#i got a lot of thoughts of the characterizations in guardian

[kiame-sama]

(I'm about to write an essay, please feel free to ignore it)

Just binged your 'humans are extinct' TWST AU and. Wow. Where do I start? I've never seen something like this so fleshed out on this site? I've never seen such a long, serious series that treats all the characters with proper respect and stays pretty faithful to their canon personality and actions/reactions given what's been changed? I've never read long series on this site with the whole cast that has pretty much been fair with 'screen time' for each individual member? I've rarely seen something well though out and interconnecting with some seemingly trivial tidbits that turn into important details later on?

I absolutely adore what you wrote. I'm thankful you deigned to write down and share the story running through your brain for others to enjoy. The characters feel real and thee dimensional. The narrative is cohesive. The new additions don't feel out of place. The works.

Starting off with our MC. Poor girl! She's doing a lot better than I would have if I was in her place. Having to juggle almost 30 boys vying for her hand, plus a new adoptive child, plus poachers, PLUS being in an entirely new world where there's magic and she's the only human left with meltdowns happening almost every week and still staying (at least partially) sane and on goal? She has my respect. I love how she's not "a strong woman who don't need no man," nor is she "the poor damsel in distress who can't do anything on her own." She's in a bad situation: basically a sitting duck without the protection of the boys at NRC, and yeah, near the beginning, she kind of got dragged around like a doll. That makes sense though, and as she started getting familiar with the new world and her new guardians, she also started setting boundaries and enforcing them.

She won't let the boys walk all over her, but she's also generally respectful, kind, and pleasant to them as well. She's under no illusions and knows that even though they've got an unhealthy attachment to her, she still needs them to keep her safe. Beyond that though, even before she started absorbing blot and seeing memories, she was sensitive and able to see beyond their surface level flaws. I don't think she ever really thought Leona was a bad guy, even noting the dissonance between his threatening words and (sad? Resigned?) expression when first meeting him. She was willing to feed Ruggie regularly after finding out he was basically starving. She let Cater stay at Ramshackle and fought for him to get him back into the dorms at Heartslabyul even though she was still (rightfully) furious at him for basically putting her in potential danger for the rest of her stay in Twisted Wonderland because she felt his punishment was too severe given his crime.

That being said she also isn't one of those protagonists who forgive and forget all wrongs which is appreciated. She doesn't forgive murder attempts with a "Tee-hee it's alright anyone can change!" mentality. She also doesn't care much about those outside NRC if they don't first give her a reason to care about them. It makes her feel human.

I appreciate the way you wrote the conflicts as well. Most individuals here aren't one dimensional villains. They have reasons for doing what they do besides being a mustache twirling caricature written just to make MC suffer. Does it justify their actions? Ha! No. MC realizes this too, which I appreciate. If the current problem-child is a student, MC is good at helping them fix/find the root of their problem while still making sure they know their actions were out of line.

Moving on to the boys and the staff. Love them and their characterization. They're not perfect. They make mistakes. They're trying to get better. Character arcs and evolution. We love to see it. I mean this in the best way possible, but sometimes I read what a boy says or is about to do and just go "Bro .... Seriously?!" It's totally in line with their normal characterization, and the addictiveness of the human helps explain why they're going to certain extremes, but man, it's like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

I like how you basically inverted the typical "who's safest to be around" scale due to the yandere instincts. Those who were already dangerous know how to keep those dark tendencies in check while those who weren't are now getting hit full force and don't know how to cope. It changes up the typical day to day cast so other characters get more of a chance to shine than the typical ones.

I feel like most boys so far have gotten a fair amount of time in the spotlight. The ones we've heard the least from are the Octavinelle and Scarabia boys as well as Epel. It makes sense for the Octavinelle and Scarabia boys since they haven't really had their mini arcs yet (and we've seen some of the Octa boys in action when it came to the Spelldrive incident + The first poachers incident). Epel also makes sense because Vil had his little episode outside of Pomefiore guarding hours ... But I hope to see him a little more in the future. No rush though!

I already have the adoption papers ready for Crewel and Trein. Vargas and Sam have cool uncle/older brother privilege. Crowley.... Exists.... Glad to see he's actually trying though. Papa Hades is a cool addition. He seems like a guy we could call at four in the morning to vent about our worries to without fear of judgement or our words reaching unintended ears. Mr. Bounty hunter is cool too, but I'm still on the fence about making him official family.

Malleus. I have so many thoughts about Malleus. Not many of them are nice. I like how you characterized him and I think it makes sense. Honestly his behavior seems at least somewhat in line with normal Malleus.... Just cranked up to eleven. That being said, I am about ready to smack him upside the head. I understand where he's coming from, I really do! But he's going about it wrong and his possessive behavior is really making me not like him. I'm glad he at least cares enough about MC that he's not going to marry/mate with her against her will, but also even what we've negotiated with him isn't enough. I personally would be so annoyed that we're basically his emotional support human. Like, Buddy. I don't want to be in close contact with you 24/7 or have to make deals to see you every other day so you don't get huffy and cause a storm. Please. Also the whole, "I'm gonna extend your life to match mine without telling you so we can be together forever" business? Yeah no, huge breach of trust. If I didn't know he'd likely overblot and kill me in a crime of passion, I'd ban him from seeing me for a year for that.

The Undying Ursas! There's still quite a bit we don't know about them, but they feel like an overarching plot detail that ties the story together nicely that's starting to get more notice that we're starting to settle into this world. Perhaps they'll have a key to help us get home?

Grim. I think your Grim is the least annoying version I've seen this far. Childish? Yes. But reading about him here doesn't make me want to bash my head into a wall and I've actually grown somewhat attached to the furball. I appreciate the bond MC has with him, and it's honestly quite sweet watching the two interact.

Small-ish head canon: I've noticed that Rielle got turned from an RSA student into Ariel just being a dude and I had an idea regarding him. What if Rielle was still an RSA student, but the twin/cousin to our prince Mahi-Mahi (hopefully soon to be sashimi) Erikir. He's interested in archeology/maritime and very introverted. He's been spoiled sweet (like Charlotte La Bouff from the Princess and the Frog) and is happy to please. Unlike Floyd and Jade who present outwardly as good twin and evil twin (secretly they're both 'evil') these two both present as 'good twins' but it's only true for Rielle. Outwardly, the two are nice to each other, but Eirkir secretly thinks Rielle is a pushover and weak minded. Erikir kept him away from the human by presenting the opportunity to guard the human as a burden, and offering to put in a word to let Rielle go out on a field trip to an excavation site during the Spelldrive tournament because Rielle isn't really that much of a sports guy. Maybe the two look alike, or maybe Rielle looks more like Prince Erik in a bit of dramatic irony. Regardless, there is a family resemblance in the way that those not close to them may get the two mixed up... It would be rather unfortunate if the human saw him and mistook him for Erikir.

Personalizing the story: It would be over so quick for me probably. I'd see the polite, (seemingly) mild-mannered Moray with his mushrooms on day two and fall head over heels. I'm unfortunately bad at hiding things and blunt as can be, so Malleus would probably go bonkers and kill me (and him) in a crime of passion. I don't think that a week one Malleus would be okay with, "I want to date this guy and probably eventually marry him though I'm fine with being your possession/family or whatever. Also I'm not interested in dating/marrying anyone else." I feel as though if you managed to survive to the end of the story, you'd get a fairytale ending... The issue is getting there.

Overall: Amazing. Love your work. Keep it up (no rush though). I will feast on whatever you write regarding this AU like Ruggie. Compliments to the Chef.

Genuinely, though, I DEEPLY appreciate the essay level of praise, it does mean a lot to me. I have quite the intense Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, so praise makes my nervous little heart full and happy. I am glad you are enjoying it, and I hope I don't disappoint!

On the topic of Rielle, when I first started writing the HAE AU, the only RSA students I knew of were Neige, Neige's seven Fae friends, Ambrose, and Che'nya. I made Erikír before I knew Rielle was a thing. But I like that idea of Rielle being Erikír's twin (the actual good twin). I already have Erikír's punishment planned out, but I can absolutely work in Rielle being genuinely good when the story eventually gets to Erikír's trial.

[ngage2003]

✰ Some of Gage's Tim Wright DID Headcanons/Ideas (DIDeas, hey get it?)

Ok so I have talked a fair bit on my blog about Tim being a system, but I wanted to make a post real quick talking about several ideas I have around his systemhood bc I am going crazy and need to share them.

✦ Hey! If you like this and want to hear more about my Tim system stuff, check out my tag #ng.systim.

Alright, so I think a lot of/most of Tim's system has been around for a very long time, as in he doesn't split too often. Usually when they do, parts end up getting reabsorbed, leading to a very small system count that the active parts are aware of.

(Of course, there are always some parts hiding in headspace/the subconscious, but they're impossible to find unless they want to be.)

I think Tim's system doesn't have a headspace in the stereotypical sense, and generally when they're not fronting, it is sort of like they're asleep, though I think people like Masky would object to that characterization because he doesn't ever really sleep/dream. Usually when he goes to bed, Tim wakes up.

✱ Speaking of "Masky"! I have talked about this a couple times but I think he would end up going by the name "Angel" after hearing about the concept of Guardian Angels, as that is literally what he is to Tim. I also see him as a sort of "Protector" archetype, having formed probably around the same time that Tim did as a young child and acting to take on dealing with the trauma for him.

I think Masky's femininity comes from the fact that they (the system as a whole) as a young child idolized their mother as this protective force, this bulwark that was impenetrable and fierce and powerful. They tied all that to her femininity to some extent, and when Masky formed, they were feminine because that was what they associated with strength and protection.

I think Tim and Masky are somewhat equals though, but Masky is also deeply in love with Tim in the way only a protector alter can be. "My purpose is to keep you safe and I love you for it." It is this genuine deep affection, and I think if Tim were to discover Masky, there could be some proper feelings returned eventually after the initial scare.

"Ok but if Masky loves Tim so much why does he work with Brian and get their leg broken??"

Well, I think Brian was both of their first best friend. Whenever Tim was overstimulated and/or scared, whether that be by people or an upcoming final, Masky would front. Brian obviously didn't know this and was just like, "huh wow my buddy Tim is being weird and quiet!" And his kindness left a profound effect on Masky.

Early in Marble Hornets, Masky visits Brian's house regularly despite him being long gone, locking it when he isn't there. Yeah it is a mess, but its being watched over.

I think Brian approached him after Jay got the tapes to ask for his help. I think before then, Brian was in hiding but this isn't a post about him. I think despite being a protector, Masky agreed to help Brian because of how kind he was to him, a mistake he later fully rescinds when Brian causes Tim to have a seizure.

Masky deeply regrets this, and is in turmoil after it for the rest pf the series, leading to their spotty fronting besides protecting Tim in Entry 65 after once again being triggered out by seizures.

Ok that is enough rehashing of other older points lets talk about the idea of— ✱ Other Parts

I think its very possible that Tim at least has a little alter. I haven't given it too much thought, but I think there is stuff hidden around their living space for the little¹, crayons and pencils and spare papers, these doodles hidden under the bed. I also think they have a stuffed animal from when Tim was a kid at one, something Tim keeps meaning to throw out but always ends up back in bed.

[1] An alter/part that earnestly believes they are and acts younger than the body. They aren't real kids but often will experience distress at being reminded of that or not treated like a kid, and generally will struggle with emotional reasoning or processing stuff, as a child might. Often they're the most protected members of a system.

I think there is probably several points where they accidentally front in front of other people, but Tim's little is very anxious and quiet, leading to them being undetected.

I could honestly see them fronting while Tim and Jay are living at motels for that brief period of time, and Jay just being confused why Tim suddenly got emotional and started crying a bit and not communicating. (The little doesn't have their plush and is upset.)

Jay ends up sitting with him and rubbing his back, and it feels like such a crazy thing to do with Tim of all people—stalwart, endlessly brave Tim—but Jay does it, and it helps.

I think Jay doesn't mention it tomorrow because he doesn't want to upset/embarrass Tim and quite obviously, Tim doesn't remember.

I think Tim's childhood stuffed animal is a dog of some kind, and he simply forgot to bring it.

Alsooo I do not think Tim's system really has introjects²? (I say this mostly because I don't know what the fuck media they'd be from lmao.) But I do think there is an alter which holds more of the musical talent between them all. Not all of it, but they just remember more. I think they also know how to play piano along with ukulele and if given the chance they'd love to make little ditties to impress people.

