#i kind of fail to understand what's enjoyable about just saying the same thing that's been said 100 times. in the same way.

[sporkdoesclasspect]

it is wild to me how everyone seems to almost universally accept classpect inversion as an actual canon thing and not just a theory someone had??

[yetanotherexhaustedalchemist]

Found this tiermaker assigning the twst boys with the seven deadly sins, here's my rankings

Explainations:

Ace was difficult to place, but he is prone to overestimating/boasting about his prowess with magic or intelligence (often without evidence behind him 😒) He also thought he was a match for RIDDLE one week into school, yikes.

Jack was also difficult to place, since he's generally one of the more upstanding students. But he does rely on himself more than he probably should on occasion, such as when he wanted to confront Leona alone in Book 2, without the support of others.

I mean what's not for Vil to be proud of Pride is often defined as being full of yourself to the point that you won't acknowledge your faults; this doesn't apply to Vil. Still, it could be argued that his pride led him to be unable to acknowledge Neige winning against him.

Sebek thinks very highly of being fae. IDK what else

It's Azul. He's a capitalist. What do you want from me?

Floyd wasn't assigned lust from a sexual viewpoint (necessarily), but he does live hedonistically. He only really does things if he thinks they'll bring him enjoyment or pleasure of some form.

Same for Rook. I guess you could say he lusts for beauty?

And same for Malleus. His need to keep the things he cherishes close prompts his overblot, and that's a kind of possessiveness I associate with lust.

Cater is shown in his Halloween SSR to envy Lilia's understanding family relationships. Social media also tends to make people compare their lives to others and lead to envy.

Jamil envies people - a lot of people - to the point that it affects his relationships and distorts how he views people. For example, his envy of Kalim's (perceived) easy life stops him from seeing Kalim objectively.

Epel is a minor example, but he's prone to being jealous of other's strength (physical like Jack and Leona, or magical like Vil).

It makes sense that someone who grew up in the slums, needing to fight and steal to get food to eat, would be kind of obsessed with having food and money. Ruggie is under gluttony rather than greed because he actually uses the money and eats the food (or gives it to the people back home) instead of hoarding it.

Besides having a large appetite, I'd say that Jade is a bit of a 'glutton' for amusement in a similar way to Floyd. I put him under gluttony instead of lust because it just felt right.

He angy

Deuce is under wrath because of delinquent mode, that's it

Ortho chooses violence with alarming frequency. not much to say.

Trey himself admits that he let Riddle's mental state get worse by not dealing with the hard truth and letting it fester. He says he knows he should have done something to stop Riddle, but he didn't, and it hurt Riddle and others.

Leona is lazy (sleeping all the time), but his cynicism also makes him extremely unmotivated and uninterested in putting effort into anything.

Like Leona, Idia is extremely uninterested in doing things outside his interests, even when they demand his attention (housewarden and STYX duties). Also, like Leona, he almost certainly has depression, which would help explain this.

Lilia also didn't fit into any of the catagories well, but I put him under sloth for the sole reason that his suddenly leaving NRC for the East could be seen as him trying to to avoid the hard goodbyes of a farewell, in a (failed) attempt to spare his boys' from pain.

Kalim's just a sweetheart!! none of the categories fit him well

Same with Silver

--

A few specifications: here are the definitions I used for the sins

Wrath: Anger taken to unhealthy extremes; misdirected anger; causing harm by hurting innocents

Sloth: Causing harm by inaction; leaving others to suffer when you could/should do something to help

Greed: When the desire to have resources (money, land, ect) deprives others of what they need

Envy: Seeing others' fortune as wrong; dumbing people down into targets of jealousy

Pride: Believing you are superior to others

Gluttony: Hunger (for food, luxury, ect) taken to unhealthy extremes; anything in excess is poison

Lust: Reducing others as objects/pawns for your desire (sexual, power, wealth, ect); desiring something so strongly that becomes a sole motivator

--

Putting someone in a category doesn't mean that they fit all the criteria/interpretations

I also included despair/melancholy under sloth (choosing to wallow in your own pain and ignoring what could be done to help, yourself or others)

The difference between greed and gluttony is hard to define, but it's best described by greed being the desire to have material things for the sake of having them, while gluttony is the desire to have material things for the pleasure of consuming/using them.

[roguerambles]

Possibly unpopular opinion but after thinking about it a while, I'm kind of glad Veilguard seems to be going for a "clean slate" of sorts in regards to World States.

I completely understand the disappointment, and it's not what I was expecting either, but at the same time I also understand that trying to implement multiple games worth of choices in a satisfactory way would eventually become completely unmanageable. Some kind of cut off would need to happen at some point, so maybe now in an (almost literally) new era is as good a time as any?

Plus from what I understand the developers aren't setting the past three games on fire or declaring everything non-canon or whatever, they seem to just be selecting what will be relevant to the story they are trying to tell in Veilguard (which, obviously, is heavily focused on Solas and the Evanuris) which tbh is probably the best way to handle it going forward.

For example, consider what we last heard about the Hero of Ferelden - they were on a journey to find a cure for the Calling. That would have huge implications not only for them, but the Grey Wardens as a whole, and personally I want more from that potential storyline than a potential codex entry saying they failed or succeeded or are still out there looking or are missing or have it shoehorned into Veilguard somehow even though clearly a million other things with the Grey Wardens are going to be happening.

(Obviously I'm not saying Bioware is going to do a spin-off game featuring the Hero of Ferelden on a quest to cure the calling - although I'd play the HELL out of that - but I guess what I'm trying to say is something that big would deserve its own focus, you know?)

Anyway, sorry for rambling just wanted to get some of my thoughts on it out a bit. I understand the disappointment, but I hope people remember that the previous games are still there, you have your head canons and fanart and fanfiction, and just because it won't be directly mentioned in Veilguard doesn't mean your experiences and enjoyment of the previous entries "doesn't matter" anymore. It's still there.

[bloodsadx]

thanks to everyone who has sent me asks and such saying i understand how to draw for being nice and stuff. i'm going to ramble about some influence/process stuff below if you want to read abt it

this might read as some kind of artistic statement or defense or something but i like to talk about this kind of thing just in case anybody can ever get anything meaningful out of my own thoughts and practices. i got to where i am after a lot of careful consideration and spending time thinking about what i like in other people's art, just like anybody else that makes art to any serious degree.

my "style" is very much a deliberate series of decisions that i have honed into being very fast for my own pleasure and enjoyment because i am very inspired by people like king terry/garo magazine/the heta-uma style, keiichi arawi, inio asano, hiroyuki imaishi, toru nakayama, phil elverum (as a cartoonist), gary panter (who was a friend of matt groening and wrote an essay about selling out that is worth reading and did a lot of stuff with RAW magazine which is one of my favorite things to think about), DIY/skatewear brand t shirt cartoons, early MSPA hussie stuff, etc. a lot of my favorite artists walk a line between constant high effort and low time investment art; often contrasting elaborately planned perspective grids or high resolution rendering with simple cartooning. asano and arawi i think are very clear and famous examples of artists that use 3d rendering and photography for backgrounds while drawing very deliberate and expressive characters on top of them. toru nakayama is really inspiring to me because he, like toriyama, has a very deep understanding of form AND cartooning and has a way of making extremely densely crafted cartoons which feel visceral and almost like plastic toys you can pick up and play with on the page. also just one of my favorite colorists. and i think hussie and arawi and imaishi are all fantastic character designers with very strong understandings of designing art styles that convey information very quickly and deliberately; i think bryan lee omalley and jamie hewlett were also big early influences on me for the same thing- they all have art styles with very clear line/negative space proportions, strong shape language, etc, and for a long time in my life i have sought to grasp a similar understanding of these things. and then i think phil elverum's fancy people adventures cartoons and just like skate brands and "shitty" DIY drawings and stuff (the album art for nana grizol's love it love it is like burned into my brain forever; seeing basquiat paintings and poems in a museum when i was 15 made me feel whatever and crazy and etc) are just something that serve as a constant reminder to me that some of the most effective art is art that is simply fun to look at, especially when it comes to making comic and cartoon art. simplicity and joie de vivre are very important to me as artistic concepts.

