#i never created them with the intention of giving them a sad backstory about how they were forced to be a social outcast

[malkaviian]

girl help i accidentally poor-little-meow-meowed samael

[nyoro-yaku-nyoden]

The Fukuchi Problem, and How to Fix It

(Has someone else talked about this? Let me know. I literally created a tumblr just to make this post lol)

Having just watched S5E4 and discussing it with a friend, I came to have some big thoughts about the Hunting Dogs and Fukuchi. (No manga spoilers!) This post addresses the problem around Fukuchi's introduction to the audience, and how it could have been better.

This is NOT me hating on his character in any way. I really like his character. This is an analysis of storytelling. This not purely a rant/complaint, either. It's a postmortem identifying the perceived issues and ways they could have been avoided. Also, I'm not bashing Asagiri or anyone else involved in BSD's production. Just an analysis because I love BSD and Fukuchi is a compelling character.

Basically, even though all of the Hunting Dogs have interesting personalities and abilities, and even though they were introduced back in Season 4, I feel absolutely nothing about them. I do not root for any of them. I do not care how devastated they will be to learn Fukuchi's true intentions. I just want them to leave our beloved ADA alone.

And that's a problem! I'm sad about it! I want to care about them just as much as the other characters. But in my mind, they've been reduced to colorful but static villains whose motivations I don't care about.

The hallmarks of most good villains are: motivations we understand, logic that makes sense in some way, and a compelling backstory. We have almost none of that with the Hunting Dogs because they showed up out of nowhere and started gunning for the ADA, whom we side with automatically since they're who we've been meant to side with this whole time.

Bungou shines in a lot of areas, but in my opinion, it shines the best in how it manages to make you care about every character. Even Mori, who may or may not be a pedophile, is somehow a character I enjoy seeing on the screen. That's proof of powerful, capable storytelling and character creation.

So, why did I feel absolutely nothing when it was revealed that Fukuchi was Kamui, leader of the Decay of Angels? Why do I just want the gang to hurry up and stop him? Why don't I care about him? There are several issues with his presentation that I plan to outline below the break, as well as how these issues could have been avoided.

Problem 1: No Build Up, Telling Instead of Showing

This is the core problem, really. Through exposition, we learn that Fukuchi is basically the Captain America of Japan, having won impossible battles countless times, brokered peace, prevented calamities, all of that, and all while being a gregarious, charming individual. People buy merchandise with him on it, otaku have shrines dedicated to him in their homes, and everyone asks for autographs. He is a living legend, a true superhero looked up to and trusted by all. The All Might of BSD.

Super. Great. But if he's been doing this since at least The Great War, why am I only hearing about all of this NOW, four seasons in, when The Great War ended 15 years before current events? When Fukuzawa and him are best bros? This does not make sense.

Also, this is breaking storytelling rule #1: Show, don't tell. We have been told in an info dump (another thing to avoid) how fantastic and amazing and perfect Fukuchi is just before he gives that speech to the UN. "Telling" someone will never resonate with them the same way "showing" someone will. This is fact. Sure, I know that the whole world knows Fukuchi's name and worships the ground he walks upon, but I don't yet. I haven't spent enough time with him yet.

As for his motivations, he states that he cannot stand the politicians who decide to drag regular people into war while they remain safe in their offices, and he wants to eliminate them and war as a whole. This is because of his own hellish experiences in the war.

And those are GREAT motivations for doing grand, terrible things. I love them. However, because we've only been given a brief, less than 5 second bit of him on some battlefield somewhere, we don't actually feel his pain. (I know the manga goes a little more in depth, but still not enough to fix this issue in my opinion.) We don't understand exactly how much of an effect the war had on him, so it's hard to root for him.

Problem 2: His Sword Gives Him Plot Armor

We learned in the latest episode that the combination of his sword Shintō Amenogozen and his ability make him essentially capable of seeing the future. This makes him omnipotent to an extent, and seemingly impossible to defeat.

In other words, it feels like he's cheating, like he has an unfair advantage over our guys, and that makes the audience root for him even less.

There are some people who really dislike time manipulation and feel it's weak/cheap writing. It can be. But not always! I do not think that Fukuchi's powers are a poor decision for Bungou. However, it's the reveal of these powers that fall flat for me.

Because I already don't empathize with him and just want my team to hurry up and beat him so I can have more screentime with the characters I empathize with, now that we learn he's got the ultimate trump card up his sleeve, I like him even less.

Do I believe the gang will work out a way to bring him down? Of course. But I'm gonna have to slog through fights where my guys are literally trying to do the impossible, and all I do is suffer with them in the meantime. I'm dreading it, and not in a good way.

So, now that I've outlined the problems I perceive with his presentation, how could we go about fixing them?

If I had his sword, I'd nip back to the past and do the following:

Solution 1: Introduce Him Earlier!

This! This is the simple solution to almost all of the above issues.

Think back to All Might for a moment if you've watched My Hero Academia. From the very get-go, we love that dude. He is loved by everyone the world over in canon, and MHA audiences love him as well and root for him.

This is because we are shown not told who he is. We see Deku's adoration firsthand, but also the entire world's respect for him from episode 1, and this becomes our own perception of him.

Now, I'm not saying that Fukuchi should have found Atsushi in episode 1 or something ridiculous. I'm not saying he should have been a main character from the start.

What I am saying is that, if he really is a household name on a global scale, why have we never heard of him until S4 when he shows up with the Hunting Dogs? He doesn't have the same backstory as Sigma (...right? lol).

Why didn't we get a glimpse of a newspaper headline with a picture of him? Perhaps Fitzgerald reading a newspaper and calling him Daifuku Owchie in a throwaway comment, with someone chastizing him that he just got the world's savior's name wrong, and Fitzgerald going, "Oh, right, that guy. It cost me $500,000 to purchase one of his old uniforms he wore in battle." (This would illustrate that he's well-known outside of Japan as well, since the Guild is North American.)

Maybe Dazai snoops through Kunikida's locker and discovers a Fukuchi action figure or autobiography and teases him relentlessly for it, and Kunikida heatedly says that Fukuchi is a hero who mirrors his own ideals regarding justice and peace?

After which Fukuzawa says, "Oh, I'll get you an autograph next time I have drinks with him," and everyone freaks out that Fukuzawa knows him personally, and that they've known each other since childhood.

Perhaps at the very end of S3, Fukuchi could have paid a visit to Fukuzawa, saying he heard Fukuzawa had taken ill during the Cannibalism Arc and wanted to see how his old friend was recovering. Just 1-2 minutes of screentime, maybe ending with Fukuchi mentioning that he and the Hunting Dogs are busy with a big, new threat, and he hopes he can rely on Fukuzawa if he finds himself in a pinch. It could have served as a teaser of sorts for the audience that in the next season, we'll finally get to see him and the Hunting Dogs.

We don't need entire episodes that revolve around Fukuchi prior to S4. But we just needed little mentions here and there, kinda like what we get with the Order of the Clocktower but slightly more in-depth, or maybe like what we get with Souseki, so that we know this super cool guy exists and everyone fucking loves him and reveres him, that he and Fukuzawa go way back, and that we, too, should trust and like him (and hope he makes an appearance at some point).

This way, when he finally does show up in S4, we're all fired up that yes, he's finally here! And we can't wait to learn more about him firsthand and see whether he'll be able to see through the Decay of Angels' deception and help the ADA.

(Likewise, I believe that the existence of the Hunting Dogs should have been hinted at much earlier, but not to the same extent as Fukuchi because Fukuchi is the main villain.)

This would make us really trust him, and would make his reveal as Kamui to be much more dramatic/shocking to the audience. As it stands, the reveal fell flat for me, because I had only learned like one episode prior that he was basically Captain America Japan.

Solution 2: More (but not all) of His Backstory Before the Kamui Reveal

Prior to the reveal that Fukuchi is Kamui, we should have received more of Fukuchi's backstory. Not all of it. We should have been given a heavily biased selection.

In other words, we should have been given the backstory that the average citizen in BSD has of Fukuchi. The illustrious war hero, the man who defeated 100 ability users single-handedly, the battle-hardened but kind guy who likes to get hammered, perhaps even his defeat of Bram with a fake-out that makes the audience think he killed Bram entirely.

Ideally (imo) this would have been one full episode, maybe two, with half of it dedicated to Fukuchi specifically and the other half to the remaining Hunting Dogs except Tachihara so we know more about them.

Through this, we could have come to see firsthand why the other members of the Hunting Dogs are so fanatical and loyal to him, we could have learned about his ability (but nothing of Shintō Amenogozen--which is important and I'll explain why in a sec), and we could have believed that he really is a good guy doing all the right things for all the right reasons. We'd also see firsthand his incredible strength in battle thanks to his ability, which would get us hyped to see another fight with him soon. It would also make us have faith that as soon as he realizes the ADA is being framed, he'll become their strongest ally.

Once more, this will all make his reveal as Kamui completely shocking. "But wait, I thought you were the good guy! Why?!"

...And then we get the rest of his backstory (piecemeal or all at once, whatever flows best), and we learn that he bitterly resents war and is scarred by his time spent on the battlefield. We learn that those victories we were shown earlier came at the cost of his serenity, and drove him to take drastic measures to rectify what he perceives to be a massive flaw in the world. Now we see that there's a WHOLE lot more to Fukuchi than we and the entire world thought, and we're dying to find a way to stop him, while also feeling his pain.

Now let's tackle Amenogozen and its OP-ness, and how that could have been improved. Actually, I believe that the above biased backstory fixes this too, for the most part.

If we, like the rest of the world in bsd, have been led to believe that Fukuchi won his battles thanks solely to his own ability and fortitude, but then find out during his battle with Atsushi and Akutagawa that he can fucking bend time and undo any mistakes, this adds an entirely new layer to it!

Yes, it's still OP. It could still be considered plot armor. However, now we have the indignation/outrage that we've been tricked this whole time. We, along with our beloved characters, are betrayed by this secret power Fukuchi has been hiding from everyone. If Atsushi, for example, had had a brief moment of reflection where he feels betrayed to learn that Fukuchi has been cheating to earn his victories all this time, we would be united with our gang in our feelings of betrayal.

And this is good! We're united, we're feeling the same things the characters are, and we want him to be stopped and put in his place by our guys. We want justice and vindication for them and ourselves.

Our view on him shifts from "Wow, this guy just shows up, is some super powerful savior of the world, and can ALSO control time? This is bullshit" to "Wow, here was this guy I thought from S1 was some hero, and he's a sham! We gotta take him down!"

Reeling in our betrayal, we begin to spiral with the characters. Does this mean that all of those famous victories were manufactured? That they were fake, undeserved, unearned, in a way? Fukuchi says that Amenogozen was a ceremonial sword used in rituals. Did he possibly break into and defile a holy area to obtain this sword? How long has he had it? What else has he engineered with its powers? How the hell can he be stopped?

Then, in the fight with Tachihara, we see how truly insurmountable he is with this sword and we become even more desperate for our guys to win, quickly.

In summary, I think if Fukuchi (and the other Hunting Dogs) had been given a more thorough introduction, they would be much more compelling characters.

This does beg the question why the Hunting Dogs were introduced so abruptly. I have no idea, and I refuse to point the finger at any one person/party.

However, I do believe that Asagiri has proven himself to be a very capable writer and I have a hard time believing he wouldn't foresee these potential shortcomings. Perhaps there were editorial decisions that required their backstories to be cut/delayed, or perhaps he hadn't started out with the Hunting Dogs in mind and therefore couldn't foreshadow their appearances amply. Who knows?

Some may argue that he has slipped up with villains in the past, as it was difficult to empathize with Fitzgerald because we didn't understand why he wanted to obtain Atsushi and the book literally until Atsushi and Akutagawa defeated him and we learned about his wife and daughter. As stated towards the beginning of this essay, nearly all good villains need to have a clear motivation from the start (or very early on).

However, it's my personal belief that Asagiri was purposefully parallelling The Great Gatsby, where we fail to learn Gatsby's motivations until the very end. He kept Fitzgerald mysterious like Gatsby. Unfortunately, that didn't land with me on the first watch (but actually made rewatches really wonderful), and perhaps it didn't land with other viewers as well.

Asagiri has proven that he knows how to define character/villain motivations thoroughly and early on, though. Dostoevsky's are outlined very nicely in the beginning of S3, in a way that is both clear and mysterious at the same time, for example. So, again, I'm certain that Asagiri wouldn't drop the ball with Fukuchi. There must have been something else going on.

Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts! It's my first post and I'm also looking for friends in the bsd fandom!

[marchiveeee]

Writing challenge - creating an OC using a playlist

Soo, I had a long day today and I wanted to finish it off in a good way. So after seeing 0 interesting content, I opened Pinterest and that picture appeared to me. It wasn't the first time I had seen it, but that was the first time that I actually decided it would be a good idea to give this challenge a try, and I'm glad I did!!!!!!!!

It's so interesting to see how the OC came out as someone completely different from me, even tho she was created from my favorite songs on Spotify, which is basically a dump to my personality, or so I thought... But anyways, ladies and gentlemen.... HER:

Her personality: "As it was" by Harry Styles

The lyrics of this song doesn't "match" with its cheerful beat. If you take a minute to listen to it, like really listen, you'll be able to see someone struggling. It's someone who has a hard time opening to others and letting their vulnerable side show. For some reason, likely something that happened in the past, the person closed themselves to the world.

When I listened to this song thinking about an OC, I thought of someone who had to grow up when they were still a kid, and of someone who didn't have the time to understand and work on their traumas. [It wasn't intentional, but that does reminds me of Castiel]

Kim grew up in a dysfunctional family where she didn't have the support from her parents and relatives. She was barely a teen when she was forced to look after herself when her parents were so close to her, but at the same time completely absent.

Her job: "Santo" by Jão

So here we have Jão again, I really like his songs if you guys haven't noticed it yet Kkkkkk

The title of this song means "Saint". I was a bit taken aback when I listened to this song thinking about a "job" for my OC, but well... It kinda makes sense somehow

I'm gonna win you over on Ash Wednesday

Gonna take you to some beach, kiss you after the mass

Find myself in your eyes, I get distracted in you

If I promised anything

Love, I didn't mean to

Don't but me on the altar

Because I'm kinda dishonest

I swear to you an endless love

But deep down I'm no good, ai

My angel, I'm not a saint, no

And tomorrow you'll wake up

My angel, and my great love

Will be somewhere else...

This was a translation of part of the lyrics, and listening to that, some things came to my mind:

-A sinful priest (discarded this in a second)

-An escort girl

So I ended up choosing the 2nd option. Kim is a beautiful girl and she knows it, she ended up having to use it to survive; she didn't have the support to continue her studies and she already had as many common part time jobs as she could take, and being an escort was one of them.

Their backstory: "Coraline" by Måneskin

This song is so..... UGH 😭

I hate being so harsh on my characters, they're like my babies.... But that was the shuffle play, not me :((((((

Basically, that song talks about a beautiful girl called Coraline who's living a miserable life and "hiding" her truths. People are also very judgmental towards her, saying things like "she’s worth nothing. She can’t even get out a miserable door"

This song is so good, but so sad. I love it, but I hate it represents Kim backstory and add even more sense to her character from what we've seen up till now.

Her friends: "Genie in a bottle" by Christina Aguilera

I feel like I've been locked up tight

For a century of lonely nights

Waiting for someone to release me

She has never had real friend and even if she wanted to so badly, she's never really been completely open to it, so scared she was to show her vulnerable side and letting her guards down.

I'm a genie in a bottle

You gotta rub me the right way

If you wanna be with me

She's definitely not someone easy to deal with, but slowly, if you take the right steps to her heart, she will open her heart to you.

[random comment b4 the next topic: that's when the shuffle play starts to forget about the consistency and starts to mix completely different genres]

Her love life: "Cheia de Manias" by Raça Negra

Just wanted to say that this one is a classic!!!!! So groovy, I love it.

So, Kim is definitely a player and she is 100% aware of this.

With her way

Does what she wants with me

Dominates my heart I don't know what to do I want to leave you

But you don't want to

Don't want

So help me to go through

This "rollercoaster" that is to like you

Where they live: "Tangerine" by Glass Animals

This song was so random istg.... But tbh that's what made me to think of Kim as east asian, because a Japanese name is mentioned in the song, so.... Why not? That's my 1st time thinking about an Asian OC.

The song starts with something like "as cold as ice" and I'm lazy to go look for it now, so that makes me think Kim is really used to the cold (the cold is also mentioned in Coraline). And also, I heard that in Korea tangerines are kinda common, so Kim could be Korean or maybe Japanese... I even thought about northern China because of the cold, but I haven't decided yet, so for now she's "east asian".

