#me with my 2am thoughts

[mrinafria]

You didn't do it, right?

Been enjoying The Judge from Hell a bit more than I care to admit, and ig it's mainly because how well paced, well-balanced the setup and story have been so far, as well as the way the two (or three depending on how you see it) characters are written.

I couldn't help thinking about Freud's id, ego and superego in forming human psyche, and wondering if Justitia and Daon are supposed to be id and superego respectively. If id represents the unbarred, uncontrolled desires, needs and instincts, and superego represents the self which is driven by morality, civility, conformity, then it makes sense why as an audience, I find Justitia's actions somewhat problematic and yet feel this satisfaction every time she does her whole Ultimate Trial thing with the Gehenna knife. It's disturbing, and can be triggering even, yes, but she does what we cannot do, what we may have wanted to do on many occasions in life.

We want evil to be punished and held accountable, but our morality has taught us that there is a process to follow for that, that we have to trust the system (even if the system is flawed). Because we live in a society, because we are generally law abiding individuals, because we care about appearances and perceptions, because we care about consequences, because 'we should not think that way' or because 'that is not a sane, civilized, acceptable thing to do', because otherwise there would be no order and only anarchy. Because we are Daon, who is bound by the moral compass their superego has constructed.

It makes me wonder, then: who is supposed to be the ego, the middle ground, the mediator between the id and the superego as the story progresses? Will it be Justitia, who'd eventually learn how to pass verdicts that are not in violation with the morality of human world? Will it be Daon, who'd be compelled to go beyond the man-made laws because sometimes, to punish evil/bad humans, one has to call in their inner demon? Or as they join hands (presumably), they're both supposed take on that role as needed? (and what do we make of human Kang Bitna then?) Is Bitna ending up in hell part of some grand scheme, where Justitia gets to redeem herself while helping Daon rid himself of his guilt (because imo Daon would never get to the killer without Justitia)?

[tstain-is-an-idiot]

my first transformers art and its a shit meme redraw

[helsensm]

⚡🌸

[bixels]

[altcvnningham]

adler can’t stop holding bell’s face when he kisses them.

and not gently, either, not the caress of a flower petal, delicate and sweet- bell’s barely a rose if not for all their thorns, and he wrings a hand round their jaw like one might wrench out a weed. rid and tossed to the dirt with all the rest. with all the red. with all that makes them wrong. with everything that came before.

if he can’t muzzle his dog, who can?

he bends their head upward in the interrogation chair, thumb dug into their cheek, squeezing the blood from their mouth into a sanguine rivulet between the web of his fingers; he jerks bell’s face toward the evidence board when their empty eyes fix on him a moment too long, enough to unsettle him; he stamps their chin under a hard thumb when he turns them to the light, soft pupils blown wide as he watches the sweet drug take hold; he digs his fingers into their jaw when they bark too loud at their duly master, shaking sense into his dumb mutt’s whistling hole of a head.

when he deigns to let them go, he makes a point to tear his hand away, sharp and spiteful, so even with the sting they still manage to find suffering in the loss. to yearn for the hand they bit back.

so the rest comes violent, too. the rest comes hungry. the rest comes when he wants it, and he wants bell, with such a blind fervour it drives him mad. where better men might leave, kick their losses to the curb and go elsewhere to get their fill, adler digs his heels deeper in the mud, the dirt where he buries all that red he carved out of them. if it’s tenderness he wants, he can take it for himself, and leave them with the hurt. it isn’t stooping to their level if he’s the one with the leash.

he kisses bell like he’s eating them from the inside. one hand squeezed tight around their flushed face, mouth forced open into an o-shaped pucker. he nicks their lip as smirking proof of his callousness, snags it on his sharpest canine. a peck that mocks affection. licks his way inside their mouth like it’s a threat, a proclamation. you let me do this to you. you let me in, bell. let me in, let me in. such a good dog when they do, loll their tongue out pathetic and starving. he drives his thumb inside, hot, wet, forces their mouth open by the hinge of their stiffened jaw- the last laughable vestiges of their reluctance, crumbling into dust fine enough to sift like sand between his fingers. guess science still has its limits, but so do you.

when he’s worked bell’s mouth nice and wide, he flattens their tongue with a thick finger, face clamped between the rest, and while they’re just about learning to make peace with it all- the humiliation, the degradation, submission made sanctification through the eager expectation of praise- he spits inside, and makes them swallow.

[kbsd]

don't worry guys, i fixed it

[fruityfroggy]

Lesbians who dress like this need to HIT ME UP

Um…anyways….

[ladyofthelake]

"As if I'd let you"

is such an underrated line

As if Arthur would ever want to see Merlin harmed or die or sacrifice himself for him

As if he would let him willingly drink poison

Got me thinking that it would absolutely kill Arthur to know how Merlin waits

Like if Merlin said he'd wait out in the cold for him one night Arthur would definitely be thinking

"As if I'd let you"

What about 1500 years...

