#i really screenshotted the worst frame lol

[anicehomicidaltree]

“Beardless Derek isn’t real, he can’t hurt you”

Beardless Derek:

[dontcryminecraft]

I saw people sharing thier favorite animatics related to November 16th/cwilbur, so I'd join in!

SO, in no particular order-

WOLFY WILL BE APPEARING AGAIN AND AGAIN! WOLFY NEVER MISSES WOOOO! The lyrics are wonderful and i love the blind in one eye look, it's so cool! watching cwilbur spiral in limbo as they reassess everything matches really well with song!!!!

I LOVEEEEE knp!!!'s art style and the moments they add line up PERFECTLY! Every chorus going "i miss you" at a different point in cwilbur's life as the song follows him through his story!

this circulates in my brain about three times a week MINIMUM i know i keep saying but i won't ever stop screaming about the LYRICS FITTING THIS SO WELLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!11!!!!!1 He didn't have it in himself to go with grace!! *points over and over again* And he can go anywhere he wants! ANYWHERE HE WANTS! Just Not Home! *curls up and sobs* and cphil!!!! "YOU HAD TO KILL ME BUT IT KILLED YOU JUST THE SAME ... YOU TURNED INTO YOUR WORST FEARS" MY LORD ROZU

i said Wolfy would be back and here it ISSSS!!! i ADORE explorations of cfundy's rocky relationship with cwilbur 'cause THAT'S HIS DAD *cries* and then switch to CPHIL and the CTOMMY, ommmmmgggg *holds gently* the family dynamics. yet it focuses on cfundy and i think we as a fandom neglect that part of the canon family or at least i can never get enoughhhhh

So this is ABOUT Revivedbur, and features a lot of flashbacks from the l'manberg eras as it changes alongside cwilbur. It's ctommy talking to cfoolish about cwilbur and i think about this conversation so often it's wonderful to see it in an animatic! it really highlights ctommy's philosophy and relationship with c!wilbur! ToKtopus

oh this one is so heavy but also so beautiful and i love it so much. This is where I adapted the headcanon into my brain that cwilbur had a l'manburg flag sewn on the inside of his jacket, over his heart, at all times. the silent monologue of ghostbur until the line at the end about everything around him being alive, except him.

sometimes i think wilbur and tommy listened to two bird right before starting the pogtopia arc and went "hey we should base our ENTIRE dynamic this arc on this" and then went live lol. I love this artsyle it's so cute and fits each character so well! I love the eyes in particular!

O to the Z to the Y to the MANDIUS wooo!!!! this changed MY brain chemistry and this changed the FANDOM's brain chemistry! if you are new here watch to change YOUR brain chemistry! and then go watch the rest of sad-ist they were one of the animators who popularized and showcased the lore of the dsmp arcs! Wilbur connects this poem to his character and it's so awesome seeing it read out and put to an animatic!

The mix of stream quotes with music is a SAD-ist staple and one of my favorite parts of their animations it just makes everything so hype! This just showcases the pogtopia arc up until right before the final battle so well! i love it every frame is a screenshot *chefs kiss*

And the odd-ball choice! Not cwilbur or ghostbur or l'manburg related, but instead it's that Oncelor song about the SCHLATT ADMINISTRATION! There is a eye strain warning in the title that gets cut off in the link, so I'm letting you know here! this is a really fun video and the colors are very saturated and fun! It has great humor and i laughed multiple times all while being very foreboding about what's going on in the Manberg era.

annnnndd there is a ten video limit so instead I'm going to link the last two:

knp!!!'s animatic "Not Your Fault" which is about cphil and his feelings after killing his son, going through the guilt and blame and all that good stuff. The chorus of "it was not your fault but mine, it was your heart on the line. i really fucked it up this time, didn't i, my dear?" just KILLS me every time!

The follow-up to SAD-ist's animatic above is "Dawn of 16th" and is amazing as always for balancing the music with the dialogue to create and wonderful narrative about that day!

[blueiight]

noble fujoshi paladin... choose violence!!! for Utena (3, 9, 13, 19, 24, ik it's a lot so pick whatever u want)

3.) screenshot or description of the worst take u seen on tumblr

okay yk how tumblr will like throw random posts from ppl u dont follow on ur dash just cuz u post about a topic a lot? before i (somewhat) figured out how this app worked that feature tormented me. n i seen someone frame juri& shiori’s ending as if juri was being freed from some evil controlling abusive fake gay bitch when if anything, following the show’s ending juriori ends on somewhat of an optimistic note? u literally have ruka’s episode end with ‘wish as hard as u can, and they may know ur feelings’ with shiori walking behind juri and juri slowing down to let her catch up & shiori end up w/ a locket of her own in the badminton scene watching juri and utena play the game w/ envy. this isnt so much what that person thought so much as (read to me as) shiori coming to terms with her love for juri w/o wanting to ‘beat’ her at the game of vulnerability or ‘destroy the me in her glare’, and juri being open with herself in a way she before this never allowed herself to be. the juri we were introduced to dont wanna be saved, shes stewing in her own misery & simultaneously lords her own misery over other’s heads. she thinks shes better than the other duelists bc she has no immediate evident need for anthy, but believed her own feelings for shiori were so impossible to realize that a miracle (& anthy as the object of such, the facilitator of this ‘ miracle ‘) was needed to realize such. and that makes juri an amazing character. i find with juri especially that people tend to project their own pasts onto her which is fair but it dissuades them from analyzing her as a character in a narrative which is so sad cuz her arc w shiori (& ruka even) is so fascinating… the girls may have more in common w blueberry touga than they think in wanting to ‘save’ juri here lolol

13.) worst blorboficiation

i had to look up what that word meant LOL but i feel like fans dont talk about utena’s own arc w/ the same sophistication that they do the other characters which is crazy cuz its literally a show about her. its part of my own motivation for an eventual rewatch , bc her arc is so amazing but ppl just think shes a complete dumbass & a jock when shes really a teenage girl whos trapped n is the victor of all of the duelists bc she grows to become aware. of where she failed and is unafraid to face her flaws in a way very few characters r able to become cognizant toward. imo nanami was the closest to ‘revolution’ outside of utenanthy bc she was the closest to realizing her flaw but couldnt accept being ‘ordinary’ in a way utena did. and utena’s victory, their destruction of the castle + self deigned exit from the narrative in the finale spawns everyone else’s eventual path to liberation. shes just my little boy 🥲🥲🥲also everybody wants to be an anthy or utena girl but theyre more like juri or blueberry touga than they think. soz!

24.) topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

sexuality HCs + in a similar vein, racialization of these characters… also ppl who think bc their fav cartoon derived some aesthetic inspo from rgu or general shoujo looks that rgu is just a cute kid’s show lol. also also ppl who completely shit on the rgu manga& chiho saito like. do they know she worked on the anime??

[natto-axolotl]

choose violence ask game. hollow knight

hi nonnie!!! unfortunately the last time i was super into HK was 2021 but i will try.

the character everyone gets wrong: lurien. he gets watered down into a pk fanboy almost every time i see him.

a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom: never ever thought about this, never ever will

screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr: not going to go into detail bc everyone's moved on and it was bad but it was a lot of weird discourse that happened a couple years back

what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?: discourse.

worst discord server and why: this is personal beef, but the daily HK server that imploded from surpassing the Users Prone To Discourse threshold in horrific flaming fashion. it's been literally almost 3 years though so we're all good.

which ship fans are the most annoying?: anything with grimm. terribly sorry this is not a particularly romance-inclined fandom and i cannot think about them being in love in canon

what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?: grimm. sorry.

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about: I haven't been keeping up with this fandom at all lately so i really dont know WJBDEJDBEN HAHA

worst part of canon: there's nothing i really don't like about the game :D

worst part of fanon: I don't reaaaally like the intense babying of pv and ghost in post canon "everyone lived" fics. let them have agency man.

number of fandom-related words you've filtered: none!!!

the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them: lurien!!! this is because i briefly ran an rp blog as him, but also because i think it's interesting to think about what would've brought a character like him to be so devoted to pk's cause, and what kind of person he was when hollownest was in the prime of its life. funny towel man.

worst blorboficiation: grimm. SORRY SORRY SORRY

that one thing you see in fics all the time: strangely contrived prose to refer to the body language of all the characters. i get it but Why

that one thing you see in fanart all the time: ghost being drawn with other indie protags. little baby is officia delegate of hollow knight.

you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc): everyone loves memeing on pale king as being a guy willing to kill his own babies to save his kingdom but i genuinely want some exploration of him beyond just a surface level flanderizing "lol. lmao he threw his kids off a cliff" joke. Hupis Incarnate

there should be more of this type of fic/art: i love gijinkas/humanizations esp modern day gijinkas never stop making gijinka content. also anything to do with the radiance. i love the radiance.

it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...: CORNIFER AND ISELDA AND THE FIVE KNIGHTS AND (hk fixation kicks back in 2 years layer)

you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...: lace/hornet. we don't even know the BACKSTORY. but do you think yuri can bloom on the battlefield.

part of canon you found tedious or boring: actually have never played HK lol

part of canon you think is overhyped: like 40% of the grimm troupe expansion. it's cool but the fanbase latched on too hard.

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores: KINGDOM'S EDGE AND EVERYTHING ABOUT MONOMON AND THE SIMPLE FRAMING OF THE INSTRUCTIONS AS BEING FOR HIGHER BEINGS. LIKE WHAT THE FUCK.

ship you've unwillingly come around to: lemmquirrel, i see it and im like "neat! middle aged bug yaoi and the aimlessness of a quest to reacquaint yourself with purpose! i haven't read sbabl ever!"

topic that brings up the most rancid discourse: (stares at camera) Shipping.

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing: when silksong (me too. but give them some time.)

[dirtyoldmanhole]

time for analyzing the absolute most freak-ass set of supports i have ever seen nintendo handle (affectionately)

A-support first since this got overly long, and i also touch on the JP versions as well.

half meta analysis, half lengthy shitpost because.

well ~

Last time in the Gunter/Corrin support train, we learned that Gunter used a little toy ball to coax Corrin out from her shell post the mind wipes when she was as skittish as a kitten, and then in the B support, Gunter/Corrin played catch again for the first time.

