#i know that doesnt apply to the meta

[sojourner-between-worlds]

Konami: here's some new Aroma support

Me, and the three other people who play them:

[sophiethewitch1]

will we ever get to see the Undertale fic? just out of curiosity :)

i mean yeah probably even if i don't actually want to be working on it. i have brain worms they must be expunged. but also which one are you talking about? maybe i can post a poll with the options and ppl can vote and ill do that one instead of bouncing around literally 4 separate ideas... even if i know nobody here wants to read sans undertale x reader in the year of 2024... bizarre girl bizarre

[reason-with-the-underdog]

alhaitham seems simple but has a lot going on deeper (aka alhaitham loves media literacy)

ok all the alhaitham discourse makes me think about how there's a mismatch between alhaitham's perception and his actual self

that difference leads to:

- his moe gap

- the way that he's seen as mean/uncaring

- ppl thinking he doesnt have a personality or temper

- his humor & wit going unnoticed

i feel like i go back and forth on how complicated alhaitham is, but it all comes down to the way that he's an unreliable narrator

(he obfuscates the truth by not including details or by distracting with non-answers, so there's just a lot we don't know for certain)

like when his "something to share" voiceline is "oh i like to go to the bar after work to relax"

and he teases traveller like "if u want to know what i think, u can just read what's on the message boards lol"

when we all know he's just playing devil's advocate with kaveh on those message boards like BRUH this is on purpose

i keep harping on how his "food i dislike" voiceline gives a weird reason for why he dislikes soup because it really shows how you cannot take him seriously at all! despite his serious demeanor and tone!

taking him at 100% face value is just asking to be made a fool of bc he was being sarcastic rip lol

but that makes him a much harder character to understand! bc you have to question everything he says about himself.

like the "feeble scholar" line was literally just a joke and he's like "lol if ya wanna waste ur time getting hung up on it go ahead"

he isn't actually serious!!

and interestingly, he also doesn't care if he's understood by other people

so he won't really bother correcting incorrect assumptions about him

and he won't stop making weird sarcastic jokes that sound serious at first bc lol he thinks he's funny so why would he stop

but its not that he /can't/ be serious. so now you have to judge every line for "ok but is this a joke or real"

and even if it is genuine, next you have to consider "what's left out" because alhaitham will not be bothered to explain himself in detail. no, figure it out yourself

and sure that level of critical thinking and meta-analysis is good to apply to characters in media, but to understand alhaitham you actually have to go that deep

you can't just be lazy about it and go with a surface-level understanding

and he does this on purpose lbr

alhaitham likes reading books bc he loves picking apart the author's perspective & figuring out biases/assumptions & placing his own takes up against the author's

so of course he would delight in forcing a reader/player/fan to have to dig deeply into how he thinks & compare to themself

sorry that's called critical thinking and if you aren't capable of that then why the heck should he stoop down to your level so he can be understood?

idk so its very fitting that he is the way he is

he is interested in learning more about himself tho, hence him wanting to use kaveh as a "mirror" for self-reflection... haitham is a scholar of his own self too!

(u can argue that thru this lens he's able to intellectualise/"explain" his emotions and distance himself from them)

but yeah alhaitham purposefully chooses to live freely as he wants and doesn't care about being understood easily by other ppl

bc like all the best books, isn't it more rewarding to have to ponder over the details & wrack your brain over what's being said

bookworm to the core fr

[i-just-want-to-destroy]

the last chapter for walking study in demonology was CRAZYYY im so happy you updated. im so curious about what your thought process in writing it and if youre willing to share?? you dont have to if you dont want to btw! but in any case thank u so muchhh

hey thank you! appreciate it

okay super long answer below

honestly this one was difficult. idk if its bc its been a while since i write fics from scratch so i might have forgotten how difficult the whole thing is, but this one was tough. ch 8 wasnt from scratch tho cos i had the drafts since like 2022 or smthg lol

ik the formatting is non conventional in ch 8 and i was aware that itd be hard to read for some people. but i do think abt the readers often when i write.. mainly not what the readers want in terms of storyline (altho ofc i consider this too sometimes lol) but what the reading experience will be like for them.

i.e consider if id written the chapter in a linear, traditional way and narrated the confrontation between 1-A and LoV (or even other wackier “Villains” like godzilla and invading aliens or whatever). the truth is, although def easier to read, that version will be very boring.

(i know bc i tried and scrapped those versions.)

(im sure a better writer can write it interestingly but i am not a better writer.)

the thing w writing these traditional fight scenes is tht im sure — im 1000% positive in fact — that the readers have read it before. there r literally thousands and thousands of bnha fics out there with great fight scenes, on top of the actual manga, where youve read these characters fight their assorted villains. why would i make you read that again, esp when i know i cant do it better? i already know the readers r just gonna skim the chapter if thats the case. ive been a reader, ik what fic fatigue is like — esp with bnha when everythings been rehashed infinity times in infinity different ways.

same thing also applies with even the “metaness” of the fic itself.

i dont want the fic to come off like its talking down to readers, whom i believe alrdy have the instinctual knowledge of what the fic is trying to do. im willing to bet tht the readers have read something similar to this before, like multiverses n time loop n meta stuff, also cosmic horror. i still end up narrating some things even though often i feel im being too explanatory. i jst feel like the readers will know what im talking abt by virtue of their familiarity to the tropes involved.