[2] Alters whose personalities are based off of an interpretation of a character held by another specific alter or the general subconscious. Sometimes they think of themselves literally as the character but not always.

I don't have a name for them, as I don't really either for the little, but this bard I think would enjoy dressing a bit more colorful than Tim usually does.

Also could see them having a very aggressive persecutor³-trauma holder alter who split off of Masky during when they were in the hospital. Generally I think Masky was even more aggressive during this time due to his system feeling so threatened and dehumanized and him feeling powerless to protect/take care of them, and it resulted in a very harsh split after Masky lit the fire in the hospital to escape. This led to them "chilling out" a bit for college, but also a very aggressive persecutor who lurks in the back of their mind.

[3] Put it simply, a protector who doesn't know how to be a protector. Persecutors are often very angry about the trauma and very hurt, leading to them lashing out and trying to reenact trauma or push people away or whatever. They tend to be very emotional and hurt, and its important to empathize with them as a way to help them heal. Unfortunately no one in systim has done this yet.

I think their appearance in headspace would almost be sort of fiery/charred, this representation of retribution and anger that lashes out when anyone gets close. I could see them also having a mask since they split off from Masky, and were this product of futile rage that developed into something new! Though also obviously their mask would look a bit different. I dunno, that'd be fun.

(For us, if alters split off from one another like that, like if they're a part of that alter which splits off or a specific trauma, they will often look to some degree similar!)

I think they would very rarely front, at least on their own. Masky would be very cautious about that, and about them hurting the body or other people by lashing out. Because even when Masky is helping Brian or angry, he usually still has somewhat enough of a mind to be careful and deep down his main priority is Tim. (Though he doesn't always behave wisely/good and we loveeee a flawed protector 😁)

Anyway yeah those are my main thoughts I am a bit tired rn lol I might rb this with more later I hope you enjoyeddd

[pluckyredhead]

I have fallen down a Fourth World rabbit hole (this is @ngoziu's fault) and am now reading everything DC has ever published with these characters, in order, as is my wont, and I have a lot of thoughts and feelings, so I'm going to start dumping them all here. Sorry.

Background if you have no idea what I'm talking about but want to read this post anyway (why?): in 1971, Jack Kirby left Marvel because he couldn't put up with Stan Lee any longer and came to DC, where they were like "Yes you can do anything you want" (this was a lie). He immediately began writing, drawing, and editing an incredibly ambitious epic that stretched over four simultaneously published books: Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen (we can mostly ignore this one), New Gods, Mister Miracle, and The Forever People. These books came to be known as Jack Kirby's Fourth World Tetralogy.

The books all center around the war between the utopian planet New Genesis, ruled by the benevolent Highfather, and the dystopian planet Apokalips, ruled by the evil Darkseid. At the heart of the narrative is "The Pact," aka The Cosmic Baby Swap. To ensure a (temporary) truce, Highfather and Darkseid traded sons when said children were very young - so Orion, Darkseid's son, is raised on New Genesis, and Scott Free, Highfather's son, is raised on Apokalips. Neither knows who their real father is until adulthood.

Orion grows up in a utopia, but tormented by his feelings of rage and otherness that he can't explain. Scott is raised in a torture orphanage, because that's just what happens on Apokalips, but eventually he escapes to Earth and becomes the escape artist Mister Miracle. The Cosmic Baby Swap begs what to me is the central question of the Fourth World, which is: what is the nature of good? Which boy will be a hero? The one born to good and raised by evil, or the one born to evil and raised by good?

TRICK QUESTION THEY'RE BOTH HEROES!!! GOOD IS MORE POWERFUL THAN EVIL! LOVE WINS AND FASCISM LOSES! This is so, so important to me and any version of these characters that doesn't understand the really not very complex symbolism here is invalid and kind of embarrassing for the writer (looking at you, Tom King).

Also Scott falls in love with and eventually marries Big Barda, one of Darkseid's fiercest warriors, who was born on Apokalips and raised on Apokalips and chooses good anyway. LOVE WINS AGAIN! BARDA TOPS HER TINY HUSBAND IN THE NAME OF PEACE AND COMPASSION!

Sadly DC canceled New Gods and Forever People after only 11 issues, which kind of killed Kirby's whole vision. Mister Miracle limped along until #18, but as a really pale shadow of itself. So we never really got the full scope of Kirby's original plans.

ANYWAY. That's the background. Now thoughts on the actual comics:

Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen: I love Jimmy, I love Superman, I love the Newsboy Legion, but this book feels very tangential to the whole Fourth World experiment and I think we can safely set it to the side. However, if you love the 90s Superboy series, I recommend dipping into this because it's the source material for a lot of Kon's worldbuilding (Cadmus, Dubbilex, clone Guardian, etc.).

The Forever People (1971): So I originally read all the Jack Kirby Fourth World stuff like...at least 15 years ago, when I was still relatively new to comics, and I'll be honest: I didn't get it. Kirby is sort of an acquired taste, and I didn't really have any context for what he was doing. I understood the metaphors, but I didn't get why people found the work appealing. And Forever People in particular was the book where I was like "Why. What is the point of this" the most.

Rereading it many years later, I find it to be a lot more moving and profound - like, the Happyland issue alone is a knockout. That said, Kirby is, uhhhh...not great at ensemble characterization without Lee, and the Forever People themselves are unforgivably bland. Default Guy! Big Guy! Black Guy! Girl! Kid! Props to Kirby for making it a not all-white group - and for introducing five out of seven of DC's first Black characters in the space of, like, two years - but it would have been nice if he gave them personalities, too.

New Gods (1971): This is Orion's book and the heart of the Fourth World. At its best, it's the pinnacle of "Makes no sense...compels me, though." Like, "Glory Boat?" I don't understand a single thing that happened in that comic but it's so fucking good. I just want to read thousands of words of comics scholars over the past 50 years going "????" in collective confused admiration.

Mister Miracle (1971): This was the book I was most invested in when I read the Fourth World years ago, because I already loved Scott and Barda from JLI, but now I think it's weaker than New Gods and arguably even than Forever People. Kirby doesn't seem as invested in going all in on Big Concepts here, and Scott escaping endless weird deathtraps is only compelling for so long. The later issues, after the other books were canceled and DC made Kirby pivot away from the Apokalips/New Genesis war, are nothing. But Scott and Barda (and Oberon and Shilo) are everything, so I guess it balances out. Anyway Scott clearly already knows a lot about Earth by the time he meets Oberon and Thaddeus Brown, so DC please feel free to hire me to write a Mister Miracle: Year One miniseries about Scott's arrival on Earth, thank you.

Okay, now for the post-Kirby (or really, intra-Kirby) stuff:

Mister Miracle (1977): This picks up the numbering from the Kirby series, running from #19-25, and was written by Steve Englehart and then Steve Gerber, and it sucks so bad. For three reasons, in escalating importance:

Riddled with continuity holes and factual errors that don't match what Kirby established. Himon is shown on New Genesis - how did he get there? Metron is depicted as subservient to Highfather when Kirby showed him as a neutral, independent agent. Etc.

The treatment of non-Scott characters is largely terrible. Oberon is written really condescendingly (Scott's like "Ride on my shoulders like you used to!" even though they definitely did not ever do that before, because Oberon is not a child). When Scott feels guilty that he's not actively fighting the war, Highfather's like "I don't want you to fight because I feel bad that I traded you to Darkseid, let Orion do it" as if that isn't the root of Orion's severe emotional trauma TOO. And worst of all is Barda, who is knocked out and captured in the first issue and spends pretty much the entire rest of the series unconscious, waiting for Scott to rescue her - except for the brief scene where she wakes up brainwashed, requiring Scott to beat the shit out of her. Lovely.

The series is reeeally fixated on the notion that Scott is a god, and extrapolates that to Scott deciding he's the messiah. Now, I'm not going to say that the Fourth World can't be used to explore Christian themes just because Kirby is Jewish, because Kirby was very definitely exploring biblical themes extensively and frankly I don't know enough about the Bible to say whether he was sticking religiously (ha) to the Old Testament. But I do think taking one of the central characters of a Jewish man's magnum opus and making him the messiah is, uh, pushing it. And there's no way to argue he's not a Christian messiah because, uh, he T-poses a lot in this series and Granny also specifically states that if Scott is the messiah, she'll find an anti-Christ to combat him (which...wouldn't that sort of by default be Orion? which just further proves that the idea of a messiah really doesn't work in the Fourth World framework). Anyway it's gross and I hate it.

New Gods (1977): I'm kind of using this as a catchall to cover all of Gerry Conway's New Gods work, which includes the actual 1977 New Gods series (which picks up the numbering from Kirby, so it's #12-19), the conclusion of the story in Adventure Comics, and the Justice League of America crossover with the Fourth World. (Also there's one issue of Super-Team Family where Lightray and Metron team up with the Flash to save Orion, who has grown really really big, but that doesn't fit with the rest of Conway's continuity so I guess we can ignore it.)

Anyway this stuff is not as infuriating as Mister Miracle, but it's also not...good. The central concept is that Darkseid has discovered that the Anti-Life Equation is contained within the brains of six humans, so Highfather sends six New Gods to protect said humans: Orion, Lightray, Metron (he doesn't work for you, Highfather), Forager (also does not work for you), Lonar, and Sensational Character Find of 1977, Jezebelle of the Fiery Eyes (Original Character Do Not Steal).

Mostly this series is frustrating because all the New Gods are wildly incompetent and fail completely at their tasks. Orion is dumbed down to The World's Most Basic Superhero (he has a big O on his chest now!). I spent the whole time yelling "HE CAN'T FLY, GERRY!" at the comics. Forager is lumped in with no mention of that whole thing where...he's a New God who was raised among the Bugs, who are being persecuted by the New Gods? I feel like that should be explained or at least addressed? (Presumably Kirby would have gotten around to it eventually.) Forager also should not be flying but here he does. I guess. Lonar flies too but mostly on his horse, which bothers me less for some reason, I'll accept a flying horse. (Also Lonar's human he's supposed to protect is Inuit and hoo boy is this comic racist. The poor guy wears a fur diaper the whole time and speaks a completely made up language.)

And then there's Jezebelle of the Fiery Eyes. Who is blue, for reasons that are never explained, and wears a bikini and fishnets because it's 1977, and mentions her fiery eyes (heat vision) every time she speaks. She's from Apokalips, but defected to New Genesis during battle. Which, like...I appreciate that Conway recognized that this team should have a female character, but what with Orion, Scott, Barda, and Inexplicably Present Himon, it feels like we have enough characters who have defected from Apokalips in some way? And it's just super weird that the ONLY female characters we have seen from New Genesis are Beautiful Dreamer of the Forever People (trapped in another dimension indefinitely) and Scott's dead mom. Like, what's the implication here? Heaven doesn't have women? Also, I know Conway was going for biblical names to match New Genesis and Izaya (he also introduces a Lucifar), but, like...Jezebelle? JEZEBELLE. Your only female New God and you named her "whore." Amazing.

And with that, we have covered the New Gods in the 70s (minus some Mister Miracle/Batman teamups). Next time: the 80s, and Kirby tries so so hard to kill Orion but DC won't let him.

[welovetesvkaidan]

OPINIONS ON KAIDAN EE/IF???

My honest reaction:

in all seriousness, if you wanna hear me yap about it, more under the cut

warning like, genuinely a ginormous yap, like a HUMUNGOUS, sleep-deprived yap,,, im cursed to be obsessed with skyrim + modded followers instead of touching grass

I think a lot of this is probably gonna be the same thing other people have said, so im sorry

if you feel i'm gonna be bringing up redundant points and get mad at me😓dont read

I haven't experienced and thus won't talk about the versions of EE and IF that are now separate mods from each other. I don't know anything about that.

if they're better now yayyy but this is about pre-separation

I should preface this with the fact that I've played through Skyrim 3 times with different stages of Kaidan EE/IF:

The initial Dawnguard + fixes/miscs mod

Kaidan EE/IF versions before extensive faction/NPC dialogue for Kaidan

EE/IF w/ NPC Dialogue (AKA Fratpack)

I was also part of the two different discords that were purged and created during these intervals. i don't even know if there is a discord currently?

anyway, that is to say that I have experienced the mod and it's behind-the-scenes progress, extensively so I have a pretty good idea of what I liked and didn't like

That being said, I will introduce probably my biggest problems with it: Tonal whiplash

Okay, well the most common complaint is ofc that a lot of the writing is out of character - and I agree. But it's not just ooc on paper, it's his voice too. I swear, it is very jarring hearing hushed, mild og Kaidan 2 voicelines, and then being deafened by EE Kaidan SCREAMING in my ear ALL.THE.TIME. (like... why are you yelling at me rn jeez)

Seriously. I'm not sure why they didn't just re-record everything from the original mod instead of adding more and more contradicting lines on top of the originals. It definitely could have been a standalone mod, and sometimes it almost feels like it is - because he is just so different.

