#its incredible what perspectives can do yknow

[vero-niche]

still obsessed with the cover of vol1 of chi. the gall. the daring. there has never been a more "hidden in plain sight". or maybe its just my adhd that made me completely miss the rope until i noticed his shadow is like. weirdly floating

[a-court-of-moonlight-and-ire]

I think my biggest issue with Rhysand (so far) is that the narrative pretends hes such a pragmatist, a guy who makes the smartest decisions in the worst of circumstances when his decisions UTM are so bad from a tactical perspective they border on comedy

Like, hey man, why dont you just leave Feyre alone with her warm meals so she can recover and try to solve that riddle thats gonna immediately save all of your lives, why do you keeps dragging her outside so you can feed her weird wine which makes her unable to think. Sure, 3 months of solitary confinement that she can actually remember is gonna mess her up for life but you would think that would be a fair enough trade in exchange for everyones freedom in the mind of someone as mOrAlLy GrAy as my man Rhysand. (Not that the shit he actually did to Feyre wouldnt have messed her up, it just didnt because if she was actually traumatized by his actions, she wouldntve been fawning over him and we cant have that now can we) Amarantha is clearly not checking up on her so he can do whatever he wants with Feyre including yknow, HELP HER especially after they made that bargain and he got what he wanted from her. Like, he couldve totally healed her if he wanted and he wouldnt have even gotten in trouble for it because Amarantha wouldve just been like "oh damn, Lucien did that" and taken that as an excuse to torture him some more (and Tamlin by extension)

And its not like Im expecting the guy whos been getting traumatized for 49 consecutive years to make a rational decision, but because Rhysand is meant to be the bestest most perfectest MaLe in all 21 dimensions or however many there are in the maasverse, hes not allowed to actually be affected by the horrible shit that happened to him because that would make him a "weak male" in sjm's eyes, so all of his decisions are treated as perfectly rational and its incredibly infuriating

[twistedastrology]

Outer Planets & Affliction: What destroys a man.

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

gonna talk abt a much darker topic today bc i feel like it and it's absolutely fascinating to me from a very morbid perspective (which happens a lot 4 me)

im gonna start this off by saying this is mostly focusing on extreme cases/what Could happen due to outer planet affliction, none of this is definite if u have afflicted outer planets bc it depends on the severity of their affliction and how many good counter aspects u have to them that help u heal!! :)

to start, the outer planets to me are Saturn to Pluto, so let me give u a quick rundown of what I think these planets are responsible for when they're heavily afflicted:

Saturn - Destruction of the will, the snuffing of one's inner, driving fire.

Uranus - Destruction of the mind, losing your cognitive function, going insane.

Neptune - Destruction of the spirit, loss or lack of intuition, feeling lost within your own life.

Pluto - Destruction of the body, the vessel decays and lacks the strength to repair itself.

i wanna say as well that all of this essentially came to me in a vision from god, i genuinely had no basis in my head initially, i was just rambling to myself in my head and all of this clicked and then it genuinely made sense and i even had evidence to back it up, so i wanted to post abt it because i love dark stuff like this (my blog name isn't twisted astrology for no reason- i mean like the reason was bc it was a play on twist and twisted transistor by korn But yknow it gains reasons as i go on-)

let's go over why each planet destroys what they do:

Saturn destroys the will because it rules over time and persistance- Capricorns are more often than not very driven people, Saturn grounds them and gives them the stability and willpower to see things through. A strong Saturn is often manifested as a very powerful driving force, as the planet often acts an incredibly crucial pillar, if not the foundation in a person's chart.

Uranus destroys the mind because it's the higher octave of Mercury. It rules over innovation and change, even higher thought. A strong Uranus is often an indicator of a genius in whatever area of life the planet is placed into. Thus, when afflicted, it completely shatters and even lacks this potential altogether.

Neptune destroys the spirit because it's known as the planet of spirituality. It's the planet of our higher self and our shadow self, it's our connection to the planes of existence beyond our own. A strong Neptune is often indicative of enhanced intuition, and can even mean the person has a heightened level of awareness of their place in the world and where they're meant to be in life. So naturally, an afflicted Neptune means a complete lack of perspective and the loss/lack of the ability to realize there is more than the self, making one feel lonely, inadequate, and lost.

Pluto destroys the body because it rules over death, transformation and rebirth. It even rules over destruction itself, and its connection to death gives it an inherent connection to the physical body as well. A strong Pluto can manifest as a strong will, but also as a higher pain tolerance because of that. Therefore when it's afflicted, the soul's vessel lacks the ability to transform and regenerate itself effectively, and ultimately will crumble to pieces throughout the course of life.

OK- lemme write normally now instead of all fancy n shit 😮‍💨 But what's my evidence to prove all this-

well someone i know has very heavily afflicted outer planets, mainly saturn, uranus and pluto, but neptune was kinda roped into the affliction as well- and all of this checks out.

saturn especially hits him hard, which also makes it all karmic so idk wtf bro did in a past life but it had to've been Bad bc he's got some SERIOUSLY afflicted outer planets like jesus fucking christ- and like i dont wanna talk too much shit on here but he's insufferable to say the least and, probably bc of the afflicted saturn, will not do the work to fix it.

would genuinely hate to be him on his death bed like 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡

ANYWAY-

like i said initially tho this does not mean if u have a kinda afflicted uranus, ur gonna go insane!!! no sir!!! it's just abt the extremes n stuff and what i have literally seen happen with my own eyes- i think most people have enough soft aspects to get them into the process of healing, maybe not even soft aspects maybe just solid placements- it's all subjective, rly-

but this is also a really good way to talk abt the Power that these planets have- they are NOT to be fucked with bc when afflicted, they can obliterate you and your entire life tbh- i dont think they Want to unless you somehow have beef with them but overall they are just incredibly powerful planets and i truly think when reading someone's astrology chart, you GOTTA look at the outer planets bc otherwise you're missing out on SOOOOO much crucial information.

i always say that i think outer planets, whether in transit or in a natal chart, have the absolute MOST impact on a person despite being so far away.

far away ≠ lack of impact.

i hope this was interesting to read or at least thought provoking bc i absolutely LOVE dark topics like these, probably my moon/neptune in my 8th house tbh- i mean im genuinely fucking petrified of tornadoes like lilapsophobia type shit but i still put that image here because i unfortunately think they are really fucking cool at the same time (ive had multiple nightmares where tornadoes have killed me. but like........ they're kinda cool......and i hate them........)

