#i may come back and elaborate more on the differences i think that are contributing to the reception to each work

[disastergenius]

My bold take is that R.F. Kuang and Suzanne Collins are actually doing very similar things with their books/writing and both are doing it very well (but notably only one is getting criticized for it, for which there are many reasons, some fair and most not).

They are both making very specific and strategic points about the way that class, class consciousness and allyship, exploitative systems, propaganda, and rebellions work, just to name a few themes. And it’s far more interesting to examine their respective fictional worlds, both of which are heavily influenced by real-world events and history and hold it as a parallel to our own.

[It is also far more interesting to not boil their work down to shipping, “capitalism is the bad guy,” and oppression olympics for fictional characters with far too much projection into the real world.]

[ooliecat]

Okay you GOTTA share ur thoughts on the raz models now im curious

i hope this wont be too long of a post i have a bit to say.

starting off, here's a model edit i did.

They just changed too much with his face proportions. It puts me off, as someone who really likes the pn1 model.

the changes are so subtle you may not even realize what i exactly changed. elaboration under Read More.

this is gonna be so opinionated. haha. but i really dont like his pn2 model. it just looks freaky(in a bad way) and doesn't look good from many angles. its just like, ugly(bad way).

this is hard to say with pictures only but i'll try to say the main things that doublefine changed and that i put back. I'll go over some specifics but here,

Maybe treat this as a "can you spot it" list.

his new model has his eyes too far apart. Or they're too big. They need more space inbetween his outer helmet and eye corners. *

In his pn1 model the eyelids are thicker. they're a lot thinner in the 2nd.

his EYE SHAPE changed *

his helmet moves with his eyebrows *

His eyebags/dark circles are less pronounced or may not even be present in the 2nd.

Made his nose slightly bigger(?) (not a big deal, just noticed it.)

His eyebrows are more kempt and are pushed farther from the middle *

head is less square. helmet sides need to be pushed in more.

Nose bridge is less defined *

He has more, face fat?

His general face expressions also contribute to the off-look. He's not able to look angry? Or they just don't push it hard enough. A lot of raz's resting expressions in pn2 just have him look worried. Or like a kicked puppy. Don't really get it.

And none of these are particularly heinous things to do. but all together just creates a whole new Raz.

A lot of those changes come from the change in artstyle/art direction. Which i'm also not a fan of!!

And pictures are hard to provide because with Psychonauts models, no two pictures look the same for some reason. So something i listed previously may be present. These are just traits i listed to myself while trying to find some notable difference.

Why did they do this. It looks freaky. Making an already freaky character look needlessly weird.

I have quite a bit to say on other characters too. They contribute to the reason why I'm not a fan of the Pn2 models.

Hope they're clear to see. The pics are a bit dark.

Unlike Sasha and Lili these two can handle rounder edges without much detriment.

Milla's Pn2 model isn't that offensive but I still do think its the worst one. Its all down to preference on if you prefer Pn1's chilled look or every other more expressive model. Like Ror's. That model looks great, i can't imagine diversifying away from that look.

Milla and Raz both benefit from having their faced a little squished in. Examples of the Pn2 Raz model looking a bit better:

See, he actually looks kind of angry there. I like how he looks in these.

Wanted to add that Sasha and Milla both previously did not have eyebrows in Pn1 but gained them in Pn2.

No more pictures. But extra extra note, all of their colors got lighter/changed in some way. why

[frozenjokes]

THE TIME LOOP AU IS ALL WRITTEN!!!!!!!!!! MY GUYS!!!! I can not wait to share the rest of the story TY FOR THE SUPPORT!!!!! ao3 link

below, some snippets from the final chapters. the next will be up tomorrow :3

Cleo smirked, “Keep talking kitty kitty, your days are numbered,” Cleo started to twirl the lasso, and Scar scoffed.

“Keep dreaming.”

Predictably, the first three times Cleo attempted to throw the lasso she missed terribly; Scar had mostly been teaching her the tricks and this required a completely different technique! To emphasize his confidence, Scar tucked all of his limbs under his body, commencing his groom. The sad fwap of the lasso hitting nothing along with Cleo’s continued threats were music to his ears. He frowned as he nosed through his chest fur, coming across a small shard that had wedged itself into his skin. Gingerly, he plucked it away, spitting it back at Cleo before continuing to ignore her. Stubborn, silly creature. He licked away the remaining beads of blood without concern, eyed contentedly shut.

///

“I don’t think you understand how your violence affects other people. I’m still looking for snares every time I walk through a hall. I still feel it around my neck. Sometimes when I think about you it feels like choking.”

“That.” Cub paused, not quite faltering, but not exactly facing Scar with the same confidence. “That was a long time ago.”

“May as well have been yesterday.”

///

“If you want a story so damn bad, tell one yourself. That, or leave it,” Cleo huffed, and Scar mumbled a quiet agreement, moving to cuddle in with her as she finished settling down. Cub stayed where he was, sitting on the edge of the bed. Scar thought the conversation was over then, and the silence had lasted so long that he’d started to doze off when Cub spoke.

“Used to feed the crows in my backyard.” Cub paused for a moment before amending, “Birds. Small animals with wings. Anyway, before my cats died we still had a bit of food left, and my family never really threw anything away. I always took little baggies into the woods when I’d go. It was great. Whole flocks would follow me around, thirty to fifty birds.. I got in trouble for feeding them too close to the house since they figured out where I lived. Cawed all sorts of noise very early in the morning.” Cub nodded to himself, closing his eyes where he sat.

Scar waited for him to continue. The waiting grew increasingly more awkward until Scar couldn’t help but prompt him, “And what happened next?”

Cub yawned, moving to settle in under the sheets beside Cleo. “I stopped feeding them.”

Scar waited. Cub did not elaborate.

…

Maybe this is why Cub had never contributed a story before. He wasn’t particularly talented at telling them.

///

“True soldiers, born in blood,” Grian mumbled, turning away, “Battle forth ‘til his pads are raw, face grave. But never stop. Whether he is good leaves no relevance; however, he certainly is true. As for I.. I can not take his sword. But his family?” Grian sighed, “As long as he chooses to keep it, I will not interfere.” He left them without another word. Scar couldn’t stop staring.

[tokiro07]

Ichi the Witch ch.26 thoughts

[Literal Tourist Trap]

(Topics: worldbuilding - Kagami, speculation - Bakugami)

...Yeah, shoulda seen one coming

Of course Ichi charged in instead of formulating a strategy, that's what he does, and we love him for it

So this chapter was mostly for expositing the history and relationship between Bakugami the Magik and Bakugami the country (which I'll refer to by its old name of Kagami to avoid confusion going forward). This didn't make for a particularly exciting chapter, but a necessary one for setting the tone of what's to come

The Bad Ol' Days

Ten years ago, Kagami was undergoing an economic crisis due to the rise of magic item production in neighboring countries, a practice which Kagami used to have a monopoly on

Kagami being a land of magic item crafters goes a long way in explaining Gokuraku, as it means that his capacity to create and graft magic items onto his body didn't come from nowhere, and is instead a skill with likely deep personal meaning to him as a family legacy. It also gives a small glimpse into how Kagami may bounce back after they inevitably lose Bakugami, as Gokuraku's methods are likely extremely advanced compared to the rest of the world

It was also mentioned last week that Bakugami raised Kagami from underground, but there was no direct acknowledgment of that in this chapter. However, I did notice that until Kagami becomes a tourist attraction, the sky in the flashback is never actually shown. There are a couple of shots where you see something that could be the sky, but it's colored in either solid gray or white as opposed to how it's usually drawn with clouds and some gradation. Every other panel though is either indoors or shot from a birds-eye-view, cleverly obscuring the skyline

Kagami being an underground country was likely by design, as it helped them both forage for material and keep that material away from others who might steal it. Once the bubble burst, however, it merely isolated their people from any other economic opportunities that trade and agriculture would have provided for them. Worse, it means that there's no fresh air, which may have helped disease spread among the populace, and no sunlight, which definitely contributed to their malaise

I don't think that Nishi is trying to keep it a secret that Kagami used to be subterranean considering that it was literally in the script last week, but I think that the original Japanese might have been a bit more subtle about its intention and that it is supposed to be somewhat of a surprise when we learn it

Either way, knowing that Kagami was once the premiere magic item country, we also get a bit more context into the mines: they were undoubtedly mining a special ore that facilitated crafting magic items. I don't know what properties this ore has, but it's most likely the stone or metal that Gokuraku has embedded in his spine, and is probably also what his armor is made of, just differently refined

If I had to guess, this ore is going to be a major plot point sooner or later, whether or not Bakugami has any knowledge of or interest in it. Personally, I would expect that it was a contributing factor in his decision to make Kagami his base and eventual victims - either that ore has some kind of positive effect on him and has been helping him become stronger faster, or he sees it as a threat to himself and the World Hater and is trying to eliminate it

That, or he was just attracted by the country's sadness as a perfect snack for him and everything else was a coincidence

Long Con Meal Prep

While the exact mechanism of Bakugami's ability hasn't been elaborated on yet, it's made explicitly clear that he's effectively eating peoples' sadness and growing bigger from it

This is likely why he stopped growing a year ago, because the country is too happy, and the number of sad tourists coming in to unload their sadness onto him is likely too small to contribute to him getting any stronger due to the entry fees. This may or may not be why Bakugami has chosen now to wipe out the people of Kagami, as he needs to turn all of their joy into despair at once to get any more value out of them

