#is the bully game fandom alive

[coffinwoodx]

oh no bro i’m hyperfixating on something with a dead fandom please help

[sunsetzer]

On one hand, I want a final fantasy 6 remake, because the game is criminally underrated and the amount of fan content (which is all absolutely fantastic btw) is Not Enough for my neurodivergent, hyperfixating brain.

On the other hand, that would inevitably encourage more people to join the fandom, which would be great, except it seems these days the bigger a fandom gets the more toxic it becomes, and I really like what we have going on over here in our little corner. We all just love the game and its characters and nobody fights about who should and shouldn't date who or who you shouldn't like because they're ~problematique~. Nobody's trying to make one ship morally better than another, nobody's calling anyone names or threatening to doxx people who don't agree with their opinions. It's so peaceful and I love that for us. We're just vibing. Moisturized. Unbothered. In our lane. Flourishing.

[dood-itsradical]

I posted these on IG (without template) for fun but now I'm back hooked on the game I say faq it we ball.

Template by @jimothy-hopkins

[gamerphobe]

i know we all love michael afton, and like i get it, i love him too, but sometimes it really feels like the fnaf fandom cares sooo much about sadboy michael being the saddest boy of all time that they pretend other characters had better lives just so michael seems sadder by comparison

objectively i think elizabeth and the crying child get the worst of this, but especially elizabeth. theres this persistent idea that elizabeth was williams favorite and beautiful angel and he loved and doted on her so much while poor poor mike got nothing. so often i see the dynamic put forward that william was physically abusive but only towards michael. which is ridiculous for a lot of reasons, but especially because we only see william get physical with any of his kids once, and its when he hits elizabeth in the silver eyes.

obviously, the silver eyes is a different continuity. whatever. its still canon, so the things it tells us about the general world and characters still applies. and it outright shows william as an abusive and neglectful father to His Daughter. and EVEN if you want to completely disregard the books, william obviously didnt “love” elizabeth enough in the games to not want to electrocute and experiment on her when he 100% knew she was possessing circus baby. elizabeth was a means to an end to him the same way michael was. he didnt even love her enough to properly keep an eye on her even though he knew she wanted to see a robot that would kill her. if william cared about elizabeth half as much as people pretend he does she would still be alive, because he wouldve put half a mind towards keeping her safe

+ cc is in a similar boat. william had a million chances to be a decent father and try to step in between cc and michael before things went too far. the bite happened at ccs birthday party, literally all william had to do was show up to his own sons birthday and he could have stepped in but he didnt. like, we all know william was using the fredbear plush to keep an eye on cc, so theres no doubt he knew the kid was being bullied. and not only does he do nothing about it, he also 1) actively feeds into ccs fears about the animatronics 2) still makes him go to the establishment housing the animatronics hes terrified of

and the way william talks about them. “you are broken” “i will put you back together” like william views his kids as objects. broken things he can fix. these are not words said by a loving parent

and its not even just the aftons! henry is no where near as horrible as william is—i Am Not suggesting henry was abusive—but he also wasnt a great dad! building a robot to watch your daughter instead of watching your daughter yourself does not make you a good parent! henry loves charlotte, but the emilys were not some perfect family with no issues.

obviouslyyy michael suffered a ton and was a victim no one is saying he wasnt but i promiseee that does not have to come at the cost of pretending no one else was a victim too. things are just as if not more interesting if you acknowlede other characters guys i promise i promise

[iyohme]

A six-tatami room, my pretty castle

A secret place nobody ought to enter (yeah)

-GHOST FOOD

I lied, have a brainworm and now i must spit it out

We know the confinement phase with the Wayne Family after the abduction, right? Right!

I raise: gamer reader with the mindset of 'Well, I get to live here for free (and I'd be a DUNCE to refuse in this economy,) so I might as well just make myself comfortable (or as comfortable as I can.)'

Dick and Tim can and will preen when you invite them to play multiplayer games. Casually ask them if they know so-and-so, then watch them either A.) listen to you yap about artifact drop rates in Genshin Impact (Tim), or B.) actively pull up their phone to google said game and immediately create an account (Dick).

With his analytical mind, Tim can and WILL enjoy Genshin's artifact farming and character building phase. Dude hates the open world exploration but is much more amenable to it if it's co-op with you, the favorite sibling. Thinks about rigging the game's code so you'll get the artifact drops you want, but decides against it because if HYV bans his account, then no more co-op exploration time with batsib :C. Dude might also enjoy indie RPGmaker games, especially ones with more complicated puzzles and mysteries.

Dick on the other hand has shit Genshin character builds. Tim bullies him for it. You build Dick's teams for him anyway because he has insane 50/50 pull luck, so who's laughing now? Prefers the open-world exploration aspect of the game with you, and his characters tend to run out of stamina and drown in the early phases lmao. Dick likes boss and domain runs; and to the trained eye, one can see that Nightwing might incorporate some of the more plausible moves of your mains into his fighting. Might also enjoy chill games like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley!

Jason in one word is a genwunner. Dude is stuck in 'there are only 151 Pokémon' mode. Call him old-fashioned, but handheld consoles are the way to go for Red Hood: compact, can be carried, and you can play with them anytime and anywhere. When you pull up an emulator and explain that "Yeah, since the game isn't sold anywhere anymore, it's like a courtesy thing in fandom I guess, to distribute it discretely. Keeps the game alive. Still a form piracy though. Please don't tell Ba--uh, Dada."

We already know: Damian likes FPS games. Probably blocked by a lot of Valorant players with how sharp his tongue is. Still the best carry of all time though--only for his favorite, blood-related sibling (you). The rest can get sniped. Greyson and Todd, mostly. Would probably enjoy the newer Resident Evil series; though if you want, he would just about play any game with you. I imagine he'd like the horror, FPS, and art intersection in the Fatal Frame series.

Harmless secret and not-really crime with the new sibling he (lovingly) bullies (but no one else should bully)? Hell yeah. Watch him run through the damn mew glitch with one hand behind his back and catch you the three legendary bird Pokémon in record time. If forced to play a newer game, Jason would enjoy Bloodborne, probably. And HADES, especially if you mention how "Wow, you look a LOT like Prince Zagreus, big brother," watch him fold like a wet rag after giving you a noogie lmao. If you bargained really well, you could get him to play Zenless Zone Zero; dude would be a Billy Main. Also probably beats your ass in Tekken, so you bribe beg Damian to step in as proxy.

Because I play Hoyogames (and because you can co-op with up to three people in Genshin), I imagine Damian would also play with you. Being a child (despite being an assassin,) he'd definitely pick the opposite of whatever player character you choose. You chose Stelle? He gets Caelus. You choose Aether? He gets Lumine. You choose Belle? He chooses Wise. It's a comforting, smile-bringing thought to him, that you are siblings even inside fictional worlds. Any playable character with a canonical sibling that you get? He's getting the other pair. It'd be cute, except his team comps get messy, so you run it through tests. (All according to his plan, heheh.)