Clothing style: "Tomboy" by Destiny Rogers

CHEF'S KISS

Kim can be anyone she wants. She can be a tomboy, but she can also slay with a red lipstick. I just love this song SO MUCH and it fits Kim's vibe 100%!

Their hobbies: "MONTERO" by Lil Nas X & "Dancing in the moonlight" by Toploader

Well, this girl definitely like to dance!!!!!! And Montero just confirms her "player" and sexual side. I don't have much energy now to elaborate that more, so that's it for today!!!!

I challenge:

I'm curious about my mutuals OC's so I'm gonna challenge you guys to do it too! It's actually much easier than it seems like, and it's fun too!

@idk-i-want-mcl-content @lycorispoison @mrs-veilmont

[hamatoclan76]

Rise Splinter isn´t a very good parent and that´s okay.

Look, before someone starts throwing tomatoes i want to clarify something: I like Splinter from Rottmnt and i really like Rise of the Tmnt. People who have followed me for a while know i enjoy the series and i´m sad about it how was cancelled. I also want to say that i don´t think other Splinters are 100% perfect and they have their own issues too.

What i don´t like is how the Rise of the tmnt fandom often overlooks Rise Splinter´s character flaws and pretends that he is a perfect father figure because this is not something supported by both by the narrative and his character growth.

So, what i´m going to do in this post is to examine his character flaws, his role as parent and character arc in the series. The point of this is to bring up this flaws to light, this is not a ¨character critical¨ or whatever you want to call it. It´s supposed to be character analysis, okay?

Let´s start with the short Turtle Tots short:

Link to the short:

 https://www.facebook.com/teenagemutantninjaturtles/videos/626074331524980/

This short is when the turtle brothers are still very young. We see that Splinter is trying to train them but he keeps watching a show he likes on TV. This short shows Splinter didn´t care about training his sons enough even when they were younger. He also leaves them with very dangerous weapons they don´t know how to use.

Splinter was already quite neglectful and careless since the start. He spend too much time watching TV rather than training his sons. It would more understandable if he was too busy working with something but here he is only watching a TV series. Later in the short he admits he should have paid more attention to the turtles and isn´t a good Sensei.

I have to say i didn´t like this short too much. I didn´t find funny the jokes of how Splinter ignores his sons for the TV series and leaves every 30 seconds. However, it provides some context for the characters and their relationship.

Now let´s talk about his characterization at the start of the series. (Season 1)

Splinter at the start of the series is usually seen watching TV, whatever is his old movies or shows that he likes. He is rarely seen training the turtles or talking to them. Sometimes their interactions are the boys trying to ask him about something while he is watching his series. Splinter either answers them or ignores them.

He is usually so caught up in his own world that he doesn´t seem to be aware of who are the turtles fighting against until it starts biting them back. The boys usually don´t tell him about their adventures on the surface. One could argue that he assumes that they barely get in trouble and they are just playing.

In the episode ¨The Fast and the Furriest¨ Splinter ¨steals¨  Turtle Tank and takes it for a ride without Donatello´s permision. The turtles go through a lot of trouble to get the Turtle Tank back. By the end of the episode its Donatello, his son,is  the one who is putting a punishment on Splinter, who is supposed to be their father, for taking the Tank. 

While Donnie getting angry at Splinter is quite funny,this episode shows that Yoshi can be very inmature at times, if not childish. He doesn´t ask his son to allow him use the tank, puts them in danger and is scolded like a child at the end instead of him being the ¨responsible adult figure¨.

Parents being cocky or careless isn´t something very new. There are parents that act as inmature or worse than Yoshi and would never admit they did something wrong. So, i take this episode as one of the examples that Splinter does this kind of things. He isn´t this selfish and reckless all the time, just sometimes.

Another aspect is that Splinter struggles with remember his sons´ names. He calls them by their color bandana instead of their real names. This sometimes can be funny but on the long run it becomes quite disturing,Imo. There is difference between ¨calling your son with an affectionate nickname¨ and ¨not remembering your sons´ name¨. There is a point that this it becomes sad.

The tmnt wiki describes Rise Splinter´s personality as a ¨Extremely flawed (albeit loved) father figure¨. This means that he has tons of flaws but he cares about his family: One clear example is when he helps Raphael with fighting his fear in ¨Mrs. Cuddles¨. He protects the big turtle a few times from the giant puppet monster and they defeat the monster together.

Splinter cares about April O´Neil like she was part of the family too. In episodes like "Always Be Brownies" he is seen hanging out with her and helping her. He also encourages April to believe more in herself since she has tons of doubts in that episode. (Season 2).

Hamato Yoshi / Splinter´s backstory

Lets say that Yoshi didn´t have the best childhood. His biological father was missing and he is not mentioned in the flashbacks. Splinter´s mother, Atsuko, left Yoshi when he was still a kid so she would be able to perform her family duty as protector in the Hamato family.

This terrible loss made Yoshi grow bitter with his Hamato duties and martial arts. He didn´t want anything to do with his family legacy since it was the reason that his mother was forced to left him. He had an argument with his maternal grandfather and sensei, Sho, and decided to use the skills he learned in during his training to become a superstar.

After many shenanigans involving his crush on Big Mama, a very powerful yokai, and Baron Draxum, Hamato Yoshi mutated into a humanoid rat and adopted the turtles, who were about to be used as soldiers by Draxum, like their own sons.

Splinter´s backstory explains a lot of his behaviour in the series: It´s implied his father died/left him, his own mother also left him to perform her duties and he has a very strained relationship with his grandparent. The reason of why he has so many problems when it comes to being a good father it is because he himself lacked good family support. It makes sense that he doesn´t seem to know what he is doing or why he is messy when he is takeing care of the turtles.

Speaking of that, this explains why he isn´t very involved in his sons´ training. Maybe he just doesn´t want them to carry the same burden that he did as a child or just dislikes the idea of training them because it reminds him of bad memories about his grandfather and his mother.

He also watches his old movies since it reminds him of the time he was living his life at his fullest and was doing something he enjoyed. It implies he has his mind stuck in the past, perhaps wishing he could still be human and live like superstar.

Splinter´s Character growth

Like i mentioned, Yoshi wasn´t very interested in training his sons at the start of the series. He was negletful and spent too much time watching his movies... This aspect of his character isn´t ignored.

When the turtles asked him to train him ¨The Evil League of Mutants" he put Lou-Jitsu films for them to watch, this made their sons think he wasn´t taking them seriously and decided to go out on their own. While Splinter´s intention was to show them the basics by them learning the moves from the movies, he came off as he only cared about watching said films to their sons.

After noticing how his sons lack experience and need his help, he begans training them. Splinter gets more involved with his Hamato destiny and starts being more honest to the boys about his past as human and protector.

One episode that´s really worth of mentioning is ¨Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man¨: Splinter tricks Donatello and Mikey into going to a demolition center since he missed the old days he used to be a champion in the Battle Nexus. Donnie is very hurt when he finds out about this because he really wanted to spend more time with his father. By seeing this Yoshi realizes how his sons would like to do things together with him like hanging out. He apologizes to Donnie and tellshim that he may have lied but it is truth he wanted to spend time with him.

Along with getting more involved in his sons´s lives by teaching them and spending time with them, he lets Mikey hang out with Draxum because Mikey considers him part of the family too. (Draxum created them). He didn´t trust Draxum due to their mutual past but decides to give him a chance for Mikey´s sake.

In conclusion: In Rise of the tmnt, Splinter starts as somewhat a neglectful parent figure, sometimes acting childish and not being the best role model for their sons. Overtime he begins to understand the consequences of not training his family and gets more involved in their lives. He tries to be a responsible father despite he had tons of issues with his own family growing up. While very flawed, he has good intentions and cares deeply about his sons.

[linkspooky]

Dabi’s Self Suicide

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but Dabi is someone who has a tendency to make things about himself. In the League of Villains which is identifiably a group dynamic, Dabi takes every available opportunity to insist that he is alone, he is just along for the ride. A single man, with a single conviction, should be enough to change the world. He has a tendency to act like he’s the most important one here, he’s the one whose going to bring an end to hero society all on his own and yet at the same time he has no sense of identity. He has no self. He doens’t even have a name. Hawks asks him his name and he literally responds with [redacted]. I think this paradox of Dabi’s is at the core of figuring out who he is, and who he is not. 

1. Father Feelings

There’s something important to understand about Dabi, and just like always it starts with the family. I don’t think a lot of people realize how truly unfeeling, callous, cold towards Dabi Endeavor really was. I know we all, even I have used the golden child / scapegoat dynamic to describe Dabi and Shoto, but one important detail is that Dabi wasn’t always the scapegoat, he was the golden child at first. 

More important than Endeavor’s own feelings, is Dabi’s in this flash back. From the start, Dabi thought he was a normal kid in a normal family. He thought he had a normal dad. He even liked his super cool hero dad. Dabi wanted to train with him, wanted his attention and time, but these are just things a normal kid wants. 

However, Dabi was conceived of for very abnormal reasons. From the start, going into the whole affair, Endeavor’s intentions were wrong. Dabi was expected to carry on Endeavor’s legacy for him, he was the center of his attention, the center of his world. Dabi tried his best to carry all of those expectations as much as he reasonably could. 

However, there is literally nothing Dabi could have done in that situation to satisfy Endeavor. It’s not even about being born with the wrong quirk. It’s Endeavor who was wrong. From the start, Endeavor wasn’t interested in having a child or loving a child, but rather having a miniature Endeavor, Touya was just a vessel, to carry all of Endeavor’s hopes and dreams and live vicariously through him. However, that’s impossible.E ven if Touya had been born with the right quirk, that was impossible. You can’t live through another person. Touya’s success never would have been Endeavor’s. Endeavor would hae resorted to the exact same abuse, manipulation, control. Touya was never meant to be his own person, and that’s why even now, even becoming Dabi who is the rejection of everything Endeavor is, he still forms his entire personhood around Endeavor. It’s not that kids choose to form their personhood around their parents, they have to form themselves around their parents, we literally learn how to be people by interacting with other people especially during the developmental years. The same ones that Touya died during. 

Endeavor’s actions towards Touya is that he not only made Touya carry all of his emotions for him, he made Touya bear the brunt of his hurt feelings, all of his expectations, but then when Touya couldn’t carry them He blamed Touya. He tossed him aside. He made Touya feel, that something was wrong with Touya, and that was why he was no longer getting his father’s attention. It’s not anything Touya did, or anything Touya could do about, Touya was literally born wrong. 

It’s literally what he crawled to Natsuo asking. Yet, still Touya tried to fix himself. He was the golden child, now he’s the scapegoat, and Touya feels he did something wrong, so he keeps trying to fix himself, keeps trying to train on his own, and it doesn’t work because it could never work until it results in his eventual suicide and then how does Endeavor refer to it. 

Touya was just another tragic accident. Just a little mistake, along the road to creating Shoto. I’m not trying to explain away any of Dabi’s actions, just explain the way that Dabi regards himself, rather, Dabi literally has no sense of self at all. It’s been completely smashed to pieces. It’s ash. it’s dust. It’s just gone. Dabi’s name may as well just be [redacted]. There was also once a time that Shoto worried that he was more like his father within himself, but he got help from the people around him to realize he’s his own person, help that Dabi never got. 

2. Sins of the Father

So it’s like a genetic trait in the Todoroki family to be completely self absorbed, and dense to the emotions of other people, to the point where you don’t really see other people’s feelings. Like father, like son, like other son. However, Endeavor’s just like that, whereas Dabi and Shoto were made that way. Imagine what it was like to be Shoto, to be constantly told, you’re different from them, you’re the special one, you’re the chosen one. To the point where you couldn’t even play with your siblings, or be a part of everyone’s normal lives, no you were forced to be special. Shoto is oblivious to other people’s emotions because he was literally forcibly separate from other people, and even his mother who was his strongest emotional tie during literally most of his developmental years. 

Empathy is literally formed by interacting with people. You can’t form it or even have it, if your interactions with people are cut off and severely limited. You learn about how other people feel by normal social interaction, something that both Touya and Shoto were eventually cut off from. Touya from dying, Shoto from his mother being hospitalized. After that their ability to form connections with others was severely hampered. 

One funny thing about Shoto is he kind of acts like he’s the protagonist of his own narrative. So does Bakugo. That’s why he goes “Get out of the way all you extras.” Shoto’s the one with the tragic backstory. Shoto’s the one with this motivation to defy his father’s wishes. However, Shoto’s not the main character, he’s not the hero of the story, and it’s actually important that he’s not because the literal setting of the story is a society where everyone has the potential to be a hero. Kind of like how the point of Miles Morales story is that everyone can be spiderman. Shoto, also doesn’t really want to be a main character, or special boy, all Shoto has ever wanted was to connect with his siblings, to have the normalcy that everyone else has. In a society where everyone, even his own father is so desperately trying to stand out, Shoto wants the safety and security of normalcy. 

So you kind of have this paradox in Shoto’s head. Shoto kind of thinks of himself as a main character, even though that’s not really what he wants to be, just because that’s what’s been forced into his head the entire life. The emotional isolation of an abusive parent still ahs an effect on you, even when you’re aware, like Shoto was, that what Endeavor was saying was wrong. No one can grow up properly in isolation, that’s why kids need to interact with other kids and grow up together. 

So, I think the utlimate explanation for Dabi’s attitude towards the rest of the league is this. I’m the main villain. I’m the biggest threat. I’m the one who is going to bring an end to hero society all on my own. 

Once again this ties back to Shoto’s trauma, and Dabi’s. Touya didn’t want to be the special one, he was forced to be. Touya thought he was a normal kid, with a normal dad until he suddenly wasn’t. Then, Touya tried his hardest to be the special one until he literally broke his body, and his dad went no nevermind, turns out you were an extra. 

Saying Dabi is just doing this for Endeavor’s attention is oversimplifying. There’s a need to give a narrative to pain. Shoto even does it. Shoto literally narrates his life, he dumps his life story on everyone who will listen. People who are traumatized, want to give some sort of special meaning to their trauma, they want to feel important, because that in some way might justify what happened to them. If they can’t feel loved, they can try feeling important, like someone who mattered. Otherwise, Dabi is literally just someone who died and got forgotten. Otherwise, he’s just a sad little mistake, the same way his father regards him. Dabi can’t let the league in, because he has to do this on his own to prove he’s special. 

Dabi has this very individualistic and self centered approach to changing the world. He has to do it all on his own. He has to play mastermind. He was to orchestrate Endeavor’s rise and fall, and once again these are coping behaviors. Touya couldn’t control his abandonment, he had no agency in that, so he tries to pretend he’s in control of everything now. Even Dabi burning himself, his self-harming,it’s pain he’s in control of because he’s doing it to himself, father isn’t forcing him to train until he breaks anymore. 

Shoto sees himself as a main character. Dabi sees himself as the main villain. 

However, at the same time. Dabi hates himself. He loathes himself. It comes out in his self loathing behaviors, but more than that every thing Dabi does is an act of self destruction. Dabi has no feelings, no friends, no family, because he’s trying to destroy all those things. 

Dabi has no sense of self, because Endeavor has ruined him to the point where he’s still Endeavor’s empty vessel after all these years of separation from him. Dabi has no self, and also he doesn’t want one. He doesn’t want to grow past this point. 

Dabi has entirely fictionalized his life. That’s why he makes a dramatic reveal. Hee wants to turn his life into a tragedy, where he is the main character, where he is the one that Shoto and Endeavor cannot save. Because at least this way, he will not be forgotten. Unable to grasp for love, he tries to grasp for some kind of improtance, to change the world instead. In that scenario, it makes sense Dabi would distance himself from the league. I don’t think Dabi knows what his true feelings towards theleague are. In fact, I don’t even think he thinks about them. Who cares about what his feelings are? They are entirely separate from what he must do. Any feelings he has, any regrets, are going to burn away when he explodes like a bomb to ruin his father’s life. 

Dabi’s wavering motivations, his constant flipping between different emotions, like he’s channel surfing, I dont’ believe we’re supposed to read into every single thing he says, but rather notice how constantly he’s changing what he’s saying, because Dabi has no stable sense of self. We’re also supposed to see why he has no stable sense of self, because he’s all alone. 

This is the climax of Dabi’s big revenge play, it was supposed to end here, with the tragic protagonist dying. However, I think it’s actually really important in this arc that Dabi gets upstaged. Dabi is not the main character, Dabi’s not even the main villain. He’s not even the only character whose the descendant of a hero. It’s also, really important that Compress is the one who upstages his reveal.