Or, again, that's just a convenient way to achieve the goal of sacrificing them to his idol. It doesn't really matter either way, but it is very likely that his method of destroying the country will involve manufacturing a new reason for them to be sad and then absorbing it

What's really interesting to me though is what would happen in that scenario. After Richia hugged Bakugami, it wasn't like her mother came back, she just felt way happier as her sadness disappeared. This implies that the emotion itself was gone, like Richia wasn't capable of being sad about her mother anymore

Not only would this give a clear explanation of why Gokuraku calls Bakugami a parasite, stealing important emotions from people to survive, but it also would explain why Richia seems somewhat apprehensive about the advent celebration. I think Richia might have some idea of what's going on here, like she realizes that she's now missing a fundamental portion of her self even if she doesn't know exactly what is missing

So if the people lose their sadness when Bakugami feeds upon them, what would happen if he personally gave the entire country a reason to be sad and then took away their feelings? I envision it as Bakugami rising above the people, forcing them to look on in horror and despair as he declares his intentions, only for them to all suddenly be cheering and celebrating their impending doom instead

All of their will to escape, to survive, lost in the euphoria of their deity's "salvation." They may even justify it as the price of their joy, and decide to give themselves willingly to pay for all that Bakugami has "given" them. From there, they would just be lambs to the slaughter, offering no resistance as their country meets its end

I could go on about the philosophical implications of that sort of false joy, but I think I'll wait until the narrative makes its own statements on it before I start throwing my own into the mix. I don't want to make too many assumptions about the messaging before Nishi has even said anything!

Until then, let's enjoy life!

[fairuzfan]

Tbh this may just be me but my patience for certain people getting mad at being accused of being zionists, and specifically pointing at how they have said that they want Peace and Freedom and it's important to focus on the Humanity of People has become fucking negative (which is all different from when Bibi says he's securing Peace and Freedom as he focuses on the Humanity of Israelis, I guess. Or any time the US has tried it in Pick Your War).

Either explain your material goals or accept that people will get mad at you when you refuse to elaborate on your puddle-deep statements. Politics is material conditions all the way down and the current material conditions are that Palestinians are being massacred by a genocidal state whose heads have repeatedly affirmed that intent!

Badly paraphrasing Kwame Ture here, but any analysis that excludes the oppressor will blame the oppression. The presumption of a need to make Both Sides Understand And Communicate assumes that Palestinians hold significant structural power here and have the ability to come to some theoretical political table—that they are thus doing this, effectively, to themselves, because they don't prioritize Humanity and Peace and Freedom enough. That's what good vibes politics gets you.

(I am so sorry for this being long, I am just, so furious with it, especially after I learned today that an old classmate was hurt by former IOF soldiers w/skunk spray during the Columbia University SJP protest. Just. Goddamn.)

I think you put it into words really well in that there are no material analysis of actual concrete steps theyre providing or stating that Palestinians haven't already said better and more often and they tend to pass it off as their own ideologies rather than... you know... recognizing Palestinians have been fighting this fight for 3-4 generations. Like a guarantee you any discussion you've had we've already had amongst ourselves. So like actively excluding us from those discussions — which is nothing new btw we've always been excluded from them but this time it's easier to push back — is in fact doing harm and refusing us a way to advocate for ourselves.

Truly I've seen it all — there is no way to "peacefully" live under occupation and subjugation for Palestinians. Like no, man that doesn't exist. Even within Israel, Palestinians aren't referred to as "Palestinians" they are referred to as "Arab Israelis" like we cannot even claim ourselves as Palestinians.

You have to acknowledge that at a certain point you yourself are contributing to the dangerous atmosphere by making everything "too complex" to get anything done. I remember there was a talk with Amjad Iraqi (a contributor to al-shabaka who grew up in israel but is palestinian) and another podcaster who is... peak liberal zionist lol but i listened to it cuz amjad was there — that the Podcaster was saying (paraphrasing) "there's an equilibrium of 'freedom' for Palestinians and 'security' for Israelis, and one side pushes the other side further and further away from the center where they could meet so how to you think we reconcile differences" and amjad responds in a way that I admire (paraphrasing) in that he mentions that from the beginning of this equation, zionism has always had the upper hand in that all their demands have been met and self determination for Palestinians have never been recognized (end paraphrase) so it's not equal to say "well we want peace for both Palestinians and israelis so let's block off Palestinians from discussing definitions for these terms" that fundamentally impact them in ways they will never impact nonpalestinians who would BENEFIT from maintaining the status quo.

Within the article from Alma they say "do something vulnerable and ask the other person what their definition of zionism/antizionism is" as if there aren't very transparent people in this world that want "peace" and don't want a ceasefire. Like that's actually the predominant opinion in the world. They straight up say "the only peace in the middle east is if we get rid of hamas so we can't allow a ceasefire" and people run by that definition and say "sorry Palestinians :( we gotta get rid of hamas :( there's nothing we can do about this.... its for peace :("

So I think you're doing far more harm by pretending there's a cognitive difference between zionist and antizionists that theyre just not communicating, which, zionists are very obvious about communicating (which also, it's necessary to boost Palestinians when defining antizionism in this case because when we point out the very real harm of things affecting us we would like a say in how people define the movement meant for our liberation). But the article never said that throughout the entire thing. It just said "maybe you guys have a cognitive dissonance of words" but like.... at this point, if you still ally yourself under the term "zionist" with literally all we have been screaming these past few months then no, I don't think you're necessarily operating in good faith.

And like I don't think tri*utary is a zionist necessarily but they're certainly a zionist sympathizer and like I don't trust them either.

[mazzystar24]

Okay for context look at this first and the link inside it^^^

Then this was part two here of the video

And now imma rant:

STOP THE HETERONORMATIVITY AND CONSERVATIVE ASS VIEW OF HOW FAMILIES FUNCTION

Thats point one I’m not elaborating on that one again but fr what coparent role entails differs family to family so without recognising that every single point you make abt what we should see happening is moot and a title being “reserved by Eddie” is a bullshit concept so that’s just getting ignored before I rant abt it again

But for real she’s like I think people don’t understand what coparenting is- brother in Christ the hypocrisy like coparenting plain and simple is two or more people parenting a child together regardless of romantic status

So let me ask you parenting itself? Is it about financial contribution or the shit on your list? Because

1. No it goes beyond that it’s being there for your kid it’s making decisions for your kid it’s helping them it’s childcare it’s being there for the hard stuff it’s doing annoying tasks, supporting the other parents decisions and a bunch of stuff that go beyond financial contribution or whatever

And this is stuff we’ve seen buck do such as their heart to hearts, being a safe space for him, making decisions abt where he should stay while Eddie was in the hospital, preparing food for his class, the implications of that one Eddie technophobia scene where Chris asks to go to buck and Eddie does a face implying that buck COULD agree but Eddie seeks him to back him up, and a billion other things that both @lenaboskow and @warpedpuppeteer said

Like there is also the debate of instrumental vs expressive role but that’s gonnna get me carried away in a sociology lesson but lemme explain briefly- instrumental role is monetary contribution it’s discipline it’s making the decisions for the child and family whereas expressive role is physical and emotional care of the child and their socialisation and other responsibilities

It makes sense that since buck isn’t legally a parent to Chris he leans more on the expressive role but also plenty of parents who are biological or legally parents of their kids will still take an expressive role and their partner will take an instrumental role like it’s just down to personal preference really even if it’s more common now for the roles to be split equally, because originally it was from the idea that women should be in the expressive role and men in the instrumental but for obvious reasons more people split or invert the roles nowadays but again it’s down to preference

2. THIS IS A TV SHOW not everything will be explicitly stated until it comes up

Chris hasn’t had a medical thing or an emergency or allergy thing yet so why would those things have come up as buck knowing them

Butttt it’s a safe assumption to say he does because not only are they firefighters and know the risks and how important medical history is but also because in canon Eddie pestered some poor mom with a bunch of info FOR A BIRTHDAY PARTY CHRIS WAS GOING TO so you’re telling me the guy who cares for Chris constantly isn’t gonna know the necessary info???? Where is the logic

3. By that logic of oh have we seen this or have we seen that then Athena, Bobby, Michael, henren, madney and even Eddie HIMSELF are apparently not parents either cos all of them have a few things on that list that aren’t explicitly stated or even implied

4. it’s an undisputed fact that Bobby is a dad to buck or Maddie was a mom to buck or bobby a dad to may

And because I can see the “father figure vs dad” defence a mile away let’s go with most relevantly the last two points

Maddie raised buck plain and simple- she was also a teenager so did she financially contribute did she know his past doctors did she make decisions abt where he should go to school etc etc? No because raising someone goes beyond that

Bobby is May’s dad- does she call him dad regularly? No she’s done it once and it was quite late into it but she considered him a dad before that

And also he came into her life when she was older than Chris so again moot point

Does he make decisions abt her or financially contribute? No

In fact a lot of the parenting moments for him in relation to her or Harry has been similar circumstances to buck and Chris

I’m gonna shut up now but like I beg some of y’all to think before you speak because the teeny tiny boxes y’all try to shove stuff into is so weird

Like this stuff is legit canon

On a final note I wanna give a heartbreaking reminder that the decision to have buck jump back into the water eventhough it had practically no chance of survival was based on asking one of the crew (directors?) if it was their kid would they jump and they said they would without hesitation so that’s why they had buck jump in without hesitation (tehe guys I love giving you guys heartbreaking reminders🤭🤭🤭)

[beautifulstarsbeastars]

Why I Don’t Like Juno

⚠️Please note that this is my personal opinion on Juno as a character and how I think she could have been handled differently. This is not an attack on anyone who loves Juno or ships her with other characters in any way shape or form! ⚠️

Feel free to ignore me if you’d like! 😅

Firstly, Juno doesn’t contribute to the plot of Beastars in any meaningful way. Yeah she’s in the Meteor festival dance and all but she’s not involved in saving Haru, fighting Riz, capturing Melon or the Turf War. All she does is try to get Louis to come back (which he doesn’t) and lets Legoshi look into her mouth (which I just don’t get because couldn’t Legoshi just google that kind of info?).

