#i need to learn to be less selfish and have more fun and actually genuinely care about people and forgive more easily

[crystalizedcryolite]

Woah woah woah what's this I'm hearing about Green hate?? Is this true? Probably not, but this is a great opportunity to explain character flaws! :D (I was saving this analysis for when the entire arc is done but whatever)

A perfect, flawless character is a boring character. What fun will there be if your character did everything right in the world, no mistakes to let them grow or problems they can learn from? This helps create conflict, which helps expand on a character and develop them further.

Green's ego problem, his whole attention and fame-obsession thing, is a part of his character for a reason. Flaws in a character makes them more realistic and relatable, you feel me?

Green is actually a really complex character, and that's something I love most about him. That's why he's my favourite.

He can be kind, he can be a cocky jerk, he can be selfish, he can be selfless, he loves his friends, he doesn't understand what he's doing to them, all of it. His character flaws make him feel real.

His wanting for a bigger taste of fame, his slowly losing himself to the world of content creation? It's realistic. It happens everyday.

I, of course, hate what he's doing to his friends, hell, I've been there before, but that's simply necessary for his character arc. When he realises his mistake, he's going to grow from it. He's going to become a better person, I just know it.

How do I know? Because we've seen it time and time and time again.

Green showing off when he wins every build battle, Green getting cocky when dodging Red’s pranks, his anger when he loses? Those flaws have been established since day one.

Except he's still a good person.

He remained loyal to his friends, genuinely loves and cares about them so very much, and most definitely the type to drop everything for them.

(I hope, if my analysing skills are any good..)

And who's the one who comforted Purple after all he's done to them?

Green.

He's still including his friends, albeit a lot, lot less. He still cares about them, he's still trying to give them some spotlight, but he doesn't understand that they don't want that. Doesn't understand yet, anyway.

Sure, he's losing himself to the taste of fame, sure he's currently filled with an ego-driven, attention-seeking drive right now, but he'll learn soon.

That's what makes a character arc so darn good. Sometimes the problem isn't an outside force, or an enemy to battle, or something to stop.

Sometimes the problem is yourself, and it's something that needs to be changed.

Maybe the whole point of this fame-chasing arc is to let Green learn more about humility, in all it's glory, and the dangers of devoting your life to giving content to a bunch of strangers.

Or maybe not, who knows? There's still two episodes for the influencer arc, after all.

I can't wait to see how Green's character arc goes for it :D

(I don't mean any malice towards anyone, by the way! This is just me analysing Green's character :>

[orchita]

.

[madmaxified]

dc super hero girls ( 2019 ) swap au because I have no self control. it’s essentially just a role swap of the villain group and the hero’s ( and batman with the joker, mostly for narrative )

the hero ( formerly villain ) group themselves are INCREDIBLY unorthodox, mostly because none of them other than harleen and selina ever wanted to do something for other people before, they were mostly using their powers for selfish reasons ( not evil ones, just for personal gain ) so even though they’re all learning to be better people they’re not super well liked by the general public because of their destructive and frankly dangerous methods ( mostly adults hate them, other teenagers think they’re the coolest ) they’re referred to as vigilantes more rather than actual heroes

harleen swaps with babs, she still retains her canon personality she’s less apathetic, and genuinely cares deeply for a lot of her friends. she still loves playing pranks and practical jokes, but she’s less rowdy and rambunctious in the beginning, especially when she meets new people, mostly because she’s now really worried about making a good impression and not getting into too much trouble. rather than her dad taking a new job in metropolis, harleen got expelled from gotham high for playing a big prank ( it’s a running gag that no one but babs knows what it was ) and her dad was so pissed that she got kicked out of the only high school in gotham that he kicked her out. she lied about her address to her address to get into metropolis high, and she’s really trying her best to do well in school, and like diana was in canon, she was kinda just homeless for a bit. since the joker is a superhero in this universe, harley quinn ( a superhero name the others poke fun at sometimes because of how obvious it is ) is a crime fighting vigilante

selina swaps with diana, she isn’t an amazonian or anything ( that’s still diana ) but instead she’s more of a robin hood type character pre canon. she’d steal from banks or take valuables and sell them on the black market and give the money to people and families who need it, which isn’t an amazing tactic, but her intentions were good. she didn’t have any real interest or intention in starting a superhero group or actually fighting any crime before harleen brings up the idea, but she has been keeping a close eye on a couple girls ( pam, leslie, doris, carol ) at school that she thinks might have superpowers. once the group is formed she is the leader, mostly because she has the most battle iq / experience. like diana, she is the one leading the main training in the beginning, and though she’s the elected ‘leader’ she’s not really the mom of the group. she does care deeply about her team though, and she does try her best to keep them safe. she’s the least destructive member of the team because of how practiced she is at sneaking in and out of places without getting caught but she’s one of the most disliked because of catwoman’s already existing presence pre show, her intentions were good, but robbing banks is bad

the rest of the girls are less obvious swaps, it’s mostly just the villains are now heroes and the heroes are now villains

leslie is the more tech savvy one ( like karen ) she’s actually super smart which comes as shock to people based on her punk looks ( she hates when people say she doesn’t look like she’d enjoy math or science ) she’s not a bully anymore, instead, like kara she’s more sarcastic and just pokes fun at people, though it she takes it too far with people she cares about she’s very quick to apologize. she’s the one who is put under ra’s’ spell ( she’s still super punk guys OF COURSE she loved the league of shadows ) and her lighting gets all red and stuff and she looks super cool. she’s actually part of school newspaper, since she’s nicer, she doesn’t run a gossip column ( though she’s constantly BEGGING lois to let her start one ) she’s instead a field reporter, who always manages her to somehow get the inside scoop and really good pictures ( she’s hiding out the in tech guys ) also her and doris are one hundred percent going out

doris is more the mom of the group, she’s no longer a bully and instead uses her strength to defend people she cares about / beat the shit out of people she doesn’t like, she gets in trouble a lot because she’s constantly beating up kids at school who make fun of pam. her and pam are really close because their parents are both scientists and they grew up hanging out at labs together. both of them were experimented on by their parents, and have been aware of eachothers powers for a while. she’s super over protective of the others in the group, mostly pam ( because they’re basically sisters ) leslie ( cause they’re going out ) and harleen ( because harleen’s always putting herself into harms way ) she’s quite literally the type to just grab her friends and walk away with them tucked under her arms if she feels that something isn’t safe, despite their protesting. she’s the world’s biggest man hater ever, she gets pissed off so much if a guy says something misogynistic to her or her friends, her powers act ho so much it’s not even funny

carol is still the overemotional one of the group, though it’s mostly because her ring is more connected to strong emotions rather than love, but because she still not super sure how to control her ring yet ( none of the others really know what to do either so they’re all just trying their best ) so whenever her friends, or anyone else around her frankly, are feeling something really strong it effects her pretty deeply. she’s not obsessed with hal, though they are still exes, but him being a shitty boyfriend is one of the reasons she became so intune with her ring in the first place. she’s like the opposite of a therapist friend, in the sense of she’s a friend constantly trying to give therapy but also needs it more than anything. her and thaal are the definition of ‘twink and in denial lesbian’ friendship ( and she totally doesn’t dump to him about how hot she thinks lois lane is, even if she is trying to uncover the identities, they’re essentially this aus barry and babs ) she’s still a hopeless romantic, and is constantly gushing to the others about her ‘dream’ guy ( and theyr all like ‘carol you dumb lesbian my god!’ )

pam is basically the same, other than the fact that she’s less inclined to use her powers, mostly because she’s scared to. she really only goes into poison ivy form when she desperately needs to photosynthesize and when she’s either completely alone or with doris. her parents exterminated on her when she was little, and because of that fact that they literally turned her into a walking plant she’s completely incapable of eating plants ( people just think she has a weird medical condition ) though she’s still anti social, she does quite enjoy the company of a select few people. when she does finally agree to join the others in becoming a super hero, she really only does it / participates in certain crimes to try and help the environment. it isn’t until she and harley come face to face with batgirl that she finally starts using her powers to actually fight. she’s also less anti social, she still doesn’t have many friends, but it’s mostly because she’s shy and not because she doesn’t want them ( her and karen have basically swapped personalities ) she’s very much the sweetest member of the group ( leslie, doris and her are literally simon, alvin and theodore )

diana is a lot more like her aunt antiope, she spent a lot more time with her as a child and so she’s a lot more reckless and carefree. she doesn’t really care that much about her teammates, and to her they’re really just pawns she uses to achieve her goals and help her have a good time. she’s still new to metropolis, having just arrived at the time of the first episode, but rather than wanting to protect the world of man, she instead just wants to cause problems, have fun and possibly grow rich. antiope sent her the the human world willingly, because in this universe she’s the older sister and is the queen of the amazonians, rather than diana’s mom. she’s less academic and way more sporty, a trait she’s picked up from her aunt since she never really had to study when she was younger. diana is incredibly manipulative in this au, almost every member of her group was manipulated into joining by her, and it continues as long as they remain part of the group

