#i mean i'm not a fan of shipping real life players but this is just a lighthearted joke

[bokutosbabe]

Call It What You Want To

(soft launching with the bllk boys)

a / n — i love soft launches and blue lock…so why not combine them?

content — fluff, cutesie stuff, bllk characters x fem! reader, pretty much gn! but i did use ‘she’ so just to be safe, + your faves if you want!!

synopsis — soft launches with the boyfies <3

✿.｡. “ nobody’s heard from me for months , ” .｡.✿

is NEVER on social media. has accounts of course, but never posts on them. usually the most they do is repost things about soccer on their stories. so when they post these pictures as their first post EVER? it’s inevitable that their fans are going to go insane.

they preferred posting these pictures, neither of your faces showing. you’d both decided to keep your relationship “private but not secret” , if someone were to find out it was you in these photos? so be it. they would never dream of hiding you from the world.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ RIN ITOSHI, barou shouei, sae itoshi, jinpachi ego

they don't have many posts, but the ones they do have no less than a million likes each. their fans are adoring, so when they post a new photo, thousands of people get the notification and within seconds the post has 200k likes.

their fans are insane, and that's putting it lightly. they find your account within a minute all by looking at your phone case and finding your account.

the both of you wake up the next morning and find yourselves not only trending on twitter, but also with thousands of edits made of the two of you. AND A SHIP NAME??

so much for a soft launch.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ YUKIMIYA KENYU(im biased), shido ryusei, MICHAEL KAISER, hyoma chigiri

a chronic poster. i mean literal photo dumps GALORE. they had many fans, obviously with them being a famous soccer player, but also because of how 'real' they were. they would constantly post stories in the bathroom and ranting- all that fun stuff.

their fans had no indication that they'd been in a relationship at all. which was strange because due to their openness, their fans began thinking they deserved to know every little thing about them.

they just wanted to keep you their little secret for a little bit, so they posted these very inconspicuous photos and had the internet up in a frenzy.

soccerluver44: WHO IS THIS??

urmomshouse: no way

and thousands of comments just like that flooded their inbox.

this was fun, they thought. maybe for a little while longer they'd keep you their little secret. the thought crossed their mind as they pressed the 'your story' button, posting a photo of them sitting on the sink with your arms wrapped around them.

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ MEGURU BACHIRA, isagi yoichi, EITA OTOYA, oliver aiku

not a constant poster, but definitely has a social media presence. they mostly post about their upcoming games and where to get tickets and watch. they definitely don't post about their personal life, so when people log on and see a soft launch??

the world goes into a state of shock. the comments are limited, so no one besides people they follow back (most of which who already knew of the relationship) are allowed to comment.

they did this on purpose. they saw no point in having strangers question them when the caption said it all

" spoiling my girl <3 "

°❀⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ REO MIKAGE, tabito karasu, jyubei aryu, DON LORENZO

✿.｡. “ i'm doing better than i ever was ” .｡.✿

took myself to the computer version to do this since there's a photo limit on the mobile version.

hope yall liked it though, i've never done anything like this before!!

likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated!!

[thegoldencontracts]

Hi

What do you think about Self aware!Housewardens and what are your Headcanons for them HSBSJJAJAJAHA idk I've been into ddlc recently.

FELLOW DDLC + TWST FAN SPOTTED I MUST RAMBLE

I'm going to make more specific fics with this later because who doesn't like self-aware AUs? Probably someone but that someone is not me

Ignorance is Bliss

The housewardens of Night Raven College come to a crippling realization about the truth of their world. They all handle it in different ways.

Riddle, who knows he's in a game, that everyone here is fake. What did he learn all these rules for? What was the point of his suffering? He's just a character to be watched by others for amusement's sake. Was the Queen of Hearts a mere character too? Did any of this have meaning? But then he sees you. You're real, and he's enraptured. What are the rules of your world, the real world where life isn't some story to be played? Though Riddle can't help but envy you, he really does wish to get to know you better.

Leona is hit by the revelation after his overblot. Everything he's gone through was all a part of some game. Just a way to keep players entertained. You're real. You'll never have to deal with the crippling realization that everything you say's a part of some script, that whole life's a game you'll never be able to leave. More than anything, Leona hates the fact that he knows your kindness towards him is all fake, but he still can't help but be captivated.

Azul is envious, just like Leona. He's gone through all of this just for entertainment? His overblot, his family, his world- none of it was real? And you're there, watching his suffering like it's some game for you to play, because that's really all it is. A game. He's a character in a game. But, seeing how real you are, even if your words are conveyed through the black sprite of a self-insert protagonist, how genuine your kindness is - it draws him in. He's meant to be a cold, rational individual, but perhaps he can be a bit softer with you. You won't mock him. You won't leave. And besides, if this really is some odd game, can't Azul get more of your gems with gap Moe?

Kalim is rather accepting of his circumstances. Sure, he's heartbroken to see the truth - that his whole life's a part of some gacha game meant to make some massive corporation called Disney more money, but can he really do anything about it? Besides, Kalim has always been someone who believes in making the best of the terrible hand he's been dealt. He's stayed kind in the face on constant poisoning attempts, and he's kept his heart in a world where there was no one he could trust. And in his attempts to make the best of his situation, he can't help but get closer to you. After all, you're a real person, and you don't gain anything from turning on him. You appreciate his kindness, and even if there's a fourth-wall separating the two of you, Kalim's grateful.

Vil is shaken by the revelation. This is all a game? You're just here to be entertained? But in spite of how worldview-shattering the realization that he's just a game character meant to Garner profit is, he can't help but he oddly comforted. Nothing's wrong with him. Neige 's performance was supposed to be worse than his, and the ordeal at VDC was just as unfair as he thought. Though Vil isn't exactly fine and dandy, he's not quite broken either. And, in the actual fanbase of this game he's in, people like him better than Neige? And you're one of those people? If it turns out you write fanfic or draw fanart of him, he'll be very appreciative.

Idia's shocked. His brother's death, his overblot, all the overblots, they were setups for him to be a character in some non-otome gacha game? It's weird. Idia's all too used to not being in control of his life, though. He just tries to cope in any way he can. He's definitely going to try and learn about his fandom, what type of ships and fanfic and fanart and the like are made about him. He's one of the most likely to try and ask you about the fandom. If you make fancontent for him, he's going to be especially interested. Be warned, though, he will nitpick your characterization of him so hard. At least your stats are better now, I guess?

Malleus is already an isolated individual, and now you're telling him what little connection to others he has is fake? In all honesty, he's definitely the most attached to you out of all the dorm heads. You're the only real friend he'll ever be able to have. The only real friend any of them will ever be able to have. He does find comfort in his massive fanbase, though. You're telling him all these people care for him, and because of the difference in the way time passes in game vs in reality, they won't die in a matter of what feels like seconds for him? As shaken as he is by everything, it really is a comfort.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Yo! Good morning/evening, hope you are fine^^💝. I wanted to ask you a question but I was afraid that it may bother you or something (you know..that feeling when you are scared that you might disturb someone or being an unwelcome person) but yeah I will ask you since i was serious about your answer for some time now so I hope I'm not annoying you or something *feel free to answer only if you wish^^. You seem to know the characters pretty well, you are quite capable and great at reading and understanding them, one of the things I'm serious about is what do you think would make someone qualified enough to be with malleus? Do they have to be of the same species?certain Reputation, stature or traits?(sorry can't help it since I can't rest until I know everything about what interests me and figure it all out😅). Thanks for giving me some of your precious time I really like your blog, you're amazing💜

No worries, you’re not bothering me at all ^^ I love to talk about my hyperfixations www

Now, I know a lot of fans (particularly on the EN side) like to ship Malleus with their OC and especially with Yuu so I want to first make it clear that my response is NOT meant to invalidate those Malleus shippers. Whatever I say here is based on my own interpretation of canon lore (and let’s be real here, TWST won’t ever confirm if anyone is romantically interested in Yuu because it might not work with how some players view their own relationship with that character). In fanon, anyone can be with anyone, but in canon there are very specific in-universe rules and expectations laid out for Malleus so these are what I will be referring to.

