#i may expand on this later and i also may not

[quicksilversnails]

One detail about the Your New World ending that I can't get over is how it specifically avoids using the phrase [Slay the Princess].

The red-text dialogue options describe killing her, ending her, destroying her, ridding yourself of her, putting her down, not needing her, and so on, but never, ever, slaying her. Your final choice is to [Destroy her], and afterwards the text simply reads "she's gone".

The choice of wording seems very intentional, right? The game's literally called "Slay the Princess", and the act of killing her is described using those terms for the vast majority of the game. So what does its absence mean for this ending?

My first thought was that it was because you didn't use the Pristine Blade to end her. The lack of blade might play a part in it (as I'll expand on later), but there are already a few cases where you get the option to [Slay the Princess] without the blade, like trying to slay the Shifting Mound before the vessels appear, or slaying the Fury with nothing in Contrarian!Fury. There's something more here, I think.

The choice of words could also represent the emotional separation between you and the Narrator. In this ending, the Narrator is irrelevant to you. He’s “a lesser thing that could never hope to understand you”, an obstacle to your awakening. Your final monologue spares no thought for the well-being of the people inside the world, who the Narrator sacrificed everything in hopes of saving.

Contrast this with A New and Unending Dawn, where you do actually [Slay the Princess] using the Pristine Blade given to you by His construct. You quote the Narrator directly if He told you about you and her containing parts of each other, and you generally can be much more sympathetic towards Him even after His obliteration.

In Your New World, even though you technically destroyed her like He had wanted, you didn't Slay her. You didn't do this for Him, or for His world: you did it for you, and for Your world. You cut yourself off from understanding Him, just as you cut yourself off from understanding Her.

In a similar vein, I think the choice of words could also represent a separation from the terms of the game itself.

Slay the Princess is a game filled with repeating symbols and choices: woods, cabin, blade, basement, chains. Slaying her, or freeing her. Narrator or Princess. Dying and restarting and dying and restarting. Even at the end of everything, these same ideas return: you can choose to leave the cabin with her, slay her, return to the beginning, and so on. (it's a very cohesive narrative like that)

But by seeking out this ending, you're breaking the boundaries of what's typically possible in this game. You're not slaying her, and you're definitely not leaving with her. You don't go to the cabin, you don't find the blade, you don't get "outside help".

The whole game is centered around learning about the Princess and yourself through your shared experiences and developing relationship, but to get this ending is to reject any meaning the vessels may have had to you, and thus to reject her role in the game's narrative.

Meanwhile, by not Slaying the Princess, you reject the Narrator and the construct itself, the construct that was built from nothing in order for you to complete that single task, the construct that constantly limits your choices. In this ending, you reject all the choices that were given to you by the game's typical structure and make your own, new choice.

The game constantly reminds you that you'll need the Pristine Blade in order to stab her in the heart: you'll need it if you want to do this right. But what if you're not interested in "doing this right"? What if instead, you choose to do something cruel to those around you (and cruel to yourself) for the sake of exerting agency in a construct where agency is taken from you?

As the Shifting Mound herself says in response to tossing the Cage's head: "That act was your final assertion of will over chains".

For better or worse, there is nothing and no one left to chain you down (except for you).

[syndrossi]

As a religious studies major I actually really loved how you protraid Jon’s feelings last chapter. He doesn’t have the religious trama with the seven ( that goes to rhaegar) but honestly just board with the whole thing. I know at the end you talked about the Valyrian gods and your thoughts on them, but do you have any other planatos religion hot takes

I don't have too many religious hot takes, alas! Or those that I do have need to skirt a little bit for fear of possibly spoiling things later.

I tend more toward the "gods are made, not born" viewpoint for Planetos and the fairly common "gods lose their power when they lose worshippers." Hence it being generally in a god's interest to expand their following. It also implies that what a god even is can be subjective. Is a god just a powerful enough entity that became worshipped and thereby "elevated" to godhood? And what happens when they lose that worship (a la the Valyrian gods, who went from being worshipped by an empire to nearly irrelevant within a day)?

It also follows then that gods aren't necessarily omniscient. They have power, but they don't know everything and thus can only act in a limited capacity.

Interestingly, a lot of the religious-based magic we see is (to me) almost indistinguishable from what I would consider a warlock/sorcerer using their powers. Melisandre's workings come to mind in particular, though there's also the Many-Faced God. Is Melisandre carrying out a blood sacrifice so different from the Valyrian sorcerers enacting their blood magic (or was there a religious component to their blood magic)? Life as power/magical currency seems to be a theme for sure. The Many-Faced God is "paid" in assassinations primarily, which you could view as blood sacrifices as well. And the Drowned God is no different.

Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, but it is an interesting trend/theme to me. The old gods and the Seven both don't really ask for / demand sacrifice, but also their followers don't seem to expect works of magic. Faith is something that may be rewarded, but there is no strong-arming your way toward mystical solutions via sacrifice.

[sillovn]

Grace and the Serpent

Continuing in the series of the "back to basics" interpretation of SotE lore; I want to talk about Grace and Messmer's curse.

The simple question here is; what exactly is Messmer's problem?

Being cursed from birth is fairly common among members of the divine family, with who is/isn't shunned probably being related to the specifics of the curse. As with Malenia, Outer God influence is not innately a problem (even to be an empyrean). Melina shows that being fire-aligned is not a deal breaker either.

