#i mean i can if you want but it's offtopic for the ask and im terminally forum-brained

[sabakos]

Overhyped/underhyped: Hunter x Hunter, Dungeon Meshi

Overhyped: Dungeon Meshi. It's a very typical "D&D campaign" anime with a rather generic twist (what if it was a cooking show?) that's mostly dropped after the Red Dragon arc and not really picked up again; they keep talking about cooking but it's clearly more out of a sense of obligation. Once you remove that, it's your garden variety "mad mage" dungeon crawler campaign; I'd be shocked if Ryoko Kui didn't consult official rulebooks and campaign materials from TSR or Wizards while writing it, it's kinda just that bland. You almost expect Laios or Kabru to start talking about levels and XP, they're somewhat one-dimensional characters if you see them as "annoying ttrpg minmaxers." Also Falin and Marcille are a boring ship and the fandom surrounding it is annoying. If you can't conceivably ship the characters with other people it's not good. Falin has the personality of a wet piece of cardboard bearing her brother's image, and Marcille is Lisa Simpson to me. It's a bad sign when the main characters are so much less interesting than the side characters, give me a spinoff with Chilchuck, Senshi, Izutsumi, or with the Canaries and cut off all the unneeded chaff (the plot-relevant characters)

Underhyped: Hunter X Hunter, and specifically the Chimera Ant arc, could easily rival most other shonen anime entirely on its own. I think that this is one of those fandoms where a lot of people haven't actually watched or absorbed very much of the source material because other than Illumi's needle and the "Gon you are light" scene I barely see any fandom related content from the longest arc in the series. All of the prior arcs of the series are, while well-executed, heavily tropified and somewhat cookie-cutter plots with little innovation or originality other than a somewhat continuous set of characters (a tournament arc, a battle arena arc, organized crime, a game isekai, etc.). But the Chimera Ant arc has a much broader and ambitious scope and much more original story that doesn't fit as easily into a mould that dozens of other successful anime spring from, and I'd argue it largely executes it successfully.

Perhaps it gets less attention from fandom because (as I've seen theorized before more generally about which works recieve fandoms) it's too well-executed and tightly oriented; fandom only develops when there are imperfections of the story in need of further elucidation (i.e. headcanons and ships) and people feel the need to expand upon characters or plot points that didn't satisfy them. With Hunter x Hunter the main focus of the Chimera Ant arc that people in fandom seem to feel needs elaboration is the exact nature of Gon and Killua's relationship during the arc, but all the other aspects of the plot (all the various ants, NGL and east gotoro, meruem and komugi, the professional hunters and their students, etc.) generally fill the expectations people have for them, and so they receive less attention in art and fic. Which ironically does result in a warped perception about what the anime is about.

[cross-armageddon]

I got too silly (again)

Before I say anything though, I must add something offtopic - this will not be a daily thing

I've uploaded the PJO AU sorta daily until now, because I had thoughts already - the rest of the characters' powers will require more thinking on my part. Also, I'm going to London for a few days soon, which means I won't have access to my tablet.

I MIGHT make an update for Prima Vista though, so when you're lacking in content from me, just head to AO3 to catch up with my prsk OCs

You can also send me asks with ideas for the PJO AU or questions to both the AU and Prima Vista during my vacations (Wednesday till Sunday) and I will reply to all of them as soon as I will have a break from sightseeing and have wifi (I'm silly like that).

Well then.

Leo/need (1/2)

(if you're disappointed it's not niigo or vbs, im disappointed in myself too)

The Honami Hephaestus is honestly a really cool idea in general, I'm very confident it fits her the most.

You wouldn't expect her to be a fire wielder after how Leo was in the series, but yet - that's exactly what she is to me. She has way more control over it, as she has to focus really hard and be extremely calm to get a spark, so exactly the opposite of Leo, that can straight up blow up if he gets too angry or excited.

As a Hephaestus daughter, she's naturally good with electronics and machinery. Everyone just kinda assumed she learned how everything worked while homekeeping, but in reality she doesn't actually know any theoretical stuff. She just moves something or hits it and the thing is fixed.

Also, I'm spreading Honami buff agenda. Her training at the camp gave her some muscles and yeah

yeah

Usually it's not noticeable, so people get shocked if she doesn't cover her arms or stomach, because "wtf where the fuck did she get those??"

Also, I feel like Honami would become a huntress of Artemis. Whether or not the rest of Leo/need would follow her is purely up to interpretation. On one hand I feel like they would, but then again - Saki would get extremely close to pararelling with Thalia and. I d

I don't think Tsukasa wants to follow Jason's footsteps actually.

On another note

Why is Ichika unclaimed?

I could make so many fucking excuses as to why she's unclaimed, but I will actually stay silent about it. Yall can give ideas and your reasoning for certain godparents tho 👀

hmu in my askbox

Anyways, since Ichika is unclaimed, she sometimes gets some weird looks and is a part of the "weirdos" from her Cohort.

(You WILL get dragged into my OC content, because I cannot shut up about them)

Ichika is a demigod, she has the same ADHD and dyslexia and she can see monsters. It's just that she doesn't know what potential she has, since she doesn't have a godparent. Her story is about finding out which god will claim her and what will make her godparent proud of her.

(Ichika is Kaii's older cousin in the Prima Vista canon, Kaii's mom is one of her parents' older sister. Which one? I dunno, the one that looks more like Ichika.)

Because Ichika doesn't know her powers, she spends a lot of time fighting, because what else could she focus on?

I must admit, her weapon idea is so fucking badass tho.

Percy had a pen that could transform into his sword and Ichika has something similar, but I kind of went crazy with it

The hook snaps very easily off her neck and after it snaps, the guitar pick transforms into her longsword. The handle on said longsword has the hook and loop still in tact, for whenever she doesn't need it anymore - it goes back to being a normal guitar pick necklace and she can wear it without unhooking it.

She plays the guitar with it too and finds no issues with it, actually amazing weapon, I'm very in love with that design.

Awawawa that's all I had for now, I'm going to have to actually start thinking of more powers now oh no

I might have to research the gods (aka refresh my memory from 7 years ago) again for inspiration and hope for the best.

Also, I think I should've done it earlier, but this is the list that like, 5 people maybe, worked on

If you see anything you like and any ideas for their powers, yeah go ahead and hit up the askbox 👀

I'm very interested to keep this AU semi-open - I allow people to engage in it! If you wish to make your own content with my ideas or add something of your own too, you can! If you're still unsure about things, you can also ask for my permission (if that makes you feel better).

[yami-writes]

MHA boys with tiktok accounts

(🏷️) paring(s): Midoriya x reader, Kaminari x reader, Todoroki x reader (🔮) summary: Midoriya, Kaminari, and todoroki with Tiktok accounts (hcs) (⚠️) warning(s): just crack n fluff here (💌) note from Yami: inspired by a request I got the other day (check it out here) (hey yall, made this at 3am dont mind me. jus vibin)

~*~*~*~*

Midoriya

i think he would enjoy tiktok

you introduced him to it

and he thought it was cool so he decided to stay for the ride

His fyp is filled to the brim with all might.

Just all might.

Occasionally some other heroes

But mainly all might ✋

He WANTS to only follow you

But he's a pushover and too nice for his own good and ended up following everyone in class

Poor bby

If he ever does decide to post, it will have something to do with heroes

Probably just recording all of his all might merch

And occasional small vlogs of what it's like at ua

Or in the dorms

And there pretty fun to watch and get a lot of love

And of course people will demand more

And, like I said, he physically can't say no

So he does more

which never fail to get under 1.5mil veiws

he’s well known in the tiktok community~~

HE WILL COMMENT NICE THINGS ON EVERY. SINGLE. VIDEO. YOU. POST.

no exceptions.

A small dance video??