therefore the least i can do is serve it in an interesting way, aka the fuckass formatting. like although the tropes im doing r done so many times before, at the very least i cld let the readers hopefully have fun by piecing it together puzzle-style with the fragmented formats — so its more of an experience thing rather than jst a lore dump. i dont like lore dumps, they can be condescending.

demonology def doesnt succeed in avoiding that however. in fact its fallen to that exact trap. ch 4 and 6, those r very lore-dumpy. i tried to make it fun w the humor dialogue style but its not perfect. i know tht by ch 8 that tricks alrdy old, and the readers have all the puzzle pieces at this point anyway so itd be even more repetitive than it alrdy is. even so i still feel im being too explanatory esp with the emotional arcs but thats a skill issue on my part

overall i feel demon can be more oblique and “elegant” in its mechanics.

but anyway, it IS crack… it was never meant to promise intelligence, least of all eloquence lmfao. its never meant to be taken seriously.

of course, at this point u can tell that i actually am taking it pretty seriously LOL. i never meant to write meta fiction. i have some gripes w it, namely that i feel meta fiction is used by weaker writers as a storytelling crutch n it can come off as lazy — demon is guilty of this too. but now that i end up writing meta fiction, i might as well fucking commit and try to push it as crazy as i can. if its not gonna be good, at least it can be interesting, or weird.

blah blah im yapping. point is, ik the end product might look very “random” and pastiche as if i was jst doing whatever i wanted … which, true … but it went thru a lot of trials and errors until this final version. you would not believe the amount of time ive rewritten this chapter, due to all those ^ considerations.

however i always knew i was going to start ch8 with the classic mary sue “fanfiction” — that segment was written a long time ago like in 2022/2023?? and mostly stayed unedited since, unlike the rest of the fic which i stripped and repainted and restripped again lol

ok thanks for reading abt my wack anime crack fic writing process that, again, shld not be taken seriously. i will admit however that i do put a lot of effort n heart into it so i cannot pretend i am aloof and disaffected. id be lying if i say its been easy. i consider it a miracle i updated at all. i keep saying its not meant to be taken serious but if i managed to make it even a little bit meaningful, id be very happy.

ah also. bnha ending actually forced me to scrap a lot of things too. but it kinda ends up for the better, maybe.

[ramons-elevator]

Possible hot take: I dont think any eggs are gonna die because of Purgatory (kinda meta talk)

First of all, I think it would be a fool proof way to get a bunch of CCs to never/rarely play on the server again.

(For this entire post, ill be using Richas and Pomme as an example of eggs who are going to die. Im only using them because Phil/Bolas?? destroyed the egg statue in the egg event. This can apply to any eggs dying due to this event. This is no hate on any of the eggs or to the CCs/Phil)

For example, if the egg statues are the eggs and Phil/Bolas??? did “kill” Richas and Pomme, thats like 8-10 people who will likely just give up/rarely play any more. Pac has said numerous times that he doesnt know what to do because he is so used to spending everyday with Richas. Hell both the french and the brazilians literally started with their eggs. Thats all they know. And they are all so important to the story/lore of the server. I wouldnt be surprised if they only logged on to do lore and such like Charlie and Max.

Second, if they do what they did with the other eggs, can you imagine a back to back egg funeral for Pomme and Richas???? Like that would be the most miserable day on the server dude. I think it would destroy everyone.

Third, this event unfortunately caused/causing a lot of discourse and hate on CCs (for not reason). Using my example, I wouldnt be surprised if Phil never logs on ever again because of how much hate he would get. Team Bolas too! Like it would just make everything so much worse for everyone involved.

Lastly, I think the admins are better than that. Quackity has said that the eggs are so important for everyone to talk and interact (i.e. Eggs tasks like ‘play hide and seek with a friend’). Quackity/ the admins are very smart and careful with the story. They aren’t perfect, but they always wanna make the server a fun place for everyone. Like I said, it would be a sure way for a bunch of CCs to not play a lot or ever again.

Maybe im just hopeful but I think the admins/Quackity are smarter than just to kill some very important characters in the story. Again no hate to anyone/the admins/eggs/CCs. Just wanted to share my thoughts!

[officialgleamstar]

:3 Any class (and subclass) headcanons/ideas/theories for Lark? Vaguely related, I can't stop thinking about the fact the he just whistled up a fucking portal last episode?????

i have always assumed lark was a ranger, which is one reason why i was so flabbergasted by grant being the kiddads' ranger. i still think he should be a ranger, a horizon walker ranger specifically, even if it would be dumb and unbalanced for them to have two rangers. literally it makes the most sense. lark is the most ranger guy ever. however, i already made a full post about ranger subclasses for grant, including the reasoning for horizon walker that also applies to lark (namely what you said - WHISTLING TO SUMMON A PORTAL? HORIZON WALKER TYPE SHIT.) SO i will delve into some different ideas instead

if he's not a ranger, then i would guess that he is a fighter, battle master subclass, or a rogue, assassin subclass, with likelihood (in my opinion!) being in that order. thats the tldr. heres the long version LOL:

fighter - fighters are known for being able to wield a wide array of weapons, which makes sense for lark, since he is such a doomsday prepper. he would want to be able to use any weapon he got his hands on. also, indomitable fits lark really well in my opinion. if we wanna talk gear, i'd probably give him chainmail (flavored as bullet-proof vest), two martial weapons (two daggers), a light crossbow and 20 bolts (flavored as a pistol and ammo), and the pack i'm not sure on. i dont think im gonna do gear on every single class but its just part of being a fighter to me to consider that-- subclass wise, we have a few options, listed in order of most to least likely (subjective.)

