#like i aspire to write an antagonist that interesting

[sassygwaine]

mr priest is such a cool fucking villain

[theelmoarchive]

Sanders Sides theory (rant). I know im mainly a mh acc here but I have thoughts i need to get out there

(just fyi this theory is Roman centric, I know most TSS people nowadays are talking ab Orange and Logan so if Roman's not interesting then continue on 🔥🔥)

(Also slight TW, talking ab the sides "ducking out" and depression themes, so yeah👍👍)

Okay so. I was scrolling through Sanders Sides theories and found that no one seems to have this theory, even though I thought the Roman angst enjoyers like me would be writing this all over the place but. Ig that means I need to talk about it.

I've had this theory for years now, since the day I first watched SVS Redux.

I think Roman is going to duck out.

I dont know if I have to explain why but. I mean, just looking at the explosive end SVS Redux had will tell you a lot.

He doesn't belive Patton when he tells him they love him. He thinks Thomas has lost all faith in him in favor of the person Roman views as the epitome of evil. He's been switching views left and right to stay on Patton's side (because Thomas prides himself on his morals), but he always ends up doing something wrong - he always ends up as an antagonist. He no longer believes that he is the one thing that being has kept him stable since "Am I Original?" - Thomas' hero. The only side he has a stable and positive relationship with is VIRGIL of all people. And tbh that could quickly be ruined too. Logan is second, though, but that's EXTREMELY fragile, as we've seen.

Roman always does something wrong and it will and has sent him over the edge. From Roman's perspective, with a very flawed view of everyone around him, he is inherently the thing that flaws Thomas.

+ Roman is really dramatic obviously, so ofc he would do this.

When you look at Virgil's reasonings for ducking out, it seems plausible after everything Roman has gone through recently, too. I mean like:

"I quit. Decided it wasn't worth it anymore"

Why would Roman keep fighting a battle he knows he will never win?

"Well, It didn’t seemed like I was wanted. You all made that pretty clear any time I showed up."

Again, from Roman's perspective, he is constantly and consistently antagonized.

"If I wanted to stand around being insulted, I would've shown up I would've shown up in person like I usually do."

[same thing]

"I actually think you were right to not want me around."

Roman fears that he is becoming the villain (as we see in SVS, SVS Redux and DWIT).

(In fact, Roman has already said something quite similar to that last one in sentiment.

In SVS Redux, Roman says this, which is pretty funny because of the dramatics and the stupidity, and does get shot down quickly, but I am begging you to listen to him.

"The blame falls to me. If you're missing that do-gooder drive... I think It's because I'm in the driver seat... And I'm an awful driver... Perhaps... Perhaps I should let Patton take the wheel.")

(2nd sidenote to the Virgil quotes, can we talk ab Thomas' acting again I just love how tired Virgil is in AA. He's so. Troubled. I love him.)

WAIT ALSO I FORGOT TO ADD THIS UNTIL I WAS AB TO POST IT-

"I've always aimed to protect you,"

THIS!! First of all his face makes me so sad BUT SECOND OF ALL yeah. Roman core idk what else to say, you get it right.

"I thought I was your hero."

So yeah.

Anyway, I think the episode where Roman does this will be centered around depression. Without Roman, Thomas is depressed. Let me explain this further.

Roman is Thomas' creativity, imagination, ego, passion, love, wills and wants, hopes and dreams, aspirations and enthusiasm.

Without any of that, what is left? A guy who can't even will himself out of bed, but can still feel the nagging voice of reason and logic telling him how unreasonable he's being. A guy who cant will himself to talk to friends, family and loved ones, but can still feel sorrow for letting them down and worrying them. A guy who can't will himself to pursue creative content that he relies on for a living but can still feel anxious about letting millions of people down and never being able to create again. A guy who cant even make food for himself or brush his teeth, but still knows he NEEDS to take care of himself. A guy whose only creativity is activly trying to disturb and scare him.

So yeah thats really awesome idk.

Furthermore, I think the sides might be SEVERELY impacted.

It has been said many times over the series that the sides are purely figments of Thomas' IMAGINATION. so. Without Roman, I doubt anything would be left. Obviously, if Roman does duck out, I don’t think they'd all immediately just cease to exist because an episode still needs to occur, but I find it likely that they'd all start slowly fading or maybe even "malfunctioning", glitching, putting them on a timer to get back Roman and making it far more tense.

Is this theory weird?????? I feel like it's the natural progression TO ME but I've seen no one even getting near this and im just confused ghfhfhfh. Maybe it is kind of weird and im just too much of a Roman enthusiast. SORRY I LOVE ANNOYING WEIRDO FREAKS!!!! AND IF I WAS HIM ID DUCK OUT TOO BECAUSE NO ONE IS APPRECIATING HIM ☹��☹️☹️ EVEN THOUGH HE'S LITERALLY WHAT MAKES THOMAS DO THINGS. 🙄🙄🙄🙄

Anyway.

I also think it fits really well because of Prinxiety's parallels, such as:

(using the ship name just as a duo name because that's what I usually do I am not trying to push the prinxiety agenda although I am a fan of it ghfyfgfh)

"Thanks everyone... Well, almost everyone."

And

"I mean, it's cool to see you all trying to be helpful. Well most if you, but-"

The only difference in these two is obviously that Virgil just silently ducks out, while Roman has the entire "You make us better" speech, probably effectivly saving Virgil and Thomas, because it seems like Virgil was going to insist.

(Also another sidenote that I think everyone will agree with: WE NEED A "YOU MAKE US BETTER" SPEECH BY VIRGIL FOR ROMAN that is all)

Also. Who can forget.

Virgil saying that he tried to "duck out" and then

"That's a thing you can do?"

😐

Do you understand what I'm saying. Do you. Huh.

Okay anyway.

Idk how to end this I feel like theres still more I wanna say but i forgot. In conclusion: prin up that xiety. Reminder that FWSA was real and not a fever dream. I lied this is actually prinxiety propaganda.

But Hey That's Just A Theory. A really quite depressing and sad theory. Thanks for tumbling down a hill with me 🫶

[saintsenara]

You mentioned fanon turning barty crouch jr. into an uninteresting character. I don't know much about what the new fanon characterisation has really done with him, but I'm curious for your thoughts on why he's a canonically interesting character. I agree that he is, but it sounds like you might have some interesting thoughts on it that are already fleshed out.

thank you for the ask, @jamesunderwater, and i'm sorry for taking so long to drag myself around to answering this.

as you may have gathered if you’ve read my views on jegulus or wolfstar, the common fanon interpretation of marauders-era characters and i don’t really get on.

this is not a new development - me and goofy fanon sirius have been beefing for over a decade at this point, i fear - but our enmity has taken on a new form since [roughly] 2020, when the emergence of what we might call the modern marauders subfandom brought with it a whole series of expectations about characters, ships, personalities, and appearances in first war stories which - let me state my position immediately - have absolutely nothing to do with the characters as they are in canon.

i could talk about sirius or regulus or james or snape or lupin until the cows come home - as, i’m sure, could many of us - but i also dislike the expectations the marauders subfandom has around its supporting cast. these characters - who largely fall under the categories of women, slytherins, or both - have names that we might recognise from canon, but they are - to all intents and purposes - original characters.

to do some marauders fan defending, i do understand the rationale behind this. hogwarts is a school, and it needs to be filled with the sort of incidental characters that lightning-era writers can pull from the canon text [shoutout to ernie macmillan, the mvp]. if you’re writing about lily, then she needs friends - why not have them be alice, marlene, dorcas, emmeline, pandora etc.?

