#i think anything is up for grabs

[hurrakka]

Okay okay I am CRAVING the info dump of knowledge on your merman licker variant Sasha. I wanna know what that man eats, how his hunting tactics work, etc. Mostly I'm just imagining Leon trying to feed his new aquatic boyfriend snackies and watching that tongue do it's thing and being fascinated/amused by it.

His species is among the apex predators so he'd pretty much eat anything, but with the aqua Lickers on his side hunting is made easier for him. He'd even eat his own Lickers but only when they die or beyond recovery. Also since he's based on the marine iguana, he forages for algae (his tongue helps scrape em out of rocks)! Thankfully it doesn't take Leon much to feed him. He'd give him what he assumes lizards would eat, be it eggs, roaches, mealworms, Sasha ain't that picky! That is until one day Leon decided to experiment a little and offered him something sweet (think marshmallow or egg pies)

[itscherryterry-again]

yea

[ghostvibesonly]

my mental stability lies in the hands of a cockroach

[gods-perfect-idiots]

❤️💛

[backpackingspace]

Do we think odysseus started pranking Athena and her temples at some point? Because I do. He argued that it was good for sneaking and evading training. And you know what Athena couldn't argue that. Her chasing odysseus across the island was good training.

[dayurno]

this is somewhat of a vent post & something i said i would not do again but has been plaguing me enough that i think getting it out might feel better. so. has anydoggy else been. Baffled and upset by nora sakavic’s refusal to speak on how terribly aftg has treated its characters of color? with the author of the series coming back with a new book and starting up on her online activity again, and questions of what she’d change about aftg bubbling up, it’s particularly glaring to me that we are all playing this very long game of pretend where we ignore how badly the non-white cast has been treated & her lack of thoughts on it

and i understand not wanting to bring up nicky and thea because people pick on her for it. i’m not trying to discredit nora sakavic’s terrible history of getting harrassed online by aftg fans. but i think it is very cynical, and it is very juvenile, and most of all very cruel, that she gets to ignore the very real ways the books have set up these characters to be hated. i think it’s obvious why the characters who get the most hate are the only canonical characters of color, and i think we do not get to treat this like a deliberate decision on the fandom’s part when the books have put these same characters in degrading and embarrassing and terrible positions in the first place. aftg is not a story about nice characters with clean pasts, but there is a very specific nastiness to the only characters of color being a brown man who sexually harasses and later assaults the main character, a black woman whose only scene is her lashing out at her love interest after being ignored for the first two books, and the japanese villain who gets maybe two lines of complexity before he goes back to being a terrible person. the white cast, in comparison, while not at all free from flaws, are never shown to commit mindless evil; all of their actions are ultimately justified. the book goes out of its way to give them concession after concession. we know exactly who to side with, because aftg tells us who these people are. does nicky’s assault ever get addressed in the books? does riko’s reasoning to be the way that he is ever gets more than briefly aluded to? is thea reserved even a shred of humanity or grace in her one scene?

anyway. it’s been years of talking about this and the fandom has been constantly hostile to criticism in this regard, and more recently any criticism at all, and it’s Grating to be on the other side of this discussion. it’s exhausting to know that in ten years we do not get even an acknowledgment besides the author saying she will not answer questions about nicky and thea anymore. it’s upsetting and it’s ugly and i wish no one had to talk about this again, but we do because what i thought was common sense has been washed away by a sudden influx of no-nuance adoration for the trilogy. basically i hope we all explode

[art-is-kayos]

Phone games

[dirty-droid]

So I played through some more dbh last night and woke up thinking, God, there is a good reason Markus and Kara, and their respective companions never got as popular as Connor and Hank. Literally The Bridge is surrounded by the most *do everything for absolutely no reason* chapters, and there's no comparison.

First the Kara chapter wastes your time, she barely gets any small talk in with Luther, then the car breaks down, then you're just doing tiny tasks, doing a shitty sum up of her story so far when Alice asks you to make one up- they could have done something interesting with that story but they chose not to, literally anything specific anything that would function as a parallel to their journey would have actually had some value. Then you barely start a conversation with Luther, where are you maybe get a hint of his personality before we're back to just talking about the plot and Alice, but then it's over again and you meet the Jerries and you learn almost nothing about them.

It is a chapter where you do nothing interesting, and you learn almost nothing about the main characters, for a downtime chapter, I expect character development and get barely a sneeze of it. There is so much room and so much time for you to really push and question your main characters but it just doesn't get used.

Honestly I think the protagonists all could have probably really benefited from the audience getting to hear their internal monologues if they weren't actually going to talk to their companion characters, but even that would just be a substitute for decent writing.

