical appearance and his behaviours. His looks changed simply because he was still growing and developing at the time of the first movie, and his physical appearance changed along with Hiccup’s, meaning they quite literally grew up together between the first and third films. His habits and behaviours on the other hand would have changed due to social influences, and growing up surrounded by humans rather than his own kind.

I’ll expand more on both of these throughout the post, but I’m gonna start with comparisons of his design changes, specifically the ones I’ve seen pointed out the most often.

___

Physical design aspects:

1 - head shape

One of the biggest talking points when it comes to Toothless’ design changes, and also one of the most notable differences, is the shape of his face - specifically from the profile view.

The shape of his head differs a lot between the first and third movies, with his brow becoming much more prominent and the slope of his nose becoming steeper. When images of his profile from the first, second, and third movies are put side by side, however, it becomes a bit more clear how this progression could indicate aging and change in skull shape/structure

For a real-world example, here’s a comparison between a tiger cub and an adult tiger from the same angle:

As you can see, there are a lot of similarities here. An adult tiger’s brow also becomes more prominent, while the head becomes a bit bulkier and more square-shaped rather than thin and rectangular. The angles of the face are also much sharper.

When put side by side, the similarities are a bit more clear, and the changes in Toothless’ design start to look a lot more like the development of a big cat from cub to adult.

2 - scale pattern

Another change that gets brought up a lot is the fact that Toothless’ scale patterns disappear soon after the first movie.

In reality, if you look closely, the patterns are still there, but they’ve faded. You can see it better on his wings:

He definitely still has spots, but they’re much less visible.

This could possibly be a form of camouflage for young night furies - similarly to how a black jaguar’s spots become less visible as they grow

With the adult jaguar, the spots are still visible, but you have to look a little harder to see them - same with adult vs juvenile Toothless

Again, the similarities to big cats are pretty noticeable when compared side-by-side.

Additionally, although we sadly don’t get a really good look at the glowy effect the Hidden World has on Toothless’ scales in the movie, from what I can see, it definitely looks like the glow makes his scale patterns a lot more visible

3 - bulkiness

The third main difference I see pointed out is the fact that Toothless bulked up a lot between the first and third movies, and that one also has a simple possibile explanation - lots of young animals bulk up as they grow, because of muscle growth!

It’s very reasonable to assume that Toothless got bulkier bc he was young in the first movie, and over time (especially considering the amount of flying and fighting he did) he developed more muscle.

Compared to a lot of large mammals, the similarities in development are once again pretty evident. And I hear what you’re saying - Toothless is a dragon, a reptile, not a mammal, but the truth of the matter is, Toothless’ design *was* heavily based on large mammals, specifically cats, so comparing him to large cats and other mammals isn’t that much of a stretch, especially when you bring into consideration that an animal of this size might develop a little differently than real-life, modern reptiles.

Now, the night lights do sort of put a wrench in this theory, specifically the scale pattern part, and especially Dart and Ruffrunner, since they have more resemblance to Toothless but don’t share his scale pattern from the first movie - and I’m willing to admit that. That being said, it would be interesting to see a night light design with similar looks to Toothless in the first movie, specifically with the scale patterns. I’ll definitely chuck that in the to-draw folder for now, bc it’s fun to explore dragon biology through my own personal takes.

___

Behavioural changes:

Now onto the second part of this already-too-long post, the changes in Toothless’ behaviour throughout the films.

In the first movie, Toothless tends to act very catlike, whereas in the second and third movies, he acts more like a dog or even a person at times. I think this could be because, if he was a juvenile when he and Hiccup met, he learned more human behaviours than the behaviours of his own kind, almost being hand-raised in a sense, since he was so young.

The light fury’s (or “Ivory”, as I tend to call her just for funsies) behaviours also showcase this, since she grew up in the wild and surrounded by her own kind (as we see at least three other light furies besides her in the Hidden World), and behaves a lot like Toothless did in the first movie, before being trained. If Toothless hadn’t had any human interaction, it’s very likely that he’d act similarly to Ivory and the way he did in the first movie.

Additionally, the reason behind his awkward behaviour around Ivory is because he doesn’t know how to act or what body language to use around another fury, as he didn’t learn. Everything he’s learned about social interactions came more from humans - which can often be seen with wild animals raised by people, their behaviour is often different from that of animals that grew up in their natural environments. This isn’t to say that I think Toothless being raised by humans is wrong - it was his only way of survival, and the relationship he has with humans is much closer to that of an animal with a wildlife conservationist rather than that of an exotic “pet” influencer on tik tok. However, having to grow up without other night furies definitely affected his social development with other furies, since he didn’t have the chance to interact with another dragon like him until he was a full-grown adult.

(This also connects to my headcanon that night/light furies live in familial groups similar to lion prides, and young dragons often stay with this group until they’re ready to find a mate and start a pride of their own. Toothless likely got separated from his pride too early, either by getting lost somehow or, since he’s said to be the last of his kind, they were all killed - either way, he wasn’t ready to leave them yet, which might also explain his heightened aggression at the beginning of the first movie, since he’s not only a wild animal but he’s also terrified and too young to be on his own.)

If you made it this far, congratulations! You’re more patient than me!! And thanks for letting me ramble about this!!!

TL:DR - Toothless was a juvenile/very young dragon in the first movie, and the changes in his appearance and behaviour stem from both his natural aging process and the fact that he was separated from his kind at a very young age and grew up with humans.

[moonstone03]

Hello! I have seen some other fanders commenting about the Janus GRWM video and I have a few opinions about both the video and some of those comments. But please note these are my thoughts and opinions and even some theories about certain things.

Also note that I respect and can understand other people's opinions, I am just sharing my own.

So, overall I found the GRWM video fun and funny. At first when we saw the preview last night,

I theorized that the colors used were meant to make it more obvious on the skin. Some even pointed out that the change could be because of Thomas's skin condition. To me, despite these colors not being green, they still look slightly green especially with the yellow glove near his face. Most people have more of a problem with the black line for his mouth which I can agree, it is very jarring to the eye and unnatural looking. However, this is not the first time we have seen the black line for Janus.

You can see it in the screen shots and it is very obvious, and done not as well, in the second picture with Janus's full winter get-up. I think this has less to do with Thomas choosing to change the makeup look and more with the fact that Tayln and Quill (who seems to be doing the makeup now) have different styles when it comes to Janus. This style has also been seen with some cosplayers, which I would show pictures but I cannot find names or media tags for them but you can see examples if you look up Janus Sanders Cosplays. Hopefully by the time the finale comes around, the makeup will not be as jarring and maybe even get better.

Now with the comments about how the characters are portrayed. I can see where this is coming from, they have changed but something we have to remember is that they are representations of Thomas's personality which will change over time. Also Thomas is still trying to get a handle on them without Joan by his side and we haven't had an official episode since Working Through Intrusive Thoughts, most things that have come out since seem to be semi-canon/non-canon. Thomas has also said (via my memory) in his Failures and Success video for 2023, he was using these Aside videos and shorter and easier form content to get used to and understand his characters again and to have more fun with them without the pressure like normal videos.

I want to end this post with saying that Thomas can and does make mistakes, we all do, but these are his characters and he is allowed to change and use them as he sees fits. Just as much as we as fans are allowed to use these characters and change their designs and even sometimes personalities to fit what we want them to fit.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk, have a good day, treat each other with respect and love, peace out! Love y'all!