[rui-drawsbox]

comm-comic for @fidorance! accepted the request to see if i should make it another option for comms but i am nOt doing stuff like this again sorry i dont enjoy it enough to do it for other people besides me ajdkjfjsa

[terukotime]

You say you don’t like the killer reveal, why? I actually think dev made some great choices and I’d love to talk to you about your perspective.

i don't want to get too deep into it because, like i mentioned in my previous post, i don't want my criticism to come off as negativity towards the series or discourage anyone involved in the production of the show because it's honestly not a huge deal. like, it in no way ruins the show or makes it less enjoyable for me. and i don't think the choice of who the culprit is is a bad one at all, i'm mostly unsatisfied with the way the chapter handles it.

[spoilers beneath the cut, obvi lol. and please remember this is just my opinion. me having and expressing my opinion is not hate towards the series. i'm nervous enough as it is posting just this and not a bigger essay on all my thoughts because i really don't want to have this be misconstrued, nor do i want any criticism i have to give, regardless of how innocent and respectful my intentions, to make drdtdev or anyone who works on the series feel bad.]

i think Ace being the killer DOES make sense. i have no qualms with him being the blackened, in theory. do i think he could've made for a great survivor, or have really interesting growth throughout the coming chapters? yeah! i would have loved for Ace to be kept around for much longer. but him being the killer this chapter isn��t inherently bad. it's now clear that there's a specific direction Ace's character was meant to go in this story and i think that's fine.

my problem is with what *didn't* happen with Ace's character up to this point.

the chapter hasn't concluded yet so there's still a chance for my thoughts to change, though i don't think it'll make much of a difference. but i'm still waiting to see if it can stick the landing. and even if it doesn't, that's okay. i've already accepted it, i'm just still disappointed by it all the same.

Ace, honestly, hasn't played much of an active role in the story. he's been a source of conflict and comedic relief, and that's okay, not every character has to be as important as Xander or David...but he hasn't really gotten to *do* anything. this series is very character-driven, and thus is very focused on the relationships between other characters. Ace has only had one notable relationship (outside of his feud with Nico, but i'm not really including that as a "relationship" for obvious reasons), and that was with Levi. and that didn't even stay positive for very long. and we also know now that Levi didn't even care about him to begin with because he doesn't care about people in general.

not only did Ace never really get to establish any other relationships, no one ever LIKED him. of course a good portion of the fandom likes him, but in the actual story, no one cares about him. no one will miss him. his death is honestly kind of meaningless character-wise. does it serve as a lesson to some of the other characters? sure. but he's going to be dying here with no one ever liking or caring about him.

Min's story wasn't just a cautionary tale. people did like her, people did care about her. she was friends with a lot of characters, she got to have an impact in the daily lives of others. we got to know her better, the things she liked, her deeper thoughts and opinions on things. she got to do stuff, and we got to learn about her. her death meant more to the characters beyond just being the first culprit. she died as a person, not just as a character.

most of the stuff we know about Ace is surface level or things confirmed in Q&As. he doesn't get to contribute much aside from the aforementioned conflict/comedic relief. i understand where the show is going with that idea, and why him not being liked by anyone is a specific part of what led him to murder, but that's not really what irks me. it's that Ace never got to really be a *person.* he's essentially a plot device, serving the greater "good person" theme going on this chapter, and filling in the smaller roles in the story when needed, like an antagonist in a scene or delivering a gag. yes, his admittance to killing Arei and eventual post-trial trauma dump will give him a bit more humanity and character...but that's not really enough.

we only get to see Ace how the other members of the cast see Ace: his loud, combative, aggressive side. the side that makes people think he's nothing more than an angry meathead who can't do anything right. we never got to see much of his other sides, of a much more somber, melancholic Ace. receiving even a hint of the Ace we see in his confession of guilt beforehand would have given him the depth we needed before this point.

to explain what i mean: imagine how unsatisfying it would have been if we never got to actually see Arei's breakdown in the playground. if Teruko had left before it happened, and we only get to learn what happened from a flashback from David's perspective. we already feel the weight and tragedy of Arei's death when her body is discovered because we knew beforehand why she behaved the way she did, how she never even liked being the way she is, and wishing she could be a good person like Eden. if we didn't get to see that happen beforehand, Arei's death would feel very flat and detached. her character growth would've happened entirely retroactively.

that's how i feel with Ace. it's not like he didn’t get enough spotlight this chapter, he certainly did. but every scene he was in really didn't really add anything new to him. the only thing that "progressed" with him was his hatred and paranoia. we just see him descend with no uplifting moments, no emotional hook to make us feel anything for him. the closest we get is the scene where he's arguing with Nico and Veronika at lunch, ranting about how poorly everyone thinks of him and that they all assume that he's for some reason happy to be the way he is. but it's really the barest of scrapes towards the deeper layers of his character.