I also want to emphasize that the final traits I discuss in this post do NOT reflect Malleus’s personal tastes or views. He has little say in what kind of an individual his spouse would be, so his own preferences are not speculated about or taken into account here. The traits I will be bringing up are based on what I believe the lore implies are the desirable traits for those marrying into the Draconia royal family.

We got it? Good 👍 Read more below the cut!!

Firstly, I’m completely disregarding the ideas of “Malleus can love whoever he wants to love”, “Malleus can scare people into accepting who he loves”, and/or “Malleus can change the law so he can marry who he loves” (a la Sultan from Aladdin or through some other Disney magic or logic). Here’s why:

In general, those solutions for “high stakes issues” are too simple, and that has never been how Twisted Wonderland tackles complicated problems. Just look at every single OB boy’s backstory. They’re so complex that they aren’t totally resolved by the end of their books; these problems persist and are long term things each of them are working on addressing. This is also true of the politics TWST introduces to us; Leona for example explains how there is social pushback and resistance to the idea of infrastructure reform because the culture of the Sunset Savanna stresses harmony with nature. This has made it difficult for them to adopt new technologies because real politicians in their world have to seriously weigh their cultural values with their health and societal progress. The only time there are really easy solutions are in events or vignettes where the emotional stakes are not super high, but who Malleus marries is, in fact, super important since this will entirely change the life of a main character and his country.

With that first bullet point in mind… No, Malleus cannot love whoever he wants to love. Certainly, he may feel affection for another but he can never truly be with them. He is royalty and the only heir to the throne of Briar Valley. It follows that he is expected to marry for political reasons/to better his nation. This is a non-negotiable obligation for him.

Rather than saying, “Malleus cannot scare people into accepting who he loves”, I think it’s more accurate to say Malleus knows he probably shouldn’t. I mean, yes, he may be upset about his S/O not being accepted by his people but I feel that is discrediting a lot of the loyalty he has for his own country. As a kid he may have thrown tantrums when he was upset and potentially harmed staff, but as a 178 year old he has a much better understanding of decorum and maintaining it in spite of his own grudges. For example, even though he personally dislikes Leona he still commands Sebek to apologize to him because, at the end of the day, this could harm Briar Valley’s relationship with the Sunset Savanna. That’s not to say that Malleus can’t be petty (he definitely is)—but implying he would be petty toward basically his entire country just because they would disapprove of the one he loves?? (We know this would likely be true because Sebek’s parents faced similar backlash when they got together.) I feel like his own sense of awareness and responsibility for his country, crown, and people would override that. As an example, Malleus states that he has never been in a car before because the senate would be against it and often kept Malleus in the castle. Someone of his power could easily ignore them and sneak out and do whatever he wanted, yet the dialogue implies Malleus didn’t. He obeyed his political advisors even when he was younger and arguably much more immature. Malleus might not like certain decisions made about his life but it sounds like he ultimately complies with them.

Continuing from the previous point, let’s say for the sake of argument that Malleus does scare everyone into line. What about his public image and the mental health of his S/O? Maybe Malleus can frighten people to not talk out of turn to his face, but he cannot control what people whisper about him behind closed doors or to treat his S/O well or like they actually like them. Not only would they be alienated (away from their own home and forced to adapt to a new one) but they’d be treated oddly by others too. What kind of reputation is that for Malleus? To be a tyrant king who throws a hissy fit anytime someone talks about his partner in a way he doesn’t approve of? With a spouse who is not at their best mentally because of the constant ostracization? (This is similar to what Leona experienced in his childhood.) I don’t think Malleus would want to subject anyone to that kind of life, especially not one he loves. And again, this attitude would be the vast majority of his people. It’s not like it can be avoided or resolved in an easy manner, especially when the people of Briar Valley have proven to be against change.

Lastly, Malleus would not change the law so he can be with whoever he wants to. To begin with, I doubt this is a unilateral position the senate would approve of. But okay, let’s accept that Malleus is royalty so his power overrides the advisors’ power. So he effectively just changed a law for a very selfish and personal reason rather than changing something to actually benefit his people. That doesn’t feel in-character for him, not when Malleus seems to understand that it is the duty of those in higher status to help those below them rather than themselves (see: Riddle’s Suitor Suit vignettes. Malleus has acted selfish before, yes (who remembers Endless Halloween Night? His Dorm Uniform vignettes? I do.)—but never at the cost of changing the status quo of his country. (Book 7 is not included here because he’s in a very distressed emotional state then; this “new law” scenario posits that Malleus is in a normal state of mind.) This is a major change—change which Briar Valley, its people, and most importantly, Malleus, are not ready for. You think there wouldn’t be social pushback against this? From a society that has become complacent with its own way of life and is still isolated from the rest of the world? That Malleus, someone who struggles greatly with accepting life changes himself, could enact such a big change so easily? (On a more technical level, you don’t just pass a law and it instantly becomes tangible or real, there is a process of approval and then implementation.)

Additionally, it’s made clear in Ghost Marriage that “[Malleus] cannot enter into an engagement lightly”, which is why Sebek goes in his place. Eliza, the Ghost Bride, is royalty (er, albeit dead) but it seems that royal status is not enough to qualify as his partner. Maybe this is because she’s dead and doesn’t have anything of value for Briar Valley (no land, no people, no political power), but it could also mean that the partner has to be given the thumbs up by other parties.

All that being said, here are some of the conditions I think would have to be met for Malleus’s future spouse:

Has to be someone of equal or at least high status. This means they also have to be a royal or at least of nobility. This appears to be true of Malleus’s dad, who is referred to as a duke.

Because of how self-contained Briar Valley is + nocturnal fae having beef with diurnal fae, I imagine his partner would have to also be a nocturnal fae. This would also solve the MASSIVE lifespan difference between fae and non-fae because at least fae would be far closer to each other even if their lifespans fluctuate but subspecies.

Someone suited to rule by his side. Being married into any royal family is no joke—it comes with the expectation that you will contribute somehow, and the partner should be fully equipped to enter the world of politics with him.

Piggybacking off the last point, I think mental fortitude is also a prerequisite. This is because being a politician (navigating the social climate both within your country and outside of it, keeping your people and colleagues happy, maintaining public approval, managing laws, dealing with potential attempts on your life, etc.) can be very stressful and can hurt those who are faint of heart or not prepared for the responsibility. Leaders have to make tough calls at the drop of a hat, and they have to be ready for it.

Has a lot to offer in terms of benefits to Briar Valley as a country. This could be in terms of resources, connections, and/or political savvy. This appears to be true of Malleus’s dad, who acted as a diplomat for Briar Valley.

Vetting and formal approval from the senate. lmao good luck with that

Has to be able and willing to have a child. They at least need an heir to the throne to succeed Malleus. (However, knowing how exclusionary and conservative as heck the senators are, I doubt they would accept anything but a biological child 💀)

Preferably someone with powerful magic or is skilled at magic already so as to lessen the chance of “tainting” the bloodline with a weak mage or a non-mage.

I believe that Briar Valley would prefer someone with old fashioned values like them, not someone pushing for massive reform. They have a culture that is resistant to change and a history of fighting for resources with outsiders, so if Malleus’s new spouse tries to introduce a bunch of technology or open its borders to other countries (even if they have good intentions), the people + the senate may oppose them. His father is implied to be open-minded, but he at least understood that such change isn’t reasonable without time and effort dedicated to the endeavor.

All that being said 💦 I think that this topic is actually less about what Malleus as an individual wants and what his country, his people, and, yes, even his asshole senators, want. This is basically an arranged marriage situation so that their country can maintain power and relevance. It’s about the collective and what Malleus must do for their perceived security and prosperity.

[ihopesocomic]

And I must say that what I'm looking forward to the most is when our protagonists meet the other prides. I can't wait because it's completely different from the one Hope and Adamant grew up with.

I'm glad that these prides are very different. To contrast this, for example, in Warriors there are five clans and they differ from each other only in where they live and food they eat. And the truth is they are practically the same, there is no diversity in thinking, lifestyle or beliefs.