and i mean, i do fuck with crazy painter dudes and shit too; i was huge into goya when i was 14 and had a print of the witches sabbath taped to my wall until i was like 22, i fw waterhouse & bruegel the elder insanely. i am like a sponge for most kinds of art and i do a lot of art research all the time. most of my first book was heavily influenced by compositional techniques from pre-raphaelite painters and the iconography of egyptian & greek wall art and especially especially extremely crowded gothic art and the concept of horror vacui.

but anyway, im not really insecure about my art, i know how much effort and time and practice and research i've put in, i definitely know my strengths regarding cartooning and stuff, and i'm even more aware of where my work needs "improvement" in order to be "commercially viable." i've been in multiple positions in the past several years of taking art seriously where other people have been dismissive of my art and i've seen other people fail to capture the energy & simplicity that i am able to get in my own art, etc.

for people interested in my Process and the things that i work on to draw the way that i do, the way i have gotten whatever skills i have has been mostly through drawing the same things over and over and over (toenail, cavity, pimple, gunk, making different expressions and doing different poses); i draw in pen MOST of the time, and i have for a very long time, and i make few edits, and i focus on keeping energy and confidence in my lines; i do perspective studies, i've spent a lot of time doing gesture drawings and environmental studies inside and outside. i draw a lot of movie frames and do color studies of youtube videos and stuff like that. i remember reading some kind of criticism of post-KAWS/street art infiltration of commercial art that artists now are most rewarded for drawing literally the same thing over and over and over like their hands are printers and that the main thing artists are then allowed to do within that context is express themselves through minor variations within that key theme; i don't think im THAT rote but it has definitely informed my perpsective on what i do and what i am interested in doing. on some level i have designed my art to be easily reproducible by myself because i want to make comics and sometimes even to animate my characters and that requires me to be able to draw a lot of drawings relatively quickly. this is another reason why character designers and video game key artists are such massive influences on me, takehito harada and akiman and toshiyuki kusakihara being some huge ones i've spent a lot of time doing studies of i didn't mention previously.

and because the main way i make money at this point in my life is through screen printing & reproducing my drawings as items for sale, i spend a lot of time making my art Distinct, Eye Catching, and Iconic, to the degree of instant recognizability even on a t shirt or a sticker from far away, and i try to make my drawings strictly legible and generally focus on communicating ideas and emotions through big thematic and emotional gestures and strong colors that can be easily separated. this is one of the main reasons i havent developed as strong of a rendering/coloring habit; that kind of stuff is difficult to color separate for the purpose of solo DIY screen printing. but i've spent a pretty decent amount of time doing that stuff, and i spend time studying forms regardless, with the lines that i do use. a lot of my sketchbooks are me drawing literally the same thing over and over slightly differently until i have something that i feel is a strong enough cartoon to make into a shirt or patch or sticker design that satisfies a litany of criteria i have for what i consider strong cartooning.

anyway that was a very rambling post but i hope at least people get something out of it even if its just slight entertainment from me blowing hot air out of my mouth for 20 minutes.

[zoroara]

So, it is pride month, and I'm Aro-Ace, I'm not really into romance at all and I am what some know as sex-repulsed. This admittedly means a lot of positivity around this especially in fandom is, kind of hard to portray, as strong feelings, powerful loyalty and affection is often seen as tied to more romantic or sexual scenarios(You would not believe how many accusations of being attracted to someone I've had for this, I just care about my friends so much).

I understand why this is, but I'd like to take this post, to sort of talk about my own readings of relationships and head canons based on this, and if you have any similar, I encourage you to do the same and share! But if you start ship bashing I will hit you with hammers(block you) because that's not the point of this post.

For me, though in rare situations I'll ship them, Xanxus and Squalo are incredibly important to me in their relationship. They aren't even friends, and yet there's this powerful tie between them. The loyalty Squalo shows, the enjoyment of watching Xanxus fight. It's great. I do like to say, Xanxus does respect Squalo in the only way he can, Xanxus is built to see himself above everyone. He doesn't see Squalo as an equal to him, but he does see Squalo as above everyone else, and that's the most amount of respect Xanxus can give another person. Is that enough for Squalo? No. But it is a lot from Xanxus. It's so deeply interesting to me that it's probably on Squalo being so willing to keep his word being potentially the only reason they'll even stick together. They both benefit from this, both in ways challenging the other to improve in skill. (by the way, I think it is so funny how Amano continuously tries to imply Squalo is equally strong to Xanxus but flat out fails because of how they treat Squalo.)

Honestly all the bonds the Varia have despite not being quite friends are so interesting to me. They just all mesh in a great way, but they also all are ready to throw down with another. The only thing that brings them into one focused goal is murder and being attacked sometimes. They are so fucking interesting to pick apart and try to figure it out.

This certainly isn't the most analytical post i've made but I also wanted to ramble a bit. But I hope to hear some too!

[cipheramnesia]

When I talk about media, which let's be honest is mainly horror movies, they surprise me with interesting approaches to a topic, queerness, unique ideas, or simply through being unexpectedly fun and exciting. And that's always a fun entry into talking about a movie.

Sometimes I'll be so thrilled by a movie, or something in the movie, I immediately need to look up the critical response, and that might also be a place to start talking about media - particularly when I see criticism which, to my eyes, failed to understand something interesting about the movie. I might feel like the movie hasn't been seen by many people, or wasn't appreciated, and contrasting my experience with specific criticisms (I think) creates more a more interesting conversation about a movie, and may even prompt someone to watch it when they wouldn't have otherwise. It might even be my own expectations were so wrong, I'm excited about how wrong I was.

On the opposite side of this approach is "critics just don't understand movies are about fun!" What's frustrating is that this is in part true but is also in no way useful to understand if a movie is enjoyable. As a lover of horror, I am intimately acquainted with the tendency of critics to dismiss significant parts of the genre because it's just fun, and to try and put distance between any horror they enjoy ("elevated horror" - kiss my ass). I'm used to most people dismissing the genre as scary, gross, or otherwise just deeply unpalatable.

I'm so used to all that, in fact, that I want to try and go a little deeper when I'm trying to tell people about something interesting than just "critics don't understand movies should be fun." And that's what I'm actually complaining about today. Both the instance that fun is a primary quality attribute, and contextualizing something as misunderstood because somehow critics are all stuck in the no fun zone.

It would be one thing if "fun" was meant in a general sense. I find some pretty harrowing films fun, some really grim stuff fun. However, it mainly comes up with large budget movies, widely distributed movies, that generally are already being seen by plenty of audiences and which receive a large amount of promotion. And a lot of them are fine, they're fun, and that's about it. Plenty of critics out there have the same response, and generally that's what goes on the posters and in the trailers and everyone just goes on about their way until anyone runs across a criticism comes up like "I don't think it was very good / I don't think it was very interesting" and it gets a middle of the road critical score because it's a middle of the road movie not meant to be interesting.