Messmer seemingly lived as a "mundane" warrior-Demigod until his exile from the Erdtree (see. Black Knight Andreas, Remembrance of Gaius). The reveal of his "serpent nature", later causes a rebellion within the crusade (see. Andreas and Huw), oddly implying that it wasn't widely known or observable? Yet, even before the crusade, there already seems to have been something profane about the man (see. Fire Knights are nobles exiled for serving Messmer). The one thing that does set him apart from other cursed Demigods is a lack of innate Grace, which he receives via. artificial eye.

I think this particular aspect is important and sets Messmer apart from other cursed beings.

2. Giving Grace

In literal terms, Grace is the blessing of the Erdtree manifest as light within the eyes. Some basic points on it...

Grace can be given and taken (see. Golden Runes 10-13, Tarnished, Iris of Grace). The Golden Runes also imply that grace began with the Erdtree's first converts. (ie. people marked with this distinction began to exist after a certain point in history, its not something that has always existed).

Grace also seems to be inheritable (eg. Omens)

Erdtree religion is expansionist and proselytizing (see. Sacred Tear, Wars of Expansion, ongoing inquisitions and crusades).

Said religion is the core of Leyndell's society. Thus, whether or not you have Grace is very important (see. Tarnished, Crusaders).

Put simply, I think Grace is best imagined as an analogy for religious membership - you can enter and leave, but people tend to take after their parents.

You could also see it as a marker of said membership. Lots of IRL examples for initiation rites, specific customs/dressing.

With all this in mind, I think its important to note the different reasons why various people lack Grace.

As mentioned earlier, Grace doesn't seem innate - it presumably was given to the Golden Order's first followers and spread as Marika's kingdom expanded. This process of Erdtree conversion carries on to the present day (eg. Mt Gelmir). This is just to say that there is a default state of being graceless; the unconverted people. Then you have the apostates (eg. Tarnished), people who had Grace, but were stripped of it. Messmer differs from all these examples in that he seems unable to receive Grace (by conventional means anyway).

3. The Grace Eater

In terms of 'hard canon', the Abyssal Serpent gets little elaboration, but it's major properties are related to being light-less (shorn of light) and devouring (see. Messmer's Kindling). In that sense, the Abyssal Serpent's title is self explanatory; it is a personified abyss.

The serpent may not have been fire-aligned originally, but has acquired it by devouring Messmer's Fire. You could also argue to what extent Messmer and the serpent(s) are separate beings at present (the 'reverse-Rykard' analogy).

In the literal, in-universe sense; perhaps the *specific problem* is that the serpent devours grace given to Messmer. In the ideological sense, perhaps his existence violates the belief that Grace can be extended to all. Leaning into the idea of Messmer as Satan-figure, you could say he exists outside the grace of divinity, the true irredeemable.

Extra Notes

Not going to speculate here if Albinaurics can be graced or not.

Some would say that Messmer cannot have grace by virtue of losing his eye (hence nowhere for Grace to manifest). While this idea is intuitive, Marika is completely eye-less at present (Malenia also arguably so). There's also no mention of a prejudice against missing eyes under the Erdtree.

---END---

~thanks for reading

[laugtherhyena]

I need to have ibis taken away from me so that i stop expanding Ayame's family tree-

Quite literally the most random thing ever, at one point earlier this week i remembered this throwaway from Asoot's puppetmaster arc at the scene where Akane goes to spend the night at Ayame's house;

This was, obviously, done because back then none of us had any ideas let alone designs and character traits for Ayame's family, hence the need for an excuse to why they're not present.

Cut to present year where i went and made characters for her parents and thought back to this line like "Hey i should make that", since i wrote Bashira as a single child that means this is an aunt from Ippei's side of the family; Mai Hatano!

And hey i was actually nice this time around so she's actually alive post-tragedy :] so here's some general info on her:

-She's 9 years younger than Ippei, the parents were going through a rocky part of their relationship and the mom thought maybe having another kid could save their marriage but it really only made everything worse and the husband left around the time Mai was turning 2 years old.

-The deal is that the father as some kind of businessman that was having an affair with a coworker and would excuse him coming up late or not even back home by saying he was piled up with work and blaming the wife or being “insensitive about his efforts”, but she knew he was bullshitting and could tell he had someone else. So again, she thought maybe if they had another kid that would fix things but it only led to somewhat constantly arguing for over an year until he left with his lover and cut contact with the rest of the family.

-This ties into why later in life Ippei choose financial stability over following his music career, the family struggled quite a bit over the years with just the mom and two kids, they had to move a few times and Ippei even got his job as a waiter during his mid to late teens to help out with money. I guess this also ties into why he and Bashira planned so much to have Ayame, i think his parents married pretty young and inexperienced so he wanted to avoid that and have a normal family.

-On Mai’s side she felt like she was at fault for “ruining her parent's marriage” for a good chunk of her childhood and early adolescence. She's over that as an adult, though it did lead to her avoiding serious relationships with anyone though most of her life. At most she's had some flings/one night stands, but never a proper boyfriend or anything official.