[cosmicpoutine]

leaving a lil rant here :]

I love Tim and his ships sm. Me personally, I only really ship TimKon. Those two are perfect for eachother and have so much clear queer coding that it’s crazy, and they have dialogue that’s just. gay shaped.

I also get TimBart, I don’t ship it romantically but I get why people do!! Tim and Bart are close as well, and the balance they get between ‘depressed tired wet cat’ and ‘living breathing embodiment of adhd’ is great.

I also get TimBartKon, they’re a trio. They are always a trio, so many people like to bring up how TimKon has so much coding and one of the big examples they use is when Tim tried to clone Kon. You know who else he tried to clone? Bart.

The only Tim ship I don’t get is TimBern, or any ship involving those two. When Bernard first appears, he’s Tim’s bully. He actively makes fun of tim and puts him down and then that character is forgotten about until Tim comes out as bi, then they just rework his character and go “haha guys this is his boyfriend not bully ygs are crazy” and just forget about all the bad stuff Bernard did? Reworking a character is great and all but, it just feels a bit weird and out of place for me. There’s always going to be that certain toxicity for TimBern, at least for me.

homie... bully??? im flabbergasted- im speechless- im jason todd (dead)

okay, im gonna start off by saying you have all the right to not ship them, and im not here to defend timbern as a ship. im here to defend BERNARD DOWD.

first thing bernard does is give tim advice about teachers, and he clearly says they're gonna be good friends.

if bernard was a bully, tim wouldn't hang around him so much. besides, i hate it when people place tim as a helpless little boy who would get bullied. he has put himself in situations where he looks weak on purpose to keep his identity safe, but he's not a victim at all. tim is a social butterfly because he's really good at masking and reading people.

not to mention, both bernard and darla push tim a lot because they're trying to get him to open up and be closer to them, but he keeps pushing them away. tim is a professional liar.

and when tim has to quit robin and start hanging out with normal people, he invites bernard over.

and bernard is acting relatively normal, and he wants to play video games and talk about how hot tim's stepmom is.

bernard is a normal teenager who has no idea one of his friends is the hero he's so obsessed with. he even shows concern for robin dying and makes up an entire conspiracy theory about batman havin a robin orphanage. you can tell he's afraid of robin being gone for real because at this point they haven't seen robin in months bc tim retired.

i dont know what about all of these interactions gave you the vibe that he's a bully because all i see is a normal teenager teasing his friends and being jealous tim gets more bitches.

im not saying that bernard was never mean or weird around tim, but he definitely wasn't actively bullying tim.

bernard is obnoxious and cocky, yes. but thats just because they wrote him as a real person. he's the school's chameleon, maybe even a little bit of a loser, too. he knows everyone but keeps a safe distance so that he doesn't get pushed into a box. im not sure if, at this point, he was already in a cult or being indoctrinated, but when we see his parents and the dowd home in tim drake: robin that just doesn't look right.

also homie talk about "forgetting all the bad things bernard did" (which in my opinion is none but okay lets follow that logic) everyone forget about all the bad things batman did to tim, he was not a kind and loving mentor, he was cruel to both tim and steph. we forget that batman was kind of an asshole to damien in the beginning. all those things are forgotten for the sake of the batfam.

in conclusion: we're just so used to the idea that superheroes can only ever form strong friendship bonds by having near death experiences together that we forget that the secret identifies exist and that the people who know them by their legal name also means a lot to them. after all, these people are the reason why they're heroes.

[yuurei20]

Idk if you've talked about it before, but have you seen the voice lines for Crowley's card? At the end people were saying he implies HE'S the one who brought the MC to Twisted Wonderland👀

Hello hello!! Thank you for this question! ^^

I am not sure that that is how I would interpret his line!

The original Japanese is 「貴方みたいな勤勉で優秀な生徒がいてくれて助かっています。これからも問題児を“監督”してくださいね」

The form of the verb "help" makes this difficult to put into English...literally translated it may be something close to, "It's proving helpful to have diligent, excellent students like you available. Please do continue to ‘supervise’ the troublemakers."?

A vaguer translation might be "It helps to have diligent, excellent students like you," and I can see how that could be interpreted into the implication that he arranged for students like the prefect to be on hand for assistance.

But given the form of "help," I don't think there is that much depth to read into! :> There is nothing to insinuate that he is glad he brought the prefect here, or that he was involved in their being here at all.

Of course there is a lot that is still unknown about Crowley, and the theory that he intentionally brought the prefect over to make something happen (or to keep something from happening 👀) is a popular one (and very fun to think about!).

But if I were attempting to champion that theory, I personally would not use this particular line as proof! It could, of course, be setting a foundation so that a future reveal does not blindside the players 👀 But the line by itself is vague, which is probably by design!

And there were two more Crowley lines that I found interesting!

「私の全力を知りたい？随分と怖い��の知らずですねえ……学園長として心配になってしまいます」

"You want to know the full extent of my power? You certainly know no fear…as headmage, that worries me."

Crowley is not the first character to comment on the audaciousness/fearlessness of the prefect: Malleus has a very similar line but their phrasing is different, with Crowley saying 怖いもの知らず, while Malleus says 恐れを知らない. Malleus repeats this same phrasing at least twice in the original game, though it it written in two different ways on EN.

Both Crowley and Malleus' phrasings are two ways of saying something that could be localized as the same thing in English, but subtle turns of phrase are proving to be very important in the original game.

For example, when you set Crowley to the homescreen he will say, "私をお呼びですか？"

And this is an interesting parallel to Malleus', "僕を呼んだ?"

Malleus’ phrase tends to be rewritten as various different expressions on EN such as “You called?,” “Was it you who called me?” and “Did you need something?”

But in the original game he always uses the exact same phrase, which is different from Crowley’s “私をお呼びですか？” while meaning the same thing.

While it would normally not be an issue for a localizer to take something that seems repetitive in one language and give it more flair in the other, it seems that this repetition was intentional and maybe should have been kept consistent to the original game?

Especially because English does not have things like different words for "I" like Japanese does (Crowley uses "watashi" while Malleus uses "boku") to help tell one person's phrasing apart from another's.

EN experienced a similarly unfortunate problem with Idia’s, “Leave it to your big bro,” with the phrase getting rewritten into "I'll get you trilling like a canary" and "I got this!" on EN, presumably before Aniplex USA realized that it was being repeated word-for-word for a reason.

Is it possible that the information that Aniplex USA receives in advance is limited, so they just do not know which of these phrases are safe to change and which need to be kept accurate to the original game?

With all the variations to Malleus' "You called for me?" on EN, Crowley has the potential to be localized with a phrase that is identical to at least one of Malleus' multiple English-language interpretations. In the original game, however, Malleus' phrasing is consistent, and completely different from the phrasing used by Crowley, while meaning the same thing! (and the "same but different" pattern has the potential to be very significant 👀)

[stardewfanficwriters]

Meet Our Writers

This week's spotlighted guild member is one of our moderators: Andrea!

AO3: Andrea_P_Quintell

Tumblr: @shortysus4

Age: 39 and a half

Pronouns: she/her

Guild Member since: October 2024

Fun Fact about yourself? I've been to all 50 US states and all 7 continents.