[well, because dumbledore isn’t running a child army. it makes no sense for the entire order of the phoenix to be in the same school year - and the idea that alice is probably around ten years older than lily, that pandora is around the same age as narcissa malfoy and isn’t a pureblood, and that marlene, dorcas, and emmeline are hard-nosed ministry bitches in their fifties who can have mad-eye moody quaking with just a look is something which can be prised from my cold, dead hands.]

and if you’re writing about the epic highs and lows of high-school football going to school during a sectarian conflict, then you need some antagonists. which is to say, you need some slytherins.

the issue i have is that the three key slytherins who seem to have been elevated to principal cast in the marauders pantheon - regulus black, barty crouch jr., and evan rosier - get what can only be called the smol bean treatment. that is, that three teenagers who all canonically join a terror organisation are turned into soft and tiny babies who thought lord voldemort was just feeling silly when he said, "my aim is the eradication of the muggleborn population through violent means."

and even fics which do acknowledge that the three willingly become terrorists often go out of their way to provide justifications for this which don’t contextualise their decision [something which is important - you can’t write about snape becoming a death eater without acknowledging the way that poverty, loneliness, and a sense of hopelessness make someone an easy target of radicalisation] but which minimise it. sometimes, their violence is turned into romantic vengeance - i’ve seen a fair amount of suggestions that barty goes to torture the longbottoms because frank was the auror who killed evan. sometimes, authors imply - or even outright state - that there’s no need to see these boys as aspiring villains: voldemort is right; the class system is good and should be maintained; and purebloods [usually james, sirius, regulus, barty, evan and maybe a token woman or two] should stick together while the half-breeds and the mudbloods go hang.

this - like all aristocracy wank in this fandom - annoys me enough with regulus and evan. but it’s particularly grating when it comes to barty crouch jr. because - unlike evan, who is literally just a name in the text, and regulus, who isn’t much more - he actually has a canon personality.

and it’s fascinating. indeed, i would even go so far as to say that barty crouch jr. is the greatest villain in the harry potter series.

[my apologies to lord voldemort.]

after all, even though he’s been imprisoned under the imperius curse for over a decade, barty is still so lucid and powerful that he is able to:

produce magic capable of tricking the goblet of fire, which is treated by all the adult characters involved as unprecedented.

pull off a year-long impersonation of a man whom dumbledore evidently knows extremely well without being clocked until his mission has been successful, even though his opportunities to observe the real moody can have been virtually non-existent. he is in character within seconds of his ambush on moody’s home - after the intruder-alert dustbins are set off - and is able to persuade ministry personnel who can be presumed to have met moody personally [including both amos diggory and arthur weasley, who appear to know him not only personally, but well] that he is the real deal. he maintains his performance even under close scrutiny from the teaching colleagues he has to interact with daily at hogwarts, despite the fact that he presumably can’t get a great deal out of the real moody, since he’s having to be kept deliberately weak and docile under the imperius curse.

manipulate multiple people into become accessories to his crimes, without ever being suspected of doing so. with the hindsight of knowing who he is, the first defence against the dark arts lesson in goblet of fire, in which "moody" deliberately distresses neville by using the cruciatus curse directly in front of him, before swooping in to be the person to cheer him up so that he can plant information which will help harry win the triwizard tournament and deliver him to voldemort, is chilling. he just gets unlucky that harry has the biggest martyr complex in human history.

commit murder on hogwarts’ grounds without ever being suspected of wrongdoing.

execute lord voldemort’s plan to kidnap harry and use him in his resurrection ritual flawlessly. the plan itself may be convoluted - but dark lords are allowed to have a flair for the dramatic, as a treat - but, crucially, it works, and barty succeeds in every respect.

but, i concede, we’re talking about the adult barty here. perhaps he was once a sweetheart who went unfortunately off the rails after his father sent him to prison and then - in effect - drugged him for years. that wouldn’t be a ridiculous suggestion.

except for the fact that - canonically - the teen barty was just as clever, sly, manipulative, and - above all - ardent in his support for voldemort as his adult self.

at his trial in the early 1980s, young barty gives the performance of a lifetime. he screams, he shakes, he looks terrified of the dementors, he is pale and weak and harmless-looking, he begs his mother to help him, he pleads with his father for mercy, he maintains his innocence as he's dragged off to his cell. he gives off the impression of simply having been in the wrong place at the wrong time so well that harry is almost certain that his conviction is illegitimate. so too, it is implied, is dumbledore.

indeed, barty plays the part of the wrongfully imprisoned so well that - as canon tells us - he not only influences public opinion to be broadly in favour of his probable innocence [or, at least, his diminished culpability - sirius suggests that the widespread view was that he was probably there, but that he only ended up involved in what was clearly bellatrix’s idea because of his father’s failure to relate to him properly], but also changes public opinion against the government’s anti-death-eater strategy entirely.

following his imprisonment, his father - a man who never met an extrajudicial punishment he didn’t like, and whose ruthless approach to dealing with the death eaters in the first war [such as his use of internment for suspected terrorists and his order to aurors to shoot to kill] was, we are told, enormously popular with the wizarding public - is forced to resign in disgrace from his role as head of the department of magical law enforcement. crouch sr. is quietly shuffled off into a boring bureaucratic position, his ambitions to be minister in tatters, and his only way forward to free his son from the prison cell where he is languishing for the crime he very literally did.

[as an aside, i do think that we are supposed to read bellatrix as the ringleader of the torture of the longbottoms. but, all too often, that gets reduced to her doing everything while rodolphus, rabastan, and barty just stand there gormlessly. they were clearly performing the curses too!]

now, barty’s unusual cunning can - of course - be explained by narrative reasons. the text needs to conceal that he’s the villain [since, as with philosopher’s stone, it wants to imply that the dark lord’s faithful servant at hogwarts is snape] until the very end - and this naturally requires dumbledore to not think too hard about whether his good judy alastor is behaving even more strangely than usual.

the text also needs to suggest that he's innocent in order to properly stick the landing on the narrative role of his father - barty crouch sr. as with dolores umbridge in order of the phoenix, crouch sr. exists to show harry [and the reader] that the rot in the wizarding world was not caused by - and will not stop with the defeat of - voldemort. his ruthlessness and inflexibility, his lack of respect for due process, his astonishingly cruel treatment of winky [brutal beyond even the standard way in which wizards abuse their enslaved elves] all serve to teach harry that the anti-voldemort cause can become just as easily corrupted as the disillusioned young men in voldemort’s orbit. the suggestion that crouch sent his own son to azkaban without good reason, simply because he would not deviate from his beliefs, is an important lesson to harry about what "justice" actually means.

but, despite this, barty is also able to pull off his deception because he’s spectacularly talented. it’s not all just narrative.

and his talents are caused by characteristics which aren’t good or bad in and of themselves. he’s clearly very intelligent [he got twelve owls, the series’ benchmark for genius]. he’s hyper-observant, creative, adaptable, good under pressure, and possessed of nerves of steel. he shares these traits with other villains in the series - voldemort above all - but he also shares them with plenty of the heroes. harry, for one.

which is to say that all of his personality traits could be put to non-criminal uses. but - as with harry, who is capable of being quite sinister when he wants to be [for example, when he manipulates slughorn into giving up the horcrux memory] - they would give a non-criminal barty an edge. and this doesn’t seem to be present in his standard fanon persona - as sweet and goofy as all marauders-era men - to any great extent.

finally, there is another aspect of barty’s character which is absent from his fanon version - that he clearly has some sort of childhood trauma, but that this does not excuse any of what he does.

even though crouch sr. is right to send him to azkaban, he was clearly also a cold and distant father, who had absolutely no idea how to relate to his son.