That should all be fairly normal stuff, but there seems to be some disconnect between "this was a regular movie that was a lot of fun and wasn't necessarily world changing, but I am a big fan," and "critics didn't like this movie because it was not filmed or written or directed in a particular enjoyable way, but rather for general consumption by anyone with no specific need to be treated as intellectual." When someone like Martin Scorsese or Jamie Lee Curtis says something negative about something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seems to turn into this huge reaction of "Critics Just Don't Understand Fun" but now it's a kind of angry monster demanding atonement to fun. And on the one hand, for a lot of critics, those movies aren't for them. I think they know it, but their job is to analyze films, meaningful or otherwise.

But what I'm not sure everyone else knows is that sometimes criticism of your favorite fun movie is not for you. Critics can and do miss things that make a movie interesting, or dismiss a good movie because they think the general topic isn't worth analysis. But also like, when "critics don't understand movies should be fun" is pretty much exclusively leveraged at criticism of big expensive mass marketed movies, and also pretty often as criticism against movies which are making distinct choices which deviate from what is established as the expectation by mass marketed large budget movies, what happens is that I see that sort of phrase and I find I don't really trust what comes after it. So often, the context of that idea is a sort of film criticism equivalent to people who throw themselves in front of Elon Musk to protect the poor defenseless billionaire. And like, I don't know, maybe someone rushing to the defense of a huge movie release doesn't have the same idea as fun as me.

So I'm not gonna spend my time or money on the exciting big budget movie that critics don't understand is fun. What I'm gonna do is, I'm gonna just jump down into another scuzzy horror flick I never heard of and see where it goes, because that is what's fun for me.

[heretherebedork]

Do you think that Mew thinks Ray is a failure because Ray professes to love him but doesn't stop any of the destructive behaviors that he wants him to stop?

Top stopped casually sleeping around because Mew asked (ignore Boston for a second). Top stopped using drugs. He's known Mew for less time than Ray. Top has told Mew his trauma. So does Top's "love" mean more to Mew because he changed everything about himself that Mew saw as a flaw?

Meanwhile Mew was THERE for Ray's lowest moment and should know the depths of Ray's self-hatred. Mew knows the reason for his behavior first-hand. He's only ever heard about Top's trauma, he didn't experience it like he did with Ray.

So Mew literally cannot distance himself from Ray's problems and wish them away like he did with Top. He's a part of them. That's why, to me, he's a much better character (not person) when he's with Ray than with Top. With Top, Mew got everything he wanted without having to do a damn thing. So does Mew think he's in love with Top because of that? Because he can distance himself from any truly messy aspect of being a person and being in love? Does he allow Ray to continue to self-destruct because there's nothing he can do to stop it? Has he even tried?

This got away from me. This is all to say, Mew would be a much more interesting character if he was pulled away from Top and had to actually get down and get messy and get real with people. If he couldn't escape to his fantasy land where he can control people and make them into who he thinks they should be instead of who they truly are. Mew needs to accept that real people have flaws and he can't just ask those flaws away. He can't just "fix" people because they aren't broken just because they don't fit his moral standards. If he wanted to truly help his friends, he would actually support them with what they need and not what he wants.

I mean, I definitely agree. Mew sees all of Ray's issues and doesn't understand why he doesn't just... stop. I think that's a big aspect of Mew's character. He can stop drinking, he doesn't want to have meaningless sex and he doesn't understand why other people maybe can't stop or want that kind of thing. To him, his way is the only way and the correct way and the right way and Ray and Boston's inability to do that is a character flaw and a morality flaw that he wants to see them fix.

Ray doesn't stop his self-destructive behaviors and Mew watches him fall down again and again and Mew sees that as Ray not loving him, or anyone, enough to actually change. And that is especially strong now that Top has given him that. Top stopped. Top followed Mew's suggestions and changed. Top proved that Ray wasn't trying hard enough (he didn't because these issues are different but that's what Mew thinks.)

At least until he finds out Top cheated on him and Top shatters that illusion. But Mew's anger at that also shows that he feels the same way about Top's faults as he does about Ray's... he sees those faults as something to be instantly overcome rather than worked for and rather than fought for.

Top fulfilled Mew's literary dreams. They are living, breathing archetypes of characters and character arcs. Top gives up drugs and sex and his position as a 'top tier' for the sake of his relationship with Mew and at his first request. He fixes himself for Mew to become a better person in a way that Ray never did or could because Ray's kind of broken is a different kind of broken than Top ever was because Top pursued most of those for enjoyment rather than a desperate need. Or seemed to, at least.

I think Mew views supporting Ray the way that many people do, honestly. As telling him to fix himself and be surprised when he doesn't. Because, to Mew, all those are things that are easy to stop doing. Mew simply does not understand why Ray struggles to stop drinking, stop doing drugs, stop having casual sex. Mew sees all of those things as Ray's failures and faults and his not overcoming them as a personal failing.

Mew is a friend to Ray in that most interesting kind of way, in believing that Ray could be better if he just tried more and that Mew wants to be friends with the Ray who tried more but not exactly the Ray that is right in front of him but that's the Ray he has and so he'll be friends with him but he'll keep pressing him for him to be better.

But Top is everything Mew believes Ray should be. Top stopped everything when Mew asked and Mew didn't have to anything but ask. Mew never had to do anything but ask. And so Top proved that he was better than Ray could ever be, that Top could be the one to fulfill Mew's love fantasies and the books he's read and the romance he always believed could be true.

Only now Top has proved that, you know, people don't change on a dime and now he's going to have to work for Mew but the work is basically what Mew doesn't want. Mew wanted that instant, magic change and the work isn't what he's interested in.

[thefirstknife]

Mara is being a classic manipulative abuser trying to sway everyone to pity her and putting the spotlight on her own grief rather than the immeasurable suffering she has caused others, and the fandom is falling for it hard. As someone who will spend likely the rest of my lifetime healing from the hurt caused by someone like her and hangs out with many fandom friends with the same experiences... it's just really anxiety inducing and hurtful to see how large chunks of the fandom are so quick to praise and adore her for her "character growth". She is upset to be facing consequences for her actions and is trying to get pity. She is a horrible person and a fantastic character and she should be allowed to be the asshole that she is. She doesn't have to be good to be enjoyable. I am terrified the narrative will go the way of having Crow forgive her because that's the "good" and "kind" thing to do, thus essentially saying abuse victims need to be the "bigger person" and forgive their abusers. Not even gonna get into how she used the Awoken people from the first moment. There's nothing wrong with loving Mara but I think all of you need to take a step back and listen to people who have met real life Maras and understand just how messed up your support of her is when you're touting her as this traumatised person just trying to do what she believes is right (true) which makes her good and worthy and simply misunderstood (false, her trauma doesn't absolve her of being a cunt). She isn't growing, she's just further manipulating people and making things about herself. There is no moral failing in enjoying characters who are horrible people. She's no different from Clovis with her god complex and having slightly more noble intentions doesn't excuse her whatsoever. Her remorse might be genuine but at the moment she isn't seeking to provide any reparations to her victims, she just want people to feel bad for her being sad.

I was abused by my older brother, emotionally and physically, who manipulated (and still does) people around him.

I shouldn't have to say this, but I'm getting really tired of people assuming that everyone who sees some value in Mara's character growth has never been abused. That assumption is disrespectful and forces the person you're telling this to out themselves about their own abuse. Because if I don't, then people will just continue saying that I can't possibly understand what it's like. I understand. Unfortunately, personally. I would advise not to approach random people telling them that they can't understand what it's like because they happen to like Mara as a character.