How long have you been writing fanfiction? Off and on since about 1998 or so-- Star Wars in the early years, SDV since 2023 :)

Favourite SDV character to write? Honestly, there is nobody I love writing more than I love writing about June (not even Ben)-- his softboi/drama queen personality is so similar to my own, and I adore letting him geek out about music, because I have both bachelor's and master's degrees in music theory/composition myself. If I'm limited to vanilla only, I have a soft spot for Sebastian and Sam, I love to let Seb be dark and moody while Sam is the opposite.

Favourite tropes/genre to write? Friends to lovers, with a heaping side of mutual pining! I LOVE to make two idiots realize their feelings for each other. Also, any time I can make boys kiss each other :D

Your most popular SDV fanfic? Forget Me Not, a Sambastian piece I'm pretty proud of :)

Your SDV underdog fic you wish more people would give a chance? I know it's a longfic, but I wish more people would take a chance on Coffee Beans, Candles, and Keyboards. I don't get many readers because of the whole "main love interest is from Ridgeside" thing, but I really feel like people would fall in love with Ben and June the way I have if they read it (and I constantly write for these boiz so you'll probably never run out of content).

Hear me out: Some hills I will die on: Sambastian is OTP and Leah is a lesbian! Also, for the love of Yoba people need to learn about the modded characters because there are so many good ones! Expanded, Ridgeside, East Scarp, and Adventure Guild Expanded add so many great friends and dynamics, and I wish there were more authors writing for those characters (especially mixing the mods). I never would have met the love of my life if not for taking a chance on installing Ridgeside, for example :)

Lastly, any other fandoms you write for? Star Wars (no sequel BS here, Mara Jade for life), Babysitters Club, and I read a ton of Yuri on Ice but haven't yet written for them... but hopefully someday!

We are very lucky to have someone as multitalented as Andrea as one of our number. Not only is she a writer and musician, she's also one of our moderators as well! If you check out her fics, please be sure to kudos and comment to show your support for small artists and writers.

If you write Stardew Valley fanfiction and would like to join our guild, please message this blog for an invite!

Credit to @lily-alphonse & @saradika for the banners

Please see AO3 for additional tags. Reader discretion is advised as always.

[bonzos-number-1-fan]

TMAGP 37 Thoughts: Roommates

We're back with another Tale From The Primeline tm, and another big chunk of exposition. It's a lot of fan service and fairly blatant conversation. None of which is a bad thing, but you know me. So don't hold your breath waiting on me to say anything interesting on this one. Although up top this is the first TMAGP ep reusing a TMA ep title. TMA's Scrutiny was all about the invasiveness of non-consensual statement taking, while this one is sorta about the opposite. So that's a fun bit of metatext if it's intentional. It wouldn't be Magnus without reused names so it could very well not be.

Spoilers for TMA , and TMAGP episode 37 below the cut.

If I had a nickel for every time the main character of a Magnus series moved in with Georgie Barker, I'd have two nickels— which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

I think the statement of this one was very solidly written but I didn't particularly care for it. I understand what it was going for and think it was doing a good job at that but it didn't do much for me. Lucky for me, and for you, I also don't think there is much to actually unpack. We both listened to the same thing so you don't need me restating it, and while it's nice to see an example of people that have been Stockholmed by the Change there isn't a lot to say on it IMO. So we can move along to something I do think is a little more interesting, [Error]'s deeper characterisation. [Error] has thus far been very direct and has had little room for other people doing much of anything that isn't doing what they want. Standard scary monster business really. However, with Ashe she was taken aback and almost empathetic. It's nothing earth shattering or anything but for a character that largely consists of question marks having there be something deeper to them is appreciated. It's hard to know if they'll ever really become a character with motives and goals or if it's all just feeding instincts but it is nice to see all the same.

Additionally, the way [Error] moves seems to be better realised now. Prior to this episode they just sorta emerged but now there is some proper description for it that book ends this statement.

It is dank, derelict and ruined. The Archivist flows through like mustard gas, exploring and formless... The Archivist suddenly coagulates, coalescing into a specter we recognize. Eventually the Archivist slowly dissolves back into the wind and moves on...

A lot of the following conversations don't give much to talk about. I think it's all about what you'd expect from a post-Change society and is all stated as so matter-of-fact that there is little to truly speculate on. Melanie seems to be in a much better place, as you might expect, and thinks of John as a friend. Sam is caught up on all the big stuff in the primeline that'll likely be of use when he gets back to TMAGP's universe. All the information about John isn't likely to be of great merit vis-à-vis Chester as most of, if not all, the tapes that have a sample of his voice are all gone. What is likely to be of use is the information about the Fears. We know from the Q&A that TMA's metaphysics and TMAGP's are compatible so there could be some insight gleaned from there. However there is a more pressing matter that Celia has talked about all this Fear stuff more than once. Eventually all of that is going to have to come out, although I think it's kinda weird it hasn't already. What with all of Sam and Melanie's conversations about their respective dimensions eventually he's going to have to mention the person who the portal actually wanted, who knows more than maybe they should, etc. etc.

SAM and MELANIE are preparing food. SAM is peeling potatoes badly whilst Melanie does all the real cooking.

The man can't ever catch a break.

No Admiral: 0/10

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

Incident/CAT#R#DPHW Master Sheet and Terminology Sheet

DPHW Theory: N/A

CAT# Theory: See episode 34's post for thoughts on this.

R# Theory: N/A

Header talk: See episode 34's post for thoughts on this.

[ambrosiagoldfish]

Wanted to do this random Adam QnA thing I found on Twitter here cause I thought’s it be fun!

(I encourage you too as well ^o^)

(Credit to the original poster on Twitter of course !!)

100% my Fav, if my Tumblr wasn’t an indicator of that lol. A major reason being that he has so much more to his character than first glance (especially in terms of angst for fics) he very clearly has some self worth issues and puts that into his personality by making himself more palatable to a larger audience would enjoy. (Mean Rockstar persona) Also him looking for validation from Sera was already a huge indicator that there’s more to him than ‘Haha funny evil fat man >:)’ But I do really like Angel, Lucifer, and Vaggie a lot.

Adam ships are complicated for me. Let’s get the obvious ones out of the way, I LOVE AdamsApple, GuitarSpear, and more recently GuitarGate. But While AdamsApple is my major one, I only like it if it’s done right. I dislike when they make, for example, Sinner Adam get treated like garbage by Lucifer and he’s in charge of ‘punishing’ Adam or something like that. IDK the concept just seems toxic, which I know, the ship itself WILL have inherent levels of toxicity, but it still rubs me the wrong way. Just my opinion tho

As for ships I don’t like, I’m pretty open with his ships but one I’m not a fan of is GuitarPrincess. There’s nothing illegal with it, so I’m not going to attack you for it. Im just not a fan of it. Another one is probably Alastor x Adam. I just don’t see it. They both oppose eachother in literally everything. Adam hates Jazz, Alastor loves it. Alastor doesn’t seem to like people more powerful than him and only respect them because he’s afraid of them (just my theory) and he clearly didn’t respect Adam because he completely underestimated how strong the first man would be. but ship what you want within reason OFC

Sigh I wish. I LOVE the concept of Sinner! Adam because IT JUST MAKES SENSE! The whole show is about redemption and how bad of a soul can actually be redeemed in the hotel. Him being reincarnation as a sinner would be both the perfect karma for him, but also the perfect test for Charlie. She couldn’t turn him away, even if she hates him. She’d be a massive hypocrite for letting Alastor work with her and also just general defeating the purpose of a hotel being completely open to all sinners.