anyway!!!!! thank u for reading this far into my yapping session 🙏🙏

[kozykricket]

i really love how imagination based deltarune is, its about the whimsy of indulging in fiction, and... i wonder how much of that part of deltarunes like... well, one of its core deconstructions (i think its safe to call fiction That) but i wonder how much of that part was affected by UNDERTALE itself, because like

well i was reading an interview about margin of the strange, and its funny because. margin started as a thing before oneshot... but oneshot took some inspiration and ideas/tones from margin. but now margin is actually becoming a game, and it can learn from what oneshot did and i think ... its p similar to undertale and deltarune from what we know. like. deltarune hometown wasnt going to have any monsters in the original concept, as toby said. im sure he decided on that after he started making monsters for undertale... and, well, theres a lot of things, again theres a really big post on frisk, chara, and the player, comparing them to kris and the player... that i wanna make (will probably be an addon to this post) but this post right now is about...

im curious how tobys EXPERIENCE with UNDERTALE has effected his views of fiction. clearly he was already involved in like, indulging in fiction, yknow. as a Gamer and also in fandoms like homestuck... creation was no stranger to him but, had he created something incredibly massive? no, he hadnt. but now that he's created undertale, i feel like... surely, even if in subtle ways, that must've added to his perspective around the creation of fiction and ... him experiencing *firsthand* how your creation can grow so much that it almost becomes not yours. i just think its interesting to think of. ive said it before but ill say it again: i love when games' settings or themes are based around fiction, escapism, or just like. has stuff manifesting from imagination / thoughts. and to add to that, i think in general Creating Things about Creation is pretty cool. like, chicory is a game that talks a lot about being an artist and... deltarune may very well kinda reflect being a creator of stories, as toby does. i think with undertale under his belt, perhaps he has more to reflect and show in that sense who knows? all i know is that i appreciate when i can look into something that someone made when it like... really gives insight into what their values and thoughts are as a person. like ive said this before but i think... yknow, people who say "oh skies forever blue is a deltarune lore hint!!" is like. thats silly

but also, its valuable to, in a broader sense, analyze the ways that a writer like toby likes to think about. his perspectives and thoughts around metanarratives, the things he likes to do... like i think "the greatest living show" shows hes a fan of the theming of puppeteering of a living person, on a surface level viewing anyways. which of course we can use to be like "yeah thats definitely something that he's diggin into more in deltarune" and skies forever blue goes into... whaddya know, meta concepts in games. thats just like, something toby clearly likes. games and playing with their save files if anything, skies forever blue would tell us more about undertale than about deltarune. i hope what im saying in this part comes across well. its just like "you can look at a writers other works to find out more about what they like to write about, what they like to deconstruct, and what interests them in general" ...but anyways.. i really want to make a big post sometime about how i fully believe Kris to be a more refined take on something that was only a sort of Experiment in undertale: frisk and chara i think theres a reason its a headache to talk about those two in undertale, because... i dont think it was really the main focus of undertales metanarrative necessarily speaking. yes, they are the vessel for the metanarrative, but the metanarrative isnt ABOUT controlling a protagonist as a Player of a game. its... close, but its a bit more of a "first try" at what kris as a character does. is what i think anyways i have some good points ive noted down in a decent sized document about the whole situation with the red soul and the humans and the player and. yeah. part 2 to this post may come. (also i just think kris is really awesome and cool)

[discountskeppy]

hii... do you have any thoughts on fugo (jjba)... lost potential? or was he best left aside? character analysis, importance in the part's theme, things about his stand... do you like him or not... anything at all ... please? <3

YES I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS!!

so i think fugo is lost potential, but i dont think its a bad thing. in fact, fugo having potential he doesnt live up to as a character in a story is a very interesting mirror to his backstory... fugo is incredibly smart, he got into university at thirteen!! he had an exremely promising life, but that all got thrown away, and then he has to spend the rest of his life in a gang!! fugo as a person has so much missed potential, but him as a character has it in an entirely different way. and i think thats interesting to think about.

i dont hate the fact that he left the gang. it's perfectly in character for him, as much as he might care about the other main characters, he is really just a scared teenager who knows he should be doing better in life. (and, from a writing perspective, there just wouldnt reallly be anywhere to put him, yknow? there wasnt much he could have done really..) what i AM glad didnt happen though is him betraying giorno and helping the boss kill him. that WOULD have been too sad.

i love his stand. just, in general, and also for what it does to his character. stands that have their own quirks and personalities are my favoriteee and also its design and power is really cool. i think its nature as an ultra destructive stand, and fugo's use (or lack thereof) of it tell us a lot about him. the stand's extremely dangerous powers kind of remind me of the hand, purple haze in the hand both have powers to just straight up murder people extremely easily. but they both have extreme consequences to the people they actually care about. they know this, and their stands are never used. i really like thinking about stand usage in relation to characters' personalities, it really can tell you a lot about them.

[ponytailzuko]

were you shit at art before you became good

you had to learn how to do things, one after the other, right? like colors and lighting and line art and textures and perspective and all that. you had to learn one and then the other and then the other and then the other … (or maybe some things went kind of hand in hand but yknow)

these are stupid questions (if there is such a thing of course, lmao,) but i would be very happy if you could indulge me haha, because looking at your art is so overwhelming when you‘re thinking about learning it yourself ahfjaka (i love looking at your art it‘s a really nice experience, it‘s just intimidating too and a lil ah.. you know ahdjsk, only when i think about like. it looks a little unattainable or like it‘ll take 20 years if i‘ll ever be able to and that‘s not really — like i know better than to indulge these thoughts sort of so nowww i feel silly about this ask adfhkjfs.

anyway.

nice art, still, wowwwww so so beautiful)

(it’s a process and it’s about the fun of that process too but i have such a vivid imagination that i really really want to get really GOOD so that i can make it actually visible, and i know it can and probs will take some time and that’s alright so this ask is a little silly. i‘m asking it anyway though ahdjsjsjwk)

hi!!! im not bothered by the ask and its not silly!

