#maybe we're all just overanalyzing

[revolutionarywig]

More extension on the linguistics of the word terreur during the French Revolution, since it's a really large discussion in the circle. It is notable that in majority of 18th century the word terreur did not carry as much negative connotation as we associate it with today. I am not stating that 18th century thought terror is cool and good, but rather, the word terreur is more associated with the concepts of "sublime", closer to the feeling of being awestruck. which could still have transitioned nicely into 19th century romanticism: the association of something terrible but also beauty. So that is one layer of how Enjolras could be embodying the word "terrible".

Now during the Revolution the word terreur was used in multiple contexts, but the most prominent one that was probably on Hugo's mind while writing is Robespierre's famous speech about terreur and vertu (yeah this is a robespierre blog....). Now before the famous speech, Montesquieu and Robespierre himself have defined terreur as the principle of despotic governments. Well we all know Enjolras is obviously not associated with principle of despotism. Rather, the point of Robespierre's very famous speech is to associate terreur with the method of exceptional government, defining it as "prompt, severe, inflexible justice". This association between terreur and justice is very intimate and sometimes interchangeable in many French Revolutionaries' speeches.

In fact I see Hugo's use of the word "terrible" almost as a direct reference to the action that Enjolras performs later when he executes Le Cabuc – an exceptional case of exacting justice, however horrible it may be.

It must be mentioned though, while there is already a certain amount of historiography on the French Revolution by Hugo's time, it is still different from our current historiography (and certainly very very different from popular media). Hugo does not see terreur as simply justice (something entirely positive) as Robespierre defined.

By the time of Robespierre's death, other Revolutionaries have begun to use the word terreur in way that make it seem like an official regime, kickstarting the idea of a capitalized "Terreur" as an organized initiatives, a system. Because of this post-event construct, many major historians of that period heavily emphasized on the duality of the Revolution, usually giving a lot of credit to 1798-1792, and 1793 onwards as the Terror aka "shit goes down", separating it into the good years vs the violent years. Hence, the word terreur began to gain more negative connotations in the French political landscape.

Hugo is not so exempt from this thought pattern. He sees Robespierre very much as an embodiment of the Revolution's principles (aka the leader), and the Revolution falls into a clean plot of "the justice of the Revolution is sometimes cruel and overly severe".

(Also I don't know how many non-frev people are gonna read this but I don't view the Revolution as "started out good until they went too far and became bad" and I don't view Robespierre as a leader. )

So what is the conclusion? "Enjolras était un jeune homme charmant, capable d'etre terrible." I think there is a strong link between the word choice "terrible" and "terreur" from the French Revolution. And, given Hugo's time period, the word "terreur" has a close association with justice but also slightly more undesirable/violent connotation.

TLDR, Enjolras was a charming young man, who was capable of prompt, severe, inflexible justice.

One thing that annoys me about most translations of Les Mis is of that line that everyone loves, you know, “Enjolras was a charming young man, who was capable of being terrible”?

So the original French line is “Enjolras était un jeune homme charmant, capable d'etre terrible.”

Sounds like a pretty simple and sound translation, right? But the thing is, the word ‘terrible’ in English is used a bit differently than the same word in French. To the modern English reader, the word ‘terrible’ would bring to mind something negative and make you think “He was charming but capable of being a monster”. Meanwhile the word ‘terrible’ in French, while being very similar (since it’s the exact same word), would translate more as ‘fearsome’. So, “Enjolras was a charming young man, who was capable of being fearsome.” I don’t know, it just sounds better to me and brings out more of what Hugo meant.

I’m not saying that most translations are wrong, because they’re not. Both words do mean the same thing. But an English reader and a French reader might interpret the sentence slightly differently and it fascinates me.

[helluva-hazbins-most-fuckable]

Okay. This is probably a pointless endeavor and the die has already been cast. Nonetheless, I feel I must provide propaganda on behalf of my boy, Striker. If he must die, so be it, but I'm not letting him go without a fight!

Pros:

- Dude had two voice actors and they were both sexy as hell. One was Norman Reedus! Norman Reedus!

- Look at how good he is using ropes! You want to try shibari? Some other type of bondage? He's your guy!

- There's just enough room for interpretation that he can appeal to a variety of tastes. You like doms? Then he could top you 12 ways before breakfast. Look at how he circles Blitz or climbs on top of Stolas. You like subs? We see him getting flustered over sexual stuff sometimes, which could imply he's actually more inexperienced than he lets on. Maybe he'd appreciate letting someone else lead? I dunno! Maybe he's a switch! Guess what! All that and more are possible valid interpretations! Go crazy! He would still be hot in any of the roles!

- This is the monsterfucker website! While I would not count him as a monster, those rattlesnake noises he makes when he's mad? Hello? That's so cool? I want to do that.

- Evil cowboys hot

- STOLAS EVEN DESCRIBES HIM AS SEXY AND THE IMPS KNOW WHO HE'S TALKING ABOUT JUST FROM THAT DESCRIPTION

- Man of mystery! Who is he? What is he? Is he even a full imp? What's set him down this dark path of being such a hater? So much room for speculation! So much potential as an antagonist!

- Other stuff I could list but I need to sleep!

AND NOW

ANTI-PROPAGANDA FOR ADAM:

I feel like he would finish just by flexing in the mirror a bunch and saying his name over and over for twenty seconds. Then he would claim that this was the best lay of his life and leave you behind on the bed with the hotel bill.

There are other reasons (i do not believe the hype over his dick. he is chaz 2.0 in this department to me) but I've decided to narrow this down for time. Striker's still going to lose because the ratio is too big to recover from... But at least now I can sleep in peace...

[cryptidapprentice]

eep!

[catgirlwizard]

.

[dicktat]

since you're like thee designated Hakon lover in this fandom (/pos) , I was wondering if you could explain his backstory a bit? I'm a new fan and just so confused by his motives

sorry if this is annoying! 😭

Hi!!! Sorry this literally took forever I spent the entire week tinkering with this piece because I would love answering this for you🥺🥺🥺so here’s my comprehensive character analysis on Hakon tho fair warning it’s mostly personal thoughts but I hope you enjoy anyway! Welcome to my absolutely normal and not at all freaky overanalyzing autistic nonsense and definitely filled with all the psychology major knowledge I possess and not what came up on an acid trip

So it all begins here, the man who saved you from the gallows and spared you a life, the whore, the conspirator, the saint. Who is he and what makes him what he is? I’d love to take a crack at it.

Maybe we should start from his flashbacks. I always headcanonned him to be a bit of a nebulous figure, possibly grew up with an unfunctioning household, explains why his marital life is a shitshow. Either learned to be promiscuous from his parents or the other way around, extremely religious ridden family that pushed him to be a helpless romantic horndog. He’s free spirited, as seen from the way he explains his past life, 4 wives, countless partners, the way he met his buddy for life in the military and went broke for his disobedience(he’s probably super rebellious when he’s young), became a taxi driver (yet another free spirited job) and a Nightrunner. We don’t know much about his past but we can probably speculate. For me I kind of like the idea of a young punk player with a vision of helping others, probably once an idealist, but still extremely empathic and caring.

(totally random but here's an old drawing of young Hakon with pretty long hair)

Then the fall happened and everything turned to shit, from what we can gather he defected to the renegades not long after the Nightrunner disbanded, and that's where his suffering all begins. We know he probably was kind of mistreated under Walt's command, you know, the whole renegades not listening to his orders and turning on him thing?

He probably learned to take it laying down, from the way he easily submits everytime Aiden uses force on him, surrendering himself at the hideout and the church typical reaction of an abuse victim but we're not gonna unpack that. We obviously can't say for sure what happened in those years that made him who he is, from a passionate "remember when we used to help others" and romantic youth to...dare some say...villain?