I also don’t understand the whole relationship she has with Louis. She first had a crush on Legoshi but when that didn’t turn into anything she just starts liking Louis?

They never really have much meaningful interaction and when they do I can’t tell if Louis actually likes her or if he just likes hanging out and talking to her as a friend. I mean they did kiss and all but, since we don’t really see them often enough or how their relationship went from sort of rivals, to friends, to romance, it never feels genuine or like real love.

Finally and most annoying to me is that Juno basically has no personality other than what she wants (to be the beastar, be with Legoshi, be friends dad with Louis). We know she has friends and hangs out with them outside of Cherryton, that she felt segregation between herbivores and carnivores wasn’t a bad thing, and that she joined the Drama Club but we know nothing about her home life, her interests outside of all that, why and how she got into Drama Club, etc.

Again, my opinion and all, but I think we can all agree any character needs a motivation for what they do and what they want in the story:

Why does Juno want to be the beastar in the beginning?

What are her struggles and how does she deal with them?

Why was she neutral about the whole separation of herbivore and carnivore students?

What is her relationship like with her family and what her home life is like?

Why was it so important for her to be in a relationship with a guy (first Legoshi, a grey wolf, and then Louis)?

No, even better! What made Juno change her mind about being in a relationship with a carnivore and being open to a relationship with an herbivore?

What are the circumstances of her life that lead her to being scouted for the Drama Club in the first place?

There may be answers to some of these questions but Juno is not seen enough to elaborate on them or to make them memorable for her character.

Now! Juno is shown to be bold and strong when she wants to be. We saw that when she pinned Louis to the ground to get her point about wanting to be the beastar across (and about her wanting Legoshi too I guess) but that’s the only time we really see that.

She’s also shown to be very outspoken and not afraid to speak her mind when angry (confronting Haru, confronting Legoshi, demanding the Shishigumi to let her see Louis) and that she was bullied in middle school but these things still lead nowhere or are not expanded on in other scenes with her.

To sum this up, Juno is yet another Beastars character who didn’t have enough time for her to grow as a character and because of that she wastes time when she does show up as she never contributes to the plot and has virtually no personality. This would have been avoided or helped if Paru had A) given her more time, included her in major plot points, and let her grow and contribute when it most made sense, or B) just let her graduate to a side character and let Haru stay relevant at season 2.

If there was a scale of character and plot contribution of non-main characters in Beastars, it would go something like this:

1) Jack (Legoshi’s best friend, their friendship is genuine and Jack contributes to the plot by showing us more of who Legoshi is and motivating him)

2) Kyuu (has a personality and character despite not being used to her full potential, contributes to the plot by getting the Shishigumi out of the Turf War and joining them to get Louis, sort of trains Legoshi too even if Gouhin would have been a better pick)

3) Juno (doesn’t contribute to the plot and has very limited personality, goals, and development as a character)

Also, enough of Jack and Kyuu as characters has been shown for us to easily idea and picture them having their own stories and adventures outside of the main plot of Beastars. Juno is just barely shown but not enough to see her being her own character (due to knowing nothing about her but this does also make her a blank canvas for fanfic writers so make of that what you will I guess).

One more thing! Juno is, what 15-16 years old? She could have been the most normal teenage character in the series (like how does an average teen exist in the world of Beastars?).

Feel free to share your own thoughts if you want to but please be respectful! This is a discussion not a debate! 😅

[corellianhounds]

Curious to know your thoughts on Din’s separation from Ran’s Crew… (you said you wanted a discussion topic 😉)

I meant for this to be a two paragraph response and then when I looked up three hours had passed and my back was stiff from sitting at the keyboard for so long. I wrote ninety-five percent of this in one go, then made a gyro and literally went to go rewatch the episode to double check my quotes and notes before coming back 😆

~ 3.1k words

This ended up being a LOT more context because I don’t feel like I can give a solid answer without laying the groundwork for how I come to the conclusions that I do. I’m nothing if not able to justify my reasons/interpretations, but I also try not to lock into anything unchangeable when it comes to more nebulous parts of a character’s history because I can see how things can go several different ways, all of them interesting and plausible.

One of the things I’ve always loved about Mando from a mechanical/storytelling technique perspective is that he’s one of those characters with a mysterious past we only get in relevant bits and pieces, leaving so much open to speculation and interpretation. (I think that does contribute to how many wildly different takes we see in fan spaces about his character, but I digress.) He’s like Wolverine or Snake Eyes in that, when he’s being written well, his entire past and backstory isn’t spelled out in concrete detail which frees up storytellers to add things in later as they become relevant without contradicting themselves or having to refer back to/be confined by too much rigidly established history or canon.

(Personally I think more authors should do that when it comes to how characters are used in a story (meaning, the character should serve whatever story you’re writing first and you shouldn’t get too precious about elaborate backstories and irrelevant details if they end up blocking you from making stronger narrative decisions). I like only getting bits and pieces because we as the audience fill in the gaps for ourselves and stay intrigued by the remaining sense of mystery)

Because of that, I don’t have a concrete idea in mind for how Din got involved with or left Malk’s crew, and I hope it never gets spelled out unless the writers have a specific story in mind where that comes up.

As much as I like writing Din as a genuinely good man with a strong moral compass and personal code, that does also mean that I think there were times he wasn’t a good man. People are a lot of things in life, and it’s only through genuine trial and error, making mistakes and actively bad decisions and learning hard lessons from bad experiences that people grow into being good people (keeping in mind that everybody is capable of making good and bad choices in life at every step of the way. ‘Being good’ takes active work and it takes even more work to maintain that consistently).

Characters are more compelling and dynamic when they’ve actually done things that are contrary to how they behave in the present (provided the audience is shown the meaningful progression of that change). To that end, I think Din Djarin has done some things in his life he deeply regrets. Some of those decisions may have been forced out of him by virtue of circumstance, and some of them may have been on purpose (or the lesser of two evils).

Sometimes making the right choice will end up costing you something important, up to and including your life. Survivors of any kind have done a lot of things to ensure that survival. Everybody is capable of change, but change can go in a lot of different directions.

I think erasing a character’s flaws or implications of a flawed past does those characters and stories a disservice by uncomplicating the people and world within which the story is taking place. It truncates what decisions those characters are able to get away with as a story progresses if you insist they’ve only ever been morally upstanding up to the present. It closes off opportunities and directions for writers to take regarding the character’s future. That’s not a hard and fast rule, but if you start off with Steve Rogers being a good guy, you can’t have him do a complete 180 in a story unless that’s going to be given the time and focus it would take to make that arc believable and satisfying, and sometimes you just don’t have the time to dedicate to that if that isn’t the main story.

All of that to say, Din has probably done some bad things. You don’t end up working with criminals for (it’s implied) an extended period of time without having to make moral compromises, and though I believe Din’s faith as a Mandalorian has been steadfast since childhood, there are probably aspects of the more honorable teachings that he’s lapsed in at different points of time. (He did, at one point in time, turn over the life of a child to known enemies for payment.) He probably had to not ask questions about targets they were sent sabotage or steal from because if he doesn’t know for a fact that they were innocent people, he can tell himself that he’s not at fault for senselessly hurting people or robbing them of their livelihood (even if his guilt, intuition, and conscience tell him otherwise when he tries to sleep at night).

You know what you’re getting into going into mercenary work, so you can’t get tied up into moral quandaries every time you see the person on the other side of it. The more impersonal you can make it, the more you can do the job swiftly and mitigate as much suffering and collateral damage as possible.

I say all of this because Mando doesn’t exactly refute most of the things the crew says about him during the planning and travel phase of the mission, and I don’t think he has a problem correcting people when they’re objectively wrong about him (even if he’s at a disadvantage here being outnumbered, desperate, and coming to them for work). When Ran says they did a lot of crazy stuff back in the day, Din says “That was a long time ago,” which does admit to at least some of it being true, it’s just something Din makes a point to say he’s distanced himself from. He’s saying that he’s a different person than what he was like back then, which means there had to have been things he did that he’s not proud of.

Sometimes the more you protest though, the more people will pile on the jabs and mockery, especially if said jabs come from elements of truth you as the target can’t completely deny. If you don’t give people the response they want, oftentimes they’ll get bored and move on to something else, or at least won’t linger on that particular insult.