( bonus : the episode #thewarriorandthejester plays out basically the same, including diana figuring out harleen is harley quinn. during nightmare in gotham diana is present, and when harley’s tied up on the roof she reveals to babs that harleen is harley )

babs’ dad is still commissioner gordon, but she instead idolizes batman, and since batman’s a bad guy in this universe, so is babs ( she’s just extra careful about keeping her identity a secret ) like in canon, babs is extremely hyperactive, but in this universe it’s a lot more unchecked. since harleen forced herself to learn how to tone down and not always draw attention to herself in fear of getting kicked out again, her babs’ energy doesn’t match eachother’s as well as it used to. babs lacks a filter, so she’ll often just say what she doesn’t like about someone to their face, which is one of the reasons harleen’s new friends don’t like her as much. batgirl is a lot meaner in this universe, she’s rude, and blatantly makes fun of people, particularly harley ( cough … the reason pam gets so worked up and uses her powers in a fighting sense … cough ) while out of the costume harleen still is the more overprotective one ( she still would willingly kill for babs ) babs is the one who often goes to extreme measures to make sure the other is happy 

zee is somewhat of an accidental villain, she used dark magic one time on accident ( she caused the gremlins to spew out of ace of spades a lot earlier on ) and diana, who witnessed this, pressured her into jointing her villain group, claiming it would help her ‘learn to control her dark magic better’ ( spoiler alert, it doesn’t ) while zee enjoys the freedom and publicity being a villain brings her, she really doesn’t enjoy using her dark magic, because she has no idea how to control it, she avoids using it most of time, because when she does use it, things get chaotic and very out of hand. she’s still the most popular girl in school out of costume, but she’s a lot less nice ( she’s stereotypical mean girl core and I’m sorry ) she’s a lot less open and kind as she is in canon, even to her friends, she’s a total asshole to everyone but especially to her friends 

karen is a little wet rat in this universe, she was tired of being called small and weak and being picked on, so she built the bumblebee suit with the intention of getting revenge, but even with the broken growth tech diana still recruited her to her team, karen being the only one she didn’t have to manipulate in some way. she used to be incredibly shy, and while she’s still anti social ( her and pam have kind of swapped personalities ) she’s just rude now, and thats why she doesn’t have many friends. she’s a little wet rat and will a hundred percent bite you. she’s still constantly fix her growth tech, but she also refuses to let any of her team mates help her. basically all of them besides diana and maybe jessica like hate her because she’s so rude to them all of time and never follows any of their plans and just does her own thing half the time, but diana won’t listen to them when the tell her to kick karen off the team

jessica doesn’t want to be a villain, she definitely doesn’t enjoy it, like zee and literally every but karen, she was manipulated by diana to joining the team. like pam in canon, most of her motives for doing literally anything villain related is when she sees or hears about social injustices that she wants to fix. she does believe in fighting in this universe, she doesn’t love it, but she thinks that the only way to deal with social injustices is to use violence to punish people. in this universe, her fears of not being good enough for the green lantern core got the best of her and she ran off, quitting and instead taking up a yellow ring ( thaal still has his green ring in this au ) she’s a lot less of a social butterfly, she still uses school as a place to voice abut problems around metropolis, but because she’s a lot more self conscious the negative response get to her a lot more. she’s no longer like “I don’t know the meaning of the words leave it alone” and more just “oh … okay I’ll stop 😞” she’s still one who tries befriend pam, and they’re still adorable and probably dating. she also needs a hug asap

kara became a villain because she was really jealous of super man ( he’s still a hero in this universe ) and diana used that against her. she started out trying to be a hero but literally no one cared and they all called her destructive so diana was like “become a villain and then you can beat up your cousin mwa ha ha” and she was like “that sounds dope I’m in” when zod shows up, she still helps defeat him, because she still wants to be a hero deep down, she wants to help people, but diana won’t let any of them leave her villain group. she does try to help people whenever she thinks diana isn’t looking, and she always tries desperately not to hurt people when they’re pulling off heights or schemes. she’s still destructive and thinks punching things is a solution to everything mostly because diana tells her that it’s a great idea to do that, and so she’s never really learned any other way to deal with problems

lena and lex swap, so he’s the little rat child and she’s the super genius billionaire asshole. people don’t love lena as much as they do lex in canon mostly because she’s still a bit of a brat. she’s still beloved and held to a super high regard but people are also like “she’s also super fucking weird and is like a rat” she also has a keytar because fuck it ricky owens reference. so when she’s fighting with the girls instead of some weird dance she’s like putting on a little concert for them. most of her robots that need to be manually controlled have a piano as the control piano, so when lex is fighting the girls in the beginning he’s just slamming his hands on random keys and hoping it works 

barbi still starts out a villain, she’s jealous that harleen became captain of the gymnastics team and was like “magic is the only solution fuck it” her and selina are exes but it’s so obvious they have not gotten over eachother at all ( “why’d she break up with you selina?” “it was over something stupid - I stole from her” “that’s a really good reason to dump you” ) cheetah is still a villain until around after the girls fight when lena because she was captured and then like immediately let her out and selina like was begging her to be a good guy with them, she late becomes an honorary member of the team. while she was captured she was in the tube next to selina and the whole time selina was like “barbi I’m sorry please take me back 😭”

the joker and batman swap so babs is the one who idolizes a villain and harleen idolizes a hero. the hive five also swap with the teen titans

dexter is literally the same except selina is the one who works at the animal shelter and is the one who adopts him

[thegreymoon]

The Story of Minglan

Nice 💛

***

LMAO, "chief of a brothel" 🤣🤣

Madam Wang is brutal. Poor Gu Tingye, he will never shake his poor reputation.

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Who is she again?

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Sis, you are so barking up the wrong tree.

No amount of calling Gu Tingye "Second Uncle" and being mad your brothers don't follow suit will make him interested in you.

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Who the hell are all these new people?

I can't keep up.

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She really does love making a fool out of herself.

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Wait, what?

They STOLE it from her?

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Was the stepmother the one stealing her things?

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Why are everyone's siblings such assholes in this drama?

I need to call my brother and tell him I love him because he's awesome.

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Not drunk, just a selfish imbecile.

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OH MY GOD 😐😐

LIKE, THE SHIT YOU WILL GET HER INTO, DUDE.

***

I know we're supposed to be on her side here, but I'm already sick of her whining. SHE ALLOWED THE PIN TO GET STOLEN AND LOST. AND NOT JUST THE PIN, BUT MULTIPLE ITEMS.

She seems incompetent and dumb and they are making the sister evil just to generate this fake drama. The Sheng siblings are much more nuanced, even when they are bad, we see reasons for their behaviour. This just plays on, "Hurr durr, children of the second wife are mean to the poor orphan!"

It's annoying because the main storyline is already all about that and they are not doing anything new here, they're just regurgitating the same theme, only worse and with a less sympathetic heroine.

***

I mean!!!

Cartoon villain behaviour.

If this was Molan and Rulan being petty and one-upping each other just because, I could buy it, because we have precedent for their bickering that feels realistic, and they are actual rivals because of their mothers' rivalry. They are both equally at each other's throats, they match each other's energy. But this? There is no conflict here. Yanran is such a soggy doormat of a person, she is no threat to the sister, she's just insignificant, so we end up with this situation where the sister seems to be having a one-sided feud with her for no reason except that she can. They are artificially upping the stakes with "But it's her dead mother's heirloom!!" to make us care, but it isn't working because the whole thing feels so contrived. If it had been ANYONE ELSE playing against her for the pin, I would have found it more believable and the tension for the purpose of this whole scene would still have been there, because she can't just go up to a random woman and demand that she surrenders her prize if she wins.

Recently I learned a hilarious Chinese idiom, "draw snake, add feet", which warns against overdoing things. This is a prime example.

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LMAO, shows how much you know the woman you claim to love.

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His stupid face 🤣🤣

Go fuck yourself, Qi Heng.

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This spineless coward.

Also, there is no chance Gu Tingye won't let Minglan win, he's so amused by her and already interested in Yanran. The evil sister set herself up here.