No. I do not believe he’s inherently evil and I think people saying he’s irredeemable is wrong. He’s manipulative, calculated and morally grey, but none of that is without a reason. He lies, deceives and betrays to protect, not just for the ones he love but for himself. See I happen to study a bit of this kind of personality and I can safely conclude he’s doing everything outta FEAR. He’s afraid of loosing his loved ones and that’s why he turned to his enemy, he’s afraid of death so he does whatever to survive, he’s afraid of intimacy so he puts on a deceptive disguise of a playful bastard so he can drown out the voices when he’s terrified and alone.

See this is where I bring out the hottest take of the fandom yet. I think his motivation has always been LOVE, but he always ends up doing the worst thing. He loved Lawan, He loved his unborn child, He probably loved Aiden (platonically or romantically it doesn’t matter) too. But the results? Lawan resented him for ten years and he’s deemed a fraud by everyone he ever loved, his child never got to see the beauty of the world and worst of all he of all people hurt Aiden the most. I think it’s both ironic and poetic that his feelings for his loved ones became his biggest enemy and is the very reason he suffers. He’s creating all the tragedies of his life because he’s a lover first thinker second. If you know a little about MBTI (it’s okay if you don’t you can skip this part) you’d see his extremely obvious ENFJ personality.

Everything he does is outta love (Fe) and intuition (Ni), which is not to say he’s literally mother Teresa because this bitch is complex!!! And with his inferior logical thinking (Ti) he’s kind of dumb at times, because what do you mean this bitch went on ten years without at least sending Frank a message explaining everything.

But the worst thing about him is that he is disordered. None of his motivation is pure and that’s his greatest bane. He’s good but not upfront enough to be honest with the person who he saved, he’s evil but not calloused enough to kill the pilgrim at the bazaar, he’s brave enough to carry all the burdens on himself for ten years but so much of a coward he’s terrified of losing anyone for five minutes. If he was cynical like Waltz he would’ve taken the key and killed Aiden when he was unconscious, if he was a paragon of virtue like Frank he would’ve done everything to ensure the pilgrim is safe. But he’s neither. And that makes his position so much more tragic considering his current reputation, the most deplorable Nightrunner to ever exist and the Saint of all renegades.

And he’s always been just that. His disorderly morals and ambiguous stance in alliance forces him to make decisions that he probably regrets, he’s always in some kind of moral dilemma. Chose between allowing all his friends to die at the VNC tower or risk his reputation and bail, chose between his loved one getting killed by Waltz or become his personal slave for ten years, chose between killing his new found trusting partner or his ticket to a safer life outside the walls.

He’s always hesitant, hell, I doubt he even knows what he wants and always contradicting his words. From the church fight alone he said both "we're not friends, never were" and "consider this a divorce". Is that something a person says if he truly wants you dead? And him immediately ceasing to fight after you initiated understanding is also just him being unsure about his decisions and showing he probably didn't want to do this. Again I'm not downplaying what he did. He's a dick. But not entirely.

I think it's obvious the game doesn't want you to see him as the villain. From all the hints of him not being as bad as others made him to be to Frank being an unreliable narrator(and calling him Satan himself), the game introduced him as something far more malicious than what he really is, and it's from analyzing his actions and motivations that we see he's probably not horrible.

Remember the mural at one of the old houses in Trinity?

Yeah it's a reference missed by many, but I think it truly encapsulates what he is. Not Satan himself or a savior, but rather once an angelic figure turned unsavory. The fallen Nightrunner haunted by guilt and remorse.

I think Lawan's route of killing him really insinuates the point most, from seeing him as the root of all evils to finally putting him under and her only comment is all this time of hunting the devil down, "he just looks...vulnerable".

I am actually so glad you asked this. I’ve seen people argue about it all the time. He’s an extremely complicated character and I think it’s such an injustice to his writing if the audience were to label him “good” or “evil”. He’s well written because he’s ambiguous. And I love to interpret what he is like.

Also my apologies for the crazy essay I wish this satisfied your question and you’re so welcome to ask more. Again there might be some biases in there because I am passionate about his character (also stoopppppppp wdym I’m the certified Hakon lover/pos) thank you for reading this and I hope this fandom treats you well🥰🥰🥰

[ohara-n-brown]

Fuck it imma start weaponizing Autistic stereotypes like they're swords.

You want to infantalize me? Psyche I'm Sherlock Holmes now. You're Watson. How does it feel? 🤨

You wanna overanalyze my Autistic traits?? Okay I'm House now. I'm smarter than you. I'm psychoanalyzing you back. Since we're playing doctor now. Let's unpack YOUR neurotype shall we

Walking around like a completely unmasked Wednesday Adams. No expression whatsoever. Laughing at a joke? Never heard of it. Main Character syndrome? I don't care. I'm weird? Obviously. I'm cringe? A ridiculous concept made for shallow people.

If that's what you think we are, I'd rather that over the infantalizing overanalyzing bullshit ngl

Cause in Sherlock and House everyone around them seems to understand that this person doesn't communicate like them so just let them be as they are

Like it'll always baffle me that neurotypicals will wrongly have all these autistic characters who are savant like geniuses with asshole egos and no time for your bullshit

And then they get around actual autistic people and never consider 'hey maybe this person is smarter than me. hey maybe this person just doesn't find me amusing. hey maybe this person is really observant, or really talented, or knowledgeable, or monotone BECAUSE THEY'RE AUTISTIC'

It's like they can't put two and two together. It's like they cannot connect the two.

Its like autistics only have the potential to be funny and smooth and cool on TV. No more.

I'm reclaiming the narrative. I'm Sheldon Cooper now. You will listen to my infodump. You will listen to my bad jokes!!! Bazinga bitch!!!! 😩

[bad268]

Grizzy with a pretty energetic reader who likes loves working out

Gizzy + Gym Partner S/o

Headcanons because I can only seem to write short-form content right now (Inktober is taking over my life)

Anyways, on with the headcanons!

willing to bet you'd meet at the gym

maybe you asking him to spot you

or I could see you maxing out on like leg press or something and needed help, and he's the one who saves you

yknow all knight in shining armour style

then you guys start meeting up at the gym

working out together

forcing him to do your painful leg day and cardio routines

shouting encouragement when yall are maxing out

if you're short, Grizzy helping you get onto the pull-up bar

when you finally get together-

i could see either of you shooting your shots first tbh

-you'd start meeting at his house or yours before going to the gym

the first time he went to yours, i could see this going down

"Do you have any preworkout?" Grizzy asked as he looked in your pantry. "I was streaming last night, so I didn't get much sleep and I'm beat."

"Preworkout? What's that?" You asked as you turned to him with your bottle of water.

"You don't know what preworkout is? How do you max anything without energy?" Grizzy accused in confusion. "You're crazy if you just go with water."

"I have a granola bar, too, sometimes," You offered as you shrugged. "What's the point of preworkout? Just energy? I don't need that."

"Just energy? Just energy!? No, it also gives you focus and improves your strength and endurance," He explained calmly after he saw your confused face. "You're telling me you've never used preworkout?"

"No, my strength and endurance is all me, baby."

from then on, he would overanalyze everything

wondering how you were able to do some of your lifts without the extra boost of preworkout

there were even some days that he would start tiring out, but you were still going strong

"Come on Grizzy!" You cheered from the stair master next to him as you patted his shoulder. "Just another 30 flights, and we're done for the day!"

"Why did I ever agree to try your cardio days?" He asked himself, "Why did I ever submit myself to this TORTURE?"

anyways yeah

still doesn't stop him from going to the gym with you

side note, i feel like hed put preworkout in a smoothie or something he made for you

for the context of this next part, I'm gonna say I would assume you agree to try it at some point but never say when

now, that being said you may or may not know about it in this specific smoothie

you'd be bouncing off the walls in the gym (more than normal)

Grizzy also vowed to never give you preworkout again after that day

~

© BAD268 2024. DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION.