Cass is one step ahead of everyone and was probably the one to suss out your gaming hobby. She spots your collection of Visual Novels, and puts it to good practice to watch and read with you. Would probably enjoy VNs like Doki Doki Literature Club. Probably would also play Dungeon Exploration RPGs like Momodora and Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight. Has the uncanny ability to never get lost in game dungeons. Stuck in an area? Cass is on the case!

Bruce frowns upon too much gaming, so he regulates your game hours (and has a timetable for everyone) regarding which game to play. Alfred also enforces it. So does Barbara. You do get to wheedle him into playing Pokémon Sword or Shield with a bit of begging and "Look Dada, I named my Crobat after you!" watch him soften when he googles and sees that Crobat only evolves after maximum friendship levels. He might like psychological thriller mystery pointer games that can be played in increments like Fran Bow, maybe? And battle royale games like Tekken: Bruce has a competitive streak a mile wide and will not go easy on you. Is very smug upon winning. If you get him as a proxy in Tekken, Jason will bolt because he will not be betting about staying over for dinner. The match would be rigged in Bruce's favor anyway.

Barbara on the other hand, loves hack and slash games. Get her to play HADES and compete on who has the fastest runs, and she will take up the next few hours of the game time schedule, much to her smug delight. She'd also love the atmosphere of the indie RPG Horror Ib, I think? The whole surreal, comfortable horror interspersed with time limit puzzles really does get adrenaline flowing after all. Gets very alert when playing Chilla's Art games and side-scrollers like Tsugunohi. Subtle horror is very much up her alley.

All in all, isn't this quite a comfortable life? A bit lonely perhaps, you could say, but with a family who loves you above all else and endless games, what else could you need?

Stay with them.

They'll die without you, after all.

[dollypopup]

everyone in the Lukola fandom spiraling once again (which i only know because as a fan of Luke Newton, I go to his tag and y'all spam the SHIT OUT OF IT) and here I am to say that THIS is why you don't get too involved in your delusions and speculations. The Lukola fandom LOVES to claim that it's all fun and games and just theories. . .until those theories are disproved. and then they turn into a raging hate machine that digs themselves in the dirt of their echo chamber with their fingers in their ears and their hands over their eyes.

putting aside the horrific misogyny his girlfriend has gotten, the very idea that y'all will 'stop shipping when they announce they're with someone else' is ridiculous. they have BEEN saying it, but without words. y'all just don't want to hear it. listen to me closely, if someone doesn't 'claim' you on social media, but you KNOW they've been harassed and stalked and bullied and smack dab in the public eye, but they take you on all their trips and meet your family and hang out with you and introduce you to their friends? you've BEEN 'claimed'. just not to cruel hearted fans, but to those who matter. it's clear to me that Luke is doing what he can to keep his girlfriend from being attacked by a wide audience on social media, and no he's not going to come out publicly with it because he has *learned his lesson*. he has had several public relationships fall to tatters and has had previous partners harassed, even on her work instagram, so one day y'all will have to swallow the pill.

nicola is not pregnant with luke's child (this shit was disrespectful to claim in the first place). her and luke are not married or living together. they are not dating. they are in a relationship with other people, and are yes, friends, but more importantly, coworkers. their financial lives are very much tied into upholding a fantasy for people. so on top of not wanting to expose their partners to the absolutely bananas fandom, they are financially motivated to be amicable about Lukola's disrespectful theories. especially Luke, who was, as he claimed openly, broke and looking for a job as he couchsurfed and part time bartended prior to Bridgerton to make ends meet. he's not letting go of the consistency of a yearly gig or the opportunities it brings. selling the costar love story fantasy is a common pr tactic, so of course they're going to be invested in selling the fantasy people fell for. hence bringing one another up in 'romantic hints' in interviews. they are just doing their job. which is acting. not LYING as some of y'all love to clutch your pearls about when you feel they have 'deceived you'

Luke's entire Sexiest Man Alive interview was very purposefully distanced from him as a person. It's clear in his mind that this was a character he was putting on- he does not feel comfortable describing himself as a heartthrob as he has said outright, and his answers in the This or That portion are clearly from Colin's perspective. It is COLIN'S time to shine and be desirable in this way, not Luke's. Which is what Nicola likely means when she says Luke has no ego in it. but there's something very important to put in place here:

Luke is not Colin. He is an actor playing a character. But y'all TREAT HIM like he's Colin. You treat him like he's fictional. Not a real person. And you do the same to Nicola. They are not Polin. They are not their characters. They are real actual human beings you will never personally know.

this man has been STALKED. someone moved across the ocean to the UK to peek into the windows of his home to determine if he was still living there and with a girlfriend. thank god he'd moved prior to that because the trauma of that is horrific. y'all have turned him and nicola into characters you can speculate about instead of creatives whose personas you enjoy.

you. do. not. know. these. people.

they are strangers. please keep that in mind when y'all hop on this parasocial bullshit. stop convincing yourselves that your 'delulu' and speculation is real. and yes, you do that because if you didn't think it was real, you wouldn't get mad when it turns out to be false.

treat the creatives you claim to support with respect. and accept the reality of things.

or at the very least get out of their tags and keep your echo chamber's door shut

[residentdork]

I think T'Pring was absolutely brilliant in Amok Time by choosing Jim as her champion. Maybe this is already an explored concept in fandom or in extended media, but I'm gonna rant about it anyway. I've seen some people just be pissed at her and call her a bitch. Think she either doesn't believe in her man Stonn or that she's trying to punish Spock in some way by choosing his friend but I think her decision to choose Jim shows how much she cares about Spock.

Cause here's the thing I don't think she just worried that if she chooses Stonn, Spock would win and kill her boyfriend. I think she was equally worried that Stonn would win and kill Spock.

Other than not wanting to marry him anymore T'Pring is fairly cordial. And the two, while estranged, weren't broken up. It almost feels like she was willing to "be his maybe" or backup in case either of them hit pon far before finding a new partner. But the timing was bad and she was starting to fall for Stonn when Spock reached his time.

Now if she cares for both of them then either winning is a terrible outcome. And she can't just pick another Vulcan cause either they lose and she still has to marry Spock or her champion kills Spock.

Now enter Jim. A Starfleet Captain who morally and legally can't kill his own crewman but who Spock also clearly cares for enough to bring with him.

Jim is the perfect champion because either Spock wins and is pissed she made him kill his friend and refuses her anyway (which is the outcome) or Jim being not of this world has a chance to break the rules and find a solution that she can't without risking her position. (Which is also the outcome of the episode).

There's no scenario probably in her mind of Kirk outright winning because A) come on he's a weak little human B) even if he could he'd be risking his whole career and C) if she's heard anything about Kirk she knows he'd rather die than kill a crewman like this on purpose.

Even on the off chance Spock wins and doesn't deny her, he's killed a Star Fleet Captain. His career in Star Fleet is over and her biggest complaint on his character, that he puts his career before her and that that career has socially put them both in a weird spot, is mitigated.

