#i really love discussing characterization and stuff like this :)

[hopecomesbacktolife]

while I expected lots of cute moments with bb-8 and pew-pew adventures in Poe Dameron: Flight Log (which, don’t get me wrong, I definitely did get and was very happy about!!) along with lots of cool ship specs and tech details—

what I wasn’t expecting (a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one) was several instances of incredibly heartfelt, evocative, and sweet introspections from Poe on his family, upbringing, philosophy / ethics, the resistance, and love 🥺 so many sweet characterization tidbits in this book, I really enjoyed reading it ♡

if you’re interested in reading it as well, I borrowed it (for free!) on internet archive which I highly highly recommend, it was such a fun read and it’s very easy & user-friendly to borrow books from them!

[rmbunnie]

Red Hood Characterization

This is really long so I'm putting a cut here, I've been thinking about Jason Todd's character motivations and the question of whether or not his actions are based in a Moral Code (I don't think so, not to say he's without any morality) and I talk about that in more depth here.

I saw someone say on here that Titans: Beast World: Gotham City was some of the best Jason Todd internal writing they'd seen in a while, and I've been a Red Hood fan for 8 years or so now? pretty much since I read comics for the first time, so I went and checked out and I thought it was good! The way the person I saw talking about it as if it was rare and unusual made me wonder though, because as well-written as i thought his stances on crime were, there wasn't really anything in it that went against the way I conceptualize Jason?

This kinda plays into a larger question I've been thinking about for a while with Jason though, which is that, do people think that the killing is part of a fundamental worldview that motivates him a la batman, and that worldview is the reason he does the things he does?? Because 8 years ago i was a middle schooler engaging with fiction on the level that a middle schooler does, so I simply did not put much thought into it beyond "poor guy :(" but ever since I actually started trying to understand consistent characterization, I don't really see Jason as someone who's motivated by a moral code in his actions the way batman or superman is!

tbh my personal read is that he's a very socially-motivated guy, his actions from resurrection to his Joker-Batman ultimatum in utrh always seemed to me like every choice made leading up to his identity reveal was either a. to give him the leverage and skill necessary to pull off his identity reveal successfully, or b. to twist the knife that little bit more when he does let Bruce find out who he is. Like iirc there's a Judd Winick tweet like "yeah tldr he chose Red Hood as his identity because it's the lowest blow he could think of." And I think that's awesome, I think character motivations rooted so deeply in character's relationships and emotions are really fun to read! I also think it's where the stagnation/flatness of his character comes from in certain comics, because if his main motivation is one event in one relationship that passes, and he is not particularly attached to anything in his life or the world by the time that comes to pass, it's a little harder to come up with a direction to go with the character after that, because there isn't much of a direction that aligns with something the character would reasonably want? But I do think solving this by saying "all of the morally-off emotionally driven cruelty he did on his way to spite Batman was actually reflective of his own version of Batman's stance that's exactly the same except he thinks it's GOOD to kill people" isn't ideal. To be fully honest, it seems to me like he never particularly cared one way or the other about killing people to "clean Gotham of crime," he just did everything he could to get the power necessary to pull off his personal plans, and took out any particularly heinous people he encountered along the way (like in Lost Days.) Not to say I think the fact he killed people keeps him up at night anymore than everything else in his life events, I just never really thought he was out there wholeheartedly kneecapping some dude selling weed or random guy robbing a tv store for justice.

Looping wayyy back to my question, Is this (^) contradictory to the way he's written/the overall average perception of the character? Because like I enjoyed his writing in Beast World i have zero significant issue with anything there, I just didn't believe it would be a hot take, like yeah, that is Jason. It's been a while since I've read utrh and lost days, but I don't think my takeaway directly contradicts either of those too bad iirc. Idk all this to say I think Jason killing and being alright with killing is an obvious and objective fact, but i guess i've always seen it as more of a practical tactic than a moral belief, and I think taking the actions made during the lowest points of a character's life where he is obsessively focused on this ONEEEE thing and trying to apply it as a Motivating Stance to everything he's done after that, doesn't really follow logically for me.

[sabertoothwalrus]

I probably missed it, but what IS your favourite Dungeon Meshi ship?

WELL SINCE YOU ASKED, I have a chart already hdhshdh

1) Farcille is my number one!!! I wish I’ve drawn more of them, but most of my ideas for them are longggg and angsty and take a lot more mental bandwith. I’ve said before, I approach comics like I’m pitching an idea, and I mostly* agree with people’s depictions of them, so I have less to say.

*I say mostly because I cannot stand when people depict Falin as possessive, or disregard her characterization to give her generic dommy alpha monster traits hdhshdjs NOT THAT IT’S BAD it just doesn’t feel true to her character. I find myself bored by it.

I’m also put off by some of the folks I’ve seen in the farcille tags. They’re like,,, cliquey?? There was a point where people were dunking on mlm ships that came off borderline terfy, as if most of the dungeon meshi mlm shippers aren’t transmascs and lesbians?? I wasn’t a fan of the hostility like lmao it’s cartoons man

2) labru……… I love them….. mostly just post-canon. I really love Kabru (I think he’s my favorite character overall) and I loveeee the poetry of their individual character arcs and how well they play together. Guy who struggles to be honest, even with his own feelings vs Guy who doesn’t even consider being anything except honest. Kabru needing to carefully, painstakingly craft a mask tailored to each individual he interacts with, vs Laios, who is the only one to make all of Kabru’s masks fall apart. Also I think they’re kinda aro about it. They’re really good t4t flavored too.

The main appeal is post-canon. The King and his advisor. His right hand man. But it’s also the way like,,, Laios is DEFINITELY not the one in charge in their relationship dhshshsh (and this is what peeves me about how @myszkaa’s labru comic got memed to hell and back…. they don’t understand the later of comedy is from the KING asking for PRAISE from his SUBORDINATE!!!)

I will say!! This ship has a lot of folks with good takes on it, but it’s not immune to flanderization and boring yaoification. It’s popular enough that there’s enough of the good stuff.

3) chilshi!! I’ll admit this one has less canon validation hdhshsh but I think they have a lot of post-canon potential, and I think their difference in lifespans + the contrast in their lifestyle habits is really interesting and directly addresses a lot of the Dungeon Meshi’s core themes.

Part of the reason I like hanging out with chilshi shippers is cause most of em are chill, more nuanced in discussions, and are actually willing to draw fat & hairy people. And middle aged people.

special mention Kabumisu. I WISH I LIKED THIS ONE MORE!! I’ve tried,,,, I see the potential but I’m so picky about it and most of the content for it does absolutely nothing for me 🙈

Another thing is I HAVE to be able to like a pairing platonically to ship them romantically. Obviously shipping isn’t the only thing that matters to be about dungeon meshi.

I could say a lot more. Feel free to ask about my thoughts 👍

[elmonstro]

Hahahaha! Love it, thank you! 😍🤣 All the bickering!!!!! He put googly eyes on his cathetometer, amazing

Percy: Damn bitch you live like this??

Can I ask for 17. noticing their individual quirks from the blossoming romance prompt list with Simpatico? <3

WHAT A COINCIDENCE THAT I STARTED REWRITING LIKE 3 HOURS BEFORE I SAY THE POST ABOUT YOUR BIRTHDAY!! Anyways, Happy Belated Birthday!!! Enjoy some simpatico nonsense:)

Ao3 Link Here

Perceptor narrowed his optics down at the pile of clutter before him. Clutter was a kind, professional, polite way of describing explosive havoc of disorder and chaos that made up the dimensions of Brainstorm’s desk. Disgusting was another word that came to mind. 

::How do you live like this?::  

::Oh please, let’s not exaggerate. It’s not that bad.:: came Brainstorm’s groan. 

It was not an exaggeration. If anything, it was an understatement. 

Perceptor’s internal processors had a difficult time distinguishing just what exactly he was looking at. The only way to actually piece through what was on the desk was to deconstruct it layer by layer. A cross-section analysis.

The bottom-most layer- the foundation, if you will -were dried dribbles of fuel intermingled with a noxious dusting of sentiment and dirt. One of Perceptor’s background scanners identified a cluster of granulated particles to be aged candied energon treat crumbs. An entire rust strick made the foundation brick, its sticky residue gluing it to the hard surface of the desk. Perceptor idly pondered if its removal would cause the entire system to fall apart. And while his internal protocols desperately would like the area cleaned, organized and sanitary, he was not willing to find out if his hypothesis was correct. 

Cemented to this foundational core layer was the secondary mantle layer. This, from what Perceptor could read, was a scattering of notes all in Brainstorm’s sloppy, near illegible scribble. Tattered napkin bits from Swerve’s and printed notices from Ultra Magnus acted as the canvas for dynamic invention designs, schematics and impossible (and implausible) equations with attached nonsensical theorems. Several datapads acted as structural weights. When flicked on, Perceptor wasn’t sure if he felt amusement, exasperation or a sickly, prickling bashfulness in seeing several of his academic research papers and studies riddled with extensive notes, doodles and elaborations from Brainstorm. 

It didn’t take away from the utter disaster that was Brainstorm’s work space but it did soften the blow. Still, Perceptor would prefer if his research wasn’t adding to the disgusting catastrophe that made up Brainstorm’s desk. Perhaps a bookshelf or three would greatly benefit organization.

Level three- the crust -was as troublesome as the other two layers of clutter, if not more prone to disaster by their fragile and incongruous shapes. Trinkets , Brainstorm affectionately called them. Garbage , Perceptor was more keen on describing. In truth, they probably served best as paperweights, however haphazardly placed they were. 

The sentimentality was not missed on Perceptor and a part of him could even find the collection charming. Endearing. 

Perceptor had bared witness to the slow accumulation over the course of the Lost Light’s journey but had never really taken the time to truly examine them. Now he did, his optics scanning over the seemingly random series of objects: little samples of rock, crystal, fossil collected on pit-stop planets, a Rodi-Star for Temporal Excellence half hanging off the desk, a cluster of thumb drive stocked with films, music, and other media either gifted or stolen from Rewind- Perceptor was still not sure. Little gadgets and doodles from Nautica were in abundance and horrible tiny contractions built by Whirl intermingled with them. There was even a small toy-like bauble on the corner of his desk from Chromedome, Perceptor had been present when the Mnemosurgeon had left it there and Brainstorm never moved it, simply fiddled with it absentmindedly while mulling over his work before throwing it back to the corner of his desk.

All these items, papers and dirt and yet Perceptor still did not actually find what he was looking for. 

With a heavy sign, Perceptor responded to the insisting ping in his comms. 

::How do you expect me to find anything on your desk?:: 

Brainstorm’s response was bitingly quick. ::What are you talking about? Everything is organized!::

::It’s garbage, Brainstorm.::

::Use that brilliant mind of yours and you’ll see everything has a purpose.::

::What purpose do Ultra Magnus’s cease orders from 28 cycles ago have?:: Perceptor didn’t dare touch the fragile, lopsided stack in fear of it tumbling down and only adding to the mess. 

::They are counterbalances. Don’t move them or the desk will collapse.:: Perceptor had no doubt in the truth of that statement even if its intent was a joke.

::We are cleaning this when you return to the ship.::

::It doesn’t need any cleaning! I know where everything is!:

Perceptor let out a derisive snort. He could picture perfectly the little fluttering of Brainstorm’s ailerons, his hands moving in frustration. 

::The tell me where your cathetometer is.::

It was the reason for this call in the first place. For rare occasion, Perceptor had the lab to himself with Brainstorm accompanying Rodimus’s small expedition team. It’s not Perceptor’s fault his colleague forgot his equipment but he was not about to be a complete aft in not assisting. He just wasn’t going to personally dig through Brainstorm’s garbage heap of a desk alone. 