[lestappenforever]

So, I’m like a realist, right? Sure, yes, I ship people from time to time but I know it’s just for funsies. So, I saw a lestappen edit last week and was like “hey cute guys, what’s up with these two? I better check it out.” and have fallen into a bit of a rabbit hole it seems. So I’m back in the real world now, where Max is in a long term relationship and Charles has a girlfriend, and am wondering: how does one explain Max’s behaviour? Does he just have a friend-crush on Charles? Has he always wanted to be friends with him since they were young and it was just hard since they’ve been rivals for so long? Does he envy him maybe since his father wasn’t a pos and he still turned into a great driver? Is it a “it’s lonely at the top” kind of situation, where he’s never been able to make many friends his own age? (I’ve seen Charles with a bunch of friends outside of racing, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Max with any, but that could be on me.) I mean, a blind person could see that Max takes every opportunity to talk to him or be close to him and he knows stuff about him I’d personally be too embarrassed to admit (like getting his “stupid” quote exactly right or knowing about the twitch thing with his girlfriend forgetting her keys, etc.). I guess I’m looking for the actual non-shippy explanation for this behaviour cause it fascinates me. What are your two cents on this?

Hi anon, and welcome to the world of Lestappen! We're happy to have you. ❤️

I will preface this by saying that shipping is solely for fun, and I don't actually believe Max and Charles are in a secret relationship or anything of the sort. The majority of Lestappen shippers on Tumblr are on the same page about this, with some exceptions, but there are exceptions to anything. And a big part of shipping is speculating, being delusional about them, and overanalyzing things.

Now, in terms of a non-shipping explanation as to why these two behave the way they do around each other, I think it's a combination of all the reasons you've already listed. And the thing about Max and Charles is that they have known each other for so many years. They have been in each other's orbit, in one way or another, for the majority of their lives, and there is no denying that they have seen each other as one of — if not the — biggest rival they've had since they were children. Despite the fact that a lot of the current drivers on the grid have raced each other at some point before F1, there doesn’t seem to be any of them that have the same sort of rivalry that Max and Charles have, which goes so far back. And that kind of bond is one that I believe sticks with you forever.

Now this is not a delusional take at all, as this quote by Armando Filini, manager of the Maranello Kart, the first team for which Leclerc raced, proves: “They were always fighting. It didn't matter if they were competing in a tie or in a final, if it was raining or if the track was dry. Once we were in Genk, Belgium, in the first free practice, and they went on track. Charles and Max met, began to push each other and almost hit each other, with the risk of being left out. Jos Verstappen and I were glued to the fence to look at them and he turned around and said to me: 'These two will fight forever. They will fight even in F1′. A prophecy”.

Even though Max and Charles obviously haven’t been best friends for the majority of the time they've known each other, and they've only started building what appears to be a genuine friendship in the last few years, they share a connection that has been evident to people around them since they were little.

Max's comment from last season where he said that he wasn't surprised both him and Charles were sitting in that press conference together because he always thought that if he made it into F1, Charles would too, is just another testament to how tied together they actually are. And Charles' fond recollections of their karting days in the past season shows that it's a mutual thing: that Charles feels that same bond with Max that Max feels with him. And I think this is the whole baseline for why they've never been able to be normal about or around each other: because they go so far back and their lives are so intertwined that I honestly don't think either of them is fully capable of treating the other as just any other colleague or friend, because they don't see each other that way. They're something more, and by that I don't mean they're secretly in love with each other — they just have this bond that goes beyond normal friendship, forged through years of rivalry, envy, conflict, mutual growth and respect, and eventual friendship.

I have a childhood friend sort of like that: obviously not with the rivalry and drama that comes with the surroundings in which Max and Charles met and grew up, but someone that I share a bond with that I don't share with any of my other friends, old or new, and it's honestly my most treasured friendship because it has helped shape me as a person in a profound sort of way. He's not my closest friend and not the friend I talk to the most since we live on different sides of the country and our paths haven’t crossed much in the past few years, as is often the case when you grow up and become an independent adult. But when I do talk to him and hang out with him, it kind of feels like coming home. And to me, it seems like Max and Charles share that same type of bond.

This is just my personal take as I obviously don't know Max or Charles, and this is all based off of watching their interactions and watching their relationship develop over the past few years, as well as deepdiving into their history in the past. But this is the explanation that makes sense to me.

[shannonsketches]

I overanalyze the hell out of everything but! While we're here--

I think a lot (and am too lazy to make the many many comics in my head) about how Vegeta was having fun with these androids (even being sportsmanlike with Piccolo about it!) until he found out who Trunks was (and also that they were the wrong androids). Then between that reveal and Bulma getting shot down, he switches back into Spite and Fury, and I just chinhands I think a lot about what a shot to the chest it would be to learn that you die -- you die in the future, you lose to these surprise enemies -- and your son, with his mother's machine and knowledge of the events, comes back to the past to make sure someone else lives.

"It's just because Goku's the first to die, so it's a domino effect!" Yes, but,

Vegeta was standing right there when Bulma said her strategy was to destroy the androids before they became an issue. Vegeta knows that Bulma feels very strongly that this is the move, and that waiting is stupid. He also knows that she watched him dabble on Earth for a year and a half before Goku came home.

So he knows that she could've sent Trunks back earlier, and had him talk to Piccolo. Vegeta could've used that entire ~12-18 months to train for a specific threat, or even just to prepare for Frieza's return.

He also knows that she could've just as easily sent Trunks back while they were all on Namek, and taken care of the issue before any of them were even made aware of it. That was her suggestion in the present! Trunks could've left Goku's medication with Roshi, or Popo, and just let it remain a mystery where it came from and how it got there.

But instead, Trunks came the day that Goku came back. So he could meet Goku. And talk to Goku. So he could make sure Goku survived. So Goku could save everyone. Because Goku would be there to win the day. Because Goku's is the strength they trust to be enough.

The way that must corrode your insides and just flood you with envy, and spite, and poison. The way he behaves for the rest of this arc despite the clever strategist we saw on Earth and on Namek, despite the cautious observation, the patience, the snarky humor, the distinct recognition of a threat that needs eliminating before it's too late -- despite all these things we've seen him be and have and do, after this point he's reckless and fuming and desperate to prove himself to the detriment of everyone around him.

As a punishment, maybe? For choosing Goku over You?

As necessity? Because you've spent 30 of your 31 years having the value of your life measured solely by your ability to win?

As a distraction? From knowing that you spent your life fighting tooth and nail for all that you are, only to die, humiliated, at the feet of your enemies having failed to do the only task you felt you were alive to do, then be revived by mistake, then learn that even your own child would prefer the person who succeeded at that one seemingly impossible task?

It's really no wonder, at this extremely low and fragile point in Vegeta's life, that he went from quietly standoffish to actively erratic from this point. It's not until Cell slaps him with the reality check of losing those precious few who continued to choose him despite his profound personal and operational failures (which were likely a death sentence, where he's from) that he settles back down (in the manga) to being quietly standoffish, strategic, and cooperative toward the higher goal.

Then spends the next seven years learning it never had to be like that because it turns out people on this planet mostly still want you to be alive and come home even if you fuck up real bad and you actually don't have to be The Star Executioner to be valued and welcomed and even?? Loved?? Which sucks to learn after you've already gotten your son and your rival and very nearly your rival's son killed by being an insecure jackass and making everything worse than it had to be.

But don't worry, it'll only happen one more time and it'll only take like 40 minutes to publicly murder like 2000 people and almost destroy the entire universe because you had something totally different to prove this time, it's a minor relapse at best, it's fine, everyone's fine, we're all gonna wish that memory away from all the innocent people and only think about it at 2am when you're awake laying in bed trying to figure out why the fuck you're still allowed in this house and you can spend the next 4-6 years turning your shit around and embracing that soft emotions are okay to feel and you're not a defective specimen being slowly deconstructed on a backwater space rock and it's actually normal to care about stuff and it's everything you were ever taught before this that was toxic and wrong and had to be unlearned so you could grow and change and harness true strength instead of chasing shallow power so it's fine!! It's totally fine. Everything's fine. He's fine. He's good.