Sure she would lose Stonn but maybe in this unlikely scenario, she and Spock might have a chance to work out some of their issues and come to an understanding.

It's not a perfect scenario but of her options she's picked a solution that allows her to win in some part in every outcome.

I love T'Pring, she's over here gaming the system and it just makes me so sad when fandom paints her to be this cold bitch who either bullies or hates Spock when clearly in her first appearance she's picked the only option in this weird violent part of Vulcan culture that keeps Spock alive.

Put some respect on her name!

[marshmallowprotection]

You’re really good at analyzing the characters so what are some common mischaracterizations or head canons people in the fandom have about the characters that you don’t like?

Common? Well, there are a lot of things little things that I don't care for when I see them, but I know most people feel the same. Yoosung has a huge one. I hate when people make cousin jokes at his expense and I scroll and block when I see people make them at this point. It's not funny, and you don't understand Yoosung as a person. You don't understand his grief and frankly, that's insulting because that's a big part of his character arc.

People belittle him and make him feel like a kid when he's twenty-one years old and coming into his own. He's not a baby, sure, he going to learn a lot in the future because there's so much he hasn't gotten the chance to experience, but lack of experience doesn't mean that he's not capable of standing on his own. Yes, compared to the other RFA members, he hasn't done a lot, but that doesn't mean he's not super accomplished. He was a stellar student, he worked hard to get to the place he is, and the only reason he's floundering is due to the grief in his heart.

Grief plays a huge role in his story and if you want to understand him, you need to know his grief. Set aside the fact that Rika's still alive. He doesn't know that and in most routes, he never does. She was so very important to him because Yoosung was a lonely person even though he was a popular kid who didn't have trouble making friends. He was lonely and you can tell he's lonely if you look hard enough to see it in your own eyes.

Actually, if you want my headcanon about him, I think Yoosung was an oops baby. I think his sister was much older than he is and due to that fact, he was never super close to her. Sure, his family is the most normal in the entire game, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have its own faults. His mother loves him, she does her best to take care of him, but it seems like his father is always rather busy at his job with the government. With a sister much older than him that he can't ever seem to relate to, and a mom who is trying her best but pushes him when he makes mistakes, and a father who isn't around all that much for him, it's got to be lonely.

Why else do you think he latched onto Rika when she came to speak to him? She saw him. She saw him and related to him. She was closer to his age and knew how to talk to him. It's no wonder Rika became a very important person in his life. She saw that he was lonely and that he needed others to root for him, and that's why she convinced him to stick around and join the RFA. Rika did care for Yoosung, she really wanted him him to do well in life back then, and pulling him into the RFA was the best thing Rika did for him because it gave him a place to have others to turn to for advice.

The RFA is a found family no matter what, and even though the RFA playfully bullies Yoosung sometimes, they're some of the only people who know the facets of who Yoosung is.

Zen isn't a narcissist and even if he was one, that's not a bad thing. However, I will say it's not a good look when folks shout that word and villainize personality disorders. Please, I implore people to do more research and be more mindful about how they speak about personality disorders, not just with narcissistic personality disorder, but BPD, OCD, etc.

He is overcompensating. When he is spouting compliments toward himself, it's because he's trying to convince himself that those words have power. Words do have power, let me tell you, and if you call yourself trash all the time, you are inevitably going to believe you are trash. 

I'm not saying you have to do what he's doing to build up your confidence, but I'm going to say that what he's doing can be quite helpful for people. You'll make a lot of progress if you're not trying to beat yourself down. The world isn't going to hold back its punches, so why in the world would you beat yourself down just to help the things that want to see you crumble? I know it's easier said than done, but it's good to be in the habit of not insulting yourself.

You don't have to compliment yourself, but don't call yourself trash. 

You know another thing about him that gets to me? It’s something he shares with Jumin that doesn’t get the conversation it needs. Both of them have more in common than they realize. They're both victims of sexual harassment, and one of the reasons why I love Zen Route has to do with the fact that they get to have a healthy conversation about their insecurities and what they've both experienced.

Jumin downplays his copious trauma all the time, but speaking with Zen is a way to front those demons with someone who won't mince words for his sake but will also be understanding and considerate at the same time. Jumin thinks he isn't allowed to complain to expend on his trauma because he's a man in a place of privilege. He thinks it isn't important in the grand scheme of things. He thinks he got lucky and others deserve far more sympathy than he does because they've not had as much fortune as he has.

Zen calls him on his shit for it. That's why I love when Zen and Jumin can truly begin to understand each other underneath their banter of "Zen hates Jumin because Jumin reminds him of his older brother in the worst way imaginable" and "Jumin lets Zen poke at him because it's fun to have debates and discussions with others and Zen doesn't hold back" and "Zen gets rightfully angry about how rich people can flaunt their wealth" and "Jumin doesn't even hate Zen, he just leans into what Zen expects because it's what Zen "wants.""

Zen and Jumin have a lot in common. Sure, some people understand that, but I think some of the little details get missed. It took me a long time to understand Jumin because he peeved me at first, but once I got to see who he is as a person, I realized that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and that's a lesson we all know, but it's good to get it reinforced. You learn that in Zen's Route, and you can't shake it off when you get Jumin's Route when needs the same theory applied to it.

I just don't like it when put don't put weight on Jumin's trauma and entirely miss it when it's blatant.

Don't get me started on the bad ending. I don't like talking about his bad ending because people like to romanticize that relationship and call it canon. That's the problem for me. I also love indulging in Bad Endings myself, but I do not call them the good ending. My problem with Jumin’s BE is that there are people who claim the Bad Ending is healthy and fight to say that it’s a “better ending.”

Listen, my friend, if you want an ending with a relationship that has BDSM, you can have that. You can have that in the Good Ending. You do not have to get a Bad Ending to get it, you can write and imagine it in the Good Ending, and you can have the characters communicate consent and boundaries. You can imagine that and have it that way! I can't believe I have to say that! It is 100% okay to consume content for the Bad Ending and to create it.

But for the love of God, stop calling it a Good Ending and stop acting like it's healthy. Cheritz made a DLC for it because they knew people would pay for that. That's literally the only reason why that got made and I hate it. I hate that his trauma about his damn mother is hidden in a ending that emotionally destroys that man and you would never know anything about it unless you decided to play it. His mother is a piece of shit, by the way, but I'm sure most people know that by now.

All I want is for people to call the ending what it is and to tag it appropriately so I can avoid it. I don't want to consume anything for it and that's my choice. I'm not saying you can't enjoy it, please enjoy it if you want to enjoy it, but call it for what it is because I call all of the Bad Endings I consume Bad Endings for a reason.

I hate it when people say that Jaehee is bland. I hate it when people say that Jaehee is overbearing about Zen and then they bash her into the ground because she "gets in the way" of Zen/MC. I hate when I'm forced to see someone claim that Jaehee's route isn't romantic. Y'all do realize that Jaehee's route has the most realistic route, right? She isn't yet aware of her sexuality or her feelings toward other woman. It doesn't occur to her at first that her feelings for MC are romantic and it takes time for her to fall in love. She's not rushing this experience... she's indulging in it.

