#i’m still accepting more asks!

[trentonsimblr]

Eleanor and Everly please 😊

Inspiration has struck! (Insert evil Elmo GIF here)

Setting: Cannon story, sometime after the start of Everly and Ryland’s affair, at some official event because you know the two of them wouldn’t be in the same room otherwise.

—

(Eleanor and Everly happen to end up next to each other but also outside of earshot of others. Not sure how, or why, but they do…maybe in the ladies room?)

Eleanor: Enjoying my husband?

Everly: More than you are it seems.

Eleanor (angry): Stop trying to sabotage my marriage. It’s not my fault your fiancé died.

Everly: You’re right, it’s your mother’s fault. But I’m not trying to sabotage anything, you’ve done that all on your own.

(Everly walks away, smug that she got the last word. Eleanor stands there a mixture of sad/angry/guilty)

[hanzajesthanza]

dandelion is indeed the worst but if he’s not present in the next book i would legitimately be sorrowful as the whole thing will become a slog . you basically cannot have the “short stories” era-of-the-timeline iteration of geralt without dandelion, it would be like eating unbuttered bread.

though it’s not like season of storms did them dirty, i wasn’t disappointed with it (… with regards to them), but since it’s literally been over 20 years since the saga was finished i’m trying to prepare for any potential reality

[takeyourdailydoseofcyanide]

asking for help always makes things worse

[candycryptids]

😇- What's their best trait?

👿- What's their worst trait?

for Tuesday and Chuu

“Miss Chuu’s best trait? Mmm… You said this is an interview for your retelling of the Warriors of Light and their journey, right? I’d say it’s her unshakeable resolve. She decides she’s going to do something, and she doesn’t give up until it’s done. Ah… I’m not allowed to speak more on Miss Chuu without her presence, my apologies, mister Levraut.”

“You broke into my house,”

“Your lovely wife let me in actually,”

“To wake me up from my nap and interrogate me on my assistant,”

“Interview, Mademoiselle, not interrogate. Though I am sorry for waking you, your eyes were open so I assumed-”

“Ah-ta-ta. You wanted to know Two’s best trait right? Adaptability. Any environment, any obstacle… he’s got brains enough to figure the way through most anything. And failing that? He knows a top notch engineer in Magitek to kit him with the right tools to overcome his few shortcomings. Hey wait did you fucking call me a mad gazelle, you lop-eared scab?!”

“Thank you for your time, both of you. I have just one more question before I consider this interview complete and I let you both go back to your.. erm, busy schedules. What would you say is each others weakest trait?”

“I knew it! This IS an interrogation! Two, don’t-”

“Ah, that would be Miss Chuu’s paranoia, mister Levraut. Most of her other traits net positive gain,”

“Watch your mouth, Two.”

“That is.. ah, her paranoid trait has served to pull her out of many situations she would have landed in had they not afforded her foresight and caution to approach most situations.”

“Two’s worst trait is how I just can’t seem to keep mad at him when he finds and exploits loopholes in whatever rules I’ve set for him. And last week I asked him to bring me lunch, and he was nowhere to be seen for nearly six bells.”

“… Miss Chuu, if I may, you were in Azys La, and you called me via Linkpearl to bring you specifically egg sandwiches from the Bismark, even utilizing the Aethernet it takes time… and when I arrived at your last marked location you were nowhere to be found.”

[Duo Oc Ask Meme !]

[carry-on-my-wayward-butt]

I don’t know why I didn’t expect this but as part of a boot camp I’m DIYing I need to have an actual tangible project by the end of it and I chose otome isekai because I’ve been obsessed with it for half a decade now (bakarina probably wasn’t my first definitively speaking but it’s definitely when I found the genre at large) and it’s one of the only things I’m actually actively interested in.

What I want to do is narrow it down to roughly 150 titles that I have actually read and caught up on and break them down into very digestible categories that function both as demographic-type information (isekai type, appearances, ranks, warnings etc), and as common trope tags (Reformed Villainess, White Lotus, Duke of the North, Revenge on Bestie, Secret Royalty, just to name a couple). I want to visualize the trends of different FLs/MLs over time and the types of tropes that define the genre.

My sheets are (currently) categorized into List (title, release date, completion), FL(origin, appearance, tags), ML, (appearance, rank, tags), Antagonist tropes, Social Relationship tropes, Setting tags, Milestones reached, Morals of the Story, and Warnings/Triggers.

My hope is that once I get to the data visualization phase of the boot camp I can make it look pretty in Tableau and I’ll have an actual project to link to about something I actually had fun with.

Here’s a couple of screenshots from my definitions doc even though I’m nowhere near finished with even a draft.

I started this project on the 22nd and I expect it to take a couple of months minimum just to reach my standards of visibility.