[puffyducks]

DCRC Week #16

Wiggity what's up my fellow book clubbers, today we're taking a look at the ethics of treating artificially made intelligent lifeforms as second class citizens and what the qualifying factors are to determine a being as truly "sentient" and deserving of basic social rights. And by that I mean we're reading PKNA #12: Second Draft which is a comic where nothing bad happens!

This post is LOOONG btw.

okay we're just gonna start off our comic as normal and-

WOAH who's this handsome young devil in his little fancy suit??? What's that? Head of Ducklair Industries?..... yeah sure that makes sense I think.

Everett Ducklair 🤢🤢🤢 get a job stay away from him. Also this is a really nice way of saying you had to stop him from being overtaken by insane homicidal tendencies and putting guns in all his inventions btw

Haha woah what was that. Did the fabric of reality just tear for a second there or did my ADHD meds just kick in. Probably just me.

MASTER Donald???..... I don't even think I can write out the jokes I wanna make here they're too inappropriate for this blog sorry. But also what the fuck.

Uno stop mothering maybe I WANT to get frostbite and lose all my fingers

Not to take a sudden side tangent here but is this supposed to be like, a good thing? Don't the other seasons exist for a reason? I always thought fall and winter were meant to be like a cleansing period, they bring balance to the two other hotter seasons. If it's eternally spring, do some plants just never die? Are animals ALWAYS in the breeding season? Today we're going to overanalyze this one concept in an essay where-

OH MY GOD IT'S ODIN wait nevermind hiii Odin hiiiii. what's lookin good cookin. I mean- shit. fuck. shit.

I'm kind of obsessed with the way Odin is drawn in this comic. His whole body is all wiggly like a bendy straw. His stances go crazy.

gayass

Guys ever since I made that post about Odin's outfits and noticed that he's barefoot here it's been haunting me. Like it might just be a coloring error in this panel but also... why'd he take his shoes off. Also sorry for immediately revealing that it's Odin but um uhh I totally don't know who the OTHER cloaked figure is.

girlll you're giving away the game SHUT YOUR MOUTH

TWO Lylas?!?!?!

I'm loving Donald's shock lmao bro is fucking flabberghasted

This picture is so fucking silly bro. Nooo you can't put Odin in jail, he has such a nice suit on :(

Donald getting offended on Uno's behalf, not knowing that Uno is literally sitting right behind him. SURELY he'll figure it out eventually right.

Omg guys it's Geena!!! Remember Geena? From Portrait of the Young Hero? Anyways she has a gun now

Way to go Donald, you showed her basic empathy for like 2 panels and it gave her an actual sense of self value and NOW she thinks she deserves rights 🙄 she's gonna Detroit Become Human up in this bitch

beaming you with my evil lasers. what if he just fucking fried her brains here I think it would've been funny

Oh that's. probably bad.

ohhhh noooo.....

OOOOHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ok so bad news, Geena fucking exploded and her droid rebellion is presumably over. The GOOD news though is that droids are destined to get their rights anyways, just in a less violent manor than in the timeline Geena had started. So... I guess that's a win?

Disappears in a cloud of beautiful sunset smoke... Goodbye Odin 👋

Donald. Please. DONALD.

Okay so there's a LOT to say about this comic (so much that I kept hitting the image limit and having to make edits to my post to make it more concise) but if I could summarize it into one word: damn. Like I'm just kinda sad now.

The whole concept of "do robots deserve to be treated like human beings" is a common argument to explore, we've seen it in all kinds of media before. The ethics that get touched on in this comic are nothing new, but I can't help but find this comic incredibly interesting to read in the year 2024. Maybe in 1997 the idea of robots integrating into our society seemed like a far-off concept, but in present day the ever-growing integration of AI technology really makes this chapter feel a little more close to home.

I mean, it's easy to be like "yeah, well of course the droids deserve to be treated like people." I mean, Lyla and Odin are droids, and we like Lyla and Odin! Odin is literally so lifelike that people don't even KNOW he's a droid. But I can't help but think about how this all ties back to the current ongoing debates surrounding the usage of AI, and specifically AI-made content. Obviously the AI we currently have is nowhere near the level of the characters in this series (chatGPT fucking WISHES it was Uno) but there's really interesting debates to be made here.

What qualifying factors determine whether or not a living being is deserving of the same rights we humans give to ourselves? Is it being biological? I mean, there are literally millions of types of animals on our planet, but we don't even treat them with the same level of respect we give to ourselves. So, is it intelligence? If we were to create a computer with the intelligence level of a living, breathing human person, would they be entitled to basic "human" rights? HELL IF I KNOW.

I love the way this comic handles exploring this topic. Geena isn't WRONG for wanting more, she's wrong in the way she went about it. Going as far as to literally alter the course of spacetime only further complicated things, for her AND for the other droids. Had Geena instead devoted her energy into droid advocacy in the modern day, things may have gone differently. This story isn't the end of droids getting rights, but it is unfortunately the end of Geena.

We ended on a happy note, but overall this story is a pretty melancholic one. Especially that whole "only machines can be rebuilt" like DAMN.

Anyways that's enough media analysis for today, time to take off my smart thinking hat and go back to being generally kinda stupid. I'm not gonna add anything about Angus Tales here at the end because I already hit the image limit lol. Umm shoutout to Angus Fangus for having like 110 parking tickets. Idiot.

[taeloke]

Overanalyzing 4KOTA Chapter 142 instead of just waiting for more info (1/2?)

Honestly? I'm writing King's side of this separately, because it's about time I started talking about him here l and I know I can go on forever about him. That field of over-analysis needs its own house. I would go off about him first but then I'd forget his kids entirely and I don't want to do that to them... Speaking of--

So silly. So precious. Berte is so Helbram-coded and I'm sure that's intentional resemblance.

You know...I wonder which of their traits were inherited from Diane's parents. Probably the golden hair on almost half of them at least. Sixtus and Tioreh's pink hair looks more like a genetic mutation...unless their hair color is inherited from the leaf color of the Sacred Tree? That's possible too.

Diane seems less energetic since becoming a mother. She's settled down and has been shown to be gentle more often than bubbly, which was the impression she gave me in the original series. I'm assuming she hasn't fought since entering the Fairy Realm, too. She's put the stress of the Holy War behind her, and I'm happy that she seems content with her lots of babies. I wonder if she'll get to hear about Dolores once the current issues are over. I'm sure hearing she's Nasiens's adoptive big sister will be a shock. Diane deserves to know that.

The way Tioreh says this makes me suspect Puck is the one behind Nasiens and Myrtel's switcheroo. He must really love that "prank" in that case. Regardless of who was behind it, though, that's actually fucked up. A fairy trolled their own king by swapping their first child with a human, probably knowing exactly what issues both kids would be put in. I can't call this just a prank. I love King to death, but his people are their own kind of awful...

For this moment, let's glance back at how she reacted to that news at first.

Tioreh must have been suspecting this the whole time Nasiens was here, but this reveal may be the moment she started to seriously believe it, if not when Nasiens admitted to feeling healthier in the Fairy Realm. After this, she started to open up about her siblings more and telling Nasiens that he's like them--especially like Phao. All of this is stuff that Nasiens didn't know about since he met her two years ago. All of the tension in this family over Nasiens and Myrtel has been building up for so long...and right now we're watching it all cave in. I'm sure King and Diane had good intentions for hiding the truth, but hiding it's not working anymore.

And Diane knows it's not working anymore. I'm stuck on her asking "Is that bad for you?" Why is she asking that of all things? Is that what King and Diane were so worried about when they decided to never come out about this? Did they think their kids would be upset with having a human for an older brother?