battle master - the most likely one to me, though now that sparrow seems to be set up as more of the leader than lark, that might change (though i do think that maybe sparrow just takes the head in talking since he's more. uh. sociable than everyone else rn LOL). given how much enemies monologue in dndads, 'know your enemy' would be a super useful skill, and i think if he was spec'd out similar to gerard from neverafter (mostly in the ability to grant other players extra attacks), this would make a lot of sense for him.

champion - listing this because on a meta-level, its extremely easy to play, which makes it an easy pick for anthony. however, i dont think it fits him character-wise because lark would never heal himself LMAO though, to be fair, i dont think the kiddads will ever level up that high

arcane archer - not the best subclass, but very cool to me, and fitting for how all of the kiddads are gun-heavy. banishing arrow would be super useful and fit the general theme of planes and dimensions.

eldritch knight - not as likely, but i think it would be sooo so cool for lark, especially if the eldritch part came from his connection to the doodler. ohhh the drama of gaining power from the eldritch being you swore to eradicate… plus, we get LARK CASTING MAGIC, even if its not as powerful as anything his family can do! so cool!!! this subclass isnt as good for range, but i could see anthony allowing war magic to apply to ranged weapons rather than just blades for the cool factor.

samurai - in general, this subclass is not lark. however, i wanted to mention it because i think their 18th level ability 'strength before death' specifically is very lark. basically, if you get knocked down to zero HP, you can use a reaction to get an entire turn and then you go into death saves. theoretically, you could use this to heal, but its lark - he absolutely would use it to go down swinging.

rogue - other people have made this point for me, but rogues are good for guns if you flavor hand crossbows as such. i actually dont really like rogue for lark, but i dont have a reason why LOL it just doesnt really? do it for me. however, i agree that its likely to fit due to what we know about lark, so i will play my own personal devil's advocate here. i think it makes sense for lark to be the sneaky attacker while the others draw most of the attention, especially since it seems like there would be three magic users (terry jr, nicky, and sparrow) in the group. magic can be used sneakily, but im sure nicky and sparrow at least would lean towards showiness, lol. plus, i think it would be really interesting to flavor 'slippery mind' as like, lark growing a resistance to the doodler after so many years under its influence! once again, subclasses are listed most likely to least likely.

assassin - this works from both an in-character and a meta standpoint, and from what i've seen, this is what people mean when they say lark should be a rogue. its an easy subclass to play, so its good for an NPC. character-wise, with lark's extreme paranoia, it makes sense that lark would spend time studying how to most efficiently kill people. he doesn't want to risk anyone in a drawn-out fight, he's not grant. he just wants things dead as fast as possible.

scout - am i just saying this one is likely being its the ranger-flavored rogue subclass? maybe. but like liSTEN LARK SHOULD BE A RANGER HE IS LITERALLY A RANGER HE IS-

phantom - not very likely, but SEVERELY COOL from a character standpoint. walk with me here. phantom is a rogue subclass where you talk to the dead, but imagine that reflavored as lark being able to talk to like, eldritch beings, even beyond the doodler? or like, maybe the spirits of those killed and used by the doodler? holy SHIT!! it would be COOL.

unfortunately none of this has an explanation on lark whistling a portal Which Is Why He Is A Horiz- [shot] im guessing he has a magical item tho!!!

[cartoonrival]

Nrto/Brto for 3 10 & 17?

bro literally the wider naruto fandom sucks so bad idek where to begin

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

i dont have a specific example so instead im gonna give a general gripe about a trend that ive seen in many takes over time

the black and white thinking and refusal to think for half a second about characters other than ur faves Reminds Me Of Something!real ones know. the way people talk about any character with any sort of greyness to their morality kinda makes me crazy and i lowkey think ppl bring up kishimoto TOO MUCH in their discussion of the storys themes bc while obviously like its important to talk abt WHY he wrote it the way he did esp wrt nationalism and all, i think also it sort of dulls ur ability to think anything complex about it if u blame everything u dont like or think was "sloppily done" on kishimoto. judging every character based on kishimoto's morals instead of their own if that makes sense? its not like "the wrong way to do things" i just personally find it really boring when thats the only way youll look at a text. like no wonder you guys are constantly making jokes about how naruto sucks and you'd never recommend it, you wont even allow yourselves to think about the story as its own piece of art beyond just "kishimoto wrote it this way because he sucks" like do you ever think maybe youre killing some of the fun of media analysis... i think its why so many people hate sakura or kakashi or itachi or anyone else. and this always comes out in the way ppl characterize bc theyre like Um I've Fixed Them :) and then its the blandest shit ever because you absolutely refuse to work even slightly WITH the story you claim to love, only fighting tooth and nail against it.

some examples of what i mean w this: basically any conversation about itachi that tries to categorize him as either good or bad. basically any conversation about sakura that tries to do literally anything or nothing with her. people making sns blandly romantic as if the insane and inventive ways they talk about their feelings for each other in canon isnt genuinely part of what makes it so maddeningly fascinating and awesome. anyone who thinks kakashi is a bad teacher. its just this refusal to meet the characters where they are and think of anything in terms of the text itself rather than exclusively in a meta way, ie "this is how it would be if it was good." no its not. you just made it how it would be if it was bland and obvious. dont you literally think the fact that the guy writing it was accidentally writing his characters to be struggling against the same shit that he was struggling against irl and struggling to keep Out of his writing is like. wildly fascinating and part of waht makes the story intersting to pick apart. but ok. this also applies to aspects of boruto primarily sasusaku and naruhina marriages. no one gets it like i doooooo