What’s that? You thought I was a background character! It turns out I had this important motivation all along. The pacing is weird but it does achieve the intended effect. Dabi thought this was his moment, but that was actually bad for him. Dabi’s main flaw is that he tries to do all of these things along, but he’s not the only one who dreams of a better world. Dabi, Toga, Shigaraki, Mr. Compress says that all of their dreams are important at the same time. They are all simultaneously main characters. 

Dabi doesn’t get to have his moment, but I think it’s narratively important that he didn’t get to have it, because Dabi does no favors for himself by cutting himself off from the league. It’s meant to be a character flaw, Dabi shouldn’t get his revenge play, because his revenge play ends up with him dying at the end to spite Endeavor one fainly time. Dabi can’t achieve his dreams, because he hasn’t figured out who he is, or even who he wants to be yet. He just knwos what he doesn’t want to be. He just knows what he’s not. He’s not Endeavor. However I don’t think there’s going to be some big twist reveal about his character where he’s like, I secretly cared about the league, or my family all along, I was secretly a soft guy at heart. Those feelings are there. It’s not a problem of being unfeeling with Dabi, rather that Dabi has no central sense of self to stabilize all those feelings around, thus we see him swinging wildly back and forth. I think while Dabi obviously has feelings towards both of those groups of people, a self is something he’ll have to develop over time when he finally introduces himself to the league. When he’s forced to live, past the tragic ending of his play. 

Who will Dabi be when he realizes he has to live past his imagined revenge, who can he become? I think his development from this point will be incredibly interesting to wait, watch and see. 

[kaizokuou-ni-naru]

The Voyage So Far: Whole Cake Island

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano

sanji is such a self-sacrificial idiot. and i know that’s not exactly a ground-breaking statement, but it does define the entire first half of whole cake island, so it may as well be reiterated here: sanji does not value his own life as much as he should, and fails to grasp that other people care about him outside of what he can offer them, which is why he’s so surprised when luffy later comes charging headlong into big mom’s territory.

zou is a really good little arc, and it also mirrors the themes of whole cake island in miniature. the minks collectively make a massive sacrifice and risk absolutely everything to protect raizou, and wci is essentially all about loyalty and sacrifice, whether its sanji giving himself up to protect the strawhats and zeff or luffy and the strawhats facing impossible odds to rescue him to pedro giving up his life to get them all out of there safe.

huge fan of this panel partly just because it’s cute and partly because it’s a great visualization of just how dysfunctional the heights are in one piece.

zou is one of my favorite settings in one piece just for the sheer creativity of it. zunesha is so massive and so mysterious and so strange. and she really looks unspeakably old just from how she’s drawn, looming over everyone and everything, eyes hollow and empty, an entire forest and an entire people growing on her back that have been there for thousands of years. it’s just so neat and so wildly inventive.

this applies to zou as a whole, but i think it’s really cool how all the little threads that will become important during wano are set up so effectively even before whole cake island starts. we get this shot here of kidd beat to shit and then forget it because so much happens between here and when he shows up again in wano, but then oda punks us into caring about him and killer so much and this retroactively becomes very important.

ever since his introduction sanji’s always been a character basically defined by his adherence to his principles: always feeding the hungry, never wasting food, never hurting women, never using his hands in combat. he’s probably the most firmly principled person on the crew, and that’s more obvious in whole cake island than in any other arc except maybe baratie.

sanji is very stubbornly good, which puts him in acute contrast to his siblings and their general cruel apathy. it’s something i really like about him.

i’m a huge fan of big mom’s introduction, which is also our introduction to tottoland in general. it’s cutesy and colorful and musical while simultaneously being deeply creepy, with lyrics about killing people for ingredients and making jam out of blood, which is a great summary of the core of big mom’s character. she’s an old lady all in pink who lives in a cartoon fairy-tale land- but she’s also a deranged cannibal, and all those singing trees and flowers are animated by the life she steals from her citizens as tax.

whole cake island draws on a lot of fairy tale motifs (especially with brulee), and the contrast that saccharine appearance creates with how fucked up the actual content is is super effective and memorable, i think.

honestly i find most of the content of sanji with the vinsmokes just plain upsetting, which i’m sure is intentional, so i’m not going to go into it a lot here, but i am including this panel of him kicking niji in the face.

sad as this scene turns out, luffy’s absolute thrill at finding sanji and the corresponding bafflement of the vinsmokes as to how the fuck he even got there always kinda makes me grin.

i always love seeing people’s underestimations about luffy get thrown right the hell out the window- because let’s be honest, he’s easy to underestimate, he’s like a five and a half foot tall rubber teenager and not very physically intimidating and all, and then he goes and pulls off the impossible without blinking.

the thing that makes luffy unique as a captain has always been his willingness to rely on his crew, and his willingness to openly admit that reliance, like he did all the way back in arlong park. most of the other contenders for the pirate king’s crown we’ve seen- big mom, kaidou, crocodile once upon a time- have been stubbornly individualistic people who explicitly shown not to care for their crew and allies, generally seeing them as disposable.

luffy is the opposite of all of them, because his crew are everything to him, to the point of being willing to sacrifice his dream for them. and the loyalty he wins from them in return is unmatched, as opposed to big mom and kaidou, who both get cheerfully betrayed not just by their own crewmates but by their own children.

brook is really cool in whole cake island, and honestly it comes at just the right time for him as a character. ever since his introductory arc in thriller bark until this point he hasn’t gotten a ton of focus, so it’s great that he gets to be the mvp here and demonstrate exactly why he’s a strawhat pirate and how much he’s grown over the timeskip.

oda is generally really good at introducing and handling characters contained to a single arc/saga, but i do think he absolutely knocked it out of the park with pedro. he has an interesting backstory, compelling motivations, and basically an entire sub-arc ending in his death that never distracts from the main plot, but only ever adds to it.

pedro really feels like a fully realized character who’s had a whole life offscreen, who we just happened to catch at the very end of his story. i think that’s super impressive.

i really love this moment, because for me, this is the moment where whole cake island becomes a tremendous arc, and where the tides begin to turn and the dominoes begin to fall, one after the other. this is sanji hitting absolute rock bottom. the one ray of light he pinned all his hopes on was a lie, and he can’t even light a fucking cigarette.

but one piece is, very often, a story about picking yourself up even when you feel like you can’t.

i think there’s something lovely about how much one piece emphasizes the value of honestly asking for help. luffy waits for nami to ask for help, and for robin to say she wants to live, and for sanji to admit he just wants to go home, and then says, “okay, i’ll make that happen.”

it just makes me so happy how happy the stawhats are to know sanji’s back with them. it reminds me a lot of how they all brush off robin’s thanks after enies lobby. sure, they’re going to have to crash the wedding and confront big mom directly and might all die, but who cares? they’ve got sanji back. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, i love how much they love each other.

i think the gangster outfits are super fun, and i love that oda is committed enough to his aesthetics to come up with an excuse to put them all in formalwear. it pays off, they all look extremely snappy.

i know i just said it in the dressrosa posts but i’m reiterating it here because this is my favorite example of it by far: i love when oda does this split-screen thing with his panels. the contrast between the two halves of pudding is so severe and yet they’re so clearly the same person i honestly just find this pair of panels fascinating to look at.

this panel also kind of gets at my favorite thing about pudding as a character, really. i know she’s a little controversial in fandom, but i’ve always found her entertaining (at least post-reveal), especially in the contrast between her unhinged evil side and her genuinely sweet romantic side and her post-wedding tendency to randomly ping-pong between the two.

i just always like reminding people that sanji is fast enough and his observation haki good enough to dodge a surprise attack, while thoroughly distracted, from katakuri.

sanji in this arc tends to get shit from a certain side of fandom for being ‘useless’ since he doesn’t have a big climactic fight despite being the focus of the arc, which i think is thoroughly missing the point. sanji is still plenty capable in combat, as demonstrated both here and later, with chiffon and oven. it just happens that his strength isn’t what saves the day ultimately, because combat ability isn’t everything, which is the entire point of the vinsmoke backstory/subplot. sanji saves the day just by being kind.

i’ll admit big mom’s flashback isn’t one of my favorites, taken in isolation- there are some parts of it that kind of unresolved (at least as of now- i still suspect they’ll be followed up eventually), and in general, although there is a tragedy to it, it doesn’t quite hit the way many of the other more effective flashbacks do. that said, i do think it does a really good job of succinctly explaining why big mom is the way she is in the present: she’s a child who was never told no, who never grew or matured past the disappearance of her adopted mother. that’s it, and that’s enough.

i’ve always been a little bit in love with how seriously and consistently one piece handles its themes of found family, and sanji outright disowning judge in whole cake island is maybe the most outright they ever get: family is found, not made. you owe nothing to your blood and are never beholden to your abusers.

and i just like that a whole lot.

i do think the tamatebako is one of the best uses of chekov’s gun i’ve ever seen. we’re first shown it at the end of fishman island, it’s revealed it got sent off to big mom rigged with explosives which is a minor “oh fuck” moment, and then it gets forgotten about, because the entirety of punk hazard and dressrosa happens in between! which is a lot!

i remember when i reached the moment in whole cake island where we’re reminded that that bomb still exists and is still waiting to explode, i just started laughing hysterically out loud, because i’d completely forgotten, and now that i remembered i was just delighted to know it was going to definitely go off at some point, almost certainly in a very satisfying way.

pedro is, if i remember right, the first time the imagery of the coming dawn that will become quite important in wano really has attention drawn to it in-text- the recurring motif is there before this, of course, dating all the way back to the names of the first chapter (romance dawn) and first island (dawn island), but this is the first time it’s actively addressed in-story.

in doing so, oda essentially presents a fresh mystery for us, but one that has been set up so consistently ever since chapter one that it feels like it fits perfectly into the world and story.

luffy’s been punching way above his weight class ever since crocodile all the way back in alabasta, fighting enemies who clearly outmatch him but always managing to win anyways, but his fight with katakuri is maybe the clearest the sheer differential in strength ever gets, because katakuri’s powers are similar enough to luffy’s that he can pull off pretty much all of luffy’s techniques, but better. so luffy has to fall back on the two things that have always been his greatest strengths, again all the way back to crocodile in alabasta: innovation and sheer fucking stubbornness.

one thing i love about one piece is how no character is immune to being clowned on. absolutely nobody. everybody looks like an idiot sometimes, and it makes everything so much more fun than if the series took itself more seriously. katakuri basically actively tries to avert this by building up a fearsome, flawless, and utterly no-nonsense persona, but it winds up failing hard because it actually only makes the contrast and surprise of his actual personality and vices that much funnier.

i’ve always loved this one panel of carrot going sulong, because she just looks so monstrous, like a true werewolf. the same goes for the shift in big mom’s design when she starts going truly mad with starvation and gets even more threatening-looking (below). i just think oda should let women be monstrously scary more often.

i do really love that the entire climax of whole cake island hinges on the degree of trust and faith the strawhats, and sanji and luffy specifically, have in each other. they’re all facing massive challenges that would seem insurmountable to an outsider- luffy facing down a yonkou’s commander with a bounty of over a billion and sanji remaking a massive cake that took months to plan and make in just a few hours, the others evading big mom’s full forces and big mom herself for a full night- but none of them have even a shred of doubt that the others can manage it.

i wrote a meta post awhile back about one piece’s concept of ‘honor in a pirates’ fight, and what it came down to is this: honor can never be expected between pirates, but the best of them will show it anyways, and it can be a very telling judge of character. nobody would expect katakuri to do this, and luffy even calls him an idiot for it, but he has enough respect for luffy as a strong opponent to do it anyways, and that’s how we know for absolute certain that even though he’s an antagonist, he’s also a good, honorable person.

i really like the gesture of luffy leaving his hat over katakuri’s mouth, especially because until this point, we’re never even given any indication that he’s really noticed it, let alone that katakuri is insecure about it. he never reacts to or comments on it (which is in itself kind of unusual from someone who tends to nickname opponents by their appearances as often as luffy does) one way or another.

and then he does this, confirming all at once that he did fully notice and understand, he just doesn’t care. which i think sums up one of the more under-appreciated aspects of luffy’s character- he’s generally way more observant than people give him credit for, especially when it comes to people, it’s just that he has a very different sense of what’s important and what’s not than your average person.

i love the sheer contrast between big mom’s delighted, rapturous singing as she devours the wedding cake against the violence taking place on screen as her army rains fire and hell down on the thousand sunny. it parallels her initial introduction at the start of the arc perfectly, and is just an excellent way to close out the arc with a bang.

i said it earlier but it bears repeating here, for a different reason: luffy is not very physically intimidating. he’s shorter than most of the other main characters, he’s a lanky teenager, he dresses casually and his most identifiable accessory is a farm hat.

but then there are times when he looks like a captain, like a future pirate king, and it just looks so natural on him. i can never get over it.

i really like that, after spending a whole arc demonstrating just how different (and how much better) sanji is than the vinsmokes, it ends like this- showing us just how similar he’s grown up to the man he’s chosen as his real family, and just how proud zeff would be of him.

[dystopiandilfs]

I find it interesting how each Feral boy is with DreamSMP lore and how they approach it if they do. This is also some ideas and improvements. This is all my opinion and you don't have to agree or disagree.

Disclaimer this will be me using comparisons as it makes it easier to explain. This isn't me saying one person is better than another. Some might be negative points, some will be positive so no critical tags sorry. Even with me once again expressing my strong negative opinions on Tales. The idea is good the execution is not.

This is based off of multiple things; Character story, Character traits, Lore?, Plot holes, Fan theories, General enjoyment, Viewer impact, Clear goals etc

Dream seems to enjoy it the most as he offers to join everyone's lore as well as helping when he can and also trying to include others into "main" lore He also has managed to create a character with a full storyline without not once streaming from his perspective. He's very good at doing things that may seem small at the time but ends up having a huge impact. He manages to have a full storyline and a complete character but still leaves room for theories and headcanons for people to add on (Dreamon my beloved 💕). Because we don't see his perspective we don't know his intentions or goals so he's made his character detailed but mysterious which is actually quite difficult as he's the main character (Sorry Ranboo but it's true)

When it comes to acting he's very good at staying in character even when things get a bit scuffed obviously there's a few moments of breaking character but they're not him trying to get others to break character with jokes and voices they're genuine fuck ups (Accidentally blowing himself up and breaking character to both clear up confusion about it being canon and to switch from a tense atmosphere to give the audience a break for a bit and breaking character to say his Twitch handle after accidentally breaking TOS so George didn't get banned)

Dream said he's got a storyline from his perspective and it's all prerecorded which I'm excited for as I think it's going to be a bunch of flashbacks which could expand both character backstory but also create more storylines for people to bounce off of. For example if he did a flashback with some of the OG members they could build from that. It could give more of an explanation of why he changed. Essentially Dream's lore could be a bunch of behind the scene clips giving more lore for characters like him discussing the egg or prison with Sam, him and Punz talking more about the deal, him and Techno , him and Puffy, him and Ranboo. Dream is the main character because literally ever other character can do a flashback scene with him and build a whole storyline from it. For example Dreamon Hunters can be bought back in which already was linked to the Egg by Fundy. To sum it up Dream's lore from his perspective can not only made way for multiple new theories and headcanons but also is the easiest way for other characters to have more dimension even with a 20 second clip. And it gives more context to Dream as a character. Disclaimer this isn't me saying people can only be dimensional characters because of Dream I'm saying that Dream is the easiest way for someone to start a storyline that they can then work on if they want.

Quackity can do lore if he puts his mind to it. However it also has to rely on multiple things. Who the lore is with?, How serious is it? And What's the vibe? Basically if Quackity is with people who don't do serious lore or people who crack jokes often then his lore won't have that good quality lore I know it can be. For example Quackity's lore with Sam and Dream couldn't be replicated with most other people on the server. I can't even imagine if Karl and George were trying to do the prison lore. Even in Quackity's big stream you can see this difference Schlatt's bit dragged on and often got derailed because whilst they were both interested in the lore they weren't invested. The bit with BBH was a bit all over the place because they were both talking over each other and you could sort of tell it had little to no script or end goal but this was also partly down to them both being very into lore. They both tried to stick to their pre-existing character traits which clash Vs the Prison which had a clear script even if it was vague. Go to prison, convince Sam to bring weapons, Go torture Dream. Sam, Dream and Quackity are 3 of the most mysterious characters who have no clear plans, you can't predict their moves which is why any lore with them is good because they don't have a character personality that they have to stick to. For example Dream is known to adapt for each person so he could be nice one minute and demon child next.

Once Quackity has broken character he used to completely lose it. The vibe was gone however I was highly impressed with how he and Sam managed to keep the vibe when the prison broke. Previously Quackity would have lost his shit and derailed everything. I do think Quackity's strongest lore point is going with other strong lore members or just being on his own.