[as another aside, this emotional negligence is bad enough without it needing to be written as having been accompanied by extreme physical and/or sexual abuse. there seems to be a real tendency in fanfiction - not only in marauders-era stuff, although the exaggeration of orion and walburga black into despotic villains is one example of this - to make childhood misery "worse", in order to justify a character’s later actions.]

voldemort demonstrably uses barty’s terrible relationship with crouch sr. [and his absolutely flagrant daddy kink] to groom him into taking the dark mark [not least because there’s otherwise no explanation for why he cheerfully informs him that he too is named after his dad], which he may very well end up taking when he’s still at school. my reading is that he’s recruited to inform on his father - since voldemort would undoubtedly wish to keep the head of the department of magical law enforcement under constant surveillance - and that this is why the dark lord pays him the attention he is so obviously lacking.

but, as with snape and regulus and draco malfoy and all the other young death eaters, barty also colludes in his own radicalisation. voldemort is a master at ensnaring recruits, sure, but he’s also a busy man. he only bothers to make the effort because the clever, creative, cunning, manipulative young man - who wishes to avenge himself on the father who never paid him attention [sound familiar?] - he finds before him is very much determined to become a spectacular part of his terrorist organisation. and stories which feature him owe it to him to give him that dark complexity of character

show the series’ best villain some respect.

[pattydia]

Hey so (sort of complicated question; I apologize because I’ve been thinking about this today and I agree with you about strange darling), what are your thoughts regarding: feminism re: strange darling and gone girl? Because they both sort of tackle the same subject- women faking being assaulted- but one of them is written by a woman. I personally think gone girl is more feminist than strange darling, which I think has issues in that regard; but I’d be interested to hear your take!

such a good question thank you anon. i have been thinking about this for hours and my thoughts are still not going to be that coherent but here goes:

okay so first and foremost i think female characters SHOULD be allowed to be multifaceted and selfish and murderous and evil!!! there’s no reason that every woman in media should be some sort of glowing endorsement for ~women as a whole~ because a) BORINGGG and b) god knows male characters aren’t held to that standard!!!

my issue with strange darling’s woman protagonist (antagonist?) is not with her actions (because: fiction) but rather with the fact that she seems to be the projection of some kind of misogynistic fantasy that the writer/director holds. women doing bad things is not the issue; using a woman doing bad things as a GOTCHA! moment is.

to me it feels like mollner is getting his kicks from making up a type of woman to get mad at — a woman who offers sex and then rescinds it, a woman who lies about being assaulted — because these are literally the worst things a man can imagine a woman doing to them. the fact that she’s a murderer is almost secondary; her REAL crime is that she’s fucking men over!

because of that i don’t view gone girl in the same way even though it tackles similar themes. idrk what makes a feminist film or if every movie with female leads should be aspiring to be a feminist film but …. women writing complex women characters will always get at a layer of honesty that men simply cannot access because it comes from the personal experience of living in this world as a woman!

anyways, i struggle with strange darling because its plot relies so heavily on “upending” gender stereotypes in a lazy way that doesn’t say anything more than ‘lol you THOUGHT it was the MAN who was bad cause he’s a MAN but ACTUALLY it’s this BITCH WOMAN!!’ and then the scene with the cops towards the end is so ham-handed in its ‘woman believes fellow woman; is PROVEN WRONG like an IDIOT while level-headed MAN was CORRECT ALL ALONG!’ messaging that it’s kind of laughable.

this isn’t to say that i didn’t find the film interesting or entertaining. i think it’s beautifully shot and well acted but suffers from a weird and heavy-handed script. i won’t lie my perception of it was heavily clouded on my first watch by shirtless and bloodied kyle gallner but now i am seeing more clearly!!

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

So while browsing Reddit, I can across a very interesting post that was posted on the Writing Tips subreddit. An aspiring author wanted to write an antagonist turning heel and was curious about what crimes a character would have to commit to be considered irredeemable. One of the answers stuck out to me:

“Reformation isn’t redemption”.

In a previous post of mine, I outlined how anyone can dislike a character for whatever reasons they want. One of the points I’ve made is that if a character has done awful things that a reader can’t stomach, they aren’t required to “get over it” when the character tries to fix their behavior and become a better person.

I feel the quote I listed above helps detail this argument when it comes to not only Katsuki, but Endeavor as well. No matter how good their character arc is, no one is obligated to forgive them for their past actions. Sure, Endeavor’s trying to better himself, but that’ll never take away from the fact he abused his family to the point where Shoto was traumatized to the point where he didn’t want to use his flames, Touya nearly burnt himself alive after suffering a mental breakdown, and Rei had to be sent to a mental institution after being pushed to the point where she couldn’t even function properly. Katsuki may be less of a dick now, but that still doesn’t take away from the fact he physically and emotionally abused someone just because he didn’t like him.

Dabi said it best, the past never dies. While Endeavor and Katsuki (ok, maybe not Katsuki, but let’s pretend for a sec that Hori actually tried with Katsuki) are trying to be better people, no one is obligated to forgive them. Is it good that they’re trying to be better? Yes. However, no one is obligated to give them a second chance. They made their decisions in the past and now they must suffer the consequences of those decisions for the rest of their lives. People are allowed to be hesitant and outright resilient in liking Katsuki and Endeavor despite their changes BECAUSE reformation is not redemption.

This goes for real life too. If someone who made you miserable and inflicted trauma on you is trying to be a better person, you’re not obligated to forgive them for their past actions.

Ultimately, I think that’s one thing that Hori gets wrong when writing the “redemption” stories in MHA (I put it in quotes because people use the term redemption story when talking about a character reforming themselves): a “redemption” story is about a character trying to be a better person, not to get the audience/universe to forgive them for their crimes. Hori desperately wants us to forgive Katsuki and Endeavor rather than have them seek atonement. Well, he does have Endeavor admit that he doesn’t deserve forgiveness, but Hori does this thing where he constantly retcons things and has the narrative paint him in a positive light. He doesn’t have it anywhere near as bad as Katsuki does, where the narrative will go out of its way to make Katsuki seem like the most amazing person alive, but it’s still an issue with his arc.

[allthatmay]

Been doing a lot of thinking about Shanks...

And the more I think about him, the more I consider whether he could be some kind of antagonistic force. (In my heart of hearts? I don't believe it. But speculation is fun!) This is a bit of a jumbled mess of thoughts, but I figure it'll be interesting to write it down and see how wrong I am at the end of the series.

So, here's two predictions I think are pretty likely:

Luffy will destroy Mary Geoise and, with it, Fishman Island and part of the Red Line—thereby creating the All Blue. (I think this is fairly self-explanatory considering Madame Shyarly's premonition.)

Luffy will find the One Piece, but Buggy will become the Pirate King. (Perhaps becoming the Pirate King has some greater meaning/responsibility that Luffy rejects? Whatever the reason, Buggy seems to be heading in that direction—he's essentially been used as a placeholder before, after all, as a Warlord and Emperor.)

When I think about Shanks' role in the future, it's very foggy. We don't know a lot about Shanks, obviously, but if Buggy is to become the Pirate King, then the way they've juxtaposed him with Shanks is interesting. Shanks and Buggy are, like, opposites in terms of ambition (by which I don't mean what they seek, but how they seek it, and how they feel about their ambitions altogether).

[Important note: There's some great posts (try here, here, here, and here) talking about Shanks and Buggy's history. The gist of it is that Buggy never truly believed in himself because of Shanks' obvious potential; that Shanks was a bit of a bully, intentional or not; and that Buggy set his sights on a lesser treasure, never aiming for the OP because of Shanks' existence—only for Shanks give up on heading to Laugh Tale, their dream, altogether.]

Shanks was always the one considered to be Roger's successor; he was the one who got the hat. He shared his aspirations with Buggy, promising they'd go to Laugh Tale together—and then gave it all up when Roger returned from Laugh Tale. Which, of course, hurt Buggy tremendously, alongside all of Shanks' other transgressions (such as the mishap with the Devil Fruit, and losing Buggy's treasure map).

Buggy's feelings for the hat, and for Shanks, sour and complicate as their lives go on, even as they find distance from one another. While I do think Shanks has a lot of regret for what happened with Buggy, he tries to look toward the future, hence the importance of Roger's legacy and the straw hat. Buggy, of course, knows the importance of the straw hat more than anyone—it's why he's so furious to see Luffy with it.