It’s also worth pointing out that anything the other members of the crew say about him could have been false or taken out of context or were perceived entirely different than what the reality was, them not knowing what Mando’s motives were at the time because he’s not exactly forthcoming. Anything they say that implies he did some shady things could have also been things Mando did in those moments that were actually cover for something else. Him letting them think the worst of him so they don’t notice how he’s freeing hostages remotely as they work, or sabotaging their demolition-heavy escape that would have hurt bystanders, or hailing the law to show up and interfere before things go too far and people end up dead when they could be saved. The quieter you are, the more people will reveal themselves and overlook you as part of the background, leaving you free to do what you need to.

Some of the things the mercenaries say about him could also be their skewed interpretations of events. Mando could have been quick, heavy-hitting, and ruthless, but ruthlessness doesn’t always equate bloodthirsty— Ruthlessness just means the most efficient route or means from point A to point B. If he went in on a mission and had to incapacitate people quickly and cleanly, they might have interpreted that to mean Mando was a violent person who liked killing or beating people up for the fun or glory or pleasure of it if he was volunteering to be the first one going in. The reality could have been Din not wanting people to suffer or be killed at the hands of mercenaries he knew would be harsher/more careless if they went ahead of him on a job.

Maybe the mercenaries all thought he was trigger happy because he would shoot first without asking questions, but Din was, in reality, six steps ahead of everybody else and had already analyzed the situation and come to the conclusion that that was the necessary thing to do at that juncture. Maybe the fact that he was brutal and quick to fight back when people on the crew antagonized him in their downtime or tried to take his things made them think he had a short temper and was always raring for a fight, when the reality is you have a much better chance of winning if you hit hard and hit fast, and he wasn’t going to put up with anybody’s disrespect or antagonism by rolling over and letting them think they could get away with pushing him around. As soon as you give people an inch they’ll take a mile.

Even if he was doing some shady jobs, there are still things he’s not going to do even if he had the skill sets for it. Din’s not going to torture people and wouldn’t have stood for it from others of the crew. He’s not a murderer and even when he’s had to kill people in the show it’s always done quickly and efficiently. (One reason why I can’t definitively say Mando would be entirely against hurting someone for information is that he did leave Gor Koresh to be torn apart by dogs at the beginning of Season 2, so he obviously thinks there are some people who have it coming. “You won’t die by my hand, but I don’t have to save you.” He gave Koresh a clear and concise opportunity in the arena to back off and give him the info he came for without killing him though and Gor Koresh didn’t take the chance Mando gave him, so Mando’s not going to lose sleep over what he did in leaving the don hanging there in the street. It’s probable there were similar instances like that while working for Ran.)

Though there are a lot of other immoral actions that come with the kinds of jobs it’s implied that they did, Mando wasn’t killing people left and right, especially since these guys are lower level criminals and thugs, not organized crime members or assassins, and murder gets you a lot more attention than you want if your primary jobs are stealth-based. Mando retained a sense of honor while working for Ran’s crew because Qin wouldn’t have used “You need me alive to get paid; isn’t that your code? Aren’t you a man of honor?” as a guilt trip/bargaining chip at the end of the episode otherwise. Qin’s (mockingly, but probably accurately) quoting back to him what Din had said to them in the past (same as what Xi’an did in transit regarding what he says about the helmet rule). It’s both possible and likely that Din was the one reining other people in when he could, mediating or diverting the crew from killing targets, security, or civilians who ended up in the way.

The reason I think Mando only killed people back then in self defense is that he left the merc crew alive at the end of “The Prisoner” when he obviously could have killed them. To me, what we’ve seen of his sense of justice in the present shows that, had they all proven to be merciless murderers to other people, he would have dealt out equal punishment in return by the end of it has retroactive retribution. Xi’an was the only one he’d worked with before (aside from Qin) and I don’t doubt that she enjoys killing people, and she did kill Davin so she was the most deserving if he had killed her there, but Mando still gave all of them the same last chance he gave Qin years ago; left behind and captured, but alive, despite the fact they all tried to kill him.

(A possible out-of-universe explanation for why he left them alive is that the writers may have had more planned for them in Season 2; there’s concept art in the second season’s Art of The Mandalorian that has Mayfeld, Xi’an, and Burrg on Boba Fett’s ship going into “The Believer.”)

We haven’t seen any evidence of Mando taking active enjoyment in killing people. Needless murder goes against the Mandalorian code, and violence typically isn’t (or is taught that it shouldn’t be) the first resort. Mandalorians are diplomatic enough to have a conversation first, but if you instigate a fight, they’re more than ready and able to finish it. Strike fast and get it over with, don’t drag it out. If you’re going to fight, do it out in the open and be willing to consider a genuine surrender when it’s asked for.

Mando’s not a bad guy. He’s just the best at what he does, and what he does isn’t very nice.

—

So now we’ve established some plausible parameters and the atmosphere for what it was like working with Ran’s crew in the past. There’s a lot of ways Mando could have ended up on the crew, and there’s a lot of reasons why he might have stayed there. He could have been ambitious and arrogant and setting out to make a name for himself, but I’m more inclined to think it was a matter of taking whatever jobs he could that would pay a lot of money and allow him to continue forward. Poor people without resources or connections are often driven to make decisions and find crummy or unethical work that goes against their personal code or preferences, especially when there are people relying on them as a source of income.

The importance of community and family among the Mandalorians is something that’s been made abundantly clear about Din from the beginning so that was probably a driving factor in how he conducted his life and work once he became an adult, and if he was one of the few people who was able to travel to find work and bring money and resources back to the tribe, then of course he was going to do it. There are mouths to feed, children to care for, armor to be built for others. You do what you can to survive.

Now say the more jobs he does with them, the worse they get, but he makes more money that can be brought home to the tribe. Say there are circumstances with bad timing that compel him to keep working for Malk as opposed to finding somebody else (potentially just as bad) to work for; working for the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. Maybe he’s saving up for a ship. Maybe he somehow ended up indebted to Malk and was forced to work off that debt for longer than he obviously wanted.

Maybe he was desperate for any work and theirs seemed promising, especially since he had the exact skillset that would guarantee he’d succeed. Maybe the jobs they used to do were just legal enough to pass as legitimate (if difficult) work and it wasn’t until he’d been there a while that they started to become more dubiously ethical, or Ran used the fact that they had a Mandalorian with them to bargain for better paying jobs from clients (those jobs paying more because they were dirty work).

Say that he knew it would be hard to leave the merc crew because if he didn’t do it right, he knew they’d all be suspicious about what secrets and details he’d be taking with him. Who knows who he might talk to? If that were the case, they may have come after him once he departed just to make sure he couldn’t betray them and give them up.

Say Mando had other outside obligations that kept him working with Malk despite the fact he could see the red flags, and the slow, creeping decline in honest work took place over a longer length of time. It’s a lot easier to get somebody involved with criminal activity if it starts small, starts gradual, and can be reasonably justified, especially if you don’t have all the facts surrounding the circumstances under which the job is taking place. No questions asked, that’s the policy.

I think whatever job they took where Qin was left behind was close to if not the end of Mando’s time with them. I don’t get the impression they had a great relationship to begin with, and Qin also seems like he could have held his own against Mando for a good amount of time before either of them had to back down or their fights were broken up. Almost every episode involves somebody picking a fight with Din over the armor or the helmet (or just… anything really), and it’s clear he’s had a lifetime of similar treatment and he’s able to fight back every time, so it’s not a stretch to say he was probably on the receiving end of similar scuffles while working with the crew, including those instigated by Qin.

So if Mando already had reasons why he wouldn’t have risked his hide to go back for Qin, it’s possible something specific happened that was the last straw and Mando decided he would no longer go out of his way to help or protect him, meaning when whatever mission they were on went pear-shaped, Mando left him. A kind of “Those who fall behind get left behind,” mentality, considering he knew Qin could hold his own and would end up alive if he was smart enough to know what was good for him and back down when he was caught. That was Mando’s measure of grace extended Qin’s way. Mando could have killed him on the way out, but he didn’t. He considered that Qin’s last chance.

I don’t think Qin was necessarily caught by the law on that mission, but regardless of how it shook out that crew ended up back at home base with at least one less member among them and everybody having a hunch that it could have been done on purpose, even if Mando had viable justification for why he couldn’t have gone back for him without risking the rest of the mission. Mando was able to make a clean break and walk away from the encounter (because Malk wouldn’t have let him back on the crew in “The Prisoner” otherwise), but not without everybody’s suspicions cast on him as he went, and the longer time passes between people who part ways on a sour note, the more those accusatory thoughts fester and build.

Mando may have made the objectively right call in leaving Qin and had the evidence to back him up, but people’s feelings are finicky things and tend to overrule all better judgment regardless of the facts of a situation, so the fact that he’d been with that crew for a while and had a history there— one that likely included a well-known animosity between himself and Qin— meant that it didn’t matter how justified Din was. If he’d stayed and continued to take jobs with them nobody else would have trusted him to have their backs going forward, which meant there would be no way for Mando to trust that they would have his. For all he knew, their next mission would end with him being left behind, metaphorically or literally stabbed in the back for his trouble in thinking they could work together again.

[tobiasdrake]

Sneaky-snakin' my way back to the lab, and trusting none of my friends. THIS IS FINE.

Thinking about it, I realized something. Shinigami said we should keep Fubuki and Vivia's abilities in mind but didn't necessarily say they're complicit in the crime.

I may have been onto something when I was musing on Fubuki. Neither of their powers allow them to do things but both of their powers allow them to know things.