a big problem is that there were a lot of chances for his character to actively be *explored*, but instead, the narrative perspective of him stays completely stagnant. the time we get with him this chapter doesn't give him any greater focus. and sure, you could say that that might be a big giveaway to him being the culprit, but i think if the time between character spotlight is distributed evenly, that would be easily circumvented. there was a lot more time that could've been spent building Ace's character beyond his animosity and self-loathing tendencies. we could have had someone actually attempting to bond with him, even if it doesn't turn out well. even if all the characters distrust each other to varying degrees, there's still a lot of characters that like each other or have unique bonds with each other that make them stand out and feel worth remembering, because those bonds contribute something to their characters. but with Ace? he truly gets the short end of the stick, because this isn't just the characters neglecting him, it's the story itself. if Ace got to have a moment like Arei, maybe someone to confide in, even if he wasn't really friends with them or liked them at all, him being vulnerable just once and having a moment with someone else would have rooted him in more as a person who fell victim to what the killing game wanted from him and not just a fictional character fulfilling the purpose required of them in the story.

honestly, it's a bit of a slap in the face, the way the show goes about it. because in hindsight, Ace's whole character is *meant* to be wasted potential. after all, his related phrase on Mai's bio page is "a girl who had a bright future".

he was set up to have the potential to change, the potential to add more to the story, the potential to show us more than what we were given. and i think the show kind of knows that and specifically perpetuates that. the scene where Teruko tells Levi to give up on trying to apologize to Ace almost reads as the show itself telling you to give up on Ace. that, why should we care about him? he's not going to amount to what we want from him. there's no use in investing our feelings in him.

whether or not any of that actually was intentionally doesn't matter, unfortunately, because rewatching so many scenes having this new context really makes it all seem like Despair Time doesn't want you to care about Ace. that Ace is meant to be a waste, that that's the core of his character. him being the epitome of wasted potential could have been great, actually, if they chose to use even a slight bit of that potential to build him up more before his inevitable demise. instead we watch him eat shit throughout the entire show thus far only for him to get royally fucked at the very end in the worst way possible. Ace's theme of wasted potential is only wasted potential because nothing is ever done with him. not actively, anyways. whatever his post-trial confessional is like won't really give us what we needed from the start. Ace didn't just deserve better in his life. he deserves better as a fictional character. he deserved to be a person and not *just* a character. he deserved to have deeper, emotional character moments outside of the trial, long before his murder confession and rapidly approaching demise. he deserved to be 3-dimensional.

again, this is all just my personal opinion, and there's still a chance the show can stick the landing and make Ace as the culprit feel a lot more natural and deserved. i'm not really confident in that happening, but drdt is full of surprises as well as a lot of great writing. that being said, even though i believe they kinda fumbled the bag with Ace here, i don't hate this turn of events. although he's a big favorite of mine, i still wanted Eden to be innocent over him, because she's also a great character and her killing Arei would not only be pretty huge character assassination, but would also make Arei's death meaningless. and i also think there were other characters who could have been better candidates as the chapter 2 killer (not just Hu, i think Levi, Arturo, and maybe even J also could've made for compelling culprits with the right reasons).

i'm content with this. i'm heartbroken he's going so early and i wish the execution of his guilt had been a lot better, but overall it's not terrible. he just deserved so much more in many different ways.

[azrael08]

In my mind the only way Michael comes around to liking and being accepting of Jack is if one day he’s like “Nephilim are not to be trusted, they are unholy offspring” and Adam could go the more gentle and therapeutic route but instead he counters with, “ok but what if you got me pregnant and I gave birth to our Nephilim baby?”

And Michael just- freezes.

And that’s how he learns to get along with Jack being the new god, and also Adam’s been wondering why Michael’s been staring silently at their bed lately and why he keeps hugging Adam from behind and holding his stomach??????

[chopshajen]

Back on my bs!!! It’s been a hot second since I’ve painted anything but apparently jet lag is deeply inspiring cuz I’m out here painting on planes and having a great time. My tablet pen nib is so worn out there’s a hole in it but I was still like ‘oooough gotta draw’

[venear-tmblr]

BAM! im hyperfixating on dead gay wizards from the 70’s so im assigning FableSMP characters Marauders;

Sirius; Icarus. (DARLINGGGG,, quess who’s baCK FROM JAIL /ref)

Regulus: Rae (,,,yeah if anyone were to drown, it’d be Rae.)

Remus; Fenris (DO I HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS ONE. DO I. DOG BARK BARK WOOF.)

Peter: Ven (somebody has to be that stupid rat /ref)

James: Centross (Someone had to be dumb of heart and smart of ass enough to be this shit-stirer. David is capable)

Lily: Ocie (YEEAHH YOU KNOW IT. I LOVE LILY EVANS THATS MY GURRLL)

Marlene: Aax (controversial but, if anyone’s gonna be Gryffindor Quidditch Captain; it’d be Aax.)

Mary; Caspian (…harlot. /affectionate)

Bellatrix: Perix (heLLOOO GORGEOUS)

Bonus; If Centross is James and Ocie is Lily, Oscar can be Harry heheheh

You could switch the morningstar brother if you wanted to, but meh,, my icarus jail joke is funny, read it and weep /lh

anyways hope u enjoyed this unhinged assignment :]

[grxceful-ly]

peter bringing mayday with him to do spider stuff because yeah, he had things to live for before--but now he has a child and he is going to raise this child and be there for her and maybe if she’s there, strapped to his chest, he’ll be more careful. he’ll consider his life almost as precious as hers. maybe bringing mayday to work is a precaution.