Keeping Buggy in mind, Shanks meeting Luffy becomes more interesting. He gives up the straw hat he loves (that Buggy loves) to a little boy he supposedly loves—but why? Because he sees Roger in Luffy, because he believes Luffy is The One, or because Luffy ate the legendary fruit? Would Shanks, in a universe where Luffy wasn't chosen by the Gum–Gum Fruit, give up his arm to save Luffy? Would he give Luffy the hat? A classic question. I mean, I like to think that he would—I think Shanks comes across as a sentimental, kind man, if a little rough around the edges—but I don't know so.

Besides, simply giving Luffy the hat could be construed as an antagonistic act, as it potentially puts a target on Luffy: the right people will know whose hat that is, and will wonder why he has it. Oda frames it as an inheriting of wills, but it's not like he's not retconned things before! Either way, the feelings Buggy must have when he sees the hat not on Roger, not on Shanks, not on himself—but on Luffy? Some random kid? Fuck.

Fact of the matter is that we all know Shanks saved Luffy, in part, because Luffy ate the fruit. But what if that was the sole reason? What if Shanks saved Luffy simply because he knew that Luffy, as Nika, was the only one who could find/use the One Piece? Perhaps Shanks' plan is to use Luffy to grab power for himself. In a story about governmental oppression and the corruption of those in absolute power, it doesn't seem too far off. Especially if Shanks' past and his mistakes have warped him a little.

Extrapolating from what little we know of Shanks, and of Joy Boy and the Void Century, I'm not sure what Oda will do. The basic possibilities, as I see them, are:

Shanks is an ally to Luffy and gives himself up for Luffy's sake. Perhaps he dies while helping Luffy, potentially before they've had a chance to meet again. (I can see him dying in the fight against Blackbeard or Mary Geoise, for instance.) Or perhaps Oda makes it rhyme: perhaps he's sick like Roger, or something, and he acts in sacrifice, the way Roger did in unleashing the Great Pirate Era.

Shanks acts as an obstacle for Luffy to fight in pursuit of the OP. I think this one makes the least sense because the only reason I could see Shanks doing this is to test Luffy, but he already knows that Luffy is Joy Boy, so there's no point. Then again, we know Shanks has decided to go after the One Piece now...

Shanks is antagonistic, but has a change of heart! By which I mean: Luffy does it again, folks! Shanks is using Luffy as a means to dismantle to world order, after which he can seize a lot of power for himself—but Luffy persuades him against it. (Look, this doesn't make sense with the Shanks I envision, but what do I know, huh?)

Shanks is the antagonist. I mean, I guess we don't know his background, do we? People have long suspected he's of noble birth, having been found in God Valley. Regardless of whether he's working for or against the World Gov, we have no idea how powerful Shanks really is. And, if he's got less than noble ambitions, a small, trusted crew makes sense, I suppose. Yet Blackbeard fills this role pretty neatly: a tale of betrayal in pursuit of power, playing the long game, etc.

Shanks doesn't die and everything is hunky-dory. Look, I don't want my favourite swashbuckling drunkard to die, but this sounds pretty boring, doesn't it? Shanks guides Luffy right to the finish line and everyone cheers! "The One Piece is the friends we made along the way! Yeah!"

SO, what do I actually think is going to happen?

I don't know. This is a mess. I have so many more thoughts but this is already too long. Send help.

(something about how shanks not wanting to become the king perfectly sets up buggy to take the position... something about luffy denying becoming king for freedom-related reasons... something about how shanks never got to give the hat back to roger, so it would make sense if luffy also can't return the hat, and thus gives it to buggy instead... something about buggy finally getting closure... )

[the-bigger-fish]

You know, I'm not normally the type of guy to post this sort of thing but I really want to get it off my chest....

I really enjoy Viv's shows and general works. Like, for some weird reason Helluva Boss (and to a lesser extent, Viv's body of work as a whole) has become a show i hyper fixate on the likes of which haven't been seen since I was a Transformers Prime and MLP fan back in 2010.... BUT that being said, I also find myself also very critical of her works for a lot of reasons as well. (Not as a hater, but as someone who loves the show and wants to see it improve.)

Which then leads to the reason why I wanted to get this off my chest... Stolas is a good character, heck he might even be a GREAT character..... On paper, that is.... Like, he has all the elements for what could be a really interesting and nuanced character and antagonist of the show (Antagonist meaning "Someone who contends with or opposes the Protagonist, not necessarily meaning he's evil...) Like, having a well meaning, but sheltered, privileged, and ignorant man make a mistake in the throws of passion that causes not just turmoil in his family whom he loves dearly, but also with his friends and many others as well and thus tries to make things up to everyone? That's genuinely an incredibly arc for a guy to go through and honestly quite fitting for a show that aspires to ape plays and theater so much, too. It's just that... The show never really seems to be interested/able to show him going through this arc it seems? Like, I'm not sure if it's a production issue given that animation is hard, a monthly-ish web animation is probably even harder and you can't cover everything you would want to realistically in the show proper. (Which honestly makes me wish we had side comics or prose to compliment the episodes and shorts as well, because it genuinely feels that we missed a chapter or three at times...) But like, it feels like we're told Stolas is one thing (Kind, loving father, ignorant and delusional yes, but does try his best to make things up when he realizes he's screwed up.) and then shown an entirely different character instead. (Coercive, airheaded and easily distracted to the point of forgetting important things like his daughter and the like, classist, and more than a bit obsessive towards Blitzo and way to stuck in his own world to actually be able to right his own wrongs.) And as we all know what Rule 1 of storytelling is, ESPECIALLY visual storytelling like animation:

SHOW, DON'T TELL

Now, I'm not saying Stolas has to be perfect (in all honesty, the fact he's so deeply flawed makes him farm ore engaging in a "Greek Tragedy/Shakespearian type of way fittingly enough) it's just, it feels like the show wants us to view characters and plots in general as one way, while showing us something completely different from what we've been told. (And honestly, that just might be the result of general teething issues regarding the show's hard switch from "Dark comedy where Logic and consistency need not matter as long as the joke lands" to "More serious character drama where actions do have consequences, no matter how far fetched they might be.")

Which isn't to say I'm blindly bashing the show or hating on Stolas or Viv, I think both the show and him has a lot going for it and that some of the more vocal critics take things way too far when it comes to criticizing Stolas and the show, it's just I'm saying this from the bottom of my heart as a fan what my biggest problem with some of my favorite aspects of the show are and hope they can be improved upon because dang it, I really wanna see this show be as great as i know it can be! Same with my birdy boi, too!

(P.S. Stolas totally got his fortune paving the entirety of Hell's roads with his good intentions. That's just facts right there.)

(P.P.S. If this does well enough, maybe I might write more writing critiques and general thoughts as a whole. Let me know what you guys think.)

[iridescentscarecrow]

hi i'm the op of that post (stackslip) PLEASE elaborate on chainsaw man's metanarrative

hi! um. you've given me free reign, i hope you know what you're doing. anyway: fair warning in advance that this is based entirely on how i like to interpret and think of the csm story and doesn't necessarily hold true, partly because of the level of abstraction that i'm operating at here. i'm normal and i like metanarratives a normal amount. this might be a little long. but.

um. thinking about how protagonism in CSM is inflicted on denji by the author insert that is makima. i've brought up the Icon of chainsaw man before in my part 2 analyses but basically:

the Chainsaw Man is the role that denji occupies in the story, right? it's the title of the manga. it's what the public Sees him as. it's what makima quite literally produces. the relationship between denji and the chainsaw man in both aspiration and idealisation forms a major stem of both part 1 and part 2's narrative.

this production occurs on two levels: (1) what Chainsaw Man is, and should be, and (2) how denji is developed as a protagonist by makima.