My most infamous moment in my last playthrough with him happened after we defeated the dragon at Kynesgrove. His og Kaidan 2 dialogue played first, in it he shows interest and is cordial about Delphine ("I wouldn't mind prodding her mind" or whatver dialogue), THEN immediately after his Kaidan EE/IF dialogue will play, in which he walks up to Delphine and STARTS YELLING AT HER AND INSULTING HER - like they argue for quite a bit wtf. And it's like, listen, I have my thoughts about Delphine, but whether or not it was okay to yell at her isn't the problem. It would be fine - IF he hadn't just calmly told me he thought she was okay.

It is sooo confusing how he contradicts himself :(

I mean, yeah, fragments of who he is are still there, I can tell it's Kaidan, but he's warped to fit a different character. Like a con-artist Kaidan.

Anyway, besides the contradictions, it also feels out of character because of his established backstory.

Let's go over it: He's an orphan, lost his only connection to his family(his guardian) to drugs, fell into substances himself, joined a violent cult, had to escape said cult, came clean from his addictions, has been traveling Tamriel bounty-hunting, got brutally attacked by the Thalmor, rescued by mere chance. Do you honestly mean to tell me this man would be yelling, pissing, drinking, lewding, and joking his ass off?? After all that???? NO - or maybe not these levels of extreme. (maybe some other dude might, but Kaidan's characterization insists he is a brooding, keeps-to-himself man, even though he never acts like it anymore)

That man should be tired, and he did feel like he was tired in the original. He was more brooding then than he is now, usually silent, but could still have an edge of comedy/wittiness, he was smart, he had been through a lot!

In that regard, EE/IF Kaidan felt like... we are experiencing Kaidan 10 years in the past - like a Kaidan in his early 20s when he was still a drunkard low-key terrible person. He is just so energetic, always yapping - GOD he talks a lot now. ugh but most of the time it wasn't about anything, it was either inside-jokes, meta jokes, and only occasionally did we get things that added to the experience.

For example, I think most of us who have played Kaidan 2 remember at least one specific line he has said while exploring. What comes to mind for me is either "Can you smell the magicka in the air too? Smells like a rainless thunderstorm." or "Watch for the mammoth with the carvings on their tusks, that's how the giants mark their herd." Alright, both pretty nice small talk for characterization (he IS smart) and worldbuilding.

Tbh i can't really remember any iconic lines from the additions of EE/IF Kaidan... the only two lines that stood out for me were: the "elevenses" line from the clip above (started bumping into him every time he was about to say this so he would stfu... total tonal dissonance), and one he said while I looted Lucky Lorenz ("poor sod wasn't as lucky as his namesake would have you believe!") kai HOW do you know this man, and his nickname, who told you that??? (idc about it that much but its like the only other added line i remember)

I thought that maybe his ooc-iness might have been caused due to the collaborative approach of the mod, I think the mod authors created their own perfect Kaidan - and that's good for them! It takes a shit ton of work (Ik cuz i was there!!) But I think the original essence was lost with each addition. It might have been lack of direction for the voice acting too, a lot of the lines might have hit better if they weren't borderline screamed.

Okay, at some point while playing I got so tired of his constant himbo chit-chatter that I tried tuning him out and bringing other npcs from vanilla skyrim as followers. Problem: even without kaidan on your party, everything starts being about kaidan. Because the extension made it so that Kaidan either has history with/character interactions and development with different NPCs from the base game.

The main poor sods that traveled with me:

Erik the Slayer: Apparently was Kaidan's childhood friend, got inspired by Kaidan to become an adventurer. Least egregious in my opinion, they say sweet things to each other. I swear, Kaidan yells more at me than he ever did at Erik.

The Companions: dumb, dumber, and dumbest basically.. This part of EE/IF was also known as "The Fratpack" and y e a h they pretty much had Vilkas, Kaidan, and Farkas acting like immature frat boys all the time. Just,, absulutely taking away all the maturity out of these GROWN ASS MEN. im sorry, i guess i dont get the appeal. I liked it when they didn't behave like teens (Aela im so sorry, you deserved better than being part of this)

Lydia: All she does is simp for him, ALL.THE.TIME. You think she's about to have a meaningful thing to say? nope, she's checking out Kaidan's ass. Think she'll have a deep convo with another npc about one another? nope! she wants them to tell her all about Kaidan. Both the Companions and Erik will either talk down to her or have to deal with her thirst for Kaidan. i had to start leaving her home.

They also suffered from the same tonal whiplash as Kaidan, unfortunately

additionally, the mod added an "early flirt switch" - you could basically toggle Kaidan to start showing romantic affection for the Dragonborn before the amulet of mara., the interactions were good on paper, but everytime he stammered and stumbled over his words it was written in such an unnatural way... pls people don't talk like fanfics lol !!!

I did like that he gave me flowers, my inventory got full of them - but then he noticed how many flowers I had in my inventory and judged me for "picking everything i see" ugh dude you gave them to me, but also even if you hadnt... mind your business lol

Another addition was a feature that basically made it so NPCs could potentially throw flirtatious comments at Kaidan and the Dragonborn (Bishop flashbacks😨)

You can't do anything to defend Kaidan from those comments, but he WILL take it upon himself to defend your honor infront of any men, women, jarls, or criminals that even so much as find you attractive (THIS INCLUDES FARKAS AND VILKAS BTW :( ) by being rude, forthcoming, AND violent. so yea, you can guess the target audience

speaking of which, he definitely comes on too strong on you once you start the romance, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. I specifically picked the "go slow" option for the romance, and the next day or two it was him constantly complaining about having to go slow under his breath, how he wanted to do anything but slow rn... and like just, wow. :/ yikeees lmao

Maybe this is the result of "i can fix him" romance ideals? im sorry but I liked him when he was down to earth

Bonus? He comes with a campsite now, which has to be magic because its ginormous and he somehow lugs it around despite it also coming with a whole ass furnace (fine fine i'll hold my disbelief)

anyway I do like it, its basically a player house you can take anywhere (so long as kai is with you ig) also you can have a cat in there

I like that there is an MCM, I like that the MCM lets you get through the quest stages in case you get stuck

I like that he can guide you places, usually he gets stuck in a tree or rock but its the thought that counts

I think if the mod had continued in the vein as its original iteration when it was just audio/bug fixes and included these qol features it would have been better than it is now.

But it seems maybe i'm just not the target audience, and as a young woman I'm really confused as who the target audience is 😓

okay im srry rant over

if anyone else wants me to yap about other kaidan skyrim things also ask or join in cuz i like yapping about skyrim and kaidan to people!!!

[thewebcomicsreview]

Hamsteak? Again? God, everything happens so much, but at least we're done with Vriska. And I can copy and paste text again. Wowsers. Anyway we're out of hell and now we're with The Moms, in a suspiciously green-and-orange environment.

ROSE: This is an impressive shield. ROSE: I don't think I've ever seen you make one this size before. JADE: ive been practicing! JADE: if i stay focused i should be able to keep it up for quite a while.

Oh hey, starting us right off with Deepest Lore, as Jade can apparently make shields. We've never really seen her "natural" Witch of Space powers in the original comic, since she was using First Guardian powers the whole time (or no powers and just gadgets like the soothspecs, back before everyone became X-Men). I've been wondering what she could do au natural, and...apparently it's shields? Would not have called that, but sure.

JADE: between yiffys capture and rescue and finding dave... JADE: like that... JADE: i just feel like my life flashed before my eyes and it made me a little crazy! JADE: after being unconscious for a bit things feel way clearer now

It's still weird to me that Dave's "death" was so recent to the characters. That was in the epilogues! We made a sequel series since then! It got cancelled! Then it got revived! It was a long time!

JADE: after being unconscious for a bit things feel way clearer now ROSE: Nothing beats a rump to the skull for mental clarity. JADE: the mistakes we made are so obvious to me now JADE: embarrassingly obvious!

Being unconscious is Jade's natural state, so naturally it heals her. Also I detect a justification for a small change in Candy Jade's characterization here, like she'll be acting differently that she has been and this is the excuse. Lets stick a pin in that thought, though.

JADE: this whole situation is my fault and even though it just keeps getting more frustrating and shitty im going to do right by you JADE: were going to figure this out ROSE: Are you sure it's prudent to keep this amateur marriage counselor performance up? JADE: rose... JADE: youre taking this seriously JADE: right? ROSE: I don't know what you mean by that.

I really do like this characterization of Candy Rose, though (which is apparently also a slight retcon from the original plans, according to the writer commentaries). None of this is real, so she doesn't give a shit about any of it. Her mid-life crisis is worse than John's.

JADE: though playing stupid and cajoling her into slapping me around for catharsis wont work anymore JADE: well have to think of something else... ROSE: Jade, I've been compliant with these clumsy machinations partially because they weren't all that consequential at the time, but you need to cut your losses.

Oh we are hard retconning Candy Jade's personality here. She's not an emotional wreck at all, at least part of it is her clumsy attempt at being Machiavellian. Are they building up to changing Yiffy's backstory, far and away the least popular idea in HS2?

JADE: "ohhhh bluh bluh blah i can see the fruitlessness of all our clumsy insignificant thrashing in fates cosmic current" JADE: dont forget im more than a little versed in future sight myself ok JADE: i dont care how credible it seems, you cant depend on that information!

Opens Homestuck_2_Speculation.rtf.doc.xpf.bro

What information is this, Jade? Is it related to the visions Calliope had that let her build the machine? The only future sight Jade's ever had is the clouds of Skaia

JADE: "abloo hoo hoo, my life is a monkey paw, everything i want hurts me in the end" ROSE: It was a little pathetic. JADE: I KNOW!

Oh man, that's going back deep.

This aspect of Jade, that deep down she's a bit of a wreck but she toughs it out because she hates her own weakness, hasn't really been focused on since Act 4 of the original comic when it got personified in Jadesprite. It's nice to see that aspect referenced again here. I liked Jade's speech justifying Yiffy's existence, it did a lot to make that plot point go down smoother, but I totally buy that Jade herself hated it. Kind of funny that we had six updates of Vriscourse and now I have way more to say about this one expository speech out of Best Girl, but Jade's actually a pretty complex character and her issues are so often glossed over as "Wow she had to live in isolation for three years after her brother and boyfriend randomly exploded and that's kind of sad I guess", so it's nice to spend some time inside her head like this.

JADE: the truth is whatever people WANT to believe JADE: you can either try forcing them to understand your side JADE: leave it completely in their hands and take no responsibility JADE: or you work with their wants and perspectives JADE: and make some informed compromises ROSE: Over the state of reality? JADE: rose i am begging you can you please cut it out with all the cryptic cosmic crap and come back down to earth???

One of my pet peeves of the epilogues is that Dave Strider turns into a Bernie Sanders supporter and keeps talking about "neoliberalism" despite living in a wacky future utopia planet and having never lived through the 2016 Democratic Primary that all his talking points were cribbed from, but we have an explanation for that now. It's his wife. Jade was the neoliberal all along.

JADE: thats whats scaring me! JADE: youre not prepared for how bad it can get JADE: you have no idea at all!!!!!!!!!!! ROSE: If you say so.

That was a joke but this is sounding a little suspiciously like voting discourse, but that might just be me being election-brained. God I'm so stressed, please vote for Harris if for no other reason to make Trump-analogue Jane Crocker feel dated and weird.

Jade has no idea what she’s talking about. There’s not a thing to worry about here. You came out the womb playing defense

You didn't come out of a womb at all. You've never even been in one. Also holy shit this page is called Rose: Ramble and it's early-HS2 levels of Wall of Text, though I think you're actually intended to glaze over it a little.

