#i like to think they have their own club

[kara-knuckles]

I think it is neat that there are multiple shadow users on Rhodes, and yet they represent different aspects of shadows.

Phantom's theme is theater, and, especially if you are familiar with Persona series, it is easy to see his shadows as Jungian: shadows are our own feelings we hide behind the mask, so Phantom's shadow manifests as a doppelganger.

Ascalon is an assassin working for an authority figure. She represents how shadows need a light source to be formed.

Ines's character is about fitting in with others, like how a shadow mimics the object that creates it.

All three have someone who they shadow. For Phantom, it's himself. For Ascalon, it's Theresa/Kal'tsit. For Ines, it's Hoederer. All three are some kind of a spy and/or killer ("working from the shadows") with a red/black/white colour scheme (this is probably incidental…), who experienced violence since their child/teenager-hood (they grew up mimicking people around them). Their aspects aren't exclusive either; for example, this is why Ines can glimpse intent from the shadows, which is more fitting with Phantom's definition.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

In X2 Logan snuffs out his cigar in his hand in the cerebro room and POOR CHARLES HAS TO SIT THERE AWKWARDLY AND LISTEN TO LOGAN GETTING TURNED ON BY BURNING HIMSELF BRUH. Charles' face during that whole scene is just... "Come on man right in front of my salad?"

X2 is often regarded as the best movie of the original trilogy and bits like Logan Getting A Hard On In The Cerebro Room Because He's A Masochist While Charles Is Trying Really Hard To Work is definitely one of them

[myimaginationplain]

do you ever think about how Ohkubo extremely casually dropped the fact that Spirit & Kami were teen parents & then proceeded to never expound upon that fact or bring it up ever again despite it explaining a whole lot about them & Maka

[lale-txt]

i knew Soft Launch reached the right audience when the comments about the wlw dating being deeply relatable piled up lmao

[read-write-thrive]

how much would I need to fuck with Niko and Monty’s genders to ship them

[heartbeatbookclub]

I was looking at a few posts about autism (as one does) and it just suddenly clicked into place a fundamental thing about Yuri's character that I'd been grasping at, but hadn't really been able to adequately identify. I still have a much longer and more thorough analysis going through a whole lot of my thoughts on Yuri's character and her experience of autism that i'm working on (of which this will likely be a component), but I thought I'd share this separately just to emphasize.

Post I saw which made this click for me was making fun of the fact that most media depicting impaired empathy in autistic characters explicitly depicts them with this unflappable confidence of never having been rejected by people they love. The crux of this is that in actual reality, autistic people almost always have that experience at some point, for some behavior, for reasons they don't really understand. "There is an invisible line where people will get sick of you, and you have no warning of when you're about to cross it." So frequently, autistic people attempt to ride a razor thin edge, walking on constant eggshells to desperately attempt to avoid crossing that line.

Very often autistic people will attempt to avoid doing anything at all which could be considered weird, or off-putting, and will try their absolute hardest to do things in a way that is acceptable to other people, sometimes to the point of outright suppressing their emotions, because they are afraid that they'll say something just wrong enough that the people they care about will push them away, and they don't understand WHY it happened, but they know it's THEIR fault. Sometimes masking is fighting to appear aloof all the time because you can't regulate your emotions in a way that is acceptable to other people.

And holy fucking Jesus, that fits the exact mold of what I've been trying to talk about with the particular way Yuri's anxieties manifest.

It really feels to me like Yuri has this constant fear of breaking the "rules" of socializing, despite not really understanding what those rules even are. She's constantly afraid of saying something wrong, when she doesn't even know what wrong would be, she's just sure everyone ELSE will know it when they hear it. I think a huge part of her social anxiety comes from her own understanding of herself as a very weird person who doesn't really get a lot of how to socialize, and it seems to me like she's probably dealt with her fair share of social rejection and isolation based on those traits. She then felt she had to take responsibility for those traits, probably because it's the one thing she can change, and she is the one common denominator in all of these bad situations (This is something which is pretty common, actually! "Everyone else can socialize just fine, and I have so much difficulty with it! I must just be broken in some way. I have to try super hard to be normal to make friends!")

I think a big part of why it's so apparent in the Literature Club is because she really thinks she's found a place where she can make friends in spite of all of her issues, so when she starts...being herself, and receives even the smallest HINT of pushback, she overcorrects and tries to rein all of herself in to fix her "mistake", because she really wants to make friends here, and doesn't want them to reject her as well.

She's had this experience of others pushing her away for being weird so often that, coupled with her acknowledged trouble for reading situations, when anybody responds poorly to something and she recognizes it, she immediately overcorrects out of fear of being an annoying burden to everyone around her, and that "correction" consists of suppressing herself into being "normal" (or at least "less weird"), because she believes nobody could actually like her just for being who she is. There's something wrong with her fundamentally, and to make friends, for people to like her and want to be around her, she has to "fix" herself.

it's just, like...

it's really hard for me to interpret Yuri's character that doesn't involve her being somewhere on the spectrum, bros. she's written with such delicately constructed autistic coding, despite the appearance of just being a hackneyed weird girl visual novel trope. she deserves the world.......