I've been circling this idea that Yakou might, himself, be our killer. Yakou may have been the person who did not beat the gas chamber. He may be dying of the poison, with his stabbing (by Jawline?) masking the cause of death.

If that is true, it's possible that Vivia and Fubuki know. Vivia's been saying that solving this case doesn't matter because it won't help us in any way. I've been under the impression that he means "Yomi doesn't give a shit about the truth so what will it matter?"

But if Yakou killed Huesca? And Vivia knows? Then "The truth won't help us" takes on a completely different meaning. Because. Like. That means we did it. Yomi's decided apropos of nothing that we did it. That's why we're in this mess. If we in fact did it, that's not helpful information for our predicament.

Fubuki's been practically catatonic since we found Yakou's corpse. She's barely said anything substantive. She may have found out what Yakou allegedly did in time loops we didn't get to see. As a matter of fact, the first thing she's contributed at all since we reached this room was volunteering to come with us and find the security logs.

If she knows? Halara might have saved us from having Fubuki save-scum the destruction of evidence behind our back.

...there is a non-zero possibility that Fubuki has already save-scummed the destruction of evidence behind our backs.

This is tense.

Yeah, these two chuckleheads. Fortunately, they seem to be distracting themselves by searching for more bankable eBay loot. Police corruption sure is convenient sometimes.

Shit! Yuma kicked a can. Unlike Huesca, these guys aren't deaf, which makes sneaking around this room tricky.

Sure would be nice if we had our time-rewinding (and possibly evidence-destroying) bestie right now, WOULDN'T IT!?!?

HOLD UP, we may or may not have murdered the doc but I'd hardly call that--

Oh. Right. The bombing attacks. Yeah, okay, Terrorist Detective is an apt title. Well. We're doing this all by our lonesome so. Um. Don't suppose I could bribe you guys to look the other way?

I. Have. No money. But I can pay you in debt to Halara. I'm flush with that! It's like accepting a bribe only backwards!

VIVIA YOU SWEET BEAUTIFUL MAN YOU.

What did I say? What did I fucking say!? There is no problem-solving resource more valuable than another goddamn human being!

Man, if we get out of this, I promise to carry your casket!

...unless you're here to obstruct the investigation because you don't want me finding out what Yakou did. In which case, I hope you live to be 1,000.

That is absolutely terrifying and I would like you to not elaborate, nor ever bring it up again.

Also, please dispose of it and acquire a new syringe. It's been used. Don't share needles.

...those guys on the floor shared that needle. But they're fascists so fuck 'em.

Oh, he does not, Shinigami. We both know that Vivia rarely does any walking. He's been more vertical in this one case than he has since we met him.

He knows. He's not uninterested in the truth of this case. He's aware of it. That's why he keeps saying it won't help us. He knows what Yakou allegedly did.

Thank goodness for lazy assholes. Huesca was exactly the kind of person to be like, "I'm the only person who can even access this room without dying horribly. What's the point of locking my computer? It's an inconvenient nuisance!"

Well, this is the point, asshole. Now outsider spies can easily access your data. I'm in your lab committing corporate espionage because you didn't want to spend half a second jamming out 8 digits of keystrokes.

My home laptop is more secure than the most confidential research console that our Corporate Overlords possess. Do you know what they call that? Hmm?

They call it entirely realistic. Our digital security is a shitshow. Every leader in both the political and corporate hierarchies should be ashamed of themselves.

But Huesca checked that while we were on the comm with him, and he said that security never faltered.

Yeah, we know that. Let's look for things we don't know. Otherwise we wasted a perfectly good syringe full of what might be sedatives but, knowing Vivia, there is an equal possibility that he killed those two guys.

Right. That's about three months ago, when that one scientist was tasked to bring Huesca his shipment of food supplies. Yakou/Jawline/Fink was not hiding in this room for 90 days. Absolutely not.

This isn't new information. It corroborates what we already knew. The killer didn't deactivate the security features. They either got around them or went through them.

There has to be more here.

Never crossed my mind that the logs could have been tampered with, but it might have crossed someone's so it's good to close that avenue off.

This might have something to do with Huesca's plan to flee the city. He had an arrangement with someone to get him out. That might be what Jawline was doing here. Or it could be what Yakou was doing here.

Either one of them could have been trying to save Huesca, rather than kill him. That would especially click with Yakou's behavior earlier. He was adamant that we need to beeline it to the lab and take Huesca into custody.

So perhaps I had Yakou right the first time. After causing a distraction to buy us an opening to reach Huesca, Yakou tried to hunt down Fink the Slaughter Artist and take him down. He lost the fight because he is a stick figure doodled on the label of a beer bottle, and that's how he ended up where he was.

That could make sense of why he was here. One way or another, this all connects to a personal motive. The woman in the picture. But it wouldn't explain why the letter was sent to our sub to begin with. Also, while the killer could have waded through the gas chamber and accepted death, that still wouldn't explain how they bypassed the--

No. No, Yakou could bypass the panel room if he had Fubuki to help him. I said before that the only way we knew of to beat the Panel Room is temporal brute-force, which the killer couldn't have done. But if the killer was Yakou, then he could have beaten the panel room the same way we did.

So maybe the person on the other end of this message was Jawline. He attacked Yakou to protect Huesca, but was too late to stop it. Maybe.

But. That still doesn't work. Huesca was alive when we reached the intercom. We separated from Yakou, with him going the opposite direction while we bee-lined it to the lab. There's no way Yakou could have gotten past us then, and Fubuki was with us at that time.

Oh, Huesca wanted out 'cause he's been committing corporate espionage. I want to be surprised by this but I'm not.

Okay, dude on the other end probably isn't Yakou. But they may have hired Jawline as a silencer, to keep Huesca from ever talking about what they've been doing here. That would explain why a hitman was sent in the first place. But if it's as straightforward as that, why the uncharacteristic death threat letters?

Oh yeah, this guy definitely sent Jawline. Or is Jawline. Or something.

Well, now we know why Jawline was here.

I thought he was talking about some kind of conspiracy to undermine him. But this now suggests espionage was the cryptic topic.

Someone at Amaterasu. I suggested before that if Yakou's our killer, he could have sent the letters to pin the blame on the famous hitman Fink. But if Jawline is the man that Huesca was working with, he could have done it for the same reason.

On that note, we cannot prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Makoto isn't Jawline but. C'mon. There is no way he has a rounded, muscular jaw. This man weighs 45 kg/152.6 Furbies. A stiff breeze would carry him away.

Huesca's been selling company secrets since before Makoto even arrived. Wow. Six months ago would be enough time for the food shipment 90 days ago to be messed with in some way. But we already know the killer hasn't been chilling in the lab for 90 days.

He could also be the hitman. We can't be certain Fink the Slaughter Artist was ever here.

Oh, hey! Uh. Hi, again. *glances at computer* Yeah. This. Uh. This is exactly what it looks like. I'm not even going to try and bullshit you.

I like to think of myself as a carefully placed thumbtack on your chair.

Suppose it's time for Mystery Labyrinth, then. There's no getting out of this otherwise.

Ha! Shinigami can possess the doc's body once this is all settled. Huesca himself can suddenly stand up and explain, "This is how I was killed, thank you!" and then fall back down. That'd be even funnier than when the killer does it.

I'm gonna hold you to that. When I get back to the sub, I expect to see Kokohead Sewage opened up on the map.

Kurumi will be super jealous. She's never pissed off the Peacekeepers enough to have a waste treatment facility named after her.

[turningtidestudio]

Some Updates!

Comic Production: Going well! Just finished sketching the first three episodes of chapter 3. Sketching will pause for a while, but thumbnailing will continue. I want to try to thumbnail as much as I can or until I finish the entire chapter. Production in general will be paused due to...

Work Life: it's going downhill! I just lost both my 2nd and 3rd shift workers and will be having to cover extra hours on top of medical appointments until the two positions are filled. So far? Not going well. All I know is that my operations manager has at least one person in line, just waiting on their background check. It may be a while before I can work on art full blown.

Health Update: I have some answers, but not enough information. I absolutely can not stand my hematologist at all. She is rude, always late, and refuses to elaborate or fully answer my questions. She talks over me and interrupts me when I have genuine concerns and contradicts herself constantly. All I know is that I have two genetic clotting disorders, but I don't even know what the details are for the second one because she didn't think I needed to know. Her exact quote was "all you need to know is that it causes you to clot more." She shut down any following questions and had the gall to say, "Well, I don't want to out doctor you" and changed the subject. It made me so mad because I just want to understand what it means so I can bring it up to other doctors who have been waiting for her tests to come back. I also have three factors that are contributing to the thrombophilia as well that can improve on their own over time. Unfortunately, I am stuck on blood thinners (specifically Warfarin) for the rest of my life. In order to even see if I can go on a different blood thinner, I'd have to see a specialist on specifically blood clots an hour and a half away to run more tests. We are choosing to wait since it will be costly, take at least two days away from work, possibly not be covered by my insurance either, and ultimately, the risk of being told I can't switch is too high compared to the cost. The thinner I am on is the only one my hematologist feels comfortable with me taking. It really sucks because its the only one with dietary restrictions and the biggest restriction is my favorite foods like Asian cuisine due to their high content of fermented soybeans, soybean oils, etc. I have a brain scan coming up in a couple of days to see if my clot has dissolved more or at all and a follow-up with neurology on the 7th to discuss the results and talk about everything the hematologist found. Good news though! I will be able to drive again January 1st! So there is a silver lining :)

Overall, just a messy ball of stress trying to survive! My original plan of launching chapter 3 in December was scrapped due to the quitting. I am hoping for a January launch though, but it is NOT set in stone. I will try and make another update soon! Have a wonderful weekend!