It doesn’t really matter, in the long run. Important or not, Vriska’s going to fail. Jane’s going to fail, too; really, just about everyone is going to fail to do something that really matters. In an unsuccessful effort to stave off that failure, and perhaps to atone for it on some level, Calliope will sacrifice herself, fruitlessly. You’re not exempt from the firing squad, either. In the imminent battle, you are going to be shot in the head, the bullet burying deep into your moral grey matter and jamming up the works of your conditional immortality, leaving you confined to a hospital bed. You had to pull all kinds of ridiculous, eyebrow-raising Chaos Theory shit to figure that one out. The rat-tail was worth it, your daughter’s anguish aside.

It's generally considered bad writing to have a prophecy not come true, but I think this is bullshit and Rose's Seer of Light powers don't work in a land of pure void.

KANAYA: Those Two Will Not Be Joining Us On The Battlefield Either KARKAT: OH? KANAYA: I Know Such Decisions Are Well Above My Pay Grade And That The Critical Need To Win This Battle Far Outweighs My Marital Discomfort KANAYA: And Being Down Two Gods Isnt Exactly Ideal KANAYA: But... KANAYA: I Cant KANAYA: Sorry KARKAT: DON'T BE.

KARKAT: FUCK ‘EM.

Man, Punished Karkat is cool.

Man, I love how stupid Jane's death ray looks. It's a cake!

Your father never did voice any kind of opinion on your parenting style. In hindsight, he was probably avoiding the subject altogether.

It's hard to talk with your dad when he's not allowed to have any dialogue due to stylistic convention. I have that issue with my uncle.

JAKE: Oh. JANE: chhhhhhhhlmm nnnn. JAKE: OH CRIPES! JAKE: I'M SORRY JANEY!!! JANE: kkkkkkkkaaaaaa?? JAKE: JUST- S-STAY STILL OK?

lmao. This is the absolutely best way this assassination attempt could've gone.

This art is excellent.

Man, this was a great update, Jesus. So much shit is going on, and while HS2 and HS:BC have had good moments this is the first time in a long while I've really had that classic Homestuck feeling that made me fall in love with the comic in the first place.

[lochallthedoors]

Noel Interview With the Guardian, 6 December 2008

The article's long, so it's under the cut, but if you want a list of the highlights:

Oasis's evolution over the years and how they are different from other bands past and present

how Noel learned Liam was a singer in a band

politics in the UK and the Blair/Labour debacle

how/why Noel got off coke

why he blames Liam for Oasis not breaking America

why he doesn't "seethe and write poetry" about Liam but that Liam is also one of the few people who can make him laugh "and vice versa"

a description of the afterparty this journalist attended

The article also explains why Liam has his own dressing room and notes that he prefers to skip the big afterparties following the shows. Food for thought when compared to how he's characterized in the "end of Oasis" article in 2009.

Noel Gallagher is listing the world's 10 greatest bands on his fingers, and working out where Oasis sit among this lot. "The Beatles, Stones, Who, Sex Pistols, Kinks, Jam, Smiths, Stone Roses, Bee Gees." He pauses. "I'm putting us at seven ahead of the Smiths cos we've done more." It's classic Gallagher, the great Mancunian motormouth. In the time it takes for some rock stars to muster a coherent sentence, he'll have set the world to rights, written off many of his peers as no-hopers, talked a great deal of sense, said something truly stupid or offensive or both, and provided a potted history of 128 years of Manchester City football club.

Now he's explaining why Oasis are different from other bands. "People like Coldplay, but they don't love them. People like U2, but they don't love them. But people fucking love Oasis. That's the way it is. It's more than the music." He's got a point, as I later witness at the gigs. Though it is also true that plenty of people can't stand the band, regarding them as crass copycats, playing 100 variants of the same song - when they're not ripping off the Beatles, they're ripping off themselves.

It's a bleak November afternoon in Aberdeen, freezing, already dark outside. On the telly, the news is even bleaker than the weather as we hear of shutdown after shutdown, and a recession that has been made official. Gallagher says it reminds him of his childhood days of three-day weeks, followed by industrial carnage and Thatcher. "I remember the 70s constantly being winter in Manchester and the Irish community in Manchester closing ranks because of the IRA bombings in Birmingham and Manchester, and you know the bin-workers' strike, all wrapped up in it… They were violent times. Violence at home and violence at football matches."

It was the 90s when things began to look up for Gallagher. If ever a pop group mirrored a political project, it was Oasis and New Labour. While they couldn't have appeared more different - Oasis all scruffy jeans and swearwords, New Labour smart suits and urbane accents - both grew out of the ashes of Thatcherism and the grey Major years. Both were determined, in their own way, to counter the cult of the individual and the ethos that there was no such thing as society. For the Gallaghers, it was obvious what society was - their mates at the job centre, their mates determined to have a good time despite everything, their mates standing at the bar drinking and taking drugs as they played.

Definitely Maybe, their first album, crackled with energy - in the song Rock N' Roll Star, they don't sing about what it's like to be a rock'n'roll star because they don't know, they sing about feeling as good as one. Live Forever, still Gallagher's favourite Oasis song, is about the invincibility of youth. He wrote it as a riposte to a song by Nirvana, the morbid grunge band, whose frontman Kurt Cobain went on to kill himself. "I heard this song called I Hate Myself And I Want To Die and I thought, I'm not having that, I cannot have this American rock star who everybody is lauding as a genius with all the money in the world sitting there in his mansion on smack saying that. What d'you want to die for?"

Live Forever was Oasis' first top 10 hit - a unique mix of raucous rock and drunken optimism. But while their first album anticipated success, the second (What's The Story) Morning Glory? was about rock'n'roll fulfilment. There was a sense of wistfulness in the famous ballads, Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger, as if Gallagher was already nostalgic for something that had barely started. These two songs became the supreme arm-in-arm, cigarette-lighter anthems of the 90s. They were also archetypal Oasis songs - loaded with emotional meaning, and yet virtually meaningless in themselves (what is a wonderwall, why is Sally waiting, who exactly is looking back in anger?).

He says he often didn't understand his lyrics, yet the larger meaning is transparent - the yearning for something better. One of his strongest memories is collecting the dole every week with his dad and seeing his friends there, too. "That was the Maggie Thatcher age - everyone was there with their dad."

Gallagher thinks he could have done well at school if he'd tried. He was expelled at 15 for throwing a bag of flour down the stairs and over a teacher. His mother Peggy was a dinner lady, father Tommy a labourer when he could get the work. "He was a typical Irish drinker-worker, always at the bookies, always gambling on something, didn't take his drink very well, quite violent." When Noel was 17, Peggy took the boys and moved away from Tommy.

In his early 20s, Gallagher worked as a roadie for the Manchester band Inspiral Carpets. "What a gig! Amazing. I was earning £300 for setting up a drum kit… Seeing the world, wow, couldn't be any better." That was when he started writing songs seriously.

One night he phoned home and asked Peggy what his younger brother Liam was doing. She told him he'd started a band. Gallagher couldn't believe it. "I'd shared a bedroom with him for years, playing my acoustic guitar and him sitting there going, 'You fucking weirdo' and all of a sudden he's a singer." On his return, he went to see the band, called Rain, told them it was a shit name, and gave them some of his songs to play. They changed their name to Oasis, and he joined them. Gallagher had to learn to play guitar all over again - he'd never played standing up before. "Then all at once, I turned into Paul McCartney. I was just like, 'Right, you play this, and you play that, I play this, you sing these words and sing it like this' and we were off."

Earlier this year, in a poll to find the 50 greatest British albums of the past 50 years, conducted by Q Magazine and HMV, Definitely Maybe and Morning Glory were voted numbers one and two respectively. It's incredible that Oasis are still going 15 years on - Gallagher himself thought of them as a here-today-gone-tomorrow band. With Definitely Maybe, he thought he'd done it all, said all he had to say, rocked all he had to rock. Yet here we are, Liam and Noel the only original members left, both embracing a maturity of sorts, the whole world changed around them and the band still churning out more of the same. Even more incredibly, they are as popular as ever (their last album went into the charts at number one, as have all the others) with an ever younger audience. How have they done it?

The one thing both Gallaghers knew was that if they made it, they were going to make the most of it. And so they did. By the time Labour came to power in 1997, Oasis were regarded as the biggest band in the world. Morning Glory sold 22 million copies worldwide, and more than four million in Britain alone. The band were constantly on the front pages of the tabloids - whether for manufactured rows with rivals Blur, hitting photographers, arguing among themselves, almost splitting up.

I ask Gallagher what it would have been like if I'd been here a decade ago. "There would have been a lot more hangers on… And the extracurricular stuff would have started already." I'd have had to kick my way past a mountain of coke? "Not a mountain. No, a little lump. When we started all the crew was from Manchester, and one by one they've all fell by the wayside, and it's a lot more professional now.

"Because it happened so quick, at Knebworth nobody really knew what we were doing. Normally when people play Knebworth it's the pinnacle of their achievement and they put on these awe-inspiring shows. We were just on the piss really. There's not so many fuckin' idiots surrounding the band any more."

What does he prefer? "I loved it then. But we couldn't be like that now because we're all late 30s, early 40s. I'm 41. Everybody says I'd be dead. Well, I wouldn't be dead, I'd just be a little caricature of a rock star. Who wants to be a drug addict at 41?"

In the mid-1990s, he moved to a salubrious part of London and a house he named Supernova Heights. "When I lived in Primrose Hill, I operated an open-door policy. I'd spent so long on the dole, and I'd moved to London and lived in this huge house, it was like, this is it, I'm living the dream, man. I invited a full awards ceremony back to mine once, George Best included. I won summat for summat or other, and it was the last award of the day and I gave out my address and said, 'Everybody back to mine.' And loads came. It was a great day. The police were called and all sorts."

Soon after Labour came to power, Gallagher was invited to Downing Street to celebrate their respective triumphs over Thatcherism. Tony Blair shamelessly tapped into the new wave of pop groups and designers that became known as Cool Britannia. "Alan McGee [Oasis' manager] got involved with the Labour party and he said, they want to meet you, and I was like, well of course they do. Who wouldn't? I was still on that euphoric night out that started in 94."

Did he have any qualms about endorsing Blair? "It wasn't so much an endorsement of him as, get these fuckers out." They all got carried away, he says - Blair thought he was JFK, Oasis thought they were the Beatles. When the band signed to Creation Records, Gallagher told McGee that if he made enough money to buy a chocolate-brown Rolls-Royce, he'd never want another thing.

After the success of Morning Glory, McGee bought him the chocolate-brown Roller and they turned up at Downing Street in it. Of course they did. "It was all symbolic. McGee used to work on the railways in Glasgow, I used to work on the building sites in Manchester. So we all piled in this Rolls-Royce and went down there. It was only four or five years since we'd signed off." Gallagher is a good storyteller. He can still recreate the weirdness of it all. "There was a strange array of people, Piers Morgan, Pet Shop Boys, Ross Kemp, Lenny Henry… It wasn't cool." Ever since, people have asked whether it was good for the band. For Gallagher it was just the first stop on a night out. "We left there and went somewhere else and then somewhere else and then back to someone's house and ended up back at mine at 7am, watching it on the news."

In the end, he says, Labour were corrupted by power, but he refuses to write them off. "Domestically, whatever Blair did will be overshadowed by Iraq and the weapons of mass destruction. But they brought in the minimum wage and for that alone it was worth it." He could never vote Tory. If Labour raised taxes for the very wealthy, would he still vote for them? "Yeah, totally." I remind him of the 70s when income tax rose to 98% and so many stars left the country. "It would be with a heavy heart that I became a tax exile, but then again if you're earning a pound and somebody's taking 98 pence of it, what's the point?" So what's a fair rate? "Well, I pay 40. I dunno - 50?" He settles on 50p in the pound.

I ask him if success changed him. "You'd have to be a fool to sit here and say no." Is it possible to become idolised without becoming a bit of a twat? "Well, I didn't become a twat, but I started to dress like a twat. I wore sunglasses a lot and I might have had a fur coat and I thought that was the correct procedure for being in the biggest band in the world, but no, I didn't become a twat." Nor, he says, did he go mad. "It's only solo artists who go mad; Robbie Williams, George Michael, they go mental because it is all about them, but it's not all about me."