-On top of that Mai is generally pretty bad at dealing with emotions, both of other people and her own. She has no idea how to comfort anyone or help when they're in some emotional turmoil or need someone to vent to, so oftentimes she is kinda just changes the subject or gives a pretty standard response of like “Damn that sucks” before doing so and proceeds to ignore the issue as in sorta of a “forget about it” way. (As you can probably guess, she's not the one to show her hurt to others for a similar reason. When she received the news that her brother and his family had died she didn't express much of a reaction at all at the foundation and only cried when she was back home because she did genuinely care for them, though her odd reaction gave the impression to some coworkers that this wasn't the case.)

-She is a very stubborn person so she doesn't talk to people about this problem of hers, much less seek help when it comes to it because the fact that she can't truly help the people she cares for when they need emotional support really hurts her so she'd rather ignore and forget than deal with her lack of abilities in the area. 

-Stubbornness and ignorance are notably her most negative traits (“I was never taught and I will not learn” sorta thing). This extends to circumstances other than her loved ones emotional needs because a lot of the time she will be dismissive or ignorant about certain things solely because they don't affect her directly nor anyone she cares for.

-That being said, she is very outwardly nice and shows care to others. Very chatty and outgoing, pretty much the opposite of her brother and niece since she can talk to people very easily. She's on good terms with pretty much everyone from Tsurugi's division and talks quite frequently to other foundation workers as well. Though she is rather blunt and says whatever comes to her mind at any given moment.

-Before the tragedy she worked as a personal bodyguard in Towa city, this busy and sometimes dangerous lifestyle led to her distancing herself from her brother a lot as they grew older. It wasn't anything intentional, just life bringing them in separate ways so while she did love her brother and his family a lot they didn't see each other super often, it was mostly during holidays, funerals or events like some of Ayame’s competitions or similar situations. This became one of her biggest regrets late in life as she wishes she could have spent more time with them.

-She broke her arm pretty badly when a client was getting ambushed and was set to stay out of business until recovered. Once she was dispatched from the hospital Ippei and Bashira came to drive her home and help her settle back, alongside doing some catching-up. That was the last time they saw each other.

-When the tragedy broke out she became stranded in Towa city because of all the chaos and the Warriors of hope hunting down the adults. Her arm was still broken then, but Mai is a rather reckless person and went around fighting despairs and rescuing other citizens in spite of her injury, which led to her injured arm getting broken and slashed in many other places which then led her developing a nasty infection that she just kept fighting on her own for months until she and a group of adults managed to leave the city.

-She was brought to a hospital pretty much immediately after by the group's leader and by that point she pretty much couldn't feel or move her hand anymore and the whole area around her arm gave her immense pain. When she started getting treated the staff tried to contact any family member which led to them contacting the Kisaragi foundation and upon informing them that she was in their care Rei requested that Mai should be moved to the foundation’s hospital facility, which was where she stayed for the majority of her recovery.

-There wasn't much Hikaru or any of the medical scaff could do to save her injured arm so she had to have it amputated to avoid further spread of infection, but at this point Mai couldn't even think much about the fact and just told them to do whatever it takes to make the pain stop. On top of losing her arm, she also became prone to infections out of how bad hers was.

-It was when she was recovering from surgery that Tsurugi came to speak to her, he apologized for the foundation taking so long to rescue her, alongside informing her how the place functions and most importantly letting Mai know that her brother and his family had died. It was only after he left that the weight of this information and everything Mai had gone settled in and, for the first time ever since the tragedy started, she cried.

-The thing is that unlike her brother, an overthinker who thinks ahead and carefully plans everything in life, Mai tends to throw herself into things head on just hoping that it will all work out in the end and while she's going through things she doesn't stop to think much about the details until it's over. So it was only as she was recovering in the hospital that she thought about everything she had gone through, everything she had lost, and for once tried to think of what her next course of action should be while going through these feelings.

-That being said, she never fell into a depression or took the loss as hard as someone like Keisuke did because that's just not the kind of person Mai is. Somewhat similar to her ignorant demeanor, her way of dealing with grief is mainly by occupying her mind with other things, like going places she enjoys or focusing on training and work. The last one being the reason she joined Tsurugi's division pretty much immediately after being dispatched from the medbay.

-Mai’s an action woman! She has a lot of energy and loves getting into fights, especially if it is to protect others, so it's no surprise she joined his division and not Rei’s or Teruya's. But when it comes to Tsurugi's ideals Mai is by no means a follower, she thinks he's insane, way too radical, but so far his black and white mortality hasn't affected her or anyone she cares for directly so she turns a blind eye to it, this is the guy who pays her after all. (This does change post Sdra2, especially after Keisuke almost shoots Midori)

-She was assigned to be in charge of the new members basic physical combat and self defense training, especially for those like Ryutaro and Keisuke who had no experience in this line of work before. This is part of how she ended up becoming a close friend of theirs, though Mai tends to treat Ryutaro (and Midori by extension) more like younger siblings rather than coworkers.

-The foundation provides her a prosthetic for use only during missions (by Tsurugi's orders). Mai doesn't mind that since she doesn't actually like having the prosthetic on, it feels more like a trouble to put on and use than it's worth, she much prefers not having one at all.

-On a similar vein, Mai isn't a fan of the work uniform, she finds it way too stuffy and clunky so she only puts it on right before going on a mission, alongside the prosthetic arm. Tsurugi doesn't take that well, as he sees it as Mai not taking work as seriously as she should, but she is one of his best soldiers so he refrains from picking up on her.