Another thing that I want to mention at the start is that I have never in my life claimed that Mara did nothing wrong or that she isn't a bad person. She is. It's a part of the reason why she's a fascinating character. She's an uncompromising leader who worked under the idea that the end justifies the means and that she is the only one that can see us through to that end. It's a cruel life for everyone around her.

Her trauma doesn't absolve her of being a cunt, but it does explain why she is one. I think this is not only valuable, but crucial to understand because that explains that her cruelty wasn't out of sick malice and enjoyment of hurting others.

If we want to care about abuse, we have to understand that parental neglect is also abuse. Mara is also an abuse victim. This also doesn't absolve her of her actions, but it does explain them. Mara's recent new line in which she tells Elsie about Osana Sov, her mother, is a classic abuse victim story about parental abuse. It's one that rarely gets acknowledged because that type of abuse is structured specifically in a way to go unnoticed. But it's abuse nonetheless. And I'm sorry but if we care about abuse victims, we also have to care about abuse victims who become cunts. That's the only way to really fix the situation.

And I do genuinely believe in fixing the situation. I know that a lot of people don't want their abusers to get better or to change and I also know that a lot of people don't believe that their abusers CAN get better and change, but they can. Not all of them of course, but some can. Insisting that Mara is not actually changing and is just pretending and being manipulative again is your trauma talking. The text is incredibly clear in this scenario and it's not just coming from Mara herself; it's coming from people around her. So unless we believe that literally every character (including incredibly perceptive ones like Elsie or Ikora) would fall for Mara's every word even when they never did so previously, Mara is genuinely changing and she isn't manipulating anyone or pretending to be trying to get better for good girl points. That's incredibly uncharitable interpretation where you have to go out of your way to insist that she's just pure evil. It's equally incorrect as saying that Mara is pure good.

Again, I know that not everyone is capable of dealing with that in the same way or same time as someone else. There was a time in my life when I genuinely wanted my brother to just die and be gone from the world and that he is not deserving of any introspection or the ability to change. And I know there are horrific people who have done truly unforgivable things and that it's hard to think about them as people deserving of effort and change. But if those people put in the effort and want to change, we have to give them that second chance.

Of course, their victim is not obliged to help them or be in their presence ever again. This is a right that Crow is currently exercising, with no end in sight. But if he eventually chooses to give it a go? His story will not be worth any less to an abuse victim. It won't align with everyone's story, but it will align with some of them and again, if we care about abuse and abuse victims, then we also have to care about those that aren't identical to us. It's not about being the "bigger person." I don't want to be prove being a bigger person to my brother, I just genuinely think that it would be better for everyone involved if he changed and worked through all of our issues and we were a normal family.

The text is also more than clear about Clovis who has never in his life believed that he is wrong or that anything that he did was wrong, including all suffering he caused to all of his family and humanity. Like, this cannot get any clearer. And the game directly made that comparison to debunk it in a very on-the-nose way: in a full dialogue in-game. Clovis doesn't think anything he did was wrong; Mara does (and Rasputin admits to the same).

I would also like to point out that the game is filled with abusers who never get a fraction of the same flack. Calus is a massive abuser who neglected and emotionally manipulated and punished Caiatl her whole life, as well as treated his people as accessories to his own goals and tossed them into suffering and death for his own amusement. Not even for anything dire like saving all life in the solar system; for pure amusement. Reading about Gahlran is a special type of horrific depiction of Calus' disregard for people's autonomy and safety.

People also for some reason don't see it, despite it being incredibly clear in the lore book, but the Witness abused Rhulk into obedience through isolation and manipulation. It picked Rhulk because he was already on the edge and then it used isolation and manipulation abuser tactics to sway him away from his people and turn him into the genocidal unquestioning obedient follower that he became.

Savathun was also a fairly abusive person as well and probably the best comparison with Mara. She was knowingly manipulating her siblings, and her nephews, and also her children, for whom she had very little love and care. She also completely ignored them and left them pretty much for dead when she decided to become a Lightbearer. And you know what? Savathun is also an abuse victim herself as well. She is a traumatised person that has been on the receiving end of manipulation and we all feel very bad for her circumstances. And Savathun also wanted a second chance; and she got it!

Clovis was a massive abuser whose wife had to run away from him and hide, who did not see his child and his grandchildren as real individual people. He manipulated every single one of them, most of all Elsie, to whom he most likely lied about her disease to make her accept the Exo body and to whom he directly said that he is in control of all information about her own body. He also did not view any people as real people and instead, they were all experiments. Reading his logbook and his extra experiments (warning for medical trauma and body horror) is, to borrow words from an in-game character, "a gratuitous exercise in horror." He has never, not once, said or did anything that shows he regrets it or thinks anything he did was wrong.

You might say "but nobody is making excuses for Calus or Savathun or the Witness or Clovis!" And like, yes they are. They're never addressed as abusers and they have plenty of fans who treat them just like their cool blorbos. A really interesting example is the Witness who, by god, has a really cool design, but whom people are consistently treating only like a sexy otherworldly alien who is just sooo shippable with its abuse victim.

And as much as that makes me super uncomfortable, same as Calus bros who to this day swear that he's actually someone worthy of following or that Clovis is just a poor little meow meow that everyone is being too mean to, I am not here to tell people that they aren't allowed to do those things. And I am not going to send them guilt-tripping asks telling them that I am an abuse victim and that they cannot possibly have similar experiences because they post positively about these characters. And I certainly can't claim that none of them understand abuse.

I don't know why Mara is the only one that gets this sort of response. Mara is both an abuser and an abuse victim, she was a miserable person as a human to the point where she straight up decided to commit suicide. She was a cruel leader who believed that only she alone can save the world and that everybody else is at her disposal to be used as she wants. And she has since learned how awful she was and regrets it. She wants to change and be better. No matter the timeline, she remains our steadfast ally until the end. It's really not that difficult. There's no double or triple deceptions and manipulations involved.

Me and many others have actually literally been talking about how Destiny writing is currently focused so much on every character sounding like they've been going to therapy and how everyone is super introspective about their problems and wrongdoings. I assume this is because we're slowly wrapping things up and we can't have characters being too ambiguous in the face of our endgame enemies, but no matter what's the reason for it is, the conflicts and characters have been getting increasingly more straightforward. Mara is not going to flip the switch on us.

If you for any reason can't stand to see a storyline in which someone like Mara gets a second chance, that's something that you will have to deal with in your own time. Disengaging from the story is okay. Disengaging from the fandom is okay. Sometimes media will tell a story about your experience that doesn't align with yours perfectly, but it does align with other people who have been through similar issues.

And in case of Destiny, this is a story whose main theme is "second chances." Mara wants one so she deserves one. Savathun wanted one and she deserved one. Even Calus or Clovis or even the Witness; if they want one, they deserve one. It's okay to not want to forgive any of them personally and even to struggle with the fact that the story is trying to pass that as the right thing to do, but again, that's something for everyone to deal with in their time. And please don't make assumptions about other people and their relationship with abuse.