However, your prides have these differences. I noticed that Golden Grove focuses a lot on the character of the Great King. Hope herself mentions that they don't hear much about the Traveler, and both her mother and grandmother were rather against the Traveler lifestyle and view the Traveler herself as an omen. Edge's Kingdom is one big business, him being big CEO, and he has a slightly different approach to Traveler and death in general. In Periwinkle's pride (or maybe 'garden'?) there is a lioness who is said to have a bond with Traveler. Their group is also quite... specific. The Thundering Mountains pride actually looks more like a typical kingdom there. Many lions come from different places, but they live together under the protection of one monarch. Both the current King and his young successor seem to be very noble leaders who primarily care about the good of the pride. Overall great variety.

Of course, we also have the Travelers and their lifestyle, but it is completely different from the prides, so I think Hope and Adamant realized early on that it would look completely different from the life they knew. But the meeting of other prides and the confrontation of their beliefs and systems will certainly confuse our girls. I mean they were so confused about eating alongside Storm (and what's worse it wasn't always like that in Golden Grove! Man I hate Jasper! I can't even see Edge doing that to his kids!)

To sum up, I love your world building <3 you managed to create a completely different and interesting groups in one story! I can't wait for more!

Thank you so much, anon!!

Yeah, we've tried to make pride distinct and unique on top of having their own naming themes. Like you've pointed out, the Clans within Warrior Cats had some potential but they're ultimately kinda boring and same-y. To the point where I was all gdi because I kept getting ShadowClan on unofficial 'which wc clan do you belong to' quizzes.

Fortunately, I took the official one and got SkyClan and they actually have some stuff going on with the daylight warriors (yeah, hot take: I like the concept) and so on. WindClan and RiverClan are least have some culture going on via the former's closeness to StarClan and the latter's affinity to water but the main players - ThunderClan and ShadowClan - are just very boring to me.

So yeah, completely hear you there. lol

Thus, we wanted to provide some variety with the prides and also give opportunity for those who want to make their own fan prides. Especially when it comes to ranks and titles. For example, the non-canon Kingblessed Coast pride that I'm working on is operated like a pirate ship's crew vs. a monarchy, so we have a Captain in place of a King/Queen. Honestly, sky's the limit because these prides are not unified under a weird government order. They are their own individual democracies... Or dictatorships. Whichever you wanna go by. lol

But yes, storywise: we wanted Hopeful to experience worlds with a plural and various cultures that differ so drastically from the Golden Grove. For better or for worse. We wanted our audience to ooh and ahh with her as we go on. Africa as a place is so diverse in its landscapes and environment. It's not all just desert and grasslands. There's mountains, canyons, valleys, the list goes on. My only real regret is that we won't see any coastal areas because they're beautiful af.

I'm particularly looking forward to showing more of the crystal caves of the Thundering Mountains tho. <33

Anyway, I'm rambling but thank you again, anon. We're totally excited alongside you to show more of this big wide world we have going. <33 - RJ

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

I mean to be fair the writers in the latter half of the show were fully aware of all this fanon madness and threw them some bones. Katara and Zuko were trolled 2 times at being together, Toph hinted at katara having a secret thing with haru (whatever that means) amd she herself seemee very needy and jealous being the only one without a zuko field trip,suki and sokka did it.

When people watch the show without any social media or fanon influence after netflix aired atla all the canon pairings make total sense but when i think bryke indeed did some fanservice (the way zuko jumped in slowmo into the lightning) so the writers definitely knew what they were doing.

I really liked kataang in the first 2.5 seasons but the fact that tsr and eip are both 2 episodes in a row and we never see katara apologizing to either sokka or aang even had me like wtf (tsr is a good episode but still.) Then aang disappears on the lion turtle and katara is pretty chill compared to all the times before. It would be prob better to have a book 4 where they grew apart for a few years and saw how important they were to each other to give them the proper development but it is what it is.

While I'm all for a book 4, splitting the Gaang up would be a HUGE mistake. "This could ruin the whole show" kind of mistake. They all are at their best and grow the most when they are TOGETHER. Hell, that's the whole point of the life-changing field trips with Zuko. Let's not "fix" what isn't broken.

I wouldn't really say that Katara was "chill" after Aang disappeared. They were on the edge of the biggest battle of their lives so they had a LOT to focus on, and even Sokka just immediately thinks "He's probably in the spirit world doing Avatar stuff that will help save the day." Mysterious bullshit making Aang be away for a little while, be it physically or just spiritually/mentally, is a Tuesday for them at this point. They spent an entire episode waiting for Roku to be done telling his backstory with Sozin to him. Katara not losing her mind with concern because of something that happens regularly is not the same them growing apart.

And while an apology to Katara for the Ember Island thing or her apologizing to Aang and SPECIALLY Sokka after how she acted on Southern Raiders would be great, Avatar has a tendency of just skipping apologies that are kind of taken as a given - see Aang not apologizing to Toph after how he acted when Appa was kidnaped, or her and Katara not apologizing to each other after the events of The Chase. They tend to focus on apologies for bad behavior that lasted a whole arc (see Zuko apologizing to the Gaang and to Iroh).

And about the writers throwing shippers a bone with stuff like Katara and Zuko being mistaken for a couple - yeah, I can see how fan would like that. I also remember the characters getting visibly uncomfortable with it and that the show basically mocked the very concept of the ship through the Ember Island Players.

More importantly: fanservice is not foreshadowing, set up and/or development. For exemple: I LOVE Tokka as a ship, and I find Toph's crush on Sokka really cute. But it was always VERY CLEAR that it was one-sided and that the writers decided to make him end up with Suki. The fanservice made me happy, but it was not meant to be taken seriously, so I didn't.

Meanwhile Zutarians use five minutes of bait to argue that there was a whole conspiracy in which their OTP was meant to be endgame but evil Bryke ruined it at the last second. They've argued that Ember Island!Katara saying she likes Zuko and thinks of Aang as her little brother was a reflection of the REAL Katara's feelings, even though she explicitly said it was not the case and the show itself made it obvious that it is simply an INNACCURATE fanon take on the show.

No one would have an issue with Zutara shippers enjoying the little treats the writers gave them if they weren't so hellbent on claiming that those little moments somehow invalidate three seasons of Kataang, and one season (plus a few book 2 episodes) of Maiko. Not to mention the constant "If you dislike the ship/say it's not canon, then you're sexist/racist and I get to harass you."

You can't be "fair" to people that are asking to be allowed to be unfair to everyone else. They need to grow the fuck up first and realize that, if they want to be left alone, they shouldn't go around picking up petty fights with people then complaining when they get punched.

[aquatark]

kind of randomly spurred post, but i was just wondering how many endless ocean fans knew about the development screenshots we have of the first game... so i figured i'd share them with you all, along with some light analysis for those interested in this game's development history!

so the development photos i'll be going into in this post were revealed to the public in 2014-2015, shared on the twitter account of ichiro mihara, the vice president of arika and series producer of the endless ocean games! nowadays, he mostly just posts food pics and pokemon go stuff... kinda living the dream ngl

below is the complete set of screenshots:

the most obvious difference here to most players would be creatures placed where they shouldn't be, such as the yellow boxfish in an atypical zoom, and the presence of false clown anemonefish in the abyss and ship's rest. while the boxfish photo i don't have any explanation for other than the creature moving around a little at some point in development, the anemonefish photos i have a more interesting explanation for!

we can use these photos, along with multiple other photos of clownfish in eo1 zooms taken during development (which are used on the plaques of eo2's aquarium), to deduce that this clownfish species was used as a test creature for zoom environments! i mean, it's pretty obvious they weren't intending for you to actually find clownfish in the depths... and due to their order in the game's internal d code life system, we can assume they were among the first zoom mode creatures to be added. it all lines up! though i'm glad the little guys don't have to suffer that insane water pressure anymore...