::Hmm, if you don’t see it in top it’s probably in one of the drawers.::

Perceptor rounded the desk to see six drawers lining the sides of the desk with three on each side. 

::Which one?::

::The left side. I keep the important stuff there.::

Perceptor raised an optic ridge and couldn’t help but ask ::And what do you keep on the right?::

::Come on Percy, let me have a little mystery, a touch in intrigue.::

::Nevermind, I don’t want to know.::

Perceptor didn’t need to be present to know Brainstorm was pouting, blast mask intact or not. Even hundreds of meters between them and Perceptor knew a pouting, sulking Brainstorm anywhere. 

::You’re no fun.::

::Yes I am.:: Perceptor replied back as he started with the top drawer, pulling it open only to find it crammed to the brim with even more data pads. All of them pressed together to a block so not even a tiny piece of dust could enter. Perceptor slammed the drawer shut. ::How do you live like this?:: he found himself reiterating. 

::Oh, not fun loving Perceptor still complaining about my desk. Is that fun? Cleaning and organizing?::

::You’re a scientist. How do you find anything in this?::

::Tell me how you are fun in explicit detail and I’ll tell you my organizational strategies. We can make a date of it.::

Perceptor snorted as he opened the second drawer. This was filled with several instruments and after some careful digging, he found the cathetometer . ::We can clean your desk together.::

::You must be a hit at the club, Percy. Really. Absolute stud. What moves do you have? The pencil sharpener? The label maker? The file organizer? Actually, you can’t claim that one. Minimus invented and perfected that one. ::

Perceptor could have told Brainstorm at any moment that he had found what the other mech was looking for but, he held onto the tool for a moment, softly smiling to himself as Brainstorm rambled insults to him. It shouldn’t be charming, it shouldn’t be amusing, it shouldn’t bubble up any sort of affection. And yet. 

::I’ve seen you dance, Brainstorm. I wouldn’t speak so confidentially with what you’ve demonstrated.::

::Are you saying Minimus is a better dancer than me? Because you surely can be saying that you are a better dancer. I mean, I think you’ll fall apart if you stepped foot on the dance floor.::

::It hasn’t happened yet.::

::When have you been dancing at Swerve’s? Before or after you deep clean and detail your desk every day?::

::Funny.::

Without even thinking about it, Perceptor opened the third drawer. He stopped as it slid open, its few contents rocking in the sway. Recognition lit his processor in a warm, shy heat.

::I’m hilarious. So funny and smart and amazing and talented and resourceful. Speaking of resourceful…did you find the my cathetometer yet? I put googly eyes on it. For personality. Can’t miss it.::

Perceptor felt the warmth spread across his faceplates. ::I did.::

::Oh Percy, I could kiss you. Tailgate is almost back at the ship if you can give it to him. The mods to his hoverboard make him almost as fast as Rodimus. He’s pissed. Anyways I told you it would be easy to find. All my important stuff is.::

Perceptor barely heard a word of what Brainstorm said. Only sending back a short affirmative as he stared at the drawer. 

::Perceptor? You alright?::

With a sharp invent, Perceptor closed the drawer shut firmly. 

::Perfectly fine. I’ll be ready to pass it off to Tailgate. I’m clearing your schedule for the next cycle. We are cleaning your desk. I can’t work knowing you are working like this.::

::Percy! It’s fine. I don’t need your shitty excuse for a date-::

::It’s not a date.:: Perceptor swiftly cut off. ::This is a work hazard that is being remedied immediately.::

Brainstorm’s response was muted, delayed. ::Okay, okay. We’ll clean it up. I’m sure you’ll have a checklist and everything.::

Perceptor let a small smile come to his face even though he could hear the telltale rumbling of Tailgate’s juiced up hoverboard. ::Of course. You shouldn’t expect anything less from me. If you manage to get it done by shift’s end, I’ll buy you a drink. Maybe if you are lucky, we can dance.::

Brainstorm’s next several responses were streams of incoherent stutters that formed a very excitable agreement. Perceptor didn’t feel the need to continue the chatter as he passed over the tool to Tailgate who only gave him a slightly confused look at his smile. Perceptor didn’t care, not when he knew what lay at the bottom of Brainstorm’s important drawer. 

Sentimental fool.  

[noxiatoxia]

do you have any favorite or standout things in the japanese version of dr2 that doesn't get translated properly/at all into the english version? anything from jokes to speech quirks or differences in characterization. anything at all! i'm just super curious about the differences so i want to give you an opportunity to ramble.

Thank you, anon! I'm sorry this too so long. I've been busy and I had many different things I wanted to share.

I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of stuff I'll miss...I'll just tell you what's on my mind.

Well, firstly, I'd say what I lament most always is how everyone's speech patterns got largely phased out. You see it here and there still with Souda and Owari - occasionally they try to keep the urban accent. Komaeda's filler words got removed, as already discussed. Really, everyone had something unique to them that got removed, and that makes me so sad! Granted, I understand some of it can be quite tricky.

For example, Mioda is a big one. Remember in the NISA translation, she always refers to herself in third person? This is a somewhat clunky translation. Mioda does call herself "Ibuki", but in Japanese, this isn't as weird, and is seen as a sort of cutesy thing. You can pull it off if you're a young/cute woman.

Mioda also calls everyone first name-chan, making her appear childish/quirky.

She also ends her sentences with っす ssu, which is a version of です desu. This makes Mioda, technically, one of the few Danganronpa characters to use keigo speech, although it's so quirky/casual I wonder if it counts...

Souda also uses keigo, but only when talking to Sonia. He calls her Sonia-san, which got translated as "Miss Sonia" (great translation choice btw!) and is the only character he uses honorifics for - well, typically. There is a part in chapter 5 where Souda calls Hinata "Hinata-chan" to tease him, and it's so cute to me xD

By the way, I don't talk about V3 much, but I know there's contention with how they translate Gonta. From what I've seen of V3, the thing that sticks out about Gonta is he, too, uses his first name as his pronoun. I believe the ENG version went with a Tarzan-esque choice of translation, but the joke in the JP version, I believe, was - as said - first person self-pronoun is reserved for young, cute girls...Gonta neither looking like either.

Most of all I lament Hinata's speech...he sounds so similar to Naegi in English, which is a shame, as he was meant to be Naegi's opposite. In Japanese they're night and day, and Hinata really loses that bite he had in the NISA version. It's what makes me sad most :(

On the game itself, there's a joke I think about a lot, that (understandably) loses it's meaning in English. It's in Tanaka's freetime event.

I have no issue with the translation itself. It's sadly just a joke that's lost in English as things are.

It's in the word kotodama. Kotodama refers to the idea that words hold spiritual power. Like a spell, or something. The joke here is Hinata...actually is a kotodama user. Literally.

In JP Danganronpa, truth bullets are called...kotodama. It's a cute little meta joke.

On the flip side, here is a translation I do take issue with:

I understand how they made this error, but it's still a little shocking to me.

First, let's look at context. Context is important in any language, but in Japanese especially. The context is this: Komaeda has a dramatic buildup, talking about how it's time he's gotten a little good luck, that now he can finally say it, and then dramatically pauses after saying Hinata's name...

Let's not be naive. This reads like the buildup to a love confession.

And then, Komaeda just asks, "Can you be my friend?"

It's a wonderful scene. Perfectly captures Komaeda's life in that asking just to be friends requires this much forethought, and it's wonderfully hilarious at the same time. Very Danganronpa, isn't it? Makes you think about the character, gives you some emotion, but also makes you laugh.

I digress. Now that we have context, let's examine Hinata's response.

First he goes, "What?" or え？in Japanese.

Then he says: ああ...なんだ。

"Ah...oh, that's it?" is a fine way to put it here. Literally speaking, the line basically reads: Oh...what? but なんだ is used as a sort of emotional signifier. The words are failing me right now but here are some examples of how なんだ could be translated when used like this:

"What the hell. Okay."

"Jeez, really?"

"That's crazy!" (in response to a story or suchlike)

Does this make sense? It expresses disbelief, shock, surprise, irritation...stuff like that.

So "Oh...that's it?" is good in this context. Clearly, Hinata also expected Komaeda to say something more heavy.

It's the last line that bugs me.

"So that was all just for fun..." is not how I would put it at all. I see how they got that, but I don't know why they didn't realize it sounds super odd. I will break it down.

...そんなことで、よかったのか... ...sonna koto de, yokatta noka...

そんな means "that" or "those", as in "that person" or "those books", etc.

こと means thing, but usually is abstract for an idea. It's a bit hard to explain, but think of it like the English word "it". You say stuff like "it's cool" when someone screws up. "it" represents an abstract idea: referring to the accident a person just made. Instead of repeating that all, you condense the idea down into the word "it". Very similar.

で is a particle that marks "direction" here. All you need to know is that here it's saying "everything that comes before me is what the words after me are referring to".

よかった, literally speaking, is the past form of "good". This is a very flexible word, and we will come back to it.

のか is some sentence ending particles. Again, we will come back to this.

Strictly and literally speaking, the sentence goes:

In response to those words you just said, it was good...

The issue that occurred here is how they read よかったのか. They took よかった to literally be the past tense of good (fun), and のか to be questioning in tone. These are both correct ways to read these individual words, but not in this context I think. It's how we got:

So that was all just for fun...

But I think it's obvious よかった is supposed to be read as it most commonly is in this past-form: an expression of relief/happiness, while のか is supposed to be more monologue-ish.

I emphatically think the line should be read as:

Oh, thank God that was it...

I think it's pretty obvious Hinata is rejoicing that Komaeda, in fact, was not going to suddenly dump something like a love confession on him out of the blue.

Sorry that was a longer one. I don't know how many of you care to hear the in-depth technical talk of how it got mistranslated. Usually I just provide my translation, but I know some people out there probably like the explanations. (I also get a little embarrassed because I often run in circles worrying I'm getting stuff wrong myself....and the fact I'm aware I suck at words. I'm just writing how I read it, and putting it in a way that makes sense to me. I'm always open to discussion if you are a beginner speaker or a native and anything between.)

OK, moving on...I want to talk about Owari's island mode ending. Not because it was translated badly per se, but because it hinges on an element that's impossible to translate. To be fair, the team did their absolute best with it.

Owari never talks about wanting to talk more "girly" outright in the Japanese version. Rather, this is what the line (plus the last as it is part of the sentence) reads literally:

OWARI: So, would it be weird if...I started using a-atashi for myself?

Through the whole game, Owari talks in a very rough manner. She uses オレ(ore) to refer to herself, which is a very masculine pronoun. The Katakana script makes it even more rough. I believe in SDR2, only Souda and Kuzuryuu also use this pronoun/script combo (I can never remember if Monokuma uses オレ or ボク).

However in the Island Mode ending, Owari wonders if it'd be weird if someone like her uses あたし(atashi) for herself. By contrast, "atashi" is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. It is a very feminine pronoun, and would be a complete 180 from ore.

It is also written in Hiragana, further lending it to be "feminine" and "soft".

So the translation change to her saying she wishes to speak more girly is pretty apt. I dunno if there would be a better way to do this. It's very difficult.

Speaking of Owari and pronouns, her pronoun changes again when she catches the despair disease.

When she has the coward's disease, Owari no longer uses オレ(ore), but instead 私(watashi). This is considered a rather basic/default casual pronoun for women, but it is exceedingly more polite/feminine than what Owari normally uses. Coming from her also, Kanji is a very odd script choice, almost opposite to Katakana.

