#idk. its not the worst or bad at all in contrast to how things used to be but idk i dont like wasting away a day like this

[girl-bateman]

I don't cry that often but best believe when I do, it WILL take up the entire day 💪💪grind never stops

[usoppinggg]

(hiiii sorry in advance if this is uhhh hard to understand? im not great at putting it into words lol,,,,)

i saw the post abt re-reading syrup village arc and it made me eager to re-read it myself and like i finished it a few hours ago and. i dont think im ever gonna get over the extremely obvious tones of like. priviledge and how it effects different ppl and how sumtimes it effects how you see other ppl and who your more willing to trust (yes this is in regards to kaya)

BECUASE. AUGH. the slap....... the moment kaya slaps usopp........... after EVERYTHING after he goes to see her day after day and makes her smile and proves again and again all he wants is to see her happy and be her friend and use his lies to weave interesting stories and be remembered. and it doesnt matter because kaya believed kuro (a privileged rich white person like her) over usopp (an under-privileged poc who was widely looked down upon in the community) OUGHHH. OUGHH..... ill never get over it,,,,,,,,,,,,, like i understand she came around in the end BUT THE IMPLICATIONS,,, THE WAY IT ALL GOES DOWN. idk maybe im just insane and projecting but its soooo fuckin. it speaks so much and it makes me just. so sad and angry and i hate her but i love her also (hate that she did that, love her generally lol). anyways i rlly love the syrup village arc it makes me fucking insane and i hope you have an amazing day<333333

Thank you for this because even before that post came on my dash I was thinking about how mad I was that all of Usopp's friends on Syrup were so quick to turn on him!

It's funny though because like, undercover Kuro doesn't even have (his own) privilege. Before his secret came out, Kuro had nothing. He ended up on Syrup with nothing but his fabricated sob story. Any and all privilege he may have had was granted to him by Kaya and her family when they took him in and hired him, and he was able to build his reputation because of that.

His image as a polite, responsible, well-off butler was juxtaposed with Usopp's reputation as a poor, trouble-making orphan. Kuro continued to sew seeds of doubt in Kaya's mind regarding Usopp's bad influence on her, which I think is what ultimately led Kaya to doubt Usopp during that dire moment.

I try to give Kaya the benefit of the doubt when it comes to her betrayal of Usopp because she was young, depressed, and manipulated, but I find it very difficult to do so. We know that Kaya has fond memories of Kuro and they presumably spent a lot of time together as he cared for her. But still, I can't imagine how that relationship could've been more important to her than her relationship with Usopp.

Usopp is her age and (as far as we know) her only friend! He came by day after day to tell her stories to lift her spirits! She was literally worrying herself into sickness, so Usopp's stories prevented her from getting even sicker. She even argued with Kuro when he spoke poorly of Usopp when she wanted him to visit! All of this points to their close friendship, and yet she was so quick to assume the worst of him when Usopp was trying to warn her of Kuro's plan to kill her. She was so angry that she slapped him. It's so unfathomable to me even now, and I remember how upset I was the first time I saw that scene. (She was able to slap Usopp when she thought he lied but was unable to shoot Kuro when her life was in immediate danger. I always found that interesting.)

Ultimately, I know that Kaya initially taking Kuro's side was all for the ~drama~ but as an Usopp stan, I can't help but be upset at her on his behalf. We all know that most of Usopp's "lies" are actually his dreams or are simply stories where he is the main character. He doesn't lie about important things. I think it's safe to assume that Kaya knew this given how long they'd been friends, and yet...........!

I'm sure that having Kaya (and the Veggie Pirates) disbelieve Usopp despite knowing him for so long was set up to contrast the way that Luffy and the others instantly knew what his plan was. But at the surface level, yeah, it just seems like Kaya valued the opinion of her privileged, fair-skinned butler over the words of her poor, dark-skinned friend, and it's so, so upsetting.

You said it well, I love Kaya, but I hate how she treated Usopp in this moment. The Syrup Village arc also makes me Insane so thank you for giving me a chance to ramble about it!

Feel free to hit up my inbox about any other One Piece thoughts, especially when Usopp is involved <3

[ruthlesslistener]

I'm not entirely sure that the amount of self-identified proshippers who are using it to mean anything genuinely objectionable, vs "look just tag your shit and don't send death threats", has quite slipped over to a majority. Though it probably varies depending on the circles you're in, and I'm not in any gross anime porn circles.

It varies depending on which platform you're on. On Tumblr (especially after the twitter migration), proshippers tend to be people using the old terminology of the word, which is 'look even if I don't like something, I don't have the right to control people's behavior. Just tag your shit and keep it in the dark away from minors or others who don't want to see it and don't send death threats'. Twitter is worse. It's where I tend to see more people whining about how they can't openly enjoy gross shit or use stupid terminology like 'puriteens' to bitch about people who don't want to see their incest rape art even though being squicked by that sorta shit is hardly limited to teens. It might partially be because Tumblr is way better at hiding content than twitter is, but in my experience 'proshipper' on twitter tends to be a flag word for 'yet another annoying, gross and tone-deaf person this side of the internet'. Twitter antis are also worse but the difference between people using 'proship' on Tumblr vs twitter is more of a stark contrast in my experience (though perhaps tumblr seems tamer because its easier to avoid them...idk)

It is also 100% more prevalent in anime fandoms or popular tv shows than other things though, that's where all the rape/incest/underage porn shit shows up. Idk what it is about anime, but that's where all the people with the worst porn tastes seem to pool, no matter what gender or sexuality. And to be clear, I'm talking about western porn tastes here- I know that eastern fandoms have a wider range of wild shit but 99.9% of my bad experiences all come from the western side. Especially the American side.

[ankhisms]

ok ive finished both eps 42 and 43 of kingoh now so heres my messy thoughts on things

as a disclaimer!!! this is not at all me saying that i dont like kingohger or that i think its a bad sentai show or anything like that! i really have loved kingohger and have had a lot of fun watching it!! i really love the characters and im going to miss them when its over. this is all just my personal opinion and relates to my own tastes in writing and such and im not at all trying to ruin peoples fun or stop people from enjoying the aspects that i dont really like. im not wanting to be mean or anything like that.

ok that out of the way. you would probably expect that as someone who really loves the different sibling relationships in toku shows and is really deeply moved by them to be more emotional about racles and gira but i just... have not. very early on in the show i was hoping so badly that we would get some parallels on the brothers and how they differ and that we could also have some parallels to the other sibling relationships in the show, gira with his little sister and brother and suzume and kaguragi vs gira and racles relationships. i had thought that exploring those parallels could be really interesting and good, and i still think that if they had chosen to explore that early on it wouldve been interesting and couldve also been used to have the reveal later on have more impact.

ive never really been a racles stan, although i do absolutely admire and enjoy his actors performance hes fantastic and has always done a great job in his role- but i dont like the sudden redemption happening. when the twist first happened i thought it was interesting and was thinking maybe it wouldve been motivated by racles being selfish, but i felt like episode 42 was very... idk the word. hollow maybe. we hadnt gotten any kind of hints that racles was actually a double agent or that he was doing things for giras or the peoples sake (so i dont really get people who say they knew it all along im sorry gnmgh) and its like. this again could have worked out better if there was some foreshadowing and hints to what was going on or at least some kind of build up. episode 43 kind of vaguely touches on how many people racles has gotten killed and how he says he wants to go down in history as the worst ruler ever and its like.... idk it feels like a retcon in a way to be like oh yeah btw all these horrible atrocities and war crimes he committed were actually for the good of the people! maybe im just being too much of a bleeding heart commie gmgmy but i do think there would have been more impact if racles actually HADNT been a double agent this whole time and if he actually had to face his actions and have some kind of change of heart while also not being totally 100% nice all of the sudden.

again i really did early on want more development on the brothers and wanted exploration of the contrasts between them as people, and i think both gira and racles actors are wonderful and did a great job in their roles. it makes me sad that i didnt.. really feel emotionally moved seeing the brothers scenes in these last two episodes and i think it just comes down to lack of build up and feeling like things are coming out of nowhere and rushed and like no actions have any real weight or consequences

like for example ive mentioned this before but the whole deal with yanma destroying the laptop and watching it youre going oh shit the whole kingdom is fucked he made this huge sacrifice. and then its totally fine a few episodes later. or how they kill the pink jester and in the moment its presented as this huge deal. and then shes fine. it feels like that just kind of continues to happen and its something that frustrates me because kingohger is really fun and has great concepts but then nothing holds any weight, the stakes you set up are meaningless when nothing actually has any consequences

and to just say it again. i AM enjoying kingohger. im having a lot of fun with it! i like this show and its characters a lot! which is part of why my brain notices these things and why i want to analyse it because i can see how i wish it could be better in certain aspects. i really like this show but i dont really agree when i see people saying that its a masterpiece of sentai writing

also i really wish suzume hadnt become another victim to genre typical misogyny where it feels like her character just revolves around racles and liking him and it feels like we lost so much potential with her character i still love her and her actress but early on i was so excited for her having some kind of depth but well.

and another thing i was thinking of as i was watching ep 43 was... why have all of the kings of shugodom thru history be secretly against dugded. it again feels like something that would have more weight and impact to it if there were some kings who really were on dugdeds side and then giras dad decides that hes not going to fall in line and is going to actually do something to try and save his people.

idk as i finish typing this i kind of feel like im being nitpicky and i really dont want to be a downer or ruin peoples fun 😭 i really do like this show i promise thats why i think about this stuff. thanks if u read this mwah

[bossyuri]

Ima put my random thoughts about SRV in here! It probably won't make much sense but wtv sdfsg

again I haven't placed the last building or conquered the whole map yet, as context, but i did finish the main story aside from that.

So ima start of with thoughts while disregarding how the bugs affected the experience!

Overall, I had a good time! I really enjoyed it. I love the new crew. I loved the focus on friendship. I'd say the story overall is nothing really special though, which I don't think is necesserily a bad thing. Sometimes a chill story packaged in a fun game is good ya know.

I loved finding out bits and pieces about our friends through dialogue, I think that was great, and I really liked that it felt like a solid friend group. Modern Yuri (as I like to colloqually call him lmao) is so much more mellow from having a good support system early on lol. But he's still got some Classic Yuri in him.

The rival gangs I think that thematically, visually, their music and stuff, they were great. I liked them a lot, they had good contrast, their music when you fight them rules. I do think that they were a little underused in the actual story though so they don't quite leave the impact that say, the Syndicate did. The threat they posed felt more theorical than anything you actually see. Again not the worst thing, but I feel like they could've used a bit more time to be more present. (I did like how the Panteros stuff ended because it tied in with other things later though!). Like I think in particular that the collective could have been used a lot more.

That said I did play with looong months-long break for the first quarter of the game so idk how that affected my impression. And the last few missions I think were really, really cool, I really liked them! But I felt like the middle parts after a certain point weren't quite as memorable.

But I don't think it was bad! And the game isn't quite over yet, so I'm looking forward to what's to come.

Also I did like how narratively the game tries to give you a nice fantasy release from a lot of real life issues. I'm sure many people at Volition had to face these frustrations in their lives and it felt like. relatable yknow.