She wants to be your partner, your best friend, your closest person in the world first, and as you get closer, that's when you fall in love. She needs time to sort out her feelings, that's the kind of person she is. It takes her time to process her feelings. She's spent her entire life in a place where she's had to fight to earn her keep and look after herself. She went after a career field that would take care of her, and while it's great that she's good at being an assistant to Jumin, it's empty.

It doesn't make her happy. It gives her enough money to pay for all kinds of tickets to see Zen perform, sure, but it doesn't make her feel good about life. Jaehee's route is about someone who feels like they are trapped in a job that's killing them slowly because they don't think they can dream and try something risky because that risk might just be the thing that makes them happy and fulfilled.

I understand that people get frustrated when Zen gets to have hard conversations with Jaehee. I know that a lot of people would rather see the MC complete those visuals with Zen or do it themselves, but I think it’s important to understand why Zen is the one who talks to Jaehee about dreams and passion. Zen ran away from home to chase after his dream knowing it may not happen. It took him a while to get to the point he's at today, and not that many people are lucky when they chase after their dreams. He took a huge risk, which is very scary when you could take the easier path next to it, and to him, it was the risk worth taking.

Jaehee's afraid to take risks.

Having Zen, her idol, tell her to follow her passion, made a difference. On top of that, Saeyoung helped her, too. He could see that she was miserable and he offered to do that report for her so she wouldn't have to torture herself when she finally found something that put light in her eyes. Saeyoung, Zen, and MC are the real MVPs of that route.

While those two are doing their best, you’re doing the same work in the background. You are her confidant, the person who hears her, and the one who is there at the end of the day when all is said and done and she needs somebody to listen. 

That's how she starts to fall in love with you, and it's something she'll realize a little bit later after you two are working together to achieve a dream, and I think it's important to understand that. Your relationship builds from being friends to falling in love.

Yes, I understand there are jokes about them just being friends and this route being the platonic one, but I don't think people understand Mystic Messenger took a huge leap in 2016 by having a romanceable queer female route in the game. Progress is progress, and it's damn important to be happy when we have these milestones. I've seen so many other games come out after this leap was made and it's getting better with every new game that comes out that has male and female options. 

I know it can feel like such a minor thing after the fact, but little jumps are what make progress happen. Whether it's the wedding in Steven Universe that was fought by tooth and nail in 2018, or with Korrasami going canon in 2014, progress comes when we fight for it. Jaehee's route is one of those moments.

Pushing Cheritz for more gave us more romantic content in the game as well.

The Valentine’s DLC for Jaehee is much more blatant and even the Christmas DLC has its moment. Better yet, the birthday images over the years have become much more forthcoming in the fact that Jaehee and MC are in a relationship. You can be proud of the little things, and you can be proud of progress, because if you don't take a moment to appreciate the little things, it feels like the world is bleak and that's no way to live. 

I hate it when people misunderstand Saeyoung but that's something that's been fought over a lot over years so I don't think I need to say a lot about that. He is a multifaceted character and people limit him to being a silly guy. We all know where people go wrong with that at the end of the day and it's so much easier just to keep scrolling than it is to deal with someone who only wants to make him a joke. He isn't the butt of a joke. He's Saeyoung Choi.

However, I will say that I don't appreciate it when people don’t give him the same compassion as Saeran when it comes to his trauma. What I mean by that is I don’t see people talk about what Saeyoung suffered through because of Mother Choi—I don’t see a lot of talk about how Saeyoung was parentified and had to fight tooth and nail to take care of Saeran to the point where his identity became one in which his only reason for living was to take care of Saeran. People scratch the surface of this, but they don't get into the thick of it.

I don't see people talk about his feelings about his mother and how his parentification haunts him to this day. 

When people write (Secret Ending) Saeran to be an asshole. I have a lot of squicks about him fandom wise.

I have never enjoyed people writing him out to be cruel and vindictive but that is something people have done in the past, but fortunately enough, I haven't seen many people do it in the last year or so but it was a problem back in the day and it still irks me when I think about it. I get it, a lot of what we know about him has to be built on what we think as the player since there isn't information about him after his breakdown with his brother.

As fans, we had to build his personality ourselves and figure out his perspective. I don't think there's a right or wrong way to make some content for him, but I do hate it when people go out of their way to make him cruel. 

One of the reasons I wanted to start writing him in the first place was because every time I tried to read content for him, he would be such an asshole to Saeyoung. I get it. I know why people assume he would be that way, but he is baked in apathy and numbness. He does not have the energy to fight and made that abundantly clear in the end that he doesn’t have the strength to fight Saeyoung anymore. That's the main reason why he just stopped trying to... you know, get rid of himself.

His brother was never going to let him die. He accepted that he can't leave this world even if he wants to, so he's trying to make the best of what he has. He has the sky and he has ice cream, and that's pretty much all he has. 

He is sullen. He may not always be forthcoming or kind people, but he doesn't have the energy to be destructive anymore. It would take a lot to upset him. You would need to push every button in the book to get him to lash out. What's the point in lashing out at everyone when it doesn't solve anything? That's not to say he doesn't have moments where he can't see anything but the past and he lashes out because he's terrified, but that's different than actively choosing to be cruel to other people.

I don't think he has many people around him other than Saeyoung and MC. He doesn't know how to interact with other people and he doesn't particularly want to start at this point because he feels like it's too late. I also don't agree with the people who imply that he would be friends with the RFA. That is where I differ with a lot of people and I'm okay with that because that's just the way I imagine things to be and I don't try to force my opinion on others. 

It's nothing against the members of the RFA. I just don’t think he would want to be friends with them. Jumin and Yoosung especially. They were closest to Jihyun and Rika. It's not their fault they had that closeness with them, but because of that closeness, Saeran wouldn’t want to go near there.

Saeran killed Jihyun. We could argue up and down all day long if that was something he wanted to do when he raised that gun to defend himself thinking his brother was dead. But, he did do that even in the wrong state of mind and that's something he has to carry for the rest of his life. Jihyun was Jumin’s best friend. Saeran won't be able to look that man in the eye even if Jumin could look past it knowing the complexities of the situation.

Yoosung held Rika close after the events of the Secret Ending and shipped her off with Zen, don't get me started on how much I hate that because I write it out of anything I write with the Secret Ending. That never happens in my Secret Ending. Rika goes to jail to face the consequences of her crimes and gets some well-needed therapy for her own trauma that's been left to the wayside.

He wouldn't want to be around Zen or Jaehee, either. He stalked them for years. He put them through hell depending on the ending you're playing. He doesn't want to be around them and he doesn't want their "pity" friendship. Saeran knows they would be nice to him for Saeyoung's sake, and he doesn't want that. I get it, I love it when Saeran is friends with the RFA, but that isn't happening in the Secret Ending, I'm sorry. Your MC can be friends with them, but... I just can't say Saeran will.