Either way, after that, we come back to Connor and Hank, who do almost no tasks in this chapter, *but spend the entire time TALKING.* They talk to each other in a constant volley back and forth for the entire length of the chapter and it's probably one of the best chapters in the game, it's certainly one of the most important in their story. You spend the entire bridge scene learning more about Hank and Connor's inner worlds, and how they think, and how they feel, you spend the whole chapter learning so much about their perspectives, this chapter is all about asking the hard questions about both of their individual characters, and the tension is high, it's a straightforward chapter to play, and it really fucking feels like your choices matter here, there will be immediate consequences, not just walking through your environment trying to find the right answer, or being dragged through an interaction. It's just plain good.

And then Markus infiltrates the Stratford Tower, and you get the most boring and useless and frustrating chapter in the game that doesn't seem to serve any purpose beyond looking cool. If Kara's last chapter was only to gain sympathy and create some soft and fuzzy feelings, this chapter is only about looking cinematic. This is probably my least favorite chapter in the game, honestly I've just gotten lost on that yellow ass office floor building too many times, even though I'm very familiar with the game now I still managed to get lost again last night.

I will admit that eventually it does become an opportunity to decide between pacifism and violence but that seems to be the only real development for Markus, and it wouldn't have been hard to make that kind of opportunity in another setting. Because we get next to nothing watching him get past the front desk, or from walking around that floor, just some outfit changes and pretending to be a machine and a little more Android hate in the background, Markus is almost completely silent yet again, there is almost no talking with North once she appears. We actually get more about North's personality here than Markus', she just feels like she has more lines somehow, because sometimes she just talks without it being connected to the plot and Markus never does.

This bit is more speculative, but my fiance and I were going off last night about whyyyy did they have to break into the tower? We're never given any reason for what the steps are and why they are important, just usually pretty important in these mission impossible type scenes, they're usually explaining in a voice-over why they are taking the steps that they are taking. But we get no explanation for why he needs to go to the 47th floor or whatever, No explanation for why he needs to change into a maintenance Android uniform, why North was in the stairwell, how Josh and Simon got in, it's all just handwaved, and whyyyyyy they couldn't have just?? Made a recording and then hacked the station's broadcast remotely and basically just posted the speech? I don't know, it's just a particularly frustrating chapter to play, personally, but it isn't strong.

Either way, you've got two chapters with next to no character development, that just have a lot of empty space and time where the characters could have been talking or could have been doing something else, but didn't because the vibes were more important, sandwiching a simple scene with ten pounds of character development and it just feels weird. And once I noticed it, it just made the Kara and Markus chapters look incredibly weak and poorly written... And conversely, make the Connor and Hank chapter look much, much stronger in comparison.

It's like Detroit become human almost needs it's own type of Bechdel Test, just to show how much they fail Markus and Kara. "Do they talk about something that isn't the plot?"

"Do Kara and Luther talk about something that isn't Alice or getting to Canada?" "Does Markus talk about anything besides his speech for this chapter?" "Does Alice talk at all beyond basic communication with Kara?" "Does Markus or his buddies talk about anything that's not the revolution or just Markus himself?"

... They don't pass a lot.

It's just hard to take these characters above simply *likeable* when they just, don't, ever, talk. There's little to no development for Markus or Kara, and because they've just become deviants, there's hardly any character establishment in the first place, they barely even get the chance to just be flat, because if they don't really know who they are, we don't really know who they are.

Connor and Hank's friendship is more functionally the main plot, more so than the deviant investigation, and for Markus and the team, and Kara with Alice, that's simply just not the case, there is hardly any relationship, they're just in the same boat. This is why Connor got astronomically more popular, and why he and Hank have the staying power that they do.

Markus and Kara just don't ever talk, and Connor does. And I'm fucking mad about it. The amount of time that was just wasted in their stories, I could probably take a damn stopwatch to all the moments where there could have been a little something-something, and nothing was put there. It's not to say Connor doesn't get some quiet moments too but he always gets the chance to make up for it.