"you don't get him at all." chainsaw man is her blorbie (i think i'm funny). the point is that the Presentation of chainsaw man, the one that the audience is initially set up to expect, is almost entirely synonymous with makima's version of the CSM that we get later. i think a lot about how part one borrows from, amplifies, and later subverts shounen tropes. the CSM as an idea persists in how it's discordant from denji's normality in part 2 but part 1's direction in how denji voluntarily inhabits the chainsaw is what i'm pointing at here. (there's a lot to be said about how denji's idealisation as tied to the icon of the CSM is intertwined with his wants but that's not relevant in this meta except in the minutiae of his adherence / resistance to this role.)

the thing is that makima is instrumental in pushing this role onto denji. she sees chainsaw man, he is chainsaw man. it's (and i sound insane here but please hold on, i beg) like writing.

i think her addressing him in the last battle scene, the "i'll kill you personally" is indicative of her finally divorcing denji from the chainsaw; forming The Chainsaw Man in full, while still obviously curating the denji that would support this formation throughout the story.

a small side here but: "but she never even saw me once, even from the start." // fujimoto's writing actively utilises characters towards the end goal of shaping the protagonist. this struggle here is one between a character and an author.

now continuing; the way that makima provides for and then systematically removes these initial connections simulates traditional story structures with its setup, its confrontation and resolution. her excellence as an antagonist rests upon her identity as a narrative device which develops the protagonist and pushes him through this structure. the conflicts and the loss that a protagonist usually naturally (at least in-world) goes through in a story are instead all artificially created by makima.

"how could i make you so hurt that you'd no longer be capable of living a normal life?" // her molding of denji isn't just passive emotional manipulation, it's active writing. she herself is aware of the tropes and the character relationships that are being built up, that are being subverted. she herself embodies, espouses and resolves the themes of multiple arcs (thinking of the end of the bomb devil and the darkness devil arc here / thinking of how she draws the shutters on ignorance and on wanting).

there's a lot i try to extrapolate from her commentary on movies during her date with denji especially in context with the story simulation that she herself is doing throughout the manga. i find it interesting how the ending to the movie date or the "good" movie founds itself on shared feeling: denji sees makima cry at the same movie as he does.

"the drinks yesterday were delicious." // you talked about her goals already in your post but makima's search for real intimacy (and equality in a relationship) coincides with denji's one. to me, it comes off as a writer trying to find a mirror of understanding in their own creation. the way she visualises the CSM (as "chaos" to her order) reveals a relationship quite like the flawed connection that one has with characters one makes: and this relationship is what denji (the 'stage' of this process) responds to so emphatically: "she wasn't looking at me this whoole time."

so, yeah; CSM to me operates at two levels: the one with the deeply human character relationships that construct the story and another layer where fiction and ideation mesh. it's important to note that this is something fjmt quite likes doing in his other work: using characters to specifically engage with the telling of his stories or exploring his characters' nuanced reactions to fiction and its weight.

thinking of makima as the 'Author' is misleading, though, and it ignores the fact that makima is both a device deployed by the actual author and in-world by the structure that are the higher ups. she is the control devil; she controls the scaffoldings of the story but she in herself is an agent of the author, of the narrative, of the aforementioned higher ups.

i don't know. is an artist ever truly original in their art? do they not operate within a greater structure, borrowing from and being regulated by it and its interpretation of their work? are makima's plans not ultimately upset by her creation?

denji materialises as a character from multiple active sources instead of the unitary source that makima believes herself to be. he's a passive character and yet he refuses to be a stable creation (psst. it's that universal tussle between the living art and the artist -- something fjmt's already tackled in his oneshots).

i don't know (2). this interpretation's been simmering in my head for a while, but i wasn't very Sure about it. but hm. this writeup primarily bases itself off part one (since it's well. complete) but image and image production specifically coming into fruition as a theme in part two makes me feel increasingly confident in this interpretation. it's strange how it somehow all ties back into storytelling.

[understandingbimbos]

So. There's a few things I need to address. My documentation and study of bimbos began as a personal project. I only started a blog because I was putting a ridiculous amount of work and thought into this and figured it should be shared (and still, there's SO much I haven't shared yet...). And that's part of why this blog isn't so well managed, not consistent, and very informal. I write every post with the assumption whoever reading will have some familiarity with the fetish and that was kind of a mistake when dealing with subject matter as delicate as this and if I want to be able to attract literally any other audience. But the blog is here now so its kind of a moot point. I won't be rewriting posts. I want to kill myself every day, its astonishing I can write anything. Anyway, recently I discovered an adult performer named Celestina Blooms, in particular, this video:

We share a lot of the same thoughts. And her criticisms of BimboTok are a lot better articulated. Here are some of things she's said that stood out to me (paraphrased):

"As an actual political movement, the Gen Z bimbo isn't actually very helpful beyond being satire because there are contradictions."

"It makes no sense to be expected to have every single decision in your life, in every area of your life, be a form of activism."

"If you don't spend enough time watching all their videos to completely get the point it looks like they're satirizing the ideologies they're preaching."

"They're kind of taking this thing and being like 'Hey! This thing is leftist because I'm leftist and I said so!' when the thing is still something very tied to a lot of systems of oppression."

"I think there's an issue with saying that being feminine is feminist."

"Because there are so many minors on TikTok they'll come across this trend and see the cute aesthetic and cute clothes, and for good measure, the ideologies a lot of them agree with and be like 'Fuck yes! Sign me up!' and before you know it they're dressing like a bimbo, calling themselves a 'bimbo', and all this stuff while not even being aware of this whole other world of bimbofication as a fetish and unknowingly calling attention to themselves."

She also brings up Pink Bimbo Academy in this video (not by name, and if you somehow see this Celestina, sorry for blowing up your spot!). I bring this up because PBA actually reached out to me like two weeks ago. We had an extremely brief conversation. He lost all interest as soon as he realized my blog isn't primarily about real life bimbos and, like Celestina, I don't believe bimbos are really a real life thing. This is the reason for my last text post (now pinned).

Up until this point I didn't realize Pink Bimbo Academy was a guy, or extremely weird. He's one of those bimbo enthusiasts that genuinely believes every woman should be a bimbo, unless they're trans that is, because according to him a bimbo can't have a penis or possess any "masculine" qualities. He seems to view bimbofication less as a fetish and more of a means to an end. To him, bimbos are the peak of femininity and bimbofication only helps women to become more of who they're "biologically" meant to be. He has entire rants against feminism up on his website and aspires to create an actual real-life bimbo finishing school, like he's a super villain or some shit, like the antagonist of every school-set bimbofication story come to life. And unfortunately, he's basically the resource for bimbofication online. I have to assume not everyone that follows his guides reads all his posts and FAQ but its more than disappointing to have a transphobe be one of the main vanguards of this fetish today.

Anyway, I can't recommend Celestina's video enough. Its a bit long but all worth watching and has made the prospect of writing this book exciting again. I would suggest this video of hers too:

Post-script: After over an hour of writing all of this I realized I actually did something extremely stupid here. Celestina follows me on here, possibly one of the first people to follow me. I kept wondering why one of her icons looked so familiar and it took me until literally just now to figure it out. I hope she doesn't mind the plug, because you all should follow her too!

@celestinablooms Twitter Instagram

[mysteriouslover1516]

The Tables have Turned

What happens one day when a normal visit with Barry Allen turns into a confession?

y/n= your name

l/n= your last name

Jitters rings with the typical sound of a crowded coffee shop: voices ringing, coffee beans being ground, the fresh smell of baked pastries, not to mention the pleasant smell of java in general.

"Okay there, Barry?" You look at your best friend quizzically, taking in his rapidly tapping foot.

Barry looks at you with a small smile, "Huh? What do you mean?"

"Your foot," you point out. "Nerves?"

"You could say that," Barry admits in a sheepish tone.

You sit yourself down in front of him, taking a sip of your pumpkin spice latte. "Tell me more."

"Nothing to tell," Barry shrugs you off.

"Maybe it's just a side effect of being struck by lightning," you laugh.