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LOL, stanning madam Wu!

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OMG, DUDE, STAY IN YOUR FUCKING LANE

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SO TAKE A FUCKING HINT!!

Everyone in this episode is being so stupid and annoying, except for Minglan and maybe Tingye (but the jury is still out on him).

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Oh, fuck all the way off.

***

Oh, Jesus Christ 🙄

I haven't been this annoyed by so many people at the same time since this drama started. I want to stab them all. Gu Tingye is the only one who gets a pass (OK, and Rulan too, because she was the only one there genuinely having fun).

[yuikomorii]

Let's judge fairly. Yui had her development too. It's not like she didn't have any development.

// I wouldn’t necessarily call it development, I would rather say the story itself advanced and she grew accustomed to the circumstances. Over the course of the games, she got better at managing the Diaboys since you get to know someone after spending a lot of time with them and well… she also started acting more cheeky and bolder with them, for the reason that they started dating. She didn't know Karlheinz well in HDB and MB, so she didn't have any opinion about him, but in DF and CL, she called him out after Karl revealed how much of a jerk he is. It's not like she wouldn't have done that earlier if she had known the truth about him from the beginning—she called out Cordelia in the first game, after all.

However, I do think there are two particular scenes where they tried to highlight some major (?) development.

One is from Ayato's MB route, when she acknowledged acting in a selfish manner and concentrating solely on her feeling rather than on Ayato too, who was also having difficulties. She came to the realization that Ayato isn't perfect, despite being cute and giving her pleasure, and learned to accept him for all of his good and bad traits.

The other one is from Laito’s LE route, in which Reiji tries to make her understand that not believing in your lover can be very painful and that it’s not okay talking like that behind his back.

The message itself was good but this is the type of forced character development I have mixed feelings about. They didn’t have to make Yui act like that because it only portrays her as the bad one here. Yui is the first person Laito has ever opened up to and she was well aware that Laito hates Karlheinz, so getting his powers would undoubtedly damage him, yet she kept failing to understand that, despite the fact that they’ve been dating for some months and should have known better. The scene in which she says that Laito knows everything about her, yet she knows nothing about him only makes her appear so foolish in order to generate conflict. Like… come on, how can the heroine claim such a thing after dating a guy for SIX games?? Plus, the reasons of Laito’s actions were OBVIOUS that not even Reiji could entirely put the blame on him based on his situation.

As for Ayato’s MB route, I can’t entirely put the blame on her; I mean… Ayato is super good-looking and could probably pull anyone, but I can’t comprehend how she failed to realize that he has negative traits too?? It should be crystal clear that nobody is perfect and that everyone has their own issues, so you can’t beg someone to consider you special if they don’t feel like it.

It would have been 10 times better if Rejet actually tried to overcome her weaknesses, instead of adding new flaws. No, writing the heroine to suddenly have a shallow or selfish mindset only to make her “become a better person after realizing her mistakes” was not needed at all. And it’s also not fun making a character learn the same lesson in more games.

Credit to: dialovers-translations on Tumblr

The best scene, in which they could have genuinely made her evolve as a person, was in Carla’s LE route, when she admitted wanting to help him and the ghouls. It would have been nice seeing Carla putting faith in her and giving her an important yet hard task. Seeing Yui try her best to do it right, even if she was struggling at first, would have been such a cute moment. But nope, they decided to push her aside instead.

Other than that, idk if becoming a masochist and less sane as in the beginning count as development, lol, but if it does then it works like that too.

I get that it’s an otome game and most people play it for the guys but I feel like the heroine deserves to have her own storyline where she discovers herself and improves. DL feels more like the Diaboys' journey than her own, which is ironic because she’s the HEROINE, and in her most recent appearance, Rejet literally described her as “Ayato’s lover” without even using her name. I don’t really think the developers care that much about her, otherwise I doubt they’d be ok with all her character inconsistencies.

Yui is my favorite heroine because I find her really cute and likeable, plus I relate to her, but I’m aware of the fact that a likeable character does not equal a good one. She’s your average early 2010s heroine, who could have been indeed better written but serves her purpose, which is still good.

[clown-bear]

tell me about the dahlia and pheonix dynamic in your head

sorry if it takes long to respond but I started Shaking when I saw this ask /pos

my headcanon about their dynamic comes back to. the class trial when Phoenix started looking up to Miles. they (Dahlia and Phoenix) only met in uni of course but the mock trial is Important to the Phoenix's character as a whole so here we are

ok, looking back to the mock trial we can see that Phoenix is a person that starts looking up to people the MOMENT they do sth significant/nice to him. some kid defends him? friends forever now. some girl goes up to him and start flirting? love from first sight. personally I believe that means he isn't really used to any of that

Dahlia on the other hand. she is used to that. to the attention and also kinda to ppl being willing to take her side (even if she's wrong. let's just look at Iris who used to help her). I believe thats the biggest reason she hates Phoenix so much tbh, I don't think she ever expected that he'd just say "no" to her when she asked him for the necklace back (it was Iris asking him but you know. he thought it was Dahlia)

sorry it's a bit chaotic but I want to talk about the moment Dahlia gave Phoenix her necklace. I think most of us look at this scene in a "Dahlia The Mastermind" sense (which is pretty fun) but I think it's also worth it to acknowledge that she was probably. kinda scared during this scene. scared for selfish reasons (scared of being found out to have murdered someone) but scared regardless. and Phoenix. we saw it time and time again that he feels like he needs to help everyone who is scared. I think he might have picked up on her being scared and that might be a part of why he fell (or more accurately.thought he fell imho) so hard so quickly

then. Dahlia didn't see him for some time but she spent a Lot of time thinking about him (NOT in a romantic sense of course but in a "I hate him so fucking much for not giving the necklace back and I'm now afraid all the time" sense) the next time they interact is like. when she wanted to kill him and them when she was on the witness stand.

I don't believe she persuaded him in any way to eat the necklace btw. I truly believe he just realized it on his own that she was guilty and he saw she was scared and wanted to protect her. in the weirdest way possible

and then. she says THE line. "how can any woman count on you" or sth like that. and then he learns she tried to kill him. Fucking Hell! now, I know the reason he still was kinda on her side after that is because he was genuinely confused because of the Iris Dahlia situation but it also shows sth else which is. he is READY to excuse fucked up behaviors towards him if it's from ppl he loves. which sucks

now, did Dahlia actually hate Phoenix? yes. but less for him as a person and more for the circumstances around them. on the one hand he was the perfect person she could have given the necklace to, on the other hand he was the worst person she could have given the necklace to. and all because of The Same Reason which is, Phoenix gets connected to people and things extremely easy if they show him (even if for a brief moment) that they are "on his side". do you get me. anon do you get me. does it make any amount of sense. I'm not sure myself

Dahlia. Dahlia Dollie Dearest. I made her seem like someone who always gets everything she wants which is both true and extremely untrue (I mean. Morgan is her mother). so many things about her are contradictory and I choose to interpret that as her being a nuanced character and not bad writing decisions. and in that spirit. I think her thoughts about Phoenix are contradictory as well. and Phoenix's thoughts about her. I think that's the theme of their weird dynamic, it's contradictions, it's Dahlia pretending all the time and it's Phoenix pretending right back. pretending he didn't know she was guilty. pretending he didn't see her umbrella on the crime scene.

did I answer your question? I'm not sure, I actually don't think so. but I don't think I can put it into words what I think is going on BETWEEN them. I just can point out things I think are influencing it

[strayslost]

thinking about chuuya and kouyou's perspectives on the PM and what they do in it... my headcanons on them change very easily so i might do a 180 on these but still. under the cut for length

in my mind (and this is mostly how i interpret them on this blog for fun rather than what i think is canon), chuuya does to an extent believe that the port mafia is doing good for the city. it's the "dirty work" that needs to be done that no-one wants to do, controlling and organizing crime, etc. but he also is aware that he's doing bad things and could probably be called a bad person for supporting the organization - he just doesn't care, because to him, he prioritizes the people he cares about personally over the lives of other people / the "innocent."

kind of like... he thinks the PM is necessary and does SOME good, but even in the places where it's not and it's just hurting people, he still sticks with them because his family comes first. he's willing to hurt innocents/do the "wrong" thing if it means protecting them. (both physically and emotionally, and from prison, etc)

however, he does still have a moral compass, and there are things in the PM that make him uncomfortable that he doesn't want to support. so he kind of... takes a few different approaches depending on what it is - either he chooses not to care because of the above "family comes first" mindset, or he lies to himself a little and tells himself either that it's necessary; that he can't do anything about it or that he's wrong for being uncomfortable to begin with. not trusting his own judgement, basically. hopefully one day, he'll take control of the pm from mori and learn that he can make the mafia a better place, actually listen to his own moral judgements and shape the organization into something different.