"angel, your so good at dancing!!! Plz teach me someday!! I wanna be in one of your tiktoks!! :)"

precious!!

or perhaps some sort of aesthetic video

“wow! this tiktok is so pretty! just like you, angel <3(a tiktok could never compare to you)″

ahhhhhhhhhh IZUUU

you always screenshot the comment and send it to him with your response

and u could see him blushing behind the screen

if u do decide to allow him to dance in one of your tiktoks, hes so happy

like, incredibly happy

as if All Might himself walked into the room

his face will light up like a PUPPY

ok i’ll stop.

after mina’s many lessons she was able to teach him to dance pretty well

now all you had to do was teach him the dance 

and it turned out really good

ill leave the dance and the overall quality of said tiktok up to u 😌

use ur imaginations loves~~

but regardless~

the tiktok yall made 

blew. tf. up.

the comments were full of

“OMG YOU GUYS R SO CUTEE 😍”

and

“PLZ DO MOREE!!!!”

probably the most popular video you have tbh~

and you bet ur ass when midoriya found out he was gonna do another one

GOD- 

you swear his smile could make a bitch go blind~

Follower count: 5.3mil & counting

Kaminari

i know for a FACT this bitch has tiktok

i also know he is a tiktok MASTER

he knows all the trends

and the memes

and is also quite well known

his fyp definitely has A LOT of memes

and trendy stuff

and he only posts trendy stuff

the includes dances, challenges, pranks..... PRANKS.

a lot of pranks from this man....

and you, dear, are one of his main victims

along with the rest of the bakusquad

and its annoying asf bc this idiot is wasting his damn brain space that he apparently has??? to plan out a PERFECT prank

and it works EVER. SINGLE. TIME.

there is no escaping him,

and its even worst bc these pranks of his are his most popular posts

by this point there is no stoppping him.

and dont even bother trying to get him back

he can literally sense a prank

like a second quirk or sumn-

rip 💀

he will SPAMM your comments

“FGUYJGYHUK”

“GO OFFFF”

“dat ass tho 👀👀”

“u really went: 🍰🍰“

“just suffocate me with your thighs already, boo!! 😭🥺”

lmafoooo 

you cant even be bothered to reply to any of his thirsty comments

which are always the first ones you recive...

and are always top comments

rip💀

now,lemme get this straight.

he will BEG

like- on his hands and knees beg

the be in one of ur tiktoks

specifically, a dance

even more specifically, a dance thats more on the~~ scandalous side

you know what i mean sis

rolls, hair whips, throwin it back, all the shit

hell- you have NO idea how much he would love to just be in the presence of you throwin him back sum ass 

damn

once you finally give in and do a tiktok with him

and he wants to pick the dance

obviously

yall prob did a doja cat song cant lie lmafo

“Candy” perhaps??

anyways, he’ll probably mess up on purpose just so u can throw it to em again

but once he’s had enough he’ll do it properly

after about 12 attempts that is-

but dont worry cause that video got LOVE

“THIS IS SO CUTE😍”

“PLZ DANCE TOGETHER MOREEE❤️💗“

and you know denki is gonna see this

you also know he, along with ur comments, also want more

good luck, dear...

follower count: 8.1mil & counting

Todoroki

you showed him tiktok

and he watched you in your dorm making some

and he wanted to try so you helped him make an acc

ofc the first thing he does is follow you and watch some all of ur videos

every single one, sis.

i think his fyp would be full of cooking tutorials

specifically, soba

he tries, he really does.

he still cont cook with out burning something, but there IS improvment

and he would post the most random shit

literally anything

a small bug he saw on his way to school?

filmed and posted.

and that shit gets VIEWS

how you ask??

good question dearie

lets just say Mr. Shouto Todoroki is HOT

in all aspects, no exeptions

people can and will watch his tiktoks just to see him

and better bet ur ass his comments are full of thirsty girls

but thats offtopic.

he also has small videos he recored of you

whether it was you singing or dancing

doing you makeup brushing your hair

dosent matter.

he’ll have a BUNCH in his drafts he likes to scroll through daily

he never told anyone, not even you

👀👀

he dosent comment on all ur posts but he does comment on some of them

only some

specifically, the ones he likes

i mean~ he likes all of them, but if he favors a specific one over the rest, he’ll let you know

“wow, y/n. i like this video more than your others. i guess thats why im commenting. anyways, i love the tiktok, but i love you more.”

he sooooo dryyyyyy

like put a heart at least man

ANYWAYS

he usually lurks in the comments, making sure everyone is staying their place

like a security guard lmao

he’ll privately message you his thoughts on your tiktok

it’ll be a long message with a mix of compliments but also questions

“i liked the song, but whats the song called? 

“how did you make that? I really liked it though.”

dry, but pure.

i dont think he would have much interest in  being in one of your tiktoks

BUT

if you want him in one of your tiktoks

he’ll offer to stand in the background.....

then you explain to him you want him to /participate/ in the tiktok

if you want him to do a dance with you

goodluck

this man is STIFF

every move you teach him is another jab at your soul

painful

if you gather up the courage to allow him to be in the tiktok

he’ll just-

leave

as in, walk out of the room leave

...what???

he’ll come back later and act as if nothing happened

and if u question him

“i lost interest.” 

yea, like a fucking child

the damn tiktok barley even started-

follower count: 10.9mil & counting

Masterlist

[tomatograter]

do you have any thoughts on trans girl jake? i thought their narrative and character arc on being specialized by the others, and being comfortable about themself will wrap up nicely with them ending up as a transgirl!! it defies what people expects of them, and breaks them out of the traditional idealized reoccurring masculinity theme (which jake was obviously uncomfortable with)

(what follows is my personal thoughts, i’m not laying down the word of God, i just have Thots on Jake English ALSO THIS IS A PRETTY LONG POST? IM SORRY. i promise i will include pics.) 

Jake English is a gender mimic. He’s the ‘raised by wolves’ trope, except instead of literally being raised by dog like Grandpa Harley he had a few years with Jade and then mostly nothing but the monsters at lusii island and a crap-ton of escapist media. He’s used to having a full playing field where he can indulge in unquestioned fantasy, and that comes in the form of his Indiana + Croft sexy 2000′s hero persona that is comfortable for him (and its worthy of note how one is Peak masculinity and the other is Peak femme fatale) until he has to really interact with real people with Expectations and Biases. 

This is where i need to talk about the alphas. It’s nearly impossible to talk about Jake without talking about how he adapts around other people, specially the ones that he truly gives a shit about. Jake selectively picks the opinions that matter to him, and these are mostly what the other alphas think. (Compare to how he speaks over Erisol, jesters around Caliborn, and mostly pumps his own self pity with Tavrosprite for compliments- If you don’t want to count the epilogues scene he has with Davekat which mostly boils down to “you might have a point, but i’m loyal to jane, so you’ll have to really convince me of politics.”)

What holds him back from dating Dirk is Jane’s opinion, and What Jane Could Think (which is in no way jane’s fault, just his overthinking) because unlike dirk’s high octane masculinity, she’s the pillar of sitcom normalcy in his life. She lives in the real world, mostly removed from the bullshit the rest of the alphas are in, and she’s written to be the ideal generic romcom youth living a perfectly picture worthy life. The disastrous conversation where Jane denies her feelings is prompted by Jake finding confirmation she’s into him via Roxy- and he immediately grows nervous of that meaning she wouldn’t “approve” him going any other way, or that it’d be weird for a boy like him. And he needs to be sure before anything else- and also every step of the way, which will eventually exhaust her because its a load of bullshit and not her responsibility.  It’s not that he doesn’t want to, it’s more that he’s afraid what others will think if he wants.

But he’s never direct about it. He just brings things up and lets people get their own opinions from it- because he’s REALLY passive about conflict and he’d rather solve things with the least amount of struggle possible, always. He just needs confirmation. And then comes this bit:

I read this bit of text in 2 ways: 1) Jake realizing pretty soon that his attractions aren’t limited to gender. & 2) Jake realizing pretty soon that gender is just a big ole scam, and that he couldn’t care less if it weren’t for outside perception of him. It’s just another performance!

Jake’s ongoing theme is that he hates being perceived (be it sexually, mentally, personally, in the sense that he abhors judgement and objectification and is afraid of being known) just as much as he gets by freely by allowing others to project whatever they want onto him- and he’s not bound to complying unless it’s shit he enjoys. He’s an indulgence chamber. He doesn’t want to be bound by rules or expectations partly because he’s sort of a lukewarm coward and partly because he thrives in contradiction. And all that sounds pretty dandy, but it doesn’t means he’s exempt from anxiety of what others think of him every step of the way and what that means to his projected image. Brain Ghost Dirk is part dirk splinter, part jake constantly asking himself ‘what would dirk do?’ because he thinks he’s not capable on his own.

and its where we get my favorite line:

“i dont WANNA be a man and i dont WANNA punch her in the face!” Maybe 2000′s action heroes who shoot first and ask questions later are, generally, sort of pretty stupid? And his fantasy can only go so far before it becomes something all too real he doesn’t want to be a part of? THIS is the line. I’ve already written about this bit before, in how Jake’s sexuality and the denial of his agency over it are traditionally a feminine narrative applied to a character desperately trying to be the quirky male lead of an adventure story. He really wants to be both. He doesn’t want to be forced to choose or to subscribe to one extreme. He wants his cake and he’s going to fucking eat it, too.