A little odd, but fairly tame. Here though ..... :')

(pardon me for the different "Corrin" look -- i ripped these screenshots off of a youtube version b/c i was lazy about not getting into the game proper) god do you know how many random ass files i have as reference for gunter JP/EN voicelines, JP/EN my room bits, transcripts, sprites, etc ... after this fic is done i'm totally making that fanshrine if only to stick all this shit in one place lol

anyway, corrin starts this bright and peppy and eager for more.

eyebrow waggle-/shot

cute. :D

(the stretching's cute, too. like, more seriously, this isn't just wind-down/playtime, you can tell he's always incorporated this subtly as part of her training, likely modifying some soldier's training in a manner a little bit more befitting of her.)

they keep going...

Corrin: Ready as I'll ever be! There's no way I'm missing one of your throws! Gunter: All right, then. Here we go. Corrin: And easily caught. I have to say, Gunter, you have excellent form and follow-through. You know, I just remembered… Wasn't this ball made from a whip? Gunter: It was indeed. A pretty odd choice for material, I know… Corrin: Gunter… Would you be willing to tell me a few stories from when I was growing up? I still have a lot of holes in my memory from when I was little. Gunter: Of course. But you'll have to pay attention to the ball at the same time!

i do find it interesting garon was keeping tabs enough on corrin to have opinions on how she was being raised, but not close enough that she has any recollection of him.

now for an absolutely wtf level of fridge horror: there's a part of the same JP lines above that made me sit way the fuck up.

Gunther: Of course. Then, as we’re playing… On that day, King Garon was in an incredibly terrible mood… He handed me this whip. He told me that until you were obedient, I was to continue whipping you.

"continue whipping" [record scratch] wait what the fuck

... i think that implies that garon was whipping corrin before she was she was sent to the tower?? man what the hell kind of life did corrin have between being kidnapped out of hoshido and before ending up in the northern fortress under gunter's aegis.

gunter's no saint, not in the least bit (i have sooooooo many issues with the side of fandom who thinks he's just a sweet wholesome old grandpa lmao lol looooooooooooool no), but damn did he sure protect her from the worst of krakenburg.

okay this is interesting

a) she doesn't trust her memory like, at all. it's wild to think that gunter's literally likely the one dude that remembers her early lived life the best considering her other retainers (jakob/flora/felicia) were kids even slightly younger than she was, the hoshidan siblings were really young as well, and no other playable nohrian character was around much other than the occasional visit, post her kidnapping.

it's a little terrifying to think about how (i guess, if you interpret the game that way?) anankos was possessing him way back when and had free reign around corrin. that's kind of why i'm not totally in love with that interpretation (that'd be the perfect time for anankos to take out/corrupt corrin. why didn't he?).

anyway

b) that 'closed off' line says a lot from him, considering Gunter's hardly a socialite, either. in fact their whole support chain was framed around corrin seeking him out because he starkly seeks out alone time so much that it's a little ... isolating.

so like, if mister 'nah i don't need to be around people' is saying that, sheesh. i dabble in it with this slowburn fic, but i could almost see corrin being selectively mute at times, and hiding from people days at a time.

their dynamic ain't normal by any means but you can see how that kind of early-stage trauma bonding on both of their sides would influence [gestures at] everything, you know?

gunter's not just a father("figure"). or just a combat instructor. or just a mentor, or later, just a lover -- he's something that's more, even all combined. there's a hardwired sense of trust and codependency that's seared into them from the get-go.

(it's fucked up! god it's fun to write though.)

so i ambled away from my computer at this line while screenshotting these and only afterwards realized that this out of context sounds like a goddamn porno LMAO

[whispers] what in the fuckity fuck nintendo

corrin, sweetie.....

...................how in the fuck are we supposed to read that with a straight face sjkhshajhjhjjh

lol. lmao.

okay [drags hands down face and cackles]

so this is right about where i really have to say i genuinely cannot see their (romantic) relationship being anything but a kink relationship. (and i say this in the fic notes but it's not the 'bdsm acronym pasta garbage' sense, and it's not in the 50 shades of grey cliche 24/7 M/s sense either, god i cannot fucking stand the cliche version of that shit. shoot me if i ever write that.)

and i say that for several reasons.

one - if you're shipping them, their mutual power dynamics are so hopelessly tangled between them and it's the one language -- in a way -- that they both "speak" later on that is uniquely equipped to handle a lot of that and the trauma junk from both of them in a private, loving, dignifying way. i genuinely mean that, too. rev's possession arc with him, corrin recovering from the mind wipes, etc. they're gonna have to face a lot of unpleasant shit together, and actively grappling at and mutually playing with those realities is, in a complex way, hell of a lot healthier than simply pretending it doesn't exist in the first place.

(two - metatextually i think nintendo intentionally encouraged a kink flavor to gunter/corrin because this ship does squick the fuck out of most other people and i'm not totally unsympathetic to that, so i think it's a way of quickly weeding out everyone except the folks who are genuinely here for this in an unironic sense. )

three - i already wrote up kink analysis re: gunter here lol (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ

four - and sorta on this note, what's interesting is... with a lot of kinksters i know, they knew they vibed differently in that way really early on, even as kids. like even in stupid silly make believe play games they'll tie up barbies in random ass ways or discover in a genuinely innocent way that they like specific sensations of pain they can control. later on as adults, a lot of times the brain wires go [bzzt] and suddenly the world of power or sensation play makes a hell of a lot more sense, and frankly, is a lot more fun in certian sexy arenas of life. sometimes it comes along with trauma junk, sometimes it doesn't, it's not a binary thing (as basically everything isn't).

THAT IS A LOT OF WORDS TO SAY corrin also inadvertently being wired that way and having these little semi-accidental lines doesn't actually surprise me that much. (i can also see this specific line being a little bit of a 'hrmm' flag for gunter in that she's not going to run away instantly screaming at the idea of playing these specific kinds of games, later on once when/if they're romantic)

am i projecting a little? fuck yes, that's what we're here for

Gunter: Indeed. I knew that striking you wouldn't ever get you to open up to anyone. So I came up with a different method - one that used this ball. I returned to your room sometime later, and I rolled the ball over to you. Corrin: Which I immediately picked up, examined, and threw back to you. Gunter: Oh, you remember this part? Good.

that actually is incredibly wholesome she remembers this part. ;a; you know gunter was always probably lowkey sad at her not remembering key parts of her childhood, regardless or not if it was moments between them or not.

wheeze

so did you know, treehouse actually neutered this down from the JP version which was straight up, i shit you not:

Gunther: …It’s nostalgic… It really is. Kamui: …How long has it been since? I’ve always considered you like my real father, Gunther-san.

l u l "real father"""""

i'm dying man

every single goddamn time i think this ship can't possibly get more fucked up IT DOES

YOU STRAIGHT UP MARRY YOUR DAD IN THE JP VERSION LMAO

it would be hilarious enough just knowing the whole existence of a (married) S-support coming up but coming right after the heels of that THE BALL WAS A WHAT realization.... hee

anyway here's the last chunk:

Gunter: You… You are much too kind. Ah, now look at what you've made me do. Corrin: Gunter! It's rare that you miss a catch. Gunter: My sincerest apologies. There was… something in my eye. Corrin: Getting sentimental in your old age? Hang on, I'll get you a handkerchief.

damn girl, 'sentimental in your old age'. you vicious! :D

it is horrible of me but every time i think about the end of this support i bust out HYSTERICALLY LAUGHING for a completely different reason since if you headcanon Gunter as always holding a flame for/romantically harboring feelings for Corrin-

CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT HIS THOUGHTS WERE TO THAT ""FATHER" LINE LMAO

on one hand: 'i'm special to her :'))))'

on the other: [ O H K O ]

anyway half of what makes the A-support peak fridge-[everything] is the S-support right after ~ coming soon!

[archaardvarkarchive]

finally someone who speaks to the point!

I genuinely appreciate that a lot, even though I will still debate it.

Unless catharsis cannot be obtained any other way (it can) this still doesn’t exactly get to the core of whether an author ‘should’ or shouldn’t do it.

For as many of the audience might experience catharsis, another segment may (really, will) be heaped with more pain than their life currently holds.

So the utilitarian calculus here is muddled at best, and perhaps weighted towards the negative at worst.

That’s not to unilaterally condemn any death that ever happens in fiction ever (it’s way more complicated than that, and also not all harm is big enough to merit moral consideration, or much of it …)

Now, we have to examine whether the abstract concept of “Themes” is a moral good in itself. What’s the argument for that?

Inflicting more pain on the audience is in what way a moral good? This isn’t a sarcastic question at all! It’s what has to be justified for this line of argument to work.

The “characters are not real people” angle is a very tricky one- I can try to locate some science papers on comparing brain scans of directing people to think about fictional characters vs. those in their lives

(but I’m not sure I saved the links lol)

Would you disagree or agree that the grief that say, an autistic person may experience from a character they are hyperfixated on, may in fact be quite a bit stronger than real life people who die? Don’t take this question lightly- many people on the aromantic or autistic spectrum quite literally do not form as strong social bonds!!

(speaking from both forum discussions about having atypical reactions to funerals, and personal experience of IRL bonds, tho im not going to get into which of the two traits I am for the scope of this discussion)

That’s the extreme example ofc, I don’t know how NT or allo ppl, or further, people who do not have as vivid imaginations or don’t trauma-bond to characters internally experience this pain.

I can’t be inside another person’s brain.

That’s part of the reason why it’s hard to gauge exactly how much moral weight this should have.

It’s just poor form to make fun of the screenshotted person’s expressing its objectively unnecessary nature (because it is ultimately unnecessary even if it’s justified. That vocabulary switch needs to be noted here, because you use the word “need.” Need refers to things like eating, drinking, maybe even war- if it’s defensive- it does not apply to fiction choices. Period.)

Now, if I can weigh in on my fuzzy memory of Holes… Sam may have been maimed, jaded, chosen not to go through the trouble of pursuing her (people break off dating for any number of lesser reasons than mortal danger! Alloromanticism is not as unstoppable a force as people like to think) harmed in any number of ways that pried him away from her, and the narrative would still have worked. Maybe not even worked “as much.” But so what? What’s the argument that it should (that’s a moral ‘should’ there) work in the way that’s superlative? Also note here, WE THE READERS are not attached to Sam. We barely know him. He doesn’t apply to the argument that the screenshot was trying to point out!!

This example is not what’s being presented!

I engaged it out of courtesy, and bc I don’t mind tangents, as long as they are clearly and fully acknowledged as tangents.

@msexcelfractal

I did not intend to insinuate that authors are ‘careless’ in any way.