Now though.....so I work in game QA, going on my 7th year, and the game released in....really an unnacceptable state, which was really a bummer and really harmed it. I don't blame the devs. Devs want to give us good games. But they don't control release dates.

and they did not control covid. I know a lot people see covid as an "excuse" to fuck up games but trust me as someone who was working in the industry through it all, it absolutely messed up a *lot* of stuff that you may never know about. My setup from home is still not ideal. And thats not even getting into employee burnout but anyway-

I've had crashes to desktop, blockers in missions (regularly), broken multiplayer (tho i havent had a chance to test it again after patches) needing full game restarts for a variety of reasons (clothes broken, face broken, world stopped populating, quest blocked...) the clothes system still breaks for me after so many months after release (thought its a lot better. i dont fear the stores as much anymore lol). I don't know if it's a quirk of the PC version, but it would have been so much more of a good experience if they had had the time to polish the game more before release. Lots of gamers don't have much patience for this kinda shit, and it's a shame for a game that has a lot of love put into it.

But they're still patching the game, and the QOL changes that they keep adding are really good. The game is a lot more stable for me too so I will definitely keep playing, and I'm hoping that my mental state will allow me to make some fun content from it. I'm still kinda hoping for a steam release sometime so I might get to replay the story again if that happens. Because taking screenshots on epic is a goddamn pain.

So huh anyway. I don't think anyone cares that much but if you've read that far thank you! And also thanks for sticking around with me for so long despite my dropping off the face of the earth in a depression spiral. But I'm still around and Yuri is still around. And Saints Row V is fun!

[magnoliamyrrh]

Paul is a fucked up manchild who berates his mom the second he gets supernatural powers and sees himself as better than everyone. That’s only if you can get past herbert’s awful writing where his villains gotta be fat and gay and he repeats these facts every single time they switch povs as if the audience has somehow forgotten (seriously, highlight every time herbert mentions the villain is fat. It’s so common it’s just boring stale writing). Paul in dune is the worst kinda self insert fanfic. Dune is such a shitty book girl how do you enjoy it

ohh he definetely is a man child; i feel bad for him in like the first half of the first book mainly bc hes a teenager, hes 15, like, a teenager teenager not an almost adult 17-18. he may come from a powerful family but hes just thrust into very messed up circumstances, more or less tortured to prove hes human, has to grapple with being some sort of raised-to-be-exceptional genetic experiment and being used in some weird intergalactic lie and war, and incredible amount of historical pressure and other things. like, at 15, hes more kid than adult dealing w this. but also, while being 15, he is smart, and charming to others, and he quickly rises to great infleunce and is good at manipulation. and yea the moment he gets some more power he turns it even against his own mother, against himself, and against others and the longer they go on the more insufferbale he becomes; what ground of expeptionalism in him existed gets raised tenfold -hes an inherently flaued character by all means who even when he tries he fucked up badly many times. i mean like hell, among all the shit he ends up doing, even just that thing that he himself didnt have the power to put shit in order, so he ends up forcing it on his son, like how he was shoved into a bunch of things when he was younger

and yes lol i am well aware of the villan thing. i do get that in this context the "fat" thing and even the gay pedo thing is moreso an allegory for greed and the keeping of and hoarding of precious things (im Not saying fat ppl are like this mind u, im not saying its good either, but in many cultures fat has or is indeed revered as a sign of wealth; and this is used to contrast to those who dont have, and i reckon this is where it comes from in the story). but yes, i do think thats uhh i hate this word problamatic. the fat thing, the gay thing, the pedo thing. definetely part of an ongoing issue of attaching several of those characteristics to villans, and also of making villans generally ugly, thus associsting the two together. like yup, its definitely not good

idk tho, i think. dune was written in the 1960s by a white dude. like, it doesnt suprise me that that stuff is in there. ive read plenty of things that have parts of them that are problamatic or outdated or offensive and it just,, is what it is. like idk i can enjoy something while also being aware and critical of the parts of it that are fucked up - i think if i wasnt able to, i wouldnt be able to like,,,, explore a lot of the literature that exists out there, especially older literature, no matter from where its from in the world or if its written by men or women. most of it or most authors at least have written some weird shit or held some weird shit. idk just a stupid parallel off the top of my head i love the 1001 nights stories - i grew up with them - but theyre filled to the brim with weird shit and problamatic things and sexism and racism and slavery and whatever else, like absolutely filled - to an extend they reflect the times. i still, however, enjoy reading them tho

i also dont know how much paul is a self insert - maybe. ive never read the dude as sympathetic or a sympathetic anti-hero much. i did find the idea that out of this all-female order theyd have the idea that a male would be the one w the greatest power and some sort of prophesied force of power weird, sooo idk maybe. but idk, if its a self insert i rlyyy dont think its supoosed to be a flattering one much. the dude just gets worse and worse as the books progress, and he ends up after fucking up so much and being too weak to fix it, exiled, alone, spending his last yesrs wondering in loneliness and deep regret. so, i dont think its shown that his superiority complex or anything else brought him something good; it just lead to tragedy

mostly i like the series for the intricacy of its plot and the way its introduced, the messages it tries to send even if it at times fails or does so badly. like yea, its not perfect, but it is trying to ssy something about foreign meddeling and co-opting of religions and cultures and desperste situstions, or colonialism and capitalism, of exploitation, greed, power, etc. and also in very large part its lore, its scifi elements, its weird out there mysticism, and all the parts of it that are very, very weird. i am fascinsted by the world that this dude created. im a really big fan of magical realism and to an extent the books are like this - because they start more normal and over time become more and more mystical and fantastical and weird and less grounded as more concepts, creatures, and affects of the spice are introduced. i also do like that the main character isnt an actual hero. all this talk of prophecy and whatever, but its all bad, and it goes so fucking bad. its to an extent a subversion of classical fantasy tropes, combined with space scifi.... and yes. there are times when the writing isnt great, or when its outdated, or when it hammers things again and again (like the villan thing). i also think in many places the writing is intriguing, careful, and calls for attention and contemplation of what is happening

and idk apart from something like 1001 nights..... to an extend, i feel abt dune as i feel about game of thrones. i rly love those books. yes theyre writing by an old white man. yes there are parts of them (less than the show id say) which are problamatic and outdated and i could go on a whole list about that. but, i still enjoy them. i think the world grrm martin created is insanely insanelyyy complex, beautiful, fascinating, the lore is some of the deepest and most intriguing ive ever seen, and the character writing - the sheer complexity of the characters, the willingness to show how fucked up humans are and how often things are so stupidly complicated, the way he can get us to love even insufferable characters, the way there are no perfect good heros, the broader anti-war and even climate change message, the harsh and grounded realism of much of the series,,, the way theyre also kinda like magic realism, bc over the books magic keeps coming back more and more, the world becomes more full of mystic and mystery and prophecies which arent 100% true, the way the books are largely a subversion of fantasy tropes. like, yea. theyve got issues, grrm martins writings got issues. but i think theyre brilliant in many ways at the same time 🤷‍♀️

so i guess. yea. im definitely not saying the books dont have issues or theyre perfect or theyre the peak of literature. but im still able to enjoy parts of them

[ileftherbackhome]

Yall need to accept that taylor swift chose to be closeted for a long time, because that is the message that we are getting from her music.

I'm seeing a lot of people miss the point of her music which is that she made a lot of questionable decisions to get to where she is in life, and the closeting is the worst thing she ever did to herself and to someone else.

Like, I don't understand how you are listening to midnight rain and dear reader and not seeing the utter fear taylor must have felt in 2016 at being called a fraud, a snake, a liar. Because well, she fucking was lying.

Like I dont mean to judge her of course, but she was sick and unhealthy and millions of people were tweeting about how they wanted her dead and making fun of her. The very thing from her childhood that pushed her into fame to begin with, happening on a national scale. "Do you know how many people have to be tweeting they hate you in order to make that trend #1" breaks my heart in the film everytime I watch it tbh.

She spent years of her life being scared to be queer in public, was probably being manipulated into being a good girl behind scenes by homophobic assholes who didn't want to deal with the "bad news" it would bring them. Like, she stopped herself from saying the dude in mean was gay when she was talking about it in 2010!!!! 2010!!!!!! Or 2011, depending on when that video was shot.

Either way, she was censoring herself all the way back in 2010/11 when it came to be openly supportive of the queer community. That's not what she wanted obviously because she was going to be honest, she wanted to say the truth but she stopped herself in time to say the right thing. The thing her record label wanted her to say instead. Breaks my fucking heart dude.

Like, the point of her music is not that she is still being forced in the closet but rather the pain and shame she is feeling at the role she played in forcing herself in this cage. Like, she has repeatedly shown us the complete self loathing she experiences when she thinks about people she's "ghosted" (aka killed, there is many different ways you can kill the one you love) because of her own decision making skills in that moment. Midnights is showing us all the ways in which she had to reconcile every part of her fame journey and all the good AND BAD decisions she made to get to the person she is now. To be the taylor swift she is today.

Like, she's not in a pr relationship because she learned her lesson with Calvin (did you listen to bejeweled and high infidelity?????? She spells it out for you pretty damn clearly). She would have never put herself through that ever again, because she knew she didn't want to ever be that depressed again. Like, how are you hearing all of folkmore and midnights and not understanding how much she wants to be free!?!?!?!?!??!?

Like, the contrast between 1989 and midnights is that taylor is pointing the finger at everyone else in 1989 (no judgement) and she is pointing the finger inward in midnights. Taylor has learned to take responsibility for her own decisions, for chasing after fame and all the ways that influenced her own decision making. Like, the reason midnights got a 10/10 from every critic is because the album really showcases Taylor taking responsibility in the most healthy and mature way we've seen from her.

Every single song is self-aware, she is self-aware in a way that she's never explored before because she's always been afraid of owning her mistakes for fear of feeding the trolls. We saw what happened with the anti-hero mv, we saw the trolls come out in full force and make a mountain out of a mole hill. I have a draft in which I'm analyzing the bejeweled mv and ngl... its kinds dark as fuck. I'm really excited to publish it because I feel like we're missing a huge portion of the conversation surrounding the video, blinded by the silliness of the song.

But yeah, like, idk, taylor being in a 7 year "pr" relationship where she is forced to hand over undeserved credit to a man (there is no reason why joe would even want a fucking grammy for an album he didn't write, like grammy gate is so fucking ignorant and braindead garbage I have to laugh at people who believe it) over her music, something that sent her into a year long depressive episode/burn out episode makes no fucking sense at all.

People just are dumb and believe what they want to believe about taylor. They always have and they always will.

[infiniteglitterfall]

So first, in all seriousness: That conclusion is ironic because it necessarily means only seeing Israelis as Bad Guys, not as real people.

If they killed hostages because they mistook them for unarmed Palestinian civilians -- in other words, if they were genuinely trying to indiscriminately kill Palestinians, lying their asses off about wanting to eradicate an explicitly antisemitic terrorist group whose stated goal is to violently destroy Israel and which just managed to mass-rape, murder, mutilate, and burn its way across 22 villages --

WHY THE HELL WOULD THEY PUBLICLY ADMIT IT?

People are genuinely in the notes all "wonder how many other hostages they killed and didn't tell us about," like it wouldn't have been SO MUCH easier for genuinely evil people to, idk, blow up the bodies? Bury 'em somewhere? And publicly blame Hamas when those hostages are never returned?