The crockertier Jane/Jake scene encapsulates everything jake wants to project, Indiana & Croft, and spins it on its head: he would rather die than be the big man hero and hurt jane (and he does die for it, later) & becoming the femme fatale means giving up what little agency he has for other people’s eyecandy benefits. and maybe that really fucking sucks? He loves these concepts but he also really hates the reality of them? That’s the concept of Jake.

But despite all that, he’s generally comfortable with his masculinity to the point of neutrality unless somebody else brings up The Norms and how he’s betraying them by not being the definition of a cishet dude. All the alphas have a very tricky relationship with gender performance, and they rely on notions of eachother. ( https ://twitter. com/hulknaps/ status/1133205821024800769?s=20 ) But Jake relies on the alphas to define him based on the moment. He adapts to different people in different ways. he switches often, because the persona he’s constructed is not solidly him, just one of many detachable masks of convenience. the aspect of transformation or characters with chameleon features is all over his intro page too, even if it starts as a red herring that he might be lord english.

Just count how many references you can make to alter-egos, transformations, ‘avatars’, multiple personalities or forms in this one page. i’ll make some of them easy: Mystique, Ghost rider, Hulk, his beloved Avatar, all rely on the concept of having fluid forms. Two of them are also blue ladies! did you know there’s a blue hulk and he’s a goofy jock? i’m going offtopic, but you grasp the idea.

I’m utterly subscribed to the idea of Jake being GNC/nonbinary/genderfluid or simply slapping a big ‘agender’ on it. I give dirk shit for always running from the gay label out of fear, but jake sort of does this too, relying strongly on not being defined and doing whatever feels best at the moment. It also fits his aspect and denizen, but those are more abstract references.

and since i dont know how to better end this bit of meta, here’s a little section of Mystique, blue lady extraordinary and one of his beloved characters. make of it what you will.

[shiro-0197]

Hi :) ah don't worry about it!! I hope you had a wonderful time out and that you enjoyed your day. I was about to sleep but I'm not so tired yet, so I figured I'd reply and slowly doze off once Im done.

ooh melon ice cream! That sounds so lovely, I've not seen it on the menu, but they do have occasional new ice cream flavours, so let's hope that's the case when we have our date :) (they've had caramel, m&ms, oreos and the rare Malaysian specials, so fingers crossed!!) I'm guessing melon is your favourite flavour?

oh that's okay, I didn't either, until my palms just kept getting scratched and my dad was like "it's time to get you some gloves" 😭 and I just went along with it.

oh my gosh that'd be so cool!! I love it when my old graduates come in and see their old teachers and juniors again. There was this one guy who graduated a while ago, but comes back every year to coach our school debate team, because he was a national debater himself. Anyways, I hope you'll be able to visit his school as a graduate someday!!

That's the cutest analogy ever, honestly. You're right, it's a relief and something fun to do :) yeah, he's wonderful, I can truly just talk about the craziest things with him and Angel, and Abigail too, actually.

Thank you!! I hope I'm able to do it, and it isn't just a resolution I forget about ':( I love it when you go offtopic, actually. It's just so cute to see you excitedly talking (writing?¿) about something.

Aww then I wish you and him all the best. 😭😭Rightly so?? I mean, you're gorgeous, so—

KAHFKSHDKSK *visible terrified noises* 😭😭that's so cursed oh gosh. But AHH some good old teasing. I do the same with angel. Tho we do it with animal pictures Skhdkshsks tho artbreeder can make some really pretty stuff :> I tried making oikawa, and I'm actually happy with the way it turned out so—

I hope you guys get some really good cheeseburgers. And KAJDKSJSKS Norway 😭💖💖 it's like the home of fresh salmon, make sure you have some there !! AND NORSE MYTHS—

you have such picturesque cottgecore dreams wtf I want your dreams 😭😭 they sound so relaxing and soft. When I do have dreams (although they're rare) they're just of things which have 0.01% possibility of happening irl and I wake up in a cold sweat.

Yes two weirdo chilling 😭💖

Trust me I'm the exact same. Double points if they're passionate and confident about it. Then I'm choosing a wedding dress 😔🤚 tho yay I'd love to be a show-off with you (tho at some point I'd probably shut up with the dorkiest smile on my face because I'd just want to listen to you talk excitedly). And KAJDKSJSKS 😭😭 you make me wanna rewatch Kung Fu Panda it was such a good movie!! I miss it every day.

Your day sounds lovely!! Tho damn guess we gotta sue the coffee company now too. I hope tomorrow is just as amazing as today was, for you. I love you very much, Shiro.

—☃️

Tbh it was pretty boring, I only had to get some stuff done but I saw a pretty dog so I guess that's something nice about that😭 I hope you slept well!!

Hopefully!!! Though I wouldnt mind any other ice cream flavour, ice cream just cant be bad. But yeah, melon is my favorite!! What are the Malaysian specials, by the way?

Ohh I see~ we usually ignore our scratches and everything, haha. I only learnt the fact that I need to treat my wounds and not just let them be an year ago XD to be honest, I was sk confused when I saw my classmate freaking out over the cut I got while trying to make something. I was literally like "bro chill *licks wound*" and believe me when I say it made him scream 😭

Me too!!! They're usually really fun and cool people, I get so happy when I hear that they're coming. Also, a national? That's so awesome?!?!

It's always so good to have someone you can just talk about anything, be it the political issues or the bug you saw today😭 and having them as interested as i am makes me so happy xndskmd

I'm sure you can!! I believe in you, Shortcake!! Also same goes to you, you're the cutest person ever when you talk about something... anything!!

Ahahah, sounds fun!! I remember one day I sent him a screenshot of one of the characters from the Cats movie, and said that's him. AND HE IGNORED ME FOR A WEEK AFTER THAT😭😭

Ohh he looks so good!!! He looks so soft nnaggdhwhdhwh😭😭🥺🥺🥺

I didnt make this guy but I found him in the Random section, and tbh he looks so gorgeous to me I wanna marry him

His hair !!!!!!!!!😍😍😍

Ohhhh I hope the salmon is good over there, otherwise I lose hope in fish😩 also YES norse myths!!!

Awhh, I wish we knew how to control our dreams😭 I wanna be there to comfort you when you have those weird bad dreams :((

Okay that sounds like such a cute comic idea I'm gonna force ask Kuro to doodle that XD I'd love to ramble about stuff with you. I really wanna hear everything you have to say about anything!!!

Omg now I wanna rewatch the movies😭😭 Finally someone agrees with me, most people I know dont like the movies grrr

I really hope so as well!! I hope I can get even more stuff done. I really need to clean the yard from snow I think, there's a bit too much😭

I love you a lot and I hope today's going well for you! ♡♡

[tumblunni]

OH ALSO one other thing i know about yokai watch is that the european dub has the currency in british pounds! (Or australian dollars or every other currency for every language)

Thats just REALLY COOL cos seriously its so uncommon to see a game use £ currency! For some reason all our dubbed games tend to keep american dollars even when they change other stuff into british english. Tho also they barely ever change stuff into british english so thats why every 90s kid in our country was super confused by the show Recess. (Its just called "afternoon break" over here...) It became kind of a running joke how the first harry potter book had changes like philosopher's stone to sorcerer's stone and jumpers to sweaters etc. "Ha ha thos americans are dumb wanting stuff changed to fit them" we thought, not realizing how cool it would be to have american stuff retranslated so we'd 100% understand it since we'd never got to actually experience that. I mean even nowadays i work hard to correct myself into using american english on this blog but i'd never ask my american friends to translate their stuff! Its weird...

And obviously if its uncommon for british english its INFINATELY more uncommon for other english dialects! I know how privilaged we are to get even this!