[inklore]

hi my love! do you have any writing tips? and words of encouragement when fics flop :(

hi darling <3 i feel like i always suck at giving writing tips but i'll try my very best for you ok. i hope some of these help! also very honored you'd even ask me 🤎

first and foremost: don't compare your writing to anyone else. everyone writes different, everyone has a certain style, a niche. if you're worried you don't have a 'style' don't, because you do. everyone does. it's not something you can make yourself have or take from others, it comes naturally with how your brain works and how it curates words and prose and scenes. that's why no book, no writing, is ever the same even if it's the same source material. it's a beautiful thing so don't stress about trying to make your writing sound or 'read' like other writers. it'll only ruin the enjoyment of how you write!

if you want to write more detailed just remember that not everything in a scene needs to be put down. the more you give the reader room to fill in the blanks and set the scene themselves the better experience for them (at least that's the case for my brain, others may feel different, but doing it this way makes me feel like i'm not adding too much detail or being repetitive). but visualizing, setting the scene for yourself through music or daydreaming is another great tip to write more detailed.

when it comes to smut i am a huge stan of you don't have to say the anatomically correct part they're using (like the p words or c word), and describing what it feels like to have that part touched, grazed, etc is really great. i struggle with fear of repeating myself so i try to find creative ways to describe body parts without actually calling them like flowery/nouns/different synonyms. i hope that made sense lmao.

don't worry about edits or making everything flow completely well in the first take. i highly rec everyone editing their own work and reading it back to themselves, yes it's tiring but it helps you find flow mistakes, add more detail, take something out that you thought fit in the moment but doesn't really. that's why i get everything out the first get go in a kind of fever dream manner and then when i go back to edit it then i buff out everything, add more, take away something, add more details that will make a scene pop off more.

now for the encouragement when it comes to flops: it's going to happen. there's no secret to making something do amazing or something failing. there really isn't and someone who says there is has just had a few lucky posts. because having a big following means nothing, writing a long fic, a short one, only using small font, being super aesthetic, really means nothing. i've seen writers with the most amazing aesthetic and beautiful prose with 100 followers write something and get 2k notes and then get 90 notes on their next post. same with someone who doesn't have a big aesthetic but a big following and writes short fics get 100 notes on their last ten posts but then that eleventh post randomly gets 1k. like it's really just up in the air on here if something is going to do good or not, unfortunately. so that's why i don't let it get to me when something i post gets 100 notes or 1k because i'm happy with both, less, or more. i don't expect anything anymore because that only leads to disappointment and i'm here to write and to have fun.

that's not to say i don't rec curating your own little community on here. make friends, block ppl with bad vibes, join discords of supportive friends. talk to writers who encourage and understand your feelings and discourse and who keep you going, give you inspo, etc etc. if only my friends ever rbed and read my stuff and there was only 10 of them? i'd say hell yeah and that'd encourage me to write more. having a good space of friends and community is amazing and can do a lot to fight off the writer scaries and the feelings of obsessing over numbers and success.

now this is just something i do but it always works for me; i post something and then force myself not to look at it for a day or two. i post it and move on to the next thing i want to work on. i do not dwell on how it's doing. i may q up some rbs for it but i don't even look at the notes when i do that. i deliberately never look at it because yes while it matters in the sense that we love encouragement, we love seeing people love something we spent hours on, we wrote this for ourselves but hello we want that validation too and that's okay, but like i said above and i'm going to say again notes mean nothing in regards to talent. these notes are not simon cowell judging you on your performance. so when i finally do go back to rb comments and reply to things, or if i just want to look at how it did, and the number is low i'm just like ok shrug at least those 20 people enjoyed it and that's better than 0. and if no one commented or rbed yeah that sucks and is disheartening but i can either dwell and be sad on it or i can continue to do what i love and write more. why let the annoying little brats on here who refuse to show their love on a work they read get you down? because there's a dozen of them out there and they're not going away. and you may have made someone's day for this little fic even if they didn't say something about it. it does suck that content creators on here don't get the rbs and comments and credit they deserve, and unfortunately if you want to keep doing what you love you gotta work around it and remind yourself why you're creating, continue to feel that joy. it's hard, believe me. but don't let your creativity be repressed because of it, because you'd be doing a disservice to yourself!

i'll say it again though: a high note count / following doesn't mean the fic is good or bad, neither does low notes / no following. no one's talent is ever in question here. we are here to write, have fun, fill the void of the rl scaries.

[voidpunkanathema]

if not already asked, leon for the character ask :) basic but opinions vary!

(Also asked by @shinekittenace)

Why I like them: I fully expected this guy with his John Cena-esque go getter attitude and aggressively marketable ace to annoy the shit out of me, but the truth is is that hating Leon is like hating a puppy. You just can't. He's just a nice fuckin dude that wants to keep everyone safe even though he's just one man. There's also the fact that he's essentially a grown up ex-protagonist which the game delves into a little with his complicated emotions surrounding losing the title he's had since he was eleven by the end of the game and the fandom's done some FASCINATING psychological deep dives with. 

Why I don’t: I feel like GameFreak failed a bit with show don't tell with him. Some of the ways GameFreak try to make him seem really intelligent and capable are...a little on the nose to say the least. Like for instance him estimating how much Hop has grown during his introduction scene COULD be taken as a hint they don't get to see each other often but nah I really do suspect they wanted the kiddies to be like WOW THIS GUY IS SO SMART HE CAN DO MATH lol. I do kiiiind of suspect the fandom put more effort into analyzing the guy and the kind of havoc being a massive celebrity since the age of 11 can wreak on your personal life than GameFreak ever did but that's very much not a bad thing IMHO. I'm not one of those IF IT'S NOT STRICT CONFIRMED CANON IT'S OF THE DEVIL people (and honestly rather detest them) 

Favorite episode (scene if movie): I...don't think the Anime showcased the better sides of his personality well (he loses the protective streak and just kind of comes off like a self-absorbed manchild that everyone loves because he can defy basic Pokemon battle logic in the same way Ash can. He's a protagonist But Annoying This Time) so I'm not terribly interested in seeing more. 

Favorite season/movie: See above. 

Favorite line: Tbh I don't have one particular standout one immediately coming to mind and I'm feeling too lazy to go through his quotes page rn. His catchphrase IS fun to meme about I will say. 

Favorite outfit: He absolutely kills everything that's not the Sponsorship Cape tbh. The guy has GOOD fashion sense despite the memes, corporate was just holding him back. 

OTP: Raihan/Piers/Leon for reasons I already went into in the Raihan response lol (the vibes between him and Rai are interesting and pretty damn hard to deny but Piers is holding up 90% of my mental health on his bony little shoulders rn and also I wanna see him and Leon interact more) I'd also love he and Sonia to work thier shit out, they are cute as FUCK together in Pokespe 

Brotp: The platonic Raileon enjoyer strikes again. Id also certainly take he and Piers being bros too. Also he and Nemona would be absolutely insufferable together and I'd love to see it someday lol 

Head Canon: One thing that was inspired the anime and a certain infamous wall punching scene is that through no real fault of his own he and Raihan's relationship was actually dangerously close to fraying for a bit. He WANTS to be a good and supportive friend to his favorite person but he's gotten fame and empty adoration pretty much handed to him for long enough that he can't REALLY understand what's going on in Raihan's head, the immense pressure he's putting himself under and the frankly unhealthy behaviors he's starting to develop. It's gonna take the pressure of the championship being gone for Leon to stop being the impossible standard Raihan's harming himself with and start being an uncomplicated source of companionship again. On a brighter note he's a good enough guy that once he becomes Chairman he's gonna prove he deserves that position by taking steps to reverse Rose's power consolidation to make sure no one person can cause that much trouble for the nation of Galar again. He'll prove his worthiness to rule by NOT being a total corporate dictator. 

Unpopular opinion: I've bitched about finding him annoying in the anime enough so instead I'll say I actually don't mind how involved he was in the game plot, it's honestly kind of weird other adults HAVEN'T been like "why are we letting random ten year olds go into very dangerous situations unaccompanied" before if you think about it

A wish: The same as the others, I'd love to see him again IF he's not miserable or acting like an ass. 