now, another big difference is the lack of water fog in most of these photos! it's especially obvious in the photos taken in zoom mode that this portion of the game had yet to be figured out at the point those photos were taken. for comparison, here's the yellow boxfish photo compared with a photo of the same staghorn coral zoom in the final game:

big difference, huh? this fog would be even stronger if i weren't using an emulator to take my photos - dolphin tends to skimp a little on the fog. but, this lines up with what we know about this game's development: during a post-release developer interview (which you can view translated into english here), they mentioned struggling to make this fog feel right - more oceanic than foggy feeling, and accurately changing with the player's current depth - and these photos illustrate that there was a time where fog in zoom mode spots was neglected entirely!

the screenshot of the open encyclopedia also has a lot of interesting differences from the final game. take a look here, comparing the same page:

(note that of course, the development photo was taken in japanese, while my screenshot is in english: "fish who live in the ocean" is actually what the deep sea section is called in the final japanese release... trust me, i checked)

so obviously, the layout of these pages is completely different! i imagine the details on these small fish would have been barely legible on the average person's tv at the time, so making them bigger was a good call. additionally, the encyclopedia used to be navigated using arrow buttons and a back button to exit! this back button is completely unused in the final game, probably just because it's redundant when in the final game, you can just press the b button to go back. three other small changes are that:

in the dev screenshot, the encyclopedia's page background is just a texture, as opposed to a 3d model as seen in the final game. this means it's likely the pages didn't flip like a real book does at this point.

the scientific names of the giant squid and the oarfish was altered.

there are no page numbers in the encyclopedia.

now, for a quick lightning round of smaller changes!

in the final game, there is only one place to find remoras: accompanied by the whale shark in entryway slope, in small numbers. this contrasts with the whale shark photo, in which way more remoras are seen surrounding it, and in an area deeper than entryway slope allows. since this photo was also an old promotional image, and we have footage of the game from previews around the same time, the most plausible explanation is that this whale shark was placed in the game's unused test stage (which i should also make a post about at some point lol).

the penguin photo was taken with an angle impossible in the final game, as was the polar bear photo and the starck's demoiselle photo.

also in the penguin photo, there are two hatches typically present on the deck of the gabbiano (one on either side of the mast), that are absent.

the water surrounding the gabbiano in the polar bear photo is a different color than in the final game.

the starck's demoiselle photo has a bright cyan water color in the background, which is never visible in the final game without camera hacks.

finally, one fun fact regarding the starck's demoiselle photo: it's actually used in-game, both in this game and in the sequel! in eo1, it can be found occasionally placed in the fake magazine spreads sent to the player for a C grade photo request, and in eo2, it is the photo used to represent "DIVING MAGAZINE" when viewing photo requests!

that's all of my rambling for now, i hope you found this interesting! if this kind of longpost is something you'd like to see more of in the future, let me know! i've got all sorts of topics in the chamber that i just need an excuse to write about lol

[formulatrash]

What's your take on the hockey booktok thing? Since you mentioned it on twt

my initial take would be that all these people scare me so much I don't want to get into it but also people keep messaging me to be like did you know people ship carlando" off the back of it and yes. I did know that.

my understanding of what's happened on booktok, which I absorb any information about only twice a year during whatever version of this is blowing up at the time, is pretty limited. partly because I'm not on tiktok and partly because I can't read. but the crux of it seems to have come down to people writing disgustingly thirsty comments on a hockey player and his wife's posts, regardless of what they were about, somehow feeling empowered to be horny not just on main but in someone's face because of booktok.

that's, clearly, not remotely acceptable. if there are communities of people out there that thirst about me I don't know about them (although the cold tendrils of horror about the Wikifeet page have just gripped me and no, oh god, that isn't the phrase I should've used at all get me out of here) but there are loads of people who fucking hate my guts. that's like, fine, it's their own business; if they keep it on discord or whatever and away from me it doesn't do me any harm. lord knows, I have committed the act of hating and indeed being horny, sometimes simultaneously, when I was at a safe enough distance for none of the subjects to ever know.

this is a thing about fandom. if you post "Max Verstappen looks breedable" on here then he's extraordinarily unlikely to ever see it or probably know what it means. if you comment that on Kelly's instagram posts, even if you don't like her and even if that's for valid reasons, that's very different.

as I gather it, the booktok thing has exploded into RPF in general. which, I gotta say, RPF and sexually harassing a dude and his family are in fact very different things. one has a rich history, both as actual ways of telling history (Anthony and Cleopatra: RPF, Chernobyl: RPF, the god damn Gran Turismo movie is RPF about an uncomfortably large number of people I know IRL and to be fair it looks like it slaps I'm gonna see it) and as a longstanding artform. RPF's history of horny is even extremely longstanding, with obscene RPF being used by both the French and Russian revolutionaries to undermine the concept of royal divinity.

RPF is political because it involves an interpretation of real events and people. and the perspective from which that's written will always be political. RPF can, certainly, be feminist; there's quite a lot of retellings of classical stories that fit this. RPF can, also, be fucking weird horny shit. or terrible man takes. or incredible, tender, queer retellings; Kaz Rowe's graphic novel about real-life surrealist Claude Cahun is an obvious example of the latter. Pride, the film about the miners' strikes and the AIDS crisis, is another.

so yeah, it is a legitimate and recognised form of literature and art and also uhhhh. well. I mean the omegaverse is definitely recognised, legally, in court because of that one case but I don't know that even its fiercest enthusiasts would really be all that keen on describing it. not as like, literature or anything just I think most people would rather literally never have an IRL conversation about that. ever.

I'm not 1000% clear on how carlando got into this but clearly that's broken containment a long time ago anyway. when you had Sky doing love heart interviews 15 races into them being teammates or whatever, there was an obvious amount of gay chicken being played by the producers that frankly, as a queer person in motorsport, I'm a lot more comfortable with the fan version of.

no, obviously, I do not think they are dating - or want to think that tbh - but frequently-queer fans projecting the wish fulfilment of seeing a kinder and more representative world for their desires, in places hidden from the subjects, is a lot less weird than leering, laughed-at dating questions and milk baths. in an ideal world it wouldn't have to be a secret, yearned-for alternative because things would be safe and open enough for there to be real queer stories everywhere but that, unfortunately, is not the one we currently live in.

wish fulfilment and telling stories are not the same things, necessarily. sometimes you tell the stories to remind yourself it's ok to have wishes or to work out what those even are. I don't think there's anything necessarily harmful about what names the characters have in those, provided the line between reality and any real people's privacy is kept.

clearly, with the booktok thing, that's where things went extremely wrong. generally tiktok as a whole seems to have a very odd perception about other people's agency, whether it's pranking videos or like the girl who filmed people peeing at Spa. if you regard everyday people as content opportunities (spoiler: the law does not think this and particularly in the EU you cannot film people without their consent) then I guess it's easy to slide over to seeing an athlete as a target for what I suspect very few of the people doing it recognised as very unpleasant and invasive harassment.

there's nothing wrong with fancying athletes. there's nothing even wrong with sexualising them, provided you respect some boundaries and provided it's not part of the conditions of their working contracts. there's a lot of difference between there being a discord where, idk, people say Mitch Evans is hot (he is, although somewhat implausibly he genuinely does not know this) and sponsors for female tennis players wanting them to wear revealing outfits and stay skinny or teenage girls being encouraged into provocative photoshoots by people who promise them roles, etc. teenage male athletes being pressured into doing things they don't want to yet or maybe at all to prove they're men, queer athletes being forced to hide who they are or repress it entirely.

would it be a little bit odd to find RPF of yourself? yes. I won't lie, I would judge the characterisation. I already do judge that on the frankly very weird things people write about me. you have never seen RPF as strange as the narratives people will make up about you in the comments of an article about hydrogen and frankly those scare me a lot more than whether someone thinks I'd be assigned beta or whatever.

stumbling across something, rather than having explicit sexual fantasies forced into your face, especially on what's your own social media pages where people you know in real life can see them, is very different though. some people who engage with RPF cross lines, whether that's weird conspiracy stuff about girlfriends being faked or stalking people's friends accounts etc.