(listen it may not be realistic because it's still the mafia but this is fiction therefore. i do not care. disclaimer that my views on the PM do not reflect my views on the real mafia etc. etc. lol)

kouyou on the other hand... compared to chuuya, there's far less that genuinely makes her uncomfortable in the PM (with a few exceptions), and that's part of why she sees herself as a bad person who could never be good even if she wanted to. she knows the PM does some good for the city, but that's not as important to her as it might be to chuuya - instead, her mindset is more like. even if she left the PM, it would still exist and people would still be hurt because of it - so it doesn't matter to her if she's the one doing the hurting. even if she left, she'd just be replaced, though admittedly the organization probably would take a hit - but it wouldn't ultimately change anything about how it functions.

if that's the case, she'd rather be selfish and live the life she knows, that she's grown comfortable with, and as an executive have some power over what the PM does that she wouldn't have outside it. she does want to help make the organization better with mori, but it's more for the sake of the people within it than those outside it. hopefully, her loyalty would shift to chuuya if he ended up taking over, and she'd realize that it's okay for her to want to be a little bit "good." because a big part of it too honestly is like... she doesn't think she's capable of being in the light? or that she deserves it?? and i'd like for her to change that mindset, and like chuuya, work on making the PM better than it is now.

(or they could both leave. i'd be happy with that option too. they deserve better than the PM as it is now, is what I'm saying!!)

so basically comparing them to each other - to an extent they believe the PM does some good (chuuya moreso than kouyou) but they're also aware that it does a lot of bad / that not everything it does is necessary, either. chuuya responds to this "bad" by either deciding that he cares about his family more than outsiders, or by lying to himself about his discomfort and repressing it. kouyou responds by believing that someone would be doing the "bad" no matter what, so it might as well be her. as for why they stay to begin with - for chuuya, it's about having a home and a family he cares for there. kouyou is mostly the same, but for her it's also a fear of the "light" and believing she's incapable of living that way. (though chuuya does hold this belief to an extent too...) they both have lines they don't want to cross though, and eventually with character development might come to see that they do want to be better people than they are now, and are capable of doing that, either through leaving the PM or changing it fundamentally as an institution.

[valkxrie]

Interesting Questions for Muns:

1. Would you say that ever since you started writing for your muse you have become more similar to your muse? In what ways?

Yes and no. No, in that Brunnhilde and I are very different, but yes in that there are parts of her that I do genuinely admire - and that have brought out something better in me. Brunnhilde is strong in who she is. Unapologetic and without the desire to be anyone else. In almost every myth, she is fierce, capable and - importantly - she knows her worth and is not prepared to accept less.

I first learned about Brunnhilde while obtaining an advanced lit degree from an enigmatic professor who challenged my notions of humanity, femininity, and the role of women in history every single day for several years. It took me a long time to adopt Brunnhilde as muse - and even longer to start writing her. Engaging with strong female characters was a huge part of me giving myself permission to actually live in a way that was true to me, who I want to be, and the adventures I want to have.

2. Do you self-project yourself into your muse? If so, then how?

I will use my own experiences to inform some plot points; like how things taste or feel, but all of my characters are uniquely their own. They are not me and I spend a lot of time getting to know them - much as you would a friend. There is a study that goes into their creation, not projection.

3. Do you regret writing any of your past muses?

No. Some of them I look back on and go “yeah, you know what - I could have done that a lot better”. Or I will look back and see that they were just a means to understand my own life - not a way to tell a story. All of it has been a journey of growth. I wouldn’t be writing who and how I am writing now without past muses and stories.

4. Would you like to become more like your muse someday? Brunnhilde is not good. She is morally very grey, she can be bitter and resentful of the fact that she’s been used as a tool by powerful men, and she can be a bit of a Leroy Jenkins. I do like her confidence, charisma, tenacity, loyalty... she is very sensual and can be a lot of fun. She has a lot of ownership and autonomy that I really respect. But would I want to be her? No. I am happy with who I am, she is happy with who she is, and we don’t need to be like each other.

5. Do you agree with your muse's decisions? Why or why not?

Long story short; Brunnhilde, for all her loyalty, her adventurous nature, and her strength of spirit, can be cruel. She harnesses her anger as a tool, and... I’d like to think I am a lot more mellow and a lot more forgiving. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. As I said, she can be bitter and resentful. She can also be spiteful and selfish. She’s not very forgiving, and she might deny someone Valhalla because they wronged her. I don’t think I could ever justify doing something like that myself - even if I can justify it for the sake of a plot, but that’s a whole other field of discussion.

6. If your muse came to life, do you think you would get along with them?

I would be shit scared of her. And then I would ask her to for work-out tips.

7. Would you say that your attitude changes when you get 'into the zone' of writing your muse? (ex: when you write for your muse do you begin to sort of talk like them? do you find yourself feeling grumpy after? etc)

I'd like to think I am pretty good at keeping the line between me and a muse separate.

8. Do you like to tell people that you like to RP on tumblr? If not, then do you think you'll tell anybody?

It's not a secret - it just so happens that many of the people in my life aren’t writers and are not very interested in Fiction. Those who are - it's their job and those conversations come with expectations.

Tumblr has given me a community where I can be creative and explore ideas and themes without expectation. It's just for me. I don’t have to send anyone on Tumblr a first-draft for approval; I can just be here and have fun. There’s a freedom to it.

No one in my ‘real life’ has ever really asked to read what I write here - and it doesn’t bother me. They sometimes see Tumblr open while I am supposed to be working, and will give me shit about procrastinating, but that's about it.

9. Has your muse taught you anything about yourself and/or the world?

She’s taught me that courage and confidence are beautiful things. That you can be strong and adventurous and beautiful and sensual; that limitations and stereotypes are all made up. You can be whatever you want so long as it is true to you and it doesn’t harm others. Differences are good - and it's okay for you to be different too. It is good for you to be different.

10. After a writing slump, how do you manage to get your muse back?

Music, mostly. I’ll find a song that inspires that muse and listen to it while driving, or at the gym... etc. I will literally just tune out and think of scenes that align with the rhythm of whatever I am listening to.

Also - just give me a deadline and I’ll probably procrasti-write on Tumblr instead. Half the reason I am so fast with my replies is that I, almost always, should be doing something else.

--- Tagged by: I actually filled this in last week, but then saw @kylo-wrecked​ share it and figured "fuck it, it's Munday". Tagging: Whoever wants to do it. Godspeed. 

[emc2beans]

22. How do people respond to them, and why might these responses differ?

24. How do they present themselves socially? What distinguishes their “persona” from their “true self”, and what causes that difference?

36. How much do they rely on their minds and intellect, versus other approaches like relying on instinct, intuition, faith and spirituality, or emotions? What is their opinion on this?

Plllssss 😭🙏🏻 if they have not been answered !

22. For Gwynedd, most people are intimidated by her initially. She's 7'3", towers over most people, and has a massive axe on her back at all times. However, those that spend more than a few minutes around her will find that she's actually quite friendly. Like if a suburban midwestern mom was shredded and had a pirate accent.

For Isolde, a lot of people will either not notice her because she doesn't want them to, or she'll be the center of attention. Usually the first one. Regardless, she's not everyone's cup of tea.

Llewellyn and his friends generally get regarded as a bunch of teenaged hooligans, which is partly true since they love to fool around and have fun. Alone, Llewellyn is usually pretty personable.

24. Gwynedd knows she's a little rough around the edges compared to the political leaders she often finds herself talking too, and he's also not a well-educated Archon like many of her friends. She tries to be as genuine as possible with everyone, but tones down both her Lominsan accent and her swearing/carousing when in the company of those she isn't close with. With the general public, she puts on an air of being a confident, fearless hero even though she constantly worries about the wellbeing of her friends.

Isolde spends a lot of time in public pretending that she's "normal". Social norms have changed since the Allagan period and there was a lot of re-learning that she had to do to fit in with society. Some of that is still a work in progress. In private, especially post-ShB, she works really hard to become a better person. Before that, she was a major bitch just in general. To put it succinctly, her inner demons have inner demons.

Llewellyn is trying to be more and more of a mature adult. Much like Gwyn, he's not as well-educated as the rest of the Scions and he comes from a family of sailors (which I think counts as blue collar? idk). This means he's a little uncomfortable in high-society settings, but otherwise he's quite extroverted and outgoing!