Your ears perk up as you hear a random stranger mention the word "Flash". You fold your hands professionally on the table in front of you. "Mr. Barry Allen, what is your opinion on this new phenomenon called The Flash? Hero or menace? Protagonist or antagonist? Or perhaps a vigilante maybe?"

Barry laughs at your reporter voice, taking on his own formal voice. "Well, Ms. l/n. I find the Flash a seemingly controversial topic for many civilians. Some say he's a mutant, perhaps a normal human being caught and tortured by evil scientists. Others say it's a hoax, some sort of well done CGI in use. But me personally, I think he's a real man. Some sort of meta-human, that's for sure."

"But Mr. Allen, a meta-human in itself is defined as a human with super powers, practically the same thing as a mutant." You smile, slyly.

"Whatever he is," Barry rolls his eyes. "He has certainly preserved the city, especially from all these other meta-humans appearing."

"Very true," you say, dropping your reporter voice. "I find him interesting, in fact I wouldn't mind writing a blog about him, one in which I could record all the sightings of him."

"Iris is doing something of that nature," Barry nods. "She has a lot of viewers."

"Well shucks," you laugh. "Guess I'm once again too late."

"What do you mean once again?" Barry furrows his eyebrows.

"Oh you know, she always had some of the highest grades in school. Killed it in the creative writing classes, reporting classes, literally any class that dealt with writing. And now she once again beat me, not only in snatching a job in the news world, but in starting a blog that is sure to interest every civilian in Central City."

"Hey, you know a key essential part that she lacks in her blog?" Barry sips his coffee.

"What's that?" You say, skeptical.

"She only writes about the Flash, not about the other meta-human sightings. Not about the antagonists or villains of modern life, that's a side door still open for grabs."

You nod thoughtfully, "That's true, Barry. Good idea, I'll beat her yet!"

"You guys could collab together even, send your readers to each other's websites. It'll help you both gain more readers and therefore more views." Barry suggests.

"Oh joy, working with Iris West." You say sarcastically. "Don't get me wrong, Barry. Talented writer? Yes. A person worth befriending and collaborating with? I think not." 

Barry chuckles slightly, "You guys never did like each other, did you? Why is that, y/n?"

"Conflict of interests?" You shrug.

"That's not what I see." Barry leans over the table more, "I see it as too similar of interests, always trying to outdo one another. Always trying to show who's superior, who's the better writer. A typical girl fight." "I beg to differ," you refute.

"I thought you guys would outgrow it once we all graduated from school, got occupations, started life as adults; seems I was wrong."

"Hey, I'm happy where I'm at." You defend, "Like I may not be writing as much as I wanted to, not writing articles like Ms. Iris West over there,  but I still do what I love. I help other aspiring journalists, writers become better. I edit their work, critique it, push them to reach their full potential."

"I can't argue with that, but I still say you two are jealous of each other." Barry says simply.

"Why would she be jealous of me?" You scoff.

"Why wouldn't she be?" Barry counters, "Probably for the same reason you're jealous of her." "I'm not jealous."

"Convincing," Barry smirks.

"I don't know," you say, irritably. "Sounds to me like you already have a guess, so why not share your observations?"

"You were jealous of her once you figured out I liked her, now the tables have turned."

"Wait a minute, how-" Your eyes widen as you comprehend the last part, "What do you mean the tables turned?"

Barry's brown eyes meet yours, "I like you, y/n."

You laugh, "You're joking, right?"

"Iris and I don't meet as often, we've lost the bond we had. After she rejected me, I started to see things in a different light. It just took me awhile to realize what I saw, I saw a future, a future with you."

"So you admit I still am second best," you shake your head angrily. "It took her rejection to realize that you maybe found me attractive, that I could be part of your future."

"That's not what I'm saying," Barry sighs. "You're not making it easy, y/n. I like you, I see something different in you, something that Iris lacks. You have a pure heart, a sweet kindness in your whole being, you're amazingly funny, you're literally beautiful in every way."

By now your anger had been calmed by Barry's soft words. "You actually like me?"

"Yes," Barry laughs. "You're beautiful, gorgeous even. The way you laugh, it's adorable. The way the corner of your eyes crinkle as you smile, the way a simple blush rises to your cheeks every time someone compliments you. The way you cock your eyebrows when you decide to get cocky and show some attitude, it's honestly heart-melting."

You blush at his words, and stare hard at the table in front of you.

"See? You're even doing it right now, blushing madly. You make it hard for a guy not to fall for you."

"Could say the same thing about you," you finally say. "You make girls blush without realizing it, make girls go weak at the knees for your chivalry, charm girls with your good looks and humor, not to mention those dimples you possess." "Awww, y/n." Barry laughs, however you notice how red his cheeks have gotten.

"Kiss me?" you ask with a small smirk.

Barry leans over the table, his cologne filling your nostrils at the closeness between you two.

Your eyes close involuntarily as you feel his lips meet yours, it wasn't a needy or lust-filled kiss, more of a gentle one. "Mmmmm," you say as he pulls away.

"Like it?" Barry struggles to maintain his calm voice.

"Let's do that more often," you giggle and shyly tuck a stray strand of hair behind your ear.

"Bet," Barry laughs as his lips meet yours once more.

[fallensnowfan]

Wanted to talk about Luffy’s main arc baddies.

-Morgan/Helmeppo: Good starter villains, vanity for the sake of it, and just a wacky (initially) unlikable guy. Both embody very much the opposite of what Luffy and Zoro stand for.

-Buggy: Would truly shine later, makes him kind of sucking for his intro that much funnier, considering where he is currently at in the story. A god of charisma and luck.

-Kuro: Great foil to Usopp, though a bit bland.

-Krieg: Overconfident jerk in the best way.

-Arlong: Fantastic baddie to conclude the East Blue part of the story, Arlong Pirates being the last major enemy the crew faces and defeats before starting the next leg of their journey and enter the Grand Line. Reads to me as someone who is stagnant in life or is unable to truly move forward. Luffy is still more than prepared to face him, though Arlong's true strength as a character is that he is more than we see at first glance. What we learned of his past during Fishman Island added a lot of depth to his actions and connected Nami's and Jinbei's stories in a very natural way.

-Wapol: Acts as a minor foil to Vivi's arc/style of leadership more than anything. Hateable though good for what he represents. Survived decapitation so gets a bonus point for being the only One Piece character to have managed that. Baby 5 and Buffalo don't count, not fully any way.

-Crocodile: Great all around, so smooth, so cool. Love Croc, love Baroque Works.

-Bellamy: Punchable but also great and had one of the more unique villain motivations in the series.

-Enel: Wacky and fun, though not a character I felt very invested in. I secretly hope he never shows up again and when asked, Oda pretends he doesn't remember the character. That would be hilarious and the best outcome for Enel to me.

-Lucci: Moody asshole with the personality of a wet paper bag, an underwhelming fighting style for a spy, and is not especially well incorporated into the story of Water 7 in my opinion. The city of Water 7 is 99.9 the same after as it was before. His beard post-timeskip is offensive level bad. Die sir.

-Moria: At the time, he was the Warlord with the best writing behind him. A look at how Luffy could end up if he didn't have a "Jinbei" to refocus him after facing annihilation. Has one of my favorite devil fruits in the series. I want a flashback about his and Perona’s first meeting.

-Hody: Good antagonist to ring in the timeskip and the arc which would have Jinbei meeting the rest of the crew. Similar to Arlong though with little in the way of a long term goal in life beyond spreading hatred. Works well with the message of the arc.

-Caesar: ew die.

-Doffy: In my opinion, him and his crew didn't really work as the main baddies of an arc, Monet and Vergo felt more threatening + compelling. Fine overall, though I find Doffy more interesting at Jaya and Marineford. Nice laugh tho.

-Katakuri: Another great foil to Luffy and turns into a donut death wheel. Is more someone Luffy can aspire to surpass than he is a reflection of Luffy's worst case scenario, as Moria was for Luffy.