It was actually a dream of mine to write a SE Saeran/Reader fic that had the characterization I wanted for years and I finally a few years ago because I said, "What the hell, people will read it if they want." If you want to see my take on SE Saeran, please, read my fic Iris, It will keep you busy for a while, it's 170k.

I've never been huge on Yooran in the context of SE Saeran/Yoosung because most of the basis is built around the Bad Ending and when I see content for them, I'm always wary of it because I know there's a subtle chance that the writer might make Saeran become an ass to everyone around him and treat Yoosung in ways I'm not going to even think about. You can write whatever you want, just tag it properly if it is an unhealthy dynamic, and back in the earlier days, there weren't a lot of warning tags so it really soured it for me given how I already felt about SE Saeran.

I do think the ship can be great when it is founded in Another Story, though. Yoosung admires Saeran and even admits to having a crush on him, and in this ending, hey, if you want to imagine Yoosung/MC/Saeran or Saeran/Yoosung post-Another Story? I would love to see it. Because, God, Yoosung treating VAE Ray and Saeran tenderly during fireworks because they're terrified of loud noises? Or, even better, I'm giddy at the thought of Yoosung and GE Saeran baking together in a French kitchen!

I have thoughts and feelings about Rika and V as well, but those don’t land most of the time for me because I have to consistently hammer home that I don’t condone what either of them did every time. Just because I try to understand their past and motivations doesn't mean I condone their bullshit. Motivation, Traumatic Backstory =/= excuses. There is no excuse for their actions and they need to face judgement for it. Hard to have a conversation about them because some people think I'm condoning or erasing their actions by trying to understand more about them as person.

So, I don't get too heavy into those two, but I will say that a lot of people don't understand Rika and V because they don't want to. I can't fault them for that, either.

I understand why most people would not want to touch them with a ten-foot pole. You are not being forced to learn more about them, why they are the way they are, or what brought them to the point in which they made their choices. If you never want to learn anything more about them, I can't blame you for that. But, if you want to talk about them in a larger capacity beyond "I hate them and I want them to go to face justice for this and that" (very valid take, by the way), it's important to understand their motivations, if nothing else. 

I think they are interesting characters and I want to understand more about them because looking at Jihyun is an uncomfortable mirror for me at times. It's helped me be a better person.

[rhyo-writes]

What Makes a Monster; Prologue

As the title suggests, this is an intro to a new series I've decided to write; my take on the Sinclair twins (House of Wax 2005) and their childhood.

Length: 1k

Fandom: House of Wax 2005

Warnings: references to physical and emotional abuse towards children, allusions to murder and torture, this is a HoW fic so take that as warning

If you asked Bo Sinclair what the biggest lie in Ambrose was, you’d probably expect to hear something about the image of a perfect and loving family his mother was so desperate to achieve. The pretense Trudy was so sure the town would believe if her boys would just behave, if they showed up to church every Sunday, if Bo would just be like his brother. And he might at first be tempted to say that, but it simply wasn’t true, even if technically the biggest lie was about his family, and if it technically was about their perfection. But despite these technicalities, it had nothing to do with the loving facade Trudy so desperately pushed. No, this lie concerned Bo’s other half, his mother’s favorite twin, the little artist following in his mother’s footsteps, the model child that Trudy showered with praise, just as oblivious as the rest of the town to the truth.

Vincent was the lie, the golden boy facade as false as the mask he always wore, and the truth just as mangled as what lay underneath. It made Bo angry, this whole good-twin bad-twin game they’d been thrust into, the endless comparisons, the idolization of his brother, when Bo knew that Vincent was just as twisted as he was. Maybe even more so. 

Sure, Bo lashed out. He had a violent temper, and he was quick with his fists, using violence to solve any problem thrust upon him, but that was common knowledge. Everyone knew Bo was a problem, a difficult child, a delinquent, his future a criminal record stretching longer than any list of achievements he could make. Everyone knew of the raging fire burning in his soul, ready to send him over the edge at any second. Even Trudy had given up pretending to love him, whining about her horrid son to her church friends. Everyone saw Bo for who he was, but no one truly saw Vincent.

If Bo was a raging fire, then Vincent was a deceptively calm ocean, serene upon inspection, but with an ever present barrage of deadly currents, hidden just below the surface, invisible until it was far too late for the errant swimmer. Sure, the other kids thought he was a freak, and the adults whispered that he was a bit strange, but they chalked it up to a hard start, to his deformities, to his horrid twin. And sure, their classmates never bullied Vincent the way they did Lester, disturbed by the drawings in Vincent’s sketchbook, saving him from the full force of their hatred up front. But they had no clue just how far that disturbance went, or how dangerous Vincent could be. They had no clue that every day their choice to shun him over outright violence kept them alive, or that the disappearance of the one boy who destroyed Vincent’s work was more than a coincidence.

But Bo knew, how could he not. He knew Vincent, the mirror to his own self, a reflection, perhaps backwards in presentation, but with a soul just as filled with rot and decay as his own. Bo knew that the sculptures of squirrels, rats, mice, and the occasional bat that crowded the shelves of Lester’s room weren’t realistic solely due to Vincent’s skill, but in part as a result of the rotting corpses underneath, an armature not for the squeamish. Bo knew that the stomach churning drawings that filled page after page of Vincent’s sketchbook weren’t the nightmares they were passed off as, but the dark fantasies that lurked like cobwebs etched into his brother’s soul.

And in some dark corner of his brain, Bo Knew that he had to act out, he had create enough chaos and destruction for the two of them, because if he didn’t, the things Vincent would do would be so much worse, and there wouldn’t be enough shadowed crevices or overturned trees in the world to hide the slew of bodies that would follow his brother.

Bo loved Vincent, he really did, but sometimes, a part of him wished that his perfect twin would get in trouble the way he did, for his mother to realize that her precious baby was just as much a freak, they were twins after all, two sides of the same coin.  “It’s not fair,” he wanted to scream, “he’s just as awful, just as horrible,” but try as he might to relay the obvious, that they were identical in both mind and body, no one would listen. His mother would backhand him, furious, for how dare he speak that way about her precious little angel, and Bo would go to bed hungry, seething, trying to tell himself he preferred an empty stomach to the hell that was family dinner. 

Years later he’d watch victims plead with Vincent, convinced that they just had to get through the web of lies they thought Bo had strung, and that if they could Vincent would help them. These small minded people, dumb with fear, oblivious to the inherent cruelty of Vincent’s work, pleading for their lives as if they were more than a step of the creative process, convinced that Vincent must feel sorry for them. He was the tortured artist, he wanted to save them, he hated killing, delusions that made Bo laugh before he’d smash in their faces.

Little did they know that he was far from complicit, in fact, Vincent lived for the feeling of blood on his hands. Nothing quite got the gears of his brain turning like a fresh face to work with, a fresh canvas awaiting his vision. Because Bo was not the mastermind behind the hell Ambrose had become, as much as he’d love to give himself credit. Bo never had much of a vision for the future, for what they could create, but he had someone who did. Someone just as cruel and sadistic, someone happy to help cover Bo’s tracks if it meant he could create his art. No, Bo was not the one behind the town of wax, Vincent was. 

