#im really invested in the story too

[littlegalerion]

So Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin is a lot of fun. 💙

[akolnoix]

idk anything about inazuma eleven but i played the victory road demo and i really liked it

[wrongcaitlyn]

hey guys! so. i really really really hate to do this, but i've been thinking it over for the past few weeks and i've decided that i'm going to take a short hiatus from tyt. and by SHORT i mean that i will 100% no doubt be returning to this on the first sunday of january (jan 5), and will only be taking november and december off!!

reasons for this are quite a lot, both for the benefit of the dear reader verse and my personal life! just to briefly summarize:

college app's. i really need to prioritize these, and though i'll definitely be finished by early november, it will be taking up a lot of my time

arcane. this seems like a silly reason, but i'm an editor as well as a fic writer, and i just know that the arcane s2 release will consume my brain. i want to allow myself to fully enjoy the season release and not stress about also writing a fic so that i can edit to my heart's content :)

both of those are happening in november, but in december i will be having finals and will leave for a trip for two weeks!! as we all know (*cough* my summer vacation) i am not the best at balancing both writing and vacation, and again, i don't want to stress myself out too much on what is meant to be a vacation

other fics! i still have two unfinished fics, and i'd like to finally get those done instead of having them lingering over my head for another five months lmao

but the main reason is for the overall quality of dear reader and its upcoming one-shots!!! a whole lot of stuff is about to go down in the upcoming chapters, including several one-shots that detail other parts of the universe. according to my outline, in the next five chapters of tgol, i will also be posting 4-5 one-shots in the dear reader series (yes, two of those include the pollen lore!). i want to be able to do those stories justice, and the one-shots do tend to take a longer time to write than the tgol chapters just because i'm usually writing from new pov's and outlining a whole lot of extra plot (especially in those pollen one-shots - they're going into a completely different time period and i want to be able to confidently say i've put enough time and effort into them to be proud of them! i've been hyping the pollen lore up for quite a while now and i want to do them justice!!)

so yes. that's quite a lengthy explanation lmao but i'm justifying it to myself as well because of how much i adore tgol and don't ever want to accidentally abandon it <3 rest assured that i will be using the two months to hopefully get ahead of my outline and ensure a concrete posting schedule when i return! but for now, i will obvi still be active on here (as well as insta and tiktok, if you guys are interested in arcane content) to answer asks and ramble about tyt!!!

[joshuamj]

I want to see my boys RWBY :(( Like ngl, they're the only reason i still keep up with the show...

[yamishika]

100YQ Rant/Criticism

SPOILERS FOR FT 100YQ INCLUDED

I have been following FT 100YQ and have seen a lot of moments that just made me go ‘hmm okay, doesn’t make sense but alright’, and there have been a lot of moments of just the plot/narrative being broken for convenience sake. It has gotten under my skin many times, but as a Jellal fan, one of the biggest offenses and one that makes me scratch my head a lot is from chapter 144.  Don't read ahead if you don't want to be spoiled about a big reveal on his character or on 100YQ.

144 : Beyond Sins.

Now initially when this chapter came out, I really loved it since it was the first time we had a backstory in ages and it being Jellal’s, I ate it all up.

But there was something in this chapter that made absolutely no sense narrative wise when I looked back with fresh eyes and wasn’t riding the high of getting Jellal’s backstory/anything Jellal related.

That being.

This panel.

We’re told not even a page into the chapter, Jellal’s real name is ‘Siegrain’, a name which we know from the previous narrative and was hinted throughout arcs to be like an alter persona for Jellal. 

This chapter goes on to basically confirm that Jellal canonically has DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder), a trauma response that must have manifested given all the stress and changes that happened in his life from losing his father young, watching his mother die by the slavers and then being taken into slavery, having his whole trajectory he planned for his life ruined etc. 

This is an understandable trauma response, and I would love to have seen it properly explored with understanding in regards to Jellal/Sieg’s character. It would have been so interesting to see how Jellal’s trauma at the tower manifested in a split personality and how he coped with the situation as he was cited to be notably different to all those around him 

‘A Leader’

‘One who doesn’t cry’

‘The strong boy’. 

This chapter basically confirms that this character he created was a way to mask his own insecurities and cope in the unknown environment.