What's the most ridiculous thing he bought? "A Jaguar Mark 2, Inspector Morse car, had it built specifically for me - a £110,000 car. Never had a licence. Never had a lesson. It sits in a garage." He's still got it? "Oh aye. It's got about nine miles on the clock. I've got a gateway that's a quarter of a mile long, and I've driven it up and down the drive. I'm going to give that car to my son, I think." What if his daughter Anais wants it? "She's not getting a big Jag. It's a lad's car. Totally."

Later, I meet Gallagher's girlfriend Sara MacDonald and tell her what he said about fame. She says it doesn't ring quite true. "Noel says to me he became a bit of a cock - being a bit mean to the people he was working with. Everybody says he's much nicer now he's not doing drugs. Everybody is, though. I mean, if you're doing tons of Charlie…"

Ultimately, the endless partying did become too much for him. He remembers the exact moment - when the band got home from a massive tour in 1998. "I dumped the bags, there were loads of people in the house, and the World Cup was on, and I still remember the one last line. I had a moment of clarity - I need a proper fuckin' life.

"I thought I'd done it all. I'd come from that rehearsal room in Manchester, gone all the way from the bottom right to the top, had all the money in the world, massive house in the country, there was nothing left to do beside go and buy a jet airplane and crash it in the lake. That's it. And I went to bed that night, and have never done cocaine since.

"Of course, nobody wants you to stop doing it because it's your house that everybody's in. So I started with a week and then it went to two weeks, and slowly but surely I began thinking, I don't really know any of these people. I'm not even sure that I know the woman I'm married to. It was a gradual dawning of, who the fuck are all these people? I know her, I know she's Kate Moss, I've seen her in the paper, and I know she's here because she manages to be with every rock band at some point so why wouldn't she be here, but everybody else I had no connection with except that they'd seen me on the telly.

"It was like, right, we're selling this house, then we're moving to the country, then the party moved to the country, then, right, this is not working - so I just stayed in, all the time, and just waited for everyone to fuck off. One by one they all left. The next thing was, well, I need to get divorced because this is rubbish. And that was it. It was very liberating."

We're sitting in Liam's changing room. He is the only band member with his own room because his guitar playing and warm-up vocal exercises annoy the others. Although there is an acoustic guitar in the corner, the room is anything but rock'n'roll - his "riders" are laid out on a table: seven bottles of Volvic, three packs of green chewing gum, three packs of blue chewing gum, fruit squash and honey.

How did success affect Liam? "He got drunk. For four or five years. I never saw him sober. I don't know whether he felt he didn't deserve any of the accolades, but he was trying his hardest to destroy everything, that's how I saw it. Like not turning up for American tours."

If you want to sum up Oasis in one anecdote, this is it. The third album, Be Here Now, was rising in the US charts, and with a grand tour to come they were set to conquer the States. Only Liam gets a phone call at the airport from his then wife Patsy Kensit and decides to return home to househunt. Noel decides he'll be fine on his tod, the band hurl a few barrels of abuse at the press, and America decides it doesn't like Oasis after all. With the world in their grasp, they blew it. "It would be like U2 turning up and the Edge going, 'By the way, Bono won't be here tonight but don't worry, I'll do it for you.' "

It's surprising how often U2 are a reference point for Gallagher, but it makes sense - while U2 are just about the most professional (and clinical) outfit going, for many years Oasis were just about the most shambolic. "People love us more for the fact that we went to America and did what they probably would have done - we had a bit too much to drink and we said the wrong things. And they love us for the fact that we never nailed it there and we keep going back and plugging away." The American tour taught him another lesson. Until then he had assumed that because he was the brains and engine of the band, the grunt with the whining voice and hyperbolic sideburns was a mere accessory. After he took over the singing duties for the tour, he soon realised that most of the fans came to listen to the band and stare at Liam.

What did America do for their relationship? "It's always been the same," he says. "I'm not one of those boys from the home counties who'll sit there and seethe and write poetry about him. I give him a clip round the ear and call him a fuckin' knobhead and then we move on."

Would he say they were friends? He's not sure. "If I don't see him from one end of the year to the next when we're not gigging, that's fine by me, and by him. The safety valve is knowing that eventually you end up in a rehearsal room together writing songs. But he's one of the few people who can make me laugh out loud and vice versa. For someone who's not got a sense of humour he's hilarious. He's got a weird way with words. Only me and him can say the things we say to each other…"

Were they ever jealous of each other? "There's a real journalistic way of going, 'Well, Liam would always want to be Noel cos he's the talent and he writes the songs, and Noel would always want to be Liam cos he shags all the supermodels.' Yeah, you can say we snipe at each other all the time… You'd have to put me on a couch and hypnotise me."

The thing is, he says, Liam was born lucky. Fact. "I'm not jealous of him, but I can't understand why someone would get on stage and attack me and not him." A few months ago a "fan" in Canada pushed Noel off stage and he broke three ribs. "If ever there's a bottle thrown on stage, it always manages to miss him and hit me in the back of the head. My point is he always lands on his feet. I always land on my arse. I've always had to work for everything I've got, and he's always just in the slipstream."

As the crowd gathers before the show, I spot three young Liam lookalikes - always Liam, the cool one. I ask one of the Liams why he thinks Oasis are still so popular. "The atmosphere. A lot of the songs are big singalongs, get your mates together, get pissed, have a good laugh," he says.

An Oasis gig is unlike any other I have been to. It is more football match than concert. The young men (mainly boys, actually) walk in with a pint of lager in each hand - more for throwing than drinking. As soon as the gig starts, mini beer fountains fly through the air like so many teenage ejaculations. As boys push their way into the mosh pit, they are patted on the back - young soldiers off to do their time at the front.

There are a good few girls here, but this is a lads' night out. When the band play the ballads, they come together, arm in arm, singing every word, living the dream. From the band, there's no small talk, no niceties, just singing and yearning. Sometimes the band stop and allow the audience to do all the singing and yearning for them.

Four nights later, we're in Glasgow. It's just as bleak, just as bitter. Gallagher has a cold and is knackered, but he's ecstatic. "I've been up all night watching the election. To sit and watch all those states swing to a leftwing politician is amazing enough, but the fact that he's a black man is just mind-blowing. Wow!"

Again, we're in Liam's changing room, and Gallagher is talking about how Oasis reinvented themelves after two of the original members, Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs and Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan, left in 1999. "That's when Oasis mark 2 started. We became more professional. Bonehead was a big drinker and Guigsy was always stoned. So when Andy Bell and Gem joined, I guess they felt they couldn't just rock in with a bottle of Jack Daniel's in one hand and a spliff in the other. They were easing their way in and that helped Liam and me be on our best behaviour."

What interests me is how he managed to keep going when he thought his best work was behind him. He says maybe he shouldn't have done. After Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger became national anthems, he struggled. Paul Weller gave him the best advice when he told him that one day the songs would stop coming, and he musn't force them. He ignored him. "Between Be Here Now and Don't Believe The Truth, which spans five years, I was putting out records for the sake of it. We shouldn't have bothered, I didn't have anything to write about."

The trouble is nobody told him he was writing rubbish songs. Liam would tell him everything was great because he'd be desperate to get back in the studio and record something new. "A lot of it I listen to and think only an egomaniac would convince himself that that was worth putting on. I say to my manager, 'You told me it was brilliant.' And he goes, 'Well, you don't tell the goose that laid the golden egg that his arse is blocked up, do you?' " If he'd been really brave, he says, he would have called it a day after Definitely Maybe. "Morning Glory is for the squares… It's up there with all those great crossover albums like Thriller, and the greatest-selling albums of all time like Phil Collins and Genesis."

I ask him what a wonderwall is. He smiles. "There's a film called Wonderwall and George Harrison did the music. It's about a guy who lives in a bedsit and in the next room to him is a hippy student. He spies on her through the hole in the wall and he christens it the wonder wall. It was made in 67, appalling film - I thought what a great word, though."

These days, he says Oasis is a more democratic band - although he is still the main songwriter, all of them contribute. On the latest album, Dig Out Your Soul, there are two outstanding tracks - Falling Down is written by Noel, I'm Outta Time by Liam. The album has done well around the world, even in America where Oasis reached the top five for the first time since Be Here Now and the disastrous non-Liam tour.

I ask Gallagher if he thinks the songs have returned. "Yeah," he says, with less certainty than normal. Does he think he could write another Definitely Maybe? "No. I wrote that album when I was 21/22, and the people who picked up on that album were 21/22-year-olds. You can only do it once. We went on that tour and we were the same as them. We had no money, the people in the crowd had no money. We're rock stars now, we don't live in the same circumstances as any of these kids, so you can't even begin to write from a position of where they're coming from. But there's a point that lasts for about three years where you're in the same circumstances, you look the same and you dress the same as your audience, and that, my friend - you cannot buy that. I'd give it all up to go back to those three years.

"Listen, I'm 41, I've got two kids, I don't expect a 16-year-old to be looking to me for inspiration. It's the Arctic Monkeys' job now. I've done my bit. Now we go in the studio and it's just like, let's make some records, let's do it cos we love it."

There aren't many other contemporary bands he rates. "People say I seem very negative about new music - well, if somebody asks me what I think of Keane, I'll tell 'em. I don't like 'em. I'll obviously take it a step too far and grossly insult the keyboard player's mam or summat, but I'm afraid that's just me." His most famous insult was directed at Blur's Damon Albarn and Alex James when he said he hoped they'd die of Aids. Unforgivable, he says - he was so young, and off his head to boot. "Looking back now that fight's all so pathetic over two really quite shit pop songs." How do he and Albarn get on today? "He's a great artist," he says. "He's different from me. I'm not an artist - for me, it just comes out. He does Chinese operas and that kind of thing, he's got more strings to his bow than I'll ever have." So how do they get on? "There's always been something between me and him, and I don't know what it is."

At the aftershow party, Gallagher's girlfriend Sara is showing me pictures of their one-year-old boy Donovan. "What d'you mean, he's sweet?" she says. "He's more than sweet." There is no sign of Liam. She says he generally disappears after the gig. "He goes off quietly with Nicole [Appleton]. They're not really party types. Noel likes to chat, you can see, can't you?"

Gallagher's actually playing the DJ - flicking between the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Hives, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. He says if the children were here he certainly wouldn't be doing that. "The kids rarely come to see the band, and when they do it's a dry night. You wouldn't be like Keith Richards, smoking fags in front of the kids, man, it's not right, is it?"

The drummer from the support band Sergeant has been giving Gallagher an earbashing all night, telling him how thrilled he is. "I told my mum I was supporting Oasis, and she just said, 'What time will you be home?' " Gallagher laughs. He tells me he has never seen crowds as young as tonight, and he doesn't really get it. "That freaks me out a bit, and I'm starting to get self-conscious thinking, wow! I'm some old dude, man, and they're all going mental for these songs I wrote."

It is strange, but there's a good reason Oasis continue to appeal to kids - unlike the Beatles and Stones, say, their music hasn't evolved. And although Gallagher is now one of rock's elder statesmen, his attitudes haven't much changed either.

Well, some have. It's 1am, the party's been going for a couple of hours and he looks around at all the young aspiring pop stars. "Right, let's be having you," he says, in his best pub-landlord voice. Time for bed, he says. "You've all had your fun."

[fabdante]

Wanted to know what you thought about it, but:

I kinda headcanon that reboot Dante was actually pretty smart in school. Or at least, he would've been. He did good when he could get one of those rare teachers that actually treated you like a person and would sit down and explain the subject to you, and was patient with you through whatever fits you threw because you didn't understand the subject (or were just having a bad day). The kind that would tutor you after class or during recess or whenever they had the time, and treated you with patience and gave you encouragement (maybe more than his current guardians did). You know the kind?

I'd like to think he had at least one or two of those growing up, tho they got fewer and fewer the older he got and the more criminal things he had to do to survive- if he was even going to school at that point to begin with. The older he got, the more the shitty guardians and authority figures piled up, the worse the demon attacks got, the more he ended up in prison or places like a prison, the more time he had to spend homeless, the less and less "doing good in school" mattered to him. Because of everything previously mentioned, and because as he got older, he probably saw 1) the toll that took on the students going to school, any kind of school, especially the most vulnerable kids, and 2) just how little anything being taught in schools actually helped you in the real world. At least, unless you were rich. And white, and cis, and straight, and not neurodivergent or disabled.