[alanaartdream]

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After reading the Danny Phantom a glitch in time I was in the mood to try to sketch Danny with his Friends Tucker and Sam

And then being as yeah Sam and Tucker did get to join Danny in the nicktoons unite game (heck you can play as Sam in the 2nd game witch is the island game as well as in the toy bots one that came after that ) so they did meet Timmy Turner so had to draw that in

And then had to draw my Fairy Timmy with the nicktoons talking with Sam being as he has met them in the games

Now for years I’ve seen maybe 1-2 artists keep the nicktoons unite fandom alive but most of the time the focus was only on the 1st game not on the other 3 in the series so didn’t see and Sam or Tucker getting added into the lineup (witch is a crying shame because Sam was quite awesome in the games; you could even play as her in at least 2 of the games (not sure about the globs of doom one where they took Timmy Turner out and had invader zim & dib as well as some villains join the team in that one; but then Timmy could and would’ve wished them out of trouble like he does for Jimmy Timmy power hour episodes so the game development team must of not wanting to deal with that tricky story plot )

Like now they’re adding in Jenny XJ9 from my teenage robot life and El Tigre tiger boy but forget to add in Sam and Tucker???

Heck Sammy squirrel; Patrick Sat and Squidward were apart of the Nicktoons unite team up for a lot of the games (also didn’t help that nicktoons started to focus more on SpongeBob Square pants more by the last of the games)

Think you could play as Sammy squirrel in the games too

But then maybe their version of nicktoons unite games aus they like to make Danny have darker life or less supportive friends/ family so maybe that’s why they don’t add them but are adding in Jenny Xj9 and tiger boy before adding in any of Danny’s friends and SpongeBob’s friends or they didn’t know the others games?

Enithr way the games have a order to them apparently (I didn’t know what the order was until some YouTube/ google searches later)

So probably just lack of information as to why it’s this way (( I mean I don’t wanna stop people having their own takes on things I love when people are creative and do their own things))

Just seems odd to not add the other characters that made it into the team or how tragic they make Danny’s life seem in their aus when honestly Danny got a very good supporting network of friends/ family & allies who helps him deal with ghosts and being half ghost (in fact he’s a bit of a adorable dork not really something I’d say is depressing gloomy or something tragic in their life)

Making me think they mixed Timmy turner’s tragic life story with Danny’s being as Danny’s the ghost boy with ghost powers they want to make him tragic when really Timmy’s one with only Wanda Cosmo poof/peri and Fairy world to help him deal with his crazy dumb neglectful parents who forget to feed him and leave him with a abusing awful babysitter; don’t really care to teach him anything and don’t care he’s dealing with awful bullies and a crazy teacher who just wants to fail him all the time to get at his fairies AND he’s only 10 years old and has to deal with all of that without any support whatsoever (if he didn’t have fairies/wanda Cosmo & poof) he’d be a dead ghost child Danny & his friends might’ve had to deal with honestly

Heck because they both been created by butch jerkman the creator once said he was planning on making them cousins (like distant cousins) at one point but gave up on the idea witch probably explains why they do look a little alike

So like Danny has a lot to deal with with the ghost and his own school bullies but his family & friends love and support him

Heck like Jimmy Danny with help of his friend Tucker & Sam after all the ghosts they’re dealing with and how emotion is a driving force for ghosts in his world would pick up Timmy only acts snarky/ sassy to protect himself and is honestly a pretty good kid his life back in his world is pretty bad any nicktoons character who’s life might be a little like Timmy’s is maybe Dib’s from invader Zim but the movie changed how Dib’s father is like (if you’d seen the invader Zim’s cartoon show boy dib has some pretty dark moments and thankfully the show doesn’t gloss over those dark moments like fairly odd parents original show use to like to do )

I mean probably overthinking things here it’s just my opinion after looking into things more and enjoying the shows and stuff

Because lately where I use to love how those artist been keeping nicktoons unite fandom going for such a long time; it’s as I go back and enjoy Danny phantom/ fairly odd parents and the nicktoons unite games that it feels like the characterising of these characters feels a bit off now

It’s still good just something is missing or don’t match up

[mylifeforchloe]

This a little abnormal for my blog as far as the kinds of posts I make, but I feel like this kind of a Public Service Announcement (PSA) is necessary for the fandom. Things like this make me really concerned-- not only for the LIS3:DE (new Max story) story that is going to be told, but also for the quality of working environment for those who work at Deck Nine.

Quotes from the linked article that bothered me...

[Edit: Original post was a link post with text after. I saw the link in the edit screen and scheduled the post. For some reason this caused the link to get removed when the article was actually posted. Editing to put the link in the original article. I also posted a follow up (before editing the original) to include the same info. Editing original for completeness only.]

Nazi imagery would be inappropriate in most games, but in a Life Is Strange title the dissonance was especially frightening.

...

According to over a dozen current and former employees across several departments, most of whom spoke to me on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, Deck Nine’s management has long let a toxic work culture fester at the studio. They claim the C-suite has protected multiple abusive leaders, encouraged crunch, and allowed bullying of individuals advocating internally for more authentic representation in Life Is Strange.

...

When they saw this version of the [True Colors] scene, a number of people pushed back, arguing that the scene would unintentionally trigger associations with date rape.

...

“It took a three hour meeting in the writers room and one of the writers sharing an extremely personal story to get Zak to agree to get the content out,” said Littleton. “It wasn’t about us not wanting to have difficult topics in there, but Life Is Strange shines because that type of content is chosen extremely deliberately and it’s given runway, it’s given space to breathe. This detail is irrelevant to the plot, it would have been traumatic for players, and there was no space to unpack it. We don’t have time to talk about what it means for Alex to be roofied by a man she trusted.”

fuuu...

Another anonymous source recalled Garriss suggesting that this pushback was only occurring because he was making a game about a woman, and that he wouldn’t have to deal with this if he was making a game about Nathan Drake.

fuuuuu...

[After Garriss' quit voluntarily] Once news got out [that Deck Nine mamagement wanted to re-hire Garriss], the narrative team erupted. Multiple people begged management not to bring back Garriss in a series of meetings, messages, and emails. One person familiar with leadership at the company recalls HR stepping in, noting that management was actively underpaying a number of workers, especially women, while considering a massive salary for Garriss. HR allegedly suggested that Deck Nine could be legally liable for Garriss’ behavior if they invited him back after the bevy of reports. When the company CEO and CFO persisted in arguing that they needed Garriss, multiple writers handed in resignations.

fuuuuuuuuu...

And given that what we've seen in the teaser videos are either

Missing any reference to Chloe

Including a minimalist reference (like a photo on the wall)

Including an awkward reference (Safi? asking Max about the blue haired girl in the picture Max keeps.)