Seriously i have only ever seen three games in my life that used british £, and two of them are for the 3ds! The other is tomodachi collection, and then a british made dating sim called lucky rabbit reflex. Which is funny cos thats the only actual british made game ive ever seen that didnt use dollars or some made up fantasy gold currency or something. Even our own stuff suffers from the "it has to be americanized to be sold internationally" syndrome! Like harry potter was already a multi million sensation before it got exported to america, and they still wanted to change all that stuff to be american and only stopped when they got negative feedback from both american and british fans. Its way harder for franchises that dont have as much saying power in their own decisions when getting redubbed.

Which also depressingly reminds me how stuff like SU has no choice in the matter when cartoon network decides to cut out stuff for being too gay in the goddamn british broadcast. God i hate how our country has had civil rights go backwards recently!!!!

Anyway in summary i still fuckin hate my country's government but im glad to occasionally see stuff in our language and currency and all. I'm determined that if i ever publish a game im gonna hire consultants to not only make translations to other languages but also english sub-dialects, because seriously its a really overlooked problem. Im privilaged that british english is like the second most well known dialect next to american yet we still get so little dub edits! If we're this bad then damn it must be so much worse for everyone else!!! One of my artist idols on deviantart published a cool book about translation differences between american and malaysian english and i still keep it pride of place on my shelf cos wow its a really interesting read! (And also a great comickified way to present educational stuff!) I wanna especially try and get malaysian english mode added to all of my games cos now i have multiple friends from this country and also i love seeing the malaysian indie gamemaking scene gaining more profit nowadays. Re:Legend is a great malaysian game im supporting on kickstarter and i made a rambley video advertising it on my youtube!!!

Man im going offtopic now sorry...

Man i need to go find that book again cos wow that was several years ago and i dont really go on deviantart anymore. I wonder if that cool lady is still making amazing comics? Her work was another place where i saw positive representation of trans and genderqueer folk before i did my journey of self discovery and realized i was one of them. Also she was really nice to me back when i was a tiny stupid kid entering some dumb art tournement back when i could barely draw. Man i got all depressed and wanted to delete my entire internet presence and never draw again just cos i lost when like LOL OF COURSE I DID I WAS A BABY GOING AGAINST ACTUAL ARTISTS. Ah nostalgia. Nostalgia for horrifyibg cringey bad moments of embarassment you can never fully escape.

Anyway in summary its good to have less dollars in things. Also its funny how many times you have historical games set in europey settings made in america yet the currency is always "gold pieces" or something instead.

[midblues]

it’s not that one, it’s just a random one, enjoy.

You know the fact that "just YOU were calling me or texting me" doesn't say anything. Those are some statements which u wrote to feel more relieved. Dunno why im writing this shit-text, don't even ask. Anyway, we know perfectly that the calling stuff was by reason of you being bored, or because u had something to share with///feeling shit and needed some compassion, comfort or whatever, even if you will not acknowledge this.idc.this shit is how it is. We're not lovers. We're not strangers. We're not friends. We're not "no one/nobody". We are. We are just we or I don't know how to express myself atm. Let me roll a cig. U asked me once what I dislike about you. You know perfectly that I am weak and I don't have so much courage,  and that it's very hard for me to open up or to express myself, especially after i moved to German, my confidence went to minus five thousand. The thing that I dislike is that you don't know yourself or don't know which part of you to be. Idc if you will get it wrong, im too exhausted, but read thoughtfully. It's not about the career, abilities, hobbies, and other shit. It's about being you and just you. You are kind when you don't need to be and you're not when you need to be, you don't prioritize and you don't see the world around yourself. I'm not mean now, I'm not telling you that being selfish is super bad, but don't be just self-centered when you can accomplish so many things and not to be ultra egotistical. I know that many people told you that you are cold and you don't care and blah blah blah, it's not like I do give a fuck about their statements, but I do about you and I know that you are so much better. But anyway, don't stop to listen to people opinions, it doesn't mean that you have to take it close to your heart, you just need to go through them and to make a conclusion. Why I'm telling you this? It's because we cannot see ourselves, but people can. They can see our actions, how we do things and et cetera. So yeah, what else. Don't forget to give and not only to ask. Or perhaps I'm just being selfish, maybe is the way in which I see you and I got to know you. But at least I know that the thing about priority is true. I never was one. I can be wrong. And no dear, it's not a confession. By the way, I never could imagine being in a relationship with you, it's so unrealistic, nonsensical, unachievable, impractical, unreachable whatever, call it how you want. But that feeling is so distant. Never could picture that we can be by each other's side, or calling you somehow special, like no one called you ever, or it’s more strange for me seeing u calling me somehow, damn, i think i got used to the things how are they now, and that is the main thing limiting me. I cannot see you supporting me, cooking together, sleeping or other activity which a normal couple is doing. I know that I'm not in love with you, i just cannot. Oh, this stuff is kinda offtopic, but let me continue, actually i never share these thoughts with you. They seemed so insignificant to me, like not so important to share. And they don't appear so often. Much more when im overthinking. But why not, it's 2-4 o'clock, the vulnerability time, or? I never told you that in front of my eyes you're my right person. I don't know you, meanwhile, I know you perfectly. Starting with appearance. You know that you're attractive, like very attractive. Your eyes, your smile, even the nose which you hate, your voice all of it. You're compassionate and the fact that you're still reading this prove that. You're unique. You're actually one of a kind. You're capable and talented and you may not see it because your talents are so ingrained in who you are, but your talents are impressive, just give it some more time. You're funny. Whether it's dry humor, dark or whatever, sun, you have a great sense of humor and don't even try to lie to me and say you've never made someone laugh, including yourself. At least u made me laugh so it means you are a  funny bitch :з, no more questions. You're sexy. Whether it's your jawline, your forearms, your legs, your hair, the way you walk... believe me you've made people undress you in their mind, and it probably happens fairly often. And at last but not least you're intelligent. I don't care if you are  1 class back or u have bad marks. You know things that no one else has even thought about because your interests, experiences, and knowledge are unique to you. You matter and you are special. Are you ready for more drama? here we go. We know each other for some years and we didn't spend so much time together, despite the fact that we were living in the same neighborhood. But you know what?  I can proudly say that I know you, I can see your flaws, your kindness, I can see fully that part of you which shapes you as you are. baaah so fucking confusing. Even if we weren't together, even if we didn't invest so much time into our "whatever" relationship(i think that u know that a relationship is not just a passion one.), I can say that i know you. And you know why you know perfectly why. Both of us are the same. It's boring and exciting at the same time. Eh, right person, wrong time. This phrase is so freakin' dull. I hate it, it's so fucking mainstreamed. My legs are cold. Anyway, that expression about time blah blah blah has more meanings and just the love one.  A medium one. :) So, I say that "we have a lot of growing to do", and I'm not wrong. Still, sometimes i hope that my creativity will extend and i will see a potential outcome that will keep me warm meanwhile I cannot see, touch, or speak to you. But at the same time, i don't want to bear those almost unbearable thoughts like "what if i will never reach the point of becoming the "ultimate person" in your eyes?" and "what if my personal growth takes me to a place where you can't come with me?" or "what if all works out?" And so on. Sometimes I wish you were the wrong person for me. Losing the wrong person isn't as hard as waiting for the right one to be ready.

You’re important. You matter for me. I don’t want to lose you.

Even not I still remember that unforgettable feeling when I left my country, the last minutes with you. I recall how you slipped your arms around me. You were perfectly kind and fragile. The hug. You melted into me like it was the last day of seeing me. You sweetly told me something, and i remember your voice. Even the pitch of your voice changed into something tender and husky. An uncommon pleasure.

I said nothing about the kiss. As you know I treasure more cuddle and hug than a kiss. And kinda didn't want to touch that topic. Idk, but it's kinda sad that I just felt a connection and just im remembering about it.

Perhaps i was wrong.

I'm not starting anything now, not pointing at anything, it is just a night of my thoughts, I decided to share them with you. A night when I was sensitive.

e 4:26 si stau pe tumblr acu, am inceput sa sriu la 1:19, chiar daca a fost un flux de ganduri, am mai recitit si am sters/editat. pe langa asta am vrut sa fie si corect gramatical. 

-i have an anxiety attack after posting this shit, dunno i feel like u will laugh, idk rlly idk. After you will read this post don't call me or text me. Try to act like u saw nothing. Would u?)

-or?