-Kaido: Fascinating philosophy of wanting to be remembered though for the wrong thing. Unlike Whitebeard, Roger, Yasu, etc. Kaido only cared about his death itself being remembered, and didn't put in any effort into fostering a successor or a legacy. Said friendship was a sham though invited his own downfall with the way he ran his crew, a structure which invited backstabbing at every turn. Also a bit of a coward, resorting to lying to Oden in the past, because he knew he couldn’t defeat him. A relic of the bygone era of Rocks who will likely be forgotten by the world at large.

Kaido’s defeat was a great spectacle, the battle had him facing, nine samurai, Luffy with new haki and a new gear, four more pirates, and a dog and a dragon, and was built on Luffy’s connections he has spent time and effort forging since Punk Hazard, what he learned from Hyogoro, sent Kaido into a magma chamber which lead to an eruption that signaled both his send off and the beginning of a new era, and was seen by all of Wano, so cool. I see many folks saying they wanted more though fail to offer a what or how they would have things believably go differently. Kaido trying to rely purely on might ultimately failing him is a good defeat, as is Big Mom allowing herself to lose focus due to Law silencing her, then rashly attacking the explosive in an attempt to make herself be heard.

Many of the points I see brought up against Wano's ending remind me of vague concerns I remember seeing about if Oda has abandoned Big Mom's story, near the start of Wano. Arcs in One Piece don't really "end" when Luffy beats the baddie and sails to the next destination, especially at this point in the story, with so many characters being interconnected and woven throughout.

[pixies-love-envy]

Too Sweet: Jude

Character Intro

Name: Jude Fox

Nickname: Fox/Foxy

Pronouns: They/Them/Theirs (they are physically male)

Role in story: Antagonists

Bio/summary/description: They’re a political science major going to Redwood University. They aspire to be a political journalist but are currently working at a pizza restaurant. Harlow Knight, is close friends with them even though they happen to be Cricket St. James ex partner. They broke up with her hoping she would fight for their relationship instead of just accepting it. They were wrong and want her back desperately. When they meet March Starling in one of their classes they become fast friends, however, when they discover March is courting Cricket their intentions turn sour.

DOB: February 29, 2000 (Pisces)

Sexuality: Queer

Ethnicity: German American

MBTI: ENFP-T (Campaigner)

Occupation: Dishwasher at a pizza joint

Appearance

Height: 5 feet 9 inches

Hair: Blonde fluffy wolf cut

Eye: Green

Build/physique: Lean build (semi-muscular if you squint)

Notable features: Heart shaped key on their left wrist, flower and vine tattoos up and down their right side starting from their neck going down their shoulder and onto their hand. They also wear a silver chain.

Clothing style: A mix of grunge and punk aesthetic

Extra

TRAGIC BACKSTORY

Quote: “Did you know socialists can really fuck.”

Traits/quirks:

They’re pretentious. They think that because they know about politics they are better than everyone.

They’re deeply insecure and need constant affirmations and affection.

They’re afraid of commitment.

They’re very creative with their art but not so much in other parts of their life.

They call themselves a pessimist but they hold out hope that the world will change for the better

They’re extremely passionate in their efforts to make the world a better place for everyone.

Fun facts/headcanons:

They are extremely minimalist They have maybe 7 outfits and 12 personal possessions, so they're constantly asking everyone if they can borrow things from them. They completely refuse to buy their own stuff (despite definitely having the financial means to) but they never explain themselves and nobody knows why

They steal from people sometimes just for the thrill of it. They don’t steal anything big and they’re not being malicious (most of the time). They just swipe a fork off someone’s table or take a penny out of someone’s purse.

They’re polyamorous because they aren’t really a jealous person and also it’s less pressure on them to care for their partner if they have someone else to lean on.

They plan on living with friends as long as possible because they’re afraid of growing up.

Hobbies/skills: Vexillology, video games (specifically fallout), drawing, political theory, map making, playing guitar, and studying history

Likes: abandoned buildings, talking to homeless people, various drugs, punk shows at bars, crystals (only because they look pretty), Star Wars, and rupaul’s drag race

Dislikes: fascism, capitalism, organized religion, politicians, police, hyper realistic art, pop music, social media, mainstream news, and house parties

Fun fact about Jude is that I unintentionally made them into my ex boyfriend. So, I decided to lean into it and now they’re like twins but Jude is cooler and prettier lol. This is what healing through writing looks like 😌

Too Sweet Masterlist

@mundanemoongirl tagging you because you seem to be interested in updates!

IF YOU WANT TO BE TAGGED IN TOO SWEET CONTENT PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!

[lucky-draws]

the phrase "born from a wish" and how exactly it can be applied to maria is still so interesting to me like. whose wish is it..?

like i really enjoy the idea of maria as an entity created by james, and ive usually used that interpretation in art or writing, but i do also like the idea of maria being "created" by mary instead. and not just as a sort of idealised version of herself - free of disease, beautiful, desirable, maybe a product of some sexual repression etc - but also out of her sheer loneliness? like of course she's longing for james but their relationship is obviously degrading and so you can think of maria as being born out of marys wish to 1. not be sick and 2. not be lonely. so maria is sort of. both an aspiration and a companion to mary.

and if maria was born from mary's mind, maria's feelings about herself and about james are going to be slightly different. does she have more sympathy for mary? less of the accursed creator vibe and more of an understanding? is she a more complete copy of mary because she has been produced directly from mary's consciousness, instead of being born simply from james' wishes and his perception of mary? does that make it easier or harder? her role as james' antagonist/enemy could be sort of motivated by her bond with mary.

and idk basically it's like what are we. are we beautiful twin sisters dying in the lake are you my mother are you my clone are you my rival are you my enemy are you my friend are you myself. it's all of the above i guess really.

[rubberduckyrye]

Struggling to sleep but I've been seeing rumors that Dottore will be playable and get done kind of redemption arc like Childe and Wanderer.

Problem with that.

One: Childe never got a redemption arc. Hes just a very charming character who is a likeable antagonist. But also, as the 11th harbinger, hes still just a cog in the machine. Always has been.

Two: Wanderer's redemption is less about "redeeming" him and more about how this poor fucking guy couldn't catch a break and eventually he snapped, was manipulated and abused and tortured for centuries and is an allegory for abuse victims in general who acted out in horrible ways but are on the path to recovery after finding someone willing to let them have that safe space to do so. I see this less as a redemption arc because even as "Scaramouche", he HAD kind traits associated to him (like according to some lore he was kind to kids and elderly folk) so this story is about rehabilitation and recovery and less about redemption.

Three: While rehabilitation is overall the ideal for criminals rather than harsh punishment and imprisonment, when you have a character like Dottore--who, if Wanderer/Scaramouche is an allegory for an abuse victim in recovery--then Dottore is an allegory of an abuser. And not just any old abuser--a serial abuser. A selfish man who is arrogant and likes to hear himself talk who all lives in danger for his selfish aspiration for experimentation. A man who does not care for children or elderly people, only for himself... you can kind of see where I'm going with this. These are two very fundamentally different kinds of "bad"--Scaramouche was a bad person, yes, but he wasn't what I personally would consider to be "evil". Then you have Dottore who is evil, borderline a predator in behavior and in practice. I don't think he has any right or reason to be doing what he is doing.

As in. I havent seen a whole lot of redemption arcs for these kinds of characters done right. That's a big point of concern.

Another big point of concern is, I'm sure Dottore has his reasons for doing these things, it has yet to be revealed what those reasons are, aside from "Mad scientist wants to do horrible science" and for his own selfish gain.

His motivations don't line up for a redemption arc is what I'm getting at.

I really hope HYV doesn't. Try to redeem Dottore. Like I really hope they don't try. Just make him playable as he is people love a fucked up mad scientist you dont need to make every playable character the Traveler's friend PLEASE for the love of god.