George and Sapnap I'm going to sort of link together. They both seen to be a bit meh on lore. I think it genuinely depends on what mood they're in. I also think that they'll both be much more comfortable doing lore that's prefilmed Vs live on stream.

Sapnap is very good at bouncing off of people so I think he'd be really good at lore with most people. I think Sapnap could definitely capitalise on the angst of being the abandoned one who is loyal to death but doesn't have the same in return. Like Dream both Sapnap and George are good at voice manipulation meaning if they want sad angst they can sound upset. Sapnap seems more tempted to do on the spot lore so he can't back out so that's another option. Like Sapnap has multiple headcanons handed to him and I know this bitch can act his little yeehaw soul out. Even if it's short clips talking to people like Punz or Sam who he seems closest to.

George has this strange ability to kickstart ideas for lore and then let's others build from it. (Also his ability for all of his lore to have a LGBTQ subtext like pack it up Dean Winchester) I genuinely don't think it's intentional however I think with a bit of thought he can have a general well rounded character. I know he did that lore the other day and has started to build up a character background however I think he's better with less serious lore people as I don't think he can do serious mood streams like Dream or Ranboo but can potentially hold it long enough for a bit like Techno or Phil. I think George's weakness is he'd rather someone else guide him through lore instead of doing it himself. Man really doesn't like being the main character.

Karl seems to want to do lore but doesn't have the ability to create it. He has all these ideas but can't form a proper story about it. I used to have this issue where I had all these cool bullet point ideas but I could never form a cool idea with them and I think Karl has the same issue. In my opinion if Karl does want to continue with Tales and bullet point ideas I think he needs help formulating a bit more of a story. Once again like Sapnap and George I think he excels in prerecorded lore however it's also either heavily scripted or he's having his hand held through it. Which is fine but that's why a lot of people can't connect Tales to DreamSMP as his streams are the only ones that are heavily scripted and it gives off a different vibe. Karl is also too bubbly to crack down on serious lore which is fine not all lore needs to be serious and angsty however he tries to make it deep. I personally think that Karl should capitalise on this uwu soft boy persona he has. No deep lore. Obviously choosing memory loss time travel involves serious moments but I think he needs to split it more between dark angst and wholesome Karlnapity moments. What I mean is that Karl on DreamSMP and Tales Karl seem like 2 completely different characters that just so happen to share a name. I think the prerecorded bit at the end needs to begin to add his DreamSMP personality a bit more.

TLDR: Dream is strongest lore, Quackity works best with serious lore with people invested or on his own with a bit of direction, Sapnap and George will probably be better off doing prerecorded lore as it seems more comfortable for them, Karl struggles to put his ideas into a storyline and would benefit from doing less heavily scripted pre recorded lore to make his storyline cohesive Vs a bunch of one shots.

To sum it up Dream is Hot and should bring back Dreamons, Quackity needs to work more with serious lore people, Sapnap should Capitalise on his loyalty trait and constant abandonment for maximum angst, George should cry on command more, Karl needs spend more time writing instead of paying for builds.

[torterrachampion]

Chloé d'Apchier, Revenge, and Love

Yep, I'm giving you an essay(?) about this woman and why I think she's neat. Not sure this will be particularly interesting or informative but I wanted to reward myself for studying hard by letting myself gush about Chloé. I'm going to do my very best to pretend I have a point here but tldr Chloé is cool and I like her

Chloé is at the centre of the Gévaudan arc of vnc and I'd make the claim that she is the heart of this arc, and is the most important character throughout. In the present day 19th century Gévaudan she takes on the antagonist role, her actions interfering with Vanitas and Noé and causing the largest problems during the arc. (Yes, Astolfo and Naenia/Faustina also have this role in the present but they aren't nearly as important imo). However, throughout the flashbacks to the past she acts as the main point of view for us readers and serves as the protagonist during those chapters. This grants Chloé an interesting duality which makes her journey incredibly compelling.

When she is first introduced Mochizuki paints Chloé as at best incredibly suspicious and at worst outright malicious. It's heavily implied that she is the Beast (though this turns out to be untrue) and she appears to be working with Naenia, the main villain of the series thus far. Additionally, she drank Noé's blood without consent and confesses to having given Naenia her true name willingly. This immediately throws her into opposition with Vanitas and Noé to a far greater degree than any other curse-bearers encountered prior, who had all been rampaging without control.

However, Mochizuki doesn't take long to start peeling back the layers behind Chloé and her motivations. Directly after learning that she wants revenge, from the cliffhanger at the end of memoire 30, we jump into the past in order to learn more about her. And even before this there are brief glimpses of her past relationship with Jeanne during the early chapters of the arc. Although these moments don't make her any less threatening it does help foster a connection between us and Chloé. Even if she appears villainous her association with Jeanne and unique position as a willing curse-bearer creates a lot of intrigue that makes it easy to quickly become invested in her.

As we see her backstory it becomes increasingly clear that Chloé has lived a very long and oft unpleasant life. Chloé never quite fits in with anyone and it's obvious she's very lonely. Whether it's humans or vampires Chloé isn't able to connect to them entirely.

Chloé is distant from the d'Apchiers and even more so from vampires. She has to remain hidden from public, so she lives separately to her family while they research how to change her into a human. The d'Apchiers do eventually abandon the goal of making Chloé human again while continuing to benefit from the world formula research, but the original intention is still important. Chloé also has to watch as her family dies around her while she remains the same because of her immortality, further isolating her. And Chloé has almost no connections to vampires. Her isolation makes her completely ignorant to the outside world and she is presented no opportunities to meet anyone like herself until very late in life when Ruthven approaches her.

When Chloé asks Ruthven whether he sides with humans or vampires it's unclear which side she places herself on. Unlike Ruthven who, when he asks Noé the same question in memoire 19, explicitly states he in on the vampires' side. It's possible that Chloé doesn't even consider herself part of either group.

It's interesting then that her first friend, Ruthven, could make a place for himself with either group at the time, stating outright that he views them as equal. Chloé's isolated from both while August has somewhat integrated with both.

And Chloé is at her happiest when she's friends with Ruthven. She gets introduced to Jeanne, who gives her the confidence to disobey orders her father gave her decades earlier. Chloé gains confidence in herself through her vampire friends and is even able to connect with her family because of it. Her 'granddaughters' want to play with her because she's started showing interest in going outside. This point in her life is a bright spot where she has managed to find acceptance for just a moment from both her family and from vampires.

However, this doesn't last long. Chloé soon learns that Ruthven is hurt and Jeanne a bourreau after being separated for a while but is unable to accept Machina's offer to come and live with vampires. She's still loyal to the d'Apchiers, thinking of them when she turns him down.

And after this she is reunited with Ruthven in the worst way possible. He betrays her. He tries to take her alteration device by force and when he fails he disappears. And Chloé, having been abandoned by him, throws herself into her work on the alteration device. Because she doesn't need it for revenge at this point the reason she's so desperate to complete it is so she can become human again. Ruthven was Chloé's connection to the vampire world and after his betrayal she attempts to discard it entirely, clinging to her identity as a d'Apchier. She'd evidently always wanted to regain her humanity to some degree but never so fervently as after Ruthven's betrayal.

It doesn't take long for her to be rejected by the d'Apchiers as well. Her family dies at the hands of the church and Chloé blames herself. She told the Marquis d'Apchier about the churchmen killing people in the hopes of stopping them but only succeeded in putting a target on the d'Apchiers back. One of her last surviving family members calls her a monster and she spends multiple days curled up in bed crying, Jean-Jacques acting as her last ally while she’s been spurned by everyone else she cares about.

It's no wonder that when Jeanne shows up to take her head she welcomes it, asking Jeanne to finish her. Chloé was abandoned by everyone when all she ever wanted was to be accepted so of course she’s tired. But Jeanne can't kill her. So Chloé tries to save them both the and pain dives off a cliff to finish things. Naturally, Naenia interferes, goading Chloé into taking revenge instead in exchange for her true name.

Right up until the last moment Mochizuki tries to convince us that Chloé wants revenge on Gévaudan for all the pain everything there has caused her. But of course that’s not what Chloé wants. She doesn’t hate the d'Apchiers or Ruthven or Jeanne. Chloé hates those who hurt the people she loves. That would be Naenia and herself.

Chloé’s reason for living is Jean-Jacques at this point. The last thing she wants to do before she dies is get revenge for someone she loves. She doesn’t see the worth in her own life or the fact that she’s loved in return. So it’s kind of beautiful that what starts to snap her out of her curse-bearer state is Jean-Jacques affirming her and expressing how much he cared about her. And what fully breaks her free is Jeanne and Jean-Jacques reaching out to her. Chloé’s entire character is about a desire to be accepted and after centuries she finally gets it at the end of Gévaudan. The day was saved by the power of love this arc. Is that cheesy as hell? Yes. Did it nearly make me cry? Yes. 

That’s it. I didn’t really have a point here, I just wanted to talk about Chloé. It’s not even very polished, I wrote this pretty stream of consciousness. But thanks if you make it this far. Here’s a couple of Chloé panels I was really sad I didn’t get to include:

[iheartbookbran]

Anthony, Penelope, Marina and Colin deserved better...

Beware, rant ahead

Ok I wish I didn’t feel such strong need to continue beating this dead horse but oopsie, I will very much be beating it some more.

Like, my fave books of the Bridgerton series are Anthony’s and Colin’s books, so I’m seething about what they did with their characterizations, Anthony and Penelope in particular, because Colin’s only real sin was being boring, and if you remember how funny he’s in the books it makes me wanna fall on my knees and ask Chris Van Dusen whyyyy omg why would you do something like that to such a dynamic character. So yeah, Colin is boring af and a moron but at least he isn’t an asshole the way show Anthony and Penelope are, and I’ve seen people say that they can always be redeemed in future seasons, if we get them, but that’s exactly my problem, because they never had to be redeemed in the books, to begin with. Penelope more so than Anthony but let me begin by defending my boy.

Is he a jerk sometimes? Sure. Is he actively awful and uncaring towards those close to him, especially his family? Hell no, quite the opposite, in fact. Not to be controversial on main but in the books... he was right in not wanting Daphne to be courted by a man who he knew damn right had no intention of marrying her and as far as he was aware was only making her waste her time, and he was right in demanding Simon pay for compromising her honor. Could he have been more mindful of what Daphne had to say and listened to her wishes? Of course, but considering Simon and Daphne (both in the show and in the books) aren’t exactly masters in communication themselves, Anthony doesn’t come off as the biggest offender in that situation.

What he never did was force Daphne, or any of his sisters really, to do anything; if they didn’t like a guy then that guy was out of their lives no question asked, and he loved them enough to always have their best interests at heart, for his sisters and his brothers, to the point that even though he’s traumatized and thinks he’s gonna die young he’s still willing to get past that to do his duty and marry, because he doesn’t want to pass that burden on to his little brothers (so him deciding to leave all his responsibilities to Benedict so he can fck off with his mistress is... like, a choice lmao). In fact all the subplot with Siena felt like a choice on the writers part, like they truly liked Benedict and Sophie’s story so they just slapped it on Anthony so he could act all sad and sexy while they gave us foreshadowing with the subtlety of a warharmer that he’s ending up with Kate anyways (and that Benedict is ending with Sophie anyways too, so they would be using that storyline twice, unless they do make him bi and fall in love with a man, but maybe that’s too much of ask for this show), so what was Siena’s purpose in the story? Who tf knows not me.

Now Penelope, my god. Yes I know I joke Penny has never done anything wrong in her life, and I still love her, but she was wrong. Very much so. What she did was significantly worse than what Marina did, which I still don’t condone at all. Like yes, I still maintain that Marina tricking Colin into marriage was wrong (and I’ll go later on why that whole subplot was racist af), but what Penelope did could have not only ruined Marina and herself and her sisters reputations, but it was basically condemning an innocent unborn child to a life in the streets, that’s messed up. Even if Marina was rose-coloring her potential life with Colin and he might have grown to resent her, at least the baby would’ve been alright. And my problem with that whole subplot is that all of it was resolved so neatly, with Sir Phillip sweeping in to save the day so we don’t have to actually see what Penelope’s actions could have caused, but the implications are still very much there.

And I’m cracking my mind trying to figure out whether the showrunners just... really hate Colin’s book and Penelope as a character so they’re trying to inflict some kind of character assassination on her so they can get away with writing him off with another person without causing much outrage, or if they just thought there wasn’t enough ~drama~ or stakes on their book so they have to add them, and give him some kind of bullshit tragic romantic past to explain why he doesn’t want to marry, whereas in the books, the reason he doesn’t marry anyone is because he doesn’t feel like it, and that’s ok, there’s no need for every character to have a tragic backstory and to be riddled with angst; Colin is that character, he’s an easy going guy who’s just not interested in marriage until he falls in love with Penny AND THAT’S VALID, just because he doesn’t have the most complex motivations out there doesn’t mean he isn’t a compelling character. The stakes in his story after he discovers Penny is Whistledown are, as he points out, that she has insulted so many people there’s no way some of them wouldn’t want to retaliate if word came out, and he cares for her and doesn’t want her to get hurt (there’s also a dumb part about him being secretly jealous of her accomplishments as Whistledown, but thankfully he gets over that pretty quickly).

But while I am on that, it is true that Penelope wrote some uncharitable things about the mean people around her, but she never ever ruined someone’s reputation, let alone endanger the future of a child. Was she a bitch sometimes? Yeah, but she was also kind to a lot of people and her criticism was never unwarranted and never did more damage than maybe annoy a couple of girls like Cressida. I just hate the idea of this needing to turn into some sort of ~redemption arc~ for Penelope because, again, in the books she really didn’t have to make up for anything, definitely not to Colin, who was actually the one who had to do much of the heavy lifting in their relationship when he realized that he literally slept on her for years.

And now regarding Marina, like yes, she was wrong and I stand by that statement (but not as wrong as Penelope), but tbh I find it hard to be mad at her when they gave her such a racist storyline, as the scheming woc who gets pregnant out of wedlock and then tries to seduce the innocent white man, until the virtuous white girl needs to step up to save him. At least that’s what I thought initially as the writers intention, but honestly I’m not so sure anymore, I doubt they will continue to write her and Colin as a couple otherwise they would’ve bothered to show them interacting outside of her manipulating him and him acting like a bumbling idiot, the most sincere moment they had together was when he comforted her about the lie, but by that time this bitch (me) was empty and didn’t give a shit anymore. Literally all their other interactions where shown through Penelope’s POV to let us know she was sad, and Colin’s most significant scenes where again... with Penelope (because it isn’t as if he has a family and his own moments in the books outside of being an object for Penelope to pine after).

And as I said before, Marina had a—relatively—happy ending: married to a man she doesn’t love (just as she didn’t love Colin) but who will treat her right and care for her and her child in comfort. Is arguably a better ending than if she’d married Colin because now she doesn’t have to go through the trouble of explaining things to her new husband and run the risk of him resenting her forever. Phillip may not love her but he knows who he’s marrying and why he’s marrying her. That’s literally the same fate Marina had in the books, and it makes me wonder why, oh why would the writers do that.

Why create such a contrived plot to give a character who appears in one(1) chapter of an 8 books series then promptly dies, all at the expense of the characterization of one of the most beloved heroines of said books series? Why would you write this racist storyline for a character whose fate is dying? And now I’m horrified at the repercussions that can come with Marina committing su*cide like in canon, because the implications would be that Penelope would be responsible for it (and I hate the idea of blaming one person for the su*cide of another, fictional or otherwise, is harmful and we need to be careful with making such implications), which would make her even less redeemable or like, likable in general. Not to mention that would be like putting the final racist nail in Marina’s coffin by giving her that ending.

It makes me wonder, seriously, if Chris Van Dusen hated Romancing Mister Bridgerton that much, if he loathed the idea of writing a fat character finding love and getting sex that much. I just wanna know why lmfao.