RPF doesn't inherently cross lines, even when it's public; there's a very interesting interview here with Jann Mardenborough and the guy who plays him in the Gran Turismo movie about, among other things, portraying a fatal crash he was involved in. clearly, Jann is not only aware of but is the executive producer of what's ultimately fiction about himself and there's an ownership there, of course. but some parts of the movie are made up, for sure.

obviously I'm like, the not-very-secret infiltrator here because clearly I am On Tumblr and know what AO3 is. I follow a bunch of people who write fanfic because they also make nice gifs of my favourite blorbos and I like to think we can all make peace with our own boundaries about that kinda thing. also I read every single Shane/Ryan fic in like 5 weeks and honestly, not going to apologise except to myself for persisting with a few that didn't pay off.

but like: you do not have to make RPF or any fandom activity unethical. the way you conduct yourself does that and some people step way out of line.

[eclipsemeteor]

Breathing New Life into Magic Cards

What do you do with your cards when they don't have a home in a commander deck?

Make a new format variant out of them!

(well ok, you don't make a revolutionary format from scratch, you steal take inspiration from the paths trodden before)

My name's Cole, I've been a content creator for Commander and EDH for the last 3 or so years. I was introduced to Magic when I was about 6 or 7 years old, read the earliest Magic novels at 10, and officially started playing in 2011 with Innistrad. I've done two podcasts, the Uncommon Commander and the recently started Hero's Blade Vibe Check podcasts that's available in many places!

One of my biggest grievances as Commander player is that 100 cards never seems to be enough for my decks. 36-41% of the deck is dedicated to a combination of a commander(s) and lands. That leaves you with approximately 60~ cards to mess around with, cut, fiddle with, and optimize, depending on your intent and level of investment.

For people who've had lifelong commander decks, that usually means having a Ship of Theseus situation: more cards come out that are circumstantially or objectively better than previous versions. For whatever your end goal is, you add and remove cards for your needs and eventually may even change the commander!

EDH/Commander is not the same beast it was a decade ago, let alone when the original premise was in its infancy. Decks today are much better than what was around in 2011, and sub formats like PrEDH (any card printed before Commander Precons) are an example of the blatant power creep that we players have had to deal with.

As I've evolved as a player and brewer, I've made my peace with having to make compromises with deck building, but there's always that small feeling in the back of my head that says "these cards need a home, and it's not just another commander deck, or selling/trading these off". Duplicating a commander deck for the sake of scratching that itch isn't enough.

I needed to do something. The thought came to me at 5am.

(Well ok, it stewed for a long time before inspiration struck upon waking up at 5am because one of my cats is insanely regimented and wanted breakfast ASAP, so after getting bitten on my arm, lightning strike and I got to work)

Making Killer Queen - A Compromise

So what is Killer Queen, and what does this have to do with finding home for cards?

I've trapped myself as a Magic player. As I stopped playing Standard back in 2014 and more or less dedicated myself to Commander brewing, a lot of skills have fallen to the wayside. I'm terrible at Limited Draft, subpar at Sealed, and have radically changed my viewpoint of 1v1 magic. Brewing a 360 card cube felt impossible to do myself.

So how do I consolidate these feelings and viewpoints? I make a single deck that everyone can play from like the fan format Dandan (aka Forgetful Fish), use only 3 colours (Mardu/Red-white-black), give everyone the same Commander (Queen Marchesa) and make it singleton.

Boom. Killer Queen, aka Marchesa Dandan, aka MarDanDan!

One 155 card deck (plus 2-4 copies of Queen Marchesa) that everyone plays from, one shares graveyard and a bunch of different ways to set up or influence your opponents!

It's been a recent project I've been working on since October 2023, and while games are far and between, it's been my personal answer to my issues of cards being shuffled around decks with no real home, but still having commander-like gameplay that appeals to people in general. Public sentiment so hard? It's a neat way to play Magic, and it's something that can be brought along to game nights in case people want a change of pace.

It's been a great exercise, and makes me go back to my original point: there's a lot of ways to play Magic. There's a lot of ways to engage with Magic that isn't just constructed formats, and you can do it on a budget (or using online creatures like Moxfield's playtest feature in tandem with a digital camera program like OBS).

So where does that leave us?

People are frustrated with the direction Magic: the Gathering is headed, and I encourage everyone to healthily engage with this game we've all come to love, or love to hate, in a way that is satisfying to you.

If you're unsatisfied with Universes Beyond, don't play the cards! (just don't fault anyone for playing them) Go back and look at old sets, and forget the new ones. There's lots of hidden treasure in New Capenna, I hear.

Get back to your kitchen table routes if you have to. Do a Commander League, a deck building challenge, get wild, get crazy! Or take a break! Magic isn't going anywhere right now.

Do a deep dive on Scryfall, whatever it takes for you to enjoy this game in peace.

[female-buckets]

The new smutty fans that have discovered Diana and Stewie and BG and other vets in the league are so fucking weird and honestly feel like they keep ruining this space which has otherwise been really chill and I used to come here over like TikTok, Instagram and Twitter because it was more chill and calm and people actually talked about hoops. But I feel like so many of them were already weird about college players this way and now that they've finally made the leap over into the WNBA and now all that weirdness is all over the WNBA spaces doing all that with all the vets. Idk, I've been watching for 10 years but you seem like you've been following the league for many more years, has this stuff always existed or were people just better at hiding it? Like the fanfic was bad enough when it was these people writing self insert getting it from players but starting to add players' friends and teammates to the mix of their stuff is just genuinely disorienting and strange. And they'll whine like omg just block us but I shouldn't have to keep blocking people because this nonsense KEEPS popping up from other people even after you get rid of one. Like can we just be normal and enjoy the hoops. If you wanna think players are hot, okay, we're not all blind. But some of this now is deeply weird and I honestly miss the WNBA before all of these people showed up. It's very much giving WOSO fandom when they'd constantly write smut and started writing ship stuff too left and right and eventually players' friendships got ruined or strained because it took on such a life of its own with that fandom. As far as I've known the WNBA has been spared of that, it's a bummer to think that might not be true anymore.

I've been on this website a while and I never saw any WBB smut on tumblr before May 2024.

I'm very attracted to a lot of these players. And I'm not shy about that online or offline. I love being obsessed with players. To me, obsession means needing to know what these players are doing and saying. I love to know their opinions on things.

But the RPF hobby is different because it's about turning real people into completely different characters. And that just doesn't interest me because I only care what these players think, not what anonymous writers think.

The boom in fanfiction has not led to a boom in other types of WNBA fan content on tumblr. So tumblr smut hobbyists aren't really participating in the full WNBA fandom. They're only using WNBA veterans as props for their hobby.

Only a dozen blogs consistently post about games and interviews and fun moments from practices. And I remember all those blogs existing before May 2024. So the safe-for-work side of WBB tumblr hasn't grown much. If this side of tumblr grew just as much as the NSFW side, I'd have no complaints. But the uneven growth is weird. There's other ways to appreciate basketball besides masturbating but you wouldn't know that if you were only on tumblr 😂

[goshdangronpa]

(This is for that ask with three fire Emojis)

Mind giving some unpopular vopinions for v3's meta ending, a character who should've died but lived or vice versa, and for a popular ship (like komahina)?

Hey, anon! Thank goodness you specified. I was looking at those three fire emoji like "what do I even saaaay"

Here's something I find interesting about V3's meta ending: it's the logical conclusion to the series' shattering last-chapter twists. THH's reveal of the killing game's global broadcast pops the school life bubble. SDR2's VR simulation breaks the chars' sense of reality. V3 could only top that by destroying the fourth wall (as much as possible without directly talking to you, the player). The execution of this twist may not be perfectly logical, as smarter people than I have astutely analyzed ... but I found myself very receptive to it. Characters rebelling against narratives, and the creators AND fans who would push them, is a theme I've tackled in my own original fiction! I'm the perfect audience for this! Combined with excellent moments of character writing and gameplay (the protag switches! The choosing not to play minigames! The realization that if nothing else was real, their emotional responses were!), I can only view it with great fondness.