[the-way-astray]

i would’ve accepted a book 9.5 if it had been from marella’s pov and started where stellarlune ended (like unlocked did with legacy).

[whoredmode]

If you don't mind answering, what do you like and dislike about Johnny/Aisha? I always love your takes!!

no problem! to be absolutely clear i fucking love johnny/aisha and it’s one of my favorite ships of the series. aisha’s one of my absolute favorite characters from the games period so like. ofc i’m gonna love it. it’s not a problem w the ship itself, it’s about how some things were handled, and it ultimately just comes down to the general writing and writing choices of the games themselves.

overall i wish the games would just allow themselves to have slower moments to put some spotlight on other characters. yes this is playa/boss’ story, but what good is that if we don’t get to know their friends/enemies/acquaintances better? especially in the later games, we sacrifice character- or world-building moments for the sake of big set pieces—or worse, we get the most surface level observations or just insultingly bad moments of reflection that offer and say nothing about the character. i actually went into depth somewhat related to this w my big review of the reboot, talking about how sr1 did a great job w showing us side characters’ personalities. and i want more of that. if the games ever leaned a lil more into the RPG aspect and gave us activities w homies or affinity/support conversations or something along those lines, it would go such a long way. and this may seem like a whole side tangent but this all comes back to johnny and aisha.

(and ofc not to say the games never do have moments to understand the side characters better, bc they do, but not as much as i would personally like).

i do not like how the games treat johnny and aisha as they go on. especially aisha. this is an issue lots of pieces of media have and so it’s not just a sr issue but i find it egregious nonetheless: the dead wife trope. now, to be clear, this is something that can be done well, but the trap it always falls into is that the woman in question becomes less a person and more an object. she has no agency. she relinquishes all character for the sake of developing her husband instead. she becomes a plot device. to sr’s credit, at least we get to know aisha before she dies, which is way more than i can say for most proponents of this trope. but it remains that i do feel like the later games somewhat lean into this trope regarding her death. and to be fair, i genuinely like a lot of the scenes that come out of her death. the funeral scene gives me chills every time. it’s a fantastic moment for johnny, punctuated beautifully by the fact that the boss themselves is completely silent. but on the topic of johnny, i don’t think his character is treated any better afterwards either. i mean, they literally killed him off too (and again. to cover my own ass. i know this was a decision they didn’t really have much of a choice in). but even moving on to sriv, they still did an awful job w johnny’s character. it’s still surface level retrospection. it’s still obnoxious characterization of someone who’s been there from the first game written only to have bathetic quips and conflicts that get resolved in one cutscene. like at that point just let him stay dead😭

NOW all that to say. the things i love about them. johnny and aisha complement each other so perfectly well. they have some fantastic banter, they talk like an actual couple, they argue like one, they very clearly have their own language that only the two of them understand. they can look at each other and know what they mean. i look at johnny and aisha i know that aisha was the first person to ever look at johnny and ask if that fight he was just in, that bullet graze he got, those bloody knuckles—did it hurt? aisha sees johnny as johnny, and similarly johnny sees aisha as aisha. he knew her before the fame, before the money, before she had her career taken out of her hands. he was willing to fight for her when it felt like no one else would. she was obviously fine retiring if it meant they could be together. and clearly johnny was alright w a semi-retirement too, even if it meant being in the fucking suburbs. he had her. she made things bearable.

you get the sense that johnny and aisha actually loved each other. we get to see how they interact and play into each other’s characters. not as much as we should, imo, but enough that it leaves an impact. it is, for what it’s worth—even if i just spent a few paragraphs being upset about it—what makes her death as emotional as it is. it’s still a very important moment even if i believe it could’ve been handled better.

anyway. to bring this back to the post that started it all: compare them to the other “official” non-boss ships the game introduced and it’s like night and day. johnny and aisha actually had something valuable to bring to the table. and at least kikidane is funny and just two terrible people being terrible together. the other ones?? idk. johnny and aisha outsold.

[goldennika]

no but seeing that this girl i met on bumble bff last year(?) has me on her close friends list on instagram despite never having met yet irl and our interactions are mostly just reacting/commenting to each other’s ig stories about music and food was the little boost i didn’t know i needed after my recent bumble date matches fizzled out 🥹

[badolmen]

Being invited to the school’s summer orientation events after being personally a victim of administrator apathy and police violence on campus is so funny.