i was, in fact, shit at art when i first started out. the reason i even started to draw and do it as a hobby is because i was very dogshit at it. (if there is such thing anyways)

i think i was around 11 or so? that age where elementary school is ending and middle school is beginning and everyone's getting kind of mean lmao. one girl asked me to draw with her and she was REALLY GOOD at it! but i hadn't thought much about art at all and only really did it for fun. so i was really just doodling to my hearts content until she ah. told me that the panda i was drawing was. Really Really Bad. like point at it and laugh kind of bad. like 'not even being able to tell what it is everyone come see this' kind of bad.

anyways obviously i was not very happy. i had not really thought of art as something i wanted to do, nor a hobby that i wanted to indulge in. just something some people are good at it and some people arent. but this girl told me my art was shit, and i was so mad that i didnt talk to her for a month and then for that entire month i did nothing but watch people draw online. speedpaints at first. then i got on iscribble (collaborative whiteboard website at the time) and just watched people do it. and i asked them, how did they start? how do you know what to do? and a lot of people gave me different advice - start with shapes, oh finish the lineart first, color like this - and generally it was very overwhelming and a lot of the advice went over my head. a lot of artists advice feels incomprehensible when starting out, and some of it really stays that way bc there is some art advice i STILL do not understand at all (but it works for some people so power to them), and there is some that is more understandable when getting into the groove.

but anyways while talking to people i realized i kinda really liked the coloring aspect of art. really really liked it. id ask people if they finished their lineart, could i try and color it in the layer below just to try and improve? and SO MANY PEOPLE indulged me. and were incredibly nice. and i guess thats what made me enjoy art even though i knew that in a lot of aspects my art wasn't skilled. because people were really nice ANYWAYS and said i should keep going! so i found something i liked to do in art beyond spiteful beginnings, and i just kept it up - i learned coloring first, and i tried to learn everything else so i could color it lmao. i only did lineart and sketching and anatomy because i wanted to draw my own stuff to color. so you can totally focus on one thing at a time! thats what i did :)

i hope that story helps in any way!!! im not sure if it totally answers your question but i guess i wanted to share that growing in art is a process and you arent alone :) ty so much im glad you like my art and if you ever wanna share your own im always open!!! :D

[spearohero]

what are some of your favorite stories! yours, other people's, small, big, etc! that's probably a big thing to think about so if you want something specific ummm recommend me a writer or three!

man!!! okay excellent question. i think ill still do three but ill talk about different things with each one; bear in mind that this is like, off the top of my head, so its not Definitive (ill try to sneak em in as honorable mentions but even stuff with a huge impact on me is gonna be harder to think of/talk about if it was like ten years ago, yknow?)

oh, and if you want to read my stories, you can see those here =3c

Kill Six Billion Demons

this one probably has to be The Bar for quality in my mind, at least at the moment.

82 White Chain Born In Emptiness Returns To Subdue Evil (yes, full name) has maybe one of the most compelling character arcs i've ever read;

the art is stunning, and the worldbuilding incredibly thorough (in a way that makes the history of the world feel dynamic and relevant, rather than just being tons of lore to sift through);

the fights whip ass and the logic of the cool shit that the characters do is directly tied to the underlying view the story has about Power™, which directly influenced my thought process for a lot of the plot details of "Dawnsister";

and, sort of related to the two previous points, the entire thing is just so fucking coherent, thematically speaking. all the side stories and bits of hover text, all the bits of commentary and passages from fictional manuscripts in the image descriptions, weave together and do some really good allegorical storytelling for the messages Abaddon wants to send (and to underline/counterpoint whats happening in the comic itself), and the details tend to come back later to be relevant in a big way

its just. high marks on literally every metric i can think of. this is the kind of "every line (both kinds) is crammed with intent and nothing is wasted" stuff i wanna do with my writing

(honorable mention for this category: Everything Everywhere All At Once, for sheer quality of writing and similar levels of "god they planned this from the fucking start". one of the only films to make me cry)

Homestuck (im not linking it we all know this one)

i have less to say about this, but i think its one of the stories that's had the biggest stylistic impact on my writing. i was kind of doing it even before reading homestuck but it SUPER cemented it: the 2nd-person voice and the fuckery where a character's thoughts, the narrator's description of a scene, and instructions from the audience/in-universe sources of Brain Interference all blend together is something i keep coming back to in both 3rd-person limited perspective AND 2nd-person (typically transformation-related) work

it also takes all the "using every possible avenue for Additional Storytelling" thing that i was describing about KSBD and ratchets it the fuck up. like this comic is repeatedly the benchmark for "what kind of weird, media-mixing, format-breaking shit can i do with comic panels and text rendering", even if i dont plan to dabble in webpage shenanigans like Hussie did

(i cant think of an honorable mention here, but i liked the way Tyranny presented lore and history to you in hyperlinks in the text, so that you could just HAVE background information your character would have instead of having to Do Exposition. also check out Vast Error if you liked the shit homestuck was doing with multimedia storytelling)

Ascension: Tales of Twin Tails

this one is just one of my favorites. out of this list its for sure been the most impactful on me personally, in like an identity sense at least. this shit transed my gender and othered my kin. its one of the only OTHER pieces of media to ever make me teary-eyed. its about being transgender extremely literally but also in some really creative And Also Extremely Dope ways

the fight scenes are about as grand in scope as the ones in KSBD, and the way that magic works in the setting is just about as thematically-strong (and also offer lots of room for insight about the characters, as well as self-reflection for the reader to have fun with).

the relationships are really, really well-done, and there are scenes that stick with me two years later as just strikingly and stunningly tender and intimate and vulnerable; the characters are just as strong (Coyotl is like, Top Three with White Chain, and if you know anything about me at all you know that Cat Kitten became my entire identity for months after reading it)

read it please read it i will evangelize this novel until the end of time

(honorable mention as far as having an effect on Me As A Person is probably like..... Night in the Woods; super super natural dialogue, lots of compelling relationship turmoil and hit some fears that were Extremely Relevant to me at the time of my life that i played it)

ty for asking btw!! i hope you get around to enjoying one of these =^w^=

[spookypartycrit]

Hello. I don't even come here, I've learnt about this thanks to a moot, and I wanted to give my two cents.