Anyway, I think he had subjects that he liked and was good at, and probably still likes to read about on his own, if he has the time and space to store the books. Its just that being a mercenary (or whatever other illegal things he had to do before legally becoming an adult) usually paid better. Same with demon hunting, post-Limbo collapsing into the real world. He'd probably do well with a teacher or tutor, if he could find someone that could sit down and explain things to him. Not to get a degree or anything, because college is too expensive for too little gain (I can't see him ever willingly setting foot in the academic world again), but just. If the subject was interesting to him.

Like, he's probably gotta play catch up with some "basic" education stuff, stuff that he's missed out on one way or another, but he's smart, y'know? He's got potential- you just have to find a teacher that fits him, and also give him a reason to actually give a shit and try to learn.

I am a very big proponent of the Dante's being much smarter then given credit for by the fandom (I wrote a meta post about it one time, focusing on reboot Dante and mission 19)!

I feel like fandom likes tropes that are easier to digest which I think makes both Dante's characterization suffer in fanon from time to time. Which is not to say the Sparda family brain cell jokes and what not are not funny like I love them but...idk there's a lot more going on here is all.

I've always characterized reboot Dante as someone who is intelligent albeit not in the way reboot Vergil is. His is a sort of practical, analytical, observation. Like the best way I can describe it is I always put his best, most natural subject in school as English.

English class is about training you to analyze texts, any text. Like that's the whole point. The point is to get you to essentially 'solve' the problem of what a text means. And I feel like it's a skill that can be learned, but also can be a natural sort of curiosity that can be nourished. and I feel like from what we see with reboot Dante we sort of see him lean into this. Where as Vergil's all logic and study and rigid intellectualism, we sort of see Dante wonder. He analyzes situations. He's always prying for more information, more bits of information to study to put together what's happening around him. Like you can see it in how he approaches Kat for instance, he keeps trying different things to see what will get her to open up more and once he figures it out that's when he starts asking questions about Vergil, the thing he really wants to know about because (as I posit in the mission 19 post) he does not trust Vergil and wants more information about that.

So like in my own fanon I have him excelling a lot at stuff like English. I always have him reading the assigned books to, even if he might skim at times and has not picked up a book since he dropped out asdfghjk i do think though he'll still do literature analysis without really thinking when watching tv and stuff (as proposed a bit in my fic crossroads of catharsis and contemplation)

For like sciences and math and stuff I just feel like he'd largely be disinterested because he has other things going on and just does not care to apply himself because he just...largely does not care. As long as he skirts by he's fine with those.

But yeah long story short I do think both Dantes are a lot smarter then given credit for and that reboot Dante could probably have been a good student if he cared more and was in healthier environments.

[luminousdryad]

characterization and relationships in The Aurelian Cycle

a common criticism Fireborne gets is the slow start and how it starts off feeling generic? personally I liked that it opened with the tournament because it immediately established character dynamics and archetypes, which were then played with and even subverted later on

Lee choosing his new family, the Guardians over his surviving relatives made so much sense because we were already shown from the beginning how close he'd become to these people. Annie is narratively the most important person in his life, but Cor, Crissa, even Duck are given a lot of importance. He and Cor are like brothers, so Duck has become a sort of younger brother to him too. I love that Lee mentions becoming close with Cor and Crissa because they were the squadron leaders and had to cooperate often. It's understandable that Annie would be friends with Duck, who is often bullied. Outside of Lee and/or Annie, they have their own interactions as well. Cor and Annie are both protective of Duck and are friends. Annie and Crissa are roommates and get along better than the other girls. Crissa acts like an older sister to Duck because he's her squadron leader. What I'm saying is, all of their relationships with one another are so understandable and organic, none of their interactions feel forced and it gives the story so much heart.

I love, love LOVE the tiny bits of background sprinkled throughout the text about the side characters, among them Lee mentioning Crissa was nervous about being squadron leader, Annie's flashbacks with Duck, Lee and Annie visiting the Sutters often.

Even the minor characters have individual personalities with what little we get from them. Rock is a gentle giant who makes bets with his buddy Lotus, and they're always around each other. Alexa and Deirdre are Those Two Girls who giggle and snicker but are capable dragonriders themselves. Ola is the shy girl who sometimes participates in the fun. Max and Deirdre are together.

And the character who surprised me most: Power. I originally dismissed him to be the one-note bully archetype, but I got curious about his character after Annie defeated him in the tournament and he didn't throw a tantrum or anything (which was what I was expecting). He was an ass, sure, but then he turned out to be more complex than that. He helped Annie with mastering spillovers, which turned out to be the gateway to her ability to summon without a summoner. He genuinely tried to get her to win, and he only got better in the later books. That moment where it was revealed he was adopted was such a jaw-dropper because, like I said, I initially dismissed him to be a flat character (too used to this being a thing in YA) but there were more layers to him than I thought.

[astraldrake]

tfs thoughts beneath the readmore note: contains spoilers for the entire campaign

the opening vision we get when we enter the traveler... i ended up watching it multiple times (computer issues ;-;) but MAN was it cool the inside of the traveler in general looks super funky, im going to have to do a no hud run at some point just for screenshots. shoutout to bungie for giving us a sparkly pink rainbow subclass, just in time for pride month lol weapon unsunsetting means i get to pull all sorts of old friends out of the vault. (python, the vow, steelfeather repeater, perfect paradox, etc...) i'm pretty ambivalent abt cayde generally but they did a good job w/ his characterization. i was worried he'd end up being kind of grating but so far he's been okay i was (initially) delighted to see targe. i was not anticipating that they were introducing him just so they could kill him off 5 minutes later. i have mixed feelings on zavala's characterization but it's been a minute since i buried my face into the ishtar collective lore vault so maybe it's just my memory being unreliable. for him to just lose it and start acting irrationally like that felt odd. maybe it's bcs we havent seen him in a while? idk it just felt off. (tbf you could point out that it's probably a byproduct of being forced to relive one of the most unpleasant moments of his entire life so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ fear and desperation can make people do strange things) ikora was cool, idk she didn't read as ooc or anything to me, her reunion with cayde was very sweet, though in hindsight i wish they'd given her a little more to do. seasonal stuff has struggled to give consistency to crow but i appreciate this expansion's efforts to tie up some of those threads more neatly. (i lost it when he pulled out an iron battleaxe, i did not expect that plot point to get touched on!! also it was cool!) i am still irritated that they fridged amanda ( i ignored that part of canon so hard it kinda smacked me in the face when they mentioned her.) i love luzaku, and i would kill for luzaku. ( finally! friendly hive!) i did like the emphasis on ghost and guardian relationships throughout the expansion's story. (also ghost as the location vendor!!!! having regular chats with him while we go through the story!!! the fact he becomes increasingly damaged and wounded throughout the campaign giving me the distinct dread that he might die!!!)

the fact the traveler is letting out intermittent shrieks of pain... MAN... the return of the glowing bird as our guide! (also the fact that the grenade projectile for song of flame looks like a bird... i dont think they're actually connected but it is giving me Ideas.) speaking of song of flame, i kind of expected it to be more underwhelming than it is?? it's actually pretty fun! prismatic is a lot of fun to mess around with! nothing like throwing a storm grenade at an enemy to simultaneously proc devour and amplify. the speaker mask exotic is also giving me Ideas >:) i lost my shit when they mentioned Micah-10. she's one of the last lore characters i expected them to pull out of the hat but i am delighted to see her in game, and seemingly as more than just a cameo too, as far as i can tell. pretty ambivalent abt the whole "player character is the most powertful being in the universe and the chosen one" thing. it's kinda where i figured they'd take it and i dont hate the trope so eh whatever. im glad they actually gave me cover for some of these story missions. i did not super enjoy lightfall's strategy of throwing me in a room with one million guys and a few tiny scraps of cover. ( the radial mast double tank fight... *shudders* ) difficulty wise legendary wasn't all that painful, there were a few fights i struggled with, but a change of loadout, or a little trial and error was pretty much all i needed. i def understand why they've saved the witness fight for the raid, but if my raiding history is anything to got by im certainly not doing day one, but that doesn't mean ill never touch it. (ive missed most of the newer raids, im just not that much of a people person.) ill try and take some day 1 screenshots of the opening area at least. also wrt post campaign!! i loved playing projectile tennis with savathun. all the two queens stuff was great tbh sav is such a fun villian. like yes!! you do owe us nothing and are only going to swoop in to help us bcs we have a bigger threat to deal with!! we can go back to trying to outscheme eachother once this is over!! ( also hey, they brought back adventures! i thought they'd never do that!) also what ive played of the crode camping trip (i forgot the mission name) has been fun. just me and the bois, out exploding screebs. ( then the game crashed so i guess i gotta go play that again lmao) overall i think this expansion is pretty good! i havent even gotten to the seasonal stuff yet, much less some of the regular patrol stuff for the pale heart.

[yakdeculture]

Higanbana No Saku Yoru Ni Review

Yeah this shit is peak. This is real writing Ryukishi needs to get back to actually saying something with his work POST HASTE. Now you would assume, especially with a lot of the reviews this has, that this isn't particularly that good or notable and I think thats because pretty much nobody who reads this reads this without having read at least one of Umineko or Higurashi beforehand and so most people go in expecting something like those and then don't get it and leave thinking well that was just alright I guess. It doesn't help that, as a largely anthology style story, there are definitely chapters that are just better than others in a different sense than maybe how some people will have some kind of opinion like Well I like Umineko chapter 5, I have mixed feelings on chapter 7, and I chapter 2 is probably the chapter I liked the least (NOTE: This was just an example opinion and do not reflect my actual rankings of Umineko chapters, probably. I picked the numbers at random without thinking about what I actually thought.) You know something like that is pretty common for Umineko but for this its like because most of these chapters introduce a new character  with motivations and hardships and whatever and most returning characters per chapter are basically either there doing a Yokai Live Reaction or are doing a bit of trolling so its not like every single character is having a super in depth, multi chapter, 20+ hour character arc. That said they they clearly do enough for the main main characters, Higanbana and Marie, so you get really attached to them and their journey and characterization. At the time of writing this section, I've read through all of First Night and am,idk 25%? Through Reaper of the 13th Step. Hard to tell because idk how long any of these chapters are and can only vaguely tell how long any given chapter will be  based on how quickly I can reasonable assume one of the yokai just straight up kills whatever main human were following this time and it still ends up as a satisfying chapter. Kind of a cop out because its the longest one, but my favorite chapter so far was Utopia. The Princess' Lie had a great twist, and I liked the girl from Shrine of the Guardian Deity. I liked them all, other than some bits from the ending of Hamln's Castanets, and The Spirit Camera didn't particularly do much for me until Marie and Higanbana fought, but it was still good.

Since writing that section, I finished Second Night and frankly I only have anything meaningful to say about Reaper of the 13th Step. The sequel to Utopia was cool I guess, not as good as Utopia but good, and the Higanbana chapter was great too, but lets be real Reaper for the 13th Step is the main attraction. And it speaks to me a lot because the message and like what its about is something that I actually think about fairly often and matters quite a bit to me. Originally this section was way longer but I got sappy and super serious and that is timed exclusive content. You're gonna have to find the original yourself if you want to see me say how living for the sake of living is awesome

[cringecompanionapologist]

Cradle of the Snake Part 3: Things Are Starting to Not Make Sense

The first half of The Cradle of the Snake is stronger than the second half. A lot of stuff regarding the Mara in the finale doesn't make sense and some odd things happen to the companions when their all together, their characterizations shifting from when they were separated. I still love this story, but this is the point where picking it apart might not be very good for it.

The first half of part 3 continues on from part 2 pretty well. Baala finds Turlough and lets him out, deciding that he has to be a good guy because he's scared.

Not like he'll admit it. Turlough doesn't want to be scared of the Doctor. The Doctor's presence has made him less scared before. This doesn't add up and he can't face it yet. Turlough is also probably scared for the Doctor along with being scared of the Mara. The Black Guardian possessed Turlough at least once. There's also the general idea of Evil Thing Living in Your Head Making You Do Bad Things That You Don't Want To Do. He nearly killed the Doctor because of that. The Mara seems to have more control over the Doctor than the Black Guardian had over Turlough, so this could be even worse.