And given that

3a - Either Bay ending, Max keeps a photo of Chloe from before the storm, or

3b - Max keeps a photo of Chloe, but Chloe isn't in her life (possibly not in her life any longer.)

And given that

Costs of developing a story where Chloe is present in only half of the story (the Bae ending version) and the ripple effect that might have on the plot...

I simply do not believe that Chloe will be a meaningful component. And the choices Max is making across dimensions, and the risk of not getting back to Chloe if she were still alive and still part of Max's life... the plot shown doesn't make any sense to me.

So I wasn't going to buy LIS3 to begin with, not without a proper story that included Chloe's presence in Max's present life. And now, after this article, I'm even less likely to buy [anything from D9, ever again,] knowing the cultural depravity of the development studio.

I would, of course, love to be wrong on all counts.

[dood-itsradical]

Things I screenshot while playing Bully.

New Coventry folks r so broke you be having three mfs coming at yo bike all at the same time.

This glitch. I was so caught up by tis I attacked first. (I didn't earn their respect yet at the time). Safehouse my ass.

Why homeboy facing like that? Ik he's smoking but my friend thought he's crying-

Grass swallowed my bike🗿

[1863-project]

One of the reasons I really don’t engage much with fandom spaces at all these days is just how much casual ableism there is in fandom spaces, a lot of which is internalized ableism. And unfortunately, when you try to explain this to people, they often don’t want to hear it or accept that the ideas they’ve latched onto are actually often pretty harmful to people in the real world.

An example, one of many: people have had theories on N being a Zoroark since Black and White first came out in 2010. That was ableist then, and it’s ableist now - the changeling myth is thought to be rooted in children turning out to be neurodivergent (especially autistic), and if you’re looking at a human character that feels neurodivergent-coded and going “What if they’re not human?” it’s...well, neurodivergent people are already dehumanized in the real world. We’re so often treated as less than human that having a character who comes across as neurodivergent suddenly being not human can feel like a slap in the face to our own humanity.

(Ironically, neurodivergent people often found representation in non-human characters before human characters with neurodivergent traits started popping up in media - this goes back at least to the half-human, half-Vulcan Spock in Star Trek, and possibly far, far further. But that’s a topic for another time.)

Every time I see a character who feels pretty damn neurodivergent, I also see a wide chunk of the fandom interpret their neurodivergent traits really negatively, and it hurts. I don’t engage with the Submas fandom anymore outside of answering people’s train questions that they bring to me because enough people in said fandom looked at Emmet, a character who is more like me than any other fictional character I’ve ever seen in my life, and decided he was scary and unhinged, creepy because of the way he talks when he isn’t close to someone, potentially violent because of his intensity. He’s none of these things, he’s just one of the most autistic characters to ever be written. But the damage was done, because when I saw people treating a character just like me like that...well, it basically told me how they saw me, too.

I graduated high school way, way back in 2007. Some of the people on this website now weren’t alive back then. I wouldn’t get my autism diagnosis for two more years, and all I knew was that I was somehow different from the kids around me, and so many of them had bullied me for this. I was treated horribly because I was intense about my interests, talked differently, walked differently, and acted differently from them. It more or less went on for my entire time in school before I got to undergrad. That shit stays with you. I had this notion that this was how everyone saw me, and that still sits in the back of my mind in my 30s. It’s actually one of the things that prevents me from trying dating, because my bullies were primarily my male peers growing up. It was so important for me to see Ingo and Emmet being themselves and being accepted as themselves, because it meant that maybe people could accept me, too. Except then PLA dropped, and a bunch of new people came rushing in...and enough of them reacted in ways similar to how my bullies did when I was younger, so I had to disengage because it hurt too much.

And the cycle continues with every new character that takes the stage. Nemona debuted in Scarlet and Violet, and once you get more of her backstory in the later game and eventually the postgame you realize she sounds like a neurodivergent person surrounded by neurotypicals. I’ve seen headcanons of autism, ADHD, and a few other neurodivergencies, all of which were definitely people relating to her experiences with their own - Geeta even introduces the “weird girl” to the “new kid” at the beginning of the game in the hopes that she’ll make a friend, a common experience for neurodivergent kids growing up. But then I started seeing people calling her a yandere, and they weren’t joking, and I knew that people who related to Nemona who saw that were going to feel hurt the way I did with people taking Emmet’s autistic traits so negatively.

Fandom spaces tend to be online bubbles, so to speak, and people don’t often realize the impact that these attitudes have in the real world. It’s important for people to have representation and see themselves in the media they interact with, because that’s extremely affirming and validating. Seeing a fictional character just like you being accepted for who they are goes a long, long way when you’re being bullied for who you are in your real life. When you see a bunch of people looking at those harmless traits of yours that people bully you for and interpret them in ways that portray you as scary, creepy, or even unhinged and dangerous...it does damage.

I think about people with psychosis. I think about how media has portrayed them throughout the ages, and how stigmatized they are as a result. I think about people with personality disorders, about people with OCD (of which I’m one myself), about autistic people and ADHD people and people with Tourette’s and other tic disorders, about plural people/systems...the list can go on, and on, and on, and this post doesn’t even touch upon physical disabilities and how ableist fandom spaces can be to them, too (cons being physically difficult to navigate are just one challenge of many they face). I think about how desperate we’ve all been to see ourselves as characters - nuanced characters that feel like real people, not caricatures. The days of the “evil, unhinged schizophrenic” need to be over. We know people with disabilities and mental illnesses are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators; we have so many studies affirming this. And yet the rest of the world is taking a long time to catch up on this.

Sometimes, you’re 12 years old and you make an edgy OC who wears a straitjacket because they like to stab people, and then you get a little older and you realize that was pretty ableist and you grow and change as a person. That’s normal - you’re learning about the world around you and learning how to be more kind. But if someone who’s out there in the real world explains why something is ableist towards their disability or mental illness, and they provide examples, that’s not the moment you double down and act like you can do no wrong and that everything you’ve written is fine. It’s supposed to be a learning moment for you, a chance to step back and try to do better. And this especially applies to internalized ableism - like I said, so many fandom spaces are heavily neurodivergent, and the internalized ableism I’ve encountered in fandom spaces has grown substantially with the rise of social media. Sometimes the call is coming from inside the house, and we need to be mindful of how we’re portraying people like ourselves, too.

I think it’s a good idea to really try to be aware as we engage with others in fandom spaces and try not to perpetrate harmful stereotypes or portrayals, and becoming more thoughtful and nuanced about how we depict characters is a big part of that. If you’re writing something edgy just for yourself, that’s for you, and you don’t really have to think too hard about it. But if you’re sharing it in a public space, remember that anyone can encounter it, and it might do damage you’re not really thinking about. It’s important to remember that the internet is a public space, too, just like the places we go in real life, and that we should carry ourselves the way we would if we were interacting in person - we need to try to be respectful, and accept feedback and improve things when we accidentally aren’t.