Especially when Hamas has literally said it has no fucking clue which hostages are still alive? Fuck, just leave them as is and say Hamas shot 'em! SO EASY! Propaganda win! "We found them just a moment too late!"

Occam's razor suggests that it MIGHT make more sense if, say, the hostages were in an area that the IDF was sure only Hamas members were in.

(So many of the comments are assuming the hostages saw them and were jumping around yelling "don't shoot." And/or that the IDF soldiers could have known from a distance that they were unarmed. Not like they're fighting a terrorist group that relied on suicide bombing for years oh wait.)

If I just google "How did the IDF kill hostages," I can find out on the first page of search results that the three hostages had somehow been abandoned by, or gotten away from, their captors, but were in "a key Hamas stronghold" with "some of its most elite forces and heavy fortifications," where they're constantly being ambushed and where "Gazan civilians are prohibited."

You know what, let me just highlight that for all the clowns out there.

THIS HAPPENED BECAUSE GAZAN CIVILIANS ARE PROHIBITED FROM BEING IN THIS HAMAS STRONGHOLD AND HAMAS HAS REPEATEDLY AMBUSHED THE IDF THERE, you clowns.

It is absolutely friggin ridiculous to assume that Israel is ever lying about this stuff, or that Hamas is reliably truthful. And I'll tell you why.

Hamas is CONSTANTLY, VISIBLY lying. It keeps tight control on social media and journalism in Gaza. So that people don't go telling the rest of us what Hamas is like. So that Hamas can control the narrative.

"Two years ago, when there was a previous war with Hamas, there was the head of UNRWA Gaza office, a guy named Matthias Schmale. He had said in a TV interview, when asked, he said that the Israeli strikes on Hamas were very precise. He acknowledged that Israel was targeting the Hamas terrorists, and not, as many media and others allege, that Israel targets civilians. He said no, Israel’s targeting the terrorists, and it’s very precise.

"And when he gave that interview, he suddenly became persona non grata in Gaza. Hamas organized protests, orchestrated protests, against him and basically pushed him out of Gaza and pushed him out of his position."

Israeli culture, by contrast, is AUTISTICALLY BLUNT. This is super refreshing in some ways, but FRUSTRATING AS HELL in others.

Because what happens over and fucking over is:

1. Some Israeli official blurts out the unvarnished truth, without a crumb of an iota of a thought about what their audience's context or assumptions are.

2. Allistic people cheerfully interpret it in absolute bad faith to fit their worst pre-existing beliefs. And frequently then weaponize it against Jews while (sometimes) pretending not to.

3. Hamas says some shit to the Western media that everyone assumes is 100% true, then turns around and tells its allies, and Palestinians, wild-ass things like,

"Oh, you seven million Palestinians abroad, enough warming up! There are Jews everywhere! We must attack every Jew on planet Earth – we must slaughter and kill them, with Allah's help. Enough warming up!"

(Fuck, wait, that sounds even worse now that Hamas agents have been arrested in Germany and Denmark for plotting to attack Jewish institutions in Europe.)

4. UGGGGHHHH.

Seriously, how can people take what Hamas says in good faith every single time?! It literally weaponized mass rape, and everyone's like, "It was a glorious justified activist uprising!"

It's been creating NGOs to feed us propaganda for years. Like Samidoun in Germany, and probably Students for Justice in Palestine in the US. We eat it up, because Hamas has studied how to spin things to sound super progressive even when they're literally cutting off boobs to play with.

Hamas leaders: "We don't even know how many hostages are still alive. The number's not important."

Everyone else: "Israel doesn't think Palestinians are real people. That is the obvious conclusion here. The cartoon villain cut-outs I'm picturing aren't fighting a terrorist group, with a per capita military budget that rivals Ukraine's and Iraq's, whose stated mission is to violently destroy Israel because Jews are gross.

"These cartoon villains obviously are genocidal racists who just happen to have inexplicably taken 75 years to get around to kill" -- hold on, I'm autistic, my sarcasm requires a math component...

let's be really extra here and include every Palestinian they've killed over the past 75 years, and round up a whole bunch because the war isn't over, and take it as a percentage of the current population rather than the total population over the past 75 years....

-- "2% of Palestine. They're just really hand-crafting an ARTISANAL genocide. They're GOING to wipe out Palestine. Just GIVE them a minute. GEEZE.

"By contrast, I CLEARLY recognize the humanity in others."

Speaking of which, has anyone here considered giving a shit about the hostages or their families? Unserious question. I know the standard operating procedure out there is to deface or mutilate displays of hostage photos and beat Jews who witness it.

(Or yell chants about massacres and hostage abduction being justified, at a vigil, and then storm the library they retreat to. That one was special enough to deserve its own mention.)

"We mistakenly believed we were executing unarmed Palestinians instead of real people"

[blind-betrayal]

ok so for all this post on my main is a jokey joke about Danse the synth vs Curie the cooler synth I do genuinely adore the thematic of Curie and Paladin Danse being exact opposites of the “I’m a synth” coin (which is not including Nick, because both of their experiences are tied to them being humanoid synths rather than synths in the general sense)

Being a synth is the worst thing to ever happen to Danse, but it’s the best thing that ever happened to Curie

I already see a lot of posts about how Danse’s (unaware) false perception that he’s been alone his entire life until Cutler and the Brotherhood affected every part of his being, but especially his ability to form relationships. How so much hatred towards being a synth isn’t just the internalized, brainwashed ideal of what horrible abominations they are but rather what that means for him-- he’s all those bad things and, from his perception, not even himself to boot. To Danse, he is lies and falsehoods, he has no tangible ability to decipher what of his past was real and what was fake (we know Cutler was real, for example, But now that he can’t step foot on Brotherhood grounds can Danse go see the files for himself? Does he have his dog tags he can hold in his hands? To someone already so broken and confused, is it that far-fetched he’d drive himself to delirium and start doubting all of his memories?)

But while the game does, in whatever amount his unfinished arc permits, dip its toes into the body horror aspect of not being a human (he’s human, he’s flesh and bones and brain but he also isn’t, for he will not age, he cannot reproduce, he didn’t physically grow. one day he just was), 

I can’t remember seeing anything canon or fanon dipping into how horrifying it is for his body not to be his own-- not because he’s not human/what he thought he was, not because the Institute and Brotherhood both (yes them too) see him as an object to use, but because he is not and (should something go horribly wrong a la recall codes) might not be the first or last person in his body. Because it’s not his body, it’s M7-97′s* (*I’d argue its his in the way a secondhand jacket you bought is yours now, but I’m talking about the principle of the body being yours because you born /with/ it, not into it)

M7-97 who, in a way, committed suicide to allow Danse to exist. The body belonging to M7-97 didn’t, it stayed perfectly intact and functional, but if all we are is our memories and experiences that shaped us, getting a mindwipe from the Railroad is effectively suicide (DiMA’s one singular good point in Far Harbor). M7-97, a synth who had a place within the Institute and memories of the Institute died there, and “Danse” as we know him is just a set of memories and traits overwritten onto that body’s brain. Considering Danse was already a vessel for Brotherhood morals to manifest into action (which is what any Brotherhood soldier is, mind. Maxson sees his soldiers as people? Lol get real), he probably has no small level of hatred for this synthetic body he’s forced to inhabit, but...for that to not even belong to him in the first place? The one single good thing he’d be able to make of this situation? (In regards to his body, anyways)

And what are his thoughts on M7-97, I wonder? Guilt for hating the same kind of person who gave him life? For inflicting the same pain on this body that M7-97 died to escape? Does he not feel any responsibility for them at all, as it was all their choice to do that? Bethesda doesn’t let us know, we can only guess

In contrast, G5-19′s body being inhabited again isn’t framed in the same light. It’s not a horrifying, dehumanizing thing. It’s a miracle and a gift. G5-19 underwent a brainwipe and it failed, and that’s tragic. But while she is there, she is only a body kept alive and not a person. But Curie is a person--or at least, an AI capable of becoming one (or who has already become one, idk, that’s its own can of worms. Robots in the Fallout universe range from basically human to samsung smart fridge). Because G5-19 “died”, Curie has a chance to obtain the human experience-- emotions and ideas outside of her programming, senses, she can touch and taste and cry and smile. More importantly to her, she has ability to explore and manipulate objects her robotic body would never allow. She has the full range of thought that are available to humans, she can not only further her research but develop an identity she would have otherwise not been able to have. Curie can’t even leave the vault without authorization, even if she does knowingly exploit a hole in her programming and has self awareness about it, she’s fully aware of the fact her existence is limited and wishes to expand it.

To Curie, being a synth is an incredible blessing. Even the “bad” parts-- the ugly emotions (though Fallout shows a range of robots unable to feel and ones who arguably can, like Codsworth’s strong moral compass and Ada’s friendship, pride and grief, and even jealousy if you go with other companions), the need to eat/sleep/drink, illness, even the fact she has to breath  are either something beautiful or bothersome to her (”This body is so fragile. But capable of such precision" ”What if my arm is blown off? It is not so simple to repair this now”) , but it’s all worth it for what she gets in return.

And the horrifying parts of being a synth-- the lack of aging, the lack of being born, the inability to reproduce, the complete othering of you from your human peers despite near-similar experiences and lifestyles...what does it matter to her? Nothing. 

Because she was never under the impression she was a human or that she should have the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of a human. Robots can’t age, reproduce, and are only created not born (like synths!), they only truly die if they break down and don’t get repaired or get a factory reset (which doesn’t mean the same to them as death does to humans, depending on what part of Bethesda's writing you reference, Codsworth’s shocked, pleading “mum/sir...I’m dying...” or Ada’s dialogue should you make her self destruct, which isn’t sad and unfair but simply “unfortunate it had to come to this, honor serving you” which...what the actual fuck todd).

These concepts aren’t scary to her because they were just her reality to begin with. Death does become scary to her because as a doctor/scientist (understands the weight of it and what it does) and, someone who now experiences true emotion and thus true fear/sadness (I think she could before, mind, she clearly has feelings about the whole Vault experience/dead friends/experimenting on people thing but I’m working within Bethesda’s unclear and inconsistent writing of their robots ok), she’s no longer a robot who can be turned on and off again (which is arguably just what being put into G5 was for her, even if you could argue she’s not the same Curie but Bethesda doesn’t let us be privy to the exact science behind the procedure and again, big ass can of worms. Go play SOMA for that), she could be gone forever and never recovered. “Remember. To breathe. I keep thinking if I forget to do this, no more Curie.”

Danse’s existence is a curse, Curie’s is a blessing. I imagine Danse looks at Curie and sees someone like him, an equally tragic creature who is distinctly not human (I originally used the word monster here but...I feel that if we had the chance to see it in canon, he’d be /much/ more conflicted over synths like Curie and Nick than he does for “normal” synths), and Curie looks at Danse and sees another miracle of science. They kind of make up the opposite ends of the spectrum that is the synth experience and I think it’s so cool, even if its not really used in any way (or intentional, lol). But I think it puts a lot of their personalities into perspective. Comparing them brings context to each other and jesus christ I wish we had Danse interacting with the others after blind betrayal so bad. ok im gonna go hunt Todd Howard for sport thanks for coming to my Ted Talk

[saturnsstufff]

okay as a chubby girl myself I struggle with how I see myself and this idea makes my heart KSHDHSJS

okay so imagine IMAGINE

Request maybe 🤔🤔🤔

Okay,, you’re standing in the mirror yk in your mirror at technos house/cottage in your underwear and stuff, grabbing at the chub and stuff looking upset and not feeling good about yourself, and techno walking into the room and seeing this. yk him being upset that you feel that way Bc he thinks youre just so pretty 🥺.