[alex-shifts]

Figured this would be a good first post on shiftblr!

Hi! I’m a reality shifter who lucid dreams, like a lot. And mostly not on purpose. I mainly work on shifting through regular-degular sleep methods, but the lucid dreaming keeps happening, and I’ve learned to work with it. What I’m about to talk about are tips and methods that have worked with me, but may not work with you. We have different brains after all!

1. NO MELATONIN. pls.

I’ve found melatonin to be absolutely horrible for shifting. I hate it so much. Now, I have adhd, so if may be that, but melatonin makes it basically impossible to settle my mind. I cannot organize my thoughts, and any time I try to focus on a meditation or anything else, I end up drifting ten times worse. Then when it kicks in, it tends to just knock you the fuck out, which is exactly the opposite of what we want to do here. On top of that, I never dream on melatonin, which is also very counter productive to a method that relies on dreaming. (This may be different for you, if it is, go ahead and take the recommended dose! I’m simply mentioning it may be a contributing factor you’re not realizing)

2. Mindset. “I’m not shifting right now, I’m going to sleep like normal”

A bit counter productive I know, but I do have a point. In telling your brain you’re simply just going to sleep, and thinking about shifting as a concept you’ll do later, you don’t have the same level of anticipation. You’re recognizing it as a thing you’ll do at some point so it shows up in your dreams later, but right now you just need to sleep. The less anticipation, the easier falling asleep will be

3. Be really fucking tired. Set aside a weekend.

Being more tired when going to sleep will take your mind off of shifting in the now, and make it easier to fall asleep in the first place. I never lucid dream when falling asleep not tired. My lucid dreams usually go thusly. I stay up for a non-recommended amount of time. Enough that I’m super damn tired when I go to bed at like 4am. Do this on a weekend. Then I just tank it and sleep for 12 hours. Before I go to bed, I just kind of imagine scenarios that will happen in my DR “later”. Once I’m asleep, I sleep hard, and don’t dream. The longer I sleep into the day, the more I start waking up and dozing off. I’ll wake up quite a few times towards the end of these “marathon sleeps” and that triggers going lucid for me. I have really strong vivid dreams, and then am like “wait I was thinking about shifting earlier. I should go do that now”. If you don’t have time for marathon sleeps like this, this isn’t healthy for you, or any other reasons this might not work for you…

4. Phone alarms are your best friend.

Set those alarms. Set them when you know you’ll be kind of waking up, but still tired enough that you’ll wanna go back to bed. Set maybe three, 15 to 30 minutes apart, that’s what works for me. Turn it off, and stare at your wall for like 10 seconds. Not long enough to wake you up all the way, but long enough for your brain to go “ah yes I am awake. I want to sleep again.” Then back to bed you go. Try to keep shifting in your mind, but not a central thought.

5. Be comfortable

You don’t have to worry about moving around. You don’t have to worry about kicking off blankets in the middle of the night. None of this will impact how you lucid dream. Sleep like you normally would! On shifttok I would constantly see people saying you have to drink a shit ton of water before bed to lucid dream, or not move in your sleep, or have elaborate nighttime routines with reality checks all throughout the evening. I call bullshit. Like a solid 70% of my shifting lucid dreams have not been planned because simply I am too lazy to trigger them on purpose. I’ve found the best approach for me personally is “sleep as you will and it will come”. Be comfortable and in your element, and what will happen will happen.

There’s countless different ways to trigger lucid dreams, from my usual marathon sleep method, to the alarm method described above, to hourly reality checks, all work for different people. I believe the most important part is taking your mind off it in the moment, and letting your subconscious take control and let it happen. Sleep how you will, and the lucid dreams will show up eventually.

Is anyone else having trouble with lucid dreaming? I am… having trouble falling asleep part

[readbyred]

HOO girls with a S/O who is Nico’s sibling? possibly a similar personality? except that they like to pass the time doing lots of researching (like what new skeletons can they make? what were historical figures like? all that stuff, but it stills drains them and they dont really realize it cause they’re too focused) and stealing kisses from the girls. you dont have to do this request if you dont want to! have a great day :]

Sorry for the late reply. Tbh this was the request I was the most excited to get to! An HOO request? In this economy?? Unreal /pos that being said I had nearly the whole work deleted (I fell asleep writing and my phone didn’t save, so that’s on me) and this sat in my drafts as I weeped

Though Reyna admires how eager you are to advance and improve when it comes to your art of necromancy, she still (on more than one occasion) gave you a stern talk, after you had completely exhausted yourself. You and she work well, Reyna likes having someone focused and driven to back her up and to talk to. However, she does like it when your more nerdy side comes out, there’s always a smile on her lips when you ramble. Anytime you still a kiss it comes as a surprise (since your demeanour can come off as distanced and gloomy, not overly affectionate) and flusters her greatly. Please, don’t do it around her camp because she will literally combust, she gets so red anytime it happens too

Annabeth completely understands getting too focused on your research to do anything else, but she doesn’t let that stop her from reprimanding you every time that happens. A few times already, as you finally stood up from your papers and promptly fell down from your legs falling asleep and overall dizziness, she scooped you up and sat you on bed. She acts like it was not a big deal, but it’s so attractive every time. Even if she lectures you right after. However, she’s still willing to help you expand your abilities, or just learn history with you. This leads to many study dates that you finish with discussing your favourite new facts, that you just learned. When you try to steal a kiss from her she tries to act like she’s not flustered, sometimes goes like ‘really?😒🙄’ but it’s hard to hide the small smile forming on her lips. If she’s been missing you for some time, expect her to pull you back in, for a longer kiss right after

The one it would take you the shortest to charm would be Piper. She likes all things alt and more on the edgier side plus she would find it absolutely adorable when you showed her your nerdy side. She has no idea when your on about sometimes, but still tries to contribute to your research by giving you books you might like and taking you on history-related dates (Annabeth gave her a list of cool battlegrounds and niche museums to visit with you). Loves to watch you experiment with your powers, she thinks it’s both weirdly charming how happy you get and also badass. If anyone would even try to give you a hard time because of who your father is, she would find them. You’re a totally iconic duo all around the camp. Since you had to be born in a different era to even exist, she quickly catches you up on pop culture and such. If you try to steal a kiss from her, she’ll get a bit flustered, but she’s also like, “game on” and it turns into a competition, which one of you can catch off guard the other one faster

Though she may not completely understand your fascination with death (she supposes that it’s genetic, given your heritage) Calypso likes to listen to you talk about your discoveries. She’s far more interested and engaged when it comes to modern facts, but she’s willing to elaborate on things that happened in the past. She retells you tales from her visitors in exchange for helping her catch up with the times. If you had drained yourself out she’ll help you get back to health, it’s like a second nature. Brings you snacks and water too. Though she usually comments on how reckless you are with your health. If you try to steal a kiss from her she literally freezes for a second. Congratulations, you broke her. Even if she tries to play it off afterwards, she’s not fooling anyone

There’s nothing Rachel loves more than painting with you talking in the background. Sometimes she even makes works based on your stories and discoveries. She completely understands how it is to get too focused on something you like to do anything else. Still, she checks up on you, undeterred by your gloomy demeanour, to see if you’re alright every time you lock yourself up with a book or two. She has totally asked you if she could decorate the skeletons, I take no criticism. When you steal a kiss, you always leave her with a bashful expression

[dognightmare4]