[amazingphilza]

DSMP!OC HEADCANNONS

i dunno if ppl on here make dsmp!ocs for themselves outside art but here’s my long list of headcannons?? idk what to call this, but assume all names have c! before it ofc :]

,, this is kinda messy & probably has a lot of plot holes but i just needed a space to write out all my thoughts LOL

also cw / ment of manipulation & ib: dsmp wiki <3

character origin :

previous life was the l’mantree :D

allegedly planted by schlatt, we will never know who’s my canonical parent(s)

reborn as a dryad after niki burns the l’mantree

i think being a dryad would fit especially since they’re typically nymphs of oak trees :]

appearance :

my character’s mc skin has long light brown hair & is seen wearing a flower crown with petals that are around the color of a pale violet and navy blue

clothing would consist of black shoes & a long light grey sweater that falls down to the legs and covers most of the hands which adorned with 2 black stripes on the upper arms

lore / history :

since my past life was the l’mantree, i would’ve known the ins and outs of the history when l’manburg was still standing, up until niki burned the tree

after witnessing everything, i’d hold a grudge on niki (+ allies?) and loyal to wilbur since he’s the whole person that made a meaning of the land of l’manburg

however i’d still be on edge w any side because i could sympathize with everyone to some extent after seeing some sort of distress from everyone at some point

i think seeing both sides of the spectrum when l’manburg/manburg still stood could change my perspective of some other characters

but at the same time, not everything was completely centered in l’manburg so i wouldn’t know the whole story of everyone’s character

i’m currently writing this just after tommy has left the prison & mostly everyone is treating him differently, so i’d try to befriend him by not showing that i dont care about his past & trauma but also not being fully faithful about our friendship ahaha,,,

he seems like the type that needs someone to see through his past history but tommy would definitely disapprove of my character visiting dream at the prison (i would do it anyway :))

vowing my current life to wilbur, i would help dream escape to revive wilbur & follow along with their plans of chaos

i don’t fully support dream but he is the only way to wilbur, making me comply with dream’s decisions

“growing up” in my past life and witnessing endless conflict, it is the only thing i know and understand; chaos

but i think during the process of helping dream & wilbur i’d keep my connection with them secret, being the person to obtain all the inside information they need

i could see myself as a type of equilibrium like ranboo but in a bad way, i don’t know how to explain it

but i would try befriending ranboo since he seems like he is involved in many things and would know a lot, despite his short term memory

unfortunately i’m not sure how much his character actually knows since i haven’t been able to watch his pov that much but i’m sure there’s a lot in his memory book...

to blend in as a normal person within the rest of the characters, i’d surround myself with connor a lot

not only because he needs more lore, connor is one of the “normal” citizens of the smp so i believe being with him doesn’t bring as much attention to myself, unlike people that’s related to the egg and their noticeable features after associating themselves with the egg

he is currently only on bad terms with techno which is rly good when comparing that to other characters and their relationships with other people

connor could probably sense my real intentions eventually & tell everyone else that i’m not who i say i am but if that’s my flaw & my downfall is caused by connor, so be it! sorry dream & wilbur

i feel like for being a young dryad, i’d still fool around with dream/wilbur & help give tommy an small “advantage” to defeating the two ?

like yes i’m supposed to be on your side but where’s the fun if tommy can’t do anything to begin with?

i honestly don’t know if wilbur was revived he’d actually be his vassal but let’s assume that happens, but either way i’m with wilbur on his decisions

but ya dream seems like the type to punish me for helping tommy and send me to the afterlife to learn & become smarter like wilbur had done or smth

in the end, i just want to give tommy bits and pieces that tease him from ending all the wars and problems he has been faced with

like here’s some info about dream and wilbur but it won’t be no where close to enough

but who knows, ghostbur said ‘villains are just heroes that aren’t convinced yet’ & maybe tommy could eventually grow on me & change my ways,,

maybe me fooling around & teasing tommy with answers he’s been searching for is a way to mask that i want to be a good person

ok but imagine after knowing so much about dream/wilbur, the revive book, & the afterlife & then i switch sides,,,

surely if tommy can’t put and end to them, dream would make sure i’m gone for good instead

but also if me & connor are in good terms & he’s canonically a necromancer & can bring ppl back to life,,,,

personality :

to all besides dream & wilbur, i’d try to act passive and friendly on the outside to get on everyone’s good side

however under the mask i am more mischievous & strive to cause more problems for everyone on the server from the inside out

in a way, i’ve taken up some of dream’s manipulative personality but still very understanding

i’d like to think of my character as a good listener,, trying to do less talking than others so i do not open up about my true self and intentions

i’ve seen rumors about schlatt & mexican dream also being revived along with wilbur & i feel like i’d have some soft spot for schlatt & pick up a few things from his own character, not sure what though

schlatt planted l’mantree theory, dad!schlatt au part 2 !! /j

because of my character’s closed off and quiet personality, i feel like i’d be pretty analytical

i would know how to slip between the cracks with some characters & notice the smallest things to make them question themselves

maybe my character is good at holding their composure, and not that susceptible to being “emotional” in a way so it’s easier to face people

like i understand when a situation is sad, etc but i can’t show emotion towards how i feel about it (i don’t know if that makes sense but ya!)

i wanna try to elaborate more,, like imagine my character before tommy visits the prison, i would be unfazed from when i found out he died to the point he’s released and we find out he’s been revived

everything is a constant blur hehe

i just can’t fully process everything i guess? i dunno if that’s helpful but yeah!

in the end though, my moral compass has been very tainted; despite wanting to show my loyalty, it can be slightly easy to sway me, making me internally feel guilty to other people

but me trying to get on everyone’s good side to impress wilbur/dream to seem useful to them would ruin me before i would even realize that i’m another “pawn”

we know damn well dream is faking it till he “makes it” but yk,,

but i’d be stuck in this kind of dilemma of not knowing what thoughts are my own or just something trickled down from wilbur or dream

there’s like maybe something that clicks in my head like “maybe i wanna think for myself for once” or smth

like who am i really?

powers , bonuses , etc :

since dryads can technically manipulate plants in some ways, theoretically i could control the blood vines to some extent ???

i’m pretty sure dryads can communicate with plants so i could understand what the blood vines are saying as well

maybe i could get a good sense of what the egg is all about and stuff

assuming that i understood anything that was happening with the egg in the first place but anyway—

i guess similar to ranboo like how he can’t really be around water without some type of amour or something, it would make sense for me to primarily reside in a type a forest or be near one ?? who knows

seems a bit morbid in a way because of the whole history but if i can somehow easily get rid of the blood vines without it affecting me (if there is still some there) i think it would be kinda pretty to build a tree base in the middle of the l’manburg crator (iskall tease)

like it can show a sign of some rebirth, not the same government repeated once again but a new era in general

you know how you see like destruction years after it the disaster or smth happened and it gets all overgrown with plants and stuff? ya that’s what i’m going for in my head (mumbo jumbo s7 tease)

i know it’s covered in glass already but i dunno, some broken glass and a giant tree emerging from the whole thing and all the rubble seems cool

i’m not a good builder but i have the vision LMAO

omg puffy is like a sheep human hybrid im pretty sure & like there’s a specific type of dryad that are a protector of sheep & other animals?? i’m not exactly sure but that seems like an interesting element to incorporate somehow

also glatt randomly planting a oak sapling in quackity’s lore stream yes pls feed my nonexistent dsmp character lore /j

i honestly dunno how to incorporate the fact dryads can turn shapeshift into trees when trying to escape something but i read something that if a dryad stays in a tree form for too long they’ll forget who they are and stay stuck as a tree?? which like woah that’s cool & some material but at the same time what—

since everyone’s backstory is kinda a mess, mr beast parent tease bc he planted a bunch of trees /hj

i have realized wilbur saying like “the whole reason i built this nation is gone” & blowing up everything or whatever is kinda a plot hole in like ‘why would i follow wilbur if/when he’s revived when he said this?’ but i’d like to think he was the one that made some meaning of the area lmanburg was on, which includes the lmantree

like he was the one that started everything and created that sentiment of that land, and however he views it now is how i would see it now

he gave meaning to my past life and now in my current life, i feel this obligation to repay him for it

not really lore bc i think it was cc!tommy talking to cc!ranboo about his height & age when he first joined but yk it would funny to make my dsmp character than his just to slightly spite him anyway

canonically 6’4 dryad yes . /hj

also i have no idea anything about hannah and her lore but we do be flower buddies :D

also omg like this isn’t at all important but the way ranboo can pick up grass blocks will just have me at awe, i dunno seems in theme with the forest/plant stuff

and i remember reading like there was something about dryads and apples but i can’t remember but i’d give tommy a bunch of apples /hj

apples am i right chat,,,,,

i’ll just have infinite apples in my inventory, like kill me in game, not like losing lives kinda deal but just in general and boom stacks of apples

“bee i get you’re half tree but do you just poop apples out like they’re nothing??” “girls don’t poop” /j

ok but like no matter how many streams i watch i cant grasp where everything is but omg but no if i was new to the server & stuff, canonically & not, i would feel my character to be the curious kind to explore everywhere

like besides a mini tour from some other person in the server, since my character only knows things in the bounds of lmanburg, i’d go off exploring different places like pogtopia, the sewers, showchester, etc

i feel like my character would be really into history, like they would have questions about what happened to lmanburg after the last war? what was life like before wilbur? what was the whole history about the antarctic empire? i dunno but reading a bunch of books from a library seems really interesting

oh but in theory, me and tubbo are loosely related if you wanna count schlatt as my “dad” because he supposedly planted the lmantree ???

i mean could make sense but it seems like a stretch

also if my character ever got close to schlatt, i’m not sure if this is canon, but i swear one time he mentioned how the whole dsmp sever is just a game/server in a game & he’s the only one that knows that ??? but like imagine if i found that out canonically,,,,,

big existential crisis pls

and i’m not 100% sure how dryad shifting works with like going from female to tree form and stuff but if i’m able to morph into different girls on the server & act as them,,,, the about of problems that can cause in the lore omg

lemme frame niki real quick and get inside information /j

oh ya and like hey bee do you support the government then? yes but no. whatever my “fav” person is canonically (assuming this is based in the beginning of this whole hc) whatever wilbur thinks, i think. head empty. but subject to change as the dsmp storyline progresses and stuff :]

ngl i wanna throw in some like random lore that doesn’t make sense to throw people off but i can’t think of anything

not actually really lore related but my choice of stream music like how ranboo has his undertale stuff that makes everyone cry, i will have in love with a ghost

yup i like in love with a ghost sm & i’m pretty sure their music is like not dmca too which yay but yk theoretically never gonna stream on the dsmp but still a fun aspect to think of bc i love listening to music & it’s very impactful to a story & associating something to it makes it more meaningful :D

like i could imagine the chill pop lofi piano stuff fits witha few lore streams of like exploring the whole smp before my character would really go out with being this lost villain in a way?

tubbo’s gangnam style who?

like i feel like i made my character bad/evil so they could have potential to get better in the future

on one hand, i’ll end up w dream and/or wilbur for the rest of my life, which is okay but i could also switch to be with tommy or even disregard all of them and be with techno/phil or quackity & potentially schlatt even who knows

also i cant wait for more connor lore tho, like as much as i tried to make my character give him more content i wanna see how everything goes with him having connections to schlatt & stuff

anyway i would’ve made concept art for my character but i honestly don’t rly like my art currently but who knows LMAO

and lastly if u read all of this ily /p

i might update this later when there’s more lore but ya

[tangledbea]

Disney Villains

Okay so like, I am mixed on it.

On one hand, sympathetic villains are cool if done right and not everyone needs to be redeemed because they’re sad. They’re still responsible for their actions and need to fix that themselves to be trusted. On the other hand, villains for the sake of just doing villainy to establish their power and dominance are always fun to watch. Ex: Jafar, Maleficent, Lady Tremaine, Captain Hook, Ursula, etc.

Live action Disney villains are just stale to me sometimes. For example, I didn’t like the movie Maleficent because you could’ve done the same story with someone else. I liked evil animated Maleficent who felt insulted that she wasn’t invited to a princess christening and like, chances are she wouldn’t have gone in the first place, but an invitation would’ve been considerate. Sure I liked the L.A movie message that true loves kiss doesn’t have to be about romance, you have other sources of love from friends and family. Yet it takes away from the established Maleficent from the animated movie. I didn’t need a sad Lady Tremaine backstory in the L.A Cinderella.

Like Lady Caine I can sort of see as sympathetic villain/antagonist, but to an extent of how far her crimes go for revenge and why she does them. There’s always this line that is either crossed or never crossed in terms of villains.

I liked her story and motivation (I don’t care much for the whole “blame Rapunzel for being kidnapped as an infant because that blame should’ve gone to Gothel, but I guess people find it easier to lash out at Rapunzel cuz she’s right there.) I would’ve liked to see more of how Gothel not only affected Rapunzel, but also how much she affected Corona which lead to Fred’s crackdown on crime which eventually led to the creation of Lady Caine. Maybe a touch upon that while Fred’s crackdown on crime was based in personal grief and perhaps good intentions so that none could suffer like he and Arianna had, it wound up creating more problems than it solved.

I think TTS villains in general has more potential to them than what was given. Even Villain MoonCass has some potential if given a different script.

What are your thoughts on Disney and/or TTS villains?

See, there’s a difference between “sympathetic villain” and “cool motive, still murder villain.” I am all for the latter. Knowing a villain’s motivations doesn’t automatically make them sympathetic, but it does bring to light logic, and goes to show that unless you have a mental illness that causes you to just not care (ie, literal psychopathy) most people do what they do because they think they’re in the right. (That doesn’t justify their actions, necessarily. I’m not attempting to claim that.) It makes them human, and I respect that.

But taking an established villain who is evil for evil’s sake - Maleficent, for example - and giving them a tragic backstory and making them the hero of the story just makes me roll my eyes, especially because they went out of their way to claim that this was the “true” version of the story, and that everything we loved about the 1950s animated classic is biased and deceptive. Disney was leaning hard into “true love doesn’t have to be romantic” in that era, between “Maleficent”, “Once Upon a Time” and “Frozen”. (Not to mention, Maleficent was a frickin’ evil fairy. She literally didn’t need a motivation. She could just have easily been created when a bolt of lightning struck the shadow of a thorn bush, and because she’s a magical creature, that’s literally all the logic you need as to why she’s evil.)

When it comes to Cinderella’s stepmother (generally speaking, not Disney-specific), I was fond of how they handled it in “Ever After.” Baroness Rodmilla gives you a glimpse into her past. Her mother was hard on her, so that’s what she knows. We catch the smallest glimpse, the hint that she genuinely loved Danielle’s father, but she makes a point of masking it with cruelty. We understand her motivations are based on fear of losing her standing in society and jealousy that her new husband loved his daughter more than he loved her. (Which, come on. But it’s still a proper motivation.) This did not make her sympathetic, though, because she still chose to be cruel and abusive to Danielle.

Most of the most balls-out evil-for-evil’s-sake Disney villains are a combination of wanting power and having magic. “I want power, I have magic, let’s do this.” (I do love how Maleficent’s motivation is a petty grudge over a slight, though.) But they can even use that formula and back it off to “cool motive, still murder.” Look at Dr. Facilier. He wants power, he has magic. But his motivation is literally that life’s not fair for Black people. He’s tired of having to beg for scraps. But instead of using that motivation for the greater good to uplift the Black community of New Orleans, he’s using it to elevate himself, alone.

It seems to me that Disney is making a point of adding depth and tragedy to their villains in the live action remakes. Gaston has PTSD from the war, for example. He literally didn’t need that development. He was an asshole because he was a handsome, skilled business owner in a small town and felt entitled to anything he wanted. In the original movie, he was a warning about the kinds of things gay men have to deal with regularly. The whole story of Beauty and Beast, as Howard Ashman saw it, was facing the societal struggles and self hatred gay men in the 80s and early 90s had to face. The live action version didn’t make me care about Howard Ashman at all. I shudder to think what they have planned for Gothel. Are they going to make it, “Oh, boo hoo, many (hundreds of) years ago, I was slighted by a man because I got a wrinkle, so now my entire goal for centuries has been to stay young and beautiful while not making any meaningful connections to people for fear of being slighted again”? Ugh.

I agree that TTS’ villains had more potential than they were given, to a one. It was a case of too many cooks (or in this case, villains) spoil the broth. Because they had to make the series somewhat episodic, they also had to have villain of the week syndrome, which in turn gave them too many characters to explore and not enough time to give them each the spotlight they deserved. When we first learned about Saporia, I was so hyped, because all of a sudden there was this political factor that I hadn’t been expecting, and I was really excited to see where it would go. Then it was brought up again, once. I loved the fandom theory that Caine and Andrew would team up in jail and break out, then have an uprising. And while that came partially true, it could have been richer and fuller. Giving Demanitus and Zhan Tiri shared followers was a stroke of genius, but giving each a single story (Matthews’ just happened to be three episodes long) and never show their faces again was a let down. The story would have done better to be streamlined overall.

Recently, @auransmoltenhair made a post about how the series’ biggest folly was not knowing where it was going before they actually started writing for it. They changed too much about it on a whim instead of falling back on what they’d already established in the series. And I understand that the higher ups were demanding it be somewhat episodic so they could show reruns in whatever order they felt like (which turned out to be no order, since the didn’t tend to show reruns), but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t have known where the story was going before they started. And yeah, they already had some plot points they wanted to explore (like Eugene being a prince, that was set in stone from the beginning), but they didn’t even know exactly what direction Cassandra was going in by “Challenge of the Brave.” They didn’t know what they wanted to do with Adira, and rather than figure that out before hand, they winged it, then abandoned her as soon as S2 was done, only to bring her back as a plot device rather than a character.