As an extra reminder, here’s a great graphic from Sonny Jane Wise on Instagram that shows just how many things fit under the neurodivergent umbrella:

Please do your best to do no harm, but if you accidentally do, please listen to the people who are being harmed and want to help you do better.

[cheezyhamster]

Doodle of Albatross and his granddaughter

Granddaughter is an OC! One of my first, in fact!

Biiiig infodump under cut

Her name is Sapphire, accidentally sharing the name of Albatross's sister

My first iteration of her was an Animus princess that had universe-jumping abilities/discovered that her magic went beyond the reaches of her reality (Had this idea so that she could be an OC in any fandom/become a sona). This idea was probably when I was roughly 10-11. She was childish and stubborn.

In this iteration she discovered that she could "teleport" during the Seawing Massacre, wishing that she was anywhere safe as a knife sent by Albatross was stabbing her in the face (it didn't go very deep)

She looked something like this afterwards (I never made a reference :/):

As I used her more often I realized that I had no idea what her personality was and how she dealt with her abilities

I then decided that she eventually became cold and manipulative, treating the inhabitants in each universe as playthings, seeing how things turned out if she did this or that a specific way, before getting bored and moving on.

This version of Sapphire kind of disappeared when I started working on developing a Wings of Fire/Hunger Games-esque AU called the Flare Trials, where dragons in districts had their wings removed at hatching so as to leave them less able to revolt and fight the winged dragons of the Capitol. Tributes and the Games were initially developed as a means to both entertain dragons in the Capitol and incite fear and hopelessness in district dragons in watching young dragons fight to the death without any opportunity for a dragonet to survive. Eventually it was amended so that one district of dragonets could "win" and be granted wings and fame. Sapphire came in because she was the protagonist and won. Almost every other WoF OC I have came from this AU

Animus "Canon" Sapphire and weak Flare Trials Sapphire kind of merged for a while, but when I stopped working on the AU Animus Sapphire became separate again, though I didn't do anything with her until pretty much just now bc I fell into a Harry Potter phase (oof) and then into the OMORI phase I'm in now.

As I drew the doodle with Albatross today I had a thought of a version of Sapphire that could possibly be more solid? Sapphire looked up to Albatross heavily, aspiring to be just like him and was unwaveringly supportive and loyal to him. Albatross eventually opened up to Sapphire about how he was treated, confiding in her about how he is unappreciated and generally abused by his family (Queen Lagoon). Sapphire responded with righteous anger towards her grandmother, insisting that Albatross shouldn't let everyone bully him anymore. This inadvertently leads to the massacre. Sometime in between, however, Albatross, planning out the massacre, gives Sapphire Animus magic mostly experimentally, intending for her to help in the massacre and to aid in killing her brother (Fathom), Albatross's replacement (threat). Unfortunately for him, Sapphire is horrified by his plan and refuses to go along with his commands during the massacre, trying to dissuade Albatross before eventually fleeing after he lost patience with her and sent a knife flying into her face as she commanded her crown to keep her alive as fast as she could, though she still ended up scarred after her brush with death. Afterwards, she lived undercover, the crown she bore keeping her alive indefinitely. I don't have much else of an idea right now but uhh Darkstalker sized Seawing that is old as dirt and wrinkly 😁

Thanks for reading this infodump. As is evidenced, I love talking about my OCs! (All of them)

Please ask me about them or tell me to stop idk

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

fandom ain't equipped to cope with it if inside of a minute of being reunited with Lucifer Lilith not only gets him to drop asking where she's been she has him apologizing to her, and manipulates him into ditching his schedule with the hotel to start working on concerts for her, and not only shifts the blame to him with Charlie but low key bullies her into changing into a dress, and assumes vaggie is house keeping due to her being a latina.

Okay, I can see Lilith manipulating Lucifer and Charlie. It would be actually good for the plot to take Lucifer out of the picture because he's almost a game breaking OP.

BUT

Where did you get the idea that Lilith is a misogynistic woman who would preach traditional femininity and bully Charlie into changing into a dress? She's literally the OG rebellious queen and has largely shaped Charlie into the person she is today. Sure, Charlie might be gullible, but she's not stupid. After Lucifer literally proved how much he cares about her, I don't think she'd be easily turned against him.

Also, why introduce racism into it? Hell might have its own kind of racism but it's rooted in their internal hierarchy. And sure there's probably some "human" racism there, brought by sinners, but is a relatively modern idea, widely introduced by colonialism. And talking about the "Latinas are housemaids" stereotype - that was invented by white Americans relatively recently (compared to all years of human history). Lilith is ancient, she has lived through thousands of years, and I don't see a single reason why she would subscribe to this particular ideology. She probably doesn't even have a human perception of ethnicity.

Characters can be evil (though we don't even know if Lilith is evil-evil or if she's just egotistical) and don't need to check every Evil Person Trait like racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, abuse stc. Why strip away every nuance for the sake of making Lilith this absolute monster? The worst thing she has done was leaving her responsibilities, husband and adult daughter for seven years after centuries of doing her duties. Women do such things sometimes and sure, it sucks for those who were left behind and is a dick move, to not give others closure but doesn't automatically make anyone the worst person alive.

Call me not equipped to cope with it, but I'm not buying it at all.

EDIT: Follow up from the anon, turns out we kinda miss communicated

[biggie-chcese]

barok and susato for the bingo!!

ohhh love those guys!!!

Barok:

Susato:

FINALLY got a bingo lol. thanks barok. maybe if i projected id win for once, but alas, i do not really enjoy my fiction in that way (no shade to those who do tho). ANYWAY my second and third favorite ace attorney characters ever <3333 i actually think a lot of barok fans are right about him in the way that they critically acknowledge his flaws and the writing shortcomings around his arc while also appreciating the story being told. but there is a Sector of fandom that is incredibly wrong about him and will read the game text in bad faith so yeag <3 i have many headcanons but for one i know this man has autism you cannot convince me otherwise. he should've gotten bullied more in the game bc id give anything to watch ryu and iris roast his ass in his own office for the first time again. also, every time he does that leg shit i want to eat him alive like a pack of wild dogs on a raw steak. excellent character

as for susato, it's honestly a lot of fans of her that have me like "we have played and read this game in WILDLY different ways" pfff. like sorry that is not ryunosuke's little sister! that is his trusted friend and highly capable assistant!!! like why is fandom so afraid of the simple dynamic of being friends, genuinely. anyway she is so much more than a "weirdgirl" (though she is Weird and i mean this so affectionately) and the way she contends with her perfectionism and imposter syndrome is... oughhh i adore her. also her design fucking SLAYS. kimono + boots combo is a serve, love it. it's a good representation of the meiji era mindset of introducing western styles to japanese fashion culture. i wish her hair was easier to draw tho 😭 also shoutout to her being just as frazzled as ryu when put on the spot as a lawyer, really reminds me of how cool and collected Phoenix seems in AJ when you're not in his POV, but when when you play as him you're like "ahhh i see... we're All struggling here <3" hands down the best assistant character in ace attorney for me and it is not even a contest.

god i love these two.