There is a reason why creators like Vinny Vinesauce and CaseOh are beloved by social media, and it's because they do not take their audience for granted and have class conscience because before they became full on content creators, they were blue collar workers or had to work in shitty jobs for shitty payment and were treated badly by their superiors. And because they had to go through what 97% of the population goes through, they know how priviledged they are and would rather deal with content creator burnout and their cringe fans than going back to the grind.

Maybe that's what this Sophist dude needs, to see how the life of a 9 to 5 worker is like. And maybe he ends up liking it and if so, great. But there's a reason why most people would fight to be on his position, bc they would rather deal with dead memes and cringe fangames over what they have to deal with in their "normal" jobs.

Happy to hear ya, i always love getting non fan perspectives i think thier very valuable as its not blinded by love.

i also find it funny the thought of being in another fandom and seeing some random youtuber crit account talking shit. “Neighbors argument good asf”

i completely agree, casooh seems like someome u could meet at a gym, hang out with and they never tell u they are famous. Hes incredibly kind to all his fans and hes been througu so much, bullying was off the charts and he still streams with a smile, the transcup comes to mind, that shits crazy and besides his usual over the top reaction he acts grateful for all the love he receives idk who the other dude is but i will take your word for it.

He also yknow. Reacts postivity to fan content.

To be beloved and famous u have to understand your place. I work customer service and deal with horrible people everyday and i still can find enjoyment at my job and dont take it out on anyone.

Sophist might need to work a real job work at walmart for three days then dare complain about a fan mod.

His mental is so bad and being a content creator is something he’s good at and probably whats best for him and dear god he needs to act like it. He’s 27 please lock tf in. all he had to do was complement a mod about himself; tailored made for him. i cant even fathom how that was hard, id be jumping for joy

[gaiaxygang]

a lot of enas issues are tied to art but the whole yknow emotionally neglectful family bit is veeeery important. ena thinks that shinei looks down on him and his art (regardless of shineis intentions this is what ena has perceived it as) shinei has never tried to correct this ever. talk to ena. akito has to tell him to try to look at ena as his daughter rather than an artist for him to even consider doing that and STILL he barely is able to. shinei is also out of the house a lot for work, as shown in wish (something something without shinei the shinonome household is noisy but incredibly warm which is why its important he was gone when mafuyu came over) he puts work over family even on family trips

it is so important that ena can NOT stand him. ena understands some of his perspective and knows that it could be worse but he never quite forgives him, not for the (ongoing) neglect not for how he constantly insinuates ena is talentless. ena avoids him as much as he can in the house, he hates talking about him in a positive light or associating himself with shinonome shinei. even if ena acknowledges his skill as an artist, that he didnt intend to hurt him, he never forgives him for what he does. he tried to drown him on a camping trip because he was painting instead of helping with the tent. this is NEVER framed negatively and ena is never pushed to forgive shinei. hes not actively damaging like mafuyus mom but hes not making any effort to get better like harumichi and i dont think their relationship will ever be repaired. prsk never pushes one direction or the other and i like that!!! very much so!!!!!

[jinxedanubis]

My sister and I have autism and ADHD separately (though we are beginning to suspect were both audhd-)

The funny thing about it is we complete eachother, rather than fight the other.

I can take the trash out but I can't get past the first step of pulling it out of the bin and tying it. If it's out of the bin I can take it out easy. I just struggle motivating myself for the first step.

My sister, however, can only take the bag out of the bin but can't bring herself to take it out.

Thats a full chore but split into two different people.

My sister has verbal shutdowns when overwhelmed and stressed. You will not get a peep out of her. She folds in on herself. But when I'm stressed out I fawn (if you know what that is) and am forced to the brunt of my mind and directly into the situation. "I have to fix it, I have to solve this" yknow? RSD I suppose.

I guide her out of those situations and ensure she has the space and time to calm down and recollect herself.

In my mind I am specifically referencing when it was our older brother's graduation day and we were having a really bad time. It was WAY to loud and it really overwhelmed us. I helped guide my sister to the school bathrooms, we were stopped by security asking where we were going (mind you we didn't have our guardians with us) and since she couldn't speak, I spoke up and explained we were going to the bathroom. They let us through and we both took some time to recuperate before heading back out.

However, in return, my sister helped me to the car. When the graduation was over everyone was funneling out to go home. The stairs we took previously were occupied so we had to go down the elevator. I do NOT do well on elevators, they make me incredibly motion sick. Like, puke level motion sick. Dizzy swaying on my feet level. My sister helped me stay upright and guided me out to the car.

My sister and I used to not get along so well, but we've smoothed things over and are practically incomplete without eachother.

Its interesting sometimes how we typically are able to do what the other can't.

I can't smell well at all (neurological condition yknow how it is) so when there's a bad smell she can't overcome I'm typically the one to handle whatever they need. Honestly my entire family has me deal with the bad smelling things cause I can't smell it lmao-

And when I struggle reading something, despite her being dyslexic, she helps me read. (It's usually pronunciation and adhd glitch that I get stuck with)

Whenever I struggle to understand something she helps me see another perspective or explains it to me and breaks it down into understandable chunks.

When she can't speak I tend to do the talking, as stated above but I mean more so if she's having trouble getting a point across because she's struggling with a near verbal shutdown or just with speech in general. When I struggle with speech she helps me to-

When there's a bad texture, if I can handle it and even if I can't, I'll remove it so she doesn't have to deal with it. If it's food I typically try it first so she can work up the courage to try it.

Etc.. I can go on-

You'd think ADHD and Autism would cancel each other out, but no. They are like two young children who constantly fight, scream and bicker, which is exhausting. But sometimes these two children team up to cause bigger trouble than each of them could individually (hello anxiety and sensory issues). And on some occasions, they team up and create some incredible thing like amazing creativity or deep intensive learning of a subject or skill. But there is very much no way to make that last one happen on purpose, or choosing how it's applied. And its *so frustrating*

But, I do highly appreciate the unique perspective having AuDHD gives me. I may miss things that are obvious to most, but I pick up on things that most people miss. I get to view and experience the world in a way a lot of people don't. And I think thats really cool, actually.

[transsexualhamlet]

Moriarty the Patriot + The Final Problem

aka another unecessary essay from ya boy on how yuumori, instead of taking away from the original text, adds meaning and depth to it

So I finally got around to reading the final problem after wading through all the memoirs of sherlock holmes and yes, I am in fact reading these because of yuumori. I wanted to see how it was portrayed, what the differences and influences from the original source were. I did end up getting incredibly attached to the original series too, so yeah... I'm glad to report that the original and adaption get along well.