10. worst part of fanon

everybodys always shipping kakashi with someone and its never even guy. if youre gonna ship kakashi it had better fucking be with guy bc theres gen srs no one else he would be caught dead romancing with and i cant even see how you could read any of his other relationships as romantic. he doesnt even HAVE a relationship with iruka. i get that not every ship has to have canon support but its all either 1) literally not even interesting to think about or 2) what they have actually going on is way more interesting but see my response to question 3. its the same with gaara honestly the more i think about it the more annoyed i get about the ignorance surrounding just-short-of-canon aroace gaara ToT like if u didnt know then ok... but you should learn because its awesome. i just thinking the shipping culture in the fandom is annoying like everyone has to be shipped with someone and that seems to come before their genuinely interesting relationships. and those genuinely interesting relationships are sanded down into something normal. idk this is a gripe that goes w Many Many fandoms but i feel like w naruto its particularly bad largely on account of See Previous Answer. ppl are like "its written this way bc kishimoto is homophobic i will fix this" then they make it suck because shockingly ik kishi actually wrote a good as fuck story if deeply flawed

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

ill be fr i dont gen seek out fics or art independently to be 100% sure that stuff i'd be looking for isn't out there somewhere. but i think ppl really really should just. think about sakura more. i literally love her sm but ppl won't think abt her beyond either 1) she sucks and i hate her (but this is because of kishimoto's writing and has nothing to do with me! if i rewrote naruto then she wouldn't be there 😌 this is a kindness to her and not because i cant be assed to think about a woman for 5 seconds) or 2) girlboss!!!! like.... is that scene in the land of iron not BIBLICAL to anyone else....??? is her devotion to someone she's lost faith in out of loyalty to someone she loves and is losing her ability to understand not FASCINATING???? TO ANYONE ELSE???? IS THE WAY SHE PICKS UP THE TRAITS OF HER TEACHER THAT HE SPECIFICALLY IS NOT MEANING TO PASS ON TO HER NOT HEARTWRENCHING???????? you people suck. instead you write ooc sns over and over and draw kakashi without his mask kissing fucking obito

[single-malt-scotch]

thinking abt lore and also how i see myself as more lorephobic lol

i realize one thing a lot w mutuals and friends i have in this fandom is when theyre ppl who are open/into the storytelling people like Matryn do esp Martyn bc of all his actual lore- is its hard to make it clear exactly how i dont like doing that, but why i also gladly go off and analyze ppl like bdubs or whatever. some ppl have very little distinction between simply analyzing their literal actions vs indulging in fictional lore. bc like i guess in a fandom that takes a lot of other lore and likes to mash it all up into the bigger picture you start to not think hard about the difference between bdubs acting a character of himself but More in his videos versus someone like martyn whos acting in some form but also in his own pov writing in a ton of lore to carry his actions that people have followed for a while and connects to every series.

i think thats where i disconnect from that side of the fandom bc as someone who doesnt get into martyn and doesnt see any of this "lore" nor do i care to apply it to My Guys, i simply see myself analyzing bdubs as A Guy Who Like To Act. hes not made up lore, hes not a separate character. hes the guy whos doing the improv and theres a lot to read from that alone! and sprinkling in some fun narrative theories based off his actions through other videos- which may as well not be true! but like lore theories ppl have. its speculation. but theres like. theres no lore to that perspective i have. im just taking what was directly presented you know. and i have no interest in taking fanon or lore from others and stirring up some great big pot of in-universe specific story ideas i just. i dont really get it maybe more so bc i never got into the ppl who lean on that way more. but also at the same time i dont feel like anyone but martyn does it lmao so i probably wouldnt have gotten into that mindset even if i watched only grian or scar. and boy have people turned a lot of others guys towards a rabbit hole of lore i will never begin to understand.

its like really, really no offense to ppl who get into it i think its lovely and i almost wish i could get it too. but man i am even in the middle of Evosmp and i still am not sitting here getting to some fantastical layered lore that the fandom seems to have made. im too meta i just like to analyze with myself between the lines of the game itself and behind the scenes intentions.

[kindred-spirit-93]

in the words of yet another post ive misplaced; first drafts are always perfect because they exist. *throws glitter* God bless :)

hello world. todays guest is my oc from the riordanverse where ill be presenting her in interview format. please welcome Hilal!

✧ basics & background:

Hilal (20) is the daughter of Hades and Nur, a university professor of languages and translation, and the older twin sister to brother Badr.

Nur is Jordanian and acquired her higher education in the UK via scholarship where soon after meeting and marrying Hades she had the twins on December 31st.

the trio moved to Jordan to live with Nur's family when the twins were about 11. they graduated highschool at 17 with american HSDs (international curriculum).

the twins are unaware of their parentage nor their status as demigods, interestingly enough and for reasons that are not yet clear, neither ever faced the typical challenges demigods usually do (most likely a combination of geography and genetics)

･ﾟ.･ﾟ✧ .･ﾟ･ﾟ

✧ premise:

shortly after the twins' graduation, they travel as a break before starting university in october, deciding to also to visit Nur's brother in the states who had recently married and taken up a teaching post at a university.

tragedy strikes as it does, and a major car accident results in premature deaths of both Nur and Badr. Hilal is now left alone in a place she does not know and a future up in smoke.