[tumblunni]

Also yeah while im on the subject

I really hate fantasy settings where magic is limited by biological sex. Because usually its used to enforce some sort of stupid gender stereotype that the writer believes is "biologically innate" rather than predjudice, by making up a world where it actually is biologically innate. Or its like "oh but women cant do those jobs" but again, a made up excuse for it to be LITERALLY TRUE. And usually they either dont even touch on the subject of trans and gay people (since it often conflates heterosexuality with gender...) or else it actually does bring it up and just creates a cavalcade of even more everything-ism...

Like i mean i love the game Jade Coccoon and considering it came out in the early 2000s i can understand it being more sexist, and its supossed to be a dark game anyway and a lot of the societal structures in Syrus Village are meant to be wrong and evil even if the characters act like its the way the world should be. The villain of the game is basically the toxic atmosphere of your shitty town and their paranoia of things they don't understand. Tho that means the player kinda has no motivation to finish it cos the main conflict is also saving those same villagers from dying and theyre all fucks. Anyway i'm going offtopic! What i mena is that i dont think it was a particularly sexist example of the inexplicable gender segregated magic trope. But just cos its a fave game of mine im gonna pick it to talk about anyway. Hope i dont sound too negative on it, cos seriously i love it loads!

Ok so to use Jade Cocoon as an example, here its a thing that only men can be cocoon masters and only women can be nagi. Tho it also gets a bit complicated because nagi is also an ethnicity as well? Its kinda like being romani, they're a race of displaced people who travel the world giving their magical services to other countries while searching for their lost homeland, which you end up finding at the end of the game. So yeah its extra weird cos male children of the nagi race are born with no powers whatsoever and cant even become cocoon masters, yet they get the ruling position in this homeland place? Like thats a better metaphor for how christian societies work, honestly!

Anyway im going offtopic again!

Basically, cocoon master = adventurer dude who catches monsters, nagi = magician who purifies those monsters so you can use them in battle. So when you catch stuff it becomes an inventory item rather than being able to use it on your team right away. And also nagi women can fuse monsters together to make super badass new ones and basically the gameplay system works really well to make you believe your wife is absolutely necessary to your quest and you would die without her, even if she cant fight. And honestly its actually kinda romantic! I just wish it wasnt presented as this weird sacred heterosexuality arranged marriage nonsense where all women are physically unable to go to a dungeon and all men are physically unable to not fight every day. Or at least thats how the powers work and if you try and step out of that role you fuckin die. Like it would be romantic to have a couple of a battle partner and a supporter magician if they actually chose it, yknow?

And whats annoying is that they actually do bring up the subject of people defying gender roles and canonically state that you not omly die but bring a curse upon everyone and are hated forever. They dont mention trans or gay people, instead the excuse is that a man loved his wife so much that he tried to learn nagi magic to lift the burden from her. Cos oh yeaj women get 'punished' by god for doing this magic?? Cursed tattoos all over their body the more they use it, and everyone hates them and eventually they turn into a fairy and forget they were ever human. And in the japanese version you can actually fight other nagi women who met this fate, theyre just another monster that you can fight and capture. They were censored in english cos they looked like really racist stereotypes of black women! Ugh! So yeah anyway nice straight husband is punished by the magic straightness enforcing rules of the universe for loving his straight wife too much. So what is the even point? If a man tries to use nagi magic it creates the "black cocoon" of cursed doomness and blah. Literal punishment for not conforming to gender. Damned if you do, damned if you don't!

Anyway this setting always made me wonder about all the stuff it just glosses over with this implication that every one of these relationships worked out fine. Like even before we rub lgbtq topics all over a retro videogame, there's a lot of logical holes! Like seriously how many of these arranged marriages ended up loveless or abusive? How many women just didnt want to stay confined to one room forever and not even have anyone look at them because their magic markings are shameful yet its also shameful not to want to do it?? How many men were terrified of going out on this advebture fighting literal demigods sent by heaven to punish humans? How many of them just had no ability to fight and died immediately because of shitty traditions, while perfectly qualified women had to sit there and watch it happen? What if there werent enough straight men and women of the same age and people were forced into gross pedophilic shit or other horror scenarios just cos there has to be this one magical straight couple or the village dies? Whenever theres this stupid gender magic its ALWAYS portrayed as idyllic and never failing ever, unless *gasp* people dont follow the gendrules...

And then SERIOUSLY do no queer people exist in this universe?? Man i'd be so interested in their stories! I actually had an oc idea of a self insert version of me as a travelling merchant. Because maybe what if nonbinary people could do both sides of the magic at once and thus adventure alone without being tied to a village's straight marriage system? So i'd just go around purifying monsters and then be a place you could buy new and rare mons from other villages without having to catch them. Maybe an easier way to get the super rare drop fusion materials for tiger pattern and stuff? And like seriously itd be good to have a character to talk to who agrees that your village is made of assholes. I cant say its bad writing cos it was clearly intentional, but they shoulda at least put a bit more incentive to keep playing even if you didnt care about these people. Also it would help plug the plothole of how a village even survives if it doesnt have the required people to form this magical straight marriage. Have some mysterious enby avengers who travel all across the world and save everyone regardless of country! All we ask is you buy some of our lovely souveniers! Maybe a pet patalchu for your family? Seripusly why dont they ever show anyone using the purified monsters for anything other than fighting the unpurified ones? You'd think they'd be really useful in repairing the village and guarding the walls and like..regular industrial jobs. Help the place actually advance and not have to live day to day on scraps,bickering amoungst themselves as the monsters grow ever closer to breaking through. Hell, you could even have them help spin the cocoons for other monsters! If this magic only depends on having a dick or not, then cant we just dress up some animals in the magic straight marriage outfits? XD

And like aaaa man im getting so emotional just imagining a trans woman who's constabtly told she will literally bring about the apocolypse if she tries to fill the female role in this ritual. And then one day she tries to spin the magic silk and she thinks she's committing the ultimate sin and they were all right. But the magic responds to her touch, and she makes a spell more beautiful than any other woman in the village! It would probably be harder for a trans man cos the magic doesnt have so much of an immediate proof like that. Just going out and winning a fight with a monster can be called "dumb luck", and knowing these assholes they'd probably keep calling it dumb luck even after the thousandth time you save their life!

And man, i wonder how gay relationships would work in such an annoyingly strict system of enforced heterosexuality? Would it be like the magic isnt REALLY gender locked at all, and it can just be any couple with either partner taking either role? Or would it be that it is one magic per gender but the bigoted villagers were wrong about it being impossible to do things without both? Like maybe when you're going into battle alone as a single cocoon master you cant fight without catching other monsters. But when two cocoon masters love each other their magic is amplified and they become able to like.. I dunno.. Imbue each other with elemental strength so they can fight the monsters hand to hand? Cos really the elemental system is the only reason you cant do a no monsters run of the game as it is. Maybe since they cant purify monsters but they can still catch them, they equip the monsters as sort of a power rangers transformation? Or socket them like materia on their weapons? Or just if the world was less segregated into tiny sexist racist villages they could simply buy the purification coccoons from another local nagi, and villages without a coccoon master could buy the services of travelling ones. Oh, and maybe two nagi lesbians could be even more badass! Cos if they can only purify and not fight, maybe their double purification is so strong that they can just straight up walk into the forest and monsters don't attack them. They dont even need to do the full spell, they can calm a beastie's rage just by holding out their hand and patting it on the head. So they coukd be infinately more effective and not have to just tenporarily clear single travelling routes of a few monsters, but actually work towards slowly purifying the entire forest and creating a peaceful land again. Tho i mean the game did have a unique atmosphere with the whole 'no hope of ever beating them' aspect. It was unique to see a society formed around the idea of never going into forests or you Die. But magical lesbians and their family of a million pet dragons is honestly better!

And uhhhh ive gone all offtopic now and i camt stop thinking about how much i love magical lesbians with a million pet dragons

The End

[tumblunni]

How do I write an autistic villain without demonizing autism by accident? ;-;

I’m not really sure why you’re messaging this to me. I’m really sorry but I’m not an expert on like.. political stuff about autism stereotyping, just because I’m autistic. And it depends on which country you live in, I know that america has a far more visible sort of cultural presence for stereotypes, due to the whole Autism $peaks controversies. I dont live in america and I’m not super smart or anything, so yeah this is a disclaimer that this is just my opinion and you should probably research answers given by other people too. And maybe ask people about the specific circumstances of what you’re writing, like the context of the setting of the story and what the villain is like, etc. I’d be happy to chat to you about that if you need help! (but again, im no expert, lol)

ANYWAY!