reposting these here because of the Everything happening on twitter rn 

[image id: three screenshots of Tweets followed by three diagrams. The first screenshot reads “(this is headcanon) Vex isn't from Craftworld OR Carnivalia. He's not "from" anywhere. He's the manifestation of the fear that collects in the Imagisphere. Every small worry, every anxiety, every nightmare that a Dreamer has is still part of their imagination (cont.)” 2. “ and therefore still goes to the Imagisphere. The form he takes is a representation of the biggest fears during that time on the Orb of Dreamers. The imagination of children is generally the strongest, so their fears are more pronounced. (cont.)” 3.” A lot of kids are scared of clowns, creepy dolls, etc. and that caused Vex's form that we see in-game. If he comes back every generation with a new form determined by the Orb of Dreamer's biggest fears, it begs the question: what would he have appeared as in previous generations?” 4.” While child Dreamers are the most powerful, the adults still contribute to the Imagisphere. His other forms could be created from anything, from the fear of spiders to the fear of death. Furthermore, what would he have been in ancient times? Pre-history?” 5. “ As Dreamers developed languages and cultures, how did that change the Imagisphere? If Vex is a being created from the concept of fear, and therefore has existed since the beginning of Imagination, did he choose his name? Or is it simply what Craftlings referred to him as?” 6.” Did he, or does he, have titles other than "Vex"? Do different corners of the Imagisphere have different stories or mythology surrounding him? About a being made of pure nightmares and dread that terrorized them in previous years?” 7.” All this to say: There's a lot you can do with the concept of "an eternal being made of nightmares in a world made of dreams". Don't limit your ideas of him to what we see in-game, because the game is made for kids and is simple/toned-down from what it could be.” 8.” Or do. I can't control you. i didnt intend to write a whole essay about this but. yeah. maybe if i have time in the future i can write out my ideas more concisely, but for now, this is good enough.” End of the first screenshot. The second reads “ Elaborating on this, if Vex comes back in a different form every generation, it's reasonable to assume that he looked a bit different when fighting Scarlet. It's possible that the plush she has isn't actually off-model, but is based on what he looked like at that time.” 2. “ Obviously the plush isn't one-to-one with his previous form, but some small "inaccurate" details may have been accurate at the time, like the different color scheme, less stripes, solid plush arms rather than 3 ropes, the bells being gold instead of silver, etc.” 3.” In The Gathering Storm she's shown to be pretty skilled in plush making, so I think that if she saw the Vex we see in-game, she would have made the plush more accurate.” End of the second screenshot. The third reads “ so. how do vex's hands work like, if he were to take off his gloves, what would it look like? how do they move? do the ropes of his arms act as bones/muscles? i made diagrams of some possibilities am i overthinking this design from a kids game where plushies can walk/talk? yes.” three diagrams are attached showing different possibilities for this question, showing a x-ray-like view of his hand. The first shows one idea, that the three red ropes that make up his arms need to split to create 5 fingers. A second is included in the first image, proposing the idea of a simple plushie hand. End first diagram. The second image shows a three-fingered diagram, as seen in the game’s concept art, with the caption “concept art hand makes more sense but thats not what the final design looks like so” End second diagram. The third shows the same x-ray-like view of his hand as the first image, but the ropes that make up his arms cut off at the wrist with the caption “The glove IS the hand (makes the most since, but is also the most boring)” End ID]

[lonelyasawhisper]

A Day at the Races Is A Self-Made Masterpiece

Wesley Strick, Circus, 31 January 1977

IT WAS SOME WEEKS BACK, and Europe's biggest rock band had four months' studio time behind them, and two weeks ahead. "It feels like we've been working forever," Freddie sighs, "and I'll be glad to see the end of it. I think we all will, although everything's been going fine. We've even got release dates set up," he adds, optimistically.

Later, sitting comfortably on the finished product, Queen's animated lead singer takes time out to talk about the carefully delayed album. A Day At The Races (Asylum), Queen's fifth, is the band's first self-produced record. "We finally got that organized," Freddie nods, to explain the absence of veteran Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker: "We just felt that, for this one, we needed a bit of a change. We were quite confident in doing it ourselves. The other albums we really co-produced, actually we always took a very keen interest."

"It was all very amicable," drummer Roger Taylor is quick to explain. "Roy's been in and out of the country. He's heard some rough mixes. Who knows? Maybe he'll be back producing the next one! It's been tremendous pressure recording this album." Mercury, meanwhile, is quite happy with Queen's first attempt at studio self-sufficiency. "I think it turned out for the better," he insists. "Taking more responsibility has been good for us. Roy's been great, but it's a progression, really – another step in our career. We simply felt that it was now or never."

Queen fiends needn't despair, however. "There are definitely different sounds and a few surprises on the album" Freddie promises, "but we've still maintained the basic Queen sound." A Day At The Races features four songs from Mercury, four from guitar-phenomenon Brian May, and one each from Taylor and bassist John Deacon. "I feel this time that we've got quite a few strong singles," says Freddie. "It was a very hard choice, to be honest. Picking the first single is a matter of taste. We settled on 'Somebody To Love' to start things rolling. It's one of my tracks," Mercury adds, modestly.

"'Somebody To Love' is Aretha Franklin-influenced," Taylor says. "Freddie's very much into that. We tried to keep the track in a loose, gospel-type feel. I think it's the loosest track we've ever done."

"It's new, it's slightly different," Freddie agrees "but it still sounds like the Queen that used to be. A Day At The Races is definitely a follow-up to A Night At The Opera. Hence the title. We learned a lot from A Night At The Opera about studio technique." "This time out we missed Roy's cheerfulness," Taylor says. "He contributed a lot technically, and we've capitalized on it."

Each time we go into the studios, it gets that much more difficult," Freddie explains, "because we're trying to progress, to write songs that sound different from the past. The first album is easy, because you've always got a lot in your head that you're anxious to put down. As the albums go by, you think, 'They'll say I'm repeating a formula.' I'm very conscious of that."

Taylor confirms their constant testing: "We took a break in the midst of it to play three gigs. It was great to get away from the studio for a bit, and it was great playing live, again-that's a much more immediate satisfaction."

"It was difficult trying to maintain the Queen idiom," Mercury elaborates, "and, at the same time, come up with songs that were different and more interesting." Freddie Mercury offers his own track-by-track rundown on Races:

"We start off with a track from Brian called 'Tie Your Mother Down' which we've recently put in the live act. In fact, we played it at Hyde Park before we recorded it. I was able to come to grips with the song in front of an audience before I had to cut the vocal. Being a very raucous track, it worked well for me.

" 'You Take My Breath Away' is a slow ballad with a new twist. That's another track I did at Hyde Park, with just me on the piano. It was very nerve-wracking playing all by myself in front of 200,000 people. I didn't think my voice would come through," Freddie jokes, half-serious, "It's a very emotional, laid-back number.

" 'Long Away' is a twelve-string thing written by Brian...very interesting harmonies.

" 'The Millionaire Waltz' is quite outlandish, really. It's the kind of track I like to put on every album," Freddie teases. "Something way outside Queen's format."

"It's comparable to 'Bohemian Rhapsody'," Roger Taylor explains, "in the sense that it's an arranged, intricate number. There are several time-signature changes," the drummer adds, "'though not quite so many vocal overdubs."

"Brian has orchestrated it fully with guitars," Freddie says, "like he's never done before. He goes from tubas to piccolos to cellos. It's taken weeks. Brian's very finicky. Anyway, this track is something that Queen has never done before-a Strauss waltz!

" 'You And I' is John Deacon's track. It's very John Deacon, with more raucous guitars. After I'd done the vocals, John put all these guitars in, and the mood has changed. I think it's his strongest song to date."

Unlike the concept-ized Queen II with its Side White and Side Black, A Day At The Races plays, in Freddie's words, "as a unit. Side Two opens with 'Somebody To Love,' the single. We're not going to settle for less than Number One in America. We were a bit disappointed in 'Rhapsody'." Disappointed? "I suppose we're spoiled," Freddie concedes, light-hearted. " 'Rhapsody' was a strong song, and a mammoth hit on Continent. This time, we won't be second best.

"'White Man' is the B side. It's Brian's song, a very bluesy track. Gave me the opportunity to do raucous vocals. I think it'll be a great stage number.

"'Good Old-Fashioned Loverboy' is one of my vaudeville numbers. I always do a vaudeville track, 'though 'Loverboy' is more straightforward than 'Seaside Rendezvous', for instance. It's quite simple piano-vocals with a catchy beat; the album needs it to sort of ease off.

"'Drowse' is a very interesting song of Roger's. Roger is very rock and roll. It's got great slide guitar from Brian and Roger's done octave vocals. It's a very hummable tune, actually, I sing it all the time.

"The album ends with a Japanese thing, a track from Brian called 'Teo Torriatte,' which means 'let us cling together.' It's a very emotional track, one of his best. Brian plays harmonium and some lovely guitar. It's a nice song to close the side."

To graphically emphasize Races' connection with its predecessor, the new LP features inverse-Opera artwork, a black motif with a subtly revised insignia. Freddie envisions a repackaged re-release of the two albums "at some future date. But we'll have to get out of this Marx Brothers thing sooner or later."

Pre-package or not, Roger Taylor considers the new album a distinct improvement over A Night At The Opera. "The new songs are stronger," he asserts, "and the playing is quite possibly better. The writing's better, too."

For Taylor, A Day At The Races represents "a step ahead of our previous work. We tried to avoid over complication, sterility-we tried to get a more basic feel in."

Is Queen living down its reputation for studio fussiness? "Not at all," Taylor answers, "I think it's good to be fussy. You might as well make it as good as you can if you've got all the studio devices at your command. As long as the end result isn't clinical; as long as you maintain the feel of the music."

If Mercury and May have loosened up in the studio, they've failed to tighten up their legendary recording budget. Endless vocal and guitar overdubs account for the five-month sessions and staggering expense. "I'm afraid this one cost as much as the last one," Taylor admits, chagrined.

According to the British press, A Night At The Opera came in at forty thousand pounds.

Freddie Mercury, drained and despairing after months of painstaking overdubs, has a bright idea. "I really feel that, on the next album, we're going to get it orchestrated by an orchestra," he says. "I think we've really done as much as we can with guitars."

Does Brian concur? "I think he does," Freddie chuckles. "We always did it ourselves, and it was rewarding. But now, we've done it, and it's time to move on." Is Queen still staunchly opposed to synthesizers? "We've built up a terrible aversion to them," Freddie concedes, "but you never know. To me, Brian always sounds better than a synthesizer."

Finally, does Queen reign supreme in the U.K.?

"That's an awkward question," Roger laughs. "I'm thinking about it." Roger's synapses silently arrange the electrical impulses of two words: Led and Zeppelin. "Yes, I suppose we are," he concludes. "It feels good in terms of radio response and fan letters, that sort of thing. In the studio, nothing feels quite real. You lose contact with things on the street. We don't see much daylight at all."