36. For both Gwynedd and Llewellyn, they're pretty instinctive, especially on the battlefield. Llewellyn is a teenager, so his emotions rule him more than he'd like to admit, especially after he consumes dragon blood and it fucks his whole emotional regulatory balance up. (Yay, hormones!) Gwynedd has learned that sometimes she does need to slow down and think a situation out rationally, especially when she's in a position of leadership.

Isolde, however, is very calculated. You're playing checkers, she's playing chess (or at least eating the pieces when you're not looking). Her own wants and needs tend to come before others, though she continues to try and work on being a little less selfish.

[bredforloyalty]

Oh to be the self-deprecating 17 year old protagonist of a coming of age movie and have Nick Offerman play my dad..

[boxboxlewis]

“i’m meeting your family for the first time and tried to learn your first language to impress them but i really suck at languages. stop laughing at me. i think i called your mother a donkey when i was trying to compliment her cooking. fuck.” with max and daniel — or just like a “meeting the parents AU”

It's not that Daniel keeps a mental ledger of who's putting in more effort to the relationship, but. If he were tracking it, which he's not, Max has definitely been carrying things lately. Daniel is of course having a legendarily shitty season, and after every race Max is there: holding his face, telling him too-sincerely that it will be ok, that McLaren are fucking idiots, that Daniel is a champion. Noticing, unforgivably, that being called a "champion" makes Daniel wince, and switching to "winner" instead. Insisting he doesn't want to have sex, when Daniel's not up for it; insisting that lying in bed being held by Daniel is the only thing he needs. Rubbing himself off against Daniel's thigh, sometimes, and acting like that's enough.

Max is so lovely and so caring and it's suffocating Daniel, each piece of kindness another feather in his throat.

And so: Daniel decides to learn Dutch. That's a huge gesture, right; that's worth at least a year of careful one-sided consideration. That's a fair payment.

His Dutch-learning starts badly. He downloads Duolingo and doesn't get along with it: the owl is a cunt. There are proper classes you can take, of course, and Daniel thinks probably he'll do one next year, but if he signed up for one now it'd just be chucking money away; there's no chance he'll be able to focus.

And so: Martijn. He texts him, Hey mate, trying to learn some Dutch for the missus. Can I hit you up for some key phrases?

Martijn is in. He suggests starting with sexy talk, which is frankly an inspired idea. It makes the whole thing seem more fun, somehow, and less desperate.

They agree on some phrases, and Daniel gets to practicing. The pronunciation is the hardest part—he's not actually convinced his throat has enough, like, phlegm to make all the sounds it apparently needs for Dutch words—but he diligently records voice notes for Martijn on Whats App and sends them across for critique, and Martijn is a fucking legend, patiently sending back corrections and adjustments and encouragement. This does mean that Daniel is in friendship debt now, but that's a much easier fix than the cosmic imbalance with Max—some expensive small-batch whiskey at Christmas and they'll be golden.

Daniel keeps practicing, writes his phrases on his forearm and studies them during the strategy sessions he's stopped paying attention to. Lando notices, annoyingly; reads what Daniel's written carefully on his skin and says, "Oh my god, is this for Max? You are a genuine weirdo, mate. Have you like, heard of Duolingo?" That's fine; Lando is a child.

Finally, Daniel feels ready to unleash some of his Dutch knowledge. He's been saving it for Zandvoort, which Max will probably win: but maybe Daniel will be up in the points, at least.

Max wins and Daniel gets P17. It's fine. He's going to drop his Dutch bomb anyway. He feels ok, actually, after the race; the knowledge that he's doing something nice for Max seems to be staving off the crippling feelings of self-loathing that usually swamp him after a bad result. Which is a little bit annoying, to be honest; it makes him feel like a character in a children's book, learning an important lesson about selfishness or whatever. He decides not to overthink this.

He waits until they're at home in Max's apartment after the race. Max is high on victory and clearly wants to fuck; equally clearly he doesn't want to initiate anything: he's pacing around the apartment, staring at Daniel's mouth and tearing his eyes away, palming himself through his joggers, looking at Daniel's crotch and flushing when Daniel catches his eye. It's a little bit funny.

Daniel leans back against the couch and spreads his legs suggestively and says, "Max."

"Yes?" Max looks hopeful, cheeks going pink. He's so fucking easy, always, wants Daniel's dick whenever he can get it. Daniel should tell him: you can't want anything that much, it's not safe.

Daniel clears his throat. He says, enunciating carefully, "Ik hou van je, lieverd." I love you, sweetheart.

The way Max looks when his face goes alive with delight—Daniel could fucking live in that moment, in the lift of Max's cheeks and the scrunching up of his eyes. He rushes over to sit on Daniel's lap, and he's rubbing his face against Daniel's face like a cat and speaking Dutch in a fast torrent. Daniel doesn't catch any of it. He rubs Max's back and says, "Spreek alsjeblieft langzaam," which is maybe a little misleading because Max could speak like a fucking glacier and Daniel wouldn't understand. Still, it's the thought that counts.

Max laughs and says, very slowly, looking at Daniel as if it's really important that Daniel believe him, "Ik hou ook van jou." And yeah, even Daniel gets that one. I love you too.

They kiss for a while, one of Daniel's hands on Max's ass and the other in his hair, Max's mouth sweet and filthy, his little gasps and moans going right to Daniel's dick: as if it's the old days, as if none of 2022 ever happened. It's such a fucking relief, his body doing what he wants it to, he nearly groans with it.

Well. Time to deploy the next phrase. He practices it in his head, going over the rhythm of the syllables: Mijn kip is is zo uitdagend voor jou. My cock is so hard for you. Yeah it is, baby. He pulls back and nips Max's lip and whispers it sexily, rocking up against Max as he speaks.

Max's reaction isn't quite what Daniel was going far: he starts laughing so hard he actually falls off Daniel's lap. He's choking with it, gasping, rolling from side to side on the floor, clutching at his abs.

Daniel is going to fucking murder Martijn.

"Uh, Max?" he says. "Can you—no rush, here—but when you're back with us, can you tell me what I said?"

Max visibly tries to pull himself together. "Daniel," he says, "Daniel, I love you so much. You of course used Google Translate?"

"Yes," Daniel lies. He'll explain about Martijn later.

"Well, that is why." Max starts laughing again. He's so beautiful, sprawled on the floor of his apartment with his cheeks flushed and his hair all mussed. "You said—ah, sorry, sorry—ok—you said, 'My chicken is is so challenging for you.'"

Daniel, after he takes a beat, can admit that that's fairly funny. He grins and reaches down to give Max a hand back onto the sofa. "Ah."

"Yes—so you can see—but Daniel, it is so good, just that you tried." Max sounds very earnest, now. "It is spectacular, it means so much to me."

Daniel kisses him again. Maybe Max is right. Maybe it's enough. But for now, they have a couple of chickens to attend to.

inspired by this post! thank you very much anon for the prompt and apologies for the, uh, distinct lack of parent-meeting.

the dutch is this fic is all straight from google translate so u know. don't try and use it to seduce your dutch-speaking significant other. or do, and report back!

[adhdgwen]

LooLoo Land vs Harvest Moon Festival

LooLoo land was mostly about Stolas trying to recreate a previous family outing but with Blitzo and Octavia.

Blitzo is very much Stolas's stand-in for all the intimacy and love and affection he doesn't get from his own marriage. He showers Blitzo with all the intimacy noticably absent from his own marriage (physical affection, pet names, sexual affection, etc.) often overcompensating to the point it comes across as incredibly condescending (my theory is that it's because Blitzo is his first actual relationship built on genuine feelings, but that's another blog post.)

We see that specifically in LooLoo land.

Stolas never really needed protection. He's an all powerful eldritch horror, he would have been fine. But when he invites Octavia out, the very first person he calls is Blitzo.

During the episode, when Blitzo fucks off and Moxxie and Millie do the bodyguarding instead, he's annoyed and irritated and clearly wondering why Blitzo isn't there.

So yes, the outing to Stolas, was meant to be him, Octavia and Blitzo in a recreation of Him, Stella, and Octavia.

We know from the song and the flashback scene that their marriage problems didn't start from Blitzo's appearance (though they were better at hiding it from little Octavia) so chances are that first LooLoo land outing wasn't a very good experience to and for Stolas.

Blitzo being his first (from what i assume canon tells us) real love, he wants to recreate a special memory with the two people most important to him: Octavia and Blitzo.