IT COULD EITHER GO INTO A SMUT( 😏 where he SHOWS you how much he loves you and how pretty he thinks you are in the mirror) OR FLUFF WITH SOFT WORDS AND CUDDLES or both idk

*slams hand on desk* IVE BEEN WAITIN FOR THIS

I went with both, because I like options. I also based this off a little personal feelings so I hope it works!

My Goddess- Technoblade

Warnings: self conscious reader, swearing, NSFW

   The mirror. Your best, but worst nightmare imaginable. Some days you could look into it and see beauty within your curves. Spend endless minutes hyping yourself up. 'Man I look good' 'I am the fucking shit' 'damn look at that' all little things you tell yourself in pride. Because in those moments, you feel powerful. In those moments you feel like you own the world, that others are just lucky to breathe within your presence.

   However, there are bad days. There are days when looking into the mirror brings shame. Days when all you can do is grab at your stomach, and ponder of what you could have done, or what you will do. Its pressed that everyone is perfect in our own imaginable ways. Yet when you look at others, you cant help but be envious. Others can get away with wearing tight clothing, baggy clothing, any type of clothing. Yet when you try it on all you see is a box, if you wear tight clothing, every roll and muffin top pops out. It can be embarrassing.

   Techno never saw your curves as embarrassing however. He loved them. He loved the plush, soft skin of your tummy or your thighs. Your hips? don't even ask what he thought on hips, as long as they were yours. They were perfect.

   With that said, when he saw you saddened about your form he was slightly hurt. You thought he was beautiful, a hybrid of a monster. But yet you couldn't find the beauty within your rolls? Your plump little form? The very thing that made up you? If he ever found out who planted these seeds of lies in your mind, he would have words.

   If you felt confident enough to take the world by the horns, he let you. He would build you up with sweet words of encouragement. 'Well don't you look amazing...' 'you are looking beautiful as ever'. They were small phrases but they meant a lot to you.

   Techno isn't verbal with his love, or compliments really. He chooses to show it, words are just that. Words. Actions are done, are shown. They are physically put into motion. That's why he prefers it. But he also understands sometimes words are needed. They are needed to ease your nerves and doubtful mind.

   when he catches you glaring at your plump form in the mirror, he cant help but quickly move to your side. Kneeling and kissing up your body. Your arms, your thighs, everything. In the beginning he would let you look away. The idea of someone liking your body type left you uncertain, many times you would ponder if his endless kisses were done as a joke. But each and every time he would reassure you that it was real. That him loving you, loving your body. It wasn't in pity, it was in genuine love.

   Tonight was one of those bad nights. With Techno in the bath, you were left to change for bed. Wait for him to come out, and then cuddle the night away until the sun kissed the horizon.

   But well you changed your eyes fell to the mirror. Your eyes casually roamed your body. You were used to looking at it so nothing stood out of course. But as you shifted, you caught a few stretch marks within the candle light. They looked like streaks of lightning that were dragged across your skin. With a quick glance away, you pulled something over your form. Wanting to cover your body and deal with that mental baggage later.

   Of course the Hybrid that stood tall within the door frame held other ideas about that moment. The one thing that always put you at ease was Techno's size. Before you were in a relationship with him, you feared you wouldn't be able to wear your lovers clothing. Being a bit plumper meant "one size fit all" did not fit all. But luckily, with your roughly 6ish/7ish foot Piglin Hybrid of a lover, all of his clothing was a bit baggy on you. Technoblade was a very Built man, this came from his never ending training and his natural born strength of course. But even with him being built and big, the first time he asked you to sit on his lap had you hesitant. What if he found you too heavy? The idea of him asking you to move off would leave you completely mentally ruined. Of course when you finally sat he didn't utter any words besides praises. His hands running gently over your thighs, with a tight grasp he kept you close. When Techno saw you ease into his lap more often, he took pride in knowing you were comfortable enough to do it on a daily basis. That was when he upped the bar again. The day he asked you to sit on his face was the day you had a heart attack. You were so paranoid you would crush him. Of course he was all bemused smirks well you tried to think of excuses. Yet this man was able to ease your nerves and reassure you until you were comfortable once again. You would never forget how giddy he was to be between your thighs. That was the day he found his favorite spot.

   Before you could ease some bottoms over your underwear, this man had his arms around you. Pushing against your hands. His nose was nuzzled into your neck muttering gently "Please, leave them off for now..." with a brow raised you complied. You let the shorts drop to the floor, assuming you would be coming for them in a brief moment. You could smell the lingering sent from his shampoo. The fresh smell giving you great comfort.

   Techno moved you back to face the mirror, his head moving briefly so he could see you face yourself. With a light stubble scratching against your neck you felt the goosebumps rise. Your eyes met his ruby ones within the mirror. "Do you know, how beautiful you are?..." he asked rhetorically. Dragging out the words that he felt were important. You wanted to say no, but knew he wouldn't want that answer.

   "I think I'm alright..." you said softly. He hummed and pressed a loving kiss to your neck. His hands slowly fell down to the buttons of the shirt you were wearing. Skillfully he undid them without thought. When you had pulled a shirt on you didn't think much, but now saw that it was his you wore. Of course he didn't mind, he never minded.

   With the buttons undone he opened the shirt to expose your naked form. Every curve and roll on sweet display for him "You are beyond 'alright'... alright is basic. You know my goddess is beyond mortal definitions..." you gave a gentle smile at his charm, glancing away from his eyes. He didn't allow this tonight however. Instead he took your jaw and gently redirected it to the mirror. Meeting his gaze again.

   "My love... My goddess, you know your body rivals the gods, yes?..." you slightly shrugged, unsure if this was true. With another loving kiss he continued. "Persephone had rolls... She was just as plump as you my love..." you fallowed his eyes gently. Him comparing you to the beautiful goddess left you feeling better. If someone so divine could have rolls why couldn't you?

   He didn't stop there however. "If you cant see your beauty. Let me show you how beautiful you are..." his tone was pleading. Like a animal begging for spare scraps. You watched his eyes, his finger and thumb having control over your chin. You thought on his words and gave a brief nod to him. Trusting him and whatever he had planned.

   Instead of immediately kissing you all over, he pulled away. Firmly telling you to keep your eyes on the mirror. You felt a bit awkward standing there, your legs shifting closer underneath you. He soon came back however, his crown in hand. You could also see he had a simple gray towel around his waist, showing he was fresh from the bath.

   Your curiosity with the crown lingered, but you watched as he put it on your head. "You are a queen... My Queen... You will always be reminded of your everlasting beauty for as long as you are with me..." for not complementing a lot, tonight he was on a roll. Your eyes ran over the crown. The delicate and bright stones contrasting the shimmering gold well against your skin.

   He walked around to the front of you, leaning down to meet your lips in a loving kiss. His hand found a firm places on your hip, and on the plush skin of your ass cheek. With a gentle, but firm grasp he moved and rolled the skin beneath his hand. Loving how soft you were. With his hands working soft whimpers and moans out of you, his mouth devoured them. Eating every noise you made, cherishing them deep within his heart.

   Leaving your lips swollen he moved down. Kissing your jaw and neck. Planning to leave you a work of art. A show of how much he loves you.

   After your neck it was your chest. Soft plump breasts fitting ever so sweetly within his hands. With firm grasps he had you flushed red whimpering. Your eyes half lidded with the sweet lingering pleasure. Yet you still watched yourself and him, knowing to not disobey him.

   With soft kisses placed to the tops of your breasts and nipples he moved to your stomach. This is where you craved to look away. Wishing to hide yourself in his neck.

   "T..T-Techno..." he hummed acknowledging your words. But he still pressed light kisses down to the hem of your underwear.

  “Keep your eyes on the mirror." He said, pulling them down. Helping you step out of the discarded clothing. You couldn't see his face. Only his backside was facing the mirror, and even then his long wet hair hid most of his toned back.

   His fingers ran through your slit briefly. His rings offered a major temperature difference between your heat and the cold metal. With a little squirm his hands moved and held you in place. Desiring to keep you in place before he moved his head in and started to devour you. Eating you out like it was his last meal on earth.

   With a ever so sinful cry, you gripped at his hair. Begging for your knee's to not give out. With one hand on his head, the other one flew to the crown on your head. Trying to keep it on well you easily hunched over from the overwhelming pleasure. Techno never failed to leave you speechless- or should we say, he never left you quiet. Even if you could see yourself, you didn't think you would be able to focus much. Your eyes were tightly shut well your mouth ran between being in a 'O' and being locked shut.

   He did pull back from your folds to speak. Earning a cry from you. You were getting close and him pulling away was painful. "You can cum. But you have to keep your eyes open" you nodded profusely. Agreeing to anything if it meant feeling his lips back on you. He lingering a moment. Making sure your eyes opened before he leaned back. Taking his time to show your clit attention before going back to his main course.

   With your eyes looking back at you. You were unsure if you were ashamed with how blissed out you looked or happy. The whole scene in itself was erotic. You were incredibly small compared to the giant between your legs. His only drive to please you completely. Your eyes never left the mirror as he ate you out to your climax. Your hips stuttering and bucking, but proving no use to his iron grip. When you came he waisted no time at cleaning it up. He had no shame, that your cum was running down his chin. He was happy when you were pleased. And he knows you are definitely pleased after that climax.

   But he wasn't finished. With your legs weakening he helped you down onto his lap. He let you collect yourself against his chest for a few moments his hand ran over your back.

   "Doin' ok there Princess?..." you nodded slowly. Your chest rising and falling fast well you try and calm yourself. "Think you can do one more?" You nodded again well he pressed a kiss to your forehead, acknowledging your response. Adjusting his crown on your head, he moved so the mirror was beside you two. Showing both of your bodies, with the towel acting as a thin barrier.

   When you both were situated he did remove the towel. With a strong arm he lifted you up and positioned his hardened cock at your entrance, wasting no spare moment to fill you up. Well you did try to hide within his neck, it proved no use. He made sure to turn your head to the mirror.

   With your eyes hitting the mirror you saw how his head was beside yours. Your cheek was pressed to his chest well his was pressed to your forehead. His eyes lingeried your body. Drowning in your blissed out form. He found you utterly perfect.

   Well your bodies were connected, it almost looked like art. With techno's sharp gaze and your blissed out reddened cheeks, the contrast was there but yet they went together in perfect harmony. With the roll of his hips he made sure to keep your eyes on the mirror. Wanting to drag out every cry and moan you could utter. He set his pace at a rhythmic thrust, wanting to not only pleasure you, but himself as well. Well you griped to his sides, he kept his hand on he back of your head gently. Wanting to keep your head facing the mirror. With sweet sinful praises he coached you to a second orgasm, his fallowing close behind. He kissed your head gently, keeping you close to him well he felt himself soften. when his eyes met yours in the mirror he smiled softly. 