But…. Something I’ve had a constant fear for about Adam coming back as a sinner is, that Lute might kill him. I just feel like it’s something that COULD happen as her view of sinners becomes even more warped. I just wouldn’t want that to happen, to bring him back only to kill him would be worse than just not bringing him back at all.

As for what I would want to happen, I’d like to see him and Lucifer ‘reconcile’ and to know more about what actually happened in Eden. With them reconciling, I also don’t want it to be solely on Adam to do, Lucifer also has to be able to accept that he hurt Adam and pretty much fucked him up for life. I don’t want the entire blame of the issue to be on Adam because it just seems like a waste of character development for BOTH of them.

Whether or not Adam will return in season 2… I would say he won’t. I think Abel is there to fill his absence BUT I do think we’ll get him in Season 3 (maybe even teased in the end credits of season 2 maybe?) I do want him to return, but I want it to be handled with care. I want him to have a redemption arc because it’d suck if characters like Lucifer, Vox or LILITH are given a slap on the wrist for what they’ve done in the show. And I ESPECIALLY don’t want them to kill him after he returns or make him a joke character to be bullied 😔

Hmmmm, I’d like to think he’s a good dad for the sole reason that I love Dad! Adam content, but I can see it going either way TBH. Abel seems more open to people and less of an asshole, so he probably thinks of Abel as a Wimp. But I think that his view of Abel was heavily affected by what happened with him and Cain. He could potentially see Abel as nothing but a child because he see’s him as helpless after witnessing his death. (Similar to how Sera sees Emily)

My main and only hope is that they don’t make him an Abusive deadbeat or something (if they do I WILL ignore it lol)

Does this need to be answered if you know me? Here’s my masterlist 😏

I WISH I HAD MERCH OF HIM 😭😭 I’ve been trying to work on a Plushie of him literally all year with my mom but it’s been so hectic that we never got to finish it. We’ve gotten the base design done and only need to figure out blueprint stuff. But he’s currently made of scrap material. If I EVER get him done I will definitely post it here!

Well I have a plethora of them but some main ones are:

He has abandonment issues and has a hard time connecting with people.

Insecure about his looks (Face, BODY, and voice)

Speaking of body, he’s plus size 1000% IM NOT SORRY. That is a Fat Man, 😤

And lastly, he’s a closeted bisexual, you’re telling me he knew who Angel Dust was (a famous GAY pornstar in hell) but not Alastor? One of the scariest, infamous Sinners out there? Really? He has done things he is not proud of, one of which being a man named Steve.

YESSSSSSSS. How can anybody call him ugly, I SWEAR. Mask, hot. His face? Hot. Everything is hot. As for the main thing attractive with his design, with the mask, definitely the LED face, don’t know why, it’s just so NWAOHSKAIAB. And without mask, I loooooove his eyebaggs/eyeliner and also his stubble. It’s just those subtle details of character design that shows that he’s definitely not in the best head space (eyebags, stubble, and paler skin being big indicators of men’s physical indicator of their mental health not doing so hot) so I just love him a lot!

I would like to see him interact with Saint Peter and Emily (they HAVE to have the most hilarious interactions. Those innocent angels meeting the vulgar first man would be a dream come true 😭) and also Abel and/or Cain. If they make him a sinner, it’s more than likely he would have interactions with Cain at some point. Not to mention, I’d like to know how Abel died. Cause in the Bible he was the first human to die, but in Hazbin, Adam was the first. So maybe Cain killed Adam then Abel? Or maybe Abel was sent to purgatory and was only let out after Adam died? Who knows!

(And I can’t put the picture here cause of the photo limit but)

10: What would you do if you met Adam IRL

’ll take him to my penthouse and I’ll freak it. >:)

[hattrick336]

Wild Onyx Storm Theory

SPOILERS BELOW THIS POINT

Okay so, I have been seeing two major theories re. Lynx and him being a shadow wielder. While I do love the idea that he is actually a mimic and his signet just copied Xaden's cause he was using it at the time, I will admit to leaning more towards the idea that Lynx IS the new shadow wielder because Xaden is going to get a new signet once he is cured.

And I have a pretty solid guess of what it could be:

Heliomancy or Sunlight manipulation.

Here me out:

Xaden's eyes- His eyes are very well noted to be onyx, but we do have those iconic golden flecks, like sunlight peeking through the dark. They turn amber after he becomes venin, but it still works as it could be reflective of a setting sun.

Xaden's character shift- Signets are noted to be based on need/personality. When he first bonded Sygael, Xaden was guarded and mistrustful (rightly so). He needed to keep his secrets and know who to trust. But that has changed because of Violet. By falling for Violet, Xaden has learned to be more open, at least with her. He has also learned to trust others as he trusts Violet's friends (a big example is Ridoc in OS when he agreed to his terms to keep his venin secret; Xaden back in FW would have a million arguments against that ultimatum). Even if it is just with her, Xaden has learned to open himself up, to be vulnerable, to rely on more than just a select few. Ergo, his new signet would need to reflect that change. It would also still fit the more deadly aspects of him since the Sun can LITERALLY burn everything to a crisp and we have seen Xaden go scorched earth for Violet before (rescuing her from Basgiath in IF being a big example).

Xaden's emotional freeze/self worth issues- OS established that Xaden feels his emotions icing over, using a lot of freezing and cold wording to describe him in those moments of apathy. Unconsciously, Xaden would likely not want to feel that way ever again, resulting in a sun signet since, you know, warmth. In a similar vein, Xaden has felt throughout OS that he is now tainted/too dark to be with Violet. Imagine the emotional beat that would happen if Xaden developed a signet that was pure light? Devastating but so healing.

Match Violet's/Six most powerful- We obviously know Xaden, no matter what, will be counted as one of the big six that OS mentioned. We have Violet, Lynx, and Garrick as shoo-ins with Bodhi and Aaric as potential candidates as well. Having a sun-based signet would let Xaden fit into that easily as A. it would be another offensive signet versus the three more defense-based ones and B. fit as it would be a spectrum with Lynx being absolute darkness and Violet being a bridge. It would also let Xaden and Violet still be mirrors/compliments like he is as a shadow wielder since it would be a stormy/sunny day reflection and allow both to draw from the sky over the Earth.

Irony- Sygael's name means "shadow" so it'd be a nice bit of irony that Xaden's new signet is the antithesis of that.

I know this is probably very out there, but I just thought this was a fun theory and gives me some hope for our boy.

What are your thoughts?