The problem is... he's pushing things too fast and comes across as incredibly selfish (which he is). He wants to have fun with his daughter, while also getting to experience all the intimacy of an outing with someone he's in a relationship with. By trying to juggle these two opposing dynamics, he ends up pushing away Both people.

He ends up disregarding Blitzo's job and making Octavia deeply uncomfortable.

The episode ends with him not being able to get either: both Blitzo and Octavia run off. Blitzo to tangle with an ex or whatever the fuck that clown is, and Octavia to cry alone.

It's through his conversation with Octavia that he learns how truly selfish his actions were, and decides to take her own emotions into regard and appeases her worries about him leaving her, and decides to do what she wants to do as opposed to what he wants to do.

He also learns from this (though to a lesser extent) with his relationship with Blitzo.

Instead of hiring Blitzo on a fake bodyguard mission like in LooLoo land, the Harvest Moon Festival is characterized by Stolas outrightly asking Blitzo if he wants to come, trying to get Blitzo interested by explaining how much this festival means to him and it's importance.

It isn't a demand like with LooLoo land where he holds monetary advantage over Blitzo's head and disregards whether or not Blitzo is having fun. This time, it's about what Blitzo wants. He holds nothing over Blitzo's head, it's a genuine invite to something he thinks Blitzo would enjoy and offers to make it even more genuinely enjoyable with "special access."

In fact the episode takes great care to emphasize that this isn't a job, but is solely about Solas offering a "work-free night of fun" where Blitzo and his employees can all join him with the special access he is once again offering. This flips their previous dynamic in LooLoo land where Stolas was having all the fun and Blitzo working, here Stolas would be working and doesn't really have much time to hang with Blitzo, but Blitzo isn't. He's just there to have fun.

Their relationship is advancing with episodes as Stolas becomes less of a douchenozzle and it's kinda fun to see.

[rosequart]

i compiled a bunch of direct quotes about pink diamond/rose quartz from the newest artbook, end of an era. some of these quotes are taken from charts and scribbled notes, so the sentence structure might be weird.

let me know if there are any typos/missing information you think i could add!

quotes from rebecca sugar: on pink diamond/rose quartz

Pink Diamond is so sure that she’s powerless, but she’s actually profoundly powerful, so much so that she devastates people’s lives without understanding it because she thinks that she has no real power or sway.

The thing that she really lacks is balance, any ability to temper her extremes. This is part of her character throughout her forms: she’s always very extreme. 

Pink fits into those older tropes, too: the restless princess, the little Winsor McCay clown.

Pink is pure want. Impulse, desire—she’s infectious. She is the flip side of White; she can bring out a Gem’s hidden personality—their deepest wants. This isn’t necessarily a Diamond power (she has a handful of Diamond powers both destructive and constructive), but she has this power in a very human sense. She is an enabler and very manipulative when it comes to getting what she wants, so when what she wants is to get closer to someone, her intensity, and her sincerity, opens them up and draws them in.

White and Pink were always clashing. The Diamond body repressed Pink’s wants, as directed by White, the self-critical conscience. Pink’s shield made it impossible for White to override Pink’s identity, so she had to find other ways to repress her.

Episodes like Bismuth make much more sense when you know that Rose is Pink, and even more sense when you understand how poorly Pink treated friends who became inconvenient.

Rose is tracked carefully through the entire show. She makes sense once you know she is her own worst enemy. She dreams, achingly, that she could become compassionate, because she’s sure she’s incapable of compassion. Her lack of respect for herself makes it impossible for her to respect everyone closest to her. She reveres them instead, because they are better than she could ever be, and that reverence is so honest and intoxicating that it draws everyone closer to her, without them understanding the deep self-hatred that pull is coming from.

She couldn’t stand herself; self-destruction is a huge theme throughout the show—the struggle of the feeling that you shouldn’t exist, and what that can do to a person. A lot of the themes of the show exist within Rose, like her inability to be honest with other people or herself about what she’s done. She’s so deeply ashamed of herself and her past, with very good reason. The truth is that the people in her life would be so much more understanding than she believes they will be. The contempt that she has for herself gets turned outward as contempt for other people when she can’t trust them. When she can’t trust herself, she can’t trust other people, and it makes it impossible for her to be close with anyone. It makes life extremely difficult for her. It makes living difficult for her.

Rose wants [honesty and trust and being able to grow and change] so badly, but she can’t really accomplish any of that until she accepts herself—and she never does.

quotes from rebecca sugar: on rose and greg

Rose and Greg have a very specific relationship. They parallel each other: Greg left his unsupportive family to follow his dreams. He changes his name and begins living as his stage persona...He invents himself.

Rose is instantly interested in Greg; he’s so human, sweet and funny and pliable. But as they get a little deeper into their relationship, Greg starts to realize how alien she actually is. She objectifies him, she laughs at him...she can’t seem to relate to him or pick up on how he’s feeling. They have a physical relationship, but they’ve never had a meaningful conversation. He starts to feel used. So he challenges her in a way she’s never been challenged before: he asks her to treat him like an equal. This is huge for her. She’s always been less than the other Diamonds and more than everyone else. She opens up to him in a real way, and over time she’s ready to confess everything to him. But he understands what it is to run away from home and reinvent yourself. He doesn’t need her old name and he’s not going to drag her through whatever it was she ran from; as far as he’s concerned, her old self isn’t the real her anyway. The real her is her in the present, the person she decided to be. [...] This is an incredible relief for her! With him, she can live authentically in the moment...They both can, but on the flip side, they enable each other. She never unpacks what scares her about her past, and neither does he.

They really wanted to have a child [...] It’s something they are genuinely excited about. And that’s something that’s left a little open-ended—just how selfish it was for Rose to do this knowing that she would disappear. What Rose is doing is outrageously selfless and outrageously selfish at the same time, and you can really read it both ways and neither is untrue.

chart notes: on pink diamond/rose quartz

Pink learns to keep secrets. She tells her new Pearl to keep them too. (She puts on an act. Behaves better.) She doesn’t trust herself...keeps asking her Pearl what to do...

The Game: Rose plays Batman on the ground. (Pearl is Robin and Alfred.) Pink tries to use Rose as an excuse to call off the invasion. This backfires when Blue and Yellow send in reinforcements.

Rose finds herself the head of a family. Determined to be everything White was not—she is close with everyone, flexible in everything. Love & fun are the rule—and there are no rules—and everyone is the most special!

chart notes: on rose and the crystal gems

Pink keeps asking Pearl what she thinks. Pearl understands she should have no opinions, and should follow orders. She is caught in a paradox. Her head swims. She laughs—feels scared—what is this?

Pearl is falling in love. Pink, as Rose, is intoxicating. She’s free somehow. They both are, when they’re on Earth.

Rose falls in love with Pearl’s surprising boldness that comes out of left field—!

Pearl and Rose start fusing a lot.

Pearl and Rose—the dust clears, revealing an endless honeymoon. Pink is gone and Pearl is free—free to love Rose.

Garnet trusts Rose, respects her secrets. She sees in Rose a self-made gem, a quartz that transcended her station out of sheer will and the power of self-love. Garnet loves Rose and her mystery, the way she learns to love & embrace the mystery of herself. Rose is her rock and inspiration.

Rose teaches Amethyst: you can be anything you want to be! Huge advocate of shapeshifting, self-expression, anarchy—however, Amethyst can sense shame from Rose and Pearl over the Kindergarten.

chart notes: on rose and the crystal gems, post-pink diamond reveal

Amethyst finally understands Rose: wanting her to shapeshift, not feel obligated to be a quartz, suddenly feels sympathy...kinship. It wasn’t Amethyst being inspired by Rose—Rose was inspired by them!

Garnet shocked: Rose taught her to love herself. If that was a lie—if Pink Diamond was self-hating, and wanted to disappear—than what does that mean for Garnet? No—it wasn’t Garnet being inspired by Rose—Rose was inspired by them!

Pearl is finally released—but, a rift—! Garnet feels betrayed! But, Pink did change! Pink did grow! Rose was different! That’s why Pearl was inspired by Rose—or, wait—Rose was inspired by them!

chart notes: on pink and the other diamonds

Pink, the littlest diamond, is largely ignored by Yellow, Blue, and White. Her silly impulses and eccentricities are not particularly helpful to the other diamonds in their endeavors. No one wants to play with her. Pink desperately wants White’s attention and approval (she will never get it).