-Onto some more miscellaneous information. Mai’s apartment is rather disorganized and messy, but for her it’s fine because she knows where everything is, even if it's not in the right place per say. Bashira used to jokingly pick up on her over it.

-She’s also a pretty bad cook, can only really pull off simple meals which is why she's a huge fan of takeout and fast food in general.

-Back in Ippei's late teens/early 20s she was the one to keep pushing him to take initiative and ask out Bashira, though that help absolutely came alongside teasing her brother for being so shy.

-They were really close then, Ippei would even pick her up from school everyday n all. This strong care stayed strong over the years even after they started seeing each other less and less after moving out of their childhood home, and even less after their mother passed away from old age sometime around the late 2000s.

-She never spent much time with Ayame but oftentimes when she would feel self conscious about her lack of femininity her parents would mention how she's just like her aunt on that aspect

-Mai has her brother's collection of music vinyls at her place, she's not the biggest fan of classical music, but listening to it reminds her of him.

[househrt]

I feel like a prerequisite for the ducklings getting hired is that they had to have no friends in middle school. every single one of them ate lunch alone and went through varying degrees of character development because of this

[mariyekos]

I like to imagine Dante's able to use some basic magic beyond just typical demonic stuff. In the opening of DMC1, a magic circle appears below Trish when Dante shoots the motorcycle back at her, so I like to think Dante knows some basic spells, wards, and the like. For the most part he uses it for little things like making a special lock for his Devil Arm vault, maybe heating up soup or a drink that's gone cold, and so on, rather than any combat things. Dante's spells are not at all refined and he doesn't have a natural talent for it, per se, but he has a lot of power he can put into things so he often ends up brute forcing whatever it is. It's not necessarily efficient, but it works, and that's all he cares about. He's not really interested in most precise or specific things.

Vergil on the other hand has a lot more control and a much greater interest in magic in general. A post DMC5 Vergil (and pre DMC3) would use magic a lot more often, and without as much prep. He spent a lot of time learning different charms etc. to use in daily life, and he's a lot more elegant about it. Some he learned when on the run and trying to hide from demons, while others he learned when trying to track down Sparda, and others still he learned for purely convenience reasons. Post DMC5 he gets a lot more into it than he did pre DMC3 when it was more a thing of survival, even if it had the convenience aspect back then too. He's the kind of person who would learn spells for the sake of knowing them, and while he prefers using demonic abilities in combat, he might try to learn a magical combat spell or two just to see what it's like. He mostly sticks to practical things though (which sit on the border of practicality, but he considers them practical, uses them often, and makes Dante's magic look like child's play).

On the magical third (regrown!) hand, Nero's absolutely horrible at magic, to the point of not being able to do basically anything. He's got the magical reserves, but unlike Vergil who can cast precise spells with relatively little effort, or Dante who gets through spells by basically overloading them until they work, Nero just can't get magic to work for him at all. Lessons with Vergil end with him stomping out when he gets fed up with Vergil commenting on how easy it should be, while attempts to get Dante to explain how he casts magic end in frustration when Dante's explanations basically start and end at "I dunno, it, it just works." Sure Nero can memorize and draw a warding sigil perfectly, but any and all attempts to get it to actually do anything end in failure.

Kyrie, in a reveal that surprises everyone, most of all herself, is apparently extremely talented at magic, which she does not know until she sees Nero trying and failing to activate a warding sigil Vergil taught him, puts a finger on it so she can trace over it as she reviews Nero's work in case he messed something up, and inadvertently activates it. After that they end up doing some testing and discover Kyrie is a natural when it comes to magic. The only problem is that while casting spells, activating sigils, and the like come easily to her, her magical reserves are rather small, limiting what she's able to do. When she first activates the sigil Nero had drawn, she ends up unable to get up and Nero has to carry her to bed (which she insists he doesn't have to do, because she just needs a minute to catch her breath, but he insists on)

Nico is stoked to hear about this and ends up figuring out a way to essentially fit Kyrie and Nero with a magic converter that allows Kyrie to draw on the magical reserves Nero can't utilize so that she can use them for whatever she wants to. While Kyrie isn't someone who really cares to use magic for things in her daily life like Dante and Vergil, she does use it to make little charms for the kids, and to establish wards around the house to protect them from demon attacks and other small misfortunes. She and Vergil end up bonding a little bit as he teaches her the spells and other bits of magic Nero was never able to pick up on.

(Vergil himself feels a mixture of pride at how quickly she picks up on things with his instruction, and jealousy when he sees how good she is at things first or second try when he knows it took him a good five or ten attempts to get it down when he was first learning. Kyrie notices and tells him that he's still much better than her in the long run since he's able to use magic without needing a separate "battery" to power him, but Nero absolutely digs into Vergil about it when Kyrie isn't there. Dante meanwhile finds it all hilarious. But he and Nero are pretty proud of Kyrie too.)