In a similar way that people in decades past might not know or weigh what ‘micro-aggressions’ were bc they were more concerned with overt racism, humanity has the ongoing potential to self-reflect more and more. To refine moral considerations to a higher degree than people did previously, even if said previous people were plenty moral within their context and their frame of reference.

im starting to think you guys dont like it when stories make you feel things

[kitkat-the-muffin]

Late screenshot dump/review for Cloutchase Vol 4!

Here are the previous three installments: [1][2][3]

Hey everybody! It's been a while, about 7 months since I've last been remotely active in this fanbase, but this past weekend I played Vol 4 with my friends and I am here to share my favorite screenshots! I will of course start this post off with some spoiler-free teasers to encourage others to play the game themselves!

And now it's time for the rambles!

This session was quite unique since I had two friends with me this time!

"Homestuck is too problematic lets to Danganronpa" oh I just know you guys put that in on purpose. I only ever saw the Danganronpa anime once but my friend immediately knew who they were going to dress up as and she was right haha

Honestly I love how Snapchat has a permanent dog filter on. My other friend who joined us today gave him the most perfect voice that I can barely attempt to describe. I called it "Irish-Canadian stoner" if that helps you imagine it

Backrooms reference *airhorns*!!!! It was kinda funny when TikTok just abandons the player in favor of egg theft, but what I think desperately needs to be talked about is the alleged missing lion man. Who is he? Where did he go? I have to know!

I spent a good 5 minutes rambling about Musical.ly's character design before I realized they're TikTok pre-transition. They look so fashionable tho! Can I get the raw files of these photos?

YOOOO VINE GETS NEW SPRITES!!!! I like how he's behind the times because he's been dead for a while haha

This is the best possible timeline I think

Tumblr looks FANTASTIC heck yeah

What did they mean by this?

Kinda love how Threads is a character and also kinda not a character. Design is peak tho

Get Gatsby'd! If I had a nickel for every time I was Gatsby'd this year I'd have two nickels-

Congrats on the gender! Genuinely though why did Twitter start looking infinitely more attractive to me after coming out as transfem? Like... she's so pretty now... but also exactly the same? Gender is a construct but holy cheese

I was literally trying to read the option choices and she cut me off ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff anyway hi Reddit. My friend had a surprisingly good Reddit voice (I'd describe it as incel meets gamer but less embarrassing somehow)

Old man Facebook! My friend had the WORST voice for Facebook... Imagine the creepiest old man asmr of your life

Kinda interesting that the Magical Girl sequence is part of the Bad Ending. My friends and I agreed that it was more of a Neutral End than a bad one. She looks great tho, I love the art in Instagram's route

Caught in 4k! This frame only appears for a split second haha

I really like how they characterized the creepy tracking of meta software this way. Instagram looks pleasant on the outside but underneath that top layer is a completely fake personality that covers another layer of invasive curiosity that covers another layer of genuine artistic enjoyment. That's so interesting! Anyway my friends and I started theorizing what the multicolored strings mean and we're stumped on the white bit between Amino and Kik-

I love Insta's photos, I like how they're physical polaroids. The logo on her bag is also the old Instagram logo! I need to see that full sized photo of Tumblr and Twitter tho-

Honestly didn't expect this ending but it's cute and I love it! Genuinely we should all be encouraged to post about our favorite simple pleasures rather than trying to appeal to the masses

Anyway before calling it a night we looked at some of the new bonus content (some of which is just stuff from the tumblr blog lol) and dang is Wikipedia so pretty in this screenshot

Actually my friend saw this next photo and said "he's just like me fr why don't I have that?" Honestly I can't wait for the Wikipedia route hahah

ANYWAY GET GATSBY'D FOR A THIRD TIME-

Or a second time if you aren't a Gravity Falls fan lol

Anyway, this volume was a lot of fun and I greatly enjoyed playing it! I like how TikTok's route had multiple activity choices and endings. It's kind of reminiscent of how much time you can accidentally waste on TikTok haha

Instagram's route being based on trying to maintain a level of perfection was interesting, as well as the Great Gatsby motifs. I laughed out loud when Waltz of the Flowers played because I'm hyperfixating on Princess Tutu rn and my friend is obsessed with Tchaikovsky so that was fun

Here's to the next volume! I can't wait to play it!

[fivegaze]

3.31

mm heres what i did today- i added the combo system (where you have to follow the key sequence on screen to add damage to your attack), fixed what was wrong with it (i kept trying to access the scene variables not realizing that with an additive scene there would be two science variables objects and it was trying to pull from the wrong one.) when that stopped being broken (aka i just plopped the whole thing into the same scene which felt like an anticlimactic solution but hey) i finally fit it into the state machine. it's not fully functional yet, but when i sat down they weren't even connected at all

there she is! my incredibly janky combo system. please ignore the way everything just stacks on top of each other that's not. staying there i am going to animate it. none of these ui graphics aside from the menu buttons and text choices are final btw i am not leaving those govt street sign ass arrows in there.

this is what the state machine looks like for the combo system :] i called it combo crusher <3 i always worry that my state machines look really janky and cluttered but i guess that doesn't matter as much as if it's working lol. ummm one day i'll learn C# (and html because god lmao) but for now it's just me and my little visual scripting machines against Da World.

the second pic here is how i'm currently detecting input which feels silly to me but there's no event block for "any key down" just this one so that's what i'm doing for now. my blatant abuse of on update is what got me into such a Freaking pickle with something's on the station. fun fact that game is Not built with fungus like space case and the VN scenes for soul squad. i wanted to do it myself and i spent so long building a prototype for UI that i didn't even end up using at all that by the time it was time to plug in the dialogue i didnt really have a lot of time to work the system out. so it's just the world's worst dialogue system. do you wanna see it it's SO bad

i can't even fit it into one screenshot. every time you click the "advance dialogue" button it checks to see if you're on the last line and if not it's like okay what line ARE you on then. at which point it pulls from a list of every voice line (unlabeled and barely organized btw) and corresponding dialogue line which is, like, fine, okay, whatever, and ALSO,

IT'S CHECKING WHAT LINE YOU'RE ON EVERY FRAME and just going through a giant if/else chain to make sure the right characters are active. also on every frame it's updating the text color, just in case. also sometimes more than one character is active and it just completely breaks the color coded character text. like okay this could definitely be worse but it sure could be better. i'm being overly self-critical bc i'm an annoying perfectionist (to the incredible detriment of my wellbeing and productivity, obviously) so the fact that it was all completed during a semester gives me SO much room to self-crit. i'm still really proud of it even though i ran out of time to bugfix and i didn't have time to level any of the audio or clean up any of the voice lines. (seriously though this is me being proud of something i make i just don't know how to not like pick my work apart. /neutral.)

anyway this is supposed to be a soul squad update so let's move on from that

this is the turn system btw! combo crusher is brand new. i already have a (time consuming) move selection set up which is irritating bc i'm gonna have to go in and undo everything so i can add a new movelist but i'm moving that out of the priority spotlight(tm) because um my (writing) scripts are NOT done and i need them to be done. cheers and light and love this is gonna be such a meaty github upload im pumped. i love writing myself little devlogs for me and me only. like a little treat

anyway that's all i did today besides go to an extremely short job interview which was cool. i really hope i get the job because i would like to be able to afford rent :D

[mahoushoujotechsupport]

time for ep 7

where is sucy

studious akko is here

creature from the black lagoon refs

just a random screenshot cuz i noticed diana and barbara are at the front but kinda removed from everyone else, or at least diana is. wonder where hannah is

iconic diana shot (not gonna lie, i dont actually like this frame lmao)

akko moment

fuck off lady

imagining being thrown into a language class with a bunch of heritage speakers of that language and you’re the only one who’s never spoken it once in your life

all this rewatch is doing is making me really really appreciate akko lol

was about to say if a C is her worst grade shes not actually that bad of a student but then realized this is probably based off the japanese academic grading system wherein a C falls between 60–69% and thats a D in the US and i’m not even gonna bother trying to understand all the different UK-based grading systems lmao

akko face

lmao this is so stupid and yea its played up for laughs but like she did good! like cmon shes never tried magic before coming to luna nova so this is actually commendable

wish we could have seen what diana did lol

imagine going to witch school just to become a plastic surgeon

can we talk about alic kelly 

imagine if we actually got an episode where amanda dragged everyone to a club lol

mushroom juice

good akko faces... also this scene was basically me in college any time i told myself i’d take a quick nap while pulling an all-nighter lol

yea

pipe bomb akko

akko just pissed off astrology girls everywhere

gotta wonder in which way diana’s prediction was supposed to go. like imagine if she was fucking around and meant it quite literally in that she would just leave campus versus hannah and barbara saying she’s gonna drop out

hell, imagine if diana saw her own shared future of akko going after her at the manor lol

still don’t understand how only akko gets in trouble here

lol akko

this is so dumb

how to uplift your students and definitely not bring down their self-esteem, a book by anne finnelan

ok a little admission to make here - the first time i watched this episode i was high and i could not stop laughing at the professor pisces reveal. this whole episode is def one of my favorites

the premise of this whole episode is just so absolutely ridiculous, i love it so much

akko you gay baby

like cmon this is probably the funniest fuckin scene in the entire series

just some looney toons level shit lmao

and props to asenshi for making this pun

do you think ursula thought she might lose her job during this episode?

this episode really solidified this as one of my all-time favorite series lmao

this is why she’s akko’s mom

she did it

esteemed luna nova professors

this episode is just one of the best episodes for showing off what a good little bean akko is. like they’d been screwed even worse if akko had listened to lotte and left the fish family to the poacher

ursula could’ve coward’d her way out of this like later on when akko goes missing, but...

... she stood up for her and despite everything else later on. and look at akko’s face at that 🥺

i didn’t notice for the longest time that every time we see a newspaper after episode 3, we get an update on the shooting star

get owned finnelan

not so fast

this must have been the most hellish week in entirety of akko’s life at luna nova

🥺 🥺 🥺

ok and thats it

i said it above, but this is for sure one of my favorite episodes of the series and it just encompasses a lot of what’s fun about lwa. idk to me when i first watched it, it was like a massive dose of serotonin while i was going through a bit of a very hectic and stressful time and just everything about the show was just something that made me happy 

lol wow can’t believe the girl who strove to make people happy with her magic… makes people happy… with her magic

[antiloreolympus]

11 Anti LO Asks

1. im sorry that pic collage literally looks like hades giving a peptalk to his 14 year old daughter before her first day in high school than his FUTURE WIFE. even the cutesy foot positions is what little kids/teens do?? also yeah you cant flip flop shes SO powerful and amazing but also hasnt proved herself?? like sorry, shes a goddess with a rich mom and countless awards to her name, the idea shes the most powerful bu also the underdog makes zero sense and only adds rachel cant write her well.