a couple of months of physiotherapy and healing later, Hilal recieves a strange letter from a 'Chiron' who requests a meeting to discuss parentage and prospects. this eventally leads to her taking up residence at camp half blood with arrangements yet to be made for her education.

since she is older than the typical demographic of demigods, some rules dont apply per se. she ends up as an intern of sorts for Chiron, who is later revealed to be her half uncle (and therefore mahram lol). Hades claims her on the eve of her 20th birthday and they have tea in the underworld (ft. death glares and pop tarts)

･ﾟ.･ﾟ✧ .･ﾟ･ﾟ

✧ Demigod fact file and trivia:

as the daughter of Hades she possesses an affinity for the dark and its derivatives, her abilities are somewhat unknown as she has neither trained let alone mastered them.

most curiously however is her relationship with the natural world, specifically botany; she seems to have influence over life and death simultaneously, making her even more of an outlier than she was already.

the working theory is that being demigod twins may have a hand in the way certain qualities manifest, being split so to speak between the siblings. but it still doesnt explain her chlorokinesis.....

she is a natural in the kitchen, and uses her newfound hobby of baking to process and manage her trauma among other things

spoiler alert yall due to shenanigans she takes after persephone

the plot thickens: a secret meeting between persephone and an inconsolable Nur in her final trimester ends with a bit of a boon, the result is Hilal bein a unique flavour of underworld.

･ﾟ.･ﾟ✧ .･ﾟ･ﾟ

✧ the interview: (fair warning this is pretty meta but its fun and i like the concept)

Change of plans: post is a lil long already so ill add a link to the interview if/ when i make it lol

made a first part and it is awful lol, ill see what i can do for the next part if i ever get around to it and editing the first

[unionizedwizard]

like. okay i've already made a billion poasts about this so i won't elaborate but one of the (many) strokes of genius of shadowbringers, in my opinion, was the addition of the meta-narrative/metapoetic hero aspect. at this point your wol may start realizing they're in a story (or they may not!), that everything is made up of stories on different scales, that it's all about finding out the facts about history so that the narrative can be as faithful to reality as possible (the truth about the warriors of light and the flood, the true origins and nature of zodiark and hydaelyn and the ascians) (hence emet-selch inventing fascism: what is fascism if not the complete erasing and rewriting of history?). remember that g'raha tia's introduction (as a disembodied voice in ARR) was to call himself a historian, with a preference for epic tales. okay. okay

then you get to endwalker. if shadowbringers was a commentary on fiction and history, endwalker was the actual play. once again i have already talked about this Way Too Often in the past but it was very obviously a recreation of aristotle's poetics, with direct references (following the same structure, etc). Fandaniel (as Amon moreso than Hermes) being the key of the entire plot was highly significant, because he *does* realize he's in a play, and he hates it, and he's trying to nuke the theater and the entire city from the stage (or backstage)

he did remind me of the opening of An Illiad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare:

in this regard it is also highly significant that the reason we managed to defeat the Endsinger was through the help of Zenos, whose boredom and high intelligence seem to suggest he knows it is all... a story. Of course this is only *my* theory, but i genuinely think the post that goes "zenos is a cutscene skipper" was correct. zenos is sort of... an embodiment of the apathetic, unhappy, hardcore MMO player. he doesnt engage emotionally with the other characters, whom he sees as (literal) NPCs, or the story or environment, and it could be said that the kinship he sees in the wol was the recognition that they were a fellow player character. i come from world of warcraft, so let me tell you i have seen this kind of gamer before lol sorry for the tangent ANYWAY

ultima thule is quite literally (at) the edge of existence, where physics laws don't apply; of course this is where the veil is thin between fiction and metafiction, and at this moment, both the wol and zenos perceive some truth about the world they're in- whether the wol understands theyre a fictional character evolving in a narrative or not depends on each player's sensibilities, but zenos sees it quite clearly. the player stops controlling their character for longer than expected as their fight degenerates into an actual fistfight, and zenos addresses them *as* such: referencing the character creation screen ("you, given a name and thrust into a life of adventure"), putting their lack of agency in the spotlight. your wol was never asked about their opinion because they were a vessel for you, the player, to experience catharsis. and now the play is over. zenos might return, or he might not, but he strikes me as someone who has stared at some unfathomable cosmic truth and will not go back to "normal" because his vision of "reality" was forever altered; and more specifically, i think his defining character trait was always his reckless pursuit of freedom and autonomy (killing varis in order for him to stop denying him his sport, for instance). knowing he is a fictional character, i think he *would* refuse to submit to the writers' plans and would rather stay half-dead in ultima thule indefinitely than relinquish his autonomy.

and then there's dawntrail. i think we were all worried about dawntrail and how they could manage to keep the story going after everything that happened in endwalker. specifically, the wol came so close to understanding their own place in this fictional universe that it would have been weird to simply ignore it and pretend nothing happened. and so i think the decision to have them take a mentor role to wuk lamat was great, because on top of mirroring a real gameplay element (the mentor role!), it also mirrors the player seeing their friends go through the MSQ for the first time (or doing a replay themselves), a situation that keeps getting more and more common as more and more new players are joining the game. not ignoring the situation, not removing themselves from the premises like zenos and fandaniel did, but taking on a new role and quietly seeing everything repeat and form patterns both new and familiar and observing & guiding a new, inexperienced friend through it all, with the "hear, feel, think" motto as a guide (:

i think the best thing about dawntrail was that they managed to keep the meta narrative they've got going on since shadowbringers and peaked during zenos' monologue in ultima thule, in a way that was natural, subtle, and meaningful

[the-s1lly-corner]

actually seething right now. As if the algorithm and shit on instagram wasn't already horrible for artists, meta is now yoinking our art to feed AI. Absolute fucking bullshit. And it automatically does it and you have to apply/object to it. But wait! Theres more! Artists in the US CANT object to it, at least on my end and with other american artists. Legitimately hate it there.