Yeah, this school has awesome hiking trails on its conservation land - if you’re looking for somewhere less popular, the nearby natural resources research properties are open to the public but most people don’t know that! As for the social climate, I’ve been called faggot to my face more often by students here than by my Catholic middle school peers. And you know, when students from the campus College Republicans club were calling international students of color terrorists and cotton pickers in front of administration and the PD, the chief of police came over to threaten an international student with arrest and deportation while completely ignoring the racist harassment happening in front of him. So, you know, if you’re into: hiking, homophobia, and racism, you’ll fit right in here at [school] 😊

[itspileofgoodthings]

My mom to me this week: Maria you’re very pretty, a fact you have always had trouble believing

[rosicheeks]

10, 27, 50🥰

10. Do you believe in love at first sight?

Nah. Like you said there’s infatuation at first sight.

27. Has someone ever written a song or poem for you?

Yes 😭 I’ve had a few poems sent to me on here either through anon, DMs or posting one and saying I’m the inspiration behind it.

50. If your first true love knocked on your door with apology and presents, would you accept?

That’s pretty complicated lol

[dirtbra1n]

minds in half a dozen places or so I need to be able to do more than one thing at a time. hanzashiro is calling to me like at least two different videogames are calling to me library book that could be used as a murder weapon is calling to me. Hanzashiro Is Calling To Me.

[shaykai]

Vat/Orin childhood schenanigans is fun yes, but consider, they still try to pettily rip eachother apart as adults, the same way they would have as children

Oh yeah they would for sure- and honestly I think their relationship would be worse if he showed up later (which is always fun. Throw some animosity onto the gas fire that is their relationship)

Like she’s being prepped to start running the cult and taking over from Sarevok and then some drow walks in and is basically just handed everything (I assume there are some trials but like. It’s Durge. He passes dhshshsj)

I think they’ll lose some of their bond (mostly on Vat’il’s end. He does care about Orin! It’s just in a super messed up version of love kind of a way) but it’s also not like they were ever super close so it works out

[teecupangel]

Here I come once again, thoughs on the new chapter of AC Black Flag?

My thoughts on Chapters 1, 2 and 3

Official English translation (the free chapters anyway) here

I thought this would be shorter because I have talked about the main points in this chapter previously here in the additional notes but nope. I blame the Animus they're using and its 'features'.

Sidebars before I start overanalyzing:

Yeah, that’s pretty much a good summary of this franchise.

The two best Edwards in this chapter XD

(Also known as "the duality of AC fans whenever it concerns the decisions Ubisoft makes")

So here are my thoughts and my overanalysis XD

Eagle Vision

Okay. I already talked about how this can be considered a confirmation that Eagle Vision makes eyes glow (but I will still headcanon that they glow gold and not that reddish tint)…

But the next panel… Why is the hiding spot Edward chose glow red?

They’ve always glowed white before? (And I am completely ignoring the whole red footsteps that brings back memories of the red footsteps that Desmond finds in Villa Auditore because I’m pretty sure that’s meant to show an alternate route and not that there’s definitely a ‘traitor’ or an enemy that Edward should be wary about)

I want to say it’s artistic license at play since the people that should glow grey glow sorta blue in this one as well.

I think it’s just a bit ‘eeeehh???’ for people who’ve played the game because, no matter what changes Assassin’s Creed makes, there are some things that never change.

‘Red = Enemies’, ‘Blue = Allies’ and ‘White = Hiding Spots or Object of Interest’ are staples of Eagle Vision (or whatever they’re calling it nowadays).

I guess it could be an Abstergo Animus related ‘feature’.

Synchronization Rates

So this one is kinda strange. As a “Desmond Deserves Better” fan, I will admit that it’s more of a headcanon for me how Desmond has high synchronization rate because he accepts the memories as they happen. But that is backed up by gameplay where we are given side objectives to get 100% synchronization in memory blocks which we have always thought of as ‘how the memory truly happened’ but this…

She’s talking about how, in the previous chapter, Noa has his ‘daddy issue’ desyncing where he tried to fight Edward’s memories with his own hatred for his deadbeat old man.

But ‘Shimazu’ Sei says:

And that’s weird because we have a canon record of what happens when an Animus subject rejects the memories which would cause a lot of errors:

Joseph Lynch

AC wiki summarized what happened to him quite well:

Joseph was put into an Animus but resisted synchronization with his ancestors, refusing to let the Templars discover the secrets of his bloodline. As a result, he suffered neurological damages and became blind.

So I think I speak for a lot of us when I say that we had always assumed synchronization rates had always been tied to how closely the Animus subject relives their ancestor’s memories and Shimazu’s lines contradict that.

Unless…

She’s lying and this is a case of “this person has her own ulterior motive that goes against what Abstergo wants”.

Or it could be another new Abstergo Animus ‘feature’.

English and Korean Version Difference:

Okay, so for my thoughts on the implication of having the Shimazu Clan as Templars or Templar allies, go here.

There is one thing I noticed:

Shimazu is bold in the official webtoon English translation when the fan translation I saw had it in quotes.