She also never uses honorifics for people, but while sick, she calls Nidai "Nidai-kun" 弐大君. It's sad this detail, unlike in Island Mode, did not get translated whatsoever.

If I'm on the topic, I might as well talk about some other script changes that weren't translated into English well (or at all).

Remember fake Naegi in Ch.6? Well, I always thought this part was strange:

To me, nothing Naegi is saying warrants Sonia to respond in such a manner. Bryce Papenbrook's delivery of the line doesn't make Naegi yell or anything, either.

But this line makes a whole lot more sense in Japanese.

Fun fact, I'm getting these screenshots from a (mostly silent) let's play by a Japanese channel. The let's player almost never talks, but during the first screenshot, he let's out a questioning "Hm?" and then the second, he chuckles and says, "What's with this sudden sharp turn, man?"

That's because in this scene, Naegi completely changes the way he talks. I've talked about it before, but to reiterate: Naegi talks in a very mild way. He's casual, but he never uses any masculine particles, or employs the imperative form.

However, in the first screenshot, Naegi ends his sentence in ぞ, which is a masculine sentence ender (Hinata uses it). Then in the second one, he uses やろう, which is a very rough/derogatory way to say "you guy(s)".

Anybody who's played DR1 would instantly know something is wrong, since Naegi never speaks like this.

To be honest, it could've easily been translated as making Naegi swear at them, since Naegi doesn't swear a lot - certainly if you had him use "fuck", it would have achieved the same effect.

Next, Twogami's final free time event is full of quirky things that get translated a little poorly.

Firstly, there's this line from Hinata:

While not a mistranslation on a technical level, I feel like it sort of misses a joke here.

Twogami asks Hinata if he likes him (好き). In Japanese, 好き is often used to declare your (romantic) love to someone, or ask someone if they love you. I think then Hinata's answer being "I don't hate you" is him skirting around saying "I like (love) you" to not sound like he's confessing his love, or something.

Then, there's this:

Much like we've seen before, this line makes more sense in the context of Japanese.

Since Twogami is impersonating Togami, he speaks like him, too. And when Togami refers to others (the "you" pronoun, as there are multiple in Japanese), he uses お前(omae). This is very masculine and pretty rude.

However, in this scene, Twogami suddenly calls Hinata キミ(kimi), which is much softer and warmer. Hinata picks up on that, but in English, it comes across a little weird, because what exactly is Hinata picking up on in the English version, then?

HINATA: But you've got to stop using "kimi", it's making me sheepish. And besides...the you I know has always called me by "omae".

Here's a literal translation for you, to illustrate this scene better. I don't know why they cut out the part where Hinata directly tells Twogami to stop calling him キミ because it makes him flustered (very cute by the way), but I feel there was probably a better way to go about this anyhow...

I understand it's a very tricky thing to translate since both キミ and お前 mean "you" in English, but surely there was some better way to word it...

I'd have Twogami talk to Hinata more friendly-like, and have Hinata say "The Togami I know has always been a bit mean to me" - or suchlike.

Moving away from scripts but sticking to Freetime events, here's a mistranslation from one of Saionji's:

There's one big issue in both of these that changes the meaning of the scene entirely. Firstly, 人好し means more than "kind-hearted" - it comes with the impression that the person is easily exploitable for their kindness.

Likewise, 勝手に言って is more than "I don't care" - I think they got that because it literally translates as "say what you want", but it's used as a sort of angry statement. See, it literally translates as "speak as you'd like", but 勝手に is usually used to show that someone will do something in spite of anyone else's wishes. So, really, the phrase means "say whatever you want jerk, I know I can't stop you".

I'd write this scene as:

SAIONJI: You're a really big pushover, mister. Well...I guess that's good for me. HINATA: No one fucking asked.

(I would assume Hinata is doing the equivalent of swearing, as he is using an already antagonistic phrase + imperative form + よ).

Also, if you're wondering...while "say what you want" is a valid English phrase, I feel it doesn't really work here...? Though that's how 勝手に言って translates, the phrase focuses more on the disrespectful aspect of speaking out of turn. I feel "nobody asked" is then more accurate.

This line is also interesting. It's not a mistranslation, but I'm just interested in the Japanese text, because I don't think Hinata's ever replaced ない (nai) with ねー (nee) before? It's a sort of urban accent - Owari, Kuzuryuu, and Souda all have it. It makes you sound rougher.

Like instead of "Jyanai yo" ("that's not it") you say, "jyanee yo" ("Tha's not it") <- I'm unsure how to convey an Urban accent...

"Hell no", then, is actually quite appropriate since it is rougher-sounding (meaner). But it interests me since Hinata's never (?) used this accent before. I guess he was so pissed off he didn't even think about it.

Actually, because of the nature of Saionji's talent and fixation on her home country, her Island mode and FTE is full of references to Japanese culture that doesn't get translated well. It's a tough spot to be in - do you not translate it for the sake of staying accurate to the Japanese culture, and let the Western players stay confused, or do you change it to something more understandable, but lose that nuance? I think it depends case-by-case on what's decided.

I sadly don't have a screen cap of the JP text, but I do have it from the game's files, so I'll write it down here:

SAIONJI: あー、馬鹿とナントカは高いところが好きって言うもんね。 HINATA: そっちを伏せるのかよ…

This is a Japanese saying, the full saying being 馬鹿と煙は高いところが好き - "Idiots and smoke like high places". It refers to people who foolishly advance "higher and higher" without thoughts of the consequences (when they come crashing down).

This saying though gets often changed to "idiots and so-and-so like high places".

I don't really agree with the English translation because "you-know-what" sounds...sexual? To me, at least. While there is nothing sexual about the original phrase whatsoever. The reason it gets "censored" to ナントカ (nantoka, literally the quotation marker とか with the word "what/something", making it "that 'something'") is unknown to me, but the phrase with ナントカ instead of 煙 is pretty popular especially in spoken Japanese. I think it literally just has to do with the fact that "baka to nantoka" flows out the mouth easier than "baka to kemuri", and isn't because of actual censorship.

Hinata's response then may be to Saionji specifically or in general. Either he's A) asking why Saionji bothers to censor the second part (implying he's never heard the abbreviated version before) or B) he's wondering to himself why people bother to censor the second part in general (implying he is well aware of the abbreviated version).

So, the convo may actually look something like:

SAIONJI: Oh well, as they say: "Idiots and so-and-so like high places!" HINATA: I wonder why that's the part that gets skipped over...

I think this is more plausible. It really has nothing to do with Saionji in particular.

Actually, if you'll recall from earlier in this post with the Komaeda Island Mode ending, we touched on のか, and Hinata is using it again here. Funnily, if we go with my translation, then they ran into the same issue with Komaeda. They read のか in the same erroneous way.

I could be wrong of course...but given the surround culture of the phrase + common sense (I find it hard to believe Hinata would have never heard 馬鹿とナントカ before), this makes more sense I think.

An English version is hard to think of, since this is related to the option "Climb the Statue", so Saionji whipping out that metaphor is a joke in the fact she's calling Hinata an idiot for literally wanting to climb a tall statue.

The closest I can find is a quote form the bible, "Folly is appointed to great heights, but the rich sit in lowly positions". This seems to be somewhat known, but I didn't know of this quote before researching for an English version, so replacing it would make little difference, then...the whole point is the phrase is a common one, but I don't know any common English phrases about idiots in high spots.

...I think this is a good stopping point. There is surely so much more to talk about - more I am forgetting and more that I'll find in the future (and other small things that could not make this post due to image constraints) - but this is what I have right now! I do have more SDR2 translation post I'm working on, but that's it's own beast so it's not something I can really go into here.

Hope any of this was interesting! Thank you!

[luckyarchivist]

TOUCHSTARVED 2.0: Them Changes (spoiler warning!)

Hello, all! Below is a HUGE (~3K words) post about all the changes I noticed in the Touchstarved 2.0 prologue/demo. It's as much for my benefit as for yours, and I'll hopefully be incorporating some of these notes into my loresheets in the next couple of weeks.

Long story short: There’s been a lot of changes. I thought that even before I skipped through Fulgur’s full TOUCHSTARVED playthrough as reference and discovered even more changes I'd forgotten about. The sheer amount of sentence rewriting and reorganizing, as well as minor dialogue additions, is too much for me to cover: I have to commend the writers on the RSS team for their hard work.

Luckily, a lot of the rewriting is ultimately inconsequential (thank GOD). But I do want to highlight some changes I felt were important to characterization and story, as well as anything that just really stood out to me as someone who played the 1.0 demo, like, twice or three times with the intention of looking for clues and shit.

NOTE: These notes cover ONLY the main prologue, i.e. there's nothing in here from the LI-solo routes after the Wet Wick group scene. I'll get to those, and I want to! But it won't be today.

Kuras: Introduction

Definitely, there were dialogue changes and additions in Kuras’s introduction. However, to my memory, there was nothing that would change his characterization significantly. So, we’ll skip right over him. Love you, Kuras! Thanks for making things easy.

If you have any big changes that you noticed in Kuras's introduction compared to the first demo, let me know either on this post, or in an ask! I always miss stuff and I'd appreciate the check.

What I will say about Kuras's introduction, though? The MC says that “[Kuras] towers over [their] prone form” and... Technically, they're supine. "Prone" means you’re face down, which MC clearly is not.

Leander and the Adderstone: Introduction

This is gonna be the longest section — 3 pages on my Google Docs. Please hang in there!

As stated in the RSS devlog for the 2.0 update, Leander's introduction has changed quite a bit. But I actually want to start by talking about Leander's followers first — previously the Bloodhounds, now the Adderstone. First: the name.

An adderstone is a glassy stone with a naturally occurring hole through it. There are all kinds of myths about the creation and use of these stones, which I encourage you to look up (it’s fun to learn!) but they have a strong connection with druidic magic; druids believed that serpents would gather in giant entangled “knots” and that the stone would be produced at the center of that knot.

Already you can see a connection with Le in the magic connotations, but the snake reference is not to be ignored, either for him or his group. An adder is a venomous viper — while their bites are not usually fatal to humans, they are quite painful, and they show up often in Welsh and British folklore. (Maybe all those people who thought Leander was British were actually right!) Perhaps MC has unknowingly walked into the center of a knot of snakes.

To me, this change in name also mirrors the change in the way the group acts. The Bloodhounds were rowdy drunks, though well-meaning, and did as Leander commanded like loyal dogs. They crowd around for the treat of his magic and disperse at his command, and yell at the MC angrily when they bring up the Senobium. 

By contrast, the Adderstone is a much more insular, subdued group. After Leander’s impassioned speech against the Senobium, you are stopped from speaking to him by one of its members, as if he’s a high-ranking official or something. In addition, when you mention the Senobium, instead of being outwardly angry, the Adders go silent and wary.

In addition, this new Adderstone has:

No motto. The Bloodhounds’ motto, stated on their poster, was “As above, so below.”

No uniforms. Leander’s Bloodhounds all wore green cloaks.

With the Adderstone discussed, it's time to turn to the man of the hour.

Mainly, Leander has now been established as a Man Of The People, one who is actively encouraging Lowtowners to stay away from the Senobium. This is a huge change from his "gregarious performer" personality, and it seeps into all of his new introduction (which is a good thing!).

Leander is now an anti-traditionalist. In both versions of the demo, he asks if MC is aware that in Eridia, "information is worth its weight in gold." However, in 2.0., he follows that up by saying that he "[doesn’t] much care for outdated traditions," and opts to tell you the truth without any "payment."