Legitimately one of the worst times to be an artist; I've never seen communities this toxic, and the whole AI thing becoming more of a threat, as well as apps trying to become tiktok rather than actually improving the app and listening to their users

Not tumblr though, I know I only really use it to post art and writing stuff but its yet to let me down in the 1 and a half year I've been using it. Also doesnt crash or go down as often as IG

[writingat-night]

this is just my humble onion but i believe it is genuinely very important to nie huaisang’s character that he did poorly in school and was terrible at cultivation and refused to apply himself. he was not always a genius mastermind manipulator. in fact, i would argue that he was NEVER a genius mastermind manipulator. he was smart, certainly, in certain areas, when he wanted to be. but i can’t see his character arc as anything other than that of a boy who lost his only family, was betrayed by those closest to him, and had to desperately find any way, any possible way, to make things right. nie huaisang did not have an ounce of ambition in him. the headshaker was not a facade. nie huaisang was a boy thrust into a leadership position that he was never ready for, that he never wanted, equipped with the knowledge that his trusted friend and advisor murdered his brother, and he had no idea what to do.

his revenge was not well-executed. it was not thought through. it was not meticulously planned, down to the last detail. it was messy. he took risks. what were the odds that wei wuxian would find out who the final curse mark was for? what were the odds that anyone would recognise the sword spirit as baxia? what were the odds that wei wuxian, smart as he is, would unravel jin guangyao’s lies, when nie huaisang, who used to consider meng yao one of his closest friends, didn’t suspect a thing until it was too late? so much of his plan relied on wei wuxian simply being in the right place at the right time. on him having the right hunches and following them to the correct conclusion. there were so many things that could have gone wrong. that, to me, is not the revenge of a mastermind. that is the revenge of a grieving brother, trying desperately to piece together something, anything, in order to condemn his brother’s killer.

there is a reason that nie huaisang waited so long to take his revenge. he was scared. he was, and is, a coward. that doesn’t change just because he did what needed to be done.

and what happens, after he does that? what happens to nie huaisang after he takes his revenge? revenge was his end goal. it was the finish line. everyone he’s ever loved is either dead or no longer wants anything to do with him. where does he go, what does he do, now that he’s won the race? is it even a win? he has gained nothing. he has lost everything.

[zeravmeta]

Honestly, the stories involving the incompatibility of gods/monsters and humans and how they can actually connect and coexist with each other are some of the best stories within Fate Imao. It was actually some of your posts that really made me start to appreciate those stories and even made me start to think that Orion could potentially be a well-written character further showing the incompatibility between gods and mortals instead of just being an uwu domestic abuse goddess

lmao i know. dw said artemis has no rights and i said thats fake and straight

Every badly written character dw releases is free real estate as far as im concerned

[emptylotfiasco]

short story:

long story: ohh god what the fuck was that what the fuck was that. why did donut only have a single line in simmons' thoughts. why did carolina only appear at the end. the audacity to retcon season 15 onwards to make an even worse season. killing sarge. i feel like i just watched a marvel movie.

just. some of the characterisation was bad. its strange that the reds had to be convinced to go on the big mission to save everyone when they spent the whole show growing into their responsibilities and doing heroic shit. its strange they left caboose behind to get killed by the meta after they spent the whole show learning to get along and be ride or die with eachother. on the OPPOSITE end its strange that sarge gave grif that whole speech about being hard on him because he knew he could be better. lol no. he is a jerk to him because he doesnt care about how grif feels. and obviously, its strange that grif left simmons at the end, because being separated from the reds and blues would drive him crazy and fuck you that was his best friend for 18 seasons.

fans respond well to emotional moments in the previous seasons but this felt like an emotional jerk off session. just a whole lot of unearned emotional moments and deep conversations that felt stunted and out of place. the funeral scene was ten minutes long. there were so many conversations about wash's feelings (when carolina started to ask him about why he felt he had to earn doc's aid i was so over it. why are we delving into his self esteem issues right now after everything that happened.) there was always a balance between comedy/drama and they did not manage that. having more scenes wouldve made the moments feel earned and i know they couldnt do that but. i still wouldnt have included a lot of this stuff.

there was a lot of hand holding, with the excessive emotional conversations, the long, constant recaps of stuff that happened in previous seasons and the show-dont-tellness. it is obvious that epsilon split himself into other fragments. it is obvious that tucker is in the meta suit and he has all the fragments and is evil. maybe if they spent less time explaining everything they could fit more stuff lol. that is also something i feel applies to all the emotional shit, they could have used a lot more subtlety.

if they wanted a rounded season focused on reflection of all the previous seasons and character arcs (which it did feel like they were trying to do tbf) i think jason's original s18 pitch wouldve been good for it. this did feel like a giant collection of plot beats and i heard it was supposed to be a trilogy but was rushed so that makes sense and explains a lot of the problems. under no amount of time constraints could i forgive them fumbling grimmons though. fuck. they only have themselves to blame for that.