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Don't get lost in spacetime my neurodivergent king you've been through enough 🤞🤞🤞

5 words to best describe them: The tragedy of Superman, Pokemonned. 

My nickname for them: Lee suffices.

[archivalofsins]

Honestly, I think if somebody just dislikes a Milgram character enough to vote them guilty off of their vibe or appearance alone like they know nothing else- Like I mean nothing. It's just a personal kneejerk reaction and gut feeling that they don't even want to think about. More power to that person. That's such a simple reason to decide to ruin a fictional person's life honestly. Like your vibes repulse me Guilty is such a mood we should do that more when it comes to fiction.

Plus, Milgram let's people vote based on any biases. So, it's completely within bounds. Now time for the not so fun oh Gunsli you're being a killjoy take-

I feel like we should kind of interrogate how that sort of understanding of media can impact the lives of real people.

Not to sound too naïve but media in my opinion is a space to explore and recognize are own biases and flaws from a safe distance.

This is why I don't particularly agree with the mindset of keep politics out of media. Because this is usually said by people who don't wish to discuss politics in real life or in media. So, they're not saying it like hey can we just keep it out of this, can we just keep this one place stress free and devoid of any political conversations. Like does it have to include x marginalized individual all the time. It's politics everywhere all the time now it's tiring.

I feel Milgram whether it sought to or not cultivated a demographic that perfectly encapsulates the can't we have fun it's not all that serious media consumer. The everyman of media consumption who's too tired from all their other stressors in life to really look for more issues in media and only wants to see fun takes about their favorite thing. Ones that don't force them to think to hard or view this thing they get some enjoyment from negatively.

Viewers that will even lash out at the creator if the series fails to cater to them specifically.

In a way I think Milgram is a good dissection of the media industry in the modern age. How frivolous engaging with it has gotten. How it's just one thing to the next. It's even gotten to the point that things can be thrown out mid run to remain incomplete forever if they don't hit their audience engagement quota.

Milgram was completely expected to be this underground passion project. No one working on it expected it to take off in the ways that it did. Yamanaka and Deco have said this enough.

It's not hard to think of it being a critique of modern media consumption on some levels. Especially with how Yamanaka has discussed media idolization and demonization before. Or the weight of being perceived by that many people in general.

I feel like this is especially apparent in Backdraft most notably in this line,

"Holler-holler from safety, so worthless. The fight’s up here! Come up to the ring and face me!"

As viewers we are in a position of safety. We have the option to stop viewing at any time. To tune out. Yet that's only for now. Once the shows over it's over and there's no tuning out or pausing real life. At the end of the day when Milgram is over everyone will have to be actors within their own lives. Where it will be possible for any of us to make the same mistakes as the prisoners or at worse end up in the same position as their victims.

Media all media is meant to give us the chance to engage with circumstances we've never seen before. Things we're unlikely to ever experience in our lifetimes or things that may just always be impossible.

Through looking into how we interact with these more fantastical elements along with analyzing the more mundane parts that may we can come to latch onto... Such as the ways we relate ourselves and our own experience to the media. We may be able to find out more about what encourages us to engage in the real world around us and it may even at times show us how the ways we engage with reality are harmful to not only ourselves but those around us.

So, when I see people go,

"Ahn I just hate that character no real reason. I just don't like their energy really. They just give off a bad vibe. I'm just not feeling them they're kind of sleazy."

I have this conflicted feeling of alright judgmental of you but okay... Like this kind of grimy feeling of ugh yeah more power to you. Like I could have learned more about this hypothetical person in their values but they just simply announced to me that they have none or don't want to think about them.

Which is at best fine in fiction and at worse a general issue when engaging with people in real life. To me and sorry in advance but stuff like that that just gives off the same energy as say someone crossing the street or getting on a different elevator because a poc is there. It's the sort of baseless judgment that makes me think huh it really is that easy for people to just go I don't like this person. Saying it was just their vibe is like such a copout like damn I didn't know you were walking mood ring got me a walking vibe check here.

So, good at it they can read someone before they even speak oh my gosh so cool what a talent. Someone get this person in every talent competition stat we've found the new national treasure. In fact put this person in the police academy because they're giving stop and search. They're giving I know a thug when I see one. Ugh skip the academy they're ready to be a cop now. That's how they just gave me a feeling sounds to me when uninterrogated.

Gives bootlicker, gives I like to discriminate don't ask me why I'm just so quirky and radical. I don't even know why I don't like them they were just weird ya know.

Like no I don't because you fucking explained nothing. You absolute- Mmm never mind. Sometimes you just have to pull a Yuno and go oh that's nice walk off then never talk to that person again.

Sometimes people who feel like this will even go off and tell others not to like that person. On their gut feeling that they don't have the guts to interrogate- Interesting maybe their gut just might be a coward.

I've garnered a lot of unwanted first hand experience with this concept too.

How people will make snap judgments based off my posture, if I'm smiling, if my hair is pressed or not etc. Or even in online settings the way I word things, how I handle people excusing their own ignorance than bemoaning others for doing exactly the same thing or having the same exact issues.

Then I think to myself for a moment,

"The problem really isn't the vibe of the character but the perception of the viewer. Along with said viewer's willingness to think about what made them have this perception."

Then I think,

"Hm, well maybe if they weren't taught to hate so easily maybe they wouldn't be getting so wound up about a fictional character due to vibes alone."

Again no one needs a reason or justification to not like someone fictional or real. It's perfectly fine to dislike. Everyone should do them and be their authentic selves. Yet, if someone is disliking to the point of triggering themselves then going well their vibes were just off that's a bit- Well, some people just lose the plot sometimes.

The same can be true with people liking a character too. Like it's goes both ways. Don't be mistaken it goes both ways. However, I think not really interrogating what causes us to like or dislike to extreme degrees is the real danger here. The thing that media can help help us tackle within ourselves without harming anyone.

It's easy to hate or like something. It can sometimes just be as simple as that thing being good to you or not. Plus, tastes change rather easily and none of us ever know when someone or ourselves will end up stepping over another person's line intentionally or not. I personally like to make all my slights direct because I'm the pettiest bitch here and I always will be.

We can be in the dirt together or out it it's the other parties choice. But honestly it's three strikes and a person is usually out with me.

Fiction has always been my escape from reality. Yet I feel if your escape isn't teaching how to cope then it just becomes a form of avoidance. A trap where a person can never leave and as it gets tighter what was once an escape will simply become and extension of their torment. Fiction will become too realistic, too political, just too much of everything.

It will be difficult to get it back to being that low stakes area that can allows us if we so choose to look at these things (that many of us have to deal with in real life) without fear of judgment, being misunderstood, but as something that can in small ways help us learn. Learn how to articulate oursleves to others better, stand up for ourselves, see when we're being mistreated, see when others are being mistreated.

Fiction gives us this space where we can create an opinion outside of a public setting. Become more aware of the dangers and troubles we may face in our real lives someday.

We can holler from safety about what character is good or bad. Because we're safe and that's how fiction is supposed to be. That's how experiencing and engaging with fiction should be. Yet, people who are quick to judge fiction tend to be the same sort of people quick to judge others based surface level factors rather than what they do and who they are.