However, that’s not where my gripe is.

Because as much as I was interested in the idea of Jellal’s trauma manifesting as DID, it’s the way that the narrative has gone about it which butchers everything else and makes no sense in a narration sense.

The man who we are told his name has always been ‘Jellal’ is now revealed to us by this flashback chapter to have actually had the name ‘Siegrain’ as his birth name. 

This on it’s own is boggling but wouldn’t have caused such breaks in the narrative, but the fact that this very chapter contradicts a chapter in a previous arc with Jellal in the Gears fight, this is where it just stops making sense.

In order to beat Gears in chapter 57, Jellal takes out ‘Siegrain’, the man whom he claims is the carrier of his sins, which in accordance to other arcs of Fairy Tail makes sense since we see the Siegrain persona being the most active in regards to infiltrating the magic council, getting the etherion fired etc.

But now we have in not even 100 chapters after this, it’s revealed to us that Jellal’s name isn’t Jellal at all, but ‘Siegrain’. How can Siegrain be the one carrying Jellal’s sins, when Siegrain is the main identity/person  that Jellal was created from? 

It just doesn’t add up.

And if that isn’t narrative breaking enough, Jellal’s name actually being ‘Siegrain’ causes a whole other narrative hole too.

This guy.

Mystogan.

Mystogan’s real name is Jellal, just like if not all Edolan counterparts share the same first name of their earthland counterparts (e.g. Natsu Dragion, Lucy Ashely, Erza Knightwalker, Gray Surge etc). But being told now all of a sudden that Jellal changed his birth name doesn't work for Mystogan, as are we meant to believe that Mystogan conveniently changed his name to be ‘Jellal’ to match his earthland counterpart who was going through a mental crisis?

Mystogan, the one who’s whole thing was to keep his identity hidden and it’s Faust, the one who calls him out the name as Jellal. The one who is meant to be his father/father figure? Mystogan, who somehow has the name Jellal, a name Erza wasn’t even allowed to mention out of the Tower, which makes sense for him to have it if his counterpart had that birth name, but apparently that’s not the case?

I know I am probably just beating a dead horse now and I should get over it, but I just needed to write something since my head was struggling to make sense of the reveal for a long time. I don’t know what exactly is added to the story by Jellal’s birth name being ‘Siegrain’ other than shock value. Like what does this plot twist actually do? Nothing.

Other than it just makes the whole narrative so messy now and I don’t like it. If the aspect of DID was to be introduced for Jellal’s character, then what was wrong with Jellal being the host? And Siegrain being the alter that manifested as a trauma response?

It could have been something intriguing and insightful to explore, bring awareness about different trauma responses and also add a new layer to his character beyond just extremes of misguidance and the need for redemption.

But no.

God this just makes no sense.

I’m sorry for ranting, after seeing the Gears fight animated, it reminded me of THAT reveal and I just saw glaring plot holes which I completely blindsided the first time I read the chapter.  And what makes me even more annoyed is the DID aspect is probably just another plot convenience that is most likely never going to be brought up again ever.

And I’ve already said how I don’t like something serious such as trauma being used as a plot device.

Which it clearly is in this case.

The only way I can make sense of both events existing, is that it shows that Siegrain is so disassociated from his sense of self, that he has decided to adopt the identity of Jellal completely, killing his born self for the sake of the present and going as far to believe that Siegrain is the made one and not 'Jellal'.

However then that opens up a whole new discussion...One I might cover another day, but i'm afraid this is getting long enough as it is.

But yeah, thank you for listening to my ramblings if you’ve stayed this long.