Leander presents himself as one of many victims of the Senobium's "propaganda," saying that he used to idolize them until he realized they were an elitist organization. This is in line with his socmed fun fact, which states that he turned down the opportunity to become a Senobium mage to pursue his own ambitions: clearly, something to do with his presence in Lowtown, though I won't go so far as to say he's trying to uplift the district or anything yet.

In addition to these points, Leander's more outwardly sexual, submissive, and flirty personality in his intro has been toned waaaay down in favor of making him seem more like a competent leader of a...rebel organization? I'm not quite sure what the Adders are in contrast with the Senobium.

Here are some examples of his more leaderly traits and the removals of his more fanservicey behaviors in his introduction.

Leander asks if you're looking for a guide or an escort to the Senobium, whereas in the last version he does not mention taking you there himself at all. Implies that he's taking direct responsibility for you.

It's now explicitly stated that his line, "You can tie me up if it makes you feel better," is a joke to ease tension and not actually flirting. He also doesn't blush :(

The bartender doesn't mention Leander's "escapades" explicitly anymore.

Small change, but in 2.0, Leander tells you to take a deep breath and counts you down to touching him, whereas in 1.0, you count yourself down. He's guiding MC's behavior.

Before, in the tavern scene, Mhin asks if Leander warned MC about Eridia. In 1.0, he did not; in 2.0, he does in fact warn you that, “Eridia is twice as dangerous as it is wondrous. Be careful out there."

This definitely makes him seem more dependable, but less cute, in my opinion. I was particularly crushed by devs cutting Le's line, "Look, we match!" when talking about his gold jewelry and MC's gold scars. This has been replaced with, IMHO, a weak flirty line that doesn't endear me as much to him.

The devs stated in their 2.0 changelog that Leander's character is still the same, but that his new intro is a better reflection of his full route. At this point, I disagree: I think he's being portrayed as very different here, though my opinion may change once I do his post-tavern scene.

Though I'm sure some people thought of Leander as flat when compared to the other LIs, I think that added to his whole "too good to be true" and "let me be the reprieve for what haunts you" angle — someone who seems totally normal, but is actually a danger to you.

Of course, the first angle has been retained with him being the heroic opposition to the Senobium. But he's gone from a clumsy, cute everyman with impressive magical powers to the leader of a kind of movement, which is very different as far as archetypes go (to me, at least). It's certainly possible that we'll see this other side of him later, or even that I'll see it whenever I do his post-tavern scene, but he leaves a very different first impression.

I also wonder if devs were worried that Leander was being oversexualized before his route came out because of all the references in his intro, and decided to 1) curb people's impressions of him as the local slut and/or 2) cut down on disappointment when there's no sex in his route by introducing his moral mission first.

(To clarify, I wasn't under the impression there would be fully written sex scenes or NSFW CGs, but I don't know if they're planning to do a fade-to-black situation, or not have any sex present at all.)

Finally, and this is a note about MC during this section: I noticed that the wording of their previous "experience" has been changed.

Why change this to make it more vague? It's not like it was raunchy before. The 2.0 line reads more like the MC, I think (mainly the first sentence), and also clarifies for everyone that the reason MC may not be a virgin is because touching their naked shoulder is safe. But, when I was reading it, I was like, "Why change this line, of all the lines?"

1.0: I've been with other people — kissed them, been embraced by them, and more — but not like this.

2.0: It’s not as if I’ve never been touched. My curse only extends to my hands, and desperation spurs creativity.

I guess you could ask that for any line that was changed, though, and it's not like I was particularly attached to it. But it does seem like another instance where a more direct reference to sex was omitted.

Vere: Introduction

Vere’s dialogue was definitely altered and significantly shuffled.

The main change is that now you’re able to walk away from Vere, which causes him to break from his careless façade — another thing mentioned in the social media posts (that Vere is not naturally aloof and needs to work to affect this behavior). He just wants someone to play his little mind games with :(

Vere's dialogue has also been made a little more classy, perhaps, by removing the mention of a handjob and the word "sex" from his intro. Not that it's a huge loss, considering he kept all his other innuendo.

Finally, Vere's line after smelling MC has changed, and this is one I think is real suspicious.

Did devs feel like his initial line was, perhaps, giving too much away? Or has the intention of the line changed? Basically what I'm asking is: will we still find out, later in Vere's story, that there's some sort of kinship between MC and Vere in what kind of being they are?

1.0: Not quite human, not quite monster. Seems we’re both—

2.0: There’s something else... / It seems I underestimated you. You’re—

These are really the only major changes, though — the rest didn't change much, just moved around. Thanks for that, Vere. This is the ONLY time you’ll find me thanking you for anything, at least until you start taking my commissions to draw Ais oiled up and tied down.

The Senobium / Ais: Introduction

Ais's dialogue was changed the least out of all the LIs, as far as I can tell, which to me suggests that devs have the best idea of his characterization and the strongest foundation for his route compared to the rest. Makes sense, since he's the poster boy. But he does change one of his lines, and I'm kinda mad about it even though it's literally soooo inconsequential. This is Ais's response after you ask him where the gang he's supposed to be the leader of even is:

Literally a one-word change! But to me, that was a line that helped define Ais's voice, and I'm sad it's gone.

1.0: Gang took a walk.

2.0: They took a walk.

Really, though, I'll be spending this section focused on the newly named Iris, the "red-eyed woman" who appears outside the Senobium to take you to the Seaspring. MC's interaction with her changed quite drastically compared to 1.0.

Her appearance, or the description of it, has changed. Before there was a lot of emphasis on her physical features (gauntness, smiling too widely) whereas now it's all about her clothing (lack of shoes, moth-eaten garments, jewelry).

In addition, instead of making idle small talk with you that the MC can choose to ignore, Iris asks you to your face if you need help.

Before, she never introduced herself, and was referred to simply as "red-eyed woman". This time, she politely introduces herself as Iris.

Overall, she now has a personality that isn't just "creepy lady". She's embarrassed when she shows MC the hole in her neck; she reassures the MC of their safety when they don't want to walk out of the city.

This one's weird: Before, the red-eyed woman waves you off, and you continue on to the Spring; now, Iris disappears right in front of you. What kind of power is that?

Iris is now a character made to directly contrast the Seaspring with the Senobium. Here is a woman, obviously kept alive by some mysterious and possibly sinister force, but one who holds her hand out to you and offers you assistance. In contrast, the Senobium's gates and patrolling staff scorn you and push you away because of your status as a poor "tourist". The Seaspring is the poor man's miracle and the outcast's salvation.

I also noticed two themes in Iris's dialogue that stood out: choice and honesty. She only mentions the latter once, if you answer her truthfully (saying "I do" when she asks if you need help), but because I wrote that post about Ais and honesty, it made me wonder... Is this a theme for Ais, as the de facto leader of the Seaspring's thralls, or for Ocudeus, as the Spring's host?

As far as the former, she mentions that you have a choice a lot. For example:

So, not only is Ais telling you to really consider if you want to join the Seaspring groupmind, but even other thralls are emphasizing that you have the ability to turn away from it.

1.0: If I’ve caught your interest, follow me. It’s only a short walk away.

2.0: I can take you there, if you like. You can decide on your own once you see it. [MC: And if I say no?] It’s your choice.

Speaking of the groupmind, how does Iris know her name? Ais says in both 1.0 and 2.0 that, “When you drink from the Seaspring, you forget who you are.” If that's the case (and if we're willing to excuse Ais retaining his own identity due to Main Love Interest Syndrome), how can someone like Iris introduce herself and retain her human personality?

You could say that the groupmind retains every person's individual personality, but I was under the impression initially that the groupmind assimilated all identities into one. Something to think on, and to wait for more information about.

Mhin: Introduction

In the transition from Ais to Mhin, we get to see more inclusion of socmed fun facts: The MC unwinds their glove in an attempt to touch the Soulless chasing them and pacify it long enough to escape. Look at our MC, with useful powers!

Some smaller changes with Mhin's characterization:

They've made Mhin more considerate :) In 1.0, they pull you to your feet and pretty much immediately let go of you; in 2.0, they hold onto your hand long enough, and ask you verbally, to make sure you're stable before letting go, even though MC can tell that holding your hand makes them really uncomfortable.

No more calling Mhin short :( I guess that would be rude to do to someone you just met and who saved your life...

Mhin gets to talk about their hobbies: anatomy!, although they say when asked that they "[haven't] quite" studied anatomy or medicine. This definitely gives them a scholarly layer that wasn't as clear before.

The biggest change is that Mhin tells you that they grew up in Eridia, and that the city used to be better than it is now. Literally, while I was playing, I said "What?!" out loud. This is huge, because Mhin's whole thing is that they were a "relative newcomer" to the city. However, they now know the streets well enough to navigate MC in the dark back to the Amaryllis District by themself, where they and MC run into Kuras.

So, with this change, I have a whole bunch of new questions. Is Mhin's released character summary and backstory going to change by the release of the full game? If not, why did they and their family leave? What brought them back when it seems like they hate it here? How long were they there before MC got there?

We'll see if some of these are answered in the after-tavern scene, but for now, I really don't know what to think. I appreciated having a character who was also fresh meat in the city while not being as fresh as MC, as it allowed for a little "new kid" camaraderie while still letting Mhin guide you and teach you about Eridia. We'll see where it goes!

The Tavern Scene

Mainly line changes here I wanted to comment on, but let's go through the minor characterization or world changes first.

The drink Leander gives you, the "local specialty," is now a pomegranate wine instead of a plum gin. Yeah, yeah, Underworld, forbidden fruit. I've been through a literary symbolism class before.

Vere is made to seem less drunk when you speak to him and Ais, as he's no longer hiccuping like he was in 1.0. Seems he and the demon can hold their liquor. I'll miss you, cute drunk Vere.

And now, the main event: dialogue alterations! Let's run through 'em.

Mhin's line to Vere when they first enter the bar: "I thought Ais wasn’t allowed to bring his pets in here." -> “I thought pets weren’t allowed in here.” This is probably to make Mhin seem more distant from Ais: after all, how would they know about Ais's affinity for pets or his relationship with Vere? This one makes sense to me, even though the first line is a better burn.

Vere's line to Leander, once Leander realizes that everyone already knows each other: “Mmhmm, I’m starting to suspect [MC's] stalking me.” -> “To think we’d cross paths once again. It must be fate.” I like this change because Vere is very fate-coded to me. Give him some tarot cards, stat.

Leander's paypig lines to Vere have been changed, probably for the same reason Mhin's lines to Vere were changed: to imply that, while they know each other, Le doesn't know enough about Vere to know his expensive tastes.

And then the line change I'm mad about, which I talked about in this post, when MC is complaining about Ais kicking them out of the Seaspring just so he could go drinking:

I know this is partially nostalgia bias, but I’ve already talked about Ais’s whole honesty thing, and literally his fatal flaw is that he “lets his emotions rule him.” Why change this line?

1.0: I was lonely.

2.0: Had to give you a reason to come looking. Miss me yet?

Although MC acknowledges that Ais’s more flirty response in 2.0 is a deflection rather than a real answer, my current understanding of Ais is rooted in his honesty and his heart-on-my-sleeve behavior. He even says that about himself when comparing himself to Kuras (at least, in the 1.0 version of his route). It feels like a loss not to maintain his almost-blasé attitude towards just telling you how he really feels.

Now it's your turn!