2. where is this idea the underworld cant grow life from and only persephone (to "prove" shes actually powerful) can make plants down there grow? the myths mention theres an thriving orchard there and countless fields of flowers and forest well before persephone or even hades showed up. i know rachel has no respect for the mythology but really, this is the best she can do? persephone doesnt need to "prove" shes powerful, rachel just needs to write an actual character, yet she doesnt even do that.

3. lets be real here, at least every character needs ONE drawback, ONE thing at the very least that others have over them (more patience, more cunning, better resources, more allies, richer, smarter, prettier, ANYTHING) ye rachel just CANT let persephone not be perfect and the best at everything and have everyone instantly fall in love with her, so shes just not a real character? her only "drawbacks" are seen as cute and "powerful" (naive, easily manipulated, can control her anger, etc) so??

4. persephone is probably good at everything because she's a fertility goddess... ergo her super womb 

5. LO Persephone took Psyche's butteflies, she took Demeter's scythe, sickle, and fertility/earth goddess powers, she took Aphrodite's unique beautiful status, she even took Athena/Zeus/Apollo's status as the most powerful deity who can change the world order if they wanted to. Like, must every other god have their symbolism, powers, and even important items taken away from them for Persephone's benefit?

6. yeah the "apollo is a sun god" stuff is easily one of the biggest giveaways rachel is taking out her ass and doesnt actually know a thing about the mythology she so readily claims to be an expert in, and tbh doesnt even get the later roman stuff either.

7. For the Sun God stuff, Artemis was also called Phoebe which could have helped her connection to the moon. There was also the weird thing with her connections with Trivia (Hecate) and Luna as Diana Trifomis. She usually took center stage in that trio which could’ve helped the Romans just attribute Magic and the moon to her and thus Artemis as her Greek equivalent

8. the thing is isnt even helios framed as bad in LO? like his version of the AOW was proven a big lie and even vindictive against persephone, so are just just supposed to buy everything and everyone outside of the underworld (or really, everyone who doesnt kiss hades and persephone's butts at every single moment) is the worst?

9. rachel literally thinks hades being a god of wealth means he owns ALL the natural resources (which in ancient times would literally only be rare metals and gems, the idea itd also include gas and petrol or whatever is such a gross modern idea and tbh evil considering the global climate disaster we're all currently in, so is he the cause of it??) but also him making his wealth off the backs of literal SLAVE LABOR so yeah, kinda clear rachel is not exactly the expert she claims to be.

10. I've been scrolling your blog for about 40 mins... am I crazy or was there an original LO that Smythe scratched after getting some backlash? Bc I've been looking for old posts and screenshots and I came across your blog and thought that maybe you'd know with all the screenshots I have so far seen.  But you have so much content and I'm stuck with mobile tumblr lol.. The goal of my search was that I was telling a friend how RS had originally planned and had like publicly promised that LO would not contain any rape (I'm sorry if that's a trigger word, but, well. Idk how to say it without saying the word :/) bc she was going for a different kind of retelling.... and then she made LO Apollo into a bad guy. :/ and so I was telling my friend that that was my grief with RS's story but now, forever later, I can't find diddly squat and I'm wondering if I made it all up in my head that there were old posts like that and even an original run of LO on webtoons. But I'm betting both my knee caps and both big toes that she had said that bc that was the only reason why I started reading her webtoon!!! She had promised it wasn't going to have Persephone getting hurt like that so I eagerly subscribed at the time.

Also if you don't have screenshots or have made a post already or even know what I'm talking about, that's ok. I'm not submitting this ask for you to do the research, just hoping in case you maybe have screenshots of her old posts already or even know what I'm talking about. :(

I feel like I'm going crazy not being able to find old posts lol

From OP: You’re not crazy, RS just deactivated her tumblr and twitter (she reactivated her twitter but her old tweets are gone, she still deletes tweets regularly). So, I understand that finding any screenshots on it is pretty difficult.

11. honestly, if the only way rachel can "prove" persephone is this deep, powerful character is only through saying shes better than everyone else, then persephone actually isnt. yes theres a hierarchy with the kings and hera on top, but the gods all had different strengths and weaknesses, persephone included, but they were all powerful and respected. the idea persephone HAS to be better than everyone else to be deemed "powerful" is both bad writing and a terrible read on the mythology itself.

[lightrises]

"Only in allowing her to pass..." — Hornet, The Radiance, and the means by which Hallownest turned its victims against each other

A quick note: I read Hollow Knight as an anti-colonialist text. As such I'll be touching on topics related to colonialism as it's depicted in the world of the game, and said analysis will reflect both a sympathetic take on The Radiance and a critique of The Pale King that won't pull its punches. If this sounds up your alley, hello and thank you for the read! Let us be sad about these bugs together.

———

So!! A while back I realized something about pre-canon that felt rather... "curious" is one way to put it, I think. To wit: for all the effort and scheming and determination The Pale King poured into trying to get rid of The Radiance, neither of his plans involved directly killing her.

Was that his long game? Well, sure, that seems clear enough. His tack changed from luring the moths away from their god and creator to a more literal form of incarceration once the infection became a factor, but at its core the end goal never really changed—The Pale King very sincerely wished to destroy Radiance via obsolescence. The Seer lends us foreshadowing to confirm as much:

[Image descriptions: Two screenshots from Hollow Knight, showing the Seer and Ghost in the Seer's alcove at the Resting Grounds. Across both screenshots, the Seer tells Ghost the following: "None of us can live forever, and so we ask those who survive to remember us. Hold something in your mind and it lives on with you, but forget it and you seal it away forever. That is the only death that matters." End description.]

(Which, by the way and given the context, talk about an extremely unsubtle allusion to cultural genocide huh!!! Whew.)

In any case, we're left with a whole bunch of machinations which build up to... well, two very roundabout attempts at committing deicide. That's kind of weird, all things considered! Why not just do the deed in one fell swoop and get it over with?

This could be for any number of reasons. Maybe the king was devoid of the means to instantly kill another higher being. Maybe his personal sense of scruples stopped him short of signing off on MURDER murder (although, y'know, the aforementioned genocide + eternal imprisonment = still cool and copasectic apparently!). Maybe the long drawn-out cruelty was the point. Maybe the idea of playing fuckign 4D chess with the circumstances was too delicious for him to pass up—that man did love to tinker and stick his claws where they sure as hell didn't belong—or maybe it was a little bit of All The Things. Who knows!!

But interrogating The Pale King's methodology on this count isn't what I'm here for, at least not really. The main reason I raise this question at all is that in her own way, Hornet did too.

"I'd urge you to take that harder path... "

See, going by The Pale King's actions and what The White Lady explicitly says, they both foresaw two outcomes wrt the infection: it can be allowed to spread, or it can be contained. At Teacher's Archives, Quirrel acknowledges the fact that Ghost is expected to do... something about this, but he doesn't elaborate on what HE thinks that's supposed to be apart from the obvious "Gotta bust into Black Egg Temple first". Hornet is the one person who presents to us—to Ghost—what's framed as a third option: confront and destroy the infection at its source.

And she doesn't bring it up like it's just another tactic for Ghost to consider, prim and indifferent to what they would do. She nudges them towards it, actively, up to the point where she throws herself into the fray against Hollow at a juncture that's uniquely dangerous to her and her alone just to make that option feasible.

Even when she's couching it in disclaimers that this is still Ghost's decision to make (and let's be fair, she's extremely not wrong about that lol), no one can pretend Hornet is unbiased. It's obvious in that buttoned-down Hornet kind of way that she is way the hell done with the increasingly tenuous stalemate that's kept Hallownest's desiccated corpse from collapsing in on itself. Personally it's hard for me not to read some Toriel Undertale-esque "My father was too entrenched in his own foolishness to pursue any course of action that would have DEFINITIVELY ended this" shade into her stance here, regardless of whether that's strictly true in canon.

And that bit—Hornet's hopes for an end to Hallownest's stasis, moreover her grim calculation of what needs to be done to get there—that's the bit I find super interesting but likewise tragic and depressing as shit, on multiple levels. In no small part because a) canon itself gestures towards Hornet feeling conflicted about the very plan she's pushing, and moreover b) she has at least two (2) damn good reasons to feel that way.

So, what do I mean by that? Let's look here first:

[Image description: A screenshot from Hollow Knight, of Hornet and Ghost inside the Temple of the Black Egg, standing in front of the unsealed egg itself. Hornet has been struck by the Dream Nail and her dialogue is displayed as follows: "... Could it achieve that impossible thing? Should it?" End description.]

As the curtain is about to drop on things one way or another, Hornet thinks,

... Could it achieve that impossible thing? Should it?

Now, looking at that last bit it's easy to go "Oh no, Hornet's worried that Ghost won't survive killing The Radiance!" And I do think that's part of it: Hornet is, categorically, not her father. By endgame it's clear she's not content to view her Void-borne siblings as tools to be used then disposed of. She's also well aware that as a healthy autonomous Vessel amongst the countless dead, Ghost is the only person left alive who has a fighting chance against The Radiance. Knowing someone is the only qualified candidate for the job doesn't make encouraging them to embrace a probable death sentence any less of a bitter pill to swallow, though. And odds are on that this sentiment extends to Hollow too, who IS going to die no matter what happens here. To put it bluntly, it's more than reasonable to conclude that Hornet hates the absolute fuck out of this.

But I don't think that's all there is to it either. Remember what I said earlier about The Pale King's bids for genocide? Well, it's not like the man deigned to limit his efforts to just the moth tribe.

"We do not choose our mothers... "

On top of everything else—an infected Hallownest being all she's ever known, the fact that she only exists because of the infection, the list goes on—Hornet has spent her life wedged into a position that's been uncomfortable and terminally unglamorous at best: she is both a daughter of her father's kingdom and of Deepnest.