some things i liked: how tex was handled (that made me so happy that was so sweet. best tex lives fic and its written into the show<3 i know tex's VA left on bad terms with RT so the fact that she came back just makes me. god i love tex), carolina appeared that made me happy even though she shouldve been here the whole time but whatever. her and tex fighting the meta together was awesome. caboose snapping tucker out of it (im such a big fan of them<33). wash throwing himself off a cliff because thats the best way he can think to solve a situation. amazingly in character. any time the reds goofed off it made me giggle and kick my feet. the church youtube skit committed egregious sins i already mentioned but i think it was cute that it was in a 2D art style. the zoom security guards and basically the few bits of comedy always landed and were really funny.

anyways. i cant expect them to make a good season while their company is getting shut down. this was definitely rushed, probably not a finalised draft and done under time constraints. i dont blame them, i am not upset that it didnt deliver. but that does not mean it was good. im going to pretend it was another epsilon simulation. and im still writhing at them retconning season 15 for this.

hey akalegos... justg finished watching the new rvb season and unblocked all the tags i think im gonna throw up

How’s it going emptylotfiasco….

[fangwhoria]

I would be very grateful if you could explain your thoughts on cannibalism! < 3 it would be lovely to finally find someone who could finally expand on their ideas. Also cannibalism as a girl coded.. That's so right

hell yeah i love to talk about cannibalism <3 this is gonna be long so ill put it under the cut

i have a few different thoughts on cannibalism as a concept: how cannibalism can be used in the mourning process, as well as how cannibalism is used in relation to gender, cannibalism as dominance, and cannibalism as love. nbc’s hannibal, which was what initially made me begin to think about cannibalism as a motif, explores cannibalism as mourning, cannibalism as dominance, and cannibalism as love.

*disclaimer* that this is not a hannibal meta, im using hannibal to organize my thoughts on a topic i think can be applied to a lot of different media. hannibal also doesnt really include the cannibalism as gender Thing, so ill save that for last and use movies like raw (2016) to organize my thoughts on that.

hannibal lecter, as a child, eats his sister after shes been killed as a way to mourn her and keep her spirit with him (i will say i am using the tv show’s interpretation of those events, in the books she is fed to him without his knowledge. i prefer the show). now, i am a big supporter of people like caitlin doughty, who encourage people to explore alternative burial and memorial processes for their loved ones, because embalming and those anti-decay caskets are not only bad for the environment, but theyre bad for our ability to make peace with and celebrate those who have passed. caitlin is a big proponent of the family being included in the post-deatn process and burial, and so am i! and i think that eating a loved one after death, if its known that the loved one would have wanted that, has the capacity to be simply another form of burial, no different from keeping an urn of someones ashes on the mantle. the idea of our loved ones whove passed away being cooked and consumed by those they loved most in life, sustaining them and keeping them alive, is pretty beautiful to me.

cannibalism as grieving was only hannibals introduction to cannibalism, however, and its reserved only for mischa. im not positive the exact turn of events with the men responsible for mischa’s death, but i think its sort of widely accepted that he hunted them down and ate them as well. the rest of his life until he meets will is spent killing and eating only as an act of dominance. from indigenous mythologies to the video game character kirby, eating someone/something and thereby gaining their power is a fairly common employment of the concept of cannibalism. but in hannibal, he kills and eats people he believes to be lesser than him, mere cattle to his godlike stature. and he proves this, again and again, by killing, publicly humiliating, and eating them. humans are at the top of the food chain, we have no natural predators, except ourselves. what better way to prove yourself as above the rest of humanity than to put yourself above them on the food chain?

this, of course, brings us to cannibalism as love. hannibal and will are equals. that is the most important thing one needs to understand in order to understand their relationship. hannibal, whose brain works on an entirely different level than the rest of humanity’s, which made it easy for him to put himself on top of humanity in every sense, has met a man whose brain also works on an entirely different level than the rest of humanity. and he falls in love. when you love someone that completely, it can be hard to know how to express it, especially when no one has ever come close to affecting you as much. consumption of the lover can be taken back to cannibalism as grief, loving someone so much you want to carry them inside you forever. lust is often described as a hunger, as explored in ginger snaps (2000), when a teenage girl gets her first period and bitten by a werewolf on the same night, she explains how she thought the hunger she felt was for sex, but it’s really just to tear everything apart. and, im so sorry to bring up supernatural, but in one of my favorite episodes, the horseman of the apocalypse, famine, makes it so a young couple is so starved for each other that they eat chunks out of each other as theyre having sex. not to be that girl, but the idea of being wanted so badly that there is no way to express ones desire other than consumption is pretty romantic.

cannibalism in relation to gender is probably my favorite use of cannibalism in media. ill say now before i get into it that i am a cis woman, and womanhood and femininity are both deeply important to me, but i am not exclusive about who is included in either of those. everything i am about to say is including of trans women, and i think there should be more media where explicitly trans women get to be cannibals too <3 anyway. in raw (2016), a girl whos been vegetarian her whole life goes to vet school, is forced to eat meat, and starts craving human flesh. it and ginger snaps (2000) follow a similar format, of teenage girls’ coming of age through the lens of hunger and fear of oneself. justine, the protagonist in raw, is shown to have an extremely controlling mother and a fairly apathetic father. it isnt deeply explored, but its fairly obvious that shes had a sheltered life. i think this is something a lot of women can relate to, as theres an inherent societal pressure on all women to come off a certain way, to want certain things. that pressure is so extreme on some, that when it’s finally released, the resulting freedom is explosive. outside of her parents control and coming into her burgeoning womanhood and sexuality, justine is hungry for everything shes never had before. her sister is even more monstrous than she is, having been older and not having someone she could relate to at the school to anchor herself to humanity. even their mother, the strict, overbearing vegetarian, is starving. her husband loves her so much he allows her to eat bites out of him to sustain herself.