I wonder if anyone else felt the same about the reveal as someone who likes Jellal's character? Or just has been following the story? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

[whumble-beeee]

Whumptember 2023, Day 20

“We can’t all win”

Failure | City in ruin | Boot on throat 

The Bee's Whumptember Masterlist 

~1120 words

CW: suffocation, past murder mention, future murder threats, very vivid and frank talk of murder, acid

(cont’d from Day 9: This Was Always Going To Happen and Day 5: What Do You Want Me To Do. You don’t really need to read them to understand this story, but it would help a bit for full comprehension)

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

“Villain–” Spy sputtered, scrambling backward with a heavy limp, wincing every time they tweaked their ankle in just the wrong way. “--Villain, wait, wait, I don’t–... You don’t have to–”

“Don’t I?” Villain cut them off with an amused tilt of the head. “Because it seems to me, Medic, that ever since you joined the team, small yet… unexplainable things keep happening… Voices that aren’t your own coming from you room, victims suddenly ‘can’t take any more’ just as they’re about to crack…”

Spy’s bad ankle snagged onto a ripple in the carpet that wasn’t there before and they crumbled back, their butt and wrists shooting warning bolts of distress through their bones as they hit the ground hard.

“I’m just here to make sure you don’t kill anyone you don’t mean to, Villain.”  Spy reasoned weakly as Villain closed the distance between them. “You always go too far.”

Villain kicked halfheartedly at the mangled ankle they just broke, and Spy hissed, barely holding back a full screech. 

“Now that’s all just circumstantial, I’m sure, Medic. I like you, really, I do. You’re all business, but you still know how to have fun, like me.” Their hand glided gracefully into their jacket pocket. “I really wanted it not to be true, but…”

Villain flicked their hand up and produced a small black and white composition journal between their middle and pointer finger, smiling lightly as the blood in ‘Medic’s��� face drained at the sight. They frisbeed the journal with a flick of their wrist, and Spy flinched as it smacked them in the face before falling face up and open beside them, their sins out on full display.

“The evidence doesn’t lie, does it? Spy…”

Spy grasped the acid bottles strapped to their belt and hurled them at Villain with a loud cry, watching as they sailed straight through Villain’s body with a sparkle and splattered onto the wall behind them. The drywall hissed in protest. Villain was on them in an instant, one foot weighing heavily on their throwing wrist, splaying it out wide away from their body while Villain’s other foot slammed them back and rested on their throat, pressing down just enough on their windpipe to barely allow airflow. Spy’s eyes bulged as they gasped against the obstruction, an involuntary whimper escaping their throat as the pressure didn’t let up.

“I hate double agents, Spy.” Villain growled. “And even more, I hate traitors.”

Spy yanked fruitlessly at the foot planted firmly on their throat, before leaning their head back, defeated. “Just kill me already.” They rasped, squeezing their tear lined eyes shut. They should have known this would happen.

“You should be so lucky…” Villain laughed as they brought their foot up slightly, enjoying the feeling of the fragile life force they held under their sole spasming and begging for life. For mercy.

Villain knew no such word.

“No, no, no death for you… traitors can still be immensely useful, especially when their friends still love and more importantly, trust them.”

Spy’s face twisted into a burning rage as they tried to beg, reason, curse Villain out, do something, but the full weight of Villains body fell squarely on their throat just as they were about to do so, and their rage morphed into full blown panic as they convulsed around the unyielding force denying them the mercy of oxygen. Panicked agony ripped through their chest as they clawed at Villains leg and silently begged into their cold, calculating eyes, the same ones that sparked with radical enjoyment as Spy finally started to go limp under their heel a moment later, watching with glee the slowly but surely losing battle that Spy fought with the ever encroaching blackness at the edges of their vision. Their spasming chest and stomach grew steadily weaker until they stilled entirely, sitting unmoving under the villain.

Just as Spy went limp, Villain raised their foot fully out of Spy’s windpipe, so their boot was just resting on their trembling neck again. Spy coughed violently under them, attempting to curl up into themself as the weight still on their neck actively prevented it. They just clutched at the carpet and coughed violently into the air, tears now freely flowing from their eyes.

“I’m going to make you give them false information, Spy.” Villain continued nonchalantly as Spy hyperventilated under them. “Then I’m going to make you sit there and watch as I torture and murder every. Last. One of them.”

Villain crouched down grabbed villains jaw, yanking their teary face up to look them in the icy blue eyes. 