And yeah, I have a lot of thoughts, most of them being just me generally praising yuumori. I think it was straight up genius how they pulled so much content from... well, frankly. The Final Problem was a 15 page short story tossed off by Doyle in order to have an excuse to be done with sherlock holmes, told from the perspective of someone who wasn't even there. And yuumori still managed to make it generally very accurate and complementary to the original, while still being, uhhhhh really fucking different, let's say that.

Read more because again, long essay

Just my observations on the final problem itself is that it is so underdeveloped and told from an outsider perspective. Because of that, so many questions go unanswered, and the reader gets a sense that they are only witnessing a very small part of what actually happened. Sherlock can't afford to go into detail on what Moriarty was even involved in, Watson isn't privy to what's honestly even happening most of the time, and Moriarty just... has this extensive network of organized crime that just isn't even talked about other than Trust Me It's Bad Bro. We don't know Moriarty's intentions, most of who he is, and more questions are honestly brought up than answered within the story. Sherlock knows, oh that's for sure, Sherlock knows what's going on and he has no fucking time to tell Watson. You get a sense that Watson himself isn't even telling all that went down.

So yeah, I can see where there's so much room to expand upon here, not even to change things or make it different because it would be cool, but there's so much that could be happening just within the realm of plausible deniability in the canon.

And I think that it's amazing how Yuumori chose to market itself that way- not as an adaption or reimagining- but that this was in fact the Real story, with Doyle's final problem being... honestly a bit of a cover up, a purposeful misrepresentation of a small slice of the full story. It lends itself completely to that, and I think that's amazing.

(One thing I do find funny is that in Yuumori the story "the final problem" is depicted as a full novella that could be published on its own... man it's not nearly long enough for that but I find it funny in any way)

Of course, there are elements of yuumori that are yknow, simply not realistically something that could have happened, but most of the story is actually within that range of plausible deniability since the canon is so vague and sparse. And since they state that things were changed on purpose to protect people and the moriarty plan, it basically covers that all as simply The Truth. It's well done, and very interesting, especially with the new anime ending taking them to Reichenbach itself.

Like, yuumori didn't even truly change the appearances of the characters, from the descriptions. (we're not counting the illustrations lol) like, Sherlock was never stated (as far as I can tell) to have a specific hair or eye color, hairstyle or such.... he was described as tall, thin, eccentric, messy, with like... long fingers and stuff. Man, yuumori did not go against that. With Moriarty it's different, though he was also reportedly Tall and Thin and Built Like A Yaoi Protag for some goddamn reason, he... you know, has these weird and unattractive features as well, which... in the context of Watson trying to portray Moriarty as unmitigated evil in order to protect the plan, were in this situation made up specifically to further the idea that he was just that.

Because of this situation, the Moriarty that is portrayed as yeah, a smart guy and a threat but seriously just A Bad Dude who seems to have no particular reason behind his actions save being A Bad Dude actually make more sense as a cover up behind a more dangerous secret of him having Real Feelings than the only stated reason being "he inherited being evil from his family". (like... watson, really?)

It explains the vagueness and the events and the weird connection between those two better than the original does, and that's really cool to me.

On their own, without yuumori to back me up on these things, reading this would have left me confused and depressed. But as a half truth immortalized as the real story, you get so much more out of it.

Especially these certain scenes:

When Moriarty just pops into Sherlock's house and they proceed to have a basically wordless conversation amounting to

"you know why I'm here" "you know how I'm going to respond" "well then" "here's date and time of our mutual destruction" "thanks I'll be there" "well I'll be off nice knowing you" "wow it sucks that we're enemies he's such a civil guy"

It just really adds something to that, don't you think?

And the subject of their fall itself, simply the fact that Watson wasn't even there. No one witnessed it. No one found even Moriarty's body. No one found evidence of anything at all.

All Watson could say was that Sherlock and Moriarty had gone up to the mountain together, Moriarty told Sherlock of his plans, let Sherlock write and leave a letter to Watson, and that they never came back down. So he came to the conclusion that they must have fought and both fallen off.... like, holding each other. Not really sure how they reached that conclusion, to be honest.

It doesn't even make sense, exactly told how it is. If Moriarty wanted to kill sherlock and survive, he would have just... brought a fucking gun. Or just pushed him off on the way up. As soon as he got him alone just fucking stab the man. It would have been that easy, but no, he had a whole ass convo with the man, they went up civilly side by side, and they stayed on the cliff a long time while Sherlock wrote that letter. Even then, Sherlock could have just waited to catch Moriarty off guard and pushed him off. But he didn't.

Why would they even have fought, if it was so scheduled? You telling me to believe that after this letter was written and moriarty stood there watching him sipping tea or whatever he was suddenly like "ok im ready to fight now", knowing they would both probably die, and if they were genuinely trying to kill each other and survive, that would even make sense?

Of course, these problems in the original stem just from Doyle no longer giving a shit and slapping this together after losing motivation for sherlock, he was obviously, not hinting at some great conspiracy in the slightest.

But damn, Yuumori really does change that all for you, huh. It adds a whole new layer of context to it. And I like it a lot, I like what they've done on their own, I like what they've done for the original stories, and I especially like what they've done telling the "real story" of this short, vague, mystery that otherwise leaves you feeling unsatisfied and confused.

[icharchivist]

😎 that was my first time playing after all, going with the flow works!

and like here i'm emphasizing my feelings from the first time, but now i know how the quest work and like...

I've only romanced Fenris since then (nothing against Anders, despite everything, you know me, i like a good betrayal) because i love him very much, and yknow what? I still take this exact same team everytime.

Anders/Justice gives an incredible perspective on the Fade and the specific place we were in (since it was a Demon Realm having its clunches on the kid's mind, not exactly the Raw Fade :). ) and it felt good to have a native to the place to help navigate it.

Fenris' betrayal is, imo, the most fascinating one on a character level. Because this is the one time he gives in to this desire actually to just one-up the people who hurt him. Like he says he wants mages controlled because all he knows of mages is the way they use their powers for abuse, but once he's given the opportunity of power to get back at the people hurting him, he can't help but seize it.