Wow, I’ve rambled on for a long time. lol Sorry about that.

TL;DR - Evil for evil’s sake villains = good. Villains with an understandable motivation who chose the wrong path = good. Established villains who are remade to be sympathetic, especially if they’re also made to be the heroes of the story = bad.

[aliendes]

Natural Borns Chapter Six

Banner by @thebannershop​

A/N: ahh, ok so I feel like I hit a wall with this chapter. I’m not super proud of it, but I needed to get these backstories out of the way in order for the story to progress. The scene with YN and Jin I wrote a long time ago, and it was like finding puzzle pieces to put together to lead up to it. It’s entirely insignificant to the story, but it was a sweet scene that was part of the initial story I created. With that said.. Please let me know what you think of it. I can’t even begin to explain how uplifting and motivating your comments are. When readers leave feedback, it’s one of the driving motivators for writers to continue writing. So thank you for everyone who has been reading and continues to comment and reblog. It means a lot. 

Warnings: cursing, sad bois, tears, mentions of wounds (nothing bloody), descriptions of nudity and breeding, but not what you think.

Word count: 5.2k~

Updated 8/23/2020

“Hyunwoo and your father weren’t classmates. They worked together,” he felt like a traitor, like he was letting Namjoon down, “he’s a beneficiary of Big Hit. They’re already paying for you.”

It was almost as if the earth stopped spinning on its axis, sending you crashing, your world and it’s contents slamming into the proverbial dashboard. You mind blanked for a moment. You were still staring into Yoongi’s eyes, but you were gone, mind on a distant planet, he could tell. Your stare was blank, pupils twitching, as your life, your childhood especially, flashed before your eyes.

Was it all a lie? You asked yourself. You thought back to all the times your parents told you, you should never leave the city. Forbade you from going to college to ‘protect’ you. They told you all your life that the world was dangerous for someone like you. Someone like you. What did they really mean when they said that? You were trained to be the calm, quiet, and obedient daughter. Taught never to question your parents or authority. Taught to always be a good girl. You could feel the years worth of rebellion, of anger, bubbling up to the surface. You needed answers. 

Yoongi was watching you intently, trying to figure out your next move. He liked to think he was pretty good at reading people, but he couldn’t get a hold on you. You looked confused, for sure, but there was something else in your expression. Realization? He wasn’t sure. All he knows is that he shouldn’t be the one relaying this information to you.

“Do you want to come with me?” he asked hesitantly, “We can go ta-” 

“No,” you cut him off, “I don’t want to talk to him.” You know Yoongi is going to suggest you talk with Namjoon. It’s not that you’re mad at him. You aren’t. But you know if you don’t have time to process this, to talk with someone other than him, you won't be able to hold yourself together in front of him. The last thing you want is for any of these men to feel guilty about bringing you here. You’re thankful to them, especially now that you suspect your family really was hiding something from you.

Yoongi stared at you for another moment before taking a deep breath, “He’s going to have the answers, though, YN,” he said softly. He knows he needs to tread lightly with you. You’ve had a whirlwind of a day and he’s only piling more information on top of an already really high mountain of information. Yoongi noted how calm you were being, compared to earlier tonight when you were crying and barely able to look into his eyes. He expected you to react to the non-answer he had given you about your father, not stare at him blankly like you were now. This wasn’t a reaction, not really. He was starting to worry about you. Did he break you? He hoped not, Namjoon would kill him. “Come inside with me, please, YN. It’s cold, and you’re going to get sick.”

“Take me to Jin,” you whispered. He stared at you for only a moment before nodding his head. 

When Yoongi had brought you back up to the warehouse and into Jin’s room, the older man was already waiting for you on his bed. When you walked through the door he instantly stood up, walking towards you with an outstretched hand.

“YN,” he breathed, relieved that you were okay. You look like you’ve cried waterfalls, and your nose was bright pink from the chill of the night, but overall, you were okay. At the sight of Jin, you let out a sigh. Comfort. That’s what he was to you right now. 

You rushed towards him, prompting him to open his arms for you, as you crashed into his firm chest, short arms wrapping around his middle. Surprisingly, no more tears were shed. Seokjin’s calm breathing helped even your own out, his large hand running up and down your spine helped ground you and relax you into a sleepy stupor. After a while of standing there wrapped up in each other, he slowly walked you both backwards until the backs of his knees hit the bed and he sunk down with you in his arms. You followed his lead and sat on his lap, arms wrapped around his neck as you nuzzled into his shoulder. It was the closest you’ve ever been to him, and you felt safe, secure in his arms. 

Neither of you spoke for a long while, just existing, here, with each other. You needed some time to not think about things, to just breathe for a little bit. His hand never ceased his comforting caresses, and he never attempted to speak, not wanting to burst the fragile bubble of security you both felt with each other.

You were eventually the first one to speak. “Jin,” you mumbled sleepily into his neck. He thought you had already fallen asleep with how steady your breathing had become. 

“Hmm,” he hummed, throat vibrating against your face, “are you okay?” His voice was husky and low, like he hasn’t used it in a while. 

You sucked in a sharp breath, “No.” It was the truth. You weren’t okay. You didn’t want to lie to him, but you also weren’t sure how to elaborate. He seemed to understand the unspoken words and just held you tighter. 

“You don’t have to talk right now, but just know that I’m here for you whenever you want to, or need to.” You nodded against him, cheek rubbing on his shoulder. “Are you tired?” You tightened your arms around his neck, like you were fearful his question insinuated he was leaving you. 

“No,” you whimpered, not ready to let Jin go yet, “stay, please.”

Jin shifted underneath you, lifting you up slightly and scooting back further on his mattress until his back was against his pillows. “I’m not going anywhere, love.” He wasn’t sure how you’d react to his nickname, or if you would understand the truth behind it, but right now he didn’t care. Everything in him was yelling at him to comfort you, to take care of you. It beat out the other part of him that was yelling at him to care for your wounds and to make sure they were healing properly. He pushed those thoughts aside to heal your heart instead. He leaned back further into the pillows, never loosening his hold on you, and reached down to pull the covers over the both of you. “Go to sleep,” he whispered into your hair, “I promise I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

You nod into his neck again, already drifting off into unconsciousness. Jin keeps his promise, and stays with you all night, despite the knot that’s developing in his neck. 

Your head hurts. Your eyes burn. Your back is stiff. What happened last night? As you go to stretch, you realize your limbs are tangled with someone else and yesterday comes crashing back to you.

Seokjin. Yoongi. Your parents. 

You open your eyes carefully, ignoring the sharp pain behind them from all the crying you did last night. The first thing your eyes focus on is Jin’s beautiful face, only inches from your own. He looks so peaceful, eyes closed, mouth closed, breathing steadily through his nose. You internally wish you could look as pretty as he does when you sleep. Carefully, you reach a hand up to his face, gently brushing back some of his dark hair that has fallen in front of his eyes. He looks like he could use a hair cut soon, but it suits him. At the gentle brush of your fingers on his face, his eyes flutter open, making you pull back quickly in embarrassment. 

The soft smile that spreads across Jin’s face makes your cheeks heat, “Good morning beautiful,” he whispers. 

“Morning,” you whisper back, trying to muster up a smile for him, “thank you. For staying.”

His smile widens at your words, “Of course.”

You sit up slightly, moving to get off Jin’s lap, but his grip on you tightens. For a moment you’re confused, but then he sits up and gently moves you off his lap and places you on the bed next to him. “Let me take a look at your bandages and then I’ll go make breakfast, I’m sure you’re hungry.” You couldn’t deny that he was right, not having eaten since yesterday morning and exhausting most of your energy crying, but you still felt bad when he did all this stuff for you and you had nothing to give in return. You were about to protest, lips parting to speak, but Jin beat you to it, “I’m not taking no for an answer, love. I need to make sure you’re healing okay. We can’t afford for you to get sick.” He phrased it in a way that made it seem like he was doing it for the good of the group, even though the real reason was his own worry and care for you. You simply nodded in response as he got up and started moving around his room, gathering up supplies he would need. You watched on in curiosity as Jin grabbed different types of ointments and creams and brought them back over to the mattress and laid them out in front of you.

He was gentle, as always, when he looked at your hands and feet, wrapping them with the utmost care, so as to not hurt you in any way. Instead of zoning out like you have in the past, you watched him intently. The questions were there on the tip of your tongue, but you were too hesitant to ask. Jin seemed to notice your gaze on his face and smiled up at you.

“Something on your mind?” 

Heat rushes to your cheeks at the fact you were caught staring, but you hold his gaze. “H-how did you end up together?” You’ve been curious since you arrived here. How did seven men come together to make this peculiar family and what fate had they met that brought them together in the first place? Jin’s smile wavered slightly, but remained on his face as he answered your question.

“I’m the oldest out of all of us,” he continues wrapping your ankle and foot as he speaks, “I was at Big Hit first, and the longest. They took me from my family when I was fourteen.”

“You were taken?” No nods solemnly, focused on your foot.

“They started to pay for them after me, realizing it was probably an easier way to get what they wanted. They took me from the boarding school I was living at. My parents are wealthy, and they wouldn’t have easily let me go,” he purses his lips, “at least I don’t think they would have. Although I really don’t know. I haven’t seen them since the summer before I was taken.”

Your heart breaks at his story. Unlike most of the rest of the group, Jin had a loving and caring family, who would most likely have fought for him, rather than giving him away. He counts himself lucky to have had such a great childhood and education up until he was removed from it. 

“I was there for six years,” you felt your heart crack again, “about a year after I arrived, they ‘acquired’ a ten year old boy who never knew his parents. He was the second born to a family who couldn’t afford to pay the high fines of having more than one child. They gave him away to a company who later sold him to Big Hit after his DNA turned out to not be exactly what they were looking for.”

You had an inkling, but decided to ask anyways, “Jungkook?” Your voice was barely a whisper, it was all you could muster right now. 

Jin nodded again and moved on to your other foot, putting ointment on the sole and then gently massaged the top of it. You wonder where he learned his compassion if he was treated so horribly all his life. “They didn’t have much use for him, as a lot of his DNA wasn’t perfected. He’s always felt a weird sense of defeat because of it, like his family gave him up for no reason, even though we know they had no choice. They ‘gave’ him to me at the direction of a psychologist who said I was depressed and needed to be socialized. I took care of him, raised him. He had never been to school, couldn’t read or write, never even had a friend before. He barely knew how to speak.” Jin’s eyes were glazed over as he spoke about his best friend. That completely explains Jungkook’s shy and timid demeanor and childlike behaviors. “Anyways, Big Hit basically kicked me out when I was twenty, after they had taken what they wanted from me. Me and Jungkook roamed around Seoul for a few months, staying at homeless shelters, until we met Namjoon and Yoongi.” Jin let out a sigh, eyes closing for a moment before getting back to work on your bandages. 

“You raised him well, Jin,” his eyes lit up at the praise, “from what I’ve seen he’s a wonderful young man. I’m so sorry for what you both went through”

“Thank you, YN,” he whispers as he sets your foot down gingerly and moves to take your hand in his, “I tried, and continue to try, my best to make sure he’s kind and caring. I just want him to be happy.”

You give Jin a genuine smile at the soft nature of this man. “He’s lucky to have you.”

Jin scoffs lightly at this, waving his free hand in your direction. “Ah, I’m lucky to have him. And the others. I don’t know what I would do without them,” he trails off fondly, finishing wrapping your hand and moving on to the other one. You both remain silent while he finishes his bandaging, thinking over his earlier words. 

“C-can I see your ribs?” You nod, laying back on the bed carefully and lifting your shirt up to your bra. Jin winces at the sight of your purple and green splotched ribcage. “It looks worse than it is, I promise,” he places a gentle palm on your side, stroking softly, “does it hurt?”

“Not really. It’s a little sore,” you sigh, “but what part of me isn’t.”

Jin smiles sadly at you, “I’m really glad you’re here, YN,” he whispers, hand still on your side. 

“Me too.”

After you and Jin cooked breakfast for everyone, despite his protests that you stay in bed and rest, everyone sat around Yoongi’s room, picking at their plates. Jungkook told you that they didn’t really have a table to eat at, but all liked to be together for meals, something Jin always insisted on. 

You, Jin, and Jungkook were squished together on the black leather couch, Yoongi was in his usual spot at his desk, and Namjoon and Hoseok were leaning against the wall immersed in their own conversation while the rest of you ate your food. The tension was thick in the air, and you wanted nothing more than to escape it, but you knew you couldn’t. You had so many questions, but you didn’t know if you should ask or stay quiet. You were a shy person at your core, never one to stir the pot, always wanting to stay in the background. But something inside you was pushing you to change that, pushing you to stand up for yourself for once in your life. 

“Namjoon.”

Everyone in the room turned and looked at you, stopping everything they were doing. It was the first any of them, besides Jin, heard from you today. A brief glance at Yoongi told the man all he needed to know about what you were about to say, and he braced himself for the fallout. Namjoon took a couple steps forward, eyes on you, looking concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“I- I um, want to talk to you.” Your voice was softer than you had hoped, but you were still feeling nervous despite your mental pep talk earlier.

Namjoon didn’t have to say anything, Jungkook, Jin, and Hoseok got up and headed towards the door, leaving the rest of you behind. Namjoon looked to Yoongi but before he could say anything, you jumped in, “He can stay.”

Namjoon looks confused, but nods anyway. Yoongi bites his lip and looks around nervously when Namjoon glances at him, only confusing him further. As the purple haired man approaches you, he drags a chair with him and sets it a few feet in front of you, plopping down on it backwards and resting his arms on the back of it. “Is everything okay?”

You look at him nervously for a moment before Yoongi takes it upon himself, “She knows, Joon. Just tell her.”

Namjoon swivels in his chair, sending a pointed look at a now flushed Yoongi, before sighing at turning back towards you. “What do you know?”

You hesitate, looking at Yoongi who gives you a curt nod. “That my dad worked with Hyunwoo, or works, I’m not sure.”

“It’s true. He worked at Big Hit with Hyunwoo, but he doesn’t anymore. Though, he is still a beneficiary of the company, meaning he still gets paid by them.”

The gears were turning in your head, trying to piece together this elaborate puzzle. Does this mean that your parents have money, and have been lying about being poor this entire time?

“He worked there for a few years before your mother got pregnant with you. When you were born, all I know is that he left the company and was given a lump sum of money to move out of Seoul with you and Big Hit has been paying him ever since.”

“How do you know all this?” 

Namjoon gestures behind him where Yoongi is sitting, “We have connections in some big companies, and anything that falls through the cracks, Yoongi can usually figure out on his own. There’s a whole network of people, natural borns and otherwise, who have been working together for years to try and bring down these corporations from the inside. People who believe this is wrong and that natural borns deserve equality. It’s how we get communication from Jimin and Taehyung. There’s a mole in the company.”

Your mouth is slightly parted, eyes trained on Namjoon’s. “Do you know why they pay my father still?”

Namjoon runs a hand through his faded purple locks, “We don’t. All we have been able to find out is that they’ve been paying him monthly stipends since two months after you were born. Recently, those stipends have increased significantly.” Your blood runs cold at his words. Namjoon can see the color leaving your face at the realization that Hyunwoo’s visits weren’t merely a coincidence. “My theory is that they were getting ready to make a deal.”

A lump in your throat is forming and you audibly gulp to try and force it down. “What kind of deal?” You weren’t sure if you wanted to know the answer, but before you could change your mind, Namjoon was giving it to you.

“For you. I believe that Big Hit has been paying your father to keep you safe from other companies all these years until you matured enough for them to take you. I don’t think they wanted you just for your DNA, like us…” he trails off, not sure if he really wants to tell you the rest.

You wince as the unspoken insinuation. Jin told you that female natural borns with perfect markers were incredibly rare. You needed to hear it from him though, needed to know that this was meant to be your fate. “What did they want me for?” Your eyes drop to the uneaten plate of food on the couch next to you. You hadn’t realized you were crying until a tear slipped from your face and onto your folded hands in your lap.

 “We think they want to breed you,” this time it was Yoongi who spoke, making your head snap up towards him. His words were harsh, but you needed to hear them. It was the only way to make you realize your parents weren’t safe. Your home wasn’t safe. “We’re pretty sure that’s why they came for you now. They have Taehyung.” Hearing the words made you sick to your stomach, face twisting in disgust as both Yoongi and Namjoon moved to get closer to you, their instinct to protect you stronger than ever. Both men sat on either side of you on the couch, Namjoon rubbing a large hand up and down your back, while Yoongi kept his hands to himself, unsure what to do to offer you comfort. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, hell, none of us want it to be true, but it makes sense. They just got Taehyung back a few weeks ago, and he has the closest to ‘perfect’ DNA out of all of us, just like you. It’s wrong, and vile, and disgusting,” Yoongi stops for a moment to reel in his anger at the company, taking a deep breath, “and that’s why we can’t let this happen.”