“I’ll start with Youngest. The one who got you caught. The one you tried so hard to protect from me. I’ll make you look them in the eyes and apologize to them for not being good enough as they die, and I’ll make sure they know you won’t be saving them this time. Then Leader, just so you know that all this? It was all for nothing. They all died for nothing, because of you. Then finally, Caretaker… Your love, the one who first made me suspicious of you. I’ll make sure to thank them as they scream for mercy, and I’ll make sure they feel the weight of their careless mistake with every cut of the blade. They’ll slowly bleed out, and you’ll sit there and hold them in your arms, knowing you can do absolutely nothing. Maybe I’ll even throw in Sidekick, too, the spineless dog. Just another traitor. I only wish I hadn’t killed Rogue so soon so I could make you watch the life drain from their eyes, too.”

Spy glared up at Villain through their despair with all the hatred they could muster, struggling against their weight as best they could, uncaring of the foot that held their throat to the ground like a vice. They screamed out, in defeated rage. What else could they do? 

“Oh, don’t look at me like that, Spy.” Villain tutted, like a mother scolding her troubled child. “We can’t all win. Excuse me for wanting your failure to hurt.”

The Villain stomped down before the weight suddenly lifted off of Spy’s bruised neck, and  Villain sauntered away toward the door. The sudden supply of air had Spy splayed out and coughing into the ground once more, pressing their forehead into the soft carpet in the vain hope that they could just push through the the fluff and scratch and disappear forever. Like Villain could, if they wanted to. Spy should be so lucky.

“Come along, Medic.” Villain called out to the mess behind them. “Stop writhing on the ground like a worm and at least pretend you’re not a complete failure.

“We’ve got work to do.”

@whumptember

[icewindandboringhorror]

I know multiple of these are likely important to people, but I'm asking in terms of like - which of these do you tend to focus on the MOST, enjoy the most, that is most essential for you to actually care about the media, etc.?

(For example: someone finding "Relatability" most important would likely not enjoy a show much if they have trouble empathizing with the characters/relating to it, even if it were good otherwise. Or, someone might be able to overlook bad acting and ugly costumes, as long as the Character Dynamics are fun to them, because they value that more than Aesthetics- while for others, bad costumes would be a dealbreaker.)

Also feel free to reblog and explain your answer or more information in the tags- I've always been curious about people's relationships to media, how they conceptualize it/what they get out of it, how some people value some parts more than others, how that informs their overall taste and genres they may be more inclined towards, etc. :0c

[skeletap]

on the topic of internet preservation, and on a much lighter note of it. i think archive.org truly is a bastion of internet preservation in the decay of online knowledge and what i can only describe as masses of miniature burning of the library of alexandria. i love archive so much. kissing it on the mouth. but also remember that if you love something so much, and also if you make anything at all. please put the money down for one or two external hard drives and hold a copy or two of whatever you have as well god forbid that vanishes too.

[ravs6709]

“You bastard, are you the <<Big Brother>>?”

LIKE FROM 1984???? who the fuck is this guy im

This plus your way later ask about someone else made me laugh because like. You already met the 3rd protagonist. It was buddha

As for this guy actually he's the protagonist of the authors' other work the world after the fall who. Ig he made it out of his own universe??? And from what I've read so far he hates regressing he's always been one to always push forward so that would explain his reaction to kdj (who has regression stigma so...)

[nyxofdemons]

i think the best way i can articulate why this episode is my favorite of the whole show so far is that it was so emotionally gratifying i don't even care about the pacing issues

[selamat-linting]

unblocking several ppl because they admit the ending to wrestledream was ass

[azalen-draws]

Help my art style keeps fucking changing LMAO

Anywho, art dump timeeee

I think I may be getting better, dunno, I'm just yeeting shit to the void and seeing what fits

[valdotjpg]

hey boss, any thoughts on the upcoming elden ring dlc? ur fromsoft takes are always enlightened

dont quote me on this but i thjnk miquella might be in it.

[usakkhae]

I'm extremely sad because it's been a while since I got excited for something on the Qsmp. I mean, something that's doesn't involve forever or maxo. And now that qmaxo is dead I'm genuinely DEVASTED and forever is having some problems with his computer and not logging frequently so..

[13eyond13]

.

[mihai-florescu]

I feel like I'm not as invested in as many ! characters because I've only been around for almost a year. Would you say you feel invested in any !! characters (alkakurei)?

Am i not a himeru fan in your eyes...? And gatekeeper.......? There are things you should know about me but i will not admit them here