Even at the beginning of the Stratford Tower chapter, I noticed that they could have had Simon and North talking about something maybe unrelated when Markus walks up, but there's nothing, only silence until Markus comes in with a plan. And of course we know about every time Luther tries to bring up the fact that Alice is an android, only to be shut down and walked away from. It fucking kills me how much time Mark is has the focus of the camera but it's only so he could look cool for a minute, and share no thoughts of his own, none of his new feelings, everything is only implied and then followed by the action where he is only allowed to be the leader of the revolution and never just Markus. There's a tragedy in that, but they could have driven it home harder by *pointing that out.*

[ef-1]

🍷<3

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

oop oc concept posting! this bad bitch is for an original story of mine - the main characters are all from different "genres", and i needed One More to round out the group and well. puppet-y guy fit the bill! i can't decide on a name!

she's from a children's show that had a western themed rock group that would provide lessons through the power of Music! she was the band guitarist until she fuckin. fell into the labyrinth & got corrupted by her found family of idiot assholes

[dhmis-autism]

i think my favorite inaccurate (imo obvs) fluffybird... like fanon dynamic is the one where duck is very forward and red just shuts him down consistently. like thats so so funny to me i love that.

inaccurate to me bc despite eeeverything red is the only one in that couple making moves first (WHICH IS INSANE TO ME DONT GET ME WRONG) and hes also strangely shy so nothing is happening ever.

[samarecharm]

Fake Dating for an event but make it Makoann

MAYBE its preparation for Shidos palace? Getting intel on some people on his hitlist before infiltrating for real?

Originally Akira was willing to take Makotos place, but there were concerns that someone would recognize him through the makeup. “Shido KNOWS your face; we cant risk that.”

Futaba doesnt go for very obv reasons (agoraphobic), but also, she needs to have a live feed of everything being said incase they need to leave the event early. And Haru cant go bc shes the daughter of Okumura; she would be recognized immediately. Makoto is simply the best choice given the (unfortunate) circumstances.

Normally, they would joke about Ann’s acting; but shes a model and she knows how to act appropriately in these kinds of situations. Its not an act, its her Job, and its kind of wild for Makoto to see her effortlessly mingle w so many important and intimidating people without a care in the world. Makoto finds herself less stressed about the event because of it, and perhaps even a little emboldened 😳

Bonus Doodle under the cut (drawn before the images up top)

[yellowjackets-1996]

(do you love me like that?) you're a reckless driver (I'm a reckless driver) and one day it will kill us if I —

[epickiya722]

I haven't even read the ending and I won't have a full opinion on it until the actual chapter comes out, but from I have seen about "loose ends"... I could imagine that Gege actually wanted to explore more but there are certain reasons that kind of halted that. Similarly, like with MHA's ending.

(I'm sorry but I'm not deciding on just leaks on whether a chapter is good or bad.)

It just feels odd to me. I don't know, it just does.

I think about the overall scheduling and that Gege can't and can do certain things because he does work with other people he has answer to. I wouldn't be surprised if after this, Gege comes out with a statement saying there was a lot he wanted to continue to explore but couldn't due to reasons. There's also Gege's health to consider.

Whether the ending got fumbled or not, again, I don't know. I'm not here defending Gege or making excuses, but putting insight and why the ending possibly became what it is.

Hell, just last year people were upset because how some of the episodes of the anime looked but then it's turns out how the workers literally had to crunch for time and apologized (which I think was just so sad to do because the animation and pacing was fine for me and I know that has to be hard to do with little time to perfect it but some of you couldn't relate but I digress) as if they are actually to blame when they're just employees.

Maybe it is just me but it just seems odd to me.

And I know some people are upset about Gojo. If you are, I'm not holding it against you. I like him, too and yeah, I'm shedding a tear or two.

However, how this fandom acts now compared to before is such major whiplash for me.

Some of you want to throw around "Gege hates Gojo" so much but Gege is the same creator who gave the audience Gojo and a story to understand and yet a lot of people still mischaracterize him and only see him as "a hot character" or "the powerhouse that should come back because how dare he be happy in the afterlife" or "the blue eyed twink".

Actually, I find that some of you probably hate canon Gojo more than Gege supposedly does because of all these different versions that the fandom have conjured up.

The most Gojo did deserve is a funeral after he died and I get being upset if he didn't get that in the story, I would be upset for sure.

But given how much I have seen the fandom act when it comes to Satoru Gojo's character, I'm taking a lot of opinions on "Gege mistreated Gojo's character", the ending and everything else with a very teeny grain of salt. Yeah, be "critical" all you want but it just seems for anything nowadays that's all people want to do without considering other factors.

You can still hate or like something and acknowledge other things that play into why that something is the way it is.

[fisherrprince]

oh so alisaie’s exaggerated bully behavior is 80% fanon. saying this she casually picks up a large rock

[wuxian-vs-wangji]

How can I bribe you into helping me get a job in the industry, other than promising my undying love, which you already have <3

The industry is horrible and awful, low pay, long hours, no real chance of advancing.

Whenever people touring the station or new interns ask me for advice, I always tell them to change careers lol