Deepnest, which like the moths and many others was here long before the wyrm and his lady wife swanned onto the scene and the God Become Bug laid claim to everything the Light touched plus a considerable amount of change. THAT Deepnest, which has fought claw and thread to retain its sovereignty against same-said settler king, and for which Herrah not only surrendered her life but also agreed to bed her worst enemy, all in hopes of securing a viable future for her people (put a pin in that last part by the way, I'll come back to it soon).

Two Worlds, One Family (Ft. An Indigenous Woman Trying Her Damndest To Work With What She's Got Versus An Imperialist Who Only Signed Up For This Because He Needed The Political Favor THAT Badly, So It's The Height Of Dysfunctional Actually). Fun times!!!!

The baggage this entails for Hornet is gnarly enough without implications made by The White Lady and the pre-canon timeline of events and even Team Cherry's dev notes that the king may well have looked at baby Hornet, gone "YOINK", then ensured she spent the lion's share of her childhood reared within the pearly auspices of his Pale Court*. That would be rather advantageous for Him Specifically after all, the potential to mold a born foe into a future ally and even have her trained in combat under the same tutelage as her doomed sibling. And far be it from him to stop a grown Hornet—his own flesh and blood too!—from making Deepnest her forever home if she so pleased. He totally wouldn't be reneging on his "fair bargain made" by doing this one simple thing until Hornet came of age, not t e c h nic c a l l y.

If that is indeed the case, there's a non-zero chance Hornet's formative years were a hot mess of cultural alienation and being a good deal more privy than most to just how much of a bastard her father could be. There's an equally non-zero chance that at some point she stood or sat within earshot as The Pale King finally, finally dropped all pretense and euphemism to name the Light for precisely what (for who) it was.

See, in conjunction with the question that started this whole dang train of thought I've been asking this one too: Does Hornet know? When she speaks of confronting "the heart of [the] infection" does she know she's talking about not just a literal person but someone very specific? The Radiance, who god though she may be shares skin in the game alongside Hornet as a native woman screwed over by the same settler king, likewise deprived of her kin and saddled with a life gone horrendously pear-shaped?

I'll assume for the sake of exploring the possibility and because I think it's a likely one anyway that yes, Hornet does know. She knows, and despite everything can't help empathizing. She might even look at Radiance and see bits and pieces both reflected and slightly inversed in her own mother: Radiance was forced to the sidelines while her people—her children, the brood she was meant to lead and care for—died out under The Pale King's rule, and it's no stretch to assume she's at least as upset about that as she has been about everything else; Herrah too took drastic measures for her people's sake, trying to head off annihilation by relegating herself to the sidelines in an act that was as much calculated risk as an attempt to find wiggle room and leverage in the face of a nasty proposition.

A calculated risk that, if things continue as they are, might well amount to nothing as the rest of Deepnest gets eaten alive by the infection. It survived The Pale King's advances for so so long, only to fall here. Herrah's sacrifice would be for naught; the other tribes—themselves the king's victims—would keep succumbing to the infection too.

And this is where things fall apart.

"... or the circumstance into which we are born."

Let's be clear: I think Hornet is wise enough to know what's what here, that all the carnage and suffering falls on her father's head for starting this slow-motion trainwreck in the first place. Hallownest wasn't always Hallownest. This domain was Radiance's home first, along with many others. It was the worm-turned-king who rolled up on the scene unsolicited and decided this was a ""'problem""" that had to be """solved""".

But the fact of the matter is that he's gone and The Radiance is here, raging, seemingly inconsolable. Above and beyond being Deepnest's rightful heir, Hornet isn't in a position to countenance more splash damage even if the grief and fury fueling it makes perfect sense. She can understand without ever bringing herself to love Radiance, and she can bend her knee to practicality even if she hates the everloving shit out of it because the fact that it "has" to end this way isn't fair.

This lends itself to one last awful conclusion: that Hornet has probably considered and (rightly or wrongly) discarded the possibility that Radiance can be saved, at least not without dragging more collateral along for the ride. If even her mother and every other enemy to the king seemed to dismiss talking Radiance down as an option way back when... well. Why should Hornet hope for any better after things have escalated so far?

Again, it's practical. A practical net good is what Hornet strives for. And again, it fucking sucks.

For extra tragedy points, this makes Hornet's extended crypticness around Ghost followed by her last minute casting about for a reason to tell them "Wait, don't; not just yet" that she never voices even more of a gut punch. She can't bring herself to burden Ghost with the context that haunts her so, least of all when it might weaken their resolve to go through with what (she thinks) needs doing.

It's the "same song, different verse" which led to the mantis tribe and Deepnest being pitted against each other: Hallownest rigged the game so that two women who could have been powerful allies—who have a mutual vested interest in driving out settler rule—wound up poised as enemies instead. And how awful is that? The king for all his being extremely fucking dead still gets the last laugh, because outside of a miracle the game never manifests Hornet can salvage what her mother started and look forward to a future where Deepnest pulls itself back from the brink if and only if The Radiance dies.

Resolution comes at the price of a completed genocide. Add two more dead siblings to the unconscionable pile thereof, while we're at it. That's what it boils down to whether or not Hornet can bear to articulate it as such, and there's no grace or even a properly bittersweet ending to wring from this clusterfuck. And that is rough.

———

* This has been better explained elsewhere, but a quick rundown: The White Lady tells Ghost that Hornet and Herrah "were permitted little time together." On its surface this can be taken to mean that Hornet was still very young when Herrah was shipped off to Eternal Dreamland—except this doesn't jive with the fact that we meet Hornet as an adult. If the stasis kicked in once the Dreamers went to their rest, which in turn halted the aging process for every living bug in Hallownest, AND before all this Hornet experienced little by the way of quality time with her birth mother... I think you can see where I'm going with this.

To top it off we've got Team Cherry weighing in ominously from their dev notes on Herrah: "As part of the agreement for her alliance and her role as a dreamer, King gave her a child (Hornet). Was she allowed to keep this child or was she taken away?" This isn't confirmation by itself of course, but given additional canon details (see above): Can I get a "yikes" in the chat fellas.

[tenebriscollective]

A Response

First, before we do this, we’re going to take the liberty of posting your entire response to our review that we left. However, I do hope you are aware that we could absolutely tell that you didn’t bother reading through the whole thing. As a lot of what you say in this response is already denied in the review you were responding to. For the sake of those who don’t like long posts, however, we will be putting everything beyond this point under a read more.

The link to the site, so that you can read our original review: https://disboard.org/server/213915266554396672

This is The Megane System’s response, in full. Which we will be taking parts of to go through for our response piece by piece. One can’t say we cut context when we provide the full response and the link back to the server page to show the original review, hm?

The response: 

Posting words here instead of talking to me directly like an adult is why I'm not the dangerous one. Really don't care or want anything to do with any of you who value publicly airing dirty laundry as opposed to just talking to me so you can feed your ego feeling like a 'good person'. Sprinkling it with words that sound like understanding mean nothing when you shut down normal communication methods. This kind of cancel culture is emotionally manipulative, predatory and has endangered lives. Life isn't clean and squeaky, neither are you and neither am I. If you can't get your head out your ass long enough to realise this then enjoy your delusions of purity but I assure you everyone you have ever met and ever will meet has had dark thoughts of violence, disturbing imagery and vile emotions. It's part of life, denying that is denying life. I've never 'defended someone sexualising a little alter in the server' and I'm still baffled where the hell that came from?? Everything else was scraped out of personal DMs and my personal spaces I used to manage my BPD away from public spaces and only where people I thought I could trust could see (obviously I couldn't lol) but that I have zero recollection of I think you guys are just having fun giving me horns and trying to deny me any consideration of changing or improving. Because that's what this thinking does. It labels people permanently as 'BAD PEOPLE', and they can't ever grow beyond that. It makes their lives feel worthless, and they themselves beyond saving, and so they end up repeating the same mistakes, because no one expects anything more from them. I know this because I've always tried to break this in how I run my server. With the belief that anyone can become something better, that anyone who believes anything, holds any views can be helped to grow and function better among others. That's why I allow people with 'bad views' around me. That's why I talk to them, that's why I actually spend time treating people as people and not punching bags like you do. You do not help the problems in the world, you merely cement them, so I will never run my server how you want me to, because it is wrong and I won't cave to a bunch of bullies.

We are going to start off to state first addressing the very start of this. But put simply, Megane System (we will be referring to you collectively, since we have a system member who is also called Reiji, and don’t want people to get mixed up), we were never under any obligation to contact you directly. Framing it as if we’re the dangerous one because we didn’t do that is quite manipulative, and honestly quite ironic. Given you never gave us even a seconds moment to communicate before evicting us out of the server when we were still a staff member. We were trying to communicate, but were simply being ignored. The fact that you try now to weaponize this lack of communication as a method to somehow disprove and dismiss our review is honestly hilarious.

Really don't care or want anything to do with any of you who value publicly airing dirty laundry as opposed to just talking to me so you can feed your ego feeling like a 'good person'.

Airing dirty laundry implies that the accusations we outlined in that review weren’t the degree of seriousness that they were. This is honestly also the worst attempt at downplaying what we said we’ve ever seen, but it does show that you clearly didn’t read our review in its entirety, despite there being parts at the end specifically addressed to you and Alec.

Sprinkling it with words that sound like understanding mean nothing when you shut down normal communication methods. This kind of cancel culture is emotionally manipulative, predatory and has endangered lives.

Again, we were under no obligation to use normal communication methods, especially when normal communication methods in the staff room were completely shut down while you maligned everyone in the staff because we didn’t like that you had returned so suddenly and without warning, and knew that the sudden return would not mean good things for those you hurt, who were, at the time, on the server. And honestly, I think it’s emotionally manipulative that you continuously deflected questions while we were in the server about your drama and tried to frame it as something incredibly small, inconsequential, and petty. 

Life isn't clean and squeaky, neither are you and neither am I.

We and anyone who has ever called you out never claimed to be. You made this assumption because we called out your behavior which crossed lines that should never have been crossed in the first place.

If you can't get your head out your ass long enough to realise this then enjoy your delusions of purity but I assure you everyone you have ever met and ever will meet has had dark thoughts of violence, disturbing imagery and vile emotions. It's part of life, denying that is denying life.

We are well aware and do not have our head in our ass. But I have never met anyone but you and other awful people who would not only have, but vocalize in detail those thoughts to other people, whether those people were the target of those thoughts or not. I’ve met plenty who write journals irl to get it out, who draw to get it out, or write whump and angst fanfics in order to vent it out in a manner that doesn’t emotionally hurt anyone or suddenly shove those thoughts onto individuals who may not be mentally or emotionally prepared to hear it, even if they have them too or have similarly aligned ones. Again, there was no context that you could ever assign to the screenshot being talked about in this part that would make what you said in anyway ever acceptable, even to those who have intrusive or dark thoughts of violence, disturbing imagery, or vile emotions.