Okay, but maybe that's not all that they considered. Maybe they got worried about how their people outside of their family would react to their theories being confirmed. If that happened, as unfortunate as it is, Mertyl would probably get more ostracized than he was. With that in mind, I'm sure his parents made that choice to protect him from some of the problems he'd inevitably go through. It's a nice thought that way, but this was still a bad call. They made too many assumptions of their own kids' feelings.

In other news...Phao was lurking... Now they're all gonna know and clear up this misunderstanding with their parents, right?

Anyway, I feel like I've written too much for one post, so I'll go on about the rest of the chapter tomorrow. Closing this part with this:

myrtel peek

[wandringaesthetic]

ugh okay

Netflix Castlevania Nocturne season 2 trailer commentary and rampant speculation:

(mostly about Alucard we all have our faves)

I love how he's animated. He is so still most of the time. Not that he can't move incredibly fast, but there is no wasted movement, does not flinch, at all, ever, facial expressions are certainly there (his little smile when he mentions Trevor, cut out my fucking heart Sam Deats et al), but very subtle. He sounds so much more sedate than he does in the other series, but the dry humor is certainly still there (who are you to call anyone sarcastic, sir?). He has seen and lost so much. Nothing surprises him. Nothing is worth any wasted effort. The impression of incredible age and weariness.

As ever, I like the fact that he is supposed to be incredibly strong but it's usually depicted in a very understated manner, like this has been true since season 1 but it took until it was drawn attention to in season 3 for me to notice he has been wielding a longsword like it's a rapier this entire damn time.

He is literally sitting like an old man exactly like those two football players in that video. What? I'm comfy. Sort of like a bat, too.

He is kind of giving me death flags??? Like more or less saying to Richter that he's got to finish the job if he can't (the reverse of Symphony of the Night where Alucard has to finish it because Richter couldn't and oooooooooo are we going to get evil/possessed/"master of the castle" Richter I must KNOW) A character like Alucard is difficult because he's OP and isn't technically a main character (anymore) so one way to solve him overshadowing the actual main characters is KILL HIM. Also, being passively suicidal in Symphony of the Night is kind of Alucard's whole thing. Like, Again, overanalyzing the 30 seconds he's in in the last season. Stating he has a kill count in the hundreds thousands?? Big if true. He's been spending most of the last 300 years killing vampires. Castlevania vamps are generally not portrayed as obligate evil and he's often defensive/admiring of vampires in series 1. What happened? (I do not like the most obvious potential answer to this. Like, I won't hate it if that's what happened but agh I want him to have had one happy lifetime, at least. Especially if we, again, take inspiration from Symphony and have him fighting their shades/reanimated corpses. Like. I would love/hate that.)

Are we ever going to explain Maria's powers in any way? If we have evil/possessed Richter I do very much like the idea of her marching in to save him.

maybe the single frame here that intrigues me most is Olrox holding back Mizrak. Toxic bara is back, baby. Perhaps it never left.

I am intrigued re: what we're doing with Juste, because, hmm, the Juste/Lydie/Maxim situationship is more or less the same as the Cecil/Rosa/Kain situationship, yes? But we got the bad ending where Lydie and Maxim are dead or worse and Juste probably killed Maxim. Like if y'all had just accepted the homoerotic rivalry as homoerotic maybe you would not be so weak to demonic possession/brainwashing/whatever and it probably wouldn't have to be like this. In contrast with the might-as-well-be-canon trephacard polycule. As ever, I'm fascinated by the implications of something that is probably never going to play out on screen. Aren't we all.

I'm glad Drolta's back, she was fun. She's the sort of character that doesn't need a reason to be back because she didn't have all that strong a reason to exist in the first place she's 99% vibes and that's ok. (though oh. ohhhhhhh. she's the succubus analogue. let's torment alucard with illusory hellworld, yes?)

[the-way-astray]

It's the Never Change author once again, maintaining my anonymity for now! Katie knows now (we did confirm that) but I don't think anyone else does (it had to do with the anon I sent you about the passage I dislike in your rant, but I've only ever talked about that over DM's to Katie and Isa, so as long as they don't rat me out I think I'm okay)

This chapter is significantly less Keefe and significantly more, hmmm, other keepblr members. Specifically Katie's mutual circle, which you are in contact with because they are the other ones who walked through the fourth wall.

—————

Title: Never Change chapter 3

Pairing: Stria x Keefe

—————

Once upon a time, Stria would have sworn she didn't care enough about Keefe to think about him, unless he was shoved into her face via KOTLC book or tumblr post, during which times she hated him with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns.

But now, here she was... thinking about Keefe.

Something was troubling her about their smoothie date.

He'd outright objected to and argued with her about the idea that he read people's emotions on purpose to find out what they were hiding. She expected this, of course. He somehow managed to both hate himself and believe he did absolutely no wrong at the same time, and she was prepared for his defensiveness.

She wasn't prepared for his lack of defensiveness.

He hadn't exactly addressed the passage about him being jealous of Fitz. He didn't defend it, either. There was no argument. There were so, so many other arguments, and yet...

"Like I said, you don't know me half as well as you think you do."

That was all she got.

She did know him well. Sure, there was the fact that most of what she knew about him was told through Sophie's unreliable perspective, but his actions said plenty on their own. Plenty of her opinions were subjective, sure, and she owned that, but that didn't make them any less valid. She just didn't like him.

She was allowed to not like him!

But that passage wasn't supposed to be subjective. It just didn't make sense. Shannon was clearly making random excuses for Sophie to comfort Keefe. Keefe's bitter, ironic laugh and refusal to defend himself should not be bothering her to this extent!

Actually, she shouldn't be thinking about him at all. Why was she still thinking about this? She could, of course, do what Sophie would do, and try saying We're officially done thinking about this! out loud, but despite the fact that Stria walked through the fourth wall on purpose, she was not about to concede to that level of being written by Shannon Messenger.

She needed validation here. Preferably from someone who didn't like Keefe. Maybe she could reach out to Tam. She needed someone to say, "Stria, why are you overanalyzing this? This isn't like you. Keefe is just being his usual melodramatic self. Since when do you care?"

She'd never actually talked to Tam, though, so he would probably think he was weird if she hailed him.

Why was she the only Keefe hater who walked through the fourth wall?!

Sighing, Stria pulled out her imparter and hailed someone who was probably not going to make this better at all, but was the most likely to concede to the objectivity of her statements, even if she twirled her hair and giggled over it.

Katie answered immediately. "Stria? Are you okay?" she asked. Background noise and voices came through as well.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Stria lied. She was not fine. What sort of brain poison had her thinking this much about Keefe when he wasn't there? And what posessed her to call someone who did think this much about Keefe when he wasn't there? "I just, um..."

"MADDIE, LEAVE MY POOR CAT ALONE!" Katie called behind her. There was a meowing sound, and a little brown tabby cat padded across the background of the screen. "Sorry," she said, directing her attention back to Stria. "Why did you call? We're not scheduled to argue about Keefe for another two weeks."

There was an offended gasp on the other side of the screen. "Gracie licked my applesauce!"

Katie sighed. "Hang on."

"Is this a bad time?" Stria asked.

"No, just give me a second." Katie put the imparter down and walked away. "You might want to put a cover over this when you're not eating it, Lisa. Gracie, the applesauce is not for you." When Katie came back, grabbing her imparter once again, she was holding the little brown tabby cat. "Sorry. Don't mind Gracie. So, what were you calling about?"

"Well, it was a Keefe thing, and I was kind of looking for a little validation about one of my points—"

"—from me?!—"

"—but I'm definitely not thinking about him anymore—what is going on in your house?!"

"Theoretically we're playing uno," Katie replied, which didn't answer her question at all, actually. She turned around again. "Oh my gosh, Alayda, I will ban you from my house! Okay, it's official—Isa's my favorite!"