[pyromance]

PLEASE share ur saw color theories. if u don't mind 😁

OH OF COURSE they're not perfectly thought out and how intentional these choices are is up for debate. but! beyond just looking fun and creating a great contrast to the very barren and downtrodden world of saw, in my the use of a small group of specific colors communicates quite a bit about themes, motivations, and story throughout the entirety of the saw franchise.

my qualifications are several years of middle and high school lighting for theatre and being a big nerd.

the two most recognizable colors in saw are bathroom blue and saw green. in concert with eachother, they paint the beautiful state of new jersey in garish and eye-catching beauty. the moment in which the meanings of these two colors is solidified is shown in two scenes in saw 4. both of these scenes feature a character getting their scalp ripped off (yeouch). the first example of this, during john kramer's autopsy, is washed in cool toned lights. the room is sterile, painfully white fluorescents bask the scene in a shade of bathroom blue. the next time we see someone get scalped in this movie is in rigg's apartment during the see what i see trap. while the light coming from the tv screen and the trap itself are white, the environment of the trap is another shade of saw green (though less hauntingly beautiful than the first go around). more contrasts can be made with the score, the cinematography, the movements of the actors, these two scenes are clearly supposed to be put into contrast with eachother.

so, the use of color in both of these scenes provides a key for what both of these scenes have to say about violence. specifically, when violence is acceptable and when it's not! within my viewpoint, bathroom blue is for socially acceptable, everyday cruelty that follows the rules, whereas saw green is for times in which violence is no longer a normal fact of life and is instead a sign of a rotten core.

once you pick up on this, you start seeing it everywhere. the titular bathroom that shade gets is hue from is bathed in blue, which is not only a good contrast of lawrence's previous medical uncaring cruelty being brought into focus, but also shows the emphasis john is allegedly putting on rules. however, the moment his own rules are broken and his cruelty leaves the realm of acceptability even built within his own rule book, the bathroom becuase awash in saw green. look, i could go on.

however! there's more to saw's use of color than green and blue! the two slightly less recognized but still ubiquitous colors in saw is yellow and red. i've personally coined these tumor yellow and autocrat red. tumor yellow is first introduced in john kramer's hospital bed in saw 3. it could be merely read as another, slightly diffrent shade of saw green, but i disagree. tumor yellow speaks to the inner sickness growing inside of john kramer, and doesn't quite fit the mold of rules and violence set up by the green shade. yellow lighting of this shade makes the skin look weird, and is just cool enough to remove any warmth created by the amber undertones. tumor yellow is, to be frank, just kind of gross! but by using unappealing lighting of subjects, the movie is trying to speak to their inner rot. the other best example of tumor yellow being used is actually in spiral, during schenk's whole villain monologue. he's talking to zeke about the inner cruelty within the system he works in, so it's only natural that such an unnatural color is used. (times like this is when i wish tumblr had footnotes, but i do think it's important to note how schenk is cast in shadow for a lot of it. ooo, very menacing.)

autocrat red is mostly present in just one movie, saw 6, but it's so incredibly pervasive in it and goes with scenes with similar ideas that i think it's noticeable. this vibrant, consuming shade of red is present in scenes in which the power structures certain characters have come to thrive in are violated or perverted. hoffman abuses his strength and power as a police officer to LITERALLY hinder justice, and william is suddenly brought face to face with the power of death he has been using AND, perhaps, the somewhat explorative nature inherent to his position as a CEO in relation to his employees. (there's also some tumor yellow in here, which also tracks with the metaphor in that color). once again, this color is only used heavily in saw 6, but i do think it is present in the others ones AND it's clearly intentional.

so, in conclusion, here's a guide to what i think the colors in saw "mean".

BATHROOM BLUE: socially acceptable violence, or cruelty we can wave off.

SAW GREEN: unacceptable and needless violence

TUMOR YELLOW: used when systems or people are brought to their knees and exposed as rotten

AUTOCRAT RED: power in crisis

i'm not claim this is the end-all-be-all of saw color analysis, or that i'm objectively correct on these. i'd love to start a conversation! but, i do think my ideas are fairly well supported by evidence in the text.

[aihoshiino]

Hi there! This is from an ask from quite a while ago. I sent it before but I think Tumblr ate it once again.

"Honestly Ai's relationship with like, sex and intimacy and sex in the context of a loving relationship being healing and reclaiming for her is one of those things I have so much fun writing in the context of RP and stuff but if I continued rambling about it here I would go on all day lol and this post is already so long. IN ANOTHER ASK, PERHAPS ……."

I would like to hear your thoughts and ramblings about this please 人´∀｀)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE ANON… I've been sitting on this ask for so long and I've had so many half finished responses to it written up kgjhhsfkg This is just one of those topics where I have so much to say every time I tried to start I got overwhelmed and didn't know where to start… BUT WE'RE SO BACK…!!!

(Also, this is basically part 2/a follow up to this post if anyone wants/needs some extra context)

Honestly Ai's relationship to sex and the role it plays in her character arc is one of the most fascinating parts of Oshi no Ko to me and I'm always really surprised that it basically never comes up in fandom discussions surrounding her? Part of that is just folks wanting to talk about/speculate more on the characters who are alive and present in the series (or have ship wars about them) but even when people DO go back and talk about her it tends to be kind of surface level or just, the worst takes you've ever seen in your life (if I never have to see another Secretly Evil Ai theory it will be too soon) but like… the sex stuff is also pretty surface level! That friction between Ai of B-Komachi's assumed obligate virginal purity and the reality of Ai Hoshino as a person who has had and desires sex basically IS the entire premise of the series. It's the core conflict around which so much of everything else revolves - it's the reason the twins have to keep quiet on their connection to her and moreover, it's the reason she dies. But honestly given how this fandom gets about sex sometimes maybe that's a blessing in disguise lol

It is SO refreshing to have a lead heroine like Ai, though - like I said, the reality of her as a person who has had Probably A Lot Of Sex is pretty much the premise of the series and at no point does the narrative ever take on a shaming tone towards her. Hell, the explicitly stated thesis of the story is that it's everyone who has a problem with this who should be ashamed. Gotanda literally says it himself - Ai's tragedy is the fault of the people who refused to accept her as the hurting, broken, dirty and impure person that the real her was.

In fact, the series is shockingly respectful of Ai and her body in general. This is very much a "the bar is in hell" moment but I'm so used to anime taking every opportunity it can get for lowbrow cumbrained fanservice that the series just being, like, normal about Ai was a breath of fresh fucking air. It's so easy to imagine an infinitely worse version of the series that uses Aqua's access to her body (as both Gorou and Aqua) to frame and leer at her in some really repulsive ways, but it literally never happens. It's one of those things the first chapter/episode does that earns it a lot of goodwill in the long run which it does honestly need lol. The initial premise of the series asks a lot of the viewer, especially given that Mushoku Tensei exists and very much does use the protagonist's plausibly deniable access to the bodies of women and girls around him for some truly putrid and degrading shit. BUT BACK TO MY ACTUAL POINT…

That pointed absence of shaming in the narrative is why it stands out to me so strongly when Ai does direct this kind of shaming language towards herself. Ai engages in a lot of negative self-talk in general because of how utterly pants her self-esteem is, but it's never quite as pointed as in these circumstances. Her death scene is honestly the best and most heartbreaking example of it - the anime trims a few slivers from it to the benefit of the scene as a whole imo, but it does retain the most important line:

But there's another part from slightly earlier on that didn't make it into the anime that equally breaks my heart:

All that Ai refutes of Ryosuke's words is his conclusion that she never cared about her fans. In other words, when Ryosuke slings slutshaming misogyny at her, Ai agrees with him.

And like… why wouldn't she? Society at large already has very strong opinions about women who have and enjoy sex and Ai is an idol - that's purity culture on Berserk Eclipse Difficulty. To make matters worse, Ai's entire life has been defined by her being denied the right to control her own body or being blamed for the way other people respond to it. Not only was Ayumi physically and emotionally abusive towards her for basically her whole life, but she also victim blamed her when her stepfather turned out to have a inappropriate interest in her. Even when she was literally a child, she was not allowed to simply exist without being subjected to other people's gaze and objectification.