“We won't let this happen, YN,” Namjoon whispers, “I promise.”

You sniffle slightly, looking up at Namjoon whose eyes soften at your misty ones. You felt a strong urge to curl up into a ball and cry your eyes out, but an even stronger urge was pushing its way to the top. A sense of protection. A sense of longing. You needed to save Taehyung, and Jimin, from a fate they don’t deserve. Namjoon and the others helped save you, it’s the least you could do to save the others from a similar fate.

“I want to help.”

Yoongi and Namjoon share a look with each other. “We’re doing everything we can, but right now you should focus on getting some rest and healing. When we’re ready to move, you’ll be the first to know.” Yoongi nods at Namjoon’s words, making you bite your lip.

“Okay,” you whisper.

After your discussion with Namjoon and Yoongi, you decided it was in your best interest, and Jin’s if you continued to sleep in his bed, to take a shower and get a change of clothes. After asking Jungkook for some spare clothes, of which he provided you with some of Jimin’s because they were smaller, you headed towards the showers.

You let the hot water run down your face, hot enough to make the skin red. As the water cascades down your neck it beads up at your chest and rolls off the peaks of your nipples, hardened by the cold, open space of the showers. There were no shower curtains. It looks a lot like those old school gyms you see on TV, just much smaller, with shower stalls lining one side of the tiled room, a long bench in the middle, and lockers on the opposite wall. So when Seokjin walked in, thinking it was Namjoon or even Jungkook in the shower, he was shocked to see your bare back turned towards him, both of your hands running through your wet hair.

He was ashamed of the twitch he felt in his pants, knowing he shouldn’t be looking at you that way. He’s only known you a couple of days, knows that you’re dealing with a lot. He knows that he should turn around and leave, but something stops him in his tracks.

He hears soft sniffles coming from you, muffled by the running water, but still there. He watches carefully as you bring both hands up to your eyes and push the palms of your battered hands into your eyeballs to relieve the pressure. He’s sure you’ve cried your body weight in tears the last few days and his heart breaks at the visual. 

Thinking better of just walking up to you, he takes a few quiet steps backwards until he’s behind the doorway, and knocks a few times against the metal lockers. “YN?”

You startle at the metallic sound ringing in your ears, quickly wiping the tears you let fall and protecting your modesty by folding your arms in front of your chest. “Yeah?” you call, keeping your back turned to the voice. The shower walls come up to your waist, and the entrance to the locker room is far enough away from you that no one would be able to see lower. 

“It’s Jin,” you hear him just barely over the sound of the shower, “do you mind if I come in? I wont look, promise.”

You hesitate for a second before deciding you wouldn’t mind if he came in. The two of you have been getting closer, especially after last night, and he has seen most of your body already from caring for and wrapping your wounds. “Come in,” you say, voice raised slightly. You turn towards the doorway, arms still folded over your chest. You aren’t the most confident person in the world, but you aren’t completely uncomfortable with nakedness and the human body. Everyone has one and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. 

As Jin rounds the corner, he stops, wide eyed that you turned around, and instantly covers his eyes, looking straight down at his shoes. “Sorry, sorry!” He utters, turning to hide his reddened cheeks. You let out a silent chuckle at the color his ears are turning. 

“Jin,” you start, making him raise an eyebrow and hum in affirmation, “it’s okay, Jin. I don’t mind. It’s not like you haven’t seen it before.” Slowly, he nods, removing his hand from his face. He still looks unsure, but his red coloring is starting to subside.

“I uh-” he runs a hand through his hair, looking anywhere but your chest, “s-sorry, I heard you and I was worried, I’m sorry I thought it was Namjoon or Kookie in here.” His words are rushed, clearly embarrassed. He purses his lips into a thin line and gulps. “Sorry.”

“Stop apologizing, I don’t mind, Jin,” you began, “really.” To prove your point, you unfold your arms and stare directly into the tall man’s eyes. 

Jin thinks his heart just dropped out of his chest and bounced away on the floor in front of him. At first he isn’t sure where he should look, trying his hardest to stare at your face. You look calm, not completely with the way your eyes are still slightly swollen from crying, but you don’t look embarrassed, like he does, that he’s standing in front of you, so he makes his decision. Hesitantly, he steps forward, watching you closely for any sign of being uncomfortable. Jin cares about you so much, and would never put you in a position you didn’t want to be in. As he approached you, you gave him a small smile, letting him know it was okay. 

You rest one of your hands on the half wall in front of you, letting the hot water roll down your back. You really did feel completely comfortable with Jin. You weren’t sure why. Maybe it’s because he’s taken care of you so well the last few days, or maybe it’s because of something deeper, you weren’t sure. What you did know is that as he approached you, you felt safe. Completely safe. Maybe it’s the trauma you’ve been through, both physically and mentally, over the last couple of days, but you craved his comforting touch, the physical closeness he had no problem with providing you. Even in your naked state, you wanted him close. 

You reached your hand out to Jin, eyes conveying all the words you couldn’t say. He understood, and you felt like that was all the more reason to trust this man. Slowly, he grabbed the hem of his t-shirt before pulling it up over his head and took your hand. He smiled gently at you, before letting go to pull off his black jeans and boxer briefs. You didn’t look, respectful of his boundaries, and he of yours as he walked closer and closer until he was standing beside you. Even though you were both nude, you didn’t stare or ogle one another. You stood there, a few inches apart, staring into each other’s eyes, until you reached out, grabbing Jin’s hand and tugging him forward as you backed up into the water.

You inhaled deeply at the feeling of the warmth, feeling your muscles relax even further with Jin’s calming presence beside you. He took another chance and took two steps forward to close the gap between you, and pulled you into an embrace. Your wet breasts were soft against his toned abdomen as you melted into one another. You snake your arms around his middle, hugging tightly to him and rest your cheek on his now wet chest. His arms wrap around your shoulders, one of his large hands rubbing up and down your back, pushing you backwards slightly so the both of you are further under the heat of the shower. 

Seokjin’s hands run over your spine, shoulders, and sides lovingly. You cling onto him like a lifeline, holding you through whatever troubles you had. It was calming, like Seokjin always is. You have never showered with another person before, not that you were doing much showering, but it was incredibly intimate, here with him. You were both so vulnerable, yet completely comfortable with one another. Hesitantly, you look up only to find him already staring down at you lovingly. Slowly, like he doesn’t want to scare you away, he leans down and places a long, sweet kiss on your wet forehead. His lips linger there longer than needed, before he pulls away and rests his chin on the top of your head. You try to ignore the plethora of butterflies swimming in your stomach at his display of affection, but it’s too hard and a soft smile spreads across your lips. 

You both stayed like that, unmoving for a long while, neither of you daring to speak and burst the fragile bubble you were living in. Whatever this was, it wasn’t awkward or uncomfortable. In fact, it was the most comforted you think you’ve ever felt, even before, in your old life. Old life, you scoff internally, was it ever really my life? So many decisions were made for you, you didn’t even know who the real you was. Maybe now you have a chance at figuring that out. What you did know, in this moment, is that Jin cares for you, and he was expressing a love that you’ve never felt from another person before. That thought both excited and scared you. Excitement for what was to come, the bonds you were about to build and the love you were about to share with these men. Fear for the unknown. Fear for the known. Fear of the what ifs. A lot of fear. But you knew, with Jin - here in his strong arms, and with the rest of the boys, everything would be okay. 

To be continued...

A/N: thanks for making it to the end! i’m not super proud of this chapter, but the shower scene with Jin is something I wrote a long time ago and wanted to include it in some way. you also get Jin and Jungkook’s (kind of) back story, and a little bit more of YNs. please let me know what you think!

taglist:  @minifruity​  @mrcleanheichou @arantxaglz​ @chim-possible​ @kooksremedy @irishhbamb​ @sugashaye​ @lovelyseomin​ @strawberrygatorade sorry if I missed anyone, please let me know if you want to be tagged! make sure you’re following and send an ask! 

copyright aliendes 2020

[bard-llama]

Are there any headcannons of a character you've tried to subtly sneak into your writing (eg. having them think of a memory in a certain situation, answering a certain way in a conversation)?

Ohohoho, what a wonderful question! There are definitely a few that I try to sneak in here and there! In fact, I know there are several, but for some reason, I can only think of one right now? But it’s one that appears across my fics, so hey!

It is, however, a pretty major spoiler, especially for Don’t Cry for Me, Temeria, so I’ll stick it under a cut just in case. But I’ve mentioned it before, so some of you might already know!

All right, so I loooooove adding in hints to Thirteen’s parentage. There’s actually a whole backstory that I’ve referenced a bit in the Thirteen-centric fic(s?), but that was created jointly with someone else, so I’ll have to think of what I can use of it/how to change it. But the significant thing is that Thirteen’s mother is an elf. I think he doesn’t know who his father is, but it was probably a soldier and was most likely not consensual. He grew up in an elven community, but he was a semi-outcast, especially from specific aspects of elven culture, such as learning Elder. And of course, they’d have no reason teach Common, even if they let him take lessons at all, which is why Thirteen is illiterate.

There’s some cool stuff planned in DCfMT where Thirteen gets to reclaim his heritage a little bit and, for reasons I will not spoil, ends up learning Elder and is given a name. Which is a big deal, because his mother named him something in Elder, but he doesn’t know what, because no one taught him. There’s a reason he decided on Thirteen as his name and it is his and he chose it and he likes it. But there’s something special about someone else giving you a name, and it’s a very emotional moment when it happens.

That stuff hasn’t been referenced, because it hasn’t happened yet, but one part of his backstory that I’ve only referenced obliquely (I think?) is exactly how Thirteen joins the army. Because their elven community gets discovered by Temerian soldiers and when they spot a ‘human’ child amongst the elves, they assume that he was kidnapped. And they make him help them, to prove it. Specifically, they give him a knife and shove him at his mother. So he’s shaking and horrified and scared, and his mother looks at him with sad eyes and says something in Elder - a language he does not understand - then helps guide his hands to cut her throat. Thirteen is eternally haunted by her blood on his hands and no matter how much he scrubs, it never comes off.

Which is why it makes such a difference when Roche gives him a pair of gloves. This scene is in Unlucky Number Thirteen, but basically, being able to cover his hands gives him a coping mechanism that lets him function beyond the immediate trauma response. And it’s part of why Thirteen follows Roche. because sure, it wasn’t intentional, but it was kind and there’s been very little kindness in Thirteen’s life.

So to answer the question - I try to subtly sneak in references to Thirteen’s heritage and his past trauma, but also the fact that the Stripes know about it. Well, not about the trauma, ‘cause he’s never told a soul, but they know that Thirteen is a half-elf. And some of them took that news better than others, but they all mostly... don’t think about it. Because he’s Temerian first... right?

[guidedbynors]

Quest RPG Adventure: The Realer of Two Worlds

Premis/Setting

The Realer of Two Worlds Takes place in any mine within your own campaign. It can take place as part of a small town, city, or even Kingdom that is built near a mine as its main source of income and work. It can also be a great starting point for a campaign as long as all the Questers agree to be connected to the mine in some way and have stakes in its continued existence and the profits it provides.

Feel free to name the town and mine anything that fits into your campaign, but for this short module, we’ll call it Phos Mine, named for the Phos Crystals that grow within its depths.

Opening Scene

Start your Questers in the local tavern near the mine, called The Purple Swill. It’s the local watering hole for all the miners, where they all swap tales of cave-ins, things within the deeper shafts that go bump in the night, and other tall tales. For a mine, Phos Mine is a pretty safe job other than the fact that the Phos Crystals project a person’s fears, desires, or needs as phantasms for all to see if touched with bare skin.

As the Questers drink the Purple Swill brew that the tavern is named after, the door to the tavern creaks open and a little girl, no more than 10 years old stands in the doorway. She is dirty and disheveled and looks ill-cared for. She shuffles up to the bar and asks for something to eat, but has no Phos Crystal dust to pay for it. The bartender is a gruff and uncompromising half-ogre who has little empathy or sympathy (if any). He launches into a talk about how nothing in life is free and at some point everyone has to make their way in life as the little girl begins to sob. The half-ogre doesn’t understand humans well and will think the little girl is laughing, as he often forgets that tears are typically a sign of sadness. If someone reminds him of this he’ll launch into another talk about how ogres, and especially half-ogre sweat profusely when they are sad, and he’s never cried in his life because the ogre in him means he has no tear ducts. For all intents and purposes, his name is Chuk.

When the little girl begins to let out a long wailing, Chuk will offer anyone a night's worth of Swill if they get the little human out of the tavern and stop it from making that noise.

(Optional: If you want to toss in some added tension to the quest, introduce an NPC band of adventurers who want that night of free Swill for themselves. When Chuk offers it up, they will try to stake claim to the child and get her out of the tavern, though not to help her. If your Questers are trying to help her, they may run into some competition with this other adventuring party.)

Eemknot Seeintings

The little girl is Eemknot Seeintings, and her father is a well-known miner named Eeam Seeintings. One or more of your Questers might know him. Eeam is well-liked, but some months ago his wife, Eemknot’s mother passed away.

As Questers question Eemknot the little girl will tell them that 10 days ago her father went to work in the mine and never came home. She’s eaten all the food in the house and has only now left because she’s gone hungry for the last day or so.

If/when pressed for details about her father, Eemknot will tell Questers he has been very sad since Mom died. If asked if she’s seen him do anything strange or if has been acting differently, she won’t name anything specific until she gets some food. Once she has something to eat her mind can get off food and she’ll begin to remember bits of information about her father. First, Eemknot divulges that she has seen and overheard her father speaking to himself while at home. When asked further she’ll tell Questers about the purple dust he puts on his food. Phos dust is purple, and the Questers would know this. Lastly, Eemknot will remember that when her father left for work ten days ago, he took a large backpack with him,

Manager Gorbuck

The Phos Mine has many shafts and adjacent tunnels that end in dead ends. Workers are there 24 hours a day, so no matter what time Questers go to the mine there will be a manager in the small office at the entrance.

Manager Gorbuck is a hardy woman of callused hands, grubby cheeks, and a can-do attitude. She spent years down in the Phos Mine until she lost her left eye in a bizarre bowling accident at the local bowling alley. She now is a pencil pusher and time-card tracker at the mine. Despite this, she keeps an eye on pretty much everything going on around the mine, even if she doesn’t know what’s going on below the surface.

When Questers come to speak with her about Eeam, she’ll nod as though she already knows what they’re talking about. She’ll tell them the same thing Eemknot told them. That Eeam went into the mine ten days ago with a big backpack. Reports from other miners are that Eeam went down into the deepest tunnels where there aren’t any lights set up. Gorbuck will just tell the Questers that Eeam is down in one of the deep shafts by himself in the dark, and nobody has been able to get him to come out.

The Phos Mine

The Phos Mine is a busy place with rail cars and workers. If your Questers are miners, they’ll know how to get to the deep shafts, but they may want to stop along the way to ask workers if they’ve seen Eeam and to learn about why he’s in the deep shafts.

The Phos Mine looks like any other mine until Questers come to places that are actively being excavated. In the most active places, Phos Crystals as small as a thumbnail and as large as a head are being dug out of the ground. Every worker wears long sleeves and gloves to protect themselves from the phantasms that will spring from their minds if they touch a Phos Crystal with their bare skin.

If Questers touch a Phos Crystal to their bare skin, it is up to you how you want to handle the event. You can ask the player to describe what phantasm appears or, if you know the character's backstory well, you can use the event to drive some character-centered narrative.

Finding Eeam

Eeam is a chamber which the deepest shaft of the mine opens onto. There are no rail cars that take Questers down the low, and so they’ll have to walk, eventually. They’ll also need to take some form of light with them, whether by magical means or a torch.

Questers will hear Eeam sooner than they see him. His voice echoes in the large chamber he is in and floats up the deep shaft as Questers approach. It sounds as though he’s having a conversation, but as so often happens with echoes it’s difficult for Questers to know what he’s saying until they enter the chamber.

As their light floods the large cave-like chamber they will take in the following:

The chamber is wide and roughly curricular, perhaps 100 feet, give-or-take, in any direction from wall to wall. It has a tall ceiling as well. Near one side of the chamber is a small underground stream. Presumably, this is how Eeam has stayed alive without dying of thirst.