[1yyyyyy1]

Before you leave this account, you should take the time to tell us why you like Dishonored so much. The pictures and gifs you reblog are mesmerizing in aesthetic. I am contemplating watching a walkthrough/playthrough of either that or one of the Assassin's Creed games, and an advertisement would do wonders to help me decide. :3

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Dishonored is that it is extremely immersive. I fell in love with it when I was still a kid and much of my enjoyment can be attributed to nostalgia, but, having replayed the game, I understand why I liked it back then and have come to appreciate it even more as an adult. Thematically, the story has a lot going for it: technology, magic, religion, the occult, assassin syndicates, covens, dystopian themes, gods and people trying to comprehend godhood (and failing which is both realistic and funny). Dishonored has one of the most interesting and aesthetically pleasing deity characters I've personally seen in a series, the rest of the cast is well-written as well and makes the game feel like an interactive book more than anything. What I like about this game is that it has a "show don't tell" kind of storytelling where you get bits and pieces of the worldbuilding through dialogue, books and radio announcements, the zones feel organic to explore and the story is not in your face with huge walls of quest text. The environment is responsive to the player's decisions and your choices matter a LOT, it has a stranded feeling to it where you are left to fend for yourself but never alone with how lively the questing hubs are. It is also designed with both combat and stealthy playstyle in mind so you can choose to play it in a way that you want. This is just me listing my positive impressions before getting to the actual gem of the series - its visual design, because it is amazing. Every frame deserves recognition, it is even more relevant to the second installation which, in my opinion, a rare case of a sequel surpassing the original. To say that architecture in this game is impressive is not to say anything, the Clockwork mansion alone has beaten all of my expectations when it comes to level design. The same can be said about the game's soundtrack which is memorable and at times eerie, a perfect fit for a grim world like Dishonored's. It is an engaging universe with interesting characters and balanced storytelling, so I definitely recommend playing this game if any of this resonates with you.

[cosmicjoke]

It's very interesting to see how people are so quick to condemn others for having different views from them. It's one of the biggest problems and social media only seems to be making it more extreme. Demonize "the other", while creating more division and lack of tolerance. It's more than a little disturbing to see people view things so black and white, like we're not all just people, usually with good reasons from our own background that cause us to make the choices we do. We don't have to agree with one another but the least we can do is try to be a little more understanding and respectful. We'll never be able to unify and make better choices for everybody if we're constantly seeing "the other" as completely wrong and our own views as right and always just.

I also find it interesting that so many fans of AoT act this way. A good chunk of the story is about how we're quick to demonize "the other", painting things as black or white, right and wrong, and not taking into consideration why "the other" is acting the way they do and what's driven them to make the decisions they do.

In the end it's compassion, empathy, a willingness to be open and listen and learn, and understanding that will help start to mend the rift. Not intolerance and judgment. You can empathize with and understand someone's actions and choices without agreeing with or condoning them.

Anyway, sorry for really rambling. I appreciate your more nuanced take on things and although I don't always agree with everything you say, I still find you to be an awesome addition to the fandom community and you bring a little bit of enjoyment to my days. Especially with your AoT and Levi content. <3

Hey there, and thank you so much, truly! Given the last few days, and all the crap I've had hurled my way, I appreciate the support and kind words more than you know!

I completely agree with everything you said. It really is genuinely disturbing, and disheartening, how quick everyone is to just condemn and dismiss anyone and anything that doesn't align with their world view. And yes, there's absolute irony in the fact that so many of these people claim to be fans of AoT. As you said, AoT deals largely in themes of the shortsightedness of condemning others without context or understanding, and how that sort of assumption and black and white thinking leads to tragedy. It's a theme that runs throughout the story, yet we see so many readers of it miss the point entirely while also failing to recognize in their own behavior much of the same foolhardy judgmentalism that plagues so many of AoT's characters. Again, it's ironic. Lack of introspection and self-awareness is a serious problem.

Anyway, thank you so much again! I'm glad you enjoy the content of my blog! And once more, I appreciate the support so much!

[stuckinapril]

Hello, Cianna

Lately I've been dealing with an issue and I really have no one to tell them about it. In the last couple ou months I came to the realization that I've been represing my sexuality and that I might not be straight (I don't really like labels, I just know that I like girls, maybe even more than guys). The problem is, I feel like this puts a barrier between me and my group of friends. You see, they are all straight girls, with the exception of one, who is bi, but dates a guy and is pretty much a confident outsider on many occasions. I don't want to feel like an outsider, as I really like my friends (and don't really have anyone else, but them), but I end up not sharing enough about my self, as most of the stuff I like is pretty queer (shows, art, music, style I would like to adapt). Any advice? I am just scared I will subtly start to feel rejected by them, as we have different views on the world (they are not homophobic, but they are pretty traditional tbh) and don't relate to the same things.

first and foremost i think you should proudly be who you are, bc life is too short and it ends faster than any of us think. constantly suppressing yourself leads to cognitive dissonance, which leads to chronic unhappiness (been there). you should be hanging out w people who bring out the best in you, not force you to lock it away. so no matter what you decide, it should be w the goal in mind that you need to be who you are.

i think communication is always worth a shot. people surprise you sometimes. maybe they’d care enough to be more kind and understanding of you. unless you think it’s a lost cause, in which case like… i don’t want to say it means they’re not your friends, but if you can’t look past your heteronormativity to make your friend feel welcome, that is so shallow. like it takes a special person to be that way. my friends are all a mixed bag of sexualities, and not once did any of us make the other feel alienated about it. that’s just so juvenile and close-minded. not something adults would (or should) do at all.

if all else fails, i think i’d just silently demote them to enjoyment friends—not friends i’d consider to be actually close to me, but friends i’d hang out w to fulfill my social quota. if you really care about these girls, and don’t think they’re coming from a malicious place, then maybe just adjust your expectations. accept that they might not be very understanding of your sexuality, but hang out w them whenever you feel the need to fulfill a social quota/if you like other aspects to them. and ofc, be on the lookout for people who’d actually accept you for who you are. you can even cut them off if it becomes too much, bc suppressing yourself like this—it will lead to resentment. it’s not a sustainable thing.

whatever you do, i think you should be honest about who you are/your interests. you will be so unhappy otherwise

[somethingshifted]

i watched this video (put it off for all of 3 days because i get nervous watching video essays on my favorite things for some reason) and i loved it. it made me so happy. readmore cuz long post

even if the subject itself was how gorillaz nearly ended because of plastic beach's ambition, this video was so enjoyable. because i feel like getting an account of how people felt about the album release, at the time, from someone who was present is incredibly important for preservation? the extensive things fans have archived is important first and foremost as so much was personally privated by the band, but it's hard to get a pulse on fan feelings as a whole other than digging through wayback machine or knowing someone who was fandom present.

alongside this i'm appreciative of lady emily remarking on the landscape of releasing music at the time. where CD wasn't as huge, not as many people cared about vinyl, music channels were obsolete, and youtube was nascent even in 2010 when it comes to money making opportunities, especially for record labels forget about solo projects like lets-players. which just brings into perspective how taxing PB was to make. it's a beautiful project made off the failure of carousel to launch and didn't make as much of an impact as it needed to survive... which was something i personally was fully unaware of at the time. i just sat on youtube thinking that's where updates were mostly and relying on deviantart friends relaying info to me (i was very internet-dumb). carousel was insanely ambitious and destined to fail with how much they were expecting, and seeing the long list of projects that died out and the way the art being featured during tours became more of an after-thought was heartbreaking a bit so i can definitely understand why tensions blew up.

the idea of media (because PB isn't just an album even if that is the main skeleton veins and organs of it) being made for an era that doesn't exist is depressing, but her explanation to how it came to be and how different the climate is now is a great reminder to myself. because i keep asking 'why don't they do X Y and Z' and the truth is it costs SO much to do that, not to mention do it well AND have the artists and designers and so on be paid and treated well, and PB had so much going for it that didn't return profit. like the way the world is, passion itself doesn't reward you with a living which is sad, and appreciation and apt payment for visual arts doesn't get much better as the future moves on. and kind of humbles me to not have a stick up my ass for cracker island. KIND OF- i still feel my gears grinded when i see how sanitized some things are. major 'he wouldn't say that' feelings.