My opinion on the subject is that having an autistic villain is perfectly fine, as long as you’re not villainizing autism. Like...* Don’t make the autism the reason theyre a villain.* Don’t make people scared of them because of the autism, rather than because they’re a villain.* Don’t treat their autistic traits as scary or inherantly villainous.* Don’t make anyone insult them for their autism and act like its justified because they’re evil.

And similarly its bad form to do any of that stuff in regard to any sort of minority really. An example that always bugged me is how Excellus from Fire Emblem Awakening is scary and evil because he’s a murderous monster, yet everyone in the game constantly insults him for the fact he acts ambiguously gay/transgender/effeminate. Like, there’s way too many jokes about people finding him ‘disgusting’ because of some random thing he can’t change, like a sexuality, race or mental illness which plenty of non-evil people have too! It also lessens his impact as a villain because the characters barely even address the actual villainous things he does, and he doesnt seem to have any motive at all. They just ride on the whole ‘the audience will find him gross’ thing as a crutch and forgot to bother writing a good villain.

Oh, and your concerns are indeed valid, yo! Sometimes it is important to think about the context you created a character in, even if you didnt intentionally create any negative messages within your writing.It’s just that the case where a character will be seen as villainizing [minority trait] for being a villain... that’s kind of only in a very specific circumstance? its just that this specific circumstance is very very common in mass media nowadays.It’s ‘The Smurfette Principle’.If you only have one character of a minority in your cast, its easy for an uninformed audience to pick up messages that you’re saying ALL members of that minority are the same as them.If you only have one autistic character and he’s the villain, then you might accidentally be villainizing him. In a world where autistic characters being villainized for their autism is already very common, people could just assume you made them autistic for the same reason all those other writers did- because they think it’s ‘scary’. It feeds the stereotype even if you didn’t conciously intend it that way.

So a very very easy way to fix this problem is just to add multiple characters of a minority into your story, filling various roles from villain to hero to helpful npc. or anything you can think of!

Another good quick fix is to have your villain be autistic, but portray their autistic traits as sympathetic/relateable/a humanizing aspect of them. Not just portraying it as something neutral that doesnt make them scary, but going out of your way to add some scenes showing how they’re just like anybody else. Or even making it one of their redeeming traits!It doesn’t have to outright be something like ‘yo being autistic makes me inherantly good and childlike’, which is a stereotype all to itself, lol. But you could show them experiencing predjudice from another character, in a way that makes the audience sympathise. Honestly having a character attack them for being autistic instead of being a villain would be a good way to do this, as long as that character is actually shown as being wrong for what they’re doing. Or simply showing the villain having common autistic traits, facing common problems, doing common everyday things... that can be enough to portray autism positively. Have them shown doing this stuff outside of the situation of them being villainous. It makes them feel more human and less of an abstract symbol of evil. And because these small glimpses of normality are lightening the mood, they become seen as a positive aspect!

KIND OF AN OFFTOPIC TANGEANT SORRYJust my personal experience as an autistic kid experiencing this story... I personally headcanoned Cyrus from pokemon as autistic. Not because he’s ‘scary and emotionless’, but because his backstory was relateable to me as an autistic person. It’s said that his parents were emotionally abusive, and that he had nobody to turn to because everyone thought he was ‘a creepy kid’. And he was able to find solace by obsessing over repairing machines in his bedroom, and apparantly has trouble understanding people because they can’t be fixed as easily. Stuff like maths and science are kind of a stereotypical Special Interest for autistic children to be given in fiction, I guess because it makes you seem more intelligent when you obsess about that instead of video games, norse mythology, or collecting tiny novelty spoons from around the world XD (Yeah i was a weird kid.)So yeah sorry I went a little offtopic there, but the point is that it might have been by accident instead of intention but that villain has a lot of traits that read as autistic. And when i first played Diamond and Pearl I actually disliked him a lot because of that, I felt like they were villainizing someone who seemed relateable and potentially redeemable. I mean, he seemed pretty depressed too! Give that man some therapy! But when I played Platinum and got to learn his backstory I started to feel like the writers actually did want us to feel sympathetic to him, because of how all those ‘scary’ traits were presented so sympathetically. Like.. the backstory isn’t that he became evil because he was an autistic kid who did creepy things like obsess about machinery and suck at social contact. No, he became a villain because he was abused by his parents, him being ‘weird’ is just intended to make it clear here that he didnt deserve it. It makes him pitiable, it makes him relateable, it makes you feel so much more frustrated that nobody listened to him and saved him from that hell, and nobody even seems to remember him fondly, just because he was ‘weird’. And hell, even his ‘emotion is evil’ philosophy seems very relateable to me as an autistic child. It seems like he learned to seclude himself to avoid angering his parents. That’s the impression I got from his final scene in Platinum, where he finally acts angry at you for beating him, then gets angry at himself for expressing emotion and forces himself to go back to how he usually talks. I get a bit pissed off whenever I see fans of the series claim he actually IS emotionless, lol! This scene made it clear to me that this is just a guy who WISHES he was emotionless, somehow seeing it as the only way to be free of pain. Someone who struggles to deal with his own emotions, or feels like he’s disgusting when he expresses them. And this is VERY relateable specifically to an autistic kid who suffered from an abusive parent! “Quiet Hands” is a kind of common concept that autistic kids might experience, that’s the name for a popular ‘parenting technique’ that really fucks people up. Focusing on making your kid never ‘act autistic’, rather than actually helping them understand things. ‘Quiet Hands’ is specifically about slapping or smacking your kid whenever they show stimming behaviour. (Hand flapping being a common way this symptom can manifest.) We’re taught never to be too loud, and to always always have to restrain ourselves to avoid embarassing our parents. We have to try and learn how to act like ‘normal people’ and become scared of harmless parts of our own brain just because theyre ‘embarassing’, leading to even worse emotional problems as an adult. i mean seriously how is it logical to tell a kid who has troubles with social interaction that they shouldnt even practise it?? Plus its a huge mess to teach these kids to do way more emotional labour than neurotypical kids are expected to do, and then treat them like they’re below average intelligence for not being able to do twice as much as everyone else...

ANYWAY! That’s a thinG! Sorry I went rambling off there about how a particular fictional character touched my heart, lol!I just kinda wish he could be canonically autistic, or if I had similar canonically autistic characters to relate to, instead. So i think having more autistic villains can’t be bad, we’re so badly in need of more autistic characters in general! And villains have a unique perspective of being able to hit our emotions the hardest. I think its easier to cry over someone who has a sad backstory of how they became evil, compared to anything else!So yeah what I was trying to say before I went offtopic is that if the backstory is ‘became evil because autism’, then people will complain. But if the backstory is ‘became evil because someone mistreated them because autism’ then that’s a good way to make people sympathise with autism. Aaaaand I’m bad at explaining this, because autism XD Well, i mean, my personal symptoms and lack of diagnosis til I was an adult means that I’m still working on learning how to communicate correctly, I don’t mean every autistic person writes terrible tl;dr advice posts that degrade into pokemon XDOh man i feel embarassed now, you asked me such a polite question and I didnt know how to answer it very well...I just hope maybe I inspired you to go out and do more research, rather than putting you off with my nonsense!

[tumblunni]

HEYO! oh man now my friend helped me get all inspired again for working on my Cathedral Tower Defense game so WOO lets have another long post of miscellaneous ideasies for storyness! may not be very coherant tho cos i am super tired and ill! but happy!! THANKS SUMMON-DAZE FOR BEING MY ULTRA BESTIE

* Okay now I am super sure that I’m gonna let you choose the gender of the protagonist! And I wanna keep it so that their name is Amity either way, cos that’s kinda stuck in my mind. Surname Amity, player gets to decide the first name, but people will still be calling you Amity a lot at first cos you start off all awkward and formal with everybody. You’re a newcomer to this cathedral town and nobody knows whether to trust you, from their perspective you’re this dangerous person theyre forced to accept just because they need you to help protect them, whether you’re good or bad. They’re all worried what price they might have to pay for this, trying to figure out how to minimize the damage if you turn on them... and its not like they’re bad people for being untrustworthy, they’re just scared people huddling in a church and trying to keep their families safe at any cost. So try and prove your worth to them, and help them learn to protect themselves too, and make this ramshackle settlement into a real home! ....anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, gender selection is a good! And it could be relatively easy to impliment too, cos of the situation. Doesnt even necessarily have to be a menu or anything, it could just be like sir amity/lady amity/master amity. Cos you’re this paladin knighto, itd make sense for them to ask for your title. And it could just be like a shot of protagonist’s badass silhouette in the gateway of the cathedral and then you get the dialogue choice to pick your identity, and its all Super Cool~!