Pink’s [original] Pearl is the only one who sees how much this upsets Pink. Pink is bright in front of Yellow, Blue, White—but when they don’t have time for her, she privately takes it hard.

Noticing Pink’s behavior, Yellow and Blue think she should have her own colony. White insists—she hasn’t really changed. She’ll never change. She gives Pink a colony—if only to prove Pink will fail.

White knows Pink is out there. This expensive, embarrassing tantrum is not worth her attention. Pink will come groveling back when she’s done running away from home.

Yellow and Blue are relieved to have Pink back—but White is vindicated. I knew you’d be back, your silly game is over—get back in place.

Steven gets Yellow and Blue to understand who he is now. But White won’t have it [...] In an ultimate act of self love, Steven fuses with himself, as White realizes—she can be wrong, and she’s truly lost her ‘daughter’.

[sketching-shark]

I think it's the ironic fact that JTTW fans already know how DBK and Sun Wukong's friendship broke apart but are more curious on LMK versions of Sun Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque were friends alongside falling out.

HA! Well, while it often does seem that way, I'm going to go ahead and be a complete snob in a Journey to the West purist kind of way by wondering how many Six Eared Macaque fans would consider themselves more JTTW fans or more Monkie Kid fans, or if they feel they're a mix of both...

I've seen a lot of people argue that these two works of fiction are their own thing and that as such Monkie Kid (and associated fanworks) shouldn't be expected to follow the canon of JTTW, and fair enough for some parts. I've also, however, seen people who argue for this complete separation seeming to use it as an excuse to not acknowledge or learn about ANY original aspects of characters such as Sun Wukong and the Demon Bull King, or even very important deities such as Guanyin and the Jade Emperor, and who as such end up making some pretty gross generalizations/assumptions about them even though they are of great religious and cultural importance.

For example (and while I know a lot of the fun people get from fan works is in exaggerating certain traits), Sun Wukong seems to often be presented with an "inherently" evil/thoughtless/chaotic character, while his intelligence, deep love of his family, genuine efforts to become a better person, & many acts of saving lives, as presented in JTTW, aren't even mentioned. I feel like a lot of this is due to the way he acts in Monkie Kid (while I maintain that this version of Sun Wukong seems to be Bad End Monkey King, he does do a lot of deflecting his issues with a show of humor/a carefree attitude & does seem really bad at communicating due to a fear of making things worse). Even so, the popularity of Thoughtless/Evil/Selfish Sun Wukong that doesn’t really allow for any of the nuance or a display of his beneficial traits as shown in JTTW does make me wonder how many people have been exposed to a good translation of og classic Sun Wukong...As I've said before, I've noted that a number of Chinese people on this site have expressed frustration with the fact that a good chunk of the monkey king’s Western audience seems to be getting their impressions about Sun Wukong, the Demon Bull King, the Six Eared Macaque, etc. from some mix of Overly Sarcastic Productions, Monkie Kid, and social media instead of from at least a translation of the original text, and it is true that a LOT of the nuance of these work and these characters can be very easily lost, especially if your drawing your information of them primarily from a cartoony version of the original source. 

That would be an interesting poll though...out of curiosity, how many of you fine folk have read the break-up & fight between Sun Wukong and the Demon Bull King either in the original text or in a translation, or is your exposure to them primarily through Monkie Kid? 

Again, I need to make it clear that I'm not Chinese & didn't grow up with the story, but I will admit for my own part that reading the DBK/SWK break-up in the Yu translation actually made me more curious about how their dynamic is going to play out in Monkie Kid than I am curious about what's going to happen with Mr. Macaque. 

This is primarily because besides SWK’s fight with Princess Iron Fan and DBK being given a LOT of page space in JTTW, there seems to have been some serious stuff that went down between the three of them in the events post-JTTW and pre-the main plot of Monkie Kid...the last we see of DBK in JTTW (if memory serves correctly) was him being hauled off by a host of heavenly warriors to be judged for his crimes of not giving SWK the palm leaf fan & also eating humans. When Monkie Kid starts, however, we are told that DBK had emerged “from the Netherworld” & immediately starts wrecking everything around him. What this suggests--if Monkie Kid is something of a fan continuation of JTTW--is that DBK ended up being executed by the heavenly forces, but managed to fight his way out of the underworld in a manner somewhat similar to SWK, who we are told he is equal in strength to in JTTW. In that beginning fight of Monkie Kid DBK is also shown as so enraged that he won’t stop his path of destruction until SWK buries him under a mountain for 500 years. It’s never said in the show, but--and this is important--this is basically exactly what Buddha did to SWK to start him on the path of atonement. So there seems to be some very intentional parallels between SWK’s havoc in heaven & DBK’s havoc on earth, which may suggest that one of the things Monkie Kid SWK really wants is for his former dear friend, his sworn brother, to find a way like him to be less violent and thus ultimately less vulnerable to destructive and self-destructive behavior, and that the way he tried to start this was by giving DBK the same treatment he got when he was a raging warlord. 

We are furthermore told that it was right after DBK was sealed that SWK disappeared for all those centuries, and while the impulse may be to write it off as him just wanting to enjoy himself (given a lot of his behavior in the show’s timeline), given the indications that this SWK may be deeply depressed, I feel like the answer could be something a lot more tragic...there seem to be a number of clues in Monkie Kid that while the journey of JTTW happened, something made it end disastrously, with SWK either assuming or knowing that Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, Tang Sanzang, and Bai Longma are dead. And per JTTW, this wouldn’t be the first time that he’s experienced a horrific loss, given the war with heaven and the burning of Flower-Fruit Mountain. And then right after THAT, it seems DBK emerged from the underworld, and so Sun Wukong was put into a horrific position: either murder his sworn brother, or let him continue to rampage & harm and/or kill who knows how many humans. SWK ultimately gives up his staff to do the repeat of “500 years under a mountain in solitary confinement route,” which as per JTTW he considers better than the alternative, but he immediately follows that by exiling himself. In JTTW SWK is a really sociable person who makes friends wherever he goes, but man, for this SWK...his life must at that point just feel like one failure after another, that in spite of all his best efforts he wasn’t able to save anyone he really cared about, and now he just trapped someone who was so important to him under a mountain & fated him to suffer the same things he had when he was in that position. How much more does he have to hurt his fellow yaoguai? How many more times does he have to choose between yaoguai and humans, feeling like no matter what he decides it’s just going to result in pain for him and/or his loved ones? I can easily imagine super sociable & easily upset (he cries a LOT in JTTW) SWK feeling like after sealing DBK, he just can’t do this any more. He just...can’t. 

This is all just speculation, but knowing the JTTW backstory between SWK and DBK does, at least for me, make their Monkie Kid relationship a lot more intriguing than it might be otherwise. Especially now that DBK seems to actually be making some small steps to quell his constant rage & lust for power. He even saves SWK and Qi Xiaotian from an explosion/nasty fall in the season 2 special! The Bull family weren’t really present in season 2, but I really hope they make a comeback in season 3 (if/when we get it) precisely because Red Son, Princess Iron Fan, and especially DBK have such an involved history with SWK. Plus it would be really fun to see two old warlords trying to awkwardly make amends with each other & struggle to be good teachers & positive role models to their student & son. 

In any case I feel this potential is more interesting than whatever fanfic The Six Eared “I’mma Plagiarize The Demon Bull King’s Backstory Of Being Best Friends with Sun Wukong” Macaque is creating lol. 

[slugtranslation-hypmic]

in ur opinion, what traits r most important to fling posses characterization :}

Hmm, this is such an interesting question... so I held onto it for a few days to think about. Mind you, these are simply my interpretations, so they're not the only right answers, but they're what I keep in mind as I translate or write fanfic.

As a whole, Fling Posse is centered around the theme of masking the self and, as a whole, determining where the mask ends and the self begins. In some cases, the mask is the part of the self, and that can be fine as well.

Ramuda's primary motivation is survival, and this makes him incredibly self-centered. In any given situation, his first thoughts are based around what will keep him alive or prevent him from getting in trouble, which can make him be exceptionally callous or blind to other people's feelings. For a character with little sense of self, he simultaneously places his primary goal - survival - above the needs and wants of others. This complements his exterior personality well, which is likewise selfish, but in a childish and cute way. By comparison, Ramuda's inner self struggles to conceptualize desires the way most people do. It is challenging for Ramuda to accept the concept of wanting to have friends (outside of the excuses of the exterior personality) or genuinely care about people although such things are second nature for most of the cast. In turn, this further alienates Ramuda from the cast and makes it a challenge to connect with him, a challenge that Fling Posse eagerly accepts. The emotional burden and isolation of Ramuda's situation frequently leaves him surly and irritable, but despite this anger, Ramuda doesn't conceptualize his own ability to leave the situation. He is stuck there unless acted upon by an outside force. However, in spite of all of this, over the course of the series Ramuda has begun to learn to evaluate the feelings of others more and is beginning to act more kindly. When left to his own devices, he seems to enjoy doing nice things for other people.