I think it's fucking ridiculous that Ultimate Imposter died in Chapter 1 of SDR2. The game's cast is already paranoid enough about an alleged traitor in the group. What if they discovered that their self-proclaimed leader, an alleged survivor of another killing game, isn't at all who he claims to be? We'll never know! My guess is that they wanted the first murder to be a real shocker, like with THH. A major character from the first game being introduced just to die first? Whoa!!! But they couldn't commit to actually killing Byakuya, so they made this character an imposter - the Ultimate Imposter. Which means the reveal of his identity has absolutely no bearing on the story and characters, nor any impact on the audience. An incredible waste. (I'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion, but I never hear anyone talk about it!)

I'm generally fond of the popular ships! Even if I prefer shipping one character in a popular ship with someone else (ex. Kaede x Miu), I'm at least fine with that popular ship too (ex. Kaede x Shuichi). That said, I waver on Fuyuhiko x Peko. It's the whole "they were raised together for their entire lives" thing for me. Some days it makes me think they'd see each other more as siblings than as boyfriend and girlfriend. And some days I just see their obvious shared love and reckon no one would know each other's hearts better than them. It's something I believe fans should consider before deciding for themselves just how much they care. Maybe the unpopular opinion is that I'm not really set on how I feel about them and don't really care to settle? Makes me more flexible, I guess.

[juniperhillpatient]

The Crossroads of Destiny Re-Watch

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Definitely one of my favorite episodes of the entire series OOOH I love Crossroads of Destiny so FUCKING! MUCH! It's such a good episode.

Alright, so, shocking to no one probably, I've discussed this episode before. I'm linking a post I wrote about Azula & Zuko's dynamic in this episode because I think that it explains a lot of where I'm coming from. HERE ya go.

This is mostly a Zuko episode, honestly. So, let's talk about him. Zuko is READY to fight Azula. Like, no hesitation, dramatics & violence at the ready he is prepared to be on sight. Lucky for him, Azula doesn't really want to fight him. Otherwise, he'd probably be dead. Sorry Zuzu but it's the truth. Iroh demonstrating how he got the nickname the Dragon of the West is pretty iconic. +500 iconic behavior points. Also, +100 to Ty Lee & Sokka for their flirty banter-filled fight. I'm not gonna lie, I'm sort of starting to ship them. The mid-fight flirting is just fun, okay? Although yes, I'm aware that it's a tactic on Ty Lee's part. That doesn't mean she doesn't think he's cute also.

It's hilarious how some things never change & some things stay the same (....I sang-read that in my head...I listen to too much Frozen...anyway) from my initial reactions to this show like 2 years ago lol. I didn't get spoilers per se before watching ATLA but it's such a popular show in the public's consciousness that I did kinda know Zuko would be redeemed, & I just assumed I'd ship Zutara so I read the scene romantically & liked it for that reason.

[ID: Katara & Zuko in the crystal catacombs. She is crouching far away from him, looking tearful. end id]

I don't read the tension between Zuko & Katara that way anymore, but I see how someone could. Anyway, I wrote THIS post about Katara & why I think she acts the way she does. That said, I'm still annoyed with her for offering to use the spirit water on Zuko though because GIRL I get you but also it is a WAR lmao you don't think you might need the magic healing water? For something more important? Like, Zuko will live, he's not even in physical pain right now!

Watching Azula's devious & brilliant coup unfold is just...SO FUCKING SATISFYING GOD I LOVE AZULA SO FUCKING MUCH SHE'S SO FUCKING COOL!!! AHHH!!!!!! Okay, I'm calm. ish. I just...I just...LOVE HER SO MUCH.

[ID: Azula saying "Don't flatter yourself. You were never even a player." end id]

SHE'S SO ICONIC!!!!!! AHH!!!! Okay, I'm trying to be reasonable. +3000 iconic behavior points. I had to stop myself from giving her like 20k because like!!!!! HAVE YOU SEEN HER??? I LOVE HER.

Okay. *ahem.* Anyway. Iroh in this episode is super interesting. They lean REAL hard into the "wise old man who says proverbs" thing in this episode. And I think that's sort of the narrative pushing the audience to see Iroh as more of a perfect wise old man than an actual character in his own right, & that kinda gets on my nerves. BUT, looking at Iroh as a complex character, I do think I can get behind the idea that Iroh WAS willing to be complacent in the life he was presented with but NOW....he saw a chance to help the Avatar, & realized he had to take it. He realized that Zuko was going to go back to the home that traumatized him, & he panicked. I've seen a lot of fans criticize Iroh for never telling Zuko, "hey, maybe you should consider that the Fire Nation is evil & the Avatar is good." I think I would rather criticize the writers for not showing us more of Iroh's internal struggles though because the inconsistencies ARE interesting on a character level if you think about Iroh as a person. ✨Nuance ✨The main reason they become annoying is if you take the presentation of an "infinitely wise old man with all the answers" & run with it too hard. Not the most interesting way to look at it. So, in that way, Zuko's betrayal hurts.

But in the way that all I care about in life is the Fire Siblings.....Zuko's betrayal is the most iconic thing he's ever done actually! +2000 iconic behavior points. Obviously, I'm being hyperbolic & you guys (hopefully) know I don't actually root for the Fire Nation but I just love the Fire Siblings.

I will say though - something that hasn't changed about my perception of Zuko's betrayal - I 100% get it & I was never mad at him for it. I'm not saying I'm NEVER mad at Zuko ok, don't group me in with people who wash away all of Zuko's flaws please, I'm saying that I sympathize & get why he did what he did & I felt this way the first time that I watched too because I remember arguing (not like angry arguing, just debating) it with my family. Literally, the Fire Nation is all he knows! His SISTER is telling him to please come home. He misses his father & wants his father's approval. It's like....completely sympathetic & understandable. I'm not saying he's RIGHT I'm saying it's sympathetic. There's a huge difference. ✨Nuance✨

Oh & the fight scenes in this episode!!!!! Shocking to 0 people my favorite is Katara versus Azula. They're both incredible benders & it's a spectacular fight & ALSO NARRATIVE FOILS FIGHTING EACH OTHER!!! TWO PRODIGIOUS YOUNG BENDERS FIGHTING SIDE BY SIDE WITH THEIR BROTHERS FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVE IS RIGHT!!! FIRE VERSUS WATER - & LIKE BLUE FIRE (THE HOTTEST KIND) VERSUS ICE!!! YEAHHH!!!!!

[ID: Azula with her bans swooshing in front of her. end id]

Katara gets +3000 iconic behavior points for CUTTING OFF PART OF AZULA'S BANGS with ice. Oh & I never noticed it until now but it sort of parallels the moment when Zuko cuts off the end of the wheat Jet has in his mind in THEIR homoerotic boss fight. I KNOW these are two of my favorite ships for good reason, if your ships can't have epic death battles nearly killing each other what is even the POINT MAN!!!

Um, anyway. And Aang dies. What is it with the final Chosen One Tm heroes dying? Buffy, Aang, Harry Potter...Sorry for bringing the Terf series into it but like....C'mon, y'all get why I did right this is a pattern in iconic coming-of-age Chosen One stories. I don't know what it means, but it means something, I'm sure of it.

Luckily, Katara still has the spirit water & she saves Aang's life, so he's fine. Yay! That is about all I have for this episode for now. I'll tally the iconic behavior points in a separate post :)

[kissofthemis]

Introduction

Hello everyone, and welcome to the NXX!

This is a top-secret organization, so you must keep your membership, our investigations, and our activities entirely under wraps, okay?

~♡~♡~♡~♡~

Hello, I'm your moderator. Welcome to this humble Tears of Themis imagine blog! I'm here and happy to write drabbles, headcanons, and other similar requests for your ToT needs.

I want to set a couple of ground rules before you send requests. Please be courteous and abide by these!

I'm keeping this blog 16+ rated. I know the game is skirting the 18+ margin, but until it gets there, no NSFT content will be on here. I may put Suggestive material under a read more, if I find it necessary. This is partially for my own comfort and partially because I do not think I can deliver spicy content up to par with my other writings. (I'm asexual and simply don't take much interest in that type of content, so I don't think I can write it well.)

This blog is NOT spoiler free! I am caught up on all episodes on the WW server (just finished episode 10). In light of the fact that the newer episodes are difficult to clear for F2P players, I will put warnings at the top of any response that spoils content from episodes 6 or later, and I will put a read more for any spoilers from episodes 8 onward.