It's also worth noting that the abuse Ai grew up experiencing - Ayumi's violence and neglect and living with the possibility of sexual assault at her stepfather's hands - are all things that can contribute to hypersexuality in puberty or at the very least, being prematurely sexually active and/or partaking in risky sexual behaviour and I think all of these are true for Ai as well, to varying degrees. My read has always been that the twins' father was not her first or only sexual partner (though he was her last) and I think this is something the work itself supports as well - Akane identifies Ai as having behavioral issues typical of someone who began having sex during puberty (and she does specifically say 'puberty' in Japanese, not just 'as a teen') but that this behaviour mostly tapered off by the time she was 15 and credits it by inference to Kamiki. So obviously, if the 'unbalanced behaviour' as the result of sex predates her meeting Kamiki… you know?

I also just personally find that a more compelling read of Ai for a variety of reasons - and it just sort of makes sense to me, to imagine her as this girl desperately trying to figure out how to love people, wanting to connect with people but not knowing how to do it, someone defined by the ways she contorts herself to respond to the dirty desires of the people around her… idk, it just feels Correct to me in light of everything to assume that she went through a few boyfriends before Kamiki, all relationships that went very fast, escalated to intimacy at light speed then just sort of fell apart after. And we know from what Ayumi admitted - and from some of the things Ai has said - that Ayumi absolutely was slutshaming and victim blaming Ai when she was in her care. So much of what Ayumi did to her forms the foundation of the present day Ai's self-loathing and self-image issues, so I imagine she felt a lot of prebaked guilt and shame when she did actually start having sex, especially at a young age and outside the bounds of a what society regards as an acceptable circumstance for a girl to be having sex. So add idol culture on top of all that, and…

I don't think Ai's relationship with sex is necessarily the main issue she struggles with but it does feed off and into a lot of the other things that cause her pain and being able to untangle that would represent an earthshattering breakthrough for her. This is why it's so important that Oshi no Ko never ones tries to debunk or disprove Ai's assertion that she is 'impure' or 'dirty' and why I do not think a positive character arc for her could never come from someone trying to convince her that she isn't. Because that doesn't actually disprove anything - it still frames purity and virginity as a state of grace that can be fallen from and reinforces Ai's view of herself that she only has value, that she only deserves to be treated with respect so long as she's still 'pure'. Even if you could convince her that she's 'pure', she would inevitably be stained again and hate herself all the more for it. The only way out is to break out of this method of thinking altogether, to realize that 'purity' and 'impurity' don't mean anything - and more importantly, that even though she is dirty, impure and all the rest of it, she is still capable and deserving of loving others and being loved in return.

To quote something I've said before on this topic: "Love, for Ai, is a person seeing her most wretched and unacceptable self, her self hate and avoidance and everything about her she thinks is filthy and wrong, and actively choosing to accept her as she is, warts and all. […] There's this very strong underlying current in Ai's arc of self-directed shame and self-hate in relation to her sexuality that fuels perception of herself as 'dirty' and 'impure' - all because she is a person who wants and enjoys sex. I really enjoy getting to have Ai work through that specific hangup with a partner who loves her - not from the angle of 'of course you're not dirty' but 'even if you are, I want you anyway'."

So much of what hurts Ai is other people refusing to accept 'Ai Hoshino' and even being actively repelled and repulsed by her, choosing instead to believe so fervently in the inhumanly perfect 'Ai of B-Komachi' that they convince themselves the real Ai is just a trick of the light. Sex is basically the ultimate refutation to that - it's someone saying they actively choose the dirty, broken real thing which is what Ai has desperately been searching for her entire life. It's also the inverse of the plastic. sanitized intimacy Ai sells as an idol - rather that pretty lies of love, it's dirty, physical intimacy, something she can do as much for herself as the person with her, something that can only ever be hers as Ai Hoshino because it's antithetical to everything Ai of B-Komachi is.

what i'm saying is: can this girl PLEASE get some good dick. i don't know how much of anything it would fix but it would make her calm down at least a little.

ALL JOKING ASIDE……. thank you again for your patience anon and i'm sorry this was so rambly lKNDKSCXSNDS. like i said up top, this is a topic i have a lot of thoughts on and i wanted to get them all out into this post. i hope this was interesting to read…!

[ceofcatgirls]

Ok so here's a text post explaining why I think it's kinda obvious that Messmer is directly Radagon's son :PPP since I either don't see many ppl talk abt it or see ppl outright deny it so let me try get my interpretation out there into the world. You don't have to agree with it I just want to put my thoughts into a cohesive post.

Just a heads up. This post will end up having me sound like I'm insane.

But tbh most ER theories will have you like that and we're here to have fun are we not. So what if I sound a lil insane at times. I think that's normal (I will try to be as consise as I can I promise)

I will now start with the weakest evidence.

Theme song.

As you may know, since its been pointed out a lot, Messmer's theme is reminiscent of Radagon's.

I believe this does point to a connection to them. After all, this is a method uses by FromSoft with other characters. For example, Romina's theme song is reminiscent of Malenia's, with it sounding slightly altered to show Romina likes the rot whilst Malenia does not. They're connected through the rot god.

Same with PCR's theme and Starscourge Radahn. SR's theme sounds more tired and weak due to Radahn rotting, whilst PCR's sounds more triumphant and heroic. After all, it's meant to be Radahn at his prime, not at his lowest like with SR.

So naturally, Messmer's theme being reminiscent of Radagon's is an indication of something. But that something, so far is vague.

Maybe it's because they're both attached to an idealised version of Marika. Maybe it's because they both uphold an order of hers, Radagon with the GO and Messmer with his crusade and subsequent occupation. Ideals Marika no longer follows, but people close to her do.

As I said, this is possibly the weakest evidence. But it's the starting point that there is some sort of connection. That connection judt being Marika, for now.

Now, the second weakest evidence (imo)

Messmer's looks.

Perhaps one of the most glaring things about Messmer is his red hair. Radagon's children, with the exception of Miquella, all have red hair. So when you see a demi god with red hair, it's fair to assume you'll think they're Radagon's child. Hell, this goes for more than demi gods. This goes for the fire giants and potentially even leone misbegotten warriors.

But,,,, well, there's a reason why this is the second weakest evidence.

Because, there is a possibility that one of Radagon's children, besides Miquella, also didn't have red hair. Rykard's hair colour is surprisingly a topic of debate. There's evidence for him having red hair, but also for him being blond.

If Rykard is truly blond, this would mean that Marika's genes carry through Radagon even if he doesn't have children with her (well-- they are the same person after all). Who's to say it isn't the same case for Messmer? Who's to say Messmer has red hair because Radagon's genes carry through Marika, as they are the same person after all.

Maybe Messmer has the same condition as Radagon, where Radagon's red hair is potentially a curse of the fire giants, perhaps Messmer's is a by-product of his fire.

Again, this evidence is weak for a reason. But like the precious one, it hints at a connection.

Third (and last) weakest evidence: (weaker) themes

Messmer is a character of many themes. But one of his parallels is one he has with Malenia.

They both try to uphold and fight for an order of someone they care for. That someone also being a god (well, miquella was an empyrean but he does eventually become a god). A god with golden hair, and a god who weaves gold in their order (gold for Marika and unalloyed gold for miquella). Messmer and Malenia both have red hair, both are blind, and both are cursed from birth. We know Malenia's curse comes from an outer god, but Messmer's seems to he more mysterious. Still, nonetheless both are cursed from birth.