I've never 'defended someone sexualising a little alter in the server' and I'm still baffled where the hell that came from??

We have screenshots and logs that prove the opposite, and I’m sure the person we received them from would not be all that fussed if we asked for them a second time and gave them to either of the blogs that currently have callouts circulating about you. Because you did do this, you may not have recollection of it, but the non-little alters of that system and the one who tried to step in and were stopped by you certainly do.

Everything else was scraped out of personal DMs and my personal spaces I used to manage my BPD away from public spaces and only where people I thought I could trust could see (obviously I couldn't lol) but that I have zero recollection of

And as we stated in our original review, your BPD, your (suspected, but not formally diagnosed) autism, or any other mental illness diagnoses or disorder you may have does not absolve you of the fact that many of the things you did were not okay. Your continued use of “but I have [x mental illness/disability] and was managing it” or “it was personal” will not change our minds on that. We are formally and professionally diagnosed as Autistic, we know  you have attempted to excuse your behavior before by saying you might be autistic yourself. Thereby you were attempting to excuse your shitty behavior with being possibly autistic, and excuse your shitty behavior because you have BPD does not fly. Many of the people with callouts against you or who don’t like you either know someone with, or also have BPD/Autism or whatever other mental illness or disability you’re going to try excusing it with next time.

I think you guys are just having fun giving me horns and trying to deny me any consideration of changing or improving.

Another sign you did not fully read our review, or just plain didn’t believe us due to your own assumptions. As we state in the last part that is specifically addressed to you that we hope you are able to change and improve, that you are able to recognize what you did hurt people and was wrong, and that you rectify and show through your actions that you do that. But downplaying all of this as you are as just drama, or just a facet of “cancel culture”, or whatever other thing that makes it sound less significant does not prove that. And so, as of right now, as we respond to this and surely as you continue with your server and trying to twist things to fit your narrative, you have not shown that you have changed or improved.

Because that's what this thinking does. It labels people permanently as 'BAD PEOPLE', and they can't ever grow beyond that. It makes their lives feel worthless, and they themselves beyond saving, and so they end up repeating the same mistakes, because no one expects anything more from them. I know this because I've always tried to break this in how I run my server. With the belief that anyone can become something better, that anyone who believes anything, holds any views can be helped to grow and function better among others. That's why I allow people with 'bad views' around me. That's why I talk to them, that's why I actually spend time treating people as people and not punching bags like you do.

We don’t treat people like punching bags, no matter their views. We treat people as people, even if we disagree, but if those people do not treat us as people in return, it’s harder to feel empathy when they have consequences slap them in the face. I know you’re referring to our rewritten rules here, and I’m sure you’ve trashed them to make your own again, and stopped cracking down so hard on all the usage of slurs in the server once again. And if cracking down on that and keeping to our word about not allowing those on the server is what you see as treating people not as people, then I don’t know what to tell you. Slurs come inherently from bigotry, no amount of “opposing views” erases that those words come from that. Let alone that there are some views that are simply bigotry dressed up in a political hat.

We did talk to those people, we had debates, and we stepped in when people were getting too heated between each other to be considered a debate. Anyone can become better and improve, anyone can make a change to do so. But you can only do that if you put in the effort, and so far, you haven’t done that. You’re all talk, but you haven’t actually walked the walk.

You do not help the problems in the world, you merely cement them, so I will never run my server how you want me to, because it is wrong and I won't cave to a bunch of bullies.

You mean how we want you to run the server in a way that makes sure it’s not a place that lacks solace and allows bigotry to fester under the guise of different views? Or how we want you to make sure that any system littles currently in that server, if they haven’t left already, are protected so that they aren’t sexualized and that you don’t defend the people sexualizing those littles? Because from how we see it, none of those things particularly make us “bullies” like you claim, they just make us considered a decent person who has proper boundaries on what they will and won’t allow, and someone who’s willing to actually enforce them so that members don’t feel uncomfortable or unsafe.

Anyway, as before, we doubt you’ll read all of this, but if you do, here’s a big notice, right in big big italicized letters:

We won’t be responding again, flail all you want, make a fuss, throw a tantrum that we aren’t going to give you the time of day. Because we honestly don’t care. Because we don’t and never have owed you any of our time.

[des-dabbles]

𝕊𝕋𝕆ℝ𝕐 ℙℝ𝕆ℂ𝔼𝕊𝕊 ℂℍ𝔸𝕃𝕃𝔼ℕ𝔾𝔼

by @herpixels

The challenge: show a certain part of your story process based on you being tagged by other creators!!!

I was tagged by the amazing @poetic-falls​. Since they answered all, so will I. I feel like lots did this not too long ago, but I’ll tag: @nova-plays, @junktrait and @rainbow-llamas​.

Long stuff under the cut.

1. Your writing process - show us a part of your script or explain how you write your scenes. Do you write in screenplay format or novel format? Etc, etc.

It depends. When I was working on my Wilder FDC, that was mostly unscripted. It was purely based on gameplay. Same with my current gameplay, the Harding’s. With the Tuhoro’s, I have done a lot more scripted writing. My google docs are filled with the various scenes and such.  

2. Scene building - show us you in the middle of scene building through pictures, gifs, or a video. Explain what is the best thing about scene building and what is the worst!

I have a love/hate relationship with building. I love creating something special for my sims but don’t think I’m that great a builder. It’s a struggle. lol. I delete most off my WIP pics, so don’t really have anything to share. And I don’t think I do anything special when building. Just adding those little touches that make it unique for that sim/scene.  

3. CC/Pose Making - do you make your own cc/poses for your scene? If so, what is your process like to create? Do you just go off the top of your head? Do you use reference photos?

I definitely do not create my own poses. I have so much love for the amazing cc creators out there. @nova-plays has made a few poses specifically for me and some of my scenes (ILY).  I will occasionally do recolors of photos/frames to add that special touch to a sim’s house.

4. Getting in the zone - What do you do to get in the zone to work on a scene? Examples include: show us your playlist you use when working on a scene, what’s your go-to scene snack/drink, etc.

Depends on my mood. Spotify helps a lot and I have a playlist I made for Tuki/Adi story. I’ve also been listen/watching a lot of streams recently. I just usually need some sort of background noise. 

5. Screenshot folder - give us a look into your screenshot folder to show us just how much goes into ONE scene for your story. (Scrapped pictures encouraged!!!)

It’s a messy organized mess. I do take lots of pictures I end up not using, but it’s more just me taking the same picture from many angles. 

6. Captions - are you a caption on the picture kind of storyteller or captions in text box type of storyteller? Why? Do you do both?

Dane’s BC was the first time I did captions. While I do like them, I also hate them. lol. I’m a writer that tends to struggle with conversation so it’s sometimes easier to write what the person is thinking/feeling vs trying to convey that in actual speech.

7. Editing!!!!! - explain and show us your process editing a scene through a video, gif, or picture. A Before and after will suffice if you aren’t in the middle of editing a scene as you answer this.

So... my editing depends on my mood. The last time I majorly edited anything would have been Dane’s BC. The before picture has my reshade on it, but from there, it’s running a few different ps actions over the image, some blurring and adding light leaks. I’ve been embracing more warmth recently in my photos. 

8. Throwback - show us an ANCIENT story scene you done in the past and explain how you would do the scene differently today!

I don’t... Besides Tuki’s story, I’m not at the point of wanting to redo my scenes. Truthfully, I have a love/hate relationship with sims stories. It’s a more personal thing of being able to display what I want to show using the things in game and never quite getting it right. I’m definitely too tough on myself and if I stress too much over things I’ve done, I’d never post again,

That said... quite a few of my scenes go through a test scene first. Usually it’s there for me to get a better feel for the scene. Tuki at Penny’s grave was one of them. I thought I had a saved version of the scene where I tried a different rain effect, but I can’t find it. (The pics for that scene show an unedited one vs the final one in the story post.) Also, I like to test outfits and sceneries. See what works. When I was doing the 15 day couple challenge with Dane and Ray, I originally thought they’d marry in Sulani. I wasn’t happy with the shots I was getting. I tried Windenburg instead and their entire proposal/wedding story hit my like a ton of bricks. (Pics below are the unedited ones) 

[lesbianaglaya]

how like gross is the terror? i've been meaning to check it out for a while but also i'm not great with gore. also love your eskew/silt verses posting! ty!

ahh thank you!!! okay i will preface this with the note that it takes rather a lot to get me to be icked out of watching something so. grain of salt with what im about to say. anyway on to grossness levels of the terror! (under a cut for space reasons and also for descriptions of gore, but no screenshots):

okay so what i will say from the offset is there is definitely gore in the terror. like in almost every episode someone gets maimed, a central plot point is that the crew is being hunted by a polar bear-esque being through out their journey. you see shots of stumps of legs, cracked skulls, and blood on ice. 

i will also say is that another common thing is medical stuff? which i mention because that is something im not great with and it’s like. gore-adjacent. there are shots of bullet wounds, an autopsy, and two amputation scenes (but one of them cuts away as the blade goes down). also you are slowly watching these men’s bodies decay from a mix of exposure, lead poisoning, scurvy, and injuries by the end. there were a few moments where i had to look away because they would be looking over their bodies for sores etc. which is my big no thank you <3. 

one more thing i should mention (im so sorry) is that there is cannibalism in episodes nine and ten, and it is graphic. the worst of it is definitely in episode ten, where you see a character’s carved up body laid out on a table. i will be honest, i knew that this happened and i thought it would definitely be more than i could take because the last movie i watched that actually made me flinch was raw which is like. two hours of cannibalism lol. but upon watching this scene i was surprised that i was able to look at it and sort of. not feel disgust or fear but sadness. this is likely because i had nine episodes previously of grievous injuries to prep me and obviously not everyone will react the same but i wanted to mention it.

now that ive probably talked you out of this show, i will say is a lot of the worst maiming scenes happen in winter when its night all the time, or in fog so you cant see it as well. the ones i remember as being the most graphic were a scene at the end of episode three, a scene at the end of episode five, and the final confrontation midway through episode ten. ive only scene the show in full once though so im probably missing moments, but these are just the ones that stuck in my memory.

another thing i will say is that i have never seen a show use gore more effectively. there isnt a scene in the terror that isnt thought out or doesnt hold some meaning, and this goes for the gore as well. it isnt at all, in my opinion, like slasher movies where there is just gratuitous blood and guts for the sake of it (which can be fun! but would have no place here). each scene where someone gets injured serves a purpose, and it’s all framed very well in that it keeps you in the same mindset as the characters you’re watching. each decision is understandable, sometimes there are no good answers. sometimes shots of injuries would be so fast that i wouldnt even register them till later because there was so much happening, which made me feel like i was with the characters as their adrenaline faded and they started breaking down.

it is also one of the most darkly hilarious shows ive ever watched. episode ten which is a masterclass in cathartic misery managed, in the middle of it after almost making me cry ten minutes before, to give the funniest line of the series (shout out to jared harris’ delivery). this helped me almost lighten the gore i suppose? like sometimes things got so horrible i had to laugh. which, well. so did the characters.

the gore kind of fell away for me as i got more and more invested in the characters emotional states, and the show does a really good job of making you feel like you’ve earned something by the end. i will say that i simply turned my head away at certain scenes and was okay but of course that strategy wont work for everyone. 

if you decide to watch it, have fun!! its one of the best seasons of television ive seen in a long time. but i completely understand if after reading this you dont want to watch it! its fantastic but there certainly is gore in it.