And it's not that I dont have faith in the writing team to tell a good story (well... I dont exactly have full trust in them after the disaster that was the Sumeru Interlude Quest, but that's beside the point) but I have. Literally never seen a character who is a symbol of evil (i.e. the man has no redeeming qualities in personality, no apparent kindness or even willing to change his ways) redeemed in a good, tasteful, and thoughtful way. Like ironically I think the closest I've seen was... Teppei from Higurashi GOU/SOTSU. And that was incredibly muddied by the fact that Satoko herself became that kind of "evil" that wasn't truly redeemed by the end. Even that left a bad taste in my mouth.

So I just hope Dottore, if hes playable... idk. Don't try to redeem him, I don't think it's possible to redeem characters who symbolize the peak of humanity's "evil" so I don't want HYV to try. Like either keep him to be a terrible awful man or give us a fresh new Segment gone rogue who doesn't have anything like that attached to him.

It would be FAR more interesting of an allegory to me if they went for the latter route, actually. Kind of like, a family member of that "irredeemable evil" who now has that tied to them as a sin of the person they are related to but not themselves guilty of. It could be fun to see how HYV would treat such a character, and if done right, it could be a really fun way to explore how people (especially victims) often associate family members of abusers to the abuse they carried out but actually had no part of.

Anyway that's my 3AM rant of the day. I have Insomnia. Can you tell?

[ruckis--rookie]

Ruckis, can you help me out by talking about OOTS real quick? 🥺👉👈

Okay so the thing is... I have a bunch of OCs lying around, and I'd love to write a nice story for them! The only problem is, that I never wrote a story from scratch before 🤨

Soooo... How did OOTS come into existence? How did you get the idea for the main plot and themes? How did you manage to tie the characters into the story? How did you make the rules for the world as a whole?

Please tell me I'm desperate and really like OOTS rip

Oooh that IS a really... complicated thing to answer, but an interesting ask nonetheless. One that I'm going to enjoy answering >:3c

You see, the reason it's difficult to explain is because I simultaneously have no idea what I'm doing and at the same time I have exactly every idea of what I'm doing, if that makes sense. I partially blame/thank my unmedicated severe adhd for my hyperactive imagination, I can pull a lot of stuff out of my ass on a whim just by sitting and thinking for 5 minutes. At the same time I used to love reading as a kid, I loved writing all throughout Jr. High and Highschool, and even now I love dissecting the plots of cartoons, movies, and games, guessing things before they happen. If I had to describe a fantasy story, furthermore making one, it's like.... building a structure, but that structure is made up of absolute bs.

It's easy if you start out with asking yourself a few questions. What do you want this story to be about? Who are the characters and their drives, goals, and aspirations? How do *they* play into the themes of the story? What *are* the themes of your story? Do you want to convey a lesson? Once you have those little details you can start branching out. A looot of it is world building and connecting the dots. Don't be afraid to take inspiration from other things as well! Whether that be from real life or fiction... I'll use OotS as an example.

Order of the Stars started as a theoretical question. I was going through a hard time in my life. I still am, but I'm working hard to get to a point where things can get better but that's besides the point. I mention this because I wanted to make something special. Something of my own that I could use as an escape. So I presented myself with a question... what if someone in the same position as me took an absolute nosedive for the worst? What would they do in response?

That's why in first chapter of the missing chapters version of OotS you can get easily drawn to the main characters presented currently. Her struggles are inspired from real life. They're taken from mine, albeit with some drastic liberties. Side note, That's actually why that, despite being a what if version of me I can't connect with her. She will never be a Sona, because she's someone I don't want to (and strive not to) become.

Anyways I presented more world building questions that would give me more opportunities to make the story more interesting. What if in this world magic and dieties, while obscure, did exist? All these questions combined were my starting point. From there I built out. Both backwards to explain more and solidify more of the story and the why's, and forward. Spoilers, it eventually lead to nuclear warfare that caused the near destruction of humans and the hastened evolution in animals. That may seem like it makes NO sense without context, but you just have to wait to read a little deeper. Everything is connected.

I gave myself a setting, several story themes, both overarching and some that you have to read deeper into. Order of the Stars literally reflects one of those themes. It has a double meaning. One of the themes is hammering down on the abusal of power from people higher up on the authority chain. Basically building this hierarchy, an "Order" if you will, that poses as one of the overarching antagonistic threats. It's also a nice little hint towards the involvement of dieties made from celestial and astral bodies. Kitsuneoctua is a god made out of a constellation, and what is a constellation but the order in which stars align?

Another theme touches on racist/xenophobic behaviors. I've never gotten how people can be like that. We're all people, it's honestly upsetting to see how people will fight each other just because of something like skin color and ethnicity. So I made not just an entire culture to reflect that, but the main characters from the heroic version of OotS reflect that too. You have Aleron, a human who grew up around an entire city of people who are xenophobic and racist towards what are called "Modern Animals" (the anthro animals that can walk and talk). Despite that he adores them. He sees them as equal. He's kind hearted and almost sickeningly sweet, if not a little inexperienced. And then you have the other hero, Roxie, who acts as a character foil. She grew up being taught that humans can't be trusted, only to have a human try and nurse her back to health and risk his life for her. The two vow to work together and embark on a journey, leaving everything they knew behind. They have to learn how to work through their differences and get along, all the while striving to make the world a better place. Hopefully the take away that people get from that is we can all get along and fight for better despite our differences. There's no need to fight each other.

Overall a lot of my story writing is cause and effect. Thinking about how people or objects will react a certain way. A butterfly effect, almost. And how I can connect the lines. It's like a tree. You plant a seed and when you supply it with things to grow it starts sprouting branches, and blossoming, all the while growing hardened roots underneath. It sprawls every which way until finally, you've made something beautiful.

As for rules... the rules are what you make them, really. It's your world. You're practically God, if you said that for whatever reason platypus have duck wings and can fly than goshdarnit they have wings and they can fly. I personally just like to provide explanations that seem like they would make sense to wrap it up in a nice little bow :> outside of that, the only other tip I can offer is simply a nitpick of mine in terms of story writing. Refrain from retconning too much. For me consistency is the best policy. I hope this provides some good insight, I tried 😅

[if-i-was-a-cucumber]

currently watching part 1 || dangerous romance

the first episode of dangerous romance (2023) is premiering and of course i have thoughts <3 i'm basically just going to be writing this as i watch the episode and some pictures. obviously, if you haven't watched the episode and don't want any spoilers, avoid this post.

sailom is my delusional spirit animal, everything i aspire to be and like to pretend i am. i've already decided this upon watching episode 1. he's cute and hard-working and look at how he takes no bullshit from anyone!! even old people!! and he's so engaged and self-aware with the costs and pricing of his workplace!!

everybody meet sailom's older brother, aka saifah "you don't need to work," "stealing money from your patients is a good business strategy," "i plan to live off you in the future" [last name here]. but he's also very attractive so i'm letting it slide.

about to wax poetry over this shot right here. call me talay from vice versa or blame my laptop's display because the coloring of this picture right here is so on point for the message they're trying to drill in about sailom being different. what i mean is his shirt's a different shade of white — if you glance between the rest of the students his seems a bit more yellow whereas their's are a bit more blue. it makes it look like a bright spotlight is right over him, pointing him out to everyone as "look at him, something's weird about him." not sure if this was on purpose but i like it a lot!! i love these kinds of little details!!

THE BOYS ARE ALL HERE!! (well i missed JJ but he was hiding in the back so sue me.) i know more or less the storyline we'll be getting from perthchimon but marcpawin intrigues me — especially since dangerous romance seems very, very similar premise-wise to my gear and your gown (2020) (which if you didn't know, stars marc and pawin). i'm currently watching that so i am in a bit of a marcpawin phase rn, but worry not for i can separate characters from actors! this one is interesting though because it seems like pawin is the antagonist-esque asshole-ish character this time, if you get what i mean. look at his face in the corner over there. look at how he crabbe-and-goyle follows kanghan around.

all in all i'm excited!! i'd write more but i think this is too long already for one post, see you all in the next premieres