Beginning mid-January, the band should be seeing plenty of daylight. "I've just been handed a list of tour dates," Freddie says, "and, oh my god, it's going to be two-and-a-half months in the States. I'm just hoping my voice will hold out."

Will the ultra-theatrical Queen mount its American onslaught with a whole new show? "A whole new show?" Freddie chuckles. "Bloody hell yes!"

Retrieved from rocksbackpages.com

[mydaroga]

Would you mind elaborating on the type of behaviour you're talking about? I'm not tryin to cause trouble, i just hate the idea that you feel like the fandom is unwelcoming and I'd like to understand more!

Hi there. Thank you for your interest, because I think this is an important topic. I want to be really careful about how I talk about this, because there's enough uncertainty in these parts and I don't want to be part of the problem. But by the same token... there's a lot of uncertainty in these parts and I think a lot of it comes from a lack of direct communication. I'm also hesitant because I've only been here since January, and I'm hardly an expert. I welcome comments from anyone who feels comfortable adding their thoughts, or who feels I've gotten something wrong.

So let me be clear and upfront about this, to start: I really like this fandom and I'm really happy to be here. I have met some really incredible people that I hope I will be friends with a long time. I have been warmly welcomed and made to feel like my contributions were appreciated. I have been reached out to and I have had my overtures returned.

So when I said, in my tags, that there were unwelcoming elements under the surface, that is what I meant. When I first got here, I actually had more than one person warn me or express surprise that I found it friendly. That's troubling, don't you think? And in the past few months, what I've found is that there is some combination of 1) unwritten rules and 2) different rules for different people? spaces? topics? the upshot of which equals more people than myself feeling uncertain about where and whether their voices are welcome. There's a fair bit of policing, but it's not overt. You more just get the feeling from posts you see here and there that something is bad or wrong or stupid or unwanted, but to me anyway it's never entirely clear exactly what or why. And that leads to people thinking, "huh, they might be talking about me." Or, at best, “I don’t know how to engage with that because I don’t know what’s behind it even if I kinda agree with some of it.”

Whether one is "guilty" of said bad/wrong/stupid/unwanted thing, this only serves to make people feel uncomfortable, uncertain, and unable to respond. And I think that then compounds, because to bring it back to the OP that I was responding to, one thing I've noticed is posts that announce that "everyone who thinks X is wrong" are usually about things I've never seen anyone say, and then I see posts about how "everyone who thinks X is wrong is Y," and it becomes this bizarre game of telephone, based on an original annoyance or irritation that may well be true but is, at this point, untraceable and irrelevant.

And in that climate, it becomes scary to speak up, even about sometimes innocuous things, because people aren't really sure whether they're the ones being complained about, and aren't even sure whether they're "allowed" to speak. I've seen people complain that no one discusses or debates with them, and I've had people message me about being too afraid to discuss or debate. So something is keeping folks who want to from engaging, and I think that is unfortunate. Because there is no fandom without people contributing to it in their myriad forms and formats.

I hope that helps, and I hope I haven't put my foot in it, and as always I do welcome any comment or, yes, criticism. This is a very small fandom. Others I've been in are certainly not free of drama, but it can be a little easier to find "your people" and curate your experience because there are simply more of them. And my personal opinion is that there's not an insignificant number of folks in this fandom who feel this burden of uncertainty about just what is welcome.

And, though no one asked me, I think it should all be welcome barring that which is intentionally hurtful or hateful.

[ccborrega]

What's wrong with the Twilight Princess manga? (Genuinely curious because I often hear it's good)

No, I mean, it's good! What I've read isn't really terrible (And take in account that because they aren't selling it here just yet, I've only read what I've been able to find online.) This is most likely about me putting something in the tags about how most fans ignore it, referring specifically to Link's backstory, but like...Bruh I'm biased, don't pay mind to my rambles XD

...

*rambles anyway.

I mean, it IS good. I like it enough that I want to buy the whole thing once it's completed, available in my country (In english because the spanish names are a fucking joke) and have enough money that I don't regret buying like 12 tomes that are like 120 pesos each. It brought some ideas that are gold, such as Luda and Shad coming with Link in the adventure for a short time, Midna helping Link beat the Gorons in sumo (Though it does sacrifice one of the most hilarious parts of lore of the game.) and the questionability of Hyrule's attitude towards anything that isn't 'Pure' or 'Bright'. I just disagree with a lot of the choices made in it.

Link's backstory. I had thought it to be a matter of personal taste at first, where I saw him as someone who maybe came from outside but grew in Ordon and was just getting stupidly offended over differing opinions, but as it turns out I just didn't remember why I'd had that idea for years now. Ilia mentions having been kids together with Link, and hilarious as the thought that she's referring to one year prior to events in the game is, it most likely means he's been there for years. Honestly? My impression is they wanted Link to not have too deep a tie to Ordon for whatever reason, and I Hate That. I'm certain I'm not the only one to say 'That's bullshit' and just go with something else there, which is why I say most of us ignore it anyway.

They highkey stole an arc from Hyrule Warrior Legends. Though tbf they also put a very blatant 'Empire Strikes back' moment in there and as much as it annoyed me... it was pretty cool. Still, this is the one game where Shadow Link had no business to be and they put it in there for an entire fucking arc.

Twilight Princess' cast is fucking HUGE why on Hylia's green earth are you putting OCs in there??? It's not even like they're filling a role no one else could have had! They've done it before in their previous Zelda works, and other manga adaptations have as well, but I like most of them because they had something to bring to the table (Even if it was romantic drama, in Ganthy's case.) here it's little to nothing they can contribute with that couldn't have been done by putting an already existing character there. It may be my theatre brain speaking but it bothers me when you have a huge cast and do NOTHING with it and instead bring out another character out of NOWHERE to get things done. Just use what's already there, damn you!

Zelda and Midna's backstory. Hear me out... I love it... but it doesn't work. I've spoken before about how much it annoyed me when the narrative had Zelda and Link respectively blame themselves for the invasion (Even though the guy invading is RIGHT THERE???!?!) for having 'Touched' the dark and made it so it could invade their world, and that's part of it. The other is: Having Zelda sacrifice for Midna not because it was the right thing to do, not because it's the one thing she can do for her people, for the Twili, for Link and Midna herself, and instead making it 'You're my childhood inter-dimensional pen pal, I just realized, welp, time to die.' kind of cheapens the impact it had on Midna in the game and what it says about Zelda as a character (We barely get anything on her in the game, but what we do get is powerful.) It's beautiful, but it misses the point completely.

Also Midna just randomly showing up in Link's dreams in her true form is stupid. YEAH, I SAID IT! I get it they're probably thinking 'Well, what's the point in building up anticipation? You know this is what she looks like already.' but one of the reasons the ship is so heart-wrenchingly good is Link knew her inside and out despite her warped shape. In the end, it didn't matter what she looked like so long as it was her. Link fell in love with her gremlin ass transformation AND THAT IS PERFECT OK??? Imagine like if on 'Beauty and the Beast' Belle just randomly kept meeting the prince in dreams, like they're waving a carrot in front of her to get things done with so she can smooch that freaky Habsburg mug. It's fucking awkward! (And it sort of cheapens their actual chemistry, it feels a lot like 'Oh, he has to see she's hot or it wouldn't be believable that he fell in love.' Get outta here with that.)

Shad.

OK, fine, I'll elaborate. Shad has a dialogue in-game about following up on his dad's life work, it is also implied that he's passed away. What does the manga do? Ignore all that and make it so Shad's dad is a 'Serious' investigator who disapproves of his son's interests. 'Shut up dad! It's not a phase dad! You go clean your room, dad!'. Why? No reason. It's not even interesting!

Shad is the friendliest fucking guy ever, rambling to Link about his hyperfixation on first meeting. Calls him 'Old sport' and stuff like that, seemingly befriends him immediately. What'd the manga decide to do with him? They're RIVALSSSS, and snarky to one another because Shad may or may not have a little crush on Ilia. UGH.

Look, you can't be a real Resistance if the members can't even look after themselves, so making Shad kind of a loser (Because he's a nerd. Hahah. Get it? Nerds are losers.) really took the piss out of the Resistance, tbh. Might have been the point, though, seeing how they needed to make space for their OCs in the final battle at Hyrule Castle... and, look, I've said this before but if you need to make a character look horribly bad for no other purpose than making another look more competent, you're not half as good a writer as you think you are. Link didn't need Shad to look pathetic to look more heoric, that's just sad.

Also take one look at that guy and tell me he doesn't drink his respecting women juice every damn morning and sometimes for dinner... well, in the manga, he's apparently kind of a leecher.

Srsly how is he friends with Ashei if he's kind of a leecher, she'd break his fingers.

There's probably more but I really don't want to come off like I'm trying to discourage people from reading it because I'm not! Like I said, it's a good manga! It has some pretty neat battle sequences, it makes Hyrule feel MASSIVE, it has some pretty horrifying moments that make the stakes feel more real, it takes things that are a certain way in the game for the sake of the mechanics and tries to make them more organic (In the specific case of Ilia's memory, it succeeds.) and Akira Himekawa never fails to make Zelda and every female character look gorgeous. It's just not great in terms of being an adaptation, but that's not necessarily a terrible thing, it just depends on taste. Still, specifically where Link's backstory concerns... I think most fans just ignore it because, really, it doesn't make sense.