So, Turlough escapes and finds Nyssa, Tegan, and the friends they've made along the way. He's panicking and just wants to gtfo NOW, but there are snakes making that a bit impossible.

Yoanna, a sort of social worker who has an American accent for some reason, kind of saw the Mara!Doctor in a sort of nightmare thing (it's complicated), so she knows to be very afraid.

Apparently Mara!Doctor has hypnotic eyes, which might've been why Turlough was almost possessed earlier, though I thought the snake tattoo is what had the hypnotic effect. The Mara is hypnotic but the Doctor just as very persuasive eyes, I guess. Especially for Turlough.

Mara!Doctor taunts the companions a bit, giving a description of each. He'll do something similar later. Both times, he addresses the three companions in the same order, which is probably a coincidence, but it's interesting.

So, I had to check a dictionary for some of this. The arrogance/large vocabulary actually resembles the Sixth Doctor a little. I wonder if it was intentional.

Anyway, big words. Tegan doesn't get a big word. Turlough is "truculent" meaning "confrontational" and Nyssa is "Interminably Reproachful" meaning "endlessly disapproving". I think some of what the Mara!Doctor says comes from the more negative traits the Doctor sees in his companions. The Mara tends to bring repressed meanness to the surface, as we saw in Part 1 with Tegan. The Doctor probably sometimes sees Tegan as always mad at him, always complaining, never happy. Meanwhile, Turlough won't listen to him. He disobeys his instructions and gets himself into trouble.

It's the Mara that has this weird obsession with Nyssa though. What about the Doctor Nyssa would morally disapprove of in a way that upset him, I have no idea. So, it's probably the Mara just bitter about being unable to get to Nyssa through Tegan.

The cops show up and arrest Mara!Doctor for causing a ruckus. They also arrest Turlough for being associated with said ruckus, even though he didn't actually do anything and disapproving of the ruckus the entire time. They also get put in the same cell, so these people apparently have no regard for Turlough's safety, despite being aware that the Doctor is the more dangerous of the two.

Kerrem, the scientist guy Mara!Doctor got possessed before, is called in as an expert on whatever's supposedly wrong here. Kerrem slips and reveals that he already knows who the Doctor is, meaning that Yoanna never answers his legitimately good question about why the Doctor and Turlough are in the same cell. From how scared he is, Kerrem can tell that Mara!Doctor hasn't possessed Turlough, so he has no idea what to do with him as a part of this jailbreak.

In the cell, Mara!Doctor waits for Kerrem to get him out while Turlough tries to find the real Doctor In There Somewhere

Turlough reveals how much the Doctor means to him, and once he gets that off his chest, he lists some continuity. Then he pauses. He has an idea. What about the TARDIS? Traveling in the TARDIS is the Doctor's main thing. Companions come and go, but the TARDIS remains. The personality of the Doctor would be more tied to that constant than his most recent companions or recent events.

The Mara decides to try some shit, pretending to be the Doctor, letting Turlough think he's won.

The Mara doesn't actually cause that much damage in this story. The story's body count is really low for a Fifth Doctor story. But, the Mara is cruel and this might be the cruelest thing it does. As much as it upset Turlough to see the Doctor possessed, seeing him so scared and weak like this is even worse. He tries to get him help, since he can't handle this on his own, but he'll try. He'll do anything he can to help, anything the Doctor asks without question if it'll be of any help.

Removing the Doctor's coat makes it easier to expose the snake mark. The Mara is tricking Turlough into getting himself possessed, not by preying on suppressed hatred or temptation, but on just how much Turlough cares about the Doctor.

The thing is, Turlough's care for the Doctor ties into a vice for the Mara to prey on. Turlough is still pretty early in his arc. He's still a coward, or he views himself as one. The Doctor is his protector, someone he can fall back on if he gets in trouble, so he's less afraid to take risks. The universe would be too terrifying to face without the Doctor.

Quiet despair...

The Mara reveals itself to still be in control only after Turlough begins to break down. If it had kept the act up, it might've been able to possess Turlough, but it can't resist the pleasure it takes from its own cruelty.

The Mara tries one last time to win Turlough over. "The Doctor" still wants his help. He can still help him. He can still be with him if they're both possessed. But, it doesn't work. Turlough panics.

Kerrem helps Mara!Doctor, who doesn't even want to be called the Doctor at this point, escape, leaving Turlough behind. Since it's not really the Doctor, Turlough doesn't seem to mind that last bit.

After everything that's happened with the Mara!Doctor, Turlough still seems shocked that the Doctor attacked him. He has to admit that he isn't safe with the Doctor anymore.

But, Turlough doesn't go into "the Doctor is dead" mode. He still wants to help him. The real Doctor has to still be in there somewhere and he won't help Yoanna if she won't help the Doctor.

Also, in the midst of whatever struggle occurred in the cell, Turlough stole the Doctor's TARDIS key to keep the Mara from having access to the TARDIS. He's not completely stunned by all this.

So, Turlough is reunited with Nyssa and Tegan and they lock the Mara!Doctor out of the TARDIS while they try to figure out what they're supposed to do to fix this mess. This causes a shift in Turlough's characterization, though it doesn't come up right away. Now that he's around companions you'd expect to be selfless and loyal, Tegan takes over the "The Doctor's still in there somewhere and we can't give up!" role. Nyssa tries to be rational, Turlough just wants to get out of this alive, Tegan is the emotional core of the team. When it's just Tegan and Turlough, the "coldly rational" role goes to Turlough. His role adapts to accommodate the other companions.

But, first, a more amusing thing: There's a certain pattern with Turlough that probably isn't a deliberate running gag, but it's consistent and funny. You can see it in The Five Doctors, where Turlough and Susan are stuck in the TARDIS and there's a bomb outside and Turlough weirdly comments that it's "Big, isn't it?".

When scared, Turlough will state the blatantly obvious or otherwise say weird, not particularly helpful things. He might have to remind himself (and/or Nyssa and Tegan) of how the alphabet works:

Meanwhile, the Mara!Doctor is confusing. It's not the Doctor anymore. It won't answer to that name. So, you'd assume that this is just the Mara speaking through the Doctor. But, the Mara!Doctor still acts like a separate entity from the Mara itself.

The Mara terrifies ??? and will be born tonight. So, Mara!Doctor isn't the Doctor and isn't the Mara. So what is he, then?

Nyssa is the biggest STEM genius out of the companions. Turlough's a STEM genius by 20th century human standards too, but it's much less pronounced. Nyssa being a scientist is a major character trait for her. It's why she stayed behind on Terminus. Because of this, the Mara wants Nyssa on its side. It's gotten bored of Tegan and it would've been fine with having Turlough around, but it seems to have given up on him. He was supposed to be the easy one to corrupt but he just wasn't. The Mara expected a troublemaker and found a young man with anxiety and a crush on the Doctor.

Mara!Doctor uses The Magic Thing That Makes Your Thoughts Real (it's complicated) to make a new TARDIS key. It goes through another round of taunting the companions.

Tegan is the one the Mara judges as still in shock. It's still mad at Turlough for stealing the key and also thinks he's stupid now. Nyssa is the good one, the brave one, the smart one, the one the Mara has chosen to possess. The Mara probably pulls from Five's suppressed mean side again. Tegan is never satisfied, too emotional, can never keep up. Turlough is always in trouble, doesn't listen to Doctor's orders, thinks he's clever because he knows more technobabble than Tegan does. But, Nyssa is level-headed. She's naturally heroic. She listens to the Doctor and generally does what she's told. The Doctor probably doesn't think he plays favorites, but he's capable of it.

Turlough is now in a more "traditional male companion" role, protecting Nyssa. Of course he cares about her, but he reacts to Nyssa being threatened before Tegan does.

He's even willing to physically attack the Mara!Doctor to protect her!

There are some promotional photos for season 20 with Nyssa and Turlough where they look like a couple, so maybe we're supposed to think that Turlough has a crush on Nyssa? I mean, Adric did, Tegan does, I guess everyone's just in love with Nyssa now. It isn't just the Doctor who plays favorites with this group...

Nothing against Nyssa btw. She's not bad, but it's easy to get annoyed with anything that's hyped up a lot. I get the same way about Ace. Great companion, I love her, but the fandom's enthusiasm can feel a bit overwhelming.

So, Nyssa's possessed and Mara!Doctor is Lord Mara now.

Also, if you didn't know that Nyssa is much older in these audios than she was on the show, that decades passed for her between Terminus and Cobwebs, you would think she was still young. I think Marc Platt completely forgot about the age up.

I like to imagine some of these Nyssa/Tegan/Turlough stories as being from an alternate timeline. Turlough could've met the Doctor without the Black Guardian's influence. Most of the stuff the Doctor was doing in Mawdryn Undead had nothing to do with the Black Guardian. It wasn't why he was there. Turlough would've jumped at the chance to leave Earth that the Doctor could provide without needed any other motive.

The Black Guardian invaded the Doctor's timeline, found a vulnerable companion right before he met the Doctor and made him an assassin. This didn't result in the Doctor being killed though. But, Turlough sabotaged the TARDIS on the Black Guardian's orders, landing them on Terminus, where Nyssa decided to stay. Nyssa wouldn't have left when she did without the Black Guardian.

So, when the Cobwebs audios don't match up with Cobwebs, that's just bits of the original timeline reasserting themselves. It's a bullshit explanation, but I had fun making it up.

So, let's wrap this up with two brief comments. Tegan believes that she could reach Mara!Nyssa easier than reaching Mara!Doctor, or otherwise automatically calls for her help before the Doctor's:

And Turlough once again states the obvious when terrified:

Yes it is, Turlough. Yes it is.

[high-guardian-herbs]

Alright so a while ago I’ve watched “high guardian spice” and boy,,,,

Ok, look, the show was a bit disastrous, the first episode was too boring I barely got through it, and the 11th episode was just plain bad, the writers use the characters sometimes to speak to the audience their thoughts, and it destroyed the characterization and lots of these thoughts were not really good, the plot doesn’t make much sense, you know nothing of what a guardian is what exactly they do, the world building contradicts itself, characters feel out of character a lot of the time and some characters seems to be the golden child of the writers, which made said character never in the wrong, even when she is very much in the wrong

And somehow the fan favorite character isn’t even from the main cast, it’s either Amaryllis or slime boy (very valid options)

Honestly as much of a mess it was writing wise, and even tho the animation can be a bit cheap sometimes, it had so much potential because the characters and the world setting seem interesting, the character interaction sometimes is actually very fun, and because of the variety of creatures and skills and power in their world, many fun plots can happen

Also there are some good jokes and bits, and some tender moments that actually feel like the characters knew each other for a while, like the sun naps thing, or rosemary trying to brush aside conflicts with jokes, parsley and her family conflict could have been much more, and although I still don’t really understand much about thyme, she seems interesting, and as for Sage it could have been that her moms old fashioned teaching bleeding into her, and she could had a whole journey of trying to undo it and becoming a better person (I don’t mind her sensitivity, I mind the way she acts with it)

The rot plot is also interesting, and leave lots of questions unanswered, olive seems to have a bit of a dark past and you know what I’ll stop here

I just gotta say that the potential was there, and it was big, so I’ll just try my hand at it, and although I’ll probably fail worse than them, i will at least earn some experience

[guardian-rocket]

Who are your top 10 favorite muns to write with and why? If a mun is a multimuse also tell which are your favorite characters to write with and why?

(The order in which you list the people doesn't matter unless you want to assign them specific places.)

Question Master

Top 10, here we go... @antvnger Puppy-Mun is the first I am putting on this list first because of all the threads and ideas I've ever had on here the thread I've been doing with them (Space Heist) is the largest single run I've had so far. We actually had an entire 4 part mission and went to Knowhere. I feel like Rocket and Scott made some real progress in becoming friends and I love that. Every post they make is gold. They're nice to their anons and I generally enjoy interacting with them OOC and hijacking their random posts. They're also genuinely funny, which I feel is very important for someone portraying Scott. I already loved Ant-Man but Puppy-Mun makes me adore him even more! They also often tag me and I love that 💕

@byondtheveil Rei-Mun (Birb-Queen) is #1 OC in Rocket's world and my Rocket muse simply adores her. I always look forward to reading her replies and she's a great person to talk to and shoot the breeze OOC. We both love thrifting IRL so it's fun to just spam her DMs about my latest finds. Her character Rei is literally one of the most endearing original characters I've ever come across. She's well thought out and has connected with Rocket in a way most muses can't do. With her I have been able to explore Rocket's comfortability just popping on and off Earth and get some much deserved down time. @papetoonfox Papetoonfox was a RP partner I had many years ago. We haven't interacted much on tumblr but we got a RP going on Discord that I am fully engrossed in. Our conversations OOC often puts me in stitches and we have so much common interest it's so easy to just get lost in our own little nostalgic world of Y2K aesthetics and retrowave vibes. They're also very encouraging with me about my art and they produce some of the coolest music I've heard from anyone I know. I love their portrayal of Fox and so does my muse.