* It also actually gives me more of an idea of what i could do for their design, like I dunno maybe they have some sort of face-concealing helm or headdress or something. I was just thinking of them being dressed like a generic nun or princess but maybe emphasize more on the knight aspect instead of the holy part? So like anyway, maybe they have a very all-concealing outfit and that could be the framing of the first scene instead, its like *pulls off the mask and you’re into the character selection screen* Orrrrrr maybe there doesnt need to be any magical setup for a gender selection and it can just be a menu before the first scene starts XD Or maybe you have a cool face-concealing helmet thing anyway, like all three gender options just have a different one, lol

* More random magical names i got via the cool name generator site summon-daze linked to me! Dunno if I’ll actually use any of these but im writing them down here so i dont forget. Berebath, Betnia, Amurziz, Jetre, Miemahl, Semdach, Batxahl, Sidefarch, Botolohn, Vausach, Thammoch, Droibhal, Lekonach, Zeidhal, Tieloch, Rabrohm, Maesur, Smoiroch, Baelbuhr, Axoth, Jige, Chushou, Hukru, Nejeget, Roucu,  Jinah, Aujus, Yekoth, Nugresah, Israfel, Jabriel, Tabris, Douma

* Also I’m remembering Jade Cocoon and how I liked that the different ‘families’ of monsters shared naming traits. Like how all those weird snake/slug cutiepies that i loved best were nushab, rashab, etc etc. And tamatoch and somethingtoch and so on. I think there was at least one where the modifier was a prefix too? I dunno why i’m talking about this, but there you go. I just think if i wanna do full original made up names for demon species then i wanna make em stuff that just... feels like that. I dont actually wanna make like five different elements of each one tho, i wanna have only one per element and then they have like two different higher level finalized forms. Like, the human characters can have two job classes each and the demons can have two specializations within an element. That helps me think about how to limit it down to four or five elements, if we can combine common fantasy elements together! And yeah I was thinking it’d be cool if the demon ‘job classes’ could have their own evolving appearances and new names!

* Thoughts for the ol elemental groupings! The only one I really have finalized is grass + poison = same thing. Florin, why u always the character that gets developed faster than everyone else XD And I’m thinking giving them their own made up names would make it easier! Like how in SMT you have spells being stuff like ‘media’ and ‘agi’ instead of cure and fire. But here (hopefully) it’d be easier to memorize cos its just the element names that’re fantasy words, and the attacks themselves would be a little more self explanatory. i just think it’d work cos like... the idea i had of rock and fire being one single demon type, you could just call that magma. But i mean, what can you call plant + poison? Except.. like.. plant. Cos poison is reasonably often a grass type skill anyway. And i mean, game creators dont often worry about making sense, what with how ‘grass’ is the common element name when thats just one plant in a million. I cant stop thinking about that now I’ve noticed it! I legit thought grass was a synonym for plant when i was a kid, i learned to read from pokemon yellow... ANYWAY IM GETTING OFFTOPIC AGAIN The other idea I had for groupings was fire + non-elemental together? I was just thinking like... aura. Non elemental/physical attack as a ‘magic’ could be fighting spirit! And thematically speaking it tends to be shown as fire effects in anime, i guess XD But then i couldnt put fire with rock and that means I’d have to redesign malachi again. his design ended up looking more firey than rocky :P Another idea is maybe darkness + non-elemental together? like, interpret non-elemental as ‘void’. Or light and dark could be together actually, that could be an interesting way to do it, instead of having them opposing. Like maybe the elements could be colours! Grey element, able to specialize into white or black but neither is any sort of ‘good and evil’. And then the rest could be like green or like.. instead of red maybe fire could be bronze and thats why it has rock skills too? or man, maybe rock and metal could be one element and fire could be grouped with something else. And would water and ice be too ordinary and boring? do they already kinda count as one element? should I throw in something else? GAHHHHHHH

* Ideas for the multiple religious groups aligned with each element! I’m thinking I want one of them to interpret the setting’s absent god as two deities. like, every perspective on this deity is a wildly different character, this one is just even more so! they’d see malahat (tentative name) as two people, but kinda more like a shared soul that can manifest as either a male or female form. But there’d be ambiguity and debates in the mythos over whether this is actually a genderfluid god, or if its ‘twins who were cursed to never exist at the same time’, or various other variations on the story. I wanna make it like real life, where even within (for example) catholocism, there’s different sects and different translations of the same text. And where there’s predjudice against minority groups and people like to twist their faith to ‘justify’ it, even when parts of the original tale could easily justify treating those people with kindness too. So there’d be some followers of the twins religion who are very openminded to LGBTQ people, and historically anyone trans was able to hold a unique position as a priest, being treated as someone blessed by god. But like in norse mythology, this wasnt necessarily a sign that society was 100% okay with LGBTQ people. Its kinda depressing to read about how trans women and gay men were considered the only people able to become a specific kind of witches, but also how you kinda HAD to take this one safety net in society to stop people from making you an outcast. It was like ‘make them fear me so they dont fuckin kill me’. You had to become a medicine person and at least claim to believe in these magic powers, you had to be blessed by the gods to prove you were like.. one of the good ones. Otherwise its like youre saying the gods made a mistake when they made you, or youre choosing to be a deviant against nature. i can only imagine how terrifying it must have been if you believed in that religion and had to like.. be forced to go against it and leave society, or be forced to lie about being chosen by a god for a higher purpose, while believing that any moment you might get struck down for lying. And then I read in other history books about how the concept of homosexuality was far different in that old society too, how male-on-male sex was accepted at sea as long as you were the dominant one and you were forcing something unwanted onto a lesser shipmate as punishment. Like ugh, rape being more socially accepted than consensual LGBTQ relationships! I guess the only solace is that we can never be 100% sure how much of historians’s theories are correct and what might have changed in retellings of history, but honestly I can believe the past is this fucked up when the present is already fucked up in different ways. BUT ANYWAY I wanna explore those themes in my story maybe. And I wanna do more research into the subject to make sure I’m doing it justice, even though its a very sad subject that might be quite stressful. Maaaaan, I remember how I used to obsess about researching norse myth as a kid, it was one of my first Special Interests and I really wanted to see all the different reinterpretations of Loki and write my own fanfic/adaptation/vaguely inspired original story about What If He Stayed A Good Guy. Man I had soooo much sympathy for the poor sod. I mean it depends on the retelling whether he was always evil or whether he was like a comedic neutral ally to the gods who just abruptly becomes evil and gets killed off without remorse in the final story. And gahhh he’s like the biggest LGBTQ bastion in the whole mythos, and how can I not feel sympathetic?? When we get all these stories about him being a literal genderfluid shapeshifter and giving birth to half of his children and just like seriously its like The Story Of the One Trans Man In Homophobic Transphobic Valhalla and he was probably meant to seem Bad and Funny and whatever but im gonna sit here and grumpily cling onto the idea that he was deliberately written as trans, or that if these gods actually do exist out there somewhere then Loki would support me. *pout* I just have a lot of good memories of how this was like the first sign of me realizing my own gender, back when I first learned about Loki in school and then devoured every damn history book about the dude. And got in a million internet pissing matches about how innacurate the marvel version was XD Also it sucks that we like to believe that modern times are always 100% more enlightened in every way, yet its modern adaptations that always censor out the bits about him shifting gender identities and getting pregnant once. ... man this has gone offtopic too much, im really tired but seriously its funny how teenage bunni had NO CLUE they were nonbinary, no clue why they got so obsessed researching gender-defying mythological figures and historians who created gender neutral pronouns in the 1800s. i was so supernaturally oblivious, holy shit...