While I find time to play the LI-exclusive sections, I'd love to hear from y'all. Any changes I missed in the main prologue that you think are important? Do you agree or disagree with me on any of the points I've made or conclusions I've drawn? Want me to expand on something I mentioned? Please let me know, either here or in my asks!

I had a great time playing the new demo and writing all of this up! It'll only be for a short while, but I'm happy to be back investigating this game :)

[cryptocism]

I got some questions if that’s ok? lol

1: has Thad ever admitted his feelings to Kon? (Probably not lol)

2: let’s say Thad does, what’s Kon’s reaction?

3: got any headcanons/triva stuff for Thad?

4: what about Bart?

oh boy ill do my best to give decent answers!

1: hmm i think it would depend on the circumstances? but overall ur right probably not haha. Thad navigating new and terrifying relationships in an absurdly neurotic and dramatic way is one of my favourite avenues to take his character so if he ever DID it would have to be extremely embarrassing for everyone involved

2: ppl may have gathered im a big fan of unrequited/onesided romance lmao so 90% of the time id say Kon tries to let him down easy

3: ohh Thad headcanons...

i mean piggybacking off of the konthad discussion i do think of Thad having a crush on Kon as a very puppy love/hero worship kind of crush. like i can't really see them in a real relationship bc im too attached to Thad putting Kon on a pedestal lmaoo. like here's this guy who is also a clone but still has his own identity/life/friends/interests outside of Clark and yet also has an amicable relationship with the guy and his family! it's all Thad has ever wanted!!! and with the rose-coloured lenses on he doesn't clock all the ways Kon actually really struggles with basically all those things.

yall already know abt my goth Thad propaganda which is based on very little except that he'd likely want to differentiate himself from Bart's appearance and a vibe that he's naturally drawn to a darker/edgier aesthetic (based on his palette-swapped black Impulse suit and the needlessly dramatic cloak and the look CRAYDL goes for when they inhabit the technoplasm monster)

^this is a little in conflict with another canon-adjacent headcanon which is Thad's hyperactive level of social awareness. i do think he wants most people to like him unless he's deemed them an enemy, so he fronts a very amicable sociable young man when he's around strangers or people he wants to impress. im reconciling it with the countercultural goth aesthetic by saying he can contain multitudes :P (also i think of Thad as having a delightfully dialectical brain that both desperately wants to be unique and special but also instinctively tries to comply with societal expectations)

not based in canon at all but i think he should be into the kinds of animals people find weird/gross/strange. #1 rat/snake/spider/insect defender he should have a pet snake named cornwallace or something.

4: aand Bart headcanons!

i really like how into video games he is especially in his solo and i would love to see that explored more as a genuine special interest. he tops speedrunning leaderboards and finds the insane easter eggs and secrets. his username (which is either his full legal name or an inscrutable series of numbers and letters no inbetween) becomes infamous in several online circles. ppl beg him to start streaming but Bart doesn't care he's in it for the love of the game

i really enjoy Bart having an eclectic aesthetic big fan of the grunge skater stuff he was wearing in the 90s and in sprinkles throughout the 2000s. one thing abt modern comics that makes me a lil sad is how everyone seems to have the same general sense of style :( (which is more a fault of tight deadlines and lack of characterization rather than the fault of the artists lbr)

the man strikes me as a collectibles guy he likes the fun of tracking down rare trading cards/action figures/etc and the satisfaction of a complete set. i think he would use facebook marketplace worldwide and have endless frustrations trying to communicate with the sellers

i want his having read a whole library to actually have an impact on things so i do think he has a grasp on most latin alphabet languages (having read every X to english dictionary) so his vocabulary is awesome but his grammar and accent are Trash (like he can read signage but struggles to hold a coherent conversation)

[fantastic-nonsense]

Hello! I love your meta posts and I have a question about your opinion on some fandom stuff involving Dick Grayson! We all know that recent stuff with Tom Taylor and in fanon have popularized the kinda-annoying imo “Eternally Happy” Dick characterization the past couple of years. However, I’ve noticed lately that the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction and I see a lot of people characterize Dick as this edgy, super-depressed, loose canon that is always miserable and I find that characterization equally annoying. Stuff like “Dick doesn’t trust people”, “Dick has really bad anger issues”, “Dick is incredibly manipulative”, “Dick is a loner”, etc. while it is true that Dick DOES has moments of being manipulative, angry, and untrusting, those moments aren’t his baseline and aren’t as common as some people like to believe imo. There are usually a lot of extenuating circumstances surrounding those moments, such as Donna’s death, Tim’s perceived death, and other high-stress, high-emotion factors. I’d love to hear your thoughts as someone who enjoys his character!

Generally speaking, my thoughts are that Dick is an incredibly multifaceted and complicated character with a lot of trauma whose behavior is regularly impacted by that trauma. That reality, and what various writers choose to emphasize, is going to significantly impact how any given reader views his character.

Dick genuinely is a great brother, mentor, and team leader with a lot of friends and people who genuinely love him, trust him, and look up to him. He's a consummate performer who is kind and quippy and will nearly always lend a helping hand even when he doesn't want to. He's steady, incredibly devoted, extremely ethical, and has a strength of will and determination that "cannot be broken."

He also genuinely has insane trust issues, a tendency to self-isolate (and lash out when people don't let him do that), is extremely and routinely manipulative, and has a habit of helping others to avoid dealing with his own issues. He's a hypercompetent and intensely private control freak who takes his job as a superhero extremely seriously and doesn't appreciate when others don't.

The man contains multitudes.

Dick was raised in a circus, went through a horrific trauma, and then was raised by Batman. He regularly gets compared to Bruce by his friends and even by his enemies, and those similarities regularly impact Dick's life and relationships. He just has much better mental and emotional tools to effectively deal with issues when they come up than Bruce does. Which sometimes he succeeds at and sometimes he fails at, depending on what it is and what else is going on in his life. He is generally well-adjusted when you compare him to most of the Batfam; he is not at all so when you compare him to any superhero with even a moderately "normal" upbringing or most people in general.

But when a character hits the towers of fanon, they will inevitably get flattened from their complex, nuanced canon depiction into a one or two-note character, especially if a writer chooses to emphasize one side over the other in a popular run. Hence the discussions of "Dick the eternally emotionally mature, welcoming, happy, and awesome brother" vs. the "Dick the angry and miserable loose cannon who yells at everyone who tries to help him" pushback. He's both of those things. He's neither of those things. Both depictions are technically right while also being wrong, which is why it's such a hard discussion to maneuver.

[paigegonerogue]

I feel the need to clarify a few things about Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross leaving TLOU HBO:

Obviously, they’ll be missed. It was really great to have them on. I loved their insights, and with Craig they wrote some absolute magic. That being said, I think a lot of people have some misconceptions about it:

As of s2, most of the episode were already written by Craig Mazin. Though that’s not to say that Neil and Halley weren’t heavily involved.

The writers room of TLOU, and of most prestige shows, isn’t what you typically picture. Craig, Neil, and Halley met before writing the season, discussed plot points, character arcs, characterization, themes, and basically the season as a whole. Together, they came up with how the story would be told.

Then Craig would wrote most of the episodes himself (except for 6 and 7, which he co-wrote with Neil and Halley).

Halley and Neil leaving won’t affect the singular writing of the episode, but will affect the planning and overall plot of s2.

But Craig isn’t suddenly alone in the writing of the show. According to the WGA, he’s joined this season in the writer’s room by Ryan James and Alex Cheng.

Much like the elusive Bo Shim, Alex Cheng is relatively obscure and doesn’t have a clear IMDB page. However, Ryan James has writing credits for Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and The Last of Us Part 2. Thus, we won’t be devoid of insights and input from people who worked on the games. Not to mention story editors, continuity supervisors, etc.

Also, Halley and Neil are staying on as executive producers. They’re still involved with the show, just not in the hands one way that they were. They won’t be in the writers room, co-writing, or directing such as episode 6 (written by Neil, Halley, and Craig and directed by Neil).

I should also mention that s1 didn’t have an official writers room. Craig and Neil had something adjacent, where they planned out the season before hand, talked about portrayals and characterization, etc, but all the scripts for s1 were written by Craig minus the premiere and finale, which he co-wrote with Neil. Neil also wrote episode 7.

Craig has always been the showrunner, the head of the project. Neil was a co-creator, EP, writer, and director, and Halley was an EP and writer. Craig’s been the lead on the show since the start, so while he’s losing some great creative collaborators, the voice of the show has always been his. Same with Chernobyl.

I’ve seen sentiment expressed about how this will mean unnecessary changes, so I feel the need to point out that every change had been thoroughly discussed between the three of them in s2. According to both Craig and Neil, Neil was always the one pushing for more changes. Blaming all of s2’s flaws on Craig is, honestly, a bit badly-thought out.

TLDR; We’ll miss Neil and Halley a lot, we wish them well and hope Intergalactic rocks, and their contributions to the show are wonderful. BUT, the idea that Craig, Halley, and Neil all wrote an equal amount of the show as a trio, and now Craig is being left alone, is a far oversimplified version of these changes.

Stop sending hate to Craig. He seems like a nice guy. The cast and crew all seem to love him, and he’s platformed a lot of fantastic female and POC artists with TLOU. Plus, he’s written a lot of really incredible stuff.

[mechncheese]

opinion on cyberverse?

After originally watching Cyberverse I feel like I had to marinate on it for a while and here are my thoughts, it's long so get ready for a ride ! Major Spoiler warning for Cyberverse, I discuss a lot about character deaths and plot points

Overall, Cyberverse is fun if you don't take it seriously and if you don't care too much about the story. I feel like the main weakness of Cyberverse was the story and its strength was with the character interactions. Chapter 1 was a little repetitive since it mostly revolves around Windblade helping Bumblebee out with recovering his memory but it gives context to the world + character stuff. Jumping into Chapter 2 felt really out of place because things just happen-- how come humans know about the transformers ? Why are they being posted on social media to be memed on ? HOW IS MEGATRON LIVE STREAMING ??? How come Bumblebee suddenly has his voice back ? When I first watched through it I was like there has GOT to be something I missed because why is there this massive jump in time ??? But that's legit just how it is but it's kinda entertaining, you're there to see everyone be really funny and silly with each other. Chapter 3 was probably my favorite one, Perceptor is there and he's so GOOD, I love that he's blind, I love that he's such a badass AUGH he's perfect ! The story actually gets pretty investing at that point because everyone's working together against a bigger foe and it was genuinely really sweet to see ! I liked it a lot ! HOTROD AND SOUNDWAVE WORKING TOGETHER WAS MY FAVORITE I had no idea these guys could have such an interesting and fun dynamic with one another BUT IT WORKS, IT WORKS WELL ! CYBERTRONIANS SUPERIOR ! and then like the last half of Chapter 3 took me out of it low-key.. End of Ep 17 - Beginning with Ep 18 Enemy Line I was like AUGH.. NO MORE PLEASE ! And the looking for pieces of Windblade thing.. GO ON A FETCH QUEST. Chapter 4 (the two 1 hour specials) .. I'm not gonna sugar-coat it, I did not care for Soundblaster. TARN WAS INTERESTING I LIKED HIM but SOUNDWAVE. BRO. I WAS DEVASTATED, SOUNDWAVE BECAME MY FAV IN THE SHOW BECAUSE HIS ARC WITH HOTROD THEY WORKED SO WELL TOGETHER, WE CAN'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE !!! SOMETHING HORRIBLE ALWAYS HAPPENS

A surprising amount of like SOMEWHAT DISTURBING THINGS HAPPEN, not that there's anything wrong with it but it just seemed so jarring and a little out of place with the main tone of the show being more towards something lighthearted. There's a long scene of Starscream getting absolutely beaten to hell and back by Megatron and I was like OH MY GOD IT JUST KEEPS GOING ??? and when Starscream KILLS EVERY OTHER SEEKER I was so stunned like WHAT ??? OK GOODBYE THUNDERCRACKER, GOODBYE EVERYONE ?? Shockwave and Cheetor dying to basically battle it out in the Allspark was actually a little nuts. A LOT OF CHARACTERS DIE STRAIGHT UP ??? Prowl gets hit a little bit and I guess he's gone forever GOODBYE PROWL ! ALSO THE DRIFT TWIST LIKE WHAT OK THAT WAS OUT OF NOWHERE !!! HOTROD TRYING TO TAKE HIM DOWN WITH HIM ??? KINDA MORBID IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT. Hotrod getting a different color palette afterwards felt a little like Lost Light and I think that's what it was supposed to be referencing.