And it makes for an incredible self reflection later on in the Apologize scene once you have him at a good friendship level because he gets more aware that what he fears more is abuse, and the vulnerability he was forced into by slavery, and that maybe it's not just mages who are susceptible to demons. Imo it makes for a great place to have a perspective shift, especially since i romance him as a Mage and i think this does wonders for his character arc, plus the angst of worrying you may have killed the love of your life.

And I still take Isabela because i do think her betrayal is more interesting than Aveline's, and it's a shame Varric's doesn't really unlock well, and well, what can i say, i do like to see that Isabela is still really driven by her desires and what she wants and even apologizing for it is hard for her... but if you don't hold it against her, she is so distraught because she proved herself untrustworthy to you and yet you are still opened to her.

I feel like Isabela kinda expects that she's going to let people down in some way. She always had. not because she wanted to, of course. But at first she was fighting for her freedom against terrible odds that were selfishly put on her (her mother's whims, her abusive husband), so she already had to let those expectations down, and then by the path she took to run away and look for her own pleasure and freedom, she was doomed to find people who tends to backstab each others, and sometimes you need to backstab them first.

Isabela lives in this mindset of "i'm going to let everyone down". it's not a self hatred thing (at least not in a way she beats herself about), but it's an inevitability for her.

THIS is a moment where she lets you down and she knows it, because she looked for her desire, her pleasure, her freedom...

and if you just accept it, and tell her it's fine, she is so confused because usually people let her down in return. She doesn't expect people to understand her, understand what she wants and why, understand that people are messy and will fuck up.

And IMO therefore bringing the two of them makes it the most interesting to explain their two major shifts in the storyline for me:

Isabela returning the Tome at the end of act 2 (i usually let her go with the Tome anyway) gets more powerful to me with the knowledge that in the Fade she betrayed my Hawke yet she knows she has a place to come back to with them, and so... can she really betray them? when they accepted her unconditionally? It makes the scene a hundred time stronger. Isabela is one of my favorite friendship path in all of DA because this specific devotion that comes from never imagining someone could give her this chance.

And for Fenris since i'm pro mage and romancing him as a mage, having him experience exactly how the Fade and Demons behave themselves and seeing how in a way Being Abused Makes You Vulnerable To Beings That Promises You Power is a great narrative way to explain how he can accept the shift at the end of act 3.

The first time i legit brought the three of them because they were my favorites and i didn't know what i was doing. But now, many times later, i still bring the three of them because i believe that going through it makes their character arcs stronger with the decisions i'm taking.

So i genuinely have no regret and wouldn't do things any differently. It's just somehow very funny to me that some stuff i agonized over on first playthrough going blind ended up being so compelling to me on a storybuilding and character introspection level that in the end i can praise myself for being so right about it on first try.

and i'm a known Fade Lover and Demon Apologist (as in there's nuance but i get demons get viscious when they can get One Way Out) so I really like Night Terrors as terrible as it can be. The worst enemy of the Fade is your own Pride in thinking you can just be uncorrupted anyway. A bit of a humbling experience can't do any harm. except it does but that's a skill issue.

.... and i forgot to address it but i also don't regret romancing Anders, his storyline is banger especially going in blind, and i'd replay it gladly if not for the fact Fenris has bewitched me body and soul. so yaknow

I once had a beloved ally turn against me in a video game because I fucked up on their personal quest and you best believe I reloaded, cried, checked the wiki and prayed 😭

It's so harrowing

ITS SO HARROWIIINGGG

there's multiple chances for it to happen in DA in general, but on blind playthrough i've managed to avoid all of them except almost losing Fenris there (and then reading online "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY COULD DIE HERE")

DA2 is so funny for that though bc there's also a quest where your companions will temporarily betray you and you'll have to "kill them", when you're in the Fade. During a specific quest where you're trying to be careful to not kill a specific person in the Fade else it'd make them tranquil.

I went blind in it. So i did not know for the companions.

And i took Fenris and Isabela i think. The Two of them betrays you there. And Fenris was first; (i also took Anders/Justice here but he's the MVP of this quest he does NOT betray me <3 he never betrayed me ever. Ever. Don't look for spoilers about DA2, don't--)

And i screamed then. Especially seeing his fucking healthbar take half the screen because i did feed him well. he was my tank he can't do that to me.

I think i reloaded here trying to get to see if i could save him with any other choice; I couldn't.

I had to "kill" him and i didn't even know if he would still be alive. I was in tears.

I move to the next room.

A Desire Demon convinces Isabela to turn on me by promising her a boat.

Isabela turns on me by going "I like big boats and i cannot lie :)".

and i had to kill her, screaming and crying.

Just looking at Anders/Justice like please don't do this to me don't do this to me don't d--

and he didn't give up on me but i had to fight the big boss of that quest with my assassin rogue while spamming Anders' heals it was a trip.

Anyway they were alive when we returned to the real world and they apologized, and honestly knowing i was hesitating between dating one of the three of them to start with this may explain why i ended up picking Anders on my first playthrough (aside from the fact his romance just unlocked first) like "at least HE isn't putting me through emotional torments of having to kill him myself after he turns on me bc he listened to a spirit a little too much and it blew up in my face."

... so that worked well for me. I think.

[anime-nymph]

Oh my god…. Oh my fucking god!!! How the fuck i didn’t find this fic EARLIER?! i swear to god, you wrote it so good, you got me gasping in every paragraphs… oh my god.. if i can send you a pic, I’ll show you my teary eyes 😂😂

Ok, i read Plaything

I’ll be honest, i am such a whore for Satoru. I like the fact that even if he’s younger than his sister, you still wrote him as manly. Manly? Like you know, even if its taboo & her sister is older than him, he takes charge in the relationship which i view him very macho? And matured so it doesn’t feels like his sister is doing it with typical cringe younger brother things, you know? I hope you get what im saying, my brain is very haywire right now after reading them 😂

for me, i really like it when men are a bit matured than me

And yes Toji, the best daddy eveeeeeer!!! I fucking love how he kept calling Satoru, baby boy like even just reading it got my toes curling!! But if i may express my feelings reading the scene in the restaurant, I picked up the atmosphere that Toji is more attracted to Satoru than his sister. Let i not lie that i found myself jealous of Satoru until the very end.. it did hurt me that the sister is feeling left out bcs we know, his baby brother is all she have.