Messmer being a son of Radagon would further emphasis these themes. Him having a child that wants to uphold Marika's will, but then having another willing to do anything to do anything to replace it (going as far as to break her needle and bloom), would fit nicely thematically.

Still, it's not the strongest of evidence. It's nice, nonetheless.

Now, onto what imo are the stronger sets of evidence.

Starting out with the 'weakest' of the strongest: Gaius' remembrance.

Let's look at what the description of his remembrance says.

This is probably one of my most crackpot theories too. But whatever I like so kkkkkk let's move on.

The usage of the word 'elder brother' is what I want to draw attention to. Personally when I first read this remembrance, this was my legit reaction:

BROO maybe this is me being insane and delusional but I don't understand why this isn't talked about further by anyone!!!! The game says both were elder brothers to Radahn.

Now. Yes this could just be the game saying Messmer and Radahn were bros and since Messmer was older he was considered an older brother to Radahn like how Gaius was.

But. FromSoft very much pays attention to details. Including the words they use. Messmer is very obviously Marika's son, is it far-fetched to say they weren't aware of what they were doing when writing that description??

This is the same game company that enjoys seeing all the fan interpretations even if they clash with one another.. they defo wrote this knowing some would read it as Messmer being a metaphorical older brother whilst others will read it as him being his literal older brother.

Mind you, this isn't the first time they've done this. They do it in another instance of the DLC! And it's one I don't see many talk about either. Miquella calling St Trina his love can be both read as her being a manifestation of his love, or her being a part of himself that he loves. Trina being called his fate, rather than love, in the trailer means the waters are further muddied on what Miquella means by "his love".

But anyways, I'm just saying FromSoft is very deliberate with their words and what they choose.

It'd be a nice way to contrast Gaius' and Messmer's characters; one Albinauric, another a Demi god. One in one of the most mistreated races, and another born of divinity. They are opposite in man ways, but they looked past it and found common ground where a friendship could flourish.

It's also just generally a nice double play on the word brother. Very cheeky. Hidding two stories in plain sight with one word is exactly up FromSoft's alley, and they write it very well too.

This evidence, coupled with other evidence, leads me to believe that what FromSoft means is that Gaius is a metaphorical older brother whilst Messmer is a literal older brother (even if he himself does not know this and only sees himself as an older brother in a metaphorical way).

The next theory is another one that relies on themes. But well. Elden Ring is no stranger to those.

Let me just point out, every marriage Marika is involved in results in three children.

Marika/Godfrey; Godwyn, Morgott and Mohg.

Radagon/Rennala; Radahn, Rykard, Ranni.

And yet, with Marika and Radagon, it's just Malenia and Miquella. But then who could be the third child? Would FromSoft really not continue this very clear pattern?

Messmer fills the spot of third (but actually first since hes oldest?) quite nicely.

He'd help create a parallel between Marika's marriage with Godfrey and her marriage with Radagon. In both marriages, she has twins cursed by outer gods. But Messmer was born cursed whilst Godwyn was not because Messmer was born of the same god. Even in name, Godwyn takes after Godfrey, who unlike Marika does not have to carry the burden of his sins. But Messmer couldn't escape from that in the same way.

But, couldn't Melina potentially actually be the third child?

Well, not really, because Melina's themes wouldn't fit that. If she were to be the secret third child, she'd be following convention. But part of Melina's character is that she breaks convention-- particularly she helps you break convention. And that theme is best portrayed by having her actually be the fourth child of theirs.

As I discussed before, thematically Messmer and Malenia fit together because they both wish to uphold an order. In this case, they'd take after Radagon (who is also potentially cursed who couldve guessed...). Miquella and Melina take after Marika, as she is a god, like Miquella, and they both additionally have other halves. Marika also wants a new order, like Melina. Melina is fine with sacrificing herself to being about a new age, just like Marika, and knows she needs to die, not only for the Erdtree to burn, but also because all of Marika's influence must end. She, unlike Miquella, is successful because she learns from Marika's mistakes, because Miquella doesn't realise he'd be like his mother.

It also fits the running theme of Miquella being paired up with Malenia and Messmer being paired up with Melina (one closed eye, both having a vision of fire, which is dangerous to the erdtree) (and by paired up I mean storytelling wise ok 😭)

This briefly became abt melina.. whoops. I like her a lot in case you can't tell. Haha I could say more abt her but lets stop here. The main take away is; Messmer would be the third child of her union with Radagon (obviously cuz she would have to have him before she married Radagon), with the Empyrean twins and Omen twins fitting the role of twins cursed by outer gods, and Melina being special so she gets to be a 4th child uwu

Now. For the strongest theory imo. The butterfly theory.

Perhaps it's already been said, but it's simply not talked abt enough.

The butterfly theory, at least to me, is basically saying each child Marika has with Radagon is represented with a butterfly.

Messmer's only showed up in the DLC bc he's DLC exclusive ofc. But also because he was hidden away in the LoS.

We know the nascent and aoenian buttlerfly 100% correspond to Miquella and Malenia.

As for Melina and Messmer; the smoldering butterfly is said to kindle fires; Melina is the kindling maiden, and she self immolates to burn the erdtree. Even the "vision of fire" line in Messmer's kindling most likely refers to her. Again, wording is very important to FromSoft.

The black pyrefly butterfly is obviously Messmer's, as its said to follow lands scorched by Messmer's flames. They also resemble his fire in colour. And again, they are DLC exclusive and only appear in the LoS.

The reason why these 4 get butterflies and the other demigods don't, is because these 4 are specifically the children of Marika and Radagon. What else could connect them? What else sets them apart from other demigods?

Timeline issues.

I will briefly address these.

As I said, I believe Messmer and Melina are paired up. The Empyrean twins are twins, so timeline wise they showed up together. Imo, it seems Melina is the youngest, and obviously Messmer is the eldest. The start, and the beginning. Again it fits their stories and characters. They even have the same eye closed! With one due to Marika and the other potentially being due to GEQ... oh my.

I believe, personally, Marika has Messmer after ascending and marrying Godfrey, making Messmer a child made outside of marriage. And guess what I'm abt to say..... yes that also fits his theme kkkkkk since he's separated from the other demi gods-- who were not born outside of marriage-- and also goes with Messmer being cast away in the LoS, hidden and separated from everyone.

How do I know Marika has Messmer after marrying Godfrey? Well, its complicated, but this video explains nicely;

I dont agree with some points in the video. However, it's still an excellent video I recommend you watch. It has some excellent points and wonderful analysis. I like it a lot!!!!

The main point I want to point out, that the video shows nicely, is that Marika's marriages are shown through the ribbons on her arms. By her hair and crown, we can tell she's already a god. And by her having one armband, we can tell she's married one-- to Godfrey.

Personally, due to the description of the minor erdtree spell saying "the kindness of gold without order", I am led to believe Marika is gold and Radagon is order, akin to St Trina being Miquella's fate.

I will not get into Radagon's origins, tho I do believe he's always been marika. But if he is Order, then Marika is able to have a child with him after becoming a god and marrying Godfrey. Since it leaves a nice window of time between Godfrey winning against the fire giants and thus the era of the erdtree being established, and then Radagon showing up in the Liurnian wars. In my mind, I don't see why it's not possible.