I actually didn't really like Jetfire's Cyberverse characterization in Cyberverse </3 I LOVE HIM DON'T GET ME WRONG BUT OH MY GOD HE'S UNHINGED, HE'S BLINDED BY HIS RIVALRY WITH SKYBYTE BRO HAS LITERALLY DESTROYED PLANETS TRYING TO KILL THIS DAMN SHARK. WHAT HAPPENED JETFIRE ???

Ok, now I'm gonna glaze the show. THE ART DIRECTION IS SO BEAUTIFUL. The character designs are absolutely gorgeous, I don't think there was a single design I disliked. I like a lot of the saturated colors used and how the character designs have a consistent motif of glowing accent lights on their bodies. I took a lot of inspiration from the art direction from Cyberverse for my own Science Continuity. The background work is absolutely breathtaking, it fits perfectly with the characters. I'm actually super inspired by a lot of Graham Finnigan and Piotr Bzdura's background work on Cyberverse (I'm sure it shows). I ALSO LOVE UNUSUAL CHARACTER INTERACTIONS ! That's what also inspired a lot of my Science Continuity, I love when characters who never really interact in other continuities interact, it just opens the door to so many possibilities. Shockwave and Wheeljack ?? Grimlock and Arcee ?? Perceptor and his uncooperative team ?? YES ! PLEASE !! MORE ! I had a lot of fun watching Cyberverse when I was not taking the story seriously and while at times it was grueling, it also had some highlights and really great moments !

Would I watch it again ? Uh.. Honestly probably not the entirety of Cyberverse. I'd only rewatch for specific scenes or episodes. Would I recommend Cyberverse to anyone ? If you're into character interactions more than story and plot, I'd say go for it but it's definitely not for everyone.

[bloomeng]

I always hear discussions about Jason and pit madness and whether or not it’s canon and I mean on the surface level it’s not canon in the way most fans use it in their fics. But pit madness is canon; the difference is it supposedly only lasts for a brief stint right after getting out of the pit. So to say Jason didn’t suffer from it is also not technically true. Now I haven’t watched/read every piece of Batman media about the Lazarus Pits and it could I guess be a later retcon, but if it is then it’s at least existed in canon since BTAS.

What I don’t love in this discussion is the policing of people when someone suggests Jason might struggle with it. Like yeah I agree Jason is far more interesting if you don’t write away his actions based on “pit madness” but this is fandom. Since when have people not played with ideas like this? Sure there’s also the annoying thing where people learn about it through the grapevine and think it’s canon but there’s nothing we can do about that. Anyway, antagonizing people is always going to be a worse offense.

Like ok. I don’t like wingfics, (I swear I have a point with this) I think they generally don’t improve the canon story especially in Batman where one of the most interesting plot points is them not having powers. But that doesn’t mean I go up to people creating wingfics and tell them it’s not canon and imply they’re dumb. Headcanons by nature exist to play in a sandbox and I feel like this fandom routinely forgets that. They’re so invested in a canon— that is canonly malleable— that they forget how fan spaces work in the first place. I get it that the DC fandom does have more issues with incorrect characterization and people not being willing to consume the source material than your average fan space. And I agree it can be annoying. But antagonizing people creating stuff isn’t helpful either.

Fun fact I actually read a really good batfam wingfic that took the idea but went in a completely different direction. Point is concepts you don’t like like pit madness can act as a form of constraint which can yield some pretty cool things if you’re open to it. And if you read something and it’s bad you can close the tab.

Anywayyyy pit madness Jason may suck his characterization away but damn if the art doesn’t look great. Red and green contrasting colors. All I’m saying.

[jesncin]

Okay, I'll bite, what are your feelings on the trans conner pitch?

Oh boy! Thank you for tossing me this bone because I have a lot of mixed feelings!

I notice that people online are very hot and cold about the Trans Superboy Pitch, they either love it or hate it and that doesn't leave a lot of room for nuance + discussion. So to be respectful to a fellow trans peer in the industry, I want to do a fair review/analysis of Skyrocket: the trans Conner Kent pitch by Magdalene Visaggio.

My general takeaway from the pitch is that I like the premise, but the details fumble the execution for me. I can really feel from reading the pitch that Visaggio cares about Superboy. She understands that he's a very weird legacy character who has struggled to find proper footing in the DC Universe after all these years. An effective legacy character is one who is able to spin off and expand upon the themes of the character whose mantle they carry. But the cheesy whatever-goes 90's-ness of Superboy's original run didn't give future writers a lot to work with in terms of a Superman Legacy Character.

It's why I genuinely believe the later retcon reveal that -part of Conner's DNA is from Lex Luthor- is a fantastic addition to his character. It takes a character who was just kind of screwing off to gentrify Hawaii back into the center of Superman's good vs evil conflict. But now Conner's problem is that his story is too tied to his origin and Superman's shadow. Placing Conner with the Kents in Smallville afterwards made him narratively redundant. What's next for him?

So let's dig into the pitch!

I like what's at the heart of this pitch. It's a very season-3-ATLA-Zuko "honor wasn't all it's cracked up to be" arc and I think that suits Conner's character really well! It's the details I have gripes with:

"Conner has been largely relegated to the Jason Todd of the Superfamily" oof, haha that's not a particularly fair characterization.

The constant comparing of Superman to Christian imagery. He's described as basically "Jesus goddamn Christ" in the pitch. The Tyrannical Kryptonians are named Saint, Shepherd and Savior. No surprise I don't like seeing a character who allegorically represented Jewish immigrants to be constantly compared to Christian imagery and deified.

It's inevitable with pitching to the company, but the pitch is bogged down by a lot of convoluted plot points. I get that it's necessary to pitch event tie-ins and universe hopping shenanigans, but it's a lot.

Leland feels like a plot device in this. I'm sure there were plans to flesh out the brotherly clone relationship between him and Conner so that he can feel like his own character, but from the summary he just kind of revolves around Conner the way the pitch describes Conner revolving around Superman. Oops!

Conner's relation to Luthor and Superman works as a story about legacy, bloodlines and the things parents pass down to their kids. It's best when handled thematically and not literally because it's easy to get into essentialist "good genes" vs "evil genes" near-eugenics talking points. Unfortunately this pitch has a lot of that vibe. Leland has more Lex genes so he's super smart. Conner and Leland are able to start a schism in the Future Tyrannical Kryptonian House by "proving their truer genetic link to the original Superman, unsullied by thousands of years of tinkering" thereby gaining allies. Not great!

The part where Conner wants to find "his own Metropolis" by moving to Dripping Springs, Texas. That's Jinny Hex's field of operations, so is it really his own space? I would've just given Conner a new town so he can better stand on his own and build out a unique cast system.

Okay let's talk about the trans stuff!

I get that it makes for an Iconic Visual Superhero Moment, but I really don't like the part where Conner steps through a magical crystal and pops out the other side as a trans woman. It robs her of having that discovery on her own. The pitch says "I believe that this is as natural a move as Iceman's coming out". And just?? Man, remember when Jean Grey read Iceman Bobby Drake's mind and robbed him of his agency by outing him through that invasion of privacy? For a pitch all about Conner's journey of defining herself, it weirdly robbed her of that moment.

The pitch does such a good job talking about how Conner feels like her whole life revolves around Superman and how pointless wanting to be Superman feels now that Jon Kent has taken the mantle. She has Clark's genes, goes to Clark's hometown school, is raised by Clark's parents and all that. So then why is she eventually named after the women in Clark's life? Constance "Connie" Lara Kent. Clark's Kryptonian mom and human grandma? Was the world so small that she could not name herself after anyone else or come up with a new name? Connie doesn't even get to name herself, her new name is one Martha Kent bestows her with. It's hypocritical, and doesn't have the same impact that Superman giving Superboy a Kryptonian name does.

Speaking of which, this right here is my biggest gripe. It's not in the pitch itself but?? Wait- why go on about how Conner deserves a name that's not given to her and then turn around and make Martha name her? Sure, Connie comes up with the superhero name "Skyrocket" herself but surely she also deserves to name herself considering the thesis the pitch built up about self discovery and agency right?

Also with all due respect, this is the whitest queer take on Conner's identity. I wish white trans people could understand that you can have multiple true names that reflect different parts of you.

When Clark gives Superboy the name "Kon-El" it matters that it's given. It ties so well to the idea of familial acceptance into a nearly-extinct culture. You wouldn't know how to reclaim that part of your identity when that culture's been wiped out, so of course it's an honor to be trusted with a name that preserves Krypton's culture. This is a common practice with diaspora reclaiming cultural names from closed cultures, they are gifted their names by someone more culturally connected. I think the pitch having Martha name Connie is trying to echo this, but it doesn't hit the same without that cultural context. It also undercuts the genuine joy Conner felt from finally having a name he truly identifies with. Conner was only ever referred to as Superboy before then. When Clark gives him the name Kon El, Conner cries out that Kon El is his "real name". It's one of his defining moments, and to have that be diminished by saying "It's still a name someone else gave him" is so disappointing.

Then there's the design.

This is gonna lean more into preference, but I'm not the biggest fan of this design! I get what it's going for but it has too much going on everywhere. It also doesn't have that proto-punk look original Conner had, so it ends up not feeling like him. It's too superhero, and not enough casual-wear-on-a-supersuit that Conner sports really well. I see how it fits in with the everyone-in-Superfam-is-wearing-jackets-era, but I also think those new designs don't look good either. Especially Supergirl's. I feel like Conner should be more punk post transition. No respectability beam for her!

Also the name Skyrocket? It's giving knock off-brand toy vibes to me I'm sorry D: People on twidder suggested Supernova and that sounds way better! Even Visaggio stated she prefers that name so you can't be mad at me for this.

Overall big conclusion feelings!

I've been following Visaggio's work for a while because it's awesome seeing trans people getting picked up in comics. While there are some things about her writing I like, for the most part I've felt like her work isn't my cup of tea. I tried reading up a bunch of interviews she's in to try to understand why her writing wasn't clicking with me, and what I discovered is that we have fundamentally different approaches to queer storytelling.

From Paste Magazine. I get where she's coming from, trans characters deserve to have multi-faceted narratives that don't overly center how they're othered at the expense of further characterization. But also? I just actually find the interior lives of queer people and identity interesting. I like writing the kind of escapism and joy that's informed by surviving and inheriting hardships rather than erasing those things or skipping past it. I think this is why Connie is robbed of her trans discovery in the pitch. Why we don't get to watch her grapple with gender identity in a political way. Queer stories about queer struggles are considered archaic and unnecessary nowadays. It's part of the escapism Visaggio values in her work; to give a place of respite for trans readers from the cruelty they experience in reality, but I don't connect to stories like that personally. Whenever I try to share queer Indonesian art and writing with my peers, I'm often told it's too painful to look at. That our pain doesn't fit the modern expectation for happy, empowering queer stories. "trans people get enough hardships in real life, they don't need that in their fiction" Visaggio still talks about her newest projects like this btw.