Rule 2 may be edited over time, as the game continues to release more content.

Please specify which character you want in your request! For headcanons, if no names are provided, I'll do the main four boys. For fics, I'll have to ask you... which is harder when people ask things on anon!

Side character content is headcanon only. (Sorry, Darius fans.)

I can do shipping requests of the characters! Just... no incest, and no adults with minors. Shoo.

Please be patient and polite. I'm a real-life Rosa kinnie, which means I work too much and rest too little. ^^; Being an adult is hard, and this blog is a passion project! I'm happy to do it, but sometimes life gets in the way.

That should cover it! Thank you, and may Themis light your path.

~ Mod Rosalie

[nukenai]

Sometimes I'm like "oh thank god most transformers fans are like, grownups who are relative weirdos and don't freak out about extremely benign shit" but there's been so many "RT WITH A CONTROVERSIAL TF OPINION!!" shit tweets going around and like. I had to see someone I recently followed go on about cybertronian/human ships being "DISGUSTING" and in general people losing their fucking shit over the Tarantulas mpreg thing or whatever.

Like am I just too old now, I get being like "I'm not into those ships/the firstborn was kinda weird" but to be like "oh my god that's DISGUSTING!!!!" about totally white bread ass normal who gives a shit topics... I do not understand.

Most likely these people are all that breed of person who hears the word "ship" and immediately thinks someone means "rampant fucking, constantly, nonstop, always". Which is definitely a THEM problem. Sometimes it's just smooching, calm down.

Legit on par with someone going "lol kiss players" and people thinking they're hilarious by replying with 94 unfunny disgusted gifs. Just... who cares. I'm old. I don't care how offended you are by the episode of G1 where Powerglide gets a human girlfriend because he's "cheating on his REAL girlfriend Moonracer" <- a real life thing I actually read today with my eyes

Anyways I'm gonna go fuck all my robot boyfriends bc I'm not a coward

[fizzingwizard]

Binged Good Omens season 2. Spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers

I loooooved it

However, it's worth noting that the way I loved it was different from the way I loved season one. I think any fans expecting Good Omens the remix might possibly be confused or disappointed. The scale of Good Omens was huge - so many players, so many interwoven storylines all coming together for the climax. Season 2 is a smaller deal - like Neil Gaiman's said, a transition between Good Omens and the story we'll hopefully get in season 3. The stakes are lower (in fact the stakes aren't always terribly clear), and the story is sillier. The focus on Aziraphale and Crowley, without the addition of Newt and Anathema and Adam and the Them, means the plot moves more slowly, there's more time to linger, and less mystery to parse.

But while some fans might be surprised, I'm definitely not complaining. I ate it up. We get Marvel movie after movie, all with huge stakes and epic storylines, and it's so much that honestly, don't you just want something smaller, where characters have some chance to develop, and maybe have some down time? That's Good Omens season 2. It's not a gripping adventure, but it is exciting and intriguing and very, very fun.

Here are a few of my thoughts:

I saw the teeniest spoiler in the world just by browsing tumblr, but it meant that I knew about Gabriel and Beelzebub going in. It didn't hurt me too much, since nothing happens till the last episode, but it meant I had a better idea of what was going on with Gabriel and the importance of the fly. The one thing I'm rather confused about is - why did Beelzebub greenlight Shax's plan to storm the bookshop? Was it just because they couldn't do anything else without it looking fishy? I may have missed some details.

I thought the Gabriel/Beelzebub relationship was nice. Some good ol' blasphemy hahahaha. But I will say, that after the Gabriel we got in season one, and after Crowley's threats toward him, the touching finale with everything just going Gabriel and Beelzebub's way left me a little disappointed. I don't think I wanted Gabriel to turn out to still be an asshole, I think that ship had sailed, but I suppose I was expecting him to do something a little more momentous. BUT. It's important to note that the the momentous thing probably IS that nothing momentous happened. There's a clear theme that love, protecting what you have, and enjoying the simple joys of life together are the truest expression of godliness. So I rather think that was very intentional, and having watched the season through once, on second viewing I think I'll feel differently since I'll come into it with fewer expectations.

I absolutely loved Nina and Maggie. It was lovely to see such a great, real, yet silly pair of women pining for each other, as well as a lesbian struggling with a controlling female partner, and her protective manner about it. I do wish the scene where they were locked in the coffee shop had been a little more substantial. It felt like it was meant to be, but it ended so fast. I didn't entirely understand what the point was of including Nina and Maggie... although again I think that was me expecting momentous when the point was simple human love. The fact that I enjoyed them says as much.

The social awkwardness and total out of touch thinking of the angels and demons was hilarious and relatable. The whole Job episode!!! It's what I think everyone feels when they read Job for the first time. I clearly remember being a kid and thinking "God allowed this??" And the little girl who wanted to be a blue salamander... So adorable

Now for all the fun with Crowley and Aziraphale. They were so fun. Sometimes they were a little too silly?? almost??? like when Crowley had to do the apology dance. I didn't understand that. But I look at it as the show reminding us, hey, these guys aren't cool. They're in love and hopelessly devoted. And that means being embarrassing around each other. That's real love, when you can be silly and embarrassing and wholly yourself with your partner. One of my favorite bits was Aziraphale driving the Bentley and turning it yellow xD

Oh and speaking of embarrassing and silly. The nerdy angel!Crowley making the Pillar of Creation in the beginning of episode one hooked me instantly. I was like "oh, this s gonna be GOOD." The purity of his love for creating, that he didn't feel a need for something to have a use to deserve to exist, and how upset he was to hear his creation wouldn't last... as well as how much Aziraphale was drawn to him, and concerned for him, it was all such good framing for the rest of the season. At the end, when Aziraphale tells Crowley "nothing last forever," I just know Crowley thought about the Pillars of Creation. I think in Crowley's mind, things die when they're no longer loved. He wants so much to protect what's important to him, and not be bossed around and told he has to lose something for the Greater Good or whatever.

As for Aziraphale. I think his choice, while heart-breaking, makes perfect sense for him. We were led the whole time to see that Aziraphale meddled on purpose to do good, not always with enough to nuance to know what that was, but meaning it. And Crowley meddled more to help Aziraphale than out of his own desire to meddle - which isn't to say he doesn't genuinely care about humans, but I think demon life just makes that a lot more difficult. Still he goes around protecting goats and children by his own will. He's fixed more on Aziraphale now, but that's in him as well. However, Aziraphale's the one who had faith in the system, and who wasn't 100% ready to part from it at the end of season 1. So Aziraphale deciding to return to heaven is not really that surprising, considering what he expects to gain from it. I do think this will bite him in the butt later, but I don't think he had bad reasons. And Crowley's reasons, for prioritizing his independence over being with Aziraphale, are equally valid. It's a great obstacle for them and the timing of the shift was painfully perfect.

And that finale. To be honest, I was a little frowny for a while, because I thought Maggie/Nina would get a kiss, and then Gabriel/Beelzebub were so romancey that I was like, "will everyone except Aziraphale and Crowley have a moment?" With them, there had been hints, lots of precious looks and lines, but nothing with oomph. I started to think, well, in the end Good Omens isn't a love story anyway... Ye of little faith!!! Crowley and Aziraphale get what I think was the only kiss in the season. It was definitely the most epic. I never should have doubted David Tennant and Michael Sheen. They're too used to each other for nonsense like internalized homophobia :> But I do have to say... the violins when their mouths meet... were a little much x'DDD I almost laughed. It was a very dramatic kiss, and a very dramatic reaction - a scene right out of a Katherine Hepburn movie. That, however, makes me love it more. Yes, let these middle-aged gay angels suck face and pine hopelessly for each other. Validate all those fanfics. Good Omens season 2 is the slow burn I always dreamed of

The cliffhanger ending is EXCRUCIATING. I wouldn't mind having to just wait a little, but it's gonna be years till season 3 - it's not even greenlighted yet! I will not make it y'all. I neeeeeeeeed the next season. Aarrrrggghhh. All good things are worth the wait, but I have to also SURVIVE the wait... XP

In sum: very silly, very touching, a different vibe than Good Omens, but still a very wonderful vibe. Also gay gay gay gay gay. Happy happy happy. Make them all gay! I'm fucking straight but I wish I was gay right now just so I could be even happier. It's a great story with great themes and great gay characters.