"Isa was already your favorite," Alayda complained.

"I was," said a voice that must have been Isa.

"She was," Katie agreed. "Now will you guys be normal without supervision for five minutes? I'm trying to talk to my duel spirit mutual." She turned back to the screen. "My apologies once again. I swear it's not normally this chaotic over here."

"That's a lie!" said a voice offscreen.

"Maddie!" Katie groaned.

"Wait a minute. Did you say you're talking to Stria?"

Before Stria knew what was happening, too many people were gathered around Katie's imparter screen. Stria shook her head vehemently. "Nope. I did not sign up to talk to five Keefe lovers."

"Meow," Gracie said, as if to say, Don't worry Stria, I'm on your side! I don't like Keefe either! (At least, Stria was choosing to interpret it that way, for her own sanity).

"So it's about Keefe, then?" asked the girl holding a bowl of applesauce, who must have been Lisa.

"Okay, I'm hanging up. Bye!" Stria put down the imparter. What was everyone doing at Katie's house? Who knew? At least she wasn't thinking about Keefe anymore. Mission failed successfully.

Keefe cancelled their milkshake date only ten minutes in advance. Internally, Stria laughed at him, figuring he chickened out. Weirdly, she was slightly disappointed.

Probably because she wanted to yell at him, and he'd canceled her planned yelling-at-Keefe session.

She was even planning on telling him who Shannon was this time! Which was what he wanted! Rude. Well, she was going to do it to mess with him, but still!

However, at Foxfire the next day, when she was walking to her next class, she noticed a large sign on the Healing Center door as she passed by: For every reason for visitation short of impending death, please see the office across from Lady Galvin's classroom.

For every reason for visitation short of impending death?!

Stria noticed a friend she'd made was passing by and decided to ask her about. "Estella!"

"Oh, hey Stria!" Estella greeted. "Where are you headed?"

"Chemis—Alchemy. What about you?"

"Elvin History," she groaned. "What's up?"

"Do you happen to know why we're supposed to go to the office by Lady Galvin's room instead of the Healing Center?" Stria asked, gesturing to the sign on the door. "Did something happen to the Healing Center?!" It made sense, actually. It was probably the main cast's fault.

"Oh, that's the sign they put up when they're treating serious injuries," Estella explained. "By serious, I mean like... about to die, banshee sleeping next to Sophie Foster type serious. It never used to happen before she arrived and she and her friends all started making a habit of almost dying."

Oh.

Oh, that made a lot of sense.

It would also explain why no one ever had a normal school nurse visit while the main cast was using the Healing Center like a personal hospital.

"Wait, so that means Elwin's treating someone who's literally close to death in there?"

"Yeah. They never tell us anything. It's probably Sophie, though. Or one of her friends. Keefe, the Vackers, Dex, those two twins..."

Stria read Keeper of the Lost Cities, of course. She knew what happened in it. But it still felt... well, very serious to know that on the other side of that door, the characters were going through the sort of traumatic experiences she'd read about in those books, except it was real.

Suddenly, the fact that Keefe canceled their milkshake date ten minutes in advance didn't seem funny anymore.

"I've really got to get to my history session," Estella said apologetically, "but I'll see you around!"

"See you around," Stria said absentmindedly, still contemplating the sign on the door.

—————

And the plot grows more serious!

I had to add some silliness before the seriousness, of course, so take my humble offering of what I think Katie hanging out with her mutuals in person would be like. (Am I one of the mutuals referenced in this fic? Did I write about myself? Who knows! Can't say.)

I hope you enjoyed this chapter! At least I'm aware enough that I can point to some of the out-of-character Stria moments myself now, but I'm going to leave them there, because it's not like this is going to be very in-character anyway once Stria and Keefe fall in love.

Sincerely,

Never Change author

part one, part two

"Katie knows now (we did confirm that) but I don't think anyone else does (it had to do with the anon I sent you about the passage I dislike in your rant, but I've only ever talked about that over DM's to Katie and Isa, so as long as they don't rat me out I think I'm okay)" okay, first of all i think alayda knows who you are as well. at least that’s what she told me, several times. and yeah, i figured you had talked about that passage with katie in your dms. thanks for confirming my suspicions.

also now that alayda, katie and possibly isa are in the know, am i even the first one besides you to read these. do you send them to them for peer review or something before sending them to me (you shouldn't i like being the first one i feel special). is there even any point in tagging katie anymore.

edit: i did all the following notes before getting told who maddie is. so there's a lot of "who the fuck is maddie?" in here. I KNOW WHO THAT IS NOW. don't have to tell me anymore :)

this will surprise a lot of people, but i actually don’t think about keefe that much. when i’m reading the book, he almost never leaves the page, which means i’m filled with annoyance from start to finish, so of course i’m thinking about him (i wrote my rant during a reread). but i don’t spend much of my free time pondering how best to insult him on tumblr, lmfao. probably why my rant isn’t articulated as well as i’d prefer on second thought. but yeah, unless he inserts himself into my awareness first, i don’t spend a lot of time thinking about him. but this is a strieefe fic so whatever. it’s forgivable. this ship is still godawful and makes no sense, but whatever.

i still think shannon making keefe jealous of fitz (not for family reasons) makes no sense and was just there for the sake of shannon milking some worthless comfort between keefe and sophie (which goes on way too long and bashes the the reader over the head until they're black and blue), but whatever. i still think it was an awful writing choice that has little to no follow-through. but we'll see where this goes.

"Plenty of her opinions were subjective, sure, and she owned that, but that didn't make them any less valid. She just didn't like him." why strieefe could never work in a nutshell. keefe's horrible humor is a core part of his personality, and even if you remove all his toxic traits, that still remains. and that irritates me. there's quite literally nothing i'd actually enjoy about hanging around this guy.

"Shannon was clearly making random excuses for Sophie to comfort Keefe." yeah basically. this man has so much pity dumped on him it's a marvel he can even walk without sophie holding his hand and cooing him along.

"Keefe's bitter, ironic laugh and refusal to defend himself should not be bothering her to this extent!" i'm going to be so honest, i would not realistically have even noticed this as being out of the ordinary. i've said this before, but i'm horrific at picking up on body language/cues/adjacent things.

"She could, of course, do what Sophie would do, and try saying We're officially done thinking about this! out loud, but despite the fact that Stria walked through the fourth wall on purpose, she was not about to concede to that level of being written by Shannon Messenger." GOODBYE I LITERALLY TRY SO HARD TO FORGET SHANNON WROTE THAT. I'M NOT EVEN LYING. there's two things that are 100% canon, if you ask me: the vackers have brown eyes, and sophie did not start yelling at herself about her feelings for keefe, twice. don't even think about it. i'm correct, okay. also i walked through the fourth wall on purpose . . . why did i do that? did the keefe lover group from later follow me? did i follow them? did we come together? clearly i didn’t come to talk to keefe.

"Maybe she could reach out to Tam. She needed someone to say, "Stria, why are you overanalyzing this? This isn't like you. Keefe is just being his usual melodramatic self. Since when do you care?"" not something i'd be realistically overanalyzing. thinking about keefe when he's "not there" is not something i'd be engaging in. man doesn't deserve any of my braincells. but the idea of reaching out to tam is intriguing. will i get to interact with the other kotlc characters? oooooooh, can i meet alden and della? that might make the strieefe worth it . . .

"Why was she the only Keefe hater who walked through the fourth wall?!" yeah :( i want max. you should bring him over, then give him an interesting b-plot where he investigates fintan and finds him making out in a closet with bronte. or something. he'd be perfectly happy with this development.

"And what posessed her to call someone who did think this much about Keefe when he wasn't there?" does katie really think that much about keefe when he's not there, though? i doubt it.

""MADDIE, LEAVE MY POOR CAT ALONE!" Katie called behind her. There was a meowing sound, and a little brown tabby cat padded across the background of the screen." first of all, who the fuck is maddie???? second of all, is this the famous gracie? making an appearance at last?