I'd love to see a take on Conner that more holistically continues the political immigrant themes of Superman. The white parts of fandom love interpreting Conner's identity crisis as primarily a queer struggle, but it's also one of a person grappling with his mixed heritage. He's a diaspora kid separated by a generation away from Krypton. He has yet to make peace with the Luthor side of his identity, one borne of generational trauma and resentment for one's roots. Instead of a take where his queerness separates him from the pressures of legacy, I want to see a Conner take that has themes that are intersectional about his mixed diaspora and queer identity. I want his superficial punk aesthetic to graduate into actual punk ideals. The anti-establishment and radical love philosophies of punk culture would make such a cool extension of Superman themes and it would make so much sense that someone facing so many intersections of marginalization would be radicalized from their experience. I want a queer Conner who isn't just empowering and idealistic, I want one that also gives space for queer readers to feel like their pain is seen too. Conner isn't "Truth, Justice and the American Way" he's famously "Truth, Justice, My Way".

There's a tendency in media criticism to treat marginalized talent as infallible, and I don't think that fair to creatives like Visaggio. Being able to look at their ideas with nuance instead of essentializing it as being Good or Trash is the best way to respect diverse creativity. And my nuanced feelings are that a white queer person who looks at Conner's story and just sees the queer part and dismisses the diaspora mixed heritage side of him,,, is not going to give me the Conner story I want to see.

[aziraphales-library]

May be an odd request, but do you have any fic recs where Anathema is characterized really well?

I don't see much of her, and when I do, she tends to be there to fulfill a role that may be lacking for what I'm after

I went through my bookmarks and picked fics I remember Anathema from, not just as a prop to get Aziraphale and Crowley together, but as a full character with her own stuff going on...

Friendship is Demonic Magic by Shadow0kana, whtbout2ndbrkfst (T)

After Crowley interrupts Aziraphale and Anathema’s phone conversations one too many times, Aziraphale suggests the two have their own meetups to discuss what they have in common. Cue monthly coffee dates between a witch and a demon who can passionately discuss (debate) anything from Halloween to Astronomy to Hamlet… while also conspiring to form a book swap aimed at getting Aziraphale to read anything written after 1950.

Reluctant Hospitality by brionypoisoned (G)

Anathema Device comes to stay at Aziraphale's book shop after breaking up with Newt. She doesn't know that Aziraphale and Crowley are romantically involved, and Aziraphale attempts to keep it that way. Everything goes very badly.

It's Not The Journey by cosmya (T)

It had been going so well. They’d averted the apocalypse, averted their punishments, averted further investigation or attention by their respective organizations. They were left with little to do but bask in the happy ending. Therein had been the problem. Another champagne, sir?” interrupted the flight attendant. Aziraphale’s eyes snapped open. Oh, I shouldn’t, he thought. “Yes, please,” he said. “Thank you.” Anathema and Newt are getting married, and two of their wedding guests are in a bit of an awkward place. An all-inclusive resort with unlimited alcohol is precisely what they need to re-break the ice.

Do I wanna know? by KissMyAsthma (M)

Aziraphale and Anathema are both closeted queer people, and they decide to do what any sensible closeted queer people do - they form a fake relationship, to shut the mouths of their families and shoo away unwanted suitors. Their comfortable arrangement is put into question when a school reunion makes Aziraphale reconnect - or connect, really - with his school crush, Anthony Crowley. But past is past, and now that they’re both adults, Aziraphale is just glad to make a friend. If the friend finds himself interested in Aziraphale… Well, there’s nothing for him to do since Aziraphale is taken, right?

what the water gave me (we'll watch the sun kiss the sea) by sabraneadaz (T)

“What’s your name?” Pepper asked, jumping to crest the next wave. She’d drifted further out to join Adam where he stood between the Them and the stranger. “All these questions,” the man said, “next you’ll be asking me if I’m an animal, vegetable, or mineral.” “Go on then,” said Adam. “Which one?” (The Them find their summer holidays spoiled by fly-tipping. A woman struggles with life without prophecy. A bookshop owner learns to love, and a mysterious man navigates 21st century courtship. In other words, it's the selkie au no-one asked for.)

Married at First Sight by Aracloptia (T)

“Well, that was a thing,” Crowley said once they were out of earshot. Without talking about it, they were both heading down the field, towards the lake where the photographer (and likely a few more people from the TV crew) was waiting. “That was a wedding,” Aziraphale replied, surprised at his own annoyance that somebody called a wedding a ‘thing’. “Yeah, obviously, didn’t miss that part,” Crowley said with a shrug, and waved abruptly in Aziraphale’s general direction. “Neither did you, from the looks of it, since you’re dressed like a wedding bride and everything.” “Excuse me, I am a—“ Aziraphale stopped himself, and started over. In which Aziraphale ends up marrying a rude stranger who wears sunglasses.

- Mod D

[arceespinkgun]

I know I already talked about it and all the reasons are probably obvious, but I still feel like I have more to say about why how Astrotrain was handled in the Skybound comics irritated me so much... somehow I still feel annoyed thinking about it and maybe if I type it out that feeling will fade XD

I remember in earlier posts I'd made, I kept saying how happy I was to see DWJ giving so much attention and depth to characters who may have actually had good spotlight episodes in the G1 cartoon, but who aren't often discussed and could have had so much more pathos in their stories. Beachcomber is a great example, as are Elita-1 and Cliffjumper. Astrotrain was the instance of this on the Decepticon side, but was also special IMO because those others still had strong influence from G1. Everything we see of Elita-1's characterization, for example, could be extrapolated from her appearances in the cartoon... I mean, I basically characterized her identically to how DWJ ended up writing her in a fic way before this series started XD But as I said in one earlier post:

... Everything about Astrotrain here baffles me. He was locked-up in the Nemesis, wants to kill Megatron who killed his “love,” has no desire to hurt the lifeforms on Earth… and yet still considers the Decepticon movement for the “greater good…?” Plus, all the twists on other characters seem heavily based in G1 or their bios and stuff, but I can’t think of anything in which he had any of these traits???

And because certain overlooked characters were getting this exploration, I think I was willing to ignore things like Ravage being treated like a prop or other characters who often get overlooked, like Trailbreaker, getting nothing so far. But given what happened to Astrotrain, I suddenly am much more critical and it's killed my interest!

Astrotrain's motivation apparently involving another character also brought up many questions. It would be one thing if Megatron had slighted/hurt him directly, but it makes Astrotrain's sense that the Decepticon ideology in general is still correct despite all his misgivings and desire for revenge against Megatron incredibly interesting. I thought Astrotrain was by far the most three-dimensional of all the Decepticons in the comic, and anticipated he'd have an arc and that by learning more about why he still believed in the Decepticon dogma, we'd come to learn about the Decepticon faction in general!

However, none of this ended up being the case. We don't really learn anything. We don't know why Megatron killed his love, Astrotrain never changed or grew as a character, and with Megatron's execution of him and what DWJ says about Astrotrain in the letters page, it sounds like none of this was even on the writer's mind at all. In fact, Astrotrain appears to have existed mainly to further characterize Megatron's brutality and Starscream's enslavement... that's what the death does. It wasn't even about him as a character.

And you know, I'm fully aware that this is the point. In Skybound, there just isn't any room for complexity among the Decepticons. You have to escape, like Thundercracker, or be devoted like Soundwave. But I want to draw a comparison to another sympathetic Decepticon character from something else. In the show Cyberverse, the character Slipstream craved respect. That, as well as feeling torn between the clashing agendas of her superiors and her own ideals, were major struggles for her. In the end, she did end up gaining the respect she desired... but it wasn't from some Decepticon. It was from the Autobot hero, Windblade, but it took Slipstream's willingness to grow and change for that to happen. Slipstream's development was very important to this show thematically, since it would explore the idea of peace coming between the factions, and Windblade's character arc and motivation ended up being heavily shaped by Slipstream.

Why do I mention all this? Because I think this shows how this idea can be handled so much better. If Astrotrain had grown in any way whatsoever I wouldn't be so angry about his execution. But to me, it reads like everything interesting about him are things we the readers learned, but that were already true for him. He also interacted with other characters, but he didn't leave much or any impression on any of them at all, did he? I guess I just wish I could have known more about Astrotrain's "weakness."

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Would love to hear your thought on meowrails break up and who they end up with?! Especially interested in Hal <> Nepeta!

Ok! Just a disclaimer before anything: this is not at all saying you shouldnt ship the meowrails, this is just a canon discussion blog and I have noticed... some stuff... but ship whatever you want, I literally don't care, all HCs are valid, etc. etc.

"Everyone has an important job to do." This is a phrase that gets repeated in Hivebent a few times, which makes it important, as Homestuck often uses repetition to build up an "internal lexicon" and deliberately highlight when situations have similar connotations (Hussie discusses this on their Formspring). So what's the context for this specific phrase? Well, it shows up three times, and for at least two of those times, it's associated with failed moirallegiances.

GA: But It Just Means Theres Got To Be Someone Around To Keep An Eye On Them GA: And If Not Me Then Who GA: Everyone Has An Important Job To Do AG: Ok, so you're spying on me. Kind of creepy! Man, m8y8e you should get a l8fe.

And

CC: I will need to connect after my goofball moirail does so I can keep my goggles on )(is nefarious escapades. CC: Its a toug)( job but its important! Everyone )(as an important job to do.

So, okay, apparently the context of this phrase is "this person is in a moirallegiance that will NOT work out"... well, here's the third time it pops up (though it's the first time chronologically):

Your best pal of all is A LITTLE BOSSY, and people wonder why you even bother with him. But someone has to keep him pacified. If not you, then who? Everyone has an important job to do.

So... hm. This isn't the only thing I have to say about meowrails breakup, but it is the most prominent one, and maybe the most damning, depending on how much weight you put into Homestuck's oft-deliberate use of parallels.

Maybe something a bit more damning is the way Hussie speaks about them in the book commentary? Pretty much every time they turn up, he has some comment to make about how Equius doesn't really "need" Nepeta, and about how he tends to talk over her and usurp her agency, like so many shitty boyfriends IRL.

We don't know much about Equius yet, but we get an awful lot of info about him with this excerpt. He's racist, a huge snob, doesn't like swearing, is stern and controlling, has a patronizing fondness for Nepeta, and thinks archery is cool because of its association with nobility. Combine this with the snapshot of his room we'll see soon, and suddenly we have an extensive character portrait. This was all important to establish quickly, because it helps us understand in record time that Equius is in fact one of the greatest characters ever created.

Equius says he appreciates that Nepeta's angry. I guess meaning that he respects an angry disposition, like his own. Especially early on in his characterization, it's suggested he has anger issues (like him taking his rage out on robot dummy combatants). But I'm not sure this trait holds up. Over time, he seems to show a lot more passion about his weird stuff, his passion for archery and muscular horse men, his submissive obsessions, his deference toward those higher on the hemospectrum and fetish-like indulgence in depraved attraction toward those lower. Ultimately he comes off more as a ridiculous nerd, with a soft spot for a lot of silly and creepy shit. My view on this is, it's not that the text lost track of the fact that he was supposed to be angry. It's more that this was his initial state of mind early on, and the more he started blowing off steam with his various indulgences (Aradiabot, etc.) the less he had to be mad about. We just meet him at a really high-strung point in his life. I think it's more accurate to say his "anger" is a form of hyperintense focus on being stern, aloof, proper, and averse to nonsense, which is a facade serving to cover up his inner personality, which is barely in control at all. Like Nepeta suggests, deep down he wants to play the kinds of silly games she plays. He wants to let go completely, and indulge every ludicrous and depraved whim he has. His arc tends to be more about caving to these indulgences, and all the mixed consequences that follow, than resisting them.