[mythicasualty]

Oh gosh, I've dreaded getting this question! Only because I am the absolute WORST person to explain things. I'm gonna try, though, for YOU. If you have any questions after, just ask. I'll try my very best to be helpful. :) Here we go!

Download the video you want to make gifs of. I use Internet Download Manager, but there are plenty of other video downloaders that are free. Youtube Downloader is a pretty good one. Also, the higher the quality of the video you download, the higher quality the gifs will be. I always try to download in 1080p HD. 720p HD is good, too! 

After the video is downloaded, I open Photoshop. Photoshop you have to pay for, but GIMP is a great and FREE alternative. Once Photoshop is open, which usually takes forever for me because I think my laptop would rather be a turtle, IT'S TIME TO MAKE THE GIF!

I use import video to layers. I know some people use a frame extractor, but my turtle laptop would take forever to do that so it's actually faster to just import. 

Find the video you downloaded and just double click. I’m gonna use the GMM video from today.

Once the video is up, use those little arrows to select the frames you want to make the gif of and then press OK.

You'll most likely have to delete some of the frames and layers to get the exact images you'll want the gif to be. The less amount of frames and layers, the lower the gif size will be. There are other ways to make the gif size smaller, so if you want to know how to do that, I can show you them, too! Just make sure that you delete the same layers as the frames you delete. That's important.

Now that you have the frames you want, resize. I try to make all mine the same size because I am annoying like that. Tumblr's width limit is 540, I use 450 500.

Now, we gotta sharpen. But we have to sharpen ALL the frames. When I first started making gifs, I would sharpen each frame and layer one at a time. Was I stupid! On your layers panel, highlight just by clicking the first layer, and with the first layer still highlighted scroll down to the last layer, hold shift and click. Now all the layers are highlighted. 

Next, down at your Timeline, click that little button in the lower left corner. 

Your Timeline should look like this.

If your Timeline does look like that, click on the Filter tab and Convert to Smart Object. Everything we do now will apply to everythinggggg!

I'm not gonna lie, I have absolutely NO idea if this step helps the gif quality in any way or if this is just an extra step that I needn't do. But I still do it. Filter-->Sharpen-->Unsharp Mask. 

These are my settings for this step, but you can play around with the sliders to make it your own. Again, no idea if it does anything lol.

This step, though, really DOES DO something. Filter-->Sharpen-->Smart Sharpen. 

These are my setting for this step.

Hey! The sharpening is done!

But that weird shiny glow is weird, right? There really is a weird shiny glow, but you can’t really tell on a screenshot. BUT IT REALLY IS THERE. We can fix that. Back on your layers panel, right click on Smart Sharpen on your layers bar, click on Smart Filter Blending Options. 

Then set the mode to Darken. Click OK and VOILA! Not so weird looking anymore.

The three little line thing on the top right corner of your Timeline panel, click on that, go to Convert Frames and then Flatten Frames Into Clips. We're making layers again!

Once the layers are made, the three square thing on the bottom left of the Timeline panel gets clicked. 

And then we go back to the little line thing. This time, though, click on Make Frames From Layers. And everything is back now!

I always delete the first frame and the first layer. I have a PSD that I made to color the gifs and I may resize it a little more because I'm annoying, but there you have it! A gif! File-->Export-->Save For Web to save it, and as long as it is under 3MB (I was corrected and told that the size limit is actually 10MB now, not 3. So thanks, anon! You’re a sweet peach! :) I still try to keep my gif sizes small, though, because the larger the size, the grainier the gif becomes and I’m not about that life.), it can be posted to tumblr!

Here is the finished gif:

I know there are faster and probably much easier ways to make gifs, but I’m so used to doing it this way that anyway else would feel wrong XD I hope this was helpful enough and if anyone uses these steps to make gifs of their own, I would absolutely LOVE to see them!

[silver-wield]

I’m curious as to what you think about the friendship between Tifa & Aerith with the remake & if you have any (possibly in-depth) analysis of their friendship? Watching them interact during the remake really made me think about how much Tifa cares for Aerith & vise versa. I love how their friendship progresses over the game. I hope we get to see more of it in future games. I’m all about Cloti but I also love whatever Tifa & Aerith got going on for themselves, just the ladies lol

I gotchu, nonny!

About time we show everyone these girls can get along and hopefully people will stop trying to erase one of them!

Ok, spoiler warning for ppl who haven't played – do I still need to do this? Eh ok, (I tag FF7R spoilers as final fantasy 7 remake spoilers) and it's gonna be a VERY long one so prepare to scroll.

Also, this is one person's interpretation of the scene, so if you disagree that's cool and we'll agree to disagree.

You're also gonna have to excuse the janky quality on some of the screens, I'm grabbing them from Youtube and it's frustrating af trying to get the exact moment I want.

Other analyses if anyone's interested.

Shinra HQ vision scene (Cloti/plot analysis) 

Chapter 3 (Cloti reblog) 

Tifa character analysis 

Aerith Resolution (plot analysis/theory – I should probably update this since I've had other ideas since then) 

Train graveyard (not really an analysis, but I got some sweet screenshots of Cloti) 

Clotiscrew tunnel analysis 

Cloti reunion analysis 

The Promise Analysis 

Andrea's approval (Cloti ask response) 

Cloti action touching

Now, strap in and enjoy the ride.

Before the recap I'm just gonna say the vid I'm taking this from is over 20m of them being friends and they didn't even meet until late in chapter 9 and they weren't even together after chapter 12 and only reunited in chapter 17, so if they can manage to become bffs in such a short amount of time then yall warships can calm your chill too.

Oh and I'm also throwing in some Cloti asides since Cloud is in all of this too and I wanna lol. Maybe next disc we'll get more of the girls without the leading man.

Quick recap for anyone who's forgotten the series of events.

Tifa's gone to get info out of Don Corneo at Wall Market and asked Cloud to go back to Sector 7: “You've seen how much ass I can kick”

Aerith's decided that's a bad idea, so they head in and jump through a series of side quest hoops to get them inside Corneo's place.

After the goons knock them out and take them to the basement, Cloud wakes up and sees Tifa, who asks if he's ok. After his embarrassing moment where he remembers he's wearing a dress in front of his crush, Aerith wakes up.

Eugh, I've mentioned the utterly janky quality on some of my screenshots right? There's a split second after this where Aerith is beaming at Tifa that I'm trying to capture but it’s just not happening.

Okay, so Aerith has literally just woken up and the first thing she does is bounce over to Tifa and introduce herself, all smiles and cheer. Tifa for her part is confused but polite because who is this girl? This is pretty simple from Tifa's pov. She is just confused, but polite. There's no signs of “rawr that's my man over there you can't touch”.

Aerith is like that one kid who's always first to greet new people. She's very much the extrovert, compared to Tifa's introvert.

(Bonus: Grumpy Cloud is grumpy. It's like he expects Tifa to be more responsible when he hears her insane plan lol)

So, after hearing Tifa's story and hearing the obvious concern in her voice, Aerith jumps in to reassure her. You'll notice she's leaning forward with open arms. This is simplistic body language, she's being open and earnest. Tifa has her full attention on Aerith, so she's listening without any signs of dismissing her – even though they've literally just met and she has no idea what Aerith is like or what she might say.

(Bonus: Cloud rolling his eyes. He thinks they're both crazy lol)

Responsible Tifa makes a return here! After Aerith's done enthusiastically throwing all of them to the wolves, Tifa shows concern. She knows Cloud and she can fight, but she's worried Aerith will get hurt because of her. This is a girl she's just met and we've seen how she is with strangers (shinra middle manager), so going along with Aerith's idea with no reservations wouldn't be her. Both girls have semi-relaxed body language. Their poses are mirrored, so there's no one is better than the other here. They're meeting as equals.

(Bonus: Cloud appears to be looking at Tifa's butt in this screen lol)

So, we're out of the basement and dealing with rapists. Fuuuun. FF7 really went there back in the day huh? Tifa and Aerith are on the same page, you'll see. They're both disgusted. Aerith probably more so than Tifa, who I expect is a little more used to dealing with scumbags who don't take no for an answer. Semi mirrored body language – Aerith has her hands protectively in front of her while Tifa's are by her sides so that she can better strike a fighting pose.

(Bonus: Cloud at this moment in time is calling Corneo a depraved bastard lol)

Aerith's little eyebrow raise and knowing look here. Now, she doesn't actually know how much ass Tifa can kick, but it looks like she suspects anyone who knows Cloud has skills. Not to mention he told Aerith that Tifa can handle herself. (Or maybe it's meta!Aerith, who knows?) She's expectant, anyway and Tifa delivers. Not to mention the teasing dialogue the goons mistake for being sexy. But that's what douchebags get.

Vicious Aerith is vicious lol I just wanted to add this one because it's a great expression for her and actually shows a different emotion from her besides her typical mask of cheer. She actually looks convincingly dangerous here, unlike most of the time when she's about as threatening as a cupcake lol

So Aerith kicks the douchebag and Tifa follows up in a seamless display of co-op that showcases her fighting skills. She takes Aerith's lead and goes for it.