“Look at how beautiful you are... Always so, so beautiful Princess...”

[mangodestroyer]

Well, I'm sure Aziraphale never experienced torture. But I think him being a principality would also give him a high pain tolerance. He may seem soft, but I'm sure he's been trained up to be tough if he needs to be (and was created to be a naturally strong individual). I'm not sure how they train principalities, but he's basically a Heavenly military unit. And yeah, I know. It's not what he wanted to be. It was decided for him. I imagine that can be its own kind of trauma. Human military training sucks ass from the sounds of it (I mean, I hear it can be pretty rough). Imagine how fucking cold and strict Heaven military training is?

Well, Crowley by contrast started off as such a sweet, open, and creative soul. An innocent angel who probably had more privileges and thought the universe was just a fun sandbox to play around in. And that other people were, um, reasonable. At least, not evil. Not strict enough either to toss him out for having questions and for being an "imperfect" angel (although, according to Neil, he's not always a reliable narrator and probably actually did something bad to warrant the fall).

And yeah, I know, he still has that sweet side to him. It's just been so repressed by years of trauma. I mean, he's been through a LOT. And forty years of torture is just... unimaginable! I mean, from Hell of all places too! And for something that would REALLY piss them off (he actually got off light for stumbling so badly as a demon; saving a soul from eternal damnation).

Idk, they say the humans can be surprisingly cruel by themselves. And they are! I learned the hard way, thanks to the internet, what some fucked up humans can do to each other (even in modern times, for which my teachers in grade school insisted when we were studying the dark ages, "We aren't like that anymore! Humanity evolved!", pft, yeah right!) But that's just the mortal plane. In Hell, they probably have all these magical tools for their "craft." And 6000 years to come up with some messed up shit. With demons who probably do this as their passion. And they can keep you alive and wide awake. Forever.

Yeah, I've never been a fan of Biblical Hell. No one deserves that. Not even the worst human beings to ever exist. But the thing is, it's not even just reserved for the "worst of the worst." It's for everyone Heaven doesn't approve of. And that would be the majority of the human population. And most people, while imperfect, aren't straight up evil (evil is when you ENJOY hurting others, yes, that kind of person does exist).

So yeah, no wonder Crowley is just... never really okay again after that forty years! No wonder he just goes straight to begging for holy water! That theory has to be one of the most disturbing GO theories imo (and this universe can be surprisingly disturbing if you think about it a lot). I don't really blame Crowley for being super scared of Hell and the other demons when he pisses them off. Or for wanting to always run off or avoid problems when they become too much. He's hit his breaking point a long time ago.

In fact, I think he's just straight up broken now. And seems very mentally ill at this point. I think the mental illness thing was more apparent in season two. He kind of comes off as someone who's just trying to live a normal life, but just can't. Idk, I kind of had a hard time watching season two because of it. Might be able to do so if I tried again, now that I'm used to it. And Aziraphale seemed a bit out of touch with it. I'm not saying that makes him bad or anything. He probably hasn't processed his own shit yet. It just seems obvious that Crowley is, um, not well?

Again, I just can't fathom 40 years of torture in Hell. How the fuck would anyone recover from that? In the real world, people can become super fucked up over far less. For life. I mean, if they intended on sending him out to be an agent again, would they have really gone all out with him? They need him to still be able to do his job and all. What good would a catatonic agent be? I mean, if he got sent back out after the fact, then that was probably a "warning." His only warning, I would assume. Something to really get the message through. But not "the worst."

Needless to say, I kind of hope that weird time skip is at least addressed a little in season three. It's leaving me with lots of questions and speculation. Maybe I'm overthinking it, idk. I just feel like it's kind of important though. I mean, it seems like it plays a huge role with Azicrow too. If that's the reason Crowley asked for holy water. Or why Crowley seems more avoidant now (well, more so after that 60's scene). I mean, Aziraphale was being more affection to him, and he was a little responsive. But he actually seemed kind of... not that responsive to it. Almost a little oblivious to it. And also had a weird resource guarding moment over letting Azi use his car (an angel he loves more than anyone, and I know cars are very treasured possessions, but the Bentley is sentient and very capable, and Azi is also capable). And also chose to live in his car despite not liking it (when he could have just lived in the bookshop).

I'm way too into this. I agree. Crowley needs so many hugs! Actually, I sometimes just want to take him somewhere safe where he can never be hurt again. And so he doesn't have to deal with that fucked up world he lives in anymore.

I will never tire to watch this scene.

Aziraphale acts like a normal person but Crowley reacts like he has been shot by a bloody shotgun or a fucking sniper. He is so damn dramatic, my poor bitch

It's just a lil ball of paint, love 😭 please chill

[yuyupowers]

aristocrat!seonghwa

aristocrat!seonghwa x fem!reader

genre: fluff

trigger warning(s): patriarchal society mostly. let me know if there’s anything else!

author’s note: none of the pictures are mine!!

for reference, i’m using british peerage (hierarchy). there are five ranks: baron, viscount, earl (count), marquess, and duke - the highest being duke, and the lowest, baron.

second son of a duke

i imagine seonghwa to be someone who values tradition

unlike hongjoong who finds who finds the numerous aristocratic mannerisms pointless, hwa believes upholding these (rather stringent) rules is a sign of respect

perfect gentleman pt.1

excellent in swordsmanship, horse-back riding, and hunting

well versed in poetry, literature, art, and finance

(can maintain a conversation about politics but honestly it kinda goes over his head)

a bit on the shyer side, but a decent conversationalist

good at keeping the flow and mediating in case anyone becomes a little too heated about their opinions

definitely cares about his and his family’s image

naturally caring and tends to dote on those close to him

(translates into excellent manners)

holds the door open, offers his hand when stepping out of carriages, makes sure to walk on the side closest to traffic, diverts conversation when things are too “distressing,” wouldn’t be caught dead alone with a woman that wasn’t related to him or his fiancée/wife

and surprise, surprise !!

this is where you come in

you’re the second oldest daughter, fourth child out of six; born to an earl

hwa’s family had the highest title bestowed upon aristocracy

whereas your family accumulated more wealth and land than the park family

and since both you and hwa were prime marrying age™, your parents decided upon a mutually beneficial marriage

the first time you met seonghwa was under the watchful eye of both your parents, when the park’s invited your family for dinner

tbh, you were pretty relieved when you met him

“prime marrying age” was different for men, so you were just glad he wasn’t some old geezer

and he seemed like a decent person !!

a well put together gentleman, and his image was only consolidated throughout dinner

all in all, you didn’t have much to complain about from the initial impression

though it was kinda annoying when your little sister would not shut up about how he was the handsome man she’s ever met

even if you agreed

and didn’t she say that when she met woo?

anyways

after the first meeting with the park’s, both your parents set up multiple occasions for you two to meet

whether that be evening walks, picnics in the park, etc,,,

you learned a great deal about seonghwa 

how his favourite is black, how he loved the stars and that his favourite planet was mars

how he loved kids and doted on your youngest siblings (much to your sister’s glee)

how he enjoyed spending a quiet afternoon with you reading dickens, discussing afterwards the contrast between carton and darnay

how he was always considerate of your feelings and opinions

you liked to think you were a decent judge of character and thought overall that seonghwa was a kind and caring person

but you also noticed a few characteristics that-

you wouldn’t say it was off-putting or anything but,,,

it might bother you in the future

see, you were pretty good friends with hongjoong

and while you weren’t as extreme,

(you didn’t sneak out weekly to hang out with a bar maiden that you definitely did not have a crush on)

you certainly agreed with him on certain points

like hwa, you thought that abiding by certain mannerisms = display of respect

but unlike him, you didn’t care all that much about your image

okay, that was a lie.

you couldn’t say you didn’t care about your image

(social ostracization isn’t exactly fun ya feel)

but you thought it was,,,exhausting

it’s one thing to be respectful, but it’s another thing to say things you don’t mean

to fake humility

to undermine people that are supposed to be your “friends” or “one of you”

to be perfect, when “perfect” was such a subjective term anyways

it just felt so fake and that left a bitter taste in your mouth

even now, you could see all the efforts seonghwa made to constantly keep his image of a “perfect gentleman”

with perfect mannerisms and perfect answers and perfect-

yeah, it kinda frustrated you

not to mention how obedient he was?

of course you didn’t fault him for being a dutiful and filial son, but his loyalty blinded him

and it wasn’t like his parents were bad people !!

no, you’d say they were much kinder than the average noble family

especially considering their status

but when they made important decisions for their son without consulting him,

(because they were more experienced, because they knew better, etc,,,)

and he accepted whatever decision they handed to him?

well,,,

nevertheless, despite being his fiancée, you, by this point, had realistically had known seonghwa for a couple months

and you didn’t feel like it was your place 

(at least not yet)

to point this out

so the two of you continued your cordial but emotionally distant meetings

that is until “the incident” (as hwa fondly likes to call it)

okay, so-

one day you paid hwa a visit and the two of you decided to take a walk in his family’s garden

chattering about this and that

a lovely time !!

it was a bit overcast, but it didn’t look too threatening

so the two of you ignored the clouds looming in the horizon and wandered deep into the garden

big mistake

the weather took a turn for the worst, and soon it was pouring

by this point seonghwa was a little panicked

he knew that for women, getting ready could be excessively long and tenuous task

(courtesy of his little sister’s complaints)

and now !! you were getting rained on !! because he didn’t bring an umbrella !! just in case !!

!!!!

he turns to you, ready to shield you with his jacket and lead you back to the manor

but he’s at a loss by what he sees

he had expected you to be upset, to huddle closer to him, to,,,idk, maybe reprimand him for this thoughtlessness??

but instead, he finds you staring up at the dark sky, eyes shimmering with barely contained glee with the biggest smile he’s ever seen from you adorning your lips

he likes your smile

and if he was already confused (he was), he was about to become even more so

because the next thing he knows, you’re hiking your dress in one hand and grabbing his in the other, running through puddles of water and mud and everything in between, laughter falling from you like the rain

up until this point, you had been acting like the perfect (you hate that word) lady

polite, demure, charming-

in public settings, you only spoke when spoken to, with a voice that was purposely soft and soothing

you chatted with his mother and sisters about traditionally feminine things over tea with impeccable manners

whenever you two met, you were always prim and proper; never a strand of hair out of place

but here you were, getting not only yours but his clothes soggy and muddy, laughing without a care about how pleasant it sounded or how loud it was

seonghwa liked to think he wasn’t a judgemental person-

he wasn’t repulsed or anything by your sudden change in demeanor

just.

really confused

and when you looked back, you could tell,if his expression was anything to go by

but your grin only grew wider, because you could work with this

he wasn’t enjoying himself per say; a bit too confused and bit too stiff to do so

but he wasn’t horrified or disgusted

okay maybe he was a little grossed out; he liked to be clean thank you very much

you could work with this.

and so over the next few months, you showed him things he never dreamed of doing

some of which he liked, some of which he didn’t

some he was willing to try, some, less

like sneaking into the restricted section of the library (he’s never been so scandalized in his life)

or visiting the kitchen in the middle of the night so you could teach him how to make some basic recipes (which he surprisingly enjoyed)

or meeting hongjoong

(“of COURSE it matters if they got the colour wrong?! lord help me you’re the most insufferable person i’ve ever met-”)

and the more the two of you explored, the more he,,,real he became.

and vice versa.

gradually, the mask of perfection he worked so on hard to maintain was slipping before you

don’t get me wrong, he’s still kind and caring and a gentleman

but sometimes he would whine and complain when you encouraged him to do something he was less than enthusiastic about (usually something that involved getting him messy)

or he made The Face™ (the disgusted one) to you and when he didn’t like something or someone

or he would be stupidly stubborn about some random fact that you KNEW was wrong but he just WOULDN’T admit if even when you showed him proof

(“seonghwa for the last time toads don’t give you war-” “LALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU” “eye-”)

once, he even playfully stole the strawberry from your cake

(big mistake. he’s never doing that again. he never knew a woman could move so fast or be so scary.)

it made you so, so happy because the two of you were finally getting to know each other

actually know each other

then one day, while the two of you were reading underneath a tree at the park

“,,,hey love?” (hwa)

“yes?”