[the-way-astray]

What's your favorite cannon thing you truly like about Keefe Sencen

I DARE you 😈

i've been dared . . .

definitely my favorite thing is the fact that in flashback/legacy he was 100% not only supportive of sophie and fitz's relationship despite having a crush on sophie, but also actively tries to keep sophie from doing something that could even be interpreted as implicative. there was a poll a while ago about whether people thought sophie and keefe were (even unintentionally) emotionally cheating on fitz, and i answered a hard no. and the main reason for that was because of keefe. he does so much to try to keep sophitz together during that time, including telling sophie to confide in fitz, telling her to tell him about the matchmaking thing, shutting ro down (or at least doing his best to), and generally speaking, he did not have to do all that. like, yeah, any decent person would be supportive and not actively try to break their two friends in a relationship up, but keefe goes way beyond that and actively tells sophie exactly what to do in order to keep her relationship with fitz intact. every time fitz "catches" him with sophie it's lowkey painful to think about what keefe must be feeling because he spends so much time trying to prevent that exact thing from happening. there's even a line in legacy where sophie admits this herself. one of the only times he uses his empathy not dubiously is at the end of legacy, where sophie "tells" him (i use the term loosely) that she and fitz broke up. and he immediately says "i'm sorry", expressing out loud his sympathy for their relationship's end.

(one thing i've heard people misinterpret a lot in anti keefe things is the "blond hottie" line, which they say is an inappropriate thing to say about someone in a relationship. that was not said by keefe. that was said by ro. she says that when she's trying to convince sophie that bronte can't be her bio dad, to which keefe then says "unless she gets that from her mom". that's all he says. sophie then wonders whether that meant he agreed with the blond hottie assessment, but that doesn't come from anything he actually says.)

it surprises me that i haven't seen keefe lovers talk more about the fact that fitz literally commissioned him to draw him and sophie in a very romantic pose in a very romantic spot and keefe did it. so i'm going to talk about it. once again, this is not just baseline "my crush is in a relationship, oh well, guess i won't interfere" stuff. this is going above and beyond to keep sophie and fitz together. again, keefe has a crush on sophie. i'm not an artist, but obviously art doesn't just pop up out of thin air. he spent some time making that drawing. and all that time is yet another reminder that his crush is in a relationship. he could've told fitz no, made up some excuse as to why he couldn't do it, and that would've been well within his right. but he didn't. so that's a thing worth mentioning. (i'm going to just say i don't like the argument that fitz knew what he was doing when he asked keefe for the drawing, though. i think fitz just thought "sophie likes keefe's drawings! let me get her one of those" which is sweet in and of itself.)

in unlocked, keefe thinks something like "he definitely should not be happy that two people close to him were going through a rough patch. but, if he was being honest, he wasn't really sad" or something to that effect. and i like that. he has a crush on sophie, so of course part of him will be happy she's now single again. it's realistic. i've definitely talked about this before, but jealousy isn't a character flaw to me. it's only the actions that a character does because of their jealousy that defines whether or not it's a bad thing. but the thing with keefe is that he never allows the fact that he likes sophie to outwardly affect sophie and fitz's relationship in any negative way when they're tentatively dating. sophie and fitz fell apart for a lot of reasons, but the reasons were entirely on sophie and fitz, and had nothing to do with keefe himself. in fact, you could argue they only lasted as long as they did because of keefe.

i complained a lot about how much he doesn't shut up about his hair in my rant. but that was mostly at his humor style and the fact that he literally talks about it at the weirdest times (in his registry file . . . ) more so than the fact itself. and truthfully, he doesn't even talk about it that much. but i think it makes a lot of sense that he takes pride in it. it's the physical manifestation of rebellion against his parents who have controlled every other aspect of his life. he's also an artist, and i think it's a pretty neat thing that that extends to the way he styles his hair. also it looks good. i will die on this hill. just don't look at the laura art. jason chan is my king and keefe's hair is very cool and- *gunshot*

there's also a handful of moments where keefe uses his humor appropriately, to ease tension. best example i can think of is the one katie brought up in this post which is the moment in flashback right before the celestial festival (climax). magnate leto gives them all these sparkler things to light if they're in danger, and keefe sets off a couple prematurely "just to make sure they work" *wink wink nudge nudge* and sophie specifically says the "bit of levity" helped tame the "monster" she's been battling the whole book. when he's able to use his humor appropriately, and not at weird times about weird things, he can be a valuable source of comfort. these moments are unfortunately few and far between, but they do exist.

keefe is also good at calming sophie down when she's panicking, when he's not using his empathy to force her to tell him her feelings. i personally like it more when he's comforting her using his words than his emotional breezes, because that speaks more to his personality than it does to his ability to use his emotional breezes to calm her down. another example katie discusses in the post above is when he's talking to her about the bronte-is-her-bio-dad theory. sophie was panicking because she was thinking about the implications of it (prentice, him acting horrible to her, etc.) and keefe brings her back down to earth with his reassurances that this doesn't change anything about her. when she says bronte can't know she knows, he immediately gets her to reconsider in a gentle way, because like. that's the entire point of her search for her bio parents. he does all this using his words (actually i just checked and he does use his emotional breezes a couple of times but his words do have an impact on their own so we're disregarding that), which does prove that he's very good at knowing what to say to keep her calm.