There is less explicit information on Gentarou's situation, but Gentarou is a good example of the mask becoming a part of the self. Gentarou uses his speech patterns and clothing like an artificial persona as a support system and struggles when the persona is pulled away. This persona is, in a sense, a means for Gentarou to isolate himself from whatever or whoever he was before, but unlike Ramuda, who resents his exterior persona, Gentarou wholeheartedly embraces this isolation. The persona also provides a form of play which Gentarou uses to amuse both himself and others. Like the rest of his lies, the playing also serves as a form of misdirection, but it is not necessarily malicious. Gentarou, much like Ramuda, uses his persona to tease Dice as a means of playfully skirting emotionally distressing topics and entertaining the group as a whole. However, he can be completely serious whenever he needs to be and seems good at keeping his head in a crisis. There the persona takes a backstage to Gentarou's problem-solving core.

Dice's exterior personality is similar to Gentarou's in use but more subtle in execution. Additionally, unlike Gentarou's persona which exists to protect the self, Dice's persona faces outwards and exists to help other people. Dice pretends to be more socially and emotionally inept than he actually is in order to supplement Gentarou's and Ramuda's exterior personalities. This allows him to take their teasing in stride and purposefully invite it when the other two need cheering up. Dice is quite emotionally intelligent and can recognize when and how to intervene in his friend's emotional troubles. He also understands how to make it not obvious or explicitly vocalize the concern only when it is exactly necessary, which removes the emotional burden of feeling noticed and obligated to return the favor from Gentarou and Ramuda's shoulders. When left to his own devices, Dice tends to be depicted very seriously unless in the middle of gambling, which implies that the emotional, spirited personality he displays there is another example of a persona being used for play. One of Dice's primary motivations is to seek constant stimulation and thrills, hence the gambling addiction, so this persona may amplify part of that fun for him.

[gallavictorious]

love your metas, so can i get your thoughts? i've always felt that personality wise, fiona/ lip are alike, and then ian/ debbie are alike. fiona/ lip are smart but often lost in what they want out of life/ what path to take. they both self sabotage and spiral in response to that. s4/ s9 fiona and s6/ s7 lip had similar arcs. they seem to need to receive romantic "love"/ validation, more than to give it, and can be selfish in that. but they are very giving when it comes to their family. [1/2]

[2/2] so anyways, whereas ian/ debbie very much want to give "love" as much as they want to get it, to the point that they always let any awful person who demands it, have it. kash/ ned/ caleb/ trevor/ matt/ derek/ the s10 2 ladies/ etc were all like that. (mickey being the 1 exception ofc!) they can be manipulated and therefore taken advantage of. but they work hard and take pride in that and know what they want (rotc/ emt and babysitting/ welding). but debs is selfish obviously, and ian isn't

Hiya nonnie! That's some very interesting thoughts right there, and a few I hadn't considered before! Let’s see...

I think you make a great point about Fiona and Lip both being smart but lacking a clear idea of how to translate that into a sustainable lifestyle, and they certainly do have a tendency to self-sabotage. In fairness, fairly often it's things outside of their control that derail them – which I think is a very good illustration of how much harder it is to ”make it” when you come from that sort of background. Even when they aregiven opportunities and try to capitalize on them, there's so very little margain for error; everything is always just one small step from collapsing, there's always something going on with their family that they need to deal with, and when things do go wrong, they mostly lack the resources (mental and financial) to respond in a good way. Their coping mechanisms are maladaptive as all hell, that's for sure, courtesy of their fucked-up upbringing. But yeah, quite apart from all that, I think Lip and Fiona have a habit to fuck things up for themselves by not doing great with stability in general. Rob's an asshole but not entirely wrong when he calls Fiona a chaos junkie, and Lip's issues with authority and alcohol don't exactly make things easier for him.

Additionally, I think that while Lip and Fiona are both capable of hard work – and for a long time they certainly work their assess off to take care of their younger siblings – they also have a tendency to look for quick fixes and easy outs? They're problem solvers and quick thinkers, and they had to be, to deal with the mess Frank and Monica have made of their lives, but I'd argue that this survival tactic has developed into a somewhat problematic predispotion to eschew slowly, steadily working their way towards a goal in favour of leaping on ”smart” deals and opportunities. Which isn't always bad, of course, but it has caused them a fair share of problems; consider, for instance, Fiona and her real estate escapades in season 9 and Lip's highly questionable choices in season 11. (I just watched 11x07 again and GOD do I want kick him in the nuts. I love Lip, but grow the fuck up, man. Tami is a bloody saint for being as patient with him as she is.)

In contrast, Ian and Debbie have a crazy strong work-ethic and are highly goal-oriented. They fix their eyes on the prize and they fucking go for it, putting in the hours and the work without hesitation or complaint. They are far less likely to look for short-cuts or screw themselves over because they get bored with the monotomy. That doesn't mean their path to success is a straight one, of course; Ian's bipolar has wreaked some proper havoc for him, and though she's succeed in both having a kid and a job she trained for, Debbie's narcissm is keeping her from developing the strong bonds (familial and romantic) that she so desperately craves. I think the difference between Ian and Debbie here is that Ian is genuinely looking for a partnership and a real connection (to such a degree that it sometimes leads him into highly unfortunate relationships) whereas Debbie thinks she wants that but isn't prepared to actually be vulnerable and perceptive to the other person's needs to such a degree that a real partnership becomes possible. She never, I feel, actually sees and knows her partners for who they are; she projects onto them her idea of what they should be like, and responds to that, not to them. It hasn't ended well, so far.

And I have to say that while Trevor (of whom I'm fond in spite of his flaws, so you'll find no hate for him on this blog) and (especially) Caleb have their issue I don't think it's fair to compare them to Kash and Ned. As for Matt and Derek, they may not be perfect, but I'd argue that Debbie treated them far worse than they did her. I mean, she did rape both of them. (Out of youthful ignorance, sure: it's still sexual assault. I do find it very interesting and quite encouraging that she obviously recognizes her own guilt in season 11.) By and large, Debbie has treated her partners worse than they have treated her, which is certainly not true of Ian. (Which doesn't mean Ian's a saint. Boy's got plenty of flaws, and he doesn't always treat his lovers perfectly – the cheating comes to mind – but in general he doesn't treat them badly at all; as you say, he is more likely to allow himself to be treated badly by them.)

Circling back to Lip and Fiona, I think you have a point in them craving the way their partners make them feel, but being less interested in having a partner to build a life with, if that makes sense? They aren't really looking for someone to share their lives and struggles with (which might be the resulf of them being used to having no one but each other to rely on for most of their lives); they want that high of being in love and in lust, and when things get a bit too steady and boring, they get restless. Jimmy was, admittedly, a big support for Fiona for a while, but it was quite one-sided: always on her terms. Lip might be coming around on that with Tami, though – possibly because she's assertive enough to push back against him and not let him get bored. Also, Lip (and Fiona) has shown himself to be far more devoted to kids in his care than to his partners, so I'm sure Freddie's existence is a major factor in him sticking it out with Tami even when things are hard. (Not to suggest he doesn't love Tami; I think that she's by far the best match for him on the show.) At the end of the day, I think that Lip and Fiona would enjoy someone properly at their side and in their corner – they just need to understand that that's something they can have, and that for it to work, they need to be in their partner's corner too. As I said, Lip might be on the way, though his unwillingness to solve problems together with Tami is worrisome; who knows what Fiona's up to in Florida; Ian's already got it, and as for Debbie... she knows she wants it, but not how to achieve it. For her, I think, the answer might be to reassess how important having a partner really is to her; does she truly want it, with all the compromises it inevitably entails? Then again, she's young yet; we were, I think, none of us very good at relationships at 20, and Debbie (and her siblings) has had a rougher go of it than most. She has time to learn.

This took... forever, nonnie, so I do hope you see this!. :o Can't say I expect my scattered and tentative musings to have been worth the wait, but I ended up having a lot of fun thinking about this, so here's to you finding something of value in there. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me! <3 And as always, if anyone else wants to chime in you're more than welcome to; my ideas on this aren't very fixed, so I'd love to hear other or additional perspectives.