“why are we doing this?” 

“what do you mean, dear?”

“i mean,,,i’m not complaining, but i guess,,,why did you decide to show me this part of you? the part that runs around in the rain?” hwa

you don’t reply right away

instead, you shut your book and idly stared at the willow swaying over the pond, wind running its fingers through its drooping leaves

after a few moments of silence

“,,,i wanted to know you and what you believed in. actually believed in.”

seonghwa tilts his head slightly to the side

“love, i hardly think my convictions have changed”

“but do you know what your convictions are?”

and you know when you hear something that resonates with you?

something that strikes deep in your core and makes you rethink everything you’ve know?

yeah,,,this is one of those moments

now it was seonghwa’s turn to set his book aside, falling deep in thought

after an unnaturally long stretch of silence, you began to panic a little

because ?? maybe you misread the situation and got a little too comfortable-

cause i mean you were questioning his core values, which is something he takes very seriously

o god you messed up didn’t you o crap you need to apolog-

“will you help me figure it out?”

“,,,huh??”

“will you help me figure out my convictions?” he asked

and you swear, you’ve never seen such a smile from seonghwa

one that conveyed a plethora of emotions, ranging from honesty and vulnerability, to confusion and loss, to lightness and warmth

it filled you with an unnameable feeling

like something sliding into place, fitting perfectly; like it was always meant to be there, filling you with comfort

shyly intertwining your hands for the first time, you looked up to meet his gaze with a pattering heart and a smile matching his own

“,,,of course.”

[itsclydebitches]

You know, making Ironwood a villain and saying he lost his humanity because he made a conscious sacrifice was bad enough, but pretending he was always some unlikable dickbag and that anyone who still sympathizes and tries to understand his character (like someone who paid fucking money) is some bootlicker is one of the reasons RWBY’s fandom is worse then any other. Say what you will about other toxic fans, but RT is the only ones who actively cause strife and discourse among their fans.

I personally wouldn't say RT is the only creators pulling stunts like this, it's just easy to feel like RWBY is the only - or at least the most intense - fandom when you're currently immersed in it. Bonus points if you have more progressive, hands off authors in other fandoms to provide a contrast. Though RWBY definitely feels unique in some respects (from my experience, anyway), as someone who grew up with Harry Potter, was involved in the Moffat eras of Doctor Who and Sherlock, lived through the Anne Rice takedowns, has kept up with Supernatural, etc. there are plenty of authors out there who say and do things that fuel an already volatile fanbase. RT is not new in that regard, just the latest in a long line that becomes easier to spot as social media continues to grow and develop, putting such problems front and center to go viral.

The Ironwood situation is... super weird though. Because the entire point is that Ironwood went on this journey, yeah? I personally think the journey was crazy rushed, contradictory, and entirely unnecessary, but my feeling towards the journey's execution does not erase the fact that a journey occurred. Namely, taking Ironwood from one of the flawed heroes to an outright dictator. The existence of such a journey necessitates that Ironwood begin in a place where viewers - shock, shock, surprise, surprise - like him. I don't mean that every viewer has to like him (plenty didn't, just like with any character), but rather that Ironwood needed to start in a place where a solid chunk of the viewership was receptive to him in order to, six years later, provide the (supposed) emotional impact of turning him into a villain. If he was always awful, always despicable, always clearly the bad guy... then there's no journey. Ironwood was simply always a villain and "villain," apparently, means everything from "Disagreed with Ozpin about what safety measures to implement" to "Threatens to bomb half a kingdom." By trying to position Ironwood was Always Evil, you eliminate the possibility that Ironwood experienced a downfall. How do you fall farther when you were always The Worst? We cannot have "Ironwood was always the bad guy. Idk how you all didn't see it. Oh right, you're bootlickers" and "Ironwood's story was such a well written tragedy. It makes perfect sense! This was his downfall, guys, duh" simultaneously. If you want your character to experience that fall, they have to start in a place of likability, relatability, and justification. I can understand the fandom ignoring this contradiction, but RT? You wrote him.

Then, of course, we have the fact that they also - in the same volume! - wrote Hazel and Emerald. Emerald is supposed to be likable. She's a member of the team now. No one paying one of the writers to comment on her is going to get a vid like, "Ah, Emerald. You were just doomed from the start, huh? A thief, helping to murder Amber, then Pyrrha, destroying a school where many more bit the dust... don't you know that killing is wrong? lol" The concept is absurd because the story always wanted us to feel for Emerald and now she's a certified Good Guy. Of course any commentary about her would acknowledge her nuance and take the fandom's interest in her as a given. Yet Ironwood, who experienced that journey and did far less, who was never given the chance to be redeemed before he was killed off... feeling for him is, supposedly, a morally suspicious act. I've commented before on how the hatred of Ironwood relies almost entirely on real world politics that are not a part of the RWBY-verse, but it still boggles my mind that the writers can say - and the fandom can agree with - "This former hero doing Bad Things while buckling under the stress of an attack from the Big Bad is 100% irredeemable" and "This always a villain doing Bad Things because she wants to is instantly forgivable" and... not see an issue with that. Ironwood's writing has problems all on its own, but Emerald's existence makes it a thousand times worse. You can't give me someone who helped murder members of the main cast and expect me to forgive her because she's developed a healthier survival instinct, I guess, while simultaneously expecting me to give up on the guy who did far less with more explanation. It's an either/or for me. Either give Ironwood his due - both in the story and outside of it - or stop creating the Ilias and Emeralds who I'm meant to adore because a member of Team RWBY smiles at them now.

[7ven-devils]

A really long overanlysis of minecraft servers.

This will be my only warning, this shit is really long.

I promised this to @ivi-prism 2 weeks ago (hi, i am Svetla) but university said no and then i feel my notes were incomplete so i have to do more research.

So let's talk about anarchism and capitalism. As a future political scientist, really bugs me how the fandom and some content creators (im looking at you techno) misinterpret both theories.

Yeah this will be a overanalysis about the political, social and economic system of two minecraft servers. Why? Cause i like analysis things like this and finally i can solved what is the system of hermitcraft and thats make me happy.

Things to consider:

First im not native english speaker and im lazy so im not often write or talk in english so my typos can make Doc really proud.

Second i don't watch Dsmp i only know things about the server by the animatics, the constant information wich pop up here on tumblr, the crossover fanfics and the tiny vods that youtube insist play when i have activate automatic reproduction.

Third i tried to simplified this much as i can because this analysis i maded talking with my friends (also political scientists) and a former professor, so it got quite technical while i was writing it.

And finally don't take this seriously, I'm not trying to insult anyone, I only started this because the hermitfandom started saying that hermitcraft was capitalist and then everyone started comparing the Dsmp with hermitcraft saying anarchism vs capitalism, that's why the dsmp entered into this analysis.

Guys, seriously chaos isn't anarchism and "sucefully economic" isn't capitalism, even paid with "money" (diamonds in this case) isnt necessary capitalism.

First, mini glossary:

I understand a server like a Society/State (country) with Mr Weber definition. In really vague words a State is anyone that has a territory and has legal control of violence (the laws, no the abuse of authority).

I understand the private property as the hermits bases and/or shops (i suppose only base in dsmp? Idk)

I understand the mass production as the farms and resources.

Capitalism is a economic, politic and social theory, wich it considers private property essential and tends to monopolize the resources 'cause this it also considered private property.

Anarchy means "without government" it has its origin in the Ancient Greece. And Anarchism theory is just a society free from any political authority, but respecting the liberties of the others.

A Failed State is which one lose control of the legal violence, and can't provide the peace, essential human rights and the basics for a normal lifestyle to its people.

I think thats all the bored shit (i hope so). Now the interesting shit.

Why hermitcraft isnt capitalist?

Short answer, their idea of private property is not the same as capitalism has.

Long answer, even if they have their own stuff, they had a really strong sense of community and dont really care if someone take things from them.

We can see this in the beginning of season when Iskall take some mini blocks from Etho and he didn't really care (yeah, iskall "paid" him, but later i will explain this) or the multiple times Grian "borrow" things from Iskall and Mumbo in season 6 or Scar in season 7, the team ZIT constantly take things from each other and i can go on and on with examples, but the point here is this couldn't happen if they had a capitalist society because this would break the "private" part of private property and mass production.

Basically their friendship made so strong their sense of community that they are basically inmune to capitalism, Uncle Marx would be proud of them (not really, but would be funny). So they are communist? Nope, communist don't believe in private property and the hermits does.

But you just said-? I said they dont has the SAME idea of private property as capitalism does. They still have their bases, farms and shops, but for them their private property isnt sacred like in a capitalism system would be.

They're respect each other things because they appreciated the effort and values the time the person puts on their buildings and not only because doesn't belongs to them (and obviously cause theyre frends, but shush, this is a overanalysis, the obvious things doesn't have place here) i mean even for the shenanigans they are really polite and try to cause the least damage possible not because is not of them but because they valued the person.

Basically the famous honor code of hermitcraft.

What about the economic system and the shopping district?

Lets talk about the elephant in the room.

If Hermitcraft isnt a capitalist system, why they have a economic system based in diamonds?

Well, despite the exchange based in money for resources or services is a principal characteristic of capitalism, it isnt exclusive of that theory.

The money is a social consensus, cause barter has becomes obsolete and gold isnt cheap or infinite to use as payment. And basically, this is why we use money on this days (if you want to know the history of money ask to your trusted historian or Wikipedia).

What does this remind us? Yep, diamonds and iou's are a consensus too. When the 1.16 came out some hermits tried to change to netherite as payment and didn't suit, so they ignored it and continued with their current payment system.

And as much as Mr Smith likes to say that this is how the free market (and his stupid invisible hand) works, capitalism needs the monopoly of resources and people who works to pay for those resources.

But in Hermitcraft nobody really controlled the resources, anyone can go and collect their materials or made a farm. They just decided don't do it and go and buy it, because they save the time to go and collect for themselves, in other words they paid for the time.

Various hermits say they saved so much time go and buy the materials instead to collect themself or trade with the villagers (cause theyre the worst and all of us know it) thats why the barge and lookie lookie at my bookie are so profitable.