(also the fact that he was even helping her search for her bio parents is another example of him going above and beyond to keep her relationship to fitz intact. he didn't have to do that at all.)

and lastly, i think i mentioned this in my rant and maybe a couple other places, but i think keefe's jealousy when it comes to family is written very realistically. in neverseen, he's jealous of fitz, biana, sophie, and dex when they hug their parents, and there's a line where he specifically says "i hate watching it. them and della" (them referring to fitz and biana). in unlocked, he's again jealous of dex's family and wishes he'd been born into a family like his. and i think that's written really well. it's pretty subtle and not really shoved in your face, too. i'm pretty sure there's a total of three times it gets brought up: the "them and della" line, one line at the end of neverseen where sophie and dex are hugging edaline and kesler, and then the line in unlocked. very blink and you miss it but i like that. it's one of the few things the narrative doesn't dump a truckload of pity on keefe for, and it makes the few times it is brought up even sadder.

oh, and also i think he's handsome. sue me.

[1am-s0-veryt1red]

according to Oxford dictionary emulation (n.) is an effort to match or surpass a person or achievement typically by imitation. throughout his character arc, bakugou uses his relationships with his classmates and pro hero mentors as a foundation to become his best self, making emulation bakugou katsuki's love language. in this essay I will

[banesberry-anomoly]

Bexley the Bearcat/Binturong

- He/It/Vi/Any

- Rockstar-like persona & plays multiple instruments

- Part of the 'Lights After Dark' program at Indigo Park, which catered to older teens and adults

[the3rddenialist]

Thoughts:

I think it's interesting how different of a character Marvin is in the Altrverse comics as opposed to Marvin's Magic.

Which makes sense, MM!Marvin is basically just Sean, whilst Altrverse Marvin is so far his canon.

But compared to MM!Marvin, who is very loud and boisterous, bro Altrverse Marvin is quiet

Like dude does not talk that much, fairly visually expressive, but my man is a lot more quiet.

Like the few instances of him talking a lot is when he's with someone more close, like Moira, Sunday or Ramesses (who are all very chatty around Marvin, Moira and Ramesses a lot more so) and typically if he's enthusiastic. But he would much rather listen or, with someone he doesn't like, stare in the distance with an annoyed expression than talk. He's definitely a more 'talk when necessary' type of guy. Which makes sense in the magic business where words are powerful. But it's kind of funny cause if you got into a disagreement with him he'd probably just stare you down lol.

There are pages where Marvin doesn't say anything, it's just interesting. Real quiet kid in Vol 1 too.

[lesbiancarat]

hello!!!! i just stumbled upon your carat resource carrd and want to thank you for putting in the effort and time for such a well made and informative library of seventeen content!! i noticed that there are a few songs missing: seungkwan's cover of 'text me merry christmas' w/ AKMU suhyun, and the HHU songs from the diamond edge tour (joker - wonwoo solo, what's the problem, and madness maxed out)

also i think the miss you by sicboy ft. vernon MV is missing from the carrd :)

ahh thank you! i try my best to get everything but sometimes little things slip through the cracks so i appreciate you letting me know! i can't believe i missed some of these lol. these should all be added now!

Music -> Covers -> Text Me Merry Christmas

Music -> Unofficial & Unreleased Songs -> Joker / What's the Problem / Madness Maxed Out

Music -> Collaborations -> Miss You

[sophieswundergarten]

@nobodysdaydreams @oflightningandstars

Here are the beginning dregs of my Wolf 359 MBS AU:

Constance is the incredibly odd and unique AI that runs the space station (She's got some secrets!), while Reynie is the Communications Officer whose job it is to ensure that messages and recordings are being made and stored or sent back to Earth as needed. Kate is the Commander of the ship, and she loves her job so much. She gets a harpoon gun. She has full run of the air vents. It's awesome. Sticky is a scientist, but he's only really had book experience, so the samples and experiments that he's responsible for are maybe something that their bosses should have not given him charge of with no explanation.

(Also, Mr. Benedict is not part of command. You should be very concerned that these people are cool sending children into space)

[jacksintention]

Still unwell about Rilke and PH

I love the dark hours of my being.

My mind deepens into them.

There I can find, as in old letters,

the days of my life, already lived,

and held like a legend, and understood.

Then the knowing comes: I can open

to another life that's wide and timeless.

So I am sometimes like a tree

rustling over a gravesite

and making real the dream

of the one its living roots

embrace:

a dream once lost

among sorrows and songs.

[broke-on-books]

☕

The live action Scooby-Doo movies?

I did not see this ask until RIGHT now (first time on desktop since crab day, second time since Nov 5 2020 [which was DOUBLY experience since I got my phone taken the same day]) so I'm going to assume this ask got eaten on mobile because tumblr, HOWEVER you poked a bear with this ask anon (as I'm sure you knew when asking) SO without further ado: my Scooby Doo live action opinions

So when you say 'live action Scooby-Doo movies' I'm assuming you're talking about the James Gunn films, starting with Scooby-Doo (2002) followed by Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, just due to like, generally popularity and also the fact that I have actually seen those films. However shoot another ask if you wanted me to include Curse of the Lake Monster in this (because I will if anyone cares and turn this into a live-action scooby dissertation, i'd just need to like. watch the movie first) But anyways where I'm going with this is that this post is about the Gunn movies aka the ones with SMG, Freddie Prinze Jr., Linda Cardellini, and ofc our #1 man, Matthew Lilliard.