Then comes the fight scene. Massive co-op between the girls. Tifa protects Aerith at one point, who uses the opportunity to grab a makeshift weapon.

Tifa is the disciplined fighter using her Zangan martial arts and Aerith...uses a chair lol

I have to admit that's one of my favourite moments with her in the entire game. It also fits with the expression she pulled at the start of the fight – that vicious look showed just how far she'll go when she wants to win.

Both girls, all smiles, complimenting each other for a job well done! What else is there to say about this? Oh, yeah, neither of them needs a lesson in how to high five lol

Remember, they've just met like an hour ago, if that. They're already high fiving and getting along.

Ok, so we've moved on from Corneo's place and now we're in the sewers. Here's where we hit a change in behaviour from Aerith. She's no longer the bouncy puppy jollying everyone along to be cheerful and optimistic. She's now become very serious and grave. She could choose to reassure Tifa that the slums are safe, but instead she urges them to hurry. This is likely another instance of meta!Aerith knowing things before they happen.

Tifa is very in her own space during this section of the game; she's worried about her friends and her home, so there's a sense of urgency in all her dialogue. Worry is clear in her tone and Aerith empathises with that and reinforces the need to get back.

You'll notice in most of these moments between them that we're looking over Tifa's shoulder. That's her perspective we're getting, as opposed to when we get scenes with Cloud when we're standing in a third party location watching both. This is deliberate framing so that we relate to Tifa in this situation. We’re looking at Aerith with some distance, but a human perspective rather than an omniscient one.

(Bonus: Cloud still takes the time to flirt with Tifa by reminding her of their little “sayings” interaction from chapter 3)

About halfway through the sewers and the gang has to cross a manky water way. Cloud goes first, leaving Tifa and Aerith behind. Tifa is still worrying about what Corneo said. Her body language, expression and voice all convey a deep fear of what will happen.

Aerith, though probably meta!Aerith, again doesn't act how she did when they first met, which is to reassure her things will be ok. She's become very serious and quiet, unlike how she was in the beginning. Her face here clearly says she knows they won't stop the plate from falling, but I think she knows if she says anything it would just make things worse. She and Tifa are only just sort of friends at this point, so she probably believes it isn't right to confide in her when she's already worried about so many people.

You'll see again the perspective is Tifa's and she notices that something is wrong with Aerith. Despite having so many other concerns, she notices that Aerith looks down. Her question is that of someone wanting to have all the information about the worst case scenario, but before she can find out anything Cloud tells them to keep moving (nice timing)

And now we're at the crossing bit. Tifa's made her way over and waits with Cloud for Aerith. Tifa's very encouraging at this point, reassuring Aerith that she's almost across. Once the platform topples into the muck, she reaches out a hand and pulls her to safety. This is another example of Tifa being the protector.

(Bonus: Cloud grabs Tifa when she staggers.)

“Then it's a date.”

It's likely that by this point Aerith has realised Tifa is spiralling with worry. She offers words of comfort and says to think of something fun. They agree to go shopping, and Tifa suggests bringing Cloud along to carry their stuff (lol bf role)

What's interesting is their contrasting body language here. When Tifa lowers her guard she puts both hands behind her back, opening herself up. It's a vulnerable position for a fighter to be in.

Aerith does the opposite. She's put her hands in front of herself in a protective gesture. This makes me think that even though she's being genuine with Tifa, she's holding something back from her as well. This is likely another meta!Aerith moment because she's aware of her approaching death and doesn't want to make too deep a bond with any of the group.

(Bonus: flirty little lean forward and “nothing” from Tifa when Cloud asks what they said about him)

“I saved her, she saved me”

I know that's a line from Cloud, but it applies to Tifa and Aerith too. Tifa saved Aerith from the sludge and now Aerith grabs Tifa's hand to pull her to safety from the collapsing walkway.

Aerith knows she can rely on Tifa to help her and now Tifa knows the same.

Now, I've seen a theory floating that whenever Aerith touches someone she shows them a vision of OG canon. I'm taking this moment to point out that even though she grabs Tifa's hand, you can see she never touches her skin. Idk if this theory is right – I've not examined every time she touches someone – but it's an interesting idea.

(Bonus: Cloud pulling his “oh shit, Tifa in trouble I must rescue” face as the walkway caves in)

YAAS TEAMWORK!! They're more in sync than in the Don's place as they automatically work together to save Cloud, who looks annoyed that he didn't make it on his own lol

After that it's further into the sewers until we get to the waterpump minigame (I hated this).

Cloud is about to suggest he goes, but Tifa cuts him off, so she and Aerith head over to do it. Now, I was expecting some kind of chat between them or some kind of war hint, but it was literally just the minigame and nothing else. I guess the absence of something is something too?

And this is probably the only shipwar image in the entire game, so take it in, people.

I don't like it. I didn't like how it made me not like Aerith after everything she and the others have gone through until this point. Her dialogue towards Tifa is meaner than any other time and I feel like this is OG Aerith – the one yall expected. She mentions Cloud is “her” bodyguard – something Tifa wasn't even aware of since it's never been mentioned until this point and Tifa looks hurt by the way Aerith is talking to her. That's not jealousy on her face. She's dismayed this person she thought was a friend is acting not like a friend. The fact Cloud notices this and backs up Tifa's side by saying “Ghosts aren't my thing” is evidence he supports her and won't let anyone hurt her.

This is not a nice image. Hope the OG fans enjoyed it though and I hope it's the only shipwar reference Square makes. Tifa's worried/scared, which has more to do with the ghosts. Cloud is ambivalent; he's being SOLDIER Cloud. Aerith is enjoying the chaos she’s caused.

And the nasty shipwar moment is over and they're back to being friends again. Tifa's fear through this section of the game makes her cling to Aerith when the lights go out. Aerith, for her part, calls Tifa to her, so that she can look after her. It's a nice moment to rebalance their friendship after that earlier bullshit.

Tifa looks worried – although I've said before her default expression is pensive, which makes sense considering her personality.

Aerith doesn't look afraid at all. She looks curious. One of them wants to be there and the other very much doesn't lol

(Bonus: Cloud grabbing Tifa and protecting her is everything)

And we're past the bit with the ghosts stealing Aerith away and Cloud and Tifa rescue her.

Tifa crouches down and comforts Aerith. She's kind and sympathetic and you'll also notice that this is the first time we're seeing Tifa from Aerith's pov. This is what Aerith sees when she looks at Tifa. Someone kind who came to help her. A friend. Tifa smiles and offers her hand, reinforcing their friendship and that she'll be there to support Aerith.

(Bonus: Cloud and Tifa's complementary body language here towards Aerith really highlights how much in sync they are. They both touch the same shoulder and have similar poses. They really look like a couple whose goal is protecting their friend.)

And now in a reversal we have Aerith comforting Tifa. This is hollow comfort, however, since Aerith knows what's about to happen and they can't stop it. This is evidenced by the fact we can’t see Aerith’s eyes. Her expression is concealed. This doesn't stop her from reaching for Tifa because she sympathises with her struggle.

Tifa saves Aerith again, this time from falling pipes. Their friendship is growing, although at times it feels one sided. Tifa is the protector, looking after Aerith, while Aerith is the one who relies on Tifa. It goes towards Tifa's maturity, compared to Aerith's free-spirit. Tifa is the responsible protector, while Aerith doesn't have to be because she's got people who look after her.

This could be another instance of meta!Aerith, since she's very calm when she says this and doesn't try to stop Tifa. She might know that Tifa will be ok if she goes. Her word choice is....odd. It's not really her heart Tifa's following, it's her principles. She can't stand by and let people get hurt when she can do something about it. But the way Aerith says this line is pretty telling. There's actually a big difference when meta!Aerith is on the scene compared to OG Aerith – who is annoying af.

It's the mark of a fast friendship that Aerith can tell this about Tifa, that she needs to go help, but then again, it's also not that hard to figure Tifa out when she's so open. I can't think of a single instance in the game when Tifa isn't straight as an arrow.

So, we've had very few moments when we're looking at Tifa through Aerith's pov. And now we're back looking at Aerith through Tifa's pov. The look on Aerith's face is very serene and reminds me of the one in the bar when she saw the flower. That definitely suggests to me that this is meta!Aerith and that's who has been building friendships this time around and not OG Aerith – who is still annoying af.

I'm further convinced of this when Aerith mentions Marlene and the look on Tifa's face is all “What?” while Aerith's suggests she knows exactly where to find Marlene, what she looks like, how old she is, when her birthday is and what she had for breakfast.

An unspoken communication passes between them. Lots of micro expressions here and some quiet hums and nods. I mean, if we're at telepathy then they're definitely friends.

Despite being reserved, Tifa grabs Aerith's hands in gratitude. For someone who doesn't display physical affection a lot, this is meaningful for Tifa. She trusts Aerith and she's relying on her to save Marlene. She's grateful and doesn't have the words to express it. She just nods, once, and her eyes are damp like she's trying not to cry.

And one last teamwork shot because look, neither of these girls needed lessons how to high ten...Cloud lol

Ok, the last one is the most important – typical.

Tifa's asked Aerith if she's ok a lot over the course of the game – which is a lot a lot when you think how little time they had together. This is the first time Aerith asks after Tifa's wellbeing. It's probably one of the few times anyone asks how Tifa's doing and they don't mean physical condition. Sure, Cloud asks, but we know why. Everyone else assumes Tifa can handle it. Tifa says she can, so it must be true. Even when she's shaking from repressing her urge to cry. Even when she can't sleep at night.

I noticed this my first playthrough because it stood out, and it's meant to stand out. This concern from Aerith to Tifa and Tifa to Aerith is mirrored through their interactions. It's supposed to make you think better of the girl who isn't part of your ship. It's supposed to make you draw a line under OG Aerith and Tifa's jealous rivalry and start thinking of them as friends. Because they are friends.

Conclusion:

The devs tried to end the ship war by making the girls more friendly towards each other in hopes that yall would stop bashing the one you don't like. These girls clearly have little rivalry going on. They're supportive, kind, open and understanding towards each other. Their friendship is one of my favourite things in the game and did actually go a long way to making me like Aerith – did I mention I hate OG Aerith?

Instead of arguing who Cloud loves more, why not try appreciating each girl for the qualities she brings to the overall game and to each other's life? 

Aerith likes Tifa. Tifa likes Aerith.