Why would she have her first child with Radagon? Lol, who knows. Maybe since he is Order, she wanted her child to inherent that trait (as she hadn't grown to hate the Golden Order by now, its early in the timeline). Maybe she wanted her firstborn to be a child of one god. Maybe she wanted to retry and make Shamen again. Who knows, really.. tho personally I lean more to the first option I gave.. It'd make more sense, in terms of character development.

And now, does Messmer know of Radagon? Who knows! Perhaps he's including Radagon when speaking about his mother, knowing they're the same person so he addresses them as one. Or maybe he thinks Godfrey is his dad. Or maybe Marika told him he has no father. Or maybe he knows of Radagon, doesn't know he's Marika, and just doesn't care who is dad is. Honestly, this question can have many answers lol.

Hopefully this made sense. I am writing this quite late at night (-.-)Zzz・・・・ if I have anything else to add.. I prob will later. I'll go over grammar and spelling mistakes after I wake up. Forgive my eepy brain. Hopefully I remembered all my points. And hopefully this was cohesive.

If you have anything to add pls don't hesitate to do so :3<<<<

[hopeinreverie]

This is a little silly, but Taiga HC where he thinks he has a harem of people he likes... (+ what others think of it, below the cut)

Reminder that this is mostly just a headcanon with some character analysis and contains minor spoilers.

Taiga HCs

So this HC stems from how Taiga is most likely emotionally constipated (potentially because he had a rough childhood, but this is a topic for another day) and just doesn't know how to express his fondness to someone. In a nutshell, I will divide this into 3 parts:

People he finds fun to mess around with (Haru)

People he finds cute and is genuinely fond of (Romeo)

A mix of both (this is MC lol)

I think Ritsu will eventually find his place in there, likely in number 1 (there's a deciding factor for this, which i will get into), but to make it simple I'll only take one example for each. People that don't make it in that list are at risk of taking a bullet in the head- (he may not look it, but he's quite distrustful)

So, what's the deciding factor? Taiga only likes people that he thinks important enough to remember and will assign them nicknames. I am aware that he calls others (such as Rui, Ed) by nicknames but he doesn't care about them lol... It probably had something to do with whatever happened in The Clash that he's not fond of them.

The longer he knew someone, and if that person can put up with him, they will be assigned into one of those 3 points. He has a hard time remembering people's names, so those that can stand him is rewarded with their own nickname HAHAH. Congratulations for putting up with the devil!!

Let's get into each points one by one.

1. People he finds fun to mess around with (Haru)

I can see why people theorize how Haru used to be in Sinostra. Pre-clash HC that Taiga used to borrow money from Haru, and that's the start of their relationship. Taiga borrows them to gamble and Haru just keeps giving him money because he's THAT nice. Can't forget how poor boy is always broke as the captain of Jabberwock :")

Eventually Taiga gives calls him Harry (because it sounds cooler, idk ask him-) and he thinks Haru's reactions are entertaining.

Haru being in Jabberwock doesn't bother him, if anything it makes it more fun to 'get food' whenever he feels like it... Unfortunately for him, Jabberwock Haru isn't as nice as Sinostra Haru, and he doesn't give up 'his children' as easily as he'd give up his money.

Which brings us to their current relationship, a tag game of cat and mouse. I think Taiga is still somewhat fond of Haru, but he finds his persistance annoying. Surely he can spare an anomaly or two?

So Taiga still bothers him from time to time until he gives in, and until that time comes, he relishes in Haru's funny reactions.

Honorable mention: Ritsu

With enough time, I believe Ritsu belongs in this category as well. His interactions with Taiga is so funny, I love it... Taiga is just tired of dealing with this overachiever kid that only speaks law language. We will see how their relationship developin Episode 8 and beyond!

Taiga: See twerp, this is why you don't have a nickname yet. Ritsu: ???

2. People he finds cute and is genuinely fond of (Romeo)

Let's start this off with (one of) the infamous Taiga homescreen line-

To be honest, this is where the HC idea starts from LMAOO i think he's half joking here. Emphasizing on half, because the other half of him is dead serious. He thinks they're married. Because being business partners means you're partners for life I guess (why is he so silly...)

We don't know how they got to this point, so small theory time! Taiga probably helped Romeo at his lowest by proposing (heh) to make a gambling business together in Darkwick. Because when you're stuck in there, might as well make cash, no? We know Romeo hates gambling, but he's willing to take the chance with Taiga. This is likely why Taiga is the captain despite being irresponsible.

I'm just guessing now... But Romeo's persistence to make cash, despite abhoring gamble itself, is likely what solidifed his presence in Taiga's mind. Romeo rose to the challenge and Taiga finds it admirable.

Because Romeo has been with him for the longest, Taiga calls him Lulu (affectionate) and thinks he's funny. And cute. He's also very dependable. Above all, Taiga trusts him and this is personally a big deal for Taiga. So of course they're married, Taiga logic!

Taiga: Lulu's cheating on me. Ritsu: Understood, I shall get the divorce papers ready. Romeo: What the FUCK did you just say?

Ritsu is too serious to get the hint and he'll constantly bring it up like "Are you sure you don't want me to help with your divorce?" But Romeo shuts him down everytime while yelling "WHO is divorcing?? The only person fit to marry me is myself!!" While Taiga is laughing in the distance, like the menace he is....

Taiga is the tired dad (with dad jokes) and Romeo is the loud, nagging mom-

3. A mix of both (MC)

(I will refer to MC in 3rd person)

MC is in a tough situation here lol (as if she's not in enough danger already), because as the inspector she has to work with Taiga whether she likes it or not. On the other hand, Taiga hasn't known the MC for long enough to be attached. Yet. not until we get him to higher affinity levels or maybe in later episodes

But if you realized something, MC starts with a similar situation as Haru. As we can tell from area convos, Taiga occasionally borrows (read: robs) MC of her money to gamble. She's under the circumstances of having to deal with Taiga, but she doesn't have the backbone to challenge him in the ways Romeo could (which is understandable IMO)

So why does she have her own point? Well... (we're about to enter self-indulgent territory here)

We know from Taiga's high affection lines that he eventually becomes fond enough to MC to give her a nickname, which is kitty cat. He calls her little lost kitten in their (official) first meeting. It's cute nickname, I must say... But, why a cat?

An explanation I can think of is how Darkwick operates with cats most of the time. We're not sure what they are, but I'm sure Taiga has seen enough to know they exist. He doesn't care about them, well, at least until he meets MC.

In their first meeting, Taiga thinks she looks funny. A scared little kitten, like the ones of Darkwick that always ran away from him whenever he gets too close. People usually steer clear from him, so MC is an odd case for him. She's clearly scared, so why stick around? (he forgot that she's obligated to...)

This is where another one of my HC comes in: Taiga becomes fond of cats!! He thinks they're funny and cute. Sadly, cats are too scared to get near him lmao he doesn't understand why though. Good thing he got the MC :)

Because he eventually find cats funny and cute, this extends to MC too. Therefore, Taiga likes to mess with MC and is somewhat fond of her in strange ways. (Maybe bullying is his love language idk)

Conclusion?

Taiga is silly, I want to munch him. Also I gave up trying to fix him (HELP), so I decided to dissect his character interactions instead... there's probably more to come in the future, hopefully I can articulate them well enough to share.