Okay so my take on these movies is... complicated. I wouldn't say it's as complicated as my feelings towards SDMI, because I watched the live actions way less as a kid and generally care less about them, but still no matter how much shit I throw at these two movies there are parts that I generally like (even love) that stops me from totally condemning them wholesale. Like the fact that these movies are FUNNY! There's so many moments from this duology that are just beyond iconic "like, that's one of my favorite names!" the whole thing with Scooby in the dress at the airport, ET. CETERA (like I can go on!)

The Gunn movies are genuinely SO fun and I can 100% see and understand how they've stood so well in the public view as a representation of Scooby. HOWEVER, this is where you start to see my problems with them. For the general American, (because that is the audience I'm familiar with) ESPECIALLY millennials and younger, who happen to make up the majority of both people on this site AND people I talk about Scooby with in real life, these movies, and the elements they introduced as "quintessential scooby tropes" are the base of their understanding of the Scooby franchise, along with likely some miscellaneous WAY episodes and maybe SDMI.

Which is where I get pissed off. In the pushing of the narrative of "breaking away" from the Scooby norm, Gunn basically invents (aka totally makes up) an idea of what classic era Scooby was like, cementing an idea of classic Scooby into the public mind that is totally disingenuous and just straight up false. For example, in attempting to portray Daphne as having taken strides to be seen more seriously in solving mysteries and defending herself, it pushes the narrative that in the classic era she WASN'T taken seriously, and only existed as a damsel-in-distress prop of a character, which is just not true??? Like yes, Daphne is clumsy, that's a part of her character, and her friends (because, fun fact, the gang ARE friends) joke about it sometimes because that's what friends DO. Framing that in some kind of sexist "that's all she does" lens is just total bull, especially as gang members fall into secret passageways/get lost etc. in WAY ALL THE DAMN TIME because that's how the plot functions! Like are we calling Velma ditzy for losing her glasses every other episode? Of course not, and Fred falls into passageways all the time, not to MENTION Shaggy and Scooby and all they get up to. Also one last thing on the topic of Daphne, like this idea of her mystery solving skills not being respected by the gang is just so supremely bullshit it amazes me sometimes, especially when she was the LEADER (or leader adjacent) through pretty much all of her appearances in the 1980s [Not that James Gunn could look at '80s era Scooby without spitting on it, but I digress]

AND THIS IS JUST DAPHNE! Like the perceptions pushed towards Fred (and Velma, but mostly Fred) through these movies are just as bad! Like okay, with Fred---In these movies Fred is just an asshole. I hate Gunn Movies!Fred. I mean yeah he can be funny but it's almost always so mean! Almost nothing makes me madder than a mean Fred by the way. If he's putting other gang members down (even halfway, like with his whole "dorky chicks like you turn me on too" line, which... ew) then to me something has gone very, very, VERY, wrong in your basic understanding of Frederick Herman Jones as a character. Like he's the cheerleader! He puts himself in between his friends and danger! He loves nets, and traps, and Elvis impressions, and wrestling, and the trapeze, and cars, and most of all he LOVES sharing the things he loves with his friends! (Sometimes to a bit of an extreme. No one wants to hear about your net facts, Fred) And the live action movies just don't understand that at all. And I know there's maybe something to say I suppose in that some of those aspects of his characterization hadn't been "established yet" by the time "Scooby-Doo" came out in 2002. But it's there if you look. For Fred Jones, being the leader means being the caretaker, (he's the Mom friend what can I say) and any version where he's cruel and arrogant and just DOESN'T CARE about his friends in the way he's shown to in the Gunn movies is just so far from Fred to me it's not even funny. And what makes it even worse for me is that this (or at least something similar) is the idea of Fred that has really spread to the popular culture. Just the "leader", the jock that makes the rules, the one that [insert X adaptation here] finally gave a personality and made interesting (something that has been said more times than I can count for pretty much every gang member, save Shaggy and Scooby).

And I haven't even touched on Velma, and how they gave her a bit of a early 2000s smart superiority girl complex against Daphne, plus the whole makeover thing and etc. etc. The Gunn Movies are pretty much what would happen if you took someone who hadn't seen Scooby since they were 7 years old (and honestly had a pretty negative outlook against it then) and tried to "fix" it, only his memory was so bad he just made up problems (and threw in a good helping of early 2000s style sexism with it) convincing pretty much the entirety of the popular culture that said problems exist and that Gunn was absolutely brilliant for fixing them (and then bringing up said "problems" whenever anyone wants to talk about Scooby) and this entire rant has been without even fucking MENTIONING what is probably the reason you, anonymous tumblr user sent this ask in the first place, to I, Swishy "Scrappy Doo Redemption Arc" Broke-on-books (dot tumblr dot com), which is his HIGHLY SUCESSFUL and utterly sadistic character assassination of my number one man, Scrappy Doo.