And then, i read Making connections!!!!!

First of all maam, you’re fucking phenomenal. That shift from being the sister to the wife is amazing, you got me pause in my seat. I really need to put my phone down for a min to process them, yknow? Im fucking amazed with your writing like DAMN!!! we got to feel in both perspectives, INCREDIBLE!!

With Nanami & Geto? Fuuuuuuck… the sex scene is amazing, daddy Toji is very respectful and loving towards his wife, amazing just AMAZING!!!

But can i ask a few questions from the plaything?

Did Satoru find himself a better replacement for his sister?

Where did he off to so early in the last paragraph?

If, Satoru did lost his interest for his sister, what happen to his sister then? Will she find a better life with a better partner, perhaps?

Your writing is amazing, may i add that your smut got me soaking!! But if you feel overwhelmed with my questions please, feel free to just ignore them. Thank you, thank you so much for these masterpieces you dont know how much i love them <3333

And i hope you have a great day, you amazing writer!

can't tell you how many times I read this after waking up T~T <3

Bear with me, my brain is everywhere today so I'm probably hella incoherent 😅

So I'm actually really happy about what you said about the brother/sister dynamic bc I was doing my best not to make it smut-trope-y and more realistic. Going by story, Satoru is about 24 and reader is just a little over a year older than he is, so given they are both well into adulthood I felt it would be strange if Satoru were to sit on a lower step than her, especially when he was successfully groomed by his parents in comparison to reader. It felt more right to filter his adoration into the dynamic instead, bc that's what sealed the reader's dependency to him in the first place.

As for Toji, I'm actually going to reveal his stance on his relationship with the siblings in the next work so I don't want to say anything just yet :3

Lots of people really enjoyed getting to see Toji interact with his wife, and honestly I'm super relieved that the jump between the sister reader and the wife reader was taken so well for a couple of reasons. For one I really loved seeing everyone outraged at Satoru hehehe, because after all he's done for his sister it feels like a genuine betrayal (and I won't say it's not one!) As for the other reason, it's mostly because I really wanted to write a jjk gangbang with those four characters and provide conflict and context for part 3.

I love love love all your questions regarding part 3 and they don't overwhelm me so no worries, but I am super hesitant to answer them because they will all be revealed in the final part which I'm actually working on right now... Though I will say that Gojo leaving in the morning in that final paragraph was just to emphasize how reader feels left behind by him.

[earlywintermourning]

HQ Ships I Associate With Taylor Swift Songs

this is entirely self-indulgent but i don’t care. also this will contain manga spoilers, be warned

@rudolphsboyfriend you encouraged me to do this… look at what you have commented into existence /lh

Dorothea and Kagehina: I could write an essay on why this song and this ship work, but I’ll keep it short and maybe make everything else into its own post. I see this song as mainly from Kageyama’s perspective - what really sells it on his POV is “if you ever get tired/of being known for who you know/you know you’ll always know me” is just so reminiscent of how Hinata knows so many people. This song also has the whole “friends to one watching the other from a distance while still being entirely loyal” theme that is just so incredibly Kagehina, as well as the way that the narrator describes their high school experience.

Lover and Bokuaka & Matsuhana: For Bokuaka, I mainly associate this song with them because I want them to be happy SO BADLY. But also I think that “can I go where you go?/will we always be this close” line is very Akaashi, while “swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover” is very Bokuto.

For Matsuhana, the lines that make me think of them are “i’ve loved you three summers now honey,” as they’ve known each other for three years, and “swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover/and you’ll save all your dirtiest jokes for me,” because that’s honestly SUCH a them line. (Can you tell that both of these are my favorite ships)

Enchanted and Bokuaka: The basic premise of “I was enchanted to meet you” could go for every haikyuu ship because all of them are kind of built around how the characters influence each other, but 1) Bokuaka deserves this song, 2) their whole thing is quite literally love at first sight (chapter 331) and 3) the lyrics are very Akaashi. “There I was again tonight, forcing laughter faking smiles/same old tired, lonely place/walls of insincerity/vanished when I saw your face” might just remind me of Bokuaka because I’m a sucker for rich and not very happy about rich culture!Akaashi but I also think that it applies to what we know from canon. “I’ll spend forever wondering if you knew/I was enchanted to meet you.” I think that Akaashi feels anxiety over what he means to Bokuto, and this line is kinda that. The theme of this song being love at first sight as well as wanting this person to really know you fits Bokuaka SO WELL.

Mary’s Song (Oh My My My) and Iwaoi: childhood friends to lovers!!!!! I see this song from Oikawa’s POV, with lyrics like “said you’d beat me up you were bigger than me/you never did” and “I dared you to kiss me and ran when you tried” it’s just very Iwaoi yknow? If you want to add some angst, it’s Oikawa looking back on their relationship as he leaves for Argentina :)

Message In a Bottle and Tsukkiyama: Message in a bottle came out literally today so I haven’t analyzed this as much but. “And I became hypnotized by freckles and bright eyes” is so incredibly Tsukki to Yams. This song’s whole message of feeling separate from your crush but wanting to reach out just feels a lot like them, so I associate it.

Gorgeous and Sakuatsu: This song/ship association is so important to me for no reason at all but I’m going to do it justice. This song is definitely from Sakusa’s POV, from specific lyrics to the way that it’s implied that the person singing is more introverted. To start: “you should take it as a compliment/that I got drunk and made fun of the way you talk” is just. Atsumu accent. Yeah. “You should think about the consequence/of your magnetic field being a little too strong” is most definitely their relationship dynamic from Sakusa’s POV, along with “You’re so cool, it makes me hate you so much.” In general, I like when this ship is portrayed with the “i want to kiss him. ew” type feeling, especially when one of them starts realizing Feelings, so “you're so gorgeous/I can't say anything to your face/'cause look at your face/and I'm so furious/at you for making me feel this way/but, what can I say?/you're gorgeous” really holds up. “Guess I’ll just stumble on home to my cats” I just think that Sakusa is a cat person. This paragraph is getting really fucking long so I’ll be quick: outside of the lyrics, the vibe of this song-music, rhythm, etc just feels very Sakuatsu to me, for some reason.