@stripesofbrooklyn They were one of the first to interact with me OOC when I started getting more active again and I feel we check in on eachother both ways pretty regularly I am confident to call them a friend. Our muses have great chemistry together and Rocket always loves hearing from them no matter what strange shenanigan they might be getting into. Rocket fully admires and trusts their Steve and is someone Rocket would go out of his way for.

@spidermanxnoir / @jeff-the-gnome-king First they get super points just for playing my favorite version of Spider-Man (Noir) and our thread which started off without any plotting has turned into one of the most epic adventures my Rocket has ever had. I think Rocket's gotten pretty attached to him as they've gone along and genuinely think he's cool. Looking forward to them retaining an ongoing friendship. Being able to tie or franchises together has been a ton of fun and I think we write beautifully together. Also they're super chill OOC and I love bugging them with my latest ideas. @the-mjolnir-owner This Thor is one of my best friends on Tumblr. They are often sending me posts in my DMs to see about Rocket and Thor and I just love their characterization. We also have a lot of fun discussions about Thor and the Guardians and I feel they capture Thor very well in their writing. Just in general they're an absolute joy.

@butwithmoreme I know our thread is fairly new/short but I literally hear Tony's voice in their writing, it's so damn good. As Rocket's mun I will hold a special place in my heart for anyone who doesn't just write him off for being a little shit. The fact they're being science bros together makes me so happy. @spideymn A big stand-out as a great writer. Sounding repetitive here, but I hear Tom Holland in their dialog and they feel very in character. A shining standout, and my muse likes him because he's a helpful kiddo. Happy to see them interacting together. @beatfreesmysoul They're my #1 music buddy right now, and I enjoy dropping into their DMs to be annoying lol. It's so great to have someone here to talk tunes with because I genuinely am a big music nerd. I love that they send me memes/tag me for that stuff too. As a Rocket RPer I often feel a bit sidelined so they make me feel included on things which I super appreciate. Our thread taking place earlier in the storyline is great too, kinda fun to undo all my muse's character development and let him have 'issues' he needs to work through and I love that we can explore or character's developing friendship.

@gctbusydying I am pretty sure they're my first Kitty Pryde and honestly, worth the wait. Interacting with them feels like we're jumping right out of the comics. I think that Kitty is canonly one of Rocket's favorite ladies and their friendship is important to me. I know I MOSTLY adhere to MCU canon but I've read the comics too (albeit a long time ago) but when it comes to Kitty I'm like -slams fist on desk- FRIENDS. I know we haven't had a TON of interaction but I hope it keeps going.

[night-dark-woods]

(This is the anon with the hold me like water or a knife quote) I. I beg you to share the lore pieces about Eris comforting Petra because I have been brainrotting about the two of them for so long.

Both of them are truly guard-dog 1 and guard-cryptid 2 for Mara (AKA two people who have devoted their lives to her due to an unquestionable loyalty and viewing her as someone who has set them on the right path/ someone who truly sees them) and I think they should make out about that

YEAH. i <3 femslash rarepairs with like three lines exchanged between the two of them. & yeah its such a fun dynamic!!! theres a reason Petra and Eris are the ones mentioned in that Tyrannocide loretab (thank you seth. as always.)

The plan exists in her mind alone, although beloved Eris has by necessity learned most of it. The Techeuns do not know the whole plan, although they will position the Harbingers upon the threshold. Even sweet capable Petra does not know the whole plan.

but anyway these are really the only 2:

"You are the Wrath, now. You are the last hope for your people. Trust the Guardians, trust the Vanguard. And you will find your salvation beyond this moment."

-Eris Morn, message to Petra Venj

& this one:

"If I did not know you better, Ikora, I would say you are fretting. To answer your real question: no. In my estimation, there is no danger of Petra Venj 'pulling an Eris Morn."

-Eris Morn, Hidden Report XXI.I

so. i guess not comfort really but. understanding.

& then i was just poking around for other interactions and there's a lot of clear familiarity but i thought this one was especially good from the Wild Hunt set w/ the rude guardian:

"The Reef will take note of their opinions. For now, I imagine the Vanguard are rather focused on Europa. At least, if what I hear from Eris is accurate."

"Eris Morn is a traitor." Siegfried's voice was stern, his eyes locked with Petra's.

Her lip convulsed in a silent snarl. "The information she shares would suggest otherwise."

i love the amount of familiarity & love that defensiveness conveys. i need to know how often they talk to each other. i need to know how they talk about Mara when she's not around. im always fascinated by the vague shape we can see behind the loretabs of the entire Extended Reef-Tower Polycule (Sav Mara (Sjur when she gets back) Petra Eris Ikora Chalco Elsie). i hope none of it is ever clarified. i like to see the gay glow of it on the horizon and never quite know what's up with them.

I do like that we finally got a loretab of Ikora and Mara interacting in TFS (*hater voice* despite the fact that it was a thinly veiled exposition dump & also has wildly sloppy character work- SotL writer again imo, who i think also did Immolant and SoDefiance writing. characterized by using SAT words for the sake of using them without understanding fully how they are used, and by describing characters experiencing emotions by saying their facial expression and then telling us exactly what it means)

[dilfdoctordoom]

If you had the chance to fix some comic storylines that you thought were bad or a waste of potential which ones would it be.

I'm taking this as an excuse to tell you how I would rewrite every GOTG run barring 2008 and 2020.

2013

I think this run would've been. so fucking cool. if original sin dropped the bombshell that the Peter Quill we've been following this whole time is the Peter Quill of the Cancerverse and 616 Pete is still trapped in the Cancerverse with Rich.

It'd do a lot to explain the wonky characterization-- and it'd give the Guardians themselves a clear-cut mission. the 2013 kind of meanders a lot with no clear goal, so it'd benefit from a straightforward "save x from y" type of mission.

Peter & Rocket's friendship would be a big focus here; I think if Pete was replaced, Rocket would be one of the first to pick up on it

Plus, Adam could show up <3

2015

Extrapolating the Wanted arc into something more- by this point in the GOTG comics, they've pissed off every major empire (Kree in Black Vortex, Shi'ar in TOJG, Spartax by Peter's existence, Badoon by Gamora's existence, etc) and it'd be fun if it was just... every galactic empire is gunning for their heads & they've got to keep up the whole guarding the galaxy through that.

I'd have Cammi come back in this, like if we've gotta have her with the Ravagers then fine, she's there to take them in 'cause she's pissed that they never found & she got stuck with Arcade.

It gives Drax some limelight & focuses on how he navigates being a father

Nebula as the main villain, having the Graces as arc long bad guys for the team to fight. Neb obviously has her 616 personality & is in this for the bounty - but Gamora can take it personally due to the drama with the Graces

All New All Different/2018

Magus as the main villain this seems so obvious to me

I'd keep the Infinity Wars stuff, just in a way that makes sense. Gamora is working with Magus to get her soul back because he's also got a part of him stuck in there

It's all a scheme by Magus & Goddess to escape Soul World; Goddess has shown to be able to brainwash Gamora before, so we can put that on that

I'd also not. downplay the Ultron side of things. Conquest was fucking traumatizing for this team

Gamora's past with the Phalanx would also work well with the Magus/Goddess thing; maybe she's got it in her head that if she gets her soul back, she'll have purpose again

Mantis would be there for the Ultron side of things

I would work Phyla's resurrection in there somehow. 616 Phyla, specifically, like I don't think anything fancy needs to be done at all, Thanos has been resurrected so many times it'd be simple to say Oblivion brought her back to combat Magus&Goddess

Can work the Groot stuff into the themes of Soul & Trauma like... Groot died in Conquest, he was lit on fire, and grew back as a little stump. So the Groots are killing worlds... but it's always worlds that Ultron was going to target & it's a fucked form of mercy

2019

In stories that focus primarily on Thanos & the Universal Church of Truth as the antagonists, I would simply not make it the Peter Quill show & instead let Gamora & Warlock take the lead

If Starmora has to happen, I'd have Peter's arc be more about trust & how to keep it, contrasting with Gamora's arc of learning to give second chances after people hurt her

I'd also. address how Adamora broke up, like delve into why, bring in Atleza in at least a mention, etc

2023

I'd keep Grootfall as some kind of corrupting force in the Manifold Territories but not as the reason they're there

Instead

I'd use the whole "the Manifold Territories are from beyond the known universe" and have Peter be the one insisting they go. Have him aware of the risk this could pose to teammates (maybe have it have something to do with damaged souls-- Gamora's & Drax's are healed after Infinity Wars, etc, but Groot is still vulnerable from the Gardener) but he does not care because if it's beyond the known universe, it's beyond the sun

He's trying desperately to get back to Morinus

Mantis has brainwashed the others into coming & it becomes an inverse of GOTG2008; instead of Peter doing all of this for altruistic reasons, it's because he wants to go home

Continuing to inverse 2008 - show how the GOTG have changed each other through their refusal to kill Groot. Peter shot Warlock; now, years later, he can't do that to Groot. Being a Guardian has changed him

Like show the positive & negative effects that the Guardians have had on everyone

[the-marron]

Got tagged by @fixaidea, thank you!!!

I technically did it a few days ago, but then I was tagged by myself, to let this tag game make rounds, so can I be excused for doing it again? 🥺

This time with Guardian/Weilan derivs focus, not to repeat the same info too many times ~~

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 144, and at this point Guardian and co are the majority of those

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

1,261,968 words - I am pretty much this meme:

things always end up longer than I plan them to be 😓

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Well, aside from the old ones, currently mostly for Guardian, The Rebel/ Detective L (Luolin, my beloved), I dabble in DMBJ for weilan derivs purposes

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

In Guardian/Derivs fandom? Through the Window of This Love, written with Ascel (300), The Once and Future Hei Pao Shi (270), The Story's Unwinding, written with Ascel (223), One Prize I'd Cheat to Win (187), Constant Vigilance (177)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Oh, absolutely, I love talking to people in general, and I do like thanking people for sharing their thoughts about the story, 'tis why I share afer all

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Erm. Either When I Make an Oath to the Flames (Guardian) or Unceasing Path (Luolin)? Hard to choose, I do love angst and bad endings

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hm. Maybe We Devour Like a Falcon in a Dive? (Luolin) - it's as much of a fix-it as my angsty tendencies allowed these two

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Well. I wouldn't call it 'hate' but I did have some odd interactions lately that suggested gently that maybe I should stop writing.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No, no smut from me. Behold my best buddy: Fade To Black

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Oh, yes, absolutely. Mostly of the Weilan derivatives persuation, admittedly, but it counts, right? I also comitted a Luolin/ Guardian crossover, inspired by Terry Pratchett and his observations about the nature of universities.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Kinda

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not a Guardian one

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Hah, hell yeah. Best kind of fun

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Weilan, on the basis that they are canon and the reason why I am still here and not moving on. From Weilan derivs: Luolin

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

A post-canon murder mystery with Luo Fei and Lin Nansheng that I am not educated enough to write just yet, too many things to research, too little time. Also I am not very good at Agatha Christie murder riddles, on the basis of: I haven't written any yet. Would love to try though.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've heard that it's characterization and sense of humour. Unless I am gutting people, then it's the atmosphere?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Repetitions. Commas. Forgetting where the hell my characters are sitting. Ignoring the fact that they should eat at some point.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Sure, if researched and checked

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Inuyasha, I guess

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Hard to pick due to lots of sentiment to different ones for different reasons. In terms of 'this was a fic written by me, for me' then weilan!steampunk au Deceive me kindly (while I am still here), because it's a mixture of my favourite things: doomed romance, steampunk and references to the drama

Thank you once more for tagging me! 🥰

Tagging this time: @forerussake, @clevermanka, @sasamelons,