And I am going to try my damnedest here not to get totally into my highly passionate opinions over what James Gunn did to Scrappy in the first of his Scooby movies and how thoroughly it has pissed me the fuck off because I have been writing this post for over an hour now and if we start to really get into my feelings on this topic it will certainly be a couple of hours more but like. That Fucking Bitch. I give James Gunn personally a solid eighty-five percent of the blame for making my life as a Scrappy Doo fan UTTERLY unbearable with this stupid fucking movie alone, and just his Scrappy crimes would honestly be enough for me to say that I hate this movie, not even considering the numerous Scooby crimes I've been talking about here for the past million paragraphs, but the part about this movie that makes me the MOST mad the most pissed off is that it's actually a good fucking movie. James Gunn wrote two hilarious and entertaining movies that have become beloved in the popular culture for their successes in that arena, while at the same time pissing all over the core themes and messages of the franchise of which it was based, that of friendship.

TLDR; The Live Action Scooby Doo movies (written by James Gunn) are highly entertaining and fun pieces of media to watch, and are widely loved by the general public and looked at with fondness and nostalgia because of that. However, as a hardcore Scooby Doo fan (writing that phrase sounds so ridiculous but oh well) the existence of these movies and their impact on the popular culture can be extremely frustrating (despite any personal nostalgia said fan may have) due to their spreading of a misinformed picture of what "typical Scooby Doo" looks like. This picture is especially frustrating due to the fabrication or exaggeration of problems present in classic Scooby (such as sexism in regards to the girls), as well as giving more ammunition to other problems in Scooby fandom (such as oversexualization, and sexualization in general, which no one wants to see in regards to their children's cartoons, like HONESTLY.) Discussions of sexism and sexualization in Scooby (both of which ARE present and are issues, although not at their worst in WAY) can often lead to an overlooking of the issues that are very present and clear in WAY and have continued since then with far too little resistance (I'm 100% talking about the racism here) HOWEVER that topic deserves at least a dozen posts of its own that I am no way informed or qualified enough to even begin to think about writing. The Gunn Movies are frustrating to many longtime Scooby fans because of these reasons, but for me, and fellow Scrappy Doo fans there is also the added aspect of the demonization of Scrappy Doo in the live action movies and the affects that has had on the popular culture as well, making it uniquely inhospitable to like or enjoy the character of Scrappy. End post.

[dangoulains-devotion]

yuffie has many interesting elements to her but people refuse to move past "i find energetic kids annoying" and it makes me sad

[wayward-sherlock]

hi guys so i wrote this last night while listening to sad byler songs and feeling...feelings. so. um. enjoy.

tw for uh. its literally about a suicide letter so pls be careful. <3

“Mike,” Will said, voice breaking. “You can’t go. I-I just got you back.”

Mike shook his head. “You never lost me,” he said quietly, looking down at where he was holding Will’s hands in his. He pulled away, suddenly, and Will’s hands were left cold. “Wait, I uh…I actually have something for you.”

Will let his hands drop to his sides, squeezing them into fists. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Mike replied blankly, reaching up to his shirt pocket. He unbuttoned it and pulled out a piece of paper, to the sight of which he winced. “It’s um…it’s not much, and it got a little crushed, but i-it’s for you. I was trying to find a good time to give it to you, but no time like the present, right?” 

Mike’s positive tone did nothing to mask the pain on his face, in his eyes. Will looked up at him, concern etched into his features. “Mike, I-“

“No,” Mike said firmly, bringing a hand up to Will’s mouth. “Nope, no. None of that. I’m only giving this to you because…well, you’ll see when you read it.”

Will nodded, taking the paper from Mike’s hand. His other hand was still covering Will’s mouth, and Mike looked at it, eyebrows dancing on his forehead like he couldn’t quite figure out how to feel. 

Mike looked up at Will’s eyes, gulped, then looked back at his hand over Will’s mouth. He leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the back of his own hand, but it sent jolts of electricity through Will’s body regardless, just being in such close proximity. To finally feel Mike’s hair brush against his forehead, to watch as his eyes closed before Will, even though doing so pushed a tear out of the corner of his eyes and down his face.

Mike pulled his hand away carefully. “Um,” he said, and Will blinked at him. “That’s…I better get going, now.”

Will opened his mouth to protest, to beg Mike to stay, to say something, but nothing came out. 

Will watched in silence as Mike walked out the door with only a small, meaningful glance back. 

Will walked towards the wall to lean against it, only to slide down it when his back finally came into contact with the old wallpaper. 

He looked down at his hands, at the paper there. He unfolded it, smoothed out the crinkles and began to read. 

Dear Will…

It’s Hawkins, it hasn’t been the same without you…

I miss you…

I’ve been thinking a lot. Sometimes I wish I just couldn’t think anymore…

If you get this, I’m…

But please, if anyone will understand, it’ll be you. A person can lose the love of their life only so many times before they realize that they won’t ever come back…

I’ve lost you, Will. And in doing so, I lost myself. And I hate the person that I am, that I’ve become. I hate the person that I’ll be in five years, in ten years. 

I hate the person I am without you. 

And that day, when I found El in the woods? That was the worst day of my life. I had lost my best friend. And I’ve lost you again…

You are not the reason for this. It’s me. I can’t handle living a life where I move my little nuclear family to the end of the block. I can’t do it. 

I wish we could’ve…fixed it, somehow. But I know we can’t. I ruined our relationship too thoroughly to even know where to start. 

I’m so sorry, Will. You don’t deserve any of this. 

Love, Mike

A tear dropped off of Will’s face and onto the paper—the letter.

And Will knew—deep in his heart, in his soul—that Mike had gone on that mission into the Upside Down with a purpose. 

To never come back.