having reservations on gorillaz marketing behavior is fully allowed and honestly, needed because having a fanbase of only yes-men is detrimental, god forbid they thought NFTs would be well received. i feel hesitant to be a hater for newer stuff bc even if character writing choices annoy me so hard, i still find gems, and i still want to understand the full background of how much of what used to exist, can't exist the same way anymore as the world gets more expensive and a higher bar of quality is needed (outside the writing. that's more on current writers forgetting pretty well established easy characterization) idk if anything as wide-spread and ambitious as PB could ever exist today. isn't that sad? melancholy? i feel like being in your 20s during today consists of a lot of foot-in-one era, foot-in-the-other. the things you grow up with are impossible to go back to since technology is moving at a breakneck speed. but it being so expansive and story heavy was special and i'm learning more about that every day. as someone who's still iffy on the lore taking such a huge part of the overarching characters that it's still referenced at the end of the 2010's i really really do fucking love it. one of a kind. people who get very defensive of plastic beach have full reign to do so, just lemme stand behind you as a humanz defender

she also touched upon a feeling i thought was unpopular but i'm glad she did mention, and it's about how the story for the following albums were more self contained. i do feel though that wishing the band was a band and not characters milling about is a semi popular stance (?) i'm happy people recognize that because seriously my pulse on fandom feelings is sooooo lacking, even now as i venture to twitter and tumblr in 2023. anyways, even for how fantastical PB is and how much i love it, both the climate of the world not supporting projects like this and with gorillaz being self funded since 2019 (didn't know this and that is insane to me) gorillaz can benefit with the bar of expectations being lowered. multimedia projects are a rarity, with websites being sleeked and dumbed down for mobile users only, death of flash, social media being the hub for everything (why i get their reliance on it), singles needing to always be the strength of albums, and trends dying out faster than a mayfly, it's just hard. would i like to see them return to something like that, yes of course, but i sure as hell am not expecting it. unless some billionaire wants to dump their entire savings into their lap. the phases 1 and 2 performing well while being multimedia in the way of animation, interview, in-character and etc, is fantastic but there is no way that sort of MV quality would be passable today. and as a whole it was just less expensive AND way more new and fresh to make compared to making something in 2023 while also accommodating collaborators and managing the band. i guess it's difficult for me to hold a concrete stance. 'aw man why'd they do that... oh well...' times change ig. one thing i will shit on without feeling much guilt is the merch handling though like christ

i really want to hear her defend humanz like she said she might, like i'm on my knees... to wrap this up: very nice video if you want to hear about the behind the scenes of gorillaz all laid out in order. knowing the charting numbers didn't really hit for me till this video. and insight on how the band moved. there was a comment that said the flash games that are still archived today and she hearted it so you can check that out too, i've been going to that site archive for weeks now. i guess there was ONE thing which was i personally hated the way russel was used the entirety of that phase and i regard his mental break being phase 2 more than phase 3 so i raised my eyebrow at her depicting russel being cool and important, but like that's such a small bit, that i can understand why seeing him be a (silent) superhero was super cool. like yes he actually did do more actions on phase 3, bc even phase 1/2 he was, while well spoken gentle and wise, just there on the drums. i just want him to Say Something in phase 3 like that's his baby he's saving... well... ok. that's ok. don't get me started on my boy this post is already long e-fucking-nough

can i add. saying murdoc is the joker for gay teenage girls killed me

[alovelyburn]

I try to understand the reasoning with cycles and generations but I actually fail to get why would that be in any way meaningful? Griffith already got his cycle in a way didn’t he? would him having a child have any narrative purpose? And the fact that it would come from relationship this miserable is just awful. I cannot see how it would affect this story in any positive way

I mean, to be clear here, it's not like I'm championing the cause of Griffith and Charlotte having children. Whether or not it happens has absolutely no impact on my interest in or enjoyment of the story. So, I'm happy to answer, but at the same time, I promise I don't care.

SO OKAY THEN.

Berserk has often and always had a fair amount of emphasis on child characters - from Rickert all the way through to Isma, there's just always been a bunch of them around. But more than that even, it has an emphasis on child-parent relationships, the perpetuation and breaking of cycles, and the question of the I guess next generation (often but not always through Some Kid).

Also, many major turns for the characters or the plot are pushed by child characters and things that befall them, from the deaths of Griffith and Guts' respective (individual) golden ages due to the deaths of children to the Moonkid becoming the route to Griffith's return and Schierke becoming the anchor for Guts' continued stability. Griffith's own self-image is and has always been a child, as well.

I'm trying not to go on and on and on about this, but basically what I'm saying is, in a story that is as concerned with generations, childhood trauma, cycles and breaking or repeating those cycles, it does not strike me as unrealistic that Miura might have considered Griffith leaving a kid behind when he presumably shuffles off this mortal coil would be an appropriate coda to his story.

And even beyond the specific way Berserk in particular uses child characters, children within the context of a narrative (or the end of one) are often used as a pseudo-redemptive mechanism for a character who could be perceived as having gone the "wrong way." The character is... bad, or gone, or dead or whatever, but the child remains. Now whether you think Griffith in fact went the wrong way is another issue, but if we're saying he did then it would not be unusual for a story to do that.

And to be clear, I'm not saying they would literally have Charlotte sit there thinking, yes Griffith was a bad man but HawkBaby will redeem him! It's just kind of the implicit purpose of the trope.

And I don't think Moonkid counts as his cycle because Moonkid isn't generally presented as his son; he's more presented as Casca's son (not even Guts' really, tbh) and Griffith's… host body, like yeah it is in some ways the child of the three of them, but he isn't really presented that way within the context of the story. Also he might not survive the ending anyway.

Ultimately though, the question of whether a kid would have a narrative purpose depends on what they did with it, doesn't it? Something that doesn't exist has the potential for any purpose they're written into.

It also depends on when such a hypothetical person were brought into the story; personally, I usually assume that if it DID happen, it would be coda-level stuff: the kind of thing you find out in the epilogue/final wrapup chapter or something. I tend to doubt that that there would literally be another child walking around the story doing things. There could be, I guess, but it doesn't seem like the timing would work very well, again without another timeskip. Anyway, if it just showed up in the last chapter, then it maintains the aforementioned thematic purposes, but wouldn't need a narrative purpose because its purpose would be be pseudo-redemptive, and to make readers go "aww" at the end of the series or I guess to be happy for Charlotte if they like Charlotte.

Which brings me to my last thought, which is also the only one I can say is a true statement of opinion and not idle speculation:

I don't really think Griffith's relationship with Charlotte could be fairly described as miserable. Charlotte is actively happy, and Griffith is…. fine? Neither of them are really stewing in pain and misery and it's not the first lopsided or semi-political match ever, especially among royalty.

…or, well, Griffith may be miserable but if so it seemingly has more to do with his unresolved emotional issues than Charlotte.

ETA: Oh yeah one more thing. If Griffith dies, leaving an heir would allow his accomplishments to stand without Griffith himself having to hang around in the world ruling like a God-King. He comes to kick start a new era, he brings humanity into one nation, but he does so through means that leave his hands dirty, so to speak. But his kid would have the ability to guide that world without carrying the baggage of Griffith's guilt and the associated actions.