The shopping district it wasn't a thing before season 4, i dont really sure how it worked before, because i started watch in season six and sadly i have a boring adult life to saw the old seasons, but i assume it works in the same way that the trades the hermits does between them to accord a discount or a collab, and speak directly with the interested hermit or directly take it and pays what's considered it was fair, like iskall did with etho.

Like i said all what's happen in hermitcraft is a consensus, even the shopping district.

So yeah, that isnt a thing that would happen in a capitalism system, probably you would be dead, because "how are you dare to entered to my property", or in the jail, "because thats not yours".

So, what is hermitcraft?

For the surprise from much of you, Hermitcraft has an anarchist system.

What?! But their server is so peaceful, they don't steal from each other, they doesn't griefing, hows that possible?!

Well, the anarchism isn't really a violent political theory, at least in its beginning, actually anarchism is one of the most peaceful theories i studied, thats why i dont really thing it will worked in our society, but work in a server of 24 friends. Its too idealist.

I don't really study all of the thoughts corrents of anarchism because they are a lot. But the one we are interested is one of original thought corrent, The Mutualism, this in contrast with their cousin Communism doesn't believes the private property was something bad and considered like one of the rights from the individual, but different as capitalism because like i said before it wasn't sacred and communal things will exist to help others to start or recover.

Proudhon, one of it intellectuals, considered not paid for the work of the other it was a form to violate their liberties and feel horrofied with Marx when he said we have to abolish the private property.

The mutualists believes that each person should possess a means of production, either individually or collectively, and the products obtained would be trade in the market for the amount equivalent of their work.

This sound familiar, isnt it? Hermitcraft works in this way.

The thing with anarchism is they don't believes in a government over the people. And the hermits doesn't have one, yeah there's Scar being the mayor, but he isnt have a power over the rest and only is in charge of the "cowmercial district" even aquatown isn't part of his jurisdiction, his function is more of organization, like when we put a friend in charge to organizing part of a roadtrip.

It's the same with Xisuma figure, we all put him in a position of the admin of hermitcraft, but the truth is he isnt the only one with admin commands (but apparently some or all of them losed their admin status, at least in one of the last tango's streams, he hasnt it anymore) and various hermits said that he is more like an ambassador of them in the legal things of the server.

The hermits take all of they decisions in group and in the majority of things all of them needs to be agreed with the decision or they simple doesn't do it. And this is a characteristic of the mutualism because for them anyone are over the other.

And if you aren't already bored at this point and you put attention to what i wrote of the concept of private property in the mutualism, you would see it is practically the way hermitcraft works. They make their bases and farms, recolect resources and sell what they don't will use, buy mostly to save time and paid for the price what they considered fair. Yeah i know sometimes they do some farm specifically for one shop, but this is more "yeah, this is my thing" (Tango and Iron; Ren and wood) or a division of activities "if you do that, i do this".

The perfect utopia.

What about the Dsmp?

If you do it to here, congratulations.

So what about the Dsmp, i entered here because i want to read of them and the only thing i read was about hermitcraft.

Well, the Dsmp only entered in the equation because much of you said they were an anarchist server, but i see it more like a "failed state" and when i was talked with an exprofessor he agreed with me.

I know the term of failed state is controversial and is almost obsolete, but is the best way to describe the server and stop said it is anarchist.

So why failed state and not an anarchist state? Because they have a government (or apparently multiples) a failed one, but is there, if it were an anarchist server wouldn't have one.

Usually the failed states are known for being violent and volatile places in which ones their governments can't provides the basics to their people to live, normally are places with ethnics conflicts, civil wars, authoritarian governments or states in wars. The most common examples are Haití, Somalia or Syria.

And i am sure you can see the similarities with the Dsmp, so yeah, theyre chaotic but not anarchist.

The wars ruined the stability from the server, have a multiple sides and a megalomaniac for admin, but the goverment still there and they are fighting for the power wich wouldn't happen if the server were anarchist because anarchism don't believe the power should be possess for someone.

The server simply is failed state wich struggles under a violent fight for power.

--------------------------------------------------

If you read this far, you're a hero and had my gratitude for read my useless thoughts. Maybe some day i do it other overanalysis of this servers. I hope you enjoyed and dont confused so much.

Thanks for read.

And if there are some angry economist with me for "misrepresent" the capitalist i am completely open to a debate, my only condition is it would be in chilean spanish ;)

[agent-cupcake]

just curious, what’s your favorite and least favorite character design? my least fav for sure has got to be female byleth for reasons i don’t want to get in to yep ok have a good day 😁

IOops this accidentally became a rant, sorry

Okay so, to preface this all, I’m not a character designer and I’m actually pretty bad at it, but my rule of thumb with really unappealing or fan-service outfits is whether or not it makes sense character-wise and how much it tells the player about the character. For example, I think we can all agree that there’s quite a bit of fan-service elements in Hilda’s design. Boob window. However, it’s not unrealistic to imagine Hilda picking out those clothes for herself. Her costume tells you almost everything you need to know about her character on a visual level. She’s confident, pretty, attention-grabbing, and high maintenance while the gloves and laced girdle give a nod to her Viking-maiden roots.

Taking it to female Byleth, I don’t think that her outfit works on either front. Her design is definitely my least favorite and it’s not helped by the fact that you have to look at her at all times. Whatever. The huge, solid mass of boobs, the buttoned bib, the big eyes, the feather hair, the bellybutton, the ripped tights, the booty shorts. She’s a merc out in life and death situations with an accessible, pale, tacky 2000′s “stab me” stomach cut out and a wedgie. Which could be excusable if, like Hilda, there was reason to believe that that her costume was character choice. But she doesn’t really have much character, and what there is gives the impression of a very stoic, dry, blunt person. I have no idea why they’d have gone that route when the sexual appeal of more “utilitarian” costuming (aka, form fitting armor that at least pretends to be functional) for characters like her is scientifically proven AND would say more about the singular personality trait she possesses. Okay, well, I know why they didn’t do that and I think it’s lame. This dysfunction of “character designer wanted a sexy girl but it’s kinda random and just shoved in the game without any thought” actually reminds me a lot of Xenoblade 2′s leading ladies, Hikari and Pyra. Although considering that their bad designs led to a lot of people hating the game for superficial reasons while accepting female Byleth’s design, I guess I’m just bitter. Jumping to a different comparison, then, look at 2B from Nier Automata. Her design is fine as hell which is kinda hypocritical of me considering that it's explicitly fan-service, but I think it also shows the most damning thing for female Byleth. Her whole look, despite having a dozen different element thrown in, is boring. Maybe it’s the colors (dressing her in all black and white would have been really interesting considering the colors of the three lords are so heavily emphasized as a part of their characters) or maybe it’s just the way the desperate elements come together. But, like I said, I'm not even slightly knowledgeable about character design and I know that despite Three Houses being mostly separate, they had to appeal to a larger aesthetic brand to which I have little experience with. And, ultimately, a lot of people find her cute or sexy which...To each their own, I suppose. I don’t pretend that fan-service doesn’t work on me (2B... Cloud’s arms in the remake... Seph's shirtless Smash skin...) but when it’s this obviously inserted in by the character designers rather than feeling organic in any way AND looks bad I'm just not super interested.

The other worst designs for me would be all four of the Ashen Wolves post timeskip. I don't think it's controversial to say that they didn't try with the clothes, even if I love their designs from the neck up (Yes, even Balthus. He looks like the type of guy that would let you sit on his shoulders at a rock concert so you could see the stage). While there are other designs I think are unappealing, those are for purely aesthetic reasons and so I can't maintain the opinion that they're actively bad or that I even truly dislike them.

As for favorite looks... I actually have a few so sorry you're getting all of them because despite the shit I'm talking, I actually really really love the character designs in Three Houses. 

Ferdinand's post timeskip is one of my favorite designs, if not my favorite. The hair, the coat, the armor, the spurs, the colors. You know exactly who Ferdinand von Aegir is just by looking at him. He’s wealthy, handsome, confident in his appearance, a hero, a princely type character, his battle form is mounted combat which is traditionally aesthetically reserved for nobility and leaders... I love it. The only reason I cannot say he IS my favorite is because of the three Lords. But before them, my honorable mentions include post timeskip Hilda, Dorothea, Lorenz, Felix, and Hubert. Granted, I could make a case for why I like almost all of the student’s post timeskip looks.

For the Lords, I obviously have to start with colors because, weirdly enough, Persona didn’t invent primary colors but are actually used as shorthand. Blue is the color of honor, loyalty, sincerity, sadness, and depression. Something I’ve always found very interesting is that blue is very rarely found in nature. To me, that’s always made it seem more lonely which, at least in this case, is thematically relevant. People call Dimitri boring pre timeskip and while I won’t defend his hairstyle (okay, actually, I probably would because he tucks it behind his ears and idk why but that’s one of the cutest things ever) I really like how unassuming he is. Bland. He’s supposed to be the plain shortbread cookie to caramel deLite Claude and strawberry meringue Edelgard. It is not in his character to draw attention to himself or stand out. To me, he kinda looks like an old Barbie prince, like he should have been named Dominic. Also I love the blue eyes/blonde hair thing and his more angular features. It really helps to sell him as the fakeout chivalrous prince type. Post timeskip, Dimitri's black armor is amazing. I love the fact that it’s a lot more intricate up-close with the different little shell-like pieces and the fact that his boots are furry. I love the big cape and the black and white fur around his shoulders. It’s really cool how they used his costume to change the shape of his in-game model to match the bodily proportions of the character art. It’s easier to see when you change his costume into the DLC ones, but the fur and cape build up his shoulders and chest look more broad while keeping that tiny little waist. The choice to give Dimitri an eyepatch is probably my favorite thing about this design. It’s genuinely inspired. Such a simple detail yet it tells the player everything they need to know about adult Dimitri when they see him post timeskip, in one frame the player can begin to understand the extent of his loss over the past five years. The subtle shadow under his eye in the first few Azure Moon chapters and the messy long-ish hair really help to sell the feral prince aesthetic as well, as it’s from those small cues the player gets that he’s exhausted (in more ways than one) and doesn’t maintain himself. None of these things are intentional choices by Dimtiri, they’re the result of what his character has been through.

Yellow is an intense, energetic color. Mostly, people think of it as being warm and inviting, the color of the sun and positivity. That intensity can be overwhelming, though, too visually demanding when compared to its primary counterparts. Don’t stare at the sun too long. Buuuut, it’s okay to stare at Claude. Claude not wanting to wear tight pants in either of his costumes is not only a mood, it is iconic. Pre timeskip, the softer lines of his silhouette makes him look kinda slouchy, kinda lazy. Like he’s not too concerned with appearances. But those adorably messy curls, the little braid, the clearly tended eyebrows, and earring make it clear that he DOES care about appearances and is very aware of his allure. And that’s before he even starts winking. It is honestly so in character that as many people picked him first on the basis of being thirsty, that feels like an intentionally Claude thing even if it was inserted by the designers. The contrast of his complexion with his seagreen eyes is gorgeous and instantly adds a kind of mystery and intrigue to him considering the setting... but it’s sf funny that nobody looked at bronze god Claude among a sea of white faces and thought something was up. Post timeskip, they used the same trick like they did with Dimitri to change Claude’s in-game model to match his canon appearance. The way they designed his uniform makes him not look as twink-ish, like he’s actually muscular and imposing and has the strength he’d need to shoot a war bow with a 120lbs draw weight. Also like Dimitri, you can instantly tell what Claude’s been up to. Like, he was very pretty pre timeskip but when he shows up in the Goddess Tower after those five years in all that gold, he demands your attention. Like a gentleman general with the excessive aesthetic ideals of the Alliance and details to imply his heritage. The quilted pants are amazing from both an aesthetic and practical standpoint. He’s a mounted unit riding a creature with scales, of course he’d want something on his legs for protection. And the chinstrap. I love that so much, it definitely makes him look more adult. He’s got such a cute soft baby face, it’s fun imagining him experimenting with different styles during the five years to get the most desired physical reaction to him as a leader. 