State of Grace and Kagehina: This is from Kageyama’s POV, I mean, “I never saw you coming/and I’ll never be the same” hello? This is like. The first episode and every single one after that. “You come around and the armor falls” really reminds me of how Hinata was the one who taught Kageyama that it doesn’t all rely on him; Hinata took away that “armor” of superiority. “This is the golden age of something good and right and real” is very much how these two changed the team for the better.

[merethicera]

wuh-oh it's the obligatory tes blog "heres what skyrim couldve done better" post

i'm beating dead-then-resurrected-then-killed-again-then-taxidermied horses here but. I really do think the worst thing ab Skyrim is the wasted narrative potential when it comes to the LDB and their nature as someone w/ a dragon soul + the way the Voice is implied to be super dangerous in general.

Like you've got all this... Stuff, right. The Greybeards (Arengir aside) all speak in very hushed tones when they do speak at all, because their voices are enough to cause massive damage. Them just saying your name causes High Hrothgar to shake. There's mention of users of the Voice having to take up voluntary mutism to not just rip people apart by talking, and that the practice of using the Voice requires incredible mental fortitude and self-control. And these are just like, Guys. They're not the LDB- we can assume they're far less powerful than the LDB will ever be. The 'Beards themselves seem to acknowledge this by constantly trying to get the LDB onto the side of pacifism. Like, sure, that's their overall philosophy in general, but rationally anyone w/ knowledge of how strong the Voice is would try to mitigate the potential damage the LDB could cause if they were led astray.

(more under the cut (including my obligatory maybe-shitty "heres how id fix this" takes) bc this gets long and i already look like enough of a megadork as it is being pedantic ab a nearly 10-y/o game)

To get even more explicit in how potentially dangerous the LDB is implied to be, paarthurnax says "We were made to dominate. The will to power is in our blood. You feel it in yourself, do you not?" Like. There's explicit confirmation that the LDB feels the same urges for domination that dragons do, on top of being a mega-powerful Hero, who coincidentally needs to responsibly handle a power that is known for its difficulty of control. But despite all of this implication of an internal power struggle, there are no actual narrative choices you have to make that reflect that struggle- or really any choices poses to the player that are dramatic enough to support these implications at all.

I mean, sure, you can look at it from a few different angles- it's easy to say Paarthurnax (the quest) is that kind of choice, but it's framed so poorly that it's barely even a choice for most players. You could say that Paarthurnax's speech about controlling power refers more to the player than their LDB- referencing the innate Gamer Bloodlust™️ and resisting the temptation to just Unrelenting Force people halfway across Whiterun because you Can™️. You could even say that resisting the urge to collect daedric artifacts or join the DB in play into that theme of self-control; but the truth of the matter is that those quests are self-contained and have no long-lasting narrative effect on the story. I just think that, especially given the opposing factions thing going on w/ the Blades and the Greybeards, that you could so easily write a story about an internal power struggle and the extreme weight that being forced into a near-godlike position has on an otherwise mortal person.

Imagine siding with the Blades- having your character groomed into this perfect dragon fighter by Delphine and Esbern- and then watching them lose control of the LDB, who's completely neglected the warnings of the Greybeards, as their hunger for power outgrows their own and becomes a threat.

Alternatively, imagine siding with the Greybeards alone, and having a far more difficult Alduin fight because you spent all your time meditating, learning to control yourself, and no time actually applying yourself. Imagine even walking a careful line between the two, constantly torn between both factions, having to make harder choices to keep the peace between the two while you try to save the world.

Allowing the player to side with themselves and fall into a rabbithole of trying to siphon the powers and techniques of the old Dragon Priests as a means of defeating Alduin, and then potentially being corrupted by that power would work too. Just any amount of like, depth of story combined w/ further player choice (ex. being able to usurp the throne at the end of the civil war and deal w/the consequences of that, literally anything tying the factions to the MQ that isn't Season Unending, etc) would be better narratively than what we have.

Even a non-story function, like a system of debuffs and buffs depending on the number of dragon souls absorbed (ex. you're stronger, but the restlessness of your absorbed souls scares citizens and causes NPCs to become hostile more easily) combined with a meditation feature (to quell said souls, etc.) could've worked to simulate that balance of power. I'm getting further from canon and more into headcanon territory here, but yknow what I mean.

I dunnou. It's not like you can't write all of this stuff into your own characters outside of the game but from a video game perspective I just think there's a big waste of narrative potential there, and as-is Skyrim's main story is very unfulfilling as a player.

[asuka--langley--soryu]

along the same lines as the last anon, do you know any good sources for meta/symbolism/essays about revolutionary girl utena? i just finished it and fell in love - i want to understand it as much as evangelion.

im certainly not as well versed in utena meta as eva but I have some sources. happy to hear you liked it! its one of my fav shows ever and I think its genuinely such a fucking masterpiece. 

first off I will say one of the best ways to improve your understanding of utena is to rewatch it lol. rewatching after knowing about the world and anthy and the lore is incredibly rewarding and really helps add another layer and perspective to the show--its kind of like watching it with entirely new eyes tbh. last week i finished my third rewatch and was still making new observations/connections. at the very least rewatch at leaaaast once at some point its so worth it I promise <33

if you havent already i would say take a look at the dvd commentary from ikuhara for each episode. It doesnt always clarify anything but sometimes theyre insightful or give a bit of background and sometimes theyre just kind of fun. hes like a big weirdo but yknow it is interesting to read his thoughts

as far as I know ohtori.nu is like the best resource for most utena related things? they have tons of essays on there as well as a good archive of official images/interviews/transcripts. probably this is the best place to start regarding meta and analysis. some caveats: a) the site is pretty old and can be a little janky/hard to navigate b) the essays are fan written and idk what the curation process was or if there even was any, so explore w a grain of salt. 

this blog (allegory-allegorier-allegoriest) rbs/archives a lot of meta posts so might be worth scrolling through. And I would def recommend checking out kurapikawithagun ‘s  rgu posts bc they are so so smart and insightful and really fucking get utena. they’re doing analysis posts for each episode, the first of which i’ll link here!

Lastly, I have three essays on Utena saved in my anime essay drive and i’ve separated them into their own folder. They’re mostly about rgu/magical girls and gender so ymmv there. if you do check them out and have any issues with access pls pls lmk and ill try to fix it!

hope this helps!!