More startling, and perhaps what should be focused on, however, is the scene near the stream. Eeam is bustling around a kitchen that seems completely out of place in the chamber. At a small table is his daughter Eemknot and a woman that could only be his wife, and Eemknot’s mother, Daunt. Eeam is talking to his family, but when the family responds they their mouths move but no sound comes out. However, Eeam seems to understand them. What’s most startling is that wherever Eeam walks, a scene appears for all to see, and the scene behind him fades. It’s as though anywhere he goes a phantasm of his desire is manifested before him, creating a replica of the life he lived before his wife died.

The Solution

In my experience, the best Quest sessions are ones in which questions are posed to players without a clear idea of how they will achieve their goal. In this case, the goal will likely be to get Eeam to see the phantasms for what they are and return to his daughter. While he has chosen to live in a dream world, he will acknowledge Questers and try to make them feel at home as though they are visitors to his house.

There are a few options I can imagine Questers taking. First, they can try to discover the Phos dust Eeam uses on his food, and take it away from him. Second, they can just kidnap him and pull him out of the mine by force. Lastly, they can try to reason with him through clever roleplay and abilities. There are some skills that let Questers dissolve illusions. It’s up to you, the Guide, to decide if this will work on the phantasms. Since they are springing from Eeam himself, there could be a case made that magic won’t work on the phantasms themselves, but only on the person.

Note that if they try to force Eeam to leave his dream world made of self provoked phantasms, the trauma may drive him mad. Instead, it may take something more subtle in order for him to leave--perhaps even bringing the real Eemknot down into the chamber, in order to make Eeam see what he has done to his real daughter.

If Questers are unable to convince Eeam to return to the real world, they may have to find someone to take Eemknot in or adopt her themselves.

[kim-lexie]

start-up

unfortunately all good dramas must come to an end, and this drama was truly a dream. i fell in love with the characters and the premise of this one, and i am saddened to say goodbye to this cast of characters. 

i have also posted the nonsense that is a week-by-week to enjoy here if you wish. anyways, here we go...a drama review!

plot synopsis. 

‘start up’ follows the story of a group of 20-somethings as they journey to curate their own start up business. it specifically emphasizes the story of dalmi, her past and the letters she shared with jipyeong. jipyeong, an orphan that dalmi’s grandmother, mrs. choi took under her wing. jipyeong wrote dalmi letters that truly allowed her to overcome a tough time. years after these letters, dalmi is determined to find her ‘dosan’ the name that jipyeong and mrs. choi used to sign the letters. to protect their secret they find the real dosan to meet dalmi to portray a successful start up business man. and that is where our story begins to become tangled. and one knows how a good tangled story ensues as per the k-drama fashion...

my thoughts. *spoiler alert* 

dalmi, this girl is a queen. i love her determination and drive to get what she wants. i wish she wouldn’t cut herself short, but by the end you can see the growth that is undeniable. we love character development! i love how impacted she was by her dad, and that she never questioned her choice to stay in korea with her father. i loved their family’s relationship, it was precious and mutually supporting one another was an environment that allowed dalmi to believe in all the dreams she held in her heart. mrs. choi truly raised her to be confident in herself no matter her circumstances. 

jipyeong (to be referenced as hjp as well) my man. this man stole my heart. his backstory with mrs. choi was beautiful and i think he had the most character development in this drama. from how he acted at the start, to when they reconnected later, mrs. choi extended grace and never wavered in her love and support for jipyeong. it was endearing and heart breaking, because hjp had never experienced that from a family of his own until he was accepted by mrs. choi. i think this grace and mutual understanding was especially prominent when dosan and dalmi greeted mrs. choi at her new shop in one of the last episodes, after dosan had returned from america. as soon as she greeted them she knew that her jipyeong would be lonely and went straight for him to comfort him and support him in his grief. his character was honest, and unwavering once he found his goal. honestly, in everything else in the drama he faced he was determined and goal oriented however, when it came to dalmi he always second guessed himself. he was always so sure of his business but when it came to the close relationships around him he always questioned his worth. this would be his tragic downfall. but this is where we find a new jipyeong at the end of the drama and we appreciate character development. *insert slow clap for our hjp* 

dosan this man, honestly nam joohyuk was the reason i was initially interested in this drama. i love him and i was surprised when i found that he was not my favorite character. dosan was always unsure of himself and those around him, he immediately latched on to dalmi when he found her because of that confidence she radiated (can’t blame him because eventually he found that in himself). i wish he had been honest with her. so i know it is typically k-drama fashion to start a relationship based on a lie, still i am never happy when it happens in my drama. seriously by the end of this drama i was totally team hjp and i seriously cannot help but think back to the fact that if hjp had been honest at the beginning he may have ended up with dalmi. like come on. my heart is too fragile for this nonsense. i do appreciate that dosan, right after reading her letters ran straight after her without wavering. but if he loved her authenticity from the letters, why did he not give her the same benefit by being up front with her? 

the samsan tech crew. i loved this trio. they were ICONIC. chulsan a precious bean and i loved the relationship we got to see between chulsan and saha. i loved how their relationship developed and she totally fell head over heels for this man with his coding and caring self. because i clearly did not get the happy ending i wanted for dalmi and hjp, at least this ship went off sailing. i also came to love yongsan’s character, he seemed fishy at first when they went to sandbox however it quickly came to light why it was so. i loved that through all of this there was character development and accepting the things that you can’t change and wanted to change the things you had control over. 

sandbox, a place where dreams came to be birthed and reach their unlimited potential. i loved that it all started with sun-hak the ceo of sandbox who was inspired by dalmi’s father’s story about wanting to protect his daughter when she was learning to swing, and he put sand down so she wouldn’t be afraid of falling. it was so perfect, and that is exactly what sandbox became for them, a place for these small companies to get their footing to grow. i love the relationship that sunhak had with jipyeong and how they supported these young businesses. 

this makes an interesting juxtaposition for injae’s company, (injae is dalmi’s sister) to come in next to. nature morning is run by injae’s step-father, a man who abuses start ups and exploits young talent for profit. this sets the stage for injae to want to be set free and create her own business, because as long as she is under his family name she truly cannot make a name for herself. as she leaves she is overcomes multiple difficulties that her father’s company places in front of her, but the queen that she is takes them in stride and in the end becomes the company to beat. 

it was interesting to see how everyone came to be at sandbox. everyone with something to prove. and how once they were at sandbox all these crazy moments led them to their ultimate goal. their journey was not conventional but it made them stronger to overcome those moments when their company was split (frick you alex), and they had to come back together. 

to take a moment that three year time gap was something. i loved that dalmi grew and became more confident as her role as a ceo to get the job done. sisters were working together and growing their companies. i also held out so much hope because jipyeong was starting to get his act together and was becoming confident in himself and his intentions towards dalmi. even going over to their house playing go-stop and making banchan with the family, tears because he never had this in his life. but you know dosan was going to show up right at that moment he was going to say something...anyways, i love that dosan kept his promise and worked on not only the app for mrs. choi but the car because of the dream they birthed before the boys left for the states. and i knew the moment our dalmi walked hours in the woods to get to dosan that it was over for my ship and it twas going to sink. 

the app! oh my goodness. i love that this was their first idea for the company to help those who are unable to see. and i love that dosan was inspired by mrs. choi after overhearing her diagnosis. it was so sad to see how her vision declined throughout the show. but i am happy to see that their app was able to help her through this difficult journey. 

the smart car was such a moment. a dream they had in the top of the rooftop office led to a company that was bigger than any of them. truly incredible. literally so proud of our boys for their work and dedication to their dream to better the world. loved it. 

i seriously appreciated the ending of the drama and how they recapped all the moments they couldn’t fit into the few moments we had left. the living through photos we saw how they all kept their promises to each other. from dosan proposing to dalmi, chulsan and saha announcing their relationship, and even chulsan shaving his head. it was precious to see them all on this journey. i loved how we had them all going to the share holders meeting and injae and jipyeong walking in stride with them! also appreciate a full circle moment for hjp, when he sponsors a new start up connecting orphans with sponsors to help them in the difficult transition where hjp found himself with mrs. choi. (side note: i love the hint that the man who founded the start up had the same voice as young-sil, the smart device that grew on hjp throughout the drama.) (also, totally stand behind that one tweet i saw that said that the writers totally missed a major power couple moment for injae and jipyeong. because my dude and queen deserve to be happy to the fullest.)

i hope everyone enjoyed this drama as much as i did because it is definitely up there on my list of favorites from this year. i would rate it a 9.5 out of 10. 

the ost. 

‘future’ by non other than red velvet slays. i have this not only on my k-drama playlist but my monthly playlist. this is a bop. it is incredible, and they out did themselves with this one. 

‘running’ by gaho. that montage song that had all the moments they worked so hard in fast forward. ahhhh 

‘my dear love’ by suzy. her voice so angelic. and we thank our busy queen for making time to sing for the ost as well as star in the drama. 

‘blue bird’ by ailee. and ‘dream’ by jamie. ballad favorites. 

[oldadastra]

Letter to Lucasfilm

So, I’ve written a letter to Lucasfilm. It could be better, but this is what came out this afternoon. I hope others who are writing will share what they are putting into the mail. I was trying to be concise, but it still ran to several pages. Find it in its entirety below the cut:

***

Lucasfilm, Ltd. Attn: Fan Mail PO Box 29901 San Francisco, CA 94129-0901

December 30, 2019

Lucasfilm/Disney:

I am writing to express my anger, shock, disappointment and deep sadness with the final installment of the Star Wars saga, Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker.

I was ten in 1977 when the original film was released and have loved Star Wars ever since. I was thrilled by the reopening of the saga in The Force Awakens, and delighted by the excellent script, rich visual storytelling, nuanced character development, and thematic direction of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi.

Disney took on a sacred trust when it acquired Lucasfilm. Star Wars is deeply important to many people, and if you couldn’t do justice to the characters and themes of the saga, I’d argue that you had no business being involved in these stories. There is so much Disney/Lucasfilm got wrong in Rise of Skywalker, I’m struggling to gather my thoughts or express them coherently, but here goes:

Ben Solo. You created the most compelling character in the new trilogy by destroying the happy ending of the original trilogy. I was willing to go along on the ride Abrams and Kasdan began in The Force Awakens, because the fate of Ben Solo felt like it mattered. The questions raised in the new films: the nature of good and evil, the degree to which one’s family legacy defines a person, whether a one can atone for past sins; all of it felt alive and urgent in the person of Ben, a character I loved like one of my own children from the moment we so traumatically met him in The Force Awakens. His story was the beating heart of the new trilogy. His story is the one that mattered. His life was the one to be saved.

Ben solo was never an exposition device, cool villain, or disposable baddie to me. He was Han and Leia’s only child; loved, targeted, broken, lost.

The Rise of Skywalker redeems Ben Solo in the final act of the film, only to destroy him. Was it always your plan to kill the last Skywalker in the final installment of this story, to render the overarching message of all nine films as tragedy? If so, I wish I’d known this was your intent; I would never have engaged with these stories and made an emotional investment in them. If tragedy was your goal, that was certainly your choice to make, but I’d argue that you owed it to the audience and the cast to do a better job of it.

For example: You give us evidence that Han and Leia’s child was targeted by evil old men from before his birth. It’s a disturbingly explicit allegory of grooming and child abuse.

You give Ben Solo a backstory which implies he is guilty of vile, Anakin-style crimes against other young people, coding him as a school shooter, and then chose to exonerate him of this crime in a comic book, where the general audience will never know he was innocent. It’s a form of character assassination.

You consigned Ben Solo to the darkness for almost the entirety of three films, then denied him his voice in the final acts of his own story. “Ow?” The only words the redeemed Ben Solo will ever speak. Apalling.

You brought back Palpatine for this film (arguably rendering the message of the first six films meaningless), identified the Emperor as Ben’s tormentor all along, then denied Ben the opportunity to fight his enemy in the final act of the film.  Rise of Skywalker literally throws Ben Solo into a pit, and forces him to climb out alone and unaided while Rey is whispered to by “all the jedi,” offering her words of encouragement. It’s grotesque.

I’m getting lost in rage and sadness again here, so let me just say that even if you inexplicably didn’t care about the last Skywalker in the Skywalker saga, you have done a grave disservice to Adam Driver in your treatment of his character in this these films.  Perhaps you’ve heard of Driver’s non-profit organization, Arts in the Armed Forces? He’s deeply committed to the importance of stories as a way to make meaning out of the inexpressible. Did he really sign on to this project thinking that the final message of his character would be to say that even if you are able to come back from the darkness, your final act must be to die? That imperfect children don’t deserve compassion, forgiveness, life? You owe Mr. Driver an apology, but you can never really atone for what you’ve done to him.  

You ended a nine-film, forty-two year saga with all the Skywalkers dead, and a Palpatine the last one standing. You spent three films tormenting Han and Leia’s child, only to kill him in the final act.  What you did to Ben Solo (and frankly to us, who loved him) feels more like a horror story than anything else. In my dreams, I walk right into your offices and flip over tables.

There’s a lot more I could accuse Rise of Skywalker of bungling, but I assume you are hearing this feedback from others besides me, so I will summarize:

Rey Palpatine. Was is all about the midiclorians after all? By making her Palpatine’s granddaughter, you deny Rey everything that made her special; you deny her agency, and you negate the beautiful message I thought you were trying to communicate in the first two films with Rey Nobody: that the force belongs to us all, and that anyone can be a hero

The erasure of Rose Tico. It’s difficult to interpret this as anything but a capitulation to a loud, racist, and misogynist element of the fandom. It’s a very bad look, Disney. Please pay attention to the message you are sending.

Character development in general and a truly horrible ending: Rey goes back into her child-like costume, Ben Solo spent much of the film forced back into his stupid mask. Ben disappears at the end with no one to mourn him. Rey ends the film alone in a desert wasteland.

Rise of Skywalker is the most bleak, hopeless, and depressing Star Wars film ever made. As days go by, it’s becoming clear that it was also poorly written and edited. These stories matter to us, and we pay close attention to them. Disrespect us at your peril.

I don’t expect anyone will ever read this missive, or care at all about what an old shepherd on a mountainside thought about the execution of your multi-billion dollar movies. This is a personal exercise in catharsis as much as anything.

But here are a few notes in a language you might understand. I made some quick calculations about how much money I’ve spent on Star Wars over the past four years, and I’m sharing that with you now.

Movie tickets:  I’m one of those people who sees movies I love more than once (I saw Empire Strikes Back eighty-one times in the theater!). I saw The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi at least ten times each. I’m not counting the cost of tickets for my extended family, whom I brought along to a number of screenings, or tickets for birthday party guests we treated to these movies. My teenaged daughter came along for all the screenings I am including, so I calculate I spent about $360 on tickets. We also bought tickets to Rogue One and Solo, so it was actually more, but you get the idea.

Books, tie-ins, DVDs, merchandise: I invested in The Art of the Force Awakens and The Art of the Last Jedi books, as well as at least one SW Visual Dictionary. I bought DVDs of the films of course, and CDs of John Williams’ beautiful scores. I bought and read a number of books; Boodline and the Leia novel, The Force Awakens novelization and Junior novelization, Aftermath, and a couple others whose titles escape me. At least seven action figures. Toy light sabers for me and my daughter. Posters. T Shirts. I know I’m not remembering everything, but it adds up to an expenditure of at least $347 in books and other Star Wars merchandise.

Star Wars Celebration: I splurged on passes for my daughter and I to attend Star Wars Celebration in Chicago this past spring. It cost me about $400, and a last-minute family emergency meant we were unable to attend, but the tickets were non-refundable, so it was money I spent on Star Wars nonetheless.

Total: $1,107

A laughably small amount to you guys, I’m sure. Perhaps a contrast is useful:

Total amount I have spent (tickets for my daughter and I on opening night) on Rise of Skywalker: $22.

Total amount I plan to spend on Disney Lucasfilm merchandise in the future: $0

I invested quite a lot of my time in Star Wars over the past four years. I’ve written thousands of words in essays, appreciations and analyses (mostly on Tumblr), where I amassed a modest following of just over a thousand people. I’m sure I occasionally bored my friends and family by going on and on about Star Wars. This kind of ‘work’ has no dollar value of course. I will say that it was great fun while it lasted, though I feel foolish in retrospect, remembering all the times I came to your defense, arguing that the saga was in good hands, that you had a plan; that you were going to tell a good story.

Sadly, I don’t think you can fix the damage you’ve done to the Galaxy Far Far Away with The Rise of Skywalker. You made this film, made your choices, and put it out into the world. I have no control over where you go from here, but as a person who has loved Star Wars since I was a child, I beg you to take some time to reflect before making another Star Wars film.

You’ve broken so many hearts. Mine was one.

Andrea ____

...my full name and address, blah blah, I live in Vermont