Frenchfries, meet forehead. No, actually, Edelgard’s design is really fantastic. Claude and Dimitri both have realistically colored eyes and hair and then there’s Edelgard. Dimitri shrugs off attention physically and Claude shirks it with a wink but Edelgard commands the players attention from the very start. Although I’m sure there’s a lot of things to associate with white hair and purple eyes, my first thought was Daenerys from Game of Thrones. Otherworldly beautiful by with an edge. Red, of course, is The power color. Strong emotions, love and hate. Red is also associated strongly with blood, which is very important to Edelgard’s plot. Granted, I think the red and black association is even more powerful than JUST red and red is the cheapest play to make in regards to displaying villainy (I mean, there are some pretty universally recognized associations with red and black and it led to people making some unfair comparisons between Edelgard and a famous dictator) but I think it was effective and well used and I genuinely enjoy its use in her case. Anyway, if I had a major complaint about her design it would be the weird ashy color of her hair whereas Lysithea’s hair is pure white. Which doesn’t even matter with the AMAZING hair horns. Ram horns can actually symbolize quite a few things, but their association with power and strength is pretty universal I think. They’re also used in demonic imagery. I love that THIS was her alternative to a crown. Edelgard views herself as a force of war and power before she thinks of herself as royalty. She also mentions that she isn’t super vain, but she loves to do her hair, so the hair being the most elaborate part of her look is entirely in-character. Edelgard’s ensemble is, like Claude, very militaristic. I love that they kept her in a dress that embraces femininity without showing skin as that wouldn’t really suit her Also, again, Edelgard demands your attention. She’s dressed all in bright bright red waving around a giant axe. She is a symbol as much as she is a combatant, someone to follow. I didn’t really mention their secondary lord costumes, but a girl in sexy armor is literally everything and I love that they had the balls to put their main sexy waifu girl in full body armor.

Okay I’m sorry I realize this was excessive and probably didn’t need explaining and I’m not sure I even articulated my thoughts properly but anyway I love their designs so here is the positivity I’ll put into the world.

[isdisorigionalenoughforyou]

Super sexy aa7 ideas that will never happen

*puts on my clown shoes

Themes: “the worst times are when lawyers have to smile their brightest, but you can’t be a lawyer 24/7” “sometimes (esp now) the system is WRONG”

CASE 1

Klavier Gavin prosecutes, because society has progressed beyond needing Paynes

And if the widespread complaint is that he’s too nice, this position is perfect

Make a witty remark abt feeling demoted >:(

Athena and Trucy dream team girls

Murder took place at a theater/has something to do with acoustics, to ~fit the characters~

Maybe Lamiroir was there 👀

Phoenix is once again a witness, but hes less infuriating. But still fucking funny infuriating

He mentions his college degree, vaguely. Pressing him reveals nothing.

Also address that TRUCY AND KLAVIER PROBABLY HAVE SOME TRAUMA FROM MURDERS AT THEIR PERFORMANCES

Defend a rando

The twist: the murder only could’ve been committed by someone with superhuman hearing, so Athena’s senses are vital here!!

End: the culprit tries to psychologically fuck with everyone, but Athena stays strong, maybe uses some noise cancelling headphones, and corners the SHIT out of them

Also, there’s a new judge. A higher judge than your normal judge, who is a boomer. BOOMER JUDGE

Post-trial: a comment about all them missing Apollo…

CASE 2

Athena vs Franziska von Karma

Athena calls her out on the whipping if that’s still a thing

[Maybe Trucy is there again for extra spice,,,] but Solo Thena would be EPIC

NEW FRANZISKA DESIGN

Maybe we can bring Maya back here, but NOT ACCUSE HER FOR MURDER

Or accuse her at the scene but quickly disprove it

Idk also address her trauma

Wow this is turning into ATHENA CYKES- ACE THERAPIST

Put Simon there too because he’s hilarious

Maybe him and Maya are casually attending Comic-Con for the Steel Samurai panel

Defendant: some toxic celebrity with DRAMA

the twist: the murderer was targeting several high-profile ppl, but only killed like. A janitor instead. They aren’t found OR arrested, but you get a not guilty by… indicting their accomplice. And it HURTS but you have to or its your not-guilty kinda-a-dick client that gets guilty

New judge plays by the written rules, so u can’t ague ur case

Franziska is skeptical of the Accomplice’s guilt, but she lets the verdict go because your client is innocent.

Athena cries to Phoenix about how she feels like she fricked up b/c she empathizes with the accomplice but also everyone, Phoenix does his best dad comfort—this is the truth that’s allowed in the confines of their court system.

CASE 3

NARUMITSU DATE

Open with a call from Maya. She loudly thanks the god/the holy mother for this

MURDER!!! AT THE VENUE  

Kay and Sebastian are there

GUMSHOEEEEE (OLDER SPRITE??? Higher salary?? Maggey too?)

Classic Wright vs Edgeworth

All the options are flirty

Everything is an innuendo

Trucy co-council is embarrassed by ur Old Man Flirting (NEW SPRITES)

Lampshade conflict of interest what with dating opposing council. Gloss over it completely

Phoenix’s college degree is vaguely mentioned to be helping him. This is Not elaborated on

The murder is some crazy shit that basically parodies the whole series

TWO SETS OF EVIL TWINS

3 cross poisonings and with INTERESTING results of chemicals mixing (Ema: 👀)

All the dying messages were faked

Handedness contradiction.

Some gross old guy appears, but you can punch him

The murder weapon goes from bloody knife with defendants fingerprints on it to glass shards of a broken bottle to an icicle to an overly spikey piece of hair

EXTRATERRITORIAL RIGHTS

For extra funnies: BOOMER JUDGE IS NOT USED TO THIS. They are the straight person of this comedy clown case.

For extra feels (the twist): Phoenix actually has an emotional breakdown on one of the investigation days. Maybe Trucy gets put at risk again, or something with poisoning, or even something with Kay or Seb (to show how much Phoenix cares, in general) and we address all the shit that he’s gone thru

Awkward comforting by miles

HUG SPRITE/ART

CASE 4

(shoves Klavier into Khura’in) GO FAKEGERMANBOY GO

Play as Apollo (khura’inese clothes sprites)

KLAVIER CO-COUNCIL (CASUAL SPRITES?? Put his hair up in a bun capcom im begging)

ADRESS AA4

Maybe at the end of one investigation, theres just. A heartfelt talk.

Ok ill make it heavy (b/c if its lighthearted these fuckos will never talk about their feelings)

LAMIROIR IS HERE TOO??

TRUCY ALSO- im sorry truce im shoving you everywhere because I want you to develop

maybe she and Klavier are like, performer bros

Apollo is happy that Trucy is but also feels alienated, like AA6 totally pulled him from his AA4 roots [COUGH]

CASUAL TRUCY SPRITE??? I would cry capcom

Nahyuta, Rayfa, and Apollo being awkward but trying (and mostly succeeding) siblings, Amara being a scary but p good queen momther

FRANZISKA INTERNATIONAL PROSECUTING??? Idk it’d be epic tho

She roasts Klavier so bad

Though he is very smart so she just roasts his terrible German

Resolve the Gramarye siblings here?

Include something with gender dysphoria to contrast how they butchered Robin Newman???

This is huge headcanon territory here tho

The Twist: realizing that this case cannot POSSIBLY be resolved in 3 fucking days. Also that Apollo is so backlogged that hes stressed and he probably needs help

Also someone tries to frame Klavier with his Gavinners-brand shoeprints

End: answer yes/no to Klavier working at Justice Law Offices. The choice affects his dialogue with Apollo in 7-5

CASE 5

Some fuckin. International level scandal

Elaborate on whatever the fuck “the phantom” was spying for? btw is the same that the culprits froms 7-2 and 7-4. maaybe 7-1?

And it involves MORE AUDITORIUMS

Open w/ calling Trucy, whos in the states. She mentions that Klavier casually got a Japanifornian defense attorney badge. Cue exasperation/fondness/incredulity (I promise this is relevant)

In Khura’in

Starts small- like a robbery, which leads to an attempt on Thalassa’s life. Again

Athena gets to therapy her

Then someone high-profile actually fucking dies

Athena (co-council Apollo) vs FINAL BOSS FRANZISKA

Lots of investigating with them

Talk about space center and grief

The twist: a person with low emotional output is framed, but they are innocent because LOWER EMOTIONAL REACTIONS DOESN’T MAKE YOU FUCKING EVIL

The other twist: Bring in 7-2 framed person for a character witness, show that they’re innocent. Athena is panicking because of Fear(?) so Apollo is determined to Do Something, and points out how this only happened because the system is Stupid and calls Klavier and Trucy

BECAUSE:

At the same time, there’s a stateside investigation. some botched, continued interreference at the Space Station

Klavier can pull an Edgeworth and investigate with Trucy

With parently narumitsu

Klavier talks about Apollo a lot, Trucy calls him out on it

Nahyuta is prosecuting this case

Depending on the relations between Klavier and Nahyuta established in 7-4, this will be hilarious or disastrous

Protective Yuty route: makes scathing comments about petty parts of Klavier- a petty-off

Teasing Yuty route: brings it up whenever Klavier talks about Apollo. Rlly funny banter. Klavier showing more human emotions sprites!!

Revisit the Space Center and get emo. Simon is here, arguing with Nahyuta

Because the cases go to trial simultaneously, the comment about the wrong conviction in 7-2 can be brought to the Japanifornian courts by Klavier and Trucy

They argue that Athena was forced to do that to spare an innocent and press HARD for legal reform

They call in Chief Prosecutor Edgeworth for reforms??

They also start a twitter war (that can be investigation minigame) and get public opinion up abt it

Yuty vouches for change, w/ khura’in as evidence

SO AA4 CAN GET KINDA RESOLVED!!

DUNK ON BOOMER JUDGE

BONUS: CASE 6: TURNABOUT CHILLOUT

Phoenix vs Franziska

Larry time

Scruffy time

Idk man. No more international stuff, just good old fashioned cleaning up ur shitty dad’s messes amiright

Resolve things with the Shelly card?

oldbag cameo but you file a restraining order

help trucy and pearls with college

TLDR: Athena actually tracks an international conspiracy that has weight, the AJ gang once again changes the system, Phoenix gets emotional resolution, Franziska helps international stuff AND gets emotional resolution, and i finally stop trying to throw hands with capcom.