[tempestmothstorm]

Ok but why is Natsuki the only character to get one pair of casual clothes. Like her Sayori and Yuri get their weekend outfits but those two also get another outfit in extra artwork (the overalls and the black dress) and while Monika gets nothing in game her twitter gives her both her white dress and sweater outfits. So everyone gets like an indoor and outdoor outfit but Natsuki apparently owns nothing else and just wears a shirt skirt combo forever. She is the universe’s least favourite child just give her something please

[uncanny-tranny]

I was told by someone that I couldn’t call myself a transsexual because I had to go off T for health reasons and I haven’t had any gender affirming surgeries yet since I’m poor and disabled. Is this true? What are like, the requirements to be a transsexual? /gen

The requirements to be transsexual: to identify as transsexual

This might seem too... straightforward, but genuinely, medical transition is so complex and individual that it's worthless to make it so ridged. There are so many reasons you have to stop some aspect(s) of transition, even if you didn't want to! That doesn't mean you never transitioned or that it's "lesser" now that you stopped.

Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, I, for one, couldn't care less if you call yourself a transsexual. To my mind, it is as political as it is an identity. Being a transsexual isn't just about your identity but also your place in this world. "Transsexual menace" isn't just a cutesy little slogan but a political battle cry. It can be an attitude about changing sex, about the lucid and plastic nature of people, and so much more.

The word transsexual was made and popularized, honestly, with the idea that we are separate from others. I think we can take this back and make it ours. We can start by actually making it our own, not the cis world's own.

[jrueships]

men can and will talk abt wnba players' looks first and make it sound like they're models and not athletes, but immediately scrutinize and deride women for being fans of men's sports bcs they think they're only in it for the handsome looks and don't value a person's skill outside that, and that's a valid reason for alienating and rejecting their opinion because that's a bad thing to do objectively

[5eyed]

yayo! (real name: yolanda). shes xeress crush. i want to give her some tattoos or piercings but i couldnt think of good ones yet..

[florelia12]

I was thinking about future Florelia as one does…

I really do like the idea of Flora eventually becoming Alfea’s Headmistress. I can see Griselda wanting to keep her position and not take over Faragonda once she retires.

Flora would probably start by teaching classes, maybe even a new subject like Herbology that goes a little more in depth than Potionology. Maybe even does exchange classes with Cloud Tower.

She does continue her Realm/Land restoration projects on the side, and she would definitely push the school to take part in it too. Bringing students along to heal magically destroyed lands.

Then of course as Faragonda retires, she would ask Flora to take over and she would be thrilled and so honoured.

At the same time, as cute as it would be if Helia took over Red Fountain, I don’t think he would actually want that. It would feel like ultimately resigning to a fate he once tried to escape from.

I do think he would have taught at RF at some point. He’s not the most passionate about teaching but he is good at it. He’s patient and kind, and very understanding. He would still want to pursue Art and I think he would do a good mix of both. At first he’ll feel like he needs to choose but eventually he realises this is what makes him happy and he’s found a nice balance that works for him.

But you know who I’d love to see take over RF, Timmy.

I like the idea of Riven, too. But I feel like Timmy and Saladin share similar characteristics. As much as Riven would grow into becoming a good leader, I think he would enjoy taking over Codatorta’s role more, especially since it’s more hands-on and field work.

Timmy and Flora power-duo is so underrated!!!

But yeah, it’d be really cute for Helia and Flora being teachers at the respective schools, then Flora taking over and Helia going to visit her and him just being chill and enjoying life (painting until morning, wrangling dragons after breakfast then heading on over to Alfea for a little lunch with his wife 🥲) happily ever afters im gonna cry

[rogdona]

[riddlerosehearts]

while my mind is still on the subject of transfem genderfluid taichi. i very recently got around to reading SSR family and my main takeaway after getting through all the backstage stories for it, and then especially after also reading citron's backstage story for devil maid's holiday, was this:

[realbeefman]

writing for like minds is so hard because both alex and nigel are living and perceiving reality through suuuch a particular lens. nigel will think something bananas like The only truthful barrier that lies between us is death, that fateful stumble through the gateway between time into a place immemorial… and alex will do some *waves hand vaguely at entirety of voiceover canon scenes* and then they’ll both be watching each other with an involuntary smile on their face and a softness to their eyes they would never internally recognize as the fondness that it is. can you guys stop being so emotionally indirect about everything so i can convey the things you’re doing in my mind palace into something that isn’t “and then they lioked at each other yaoifully bu then away (they are repressed)”

[constantvariations]

K so, Semblances are connected to Aura which is a manifestation of the soul yeah?

In Before the Dawn, the father of the villains confirms that one of twin's semblance was active in the womb throughout a good portion of the pregnancy

Meaning, in Remnant, fetuses have souls. Wonder how legal abortions are

Edit: just remembered Pyrrha had to unlock Jaune's Aura in V1, so does that mean someone cracked open a fetus's Aura inside the womb? Was Gillian strong enough as a cluster of cells to unlock it herself?? Wtf is this origin story???

[lohstandfound]

so my madeline and chloe post from yesterday?

its on ao3 now. enjoy