Here's [S] Equius: Seek the highbl00d, another playable RPG game. [...] But Christ, why am I talking about that garbage when we are about to review some truly choice material focusing exclusively on your favorite meowrails. It is a great illustration of their tragic dynamic; deeply committed and caring partners in the diamonds quadrant, and yet compromised by Equius and his stubborn class-driven faults, his pathological reverence for his superiors, his forced and probably not genuinely felt sense of disdain for lower bloods like Nepeta, and ultimately his failure to rise above these flaws when presented with a real test of character and friendship. A test imposed, of course, by a boorish murderclown, who from this point onward just ruins fucking everything, constantly.

Hussie is an unreliable narrator (of the "he's deliberately playing a character who's biased, opinionated, and sometimes wrong, because a major theme of Homestuck is that you have to question who's telling the story and if they can be trusted" variety), so it's difficult to parse exactly what he's saying is salient, especially since he talks so damn much. But even so, he constantly goes out of his way to highlight how the meowrails DON'T work out - which is even pretty canon in the comic.

In Hivebent, the two are established as working along this dynamic: Nepeta soothes Equius's anger issues, while Equius keeps Nepeta from recklessly endangering herself (for example, prohibiting her from LARPing). But as Hussie says, Equius's anger problems become basically nonexistent by the time Murderstuck rolls around, and his actual problem is his overindulgence in his fetishes; meanwhile, his bossy, controlling attitude to Nepeta was always kind of suspect, but it actively becomes a source of frustration to her that she can't wait to shirk (he bans her from talking to the humans, and she goes behind his back to do it anyways - even celebrates when Karkat gives her express permission).

In the end, they die for their failures as a moirallegiance - despite being fresh off a feelings jam in a pile, and so, supposedly at their least likely to hurt themselves or others, Equius's horny gets him killed (Hussie has always maintained across multiple platforms that Equius could've easily overpowered Gamzee, he just chose not to because Hot), and Nepeta doesn't listen to his orders to stay put. In later conversations with ARquiussprite, Equius is always framed as the one here who was wrong - who failed to keep Nepeta safe and has something to apologize for. I think it's also pretty important to notice that in the bubbles, Equius is never seen doing so - but IS seen being really weird to Aradias - fully implying that he's actually been avoiding taking accountability to Nepeta in favor of indulging in his fetish shit, out of shame and guilt.

As Hussie says, the meowrails are an important relationship, and when I say they don't work out, I don't mean they shouldn't have been together in the first place. On the contrary; I think they actually were good for each other, way back on Alternia. Nepeta DID keep Equius's frustrations in check, and Equius DID keep Nepeta out of trouble. But as time went on, Equius just got really comfortable with treating Nepeta like an object he owned - something convenient, which he can use when he's feeling sad, and ignore otherwise - and Nepeta started growing frustrated with his increasingly petty control. They grew as people, their needs changed, and they stopped being good for each other, but they stayed together - out of inertia and sunk cost fallacy on Nepeta's end, and on Equius's end, because it was convenient and pleasant (for him) and useful (for him) so why would he throw it away?

While this is something I think could potentially be worked out with relationship therapy, the thing with Homestuck is that it's big into the idea of soulmates, especially in the pale quadrant (which is described with that exact term). Its ultimate thesis on romance is that, while you have to do a lot of personal work in order to be the kind of person who can BE in a soul mates relationship, ultimately a relationship SHOULD have an element of just... easy compatability, idiosyncracies clicking together in just the right way to bring out the best in both parties. It's idealized, and there's criticism to be made about that, but that's still ultimately how romance kind of functions in Homestuck. The perfect match is out there for you, and while you have some growing to do in order to be ready for it, it's supposed to be easy once you get there. Consider how Eridan can calm Karkat down literally just by talking to him normally, or how Sollux regularly outright professes that Feferi's just fucking amazing - these are relationships where the involved parties don't need to tell themselves "everyone has an important job to do" with grit teeth to justify keeping the relationship going.

Meowrails lacks that inherent compatability, according to the evidence, but of course, that brings up the question of who they SHOULD date in pale instead. Hey, did you ever notice that Dirk (and by extension, Hal) are EXTREMELY Equius-coded?

So here's the thing. Hal's favorite alpha kid is Roxy, who is also pretty Nepeta-themed, being a cat-associated Rogue. They regularly flirtLARP with each other, but when we get a glimpse of this so called flirtLARPing, it's actually Roxy almost, but not quite, getting Hal to admit that he's actually not really that into Jake, he just feels obligated, as an extension of Dirk, to make DirkJake happen. They almost, but not quite, have a feelings jam.

Meanwhile, Hal outright calls his conversation with Dirk, as Dirk grapples with whether or not he should kill Hal, a "feelings jam", and Dirk also has a convo with Caliborn about how maybe he should consider the merits of selfcest.

What these interactions hint at, to me, is Nepeta <> Hal, and Equius <> Dirk... and I think if you consider it from the standpoint of their personalities, it works, too?

Nepeta is pretty consistently shown to have a knack for knowing how other people actually feel. Her shipping charts are incorrect in terms of compatability, but she's got a scary knack for reading intentions and desires - as befits a non-destructive Heart player. She's able to pinpoint that Eridan's advances on her are insincere, but he's not that bad a guy; she notices that Karkat is a big softie who loves his friends so much; she correctly reads that Equius is a big ol' goofball who loves to play games. Hal, as a Mind player, and even more as originally being a Dirk splinter and an AI, is deeply distressed by his lack of "self"-hood; it's Roxy who calls out first and most blatantly that he's clearly his own guy with his own real feelings, which seems to be why he gravitates toward her. Nepeta would do this even harder, since it's kind of her entire Thing, and I think Hal would really appreciate that, since Hal is at his worst when he thinks he's acting in someone else's best interest (Sylph lol).

Meanwhile, what Nepeta really needs IS an enabler. She's a rebellious soul with radical ideas about how the hemospectrum is stupid and dumb, and she's RIGHT and she should SAY IT. Hal's amazing at giving people what they "want", pulling strings to ensure DirkJake happens, while also framing it as something that Jake would want - this bombastic, action hero kiss-in-front-of-a-volcano. Nepeta's clearly attracted to characters with Equius-esque qualities, but after spending so long with Equius, who does nothing but push her down with a patronizing "hush, greenblood, it's for your own good," I think she would do well with an insane partner in crime who instead goes "fuck yeah girl, let's make this shit happen." Especially since her personal insecurities are that other people will find her dumb and silly (an impression that Equius certainly didn't HELP with...) - having Hal in her corner going "uhhh you're literally my favorite and I will engineer situations to fall directly in your favor?" would be a huge help to her.

I'm actually not entirely sold on equius <> dirk - they're maybe too similar? - i have in my notes here john <> dirk and equius <> jake. idk. the shipping web starts to get complicated

[uniquethingtastemaker]

Hi Clementine! I found your Jade fic because Sol reblogged it and adytshrgeutrdjghvkguftyfdhgfd)tfhgvjgv!!!!! 💗💗💗💗💗💗 Oh my gosh!! It was just absolutely perfect and I am in love with your writing now!!! 💙💙💙💙💙 Jade is already one of my favorite Twisted Wonderland characters and for you to write something so amazing - like I can’t even right now. This is perfect, you are amazing, and I love you so much for writing such an incredible story with Jade and posting it on here. Thank you so much!

Ahhhhh!! I'm screaming! Thank you for all the compliments! I always love specific ones lol

I looooove Sol too. She's amazing. I've been in her dms talking and discussing ideas. She's helped me a lot

I'm so glad you like my writing! This fanfic for Jade was really fun. I wasn't expecting it to become so good either, but here we are. I love to write stuff in canon, so expect to see more of that

Because you left so much love in my inbox, I'll disclose what I've been working on recently. It brings me joy when I give people some teasers lol... I also have no idea who your fav characters are, so i have no idea if this will interest you. Disclaimer: this is all WIPs, so things are subjected to change lol

I've been writing the "Overblot Slap -- Vil x Reader." That one is going to be a hit. Many people liked my theory if you just slapped Vil, he probably wouldn't overblot, so I'm making it into a fanfic. It will probably end up being 12k too if not a little more. It goes from Vil's "overblot prevention" to marriage, like Jade's

I have it all lined out. However, I'm still talking to @solxamber about Vil's characterization in terms of the man learning emotional processing. I feel like that would be really hard for him because it's not he usually does. It's hard to break habits, but Vil is nothing if not determined.

Like the Jade x Reader fanfic, it has a good variety of scenes and feelings. This one is more fluff, feel good, and wholesome. Unfortunately, no spice scene... so far at least. It doesn't seem necessary. However, there are some huge comedy elements. The Reader is bold as always and occassionally sassy.

I will disclose a little tiny, tiny teaser to get people hyped:

It's a wild move to stomp up to an almost overblotting Vil, slap him, and then say, "Yeah, you're ugly. You've been acting ugly for awhile now. You almost committed murder because of your stupid ego and inferiority complex. Not everything's about you. You don't get to decide you've lost when you haven't even performed. You're shirking your responsibilities as the team leader."

I read that and kinda lose my mind because what a power move. Again, Reader is bold and so done lol

It's so nice to see Vil so happy in this too. The progression is endearing to watch

We got a Rook x Observant Reader. I'm still playing around with it. I'm not sure how their relationship will play out. I have the first meeting and then Reader semi-catching Rook spying on them. It's more like "oh, i'll investigate where I think he was and check for anything that would indicate he was here." Then they realize that might be intimidating or threatening to someone who wants to stay hidden, so they just kinda apologize to air, knowing Rook is somewhere in the area lol

However, it's unclear where I go after that. I know that Vil's going to a problem. It's Chapter 5. What do you expect?

I'd like to write something with Azul (the man was so funny in the Jade x Reader). I'm not 100% how that will look. I have an idea that might turn into a series. Idk if I'm going to fully commit. Basically take characters realizing their sentient and they're kinda in a game. They kinda get one of those isekai systems where it's like "don't let the Reader know you're sentient and you can earn points." So they get to know Reader that way. Then maybe they're about to die and so Azul pulls them into Twisted Wonderland. That's really the only way I can think of a romance happening with Azul.

As someone so guarded and assuming everyone has ulterior motives, I feel like if Azul would be hard to get to. If didn't have the security of like "oh this person doesn't know i can hear them. Therefore, they will just say their true feelings about me because they don't have a reason not to," then it would be a lot harder

This concept would also be fun for an Idia x Reader. The whole "oh my god, i'm in a game" moment is great. He make so many fun anime trope references and whatnot. He's also so sassy and sarcastic. I haven't written for him before but this seems hilarious to me. I can envision it now.

Technically, I think all the overblot students could have a concept like this. Maybe everyone honestly.

This was also inspired by my reaction to Octavinelle revealing Jamil as the mastermind behind the chaos or whatever. I remember screaming in outrage when Jamil hypnotized Azul. Then the cheer that went up after the twist happened was so loud. So I thought it would be funny if Azul could hear the Reader during that section. He doesn't have anyone like that in game, so I thought I would give it to him