[tumblunni]

Mannnnn I just cannot get over how many great well-developed relationships there are within the Rune Factory 4 cast! Its just great how much all the different love interests interact with each other outside of their romance route, and how all the non-romanceable characters are still an equally big presence by being family/mentors/employers/best friends/etc to the love interests and to each other and everyone has a job role in the town and they have so many great interactions and just GAHHHH its so great!! Its like one big family made of families made of families then you marry into the family and the family and also the family perhaps. THEN YOU HAVE A CUTE CHILD. aaaaaa

Anyway.. umm.. lol... Yeah THIS IS BUNNI JUST FLAILING AT HOW GREAT THE GAME IS

ALL THE FAMS:

Ventuswill the mentor lady best friend/team mum/LITERALLY THE GOD OF THIS COUNTRY AND A GIANT DRAGON man i just cry forever for her aaaa Everybody’s own unique love for her, and how she kinda unites us all as a family aaaa The butler family coworker trio who met each other because of her! I really like to see it as clorica and vishnal having a brother sister relationship, they dont get any particular big scenes together but they just seem to be such cute friends who never have any of the rivalry you’d expect when theyre both competing as volkanon’s students. VOLKANON IS LIKE YOUR GRANDPA AND HE IS THE BEST CHARACTER The whole restaurant fam! You get to see it expand as the story goes on! And aaaa its just so heartwarming that porcoline adopts all these random homeless people and aaaa!!! DYLAS LEARNED TO COOK. THEY ALL LOVE THEIR STUPID TWIRLY GOOFBALL DAD. And its so nice that these very different personalities end up coming together and being like siblings when they probably wouldnt have befriended each other if not for this random stroke of chance. Its just so cute seeing margaret looking out for her new brothers, and dylas being so polite and formal to arthur, and arthur just being all ‘haha i dont know anything about having a loving family what a rare novelty’ *constantly crying inside* And they bicker sometimes and when they team up theyre a super powerful force, and theyre all like the parents to porcoline’s childishness and aaaaa super talented restaurant fam, super colourful quartet of hugs aaaa THEY ARE MY FAVOURITE OKAY And Forte + Kiel adorable siblings with the unique plot and semi tragic aspect of living alone together at a young age and each trying to take the place of their deceased parents and protect each other And then Bado is like their weird adoptive uncle who’s lived next door since back when their parents were alive, and promised to keep them safe. but he’s kind of a wreck of a man who’s perpetually messing up his silly get rich quick schemes but DEEP AT HEART HE CAAAAARES! but still he is kind of a mess and would probably turn up drunk on their couch half the time. i love him he reminds me of sirius black if he ate del boy from Only Fools And Horses to absorb his strength And then there’s Illuminata who’s like Bado’s evil twin kinda?? They should have more interactions, theyre the bad influence grownups duo XD And I just love the underrated relationship between her and her ‘sidekick’ amber, and how she’s kinda like a big sister who doesnt wanna be called one. I totally only have you here to serve my nefarious purposes! Umm, I mean, my purposes of justice!! And then she’s often playing the cool big sis to all the various female characters in the town, even though at the same time she’s also part of the ‘adults who need a mom friend’ group XD I think margaret and forte actually win the crowd of the true mom friends even though theyre not the oldest (I also like that they have an unlikelu friendship together, though i wish if margaret is allowed to have a canonical gay crush then why isnt she allowed to be a gay marriage option...) And then Lin Fa and Xiao Mei kinda dont stand out as much cos theyre more of a very normal mother and daughter, beyond Lin Fa just being this spacey super nice but super clumsy person. She’s not quite the funny parent-child like porco and co, but she’s funny in her own way cos of how cheerful and positive she is about all her failures. Xiao Mei got all the common sense! Its also nice and cute how Xiao Mei is physically clumsy but super competant and mature, while her mum is perfectly elegant yet completely scatterbrained. And they’re both totally huggable, Xiao Mei dont be jealous that everyone has crushes on your mum! I feel so bad when she’s all ‘i’ll never succeed cos i cant be cute in the same way as her’, as if there’s only one definition of feminine beauty or whatever. CAN YOU NOT SEE YOUR MUM HAS FLAWS TOO. you are powerful togetherrrrrr! i am just so envious seeing these characters with supportive mums that’re like their best friend and they can talk about everything together ^_^ And then there’s the doctor family with the super lovey dovey married couple of funnyness and mushy mush, and they adopt some orphans too~! EVERYONE ADOPTS EVERYBODY: THE GAME. I love seeing the cold and distant Dolce warm up to them and regain her faith that she wont be hurt if she loves someone again. Also Pico is very cute and hilarious! Even if again I get very annoyed at this game having so much queerbaiting, lol. I kinda laughed at the wiki saying dolce and pico were ‘like sister’, i mean seriously?? Pico is like your typical ‘looks like a child but is really 100′ love interest and dolce is the poor harem show protagonist who never asked for this XD I do like though that even if it seems dolce very much doesnt requite pico’s feelings, theyre still best friends either way. Pico’s super comedic flirting attempts seem to come off like she’s completely aware that dolce doesnt love her back, and she just wants to make some humour out of the situation to let dolce know she still cares about her even if they’re never gonna date. Its nice, we dont often see relationships like that in fiction, a childhood friend who confess a crush, gets turned down, and it actually ends positively and they remain friends. Its just a shame it had to be like... one of the few openly LGBTQ characters in the game, and nobody is ever allowed to date anybody or have a happy ending or be a romance route or even mention the word gay, even as theyre constantly being incredibly vocal about how its canon these characters have crushes on each other. gahhhhh. I mean we literally have doug and dylas proposing to each other and confessing their love but LOL HA its just a ~wacky misunderstanding~ but btw lets just rub it in that they are VERY MUCH intended to be seen as gay by the audience but theyre not ~really~ gay even when we say they are and GAHHH okay sorry im getting offtopic now :P Anyway its really sad that Pico is stuck as the same unchanging ghost child while her best friend grows up and marries someone else. And man, she had to spend all those years guarding monster form dolce until someone was able to free her, and we dont even know how pico died so her life could have even more tragedy in it. After all that I guess its a relief that she can be this comic relief jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold manzai duo partner to dolce and also like the freeloading friend on her metahphorical ghost couch. And its nice how much the doctor couple completely accept ‘dolce’s friend’ and are some of the few people who never remotely worry about her haunting the town. And then AAAAA there’s the four guardians themselves who’re like a family cos they were all people who were like family to ventuswill in different time periods, and then met each other for the first time when they were purified from their monster forms and bonded over how much they all love the same friend. And theyre such a badass quartet of cool monsterfolks!! And I like that they have lil relationships inside the quartet, like how dolce and amber are polar opposite sunshine and grumpiness but dolce secretly likes her a lot more than she lets on, and how leon likes to tease dylas but also kinda be his wingman. And I like how leon takes this role to a lot of the other batchelors too, he’s this totally shameless frat boy big brother figure XD “HEY PROTAGONIST DO YOU WANNA HEAR ABOUT DOUG’S SEX LIFE” And then aaaa doug and granny blossom AAAAAA granny blossom is probably the character who gets the least scenes, backstory, and general focus, but I still love her a lot. And they have a good dynamic together! I like that it starts off seeming like just a completely normal grandma granson relationship, but then you learn later that he’s adopted, and that he actually began as a spy for the evil empire who realized the error of his ways after infiltrating the town and finding so much love inside it. And then he’s just so scared cos blossom’s illness might bring her to an early grave, and he’s always being disobedient and rebellious because he wants to do anything to protect her even if she tells him not to put himself at risk and AAAAAA

why are there so many amazing fams and theres even so many small hints of characters who maybe only interact once or twice and then there’s room to headcanon even more fams and AAAAAA and the protagonist’s place in the complex web of fams is up to you to decide!! ITS LIKE EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED IN A GAME

oh and randomly I liked that xiao mei’s father isnt a major character in the game, but there’s not any tragic reason or anything. he’s just a travelling merchant and lin fa is very accepting of her husband being gone off on trips for long periods of time, she has every confidence he will never stray away from her and she supports him pursuing his travelling dreams! and also it was funny how his one brief appearance has him with the generic traveller 3d model, to point out how much he isnt a main character compared to his wife XD and it was just really cute how happy everyone was when he visited, and how the player accidentally helps improve their family business! and aaa the backstory story about arthur’s mother is SO DAMN SAD, and dolce’s biological parents who she left behind when she sacrificed her life, and just AAAAA even the tiny one-line-only minor fams are such quality fams FAMS GAME REVENGE OF THE FAMS