I thought that was strange because bold would emphasize her Shimazu lineage but quotes would bring the possibility that she’s not actually a Shimazu.

So what do I do?

Check the Korean version. XD

So it’s in quotes as well so I think it’s more in line with perhaps the people working on this webtoon want us to believe that there is a possibility that this Shimazu Sei is not a real descendant of the Shimazu clan.

Speaking of translations, there is another Japanese line in this one that I didn’t bother to talk about because it’s okay. Yeah, I can believe some masked dude would say that line. The official translation “Kill all witnesses” still annoys me though and I can’t even check the Japanese version because I would need to have a Japanese IP to check it.

Anyway, I already ranted about how I would translate that so yeah.

Overall, lots of action and a bit of modern day plot mixed in. Edward is at the top of his game as usual and I will continue to zero in on other things because that’s how I roll.

(Anyone curious about the Korean raw? Here the Korean webtoon website.)

[candycryptids]

hewwooo tuesday here's a silly little question for you since your "check it out, frogs!!" blog title always delights me: how do each of your characters feel about frogs? 👀

I *love* Frogs, but how do the blorbeans feel about em...? Well... I had to really think about it TTuTT BUT! Chuu favors mechanical creatures over flesh 'n blood ones, and while her getting to the First is ambiguous and mysterious (being a non-wol, I just try not to think about it too much) She DOES... love the Dwarven Mecha frogs. And. The biggest frog of them all... Formi.... <3 …. So she doesn’t care for frogs much. She has sent Tuesday out frog catching for alchemical ingredients though….

Colette... Doesn't have any feelings this way or that about frogs, really. They're small, they're kinda slimey? but mostly they're just, very small. Except Gigantoads, I suppose, but those are a toad, and decidedly less slimey, by virture of being a toad. The ambivalence remains though! They're not that tricky to fight so long as you know how to wriggle out of their tongue grasp. (I did... take some frog-related Colette pictures tho >:3 I'm just gonna, post em a bit later, since the theme got away from me) Gigantoads make for a decent enough meal so long as you prep the meat right :T the legs are the most edible part yk.

Ishi is much more fond of Poro Roggo's, Matoya's froggy familiars. They're wearing LITTLE HATS ! They wave little canes! They're quite frankly adorable and they have little croaking voices. What's not to enjoy? (And also, there's something really nice about being out in the marshes of Mor Dhona and finding a little frog instead of a Morbol ready to stink bomb you, HAH)

Tuesday shivers when he thinks about frogs (knows the difference between a frog and a toad, still pictures a Gigantoad first, and does not much love being yanked mid-cast from his Ley lines into body slamming range.) Finds just a regular little frog endearing and will get down in the mud and muck to look at it though. Is especially fascinated by frogs that stick to things like leaves and trees and their camouflages uwu He’s the one who likely knows the most about frogs, and would gladly tell you more about them. Probably compares information with Erenville, if they ever meet up in non-life-threatening-situations.

Tangy finds them fun ! If she’s on a walk or a run or an errand and it’s drizzly and she sees a little frog hop across the pathway there’s literally 0 inhibitions in her body that stop her from also hopping or skipping for at least a minute (still on her way, but a frogs leap is so charming. They’re like tiny dragoons! She points this similarity out to Estinien once. Krile laughs, Estinien looks constipated- you know the face.) She also has a weird compulsion to put them into her mouth, though, so if she catches one….. make sure it’s not poisonous. She doesn’t even plan to eat it! They just look like they would fit perfectly in her kitty jaws (she is sometimes correct).

Mochiie had to get used to frog song when he moved to Gridania. The rivers and lakes and greenery abounding let the little critters thrive in a way they don’t particularly on the Steppe. …. He comes around to finding it relaxing and feels uneasy when he doesn’t hear them anymore lmfao. In non-WoL au’s, probably sometimes tasks adventurer’s with catching frogs for alchemical ingredients OR to bring back to the pond he’s been carefully maintaining to encourage the little beepers to live in it. (Btw, his favorite frog singers are the Pobblebonk or Banjo Frog [YT Link], and the Pacific Chorus Frog [YT Link] 🥰)

Levraut…. I’m still not sure. 🤔 I think he’d like them, but he wouldn’t feel strongly about them. He WOULD eat them though. As would Colette and Mochi… I mentioned Tangy liked to stick them in her mouth but actually eating them seems like a waste, since she’s so big and they’re so small. Like eating a blueberry. I can say his favorite frogs would be the Blue Jeans Poison Frog, for their striking jackets of warning colors, and the desert rain frog, whose perfect spherical nature and grumpy face is endearing.

[blueish-bird]

I know I’m procrastinating bad when I have the urge to create an ask blog for chainsaw man characters