""Why did you call? We're not scheduled to argue about Keefe for another two weeks."" GOODBYE WE LITERALLY SCHEDULE OUR KEEFE ARGUING HOURS THAT'S SO GOOFY.

""Sorry. Don't mind Gracie. So, what were you calling about?"" I WOULD NEVER MIND GRACIE I LOVE CATS GIVE HER TO ME.

""Well, it was a Keefe thing, and I was kind of looking for a little validation about one of my points—"" i would literally never go to katie about anything keefe-related. unforgivable . . .

""Oh my gosh, Alayda, I will ban you from my house! Okay, it's official—Isa's my favorite!" "Isa was already your favorite," Alayda complained. "I was," said a voice that must have been Isa. "She was," Katie agreed. "Now will you guys be normal without supervision for five minutes? I'm trying to talk to my duel spirit mutual."" accurate. also alayda's not capable of being normal. katie should make her take timeout outside for a full five minutes.

""Wait a minute. Did you say you're talking to Stria?" Before Stria knew what was happening, too many people were gathered around Katie's imparter screen. Stria shook her head vehemently." why are all these people aware of my existence. why do they know who i am. still don't know who the fuck maddie is, so i can't imagine she'd be aware of my existence, either. and i barely know who lisa is, i only do because she wanted keefe x her fics in her inbox instead of me lmfao.

do katie and the gang know in this fic that keefe fucking. asked me to drink smoothies with him. and that i said yes. because i can't imagine they'd let me live that down. well, minus maddie, whoever that is, and probably isa. i don't think isa would care.

""Nope. I did not sign up to talk to five Keefe lovers."" . . . well. guess who's now signing up for those exact five keefe lovers to see this. @myfairkatiecat @alaydabug2 @permanently-stressed @lisalovesapplesauce @/whoever-the-fuck-maddie-is i'm signing up to talk to you.

""Meow," Gracie said, as if to say, Don't worry Stria, I'm on your side! I don't like Keefe either! (At least, Stria was choosing to interpret it that way, for her own sanity)." *sniff* i love you gracie . . . the only keefe hater to break through the fourth wall with me . . .

""Okay, I'm hanging up. Bye!" Stria put down the imparter. What was everyone doing at Katie's house? Who knew?" i love how i hung up without getting to the point. that's so in character lmfao. and is this not a normal day on katie's blog, anyway?

[block limit!!!! wahoo!!!!]

"Keefe cancelled their milkshake date only ten minutes in advance." not a date, not a date, not a date, not a date, not a date-

"Weirdly, she was slightly disappointed. Probably because she wanted to yell at him, and he'd canceled her planned yelling-at-Keefe session." that's exactly why i'd be disappointed. correct.

"However, at Foxfire the next day [ . . . ]" i go to foxfire confirmed? did me and the keefe lover group morph into elves upon our walk through the fourth wall? do we have abilities? i feel like alayda should be a phaser, but i have no strong feelings on anyone else. maybe make someone a polyglot for the sole purpose of communicating with gracie? though maybe not katie herself . . . what about the mysterious maddie?

"Stria noticed a friend she'd made was passing by and decided to ask her about. "Estella!" "Oh, hey Stria!" Estella greeted. "Where are you headed?"" it's unclear to me whether this is a real person on tumblr or whether you made them up. if they are real, who is this????

"It made sense, actually. It was probably the main cast's fault." WAIT. wait, wait, wait. is this taking place when the series is still going/the neverseen are still not defeated???? that had not been what i'd been picturing.

"It would also explain why no one ever had a normal school nurse visit while the main cast was using the Healing Center like a personal hospital." interesting headcanon. that would explain a lot, especially how nobody came in from cutting their hand on glass in elementalism or something during flashback, for instance.

"Stria read Keeper of the Lost Cities, of course. She knew what happened in it. But it still felt... well, very serious to know that on the other side of that door, the characters were going through the sort of traumatic experiences she'd read about in those books, except it was real." is it keefe. is that why he canceled the milkshake outing. and i less read kotlc so much as i do burn through it.

also if the series is still going, as i assume it is, does that mean all the copies of kotlc that exist in the universe that me and katie's group came from have magically corrected themselves to account for our existences in the series? i think that would freak out the readers. quite a bit. also i think i'd quickly become the most hated character for daring to hate keefe and steal him from sophie.

"Suddenly, the fact that Keefe canceled their milkshake date ten minutes in advance didn't seem funny anymore." called it about two seconds in advance :)

OOH IT SOUNDS LIKE ACTUAL PLOT SHENANIGANS ARE GOING TO HAPPEN. COOL, I LOVE PLOT.

i can smell the fanfic tropes a mile away; there's gonna be some hurt/comfort between me and keefe for sure. sigh.

in conclusion, you should make keefe kiss lisa while katie stands off to the side, taking notes. it would be hella funny.

"(Am I one of the mutuals referenced in this fic? Did I write about myself? Who knows! Can't say.)" doubt it. you're not katie, alayda, or isa. that leaves lisa (i'm pretty sure you aren't her because why the fuck would she write a strieefe fic) and maddie (i guess you could be her, whoever the fuck that is).

edit: i now know who maddie is! (tagging her properly now: @queefsencen. and this is yet another reason to bring max into this world: he’s her favorite keefe hater!!!!) and i'm certain you're not her, seeing as she didn't even know what strieefe is until a little while ago. so unless you're the mysterious estella . . .

"[ . . . ] it's not like this is going to be very in-character anyway once Stria and Keefe fall in love." yeah, strieefe existing in and of itself is excruciatingly out of character for me. but whatever.

[ladystarksneedle]

What happened to Liv? 😭 I know you two are close I can’t find her blog anymore 😭😭😭😭

Hey anon! Thank you for reaching out. Liv decided to deactivate or delete her blog after all the hate anons she received. It was a pretty pointless debate, if you'd even call it that at this point, with her getting very vile and personally attacking anons to the point where she felt this wasn't a happy place to be sharing her thoughts, to which I absolutely agree with.

Since you've brought up the topic that was the shortest answer I could give you above. If you are interested in reading more I'll expand below the cut, as I have a lot to say.

This whole thing started about a fictional character, Michael Gavey, who hasn't appeared on screen or will appear for 64 seconds and sparked a debate on whether you should write or read or plainly consume fanfiction about a character who hasn't been properly defined.

Now it could have remained that. A debate and I personally see things from both povs

This is a post I agree with as a writer.

Here

I'm an amateur, I've just begun writing but my style or whatever I'm finding, matches the one mentioned above. I need visual cues and I need to see and analyse a character more if I ever consider writing about him so yes, I personally would not write about a character I haven't completely analysed or who hasn't appeared on screen yet.

As a reader however, I have a different perspective. I love spoilers. I like knowing things beforehand and going through them in my head before reading a book or consuming media. Its fun to go "oh what I pictured turned out to be quite close to what's being shown here". The accuracy or near accuracy gives me a boost. I'm happy when I feel like I analysed or thought about a character similar to what I see later on. It shows me I understood the creator and what they were trying to portray even before seeing it. Gives me a "we are maybe on the same wavelength" feeling and thats fantastic.

That's why I can see a similar perspective to authors and creators already writing fanfiction for him before they've seen the movie. They have an image in their head and they want to be creative and show you how wonderful their imagination is. What's wrong with that? I have many moots who've written lovely stories that I want to read and I probably will.

Coming back to the point, what I don't understand is why people decided that these were such drastically opposite views and decided to sling hatred at whoever didn't conform to their idea of consumption and creation of media.

Why was there a need to send hate to a creator who said she didn't want to read or write as yet just because she wanted to get to know him better before doing so?

Why was there a need to harass writers who wanted to write and express their feelings being all gatekeepy over their work instead?