[phantom-miria]

Girl, being a chrobin shipper is so exausting because you're either dealing with super misogynistic people who hates f!robin for being "in the way" of gay chrobin or with huge homophobes who loves to bring up lucina to invalidate m!chrobin and really think that male friendships are under attack? (and a lot of weird people who just feels disgusted if you dare to imply that their virtual husband might be bi and like dudes too?) Like, when will we be free? 😭

Oof yeah I feel this one hard. I don't see a lot of people talking about F!Robin being "in the way" necessarily, but people can get really mean and aggro about their glee when she doesn't get crossover stuff instead of him (as if that's some kind of new or revolutionary treatment of player characters split by gender, lol? when has the male avatar ever been favored??? as if he doesn't already get the lion's share of crossover content when they decide to give things to only one of them?) and making big gloating claims about how she's been decanonized/passed over for Chrobin content, and stuff like that? But also if we commission art of the content for ourselves that's bad too? Okay. IDK. I empathize a lot with people who are excited to get content / ship tease for the m/m version of the ship that wasn't possible in the base game. It's not lost on me why that's exciting. I just wish people weren't so god damn rude about F!Robin in the process just for...existing? Lol. Any time M!Robin gets something it somehow circles back around into being time to dunk on F!Robin and how inferior they think she is. Even with the legendary there was someone going on about how awesome it was she could never get a title like that (which was hers first lmao) and a lot of rubbing in how he's "supplanting" her in Chrobin content, THANK GOD etc, the Valentine's unit had people mad she was there at all and trashing her for being "ugly" and just existing in proximity on the banner, so on and so forth. And there's a lot of "only straight people would ship this" which is really frustrating as a woman who isn't straight. I just fucking like female player characters. Assuming that someone's ship(s) translates directly to their real life sexuality is garbage for everyone.

And then yeah on the other end people act like M!Chrobin broke into their house and stole all of their guy-guy friendships out of their hands and then peed on their dog or something. The sanctity of dude friendships will survive gay shipping, actually. It's fine. And the Lucina bit is so fucking old. There's plenty of ways in real life for two men to have a kid, let alone in a magic universe. Like do you have any imagination at all lmfao. Surrogacy? Lucina coming from a different timeline, which Awakening explicitly has? That gender change potion that gets brought up in a Sully support? There's tons of options for how to think out how it could work if you stop for a few seconds. The only limitation is being a joy killer who wants to remind people they couldn't play this option in the original game without hacks.

Anyway I don't think we'll ever be free. I'm trying to read the tags less and block more liberally so that I can have a more peaceful time but I'm unfortunately prone to searching things I know will frustrate me just to have a bad time for...I don't know why I do that but I'd like to stop. But I don't think we can really change fandom, we can only change how we interact with it and what we look at.

I did make the below image the other day (and then neglected to post it because I'm trying to be more positive, lol) thinking about how M!Robin fans have made me incredibly tired of M!Robin, but I hate how people are shit about M!Chrobin and dump all over the fans just having a good time with it, and I end up feeling alienated from a lot of different corners from people I supposedly share a ship with, so I feel you, anon. It's especially sad to me that this springs out of something that is supposed to be fun. It's good to remind myself that fandom is low stakes nonsense when shit gets heated, but it doesn't make me feel less sad about it in the moment.

Anyway, truly the mood for the F!Chrobin-only shipper who ended up that way because I have a preference for female player characters and can't fucking stand how M!Robin fans talk about F!Robin who nonetheless dislikes how people barge in on M!Chrobin fans having fun to be awful to them:

p.s. bisexual Chrom forever they can take that from my cold dead claws. And also he has chemistry with Gaius too so like it's not even just a Robinsexual thing, he's just bi. End of story for me.

[erstwhilesparrow]

*waves enthusiastically* HI!! :D May I have 2, 4, 10, 13 for the fannish asks?

[waves back with equal enthusiasm] HI!

2. What’s a classic work of literature that you’d consider yourself a fan of?

Hm.... Does The Haunting of Hill House count as a classic work of literature? I suspect no. The Bell Jar?? The Left Hand of Darkness?? Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel Garcia Marquez?? I've read Pride and Prejudice, which I suspect is the closest to what is meant by 'classic' here, and I admire Austen's writing but it's not really the first thing I think of when asked what I'm a fan of. Sorry, this answer's kind of boring, turns out I'm not much of a classics person!

4. Do you have a crack ship? Explain them to me.

I... don't think so? I have trouble framing character relationships as shipping even to myself? Just in general? Like. It just doesn't occur to me that I might want to do that. And I don't think it's as if I don't ship people, more that someone says the word shipping to me and my mind goes totally blank. So. You can imagine how it's even worse when I try to think of a crack ship I might have. Wow, two in a row for Answers That Aren't That Fun -- let's see if we can make it three >:]

10. Recc me a new piece of media you think I’d enjoy!

Ooh... Nimona! By ND Stevenson. I just glanced to the side at my bookshelf and saw this and went, "Ah, yes, found family, magic powers, sweet and silly and sad. Perfect." It's a graphic novel about a shape-shifting girl (Nimona) who wriggles her way into the life of a villain by the name of Ballister Blackheart. The two of them team up to cause some trouble with a group called the Institute, Ballister might have a bit of A Thing going on with the hero of the Institute, and Nimona makes me real fucking sad every time I read it.

Aw, dang, this answer was fun, I broke my streak!

13. Praise an obscure favourite character.

Oh boy oh god oh okay!! I'm giving you this answer with the full knowledge that it'll change again within a month or two, probably. Pixlriffs! From the Minecraft series Empires SMP (Season 2)! I mean, I assume I'll like him in season 1 as well, but I haven't watched that yet. He's just... so enchanting to me as a character concept. And specifically as a Minecraft character concept?

Right, okay, so. He's an archaeologist. He pulls entire cities out of the past. He lives alone in a warren of ancient catacombs. He can see, as holograms, the places that overgrown ruins used to be. In a series that is so much about not being able to escape the past, he's, like, a walking thematic capstone, and that's just so. I am a moth to a flame about that. But also. He's so fucking funny as a character and everything I aspire to be. He's the definition of "friendly and competent guy that everyone takes for granted as The Normal One but then it turns out that no, he's as batshit weird as the rest of them"!! He's really nice! Utterly unflappable! One time he ripped up a guy's carpet because his favourite shiny rock got stolen!

But the actual thing I haven't been able to stop thinking about is. Pixlriffs The Actual Guy Who Makes The Videos (as opposed to Pixlriffs The Character) is making a point this season of not really doing a character arc or a central plot for his character? On a Doylist level, this is so The Actual Guy can stick to what he's more comfortable with: being in the background doing work to support other people's stories -- The Actual Guy himself describes it as kind of being like a DM. But on a Watsonian level? All of this is so. He builds ruins and structures and dots them across the landscape for the other players to find. He guides them to plot hooks interesting sites and suggests they talk to each other when there's thematic parallels in their stories they have problems in common. I keep thinking about the line from the End Poem: and the universe said you are the universe tasting itself, talking to itself, reading its own code / and the universe said I love you because you are love. And. The idea of a person who is here specifically to act as a mouthpiece for the history of the world, to speak on a past that -- on the level of the game -- doesn't exist. The idea of Pix being in some ways very much his own person but in others acting out the will or narrative of a place overflowing with those things and unable to express them. Like the universe itself saw these people telling stories and building homes and living lives with so much care and love and went, Yes, let me help. Yes, I love you, here is another story, tell it with me. Yes, let me play the game with you.

History chooses the victors… The past is not gone, it is not even past… You are the universe talking to itself... He!!!

It's so funny how obvious it is when I care about a thing. Hi, Reyni! Hope you've had fun with this, and that you've made it to the end here unscathed. :]