in jennifers body (2009), jennifer is a beautiful object to everyone around her. she uses this to her advantage, even seems to enjoy the attention, but making peace with your own objectification does not mean you would choose it if youd had a choice at all. this all culminates when a band she’d set her sights on sacrifices her to the devil to bring themselves fame and fortune. this itself is proof that she doesnt really have any control over her own life, because the only thing shes used to reclaim her power, seducing men, has proven to be her downfall. but, killing her proves to be a release of the pressure she was under, because she comes back from the dead and begins killing and eating men to sustain her own power. its not exactly subtle, but it is both cannibalism as dominance and cannibalism as a woman being put in charge of her own life for the first time.

i could spend hours picking apart each movie it think explores these concepts, but i think ive made my point. of course, in both these movies, these womens’ hunger ends up controlling them, instead of vice versa. justines sister, having lost her humanity altogether, ends up in jail after killing justines roommate and crush. the only way to stop the demon inside jennifer is a knife to the heart from her best friend. so where does that leave us? justine and her mom both find ways to minimize their damage, but that is just reinforcing the pressure that caused all of this. how does one quell a hunger thats been building your whole life? do you sacrafice your humanity altogether? what has humanity done for you, as a woman, anyway? wouldnt it be better to eat rather than be eaten? i just think its interesting! and i promise im like. 99% not going become a cannibal for real. unless like a hot girl wants me to. then maybe. idk

[cmyknoise]

i’m going to rant a little bit. 

i really hate the narrative spun that c!beeduo are bad parents. it is far too frequently said outside of aus or headcanons (which is also just...very weird to me to do). because it is factually incorrect given everything we’ve seen and have been told about michael. 

they canonically saved him from the nether. they brought him home, gave him a new pet chicken. they built him a large room with all the enrichment a child could want. they loved him so dearly to get paintings of him. they also commissioned a mansion with a large chunk of rooms and thoughts dedicated to him. 

such as room to play in a ‘back yard’, a large bedroom, play rooms, entertainment rooms, etc. (although not all were actually built, if you look back to all the things ranboo and tubbo wanted in that mansion, a large majority go back to making michael happy).

ranboo canonically comes to see him every night, despite living very far away. he brings him cookies, takes him on walks, plays with him, etc. tubbo moved his nuclear program to not put michael in danger. he lives with him! and actively takes care of him. this is something both cc!s have said happens off camera. 

moreso, every time he’s been threatened and cc!ranboo and tubbo were available in game, their c!s would defend him. they took phil and fundy’s jokes and threats not lightly at all, standing in front of michael in full armor. they both told sam and puffy off for pranks and threats. and both have made very real promises and threats to do some massive damage to whomever were to hurt michael. ranboo joined the syndicate  to protect tubbo and michael, including making sure techno didnt have any idea about michael, just because there was a chance it wouldn’t have gone well. 

not to mention in more recent news, sam kidnapped michael and ranboo was willing to go back into a prison, and proceeded to die, because he thought michael had the chance of being hurt. 

people who spin this narrative that they were helicopter parents and therefore neglectful are wrong, because in the climate of the dream smp they had to! not to mention on a meta standpoint, michael isnt a minecraft pet mob. meaning he doesnt teleport or do what they ask. they literally had to lock him in a house otherwise he would’ve run away and could’ve just died due to minecraft circumstance. that wasnt beeduo locking him away to lock him away.

there’s also this narrative that i see spun all too frequently by certain apologist groups as well as others that is, in my opinion, very uncomfortable and an example of people trying to find angst in places where there doesn’t need to be any or trying to make characters look worse so their faves look better. 

this narrative usually is: beeduo kidnapped/stole michael unwillingly from the nether, and won’t let him go home. 

im going to be subjective for a moment, because i hate the narrative people spin to try and say beeduo kidnapped michael from the nether

it usually includes this: they dont speak piglin, so they dont know he wants to go home and they usually have someone else- usually emerald duo, dream, or sam, take michael back to the nether and he happily reunites with piglins or his family in the nether.

its shit. its shit in any angle you spin it. because it's only there to make ranboo & tubbo look bad. unnecessarily bad. because it is blatantly untrue and it is there just to make other characters look better for ‘rescuing’ michael. 

its bad also because if you applied that logic to ANYONE else- then techno has wrongfully taken illegal pets in (polar bears and arctic foxes) and has forcefully bred animals against their will just to let them die. foolish's kids were stolen from mansions, their homes michelle would've been kidnapped any pet ever would've been taken from their natural habitat, especially shroud henry would've been forcefully taken from pastures, same with friend. mars was taken out of a tropical water and put into colder water and is unhappy and mistreated. etc etc.

like that logic does not apply to anyone else and their kids/pets so why force it onto beeduo? because its shit. its a shit headcanon/au/take. 

and its like.... there's something about making it mirror a VERY real problem of kids being taken from their families and forced into places they don't want to or forced into families they don't want to

which is a problem this fandom has in a lot of regards- applying real world situations, problems, and standards that don’t exist in the dream smp just to make some sort of narrative work or to make certain characters look better or worse.

its bad, uncomfortable, and frankly i think there’s something very wrong about trying to spin one of the healthier friendships/couples/partners/parents into bad ones just to do it, as if there aren’t enough examples of people’s characters already being that way.