And why was there a need to constantly continue this anon responding and giving them traction all over again. It should have been shot down long before a fellow creator was forced to leave this site for good. We're all friends here why can't we be civil and respect each other's opinions.

A post stating your preference is not calling the other out. It is simply that, stating your preference and we as a fandom need to stop clinging to crumbs and overanalyzing stuff like this and use them for call out games.

Look at his pretty face and analyse those crumbs instead.

This is supposed to be fun, please continue to letting it be fun for others too.

That's all.

[beanghostprincess]

What are you most controversial/unpopular OP opinions??? Sorry if it was answered before

You want me to get canceled so bad-- If I speak-- But idk, I guess I'll say the controversial opinions I can say publicly without a bunch of people coming at me!

Zo$an is a bit... Overrated? And by overrated I mean extremely/annoyingly overrated. I like the ship and its canon dynamic but I think at least 80% of the fandom portrays them in a very mischaracterized way. Not to say that... The ship is literally everywhere and the shippers always look for every little thing to prove they're canon, even if the "proof" has literally nothing to do with them. It's not that I don't enjoy the ship (although I must admit I prefer other dynamics a lot more) I just can't stand shippers that go to extremes. It's funny because I think Zo$an's dynamic is way more interesting and romantic in canon than it will ever be in the fandom. It's a bit sad, ngl. I liked them a lot at first but it got so tiring and now I am pretty exhausted from seeing it everywhere. The people force it to be more than it is when the canon is already pretty fucking great.

Adding to the Zo$san thing. I think that relationship would only work if Luffy is there somehow but it wouldn't last a day without him in the relationship. Unless there's like, a ton of character development most of these people don't make them go through.

One Piece Film Z is my worst enemy. It's such a boring movie. The only good thing is the soundtrack and maybe the suits but God watching that was torture.

Boa hate is uhhhh weird. I mean, I get why the joke about her being in love with Luffy might be annoying, but I think most of you need to learn to understand that Oda's sense of humor is sometimes a bit too exaggerated (and not funny) and it has basically nothing to do with the actual canon dynamics between characters. Boa likes Luffy because he's one of the first men who has ever treated her right, so of course she confuses that feeling with love. And of course, yeah, it isn't canon. Whatever. Just read between the lines, maybe? And also, stop using words like "pedo" to describe her because using that term so lightly about 1) a fictional character and 2) somebody who's clearly not a pedo is fucked up. Lmao. Do you even know what that word means???

Once again complaining about Pudding hate and saying that it's stupid. I won't overanalyze because I always do it with her, but the only reason people hate her is for misogynistic reasons and because they're babying Sanji. Evil male characters are okay and hot and very traumatized but the second it's a woman she's the most evilest person ever! Because God forbid they make mistakes! Suddenly their character development isn't valid because they hurt their babygirl!

Now that we're talking about my dearest Pudding. Not tagging anybody of course, but I saw this post with so many interactions of people agreeing about Sanji considering violence as a sign of love which??? Doesn't make sense at all?? OP said it was because he couldn't tell the difference between love/abuse because of his family, but that's just... Not accurate. That could only happen if they had manipulated him into thinking abuse is a type of love, but he had healthy love growing up. Even when he was with the Vinsmokes (Sora and Reiju, I love you). And yet OP said Sanji considered Pudding's behavior flirting (wrong) and that's why he let her attack him (nope) and that it was proof of Zo$an. And okay, it's not a hugely popular theory, but a lot of people agreed with it and it bothered me a lot because it's both out of character and also using Pudding (complex female character) once again to try and prove the canon of a ship (that doesn't have anything to do with WCI either???). It just bothers me. People can perceive the story however they want but... Y'know.

OPLA isn't that good. Or good at all? I only like it because I like the cast and it's funny seeing my blorbos irl. But the script is simple and dull and just stupid most of the time. The characters are either simplified, mischaracterized, or forgotten. And tbh most of the shots are very awful and could be a lot better. The directing is also nonexistent. It's 6/10 and 3 of those points are because both the Zolu and the cast.

Apparently this is a very common theory about Nami's origins, but, uh, I don't think we need to know? What else do you need to know about her? People say she's a lost princess or something like that as if we didn't have a lost princess already (Sanji ily). Repeating the same plot would be boring and underwhelming, but also? It'd be extremely useless for the plot and it'd go against everything about Nami's story and the way Luffy reacts to it.

Luffy isn't canon aroace. In fact, the reasoning people use for him being "coded" is the same Oda uses for Zoro too and Zoro is almost never portrayed as the "idiot who doesn't know what sex is" the way Luffy often is. If you're calling Luffy canon aroace for what Oda said about him being focused on adventures, the same goes for Zoro being focused on his dream. They could be coded arospec but there's nothing confirmed and the constant discourse about it is stupid. Attacking others because of their ships just because you don't agree with them and saying it's wrong using our identity to do it is very fucked up. Especially since most of the time people complaining aren't even aroace. The only reason people do it (attacking others saying they can't ship Luffy and that it's "weird" and "wrong") is that they infantilize Luffy/Don't want him getting in between their ships (<- aroace person writing this) (also, it's very ableist since people agree on Luffy also being neurodivergent coded and treating him like a kid bc of that but this isn't about that now).

Somehow this is very common. Some fucking how. I can't believe I have to say this. I'm tired of people blaming Usopp for what happened in Water 7. Or in general hating Usopp. Actually, he's one of the best-written characters in the whole show and he's so underappreciated it's so frustrating.

Sanji's perv jokes are annoying af and we all know that, but people who hate the character and consider him a red flag for that are missing the point completely. The point being "Oda exaggerates jokes to an annoying extent and most of the time they don't even reflect the character". I understand they can make you uncomfortable (same here tbh) but reducing Sanji to only those jokes is a waste of his character. You need to take jokes less seriously.

If I see one of these "red flag OP boys" TikToks adding Law/Ace/Zoro/Sanji next to fucking Doffy I will riot. Also, stop adding Crocodile there. He's a mafioso, there's NO way he won't be a sweetheart to his lover.

Baron Omatsuri's artstyle and animation is amazing and it fits the plot and aesthetic of the movie perfectly and people saying it's ugly will forever bother me.

"Usopp is suddenly hot after timeskip!" He has always been hot what the fuck are you talking about.

People reduce Nami to her "mean"/"sarcastic" personality a lot when she's quite literally one of the most kind-hearted characters of all. That being said, morally speaking she's probably one of the worst. I could explain how that works but I don't want to do it now, the point is-- Let the girl be sweet instead of making her mean all the time. And also, let her be mean and selfish without making it her entire personality. There's something called "balance".

Film Red was kind of bad. Like, the songs are amazing (thanks, Ado) but the ending is awful and the plot is very meh. I'm only here for Uta and Shanks but the rest of the characters are just useless. I do appreciate Sanji's hair in the movie, though.

[frikatilhi]

A LOT has happened already since then, but I still kind of think about Jere saying that "many think otherwise" after calling Bojan his dear friend. It was a bit surprising coming from him, as he's not been one to friendzone/brozone/no homo much — and although he actually said some very cute and lovey-dovey stuff in the same video, which that comment didn’t really sit with, my overanalyzing mind (that's maybe trying to distract me from my actual problems) still went "oh I hope he's not starting to get tired of them being shipped, after all". I think I'm probably just reading WAY too much into this (it's not like Jere seems to think too much about what he’s saying a lot of times anyway), so this feels kind of stupid to talk about, but I still wonder if others had any uneasy thoughts because of that part, as well.

Yeah, you're probably reading too much into it, but that's okay, that's what we do here 😂

To be serious about it for a moment, to me, that comment is pretty much the same as "and maybe something more" - a light-hearted acknowledgement that he knows what we're doing. He's joking about it, doesn't seem to be affected by it, it's just something that he's reminded of when he calls Bojan his dear friend or his brother.

So please don't lose sleep over it, dear anon ❤️